Peot Uprising
Taking over the colony was the easy part. The Earthern Advent Initiative had left us to fend for ourselves after deeming Peot not good enough to be a fueling station. That just left us colonists and the fifty-eight remaining Overseers on our own. Overseers are supposed to be E.A.I.’s protectors, helping to defend their colonies. In reality, they were no more than a bunch of brainwashed meat-puppets left behind to keep us in line. When we took control of the colony we gave them a choice: join us or die. More chose to die than I would have liked. The few we managed to convince to join us will be helpful, since few of us have combat experience. The Overseers were supposed to teach us how to defend ourselves, but that was just another of the E.A.I.’s false promises.
We had been promised fame and fortune for our ‘bravery’ in this endeavor. What a joke. They told us we needed to be genetically altered to better survive Peot’s harsh climate. Said it would help us with the hard labors of creating a colony. It would supposedly boost our ability to generate muscle tissue while increasing the density of our bones to cope with the increased gravity here on Peot.
What they didn’t tell us was that the there was a 35% mortality rate to the gene-altering procedure, not to mention the side effects for those of us who had the misfortune to survive. Intended side effects. This entire colony was just one big science experiment. Whatever compound they used to alter our genetic makeup was designed specifically to react with the gaseous atmosphere here. They weren’t looking for adventurers, they just wanted lab rats.
Those who died during the procedure were the lucky ones. The rest of us just wish it had been us. While everyone is stronger now, there have been some terrible side effects. Some have cancer, the bad kind. We don’t have anything to cure them, we can only slow it down. Others lost some of their senses, have dangerously high heart rates, or become severely delusional. Most people just get big, purple sores all over their bodies. Its been a few months and so far they haven’t seemed to affect our health, they just itch. I’m one of these, we’re known as Specks. There is an incredibly small group who got the E.A.I.’s desired effect and more. Their bones have become impossibly strong and their skin so tough that even bullets do little more than leave faint impressions; we call them Rocks.
I think back to when I discovered the E.A.I.’s treachery; the scientist who was sent to monitor us had a little too much to drink. A simple slip of his tongue piqued my interest and I snuck into his office to do some digging. When I found out what was really going on, I told my wife and the next thing I knew the entire colony was in my backyard and there’s talk of rebellion.
The thought of Lana snaps me out of my memories and into the situation around me. Our E.A.I. supply ship, the Columbus, has entered atmosphere and is coming in for the monthly resource drop-off. Something tells me the Captain Drez will not be pleased to discover we have overthrown our E.A.I. experimenters. We’ll need to take control of that ship before a call can be sent back to Earth alerting them of our takeover.
“Sir, Columbus will touch down in approximately fifteen minutes,” my second-in-command, Cam Reyla, informed me. A young woman loyal to a fault, she’s always ready for any conflict. Cam is a lucky one, she’s a Rock. By no means the strongest among the Rocks, her bravery and intelligence distinguish her from her comrades by miles.
“Thank you, Cam. Are the Overseers in position?” I ask, already knowing the answer.
“Yes, sir. They’re waiting by the landing zone and are prepared for their task. When Captain Drez exits the Columbus, they are to take him to the observation building to meet with the late Doctor Kendi, but instead they will incapacitate him. Upon receiving their signal, a small team will enter the ship to take control,” she re-confirms the plan.
“Commander Frit! Commander Frit!” A pudgy, middle-aged man runs into the storehouse that serves as our command center. He looks incredibly familiar and I struggle to remember his name as he strains to catch his breath. “Something… is wrong… its not Columbus,” he manages to wheeze out.
Fighting down the tension that suddenly formed in the pit of my stomach, I step outside and look up at the ship making its way towards us. Its too far away to make out any details, it just looks like another ship to me. I re-enter the storehouse and see that Cam has produced something for the man to drink. He looks very familiar, but I can’t place him.
“I’m sorry Commander, I know I shouldn’t be here, but that ship is not Columbus,” he says.
“Who are you and why are you in here?” Cam demands, anger flashing behind her dark eyes. “This area is strictly off limits. You should be in your position, wherever that may be. If you’re jeopardizing this operation so help me, I’ll—”
“Cam, let him speak,” I cut her off.
“The ship that’s coming in, its not the Columbus, or any other supply ship for that matter. It’s the Aegis, a defender-class ship. Someone has betrayed us,” the man finishes. His formerly red face is now completely drained of color and I can feel mine starting to do the same.
“How do you know?” Cam demands.
“I was in the observation building—on the scanners—when I saw the ship’s frequency flickering. It was Columbus’s signal, but it started flickering to a different frequency completely. I looked it up in the database and that’s when I ran here,” the man pauses, tears welling in his eyes. “Sir, what do we do?”
I think for a minute as I realize where I know the man from. “How long until the ship lands, Cam?”
“Just under ten minutes, commander.”
I force confidence I do not feel into my voice and draw my gun. “I guess we’ll have to fight then. Head back to the observation building and wait there for further instruction,” I order the man. I glance over at Cam, who begins gathering supplies and readying herself for a fight.
The man starts on a slow jog across the rocky field back toward the observation building. Raising my gun, I aim carefully. Taking a deep breath to stop my body from shaking, I wait, and then pull the trigger. The crack of the gun is followed by a soft thump as the man falls to the ground; he lets out a short gasp of pain. Instantly I hear Cam swing around.
“Commander are you—why did you shoot him?” The bewilderment in her voice is clear.
“Let me explain, Cam. He—”
“He was one of us! How could you do that to one of your own even after…” Her voice trails off and when she speaks again its like cold steel. “Drop the gun, commander,” she commands me. I hear the click of her rifle’s safety being switched off as she aims the weapon at my head.
“Did you recognize that man, Cam?” I ask her, making no motion to drop my gun.
“I said drop it!” She yells.
“Listen to me, Cam, where had you seen that man before?” I ask, a lump forming in my throat. I wait for a response but get none. I slowly turn to face her, raising both of my arms to hold the gun above my head. “You have no idea, do you? That man,” I say, nodding towards the writhing body, “is Henry Wissno. Dr. Kendi’s research assistant.”
“So you shot him?” There is clear fury behind her question.
“Calm down, Cam, I didn’t kill him.”
“That doesn’t make it any better! You shot him!” She roars, her gun starting to waver.
“He isn’t one of us. He was gone when we took over the colony, no one’s seen him since. I hoped he was dead. He’s E.A.I. He’s the one who told them we took over; he has to be. Everyone else with full access to the compound is either one of us or dead.”
Understanding bloomed on her face. “So when he told you he accessed the database, you realized who he was,” Cam finally caught on. “We had better go warn the others, if that really is a defender-class ship we’re going to need a plan.”
The odds were against us, to say the least. While not new, defender-class ships packed more than enough firepower to level this entire colony given enough time. We would need a miracle to survive. There was less than ten minutes before the Aegis landed, if it didn’t come in for a strafing run to take us out first. We don’t have many options.
“Gather everyone you can find and take them to the barracks. Arm as many people as you can, I want all able fighters prepared for a shootout. Those who can’t fight need to be evacuated, take them to the caves and leave a group to defend them—Rocks, Specks, Overseers, whoever. Tell everyone else to find defendable positions throughout the colony. We’re going to take out as many of these E.A.I. grunts as we can and we might just get out of this alive.”
Cam went to do as commanded and I walk over to where Wissno lay crying in pain.
“You’re dead. You’re all dead!” He yells when he sees me approach.
“Strong words coming from the man who’s bleeding out on a field,” I tell him.
“They’re going to burn this place to the ground and you’ll watch everyone you know die. People like you think you can overcome anyone because you have ‘justice’ on your side. You volunteered for this, don’t forget that,” he spat, his face contorting in agony.
“I signed up to be a pioneer on a new world, not a test subject. The E.A.I. doesn’t care about us or you. They just want results.”
“You don’t understand just how important this research is, we’re creating a race of superhumans. You’ve seen what the Rocks can do,” he said proudly.
“At what cost? More than a third of us died during the procedure, and the rest either die not long after… or become freaks like me,” I look over at the medical center.
“Specks like you are a necessary sacrifice,” his words are losing their sting, but his impatience is growing. Seeing where I’m looking he says, “They don’t matter. Failures are nothing in comparison to the great leaps we are making in evolution.”
“Is that all they are to you? Failures? As if they had some choice in what happened to them,” I feel the anger rising through me. “She didn’t deserve this!”
“Oh boo-hoo, your wife has cancer. Get over it, Frit. Everyone dies sooner or later and your wife is no—”
My gun cuts him off. Lana didn’t deserve this. She didn’t even want to be a part of this program in the first place; she came because she knew how much it meant to me. And now she’s in a medical coma that she’ll probably never get out of, and if she does I’ll probably be dead from defending this colony anyway. As I jog towards the barracks, I contemplate turning instead toward the medical center and spending my last moments with Lana.
No. My troops need me. I will likely die today, we probably all will. Wissno was a rat, no doubt about that, but he was right about one thing. Everyone dies at some point.