1:4:5 Negotiations (Part 6)

Ace took their cup back to the fabricator and refilled it. They scanned the menu before ordering a second cup of water. Carefully, they made their way through the maze of chairs and tables towards a clone in minty green, a leaf on the helmet that sat in the chair beside her. “In need of a top up?” Ace held out the new cup of water and set it down beside hers.
“Thanks.” She nodded before removing her helmet and gesturing for Ace to join her. “You’re one of Twenty-sixes clones aren’t you?”
“Twenty-six? Lore? Yes, I’m Commander Ace.” Ace made sure to set their cup down away from hers, despite it being obviously different.
“Commander? You must do things differently in your unit. Usually, we wear our ranks on our collars.” Aloe ran her finger along her left collar; there were four tally marks etched into the suit and painted in the same mint green. “Plus commanders usually get a coloured shoulder plate but that’s preference.”
Ace looked at their shoulders. The light grey polymer was polished to such a degree that the majority of the room was visible, reflecting off of them. “We have our ranks on our helmets.” Ace took their helmet disk from their back pouch and placed it on the table. They activated it and their helmet constructed itself. Most of the markings that adorned it were in the same Aegean blue Lore wore but across both cheek bones, there were four stripes that didn’t match the rest; black, grey, white and purple. At the base of the helmet were four recessed tally marks, stacked like a ladder, the same length and style as Aloe’s, painted in the same blue as the rest of the markings.
“Nice helmet. You design it or you get one of your siblings? I couldn’t make mine by myself even with the software so I got Blindside to do it, she’s the artist of our group.” Aloe put her helmet next to Ace’s. “I think I prefer your shade of grey too.”
“Thanks. We all did our own helmets. I was originally the only one of our group who had a plain helmet because I didn’t know what to put on it.” Ace turned their helmet to face them. “I earned these markings after a hunting trip with some of The Conglomeration’s defenders got a little hairy.”
“Conglomeration?” Aloe moved in a little closer.
Ace chuckled. “Oh, sorry, we grew up on Illia. As soon as we finished basic training, we were sent out to earn our keep. I learnt more about crowd control and threat management from the Sat’Mach than the training programs. So one day, we’re helping the hunting party move further out into the Illian tundra when a group of bhioch came out of nowhere and attacked. Curve and Mid did a great job of clearing a pathway for retreating but the hunting party were completely surrounded. I ran in there and gunned the lot of them down.” Ace was trying not to sound too full of themselves. “Magpie helped a fair bit, picking them off after I weakened them. Needless to say, our trip was worthwhile and we ate well that night. While we sat around the spit watching the bhioch cook, the leader of the party, Huan’Falon, took my helmet and painted those markings. He showed me the same markings on his shield and said that should I ever need anything, he would be more than happy to oblige. He died a few weeks later. Old injuries caught up with him. One of the last things he saw was my helmet and these markings, he died happy.”
“So you saved a guy’s life, he said he owed you a life debt and painted your helmet to show it and then you killed him?” Aloe stared in disbelief.
“He asked me to. Sat’Mach tradition was that only those who died a good death lived on in the life after. His hip gave out and he could no longer walk so he called for me as another warrior and an honourary member of his house and challenged me to ritual combat. His family and friends joined us, wished him luck, we fought and he died a good death. His son, Huan’Grozan was a good friend of mine.” Ace stroked the pattern.
“Okay… But what about those flags?” Aloe pointed to the different coloured stripes that adorned the cheekbones.
Ace smiled. “Old Earth symbols. Magpie has an eye for flags of the past and one night, he decided to paint those flags on my helmet. I don’t think he ever properly explained what they meant, he just said: those are Ace flags.”
“So when you said you designed your own helmet, you were lying. From those two stories, you’ve just explained the entirety of your helmet and none of it included you choosing anything.” Aloe laughed.
“I chose the cards!” Ace gestured to the two playing cards that decorated the air intakes. “The Ace of spades. First card of the deck.” They paused then quickly corrected themselves. “First typically playable card of the deck I mean.”
“Okay?” Aloe furrowed her brow.
“Sorry, Magpie usually corrects me when I tell people that. I chose those cards so while I didn’t design most of the helmet, I did choose those.” Ace took their helmet back and returned it to its pouch. “So what about your helmet?”
“I chose my name based on my mutation. I adapt well to my environment; I can’t get burnt, my wounds heal automatically and my lungs work in almost all atmospheres, all things the aloe plant is said to be able to treat. Plus it’s pretty.” She shrugged.
Ace nodded. “Did you train here then or were you trained off ship?”
“Our VR pods are still on our Lore’s respective ships. We trained en-route and were ready by the time we got here.” Aloe looked around the room. “Until we got here, none of us had ever actually walked. It was so different outside of the simulations.”
“Sorry, what?” Ace was taken aback. “You weren’t allowed to leave your simulation pods?”
She shook her head. “No.” She spoke as if it should have been the norm. “Why would we? We trained and then when we got here, we were ready for deployment. Not that we’ve seen much action…”
“Tolan had us working as soon as they could. Once we could walk and understood what they were saying we were hauling medical supplies for the clinic.” Ace took a drink. “Then once we could use our weapons we were on security service for The Conglomeration.”
“Lucky!” Aloe whined. “We only get to go out on missions because we’re The First’s. It’s nice getting preferential treatment but it’s hard to come back and see our siblings stuck here all of the time.” She gestured to a group sat opposite Magpie, Blindside, Outlier and Curve. “See them, that’s Tree’s bunch. From their group onwards, excluding yours, they’ve never been off of a ship. They were created in space and they’ve lived in space their whole lives. They won’t set foot on a planet until after we go through The Slingshot.”
“What’s The Slingshot?” Ace tried to hide their smile.
Aloe covered her mouth. “I shouldn’t have said that… But then, you are The First’s favourite Lore’s clones…” She moved in closer and spoke in a hushed tone. “Right, there’s a big mission coming up. All I’ve been told is to prepare my group for combat. We need to be ready to deploy as soon as we get to The Slingshot.”
“What is it though?” Ace didn’t want to come off as too pushy.
Aloe shrugged. “All I know is that it’s the reason we came to Johned. Finding you was a happy accident.”
“So you weren’t originally going to subjugate that planet?” Ace didn’t quite believe her.
“I don’t think so, we changed course after we saw Breacher readings. They thought your Lore had accidentally found their own way to The Slingshot and was trying to work out how it worked. Would have saved us a job.” She covered her mouth again.
“Are you going down to The Slingshot then?” Ace couldn’t stop a smirk breaking free.
Aloe nodded. “Crait’s got soldiers posted down there. We’re getting sent in, just my unit, to clear them out and make sure the areas safe for the Lores. They come down, get the thing working again and then we go.”
“Where though?” Ace felt they were so close.
“The end of the cycle. Whatever’s on the other end of The Slingshot, it’s the endgame.” Aloe leant back. “We either win or we die trying and I from what I’ve heard, it’s up to your Lore now.”
“Oh?” They subtly tapped their communicator to record whatever she was about to say.
“I overheard The First talking to Charrlene about your Lore and the Tether Project. They think that your Lore is the only person who can get it working. Something about a strange energy they emit. The First has them under house arrest working on it right now. After The Slingshot, your Lore is going to set up the Tethers and then we’ll all get to finally see some proper action.” She nodded. “I get the chain of command but I think it would be nice if it weren’t so constraining. I feel like an arse being one of the few clones that actually gets to leave the ship.”
“Sounds like that’s going to change soon. And if I know my Lore, they’ll probably have something to say about it anyway.” Ace stopped the recording and gestured for Aloe to toast their cups. The sound of plastic hitting plastic was not as satisfying as glass on glass but the sentiment was appreciated nonetheless.

Magpie set his new cup down beside Blindside who immediately snatched it up and began her inspection. “Woah, nice! You got one too!” She excitedly tapped at the chair next to her, inviting him to join her and her sibling.
Outlier gestured for Blindside to pass the cup over to them. “No helmets. You must be the new Lore’s lot.” They nodded at Curve and pulled the chair next to them for her. “I’m Outlier and that… Is Blindside…” Their sister was engrossed by Magpie and Curve’s armour.
“Such an interesting colour. Did you choose it or is it from combat?” They ran their finger down one of the many battle scars on Curve’s armour.
“We chose it.” Curve sat down beside Outlier. “Lore chose the blue.”
“Ace made me clean my armour down earlier.” Magpie shook his head. “To be fair, it did need it but I prefer my armour au natural.” He sniffed at his arm pits. “Though I don’t miss the smells it seemed to attract on Rexel.”
The mention of another planet perked the other two clones up. Curve sat there, subtly checking her own pits for any foreign odours; she was not amused.
“You’ve been to Rexel?” Blindside looked ready to jump down their throats. “We’ve been told a bit about what your Lore has been up to but we didn’t realise you got to go with them.”
“They would have been screwed on Rexel without us.” Curve scoffed. “The whole plan would have fallen through if it was just the two of them.”
Outlier and Blindside moved in closer. “Go on then, tell us.”
“Lore and Char needed a way into a mine so we could save Sky, Mauve and the rest of their fleet from The Syndicate.” Magpie started.
“Yeah, the fleet came out of nowhere. You should have seen The First’s face when we helped bring those ships into dock. They had no idea where the hel you got all of those ships from.” Outlier butted in. “Sorry, carry on.”
“So while Lore infiltrated the mines from within, we were tasked with entering the mines from the top disguised as Protectorate inspectors. Ace, Mid and I went down into the mines to prep for Lore but Curve and Destiny went up against an Inquisitor.” Magpie gestured for Curve to continue.
“An actual Inquisitor?” Blindside’s mouth was agog.
Curve nodded. “Destiny and I were pretending to be the leaders of our group and we managed to convince Reid, The Inquisitor, that we were actually working with Crait as a part of a joke. Then when Crait told her we were with Lore, we had to fight our way back to our ship to rejoin Char and the fleet to save Lore from whatever the hel Crait was doing to them.”
“That sounds so cool.” Blindside was in awe. “We’ve barely left the ship since we got here.”
Curve smiled. “We had a lot more fun on Illia though. I mean, we were there for a lot longer and we got to do a whole lot more there, even before we met Lore.” She started searching her armour for a specific battle scar. “See this, that was from when I had to fight off a bhioch without my sabre or shield. And this.” She grabbed Magpie’s fist and pressed into a similarly shaped indent. “This is from when Magpie punched me instead of our training dummy.”
“It was an accident!” He moaned as though it wasn’t the first time she had brought it up. “Tolan shouldn’t have given me the accelerant.”
“What? You guys got to do extra training outside of your pods too?” Neither of The First’s clones could believe their ears. “Your Lore must be so cool.”
“That was before we even met Lore. But yeah, they are pretty alright.” Curve nodded.
Magpie agreed. “They let me keep my bottle cap collection and they don’t mind if I take souvenirs either.” He emptied his pockets. There were several small pieces of metal from their various adventures.
“When did you have time to swipe that?” Curve picked up a piece of ore from the Illian tank. As she did, her hand scraped by a shard of metal. “Okay, that can’t be what I think that is.” She dropped the ore and grabbed it. She looked it over. It was an unremarkable piece of scrap metal, the corner of a hull plate, perhaps lighter than she expected. It was blaster scarred but there was a distinguishable marking on it.
“What is it?” Blindside held out her hand for Curve to pass it to her. Magpie’s hand slowly lifted from the pile.
“It better not be.” Curve held it away from Magpie who seemed rather eager to get it back.
He shook his head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She ran her finger over the etched number, clearing some of the ash to make it easier to read. “5139712179. This is from Simplicity’s hull.”
The First’s clone’s jaws hit the floor, their eyes grew to the point that they appeared to take up most of their faces. “You’ve got a part of Simplicity. How?”
“That’s what I’d like to know.” Curve returned the shard to the pile.
“Lore had taken the kids to wherever they went and you and Destiny were off doing whatever so there was no-one to ask and thereby, no-one to say no when I borrowed a tether line and went for a rummage around the battlefield. Took me forever to find a piece with a serial code or something that identified it as Simplicity’s.” He seemed really proud until he saw Curve’s face. “I cleared it with The Syndicate if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“No, I’m worried because you didn’t tell anyone and you could have quite easily been killed on your little space jaunt.” She punched his shoulder. “Idiot.”
“I had my communicator and thirteen hours of oxygen even before considering the recyclers. Plus, you weren’t even moving, I got back before the fleet regrouped.” Magpie rubbed his shoulder.
The other clones were still awestruck. “What was it like actually boarding the enemy’s ship? What’s Crait like?”
Magpie and Curve shuddered. Thinking back to their encounter with Crait was not something they really wanted to do; it was over so quickly but it felt as though it had lasted an eternity. “They’re certainly not to be underestimated…” Was all either of them could get out.
The others both nodded. “Heard they did a number on your Lore.” Blindside pointed to her eye.
Outlier came in a little closer. “It’s a little strange though.”
“What is?” Curve looked at them, confused.
Outlier lowered their voice. “Most of the Lores who’ve faced off against Crait come back a lot worse for wear. I know it’s only a handful.”
“Two or three.” Blindside interrupted.”
Outlier sighed. “Yes, two or three. But those two or three came back with chunks taken out of them, multiple broken bones, stuff like that but your Char came back without a scratch on her and your Lore had a single reversible but not life threatening injury. Plus all of your clone batch came back with serviceable armour. Bit strange if you ask me.”
Curve looked to Magpie and Magpie looked to Curve. They were right, when they actually thought back to their fight with Crait, it was even shorter than they had remembered. “You’re right.” Curve started. “We never really fought Crait, we fought Reid.”
Magpie’s mouth fell open as he reached the same realisation. “She went mental on us but then she just stopped.”
“That’s when Crait appeared.” Curve picked up. “They came in, drew their sword and smacked us with the hilt. I remember because I was thinking, what a show off.”
“They did what?” Magpie joined the other two clones talking in united disbelief.
“Crait entered the room, pulled this long two hander with an ornate hilt. They took the sword by the blade then smacked us in the head with the pommel and hilt one by one.” Curve rubbed the back of her head. “Why would they do that though. There’s no point showing off like that unless you don’t want to kill your enemy.”
Outlier looked around the room before moving in even closer somehow. “Exactly. Plus there’s the rumour that your Lore is under house arrest because they went to meet Crait. Doesn’t exactly look good for either of them.”
“Say and believe what you want but at least our Lore and Char let us help out.” Curve snarked back.
Magpie and Blindside couldn’t help but chuckle.