Solstice

An Imaginary story

I

Londenium

Gleaming crystal rose all around Kade, a palace of false ice. Great flying buttresses of gleaming white supporting a vast arched roof like a church. The ceiling was made so it absorbed sound, reducing what would otherwise have been an echo chamber to the pleasant hum of a normal party. Starlight gleamed through the panes above, even as snow beat against the rooms wall. The crystal palace had been placed at this specific height so parties could be starlit while still enjoying the sight of snowflakes rushing into distant windows.

It was a remarkable achievement, made all the more remarkable by the fact the whole structure had been built into a high mountain. Snow was not quite as unknown on Londenium as on Kade's native Tempest, but it was still rare enough as to be a spectacle. The whole place was served by a special subway, allowing guests to make it back to the capital in less than half an hour.

When she'd first come here she'd been a little overwhelmed by places like this. Indeed that was part of their function. Still it was an alien place to Tempesti sensibilities, to build somewhere like this just for the sake of building it. . . For all that she tried to remind herself how much of Londenium's wealth came from its vast dust reserves or the external investment it had received as a UN colony, or that the average Tempesti was better off than the average Londoner it was still, if she was honest, a little disheartening.

Not that she'd ever let her hosts know that they'd got to her of course. Instead she wore Tempesti party dress like armour and pulled every advantage she could find to influence Tempest's richer, larger ally.

As ever the Tempesti ambassador was surrounded by a crowd of friends. Right now they included the wife of the Home Secretary (herself a prominent industrialist, and secretly resentful of her husband's greater fame), A vice president of Londenium Metalworks (A secret patriot of the Tempesti system with whom Kade was arranging several military contracts), the junior minister of Defence (who was very much in love with Kade) and the mistress of one of Londenium's most fashionable political salons. (ditto).

It was a mixture of gossip and shop talk. Trade matters and personal. "Married again? Really? I don't know where she finds the time!" "Of course Tempest doesn't have a position on that until the vote comes up. Personally though I think that kind of extraterritoriality is just shameful." "Too New Mercia? I hear it's spectacular in the spring. . . if you should happen to meet General Tanes of the Tempesti mission give her my love would you?"

Kade could almost have maintained the conversation in her sleep, but she would remember all the facts. The neural wetware would forget nothing, and the crew on the other end of her neural lace supplied her with anything she needed to know. Part of her mind was on other things. The upcoming trade negotiations tomorrow. How exactly to try to sell the latest round of intellectual property treaties to the deeply hostile Tempesti public. . .

Kade's eye was caught by a movement across the room. Jane Ellison cut quite the dashing figure in a black suit with black diamond cord banding across it. Londenium's foreign secretary always did know how to dress. The Londener raised an eyebrow and made the smallest motion with her head. She waited for polite gap in the conversation them smiled. "Excuse me a moment. Duty calls." she walked over.

"Madam Ambassador." Ellison kissed her hand Londenium fashion.

"Foreign Secretary." Kade smiled. "You seem to be loitering near me."

"Ah... business follows even at parties." the Londoner motioned to one side. She offered an arm "Might we at least discuss business in one of the upper galleries though? I don't want to spoil your evening too much."

Kade smiled and took the offered arm. "How's your daughter? It was her graduation a few days ago?"

"She got a first on upgrade." Ellison smiled. "She's already talking about postgraduate."

"She'd be a good academic." Kade nodded to the muscular man in house livery waiting at the top of the stairs, Ellison said a few words to him as they passed and he closed the door, the two women reluctantly separating. In front of Kade snow beat at the window, flowing and rippling. Kade rested a hand on the glass but it wasn't even cold. "So, business."

Jane nodded and walked over to sit next to Kade "Yes. . . it's about Solstice."

Kade nodded. She'd guessed already. "Well, all the preparations are in place. . . but it's going to cost you. The intellectual property treaty for one. If that captures the news cycle back home you can forget it."

Jane winced, then smiled. "This would be much easier if you people had a proper government."

"That's why we don't have a proper government Jane." Kade sat down beside the Londoner. "Besides, this is kind of a bad thing you're asking." She ruffled the other woman's hair. "The truth is going to have to come out sooner or later. So you might want to think how you want to spin it."

Jane nodded. "Alright. . . I'll talk to the Treasury and the PM about the IPT. Can you put things in motion today?"

Kade nodded. "It'll go out in tonight's message package." she paused for a moment "Jane, I think I might be in love with you, but please never ask me to do something like this again."

Jane looked over at her, a little shocked, then smiled. "Alright. This will be the last time."

The snow blew thick against the window.

II

The inside of the shuttle was long and thin and mostly stuffed with seats. The shuttle was about half full, it's passengers tall, muscular young women in non-descript civilian dress. They sat in small groups, chatting as the aircraft fell through the sky.

"What the heck you got there?" the team's leader peered over her second's shoulder.

"Imported SF magazines, from earth." The woman waved the reader. "You need this to actually read them. It's proprietary. The company that imports them makes them."

"Why not just crack them?" the team leader asked.

"Some bullshit about re-export or something. Anyway, the magazines good." a shrug. "Hopefully what with the end of this stupid IP treaty thing I can get a copy for my lace."

There was a beep and the team leader stood "One minute to touch down, stow your stuff and junk any ID you're carrying." she braced herself, grinning as the aircraft bumped into the ground, then walked down the unfolding ramp. "Shit. Another fucking icebox." A light rain was falling, wind starting to gust. There would be a storm soon.

"It's not that cold." her second stepped out beside her." There's not even snow, this is like summer on New Mercia." she looked around the field. it was small and civilian, with several hangers standing to one side, each holding a variety of vehicles. From them two men approached.

He nodded to the pair. "I'm John, this is Donald. Welcome to Solstice."

"Good to be here. Everything prepped? You have a lead on the primary for us finally?"

"Yeah. We've got him. He's at Site-three, the old hotel."

"Good enough." The woman turned and her voice changed to a harsh lyric tone. The rest of the team debarked rapidly and began to head for the vans. Stepping up inside the team leader looked at the assembled armoured suits that filled the van's back and grabbed one for herself. "Everyone get suited and checked out. If there's any snags with this stuff I want to know before we leave." She peered back at the breaching automaton in the back. "Someone pull that out so it exits first, and check it actually works too."

One of the team yanked the crablike machine out and pressed a button on the top. The device came to life with a beep, its rail gun swinging back and forth. "Seems okay. I'll run a diagnostic."

"Everyone in as soon as you've got your armour on and squeeze up for the drone."

"This armours really heavy." one of the other team members tested her grip. "I really hope the power pack doesn't take a hit."

"It should be resistant to any of the small arms the enemy is using. Don't worry. It's well engineered. The capital police use the same model." The team leader looked around then lifted her mask. "Faceless!"

"Faceless!" The others did the same. The team leader pushed her mask into place. . .

Alpha-Six looked out, running a final status check on her armour and said a prayer to god. She checked her weapon and looked at the others checking theirs. You weren't supposed to think about the ethics of these missions but this time it was hard not to. They were planning, potentially, to murder a man. A president. Dead or alive was the order. His election might be a shame and he might be an EU puppet but wasn't that for his own people to determine?

Still, there'd been a vote, and this had been decided. Perhaps not this mission precisely, but the idea of changing this planet by force. Alpha-Six said another prayer as the van moved down the night time streets, running a final check on her weapons and armour.

She could hear the chatter of the other teams and the sniper team on her net. The snipers were not Tempesti, and so didn't speak battle language, so she had to give them orders. At least she could see what they saw.

"Alpha, this is Echo, We have two men the gate and a sentry gun."

"Go for the gun. Wait for my go."

A double click. Alpha-Six took a deep breath. Her team knew their business. The van pulled to a halt and one after another the other team vehicles reported that they had arrived at their stage marks. It occurred to Alpha-Six she had only a fairly vague notion of what the actual city looked like except for the target. This mission had been planned hastily at best. Guess that's why they give us the big likes. "Tiger, Tiger, Tiger."

The van surged forward. There was a sharp crack up ahead as the sniper drone destroyed the sentry gun, its report loud enough to shatter nearby windows. The van screamed to a stop and the back doors opened, the breaching autos skittering out like murderous crabs. The men had time to gape before the autos dropped them with single shots from their rail guns. Dozens of Tempesti commandos were storming out behind the autos, guns up and tracking and they moved towards the massive concrete shape of the hotel above them. Others she knew were heading in from different sides.

On her display the walls of the hotel began to fall away, microbots and T-wave radars revealing the interior. The panic and confusion of guards and staff. The first auto swung its turret towards the door and fired, the rocket destroying the heavy wood and metal in a spray of fragments. The autos stalked through, turrets tracking and firing. One auto fell, hit by a rocket from deeper within the building. The commandos behind countered with a hail of explosives and fletchettes, shredding the strike bot and the men who'd been trying to activate a second.

The Tempesti commandos went up, moving quickly, securing cross passages and stairways. For Alpha-Six the killing became mechanical. The guards weapons seemed completely unable to penetrate She wished they would stop trying. Even if they had had weapons physically capable of killing her team the mismatch in skill and genetic was utterly obvious. There was no legend to be had here, merely death.

Top floor. The penthouse suite. Armoured walls, blocking radar. Hand signs from the first section. 'In here' Alpha-Six moved up beside the others. "Why haven't you burned it out?" Her hands asked.

'We think his family is in there.' Alpha-two-two, the point commando sent back.

'Alright. Let me.' Alpha-Six moved to the door. "President Mark Redgrave!" Her suit augmented her voice to a giant's roar.

There was a moment and then a reply. "I'm... I'm here!"

"President Redgrave." It was awkward to talk in English, much less so soon after having spoke in battle language. Alpha-Six had to carefully construct what she wanted to say. "There's no way you can stop us if we come in there. There's no need for further violence. Please surrender."

There was a long pause and then the door opened. A in a dowdy old fashioned suit stepped out into the corridor, goggling at the ring of commandos and pointed weapons. He was balding, unimpressive looking. This was the man they had been sent to take.

"I am President Redgrave." He spoke slowly, voice almost steady. "I am your prisoner."