Space Cadets by Adam Moon Page A

console me. He reminded me of those four thousand poor unfortunate souls stuck in their mechs because the cryo-freeze facility their bodies were housed in was attacked by terrorists. He said they were lucky they were uploaded in skins or they wouldn’t be alive today, since their fleshy bodies rotted away.
    But that just served to remind me that my body was probably in the early stages of decomposition already. That’s an image not easily shrugged off.
    He added, “Just make sure to maintain perspective, ok? Those four thousand mechs went crazy over the years but that’s because they fed off of each other’s misery. Stay positive and you just might keep your sanity.”
    I didn’t know they’d gone mad but I guess that explained why I’d never heard of their exploits; they were being kept away from all the action because they were unstable.
    Rick said, “If you ever run across the warship Dreadnought , just keep your distance from the mechs. That’s where all four thousand are stationed. It doesn’t even have a human crew or a captain. It used to but they all resigned because the mechs drove them nuts.”
    I wish Rick hadn’t consoled me. Now I had even more worries running through my mind. Like how long would it take for me to lose my humanity? How long until I lost my mind? And even worse, what would happen to me when mechs were no longer needed? It seemed like the war with the Bleeders was approaching quickly, so what happened when it was over? Too many questions and not enough answers is what drove the four thousand mechs nuts on the Dreadnought, I just know it.

Boom Ship
     
    The weapons of global destruction were impossible to safely reverse engineer which meant they couldn’t be disarmed. One by one, they were launched into orbit and put inside a little spherical Bleeder craft just like the one we had captured a month ago.
    The Novan council decided that we should tow the alien ship behind us until we reached the new Bleeder colony and then use the weapons on the Bleeders. They thought that would be tough justice.
    Relations were already smooth enough that our side didn’t bristle at being told what to do. That was the good news. The bad news was that the Novans had no idea where the Bleeder planet was.
    We nicknamed the alien ship carrying the weapons, Boom.
    The Novans insisted that the Boom ship be allowed to travel to the outskirts of their star system, for safety’s sake.
    That made sense so we agreed.
    All in all, we got along like long lost cousins, which is exactly what we were.

Dreadnought
     
    Everything went to shit as soon as the Dreadnought showed up beside us in orbit.
    At first no one knew what to make of it. It took Captain Wilkomen a full minute to even recall where he knew the ship from. When the realization hit him, his face fell and went ashen.
    The Dreadnought didn’t try and open a line of communication with us. And they didn’t wait around for long.
    Almost immediately, they broke orbit and headed right for Nova. We tried to stop them but they ignored us. They must have known already that the planet was friendly but they didn’t care.
    We fired on them but their ship held up.
    Only then did we notice that the alien ships orbiting Nova with us were being taken apart from the inside. The humungous Bleeder ship that led us here exploded, breaking clean in half. Novans drifted out of the gaping holes on each side, dead or dying very quickly. And then mechs (our mechs) appeared in the openings and launched themselves towards the planet. They looked dirty and rusted out, even from so far away. They belonged to the four thousand who’d lost their marbles.
    I watched as the Dreadnought nose dived into the atmosphere. It would burn up but the occupants didn’t give a fuck. We saw them exit the warship right before it disappeared from view beneath the clouds.
    Four thousand space Marine mechs jumped ship. The sight of that will haunt my dreams forever. I’ve never seen anything so