Elisabeth Reid sat alone at the long dark wood dining room table in her family’s estate, clutching the unopened letter that that was about to change her life. It was a real paper letter, a relic from a forgotten past, the kind of thing you didn’t send unless the news was incredibly good or terribly bad. A door at the far end of the long room flew open, filling the air with a gentle tinkling as the crystal chandelier swung slightly in the breeze. Her mother strode through the room like a hurricane, tightly clutching a thin tablet computer. 

    “Have you seen this?” her mother shrieked.

    “I’m going to say no,” Elisabeth sighed. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” 

    “Look,” said her mother, tossing the tablet onto the table. Elisabeth winced, that was a new top of the line tablet, it hurt her to see it treated so poorly. “It’s your brother, they put him out in space alone! He’s going to get himself killed.” 

    Elisabeth pinched the bridge of her nose, her mother had no need for a job, so she spent all her days sitting home worrying about things she couldn’t fix. Elisabeth pulled the tablet closer to herself and hit play on a video that was paused on the screen. In the recording a suit of power armour stood stock still as another soldier pelted it with brightly coloured rubber bullets, leaving a rainbow cloud of ricochets drifting lazily around the frozen soldier. After the suit of armour had gone limp, clinging to the deck by just one foot, three more suits trundled past it and walked out of the frame. The lone soldier wriggled his arms for a moment before wavering slightly on his one leg for another few seconds, then his free floating foot locked itself back to to the deck and he turned and slowly and walked laboriously out of the frame, struggling with each step. Elisabeth paused the video and tapped a key set into her bracelet activating her implanted communications suite. She did a quick search for that particular model of power armour and spent a moment reading a holo-page projected from miniature emitters in the corners of her eyes, a holo-page only she could see. She blinked as her mother snapped her fingers in front of her face, closing the holo-page. 

    “My goodness Elisabeth, can you not even have a conversation with your own mother without disappearing into your own world? We should have never bought you that implanted comm package.” 

    “Relax, mother.” snapped Elisabeth. “I was looking up some information on that armour. It would have lasted almost a full day in vacuum, even on emergency power. And Alan clearly repaired it enough to walk it back to the airlock. Look at the top comment on the video ‘Our new LT can’t shoot worth a sweet fiddler’s fuck but at least he can hotfix his own rig. Looks like recruiting finally found a competent junior officer for us’ you’re worrying for nothing. This is obviously a training exercise, and Alan clearly exceeded expectations. Between you and father I’m surprised you haven’t bought out his contract and had him shipped home already.” 

    Her mother took a step back, shaking her head in shock. “It cost enough to buy him a lieutenant’s commission, we couldn’t afford to take him out even if your father would agree to it. The company isn’t doing that well, not with the new cybernetics corporations on Luyten and Ganymede.” 

    “I just don’t get it. Father went on for hours about how Alan should be carrying on the family legacy instead galavanting through the stars with host of mercenaries, and now he won’t even considering taking Alan out of the company?” 

    “After the mining companies on Ross and Mars settled their trade disputes with a small war last month I think your father finally sees the value of being related to mercenary officer. Alan can do great work protecting our corporate interests.” 

    “Of course he does. When doesn’t father have his mind focused solely on profits.” 

“Elisabeth, please don’t speak of your father like that, he works hard for this family. Why don’t you go and get some fresh air? You’ve been cooped up in this house all day. Maybe we can do some shopping?” 

“Sorry, Mom I have plans with some friends.” 

Her mother looked crestfallen for a moment before plastering on a smile. “We’ll get out together another time then.” 

Elisabeth stood and walked out of the Reid Estate, making the long trek though its pale green halls trimmed with real wood imported all the way from Earth, past room after room of bookshelves, overstuffed furniture and floor to ceiling entertainment panels. Going out for fresh air was something of an impossibility on a colony world. Every planet humanity had found so far was a nothing more than nigh inhospitable chunk of scorched rock. Liquid water was the only real requirement for founding a colony and their world, Wolf 1061c, barely had that. The planet was tidally locked, it didn’t rotate like the Earth did, leaving one side a barren desert, perpetually burning under the harsh infrared glare of their small dwarf star. The opposite side of the planet was a frozen hellscape, a wasteland staring into the void, locked in perpetual night. In the middle was the twilight zone, a thin band that was never quite day, and never quite night. A band just wide enough to build a colony. Elisabeth walked through a security checkpoint, sighing as she strode past the pair of armed guards. The security was completely unnecessary, in case of emergencies they had military grade blast doors to seal off their home. The guns were a useless addition. 

The halls outside the estate were a bland maze of pale polymer, glaring lights and thick rubber coated cables pinned up into the corners. The halls were the identical on every level of the colony. The air outside wouldn’t support human life, and Wolf’s meager star couldn’t be used to grow food, so here they were, stuck living like rats in a maze. She wandered aimlessly for a while, listening to her favorite song on her implants, drifting along to the layered melodies of synthesizers and electric guitars. A text message interrupted her walk, blinking into existence in the upper right corner of her vision. 

The message read: Hey, Ellie, have something to show you, meet in the cafe.

Ellie shook her head and let out a small chuckle. The message was from her friend Warren, he was always combing the deep web for new conspiracy theories and he saw patterns and connections in everything. He was a good friend but he was certifiably crazy. The cafe in question was one of their usual hangouts, it was three levels up from her house and sat in the middle district of the colony. Buried deep enough to keep the scuzzier side of society out but still shallow enough that it was affordable on a student’s budget. 

It took a fifteen minute walk and two elevators to get there. Ellie waved a hand over the door to the cafe, waiting patiently for it read the keychip buried in the fleshy spot between her right thumb and index finger. It’s too bad all the doors couldn’t be automated but if anything were to ever happen to the colony, it was safer to have as many airtight sealed chambers as possible. She hoped that they’d never need use those safety measures.

The door finally slid open, filling the hall with the sweet smell of freshly baked cookies and the rich aroma of brewing coffee. Inside was a cozy space with several small low tables with simple plastic chairs, soft lighting, and thick area rugs on the floor. Paintings from local artists decorated the walls and gentle acoustic music hummed through the air. Warren was sitting in a corner, a heavy laptop on the table in front of him. Ellie grabbed a cookie before sitting down. She swore the chocolate chip cookies in this cafe were the best thing on the planet. They were always fresh, soft and chewy, and most importantly they were nearly the size of a dinner plate. They were the perfect way to eat yourself into a sugar coma. 

“Which conspiracy have you stumbled into now?” she asked as she down across from Warren. “Lizard men in the government again? Or are the mercenary companies conspiring to take over the Solar Alliance on Earth?” 

“You laugh now, but you won’t find things so funny when another interstellar war breaks out.” said Warren gravely, squinting out at her from behind a tangled mop of dark hair and thick glasses. 

“I don’t think that’s going to happen. What did you want to show me?” 

“I’ve been doing some digging into these mercenary groups ever since Alan left to join The Ironstorm. I’m worried about him. Someone is setting aside a lot of cash on Earth, like really a lot, and they’re hiring mercs left right and center. They’re stockpiling for a big scrap. A real war might not be too far off.” 

“And this different from normal business how? I’m not seeing the big deal here Warren. Reid Industries just hired a crew to get medical companies on Luyten to stop pushing into our markets. No big deal.” 

Warren rolled his eyes. “You’re not seeing how much money is being shuffled here. Or how many units are being contracted.” He turned the laptop around, a chart of hundreds of companies were on the screen, each with a number next to them indicating how much budget they’d allocated for mercenary work. “This is a lot of cash, and it’s all based on Earth. Are you still planning on going there for school?” 

“I don’t know,” said Ellie with a sigh. “I got a letter today, but I didn’t open it, the university on Earth is my dream school, I’m too nervous. What if it says I didn’t get in?” 

“They sent you a paper letter?” Warren laughed. “Schools don’t send those to the rejected students. Remember what I said here, there’ll be a lot of power armour jockeys shipping to Earth within the year. Something big is going to happen. When you get there you watch your ass. And don’t mingle with anyone related to the big industries there.”