On Your Knees

I sat in my office, going over the reports from the week’s yield. I smiled to myself. All yields were increasing. The company was doing well, the result of increased productivity. The morale program Gabriel had come up with had paid off in spades. I was just about to pour myself a drink when I heard a knock at the door.

“Raphael, we have a visitor.” The voice was muffled through the door, but I still recognized it.

“Come in, Ramiel,” I said. The door slid open, and Ramiel, one of my senior foremen, stood there with a distressed look on his face. Seeing it, I stood up. “What is it?”

“We have a visitor,” he repeated. “Someone doesn’t want us here anymore.”

“What?” I asked, confused. “What do you mean?”

“It’s probably best for you to just come and see,” Ramiel stated, and motioned for me to follow him. I walked around my desk and fell in beside him. I tried to question him more as we took the lift to the level with our ‘reception’ area. We received few guests at our mining station, so the room we used to ‘entertain’ guests when they arrived was just moderately sized office off of the main hangar. Ramiel waved off all of my questions, though, and merely stated “Wait until you talk to this guy.”

When we finally reached the door, Ramiel stopped in front of the controls, and turned his head to give me a ‘get ready’ look. He opened the door, and I stepped inside, quickly surveying the room. There were a few of my miners standing around the edges, their backs against the wall. Some of them spoke quietly to one another, the others all looking at the figure standing in the middle of the room.

The figure approached me as I walked in, and offered his hand. “Greetings. You are the leader of this gang? The CEO of this corporation, perhaps?” He was well dressed, and put out an air of noble ties.

Ignoring his question, I asked one of my own. “You are?” I left his hand unaccepted.

He smiled as he answered me. “Forgive me, how rude of me not to introduce myself. I am Hastius, an envoy of master Averius de’Auvrie.” He slightly moved his arm, as if to offer his hand again. I accepted it, and sized him up from his grip. It was firm, and I could feel him slightly squeeze my hand, as if testing my strength.

“Yes,” I began, “I am Raphael Saint, Chief Officer of Aegis Mining. Would you mind if I asked your business? Our visitors usually call ahead.”

“Ah, straight to business. I can respect that.” He answered, still smiling. “I have come to ask you gentlemen to vacate the premises.”

Taken aback, all I could muster was an “Excuse me?”
I must have had a shocked look on my face, for his smile grew a little wider. “Please, vacate the premises.”

“On what grounds? Aegis owns this station. We will not leave.” I said, not believing what I was hearing.

“This station has been claimed by Master de’Auvrie. Your yield of morphite a little while ago was quite impressive. This profitable little installation will provide some funds to secure the rest of his birthright.” He leaned a bit forward as he said this, perhaps trying to assert some dominance.

“What makes this man think he has any right to take our station?” I asked. I could feel my face tighten as I held back a grimace.

“The Master has every right, commoner.” He sneered as he said this last word. I could feel a whole range of emotions begin to bubble in the back of my head. I’d always had trouble dealing with the nobles. They either felt themselves entitled to something for free, offered a ridiculously low payment, and in one instance, tried to outright kill me. My father had risen from obscurity to minor wealth with this company, and I wasn’t going to let some damn self-absorbed noble take it all away.

“I’m sorry,” I laughed a bit; “I don’t think you understand. We legally own this station. You cannot merely take it from us.”

“Then I guess we’ll have to illegally remove you.” He said, his smile turning murderous. The miners against the wall all took a step forward, not taking kindly to his remark. Physically, this figure was nothing compared to us, and I wondered what he had up his sleeve. He reached for his pocket, and everyone jolted a bit, preparing for a weapon. Hastius merely snickered again and promptly produced a data pad. He entered a few commands, and then put it away again.

“So it is done,” he said calmly. He began to try to walk around me to exit, but I stepped in front of him.

“What is done?” I asked, stopping him from leaving.

He merely turned to look at me. He gave a slight shrug and turned away, trying again for the door. This time I put my arm out across his chest to physically stop him.

“You don’t expect to make such threats and just leave, do you? Explain yourself.”

He sighed slightly before answering. “There is nothing to explain. You will not remove yourselves, so we will remove you.”

Suddenly, another person came through the door behind me. It was one of the employees from the station’s control tower. Out of breath, he wheezed “Sir, we’ve got multiple ships coming out of warp. They should have surrounded us by now.”
“What?” I cried out. I looked back at Hastius. “What’re they here for? Surely you don’t plan on destroying the station with you on board?”

“Those curs were supposed to warp in cloaked.” Hastius mumbled. Suddenly a tremor ran through the station. “And I told them to keep it intact!”

“Detain him!” I called out, grabbing Hastius’ arm. A few others grabbed him and began to carry him off to one of the storage closets.

“Unhand me, you worthless commoners!” Hastius cried out, twisting and trying to get out of their grasp. However, he was nowhere near strong enough. He called out once more, cursing us, before he was locked away, his fists pounding away on the inside.

“Let’s go! We won’t have much time. We’re not letting them take our livelihood away from us.” I ordered, leading the group of miners to the equipment room. I took my data pad out of my pocket, and used it to access the station intercoms. “Attention. This is Saint, we are under attack, I repeat, under attack. I need all miners to report to the equipment shed. Security personnel, get on the hangars. Everyone else, please go to the barracks, and lock yourselves in.”

The station alarms began to sound as I reached the shed. I entered to find the rest of the miners there, awaiting orders.

“Gear up. We’ll show them we’re not pushovers.”

Everyone began putting on their heavy mining gear, myself included. We grabbed some of the portable mining lasers, large two-handed tools that still required a strap over the shoulder to even carry. Hefting one up onto my shoulder and staggering a bit under its weight, I took one last look at the miners with me and closed my visor. Motioning for them to follow, I marched out.

As I suspected, they did land some troops in the hangar. The minimal security forces were already engaging. I started moving the miners in as support, taking a somewhat long route in hopes of trapping them between us and the security forces. As I rounded a corner, I caught sight of one of the dogs. He saw me as well, and opened fire with is pulse rifle. I saw the impacts on my suit, but the heavy gear I wore was made to withstand intense heat, and all he managed to go was singe it. I brought up my mining laser and pulled the trigger.

Many people do not know how mining lasers work. They use the intense heat produced by the laser to vaporize the rock, separating the ore from the rest. A cyclical vacuum is created in the center of the laser, which sucks the vapor back to the ship, or in this case, a small container. These lasers were made to vaporize rock, so there’s not much imagining needed to figure out the result when it struck the man. He was almost instantly consumed by flames, while the point of impact quickly began disappear. A terrible sight, but I confess I relished it a bit. These bastards were trying to drive us from our home.

A few more soldiers came running around the corner their comrade’s cry of pain. A couple miners came up beside me, and we all opened fire, firing the lasers in wide sweeps. With the next wave gone, I motioned for us to continue forward. We continued down the hall, vaporizing all opposition. When we got to the hangar, however, they had a trap waiting for us.

As we stepped into the hangar an explosive went off, injuring a number of the other miners. Thick smoke grew all around us, obscuring our view. Suddenly I found myself in close combat. I felt a blade cut the outside layer of my suit, and jumped to the side, dropping the laser. As the smoke cleared, I found that everyone had done the same, and were now grappling with soldiers.

The soldier who cut me was fast with the knife, and got a couple more swipes in before I could lock my focus on him. I swung a couple of times, but the heavy suit slowed down my punches, allowing him to dodge them easily. Unable to cut all the way through my suit, he went for a killing blow. In a wide arch we plunged the knife towards my visor, and I watched horrified as it broke through.

Suddenly, it stopped. It was wedged in my visor, the tip close enough for me to feel it when I blinked. The soldier tried to pull it from my visor, but it was stuck fast. I took the opportunity and seized his arm, pulling him into my other arm, a balled fist at its point. The heavy gauntlet met his face with sufficient force to render him unconscious, and I tossed him aside to help the others. No longer a battle with even sides, we quickly overcame the rest. We carried the wounded miners to a nearby room and called in for the medical team. Leaving a couple miners to watch over the wounded, we moved on.

Just when we met up with the remnants of the security forces, badly torn up from the main assault force, I got a call on my data pad.

“Sir, this is the control room. Multiple battleships have just appeared, and it looks like they are preparing to engage,” the voice called, riddled with panic.

I cursed under my breath. Where was CONCORD? The noble’s agents evidently greased some palms. Luckily, they seemed to have been more frugal when hiring these mercenaries. The battleships, however, were more then we could handle. Mining lasers do a number on men, but nothing to the reinforced hulls of starships.

I quickly tapped into the intercoms again. “Attention, everyone must get to the cargo hangars immediately. Go as quickly as possible.” I turned back to my miners. “Let’s go, we haven’t much time.”

After smashing the controls in the small transport ships the mercs used to enter the station, we rushed as fast as we could to the cargo hangers, feeling the station shake with every volley of the battleships. There were Bestowers there that I would use to evacuate everyone. The battleships should be too occupied with the station to care about a few haulers. Once everyone was on board, the ships launched. The battleships were located on the opposite side of the station, and didn’t even surround the station to catch any stragglers. I quietly mumbled a prayer thanking God for their incompetence. They may not have brought brains, but they brought firepower. I watched on the viewscreen as the station started to crumble under their heavy barrage. We entered warp, and everything slipped away.

“What do we do now, sir?” a miner asked me. I turned to look at him. He stood there, his child clinging to his leg.

I sighed heavily, finally taking the time to pry the knife from my helmet. “We get stronger. All they destroyed was a station. They did not destroy Aegis Mining, they did not destroy us.” I turned to look at the rest of the people in the room. “We’ll make it. Aegis has enough funds to start over.”

We never ran into any more problems from the noble or any of his goons. I don’t know what became of him. Perhaps he lost interest, or found something more interesting. As for Aegis, it set up in the Ministry of Assessment station orbiting Lossa II.

The ruins of our station still orbit Lossa III, both serving as a tomb for the men we lost, and as a monument to the greed of the nobles. I still visit it sometimes, its ghostly remains reminding me of my "place" in the universe.