Beep. Beep. Beep.

  Whhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrr...

  The sounds of space are just about the loneliest sounds you could ever hear. Whirring, beeping, hissing... The sounds of a living machine, when you're in the ironically-named Casket. They always sounded like they were breathing, like they were just itching to come to life. With how interactive some Operating Systems could be, you could almost be convinced that they were alive.

  On an average day, the sights would be just as lonesome; just the twinkling of stars, the passing commutes of asteroids, the blinking of distant space stations...

  But not that day.

  VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR...!

  She should have known from the moment she woke up: that day would be anything but lonely.

  Another Casket whizzed by her at Mach 10, spun in a circle around her position. Just like hers, it had no head. They both just had big, beefy, unpainted steel arms, gray, bulbous torsos, and the giant 120mm cannons which jutted from either of their chests, hastily installed right before launch. These were freshly born Caskets, freshly born mechs from their home back in the moving space station White Horse... and now, after hours, gruelling hours of prepping these things for space flight... somebody was flying one of those expensive, expensive suits of equipment like it was a toy.

  That Casket continued its spin, twirled about, danced with itself amidst the stars.

  “Oy, if you don’t stop moving--!” The girl in the stationary cockpit, Aellyce, began to protest, just before her radio flared into alarm.

  Another girl’s voice ripped into her headphones, forcing Aellyce to lift up one of the earcups: “LONGWOOD, CUT THAT OUT RIGHT NOW! YOU’RE GOING TO GIVE AWAY OUR POSITION, YOU—!”

  “Relax!” a man laughed back onto the same channel, “We’re so far away, and they’re so caught up in whatever it is they’re doing. Aellyce, you see anything yet?”

  “Not like I can see much of anything when you’re dancing around like an idiot...” she grumbled.

  “Heard that!”

  Her scope lowered in front of the camera of her mech, and the entire wraparound screen which covered the interior of the cockpit became the scope’s view. There they were, reading 1000 Nautical Miles away at the very least. Likely more, since that's the precise measurement when her scope would stop counting.

  But at the very least, she could see their lights darting around, blue and red, violet and pink. Distant shapes amidst the stars, dancing their own dances. Once in a while, an orange light would fill that void in space, and she knew exactly what that meant.

  Someone isn’t going home tonight.

  She gritted her teeth. That always made her gut sink. That always reminded her of how she got here. Always reminded her of why she didn't want to be here.

  The girl’s voice appeared again, much softer: “Ready to report, Aellyce? Bella is waiting for it.”

  “Not much to see. Not through my scope, at least. Uhh, some lights. Pink and purple, mostly.”

  “...Aren't you a bit too far out?”

  Aellyce swallowed, her throat suddenly feeling tight. She needed a lie, some kind of excuse; "W-well, I was thinking, maybe I could get another coffee ticket? Or, y'know, I mean, my Casket's moving kinda funky right now. I should probably head back. I know they just got put together, maybe they're not all... fitted? Correctly?

  The voice back was stern: "I put them together myself."

  Aellyce felt the sweat bead down her forehead. "Sorry."

  "Longwood, how far out are we?"

  The mech beside her flared once as the reverse thrusters forced his momentum to a halt, and he faced the distant, distant stirring of lights. "1500NM."

  “...Why the hell are you guys so far away?”

  Aellyce felt her hands begin to shake. No way out.

  Longwood answered, “Don’t ask me. I told her we’d have to get closer.”

  Aellyce hugged the center console of her cramped cockpit, pressed her body into the controls. “I’m scared! What if they see us!? All I’ve got is my 120mm gun and a vibroknife! What am I going to do against real soldiers with—”

  “Aellyce...” groaned Longwood.

  She swallowed her whimpers.

  “Longwood, think you could pull both of you in there?”

  “You got it, Cel.”

  “That’s not my...!”

  Instantly, Longwood pressed his Casket up to the back of Aellyce’s. Though the girl whimpered and protested and cried out, he knocked his thrusters into maximum gear.

  “6000K advancement; Mach 9.3.”

  “WAIT—!” Aellyce barked, and then she was pushed back against her chair as the G-forces became substantial. “It’s... too... fast!”

  The distance displayed on her HUD was rapidly shrinking. 500NM, 400NM, 300NM to destination... In just a couple of minutes, they’d be within range to see more of the battle.

  Longwood, I’m not ready! Cel...! Let me off of this ride!

  However she’d become a pilot, however she’d ended up in a Casket fit for warfare, however she’d lost that simple, delicate life she once had... She no longer knew. But this... this was hell. This was untenable.

  And somehow, it still beat living on Earth. Visions of her home planet flashed through her mind. That was enough to make everything feel okay, just for a moment. It could always be worse.

  “Stopping! Thank you for riding Air Longwood!”

  The speed churned to a halt. His airbrakes deployed, and Aellyce’s did too. Then they were within 1000NM of the combat encounter, still just barely within viewfinder range.

  Aellyce quickly deployed her binoc scope again, her heart thumping in her chest from both the panic and the horrible rollercoaster ride she’d just been subjected to. But her breathing had stilled. Earth, her memories... they'd kept her sane. Or maybe, just thinking about it was enough to resurface the numbness that'd gotten her through her last few weeks there. Maybe the idea of Earth was just enough to keep her detached.

  In the top corner of her screen was a new read-out: 953NM. Close enough to scan and identify things. Close enough to see some of the fireworks just a bit more viscerally. Close enough to get hit by a repurposed ICBM going Mach 20 and to be blown to smithereens, never to see the White Horse again.

  She exhaled, calmly. Slowly.

  “So? What do you see?”

  If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Her screen blinked to life:

  Weapon Scan:

  120MM Rounds Identified

  ? Cannon (JU-86X), Cannon (JX-90K)

  ? CASKETS: (95% Certainty)

  TASK-JU-86X, WH-JX-90K

  Explosives:

  ? Plasma Rocket

  ? CASKETS: (99% Certainty)

  WH-JX-90K

  {{WeaponType_Unknown}}

  ? {{WeaponType_Unknown}}

  ? CASKETS: (?? Certainty)

  {{CasketType_Missing}}

  “...Huh?”

  “Well? We’re waiting, Aellyce!”

  “There’s Tasks and Warhounds, but... There’s something else.”

  [TARGET APPROACHING]

  The beeping of the cockpit was suddenly anything but gentle; every soft, lonely sound had suddenly accumulated into the horrible, blaring alarm of an approaching enemy. And not just approaching, but--

  900NM

  800NM

  500NM

  400NM

  100NM

  “...Missile!” Aellyce screamed, shielding her face from the inevitable impact.

  0NM

  Shutdown Imminent

  Good-bye!

  Longwood threw his own Casket in front of Aellyce.

  But even more horrifyingly,

  The missile never arrived.

  Instead, a black Casket,

  Cold as rain,

  Dark as space,

  Quiet as the cockpit,

  As lonely as time itself

  Emerged from the cosmos ahead, from the battlefield. It wasn’t even missing a head; it was a full humanoid. A type of Casket she'd only seen once before. Once before, on Earth.

  Its gun was in its hand, not routed clumsily through its chest, like their shoddy, repurposed 120MM cannons were.

  It was more than either of them.

  And Aellyce was horrified at the information which showed up on her display:

  {{CasketType_Missing}}{{Affiliation_Missing}}

  300,000 HP (est.)

  300,000 SP (est.)

  Armor Plating: Tungsteel Alloy, {{Element_Missing}} Alloy

  Damage: Unscathed

  Top Speed: Mach 20

  Range: Unknown

  Weapons: {{Missing}}

  Before she could even read half of it, let alone interpret it, a new message popped up:

  Missing Elements, Shutdown Expected... Press Any Key to Skip Hard-Disk Scan... 8s

  “No...! No, no, not now!” Aellyce started mashing buttons, smashing them with her fists, grabbing the yoke and twisting it, smacking the joysticks on the sides of her control center. “Don’t do it! I’m dead if you do it, I’m dead!”

  The Obsidian Casket raised its gun.

  Aellyce slammed her eyes shut. “NO!”

  And there was just one, single gunshot.

  ...Beginning Hard Disk Scan...

  ???

  ...It was raining on Earth that day, so many long years ago. But even in the rain, most Caskets don’t stop working. Even when rain gets into their circuit boards, they just keep going.

  Hers was still going. Even while she slept, it moved. Even while she ate. Even while she cried. It never stopped. Between the autopilot and ATMOS (Automated Task Management Operating System), her work would continue until it was done. Or until she was done.

  ...What task shall I perform today?

  “Find them.”

  Targets 1 & 2?

  “Please.”

  The console gave an affirming beep-boop, then continued digging through the rubble. The wartorn surface of Lower Earth, that being everything that was crushed by Upper Earth when it collapsed, was a new kind of hell. One that she’d never wanted to be a part of. The war was supposed to stay outside, up there, in space. Lower Earth was supposed to be their slum. Their home.

  She pulled her knees up to her chest, hugged them tight. Her pajama pants were soft, still. Stained with blood, but soft.

  “Where are they?”

  She knew she would cry again, soon. Every day, she hoped that the tears would end. She just needed an answer. Then she could move on from here. Just an answer, any answer, at this point.

  The rubble shifted and moved; rocks, sheet metal, glass, bodies...

  Just a month ago was the unveiling of the JAX-100X, the revolutionary upgrade of the TASK-JU-86X. It was revolutionary, with a new OS, stronger gears and pneumatics, a tungsteel carapace... They wanted it to be the first Casket to break the mold, to break the stereotype that invented the name.

  ‘A Casket... This one won’t be a Casket,’ said the company’s CEO at the unveiling—the unveiling she’d attended with her parents. ‘We’ll have to have a new name for these. Nobody will ever die in one of our suits ever again. Maybe that’s a better name? Suits? They’re for business after all. A different kind of business, but business nonetheless.

  But this type of technology will roll out to all commercial Caskets, too. They won't be tombs for workers anymore, like they were for many, many men and women when they first unveiled. Military technology advances at a faster rate, but it trickles down all the same. Next year, we've already got plans at work for a replacement Worker-Bee, the WB-77. It'll replace the woes of our lower-class citizens. It'll give comfort where before, they had none. Lower Earth will reach the same heights as Upper Earth; no, Lower Earth will exceed what Upper Earth is. Lower Earth will rise up, until the way of the land is the only way to live. Our miners, our builders, all of our blue-collar contractors... We thank you. And from here on out, we've got your back.'

  But it never came to pass. The very moment he finished speaking, after jokingly shaking his fist as the concrete platforms of Upper Earth floating high above their heads, the JAX-100X up on the stage hummed to life. Its suit of gridded tungsteel glowed once — and then it vanished. But they all heard the hiss as its rocket pack opened up. And they all heard the explosions.

  Lower Earth's climb to power was cut short by the very man who announced it. In the exact same moment. Why even lie at that point? Why even make the speech?

  And whatever ambition he made up about changing their name... Caskets were still just Caskets. Worker-Bees, Drones, Operators, ATMOS-Units... They were all the same Caskets. Each and every last one of them.

  And now, for Lower Earth, it was just little green-haired Aellyce, sifting through the rubble. Alone. And Earth was such a lonely place. It always had been. She always figured it was lonelier on Earth than in space.

  Something moved some distance behind her. She didn’t stop working. She didn’t quell her tears for that. Probably a cat, a dog, something lost without its owner.

  “Stop moving.”

  She refused. Her Casket didn't even have the audio receivers turned on.

  But then, she was no longer afforded the option to stop, as her Casket shut itself down, and her cockpit went dark. That set in the claustrophobia. Aellyce felt her breathing grow faster and faster.

  The voice outside said, “Same vulnerability... They knew about this all along.”

  The seams around her narrow cockpit screen hissed out air, and the change in pressure hurt her ears. Before she could say anything, something was stomping on her hatch — and then it pulled it open, revealing the blinding, hazy light of a damned Earth.

  A handgun rose to her head.

  “Stop there, no sudden movements. Who are you?”

  The girl was only a child. The slick-haired woman quickly lowered her pistol. She was just a sad, crying child, lost in a war that she didn't sign up for, that she didn't even have the capacity to vote for.

  She was the same age as the woman's younger sister — the younger sister who never made it out of the rubble.

  And the woman holstered her weapon. "My name is Bella. Come with me. I'm going to space."