by M. D. Cooper
Rika nodded slowly.
Tremon was arguing the validity of Oda’s ‘government in absentia’ on the grounds that it had been set up without his knowledge while he was still president—albeit after the elected government had fled the Genevia System. Oda’s point was that he’d had no knowledge of the status of the elected government, so his was not established in bad faith.
Rika let them continue to talk as she considered what her next move should be.
Though her expression was serene—as much so as she could make it—inside, Rika seethed. She had actual work to do, from resupplying her fleet to cementing her position as queen, and all of that was a means to an end. It was the creation of a stable platform from which to launch her attack on Nietzschea. Striking at their heart would cause the empire to pull its assets from Old Genevia without fighting over every system one by one—it would help the Genevian people more than anything, but fools like Oda couldn’t see past their own ego far enough to realize that.
Things were growing more heated between Oda and Tremon, while Arla leaned on her sofa’s arm with a smirk on her lips.
“Maybe we should take a break,” Rika said while rising. “There’s no need for us to fight this much. We all want what’s best for Genevia.”
What she didn’t say was that both sides believed that the other was not a part of any viable solution.
“No.” Oda spoke the word with calm resolution. “It’s clear to me that you won’t be useful to the Genevian people any longer. It’s time for you to stand down.”
Rika knew she was on the clock. Oda’s people had to have alerted him to the fact that there was fighting near the KK100. He wouldn’t wait much longer to activate it.
“You’re willing to go up against the Scipio Alliance?” Rika asked. “Don’t forget that Admiral Carson is still here. He won’t look kindly on this.”
Oda shrugged. “We’re the legal government of Genevia. By your own admission, you’re a mercenary organization employed by a foreign power. You won’t submit to our authority, and you won’t leave. Legally, I’m within my rights.”
He said the word with a note of finality then folded his arms across his chest.
“Umm…your rights to do what?” Rika asked.
A smug smile settled on Oda’s lips. “To do this.”
Nothing happened for a moment, and then Piper cried out,
“Oda…” Arla breathed the word with an air of menace.
He hung his head. “Shit.”
Tremon rose to stand beside Rika. “You probably should have just used your KK100 right from the get-go, not come here to grandstand.”
“Don’t you see?” Oda’s expression lost all of its former poise. “You could have been allies of Genevia, helped us. If only you’d return to your former place.”
“I feel the same way,” Rika ground out. “But now you’ll have a new place. In a prison cell.”
“What are the charges?” Arla demanded. “On what grounds are you going to arrest us?”
“Breach of Section 2 of the Phobos Accords,” Rika replied. “For starters, at least. However, Marauder regs allow me to hold anyone for as long as necessary in an active combat zone, and because there’s no recognized government in Genevia, it still qualifies as active combat by our regs.”
“You fu—” Oda began to say as he rose to his feet, but suddenly, Keli appeared before him.
“I’m going to need you to turn and place your hands behind your back.”
Oda and Arla both fell silent, and their two guards—who had been eyeing Kelly’s GNR during the entire meeting—surrendered without a fight.
Rika’s lips twisted as she watched Oda and Arla being led away.
Leslie laughed and closed the connection.
Niki laughed.
ULTIMATUM
STELLAR DATE: 06.01.8950 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Mount Genevia, Belgium
REGION: Genevia System, New Genevian Alliance
Rika turned her back on Luxom’s orb as it dipped behind the mountains, to face Tremon, Leslie, Chase, Barne, and Silva. She leant against the balcony’s railing and drew a deep breath.
“So from the looks of it, Xa was just a red herring. Oda was behind both of the attacks on the parade.”
“Or Xa was doing a bit of work on the side to help Oda,” Silva suggested. “I mean, seriously. If you were the Niets, who would you want in power—Rika or Oda?”
“I can’t even bear to hear those two options presented together,” Leslie muttered. “It’s also possible that Xa got left behind and did a favor for someone to get a ride out of Genevia.”
“Or it was all a smoke screen that Caleb dropped for us,” Barne suggested. “Guy’s a class-A asswipe.”
“Right.” Chase set his elbow on the master sergeant’s shoulder and leant on the man. “We get how much you dislike him. Point is, someone got this antimatter down here. So who was it?”
Leslie shrugged. “I don’t know that we’ll ever find out. There’s so much contraband flying around right now, it’s a miracle no one’s blown up a moon by accident yet.”
“Which brings us to our main problem: establishing law and order. Where are we with General Klen?”
“So close!” Rika’s tone was wistful, and a little worried.
“You’re not concerned about being in charge, still, are you?” Barne asked. “I thought you were over that.”
Leslie turned to Barne and folded her arms across her chest. “A thing you two did?”
The master sergeant fixed Rika with a cold stare. “You know, talking about it is pretty much the same thing as telling it.”
“Oh!” Rika said brightly. “In that case….”
“OK, stop!” Barne shouted. “No need for that to get around.”
Leslie glanced at Rika. “It wasn’t sex, was it?”
A snort burst from Rika’s lips. “Sex? Stars, no. Do you remember how much Barne and I hated each other back then?”
“Uhh…I am right here,” Barne said.
“I hate to actually bring you all back on topic,” Tremon spoke into the moment of silence that followed, “but does this mean that we’re just putting the whole parade assassination thing to rest? Assuming the threat has passed?”
“No,” Leslie shook her head vigorously. “Kora’s doing her thing with Oda—and it’s priceless, she’s watching kids’ vid feeds with him—and then she’s going to pay another visit to Caleb. We’ll keep digging there till I’m satisfied that there’s nothing left to learn. Then we’ll—”
The team on the balcony were all staring at one another with wide eyes.
“If the Niets are doing this everywhere…” Chase spoke the words softly, though the thought was already on everyone’s mind.
“They wouldn’t,” Barne shook his head. “Some systems they’d hold onto for strategic reasons, make us fight for them. The Niets don’t run, so this is a different sort of strategy.”
“OK,” Rika nodded. “You’re right, the Niets don’t fight like that. If they’re blasting systems as they go, it wouldn’t be wholesale destruction, they’d want to make it hurt more for us.”
“All?” Rika asked.
“If they did this at Gerra, they probably did it at others,” Chase said. “Sending aid or taking in refugees from just one system is manageable. Three, five, ten? That starts to become the work of years.”
“Fuckers,” Rika muttered.
Leslie nodded. “They are Nietzscheans. They fight dirty. It’s how they won the war the first time.”
“Well, not this time,” Rika said.
Rika had sent the message over the command channel, and the team standing around her appeared puzzled.
“Counterattack where?” Barne asked.
A holo appeared in front of the group, centered on Genevia and the systems around it.
“OK…I know we won’t be ready immediately, but I want them to think that’s our plan. Let’s just say that the Niets do their little scorched earth routine on these five systems.” As she spoke, five of the star systems closest to Genevia lit up. “They have at least two thousand ships, maybe more, spread across those five systems. If they get word that we’re sending resources, military and otherwise, for aid, what do you think they’ll do?”
“They’re gonna swoop and poop,” Barne muttered.
“They’ll what?” Tremon asked, a look of mild disgust on his face.
Rika laughed at the term, but understood the master sergeant’s meaning.
“They can’t take and hold the Genevia System with those ships,” she explained. “Especially not while we have the ISF on hand. However, they can certainly fly through the outer system here and wreak some serious havoc. Then we start off our New Genevia with six star systems that are crippled and all but defenseless.”
“Which is exactly why you didn’t want to spread out in the first place,” Chase said. “This keeps us from striking out at Nietzschea.”
Rika nodded while calling up to Heather,
“So just what we feared, then.” Silva shook her head in dismay. “What are we going to do?”
Rika ran a hand through her hair. “We have to stick to the plan. We’re going to need to render what aid we can, but bolster this system’s outer defenses while we prepare to hit Nietzschea.”
The message came from Admiral Carson, and the tone in his mental voice set her teeth on edge.
Rika felt her stomach drop. She was certain that they could square away everything with the transfer of Marauder assets by then, but with the Niets running a scorched earth campaign, she’d been counting on the ISF fleet to back her up.
That eventuality felt less certain to Rika.
She asked the question, but almost didn’t want to know. Any enemy who felt brave enough to launch an assault on New Canaan was one she didn’t want to go up against.
Carson’s reply took a few seconds longer than Rika had hoped.
Rika’s focus shifted back to the people standing before her. They were all staring at her silently, and she swallowed before speaking.
“Carson just reached out. New Canaan is under attack, and he’s been called back.”
“Shit!” Barne muttered. “What does that mean?”
A part of Rika wanted to run and hide, to take her Marauders and find some quiet corner of the galaxy. The strength of the ISF was a cornerstone of her belief that they could actually take on the Nietzscheans….
But as she felt that fear set in, she remembered the vision Tangel had given her, of the rock that sheltered others in the midst of a raging storm.
I am that rock.
“We do what we have to do,” she said in a low voice. “We’ve beaten back the Niets before, without the ISF’s help. We bested them at Hercules, Sepe, Blue Ridge, and Iberia.” With each system name she listed, her team nodded, their backs straightening. “If they think that their cowardly tactics are going to weaken our resolve, they’re sorely mistaken. We’re Marauders, and they fear us.”
“Well…in a few hours, we’re all going to be NGSF,” Chase corrected with a wink.
“Way to take the wind out of our sails,” Silva muttered.
“You know…” Tremon spoke up, tapping a finger against his chin. “I didn’t know General Mill personally, but I remember the reports of how hard
he fought at the end of the war—I felt like a part of Genevia was alive in his mercenary company. He founded the Marauders out of the remains of the Genevian military. Maybe it should just be the Genevian military.”
“Would that cause any legal issues?” Leslie asked.
“Maybe we could officially be the Genevian Marauders,” Chase suggested. “I really don’t feel like I’m ready to give that up to be the New Genevian Space Force.”
Something clicked in place inside Rika and she nodded. “Yes. That feels right. Being Marauders is in our blood now, there’s no leaving it behind.”
“To the Genevian Marauders!” Barne thrust a fist in the air, and the others followed suit, shouting the name.
When the excitement died down, Rika looked over the men and women before her, their eyes growing sober ones more. They reached a wordless understanding: the road ahead would be long and hard, but they would have each other, and the Genevian Marauder family to sustain them.
“OK, people,” Rika said in a voice still choked with emotion. “We have work to do.”
THE QUEEN
STELLAR DATE: 06.02.8950 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Mount Genevia, Belgium
REGION: Genevia System, New Genevian Alliance
Twelve hours later, shortly after dawn, Rika stood in the audience room in the Royal Estate atop Mount Genevia.
Admiral Carson and the ISF forces had left the system, gone to fight the mysterious enemy that had beset the New Canaan system. Rumors were flying as to who it could be, but Rika knew the list of possible foes to be short.
Though I suppose it could be all of them at once.
Even so, those gathered atop the mountain were putting on a good face, determined to mark the occasion with high spirits. A host of civilians was present, many of which Rika knew to some degree from interactions over the past few weeks, but they were the backdrop. It was her Marauders, the mechs and humans of her battalion whose gazes she met, one after the other, as they beamed at her with pride writ large on their features.
Ironically, that moment, none of them were Marauders…not exactly.