by M. D. Cooper
“Yes, that much is—” Rika was interrupted by the door opening, and another group filing in.
Lieutenant Scarcliff was the first through, followed by Major Tim and Major Dala. General Adam and Sergeant Major Rene followed after. Lastly came a man who Rika did not recognize, and she assumed it must be Admiral Irah.
The introductions were brief, and a minute later, everyone was seated at the table—excepting General Adam, who stood at the head and appeared to be chewing on the inside of his cheek.
After a moment, he spoke. “Well, people, we survived. Exactly what we survived is just now becoming clear, but the colonel Rika captured on the Atlantis has turned out to be our best evidence.”
Rika nodded. Though she’d recognized the colonel, it took a bit to remember where from. He looked different in an SAF uniform—not at all like the last time she’d seen him.
No one spoke up, and the general continued. “That colonel is named Fallon, and he’s a known entity in Nietzschea’s Coreward Regional Command.”
General Adam’s statement was simple, but the implications were vast. Until now, there had been no hard evidence that the Nietzscheans were running subversive ops in Thebes. Speculation was one thing, but now there was proof. Incontrovertible proof.
“This certainly changes things.” Hengch ran a hand through her green hair, the long locks shimmering and sparkling around her head. “It’s confirmed, then. These were not misguided men and women resisting the Septhian takeover; they’re traitors.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Admiral Irah spoke for the first time, his voice marred by a strange rasp that hinted at a recent illness, or perhaps an injury. “We know that some were traitors—like that pile of shit, Admiral Fergus, on the Atlantis—but the rank and file had no idea they were fighting for the Niets. From what I understand, even the force that attacked Fort Hammerfall here had no idea who was behind this.”
“Still criminals, though. They knew they were part of a coup.” Governor Hengch’s eyes were hard, and her lips drew into a thin line—a strange contrast to her still-sparkling hair. “I assume they’ll all face charges and a long time in the stockade?”
“Perhaps,” General Adam replied without elaborating.
Rika wondered at Adam and Hengch’s relationship. She had learned that while Adam was a native Theban, he was put in command of the Hercules System’s armed forces by Septhian High Command after the takeover, likely displacing someone less committed to unity. Hengch didn’t seem to dislike Adam, but she seemed wary of the man in some way.
“That’s not a significant concern,” Admiral Irah added. “There are far more pressing issues.”
“Major Dala,” General Adam gestured for Dala to take the floor as he sat across from Rika. “Tell us about what you found when you took Zim down.”
Dala rose and walked to the head of the table. “When we stormed the colonel’s HQ, we found him actively coordinating the operation against Fort Hammerfall. We put a stop to that and managed to keep a reserve force he was holding onto from entering the battle.”
“Thank you for that,” Rika replied, and Dala gave her a smile and a nod before continuing.
“Once in custody, Colonel Zim was convinced to surrender his personal tokens, and I dove into his records on the insurrection. What I found took some confirming, but careful passive scans have corroborated what his records had revealed: a Nietzschean fleet.”
“What?” Governor Hengch exclaimed, halfway out of her chair. “Where? How long do we have? Stars, why the hell are we here? I need to be in the command bunker!”
Governor Hengch wasn’t the only one to react to Dala’s statement. Everyone around the table had tensed, as though ready for Niets to storm through the door at any moment.
Admiral Irah raised his hands, “They’re not moving to attack—not yet, at least. It’s a small fleet, and I think they were counting on Admiral Fergus’s coup to succeed.”
Dala summoned a holo above the table, and a view of the Hercules System appeared before them.
“They came insystem a few weeks ago, as best we can tell. Ten ships in total; six cruisers and four destroyers.” Ten red dots appeared sixty AU from the Hercules System’s star as Dala spoke. “They were using some sort of stealth tech that we’ve not seen before. It wasn’t perfect, but they were bracketed by a trio of bulk haulers that were running dirty. The whole area was hard to scan, and no one was looking for stealthed Niets mixed in with the cargo haulers.”
“So where are they now?” Major Tim asked. “Even stealthed, you can’t just float around in a system for weeks…well, not inside of sixty AU, at least.
The view of the system zoomed in on Armens, a jovian, gas giant planet thirty-two AU from the star.
“They’re in here. They snuck in when a solar flare’s EM wave passed through the area. We’ve not picked up all ten ships, though—not all at once. But the freighters that were masking them are still at Armens, so it’s reasonable to believe that all ten Nietzschean ships are still there, as well.”
Rika leant back in her chair and considered the implications of what Dala had told them. Ten Nietzschean ships were not enough to cause the SAF any trouble—normally.
But right now, General Adam’s fleet was in disarray. Over a third of the system’s ships had been involved in the coup, and there was reason to believe that many of the vessels that had not participated in the attack still had dissenters in their crews.
If the Niets made a move, it was hard to say how the SAF fleet would respond.
A slow smile spread across Rika’s lips. “General Adam. I do believe that you want us to hit these Nietzschean ships.”
The general nodded, his expression grim. “Yes. Right now, the group of people who know about the Nietzschean fleet is not significantly larger than what is present in this room. Irah and I are in agreement: if we mount a concerted attack, the Niets will run. It would take us days to get a fleet out there, and it will be plain as day what our goal is. Armens only has a few ships nearby, and the Niets can cut a swath of destruction on their way outsystem.”
“Either that, or we’ll end up fighting a second coup attempt,” Irah added. “We need to crush those Niets and show our people what we’re really fighting. Septhia and Thebes have been close allies for centuries. Things are tense right now, but Septhia is not an anathema to our way of life. Nietzschea is. People need to remember that.”
“Trust me, I’ve been working on that.” Hengch sighed and shook her head. “It’s not easy. People are too quick to blame Septhia for what happened in the Albany System—even though it was actually the Nietzscheans behind it. The Septhians were the ones who saved the day.”
“Sorry for our part in it,” Rika apologized.
Governor Hengch shrugged. “Not your fault…well, sort of, but it would have happened anyway.”
“We all seem to have been underestimating the Nietzscheans’ guile,” General Adam said.
Major Tim folded his arms across his chest. “Let’s get down to brass tacks. How do you propose we take out ten Nietzschean ships? I’m sure you remember that we have just two in the Hercules System.”
General Adam nodded to Major Dala once more, and she continued with her presentation.
“As far as we can tell, the Niets are in a relatively close formation, roughly a hundred kilometers beneath Armens’ cloud tops. There are a few mining rigs scooping around Armens, so their orbital paths are limited to this band.” A band lit up in the planet’s northern hemisphere as Dala spoke.
“The plan we’ve worked out would have you heading to Formax, a dwarf planet nine AU beyond Armens. We’ll spin that it is a safer alternative training site to use while things calm down insystem.
“A slingshot around Armens is a logical flight pa
th to reach Formax right now. If we time it all right, you can fly around the gas giant while the Niets are on the far side. During your closest approach to the planet, you’ll release your dropships into the cloud tops. Your two starships carry on, while your assault teams close in and breach the Nietzschean ships.”
Major Tim was shaking his head, and Rika had to agree with his general sentiment. She pursed her lips, then spoke first.
“I don’t think this is a job the Marauders are willing to sign up for.”
Admiral Irah sighed, and General Adam chuckled. Major Dala just frowned at Rika, but held her tongue as the general said, “I had a feeling you’d say that.”
Stars, I’m sitting in a room with a General, Admiral, and Governor, telling them ‘not good enough’. This is surreal.
Rika drew a deep breath to steady her nerves, and looked up and down the table. “Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing Marauders like more than kicking Nietzschean ass; it’s a life-calling for us. But we’re not suicidal. Breaching starships a hundred klicks below a jovian’s cloud tops sounds like the very definition of insanity.”
“Not to mention that we don’t have enough mechs to take out ten ships.”
“You have nearly four hundred,” Major Dala replied.
“Three-fifty that are combat ready,” Rika corrected. “That’s thirty-five a ship, though we’d hit the cruisers with more.”
“You cut through the Atlantis like it was made of butter with just one squad,” General Irah pointed out. “The Nietzschean cruisers have far less mass and volume.”
“I had three other squads distracting the enemy on Atlantis,” Rika reminded him. “And though it was bigger, starships are harder—more sectioned, easier to lock down. Vent atmo, kill grav, whatever. No way we can do any more than five.”
“Five won’t work.” Irah shook his head and glanced at Dala. “We need to hit all ten at once.”
“Niki has a suggestion,” Rika said, curious what the AI had in mind.
“Leaving aside how you have this information, five or six minutes is not long,” Major Tim replied.
“Propulsion?” General Adam asked.
Major Tim was running his finger and thumb along his chin. “I see a hole in your plan, Niki. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re going to need nine more AIs capable of this sort of work to take the field with you.”
The humans at the table shared a series of looks between them. Rika knew that the governor had an AI—though she’d failed to introduce her, and General Adam had one as well. Rika wondered what those AIs were saying.
“Don’t you have more AIs in your company, Captain Rika?” General Adam asked after a moment. “I see a Potter and Dredge on your roster.”
“We do,” Rika nodded. “However, they’re not free AIs. They’re owned by the Marauders.”
“And I assume you don’t have the legal authority to free them,” General Adam said from behind steepled fingers.
“It may be that you could help with this.” Rika spread her hands and smiled “I’ve spoken with some lawyers on behalf of our AIs to grant them asylum under the same provisions Septhia enacted for the mechs we rescued from the Politica. They are interested in pursuing it, and have filed preliminary paperwork—but they warned me that it could take months, maybe even years….”
Rika let the statement hang, ignoring the look of surprise on Penny’s face and the barely contained anger on Tim’s. Leslie was smirking, and Scarcliff appeared bemused.
“I see those filings,” Governor Hengch said after a moment. “There are seven separate AIs listed in the plea for asylum. I thought you only had two in your company.”
“Seven?” Major Tim nearly shouted as he turned to Rika. “You filed on behalf of my AIs?”
“Your AIs?” Rika met the major’s rage with her own steely gaze. “Do you believe in owning sentient beings, Major Tim?”
The major worked his mouth for a moment, but then clamped his jaw shut.
The governor’s brow was raised as her eyes danced between Rika and Tim. When it was clear there would be no further outbursts, she spoke up. “I have it within my authority to provide temporary asylum. Jira?”
“How does that strike you, Potter?” Rika asked.
Potter laughed.
“This is all fine and dandy,” Irah said, his rasp more pronounced. “But you only have eight AIs total, and I imagine you can’t send them all on this mission.”
“Not if we want our ships to fly,” Major Tim shot Rika a cold look. “Granted, once they get their freedom, they may not want to remain our ships’ AIs at all. Then this mission will become a lot harder.”
Rika held back a smirk and looked at the general and admiral. “From what I can understand of our AI configuration, Jane, Frankie, and Lauren can come on the mission—if they want. This is a volunteer op. That means we need four more AIs. Know of any?”
General Adam nodded. “I just may.”
* * * * *
Once the guests had departed, Major Tim slammed a fist on the table. He glared at Rika before kicking his chair back and rising to pace across the room.
Rika had been waiting for this outburst, and stared impassively at the major as he worked off his anger. Leslie was giving the man a sour look, Scarcliff’s expression was carefully neutral, and Penny wore an expression that Rika couldn’t quite quantify. It seemed like a cross between ‘grow up’ and ‘relax, already’.
Finall
y, Major Tim stopped pacing and turned to Rika, his finger pointed in accusation. “When the general learns of this—”
“He’ll, what?” Rika asked. “Fire me? Re-enslave the AIs? Good luck keeping this company of mechs in the Marauders if he does—not that I think he would.”
“It doesn’t matter what you think, Captain. This is the general’s regiment. You can’t just free the AIs; it’s above your paygrade.”
“I didn’t free the AIs,” Rika replied. “They filed their own requests for asylum. I just helped the ones under me, and they shared the information with the others. It’s the Septhians, our primary benefactors, who freed our AIs.”
“It has good optics,” Captain Penny added. “It looks like the Iapetan governor did this to help us out. We come off looking even more like the defenders of freedom and liberty. Probably help with recruitment, too.”
“Seriously, Major Tim,” Rika said. “Listen to us. This is a good thing. Look at how amazing free mechs are when they’re fighting for themselves and their teammates. A lot of people thought massed mechs was a terrible idea. But a hundred and fifty mechs took out over a thousand heavy infantry, with a casualty ratio of less than two hundred to one. That’s never been done before.”
Major Tim ran a hand through his hair, and Rika could tell that he was trying to get his emotions in check. When he did speak, his voice was hard and edged. “You’d better be right, Rika.”
“I am right. A free AI, Niki in this case, has given us the key to taking out ten Nietzschean ships. I don’t know if you looked at the contract General Adam sent over, but the payment is huge. Worth the cost of hiring a thousand AIs. I don’t see any scenario where General Mill will dislike what we’ve done here.”
Major Tim groaned and closed his eyes before nodding. “Then we’d better pull this shit off.”
DEPARTURE
STELLAR DATE: 08.15.8949 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Fort Hammerfall