by M. D. Cooper
RIKA UNLEASHED
RIKA’S MARAUDERS – BOOK 6
BY M. D. COOPER
Just in Time (JIT) & Beta Readers
Jim Dean
Timothy Van Oosterwyk Bruyn
Scott Reid
Copyright © 2018 M. D. Cooper
Aeon 14 is Copyright © 2018 M. D. Cooper
Version 1.0.0
Cover Art by Tek Tan
Editing by Jen McDonnell, Bird’s Eye Books
Aeon 14 & M. D. Cooper are registered trademarks of Michael Cooper
All rights reserved
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD
PREVIOUSLY…
MAPS
HONESTY
BACK IN THE FOLD
LOST SHEEP
SHEPHERDS
OLD TIMES
RESIDENT
OLD NEWS
TOWER ASSAULT
THE SHEEP
SHEEPDOGS
FALCONS
HURO
JUGGERNAUT
ESCALATION
LAST KNOWN LOCATION
REINFORCED
A MYSTERY
RISKS
CHIPPED
AMBUSH
RUINATION
HITTING DIRT
IT GETS WORSE
BRINGING THE PAIN
EYE ON THE PRIZE
THE CALL
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
THE FIND
COLLISION
FINAL COUNTDOWN
THE FERRYMAN
NEXT
THE FINAL UPGRADE
MECH TYPES & ARMAMENTS
3rd MARAUDER FLEET 4th DIVISION
7th MARAUDER FLEET 1st DIVISION
COLONEL BORDEN’S MARINES
9th MARAUDER BATTALION
THE BOOKS OF AEON 14
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
FOREWORD
I think I wrote three forewords before finally typing out these words.
I write a lot about war, about people who have fought, and struggled, and striven. About people who face unimaginable obstacles, both within and without, and survive, grow, even flourish.
Some of the stories in Aeon 14 are distant; they’re told from the bridges of starships, and the halls of leaders where decisions are made and then passed down to be executed by others.
For the most part, they’re stories of victories, the legends of a future age. They’ll be sung about in song, and lauded as the foundations of a new era of peace and prosperity.
But that road to victory—and, one hopes, a successive peace— is paved with the bones of the dead, soaked in blood and covered with ash.
I suppose that sounds melodramatic, but it’s something I try to keep in mind as I write. Yet those considerations don’t always make it into the story, which is why I wrote the story of Rika, one of those broken and ruined by war, and then cast aside when it was over.
But Rika isn’t the only one in that state. By and large, every Marauder is trying to reestablish their place in an uncertain future, most rallying around the rock of stability she offers.
Not everyone makes the right choice every time. Some people do the wrong thing for the right reasons. Add selfishness to the mix, and even the right things can become wrong, rationales twisted and deceiving.
This story is as much about the people Rika has drawn in around herself as it is about her. But in a way, that is also a reflection on her. In addition, it shows where she has to go next.
Will she remain focused on her narrow problem, with its narrow solution (the destruction of the Nietzschean Empire)? Or will she expand her view to truly appreciate the Genevian people who cast her out and accept them in?
Only time will tell where Rika’s journey will take her, and where she will take Genevia.
Michael Cooper
Danvers, 2018
PREVIOUSLY…
Momentous things happened in the previous Rika book. The action began in the city of Memphis on the planet Kansas in the Blue Ridge System.
The ISF’s field marshal, Tanis Richards, had fed Rika intel that there was an admiral in Blue Ridge with ties to a larger operation going on in that system, or nearby.
Rika and her Marauders took the city of Memphis and crushed the Nietzscheans system-wide, but then the unthinkable happened: Rika was captured by the admiral and taken off-world on a ship that launched from a secret site.
As the Marauders rallied under Captain Chase to find Rika, Lieutenant Colonel Alice tricked a group of Marauders into following a false lead.
Those Marauders were Sergeant Alison and her squad’s first fireteam. Alison and her team became suspicious of Lieutenant Colonel Alice’s motives and got a message out to Chase and the rest of the Marauders right before they jumped out of the system.
However, Chase had also discerned the jump point Rika’s captors were using, and it was far from there. He couldn’t stop the pursuit of Rika’s captors, but as luck would have it, an ally volunteered to go after the deserting Alice.
Colonel Borden, along with a small team of eight Marines, had been sent along with Rika’s Marauders to function as a liaison with the Intrepid Space Force. The ISF colonel had led his team on successful missions alongside the Marauders at Sepe and at Blue Ridge, and the Marines thought of the mechs as brothers and sisters in arms.
So while Chase led the Marauders after Rika, Colonel Borden followed after Alice, who jumped toward the distant Iberia system.
Meanwhile, Leslie—who had managed to get aboard the ship where Rika was held captive—came under attack by the crew of the ship, only to be rescued by Rika, who had managed to free herself with Niki’s help.
The crew of Nietzscheans had holed up in engineering and on the bridge, but through a judicious use of bacon, Rika and Leslie were able to take over the ship.
However, the crew had already ensured that the ship would reach its destination, a hidden Nietzschean station at a place named Epsilon (not to be confused with a character in the Orion War books), which was being used as a shipyard to build and refit a new fleet to help replace the Nietzschean losses at Pyra.
Epsilon consisted of a brown dwarf star surrounded by a klemperer rosette of six large moons. It had once been a resort destination, but those days were long past. Each of the moons had a small black hole at its core to provide additional gravity, controlled by a multi-nodal AI named Piper.
Piper had been enslaved on the moons for centuries, but agreed to help Rika, Leslie, and Niki destroy the facility if they took his core.
At that point, Chase and the rest of the Marauders arrived, only to find that there were enough Nietzschean ships in the system to put up a serious fight.
However, another group of mechs had been operating within former Genevian space since the end of the war and followed Rika’s Marauders, arriving at Epsilon in time to lend a hand.
This group was commanded by Colonel Adira and known as Adira’s Demons. Having to survive by their wits for years, Adira’s Demons lived up their moniker, painting their armor to appear monstrous. Their K1R mechs were installed in Skyscreams that had been changed into mechanical dragons, the mechs within gladly taking on the personas of fearsome beasts.
It was those mechs who rescued Rika and aided in the retrieval of Piper’s core.
Though Rika’s QuanComm blade had been damaged, Niki managed to repair it, and toward the end of the conflict, they called for aid. An ISF fleet commanded by Admiral Carson arrived, helping to finish off the Nietzscheans and capture much of the fleet that was being pulled out of mothballs.
Along with the ISF came the remainder of Rika’s Marauders, who had been training under Barne and Silva in the Albany System.
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Rika has summoned Captain Vargo Klen and the Asora from the Blue Ridge System, where he was aiding in restoring order to Epsilon. Once he arrives, her full force (barring the five mechs that Lieutenant Colonel Alice absconded with) will be present at Epsilon.
She’s faced with a choice: continue on to the Caulter System, go after her lost sheep, or split her force and do both.
But as she considered her options, the correct decision became clear. Rika had been left behind too often during the war. She’s not about to leave Alison and her team to the same fate.
Prominent Members of the Marauders
Though there is a full list of all the mechs, pilots, and members of the Marauders at the end of the book, this is a listing of some of the more prominent characters and their current role in the battalion.
9th Marauder Battalion Leadership
Rika – Colonel, battalion commanding officer
Alice – Lieutenant Colonel, executive officer
Silva – Lieutenant Colonel, training commandant
Barne – Sergeant Major, command sergeant
Leslie – Captain, intelligence officer
Niki – AI, Lieutenant, operations officer
M Company Leadership & Key Personnel
Chase – Captain, company commanding officer
Karen – Lieutenant, company executive officer
Potter – AI, Chief of Tactics and Strategy
Chris – Lieutenant, First Platoon Leader
Alison – Sergeant, First Platoon Squad One Leader.
The Seventh Fleet, First Division
Heather (Smalls) – Captain of the Fury Lance
Travis – Captain of the Republic
Ferris – Lieutenant, commander of the Undaunted
Vargo Klen – Lieutenant, commander of the Asora
Ashley – CWO, bridge crew aboard the Asora
Buggsie – Lieutenant, commander of the Capital
MAPS
For more maps, and full-size versions, visit www.aeon14.com/maps.
HONESTY
STELLAR DATE: 09.13.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS I2
REGION: Pyra, Albany System, Thebes, Septhian Alliance
Five weeks before the events at Epsilon…
The voice came into Niki’s mind without greeting or preamble. She accepted the request, as there was no need for the speaker to provide any such things. It was a moment she’d been anticipating since the very instant her core had been removed from Rika.
The incredibly vast, multi-nodal AI that lived within the I2 responded with a hint of humor in his communication.
It had been some time since she’d communicated with an AI such as this one. A very, very long time, in fact.
Bob’s rumbling laughter filled her mind, and she had to consciously force herself not to attenuate her connection with him. She wanted to experience him in his raw state.
Bob replied after a moment.
A feeling of discomfort surged through her at the memory of Prime, but she pushed it aside. She’d seen others just as bad as him during the FTL wars—though none with the same sort of potential—though a few had more means. She counted both humans and AIs lucky that Prime had not arisen at a time such as the FTL wars. He would have been all but unstoppable.
Niki had not been aware of that, and was quite surprised to hear it.
Niki sent Bob a feeling of exasperated annoyance.