Rika Triumphant
Page 17
Rika could have cried for joy as she saw several of the Cocks signal their surrender. They were going to win this fight with exceptionally light casualties, and they’d have more than enough prisoners to interrogate.
Her only hope was that General Adam had managed to track where the enemy was coordinating their attack, though the attack on his ships in space—which they knew little about—may have disrupted that goal.
She circled the battlefield once, then swept to the south, firing warning shots and trying to push the enemy back from the east and into the force that Barne and Chase had returned with.
At first it looked like the tactic was working, but the enemy began to form up into groups and offer more resistance. Rika was worried they would disappear into the commercial district and take days to flush out—or worse, escape entirely.
Rika gained altitude, seeking a clear visual on the ocean, ten kilometers to the east. She caught sight of a blast of steam erupting from the waves, and then water began to slough off of a large oval shape.
A few seconds later, the Perseid’s Dream was visible, rising from the waves within its shield bubble, its six-hundred-meter hull gleaming in the afternoon light.
A few kilometers further out into the ocean, the Golden Lark surged out of the water, over a kilometer of starship rising up into the skies.
The Golden Lark fired on the incoming fighters, its beams cutting into the enemy ships. The attack craft tried to avoid the ‘Lark’s beams—and some did—but moments later, the ship’s complement of fighters burst from its bays, and gave chase to the enemy fighters, driving them back the way they came.
While the Golden Lark moved east over the ocean, the Perseid’s Dream moved inland and stopped a kilometer east of Fort Hammerfall. Beams lashed out at the Cocks scurrying about on the ground below, while Third and Fourth Platoons dropped from the ship to the choke point, between the commercial district surrounding the old airport and the rest of Hittis.
Rika watched the remaining enemies begin to surrender in droves.
Rika was about to offer the SAF assistance when Major Tim contacted her.
Rika reviewed the data Major Tim sent and agreed with his assessment.
Rika had to admit that she was too. They hadn’t even known if Zim was involved, but if Dala took him out, then that question was answered.
Rika fired the SkyScream’s engines at max burn and streaked over the Perseid’s Dream’s bow and out over the ocean. She raced after the now-distant shape of the Golden Lark.
Once within tight-beam range, Rika Linked to the Golden Lark’s CIC and pulled the data on the enemy ship they were approaching.
She had never understood why some worlds still operated wet navies, especially something the size of a carrier. Submarines made sense—they were sneaky, and made for interesting strategic options—but a carrier was just a big, slow, moving target. Maybe it was nostalgia, or maybe some people just liked to be sailors. Maybe both.
As she drew closer, Rika got a visual on the carrier and revised her opinion. The thing wasn’t as much a carrier as it was a floating spaceport.
The carrier-spaceport was four kilometers long and two wide. The Golden Lark was holding off ten kilometers to the west.
The data from the ‘Lark’s CIC tagged the carrier as the Atlantis, and Rika watched as a trio of railguns atop the floating behemoth fired shots at the Marauder cruiser.
Because both ships were in fixed positions, the Golden Lark’s defense beams melted the railgun shots before they hit. It was still a spectacular sight though, the rail shots exploding over the ocean, each one a brilliant display of energy, brighter than daylight.
Above, the Marauder fighters were engaged in an aerial fight with the Atlantis’s attack craft. Rika was tempted to join in the fray, but tamped down her enthusiasm. Chances were that this vessel was the staging ground for all of the attacks on her and her mechs.
There would be answers within.
The Major’s voice was entirely deadpan, and Rika couldn’t tell if he was kidding or not.
Rika connected with Lieutenant Crudge, and they planned out Fifth Platoon’s breach points. Fifth was the smallest platoon in the company, with only sixty-six mechs. A pittance against the hundreds that could be on the Atlantis.
However, sixty-six mechs against a six-kilometer square floating spaceport was a walk in the park after what they’d faced at Hammerfall. Especially with a starship as backup.
The ‘Lark pulsed its engines, and pushed in toward the Atlantis. Rika stayed close to the cruiser’s hull, but didn’t go underneath like the major had suggested. She could only imagine what getting between a starship and its grav column would feel like.
As the they approached the Atlantis, the carrier increased its rate of fire, adding short-range missiles and anti-air to its defense. All of which splashed harmlessly against the cruiser’s shields.
The Golden Lark was one of the Marauder’s most powerful cruisers. It would have taken a nuclear warhead to breach its shields, and that would have destroyed the Atlantis as well.
As they eased up to the Atlantis, Rika signaled the SkyScream to disconnect her from the vessel, passing control of the fighter over to Niki. Once out, Rika quickly reattached her limbs, keeping her arms tucked inside the storage slots until the last moment.
To her right, the carrier loomed large, towers, cradles, and landing strips forming a jumbled mess on its surfac
e.
Her HUD noted the Atlantis’s shields with a dim glow. It had a defensive barrier as powerful as the ‘Lark’s, but in twenty-two seconds, the Marauder ship would brush its shield against the carrier’s, and the two graviton-driven shielding systems would nullify one another.
Rika timed her countdown with that of Fifth Platoon, and slowed her breathing, forcing herself to grow calm and get ready for whatever was to come.
Her timer hit zero, and Rika leapt off the SkyScream, which Niki then flew up into the ‘Lark’s open bays on her left.
She fell the thirty meters to the deck of the Atlantis and immediately came under fire from a group of soldiers to her right.
Rika fired a depleted uranium round at them, then dove behind a low structure—some kind of venting system—and unslung her JE-84.
She released two drones and saw that her shot had killed two soldiers, and that the remaining three were falling back.
Run, little cockroaches, run!
She synced with the platoon’s combat net, and saw that she was close to her intended position near squad four.
Rika saw fireteam four-two approach from her left and signaled to them that there were three enemies on the far side of the vent. They nodded and spread out to flank the enemies.
She joined in their formation, and they found that the soldiers had fled below deck. Rika was tempted to rush after them, but she and the mechs could cover ground more quickly on the surface of the carrier—even if it incurred more risk of being flanked or surrounded.
As they moved toward the location of the CIC, a tower near the center of the carrier, more and more enemies appeared, attempting to stop the fourteen mechs.
Behind them, the Golden Lark had backed off again, lest the Atlantis’s railguns shoot it where the shields were negated.
Jynafer reformed her squad into a spear and they took off at a run, the forward fireteam bringing maximum fire to bear on the targets directly in front of them, and the trailing mechs shooting at anyone who attempted to close in behind them.
Rika imagined that anyone observing the surface of the carrier would see a straight line of destruction pointed at the CIC tower.
It telegraphed their intent, but she couldn’t think of a better way to reach their target in a timely manner.
Rika laughed as she leveled her GNR and fired an electron beam at an AA gun that was pivoting to fire at the deck where the first half of the squad was advancing.
The AA gun exploded, and Rika picked up her pace, moving to join the forward fireteam.
Rika fired her JE-84 at a pair of enemies in light armor, half-curious what the Roaches had been thinking, advancing on mechs in light armor, and half-wondering what passed for illegal sims on Iapetus.
Rika passed updated orders to Jynafer’s squad, and ahead, an AM-3 tore a hatch off its hinges before dropping a grenade down the hole.
Fireteam four-two went in first, pushing ahead and making room for the other mechs. Within a minute, all were within the Atlantis, pushing down, deck after deck toward the bowels of the carrier.
In close quarters fighting, the never-ending stream of enemies began to wear them down. An AM-3 lost an arm, while one of the RR-2s had a damaged leg lock up. Another AM-3 took a rocket to the chest while they were advancing through a mess hall.
Rika had to admit that Jynafer was right.
Rika and the remaining mechs pushed on, descending another two levels. Rika consulted the schematics that the SAF had provided, and saw that they were only one level from the submarine bay.
A ladder at the far end of the corridor should take them down to a gantry above the bay.
“Shit,” Rika swore. She rushed ahead and jumped down the ladder, landing on a catwalk overlooking a bay occupied by four submarines. Two were active, and Rika took aim at the first while asking Niki,
Rika figured the VIPs would go for the closest, and fired a sustained burst from her electron beam, followed by her last depleted uranium round. The shots connected with the submarine’s hull one meter forward of the main access hatch.
The electron beam heated up the hull and melted away a few centimeters of steel, creating a cavity for the DPU to strike. When it hit, the uranium rod punched right through, smashing a half-meter hole in the sub’s hull.
A second later, more shots came from the catwalk as the other mechs fired on the bow and rudders of the two submarines.
Confident that neither vessel could get away, now that they were no longer watertight, Rika leapt over the railing to the dock below.
As she dropped, Rika considered that the subs could have grav shields. It was risky, but a desperate person may try to brave the seas with a hole in the hull, trusting their shields to keep them safe.
She’d just have to make sure they didn’t try that.
Rika sprinted across the dock, firing her JE-84 at several enemy soldiers who tried to slow her down, before she jumped across the widening gap between the dock and the ship.
By some miracle, the submarine’s shield hadn’t come online yet, and Rika slid through the hole she’d blown in the hull, fell through a gash in the first deck, and landed in the ship’s command center.
There was a man with an admiral’s stars on his lapel screaming for the submarine to dive, while another with a colonel’s leaves yelled something about capture. Two sailors at the ship’s navigation consoles were working furiously, one reporting that they couldn’t dive, as the grav shields had failed.
With all the commotion, none of them noticed Rika until she stepped forward and called out, “Is this a private cruise, or can anyone join in?”
All four turned to face her, and Rika’s eyes narrowed as she looked into the colonel’s.
“I know you….”
REVELATIONS
STELLAR DATE: 04.27.8949 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Fort Hammerfall
REGIO
N: Iapetus, Hercules System, Septhian Alliance
The local SAF command center in Hittis was in shambles after Major Dala’s attack, and the closest base was on lockdown, still undergoing scrutiny from General Adam’s investigators.
The Atlantis was in similar condition, a thousand SAF soldiers working their way through the carrier, deck-by-deck searching for intel on the full scope of the attempted coup.
Surprisingly, that made Fort Hammerfall the safest place on Cassini’s eastern seaboard for the meeting with the SAF command.
Rika stood in her quarters and drew a deep breath. She’d faced down a president—and made a friend of her—and challenged and killed a despotic dictator. A planetary governor, General Adams, and their staffs were far less imposing.
She could do this.
Besides, she’d captured the prize on that submarine. No matter how upset any of them may be at how the prior day had gone, they were now one step closer to cutting out the cancer that had festered on Iapetus, and in the Hercules System in general.
Rika walked out of her quarters and almost ran into Chase in the hall.
“Chase! Sorry!” Rika exclaimed. “I was lost in my own head, there. What are you doing here?”
Chase smiled and slid an arm around Rika’s back, pulling her in close for a kiss. “I wanted to find you before you went into the lion’s den to wish you luck. You’ve got this…whatever ‘this’ turns out to be.”
“Well, it’d better turn out to be a big fat ‘thank you’.” Rika’s eyes darted in the direction of the command building. “If I get reamed out after saving their planet, I’ll be pissed.”
“No one’s gonna ream you,” Chase gave Rika another kiss. “You’re the one that’ll—nevermind, this metaphor is going to fail me fast. Look, you’ll do fine. Let me walk you over.”
Rika stilled her mind and enjoyed the few minutes of peace as she and Chase walked out of the officer’s housing and across to the command building.
Outside, activity thrummed all around them, and the bulk of the Perseid’s Dream loomed over the buildings from its resting place between the landing strips to the north. The Golden Lark was back in space, maintaining a geosynchronous position over Fort Hammerfall.