by Stina Leicht
That’s some pilot.
Then a cluster of logs slammed into a tree and snapped the top off with a splintering crack. The upper half of the tree plummeted, gaining speed and force as it fell, and ended the second mech’s performance with a curtain of branches, pine needles, snow, and a loud thud.
The third mech fired off a series of pulse gun blasts that vaporized falling logs. Unfortunately for it, there were too many moving in the air and on the ground to target. It attempted a jump. A mass of tree trunks crashed into the mech’s legs at just the right angle. The mech did an involuntary flip midair. It went head over feet, landing on top of the struggling Skull and Crossbones.
Deafening crashes echoed up the mountain.
Angel’s CA blinked warnings.
She winced. “That had to hurt.”
“What did you say?” Lou asked over the audio feed.
Kurosawa sent, According to my calculations, your position will be overrun in less than five minutes, Captain.
Damn it, Angel thought. What did you just tell the others? “Nothing important. On my way to you, Lou. Enid, you’re next.”
Angel crawled backward—away from a chaos populated with pops of shattering wood, screams, and panicked shouts. A big grin spread across her face. She hadn’t expected the log trap to work that well. She’d chosen it because it would be hard for CAs to detect.
Don’t get cocky. It’s only the first encounter, she thought. The enemy isn’t going to be as careless from here on out.
She was careful and quiet as she made her way through the forest. When she was certain she was far enough, she sprinted the rest of the way to the rendezvous point. Her CA overlay informed her that the enemy was once again making progress up the mountain—if at a more cautious pace. By the time she reached the spot where Lou and Kurosawa were waiting, Angel was out of breath. She stumbled to the top of the ramp as it closed behind her.
“In the air!” she shouted. “Now!”
“Yes, Captain,” Lou said.
The weight of inertia almost knocked Angel off her feet. She steadied herself with a hand to the bulkhead. Walking through the ship like a drunken sailor, she reeled from handhold to handhold as the ship rapidly dodged obstacles.
“How’s it going, Kurosawa?” Angel asked. “Is Enid all right?” She guessed the enemy was near Enid’s position by now.
“They have not discovered her presence as of yet,” Kurosawa said. “That is positive, given the variables.”
Lou said, “You bet it is.” A proximity alarm went off. “Too bad the same can’t be said for us,” she shouted, and steered them around a cluster of trees. “We’ve got company. Looks like three drones. They’re small and fast. Want Kurosawa to handle them?”
“Do it,” Angel said. “I’m not in place yet.” She laid a hand on the ladder.
A series of small bursts erupted from the gun turret above. Lou let out a victory whoop.
“Fuck you, you little bastards!”
Angel crawled up the short ladder and then staggered to the gunner’s cockpit. “Kurosawa, let me know the instant the enemy engages Enid’s position.”
“Yes, Captain,” Kurosawa said.
Dropping into the seat, Angel bruised her hip on the safety harness when the ship took another sharp turn. “Ouch.”
“Sorry, Captain,” Lou said over the intercom. “But you know the rules about being strapped in.”
“Captain,” Kurosawa said. “The enemy have arrived at Enid’s position.”
“Was she able to get a few shots off before they detected her?” Angel asked. She switched Kurosawa’s rapid-fire rail gun from automatic to manual. She left the pulse cannon, positioned on the rear of the ship, on full auto.
“Would you like an enemy casualty estimate?” Kurosawa asked.
“I would,” Angel said. She punched a few more switches.
“Including your previous encounter, the total is six wounded. Two dead. This is an estimate based upon visual, thermal, and electronic signatures. Of course, the enemy has employed various signal dampening devices that may interfere with my accuracy.”
“Understood,” Angel said.
“In addition, I would not recommend counting on the six wounded remaining incapacitated,” Kurosawa said. “I am fairly certain they have a med center onboard Shrike.”
Angel frowned. “Do you think they’ll revivify?”
A revivification tank would make their chances of beating back the invasion nonexistent.
“I do not believe this to be the case,” Kurosawa said. “The energy signature for that part of the ship isn’t powerful enough for such an expenditure.”
Thank god, Angel thought.
“They named that thing Shrike?” Lou asked. “Points for that.”
“Are you frightened?” Kurosawa asked. “It would certainly be logical given the situation.”
“Nah,” Lou said. “Are you?”
Kurosawa said, “I am not programmed for emotional displays during emergency scenarios. Would you prefer for me to alter that setting?”
“Never change, baby,” Lou said. “I like you the way you are.”
Angel did the math. Seventeen soldiers left—provided the med center didn’t intervene too much. Every little bit helped. “Kurosawa, what about the mechs?”
“I need to make a correction. There are now three dead,” Kurosawa said. “Enid has killed another.”
Sixteen.
“Go, Enid!” Lou said.
“Fly,” Angel said. “Save the cheering for later. If we don’t get there before they box her in—”
“Almost there.”
“Captain, no mech has been powered down at this time,” Kurosawa said.
“Oh well. I suppose it was too much to hope that I’d done much more than scratch their nanocoating,” Angel said. “At least it slowed them down for a while.”
Kurosawa cleared the trees just as the mercs appeared to get a lock on Enid’s position. Rapid sniper fire poured from the north end of the clearing. The trees in that area were blasted with rockets. In an instant, all that remained was charred, splintered, and on fire. Smoke and dust lowered visibility. About a dozen ground troops formed a semicircle behind four mechs. Two of them were Desert Camo and Skull and Crossbones. The black mech had a jagged scratch in its nanocoating and a dent in the chest plate.
Ha! Angel thought.
One of the other two mechs had pink stripes. The fourth one had no decoration at all. It looked as though it’d just walked off a showroom floor.
She paused and counted the enemy. Where are the rest of the troops? For that matter, where are the rest of the mechs?
Several quick rounds of pulse rifle fire erupted from a clump of bushes to the left of the earlier site. Midway through the second round of fire, the mechs trained their rockets on Enid’s new position. Lou screamed as the area vaporized in a conflagration that shot flames twenty-five feet into the sky.
“Enid!”
Angel aimed the railgun and unloaded everything she could without jamming it. The heat indicator went into the red. She paused and then resumed firing the recommended short bursts. The ground below erupted in fountains of dirt and rock. Smoke again filled the clearing. Four drones vanished in a cloud of flying earth and smoke.
If this were a military battle, it wouldn’t be long before the corporate soldiers radioed for reinforcements.
Maybe that’s where the other two are? she thought.
Kurosawa couldn’t hang around. The situation was about to get too hot. Military-grade mechs were equipped with hull-busting rockets designed to take out armored dropships. Angel had no doubts that these mechs were no different.
As predicted, a rocket shot up out of the clearing. It skimmed Kurosawa’s flank and exploded in the air fifty feet away. A second shot was only off by five feet. Angel felt the vibrations in the ship around her.
“Somebody down there has pretty good aim.” Lou spoke over the chaos. “Permission to get the fuck out.�
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“I haven’t spotted Enid yet,” Angel said. “We’re not leaving her.”
Kurosawa said, “If she is dead, remaining will not—”
Several more rockets went off. Angel unloaded into the enemy. It took an instant to register that someone was shouting on the audio feed, and it wasn’t Lou.
“Would you fucking watch what you’re doing up there? It’s getting a bit busy down here for someone not in an environment suit, damn it.”
“Enid?” Lou asked. “Is that you?”
“You were expecting someone else on this channel?” Enid snarled.
“Where are you?” Angel asked.
“South side of the clearing,” Enid said. “They blasted the hell out of my remote turrets. And I just bought the damned things.”
“Better them than you,” Angel said. Cool relief poured through her veins.
Lou said, “I didn’t know you had any of those.”
“And neither did they,” Enid said. “Now that we’ve finished the pleasantries, I’d very much like my ride out of here.”
“Fair enough,” Angel said. “We’ll meet you at the pickup.”
“See you soon,” Enid said.
A big gust of wind blasted the area as Lou steered Kurosawa out and away. The rendezvous point was on the other side of a nearby hill. The ship tilted to avoid another rocket, giving Angel a brief view of the battle site. Smoke and fire swirled with the ship’s passing.
A lone body—or most of it—lay in a heap on the broken ground. Scattered flaming chunks of tree trunks, branches, and rock littered the area. The ground was the black of unburned charcoal.
Fifteen.
Angel resumed firing as the ship raced to the meeting coordinates. “Kurosawa, give me a locator on Enid. Now.”
“I estimate Enid’s arrival in four minutes at her current pace.”
“Thank you,” Angel said.
The ship made a sudden move upward. Angel again felt heavier as inertia sunk her deeper into her cushioned seat. Then the ship banked to the left. More explosions burst into the air—a little too close for Angel’s comfort. Suddenly, Kurosawa rocked to the left and the right, and then dropped several feet before righting itself. Several treetops vanished in a cloud of flaming splinters.
Just as abruptly as the ship had flown up into the sky, it dropped.
“Lou! You’re not doing my stomach any favors!”
Lou’s voice sounded calm, but Angel could detect the excitement underneath. “We’re touching down. Don’t know how long we can stick around.”
“Where’s Enid, Kurosawa?” Angel asked.
“I have a visual,” Kurosawa said. “Lowering the ramp now.”
A loud thump-clang sounded through the hull.
“What the fuck was that?” Angel asked.
“An unexploded mortar,” Kurosawa said. “The mechs are almost here.”
Angel asked, “Is Enid onboard?”
Several rounds from a pulse rifle went off. Angel turned to the screen on her console and entered the commands to bring up the ship’s outside cameras.
Kurosawa said, “Not yet, I’m afraid.”
The screen displayed a view of the landing area. Enid was conducting a fighting retreat, pausing periodically to fire off several rounds behind her. She had a rifle slung on her back and another in her hands. She was limping. Her left leg was bleeding. Angel couldn’t make out Enid’s pursuers, not yet.
She was about a hundred feet from the ship.
Reassuming the gun controls, Angel sent off two bursts from the pulse cannon in the direction that Enid was firing. Enid got the hint. She sprinted in an uneven gallop. Angel was prepared to send off another couple of shots when she heard Enid’s heavy steps thundering up Kurosawa’s ramp.
“That’s it, Lou!” Angel shouted. “Get us the fuck out of here!”
“I’m on it!” Lou said.
Hydraulics whined as the ramp closed. Angel caught a whiff of burning pine. The pitch of the engine’s growl went up a few octaves as the landing gear left the ground. A series of explosions rocked the ship.
“Damn it, Lou!” Angel said.
“Sorry about the nanocoating, boss!” Lou said.
“I’m taking that out of your pay!” Angel wasn’t remotely serious.
With Lou at the controls, Kurosawa wound his way through and around several trees and then shot up once again into the sky. Angel took a deep breath in relief. They crested a hill just before beginning the return flight.
That was when she spied the enemy ship.
“Son of a bitch,” Angel said.
“Now it gets fun,” Lou said. Angel could just see Lou’s maniacal grin. The ship responded eagerly as Lou aimed Kurosawa at Shrike and punched the throttle.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Angel asked.
Lou said, “It’s time for a little game of chicken.”
“Kurosawa, inform Sukyi we’re going to be a little late,” Angel said.
It’d been a certainty that the enemy would, at some point, employ their ship. She’d just hoped that they would do so later rather than sooner.
“Affirmative,” Kurosawa said.
The enemy ship didn’t veer off course. Shrike continued on—apparently accepting Lou’s challenge, never altering speed.
From her perch in the gunseat, Angel had a good view of what was happening. It was, perhaps, a better view than she wanted. “Lou? Just how close do you intend to take us?”
Lou didn’t answer.
“Lou?”
Laughter rolled up from the cockpit. “Come on, you fuckers! You wanted to play! Let’s play!”
“So, I think it’s safe to say that Lou has lost her damned mind,” Enid said from somewhere below.
Lou shouted. “You assholes don’t have a chance. I read your damned spec manual!”
“Should I do something?” Enid asked.
“I think you should strap yourself in,” Angel said, leaning over to see down the access ladder. “I’ve a bad feeling that this is about to become a very exciting ride.”
“You’re not going to stop her?” Enid asked.
“If I need someone shot, I trust you’ll handle it,” Angel said. “If I need us to dodge an enemy ship and keep us whole while it’s done, I’ve got Lou.”
“Point.” Enid nodded once. Then she vanished.
The other ship unloaded their guns. Angel lined up Shrike in her sites and returned fire. It wasn’t easy, given that Kurosawa was weaving and bobbing through the air, but she did her best. A number of shots landed in the forest below.
Kurosawa swayed and bobbed. Lou whooped. The ship resumed its collision course. The proximity alarm screeched. Just before the point of no return, Kurosawa dropped underneath Shrike.
Angel let out an involuntary scream.
If she hadn’t served three tours with Lou at the helm, she wouldn’t have believed what she was seeing. According to the calculations on screen, Shrike’s underbelly was mere inches above her head. She couldn’t control the urge to slump lower in her seat.
“Ah, Lou,” Angel said. “We’re awfully close.”
“It’s fine!” Lou said.
“Then you know that I’m about to go headfirst into their landing gear?” Angel asked.
“Oops.”
Kurosawa dropped away from Shrike.
“That’s not what I wanted to hear, Lou.”
“Better?” Lou asked.
Angel said, “Much.”
“Uh-oh.”
“What’s wrong now?” Angel asked.
There was an explosion and Kurosawa jerked in the air. Angel caught a whiff of ozone and burning electronics.
“What the fuck was that?” Angel asked. Now that Shrike was in firing range again, she resumed her attack.
“Shit! I’m sorry, Kurosawa,” Lou said. “Did that hurt?”
“I do not register pain,” Kurosawa replied. “But if I did… Ouch.”
Enid called from below. Her words were p
unctuated with the blast of a fire extinguisher. “Don’t think they hit anything important.”
“I hope not,” Angel said.
Another detonation went off, this time on the opposite side of the ship.
“Lou?” Angel called. “Is there going to be anything left of my ship once this is over?”
Lou said, “Their pilot is better than they ought to be. I wonder who they are. It’s kind of hot.”
“Lou.” Angel put a warning edge in the name. “Get us the fuck out of this.”
“I’ve got an idea,” Lou said. “Hang on tight, Enid. This is going to get squirrelly.”
“Boot magnets engaged,” Enid said.
Kurosawa took a sudden banking turn toward the mountain. Shrike followed close behind. Rocket blasts leveled stands of trees and scarred cliffsides. Angel returned fire, scoring a wide hit along Shrike’s nose and port side.
“There,” Lou said. “Found it.”
Angel looked out and didn’t see anything but a wide expanse of mountainside. “Found what?” And that’s when she saw it. A narrow pass between two mountains. “I’ve a terrible feeling I know how this goes.”
Enid said, “Oh no.”
“Oh yes,” Lou said. “They can’t follow us in there.”
“Who gives a shit about them? We can’t fit in there,” Angel said.
“Kurosawa says we can,” Lou said. “Can’t we, baby?”
“According to my calculations,” Kurosawa said, “the crevasse should accommodate us within an acceptable margin of error.”
“What is an acceptable margin?” Angel asked.
“Plus or minus a couple of meters.”
The side of the mountain began to take up Angel’s entire screen. The sides of the opening were jagged. “Lou. This is a very bad idea.”
“Uh-huh,” Lou said.
The ship flipped on its side and slipped through the opening. Behind them, Shrike veered off, just missing the mountainside.
“Phew!” Lou said.
The sky was a long grey ribbon to Angel’s right. The line of light and clouds twisted as they flew. To her left, she could see nothing but dim rocks. Ahead, the crevasse narrowed into nothing. All along the length of the opening, uneven chunks of limestone butted out.