Rika Conqueror
Page 21
“Oh, I didn’t do it for patriotic reasons. I did it to paint on the canvas of the human body.” She let out a tittering laugh as she strode forward, cocking her head as she regarded Rika’s body. “However…someone else has taken to painting on you. Are you some GAF skunkworks project, or have you gone aftermarket?”
Danella leant forward, right to the edge of the grav field.
“I’m fourth-gen,” Rika said. “Why don’t you disable the grav field, and I’ll show you what I can do.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Danella said wistfully. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’d love nothing more than to plumb your depths, but I suspect that even without your weapons, you’re a touch dangerous.”
Rika had to admit that Niki was right. Something about the way Danella moved reminded her of the easy grace of an SMI. Either that, or she’d modded herself to move like a mech after creating them.
“So, tell me, Rika,” Danella purred as she walked to a cabinet and opened the doors, peering inside. “Who was it that upgraded you? Someone in Septhia?”
“No one special,” Rika replied. “Just a chop shop.”
The spindly woman’s head whipped around, and she sneered at Rika, hissing, “Liar! Garza told the emperor, and his imperial majesty told me. You were remade by the Intrepid colonists. I can only imagine the delights you contain…and the dangers.”
< ‘Samples’. How encouraging.>
Rika watched as Danella turned back to her cabinet and then drew out a small case, which she carried to one of the tables. The woman daintily set it down and opened the lid, tittering for a moment before drawing out a small orb with four curved arms.
“Despite what you might think of me,” Danella said as she turned to face Rika, “I don’t often work on unwilling subjects. Most people pay handsomely to be turned into art by my hands.” At that, she held up all six hands and waved them in the air.
“You must be a riot at parties,” Rika said in a droll tone.
Danella took a step closer to Rika’s cage. “You’ll appreciate me soon enough. Just be happy it’s me and not Garza’s Orion boneheaded fools working on you. At least I understand that you’re a thing of beauty first.” Her voice lowered to a whisper. “And a brutal killing machine second.”
Rika wondered if things would get that far. She still fully expected Marauders to storm through the door at any moment, but she also knew that it was possible that they wouldn’t make it in time.
Whether it was escape or death, her fate was in her own hands.
Danella stared at Rika for a minute, clearly waiting for some sort of reaction after calling the mech a killing machine. Then the woman shrugged and placed the sphere at the edge of the grav field.
Rika could see a pocket form in her cage, a bubble in the grav field. It stretched down toward the damaged section of her thigh. When the pocket in the field reached her leg, something shot out of the sphere and hit her, smashing part of her armor and leg beneath. It was a small impact, but Rika could see tiny shards of material quickly travel back toward the sphere. Once they reached the device, Danella pulled it away from the grav field.
“There now, that didn’t hurt much, did it?” she asked while walking away from Rika to a machine on to the right. “Now just to see what you’re made of.”
Danella set her samples in several different pieces of equipment, humming softly as she worked. Suddenly, her head snapped up and she glanced over her shoulder at Rika.
“Ah, my emperor calls. Don’t worry, though, I’ve taken precautions against any nano you sent along, and I’ll still have my eyes on you,” she smiled sweetly. “Oh! And there’s a whole platoon just outside the door. You’re safe and sound.”
“Oh, it feels so good to be cared for,” Rika said in a dour voice.
“You’re so saucy,” Danella laughed as she strode across the room. “I can’t wait until I get your helmet off. I want to see your eyes so badly. You know what they say.”
“That if looks could kill?” Rika asked.
“Oh, you!” Danella paused at the doorway, turning to look Rika over one last time. “No, they’re the window to the soul…and I plan to suck yours dry.”
Then she was gone.
Rika hoped that Niki was right. The thought of suffering under Danella’s tender ministrations was enough to make her vomit.
ROCK AND ROLL
STELLAR DATE: 05.07.8950 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Undaunted, approaching Belgium
REGION: Genevia System, Old Genevia, Nietzschean Empire
Chase strapped down in the assault shuttle’s main cabin. Outside, the Undaunted’s engines thrummed, the vibration reaching all the way to his feet as the engines burned at full power, blasting the cruiser toward Belgium.
The terraformed planet in orbit of Luxum was only ten light seconds from Capeton—at the closest point of the two planets’ uncommon co-orbital pattern—and from the course Ferris had plotted, the cruiser wasn’t going to start braking till the ship was almost kissing atmosphere.
The Undaunted wouldn’t hit the right angle to roast the planet, but there would be one hell of a northern aurora for folks on the night side.
Checking the ship’s sensors as they continued to pick up speed, Chase saw four enemy destroyers and a crui
ser shift onto a vector to match the Undaunted.
<’Sir’? You OK, Ferris?>
The lieutenant gave a nervous laugh. Ferris paused a moment before continuing.
* * * * *
All of Ferris’s concentration was on the Undaunted’s helm control, only tangentially aware of his bridge crew as they unleashed unrelenting fire on the enemy destroyers chasing his bird.
Don’t fail me now, girl, he thought, trying to remain calm as the ship screamed toward Belgium, still accelerating though they were only one light second from the planet.
“Rotating in five!” he cried out and then executed the pre-programmed burn, spinning the kilometer-long cruiser and firing all the engines at once, a narrow cone of thrust blasting through an opening in the stasis shields.
Below, a small defense platform passed too close, trying to get a shot up the Undaunted’s skirt. The maneuver was ill-advised, and Ferris altered his vector just enough for the cruiser’s engine wash to burn away half the platform’s weapons and most of the hull.
“Suckers!” Ferris called out as the ship continued to bleed v at a ferocious rate, the planet below growing larger at a faster pace than he’d like.
“Sir…” his weapons officer said. “We good? Looks—”
“Shut it, Marv,” Ferris growled. “And don’t call me ‘sir’.”
“Uh…OK, just wanted to know if we’re gonna die.”
Ferris ignored the comment, finessing the burn until the ship was aligned with a point four hundred kilometers off Belgium’s north pole.
Chase and Borden sent confirmations, and Ferris opened the bay doors, silently wishing the four dropships and the Starcrsusher a safe drop.
He kept one eye on the enemy ships still tagging the Undaunted, the enemy’s beams splashing harmlessly against the ship’s stasis shields. His other eye was on the drop vector, watching as it approached optimal.
“Countermeasures and missiles away!” Marv added.
Ferris nodded silently, watching as every tube on the Undaunted fired. Half launched chaff and countermeasures, while the rest fired a barrage of missiles at the planet’s orbital defenses.
He didn’t expect to take many out, but it would be enough to provide a screen for Chase and Borden’s craft.
At least, it better be.
* * * * *
The dropship shuddered violently as its engines burned on max thrust, desperately attempting to slow the ship as it streaked toward Belgium. Within, the mechs in Squad One might as well have been drones, their only movement a few jerks and sways as the ship slewed through the planet’s nearspace.
Chase was tempted to watch scan, but he knew it didn’t matter. Halley would get them down or she wouldn’t. At this point, it was out of Chase’s hands.
The seconds dragged toward a minute, and he knew they were almost there when the ship jerked like a giant’s hand had slapped it, the vessel groaning in protest.
The mechs called out a resounding “Ree-kah!”
And then the dropship slammed into the ground.
Chase shook his head, feeling a moment of disorientation. Someone shouted to cover the flank, and he knew the back hatch was open, but he couldn’t see it, with the impact foam all around them.
Mechs were pouring out the back of the dropship by the numbers, grabbing foam and tearing it free to make way for their comrades.
Thirty seconds later, the mechs were out of the dropship, and Chase had moved to a small rise to survey their position. Three other trails of smoke were visible to their right, and the other dropships reported in that all hands were alive, though a few were dented.
She didn’t reply. They both knew that their only two options were success or death.
Moments later, a shadow passed overhead, and then Borden’s Starcrusher slammed into the ground a kilometer ahead of the mechs.
Beyond the seventy-meter-tall monstrosity lay their target, Mount Genevia with Casa Mons at its peak.
And Rika.
Missiles shot out of a bunker at the base of the mountain, streaking toward the Starcrusher, but Borden’s monster fired point defense cannons, shredding the incoming air breathers before the six-legged walker fired its rail cannons at the missile’s launch site. Plumes of fire and dirt soaring into the air as the Starcrusher pummeled the enemy’s position.
Chase called out to Borden on their command net.
Chase looked down from the hillock he stood on, noting that two teams of SMI and RR mechs were already racing into the forest surrounding the mountain.
* * * * *
Rika heard General Garza before she saw him. He was speaking to one of the soldiers outside. The guard was insisting that she had orders from the emperor that Rika was not to be moved. Garza, on the other hand, was attempting to convince the woman that it would be better if she and her squad found somewhere else to be.
Seconds later, weapons fire erupted in the passage. It wasn’t more than a few dozen quick staccato bursts, and then silence fell.
“I guess you outclass the Niets a bit,” Rika said to the empty room.
“Noticed that, did you,” General Garza asked as he walked in.
“Makes sense, what with you being Orion Guard and all,” Rika replied. “So, I take it that this is the part where you whisk me off to the far reaches of space?”
“You’re a smart girl, Rika.” Garza stopped in front of her, his gaze traveling up and down her body as he assessed his prize. “Honestly, I may not get that much out of you, but I’m certainly not going to let Constantine get first dibs—especially not with his pet monster-maker.”
He waved a hand, and a team of engineers entered and looked the cage over.
“It’s still s
ecure, sir,” one of them said after a moment. “She’s good to transport.”
Garza nodded in satisfaction. “Good. Get her to Illium. I’ll be following behind in a couple of days. I want to see if Constantine is capable of dealing with this mercenary incursion on his own.” He turned to Rika, a feral smile on his lips. “That’s right, Colonel Rika. I know all about your little band of ships. Wieck was very forthcoming with everything he learned about you.”
“Wieck?” Rika let out a string of curses, ending with, “I’ll kill that fucker.”
“Oh, well, Wieck didn’t turn on you willingly. I’ve been following your progress for some time, Rika. I knew you’d come to Genevia. My people set up some honeypots and identified a few resistance members. In turn, they gave us the whole network. By the time Wieck got back from Faneuil, we already knew almost everything, he just helped fill in a few details. Then it was just a matter of waiting for you to walk right into my trap.”
Niki sent a feeling of agreement.
“You done blah-blahing?” Rika asked Garza, wishing she wasn’t wearing her helmet so he could see the sneer on her lips—and the unbridled rage in her eyes.
The general snorted. “I guess—” He stopped, his eyes darting to the right. “That fucker…”
Without another look Rika’s way, Garza turned and strode from the room, throwing an order over his shoulder for the engineers to hurry up with ‘the mech’.
The four engineers quickly activated the a-grav pad beneath Rika’s cage and pushed it out into the corridor, where the bodies of dead Niets were being pulled aside by a dozen soldiers in gear Rika hadn’t seen before.
“The vaunted Orion Guard,” she said as she watched them work.
“Shut up,” one of the engineers replied.
As they pushed her down the corridor, Rika watched as the soldiers disappeared one by one until they were all invisible.