Mech Wars: The Complete Series

by Scott Bartlett

  “Ash, hit them. Hit them!”

  Unlike Kincaid, Ash obliged immediately. Her squad emerged from behind the bank where they’d concealed themselves, crossing the cobbled terrace in lockstep and firing on the Quatro hurtling toward Omega Squad.

  The grenade blew, blowing the rear legs clean off one Quatro while the shockwave knocked down the next-closest. Jake and his squad opened fire on the leading three, who weaved and crouched as they ran, to make themselves harder to hit.

  The recruits were all decent shots—if they hadn’t been, they wouldn’t be here. Several bullets hit home. But only one of the Quatro went down, with the front one limping and the third seemingly unaffected.

  Jake turned to Marco, who carried a rocket launcher. “Fire that thing and retreat back into the trees. Everyone else, follow me!”

  They did, and as they withdrew into the green space, Jake directed them to various hiding spots.

  “Climb the trees if you can. Fire on that Quatro from above!”

  Soon, seven of his twelve squad members were sitting on branches, and those who weren’t lingered near the periphery of the green space, ready to run if a Quatro took interest in them.

  Marco appeared through the trees.

  “How’d it go?” Jake subvocalized.

  “Took out one,” Marco said. “The one that was limping. But that other Quatro’s a beast.”

  “No kidding. Come with me.”

  “What’s the plan? What are we doing?”

  “We’re being bait.”

  They ran back toward the area where they’d first entered the green space. Behind them, Jake could hear the remaining Quatro crashing through the trees.

  “Hold your fire,” Jake told the rest of Omega Squad. “Wait till my mark.”

  The Quatro appeared through the foliage, pausing to sniff the air. Jake nodded at Marco, and they both raised their guns to fire on the alien.

  That got its attention. It charged toward them, emitting loud huffing noises.

  “Mark!” Jake said.

  From various treetops and hiding places, Omega squad fired on the Quatro from multiple angles. But that didn’t slow its charge.

  Jake gave thanks for all that practice running backwards as he and Marco jogged in reverse, unloading magazine after magazine into the alien’s muscular hide.

  At last, the Quatro crashed to the ground before them, at a distance of just a few feet.

  Jake and Marco exchanged twin looks of relief. Then, Jake started subvocalizing to the entire platoon: “Good work, Omega and Alpha squads. Kincaid, where the hell were you?”

  “We, uh…we decided we were too exposed. Sorry, Jake. It didn’t seem fair.”

  “I almost died. Is that fair?”

  “I don’t know. Listen, I had to look out for my squad.”

  Unbelievable. “Kincaid, you do what you want, okay? Go back and crawl into your bunk, if you like. The rest of us will go save Valhalla from the Quatro. You and your squad aren’t invited. We clearly can’t trust you to have our backs.”

  “Jake—”

  “That’s final, Kincaid. You’re a liability. Do not follow us.”

  “Look out, Jake!” It was Ash. “Behind you!”

  Jake turned to find a Quatro running at him and Marco. The beast must have come from behind the lucid arcade nearby.

  He shoved Marco back toward the trees of the green space and turned to face the charging alien.

  “Run!” he yelled to his fellow recruit as he switched his assault rifle to full-auto and opened fire.

  Other Omega Squad members moved to support him, but it was far from enough. Jake jogged backward, continuing to fire, but the Quatro closed the distance rapidly.

  Suddenly, it was on top of him, massive claws tearing open the front of his jumpsuit, gaping fangs descending to sink into his neck.

  He woke in his bunk, staring with wide eyes at the gunmetal ceiling.

  What the hell?

  Then he noticed Chief Roach standing nearby, hands folded behind his back.

  “Congratulations,” Roach said. “You were the first to die.”

  Jake’s innards went icy, and for a moment he felt even more afraid than he had with a Quatro about to run him down.

  “That was the Final Evaluation, wasn’t it? Does dying mean I wash out?”

  “No one washes out anymore. You’ll all get jobs with Darkstream Security.”

  “Sir, with all due respect, you know what I mean. Did I wash out? Did I fail the test to become a mech pilot?”

  Roach frowned. “It’s not a simple matter of survival. That’s part of the evaluation, but death doesn’t necessarily disqualify you. It’s also about keeping a cool head. Demonstrating teamwork. Demonstrating resourcefulness, leadership, and courage, not to mention tactical competence and facility with firearms.”

  “Did I make the cut, sir? Please. Just tell me.”

  “I can’t tell you just yet, Price. Not for certain.” Roach walked closer to Jake’s bunk, where Jake sat with his arms propping him up, heart still racing. “I can say, however, that without your intervention at the start of the sim, everyone might have washed out. The confusion and ineptness your fellow recruits displayed then was frankly depressing, but you saved them from themselves. You rallied them, organized them, gave them a purpose. And then you sacrificed yourself for your fellow soldier.” Roach sniffed. “For you not to make the cut, seven other recruits will have to impress me as much as you just did. I highly doubt that will happen. So I can say, somewhat provisionally: welcome to the team.”

  Drawing a relieved breath, Jake nodded. “Thank you, sir.”

  “Just don’t whine about it if the others surprise me and you don’t make the cut, all right?”

  Roach grinned, turned around, and paced past the sleeping recruits, who were still deep in the throes of their lucid nightmare.

  Chapter 27

  No Warning

  This time, those hunting them gave no warning.

  Lisa jolted awake to the sound of gunfire, followed by a sharp hissing sound. “Andy,” she subvocalized. “Andy. Come in.”

  “I’m here,” he said, a tremor in his voice. “Suit up, Lisa, as fast as you can. I’ll contact Tessa.”

  “No, I’ll get Tessa. I spent my childhood in the Belt—I’m used to putting on pressure suits quickly. Focus on getting yours on.”

  “Okay.”

  “Move fast, Andy.”

  Positioning her suit so she could slip into it quickly, Lisa was about to try subvocalizing to Tessa when she contacted Lisa herself, just as more shots went off, followed by more hissing.

  “Seems like they found us,” the older lady said. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes, ma’am. You?”

  “I’m fine. Judging by that sound, we’ve lost the habitat. If we hang out in here much longer, we’ll risk getting hit ourselves.”

  Lisa pulled on the suit’s gloves and worked on joining them with the sleeves to create an airtight seal. “We can’t go out the airlock—that’s where they’ll expect us to come out. They’ll hit us for sure. Hold on, I’m switching to a wide channel.” She sent her implant the mental command to include Andy in the conversation. “Andy, is there any way to tell which part of the habitat those bullets hit?”

  “Yeah, hold on. I can access its sensors via my implant.” A brief pause. “Looks like both tears are between my bubble and yours, Lisa.”

  “Okay, so with the airlock between your bubble and Tessa’s, that means we should cut our way out between Tessa’s and mine. That way, we won’t be emerging into someone’s line of fire.” Hopefully.

  “Right. I keep a diamond knife sharpened for that purpose—it’s the only thing that will cut through the nanofabric.”

  Lisa grabbed her assault rifle from next to her bed, and after a cursory inspection, she joined Tessa and Andy in the habitat’s common area.

  “I’m going to miss this place,” Andy said as he began cutting through the exterior with t
he knife he’d fetched from the central storage compartment.

  “Me too,” Lisa said, “especially if it means I have to spend all my time stuffed inside that beetle.”

  “I say we take their habitat,” Tessa said, her voice grim.

  The opening Andy made let them out near a rock face that ended just above their heads.

  “Here.” Tessa thrust one of her pistols into Andy’s hands. “Stay behind the habitat for as long as you can. If you can get a clear shot at one of them, take it. I’m going around the right, to make sure they’re not messing with our beetle. Lisa, can you climb onto this ledge?” She slapped the rock with a gloved hand.

  Lisa nodded. “No problem.”

  “Circle around, fast as you can, and flank them. Stick to cover as much as possible. Be careful.”

  “You too. Let’s move.”

  Behind his faceplate, Andy looked white, but he held the pistol steady, which was good.

  Lisa clapped him on the shoulder before finding a foothold halfway up the short cliff and hoisting herself on top of it.

  She saw the profile of one of their attackers right away, crouched behind a low rock outcropping. To take her shot now, out here in the open, would be suicide. Instead, she ran for a shallow in the ground to the northeast.

  Her heart hammered in her chest as she went—she could feel each palpitation. Her eye twitched. This was her first real engagement. Unlike in lucid, if she was successful here, real people would die. And if she wasn’t, then she would.

  She made it to the hollow, nestled her SL-17 on the rock, lined up her shot, and took a deep breath, letting it out in an even whoosh to steady her aim. Then she fired.

  The burst took her target in his neck and the side of his faceplate, which cracked but didn’t shatter. Even so, the figure collapsed, clutching at his throat, and soon was still.

  No one came for Lisa, so he must not have been able to speak to warn his fellows over the radio. Still, the realization that she’d just taken a human life—one that couldn’t be restored by waking up from lucid—it hit her like a bus.

  Can’t think about that now.

  She clambered out of the hollow, running to take up her target’s position. More gunfire sounded from below, near Tessa’s location, but she ignored it. Tessa had her job to do, and Lisa had hers.

  Moving from cover to cover, keeping hidden, she took down two more enemies before coming up on what must have been their beetle, which seemed utterly abandoned.

  That’s odd. She would have expected them to keep a close eye on that.

  As soon as she thought it, she heard the sound of another beetle start up and then begin to move. It was coming from the shallow valley where she, Tessa, and Andy had set up camp.

  “Tessa?” she subvocalized. “What was that?”

  “That was our beetle driving away,” Tessa said, cursing. “I tried to stop them, but they had me pinned.”

  “They left theirs,” Lisa said. “I’m looking right at it.”

  “Ten credits says there’s something wrong with it,” Andy said.

  They approached it warily, but soon discovered it truly was abandoned. Once inside, they found that Andy was right.

  Ten minutes later, he had the result of a diagnostic scan. “It’s the front-left wheel as well as the front- and middle-right ones,” he said. “We might get a day or two out of them, if we’re lucky. But sooner than later, this beetle’s going to break down.”

  “Can you fix it?” Tessa asked.

  “I can switch the middle-right wheel with the front-left one. That’s what may give us the day or two, since the middle-right one is in a bit better condition. But there’s no fixing them. Grit got in through the seals, into the bearings, and then when they seized, the friction melted parts of them. After that, the whole mechanism started twisting into scrap, a process that will soon be complete.”

  Lisa was still grappling with her emotions after the engagement with the Daybreak goons. She was feeling somewhat shell-shocked, but Tessa was as sharp as ever: “Seems like there would be a failsafe of some kind, Andy. To prevent this from happening.”

  But Andy was vigorously shaking his head. “I told you, these beetles weren’t meant to go as fast as we’ve been driving them over Alex’s terrain. This is what happens. Yes, the feedback circuitry on the drive motor should have shut off the wheels when the current increased, but that’s not what happened. Instead, the motor burned out too.”

  “That’s why they kept chasing us,” Tessa said. “They had no choice.”

  Andy nodded, his hands dancing over the instrument panel, checking a series of readings that he must have been feeding straight to his implant. “The electrolyzer’s working fine, so we won’t run out of oxygen. We can sit in here and breathe the air for as long as we like. Food, however…that’s another issue. Either way, we’re not making it to Habitat 1. We’re not making it anywhere.”

  “What about the space elevator?” Lisa managed, struggling to snap herself out of the mental aftermath of the battle. “We could head for that.”

  “We passed it almost four weeks ago. This beetle’s good for two days, tops. We’re not going to make it there walking. We can’t carry this beetle’s habitat with us—it’s too heavy—and so even if we tried to walk, we wouldn’t be able to eat. Have to take off the pressure suits for that.”

  “Then we have to chase the beetle they stole from us. Take it back.”

  “They have no habitat,” Tessa said. “Meaning we won’t catch them outside of it, like they did to us. Getting it back will probably involve damaging it, maybe irreparably.”

  “We have to try,” Lisa said. “They’ll be heading back to Habitat 2, right? We can drive after them in that direction. And if we fail, at least we’ll be closer to the elevator than we would have been, once this beetle breaks down. That’ll make it more likely we get spotted and rescued.”

  Tessa nodded. “Lisa’s right. It’s our only shot. Get this thing moving, Andy.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Chapter 28

  Claustrophobia

  When Jorge Delgado saw Ingress’ gleaming metallic walls, he heaved a sigh of relief. Rumors had been flitting around the system net about Quatro sightings near the planet’s second-largest city, but that was also where the only space elevator was located, and he had to continue his supply runs for Darkstream.

  Bertha was on his back enough without him skipping out on his job because of the irrational fear that always got play on the net. And Jorge knew she was right to be on his back.

  They had three little mouths to feed, and it was bad enough that he hadn’t taken that job on Alex. He got claustrophobic, was all, and he hated the idea of living in cramped spaces for months at a time, maybe years. If he took the Alex job, who knew how often he’d be able to fly across the system to visit his family on Eresos?

  Bertha didn’t view the claustrophobia as a good excuse. That was why she kept on his back all the time.

  And she’s right to be, darn it. I know she is.

  But he hated the idea of those small spaces.

  The speeder jerked to the side, suddenly, as though something large had collided with the hover-trailer he towed along behind him. Looking in the side-mirror, he saw that was exactly what had happened.

  A Quatro had charged his trailer, and it now ran alongside it, as though angling to do it again.

  Suddenly, he felt claustrophobic, even inside his speeder, which he never had before. He was having trouble breathing, but he managed to keep his foot on the accelerator.

  Whack. Another Quatro came from the right, barreling right into Jorge’s speeder, which tipped sideways a little before leveling out.

  “Oh, no,” he moaned, maxing out the vehicle’s speed, even though he knew the Quatro could keep up if they were motivated enough.

  Turned out they were motivated. Not only that, a dozen more Quatro emerged from the trees and out into the Gatherer path ahead.

  Looking in the mir
ror, he saw that maybe two dozen more were amassing in the path behind.

  That was when he realized he wouldn’t make it to Ingress today.

  The Quatro charged, tipping over his speeder so that it was belly-up. They clawed at the door, which made terrible screeching sounds, and Jorge knew that they were smart enough to get inside, eventually.

  I should have taken that job on Alex after all.

  Chapter 29

  Stranded

  “Okay, what are we going to do, Andy? Seriously.”

  He glanced back at her from the beetle’s driver seat, brow furrowed, then returned to his study of Alex’s sapphire landscape. “What do you mean, seriously? Do you think I’m joking when I say we’re out of options?”

  “No, but it all seems kind of ridiculous, doesn’t it? That there wouldn’t be more safety precautions than this put in place? I mean, this is your job!”

  “It is my job, and it’s a dangerous one. I knew that going in. But we aren’t supposed to get attacked by a drug lord’s cronies, and the wheels aren’t supposed to seize up, and we’re supposed to be able to use the satellite link to call for help if we need it!”

  “How can our specific signal still be blocked? Even after we switched beetles?”

  Tessa chuckled. “I already told you that, girl. Who controls the satellites?”

  “Darkstream would not intentionally strand us in the middle of nowhere. Uh, ma’am.”

  “They’ve done worse.”

  “Like what?”

  But Tessa clammed up, like she always did whenever someone asked her that question.

  “Is there anything we can do, Andy?” Lisa said. “Anything at all? To keep from dying out here?”

  “There is, actually. We’re going to keep driving until the beetle stops.”

  “I know that already. What do we do then?”

  “We walk.”

  “But we can’t carry nearly enough oxygen to get us to the space elevator.”

  “Well, we’ll fill up what tanks we have from the electrolyzer, and then I’ll put them in the detachable trolley. I was thinking…we can use the trolley to carry the inflatable habitat, too, so we can at least eat. And we’ll see how far we get. See if someone picks us up.”