Merkiaari Wars Series: Books 1-3

by Mark E. Cooper

  Gina sprawled and rolled across the abrasive surface avoiding the Merki fire. The edges of the roof dissolved, slugs chewing it away, but they didn’t have the angle. They must be on the ground, but that might not be so for long. If they gained just a little elevation, the Merki would have them both dead to rights.

  She scrambled away from the danger, more toward the centre of the roof where Cragg lay. Thank god, she was still wearing her shooting gloves. She might be a viper, but losing skin still hurt. As it was she wore holes in the palms of her gloves, but her uniform was tougher. All alliance uniforms used nano-processed materials to toughen them against impact forces, and were heat resistant to give the wearer a precious second or two of time against plasma fire. Hers was more than a match for the abrasion, especially with her armour on.

  “No point worrying about detection now,” Gina muttered and used her sensors. She swept the entire area around the building and swore. The Merki had her surrounded. “Oh crap, we’re screwed.”

  “Arty,” Cragg croaked. “Rather die to friendly fire.”

  “Screw that, no fire is friendly.”

  Cragg’s diagnostic data had multiplied and its colour was definitely reddish. He had internal bleeding and his bots weren’t dealing fast enough. She quickly searched his webbing, but found his medikit on his hip. Everyone had his or her preference. He had chosen to store his medikit on his utility belt next to the case containing spare power cells. She had seen others do that. Gina used hers for power cells and bayonet, but not much else. Everything she needed hung on her webbing attached to her armour.

  She grabbed his nano injector and pumped the entire magazine into his thigh, right over the artery. She reloaded it with his spare mag, and hammered the entire thing into his other thigh. Cragg didn’t seem to notice. He was looking around in a daze.

  She grabbed his head and forced him to look into her eyes. “Martin, I want you to let yourself go into hibernation now.” He blinked at her, but didn’t respond. “You hearing me, Martin? Remove the block on hibernation. That’s an order.”

  Cragg blinked and blood frothed on his lips, but nothing changed.

  She didn’t have time for this. On her sensors, the bright red icons of the Merki death squad were manoeuvring. She was sure some of them would enter her building and come up to the roof eventually, but she was more afraid of the other possibility. All it would take is one or two troopers climbing high enough to cut the angle. There were a few trees in the streets, but more likely, they would just use another building.

  As his commanding officer, Gina had access to Cragg’s diagnostic data, but she had more than that. If he still had his wristcomp, she could have instructed his IMS to perform some basic medical procedures and some not so basic. A thing like introducing pain relief into his bloodstream was a simple matter that any Alliance soldier relied upon. Everyone, military or civilian, had a wristcomp connected to IMS, but Cragg’s wristcomp was gone along with his forearm.

  She had another option, but she hesitated to use it. All of them feared outside forces taking them over. She couldn’t do that, no one could, but she could order his processor to perform a new diagnostic. She didn’t think Cragg was aware enough of his situation to block it if his processor decided to put him into hibernation when the results came in. She had no doubt it would. He was in a bad way. If not for his earlier order preventing it, he would already be asleep.

  Computer: Access Cragg, Martin 501st Infantry Regiment serial number ALZ-119-910-159.

  Connection achieved

  Computer: Access IMS

  IMS: _

  Gina took a deep breath. This had better work. She stared into Cragg’s wandering eyes and prayed it would save him. Prayer was all she had right now.

  Computer: Run full diagnostic.

  She held her breath...

  IMS: Working...

  Diagnostics: Full system scan in progress.

  Her breath whooshed out. She broke her link to Cragg and checked her sensors. She had her rifle up and hardly had time to realise what she was doing when the first Merki head appeared. TRS had taken over. The Merkiaari trooper edged onto the roof, TRS noticed, evaluated, targeted, and blew its head off in milliseconds. Control returned to her body and limbs, with the dead Merki trooper still falling.

  Gina gasped, feeling the pain in her muscles receding. That happened when TRS moved a viper at computer speeds. It happened when she went from combat mode to melee mode as well, but at least she knew it was coming. TRS did it without warning.

  She kept her rifle up and aimed at the ramp as she ran to the body in a bent kneed stance. She kept her eyes on the ramp and kicked the monster, but her sensors had it right. It was dead. She took TRS offline and edged forward. Two more Merki were halfway up the ramp. She took two grenades off her webbing, depressed the triggers, and rolled them down the ramp.

  Whump! Whump!

  She jumped forward and emptied her rifle into the Merki already reeling from the twin explosions. Both died without returning fire. She didn’t go down to make sure. She ran back to check the other side of the roof. Sensors reported a single Merkiaari there. It saw her first and fired. The impact on her torso armour was sudden and shocking. The mass of the slug caused her armour’s nanocoat to react and harden, but that didn’t reduce the force of the impact. She flew off her feet snarling at the pain, and landed on her back. She rolled to avoid two more shots. Her target reticule was locked on to the sniper and pulsing redly as it spun. If she’d had a rocket launcher she could have fired right then and forgot about it. The rocket would have found its own way to the target, but she didn’t have one. She did have her rifle and its integrated grenade launcher. She had chosen to load hers with all HE (High Explosive) rounds. She remembered Sergeant Rutledge telling her class of recruits that he preferred all HE himself. Good for taking out armoured vehicles and Merkiaari troops, he had said back then. Gina agreed and used the grenade launcher. As soon as the decision was made, the targeting reticule morphed and an arcing line connected her to the target.

  She adjusted her aim and fired.

  The grenade followed the arcing line as if physically anchored to it. It wasn’t of course. The line was the projected trajectory needed to kill the target, which it did moments later when it exploded. The building shook and rained debris into the street below. Pieces of Merkiaari fell with it, and the red icon on her display faded.

  The steady blue icon close behind her blinked out of existence and Gina froze watching where it had been. It reappeared and started blinking steadily. Cragg was in hibernation, sleeping the little death. She quickly checked her sensors and scurried back to her friend. She patted his cheek.

  “Sleep well,” she said and went to war.

  Gina reactivated TRS and added melee mode to the mix. The world slowed around her as she stood tall over Cragg. That attracted enemy fire as she knew it would, but the Merki had to reveal themselves to hit her. The moment they did, TRS took over and threw her bodily over Cragg, not to protect him; TRS didn’t care. It was just an auto-targeting program after all. It threw her down to avoid damage, and then fired back. She let herself go, and screamed her rage at the enemy trying to kill her. Grenades flew faster than Human thought. TRS switched to full power and full auto on her rifle as the Merki died and her launcher emptied itself.

  Impact!

  Damage assessments flickered onto her display, but quickly parked themselves to one side out of the way. Gina watched like a spectator in her own body. She took a moment to check that IMS was dealing with the damage. Lower right leg, bone bruised probably, but not broken. IMS was already on the case flooding the area with nano assemblers and pain blockers.

  Her body kept firing and reloading with no wasted motions. Fire to the left and then spin to fire the other way without pause. Her body killed and killed and killed as she spun and danced across the roof. Her body did, not her, not with TRS engaged and Merki in range. It was just a conceit. This was her now. She was the machine, a
nd the machine was her. She had seen Eric like this when they first met. She had compared him to a mindless sentry gun on auto, but he hadn’t been mindless, and neither was she. She could take control away from TRS at any time, but she didn’t. It could target the enemy faster than she could even in melee mode.

  Factory default for melee mode shunted all resources to combat and left none for defence, but as with most things viper related, parameters were adjustable. Gina had kept back a little something. Not much. Barely anything really, but enough that IMS could work even at its currently starved for resources level. Back in the classroom when the recruits were taught the hows and the whys of viper design, she had decided that leaving melee mode at its default settings would be a bad idea. What point in killing her enemies and then dying from blood loss, she had thought. Not everyone agreed. Eric didn’t, and she knew most of the veterans didn’t. For them all that mattered was the mission, but she was still new enough that her life meant something to her. Besides, it was a waste to die if it could be prevented. If she could survive to fight another mission, surely it was worth holding back a single percentage point? Gina had thought so. Of course, she would look pretty silly if she died because she hadn’t committed that final one percent, but a girl couldn’t have everything.

  More damage reports added themselves to the list. Right shoulder, left hip, left hand, left leg... she spun to the left and fired. Another red icon faded. The fucker had done a number on her left side, but she was still fighting.

  Suddenly TRS went offline and Gina staggered to one knee panting and in pain. TRS had quit on her, was she damaged that badly? Diagnostics said no, she was just out of targets. She remained in melee mode, too scared to lose even a fraction of a second by dropping back to combat mode only to realise she needed the speed boost of melee mode again.

  A sensor sweep showed hostiles near but not near enough for TRS to keep fighting. There was time to reload, exchange power cells too, which she did. She was running low. She ruthlessly searched Cragg’s body and scavenged his ammo and cells, transferring it all to her own webbing. She ripped open her medikit scattering its contents in her haste, her hands a blur. She let the aerosols roll away, and didn’t bother with the sterile self-sealing bandages. She was only interested in the nano injector. As she had with Cragg, she hammered the entire mag into her thigh. Barely running with the resources she had left it, her IMS needed the help.

  Another sensor sweep. Merkiaari were gathering but not closing yet. She made a decision, and slung her rifle on her back. She grabbed Cragg’s body and threw him off the roof. As long as he didn’t land on his head, he would survive. Hell, for all she knew he would survive even that. In hibernation, his resources were being used in the exact opposite manner to hers. Everything he had was dedicated to survival and repair.

  His body thumped onto the ground on its back and bounced a little to settle face down. He had hit the ground, as a corpse would have, all slack-boned and unflinching. The little death was indistinguishable from true death until wake up time.

  Gina checked her sensors again noting positions of the enemy and Hiller’s position, the closest viper. She looked down three stories, and jumped. She crashed down and melee mode did little to help the impact. She didn’t feel the pain though, so maybe melee mode did have other uses than pure combat. Pain response was suppressed, but damage still occurred, and another entry appeared on her list; left hip again.

  She limped up to Cragg and lifted him onto her shoulder. She took a deep breath and ran into the open street. The moment she did, red icons swarmed. She grinned. That had surprised the buggers. They had been setting themselves to assault the rooftop. Gina chuckled and then laughed hysterically. Melee mode was doing weird things to her self-control. Her legs became a pumping blur. She barely felt Cragg’s weight.

  Merki fire sought her life and debris kicked up around her feet. She was moving too fast to dodge sharply, but she did what she could by swerving left and right. An explosion to her right peppered her with shrapnel. It hurt, she thought it must have, but it was a distant thing. Something clanged off her helmet and the visor starred. The helmet display started flickering. She didn’t need it anyway. Helmet comm and HUD were just a backup for a viper. She kept it on, damaged as it was, for the minimal protection it lent her.

  Explosions chased her, and finally caused a reaction from Alliance forces. Colonel Jung wouldn’t know why the Merki were worked up yet, but she had to wonder if this was a prelude to a new offensive. Artillery began zeroing in, and Gina cursed. Friendly fire might still nail her. She ducked and jinked as buildings came apart around her. Stone and glass flew outward, and buildings roared as they toppled or imploded. More fire and smoke added itself to the chaos.

  “Friendly fire my arse!” Gina screamed into the night. “Alpha-one-one, Alpha-leader. I’m heading your way with many new acquaintances hot on my heels. Cragg is in hibernation. I’m bringing him in!”

  “Alpha-leader, Alpha-one-one. A few friends dropped by for a visit. Lucky break, eh? Bring your buddies right through the middle of us.”

  “Affirmative, ETA three minutes!” she yelled over the noise of buildings falling. “Shit, Ian. Jung’s trying to kill me again. Tell her the enemy is behind me, not in front!”

  Ian snorted. “Like she’ll listen. Alpha-one-one out.”

  “Alpha-leader clear.”

  Gina had Hiller’s blue icon on her display, and more viper icons had arrayed themselves near him and along a particular street. She couldn’t know without checking satellite feeds, but she guessed they were undercover in the buildings. If she could lead the Merki up that street, they should be slaughtered.

  That was the plan then, she decided. She kept running while she plotted a least time course to lead the Merkiaari through Hiller’s gauntlet. She didn’t slow as she sped by the first blue icons on her sensors. Those vipers were well hidden. She saw no sign of them. She was just approaching Hiller’s hiding place when her people opened fire all at once. She dove for cover in amongst a bombed out building’s remains. She stashed Cragg behind a wall, and found a good firing position. Hiller didn’t acknowledge her presence; he was busy about a hundred metres away targeting the Merki with a bipod mounted AAR. They were usually mounted on a unit’s armour with a stedimount to stabilise it, they were heavy, but the bipod was better here. It allowed Hiller to fire while lying down for better cover. He was making good use of it too. He was piling Merki bodies up in the street.

  Jung’s artillery had finally stopped lobbing shells in, maybe realising the danger of blue on blue. Plasma and rocket fire rained down upon the Merki from the buildings and rooftops, and they scattered looking for cover. There wasn’t much in the street itself, and the buildings were already occupied by Merkiaari killers. They tried to fight back. That’s what Merki did, pretty much their default setting for every situation, but they were completely over matched. The vipers had good cover and elevation. The Merki were utterly slaughtered.

  Gina watched the last Merki troop die, and turned away to check on Cragg. He was still dead, but he would wake up fine. She shook her head at the thought. Two years ago, such a thought would have been macabre and ridiculous, but now it was just a part of life.

  “We are such freaks,” she muttered.

  “Yeah,” Hiller said looking down at their sleeping friend. “But handy freaks, and I’m still cute.”

  Gina rolled her eyes. “Cute freaks—”

  Hiller nodded. “Useful, but dangerously cute freaks.” He grinned. “I don’t envy your next fight.”

  She cocked her head. “Huh?”

  “The General is going to have a few questions, Gina. I wouldn’t try to bullshit him were I you. He isn’t Jung.”

  She nodded glumly. Joking aside, she wouldn’t dare try any of her excuses on Burgton. Not really. It was fun imagining excuses, but she wouldn’t dare try anything but the truth in reality. Besides, the truth was serious enough in scope that she didn’t fear being chewed out.
r />   “Better get to that I guess,” she said. “Gold-one, Alpha-leader...”

  * * *

  2 ~ Masks

  Aboard Flagship ASN Lincoln, Shan System

  General Burgton CO 501st Infantry Regiment watched the faces in the room, not the presentation in the huge holotank. His processor was faithfully recording everything and hoarding it in his database like some demented squirrel with a cache of nuts as it always did. Vipers never forgot anything, nothing at all. They were physically incapable of it. If he needed to recall anything of this meeting, it would be there. Not that he would. The presentation was based upon the download obtained from Cragg before he was stored in stasis aboard Grafton. Burgton had already seen what it contained. Along with his officers, he had uploaded it to experience the fear, and the pain, and the exultation of Cragg’s last combat in Shoshon, far more intensely than any holotank presentation could possibly provide the unenhanced.

  Burgton was far more interested in the people watching than the data he already knew so well. He was always interested in people. Their reaction to things often gave him an advantage in his dealings with them. He hadn’t always been so analytical, but two hundred years of trying to predict events had turned him into an obsessive people watcher and statistician. Luckily, he was well equipped for it. Vipers had the built in computational power to do some really heavy math, and he was always running an analysis or simulation in the back of his brain; political, military, economic... all kinds of things fed into him from his sources all over the Alliance. His accuracy could be called miraculous; his officers certainly thought so, but secretly he was worried. He had noticed a distressing number of errors creeping into his predictions. The worst failure to date had been this campaign. He had predicted another five years of relative peace before needing to confront Merkiaari in combat again. As for the Shan, they weren’t even on his horizon before this, and he feared they might be the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as his predictions were concerned.