Merkiaari Wars Series: Books 1-3

by Mark E. Cooper

  “Okay, give.”

  “I threw you off a three story roof. You bounce real good.”

  Cragg growled. “Maybe I should check out your log in the archive if you had that much fun.”

  Gina’s laugh was short and she turned serious. “Have you tried that yet?”

  “The archive?” he said and Gina nodded. “Yeah I did.”

  “Who?”

  “Chris,” he said sombrely.

  Chrissie Roberts had been their first casualty when they landed on Child of Harmony. She had died in her first battle against Merkiaari, and for nothing. She didn’t get a chance to make even one Merki kill.

  “Was it... was it awful?”

  “No,” Cragg said sounding thoughtful. “Sad, but not awful. She doesn’t... I mean the simulation of her doesn’t...” he sighed. “It was like the sims, you know? Connecting with the archive is like that. Chris was chatty and very realistic. She moved and acted exactly right, and she asked about our friends, but I knew it wasn’t really her. The computers are damned good, but they were using her memories to make it seem realistic. When I asked about her death, she just looked away and said she didn’t want to talk about it.”

  Gina shook her head thinking about Grace, her best friend in the Marines, who had died. Stone had made a sim for her recruit testing that used her memories of Grace. That simulation had been so real, she could easily imagine what Cragg had seen and felt.

  “Would you go again? I’ve not tried it.”

  Cragg shrugged. “Sure, why not? It’s no different to any other sim, except you just plug in. No simulator needed for a simple visit.”

  Without the simulator, it wouldn’t be very interactive. Just sight and sound, but maybe that would be for the best when visiting dead friends.

  She poured another cup of coffee and freshened Cragg’s cup. “I might try it then. To say goodbye.”

  “Don’t think of it that way,” Cragg warned. “They’re not alive in there. It’s all old data, just memories, Gina. The computers are good, but they’re not that good.”

  Gina grunted and looked away into the trees. The sun would be up soon, and then they would break camp. Varya was their leader and would decide where they went next. She and Cragg were just along for protection—though Varya was more than capable—the General wanted no trouble with the Shan. Letting them get dead could be called trouble, she supposed. Kazim was along for the ride and to film everything they saw.

  Gina had taken second watch, but the fire had been enough to keep the curious beasties away. So far, the Shan hadn’t needed protection, they were good fighters, but she didn’t regret the mission. It was restful. She had never been one to take camping trips on leave—she had spent too much time slogging through the mud and swamps of alien worlds to have romantic notions of living in a tent, but this was different. Snakeholme had come to feel like home. She’d never really had one before. She didn’t consider Faragut home, though she was born there. It sometimes felt as if she’d spent the first eighteen years of her life trying to get off that damned planet. She didn’t know who her parents were, and didn’t much care. As soon as she was old enough, she’d joined the Marines and called the Corps her home for fifteen years, but Snakeholme was home forever now and the other vipers were her family.

  “I wonder what Kate’s doing,” Cragg murmured. “She would have come out with us, busted as she is, but they wanted her close to medical.”

  Gina grunted. “Kate’s crazy enough to come out here with nothing but a toothpick, and she’d still have brought back a grizzly for a trophy.”

  Cragg laughed.

  It was true about Kate. She could probably kill anything bare handed even with her enhancements offline. Gina wouldn’t give a Merki even odds against Kate, even busted as she was. Her friend had been badly damaged, almost killed, on Child of Harmony. Stone had saved her when the General wrote Kate off and raised Gina to take command. Gina had followed orders and retreated, leaving her friend to die. She still felt wrong about it.

  “I don’t think we have grizzlies on Snakeholme, Gina.”

  “I doubt anyone knows for sure what we do have.”

  Cragg shrugged. “True. Those things the other day would do for grizzlies. Maybe we should name them. I checked the archive and no one has yet.”

  “Go for it, but I wouldn’t call them grizzlies. Too confusing. They don’t even look like bears to me.”

  “They do in the dark if you squint.”

  She snorted.

  “Seriously. How about cave bears, or ridge bears? They liked it up there in among the rocks I think. They probably live in caves. Cragg bears?”

  Gina smiled at the last one. “I don’t like it, they’re not enough like bears. How about Cragglings?”

  Cragg’s eyebrows went up. “Cragglings. I like that. I’ll register them as Cragglings then.”

  She nodded, remembering Varya’s fight with them. They had climbed a short way into the mountains following the river. They had wanted to find its source. Varya had pointed out the outcrop of rock and headed that way on all fours, nimble as only his people and maybe mountain lions could be. She had called out, asking him to wait for her, but then the scream of rage had almost stopped her heart. She had never heard a Shan voicing a challenge, but that’s what it had been.

  Nothing on sensors! She remembered thinking that, and it wasn’t until later she realised why. The rock had a high concentration of quartz and other stuff. Enough to futz her sensors, bouncing her emissions all over the place. Varya was just gone.

  Her rifle had come up and she was seeking targets even as Varya reappeared on the back of the craggling, biting and clawing the huge beast. She could have fired, she should have, but she froze in astonishment when Kazim hurried up and stopped her. He started filming the fight, muttering in excitement about how they would love this back home. Cragg had been protecting Kazim—the Shan male was oblivious to danger when his mind was on work—and joined them a moment later.

  Cragglings didn’t look like bears except in a general way. They had the right kind of fur and colouring, but the shape was all wrong. More like a twisted combination of a mountain lion crossed with a pissed off badger... a mutant giant badger. It was huge! Much more heavily muscled than Varya certainly, but the Shan hunter was winning. Then the craggling went nuts! The fight turned into a snarling, clawing, blur with the craggling bucking and whirling like a dervish to fling its attacker off. It managed that finally, but Varya quickly recovered to dart in and out to claw at its flanks. Strike, strike, leap away and back in.

  Gina had been ready to wade in unarmed, she couldn’t fire without hitting Varya, but the craggling went down finally and Varya screamed his victory over the corpse. He was a very happy and excited male, full of himself over the victory. That was when the second craggling attacked.

  That had been some fight, and Varya had been babbling with his excitement afterwards. Kazim and Varya had been laughing and exclaiming over the dead beasts, checking the length of the claws and estimating the strength of their bite, but Gina hadn’t seen the funny side. She could have lost Varya; she could have failed her mission.

  “When you register the name, upload a vid file of the fight would you?”

  Cragg shrugged. “Sure, but why?”

  “As a warning. They’re dangerous.”

  Cragg nodded. “Okay, I’ll do that.”

  Gina threw some more wood on the fire and watched the flames devour it. Sparks rose into the air, but there was no danger. The woods and ground were wet. She poked a stick into the fire, and considered what to cook for breakfast.

  “You mind if I ask you something?” Cragg said.

  “Shoot,” she said and left her poker in the fire to burn.

  “I know when they demoted Kate that she was happy about it. She didn’t want promotion to begin with, so when Captain Hames died and the General raised her to command...” he shrugged. “Well, pissed off doesn’t do it justice. She did her job, but she didn�
��t like it.”

  “Where are you going with this?”

  Cragg shrugged. “I wondered how you felt about it. You’ve been demoted too.”

  Gina frowned remembering the meeting with the General...

  >_ opening memory file #0000065003456

  Gina entered the General’s outer office and reported to his aide. She didn’t know Robshaw well; he was one of the new intake and part of 2nd Battalion. He smiled at her, and stood to salute.

  Gina returned his salute. “I had a message to report to the General.”

  Robshaw nodded. “Right you are, Captain. There’s a lot of that going around today. He has someone in with him at the moment, but it shouldn’t be long. Please take a seat.”

  She turned and located a seat. “Any ideas what it’s all about?”

  “You’ve heard the rumours I guess, so it won’t be a surprise to hear they’re right for a change. He’s reorganising, shuffling people into knew slots, creating new positions... that sort of thing. Nothing secret or I wouldn’t say even that much.”

  She pursed her lips and nodded. It had been too good to last. She knew, or thought she did, what this had to do with her. When Kate had been wounded in battle, the General had raised Gina to temporary command of Alpha Company. Temporary command. She had been performing that role for well over a year now, and had begun to believe that the position would be a permanent one. Her command though was all but destroyed in the fighting. It made perfect sense to her that she would be demoted and then reassigned to bring another formation up to strength.

  The thought didn’t dismay her, but she would be lying to herself if she didn’t admit to a little disappointment. She had grown into the role. Getting used to being an LT again would take some time. She would deal.

  The door to the General’s office opened and Kate Richmond stepped out. She was a tall Anglo woman with dark hair shaved short at the sides per regulations, but gelled to spikes on top. Her right eye was covered with a black patch embroidered with the regiment’s viper emblem in silver. The paralysed muscles on that side of her face combined with the heavy scarring turned her smile into a sneer, but the attempt had been there and Gina returned it. She stood and they bumped fists. She would have taken the time to catch up, but she couldn’t keep the General waiting.

  “Later,” she said.

  Kate nodded and strode out.

  She glanced at Robshaw, received a nod of permission, and knocked once upon the office door before opening it and entering. The General wasn’t alone, but she knew the faces turned toward her. Eric Penleigh was the first viper she had ever met. It was on Thurston and in the middle of combat. The others were familiar to her as well, all officers she had fought beside on the Shan campaign. Gina closed the door behind her and stopped in the middle of the office before saluting.

  Burgton returned her salute casually, but he didn’t rise from behind his desk. He waved her into the only empty chair. “Gina, you know everyone so we’ll get straight to why you’re here.”

  “Sir,” she replied and took the seat offered. She nodded to the others. Captains Greenwood and Penleigh nodded back. She caught Eric’s eye and smiled. He returned it.

  Burgton leaned his forearms upon his desk and wove his fingers together. “First, let may say how pleased I’ve been with how you’ve performed. You fought with great distinction—I’ve already reviewed your upload in the archive.”

  Gina knew what was coming and decided to bring it up herself. “Forgive the interruption, Sir, but I know what’s coming. I understand.”

  Burgton’s eyebrows rose and Eric chuckled. “You do.”

  “Yes sir. Everyone knows you’re reorganising things, and 1st Battalion is a mess right now. We know you need to bring us back to full strength with units from 2nd.”

  “Do I now?” Burgton said sounding amused. “What else do I need to do?”

  She wasn’t immune to sarcasm, and she felt her face heat, but he had asked. “Take the existing units in 1st Bat and reshuffle them to bring Alpha and Bravo Companies to full strength. Charlie and Delta will be gutted at that point. You’ll need to take two Companies from 2nd Bat and transplant them into 1st.”

  Burgton nodded. “Will I? Is that your recommendation?”

  Gina frowned. Was it? No, she realised. She wouldn’t strip 2nd in his place, and that realisation made her flush. She was an idiot. If she wouldn’t do it that way, why did she think he would? It was the scuttlebutt. The rumours said it was going to happen, and she had listened.

  “No, Sir, but that’s the scuttlebutt. If it were me I would consolidate all units of 1st Battalion into Alpha and Bravo Companies. They will be just a little over strength, not much, but more importantly morale would benefit. We’ve fought and died together for two years. I would recommend you keep us together.”

  Burgton glanced at his captains and then smiled at Gina. “Precisely. This brings up a problem of course. Colonel Flowers is on his way to Alliance HQ to test a new batch of recruits. When he returns with them, he’ll be in charge of their training with the aim of creating new Charlie and Delta Companies for 1st Battalion, but in the mean time we have to arrange the command structure of 1st Battalion in line with 2nd, which is already completed.”

  She nodded.

  “Captain Penleigh is taking permanent command of Alpha Company.”

  The General said it quick and without softening the blow. The news hurt, but it wasn’t unexpected. She nodded to Eric. “Congratulations, Sir.”

  “Thank you,” Eric said solemnly.

  The General went on. “This means you revert to your actual rank of lieutenant, Gina.”

  “Understood.”

  “Eric wants you back in charge of his 1st platoon, but I want to give you some options. You can take 1st platoon and run it for him as you would have before the Shan campaign. That’s option one. Another option is to join your friend, Kate Richmond, in a new section we’re putting together.”

  “New section?”

  “I haven’t decided yet what to call it, but basically it regularises something we’ve been doing for a while. Black ops and intelligence gathering.”

  Gina frowned. She wasn’t a spook, but she had known from the first that she might be called upon to do that sort of thing. She had met Eric while he was undercover on Thurston. She knew some of the things he’d done in the past and might do in the future. Any of them might be ordered to do the same. The thought didn’t appeal, but she had signed up to be a viper with her eyes open.

  “It wouldn’t be a good fit for me, Sir. Kate though, hell yes. She would be perfect. I’ll do whatever you need me to do, but with respect, I wouldn’t volunteer for that sort of mission.”

  “As I thought,” Burgton said. “I can’t promise that I’ll never send you on that type of operation. The needs of the Alliance might dictate otherwise, but I’ll keep your preferences in mind.”

  “Thank you, Sir.”

  “There’s one other option. When the new recruits arrive they’ll need training and leadership. You could take a position in the training battalion.”

  That idea appealed more than the other, but she couldn’t see herself permanently relegated to the classrooms. She could teach, she’d done it before, but it had been out in the field. Teaching replacements in the real world was different to standing at the head of a classroom.

  “I’ll take 1st platoon under Captain Penleigh, Sir.”

  “Thanks, Gina, I do need you,” Eric said.

  Burgton nodded. “Effective immediately then.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Gina acknowledged. “Orders?”

  “As before, the Shan are yours, but get yourself caught up with your platoon as well. The Shan have priority. Once you know what your platoon needs, delegate the work to your sergeants and get moving on the surveys. You’ll need to coordinate that with Varya and Kazim. You can keep an eye on your platoon at long-range via the net.”

  Gina blinked in surprise. That was a lot of work to come at her a
ll at once, but she had never been work shy. “Yes, Sir.”

  >_ close memory file #0000065003456

  She glanced at Cragg. He was waiting for an answer and she realised that only a few moments had gone by. “I’m okay with it. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed, but it was always a temporary promotion, and the General gave me choices. I chose to take 1st platoon again.”

  “Really? What were the others?”

  “Training the new recruits, or joining Kate.”

  Cragg frowned. “I would have joined Kate. She and the rest are going to be off Snakeholme and doing stuff all the time.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. I’m no spook, Martin. That sort of thing suits Kate, but not me. Besides, we’re vipers. We’re going to be around a long time. I’m sure we’ll get to do all sorts of things in the years ahead.”

  “And then there’s the Merki,” Cragg said grimly.

  “Yeah, there’s always the Merki.”

  The silence stretched out as they remembered the last two years fighting the aliens. No one knew what the future would bring, except for the General maybe. Gina frowned as she remembered what Burgton had revealed to her about his fallibility in that regard. Had he found a solution to his failing simulations?

  Gina and Cragg kept each other company as the sun came up, and busied themselves with making breakfast. The Shan liked some Human foods, and Gina cooked one of their favourites. She considered herself a decent cook when she had the opportunity, which wasn’t often. Autochefs were used by default everywhere except in the field. It didn’t seem strange that Shan liked her cooking. They were primarily carnivorous, more so than Humans even, and everyone she knew liked bacon no matter that it came in sterile sealed plastic packets. She cooked half a dozen eggs to go with the thick slabs of sizzling goodness.

  Vipers, like all Alliance forces had to eat, but they also had other needs. Their enhancements meant they needed certain supplements to their diet, and every so often they needed to top up. Gina grimaced. Viper smoothies tasted disgusting, but it was that time again. Still sitting cross-legged before the fire, she delved in her pack while the food sizzled, and pulled out one of the compact plastic cans of supplement. Cragg did the same.