by M. D. Cooper
“You can save it, Admiral. I’ll be accepting your surrender now.”
Admiral Degan opened his mouth to speak, but then his face grew ashen, and his mouth closed, his lips pressing into a thin line.
“They’re still arriving, but I already count just over a thousand ships,” Rika said with a grim smile as she watched wave after wave of Allied ships appear on the far side of the Nietzschean craft. “You may still outnumber us, but all those ships have the same shields as my fleet. How do you think you’ll fare?”
AFTERMATH
STELLAR DATE: 10.25.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Rika’s Quarters, MSS Fury Lance
REGION: Epsilon, Old Genevia, Nietzschean Empire
In the end, Admiral Degan surrendered—but not before he’d made a futile attempt to surround the Allied fleet with his Harriet carriers and newly constructed cruisers and dreadnoughts.
Rika had been impressed by his moxie, but it turned out to be a bluff. Most of the Harriets were barely operational, and the few that had fighters didn’t have the pilots to take them into the black. A few of the Nietzschean ships attempted to use NSAIs to pilot their fighters, but the veteran ISF ships destroyed them with ease.
Not only that, but the ISF and Transcend vessels possessed weapons systems capable of cutting through the enemy’s shields as though they weren’t there—which was the case on some of the half-completed ships. Even before the battle was fully joined, many of the Nietzschean ships began to surrender.
The best part of the second rescue was that the remainder of Rika’s Marauders had arrived with the Allied fleet. Now the 7th Marauder Fleet was complete; sixty-four ships under Rika’s command, ready to continue taking the fight to the Niets.
Rear Admiral Carson had been managing the Nietzscheans’ surrender, including the massive search and rescue operation that had to deal with the millions of people still trapped on stations, or barely-functional starships.
Rika was in her quarters, getting ready to join the Marauders’ victory celebration, when Carson reached out to her.
Carson grunted a half-laugh.
Rika chuckled at the thought.
Rika made a gagging sound.
Carson barked a laugh.
Rika checked her hair in her cabin’s holo, and then stepped out into the passageway, turning toward the lift bank that would take her down to Bay 22, and the victory celebration the Marauders were holding there.
Rika had spoken to Gideon several times now, and was certain she’d not get anything useful out of him without resorting to torture. Not only that, but he’d probably feed her bad intel, knowing that she’d be too many light years away, and unlikely to take out any frustrations on him.
Carson let out a long sigh.
While the idea seemed humane, Rika didn’t relish the notion of every foe they’d defeated seeing their captured militaries set free. However, she also knew that Tanis was no fool, and likely had a plan to deal with that.
The image of Carson looking frustrated while surrounded by millions and millions of stasis pods came into her mind, and Rika laughed.
That visual replaced Rika’s prior one, and she laughed anew.
<’Such a deed’? Is that how you Marauders talk over there?>
Rika thought back to the prior night’s game of butt-Snark.
Rika understood where Piper was coming from. The AI had been betrayed by everyone he’d dealt with in the past seven centuries. As a result, he was understandably cautious, and didn’t want to be far
from Rika and Leslie.
Rika laughed and bid Admiral Carson farewell as the lift arrived at the passageway just outside Bay 22. When the doors opened, the sound of the celebration in full swing hit her like a sledgehammer.
The AI laughed.
* * * * *
Taking a break from the handshaking and backslapping, Rika walked to the edge of Bay 22 and gazed out through the open doors. Simply put, the view was astounding: the three smaller moons had already been pulverized into a diffuse disk, illuminated by the flaring event horizons of the three black holes that were devouring the debris.
“It sure is beautiful, isn’t it?” a familiar voice asked from beside Rika, and she glanced at Silva’s solemn visage.
“It is, like a deadly dance,” Rika said with a nod, as she watched the whirlpools of matter swirl in the ring. “I ran some models, and they show that inside a few weeks, there will be only one black hole, and it will ultimately consume the planet. The ISF is preparing a navigational hazard beacon.”
“They’re good people like that.”
Rika nodded. “That they are. Speaking of good people, I thought we agreed that you should go with Amy to New Canaan, and leave the warmongering to those of us without kids.”
Silva’s eyes narrowed, and she gave Rika a sidelong look. “I have to be here. Amy and I talked about it, and she understands. I need to bring my boys home, and put my family back together.” The lieutenant colonel paused, her eyes growing moist. “Please, Rika. I need to be here.”
“Are you going to stay on-mission?” she asked. “We’re out here because we’re trying to free all of Genevia, not just your boys.”
“Stars, woman,” Silva said with a laugh. “I still remember when you were newly mechanized, all terrified of the world around you. I had to keep you safe under my wing for our first few deployments. Now here you are, giving me the tough love speech.”
A host of memories flooded into Rika’s mind. “Well, I had a really good teacher on that front.”
“Oh yeah?” Silva smiled.
“Sure, you remember that guy named Bro I told you about once or twice?”
Silva groaned and gave Rika a mock slap on the head.
“Taking in the sights?” Barne’s voice came from behind them, and Rika tuned to see her Sergeant Major approaching, arm intertwined with Leslie’s. Not far behind them trailed Chase and Kelly.
Rika reached out for Chase’s hand and drew him close.
“Team Hammerfall and Team Basilisk,” she said with a contented smile. “All my mechs are here, plus a host of new Marauders that are ready to take the fight to Constantine.”
As if to punctuate Rika’s statement, a laugh boomed across the bay, coming from one of Adira’s commanders, a broad-shouldered man named Captain Fell.
“So, where to?” Chase asked as he gazed out at the stars.
“The Allies are setting up gates to ship the Harriet carriers back to Pyra for proper refit at the Kendrik shipyards,” Rika explained. “I’ve not received any specific orders yet, so I’m going to recall Vargo from Kansas, and then we’ll jump to Iberia. I don’t know what Alice thinks she’s playing at, but we’re going to rescue Alison and her team, then haul that woman back in chains.”
“I like the way you think, Rika. Seeing Alice in chains will make my day,” Chase said with a laugh. “It’s a long jump to Iberia, though. If these degenerates try to get you to play butt-Snark, run for the hills.”
“Why would I do that?” Rika asked, genuinely confused. “I love butt-Snark.”
* * * * *
Alison gazed at the holotank on the Karl’s Might’s bridge. It showed their destination, a world in the Iberia System named Malta. It was unassuming, agrarian, and nowhere near any strategic Nietzschean installations.
If they took Rika here, I’ll eat my arm, Alison thought while glancing at Alice.
Alas, after a seventy-day journey to the Iberia System, Alison knew that the hunt for Rika had gone on without them—successfully, she had no doubt. It was all too apparent that the colonel was playing some sort of game the mechs didn’t understand…yet.
It’s up to me to find out what this traitor is up to.
THE END
* * * * *
Rika is ready to jump to the Iberia System in search of Alice and her team. From there, it is only a short jump into the heart of the Nietzschean Empire, and the throne of Emperor Constantine.
Get Rika Unleashed, and find out what is coming next for Rika and the Marauders.
MECH TYPES AND ARMAMENTS
While these are the standard builds and configurations documented by the Genevian Armed Forces (GAF), many mechs reached the field in mismatched configuration, or were altered after deployment.
Sometimes these alterations were upgrades, sometimes downgrades, as repairs were often made with whatever spare components were available at the time.
The mechs in the Marauders generally align with the stated configurations, though many have altered themselves over the years.
NOTE: The K2R and all 4th generation models were made by Finaeus Tomlinson, in concert with Rika’s Repair and Maintenance team, specifically Lieutenant Carson and Corporal Stripes.
K1R (Kill Ranger – Generation 1)
This mech is more of a two-legged tank than a mech. The K1R sports a central ‘pod’ where the human is situated. None of the limbs utilize human material.
K1Rs often had mental issues due to feeling as though they had lost all sense of humanity. When the Nietzscheans won the war, they did not release any K1Rs from their internment camps. It is not known if they kept them, or killed them all.
Until the discovery of the mechs in the Politica, there was only a single K1R in the Marauders (who had been under General Mill’s command at the end of the war). That mech has joined Rika’s company to assist the four K1Rs Rika freed from the Politica in re-integration.
K1R mechs have a variety of heavy armament, including massive chainguns, railguns, missiles (with and without tactical nuke warheads), electron beams, and proton beams. They also sport a variety of suppression devices, from pulse, to sonic, to portable grav shields.
K1R mechs were not made later in the war, due to their cost and mental instability.
There were rumors that a limited run of K2R mechs were made, but no credible reports exist.
Sub-Models:
All K1R models could be outfitted with interchangeable armament, excepting the base model, which could not carry the tactical nukes.
K1R – The base K1R model was made in the early years of the war, and lacked the coordination and reactive armor of the later models.
K1R-M – The ‘M’ K1R added in the reactive armor, and included upgraded railguns with more advanced scan and target tracking systems. These mechs carried two missiles in launcher pods in their backs. They could be (and often were) upgraded to support the tactical nuke warheads on the missiles.
K1R-T – The ‘T’ model was a similar configuration to the ‘M’, but came standard with tactical nuclear warheads. Instead of the pair of launchers the K1R-M sported, the �
��T’ model carried as many as twelve missiles.
K1R-X-4 – ‘M’ and ‘T’ models both saw upgrades from Finaeus and the ISF engineers that made them capable of functioning as AM or K1R models. None of the K1Rs opted to operate as AM’s, but their 4th generation frames had considerable upgrades to power and armor. X-4 models have the ability to swap armament with AM models as well.
K2R-MBM – Based on designs Corporal Stripes stole at the end of the war, the K2R-MBM took the idea of a tank mech and raised the bar.
The Genevian military never had the energy to power their plans for the K2R mechs, but with miniaturized critical energy modules and ISF-grade SC batteries, the dreams of the GAF came into being under Finaeus’s guidance.
The K2R-MBM is piloted by two AM-4 mechs (leveraging a part of the AM-T spec), one who manages movement and main-arm weapons, and another who controls the secondary arms, defensive systems, and secondary weapons systems.
On top of existing armament, the K2R-MBM brings to bear variable density proton beams, nanonet missiles, electron lashes, mortars (both thermite and HE), rapid-fire DPU cannons, as well as ground-hugger missiles.
The mech also functions as a re-armament center for its squad, and an attack drone deployment system.
AM (Assault Mech)
The AM mechs represented the bulk of the GAF’s mechanized infantry program. It is estimated that over ten million AMs were created during the war, and over one hundred thousand are known to have survived. Many joined mercenary outfits or the militaries of other nations.
AM model mechs were a ‘torso-only’ design, where none of the human’s arms and legs were retained. The original idea was to make their cores swappable with K1R models, but it turned out that the mechanized infantry design of the AM models was generally more effective than the ‘walking tank’ design of the K1R models.