by M. D. Cooper
Rika saw the black obelisk in a far corner of the room and nodded.
Near the NSAI was an ornate wooden table with two majors and a colonel standing next to it. A holodisplay above the table showed their view of the battlefield, and Rika was glad to see that it largely reflected the strengths and positions she had believed the Niets to hold. It also vastly overestimated the number of Marauders out on the southern side of Bridge Street.
From what she could see, the Niets didn’t believe that the force they were fighting consisted exclusively of mechs. Even more amusing was that they’d tagged several mech fireteams as entire platoons—and in one case, a whole company—of soldiers.
Her statement was interrupted by a Nietzschean suddenly rising from a nearby couch and walking right into her, spilling a cup of coffee across her stealthed form.
“What the…” he said, stumbling backward. “Intruder!”
She knew she had only seconds before the Niets all spotted her. Relying on Niki to send out the call to the Marauders to begin the assault, Rika backhanded the soldier who had ruined her cover, while simultaneously firing three quick shots at the officers standing next to the wooden table.
The first two rounds punched holes in the heads of the colonel and one of the majors, but the third major—a brutish-looking woman—moved with surprising speed, and ducked behind the table.
Rika had no time to go after the Niet, as rounds struck her armor from a dozen shooters. She pulled her AC9CR rifle off her shoulder, and fired on the closest group of Nietzscheans.
Her opening salvo of rail-shot was punctuated by the front of the store exploding in a hail of brick, steel, and glass.
Rika tapped Alice’s feeds to see that the lieutenant colonel was still atop the building across the street. After Tex’s explosive entrance, there weren’t many Niets standing out there, but she was keeping the remaining few suppressed.
Trying not to be actively disgusted with Alice, Rika pulled up the feeds from Kelly’s and Yig’s teams, noting with satisfaction that they’d hit the enemy in the rear right as the Nietzscheans had finished crossing Bridge Street, but before they had formed up to advance down the adjacent avenues.
Even though it was only nine mechs against nearly two hundred enemies, Rika considered the odds to be just about even.
The AI laughed.
Rika’s HUD showed no more motion in the room, though EM still pinged from the armor of several of the soldiers. And of course there was the major who was hidden under the table, apparently thinking Rika still couldn’t see her.
Rika kept an eye peeled for any hidden enemies while moving toward the NSAI tower. Once there, she placed a breach kit on one of the data access ports, and let Niki get to work. She followed along with what the AI was doing, enjoying her newfound ability to understand the quantum intelligence’s actions.
While picking up some new tricks from the AI, Rika turned to the planning table and the Nietzschean officer below it.
“I can see you,” she growled. “You’re the last woman standing; no one’s coming to help.”
The Niet didn’t reply, and Rika reached under the table and fired a light pulse blast from the emitter in her left hand.
A muffled cry came in response, and then a wavering voice followed. “OK, OK. I’m coming out. No need to pummel me.”
Rika snorted and took a step back, glancing toward Tex, who was approaching through the furniture store. “Don’t give me ideas.”
The stocky woman emerged and scrambled to her feet, pressing her butt against the table as she sought to put as much distance as possible between herself and Rika’s towering form.
Tex grunted, and gestured for the Niet to come around the table. “Get over here, squishie. It’s your lucky day.”
“Lucky?” the woman asked as she edged around the table.
“Yeah! Colonel Rika, here, told me I’m not allowed to rip out your spine, so you get to keep wasting air.”
The Niet swallowed loudly as Rika turned her attention to the table’s holodisplay.
Rika’s HUD showed Potter’s overview of M Company’s status: Yig and Kelly had pinned the Niets across Bridge Street, where Karen and Aaron and elements of second squad had caught them in a vise. Several groups of the enemy had already surrendered, though a few squads were holding out against the pummeling that the mechs were delivering.
The holo before Rika lit up as Leslie spoke, showing a brigade moving in from the city center. She cursed silently while reviewing Leslie’s feed.
When the new enemy forces reached Bridge Street, the mechs would be forced to either retreat, or engage in a level of combat that would be detrimental to the city and the civilians hiding in their homes and businesses.
A laugh slipped past Rika’s lips.
Rika looked at the view before her on the map, noting that most of the businesses on the north side of Bridge Street would be empty.
She chuckled, shaking her head.
Chase sent a long groaning sound.
Chase groaned.
Rika closed the connection and smiled as she gazed around the furniture store, squaring her shoulders and preparing herself for what was coming next. Then she reached out to Alice and Tex.
“What should I do with her?” Gunnery Sergeant Tex asked, gesturing to the Nietzschean major.
Rika sighed. “Knock the coward out and leave her, we can’t be bothered to haul around garbage. Better to have a worm like her back with her people than in our way.”
“Fucken Niets,” Tex muttered as he walked toward the enemy officer and gave the woman a light kick in the back of the head.
“Shit, Tex,” Rika said, leaning over the table. “You didn’t break her neck, did you?”
“Colonel,” Tex placed a hand over his heart. “I would never do such a thing to a poor, defenseless Niet. She may have a bit of a concussion, but her bones are all intact.”
Rika shook her head and turned just as Leslie materialized in front of her. “Shit!” she exclaimed. “You trying to give me a heart attack?”
“If that’s what it takes to get your ass in gear,” Leslie replied. “Our window to slip past the Niet battalion is closing.”
“Right, let’s go.”
A minute later, both Rika and Leslie were on the rooftops, invisible and deadly as they leapt from building to building, moving deeper into Memphis’s city center.
The brick and stone flat-topped buildings gave way to older structures with steepled roofs, and Rika’s and Leslie’s progress slowed, as both women had to be more deliberate in their leaps from roof to roof.
Rika gave a soft whistle within the confines of her helmet as she followed Leslie to the next rooftop.
Niki laughed.
A sigh came from her AI, causing Rika to frown.
Rika shrugged as she eased over the crest of the roof to watch a column of Nietzscheans double-time it past on the street below.
Rika’s jaw tightened as she considered those implications.
Rika gave a derisive snort.
ked Niki.
Niki didn’t reply, and Rika sighed, the fight gone out of her.
The AI’s tone was rather sullen, but Rika decided it would have to do for now.
The Nietzscheans on the street had passed by. Leslie signaled for Rika to begin moving once more, and after several minutes, they had progressed through the older stone buildings and reached a newer section of Memphis, featuring tall towers sheathed in a glowing polymer that resembled marble, but with shifting patterns of light and dark working their way across the structures.
Rika observed, noting the high-rise that the Nietzscheans had claimed for their system headquarters.
Leslie pinged her location as Rika landed on the last steepled roof in the older section of the city, and Rika moved close to the scout so they could communicate on a tightbeam.