by M. D. Cooper
“Who’s in charge here?” The woman’s clear, strong voice rang through the room like a bell.
Gideon squared his shoulders, hoping he appeared more certain of himself than he felt. “Fleet Admiral Gideon. What are your intentions?”
The sleek mech took another step into the room. Her head didn’t pivot to take the space in; he knew it didn’t have to—her helmet would be feeding a surround view of the space into her mind.
The thing had eyes in the back of its head.
“My intentions are for you to surrender, Admiral Gideon. Order all your forces in the Blue Ridge System to stand down and cease all hostilities.”
If Gideon hadn’t seen this killing machine tear its way through his troops just minutes before, he would have laughed in her face.
“And if I refuse?” he asked.
The mech took a step forward, swinging its right arm toward him, the meter-long barrel on its end aimed at his head.
“Then I blow your head off, and your second-in-command gets the honors.”
It took every ounce of Gideon’s willpower not to take a step back. He needed the mech to think him defiant and move further into the room.
Then she did. A quick step, followed by a second.
Colonel Sofia screamed “Now!” though it was not necessary. The EMP burst had already gone off, a targeted wave of modulated energy, washing over the mech.
Electricity arced across her body, and the mech stiffened, her three long fingers twitching as the EM wave continued to surge over her.
Then the EM burst cut out, and the woman let out a keening wail, her right arm jerking as though she were trying to fire the gun embedded in it.
To Gideon’s great relief, nothing happened.
The mech fell still, and the tension fell out of the room, soldiers and officers rising from behind their cover. Then the mech took a shuddering step forward, a deep growl emanating from deep within the armored shell.
With a calm expression, Colonel Sofia rose and fired a CF-Net that wrapped around the mech. Upon impact, the net latched on and tightened, carbon-nano fibers drawing taut, pulling the mech’s arms to its body. The Genevian horror wobbled for a moment, and then fell backward, slamming into the ground.
Gideon breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced at the windows to get an update on the status of the battle, only then realizing that, even though the EMP burst had been targeted, the wave of energy had still shorted out every display in the room.
And from the looks of it, had also killed three of the officers closest to the mech.
He glanced at Sofia, but she only shrugged. “Collateral damage.”
“I can’t believe she made it so far on her own,” Decoteau said as he stepped toward the mech and gave it a kick.
“I wouldn’t—” Sofia’s words cut off as the mech twitched, a muffled voice coming from behind her helmet.
“I’ll kill every last one of you fuckers!”
“Some mouth on that thing,” Gideon commented, as a sergeant ran into the room, skidding to a halt when he saw the monstrosity on the floor.
A second later, he regained his composure.
“Admiral, sir!”
“What is it?” Gideon growled, annoyed at the interruption.
“The enemy, we have updated our assessment of their numbers and composition.”
“And?”
“There are no more than two platoons out there,” the sergeant reported.
“What?” Decoteau interjected. “How are they—?”
He cut off when Gideon waved a dismissive hand in his direction.
The sergeant took the gesture as his cue to continue. “They’re all mechs. Every last one of them.”
“What?” Sofia gasped, then gestured at the thing on the floor. “Like this?”
“Yes, that’s their scout model. Most of them are the heavier mechs, but there are a few configurations we’ve not seen before. Their walkers also have shields far stronger than we’ve encountered in the past; not like their ships, but still strong.”
“Sir.” Sofia turned to Admiral Gideon. “We need to go. Now.”
Gideon didn’t hesitate to nod. “I agree. But we need more intel on this threat; if I abandon Kansas with nothing more than wild stories…” He appeared to make a decision. “We’re taking this mech.”
The thing on the floor twitched at his words, but Sofia nodded. “Understood, sir.”
CHASING RIKA
STELLAR DATE: 10.12.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Floor 500, MacWood Building, Memphis, Kansas
REGION: Blue Ridge System, Old Genevia, Nietzschean Empire
The scout let out a string of curses, then flung her last grenade at the wall, triggering it to bounce twice, then roll amidst the Niets that had been advancing up the primary stairwell from the floors below.
She was running back toward the central room and its staircase to the top level before the grenade she’d thrown even went off.
When she reached the foyer at the base of the stairs and saw the carnage, Leslie felt a sense of awe sweep over her, though the feeling was short-lived, as weapons fire rained down on her from the level above.
“Fuck!” she swore as she ducked back into the corridor, reviewing the new enemies that her optics had detected.
There were at least a dozen of them up there, and by the sounds of the footsteps, another dozen were forming up at the head of the staircase’s other branch.
A shot zipped over her shoulder, pinging off the wall, and Leslie realized that her grenade hadn’t slowed down the first group of Niets as much as she’d hoped.
There was no response, and Leslie felt a sense of helplessness wash over her as she turned down a side corridor and retreated under intensifying enemy fire.
Leslie continued cursing Rika’s bravado and the Nietzscheans’ cunning as she continued to fall back.
Through the nanoprobes she’d left behind, she watched a group of officers descend the stairs, and saw that several sergeants behind them carried Rika’s bound form.
Leslie noted that Rika was struggling feebly, and breathed a sigh of relief.
She’s alive.
Her need to survive warred with Leslie’s desire to get Rika free. Her stealth armor reported only sixty percent effectiveness, and she knew that precluded sneaking up on the Niets and freeing her commander. Still, it would be enough to lose the squad of Niets that was trying to flush her out.
As she ran down the corridors circling the floor, Leslie tried to get close to the group of officers, only to have the feeds from her nanoprobes show them reaching the elevator bank well ahead of her, filing into a waiting car.
Stars, let them put Rika in the next car, Leslie all but prayed as she rushed back to the half-destroyed secondary staircase.
She came to the stairwell, and looked down to see a pair of Nietzscheans standing on the rubble that was piled up twenty floors below. Without a second thought, she leapt out into the empty space, firing her PR-99 at them as she fell. As luck would have it, the Niets fell across each other as they died, and she landed on their stacked bodies, then rolled off and dashed out into the corridor beyond. Without missing a beat, she raced across the four hundred and eightieth floor, firing indiscriminately at any enemy that got in her way, not even bothering to ensure they weren’t gathering behind her.
Twenty seconds later, Leslie turned a corner and saw the lift doors ahead. There were two guards on either side, and she fired a series of rail-accelerated pellets, first at one, and then the other, before turning her weapon on the doors.
Shredded aluminum gave way, and she slammed into the d
oors and leapt across the lift to the lift-climb rail on the back wall. Below her, an elevator car was descending, and she glanced up to see another slide into place at the five hundredth level above her.
Leslie wished Niki was online to tell her where the lifts were headed. It was her hope that the group was going to the loading dock at the base of the tower. If that was the Niets’ destination, they would have a surprise waiting for them—just as soon as she was able to Link up with the four mech frames she and Rika had hacked on the way into the building.
As the elevator car above began to descend, Leslie swung an arm out and caught one of the floor beams as it passed by.
Hanging from the bottom of the car, she looked down into the thousands of meters below, scanning the doors leading to each floor for any signs of activity. The last thing she needed were Niets shooting at her while hanging from the bottom of the car. No enemies showed their faces, though, and Leslie gave a silent thanks to the ISF that—even at partial effectiveness—their stealth technology was enough to fool the Nietzscheans.
Either that, or they don’t have any sensors in the elevator shaft. That would be foolish in the extreme, but not terribly surprising. They’re cocky bastards, after all.
As the cars descended, she watched the first one—presumably containing the enemy’s commanding officers—pass below ground level, and let out a curse.
They must be going for the maglev line beneath the building.
Amid her descent, she was finally able to connect to the four mech frames they’d passed in the loading bay, and triggered their activation sequences. Once again wishing that Niki was around to help, she directed the crude NSAIs in the frames to get to the elevator shaft, and follow down once she’d passed their level.
Below, she could see the first car stopping, and assumed that it must have reached the maglev station below the building.
Sure enough, it slid to the side at the lowest level, making room for the car Leslie was hanging from. The view confirmed that this was the bottom of the shaft, and she quickly scrambled up the side of the car, hoping that she hadn’t made any noticeable noise. She settled on the roof, waiting for the car to stop and its passengers to disembark.
Above her, she saw the four mech frames tear the lift doors off at the loading dock’s level, and three of them clamber down the sides of the shaft.
She instructed the fourth one to wait, attempting to relay a signal through it while still at ground level.
For a moment, there was no response, and Leslie worried she’d be entirely on her own.
Then Potter’s voice came into her mind.
Leslie was about to respond, when beamfire flashed above, and the mech that had been standing at the doors exploded, the lower half of its body toppling into the elevator shaft as the top half became shrapnel, spraying into the other three mech frames.
“Shit!” Leslie swore aloud, tearing off the access door on the car’s roof and dropping down into the small space.
Rika was no longer in the elevator car, but two Nietzschean naval chiefs were, both frozen in surprise at the partially visible figure that had just dropped between them.
Leslie didn’t even bother firing at the pair, instead racing out of the elevator as the bottom half of the mech frame slammed into it, smashing through the roof of the car, and crushing the two Niets.
She found herself in a long corridor that connected to the maglev platform. Ahead, she could see Rika’s form being carried on the shoulders of the Nietzschean sergeants. She fired at them, hitting one in the legs, but then the enemy made it around a corner, forty meters away.
Passing an instruction for the remaining three mech frames to follow as best they could, Leslie took off down the corridor, cursing the need to slow as she approached the corner.
While still a dozen meters away, she flung two microdrones ahead of herself, their optics revealing four Niets crouched behind a barricade, their weapons aimed at the corner, ready to shoot anything that came around it.
Beyond them, she could see that the Nietzschean officers were already boarding the maglev, the soldiers who were carrying Rika double-timing it to reach the train.
Leslie snatched the empty grenade satchel from her waist and disabled its stealth before flinging it out beyond the corner. She didn’t wait to see if the enemies fell for her weak ruse before easing around the edge.
As she’d hoped, the four guards were distracted by the flying satchel. Combined with her stealth, the weak diversion helped her make it past their barricade. Once clear, she picked up her pace, racing toward the maglev, though the doors began to close while she was still some distance away.
No! she screamed in the confines of her mind, driving her body to its limit in an attempt to reach the train.
Behind her, a voice cried out, and projectile fire streaked past her head.
She was nearly at the train when a pulse blast hit her in the back and sent her flying across the platform and over the edge. She landed on the maglev rail as it activated, the magnetic field crushing her body against the lower half of the rail.
Pinned, tears of rage and frustration streaming down her face, Leslie stared at the departing maglev train.
The train that held Rika.
“Don’t move, or I’ll blow your head off!”
She looked up to see a Nietzschean standing at the edge of the platform, an ugly, snub-nosed coilgun pointed down at her.
“Think so?” she asked, wishing the Niet could see the sneer on her lips.
He looked like he was about to reply, when an electron beam tore through his chest, fired by one of the mech frames that had finally made it past the elevator car’s wreckage.
The current on the maglev rail shut off, and Leslie clambered up onto the platform, watching as the Goon-Mech frames finished off the Nietzscheans.
Fuck…what do I do? She wondered.
Then an idea came to her, and she signaled the closest mech frame to open up its operator’s pod. A minute later, she was inside the Nietzschean machine, racing down the maglev track.
“I’m coming, Rika,” she whispered.
CAPTIVE
STELLAR DATE: 10.12.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Unknown
REGION: Blue Ridge System, Old Genevia, Nietzschean Empire
Rika felt consciousness slip in and out as she was jostled about for what felt like forever. Rough hands grasped her, wrenching her to and fro, the feeling barely perceptible over the pounding in her head.
Try as she might, she couldn’t get a response from Niki. Her internal connection to the AI only flashed a routing error, and her external wireless connections—and her QuanComm connection—were also unresponsive.
She was barely able to move a muscle, and her mechanical limbs could have been fried for all she knew. Centrally located in her skull, directly below her reptile brain, were the heavily shielded repair mods; though she could access them, the systems only reported ‘Assessing Damage’ when she asked for status.
Fuuuuck! she silently raged, furious that she had allowed herself to fall into such a crude trap; her anger warring with the fear that was clawing at the edges of her mind.
She was utterly helpless, and in the hands of the Nietzscheans.
Time seemed to pass with excruciating slowness, though when she checked it, the chronometer still functioning within her mind told her that it had been eleven hours since her capture.
What!
Rika felt a fresh wave of panic. She wondered how her body had not managed to repair critical systems in that amount of time. She reviewed her internal system logs only to find signs that the Niets had tried to crack her armor several times, but that her anti-intrusion defenses had responded with nano attacks.
The ISF’s nano had staved off
any breaches, but the intrusion attempts had slowed her recovery significantly.
Niki’s voice came into her mind, sounding different than normal—a bit more like it used to before they were properly paired.
The AI’s words crashed into her like a K1R on a bender.
Rika considered how that could have played out. The Niets had an effective bargaining chip with her in captivity; it could be that they’d simply told the Marauders that Rika would die if they attacked.
She hoped her mechs wouldn’t fall for something like that. Her life was just as likely to be forfeit if the enemy got her outsystem.
Niki sent a feeling of emphatic agreement.