by M. D. Cooper
She knew she didn’t have to speak aloud, but she just felt like yelling.
Kelly was back a moment later with a large comforter that was soft on one side and covered in a shiny polymer on the other.
“Should keep the rain off,” Kelly said as they wrapped Tanis in it. Once she was cocooned, Rika slung the admiral over her shoulder.
Priscilla’s voice sounded worried—very worried.
As if Priscilla’s words were prescient, Kelly and Keli both began firing uranium sabot rounds at Niets who were advancing down the street behind them.
Rika turned east while Keli and Kelly covered her back. Suddenly, dark shapes appeared all around her, a dozen kinetic slug throwers lobbing HE rounds at the Nietzscheans.
Rika felt Tanis slip out of her arms, even though she was held securely.
“What the—”
“Hold still,” one of the figures said, and Rika saw flow armor pull away from a face, revealing Priscilla.
Rika stopped as Priscilla pulled down the blanket, exposing Tanis’s face.
“Stars, she looks perfect,” Priscilla said. “Totally unharmed.”
“Yeah, but what was that? Did she do that? How?”
Niki supplied.
Priscilla didn’t respond, but touched Tanis’s head. Rika saw something flow from her hand into Tanis, and a moment later, the admiral felt heavier, as though part of her that had not been present before, now was.
“What did you do?” Rika asked. “More importantly, what did she do?”
Priscilla spoke only into Rika’s mind.
Rika asked, and Niki added.
Priscilla said.
Niki asked.
Priscilla looked down and stroked Tanis’s forehead.
COMING UP
STELLAR DATE: 08.28.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Jersey City, Pyra
REGION: Albany System, Thebes, Septhian Alliance
Rika hung out the back of the dropship and fired her electron beam at the closest pursuer, a vacuum fighter that was struggling through the heavy winds of the cyclone tearing its way across the coast.
Her shot dissipated in the thick rain, but enough of the energy struck his port engine—for the third time—to finally knock him out of the pursuit.
Not that Rika’s dropships were doing much better. Ferris was fighting the controls, screaming at the wind, his heavy load, Nietzschean engineering, and anything else that came to mind.
As if on cue, he started up another rant. “Oh, more fucking red indicators. I know our rear grav drive is losing power, the holes in the hull were my first clue, you piece of shit! Your mother was a Nietzschean garbage dump!”
Rika glanced back to where Priscilla sat with Tanis. Both were strapped into their seats, and Priscilla’s arm was wrapped around Tanis’s shoulders, keeping her head tucked close against her body.
She tried not to think about Captain Ayer and General Mill. They didn’t know exactly what had happened to the general, but Priscilla had gotten onto the Nietzschean networks where there were records of his body being found.
Rika stared down at Jersey City. She’d be back to retrieve his body and give it a proper burial in space.
The ship bucked again, and Rika tightened her grip on the hull ribbing, then breathed a sigh of relief as the rain suddenly stopped and the clouds began to thin. A moment later, the raging elements dropped away below them, gently lit by the engines of thousands of starships.
Kelly said.
Below, two more dropships pulled out of the clouds, then a third.
Stars, we all made it, Rika thought a moment before a beam streaked out of the sky, burning away one of the dropships.
“Fuck!” Ferris screamed and banked hard to port, then starboard, bucking the dropship like it was a wild animal.
Rika was nearly thrown from the ship before she slammed her GNR into the emergency switch, and the ramp swung up, slamming closed centimeters from her face.
She turned toward the front of the ship and saw starfire streak through the night, directly ahead of the shuttle, and then Ferris dove again. Signaling for Kelly and Keli to join the Marines and take a seat, she pulled herself forward to stand behind Ferris.
“Just like old times, eh, Captain?” he called out over his shoulder. “Look at that! I used rank! Go me!”
“How far?” Rika asked.
“Fucked if I know…damn ship is invisible!”
Another beam of starfire streaked past, and Ferris pulled the dropship up. The beam followed them, about to make contact with their hull, and then suddenly it was gone, stopped by an invisible object.
The Derringer.
A light appeared on the side of the ship, and Rika realized it was a bay door opening. Ferris made a beeline for it, and Rika saw from scan that the other two dropships were hot on their tail.
The craft hadn’t even finished settling onto the cradle before Captain Mel called out again.
Rika still hadn’t gotten control of her breathing. Ten seconds ago, she had been certain they were all going to die. Now they were safe behind an ISF stasis shield, about to break away from the Nietzscheans.
<’Kay,> was all she managed to send back.
Captain Mel replied with a laugh, but didn’t reply further.
Behind them, the dropship’s ramp lowered, and Rika turned to see one of the ISF Marines lift Admiral Richards out of her seat and carry her off the ship.
“Will she be OK?” Rika asked Priscilla.
Priscilla stared after the admiral’s retreating form for a moment before replying. “Yes, she’ll be fine.”
At the bottom of the ship’s ramp, a woman waited, looking at the mechs disembarking from the ships.
“Captain Rika?” she asked.
Rika pulled off her helmet and slid it onto the hasp at her hip.
“Here.”
The woman’s eyes locked on Rika’s and she nodded. “Captain Mel’s asked that you come to the bridge. You can observe and coordinate with your ships from there.”
Rika turned and saw Leslie descend from one of the other shuttles, a look of pure joy and relief on her face.
Leslie said with a wide grin.
Rika gave her friend an equally wide grin, relieved beyond words that Leslie hadn’t been on the ship that was destroyed. The thought made her even more glad that Chase hadn’t come along. She’d managed to convince him at the last moment that he’d be needed, should the Fury Lance get boarded during the fighting.
Rika followed the woman—Ensign Harriet, by the tag on her chest—as she led the way through the ship and up a series of ladders, until they reached the bridge.
“I can’t thank you enough for saving the admiral,” Harriet said at one point. “I don’t know…. It doesn’t bear thinking about.”
The vision of the sphere encapsulating Tanis, blasting raw energy into the night and tearing a hole through the cit
y, was all that came to Rika’s mind. “No, no it doesn’t.”
Half a minute later, they stepped onto the bridge, and Rika saw Captain Mel, a tall, lanky woman with fluorescent yellow hair tied up in a knot on the back of her head.
“Captain Rika!” Mel said as she approached and clasped Rika’s hand. “You have no idea the debt of gratitude the ISF owes you. You are, without a doubt, a hero of our people.”
Rika couldn’t help but think of General Mill, dead somewhere in Jersey City. The fact that he’d died ten days ago—back when she was still in the Hercules System—didn’t seem to help.
He’d been a good man, good to her. A strong mentor. And now he was gone; snuffed out in a coup launched by the very people the Marauders had bled to save just a year ago.
“Thank you,” Rika said quietly.
“Right, that must have been harrowing,” Captain Mel said, her voice softer. Then she pointed to the holotank. “Look there. The five highlighted ships are yours. They’re in a low polar orbit, right where you left them.”
Rika nodded as she approached. “The Niets didn’t make any problems?”
“One of their traffic control ships was getting persnickety, but then Rachel’s fleet started lobbing rail shots, and everyone’s focus shifted to her.”
“So what’s our route out of here?” Rika asked.
A plotted course appeared on the holo. “With any luck, we’ll slip past most of them. If we have to, we can take a few out, but I’d prefer not to get ten-thousand ships on our tail. Stasis shields are good, but they’re not that good.”
“Where’s the rest of your fleet?” Rika asked.
Captain Mel expanded the view, and Rika saw a cluster of ships approaching the Nietzschean formation. They were still over a million miles away, but RMs were already flying between the ISF and Nietzschean vessels.
“Once we’re clear, are they going to turn and head outsystem with us?” Rika asked.
Captain Mel cocked her head and looked at Rika as though she’d said something crazy.
“Uh, no, they’re going to defeat the Nietzscheans. Then we’ll carry on and crush their empire—at least we’d better.”
Rika couldn’t help but let out disbelieving laugh. “That’s…confident of you.”
Captain Mel just flashed a smile and turned back to the holo. “Scan, any sign of Orion ships, or zero-point energy fields?”
“None so far, Captain Mel.”
“You spot a single OG hull tucked into this mess, you get on all-fleet, you hear?”
“Aye, ma’am.”
“Orion…that’s the enemy Priscilla said is beyond the Orion Nebula, right?” Rika asked as she looked over the fleet formations on the holo.
“Yeah, plus just beyond half of known space. Orion’s big, stretches into the Perseus Arm.”
“Seriously?” Rika asked, certain that the captain was messing with her.
Mel waved her hand. “Not important right now. What is important is that they have good stealth tech. Not as good as ours, but damn hard to pick up. I don’t think they’re out there, but if they are, I want to be ready.”
“Why don’t you think they’re there?”
Mel turned and locked her eyes on Rika’s. “The Admiral, Captain Rika. If the Orion Guard knew she was crashed on that planet, they would have done one of two things.”
“Which are?”
“Completely blanket the planet’s surface with troops to capture her…or destroy it. They would not have left it to the Niets.”
Rika wondered if Captain Mel had an extreme case of hero worship. “They’d destroy an entire planet to capture or kill Admiral Richards?”
Mel nodded, and Rika saw that other members of the bridge crew did, as well.
“Why—” she began to ask, but Mel held up her hand.
“It’s begun.”
Rika saw the ISF fleet’s forward elements move into range of the Nietzschean ships. She didn’t understand what the ISF, which she assumed was under the command of Captain Rachel on the I2, had planned.
The leading edge of the Niet fleet was spread wide, and a second group—which was on the ISF’s right flank—was also distributed over a huge volume of space.
Rika suspected that the enemy had dispersed to avoid long-range shots, but now they were coalescing into a half-sphere, wrapping around the ISF ships. In a minute, over thirty thousand Nietzschean vessels would be within firing range of the I2.
Rika wondered why Captain Mel looked expectant. She should be terrified.
Beams lanced out from the Nietzschean ships, all targeting the I2. In an instant, the massive ISF ship disappeared in a blazing ball of light, its glow dwarfing that of the Albany System’s star.
For all her bluster, Rika saw Captain Mel suck in a breath.
“Coming up on the Nietzscheans’ polar line,” a bridge officer announced behind them.
Rika turned her attention to a secondary holotank.
“You have a tightbeam to your flagship, Captain Rika,” the Comm officer said.
Rika asked.
Chase asked.
Rika didn’t want to get into the details at the moment, and only said,
Heather spoke up.
Rika replied.
“Captain Mel, my crew is worried that the enemy will fire on them if they break formation.”
Mel stroked her chin for a moment. “Valid.” She turned to an officer on her left. “Flicker the stealth for a second so that the enemy doesn’t think Rika’s ships are deserting.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Rika asked.
Heather replied.
Chase said.
Rika replied.
During the conversation, Rika had kept one eye on the ball of light that was the I2. She did, however, remember to thank Captain Mel for making her ship visible—however briefly—to the enemy.
“Welcome,” Mel nodded calmly in response.
“Aren’t you worried?” Rika asked, gesturing to the I2. “Your flagship is being annihilated!”
“That ball of energy means that everything they’re throwing at it is being shed off by the stasis shield. If the ball goes away, then it’s bad.”
“Bad because they blew up?” Rika asked.
Captain Mel shook her head. “No, bad because they tore a hole in space-time, and this entire star system will probably cease to exist.”
Rika’s mouth was hanging open again, and she looked around the bridge. “Who are you people?”
Mel snapped her fingers and pointed at the holo.
While the Niets were pouring all their weapons into the I2, the rest of the ISF fleet began to respond, firing on Nietzschean ships in successive waves, their high-powered beams cutting right through the enemy’s shields and shredding their ships.
Even though they had little trouble destroying the enemy, the ISF fleet was small, and they were barely making a dent on the enemy forces.
A moment later, the barrage hitting the I2 ceased, and the ship’s shields glowed brightly for another few seconds before returning to their normal transparent state.
The I2 was unscathed.
Cheers erupted around Rika, and she was at a total loss for words.
Niki commented.
“And…here they are,” Captain Mel said, turning to Rika with a look of triumph in her eyes.
Rika looked back at the holo and saw two things happen almost simultaneously.
The first was that two thousand ships appeared on the far side of Pyra, well behind the Nietzschean lines, and were accelerating toward the enemy. As Rika watched, the ships closed with
in weapons range, and their beams began tearing through shields and ships in rapid succession.
Rika felt a thrill in her chest at the sight of it, but there were still too many Nietzscheans, and they began to concentrate fire on the smaller ISF ships.
At a thousand to one, they could breach the ISF ships’ shields, and they did so a dozen times within seconds. Rika began to worry that the tactic would fail.
But then the battlespace changed entirely.
At first, Rika thought that the holotank had suffered a failure, as it seemed to show that the number of Nietzschean ships had doubled.
“They’re here!” Mel cried out, and the bridge erupted in cheers.
“Who?” Rika asked.
Mel gestured at the roughly forty thousand new ships interspersed amongst the Nietzscheans. “Just about everybody, from the looks of it.”
With the Nietzscheans spread wide, no more than three to four ships could bring meaningful fire to bear on the newcomers—who were all protected by stasis shields, easily shrugging off the meager attacks.
Tears formed in the corners of Rika’s eyes as she watched the new ships begin to tear into the enemy, their brilliant beams slicing through the Niets like they were made of foil.
“What’s wrong?” Mel asked Rika.
Rika drew in a steadying breath and she gestured at the holotank. “All my life, this was the thing I feared most.” Her voice came as a whisper, and she took another breath, speaking louder as she continued. “The vaunted Nietzschean Space Force. They were unstoppable. A fleet this size was the stuff of nightmares, yet here they are, falling by the thousands.”
Rika gave a self-deprecating laugh and then shrugged off her concern over being so emotional before strangers. “It may be one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.”
Mel didn’t even miss a beat as she barked a laugh and slapped Rika on the back. “Rika? You’re my kinda woman.”
FALLEN
STELLAR DATE: 08.28.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS I2, Bridge
REGION: Inner Albany System, Thebes, Septhian Alliance
Rachel felt sweat pouring down her head as the Nietzscheans continued to fire on the I2.