Incursion: Merkiaari Wars Book 5

by Mark E. Cooper

... gunned down...

  Eric fell to his knees, staring and shaking as errors cascaded through his systems. Diagnostic data scrolled by on his internal display, as he stared at the bodies.

  >_ Diagnostics: Unit fit for Duty

 

 

 

  >_ Diagnostics: Full system scan in progress.

  >_ Diagnostics: Unit fit for Duty

 

  In his mind’s eye, Eric saw a procession of images; memory files pulled up by his traitorous processor from storage. He saw his family alive and happy, and he groaned in pain, but the errors ceased. The room blinked back to startling clarity.

  “Screaming,” Eric muttered. “Someone is screaming...”

  The cries stopped, and he realised. It was him. With a coded thought, he banished the memories back to storage. The screams were relegated to his subconscious, where they waited to join the other horrors that plagued his dreams.

  Eric stared at his dead parents. He should never have left them, and he certainly shouldn’t have come back to find them this way. He wished he could unsee this. He wished he could pretend they were still alive. He wished himself back in time to yesterday, a time of hope and belief in happy endings.

  He climbed wearily to his feet. Leaving his rifle and helmet behind, he went to one of the bedrooms. He stripped the bedclothes, and took the sheets back to the studio. He wrapped the bodies, trying not to see or smell anything. Trying not to think.

  Outside in the garden, he found tools and dug a single grave. They could sleep together. They’d want to. It didn’t take long. A robot, his father had called him in the heat of the moment.

  “You see, Dad?” Eric said, as he carried his father to his grave. “Robots are good for something. We don’t make good sons, but we make great grave diggers.”

  He went back for his mum, and placed her in the cold ground beside his dad.

  “There now. I’d pray over you if I believed God would care. I don’t. I’m so sorry I wasn’t here for you. You needed me, and I was away saving strangers. Like you said. I shouldn’t have left. I’m sorry... I’m sorry...”

  Eric rocked beside the grave, mumbling his apologies as errors scrolled by on his display.

  At some point, he must have come back to himself, because as if by magic, he found the grave filled in. His rifle was in his arms, and his helmet was back on. He didn’t remember doing any of it, but he must have. There wasn’t anyone else. The shovel had been rammed deep into the earth as a marker.

  Kneeling there, he lost himself in memory again, and a machine peered out of his eyes. His TRS icon blinked in time with his heartbeat, as it scanned for targets.

  Scanning, scanning, scanning.

  Vipers were good grave diggers, but they were excellent grave fillers. TRS flashed in time with his rocking, and the machine watched.

  And waited.

  * * *

  29 ~ Convention

  Westby Convention Centre, Pandora, Kalmar Union

  The dream was still on Eric’s mind later that day as he listened to his LTs bantering with their sergeants. Everyone was having a good time. The Pandora op was like a working vacation for them. Considering what they’d been through the last few years, it was good to remember there was more to life than killing Merki.

  On a whim he’d decided to accompany them today. There was nothing special about the Westby Convention Centre or the mission. He could have remained aboard Hammer in orbit and monitored them from there, but the rest of the company would be coming down tomorrow anyway. A day of sightseeing dirtside didn’t seem frivolous.

  “Oh my God, is that Zelda? It is!” Gina squealed.

  “Good grief, LT. Don’t gush over me like that. It’s embarrassing,” Sergeant Hiller said and grinned at her blushes.

  Everyone craned their necks to see.

  “It sure looks like her,” Sergeant Higgins added.

  A crowd of newsies were clamouring to enter the Zelda and the Spaceways exhibit. That in itself wasn’t remarkable considering where they were, but the entire exhibit was surrounded by chanting Zelda fans wearing full costume.

  Eric didn’t need to look. “It’s her. She’s here promoting the Titan program.”

  “How come?” Gina said.

  “Do I look like an Infonet server to you?”

  Hiller laughed. “Check this out.”

  Gina cocked her head as she accessed the link Hiller sent via TacNet. “It says she’s promoting her next full-length sensim feature, and Pandora Atomics is sponsoring it. Most of the cast are here.”

  “The bridge crew at least,” Hiller amended. “I doubt even Pandora Atomics would hire Bad Penny’s entire crew just to promote a new variant of an old weapon platform.”

  Zelda’s ship, Bad Penny, boasted a crew of heavy hitters in the sensim world. The bridge crew’s cast had remained the same for all ten seasons and had become famous due to the popularity of the show. The full-length features based upon the series had attracted some high-paid-mega-stars as popular as Zelda herself.

  “I wonder if I can get an autograph,” Gina muttered as she tried to see the stars of the show. “For Kate I mean. Not for me.”

  Hiller smirked. “Right. Of course. Not for you.”

  Gina reddened.

  Eric led them around the crush to avoid notice. Fending off the media wasn’t his favourite thing. His people were dressed like civvies to blend in with the crowds, but that was no guarantee of going undetected. It wouldn’t take much effort for a good journalist to track down the only vipers on Pandora. Surveilling the ports and assembly areas would be SOP for newsies, but as long as they had Zelda to chase his vipers should go unmolested. At least for a short time.

  Tomorrow would be another matter.

  “You know what we’re here for,” Eric said. “Report back to me before taking any action. I’ll assign targets based upon the ease of acquisition.”

  Everyone nodded. It didn’t need to be said the general’s shopping list had priority over the one supplied by Liz Brenchley.

  “Gina, you’re with me.”

  Their group dispersed and in pairs lost themselves among the crowd. Eric watched their blue icons scatter and mingle with the civilian hordes marked in green on his sensors.

  “Where first?” Gina said.

  Eric shrugged. “You choose.”

  “Hmmm... how abouuuut... Yamaichi Opticom?”

  Eric accessed the company’s information. “Stealth tech interests you, does it?”

  Gina shrugged. “Not especially, but I remember Kate mentioning them once.”

  “I’m not surprised she’d be aware of them. Fine. Yamaichi it is.”

  They made their way through the crowds. Eric had a floor plan showing the layout of the convention in a window on his internal display. Yamaichi Opticom wasn’t a huge player in the market. Its exhibit was a bit out of the way and smaller than the big boys could afford.

  “Any ideas why the general is so interested in these people?”

  “Not a one,” Eric said. “He takes an interest in all sorts of things.”

  “Things that go boom, sure,” Gina agreed. “But sneaksuits?”

  “Don’t focus on the products they’re selling now. Think ahead. Think about the technology behind them. If there’s one thing I know about Burgton, it’s the way he always thinks three moves ahead.”

  Gina frowned. “So its stealth tech, not stealth equipment we’re supposed to scope out?”

  “Primarily we want the tech. I imagine we’ll copy Yamaichi’s designs too, but he probably has other uses for the tech.”

  “Remember Shoshon?”

  Eric nodded.

  “The Merkiaari caught Cragg with his pants down. That stealthed troopship was a nasty surprise.”

  “They’ve adapted and advanced in a few ways. They hurt us at Shoshon, and in the border zone they whacked one of our task forces not long ago.”

  “Min
es,” Gina growled. “I hate mines.”

  “Who doesn’t? So we have to counter stealthed mines, stealthed troopships, and the Merki jamming of our comms at the least. Who knows what else they have? Still wondering why the general finds Yamaichi interesting?”

  “Not when you put it like that.”

  They slowly meandered their way through the crowds. The convention centre was absolutely rammed with humanity and the going was slow. Gina paused and rose on tip toes to peer over the crowd. Eric was about to remind her she had sensors to aid navigation, but she wasn’t looking for the Yamaichi exhibit. She’d detected something more interesting.

  Shan voices.

  There were three Shan on his sensors. With a coded thought he added a filter to paint them yellow on his internal display. Gina glanced at him, and Eric nodded to show he’d heard them too. They were speaking badly broken English and sounded out of their depth. He could see them over the heads of the crowd, but Gina couldn’t. She wasn’t tall enough.

  “Sounds like someone forgot to bring his translator,” Eric said.

  Gina burrowed into the crowd.

  Eric sighed and followed her. She was such a girl scout. They weren’t here to improve Human-Shan relations, but show her someone in need and she promptly forgot the mission. He needed to break her of the habit. Her compulsion to save the world would get her killed.

  “You’re not a Marine anymore,” he said over viper comm.

  “Huh?”

  “Your hero reflex. We have a mission and this isn’t it.”

  “Oh lighten up,” Gina said. “We’re on vacation. You need to live a little. All war and no play makes Eric a dull boy.”

  Eric tried to think of a good comeback, but he was all business. He’d been that way since the Merkiaari ripped everything away from him.

  They finally broke through the crowd and into some open space. Fascinated convention attendees had surrounded one of the exhibits. The Shan were unable to leave and were being treated like part of the display. Eric was disgusted to think he was the same species as these cretins.

  Gina paused for the barest moment, and then she took charge. She bowed to the Shan and addressed them in their own language. That caused a stir. The attendees didn’t know she was a viper, but they knew she was something. Very few could speak Shan without the use of mechanical aid. Cameras suddenly started appearing amongst the crowd.

  Eric sighed. Their cover was about to be blown to hell. Oh well. They’d be back in uniform and on the clock again tomorrow anyway. The others would have to finish up for them here.

  He joined Gina.

  “May you live in harmony. I’m Gina and this is Eric. May we be of service?”

  The Shan bowed and exchanged handshakes in the Shan manner. “Honoured,” they said together and then deferred to the oldest member of their group to make introductions. “I am Ren, and these worthies are Jamal and Kesara.”

  Jamal and Kesara were both warrior caste going by the style of harnesses they wore. They were female and resembled one another. Sibs maybe. Their pelts were dark tan in colour and their ear tufts were a startling white. Their patterned flanks were a mirror of each other.

  Ren was male and must be older. Eric couldn’t tell, but Shan did tend to defer to elders. His pelt was a shiny black that Eric hadn’t personally seen before. At first he thought of it as monotone, but upon a closer inspection he realised it had bluish highlights in mottled patterns. Ren would be almost invisible on the hunt at night, but he obviously wasn’t a warrior. His harness had lots of pouches and didn’t sport the twin holsters all warriors carried.

  “Our translators have malfunctioned,” Ren said. “The crowd doesn’t seem to understand we wish to leave.”

  “All three?” Gina said doubtfully.

  Eric snorted. There was zero chance the translators had failed. “That seems unlikely.”

  Ren flicked his ears in agreement. “And yet here we are.”

  “May I see them?” Gina said and made a show of inspecting the devices. “They seem fine. My people speak many different languages. Perhaps you need to use a different one. Do your devices have a Mandarin setting? It’s a good second choice when English fails.”

  Ren’s tail gestured over his shoulder. “I fear they do not. I will report this to higher authority so they might be upgraded.”

  “Not to worry,” Gina said. She turned off the translators and handed them back to their owners. “My friend and I speak many languages. We’ll help you.”

  Nice. Eric nodded approvingly as Gina addressed the crowd in Mandarin and then English. She basically told them to grow up and get a clue. They were frightening their alien guests, and they should shove off or she’d make them. Devoid of their translators, the Shan looked on in uncomprehending silence as the crowd dispersed.

  “There,” Gina said in Shan. “Where would you like to go? I’ll escort you.”

  “There’s no need,” Ren said. “We don’t wish to be a burden.”

  “Not at all,” Eric said. “It would be our honour.”

  That did the trick. Shan took matters of honour seriously. Even seemingly trivial matters became serious in a hurry when honour was invoked.

  “Then we must accept of course,” Ren said. “My companions were hoping to meet the famous Zelda.”

  Eric groaned, but Gina beamed. She transferred that look of glee from the Shan to Eric and he chuckled. She really did want that autograph.

  “How fortuitous!” Gina said. “I wanted to meet her earlier, but the crowds prevented it. I’m sure if we go together she will honour us with a private interview.”

  Private? Eric didn’t know about that, but arriving in the company of three Shan would be Gina’s golden ticket to that autograph. Hell, she’d probably get a bonus for the intro—maybe a complimentary model of Bad Penny.

  Gina chatted away in Shan and together they retraced their path to the Zelda and the Spaceways exhibit. Eric gave up on work for the rest of that day, but before giving himself over to Gina’s madness he contacted Hiller on viper comm.

  “Something’s come up. Gina and I will be offline for the rest of the day.”

  “Understood,” Hiller said. “Anything I can do?”

  “Yes as a matter of fact. Check out Yamaichi Opticom’s exhibit. Stealth tech is a high priority.”

  “Will do. Have fun, sir.”

  Eric blinked. “What?”

  “Gina just asked me if I want Zelda’s autograph.”

  Good grief. “Penleigh out.”

  * * *

  30 ~ Titans

  Staging Area, Pandora Atomics

  General Ecclestone was an asshole. Eric made the judgement just five minutes after meeting him. He was the type of officer who looked for a hammer when daggers were called for. It was hard to imagine a bigger hammer than the resurrected super-weapons of the Corporate War era.

  Bought and paid for by Pandora Atomics, Ecclestone was the perfect poster-boy for their Titan program; a grandiose name for a no doubt grandiose project. When marketers plundered Greek mythology Eric knew to expect grand ideas with grand price-tags attached.

  Eric seated himself with dozens of other officers invited to watch the show. He was the only viper deemed of suitable rank to participate. The rest of the audience was comprised of colonels or above from various militaries, a few Shan, and a commodore or two sent by the missing fleet admirals as their surrogates.

  Pandora Atomics had tried to get more attention from the navy, but fleet admirals willing to promote land-based weapons were scarce. They were too busy sucking up to the first space lord, and trying to get BuShips to allocate some of its new construction to their commands.

  The stands fronted one of the huge hangars that Pandora Atomics had built to house their newest cash cows. A hundred metres or so from the closed doors, a podium stood with microphones and teleprompter. Ecclestone wouldn’t be using a script. He was a true believer. His evangelising would be from the heart.

  Eric focu
sed upon the execs Pandora Atomics had sent along, and zoomed in upon faces. X2 strobed on his internal display as he stored an image of each one in his database. A coded thought was all it took to cross-reference them with their bios. They were a disappointing bunch. All of them were in marketing.

  Eric dismissed them as useless.

  He’d hoped some of them would be test pilots, or design engineers. Hell, he would have been happier with a janitor from the assembly line! At least they’d have some interesting anecdotal stories to tell. Maybe they’d tell him how a Titan’s fusion engine was prone to overheating. Or maybe the jump jets were underpowered and used too much fuel. Heck, maybe the janitor had to constantly clean the floor near them because the hydraulics leaked.

  Marketing experts were useless for his purposes. What did he care that they’d hired Zelda? How did it matter that Titans were a central plot-point in her next big sensim feature? He wanted hard intel. Data like how the Titans could be of use to the regiment. Could they be used as artillery to replace their field guns? Were their weapons more powerful with a longer range for example? Could the tech be adapted for viper use? If so, how? Many questions, none of which could be answered here.

  Eric hadn’t expected different, but it would’ve been convenient if someone useful had attended. Maybe they’d show up later to watch their creations put through their paces on the firing line. He could hope, but the answers he really needed wouldn’t be found here. They’d be on secure computer servers.

  The theme from Zelda and the Spaceways began playing from the speakers. General Ecclestone took his place at the podium, and waited for his moment to arrive. Conversations lapsed as the music swelled to a deafening crescendo. Pandora Atomics had pulled out all the stops to make the big reveal a success. Not that the Titans would be much of a surprise. They may not have revealed the actual production versions before this, but there’d been plenty of hints and spoilers leaked to hype expectations.

  The music faded into silence.

  “Decades ago at the beginning of my journey in the military, I had a dream,” Ecclestone said grandiosely. “A dream of wars fought bloodlessly. Today, I can share that my dream is now a reality. I’ve seen the future of war, and it stands before you.”