Incursion: Merkiaari Wars Book 5

by Mark E. Cooper

  Zelda stood on a flatbed in full costume with her co-stars, while vehicles packed with camera crews, media, and fans followed in her wake. Banners flew from masts attached to the vehicles, music blared from speakers, and fireworks launched into the air as she pulled up. When Zelda rolled into town, common sense rolled right on out. Apparently, it was party time.

  The newsies interviewing Ecclestone instantly lost interest in him, and stampeded toward the new thing in town. The Shan dropped to all fours and followed at top speed. Zelda fascinated them. Their people didn’t create fiction, so actors were a new idea they wished to explore. Eric couldn’t help laughing at the sight, which didn’t go unnoticed. The general headed in Eric’s direction, disapproving officers in tow.

  He didn’t look pleased.

  At least Gina had perked up. She was grinning like a mad woman at the sight of her hero stealing Ecclestone’s thunder. Eric wondered what would happen when a mega-star met a mega-ego. Nova scale tantrums could easily result. Ecclestone seemed the type.

  Cameras rolled as Zelda played to her audience. Questions were fired at her from all sides, and she answered them on the move. She was heading for Gina. The cameras swung to cover the vipers when the media realised Zelda’s destination. Viper armour was pretty distinctive with its nanocoat set to the regiment’s default black.

  Zelda hugged Gina and kissed her on both cheeks. Gina gave Eric a startled look, but hugged the woman back.

  “This is my good friend Lieutenant Gina Fuentez, 501st Infantry. She fought the Merkiaari to save the Shan, and introduced me to some of them a few days ago. She’s fluent in their language and played translator for me.”

  Gina’s face heated. “It was nothing really.”

  “She’s a bit shy. Luckily I’m not,” Zelda said and everyone laughed. “I’ve brought some friends to meet you, Gina.”

  Zelda began dragging her away. Gina looked plaintively back over her shoulder.

  Eric made a shooing gesture. “Go.”

  “Incoming,” Brice muttered.

  Ecclestone arrived red-faced with embarrassment or anger. Probably both. Eric assumed both, and assumed he was about to receive friendly fire. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time.

  “I assume you’re responsible for this circus, Captain?” Ecclestone said.

  Eric smiled. “Why assume that?”

  “Your man there.”

  “Lieutenant Fuentez,” Eric said. “She and Zelda are friends. They met at the convention a few days ago when the Shan enlisted her aid as their translator.”

  Mention of the Shan gave the general a new target for his ire. “Those creatures,” he growled. “What am I to do with them? They can’t even speak English!”

  “We’ll just have to speak Shan,” Brice muttered, but not low enough to go unheard.

  Eric kept a straight face, not betraying his amusement.

  The general regarded Brice as if a bug had sat up and addressed him. “You said something, Lieutenant?”

  “I just wondered why we don’t speak Shan, General. I mean, if our allies need a little help with communications, it seems only fair.”

  “I can’t speak Shan!”

  “Yet you expect them to speak English, sir? Doesn’t seem very fair to me.”

  Ecclestone’s flunkies gasped and others glowered, Brice smiled as if unaware how flippant he sounded. Lieutenants Dolinski and Dengler snickered. Eric stepped in before the general tried to have his vipers court-martialed.

  “The Shan are very good soldiers. Their translators are sufficient. We had no issues fighting with them against the Merkiaari.”

  “Warriors, not soldiers. They’re little more than savages.”

  Eric was stumped for a moment. He wasn’t sure he knew the correct term for this sort of bigotry. Was it racism when the parties involved weren’t the same species? Or was it something else? Xenophobia seemed a little extreme. Eric preferred to reserve that term for the Merkiaari. Hatred of them was a given.

  “They’re allies, and they’re Alliance members in their own right. We have to accommodate their differences if we want to work with them.”

  Ecclestone glared. “Maybe I should assign your unit to babysit.”

  Hissssss-craaAAAckkk!

  Hissssss-craaAAAckkk!

  Everyone turned to watch the show for a moment. It was enough to remind the general why he was supposed to be angry about Zelda’s visit. He glared toward the circus, but before he could do more, Major Stein piped up.

  The traitor.

  Stein winked at Eric. “Tell me, Captain Penleigh. What do you think of the newest addition to our forces? Are you impressed?”

  Eric scowled at the Marine. He’d meant what he’d said about staying far away from Gina, but here Stein was, not a hundred metres from her. He hadn’t tried to talk to her, but how long would that last?

  “Well?” Ecclestone said.

  “The Titans have impressive specifications, and they’re well armoured. Good firepower and manoeuvrability for their size.”

  “But?” Stein pressed.

  Sonofabitch. He was asking for it. Begging for it. Eric shrugged. “They’re old tech with a face-lift. They won’t get a shot off against the Merkiaari.”

  “Nonsense,” Ecclestone growled, his face darkening. “Utter defeatist nonsense.”

  “I could take them all out right now,” Eric said, and shrugged again. “I can think of two ways... no three.”

  “Impossible!”

  Stein laughed. “You’re serious?”

  “Deadly.”

  “He should prove it, don’t you think so, General?”

  What the hell? Stein was baiting him and the general on purpose. Why? What was in it for the Marines?

  Ecclestone hesitated a moment, but the media were occupied. “Show me.”

  Eric glanced at Zelda’s circus. No one was interested in the Titans anymore. He shrugged. Ecclestone had asked for it, and hell, the general outranked him. He’d been given an order, technically at least. Eric glared at the smirking Stein one more time, and then walked up to the control station.

  He looked back at the general. “One,” he said and mimed shooting each of the operators. “Two,” he said and pulled out the power feed to the control consol. The Titans on the field froze. One fell over, cratering the ground with its weight. The crash was extremely loud.

  The operators took off their VR headsets and looked around in surprise.

  Ecclestone was almost panting with rage. The newsies had noticed and were filtering back. The fallen Titan was the centre of their attention.

  “And the third option?” Ecclestone grated, fighting to stay calm.

  Eric shrugged. He contacted all four of his LTs via viper comm. “One each. Make it impressive for the cameras. Trash the antennas.”

  Gina burst out of the crowd at top speed, and headed for the most distant Titan. Zelda whooped, and that drew the media’s attention. The entire evolution was captured by the cameras in full, and would no doubt feature on the news later that day. Burgton would be pleased. He wanted good publicity.

  Gina jumped onto the Titan, and scampered up its body to the hammer-shaped head. If she’d had explosives with her, that would’ve been all she wrote for that particular Titan, but she didn’t. She made do with ripping the antennas to pieces barehanded. The other vipers did similar things to their targets, all except Brice. He just wandered casually over to the fallen giant he’d chosen to assault, and kicked the living hell out of its most sensitive bits. It took moments to destroy its antenna and comms arrays.

  “Three,” Eric said, and smiled. “The Merkiaari won’t do it this way. They’ll just jam communications, but the result will be the same.”

  Stein winked, and beamed at Eric.

  Odd. Very odd.

  Stein had screwed him; he hadn’t even kissed him first. Eric didn’t think it had anything to do with Gina, and it didn’t seem aimed at him personally. Why didn’t Stein like the general? Or maybe the Tit
an program offended him. He’d have to beat the answers out of Stein, but later.

  Zelda whistled and pumped a fist into the air. “That. Was. Awesome! Imagine what they can do to the Merkiaari!”

  Cameras recorded, Eric grinned, and General Ecclestone glared. Colonel Jubb left the other operators and came over to snarl at Eric for spoiling his show, but Zelda had the last laugh.

  “Eeeeeek! Red Comman-DOH!” Zelda said when she saw Jubb’s glossy armour.

  Gina arrived back, just in time to hear the iconic line from the show, and laughed.

  Jubb rolled his eyes. “That is so old.”

  “Ha-ha-haaaa, classic episode!” Gina crowed, and bumped fists with Zelda.

  “Like I said, old,” Jubb said.

  Eric shook his head. Red Commandos were a mercenary outfit from an episode of Zelda and the Spaceways. Their armour’s nanocoat was glossy red, just like the elite unit Colonel Jubb represented.

  What a circus.

  * * *

  32 ~ Orientation

  Nstar Industries Orbital Shipyard, Pandora System

  When Tei’Shima boarded the ship to Pandora, she’d had certain expectations. For example: retraining. She’d expected to be given time to brush up on her old lessons before needing to take up her duties as Tei.

  Her father had taught her well. She knew everything a youngling needed when approaching her choosing time. She’d studied the history of her people and the clans. She knew the origins and traditions of all the castes, but she wasn’t a naive youngling anymore. Her lessons had been the groundwork she’d needed to choose her caste and career, not lead warriors in a battle for their lives. For that she needed more than academic knowledge. She needed experience.

  But.

  She was the Blind Hunter. The warriors with her expected leadership, not the need to train her first. Tei lead. They show the way. That’s what they do. She’d totally faked it by drawing upon her experiences of the war, and used the journey for deeper research. Luckily, the journey was a long one. Her knowledge of weapons and tactics had been adequate already, logistics the same, but she’d needed Tei’Laran’s help with strategy.

  She’d had many questions.

  The war games were a gift. A great opportunity to firm her grip on her new caste and life. Academically, she was up to speed. Even Tei’Laran was impressed. It was her background of course. Research had been her life once. It still was in her heart. The games would let her gain some experience at leading professional warriors. Yes, indeed. The war games were a gift all right, so why was she in orbit and not on the surface playing chase the Human?

  A very good question that.

  It started with an invitation to tour the various Pandoran facilities. Tei’Laran had strongly encouraged her to accept. Ordered her to accept really, though that was a little awkward because the Blind Hunter outranked him. Tei’Laran had skirted the niceties by making it a request, and by agreeing, she’d put him in her debt. She would never call it in, and he understood that. Matters of honour sometimes came down to a need to work within the system for mutual benefit.

  She’d watched huge mining machines digesting asteroids, and she’d pressed the start button to begin munching on a new rock. Kazim had been delighted to record the event, but then, he was easily pleased. She’d only pressed a button for the Harmonies sake. A green one.

  Despite Tei’Shima’s background being in genetics and not engineering, Pandora’s smelters had been interesting. Her parents had been engineers, and her father had often shared stories about his work. He would’ve enjoyed seeing them. The smelters were huge stations. Fully automated, they used nanotech to reduce ore into the elements needed for Pandora’s voracious industries.

  The factories used a dizzying number of alloys. She’d seen them using vast colonies of microscopic nano-machines to create products. Bunkers had slowly emptied like magic, the raw materials replaced by hull-plating and structural supports for ships. They’d just appeared one atom at a time before her eyes! It was amazing. Her father would’ve loved it.

  Today was her first visit to the shipyards, and she was starting to feel her good will being abused. Accepting the various tours had segregated her from those who’d followed her. She didn’t believe that was Tei’Laran’s intention, but a single invitation to visit a research centre had blossomed into dozens of invites to facilities all over the system.

  Tei’Shima didn’t want to cause offence, but she had to call an end. She needed to spend some time training and improving her skills with the other warriors. Her father had taught her to believe that being adequate was no such thing. She wanted to excel in her new life and career to honour him, but also for her own self-worth. Part of that was convincing herself that Merrick hadn’t been wrong about her. That she could lead, and that she deserved to be Tei.

  “Why me?” Tei’Shima said. Did she sound whiny? She hoped not. “Why isn’t Tei’Laran doing this one?”

  “Because,” Kazim said patiently. “The Blind Hunter is famous.”

  “But he used to be Fleet! He likes ships.”

  “So?”

  “So he’ll get more out of this. I don’t know what I’m looking at.”

  “It’s a super-carrier,” Varya said and gestured at the ship with his tail. “Well, it will be when it’s finished.”

  The meeting room came equipped with a large holotank displaying the ship currently under construction. Their escort had turned it on before leaving to fetch another group scheduled for the tour. The three-dimensional image glowed blue in the holographic field. It had green info-boxes attached to various points of interest. When queried, the boxes became windows that contained marketing images and technical specifications. Kazim had recorded Varya trying them out.

  “I know it’s a carrier,” she said in exasperation. She glanced at the holotank where it revealed the ship’s internal frame. It could’ve been the skeleton of some great beast. “Tei’Laran would have learned more from seeing this than I ever will asking questions. I don’t know the right ones to ask.”

  “How about how much it costs?” Varya said.

  Kazim laughed.

  “Funny.”

  “I’m serious. Don’t worry so much. Others will follow and ask their own questions in time. Think of all this as scouting the way. You’re blazing a trail for them.”

  Trailblazing? She could do that. Surely if the elders wanted to know more they would send engineers. Varya was right.

  “Fine, but think up some questions to ask. I’m not letting you get away with watching me do all the work.”

  “I hear, Tei,” Varya said trying to sound serious, but he spoiled it with a dip of an ear to Kazim.

  Kazim was in on the conspiracy and dipped one of his in return.

  Tei’Shima pretended not to notice. They were enjoying the trip. As long as they were happy, she was willing to be their target.

  The sound of Human chatter and laughter drew her attention to the back of the room. Their guide was back with the anticipated tourists. Tei’Shima wondered what the joke was about, and whether someone was the target of ear-dipping humour. Actually, she seemed to recall that Humans couldn’t dip an ear the way Shan could. They used their eyes and one of their many face-screwing gestures instead. What was it called again? A wink, that was it.

  The guide made his way to the front of the room. “Can I have your attention please?” The chatter died and he switched off the holotank. “Before we get started on the five credit tour—”

  A few of the Humans laughed, and Tei’Shima wondered why. Was the guide trying to swindle them? Five credits didn’t sound like a lot. She could access funds easily enough using her wristcomp. They all could. Her people had access to the Alliance banking system as part of the treaty, along with things like medical aid and Infonet access.

  The guide reactivated the holotank to display a schematic of the shipyard. “I’m sure you’re tired of these orientation briefings by now, but we have to do them by law. Let’s get thi
s over as quickly as we can, shall we? My name’s Mark Basset, and I’ll be your guide today…”

  Tei’Shima listened attentively to the health and safety briefing, aware that she was the only one interested. Kazim had turned to filming the newcomers, and muttering happily to himself. Something about the Harmonies smiling on him, and how he was going to be famous.

  “You’re already famous,” Varya hissed quietly.

  “I’ll be more famous. I’m about to become the first Shan to interview a Human mega-star. I’ll be a hero, like Shima.”

  “That’s Tei’Shima to you,” she muttered trying not to let him distract her. “What’s a mega-star?”

  “She is,” Kazim said, and pointed to one of the Humans with his tail. His hands were busy with his camera.

  Tei’Shima took a quick look. “She is?”

  “Yes! That’s Zelda. I think the female next to her might be Shortcut. She’s special too. My caste will give me anything I want after this. Money, an assistant, a private air car... maybe even my own show!”

  The tour guide noticed he’d lost his audience. “Your attention please! I need your attention. The quicker I get through this, the quicker the tour can begin.”

  Tei’Shima cuffed Kazim’s ears lightly, claws in. “Quiet.”

  “Ow!” Kazim cried loudly.

  “Oh hush up. That didn’t hurt.”

  “No, but it gained attention,” Varya said. “As he planned.”

  Kazim wiggled his ears. “I’m a genius. What can I say?”

  Tei’Shima growled under her breath.

  Zelda was on her way over, dragging the rest of her party with her. The tour guide desperately tried to inform the room about the escape pods, but no one was listening. He gave up trying to regain the room, and raced through his presentation.

  “These briefings are so boooring, aren’t they?” Zelda said. “They’re always the same. Blah blah depressurisation alarm blah blah. Go here and do that. Pull this lever blah blah, and then kiss your ass goodbye.”