Full Metal Heroine: A Military Space Opera Adventure (Lady Hellgate Book 2)

by Greg Dragon

  The sergeant looked at another Marine with an expression that indicated surprise. “You know ships?” he said, smiling. “How do you know our ships? Were you once a cadet?”

  “No, I... I just like them,” she said her eyes finding the deck. “I studied them so that I could qualify to be in SatSec.” She spat the last word as if it felt nasty in her mouth, as if she could taste the shame. She had admitted to wanting to be a part of the same organization that had shot up their men and kidnapped the women and children. She felt judgmental eyes on her back as she stared at the sergeant, who seemed so impressed with her now that he forgot why he was there.

  “What’s your name?” he said, still smiling that confident smile.

  “It’s Tasmin, Tasmin Rose. Are you going after those men?”

  “We aim to do that, Miss Tasmin Rose. We aim to find your family and bring them home. As to the men who did this, they will be on the Alliance’s radar as outlaws. We’re going to get them, don’t you worry, especially the ones who hurt your children.”

  Tasmin watched him touch his wrist, then stood with his back to them as he spoke on his comms. She felt exposed standing there as all the survivors regarded her. She chanced a momentary thought, of the Marines, victorious, returning with the SatSec ship and her family, along with everyone else they took, stepping through the airlock to hugs, kisses, and songs of happiness.

  There would be nothing then that would tear her away from them, and though she wanted to see the bad men punished, it would be the sweetest finale if everyone made it back.

  The sergeant nudged his way past a few Marines to return to where she stood. He leaned in so only she could hear. “My captain would like to meet you, Tasmin, to discuss what happened here with the attack. You will ride with us back to the Aqnaqak, where she wants to speak face-to-face. For your trouble, in the aftermath, she will put in to have your family relocated.”

  “Where would we go?” she said quietly, unsure if this was a good thing or more of the nightmare exposing itself.

  “There are a number of colonies on moons where humans live happily away from the war. There’s also a handful of starships with accommodations for the families of Alliance servicemen. The duty you will perform for the captain will more than pay for the move. You would be helping your people and making a better future for your family. But you must choose whether you want to travel with us. It could be dangerous, and I can bring someone else to talk to the captain instead.”

  “I… I can come with you? Like, leave the hub to board your ship?” Tasmin said, her eyes growing wide with wonder. It was an impossible dream, the notion of traveling beyond the transparent wall. Then to be on a ship with actual Alliance Marines, on a real Alliance ship with all these men in their awesome Aqnaqak uniforms.

  She was tempted to bite her tongue just to be sure that she wasn’t imagining this. The sergeant’s captain, a powerful warlord of the Geralos conflict, had requested her presence aboard one of the starships, whose name she only knew from vids and stories.

  “Sure, yeah, sure, I’m up for the trip,” she said, so low that the sergeant had to ask her to repeat herself. “I’m sure my parents would want me to say yes,” she said louder, and the big man seemed to exhale with relief.

  “Alright, Miss Tasmin, then pack a small bag. I am going to speak to a few more people and then we’ll be off for the Aqnaqak.”

  8

  After landing on a hill outside of a little village named Almadun, the Nighthawks stripped down and placed their equipment into their packs. Kua was the northernmost island of the Ru’oi archipelago and close enough to the body of water that separated the island from the continent of Leif.

  They looked like tourists on vacation in the Meluvian isles, but anyone with a sharp eye would see that they were Alliance Navy. A lifetime in artificial gravity made it difficult to blend in on the planet. It was in the way they walked, like lumbering apes, but it wasn’t something they would notice until they started to see the stares.

  Even the way they dressed was out of place, with Helga in a tight undershirt which was tucked inside of cargo pants with reinforced hiking boots. Cilas was dressed similarly, as well as Quentin Tutt, but Raileo was shirtless, with his uniform pants flipped inside out.

  The village was unlike anything Helga had seen in her short years, and she had seen plenty, from the decorative Casanian, three-level houses, to the storage crates that impoverished Vestalians used as homes.

  The buildings before her were alien in both their make-up and their layout. Their shape reminded her of warheads, tall, domed, with circular windows and non-descript doors. Some had antennae poking out of the rooftop, possibly gaining the owner access to a bit of the modern world, and each one was surrounded by vegetation, which on closer observation turned out to be gardens of some sort.

  The people, too, were unique for Meluvians. Their dress was more elaborate than one would expect from primitives living in the sticks. Helga saw transports that used wheels instead of hover-technology, and animals walked alongside the villagers, most a species that she didn’t recognize.

  Meluvia was billed a paradise by most spacers lucky enough to break past the planet’s atmosphere, but she was quite sure that none of them had visited the Ru’oi isles.

  Even the layout of the village seemed deliberately strange, as it all seemed to blend in with the flora. There was a body of water at the center, and all around this pool were houses, spiraling out with their doorways pointing in.

  From that first circle of houses buildings spread out as far as the eye could see. Jagged stone roads ran between each of the houses, and Helga imagined that it looked like a web from the sky. She made a mental note to confirm the pattern whenever they left, especially since Misa would likely fly over the village before breaking the atmosphere.

  Beyond the buildings was a wall of floating spikes, defying gravity as they rotated slowly, hovering like tiny spaceships. It had a trippy appearance, as if they were merely a holographic fence, and below them was a deep man-made ditch about four meters wide. It was obvious that there was something inside the gap that kept them afloat, and Helga wondered if it was yet another wonder of the planet.

  There were vendors near the entrance who were packing up their wares, and several rolling transports where they deposited their goods. Cilas led the team over to one of the packed-up stalls, where he asked a woman in the universal tongue if she knew where they could purchase a boat.

  Helga wondered about this. Weren’t we supposed to meet a ranger? Which part of the rendezvous plans had anything to do with a boat? The woman gave him a questioning look and then called another vendor over. She whispered into the ear of this new, curious woman, who placed her hands on her hips and studied them each intently.

  “Water … boat?” Cilas tried again.

  “She doesn’t understand you,” Helga said.

  “Why you here?” said the new woman, who reminded Helga of an old drill sergeant she met at BLAST.

  “Hunting something rare,” said Cilas, and made the Alliance symbol with his hand.

  “Follow now,” she said curtly, then turned and started down one of the roads.

  As Helga walked she was met with smiles, and an old man waved from his window. Then several children ran up close to her and pointed at the spots on her head. Helga made a face and stuck out her tongue and they jumped back, laughing before running away.

  “Is that thing a sort of shield?” Helga said after a time, pointing to the fence of floating rocks. The vendor who had now become their guide shook her head dismissively.

  “It’s old, for our enemies. The rebels, they come from the mountain, they come here to kill our people. Spikes would form Shoomp!” She made a triangle with her hands. “Kill them then they fall in. Keep us safe … You understand? Now only animals come to village, and when they fall in…” She made a gap-toothed grin. “We cook them up and eat them.” She gestured to her mouth for emphasis.
r />   Helga understood what she had told them, but as impressive of a story as it was, all she kept thinking about was the spikes and how they’d skewered both Meluvians and animals. There was something beyond barbaric about it, because some of the Meluvian remains would be mixed in with that of the animal. It made her sick just thinking about it, and she made up her mind that she wouldn’t be eating meat within this village.

  “Come inside, here, come inside,” the woman said as she pulled open a door with her right hand and gestured with her left. After the ditch story this seemed leery to Helga, who now wondered if their guide had developed a taste for humanoid meat. “Come, young lady. We talk inside, okay?”

  The Nighthawks all exchanged glances before Cilas took the first step inside. It was a small house, well-made, and probably cozy if not for all of the equipment laying around. In the corner was a bed, but it too had junk all over the top. Helga wondered where the woman slept.

  It was hard to believe that anyone lived there. Helga sat down next to Cilas, who had cleared a bench, while Quentin and Raileo grabbed chairs. The guide turned around and locked the door, then turned to face them with a sigh. “Okay, that’s much better,” she said, in a voice much different than before.

  “Whoa,” Raileo said, and then began to laugh. “You mean this whole time you were faking the accent?”

  “I am a professional spy for the Alliance, young man. We do what we must to blend in. Now, I know that you were told that I would take you to Leif, but I am unfortunately a wanted woman there. I have a young apprentice, a boy from the village. His name is Odam and he can be trusted. When he comes for you later, it is best that you not speak, not until you are in the jungle. Just follow his commands until you get to the boat, and if anyone follows you, do your best to get rid of them. Your mark, Wolf, he’s well connected, and I am more than sure he knows that one of us in the village is a spy. He has people who will tell him that four strangers came here today, so you must understand the need for professionalism.”

  “I assume that us coming here will reveal that the spy is you,” Cilas said.

  “He may suspect, but what does it matter if you kill him or capture him tomorrow? Still, I can’t risk it, so once you are away, I will have to leave the village and hide. It breaks my heart, as I’ve grown to love these people as my own, but the mission was to prepare for you, and here you are, so … my duty is over. But don’t you worry about Wolf, you will have time to rest. He’s on the mainland, and only comes to this side once every other month.”

  “Let’s hope he thinks that we’re just a group of ignorant humans playing at adventure,” Cilas said. “We stick out like flares, but we can’t be the first outsiders to find this place. He’ll get updates from his spies, but they will not see us to report much. That means they’ll come to investigate your home, but by that time we should be long gone.”

  “Good,” said the woman. “My name is Mila, Mila Cos. Remember my name in case of, I don’t know, anything,” she shrugged. “Make sure the Aqnaqak knows that I performed my duties well down here.”

  There was something about the way she paced the room. It was as if she was so nervous, she couldn’t sit down. Helga was about to ask her why, but then the woman pulled out a device, touched a few keys that were on its face and then placed it against her ear. There was chatter coming from it so she assumed it was a kind of comms. Mila spoke into it using the village’s dialect, and then raised her voice in a series of harsh-sounding words.

  “He is coming now to get you,” she said, and it took a second for Helga to realize that she was now talking to them. “Stubborn boy thinks he’s smarter than everybody else—” She stopped suddenly and held up her hand as if to warn them. There was a commotion on the exterior, and Mila hobbled over to a window and shifted the fabric to peer outside. “Thype! They are coming,” she whispered. “They are coming to question me about you.”

  “Tell Odam to meet us,” Cilas said. “We are leaving the village and heading north towards the ocean. When those men come with questions, tell them that my group went on a hike. Thank you, Mila, and good luck.” He walked over to the window opposite of where she was and peered out, looking first one way and then the other. “Move!” he said suddenly, and pushed open the glass, climbing through it effortlessly before Raileo and Quentin followed.

  Helga, bringing up the rear, placed her bum on the sill and threw her legs over. When they were all outside, she pulled the glass down until it clicked shut, and Cilas pointed to a neighboring house. As a group they quickly dashed behind it. “North would be this way,” Helga said, pointing in the direction of the village’s entrance. “We can walk out through the main gates or risk jumping that fissure to avoid anyone seeing us go.”

  “We’re not running,” Cilas said. “We are supposed to be tourists enjoying ourselves. If we get any questions, then we will need to convince them that we’re rich Vestalians looking to hike.”

  They stepped past the houses and found the road, smiling at the locals as they made for the entrance. Their muscular frames and giant backpacks brought a lot of attention as they went. Quentin especially, who was tall and bald, made many of the women curious, to the point where a small crowd began to follow them.

  “Married, Chief?” Helga said, and then smiled in anticipation of her joke.

  “Not married,” he said, looking back with a smirk, and she slapped his pack playfully and glanced at Raileo. The young Nighthawk was gesturing where the big man couldn’t see, goading her to keep on pressing him. Helga picked up her pace to catch up with Quentin, then gave him a long look of concern. “Something wrong?” he said, touching several places on his face.

  “If I was a betting woman—which I am, by the way—I wager you’ll have a Kuan wife by the time we finish this mission.”

  “I highly doubt it, ma’am. The women in this village are not my type. They are all so short, and I don’t speak the language. How am I to court someone if I can’t even have a conversation?”

  “But all Meluvian women are beautiful,” she said. “Isn’t that what you said?”

  Quentin glanced down as if to see if she was being serious, and she pointed to a group of young girls giggling on their right. “I didn’t say that all of them were beautiful,” he said defensively and then forced his gaze forward, trying to ignore his new fans.

  As they neared the entrance, a young man ran up and started walking briskly in front of them. Cilas looked over at Helga and made a pinching motion with his fingers, telling her to keep quiet, which she obeyed immediately.

  “Hello, friends,” a male voice called from behind in an accented version of the universal tongue.

  “Act like you don’t hear it, and walk fast, follow me out,” the young man in front of them said, and that was when it dawned on Helga that this was Mila’s apprentice. “Bad men,” he whispered. “They want your credits, and…” He glanced back at Helga. “Whatever else they can take.”

  Helga saw his meaning and grew angry. Every bone in her body wanted to stop, turn around and dare them to even breathe in her direction. Their new guide took them through the entrance at an extremely brisk pace as the dual suns crested a salmon-colored sky. The men were still behind them, calling for their “friends” to stop. It was nerve-wracking, and against everything Helga knew. Keeping a potential threat at your flank was a certain path to getting killed.

  The young scout took them off the road to a sparsely-used dirt path, with weeds so thick around it that they were literally cutting through the brush. Helga risked a glance behind her and saw that the men were not going to let up. “Cilas,” she whispered, and he pointed ahead, his motion meaning that she should focus and trust his order to follow Odam.

  “At waterfall, we fight,” the boy said, obviously seeing her concern.

  “We’ll do the fighting, you will run and hide,” Quentin interjected. “I like your fire, Odam, but this is what we’re trained for.”

  The path began
to narrow, forcing them into a single file, and out of nowhere, Raileo dropped. He was back to his feet almost as fast as he went down, and Helga saw the mud that caused him to slip.

  “Ground is like new oil,” he muttered, obviously embarrassed, then picked up the pace to move ahead of them, catching up to Odam. They walked for an hour through the bushes and trees, and Helga noticed that the calling from behind them had ceased. Somehow this new silence made her feel worse, the men’s presence now a mystery whereas before she knew their distance.

  She watched the back of Raileo, who was limping from his fall. “Schtill, you’re hurt, “she whispered. “Where are your boots?” She’d noticed he was still wearing his comfortable canvas shoes, whose soles were meant for flat surfaces, not traversing uneven terrain.

  “In my pack, ma’am, but I don’t have time to switch them out,” he said. The young man was so disappointed in himself that he looked about ready to cry.

  He’s going to definitely fall now, she thought, her mind occupied with the rookie. And if he gets hurt, then we’ll have to stop, and they will have the high ground in the fight. “Here, take my hand,” she said suddenly, reaching forward to grab his wrist. “Try your best to stay upright. We can’t afford to stall or we’ll be royally thyped.”

  Raileo did as she commanded and took her hand, but tall trees bordered the pass, lending their branches for support. Before they knew it, the ground leveled out, and they emerged from the trees to the top of a rocky cliff, where several tributaries ran over the edge to the noisy rapids rushing beneath them.

  “We can fight them here,” Odam said, his voice barely a thought over the thundering waterfall, and Helga exhaled with the anticipation of finally facing the enemy.

  “How many are there?” Cilas said, removing his backpack to look inside.