Rikas Marauders

by M. D. Cooper

  Across the street, David and Dala’s meals also arrived, and they began to eat in relative silence.

  Thus far, Dala had not said anything noteworthy, though they had spoken of the attack in general terms. Rika was starting to wonder if Dala had led David on, simply interested in a date with no intentions of sharing anything about the attack.

  Or maybe she plans to extract additional details from him…

  Rika began, but David stopped her.

 

 

  David snorted.

 

  Niki said over the group’s connection.

  Keli observed.

  Kelly smirked around a mouthful of spaghetti.

 

  Niki added.

  Rika asked.

  Niki responded without pause.

  Leslie interjected.

  Niki replied.

  Rika wanted to pass a dozen questions over to David for him to ask Dala, but he knew the objective as well as she. There was no point messing up his train of thought.

  Leslie began.

  Rika rose from her chair. She looked at the pair and they both nodded before exiting Charlie’s Pasta and Chips.

  Rika sent a payment over the Link so they wouldn’t have to worry about Mary chasing after them, and moved a dozen meters down the street before crossing. Kelly mirrored her route, bracketing the restaurant. Once across the street, Rika stopped under an awning and reviewed the data Leslie was feeding them.

  Leslie was positioned atop the ten-story building that housed Charlie’s Pasta and Chips at street level. From her vantage, she had eyes on armored figures atop the next building over, setting up on the roof. That building was only two stories high, and would provide a clear shot through the windows of Hammurabi’s.

  Leslie hadn’t spotted any others, but if there were two, there were more.

  Kelly asked as she leaned against a post in front of Hammurabi’s, obstructing the shooter’s line of sight into the restaurant.

  Leslie replied.

  Keli reported.

  Rika reached out to David.

  David asked, surprisingly calm.

  Rika replied.

 

  It made sense; Rika felt silly for not thinking of it herself. It wasn’t a foolproof way to tell, but David was probably right.

  Rika loosened the scarf around her neck, and two of her miniscule drones flew out, rising through the rain to track the aim of the shooter’s rifle.

  The sniper had just moved, taking up a new position where Kelly wasn’t in the way, and when he settled into place, Rika had her answer.

 

 

  Rika checked on the incoming van. It was halfway down the block. Keli hadn’t yet made it around the back, but if the van was up front, it was likely that few—if any—enemies would be at the restaurant’s rear.

  At least Rika hoped that would be the case.

  she said privately to Niki.

  Niki gave a mental nod.

  Rika replied as she drew her left arm within her cloak and unslung her JE-84 rifle. Kelly—who was still clearly visible to the sniper and spotter team—didn’t yet make a move. Reaching for a weapon was a telltale motion the enemy would spot in an instant.

  Leslie said.

 

  The team followed her orders without hesitation. Within the restaurant, David rose and held his hand out to Dala, who was still seated, giving him a confused look. Rika hoped he could get her moving without trouble, but couldn’t offer any help, as the van arrived in front of the restaurant and its side doors opened up.

  A man in powered armor stepped out and raised a chaingun.

  Shit!

  Rika yelled as she fired a trio of rounds from her JE-84 at the enemy. He spun toward her, and his chaingun spun up at the same time as a muffled crack sounded.

  The restaurant’s sign exploded in a shower of sparks, struck by the sniper’s weapon.

  Leslie called out

  Rika responded as she leapt into the air to avoid the chaingun’s spray of bullets. She grinned as Kelly moved into view, her cloak thrown open, JE-87 spraying kinetic rounds into the back of Rika’s attacker.

  Without hesitation, Rika added her own hail of bullets, and the man went down, the chaingun cocking up into the air and tracing a line of destruction across the storefronts.

  Rika hoped no civilians had been injured, but had no time to worry about it, as two more enemies spilled out of the van and took cover behind it.

  A shot rang out from the rooftops, and one of the new foes fell.

  Leslie commented.

  Rik
a leapt onto the van and fired at the second enemy, before a second shot came from Leslie’s position. The soldier’s neck exploded, and he crumpled to the ground.

  Rika jumped off the van and looked into the restaurant to find David and Dala gone. Behind her, the van took off racing down the street, nearly colliding with two other cars before it turned the corner.

  Keli reported.

  Rika motioned for Kelly to follow her.

 

  Rika rolled her eyes at Keli’s weak humor and reached out to Chase.

  Chase asked

 

 

  Rika replied.

  Chase laughed.

  Rika led the way around the block while Kelly covered her six. They met Keli, David, and Dala around the corner. The look on the Major’s face was a combination of anger and worry. Possibly mixed with a little annoyance.

  “Should have expected to meet you out here,” Dala said when she spotted Rika. “You seem to attract trouble.”

  Rika looked further down the street, then looked back behind them. So far, there were no signs of pursuit. “Their weapons were aimed at your pretty pink head, Major. Someone didn’t like that you were sharing intel with us.”

  Dala opened her mouth to reply, but she closed it and nodded before asking. “So what’s next?”

  “We get you to our compound, and then you figure out who you can trust and reach out to them—but not before we arrive. For now, you need to go EM-silent.”

  Dala worked her jaw, then nodded. “Lead on.”

  They turned toward the park where Chase was landing and approached the next intersection, when a shadowy figure appeared at the corner, holding up a hand. Rika recognized Leslie’s silhouette, and stopped. Nobody moved for eleven seconds, then Leslie’s fingers curled up, and her thumb rose. Then she was gone again.

  Leslie appeared once more to halt them, but otherwise, their route to the park was clear—as much as it could be, with local cops closing on the scene in front of Hammurabi’s.

  After the final row of buildings was behind them, Rika led the group through the park’s twisting pathways to the clearing where Chase waited in the assault pinnace. Rika passed him the signal, and the ramp lowered.

  A half-minute later, the ship was lifting off into the brisk, night air.

  Once they were settled into the two rows of seats, Dala’s cold gaze found its way to Rika. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”

  Rika looked down at her right arm and moved her fingers, sad to see them and not her GNR’s long barrel. They were so ineffective when it came to doing what she needed to do.

  After a few seconds’ consideration, Rika looked up and met Dala’s gaze.

  “I was rather hoping you would tell us. Those wonderful visitors we just met appear to be the same folks who paid us a visit the other night.”

  “They’ve expanded their acceptable target list,” Kelly added.

  “And they have the toys to get the job done.” Leslie hefted the sniper rifle she had purloined from the enemy. “This isn’t Theban standard issue, but it does resemble the Septhian KM-171—the markings are all removed, but it could have been SAF issue.”

  Kelly leant over and looked at the weapon. “Well that doesn’t make any sense. We know from what you said, Dala, that it’s likely to be former Theban military elements who went after Rika. Does that mean we have two enemies? Thebans and Septhians?”

  “Could just mean there was a good sale on stolen goods,” David supplied. “With the military build-up that Septhia is undergoing, they’re practically bleeding weapons onto the black market.”

  Dala nodded. “That’s true enough. That’s one of the things that Colonel Zim oversees: the tracking down of stolen military hardware. The stuff is everywhere right now.”

  Niki commented privately.

 

 

  Rika started.

 

  Rika laughed softly.

  <‘Askance’? Look at you, getting all fancy. No, Chase has us registered as a sight-seeing tour. Given our stealth capabilities and this rain, we don’t look too different from the executive shuttles that are common here.>

  Rika rose from her seat in the main cabin and walked to the cockpit’s entrance. “Clear skies?”

  Chase glanced back at her. “Yeah. Taking a circuitous route, though.”

  “Niki told me that we’re a sight-seeing tour. Not much to look at out there.” Rika peered through the window at the dark night. The rain had picked up, turning into a torrential downpour so thick it was almost impossible to see the city lights below them.

  “Yeah, but a great night to ease our way back to the compound—speaking of which, you have to pick a name for the thing. I can’t keep calling it ‘the compound’ and ‘the facility’ anymore.” Chase glanced back at her and winked. “Makes it feel like a prison or something.”

  “No one has come up with a good name yet,” Rika replied.

  “What about Fort Hammerfall?” Chase asked. “Sounds badass, has great connotations.”

  Rika pursed her lips, considering what it would be like to use her old team name like that. “I think that could work. Maybe people will mess with us less if it means taking on ‘Hammerfall’.”

  “It’s a—aw, shit, so much for free and clear.”

  Rika looked at the scan console and saw a contact shadowing them, three kilometers back. The contact flickered in and out as lightning flashed around the pinnace, then another one appeared, moving up on their port side to bracket the ship.

  “Does ATC have them on its boards?” Rika asked.

  Chase shook his head. “Nope. According to the towers, those ships aren’t there at all.”

  Rika checked the pinnace’s loadout, hoping that not all its cargo from the Golden Lark had been unloaded before Chase left the base.

  “Booyah,” Rika whispered. “The SkyScream is still in the bay,” she informed Chase.

  “What? Have you looked at this storm? You going to risk it in a SkyScream?”

  Rika grinned and leant over to kiss Chase on the head. “You’re sweet, hon. That’s exactly why I’m going to do it.”

  “Stay safe,” he called back, but didn’t add anything more.

  she said privately as she walked back through the main cabin.

 

  “Where you going?” Kelly called out as Rika rushed through the passenger bay to the cargo hatch.

  “We have company,” Rika replied.

  “Company?” Kelly rose.

  “Don’t worry, we also have a SkyScream.”

  “Shiiiiit,” Keli swore. “I love flying those! Just the one?”

  “Yup, and it’s the captain’s prerogative,” Rika said as she ducked into the pinnace’s small cargo bay. It was empty except for the SkyScream, and Rika couldn’t help a grin as she approached the ship.

  The light attack craft was a special weapon that the GAF had produced in the later years of the war. They were made to fit RR and SMI mechs, and were pure joy to fly. When Rika had found seve
n of them in Stavros’s hangars, she ensured that the Marauders secured them.

  She climbed up the back of the craft, past the two large engines, and activated the SkyScream’s pilot integration procedure.

  A slot opened up for her arms, and she sank both limbs into the ship. The vessel detached her limbs and then opened another set of holes for her legs. Rika set them into the ship, and it detached her lower limbs.

  Two armatures reached out and attached to Rika’s arms and pulled her forward, settling her into the pilot’s pocket.

  Connections attached to her legs, and then the vessel was still for an instant.

  Niki said.

  Rika nodded and drew in a deep breath as the ship sealed itself around her head, and folded its layered armor over her body.

  One moment she was Rika, with a bipedal body—albeit one whose limbs were stored back between the engines—the next, she was a SkyScream: a light attack craft equipped with missiles, chainguns, four electron beams, and one mean railgun.

  It was a heady feeling, and Rika swallowed before calling up to Chase.

 

 

 

  Rika laughed as the pinnace’s bay doors opened below her, and the docking clamps released the SkyScream—her.

  In an instant, the relative calm of the bay was replaced by the storm’s rage. Rika tilted her wings up and pulsed the SkyScream’s engines, pushing herself up and back.

  Niki commented as Rika fell back toward the pursuer that was closing on the pinnace’s starboard.

  Rika nodded absently—as much as she could.