by M. D. Cooper
Niki replied disdainfully.
Niki chuckled in her mind.
Rika dropped behind the starboard pursuer, staying just above its engine wash. The vessel wasn’t much larger than the SkyScream, ten meters wide and fifteen long. Stubby wings held an array of armament, and a pair of tailfins rose above the fuselage, twisting side to side in the gale-force winds.
No running lights were visible on the ship, and if her own scan systems were not military-grade, Rika doubted she would have seen the fighter until she was right on top of it.
Niki spoke in a strange voice.
Rika felt Niki nod in her mind.
Rika charged her railgun anyway. The weapon stayed tucked within the nose of the SkyScream until fired, so she didn’t have to worry about the enemy aircraft picking up on her EM signature.
She took a number of slow breaths, calming herself before the inevitable fight. Then movement at the rear of the vessel caught her attention.
Rika dropped through the clouds after the aircraft, lining up to fire once more. She was tempted to use her electron beams, but that would point her out to the other vessel, and one foe was enough for now.
Rounds flew from the rear of the aircraft, and Rika spun through the air in an erratic corkscrew as she followed after her target, waiting for the right moment to fire.
She was finally charged and lined up when the aircraft fired all four of its missiles. They streaked forward, and then rose up toward the Marauder pinnace.
Two exploded within seconds, but the others were out of range.
Rika knew the beams would be of little use in the storm, but the chaff should create a highly reflective cloud, mixed with the rain.
One of the missiles detonated in the chaff cloud, but the other swung wide and closed in on the pinnace.
Chase said, and Rika saw four detonations behind the pinnace. She knew those bombs would fling explosive rounds out in every direction.
A moment later, the other missile detonated.
Rika drew her attention back to the ship she was chasing, and saw that it had pulled up, slowing to come behind her.
No chance.
She twisted in the air and fired her thrusters on a collision course with the enemy craft, spinning again and firing her engines right above the enemy ship at the last moment.
The blast melted part of the canopy, and Rika extended the SkyScream’s ‘feet’. They latched onto the aircraft and tore the rest of the canopy off before ripping the forward half of the craft off.
The pilot ejected, and Rika gave a cry of exultation as she fired her engines again and pushed off from the falling wreckage, streaking through the air toward the second ship.
As Rika approached, she saw the pursuit craft fire two missiles at the pinnace. She tried to fire her electron beams at the missiles, but nothing happened.
She’d forgotten about the chaingun, she just wanted to tear that ship apart. For a moment, she wondered if it was a part of the predatory flight imprint that the SkySkream used. Then something ricocheted off her left wing, and she dove to the side as bullets followed her through the air. She jinked up, then down, and saw an electron beam flash through the night a meter from her right wing.
Rika gritted her teeth. Not tonight, assholes.
Her railgun was fully charged, and Rika boosted up, then slewed to the left, tracing a straight line behind the enemy craft. Right as she passed behind its engines, Rika fired.
The rail-accelerated pellets closed the distance between her and the aircraft in a fraction of a second, tearing clear through the enemy ship. One of the stubby wings exploded, and a moment later, nothing was left but a falling ball of flame.
Rika pulled up, twisting through the air and scanning the surrounding airspace for any more interlopers.
Chase laughed over the Link.
* * * * *
Rika set the SkyScream down beside the pinnace on the hard pack in front of Fort Hammerfall’s command building. While the ramp lowered from the pinnace, she triggered her craft’s disengagement protocols.
Her sense of self shrank back down to her human form as the SkyScream lifted her out of the pilot’s pocket and set her back into her legs. Then she reached forward and sank her arms into the sockets, feeling the ship drive the rods through her arms and legs.
“Shit, Rika!” Kelly called out as the rest of the team walked out of the pinnace. “Next time, I’m calling dibs on that thing! I watched your feeds, it was ridiculous!”
Rika jumped down off the SkyScream, and sent a command for the craft to fly to a nearby hangar. “We’ll have to see about that…we don’t have many of those birds.”
Kelly’s face fell, and Rika laughed. “Relax, I was kidding. You’ll get a chance. We don’t have many of them, but there aren’t many SMI and RR mechs, so everyone who wants to will get a turn.”
Rika climbed the steps to the command building, and Major Dala caught up with her. “I need to contact…well, someone. I have to report on what happened here tonight.”
“Who can you safely call?” The doors opened, and Rika stepped through, walking over to one of the drying stations. Warm air whipped across her body, blasting away moisture and leaving her perfectly dry—though in dire need of a hairbrush—in seconds.
Dala availed herself of a dryer as well, and the device lowered its output f
or a standard human. Rika wondered if it would have blown the uptight major’s dress off if it had remained on full power. That would have been worth a laugh.
Rika snorted.
Dala stepped out of the drying pod and approached Rika. “I can’t imagine this goes too high, but to hit you with fighters like that, it must. But I would have seen a sign, wouldn’t I?”
Rika felt a stab of guilt for her prior attitude toward Dala. The woman was trying to do her job, but people she trusted were clearly working against her—and now trying to kill her.
“Core be damned, I have no idea.” Rika softened her tone before she continued, tamping down the adrenaline still rushing through her from flying the SkyScream. “I’ve been on the horn to my liaison with the SAF, and he’s stonewalled me at every turn. And I sure as hell don’t trust your CO right now—no offense. If Zim himself isn’t rotten, his HQ is full of leaks. Who else do you have?”
Dala adjusted the hem of her dress and glanced at David. “I was telling David—right before he rushed me out the back—that we might have to go up the chain to General Adam.”
Rika cocked an eyebrow. “The five-star who runs Hercules Command?”
“Yeah. Scuttlebutt is that he’s not happy that we’ve joined Septhia, but he has given a few speeches on how unity is our best defense against Nietzschea. I don’t know for sure what he thinks of you, but nothing I’ve seen has made me think that he actively dislikes the Marauders.”
Rika agreed. It wasn’t a ringing endorsement.
“General Mill referred to General Adam as a fair man,” David interjected as he stepped out of a dryer. “And nothing I can find in his public information gives me concern.”
Rika sighed and stretched her arms over her head, half-wishing she could hop in the SkyScream and fly away from all this political nonsense.
She felt an itch in her right hand and tried to ignore the dysphoria she always felt when her GNR wasn’t present. “Even so, I have a suspicion that attempting contact with the general will be tricky—and may get intercepted before we can get in direct communication.”
Dala tapped a finger against her lips as she watched the others step out of the dryers. “I may have a way to reach him. But we’ll have to move fast. If I don’t show up for duty tomorrow, people are going to start asking questions—and I was last seen with one of your people.” She nodded to David at the end of her statement.
“You hacked all those systems?” Major Dala asked.
“I’m pretty sure they know where Dala is,” David said with a slow shake of his head. “If they showed up to stop you from telling me something, then it’s no great logical leap to assume they’ll know where I went afterward.”
“Here,” Rika said.
“So how do we reach out to General Adam?” David asked.
Major Dala gave him a worried look. “Well, my sister plays rollerball with his daughter sometimes—on opposing teams.”
Chase whistled. “That’s a tenuous thread.”
“We’d better start working it, then.” David drummed his fingertips together. “I assume, Dala, that you have proof of the things you were telling me? You’d have to, otherwise they wouldn’t be going to such lengths to stop you.”
“I have a few purchase orders and a money trail. They’re for equipment that matches what was used against you and your dropship. I’ve put in a request at the garrison’s depot to do eyes-on verification that the inventory is where it’s supposed to be, but it hasn’t come back yet.”
Rika grunted. “What are the chances that our friends back at the restaurant had no idea who David is? Maybe they’re just trying to take you out because you got too nosy.”
“You three were cloaked, Rika,” Chase added. “Maybe they won’t have realized that it was Marauders who spanked them.”
“A lot of supposition here,” David muttered. “I need to spend some time with all the pieces.”
“And we need to get a message to your sister,” Rika said to Dala. “Very carefully.”
“Which is tricky,” Dala said, her fuchsia eyebrows lowering. “She’s off-world right now.”
Rika saw Dala’s jaw tighten, and shot Niki an admonishing scowl.
VISIT FROM THE GENERAL
STELLAR DATE: 08.12.8949 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Fort Hammerfall
REGION: Iapetus, Hercules System, Septhian Alliance
“Well, his eminence, General Adam, will be here in an hour,” Rika said to Chase as she sat across from him in the commissary. She looked down at her food. “Man, I really want to send someone to get takeout from Charlie’s. That pasta was amazing. I bet it was made from real angel’s hair.”
“That was fast,” Chase said, then quickly covered his mouth as he chewed on a salad. “Sorry, I don’t know why I’ve started doing this lately. I never used to be this slovenly.”
“Stress eating,” Rika replied. “We’ve got a lot on our shoulders. Are we even adults? I don’t feel like an adult most of the time. Pretty sure I’m not old enough to run a company of lemonade salespeople, let alone of mechs.”
Barne set his tray next to them and let out a single laugh. “No, no you’re not. Luckily you have me to help. And by ‘help’, I mean do all the work while you just flit about, getting in dogfights, wrecking our SkyScreams.”
Rika grinned at Barne. “Jealous?”
“Fuck, yeah! I’d halfway consider being mech’d just to fly one of those things.”
Chase gestured at Barne’s prosthetic arm. “Well, you’re on your way. I’ll use you for a shield at some point, and we’ll see if we can get a few more limbs shot off.”
“If I was standing in front of you in a firefight, it would be to keep you safe while you were pissing your pants,” Barne shot back.
“I don’t think that armor counts as pants.”
“Dribbling out of your waste reclamation system?”
“Dude!” Chase glowered at Barne. “Eating, here!”
No one spoke for a minute, then Rika said, “That’s one hell of an ethical question, though.”
“What is?” Barne asked. “Whether I should protect Chase while he wets himself on the battlefield?”
“No. Whether or not we make more mechs.”
Chase’s eyebrows lifted, and he nodded slowly. “That’s a tricky one. With the stuff we got from the Politica, we have everything we need to make mechs…but anyone who wants to become one may not have their head on straight.”
Rika laughed. “I think I might be a little bit offended by that.”
“You know what I mean,” Chase said quickly. “Most people don’t want to have their limbs chopped off. Anyone who does probably has body dysphoria issues, which means there’s more trouble beneath the surface.�
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“But you could make it an option for soldiers who get injured in the battlefield,” Barne added. “I hated mechs, back when I lost my arm. But now? If I lost my legs or something, I’d consider it. Not like I’m ever leaving the Marauders.”
Rika caught Chase’s eyes at that, but neither spoke.
“Well,” Rika said at last. “I’ll flail my way across that bridge when we get to it. Chances are it’ll be the Old Man’s call, anyway.”
Barne shrugged. “Maybe.”
Rika wondered what Barne meant by that, but didn’t press the issue, as Leslie came to sit with them, followed by David and Dala.
Rika eyed the pink-haired major. For someone so colorful, she certainly was a wet blanket.
Rika considered that. Niki was right, Dala was putting a good face on the fact that someone in her government was trying to kill both her, and the very people she was taking refuge with. Or, at the very least, trying to kill Rika.
“David informed me that General Adam reached out,” Dala said after taking a drink of her orange juice. “I was really starting to worry that his daughter hadn’t passed the message along—or that the General had missed the encoded portion.”
“I was starting to wonder, too,” Rika replied. “But he’ll be here in an hour, so that puts those particular worries to rest. For reasons he did not elaborate upon, he’s hitching a ride with a produce shipment we have coming in today.”
