by M. D. Cooper
“Seriously?” Leslie asked. “Stuff must be totally sideways here if he’s doing that. Think even General Adam is at risk?”
Heads nodded around the table, and Rika shrugged. “Either that, or he just doesn’t want whoever is taking pot shots at us to know he’s onto them. It might escalate this whole thing to another level.”
“Could be a combination,” David added. “Or there are other, entirely different rationales.”
“Care to enlighten us?” Barne asked.
“No,” David shook his head. “Trust me, if you had to listen to me rattle off all the things that could be going on, your head would explode. Mine nearly does, half the time.”
“Good thing it’s reinforced, then.” Barne laughed, but everyone else just stared at him and shook their heads.
“What?” Barne asked. “Really? Sorry, David, but we were all thinking it.”
David shrugged and grinned. “So was I.”
* * * * *
An hour later, Rika waited with Dala and David in a small room off the receiving warehouse near the east gate. Rather than have the general travel across the compound—where he’d be visible to satellite surveillance—Rika decided it would be safest to meet with him where the trucks came in.
She monitored the security feeds, watching as the two trucks passed through the compound’s security gate, and drove down the perimeter road to the non-secured goods warehouse.
Across the table, she saw that Dala was clenching and unclenching her hands.
“Nervous, Major?”
Dala snorted. “He could be coming here to charge me with half a dozen crimes. You too, for that matter. Of course I’m nervous.”
“Do generals often sneak into mercenary training facilities to deliver charges to captains and majors around here?” Rika asked.
Dala sighed and pressed the heels of her hands into her face. “No, don’t be ridiculous. But that doesn’t mean it’s not an added bonus.”
“The fact that he’s coming here like this means he’s looking for allies. If he were pissed at us and demanding your head, there’d be a battalion outside our gates. Not two trucks, half-filled with lettuce and tomatoes.”
The major didn’t respond, only drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
Rika decided to let the matter drop, and returned to watching the feeds as the trucks backed up to the warehouse.
Within the loading bay, fireteam one/one waited to escort the general to the meeting. The rest of squad one was also placed in and around the warehouse, ready to defend against any attacks from without or within.
The other three squads of First Platoon were nearby, performing drills and working on maneuvers around Fort Hammerfall—all armed with live ammunition, ready for what may come.
The back of the first truck opened up, and the loading bots rolled forward, grabbing stacks of produce and moving them aside. Once a space opened up, a man and two women exited the truck.
Sergeant Aaron greeted them, and then led the trio across the warehouse toward the room where Rika and the others waited.
Rika switched through several surveillance angles, examining the visitors.
The general was a tall man, older, but not showing any significant signs of aging. His hair was dark, almost jet black, and he walked with an easy gait.
The woman on his right bore a colonel’s insignia on her collar, and Rika identified her from the public records as Colonel Judi. The other woman trailed behind them, the badge of a command sergeant major on her shoulders. She wore her beret low, and it took Rika a second longer to identify her. Sergeant Major Rene.
A moment later, Sergeant Aaron opened the door and nodded to Rika. “Captain Rika. General Adam and his retinue are here.”
“Thank you, Sergeant. Show them in.”
Rika, David, and Dala all rose, Dala saluting sharply as the general entered.
His presence filled the room, and he surveyed those in attendance before returning Dala’s salute. “At ease, Major.” Then he turned to Rika. “Captain Rika, I presume.”
He held out his right hand to shake, but Rika raised her left. She’d considered swapping out her gun-arm for a regular one—she knew how much it angered some people to shake with their left—but if the shit hit the fan, she wanted to be ready.
General Adam didn’t miss a beat as he extended his left hand and shook Rika’s.
“It is very nice to meet you,” Rika said. “Though I’m a bit surprised you came out to see us.”
“Well, you may not be, soon enough. Allow me to introduce Colonel Judi and Sergeant Major Rene.”
Rika shook their hands and introduced Chief Warrant Officer David. Once the greetings were over, they all sat at the table. Rika didn’t take the head, and was glad to see that General Adam did not either. He sat across from her, his pale blue eyes boring into hers.
“It’s been an eventful few days since you first came down here, Captain Rika. You seem to have attracted no small amount of trouble.”
Rika nodded. “It’s a talent. Though it seemed like the trouble was lying in wait for me.”
“Perhaps,” General Adam replied, his tone even, revealing nothing. “And Major Dala. I must admit that it is quite interesting to find you here. Your message was light on details, but high on urgency.”
“Yes, General Adam,” Dala replied with a small waver in her voice. “I wasn’t certain how much information I should transmit, but you were one of the few people I felt confident that I could reach out of band, so to speak.”
“But the fact that you have come here means something is going on at Iapetus,” Rika added. “Something you already know about.”
General Adam nodded slowly. “I have suspicions. Suspicions that have solidified over the last few days. Dala’s reports regarding the data blackout that engulfed the city of Hittis the night your ship was attacked were quite interesting. Especially the omissions.”
“Omissions, sir?” Dala asked.
“Your report felt incomplete,” Colonel Judi spoke up. “You seemed to be working toward certain conclusions, and then never made them. It read like a redacted report, but without the redactions noted.”
Dala frowned. “Someone altered my reports?”
“I believe so,” Judi replied. “I assume you have the originals? Could you transmit them to me—provided we’re secure?”
“The room’s network is segregated,” Rika confirmed. “No one will know if you make a connection here.”
General Adam nodded, and Dala closed her eyes for a moment. “There you are, Colonel.”
Colonel Judi pursed her lips and sighed. “Yes, these are demonstrably different. Stars, even the damage assessments are—wait, there were survivors?”
Dala nodded, and Rika spoke up. “At least ten; maybe more, if the wounded all came through.”
General Adam rose and walked to the sideboard where water and coffee waited. “Then it’s as we feared. Subversive elements are operating with impunity on Iapetus.”
“ ‘Subversive elements’?” Rika asked. “That’s nebulous, to say the least. Who do you think it is?”
“Who do you think?” General Adam asked.
“Hmm…” David began tapping his chin in earnest. “After the first attack, we considered that it was someone who was personally upset at Rika for the part she played in the events on Pyra. After they tried to kill Dala, we widened our scope. It’s certainly someone with means—”
“Kill Dala?” Colonel Judi interrupted. “What are you talking about?”
“None of that reached you?” Rika asked and received negative head shakes in response. “Last night, we saved Dala from an assassination attempt. There was a significant attack in downtown Hittis. Afterward, I took out two fighter craft over the northern edge of the city.”
General Adam blew out a long breath. “Stars, I wish I could just purge the whole lot of them. There must be more rot than I expected, to cover up something like this.”
“Sir? What is going on?” Dala a
sked.
General Adam didn’t respond at first. Instead, he prepared his cup of coffee and stirred it for a moment before turning to the group. “It’s the Nietzscheans, of course. They’re here in Iapetus.”
“The Niets, sir?” Rika asked. “How?”
The general sat at the table and stared at Rika. “Hard to believe you started all this.”
Rika wondered where he was going with this new tack. “Me?”
“When you attacked our president—yes, yes, I know you didn’t really start it. But you breached her bunker and had her in your sights.”
“But I didn’t do it,” Rika replied. “I got the order to stand down.”
General Adam shook his head and smiled. “The order to stand down came almost twenty minutes after you breached. You had plenty of time to kill the president. Plus, I saw the feeds. You couldn’t bring yourself to do it.”
Rika shook her head. “For whatever good it did. The Niets still killed her.”
“It did a lot of good,” General Adam replied. “Marauders would have had the worst time of their lives in Theban space, if one of theirs had killed our president. Septhian merger or no.”
“What does this have to do with there being Niets in Iapetus?” Rika asked.
“Nothing…and everything. There’s a reason why Septhian High Command decided to place your training facility here—a Marauder facility, engaged in training the Niets’ most hated and feared enemy. They wanted to make this system a lightning rod for whatever was to happen next.”
“No,” David interjected. “It’s too fast, sir. We only selected this location three months ago. That’s too fast for the Niets to infiltrate so many branches of your military. It’s not their strong suit.”
“You’re right about that, Chief.” The general nodded, then took a sip of his coffee. “Which means they were already operating here, and you pulled them out into the open—too tempting a target. Which is what we hoped for; we just didn’t expect them to have their hooks in so deep.”
“How do they have their hooks in at all, sir?” Major Dala asked. “They’re the Nietzscheans! How is it that anyone is willing to work with them?”
“There’s a group of people who think the Niets will win. They figure being a part of Nietzschea is no worse than being absorbed by Septhia. I imagine there’s money involved, as well. Lots of money.”
“So you need to clean house,” Rika replied. “How can we help?”
General Adam chuckled. “Well, for starters, keep doing what you’re doing. We wanted a lightning rod, we got one. We need to get these bastards to overextend themselves. Then, when they do, we crush them with extreme prejudice. There’s no mercy for traitors.”
“Then we need to lure them into attacking this base,” Rika replied. “It would take a nuke to dislodge us, maybe not even then. They’ll have to hit us hard, and then we catch them with their pants down.”
General Adam nodded slowly. “How do you plan to do that?”
Rika looked at David. “How tempting a target will we have to be?”
* * * * *
Major Tim grunted, and Rika could imagine him pacing in his tiny office.
Rika had wondered about that, as well. For all she knew, General Adam was playing her. Getting her to weaken her position so that he could destroy Fort Hammerfall with impunity.
Rika hadn’t expected an answer like that from Major Tim.
Seriously, Major, Rika scolded herself mentally as she rose from her desk and paced across the room. How is this man so cowardly?
Rika clenched her teeth and drew in a deep breath before responding to Major Tim.
Major Tim didn’t respond, his silence deafening.
Rika clenched her jaw, willing her heart rate to slow.
SETTING THE TRAP
STELLAR DATE: 08.13.8949 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Fort Hammerfall
REGION: Iapetus, Hercules System, Septhian Alliance
Rika climbed into the ground transport, a vehicle the locals called a Swampfox. It wasn’t the prettiest…van-thing she’d ever seen, but Barne had picked up a gross of them for a steal. Corporal Stripes—the lone mech in the repair and maintenance platoon—had pronounced them sound enough for the mission they had in mind.
Rika smiled to herself at the memory. ‘Sound’ wasn’t the word Stripes had used. He had said something more like, “Not gunna fuck themselves to pieces, but they might fuck you with all the rattlin’.”
“Surprised Stripes isn’t coming along, Captain,” Sergeant Karen said as she pulled herself into the driver’s seat, seeming to read Rika’s thoughts. “He exhibited a special fondness for these things.”
Karen settled into place and grasped the controls—not that anyone needed to drive the Swampfox. It may have looked older than the invention of spaceflight, but it was Link capable, with a rudimentary comp that was guaranteed not to run over animals or humans.
Rika wondered at the order of the items in that guarantee, but considered that it may have been imported, and the translation might be off.
“If by ‘fondness’, you mean a strong desire to send them all to the scrap heap, you might be right,” Rika replied to the sergeant.
Karen chuckled and pulled her cloak around her armor, ensuring her profile looked natural before leaning around to check on Kelly and Keli.
“Four SMI-2s on a mission together. Think that ever happened in the war?” Keli asked as she settled into her seat.
“Sure,” Kelly replied. “Team Hammerfall had four SMI-2s at one point—back before Rika joined up.”
“Had four later on, too,” Rika added. “Took two mechs to replace the amount of lip you gave all the time, Kelly.”
“I didn’t have lips back then,” Kelly retorted.
“And yet you still got twice the discipline as Silva and I.”
Kelly grinned. “Not one to roll over.”
“So, what’s on the agenda for our little outing?” Karen asked. “Anything you’re looking to pick up? Some beer? Fried chicken? Kitty litter for the LT?”
Rika cast Karen a hard look. Knocking the LT was a time-honored tradition, but one usually had the sense not to do it in front of the LT’s commanding officer.
Karen blushed. “Shit, sorry, Captain. I’m still getting used to being able to speak again…I keep saying
things with my out-loud voice that are supposed to stay in the noggin.”
“It’s OK, Sergeant, I won’t tell Lieutenant Leslie. So long as you actually set up a litter box at some point.”
“Really?” Karen asked, turning to look at Rika with wide eyes.
“Well, if she figures out who did it, you might die horribly, so it’s up to you.”
“Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t,” Karen said as she punched in the destination on the manual console.
Kelly and Keli were doubled over with laughter in the backseat, and Rika smiled as well. It felt good to be able to relax, even if this wasn’t going to be a nice, weekend drive.
“Corporal, Private,” Karen called back. “Shut your core-damned mouths back there.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Keli called out, while Kelly added, “Now the sergeant knows when to use rank in address.”
“Stars, some days I liked it better when none of us had mouths,” Karen said with a sigh. “Things were a lot less catty back then.”
“Oh! Good one!” Keli crowed. “I’ll have to tell Lieutenant Leslie you said that.”
“Seriously, you two,” Rika said, suppressing a laugh. “We’re not on a grade school field trip. Don’t make me come back there.”
The Swampfox reached the compound’s gate, and the guards looked over the vehicle and its occupants for a minute before waving them through.
“Sucks being the boss,” Rika said and sighed. “No one ever gives you the quick once-over. They want you to make sure to notice how good they are at their jobs.”
“Hard being an officer, we know,” Kelly said with mock compassion.
“You’re doing the best you can,” Keli chimed in, her tone soulful and appreciative.
“OK, seriously,” Rika growled. “When I said we need to act casually, I didn’t mean for you to mock your superiors for the whole trip.”
“Huh,” Keli said then turned to Kelly. “This is most of what we do in our free time. How else do we act casually?”
“Beats me,” Kelly shrugged. “You follow sports?”
“I don’t even know if they have sports here.”
