by M. D. Cooper
The carrier-spaceport was four kilometers long and two wide. The Golden Lark was holding off ten kilometers to the west.
The data from the ‘Lark’s CIC tagged the carrier as the Atlantis, and Rika watched as a trio of railguns atop the floating behemoth fired shots at the Marauder cruiser.
Because both ships were in fixed positions, the Golden Lark’s defense beams melted the railgun shots before they hit. It was still a spectacular sight though, the rail shots exploding over the ocean, each one a brilliant display of energy, brighter than daylight.
Above, the Marauder fighters were engaged in an aerial fight with the Atlantis’s attack craft. Rika was tempted to join in the fray, but tamped down her enthusiasm. Chances were that this vessel was the staging ground for all of the attacks on her and her mechs.
There would be answers within.
The Major’s voice was entirely deadpan, and Rika couldn’t tell if he was kidding or not.
Rika connected with Lieutenant Crudge, and they planned out Fifth Platoon’s breach points. Fifth was the smallest platoon in the company, with only sixty-six mechs. A pittance against the hundreds that could be on the Atlantis.
However, sixty-six mechs against a six-kilometer square floating spaceport was a walk in the park after what they’d faced at Hammerfall. Especially with a starship as backup.
The ‘Lark pulsed its engines, and pushed in toward the Atlantis. Rika stayed close to the cruiser’s hull, but didn’t go underneath like the major had suggested. She could only imagine what getting between a starship and its grav column would feel like.
As the they approached the Atlantis, the carrier increased its rate of fire, adding short-range missiles and anti-air to its defense. All of which splashed harmlessly against the cruiser’s shields.
The Golden Lark was one of the Marauders’ most powerful cruisers. It would have taken a nuclear warhead to breach its shields, and that would have destroyed the Atlantis as well.
As they eased up to the Atlantis, Rika signaled the SkyScream to disconnect her from the vessel, passing control of the fighter over to Niki. Once out, Rika quickly reattached her limbs, keeping her arms tucked inside the storage slots until the last moment.
To her right, the carrier loomed large, towers, cradles, and landing strips forming a jumbled mess on its surface.
Her HUD noted the Atlantis’s shields with a dim glow. It had a defensive barrier as powerful as the ‘Lark’s, but in twenty-two seconds, the Marauder ship would brush its shield against the carrier’s, and the two graviton-driven shielding systems would nullify one another.
Rika timed her countdown with that of Fifth Platoon, and slowed her breathing, forcing herself to grow calm and get ready for whatever was to come.
Her timer hit zero, and Rika leapt off the SkyScream, which Niki then flew up into the ‘Lark’s open bays on her left.
She fell the thirty meters to the deck of the Atlantis and immediately came under fire from a group of soldiers to her right.
Rika fired a depleted uranium round at them, then dove behind a low structure—some kind of venting system—and unslung her JE-84.
She released two drones and saw that her shot had killed two soldiers, and that the remaining three were falling back.
Run, little cockroaches, run!
She synced with the platoon’s combat net, and saw that she was close to her intended position near squad four.
Rika saw fireteam four-two approach from her left and signaled to them that there were three enemies on the far side of the vent. They nodded and spread out to flank them.
She joined in their formation, and they found that the soldiers had fled below deck. Rika was tempted to rush after them, but she and the mechs could cover ground more quickly on the surface of the carrier—even if it incurred more risk of being flanked or surrounded.
As they moved toward the location of the CIC, a tower near the center of the carrier, more and more enemies appeared, attempting to stop the fourteen mechs.
Behind them, the Golden Lark had backed off again, lest the Atlantis’s railguns shoot it where the shields were negated.
Jynafer reformed her squad into a spear, and they took off at a run, the forward fireteam bringing maximum fire to bear on the targets directly in front of them, and the trailing mechs shooting at anyone who attempted to close in behind them.
Rika imagined that anyone observing the surface of the carrier would see a straight line of destruction pointed at the CIC tower.
It telegraphed their intent, but she couldn’t think of a better way to reach their target in a timely manner.
Rika laughed as she leveled her GNR and fired an electron beam at an AA gun that was pivoting to fire at the deck where the first half of the squad was advancing.
The AA gun exploded, and Rika picked up her pace, moving to join the forward fireteam.
Rika fired her JE-84 at a pair of enemies in light armor, half-curious what the Roaches had been thinking, advancing on mechs in light armor, and half-wondering what passed for illegal sims on Iapetus.
Rika passed updated orders to Jynafer’s squad, and ahead, an AM-3 tore a hatch off its hinges before dropping a grenade down the hole.
Fireteam four-two went in first, pushing ahead and making room for the other mechs. Within a minute, all were within the Atlantis, pushing down, deck after deck, toward the bowels of the carrier.
In close-quarters fighting, the never-ending stream of enemies began to wear them down. An AM-3 lost an arm, while one of the RR-2s had a damaged leg lock up. Another AM-3 took a rocket to the chest while they were advancing through a mess hall.
Rika had to admit that Jynafer was right.
Rika and the remaining mechs pushed on, descending another two levels. Rika consulted the schematics that the SAF had provided, and saw that they were only one level from the submarine bay.
A ladder at the far end of the corridor should take them down to a gantry above the bay.
“Shit,” Rika swore. She rushed ahead and jumped down the ladder, landing on a catwalk overlooking a bay occupied by four submarines. Two were active, and Rika took aim at the first while asking Niki,
Rika figured the VIPs would go for the closest, and fired a sustained burst from her electron beam, followed by her last depleted uranium round. The shots connected with the submarine’s hull one meter forward of the main access hatch.
The electron beam heated up the hull and melted away a few centimeters of steel, creating a cavity for the DPU to strike. When it hit, the uranium rod punched right through, smashing a half-meter hole in the sub’s hull.
A second later, more shots came from the catwalk as the other mechs fired on the bow and rudders of the two submarines.
Confident that neither vessel could get away, now that they were no longer watertight, Rika leapt over the railing to the dock below.
As she dropped, Rika considered that the subs could have grav shields. It was risky, but a desperate person may try to brave the seas with a hole in the hull, trusting their shields to keep them safe.
She’d just have to make sure they didn’t try that.
Rika sprinted across the dock, firing her JE-84 at several enemy soldiers who tried to slow her down, before she jumped across the widening gap between the dock and the ship.
By some miracle, the submarine’s shield hadn’t come online yet, and Rika slid through the hole she’d blown in the hull, fell through a gash in the first deck, and landed in the ship’s command center.
There was a man with an admiral’s stars on his lapel screaming for the submarine to dive, while another with a colonel’s leaves yelled something about capture. Two sailors at the ship’s navigation consoles were working furiously, one reporting that they couldn’t dive, as the grav shields had failed.
With all the commotion, none of them noticed Rika until she stepped forward and called out, “Is this a private cruise, or can anyone join in?”
All four turned to face her, and Rika’s eyes narrowed as she looked into the colonel’s.
“I know you….”
REVELATIONS
STELLAR DATE: 08.14.8949 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Fort Hammerfall
REGION: Iapetus, Hercules System, Septhian Alliance
The local SAF command center in Hittis was in shambles after Major Dala’s attack, and the closest base was on lockdown, still undergoing scrutiny from General Adam’s investigators.
The Atlantis was in similar condition, a thousand SAF soldiers working their way through the carrier, deck-by-deck searching for intel on the full scope of the attempted coup.
Surprisingly, that made Fort Hammerfall the safest place on Cassini’s eastern seaboard for the meeting with the SAF command.
Rika stood in her quarters and drew a deep breath. She’d faced down a president—and made a friend of her—and challenged and killed a despotic dictator. A planetary governor, General Adams, and their staffs were far less imposing.
She could do this.
Besides, she’d captured the prize on that submarine. No matter how upset any of them may be at how the prior day had gone, they were now one step closer to cutting out the cancer that had festered on Iapetus, and in the Hercules System in general.
Rika walked out of her quarters and almost ran into Chase in the hall.
“Chase! Sorry!” Rika exclaimed. “I was lost in my own head there. What are you doing here?”
Chase smiled and slid an arm around Rika’s back, pulling her in close for a kiss. “I wanted to find you before you went into the lion’s den to wish you luck. You’ve got this…whatever ‘this’ turns out to be.”
“Well, it’d better turn out to be a big fat ‘thank you’.” Rika’s eyes darted in the direction of the command building. “If I get reamed out after saving their planet, I’ll be pissed.”
“No one’s gonna ream you,” Chase gave Rika another kiss. “You’re the one that’ll—nevermind, this metaphor is going to fail me fast. Look, you’ll do fine. Let me walk you over.”
Rika stilled her mind and enjoyed the few minutes of peace as she and Chase walked out of the officer’s housing and across to the command building.
Outside, activity thrummed all around them, and the bulk of the Perseid’s Dream loomed over the buildings from its resting place between the landing strips to the north. The Golden Lark was back in space, maintaining a geosynchronous position over Fort Hammerfall.
Rika ignored all of it, simply glad to be alive and to have lost so few of her mechs—only five fatalities, though Lieutenant Carson and his R&M platoon were up to their necks in repairs.
The sun was rising in the western sky, and Rika took a deep breath as its warm light struck her face. “You know, you’re right. It’s going to be a good day. I can feel it.”
“Damn straight, it is,” Chase replied with a grin. “We kicked bad guy ass yesterday. Once the mess down here gets cleaned up, we’re going to drink ourselves stupid and party for a week.”
Rika snorted and laughed at the same time. “Damn…you made me snorgh!”
“ ‘Snorgh’? Where’d you grow up? Everyone knows that’s a ‘lort’. Way easier to say.”
“ ‘Lort’, my hard, steel ass. It’s a snorgh!”
Chase shook his head as he held open the door to the Command Building—it had taken a hit from stray fire in the fight, and the automatic actuator was broken. The glass had been shot out as well, so Rika wasn’t certain why he bothered to open it at all.
She stopped and turned to him. “Wish me luck.”
“You don’t need luck, you’re Rika.”
Rika scowled at him. “Wish me luck anyway. I like to feel lucky.”
Chase leant forward, and his lips met hers. Half a minute later, he pulled back. “Good luck.”
“Got one of those for me, too?” Leslie asked as she walked past with Captain Penny.
Penny raised an eyebrow. “Fraternization with the enlisted?”
Rika rolled her eyes at Penny. The captain of the Perseid’s Dream frequently gave Rika a hard time about her relationship with Chase. She did it in good fun, but sometimes Rika suspected there was something behind the jokes.
“You bet. It’s how we roll in the Ninth Battalion. If you can’t screw your underlings, what’s the point?”
“I’m an underling now, am I?” Chase laughed and gave Rika a final peck on the cheek. As he walked out of the command building, he called out over his shoulder, “Well, this underling has a massive mess to help clean up, while you uppity-ups all talk about things that have already happened.”
“Zing!” Rika called back and joined Leslie and Penny.
“So, who all is coming now? The list changes every time I check,” Leslie said.
“Governor Hengch is already here, along with two aides. Major Tim is on his way down. General Adam, his retinue, and Dala will be in attendance, as well. Plus some Admiral named Irah.”
“I guess Dala is doing Zim’s job now,” Leslie replied. “What, with him being as dirty as a hog on a steaming hot day.”
Rika nodded. “I find myself wondering if Dala was always doing Zim’s job—at least the part that he was supposed to be doing, not the illegal, insurrection-supporting part.”
It didn’t take long to reach the conference room, and Rika steeled herself b
efore stepping inside. Remember, you’ve faced worse, she told herself.
She pushed open the door to find Governor Hengch sitting at the table, reviewing information on a personal holo. Her two aides stood behind her, and while the governor did not immediately make eye contact, they did. One seemed dispassionate, and the other clearly did not like what he saw.
Rika decided to ignore them.
“Governor Hengch.” Rika reached her left hand across the table.
The governor looked up, and her eyes narrowed as she took Rika in. “Captain Rika, good to finally get to meet you.”
Rika laughed nervously. “Had you been anticipating this for long?”
Hengch shrugged, her long green hair bouncing on her shoulders. “Well, when a mercenary operation sets up shop on your soil, one does become curious—especially if it’s run by a soldier as famous as you. I wanted to come out for a visit sooner, but never got the chance. Seemed like a priority now.”
By the governor’s expression, it was hard to tell whether or not Hengch meant ‘famous’, or would have preferred to say ‘infamous’.
“Well, I’m glad things turned out better than they could have,” Rika replied with a warm smile. “This is Captain Penny of the Perseid’s Dream, and Lieutenant Leslie. My XO, Lieutenant Scarcliff, will be along shortly, as well as Major Tim of the Golden Lark. One of our Company AIs, Potter, is in attendance as well, as is Niki, the AI that resides within me.”
Governor Hengch nodded to Penny and Leslie as they sat. “Good to meet you as well. Iapetus owes the Marauders a debt of gratitude that we will do our best to repay.”
“It’s what we’re here for,” Rika replied. “Well, not exactly, I suppose—given that this was supposed to be a training mission. Either way, kicking folks like the Roaches in the teeth is what the Marauders do best.”
“I heard you had named them that.” Hengch gave a perfunctory smile, but then her expression grew troubled. “But I don’t think this was the work of some separatist group, or an element of angry, ex-military patriots.”
