by M. D. Cooper
Commander Kiers fell down the bridge, hit a chair, and then flew out the open door, into the atrium beyond.
Ben peered around the door at what was now a sixty-meter drop. “Oops.”
The Fury Lance bucked like a wild horse in the gas giant’s winds, but Rika could see that their descent had stopped, and they were rising once more.
The 10g dropped to only 8, and Rika felt a small lessening in the tremendous pressure on her chest. She wondered how the squishies must be feeling. She suspected that their ascent was going to kill as many Niets as the attack had.
The minutes dragged on as the ship crept out of the planet, kilometer by kilometer. Then they passed into the troposphere; the heat warnings began to fall silent, and the shuddering decreased to a mere tremor.
A minute later, the blessed blackness of space filled the forward viewscreen, and the bridge erupted with cheers.
Rika was surprised to hear a tremor in her AI’s voice.
CAPTAIN RIKA
STELLAR DATE: 08.20.8949 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Fury Lance
REGION: Within Armens, Hercules System, Septhian Alliance
Rika sat in the Fury Lance’s command chair, reviewing the after-action reports and damage assessments that were flowing in from her teams.
All-in-all, it was better than it could have been, but worse than she’d hoped. Twenty-seven of her Marauders had died, and fifty more were seriously injured.
Vargo Klen, by some miracle, had survived—though there wasn’t much of him left. Someone had found his last will, and in it, he asked to be turned into a mech if he was seriously injured.
Rika didn’t want to think about that just yet. He could be kept in a medical coma for the time being.
There was nothing wrong with prosthetic limbs in and of themselves, and should the receiver be willing, there was no moral dilemma.
But mechs were more than mods and prosthetics—they were made to kill. An arm that helped you pick up your cup of coffee or caress your lover was one thing. An arm that was purpose-built to kill everyone in sight was a different thing entirely.
Rika pushed that concern from her mind as a call from Major Tim came in.
Major Tim laughed and began to speak, when Cora interrupted him
Rika rose from her chair and looked at the dreadnought’s bridge before her.
Major Tim didn’t respond for almost a full sixty seconds, but Rika could feel his anger spilling across the Link.
Finally, he replied.
“Rika!”
She spun to see Chase entering the bridge, and leapt over the command chair as she rushed toward him. She stopped short when she saw that his left arm was missing.
“Chase! Again?”
“It’s OK, Rika. It’s just an arm.”
She wrapped her arms around him and gave a gentle squeeze. “Seems like a habit. Vargo Klen wants to be a mech; maybe we should just get it over with, and do it to you, too.”
Chase raised an eyebrow and gave her a tired smile. “You know, I wonder if that wouldn’t be such a bad idea.”
“Really?” Rika couldn’t keep the surprise from her voice.
“Yeah I’m losing limbs on nearly every engagement. Would be a lot more useful if they could just bolt on a new one.”
Rika took a step back and gauged Chase’s size. “AM-3?”
“Hell no!” Chase exclaimed. “If—and this is probably just the post-battle adrenaline talking, plus the wonderful drugs my armor is injecting me with…where was I?”
“ ‘If’,” Rika supplied.
“Right! If I become a mech, I’m keeping my man-bits. No two ways about it.”
Barne snorted as he walked onto the bridge with Leslie at his side. “A mech with a dick. That’ll be the day. Then once you get your bits back, Rika, you two can finally fuck and make little mech babies.”
“Barne!” Leslie exclaimed and smacked the First Sergeant on the back of the head. “That’s…I’m not sure what. Inappropriate, at least!”
Rika couldn’t help but notice that Leslie’s hand had been clasping Barne’s before she’d pulled it free to hit him.
“It’s OK, Leslie. Asshole is part of Barne’s charm.”
“He’s a man made of ass,” Chase added.
Barne nodded. “And I make it look good.”
Chase turned back to Rika. “So, what’s this about Albany?”
“Niets hit them nine days ago,” Rika replied. “We’re jumping out there to lend a hand.”
“On whose orders?” Leslie’s eyes narrowed as she stared at Rika.
“Mine,” Rika replied.
Barne sat at a duty station and placed his feet on the console. “Fine by me.” He leaned back and interlaced his fingers. “If that’s where the Niets are, then we’d best get going. They’re not going to die on their own.”
Rika grinned and slapped Barne on the shoulder. “I like your attitude, Top.”
“Who said you could call me ‘Top’?”
TANIS RICHARDS
STELLAR DATE: 08.27.8949 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Jersey City, Pyra
REGION: Albany System, Septhian Alliance
Tanis sagged against the crumbling brick wall, praying it would hold up long enough for her to catch her breath. She looked down at her rifle, shaking her head at the energy readout.
Ten percent.
Her left arm was gone—the flowmetal it was made of long ago consumed to build nano—and a hole was blown clear through her right leg. To top it off, her reactive armor was failing.
Overhead, just beyond the burning towers of Jersey City, another Nietzschean ship drifted into view, beam fire glowing brightly as it fired on…something.
Angela sighed, the AI also somehow sounding weary.
Tanis felt
her eyelids droop, the last of her energy nearly gone, when the sound of heavy footfalls came from a nearby side street.
Her eyes snapped back open, and Tanis pushed off from the wall, wincing each time she put pressure on her injured leg. She collapsed behind a pile of rubble and swung her rifle up onto the debris, aiming it in the general direction of the side street. Her breath was loud and ragged in her ears as she waited for whatever was next.
There was no backup to be called, no ship to save them with starfire. They were alone.
Tanis felt a smile grace her lips.
Above them, more Nietzschean ships drifted over the city, their beams raking the ground as far as the eye could see.
On the ground, the first Nietzschean soldier came around the corner, and Tanis opened fire.
She’d kill as many as she could before they got her.
THE END
RIKA COMMANDER
RIKA’S MARAUDERS – BOOK 4
FOREWORD
Give or take a bit, we’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of when I first conceived Rika, which seems like both a very long time and a brief span, all at once.
If Tanis is my Artemis, born in turmoil, and deeply storied with many aspects, Rika is my Athena. Born fully formed from my mind, almost unwillingly so.
I still remember when I wrote the first two chapters of Rika Outcast. They spilled from my fingers at a feverish pace, both written in less than two hours, beginning at 11PM one night. Other than grammatical edits, they remain as I originally typed them.
What a tease Rika was. I thought all of her tales would be easy to tell, but she’s a lot more complex than one would first think. The things she’s gone through surely would have broken me, and many others. Whenever I write her, I ask myself “What would Rika do?” The answer is often one that is different from where I plan to take the story.
Which is glorious.
Often, when writers talk about characters doing things we don’t expect or want, people look at us like we have a screw loose. After all, aren’t we the ones writing the story?
Probably? Maybe? Sometimes I wonder if maybe I’m channeling some sort of real series of events. I know that’s not the case, but sometimes it feels like it.
One thing is for certain: characters like Rika are not born solely from my mind, but from watching and studying humanity. Rika’s is a story of a fully human woman, who is not fully human. Rika is the best of us all, she has a strength we all wish to possess, and a true compassion that we envy. Her wrath is terrible, and her power is all but unmatched.
Still, her flaws are many. She’s brash and rash, she often doubts herself (everyone doubts themselves), she’s issued orders that have gotten people killed, and had loved ones die in her arms.
None of us would want to have had Rika’s life.
But under the weight of her past, and all that has been done to her, she is unbowed. Through some incredible desire to push forward, a will to live that comes from surviving so much, Rika perseveres.
There is one thing all successful people have in common, one thing that separates success from failure. It’s simple: not giving up. It’s impossible to succeed if you’re not working at the thing you want to achieve. So don’t stop doing that thing, whatever it is.
Unless it’s evil, then stop. I mean it. I’ll send Rika.
In the end, Rika is going to succeed. I’m going to succeed. And by the stars that burn in the deep, I hope all of you succeed at your goals as well.
M. D. Cooper
April 2018, Danvers
MEANWHILE IN THEBES…
If you are reading the Orion War series, and have not read Attack on Thebes, I recommend pausing here and reading that book first to avoid spoilers below.
If you are not reading that series, then this will give you a recap of the events in that crossover book.
At the very end of Rika Triumphant, we were introduced to Tanis Richards, a woman who was stranded on Pyra, the primary habitable world in the Albany System.
Tanis is the leader of a new group Rika has never heard of before, a coalition of allies who are trying to stop an empire known as Orion from sweeping across the Inner Stars.
To Rika’s surprise, the Nietzscheans are a proxy nation that Orion is using, and they want to capture Tanis Richards very badly.
When Rika arrives at the Albany System, she teams up with Tanis’s people and leads a daring rescue where she manages to save Tanis—though for the most part, Tanis has managed to save herself.
Rika sees Tanis do things that seem impossible for a human to achieve, and, what’s more, she witnesses levels of technology that are beyond any she has dreamt of.
Though the Nietzscheans sent the largest fleet Rika had ever seen into the Albany System, a force of over seventy thousand vessels, the Allies defeat that fleet, suffering minimal losses.
As this story opens, Rika is aboard one of the docking bays of a ship in the Intrepid Space Force (the primary element of the allied forces). Though her dreadnought, the Fury Lance, is a four-kilometer-long behemoth, it is able to dock within the ISS Carthage’s docking bay; a feat that has left Rika in nearly as much amazement as what she witnessed Tanis do on the planet below.
And so, we begin the next phase of Rika’s journey: Commander.
MEETING THE ADMIRAL
STELLAR DATE: 08.28.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: A1 Docking Bay, Carthage
REGION: Pyra, Albany System, Thebes, Septhian Alliance
Rika held Chase in a fierce embrace, unconcerned about harming him, thanks to the armor he wore. She was only dimly aware of Barne and Leslie speaking beside them while she pressed her forehead into Chase’s temple.
“You good?” Chase asked after a few moments, his voice a hoarse whisper in her ear.
“Yeah,” Rika gave a slight nod. “I’m good.”
Chase pulled back and met Rika’s eyes. “Even though I knew you made it to the Derringer...when that dropship got blown away, I almost pissed myself.”
Rika chuckled. “You and me both…not that I can.”
“I just pictured you springing a leak,” Barne said with a gravelly laugh.
Rika glanced at Barne and tapped him on the shoulder with the barrel of her GNR. “My only leak comes out of this.”
Barne laughed harder. “Now I’m thinking of your DPUs just sliding out of the barrel and plopping on the deck like jelly.”
Leslie shook her head and looked like she was going to slap Barne upside the head. She didn’t, but her tail was twitching angrily. “When are you going to grow up, Barne?”
“This is me grown up. You should have seen me when I was younger.”
Rika looked up and shook her head before glancing at the Fury Lance further down the dock. “The other four ships still out there?”
Chase nodded. “Yeah, they’re inside this behemoth’s stasis shields, though—the thought of which is nuts, I might add.”
Rika gestured toward the dockcar Barne and Chase had used. “C’mon, we need to get back out there and rejoin the fight. The Niets are going to try to destroy Pyra while they run off with their tails between their legs.”
“You mean ‘destroy it more’,” Barne grunted.
“Rika,” a commanding voice called out from behind her.
Rika turned to see Tanis approaching, appearing alert and in complete control of herself—a far cry from the unconscious woman Rika had carried to the dropship less than an hour ago.
“I owe you and yours a deep debt of gratitude,” Tanis said as she approached, accompanied by Priscilla and two other women. One of the newcomers looked like a near clone of Tanis, but the other had far darker skin and appeared to have no genetic ties to the admiral. Still, both of these two stood closer than P
riscilla, and Rika got the sense that they were family.
She had expected Tanis to glow, or talk like she had a thousand voices. The woman exuded a command presence like no other leader Rika had ever seen, but other than that, she seemed perfectly normal.
Rika smiled and held out her left hand. “Admiral Richards. I’m glad to see you’re doing better. You were in rough shape back on the planet…I imagine doing an impression of a starship engine is exhausting. No pun intended.”
Tanis’s eyes widened a fraction, and Rika wondered how she felt about what had happened in Jersey City. From what Priscilla had told her, what Rika had witnessed was not something Tanis—or anyone, for that matter—had done before.
At least not that anyone knew of.
The hint of surprise on Tanis’s face disappeared, replaced by a wry smile as she said, “I was feeling a bit of burnout.”
Rika gave a soft laugh, but it faded as Tanis’s expression grew serious once more.
“I am deeply sorry about General Mill and Captain Ayer,” she said. “I feel somewhat responsible for what happened to them. They died honorably.”
There was guilt in the admiral’s eyes. And compassion. It was heartening to see it displayed so clearly from someone in such an elevated position.
Rika shook her head, a gesture meant to absolve Tanis of any guilt. This was a war against a vile enemy; the only constant was the loss of good people.
“You may have been the catalyst, ma’am,” Rika said solemnly, “but the blame lies with traitors in the Septhian and Theban governments. What happened here was going to occur sooner or later, anyway.”
Tanis reached up and tucked her hair behind her ears. “You’re probably right about that. We’ll have to determine how deep that sickness goes.”
