Rikas Marauders

by M. D. Cooper

 

  Chase replied, a laugh coming through the Link.

  Rika closed the connection and smiled as she gazed around the furniture store, squaring her shoulders and preparing herself for what was coming next. Then she reached out to Alice and Tex.

  Tex replied.

  Alice said at the same time.

 

  Alice said grudgingly.

  Rika replied before turning to the NSAI column.

 

  Rika gave a curt nod, and glanced at the NSAI tower.

 

  “What should I do with her?” Gunnery Sergeant Tex asked, gesturing to the Nietzschean major.

  Rika sighed. “Knock the coward out and leave her, we can’t be bothered to haul around garbage. Better to have a worm like her back with her people than in our way.”

  “Fucken Niets,” Tex muttered as he walked toward the enemy officer and gave the woman a light kick in the back of the head.

  “Shit, Tex,” Rika said, leaning over the table. “You didn’t break her neck, did you?”

  “Colonel,” Tex placed a hand over his heart. “I would never do such a thing to a poor, defenseless Niet. She may have a bit of a concussion, but her bones are all intact.”

  Rika shook her head and turned just as Leslie materialized in front of her. “Shit!” she exclaimed. “You trying to give me a heart attack?”

  “If that’s what it takes to get your ass in gear,” Leslie replied. “Our window to slip past the Niet battalion is closing.”

  “Right, let’s go.”

  A minute later, both Rika and Leslie were on the rooftops, invisible and deadly as they leapt from building to building, moving deeper into Memphis’s city center.

  The brick and stone flat-topped buildings gave way to older structures with steepled roofs, and Rika’s and Leslie’s progress slowed, as both women had to be more deliberate in their leaps from roof to roof.

  Niki noted as Rika leapt across a fifty-meter gap, landing as lightly as she could on the apex of a stone building’s roof.

 

 

  Rika gave a soft whistle within the confines of her helmet as she followed Leslie to the next rooftop.

 

 

  Rika asked, catching a halt signal from Leslie, and moving into the lee of a spire on the rooftop.

  Niki explained.

 

  Niki laughed.

  Rika said, wishing she’d paid more attention to the nations and empires that had hewn their way through space before the Age of Reconstruction.

 

  Rika added.

  A sigh came from her AI, causing Rika to frown.

 

 

 

  Rika shrugged as she eased over the crest of the roof to watch a column of Nietzscheans double-time it past on the street below.

 

  Rika asked.

 

  Rika’s jaw tightened as she considered those implications.

 

 

  Niki pressed.

  Rika gave a derisive snort.

 

  Rika was growing agitated with Niki’s line of reasoning.

 

  Rika asked Niki.

  Niki’s tone was cool in the extreme.

 

 

  Rika clenched her teeth and slowed her breathing. I got back into the shit anyway.> Despite her best efforts, Rika’s tone contained a large dose of vehemence.

  Niki didn’t reply, and Rika sighed, the fight gone out of her.

 

  Niki replied.

  The AI’s tone was rather sullen, but Rika decided it would have to do for now.

  The Nietzscheans on the street had passed by. Leslie signaled for Rika to begin moving once more, and after several minutes, they had progressed through the older stone buildings and reached a newer section of Memphis, featuring tall towers sheathed in a glowing polymer that resembled marble, but with shifting patterns of light and dark working their way across the structures.

  Rika observed, noting the high-rise that the Nietzscheans had claimed for their system headquarters.

  Niki replied.

  Leslie pinged her location as Rika landed on the last steepled roof in the older section of the city, and Rika moved close to the scout so they could communicate on a tightbeam.

  Leslie said.

  Rika looked over the route they’d need to take. Seven blocks north, then three west. Each and every one of them patrolled by the enemy.

  Rika commented.

  Leslie sent a ‘negative’ flag over the Link.

  Niki suggested.

  Rika replied.

  Leslie added.

  Rika nodded and eased toward the edge of the rooftop.

  She was about to jump down, when the distant thuds of artillery came from the east.

  Rika asked while checking the deployments again.

  She passed a feed to Rika and Leslie that was flagged as originating from the Nietzschean HQ.

  “All Marauder forces, this is Admiral Gideon of the Nietzschean Military Service. We have just fired an artillery barrage on a residential area in East Memphis. You will stand down and cease all aggression, or we will continue shelling civilian targets. You have five minutes to comply.”

  Leslie commented when the transmission had ended.

  Rika said before calling up to Heather.

  Captain Heather interrupted, rage evident in her voice.

  Rika replied.

  Heather snorted.

 

  BERSERKER

  STELLAR DATE: 10.12.8949 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: 2km South of Bridge Street, 44th Ave, Memphis, Kansas

  REGION: Blue Ridge System, Old Genevia, Nietzschean Empire

 

Chase ordered.

  Corporal Ben signaled his acknowledgment, and Chase saw Whispers, Kim, and Harris move to their assigned positions.

  With the Nietzscheans closing on all sides, his options had become more and more limited, which was why he was two kilometers from the front line with four other mechs, getting ready to take on the remainder of the enemy battalion that had left the spaceport half an hour earlier.

 

 

  Chase replied.

  He surveyed the city to the south of his position, noting that most of the area consisted of warehouses and commercial buildings. It would make covering the area easier than if it were residential terrain, but from what meager intel he had, it was apparent that the enemy was advancing in a line over two kilometers across.

  Stars, there’s just no way we can secure that much ground.

  Whispers ventured.

  Chase replied, hoping the private would have a brilliant idea that would save the day.

 

  he asked, wondering if the mechs didn’t see him as a full member of the battalion because he used to be fully organic.

  Whispers said, his mental tone hushed.

  Chase allowed.

 

  Berserk, Chase tasted the word.

 

  Chase looked south at the approaching enemy, still four hundred strong.

  He switched to address the entire fireteam.

  Harris cried out.

  Ben gave a more formal acknowledgement.

  Chase moved out of the cover he’d selected and into the middle of a wide intersection.

  The Niets were moving cautiously along the perimeters of buildings, but from what the overhead drones relayed, a platoon would have to cross this street. Chances are they’d split their forces on either side, giving him his perfect berserker moment.

  He didn’t have long to wait before the enemy began to appear around a corner a block to the south. Two fireteams moved up the sides of the street, crossed the intersection, and then continued north. The rest of the platoon came behind—four squads, between thirteen and fifteen Niets in each. A man with lieutenant’s bars on his armor was in the middle of the formation, and Chase tagged him for one of the first shots.

  A minute later, half the Niets were at the intersection, the first squads moving across the open space.


  Chase sent out a five-count to his team, and when the counter on his HUD hit zero, he opened fire.

  Chaingun in his right hand, and PR-109 in his left, Chase sprayed rounds at both squads while unloading half his remaining Mini-Bop missiles at the Niets further back, one homing in on the lieutenant.

  The barrage spent the last of the ammunition for his chaingun, and he discarded the weapon. In the few seconds since he’d launched his assault, several of the Niets had tracked his shots and begun firing at where he stood.

  Their counterattack was not to be simple, though. His position in their midst meant that the Niets were far more likely to shoot their comrades than their target, and Chase compounded that by moving backward, keeping enemies on both sides while continuing to fire with his PR-109.

  The Nietzscheans he was shadowing reached the northern side of the intersection, taking cover behind benches and several of the trees that lined the street.

  Chase lobbed two grenades at each side, and then leapt into the air, triggering a stealth system flush, and landing invisibly on the southern side of the intersection. Once there, he fired another barrage of Mini-Bops, taking out an entire squad in seconds.

  Twenty-five seconds had passed since Chase had first opened fire, and nearly half the Nietzscheans were injured or dead.

  An entire squad on the south side of the intersection broke and ran, leaving just a smattering of enemies remaining on that side of the road. They bravely fired on Chase, but with his stealth systems and speed, they only tagged him twice before he was upon them, firing into their midst at point-blank range.

  When that group was down, he turned back to the remaining Niets on the north side of the road, only to see them fleeing east and west.

  Chase asked the other mechs.

  Kim announced, while Harris chimed in with,

  Whispers intoned.

  Chase was about to reply, when movement to the south caught his attention, and he turned to see two Goon-Mechs lumbering into view.

  A laugh that was half elation and half raw fury escaped his throat as he charged toward the new enemy, knowing that he was being driven by adrenaline and the taste of victory rather than logic.