by M. D. Cooper
Alice nodded as she looked over the ship that Alison had pulled up on the holo. “You’re right about it being tight for ten. What if we cut that number? Can you assault a Nietzschean ship with just one fireteam?”
Alison barked a laugh. “Don’t you recall Sepe? I only took two fireteams for a dreadnought; one will be plenty for a tin can full of Nietzschean brass running with their tails between their legs. All we have to do is free Rika, and she’ll tear them limb from limb.”
Alice grinned. “Excellent. Get your best fireteam to the ship, and make sure it’s ready to go. I’ll inform Lieutenant Fuller that I’m borrowing some of his mechs.”
Alison saluted and left the CIC, feeling a bit uneasy about leaving without reporting in to Lieutenant Fuller herself. She was tempted to do just that, but he was clear across the spaceport, working with third squad to take out a final batch of Nietzschean holdouts. She didn’t have time to hoof it over there and give him the information in person, so she would have to rely on Alice to pass on the news.
* * * * *
“Fuck!” Chase swore.
Less than ten seconds later, Fuller was back.
Alison wouldn’t go off on her own. This is definitely Alice’s doing. Chase let a few choice curses for the woman flow through his mind. He didn’t know what she was playing at, but she’d picked the perfect time to make her move; there was no way Chase was going to send a team after her when Rika was missing.
“Can you reach them?”
Chase spun and paced across the room, feeling torn about leaving Alison in Alice’s hands while Rika was also missing.
“What’s wrong?” a deep-timbred voice asked from the entrance to the CIC, and Chase turned to see the ISF colonel, Borden.
“It’s that damn Alice,” Chase muttered. “She’s taken five of my mechs, and snuck off. Anyone I send after her could be someone I need to get Rika back.”
“Never liked her,” Borden ground the words out slowly. “But Alison is good people. I’ll go fetch them…and bring Alice back in shackles. You focus on getting Rika back from the Niets.”
Chase pulled his helmet off and strode to the ISF Marine, extending his hand. Borden pulled his helmet off as well, the two men’s eyes meeting.
“You’re sure?” Chase asked.
Borden’s usually stern expression cracked into a smile. “I beat Jenisa and Alison in a game of Snark; they owe me too many credits to let them off this easy.”
Chase snorted. “Well, we can’t let that ride. Lightspeed to you, Colonel.”
“And to you, Captain. You need to get your fleet after Rika; this world can take care of itself. It was going to have to, anyway.”
The ISF colonel turned and walked out of the CIC, leaving Chase to consider his words. The man was right; they wouldn’t have stayed around for long—but they also would not have left the people high and dry, at the mercy of any remaining Niets and whatever thugs would be crawling out of their hidey holes.
A snort came over the Link.
Klen’s tone was guarded.
AMONG THE MISSING
STELLAR DATE: 10.12.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: The MacWood Building, Memphis, Kansas
REGION: Blue Ridge System, Old Genevia, Nietzschean Empire
“Dammit!” Kelly swore as rail fire tore out of the MacWood Building’s loading bay, spraying across the street and tearing into the adjacent tower. “Fucking Niets just don’t want to come out and play.”
Yig shook his head as the rail fire died off again. “We could hit them full force, but we’re not going to get into the building if we bring it down on their heads. We need some sort of distraction.”
“The Skyscreams are too far away, dealing with a bunch of Niets who still think shelling civvies is a good call,” Kelly said, leaning back against a low marble wall.
“What do we need them for?” Yig asked. “You want them to get all the glory?”
Kelly gave the fireteam leader a saucy wink—which he couldn’t see, with her helmet in the way, but she liked to do it just the same. “Well, we could get them to carry us up top and drop us on the roof.”
“So we have to fight our way down the whole building?” Yig shook his head. “Sounds stupid.”
“Well, we just drop down the lift shaft.”
“Or we go two blocks west and get into the maglev tunnels over there.” Yig gestured to a low building that was adorned with signs indicating the various maglev tracks and their destinations.
“There’s a dozen tracks down there; we need to start from the source,” Kelly shot back.
Yig chuckled.
“Great,” Kelly muttered. “Just what I need.”
“What? A ‘Muth not good enough for you?” CJ asked.
A coarse laugh escaped Kelly’s lips. “Oh sure, a B’muth is great, but Crunch already thinks he’s saved my life twice. He keeps talking about the third time being ‘the charm’.”
“The charm?” Yig sounded confused. “The charm for what?”
“Marriage,” Cole said with a snicker as she took up a position near the pair, firing on a Niet who had peered around a building’s corner a block away. “Crunch has the hots for Kelly, wants to bed her with his new man parts.”
Kelly could only groan as Yig burst into laughter.
“Stars, I can’t wait to see this go down,” he said when he’d finally regained control of himself.
Cole snorted. “Was that an intentional euphemism? If so, well done.”
* * * * *
Five minutes later, Crunch’s B’muth lumbered around
a corner, and came into view of the MacWood Building. The moment it was in sight, a pair of guided missiles fired from halfway up the building, streaking down toward the massive walker.
The missiles had barely left the building when point defense chainguns spun up on the back of the B’muth, destroying both in seconds.
Four more missiles streaked out from the tower, and the walker’s guns made short work of them too, shrapnel raining down on the street to the cheers of Kelly’s and Yig’s teams.
The four-legged machine pivoted, and its main gun lifted off its back, firing a trio of ten-kilogram slugs at the locations where the missile fire had originated.
The rail-fired rounds tore clear through the building—and the high-rise on the far side, as well—before arching up over the city.
the sergeant replied.
Kelly shrugged and signaled Keli and Shoshin to cover her as she crept down the street. Her stealth was shot with all the blood and grime that covered her, and she hoped no Niets would try to take a pot shot from up high—something she supposed Crunch’s railshots had discouraged.
Kelly didn’t dignify Crunch’s statement with a response, and instead called out to the Niets inside the loading bay at the base of the MacWood Building.
“Hey, dickheads! The sarge in the B’muth really wants to blow some more holes through your building. I kinda want to get down to the maglev line below, but he outranks me, so if you don’t all get your asses out here on the street—unarmed, mind you—then he’s going to get his way and take the whole thing down. Not much I can do about that, so now it’s up to you asshats. Think this thing is a big enough tombstone?”
She waited eleven seconds for the response, becoming more certain that the Niets must have a death wish as each moment ticked by.
Then a hand waved around the corner, and a moment later, over fifty Nietzscheans came out of the loading bay, and laid down on the street, hands behind their heads.
“Wow, you’re all so well behaved,” Kelly said as she stared at the enemy soldiers. “I should get you all some extra tasty dogfood later, a reward for being so good.”
“Hey, where you going?” Yig said as he jogged to Kelly’s side. “I’ll take my team in. You secure these Niets, they clearly respect you.”
“Yeah,” Cole said as she approached the prone Nietzscheans. “They didn’t listen to Yig at all when he tried to get them to come out. But you went all momma bear on them, and they just rolled over.”
Kelly glanced at the enemy soldiers, nodding with appreciation at Shoshin as he moved amongst them, checking for weapons.
“Tell you what, Yig, we’ll play Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who goes after Leslie.”
“Best of three?” the corporal asked, and Kelly shook her head. “No. Sudden death. Winner takes all.”
He shrugged, and they slammed their fists against their chests three times before showing their choices. Yig had his hand clenched in a fist, while Kelly swirled her fingers in a circle over his rock.
“What? No way!” Yig exclaimed. “Black hole has a thirty-day cooldown, and you…aww, shit.”
“That’s right, guard duty boy, I last used it thirty-one days ago.” Kelly reached out and tapped him in the chest with a long, pointed finger. “Boom.”
“Dammit,” he muttered as he turned to the Niets. “OK, you assholes, I want the first row to go stand against that building and get out of your armor, then go and lay next to that fountain over there.”
As Yig gave the Niets their orders, Kelly signaled Keli and Shoshin to follow her into the loading bay. “Let’s go find ourselves a lost kitty.”
Yig glanced at Kelly as she walked into the bay. “Hey, you mind taking Cole with you? She’s likely to try and bench press a stack of Niets if she has to guard them for too long.”
“Fuck, Corporal, I’m right here,” Cole muttered.
“Am I wrong?” Yig asked her.
“Well…no…”
Kelly gestured for Cole to join her team, chuckling softly as they entered the bay.
“Cole’s short for something, right?” Keli asked as she eased around one of the trucks, checking for ambushers—or just Niets who were too cowardly to exit the building.
“Yeah,” Cole replied simply. “Is Keli short for something?”
“Sure…Kelly.”
“Shut it,” Kelly ordered as she leapt onto the platform at the back of the loading bay, and peered through the torn-open doors of the elevator.
Kelly stepped out into the elevator shaft, dropping the twenty meters to the bottom.
A minute later, the four mechs stood on the maglev platform, looking for clues as to which way the train had gone.
It took Kelly and her team thirty minutes to get to the end of the track, thankful for the signs the Nietzschean mech frames had left on the tracks. When they reached the end of the line, they found themselves on a deserted platform, deep underground.
“One of the GMs went down here,” Cole said from the far end of the platform, where she stood over the fallen form of one of the mech frames. “Shell’s cracked. There was no one inside, but some Niets died doing the deed.”
“Signs of a fight up this staircase,” Keli said, her voice ringing out in the eerie silence of the platform.
A giggle came from Keli over the Link.
Kelly met Cole at the far end of the platform, sparing a glance for the twisted—and still smoking—wreckage of the mech frame.
Kelly nodded.
They climbed up seven levels, each one showing varying levels of combat, destruction, and carnage, until they got to the ground level, and came out into an utterly decimated courtyard.
Kelly only groaned while keeping her GNR level, sweeping its barrel before her. Ahead was a landing pad—recently vacated, by the signs of refueling lines.
Kelly had deployed drones, and flipped through their feeds while her team examined the area. She set three of her drones to sweep over the low hills surrounding the bunker. A minute later, one of the eyes in the sky spotted a smoking crater a kilometer from the base.
A minute later, she was at the impact site. The remains of the fourth mech lay in the crater, the pilot’s cocoon cracked open.
Empty.
Kelly saw something inside the cocoon, and prised the two halves apart.
No one spoke for several minutes after that.
