by M. D. Cooper
Rika couldn’t help but laugh at the sight. Flying through space on the back of a mechdragon felt as safe as being naked in a sandstorm, but that didn’t lessen the exhilaration in the least.
She was about to reach out to Chase, when a notification flashed in her mind.
- QuanComm Network Available -
Rika didn’t waste a second reaching out to Tanis, only to find that her QC’s pairing with the Field Marshal had become disentangled. However, a link to the Khardine Communications Hub was online, though only a small percentage of the rubidium atoms were still entangled. Her message would have to be short and sweet.
She took a moment to gaze up at the thousands of points of light moving around Epsilon, the thousands of Nietzschean ships waiting to descend on them, while considering her message. She’d never reached out to Khardine before, and hoped a simple message would reach the right people with the right result.
[Rika needs fleet. Send now.]
She added in her coordinates, and bit her lip, praying that someone was listening.
Seven long seconds later, a single word came back: [Acknowledged.] Then the QC blade went offline.
REUNION
STELLAR DATE: 10.23.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: MSS Fury Lance
REGION: Epsilon, Old Genevia, Nietzschean Empire
The dragon sailed into the Fury Lance’s forward docking bay, and Rika leapt from its back while the mech was still gently lowering Piper’s node to the deck.
Across the bay, Chase was running toward her, and Rika barely remembered her feet touching down before she barreled into him, the pair falling over and rolling a dozen meters before coming to a stop.
“Stars,” Chase grunted, disentangling his arms to pull Rika’s helmet free as she triggered its release. “Mech hugs are hard.”
Rika only laughed as her lips met his, and she wrapped her arms around him, crushing her body into his, feeling their steel bodies scrape and grind against one another.
She knew that she had to get up, had to be the commander, but she didn’t want to let go of Chase. Not until she realized that half the mechs in the bay—plus the three dragons—were all standing around her, did she release him and struggle to her feet.
“Nice,” Leslie said with a grin, her helmet also removed. “I hope Barne doesn’t hug like that when we finally meet up again. I’m not as tough as you.”
Rika whistled.
“Adira.” Chase offered his hand to the tall mech who had also removed her helmet, her long, ebony hair flowing free. “Thank you for saving Rika—”
“I don’t know that we were saved,” Rika interrupted with a wide grin. “More like—”
“Rika,” Leslie gave her a level stare. “We were under siege, atop a black hole, on a moon that was waiting to be pulverized and then eaten by said black hole.”
A sigh slipped past Rika’s lips. “OK…I guess we were rescued.”
Just as the doors began to close, a shuttle slipped through and fired its braking thrusters, settling on the deck a few meters away.
Before the clamps had locked on, Heather leapt out, rushing to Rika. “Colonel! Stars, I’m glad you made it back safe and sound! Chase was so mopey without you.” She wrapped Rika in an embrace while glaring over her shoulder at Chase. “Did you hurt my girl?”
“Who? Rika?” he asked, frowning as Patty and a group of mechs disembarked from the shuttle and rushed toward the group.
“The Lance!” Heather roared, letting go of Rika to bend over and stroke the deck. “Killing Niets was fun and all, but I swear, I’ll not leave you in a battle like that again.”
“Let’s get to the bridge,” Rika said, gesturing for the group to follow her.
Leslie sent Rika a warm smile.
Rika gave her a final appraising look before turning and walking through the ship to the bridge. While she did so, she kept half an eye on Colonel Adira, and the other half on the scan feeds of the Nietzschean ships forming up beyond the slowly deteriorating orbits of Epsilon’s moons.
While she was grateful for the woman showing up, she hoped that Adira hadn’t signed her own death certificate by joining with the Marauders.
“Adira,” Chase said after a moment. “I was trying to ask this back in the bay. How is it that you got so close to Delta Moon so quickly?”
“Oh, that?” Adira asked with a grin. “We’ve been dreaming of hitting this place for ages—though we’d never have stood a chance without your shields, or,” she turned to Rika “your apparent ability to make close friends with strange AIs.”
“Which means?” Chase asked.
“We had a map of the dark layer around here. It was old, and I’ll admit it was a serious risk to make that jump, but…I dunno…it felt right. I wouldn’t attempt it again, though. Not with whatever your AI did to those moons. Probably stirred the dark matter pot all up.”
“Then we’re going to have to fight our way out of here,” Chase decided.
Rika considered their options, coming to the conclusion that bringing the fleet into a close formation, which would limit the number of Nietzschean ships that could fire on them, was the best bet. They’d loop around Epsilon, boost hard, and then punch through the enemy lines.
It was risky, though, and her calculations showed that not all the Marauder ships would make it.
She hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
The group reached the bridge, where Ona and Garth stood clapping as Rika entered.
“OK, OK,” she said, holding up a hand. “We can celebrate and backpat when we all make it out of this.”
“Are you thinking that we should try to get in a tight formation, and attempt to punch through their line?” Adira asked echoing Rika’s earlier thoughts. “I think we could do it. But from what I understand of this stasis shield technology, if they bring enough fire to bear, your smaller ships may not be able to hold it off.”
Rika nodded. “Yeah, that’s a real worry. Either way, we should move into an orbit away from the mess that’s building out there.” She gestured to the holodisplay, which showed Mistlea Station slamming into Delta Moon, almost smearing itself across the surface as explosions flared into space.
“I’m coordinating with my ships,” Adira said. “They’ll take helm direction from you.”
“Thank you,” Rika replied as she scoured the scan readings.
“Not yet,” Rika said, her eyes scouring the space beyond the Nietzschean ships. “I’m hoping for a surprise.”
Chase’s eyes narrowed, then he sna
pped his fingers. “The QuanComm! Did you get out a message for help?”
She shrugged. “Maybe? The QC was damaged, but I got a short message through a few minutes ago. I received an ‘Acknowledged’ back, but I don’t know if that just means they got my message, or that we’re going to get rescued.”
“QuanComm?” Adira asked.
“Ma’am?” Garth called out. “The Niets are hailing us.”
Rika glanced at Adira. “I’ll explain later…if there is a later. Chief, put it on.”
A man appeared on the holodisplay, his face red, and his upper lip quivering.
“Admiral Degan,” Rika greeted with an innocent smile. “Sorry that we broke your…everything.”
“Rika.” The man ground out the single word. “You’ll die for this. You’ll—”
She held up a hand, as the most beautiful sight she’d ever witnessed appeared on the scan display.
“You can save it, Admiral. I’ll be accepting your surrender now.”
Admiral Degan opened his mouth to speak, but then his face grew ashen, and his mouth closed, his lips pressing into a thin line.
“They’re still arriving, but I already count just over a thousand ships,” Rika said with a grim smile as she watched wave after wave of Allied ships appear on the far side of the Nietzschean craft. “You may still outnumber us, but all those ships have the same shields as my fleet. How do you think you’ll fare?”
AFTERMATH
STELLAR DATE: 10.25.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Rika’s Quarters, MSS Fury Lance
REGION: Epsilon, Old Genevia, Nietzschean Empire
In the end, Admiral Degan surrendered—but not before he’d made a futile attempt to surround the Allied fleet with his Harriet carriers and newly constructed cruisers and dreadnoughts.
Rika had been impressed by his moxie, but it turned out to be a bluff. Most of the Harriets were barely operational, and the few that had fighters didn’t have the pilots to take them into the black. A few of the Nietzschean ships attempted to use NSAIs to pilot their fighters, but the veteran ISF ships destroyed them with ease.
Not only that, but the ISF and Transcend vessels possessed weapons systems capable of cutting through the enemy’s shields as though they weren’t there—which was the case on some of the half-completed ships. Even before the battle was fully joined, many of the Nietzschean ships began to surrender.
The best part of the second rescue was that the remainder of Rika’s Marauders had arrived with the Allied fleet. Now the 7th Marauder Fleet was complete; sixty-four ships under Rika’s command, ready to continue taking the fight to the Niets.
Rear Admiral Carson had been managing the Nietzscheans’ surrender, including the massive search and rescue operation that had to deal with the millions of people still trapped on stations, or barely-functional starships.
Rika was in her quarters, getting ready to join the Marauders’ victory celebration, when Carson reached out to her.
Carson grunted a half-laugh.
Rika chuckled at the thought.
Rika made a gagging sound.
Carson barked a laugh.
Rika checked her hair in her cabin’s holo, and then stepped out into the passageway, turning toward the lift bank that would take her down to Bay 22, and the victory celebration the Marauders were holding there.
Rika had spoken to Gideon several times now, and was certain she’d not get anything useful out of him without resorting to torture. Not only that, but he’d probably feed her bad intel, knowing that she’d be too many light years away, and unlikely to take out any frustrations on him.
Carson let out a long sigh.
While the idea seemed humane, Rika didn’t relish the notion of every foe they’d defeated seeing their captured militaries set free. However, she also knew that Tanis was no fool, and likely had a plan to deal with that.
The image of Carson looking frustrated while surrounded by millions and millions of stasis pods came into her mind, and Rika laughed.
That visual replaced Rika’s prior one, and she laughed anew.
<’Such a deed’? Is that how you Marauders talk over there?>
Rika thought back to the prior night’s game of butt-Snark.
Rika understood where Piper was coming from. The AI had been betrayed by everyone he’d dealt with in the past seven centuries. As a result, he was understandably cautious, and didn’t want to be far from Rika and Leslie.
Rika laughed and bid Admiral Carson farewell as the lift arrived at the passageway just outside Bay 22. When the doors opened, the sound of the celebration in full swing hit her like a sledgehammer.
The AI laughed.
