by M. D. Cooper
A few minutes later, they reached Kor’s location in a clearing just beyond the edge of the fire.
Gemma nodded.
Fred checked his map and traced the best route to Cerulean.
IT GETS WORSE
STELLAR DATE: 12.23.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Torrent of Fire, approaching Malta
REGION: Iberia System, Old Genevia, Nietzschean Empire
They’d made it a hundred meters without running into a single Nietzschean, and Rika was beginning to wonder if the enemy had taken that many losses, or if they’d all fallen back to a last line of defense at the bridge.
From the general map Niki had managed to pull in a brief moment of wireless connectivity, Rika had learned that there was a small, CIC-like area directly aft of the bridge. As her final two microdrones raced ahead and flew into it, she saw that it was there the Niets had decided to make their last stand.
However, that last stand would be woefully inadequate. Arrayed against fifteen mechs, there were only twelve Nietzscheans, and while they all wore some armor, only four held anything other than pulse rifles.
Relaying her voice through her drones, Rika called out, “So…I know that when you sign up, you swear an oath to defend Nietzschea to the end—or something like that. I’m curious, how many of you woke up today expecting this day to be your end?”
No one replied, but she could see several of the Niets glance at one another.
“I know that the door behind you is reinforced, and beyond it, hiding on her bridge, is your Captain Aleena. Or maybe I-pee-na.”
“OK, I can see that didn’t really sway anyone. Thing is, we’re taking this ship. We’ve taken larger craft with fewer mechs; we’re still well under par, and I want to set a new record. So this is your last warning: surrender or die.”
Though a few of the defenders shifted uncomfortably, none made a move to stand down. Rika drew in a deep breath, ready to move in with the three SMI mechs and take out the enemy heavies before the rest of the mechs attacked.
Rika nodded absently, and had just signaled the other SMIs to activate stealth when the bridge’s door opened.
A figure appeared in the doorway, hands raised, and Rika saw that it was Captain Aleena with a look of miserable disgust on her face.
“We surrender, you murderous bitch.”
* * * * *
Five minutes later, Rika stood on the bridge with Aleena before her. The captain had broadcast an order for her people to surrender to the mechs.
“Your people fought well,” Rika said as she settled into the captain’s chair. “Better than most.”
Aleena didn’t reply, and Rika sighed. The captain was the only member of her command crew left on the bridge, and with four mechs present, Rika decided it was safe enough to remove her helmet and look her adversary in the eye.
“You never had a chance…. You must have realized that when we boarded your ship. You couldn’t have stood up to a platoon of mechs even if the Torrent of Fire was brimming with troops.”
The Nietzschean woman’s eyes narrowed, and she folded her arms across her chest. “You’re not immortal. You’re still human. You bleed, you can die.”
Rika gave a respectful nod. “Not a lot of Niets grant us that much respect, calling us human.”
The captain shrugged. “Well, you’re deformed and disfigured humans, but still human.”
“Ah!” Rika gave a mocking laugh. “There’s the Nietzschean arrogance we’ve all come to know and love. I thought I’d bumped into one of you who actually had a soul.”
“No one has a soul,” Aleena replied with narrowed eyes. “That’s just nonsense that weak people spread to give themselves hope. Life is what you make of it.”
“Sheesh, I’ve really ruined your day, haven’t I? Besides, I don’t know about all that,” Rika replied with a shrug. “But if what you say is true, then I’m a lot better at making something out of life than you. How does it feel to know that a deformed and disfigured Genevian mech beat you?”
She leaned forward, unable to keep herself from giving the Nietzschean a smug grin.
“I’ll admit, when the Asora hit your shields, I thought we were done, but then we got the phasing right and passed on through. No wonder you surrendered—you don’t want to have to face your superiors after getting shield-breached while you were shield breaching.”
Aleena’s jaw tightened, and she spoke through clenched teeth. “Are you done yet?”
“Well…I wasn’t, but if you’re going to take all the fun out of it, I guess I am.”
The captain didn’t respond, her cold, blue eyes boring into Rika’s.
“OK, fine.” Rika straightened. “This is where you give me all your command codes and actually surrender the ship to me.”
The Nietzschean shook her head in disbelief. “You really think you’re just going to win without any trouble here, don’t you?”
“Without any trouble?” Rika asked, eyes widening. “Were you here a minute ago? When I was talking about breaching your shield breach and all our brilliant tactics? That wasn’t easy. For a bit, I thought the Van had died.”
“The who?”
“Guess I don’t need you now,” Rika said, gesturing for Kelly and Keli to take the Torrent of Fire’s captain to a holding room. “We have the ship, and in a day or two, we’ll have the whole system.”
A smile lit Aleena’s face. “Well, you’ll have most of the system.”
Rika turned to the holotank as a view of space surrounding Malta appeared. The planet floated on the left, with The Moon in the upper right. The Maltese Falcon was forty degrees from passing between the moon and the planet below. Trailing behind The Moon, out beyond the fourth lagrange point, was a cluster of small asteroids and an old mining platform.
In her initial review of the system, she’d noted it, and assumed that it was abandoned after being shut down during the war or some time not long after.
That supposition had just been proven wrong.
A group of twelve asteroids were moving away from the mining facility on a course that would lead them directly to the Maltese Falcon.
“We call them planet punishers,” Aleena said from the entrance to the bridge, a look of pyrrhic victory on her face. “We might lose Iberia, but you won’t win it, either. You can see that they timed it just right. When the Falcon falls, it’s going to hit Cerulean. One shot, a quarter of the planet’s population dies.”
Aleena’s calm delivery of the news that half a billion people were about to perish caused a burning rage to form in Rika’s chest, and s
he felt every muscle and carbon sinew in her body tense.
She could see that she wasn’t the only one that felt that way, as evidenced by Kelly’s fist rising slowly. Before Rika could order her not to, the mech’s hand came down, striking Aleena in the face and splitting the woman’s lip and half her cheek open.
The captain screamed in agony, trying to raise a hand to her face, only to have Kelly slap it away.
“Kelly,” Rika admonished without any conviction. “We don’t abuse prisoners.”
“Of course not,” Kelly replied. “Is it OK if I just kill her, then?”
Every fiber of Rika’s being wanted to say ‘yes’, but somehow she managed to mutely shake her head, and the two mechs hauled the captain—who was trying to ask for a medic—from the room.
Despite everything going on, Rika felt a small mote of pity for the ship’s captain. At the very least, Aleena had done the right thing in surrendering and sparing the rest of her crew a death at the hands of the mechs.
Rika had to admit that Kelly was right, but she could also tell that Aleena’s concern for her own people, and her pure loathing of the Genevians, was a sign that she’d been conditioned all her life to believe that ‘others’ had less value than her own people.
The conversation she’d had with Niki not long ago about what she was willing to do to win the war came to mind.
Rika knew there was a thin line, and she’d probably stepped over it more often than she cared to admit, but in this case, she was only going to sidle right up to the edge and no further.
Niki said on the command net, and Rika turned back to the holodisplay.
“Lay them on me,” she said with a resigned sigh.
Rika nodded. “I suppose that no matter what option we pursue, we need to get over there. Fire things up.”
“Can I fly her?” Vargo asked with a wide grin as he sat at the pilot’s console. “It might help my sorrow over losing the Asora.”
“Think this ship is good enough for the governator?” Rika smirked wanly at her weak attempt at levity as she glanced at Vargo.
“Gah…that’s gotta be the worst thing I’ve ever heard.”
“What about the Nietzschean destroyer Borden’s people have?” Rika asked Niki as she turned back to the holotank. “Are they close enough to engage those rocks?”
Rika nodded as the Torrent of Fire shuddered beneath their feet.
“Just lost the port-side main engine,” Vargo muttered as he quickly adjusted the ship’s thrust to balance against the load. “Shifting ballast, giving it as much as I can get.”
Rika pursed her lips as she watched civilian ships begin to boost away from the Maltese Falcon in droves.
“What about missiles?” Rika asked Niki.
“Crap.” Rika ran a hand through her hair. “First time I ever wished a Nietzschean ship had more missiles.”
Rika tapped a finger on her thigh impatiently during the seconds it took her message to get to Saris, play, and then for the lieutenant to send a response.
“Options?” Rika asked the team on the bridge—which currently consisted of her, Vargo, and Niki. The rest of the mechs were still busy securing the Nietzscheans and dealing with a few holdouts.
“Our dropships are still fueled up,” Vargo said as he worked to balance the Torrent of Fire on its starboard engine fusion and auxiliary boosters. “You know…this damn ship has an AP drive, but they don’t have any antimatter for—oh, I have an idea but it’s nuts.” He glanced at Rika, and she realized what he was suggesting.
Rika didn’t reply before switching to Chief Charles.
“Think this will work?” Rika asked Vargo.
He glanced at her, sounding more than a little uncertain. “Maybe? That plasma plume on the Asora cut out, so I don’t think the ship is gonna blow anymore.”
Rika bit back a curse as the relayed scan data from Saris’s destroyer showed twenty-two fighters peeling away from the inbound rocks, headed for the destroyer.
Rika knew it had to be tied up, otherwise it would be protecting the destroyer from the Nietzschean fighters.
“Crap,” Rika muttered aloud before sending Saris a message to hold for a minute. She fought down the worry that
Gemma and Fred’s team had died before she could even get there, and glanced at Vargo. “Why the hell is this all so difficult?”
“If it was easy, anyone could do it,” Vargo replied through gritted teeth. “Stars, this thing’s a fuckin’ slug. Now I know why the Niets left it behind when they took their fleets to Albany.”
Rika told herself that Fred and Gemma would be fine. They had to be. Then she glanced at Vargo and gave him a reassuring smile. “She’s your new girl, Vargo, you should be nice to her.”
“My what?” Vargo glanced up, eyes wide, then stroked the console. “Oh, hell yeah, I have a cruiser now. C’mon, sweet thing, you know you want to do a good job for daddy.”
“What about our dropships?” Chase asked as he walked onto the bridge, giving Rika a quick embrace before turning to gaze at the holotank.
“Been following along?” Rika asked.
“Yeah, Niki gave me an audio feed from the bridge—I didn’t have any good ideas till now, so I wasn’t chiming in.”
Rika gave the necessary orders and then updated Lieutenant Saris with the multiple plans they had in play to help take out the rocks.
