by M. D. Cooper
Kruger’s head whipped around, and he paused to look Malorie over.
“Seriously? Malorie?”
“Yeah, stop gawking, haven’t you seen a netcrawler bot before?”
Kruger nodded. “Yeah, but not with your brain inside of it.” He glanced back at Katrina. “Still, are you sure you want her with us? She’s so…distasteful.”
Katrina reached down and pulled the lightwand from her belt, holding it up in front of Kruger.
“Do you know what this is?”
“A lightwand,” he replied.
“Yes,” Katrina nodded in agreement. “But not just any lightwand. This is one I took from Lord Wills after he challenged my authority. Soon after, he found its blade inside his head.”
Kruger seemed unfazed. “I’d heard of Wills’ demise, though I had not picked up on the details. Why are you showing it to me?”
“Just thought I’d remind you of what happened to one of the people who recently defied me.”
Kruger snorted and continued walking through the restaurant. “That doesn’t surprise me. I’ve heard you like to throw your weight around. Trust me, though, things are different in the outer system. We’re not so easily bullied.”
“I suspected as much,” Katrina replied as they reached the table. It was near the back of the restaurant, and easily large enough for six people.
Kruger sat first, scowling at Malorie as she positioned herself on one side of the table. Katrina sat last, taking in her surroundings, noting other patrons, and wondering how many of them worked for Kruger.
Given that this restaurant was thirty levels above their intended docking location, the diners were less likely to be his security personnel—though it was possible that he had quickly moved them from one location to another.
“I think you should take me as an object lesson,” Malorie said with a rueful laugh. “Although, I think I could probably kill someone in less than ten seconds now, so there are some advantages.”
“The outer system stations are the gateway for all of the canton’s stolen goods and semi-legal wares,” Kruger said, ignoring Malorie. “You need us. And trust me, these stations take a delicate touch. There are a lot of vying interests that have to be carefully juggled.”
Katrina imagined that Kruger was right. Even his smallest stations had populations in the millions. Nesella alone vied with some of the cantons in population and power.
Add to that all of the disparate parties who did business in the stations, and you had a recipe for disaster waiting around every corner.
“You do admirable work, I’m sure,” Katrina replied. “My visit is to assure you that the MDF will continue to keep the outer system safe. I’ve demonstrated this by bringing along four destroyers with teams of crack troops aboard.”
“Colonel Odis’s soldiers, I assume you mean,” Kruger nodded. “I couldn’t help but notice them lingering out there as you docked. I also couldn’t help but notice how your rusty old ship’s weapons have my command deck in their sights.”
Katrina smiled and inclined her head. “I’m glad you’re so observant. My people take my safety very seriously.”
Sam laughed.
Katrina turned her attention back to Kruger, who was going on about some problems he had with representatives from different cantons getting into fights.
His tirade was interrupted when a waitress came and asked what they’d like to drink.
“An iced tea,” Katrina said, while Kruger ordered a red wine.
“No alcohol?” he asked.
“I don’t find that I have a taste for it anymore,” Katrina replied. “Most food is a bit bland, but tea seems to still register pleasantly.”
“I suppose I can see how that would be the case,” Kruger nodded. “I assume that your skin replacement was not an entirely voluntary event.”
“Well,” Katrina glanced at Malorie. “Mal here had me whipped until my skin was hanging from my body in strips. Then some folks tried to kill me, making it even worse. The time to properly heal wasn’t available, so I opted to go for this epidermis instead.”
Kruger whistled and looked Malorie up and down. “And so this is your punishment, Malorie?”
Malorie raised her four arms in a strange shrug. “More like this is what Katrina’s version of saving my life looks like.”
Kruger leant back in his chair and stroked his chin. “Interesting. Yet you seem loyal to her.”
“ ‘Loyal’ is a strong word. ‘Beholden’ may be closer.”
Kruger turned back to Katrina. “I must say, there’s more to you than meets the eye. I thought you were just an opportunistic bitch. Right place, right time and all that. But something else is afoot with you.”
“As it is with you,” Katrina replied. “Not a lot of people around here with an AI as sophisticated as yours inside their heads. Jasper, I believe his name is?”
Kruger’s eyes narrowed. “You are devious. Jasper does not advertise himself.”
“You also have something that belongs to me on your station,” Katrina pushed harder. She wanted to see what this man did when his back was against the wall verbally before she put it there physically.
“There are a lot of things on this station that belong to you.” Kruger took the glass of wine that the waitress handed him, and swirled it gently, breathing in the aroma, closing his eyes as he did so. “Your canton has over one hundred stores here, as well as a shipyard. The Adders practically own a dozen bars, given the amount of credit they spend at them. Which are you referring to?”
“The Verisimilitude,” Katrina replied, silently reveling in the perfect timing of Jordan’s message.
Kruger didn’t reply, instead he turned to his right and smiled at a man who was approaching.
“Admiral Gunter!” Kruger rose, smiling broadly. “How nice of you to join us.”
Katrina rose as well and offered her hand to Gunter. “Admiral. I wasn’t aware you were on the station. When I inquired, your aides told me you were at Teegarten.”
Gunter shook Katrina’s hand, and took a seat midway between her and Kruger. “Must have been a miscommunication. I’ve been inspecting the garrison here. Making certain it is ready for what may come.”
“Are you expecting something?” Katrina asked.
“The MDF is always expecting something,” Gunter replied evenly.
Katrina was dismayed at the man’s attitude. He didn’t like her—that much was obvious—but he also didn’t possess the subtlety to hide it from her.
“Good,” Katrina replied. “I agree that we’ll be needing the MDF to defend Midditerra very soon. I—”
“Lady Katrina,” Gunter interrupted her. “I must ask. Where is Admiral Lara? The official dispatches say that she has been arrested and detained for crimes against the cantons. The Council has also released statements in support of this, but theirs were considerably delayed.”
“That’s true,” Katrina replied. “The Council takes some time to convene and agree on anything. However, we had a successful meeting. They are even going to send ships to the MDF to bolster its forces.”
“This is all highly irregular,” Gunter shook his head. “There should be a tribunal—”
“Admiral Gunter,” Katrina interjected. “I’m not sure how
you have missed this, but that is not how things work here in the Midditerra System. We pay lip service to civilization at best. Why, not a week ago, I was a slave working for Malorie here,” Katrina gestured at Malorie’s red robotic form, “being beaten if I didn’t meet my sithri quota. I was captured in the Bollam’s World system by Jace and the Verisimilitude…”
Katrina’s voice broke for a moment as her thoughts turned to Juasa, and she drew in a slow breath, grinding her teeth before continuing.
“So don’t speak to me of due process and honor. This is a star system of thieves and pirates. You’re all complicit in slave trading, acts of larceny on a stellar scale, and a host of other horrid crimes. I’m just a mirror for what you really are.”
Gunter paled as she spoke, and his lips drew into a thin line. Kruger, on the other hand, began to smile wider the more she spoke.
After a brief pause, the stationmaster clapped and let out a cry of delight. “Finally! Someone who calls a spade a spade. Warlord Katrina, you are a delight to both my eyes and my ears.”
“In light of that, Stationmaster Kruger, tell me about the Verisimilitude.”
“Oh ho!” Kruger raised his hands and smiled. “We’re just getting started with the foreplay. Let’s not rush to the main event so quickly.”
Katrina was finished with foreplay. It was time for the main event.
ADDERS
STELLAR DATE: 02.04.8512 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Lady Marion’s mansion
REGION: Canton Kurgise, Persia, Midditerra System
Korin crouched behind a boulder in the deepening night, looking out over the manicured lawns surrounding Lady Marion’s estate, deep in the heart of Canton Kurgise.
His assault force—thanks to some advanced drones provided by the Warlord—had bypassed Marion’s first layer of security, blinding her cameras and sensors to the assault team’s approach.
Though Korin knew Katrina had significantly more advanced technology, the approach had been harrowing. The knowledge that the tech should work, and trusting one’s life to said tech, were entirely different things.
Once in position, the teams only had to wait until the prescribed hour—which was now upon them. If no stand down order was received in the next minute, they would proceed with the breach.
To either side of Korin were his best Adders. Veterans of the recent fight against the MDF, and Jace’s loyalists. Many of them were from the group that sided with Katrina at Rockhall, and others were men and woman from Revenence Castle that he trusted with his life.
They held their rifles ready, a motley collection of ballistic and kinetic weapons, along with a few beam rifles. The latter in the hands of trusted crack shots.
Whenever Korin thought about it too much, he couldn’t help but wonder about Katrina’s trust in him. He had no experience organizing an assault like this. No experience leading a coordinated group.
Still, she had reviewed his plan and agreed that it was the best one they had. She had offered an MDF gunnery sergeant to help with the coordination, but Korin knew his Adders weren’t yet ready to fight alongside the MDF on the field.
In the end, they were irregulars fighting against another force of irregulars. They’d win the way the Adders always won—through determination and grit.
With any luck, the element of surprise would be enough to set the Kurgise guards back and win the day. Once Lady Marion was in their hands, the order would be given for Canton Kurgise’s ships to stand down, and that would be that.
He resisted the urge to let out a rueful laugh—things could also devolve further. Things going to hell in a handbasket was always an option.
The first targets were the bunkers set into the long, sloping lawn that surrounded the mansion. Narrow slits were visible, and within, guards were waiting to be slaughtered.
Korin watched as the timer on his armor’s HUD counted down to zero, then waited for the first shots. No signal to attack was needed—no one wanted a burst of EM to let the enemy know something was up.
A moment later, rail-fired rounds streaked out of the trees, hitting the bunkers set into the lawn, the concussive blasts breaking through the protective shields and showering the interior with hot shrapnel.
Without waiting to see the results of the rail shots, HE rounds were fired into the bunkers, hopefully taking out any who survived the initial salvo.
Korin and his squad rushed from the trees, screaming as they raced across the neatly trimmed grass, trusting in the Adders on the rail guns to take out the gun emplacements further up the lawn.
Weapons fire streaked down from the Kurgise mansion, and return fire lanced out from the tree line, hitting guards and weapons emplacements, taking them down one by one.
A series of rounds streaked by Korin’s head, and he dropped near one of the bunkers, trying to tell where the shooter was located. Two of his squadmates fell prone with him, peering over the bunker’s low rise, when a round was fired out through the bunker’s narrow viewing slit, catching an Adder in the chest and flinging him backward.
Korin swore and rolled aside, firing wildly into the bunker before remembering his HE grenades and tossing one in.
“Fire in the hole!” he screamed, rising and running from the bunker.
A second later, the grenade exploded, and flames shot out from the firing slit. He looked around and saw that two members of his squad were down, and the other nine were laying prone as weapons fire rained down from the Kurgise mansion.
“C’mon, you lazy assholes, this place isn’t going to surrender to cowards!”
It wasn’t his best line, but as Korin turned and raced up the lawn, his HUD showed the whole squad rising and following after him.
Despite the brave face he put on, fear clutched at Korin’s chest, and each breath felt like it might be his last. Somehow he managed to push down the fear and focus on the task ahead of him: make it to the balustrade at the edge of the mansion’s garden. If they could make it there, they could circle around to the south and take out the heavy gun he could see tearing into the Adders moving up the lawn.
Movement to his right caught Korin’s attention, and he saw Gerry draw even with him as they sprinted up the slope. Then a rail shot from the mansion fired, and a white-hot streak tore the Adder in half, spraying blood and gore across the lawn.
I played cards with Gerry last night. We bet on what vid we’d watch when this was over….
Korin pushed the thoughts from his mind.
The balustrade. Reach the balustrade.
A moment later he was there, crashing into it and dropping prone as rail shots slammed into the other side. The balustrade was a waist-high wall meant to provide protection to the mansion’s defenders. An added bonus for the Adders was that its strength meant it could hold back significant weapons fire.
At least for a little while.
Seven other members of his squad reached the balustrade’s temporary safety a moment later. All that was left of the twelve who had set out from the forest’s edge less than a minute before.
“Korin!” one of the Adders wailed. “This is suicide! We can’t take the mansion!”
“We have to,” Korin screamed back as another heavy rail shot streaked overhead, this one drawing a line into the woods where an explosion marked the end of one of the Adder’s crew-served railguns.
Katrina…if you sent us here to die….
A shot from the woods lanced across the lawns and hit the large railgun, where it sat atop a low tower on the house’s southern corner. A grav shield flared around the tower, and the Adder rail shot was deflected, sparks showering down across the lawn.
“We gotta take that gun out!” Korin screamed and began to move alongside the low wall. He rounded a corner and saw four Kurgise soldiers approaching.
Both groups
froze for a moment, until Korin remembered his grenades once more. He tossed one and ducked back around the corner, relief flooding him as a body flew over the balustrade in the wake of the explosion.
He slid around the corner, firing wildly on the enemy’s position, only to find that they were all dead.
“Easy now, Korin,” one of the Adders on his squad laughed as they advanced past him.
Korin reloaded his rifle. “Yeah, that’s right, you go in the front, then, if you’re so hot to trot.”
The speaker—Cami, he realized now—gave him a rude gesture and led the way along the wall until they reached another corner. She unhooked a grenade from her belt and lobbed it over the wall, flattening herself as the explosion sprayed dirt and debris in the air.
Korin noted that the Adder rail fire from within the tree line had ceased. He didn’t blame them. No one wanted to make themselves a target. Luckily, it seemed that his squad was beyond the firing angles for the railgun in the southern tower.
“Let’s move,” he ordered, and peeked up over the wall, sweeping his rifle across the garden, while Cami leant around the wall to ensure there were no live enemies waiting.
Both areas were clear, and the Adders rushed across the patio to the mansion. Korin watched another team a hundred meters to the west also reach the house, and gave them a thumbs-up.
Cami had shot out a window and was firing on something inside the mansion while Korin moved closer to the tower housing the railgun. It appeared to be on the third floor, and he gestured for his squad to follow him to the ground floor window.
Sure enough, it was unshielded, and he broke the plas and tossed a flashbang inside.
He crouched back against the wall and saw Cami, still shooting into the mansion.
“Shit!” Korin swore. He glanced at the other six members of the squad and gestured at the window behind him. “Secure the ground floor of the tower, we’ll be back in a moment.”
He didn’t wait to see if they’d followed his orders before moving back toward Cami’s position.
