Mech Wars: The Complete Series

by Scott Bartlett

  Lisa uncrossed her arms, and now she let her hands dangle at her sides. Her shoulders slumped a little. “How did you do that?”

  “I lured one of the Amblers near the entrance to a Quatro cave, to make it look like it was defending them, just as three platoons led by Bronson were closing in. They defeated the Ambler, and we lost more soldiers doing so. After the deaths of their comrades, the rest were enraged enough to kill the Quatro in their homes.”

  Hesitating for a moment, Lisa said, “But…but no one thinks the Quatro control the Amblers, now.”

  “No. Eventually, the soldiers realized the truth. But by then, they had so much Quatro blood on their hands, they couldn’t look reality in the face. I think most of them suppressed the realization. And of the soldiers that survived the conquest of Eresos—the ones that didn’t commit suicide afterward, or consign themselves to reclusion in the Belt—I’ve never heard any of them mention that they once thought the Quatro owned the Amblers.”

  “Why did you do it, Tessa? How did Bronson convince you to help trick the others?”

  Now, Tessa’s gaze sunk, until it fell on the pebbled trail where they stood. “He convinced me that doing so would prevent more deaths, in the long run. That if we could rally the soldiers to attack the Quatro—who were clearly vicious, he said—then we’d stop them from hitting us when we least expected it. Bronson said that I needed to help him, in order to atone.”

  “Atone?”

  Another labored sigh leaked from Tessa’s lips. “Have you ever heard of the catastrophe that preceded the Battle for Larkspur-Caprice, back in the Milky Way? When hundreds of thousands of UHF members were killed by wormholes that were sabotaged by Ochrim, the Ixan?”

  “Yes,” Lisa said haltingly. “I’ve heard the story.”

  “Well, I’m the one who let Ochrim access the wormhole master control. I was head of security for Darkstream headquarters at the time. Ochrim was our Chief Science Officer.”

  “Tessa…surely you can’t blame yourself for what an Ixan set out himself to do.”

  “I’ve come to terms with my involvement. In a fashion. But that day still haunts my nightmares.”

  Lisa lowered herself onto a boulder at the side of the path, resting her hands on her knees, gazing out over the breathtaking landscape. What Tessa had just related to her had amounted to an emotional sucker punch. She’d known since their exchange with Roach in Ingress that whatever Tessa had been keeping from her, it had to be bad. But she hadn’t quite expected this.

  At last, Lisa peered up at Tessa, who was still standing. “How will we explain this to Rug?”

  “Well…I was hoping not to. At least, not until we’ve stopped Darkstream. This could drive a rift between us and our alien friends, Lisa—potentially one we aren’t able to close.”

  “Okay,” Lisa said, her voice coming out softer than she’d intended. “If you want to keep this from Rug, that’s your right. But you should know that I think it’s wrong.”

  With that, Lisa held Tessa’s gaze for several long moments before exiting the dream.

  Chapter 8

  Phantoms

  Gabe stalked through the streets of Ingress, casting his gaze into every street, alley, or nook large enough to hold a Quatro.

  An empty lot opened up on his right, and he turned abruptly, ready to unleash rockets he’d had the mech manufacture hours ago.

  Nothing. So far, anyway.

  “Sir…”

  Gabe whirled around to face Ash Sweeney, who trailed him inside her MIMAS a few meters back. “What?” he snapped.

  “We’ve been searching for hours. We already know from the spaceport footage that only one Quatro got off those shuttles, and the shuttles have long departed.”

  “There might have been others inside the tunnel the Quatro dug. They could be in hiding.” He turned, resuming his search. “And stop calling me sir.”

  At first, all five MIMAS mechs remaining on Eresos had followed him throughout the city. Eventually, though, they’d taken him up on his repeated invitations to go away. All except Sweeney.

  At the start of his search, he’d occasionally come across residents of the city, who’d just been starting to emerge after the quad’s attack.

  Now, he encountered no one. Word of his search had no doubt spread, probably via the system net, and the residents were staying indoors.

  He spared a moment to consider how he must look to them. A shape-shifting alien monstrosity, ranging up and down the streets, looking for…

  For what? A phantom. The Quatro are gone.

  Yet he kept looking.

  It occurred to him that if he could have gotten Jess back somehow—not as a hallucination, but as a flesh-and-blood woman—he would appear monstrous to her. It was ridiculous to entertain the idea that they’d be able to have any sort of life together, now. They wouldn’t be able to hold each other, or to express their affection physically in any way.

  It doesn’t matter. I’ll never get her back. The best I’ll get is vengeance, and this thing is what I’ve become in the pursuit of that.

  So he kept looking.

  “Sir,” Ash said, “what Tessa Notaras said about Darkstream…”

  “Notaras is a liar of the worst sort. She should be behind bars.”

  Ash didn’t answer right away, and for a time the only sound was the clank-clank of their metal feet on asphalt.

  “Even so,” she said at last. “It takes a lot of guts to tell a lie of that magnitude—to shout it with as much conviction as she did, in front of as many witnesses as were gathered. Have you considered that it might be true?”

  Of course it could be true. Like so many others in the Steele System, Gabe had been in denial for a long time about the company upon which their society was based. In order for people to confront the truth, they’d have to acknowledge that what prosperity there was wouldn’t have been possible without the crimes and atrocities regularly committed by Darkstream.

  Having parted ways with the company, Gabe was finally beginning to reckon with the crimes he’d enabled, as well as the ones he’d committed himself while in Darkstream’s employ. A little, at least. But ultimately, whether what Tessa had said was true didn’t matter, because it was irrelevant to his quest for vengeance. As long as Darkstream didn’t get in the way of that, they had nothing to fear from him.

  “Sir?” Sweeney said. And then, much softer: “Dynamo?”

  “Notaras is a liar and a criminal,” Gabe snapped. “That’s all I have to say on the subject. And don’t call me that name.”

  “You’re still a part of Oneiri Team, sir. Whether you like it or not. You created us.”

  He didn’t answer, though he increased his pace, hoping she would finally stop following.

  “I know you’re hurting,” Sweeney went on. “I’m hurting, too. What matters is that we work together…to win. That’s the best way to honor the lives of the people we’ve lost.”

  Gabe drew to a stop, and he stayed there—completely motionless in the middle of the street.

  “Sir?” From the proximity of her voice, he could tell Sweeney had drawn close behind him.

  Whirling, Gabe willed his hands to become a single fist.

  He sent that fist straight into Sweeney’s solar plexus. Her mech’s feet left the ground, and she flew through the air to crash to the asphalt on her back, at least twenty meters away.

  “Stop following me,” he ground out. “And stop talking to me. Never do either of those things, in fact. Ever again.”

  He turned to march away, not looking back.

  Is our union that which nullifies? asked a voice whose tone dripped with hidden meaning.

  Gabe’s head jerked involuntarily, but he remained focused on his search.

  He hadn’t heard that voice since before the battle with the quads outside Ingress.

  It had returned, it seemed.

  You’re doing well, it said.

  Gabe ignored the voice, and it didn’t speak again.

/>   Chapter 9

  Sympathy for O’Toole

  Lisa felt like she had a lot to process, as she watched Eresos pass by on the viewscreen she’d made the pilot turn on for them.

  Learning the truth about Tessa’s past had messed with her head, and she wasn’t sure what bothered her more—the things her friend had done or the fact that Tessa had never told her about them, despite how close they were.

  But she had to shove that out of her mind. There were more pressing matters to consider.

  Like what the hell we’re going to do now.

  “We didn’t even come close to convincing those mech pilots to join us,” she said to the others in the shuttle, thinking out loud for the benefit of their commentary.

  “That does not matter,” Rug said, lifting her massive head from her paws. “Does it? We still have the footage of Darkstream’s deeds on Alex, including the confession Mario Laudano volunteered when he thought we could not possibly escape him.”

  “It does matter,” Tessa said, and though she spoke confidently, she’d lost some of her usual bravado. “If we don’t have the muscle to bring Darkstream to justice, it won’t matter if we release the footage. It will embarrass them, and it may even cost them money. But it won’t topple them. Not by itself. It’ll only piss them off.”

  Lisa nodded. “Tessa’s right. We need allies, and I’m guessing the other Darkstream soldiers will be about as unlikely to join us as the mech pilots. That means we need to start locating Quatro drifts.”

  Andy moaned wordlessly, drawing Lisa’s gaze.

  Just before they’d left Ingress, Lisa had grabbed a medkit from one of the other shuttles. Once she had it aboard, she discovered that the pilot in charge of keeping it replenished had also been negligent, and the only antibiotics she could scrounge from it consisted of two large blue pills.

  She’d dissolved them in water and gently poured them down Andy’s throat. That had caused him to gag, at first, which she considered a positive sign.

  They’d seemed to take effect quickly, and within hours his fever had dropped, along with his nonsensical muttering.

  But she’d only found two pills, and once they wore off, Andy’s condition began to worsen again. Now, his muttering had turned into wordless moans, and he thrashed about in his crash seat. If it hadn’t been for the straps holding him there, he would have thrown himself onto the shuttle’s deck.

  Unable to take it anymore, Lisa ripped off her own straps to storm across the craft, past the Quatro whose energy weapon was trained on the pilot, and into the cockpit.

  “Land the shuttle,” she said.

  The pilot turned to blink at her. “Pardon?”

  “You heard me. I want you to land. Now.” Her fingers found her pistol’s grip, and she caressed it.

  “It isn’t safe,” the pilot said, eyes flitting to her firearm. “There are mercenaries and Quatro fighting Darkstream all over the place. I even spotted one of those quadruped mechs. I’m not landing.”

  Lips pursed, Lisa shook her head. “Are you trying to tell me that every square inch of Eresos is covered in fighting mercenaries and aliens?”

  “Um…” The pilot sniffed, and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed.

  “That’s what I thought. Now that we have that cleared up, you’ll do exactly as I say. Put this shuttle down within five minutes or suffer the consequences.” Eyebrows raised, she patted the butt of the pistol.

  “Militia members,” Lisa said over the channel they’d agreed on before leaving Alex. “I need everyone to search their shuttle’s medkits for antibiotics. If you find some, report to me. I need one of you to have your pilot land as soon as mine does, so that I can get the medication from you. It’s for Andy. He’s in rough shape.” Through the cockpit’s open hatch, Lisa stared at Andy’s pale, sweaty face, and she frowned.

  Maybe I should have turned him over to Darkstream back at Ingress…just so he could have gotten the attention he needs.

  But no. Andy wouldn’t have wanted that. She was pretty sure he would rather die than become Darkstream’s prisoner, after what he’d seen the company do back on Alex.

  Ten minutes later, she was stepping out of her shuttle’s airlock onto a meadow full of tall, brittle grass that waved in the wind. She shielded her eyes to watch another shuttle swoop in to land gently next to hers.

  Bob O’Toole stepped out of the airlock, grinning like a fool.

  “Why the smile, O’Toole?” Lisa asked, her tone flat. “Are you happy to be deep behind enemy lines, with limited fuel and supplies?”

  “I’m just happy to get to see your pretty face.”

  She marched over to him, snatched the medkit, and wrenched it open. Its contents fell out onto the grass, and she sifted through them with her boot until she found what she needed.

  Plucking up a transparent, yellow-tinted bottle, she held it up to the sunlight. Cefoxitin. That was what she’d given Andy before, and it had seemed to work wonders. Perfect.

  “Did you find what you need?” Tessa asked as she emerged from the shuttle behind Lisa, squinting into the sun.

  “Who’s watching the pilot?” Lisa asked.

  “Rug just took over. Don’t worry. I’m pretty sure if she could fit inside the cockpit, that energy gun of hers would be squarely up his ass.”

  Lisa suspected she was supposed to laugh at that, but she wasn’t in the mood for comedy at present.

  “Hey, it was kind of funny,” she said when Tessa’s smile faded from her face, replaced by a grim expression.

  Then, she realized that Tessa was staring at something. She followed her friend’s gaze to the horizon, where several large, purple shapes were striding toward them, the grass parting around their massive frames.

  “Looks like we found our first drift,” Tessa said.

  The Quatro must have seen them land, because they headed directly for the two shuttles parked side-by-side.

  “Should we get out of here?” Bob O’Toole said, his voice quavering.

  “No,” Lisa said. “We’re looking for Quatro. Remember?”

  “Sure,” he said. “But now that I see them coming, I’m not so sure I want to find them, anymore. At least, not unless it’s with the rest of the militia at my back, fully armed, with a few bazookas for good measure.”

  “It’s hard to make friends with bazookas, O’Toole,” Tessa said. “Although, maybe this explains why you don’t have any. Friends, that is.”

  Lisa was surprised at the pang of pity she felt for O’Toole at Tessa’s words. It was standard Tessa ribbing, but O’Toole was such a pathetic target that the comment rang a little too true.

  I must be tired. Sympathy for O’Toole was the last thing she would have expected to feel.

  When the Quatro reached them, they arranged themselves in a broad arc, all of them facing Lisa.

  A few seconds passed while both species stared at each other.

  Then, without warning, one of the giant aliens emitted a wordless roar and charged straight at Tessa.

  Chapter 10

  Until I Am Satisfied

  By the collective!

  When Rug saw the Quatro approaching across the field, her spirits soared. She asked Nail to watch the pilot for her again, and ever-agreeable, Nail agreed. Rug went straight to the airlock.

  That turned out to be a fateful decision.

  Her joy at the prospect of reuniting with long-lost kin turned to ashes in her mouth as one of the Quatro surged toward Tessa Notaras, just as the outer airlock door was opening.

  Rug burst from the cramped chamber, meeting the Quatro just before he reached her friend. That encounter likely would have ended with death for Tessa—a lone human stood almost no chance against a Quatro, not unless they piloted one of their great machines.

  Tessa did not pilot one, and so Rug’s timing was fortunate. The Quatro was halted in its tracks, but Rug did not stop there—not without making sure her friends were safe, first.

  She continued charging forward, to
ppling the Quatro until he fell to the grass with a crash. Rug placed a paw on his chest, extending her claws so that he would feel their pricks.

  “It appears I have the best of you, friend,” she said, panting slightly.

  “Your might serves the drift well…friend.”

  “Today, my might has spared a friend of us both. This human has done many good works. Why did you attack her?”

  At that, the strange Quatro’s lips drew back into a snarl, and he hissed. “That is no friend of ours. She is responsible for hundreds of Quatro deaths.”

  Rug hesitated. Could there be some error?

  She decided this warranted further investigation. “If I release you, will you promise to relent until I am satisfied?”

  “Yes.”

  Rug removed her paw, and her fellow Quatro rose to his feet, glaring at Tessa.

  Pausing to gather her thoughts, Rug also met Tessa’s gaze. The humans would not have understood the exchange that had just transpired. Rug had not activated her translator, since it would only have spoken over her, muddying the conversation.

  “This one claims that you were responsible for Quatro deaths, Tessa Notaras.” she said. “Is that true?”

  Her words had a strange effect on the human. Tessa went rigid, and the color drained from her face. Although Rug still hadn’t figured out human body language completely, she surmised that this reaction likely served as confirmation.

  Her spirits sank even farther.

  “It’s true,” Tessa said at last, her eyes wide.

  Rug didn’t answer. Instead, she approached Tessa slowly, the grass rustling under her paws with each step.

  Soon, she towered over the human, glaring down at her. And for a long moment, she did not know what her own reaction would be.

  But then she turned back toward the Quatro she’d just met. “Tell me more of this travesty.”

  “With pleasure,” the Quatro growled. “This human led many attacks on the meager dwellings the Quatro took for themselves on this forsaken planet. Even when the first drift to encounter the two-legs offered a deep gesture of peace, they responded with aggression. And this human’s face is etched into my mind forever. Most of my old drift is now dead thanks to an attack that she led.”