Judge, Jury, & Executioner Boxed Set

by Craig Martelle

  “I might have forgotten those, but I doubt it,” Rivka muttered.

  “I have mine!” Jay held hers up. Lindy dug into a pocket and pulled out two as well.

  “Is this a conspiracy?” Rivka raised one eyebrow with her question.

  “It’s your team looking out for you,” Red suggested, his face serious. “We have everything to lose if you fail.”

  Rivka’s eyes glistened for a moment before she blinked. “Thank you. Not the least of which is getting killed.”

  “I’ll take one for the team, but space herpes, of all things?” Red stated, earning himself a punch in the arm.

  “Maybe I will kill you and collect the reward. Space herpes? That implies I gave it to you. I will not be besmirched. Where’s my railgun?”

  Red and Lindy wrestled briefly until their lips found each other. Jay and Rivka turned away. Ankh looked to be asleep.

  “Gate engine is active. Gate formed. Gravitic shields are nominal. Accelerating over the event horizon.”

  An instant later, Peacekeeper materialized above Leed’s Planet. Chaz requested approach instructions and was instantly granted approval with a direct flight path to the capital city’s spaceport.

  “No waiting. Maybe they were expecting us.” Rivka returned to the cockpit. Even if they had been expected, things were never that smooth. Red and Lindy followed her. “Show the tactical picture, Chaz.”

  “There is a distinct lack of vessels in orbit. Planet communications are minimal. There are no public video or audio broadcasts.”

  “How advanced is this planet? Shouldn’t there be something?”

  “We are being vectored by an automated system. The landing pad is clear. Should I set down?”

  “Sure. Something feels off, but we’re not going to figure it out from inside the ship.”

  “Landing now. I have not been able to secure a vehicle, but I will keep trying.”

  Rivka found Lindy in full gear. Jay looked like she was dressed for a day of shopping. “I need you to put on your vest,” Rivka told her as she reached for her own body armor to wear under her jacket.

  “You think it’s going to be that dangerous?” Jay asked.

  “I never think that, but Red has taught me to adopt a certain level of paranoia. Our cases have reinforced that perspective. So yes, put on your gear, and let’s go to town. Ankh? I think it’s about time to let Erasmus kill our esteemed colleague. It has been a great run, Red. Sorry you died.”

  A boom shook the ship. “Chaz?” Rivka called while hurrying back to the bridge. “Tactical!”

  “It appears that we are under attack. A mortar projectile has landed nearby. More are inbound.”

  “Get us out of here,” Rivka ordered.

  “A number of Ledonians have taken refuge beneath the ship. If we leave, they’ll be exposed.”

  “Standby.” Rivka found Red behind her. “Don’t kill Red! We’ve got some work to do first. Suit up, and tell Lindy to get ready to drive the mech suit.”

  “Yeeha!” Red hooted. His gear was never far away, and in less than a minute, he was armed and ready to go. “Helmet on,” he told Jay.

  “I’m not sure I want to go out there at all.” Jay retreated to the wall and leaned against it with her arms crossed.

  “Erasmus, can you tell what the hell is going on out there?”

  “I’ve been analyzing the information since we reached orbit and have come to a startling conclusion.”

  Rivka waited for Erasmus to continue, which he did after the appropriate dramatic pause.

  “We’ve landed in the middle of a civil war.”

  Rivka frowned and started to rub her temples. “I didn’t think they were shooting at us just to shoot at us, although that’s not too far-fetched. We still need the information they have somewhere on this damn planet, and that means we need to go find it. Lindy, load up in the mech. Red, I, and yes, you too, Jay are heading into town. We’re going to count on Jay’s newfound speed to help us get where we need to go. We’ll count on the mech’s firepower in case the locals don’t want to let us through. And Erasmus, make sure you report your findings to the Federation. I think they’ll want to know.”

  Lindy reluctantly put her weapons on the table, slapping a hand blaster onto her belt to carry inside the suit.

  “Once Lindy has the mech powered up and detached, I’ll come for you,” Red remarked. He checked his helmet one last time before looking Lindy over. She had her protective gear on to help unhook the mech, but she’d have to shed it before getting inside the suit. She was going to be exposed more than anyone was comfortable with.

  But it had to be done, because criminals had put a price on Vered’s head, and no one was good with that.

  Red’s hand hovered over the button to open the hatch. He nodded toward the Magistrate, who took out her neutron pulse weapon nicknamed Reaper and stood ready to secure the ship after the two were outside.

  Explosions continued to buffet the ship. The gravitic shields were functioning, but while sitting on the ground, they didn’t provide optimal protection.

  “Sounds nasty out there,” Rivka said unnecessarily.

  “We’ll stop that bullshit as soon as Lindy is in the suit.”

  Red mashed the button, and the hatch opened and dropped the stairs to the ground. He headed out first and instantly started yelling, “Get the fuck back!” He fired his railgun into the air. “Get back!” A few more rounds and he was heading toward the ground with Lindy close behind.

  Rivka closed the hatch and ran to the bridge, where Chaz was monitoring the situation outside the ship. Red was holding back those taking cover under the ship while Lindy started to climb to the top where the suit had been secured. After a growl and a feint, he jumped to the handholds and pulled himself up.

  Lindy released the main clamps, which exposed the rear access. It was like the zipper on a full-body suit. There wasn’t much room inside, so she had to worm her way through the opening, breathing a sigh of relief once she was able to power up the suit and close it around her. Red kneeled nearby and fired at random targets to give Lindy the time she needed to run through the start-up sequence. “Point of order,” she told the suit. “We need a way to power up the suit and do all this remotely.”

  “I will see what I can do to make that happen,” Erasmus replied through her internal speakers.

  “You can hear me?”

  “I think you already know the answer.”

  “Am I linked to anyone else?”

  “No. I tapped in as soon as you powered up the system. Use your internal comm chip so everyone can hear you. You’ll be leading, since the groups fighting do not have sufficiently advanced weapons to cause much damage to the suit.”

  “I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or not. ‘Much damage’ seems relative. On the other hand, maybe there is hope that these factions aren’t fighting a war that would destroy their planet.”

  She continued through the start-up sequence. When all the lights were green, she unbolted the last restraints and stood up.

  What do you say we stop being targets? Lindy asked.

  Maybe you can send a rocket to say ‘Hi!’ to that mortar. He’s pissing me off, Red replied.

  Lindy accessed the heads-up display, the HUD, and selected one of the four rockets mounted over her shoulder. She dialed in the mortar’s position, which the suit had automatically calculated based on the trajectory of the incoming fire. With a whoosh, the rocket was away.

  Moments later, a massive explosion signaled the end of the attack on the ship.

  Lindy lifted Red, took two steps, and jumped. She laughed as they fell, activating the micro-rockets on the bottom of her boots to slow her descent right before they hit the ground. Those hiding under the ship jumped back to avoid getting crushed.

  Open the hatch. The coast is clear.

  Erasmus uploaded a map to Lindy’s HUD.

  Red stomped his foot and yelled, “Get away from here!” The Ledonians, a humanoid
species covered in short brown fur, waved their weapons at him and chattered something his chip couldn’t translate. “Don’t make me kill you.”

  He fired a single projectile from his railgun, and the hypervelocity crack as it passed between them made them scream and hold their heads in pain. He shouted and menaced them until they ran off.

  Rivka and Jay joined Red and Lindy, taking stock of the area around the ship. Quiet had returned.

  “Spooky,” Jay commented. “Big cities are supposed to be noisy.”

  Rivka accessed her datapad.

  Red was instantly miffed. “You couldn’t have done that inside the ship?”

  She ignored him, knowing that he was right. “Ankh,” she started, “this changes the dynamic. I’m assuming the main government building is ground zero in one way or another. Where will we find the information?”

  I suggest you go to the National Data Center, which is four kilometers north-northeast. I’ve sent the directions to Lindy as well.

  Taking the lead and moving out, Lindy declared. Stay behind me.

  Which was what Red usually said, but he was under no illusion regarding his own survivability compared to the mech. The rhythmic thumping of the mech suit as Lindy walked gave him comfort. The impact tremors represented power.

  Rivka held out her hand and snapped her fingers, but no one reacted. “Give me the other railgun!”

  Red shrugged. “I don’t have it.”

  “Don’t tell me...” Rivka looked at the top of Peacekeeper.

  “We left it inside.”

  “Whew. That’s right. Lindy disarmed before you went outside.”

  “You okay, Magistrate?” Red asked without looking at her. He studied both sides of their route, finding that he had to jog to keep up. Jay ran behind the mech, while Red and Rivka ran side by side behind her.

  “Just bothered. How could the Federation not know the planet had devolved into a civil war?”

  “No idea. But I bet Tod Mackestray had something to do with it.”

  “You hate that guy. I’m not sure I’d give him all the credit. For people to do this, the fuel has to already be there. He may have provided the spark, but it was already smoldering.”

  “Who’s responsible?” Red wondered, “the fuel, or the one who starts the fire?”

  “I hope we become enlightened, or we’re running eight clicks for no reason.”

  “Running. Dammit! Ankh wins the pool.”

  Barricade up ahead, Lindy reported. It’s manned, and they have rifles.

  Her words arrived a millisecond before the first cracks echoed down the empty roadway. Bullets whistled past, and one tinged off the armored suit. Lindy raised her oversized railgun. Light ‘em up? she asked.

  Scare them only, Rivka ordered.

  Lindy fired at the sides of the barricade, shredding it and sending shrapnel flying. The screams of the injured filled the silence once her fire stopped.

  Sorry about that.

  “I bet they’re plenty scared,” Red suggested.

  They proved him wrong by firing everything they had. Red grabbed the Magistrate and pulled her to the ground, covering her body with his.

  Light ‘em up, Rivka passed over her internal comm chip. Jay crawled toward them and worked her way next to Rivka. Red lay across them both.

  Lindy braced herself and walked the railgun fire from one side of the barricade to the other. Then she did it again, quicker the second time. She started running, picking up speed quickly, and sprinted through the wreckage, sliding to a stop on the other side. Her optics and sensors picked up two living among the twenty-five Ledonians, and they were injured. She found them huddled together, moaning with pain and barely conscious.

  All clear, she reported. Lindy wondered if she’d grown heartless. Using the argument of “they fired first” was meaningless because they couldn’t hurt her, not with their primitive weaponry.

  The other three joined her, but she hesitated.

  “It sucks,” Rivka said softly. “We didn’t start this, but if we can end it, we will. I know that’s not quite the Magistrate’s role, but it’s what we do for all humanity. We will bring death and destruction the likes of which they’ve never imagined, or they can stop fighting and start talking.”

  The thunder of a heavy weapon arrived a millisecond after the shell hit Lindy in her mechanized chest, throwing her over Red’s head to land in an unmoving heap. He shouted his war cry and unleashed a steady stream from his railgun at a tank that appeared at the next corner. Rivka hit him with a shoulder block as the second shot screamed past.

  She dialed Reaper to eleven and activated it as she aimed at the tank. The tank’s barrel adjusted its aim, and Rivka and Red rolled out of the way as the high-velocity round slammed into the ground where they’d just been.

  “Run!” Rivka yelled without looking back at the mech.

  Lindy? Red ventured as he dodged, looking for cover.

  “Dammit! Too far away,” Rivka growled when the neutron pulse weapon failed to kill the people inside the tank.

  “Too far?” Jay shouted. “We need to help Lindy!”

  Before Rivka could move, a blur rushed by, ripping Reaper from her hand and racing down the street. Jay ran past the tank, pointing the weapon at it before skidding to a stop and retracing her steps. She zigzagged as she ran, but the tank stopped moving, the barrel frozen where it had last aimed.

  Red raced to Lindy, kneeling over her and trying to see through the reflective face shield. Lindy’s eyelids fluttered, and Red’s heart started beating again.

  “Ow,” Lindy mouthed.

  Ankh. What can you tell about the suit’s systems? Rivka asked.

  Multiple failures. Rerouting systems and recalculating optimal power application to minimize impact from the damage.

  Life signs? Rivka followed.

  She’ll be fine. Some broken bones. Well, a lot of broken bones, but they’re already healing. That’s the power of multiple trips through the Pod-doc, which has made her bulky enough to withstand this amount of damage.

  Don’t let her hear you say that, Red warned.

  It applies. I don’t see the problem.

  The problem is that Bulky Woman will kick your ass.

  “What did you call me?” a mumbled voice projected through the suit’s external speakers.

  Ankh, I swear I’m going to tape you to the ceiling. Red smiled as he tried to lift Lindy’s head, but he couldn’t because the mech suit was too dense.

  Terry Henry Walton had a dog taped to his face. It can’t be any worse than that, although it would be most undeserved. I think you should probably continue to the data center. This city is unstable. Someone is pounding on the ship’s hatch. Standby. There. A mindful jolt of electricity through the outer hull has sent them running for cover. Their hair seems to be smoking. Stop. Drop. Roll. Okay. No taping me to any ceilings or walls. I’m too busy for such childish nonsense.

  Ankh. Can you use any of the ship’s sensors to give us a tactical picture? I’d like to avoid what we just went through. I don’t want to kill anyone else if I don’t have to, Rivka requested.

  The information is on your datapad and on Lindy’s display whenever she’s conscious enough to see it.

  Chapter Seven

  “Sometimes, Ankh, you can be such an ass,” Red muttered under his breath.

  Lindy groaned as she sat up. “I feel like I’ve been run over by a comet.”

  “Close,” Rivka said softly. “We hear you have a few broken bones in there.”

  That sounds wonderful compared to how I feel. The good old days, when we laughed at a few broken bones. I miss them.

  “Sounds like you’re on the mend.” Red gently caressed the side of the mech’s helmet as if Lindy could feel it. They couldn’t see her expression behind the reflective setting, but she was smiling.

  I’m going to stand up. I guess lying around out here isn’t something we want to do too much of.

  Red finally looked away and scann
ed the surroundings. Jay was standing to the side, watching for any movement.

  Rivka joined her. Lindy stood and worked out the kinks as her nanocytes repaired the damage to her body. The suit was horribly dented, but the round hadn’t penetrated. They didn’t want to find out if they could survive such an injury even though they were told they would. No one had been willing to test it.

  Lindy took a few tentative steps, followed by a few more. She systematically worked through the flashing lights on the HUD until they turned green.

  The suit’s structure is compromised. It says it can’t withstand another impact in the same area.

  “Sounds like you need a shield. Let’s find you a healthy chunk of steel,” Red said and stalked toward the barricade. The mech pounded the pavement after him.

  Rivka joined Jay. “Thanks for saving our asses.”

  “What good is a gift if you don’t use it?” Jay softly kicked debris from the barricade.

  “I’m glad you’re on my team. Your wisdom belies your youth. There are times when I don’t want to touch people because I don’t want to know. Then there are times when we’re hunting a perp, like now, and I want to grab everyone and shake them until they tell me where he is.”

  “You’re not very intimidating.” Jay avoided looking at the bits and pieces of bodies scattered across the ground before them. The screech of tearing metal shocked their senses.

  Red stumbled away, his hands locked firmly over his ears as Lindy used the mech’s power to bend a metal sheet in half and then in fourths. She twisted one side to create a handle and hoisted the piece in front of her chest. This will have to do, she said.

  Rivka turned back to Jay. “I think I’m intimidating,” she replied defensively.

  “Red is intimidating. Once you break out your Magistrate creds and start beating the perps, others sit up and take notice.”

  “Creds and beatings, huh?” Rivka shook her head. “The things I have to do to earn respect. Looks like it’s time to go. Next stop? I hope it’s the data center. We don’t need any more of this crap.”

  The blown barricade stood as a stark reminder of what they were up against. There was no way to know if they’d run across more. They had always counted on Ankh’s ability to penetrate systems, but this was different. This was primitive warfare that left no digital fingerprints.