Rika Coronated
RIKA CORONATED
THE GENEVIAN QUEEN – BOOK 2
BY M. D. COOPER
Thanks to the Aeon 14
Just in Time (JIT) & Beta Readers
Copyright © 2019 M. D. Cooper
Aeon 14 is Copyright © 2019 M. D. Cooper
Version 1.0.0
Cover Art by Tek Tan
Editing by Jen McDonnell, Bird’s Eye Books
Aeon 14 & M. D. Cooper are registered trademarks of Michael Cooper
All rights reserved
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD
THE JOURNEY THUS FAR
PROMINENT CHARACTERS
MAPS
A LITTLE HEIST
A TERRIBLE VIEW
THE RIGHT CHOICE
SCOURING
NEW EMPLOYER
A MEET AND A MISSION
TALONFLIGHT
SALVAGE
IN THE DARK
CAPETON COMMAND
AN UNWELCOME MESSAGE
HOMECOMING
INSYSTEM
BECKY
HELL HATH NO FURY
WORM GARDENING
A NEW CHARIOT
TAKING THE FIGHT
QUEEN
CORONATED
IT’S A TRAP
FLYING MECHS
MOUNT GENEVIA REDUX
ON THE SLOPES
REUNION
FORMING UP
MECH TYPES & ARMAMENTS
7th MARAUDER FLEET 1st DIVISION
COLONEL BORDEN’S MARINES
9th MARAUDER BATTALION
THE BOOKS OF AEON 14
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
FOREWORD
Nothing like finishing a novel in the nick of time! As I’m writing this, there are still a few scenes to review, but other than the edits, Rika Coronated is in the can!
That’s good, because I’m sitting on a plane headed for Orlando, and Disney World. Last year, I’d missed the ‘Disney deadline’ and was working on Impact Imminent in the evenings after rides and walking all day. This year, I was determined to put the deadline stress out of my mind and enjoy myself with more time for family fun.
At the end of the week, we’re off to Cape Canaveral for a book signing and a tour of the Kennedy Space Center. A good number of readers will be there, and I’m looking forward to some great conversations and a few games of Snark.
It’s funny how our yearly pilgrimages to Florida and Disney always coincide with author events. It’s a bit of a chicken or the egg question as to which came first. We may never know….
Be that as it may, I’m looking forward to some relaxation before the final few days of going through edits and final refinements before this book releases. I find that the extra recharge gets me excited for the final stretch of the novel’s prep as well as sharing it with you in my newsletter and social media.
I have a few other projects going on this summer; one of which is a kitchen remodel, and the others are a new series following a not-so-gentlemanly gentleman named Jax Bremen. That story will not be officially branded as Aeon 14 due to some publishing restrictions, but don’t worry, it’s really an Aeon 14 story and takes place during the Dark Ages which followed the FTL wars. Plus, there’s Decisive Action, The Spreading Fire, the Sera and Jessica book…the list goes on.
I’m also working on a tabletop pen and paper RPG (role-playing game) set in Aeon 14. This project came about after the owner of a popular RPG company read Destiny Lost and realized that Aeon 14 would make an amazing universe to set a game in.
The plan is for the first adventure to take place during the events of Aeon 14, following a group that is sent to secure tech in and around the Bollam’s World System during the months when Tanis is missing.
If it does well, you can count on there being a Marauders Expansion!
There are a few more stories to tell about Rika and her Genevian Marauders before the Orion War wraps up. I plan to have one more out before book 12 of The Orion War (Return to Sol), and then we’ll see where Rika’s adventures take her next.
M. D. Cooper
Danvers 2019
THE JOURNEY THUS FAR
The Marauders were always meant to liberate Genevia.
When General Mill formed the mercenary company at the end of the first war with Nietzschea, he thought it would be the work of a lifetime to save his former nation. He had not anticipated the effect of Rika and her mechs, nor the near-miraculous tech that the ISF brought to the table.
Once, the Genevian mechs were just a level or two above horror-show freaks. Human and machine grafted together with the only goal being to make them more efficient killing machines.
The mechs’ encounter with Tangel and the ISF changed that, making their cyborg bodies truly feel like one being, streamlining and optimizing them in every way. Though they look more human—should they choose—the Genevian mechs are far more deadly than they have ever been before.
Add to that the advanced nanotech that Tangel granted to several mechs in leadership positions—the stasis shields for their ships, and CriEn power modules to run them—and the Marauders have become as fierce a fighting force as the ISF Marines.
Tangel and the ISF effectively hired the Marauder mercenary organization to defeat the Nietzscheans and take back Genevia, but Tangel only did it to give what Rika was going to do anyway a veil of legitimacy. Intel that Chase gathered in the Parsons System led the Marauders to learn that Emperor Constantine, leader of the Nietzschean Empire, was in the Genevia System—former capital of the Genevian Alliance—overseeing the final stages of an invasion fleet’s construction.
Rika and her mechs killed the Nietzschean emperor and, with the assistance of an ISF fleet, took control of the Genevia System.
With that victory, Rika realized that she could not continue her lightning attack, driving through Old Genevia like a spear aimed at the heart of her enemy’s empire. The people of Genevia needed clear leadership, and what’s more, the Niets had begun a scorched-earth withdrawal from other systems, requiring the mechs to provide aid and plan for the defense of their people.
Rika also suspects that the Niets will use this tactic to weaken her position in the Genevia System so they can mount a counterattack.
This is exacerbated by conflict with elements within the former resistance forces who do not wish to share power with the mechs, as well as Nietzschean agents who still have their hooks deep in the Genevians.
Attacks on Rika’s life, and ultimately the theft of the Pinnacle, an advanced super-dreadnought with the ability to fire through stasis shields, brought us to the culmination of the prior book’s adventure.
We left Rika and her Marauders in orbit of Babylon, a gas giant in the Genevia System, where her mechs secured the Pinnacle, but not before it destroyed her flagship, the Fury Lance.
PROMINENT CHARACTERS
Though there is a full list of all the mechs, pilots, and members of the Marauders at the end of the book, this is a listing of some of the more prominent characters and their current role in the battalion.
Genevian Marauders Leadership
Rika – Magnus, commander in chief of the Genevian Marauders
Silva –Colonel, commander of the Queen’s Guard
Barne – Major General, commander of the Marauders’ First Division
Leslie – Colonel, head of the GM Military Intelligence
Niki – AI, Captain, operations officer
9th Marauder Battalion
Chase – Colonel, battalion commanding officer
Penelope – Lieutenant Colonel, executive officer
Other Key Characters
Tremon – Former Genevian President (known as Kalvin)
Arla – Former Genevian Minister of Finance, attempted to take co
ntrol of the mechs
Carson – ISF (Intrepid Space Force) Admiral
The Seventh Fleet, First Division
Travis – Captain of the Republic
Ferris – Lieutenant, commander of the Undaunted
Vargo Klen – Lieutenant, commander of the Asora
Ashley – CWO, bridge crew aboard the Asora
Buggsie – Lieutenant, commander of the Capital
MAPS
For more maps, and full-size versions, visit www.aeon14.com/maps.
A LITTLE HEIST
STELLAR DATE: 06.03.8950 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Corinth City, Chad
REGION: Burroughs System, Old Genevia, Nietzschean Empire
Rajiz glanced at Avi and shook his head.
“Seriously? We’re going to break into a Nietzschean compound with you wearing that?”
Avi looked down at her sparkling blue, painted-on skinsuit. “Why not? The Niets all love it when I get a bit of glitter on them. They’re normally so dour.”
“Because this is a stealth mission.” He bit back a groan and put a hand on her shoulder. “I know your MO is to bang everything that moves as a distraction, but the bastards are twitchy right now. I have a plan that will work a lot better.”
She fixed Rajiz with a cold stare, cocking a hip and one eyebrow. “My bang method always works, twitchy Niets or not. Why are you doubting me now?”
“General chatter I’ve picked up. Something’s bothering their commanders.” He nodded to the duffle on the ground between them. “There’s a spare coverall in there. Just put it on.”
Avi grunted. “The biggest crimes we’ll be committing today are against fashion. Is it at least fitted? I’m not going to wear a potato sack, like you have on,” she muttered while bending to slide open the duffle’s fastener.
“Yeah. I know you that well, at least. It has EM-dampening, too.”
Avi brushed a hand against her thigh. “This has EM-dampening as well. As in it dampens the electrical signals in Nietzschean brains when they look at my bod.”
“Just put it on.”
“Fine. You’re no fun, you know that, right?”
“I’m the captain, I’m not supposed to be fun.”
The platinum-haired woman pouted at him for a moment. “Such a waste.”
“This trip to Chad’s gonna be a waste if you don’t get ready,” he whispered angrily. “The Niets’re packing a lot of stuff up, moving it somewhere. That’s the best time to make a little grab without anyone being the wiser.”
Avi muttered something under her breath as she pulled out a matte black shipsuit with a repair company’s logo on the chest. Smoothing the fabric across her hips, she sighed.
“More like ‘not disgustingly baggy’, not fitted.”
“Stars, woman. Are you going to be ready sometime today?”
While his first mate uttered a fresh round of curses under her breath, Rajiz went back to looking over the Nietzschean compound through the blinds of the office building they’d snuck into.
Though the Niets had been on Chad since the end of the war, they didn’t have much use for the single inner planet. The Burroughs System’s wealth lay in its two unique ice-giants, both of which produced a unique ammonia-laced diamond in their upper atmosphere.
Aside from having a host of applications in technology and medicine, the diamonds were en vogue with the Nietzschean elite as a fashion accessory.
Chad had gained a bit of popularity as a resort planet amongst the upper management of the mining interests that worked around the ice-giants, but otherwise existed as little more than a convenient, already established food production world.
Despite Chad’s general lack of importance, the role it played in supporting outer system mining operations meant that the Niets maintained a few garrisons on the surface. Luckily, they weren’t the best troops the occupiers had to offer, and their supplies and gear were easy pickings for Rajiz and the crew of the ViperTalon.
“OK, you happy?” Avi said as she pulled up the shipsuit’s fastener.
He glanced at her, and gave a reluctant nod. “Yeah. Now focus on the mission, we need to get that case. In, out, on our way. No hanky-panky. I know how much you like to beard the lion in his den.”
“I prefer lions without beards,” Avi replied with a wink.
Rajiz ignored her and reached out to the Talon’s engineer over the team’s channel.
<Gero, you ready?>
<Yeah, sure. Betty’s in position as well. Whenever you get your ass in gear, I’ll be on my mark.>
<Don’t give me that shit, Gero. I know you’re cortex-deep in a sim. Shut it down and get your mind on the task at hand.>
<I can multitask,> Gero protested.
<Sure,> Avi joined in. <Like that time you nearly multitasked us into jail in the Parsons System?>
<That was different.>
<I don’t care.> Rajiz kept his tone calm, but let a hint of malice flow into the words. <Get out of the sim, and do your job. Or I’ll find someone else who can, and leave you here on Chad.>
<Sheesh, Boss. I’m out, I’m out. I have the drone feeds up on all my holos. Things are busy inside the compound, but the patrols haven’t changed. Still just two at the gate and two in each tower on the corners.>
<Unguarded, but locked up tight.>
<Good, that’s still our way in, then.>
Avi shouldered the duffle. <Care to share how we’ll get in through a locked gate?>
<Nope!> Rajiz grinned at his first mate. <You’ll just have to wait and see. But it’s genius. Trust me.>
He led the way out of the office building and across the street to a row of low warehouses that fronted the southern approach to the Nietzschean compound.
A patrol moved through the deepening dusk a hundred meters further down the street, but Rajiz ignored them. Given that the pair were on the western end of Corinth City’s spaceport, the area was far from deserted, with groundcars, haulers, and smatterings of pedestrians visible in every direction. Two more civilians weren’t going to register on the Niets’ radar.
An open-topped groundcar waited for them, and Rajiz hopped in, taking the manual controls while Avi settled in beside him. He pulled away from the curb and threaded the maze of warehouses before reaching a road that led around the compound’s perimeter to the closed gate.
<Isn’t this a bit suspicious?> Avi asked, giving him a sidelong look. <Driving to the closed gate?>
<Look at the logo on your suit.> Rajiz kept his eyes on the road. <We work for a company that operates out of a hangar just past the compound. This road is almost a direct route there.>
<Oh…look at that. It’s like you’re smart or something.>
He snorted at her statement. <Yeah, almost like I’ve done this before.>
<Hey, I’ve done it with you pretty much every time.>
A snort came from Gero. <That’s what she said.>
<Stars,> Avi muttered. <Are you ever going to grow up, Gero?>
<Fuck no. Don’t say hurtful things like that.>
<Keep a lid on it,> Rajiz grunted as he triggered a failure on the groundcar right in front of the turnoff to the gate.
He swore aloud and leapt out of the car, kicking a wheel before pulling open the battery panel.
“Hunk of junk,” he muttered. “Thing never makes it as far as it should on a full charge.”
“Need a hand?” Avi asked. “I could get out and push.”
“Funny. No, it died in drive, so unless you think you can push a wormgear, it’s not moving.”
<OK, so we’re stuck in front of a gate no one uses. How—>
Just as Avi began to complain, the compound gate opened, and a truck drove into view.
<See? You should just trust me,> Rajiz said.
<Or you could say, ‘they bring the trash truck out through this gate’.>
<And miss seein
g you get all flustered over nothing? It’s the simple things, you know.>
Stone barricades lined the short road between the stalled groundcar and the gate, giving the garbage truck nowhere to go. The hauler stopped, and the driver climbed out of the vehicle, storming toward Rajiz.
“What the ever-loving fuck, buddy? Move that piece of crap!”
“Sorry.” Rajiz shrugged. “I can’t seem to get it to start up. We’re gonna need to call for a tow.”
<How is this less conspicuous than me just banging a few people?> Avi asked.
<Because you’re memorable. I should know.>
“And you’re a ship maintenance company?” the truck driver muttered. “Remind me never to fly in something that one of your crews worked on.”
“Tow’s going to be here in twenty,” Rajiz said, dismissing the driver’s remark. “Then we’ll be out of your way.”
“Twenty! I have a schedule to keep, you idiot.”
Rajiz lifted his hands and shrugged. “Hey, getting angry at me isn’t going to make it go faster. I don’t work on groundcars. Why don’t you go through the front entrance?”
The other man shook his head. “No can do. Stuff’s all over the place over there, and they won’t let me through that gate. They—”
“What in the core is going on here?” another voice broke in.
Rajiz turned to see a Nietzschean with corporal’s insignia stride through the gate, giving the garbage truck a sidelong look of disgust as she passed by.
“This fucknut is blocking the road,” the truck driver jerked a thumb in Rajiz’s direction.
“Not on purpose,” Rajiz protested. “I have a tow coming, it’ll be here in—”
“Twenty minutes!” The garbage truck driver was reddening visibly.
“Can’t you push it?” the corporal asked.
“You can sure try,” Rajiz laughed. “Probably easier to lift it, though. You have a loader in there that can do it?”
“Loaders are busy,” the corporal shook her head. “But I can grab a squad. Nietzschean muscle can lift your piece of crap.”