Dala approached his table, and he rose to greet her. She was wearing a grey dress that had a patina of dark spots on it from the rain. Her pink hair was pulled back into a clip, from which it fell down over her shoulders. Her lips were colored to match her fuchsia eyes, and her smile seemed genuine as she took David’s hand and gave it a single shake.
“Very nice to meet you in person, David,” Dala said as she sat. “And even nicer to do it at a place like Hammurabi’s. I hear their roast chicken is superb.”
“I really don’t know the local establishments in Hittis that well,” David replied. “But no one seemed to complain about this place, so it seemed like a safe pick.”
“Weren’t you worried that I might be a vegetarian?” Dala asked. “Hammurabi’s is mostly known for their meat.”
Rika imagined that David must have shrugged or given a smile—though she couldn’t tell from his visual feed.
“I looked over your activity on the public feeds. You often post about the types of foods you prefer. It made my selection a bit easier, though it also told me that I needed to be discerning.”
Major Dala raised an eyebrow, though a smile toyed at the corners of her lips. “Did you check up on me, David of the Marauders?”
“I’m a P-COG. I check up on everything. It’s what we do.”
Dala’s smile faded. “We are all what we’re made to do.”
“That seems fatalistic,” David replied. “What have you been made to do?”
The major shook her head. “Nothing sinister. I was just thinking about how our parents shape us, then school, then our jobs.”
“Ah, and especially more so if your job is the military.”
“Doubly so, yes.”
David and Dala’s conversation moved to more trivial topics as they reviewed the menu and ordered their drinks. Rika listened with half an ear as they spoke of the Theban integration into the Septhian Alliance.
Dala was circumspect, but Rika could tell that she resented the change, though she did agree that it was likely a necessity in the fight against the Nietzscheans. Before the attack on the Albany System, the Niets moving into the Praesepe Cluster had been a worry for another day. Now it was history, and no one could argue that Thebes was in the Nietzscheans’ crosshairs.
On the public feeds, debate raged as to whether or not the Niets would strike the same target twice, but Rika knew they would. If there was one truth about the Niets, it was that they hated to lose.
If they lost an attack on a world or system, they would return again and again, throwing more and more resources into the conflict until they won.
During the war, Rika had often heard officers speculating about where the Niets were getting their seemingly endless resources. Though their empire was vast, there was no evidence that they had the economy to support the war they waged.
The prevailing logic was that they were being supported by the Trisilieds. That kingdom was the dominant power in the Pleiades Cluster, and had massive mining operations collecting both the dust permeating the region, and the exotic matter that streamed off the massive B-class stars that dominated the Pleiades.
Rika had kept her ear to the ground over the years—something made easy by working in places like Hal’s Hell. From what she’d heard, there was little to no chatter about major trade with the Trisilieds. Wherever the Nietzscheans had gathered their resources, it didn’t appear to be from there.
Maybe someday she’d be in a position to find out.
Across the road, David and Dala were sipping their drinks. On Rika’s side, Kelly and Keli were tucking into their meals, with Kelly letting out more than a few moans of delight as she ate her plate of spaghetti.
<Don’t forget to order my takeout,> Leslie reminded Rika at one point.
<Oh, you were serious about that?>
<Rika. It’s freezing up here, and I can feel my stomach gnawing a hole in my liver. Listening to Kelly moan about how much she loves pasta is about to push me over the edge. You’re damn skippy, I’m serious.>
<You volunteered for overwatch, you know.>
Leslie growled. <Um, no, you volunteered me. So help me, if you don’t have my order placed in five minutes, I’m going to come down there and kick the tar out of the three of you.>
<OK, OK, I’m signaling our synthetic waitress to come over.>
<You do that.>
Rika followed up on her promise, and Kelly added five more orders, apparently planning to live on leftover takeout for the next week.
Across the street, David and Dala’s meals also arrived, and they began to eat in relative silence.
Thus far, Dala had not said anything noteworthy, though they had spoken of the attack in general terms. Rika was starting to wonder if Dala had led David on, simply interested in a date with no intentions of sharing anything about the attack.
Or maybe she plans to extract additional details from him…
<David—> Rika began, but David stopped her.
<Busy, Captain. We’re having a chat over a direct Link connection. She’s telling me about how the ATC and Link were disrupted.>
<Well, that’s good. Was starting to think she just may want you to go over to her place afterward.>
David snorted. <Who says that can’t happen, too? I’m bundling up what she’s said thus far and sending it to Niki. Going to try to get more details on a few things.>
<OK.>
<Getting a transmission from David,> Niki said over the group’s connection. <Oh ho! Would you look at this. On the night we were attacked, the Link towers for five-hundred kilometers just happened to all go through a diagnostic cycle at the same time…one that triggered a core instruction-set update that required a full re-initialization.>
<Seems…unlikely that was an accident,> Keli observed. <I worked Link relay maintenance before conscription. We had carefully orchestrated rolling update patterns. Different ones all the time, so that they were harder to exploit.>
<Maybe they’re just dumb here.> Kelly smirked around a mouthful of spaghetti.
<You saw how the feeds lit up with people who were bullshit over the outage. If that sort of thing happened regularly, you wouldn’t have seen them so upset over it.>
<ATC went down as a result of the Link outage,> Niki added. <Looks like it’s supposed to fail over to proprietary backup communication systems, but it didn’t.>
<And why did satcomms go offline at the same time?> Rika asked. <That has to add to the suspicion.>
Niki responded without pause. <The official word from the providers is that the satcomm network got overloaded when the terrestrial one went down. But that’s not what Dala’s division thinks. They believe that someone hammered the satcomms with bogus data when the ground systems went offline.>
<This isn’t news worth freezing my ass off for,> Leslie interjected. <The fact that the attack was well orchestrated is evidenced by the attack itself. It’s the ‘who’ that matters.>
<I’m getting there,> Niki replied. <Trying to sift through and corroborate as much of what Dala is telling David as I can. OK. Dala says she doesn’t think it was orchestrated by anyone in the military, but she also said that some of the people who attacked us were former Theban Alliance soldiers. All discharged before the Septhian takeover, though—which stands to reason. No one’s getting discharged from the SAF right now—unless it’s dishonorable.>
Rika wanted to pass a dozen questions over to David for him to ask Dala, but he knew the objective as well as she. There was no point messing up his train of thought.
<Well, that’s…> Leslie began. <Oh shit! Rika, you need to get over there. We’ve got company!>
Rika rose from her chair. <We’re live, ladies. Kelly and I will go in the front. Keli, you go around back and secure egress. Chase will pick us up at the park four blocks east.> She looked at the pair and they both nodded before exiting Charlie’s Pasta and Chips.
Rika sent a payment over the Link so they woul
dn’t have to worry about Mary chasing after them, and moved a dozen meters down the street before crossing. Kelly mirrored her route, bracketing the restaurant. Once across the street, Rika stopped under an awning and reviewed the data Leslie was feeding them.
Leslie was positioned atop the ten-story building that housed Charlie’s Pasta and Chips at street level. From her vantage, she had eyes on armored figures atop the next building over, setting up on the roof. That building was only two stories high, and would provide a clear shot through the windows of Hammurabi’s.
Leslie hadn’t spotted any others, but if there were two, there were more.
<Think it’s capture or kill?> Kelly asked as she leaned against a post in front of Hammurabi’s, obstructing the shooter’s line of sight into the restaurant.
<Capture,> Leslie replied. <I see a spotter in a parked ground car thirty meters past your position, Rika. And there’s a van approaching. It’s staying low, but its flight-capable.>
<I’m almost at the alley,> Keli reported. <Nothing here, yet.>
Rika reached out to David. <We have company coming. Looks like a grab team with an option to terminate.>
<Me or her?> David asked, surprisingly calm.
<No way to tell,> Rika replied.
<Use a pair of drones, triangulate the shooter’s aim. Their spotter will be looking at both of us, but the shooter won’t. They’ll be on their primary target.>
It made sense; Rika felt silly for not thinking of it herself. It wasn’t a foolproof way to tell, but David was probably right.
Rika loosened the scarf around her neck, and two of her miniscule drones flew out, rising through the rain to track the aim of the shooter’s rifle.
The sniper had just moved, taking up a new position where Kelly wasn’t in the way, and when he settled into place, Rika had her answer.
<It’s on her, David. Not wavering at all. So either the shooter thinks Dala’s hot, or she’s the primary.>
<Could be. I, for one, really dig all the pink she has going on. Should I get her out the back?>
Rika checked on the incoming van. It was halfway down the block. Keli hadn’t yet made it around the back, but if the van was up front, it was likely that few—if any—enemies would be at the restaurant’s rear.
At least Rika hoped that would be the case.
<We should have brought a bigger team,> she said privately to Niki.
<Or at least made Keli hang out in the alley at the back.> Niki gave a mental nod. <Mind you, she would have complained about you and Kelly getting the nice meal.>
<This is what I get for worrying about people’s feelings,> Rika replied as she drew her left arm within her cloak and unslung her JE-84 rifle. Kelly—who was still clearly visible to the sniper and spotter team—didn’t yet make a move. Reaching for a weapon was a telltale motion the enemy would spot in an instant.
<I’m halfway down to them,> Leslie said. <Just one more floor, and I can jump if needs be.>
<Kelly. Move into the sniper’s line of sight again. David, get moving, take her to the back. Leslie, jump only if they fire—or if you really want to.>
The team followed her orders without hesitation. Within the restaurant, David rose and held his hand out to Dala, who was still seated, giving him a confused look. Rika hoped he could get her moving without trouble, but couldn’t offer any help, as the van arrived in front of the restaurant and its side doors opened up.
A man in powered armor stepped out and raised a chaingun.
Shit!
<Not a grab op!> Rika yelled as she fired a trio of rounds from her JE-84 at the enemy. He spun toward her, and his chaingun spun up at the same time as a muffled crack sounded.
The restaurant’s sign exploded in a shower of sparks, struck by the sniper’s weapon.
<Got him!> Leslie called out
<Nice timing,> Rika responded as she leapt into the air to avoid the chaingun’s spray of bullets. She grinned as Kelly moved into view, her cloak thrown open, JE-87 spraying kinetic rounds into the back of Rika’s attacker.
Without hesitation, Rika added her own hail of bullets, and the man went down, the chaingun cocking up into the air and tracing a line of destruction across the storefronts.
Rika hoped no civilians had been injured, but had no time to worry about it, as two more enemies spilled out of the van and took cover behind it.
A shot rang out from the rooftops, and one of the new foes fell.
<Nice gun, this,> Leslie commented. <The biolock was disabled, though. Bad form.>
Rika leapt onto the van and fired at the second enemy, before a second shot came from Leslie’s position. The soldier’s neck exploded, and he crumpled to the ground.
Rika jumped off the van and looked into the restaurant to find David and Dala gone. Behind her, the van took off racing down the street, nearly colliding with two other cars before it turned the corner.
<Got them. Safe and sound,> Keli reported.
<Good, we’re coming ‘round to meet you.> Rika motioned for Kelly to follow her. <Stay in the alley ‘til we get there.>
<Aye aye, Captain.>
Rika rolled her eyes at Keli’s weak humor and reached out to Chase. <You coming to give us poor women a ride home?>
<Am I to leave poor David behind?> Chase asked
<Er…us poor women plus David.>
<I’m hanging out above the park now. Just waiting for some guy to finish chasing his dog that got away from him, then I’ll set down.>
<OK,> Rika replied. <We might be coming in hot, so stay frosty.>
Chase laughed. <Hot and frosty. Got it.>
“Should have expected to meet you out here,” Dala said when she spotted Rika. “You seem to attract trouble.”
Rika looked further down the street, then looked back behind them. So far, there were no signs of pursuit. “Their weapons were aimed at your pretty pink head, Major. Someone didn’t like that you were sharing intel with us.”
Dala opened her mouth to reply, but she closed it and nodded before asking. “So what’s next?”
“We get you to our compound, and then you figure out who you can trust and reach out to them—but not before we arrive. For now, you need to go EM-silent.”
Dala worked her jaw, then nodded. “Lead on.”
They turned toward the park where Chase was landing and approached the next intersection, when a shadowy figure appeared at the corner, holding up a hand. Rika recognized Leslie’s silhouette, and stopped. Nobody moved for eleven seconds, then Leslie’s fingers curled up, and her thumb rose. Then she was gone again.
Leslie appeared once more to halt them, but otherwise, their route to the park was clear—as much as it could be, with local cops closing on the scene in front of Hammurabi’s.
After the final row of buildings was behind them, Rika led the group through the park’s twisting pathways to the clearing where Chase waited in the assault pinnace. Rika passed him the signal, and the ramp lowered.
A half-minute later, the ship was lifting off into the brisk, night air.
Once they were settled into the two rows of seats, Dala’s cold gaze found its way to Rika. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”
Rika looked down at her right arm and moved her fingers, sad to see them and not her GNR’s long barrel. They were so ineffective when it came to doing what she needed to do.
After a few seconds’ consideration, Rika looked up and met Dala’s gaze.
“I was rather hoping you would tell us. Those wonderful visitors we just met appear to be the same folks who paid us a visit the other night.”
“They’ve expanded their acceptable target list,” Kelly added.
“And they have the toys to get the job done.” Leslie
hefted the sniper rifle she had purloined from the enemy. “This isn’t Theban standard issue, but it does resemble the Septhian KM-171—the markings are all removed, but it could have been SAF issue.”
Kelly leant over and looked at the weapon. “Well that doesn’t make any sense. We know from what you said, Dala, that it’s likely to be former Theban military elements who went after Rika. Does that mean we have two enemies? Thebans and Septhians?”
“Could just mean there was a good sale on stolen goods,” David supplied. “With the military build-up that Septhia is undergoing, they’re practically bleeding weapons onto the black market.”
Dala nodded. “That’s true enough. That’s one of the things that Colonel Zim oversees: the tracking down of stolen military hardware. The stuff is everywhere right now.”
<That’s convenient,> Niki commented privately.
<Niki! Was starting to wonder if you were still in there.>
<I was helping digest all that pasta you wolfed down.>
Rika started. <What? Really?>
<No, Rika. I was monitoring local feeds to see when the cops were going to show up. Then I was scrubbing you and your team from the local surveillance systems. Following that, I removed all traces of you ever being at Charlie’s Pasta and Chips. Do I need to go on?>
Rika laughed softly. <No, I suppose not. Anyone looking askance at our pinnace right now?>
<‘Askance’? Look at you, getting all fancy. No, Chase has us registered as a sight-seeing tour. Given our stealth capabilities and this rain, we don’t look too different from the executive shuttles that are common here.>
Rika rose from her seat in the main cabin and walked to the cockpit’s entrance. “Clear skies?”
Chase glanced back at her. “Yeah. Taking a circuitous route, though.”
“Niki told me that we’re a sight-seeing tour. Not much to look at out there.” Rika peered through the window at the dark night. The rain had picked up, turning into a torrential downpour so thick it was almost impossible to see the city lights below them.
“Yeah, but a great night to ease our way back to the compound—speaking of which, you have to pick a name for the thing. I can’t keep calling it ‘the compound’ and ‘the facility’ anymore.” Chase glanced back at her and winked. “Makes it feel like a prison or something.”