<Uhhh….>
<Kidding, Kelly. I’m not going to fight whatever sort of leadership role comes my way, but no more of the ‘queen’ stuff, OK?>
Rika eased open the door and was resealing it when the SMI finally responded.
<OK, fine. I’ll put a pin in it for, like, two months. Then we’ll revisit your coronation.>
<Stars, Kelly. I guess if that’s the best I can expect.>
The three mechs retraced their steps through the station, Rika deducing from the feeds that Constantine was still in the viewing room observing the Pinnacle’s progress—or more likely celebrating its success by now.
<Damn. Rika,> Niki said, a note of caution in her voice. <He didn’t stick around for the party. The emperor is on the move.>
<Excellent, we’ll have a chance to get eyes on. See what sort of security he travels with firsthand.>
<Are you sure?>
<I’m sure.>
Rika advised Kelly and Keli of her intentions, passing a message on to Shoshin about where they planned to intercept the Nietzschean Emperor—at the same fountain Rika had stopped at earlier.
The concourse widened there, and there were places for Kelly and Keli to hide on either side, further down the wide passage, where they could cover her. Rika already knew where she’d hide: atop a beam that stretched over the concourse, out of the way of any flying drones or other pedestrians.
<You sure we can’t just shoot him?> Kelly asked. <We could just—>
<Kelly,> Rika warned. <Don’t make me send you back to the ship.>
<Fiiiine. I’ll just look and see. Can I swear at him softly?>
<Keep it inside your head,> Keli cautioned. <I don’t fancy getting shot to bits because you got carried away.>
Four minutes later, the three SMIs were in position, waiting for the emperor to pass by.
<I still think this seems like an unnecessary risk,> Niki said. <We could have just left cameras, tapped feeds.>
<Too late now,> Rika said, as a group of heavily armored soldiers swung into view down the concourse. They were followed by a man in flowing silken robes who appeared to be lost in thought. Behind him came several high-ranking military officials and then more guards.
<There are stealthed guards too,> Niki said, highlighting a dozen figures who were barely visible, even with Rika’s sensors.
<Guy travels in style,> Rika said. <I wonder what sort of uniform that guy’s wearing. It looks—>
Without warning, the six soldiers in the lead lifted their rifles and fired their railguns at the beam where Rika was crouched.
<Fuck!> she called out while leaping backward, high-velocity pellets striking her armor in a dozen places.
Before she even hit the ground, electron beams were lancing down the corridor from Keli and Kelly’s positions, striking the Niets and driving them back.
For a moment, Rika thought the enemy would retreat, but then a heavy kinetic slug hit her left arm, ripping the armor plating off, then another hit her thigh just below the end of the organic section, pulverizing the side of her leg.
Shit…what are they firing?!
Niki was screaming for Rika to keep falling back, when suddenly she felt her body rise in the air, while her GNR was yanked straight down until it touched the deck. She tried to wrench it free, but her entire body moved instead, writhing in the grip of an a-grav field that felt like a giant’s fist squeezing her to death.
<Shit, I can’t get a nanocloud out,> Niki said. <It just gets pushed back.>
Suddenly, Rika realized that no weapons fire was coming from Keli and Kelly and that the combat net had cut out. She looked behind herself, and saw that a blast door was sliding down, trapping her with the emperor and his soldiers.
<Can you get nano down the GNR’s barrel? Maybe we can—> Rika’s question died on her lips as a soldier tossed three burn sticks, one after the other onto her GNR, the thermite compound eating through her weapon’s firing systems and melting the mounts. Then one of the Nietzschean heavy gunners fired on her weapon mount, shattering it and sending Rika flying upward, where she slowly spun in the field’s grip.
As she rotated above the deck, forcing herself to calm and take stock of her situation, she heard the man in the strange uniform speak to the emperor.
“Say hello to one of Tangel’s little pets—a mech named Rika.”
<Fuck…how does he know?> Rika asked.
<News of your attacks could have reached Genevia by now.>
<I mean about Tangel.>
<You know…that might be an Orion Guard uniform.>
“I’d rather have you alive, Rika, but if you grab your rifle, these fine folks will all open fire. You’ve some impressive armor, but trust me. You won’t last a minute.”
<Rika,> Niki warned. <Bide your time. Not now.>
<Yeah, OK,> Rika replied as she let the field pull her arm back down, hoping that Kelly and Keli got away safely.
“Emperor Constantine,” the man said as he turned away from Rika. “You should direct your people on the Pinnacle to arrest two engineers named Jeremy and Annie. They were the ones to solve the issues with the ship’s engines. However, they also planted a backdoor in the system that will allow them to destroy the ship, plus any other craft the NSAI upgrades are installed on.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Rika yelled, realizing that somewhere along the line, she’d been played and had run headlong into a trap.
“Why, my dear Rika. I’m surprised your Tangel didn’t tell you about me. My name is General Garza. Of the Orion Freedom Alliance.”
Rika tried to shrug, but the a-grav field had tightened further, and she could barely manage the movement. “You must not have been a big enough deal to mention, Garza.”
“Yeah.” He winked. “I get that a lot.”
“We should kill her,” Constantine said as he approached cautiously. “Those things are monsters.”
“Oh, she’ll die soon enough,” the general said with a nod. “But unless I’m wrong, this mech has ISF nanotech, and her ships have stasis shields. Our little Rika here is a prize unlike any other.”
<Rika, we’re in deep shit.> Niki almost sputtered the words. <You need to call Tangel.>
<Yeah, right. On it.> Riki activated her QuanComm system. [Tangel? I need help. Bad.]
There was no response.
ESCAPE
STELLAR DATE: 05.07.8950 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Capeton Command, Capeton
REGION: Genevia System, Old Genevia, Nietzschean Empire
<Shit shit shit!> Kelly swore as she rushed toward the blast door, reaching it a second after closed. <Keli! They got Rika.>
She turned to see Keli standing in the middle of the concourse, partially visible due to scoring on her armor. The mech’s GNR barrel was resting on the deck, and her shoulders were stooped.
<Fuck!> Kelly swore again, running back to her teammate. <Keli, are you hit?>
<I…no…well, yeah, but Rika!>
<Shoshin, where are you?> Kelly called out, hoping their emergency channel was still secure.
<Shuttle’s out of the bay, coming around to a point near you for pickup. Get to deck eighty-two. Where’s Rika?>
<They got her!> Keli cried out.
<It was a trap,> Kelly added. <Keli, we have to move! This way.>
At first, Keli didn’t even stir, but then Kelly grabbed her arm and pulled hard, almost toppling the other mech over.
<We have to regroup,> she said, dragging her across the concourse. <Gotta figure out where they took her, then get word to Chase and Heather. Launch a full assault. Something. But move, dammit!>
Keli finally seemed to shake free of whatever had her riveted in place and nodded, following Kelly as she ran to door that led to a maintenance shaft.
<C’mon, I can hear them closing on us.>
* * * * *
She was watching the engineering teams pass around drinks and flasks as they congratulated one another, when something suddenly seemed wrong to Leslie. It was a slight change in the room’s atmosphere. A tiny dimming in the excitement.
Then she spotted it: two Nietzschean MPs had just entered through a door on the port side, while three had come through on the starboard end of the room.
<Jeremy, Annie, I want you to slowly move toward my position, nice and easy.>
<Why?> Jeremy asked, while Annie said, <Where’s your position?>
Shit, Leslie thought and passed a marker to the pair. <Don’t look toward me, just chat or talk to people, but come this way.>
The MPs were just wearing regular ship uniforms, which meant they were lightly armored. Helmets rested on their heads, but the face shields were pulled up as they moved through the crowd, closing on Jeremy and Annie.
Sucks to be you guys, Leslie thought as she took aim at the two MPs on the port side. She released a slow breath and pulled the trigger, then shifted a centimeter and pulled it again.
The pair of soldiers crumpled, each shot through the eye.
Leslie slid off the cabinets and dropped to the deck, gliding through the crowd as carefully as she dared, but not worrying about bumping the odd person as she moved toward the two engineers in her charge.
<OK, stay close,> she said once they met up. <We’re heading to the port exit. There’s a networking closet down the hall to the right. That’s where we’re going.>
<Why?> Jeremy asked. <What’s going on?>
<Nietzschean military police are here for you. I can only guess that somehow, they found out about you…or something. I’m not going to let them capture you to ask, kay?>
Jeremy nodded, and Annie took his hand, pulling him through the crowd. Her touch caused him to stumble, a look of near fear coming over the engineer, and he struggled to keep up as they passed by a group of his teammates, who stopped talking to stare at the pair.
Annie glanced back at Jeremy and gave an encouraging smile. “A little special reward for all your hard work.”
One of the men called out, “Booyah!”, and Jeremy proceeded to turn beet red.
<Just keep moving,> Leslie said. <No need for subterfuge now.>
They skirted the crowd that had formed around the two downed MPs, making it to the door just as an alarm blared and the exit began to close.
<C’mon!> Leslie called out. <Get a move on!>
She reached the door and threw a shoulder into it, slowing it just long enough for the two engineers to get through before the portal slid shut.
She turned to see the pair rushing toward the networking closet. Jeremy held the door open for Annie and then stood looking around for Leslie.
<Go in, I’m here,> she assured him.
He ducked inside, and she followed, pulling the door closed behind her.
“What the hell is going on?” Jeremy asked. “Were those guards dead?”
“Sure hope so,” Leslie said as she materialized before them. “Strip. Fast.”
“What?” Jeremy asked as Annie pulled down the fastener on her shipsuit.
“Naked,” Leslie insisted. “Fast! Go!”
He complied, albeit sluggishly. By the time he was still only half-done, Annie was buck naked and giving Leslie a curious look.
“What next, Les?”
Leslie reached into a pouch on her lower back and pulled out a small canister. “Press this against your sternum.”
Annie complied and gave a small gasp as the cylinder began to melt against her skin, flowing across her body, coating it in a matte-grey material.
“What the hell is this stuff?” she asked, and Jeremy glanced at her, blushing at her half-naked body.
“Stars, Jeremy,” Leslie muttered. “You need to chill out. Here’s yours.” She glanced back at Annie, who was looking a little concerned as the coating moved up her neck. “It’s flow armor. Like what my skin is made out of.”
“Wait…your skin is made out of this stuff?” Jeremy asked as he held his canister to his chest.
“A better version, but yeah. It has about as much protection as light armor, better against beam weapons than kinetics. You’ll have the same stealth capabilities I do, as well, though you don’t have nanocloud tech, so your audible stealth won’t be as good as mine.”
“How—” Annie began to say, but suddenly closed her mouth and eyes as the armor flowed up over her face.
“It’s OK,” Leslie explained. “It’s not going to go inside you, though it’s going to coat your eyeballs, which always feels strange.”
“OK…” Jeremy said as he watched Annie disappear. “This stuff’s amazing. Can we keep it?”
“Let’s just worry about staying alive for now.”
A minute later, a pair of Nietzschean soldiers yanked the door open, swept the barrels of their rifles side to side as they checked over the empty space within, and then closed the door.
<OK,> Leslie said to the two engineers, whose pulses had risen dramatically. <There’ll be more, but I have probes out in the passage. When it’s clear, we’ll slip out.>
<Won’t the door opening be on the feeds?> Annie asked.
<If it was, they’d’ve caught us going in here,> Leslie said with a wink. <I tapped all their sensors and optics in this corridor before the test run, just to be on the safe side. However, once we’re further along, we’ll have to be careful.>
<Where are we going?> Jeremy asked. <Do you know what’s happened?>
<No,> she shook her head. <Somehow, the Niets got wind of you two, though. Did you tell anyone else about what you were up to?>
<No,> Jeremy replied emphatically. <Annie is the only person I’ve ever talked about this with.>
<Same here,> Annie said. <Well, other than my resistance contact, Wendy, and she would have only told Wieck.>
<OK, we’ll have to look into that later,> Leslie said. <Coast is clear. Let’s get out of here.>
<What about our stuff?> Jeremy asked, glancing at the two shipsuits tucked behind one of the equipment racks.
<I don’t think you’ll be working for Capeton Shipyards anymore,> Leslie replied. <And remember, don’t Link to anything but the combat net I’ve set up. You can’t swap idents on your Link, so the moment you connect, they’re going to know where you are.>
<You can do that? Just swap idents?> Annie asked. <Damn, must be nice to have the good stuff.>
<I’ve been doing shit like this for longer than you’ve been alive.> Leslie opened the door, and the two engineers filed out, moving down the hall to the marker Leslie had set.
<So, where are we going?> Jeremy asked again.
<There’s a bay fifteen decks down on the port side,> Leslie replied. <A team is there waiting for us. We just have to go nice and slow.>
* * * * *
Heather’s eyes grew wide as she turned toward Chase. “They got Rika.”
“What?” He instantly forgot what he was doing and strode toward the captain. She passed him the comm message that had just been relayed through the Undaunted.
It was from Shoshin. <Kelly and Keli are en route to egress. They got cut off from Rika, saw her captured by Constantine. It was a trap.>
“Shit,” Chase muttered, feeling a tightness form in his chest. “If that was a trap…”
Heather nodded vigorously. “Then we have to assume that it was leaked from the resistance…who knew that Rika was going to be on Capeton Command?”
Chase placed a hand on the console, trying to order his thoughts, when all he wanted to do was tell Heather to fly the Fury Lance to Capeton and fire on everything in sight until they turned Rika over.
“Wieck, Lieutenant Gary, probably everyone on Gary’s team,” Chase said. “It was pretty clear that this was a critical part of the plan.” He looked up at Heather, meeting her eyes. “Shit…I…what do we do?”
<We have to assume th
at the Niets know everything,> Potter said, her tone filled with worry, but still somehow focused. <Our ships, the backdoor into the drive systems, the NSAI Rika was adding, everything.>
“Then our plan to take out most of the Nietzschean fleet has failed,” Heather said, a long sigh slipping past her lips. “Those fuckers…we were so close.”
“We need to call Admiral Carson,” Chase said. “Get a fleet of ISF ships on Rika’s position. We’ll get her out and still take out the emperor. Then we’ll slug it out with the rest of the Niets the old-fashioned way.”
<May I propose an alternative?> Piper asked, his sober tone carrying an uncommon note of urgency.
“Fire away,” Heather said as she strode to the main holo, pulling up the fastest route for the Lance to reach Capeton.
<We should advise Carson to be ready, but not to come just yet. Remember, Rika has a direct line to Tangel, and from what Silva has told us, Tangel can use jump gates without a starship. She could already be on her way to rescue the colonel.>
Chase gulped a deep breath, mentally chastising himself for forgetting that.
“OK…right, but I’m still not going to sit back and trust that Tangel can drop everything to save Rika. We’re still going to Capeton.”
“I’ve just sent out orders for all our ships to switch to backup idents that we didn’t get from the resistance,” Heather said. “So far from what I can tell, no one’s been fired on, but with light lag…”
Chase nodded. Rika’s plan had placed Marauder ships all over the Genevia System, the idea being that when they began to attack, the Niets would all make their best speed to the Marauder ships, and that would trigger the engine failures.
However, the dispersal also meant that the smaller Marauder ships—particularly the destroyers—would be vulnerable if enough of the enemy converged on them.
<There’s activity on the Pinnacle,> Potter said, and Chase noted that the massive ship was only a quarter AU from the Fury Lance.
“What sort of activity?” he asked.
<The good kind,> Piper said. <They’re hunting for Jeremy and Annie. They seem almost frantic.>