Before it was fully expanded, kinetic rounds and beams tore through the object, shredding it and leaving only a bit of white schmutz stuck to the station.
<Shit…glad you didn’t forget those things,> Nona muttered.
<Did you track the trajectories?> Crudge asked. <Or just stare dumbfounded at the weapons fire?>
Nona’s response was to leap across the alcove’s opening, firing her e-beam at three targets before sending a pair of DPU shots after.
<Half down. You think someone else can take out the remainder?>
Crudge nodded to Skip, who followed her example, a straight line of blue-white lightning flashing four times. After waiting a moment, the lieutenant tossed another foam ball into the opening, smiling as it expanded and no rounds of defensive fire struck it.
<OK, move—> the words died in his mind as a kinetic blast struck the foam and blasted it out into space. <Well, looks like there’s something else in there.>
<You sure, LT?> Nona asked. <Think it’s bad?>
<Shut up, Private.>
Crudge hadn’t wanted to waste any of his nano, but decided it was the most expedient option at this point. He deployed a passel into a sticky blob and whipped it around the corner.
The nano released optical sensors, getting a better picture of the alcove than the rough blueprints showed. It was fifteen meters deep and five wide. Several smoking turrets lined the side, but there were five more that hadn’t fired in the initial salvos, and remained ready to take out the mechs.
<Target them and go again?> Skip asked.
<No,> Crudge shook his head. <There might be more. The nano landed close to an access port, I’m sending it in for a breach.>
Nona made a sound like she was yawning, but Crudge ignored her, sending the nano on its way, letting the tactical NSAI he carried control it.
While the computer did its work, he checked in on the other teams.
<We’re outside the control center,> Corporal James reported. <But they’ve got the thing sealed up so tight that blowing our way through is gonna do some damage.>
<OK, hold off on that for a few more mikes. We may have the relays by then.>
<You got it, LT.>
<Sergeant Bruce?> Crudge asked the squad leader. <How are things on your end?>
The RR-4 took a few moments to respond, and when he did, his mental tone carried a note of frustration. <Fuckin’ Niets and sympathizers are screwing around with guerilla bullshit, blending in. We’re nearly at our target, though. We’ve taken to a ‘get the hell out of the way, or get shot’ style of advance.>
<Just…> Crudge was going to advise the mech to be sure of their targets, but he knew that his people would never fire on civilians without provocation. <Keep on keeping on, Sergeant.>
<You got it, LT. I estimate five minutes and we’ll be getting things in hand at the target.>
Crudge sent an affirmation and then saw that the nano he’d sent into the alcove had disabled the remaining defenses. He gestured for the fireteam to move in and secure it.
<How you doing down there, Crudge?> Vargo asked. <I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but those Niet ships that are coming didn’t stop anywhere for lunch.>
<No?> Crudge replied as he followed his fireteam in. <Did you try offering them a BLT? I hear that usually does the trick with the Niets.>
<They only like them untoasted, and stars know I won’t do that.> Vargo laughed, and the lieutenant groaned.
<Don’t you give me that. Hot and cold mixed like that is gross. Untoasted is the way to go.>
<Has anyone told you that you’re a barbarian?> Vargo asked.
<Frequently. OK, we’ve breached the array with the best angles on the incoming Niets. Pass me targeting data, and we’ll give ‘em hell.>
* * * * *
Vargo breathed a sigh of relief at Crudge’s news and turned to Ashley.
“Feed the lieutenant priority targets and vectors. We’ll let him hammer them from the station while we run defense for any incoming rounds.”
The captain looked at the forward display and set his jaw as he saw a wave of missiles heading toward Orden Station.
“Damn,” he muttered. “Gotta be a thousand of them.”
“Something like that,” she replied as scan completed the tally at one-thousand-and-sixty-three.
Vargo contacted the captain of the other destroyer. <Looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us. You’re on the spinward side, we’ll take antispin. Let’s keep that station safe.>
<You’ve got it, Grand Poobah. Not a single Niet will get through.>
<That’s the worst one yet. And I’m not worried about Niets, I’m worried about their missiles and beams.>
The other captain snorted. <Yeah, yeah, of course. That.>
MOUNT GENEVIA REDUX
STELLAR DATE: 06.09.8950 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: GMS Pinnacle, Babylon
REGION: Genevia System, New Genevian Alliance
“I’m tired of fighting on this damn mountain,” Chase muttered as he strode down the corridor that led to the Royal Palace’s uppermost landing pad.
“Oh?” Rika asked, glancing to her right at the man—the mech—she’d grown deeply in love with over the past two years. “We’ve only fought on Genevia once. How can you be tired of it?”
He laughed, the good-natured tones calming her nerves. “Well, you’ve been busy with all your important queenly duties, so you haven’t been running as many sims as we have.”
“Wait. Aren’t you the head of my guard? Can’t you just mandate fewer sims?”
Chase snorted. “Right. And then I’d have Silva and Kelly up my ass about not taking the job seriously. Trust me, it’s easier to just run a ridiculous number of sims.”
Rika only laughed in response as she reviewed the data flowing in on the combat net. Mount Genevia and the Royal Palace were protected by three layers of security. The first consisted of police from several nearby cities under Commandant Perin. They were stationed on the roads and in the woods on the lower slopes. Currently they were holding back the encroaching enemy, but the enemy was bringing in more hardware, and she imagined that Barne would soon pull the police back.
The second layer of defense was made up of members of the New Genevian Space Force. Their numbers were small, but consisted of veterans who had been vouched for by mechs and trusted members of the resistance. Rika had hoped to deploy them to ships, but with most of her mechs shipping out to defend the surrounding systems and Genevia itself, the planet of Belgium was largely left on its own.
Her own guard and a few members of the palace’s security team made up the third layer of defense. Aside from Kelly, Keli, Chase, and Silva, Barne and Leslie were onsite, as well as Corporal Harlan’s fireteam. Barne had taken the K1R’s team to the lower levels. The docking bays at the foot of the mountain had been opened up, and were the palace’s least secure entrance.
A K1R, two AM-4s and an SMI would plug that hole nicely.
<Do you think they’ll try to bring a strike force to the upper landing pads?> Niki asked.
“I just can’t imagine they think they can get past all our lower defenses in a reasonable timeframe. Those ships are coming down with only one thing in mind. They plan to drop troops, and their best bet will be to land them on the upper pads.”
“Anti-air is going to take a lot of them out,” Chase said as they reached the door at the end of the hall. “Unless they think they can take out the mountain’s power systems down below.”
“Harlan will have something to say about that.” Rika pushed the doors open and strode onto the landing pad where two skyscreams waited. “Not to mention the improved SC Batts we installed. Going to take a lot more than a little power outage to stay our weapons.”
Chase gave the fighters a mistrustful look. “I can’t say I’m excited to have you take to the skies when we’re under attack from said skies.”
“Don’t worry,” Rika kis
sed his cheek before pulling on her helmet. <Kelly will keep me safe. The best place for me to be when they’re attacking the palace is not in the palace.>
“Not very queenly behavior.” Chase’s words were laced with a note of knowing resignation. “And what if they figure out that it’s you in the skyscream?”
Rika thought about that for a moment before speaking on the command net.
<Leslie, what callsign are you using for me?>
<Callsign? Oh, you mean our codeword for you?>
<Yeah, that.>
The woman snorted a laugh over the Link. <Are you sure you want to know?>
<Trust me, you don’t,> Niki interjected.
<OK, well, Silva just became that. If the enemy manages to crack our comms, they’ll think I’m still in the palace.>
<Hey, whoa, what?> Silva asked. <That’s a mighty big target you just painted on my back.>
<You saying you can’t handle some rebel civvies?> Rika asked with a snort.
<No need to say such hurtful things, Rika! I thought I was like a mother to you.>
<You are. Now use that mothering instinct to be a good decoy.>
As she spoke, Rika gave Chase a final wave and bounded toward her skyscream, slotting her arms and legs into the mounting system, which pulled them off and pulled her into the heart of the craft.
Finaeus had offered to upgrade the skyscreams to allow the mechs the ability to merge with them without removing limbs, but Rika had declined. There was nothing like feeling like you were the attack craft itself, its wings your own arms, its beams your claws.
Kelly was first in the air, and Rika followed after, streaking out over the edge of the landing pad, skimming treetops as she angled upward, hurtling her body toward the heavens.
The pad had blocked the sound of the battle below, but once over the slopes, the echo of projectile and kinetic rounds rose up to meet her, their staccato rhythms punctuated by periodic explosions.
Rika’s suspicions were confirmed, and a few moments later, Barne sent out the command for the police forces to move back to the secondary line, letting the military forces move to the fore.
<Barne,> Rika called down to the general, <Why not just let Harlan’s fireteam go out? There’s no way some ragtag group of rebels will take them down.>
<That ragtag group of rebels has over ten thousand troops moving up the valley,> he replied. <We’re going to draw them in toward the bays and then drop the hammer.>
<Ten thousand! How the hell did we miss that?>
<I’m not entirely sure, but Leslie is seeing red. Either someone didn’t do their job, or loyalties are a problem for someone high up the chain—or both. Don’t worry, My Queen, we’ll take care of them. You just make sure we don’t get hit from above.>
<Not on my watch,> Rika replied, coming to grips with the fact that this was more than just an assassination attempt—it was a full-on coup.
As much as she wanted to drop down and strafe the enemy’s ground troops, she shifted her focus to the skies above, where five freighters had made it past Piper’s defense. They had just appeared on the horizon, bright flares from their engines lighting up the night sky.
<Which ones do you want?> Rika asked as the skyscreams tore through a thin layer of clouds, now only a thousand kilometers from the braking ships.
<You take the one on the right, I’ll take the four on the left,> the other mech said with a laugh.
<Funny girl. I’ll give you the two on the left, and whoever finishes first can take the last one.>
<A competition! I love it!>
Kelly banked away, and Rika continued to boost toward the rightmost ship. It was sleek for a freighter, its grav systems creating a low-pressure pocket for the ship to slide through. Targeting an emitter near the ship’s starboard engine, Rika fired a salvo of rail slugs, following them up with a stream of HE rounds.
The kinetics weakened the ship’s shields, straining the systems that were already pushing the planet’s atmosphere back, and the HE rounds hammered their way through, hitting the graviton emitter and knocking it offline.
A second later, atmosphere tore through the opening and tore at the ship, dragging it sideways and swinging the other side around toward Rika. She was only fifty kilometers away, but it seemed easy to lock onto the ship’s starboard emitters and repeat the shots.
The second shield umbrella went offline, and she tagged the target for the ground batteries.
Rika was onto her second ship when one-ton slugs slammed into the first freighter’s engines, turning the ship into a ball of fire falling toward the planet.
The second ship was a tougher nut to crack. She lobbed rail shots at ship’s rear umbrellas, but they were too tough to wear down with a single pass. As her skyscream shrieked over the freighter, Niki highlighted a section of its shields.
<There!>
Rika spotted the weak patch on the top of the ship. No critical systems lay beneath it, and time was tight before the enemy vessels reached the optimal distance to disgorge their landing craft.
Without another thought, she fired her electron beams at the weak spot, and dove after, punching her skyscream through and sliding between the ship and its shields. Her beams raked the ship’s hull, and she dove under the craft and angled toward its engines.
Point defense beams lanced out at her attack craft, several scoring hits, but most unable to track a ship moving so close to the hull. Firing on an emitter next to the engines, Rika killed the rear shields and tore through, passing out into the planet’s skies and tagging the ship for ground batteries.
<We’re too late!> Niki flagged a swarm of objects pouring off the freighter moments before the ground batteries hit it.
Rika swore as she realized they were drones. Kelly’s second target was also bleeding drones, even as the ground batteries fired on it, holing the ship from stern to bow.
The fifth ship had fallen back, and half the swarm of attack bots fell back to cover it, while the other half swept in toward Rika and Kelly.
<I’m tracking over five hundred of them,> Niki said. <Sure would have been nice if they’d brought these into play when we were fighting the Niets.>
<Either they didn’t expect us to win, or they were holding back to do this,> Rika replied, her response eliciting a snort from Kelly as the queen dove her skyscream toward a pair of drones, shooting one and grabbing the other in her craft’s talons.
<Like they had the foresight for this,> she said. <You know they were just cowards and held back. Now that they realize that sitting on their asses for a decade earned them no reward, they’re gonna take their piece of the pie by force.>
<That last ship is going to have their remaining ground troops. Target it,> Rika instructed Kelly, ignoring the leading swarm of drones and heading for the second.
The ships had slowed their approach to three hundred kilometers per hour. They were only two hundred and fifty klicks from Mount Genevia, and Rika knew that they were down to the final minutes.
<Piper,> she called up to the AI commanding the Overwatch. <What can you give us?>
<Sorry, Rika. I’m mired in a few thousand drones, and my two destroyers are blocking orbital shots from their cruisers. I’m at least ten minutes from offering help.>
The AI sounded genuinely sorry, and Rika wanted to tell him it would be OK, when another voice joined the command net.
<Rika? Do you need a hand?>
<Kora?>
<That’s me,> the detective said. <I’m in a ship with decent guns. We’re breaching atmo near your pos—>
<Go for the last ship. Ignore the fighters,> Rika interrupted.
Kora laughed. <OK, we’re on it!>
A streak of light lit up the horizon as another ship tore through the atmosphere and then rotated, firing its engines directly at the final enemy freighter.
<A churn and burn on just one ship?> Rika wondered if the freighter could pull it off, but stared in awe as she watched the ViperTalon manage the maneuver.
<One hell of a stick jockey to pull that off in atmo,> Niki commented.
The Talon’s engine wash swept across the drones escorting the final ship, knocking dozens of them out of the sky. The enemy freighter fired back, but its beams couldn’t push through the flaming wash in atmosphere, and the ball of fire streaking toward it carried on unabated.
After a few more seconds, the ViperTalon cut its burn and turned, its own beams raking the final freighter, but the drones took the brunt of the attack.
Rika boosted toward them, her own beams and weapons lashing out, felling drones as she went, but the leading swarm followed after, and she spent as much time battling them as the group defending the ship.
She monitored Kelly during the desperate fight, making sure her teammate was alright, slicing through attackers that were on her tail more than once. As they fought, the drones seemed to slow down to a crawl, their movements languid and predictable.
Rika lobbed kinetics and fired beams at weak points she identified, and the robotic attackers dropped from the skies in droves. Even so, there were still hundreds more, and a screen of them lay between her and the freighter.
A quick review of scan showed her that the ship’s shields were nearly down, so she tagged it for the ground defenses to hammer.
The aerial battle was now only one hundred kilometers from Mount Genevia, and the six rounds from the ground defenses took only seconds to reach them.
Each one was blocked by swarms of drones that moved between the shots and the surface-to-air slugs.
Missiles streaked out from silos in the mountain, trails of smoke following their twisting paths, but only two reached the freighter.
Explosions blossomed in the night, and scan updated to show that the ship’s forward shields were down. Rika didn’t hesitate to boost forward, twisting through the beam fire that tracked after her from the drones.
Like before, they were too slow, easy to predict. She evaded their shots with ease and focused on the freighter’s forward sensor domes, blowing them away before dropping to its hull, sinking her talons into the ship’s ablative plating to slow herself down.