Mecha Corps (32 page)

The image of the city behind Rayder. The one Matt had seen during that infamous broadcast.

That was it. Matt wanted to scream with glee. His father had found the final world, and he’d hidden his backup here, with clues only Matt could decipher.

Matt ran out of the lab, clutching the scrap of plastic. He had to tell everyone. He had found the location.

Except . . . why hadn’t his dad told the Union? Why had he gone to all the trouble to hide the information?

But did it matter? He could take the fight to Rayder!

In the outer lab, Jahl sat tensely over his console, while Dr. Roth looked over his shoulder. Yve was nowhere to be seen.

“What about the Displacement Drive ship records?” Dr. Roth asked Jahl. “Those would be stored locally on the ship.”

Jahl shook his head. “The ship Dr. Stanford used, the
Titan
, was lost in an engagement with the Aliancia over a decade ago.”

“Then we are at an end,” Dr. Roth said, his face emotionless.

Peal looked up at Matt. “We’re still screwed,” he said. “I can’t recover the data. It’s too far gone.”

Matt grinned, nearly brimming over with elation. “Maybe not.” He waved the slip of plastic at them. Dr. Roth took it and squinted at the words.

“I don’t understand,” Dr. Roth said.

Matt explained his father’s old memory games and the numbering scheme they’d used. Roth nodded, rapt.

“Of course. A cipher only you can decode. Brilliant.”

Matt nodded.

“So?” Jahl asked. “What are the coordinates? Where’s Rayder?”

Matt grinned. “Maybe it’s best I tell Colonel Cruz and Congressperson Tomita personally, when we return to Mecha Base.”

Thinking,
Because then maybe I can lead the team. Maybe I can meet Rayder face-to-face.

 

The trip back to Mecha Base was uneventful, so Matt slept in the storage room. He half expected to wake to Dr. Roth bending over him, with NPP screens in the background showing the coordinates he held in his head.

But when he woke, it was to the thud and thunder of a bombardment.

Matt flew down to the bridge. Captain Ivers swore over the pilots, while Yve and Dr. Roth watched the 360-degree screens with wide eyes.

They were back at Mecha Base. On one side, the hulking gray asteroid covered their point of view. On the other side, though, the maelstrom was dotted with ships. The lead asteroid was instantly recognizable, even without reading its tag: the heavily armored UUS
Atlas
. The ship Rayder had captured.

Behind the
Atlas
were three other Displacement Drive ships. These were more typical asteroid ships, mainly rock. They sparked as bits of rock and dust scoured their surface.

Nearer Mecha Base, battleships from the
Atlas
grappled with an army of Hellions. The flash of Fireflies and Seekers lit the red-orange dust with a hellish radiance.

Mecha Base was under attack.

Rayder had found them.

Matt stared openmouthed at the battle outside, damning himself for not expecting it. Rayder had captured the
Atlas
, its crew, and the Mecha Corps. He must have scoured the brains of the men and women he held hostage. Of course he’d discover where Mecha Base was—and of course he’d make it his first target.

White-hot explosions painted the bridge of the
Helios
in ghostly light as the battle raged. For the moment, nobody moved, shocked at the enormity of the offensive.

Outside, hundreds of Rayder’s battleships advanced on scores of Flight Pack–equipped Hellions. The battleships came fast, in complex, dancing patterns, screaming past the Hellions and firing on them from both sides. The Hellions thrashed and convulsed in the concentrated fire. A handful of battleships accelerated toward Mecha Base, with Hellions in close pursuit. The Hellions fired Seekers at Rayder’s battleships, taking out one, two, three at once. But more pressed on.

Another battleship threw on even more acceleration and impacted the giant steel doors of the Hellion dock, warping one out of place. Air gusted out from the dock, crystallizing quickly in the cold of space.

Three Hellions outside the dock turned to fire on the crashed battleship. Behind them, another battleship decelerated fast and fired on the Hellions, sending them scattering. One caught itself deftly on the edge of Mecha Base’s armor and reached down to swing its companion out of the line of fire.

The way they moved looked familiar. Matt saw the tags on the
Helios
’ NPP: MAJOR G. SOTO and CADET MICHELLE KIND.

My team,
he thought.
They’re being attacked.

“Holy hell,” Captain Ivers said, breaking the silence. Matt realized it had been only moments since they Displaced in.

Rayder’s battleships advanced toward Mecha Base, their complex formations confusing and overcoming the Hellion’s maneuverability. More numerous and better-armed, they were winning the fight to board Mecha Base.

But it wasn’t all going Rayder’s way. As Matt watched, a house-sized mass of the maelstrom hit one of the unarmored Displacement Drive ships. Dust flew away from all sides of the ship, and a huge gust of boulder-sized rocks and smaller flakes of stone exploded out of the impact crater. The asteroid ship actually slipped sideways under the force of the impact, and the enemy bridge went dark.

“Send me in!” Matt cried.

“Excuse me?” Captain Ivers asked.

“Sir, I mean, permission to deploy, sir. If I can take a Demon, I can go after Rayder—”

Matt was cut short by public comms from Mecha Base. “
Helios
, withdraw immediately. Repeat: recommend immediate withdrawal. Mecha Base is under heavy fire.”

“No shit,” Ivers said sardonically. “Tell me our weapons are at least functional, pilot.”

“Heavy matter coming online, sir,” one of the pilots said.

“Sir!” Matt said. “Please!”

“You want to go after that bastard?” Ivers grinned at Matt.

“Sir, yes, sir!”

“Sir, I recommend we withdraw,” Yve said, darting forward. “Cadet Lowell has critical information we can’t lose!”

Matt groaned. Yve was right. But . . . his father must have had his reasons for not telling the Union.

Matt shot over to Jahl. “Your entangled computing can record, right?”

Jahl nodded.

“Then remember this.” Matt rapped out the numbers. “If I don’t come back, use your own judgment who you tell it to.”

Jahl opened his mouth to speak, but Yve cut him off.

“Sir, I still don’t think we can let Cadet Lowell fight. What if there are other codes that only he can solve? We should withdraw now!”

“You want us to lose Mecha Base?” Matt yelled at Yve. “You want us to abandon those pilots out there—like you abandoned my dad?”

Fury sparked in Yve’s eyes, but before he could speak, Dr. Roth cut in.

“Is there any possible reason I should authorize your use of a Demon, Cadet Lowell?” Roth sneered. “What can you possibly do, save deliver my latest technology into enemy hands?”

“Yes. Because I’ll win this,” Matt said, standing firm, even as his eyes slipped to watch his embattled friends.

“I’m sorry. I cannot believe that,” Dr. Roth said. “Concur with the liaison’s recommendation to withdraw, Captain Ivers.”

But Ivers wasn’t paying any attention to Dr. Roth. He was watching Matt. Seeing him track the battle outside

“That your team?” Ivers asked, nodding at Michelle and Soto.

“Yes, sir!” Matt snapped.

“Heavy-matter weapons online, sir,” one of the pilots said.

Ivers bent over a control panel and keyed in a short sequence. “There’s a Hellion in the hangar. It’s now yours. Godspeed.”

Dr. Roth jumped forward, his eyes wide. “I said, I recommend we withdraw—”

Ivers sneered. “Let me know when they put you in charge of my ship. Pilots, aim and fire at will, concentrating on the unarmored ships.”

Matt didn’t wait any longer. He threw himself out of the bridge and down the corridors at full speed, found the Hellion and the interface suit within, tore skin getting into it, and dropped into Mesh.

It was strange being in a Hellion again. Like a child’s game. Metallic muscles worked beyond the wraparound screens, casting odd, distracting glints, unlike the immersive Demon. Matt breathed the sweat of a dozen pilots, unlike the sanitized, metallic air from a Demon’s mask.

The only thing worth feeling was the support cradle the Hellion was locked into. Through it thrummed the oversized fusion heart of the
Helios
, the chant of data between the Displacement Drive and the pilots, the flow of images and messages from Mecha Base and beyond. It was just like his first exercise, when he caught the Corsair fighter in the bay and Merged with it.

Overlays flashed on Matt’s POV, showing the current state of the battle. The Mecha had fallen back closer to Mecha Base, but seemed to be holding the battleships at bay. The battleships had to approach in the lee of Mecha Base’s armor, so the closer they got to Mecha Base, the more concentrated the fire from the Mecha.

Still, a Hedgehog battleship and a handful of Corsair-captured Taikong fighters had slipped through. They fought against two Mecha at the lower level Hellion dock: Soto and Michelle’s Hellions.

A sudden thought came to Matt:
You could Merge with this ship. Just like you did during your first exercise above ground. Displace away. Then Displace down right on top of Rayder. Hit him hard. Crush the
Atlas
and end it.

Because Rayder had to be there. He wouldn’t miss his chance to watch the capture of Mecha Base.

Michelle and Soto fell back in the battle diagram, hanging at the dangerous edge of Mecha Base’s armor.

“No,” Matt said, triggering the external hatch. It opened to reveal the gray rock of Mecha Base. The edge of the Hellion dock was just visible. Beyond that, two Hellions moved. Michelle and Soto.

“And I will,” Matt breathed, jumping hard toward his friends.

 

Matt went wide of the two Mecha, almost missing the edge of the armor on Mecha Base. He caught and held on as depleted-uranium slugs hammered his Hellion, making him wince. His targeting overlay showed the source of his bombardment: a group of Rayder’s men in battle-tech space suits.

Matt launched Fireflies, but the men slipped out of range before they impacted. They were wearing Flight Packs. Matt sorely wished for his own as more slugs hit. He couldn’t do much more than hang on the edge of the armor if his Fireflies and Seekers didn’t work.

He searched for Michelle and Soto; they were launching Seekers at Rayder’s nearest battleship. The big Rhino rocked with the explosions but kept firing at them. Soto lost his grip and Michelle had to grab at him and pull him down back under the edge of the armor.

“Matt!” a familiar voice shouted through Matt’s cockpit as Sergeant Stoll’s comms icon lit on his screen. “Ah, I mean, Cadet Lowell, report status!”

“Helping my friends,” Matt said. “Ma’am.”

“Adding you to my control group,” Stoll said.

“Matt!” Michelle called. “Did you find it? You shouldn’t have come! We’re pinned down!”

Matt laughed. “Yes, yes, I shouldn’t have, and I can see that.”

“Idiot kid,” Soto said. “Too bad you don’t have a Flight Pack or three. They can’t kill us, but we can’t knock them out either!”

Matt saw the problem. Fireflies and Seekers were too slow, and there was no way they could use a Zap Gun and fire into the maelstrom. And without the maneuverability of Flight Packs, they were too far away to use their Fusion Handshakes.

Or are we?
Matt grinned. It was a terrible idea, but one that might actually work.

Matt jumped off the edge of the armor, aiming for the attacking Rhino. If he was lucky, the Rhino would consider him a valuable capture. If he wasn’t, the big ship would simply move out the way, and he’d be headed for a one-way ride into the center of a forming planet.

“Are you crazy?” Michelle screamed.

“Probably!”

The Rhino swelled in front of Matt, its massive, scarred armor resolving into individual plates. The lights of the bridge burned bright white against the brown-red red of the maelstrom. Figures moved on the bridge, silhouetted by the light. Just like that first day at Earth, on
Mercury
, Matt thought. He remembered his promise to the security chief:
No more dumb stunts.
He laughed.

Matt was close enough to see the rivets that held the Rhino together. A port opened on its side, and men in armored space suits jetted out. They’d intercept him in seconds.

Matt hit the Rhino near the bridge and grabbed for something to stop his bounce. His metal fingers found a thruster port and he latched on, his impossibly tough biometal tearing the relatively soft steel alloy of the Rhino.

Depleted-uranium slugs juddered Matt’s Hellion, and he almost lost his grip. He grabbed with his other hand, caught the fusion port, and thrust his arm all the way down into it.

Fusion Handshake, he thought.

Pure pleasure welled as his Hellion’s arm rang with power. Blue flame exploded from the fusion port, showering Matt’s Hellion with molten steel. Fire burned Matt’s arm as the Handshake drove deep within the Rhino. Flames billowed out from shattered bridge windows, armored space suits spewed from ruptured ports, and the whole battleship ballooned with the force of Matt’s blow.

His arm popped out of the port, gleaming with melted steel. Matt tucked into his legs, then fired out another Fusion Handshake at just the right moment to drive himself back toward Mecha Base.