Mecha Rogue (8 page)

“Sir?” Elize asked.

“If they're smart, they'll be waiting to slice us to bits.”

“Orbital space is secure,” Combat Intelligence droned.

Yeah, like they don't know a trick like playing dead,
Matt thought.

“Continue your mission, Major,” Cruz added.

Matt frowned. There was nothing he could do. It wasn't as if he could rip a section of Mecha Dock scaffolding off the walls and wave it out the doors, trying to draw fire. The only thing he could do was try to ensure the success of his mission.

“Go out in twos,” Matt told the adepts. “Back to back, weapons ready.”

“What, sir?” Jie asked.

“In case one of us gets roasted,” Norah said. “Come on.” She grabbed Jie and turned him around so they were back to back. The two jumped off into space.

Matt half expected to see the two red Mecha disappear in the brilliance of a Zap Gun beam, but nothing happened. The bright white sun painted them in high contrast as they drifted away from the UUS
Helios
.

“I guess it's us,” Elize said. She went back to back with him and they jumped off. Matt tensed as the UUS
Helios
fell away. With the wraparound perspective of the viewmask, it was as if he were floating naked in deep space. The close-packed stars were a gaudy display above the perfect white planet. Inside the Mecha, he heard nothing except for his mechanically assisted breathing and the faraway beat of his heart. It would have been a beautiful moment if he hadn't been worried about being vaporized.

“What a place,” Elize said.

“Can the chatter, Adept,” Matt said.

“Oh!” Elize's teeth clicked together.

As they fell toward the planet, Matt scanned his sensors. No enemy tags. The only thing in his POV was the coordinates he'd been given, another featureless point near the planet's equator.

Just over the horizon from their target, local temperatures read twenty degrees C higher than the background. A power plant of some kind? A downed warship?

But if that was the case, where was the Displacement Drive asteroid that had brought it here? Warships didn't end up in deep space by themselves. Matt strained with the Demon's Sensory Enhancement, but even its magnification was far too weak to resolve anything at the hot point.

“I have some abnormal temperature readings on the surface, sir,” Norah said.

“Got it,” Matt said.

“Weapons, sir?”

“If so, they're not firing at us.”

“It's near our objective, sir,” Norah pressed. “Maybe
at
our objective.”

“Understood. Now please clear comms, Adept.”

Norah's comms icon blinked out. Matt ordered the adepts to go into formation and prepare for reentry. He felt the powerful changes ripple through his own Demon as the thrusters re-formed along his back and the Mecha became a slim, delta-winged shape to help them down through the planet's nitrogen atmosphere.

The four Mecha arrowed down. In the thin air, heating was minimal. It felt like a feather, brushing Matt's chest, as they descended. Almost comforting. Toward the end, faint warmth lit his front side.

The four Demons used thrusters to slow as they descended: sixty thousand meters, forty, twenty. Details resolved on the surface: frigid blue channels, cutting deep into the white ice toward the hidden oceans, miles below. Fractal patterns radiating from the channels, slightly darker than the base ice. Here and there, wisps of methane clouds obscured the surface, as sharp winds scoured the landscape. There wasn't a single living thing in sight.

Five thousand feet. Two thousand. All quiet.

“Prepare to land,” Matt told the adepts.

Their Demons unfolded, blasting thrusters to slow their descent. Clouds of white water ice blew up, instantly subliming to vapor in the blaze of the Demons' fusion exhaust. Soon they stood on the surface ice, each in a little pit made by the heat of its thrusters.

“Team is down, Colonel,” Matt told Cruz. “Awaiting orders.”

Cruz's comms icon lit, but before the man could say anything, a hail of Fireflies arced at Matt's Demons—followed by their source, a battalion of Hellions.

Union Mecha. On this frozen world at the edge of nowhere.

5

HIDDEN

As the chrome black Hellions flickered at Matt and his team, his thoughts went into overdrive: Hellions? Union Hellions? Yes, they were unmistakably Union Mecha—Matt had trained first in Hellions, and he'd recognize them anywhere.

But Union Mecha weren't just left lying around on any world, especially one so far out from the Core. Especially not a full battalion. That meant this was an important base. But did that mean the Corsairs had captured a strategic Union world, and compromised all of its technology? If so—

The Fireflies hit. Matt's POV whited out as force feedback through his interface suit left him gasping for breath. He flailed as he flew backward through the air. His Demon crunched down hard on its back, digging shiny gouges in the planet's surface ice.

Matt shook his head. Fireflies didn't have a punch like that!

“Heavy matter,” Jie gasped. “They're using heavy matter in their Firefly rounds.”

Matt scrambled to get up as his vision cleared. The Hellions were on them now, moving blurring fast, almost as if the Hellions' Rayder had been modified to remove their limiters. Almost. They were damn fast, but not Rayder fast. It was almost as if they simply had very, very good pilots.

Matt barely got to his feet before three of the Hellions barreled into him, their razor talons slicing painfully at his arms. Their fusion ports glowed dull orange as they charged Fireflies for another assault.

The rest of the Hellions attacked Matt's team, clinging to them like lampreys. Norah screamed in frustration and tried to target them with the Zap Gun, but the big weapon was useless in close quarters. Xie beat at his attackers, trying to dislodge them, but the nimble Hellions avoided his grasping hands. Elize hit the ground and rolled, triggering her own Fireflies. The Hellions danced away from the smart rounds, which exploded harmlessly in the sky. Their brilliant light strobed the scene below, rendering the battle in jerky freeze frame.

Smart,
Matt thought.
Get in close so we can't use our Zap Guns or Sidewinders
. They moved too fast for Fireflies too. Which left—

“Fusion Handshake!” Matt yelled. “Use it!”

“What's that?” Xie asked.

Ah, shit.
They didn't even know the slang yet. What the hell was it called? “CQFA! Close-Quarters Fusion Annihilator! Now!”

Matt's vision went white as another round of Fireflies came down on him. This time it didn't come back fully. Jagged pieces of his POV were covered in gray pixels, and the dreaded countdown began:
REGENERATION COMPLETE IN 32 SECONDS.

The Hellions were on him again. Their fusion ports glowed in orange puzzle pieces in his POV. They'd wipe out the rest of his visual sensors, and then they'd take him apart.

Matt enabled his Fusion Handshake and grabbed for the Hellions. They skittered away like roaches, comfortably ahead of his grasp. He flailed again, but he simply wasn't fast enough. Through the working parts of his visual sensors, he saw the others having the same problem.

He was going to be taken down by old-style Hellions!

Matt triggered his thrusters and leapt for the sky, but the Hellions only strengthened their grip as he ascended. Their fusion ports were angry orange now. Only a matter of moments before they destroyed the rest of his visual sensors. If he could only get ahold of them—

—or not. Matt remembered the trick they'd used, back in the asteroid soup of the condensing planet. If he couldn't knock his Hellion attackers off, he could still use the Fusion Handshake.

Fifty meters up, Matt held his hands out in front of him, aiming at the melee with Xie, Norah, and Elize.

Now,
he thought, and triggered a Fusion Handshake.

Pure power exploded down his arms. A blue shock wave shot out in front of him, expanding outward in a cone of compressed plasma.

It hit the Hellions on the ground like a hurricane. They blew off the Demons as ice geysered up from the surface in great sheets. Clouds of water vapor billowed, obscuring everything below.

Matt flew backward and landed on his back, knocking his own Hellions loose. Before they could come back at him, he raised his hands again and triggered another Fusion Handshake. The Hellions disappeared in a hail of ice and water vapor. Matt slid backward along the ice for a hundred meters before stopping.

“Use your Fusion Handshakes like this!” Matt said. “Aim arms-out to keep them away, then get a grip on them and let them have it!”

The three Hellions came back at Matt like wraiths emerging from the steam. This time he was ready for them. He put his arms out, faking another defensive Fusion Handshake. As they swung toward his side, Matt grabbed a Hellion at the last second and triggered the close-quarters annihilation wave.

Power surged down his arm. The Hellion went rigid as the fusion shock wave hit it. Electrical discharges arced into the air from its visor, talons, and joints. The whole thing rippled like water, then crumpled inward and fell limp.

Good, Matt thought. One down.

REGENERATION COMPLETE
, his POV said as his vision flickered back to a hundred percent.

The two others came at him. Matt triggered thrusters and leapt over them, grabbing each one by its visor as they passed underneath him. Two more Fusion Handshakes later, two more Hellions lay smoking on the ground. They slowly disappeared into a pool of melt-water, as former steam fell as snow on the scene.

Matt surveyed the battle. Norah had two Hellions down and was grappling with another. Xie had one down and two were dancing around him, trying to avoid his outstretched hands. Elize was down on the ground, with three Hellions on top of her. They triggered another burst of Fireflies, and Elize's Demon convulsed. Her visor shattered and crumpled inward, visual sensors smoking.

Matt moved without thinking, charging forward with his hands out in front of him, triggering a Fusion Handshake. The shock wave shoved him backward, his Demon's feet cutting channels in the ice. But the Hellions assaulting Elize's Demon tumbled off. They scrambled to their feet and paused, cat-still, to look back at the battle scene. After a moment, they fled back in the direction they'd come.

Regrouping, Matt thought. Most likely at the heat source.

What waited for them there? More Hellions? Demons? Or something even stranger, cooked up in this bizarre Union base on the edge of nowhere?

Matt went to Elize and helped her up as Norah and Xie dispatched the remaining Hellions. She flailed against him, until the contact between the Demons allowed his thoughts to filter through.

“Major Lowell?” Elize gasped. “I'm sorry! I can't see!”

“What's the regeneration counter read?” Matt asked her.

“Regeneration indefinite,” Elize said. “Reconfiguring visual sensors for partial capability.”

Shit.
Reconfiguring was bad. Real bad. That meant it could be hours before she got her sight back. Even then, it might not be the same ever again. And Matt couldn't send her blind back to the UUS
Helios
.

“What's the matter, sir?” Norah asked, coming up behind him.

“Watch the horizon,” Matt said. “Let me handle this.”

“Yes, sir,” Norah grated. But she turned obediently and motioned for Xie to take a position opposite her.

“What can I do, uh, sir?” Elize said.

“Hold a sec.” Matt bent over to examine her visual sensors. Her entire visor was cracked open, exposing eight orbs that might once have looked like eyes. Now they were blobs of gooey metallic ooze, surrounded by shredded biomechanical muscle. As he watched, metal flowed and re-formed, and one “eye” slowly regained its shape.

Matt shivered. Mecha were damn near magic technology. Much higher technology than the Union supposedly condoned and regulated.

“I see something!” Elize shouted. “I'm getting, um, looks like heat sigs. False-color imaging.”

“Enough to fight with?”

“No, sir.”

“Still no numbers for regeneration?”

“No.”

Matt swore. He could Merge with Elize. That would probably give them full visual function. But would they be able to work through Elize's waves of emotional confusion? It was too much of a risk.

“Report, Major,” Colonel Cruz's voice grated over the comms.

Matt sighed, then rapped out, “Enemy Hellions encountered at the coordinates specified. Nine neutralized, three escaped toward heat signature noted in descent. One Demon down with visual sensors except heat sigs offline, unknown regeneration time.”

“Send the damaged Demon back to the ship,” Cruz ordered.

“Heat sigs aren't enough for her to navigate back to the ship,” Matt said.

A pause. Then: “I'll send down our backup squad for a pickup. In the meantime, proceed to the heat signature and eliminate the remaining Hellions and their pilots, as well as any and all other hostiles.”

Matt frowned. Cruz was sending down Marjan and Mikey. It made sense, but it felt bad. Really bad. He didn't want them at his back.

“What hostiles, sir?” Matt asked. “Corsairs?”

Another pause, this one longer. Then Colonel Cruz replied in a low, rough voice, “Hostiles are anything that moves.”

Anything that moves. Matt's stomach did a flip-flop. What was he being sent in to do?

“Sir, can I ask—”

“You have your orders, Major. Carry them out.”

Matt clamped his lips down hard on his response. The whole thing smelled bad.

“Acknowledge your orders, Major,” Colonel Cruz growled.

“Acknowledged, sir,” Matt said, choking on the words.

* * *

They left Elize behind with orders to ascend blindly into the sky in the event of any Hellion attack. Theoretically, Marjan and Mikey would be able to intercept and guide her back to the Helios. Theoretically.

“I'll be fine, sir,” Elize told him. “My visuals are coming back online, a little. I may even be able to join you—”

“Go back, Cadet,” Matt said, his voice sharp and on edge. Elize noticed it. The head of her Demon cocked to one side, as if she wanted to ask him what was wrong.

“Move out, team,” Matt told Norah and Jie.

“Overland or by air, sir?” Norah asked.

Matt frowned. In his POV, the location of the heat source was now clearly marked with a big red
OBJECTIVE
tag, just over the edge of the horizon. An expanded aerial map put it the middle of one of the blue ice fissures.

That meant two things. One, they were probably dug in to the fissure. Two, on this billiard-ball-smooth planet, they'd be going into battle without cover. There were no mountains or ridges to protect them.

Flying in meant the three remaining Hellions would hide below the edge of the fissure and pick them off as they passed overhead. It also meant they'd be flying directly over whatever weaponry they had hidden in the chasm.

On the other hand, overland meant the enemy would easily sense their approach, and be able to pop up at the least convenient moment. Still, it meant not having to deal with any potential artillery.

“Overland,” Matt said. “Be prepared to go skyward when I give the order.”

“Yes, sir,” Norah rapped out.

“Understood, sir,” Jie said.

Matt sprang to life and shot off toward the objective at a dead run. His clawed feet ripped the ice, sending up a rooster tail of shards as his ground speed climbed: eighty, a hundred and twenty, two hundred kilometers an hour. The other Demons came to run by his side, powerful red legs pistoning in sync.

The ground blurred past quickly, an endless plain of gray-white under a blue-black sky. Matt lost himself for long moments in the rhythm of Mesh.

Soon tags swarmed in front of him. They were coming over the horizon, in view of the fissure. At first, it was only a line of slightly darker blue-gray against the ice, bleeding background heat into the chill atmosphere. Then it resolved into something with depth—Matt could see the far edge of the ridge, glittering in the sunlight. Together with a hint of something, glowing with warm light, built into the fissure itself. Thin metallic ribs arced over the surface of the glowing object. Through its semitransparent surface, Matt could see hints of movement within.

What the hell?
Matt thought. It looked almost like an environmental dome. But why would they have a dome like that, way out here?

He didn't have long to be puzzled. A new angry red tag popped up in front of him, at the same time two others appeared at his side. The Hellions. Brilliant Fireflies arced at the Demons.

But this time, he was ready.

“Fire thrusters!” Matt said, shooting into the sky.

Norah and Jie followed, their fusion flares blasting the ice surface to clouds of water vapor. Fireflies sparked through the clouds, jagging upward to follow the Demons. Matt waited until they were close enough to see the individual fusion flames.

“Go down now!” Matt shouted at his team. “Aim at the Hellions!” He flipped in midair and fired thrusters skyward, almost blacking out in the savage g-forces. Even suspended in magnetorheological gel, his vision went red.

Matt accelerated downward toward the closest Hellion. The Fireflies turned to follow. The tiny rounds sputtered, their heavy-hydrogen fuel almost exhausted. It would have to be enough.

The Hellion saw what was coming and froze. Matt grinned in guilty delight. He must look like an avenging angel, descending in wrath with falling stars as an escort.

Fifteen meters from the Hellion, Matt hit the thrusters one last time, full-on. This one did knock him out for a moment. His vision disappeared down a tunnel, and there was a second of silence.

When he opened his eyes, his Demon was lying about fifty meters away from the edge of the ravine, and there was nothing left of the Hellion except smoking wreckage.

More Fireflies impacted on Jie's target in a pillar of flame. The Hellion jerked spasmodically and collapsed, melting into the ice. Jie landed hard next to it, stumbling to get his balance.