Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour (31 page)

“Ben will take you to join the others,” Erica said addressing her command. “The Captain and I have something to take care of. I’ll rejoin you in a couple of days. Until then, Ben is in command.”

Erica led the way around the side of the house and climbed into the cab of a waiting truck. It was a battered and abused Mitsushima GX4, the one with the three axles and the flatbed extension. The hood was missing, as was all its glass. It looked fit only for scrap. Kate climbed inside and noted the wiring had been ripped out. She turned around and saw a few of Ben’s people getting ready to push.

“Gas?” Kate said. “What about ignition?”

“Not gas, diesel.”

“Diesel?”

Erica grinned. “We don’t have to worry about pollution here, Captain. A lot of the smaller farms save money by using fossil fuels to generate power. We ripped the turbine out of this and stuffed a diesel in her.” She shrugged. “It works—kind of.”

Erica pulled on a pair of night-vision goggles, and gave the signal to start pushing. The truck needed a push to raise the compression for ignition, but once it was running, it drove like any hydro-turbine powered truck. Erica gunned the engine and launched the truck toward a hole in the dome. Kate grabbed the door handle to steady herself and winced as the truck glanced off a broken dome support.

“Hey, take it easy!”

Erica laughed and cranked the wheel hard right. The truck slewed sideways and almost onto three wheels, but it didn’t roll. It crashed back down onto its balloon tyres and accelerated down the road like a missile. Kate gave Erica a dirty look and switched to light amplification. The night receded to a point where they might have been moving through an overcast day. In reality, they were racing at breakneck speed through utter darkness. Garnet was devoid of moons. The only light came from the stars, but it was enough for her systems to work with.

“How did you join up?” Kate yelled over the rushing wind.

“We fought back when they first came down. Not many of us survived, but those that did became the Corigin resistance. When my husband died, I took over from him, when I die, Ben will and so on until there’s none of us left.”

There wasn’t much Kate could say. Erica obviously didn’t believe in the Alliance’s promise of liberation, or in her own survival. Millions had already died in the fighting. It was hard to blame her.

In the early hours of the morning, Erica pulled off the road and stashed the truck where it wouldn’t be easily found. “We walk from here.”

Erica led the way. Kate followed far enough back to keep her in sight, but not close enough to get caught up in an ambush with her. Her sensors were sweeping ahead of both of them, and twice she had to direct Erica wide to avoid enemy patrols. The Merki troopers had chosen the obvious demarcation point of the main dome as their patrol radius. It wasn’t hard to get inside; they simply waited for the patrol to pass by and then slipped in. Most of the buildings on the outskirts of the city were in ruins. The city’s defenders had chosen the area near the dome as their battleground; it had taken heavy damage. Rubble filled the streets and most of the buildings were burned out shells. Erica chose one at random and they went to ground to discuss the situation.

“I’ll leave you here,” Erica said. “I need to get in position.”

“Give me a time.”

Erica checked her wristcomp. “Three.”

Kate checked the time legend on her internal display. “Don’t be late.”

Erica nodded once and hurried away.

Kate waited a few minutes then moved out. She made good use of the city’s rubble choked streets and alleyways to mask her presence from the occasional patrol. Merkiaari were over confident, but they weren’t completely stupid. The patrols, though few in number, were thorough in their sweeps. More than once she feared her plan was blown, but they always passed by without spotting her.

When the time came, she was in position overlooking the shopping arcade. She was keeping an eye on the guards standing just inside the loading dock, when suddenly, the guard on the right fell backward with his face a bloody ruin. She glanced at the time and found it was just after three. Erica was as good as her word. A moment later, the other guard died. Silence descended and Kate held her breath, but as she had hoped, the Merkiaari reacted as predicted. Two squads trotted out of the gate and into the city looking for the culprit.

As soon as they were clear, Kate dashed through the gate at top speed and jumped into one of the parked gravsleds. Another squad trotted out of the building and into the night. She waited with her sensors pulled in tight. Slowly, carefully, she extended her awareness outward and breathed a silent thank you to Erica who was no doubt running for her life.

The way was clear.

Kate ran in a crouch into the loading dock. It was littered with abandoned loaders and stacks of crates. She hunkered down behind a tower of boxes to listen and scan the area. All was quiet. She easily located the entrance Ben had told her about, and the curving corridor beyond led her deep into the guts of the shopping arcade. This was an area never seen by customers. There were boxes stacked in front of locked fire escapes, and empty trolleys left haphazardly in the corridors waiting for employees who were probably long dead. The cross corridor on her map came and went, and she descended with more speed and confidence.

Her first mistake.

It didn’t kill her, but it could have, and Kate was snarling at her own overconfidence even as she pounced onto the Merki’s shoulders. He staggered back from the boxes he had been investigating, and roared loud enough to wake the dead. Grabbing the monster’s head with both hands, she twisted with all her viper enhanced strength.

Crunch!

The monster fell dead in mid roar, and Kate dropped to her haunches to scan for others. Nothing. Using the boxes of… chocolate bars? Well what do you know; even Merkiaari liked chocolate. They couldn’t be all bad. She stacked the boxes over the corpse. Stepping back, she scrutinised her work and nodded once before trotting off to find the hatches that had brought her down here.

As it turned out, Ben was both right and wrong about the security of the hatches. There were no fancy security locks, but they weren’t latched as he had maintained either. Instead, an enormous padlock decorated each one. Kate smiled crookedly and ripped one off with her bare hands. She really liked being a viper.

She went to light amplification mode inside the shaft and shut the hatch.

When discussing the possibility of using the lift shafts to reach the fourth floor, Ben had said no way. Kate had secretly thought he might be right. She was strong, but if the shafts had been smooth, her strength wouldn’t have helped her. That was no longer a concern. The shafts weren’t smooth and could be climbed, but she didn’t need to. There was a metal ladder running down the side of the shaft that disappeared into the darkness overhead. As she climbed, she realised she should have known there would be one. Ben said he saw maintenance people entering the hatches, and of course, they needed a way to reach a broken lift car.

She passed the car at ground level and continued on with her rifle swinging behind her from its strap. She didn’t want to be parted from the weapon, but it was annoying having it bumping her back. She ignored it and passed the third floor on her way to her target.

She halted her climb at the fourth floor, and scanned the corridors beyond the doors with her sensors set at low intensity. She tensed as red icons splashed themselves across her display, but then she relaxed with a grin. These must be her targets. She studied their positions and noted that most were unmoving. Asleep? She hoped so, but she didn’t take it for granted. Although Merkiaari were diurnal as humans were, it didn’t stop them from having sentries up and about. She studied the problem but could see no way around opening the door to see if any were awake. There shouldn’t be any guards up here, she mused as she struggled to open the protesting lift doors. Their officers should be confident enough with all their troops between them and the ground.

The doors finally succumbed to her prying fingers and she stepped into a dimly lit corridor. She deselected her light amplification, and stood still as a statue with her back against the wall. Beside her, the doors slid slowly shut.

So far, so good.

Moving carefully down the corridor, she came to the first door. Her sensors insisted there was a target in there, but even with her audio’s gain at max, she couldn’t hear anything. Hoping that meant they were asleep, she opened the door silently and entered. The room was pitch black, but she didn’t bother with light amplification. TRS (Target Recognition Software) instantly outlined the prone figure in red. Her hand swept down and came up with her pulser in hand, but she aborted the instinctive urge to fire.

She glanced around the room and her eyes narrowed. His armour and uniform were on a chair near the bed. The single sunburst insignia prominently displayed on the armour’s breast plate, told her all she needed to know. He was a high ranking target—a Strike Commander. He probably led in the region of a hundred thousand troopers. Fifteen Marauder class transports were committed to the Garnet incursion, which meant he was one of fifteen targets she needed to kill. She was about to take out the equivalent of an Alliance five star general.

She crept forward, utterly silent, not even breathing. She moved her pistol to within millimetres of the monster’s head. She licked her lips and moved it forward to touch the furred head. His eyes flew open and she squeezed the trigger. The recoil was intense, but she was a viper. She held steady. The hiss-crack was muffled by the contact. The smell of singing hair and brains made her want to gag. She stepped away from the corpse listening for any outcry.

Nothing.

She swepped her sensors on low power beyond the room and was satisfied that she hadn’t been detected. She opened doors and found closets and bathroom. Nothing. Outside in the corridor, she moved to the next target and then the next, methodically killing each of the aliens with a headshot from her pistol. Fourteen died quickly and silently as she made her way from one end of the building to the other, but then came the last one.

Her sensors reported movement inside, and she hesitated. She watched the icon on her display resolve into two, and knew she was in trouble. The dirty beggar had a female with him, and they weren’t playing poker. Should she wait for him to finish, or should she go in and hope to kill them both silently? She opted to go in.

Her first shot blew the female’s head into a bloody ruin, but the male was fast—he snatched up a weapon and fired. Kate’s pistol was still moving toward him when a searing agony erupted in her shoulder. She spun around and crashed to the deck grimacing in pain. Fighting shock and snarling in hate, she brought her rifle up and laid the room waste on full auto. The Merki disappeared into red mist.

That’s torn it
.

Kate struggled to her feet. A diagnostic alert was flashing on her display. As soon as she noticed, it changed into a wire frame representation of her body, and zoomed in on her left arm and shoulder. A list of text detailing the damage scrolled rapidly by, with her processor’s conclusions appended to it.

Critical damage to left shoulder/arm.

Left arm non-responsive. Combat impaired 25%.

Recommend hospitalisation at earliest opportunity.

No shit.

Kate blinked stupidly down at her severed arm where it lay on the carpet at her feet. She checked that her IMS was handling the blood loss—it was coping well and had damped the pain to tolerable levels. She staggered into the corridor just as a Merki squad appeared. She hosed them with her rifle set on max power and full auto when they charged her, and managed to take them all down, but as she turned to run the other way, another squad appeared around the corner.

They fired.

* * *

“Weird how history repeats itself in the sims, isn’t it?” Rutledge said as they watched Richmond.

“Not really.” Stone thought it would be more unusual if a download didn’t proceed in that manner. “We’re good, but even we can’t program every option and contingency into the simulator’s matrix. It’s bound to follow the download parameters… at least in a general way.”

“In a general way, yes,” Rutledge agreed. “But look at her.”

Stone
was
looking, and he liked what he saw. Anyone else would have quit and waited for them to finish her, but not his Kate. If and when the General’s prediction came to pass, he might have a serious competitor in Richmond.

As if by magic, Rutledge divined Stone’s thoughts. “How many at your last count?”

“Merki?”

“Yeah.”

“Four or five thousand.”

 Rutledge snorted. “Four
or
five thousand?”

“All right, it is five thousand… plus however many I took out indirectly with artillery and the like.”

“Oh, of course,” Rutledge said in amusement. “Richmond looks set to follow in your footsteps.”

“Yeah,” Stone said grimly, which elicited a strange and considering look from Rutledge. “Gordon has a clean sweep it looks like. That boy has the moves, no question.”