Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour (21 page)

“Oooh yeah, that did the trick all right.”

Kate released the stud and disengaged the now useless cannon. She dropped it and turned to the north. She knew her comrades were fighting for their lives in the city. The Merki landers would be coming down in their thousands now, firing into the tall buildings in a planned manoeuvre designed to kill humans quickly at the same time as blocking the Alliance tanks and APCs.

She throttled up and ran to help.

When Kate arrived, the city was burning, but it wasn’t yet the complete disaster it would later be. Refugees were everywhere, but panic had yet to set in. Bewilderment was the expression on most of the soot-covered faces, horror on others.

As Kate made her way in amongst the buildings, her mikes picked up the sound of a Merki troopship overhead. Her sensors reported another wave of ships coming in. She cursed as the first Interceptors roared by. She had missed her chance. With the AAR raised skyward, she waited and fired at another group of enemy ships passing overhead. She hit one of the Interceptors, but failed to knock it down. The second blew apart most satisfactorily. Burning wreckage rained down upon the street. The drive section smashed through a shopping arcade, and added to the destruction being heaped upon the city.

Kate blocked out the shrieks of people hiding inside, and moved on looking for ground targets instead.

She found another target not ten minutes later. A platoon of Merki troopers was performing a sweep through a housing district. Two troopers went into a building to flush out any vermin hiding inside, while the bulk of the platoon waited outside to ambush them. Kate kept her distance. She used the AAR to knock down the building and bury them all under tons of plascrete and steel.

Her next target was a troopship near a chemical manufactory. She had no chance of destroying such a ship. It was much too big, but she might inconvenience those within it. She waited for it to begin its landing cycle before blowing away the pressure lines feeding one of the chemical storage tanks. The explosion was like the end of the world. Kate gaped as a wall of fire rolled over the ship and descended upon her. Without a second thought, she engaged maximum thrust and jumped as hard as she could. Her jump jets were not designed for flight, but with luck…

Kate landed and looked back to see the ship explode. The chemicals in the storage tank must have reacted with the air in some manner. She had certainly not expected the results she achieved, but it had worked. The troopship’s fuel pods exploded as she watched. She ignored the burning fuel raining down on her, and walked through it looking for more Merkiaari to kill.

Sometime later, Kate’s chrono said it was 18:10, but she hadn’t detected the launching of the drone. Thinking she had missed it, she asked her mech’s computer to confirm the launch.

“Negative. No launch detected.”

That was wrong. Her lessons all agreed that the drone jumped at 17:52, it was 18:13 now.

“Computer, confirm any launch with a destination outside the planet’s atmosphere.”

“Working… No launches detected.”

She was supposed to launch it; it had to be that. Damn Stone for this. He hadn’t told her the aim of her mission here, but now she knew. She throttled up and ran for the centre of the city.

* * *

“About time,” Stone said angrily. “You would have thought someone from Bethany would have known the importance of that launch. Without it, the entire planet would have been scoured clean!”

“I told you, Ken, she’s thinking like a ranger in that mech of hers. She knows now though. When are you going to stick it to her?”

“Now?”

Hymas nodded and he keyed in the final blow.

* * *

“For God’s sake, you have to help me,” a man shouted grabbing at the running people. His clothes were ripped and bloody. Blood trickled down the side of his face, and he wiped it away with a shaking hand. “You don’t understand,” he screamed, as everyone he tried to stop pushed him away. “They’re killing the children. Somebody, help me!”

Kate skidded to a stop and turned toward the crying man.

“Please, oh please. You’re a soldier; you have to help me. A soldier has to help, yes… you will help,” the man said with certainty.

Kate scanned the area, but there were no targets nearby. She activated her external speakers. “Who are you? What’s this about killing kids?”

“I’m the principal of… but that doesn’t matter. The aliens are killing the children. You have to help me,” he screamed up at her armour where she towered over him.

Kids… oh no.

Kate’s thoughts whirled. Just as she was about to demand directions, a viper ran toward her. He was a captain. She had never seen this one before, but he obviously thought he knew her.

“Stone?” the viper said in amazement. “What the
hell
do you think you’re doing in that crap?” he said looking over her fire-blackened mech. “You were supposed to launch the drone, not stand there flapping your gums. Christ… you haven’t launched it,” he said in sudden realisation. “They are going to take out the launch centre you idiot!”

“Sir,” she said hesitantly. She was off stride and worried about the kids. “Sir, this man say’s they’re killing the kids.”

The viper squeezed his eyes shut in grief, but when he looked at her again, he had eyes of flint. “If we don’t launch the drone before they take out the launch centre, we lose Bethany and all who live here will die. I can’t… I
cannot
abandon this world to save a few kids. I can’t…” he finished sickly.

“Please, you must help,” the principal said begging the captain and clutching at his arm. “It’s not a few. My entire school is being butchered. Thousands,
thousands.
For the love of God man, you have to help.”

“I can’t help you,
we
can’t help you,” he said and looked back up at Kate where she loomed over him in the mech. “Get out of that stinking armour. We have to launch the drone before it’s too late.”

Kate watched the viper accelerate toward the centre of the city. He was almost flying he was running so fast. She would never keep up. She hesitated one more time, but then she deactivated the mech and popped the emergency hatch to climb out. When she saw the damage it had taken at the back, she was amazed she had survived. Power leads and hydraulic lines were exposed and fluid was leaking out. The thing was fit only for scrap.

“The school is this way,” the principal said running to the corner. “It’s not far.”

Kate glanced at him and then down the road where the viper had gone. She ran toward the city centre.

“You bastard! You’re not a man… you’re not even human! You’re a cyborg, a disgusting soulless freak! I hope you die screaming in agony! I hope you rot in hell…”

Tears were running freely over Kate’s cheeks. It must have been the pain in her knee. Her thoughts were on her brother and what he would have said. Leaving the children to die—he would have been disgusted. She knew he would have saved them if he had been here. She left the principal’s curses behind as she attained her maximum speed. Her knee was screaming in agony and her damage control display was indicating major damage. She shouldn’t have kicked that Merki trooper, but if she hadn’t she would be dead now. Tears of pain and rage blurred her vision.

She ran on.

* * *

“I never knew,” Hymas said quietly. “I was on Alizon then. The Merkiaari sent two ships, but they never gained the upper hand.”

Stone shrugged. “Yeah well, shit happens.”

“Did the kids survive?”

“Of course not,” Stone snapped looking away from the compassion he saw in her eyes. He didn’t deserve compassion, not for what he had done. “Sorry, Marian, but I don’t want to… oh hell, you might as well hear it. The Merki squad killed the teachers when they shielded the kids with their bodies, then they killed the kids. The principal survived and denounced the entire regiment as cowards and murderers.”

“I know that part. I didn’t know the Colonel and you were involved.”

“He was a captain then,” he whispered, seeing the past come to life as his processor resurrected it from his permanent memory. “Bethany’s World has always hated us, but it was much worse after I killed their kids.”

“You didn’t—”

“I don’t want to hear it okay?” He glared at his friend. “Just leave it will you? It’s old news,
very
old news.”

Hymas nodded and turned back to the consol.

* * *

Kate found the viper captain lying in pieces outside the launch centre and took cover. His legs were both severed above the knee, and his left arm was shattered. Unbelievably he was still alive, but he was too far gone in shock to talk to her. She crawled passed him without stopping.

Slugs chewed up the ground near her ear and she rolled left. Her right hand was tracking toward the target before she knew to aim. The diamond spun in her display, she fired twice and ran forward having no doubt the trooper was dead. She dove through the double door skidding on the shiny floors of the reception area. Broken doors and computer terminals greeted her. The enemy was already inside somewhere.

With her heart thudding fit to burst out of her chest, Kate dashed up the stairs as fast as her viper body could go. She didn’t dare chance the elevators. Her diagnostic display told her the knee was going to give out any second, but she raced for the twentieth floor regardless. On the nineteenth floor, her display was pulsing red, and the pain was making her cringe at every footfall, but she struggled up the final flight only to duck back as a Merki trooper appeared. Kate fired from the hip not needing her targeting reticule this close. The monster was blasted back and out of sight.

Kate advanced cautiously, but yelled in shock when another trooper appeared out of nowhere. She wasn’t sure afterward who was the more surprised, but the Merki female did get her shot off first. The nanocoat of Kate’s armour reacted to the attack instantly. Its surface became diamond hard and shiny as a mirror over her ribs, as it tried to nullify the sudden influx of energy. Kate fell trying to twist out of the beam before it penetrated. She hit the floor and fired twice into the snarling face. The headless monster collapsed and wrung a scream of anguish from Kate as it landed across both legs. Her damage display stopped flashing warnings about her leg and went dark—the knee was crushed beyond repair.

Ignoring the pain, Kate shoved the corpse off with her good leg, and skidded back to lean against the wall. Her head rolled to the side in an effort to survey the control room. It was wrecked; she had failed her mission. But what of the drone itself? Surely there was a manual launch sequence. The more she thought about it, the more certain she was that there would be a backup.

She dragged herself into the stairwell and up the stairs bumping her shattered leg with every move. She hardly knew where she was now, but up seemed the right way. Sweat rolled off her and her teeth chattered. Despite all her bots could do, she was going into shock. Finally, she fell through the door and onto the roof. The drones were still in their cradles awaiting the launch order.

Kate dragged herself to the first one and opened the panel in its side. “Oh God, what do I…” she panted in time with the throbbing agony her leg had become. She looked at the controls in confusion. She didn’t know how to operate a foldspace drone, or even key in a message.

The shot from the doorway nearly ended her life right there. The Merki trooper she had shot in the stairwell was in the doorway clinging to the wall. He fired again, and Kate shrieked as her left hand was smashed to a pulp by a huge slug. Hugging the spurting stump to her chest, she screamed in agony and fired her pistol at fall auto. She held the trigger down until there was nothing left of the trooper, or the door, or the top of the stairwell. Her vision blurred and darkened as the ammo indicator beeped empty.

Peep, peep, peep, peep…

The annoying beeping roused Kate a moment or so later. Her hand had been deleted from her diagnostic display. It matched her leg now. An absurd chuckle tried to force its way out of her. Her bots had dealt with the injury by sealing it off to prevent blood loss, and a neural block would shortly be in place for the pain. A read out on her display was insisting she report to medical immediately. She was apparently combat ineffective and needed maintenance.

Kate laughed tiredly. “No shit.”

She struggled up to the consol next to the launch rail. The buttons seemed simple enough on this part at least. One said launch, another said abort and beside them was the usual palm scanner for clearance. Did she even have clearance? She flattened the launch button, and laid her right palm on the plate.

WHOOSH!

The first drone was ejected from the rails and the others slid forward one space.

Kate watched the drone begin to fall back to earth. She had time to wonder if it was broken before the rocket motors detected the descent and fired. The drone shot into the sky and disappeared. She looked wearily around, but the sim didn’t end.