The Genevian Queen: The Complete Series, page 33
Rika snorted, GNR whipping to the side, and fired an electron beam at a rebel who appeared at the edge of the trench.
“Sure, that’s our biggest threat right now.”
The top hatch opened halfway and then jammed, but Rika grabbed hold and prised it free, revealing Kelly’s helmeted head.
“You wanna go for a ride?” she asked the mech.
“I take it the fact that I can’t get a response from the rear compartment means it’s gone?” she asked.
“No,” Rika shook her head. “Just doing an impression of a crushed can. Don’t worry. I can carry you.”
Kelly nodded, and the ship released the clamps holding her in place. Rika reached down and extracted her longtime friend, swinging her around and settling the other mech onto her hardmounts.
“Maglocks working?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Kelly replied. “I’m your little mech barnacle.”
Rika groaned in mock horror as she took stock of the surrounding woods. Downslope, things appeared to be clear, but there was no visibility on the other side.
“You’re so gracious,” Rika sighed as she released a pair of microdrones, flinging them into the sky. “Let’s see what we can see.”
The small bots took a minute to clear the debris and fire, whereupon they showed a force of a hundred rebels closing in around the crash site. More were visible in the distance, and Rika realized that fully half the enemy on the eastern face of the mountain was within a few hundred meters.
The general groaned.
Rika wondered about that.
There was a brief pause.
She climbed out of the gash in the earth, feeling an unspoken question from Kelly.
<‘Bring them forward’?> Kelly asked with a snicker.
The enemy soldiers had the sense to remain in cover as she stood atop the smoldering log, her GNR pointed at the ground between them.
“Why should we do that?” a voice asked from behind a nearby tree.
“Because I’m Rika, Queen of New Genevia.”
She felt like a fool saying the words. For all intents and purposes, she’d proclaimed herself queen in a ceremony meant to impress the populace. Instead, she’d shown that she couldn’t even protect her own house.
“Queen.” The word was spoken with a snort of derision. “Some queen.”
“Queen of dirt,” another rebel soldier said.
A laugh slipped from Rika as she glanced down at her once-pristine white armor, now covered in scorch marks and grime. “We mechs have a lot of experience with dirt.”
“Fitting,” a new voice said. For a moment, Rika’s vocal analytics tagged the speaker as a high probability match for Arla, but when she spoke again, the system suggested a sibling. “It is, after all, what you were made for. Getting dirty.”
“Are you trying to tell me that someone else’s intent in my creation has anything to do with my destiny?” Rika asked. “By that logic, no one should ever go against the will of their parents.”
“I’m not going to argue your purpose with you, mech. You were made to serve Genevia, not rule it. You’ve had plenty of chances to return to your proper place, but you never took it. Now you’ll be forced to.”
“Oh for starssakes,” Rika muttered. “Why do you people always have to talk like this? Do you think that you’re somehow going to convince me to see the error of my ways? I’ve saved Genevia. I’ve taken on our enemies and crushed them. I’ve stopped your attack, too, even though you were working with the Niets.”
“What are you talking about,” the woman asked, stepping into view.
“Rachella,” Rika hissed, recognizing the woman. “How did I not realize it before?”
“I hacked the ViperTalon’s comm systems. They shifted my voice and appearance just enough. I didn’t know then that you’d imprisoned my sister, but I still knew better than to trust a mech.”
Rika wished the woman could see the smile on her face. “Oh, you can trust me. To put you right where I put her.”
“Where?!” Rachella demanded. “What did you do with my sister?”
“Oh, she’s tucked away somewhere,” Rika replied with a shrug. “Nowhere you’ll find anytime soon, though.” She turned her attention inward, to Niki.
Kelly said.
Niki chuckled.
Kelly grunted.
“Don’t mess around with me, Queen Rika.” Rachella spoke the words with clear derision. “You’re going to free all your Genevian prisoners and then abdicate. We’ll let you leave in exile if you publicly swear never to return.”
“And my ships, my mechs?”
“They can swear fealty to a new government.”
“Oh?” Rika cocked her head. “A democratically elected one?”
“Eventually.”
“So how’s that any different than what I’m doing? I don’t want to be queen forever. This is just to strike fear into the hearts of the Niets. But the middle of a war is no time to hold elections.” Rika turned as she spoke, taking in the soldiers arrayed around her, many peering out from their cover as she spoke. “We’ve pushed the Niets back. At this rate, we will topple them entirely in a matter of years. Then I will retire. I’ll step aside, and we’ll set up a new government. But for now, Genevia needs a single ruler, and like it or not, I am that person.”
“You’re not a person,” Rachella said as she took a step back. “You’re a mech.”
Rika couldn’t help but be terse with the general. She knew he was worried about her, but it was the only way to buy time.
“I wish you hadn’t come down here to get me,” Kelly whispered. “I would have been fine.”
“Like hell you would’ve,” Rika whispered back. “You’re my sister. I’ll never leave you behind.”
With those words, a stillness came over the woods, the distant echo of weapons fire faded, and the skies cleared, stars and ship engines shining through. Rachella took another step back, the movement slow and languid, as though the woman were moving underwater. At the same time, the rebels eased out from behind their cover, weapons sighting on Rika, faces grim in the dim light.
Weapons barked, projectiles and beams streaking toward Rika, only to stop centimeters from her, halted by the skyscream’s shield.
Rika didn’t have to be told twice. She jumped back, sliding down the embankment to where the skyscream lay. She looked up again and saw new lights sparkling in the night sky, long streaks heralding imminent doom for the rebel forces on the mountain.
Rika didn’t have to ask why she’d cursed. The grav shield had failed.
Rika didn’t bother asking if there was time to fix it. There wouldn’t be. What she did think about were the stories Silva had told her, of how Tangel and Cary could manipulate energy fields, how Cary had formed her own grav shield to protect herself from Myrrdan.
How did they do it? she wondered, sharing her thought with Niki via the channel the AI used to listen to her mind.
They think small? I don’t know….
Rika thought about atoms, about the particles that made up neutrons, protons, and electrons, about the spinning donuts of energy deeper down, the base energy that created mass. It all seemed more real than ever before, not just a concept, but a base reality she could touch.
The way gravitons sped off the collections of energy-mass suddenly made sense to her, and she released a swath of them, watching the dirt on the embankment jump.
“Shit,” she whispered, looking up at the incoming rods from heaven that would surely kill her as well as the rebels.
Beneath her feet lay the skyscream and a few uranium rods that Kelly hadn’t fired.
“It’s been nice knowing you,” the other mech now whispered in her ear.
“Hush, you. I’m concentrating.”
A moment later, she’d tapped into the uranium, a dense wealth of protons and neutrons filled with mass. She twisted it, causing anti-gravitons to spray out. She held those in a field, trapped in place by creating an opposing force, the effect forming a shield over the gouge in the mountainside.
A second later, the fire from above struck.
Mounds of dirt, rock, and trees flew into the air as the rebel force that had surrounded Rika ceased to exist. The ground shuddered and groaned for what seemed like hours, but Rika knew to only be a few seconds. Then the aftershocks diminished, and she heaved the field outward, flinging away the debris that had fallen on her shield.
She sagged for a moment as the energy that had flowed around her dissipated.
“OK…how did you fix the shield so fast?” Kelly asked.
Niki’s voice was mixed with jubilation and awe.
“That? What that? You made the shield, Rika?”
After sucking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Rika nodded. “I did.”
“Stars, woman, you can do shit like that? I think you’ve been holding out on me!”
REUNION
STELLAR DATE: 06.10.8950 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Mount Genevia, Belgium
REGION: Genevia System, New Genevian Alliance
Rika stood on the balcony where Becky had tried to kill her only ten hours prior, watching the shadows in the valley shrink as the sun rose behind the palace.
Tremon had just left, informing her that the last of the VIPs had departed from the palace, its halls now empty of their complaining voices.
“No,” she whispered. “That’s not fair, many of them were thankful.”
“Well, with any luck, they can go back to their idyllic lifestyles,” Rika muttered, trying not to resent the fact that she seemed to suffer more problems at the hands of her own people than the Niets.
“Lives of rest and relaxation for everyone but us?” Chase asked as he walked onto the balcony and leant against the railing next to Rika. “Not that I’m complaining. I like kicking ass. Sleep when we’re dead, and all that.”
Rika glanced at Chase to see a sardonic smirk on his lips.
“You’re not as funny as you think you are when you’re tired,” she said.
“Me?” He placed a hand on his chest. “I’m always funny. It’s a part of my charm.”
“No.” Rika shook her head. “You’re funny, and compassionate, and smart, and lots of other stuff, but not all of them all the time.”
“Well, I’m understanding. That one I know for sure.”
Their eyes met and held, gazes unblinking for almost a minute.
“I suppose you are,” Rika finally said. “Granted, I am your queen, so you don’t have much choice.”
He coughed softly. “Kelly told me what you did down there, how you made your own shield.”
There it is, she thought. He’s going to think I’m a freak.
Rika hadn’t worried about what Chase would think of what she’d done—not that she wasn’t concerned, she’d just been too busy. But now, in the still morning with no one around, there was no running from it. She’d done something only an ascending person could do: matter manipulation.
“I don’t exactly know how I did it—” Rika stopped herself. She did know exactly how she’d done it, she just couldn’t explain it. “Not exactly…ish.”
“Well, I imagine I wouldn’t understand even if you were less -ish about your exactly.” Chase smiled, his eyes filled with understanding, though a question lingered.
“I can see what you’re thinking,” Rika said. “You’re worried I’m going to turn into a ball of light and float away.”
“Will you be a ball? I’ve heard stories about how Tangel and Cary get all tentacle-y. Like a big, white octopus.”
“Are you making fun of me?”
He chuckled. “A bit. Maybe just trying to add some levity…for my sake as much as yours.”
Rika placed an arm around Chase’s shoulders and pulled him close. “Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere, and no matter what comes, we’ll figure it out together.”
“So, what is coming?” he asked.
Rika’s gaze retuned to the vista before her, and she drew in a slow breath, a resolute look settling on her features. “I’m glad you asked. I want to accelerate our plans.”
FORMING UP
STELLAR DATE: 06.05.8950 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: GMS Pinnacle, Chad
REGION: Burroughs System, New Genevian Alliance
“Shit,” Heather muttered. “I’m from here, and even I don’t know why the Niets fought so hard over Chad.”
“Probably because what was left of their raggedy-ass fleet had already hightailed it out of Burroughs.” Crunch grinned as he spoke, leaning up against Ona’s console, earning himself a narrow-eyed glare from the woman. He ignored her. “Either way, I like it when they put up a fight. Then I don’t feel so bad for kicking their asses.”
“Would that stop you?” Captain Karen asked from where she stood staring at the holotank.
“No, probably not. I just like to feel good when I’m killing Niets. Well…more good.”
“Comm drone just jumped in,” Chief Garth announced. “Tokens check out, it’s from Rika.”
“Put it up, Chief,” Heather said, rising from her command chair.
The Genevian Queen appeared in the holotank.
“Colonel Heather.”
Rika looked tired, but there was a light in her eyes, something new, something hungry. Heather liked it.
“The Niets hit our outer system like we expected. Vargo and the others held them off, and Travis has squared things away in Gerra. We had a small insurrection here, but that’s squared away now—just a last gasp from Oda and Arla’s people. But their little attempted coup has solidified something in my mind. We’re not going to waste time in Genevia any longer. We’re jumping to Pruzia. It’s time to finish this fight.”
Rika’s words elicited a round of muted cheers on the bridge, and Heather shared a look with Karen, both women wondering what was to come next.
“To that end, I want you to jump to Pruzia ahead of the main force. I’m sending you a series of targets in their outer system. You’re to destroy them. Utterly.”
“Shit,” Heather whispered, knowing that Rika meant for them to use the Marauders’ Lance’s main weapon to completely obliterate whatever they were sent after.
“We’re going to show the Niets that it’s over. They can pull their bullshit tactics all they want, but whatever they wreak in Genevia, we’ll bring on them tenfold in their own star systems.” Rika paused, her expression softening. “No need to be brutal. Give them fair warning, but make it clear. Good luck, Colonel. Good luck to you all.”
For a moment, Heather was silent, considering Rika’s words. Then she turned to Ona. “You heard the queen, Chief. Deploy the gate. Pruzia won’t fall on its own.”
* * * * *
THE END
RIKA DESTROYER
THE GENEVIAN QUEEN – BOOK 3
BY M. D. COOPER
Thanks to the Aeon 14
Just in Time (JIT) & Beta Readers
Timothy Van Oosterwyk Bruyn
Scott Reid
Gene Bryan
Alex Wilson
Chad Burroughs
Gareth Banks
Copyright © 2020 M. D. Cooper
Aeon 14 is Copyright © 2020 M. D. Cooper
Version 1.0.0
Cover Art by Tek Tan & Andrew Dobell
Editing by Jen McDonnell, Bird’s Eye Books
Aeon 14 & M. D. Cooper are registered trademarks of Malorie Cooper
All rights reserved
FOREWORD
I should start off by saying that while this is the last book of the Genevian Queen trilogy, it is not the last Rika book. Rika will be a major player in the Ascension War books, and it’s a guarantee that she will have another solo series in the future.
