Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour (18 page)

“I’ll try—” Hymas began to say.

“Don’t try,
do it,
” Flowers snapped before stalking away.

Hymas stared at her Colonel’s back in hurt.

Stone could read her thoughts clearly, and the pain on her face. “Don’t mind him, Marian. He took the failure of Robbins hard. He doesn’t want a repeat performance that’s all.”

“We all liked Robbins. Why does he feel it more than the rest of us?”

His jaw dropped. He couldn’t believe she had said that. “Might be something to do with him being the one to take Robbins down.”

“Yeah, might be,” Hymas said not hearing his sarcasm.

 * * *

Training Centre, Alliance HQ, Sol System

In reality, Gina was lying in a simulator couch, but to her the fight she was engaged in was brutally real.

“…will take care of green sector.”

“Copy,” Gina said automatically as she studied the map displayed by her HUD.

Like all simulations, this one left her with a vague sense of unreality not easy to pin down. It was just a feeling—a kind of sixth sense that whispered in the back of her mind that all this was illusion. Sight, sound, smell, and touch were all handled by the sim. If she had occasion to eat, she was sure that taste would be also. The feeling of unreality wasn’t a physical thing—how could it be when the sim was entirely virtual? Nor was it due to the knowledge that her two companions were dead these many weeks on Thurston. Grace and Dan had been plucked from her memory and used to bring the simulation to life. Although she knew it was a sim and that her companions were dead, still they affected her as if they lived. She knew the sim made it happen, knew she had no choice but to feel this way, but it made no difference. She acted as if they lived, and the computer constructs did too. When she had a moment to really think, something she wasn’t given much time to do incidentally, she was angry at the violation bringing forth her friends represented, but it also gave her an opportunity to see them one last time.

“Eagle Two, Eagle One,” she said over her comm.

“Eagle Two, what’s up?” Grace said.

Gina smiled at hearing the well remembered voice. “We have a little job to do, Grace.”

“Bring ‘em on.”

“We have Merki troopers in our sector.” She tapped a control on her wristcomp to highlight green sector on all their HUD maps. “We flush them out.”

“How many?” Pags asked.

“Only three.”

“Three?” Grace said. “You’re sure?”

She was about to nod but hesitated. She had only been taking these tests for a week, but already she knew Stone could be sneaky. “That’s what the intelligence suggests, but we take nothing for granted. We clear our streets and await orders.”

“Copy,” Pags said.

“Copy that, I’ll take point,” Grace said.

“Not this time Grace,” Gina said quietly. “I’ll take it.”

“But—”

“That’s an order, Eagle Two.”

“Copy,” Grace said reluctantly.

It was uncanny how closely the constructs’ reactions mirrored the real Dan and Grace. It was only Gina’s knowledge that they were in the simulator room that told her they weren’t real people.

Gina moved out using her sensors to sweep ahead and to the sides. The first trooper opened fire the instant her sensors picked him up. She was diving to the left even as the searing bolt of plasma came her way. It missed by bare millimetres. So close was it, the nanocoat of her armour reacted as if taking a hit. It took mere nanoseconds for her armour to stiffen and for its surface to become reflective. The heat of the plasma branded her neck and stung like crazy.

Grace opened up on the shop front with the AAR and Pags finished the job by hosing the place on full auto. Gina got off a couple of shots from where she lay prone just as the simulated world flashed red indicating a good kill.

“Are you okay?” Pags said through his open visor. He pulled Gina to her feet. “Speak to me.”

“I’m okay, stop fussing,” she said and winced as she tentatively touched her burned neck.

“Okay. It’s just… okay.”

Gina shivered at the real sounding emotion in the construct’s voice. He sounded so real, so
alive
. “Let’s finish our business. As before, I’ll take point.”

They didn’t argue with her. This time they tried disapproving silence.

* * *

“No, no, no.” Stone glared at the monitors showing Fuentez throwing away her chance. “
Dammit!
”

The technician glanced at him and then back to her controls. She didn’t like him, but that was okay. He was used to it.

Stone knew Fuentez was good at the job; Eric’s download of the Thurston op proved that. Her permanent file was replete with commendations; acts of courage under fire, comments on her coolness during the chaos of battle… she had medals galore. Her fitness to command was not in question. She was everything a good officer should be, but she was letting her inner demons take over. He knew her as he knew himself. She had lost friends, worse she felt responsible for the loss. He had lost
thousands
of friends, and
was
responsible for countless other deaths, but you had to go on. Vipers couldn’t allow sentiment to get in the way of the job. The job was all a viper really had. After two hundred and more years of strife, they were all a little crazy, but one thing above all they lived for—the Alliance. Fuentez was throwing away her chance to make an impact on the Alliance’s future, and there was nothing he could do about it… or was there?

He frowned as Fuentez took out the first target, two more and the sim was over. He nodded as the decision crystallised into action. First, she needed to be slowed down so he had time to do something. He began furiously typing in his commands all the while wishing they were home. He could do a lot more with viper equipment, and it was faster too. This junk didn’t have a port to accept commands from his weapon’s bus. The keyboard would have to do.

He typed fast.

* * *

“Move out,” Gina said to her electronic henchman.

Grace moved left, Pags right, while Gina moved up the middle of the street. Pags nodded abruptly and Gina dove for cover just as a sniper took a pot shot at her. The pain was shockingly real.

Grace returned fire and the world flashed red confirming the kill.

Back on her feet, Gina staunched the blood pouring from her shoulder grimacing at the pain all the while. The wound was bad. The high velocity slug had gone straight through her shoulder. She struggled out of her armour, tore her uniform clear of the wound, and coated it using the canister of synthskin Grace held out to her. The synthetic sealant mimicked skin to prevent blood loss, and would aid her bots in their job of repairing the damage.

“Here, gimme,” Grace said taking the canister and spraying the exit wound in her back. “You damn fool, what was that stunt?”

“I know what I’m doing,” she grunted trying not to shout with the pain as she pulled her armour back on.

“Do you? You could have fooled me.”

Gina hefted her rifle and winced as her shoulder shifted. “We have a job to do. I don’t have time for lectures.”

She pointed at Grace and indicated a house-by-house sweep for the last one. Pags came across the road with his weapon swinging left and right. Grace kicked in the door, and Gina shoulder rolled inside to fire into the shadows. In the real world, she flinched in her couch as the recoil hammered her wounded shoulder painfully. She grunted, but fired again. The world flashed red confirming the third and final kill, but something was wrong. She did not awaken.

* * *

“Do it now,” Stone said to his assistant in the simulator room.

The technician opened her mouth to protest the illegal order, but one look at his face had her gulping and keying in the hastily programmed sequence.

* * *

Grace came into the house walking sideways keeping her back to the wall. “Upstairs,” she whispered over the comm. “I thought I heard something.”

Gina frowned and rose to her feet. Something wasn’t right about this. “Take point, Eagle Two. Pags, you bring up the rear and cover me.”

“Eagle Three copies.”

Gina shook her head and frowned. Something definitely wasn’t right, but what was it? There was something bugging her,
nagging
her. This was just a sim.

What sim?

“Copy, proceeding on mission,” Grace said responding just a little late for her.

What mission? She wanted to rub her temples. She couldn’t think straight. This was all wrong. She wasn’t supposed to be here, she was supposed to be… she was supposed to be… she started to panic as she realised she couldn’t remember what they were doing. Grace was oblivious to her agitation. She ascended the stairs leading the way for her squad as she had always done. She climbed one step at a time, moving silently with her AAR pointed at the balcony and into the trees.

Trees… what the hell…

The buzzing in Gina’s head was getting worse. What the hell was wrong? She glanced back looking for the source of the noise, but she didn’t find it. Pags moved up behind her with his weapon scanning the other way.

“Eagle One, Eagle Two,” Grace whispered.

“Eagle One. Go,” she said shaking her head at her preoccupation.

“I have motion ahead, less than a klick and moving fast. Might be the package.”

Package? What…

“Take no chances, Grace. I have nothing on my sensors.”

Gina looked around and could hardly make out the stairs she was climbing. She wiped her visor but it didn’t help. She felt weird, something was wrong with the sim.

What sim?

* * *

“She’s hyperventilating. We have to stop,” the frightened technician protested. She reached for the abort control, but Stone’s hand clamped her wrist like a vice.

“No,” he said coldly. “Go to full sensory.”

When she failed to comply, he pushed her aside and keyed the command himself. He watched with satisfaction as the readings slowly returned to normal.

Normal for combat.

The matrix took a firm hold, and Fuentez was back on Thurston.

 * * *

Gina breathed a deep sigh of relief as her confusion sloughed off. She remembered the package Grace was talking about. That’s right. Stein had ordered her to meet someone and escort him back to base.

“I can’t see a damn thing through these trees,” she said in frustration. She dialled X2 on her optics and smiled in satisfaction. “I have him Eagle Two. That’s our boy. Hold here and I’ll go get him.”

“Eagle One, Eagle Three.”

She aborted her move and keyed her comm. “Eagle Three, Eagle One. Go.”

“I should go,” Pags said.

“Negative,” she said in sudden agitation. “You can cover me.”

“That’s not procedure, Gunny,” Pags said in surprise. “I should go.”

He’s right; he should go, but…

“No, I’ll go,” Gina said starting to move out.

“Eagle One, Eagle Two.”

“Eagle Two, Eagle One. Go,” she said aborting her move a second time.

“Pags is right, Gina. What the hell’s the matter with you? He should go.”

“I said I’ll go
damn you!
I want you to pull back into cover. That’s an order.”

“Two copies.”

“Eagle Three copies.”

Grace and Pags pulled back and went to ground. Gina moved ahead as carefully as she could. The package was not far ahead. He appeared to be wounded. On her belly, she crawled the last few metres.

The wounded man rolled onto his side to look at her. “The name’s Eric. I suggest you pull your people out before… too late!”

A terrific explosion shook the jungle, and Grace disappeared in eye searing boil of light. The jungle was ablaze with falling trees crashing down all around and soil raining back to earth.

Heavy grenade launcher!

“Oh God… oh God…” Pags gurgled over his comm before he gasped his last breath and died.

The buzzing in Gina’s head was back louder than ever. Images flashed before her eyes, one after another. Grace and Pags smiling, laughing, arguing. Grace chasing Pags as he ran off with her boot… something snapped, and Gina suddenly knew where she was, and who had put her here.

Noooo!

“I’m not doing this again,” she screamed. “You hear me, Stone? Do you hear me out there? I’m not doing this damn you!”