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  RIKA COMMANDER

  RIKA’S MARAUDERS – BOOK 4

  BY M. D. COOPER

  SPECIAL THANKS

  Just in Time (JIT) & Beta Reads

  David Wilson

  Gene Bryan

  Timothy Van Oosterwyk Bruyn (CPL Van)

  Belxjander Draconis Serechai

  Alastar Wilson (PFC Al ‘Whispers’)

  Manie Kilian

  Lisa Richman

  James Dean (SGT Crunch/LT Carson ‘Bondo’)

  Copyright © 2018 M. D. Cooper

  Aeon 14 is Copyright © 2018 M. D. Cooper

  Version 1.0.0

  Cover Art by Tek Tan

  Editing by Jen McDonnell

  Aeon 14 & M. D. Cooper are registered trademarks of Michael Cooper

  All rights reserved

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  FOREWORD

  PREVIOUSLY…

  MAPS

  MEETING THE ADMIRAL

  INTO THE MAELSTROM

  LIBERATING LIBERTY

  LAKESIDE

  FINDING SILVA

  HUDSON

  RETURN

  AVATAR

  POWER

  CHALLENGE

  MECH UPGRADES

  MEETING CHASE

  RESPECTS

  ORDERS

  SEPE

  LEGS

  INTO THE BREACH

  SUSPICION

  TIME TO FIGHT

  KICKING ASS IN OUTER SPACE

  PUPPETS

  SURRENDER

  VICTORY

  MECH TYPES AND ARMAMENTS

  3rd MARAUDER FLEET 4th DIVISION

  7th MARAUDER FLEET 1st DIVISION

  9th MARAUDER BATTALION

  THE BOOKS OF AEON 14

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  FOREWORD

  Give or take a bit, we’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of when I first conceived Rika, which seems like both a very long time, and a brief span all at once.

  If Tanis is my Artemis, born in turmoil, and deeply storied with many aspects, Rika is my Athena. Born fully formed from my mind, almost unwillingly so.

  I still remember when I wrote the first two chapters of Rika Outcast. They spilled from my fingers at a feverish pace, both written in less than two hours, beginning at 11PM one night. Other than grammatical edits, they remain as I originally typed them.

  What a tease Rika was. I thought all of her tales would be easy to tell, but she’s a lot more complex than one would first think. The things she’s gone through surely would have broken me, and many others. Whenever I write her, I ask myself “What would Rika do?” The answer is often one that is different from where I plan to take the story.

  Which is glorious.

  Often, when writers talk about characters doing things we don’t expect or want, people look at us like we have a screw loose. After all, aren’t we the ones writing the story?

  Probably? Maybe? Sometimes I wonder if maybe I’m channeling some sort of real series of events. I know that’s not the case, but sometimes it feels like it.

  One thing is for certain: characters like Rika are not born solely from my mind, but from watching and studying humanity. Rika’s is a story of a fully human woman, who is not fully human. Rika is the best of us all, she has a strength we all wish to possess, and a true compassion that we envy. Her wrath is terrible, and her power is all but unmatched.

  Still, her flaws are many. She’s brash and rash, she often doubts herself (everyone doubts themselves), she’s issued orders that have gotten people killed, and had loved ones die in her arms.

  None of us would want to have had Rika’s life.

  But under the weight of her past, and all that has been done to her, she is unbowed. Through some incredible desire to push forward, a will to live that comes from surviving so much, Rika perseveres.

  There is one thing all successful people have in common, one thing that separates success from failure. It’s simple: not giving up. It’s impossible to succeed if you’re not working at the thing you want to achieve. So don’t stop doing that thing, whatever it is.

  Unless it’s evil, then stop. I mean it. I’ll send Rika.

  In the end, Rika is going to succeed. I’m going to succeed. And by the stars that burn in the deep, I hope all of you succeed at your goals as well.

  Michael Cooper

  April 2018, Danvers

  PREVIOUSLY…

  After liberating the mechs in the Politica, Rika and the Marauders found themselves with hundreds of mechs that wanted to join the mercenary company.

  To facilitate this, General Mill promoted Rika to Captain, and established a company under her command. This company was sent to the Hercules System in the Theban Province, where they established a training facility, only to come under attack from unknown forces.

  Ultimately, Rika and the local military officials uncovered a plot to overthrow the Septhian control of the Hercules System and cede it to the Nietzscheans.

  Rika and her mechs played a critical role in stopping the coup, but they also learned that there was a small Nietzschean fleet hiding in the clouds of one of the system’s gas giants.

  Hired by the local government to take out that fleet, Rika led her Marauders on a dangerous attack run, deep into the planet’s clouds, where they stormed the Nietzschean ships and seized them.

  Per their agreement with the local government, Rika’s Marauders maintained control of five ships.

  As they regrouped above the planet’s cloud tops, a message came in that the Albany System—the former capital of the Theban Alliance, and the world Rika had helped save in Rika Outcast—was under attack by Nietzschean forces once more.

  Rika decided to take her new fleet to Albany’s aid, and left the Hercules System for Albany.

  At this point, if you are reading the Orion War series, and have not read Attack on Thebes, I recommend pausing here and reading that book first to avoid spoilers below.

  If you are not reading that series, then this will give you a recap of the events in that crossover book.

  At the very end of Rika Triumphant, we were introduced to Tanis Richards, a woman who was stranded on Pyra, the primary habitable world in the Albany System.

  Tanis is the leader of a new group Rika has never heard of before, a coalition of allies who are trying to stop an empire known as Orion from sweeping across the Inner Stars.

  To Rika’s surprise, the Nietzscheans are a proxy nation that Orion is using, and they want to capture Tanis Richards very badly.

  When Rika arrives at the Albany System, she teams up with Tanis’s people and leads a daring rescue where she manages to save Tanis—though for the most part, Tanis has managed to save herself.

  Rika sees Tanis do things that seem impossible for a human to achieve, and, what’s more, she witnesses levels of technology that are beyond any she has dreamt of.

  Though the Nietzscheans sent the largest fleet Rika had ever seen into the Albany System, a force of over seventy thousand vessels, the Allies defeat that fleet, suffering minimal losses.

  As this story opens, Rika is aboard one of the docking bays of an Intrepid Space Force (the primary element of the allied forces) ship. Though her dreadnought, the Fury Lance, is a four-kilometer-long behemoth, it is able to dock within the ISS Carthage’s docking bay; a feat that has left Rika in nearly as much amazement as what she witnessed Tanis do on the planet below.

  And so, we begin the next phase of Rika’s journey: Commander.

  * * * * *

  NOTE: To aid in understanding the differences between the types of mechs, this book contains an appendix in the rear outlining the models.

  In addition, there is also a listing of major characters and the members of Rika’s company.

  MAP
S

  MEETING THE ADMIRAL

  STELLAR DATE: 08.28.8949 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: A1 Docking Bay, Carthage

  REGION: Pyra, Albany System, Thebes, Septhian Alliance

  Rika held Chase in a fierce embrace, unconcerned about harming him, thanks to the armor he wore. She was only dimly aware of Barne and Leslie speaking beside them while she pressed her forehead into Chase’s temple.

  “You good?” Chase asked after a few moments, his voice a hoarse whisper in her ear.

  “Yeah,” Rika gave a slight nod. “I’m good.”

  Chase pulled back and met Rika’s eyes. “Even though I knew you made it to the Derringer...when that dropship got blown away, I almost pissed myself.”

  Rika chuckled. “You and me both…not that I can.”

  “I just pictured you springing a leak,” Barne said with a gravelly laugh.

  Rika glanced at Barne and tapped him on the shoulder with the barrel of her GNR. “My only leak comes out of this.”

  Barne laughed harder. “Now I’m thinking of your DPUs just sliding out of the barrel and plopping on the deck like jelly.”

  Leslie shook her head and looked like she was going to slap Barne upside the head. She didn’t, but her tail was twitching angrily. “When are you going to grow up, Barne?”

  “This is me grown up. You should have seen me when I was younger.”

  Rika looked up and shook her head before glancing at the Fury Lance further down the dock. “The other four ships still out there?”

  Chase nodded. “Yeah, they’re inside this behemoth’s stasis shields, though—the thought of which is nuts, I might add.”

  Rika gestured toward the dockcar Barne and Chase had used. “C’mon, we need to get back out there and rejoin the fight. The Niets are going to try to destroy Pyra while they run off with their tails between their legs.”

  “You mean ‘destroy it more’,” Barne grunted.

  Niki asked.

  “Rika,” a commanding voice called out from behind her.

  Rika turned to see Tanis approaching, appearing alert and in complete control of herself—a far cry from the unconscious woman Rika had carried to the dropship less than an hour ago.

  “I owe you and yours a deep debt of gratitude,” Tanis said as she approached, accompanied by Priscilla and two other women. One of the newcomers looked like a near clone of Tanis, but the other had far darker skin and appeared to have no genetic ties to the admiral. Still, both of these two stood closer than Priscilla, and Rika got the sense that they were family.

  Niki commented, and Rika couldn’t help but agree.

  She had expected Tanis to glow, or talk like she had a thousand voices. The woman exuded a command presence like no other leader Rika had ever seen, but other than that, she seemed perfectly normal.

  Rika smiled and held out her left hand. “Admiral Richards. I’m glad to see you’re doing better. You were in rough shape back on the planet…I imagine doing an impression of a starship engine is exhausting. No pun intended.”

  Tanis’s eyes widened a fraction, and Rika wondered how she felt about what had happened in Jersey City. From what Priscilla had told her, what Rika had witnessed was not something Tanis—or anyone for that matter—had done before.

  At least not that anyone knew of.

  The hint of surprise on Tanis’s face disappeared, replaced by a wry smile as she said, “I was feeling a bit of burnout.”

  Rika gave a soft laugh, but it faded as Tanis’s expression grew serious once more.

  “I am deeply sorry about General Mill and Captain Ayer,” she said. “I feel somewhat responsible for what happened to them. They died honorably.”

  There was guilt in the admiral’s eyes. And compassion. It was heartening to see it displayed so clearly from someone in such an elevated position.

  Rika shook her head, a gesture meant to absolve Tanis of any guilt. This was a war against a vile enemy; the only constant was the loss of good people.

  “You may have been the catalyst, ma’am,” Rika said solemnly, “but the blame lies with traitors in the Septhian and Theban governments. What happened here was going to occur sooner or later, anyway.”

  Tanis reached up and tucked her hair behind her ears. “You’re probably right about that. We’ll have to determine how deep that sickness goes.”

  The response surprised Rika, but in a good way. She had feared that Tanis and her incredible space force would leave once the battle was won, but the admiral’s words indicated otherwise.

  “What are your plans here, then?” Rika asked.

  Tanis glanced up and down Rika’s body before replying, appearing to approve of what she saw, and maybe gauging her value as a part of the fight before replying. “First we’re going to finish off the Niets…there’s still a battle raging around us—though one can barely tell from in here. Then we’ll restore this system to order and summon Prime Minister Harmin to see what he has to say for himself.”

  Rika said to Niki.

  Niki snorted a laugh.

  While Rika and Niki commented on the statement privately, Barne barked a laugh. “This I would love to see, the PM coming here with his tail between his legs.”

  “Barne, stow it,” Rika said, making a slicing motion through the air with her left hand.

  Tanis didn’t seem bothered, and a smile formed on her lips as she regarded the first sergeant. “As far as I can tell, Septhia recently lost Pyra, maybe all of Thebes. Not to mention that it was never really theirs in the first place. I’m not entirely certain that we should cede it back to them.”

  It was Rika’s turn to smile. “I like the way you think, Admiral.”

  Tanis placed a hand on Rika’s shoulder. “No ‘admiral’ for you. To you, Rika, I am ‘Tanis’. I look forward to speaking with you further. I think we can benefit one another greatly.”

  Rika felt a flush rise on her cheeks and gave a small nod. “Of course, Ad—Tanis. I look forward to that. Now that we’ve found the likes of the ISF, we’re not keen to run off on our own anytime soon.”

  “Except that we need to get back out there,” Chase interjected. “There’s still a fight to be had and a world to save.”

  Tanis glanced at Chase and gave a curt nod. “There is. I need to get to the bridge.”

  Rika couldn’t agree more. As much as she wanted to learn more about Tanis, they couldn’t stand around in the dock while good people risked their lives. “We’ll speak again soon, I hope, Tanis.”

  Tanis gave another of her crisp nods. “You can count on it. Just don’t get blown up out there.”

  Rika snorted, a malicious grin forming on her face. “Killed by Niets? Very unlikely.”

  “Good.” Tanis turned toward another dockcar, and Rika looked up as the dropships flew out of the Derringer to the Fury Lance.

  Rika gestured to their ship. “Looks like everyone else is on the ball; let’s catch up.”

  INTO THE MAELSTROM

  STELLAR DATE: 08.28.8949 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Fury Lance, A1 Docking Bay, Carthage

  REGION: Pyra, Albany System, Thebes, Septhian Alliance

  Rika strode onto the bridge of the Fury Lance and nodded to Lieutenant Heather. “You been taking good care of my girl, Smalls?”

  Heather snapped off a crisp salute. “She’s tip-top, Captain. Ready to get back out there.”

  Rika raised an appraising eyebrow at Heather. “Tip-top, you say? I could have sworn I saw a few holes in the ‘Lance as I came aboard.

  Heather shrugged as she rose from the command seat. “Just some kisses from the Niets. I rebuffed their advances with maximum prejudice.”

  “They seem to kiss with some intensity,” Chase said from behind Rika.

  She turned to see that Barne and Leslie had followed him onto the bridge. “Everyone accounted for?”
>
  “All teams are aboard,” Barne replied. “Those who are still with us.”

  Rika nodded solemnly. Though no mechs died in the deployment to Pyra, the dropship that had been lost on the way back up had contained seven of their people.

  A loss Rika was looking forward to repaying in kind.

  “We lost General Mill and Captain Ayer to the Niets,” she said quietly, looking from person to person on the bridge, noting how dark Barne’s expression became. “Admiral Richards said they died honorably, but we know differently. There’s no honor in a death at the hands of a Nietzschean. Their honor was in their lives and what they did for their people and for the Marauders.”

  Leslie shook her head. “If the Old Man is dead, then do the Marauders still even exist?”

  Rika took a step toward Leslie and clapped a hand on her shoulder. “They do. We do. We’re the Marauders.”

  “Rika’s Marauders!” Heather shouted, and the others repeated the call.

  Blushing, Rika sat in the command chair. “OK, OK. Save it for when this is over. For now, let’s get back out there.”

  Heather took the pilot’s seat, and Leslie settled into the comm station. Two chiefs from the Golden Lark—Garth and Ona—sat at the weapons and scan consoles, and Rika felt a burst of fear.

  she said privately to Niki.

 

  Rika resisted the urge to swear aloud.

 

  Rika replied as she settled into the command chair.