Rika Rising Read online

  RIKA RISING

  THE GENEVIAN QUEEN – BOOK 1

  BY M. D. COOPER

  Thanks to the Aeon 14

  Just in Time (JIT) & Beta Readers

  Copyright © 2019 M. D. Cooper

  Aeon 14 is Copyright © 2019 M. D. Cooper

  Version 1.0.0

  Cover Art by Tek Tan

  Editing by Jen McDonnell, Bird’s Eye Books

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

  All rights reserved

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  FOREWORD

  THE JOURNEY THUS FAR

  PROMINENT CHARACTERS

  MAPS

  A NEW START

  RETREAT

  RECUPERATING

  THE REFUGE

  THE OLD PRESIDENT

  PREPARATION

  FORCED MARCH

  RIKA BOMBA

  COMING CLEAN

  MAGNUS

  PICKING PIECES

  RIKA MAGNUS

  PERIL

  RESPITE

  LEADER ODA

  ULTIMATUM

  THE QUEEN

  THE LANCE

  A GAME OF SNARK

  BABYLON

  THE PINNACLE

  CLOUDTOPS

  MECH TYPES & ARMAMENTS

  7th MARAUDER FLEET 1st DIVISION

  COLONEL BORDEN’S MARINES

  9th MARAUDER BATTALION

  THE BOOKS OF AEON 14

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  FOREWORD

  If you’ve read prior Aeon 14 books, it’s likely that you’ll have run into Rika. She’s had a novella, two short stories, and eight novels written about her (including this one). She’s also shown up in other series, such as the Orion War.

  Her mechs are some of the fiercest and most feared fighting forces in the galaxy. Forged through a decade of war, and then their people’s defeat, Rika’s Marauders would follow her to the gates of hell, kick them down, and clear the place out in record time.

  If you’ve not read the Rika’s Marauders series, and would like to know how Rika came to lead this elite fighting force, then I recommend you start with the book Rika Outcast. However, I endeavored to write this story as a new starting point in Rika’s long tale, so if you want to dive in here, I think that will be alright as well.

  When I first started telling Rika’s tale, it was because I was curious about what story a woman in her situation would tell. A woman who was forcibly turned into a cyborg warrior (what her people call a mech) against her will.

  That story grew and grew, finally becoming longer than the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit combined. But really, that was just the beginning. Rika’s tale from Outcast to Conqueror really just saw her reach her nation’s former capital system, Genevia. There is so much more of her story to tell.

  And, if you’ve made note of this book’s series title, you just might know where that story will take her.

  I’m looking forward to diving into this next leg of the journey with Rika, her mechs, and you. We’re going to have the ride of our lives seeing where her adventure ultimately takes us.

  I can promise you, it’s not where you’re expecting.

  Michael Cooper

  Danvers 2019

  THE JOURNEY THUS FAR

  Ten years ago, the Genevians and Nietzscheans were embroiled in a bitter war—a war that the Genevians were losing.

  Though they were not technologically inferior to the Nietzscheans, the Genevians were less a war-like people, and when it came to fighting spirit, the Niets outstripped them handily. So the idea was born, in some dark corner of the Genevian government, to create a new type of soldier…. One with unwavering loyalty, and without fear: mechs.

  The first mechs were little more than brains in jars, human intelligence married to a machine’s strength. It was far from a new concept, just not one the Genevians had explored in their recent past.

  Over the course of a few years, they improved upon their mechs, making several models with varying resemblance to their original human forms (detailed descriptions are at the end of this book). The mechs were controlled via an implant in their brain that used a system known as Discipline to ensure that the cyborgs behaved.

  The reason for this was simple: Mechs were not volunteers.

  Despite this, the Genevian mechs were highly effective and greatly feared by the Nietzscheans, but they were not enough to turn the tide of war, and the Genevians lost.

  The mechs were scattered after the fight, some to mercenary companies, some to concentration camps, and others managing to find some honest labor.

  Rika was one of the latter until she ran afoul of a loan shark and was sold at auction to the Marauders, a mercenary company consisting of former Genevian military personnel.

  What could have been a terrible change of fate for her ended up becoming a blessing in disguise, as she earned her freedom, and then her own command within the Marauders.

  As these events transpired in the corner of space occupied by Nietzschea and Genevia, a larger conflict was brewing. One between two massive empires: the Transcend, and the Orion Freedom Alliance. But between these empires lay the Inner Stars, and a tangled web of alliances and proxy nations began to fight the war on behalf of the Transcend and Orion.

  Shortly after Rika gained command of her own company, that war came to her doorstep, and she met a woman who changed her life forever: Tangel Richards.

  Tangel is the field marshal of a group known as the Scipio Alliance. This alliance of interstellar nations fights for the Transcend, and the Marauders joined their cause, spurred on by the knowledge that their hated enemy, the Nietzscheans, are a vassal nation of the Orion Freedom Alliance.

  Seeing the potential in Rika, Tangel upgraded her mechs and outfitted them with improved equipment, then sent them into Old Genevia to win back their nation and crush the Nietzscheans.

  Rika took on that mission with a fiery passion, leapfrogging through Old Genevia until she came to her people’s former capital system, Genevia. Her rapid advance gave her an unexpected opportunity: she crossed paths with the Nietzschean emperor, who was overseeing construction of a new fleet in the system, and she seized the opportunity to strike.

  In a crushing upset for the Nietzschean Empire, Rika’s Marauders—aided by one of Tangel’s fleets, led by Admiral Carson—defeated the Nietzschean fleet, and Rika herself killed their emperor.

  Now the remains of the Nietzschean forces in the Genevia System are fleeing while Rika and her Marauders flush out the final pockets of Niets, and prepare for the next phase of their battle against the empire: an advance on their enemy’s capital system.

  PROMINENT CHARACTERS

  Though there is a full list of all the mechs, pilots, and members of the Marauders at the end of the book, this is a listing of some of the more prominent characters and their current role in the battalion.

  9th Marauder Battalion Leadership

  Rika – Colonel, battalion commanding officer

  Silva – Lieutenant Colonel, executive officer

  Barne – Sergeant Major, command sergeant

  Leslie – Captain, intelligence officer

  Niki – AI, Lieutenant, operations officer

  Other Key Characters

  Tremon – Former Genevian President (known as Kalvin)

  Constantine – Nietzschean Emperor Rika killed

  Hammond – Constantine’s chief military advisor

  Oda – Leader of the Genevians hiding in The Refuge

  Carson – ISF (Intrepid Space Force) Admiral

  The Seventh Fleet, First Division

  Heather (Smalls) – Captain of the Fury Lance

  Travis – Captain o
f the Republic

  Ferris – Lieutenant, commander of the Undaunted

  Vargo Klen – Lieutenant, commander of the Asora

  Ashley – CWO, bridge crew aboard the Asora

  Buggsie – Lieutenant, commander of the Capital

  MAPS

  For more maps, and full-size versions, visit www.aeon14.com/maps.

  A NEW START

  STELLAR DATE: 05.15.8950 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Lisbon Station, edge of Inner Asteroid Belt

  REGION: Genevia System, New Genevian Alliance

  One week after the death of Emperor Constantine…

  A round slammed against the bulkhead next to Rika, splashing a white-hot fluid onto the deck. She ducked back around the corner, narrowly avoided the spray and cursing softly.

  she called out to her squad over the Link.

  Gunnery Sergeant Aaron added a few choice curses.

  Rika replied as she backed further down the corridor, retreating to an intersection where Kelly’s fireteam was holding off what seemed like an unending horde of Nietzscheans swarming out of a bay sixty meters down a passage on their right.

  she said to the corporal, gesturing back over her shoulder to where the plasma was still glowing on the deck.

  Kelly replied.

  She signaled for Shoshin to activate stealth and move across the corridor during the next break in enemy fire.

  the AM-4 mech asked Kelly, gesturing to the river of projectile and beam fire that was streaking down the corridor she’d directed him to cross.

  Keli added.

  Rika smirked, though no one could see her face inside her helmet.

  Keli threw a fist in the air as she switched positions with Shoshin, ready to cover him as he moved back and activated his stealth in anticipation of the break in fire.

  Like Rika, Keli and Kelly were Scout Mech Infiltrator models, their slim, human bodies perfect for crafting into forward operating scouts. Shoshin was an Assault Mech model, a heavier, beefier mech that carried more firepower than the SMIs, but had less effective stealth due to his larger profile and the heat his weaponry gave off.

  He spread his limbs, running a heat bleed procedure, his bulk nearly filling the narrow corridor.

  While SMI mechs like Rika were smaller—averaging only two and a half meters tall, and not much wider than an armored human—AMs weren’t significantly taller than SMIs, but they were wider, enough that it was often tricky for them to maneuver in smaller corridors.

  Luckily, Lisbon Station was a manufacturing plant, and as such, it could easily accommodate Shoshin’s size. Even better, it could accommodate The Van’s.

  A vibration rippled through the deck, barely noticeable at first amidst the continuous rumble of weapons fire and explosions that were shaking the station. Rika took that as her cue and clapped a hand on Kelly’s shoulder before moving back to the adjacent intersection, where the plasma rounds had forced her back a minute before.

  In the intervening time, more plasma canisters had hit the bulkheads and deck, melting away the surfaces with ten-thousand-degree heat. She hoped The Van wouldn’t fall through the sagging steel and plas.

  she advised, sending him a visual of the damage.

  the K1R mech replied.

  Rika queried. From the vibrations rippling through the deck, it didn’t seem like it.

  Niki, the AI embedded in Rika’s mind, confirmed.

  Rika muttered.

  the AI replied.

  Rika muttered as she took up a position that would allow her to quickly follow in The Van’s wake once he reached her location.

  Niki laughed softly in Rika’s mind.

 

  Niki asked.

 

  The AI made a snorting sound.

  Though Niki’s logic was cold and a little heartless, there was truth in it. But encouraging the surrender of the remaining Nietzschean holdouts was not Rika’s only motivation. She also had to show the people of the Genevia System that she was a better ruler than the enemy.

  Ruler…. The word reverberated in her mind. Is that what I am now? Really?

  The fact that she had risen from what was virtually indentured servitude to a colonel in the Marauders, and now to the—at least currently—apparent head of the re-emerging Genevian nation was beyond surreal.

  A more responsible version of Rika would be back on Belgium, seeing to matters of state, but things felt more ‘right’ to her when she was with her Marauders, duking it out in the corridors of some station. The work necessary to establish the New Genevian Alliance would keep. The Nietzschean holdouts wouldn’t.

  Rika wasn’t even certain that reforming a Genevian nation was either wise or necessary. To her, it felt like a problem for five years from now, but Tremon argued that it was in Genevia’s best interest to lay a solid foundation now.

  Or at least argue a lot about what a solid foundation looks like.

  Her thoughts were interrupted as the vibrations beneath her feet reached a crescendo, their climax punctuated by a grey blur shooting past on her right. Amidst the incoming plasma fire and the haze of the super-heated air, she almost missed that The Van was holding a thick piece of exterior hull plating, his shoulder-mounted chainguns spraying tungsten rounds over the upper edge.

  Rika ducked into his wake, letting the K1R and his shield protect her from incoming fire—which was highly effective, given that his bulk nearly filled the entire passage. Her biggest worry was finding sure footing and avoiding the hot metal and plasma droplets that were falling from the overhead.

  The Van’s speed began to decrease as the enemy switched from plasma to kinetic rounds, rail-shots wearing away at the red-hot chunk of hull plating he held.

  he grunted.

 

  the K1R mech replied.

  Niki laughed at The Van’s nonchalance.

  Rika asked.

  The Van replied.

  Rika wondered if her Marauders were growing weary of the fighting. Major engagements in the Genevian System had ended a week ago, and now her mechs were digging enemies out of hidey holes like Lisbon Station. She knew from experience that it was a tiresome slog, both physically and emotionally. The glory had already been won, this was just dangerous cleanup work.

&
nbsp; Rika advised The Van.

 

  They reached the intersection a moment later. It was wider than the others—over ten meters across, a wide pentagonal space where five corridors met—and strewn with bodies from The Van’s relentless assault. Only three soldiers remained alive, crouched behind a grav-shield on the right.

  They opened fire on The Van’s unprotected flank, but the K1R didn’t even slow, casually flinging the piece of hull plate at them before turning to the left and firing his six primary weapons at the Nietzscheans who were pinning down Kelly’s fireteam.

  The hull plate smashed through the shield and crushed one of the Niets; a series of rounds from the GNR that was Rika’s right arm finished off the other two.

  She sprinted to the hull plate The Van had thrown and jammed her hand beneath, heaving it upright and wedging it between a conduit riser and what looked like a sewage pipe to give her extra cover, should more enemies attack from down the other corridors.

  At present, the only Niets that Rika could see were the ones The Van was firing at, but as much as she liked to watch the K1R work, she kept her focus on the other passageways, ensuring that they wouldn’t be hit from the rear.

  Shoshin announced.

  Captain Chase’s welcome voice came over the combat net.

  Rika replied, nonchalance masking her relief.

  the company’s CO replied.