The WarMech stood silently in front of Dallas and his team, dwarfing them the way an adult would in front of a team of five children.
Dallas swallowed quietly. House’s mech was the largest on the team at fifty tons. Dallas’ own ancestral mech, the Galatine, was barely forty with all possible armor hung on its shoulders. Anja and Joker’s rides were thirty and thirty-five tons each, and little Yue’s One-Eyed Jill, still patrolling the jungle unseen behind the treeline, was the lightweight at twenty tons, when fully armored.
The mech before them was at least ninety tons, perhaps even a full hundred. Which made it twice the size of any member of his team, and likely enough firepower to turn an entire fortress town like New Avalon into a smoking crater in the space of a minute’s worth of combat.
“Options, XO,” Dallas whispered on the secure line.
“This guy could pick one of you up in his arm-actuator, Dallas,” Gareth’s voice said quietly back into Dallas’ ear through the plug nestled inside it, “and rip the mech apart like a little girl’s rag doll. Keep your distance, and don’t let him goad you into charging at him. Blast him from far away as possible, getting One-Eye to keep moving fast and calling fire for you.”
“Got it, XO. But what if-”
“WARRIORS OF THE UNFAITHFUL BARBARIANS PAST OUR BORDERS,” The words appeared on the front com screen, written in a blocky script that made Dallas think of pictures of ancient writing discovered on Old Earth centuries ago in ancient Greece. “YOU HAVE AMONG YOUR NUMBER A CREATURE OF DUST AND MUD WHO HAS BLASPHEMED OUR GODS, AND NEEDS TO EXPIATE HER SINS BY NOBLY SACRIFICING HER LIFE TO US!”
“Boss,” said Anja, her face appearing on a holo-panel in front of “I think they’re talking about me.”
“Figured that, Red Queen. What in the nine-hells did you do to piss off these people so bad?”
“When we beat them last time we fought, I said it was no wonder their religion was trashed by a bunch of old, celibate men following a dead guy on a cross.”
“Yeah, that did it, alright,” House said. “The chick who’s the high-priestess of that cult? Calls herself Artemis? She swore by some river that she was gonna take Anja out in a year.”
Something awoke in Dallas’ memory at House’s comment, something from his history tutor long ago. “Wait, a river? You remember its name?”
“Stacks, boss, or something like that,” Joker said. “One-Eye’s the one for trivia, though. Maybe she could…”
“No, I want her silent so they can’t target her if they break into our channel. I’ve got an idea, but it’s gonna-”
The war mech raised an arm that was fully big as the Galatine. A set of missile-racks at least a dozen strong popped out of it’s bicep, and a half-dozen small and medium-sized blasters erupted from its forearm.
“CHOOSE, BLASPHEMER!” the male voice roared over the comm, making Dallas wince and think about pictures he’d seen drawn of Zeus in books of mythology when he was a boy.
“YES,” said a screechy woman’s voice, “CHOOSE HOW YOU WILL DIE, BLASPHEMER! BY YOURSELF, OR WITH YOUR COMPANIONS!”
“Secure channel twelve, now!” Dallas said into the comm, flipping a dial with his hand until the number 12 hovered above the panel, an icon of a face with a cartoon hand’s index finger over its lips hovered over the comm portion of his dashboard.
“Okay, people, here’s how we’re gonna do this-”
“You’ve got a plan, for this ready, boss?”
“Shuddup, Joker. No time. Queen, you on channel?”
“Here, boss. What do we do?”
“This is important, Red Queen; I need to know exactly how this Artemis looney bird said she was going to kill you…”
Stolen novel; please report.
“I WILL COUNT DOWN FROM TEN. WHEN I HAVE REACHED ZERO, I WILL UNLEASH MY HOLY LIGHTNING AND TARTARIAN FIRE FROM ON HIGH UPON THE RED QUEEN FIRST, AND THEN ALL WHO TRAVEL ALONGSIDE HER!”
“Hello, there? Ah- Mr. Zeus, Sir?” Dallas said, his voice sounding more beta-male than he’d let it sound for years. “If I may check, didn’t you swear by the River Styx that you’d destroy my soldier, the Red Queen?”
“HE DID NOT!” screeched the female voice over the comm. “THE PLEASURE OF HER DESTRUCTION WAS MINE ALONE! *I* SWORE BY THE SACRED RIVER, NOT HE!”
Bitch sounds more like Eris than Artemis would, Dallas thought to himself, but bit down on the comment in his head and focused.
“Alright, well, thank you for that clarification, Miss Artemis, ma’am. But, ah, my crew have given me a recording of you taking your oath-”
“DEKA!” roared the male voice over the comm.
“Wuzzat?” Said Joker.
“Shuddup, Joker,” said Dallas.
“That word means ‘ten’ in Greek,” said Yue, breaking silence over the comm and disappearing again.
“ENAY-AH!” yelled Zeus.
“That word means n-”
“We get it, One-Eye. Thank you.”
“Oh, she gets a sweet apology, an’ I get told to shuddup?”
“She’s a kid, Joker,” House growled, “you’re old enough to know better.”
“Everybody,” said Dallas, “shuddu-”
“OCTO!”
Crap, time to sell or die, Dallas thought desperately. No time for a respectful intro! Just…Dallas hit a button on the panel. The holo-display lit up, showing a link between a simplified drawing of the Galatine and his other mechs, along with a long, blue line connected to the hundred-ton terror that stood before them.
Pictures of panels, teammates and scan charts that had been floating above the holo-projector suddenly disappeared, appearing to shatter and scatter into thousands of lighted pixels that swirled, danced and solidified into a picture of a very, very large woman seated in a mech-warrior chair, staring into the camera.
“EFTA!” roared ‘Zeus’ into the comms, as Dallas reached forth and hit the button marked ‘play’ on the sub-panel in the corner of the maze of controls on the master panel of the Galatine.
But now, it was Dallas’ turn to broadcast.
“I will destroy you!” the image of the woman screamed with the same voice they’d been hearing from Artemis. The woman, who weighed at least three-hundred pounds, had gobs and rolls of flesh on her body that rippled from her triple-chins on down as she screamed. “Do you hear me, Red Queen? For that insult, for your unconscionable blasphemy against me, I will crush the life out of you under the feet of my mech within the twelvemonth! I will hear your bones crunch and see your blood paint the ground where you take your last breath under the feet of my mech! I swear by the river Styx that it shall be so!”
“EX-EE!” said Zeus.
“Ah, Miss Artemis?” said Dallas, “I don’t know exactly how many followers you have-”
“PEN-DAY!”
“...but I can’t help what would happen if your followers not only saw what you actually looked like-”
“TESS-ER-RA!”
“...but if you were really the goddess you claim to be, if you break an oath like that!”
“TRIA!”
“Zeus,” said ‘Artemis,’ “stop counting.
“THEE-OH!”
“I said stop counting!”
“What?” said Zeus, his voice sounding more like that of a normal man than the god he’d been presenting to be, “you’re breaking character!”
“I have a solution,” Dallas said, “One that will make everyone happy.”
“Which is?” both Zeus and Artemis’ voices snapped over the comms.
“Red Queen will step out of her mech. You will step on her, and let us go in peace.”
There was a short pause.
“Chto za chert?” Anja yelped.
#
TO BE CONTINUED...