Chapter 68: Castling

Stephan Kyrillos's face appeared on Rudy's screen. His dark eyes were smoldering coals in the shadows of his face. With the weird illumination from his mecha’s screens highlighting his beak of a nose and the blackness of those stratosphere blues, he almost looked like his raven namesake.

He snarled, "Where is the Empress?"

"Safe," Rudy said. In contrast to Stephan, he kept his voice cool, calm and collected. Also, condescending. Just like big bro taught him. “Parked somehwere on this station where you're not going to find her.”

Realistically, Rudy didn't have much of a shot of beating Stephan. Sure, the aristocratic mecha Rudy had taken from the Magpie's bay was a beautiful machine, and close enough in design to the Epee he felt comfortable with its controls. Didn't mean he could use it to solo a nob.

When had he ever been realistic about his chances, though? This seemed like a bad time to start.

Besides, he only had two alternatives.

One was to let Chloe try to help using powers she didn't even begin to understand in a combat situation she'd never been in against an opponent she didn't want to fight.

Not gonna happen. At best, she'd flip out and vaporize both him and Stephan and make the question academic, and Rudy didn't consider that a win for Team Crimson Phoenix. Or Team Invincible Titanian Battle Princess, either, since it would probably make Chloe go crazy if it didn't kill her, too. At worst, and far more likely in his estimation, Chloe would just get in his way.

Two was to knuckle under to Stephan's demands and let him take Chloe back to New Kyrillopolis.

Not gonna happen, either.

So, Rudy had to fight Stephan, and he had to win, and, since he felt especially cocky and/or lucky, he could even shoot for surviving the experience.

"Her Highness is not safe," Stephan said. "She's with you, and you're a damned fool, perhaps literally, who is leading both her and my sister into a trap."

"And Milissa said you'd kill Chloe if you were the least bit afraid of her," Rudy countered. "From where I'm sitting, Steph, you're a hell of a lot less safe than I am."

"Milissa is a damned fool as well, more so than I could ever have imagined of my own blood. I should have guessed as much, considering her preference in tournament mechaneers."

"You're too hard on her," Rudy said. "I think it shows what a discerning judge of character she is. For instance, given the choice of sticking with you or joining yours truly, she made the right call."

"You bastard –"

"Unfair," Rudy said.

"What?"

"I was my parents' second child. They'd been married for, like, fifteen years when I was born. You can throw out plenty of epithets, and for all I know that one may even apply to my brother, but there's no way I could be a bastard."

"Damn you, Algreil," Stephan spat. "If it weren't for you, the Empress would have been mine."

Wrong again, Steph, Rudy thought. But I'm not gonna help you figure that out considering that she may need the ambiguity to keep ahead of you should, by some cosmically unlikely twist, the Crimson Phoenix actually lose.

Not, Rudy added to himself, that he was going to.

Crimson Phoenix and Black Rook faced off on the surface of the great dark industrial station orbiting New Kyrillopolis. Spires of now-useless metal rose like skyscrapers, or like the great pines of the planet below. Only the tallest reached the light of New Kyrillopolis's sun, and the Black Rook wasn't obliging by giving off light of his own. Rudy could see the black mecha shifting between the spires, circling him like a great cat – or a bird of prey.

No need to make things easy on Steph. Rudy switched his communications channel to receive only and, a minute later, dropped to minimum power and leaned against one of the station's walls.

Stephan's mecha coasted to the rim of one of the station's outer arms. It crouched there, looking very much like its avian namesake, a point of raven blackness against the backdrop of stars.

"I won't insult you by offering surrender," Stephan said. "You wouldn't take it, and frankly, at this point, I'd probably have to kill you anyway. I could never trust you to live. I'd have to lock up my little sister."

"I tend to have that effect on women," Rudy said. Somehow, the retort just didn't have the same punch when Stephan couldn't hear him.

The Black Rook's thrusters flared again and he took to the spaceways, gradually circling toward the center of the dead station. Rudy waited, watching for the slightest hint of hesitation that would indicate Stephan's sensors had detected him.

It came sooner than Rudy would have liked.

As soon as he saw the Black Rook hesitate before turning, the Crimson Phoenix exploded from his hiding place.

Not a moment too soon. Said hiding place exploded with telekinetic force, sending shrapnel clanking off Rudy's mecha's back. Before Stephan could adjust his aim, Rudy had ducked behind a spire-like protrusion. It buckled under a series of blasts, but by then Rudy was already on the move, forcing the Black Rook lower.

He couldn't fight Stephan's powers at long range. He needed the mechaneer-aristocrat up close and personal.

He might not be able to fight Stephan's powers at point-blank range, either, but at least he had a chance.

He hoped.

Rudy felt a faint shudder through his mecha's legs as the Black Rook's feet clanged against the station's hull.

So far, so good.

Still, he had to keep bobbing and weaving through the spires. Stephan was rapidly chewing through what little inert metal blocked his line of sight.

As if to underscore the point, a bolt of concentrated mental force ripped through the hull beside Rudy. Stephan apparently didn't care about damaging his family's old station, not that Rudy had expected any different.

"I must confess," Stephan said, "in light of your earlier boldness, I really hadn't expected you to slink around like a common thief, Mr. Algreil."

And I must confess, Rudy thought, I totally did expect you to be as much of a pompous blowhard as ever.

"But then, I suppose that fits the Crimson Phoenix's modus operandi – all style, no substance."

Rudy felt his grin starting to slip. He knew perfectly well what Stephan was doing and tried to tell himself not to let the asshole get away with it. But damn, it was hard not to.

"They don't call you the Crimson Chicken for nothing, do they?"

Rudy started to step out, to lower the mecha-sized rifle in his hand.

Chloe's face appeared in his mind's eye.

He'd promised he'd come back to her.

Couldn't do that if he got himself killed because of Stephan smarting off.

Couldn't very well let her down.

Rudy withdrew his rifle, crouched against a particularly sturdy-looking wall, and waited.

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Stephan kept taunting and blasting – and coming closer. Rudy ignored the first two and fixed his whole attention on the third. He found he could read the other mecha's movements just by feeling its rhythmic footfalls, no sensors required. Stephan wasn't bothering with stealth. Apparently, he didn't think he had to.

Rudy would enjoy demonstrating how wrong he was.

Slowly, inexorably, the Black Rook approached the Crimson Phoenix.

Rudy found himself holding his breath, forced it out. He had to be loose, relaxed. What was he so nervous about? He'd said, believed, he could handle the Black Rook. Hell, Marcel Avalon had apparently sufficed to drive Stephan off back at the battlecruiser, and Rudy sure as hell wasn't about to come up short in comparison to him.

Still, the power of those telekinetic blasts was more than a little unnerving. Stephan didn't seem all that under control, and being out of control was not necessarily a bad thing for a mechaneer-aristocrat. Control was what kept their destructive powers in check. Lose it, and they could do a hell of a lot of damage.

Stephan's footfalls sounded close now. Rudy braced himself, rifle in one hand, sword in the other. He hadn't bothered with the usual sword and board loadout. He didn't think a shield would do him any good against Stephan's firepower, and anyway, defensiveness just wasn't his style.

Stephan stepped forward.

Rudy lunged.

His sword passed through empty space, and only mechaneer's reflexes saved him from sprawling onto the station's hull.

"The hell –!" he managed, before a telekinetically-propelled hunk of metal slammed his mecha into a spire.

Rudy struggled to his feet and lit his sensors, sweeping desperately for some sign of his attacker.

The Black Rook stood almost a kilometer away.

He’d used telekinesis to mimic his footfalls.

Rudy scrambled back into cover before Stephan could blast him again. His mecha already flashed yellow warning indicators from where it had smashed into the space station.

"Very clever of you not to use your sensors, Crimson Phoenix," the Black Rook said. Rudy could practically hear his smirk. "Unfortunately, you are not the only one who can be clever."

Rudy flicked his communications transmitter back on. "What if I hadn't been listening?" he snapped, more to cover his mistake then because he cared about the answer.

"Then I would have had to take the station apart more slowly," Stephan said.

"Pretty wussy way to fight me," Rudy said. "I thought you nobs were all about the thrill of honorable combat and all that shit."

"Most of my colleagues are, I fear, afflicted with such nonsense. It lost them the Civil War. I'm still alive, still fighting, because I subscribe to a more pragmatic philosophy."

"You're always going on about what 'lost' the Civil War, Steph," Rudy said. "It ever occur to you that maybe something won it?"

"The treachery of the House of Commons, you mean?"

"Nah," Rudy said. "Us Oligarchs being bigger bastards than you nobs could ever hope to be."

New Kyrillopolis's sun rose over the station's horizon – at Rudy's back.

He surged from his hiding place at maximum burn, all thrusters blazing and both legs pumping hard enough to leave dents in the station's hull. He didn't dare snap off a shot from his rifle. The recoil would rob him of precious milliseconds.

By the time Stephan's mecha adjusted its screens for the unexpected glare, Rudy was on him.

He snapped a kick to the Black Rook's leg and let the momentum of the impact swing Stephan's machine into an upward slash of monomolecular-blade.

Stephan's sword met Rudy's. They sheared through each other, sending the remnants hurtling harmlessly into space.

"Nicely done," Stephan said. "If insufficient."

"Any time, Steph." Rudy plunged his shattered blade into the wrist of Stephan's sword-arm and swung his rifle up underneath the Black Rook's shield. He pumped two shells into the mechaneer-aristocrat's shoulder. The first landed with a satisfying crack, but the second bounced off an invisible barrier.

Ah, crap.

Said barrier coalesced into a blast that sent Rudy crashing through the station's hull. Metal wrenched around his armor, stale air exploded past it. At least it was a manufacturing station rather than a fortress. If it had been the latter, he would have buckled before it did.

The Black Rook jumped down after him.

Stephan discarded his shield and wrenched Rudy's shorn blade from his wrist. Armed with both knife-like fragments, he leapt onto the chest of Rudy's mecha. He held the blades aloft like twin sacrificial daggers.

Rudy punched him in the throat.

A mecha, of course, had no vital systems in such an unprotected spot. Didn't feel like it when it used a direct neural interface, though, and the next mechaneer-aristocrat not to use one of those would be the first. Stephan reeled back, gagging over the comlink.

Rudy's fist crashed into the Black Rook's face next. In zero-gee, the momentum of the two blows pushed Stephan off him. Rudy surged after him, triggering his thrusters to throw extra momentum behind another punch to Stephan's throat. While the Black Rook reeled, the Crimson Phoenix pressed his advantage, rocketing blow after blow into his opponent's head and chest.

Stephan slammed against the jagged cavity he'd made in the station's hull. He hurtled into space, seemingly out of control.

Rudy didn't pursue. He knew playing dead – or at least playing at disadvantage – when he saw it.

Sure enough, the Black Rook didn't reel for long. He snapped back toward Rudy and willed the crumbling knives ahead of him. One dug into Rudy's neck armor and lodged there. A meter or so higher and he would have been out of a cockpit, and a life. The other knife clanked harmlessly against the station's interior walls.

Rudy rocketed backwards, thrusters flaring. For a wonder, none of his wings had snapped off when Stephan forced him through the station's hull. He didn't have to adjust for them as he shot backwards down the toroid hallway.

Rudy reversed thrust abruptly and faked a jab at Stephan's head, then ducked down a side corridor as his opponent hurtled past. By the time Stephan adjusted his trajectory to follow, Rudy had cut a second turn, tight enough to clip his shoulder armor on the walls.

He reached one of the station's promenades. They must have been spectacular when in use, easily five times his mecha's height. He didn't pause to take in the scenery, though. He flipped over a railing and turned his momentum into a spin that bent railing and balcony alike down after him.

He still barely made it before the latter wrenched from the wall and hurtled into the promenade. Lances of raw force blazed holes through the station walls. One of them clipped Rudy's mecha and left a deep gouge in its armor.

Stephan was apparently not happy.

Rudy didn't know the station well enough to dare going deeper. This seemed like residential territory, or at least crew quarters. There were lots of places a big nob mecha like his could get stuck.

The Black Rook made the question academic by blazing through the wreckage above him.

Rudy met him with a spinning kick that stopped his momentum cold.

"Miss me, Steph?" Rudy asked. He cut off the Black Rook's answer with a barrage of blows to the mechaneer-aristocrat's torso, sending him hurtling into the wreckage he'd made of his abandoned station.

This time, Rudy didn't give him time to recover. If Stephan was faking –

He was.

Rudy's lunge slowed to a crawl. His stomach lurched as a bubble of telekinetic force robbed him of his momentum, then slowly, inexorably pushed him backwards.

Rudy hovered, helpless, at the heart of the promenade.

The Black Rook picked himself up from the rubble his impact had further dislodged.

"Well fought, Crimson Phoenix," he said. He gave a mocking little bow. "For a mundane, you are very talented and very clever."

"Running was my idea," Rudy said. The feedback from his mecha's body said he had a terrible weight pressing on his chest. He had to remind himself he could speak normally.

Stephan's mecha rose, head cocked. "Pardon?"

"Don't hold my running away against Chloe or Milissa," Rudy said. "They were scared and confused, and I convinced them to come with me."

"How chivalrous of you. Dare I say, how noble." Stephan chuckled. "Both sentiments, as I've said, are very common amongst my people, and very ineffective. I harbor neither."

"Not big on sentiment, huh?"

"You could say that."

I just did say it, dumbass, Rudy thought. He said, "Still, you've got to admit, it has its moments."

"Certainly," Stephan said. He stepped closer, slowly closing his outstretched palm into a fist. The metal of Rudy's mecha groaned against the pressure. "When my enemies indulge in it, I couldn't be happier."

"Never found it the least bit useful, huh?" Rudy grunted as his nerves told him the last of the air was expelled from his lungs. He overruled them. "I think you're selling it short."

"Forgive me if I take your opinion with a grain of salt, Crimson Phoenix," Stephan said, taking another step forward and closing his fist, "seeing as how I'm not the one who's about to die."

Crushing pain rolled across Rudy. His mecha's armor squealed and buckled. He didn't dare turn off his neural feedback. A nob model through and through, the mecha had nothing else.

Through gritted teeth, Rudy spat, "Wanna bet?"

And, with one clean motion, ripped the fragmented blade from his neck and through the Black Rook's.

For a moment, nothing happened. The pressure didn't abate. The Black Rook didn't falter. Rudy didn't even pass out, though Principle alone knew how.

The blade's last fragments flaked off.

Then the Black Rook's head shifted. Independent of the body below.

As the mecha's psychic amplifiers separated from their master's cockpit, the killing force shattering Rudy's mecha abated to a dull itch – deadly at the human scale, perhaps, but harmless to an armored battle machine.

Rudy reached out a twisted mecha arm and grabbed Stephan's drifting cockpit.

His flight suit registered a sudden drop in cockpit temperature. Normally, Rudy would have welcomed his mecha cooling off rather than overheating. But, as Milissa had said, Stephan had always been good with snow.

Rudy waited, the Black Rook's head cradled in his hand like a skull.

His cockpit got cold, yeah, but the only moisture in it was in his flight suit, heated and in contact with his skin. No snow formed.

Milissa had also said Stephan could freeze a man to death even in a heated suit.

Aside from the drop in temperature, nothing happened.

Rudy grinned. "I know you can still hear me, Steph."

"How?" the Black Rook hissed. "This isn't possible. Chloe can't know how to form such a subtle barrier! Milissa doesn't know how, so where could she have learned?"

Rudy grinned. "You never can tell," he said.