Desecration

Maria

Maria's gaze swept over the silent plain and she felt her hands clench into fists of their own accord. It seemed that now the Antipode Mining Guild had also invaded Fantasma Colony’s graveyard. There were a few Olympians and a phalanx of Emancipators parked along the opposite side of the crater wall, their blast cannon and blasters leveled at the incoming Ghost force. So confident they were that the tank forces in the crater below continued their operations, using their blast cannon, nanites, and blasters to slice careful incisions in the floor of the crater.

"We will try once more to settle this like civilized beings," Maria informed her comrades in a calm voice that belied the cold fury within her. "Wolfe to AMG Command," she said. "We are powering down our weapons and are requesting a meeting with you, in person, under flag of truce." She glanced at her scope and changed channels. "Del, power them down."

Del began to protest, then with an angry snarl shut her ELF and EMP down.

A moment later a response came back. A gruff male voice said in a sarcastic tone: "Sure, come on over."

"I will be coming with two of my officers," she said, and closed the channel. She popped the cockpit door and jumped to the hardpan beneath her Apocalypse, gestured to Xenogears's Emancipator and Icey's Gorgon. A moment later the two emerged from their vehicles and approached her, their black suits and shadows cutting holes in the searing Mercurian landscape. "Del, make no aggressive moves until I return." Inwardly she smiled: the woman could make breathing an aggressive move if she was in a bad mood, which she most emphatically was.

Maria climbed over a small rock face and looked down into the crater. One of the bulldozers was shoving a mass of nanite-powdered rock against the opposite wall. Her eyes narrowed as she noticed a white shape mixed in with the dark brown powder, a shape that tumbled through the morass as the 'dozer shoved it aside. Tears of rage stung her eyes: the shape was a body in a burial shroud.

Other desecrations were also visible. A heap of broken gray stone: gravestones lifted from the site and tossed in a heap, so much worthless garbage. Several of them, she knew, were hand-carved by the deads’ families. Several bodies were stacked along the edge of the crater, next to a disintegrator unit, to be burned as common rubbish.

Maria was a breath away from climbing back into her Apocalypse and blasting the entire site into a bubbling magma pit, but Icey caught her arm and gave her an understanding glance. "The command center is under the ridge," he said, fingering his laser pistol with the obvious urge of drawing it and making a mess of the uncaring workers below. Xenogears, though her face was impassive, was obviously displeased with the situation, and probably would enjoy the use of her throwing stars when-- if, Maria told herself, the situation called for it.

They descended the slope, and watched the vehicles behind them fan out to surround the southern edge of the crater. Del would not fire, she knew: the enemy vehicles on the edge of the crater would have them in a crossfire. Maria's eyebrows lifted slightly as she noticed one of the Myrmidons below, its blast cannon tracking the three of them.

They quickly reached the command center and entered the airlock. Maria grimaced. A film of dust coated every surface. How much of that dust was basalt and how much was organic molecules from the disturbed dead? She opened the inner airlock door the instant it cycled. Only one man was visible inside. "Rockhammer," she said, forcing a polite nod. "You do not have permission to dig at this location, nor at that of the other gravesite you have disturbed. As the ruling force of this region of Mercury, we order you to cease operations immediately and leave the Antipode region."

There, it was said. Now for the response...

Rockhammer, not surprisingly, laughed scornfully. He picked up a piece of official-looking paper and waved it in Maria's face. "The Emperor has authorized us to acquire certain rare metals from this area."

Maria scowled. "I don't think the Emperor is aware that this area is a gravesite."

"I don't think he'd give a damn. He was pretty insistent. Even gave us these nice, heavily-armed vehicles." He took a step closer to her, whereupon Icey and Xenogears stepped forward and drew their respective weapons. Rockhammer scowled. "You know you don't have a chance against us in battle. We outnumber you five to one."

"That has never stopped us before. Nor will it stop us now if you challenge us." She stepped closer to the man, her face centimeters from his, and said in her deadliest voice: "You. Will. Leave."

Rockhammer matched her intensity. "The hell we will," he said loudly. "Get on back to your pathetic vehicles and we'll fight it out if you want. But we're getting what we came for, and if we have to dig us some dead folk to do it--"

"Have you no respect? No honor?"

Rockhammer sneered. "For what? Corpses? They're dead. Who gives a damn?"

Rockhammer died.

Icey gasped. Xenogears blinked. Maria refastened her helmet and turned back to the airlock. "So we are have another war," she whispered. She walked to the airlock and entered.

Icey gestured at the man crumpled on the floor, as Xenogears checked for a pulse. There wasn't any. "What the hell happened?" Icey said.

Maria raised an eyebrow, glanced back. Her face was a mask, her eyes unreadable. "Those who do not respect the dead will soon join them." And she made no further comment as they left the facility, returned to the vehicles, and powered up their weapons.

-----

"Ko'ah, Razor, shield-down HERCs, Del, Icey, take the tanks, Altas, Xeno, pick as you will. Engage."

Maria leveled her weapons at an Olympian and fired a pair of Shrikes. Ko'ah and Razor fired just as she did, at the same vehicle. Their EMP bursts hit first, and the shields were down before the autocannon shots and the Shrikes hit. Autocannon perfectly aimed sliced the reactor casing wide open, and the Olympian erupted in a fireball as the Shrikes destroyed the reactor. Maria raised an eyebrow. The battle was joined.

Del's Shepard trotted forward then leapt off the crater wall into the tanks' midst, spitting death. Two Myrmidons died first, autocannon and ELF shots ripping their weak turrets open and blowing up the weapons's magazines. Icey stood on the edge of the crater rim and fired down into it, several quick, unlocked Shrike volleys taking out a fuel depot and several Avengers unlucky enough to be parked nearby. "Del UAO, Icey walldown," Maria said calmly, backpedaling from a pair of Emancipators trying to flank her. As she spun to dispatch the one on the port side, the other fired a blaster and blast cannon volley into her shoulder pod. She curled her lip disdainfully as the poor shot did exactly twenty percent shield damage. She turned from the toppled heap her Shrikes left of the first Emancipator and charged headlong into a group of Olympians.

As per her orders, Del's Shepard went to the nearest easy slope of the crater's wall and climbed up and out. Icey's weapons blasted the highest and steepest point on the wall, sending an avalanche of rock and debris tumbling down into the pit. Several massive boulders crushed a pair of Paladins, and the smaller debris piled up in the crater as Icey poured fire into other points of the crater wall. Shortly, all the tanks below were mired in garbage and unable to turn properly, much less climb out.

Her two fellow Apocalypses followed her as she ducked to the side of an Olympian, faced it, and rammed it with such force it crashed into the one beside it. Ko'ah fired at the one on the opposite side, cutting up the single leg it rested on as it teetered to the side. The Olympian collapsed on itself, the superstructure falling with a great boom. The Olympian Maria rammed soon fell to her Shrike blasts to the legs.

Ko'ah and Razorback weaved behind the slower Olympians as they struggled to turn to face the greater threat. Xeno and Altas kept the Emancipators busy, drawing them away from the heavies battling behind the crater. Icey and Del destroyed the trapped tanks one by one, ripping their treads apart and picking off their weapons with careful shots. Their work there done, they turned to assist with the Olympians, which now consisted of a disorderly line of boxes banging into each other. "Del Icey Ko'ah ripplefire," she ordered, watching as the other vehicles began running up and down the enemy line firing unlinked shots at the Olympians, doing little damage but confusing them even further. She turned to the Emancipators blasting at the smaller vehicles, threw a few EMP volleys at the undamaged ones, and finished them from behind with Shrikes. The Emans pinwheeled end-over-end, some of them banging into their companions.

"Heat," Icey said, as a pair of Olympians managed to corner his Gorgon. Maria fired a full linked shot as one of them blew the top weapons off the Gorgon, cutting into the Olympian's exposed leg. The other Olympian destroyed the leg of Icey's Gorgon just before Del's Shepard crashed into it from the side at full speed, rocking it. Del's autocannon spit flame at the Olympian's cockpit, shattering it. The Olympian stopped moving. "Icey down, Ko'ah, Del, ring and block. Altas Xeno disengage proceed minus three hundred relative you engage any remaining Olympians." For herself, she sprinted forward and fired all her weapons, again, at an Emancipator leveling a shot at Icey's cockpit.

Too late. The blast cannon shell arced out, precisely on target--

Del's Shepard sprang forward, catching the shell on its shoulder, which promptly fell off. "Ghost down, Xeno escort Del."

"Down hell," Del snarled, and her Shepard shot forward and engaged a pair of Emans at pointblank.

-----

"Del you idiot," Ko'ah's voice crackled over the comm system and Maria was hard-pressed to disagree.

"Belay that," she said, though, and fired past the Olympian in front of her to take out one of Del's Emancipators. Maria glowered at the console as she saw the flashing red light: Shrikes depleted.

The vehicles guarding Icey's fallen Gorgon were running low on shield power, she noted, seeing the spark of blasters against bare metal. A hole was torn in Xeno's Emancipator by a stray shot, and for a moment the small vehicle stopped dead. "Xena!" Razorback cried, and brought his Apocalypse around the Gorgon toward her. Maria's eyebrow arched.

"Xeno you alright?" Icey called.

A moment later the weak response came. "I am not in optimum condition," she admitted. "I have to reboot my systems." The Emancipator crouched for a moment, then stood, just in time: another Emancipator, its blasters blazing, rammed into it. Razorback let out a curse and blasted the smaller vehicle into oblivion.

He did not see the Olympian behind him, its blast cannon, three of them, tracking left to target his Apocalypse. His shields were down, too: the impact would blast his shoulder pods off, leaving his vehicle defenseless.

"You will not kill my Ghosts," Maria said, rage filling her. Her eyes narrowed to slits, as her brain's tracks split to two streams: one focused on the action around her, and one imagining the Olympian crashing headlong into her vehicle, her EMPs shooting blue fire into the reactor casing, the Mercurian landscape lighting up as an explosion more dazzling than the sun blasted the vehicle into vapor--

She stabbed her console, glaring at the vehicle with pure hatred.

It stopped moving, the weapons not tracking.

Puzzled, she fired a few shots anyway, damaging the armor. The vehicle did not react. Coming around, she saw why.

The pilot was dead.

A flash: Ko'ah's Apocalypse, blasting apart an Olympian that had been about to shoot her from behind. "Thanks," she murmured. "Who shot this Olympian?"

"No one. It just stopped."

No time to analyze the dangerous conclusion she was coming to: they still had a battle to fight.

-----

"So, that's that," Icey said later in the briefing room next to Fantasma Ops. "We won."

"No significant losses, either," Xeno mentioned, rubbing her bandaged forehead. "These miners are not skilled fighters. The few inopportune incidents we had were more the result of our own sloppiness than anything else."

Maria was forced to agree. "Yes. That will not happen next time. Icey, refit that Gorgon." A pair of cargo pallets had dragged the crippled vehicle off the battlefield, along with a few choice components from the swarms of toppled Olympians. Ops was now powered by a Maxim reactor, a significant upgrade from the captured Zeta that had formerly served. Icey grimaced.

"You know," Del growled, "That if the Emperor is behind this we're in trouble.

"Yes... I would not be surprised to see a Knight's force land, if they are desperate enough for the materials. Petresun is not one who likes to be denied what he wants."

"Great," Razorback muttered.

"But I know Knight's tactics well enough," Maria said. "At least I used to. We will have a long fight ahead of us..." She closed her eyes, imagining the carnage that would soon pollute the face of Mercury. She only hoped the carnage would be the other side.

"Hey Maria," Icey said, his eyes hooded though he kept his tone light. "What killed Rockhammer, and that Oly pilot?"

Maria looked away. "I do not know," she said softly, then turned and left quickly.

It was the first time she had ever lied to her fellow Ghosts...

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