Interzeit: A Space Opera by Samuel Eddy Read Free Book Online

space soon enough. Tiger West picks up an ever-increasing amount of momentum, detectable only through the sophisticate d measurements of the mech’s sensors. Deep space was an empty place. In the heart of the void, Lei knew too well, that you can find many things. They would meet up with the Martian convoy soon enough, but until then, it was total isolation. A kind of alone that is complete, with the presence of Basil excluded, she was vacuum sealed into her own miniature pocket world, a bubble of existence.
    Lei launches her simulator to escape the empty void. Her heads up display changes over completely, the inky sea vanish es under a series of bright lights. A city of bright orange blocks emerges out of the light. An urban simulation, she drills fighting another Mech.
    She has only set foot on Earth for the tournament. The Executive Corp allows her to practice on Ceres , but it is a poor substitute. The atmosphere, and the gravity were very precise. After her defeat this year she was determined to overcome her weakness. She plows through a building, the wireframe opponents fires a large rifle. She raises her main shield, a small disc in Tiger West’s hand.
    It whirs to life, the perimeter expands, and the disc creates a solid field, tripling in circumference. The disc intercepts the machine gun fire with ease. The bullets clatter against the electric field fruitlessly .
    She hurls it, decapitating the other mech, then with a wrist flick , i t flies back on a chain.
    TST would only allow her to compete again a few more times, three if she was lucky. Lei had been ensured by her trusted contacts that she was a guaranteed shoo in for the next game, but contingencies were being drawn against her.
    “ Let them, ” she thought. Every challenge to her status as a pilot was defeated. Everyone except…
    Her mind wanders back to her fight against Maxelus Calatian. Now that he was dead, no one would stand in her way. They had fought along the sea of tranquility. The moon dust was drifting everywhere, blasted up from the fighting. They locked up , the electroshield and the energy blade struggling inbetween the two of their war mechs.
    Maxelus slip ped a leg under the shield. Tystrophanes’ s knee glows, energy collecting there. It discharges a beam, blowing a large hole through Tiger West.
    Lei felt the leg go dead in the control matrix. Tystrophanes gain ed the upper hand, and pushes Tiger West . Lei struggles but is force d down onto one leg, struggling to stay off her back.
    Tystrophanes rears back, and hammers the energy blade onto the shield. Pushing her further and further down, he attacks. The flurry eventually flickers the shield, it bends, and the blade sears the shield emitter. It falters, and Tystrophanes smashes it. Tiger West’s right arm falls. The sharp blade lashes into the mech . The strikes melt through the deflectors, cutting through slowly, warping the hull into a molten wasteland, glowing trenches running through it, like a shot up battlefield.
    Lei ejected to save her own life and Tiger West f rom total destruction. The corps had been angry at her “lack of resolve”, but now with the crisis on Earth, they had begun to sing a different tune. The criticisms fell away for the short-sighted bluster they were.
    Maxelus hadn’t deserved what the Martians dealt out. Many in the colonies held onto that as an insult. Not just to Kuipterra , but to the spacer culture in general. As a figurehead he had been important, a dishonorable death would cause unrest.
    Now her thoughts must focus on the task at hand however. If someone had sought vengeance on the terrestrials in his name, then it would tarnish his legacy forever. The millions lost must take precedence, b ut she felt…
    Basil suddenly alerted her to the long range sensor report. They had a t hree of three authenticated handshake between Tiger West, and the Martian agent’s ships.
    She opened a channel, and was received by a gray haired man in a beige gray