Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour by Mark E. Cooper Read Free Book Online Page A

Burgton reports directly to the President.” Eric took a breath and went on in a milder tone. “Don’t judge me, Gina. You know nothing of what it takes to be a viper. We aren’t robots that kill to order. We were designed to kill Merkiaari, and we do it well. That frightens people. These days I spend all my time pissing on fires—trying to stop those wilful children we spoke of burning the Alliance down. We have discretion, perhaps too much, but without it the Alliance couldn’t have survived as long as it has. Besides, you have less right to judge me than others I could name.”
    “What do you mean by that?”
    “Aren’t you the one who nearly allowed the torture of a prisoner because he killed some of your people?”
    “That was different,” she said hotly.
    “I don’t see how. I’m nearly two hundred and thirty years old, Gina. You can’t know what it’s like seeing the Alliance stumbling from one avoidable bush war to another over and over again. I have penetrated terrorist cells so many times that the number blurs in my memory. No matter what I do, the same types of people go on repeating the same types of mistakes. I chose to stop that man permanently. If I hadn’t, he would have been setting bombs and killing the innocent again in a year. They just never learn. So don’t judge me until you have lived as long as I have and seen what I have.”
    Two hundred years of fighting terrorists? God, she’d had no idea. What must it be like seeing mistakes happen over and over, knowing they were going to happen, yet being unable to prevent them? It must be appalling.
    “I’m sorry,” she said.
    “Forget about it. I would have reacted exactly the same way at your age, except I was fighting Merkiaari then.”
    “You fought in the war?”
    “Of course,” Eric said in surprise. “We were constructed for that purpose.”
    “I thought you might have… you know, been built after.”
    Eric shook his head. “No. We fought and there were eighty-nine of us left at the end. The Council allowed eleven more units to be constructed to bring our numbers up to a nice round politically correct one hundred, but those eleven were already part way into the construction process. It was a mercy they were allowed to be completed.”
    “Surely the Council wouldn’t have left them half finished,” Gina said, shocked at the thought. Surely no one would have denied those soldiers a normal life.
    Eric’s face twisted into a snarl. “You have more trust in the Council than I then. The councillor for Bethany’s World campaigned hard to have us all scrapped, but public opinion was on our side. For a time, we really were heroes, but then fear replaced gratitude and here we are two hundred years later.”
    Eric had a bitter streak a klick wide, but it was hard to blame him. His regiment decimated and everyone afraid the vipers would turn on them; it was enough to make anyone sour. Gina wished she didn’t know all this. She had been far happier in her ignorance.
    “Look alive people,” Major Stein’s voice said over the comm and everyone stopped to listen. “The rebels are making their move. I have ten APCs approaching the plaza from the north with many civ vehicles as escort. Approximately a thousand rebels inbound. Satellite feeds indicate assorted pulsers and small arms as well as AA pulsers on the APCs.
    “Alpha Company will concentrate on the APCs. I want them burning before they turn those pulsers on us. Bravo Company will concentrate its fire on the civ vehicles. Charlie Company will take targets of opportunity and defend the parliament building from any incursion. Good luck.”
    Gina selected squad wide on her comm. “All Eagles, Eagle One—you heard the Major—we take out the APCs, and that doesn’t mean giving up our cover. Let them come to us. Frankowski, you hose them with the AAR. Try to bottle them up as they approach the fountain.”
    “Never liked that thing anyway,” Frankowski said with glee.
    Gina