Mecha Rogue by Brett Patton Page A

deploy,” Matt said.
    Matt pushed off the scaffolding and stopped himself at the edge of the door. Even with the power of the Zap Gun coursing through his Mecha’s arm, it would be stupid to just go charging out. The three others came up beside him, the jaunty visors of their Demons almost questioning.
    â€œSir?” Elize asked.
    â€œIf they’re smart, they’ll be waiting to slice us to bits.”
    â€œOrbital space is secure,” Combat Intelligence droned.
    Yeah, like they don’t know a trick like playing dead,
Matt thought.
    â€œContinue your mission, Major,” Cruz added.
    Matt frowned. There was nothing he could do. It wasn’t as if he could rip a section of Mecha Dock scaffolding off the walls and wave it out the doors, trying to draw fire. The only thing he could do was try to ensure the success of his mission.
    â€œGo out in twos,” Matt told the adepts. “Back to back, weapons ready.”
    â€œWhat, sir?” Jie asked.
    â€œIn case one of us gets roasted,” Norah said. “Come on.” She grabbed Jie and turned him around so they were back to back. The two jumped off into space.
    Matt half expected to see the two red Mecha disappear in the brilliance of a Zap Gun beam, but nothing happened. The bright white sun painted them in high contrast as they drifted away from the UUS
Helios
.
    â€œI guess it’s us,” Elize said. She went back to back with him and they jumped off. Matt tensed as the UUS
Helios
fell away. With the wraparound perspective of the viewmask, it was as if he were floating naked in deep space. The close-packed stars were a gaudy display above the perfect white planet. Inside the Mecha, he heard nothing except for his mechanically assisted breathing and the faraway beat of his heart. It would have been a beautiful moment if he hadn’t been worried about being vaporized.
    â€œWhat a place,” Elize said.
    â€œCan the chatter, Adept,” Matt said.
    â€œOh!” Elize’s teeth clicked together.
    As they fell toward the planet, Matt scanned his sensors. No enemy tags. The only thing in his POV was the coordinates he’d been given, another featureless point near the planet’s equator.
    Just over the horizon from their target, local temperatures read twenty degrees C higher than the background. A power plant of some kind? A downed warship?
    But if that was the case, where was the Displacement Drive asteroid that had brought it here? Warships didn’t end up in deep space by themselves. Matt strained with the Demon’s Sensory Enhancement, but even its magnification was far too weak to resolve anything at the hot point.
    â€œI have some abnormal temperature readings on the surface, sir,” Norah said.
    â€œGot it,” Matt said.
    â€œWeapons, sir?”
    â€œIf so, they’re not firing at us.”
    â€œIt’s near our objective, sir,” Norah pressed. “Maybe
at
our objective.”
    â€œUnderstood. Now please clear comms, Adept.”
    Norah’s comms icon blinked out. Matt ordered the adepts to go into formation and prepare for reentry. He felt the powerful changes ripple through his own Demon as the thrusters re-formed along his back and the Mecha became a slim, delta-winged shape to help them down through the planet’s nitrogen atmosphere.
    The four Mecha arrowed down. In the thin air, heating was minimal. It felt like a feather, brushing Matt’s chest, as they descended. Almost comforting. Toward the end, faint warmth lit his front side.
    The four Demons used thrusters to slow as they descended: sixty thousand meters, forty, twenty. Details resolved on the surface: frigid blue channels, cutting deep into the white ice toward the hidden oceans, miles below. Fractal patterns radiating from the channels, slightly darker than the base ice. Here and there, wisps of methane clouds obscured the surface, as sharp winds scoured the landscape. There wasn’t a