Shadow Strike: A Cyberpunk LitRPG (Marionette Task Force Book 2), page 1
SHADOW STRIKE
A CYBERPUNK LITRPG
MARIONETTE TASK FORCE
BOOK 2
EDDIE R. HICKS
Shadow Strike
Marionette Task Force Book 2
By Eddie R. Hicks
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Copyright © 2023 Eddie R. Hicks
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
This novel contains scenes of graphic violence, explicit language, and sexuality and is intended for mature readers.
Cover Art by: H-Battousai
V 1.0
CONTENTS
Newsletter
Prologue
1. Good morning, Commander
2. They went through a lot of effort to intercept that laser signal
3. Thought I was some big macho asshole, blowing shit up?
4. Let me show you around!
5. It’s go time
6. Until then, we’re grounded
7. Grab a gun or five
8. Beer and tits
9. Oops, I made a bit of a mess
10. A fucking shitshow
11. Always pick your battles carefully
12. Oh . . . this looks fun
13. I was trying to make him crash and die!
14. A fuckin’ battle trophy
15. Did you say faster?!
16. We got a train to catch
17. We were never friends
18. Take the shot
19. Free rides available, hop on now
20. Wakey, wakey!
21. Take them down or let them pass?
22. Bang!
23. That’s . . . an odd place to hold POWs
24. If the enemy gets loud, we’ll just get louder
25. Friendlies
26. Do whatever it takes!
27. Deception on the battlefield
28. She’s just an AI, Kai
29. I didn’t sign up for that
30. They won’t be expecting our next move
31. You need to sleep with her
32. Now take out your cock, soldier!
33. You didn’t activate your transmitter, did you?
34. That’s a lot of fucking ships
35. I really don’t think you want me to ram the Starslayer into it
36. This is going to suck
37. And here I thought things were going to get easier
38. Know your history or be doomed to repeat it
39. You get one more wish, Novak
40. Glad you finally joined us!
41. We stand ready to fight for you, Commander
Epilogue
Current Loadouts
Next time on Marionette Task Force . . .
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PROLOGUE
PRETTY SURE THIS IS A WAR CRIME
The sound of a collapsing apartment complex echoed through the devastated streets of East Jardin, leaving behind a pile of rubble. A team of battle-weary Eden Marines and Army infantrymen with battered faces and bloody arms emerged from the dust and smoke.
Sargent Marsden was the leader of the Marine squad as of that morning. The original leader took a sniper’s bullet to the face. She was his sister too. May she rest in peace. May their father forgive him for failing to push her away from the sniper’s shot in time. Marsden ordered the surviving members of his squad, all three of them, plus two Army riflemen, into cover. They entered what used to be a supermarket, using its mangled and fragmented walls as cover from enemy gunfire. Dozens of bullet holes chipped away at their cover, though they couldn’t hear it. The thunderous roar of continual artillery shelling was just too loud. The Solar Coalition’s forces were relentless.
Now behind durable cover, Marsden assessed what was left of the personnel fighting alongside him. Wade and Loxley were the humans on his team. Both men groaned in pain from cuts and bullet holes eviscerating their bodies. Momiji was the other member, a female marionette and a product of the Twin Suns Corporation. She was the sole reason they had made it this far. The enemy couldn’t shoot androids like Momiji dead so easily, though Marsden feared that Momiji’s days of operating as a walking shield were up. Her body needed significant repairs. Don’t get him started on her left eye. It was gone and gave anyone looking at the hole in her face a glimpse of the burned wires inside her head.
“We’ve got incoming!”
That was Maldonado, one of the two Army riflemen accompanying them. There were more Army soldiers earlier that day, though nobody knew what became of them after the enemy had ambushed them.
Marsden spun to Maldonado, who had peered through his ZR6 Carbine’s scope, using it to locate the encroaching Solar Coalition soldiers—the enemy who had invaded the city . . . invaded the whole goddamned planet.
“Persistent motherfuckers,” Marsden said after peeking over the rubble. He eyed the enemy moving across the ravaged neon streets. “Everyone, spread out!”
Wade, Loxley, and Momiji took up a defensive position near Maldonado and Marsden. They unslung their ZR6 Carbines and zeroed in on the enemy Marines marching toward them. Marsden pulled the trigger. Popping gunfire echoed. The enemy fired back. Marsden’s team returned the favor and shot one enemy soldier through the neck, instantly dropping him. Five more hostiles appeared out of nowhere to take his spot.
The gunfire exchange went on. Both sides kept shooting at each other, swapping out empty magazines for fresh ones when their rifles got quiet.
And then Marsden heard the words he didn’t want to hear during a time like this.
“I’m almost out!” Loxley roared, ducking behind his cover.
Momiji lowered herself. “Same.”
“Anyone got any spare mags?” Wade asked.
Marsden checked. He had no magazines left for his rifle. “None.”
He lowered his ZR6 Carbine, hunched behind the slab of metal, and gazed at everyone’s wincing faces. They all knew this was it.
“Surrounded and outgunned,” Maldonado said. “I’d say we should make a run for it. But—”
Boom.
Artillery fire exploded near their position and shook the surface.
Momiji looked through a crack in the wall she hid behind, performing a scan with her built-in combat scanner. “We won’t make it very far,” she reported seconds later.
Marsden twisted to the Army personnel, Maldonado, and the other soldier. He couldn’t remember the other Army guy’s name. “I take it you’re in the same position?”
“We are,” Maldonado said.
Marsden gestured to the other Army guy. “You get that LLT working, kid?”
The other Army guy glanced up at him and held the handheld communicator he was tinkering with earlier. He shook his head slowly. “It’s busted pretty good.”
“Don’t bother with it,” Maldonado said. “The enemy has AA guns all over the fucking place. They’ll just shoot down any evac that comes our way.”
“Like the dropships we rode in on to save you,” Loxley said dryly.
“A much-appreciated save, by the way,” the other Army guy said. “We wouldn’t have made it this far without your team’s support.”
Marsden sat back, leaning against a rugged piece of debris. “Open to suggestions.”
Wade crawled forward and used the scope of his empty ZR6 Carbine to view what was once a bustling marketplace, now a war-torn hellscape. He lowered the weapon. “We have two options, fight and die or surrender.”
“Was thinking about that last option,” Loxley said. “Problem is . . .” The Marine faced Momiji, the broken android. “Momiji is a marionette, a female unit at that. The enemy will execute her on the spot.”
“Why?” the other Army guy asked.
Marsden shrugged. “The enemy has a problem with female AIs.”
“Yeah, why?”
“Above our pay grade, soldier.”
“Well, I say fuck surrendering if it’s just going to get her killed,” Maldonado said.
“Agreed,” Loxley said, nodding to the Army rifleman. “We owe our lives to Momiji for getting this far.”
“Let’s not forget the others who sacrificed themselves to keep her standing when things got rough,” the other Army guy said.
Marsden sat forward. “Then we make our last stand here.”
“Where we all will die, including me,” Momiji grunted. She shook her head and eyed each of the humans looking at her. “Don’t throw your lives away for me. I am an AI. My creators at the Twin Suns Corporation can always build another machine like me.”
“But it won’t be you,” Loxley snorted.
Momiji stood
Marsden’s lips twisted. “Momiji . . .”
“However.” She lifted a hand to the sergeant before ambling off to the side and viewing the incoming enemy. Momiji peered through a large crack zigzagging across a piece of rubble. “One condition.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “What is it?”
“Allow me to be the one to wave the white flag to the enemy and communicate our request of surrender. While I have their attention, I will activate my auto-destruct CES and self-terminate.” Momiji pulled back and glared at Marsden, smiling smugly.
Wade made a face that suggested he wasn’t pleased to learn of the plan. “You plan to blow yourself up in front of them . . .”
Momiji nodded to him. “And take down as many hostiles in the process. The enemy will destroy me tonight regardless of the path we take. If we stay and fight, we all die, including me. We surrender, then they execute me. If I flee, they’ll spot me and use an artillery strike. Might as well go down taking as many as I can. This way, should any of you change your mind and continue the fight, you’ll have fewer enemies to deal with.”
“I like it,” Marsden said. “Let’s do it. Get their attention as a soldier surrendering, then take ‘em all out.” He turned to Wade. “Private, hand your jacket to her. Let’s cover Momiji’s battle damage so they don’t suspect she’s a marionette.”
Wade did as ordered, removing his soot and bullet-ridden jacket and giving it to Momiji. She put it on and ensured that the sleeves covered up her torn silicone flesh that had given them a glimpse of her cybernetic skeleton.
Wade looked uneasy the entire time. “Pretty sure this is a war crime, sir.”
“Pretty sure I never asked for your opinion, private.”
“But—”
“Look, kid.” Marsden moved forward, using his imposing frame to remind the young private that he was now the highest-ranking person among them. “The Coalition’s been executing refugees on the spot without trial and kidnaping Edeners. That’s a war crime. You can’t win a war by playing by the rules if the enemy won’t. So fuck it. We’re doing this. Maybe it’ll make them smarten up and play fair.”
Wade twisted to the side, shaking his head. “Doubtful.”
Momiji completed her look by tying a bandanna over her broken eye then coating her fingers with Marsden’s blood, spreading it over her face. They couldn’t spot any signs that she was a machine. She looked like the real deal. She looked human.
Without hesitation, Momiji marched toward the edge of their cover. She spun and lifted a hand to her head, giving the team one last honorable salute.
“Well, it’s been an honor serving with you humans.”
They all stood to return the salute. Finishing the salute, Marsden added. “Die hard, Momiji.”
She finished her salute and nodded to him. “Will do, sir.”
Momiji disappeared around the cover, hands raised and waving a white tank top as a makeshift white flag. The surviving Marines and Army riflemen moved closer and watched Momiji execute her plan, watched as an AI went to carry out a war crime.
The enemy pointed their rifles at her but didn’t shoot. They were buying the act and believed she was a human Marine surrendering. The lead enemy soldier yelled something to Momiji. He didn’t know what it was. There was too much artillery fire elsewhere drowning out the sound of his voice. That and he spoke with a thick Eastern European accent.
His best guess was the enemy asked her to get down, because that was precisely what Momiji did. Later, three Coalition soldiers approached Momiji, weapons ready to kill. One other moved to pat down her body, searching it for guns and other things you didn’t want POWs to have on them. Once the enemy was convinced that Momiji wasn’t packing heat, they lowered themselves to tie her arms behind her back.
And that was when the poor sod glimpsed the metal skeleton arm under Momiji’s torn silicone skin when he pulled back the sleeves of the jacket. His terrified expression was priceless.
“Oh fuc—”
Boom.
Momiji’s CES activated, and her body exploded in a raging blast of flames. The soldier tending to her was simply gone. The blast flung back the others around him when Momiji’s lithium battery added to the explosion’s wrath. Burning bodies flailed with arms rippling with fires until they curled up on the ground and died. The bodies without arms and legs never moved much.
Marsden’s smile was brighter than the fires that enveloped the enemy. There was nothing better than seeing dead Coalition soldiers. He wondered if his fallen sister was watching from the heavens. He wondered if she was smiling like him.
It was just smoke and dust now. Nobody could see shit, but Marsden and the others kept their ZR6 Carbines pointed forward anyway. Just in case.
“See anything?” he asked.
Loxley gazed through his rifle’s scope longer. “Nothing—”
A gunshot banged, and Loxley flew backward with a hole through his forehead.
He died with his eyes and mouth open wide in shock. Momiji’s sacrifice didn’t kill all the enemies in the area.
“Incoming!” Maldonado screamed.
It was just Maldonado, Wade, Marsden, and the other Army guy left now.
They never put up much of a fight.
They shot two enemy soldiers with limited ammunition then had to draw their daggers when the enemy advanced on them with assault rifles ready to fire. The imposing hostile soldiers closed in, forcing the four to cluster together. There were no less than nine enemy combatants.
The lead enemy commander moved ahead of his soldiers with a smug grin and hands behind his back. The enemy commander’s eyes darted between Maldonado and Wade before finally settling on Marsden.
“You in charge?” the enemy commander asked Marsden.
“Yeah, I am.”
The commander pointed backward at the inferno burning in the streets. “Was that your idea?”
“Figured you’d deserved a gift for all the hard work you’ve put into destroying our homes.”
“Funny.”
The enemy commander punched Marsden in the gut. He fell to his knees and felt his last meal ready to come up as vomit.
“I lost six men because of that marionette!” the enemy commander yelled.
“Was that before or after she blew herself up?” Marsden mustered a smile despite the pain in his stomach. His gaze shifted upward to meet the face of the enemy. “Because, as I recalled, she was a pretty good shot.”
“And the reason we were hesitant to overtake your position.” The enemy commander’s tone changed. “But now that your AI is gone . . .”
He curled his lips.
“Hurry up and get this over with,” Marsden said, returning to his feet. “I ain’t got all day.”
“Oh, we’ll deal with you and your men in due time.” The enemy commander leaned his face closer. “They’ll be consequences for what you’ve done to the Red Wolf squad. We’re the ones who are supposed to be deceiving our opponents, not the other way around—”
“Drop that right fucking now!”
That was one of the hostile soldiers. They kicked the other Army guy to the ground and pointed their rifle at his head. The LLT fell from the other Army guy’s grip and rolled away. It landed with its screen facing the sky. The LLT’s display screen had illuminated with light. Much to Marsden’s amazement, the thing was functioning. The other Army guy managed to send a short SOS signal with the device.
