Mech 3: The Empress Read Online Free Page B

undertook. The steel orbs behind the scarf stared down with a burning intensity.
    Soon, the walls of the Megwit’s office were slick with blood and shreds of flesh, and the wretched operator knew no more.

 
    Two
     
    On another world several lightyears away from Ignis Glace, a Nexus Senator worked late into the evening. Neu Schweitz was the third planet from the star Kale, the same position as was held by Old Earth in the Sol system. It was however, a smaller world than Earth and heavily-cratered. Due to natural biomass growth and heavy erosion from frequent storms, these craters took the form of thousands of sharp, striking mountains intermixed with vibrantly green, circular valleys. There were many cold, black lakes between the towering peaks, often as deep and dark as they were wide.
    Lucas Droad’s desk sat atop a skyscraper in the capitol city of the Neu Schweitz colony, the seat of local government presiding over a handful of nearby star systems. He remained in his office long after the majority of high government officials had left for their homes, favorite nightclubs or the beds of underlings who sought advancement. He was that rarest of individuals: a tireless, visionary politician.
    It had been fifteen months since the star-hauler Gladius had departed from the Kale star system, following its prelaid course for Ignis Glace. Aboard that ship were aliens more dangerous than those encountered anywhere else in human history. Since their departure, Droad had never considered relaxing and reaping rewards from his role in driving the aliens out of the Kale system.
    No, Droad had not wasted those fifteen months gloating and doing commercial vids. Instead, he’d managed to parlay his heroic part in defending the Nexus against the alien invaders into a Senate seat. His incumbent rivals had attempted to paint him as a grasping bystander who sought to take credit for the efforts of his betters—or worse, as a man who’d brought doom with him wherever he traveled in the Faustian Chain. Although there was some truth to this latter claim, the people had seen through the rhetoric and voted for Droad. They’d seen him as the sole herald of the approaching danger, and sent him to high office rather than reelecting those who’d sought to ignore him.
    Droad’s meteoric rise in political popularity had not been matched by successes in his personal life, however. Sarah Engstrom had left him for Aldo, and he’d subsequently taken up with Ensign Tolbert. Unfortunately, Tolbert’s infatuation with an older, extremely busy and driven man had faded quickly. Within a few months, he was alone again. He’d thrown himself into his work as usual, and managed to get warning transmissions out to planets in every direction—even to Old Earth itself, a world no one had heard from in nearly a century.
    A little over a year after the aliens had been defeated in the Kale system, Droad called upon an old friend for a visit. He called Aldo Moreno. The man came that very morning, as he’d been residing in the capitol city near the Nexus headquarters. Droad had known this, but hadn’t expected such a rapid response.
    Aldo appeared at the doorway as it dissolved away with a shimmer. He was of Swiss-Italian descent, as were many on Neu Schweitz. His hair and eyes were dark and thoughtful. His large nose tended to tilt high into the air when he was annoyed.
    “Fancy door,” Aldo commented. “May I come in?”
    “By all means,” Droad responded, providing a politician’s automatic smile.
    Aldo stepped inside and inspected the office. He whistled in appreciation, toeing the rich carpet that was over an inch deep. He thumbed the tail feathers of a stuffed rook he found hanging near the corner window, which offered a panoramic view of the capitol city far below.
    “A real bird and a real window?” he asked.
    Droad nodded. Droad’s eyes slid to the dueling sword at Aldo’s side then back up to the man’s face. Aldo had the eyes of a