Banger's War

By Meyari McFarland

The tube stank of urine. Aruna curled her lip as she picked her way down the spiral stairs dotted with rotting trash. It was like walking into a sewage treatment plant. Noel had best be waiting for her at the other end. This mission was ill-considered, not just in sending Aruna down into the tube but also the time, the place to meet…

Everything was off about it.

It got worse as Bangers arrived on the tube platform after Aruna. The danger escalated with assassins, betrayal at every turn and all Aruna could do was follow the Banger on the path to war against everyone she loved.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Meyari McFarland
• Release date: Sep 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393200161

Meyari McFarland

Meyari McFarland has been telling stories since she was a small child. Her stories range from SF and Fantasy adventures to Romances but they always feature strong characters who do what they think is right no matter what gets in their way. Her series range from Space Opera Romance in the Drath series to Epic Fantasy in the Mages of Tindiere world. Other series include Matriarchies of Muirin, the Clockwork Rift Steampunk mysteries, and the Tales of Unification urban fantasy stories, plus many more. You can find all of her work on MDR Publishing's website at www.MDR-Publishing.com.

Book preview

Banger’s War

Banger’s War

Meyari McFarland

MDR Publishing

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Contents

1. Odd Politics

2. Shifted Roles

3. Hidden Agenda

4. False Harbor

5. Moving Fast

6. Surgical Strike

7. Fury Rising

9. Wild Card

10. EMP Blast

11. Stair Well

12. Support Strut

13. Sabotage Effort

14. Control Center

15. Unwelcome Encounter

16. Shuttle Bay

17. Running Battle

18. Truth and Lies

19. Soft Target

20. Surgical Strike

21. Tracked Threat

22. Converging Lines

23. Hidden Chambers

24. Secret Plans

25. Course Correction

26. Moving Forward

Author's Note: Clash of Lines

1. Chance Encounter

2. Battle Worthy

Other Space Opera Books by Meyari McFarland:

Afterword

Author Bio

Other Space Opera Books by Meyari McFarland:

Clash of Lines

Joining of Lines

Consort of the Crystal Palace

Fragments of a Chain

Stranded With You

Reunited Hearts

A Simple Life

Cradle of the Day

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You can find these and many other books at www.MDR-Publishing.com. We are a small independent publisher focusing on LGBT content. Please sign up for our mailing list to get regular updates on the latest preorders and new releases and a free ebook!

Copyright ©2019 by Mary Raichle

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Print ISBN: 978-1-64309-071-9

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Cover image

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ID 12557825 © Luca Oleastri | Dreamstime.com

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be emailed to [e-mail].

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This book is also available in TPB format from all major retailers.

Created with Vellum Created with Vellum

This story is dedicated to Dean Wesley Smith for creating the Great Novel Challenge—thanks for the challenge and the fun of this story, Dean!

1. Odd Politics

The tube stank of urine. Sulfur-stench mingled with rotting trash to taint the poorly cycling air drifting up the spiral of the stairs. Aruna had smelled it up on the commerce level every time she passed an entrance to the tube. The stink only got thicker as she went down the stairs, setting the throb in her temples to a pounding that threatened to crack the back of her skull. She might as well be walking into a sewage treatment plant, save that a plant took care that the stench was controlled. Unlike the tube.

Aruna curled her lip and controlled her breathing so that she wouldn’t throw up as she tugged her cape closer about her body. No reason to get it dirty with the nastiness on the walls. Between the graffiti emblazoning Banger names amidst crude drawings of testicles and vulvas, the steel walls were stained yellow. And brown. She stepped carefully over that particular step, refusing to look closely at it.

Noel had best be waiting for her. Aruna noted the security box, set hip-high on the wall at the first landing. If someone showed up, she would need to get here to call for help but that help wasn't likely to arrive quickly at this time of night. Not unless Aruna used her personal security codes and linked into the system. Not a thing she wanted to do. Father would be incensed at the risks Aruna was taking. A week and a half in the hospital, so sick that Aruna’s memories of the illness were blurred, was bad enough. Risking her health by going out when she’d only just gotten back to her feet was sure to infuriate Father. But it was worth it for Noel.

Still, to think that Noel had dragged Aruna down here when she could be riding the tram up on the garden level. The tubes were…

Well, they weren't for people like Aruna. No matter how much Noel sympathized with the workers, neither Noel nor Aruna really shouldn't be galivanting about down here. Aruna wouldn't be surprised if she got the news that Noel had been murdered someday. At least this time of the night had the tube silent and empty instead of crammed with thousands of workers sweating their way to their jobs.

Aruna’s stomach would have revolted for certain if she’d had to deal with that. Her legs shook so badly as she went down the final steps to the platform that she paused to catch her breath.

Once it had been a sight, surely, back when the ship was new and just leaving Old Earth's solar system. Then it had been a marvel of engineering, tubes to carry people all through the ship, down the miles of its length and around the full circuit of its breadth. Aruna had, as a child, marveled over the images of those shiny new tubes with their lovely round noses, long carriages and pristine station platforms, artfully depicted with a bare handful of people on the platform to give a sense of scale.

Not now. The lights that flickered, dim and dying overhead, were too weak to light the tube station. What little light there was barely illuminated the graceful artwork etched into the steel walls. Overarching trees with spread branches marched in ranks down the wall of the tube station, their canopies just brushing overhead in the intersecting arches of the ceiling. Between the trunks, lovely depictions of planets, solar systems, and star charts had been created to perpetually instruct tube riders of their history and their future.

All defaced now with the ever-present graffiti and bodily fluids.

Her boots stuck to the steel-plated floor as she walked slowly down the platform, scanning both for puddles to avoid and anyone else waiting for the tube. No one else suffered this platform at the moment but there would surely be someone soon. The next tube was due in three minutes. Even in the dark hours of the night when curfew had been declared, there were people moving about.

Father complained about it often enough. No one was where they should be anymore. They complained and made trouble instead of doing their jobs and fixing things that they broke. His Guards keeping the peace alternated with those they hunted at this hour.

Aruna really should have taken the tram. It would have been far safer, even if Noel had insisted Aruna needed to take this tube, at this time.

Footsteps clattered on the stairs leading down to the tube. Aruna sniffed in disgust at the interruption, shuddered at the smell and pulled her hood up over her tightly braided hair. The collar, tugged high, did a lovely job hiding her face and filtering the stink out of the air. She had just enough time to don her shades, computer interface turned off out of deference to her pounding headache, and pull her gloves on before two brash young Bangers jumped from the last landing to the tube platform.

Aruna's father would have arrested them on sight. Ship management had long since decreed that the Bangers were antisocial elements, trouble-makers who worked to overthrow the rightful rulers of the ship before they even began the approach deceleration for their new solar system. Any protests of social groups supporting the young and sick were ridiculous in the face of their violent behavior. These?

Father would shoot them without question.

The taller had a facemask that obscured everything but their eyes and a dull black cape with a frayed hem that covered them from neck to the arch of their heavy steel-toed boots. They rattled and jingled from all the gear strapped to the body hidden under that fraying cape. Those eyes had been altered for low-light vision so strong that they shone in the darkness like a cat.

That ensured that there was no point of attempting to slip out of sight. Sweat beaded Aruna’s upper lip as she considered her options. That one would see Aruna no matter how she hid. Very likely, that one could see the heat of her footsteps like heat-puddles picked between the stains on the platform. The shorter was burly, about Noel's height but wider at the shoulder and hips. No cape for that one. They had a rough workman's overall with cutouts at the shoulder, elbow and knee for armored panels.

Possibly cybernetic armor. Hard to tell at this distance. Aruna watched as the two muttered and gestured towards her. If the armor was cybernetic, she might have an issue. Her personal force field wasn't strong enough to hold off a prolonged attack from a cyborg.

Thankfully, it didn't have to.

The tube arrived in a whoosh of air that sent her and the tall Banger's capes fluttering. Some brave, suicidal idiot had scrawled graffiti on the nose of the tube. The line of paint, fresh blood red, trailed off from the end of the stylized name. Interrupted mid-art, clearly.

Aruna boarded, nodding as the doors slid shut and the tube binged an announcement of the next station. Her eyes narrowed as the Bangers boarded at the last second and slowly strolled towards her as the tube began to roll. They fit here, unlike Aruna. The genteel woven grass wall coverings that would have greeted Aruna if she'd taken the tram were long gone. A few strands of grass remained clipped here and there but they were as stained as the platform, brittle with age and patchy with mold.

Low seats ran along the walls, two hundred along each side of the tube in batches of twenty separated by an aisle wide enough for three to stand abreast. It was far too open, though Aruna supposed that it would allow far more people to crowd into the tube than one could get on a tram.

Each seat had a carefully defined cushion, royal blue as this was the line that ran up to Lake Sion, that had long since been worn to the point of squashy incompetence. Aruna didn't need to sit down to know that there was no padding left against the steel of the seat. She gripped a hanging strap and watched the Bangers.

There was no one else on the tube. Not even a bot assigned to clean the floors though Founders knew how long it had been since the thing had been cleaned. The seats were grimy, stained by grease, dried blood and vomit that made the air stink abominably. At least there didn't seem to be any urine. That was a help for both her head and her stomach.

Hey, pretty, the tall Banger crooned as the two of them stalked Aruna up the long, segmented aisle of the tube.

Nice cape, the shorter one snickered. When they flexed their fingers, the whine of cybernetics echoed in the air. Pretty pin.

Aruna didn't answer. No point to that when her voice would reveal her status even faster than her clothes. Sadly, this was the most common-looking cape that she owned and it wasn't at all what was appropriate. If only Noel had given her more time, she would've been able to order something of lesser quality, something appropriately aged.

The silence slowed the taller Banger's steps. They frowned at Aruna, head going to the left and then the right, up and then down as if they were scanning her. They held up a hand, stopping the shorter Banger in their tracks.

What the hell, Joey? the shorter one asked. Why you stopping me? Easy pickings!

We got a mission, you numbskull, Joey snapped at them.

Without taking their eyes off Aruna. Admirable control given that the shorter Banger didn't seem capable of focusing on anything for more than a second at a time. The shorter Banger glared at Aruna, eyed her cloak pin as if calculating its worth, snarled at Joey, fidgeted, and then settled for flexing their fingers menacingly.

You know what they say about politics, Joey said after a very long moment studying Aruna.

Aruna stared, her mouth dropping open. She straightened up and studied them as fiercely as they had studied her. Noel had said that she should look for allies in strange places, laughter in their voice…

I don't know that one, Aruna said, using the exact words that Noel had instead on. I only know the one with bedfellows.

Joey grinned while the shorter Banger groaned. All right then. Not in the wrong place at the wrong time. Good. No sense at all but you are where you should be. I'm Joey. This is Hyun. Don't shake hands.

I would rather not touch anything, Aruna said so stiffly that both of them glared at her. The surfaces are a bit… Well.

Hyun cackled as they bowed with exaggerated style that would've looked poorly done no matter what stage they were on. So sorry, Highness. Tube's not for your kind. We don't got the same standards you do.

Odious little cyborg.

Joey glared over his shoulder as the tube binged and announced the next station coming up. Give it a rest, Hyung. They're on our side.

You believe that, you're an idiot, Hyun said. But I already knowed that one. Always did trust too easy, Joey. Gonna get you killed.

Hyun's grin widened into a manic threat that chilled the blood in Aruna's veins. She knew that grin. How, where, when she’d seen it, she couldn’t remember but she knew it.

It was death.

Hyun glanced up at the ceiling, grinned, and then jumped up to grab the light fixture in a shower of sparks and screaming metal torn apart by their bare hands. Aruna was already running. Joey was, too. They ran, fast as they could, up the tube towards the other end as Hyun cackled and electricity sparked around them. Sirens blared as the tube stuttered and rolled to a stop just short of the next station.

That much power? Hyun could channel that much? Enough to stop the tube on its tracks.

Aruna palmed her force field control, calculating the amount of power Hyun had versus her force field’s capacity to redirect and absorb electrical charges. Not enough. And with her legs as wobbly as they were, her head as painful as it was, she couldn’t fight. Run, certainly, but not fight. No escape, no strength to wrest the doors open, no weapon that would stop a cyborg like Hyun.

Joey cursed and kicked the closest door, shattering the scratched, stained, oval window. Glass sprayed out onto the dark tracks. They wrenched at the doors, shoving at one with their cape shielding their hands against the broken glass. It screeched but it opened, bit by bit.

Come on! Get ahead of me! Joey shouted at Aruna as they wrestled the door open.

Aruna stepped between Joey and Hyun, pushing her force field to maximum as Hyun lunged at them with electricity sparking off their cybernetic hands. The force field fluoresced lavender-blue as it bulged and then rebounded, throwing Hyun up the tube into one of the seats.

An unreinforced skull would have cracked open from the impact. Hyun grunted, cursed and rolled back to their feet. Aruna glanced and then turned to run after Joey who had wrestled the door open and who was now running for all they were worth up the tracks to the next platform.

Aruna followed, force field as low as it would go without being off. No need to waste power. For a person with such long legs, Joey was not a fast runner. She caught up to them at the platform edge, swinging herself up alongside them only to sway and nearly fall face-first into a yellow-brown stain on the platform edge.

I'm gonna kill you both! Hyun screamed.

Hyun slapped their hand against the wall of the tube.

Siphon. Oh dear.

Aruna grabbed Joey's wrist and ran for the stairs. Of course, Joey shouted at her but they allowed Aruna to pull them along. The security box, where was the security box in this station? She spotted it on the first platform and dashed up the curl of the stairs, dragging Joey along with her even as they stumbled and nearly fell.

A flip of her cape exposed her force field unit. Aruna connected her force field to the security box, overriding its automatic warnings and objections with her security code and a press of her thumb on the scanner. A much more powerful force field launched around them as the walls outside the security zone began to sizzle and crackle.

Oh fuck, Joey wheezed as they cowered closer to Aruna. What the hell, Hyun?

Told you before that you shoulda knowed better than this, Hyun shouted back. I almost got the security system. Once I do, you both dead.

Aruna pursed her lips and allowed the security box to scan her full palm.

Hyun's scream started low and went higher and higher as the ship security system took over their cybernetics. Then they stopped screaming. Six very long seconds later, there was a clanging thud as Hyun fell to the floor.

Hyung? Joey asked, very quietly, as Aruna disengaged her force field unit from the security box and released Joey’s wrist.

We'd best depart immediately, Aruna told Joey. At this time of night, it will take some time to rouse Guards but I used my codes. They will come and more quickly than you expect.

Fuck, Joey said. Their eyes were sharp now, the shimmer of night-vision turning them silver as they glanced towards Hyun, looked at Aruna, and then towards the stairs up to the commerce level overhead. Let's go. I don't want to get caught by those assholes.

You saved me so I doubt that the consequences would be as bad as you suspect, Aruna said. She started up the stairs, Joey at her side.

Joey snorted. Where you get that from? You saved my ass back there.

I couldn't have opened the door, Aruna said.

The simple, bald statement made Joey's steps falter though only for a moment. They nodded once and then took a deep breath. No words, only a forceful exhale that might have been a sigh under other circumstances. Aruna heard shouts in the distance. She gestured to Joey who grunted and then waved for Aruna to follow them upwards and away.

Noel had better have a good reason for this. This entire evening's adventure was going to put Aruna in so much trouble with her father and ship management. Though, frankly, there had never been a time when Noel led Aruna wrong. She would just have to trust that Joey wasn't leading her into a trap.

A second trap, that is.

2. Shifted Roles

Joey panted as he pushed the stairs' emergency escape door open. Four floors after that scare; he was not doing well. Of course, that was why Hyun'd come along. Joey just didn't have the capacity for a hard run at anything currently. Plenty of power, no stamina. Torture would do that to you.

The Inner he'd been sent to fetch was right on his heels despite the way they wheezed. Quietly, without complaint or hesitation. They were cold as vacuum and twice as welcoming. Woulda been nice if Noel had warned Joey about that. He'd been half-convinced it was an Inner trolling for a piece of ass when they spotted them on the platform.

And really, hadn't Noel warned the Inner to dress unremarkably? That cape was fine hand-spun wool, dyed with real indigo and hand-woven in a brocade that he didn't recognize. Fathest thing possible from the acrylic mass-produced capes normal people wore. The gold and black border on the ends of the cape looked like the sort of thing you'd see in a vid of Old Earth, all complicated swirls and intensive hand work that cost more than Joey made in an