by Terry Mixon
Jared made his way up one of the stairs and stood watching as the marines looked out through the windows on the ground level. He knew that he probably shouldn’t be there, but as soon as Talbot had gone outside, he’d been unable to resist the urge to see what was happening for himself.
He probably should’ve worn his powered armor, even though he couldn’t use it very well, but doing so would’ve put the people below into an even worse state of terror. If a commander showed fear—even though armoring up wasn’t based on fear in the middle of a battle—then they’d be a lot more inclined to panic. He had to exude confidence.
The above-ground part of the building wasn’t all that large when compared to the underground area that held all the farming machinery. Based on the debris left behind on this level—the remains of dividers between small cubicles, desks, and ruined computer equipment—he suspected that this had been the office area overseeing the vast agricultural network the machines below had once served.
The marines had moved everything they could over to the exterior walls, figuring that almost anything would be useful in stopping arrows. They’d strategically broken out some of the windows, or used some that had already been broken, based on the staining on the floors. The glass had to be pretty tough to have survived this long, so he wondered what they’d broken the panes with.
The marines had chosen to split their forces into four equal groups and cover each of the outside walls. The center of the building contained offices that were closed off from the rest of the large room, probably for management. Not a very good way to provide leadership, but they hadn’t consulted him.
The marines didn’t have enough people to cover every angle the enemy would come from, so they’d supplemented their numbers with any Fleet personnel that had training in the use of firearms. Even so, he wasn’t certain they had enough weapons to go around.
Since some of the marines had had both rifles and pistols, they’d probably passed the pistols to the Fleet personnel, possibly their stunners, too. Ammunition and powerpacks were going to be a problem very soon. Based on what Talbot had told him, they really didn’t have enough to be shooting indiscriminately.
They’d win this fight, of that he had no doubt, but this was only the first five kilometers of a fifteen-hundred-kilometer journey, during which they’d undoubtedly meet additional enemies.
They had to live as if the supplies they had now were all they were going to get. If they could salvage something along the way, that would be wonderful. If they couldn’t, then pretty soon they’d be fighting with rocks.
He made his way over to Senior Lieutenant Chloe Laird. “Give me an update.”
Laird turned to face him, her red hair damp with sweat. With no environmental controls, the building was already warming as the sun rose outside. It was also terribly humid inside the abandoned structure.
“It’s not looking good, sir,” she said. “They probably outnumber us three to one, if we’re only counting fighting personnel. On the plus side, they’re going to have to come at us through a fairly limited number of entrances. We should be able to use our rifles and pistols to good effect.
“If they come too close or lump up, we’ve got a few plasma grenades that will ruin somebody’s day. We’ve also got a number of stunners we passed out to the Fleet personnel backing us up. They’re going to start shooting first and hopefully take down a number of the attackers as they are closing in. We’ll only resort to lethal force if we have no choice.
“Senior Sergeant Coulter has the other side of the building covered, and I’m keeping an eye on this side. Between the two of us, we’ve got a handle on things. You should go back down before the shooing starts, sir.”
He ignored her pointed advice. “How easily are the arrows going to be able to penetrate the glass?”
The marine officer shrugged slightly. “The glass is tough, but a sharp strike from an arrow will probably crack a pane. A few hits like that and they’ll come down. They’re made to be strong against the elements, not against direct physical assault.
“I’d say that after a couple of minutes, we won’t have glass in any of these frames. We’ve piled up a bunch of office furniture to use as cover, and that should work well enough against what they can throw at us.
“The problem is going to be when they get inside the building. They’ve got swords, and all we’ll have are our marine knives. Admittedly, what we’ve got is a lot sharper, but they’ve got reach on us. Unpowered armor might save lives in some cases, but they’ve got to be well trained to work around armor with their weapons. If they get inside our guard, they’re going to kill a whole bunch of people.”
Her tone indicated the toll might include headstrong flag officers, but she politely left that as an implication rather than stating it out loud.
“Then we’ll just have to make sure they don’t get inside,” he said grimly.
A loud series of shouts went up outside, and Jared turned his attention to look at what was going on in the early light. There were a lot of people racing around the building on horses at this point, so it looked as if the attack was underway.
“You’d best get back downstairs, sir,” Laird said firmly. “The party is about to start.”
Jared opened his mouth to decline, but a massive explosion on the other side of the building tossed him into Laird, sending both of them tumbling into the makeshift barricade beside them. The blast was powerful, so it took him a moment to blink himself back into focus and roll off the marine officer who was even then surging back to her feet.
“All marines, open fire,” Coulter shouted from the other side of the building. “Aim for people with heavy weapons if you can spot them.”
Jared could see at least half a dozen marines down near the blast site, though some were moving. The Fleet personnel that had been backing them up were in much worse shape. They hadn’t been in body armor, and the blast had torn through them. He knew there had to be fatalities.
“Reinforce the area they just hit, Lieutenant,” Jared said over his ringing ears. “If they try to push through there, they’ll be able to get into the building.”
“Don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs, sir,” she said as she moved to direct her marines. “I’m already on it.”
Marines from the other positions rushed to the area that had been struck and began firing out the windows at the riders. Jared didn’t think it was going to do them any good because at the speed the horsemen were moving, the person with the heavy weapon was probably long gone. In fact, he was almost certainly going to strike from a different side of the building next.
Even though it was a stupid idea—and he knew it—Jared edged his way up to the glass and stared outside, looking for anyone carrying one of those weapons. Several arrows struck the glass in front of him, splintering the clear material until it fell away in a shower of small fragments. He shielded his face and eyes as the shards fell, but still managed to get some cuts that were going to sting later.
Once he could see again, he refocused his attention outside. All he saw was a bunch of screaming and shouting horsemen with bows. Then he saw one that had something that was different. A tube of some kind that he was aiming toward the building somewhere off to Jared’s right.
“Incoming!” he shouted as he covered his ears with his hands.
An unbearably bright spark of light shot from the weapon and lanced into the building, hitting the corner off to Jared’s right in another massive explosion. This not only killed or wounded more of his people, but it damaged the structural integrity of the building itself, and the roof came down in that corner.
Coughing from the dust that had washed over him, Jared crawled to the person nearest him. It was an enlisted Fleet crewman. A length of metal had gone all the way through her chest. She gasped twice, her hand twitching toward the debris that had impaled her, and then lay unmoving, her eyes focused on infinity.
Burning with anger, Jared crawled past her and found a marine with
a similar shard of metal through his shoulder. It had pinned him to the barricade that they’d been using, and he was struggling to pull free.
“Stay still until someone can help you,” Jared said calmly. “If you pull the metal out, you might bleed to death. Just leave it right where it is.”
Jared reached down and grabbed the man’s rifle. He then shrugged apologetically as he took the reloads from the man’s belt. He looked for a place that he could shoot from while still being out of view of the attackers.
Once he was in place, he lined up on the first horseman that he saw and pulled the trigger. The flechette missed the man, flying somewhere behind him, Jared imagined. He was going to have to figure out how much to lead them.
He jinked the rifle to the left and fired again, this time achieving some success as the man wobbled sideways in his saddle but kept going.
Jared started looking for anyone with those strange weapons. They had to be his primary target. A few more hits like the last two would bring the entire building down on their heads, and that would be the death of them.
With everyone’s attention focused on the charging horde, Kelsey stepped back to the man holding her weapons. “I think I’d best take those,” she said, holding her hand out.
The man seemed to consider her words for a long moment before handing her weapons belt back to her.
She quickly strapped her pistols on before reaching for her sword harness. That was also quickly returned.
Now fully armed, Kelsey turned her attention to the battlefield and saw a wild melee. The force of horsemen had charged toward the camp where the defenders had drawn up to receive them, but halfway there, several armored marines had come out of hiding almost in the middle of them and began using stunners to take down riders and animals alike.
Set to wide beam, a stunner’s range was short, but it could take out a number of targets for long enough to be quite useful in a battle like this. Unfortunately, at the speed the horsemen were traveling, there were going to be serious injuries and fatalities when they fell.
Just as the charge was breaking around the marines, an additional four marines charged down from the hills at the rear of the horde. It would be a minute before they’d be in range to use their stunners, but just the sight of them charging roiled the attacking forces, giving the local defenders an opportunity to push forward and engage on a more equal basis.
With a good portion of the enemy focusing on the marines, Beauchamp and her forces were able to decisively engage the troops directly to their front, and the melee was on. The people on horseback had spears and what amounted to cavalry sabers to strike down from their height at the people on the ground.
Kelsey had seen that sort of thing in a number of old Terran vids. The people on the ground had similar weapons and the reach to strike up as well. What surprised Kelsey the most was the fact that they seemed disinclined to strike at the horses.
Someone off to the side was taking single shots with a stunner on tight beam. It must’ve been one of the snipers that Corporal Boske had set out. With the way the marines were arranged, there was only one viable route to retreat, and Kelsey wondered how long it would be before the horde took it.
Or would they just choose to fight? If they had some of those antiarmor weapons, they might decide to push on. That was Kelsey’s main concern and one of the reasons that she’d wanted to take the enemy down as quickly as possible.
With that in mind, she drew her stunner and one of her swords before racing into the fray. She picked a direction full of enemies and triggered her weapon on wide beam. Half a dozen men and horses dropped where they were.
Almost immediately, one of the horsemen tried to shoulder her aside with his horse as he sliced down with his saber. Kelsey raised her blade to deflect his, knocking it to the side and also severing the enemy blade completely. She fired the stunner and took him and his horse out before seeing what else the field had to offer her.
This was what they’d once called a “target rich environment.” There were enemies everywhere. Thankfully, they were more worried about the armored marines than they were about Kelsey or the people in the camp, which was going to cost them.
While that might be safer for her, she quickly discovered that it wasn’t safe for the marines. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught someone wielding a weapon that she wasn’t familiar with.
One of the horsemen had pulled some kind of tube out of his saddlebags and was aiming it off the left. A glance indicated one of the armored marines was the target.
Kelsey immediately raced toward the man, knowing what was coming and doing everything she could to get to him before he fired. Incoming heavy weapon! She sent over her internal com, praying that the marine would dodge.
Even as she gave the warning, Kelsey flipped the focus on her stunner to narrow beam and fired, but the man’s horse moved at the wrong moment, moving the warrior just enough for her to miss him.
A bright spark flew from the tube and struck the marine, who was already dodging. A massive explosion marked the spot, and pieces of armor and flesh rained down in a wide circle.
Anguish filled Kelsey for just a moment, before rage pushed it out. The rider turned just in time to see Kelsey as she launched herself into the air at him at a dead run, her sword slashing down at his head.
He raised his tubed weapon to deflect her blow, but the edge of her blade sliced through it and him, sending his body tumbling from the saddle in pieces.
All marines, they have antiarmor weapons, she said into her implant com. As if they didn’t already know. You are cleared and encouraged to use lethal force.
Look out behind you, Highness! Boske shouted back.
Rather than look, Kelsey used her powerful leg muscles to spring to the side and spin in the air. A bright spark from another one of the antiarmor weapons flashed through the spot where she’d been just a moment before and struck one of the horsemen to her side right where his body met the animal he rode.
The massive explosion killed them both instantly and sent blood and bits of flesh over everyone close to the blast, including her. The blast smashed her out of the air, but she tagged her combat controller to get her back on her feet and attacking the riders closest to her. They’d all be blown out of their saddles and couldn’t defend themselves. Too bad for them.
Once her body seemed to have shaken off the effects of the blast, she resumed direct control and waded back into the fight. She’d lost her stunner but didn’t care. With blades in both hands, she became death incarnate, making even the hardened warriors she was fighting recoil from her.
Not that that would save them. Playtime was over.
13
Once the fighting had kicked off, Talbot hunkered down on the ramp with his marines and waited for the assault that he knew was coming. He suspected that he knew the enemy’s plan, and he intended on giving them an ugly surprise when they tried it.
He expected them to try to distract him, and then have someone with one of the antiarmor weapons pop up over the lip of the ramp and fire down into the group of marines below. The door behind him was fairly heavy, but it wouldn’t stand up to a significant explosion. If they breached the door, they’d be among the noncombatants before he could stop them.
That meant he had to be ready to act instantly. They couldn’t have many of the damned things, and if he could take out the people wielding them, he’d be able to stop the attack cold.
The next few seconds proved his expectations dramatically wrong.
An above-ground explosion shook the building and sent clods of dirt raining down on him.
“Report,” he said over the command channel, tensing and preparing for the attack he was sure was coming down the ramp.
“We just took a hit on one corner of the building,” Chloe Laird said. “Unknown number of casualties. Coulter is handling that side.”
“Find those bastards,” Talbot said through clenched teeth. “Shoot any son of a bitch that looks like he has
anything bigger than a bow and arrow. Hell, just start shooting all of them. At this point, they’ve initiated hostilities and we should just go ahead and clean house. The gloves are off. Weapons free and cleared for lethal force.”
“Copy that.”
Another explosion rocked the building, and Talbot cursed. At this rate, he wasn’t going to be able to wait for the enemy. He was going to have to go out to them.
He almost started up the ramp but paused. Maybe that was part of their plan.
They’d seen him in armor and knew where he’d gone. They had to know how dangerous powered armor was, or they wouldn’t be carrying weapons like that. What if the explosions were meant to draw him out?
Coming at the problem from that angle, the answer seemed obvious. They’d have somebody making a ruckus upstairs to bring him back up the ramp. That had to mean that there was someone out there waiting for him with one of those weapons. He’d probably just stopped himself from walking into an ambush.
So, if he wanted to get up top while keeping his skin intact, he needed to make certain that whoever was waiting for him wasn’t going to be in a position to hurt him. To do that, he needed more intelligence about the layout of the enemy.
He tapped into the drone network and watched the enemy running around the building. There were a lot of them, and even though folks from upstairs had taken some down, their main force appeared to be intact.
The building itself was in worse shape. It looked like the two explosions had struck different corners of the building, and one of those had collapsed. That had to be bad for the marines and Fleet personnel inside. They’d come out of this with dead and injured friendlies, there was no getting around that.
He refocused his attention on the enemy. All of them were in motion except for one. That solitary dot was positioned inside the rough ring that marked where the enemy riders were circling.
The man had hidden himself behind a small rise in the ground—probably less than a third of a meter tall. He had a tube that just screamed antiarmor weapon aimed right toward the ramp. There was no sign of his horse.