Savage Bay

by Christopher Forrest

  “Hang on, Tank,” said Touchdown.

  Tank’s blood oxygen levels started to fall rapidly. He was hyperventilating, trying to catch his breath after the impact.

  “Got the wind knocked out of me,” he gasped.

  Touchdown made some adjustments and boosted the oxygenation in Tank’s bloodstream. Then he instructed a small army of nanobots to proceed to the trauma site on Tank’s chest to begin repairing the injured tissue and bone.

  “Just sit tight for a few seconds or so,” said Touchdown.

  Tank finally began to catch his breath. The chemicals running through his system dulled the pain.

  “Okay, I’m going to give you a jolt to get you back on your feet,” said Touchdown. “Here it comes.”

  Tank’s BioMEMS system released a series of heavily modified amphetamines into his body. With a rush of energy, Tank roared and jumped to his feet to get back in the fight.

  TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY

  Satisfied that Tank wasn’t seriously injured, Gator turned his attention back to the Dragons firing at them from the opposite end of the cargo bay. He sized up the battlefield, then shifted his position ten meters to the south. From his new vantage point, he could fire on the enemy position at an angle.

  Gator placed his squad’s automatic weapon on its tripod and drew a bead on the commando that had taken the shot at Tank.

  “Put some steel on that target,” yelled Hawkeye.

  The SAW thundered as Gator squeezed the trigger. Every fifth round from the machine gun was a phosphorous tracer that drew lines of white light across the cargo bay. Even in the cavernous room, the sound of Gator’s machine gun was deafening.

  OPS CENTER, ABOARD THE ALAMIRANTA

  In the Ops Center, Caine watched the battle rage. On the holographic display, the positions of the four Titan Six members blinked red on a schematic diagram of the cargo bay. Numerical counters showing their GPS coordinates spun as they advanced through the room toward the enemy positions.

  “Hawkeye, you’re low on ammo,” said Touchdown, watching the data feed from Hawkeye’s assault rifle.

  “Acknowledged,” replied Hawkeye.

  He exhausted the remaining rounds in his nearly spent clip, and then replaced it with a fresh one from his ammo belt.

  “Pyro, if you can advance another ten meters and find some high ground, you should be able to direct fire right down on them,” said Touchdown.

  “Gator, Hawkeye -- can you give me some covering fire?” asked Pyro.

  “Sure thing -- ” and “No problem -- ” came the replies.

  The cargo bay erupted again with a heavy barrage of weapons fire. In a storm of sparks and tracer rounds, a flurry of bullets slammed against the metal boxes shielding the Dragons.

  With the Dragons pinned down, Pyro ran forward in a low crouch toward another row of cargo containers in front of him. His assault rifle hung from the sling across his back. With a burst of speed, Pyro launched himself into the air, grabbing the upper edge of the nearest cargo container with outstretched fingers.

  “Go, go, go!” yelled Hawkeye. His assault rifle added to Titan Six’s suppressing fire, pouring round after round on the Dragon’s defensive positions.

  Pyro grunted as he pulled herself up using only the strength of his arms. He swung a leg up, then wrestled his body over the edge and onto the top of the cargo container.

  OPS CENTER, ABOARD THE ALAMIRANTA

  Quiz studied the holographic image of the cargo bay as it slowly rotated in the Ops Center. He sat up abruptly. On the ceiling on the cargo bay, Quiz could see the tracks of the Rail Lift System that ran the length of the gigantic room.

  “Wait a minute ... ” Quiz said.

  He toggled the display on a monitor at his computer station to the video feed from Gator.

  “No.” He switched the video to Hawkeye’s helmet cam.

  “No.” He again toggled the video feed, this time to Pyro.

  “There!”In the video image from Pyro’s helmet cam, Quiz saw two cargo containers suspended on the Rail Lift System high above the floor.

  “Touchdown,” he said. “I have a idea.”

  TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY

  Pyro lay flat on his stomach on top of the cargo container. He inched forward until he could see over the edge. Touchdown had been right. From his new vantage point, Pyro had a direct line of fire down onto the Dragons.

  He did a quick count: six targets, spread across thirty meters in a classic defensive formation behind the makeshift fortifications provided by stacks of boxes.

  “Recommend incendiary rounds,” said Touchdown in his earpiece.

  “Way ahead of you, Ops.”

  Pyro retrieved a clip of high explosive incendiary rounds from his ammo belt. A creation of Titan Global’s Armory, the specialized shells were called Penetrator Rounds and combined an armor-piercing capability with an explosive impact.

  Pyro snapped the extended magazine in place. He rested the barrel of his assault rifle on the edge of the cargo container and took aim.

  TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY

  “Pyro needs a diversion,” said Touchdown in Tank’s headset just moments after Pyro pulled himself to the top of the cargo container.

  “Can do,” said Tank.

  Despite the chemical assistance provided by his BioMEMS system, Tank was still feeling the adrenaline rush after his close encounter with a sniper’s bullet. He removed his pack and dug inside for the surprise he had in mind for the Dragons: an M320, a single-shot under-barrel grenade launcher.

  Tank attached the launcher beneath the flash suppressor on his XM8 assault rifle. He inserted a grenade in the breech and locked it into place.

  “Ops, can you give me an assist with fire control?”

  “Can do,” said Touchdown.

  At the Ops Center, Quiz furiously scribbled some calculations using the relative positions of Tank and the Dragons. He consulted the specs for the M320 launcher, then scribbled some more.

  “Your firing solution is about thirty-four degrees,” said Quiz. “That should do the trick.”

  Tank aimed the M320 using Quiz’s recommendations. The virtual display on his visor calculated the trajectory angle of his grenade launcher from the data it received from the weapon.

  Thirty-four degrees.

  “Titan Six, cover!” he yelled. “Firing one!”

  OPS CENTER, ABOARD THE ALAMIRANTA

  “How did you do that,” asked Cruz, marveling at the speed with which Quiz had made firing solution calculations for Tank.

  Quiz just shrugged his shoulders. “I’m good at math. Hey, Touchdown, see those cargo containers suspended from the Rail Lift System?” he asked.

  Touchdown scanned the video feeds until he saw them. “Yes, I see them.”

  “Can you patch me in and give me remote access to the Rail Lift System?” asked Quiz.

  Touchdown smiled as he realized Quiz’s intentions.

  “Give me a minute,” he said. From his terminal, Touchdown accessed Manticore. Delving through the system’s subdirectories, he located the Rail Lift System.

  “Transferring to your station now,” Touchdown said.

  Three flat-screen monitors made a half-circle on Quiz’s computer station. On the center display, the command screen for the Rail Lift System came online.

  Quiz studied the interface, then began typing commands into his keyboard. Caine watched, peering over his shoulder.

  On the video feed from Tank’s helmet cam, one of the cargo containers suspended from the Rail Lift System lurched forward and then began to slowly move down the track along the ceiling of the cargo bay.

  TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY

  “Titan Six, cover!” yelled Tank. “Firing one!” He squeezed the trigger and his M320 grenade launcher fired a single explosive grenade. It arced in a nearly perfect trajectory, coming down behind the Dragon defensive positions.

  The grenade detonated in a tremendous explosion. One of the Dragons was killed instantly. Two others,
both of whom appeared to be wounded from the blast, fled their positions in a confused scramble, running in a chaotic retreat toward another row of machinery behind them.

  The remaining three Dragons returned fire, shooting bursts of automatic weapons fire wildly across the cargo bay.

  OPS CENTER, ABOARD THE ALAMIRANTA

  Using his computer terminal to remotely access the Rail Lift System in the cargo bay, Quiz maneuvered a large cargo container suspended from the overhead track toward the Dragons’ positions.

  The Dragons were pinned down behind their makeshift fortifications by the murderous suppressing fire from Hawkeye and Gator’s assault rifles. But then Quiz saw one of the Dragons fling a small object over the barricade toward Hawkeye and Shooter’s positions. It fell far short, but hit the cargo bay floor, bounced, and then rolled across the concrete in their direction.

  Tank’s warning echoed in Quiz’s headset: “Firing one!” The displays in the Ops Center flashed with light as Tank’s grenade exploded behind the commandos.

  “Cover!” yelled Quiz into his headset mic. “Hawkeye, Shooter — enemy grenade near your position!”

  Hawkeye and Shooter instantly dropped prone to the floor, instinctively covering their heads with their arms.

  TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY

  On top of the cargo container, Pyro squinted through the site of his assault rifle down toward the Dragons. Pyro had removed the rifle’s integrated bipod, and rested the aluminum and thermoset plastic weapon on the edge of the cargo container.

  The Dragons were crouched low behind cover. Hundreds of rounds from Hakweye and Gator’s covering fire continued to slam against the metal containers that the Dragons were using as rudimentary fortifications. The cacophony of sound was like hundreds of hammers beating against a tin roof.

  Pyro saw a small flash from Tank’s grenade launcher as it fired. He watched the grenade arc through the air toward the enemy position. The augmented-reality display, or AR, projected on the visor of Pryo’s tactical helmet identified the moving grenade and highlighted it with a blinking red circle. The AR display identified the grenade, adding the information in small semi-transparent words layered over the real-time image: M1060 thermobaric grenade.

  Then Pyro’s AR display highlighted a second object thrown from behind the Dragon barricade. It tracked the second object with flashing red brackets as it flew through the air toward Hawkeye and Shooter.

  “What the -- ”

  Pyro’s AR display identified the new object: a fragmentation grenade, Type 82-2S.

  The grenade hit the ground twenty meters short, but bounced and rolled across the floor.

  Tank’s grenade detonated behind the Chinese line with a deafening explosion. Pyro saw one Dragon fall to the ground. Two others began to retreat from the blast area, scrambling across the floor in panic.

  In Pyro’s ear, Quiz’s shrill voice called a warning: “Cover! Hawkeye, Shooter — enemy grenade near your position!”

  He watched Hawkeye and Shooter drop to the floor, pulling their knees to their chests and throwing their arms over their heads.

  The Chinese grenade detonated in a blast of steel fragments. The explosion shredded everything within the grenade’s fifteen meter blast radius. Thirty meters from the epicenter of the detonation, Hawkeye and Shooter avoided most of the impact. Several steel fragments lodged themselves into the body armor on Hawkeye’s right leg. Shooter was unscathed.

  Pyro turned back toward the Dragons, sighting again through the scope on his assault rifle. Three Dragons had held their positions despite Tank’s grenade blast and were now returning fire, shooting wildly toward the rest of the Titan Six team.

  Pyro took careful aim, then squeezed the trigger three times, firing a trio of high-explosive rounds down on the enemy.

  OPS CENTER, ABOARD THE ALAMIRANTA

  On the Unit Display in the Ops Center, Caine and the rest of the group watched Pyro fire down on the Dragons from his position on top of a cargo container. The three rounds hit their targets almost simultaneously.

  The first round caught the closest Dragon soldier in the side of the head, impacting against his helmet. The collision ignited the incendiary material in the tip of the shell, triggering the detonation of it’s high-explosive charge. The resulting explosion nearly vaporized the upper body of the Dragon.

  Pyro’s second round slammed into a stack of wooden crates behind the enemy line. It detonated upon impact in a cloud of fire and debris. The flaming pile of crates toppled, crashing down on the Dragons behind their crude fortifications.

  Pyro’s third round struck the concrete floor less than a meter behind a Dragon crouched behind a pile of steel beams. The zirconium powder incendiary charge in the shell ignited in a brilliant flash, instantly killing the Dragon that had lobbed the grenade at Hawkeye and Shooter.

  A secondary blast rocked the cargo bay as the commando’s remaining grenades hanging from his belt detonated from the heat of the first explosion.

  The third Dragon turned and stumbled away from the deadly scene, dragging his shredded left leg behind him.

  Quiz continued to direct the hanging cargo container down the rail system track as he watched the carnage unfold in the cargo bay. As Pyro’s third round exploded, he brought the cargo container into position above the retreating Chinese forces.

  “Bombs away.”

  With three keystrokes, Quiz remotely released the clamps attaching the cargo container to the chains and harness that held it aloft. The 24,000 kilogram steel container plummeted toward the cargo bay floor thirty meters below.

  . . .

  Hawkeye lifted his head off the floor and looked down the cargo bay toward the enemy forces. Steel shards poked out of the body armor encircling his right leg. Hawkeye involuntarily shut his eyes as Pryo’s high explosive rounds detonated in three individual fireballs.

  He listened to the screams of the Dragons killed and wounded by Pyro’s deadly assault. Then Quiz’s voice sounded in his ear: “Bombs away.”

  . . .

  Pyro watched in grim satisfaction as his rounds hit their targets, decimating the Chinese forces. The first Chinese soldier was obliterated from his vision in the first explosion.

  The second impact toppled the stack of wooden crates in a fiery blast. Large boxes fell crashing to the floor. Burning chunks of wood and debris rained down behind the Chinese line.

  The third round missed its mark by less than a meter, but was close enough to instantly kill the Chinese commando as the high-explosive round detonated. An unexpected secondary explosion boomed across the cargo bay as the soldier’s extra grenades exploded.

  Pyro watched in awe as a massive cargo container fell from the overhead rail system. Directly beneath it were two of the retreating Chinese commandos. The steel container hit the concrete floor with a massive bang that shook the cargo bay. It crushed the two soldiers like they were made of paper, smashing into oblivion beneath its massive weight.

  The third fleeing commando, dragging his butchered leg as he stumbled down the cargo bay, narrowly missed being crushed by the cargo container as it slammed into the concrete. It blocked his escape, and he turned to run back in the opposite direction.

  The Chinese solider had lost his helmet sometime during the melee, and Pyro could see the hatred and terror in his eyes.

  TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY

  Pyro cheered as the cargo container slammed to the floor. The last remaining commando was framed in Gator’s vision against the red steel cargo container behind him.

  Pyro pulled the trigger of his assault rifle, cleanly placing a round in the man’s forehead. The commando dropped like a sack of wet newspaper.

  “Hostiles eliminated,” said Pyro.

  Chapter 15

  TITAN SIX, SAVAGE BAY

  “About thirty meters in front of you should be a second security door,” said Touchdown. “Beyond that door, the tunnel continues through the mountain. To reach the cargo bay entrance, you’ll go through that door
and continue down the tunnel another quarter-kilometer.”

  “Understood,” said Hawkeye. “Titan Six, I want a breach formation on that door.”

  The five members of Titan Six spread out around the second entrance. Shooter lay prone on the ground ten meters from the entrance with her sniper rifle aimed at the door. Tank, Hawkeye, Gator, and Pyro flanked the opening, their backs pressed against the vertical stone wall, two on each side of the doorway.

  “Ops, can you raise that door about twenty centimeters?” asked Hawkeye.

  “Can do,” said Touchdown, typing commands into his keyboard.

  The hydraulic steel door groaned, then slowly slid upwards exactly twenty centimeters. Through the scope on her sniper rifle, Shooter could peer through the opening at the bottom of the door and into the room beyond. She saw two pairs of combat boots.

  “Two hostiles,” said Shooter. “Three meters inside the doorway.”

  Tank pulled the pin on a concussion grenade. He bent down and tossed it through the opening. A hail of gunfire erupted from inside. A spray of automatic weapons fire peppered the ground harmlessly just beyond the opening.

  A loud whump accompanied a flash of light as the concussion grenade detonated. Shooter saw two bodies drop to the ground through her scope.

  “Both hostiles down,” said Tank. “I assume we don’t have a video feed.”

  “We have a few, but they’re not showing anything at all,” said Touchdown. “There aren’t a lot of cameras because the heavy security was concentrated at the entrances. If you’re inside the Savage Bay complex, the system assumes you’re supposed to be there. By the way, someone has closed the South Portal wall. Whether that measure is to keep people in or out is anybody’s guess. I suspect we’ll find out soon enough.”

  Shooter moved to join the rest of the team flanking the doorway.