by Jacob Holo
“Hell, it was your idea coming here,” Naomi said. She pulled the rifle off her back and checked the weapon for damage.
“Sakaki, what’s your status?” Ryu asked.
“We barely made it,” Sakaki said. “They dumped incinerators on the whole city and almost caught us in the blast. It’s going to take some time to get back into position.”
“At least you’re alive,” Ryu said.
“On the bright side,” Toshi said. “They didn’t hit us with a nuke or orbital kinetics.”
“Anything that heavy could collapse the place,” Ryu said. “There’s no point in coming here unless they want to use the tunnels.”
Ryu received a call from Matriarch.
“Go ahead,” he said.
“I am diverting all available militia forces and dragons to the ocean access underneath the campus,” Matriarch said. “Do what you can to delay the crusaders.”
“That’s what we’re here for,” Ryu said. “But I wasn’t expecting all of them to divert this way. We’re sixteen against a thousand.”
“I know,” Matriarch said. “I should have trusted your insight. Please forgive me. I fear I have become distracted by my focus on the star drive calculations.”
“Any chance our navy can hit the city with the good stuff?” Ryu asked. “After we get the hell out of the way, I mean.”
“We’ll try,” Matriarch said. “But the Federacy has a significant interceptor cap over the city. Their fleet is moving into a protective position. We will try to find an opening, but the chances of success are very small.”
“All right. We’ll do our best.”
“That’s all I ask. Thank you, my son.”
Matriarch broke the link.
“The first dropfighter just touched down,” Cat said. “It’s sliding this way.”
Ryu opened his command channel. “All dragons, get to the surface. We need to slow them down as much as possible. The crusaders severely outnumber us, but they don’t know that. That’s our advantage. We strike hard and disappear. Hit and fade tactics.”
Toshi spun the hatch wheel and cracked it open. Ryu stuck his rifle out and checked the surroundings. The dome across from the Senkaku’s nose blazed brightly, but with Europa’s almost nonexistent atmosphere, the fire would snuff out once the incinerator gel burned away.
Ryu snuck out and paced along the edge of the nose. The other dragons crept along, hugging the hull. He crouched where the tip of the nose stuck out of the ice and aimed his rifle over the nose antenna.
Three dropfighters had stopped near the edge of the city, a few hundred meters from the Senkaku’s nose. Another dropfighter flew in for a landing, but must have suffered damage. It landed on its belly, spun sideways, and crashed into a large dome. Dozens more descended towards the ice plains.
Crusaders poured out of the landed dropfighters and spread into the campus. Over a hundred crusaders were already inside, but there was a lot of city for the dragons to hide in.
Ryu switched his overlay to color code the dragon squads. Four green dots converged on the crusader landing field, too far away to help. Four blue dots exited a collapsed tower next to the crashed dropfighter. He tagged the crash site.
“Blue dragon, that group is yours,” Ryu said. “Wait for my signal.”
“Understood, Ryu. They’ll never know what hit them.”
Four yellow dots moved along the city perimeter from the other side. Ryu tagged a dropfighter that had slid away from other crusaders.
“Gold dragon, that one’s yours,” Ryu said. “Watch the nose turret for suppressing fire. It has a good angle on you. Wait for my signal.”
“Confirmed. Target in sight.”
“It’s too bad we don’t have any phantoms left,” Naomi said. “We could use the distractions. So when’s that factory supposed to be ready for mass production?”
“Sometime next year,” Cat said.
“A lot of good that does us now.”
Another dropfighter slid to a halt next to the Senkaku’s nose. Its rear hatch blew open. Crusaders poured out.
“This one’s ours,” Ryu said. “Pick your targets. We’ll fall back to the tunnels under the Senkaku.”
“Just give the word, boss,” Toshi said.
Naomi scampered up the nose until she reached the cockpit. She crouched atop the Senkaku and took aim.
A tall crusader exited the dropfighter and stepped onto the ice. He paused at the bottom of the ramp and watched his troops fan out.
Kaneda ... Ryu grimaced. I should have known. You would be arrogant enough to drop with the first wave. He programmed a set of needle grenades and crouched back into cover.
“Ready needle grenades,” he said. Crusaders from the closest dropfighter marched into campus in orderly groups of four. “And ... attack!”
Ryu launched three needle grenades over the nose antenna. Cat and Toshi fired at the same time. Nine grenades flew over the crusaders and oriented themselves with bursts of gas. Their microminds linked, selecting and prioritizing targets. As one unit, they spewed out thick cones of high-velocity diamond needles.
Naomi fired. Her shot blew through the visor of the lead crusader. His body stumbled forward and dropped into a pool of cooling slush. Over thirty crusaders behind him raised their Gatling guns and fired, but six found their guns jammed by the needle barrage. It didn’t matter because Naomi had already leapt off the Senkaku. A torrent of vari-shells struck the colony ship’s cockpit, chewing through it like it was wet paper. Flaming shreds of the colony ship’s skin rained on the dragons.
Ryu’s overlay registered fire from the other dragon squads. The crusader advance stopped instantly. Those near the dropfighters crouched behind ramps or landing skids or went prone against the ice. Squads already in the city took cover in and around buildings and checked their surroundings.
Ryu extended a dot-cam tubule from his palm and looked over the nose antenna.
The nose turret on the closest dropfighter swung to face him.
“Move!” Ryu shouted. Adrenalmax surged into his system. He dove out of the way in a blur of speed.
The first shell struck the antenna and obliterated it. Ice and metal bits blasted into the air. Ryu, Toshi, and Cat picked themselves off the ice and ran along the Senkaku’s side, putting the nose between them and the crusaders. Cat reached the airlock first and dashed inside. Toshi slipped in after her.
Naomi ran towards the airlock from the opposite direction. “Behind you!” she shouted.
Ryu crouched and spun around. A crusader charged passed the nose antenna’s wreckage and aimed his weapon. Naomi shot him in the shoulder. The explosive force blew his gun arm off. He raised his wrist-mounted grenade launcher. Three more crusaders raced into view, weapons raised.
Ryu snapped his rifle up and pulled the trigger. He drained the whole magazine in two seconds. A stream of shatterbacks exploded against the lead crusader’s armor, tracing upward from abdomen to face. He staggered back, firing grenades wildly. Air leaked from a crack in his visor. Grenades blew craters in the ice or collapsed buildings where they hit.
The other three crusaders sprayed Ryu’s general location. Ryu dove forward and landed on his stomach in a shallow ice crater. He grabbed an anti-tank grenade off his bandolier and tossed it over the side. The crusaders shot it down before its rocket could activate.
Toshi and Cat popped out of the airlock and fired on the crusaders. Tiny explosions blew huge dents in their immaculate white armor. Naomi fired off two quick shots. The first hit a crusader in the shoulder. He spun back and landed face first in slush. The second shot blew a crusader’s leg off. The man collapsed onto his side but kept firing.
“Get inside!” Toshi shouted. He emptied a clip, then shelled the crusaders with two needle grenades. The barrage struck them head on, disorienting them.
Another squad of crusaders rounded the antenna wreckage. Cat fired a needle grenade at them and ducked inside. Ryu rose from the crater. He and Naomi ran through
the airlock behind Cat. Toshi slammed the hatch shut and spun the locking wheel. He stuck a grenade against the doorjamb.
“Into the tunnels!” Ryu said. The team raced through the Senkaku’s interior, jumped down a ladder shaft one at a time, and ran down a slanting passage that changed from metal walls to ice held up by thick supports and a diamoplast mesh.
Through his soles, Ryu felt the rumble of an explosion.
“The crusaders blasted the airlock off!” Toshi shouted.
“I still have a dot-cam feed!” Cat shouted. “A full squad of crusaders is entering the Senkaku!”
“I would never have guessed!” Naomi shouted.
Ryu ejected his spent clip and slapped in a new one. They raced through half a kilometer of ice tunnels that sloped downward, occasionally twisted. The tunnels were completely dark. His overlay painted faint green lines over the walls.
Ryu checked the status of the other dragon squads. Blue and gold squads had fallen back to the tunnels. Blue had lost a team member and gold had two injuries. Not a good start. On the surface, green squad closed in around the crusaders but did not engage. They had nowhere to run if discovered.
The dragons ran to a four way junction. On their way to the surface, Ryu and Toshi had stripped the diamoplast mesh from the ceiling over the tunnel straight ahead. Ryu linked with two grenades, one on the ceiling and one on the floor. He set the timer on the ceiling grenade.
Ryu and Naomi took the tunnel on the right, Cat and Toshi took the left.
The grenade timer reached zero and executed its variable shaped charge. The tunnel collapsed into a chunky wall of ice. The second grenade under the ice pulsed in his overlay, ready in case they needed the tunnel unclogged in a hurry.
“Let’s hope they think that’s the tunnel we took,” Ryu said, crouching next to a support beam. Naomi stood behind him, taking cover. Cat and Toshi mirrored their positions. When the crusaders entered the junction, they’d be cut down in a cross fire.
Ryu put his hand against the mesh-covered wall. Amidst the tremors of landing dropfighters and the rumble of distant explosives, he could pick out the heavy footfalls of their pursuers. They charged down the sloped ice tunnel to the junction.
The crusaders stopped in sight of the collapsed tunnel. They took up defensive positions behind vertical tunnel supports.
“What are they waiting for?” Cat asked after a minute.
Ryu felt an itch on the back of his neck. He checked over his shoulder. The side tunnel stretched on for a hundred meters then sloped upward to another part of the network. Blue dragons had retreated to that general area. Still, it didn’t hurt to be cautious.
“Naomi, check our tunnel,” Ryu said. “Cat, check yours. Make sure we’re not being flanked.”
“On it,” Cat said.
“Moving,” Naomi said. She folded her sniper rifle into carbine-mode and dashed away.
Ryu crept up to the junction and extended a dot-cam tubule. Four crusaders watched the junction, two on each side. The tunnel supports covered only a fraction of their bulky armor. One of them had a thermal lance.
Ryu retracted his tubule and leaned against the wall.
“Why aren’t they pressing forward?” Toshi asked.
“I don’t know,” Ryu said.
“Ryu, my tunnel’s clear all the way back to the nearest junction,” Naomi said.
“I’ve spotted another squad,” Cat said. “I don’t think they’re trying to flank us. They’re guarding a tunnel leading to the surface.”
“Keep an eye on them, Cat,” Ryu said. “Naomi, watch that junction.”
“Got it.”
“Ryu,” Sakaki said. “There’s another wave of dropfighters coming in.”
“How many?” Ryu asked.
“Ten of them this time. The navy didn’t even scratch them.”
“Figures.”
“They came in with a huge escort,” Sakaki said. “Over thirty interceptors and even a destroyer. The destroyer is hovering over the city. Those dropfighters could be carrying something important.”
“Do you have a good view of the crusaders on the surface?” Ryu asked.
“Somewhat,” Sakaki said. “A lot of them have moved into the city. It looks like they’re forming a perimeter instead of pressing forward. Some of them are setting up surface-to-space turrets. I see ... fifteen going up from this angle.”
“That’s consistent with the behavior we’re seeing,” Ryu said. “They’re not acting aggressive.”
“The crusaders are unloading the dropfighters now,” Sakaki said. “I’m going to move forward to get a better view. I’ll call back when I’m in position.”
Toshi pointed a thumb at the out-of-sight crusaders. “Should we take these jokers out?”
“No,” Ryu said. “Let them sit there. Killing a few crusaders won’t make any difference. Right now they’re doing what we want anyway, which is not advancing.”
“If you say so,” Toshi said.
“Contact,” Naomi said. “A squad just showed up at my junction. They’re taking a defensive position.”
“If all these squads press forward, we could be in trouble,” Toshi said.
“I don’t think they will,” Ryu said. “They’re waiting for something.”
Sakaki called back twelve minutes later.
“Ryu, I’ve got a good view of the equipment they’re unloading,” Sakaki said. “It’s big and bulky, whatever it is. They’re moving the equipment into the campus. Looks like it’s some kind of prefabricated assembly. Eighteen sections total. Transmitting visuals now.”
Ryu let the feed overlay part of his sight. Each section was two stories tall and slightly curved so that when they fit together they’d form a ring a hundred meters across. The crusaders had painted the outer surface in red and white checkers. Most of the inner surface was made of actuating mirrors.
“Cat, any ideas?” Ryu asked.
“I think I see several lasers on the inside,” Cat said. “That might be what the mirrors are for.”
“Could it be a surface-to-space weapon?” Toshi asked.
“Maybe, but what’s the point of something that big?” Ryu asked. “They already have two battleships in orbit.” He put a hand against the ice wall. “You hear that? Sounds like someone’s below us.”
“Ryu, I think I have the same thing,” Naomi said, tagging the location. “I’m picking up some SolarNet echoes. They’re below my position. It could be from another squad.”
“Just great,” Ryu said. “How about you, Cat?”
“Uhh, maybe,” Cat said. “It’s hard to tell what any of the signals are for. Crusaders use very tough encryption. The signals are definitely below us, though. Tagging locations.”
Ryu checked the locations of the new squads on his overlay. He added locations of the mystery ring and the squads on their level. They all lined up vertically. The crusaders were defending a vertical space directly underneath and twice as wide as the ring.
“Oh no ...” Ryu breathed.
“What is it?” Toshi asked.
“The ring is a tunneling device,” Ryu said. “That’s got to be it. They’re going to cut through the ice with lasers.”
“They’re not using the Redoubt Campus’s tunnels?” Toshi asked.
“Yes, they are,” Ryu said. “They’re taking positions to guard the ring’s descent.”
“Ryu,” Sakaki said. “That ring is starting up. Parts of it are spinning. I can see steam pouring out of the top. It’s starting its descent. Looks like ... yes, looks like it’s laying a diamoplast mesh on the way down. Probably to shore up the walls.”
“How fast?” Ryu asked.
“At its current speed, it’ll reach the ocean in ... sixty-seven minutes.”
“We need to take it out,” Toshi said.
“Cat, Naomi, get back to us,” Ryu said.
“We can’t let that ring reach the ocean,” Toshi said.
“I know,” Ryu said. “But the place is crawling
with crusaders.”
“Enough grenades should wreck it,” Toshi said. “It’s got mirrors and lasers. How tough can it be?”
“There’s no way we can fight through this many crusaders,” Ryu said. “And even if we destroy it, they’d cut us to shreds. It’s suicide.”
“It doesn’t have to be all of us,” Toshi said.
It took Ryu a few seconds to appreciate what Toshi had said. He suddenly felt cold all over.
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Ryu said.
Naomi and Cat returned to the junction.
“Look, it’s simple,” Toshi said. “Standard diversion tactics. You create some noise. I take all the grenades you can spare, sneak by the crusaders, and take out the tunneling ring.”
Cat put a hand on his shoulder. “But ... but, Toshi?”
“We all agree we need to stop that thing, right?” Toshi said. “Reinforcements are on their way, but won’t get here in time. One of us has to get in there and take it out.”
“There has to be another way,” Cat said. “We could ... we could, uhh ... we can mine its descent path.”
“No, that won’t work,” Toshi said. “Too much can go wrong. For one, the crusaders have to be sweeping ahead of the ring. There’s no way they’d miss a grenade pile that big.”
“Or .... or we could ...”
“Cat, please,” Ryu said quietly. “That’s enough.”
“I ... but ...”
“You’re not helping.”
“But ...” Cat whispered. “We can’t go through with this ... can we?”
“We’re dragons,” Ryu said. “We do what needs to be done.”
Cat shook her head, but said nothing.
Ryu looked at Toshi. He couldn’t think of anything to say.
“Boss, I can do this,” Toshi said.
“I know you can,” Ryu said. He wanted to say something more, but the words stuck in his throat.
“We’re going to stop these bastards,” Toshi said. “Right here and right now.”
Slowly, Ryu began to nod. He loaded three needle grenades into his rifle then unsnapped his grenade bandolier and set it against the wall. Naomi followed his lead. After a moment’s hesitation, Cat fumbled with her strap and almost tore her bandolier off.