by Korza, Jay
Not only did it prove that his enemy had a mental weakness in this area but it took two of their forward shooters out of the fight to deal with it. It was time to implement the second part of his plan before too many of the video screens were gone. The leader pushed a button on the console in front of him.
~
As Surgeon sighted on the next video screen, the image suddenly and drastically changed. The image of an unconscious and haggard man turned into one of a man suddenly dropped through the gates of hell.
His face contorted in pain unlike anything Surgeon had ever seen on the battlefield. The picture-in-picture motion also caught his attention and he noticed the surgical pincers moving in and out of a wound in the groin area of the soldier.
If the other operators hadn't noticed the screens before, Surgeon knew they did now. As all of the screens changed near simultaneously, the joint howl of pain cut through the gunfire and reached every one of the operators. The gunfire ceased as everyone watched the screens.
~
The warrior leader was more than pleased with his experiment. The added torment of the prisoners was enough to stop even their most elite fighters. A race that weak could never win against the warriors' superior might and mental fortitude.
~
Reaper was the first to reset his internal frame of mind. Through the command link, he calmly voiced, “Kill every single one of those motherfuckers.”
The barrage of weapons fire was simultaneous and near deafening even through their advanced hearing protection. Surgeon stopped shooting the screen and allowed the images to fuel their fire. It was a controlled burn that would incinerate all who stood before it. Surgeon signaled Seth's team to advance.
~
Seth and his team heard the gunfire from the turrets erupt followed closely with explosions from some CQB grenades. His feet adjusted and he was peripherally aware that others in his team also adjusted. Although it was only a few moments later before he heard the gunfire cease, followed by Reaper’s declaration of death, it seemed like a lifetime had passed. And then he received the “go” signal from Surgeon.
A quick hand signal to two of his operators and they adjusted themselves in the corridor. One of them put his hand in the air and held out five fingers. Then he counted down to three to set the rhythm and put his hand back on the grenade launcher. When the internal count reached one, they both leaned into the hallway and put a total of six explosive rounds on the target.
Unbeknownst to them, there were two automatic turrets waiting for them at the end of the hallway. Surgeon had known the plan called for an explosive opening salvo so he knew Seth's team wasn't in any danger from the turrets but he had still meant to give them a heads-up just in case; he would later apologize for that mistake.
Seth took point down the hallway after the explosions ended and the shrapnel had stopped bouncing around the hallway. They moved forward in a loose diamond formation. As they approached the breached doors, a chorus of screams could be heard coming from inside. Seth's team didn't know the screams were coming from the video monitors so they were all a little confused as to who was screaming: they couldn't hear it over their company push and the other team was obviously still in the fight, as was evident from the continued gunfire.
As they passed through the doorway, they saw the horrors the rest of their team had been dealing with for the last half minute or so. It caused a small hiccup in their step but not much more and they kept moving. Seth guessed that the screens had turned on after Surgeon started his assault and the abrupt psychological effect had caused the quick lull in the gunfight they had heard a moment ago.
~
The warrior leader was praising himself heavily for the misperceived mental blow he had dealt to the enemy. When the impromptu cease fire ended less than a few seconds later and the enemy pushed forward with even more determination, he realized that he again failed his people. When the rear doors exploded inward, killing three of his brothers, he no longer had any choice. He began inputting the self-destruct code into his console.
~
The engineering shields were doing their job well but the rearmost shooters in the element couldn't handle not being in the fight, not after what they had witnessed on the monitors. They pushed forward and to the sides of the protective barriers and were picking off warriors as if they were paper targets on a static range.
Reaper put down a target and moved to the next. He spotted a warrior who was more interested in the console in front of him than the firefight going on around him. That couldn't be good. A three-round burst sped towards the warrior and impacted with the personal shield surrounding his head. The shield shimmered and the warrior for the briefest of moments looked up and then back to his console and continued his work.
“Shift fire on my target. Highest priority.” The order from Reaper was immediately identified by his visor as a team push command and it sent a marker to everyone else's visor highlighting his current target.
~
The fire shifted and the warrior leader was hit with a barrage that nearly took him off his feet but his shield held. The distraction from the explosive entry caused him to pause the self-destruct input and then the overwhelming barrage from the primary team caused him to press a wrong button as he stumbled backwards.
His shield could hold out longer from the projectile weapons than his own plasma rifles but that didn't mean it would hold out forever and the incoming CQB grenades he saw in the air would also hasten the shield's diminishing effectiveness. After the grenades detonated and he was able to reach his terminal again, he saw that he had accidentally set the self-destruct to sixty minutes rather than the minimum of six minutes he wanted.
A projectile entered his right shoulder, meaning his shield wasn't going to be up for much longer. He didn't have time to start the self-destruct sequence all over; sixty minutes would have to suffice. Even with that length of time, he doubted the attackers would be able to figure out the system, release the prisoners and still evacuate the building. A small victory to be sure but at least not a complete loss on his end.
~
Seth saw the CQB grenades come from Surgeon's team and watched them detonate near the warrior. The shield flared but he saw one section that seemed to be devoid of the shimmering so he adjusted his fire towards the warrior's shoulder. At least one round entered his enemy and he was rewarded with a small spray of blue blood.
From there, he knew the fight was won but he was still concerned with what the warrior was doing. Anything that kept his attention on a console rather than being shot at had to be important to the warriors and probably bad for the assault team. A final stab at the console and the warrior backed away from it and entered the fight for the first time since the entry had been made.
Seth could see the console flashing blue, which he knew was bad. The warriors used blue like humans used red: it was a warning, an alert of some sort. The first thing Seth thought of was a self-destruct command. What else was so important that the warrior would neglect impending doom to complete his task? Maybe a full data wipe? Possible but not as likely.
“I know we aren't exactly dawdling here,” Seth began, “but the console that shield guy was working at is now flashing blue. I need to get to it immediately to see what he was doing.”
Surgeon eyed the battlefield briefly. “Cadet, shift your team to your right and lay down a strong base of fire. Everyone on my team, push now.”
Surgeon's fire team pushed forward, coming out of cover and exposing themselves. It was always better to fight from cover if possible but a forwardly aggressive move could also be beneficial. The constant fire from the advancing team caused the enemy to either keep their head down or try to return fire from a horrible fighting position. Also, the assaulting units weren't hampered by trying to fire from a protected position and they tended to be a much more effective mobile shooting platform.
The downside in this particular battle was the warriors' plasma rifles. In a conventio
nal setting, the armor worn by the operators would absorb a fair amount of metal slugs but the plasma tore right through. One of Surgeon's men took a round in the chest and fell dead as another operator stepped over him. Another took a round to the knee and he went prone when his missing leg could no longer support his body. To his credit, the soldier stayed in the fight and continued to fire, effectively, from the ground.
~
The warriors were dropping faster than the assaulting team and they recognized the problem. One warrior took a round to his biologically-armored head and the round skipped away to impact the computers near him. Fighting from cover was safer but every time they peeked their heads out to take an aimed shot, the humans were ready and picked off the warrior.
With the battle obviously not on their side and a loss seemingly inevitable, the best plan was to go on the offensive and fight in the open and up close with the much smaller opponents. The warrior stood and jumped over his covered firing position and made it three steps before his chest was turned into a free-for-all target.
As his wounds expanded, he pulled an edged weapon from its sheath on his back. He was still moving forward at a very impressive speed. He made it far enough to take a swing at one of his enemies but the fact that he was about to die made his swing slow and ineffective. He realized at the last moment that his target wasn't one of the humans but a traitor to the empire. A Nortes was attacking the installation!
The other warriors saw their brother engage the enemy and the effect it had on the enemy’s assaulting line. At least four of the enemy soldiers turned their fire to the oncoming attacker and that left holes in their assaulting line. Enough warriors were left to make a hand-to-hand fight devastating to their enemy. They knew that their commander had wanted them to hold out as long as possible behind cover so it would give the self-destruct sequence more time, but that just didn't seem like the best plan right now.
~
As Seth's team held their base of fire, he kept looking for any opportunity that would let him get to the control panel more quickly. He saw one of the warriors leave cover and try to go hand-to-hand with Surgeon's team; it didn't last long. Then the rest of the warriors surged, almost as one, and entered the fight wholeheartedly with the obvious knowledge that this was their last stand. Warriors who knew they were going to die were always a formidable enemy; with nothing to lose, you had nothing to hold back.
For a moment, Seth's thoughts got sidetracked; he saw no commands or signals given that ordered the new tactic. Did their enemies also have some sort of telepathy? Definitely something to investigate later if at all possible.
“Use your smaller sizes to your advantage.” Surgeon was putting out orders on the company push. “Don't let these fuckers get a hold of you. Duck. Roll. Whatever to get out of their reach. Break ranks now and work in two-man units to attack them one at a time.”
The main assaulting force spread out and started teaming up and in some instances making groups of three. With four arms, the warriors were actually fairly effective against two of the operators at a time. Seth saw several of his friends take injuries early on and at least two fairly fast deaths. Seth was taken by surprise when one of the operators did the most unexpected thing he had ever seen in combat.
~
Shar'tuk saw that this battle was definitely turning against them. They still had the numbers to win but it would be at the cost of too many of his friends. Shar'tuk knew that he didn't have any royal DNA in his bloodline; that would have been discovered before he was even born. With royal DNA, he could've just ordered the warriors to stop fighting and they would but that wasn't an option. However, because the Nortes were the ruling class of the old empire and the warriors were bred to recognize that, he decided to take a chance that he might be able to use that to his advantage.
As a Nortes soldier, he had been given extensive simulator combat training against the warriors his ancestors had created. Without making it seem too obvious, he had tried to incorporate that knowledge into the many training scenarios he had been a part of during the initial portion of the voyage. As he looked around, it seemed to be paying off as the men from his team were doing a fairly good job of standing their ground. But they were still starting to take more and more damage.
Shar'tuk removed his helmet to fully expose his Nortes heritage and he simultaneously ducked under a bladed weapon and added an injury to one of the warriors' legs with his own blade as he passed. Shar'tuk didn't take the time to continue his engagement with this warrior; he needed to make it to a console he had picked out a moment ago. As he jumped on the console, his extremely out-of-place behavior made him a focal point for the other combatants.
“Warriors of the empire!” Shar'tuk bellowed out with all his might. “I am your Nortes master! Lay down your weapons and stand beside these new members of our empire!”
Surgeon, as well as everyone else on the team, looked to Shar'tuk with astonishment. The warriors looked to him and momentarily paused their efforts. Some were confused by the order from a Nortes who they were genetically programmed to associate with the empire's ruling class. Most of the warriors, however, looked at him with hate in their eyes.
“Traitor!” one of the warriors yelled as he charged Shar'tuk. This caused several of the warriors to break off their engagement with their current opponents and join the attack on the betrayer of the empire.
“Shit.” Shar'tuk had in fact changed the pace and focus of the battle but he had done so at his own peril. Luckily, the operators were skilled enough to see the opening and take advantage of it. With several of the two-person teams now disengaged from hand-to-hand combat, they could quickly transition to their shoulder-fired weapons and start cutting down the warriors from behind.
The ceiling in the room was of open construction so there were conduits, beams, and other protuberances for Shar'tuk to grab onto. He jumped and grabbed part of what he thought was most likely a fire suppression system; it held. Pulling himself up into the ceiling, he barely missed the first warrior's swing at him. He knew he was only a second or two away from one of them hitting their mark.
Shar'tuk could see some of the warriors falling to the efforts of his team now using their guns again. He reached to his gear and pulled out a CQB grenade. At this distance to his target, he was risking taking some shrapnel and unwanted overpressure but that was better than taking a sword to the face. He pulled the pin and released the grenade.
If the warriors knew what he was dropping, they didn't act like it. They continued to surge forward, vying for a killing position on Shar'tuk. Their anger and bloodlust actually worked in his favor as they pushed one another and made a couple of potential killing blows go wide and miss their intended target.
Whoomph. The grenade detonated and cleared the warriors from below Shar'tuk. A couple of them were still alive but obviously not for long. He dropped from the ceiling and immediately took a knee as he realized his right leg had taken some shrapnel. The wound wasn't dire but its unexpectedness kept him from bearing his full weight on it.
Shar'tuk took out his sidearm and quickly finished off the warriors who hadn't died in the blast. The fighting was coming to a close as more of the operators were finishing off their targets and joining other groups, making them stronger, and ending their fights faster.
Seth saw an opportunity to get to the console that was blinking blue. There was absolutely no indication of what was going on with the flashing blue warning. He thought that even though he couldn't read their language, a countdown timer would at least have a pattern of characters changing at a constant rate. But there was nothing but characters saying God knows what on a static display.
Seth was vaguely aware that the gunfire had slowed from steady, to a trickle, to cleanup shots as men moved among the fallen enemy, making sure they were dead. “Over here, Surgeon.”
Surgeon stepped up to look at the console. “What have you got?”
“I have no idea other than it can't be good.” Seth tried
tapping a few of the keys on the screen but they wouldn't respond. “They could've called for backup, they could've initiated a data wipe, they could have done who knows how many different things.”
“But I'm guessing you have a predominate theory.”
“Yes. I think it's a self-destruct command.” Seth waved his hand in a frustrated gesture over the console.
Surgeon pointed at Shar'tuk, who was looking at them. “Hey, Emperor!” Shar'tuk looked at him quizzically. “Yeah, that's your new nickname. Get over here.”
When Shar'tuk was at his side, Surgeon pointed at the console. “Obviously your people have some connection with this that you're going to tell us about later, but for now, can you read any of this?”
“Surgeon, I want you to know that I am loyal to you, our men, and the Coalition. I will tell you what I know as soon as we're out of here. It's important to me that you trust and believe in me.” Shar'tuk looked a little more relaxed, as though the weight of carrying around this huge secret had been partially lifted.
“I trust you, brother.” Surgeon put a hand on Shar'tuk's shoulder. “Now, do we have to hug and kiss or something? Or can you get back to work?”
“A hug, definitely a hug later.” Shar'tuk turned to the console. “But for now...” He tried touching some keys and nothing happened.
“The language isn't Nortes at all. Maybe at one time it was part Nortes. I see some characters that are kind of familiar but even if I'm correct about what those words are, they aren't contextually important ones, so I don't know what's going on with this console.”
By now most of the team had started to police the area and look for gear and supplies they could scavenge: Magazines that had been changed out during a tactical reload would still have valuable ammo in them. Dropped weapons. Packs. Anything possibly useful.
Surgeon addressed the team. “I need three people to scout that stairwell and check the floor below. We all saw the faces on the monitors so we know our people are close and I'm guessing below us. I don't think they held any of their people in reserve but be careful nonetheless; be ready for ambushes while you scout.”