The last time she had witnessed the full force of a Thulian attack, Ramona had had the terrifying yet frustrating task of keeping Alex Tesla company in a walk-in freezer while seated on a carton of tater tots. Although Vickie had chirped constantly in her ear, Ramona had remained an anxious and ineffective bystander, forced to wait and see if she would survive the attack. Now, she waited in the doorway for Soviette to point her in the proper direction. If nothing else, she could still fire a gun and provide cover for a field medic.
The Russian woman seemed to have the same idea as she raced through the doorway, combat nanoweave covering all but her hands and head. She carried a small kit on her back and threw another at Ramona before handing her one of the CCCP’s standard issue PP-19 Bizons, Russian sub-machineguns with unique helical magazines. “Chug is waiting for us. You will not engage unless necessary, da? Is to be bringing others back for care, not requiring more care yourself. I would hate to be losing more scissors.”
Ramona felt the butterflies in her stomach fade. “Heads up, Detective, I’m activating your HUD,” came the words in her ear that made the butterflies vanish. Suddenly she had information again; suddenly she wasn’t alone. She was part of the whole. Now she felt everything settle into place. “Okay, turning you over to the Colts. Sovie’s your immediate in-command. I’ll pick you up myself when I’m online. Vix out.”
It hadn’t been fear, exactly, after all. It had been disconnection. She trotted in Soviette’s wake as the CCCP’s doctor collected her rocky protector. There was about to be a battle. She had a place in it. That was all she needed to know right now.
Bella, Bulwark, Djinni, Mel, ECHO Campus
“What kept you?” Bella asked, as the Red Djinni and Mel came hauling proverbial ass from the Parkour course on the other side of the campus. “Stop for coffee? I’ve got stirrers if you take the SuperSize version.” She gestured at the RPGs; there were still a few on the trucks but they were going fast. Red nodded and motioned to Mel with a curled finger. She flashed him a mischievous grin, slapped his ass, and followed him to one of the trucks.
“Overwatch 2 online,” came Vickie’s voice in her ear, as her HUD lit up with a lot more information. She breathed a sigh of relief.
“Welcome to the party, Vix,” Bella said. “I like feeling less blind.”
“They’re almost on you,” Vickie said calmly.
“Can we get an accurate count?” Bull asked.
“Three Death Spheres, trailing…” Vickie paused. “Jeezus clooney… three hundred shock Kriegers. Atsa lotta Nazis.”
“That’s a bit more than we anticipated in our simulations,” the Djinni said as he and Mel joined them, toting their hardware. “We up for this?”
“Well?” Bull rumbled, and looked at Bella. “Are we?”
“As some famous guy at the Battle of the Bulge said, ‘Nuts!’” She grimaced. “No, I can do better than that…”
Her muttering was drowned out by the thunder of the Krieger energy-cannons, and the explosive rounds hitting the blast shields. A couple of the RPGs chattered as a few ECHO Ops returned fire.
“HOLD YOUR FIRE!” Bulwark roared. “STAY BEHIND THE BLAST WALLS!”
“What are you doing?” Bob screamed. “Why aren’t you shooting them?”
“Sir, you need to calm down,” Bull said. “Accuracy’s limited at this range. We need them closer. They’ve got us a bit out-gunned right now. Firing now won’t mean jack if we run out of ammo.”
“But won’t it be easier for them to hit us?”
“Probably,” Red grunted, as he charged his RPG up.
“Not helping, Red,” Bella said. “Bob, you got a wife? Kids?”
Bob nodded. “Three,” he said, and began to shake.
“You just think about your wife and kids, Bob. Think about how happy you’ll be to see them again, and how much of that depends on you staying put, and letting us work.”
Bob stared at her. He whimpered, ducking his head under his arms and curling up into a ball as the Kreigers continued their assault. The energy cannon fire ramped up, bombarding the shield walls until the steady barrage of noise and vibration drowned out everything. Bella stopped shouting orders, resorting to hand signals as she rallied her troops around her. Vickie’s constant stream of audio cut out, and was replaced by a scrolling mess of intel that streamed up the edge of Bella’s HUD. Bull took occasional glimpses around the wall, each time looking back at Bella and shaking his head. Bella fretted. She wasn’t the patient sort. Every nerve was screaming for action, but for this to work they needed those murdering monsters closer… closer…
She chanced a look to her right. Mel knelt at the ready, her fingers locked firmly in place on her ordnance. Bella noticed she was shaking, ever so slightly. Mel had passed any test they had thrown at her and was declared fit for duty, but Bella still had her reservations about it. The girl had lost her powers, after all. Bella wondered how she would feel if she had lost her empath abilities? None too eager to jump into battle, perhaps. Mel caught her gaze, offered a smile and nodded. The girl had courage, Bella had to give her that. She glanced to Mel’s right, and noticed the Djinni beaming at her, his grin evident even through that stupid scarf of his.
She caught herself laughing, again. In the thick of battle, under a barrage of enemy fire, and she was laughing. She felt an odd calm fall over her, an absurd sense of security, a certainty that they were going to be just fine.
Bull snuck another peek around the wall, glanced back at her, and nodded.
Bella flashed an open palm in front of her face, clenched her fingers into a tight fist, and pointed up. The stream of intel on her HUD came to a halt, and was replaced with a single word.
Roger.
No one heard the launchers rise up from their hidden nests, they couldn’t over the sounds of the Kreiger onslaught, but as they rose by the dozens from behind the gate and from caches hidden in groves of trees that littered the landscape, the ground trembled, vibrating with the action of the huge gears raising the machinery. The Krieger energy cannon barrage stuttered, then came to a halt, as the advancing army realized they were completely surrounded by giant launchers, fully loaded with rows of gleaming RPG warheads, pointed directly at them.
Bella stepped around the blast shield, and grinned at them. The launchers all began to fire at once; the air was filled with contrails and the shrill whine of the rocket motors as the ordinance flashed out to crash into the enemy. At first the Kriegers didn’t seem to care; they were supposed to be invulnerable to damn near anything, after all. But these RPGs weren’t conventional ordnance…and the Kriegers started to notice very quickly.
“Yippie ki-yay motherfuckers!” She bellowed, as her launchers began to tear into them. Over the sudden din of screaming rocket launchers and dying Kreigers, Bella winced and scratched at her head, annoyed. “No, can’t pull that off. Maybe something from Tarantino…”
John Murdock (CCCP)
“Murdock!” came the voice—disconcertingly from inside his ear. “Heads-up! Two big birds incoming, your 9 o’clock, fast and low.” Also in his ear, but muted, was chatter from her Russian counterpart, Gamayun. Presumably she was saying the same thing in her native language. His HUD lit up, again with more information, just a little disorienting. He still hadn’t gotten used to the fact that this stuff was all implants.
“Guns up! Here they come!” Everyone tensed in anticipation, staying low behind the short walls that topped the roof. John squinted in the direction that Vickie had told him the enemy was coming from; one moment, he saw what looked like two tiny dots in the distance. The next moment, there was a deep, thrumming hum that shook him to his bones, accompanied by a sick-feeling in his gut. He’d read that whatever propulsion the Thulian Death Spheres used caused that, but this was his first time—that he could remember, at least—ever experiencing it. The spheres had skimmed over the roofs of buildings as they made their approach; one near the street in front of the HQ, and one directly over the destruction
corridor behind it. Before anyone could track the Spheres with their weapons, they had already gone. There was a flash of flame and wings, following behind the Spheres; not as fast, but definitely in pursuit. The “angel,” was all that John had time to think. Less than a second later, however, there were very loud thumps and crunches coming from the ground.
“Air drop!” Mamona was pointing over her side of the building. John scanned the street in front of HQ and almost immediately spotted what had caused the noise; Krieger troops. Ten of them, all in powered armor. They were located approximately two blocks away from the HQ.
“Ten on this side,” he called out, igniting fire around his hands after doing a final check on Rusalka’s launcher to make sure it was loaded.
“Same here!” That was Corbie, the ECHO meta. Let’s see how this ECHO responds under pressure.
“This is Molotok. Ground units in position, rooftop is instructed to hold fire until after we engage. We will draw them in, tovarischii. Out.”
“You heard the man. Wait until they’re committed an’ fire on my mark. We’ll see if these new toys work.”
The Krieger armored troops had reformed after touching down. Two squads, a modified wedge formation for each; all the troopers had line of sight to shoot past each other without much danger of friendly fire. Judging by the helmets, the team leaders were in front of each squad. Suckers are looking to be real heroes, leading from the front. Good luck with that, boys. The Kriegers weren’t using cover, simply advancing down the street. John saw Rusalka lick her lips in anticipation; she was as eager for this as he was. The rest of the team looked just as ready; they’d need to be. He was going to be juggling coordinating all of them, firing at the Kriegers, spotting targets, and raising the temperature when the time came.
“Ground team, engage.” Molotok again. His order was followed by loud and short barks from assault rifles on either side of the building. From John’s vantage point, he could see where Molotok and Thea were hidden behind a hardened barrier; their shots were sparking off of the armor of the Kriegers, but had little other effect. The troops marched methodically down the street, still unconcerned. They probably think that they’re engaging all of what’s left at HQ right now. The squad was just over a block away when Thea popped up from behind the barrier; this time, she had a rocket launcher on her shoulder. The squad leader in front stopped, bringing his men up short behind him. Before he could give a command or raise a weapon, a rocket screamed towards him. It was a perfect shot.
The warhead hit the center of the Krieger’s chest, crumpled, spraying thick gel everywhere before the pieces rained to the ground. The Krieger was stunned for a moment, then appeared to laugh; even from the roof, John could hear the amplified and ugly laughter, first from the squad leader, then from the rest of his men as he turned to face them. As soon as he had turned back around to face the CCCP’ers, another rocket impacted; the rockets themselves were only marginally accurate at distance, so this one struck him in the shoulder.
These rockets were new; a fusion of tech from ECHO along with one of the inventions left behind by the late “fire-breather,” Zmey. He had been a tinkerer in the CCCP, and had died in the battle for the annihilation of the North American Thulian HQ. His legacy for destruction lived on, however. The second warhead exploded brilliantly; two different solutions, inert when separate, became extremely volatile when mixed. This happened in flight, so that when the warhead reached its target and ignited, it produced a super-heated conflagration. As with any new technology, it didn’t always work as advertised, as evidenced by the first warhead.
The Krieger squad leader was fully engulfed, instantly. The heat generated by the warhead was designed specifically to be high enough to defeat whatever made the Krieger armor nigh invulnerable. As the Krieger was about to raise his arm cannons to punish his attackers, a very tight group of shots hit the face shield of his helmet. All of the rounds went through, killing the Thulian. Still on fire, the suit fell forward, hitting the ground with a loud crash. One-two punch. Let’s see you bastards deal with that.
“All comrades, weapons proven to be effective. Open fire.”
Ramona (CCCP)
Ramona watched the fiery behemoth topple face-first to the pavement. Molten metal flew toward her, fragments of Krieger armor ricocheting off concrete. She threw an arm up to shield her eyes and winced as her entire body squeezed inward. Bits of the broken face shield and earth hit her, making a hollow thud against her arms and torso. She heard Chug rumble behind her and she lowered her arm.
“Shiny,” he offered, a finger pointing at the torn fabric of her shirt. The Krieger armor had embedded itself between black plates that covered her torso from ribcage to pelvis. He reached out a hand to grasp the shard, but his eyes grew round as it began to sink into the plates. Ramona drew a deep breath, and the jagged metal slipped into her skin before she could think to remove it. The skin and metal plating that remained bore no sign of damage, although an oily sheen covered the plates where she had absorbed the Krieger armor.
“Well, that’s new. Helpful, too.” She shared a quick grin with Chug before running back to provide cover for the rest of the CCCP as more of the warheads arced toward the stunned group of Thulians.
ECHO Campus
As one, the ECHO ground troops combined with the heavy support of the enormous Multiple Launch Rocket Systems rained explosive fire down on the startled Krieger shock troops. Bella nodded in satisfaction as her people came out from hiding behind the blast shields, armed their launchers, and opened fire. RPGs flew, alone from shoulder-mounted units or by the dozen from elevated launcher modules, trailing jets of smoke and slamming into the advancing force of metal warriors. Some Kriegers were knocked to the ground while other managed to stay on their feet. It hardly mattered. With the exception of a few duds, the RPGs were doing their job. Fire erupted through the Krieger horde and began to decimate their ranks.
At the rear of the advancing column, the Death Spheres slowed to a halt. Their concentrated barrage of energy blasts on the shield walls faltered, paused, then began to pepper the ECHO forces seemingly at random. ECHO ground troops dove for cover as the blasts scorched the earth around them. In the midst of the Thulian ranks, shock troopers not yet covered with liquid fire began to break formation, scatter, and look for cover. What had begun as a very one-sided assault on ECHO HQ had quickly degenerated into a chaotic free-for-all firefight.
Between firing and loading her own launcher behind cover, Bella noted that all the hours spent drilling her troops for just such an assault had paid off. She watched her ECHO Ops lead their squads around the battlefield with precision, gaining and losing ground to their advantage, maneuvering confused Kriegers into groups to douse with RPG-loaded infernos and bomb with impunity. The mounted launchers laid down a steady barrage of RPG salvos, each taking but moments to reload and swivel to fresh targets before unleashing their devastating arsenal.
At the perimeter of their advancing wave, the Thulian line crumpled and lay in screaming heaps on the scorched earth. The core of their advance came to a halt, like a wave hiccupping and dispersing upon itself. They scattered, caught off-guard in open territory, and returned fire. Bella signaled her advance troops to retreat. The ECHO squads fell back, behind the shelter of the shield walls, popping out only to unleash fresh volleys of explosive RPGs and heavy accompanying gunfire. With little else at their disposal, the Thulians resorted to using their own fallen for cover.
With the ECHO forces retreating behind cover, the Death Spheres renewed a concentrated attack on the Shield Walls, pinning their opponents down. The shoulder-mounted RPG fire slowed to a trickle, and with only the salvos from the automated launchers to deal with, the Krieger ground troops began a slow and disorganized retreat.
“Dean, we could use some uber fire!” Bella shouted into her comm.
“Affirmative, boss lady,” Dean answered. Behind her, a new MLRS rose. Instead of the array of RPGs housed by its smaller counterparts, this
unit only held two. In comparison to the sleek-bodied missiles fired by the dozen, these missiles were considerably larger, sporting enormous warheads.
Bella glanced at Red Djinni. He gave the giant missiles a glance, caught her staring, and returned to reloading his launcher.
“What?” He said with a shrug. It was a good thing they had the Overwatch system; she never would have been able to hear him otherwise.
“No obligatory dick joke?” she asked, expectantly.
“Later,” he grunted, aiming his launcher around the wall. “I’m working here.”
“That’s what she said,” Mel chuckled.
“Firing, keep your heads down,” Dean announced as one of the missiles flew past them, over the battlefield and slammed into one of the Death Spheres. Over the deafening sounds of energy fire, explosions and screaming, they still heard the grotesque sound of a distant splat as the missile discharged enough persistent fire to cover the face of the Sphere.
“Wow…” Bella said in awe. “Pie in the face. If the pie is on fire. And made of more fire.”
“Now that’s what I call a money shot.” Mel nudged Red’s shoulder and winked.
Red nodded in appreciation. “Needs an encore, though.”
As if in response, the second missile flew overhead. This time, instead of a splat, there came a deafening boom as the payload exploded in the heart of the Death Sphere. The Sphere flew back, its propulsion instantly shut off, and crashed to the ground in a heap of smoking and twisted metal.
“Yeah, that’ll do,” the Djinni said.
The barrage on the shield walls fell away as the two remaining Death Spheres retreated. They paused over the burning wreckage of their fallen ally, scooped it up with their tentacles, and fled, leaving the Thulian ground troops to fend for themselves.
Collision: Book Four in the Secret World Chronicle - eARC Page 15