Rumors of Wars: The Askirti Chronicles - Book 2

by Danny A. Brown

  “The ARNS Hania has taken over coordination of the battle from the Mars,” Tabitha said, clearly displeased to be continuing this campaign from a shuttle, and no longer being at the heart of the battle network.

  “What I want to know is how we missed this?” Jackie said. “Pari? Those planetary defenses are beyond what anyone has, any explanation?”

  Over the pinnace speakers, Pari spoke, “It is possible the Zikars had a technological breakthrough in the area of beam weapons.”

  “I don’t buy it,” Jackie responded.

  “Me neither. It is also very possible they discovered it from one of the empires that were before.”

  It was a well-known fact that mankind had advanced to the stars only to be reduced to primitive type conditions multiple times. It was thought this happened no less than seven times and as many as twelve. For some unknown reason, once humanity reached a certain technological threshold, it was all taken away. The evidence of prior civilizations were all around them. Pieces of starships floating around dead orbits, obliterated cities and moon bases from times past. Ancient ships and shuttles that had been heavily damaged laid on the ground in the deserts and forests.

  Knowledge was lost, industrial capacity was lost, large segments of populations were lost. Mankind had been reset from a space faring race to hunters and gatherers, and it happened again and again.

  It was conceivable the Zikars had found this beam technology from a predecessor empire, but only recently learned enough of its secrets to reproduce it.

  “Okay, I can buy that,” Jackie said in resignation. “What I want now is we continue pounding military targets from orbit, but it is time we put boots on the ground.”

  Not taking any more chances, Jackie gave the orders for close air support for invading forces.

  Immediately the dreadnoughts in orbit launched every fighter they had, and the Commonwealth carriers launched theirs too, six thousand AI-powered Bolzen fighters each.

  The Bolzen fighters were designed to be used both in space and inside an atmosphere. The AIs were all ace pilots, programmed to learn from the best, they each might not be able to be the absolute best, but all of them would easily qualify in the top ten percentile of fighter pilots.

  Now that the air support was en route, the twenty-two heavy transports each gave up their load of dropships, and dozens of smaller troop transports with real marines began descending. Every MAC in the fleet began descending as well.

  In all, there were almost two million marines and four million ACUs for the invasion of Canton Prime. A substantial number in of itself, but considering the planet had a population of twenty billion, the allied numbers suddenly seemed so small.

  Chapter 24

  Canton Prime

  Capital City of Cairo

  The skies lit up with laser and missile fire all around Canton as the Zikars tried to fight off the little black ships. The AI-powered Bolzen fighters were very stealthy and highly maneuverable, making them incredibly difficult to hit while they wrecked the enemy’s defenses. Over every major city and important military installation, a great battle was fought for air superiority using these machines.

  The defenders had launched all their atmospheric fighters, all of which were manned, and all very dated. While they were antiques, there were tens of thousands of them. With such large numbers, the Zikars thought they had a chance, but they would never have guessed the invading fleet had an order of magnitude more fighters that were significantly better. Wave after wave of Bolzen fighters engaged the Zikars, shredding the defenders. Air superiority was established only minutes into the battle, and that was using only about half of the quarter of a million allied fighters, the rest remaining in orbit with the fleet in case there were more surprises.

  There were twelve major cities where troops and heavy equipment were being offloaded. Jackie went straight to the outskirts of the capital, Cairo, where a staging area had been established by forward-operating units.

  She had wanted to land right on the grounds of the palace, but it was situated away from open areas that could have served as a staging area. The palace was also very well defended, and they wanted to take the leadership alive, which meant landing somewhere else and working their way there.

  Pain in my butt, Jackie said to herself.

  It was evident to all on the ground which group represented the High Queen. On approach were dozens of MACs, hundreds of Bolzen fighters, and one pinnace in the middle. Technically she had thousands of fighters that were from her dreadnought, but she saw no purpose in that large a number providing escort duty and had retasked them.

  “Admiral, any word from the Mars?” she asked as she stepped out of her ship.

  Tabitha was somewhat shell shocked from having to abandon ship. The last she saw of the flagship, the aft section was missing a significant portion of mass, vaporized from whatever weapon the Zikars owned.

  “I heard from Captain Forseth, enough of the ACUs stayed on board to effect critical repairs. He lost several units saving the ship, but he managed to get enough power to the remaining thrusters to stop spinning and redirect the ship, thereby avoiding a direct plunge into the planet. He did add it got a little warm up there as they skimmed the upper atmosphere, and that it was a close thing!”

  The look of relief on Jackie’s face was palpable. She loved that ship and did not want to lose it, having lost so many ships already in the trap the Zikars set for them. Besides, nobody wanted to lose their flagship.

  It was hubris for me to think I could waltz in here and take their capital world and just roll over all their defenses.

  “He also said the ship would have to be towed to a shipyard,” Tabitha continued, “continued use of the engines is just too dangerous.”

  Just at that moment, Rick and Sylvia approached her in their powered armor. All her Marines were wearing it when the Mars went into combat, as every one of them hoped to use it.

  “Pari, are you tracking ‘His Holiness?’” Jackie said aloud looking at Rick.

  “I am,” the AI responded over the comms, with a bit of sarcasm in its voice, mimicking the Zikar leader’s pompous declaration. “He is still holed up in the palace, located in the northeast quadrant of the city.

  Across the field, a loud noise was heard as the Commonwealth had started up its mechs. Once they stood up, they were three stories in height. They were intimidating metal beasts sporting plasma cannons, lasers, railguns, and rockets. They had dozens of them at this site alone. Ship after ship would offload them and take off again, making room for the next wave. In the next field over, more transports were unloading tanks, looking no less intimidating than the mechs.

  “You can’t seriously be wanting to participate in this?” Rick asked.

  Jackie just smiled at him. Feeling the faint power of the Sevinc on the planet Canton, she had some power to draw from, certainly enough that weapons fire would have no effect on her. She only wished this place had the reserves Wellington had, as she would be able to eliminate the Zikar leadership with but a thought.

  Seeing the glow in her eyes, Sylvia and the other marines with her took two steps back.

  “I’ll be fine. It’s His Holiness who should be worried.”

  ##

  Rick had insisted that Jackie wear body armor, and while she felt comfortable in her abilities protecting herself from harm, she also did not want her soldiers needlessly distracted by her lack of physical protection. At least that was the excuse he used to get her to don it.

  Knowing which areas to focus on first, the ground forces concentrated on the path from the staging area to the palace, which meant, of course, the six blocks to the left and right as well. With the number of heavy units involved in the ground assault, they thought it would be enough unless the Zikars had another surprise.

  Groups of Bolzen fighters equipped with air-to-surface munitions went in first to soften up the enemy ground forces. Their munitions came in several flavors when equipped in the ‘bomber’ role.
The first were incendiary devices that took out light infantry with terrifying efficiency. There were soldiers everywhere scrambling for cover as the small black fighters dove out of the sky towards them. On more than a few rooftops were men with surface-to-air launchers, firing at the tiny black craft. But in doing so were cut down by yet more highly-efficient fighters as each bomber had a wingman specially equipped to make short work of resistance by vaporizing the enemy with their lasers in addition to providing point defense. While the point defense was effective, it did not stop the enemy from downing some of the fighters. But it did not matter as there were just too many of them as the troops on the ground were shredded and burned.

  The second type of munition they carried was the armor-piercing variety, called Wolfpack missiles. When a rocket launched, it would break up into a pack of six warheads, all AI-controlled. When there were multiple missiles in the air, they would coordinate with each other with an on-the-fly hive network for split-second efficiency with no lag time to take down multiple of targets. Lighter targets might get two warheads while heavier units may be the lucky recipients of eight to ten of them. This was demonstrated with electrifying results as the fighters cleared hundreds of armored units from the path before them. Armored personnel carriers burst into pieces, enemy PAUs burned, and every tank opposing them was destroyed.

  The third type of munition were the Pancake missiles, named such because of what they did to manmade structures. These were bunker-busters that could be dialed up or down in explosive force and in how far to penetrate a target before exploding. There was not as much of a need for these, but there were available sorties equipped nonetheless.

  The group with Jackie was not the first to go in, no matter how bad they all wanted it. The first in were Commonwealth units consisting of tanks, mechs, PAUs and ACUs. There was no light infantry in the initial invasion, though troop transports were en route from Commonwealth space.

  While the first defenders were quickly swept aside, there was a situation that complicated matters. Cairo was a multi-level city. That is, an entire subterranean city existed just beneath them that included a transport system capable of efficiently moving troops and heavy equipment around without worrying about enemy air support. As such, many allied units had been sent underground, where intense fighting broke out at once.

  ##

  Rick shivered thinking about the havoc the mechs were making down there, much less up ahead. He was in his PAU, along with the entire complement of Mars marines, which entailed the still-in-training Pretorian Guard and a full brigade of elite marines. It did not hurt that they also had an entire brigade of the special ACUs Pari had created.

  As the column made its way through the city, intense fighting could be heard in every direction as Zikar regulars engaged the allied forces. They passed no small number of dead troops from both sides, burned out tanks and even a few dead mechs. Progress got slower and slower until it finally stopped.

  Exiting one of the armored personnel carriers, Jackie asked: “what gives?”

  “Traffic jam,” Rick responded cheerfully.

  Rick was in is powered armor just to the side of the armored carrier, and just motioned for her to look ahead.

  Up ahead was an obvious kill zone. The streets were narrower and the building taller. There was already no shortage of burned out Commonwealth troops and equipment.

  “Suggestions?” she asked.

  “In the immediate area, they’ve collapsed the streets to the lower levels, making both impassible without going greatly out of the way. Soon, they will do the same just ahead of us. Honestly, we should bring down the building on either side of the street as that is where all the bad guys are hiding.”

  Jackie could help but think about who might still be in those buildings. It did not appear to be a residential district, but that did not mean vacant. She remembered when her homeworld was invaded, and how ruthless the enemy was. There were friendlies everywhere, but it did not stop the enemy. Here, she was the invader. Would she be viewed with the same disdain as the Butcher of Orlando?

  “Bring them down,” she commanded.

  Rick said something in his comms, then a few of the Bolzen fighters drew closer. These were equipped with Pancakes, heavy ordinance meant for just this sort of task. The fighters were dozens of kilometers up and flying straight down. Each released a small cluster of specialized missiles just as they pulled back up. Moments later the shells seemed to pierce the buildings, going straight through them to the just below ground level, followed by a loud explosion, rattling the ground beneath them. Just then, half a dozen buildings ahead ceased to exist, having collapsed onto themselves.

  ##

  Walking through the city was no work at all for Rick. His powered armor did all the work with little to no effort from him. It even had a “cruise control” option whereby it could walk itself if the occupant was dead or incapacitated. It was highly discouraged to use this mode when it was unnecessary, as it bred laziness, and laziness could kill on the battlefield.

  While the marines were geared up for the action, they saw very little of it as Commonwealth, and other Askirti units led the charge into the heart of the city. There was a lot of evidence of action their group was not able to take part in.

  “Sylvia, how’s it going?” Rick asked over his comm.

  “Fine. Honestly, it is a relief knowing that we are not in the heat of things,” she replied.

  “Really? The folks I’ve been talking to can’t wait for someone to shoot at us,” he said with a laugh.

  “Ha, well, unlike your people, my people have seen just how far we have to go and are in no hurry to rush things.”

  Sylvia was referring to the fact she and the rest of the in-training Pretorian Guard were very not ready for prime-time. Even though they each had experienced a lifetime of violence, working as a team in a professional military opened their eyes to a picture much bigger than just defeating a solo opponent in a cage. That and sparring matches between those in her unit versus the elite marines on board the Mars had been a valuable lesson in humility. That lesson was either learned or the person was facing reassignment. And nobody wanted to be reassigned.

  She also now knew that being stationed on the Mars was probably not the proper thing to do as her team needed years of seasoning before such a prestigious assignment. It had been done solely because her father asked the High Queen for a favor, one she was not going to deny him. So, it landed her and her unit here, being kept in tight formation near the center, nearest the queen, and surrounded by those elite fighters that did deserve this assignment. She grimaced in her heart knowing that her team was being babysat.

  For his part, Rick was glad to hear that his daughter's group was not bloodthirsty, and thus far had acted in a very professional manner. Over the past nine months, their training was far more strenuous than that which he experienced. And out of all the trials and tribulations, one thing was bred into this group from day one forward. Discipline.

  “You may yet see some action,” he said to his daughter.

  “Not really seeing it,” she said.

  “Notice how quiet everything is?” Rick asked.

  She took a look around at the clean streets, lacking wreckage, bodies or any damage. It was unusual considering their destination.

  “It is pretty quiet. I just assumed it was one of those anomalies of war. Are you saying it’s a trap?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying! Be ready for anything!”

  Already all the PAUs were set on a hair-pin trigger for “safe kill” which was a setting in the suit that would automatically target armed combatants with its lasers and shoot to kill. Only all the PAUs were all silent.

  Moments later, all hell broke loose. Without warning, missiles were raining down on their position, taking out the leading tanks and a mech on the eastern flank. The nearest ACUs were turned into scrap, and more than a few marines sustained massive damage to their PAUs.

  The missile batteries h
ad been set up as camouflaged automated units on rooftops and behind windows inside office buildings. The “safe shoot” in the armored units never registered the threat as it was looking for the two-legged variety.

  Immediately, the other tanks and mechs opened up with their point defense, taking out most of the incoming missiles, but not before one struck the armored personnel carrier containing the High Queen. It hit near the front of the vehicle, causing it to flip backward, landing upside down.

  Sensing blood in the water, the enemy unveiled the next step in their ambush, the bottom floors of the office buildings on all sides exploded outwards with enemy PAUs. The armored units had used the subterranean network to access this area, and then heavy elevators to lift the units into the buildings above without anyone being the wiser.

  The enemy units struck the biggest threats they could see as missile and plasma fire belched out in rapid succession. Five more Commonwealth mechs went offline, then twelve more tanks exploded as PAUs and ACUs were taking heavy fire, immediately being put into a defensive role.

  As the enemy was coming in with their armored units, Rick grimaced that the “safe kill” option needed to be expanded past just the lasers and incorporate the plasma cannons, as those were very effective against enemy PAUs. He was also not happy that the love of his life was in a vehicle that just became disabled, having being overturned due to a missile attack. The units closest to the High Queen looked like they had the situation and her immediate defense under control, so as much as he hated it, he needed to expend his efforts strengthening his flank.

  “I need close fire support!” Rick yelled into his comms while his plasma cannon barked repetitively at the oncoming enemy.

  Seeing the enemy PAUs close the distance, he activated the swords in the armor, other nearby marines doing the same. Each arm of the PAU had a three-foot retractable blade with an edge so sharp it was measured in nanometers, and a hardness that would sustain close combat with an enemy PAU. No sooner had the blades extended than he thrust them both into an enemy PAU that was rushing him head-on. The look in the enemy soldier’s eyes said it all that death was unexpected. He pulled the swords out of the unit in from of him just in time to dodge another PAU that was almost on top of him. As the enemy lost their footing, apparently expecting to have collided, Rick dove into him, driving one of his swords into the man.