While lying on my back for a reload, I felt the entire structure beneath me shake. Everything violently lurched to the side and I waited for another blast to overtake me. None came. I chanced one more look over the edge and saw the enemy camp in flames. Fragmentation and high explosive rounds lit off among and above their positions. This sent them into a terrified fury of movement as they vainly tried to dodge the blasts.
30
Far above us on the edge of the rim, barely visible against the jet black backdrop of space, I could just make out the dim silhouettes of our four surviving transports flanked on all sides by the rest of our ground forces. Mortars on the roofs of each vehicle were launching charges nonstop along with the dismounted soldiers who were complimenting the exchange with more grenades and direct fire.
“Cover fire!” I shouted to my team. “We’ve got support on the crater’s edge. Take ‘em out before they can adjust.” I tore a path through the defenders as a wave of mortar rounds landed square on the now-exposed spacecraft, pounding them into dust. That was the last time I would let them push us back. I slid down the shot up remains of the wall and started forward. “Everybody, move in!”
One more time we advanced out from the cover of the outposts, shuffling as quickly as we could while maintaining a clear line of sight. I neared the closest barricade and the mortar fire diminished. A single alien was crouched behind the wall and I dropped it with a burst from my rifle without stopping.
Most of the walls had taken heavy damage through the barrage of shells. Fragmented rounds had emplaced themselves in nearly every surface and were adding to the smoke and haze now hanging over the battlefield. Only blood was more plentiful. I must have passed eighty mangled, twisted corpses before I hit the doors.
About half of the rubble had been cleared out to make room to move some of the fighters forward and I took a position to the left of the opening. From my angle the slope of the rim rose up nearly vertical above me. As my team stacked up behind me the other soldiers started climbing down on rope lines.
“Flashes out, right back at ‘em!” I shouted and pitched my last two flashbang grenades around the corner, waited for the pop and made my entrance. The blasts had knocked a few guards off their feet and they provided no resistance. My team filtered in along the far side of the rubble and opened fire on the remaining survivors.
We kept moving forward as more of our reinforcements joined the fight and quickly found ourselves at the rear of the hangar with two exits deeper into the base. One sat on each side of the bay and I guessed that they would follow around the inside of the crater rim. We secured both positions.
The hangar was filled with alien casualties of all types. The destroyed fighters sat in place still burning by the entrance. Bodies of the fallen were strewn all over. Several had obviously been drug to the side as evidenced by long streaks of blood on the floor. A few side rooms were probably armories, but were mostly now empty. To the rear were some more fighters that looked relatively untouched.
A few more barriers were still stacked along the walls. I sent about three soldiers behind each one and directed them forward to block access from the hallway. They were more than enough to impede the aliens’ access and provide us some additional cover.
With the halls secured I inspected the nearest armory slightly closer. A wire security gate had closed it off but was now clear off the hinges. Every surface was scorched black and coated with twisted metal shrapnel. One of the munitions had malfunctioned and detonated right in its rack. Most of the others looked damaged as well and I didn’t stick around in case one of them decided to cook off as well.
I pulled back to the center of the room and called in my surviving squad leaders. I first turned towards the newcomers. “Nice of you to join us. Thanks for the save.”
“Don’t mention it, sir.” One replied. “Next time it’ll probably be us who need the help. Our comms were jammed the whole time. We couldn’t hail you on any frequency. Otherwise we would have coordinated better.”
Another spoke. “We left one platoon up with the vehicles to provide security. They’ll stay in place unless we need them to move out.”
“Good. We shouldn’t need them to do much more than that.” I acknowledged. “Our bigger problem will be clearing this place out. We’re gonna need to move on both the halls at once to keep them reeling. If they’ve got any more defenses like we just saw, we can’t let them get their shit together.”
The others nodded in agreement.
“We need to destroy the other shield generators so we can exfil and nuke the station. I’m not about to have us go outside and take the rest like these two so we’ll go from the inside instead.” I paused and checked our surroundings on more time. We were still clear so I continued.
“There will have to be entrances to the tunnels that lead out to the outposts. When you find them, clear them out and take out the shield generators so we can get some more support. I’m not letting them keep us pinned down here any longer than we have to. The shields also need to have a source, see if you can find it. Move out.”
I took the lead of the platoon on the left and we started off, leapfrogging fire teams ahead of each other to both provide cover and keep us moving forward. The hall was about ten meters wide and five or so high all carved out of solid rock and polished to a matte sheen. The floor was purposefully textured for traction and numerous lines and conduits were hung from hooks and baskets along the walls and ceiling. We cleared over a hundred meters before we saw any doors or branches.
The first intersection we encountered was a four-way-stop with two passages maybe half the size of our current one leading to the left and to the right. My team split their fields of fire between them and I looked between them. The one to the left sloped downward.
“This probably leads out to the shield generator post.” I announced. To the closest squad leader I added, “Tell the other team what to look for. I’ll take a fire team forward and clear this one.” The soldier nodded in agreement and I was off again.
With six men in tow I led the way down the gently rolling hallway underground and outward to the crater basin. There was no sign of life and we had no enemy contact. Farther along, a thin layer of moon dust covered the floor in contrast to the hangar, which had been clean and nearly spotless. I saw no footprints from our foes in either direction.
It didn’t take long to find the end and the scene was as I imagined. Floor to ceiling was piled with busted rock and rubble from the detonation charges we had placed above. There was still no sign of life or any alien presence.
We hardly stopped moving before I felt the ground beneath me buckle. “Sir, we’ve got enemy contact front and right!” the squad leader shouted through his radio above the echo of gunfire.
“Contact at the junction!” I repeated to my team. “Let’s go, before this place caves in!” I ordered and we dashed back to rejoin the fight.
Going back took half the time as going out and we were quickly in position again. On the ramp were three soldiers who had been injured in the blast with appendages twisted at odd angles. Two more were obviously KIA.
“Sir, they came upon us from both directions at exactly the same time!” the squad leader reported while laying down a burst of rounds before us.
“What did they hit you with?” I asked while looking down at his target. The halls were filled with smoke and rendered accurate fire impossible.
“We saw movement but before we could engage they hit us with grenades, then smoked the halls and started firing blindly. What should we do?”
I shook my head. “That’s not much of a coordinated plan. It sounds more like desperation. How’d we take the casualties? From the grenades?”
He nodded. “Yeah, then Corporal Mack took a lucky shot right to the throat. We paged the medics for the other guys but they’re still working out in the bay pulling wounded off the surface.”
“Dammit.” I growled and let off a few more shots. “Hey- do you have any prox
imity fused grenades?”
He checked a pouch by his magazines. “Sure, right here.” The squad leader replied and handed me a pair.
“Perfect.” I replied and handed one to another soldier to my right who had pulled back to reload. “Here’s the plan. We’ll low-crawl forward until the smoke gets thick then toss the charges down. When they blow, we’ll know we’re close and we’ll run in on foot and take them out.”
“Roger that sir.” The specialist acknowledged and checked the grenade’s arming switch before pulling two other soldiers off the wall and getting in position down the right-facing hallway. I did the same and we started forward.
The rest of the squad behind me didn’t let up on the covering fire and neither did the aliens before us. With every round that snapped past I checked myself for hits, found none, and kept moving until the intersection faded from view.
“Here we go.” I announced and flipped the grenade’s switch to Armed. “Get ready to move.” I added, and tossed the round over my head. It detonated hardly two seconds later and I felt the shock wave hit my chest hard.
“GO!!” I shouted, coming to my feet in a sprint. The smoke now filled the hall but we charged through the whiteout. Coming out on the other side we found just as much confusion as we had left. Three aliens were writhing on the floor. Multiple others were crouched down behind various protrusions for cover. Several more tried to retreat.
I felt one land a shot on my chest but with the armor it didn’t even leave a scratch. I picked off my targets and put my sight on the group escaping. I dropped each with a single shot to the center of the back.
At my feet one still struggled with a few dozen shards of metal jammed in its chest. I put one more round through its face which blew it apart. “We’re clear. Everyone move up.” I ordered.
Spent brass shell casings littered the ground. I knelt down to check one. While not exactly identical, it was very similar to a .44 magnum round. A few half empty drum magazines had spilled from the defender’s gear and I kicked them aside. We really needed to stop doing all of the alien’s weapons research for them.
While I stood guard for the rest of my squad, reports poured in over my radio. An identical attack had occurred on the platoon in the right hallway, with nearly similar results. They had unfortunately been stuck further down the passage and had to return fire in both directions at once.
Outside on the rim, more aliens had mounted an assault on the transports. Another dozen of my men plus a vehicle were now down. All I could do was shake my head. “Hurry this up.” I radioed out to the entire crew. “We can’t take much more of this shit.”
We split our forces again to hit both of the passages. I lead my team farther along until we hit the next shield generator station. I paused at the intersection, saw no movement ahead, and continued along.
Down underground we went one more time. This time the walkway was clear and I could easily see all the way to the far end. The outpost entrance was formed by a wide ramp etched into the stone with stairs carved out along each wall. We were nearly to the steps before I could see up to our destination.
There square in the middle was what appeared to be another tangle of cables leading through the roof, just as we had seen before. Just like before I had seen no evidence of the conduits stretching back to the rest of the base.
We spread out once more and took both sets of stairs at once to cover the entire room as we entered. Rising up we checked the corners, spotted four defenders hiding behind their ammunition crates, and opened fire.
I couldn’t stop the exchange as much as I had wanted. Someone shot low, hit an ammo box, and set off a chain reaction of explosions. The extremely volatile rounds engulfed the room in a fraction of a second and pushed a concussive wave of force out against my team, kicking us off our feet and down the access ramp.
The impact sent my head spinning and forced the air from my lungs. My chest felt like it was on fire and I forced myself to breathe and reorient my surroundings. I coughed heavy and tasted blood. “Everybody alright?” I hacked.
“Yeah.”
“I’m here.” Another waved.
“Who hit it?”
Everyone was still in one piece and slowly getting their bearings back. “It doesn’t matter.” I stated. “Quick, check for survivors.” I ordered and staggered back up the stairs. I led with my muzzle but there was no danger. What remained of the aliens was plastered on the walls, half of which were now missing.
The roof was still intact but the blast was enough to disintegrate the cables clean through. Every conductor was torn and smoking.
My soldiers checked around for anything else of interest but found nothing worthwhile. “Hey,” I offered while digging the barrel of my rifle through the twisted mass of wires, “See if there are any more rockets up on deck. I’d hate to let them go to waste.”
“Yes, Sir.”
I dug deeper, only to find the cables thinned out about 20 centimeters in and gave way to an empty space. “Huh.” I switched to my knife and sawed the metal away, revealing the duct within. “That’s new.”
“What’s that?” a soldier asked, looking over my shoulder.
My eyes adjusted to the darkness. “There’s a ladder here. I think access to the generator was in the middle of the cables.” Swapping my knife for a flashlight, I looked up then down. Above was a massive control board with a large ring of connections to each cable. Below the ladder dropped down at least another fifty meters. There was light and a clear landing. “That’s a new one. Hold your position here.” I commanded and carefully slid down the ladder.
When my feet were just above the clearing, I let go and dropped the rest of the way, crouching with my rifle up. There wasn’t a sound or movement. There was just another hallway surrounded on three sides by the massive bundles of cables leading deeper underground. I moved out.
I saw a clearing ahead where the lighting changed and I made for it. About ten meters from it, the ground abruptly changed. It switched instantly from hewn stone to a black polished metal. I felt like I had just stepped on board a ship.
The room before me confirmed the feeling. A dozen rounded obelisks were mounted in a circle around the center of a spherical space. The hallway switched to a raised walkway that ran a ring around it all.
All the cables were routed and twisted above my head and plugged into the closest obelisk. It was coated with glowing etched runes and semi-random lines, much like what I had seen before.
If they were different, we weren’t going to know about it. I had enough grenades left, so I set their timers and placed one on each cable bundle, checking each hallway for contacts first as I slid methodically around the room.
“I think I found the shield’s source.” I radioed out to the entire team. It’s buried pretty far below the crater floor.” There was nothing but static coming back. I swore. Just my luck. “I don’t know if you can hear this but I just armed it with explosives. You’ve got three minutes, ten seconds.”
I hadn’t finished the transmission before I started off on a run back to the access shaft. Once I was back I checked my watch then started my ascent. Just about two minutes left.
With an extra bit of force I pushed myself around the ladder and tumbled through the hole in the cables. My team was still in position waiting for my return. They had posted along the remaining walls and casually glanced back when I arrived before returning their concentration to their respective fields of fire.
“I think I found the power source for the shield generators.”
“Really?” the squad leader inquired. “Where at?”
“It’s under the middle of the crater, probably a good three hundred meters down below us. I already took care of it.”
As if to echo my statement, my charges detonated seconds later, sending a momentary shock wave through the station around us. I looked back at the other soldier. “I’m out of grenades.” I stated and smiled behind the tinted visor. ”That should be it. Let’s get bac
k into the base.”
We got only a few meters down the hall before I felt another explosion rock the ground and almost lost my footing. “What was that?” I asked rhetorically, as another shook a few fragments of stone loose from the ceiling. “C’mon, let’s move before this place collapses.”
One of the medics came in loud over the radio. “Sir, we’ve got contact in the landing bay!” He shouted across the radio. “There’s another bay on the far end of the crater. They’ve got three more grounded fighters firing at us.”
“Dammit, stay down. We’re on our way.” I replied and quickened my pace to a run. At the hallway junction inside waited the rest of the squad. “We’re under attack. We’ve gotta get around the ring and flank them.”
“That’s not going to work.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, fearful of the answer I was about to receive.
“There’s a dead end maybe another four hundred meters down. The hall cuts to the right and wraps back on itself. The south side of the base is completely separate.”
My mind put the pieces together. It made perfect sense. “Gaddammit, of course they’d do this.”
“Sir?”
“The two crescent structures opposite each other.” I answered, “They’ve made other bases like this before. I should have seen this coming.”
“What do you want us to do?” The squad leader asked.
The options were dwindling. I hailed the entire force. “This is Grant. We’ve seen a change in tactics. What alien forces are still active in the northern base?”
A surviving platoon sergeant responded first. “We’ve got a force barricaded up on the second floor. Maybe twenty or so of them are still combat-able but I’ve only got 26 left myself and no heavy weapons to clear their defenses.”
MissionSRX: Confessions of the First War Page 25