by Isaac Stone
“Get those heat swords ready,” Bey informed them. “We’re going to surprise that bunch and take them out before they know what struck.” He pulled his own sword out of the scabbard from where it hung.
Harlo activated his heat sword and heard the sound of the other Volunteer’s weapons as they powered for combat. The trench they were inside was dark, but the intense heat of each sword turned every one into a flare. They illuminated the inside of the trench where everyone stood. Harlo gripped the sword pommel with two hands and raised his weapon in the direction of the hill.
Bey swung his sword along with him as he rushed upward. This was a smaller hill that wasn’t too steep. He pounded the dirt with his boots as he and Tulpa ran up it, their swords glowing as they led the way.
The ZR troopers were almost taken by surprise. As the Vounteers ran down the other side, one of the ZR soldiers saw them and alerted the others. What might have been an easy victory turned into a massive close quarters battle as the Ninth Legion engaged the red-suited enemy. The ZR troops had their own version of heat swords and, in seconds, the lower part of the ditch was filled with white hot rods burning through armor. The sounds of the dead and dying echoed through the trench as the rods that glowed collided with each other and sent fire through the sky.
As he’d been trained, Harlo engaged his first challenge with the flame sword held high, aimed at his target. His red-armored opponent held a smaller sword that blazed as well. For few seconds they faced off, and then Harlo swept to the man’s left right above the neckline of his helmet. His opponent tried to engage him, but made a mistake when he allowed Harlo to get his sword inside the his guard. He tried to parry Harlo’s sword, but instead pulled it into his own helmet where it burned right through.
Harlo made a fast turn and completed the move, which sent the decapitated body to the ground. The head rolled in an opposite direction. There was no blood as the heat sealed any wounds.
He saw the flash of a red suit behind him and whirled around. Without thought, he thrust deep into the helmet in front of him and watched the sword burn into the ZR soldier. Harlo pulled the sword back and looked at the remains of his opponent. There was something familiar about him.
He looked again and saw the bag of tobacco tied to his belt. It had been the man he’d traded with earlier.
After ten minutes of intense fighting, Harlo managed to save one of his fellow Volunteers and keep Jack from accidental killing Bey. The battle was over when the last of the beaten ZR’s fled down the left side of the trench.
This time the numbers weren’t so one-sided. The Legion lost nineteen men in the melee and the ZR troopers nearly forty. After so many sustained engagements the Ninth Legion, which started the day with three hundred souls, had been ground down to just under half of its initial strength. It was a little difficult to count the bodies as so many pieces were burnt off the combatants. Harlo helped to pile the dead in separate groups for later identification.
“Command?” he heard Bey talk into his helmet microphone. “We have won again. We will take a few minutes rest, then proceed to the rendezvous point.”
“They could end this madness in a minute if they wanted to do so,” Harlo said to nobody in particular.
Chapter 22
Fifteen minutes later, they were on their way to the next objective when the Volunteers heard the tanks.
This time they knew what to expect. Bey informed everyone the tanks would be arriving to assist in the assault on the fortress. It was a good thing too since the fortress would be no easy task to capture. The armored column the base sent them was needed if they were ever going to reach the destination. Harlo began to realize just how important the ground troops were, as they moved across the landscape clearing objectives that might otherwise jam up an effective armor advance.
“Wait here,” Bey told them when they reached the rendezvous point. “We have the cavalry on the way.” He sat his gun down next to him and turned to look at the horizon.
Everyone else looked at it too.
A line was moving in their direction. From the distance, it appeared to be a tan line that made a lot of noise. This was not the same kind of noise as that made by the gunbikes; this was a low rumbling sound that shook the ground. They could feel the sensations of the noise before it reached them. They felt it in their boots. The ground vibrated and the few piles of dirt around them shook from the rumbling sounds.
Then the line became distinct and they could see what made it up: a row of twenty tanks and armored personnel carriers alongside it. They were low, sleek tanks that moved in an ordered line that soon broke down into a column. The APC’s, all six of them, rolled along next to the battle tanks.
“Proud Mary,” Harlo overheard Karl say as he stood next to him. The Volunteer stared across the blasted landscape in a daze.
“What did you say?” Harlo asked him.
“Proud Mary,” Karl repeated. “The Proud Mary Model Nine. The best and latest battle tank they’ve produced from the Vancouver factory. Those things can drive almost as fast as the gunbikes and hold enough gas to last for days. Each one has a three-man crew and has cannon that can fire a small plasma charge up to ten miles. I’m surprised they are sending them to us.” He stood in awe at the tanks as they moved closer.
Harlo watched one of them in the distance as it hit a trench dug for the Force troops. The trench was abandoned in the wake of the recent fighting and no one was supposed to be inside it. The tank drove right over the top of the trench and barely dipped as it drove over. Behind it came two more tanks, which plowed enough dirt into the trench to make a safe passageway for the APC’s to drive over the top. The APC’s followed behind and used the ramp created for them by the battle tanks.
Soon, the entire column of tanks and support APC’s arrived at the rendezvous point. They stood at attention as the lead tank, flying the flag of Olympia with the banner of the Force Syndicate beneath it, came to a rest in front of them.
The hatch on the turret slowly opened up to reveal a man wearing an officer’s insignia on his helmet. He looked down at the Volunteers and seemed to grin, although it was hard to tell from where they were standing. They could hear movement inside the tank over the idle roar of its gas turbine engine.
“Do you gentlemen need a lift to the Blue Lotus Fortress?” he asked with a smirk in his voice. “We’re headed that way. Want a ride?”
“Why thank you offering us one, Captain,” Bey said to the man on the tank. “You have some room inside those cans?”
“All the room you want inside the APC’s” he responded. “We’ve got enough to take you right up to the walls of that big house.” As he spoke the APC doors began to open up while red lights flashed from the inside.”
“You heard the captain,” Bey yelled at the men. “Get your asses in those APC’s. There’s plenty of room for everyone.”
The Volunteers sorted themselves out by squad and leaped inside the APC’s. Harlo was one of the first inside. He sat down next to Jack, who’d beat him into the vehicle. Two more men entered, part of their squad. Jack was supposed to be the squad leader, but didn’t really want the job.
“Where to now?” one of the other guys said to them.
“The short answer is hell,” Harlo sighed. “The long answer is the Blue Lotus Fortress. Does anyone one know if we can take these suits off inside here?” His bothered him the day he put it on.
“Helmets can come off,” Jack said to him. “The rest of the suit has to stay on. The inside of the APC is decontaminated, but you never know when we might encounter something that could punch a hole in our side.” He leaned back on the bench where he sat.”
“Sounds good to me,” Harlo spoke as he popped the helmet loose from his suit. There was a small hiss noise as the seal broke.
He sat it next to himself on the bench. “So how many are we down to now?” Harlo asked.
“One hundred and thirty five from three hundred who boarded the drop ships” Jack answered, �
�I’m starting to wonder how many of us will make it through the day, much less three months. Is this fortress the only thing they want to take on this campaign or does anyone know if we have more objectives?” He was happy to have his head out of a helmet for the first time all day.
“I’m sure there will always be new objectives,” one of the others said to him as he took off his helmet. “At least until the ZR decides it’s had enough.” He made sure the helmet was safely in place.
“Doesn’t appear that will take place soon,” Harlo replied. “You have to wonder how anyone could have planned this war with less brain power.”
The rest of the men were silent. Harlo realized he was close to crossing a line and kept his mouth shut. The last thing he needed was some commissar pulling him out of line when they returned to the base for a little chat. He wanted to survive and do his time, not be locked up on a brig. The wrong attitude could get you sent to a Force prison in wartime and he wanted to avoid one of those. The best thing to do was stay alive and try to be useful. Maybe he needed to be a better soldier than the rest of them. He could be one, but he sure as hell didn’t have to like it.
Chapter 23
“So do we have windows in this thing we can see out of?” he asked Jack. “You seem to know more about it than I do.”
“Better yet,” he was informed. “We have video!” Jack reached up to the top and pulled down a screen, which allowed them to see the exterior view of the APC from all angles.
Jack flipped the screen on just in time to watch the lead battle tank plow over a length of barbed wire and roar past a blockhouse. The big tank ignored the ZR soldiers in red who ran from it. The other tanks followed in turn, running over the barbed wire as they traveled over the occasional trench. They were far inside the ZR territory right now and could do as they wanted. He watched the torrent spin on one of the tanks in the rear. The barrel glowed and then there was the sound of a concussion as it fired its’ plasma gun. An electric ball of lighting shot out of it and was guided to a long blockhouse on a hill. The plasma charge missed its target, but the area in front of the blockhouse burst into flames when the plasma grounded-out.
Deep inside the fortress a ZR general watched the tanks run amok inside his area of control. He was an older man with a shaved head who wore a uniform of the Zhong People’s Liberation Army. He counted the number of tanks and made a quick calculation on what to do about them. All it would take would be a message transmitted on an encoded line.
Let them have their fun, he thought. They will learn what kind of fun I have in store for them.
The general left his staff chair and walked through his command center. Everything appeared to be in order right now, but it could all change at a minute. All it would take would be one puncture in a line or some problems in his supply chain. The central committee put up with a lot, but he was assigned this job based on his ability to deliver. He knew what would happen if he didn’t.
“Attention Ninth,” the voice came over his helmet which lay next to him. “We have to check a bunker for hostiles.” I want everyone ready and out of those cans in thirty seconds.”
Jack retracted the screen back into its holder and joined everyone else in the squad as they locked their helmets on and prepared. The APC, which moved slowly until now, came to a halt. Once again, the red lights began to flash on the inside and the Volunteers stood in place.
For some reason, Harlo thought of the kraken that got Nea back on Earth. The kraken was the whole reason he’d volunteered for this war, if he was truly honest with himself, even if the propaganda has been a huge factor. Now he wondered if Nea wasn’t the better off one. To be eaten at the bottom of the ocean was bad enough, but to be burned alive in a bunkhouse might be worse.
Yet, he never felt more alive than he did at this very moment. In spite of his frustration with how the war was managed, he felt a sense of exhilaration on being ready to race out at the enemy. He could feel the adrenaline surge through his mind and make him ready to charge. In some ways, he felt like a god that very minute.
Suddenly he understood why Bey and Tulpa put up with the absurdities just so long as they could continue on into battle.
“You guys ready?” he asked the others. Everyone nodded their heads.
Once again, the interior lights in the APC flashed and the doors opened. This time they opened much faster than what he remembered them doing on the drop shuttle. He felt his teeth begin to rattle. Then the doors were far open enough for all of them to leave.
This time Harlo was the first one out the doors. He should have waited for Jack, the squad leader, but he decided to rush out on his own. He stopped as soon as he hit the ground. The other doors were open from the other APC’s. The Volunteers tumbled out, each with their rail gun held up and ready.
“I need everyone over here!” Bey yelled as the Volunteers emerged. They immediately ran to where he and Tulpa stood. Harlo was there first.
“I need these block houses secure,” he explained. “We think the Z-boys have left them when the bombardment started, but we can’t be sure. Who wants to volunteer to go inside and check them out?” A series of hands shot up in the air, of which Bey chose six, which included Harlo and Jack.
“You gentlemen get the one on the left,” he told them. “Turn on your headlamp because neither one of them should have power. I want them flushed.”
“With all these tanks,” Jack mentioned. “I would think you’d use one to blow them up.”
“Oh you would?” Bey responded. “Why might we want to keep them, rocket man?”
“Study?”
“No, we might use them later. Now get your asses in there and see if there are any hostiles!”
The blockhouse was low to the ground to give it minimum visibility. There was only one entrance and it was hard to see inside. Dirt was piled on the top to make it difficult to locate by enemy spotters. It didn’t appear to be built with any kind of longevity in mind, just protection. All the blocks were concrete; they were not fitted together very well. As they entered it, Harlo checked the tuck-pointing on the blocks and wasn’t surprised to see it poor. Whoever built the bunker did it quick and without regard to aesthetics.
Harlo slid in and turned his helmet spot light on the room before him. Men had used it recently and lived inside this place. He could see characters scribbled on the wall and diagrams drawn next to them. He shined the light around and looked for anything. Behind him, he heard the other men in his squad enter the room. They also began to search around.
Whoever had occupied it left the place in a mess. Trash was scattered everywhere. There might be some useful military information in the piles, but it would take a skilled expert to figure it out.
“No one here?” Jack asked. He had his flame sword out, but it was inactivated. The head would be intense if it was left on inside this small blockhouse. Jack carried it more for security than anything else.
One of the other men kicked open the door to a storage locker. Nothing fell out of it. They rustled through the papers inside, but there were no weapons or food. As Bey had warned, the blockhouse was evacuated too quickly. There wasn’t any light inside as the place never had it in the first place.
“So how did they get power in here?” Jack asked.
“This is how,” one of the other men, explained. He held up a package from a battery supply company.
Suddenly, there was the sound of boots on the ground outside the bunker. Harlo looked up to see Bey, Tulpa and more Volunteers slide into the blockhouse. In minutes, the place was crowded with men.
“Did you find anyone here?” Bey asked Jack. The inside of the blockhouse was illuminated by everyone else’s helmet lights.
“No,” Jack responded. “I think they…”
“Good,” Bey replied. “Command just let us know the tanks are about to go at it with some mobile guns the Z-boys brought up near their final lines outside the fortress.”
The air crackled and the sound of the tanks’ p
lasma cannons could be heard in the distance. There were a few concussions, but it was mostly on the other side of the last trench. They could hear the thunder claps every time a plasma strike occurred. Lights flashed inside the bunker to let them know a tank battle was in place.
“What about the rest of the Ninth?” Harlo asked Bey. He did a quick count and came up short.
“They were supposed to head into the other bunker. Hope they made it in time.”
Chapter 24
“We’ve taken control of the final parallel,” Bey announced to the Volunteers inside the blockhouse.
‘And I have some more news for you, kids,” Bey informed them. “We have to hook up with the rest of the army. They were sent across no man’s land to complete the assault on the fortress, after the air assault was botched. As much as I would like to pluck that Blue Lotus on my own, we have to share the glory with the rest of them. And as for you next question, no we can’t use the APC’s the base sent in with the tanks. They have to use them to rescue someone else. It’s been a shit day for everybody on Mars. Now give me a column of four and get ready to march!”
The Volunteers rapidly assembled in formation and waited for the final word to start. Harlo noted their ranks were thinner than they were the last time, but there wasn’t much else anyone could do. He gripped his rail gun in both hands and held it out front, as he began to move forward with the rest of them on Bey’s command.
Harlo marched and looked at his comrades. They were a good bunch, but he wondered how much longer they would all survive. Perhaps it was better to go out with a gun in your hand than with a tentacle wrapped around your waist. You ended up dead just the same.
Another hour passed. They saw the combined forces of the regular Olympian side as the Volunteers began to march up to them. The Ninth had successfully traversed through enemy territory to reach friendly dirt for the first time since the day began. The fortress loomed bigger than before and Harlo realized they were right in front of it. This was the last set of opposing trenches before being at the walls of the fortress itself. There was no barbed wire across it and he could see the blasted ground from countless plasma strikes. He checked both his rail gun and heat sword to make sure they were charged.