The fourth person covered the hallway as the drop-ship sailed overhead, unleashing rounds on new targets that had appeared.
Dominguez was hit by a couple of rounds, but they hit her chest and magazines. Other than shocking her, they didn’t penetrate.
There was no movement in the cafeteria.
“Clear those counters! I’ll stay!” Dominguez watched the mess of a seating area. She grabbed a sensor ball from her hip and tossed it out, her gun in her shoulder the entire time.
The third member of the stack moved to the first as they cleared the counters; they took down one more gang member hiding there.
“Clear.”
“Move to the next door,” Dominguez said, remembering the other door in the hallway. “I’ll stay here as a link.” Dominguez tossed a table over as she covered the big double doors that led into the seating area.
“Understood.”
Dominguez watched on her HUD as the group moved down the hall and cleared the last room. It was a supply closet and there was no one there.
The group moved back into the room, with Dominguez ready to advance again. Dominguez checked on Pai’s status. “How is he looking?” she asked the trooper seeing to him.
“He’s okay for now, but we need to get him out of here. He caught a round to the lower neck, tore up his neck. I’ve got a tube helping him breathe right now. The nanites and his suit’s systems are helping him but he’s losing blood internally still.”
“Shit.” Dominguez got on the main channel back to the second lieutenant. “Top, this is support section. One of my people got a nasty hit. We need a med-evac.”
“Understood. You aren’t the only one. I have a med-evac coming down in the open area before the apartment. You’ll need to get him there. The evac is coming in ten minutes,” the second lieutenant said.
“Right.” Dominguez wanted to send someone with Pai, but she knew that Phillips didn’t want to have her at the front anyway. She could take Pai back to the med-evac point, take pressure off her security detail and they could continue fighting through the slums.
“We’ll be there,” she promised. “Get him on my back,” she said to the trooper tending to Pai.
“Got it.” Pai’s armor kept his neck, head, and back straight as the trooper magnetically locked his back to Dominguez’s.
She grunted, getting to her feet. “All right, keep advancing and clearing. I’ll be back soon.”
Dominguez moved to the door that they had entered through. She checked the outside as her NIAI gave her a route to the med-evac point.
She set off at a jog, her weapon up and ready in her shoulder as she moved. She ran through the alleyways and ducked under coverings as she jumped over the open sewers.
She crashed into a wall, using her body to take the impact. She pushed off with her shoulder and ran toward the evac point.
“Friendly coming in!” she yelled as she neared the troopers who were covering the square from the rooftops.
“Cleared!” a trooper yelled, shifting their aim off Dominguez and toward the rest of the city.
Fighting could be heard off in the distance. Artillery was nailing down positions and drop-ships were running in support. Explosions from the missiles could be heard as well as the heavy cannons that punched through enemy positions.
Dominguez got to the evac point as the drop-ship was coming in.
The buildings in the area had been blown away by the troopers to clear the landing zone.
There were three other wounded looking to board.
The ramp came down as the drop-ship was coming in to land. The troopers ran up the ramp with their loads before the drop-ship was even fully on the ground. Dominguez ran in after them. Troopers helped peel Pai from her back and get him locked into a stretcher on the drop-ship. The medics moved to check on them as the troopers ran off the craft.
The ramp was already going up as the drop-ship rose once again.
When minutes were the difference between living or dying, the drop-ship didn’t have time to stick around.
Dominguez moved to where a bunch of troopers congregated and pulled up information on her NIAI.
The platoons were out and disrupting the gangs’ advance, pinning them in place and bringing down the heavy guns and drop-ships on top of their heads as they advanced into contact again and again.
The artillery had leveled the gangs’ headquarters that had tried to attack the Westerly Three Complex Crew.
The slums were in chaos.
The wasps from the different cities were still trying to get the drop-ships, but they were running into a solid wall as roving wings of drop-ships covered the containers heading up. Still, they were taking losses here and there as some of the forces on the ground were sent on recover or destroy missions to get drop-ships or containers that had been hit and dropped to the ground.
With the Westerly Three Complex Crew hitting the gangs hard and fast, the gangs were off-balance and they didn’t have anywhere to return to. Seeing the destruction coming down on them, the morale of the gangs deteriorated as the “broken” Westerly Three Complex Crew charged out at them.
They weren’t Maraukians; they wanted to live. Facing the Westerly Three Complex Crew was a bad idea.
If they had waited to hit the gangs, then they would be surer of their victory. Hitting in a storm of action, even if the gangs were a threat, their people—unprepared and unsure—were in disarray.
Still, it was not without its losses. Fighting in close quarters was never fun. It needed high communication skills, and also knowing all of the people around you. Then there was no way to factor in what the enemy would do, where they would come out from or launch an attack from. You were fighting in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree battlefield with only yourself and your support to rely on. As it had happened with the platoon she was embedded in, it was easy to see them getting cut off and hit from directions that they didn’t expect.
Though they had the training to deal with this and they had lived in the slums most of their lives, the gangs only had their own experiences and weren’t good working together. In urban combat, they might get a few hits in here and there but it wasn’t enough to stop or halt the advance.
The battle on the ground was going well, but the one in space had just started.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
VCF Novum
Earth Orbit, Sol System
10/3556
Lela waited on Archibald’s command. There were thirteen vessels in total that looked as though they wanted to go toe-to-toe with the freighters.
They had taken two hours to get themselves organized, moving so that they had a better position. This time wasn’t to be wasted as the drop-ship forces were built up around the freighters while other drop-ships moved from the Westerly Three Complex Crew bases and then hurtled back down toward the planet, hauling up containers that the automated tugs quickly slotted into place.
The anticipation was killing her as she could only watch the ships finally starting their approach.
Around them, fast craft had at least something that could act as a weapon.
“Let them come in closer, then we’ll shut the door on them,” Archibald said to Lela.
“Clear the skies,” Lela replied.
“Quite,” Archibald said with approval.
The freighter’s bellies were to Earth, where the drop-ships and tugs were trading containers. They were staggered one below the other to cover more of the space, their sides facing the thirteen ships.
“Well, looks like they don’t clear very well,” Lela said to herself as she checked the plot. The two inter-system freighters had gone around Earth in opposite directions, and were now drifting toward the flanks of the advancing ships.
The thirteen ships started to fire their weapons. They were meant to enter atmosphere and had most of their weapons facing forward. This gave them a smaller profile, but it also meant that they were coming head on into the bows of the freighters that could employ all
of their cannons.
“Activate fire plan!” Archibald said.
The mega freighters started firing together. Cannons and missiles launched in waves, shaking their massive structures, even at the heart of the freighter where Lela was looking around her chair. Her NIAI linked her into an all-around view with information updates.
The mega freighters shot over and under one another; their shots linked up to make walls of rounds and missiles. It would be impossible to miss them all.
The drop-ships passed behind one of the volleys, speeding up as they accelerated hard.
The corporation ships fired their cannons and missiles in no kind of order. Not firing on one another could be said to be a good cooperation between the corporations.
Their weapons fire clashed in space, leading to silent but brilliant explosions. The VCF’s fire landed first; the cannon rounds were first, slamming into the ships as the wave of missiles came afterward.
The close-in defense systems that were still operational started firing on them, leading to explosions before they started igniting themselves. Their powerful blasts shook the ships and one took an explosion right on the nose. Its interior was opened up as the bow and its guns disappeared.
Rounds and missiles poured in down the length of the ship before its reactors and systems couldn’t take it anymore; the ship started to break apart, with the nuclear reactor burning through the ship.
Something ignited and created a small explosion. Then another ripped the ship apart and sent its shining parts across Earth’s atmosphere.
The light ships didn’t even survive being hit by those large rounds or some of the close explosions from the missiles.
The drop-ships came in like predators hiding behind the volleys of weapons fire that softened up the corporations’ forces.
Their weapons were already firing, trying to take out missiles before they passed through to the mega freighters.
At these ranges, it was practically tooth and nail in space, with little time to react to the other’s moves and attacks.
Drop-ships around the freighters and the containers handover point opened up with what they had to take down the remaining firepower that was aimed at them.
The rounds and missiles from the corporations’ vessels hit the freighters. They were shaken up; the containers were holed and a few of the weapon system holding units were torn apart.
Close-in defense systems worked together to mutually defeat the missiles. Only a handful got near enough to make the freighters shake slightly.
The cannons and the missiles launched continued to make the mega freighters shake as the input fire plan continued to throw out volley after massed volley of fire down the corporations’ ships’ throats.
The drop-ships descended from behind the volleys they’d been using for cover. Their missile pods lit up again and again as missile after missile peppered the corporations’ ships. Their cannons lanced holes down the sides of the craft.
Unlike the freighters, these ships were outfitted with rail guns from the start and punched deep into the corporations’ ships, tearing them up inside and punching holes through their pressurized areas.
A ship’s side blew out from multiple decks being pierced. The ship’s side blew outward as the true culprit was revealed; water that had been turned into ice came away with the hull.
“Looks like someone wanted a pool on their spaceship.” Lela shook her head.
The other corporation ships had some weapons on their sides but there weren’t many. They were trying to turn and fight the drop-ships, or do something. It was a tactical mess as they were getting smashed from one side by the mega freighters, then they had the drop-ships moving through their formations, raking them with fire before shooting off and another volley of fire coming in.
“Looks like our support has shown up,” Archibald said.
Lela shook in her seat as a missile too close for her liking went off. “Fucking nukes.” She swore, looking at her plot as the two freighters revealed their true colors. Panels blew away as cannons ran down the length of them. These freighters had been built with weapons in mind. Catching the corporation vessels in enfilade fire, they unleashed one volley before rotating to bring their other side to bear, firing. It then rotated around to fire the other side; one side reloaded when the other was firing, bringing down wave after wave on the corporation vessels, hitting them right in the side and rolling through them.
As ships lost their ability to maneuver, Earth was more than happy to claim them as gravity drew them down and away from the battlefield, into the fire of the drop-ships that were looking over the handover point.
Lela looked on as the corporations’ fragile alliance came apart and the crews tried to save themselves. But there was nowhere to go.
Ships ejected out life pods as they were rocked with explosions and hits.
The corporations’ ships, the fact they’d never fought in space before, the way that their ships were built to chase other ships instead of a stand-up battle and their inability to work together: they were small things but together they made huge holes that the Victor Corporation forces had taken advantage of.
It was a total defeat. Chaos and pandemonium ruled the ships as they were being torn apart.
“We hold the heavens, skies, and the ground. Now time to get the fuck out of here,” Archibald said.
“Four hours in. We have another eleven to go before we’re totally loaded,” Lela replied.
“Well, I hope they can speed things up. The more time that our enemies have to think of something, the more likely we are to get fucked,” Archibald said.
“We can move the drop-ships that were protecting the freighters and those attacking down to assist on the ground,” Lela suggested.
“See to it,” Archibald said.
Chapter Forty
Freighter 7-318
In Transit to Sacremon Actual
10/3556
Everything on their journey was going to plan. They had a full cargo bay and were due to reach the habitated planet Sacremon Actual in a few months. There was a lot of waiting around on this route, but he didn’t mind that for once. This was a nice break compared to the other routes.
While everything was ticking over for a change, he sat back and waited for the system to update his actual pathway in.
“Captain.” His communications officer spoke up, nodding over to the helm as well.
Captain Vayle looked toward his officer and raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”
“We’ve an interesting set of readings heading toward Sacremon. They just hit the system a few hours ago. They’re huge, whatever it is. Maybe an asteroid or tail end of a comet?”
“Pass it over. I’ll take a look,” Vayle said. But from the look of his officer, there was something else to this.
When the information came over, he read through it. There were four huge blots on their visual scans of the system. Thinking carefully, he brought up the databases and, working with his NIAI, he finally managed to track down what he needed.
“See if you can patch me through to the nearest carrier. In fact, just any carrier.”
“Captain?”
“They’re Maraukian barges, Adams. They’re in trouble, and they need to know.”
Captain Vayle ignored the “Fuck” that came from his comms officer, but all eyes turned to him when the carrier’s communications officer came on the line.
“This is the Dumle. Can we help you, Captain?”
“This is Captain Vayle of the Freighter 7-318. We’ve just come into the region for Sacremon and have scans of four Maraukian barges.”
There was silence over the comms and then another voice. “This is Captain Horalise. Please send your scan results over.”
“Of course, Captain.” Vayle indicated to his officer and within a moment, the young man replied with, “Package sent and received, sir.”
There were a good few minutes, and all Vayle could hear was the pounding of his own heart. Th
ey were a good distance from the main planetary systems for Sacremon itself. But he’d no doubts that these horrendous creatures were headed in for the kill. They were going for Sacremon itself.
“Captain Vayle, thank you. We can confirm that we have the Maraukian barges in our sensor range.”
Vayle stood and quickly made his way to his office at the back of the room. With a thought, he changed their comms channels and moved to a secure and private net. “What are you going to do, Captain?”
Horalise’s voice came across calm. But Vayle had no doubt in his mind that the man was panicking like mad. “I’m going to put out a major distress signal and hope the hell someone can help them. If those ships carry as many as they’re rumored to, without the backing of the legion or anyone, Sacremon is doomed. There’s no way for them to win against those monsters.”
Vayle stopped before his chair and plonked down into it, bringing up the images of the planet they were due to land on in less than a few months. “How many people are down there?”
“Approximately twelve million citizens, over the various cities. Maybe another few million in ships around the system and in mining facilities. If the Maraukians hit, most of them would be affected over the course of the incursion.”
“Can we do anything?” Vayle suddenly felt helpless, and for the sake of his own crew, he needed to make a decision. They had only two choices: to continue to Sacremon and land where the Maraukians weren’t, or to turn and head somewhere else, depending on their resources on board. They were in desperate need of some products, maybe some they couldn’t do without.
“No,” Horalise said. “There’s nothing you can do. If possible, reroute. You need to find a different system. Don’t come any closer. But, do help get the word out. There’s a lot of people who are going to suffer if they hit Sacremon. They’re the largest food store planet in this known system.”
That was it then—decision made. “Good luck, Captain.”
“Thank you, and good luck to you also.” Horalise cut the comms.
Enemies on All Sides (Maraukian War Book 4) Page 16