The Vanguard Emerges (Maraukian War Book 2)

by Michael Chatfield

  “Their home legion is reacting well. They’ve been given orders to create defenses.”

  “We’ll do our best to get you there. It seems that the Maraukians’ jump drive has seriously impacted their in-system engines. It will take them three and a half weeks to reach Indalia, the only inhabited planet. It’ll take us a day to reach the jump point to Eypi; six days in jump; a further thirty-six hours to the jump point to Otarvi. Then it’ll be a nine-day jump and eight hours to planetfall.”

  Mark did the math inside his head. “That gives us about a week on the planet before they land.

  “First, we need to get the senators off to the other ship. Let’s exit the system first, then transfer them and get on our way. We don’t want to be pulling them into this combat,” Mark said.

  “I’ll get it sorted,” Carla, Chen’s second-in-command, said. Her hands moved in front of her as she used her NIAI interface to carry out his orders.

  “Now, what’s the situation on the ground?” Mark asked. A link was sent to him from Dodger. He merged as Sarah and he took in the collection of information, including current defenses and the different cities and towns that dotted the planet.

  Mark frowned. This was one of the more heavily developed worlds. They hadn’t been attacked by the Maraukians in decades. As such, they’d started to forget the true threat of the Maraukians. Their cities moved past their defensive lines. Thankfully the defenses across the planet were made to last and were repaired when the Maraukians were last pushed off the planet.

  ***

  His eyes started to feel heavy. The adrenaline and combat hormones had been pumped out of his system by his nanites and fatigue washed over him. His armor kept him standing up straight as the others talked about possible deployments.

  “What do you think?” someone asked. He thought it was Jarek, having Sarah replay the last few seconds.

  “Yeah, I agree with Chyna. We should create defenses along the natural mountainous area. It stretches around the majority of the population. What’s on the mountains or past it, we’ll use to build defenses.”

  “What about the original defenses? We could crowd the people behind it and then fall the city like we did on Gilese.”

  “Too many people in one area—they’d be in the way. If we fell these towers, they could crack the defenses. That’s a concrete core with armorite and polymers overlaid it. Plus, the Maraukians could use the towers and structures around the defenses as cover. With the mountains, it’s going to take a damn lot of effort to get the defenses erected but it’ll be worth it. We’ll be firing down onto them or at them and we’ll have room to retreat if needed.” Mark’s eyes closed by their own will. It seemed his head bobbed slightly before he shook it. The nanites fought his movement as he tried to wake himself up.

  “All right, then which mountain ranges did you think where best, Chyna?” Ava asked.

  The man outlined the ridges he wanted to build defenses on on his interface and it showed in front of Jarek, Ava, and Mark on their own hologram projected directly along their optical nerves. At the same time, it appeared in the main holo projector.

  There were already defenses in place from the last time that the Maraukians had hit the system, back when it had been an outer system, without the protection of the long-range batteries that could lock onto the Maraukian barges and cut them down before they reached the highly populated core worlds of the Legion-protected worlds.

  “The defenses haven’t been updated in ages and they’re in disrepair in different areas, but at least they’ll give us something. The problem is that we simply have no idea where the Maraukians are going to land yet. Hopefully they land on the other sides of these defenses. Most times, the Maraukians come down into open areas, some burrowing and creating a nest, while those that are combat-ready rush out under their herd commanders to find our defenses. Sometimes—and this is a rare occurrence, mind you—they’ll come down inside our defenses. At that time, all of them will fight, clearing out an area, building a nest and their forces rushing out in all directions to tear us apart from within our defenses,” Dodger said.

  Mark looked at the information.

  “Plan for the worst, hope for the best,” Mark said, using Sarah to question the higher-ups and find out different information.

  “Looks like the order has gone out to the people on Indalia. They’re to rebuild their defenses. All of their fabbers and relevant machines have been requisitioned to assist with the building of defenses. Any and all citizens are to pull back behind the main defenses. The legion and auxiliary legion units on the planet have been called to duty. All weapons systems are going to be checked. Many look to be nonfunctioning as Otarvi has been in a passive state for so long that they left their machinery to sit, not paying out the maintenance fees.” Mark looked into the situation. It was clear that these people had come to think that they were invulnerable, to be left alone by the Maraukians for so long.

  “We’ll be able to have support from the Bellonas and Moby. I’m not sure about this ridgeline here, though—if we should push it forward or back.”

  Chapter 15

  SLS Moby

  Otarvi System

  5/3555

  Everyone was tense as the ship returned to normal space in the Otarvi system. They watched as the sensor buoys in the system automatically updated the ship’s systems instead of relying on the ship’s own sensors.

  There they were: the ten Maraukian octagonal ships aimed toward Indalia. Estimated times of arrival flashed on the sensor readouts as the ship’s engines were angling the ship toward Indalia, going for a full burn. Every hour counted.

  The stabilizers strained with the acceleration. Everyone aboard felt a little heavier as the gravities pushed on them. Equipment was checked, forges and the last supplies packed away on shuttles and gliders. In the hour before they reached the planet, everyone was suited, checked, and grabbed their frames. They loaded much more sedately than they had back on Roma, now more nervous as they thought about what was going to happen.

  The suited mergers stepped into their drop pods. Each held a contubernium of eight. They looked like old bombs rounded at the front, filled with stabilizers and a gravity engine; the other end had flaps to stop the pod from spinning around. Without the flaps, the ride was hell on the troops inside. It also allowed the defense turrets on the pod to have a better effect on stopping incoming fire and could be changed out to bombard targets as they dropped.

  Mark stepped backward into the pod. The harness of smart nanites formed to him and held him in position. The hatch in front of him cycled closed, locking as the grav lift hoisted them up and fed them into the drop cannon. It was a massive grav/rail gun hybrid. From the outside, it looked like a narrowing tube attached to a sphere. With its sister gun placed beside it on the underside of the Moby, it made for an interesting look. More than one person had commented it looked like tits on a bull, but much more useful.

  The pod hummed as the grav engines created opposing fields to accelerate the pod. The rail gun also imparted its power on the pod, flinging it out. Mark would’ve whooped if he could’ve spoken. As fast as the pods could be loaded, they were fired from the turrets toward Indalia. Severe g’s that would’ve killed an unmodified human pressed upon the pod’s occupants, the stabilizers whining for all they were worth.

  It felt to Mark as if someone had put a stick in his guts and decided to swirl them around. Then they tapped atmosphere and it felt as though that someone had dropped a Bellona on top of him. The ship had imparted its own velocity on the pods, which was significant as it’d been on full burn across the system. Compared to the stealth ships and cruisers that had come with them, which were swinging out toward the Maraukian transports, they were three times the distance and five times the speed.

  This speed had to be stopped or they’d fly past Indalia, so they were going to burn off speed by using the planet’s atmosphere, using angles to make the most use of air friction and gravity. The gravity engines in
the pods had been working to their utmost as they got a few hundred kilometers away from the ship.

  Of course, although the math worked, it felt like damned hell. Even some modified humans passed out, the nanites straining under the stresses. It was only for a few seconds but the forces needed to put a merger out for that long were damned scary.

  Mark didn’t want to whoop anymore as they circled Indalia, burning more speed, and re-entered atmosphere. At a set height, the doors opened in front of Mark. The harness released and a small anti-grav engine kicked his ass out of the falling bomb.

  Suddenly he was falling away from the bomb. His Thunderbolt unit was attached; the wings snapped open as Sarah was already burning his speed more. He and his contubernium gathered together. As others were kicked out of their pods, they fell behind them in an arrowhead formation.

  “Remind me to add a goddamn warning light. I nearly shit my suit.”

  “Reminder filed.”

  “Good. Taking over.” He extended his hands before him, looking like Superman. There were two ways to control the Thunderbolt. One was by sending mental commands. This took time to become used to but people could theoretically fly without thinking about it once they got used to it. None of the mergers had had the time to do so yet, so they went with the secondary controls. If they moved both of their fists up, they went up; down, down. They used their right and left separately; rotating them in any fashion sent them in that direction. Speeding up and slowing down were done by mental commands through their NIAIs.

  So they Supermanned their way toward the mountain line. Behind them, the gliders and shuttles entered the atmosphere, making for the spaceports.

  On the mountain line, progress could already be seen. If only by the taller towers that sat on it or the raised ground around it. Here and there, armorite fabbers were hard at work, joining the peaks together in a solid wall. But these were tiny areas compared to the huge range.

  “Sarah, commander.” A carat appeared, highlighting the officer in charge: Legate Yousef of the Indalia home legion.

  Mark adjusted his flight with his fists. It took a few more minutes for them to reach the tower, which had been taken over by the home legion, atop the mountain range. Mark entered through a window, adding some new scars to his armor as the nanites ate the shards of poly-glass. His contubernium followed him.

  “Get to the mountain ranges. Work on the worst points and give the troopers places to work on,” Mark said on the general channel. The other mergers split up, flying along the range.

  A surprised and nervous legionnaire looked at the eight towering Phantoms, his eyes wide saucers.

  “Take me to Legate Yousef.”

  He opened and closed his mouth.

  “Evocati!” Mark said, trying to shock the man into action.

  “Yes, uh, follow me, sir.” It worked; the man led them through the building to Yousef, bent over a computer table.

  “What is it? I don’t have time to talk about production schedules. We’re making damned armor and weapons!” the man said over the room net as his NIAI listed more people in the area around him.

  “We’re your support, sir,” Mark replied.

  “Our suppor—” The man never finished what he was going to say as he turned and caught sight of the eight Phantoms with their frames and Thunderbolt flight systems still on.

  “Well, I guess you are. I didn’t expect you to be here for another few hours.”

  “We came in the drop pods.”

  “We thought those were supply pods gone wrong.” He shook his helmet and a smile appeared on his tired tanned features. “Legate Rick Yousef, pleased to meet you.” He offered his hand.

  Mark cranked his suit power down as he gripped the man’s hand, lessening the pressure. The other man still winced at the pressure.

  “Centurion Mark Victor of the Phantom Lords.” He disengaged his hand quickly.

  “Really? Sorry, can’t tell the difference between you guys.”

  “Not many can.”

  The legate nodded. “All right, well, we should wait for the rest of your people to catch up and then I’ll update you on our status.”

  “Sir, I can link them all into the channel with a vid feed. That way we can get working faster.”

  “Well, you’re a regular bag of surprises, aren’t you? Do so.”

  “One moment.” Mark waited until everyone was connected to the net as he relayed optical sensor data of what he could see.

  “Ready, sir.”

  “This is the situation so far.” His hands moved over the computer table, highlighting the mountain range, which was broken into sectors and showed a percentage bar beside each for completion.

  “We’ve got volunteers with armorite fabbers walking across the ranges. We don’t have large fabbers, just small portable ones. Nearly everything here is transported by pipeline or maglev trains, so we don’t have the lift capacity to drop massive fabbers, and if we did, then resupply would be an issue, not having the materials to melt down and lay down.

  “Your gliders can help with this, bringing in bigger fabbers and then helping to supply them with necessary materials. Though we won’t be able to make enough fabbers to complete the work.

  “We haven’t been working on stationary weapon systems as they take so long to make with the forges. We’ve taken the old weapons we’ve got and repaired them as best as we can. There are some we can’t as we don’t have the parts, keys, or expertise to do so.

  “Most of the population has volunteered for legionnaire duty, but we only have a limited amount of weapons and armor as per the home legion agreements. We have old armor, which we’re repairing and suiting some of our people with, as well as weapons. Most of these are bad, though, and will be processed by the refiners for the forges.

  “We have no kind of support firebase. Our old artillery pieces are decrepit and useless. The buildings on the other side of the range have been largely left untouched. The demolition experts we have are destroying them as fast as they’ve been evacuated but there’s tens of thousands of towers. If you could get some demolition people on that, it’d be great.

  “That’s about it. Questions? Comments?”

  “We brought twenty-five forges with us, large fabbers and stationary weaponry. I suggest you keep working on creating armor and weapons for your people. I suggest we spread out these resources and the glides between all of the sectors to act as support. Use the shuttles to bring in resources as needed.

  “We’re going to need landing pads though.”

  Yousef nodded his agreement to this as the computer table shifted as men and gliders were spread across the map.

  “To make the walls faster, I suggest using the towers themselves. Blow them up, take the scrap and pile it on the range and cover it with armorite—repeat the process. It’s not going to be neat but it’ll give us walls.

  “Us mergers are good at fixing things, plus we have a design team. Let them have a look at your armor and weaponry before you chuck it in the refiners. They might be able to do something about getting it back into fighting condition.

  “We have three legions of troopers with upgraded Mars armor. They and our Bellona tankers can take care of the demolition of the towers. I would suggest getting your legionnaires down there with mono-blades and grav carts to pull apart the towers and feed it to the forges, armorite fabbers, or stick it on the walls.”

  “troopers, Bellona tankers?”

  “The troopers are our in-field support units made from EMF personnel.” Mark expected the man to look stunned or surprised. But the man just nodded; accepting the fact raised Mark’s opinion of the man by a notch.

  “The Bellona tankers are mergers like me who have heavily modified Hades tanks. Until they can make their actual beasts, but that’s a story for a different time.”

  “All right, I agree with your plan.” He went on a side channel for a few seconds. The room around them of staffers who had been staring at the conference at the table now w
orked the equipment in the room and communicated to their attached units.

  The slow room became a buzz of activity as people ran out of the room, donning their helmets; others now barked orders into the air as they communicated through their NIAIs.

  “All right, any other input?” Yousef asked as Mark relayed the questions from the other units and were passed onto their sectors’ commanders to come up with a plan of action.

  In three hours, the first landing pads had been made. The massive automated fabbers that stretched two hundred meters long and fifty kilometers high with maws opened to the sky were dropped from gliders, happily coating the rubble piles with warm armorite that quickly solidified. The gliders filled the maws of the machines with materials as legions of people piled rubble over the mountains.

  The troopers were having a great time blowing up towers. The Bellonas, too, had target practice with their beasts for the first time. Yousef had questioned Mark about the ammunition needed for the Bellona, realizing he’d have to supply them with rounds.

  Mark had enlightened the man. With the slow rate of fire the Bellona was firing at, their internal nanite bays could scoop up materials from the ground and create rounds as fast as the tank could fire them. They wouldn’t need a resupply of rounds unless they went into battle, where their rate of fire would quadruple.

  The mergers looked after the stationary weapon systems, emplacing them along the growing wall, hooking them up to generators and adding sensor relays where they could. There were some groups of legionnaires also emplacing guns but they needed a forklift to move it all and they could create the specialized tools easily while the normal human teams had a hard time finding them.

  The mergers triaged the weapons and armor of the planet, being able to bring up the necessary information to fix nearly all issues and the required tools by morphing their own bodies. Mark was overlooking the accel tubes that made up the artillery of the planet.