They had a hard time going through the leadership school, but they made it. Both of them were qualified but when Chen got a position, Carla took a rank demotion to be his second-in-command. That command had been the Shadow, where they’d stalked Maraukian planets aboard stealth ships with a six-man crew.
Now aboard the Moby, Carla was happy to be second-in-command. She liked being in the midst of things.
They’d both been scared for their command, but they’d come to know the people under their command and they were finally on their way to achieve the goals that they had set for themselves.
Through the years they were close as brother and sister, knowing the other better than they knew themselves.
Carla didn’t even bother trying to take off her coveralls as she stepped into the shower. Her body shook as the first tears fell, her crying drowned out by the sound of the shower as she slumped down the wall.
The relief, the fear, the tension that had clenched around her heart finally started to let go.
She had nearly lost Chen, and right now the mergers were making their own coffins.
When does it end? When does it finally all stop? Or is this my fate? To stand and watch as those I care for are torn away by the fighting?
There was no one to answer her thoughts and questions, only a cold alarm that told her she had just ten minutes before she was needed on the bridge again.
Carla pulled herself together. She got out of her overalls, putting the dirtied ones in the trash chute.
She quickly dried off using a sonic cleaner to dry her hair. She donned a new set of overalls and checked her braid. After a quick check of how she looked, she went for the door.
She let out a deep breath, shaking her hands and gearing up for what was next.
She pressed the button next to her door and walked out in the corridor, headed back to the bridge.
***
“Supply launch five is away,” the sensors officer said as the bridge doors behind Carla closed.
She looked at the screen that was tracking the supply drops. They took a curving path around the planet Indalia before breaking atmosphere and heading for the city of Edani.
“Chief.” Travestki stood from the command seat that had been cleaned of blood.
The air vent had been covered once again and the coppery smell of blood had been removed.
Carla looked from where Chen had been lying to Travestki. “How did the launch go?” She moved next to him.
“Launch was good. It was filled with straight ammunition blocks for the mergers’ M20s. They might burn through a lot of ammunition but at least it is simple. Helm, how is our heading looking?”
“We’re good to go, sir,” the person at the helm said.
“Very well. Take us back toward the debris field,” Travestki said.
“Aye, heading for the debris field.” The officer at the helm took control of the ship and pushed them out of their launch position.
Once there, they would only get one more pass to gather what they needed. Then they would move to another launch point to support the mergers on the ground.
“Anything from the engineers?” Carla asked.
“Seems that they’ve really sped up the refining and break down the process—they’re just eating through materials down there. Gomez found a heat-resistant coating that might be applied to our medium-sized rail gun rounds. With the coating, we might be able to fire the rounds into the planet’s atmosphere without them getting too messed up. They won’t be as powerful as our larger rail guns, but they take a lot less material to make. I gave the order to cannibalize all of our smaller, point defense rounds, anything that we don’t need to survive and half of our large rail gun rounds,” Travestki said.
“Good work,” Carla said.
“Chief Carla has the bridge,” Travestki said.
“I have the bridge.” Carla moved to take the command seat while Travestki moved back to his station.
People started to filter into the bridge a bit afterward. Carla passed orders to bring everyone to readiness once they made it into the debris field. She wanted to secure as much debris as possible.
Chapter 33
Edani City
Indalia, Otarvi System
8/3555
Evan slumped down against a wall. Polwell sat next to him. The two of them didn’t say anything as they looked over the city Edani. It had been turned into a barrier to stop the Maraukians. Smoke appeared here and there from fires that had been started. The mergers didn’t have time to care about the fires so they let them rage as they continued to work.
Evan and Polwell were on overwatch.
Polwell raised his arm. Several rounds shot out from his barrel; a few kilometers away, a group of five Maraukians was torn apart by the rounds.
Evan’s helmet unsealed and he pulled it off his head.
He still looked like the handsome man who had joined the legion to follow his adoptive father’s footsteps, taking the chance to extend his enlistment as he found a place that gave him more purpose than just living on a farm.
Polwell took off his helmet as well, looking like the ugly scrunt who had joined up for his regular enlistment and instead of using his family’s connections, stayed on the front lines. He went into the military as a calling, instead of a place to gather a few merits, look good for the company, and then get back to trying to run the corporate ladder.
They were not what someone would call normal friends, but here they sat in some foreign world, creating a death trap for the Maraukians.
“I think I’ll have a nice, slow stewed steak today,” Evan said.
“Hmm, old-fashioned mac and cheese right from the oven.” Polwell retrieved a pack of cigarettes from the nanite layer around his neck and, putting a cigarette in his mouth, he offered Evan one but he waved it away.
From the sensors that were dotted across the city, they could see everything that tried to make it down the hills.
Evan’s NIAI dialed in the range and accounted for the atmospheric changes.
Evan’s M20 folded out as he turned off his hearing and allowed his NIAI to take over targeting. He watched with one eye as his M20 fired; silver rounds appeared in the sensor’s vision a few moments later.
The rounds struck the ground and the Maraukians, raising dust more than anything. Evan changed to heat, seeing the Maraukians slumping over as the rounds took them out.
Evan got control of his arm again and checked the map of the city, and then the different sensor platforms.
“Feel naked without having overhead imaging of the area,” Polwell said.
“Yeah, fucking space legion called Captain Chen a mutineer ’cause he’s getting us ammo.” Evan spat to the side.
“Fucking politics,” Polwell said.
Evan didn’t say anything. His NIAI spotted more targets through his vision, agreeing to fire his M20, and his arm rose once again of its own volition and fired.
Evan was looking around at the mountains and the forest that surrounded the city. “It’s not a bad-looking place.”
Polwell took a few more slow drags of his cigarette. “Ain’t bad at all.”
Others might think that they were talking about the scenery around them—the hills and mountains; they were. Though they didn’t just see it in passing. Although no one had said anything, everyone knew the truth. For the legionnaires and people of Edani to get to Ducharev, the mergers wouldn’t.
They were admiring their resting place.
Evan’s M20 moved again and fired. Evan checked where the rounds landed, confirming the kill. He looked over the city.
He looked at the parks, the entertainment districts, and working districts, the suburbs and downtown.
This bustling city of gray, that seemed to be piled on top of one another, with colorful signs advertising everything one might need, was now a wasteland.
This was no longer a city for the living, but one made for the dead.
Defensive positions, trenches, tra
ps, walls, dirt, and smoke: that was what the mergers had created—a defensive bastion upon the broken buildings of Edani.
Evan pulled out a nutrient bar. It tasted like slowly stewed steak; it even smelled like it.
Evan knew that this was his NIAI messing with his senses but he didn’t care as he happily ate the nutrient bar.
“Incoming supply drop. This is the last one,” Chyna said over the net. There had been fourteen supply drops.
The Moby had gone to the debris field for the second time, gathered and processed as many materials as possible.
Now the mergers’ time was running out.
Supply points had been put all over Edani and their fabbers were churning out more and more every moment.
Evan started to see more targets in his vision. Forgetting the flavor of the steak, he shoved it in his mouth and pulled his helmet on.
Polwell simply raised his other fist. His two M20s angled up slightly as they sent bursts at the targets that were showing up.
Evan, who was firing occasionally with one of his hands, was now firing faster and faster with his two arms as his NIAI started to pick up larger and denser concentrations of Maraukians appearing around the border of Edani, charging right for them.
“I think that they’re coming,” Polwell said over the net.
“What gave it away? The hundreds of Maraukians that are now coming down the hills?”
“Possibly.” Polwell laughed.
“Looks like the Maraukians are here to ruin the party, boys and girls,” Evan said net-wide.
***
“Get to the line!” Mark yelled.
Mergers spread through the city and moved to the hardened bunkers that they had created. They were nothing more than sheer walls covered in cement and slapped together.
“Sarah, get me that artillery park support. Call out as needed.” Mark’s footsteps slammed into the ground, leaving depressions on the torn-up road as he was weighed down with high-density bars to feed his M20.
He jumped down into a trench line. He didn’t stop running as he dodged under rebar and smashed through a support in his way.
He got to the bunker. The firing slits were barely large enough to fit the M20.
Mark wasn’t relying on the sensors that were dotted across the battlefield and on top of the towers to see.
In his vision, it didn’t look as though there was a wall in front of him.
He zoomed in, looking at the Maraukians that were now boiling down the hill. One could clearly see the dirt trail that was being kicked up by the Maraukian charge.
Mark merged; he’d need every advantage possible. The others were all merging as well.
The Maraukians made it to the tree line and were being cut apart by the mono-wires. They weren’t smart enough to stop their charge. They also weren’t smart enough or didn’t have the room to dodge trees, so even as many of them were dying, they were smashing down the trees that the wire was attached to.
It turned into a bloody blue scene.
Mark raised his M20s; the barrels snapped up and locked into place. He ranged the creatures with a few rounds and then sent burst after burst into the creatures.
The line of rounds arched over, striking the Maraukians and pinging off in different angles, adding more dust to the air and dropping Maraukians.
The mergers’ telltale silver rounds shot out in lines. Before the first line had landed, there were already two or three more bursts on their way.
Dust in front of the bunkers was thrown up as the rhythmic discharges of the M20s and the whizzing of rounds filled the air.
“Rounds are incoming from artillery park. Flight time is three minutes.” Sarah provided the trajectories and land zones.
“Update with regular sensor information,” Mark said. With the ranges they were firing at, it was three to five seconds before their rounds impacted the Maraukian lines.
Some of the Maraukians started to stand up to kill, only to find more of the wires in their way. As they stood up, their pace slowed down and they started to group together more.
The Maraukians were predictable and they weren’t smart but still, they were one hell of an enemy to fire.
The rounds kept coming down on them, now with longer bursts as the mergers found it hard to miss.
“BLEED THEM. BLEED THEM FOR EVERY FOOT.” Mark’s consciousness talked to the others. They were working on the optimum target ranges, coordinating fire. Under their fire, the Maraukians were being cut back again and again.
Chapter 34
SLS Moby
Indalia, Otarvi System
8/3555
Chen was still shaky, but he hid it well in front of the medicos and was demanding to be back on the bridge. Still, they were using their judgement and kept him contained.
Although they kept him in the medical bay, they couldn’t stop him from getting updates on what was happening in his ship and what was happening on the ground.
He had found that now he could merge, it allowed him to have a symbiotic relationship with the ship. The different systems responded to him and it felt like an awkward additional limb.
It would be hard for him to control in a short period of time. Heck, there were some systems he could only order about.
In his mind’s eye, he imagined what a ship filled with a merging capable crew would be like. It made him excited for the future. That excitement was dulled as he was viewing the bridge and Francis turned to Carla.
“Chief, the Tenth is now under contact in Edani. They’ve got frontal contact with the Maraukians. The Maraukians are under fire and have entered the tree line, defensive area one.” Francis’s voice made the bridge turn silent and Chen, in the medical bay of the Moby, ground his teeth together as his jaw tightened.
They had saved his life. Hearing about his injuries, there was no other summary that one could make.
Chen dialed in to the sensors that covered Edani.
Across Edani, short lines of silver shot out toward the Maraukians, arching in the sky before landing among the Maraukians. Blue blood flew everywhere as the frontline Maraukians collapsed under the fire.
The fire was calm and controlled, working to inflict the most damage on the enemy.
The battle for Edani had started.
Chapter 35
Edani
Indalia, Otarvi System
8/3555
Thousands of the Maraukians had been killed, but it mattered little when they were facing a force that was nearing one hundred thousand. The Maraukians on the planet numbered in the tens of millions even after their rough landing.
The artillery park was finally in range of the Maraukians and anytime they didn’t have a fire order from another group, they were launching rounds into the Maraukian herds that poured down from the hills.
The forest was being wiped out, the trees torn down and crushed by the Maraukians’ charge.
Bodies dotted the ground and the Maraukians were covered in dirt and blue blood of their fellows.
They were firing back at the mergers, peppering Edani.
With the long flight time of the rounds, the mergers could jump out of the way and move to another location and fire back.
The rounds took a few seconds to reach Edani, but that was plenty of time for the mergers, who measured their reaction time in hundredths of seconds.
The towers were getting the worst of it. The Maraukians’ fire wasn’t accurate but they caught the ground or the towers more often than not and just kept on firing. Glass was shattered and the towers were set on fire, but the mergers kept firing as the city turned into a hell.
Sections of the mountains turned into dust clouds as the artillery rounds landed. Their rumbling reached the city and caused the buildings and forests to shake.
There was no mercy to be found here.
Mark dropped his right arm, connecting it to an ammunition block and raising his hand again. Just as he was about to fire, he got a warning.
He lurched to the
side and started to run. He covered his head as the bunker behind him was hit with one of the Maraukian missiles.
They traveled in a flat, straight line.
Mark was thrown forward. He ignited his anti-gravity flight drive and shot forward as more missiles and weapons fire impacted the buildings around where he had been. The trench shook as debris fell down, hitting Mark.
He passed a few other bunkers before getting his feet under him and skidding to a stop.
The building he had been hiding under was collapsing, raining down bits of the building.
Sarah threw up target information from his new position. He pulled up his arms and started firing.
“The lead elements have left the tree line and are headed for the pits and minefield.” One of the merged NIAIs provided a group update.
The first pits were discovered as Maraukians charged right into them. Those behind them piled in on top of them. As Maraukians charged up behind them, they, too, fell into the pit, crushing those underneath.
Explosions filled the air as mines were discovered, opening up holes in the Maraukian lines.
Hundreds were dying every minute. The mergers could only continue their rate of fire.
“Lightning missiles away.”
Lightning missile packs had been placed across the city. The missiles shot off into the sky, followed by the cracking noise they made as they returned to the planet.
They struck the mountain range where the Maraukians were coming down from the mountain passes.
A large dust cloud appeared as a blast wave shot through the Maraukians and hit Edani. The ground shook and windows shattered under the pressure of the weapons.
Even under the artillery, lightning missile strikes, the mono-wire traps, pits and the mines, the Maraukians’ sheer numbers absorbed the losses and pushed on.
Their front lines were blown up, shot up, and disappeared into pits. There were holes in the herd but if anything, they seemed to become more bloodthirsty.
Mark moved to the side as rounds hit the bunker he was in, making a line through the concrete and sending rounds through the small opening in the bunker.
The Vanguard Emerges (Maraukian War Book 2) Page 21