The Vanguard Emerges (Maraukian War Book 2)

by Michael Chatfield

  He pushed the thoughts away as more comms came in for ammunition and supplies. No, he had to concentrate on those; the mergers needed that—not some souped-up, even more crazy old man.

  Chapter 57

  Edani

  Indalia, Otarvi System

  8/3555

  “I will rip your skulls off and feed them to you!” Ava yelled. Her right arm had blocked the missile but it had destroyed her M20 and her lower arm. Only pieces were left. She slammed into the ground, creating a trench with her right shoulder. Even as she fell, she was firing at the Maraukians coming after her.

  Her right side was peppered with holes. The shrapnel from the missile striking her arm had penetrated her armor but thankfully she had no rebounds within her armor. Still, her nanites were in overdrive, repairing her vital systems. She stopped this and focused on repairing her M20. She could survive for a few hours without these vital systems.

  Kela dulled her nerves, allowing her to stay combat active as a chemical concoction focused her. Her right side was done for and a number of her anti-grav systems were right fucked.

  With a grunt of effort that did more damage than good, Ava pushed herself backward and up out of the pit with the stub of her arm.

  Her M20 illuminated the trench she was in with silver as she never stopped firing, forcing herself backward as she fed the Maraukians rounds. Like hungry wolves, they kept coming for her.

  With a thought, she checked her sword and worked to return motion to her body. Even if she repaired her armor, what use would it be other than slowing the speed that the Maraukians’ vibro-blades cut through her?

  Ava’s mind was still merged, so she was connected totally with the others. She saw as Chyna jumped up from his position, followed by a line of tracers as he blasted through living quarters and offices.

  “No, you fucking don’t!” Egli, her subordinate, yelled out. He had been at the fourth rally point. The mergers moved to cover his position and Ava’s.

  Three mergers out in the open faced the Maraukians with both of their M20s, not caring to conserve their rounds as the back panels opened and missiles shot out.

  The lightning ballistic missiles took off into the sky as Ava saw their thoughts and their actions. She kicked her useless legs, getting back some function. She turned off the nerves in her busted arm as she forced herself backward.

  They were trying so hard to save her—she wouldn’t give up! Make them bleed for every inch! Dying? They were already dead. Here they took as many as possible down with them!

  Egli came out of the sky. He landed on the Maraukians, moving so fast to not be hit by them. His force left a crater where he landed. A Maraukian died under his feet as he came up with a shield in one hand and a spear in the other.

  He engaged the Maraukians face-to-face.

  Ava sunk deeper into the merge. Egli’s shield blocked the Maraukians’ advance, directly striking them and forcing them to pause or pushing their weapons away.

  His spear jabbed forward through the openings, hitting Maraukian vitals.

  He was rapidly covered in blood as he was slowly pushed backward. He didn’t flinch at all as rounds passed him, hitting the Maraukians.

  Ava shot around Egli, the two of them working together perfectly to inflict as many wounds on their enemy as possible.

  The ones behind didn’t have time to pull out their weapons before they were cut down by the duo.

  Chyna flew out of a building as lightning missiles started to descend with their telltale thunder-like noises.

  As the missiles came between buildings, they shattered glass and slammed into the ground, sending out a wave of pressure. The hit was right in the midst of the Maraukians. The sides of the killing corridor were cracked and sections fell down.

  Chyna landed next to Ava. Grabbing her by the back of her armor, he threw her up onto his back. She continued to fire over his shoulder, adjusting as he started running.

  Egli killed his last Maraukian and jumped into the air. His NIAI took over, flying him backward and leaving his two arms free. He fired on the Maraukians even as he retreated, splitting his arcs with Ava to cover the entire frontage of the Maraukians.

  They rushed back to the next layer of defenses.

  “I’ve got this one here. Get her to a fabber,” Egli said.

  “Got it.” Chyna was of a higher rank, but among the mergers, they cared more for action than rank and respected one another deeply.

  Chyna didn’t pause and started flying. He hadn’t flown to the defensive position as Ava wouldn’t have been able to help Egli in pushing back the surviving Maraukians.

  The lightning strike didn’t kill off the Maraukians right behind them but instead created a gap so that Egli would now have time to react.

  Those mergers who had taken a knee now rushed toward their next position as arcs were redefined and the mergers adjusted to the new situation.

  Ava checked her situation and let her nanites work as they needed. Now that she was away from the fight, she let her vitals be repaired. The damage had only increased with the fighting.

  She sent information to the fabber and checked the stores to see what items were held there so that she might repair herself as quickly as possible.

  She needed to get back into battle.

  Chyna jumped out of the trenches and rushed to the center of the city, where there looked to be a maze leading to one last tower in the city.

  He smashed through the lobby and passed through different security doors to where banks of elevators led upward. Here were the fabbers that had come down with the supply drops, rapidly making supplies for the mergers.

  He released Ava, as he was about to say something.

  “Go. I have this.” Parts of Ava’s armor fell off as other parts came from shelves and were attached and fused back into the armor.

  The whirlwind of changing parts showed that it wouldn’t be long until Ava was repaired.

  Chyna shot off without another word, but Ava could feel his relief through the merge.

  They’d suffered injuries all over the place but they hadn’t lost anyone yet. Ava knew that it was a matter of time. The Maraukians were getting closer and closer.

  The Moby wasn’t able to support them in any way now. Whatever they had in the city was all that they had left.

  The artillery that had been supporting the evacuees to Ducharev was once again pounding on the hills and hitting the concentrated forces of Maraukians.

  It looked like it was not three Maraukian barges that had been in the mountains, but rather five of them. Turning the original estimate of four hundred and twenty thousand Maraukians to seven hundred thousand.

  If they had been normal legionnaires, then the mergers would have died long ago. Ava didn’t care about how many they killed or how they were stopping five barges’ worth of Maraukians.

  She cared about getting back into the fight so that she could take some of the pressure off her fellow mergers. All of her broken units were fed into a fabber that was running constantly to churn out new parts and ammunition.

  Bots were moving these parts to the mergers’ defensive locations or stockpiling them across the city.

  She pulled off the remains of her M20, slapping it into the fabber, and pulled on a new one. Her arm would take time to grow back but with the M20 linked to her, she could use it without needing to hold down the trigger.

  She checked the map and information coming through the mergers and their sensors.

  The Maraukians were pouring in from everywhere. They were climbing over one another to try to get to the mergers, sometimes killing one another underfoot. The mergers were fighting, but there was no winning, just slowly giving away ground as the sea of Maraukians continued to push into the city.

  They were even rushing the towers that they had dropped on either side, some of them finding a way through to reinforce those between Edani and Ducharev.

  Ava slapped ammunition blocks into her new M20 and took off at a run, movin
g to where the line was weakest to lend her help.

  Chapter 58

  VCF Osdal

  Moving Toward Indalia, Otarvi System

  8/3555

  “All right, what’ve you got?” Nerva dropped into a seat around the projected map of Edani. His tired bones felt compressed by the high-speed lifts that took him from his carrier to the Osdal’s command center.

  With him, there were three different officers from the legion. They followed his actions.

  Jerome nodded to Pullo, who was behind Nerva, the two of them sharing a familiar smile.

  Admiral Hall was on a screen, watching what was going on from the bridge of the freighter.

  Jerome didn’t wait for them to be seated. Time was of the essence here. “We’ve got four hundred thousand troopers. They’re using armor that we either bought, stole, or made ourselves. The large majority is based off the crap from the Harmony War. We’ve upgraded where we could and with the information Mark has been sending to us, we’ve got a lot of improvements but we haven’t been able to get this out to most people. The newer armor is using M19As, the old stuff—well, repulsors were going cheap.”

  The two officers, one with tanker markings on his shoulder and the other with glider markings, looked between the groups in shock. Jerome shrugged, while Pullo looked proud.

  Ortiz snorted but didn’t say anything else. Nerva had a knowing smile. They had smuggled a lot of the weapons to the gangs under their control. The gangs sold them to the Westerly Complex.

  The cleanup of the Harmony Forces had gone really easily as most of the gangs and people in the slums had stolen the gear, only to sell it to the Westerly Three Complex Crew.

  “At the basic level, we have four troopers in the older armor with the repulsors, then six including the sergeant and master corporal using M19As or some amped up E12s that we’re calling E13s.” Jerome turned to Pullo.

  “We’ve got two hundred and thirty combat gliders, loaded with full ammo, four full carrier groups of troopers—closer to four and a half. Ortiz is in overall command. Jerome and myself are his second-in-command, leading two of the carrier groups. We’ve got Eriksson, Mackaro, Hughes, and Jovenko as our generals.”

  Ortiz, Jerome, and Pullo all looked to Nerva. Jerome and Ortiz hadn’t seen him since he “died.” Nerva wished that their reunion wasn’t under such conditions. Right now, he didn’t have time to talk about what had happened in the past; they could only move forward.

  “What’s the plan, sir?” Ortiz asked, clearly passing command over to Nerva.

  Nerva was touched by their trust but he didn’t have time to wallow in it. He stood and looked over the map on the ground. With a mental command, the view changed, showing a deployment zone, lines of attack, and support positions.

  “The plan is we go and rescue our people. We move in-system at our greatest speed. First on the ground will be artillery and Bellona tanks. The Tenth needs our support—the more fire support, the less Maraukians they have to face.

  “I’ve got an extra-strength Bellona battalion under the command of Thomas McDougall.” Nerva waved to the gruff-looking man with tanker markings on his shoulder. He nodded to the others.

  “We will move two tank groups comprised of eight Bellonas to this high ground here and here. Their focus will be to support the mergers, our advance and then our retreat. Another three Bellona groups will move with the advancing forces to give close-in support. I will be with the forward tanks, controlling the support across the battlefield.” McDougall looked to Nerva.

  “We will move our ground forces up with our armored forces, clearing as we go. We’ll bomb those mountain passes until nothing can get through them. Then we’ll make a corridor for the mergers to escape the city. We’ll retreat under fire. From there, we will support the defensive line at Ducharev. With Edani overrun, the forces at Ducharev need to look over five times the amount of frontage with just three times the amount of forces at Edani. If we can hold this line for a week, then the people of Indalia will be able to stabilize themselves.” Nerva looked to the people in the room who were making notes with pad and pen or with their NIAIs.

  “I saw those feeds—good. The more men we get on the ground, the better. This was an ideal location.” Nerva tapped the second spot Jerome pointed out. “It’s far enough away for the Bellona to make headway into the horde and hopefully start to clear a path for our guys to get the hell out.”

  Ortiz pulled up the views from Mark’s helmet, and Jerome winced. He’d not expected to see anything like that in his lifetime ever. But the vids shown to his men in training had been through him first, with Nerva and Pullo beside him to tell him what he was seeing was the truth. Now to witness live fire on these monsters, it had his heart in his throat.

  “How are they for ammo?”

  “It’s going to be close.”

  “How close?” Nerva asked.

  Ortiz was the one who answered. “They don’t have enough. By the time our drop-ships are in the area, it will be too late.”

  Jerome sat back, closing his eyes for one second. How could they be too late, after all this, after all they’d done?

  That’s when a comm call came through from one of the carrier’s main ops. This time the officer’s voice strained. “Sirs, Admiral Hesra’s just locked weapons on our engines. He’s demanding we reply before he opens fire.”

  Jerome looked to Ortiz, who shook his head. “Patch him through.”

  Admiral Hesra’s blazing red face appeared in front of them all. “Finally. Major Victor, I suggest you comply with my orders before—”

  Jerome stared into the man’s face with contempt. “Before what, Admiral? Before you show us how much more of a fuckwit you actually are? You stopped the resupply of the mergers down on Indalia for what reason? For your planet to fall to the Maraukians? What kind of sadistic bastard are you?”

  Hesra’s eyes blazed, giving Jerome more release than he’d ever know, but he never batted an eye as he stood and moved closer into the admiral’s view. “Don’t answer that… I already know. A dead one.”

  Ortiz coughed and Jerome caught his attention, turning his back on the admiral, while they conferred.

  It was Nerva who surprised them all. As Admiral Hesra glanced to him, he calmly replied, “After this, you’ll be lucky to have the support of anyone. You think the legion sanctions this behavior? The emperor?”

  “Of course, they do… My fathe—” Hesra tried to get out.

  “Your father is nothing! After this, I know even he will disown you. You are nothing but a power hungry scrote who aligned with the wrong fucking people. You just made your bed. Now you can lie in it.”

  Hesra’s mouth opened and closed but no noise came out as Nerva cancelled the connection.

  They looked at one another with dark expressions. McDougall and the drop-ship commander glanced at each other and then looked away. It had nothing to do with them. Seeing the rage contained within the other people’s eyes, it was not their place to stand up for the admiral who had put his personal position above the people who relied on his support.

  Chapter 59

  SLS Edilon

  Indalia Orbit, Otarvi System

  8/3555

  There couldn’t be anymore rage inside Admiral Hesra than there was now.

  “Sir, the freighter is still not responding to our hails. We have received a message from Legate Nerva’s staff,” Hesra’s comms officer said.

  “What did he say?”

  “VCF Osdal is rendering aid. At this time, with my power as a senator of Roma, I am giving them the position of auxiliary force. They are under my command and I will accept any issues that are found with their conduct.”

  The bridge went quiet. Legate Nerva was a serving senator but he barely used that status for anything, spending most of his time fighting. As legate and a senator, he was able to call on foreign forces to become an auxiliary fighting force.

  Well played, Legate, Hesra thought. With this message, there
was little that Hesra could do. He might be in command of the space around Indalia, but Nerva was a legionnaire commander. Their ranking was higher than those in the space navy.

  “Sir, we’ve got some fluctuations within the Alcubierre rings.”

  “What! What do you mean, fluctuations?”

  The Osdal disappeared, activating its Alcubierre drive.

  Hesra and the others were silent.

  Hesra might be an admiral propped up by his political connections but he knew more about space travel than most.

  Using an Alcubierre drive this far into a system would make them highly chaotic; one would need and incredible amount of computational and processing power to smooth out the ride and make the transition possible.

  This kind of technology couldn’t be found in the Union but this freighter from Sol system was capable of it.

  Just who the hell are these people?

  Chapter 60

  Bellona 3241 Hellcat

  VCF Osdal

  Otarvi System

  8/3555

  Thomas McDougall checked the seals on the Bellona once again. He ran through his mental checklist as he reviewed the goings-on in the tank. Its reactors had all been checked and they were humming away as the batteries were all charged. The weapons systems were unloaded so that nothing would go wrong in transit. Chang, Lackey, and Valentine had all personally checked their weapons systems and readied their ammunition. Once they were on the ground, the feeders would activate as one, loading the weapons in just seconds.

  Robert was casually checking the thermal foam that coated the tank and the blow away panels. With the foam in place, they wouldn’t be able to leave the tanks until they were on the ground.

  “Coming out over Indalia.” Valentine sounded bored as he looked over the information coming from VCF Osdal.

  “Our drop-ship is moving into position. Hook-up in ten,” Lackey said.