Battleframe (The Mindwars Book 1)

by Michael Gilmour

  Whizzbang watched bullets from a Shock trooper ricochet off his boulder. He was confident that he now had the Scourge’s attention. “Time to go!” he murmured to himself.

  Rather than drop a glider pad, Whizzbang triggered his wings and leapt off the boulder. The move caught the Scourge by surprise and he left bullets zinging around the rock in his wake. Racing down the hillside, he gained as much gliding speed as possible by skimming just a few feet off the ground. The now thoroughly berserk Scourge abandoned the hilltop and chased after him as he streaked towards the house and the temporary safety of his friends.

  Broadcasting over the local Whizzbang said, “Bosk, mission accomplished, inbound.”

  “CT, enemy following” replied Bosk.

  Once again, Whizzbang sped towards the open doorway. At the last instant, he de-energised his wings and took the few quick steps to slow himself down. Suddenly, massive armoured arms enveloped him as Pyro wrapped him in a half ton bear hug. The zone shattered around him as Whizzbang fervently returned the hug with all the love that a father could have for his son.

  Tears of joy streaked down Pyro’s face as he said with a trembling voice, “Bosk told us all what you were doing. I’m so proud of you Dad but don’t try anything like that without me again!”

  Whizzbang let his son go and looked Pyro in the eye as he said with a voice full of emotion and love, “I never want to have to do it again either! I wish we had more time but they’re on the way. I love you son, never forget that.”

  Both father and son smiled at each other and with a quick nod, jump jetted up to where Bosk and the others were watching the Scourge pouring down the hillside towards them. Whizzbang reached out for the calmness of the zone as he settled in next to Bosk. If he was to die today then he could think of no better people to die with – but he would rather live!

  Both Bosk and Whizzbang started firing their rifles at the same time. Like two percussionists in an orchestra their timing between heartbeats was impeccable and their aim precise. Despite losing half a dozen of their comrades within the first fifteen seconds, the Scourge still came on.

  Elzetro and DG’s turrets added their unique high-pitched repeated racket to the deathly masterpiece played by the two Ravens. By now the Scourge had begun returning fire and Kheldar watched as three Juggernaut plasma discharges arced high overhead towards the house. With a controlled voice into the comnet he said, “Inbound plasma. Elzetro shields.”

  “CT Kheldar.”

  At the last possible instant, Elzetro energised a temporary shield around all of them, which stopped the first two plasma discharges and greatly reduced the effectiveness of the third. Deep within the zone and lining up yet another Scourge in his cross hairs Whizzbang was only dimly aware of a burning sensation in his foot that was quickly replaced by what felt like a cool salve. The plasma had hit his foot armour and thankfully, Kheldar had deployed a healing zone to nullify its effect.

  Ducking from behind a broken wall Pyro unleashed the fury of his mighty cannon at a squad of three Scourge Shock troopers. The stream of bullets sprayed across the ground and bit into armour and flesh as he quickly panned the gun across them and then ducked back out of sight.

  Downstairs, DG caught a Scourge Slayer trying to run through the open doorway with a blast of his Lightning gun. Shocking high-energy electricity enveloped the Slayer, paralysing it and finally bursting its heart in a terrifying display.

  DG dropped a heavy turret imprint just inside the doorway and the tellurite molecules immediately coalesced in the shape of the automated gun emplacement. The nanites continued to work on the single barrel and it was not long before two long gun barrels were thudding away at the Scourge outside.

  A squad of three Shock troopers and a Scourge Engineer managed to clamber onto the roof of an adjoining ruined house. Initially, they began firing indiscriminately through the window opening leading into the area occupied by Whizzbang’s squad. They then changed tactics to fire at the dilapidated wall. Bullet holes appeared along the wall and a spray of brick shards and mortar filled the second level with a choking dust.

  Kheldar slid along the floor on his stomach to what remained of the window, glancing up every so often at the tottering wall above. Raising his Bio Rifle to the window he pulled the trigger and let off a triple thwump, thwump thwump of bioenergy in the vague direction of the enemy opposite.

  “Kheldar, coming,” Pyro shouted through the tumult.

  “CT, Pyro”

  Pyro risked becoming a Scourge target and blasted upwards on his huge jets. Poking his head above the wall, he let his cannon communicate directly with the Scourge on the roof opposite. The discussion was abrupt and verged on the point of being rude, but it would not be necessary to repeat it. Just as quickly, as he rose Pyro cut his jets to drop back to the others with a thud that shook the dilapidated building.

  The noise of the gunfire was now more akin to a heavy metal rock concert gone mad than the previous symphony. Whizzbang yelled into the comnet to get above the noise, “Status update!”

  “Pyro, G2G!”

  “Bosk, G2G!”

  “Elzetro, G2G”

  “Kheldar…”

  Whizzbang’s forehead furrowed into a frown, he turned his head just in time to see Kheldar dematerialising. “Kheldar, DG gone,” he informed the others.

  “eport?” Bosk asked as he picked off one of the Juggernaut’s that had fired earlier.

  “No, they woke up.”

  Chapter 9

  Fight to the Death

  Dropping out of battlespeak Whizzbang said, “DG and Kheldar are from the USA and it’s now their morning. It looks like they woke up and are now back home.”

  The simultaneous reply from the three other pilots was, “Oh frap!”

  Whizzbang did not respond to the exclaimation, what more could he say? Instead, he focused on trying to keep them alive. “Elzetro, two turrets pointing down the stairs, stat! Need ammo and nanomed station.”

  Elzetro responded straightaway by placing a couple of light turret nano-imprints at the top of the stairs. He then recharged the energy on the heavy turret that DG had positioned earlier and dropped an ammo and nanomed station behind Bosk and Whizzbang. They were going to need it.

  “Whizz, need help now Pyro!” came Whizzbang’s cry over the comnet.

  “CT!”

  Pyro dashed across to his father and uncle. Bullets and beams flew in all directions ripping and tearing apart what was left of the walls. There were too many Scourge and without DG and Kheldar, the situation was next to hopeless.

  Selfia was the first to jump jet up from the Research Ravine facility and look down the hillside. True to his word, Gardner and his squad cleared the way for the main force to quick march their way to the spot designated by Whizzbang. They were all tired and in good spirits but what she saw below took her breath away.

  Tiny, Acheron and Gardner ran to reach her side and after taking a long pull on his cigar Tiny summed up what they were all thinking, “Oh frap!”

  Scourge bodies littered the landscape with a concentration at the top of the hill. Down near the remnants of a ruined building a firefight of such ferocity was taking place that the very ether seemed to boil with weapons fire. Selfia quickly scanned the battlefield looking for any Concord battleframes and exclaimed in amazement, “They’re still alive!”

  Turning to Acheron and Tiny she ordered in clipped battlespeak, “Full assault, middle, execute now!”

  “Gardner, left flank! Squad, right!”

  Twenty pilots swung their battleframes into motion as a cohesive fighting force. They were the penultimate of thousands of years of technological advances in infantry warfare. Anvil, Rex and other heavily armoured frames raced quickly down the slope side jetting a few feet off the ground to better increase their speed. Those with longer-range rifles dropped to the ground and began selecting targets. There were less than forty Scourge attacking the building with over one hundred bodies, cast around the battlefield
.

  Pyro looked aghast at his father’s shredded battleframe. Armour was literally falling off as more and more bullets and beams tore, gouged and ripped at it. He energised his temporary hardened armour and scrambled over to let it take the brunt of the damage. The kinetic energy of the bullets smashing into the shield nearly lifted him off the ground. The respite would only last a few seconds but maybe it was enough time for his father to claw his way across the floor to the supply station that Elzetro had dropped.

  Blood seeped from a number of wounds and poured like a river from others where Whizzbang’s flesh had been all that had stopped bullet and beam. The zone was all that kept him alive. A lucky shot from a Scourge Sniper had severed his emergency eport device in half so leaving by that method was out of the question. The zone helped him focus his remaining strength to drag himself across the few feet to the supply station, raise his hand and drop it on the hope of renewed life.

  Like an electric pulse a wave of nanomeds surged through him, blocking out the pain and repairing his shredded body. Nanites, went to work on his battleframe, mending the many holes and mangled armour. All too soon, the supply station was exhausted.

  Whizzbang looked back at his son and instinctively held up a warning hand as two plasma discharges slammed into Pyro’s failing shield and tossed him like a rag doll across the floor to the other side of the building. Whizzbang looked across at Bosk who had blood pouring from a gash on his forehead and multiple other wounds were seeping more blood across the floor. He was lying flat on his back now and had pulled his grenade launcher out to lob shells down on the enemy. Whizzbang had not heard Elzetro’s turrets for a while but every now and again, he heard the crackle of a Lightning gun.

  “What great boys! No, young men. They are the best!”

  Suddenly two things happened that caught Whizzbang completely by surprise. The first was the number of bullets flying around them decreased dramatically. The second was not so pleasant. With a groan of agony, the structural integrity of the house gave way.

  Walls and floor had more holes than Swiss cheese and they finally crumbled into sandstone and mortar dust. Great beams of wood splintered in a gut wrenching shattering crack as the house died. Whizzbang sadly looked back at his stunned son crumpled on the floor opposite him. “Was this how it was going to end?” he thought.

  Elzetro’s poked his head up into the second level and with a dazed expression on his face he looked across to his father just as the stairs began collapsing behind him. His face suddenly changed to one of astonishment as eighteen inches of tellurite blade from the Scourge Slayer behind him ripped through his shoulder. Elzetro just had the final presence of mind to kick his jets to full burn so that he left his assailant behind in the crumbling building. Flipping end over end he crashed in a pile of dust and blood next to Pyro.

  The front wall gave way first, tilting the second floor forward towards the Scourge hordes below. Pyro and Elzetro’s slid across the floor and crashed into their fathers in a mess of entwined arms and legs. The outer wall, which they had been using as cover, collapsed and tipped outwards in a crash of broken masonry. Like milk poured from a jug, the four pilots toppled onto the ground within meters of the nearest Scourge.

  Bullets, beams and plasma ricocheted in all directions, but instead of it being predominantly red, it was now blue. Whizzbang lay on his back amongst his friends when the sneering evil face of a Scourge Juggernaut lurched into view and a wicked smile spread across its face. Whizzbang had just enough presence of mind left to raise his grenade launcher, shove the end into the Juggernauts maw and pull the trigger. The constrained explosion vaporised the monster’s head and a sea of purple blood rained down upon them all.

  Selfia watched the house collapse through her scope and saw four, barely recognisable Concord battleframes unceremoniously tipped out of the dying structure. The Scourge were completely surprised at the appearance of her forces and the superior Concord battleframe pilots plied their trade to great affect.

  As Selfia picked off targets, she was aware of Tiny and Acheron smashing the centre of the Scourge lines with reckless abandon. Gardner and his squad were like a group of master class surgeons, darting in for a quick kill and ducking back out of the fray to safety. They repeated their tactic over and over.

  Looking up from her scope Selfia watched Acheron soar across the field on a flare of jump jets to rescue a sorely pressed Concord Rook pilot from harm. Guns rattled, beams burned and specialist frame capabilities flared like a solar flare where they could do the most harm or protect the most friends.

  Finally, it was over and the echo of the last gunshot bounced off the surrounding hills. Selfia stood to her feet and jump jetted down the hill to see if her friends were alive.

  “Status?” she inquired over the comnet.

  “Acheron G2G, one frame eported.”

  “Tiny G2G, two frames eported.”

  “Gardner and squad G2G.”

  Selfia thought to herself, “Her own squad was G2G. Three pilots! Frap! That was a terrible loss when so few were operational but it was better than she expected.”

  “Gardner, perimeter, two hundred meters. Kill anything that moves,” Selfia ordered.

  “Tiny, Acheron perimeter twenty meters. Likewise.”

  Selfia and two other pilots pulled away a number of Scourge bodies and rubble from around Whizzbang and his unconscious squad. They were a jumble of bodies and limbs. Without moving her friends for fear of causing further injury, Selfia quickly assessed their vitals to confirm that each was barely alive. A mixture of dust, congealed human red and Scourge purple blood caked all four pilots. Each frame had received incredible punishment and was now a poor excuse for elite Concord technology. It was clear that the nanites were completely dormant, exhausted of energy after healing the pilots and their frames. All of them had parts with non-existent armour and in some places, she could see gaping holes with vicious wounds.

  Still in the emergency of battlespeak Selfia said, “Medic, stat”

  A healing BioTech frame dropped a green tinged regeneration zone around Whizzbang’s squad and flooded the area with nanomeds and nanites. Four pairs of eyes sprung widely open and four mouths gasped for air with the shock of the regeneration.

  Bosk’s voice drifted out from beneath his squad members, “Frap! Can you please get your backside off my face! Whizz, if you so much as think of letting off some gas I’ll finish the job the Scourge started!”

  Whizzbang extended his hand weakly towards Selfia, “It’s good to see you Self. It seems that rescuing me has become quite a habit of yours.”

  Selfia laughed with relief. “Let’s stay clear of making it a habit Whizz,” she said as she grabbed his hand and hauled him to his feet. With a smile on her face she continued, “I can’t believe what you and your squad accomplished.”

  “Eh, it’s me down here!” Bosk said good-naturedly. The medic helped Bosk to his feet and scanned him with his wrist-comp for any injuries not addressed by the first regeneration.

  Both Elzetro and Pyro sat up and propped up their feet wearily on a couple of dead Scourge Juggernauts. Elzetro’s wound from the Slayer’s knife had closed over without a scar. Other than a receding headache and a multitude of cuts and bruises, Pyro was in reasonable shape.

  Pyro turned to Elzetro and said, “Look at those two old timers eh Zeet.”

  Elzetro chuckled as he said, “Yep, they’re our Dads and boy can they fight.”

  Pyro smiled back and said, “They’re our Dads alright.”

  After ensuring that there was not anything more seriously wrong with any of Whizzbang’s squad Selfia reported to Whizzbang on her mission while she watched the miracle of tellurite based nanite technology repair her friends and their battleframes.

  “Self, I just noticed a major change?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “We didn’t go through the compression this time.”

  With that last statement, Whizzbang woke up


  Part III

  For Real

  Chapter 1

  Early Morning Rush

  Sitting bolt upright in bed Russell cried out in sudden pain. It was still dark outside and glancing at the clock radio it was 4:30am. His face was a bath of perspiration and his pyjamas were soaked in perspiration.

  “Russ, you all right? What’s the matter?” Esther said sleepily as she fumbled with the bedside lamp switch. With a click, the lamp flooded the room with a soft light and she looked over at her husband. “Russ! What happened? What’s going on?”

  A lattice of scars and bruises cover Russell’s sweaty body. He also now had a swollen left cheek that was fast becoming purple.

  Russell thought, “Blasted nanomeds didn’t finish their work and it looks like I’ve translated some of the injuries back here.” To Esther he said flatly, “I ache all over but I’m fine Honey. We need to talk, but first I need you to check up on James, while I give Marie and Mihaly a call.”

  “Russ, its 4:30am!” Esther said in a surprised tone of voice.

  “Trust me when I say they’ll be awake.”

  Esther quickly donned her dressing gown and headed up to check on James. Russ reached across for the phone just as it began to ring. Picking it up he said, “Mihaly it’s me.”

  Mihaly replied, “What in the hell just happened Russ? Marie’s having kittens!”

  “Have you checked up on Alex?”

  “I sent Marie off to see if he’s OK so that I could give you a call.”

  “Same here with Esther. It looks like they can pull us into Alpha Three when we go to sleep.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know Russ!”

  “The girls aren’t going to like this, but if we don’t find out what’s going on, then at some point we may not come back.”

  “Agreed. I was wondering if we were going to make it through that last battle.”