Battleframe (The Mindwars Book 1)

by Michael Gilmour

  General Felesh had been the ultimate spy and a resource that had proved most useful in the Scourge’s Alpha Three campaign. To replace the actual General with an Ogzmat facsimile had taken years of careful planning. Unfortunately, just when he needed the intelligence the most the General had gone mysteriously silent. “All was going to plan until the ‘StarBlade’ arrived and delayed the inevitable conquest!” the General fumed.

  Grendig slammed his fist against his arm-wrest and let out a low growl. A few of the officer’s close by turned their heads nervously towards him. They had good cause to be nervous. In the past, outbursts like this usually resulted in a disintegration as the General looked for a scapegoat upon which to unleash his foul temper. Thankfully, Grendig returned to watching the security footage, giving the officers a reprieve from his wrath.

  The image of the Barrier control room flashed up onto the monitor. The technicians were all staring at the screens attached to their workstations. Grendig had seen the picture a thousand times before, skipped to the next image and then paused. The last picture that did not look quite right. Dismissing the thought, he shrugged and moved on. He was secure in his command dome, in the middle of the fortress and surrounded by the Barrier. No human could reach him here. Lord Zechlan was wrong.

  For five tedious minutes images flashed by until one of the outer western wall instantly grabbed the General’s attention. Purple blood had sprayed across the camera’s lens and through the haze, Grendig could see two headless Scourge Sniper sentries sprawled across the top of the walkway. Completely incredulous, it took Grendig several seconds to comprehend what he was looking at. A millisecond later, his claw had punched the alarm stud. The impossible Concord attack had begun!

  Whizzbang looked up from placing the last tellurite explosive at the base of the last huge pillar supporting the Barrier tower. The whiplash like snap of Barrier lightning intermittently illuminated his position and he silently prayed, even as he worked, that any Scourge from one of the outbuildings would not spot them. Across from him, his son, Pyro, feverishly worked at securing his final explosive in place. Like a well-oiled machine, the four telepaths kept the squad up to date with the latest Scourge positions on their mental map.

  “You finished Kheldar?” Whizzbang thought to his friend.

  “All’s done Whizz,” Kheldar replied as he came into view from around the pillar he had been working on.

  “Good. Bosk, how’s it going over there?”

  “Everything’s in place Whizz.”

  “I’ll set the remote timer to synchronize the explosives from here. Get your squad over to us.”

  “We’ll be with you in a minute.”

  “CT,” Whizzbang replied as he watched Bosk, Elzetro and DG scurry from the Barrier tower opposite and stop behind the control building before running to his position. They did not want to risk the Scourge seeing them blast their jump jets and so they resorted to moving as silently as possible on their servo-powered legs. Flicking open his wrist-comp Whizzbang patched into the charges on each of the pillars and simultaneously set the timer to start the countdown.

  As Bosk reached his position Whizzbang thought to the squad, “It’s done. Nothing can stop the explosions now. In twenty minutes the Barrier towers should be down and the pilots up top on their way. Now for the command dome...”

  Just as Whizzbang sent his last thought the entire fortress was instantly flooded in light and a blaring siren began its high-pitched wail. Rather than being hidden in deep shadows the six Earthmen now stood out like ducks in a row against the northern most Barrier tower.

  The mental map of the positions of every Scourge began to swarm with activity. In particular, it was clear that the warriors in the barracks were rushing to mobilise for battle.

  “That does it! Follow my lead, we need to head to the command dome before this place becomes flooded with Scourge!” Whizzbang thought urgently to his squad.

  Now that the Scourge were aware of the attack, Whizzbang kicked in his jump jets and blasted over a number of outbuildings and directly towards the command dome. Bosk and the others followed closely behind. While soaring past the barracks entrance he thought across to DG and Elzetro, “Any chance you could leave a surprise for the troops leaving the barracks?”

  DG and Elzetro mentally smiled, as they both dropped a full complement of anti-personnel turrets pointing towards the still closed barracks doorway. The nanite packets took a second to fall the fifty feet to the ground and another couple of seconds to energise the turrets. With choreographed precision, ten barrels mounted on squat tripod frames swung around and aimed towards the barracks doorway.

  “That won’t hold them for long,” Whizzbang thought to himself but it would cause them to think there could be more around every corner.

  Whizzbang landed with a gentle crunch of his battleframe boots just as a low hum started, underpinning the noise of the blaring siren. Looking upwards, he watched a shimmering green dome begin to take shape above the entire fortress. It did not appear to affect the Barrier towers or their deadly crackling lightning.

  “Elzetro, is that what I think it is?”

  “It looks to me like some sort of shield Whizz.”

  “We’ve got some problems then.” Whizzbang glanced at his wrist-comp. “The Barrier towers are coming down in about sixteen minutes and yet with that shield the cavalry up top isn’t going to be able to help us out. Suggestions?”

  Bosk replied, “You can get what you need from the command dome while I take Elzetro and DG to find the shield generators and take them out.”

  “No, that won’t work. We have no idea where they are and even with our new perception, it could take quite some time. Any other suggestions?”

  Kheldar said, “Can’t we just take out a couple of the emitters to break a hole?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never seen a shield emitter before. Elzetro is this possible?”

  “We could do that but my guess is they have literally hundreds of them mounted along the top of the outer wall. It could take a while to knock out enough of them to make a break in the shield.”

  Pyro thought, “I just had an idea. Why don’t we find the shield operator, take over their mind and get him to turn the thing off? He’s likely to be in the command dome and it will keep the squad together.”

  Everyone turned towards Pyro, in the pressure of the moment they had all forgotten their new abilities. The low hum of the shield wall underpinned the blare of the alarm siren. In the distance, Whizzbang could just make out the staccato firing of DG and Elzetro’s turrets adding themselves to the overall noise.

  Smiling at his son Whizzbang replied, “Pyro, sometimes you come up with some crazy good ideas. OK everyone, we need to find that shield operator in the command dome and we need to find him fast!”

  Pyro placed his armoured hand against the dark metallic side of the giant dome that soared above him. He then sent a thought through the wall to search for anyone that could possibly be a shield operator. With his current skill level, he could identify Scourge technicians, officers and a couple of guards but not much else. From his distance outside the dome, picking the lock of a mind’s natural defences was, if possible, a time consuming process. Even with the four of them, they did not have the time to work through each and every control operator to find the one they were after.

  Whizzbang on the other hand took an entirely different approach from his son to solving the problem. Rather than using brute mental force, he decided to watch the ego in the centre of the dome. It was clear that this was a person of some importance and after a few seconds, he was able to assemble both an audible and visual picture of his enemy with his new heightened perception.

  Despite the typical language barrier associated with audible communication, by using his mind Whizzbang automatically translated everything said into English. He learned that the entity in the centre of the dome was the one and only General Grendig. For the first time ever his spying also resulted in the Concord
getting the first glimpse at how a Scourge command structure functioned.

  Rather than a willing devotion to a higher ideal like the Concord, Scourge officers perpetually functioned in an atmosphere of fear. Fear that those above may exterminate them and fear that those below may assassinate them to better their own opportunity for promotion. This meant that any middle ranked officers were perpetually looking behind and in front of themselves for the attack on their lives that would inevitably come.

  General Grendig roared at a subordinate sitting at a console in front of him, “Reinforce the guards on the outer wall with additional warriors!”

  The General’s thoughts were in turmoil, “To be attacked inside his own fortress was unthinkable and yet it was happening! It was clear that his officers had failed him!”

  Clicking his fangs together in anticipation he pointed at a senior staff officer, “Come here!”

  The officer knew better than to ignore such an order and almost ran towards the General.

  The General’s eyes were aflame with blood lust as he said, “Captain Eldark, you command the troops that patrol the outer wall. Is that correct?”

  Captain Eldark looked all around himself for a way to escape Grendig’s stare as he said, “Yes General!”

  “How is it that the perimeter was breached without you knowing?”

  “I am uncertain my General but I will find out as soon as the event is finished,” the Captain’s voice quavered.

  General Grendig casually pulled a broad jagged foot long tellurite dagger from its sheathe strapped to his muscular thigh and began fingering the blade. “Captain, is it not your responsibility to ensure the integrity of the wall defence?”

  By now, Captain Eldark was on the verge of panicking. His pale face sweated profusely while his beady pink eyes darted back and forth for a way to escape the situation. “Yes my General. I will ensure that those that failed will be punished most severely.”

  “That will be unnecessary as they have already been dealt with, Captain…”

  The Captain sighed in relief. Maybe he would live after all.

  The General looked up from his blade at the Captain and growled menacingly, “I have found the two sentries that have failed their duty and they have received their punishments at the hand of the Concord. There is just one other matter…”

  With a flick of his wrist, General Grendig sent the twelve inches of tellurite flying through the air to embed in the centre of the Captain’s neck. The razor sharp blade sliced through skin, muscle and bone as if they were paper. A great gush of purple blood blossomed and sprayed from the Captain’s severed major artery while his body collapsed in a pathetic heap at the General’s feet.

  Grendig rose out of his throne, bent down and savagely pulled his jagged blade from the former Captain’s neck spraying the backs of the officers at their consoles with another fountain of blood. Looking at the purple blood coating his dagger with annoyance he carefully licked the sharp edge clean with his rough black tongue. His bloodlust sated, he re-sheathed his weapon, sat back comfortably on his throne and continued as if nothing was amiss.

  “Increase the power to the shield wall,” the General ordered an officer sitting at the console to his far right.

  Esther carefully pulled out the tiny slip of paper from her pocket and re-read the message for the hundredth time. In plain black on white, there were three characters, “G2G”. Mark was not joking when he said that they could only afford to transmit a few bytes of data for messages.

  Those three letters encompassed a world of feelings. Russell, James and the others were safe and well on Alpha Three. They were all “Good to Go”. A number of days earlier Esther had shared the message with Marie and their girls. They were all so relieved that their men were safe. Coming out of her reverie Esther’s attention returned to the three girls working at their bench.

  Rose said irritably, “That’s not how you insert the plasma injector into the lightning inducer. Can’t you two remember anything?”

  Mihaly and Marie’s daughter Kathryn bit back a retort but there was no such luck with Michelle. “We listened just like you did Rose! I’m sure that Crystal said we needed to attach the matrix coil first.”

  Rose looked across at what Michelle was indicating and replied a bit sheepishly, “I think that you may be right.”

  Kathryn’s brown shoulder length locks seemed to shimmer in the brightly lit workroom light as she suddenly smiled triumphantly. “After that I think that we need to screw in the infusers and then we can insert the plasma injector.”

  Marie looked across at Esther and gave a little grin before she returned to her book on the history of the Concord. Esther rolled her eyes at Marie in the direction of their children. Since the men had left, the five of them had been studying everything they could get their hands on that related to the Scourge, the Concord and technology. They had a lot of learning to do and the Blue Sky Team had been exceptional teachers.

  With a wistful sigh, she folded the tiny message and placed it back in her pocket before returning to her book on the basics of nano-technology.

  Chapter 14

  The Battle in the Dome

  Outside the dome, Whizzbang felt revolted by Captain Eldark’s execution but satisfied that he now knew which officer controlled the green shield wall. He marked the officer’s position on the squad’s mental map and said, “Here’s our man. We’ve got to get close enough to him to invade his mind or shut off the shield ourselves.”

  “CT,” came five mental replies.

  Whizzbang took out a block of chocolate from his battleframe pocket and handed pieces to his fellow telepaths while he munched on a square himself. “I’m sure you’ve realised that whenever we use our mental powers we consume a lot energy so make sure that each of you keep your levels up.”

  Pyro quipped, “If it’s chocolate, I’m in!”

  Elzetro laughed and said, “Bring on the whole block Commander!”

  Bosk rolled his eyes at their sons, “Boys will be boys. Whizz, do you have another piece?”

  At this stage in their development, the Earthmen were clumsy at best with their new mental abilities. They were using sledgehammers where scalpels would have sufficed and the levels of energy expended were far beyond what they actually needed to accomplish their tasks.

  Cocking his head to the side to better listen Whizzbang said, “It looks like DG and Elzetro’s welcoming presents have been overcome by the troops in the barracks. Can either of you hear them?”

  DG replied, “I can’t, all’s silent Whizz.”

  Elzetro said, “Neither can I. Should we drop a few more now?”

  Whizzbang estimated that it would only be ten or twenty seconds before the Scourge warriors in the barracks came around the corner. “Not yet,” he said aloud and then swapping to telepathy he said, “Can any of you reach and crack Grendig or the officer in responsible for the shield wall from here?”

  Pyro conveyed what the others were thinking, “Already tried, it’s too far.”

  Whizzbang thought for a few precious seconds and then scoped the beginnings of an idea with the rest of the squad. “Ready?”

  “G2G,” came the classic battlespeak response from each of them.

  They ran on battleframe servo assisted legs around to the eastern entrance of the command dome. The two Scourge shock troopers guarding the entrance died courtesy of Whizzbang and Bosk’s Charge rifle shots. The twin brilliant intense blue beams reached out and skewered the Scourge, one in the chest and the other through the neck. The superheated blast of energy left nothing but smoking remains.

  Whizzbang looked at the dual sliding doors of the command dome entrance. They were about ten feet across and of similar height. With his perception, he could see that the six inches of reinforced plasteel was not something that they could penetrate with their current weapons.

  “Elzetro, you’re the mechanic, any ideas?”

  “I don’t think we’re going to do much good here. There isn
’t even a locking mechanism to pick on this side Whizz.”

  “OK, option one is ruled out then.” Whizzbang reached out with his perception and felt two Scourge minds immediately on the other side of the door. “There are a couple of guards really close to the door. Let me see if I can crack one of them and get them to open the door from their side. The rest of you do your best to divert the roving Scourge squads around us.”

  Mentally Whizzbang zeroed in on one of the two Slayer guards and began the process of unlocking its mind. Luckily, the Slayer was a relatively simple creature, considerably easier to ‘crack’ than General Felesh. Even still, it was taking precious seconds to unravel its natural mental defences.

  While Whizzbang worked on the Slayer, DG and Kheldar stood guard. Bosk, Pyro and Elzetro applied their skills at mentally nudging Scourge fist leaders away from the direction of the command dome entrance. With so many Scourge, they could not afford to attempt to take over any minds so they planted suggestions that the fist leaders thought were their own. Officers suddenly believed that they heard a sound from the opposite direction to the Earthmen or thought they saw figures running away between buildings. Some were even convinced that the Concord agents were along the outer wall.

  The mental map teamed with Scourge running this way and that. Despite their best efforts, a Scourge officer inadvertently turned in their direction. Elzetro thought Pyro was dealing with the fist-leader and Pyro thought Bosk was. It really did not matter who was at fault as a squad of three Slayers, two Engineers and four Shock troopers came running around from the side of a building to stare straight at them.

  Bosk thought to the squad, “We’ve got company!”

  A bead of sweat trickled down Whizzbang’s temple. “I just need a few more seconds Bosk!”