They had captured artillery and used it against the Troopers. Heavy machine guns waited to kill any Combat Shuttles trying to take out the artillery pieces.
With the metallic content of the dust, it was hard to get a lock on the artillery’s position from less than a kilometer away. When a Combat Shuttle fired their missiles, there was a good chance that they were going to miss. The Chosen’s Heavies would light up the skies with tracers.
Yu had seen many Combat Shuttles not make it back from those missions. He also had a number of holes in his hulls from those Heavies.
They were on the advancing front lines as well. Combat Shuttles were constantly changing their attack angle to try and confuse the Heavies. They’d taken to watching everywhere.
Artillery was the best weapon to use against the Chosen. Many had shed their armor as the dust had got inside, fouling motors and joints.
Yu came down over a rooftop, hovering off the edge of a building. It was one hell of a balancing act in the dust storm.
Troopers rushed into the cargo hold, scouts that had been out for months collecting information and fouling the Chosen’s lines.
The Chosen had been actively targeting them.
After Dashtund’s death, the scouts had tried to be more careful, but the Chosen were constantly trying to cut their number down.
“Go,” Bobbie ordered, and Yu took off, headed for Mega City.
He glanced back at the Troopers that were pulling off their helmets and sagging in their harnesses.
They looked like hell, and no one spoke as a few fell asleep. Others stared off into nothing, trapped in their own minds.
Yu looked back at his flight plan.
“What’s our next pickup?” he asked.
“We’re picking up Powered Armor and supplies. Then Troopers.”
“Alright.” Yu had slept in small fits, most of the time in the cargo hold, or even in his flight seat.
He was so tired that he was mostly going through the motions. His augments got him alert when they were heading into real danger, but while moving people he just followed the flight plan.
“At least there’s some good news,” Young offered.
“What?” Yu wasn’t really listening.
“Indomitable and Big Bertha are moving into Earth’s orbit. Their Fighters and Combat Shuttles are already moving to enter Earth’s atmosphere. Should mean that we get some help.”
“We control the skies, but on the ground it’s hell. Look at these poor bastards, and they were hitting the back end of the Chosen,” Yu said, pointing his thumb back at the Troopers in their cargo hold.
“A hundred thousand Troopers dead, and what do we have to show for it? A few more hundred thousand Chosen lying face down in the Slums. This was the easy part. Here, we were supposed to bleed them before Mega City. Once they get there, they’ll get their PACs back online. They’ll start using artillery they stole, and advance through Mega City,” Yu sighed, the anger draining out of him.
“And once we get there, then we can’t support the Troopers. They don’t want us bombing Mega City, even though the Chosen are going to be bombing the hell out of the place. Our artillery could be fucking statues for all they’re worth. Bunch of rich pricks being idiots,” Bobbie complained.
“I heard that Indomitable might be cleared to fire on the Chosen,” Young said.
“It’s been cleared to fire on the Slums. The houses of the people that have helped us,” Yu drank some water.
“Its all fucked up.”
“Yeah,” Yu agreed, feeling tired.
Chapter 53
Central Sector
Earth, Sol System
5/3349
“Alright, when I give the order, we’re going to pull back five kilometers, in order. Drop mines behind you as you run, we don’t want the Chosen having an easy time of it.” Mark sounded calmer than he felt. The plan was risky, and could turn their retreat into a complete rout. If they pulled it off, then they would bleed the Chosen worse than they had throughout their entire advance, and give the Troopers time to get established in their new positions.
All of the Slum bases had been pulled apart, leaving nothing for the Chosen to use. The Westerly crew had got the word out and everyone had left the area in a hurry.
“On my word we start, so follow your leadership’s orders and stay in your sections,” Mark said.
All across the Troopers’ lines, stretching kilometers through Central Sector outside of Mega City, they were firing at the Chosen with everything they had. All of them were waiting for the order.
“Troopers, pull back in units,” Ortiz sounded calm. The frontline units dissolved, and Mark turned and ran with them. They moved through buildings and past the second line that were firing just seconds after the first. The Combat Shuttles had been flying for hours, whipping up a good dust storm.
By the time that the first line had got to the fourth line, the second was peeling back. As the first line got into their new positions a kilometer-and-a-half away, the third line was running back.
There were no more than a few seconds where the Troopers stopped firing to clear out of the way of those behind them.
Sometimes buildings in the way would provide the Chosen with cover as they inched forward. Combat Shuttles were firing wildly into the Chosen lines and raking them with fire from above.
Mark watched as the lines continued, and he looked for people lagging behind and problem areas. His people were picking up the issues before he could say anything.
“Looking good,” Mark said.
“Don’t jinx us now,” Dominguez replied.
“I’ll try not to.”
Dominguez should have got a few weeks off to have time to deal with her loss, but they didn’t have the time for that. They buried their pain deep, and continued with their jobs.
Mark closed his eyes, pushing the ghosts from his vision as he looked up. The sixth line moved out of the way and he fired past them at the Chosen a kilometer-and-a-half away.
Just a little further.
Chapter 54
EMFC Indomitable
Earth, Sol System
5/3349
Captain Remblant was a partially reformed man. He didn’t think of himself as one of Earth’s Military Forces’ dogs.
He did have a good understanding of who to follow and listen to when he was going into battle.
One of those people was General Ortiz; the man had gone higher than many before him. Riding his coat-tails up higher was a good idea for Remblant’s own rank, and staying alive long enough to appreciate it.
That was why, when General Ortiz asked for Remblant to strike the Chosen from Orbit, he pushed his people to do everything in their power to get him the best firing solution possible.
“How are we looking, Hule?” Remblant asked the weapons officer.
“Coming into range in ten minutes, Troopers are still closer than I’d like but they should have moved another half-kilometer back by that time.” Hule’s attention was entirely focused on her screens.
“How long will we have above the Chosen?” Remblant asked.
“Five minutes, if cleared to use engines I can get that to ten… maybe thirteen minutes,” Goi said from his place at helm.
“You are cleared to use engines. This might be the only opportunity we get to strike at the Chosen in orbit. I want a least-time path to come back over Mega City, and another for Mars to meet up with Admiral Hall.”
“I will have the plots in five minutes,” Goi said, bending to his task.
Remblant watched as the timer wound down and the Carrier started to tilt so that its heavily armed and armored side was facing down towards the rusty marble that was humanity’s birthplace.
“Path’s plotted and sent to your screens,” Goi reported.
“Good work. Helm, five minutes until we’re on target, everyone look lively,” Remblant said.
“One minute,” Hule muttered, more to herself than anyone else.
; That time ticked down, and the Chosen and Trooper lines looked impossibly close from orbit.
Before Remblant could think of the idiocy of the whole plan again, Hule sent the fire command to the Carrier’s guns. The Carrier bucked as rail-cannon after rail-cannon fired depleted uranium rounds down into Earth’s gravity well.
Round after round followed as the Trooper lines started showing a slight separation between themselves and the Chosen.
The rounds cut through Earth’s atmosphere, and the targeting computers compensated for the entry and the dust clouds they cut through, turning the minor dust storm that the Combat Shuttles had created into a major one.
Rounds impacted the ground, leaving great craters and throwing more dust into the heavens.
Mega City’s electrostatic dome kept the dust at bay, the city appearing pristine and untouched by the ravages they had brought onto Earth.
There was no way to see Earth’s surface as dust moved across the planet. Still, the rail-cannons fired; they were locked into Earth’s GPS with targeting that should be able to hit within a few hundred meters.
Sometimes there’s nothing you can do but sit back and watch.
Chapter 55
Mega City
Earth, Sol System
5/3349
“Move it, Troopers!” Ortiz yelled.
Troopers stayed in their units, but the lines that they’d been holding seemed to rush toward Mega City.
“Incoming,” Williamson said from the command center at the citadel.
Sometimes I wonder just how sane I am.
The Troopers made one hell of a sight as they ran fully armed and armored. Some couldn’t stop themselves, so they barreled through Slum houses in their headlong sprint away from the impact zone.
They were a few kilometers from the Chosen as the orbital strikes started coming through Earth’s atmosphere.
The dust pulled at Ortiz’s armor as he fought onwards for Mega City.
“I can’t see a fucking thing,” Mark growled.
“I’ve only got the sensor-sticks to see anything,” Tyler said.
“Fuck sakes,” Mark sighed, but he never stopped running.
Ortiz snorted at the brothers’ banter. Then the orbital strike hit.
If they’d thought that the wind was bad before, it was impossible afterwards. Ortiz couldn’t see further than ten feet with all of his sensors dialed up. The dust captured the heat of the impacts, the whole area getting a nice burn as strike after strike hit.
The ground shook with tremors as sensor-sticks went offline and the Chosen disappeared. The Troopers were blind; they had no idea where the Chosen were, or what kind of state they were in.
But it mattered little right now, they just needed to get to Mega City. That one objective propelled them all forwards.
Vehicles that had been claimed by the Troopers waited for them. Ortiz got onto what looked like a dune buggy as the driver jumped in and three more Troopers climbed on the back. The vehicles rushed off towards Mega City, and the streets were filled with cars of all kinds.
The driver dodged a wall at the last second, ripping along too fast for Ortiz’s liking. They broke through a house’s opening and out the other side.
He looked at the driver, and he could swear that they were smiling as they drove like a maniac.
Give me strength.
They raced behind a column of cars, and Troopers were riding in or on vehicles of all types as they raced for Mega City at their best speed.
***
Fusaro looked up from his maps as the ground shook with an impact.
The hell?
“Sir, orbital strikes!” a Chosen shouted, coughing through their rag mask.
Fusaro’s eyes widened.
It made sense! The weird firing, how there were unexpected lulls in the fighting. The Troopers were pulling back.
More impacts shook the building.
There was nothing that Fusaro could do to fight orbital strikes.
Fucking Quinn, if he’d just stayed in orbit and crushed those EMFCs.
He ground his teeth, trying to think of what to do. They couldn’t survive this if they stayed in the same place.
“Order all units to advance, push forward towards Mega City, best speed. Spread our forces out, we don’t want them getting killed in one lucky hit,” Fusaro looked to Baashir.
“Sir!” Baashir spoke into his communication headset quickly.
Fusaro looked at his maps, hoping that he would have a military left when the strike finished. The building shook again as the orbital strikes started in earnest, rail-cannons hitting targets close and far.
Chapter 56
Mega City
Earth, Sol System
6/3349
Mark and Tyler walked their combined divisions’ lines. Defensive works encircled Mega City, just under five hundred and fifty thousand Troopers had survived so far. All of them were working on bolstering their positions. Mega City’s cermite pad would take too long to cut into to make defenses. Instead, they were turning the various towers and buildings into strong points.
Spray-ite covered walls, and murder holes ready to be used as ammunition and supply dumps littered the towers.
All of the Troopers had fallback positions. Here, they could slow the Chosen, but holding them wasn’t possible. Once again, they were going to bleed the Chosen and fall back.
Some of the ways to fall back had got interesting. They didn’t have Combat Shuttles to evacuate everyone, so a lot of people had rigged up their own ways to move between positions.
Mark felt the high tension wire that went from the twentieth floor of the Troopers’ first stronghold to their second. A block of explosive had been attached to the anchor point of the wire.
“Well, that is one hell of an idea,” Tyler grinned, looking at the zip line.
“I’d say so.” Mark sounded impressed.
“Thank you, sirs,” Warrant Hodges said, practically beaming with pride.
“How you looking for supplies?” Tyler asked.
“We’re stocked for a month, got charges on it all so that we can blow it if we leave before then,” Hodges said.
“How are the Troopers and their gear?” Mark asked.
“I have everyone going over their Powered Armor with their cleaning kits. They’ve learned how important it is to keep their gear in top condition. As for the Troopers, well,” Hodges sighed, looking tired. “We’ve all lost someone before this, some of them thought that we couldn’t fail with being the best trained unit in the known universe. It’s hitting them hard.”
“We’ve got hot food coming around, make sure all of your Troopers get some. We’re going to lose more people, though we’re going to stick it to those Chosen bastards and make them hurt,” Mark promised.
“Thank you, sir. We’ve got a lot of unfocused anger looking for a vent. I’ve got the Troopers doing every job I can think of, but I can only distract them for so long.”
“Ortiz has detected movement in Central Sector. It looks like we’ll be getting something to hit sooner rather than later,” Tyler said.
“Yes, sir.”
“If the Troopers need something to do, have them add booby traps, the Chosen are going to want a base of operations when they move into Mega City. Let’s make sure it’s a warm reception,” Mark said.
“Will do, sir.”
“Keep up the good work,” Tyler said, clapping Hodges on the shoulder. “I’m trying out this zip line.” With that, he jumped on the zip line, headed for the next stronghold.
“Excuse me, I have to go and catch my idiot brother,” Mark growled, grabbing the zip line harness and following Tyler.
Chapter 57
EMFC Fearless
Mars, Sol System
6/3349
Admiral Hall looked at the Harmony Carriers that were holding around Mars.
“New report in from the Ministry of Intelligence. It looks like the leader of the Harmony rebellion is a man called
Peter Quinn. He has been using backroom communications to talk to security contractors on Mars. Ortiz made sure that none of the security contractors on Earth were able to help the Chosen,” Guy said.
“So, Quinn is looking for replacements,” Hall surmised.
“Exactly,” Guy said.
Hall looked at the screen.
And they call us mercenaries; these bastards will do anything for pay.
Hall’s eyes widened with an idea. “Connect me to Moretti, now!” Hall sounded as if he might lose the idea if he didn’t tell someone else immediately.
“Hall?” Moretti sounded like he had just woken up.
“Moretti, you got the report on Quinn?” Hall asked.
“Who?” The cobwebs of sleep were affecting Moretti.
“He’s the guy leading this shitshow. Anyway, not important. It looks like he is trying to hire security contractors to fight us,” Hall said.
“Asshole,” Moretti growled, waking up.
“Well, what do security contractors do?” Hall asked.
“They fight,” Moretti said, confused.
“Yes, they fight for credits.”
“Where are you going with this?”
“Talk to your bosses and get talking to the security contractors – use back channels. Whatever they get from Quinn they can keep, then give them something extra and get them to fight for us instead. We can’t defeat them with the Carriers that we have in-system. If there was a force that took them from the inside, then we might not need to scratch up these hulls,” Hall explained.
“So you want me to talk to Nivad, tell him to buy the security contractors’ contracts out from under Quinn, and once they’re aboard the Harmony Carriers, then they turn on Harmony and take the ships? Shit, that might work,” Moretti sounded thoughtful. “I’ll call Nivad.”
“Thank you, Moretti.”
“Thank you, Admiral, if we can pull this off then we’ll cut the head off the beast. It will also put those Carriers to rest. Even if we won down here, those things could just bombard us from the orbitals like Indomitable,” Moretti said.
“Here’s hoping,” Hall said.
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