Fernix (Harmony War Book 4)

by Chatfield,Michael

They were using their metal storm rifles from Osdal, but these had a burst function to conserve rounds and they had the training to be able to reload the damn things.

  Seven of Tyler’s Troopers were black, and twelve were wounded and being hauled back to the medics.

  “Pull back!” Haas said to the entire Regiment. Tyler fired and turned to run. His powered armor smashed through pipes and he jumped over a low wall, rising ten feet in the air with the low gravity. He pushed off a pipe to get back down and he saw a Trooper turn yellow below him. He let the Repulsor drop and grabbed his AMR. He landed, his boot clamps digging into the ground as he crouched and fired.

  The round smashed through a PAC’s helmet and exploded inside, but Tyler didn’t have time to admire the weapon’s destructive capabilities.

  The PACs were rushing out of their positions and heading right for him. He fired and moved towards the downed Trooper who’d been hit in the lower back. Their legs were, non-functional.

  “Grab onto me, Trooper!” Tyler said, firing into the advancing PACs with the AMR gunners supporting him from above.

  “I swear to fuck!” Mark said bowling through pipes and factory machines like the tank he was, firing as he moved to cover Tyler.

  “I’m latched,” the Trooper said through gritted teeth to Tyler, his magnetic line attached to Tyler’s torso. It was supposed to be used to pull them back down if they jumped too high in the low-gravity moon’s atmosphere.

  “Well, we shouldn’t let the lieutenant get his ass shot up, both of them!” Che barked. The Company was only too happy to open up, firing around the trio.

  “Moving!” Tyler said, his rifle empty. He jumped for the defenses, hauling the powered-armor-wearing Trooper with him. Mark jumped backwards, still facing the PACs and firing at the same time. It made his trajectory odd, but the pings of incoming rounds made Tyler pucker right up and wish he had ten times the covering fire.

  “Reduce fire!” Haas ordered. Tyler’s Company reduced their volume of fire; the others were holding their fire and waiting. Mark’s line sunk into a pile of machinery and he returned to the ground, taking off in long bounds for his Company.

  The PACs, sensing blood, were running full-tilt for the Troopers’ new line that they couldn’t see through the factory machinery. Medics pulled the Trooper from Tyler and he looked along the line. His people were ready and waiting. Explosions ripped through the PACs’ lines as they found the mines.

  Tyler reloaded his rifle and slapped it into his clips. He grabbed his Repulsor and used the bipod to put it on what had been a conveyor belt. It was covered in grey bumpy spray-ite.

  “FIRE!” Haas barked, and the PACs that were just figuring out they were in a minefield were met with overwhelming fire power. They couldn’t see the Troopers but the Troopers’ sensor sticks were faithfully showing where they were.

  Rounds tore intervening machinery apart and ripped into the Chosen’s powered armor.

  A tech came by and resupplied Tyler and patched up his armor with spray-ite. Armorers moved down to fix a control circuit that had been busted up.

  “Artillery coming in!” Zukic yelled.

  Mortars that had been brought down to the planet ripped through the roof, and hammered the rear guard of the PACs advancing up towards the front lines that were engaged with the Reclaimer Regiment. They were boxed in with weapons fire.

  No atmosphere blew out; there weren’t many sealed buildings left on Blue Moon.

  “Fire support coming in!” Zukic said. A benevolent Combat Shuttle fired missiles through the now open factory roof and into the PACs.

  “Advance!” Haas called.

  “One, Three Platoon, support, Two with me!” Tyler yelled, his armor back to full condition as he jumped over the conveyor belt and used his line to pull himself to new cover. It was a trick that they had learned in the first week. His line reeled in and he fired, Two Platoon following him. Dashtund was riding their asses to get them moving. They had blunted the PACs’ motion, now it was time to push back while they were off balance.

  “One moving up!” Ali said, his people jumping up, their lines lashing out and hauling them forward.

  “Three coming in,” Che said, her people doing the same.

  Platoon by Platoon, they gained their lost ground. Tracers continued to rip through the air and they moved forward even as Troopers were hit. The PACs were disorganized and scared. They might have trained forever, but the Reclaimer Regiment were veterans. They’d seen death before.

  “Haas is hit!” Mark yelled.

  “Mark take over, Dominguez run Charlie Company,” Zukic snapped off. He was running support with incoming mortars as well as the techs, medics and armorers.

  “Continue the advance!” Mark yelled.

  Tyler focused on the advance; as the Company commander he saw as people were hit, being killed or wounded. They pushed through the minefield and onwards. Tracers ripped into powered armor; the Harmony fighters were more acclimatized to the reduced gravity, but their weapons needed to be reloaded.

  “Blades!” Mark called out across the Regiment.

  Tyler fired on a PAC just twenty meters away. They went down, adding another iron carcass to the many that littered the floor. He didn’t even touch the floor for the bodies as he let his Repulsor swing on its strap and pulled his blade free.

  Tyler yelled wordlessly as he closed with a PAC, smashing their rifle away with his left hand and plunging in his vibra-blade.

  He ripped it out and moved past, cutting and hitting those close behind his first kill. They were too close to use their rifles without shooting one another.

  Some drew reinforced blades that could pierce the exterior armor but couldn’t slash through it like a vibra-blade.

  “Show them what Troopers can do!” Mark yelled through the Regiment’s channel and through his speakers. “No mercy!”

  “No mercy!” The Troopers yelled back, angry, frustrated and scared.

  Chapter 30

  HC Tempest

  Oort Cloud, Housapel System

  8/3294

  Peter frowned at the information coming in from Fernix on his bedroom displays. It was a large room with a bed that would fit five people comfortably. Instead it just held two.

  “Something the matter?” Miss Choi asked, nuzzled in at his side.

  “Seems that the EMF launched biologicals at Fernix,” he said, looking at the reports from Housapel Prime. They had launched biologicals at Housapel Prime as well. There were twenty remaining Carriers, and there were still five operational Harmony Cruisers looking to hit them again.

  As Housapel’s Harmony forces were reeling from the biological attack, the Carriers had been hammering Harmony strong points and then inserting their Troopers.

  They’d come in on a shocked enemy and they were rushing the Harmony forces with everything they had. Housapel’s Chosen were putting up a good fight, but now Housapel was a toxin-filled pit. The Chosen would have to live in their armor or spacesuits for the rest of the fight. The Troopers had been trained in their powered armor, they would have few problems living in it all the time.

  “Akani?” Choi asked, tracing outlines on his chest.

  “Seems that he is dead. No matter though, we have all the parts of our plan.”

  “Good, let them fight our battles, it will not be long till we are waking up to victory,” Choi said, kissing his chest and his neck, distracting him from the feeds coming from across Harmony’s home planets.

  He dismissed them with a wave, unable to keep his desire for Choi contained as he rolled her over, looking down on her. She giggled, her eyes shining at him as she smiled.

  The war was happening out there to those that didn’t have the power to change anything. The Company officers were hidden away in safety.

  They were pawns, to consolidate Peter’s power, and Harmony was a means to an end. It was all business, just in a different currency; blood instead of credits.

  Peter didn’t have any trouble pushing it
aside as he leaned down to kiss Choi, kissing down her neck, biting lightly as her naked body moved against his, her touches electric, her moans and shudders making him smile at his power over her.

  Chapter 31

  Factory Complex Three

  Blue Moon, Fernix System

  9/3294

  Ortiz looked at the screens; they were halted. The Harmony forces were throwing people at them and the Troopers didn’t have the numbers to push through. He was thinking about pulling his forces back into a main body, currently they were too spread out with bad supply lines. They needed ammunition and charged batteries constantly.

  Thankfully, the Carriers had won the Blue Moon’s orbitals. Everything was dead or dying on Fernix and the hope was that the shipyards and such that had been shut down, with just a few stragglers left on them, would die out in time.

  None of them were trying to attack the Carriers or make it to the factory complexes on Fernix.

  With the Carriers controlling the orbitals, it meant that they could get quick resupplies, and call in direct fire from the ships, or have the Combat Shuttles hammer close in targets with missiles and rounds.

  Captain Hall had issued orders, sending a number of the Carriers to the asteroid belts and storage facilities. They had more Troopers than they could support, and the ships from Osdal were low on ammunition.

  They had the plans for the new ammunition types and could fabricate it on the Carriers. It was the one thing that was making the Troopers’ lives a hell of a lot easier. The powered armor only leveled the playing field. The armorers were pulling apart the Harmony armor; it seemed that they had multiple generations and they were taking the best alterations that they could and using them on the Troopers’ armor.

  The Troopers weren’t the only ones with fire support, though. The Chosen had mortars and artillery batteries. In the first month they had lost a good number of them when the Carriers hammered them into the dust. Now, they were figuring out less complex rigs that ran on timers or by remote. The Carriers still shot them up, so they didn’t get more than a few shots, but few if any were getting sleep on the Blue Moon.

  The Troopers with augments were doing the best, but even they had limits. Ortiz’s people were tired and they needed a break. This was why he had called the meeting, and got his leadership together in an armored bunker.

  They took off their helmets, tired men and women with the determined look of warriors bent to a task. They had passed their normal bounds weeks back, but they would do what he said without blinking an eye.

  “Our people are tired, and we’re starting to see issues from sleep deprivation.” Ortiz looked around the room, and no one argued. They were supposed to be fighting machines, but they all knew that wasn’t the whole truth. “Armored bunkers are being fixed up, and I want to start rotating people off the line. Get a few people back on the Carriers for a shower, food, rest, and back in. Three days only.”

  “As much as I want to fight you on this, I agree,” Haas said, throwing his support behind Ortiz. The others nodded, their weariness showing.

  “Good. Now, once everyone is a hundred percent, I want to start sending raids into these bastards,” Ortiz said. “We’re going to hit them everywhere and anywhere. These groups will move into enemy territory, and their job will be to hit vital points, to call in our fire and hit them where they sleep, where they piss. I want them scared to fucking fart together.”

  “Once we start they’re going to come back to us and do the same,” Captain Sholtz said.

  “You know it, and that’s why I want us at a hundred percent so we can have people crossing our lines that we know and shutting down anyone else’s entry. This is going to be a long fight. We’re going to dig the fuck in like a goddamn tick and hit them everywhere,” Ortiz said.

  “Now, that is something I can dig my teeth into,” Haas grinned.

  “Good, because I want you and your Regiment spearheading it. You’ve done operations behind enemy lines, so I want your people to work out a plan. The other companies will be doing it as well. Listen to Haas and his people. For those that don’t know the Triple-Twos - start reading,” Ortiz said.

  “Any word on resupply? We’re running low on screamers and we’re starting to use Harmony’s heavy machine guns,” Captain Obdalhi said, his dark features strained.

  “I’m doing what I can, the screamers are an issue but I’ve got more AMRs in the pipeline. Captain Hall is pulling ammunition from everywhere, we might have to do combined loads of regular rounds in with the new rounds for the Repulsors,” Ortiz sighed.

  “Fuck,” Sholtz said, rubbing his tired sweaty face.

  “How long until we’ve got that resupply from the asteroids sorted out?” Haas asked.

  “A month, maybe your boy M is up there whipping people into shape and getting things working,” Ortiz said.

  Haas nodded, a small smile on his face.

  “Then as soon as we damned well can get it,” Haas said with approval.

  “That’s what I’m hearing,” Ortiz said, looking over the table, which had a drawn out map on it. Dust shook from the ceiling as rounds impacted nearby. No one in the bunker even flinched; they’d got used to incoming fire a long time ago.

  Ortiz was thinking about Moretti. He might be a Ministry of Intelligence type, but he was good at his work and, while he wasn’t on the front lines, his work behind them was bearing fruit. While the captains had been arguing about who got to stay around the planet and walking over Captain Hall’s authority, Moretti had talked to their staff behind the scenes.

  After one meeting with Hall, they took a recess and were practically begging to be told what to do. Captain Hall’s command was secured and they started acting something like the soldiers they were supposed to be, instead of the piss-ant politicians that they were.

  “Now, I’m sending you the rotation of who’s going on leave when, then your side operations once we’re back at full functionality. In the meantime, Sholtz and Haas, I put in a special order with the cafeterias. I’ve got hot meals and drinks coming in,” Ortiz said.

  “The Troopers are going to be happy with that,” Sholtz said, grinning.

  “I hope the Victor brothers don’t eat it all,” Haas complained.

  Ortiz smiled; the Jerome, Mark, and Tyler brothers were yin and yang in many ways, but they were good Troopers and they’d created a cadre of good Troopers.

  A few of Obdalhi’s lieutenants, the only ones that were in reserve and able to get away from their Platoons and companies looked confused, or as if they had heard the reference before and didn’t quite get it. Most did. The Triple-Twos’ achievements were well known through the Troopers’ ranks.

  Few actually believed that they or their exploits were real. One of the few times that the Ministry of Intelligence hadn’t needed to expand the stories was where the Triple-Twos were concerned.

  Chapter 32

  Tower

  Earth, Sol System

  10/3294

  “The ships that we sent out to scout have stopped transmitting,” Wallace said without preamble.

  “All at once??” Nivad asked.

  “Periodically, over a period of several months, they’ve been falling off. We think that it might be a functional issue. We had hoped that they might try to get communications back, we even had the other scout ships bounce the signal. We don’t know what happened, but it will take at least another seventy years for them to get back to Earth,” Wallace said, his jaw tightening in annoyance.

  Nivad, if he was another man, might have been storming around his office ranting and raving. “How long would it take to build more scouting ships?”

  “Five more years,” Wallace said.

  Even if they went out, if they too were lost then it would only prove that there was something out there. If Nivad was annoying something out there, then it looked like they had more power than him. Nivad did not want to deal with something like that. Humans he could manipulate, something else, not so sure.


  If he let it lie then something might come for him, but he had his own avenues of escape. He might not have many EMF around, but he had options. Messing with something he didn’t know about didn’t give him many options.

  “I want sensor nets over the nearest systems in that area. I also want the sensor net around Earth pushed further out. Make sure that it is done quietly. I don’t know what happened out there, but it is best if we assume the worst,” Nivad said.

  “Yes, sir.” Wallace didn’t even blink an eye at his boss’s orders or the possibilities his words opened.

  “For now, we need to focus on getting the EHC in line. Once Harmony is dealt with, there will be corporations looking to push their power. I want to make sure that we know who is plotting against us. Make sure that the squads are ready for work.”

  The squads dealt with issues by making those that were talking out or being loud in their protests, disappear.

  “I will see that they are ready,” Wallace said, a cruel smile marring his cold features.

  I wonder why these humans care so much about their emotions? It just makes them illogical and annoying, Nivad mused.

  “Fernix is turning into a long and drawn out fight, and Housapel is reeling from the biological weapons. Even though the EMF fleet in Housapel was able to defeat the Harmony fleet, I am still picking up a number of transmitters in Harmony that are receiving information from Housapel and are tied into our own markets,” Wallace said.

  “Find out who it is, we might have found the real head of Harmony.” Nivad tapped his finger on his desk in thought. “I will see you at the meeting.”

  Wallace bowed and Nivad ducked his head to the man. Wallace was resourceful, and making him feel appreciated was a paltry price to pay for his services.

  The man also knew how to give Nivad the most information possible in a short time. He was not one for small talk and trying to make a connection. He was blunt and that was something that Nivad treasured greatly.

  Chapter 33

  Factory Complex Three