When she reached the bottom of the ramp, Standish took a knee and found a strike team member laying face down, motionless, a metre from the bottom of the escalator. It wasn’t a member of One-One, but a purple and black-clad warrior, making them a member of Five-Zero. Looking up, she spotted a guard shack ten metres away that had apparently been hit by a missile or a rocket. That also wasn’t on the schematics she had seen.
Bringing up her rifle, she scanned the large open area off to her left, then quickly jumped on the comms net.
“Standish, bottom of the escalator.”
“Take the wall with the guard post and start moving down it.” Jun came back over the net. “Herding civilians off the level.”
Standish acknowledged the orders with a single click of her communicator, then rose to her feet, finally standing completely erect, her weapon level with the ground and pointed in her direction of travel.
Before moving off, Standish cycled through her weapons menu on her HUD, and armed her left forearm mounted mini-rockets, selected high-explosive as the munition ready to fire, then moved off. She should have armed her missiles earlier, but late was better than never.
Stepping off, Standish made sure that she regularly checked the route she wanted to take to get online with the rest of the team that was trying to push the civilians off the level, all the while keeping alert for any threats that could immerge. As she moved, she didn’t have to focus any energy on her movements, they had been drilled into her countless times on Guhr 8-Nine. Never cross your legs. If your eyes go somewhere, your weapon should follow.
Closing the gap to her teammates, she spotted several civilians that had been stunned and were now tied up with their hand and feet tied behind their backs. It didn’t look comfortable, but at least they weren’t dead. Reaching the right wall, Standish made sure she stayed just off of it, as there was always a chance that some munition could ricochet and run down the length of the wall, and if someone fired a missile at her and missed, it could still prove fatal if it detonated next to her on the wall.
When she got online with the other operators, she checked who was on her left, it was Nik Has. Checking back to her front, she could see that almost all the civilians had already been pushed back to the escalator and were running away from the approaching forces. The few that had challenged the invaders had been quickly neutralised, and once the team swept over them, the closest team member would stop and rapidly secure the stunned individual with zip-ties before rejoining the line.
The area to her front was barren. Looking off to her left, she noticed that all the amenities and shops were on the other side of the hall, and just as she was turning her attention back to her front, she caught a glimpse of movement in her rear-mounted camera. Standish spun to her left quickly, making sure to drop the barrel of her rifle, so she didn’t point it at her teammates, and when the barrel was past Nik, she brought it back up and quickly zeroed in on a young female running at her in civilian dress, a piece of metal held high in her hand as she charged towards Standish.
Without a second thought, Standish squeezed the trigger on her weapon and sent a blue coloured blast racing across the fifteen metres separating the two, which quickly punching a clean hole through the female’s right eye, then through the brain, then out the back of her head. The body continued for a few more steps before collapsing face-first down to the ground with a thud. The metal weapon clanging to the ground.
Standish scanned the area behind her again, then shifted her attention back to her front, before switching her rifle from lethal mode to stun mode.
“Fuck.” She said.
She had stopped a threat to both her and her team. That was the most important thing, but she should have switched to non-lethal arms once she got inside the station and joined in with crowd control. Better safe than sorry, Standish thought to herself, then banished the memory to the back of her mind, and focused on the task at hand.
Scanning the large crowd to her front, it was evident that almost all of the figures were in a desperate scramble to get away from the strike team, and down to the next level. Nearly everyone in the mass had their backs turned to Standish and the rest of her team, and it was easy to spot the individuals who were still facing the approaching D-O operators. Those were the figures that Standish kept an eye on, all the while scanning for anyone wearing military or militia looking garb.
“We need to speed this up.”
Standish didn’t recognise the voice. It must have been someone from either Gen 17 56 or Fingus Ro, the other team leaders.
“Roger.” Jun replied. “Let’s start dropping them.”
Standish didn’t wait for a follow-on order, she quickly took aim at the first available target, and fired off a charge shock beam which sizzled through the air as it moved towards its target, striking the male in the chest, causing a quick shock to their system that caused him to flap about uncontrollably for the briefest moment, before falling over to the ground.
Out of the corner of her eye, Standish could see the rest of the twenty-two operators fire off a series of blasts at the crowd. It didn’t take long until they achieved the desired effect of either dropping the civilians or scaring them off the level, and as the team formed up at the top of the escalator bank that led down to sub-level two, Jun started dispensing orders.
“56, take Four-Three and send them up to the entrance to the station and join the security detachment.” Jun ordered.
“Moving!” The clone team commander replied. “Four-Three, back to the surface.”
“What about the lift?” Fingus Ro asked. “It’s out of action on the surface, but what about between this level and sub-three?”
Standish didn’t see it, but her armour detected the mini-missile that Jun quickly fired off towards the lift bank on their level.
“Sorted.” The One-One team leader answered. “Get ready to push down. Nik, launch a micro-drone down there, I don’t want any surprises like we got on this level.”
“On it.” Nik replied.
Standish quickly cycled through her HUD until she found the correct channel to receive live-feed from the drone that Nik Has had launched. After taking a few seconds to orient the small machine, he sent it down the escalator after the civilians. The level was almost identical to sub-one, with the addition of a large rail platform in the middle of the chamber, and a mob of scared civilians huddled around, unsure of what to do.
“Pill-box.” Has reported.
That got everyone’s attention. “Stand-by.” Jun ordered.
Standish watched the feed and gave her own analysis of the guard shack that was one level below them. It appeared to be some kind of automated gun unit built into the wall. No operator. Without question autonomous, and most likely providing a live feed to whoever was monitoring the situation unfolding in the station.
“Paint the target.” Jun ordered.
“Done.” Has replied.
Standish looked over to her left and watched Jun point his left forearm towards the ceiling and fire a mini-missile vertically into the air. The missile flew up about half a metre, then dropped its nose down, and dashed down the escalator, hooked a hard left, then slammed into the auto-gun system. The munition exploded on contact, blowing a sizeable hole in the wall and destroying the entire weapons unit.
“Right. Cryne on point. Move down on a metre spread, then fan out at the bottom.” Jun ordered.
Beta One-One had practised stacking many times in the past. Everyone on the team knew their place under circumstances like this. Standish’s place was second to last, with Mils taking up the rear. The other two teams dropped in the queue behind Mils.
Moving down the escalator, it was rapidly apparent that they were along another wall as they descended down to sub-two, and everyone quickly oriented their weapons to the left and down. There must have been hundreds of civilians in the area, Standish thought, and they were all probably confused and scared.
“Move down to sub-three and board the outbou
nd train!” Jun said, using his suits public address system to broadcast his demands. “We are not here to hurt you, but you need to leave the station via the outbound line.”
Standish watched the expressions on the faces below. Many were still in a state of shock, and even though they had heard Jun’s instructions, they hadn’t started moving to the escalator that was on the fall wall, directly below the ramp that lead down from the surface.
“Stun some of the closest ones.” Jun said over the net. “See if we can’t drive them.”
Without hesitation, a wave of harmless fire rained down on the shocked civilians, and like the first time they had tried it, it drove everyone towards the escalator to sub-three, exactly where they needed to be going.
As Standish swept the large open area, she could see that panic had now taken hold of almost all the individuals that were scrambling away from her. Dropped belongings, and stunned bodies now littered the floor. There was an excellent chance that the fleeing locals were unaware that the bodies that were starting to pile up were just stunned. A little panic was only going to speed up the rate at which the team was able to clear the station.
“Standish and Mils, seal the inbound tunnel.” Jun ordered over the net.
Standish acknowledged with a single click on her communicator, then dropped the barrel of her rifle, stepped to her right, then charged down the escalator, only bringing her weapon back up once she was past the other operators. Keeping her weapon pointed continuously at the throng of moving civilians, Standish pushed forward to the end of the empty rail platform and quickly dropped to one knee.
Sub-level two had a single underground line coming into it that was almost in the centre of the space. The tracks were down in a channel that ran away from a large buffer at the end of the line and was straddled by loading and unloading areas on either side.
The whole set up was rather featureless, and when looking at the tracks and the platform, Standish couldn’t determine what the power source was. Moving closer to the edge of the platform, Standish looked down onto the tracks and saw three lines. Two that she assumed the trains would run on of the lines while the third supplied the power.
Mils joined her and gave their quick assessment of the situation. “Place the cratering charges twenty metres inside the tunnel.” He said confidently.
“Moving.” She said, scooting herself into the sunken pit trench that held the tracks, careful to watch her step. Even in her heavily armoured suit, she knew that an electric shock could affect the armour’s systems, which was the last thing she needed.
Cratering charge bouncing on her hip, Standish moved into the tunnel, rifle up and pointed towards her front at all times. She doubted that she would get contact from her front, but she knew that anything was possible.
When the duo reached the twenty-metre mark, they placed their charges in the middle of the tracks, then Standish pulled out two of her spider charges, and tossed them at the roof of the tunnel.
“Won’t hurt to use charges on the ceiling.” She said.
“Yeah.” Mils replied. “But what is this going to do to the outbound platform below us?” He asked.
Standish hadn’t thought about that. The tracks weren’t supposed to be on top of each other, but she knew the plans they had been using were off.
“Don’t know. Check with Jun.” She said.
The pair moved back to the platform and jumped out of the pit. Standish was on the comms quickly.
“Jun, ready to blow the inbound tunnel.”
“Do it.” Came the reply.
Standish took a few steps back from the edge of the platform, dropped to one knee, and brought up her left arm to shield her head. “Detonating.”
The charges went off simultaneously, causing a massive explosion that shook the ground they were on and kicked up a storm of dust and debris that flooded the entire level.
Standish quickly switched to a different optical setting in her helmet, then rose to her feet, and moved back to the platform edge, and peering down the tunnel. Her helmet’s optics were able to pierce the dust cloud that was still swirling in the air, and when she saw her handiwork, she knew instantly that the tunnel had been sealed.
“Job done.” She said. She looked over to Mils. “Let’s catch the rest of the team.” She took a firm grip on her rifle and brought it up to the low-ready position, and started moving towards the final escalator down to sub-three.
When she got down to the lowest level in the complex, she found that the team was already herding passengers onto an underground train that was at the platform.
“What do you need?” She asked over the open comms net.
“Nothing.” Jun replied. “Just hang back.”
Standish responded with a click and stayed by the escalator while the other operators continued to push and shove the civilians onto the one hundred metre train that was stationary at the platform. From where she was standing, it looked like they were going to be able to get all the civilians on the single train, but it wasn’t happening very quickly. Taking a knee, Standish watched and listened as Jun orchestrated the completion of this phase of the operation.
“Has, get access to the network, and prepare to send this train to the central park station.” He ordered.
“Almost there.” Nik Has replied. “I have access. Once the train is deployed, I can call an empty train from a lay-by in-between here and the central park station if we need it.”
There was a pause over the net for a moment while Jun considered his options. “Do it, but leave it one hundred metres down the tunnel. I don’t want reinforcements arriving at this station unannounced.”
Standish was suddenly aware of the fact that there was no apparent reason why they wouldn’t also blow the entrance to the outbound tracks. Even if they had an empty train to leave AO Throne, there was little chance that they’d be able to make it through the central park station to the surface, let alone another line to get to either AO Law or AO Sky.
AO Diamond
Ten minutes earlier.
While Beta One-One, Beta Five-Zero and Beta Four-Three were busy securing the underground station in Area of Operations Throne, the surface fight was progressing very well for the attacking teams.
“Reyn.”
“Yeah.”
“You think we can make that ledge?”
The drop pod was still at two thousand metres and dropping quickly. Not much time to make the call. Reyn promptly used his pods external imaging systems, along with all available imagery of the Royal Palace that was being fed in live-time and gave the landing pad on the fifth floor another look. He knew what his boss wanted to do, but he needed his number two’s eyes on it first. They were supposed to hit the ground, then assault the building. This option would have put them in a critical location faster, and with a better chance of grabbing their prize.
“Yeah. We can make it.” Reyn replied over the private channel to Bender.
“How many can fit?”
Reyn took a second to consider the size of the landing pad, and then the safe approach vectors required to make a safe jump from the pods which were racing towards the ground without getting themselves killed.
“Four. Max.”
Bender switched to a team-wide chat. “Prime, change of plans. Reyn, Clar, Ver and I are going to pull a manoeuvre onto the pad on level five and assault up from there. Ree, Joh, Hughe, Del, stay on track and assault from the ground.” Bender then opened the net to the channel that was monitored by every operator involved in the attack of the Royal Palace. “This is Prime. We’re inserting four operators onto the fifth-floor platform. Everyone maintain your assault plans.” Bender killed the channel.
Checking his altitude, Bender activated the pod’s emergency hatch release and watched as the front of the egg-shaped transport shot away, then disappear from view. Using the live tracking data that was being sent to his heads-up display, Bender quickly ran the calculations on when he needed to leap from the pod to give himself t
he best odds of hitting the platform, and that moment was rapidly approaching.
Releasing his safety restraints, Bender grabbed his compact rifle and moved to the edge of the pod, the sun catching his stark white armour in the morning rays. Looking down, he could see the top of the Royal Palace approaching rapidly, and when a soft tone went off in his right ear, he dove out of the pod, head first, towards the palace.
As the team leader of the Alliance’s premier Dynamic Operations team, he had all the available augmentation, including mental enhancements, and significantly increased physical capabilities. The armour he and his team wore was the finest in the Alliance, but he wasn’t invincible. He needed to time his dive to perfection, and that all boiled down to executing a forward roll, then firing his mini-thrusters in the legs of the suit at the last minute to slow his fall to within tolerance parameters.
In the short time that it took him to skydive down to the palace, Bender took the opportunity to scan the surface of the city he was approaching. What he saw told him that the stealth pods had worked and that they had caught the Coalition forces off-guard. There was no movement of mecha on the surface, no heavy weapons being deployed. The element of surprise was theirs, now they just needed to maintain the initiative, and strike while they still had the chance.
Bringing his gaze back to the landing pad, his HUD detected the movement of two individuals as they moved outside the building. It was clear that they weren’t members of a security detachment as they appeared unarmed. They quickly lit up some smokes and started puffing away, oblivious to the danger that was dropping towards them. Bender just hoped that they didn’t look up, because even if the pods didn’t appear on the detection screens of the city defences, there was no hiding the stealth pods from the naked eye.
As he continued to race towards the pad, Bender kept a watchful eye on his altimeter and readied himself to flip himself into a position where his legs would be down, so he could fire his leg thrusters. Just as he was about to execute his landing manoeuvre, the two figures on the pad looked skyward simultaneously, dropping their smokes at the same time, but before they could turn and run, they were both dropped by two well-placed headshots, their bodies hitting the ground just after their brain matter was splattered all over the pad.
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