Westy and his platoon had assaulted the spire of the building only minutes before us, and had reported no enemy. The spire contained little more than power transformers, transmitters and ventilation systems, of little value to NELA. They believed that they could hear somebody in the floors below, however, and that was where my platoon were going.
Various scenarios ran through my mind. I had never assaulted into a building so high, and had no idea what would be waiting for me when the ramp dropped.
‘I feel sick,’ Jackson said.
I ignored his complaint. We all felt sick, but we had a job to do, and I wanted to get it done. I knew that Ev was somewhere inside the Citadel, and I wanted to be the one who found him. I wanted to know why he had joined a rebel organisation who slaughtered countless Union troops. How could he allow himself to stand alongside a group that killed his own comrades?
Ev was a traitor. I still couldn’t believe it. It was as though the ground had disappeared from under me, for one of the few men that I looked up to had become my enemy. Westy had appeared upset too, he had barely been able to speak to me when we left Eindhoven.
‘It can’t be true,’ he had said to me after the brief, shaking his head in total disbelief.
I remembered his lack of surprize at seeing the holographic image of Ev, though, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he had known.
The world has gone mad, I thought. I cast the thought out of my mind and prepared myself mentally for our imminent assault onto the Citadel.
‘Stand by!’ Konny shouted, and I snapped back to reality with a jolt, ‘When we exit, Charlie fire team will go left, Delta will go right!’
With that, the ramp fell away and wind rushed around the compartment, biting cold against my neck. My straps disengaged, releasing my shoulders and I reached out to grab my rifle.
‘Let’s go!’ Konny stood, and with the sound of seven rifles powering up we exited the dropship onto the top floor of the Citadel.
We quickly fanned out into a large fifty metre wide office, our weapons raised and ready to engage any rebels hiding in amongst the wrecked furniture. The dropships had made a mess of the place, tearing desks and electronic equipment apart to make the office appear more like a furniture scrap heap.
Wind whistled through the smashed glass wall behind us, reminding me that we were very high up indeed, at the top of the tallest building in the southern continent.
Behind us our dropship fell away and out of view, only to appear again seconds later hurtling across the cityscape with its battle brothers hundreds of metres below. They didn’t need to remain nearby, I reassured myself, since they could get to us so quickly.
‘Remember, don’t shoot up or down, and no grenades other than smoke,’ I reminded the section over the net as we cleared through the wreckage toward the far wall, ‘Your darts will go straight through the ceiling and hit your mates.’
I heard a noise just in front of me. I pushed an upturned desk out of my way with my boot and found a terrorist curled up into a ball. He wasn’t wearing his respirator, and he gasped desperately for air.
‘Enemy casualty,’ I announced automatically, seeing the blood soaking the man’s abdomen.
I kicked the rebel’s weapon away from him and continued to advance toward one of two doors on a wall at the far side of the office. We didn’t need to stop for enemy casualties, they would be dealt with by Johnno. The platoon sergeant’s work party were already unloading from their dropship behind us.
Just as we reached the far side of the office there was a series of almighty cracks as an unseen enemy fired a burst of darts through the wall just over our heads. Instinctively we threw ourselves to the ground.
‘Contact!’ I screamed.
Several of us opened fire, though we had no more of an idea of what we were shooting at than the enemy did, our darts punching through the wall leaving holes far too small to see through.
I gave Konny time to do something… I gave him a couple of seconds. Now that may not seem like a lot of time, but in situations like the one we were in - two seconds was a very long time indeed.
He did nothing, and so it was then that I decided for the last time that enough was enough.
‘For fuck’s sake, Konny,’ I shouted at the frozen section commander as I picked myself up and ran around the back of the section, toward the door.
It flew open toward me as somebody kicked at it from the other side. They rebels were slightly too late, for just as the door opened I kicked it back and fired several darts through it.
I heard somebody scream in pain. I leapt to the side of the doorframe and ducked out of the way, just before the rebels returned the favour. The door swung open once again with the force of their fire.
Somebody patted my shoulder urgently from behind me.
I took a glance rearward and saw that Okonkwo and Jackson had followed and were now stacked up ready to go. The rest of the section sprayed the wall to the side of us with darts.
I saw that Okonkwo was holding out a prepared smoke grenade and I took it, pulled the pin and threw it through the doorway, watching the mechanical fly off lever spring away as it went.
Outdoors a phosphor smoke grenade was a nasty bit of kit if it was used as a weapon rather than for what it was intended, but indoors it was a vicious thing indeed. It detonated with a massive explosion and a cloud of white smoke and molten metal billowed through the doorway.
‘Go!’ I hissed, and we burst into the room beyond in seek of our prey.
My visor spotted a figure staggering through the smoke as I entered, and I dropped the man with two darts and continued my advance. Okonkwo fired another two shots from beside me, and as I looked to my left I saw another figure collapse.
The smoke cleared slightly, although my visibility was still reduced, and I could see four enemy dead sprawled out across a smaller room lined with what had probably been very expensive computer hardware before our little fire fight.
‘Room clear, four enemy dead,’ I made the announcement to Konny and his fire team as quietly as I could so that I didn’t give my position away to a keen listener, ‘One door on the far side, I’m gonna go again.’
There was no reply, but I knew Konny had heard me. I continued to move cautiously toward the door, followed by Okonkwo and Jackson.
‘One-three-Charlie, this is One-zero-Bravo, that’s my call sign unloaded onto your floor,’ Johnno announced to me. He had been dropped off into the office behind us, ready to bring up the rear with his work party and deal with whatever we left behind, including the enemy casualty. His party could also be used as a fourth section as well if required.
I silently acknowledged the message with a quick double tap against my datapad.
With a downward wave of my hand, we crouched as low as we could as we drew close to the door, and I gestured for Jackson to stand to the side of the frame.
Jackson knew what it was that I wanted, and as soon as I nodded he used the butt off his mammoth to smash against the door, sending it flying open. We exploded into the next room bringing with us a swirling cloud of smoke.
Beyond was an office identical to the one we had been dropped off into, except that its wall of windows remained intact. Desks were still arranged neatly, and I even noticed a sandwich on one of the desks, untouched.
‘I’ll have that,’ Jackson said with a grin, sweeping up the sandwich and stuffing it into one of his pouches.
‘You tramp,’ Okonkwo laughed as we checked around the room for any hiding rebels. There were none.
‘Room clear,’ I reported to Konny, and then flicked to the platoon net to speak as section commander to Mr Moore for the first time, ‘One- zero, this is One-three-Charlie, that’s our floor seventy-five percent clear.’
‘One-zero, roger,’ the platoon commander replied quickly. He was more interested in what he and the other two sections were doing, clearing the floor above us.
Our floor appeared to comprise of no more than two large offices whi
ch were separated by at least two smaller rooms, including the computer room and whatever lay on the other side of a second glass doorway further along the wall behind me. The glass door appeared to be identical to the one in the office where we had exited from our dropships, and I guessed that it probably lead to the lifts and stairwell.
We couldn’t assault up or down the stairwell or we would end up risking a blue-on-blue with the other sections, but we still needed to secure it in order to prevent anybody from escaping, or worse, infiltrating back onto our floor.
‘Konny, you need to take the room through the glass door, mate,’ I ordered over the section net, ‘I think it’s a stairwell lobby that connects to the office I’m in.’
There was a moment’s silence on the section net, ‘Yeah, roger.’
I didn’t know if Konny was angry, and I didn’t care. I had taken command of the section for the third time and had no intention of returning the reins to him again. It wasn’t worth the risk.
‘Do not fire further left than my mark,’ I ordered, and quickly marked my location for him to see on his visor with a blue crosshair.
I waved Okonkwo and Jackson to step back with me out of the way of the floating symbol that I had created. If Konny came under contact as he entered through the glass doorway on his side of the building I didn’t want him to accidentally slice us up at the same time.
‘I won’t,’ he replied after a pause.
We tucked ourselves out of the way just in case, waiting for Konny to announce that he had cleared the room. I had Jackson train his mammoth onto the glass door on our side, just in case anybody used it to run away from the advancing fire team. If they did then the brutal weapon would make short work of them.
‘What the hell do they want from this building?’ Jackson wondered aloud without turning around.
‘No idea, mate,’ I said, ‘But you said yourself it runs half the defence industry in the city. That’s got to be worth something!’
‘Room clear,’ Konny ended our conversation with his report, ‘Two lifts, one stairwell. I see the other glass door.’
I could see on my visor display that Konny had cleared the final part of our floor, and was about to pass the message onto the platoon commander, when I heard several weapons open fire on the floor above.
A muffled voice shouted from somewhere above me, ‘Man down!’
I knew what it meant. One of the other two sections had come across more rebels on their floor and had taken a casualty. I felt their pain, but there wasn’t much we could do for them unless the boss called for us to come up and help.
‘Fuck,’ Okonkwo hissed, ‘I thought we got away with it.’
I chose not to reply and ran toward the glass doorway that separated us from Konny, ‘I’m coming round now, don’t shoot!’
As I reached the glass I saw Konny and his fire team securing a large open landing tiled with glittering mosaics and decorated with exotic plants. Geany and Konny covered the stairwell that connected us to the other floors, whilst O’Leary and Leaman crouched beside two lift doors.
Beyond the second glass door I could see Johnno tasking two of his work party to treat the injured rebel, before bounding across the wrecked office with the remainder of his party in tow. We were trained to kill, but the rebel was still a New Earther and technically a Union citizen. He was also a useful source of intelligence - if he survived long enough to be interrogated - so he was best kept alive. I admired Johnno for taking the time to consider the fate of an injured enemy despite knowing that one of his own platoon had also been hit.
‘Where is he?’ Johnno demanded.
Stupid question, really, I thought, but I let it go and flicked my head upward, ‘Up there, mate.’
‘Is it secure up there?’
Now that was a good question; I didn’t know if the stairwell had been cleared on the floor above, ‘Not sure…’
‘Boss,’ Johnno called out on the net, not bothering to use his call sign, ‘Have you secured the stairs? I’m below you!’
The roar of gunfire intensified, though it wasn’t directly above us. I imagined it came from somewhere above the second office, furthest from the original platoon entry point.
There was a sudden loud bang and the sound of shattering glass as somebody smashed through one of the glass doors above us. Konny and Geany twitched nervously, their rifles trained up the stairwell.
‘Easy,’ I warned, ‘Watch out for friendlies!’
‘Johnno!’ A voice called urgently from above. It was Jimmy.
We relaxed. I patted Geany on the shoulder and pointed downwards, there was no point in covering up the stairwell now, the immediate threat for our section was now below us.
Johnno moved toward the stairwell, ‘Yeah?’
‘One times casualty! One dart to the upper thigh, one to the abdomen! He’s pretty bad!’
‘Can I get to him?’
‘Yeah!’
Johnno and the two remaining troopers in his work party sprinted up the stairwell and around the corner out of sight. I heard the shuffling and grunting of them taking some form of heavy burden away from someone else.
‘Got him,’ one of the work party said.
‘I’m gonna move him back to the entry point for extraction,’ Johnno said, ‘Tell the boss!’
‘Roger!’ I heard Jimmy reply.
Suddenly Geany jumped in alarm, ‘Contact!’
His rifle magnets screamed angrily as he fired down the stairwell at something only he could see.
One of Johnno’s work party must have slipped over in surprise at the noise, because he rolled down the stairs and ended up on his back on the landing.
‘What the hell are you shooting at?’ I demanded, trying to raise my rifle to see with its camera over the edge of the stairwell.
‘There was somebody down there,’ Geany replied, firing again.
Geany was indeed a gobshite, I told myself, but he wasn’t an idiot who would shoot at nothing.
I looked to Konny. I held up a fist - grenade - and then pointed, meaning ‘Down there.’ Konny nodded his understanding, and tossed a phosphor grenade down the stairs. My headset beeped to warn of the upcoming explosion, moments before the grenade detonated.
The noise of the explosion subsided and there was silence on the stairwell, broken only by the sound of a single dart being fired somewhere upstairs. I wasn’t interested in that. My entire world revolved around the stairs and our casualty.
I strained to listen, but all I could hear was my own ragged breathing and thumping heartbeat. The shroud of smoke slowly lifted, revealing only a few pieces of debris on the stairwell beneath us. I didn’t know if the enemy was dead or simply keeping quiet, but I trusted Geany when he said that there was someone there.
‘Shall we push down?’ O’Leary whispered.
‘No,’ I answered quickly. We were already in contact on the floor above, and risked losing control. The stairwell was easy to hold, since we had the added advantage of being able to throw down grenades as often as we wanted.
Johnno emerged onto the landing beside the fallen trooper. He held a finger up against his visor, as if to his lips, to tell us to be quiet. I remembered that it was all too easy for the enemy to fire through the floor beneath us, depending upon how thick it was and the quality of their weapons.
Johnno stooped over the trooper and checked that he was okay. He responded with a thumbs up, which was promptly returned.
‘Room clear!’ I recognised the voice of Lance Corporal Matthews, two section’s commander.
Seconds later Johnno looked up toward somebody on the landing above. He held up a downward pointing thumb and then pointed with his finger to indicate that there was enemy on the floor below.
I assumed that Johnno was passing a message to Mr Moore. Clearly he would decide to launch straight away, punching downward in an effort to keep the rebels off balance. If we allowed our momentum to subside then they would have the time to pull themselves together and counter
attack, whereas if we kept going it left them unable to do anything other than react to us, which was exactly what we wanted. The art of combat was to make decisions and act upon them faster than your opponent.
Johnno nodded at whoever he was communicating with and then signalled for me to throw a grenade. I drew one of my smoke grenades quietly from its pouch, set the timer to two seconds and threw it down the stairs.
Somebody yelped downstairs just before the grenade detonated with another plume of thick white smoke.
‘Go!’
Boots pounded against the stairwell as Jimmy’s section stormed past us all toward the enemy, each trooper bounding several stairs at a time. The floor below erupted into gunfire as the battle resumed.
‘Lance Corporal Moralee!’ Mr Moore emerged from the haze, his signaller following behind. I supposed he wanted to sound intimidating, but I was much more interested in helping Johnno with his casualty.
‘Sir,’ I acknowledged curtly.
‘I see that you have once again assumed the command of three section,’ he said with disdain, and looked toward Konny, ‘Is that correct?’
Konny started to speak, but I didn’t give him the chance.
‘Yes, Sir.’
The boss frowned at me, ‘It seems one medal just isn’t enough for you.’
I said nothing, instead I simply imagined punching him in the face. Mr Moore appeared to know how to do his job - and to be fair he wouldn’t have made it to New Earth if he hadn’t - but my God he was arrogant!
The platoon commander beckoned to me, ‘Come with me. Corporal Johnston, bring up Moralee’s section, and keep two-section in reserve!’
‘Roger!’
I followed a few metres behind Mr Moore as the platoon began its assault onto the floor below, which was comprised of several much smaller offices divided by walls of glass. Entire sheets fractured and collapsed as the lead section exchanged fire with a group of at least ten of the rebels who had taken refuge on the far side of the building.
We kept low in the hope that the office furniture might provide us with some cover, and I peered over the top of an upturned table to view the unfolding battle.
LANCEJACK (The Union Series) Page 15