Wrath of the Shaitans

by Sudipto Majumdar

  It was easy for Ed to pace and time his march mentally. The Martian day was almost the same duration as that of Earth. When they reached the plains, it was almost dawn. They still had a hike of 18 Km to make to reach their designated spot. The men were bone tired, but they could not waste suit time by stopping to rest. The Marines were in much better shape thanks to the one third gravity, compared to a similar hike on Earth, but it was tough on them nonetheless.

  Ed decided to risk a half hour break. The men needed to be in fighting shape at the end of their long march after all. While they lounged on the ground, one of the marines touched Ed’s suit and pointed with the other hand at a faraway sight they could see in the breaking dawn of the Martian horizon. “Sir, what the hell is that?”

  Ed adjusted the zoom of his faceplate and focused on what the marine was pointing towards. After a few seconds he smiled. The darkening horizon had just brightened up his day. Things were falling into place for his plan. “That Marine, is the best piece of news we have got yet. Smile Private, for god seems to be smiling at us. That is a dust devil on steroids. You are looking at an approaching front of a dust storm, some of the largest in the solar system. Mars is extending its welcome to us and providing us with a thermal cloak.”

  The marines started their march at bit later than the 30 minutes they had originally planned. Ed wanted to time the approach, taking advantage of the approaching storm front.

  The Shaitan shuttle and the adjacent Shaitan camp had been built on a flat plain. There was no cover for the marines as they approached the Shaitan camp. They had no way to sneak close to the camp unseen. The original plan had called for crawling as close to the camp as possible without being seen, then making a run for the shuttle to disable it.

  It was not so much being visible that had worried Ed, as the thermal signatures of their suits, which would stick out like sore thumbs as they approached from far in the open plains. The Martian dust being whipped up by the storm did not just block visibility, it absorbed the infrared being emitted from their suits. Now they had been given a god sent cloak.

  As the marines reached their designated point, they watched the dust storm front approach them and the Shaitan camp far away from their left. The storm front was just a kilometer from then now. Ed called for a huddle of their platoon. When everyone had touched each other’s suit Ed gave them the final instructions.

  “All right marines, we each know our individual tasks. Deploy your cargo at an appropriate place and activate it before proceeding to your position. Remember, the Shaitan shuttle is our primary objective. All the rest of us are here to support the primary and backup demo teams tasked with taking care of the shuttle. This storms works both ways.

  The Shaitans may be blind, but so are we. We will not have communication between each of us either through line of sight due to the storm, or through radio because of the jamming. She Shaitans on the other hand may be able to ride over their jamming, if they have left a backdoor open, which is likely, so they may have radio contact with each other.

  Being blind, it is important that we stick to our plans and trust that the other teams are in the position they are expected to be. I want all of you to check your HUD to make sure that the designated position of your fire teams are being displayed.” Ed asked everyone, and he quickly got a ‘check’ from everyone.

  “Good, once the primary objective is achieved, you are all to retreat to your secondary positions. Each fire team has multiple secondary positions marked on their HUD. Choose any one of those as your situation warrants. You are free to fall back or even run as the tactical situation warrants.

  The objective is to keep the attention of the Shaitans in the camp focused on us, to give the shuttles time to deliver the first and the second platoon to their designated positions and to ensure that these Shaitans in the camp do not rush to reinforce the Shaitans laying siege. We are here to take the heat off the first and second platoon.

  Run and hide wherever the situation demands, as long as you don’t get yourself killed or let the Shaitans lose interest in you. Keep them engaged and busy at all cost. Good luck Marines. I will see you all on the other side.” Ed finished his final briefing and got a collective ‘Oorah’ from the platoon.

  The storm was now well and truly over them. The visibility was down to 15 meters and reducing. Ed had been assured by Yusuke during their discussions that if a Martian storm did arrive as he expected, it would not be strong enough to blow the marines over.

  The winds speeds of storms on Mars are very high, often greater than a category 5 hurricane on Earth, but they do not carry the same punch due to the thin 1% atmosphere. Ed could nonetheless feel the force, especially tugging on the cargo he was carrying.

  His duties as a commander were suspended for the moment, since there was no way to communicate. He was now part of one of the fire teams supporting the primary demo team heading towards the Shaitan shuttle. Ed placed his cargo at an appropriate spot, mentally brought up the menu through his neural interface and switched on the appropriate mechanism. Then he followed the rest of the team who were setting up their own cargo in a similar fashion.

  The first sign that they had encountered trouble, came to Ed in the form of a muzzle flash that he could see through his enhanced display on his faceplate. The visibility was poor, so he could not see who shot the gun, and the external microphone was did not pick up the faint sound of the gunshot due to the thin air and over the equally faint howl of the storm. The infrared overlay on his faceplate however could clearly make out the intense heat of the SG-4’s large caliber round rocketing out of the muzzle.

  It was appropriate to say that the bullet rocketed out of the gun in the literal sense. The SG-4 was part bullet part rocket. It is a common misconception that SG stands for ‘Super Gun’ or ‘Space Gun’. USC engineers had internally codenamed the gun project ‘Shaitan Grade’, and somehow the initials stuck to the gun.

  After the normal ‘Human Grade’ guns that were carried by the soldiers in Titan were found to be woefully inadequate on the Shaitans, and the heavy caliber mounted machine guns were found to be effective, it was realized that the space marines’ primary fire arm had to become far heavier in caliber and higher in velocity.

  This presented a lot of challenges to the engineers. Such a heavy caliber round fired at such a high velocity would break the ribs or the shoulder blades of a marine due to its recoil. It could even puncture or damage suits in extreme cases. Such rounds could normally be only fired from mounted guns, which took all the recoil on their mounts.

  The barrels of such guns would have to endure extreme heat, pressure and shock from the larger explosion. This would mean thicker barrels and heavier guns. The guns would be as heavy as a mounted machine gun, which is hardly practical for a marine to carry around.

  Even in low gravity environments, the mass of the gun remains the same, although the weight is low or zero. It would hamper the movements of the marine. It would be like trying to maneuver while pushing a boat alongside in waist deep water. You don’t have to lift the weight of the boat, but you still have to heave and push to fights its momentum every time you want to change direction.

  Last the marines were expected to operate in zero or low gravity situations like space, Titan or Mars. Firing any gun in such environment is a problem. Newton’s law of equal and opposite reaction to any action, meant that the marines would be thrown flying backwards every time they fired a shot. There would be little or no gravitational weight to anchor the marine. Firing such large caliber rounds and high velocity just increased the problem immensely.

  So the engineers built the bullets like rockets. The bullets would be triggered the conventional way inside the chamber, but the entire cartridge would not explode inside the chamber. The initial explosion would start off the bullet out of the barrel at a decent clip. After the initial explosion inside the chamber, the bullet would then ignite the other part of its two part explosive. This was a relatively slow burning explosive,
which took a few seconds to burn.

  This second part acted like a rocket that kept on accelerating the bullet. This meant that the bullet could start off at a low velocity with a smaller explosion inside the chamber and yet achieve high velocity due to the rocket action by the time it hit its target. This enabled the SG-4 to have a very low recoil. The recoil felt like that from 9 mm munitions, while the effect was that of a 50 caliber high velocity round worthy of being mounted on a tank.

  The guns were very light, although the weight of the heavy bullets was an issue. Still it was far better than having to pump 40-50 standard submachine gun rounds into a Shaitan to kill it. A marine was far likely to get killed before being able to do that. Usually one or two rounds of a SG-4 was thought good enough for a Shaitan depending on whether it was a type A or the bigger type B Shaitan.

  That fact had not been tested in a real fight with the Shaitans yet. It was about to get its first test, as Ed watched the IR heat signature of SG-4 rounds rocketing ahead of him. He realized it must be coming from the primary demo team tasked with taking care of the Shaitan shuttle. Ed and his fire team must have been 25 meters behind that team.

  Ed touched his hand on the back of the marine from his fire team. “Demo team 1 has made enemy contact. Move in for support.” The other marines of the team didn’t have to be told, they had already started running ahead, and Ed joined them. As Ed reached the scene of the gunfight, he saw one marine and two Shaitans down.

  The Shaitans were not really down, but in a death frenzy as he had been trained to expect from the briefings of the people who had fought on Titan. One of the team mates of the downed marine was kneeling next to the downed marine trying to help him, while the other two member of the team were not to be seen. From the corner of his vision on the right side, he also noticed more marines rushing in.

  It was Demo team 2, who were the backup team meant to destroy the Shaitan shuttle. They were to rush towards the Shaitan shuttle, in case Demo Team 1 got stopped. The downed marine had a shockingly large burnt opening on the chest of his suit. It had burnt straight through the skin all the way to the flesh. There was a similar second wound on his left thigh.

  His team mate had just started foaming over the open suit to help keep the atmosphere and the heat inside. The wounds looked so ghastly that it was hardly looked likely the marine would survive. Ed motioned one of his team to get down and help the fallen marine, and at the same time touched his hands on the shoulders of the kneeling marine foaming his fallen comrade. “Mouse, where is the rest of your team?” Ed asked.

  “They have gone ahead and proceeding to plan sir. We got ambushed. We could not see them, but they could somehow see us. The Shaitans did not show up on IR till they fired. I think their suit insulation is better than ours or their sensor is better than ours.” Mouse replied without taking his eyes off his fallen mate whose suit he was foaming to repair.

  Demo Team 2 had arrived at the scene by then, Ed touched the team leader of Demo Team 2 without taking his hands off the shoulder of Mouse. “Corporal, I want you to go in, now that we have been spotted. Mouse, we will take care of him, you go along with Demo Team 2 and join up with your team. We need that shuttle disabled right now. We do not have any more time, these two Shaitans would have raised the alarm, and we can expect the defending hordes upon us at any time.”

  Mouse reluctantly handed over the foam and got up. He could not take his eyes off the wounds. “Aye sir. What the hell are those Shaitans firing sir, that sure was not a bullet.” He did not wait for a reply and ran off with Demo Team 2.

  Ed saw Fire Team 4 arrive just as Demo Team 2 and Mouse left. They were supporting Demo Team 2, just as Ed’s Fire Team 3 was supporting Demo Team 1. Ed left one of his marines to foam over the fallen marine and stabilize him if he was still alive by then. The rest seven of them proceed behind Demo Team 2 to support them.

  The marines had approached the Shaitan shuttle from the end opposite to where the Shaitans had made their camp. As Ed approached the shuttle, he could see marines taking cover behind the landing struts of the shuttle and firing towards the camp. He could not yet see the Shaitans themselves that were being fired upon through the dust, but he had no doubts that there would be a large number of them heading towards the marine at that moment.

  The two Shaitan patrol guards had no doubt been able to raise the alarm. The marines had seconds to plant their explosives before they got overwhelmed by a few hundred Shaitans. As Ed got into position, he saw ghost like infrared blobs materialize out of the dust storm, as the Shaitans got close enough for their IR signature to register. Then those IR blobs slowly materialized into Shaitans visible to the eye as they got closer.

  The volume of fire from the marines increased as the two fire teams joined the battle, but decreased almost immediately again as the gunners of Demo Teams 1 and 2 withdrew back to help their team plant the explosives. The landing struts were already being used as cover by others, so Ed lay prone and used a small rock as cover.

  The amount of fire coming from the Shaitan side was steadily increasing, as more of them must be rushing in. It was getting uncomfortable and dangerous to even peek out and send some suppressing fire towards the enemy. Ed was thankful when two more fire teams joined in from two more sides to double the volume of fire. It gave him some time to assess the situation.

  The dust storm had helped. It had let them approach the Shaitan shuttle unnoticed much closer than would have been otherwise possible. They had however ran into a Shaitan patrol just before being able to reach the shuttle. The patrol had been neutralized but the alarm had been raised. At this moment, there must be between 15 to 20 Shaitans firing at them.

  The situation was however going to change drastically in the next 10 to 15 seconds. That was the time Ed reckoned that was left before the first Shaitans from the camp would reach the shuttle to reinforce these 15 to 20 Shaitans who must have been nearby. These Shaitans must be other members of the patrol guard or engineers or pilots tasked with maintaining the shuttle.

  Ed had to figure out the engagement tactics the fire teams should use to keep the Shaitans busy in this dust storm. It was clear that the Shaitans could sense the IR signature of the marines a few meters before the marines could sense the IR signature of the Shaitans.

  As Mouse had said, either the Shaitan suits were better insulated thermally, or they had better IR sensors. It was more likely to be the former, human sensing technology was almost at par with Shaitan. It was human materials technology that had a lot of catching up to do.

  So there were a few directions from which the Shaitans were firing, where Ed’s sensors could not detect any Shaitan IR signature, but obviously the Shaitans were sensing the marines. There were some directions where the Shaitans had come close enough that the marines could sense the IR blob patch. One or two the Shaitans had come close enough that the visual outline was visible even through the dust storm.

  Another big problem that Ed faced, was the accuracy of Shaitan fire. The stories of poor aim of the Shaitans as observed on Titan were clearly not true. These Shaitans were firing fairly competently, although Ed reckoned that his marines still had the edge in marksmanship.

  It was not possible that every Shaitan on Titan was a lousy shot and every Shaitan here on Mars was a good marksman. There was clearly something else at play here, which he did not understand yet. The net result however was that the humans had clearly underestimated the Shaitans on this issue. He will have to modify his tactics to take the better aim of the Shaitans into account.

  The other surprise was the weapon the Shaitans were using. There were the large caliber bullets being used here, as they had been on Titan. There was however a new weapon also being used here, that hadn’t been used on Titan.

  The downed marine had clearly not been shot by a bullet. Not even a large caliber bullet inflicted that nature of damage. On this mystery though, Ed thought he had a clue. Officers in the USC-GCF have to go through extensive lectures on speculati
ve weaponry that is possible and likely to be seen in future engagements with the Shaitans.

  Lasers for example are a very effective weapon in empty space. They can deliver almost all of the energy produced by a weapon to a small spot over long distance without any transmission loss. They are also light speed weapons, so you cannot move out of the way once it has been fired at you. Their biggest drawback is that they are ineffective even in the thinnest of atmosphere like the one on Mars. The air molecules absorb a large part of the energy, leaving the rest of the laser beam ineffective.

  Plasma pulse weapons are somewhere in between a laser and a projectile weapon like a gun. Plasma is the fourth state of matter, when something is heated up to such an extent that even the gaseous form of the matter is not enough. The gas atoms get so agitated, that they are stripped off the electrons that surround the positively charged nucleus. This makes the otherwise neutral atoms electrically charged.

  Even the coolest plasma is several thousands of degrees in temperature. One can take a blob of electrically charged plasma and accelerate it in the barrel of a gun using electromagnets, very similar to accelerating a rail gun or a particle accelerator. A plasma pulse at its heaviest is a few grams of matter. It can be electromagnetically accelerated to a very high velocity easily.

  A plasma pulse does not deliver its killing blow through its momentum, or cause damage through deep penetration. It carries its deadly payload as heat. It transfers that heat to anything that it touches, burning and causing damage to the structure at a molecular level.

  A plasma pulse may not be light speed, but it can be accelerated to such high speed that they appear near instantaneous to humans. They are far faster than any bullet can ever be made to travel. The plasma pulse being so light, also means that a plasma gun hardly has any recoil.

  There are inherent limitations to the plasma technology though. It is very hard to hold the blob of plasma together. The moment it leaves the barrel of a gun, the plasma starts dissipating even in space, since there is nothing holding the blob of plasma together. The trick is to shoot the plasma pulse at as high a speed and at as close a distance as possible, so that there is not enough time for the plasma blob to dissipate before hitting the target.