Edge of the Vortex

by Donald B McFarlane

  Keegan nodded. “Are we set?”

  Hulo looked at his operator that was had his datapad plugged into the drone, and made a simple gesture with his finger. The soldier looked down at his datapad and tapped the device once. He looked back at Hulo and nodded.

  “It’s away.” Hulo said in a loud enough voice for everyone to hear him.

  “Let’s get back inside.” One of the Tohil engineers said.

  Keegan looked at Stephenson. “Fingers crossed.”

  Stephenson smiled. “I was assured by the Star Guard that if the Coalition detected the transmission that they’d be on us before we knew it.”

  Keegan shook his head. “Very reassuring.”

  “Yeah.”

  Everyone drifted back into the structure on the surface and took turns riding the lift down into the lair below. The Coalition drone and most of the Alliance soldiers went down first. Keegan stayed on the surface as long as he could, just looking out into the forest that covered the base. It was a beautiful spot and incredibly peaceful. It was just a pity that they were virtual prisoners underground.

  When it was finally his chance to descend into the Tohil complex, Keegan boarded the lift with the last Alliance soldier on the surface and an engineer he didn’t recognise. The elevator doors closed, and the transport started its journey down when the engineer took a step closer to Keegan and whispered to him.

  “We need to alert Ottawa and Washington of any plans that may be on the table.” The engineer took a step backwards, and shoved his hands in his pocket and gave the Alliance soldier a nervous looking smile.

  Keegan tilted his head back and to the right, and dropped his eyes towards the engineer. “And you are?”

  The man smiled. “Karl Winward, Canadian Security Intelligence Service.”

  Keegan nodded. “And you want to have a talk.” He waved his arm in front of himself. “And bring in the Canadian and American intelligence communities?”

  “Yes.” Winward nodded.

  “And you think that will help?”

  Winward tilted his head to the side. “I don’t see that we have a choice.”

  The lift arrived at its destination. The Alliance soldier quickly exited the transport, while Keegan stood motionless, just looking at Winward. “I suppose we should find somewhere private to talk.” He suggested.

  “A prudent idea.”

  39

  Jax Ar 2R

  17 March

  Finally, Mike thought to himself. He had finally made it into the top five of his class. It was him, Nikita, an American, a Kiwi and a Chinese operator. His meteoric rise from the bottom of the pack had impressed many of the men on the team, which was technically his team, while others were happy to have the best-qualified person leading them into battle, not the one assigned by Earth.

  The group of fifty-nine operators were sitting in the dirt in the middle of the training complex on Jax, waiting for Kol Fine to arrive for their first major field exercise. They had spent countless hours practising advanced Dynamic Operations level combat techniques which were so different from the special forces techniques back on Earth. Here there were man-portable shields, individual flight packs, grenades that could vaporise anything from a tank to a wall. The technology was daunting, and it had taken them a considerable amount of time to come to grips with it.

  Light Sentinel Z7, Kol Fine’s right-hand robot was pacing in front of the group. There had been a few other Dynamic Operators that dropped in to assist with the training from time to time, but it was mainly Kol Fine and Z7. They had a few other droids helping them, and it had been a relatively hands-on training course so far. The field exercise was going to be their first chance to use the tactics and technology they had been training with on a larger scale and in conjunction with each other.

  The humans were sat in five rows in their dark blue skin tight basic layer kit that they wore under the armour that they had received secondhand from the D-O quartermaster. Mike was on the first row sitting in between the Chinese operator and Royal Marine Major Alex Jefferson when Z7 finally stopped moving and addressed the Terran Strike Group.

  “Exercise Hold Fast. Twelve sections. Team member on the front row is the section leader. Overall unit command stays with Pullinski.”

  There was a long enough pause for Mike to quickly turn his head around and check who was sitting behind him. The rest of those on the front row did the same.

  “The armoury will open at the conclusion of this briefing. All weapons have already been set to non-lethal settings.” Z7 moved to Nikita Pullinski who was sat at the end of the front row and still the top candidate. “Your mission is to hold this compound against an unknown attacking force.”

  Mike watched Nikita nod his head.

  Z7 moved back to a position centred on the group and stopped. “The armoury is now open. Time until enemy contact, sixty seconds.”

  “Run!” One of the American’s screamed at the top of his lungs as the entire group of humans scrambled to their feet and started running as fast as they could towards the armoury which housed their armour, their weapons and all the extra kit they would need for any mission.

  Mike got off to a good start. His legs were pumping hard, and he had covered half the distance of forty metres to the armoury when he spotted a shuttle cut over the compound, firing wildly down into the courtyard, hitting a few of the TSG with stun rounds. Some of those that went down had simulated injuries based off where they were hit, while others were ‘killed’ outright, and unable to move for the remainder of the exercise.

  Focusing on where he was running, Mike looked up just in time to see a pair of Light Sentinels climb over the exterior wall of the compound and jump down into his path. Gritting his teeth, Mike accelerated to his maximum sprinting speed and lowered his left shoulder and crashed as hard as he could into the four-hundred-kilogram machine. The impact instantly shattered his left shoulder, and the pain was excruciating, but using his neural upgrades, he activated his skin-suits nano-bot med systems and the painkillers, and before the droid hit the ground, Mike had wrestled its weapon away from it, and ‘killed’ it with a shot to the head, before dispatching the second machine.

  Checking over his shoulder, he caught a glimpse of two of the TSG members that were supposed to be in his section, both running hard behind him. Turning his attention back to the armoury, he could see a few operators had already drawn weapons and were setting up a perimeter defence immediately instead of putting their armour on. Nikita was standing at the entrance to the armoury yelling commands.

  “If you already have a weapon, provide cover for the rest of the unit to get fully geared up!”

  Mike reached the hastily erected firing line and knelt down next to Nikita, his blaster in his right hand. “Go get suited. We’ll hold the line!” Mike yelled without looking at the overall mission commander.

  Looking up, he caught another glance of a shuttle as it started another pass over the compound, slower this time than the first pass. The side hatch was open, and Mike could clearly see Kol Fine standing in the opening, his red cape flapping in the wind. He wasn’t wearing his usual uniform, but a type of armour Mike hadn’t seen before. Without giving a second thought, Mike raised his weapon and fired off a salvo of stun-beams at Fine, who simply put out his hand, which, by some invisible force, disrupted the blasts before they were within five metres of him. Once the shots were interrupted, Fine pointed with his finger at Mike and smiled.

  Mike didn’t have time to relish in the small gesture from their instructor, more droids were coming over the walls of the compound, but more methodically. The first wave was just shock troops used to throw off the TSG, now the main attack was coming.

  “Nikita!” Mike shouted over his shoulder.

  The Russian ran outside hunched over, only the bottom half of his armour on.

  “Enemy forces coming over the east wall.” Mike said.

  Nikita stood up to check the report, then looked at the men that were on the firing l
ine, some were already kitted up, others were still in their jump-suits. “Is there a full section ready?” He asked.

  “My team is up!” Replied Alex Jefferson, the Royal Marine and technically the second in command of the TSG.

  “Take your team and get to the high ground.” Nikita ordered.

  “My guys!” Alex took control of his element quickly, and swiftly moved them out of view of Mike’s position, and around to a set of steps that would lead them to the roof of the armoury.

  Scanning to his front, Mike continued to watch as the droids came over the wall. He knew that they were outside the effective range of the weapon he had taken from the now ‘dead’ droid, so he held his fire. It was evident to him that the attacking force had a foothold inside the base, and with the TSG backed into a corner, they were simply deploying their forces for the final push.

  Mike shook his head, this simulation was going to be over fast. Not good for their first war-game.

  When a tap finally came on his shoulder, Mike looked up to see the face plate of the helmets they were using, and quickly peeled back towards the armoury. The inside looked like it had been hit by a tornado. There were pieces of armour littering the ground. Mike had seen a few of the TSG members go out without their leg armour, and some without helmets or other components. Silly, he thought to himself, the suit was only really useful as a complete suit.

  Reaching his rack, he found his armour hanging exactly where he had left it, and quickly went about putting it on, only at less than half speed because of his still almost useless left shoulder. The pain was gone. The nano-bots had dealt with that, but they were still working to fix the actual damage he had done to himself.

  The lower half of the armour on, Mike could hear the level of fire outside increase in ferocity. It might have been the push that the droids were inevitably going to make, and he was missing out on it. Shaking his head, be focused on getting the rest of his kit on, and when he finally got his helmet online, he pulled up the TSG personal locators to see who was left in the fight and where everyone was deployed. The picture was grim.

  Most of those that had made it to the armoury after the initial attack had followed Nikita out to meet the oncoming droid attack in the centre of the compound, which is where it looked like the primary fight occurred, and it must have happened very quickly since every TSG member there was down. Jock and his team were still in the fight on top of the armoury, but that looked like it. The droids had secured the entire ground level and were pressuring other positions. But for some reason, they had neglected to clear the armoury.

  Gritting his teeth, Mike moved over to the weapons rack and pulled his issue weapon out, and powered it on. Scanning arms hold, he looked for inspiration and found it in the form of anti-mech grenades. He wasn’t sure why anyone hadn’t grabbed them, but he grabbed two of them and instantly armed them. Turning, he started running to the opening of the armoury, rifle slung over his back, and upon reaching the breach, he tossed the grenades out into the compound, then dove to his right to avoid the blast. Even though the devices were in a training setting, and designed to fight mech, the blast could disable the suits the TSG fought in if they were in the blast radius.

  Counting in his head, Mike waited until the devices detonated, checked his weapon was ready for action, got to his feet, and charged to a position where he could clearly get a view of the main courtyard of the compound. Taking up a kneeling position in the doorway to the armoury, Mike controlled his breathing while scanning the area to his front for contacts. There were plenty of downed droids and fellow operators who were all lying motionless having been ‘killed’. He checked the TSG tracker and contacted the trooper on the roof of the building.

  “David.” Mike couldn’t see any movement to his front, but he held his position. “What do you have?”

  “I think we’re the last two.” David said in his American accent over the comms. A former Navy SEAL, David Maze he was a talented operator. “My motion sensors aren’t picking up any more droids, but I suspect that Kol Fine is out there.”

  Kol Fine, on the ground. Not a problem, Mike thought to himself. Fuck. This exercise was going to be over in under ten minutes. He stopped himself mid-thought. “David. Movement, courtyard.” Mike used the helmets optics to magnify. It was Kol Fine.

  “My suit isn’t picking up his movement.” David replied. “But I see him.”

  Both operators drew a bead on the approaching instructor who was walking very casually towards the armoury. The obvious choice was to open fire, but Mike wasn’t sure that their weapons would get through the personal shielding that Fine was using. He was racking his mind. What could he possibly use as a weapon or decoy or tool to defeat this last opponent.

  “David.” Mike whispered into his comms unit, but there was only static. Looking at his tracking system, he noticed that it had stopped working. He scrolled through the various visual options that the helmet was equipped with and saw they were all offline. Options were limited. He was going up against a more experienced opponent who was better equipped. Perhaps there was no right answer.

  Fuck it. Mike said to himself, rising to a standing position. He lowered his rifle, and came out from his semi-protective position and started walking towards Fine who had stopped in the middle of the courtyard, his cape flapping gently in the breeze.

  “Last man standing?” Fine asked. He wasn’t wearing his helmet and needed to shout.

  Mike flipped the visor on his helmet up. “Perhaps.” He said.

  Fine nodded and moved towards the closest downed TSG fighter and waved a small disk over the trooper who was lying motionless, then looked at the disk, then back down and the trooper. “You were hit moving between cover?” Fine asked.

  The trooper was still immobilised, but could speak and replied in the affirmative.

  Fine nodded. “You haven’t grasped the speed of warfare on our scale yet.” He said.

  And then it hit Mike like a ton of bricks. He could use his suit to bowl his instructor just like he did the droid earlier, and with the speed and protection of the armour, the manoeuvre could be pulled off without any issues.

  Mike quickly flipped down his blast shield, and charged at Fine, using the maximum speed that he could propel the suit. It was just over twenty metres where Fine was kneeling, and Mike was able to accelerate from a standstill to nearly fifty miles an hour in an instant and cover the distance in less than one second, but the maneuver had been anticipated by Fine who activated a micro flight pack on the back of his armour and slid one metre to his left using the thrusters just as Mike rushed past, swivelled, then punching Mike in the back of his suit with all the power his more advanced armour could deliver.

  The punch, plus Mike’s own suits momentum slammed the unsuspecting Brit thirty metres forward, and onto his face. The impact was absorbed by the suit, but under the training controls, the suit registered critical damage. Rolling his eyes, Mike cursed himself under his breath. His reckless charge had enabled David to fire off a series of well-aimed shots at Fine’s rear, but the instructor detected the incoming fire and activated his personal shielding, which absorbed the fire as if they were drops of rain.

  Fine’s return fire found its mark, and that concluded the exercise. By Mike’s recollection, it had taken nine minutes and thirty seconds. As he and the rest of the TSG took off their armour and returned their weapons to the storage racks, they all knew that they had learned a valuable lesson about combat. It reminded Mike of when he was in Iraq fighting against the Coalition Insertion Team. Even though Mike and the other humans had been issued modern alien tech, and they had been given instruction on alien combat techniques, they were slow to fully grasp the concepts. Perhaps that was the real lesson that Fine was trying to teach them.

  40

  Mella II

  18 March

  Joe was sitting in the office that he had been allotted for planning the recapture Earth, and now that he had completed the reconnaissance, he had some solid lead
s to work with. The liaison officer that had been assigned to him was at his side as always. Taking notes, answering questions, and offering suggestions and recommendations. From where Joe was sat, things were not hopeful.

  Three primary obstacles needed to be overcome to successfully recapture Earth. First, they had to convince fleet command to give them the resources to do the job. After that, they had to contend with a Coalition fleet in the Sol System. While fifteen ships were a fraction of the original assault force, it was still a potent fighting unit, which could be reinforced at a moments notice. The third and final factor was the energy shield that was covering the planet. Joe knew that there was no point in going to the dance before they figured out a solution to that problem. It was quite a pickle.

  The other thing that was taking him a substantial amount of time to get over was the level of clinical and surgical devastation that had been brought upon the planet. After he had got back to Mella II he had more time to study the imagery from the reconnaissance which had provided an almost endless supply of pictures of every corner of the planet to help plan the liberation attempt, but it was the images of the cities that had just vanished from the face of the earth that kept distracting Joe. Mexico City, Moscow, Lagos, Tokyo and Sydney were all gone. There were almost perfectly formed circles around where these great cities had once stood. Now there was nothing. The ground appeared to be flat and covered in ash.

  Joe knew that Admiral Taark stood by his word to offer his assistance in the salvation of Earth, but he had his hands more than full with the daily operations of a star fleet that covered a vast space of stars and systems. His focus was elsewhere, and Joe recognised that, but he offered Joe more assistance. The liaison officer that had been attached to Joe’s hip since he had arrived at Taark’s headquarters and travelled with him to fleet headquarters. He was easy to get along with, and it was sometimes easy to forget that he was even in the room, but he was a staff officer of the purest form. Joe had all the droid support he wanted, but they were tricky to work with. They weren’t on the same level as the Sentinel Commander who was half a galaxy away with Rhea, so as a gesture of good faith, Admiral Taark said he would assign Joe the best planner he had in his operations section.