by Mel Odom
“You come in here and kill Iracko warriors often, Sergeant?”
“I do. Freeze program.” Kiwanuka lowered the weapon to rest its butt on the ground, which in the holo was a craggy promontory that overlooked the besieged city.
The battleground locked into place and the whole room shifted from vibrant life to an artificial quality that had always jarred Sage. The 3-D quality lost its edge. When the holo was running, everything looked real. But when things stopped, the sudden stillness left his senses slightly rolling.
Kiwanuka sat up and looked at Sage. “You come around to watch soldiers in holo much, Sergeant?”
Sage ignored the question for the moment. “What are you carrying?”
Kiwanuka answered without looking at her weapon. “Cheytac ten point four millimeter semiautomatic. Caseless ammo. You have to clean it often, but it’s the most reliable sniper weapon I’ve ever used. It makes kills out to two thousand meters plus. It comes with a standard seven-round detachable box, but when I have a secure sniper perch and a target-rich environment, I bump up to specially made thirty-round magazines. I load my own rounds.”
“Why not a beam weapon or a particle blaster? There’s no recoil on those, and you don’t have to worry about reloading.”
“A sniper doesn’t have to worry about reloading. She’s there to take a shot, a key shot. If I’ve got an assigned target, or even three, usually that’s all the shots I take, then I have to move. The only time I use a thirty-round box is when I’m there to punch holes in enemy combatants and disable their vehicles. A sniper who stands her—or his—ground too long gets killed there.”
Sage nodded. “A slug thrower like that generates a lot of recoil, takes time off of follow-up shots.”
“I like the psychological effect the physical damage has on the enemy. They get beamed, they tend to just fall. If you see someone’s head, or limb, suddenly turn into bloody mist, that leaves an impression. Especially when you’re thinking you could be next. Plus, even if you miss hitting a target squarely, the hydrostatic shot of an impact can incapacitate an enemy and sometimes kill them.” Kiwanuka narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t just decide to drop by and talk about weapons.”
“Yes and no. We’ll get to that. What are you doing on Makaum?”
“My job.”
“I checked your file. You’ve tried to go offplanet since you got assigned here seven months ago to rehab an injury.”
Kiwanuka frowned. “Until I saw you in action at the ambush, I thought you were just a sergeant killing time here till retirement.”
Stung, Sage had to work to keep from putting steel in his words. “I came to Makaum under protest. This isn’t where the war with the Phrenorians is.”
“That’s where I want to be.” Kiwanuka nodded. “Instead, I drew this place.”
“Why?”
“If you’ve seen my field service report, you already know why.”
Sage had seen the full field service report after Halladay had cleared his access. Kiwanuka wasn’t on Makaum just for rehab.
“The notation regarding your . . . disagreement with Lieutenant Swarton seems diluted. And usually striking a superior officer will get you dumped out of the military in a heartbeat.”
“Swarton led my unit into an area we knew to be questionable. He didn’t wait till the minesweepers gave us a green light, just ordered us through. I was in the lead crawler. An IED took out my team, killed two of them and maimed the third.” Kiwanuka’s nostrils pinched as she inhaled in a controlled fashion. “I lost my right arm.” She held up the limb and made a fist.
Sage couldn’t tell any difference between that arm and the other. “The medtechs did a good job patching you up.”
“I chose bionic replacement over organic.”
“They tend to be problematic and don’t last as long as organic replacements.” They also tended to remind a soldier of his or her mortality, and they distanced them from other flesh-and-blood soldiers at times too.
“That’s fine. I wear this arm out, I’ll go get another. If I got a chance to hit Swarton again, I wanted to drive my fist through his face. I went through the spinal reinforcement too.”
That surprised Sage. Spinal enhancement surgery like that took longer to recover from, and when the body rejected the bionics, as they sometimes did, temporary and even permanent paralysis could result. The neural linkages weren’t guaranteed, and if they failed, it was a lot of misery to go through.
“I gave an arm in service to the Alliance, for a war I believe in. I wanted something more back.”
“What about Lieutenant Swarton?”
Kiwanuka wrapped her arms around her bent knees. For a moment her dark gaze was somewhere else, then she looked back at Sage. “After the explosion, after I saw that my team was dead, after I made sure the medics were taking care of Corporal Naqsh, I did my best to put Lieutenant Swarton in the morgue. I only got him as far as the hospital.”
“With an injured arm?”
“With a missing arm. The AKTIVsuit clamped the wound just past the shoulder and pumped me full of meds. The others pulled me off of Swarton before I killed him. If I’d had two arms, they wouldn’t have been able to do that.”
“Swarton was in intensive care for four days, then had to undergo facial reconstruction.”
“That was a waste of time. That man was ugly even after they finished with him.” A cruel smile framed her lips.
In spite of the grave nature of the conversation, Sage laughed.
Kiwanuka hesitated at first, then joined him.
“You were lucky Command didn’t cut your psychiatric discharge papers and send you on your way.”
“I’m a great sniper, a great soldier. They need people like me more than they need Lieutenant Swarton. The way the system’s set up, favoring politicos and corps, the military ends up with a lot more Swartons than soldiers like me.” She studied Sage in open speculation. “If you’re here instead of on a dropship headed offplanet, I guess somebody figured they needed you too.”
“Colonel Halladay has a special assignment for me. I’m putting together a team. I thought I’d ask if you were interested.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Let me buy you breakfast and we’ll discuss it.”
0752 Hours Zulu Time
Several pedestrians blocked the streets as Sage guided the crawler toward the bar Kiwanuka had recommended. After he’d come to a stop several times, he was beginning to think he and Kiwanuka would have made better time on foot. He swept the street, looking for a way through. Already on alert, he spotted the assassin on top of one of the vine-encrusted two-story buildings that lined the street to his left. The man wore patchy green clothing that helped him blend into the surrounding vegetation, but the barrel of his rifle with its straight lines looked out of place.
“Down!” Sage jerked the crawler to the right and floored the accelerator.
The sniper’s bullet caromed through the thin padding that covered the back of the driver’s seat, missing Sage by millimeters. The vibration of the impact shuddered down Sage’s spine. He pulled the crawler into an alley and stopped. With the people in the streets, there was no way they could escape in the vehicle.
“Sniper’s nested on the building across the street.” Kiwanuka bailed from the crawler and reached into the back for her rifle. She’d left her sniper rifle in its case in the cargo deck. The Cheytac was too unwieldy, close up like this, and the bullets were too powerful for a densely packed urban area with no proper place to set up.
“Roger that.” Sage pushed free of the crawler and grabbed his Roley.
Kiwanuka ran to the corner of the alley. “Is there only one sniper?”
“I don’t know. Would you work alone?” Sage sprinted in behind her and kept an eye on the other end of the alley through his helmet’s 360-degree vision. Plan B could have included a second team looking over the alley. Sage knew he would have put one there.
“Not if Command wanted to make s
ure that the target I’d been assigned to terminate got dead. They’d always have a backup team in place.”
“That’s what I was thinking.” Sage reached into his combat vest and pulled out two mini-drones. He activated them through his helmet, assigned them screen overlays that cluttered his vision somewhat, then hurled them into the air.
The mini-drones, nicknamed ParaSights because they were flying eyeballs that could relay imagery and GPS locations, took flight immediately, heading in opposite directions. They were smaller than his little finger, looked like tiny zeppelins with fins at one end, and were solar-powered. Switchblade wings popped out the sides to give them added control.
Sage voice-commanded the ParaSights, overriding their pre-programming to map out the surroundings and to focus on the nearby terrain, searching for hostiles. Almost immediately, one of them picked up the sniper lying atop the building across the street.
“Mark and continue surveillance.”
On the transparent overlay of ParaSight 01 the sniper was outlined in orange, painted as a recognized enemy. Meshing all three views, the 360-degree configuration as well as the incoming feeds from the mini-drones, was problematic and took a lot of training. Sage had mastered it, couldn’t manage more than two of them at a time while on the move, and always had a headache for a couple hours after any time spent working with the mini-drones.
“Sniper’s still on the roof.” Sage opened a comm channel to Fort York.
Kiwanuka paused at the corner of the building and peered out into the street. She tilted her head up. “I don’t see him.”
“If you saw him, he’d be dead by now.”
“How do you see him?”
“ParaSights.”
“Feed me.”
“You’re trained?”
“I can handle up to four of them at a time.”
Sage placed his gloved hand against the back of Kiwanuka’s helmet and pulsed a feed connection to her through his suit. “Got ’em?”
“Only two?” She sounded surprised.
“That’s all I can handle.”
“You need to practice more.”
Before Sage could respond, the comm opened to the post. “Fort York Command.”
“This is Master Sergeant Frank Sage. I’ve got a Condition Red. I need a couple of jumpcopters in the air now. Send them to my location.” He pinged his GPS location. “Sergeant Kiwanuka and I are taking hostile fire from unknown assailants.”
“Roger that, Top. Unfriendly bogeys at your twenty.” The comm operator’s voice sharpened but remained professional. “Sending two birds now that are weps hot.”
“Understood.”
“Notifying Colonel Halladay.”
Sage returned his attention to Kiwanuka as she turned and planted a shoulder into his chest, knocking him back.
“Grenade! Move!”
Sage turned and ran with Kiwanuka at his heels. ParaSight 02 relayed the image of the gel grenade that had plopped onto the corner of the building where they had been taking cover. There was no time to attempt to retrieve the crawler.
The helmet filtered most of the explosion, lowering the intensity to something just short of thunder that would have ruptured their eardrums. The concussive wave knocked them flat. Sage’s faceshield hammered the ground as debris thudded against the AKTIVsuit hard enough to leave bruises that would last for days. His senses swam at the edge of a giant black hole that was trying to suck him in.
TWENTY-ONE
Market Square
Makaum Sprawl
0756 Hours Zulu Time
Get up! Sage made himself move, made the neurons connect the synapses and got his body in motion. He forced himself to his feet with his left hand while his right found the Roley and pulled it to him. The armor’s near-AI punched stims into his body and his mind started clearing at once as his senses sharpened and the world seemed to slow down around him.
He turned to Kiwanuka and found her lying bonelessly beside him. Some of the stone shrapnel stuck out of her AKTIVsuit and he wondered if one or more of them had gotten through the armor and killed her. They had practically been on top of the grenade when it detonated. He laid a hand against her shoulder and accessed her biometrics.
The heartbeat and respiration were there and she didn’t appear to be losing blood. She was just unconscious. Sage accessed the suit’s near-AI. “Stims online.”
Warning. This soldier is comatose. Stim should only be administered by med personnel or if in enemy territory.
Sage cursed. “We’re in enemy territory. Stim her now.” He tracked ParaSights 01 and 02. ParaSight 01 still had eyes on the initial sniper, who had taken advantage of the explosive distraction to abandon his sniper’s nest atop the building and was now swapping out the sniper rifle for a heavy-duty particle-beam pistol as he ran toward the alley where Sage and Kiwanuka were.
Stims administered. Soldier responsive.
Kiwanuka’s biometric readings surged and she regained consciousness with a sharply indrawn breath.
“Report hemorrhaging, internal and external.” Sage pulled on her shoulder and helped her to her feet. Even half out of it, she retained the presence of mind to pick up her rifle. “Broken bones. Any threatening injuries.”
Soldier appears physically stabilized. No danger of further injury from movement imminent.
Sage pushed his faceshield into Kiwanuka’s, peering through his HUD and the ParaSight overlays to see her face. “Are you with me, Sergeant?”
Kiwanuka nodded slowly at first, then got it together. Her eyes focused on him and she took a breath. “Roger that.”
“Can you move?”
The ParaSights tracked a small group of gunners crossing the street. The Makaum citizens struggled to get clear of the area, ducking into buildings, alleys, and running to get away as quickly as they could. Three Makaum citizens lay dead or wounded at the impact site. The corner of the building looked like a predator had taken a bite out of it. The wood hung in splinters.
“Yes.”
“The other end of the alley.”
Kiwanuka lifted her rifle and opened fire just as a group of armed assailants started shooting at them. A laser bean scorched the front of Sage’s AKTIVsuit but the armor held even though it grew uncomfortably warm before he could dodge to the side.
“This way.” Still firing, Kiwanuka headed for a nearby building where a door stood wreathed by branches from the trees and bushes that grew through the wall.
Sage followed her and triggered the Roley as he went, aiming for the center of the crowd. Their bursts knocked down three of the gunmen and dispersed the others.
The door at the back of the building was locked when Kiwanuka reached it. She turned sideways as bullets and beams ripped through the foliage in front of her. She used her bionic arm as a battering ram, hammering the wooden barrier.
Sage stepped into place beside her and took aim at the ruined end of the alley as the first of their attackers from that direction put in an appearance. Squeezing the Roley’s trigger, Sage put two bursts of accelerated magnetic force into the man’s center mass, staggering the dead man back into his companions as they came up behind him. Before they could recover, Sage hurled a tangler grenade at them.
The grenade bounced in their midst, then a half-dozen strands shot out and wrapped everything they touched. Several of the attackers were caught up in that. Mercilessly, Sage opened up the Roley on full-auto. The trapped attackers stopped struggling, dead or unconscious.
Kiwanuka’s second effort at the door nearly ripped it from its hinges. “Let’s go.” She took up her rifle and stepped through the doorway.
Sage rolled around the edge of the door and slid inside just as another gel grenade plopped onto the ground out in the alley. He spun and closed the door, hoping the heavy wood was thick enough to offer some shelter from the coming blast. Sage turned and ran, following Kiwanuka as his helmet switched over to infrared to deal with the darkness trapped within the room. They were at the bac
k of some kind of shop, shoving through crates and climbing over racks of clothing.
When the grenade detonated, searing fury slammed into the door and finished ripping it from its hinges. The door followed them into the room and smashed into the overturned crates they’d left in their wake. Flames from the incendiary charge flared in after them and clung to the building on the other side of the narrow alley.
Sage pulled down intel from the fort and spotted the jumpcopters en route, two klicks away and coming hard. All he and Kiwanuka had to do was stay alive for a few more minutes. He pulled up area maps as well, pinpointing them, the attackers the ParaSights had identified, and where they were in the sprawl.
The transparencies from ParaSights 01 and 02 showed their attackers pouring into the alley after them. The fire inside the building spread quickly, taking advantage of the natural wood that had gone into the construction. Fire was a huge concern in Makaum’s populated areas because of the building materials. Wildfire was a problem out in the jungles during the dry season.
“Is anybody in the building?” Sage asked as he smashed another crate out of his way.
“No. I saw two men running through the door when I entered.” Kiwanuka shoved through the overturned crates that had spilled across the narrow stockroom. Clothing and sundries littered the floor. She reached a window that held only shards of glass after the concussion from the grenade had finished with it. Using her rifle muzzle, she knocked the remaining glass from the window and crawled through.
Sage followed her, stepping out into another alley paved in hard-packed mud. The alley ran in the same directions as the one they’d quit. Another alley opened up behind the buildings in front of them.
“Which way?” Kiwanuka crouched beside a tree that bore red ovoid fruit that Sage had eaten before. The flesh tasted savory but had the consistency of a melon. Kiwanuka’s suit’s white noise generator drove away the bees working the fist-sized pink-and-white flowers.
“Across. Through that alley. We should be able to take cover at the well house.” The ParaSights’ transparent overlays showed their attackers pursuing them. Some of the assailants had sprinted up to the doorway and were held back by the fire that was already spreading throughout the structure. “They’ll head us off at either end.”