“Assuming they survived the massive fire caused by your bomb,” Joshua said.
“What the hell?” Gabriel asked, exasperated. “I do something right, something else goes wrong.”
“The joys of command,” Esau said.
“Don’t remind me,” Gabriel grumbled.
“Gabriel,” Markus interrupted on a secure channel. Gabriel, surprised, switched over to the frequency.
“Yeah?”
“This is an Abassi intelligence outpost,” Markus told him in a soft tone. “But it’s mostly deserted. I didn’t say anything before because I wasn’t sure. But the relays, the design and the lack of actual prisoner pens tell me this was a forward intelligence-gathering base.”
“So you’re saying this is an interrogation?” Gabriel asked.
“No. This is more like an early warning station.”
“Well, what good does that do them?”
“They use relays to forward information faster than light without using the jump gates. They probably have some kind of ship or drone watching our gates and relaying information here, which is relayed onwards. They were probably just using the Praelictor to confirm their discoveries.”
“How do you know all this?” Gabriel wondered.
“I wasn’t always some ghetto hood rat,” Markus said in a calm voice.
“So what were you before?”
“Just a little boy who liked to read secret intelligence briefings.”
“I’m not going to ask how you did all that,” Gabriel muttered. “Okay, note the location of this place so the Eye can nuke it from orbit once it gets here.” He switched back to the command frequency. “Beeker, Twist, point. Markus, rear. Wraiths, let’s move out.”
#
They made their way to the third laser without any problems, their path steering them wide of any Abassi patrols. There were more out now, though still not enough for a planet-wide occupation. Gabriel had a growing suspicion the supposed iron “grip” the Abassi had on the planet was mere illusion and, outside of the fleet parked above the world and the deadly anti-ship laser emplacements, the aliens weren’t overly concerned about an invasion.
The alien fleet overhead, though dangerous, was not the problem. The bigger issue was the ground laser, and that needed to be taken out before the squad could escape the planet. His top priority was to disable the laser, then wait for the Eye to make contact and extract them.
Fate continued to work at odds with him, however.
“I count over thirty soldiers, and five Sharks,” Joshua said from his elevated vantage point. “I think they caught on to what was happening to their lasers.”
“Hit the Sharks with everything you got,” Gabriel ordered. “Twist, Markus, eliminate the infantry. I’ll take the laser.”
A cluster of HEAVY rounds streaked down from above, striking each of the Sharks on the top of their turrets, where the armor was weakest. The rounds penetrated the armor and exploded, the fuse delay working to perfection. Smoke poured from the armored transports, and Abassi began to bail out of the ruined machines. Each Shark had been hit multiple times, and Gabriel was impressed. He had little use for his longtime adversary, but the man could shoot.
As the infantry struggled to recover from the shock of the attack, Twist and Markus moved in, their Lynx firing with abandon. The alien soldiers were cut down before they even saw their attackers, their blood coating the ruined transports; what remained of their bodies was strewn upon the ground. Gabriel saw the laser tracking something through the sky. He glanced up, cursed, activated his thermal sensor and zoomed in. His visor locked onto a small shaped pursued by a much larger shape before both disappeared behind the moon.
“Markus!”
“What?”
“I need some cover, now!” Gabriel cried out. “Help me get to that laser!”
“On it.”
“Esau, send a signal to the Eye and tell them to cross above the city.”
“Omelet, that laser’s still operational,” Esau protested. “They’ll be sitting ducks.”
“Just do it.”
“Bangers!” Beeker cried out as he launched the small phosphorous grenades into the midst of the Abassi. The infantry backed away, leaving a trail of corpses between Gabriel and the laser.
“Well, that worked too,” Gabriel muttered as he ran to the laser, Markus on his left and providing fire support. He looked at the strange targeting scanner and frowned. It was locking on to the Eye, and was almost prepared to fire.
“Omelet! The Eye’s coming out now,” Esau said.
Gabriel swore. “Markus, watch the infantry over there.”
“On it.”
“I’m going to do something very stupid in a moment,” Gabriel said as he smashed the laser’s automated targeting system. He tested the weight of the laser and found, despite the tremendous load, the suit was able to handle it. “I need you to cover me. Again.”
“Ready,” Markus nodded.
“Go!” Gabriel shouted and Markus stepped forward, shredding the remnants of the Abassi infantry who were regrouping to come for them. Gabriel dragged the three-ton laser clear of its emplacement. He glanced around and saw the piles of dead aliens. He was clear.
Gabriel stopped and hefted the laser onto his shoulder. A targeting reticule appeared on his screen as the Eye appeared far overhead, the larger Abassi cruiser closing in on the Dominion ship from the side. He looked back at the long cable stretching to the laser’s power source and was surprised to see it had not broken free during his rough treatment.
The reticule was having a difficult time tracking the fast-moving vessel. Gabriel overrode the command nodule, swore silently and tried his best to line the laser up manually with the reticule on his screen. It was going to be an impossible shot and he hoped the Eye had some sort of backup plan should he fail. He took a deep breath, offered prayers to every god he could think of or make up, and fired.
He saw the eerily familiar blue beam arc out from the barrel of the laser, the heat and energy disrupting the air and causing the beam to be visible, allowing him to walk the beam onto his target. He released the trigger then fired a second time for good measure. The resulting explosion told him he had scored a direct hit, the beam ripping into the side of the Abassi ship. It rocked and swayed as another explosion ripped outwards from the stern, the engines leaving a thick trail of smoke in the upper atmosphere. A few moments later the concussions of the explosions ripped through the city, shaking buildings and causing the ones he had already damaged earlier to become even more unstable.
The ship lost speed as it arced through the atmosphere, descending in a hellish mass of fire and smoke. Gabriel watched, impressed, as it continued to burn as it fell. It reminded him of a meteorite he had seen when he was a child, the streak growing brighter and brighter as it burned in the atmosphere...
“Um, Omelet?” Esau interrupted Gabriel’s musings. “What happens if that ship hits those mountains?”
“Uh, I dunno,” Gabriel tore his eyes off of the falling ship. He looked around and saw the remaining Abassi had fled or been killed.
“Well, I hate to sound like a party pooper, but wouldn’t the shockwave destroy the buildings?” Esau asked.
“They didn’t fall when the Illiad crashed and blew up yesterday,” Gabriel reminded him. He paused. “Or was it the day before? What day is it, anyway?”
“Three days ago, actually. Yeah, but we also hadn’t blown up a good chunk of the city then yet, either.”
“Ahh...” Gabriel exhaled. Esau was right. “Damn it. Wraiths, we need to move out. Grab the civilians and get to the evac point. Try to avoid any buildings we may have blown up.”
“You meant, ‘I may have’, right?” Beeker corrected.
“Eye, this is Wraith Command,” Gabriel transmitted, ignoring the Zulu warrior.
“This is Eye. Go ahead, Wraith Command,” the comm crackled instantly.
“We have recovered some civilians who were being held by the A
bassi,” Gabriel informed them. “Also have found four additional Wraiths ninety klicks out of town. Request extraction for them as well. Over.”
“Roger that. Thanks, by the way, for taking care of that cruiser,” the Eye responded. “Be advised we are dropping kinetics on a point just to the east of the city. Time on target is five minutes.”
“Uh, negative Eye,” Gabriel said. “We have our civilians over on that side of the city. Those kinetics need to be delayed, over.”
“Copy, Wraith Command. We are now aware of the situation and have adjusted accordingly. LZ coordinates have been downloaded into your suits. Be there in an hour. Kinetics fall ten minutes after you lift off. Eye out.”
“Son of a bitch...” Gabriel’s voice trailed off as he brought up the coordinates. Once more unto the breach, he mentally grumbled as he looked over the city map and the area they had ruined previously. If the survivors had stayed where he told them, then they were in imminent danger of being killed by the very people sent to save them. To prevent them from dying, he would have to traverse the city a third time.
He was slowly growing to hate Newcastle.
“We need to get back to the civilians and get them away from the damaged area before that cruiser crashes into those mountains,” Gabriel announced as he switched his comm back to the squad’s frequency. “I’d give it about three minutes before it hits, and...maybe four minutes after that before the initial shockwave reaches the city. I have no idea what’ll happen to the city.”
“Too fast,” Beeker muttered. Gabriel silently agreed.
“No more hiding then,” Esau suggested. “We just run through and get them out.”
“Agreed,” Gabriel said. “Esau, point. We need to run, Wraiths. Right now!”
“We should have the civvies meet us...where?” Gabriel said as the squad began to move quickly through the ruined streets.
“Tell them to get to the extraction area,” Twist suggested. “If they’ve lived here for awhile, they’d know where it is.”
“Damn, you’re right,” Gabriel grunted. “Esau?”
“On it.”
“Seeker!” Markus shouted and began to fire. The Seeker drone activated as the suits came into view. The small engines of the drone pulsed as it began to move to the Wraiths.
“It sent out a signal!” Esau cried out as the drone exploded, throwing debris and shrapnel about, missing the others in the squad as it targeted Markus. The point man picked himself off the ground, unharmed, as Esau began to report. “I’m picking up a lot of encrypted chatter on the Abassi upper frequency bands. I think they know about the surviving civvies, too. They’re coming for us, jefe, and it ain’t going to be pretty.”
“Twist, Markus, take point,” Gabriel ordered. “Move it, Wraiths!”
“Sharks!” Beeker shouted.
“We don’t have time for this shit!” Gabriel nearly screamed. “Get to the civilians!”
“They already know we’re here, Omelet,” Beeker reminded him. “We wiped out a company’s worth, remember?”
“Run!” Gabriel ordered. The suits began to accelerate as they ran into the city, ducking down smaller streets as Abassi began to converge on them. Gabriel quickly brought up the map he had accessed earlier when following the power sources to the laser emplacements and saw they were being herded to a large, open square near the east side of the city.
The same area the Eye was going to be hitting with kinetics any minute now.
“Esau, tell those civilians to head north,” Gabriel said.
“Already done, Omelet,” came the reply. “They’re at the LZ already, hiding and waiting for us.”
“When’d you tell them to do that?”
“Back when I heard the Eye was going to be destroying the city.”
“Good idea,” Gabriel said. He thought for a moment. “Hey, these suits are pretty tough, right?”
“Uh...”
“They can take some pretty intense explosions, right?”
“I guess so...”
“Okay,” Gabriel decided. “Let the aliens guide us to the park. And while we’re at it, let’s tell the Eye to use our position and paint us for their kinetics.”
“Are you out of your mind?” Esau asked.
“Maybe,” Gabriel said. “But I read these suits can survive a near-miss from a fission weapon. Why wouldn’t it be able to withstand a kinetic?”
“I can’t think of a specific reason,” Markus interjected. “But I’m pretty sure this is one of your worst ideas to date.”
The Wraiths burst into the open, where an entire brigade’s worth of Abassi were waiting for them. Over one hundred Sharks turned their turrets towards them, while thousands of Abassi soldiers activated their scythes. Gabriel skidded to a halt and looked behind him. Sure enough, the Abassi had closed off their only retreat. He sighed.
“Eye, this is Wraith Command,” he said.
“Go ahead.”
“Use our coordinates for targeting your kinetic,” Gabriel said as he uploaded his position to the Eye. “Try not to drop it right on us. Fifty meters to the left would be excellent.”
“My left, Wraith, or yours?”
“Your call.”
“Roger. Inbound kinetic, ETA is five seconds. Eye out.”
“Get down!” Gabriel shouted and threw himself to the dirt. The others followed his lead as a bright streak flashed across the sky.
The four-hundred-ton tungsten rod struck at just over ten times the speed of sound, shattering the ground it hit and sending out a massive shockwave. Almost fifteen billion megajoules was immediately released, lifting the Wraiths off the ground slightly before slamming them down. The shockwave rapidly expanded into the ranks of Abassi, obliterating their bones and internal organs before blowing them away from the Wraiths. The armored Sharks fared slightly better, merely tossed backwards hundreds of yards instead of being destroyed by the shockwave.
As the shockwave expanded, buildings fell, their tall shapes buckling under the stress of the explosion. Large plumes of smoke began to rise behind the ever-growing shockwave as fires began, the destruction of the eastern side of Newcastle completed.
Aching in parts he didn’t know existed, Gabriel managed to pull himself out of the concrete, his body leaving a two-foot crater in the pavement where he had been smashed into the ground by the force of the strike. He groaned as he tried to shake off the effects of surviving a near-impact strike and looked around. What he saw shook him to the core.
The eastern half of Newcastle, save for a few straggling buildings, was gone, flattened from the kinetic strike. The streets were ruined, covered in rubble and broken parts of the city. The others in his squad had been pushed into the concrete as well, though they were having a harder time digging themselves out than he had. Their suits looked intact, and while the impact from the kinetic had possibly left them with some damage to the servos inside the suits, the Leviathan cores were still functioning.
Of the Abassi there was no sign.
“Nice thing about a kinetic,” Gabriel said as he moved over to help the others out of the ground. “No radiation.”
“That’s good,” Esau coughed as he was dragged out of the pavement. “That hurt.”
“Yeah, I think they dropped it directly on us,” Gabriel admitted. He looked at the others, who were finally out of the ground and awaiting instructions. “Let’s go get those civilians.”
They made their way north towards the extraction point, where the civilians were waiting, with little problem. They ignored the ruined city as best they could, save for Twist, happily chattered away about how vastly improved the city was now the east side was gone. When they reached the civilians, Gabriel did a head count and was surprised to find all of them had survived his attempt at leveling the city. His scanners reminded him he was still on an alien-held planet as a tiny craft came into view.
A small shuttle descended from above, the boosters flaring as it slowed down upon entry into the atmosphere. It steadied
itself and Gabriel sent a small laser signal for it to hone in on. The shuttle turned and began to come down on their position.
The craft landed softly on the street and a ramp dropped down. Two armed Marines came out and provided cover as the civilians hurried onto the vessel. Gabriel sent his Wraiths after, and the Marines walked swiftly back up the loading ramp. Gabriel was the last to board, and stopped by the loadmaster as the ramp began to close.
“Did you get those other suits yet?” Gabriel asked as the last civilian settled into a seat. The loadmaster shook his head.
“Couldn’t,” he stated. “Not enough fuel for a run here and then out there. Besides, they’ve got Abassi surrounding them. The LZ’s too hot. My priority was the civvies, Wraith.”
“Damn it,” Gabriel growled. “I promised them we’d come get them.”
“Sorry, Commander,” the loadmaster shrugged. “The civilians are the priority here. Some lost Wraiths don’t matter, not really.”
Gabriel gritted his teeth but said nothing. The loadmaster was correct, after all. No matter how powerful a Wraith was, they were nothing more than an Imperfect when it came down to it, with limited rights. They were nothing.
That didn’t mean he had to like it, however. He turned his comm on and opened a private channel to the leader of the decimated squad, locking out the rest of his Wraiths. He did not need for them to hear what he was about to say.
“Wraiths, this is Commander Espinoza,” Gabriel began as the ramp locked in place, sealing the Wraiths and civilians safely in the rear. “Civilians have been saved, but because the LZ is too hot for the crew of the transport shuttle, we can’t come get you. Is there any way you can make it to the hills and get help from the Boers?”
“Commander? No. Our suits lost a bunch of power during the drop,” a panicky voice replied. “What do you mean, you can’t come get us? You said you would.”
“I did,” Gabriel sighed. “I was wrong.”
“You said you’d come get us! We can’t survive against them. What do we do?”
“Fight,” Gabriel replied. “Take as many of them with you as you can.”
Wraithkin (The Kin Wars Saga Book 1) Page 22