by D. J. Holmes
“Yes Ma’am,” Rooney snapped.
“Take it slow,” Jeffers cautioned. “They’ll be on high alert now.” As she spoke a low rumble washed over them. It didn’t sound like it had come from too far away.
“The others are following our lead,” Jamieson commented.
“It looks like it,” Jeffers replied. “It will give us more cover.” She had been in contact with three other groups of normal marines. Weeks ago she had tasked them with carrying out reconnaissance on three other heavy laser cannon installations. It seemed they were launching their own attacks. May lady luck be with you, Jeffers thought to each group as she followed Rooney. Without special forces marines and with the Karacknids already alerted, their tasks would prove a lot more difficult. As they continued to move, several more explosions and the familiar sound of weapons fire picked up in various directions.
“The city is coming to life,” Bedford whispered. “It’s about time.”
Evidence that Bedford was right quickly came into view. Just a minute later Jeffers’ squad almost stumbled onto a Karacknid checkpoint. They had fixed checkpoints around key sites, but others were randomly moved from place to place. A sudden burst of gunfire ringing from around a corner stopped them from coming face-to-face with the checkpoint. “Come and see this Major,” Rooney whispered as he gestured for Jeffers to join him.
Poking her head around the corner, Jeffers saw what was causing all the commotion. The two squads of Karacknids that were manning the checkpoint had come under heavy fire. German civilians were shooting down on them from the surrounding buildings and others were at ground level moving from cover to cover as they closed in on them. Along with plasma pistols it looked like the civilians had projectile weapons and a steady stream of Molotov cocktails were being lobbed over the Karacknids’ heads. In just sixty seconds the Karacknids were overrun. All but one was killed outright. When the last one threw down its weapon, the civilians took no notice. Plasma bolts, bullets and even a Molotov cocktail struck it. The civilians quickly grabbed the Karacknids’ weapons and scattered. They knew full well what was likely to come their way. But I think the Karacknids have bigger problems to deal with, Jeffers thought as she watched the civilians disperse. It was likely many of them were heading towards other Karacknid checkpoints and bases. Hundreds if not thousands of civilians were going to die as the city rose up, but from the ferocity of the short engagement, Jeffers almost believed the city’s populace could overthrow the Karacknids without the invasion force. Almost, she said to herself. But it would be a slaughter.
“Come on,” she called as she took point. “We’d better get through here before Karacknid reinforcements show up.” Breaking into a sprint, she zipped through what remained of the checkpoint and covered another block before diving into an alleyway to take cover and assess the situation. For another ten minutes they made their way through the city as stealthily as possible. As they went, the sound of fighting throughout the city streets grew louder and louder. Soon it was joined by the hum of Karacknid shuttles and the heavier fire from their tanks’ main weapons. The noise made the marines take extra care as they got closer to the Administrative Buildings and the Karacknids’ central command positions. When they got to the coordinates Jeffers had chosen, they gently knocked on the back door of what had once been a top end clothes shop.
It took nearly a minute for someone to respond. The door only opened a crack and a voice called out. “What do you want?”
“I’m Major Jeffers with the marines, we need shelter,” Jeffers said as she pushed her face in front of the door, so her uniform was visible. They had to wait another minute for the door to be opened. When it did Jeffers found herself staring down the barrel of two projectile weapons being held by a man and a woman.
“What are you doing here Major? There is an uprising going on,” the man said.
“I know what this place is,” Jeffers said as she held up her hands. Resistance cells had sprung up throughout the colony within the first few months of the Karacknid occupation. She had learnt that this house was one of their safe houses from General Johnston. “We need to lie low. We’ve destroyed one of the Karacknid heavy laser cannon batteries. There is an orbital invasion coming. We need to lie low until it begins. Then we’re going for Hul’lixar. He is not going to escape us.”
As she spoke, the weapons were lowered. “You guys are special forces marines, aren’t you?” the woman asked. “Only special forces marines would be good enough to try something like that,” she added when Jeffers nodded. “All right come in quickly. We’ll keep you here until you’re ready to launch your plan. You do know how many Karacknids are in the Administrative Buildings don’t you?”
“We know,” Rooney said as he shot the woman an overly friendly smile. “We’ll handle them no problem. Don’t you worry about that. We do this kind of thing every day.” Jamieson snickered while Bedford rolled her eyes at the woman who owned the safe house.
“We will not be in your way for long,” Jeffers assured her after the last of her marines stepped into the building. “We just need to lie low while the Karacknids send out ships to deal with the uprising. Once they’re distracted by the landings, we’ll strike. Most of the Karacknid soldiers should be out of the way by then.”
“Whatever floats your boat,” the woman said. “Wait in here,” she added as she gestured towards a side room. “I’ll have to put the word out that we are closed down. We can’t have our fighters falling back here if they get compromised. They’d draw too much attention.”
“Thank you,” Jeffers responded.
“Just make sure you get Hul’lixar, there are cells out there that were relying on this safe house. They’ll have to change their plans now.”
Jeffers understood what the woman left unsaid. Some of them might not be able to escape after launching whatever ambush or attack they had planned. Her arrival had compromised their activities. “We will get him, I promise,” Jeffers responded. Many thousands had died because of Hul’lixar’s occupation, thousands more were dying now. “We will get him,” she whispered so low that no one else heard her.
“Shall I go to the roof and keep my eyes out for the invasion?” Rooney asked. “I’ll be careful.”
“Make sure that you are,” Jeffers warned. “There’ll be Karacknid shuttles everywhere.”
Chapter 40
‘Everyone must do their part,’ that has been the rallying cry many times down through the history of the Empire. With trillions of humans and billions of other sentients from other species within the Empire, it is easy for some to get complacent. Yet there have been times when everyone literally had to pull together to defeat the threats to our survival. That was never truer than during the War of Doom.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.
“I imagine you could all do with one of these,” the owner of the safe house said when she returned with bottles of water in her hands and a rolled up piece of paper under one arm. “My name is Olivia by the way. At least, that’s the name I’ve been going by. It doesn’t seem wise to change that just yet.”
“That’s fine by us,” Jeffers replied. “And thank you.” The night’s work had made her thirsty.
“Tell me,” Olivia said as she sat down. “What is your plan?”
Jeffers shared a glance with Jamieson and shrugged. “We burst in the back door, make our way to the basement and apprehend Hul’lixar amidst all the confusion.”
Olivia smiled politely. “I was led to believe the marines were usually a little more organized than that.”
“Normally I would agree with you,” Jeffers replied. “This is a rather ad hoc mission.”
“Well then, you might find this helpful,” Olivia said as she leaned over and rolled out the piece of paper she had on to the room’s coffee table. “It’s schematics of the Administrative Buildings. As far as we know, the Karacknid CnC is set up in the basement. If you want to get to it quickly, making a breach here might be your best bet.”
Olivia nodded, “Nearly a foot thick, but I don’t think it will give your plasma rifles any trouble. I’ve sent out a couple of runners as well. If you like, I think we could provide a small diversion for you. A brief attack on the outer checkpoints?”
Jeffers could see a plan coming together in her mind’s eye. “That would be perfect. We just need to figure out a way to sneak past their checkpoints ourselves.”
“About that boss,” Jamieson said. “There’s something I’ve always wanted to try. We do it in basic training after getting our enhancements, but I’ve never seen it used in the field.” Jeffers guessed she wasn’t going to like Jamieson’s suggestion. She raised an eyebrow. “A window jump. With all the fighting going on out there, a window smashing isn’t going to attract much attention.”
Jeffers screwed up her face as she thought about it. The maneuver was a basic trick the medics and instructors wanted newly enhanced marines to try out as they were getting used to their enhancements. But it was actually something that might work. “All right,” she said as she laid out her plan.
When Rooney finally returned with the news that human warships could be seen entering orbit an hour later, Jeffers was confident they were as ready as they were going to be. “Okay, let’s get into position. We’ll wait until we hear the diversion,” she said to Olivia. She gave the resistance leader a nod of respect. “Thank you. Don’t worry, we’ll get him. He is not going to go to ground and hide.” Jeffers knew full well how hard it would be to root out Karacknid forces that weren’t captured or killed in the initial stages of the invasion. She had been avoiding being caught herself for months.
Just five minutes later Jeffers and her marines were alone in the fifth story of the apartments that were built above the clothes shop. The building directly across the road formed part of the perimeter of the assembly buildings. The roads on either side of it had Karacknid checkpoints but the building itself had been evacuated and locked up. Jeffers was standing beside the only window in the room they were all in. She had it slightly cracked and was doing her best to listen while not showing herself out the window.
When the explosion she had been waiting for came it was far larger than she had expected. There was no missing it. The crackle of weapons fire quickly followed. “That’s our cue,” Jeffers called as she swung the window open wide. “Jamieson, show us how it’s done.”
The marine nodded, then moved to the back of the room. Grabbing onto either side of the doorframe, he lowered his shoulders and kicked himself into a full sprint. In eight strides he crossed the large apartment, burst through the open window and leapt right across the road. He crashed into the window of an apartment one floor below theirs on the opposite side of the road. A moment later his face appeared with his thumbs up and a wide grin on his lips. Jeffers rolled her eyes, turned to Bedford and gave her a nod. Within a minute all her marines had made the jump and it was Jeffers’ turn. Moving to the doorframe, she took a deep breath and hurled herself across the room and out the window. Stretching out her arms in front of her and her legs behind her she guided herself through the broken window just as the rest of her squad had. As soon as her fingertips touched the floor of the building, she tipped her head under her shoulders and hit the ground in a roll.
“The stairs are this way,” Jamieson said as she got back to her feet. With a nod, Jeffers followed the marine down to the bottom floor of the building. There they found a room on the opposite side of the building, opened one of its windows and slipped out onto the ground. Between the abandoned apartment complex and the Administrative Buildings there was a small row of trees with shrubs and other flowers. The marines quickly moved amongst the shrubs and took cover. Jeffers signaled for the rest of them to remain under cover. Then she carefully raised her head through the shrubs. The Administrative Buildings towered high above her. The largest building was at least ten stories high. Pulling up the schematics of the building in her mind, she looked for the section of wall Olivia had identified for them. It was just twenty meters away. Ducking back down, she signaled for the marines to shuffle through the shrubs and plants towards their target. When they were roughly alongside it, she signaled for them to stop.
As soon as they did, Jeffers’ enhanced ears picked up heavy footfalls. Taking a risk, she poked her head out again. Two Karacknid soldiers were marching along the length of the building. Their presence made her frown. With the resistance diversionary attack, the Karacknid soldiers should all be moving to defend that part of the Administrative Buildings. Unless the commander ordered all the patrols doubled, she guessed. It would make the next stage of their plan a little trickier, but it meant there might be even less Karacknids actually in the building.
“Okay,” she whispered as she ducked down. “There’s two Karacknids out there. We can’t risk any weapons fire. Rooney, you’re with me. We’re going to show ourselves. No weapons.”
Rooney’s eyes bulged out of their sockets. “What?” he whispered back fiercely. “Did I hear you?”
Jeffers smiled at him. “You’re always boasting you have the fastest reflexes of the platoon. Now we’re going to find out. You think you can get to your knife before they can get their claws out?”
Rooney simply shook his head. “You’re crazy ma’am.”
“Maybe I am, but I’m not asking you to do anything I won’t. Come on,” Jeffers said as she handed her rifle and pistol to Bedford.
“Hey there,” she called as she stepped out of the bushes. Jeffers kept her arms wide apart and hands open. “Hey there,” she repeated, though she needn’t have bothered. Both Karacknid soldiers had already whipped up their laser rifles. “I think we are lost. Is this the swimming pool? We were hoping to get some exercise in.”
With a snarl both Karacknids slung their weapons over their backs and charged Jeffers and Rooney. Jeffers spread her lips wide to let the Karacknids see the whites of her teeth. She launched herself into a charge as well. She had come face-to-face with a Karacknid’s claws once before. Her arm was now fully healed, however, and she knew exactly what to do this time. As the first razor-sharp claws swung towards her she ducked under the Karacknid’s left arm. At the same time her right hand rose up to catch the Karacknid’s right arm just below where its claws protruded. Her move blocked the Karacknid’s second attempt to slice her in two. Pushing herself back up into a standing position she thrust up towards the Karacknid’s throat with her left arm. Her nano carbon knife easily slid through the gap in its armor. The Karacknid let out a gurgling noise and struggled for several seconds. Jeffers immediately let go of her knife, leaving it in place, and grabbed the Karacknid’s other arm. She couldn’t let either of the Karacknid’s clawed hands touch her. For what seemed like an eternity they struggled with one another until its life drained from it. As the Karacknid fell backwards she pulled her dagger out of its throat. Looking over, she saw Rooney had his Karacknid on the floor already. Both of its clawed hands were severed from its arms.
“What?” he said when he saw the look on her face. “I thought it might be easier to kill without those things getting in the way.”
Jeffers shook her head. She had no idea how he had done it. She’d have to ask him later though. Using two fingers she let out a small whistle. As the rest of her marines appeared and sprinted over to her, she could tell they were impressed from the looks on their faces. They didn’t say anything though. “Set the charges,” she ordered.
As soon as they were in place, the marines moved back into the shrubs and took shelter behind the nearest trees. For the second time that night Jeffers thumbed the detonator she had with her. The shaped charges blew a neat hole through the side of the Administrative Buildings. Before the dust settled she was leading her marines in. Unsurprisingly, they didn’t encounter any Karacknids in the first two rooms they rushed through. In the third room two were on their feet. Neither had a weapon though and th
ey were quickly dispatched.
“This has to be quick,” Jeffers said as she stopped a moment to make sure her squad was with her. “The glass floor is on the other side of this door. Shoot anything that moves as we go.” When her marines nodded, Jeffers pulled out her last plasma grenade. Pulling out its pin, she ripped open the door and hurled it straight into the middle of the large foyer. Then she shut the door again and held it closed. The grenade detonated two seconds later. At once, Jeffers opened the door and sprinted into the foyer. Her rifle was up and she shot every Karacknid she saw. Most were on the ground taking cover. Before she had thrown her grenade, the foyer had boasted a large fountain in its middle that shot water into the air that then collected and flowed over a large glass panel that looked down to the floor below. Several corridors led from the foyer, including one that opened out into the main entrance to the building. The fountain was no more however, and as soon as Jeffers reached where it had been, she jumped through the melted glass. With a thud she landed on the floor below. There were several Karacknids lying around her, but none seemed to be moving.