With those matters settled, Alyona used her communicator to query Kurtis using the URGENT code. He did not respond immediately, but she knew he would be aware of the sudden turn of events and would respond to her query once he made the obvious mental-leaps about what she needed and finished assembling the information she was sure to request. More importantly, he would begin watching over them.
Teams of mechanics scurried over each of the three Mech armor, uncoupling external power, data lines, hydraulic lines and other connections. Others operated any number of different equipment loaders in order to load munitions and attach weapons, while still others worked to button up the units, not finishing the maintenance Kiryl was overseeing but instead rapidly bringing it to a point where it could be safely halted. Luckily for everyone, Kiryl was obsessive about anticipating this exact situation and refused to start a project that could not be quickly tied off. All of the more intensive maintenance had been prioritized and completed early in their extended downtime.
Alyona, Kiryl, and Vera approached the environmental technicians who helped them suit up as DawnsLight’s reactor roared into life. The pilot suits were custom designed to withstand the crushing g-forces they would encounter during combat as well as protect them from the lack of atmosphere should the need arise, including the ability to regulate their temperature if exposed to the deadly cold that permeated the planet outside of human habitats. On top of that, due to the lack of an atmosphere on Mars, their suits were also built to withstand the sun’s radiation which blasted down upon the barren landscape with absolutely nothing to deflect it when one of the famous sandstorms was not swallowing the planet whole. Without an atmosphere or cloud cover like Earth, the radiation on Mars was a serious health threat, capable of killing in as little as a year if exposed for too long.
Two environmental technicians assisted each of them. Each fully body suit had built-in, fully dexterous, gloves and sturdy but flexible boots. Once they were in the suit, a technician began filling a thin inner layer of the suit with oxygen that another thermal layer heated, thereby controlling their body temperature on the frozen planet as well as serving the dual purpose of an emergency oxygen supply should the need arise. A layer of gel infused their suits, that when given a positive electric charge would instantly expand, providing them extra cushion localized wherever needed in case of impact, such as while their Mech armor took hostile fire. They were each given a helmet that sealed at the neck of the suit, but only Alyona and Kiryl fought while wearing a helmet. Vera would wear hers for the launch, and then place it to the side, swapping it out for something more specific to her needs. On the visors of their helmets, a customizable HUD presented statistics and data from their units even while they were outside of those units, as well as the vital signs of each team member and had a window for video chat with one another. All of this controlled by vocal commands. Their suits and matching helmets were compact but durable, each the color of the owners respective Mech armor. Kiryl donned a hunter green suit while Vera carried her respective metallic purple.
Alyona eyed DawnsLight warily as she was fitted into her dull white pilot suit, making sure to scratch her face as she tied her short hair into a bun before the technicians placed the helmet over her head, sealing it into place with a hiss. Reservations about heading out to battle made her hold back, visions and memories haunting her since her first real fight and subsequent near death experience. She knew she had to deal with her doubts and fears before they controlled her. Since then, she had spent hours every day in the training simulators they brought from Earth, pushing the reality of the fights as high as possible in order to force her to face her fears head on. Now that the crucial moment was here, she was not sure if she was ready.
Around Alyona, the hangar veritably pulsed with life as the reactors of Intrepid and Atalanta started up with a deafening roar. The vibrations of the reactors mixed with the tread of heavy equipment loaders dashing across the hangar floor, creating rolling waves of sound crashing from one end of the hangar to the other while the floor beneath them quivered with anticipation of the action to come. Then just like that, the all clear sounded through their helmets and the speakers throughout the hangar.
“The mechanics have finished their tasks. Your units are ready for you.” Athena announced.
Most of the mechanics collected their equipment and climbed back aboard the carts, scurrying out of the hangar before the fury of the titans inside finished awakening. The environmental technicians, and Soren, remained behind, heading inside the sealed bay overlooking the hangar from whence they could open the airlock at the end of the Launchpad as well as monitor the pilots during the launching process. Loud hisses announced the automatic de-coupling of the last external hoses from their Mech units as the three climbed aboard the individual lifts that carried them to the yawning mouth of each titan. They took their places inside their respective cockpits, straps automatically buckling down as they settled in, the HUDS in front of them activating as the cockpit closed with resounding finality. An IV line inserted itself automatically into each of their arms as an oxygen tube attached and automatically sealed itself to their suits.
As the cockpits closed, their visors lifted automatically, allowing them to focus on the HUD and supplementary monitors covering the front third of their cockpits, which displayed far more information than the visor version. Klaxons sounded, along with the flashing of bright blue strobes, warning of the impending vacuuming out of the atmosphere in the hangar. As the leader, Alyona was first to launch. The sound of thunder echoed throughout the rest of the hangar as DawnsLight decoupled from the maintenance bay surrounding its bulk, each of the metal-banded restraints releasing with a crack so deep, it was felt not heard.
In the minute it took her to decouple and walk her Mech to the Launchpad, the atmosphere in the hangar was completely gone, a testament to the ability of the StormCrow engineers. With baited breath, she watched as the hangar doors in side of the mountain opened. Athena automatically deployed the wings as the Launchpad attached itself to DawnsLight, which crouched in eager anticipation of launching.
Vera’s unit began decoupling and walking up to her as the engines on both the Launchpad and DawnsLight roared into life. The energy of which building into a mind numbing intensity as the hangar shook with their growing roar. Afterburners engaged, spinning out twin vortices of exhaust and heat in their wake. The exhaust, crashing against a ceramic wall behind the Launchpad which kept everything behind it from melting, shaking the bedrock of the hangar with its immense power. Once everything was ready, Athena appeared on the HUD, issuing a visual countdown that was mirrored in the supervisory bay.
On cue, Alyona screamed into her mic. “DawnsLight, ready for launch!!!”
Soren braced himself along with the rest of the technicians inside the safety of the bay as he keyed the release on the Launchpad. Everyone stopped to watch in awe as the gigantic war machine violently raced down the track, continuing to accelerate the entire time, until it reached the end of the track where it was then thrown through the hangar airlock and out into the wasteland of Mars.
With barely any delay, the Launchpad retracted and Atalanta stepped into place. Vera remained silent as Athena prepared for launch and once again displayed the visual countdown while the engines and afterburners spooled up with fearsome power. Atalanta’s wings deployed as the smallest of the three units crouched with an almost feline grace, ready to leap forward.
“Atalanta, ready for launch,” Vera yelled into her mic.
Once again, Soren keyed the brake release and the dark metallic purple Mech armor hurtled down the track and outside the hangar. Vera was thrown backwards as the g-forces slammed into her with gut wrenching force. Once outside the hangar, she marveled at how close the stars appeared, feeling that she could reach out and touch them as Atalanta soared gracefully through the dark, cloudless sky.
Intrepid stepped into place aboard the launcher in the same way as the other two units with a few majo
r differences. Temporary wings were strapped to its frame along with a half dozen RATO’s, temporary engines that would be detached once they ran out of fuel. Kiryl’s unit was too heavy and bulky to fly, even in the reduced Martian gravity. Instead, he would strive for a slowly descending glide, attempting to get as far as possible through the thin air before having to resort to plodding across the barren landscape at a much slower speed.
Intrepid’s engines ignited with a force that nearly brought the technicians inside the protected bay to their knees. It was the largest of all the Mech armor brought from Earth, standing head and shoulders above the others and nearly twice the size of the StormCrow’s largest unit, the Justice. Due to its sheer size, the thunderous output of the engines required to propel such a large machine in the enclosed hangar space alluded to an unbelievably raw sense of power. Once again, Athena performed the visual countdown on the HUD; there was no possibility Kiryl could hear an auditory one.
“Intrepid ready for launch!” Kiryl’s yell was lost in the deafening cacophony as the afterburners engaged in conjunction with all of the RATO’s, and with an incredible roar the green titan was plunged down the launch track and out of the hangar.
The three Omnos squad members met up fifteen miles from Mount Olympus, nearly a quarter of the way to Kerrak in a fraction of the time it would have taken them to reach their first waypoint if they had traveled by land. Upon landing, Intrepid discarded the temporary wings and the now expended RATO’s, returning once again to the lumbering, bi-pedal, mechanical humanoid it was. Atalanta and DawnsLight joined him, knowing the importance of remaining as a cohesive unit capable of supporting one another.
Alyona took point with Kiryl following behind by several hundred meters, leaving Vera to trail him by several hundred more. They were underway for a good ten minutes, making steady progress across the barren landscape before a picture of Kurtis appeared on the top right of Alyona’s HUD. He started speaking, talking to all three of them as she opened the comm channel.
“I heard about what happened, I’ll do what I can to help from back here at the base, I already have Argos trying to get a better picture of what is happening out there, including activating one of the micro Iris scout satellites we left in orbit. Xilan triggered an SOS after one of his team members spotted a couple PDF Chimera’s making a Mech armor drop. From what I can tell, it looks like his team has not been discovered yet, but it’s only a matter of time. He is convinced they are aware of his task force, are searching for them, and that they won’t be able to escape without a fight which is why he called for assistance. He has a pair of squadrons with him, six Furies and six Justices, for now, they are holed up in a defensive position, waiting for you. They were able to get most of the sensors in place ahead of schedule, so right now I am trying to get the grid up and figure out what kind of shitstorm you are heading into.” Kurtis said.
It was not much of a briefing, but it was all they would get and better than on their last engagement. “How long until the Iris satellite gets a visual, and will you be able to relay the feed to us out here?” Alyona asked him.
“The satellite should need about half an hour to wake up and warm up the camera enough to be able to obtain a clear enough image for us to use. Argos has already performed the link up. As for a live feed, I can do it, but even with smoothing it out the feed will have a lot of lag, there just won’t be a high number of frames per second available over the laser link, and the distances involved don’t make this any easier. Instead, it will come across as a picture taken every second or two, which I can mesh with data from the grid network that Xilan and his team established in order to provide accurate coordinates, speed, and direction of travel for any enemies in the vicinity at least. My suggestion is that as long as you fight in an area where the network is, it won’t be pretty, but we can get you the information you need the most.” Kurtis said, hesitating a moment before continuing. “There is one more thing. If the PDF are willing to engage a force the size of what Xilan has under his command, then they must have more numbers available than we are aware. I am launching a pair of Firefly scout drones; they should arrive on station about ten minutes before you. Argos will control them, allowing you to have three different aerial points of view to keep an eye on the PDF instead of just the one. Your AI, Athena, will take the feeds from all three and combine them on your HUD’s, providing a better picture. If the PDF have drones with them, there’s no telling how long the Firefly’s will last though, and I was hoping to save them as a surprise just a little longer.”
“Thanks Kurtis, that gives us enough to work with. Our ETA to Xilan’s position is a little less than two hours.” Alyona said.
“I’ll keep you posted of any changes, and as soon as the feeds are available I’ll set them up for you guys.” Kurtis said before closing the comm link, wishing he could give them more encouragement or find some other way to help them, frustrated at being unable to do more. Fixing the corruption in Aurora’s code and finishing his AI, Argos, were tasks that only he could complete and the need to complete them as soon as possible was pressing. Knowing that still did not make it any easier that he was at the base and not out with the pilots during what he could only assume would be a difficult fight. In the meantime, he would do the only thing he could, watch over them.
* * * * *
Two hours passed under strict radio silence as the trio of war machines plodded across the desolate terrain at a steady clip of around 20 miles per hour. They were unable to proceed in a straight line towards their destination due to the complexities of the alien terrain. Drifts of sand created dunes the size of skyscrapers forcing them to weave between and around, while other places were cratered from a shocking myriad of meteor impact craters, forcing them to go around. Twice they had to deviate from their path and find a way across two deep ravines, old river beds, where water used to run several millennia ago.
Kurtis had only just gotten the Iris scout satellite up and running. The lens of the camera had taken longer to warm up and thereby become capable of focusing, was running significantly behind schedule. The Firefly’s had been sent ahead to aid Lieutenant Xilan due to the imminence of violence. Hindsight already revealed to Alyona and her team that during later actions, they would keep a Firefly for themselves and send one forward for their allies to use. Terrain maps were provided on their HUD’s, but in much the same way that ship captains, back on Earth, had to worry about the movement and formation of new sand bars, the always-drifting Martian dust created changes in the landscape that rendered static maps only partially useable for navigation purposes. Now that they had eyes in the sky and flat land to cover, they were making steady time, increasing their speed to nearly fifty miles an hour, just in time for the alert to flash across their HUD.
Kurtis contacted them, “Xilan just announced that the PDF found his team and are preparing to engage. He says they are under attack by teams of Steyrs, mixed infantry with plenty of fighting vehicles, and a mixed force of other types of Mech armor all supported by a good number of drones. No mercenaries have been spotted, which is about the only good news I have for you. The Firefly’s have found over a dozen Chimeras in the area that have dropped forces for the engagement, it’s going to be a big fight. Xilan and his men are holding for now, using a series of sand dunes and small hills around them as defensive cover, but it’s only a matter of time. They are heavily outnumbered. You are less than ten minutes away at your current pace and Athena now has enough information to plot your path correctly. Also, the Iris satellite is now functioning at 100%. I can’t believe how easy Mikkhael and Aurora made this look.” Kurtis mumbled unconsciously at the end.
“Marines,” Kiryl stated as a matter of fact after hearing Kurtis’s summary. “We’ll be fighting the HellFire Brigade again.”
Alyona did not hesitate. She zoomed in on her HUD, quickly identifying what she was searching for, marking it for Vera to see, and knowing that Athena would duplicate the marker on Atalanta’s HUD. “Vera, you
can reach that spot in less than two minutes. Break off and get in position. It’s time to unleash the rail cannon.” She ordered, watching with satisfaction as the purple marker on her HUD representing Atalanta immediately broke off and headed at full speed towards the point she indicated. “Kiryl, we have a party to crash. We’ll one-two this. Follow my lead.” She said as she engaged DawnsLight’s afterburners, wings automatically deploying as the war machine eagerly leapt forward, leaving the more stalwart Intrepid to follow as swiftly as it could manage.
* * * * *
Vera was the first in position, relocating to the knoll beside the hill that Alyona assigned to her. As soon as Atalanta settled into position, she began deploying the sections of the enormous rail cannon that took over a minute to fix into place, an eternity in battle. The rail cannon was a variant of the three electromagnetic rifles Mikkhael brought with him during his one man campaign, serving him well during the extended fighting. In the interim of nearly a year since he left for Mars with the electromagnetic rifles, the Omnos squad members implemented many improvements on the basic design while remaining on Earth. They used a novel method of breaking the information needed to create the beast she was about to unleash into hundreds of pieces, farming out each bit to different contractors to figure out and improve upon.
All of the contractors were left unaware of the big picture and the existence of other teams working on similar but different pieces of the puzzle to decipher, only seeing a wealthy client willing to pay top dollar for their skills. Once that work was completed, Vera and the rest of the team spent a solid week using their supercomputers to put together all the pieces. The result was a weapon capable of firing a solid projectile over seventy miles with Mech killing force, an unimaginable distance in a world of laser-powered weapons.
Nemesis (The MechaVerse Trilogy Book 2) Page 20