Upon arriving at the top of the mountain, each of the three units was instantly greeted by a blast of frigid wind, the temperature gauge reading minus 55 C, which did not factor in wind chill. The technicians remained inside the dubious shelter of the elevator, which after letting off their respective Omnos squad unit, receded a ways down into the safety of the mountain. The technicians were present to monitor the battery and remain on standby should their repair or resupply services be needed. A blast door replete with fake rocks for camouflage then closed, sealing the top of each elevator shaft, except for a small hole that accommodated the electrical umbilical cord between each Mech armor and the standby battery still on the elevator.
Vera’s unit Atalanta was the nimblest, therefore she was the first to step off the elevator and make her way to the supposed safety of the hardened defensive nest indicated nearby on her HUD, referred to by snipers as a hide. Over a mile separated her location from the lip where the sheer side of the mountain fell away, meaning that she would only be able to engage any drones that flew above the height of the mountains plateau. Enemy drones tasked with locating and attacking the entrances on the side and base of the mountain would be dealt with by automated defensive weapons, located around real and fake entrances alike.
Vera walked Atalanta into what appeared on the outside as a boulder outcropping, one of many atop the nearly flat plateau. Once inside the shelter of the hide, the wind immediately died down as the entrance automatically sealed behind her. She spent a moment examining her surroundings, noting that the outer walls were formed from permacrete, cleverly masked to look like one of the many random clumps of boulders. The hide was large enough to accommodate a half dozen Mech armor arranged in a circle, all units facing outwards, providing 360° of coverage. Sections of the permacrete walls were cut out, covered by glass blisters that could be retracted, providing clear lines of fire. Return pings from her ground penetrating radar informed her that the permacrete was over four meters thick in most places including the ceiling, meaning that the surrounding pseudo boulders would indeed serve as a formidable bulwark against nearly anything the PDF threw her way.
The interior of the hide was comprised of carved out positions built to accommodate a Mech armor that the rebels referred to as MARS units. In each of those positions were hookups providing supplemental sources of electricity and oxygen. The hookups were linked directly to the base miles beneath her, meaning that her reserves of each were nearly infinite. Several armored storage lockers were built into the area around the base of each defenders’ position, but she ignored them as the armored lockers were for storing reserve munitions. For this fight she would be using laser based weapons. Vera efficiently made the external connections, and then watched as Athena, their shared AI, spliced together the energy feeds from her reactor, the standby battery, and the mountain. The lower right corner of her HUD showed the vitals and damage readout of her unit. The bar indicating power reserves showed available power multiple times over normal, reflecting the depth of her energy reserves, and it pulsed a steady green.
While Athena worked in the background, Vera deployed the overly large laser-based rifle that would be her primary weapon. It was nearly twice as long, and much stockier, then her standard laser-based sniper rifle, allowing it to hold significantly more power cells and capacitors. In the mammoth hands of her titan, the overly large rifle still managed to appear bulky and unwieldy.
Simultaneous alerts chirped inside the cockpit, announcing the completion of the energy splicing, the deployment of the laser rifle, and the completion of the rifles’ synchronizing to her unit. Now that she was fully prepared for combat, Vera swiveled her head, examining the area around her at large. As she did, the external cameras feeding imaging data to her HUD kept pace with any direction her head turned, giving her the impression she was not encased in a metal behemoth but viewing her surroundings with her own eyes.
Athena spliced the different feeds together in such a way that a turn of her head did not cause vertigo, and was instead a seamless and natural experience. Vera’s eyes tracked the tags indicated on her HUD identifying the location of Intrepid and DawnsLight in turn. Software algorithms recognized that she would want to examine each of her allies’ locations as she directed her gaze at the hides in which they were similarly encased, and the external cameras automatically zoomed in. Perfecting that software trick to avoid any sense of vertigo had been especially challenging, but a chore with which she had been tasked and eventually succeeded in, and something she took great pride in having achieved.
The external camera feeds struggled to locate the other two units camouflaged in their own hides; each markedly similar to her own. Due to their active camouflage, even when knowing their exact location and staring straight at them, the only thing she could make out was the muzzles of their laser-rifles sticking out. However, on the side of her HUD was a video feed linking her with Alyona and Kiryl, and the three of them stood resolutely to meet the next threat.
Three Hour’s T.U.A.
The first sign of the impending attack occurred when the large clock counting down the time in the Command and Control Center of Mount Olympus read 2:53:17 T.U.A.
Kurtis, still in the hangar next to NightHawk, was the first to notice, thanks to his AI Argos.
“Master, our limited satellite access has detected the presence of airborne drones inbound at high speed from Repentance and multiple other bases, including Hellas. They are traveling in a staggered formation with several minutes between each wave. It appears that each wave is comprised of nearly one hundred drones. Our predictions regarding the overall number of drones the PDF would use for this part of the operation fell considerably short of reality.” Argos stated.
“You finally understand the definition of what it means to be human, Argos,” Kurtis muttered sarcastically.
Ignoring the comment, which had no bearing on his report, Argos continued, “The time until we will be within the maximum range of the drone weapons is approximately twenty minutes.”
Kurtis’ hands flew across the multiple keyboards of his rig as he simultaneously notified the rest of the base and the other squad members of the development. He had access to each of the Omnos squad HUDs and immediately began updating their targeting computers with the new markers identifying the first wave of drones. Subsequent waves would lurk in the background, only being shown when in closer proximity to avoid overwhelming the finite screen real estate of the HUDs.
Sirens and alarms sounded along the perimeter of the base, alerting those whose responsibility it would be to respond to drone attacks. Most of this phase of the battle would be handled by automated defense turrets on the outside of the mountain, and the three members of the Omnos squad on top of the mountain. Personnel on standby would repair damaged weapons, reload them, or seal any breaches that occurred, but otherwise refrain from direct combat, for the time being.
Kurtis placed a call over the squad frequency, “Drones incoming in waves of approximately one hundred each. Working on obtaining more specific data, but there’s a lot of them. Stay frosty people, things might get seriously interesting for you. Deploy your anti-battery drones and prepare to intercept high priority targets. We expect heavy electronic jamming and cyber-attacks to begin any moment. There is a direct connection between you and the base, so our communications will remain secure, but we could very well experience severe degradation in the targeting data once the cyber-attacks begin. Recommend switching to the HMDs.”
The Head Mounted Displays were specifically designed to assist the Omnos squad with targeting when fighting against airborne drones. The goggle like display slid over the pilots eyes, linking them directly to the laser-rifles’ camera feed. On the edge of the displayed image was an arrow at each point of a diamond, showing the direction of the next target. Aim assistance was provided by their shared AI Athena, who would not only continuously calculate the most efficient kill order, but she would also make continuous adjustments to the aim of
the laser-rifle. The main responsibility of the pilots was thereby reduced to deciding when to pull the trigger. Additional indicators in the center of the image, shown on the HMD, flashed and then pulsed red, accompanied by auditory tones, alerting the pilots when they were locked on to the target and it was an ideal time to fire the weapon.
While using the HMDs, the Omnos squad would be defenseless, focusing only on attacking and eliminating the enemy targets as rapidly as possible. Each of the hides they were using for cover was equipped with eight fully articulated Avenger class, 30 mm Gatling guns, mounted to a swiveling platform, set a few meters from the hide. Each gun was self-contained with a ballistic level glass blister encasing the weapon, equipped with its own oxygen feed in order that the guns would be able to oxidize the projectiles’ propellant in the thin Martian atmosphere, allowing them to fire. The Avengers were the first line of defense, and they would act independently, controlled by their countermeasure algorithms, targeting the incoming missiles and rockets. Each turret was belt fed, with tendrils digging underground leading to magazines that each stored seventy thousand rounds.
Next, each member of the Omnos squad deployed two anti-battery drones. One drone used laser-based weapons, and the other drone was equipped with an Avenger class Gatling gun. Both drones had secondary weapons in the form of mini rockets that could be timed to airburst similar to flak weapons. As a measure of last resort, the drones could launch pieces of metal nicknamed the armored shell, similar to chaff, but on a much larger scale. The pieces of metal would fill the surrounding air with their debris, shredding incoming munitions. Each drone had only enough metal pieces to perform the armored shell move three times.
The last measure of defense was the point defense cannons set in each of their units. Interspersed throughout the layers of armored plating, were small cannons that fired sub-munitions, under the control of Athena. They would attempt to target the warheads, or as a measure of last-resort shred, any incoming munitions, detonating them as far away as possible. Any munitions, blasts, or shockwaves that made it through the units’ myriad of defenses would then be met by energy shields, followed by layers of armored plating. The camouflaged hides were not covered by energy shields due to their never having been used, and the StormCrows finite resources.
As for the enemy drones, because of the near lack of air pressure on Mars, the enemy drones had to fly at top speed at all times in order to maintain altitude. Their weaponry was primarily comprised of missiles and guided bombs. The drones were piloted remotely by aviators sitting in pseudo cockpits-hundreds, and frequently thousands of miles away-linked by satellite connections. Algorithms packaged the command data in such a way that there was nearly zero lag for the aviators. The sheer number of drones incoming meant that just about every drone aviator in the PDF military was likely sitting in a simulator right now, flying a drone. If one drone was destroyed, the aviator would simply link to another flying on auto pilot in one of the following waves, seamlessly continuing the attack.
* * * * *
Waves of drone bombers traveling up to thousands of miles in a single direction, flew from bases located across the planet launched the first salvos in what would soon come to be the defining moment for the entire western region of Rebel factions. The missiles they launched were easily downed before striking against the rock ramparts of Mount Olympus, but their goal was accomplished none-the-less. The drones had been sent to test and locate the automated turrets that would serve as the primary means of defense for Mount Olympus. The drones succeeded in their mission as the AI Argos chose to intervene directly, operating many of the turrets instead of relying on their much less capable targeting algorithms, eliminating the current threats before they could harm his allies.
All of this occurred while on the plain stretching for hundreds of miles in front of Mount Olympus, a procession involving hundreds of anti-grav trains and thousands of MULEs and other mechanized vehicles were traveling in a steady sequence of highly choreographed events. Within their cargo holds, they carried the armies that would assault the mountain directly. Hundreds of Chimera’s flew over the convoys in a steadily flowing airborne river. The squadron of Mech armor in the Chimera’s holds would be dropped in the staging areas near the mountain, and then the Chimeras would simply turn around and fly back to their bases in order to repeat the trip with the next wave.
The two PDF armies that formed the Special Operations Corp, under the overall command of General Hafnos, converged on the plain in front of Mount Olympus. The nearest army was that of the newly minted veterans arriving from the direction of the conquered outpost of Kerrak, supported by the Special Forces and their auxiliary units from the regional base of Repentance.
Down on the plain in front of the mountain, stretching uninterrupted for hundreds of miles in every direction, dozens of staging areas took shape. Their construction was masked by the dust filling the thin air, kicked up by all of the moving materiel associated with a hectic rate of construction. The staging areas were rapidly built up as thousands of engineers, construction drones, and tens of thousands of troops arrived on location, providing an almost infinite pool of grunt labor to be drawn upon. Thousands of self-sustaining, hardened, pop up shelters equipped with oxygen generators were set up in order to house the infantry, pilots, and workers and their workspaces.
Thousands of the shelters were erected in the span of hours, while construction drones shoved rough earthen berms into a defensive perimeter around them. At the rear of each staging area, pits were dug by more construction drones, and then containers for spare munitions and critical repair parts were placed in the pits and then, all but covered by the dirt, protecting them against the incoming artillery the StormCrows mercilessly rained down on those staging areas.
Technicians rushed about, deploying laser turrets and other defenses. In a very short amount of time, the laser turrets were interspersed throughout each of the staging areas. Teams of infantry swarmed around each laser turret, muscling the large accompanying generators into place. Unseen by human eyes, a steady wave of laser fire began crossing the darkening sky, seeking out and destroying the incoming artillery shells. Staccato bursts of rapid machine gun fire lanced out from the expanding perimeters of the staging areas, adding their voices to the growing cacophony of violence. Missiles from both sides of the conflict crossed the intervening distance, launched with mounting alacrity from both sides, shaking the surrounding areas with fountaining geysers of dirt, dust, and metal debris whenever they pierced the defenses to reach their targets. It would only be a matter of hours until both sides were at a stalemate, each unable to affect the other from distance and forced to close in on one another and resolve the issues of domination and subjugation more resolutely.
After the first cyber-attack domino fell, others quickly followed. Satellite feeds covering the physical location of Mount Olympus and the surrounding region were cut off; replaced with scrambling signals that bombarded the mountain redoubt with cyber viruses and other malicious electronic attacks. Microwave beam emitters were aimed at the mountain, transmitting the most powerful cyber barrage ever unleashed, attempting to fry any exposed electronics.
A squadron in each wave of drones broke off from the rest of their formations, staying just out of range of the base defenses. They were Growler class drones, sending out powerful electronic jamming waves while linking with one another and each of the other drones in the region, creating an ad-hoc communication network that constantly grew more powerful as ever more drones inundated the area of operations. The Growlers created a network, replacing that of the satellites, allowing the PDF aviators to maintain full control of their drone fleet.
On the receiving end of such awe inducing might, Drogdyn and his small team responded to the cyber-attacks as best they could. They had been preparing for this moment for years, and were still woefully unprepared to battle against the overwhelming odds arrayed against them. They persevered, aided by Kurtis and his AI Argos, and the supercomputer
s they brought from Earth. Together, the defenders rebuilt firewalls as quickly as the PDF cyber commandos tore them down. Many of the areas of vulnerability, such as incoming satellite feeds, were simply shut down so the enemy could not access the electronic routes into the base and use them against the StormCrows. Algorithms acted on their behalf, creating tiers of new firewalls, while simultaneously channeling incoming attacks down dead ends towards false targets. Drogdyn and his team created and then maintained dummy high-priority objectives for the PDF to attack, replacing them after they were eliminated, always presenting their enemies with an unending plethora of targets.
Handicapped by the limited number of personnel assisting him, Drogdyn was not able to fight back as effectively as he wished. Aurora’s shells did their best to thwart the incoming attacks, handicapped as they were by simultaneously having to fight against the cancerous corruption eating away at the logic of their code. Many of her artificial intelligence shells continued duplicating themselves, sacrificing themselves as they drew away byte-based attackers away from the base itself, while other shells began attacking, in kamikaze fashion, any weak spot that appeared in the PDF cyber defenses.
The cyber battle was as fierce as any melee for nothing was held back. Each side continuously unleashed the cyber equivalent of nuclear weapons, doing so with complete abandon. Victory for either side would be obtained at any cost.
The aerial and cyber bombardments continued apace as the bulk of the PDF army continued arriving on the plains leading from the mountain.
Death and darkness came to that place, both eagerly anticipating reaping the bountiful upcoming harvest.
* * * * *
Vera licked her dry lips nervously as her mind attempted to process the sheer number of enemy drones appearing on the HUD, having already twice increased the flow rate of the IV that pierced through a custom-built slot in the arm of her pilot’s suit. She again rotated the wheel on the IV line one more notch, further increasing the flow of the cognitive boosting drugs she had worked with Dr. Hesken to reformulate, feeling the heady rush from their effects as the chemicals flooded her system.
Nemesis (The MechaVerse Trilogy Book 2) Page 36