Casey nodded and tried to calm her breathing. She could feel her heart beating rapidly and she was sweating even though the suit was trying to keep her cool. The air temperature inside the suit was a comfortable 72 degrees. Glancing around, she wondered how many of the others felt as she did.
“Drop!” called out Sergeant Morris as the drop ship suddenly began to move. “This'll be a little bit rough.”
Casey felt suddenly queasy as the ship dropped straight down toward the planet’s surface. She could hear the air buffeting the hull as the small ship entered the planet’s atmosphere making a whistling noise.
“They’re not going to be shooting at us as we go down, are they?” asked Alexander, sounding suddenly worried. He knew the drop ships and cargo drop ships were too small to have protective energy screens, though they did have a thick covering of battle armor.
“If they do, you’ll never know it,” Lauren replied between clenched lips as the small drop ship rocked violently as it plummeted through the upper levels of the planet’s atmosphere. “There will just be a bright light and that will be it.”
“Crap,” moaned Alexander as he gripped his stun rifle tighter.
“Vaya con Dios,” spoke Private Rios as he made a crossing motion with his left hand. His right hand held his rifle.
“Well, I’m not ready to go, yet,” responded Private Swen as the drop ship continued to shake. “I met this cute redhead on our last leave and I plan on seeing her again.”
“I’m sure she’s waiting on you,” responded Private Hatterson, shaking her head. She couldn’t believe Swen could be thinking about women in this situation. It just showed there was so much more she needed to learn about Humans.
“When we deploy, set up a defensive perimeter around the drop ship,” Sergeant Morris ordered. “Once the hover tanks have been unloaded we can move out toward our objective.”
“The cargo drop ship will be returning to the Defender,” Ryan added. “Sergeant Morris has been through this type of operation before, so listen to her!”
The vibrating seemed to lesson as the drop ship leveled out in the lower atmosphere. The small airfoils on the ship helped to stabilize their flight and soon the heavy buffeting of the planet’s atmosphere seemed to go away.
“Standby for insertion!” called out Sergeant Morris as she felt the ship suddenly drop straight down.
The ship came to a jarring halt and the rear hatch slid open as a metal ramp extended out to touch the ground.
“Move out!” ordered Ryan as he stood and made for the open hatch gripping his RG rifle.
The platoon hurriedly descended the ramp and took up a defensive stance around the grounded cargo drop ship. After a couple of minutes, the two hover tanks came floating down the ramp and moved out a hundred meters away from the ship.
“Form up in a staggered line on either side of the tanks,” ordered Corporal Hunter. Casey quickly made her way to the tanks, taking up a position on the right side of the two. “No sign of hostile contact.”
Checking her HUD, she could see twenty-one glowing green icons. With a thought to her neural implant, she activated the suit’s enhanced vision optics. In moments, she was studying the terrain up ahead in close detail. A few buildings and a wide paved road were all that she could see. The road led directly to the spaceport, which was their objective. She knew that on their flanks more drop ships were coming down, delivering the other three platoons with Type Four suits.
Ryan was standing behind the two tanks talking with Sergeant Morris. A noise behind him drew his attention and turning, he watched as the cargo drop ship took off and accelerated rapidly up into the air.
“Ride’s gone,” muttered Private Parker as he watched the small ship rapidly disappear.
“It’ll be back,” answered Lauren pensively as she took stock of their surroundings. At the moment, there didn’t seem to be anything threatening.
“Scouts ahead,” ordered Ryan, taking a deep breath. It was time to get this operation started. “We’ll advance in a staggered line with the two tanks in the center.” Ryan knew that the tanks had extremely sensitive targeting sensors, which would be continuously searching out threats. The small tanks held a three-person crew.
Ryan looked down at his metal encased hands. It was strange to be able to feel the wind blowing against his arms and the sun shining down on his armor. The neural implant sent messages directly into the areas of his brain that controlled the senses. The suit felt alive and as he walked, he could feel and sense everything as if he wasn’t even wearing a battlesuit.
Flexing his right hand Ryan made it into a fist, feeling the metal fingers digging into his palm. Even after all of this time, the suit was amazing. Turning up his hearing, he could hear the footsteps of his marines and the distant sound of other drop ships taking off. By now, the first set of drops should all be down. Lieutenant Felton’s platoon was on their right flank and Lieutenant Guthrie’s was to their left. Major Stevens was behind them with the fourth platoon, which would be serving in a reinforcing role if needed.
“Everyone stay sharp,” called out Sergeant Morris.
Privates Parker and Adams were now one hundred meters ahead of the rest of the platoon and moving cautiously forward. They'd landed on the outskirts of the spaceport where a few trees and several small buildings afforded them some semblance of cover. They made it a point to stay off the road as it made them easy targets.
“Where are they?” uttered Alexander as he peered around a large tree trunk, looking for any sign of a Zaltule warrior. He shuddered slightly, thinking about the giant spiders that were waiting for him.
“I don’t know,” responded Lauren, uneasily. It just seemed too quiet.
She paused and used her enhanced optics to scan the beginning of the spaceport just ahead of them. She could see a large area covered in blastcrete with numerous buildings. There were several cargo ships and perhaps even a passenger ship parked on the pads. However, everywhere she looked there was no movement.
“Corporal, I don’t like this,” Lauren reported over her com. “I don’t see anything that could be a threat and there’s no movement anywhere on the spaceport that I can see.”
“Be careful,” Casey cautioned as she moved up to just behind the two scouts and gestured for the rest of the platoon to come to a halt.
“We’ll hold here for a few minutes until the other platoons are in position,” ordered Ryan, feeling tense. Something just didn’t seem right. Why were the Zaltule allowing them to advance without any resistance? There had been no weapons fire from anywhere. He couldn’t hear any birds; the wind was light, and even the insects seemed strangely quiet.
“Maybe they’ve left,” suggested Alexander, hopefully.
“They’re here,” Sergeant Morris stated in an even voice. “I can feel it in my bones. They may be trying to draw us in closer before attacking. Remember, these are Zaltule warriors and they are trained for fighting. They won’t rush us like regular conscripts do.” Morris well recalled how the Kleese sent their conscripts out in literal suicide waves to crush opposition. Conscript casualties were inconsequential to the Kleese.
Ryan contacted the two hover tanks over his com. “Launch two drones and let’s see what they can detect.”
Both hover tanks had four small drones they could launch which could scan an enemy’s position and relay the information back to the tank it was launched from. Ryan stepped over to one of the tanks and set his neural implant to receive data from the two drones.
From each tank a small drone, about twenty inches in diameter, exited a small hatch and darted silently up into the clear blue sky. After reaching one hundred meters in height, they flew swiftly toward the nearby spaceport and were soon circling above its buildings and the few ships on the pads.
Ryan was getting a bird’s eye view from the drones, but nowhere was there any evidence of any Kleese. There were no fortifications, no military vehicles, and no movement. The no movement part worried Ryan as ther
e should have at least been some indication of movement from the Kleese. Shaking his head, Ryan ordered the tank crews to keep the drones circling and to notify him of any developments.
-
Beth let out a deep breath as her two companies of Space Marines took up attack positions just on the outskirts of the spaceport. Captain Stern and her company were to her right and Captain Foster’s company was directly in front of her and to the left.
“I don’t like this, Major,” Captain Stern commented as she gazed ahead at the quiet spaceport. “Where are the Zaltule?”
“Lieutenant Nelson launched several drones and they recorded no movement anywhere on the spaceport,” Captain Foster added. She patted her RG rifle, which she'd set on explosive rounds. She still enjoyed blowing things up.
“Everyone’s in position,” Beth responded as she checked the HUD in her command suit. All the glowing icons were still green and the last drop ship had taken off to return to the ships in orbit. It had been over six years since she'd last seen combat. Taking a deep breath, Beth prepared herself for what was ahead.
She had five hundred Space Marines on the ground supported by twelve hover tanks. Major Stevens was on their left flank with all eighty of his marines in their Type Four battlesuits. She was curious to see the new suits in action.
Beth activated her long-range transmitter, which put her in contact with her husband up on the Defender. “Wade, there’s no evidence of any Kleese at the spaceport; could they have gone somewhere else?” She waited tensely for Wade’s response. She knew he would be checking the Defender’s sensors.
“No,” he replied after a moment. “Beth, they have to be there. We’ve been scanning the spaceport with the ship’s sensors and we're detecting a lot of power readings, but we can’t tell if they’re Kleese or part of the spaceport’s infrastructure.”
“Maybe they all got off the planet,” Beth suggested.
“No, we know that didn’t happen,” Wade responded. “We've established contact with the planet’s government and they are insistent some Zaltule warriors remain. They claim there are some in the capital city, but the majority are holed up at the spaceport.”
“They must be in the buildings, then,” spoke Beth, sharply. “We’ll have to go in and drag them out.”
“I think they want you on the blastcrete,” answered Wade, pensively. “Don’t forget Beth, these are professional warriors. They won’t be easy to take down and won’t make mistakes.”
“We could use the tanks to take out all the major structures,” suggested Beth. She knew that would be the safest and easiest method to eliminate the Kleese. “Or even our suit explosive rounds.”
“No,” Wade sighed. “We want to cause as little damage to the spaceport as possible. We would like these people as allies.”
“What if they won’t come out of the buildings?” Beth asked. “We could lose a lot of marines if we have to go inside to get them.”
“If we see the Kleese are too heavily entrenched, we’ll use the Defender’s railguns to clear them out,” Wade replied after a moment. “I don’t want to, but I also don’t want to suffer a lot of casualties to save a few buildings. We need to get them out of the buildings if possible.”
“Then we do it the hard way,” Beth answered as she shifted her RG rifle in her hands. “We go in and try to lure them out.”
“Use the hover tanks to take them out, if possible,” Wade ordered. “I want to hold casualties down to a minimum.”
“We’ll try,” answered Beth. She closed the circuit and switched over to the general com channel for all the marines taking part in the attack. “Scouts ahead, I want a full squad backing up each scout. The rest of us will advance in staggered formation along with the tanks. Move out!”
-
“Crap,” muttered Private Parker as he moved out and walked toward the edge of the blastcrete, which designated the beginning of the spaceport.
“Don’t get your ass killed,” cautioned Lauren as she moved from behind her tree, walking twenty meters to the left of Alexander. “Remember, if you see a Zaltule, stun him and then report to the lieutenant.”
Behind them, two five man squads followed in a staggered line ready to support the two scouts if need be. Everyone was using their enhanced vision, hearing, and their suit’s sensors to scan for any signs of the enemy.
Ryan was walking between the two tanks and a little behind keeping his eyes open. He was breathing faster and he could tell his nerves were on edge. Looking ahead, he saw the scouts were stepping out onto the blastcrete followed by the two supporting squads. At any moment, he expected firing to break out.
Casey took a deep breath as she reached the blastcrete. She was behind the two squads trying to keep an eye on everyone and everything. Gazing at the blastcrete up ahead, she noticed several areas, which were badly tarnished. Before she could say anything, six popup weapons rose up from the tarnished areas and swung their barrels toward the advancing marines.
“Down!” screamed Casey as she threw herself to the hard, unforgiving surface. Even in her battlesuit, she felt the pain of the landing.
The popups fired and one of the hover tanks exploded in a fiery blast as it was struck by some type of explosive round. The other tank quickly responded, firing its energy cannon at the nearest popup, blowing it apart. Two others were quickly eliminated by explosive rounds fire from RG rifles. However, the others were firing explosive rounds at the pinned down marines in rapid succession.
Ryan felt himself picked up and thrown violently to the ground as an explosive round hit the spot where he had been recently standing. He tumbled and flung himself prone, raising his head up just high enough to see what was happening. On his HUD, he saw two icons turn amber and another red. He felt nauseous, knowing he had just lost his first marine. He knew if not for the tough composite armor of the suits many more would have been lost. Looking at the hover tank, he saw Sergeant Morris standing behind it, firing her RG rifle calmly at the popups.
The hover tank quickly targeted another popup and blew it away as the marines finished off the other two. Then quiet reigned briefly, only to be suddenly interrupted by the sound of other explosions going off on both their flanks. Other marine companies were coming under attack.
“Lieutenant Nelson,” came Major Steven’s voice over the command channel. “Report!”
“I lost one hover tank, one marine killed, and two injured,” responded Ryan as he stood up, looking around. “We’ve eliminated the popup weapons in front of us.” There were about a dozen small smoking craters nearby from the Zaltule weapons fire.
“They came out of areas of the blastcrete that were extremely tarnished,” Casey added. “I don’t see anything else like that in front of us.”
“Hold your remaining hover tank at the edge of the spaceport,” Major Steven’s ordered. “Lieutenant Felton lost one also as well as three more marines KIA.”
For several more minutes, Ryan held his marines in their current position until the firing around them died down and came to a stop. When there were no more sounds of explosions, Ryan assumed the other units had annihilated the popup weapons in their areas. It made him wonder what other surprises the Zaltule had waiting for them.
“Resume the advance,” Major Williams announced over the command channel. “Scouts ahead and stay vigilant.”
“Move out,” ordered Ryan as he began moving toward the blastcrete.
“Just like God Damn Charring Mountain,” mumbled Alexander as he stood up and looked over at Lauren.
“You’re still alive,” Lauren was quick to point out as she moved out further onto the blastcrete. “If this were Charring, you would be lying face down in the dirt!”
She felt highly exposed as there was no cover close by. Even though she was encased in an eight-foot tall battlesuit, she still felt vulnerable. Lauren held her RG rifle at the ready, looking for any signs of movement.
“Only because those damn popups fired at the hover tanks and the
marines behind us,” retorted Alexander. Too often he'd been hit by stunners on Charring Mountain and he knew how lucky both he and Lauren were to still be alive. They had been the closest to the Zaltule popups.
Just behind them, Casey and the two squads with her stepped farther out onto the spaceport. Looking to the flanks, she could see other marines from other units appearing.
“Spread out,” spoke Casey, gesturing to the marines in the two squads to increase their spacing.
A few moments later, Ryan reached the blastcrete and ordered the hover tank to come to a stop. He also ordered the marines still with him to take up covering positions around the tank.
“Keep an eye on those buildings and the ships,” he ordered as he used his vision optics to inspect the spaceport. There were numerous large hangers and other buildings scattered about on the blastcrete as well as several tall communications towers.
“I still don’t see anything,” spoke Sergeant Morris. She had taken up a firing position behind a large tree right next to the blastcrete.
-
Inside the Spaceport Operations Center, Minor War Overlord Braton glared in anger at the reports coming in to him. His Zaltule warriors had been too far into the city to be able to withdraw with the fleet. Now he was faced with incoming Humans in Type Three Battlesuits and some other smaller suit he was not familiar with.
“All popups have been eliminated,” reported Caltill his chief aide. “The enemy continues to advance.”
“These are the Humans we have heard so much about,” Braton responded in a cold voice. “Their fleet commands the orbital approaches and we will not be rescued.”
“Then we will die as Zaltule warriors,” spoke Caltill with a nod. “It is the way of the warrior caste.”
“But we’ll take many of them with us,” Braton replied as he studied several viewscreens in the Operations Center, which showed the approaching Humans. “Inform our warriors to open fire.”
Galactic Empire Wars: Rebellion (The Galactic Empire Wars Book 3) Page 22