Mark’s HUD lit green as he pulled a mono-blade from his back and another attached to mono-wire.
The city was set up in rings, as all colonial worlds were. The center building was the government and military headquarters, with businesses moving to residential towers farther out. The underground transport system mimicked the surface, with two lines crossing underneath the central tower and then stopping at the sub-lines that went to the other towers. Then the main lines would reach the long-distance transports, which would send and receive materials and people from other cities.
Mark and his second contubernium led by Evocatus Seloa went straight to the center underneath the main tower as the others split up to the second ring’s towers.
“All right—there.”
“Gotcha,” Seloa responded. The rest of the eight-man group spread out as they made their way up the lifts that took them past the bunkers and into the tower.
Ten Maraukians turned as Mark appeared. He hit the back of the lift, diving forward as his mono-wire whipped out. It came across the Maraukians’ heads as the air above him filled with superheated plasma and 6mm coilgun rounds.
Zoe jumped right as Phoibe jumped left. Phoibe caught a round in his leg; quick thinking and a mono-blade cut off his leg before the round got to his central cavity and turned him into red mush.
Mark stopped holding his merge back as he stood, breathing. He felt his body come alive, humming with information and combat chemicals.
Zoe checked on Phoibe. The round had destroyed most of the leg but the armor was still functional as they re-attached it and the nanites went on to repair the limb. Phoibe’s nerves were cut off so he couldn’t tell the difference as they, too, merged, interlinked, as Maraukians appeared around the corner ahead of the lift leading into the open central area of the tower. Mark and Zoe whipped out their mono-wire as Phoibe’s hands blurred mono-blades across his body and, being formed from the high-density blocks, thudded into the Maraukians, going clean through even their armored chests as they dropped lifelessly.
Mark and Zoe threw their wire into the wall, through the corridor and across the open area. It stuck into the wall. They grabbed Phoibe by each side; their winches activated and pulled them through the hallway fast enough to crush the third group of Maraukians that appeared at the entrance of the corridor. Mono-blades flashed, killing anything not dealt with by their own bodies.
Sarah flashed the outlay of the building through Mark’s HUD as well as the Maraukians in the building, overlaying that with what he saw.
“Floor by floor. Seloa, we’ll take south side.”
“Seen.” Blue dots for the fireteams as they broke up took position on the other four sides of the tower.
“Execute.”
The teams moved up the stairs. The sensors showed Maraukians tearing apart the buildings, eating the plants naturally and then stuffing their feeders strapped to their necks with anything else, either eating it or regurgitating it. That which was regurgitated, they gathered in piles. Mark smashed through a plasta-wall; his dual mono-blades sliced through the back of one Maraukian as the other took the head off of its friend. He swept low, taking the next fours’ legs off. His left flicked back, catching them across the chests and faces, ripping vital organs and brains in a spray of blue. He tossed his sword up, throwing it like a javelin at the herd commander. Four mono-darts followed the javelin, killing the heavies closest to it. Mark dove, grabbing his blade and pinning the ton-and-a-half commander to the wall.
Zoe and Phoibe had come around the corner. Their M20s made short work of the now enraged, leaderless Maraukians staring at where Mark was, oblivious of the carnage behind them until osmium bolts ripped them apart. Mark dove backward underneath their streams of osmium rounds and the coilgun rounds a few Maraukians had been able to get off.
“That seems to have gotten their attention. Stairwells.”
“Lifts are disabled,” Sarah said over the contubernium’s net as Mark checked the advance of the other Phantoms. There were some with little to no resistance and some which had stumbled on what appeared to be nests of the damned bastards, with up to three commanders in the tower. Forces that were wandering through the city were moving to the towers under attack now.
“All Phantoms—watch your asses,” Mark said over the net. “Come to Mark, fuckers,” he muttered as the first Maraukian head turned to blue paste.
Mark watched the lifts as a few dozen Maraukians walked straight into them, finding out too late that the capsules that were supposed to be there had disappeared and the power was off, plummeting to their deaths. He could swear he could hear the wet thwaps as Maraukians met cermite.
“Moving up.” His M20s covered everything in the stairwell as he walked his fire up, turning the corner and catching a fresh press of Maraukians straight on. His boots clamped to the ground, crushing the bodies underneath him as they fired miniature spikes into the ground to keep him in place and not slip on the liquids flowing down the stairs.
“Housecleaning is NOT going to be happy,” Dodger said over the net to the grim laughs of the Phantoms.
Mark chuckled. “All right, let’s clear the second floor and set up there.”
Those with less resistance pushed to the second floor, firing into the floor and the stairwells at the same time before working their way to the next stairwell. Zoe cut through the Maraukians in front of Mark, who rushed through the door. His M20 changed to launchers as he fired at Zoe’s door, killing any of the Maraukians that had gotten to the doorway and holding the rest at bay with timed explosives. Mark did the same with his own door, his arms stretched outward to cover both.
Finally the contubernium had cleared up to the second floor, taking firing positions to fire into the stairwells. Mark concentrated on his own stairwell as he looked at the herd charging up into the tower. The herds that had been in the cities now rushed into the towers being attacked. Mark exhaled in a hiss as a Phantom was overpowered by the number of Maraukians. Vibro-blades ripped him apart; the others felt his sadness, pain, and confusion before his link was gone.
“Shutting blast doors.” Sarah dropped the massive doors that covered the ground and first floor, which would take a day for a plasma cannon to get through. They didn’t need days.
“One express elevator up.” Mark watched as all of the Phantoms got close to the windows, firing their last rounds. They jumped backward and out into the sky. Anti-grav kicked in as they shot to the top of the tower. Their boots clamped into the ground hard. The wind—at four kilometers in the air—was enough to send them flying if they weren’t careful. They moved to the armored skylight above the open area that went to the bottom of the tower. They attached mono-lines, loading extra blocks as they took their mono-blades and cut holes in the skylight.
“Shutting stairway doors.”
“Let’s get this done.” With the lifts not working and the stairwells now locked, there was nowhere for the Maraukians to go but wait on their floors. Some commanders tried to open the stairwell doors with plasma cannons, which incinerated those inside and set off a chain reaction with the power supplies of other herd commanders in the stairwell, culminating in a fireball that blew out every stairwell door and killed anything around it in three hundred meters, making the stairwell a smoking ruin.
The commander survived his stupidity but the normals of the herd commanders he’d killed tore him apart.
The Phantoms dropped from the skylight. Their M20s belched anti-matter rounds as they coated the floors in explosives, killing everything in them before they moved onto the next floor and repeated the process.
“Shit! Shots from the bottom floor!” Jarek said. Rounds whistled around them, one of the Phantom Lords didn’t even have time to scream as their suit was hit. The round entering through their leg armor and ricocheted around, their life signs dead as the round ricocheted inside.
All of the Phantoms stopped their descent and opened up a hell storm on the Maraukians below before moving on. Anger and los
s passed between the Phantoms faster than the blink of an eye as they continued their descent.
Chapter 48
Citadel
Earth, Sol system
7/3353
General Jones rubbed his forehead. He didn’t know the last time he’d been this tired. He’d never been up for two days straight. That was something for the troopers to do.
He was a general: people of his standing didn’t slave over plans and information.
With the Maraukians, things had changed. Everyone, even the corporation-playing officers, were at the Citadel, trying to piece together a plan from the massive amount of data and information coming from Gilese.
A fleet, bigger than anything anyone had seen, appeared out of nowhere, just a few days’ travel from Gilese Actual, and started attacking the Maraukian ships that were still working their way to Gilese Actual.
The fleet had cut down a few of their barges, but the majority had made it to the ground. The legion had released ships, like the troopers’ own combat shuttles. They’d disgorged legionnaires into colony cities. The legionnaires had built defenses around the cities and dug in.
The cities closest to the Maraukian landing zones were left alone.
“They could’ve just shot the bastards with orbital strikes,” an aide argued.
“Maybe. These guys seem to have fought the Maraukians before. Maybe orbitals won’t work?” another said.
“Why not? Nothing can withstand that!” the first yelled back.
There was a tension in the air. More than one fight had broken out. These people were used to parties and political positioning, not making military plans and not sleeping.
Jones looked to the carriers in limbo, a state where only the vital crew were kept awake while the troopers and rest were left in cryostasis, waiting to be awakened for a new mission.
The closest was five years away from Gilese. Too long to be of much use.
Currently, all carriers were activated and moving to the closest systems, ready to defend the EHC’s territory—whether from this group calling themselves Roma’s legions, or the gray apes.
Chapter 49
Nonmetal City
Gilese Actual, Gilese system
7/3353
Centurion Flavius Octavius of the 354th looked at the city through his helmet’s highest magnification. The explosions that had moved through the towers had stopped a few minutes ago.
“Sensors showing three unidentified objects moving toward us at rapid speeds. We also have reports of Maraukian forces moving from their landing points toward us in every direction.”
“Lovely. How long till the three objects reach us?”
“Less than a minute.”
He turned to see a shimmer only noticeable because of the dirt plume behind them. Their IFFs flashed friendly.
“Watch them to make sure. We don’t want surprises.”
He walked forward. The other century’s centurion stayed back in case he was killed.
The shimmers stopped moving and came up in front of Flavius.
“The city is secure. I suggest we move in quickly and create defenses for the oncoming Maraukians.”
“You would be?”
“Centurion Mark Victor. We talked.” The shimmering disappeared as a black suit of armor stood in front of him, tall enough to make him turn his head at an awkward angle. The other two suits did the same, shorter than the first but still as big proportionally.
“All right.”
“Everyone get loaded on the Bellona. We’re rolling in. The city has been cleared.”
They followed the three other suits which sat on the lead tank as it drove on. Flavius had his men disembark before they entered the city just in case. The three suits shrugged as they moved in; another suit appeared and dropped its shimmer, which made it appear like a piece of rubble. When they got past the second ring, it was obvious from the Maraukians lying on the ground, having been tossed from the buildings, that anything Maraukian was dead.
“Welcome to the city Remorse. Looks to be home for the next little while,” Flavius said. “Break up in fireteams and check the buildings, outer circle in. Make sure everyone’s in their bunker and get me a clear scan of everything.”
“I dispatched my people to make sure everyone’s in their bunkers so we don’t have to worry about civilian casualties.”
“All right, belay that.”
“Here’s our sensor information. I have Phantoms all over the outer rim to give us a clear feed from all approaches.” The two other Phantoms dropped off the tank, moving in the same ground-eating lope as before and disappearing off somewhere.
“Now I know why they didn’t give us two maniples.” The centurion for the 125th shook his helmet as little as it would allow him.
“I suggest we deploy into the towers as much as possible,” Mark said. A holographic image of the city, including the Phantoms’ scans, appeared between them. “I don’t like how open we’re going to be, plus we need to get the Bellona inside to give us fire support.”
Mark took off his helmet and scratched his head as he retrieved a cigar. He lit it from his fingertip lighter as he looked at the surrounding buildings. “I have an idea. It ain’t going to be pretty, though.” He sketched it out briefly. The other centurions looked a little apprehensive as the holograph changed.
“Put down the swords and weapons and step out of the armored vehicle, or we will fire,” a captain from the insignia said through his unit’s speakers at Mark.
“We’re here to help,” Mark said through his own speakers. The legionnaires tensed. It was obvious the firepower from the legionnaires would kill the company’s worth of soldiers who were now appearing in the closest tower. Obviously, someone knew what they were doing. Mark mentally kicked himself for not having monitored the bunkers and told Sarah to do so.
“I don’t care what you say, bitch. This is our city and we will not have you destroying it for fun.”
“Well, we’re about to drop a lot more of it. We’re creating defenses.”
“Since when does that mean you need to destroy a city?”
“Because we’re fighting Maraukians.”
“Ah, yes, Maraukians—an enemy we haven’t even seen. Convenient, that.”
“I don’t have time to have a fucking dick measuring contest. Help or fuck off,” Mark growled.
“I am a captain of the Gilese security force here! I will not have some miscreant talk down to me.”
“Ah, yes, Captain Jeremy Lindst. Calls home the Andromeda system, originally a spacer in the asteroid belt.”
“How do you know that?”
“Do you want me to recite your personal information? I have it all here, Captain.”
“You are all under arrest. Place your weapons down and raise your hands above your heads.” The captain tried to regain control of the conversation.
“Sarah.”
“Fragging.”
The captain’s plates locked up as he fell backward.
“Now,” Mark brought himself to parade rest, with his arms at his side, unable to go behind him, “I believe you have a warrant among you.” No one stepped forward but Mark could see from the chatter the warrant was already in charge.
“Okay, so we have a few options here. First, you interfere with our work and we have to babysit your asses. Second, you let us get on with your job, help us or not, and we can get rid of these freaking Maraukians as quickly as possible and we can all go home.”
A few seconds later, a grizzled warrant officer pulled off his visor, his weapon at his side. He lit a cigarette and offered one to Mark, who accepted it and allowed the warrant to light it. “Well, how can we help? Because I saw those ships and the corpses—those definitely weren’t human. Better to deal with what we know compared to what we don’t.”
Mark grinned and took a drag of his cigarette. “Now that’s something I can agree with.” He offered his hand. “The name’s Mark.”
The man took it. “Tobias
. Now, how can we help you?”
“Better to talk to these two gentlemen here. I’m off to redesign Remorse.”
“Never liked it much anyway.” The warrant spit and moved the cigarette to the side of his mouth. A holoprojector was brought forward and the centurions discussed what they wanted to do as the Bellona moved onward, the legionnaires dispersing around the city. Mark finished the cigarette, tossing it, and rolled the dip in his mouth.
“Twice the flavor.” He spit before he replaced his helmet and grabbed his swords.
Chapter 50
Nonmetal City
Gilese Actual, Gilese system
7/3353
Ava swung her mono-blade again, finishing her cut as she looked at the status of her people. They’d been at it for an hour; in another, the Maraukians would be upon them.
Mikael Freusht opened a channel. “All done here, ma’am.” The ground began to shake as the Phantoms took to the air.
“All right, let’s get into position and time to wait.” She changed to the decanus net. “All right boys, we’re ready.”
“All right, pull back to the alley. Jarek, Dodger, Chyna?”
“All’s good here, boss.”
“Same, Mark.”
“We’ll make them pay for every foot they’ve come.”
“So we shall, Chyna, and then some.”
Chapter 51
Nonmetal City
Gilese Actual, Gilese system
7/3353
“Ready?” Mark asked as he watched five assault barges’ worth of Maraukians thunder down the single entrance into the city.
Green lights lit up his HUD as everyone reported back. Mark looked at the Bellona tank’s turrets peeking out from behind rubble and the EMFs, whose faces had gone white looking at the six-limbed grey monkeys hurtling at them.
Just a bit more. Mark waited as the firing line stayed quiet as the Maraukians passed their buildings, ten meters from the wall of rubble that stopped them.
“Bellona!”
The Tenth Awakens (Maraukian War Book 1) Page 28