“I won’t even bother worrying where the mercs got them,” Jia muttered.
“I’m sure the DD and ID will soon be knocking on some Fleet quartermaster’s door soon, but if they move those bombs, we might not find them again before they blow them.”
“A lot of Elites, mercs, and gun emplacements,” Cabrina pointed out. “I tagged at least two laser turrets. None of the drones made it to the inside of the garage. They might have gunships or other close air support in there.”
“In summary, we’re outnumbered and outgunned,” Jia replied. “I don’t know about you, but that’s pretty standard for Erik and me.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Erik noted. “They’re about to move the bombs. We can’t pull back and wait for reinforcements even if we wanted to.”
“Then we need a plan. If we just charge in there from the street, we’ll be dead before we make it five meters.” Cabrina didn’t sound too worried despite what she’d just said.
Damir took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “What you need is a distraction.”
“Yeah, that would be handy, but we’re out of remote toys.”
“Then you need a person to do it.” Damir shrugged, his expression serene. “Let me do it. I’ll distract them, allowing you to advance.”
Cabrina stared at the rebel. She lifted her faceplate, almost as if she wanted him to see the disbelief on her face. “There’s no way you’ll survive.”
“You were right before. The FSA invited these people. I might not be a leader, but I’m part of it, which means it’s partially my fault. If I have to die to save New Samarkand, so be it.” Damir pulled back his cloak to reveal a plasma grenade. “If you give me more grenades and I prime them all, I’ll do my best to take down at least one of the trucks. Even if I don’t, it’ll draw their attention. If you circle around from other positions, it should give the time you need to get inside without being massacred.”
Cabrina grimaced. “I’m all about stopping those bombs, but you can’t just go exploding things around a nuclear bomb. Won’t that make it blow up?”
Jia shook her head. “I’m not familiar with that particular bomb, but it takes a precise sequence to initiate the fusion reaction. It’s almost impossible for it to go off from an explosion, but depending on what the primary initiator is, it could spread radiological contamination.”
Erik frowned. “That’s not much better, especially in a dome.”
“I’ll concentrate on distraction and attacking the front then,” Damir replied with a casual shrug as if he wasn’t talking about blowing himself up.
“You sure you’re ready to die?”
Damir shook his head. “No, but right now, I need to die. So tell me, Erik Blackwell, can you and these Army dogs save New Samarkand? Can you save all these innocent people’s lives?”
“I can’t guarantee anything.” Erik stared the man down. “But I can guarantee you that if you’re willing to go that far, we’ll do our damnedest, including putting our lives on the line.”
“Then let’s get ready.” Damir offered them a sad smile. “Before they call for reinforcements.”
Cabrina took a breath and transmitted to her squad. “We’re outnumbered and outgunned. What’s that mean?”
“We’re out of fucks to give!” the squad chanted.
“Then let’s get ready to save a colony.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
The enemy didn’t come boiling over the wall like rabid animals looking for a fight. The Torch Dragon Elite from before crawled up and over the wall, its long body contorting with its rapid movements. It was no longer interested in taking down drones. With surprise lost, it would come down to the team’s new plan. They spent a brief span of minutes discussing the details.
“That’s serious jamming since we’re still half a klick out, and I can’t get through to anyone,” Cabrina commented. “Since we’re going to make the run, I thought about at least telling somebody what we’re doing in case we don’t make it.”
“It’s up to us now,” Erik replied. “Just keep telling yourself that and fight like it.”
They decided to split up into four teams: two Army squads, Erik and Jia, and Damir. The Army teams ducked between buildings. Each would approach the wall from a different angle. The two Army teams were tasked with taking out the laser turrets. Erik and Jia were focused on shock and awe and would be close to the front so they could make sure the truck with the bombs didn’t escape. Damir was comfortable as the primary distraction, although they’d help him with rocket salvos prior to him making his run.
Five minutes. That was how long they spent getting ready for an operation with hundreds of thousands of lives on the line. It seemed absurd when Jia thought about it, but that was more time than on some of the other missions she’d been involved in. That was what it meant to be part of the vanguard. Sometimes things were easy. Sometimes you hoped a nuclear bomb didn’t blow up in your face.
Jia took slow, even breaths, trying to calm her pounding heart. The signal would come at any moment, and then they would put to the test who cared more about their cause, the mercs and Elites or the curious mix of one rebel, an Army squad, and two ID contractors. Battle was as much about will as it was plans and equipment.
A bright flare shot into the sky and exploded into dozens of streams. Jia didn’t think; she executed, along with the other teams.
Rockets and grenades streamed from the eight exos and arced to target the laser turrets, but no one on the team was surprised when they exploded after clearing the wall. They launched grenades and rockets directly into the top edge, and screams erupted behind the wall—fewer mercenaries in the galaxy.
The enemy undoubtedly had cameras and knew their exact positions now, so it’d be critical to focus on evasion during the initial entry. The only reason they had a chance was that this was a makeshift camp in the middle of an abandoned neighborhood, rather than a hardened base built from the first wall with the idea of repelling attackers.
Damir revved the scout bike in challenge before charging the wall. No one opened fire. They didn’t see the threat a single scarcely armored man on a scout bike might represent.
Jia nodded, satisfied. The enemy’s arrogance would work in their favor. The scout bike turned at the last moment, and Damir headed for another part of the wall.
“I don’t think they have any airpower,” Erik transmitted.
The teams had established a laser comm network for the moment so they could speak without the enemy overhearing them, but they all understood it’d be useless in the heat of the battle.
“I agree,” Cabrina replied. “After having us poking them like this, it’d make more sense to send something after us or pound the area. We got lucky. They must all be busy elsewhere.”
“Then we need to hurry before they return,” Jia suggested. “They could have sent a distress signal before activating the jamming.”
“It’s all up to the rebel.” Cabrina pointed her machine gun at the wall. “Let’s see what he can do. It won’t make up for everything, but it’ll be a start.”
Damir climbed the angled wall with the bike, flicking grenades from his vest and the carryaid like candy at a parade. His exquisite aim let him land just shy of clearing the wall, the bright blasts shooting up metal and dust. He spun the bike with ease before heading back and making another wave.
Rockets and grenades from inside arced over the edge of the wall and exploded around him, but he wove back and forth, handling the bike like he’d been born on it. Jia understood its inherent capabilities, but he still impressed her. A high-end vehicle needed the best rider to draw out its potential.
“Go!” Cabrina shouted.
Her team of three exoskeletons burst from behind their building cover and sprinted toward the wall. They made it three-quarters of the way up before a number of grenades and rockets flew their way, the explosions and shrapnel bouncing off their shields. The only member of the team with a grenade launcher replied with fire al
ong the burning edge of the wall, but this time there was no explosion. Hot gray smoke spewed from his shots, fueling a dense cloud.
Damir turned toward the burgeoning cloud and accelerated while tossing plasma and frag grenades behind him. It wouldn’t be pleasant running through a cloud hot enough to mostly conceal their thermal signatures, but he didn’t hesitate as he barreled into it. Jia again found herself impressed.
The exos continued their final charge up the wall and through the cloud as loud autocannon and machine-gun fire roared around them. Rounds whizzed through the smoke as the raiding party entered the camp proper.
Erik was the first one to take out an Elite, a spider that appeared out of the smoke but was unprepared for point-blank machine-gun fire. Cabrina’s team shredded a Torch Dragon. Her second sub-squad cut through a group of mercenaries.
Damir zigzagged, explosions and bullets all around him as the enemy attempted to bring him down. One of the laser turrets, the emplacement the length of the scout bike, spun toward him. He cut toward a beetle Elite, who collapsed when the turret missed Damir and clove its ally in two. The invisible beam continued and vaporized half of another Elite and a mercenary’s leg before digging a decent hole in the wall.
Ruthlessness might be a virtue of the Core, but pointless tactical expenditure didn’t seem to be. The turrets both ceased fire, but that still left a camp filled with Elites and mercenaries who outnumbered the raiding party.
The invading exoskeletons used their maneuverability to their advantage, constantly moving while firing. Tight formations and quick sidesteps and jumps kept the punishment focused on their shields.
Jia rushed past two spider Elites who attempted to nail her, only for them to end up firing at each other and blasting off pieces of armor. She and Erik finished them with streams of bullets to the newly opened holes.
The two Army teams took their chance to finish the greatest threat, bounding toward the turrets and releasing hell as the weapons spun toward them. Laser blasts severed the leg of Alpha Five’s exoskeleton, and the body slammed into the ground as the team continued. Half their rockets and grenades blew up before reaching them, courtesy of Elites’ anti-grenade systems, but the rest of their deadly gifts carved into the turrets, not blowing up the entire structures, but leaving enough smoke and fire to signal their defeat.
“Use it for cover,” Cabrina shouted to the pilot of the downed exoskeleton.
The man crawled out of the damaged wreck and sprinted toward the smoking remnants of the turrets, and the rest of the soldiers spread out to cover his retreat while the Elites converged. Alpha Four remained exposed on his side. The withering fire from the enemy cyborgs left his machine gun and rocket launcher useless, smoking hunks. Explosions from twin rockets ripped into the back of Alpha Two, and the exoskeleton collapsed onto its side, no longer moving.
“Stay put,” Cabrina shouted, sweeping through nearby Elites with her machine gun, forcing them back.
Jia distracted the Elites with grenades and machine-gun bursts from behind. What was left of the Army squad consolidated into a line, mowing down mercenaries and keeping their shields close enough together to take minimal damage from the bullets and rockets pounding their area.
“Alpha Four, shield him until he wakes up, then pull back to the garage for cover,” Cabrina ordered.
Jia’s breath caught, but she didn’t have time to fret. None of them did. If their mission failed, there would be a lot more than wounded soldiers to worry about. She saturated the ground holding mercenary infantry with frag and plasma grenades, firing so often and so close together that it was like a star had appeared on the battlefield. By the time her attack finished, she was almost out of grenades, and only a shallow crater remained, along with ash-covered scraps of clothing and melted remnants of metal.
Erik ran along the wall, picking off surviving merc infantry with single shots. Their tactical suits didn’t offer much protection against an exo machine gun.
The hovertrucks pulled away from the garage. Now that she was inside, Jia could see there was nothing else inside the garage except the loaders.
Damir swerved back and forth on his wild ride toward the trucks. Torch Dragon Elites attempted to down him, but Jia and Erik bounded toward them and pinned them with streams of bullets. The rebel caught up with the trucks and moved past until he was beside the first. He tossed a plasma grenade onto the front windshield, then throttled back and threw another on the second truck before the first explosion had finished.
The truck pitched forward, the burning front smashing hard into the ground before the rest of its thrusters quit and the back dropped with a resounding crash and an eerie wrenching noise. The second truck smacked into the back of the first and knocked it over, while their third partner managed a sharp turn to the side, only for Damir to blow the front apart with another grenade. His skill from before finally failed him, and his shallow throw resulted in the blast knocking him off the bike. It barreled into the hovertruck’s storage compartment, crunching and compressing. Damir flew through the air and hit the ground, then rolled several times. He didn’t move, and in the smoke and chaos, it was hard to tell if he was breathing.
While Jia didn’t know if he was dead, she did know he’d disabled the trucks. They just needed to finish off the rest of the enemies and figure out the jammer’s location. Despite Cabrina suggesting the camp was well-defended, it was now obvious a good chunk of the enemy forces were fighting elsewhere. If the team hadn’t launched their raid when they had, they might have missed the narrow window of opportunity to take the bombs.
The leg of another exoskeleton blew off, the victim of a clever spider Elite flanking it. The pilot ejected. Vengeance by the squad might be satisfying, but it didn’t change the cold reality that they were down to four exoskeletons with any offensive capability. The pilot crawled out and stood up, blood running down the side of her head.
“Go for the turrets,” Cabrina ordered, unleashing rockets.
Alpha Four, still smoking from its earlier damage, ran in front of his fellow soldier, blocking the heavy fire from two Torch Dragon Elites. He withdrew slowly toward the gun emplacements’ wreckage, the dismounted soldiers staying close behind him.
The surviving exoskeletons, including Erik and Jia, regrouped into a U-shaped formation. Enemy Elites tried to dart through the smoky clouds covering the battlefield, fueled by the burning wrecks all around and the earlier raid cover, but the pilots maintained their discipline and their shield angles and did not blindly fire into the smoke.
A Torch Dragon wiggled out of a burning crater, and they ended his second metallic life in a hail of bullets. A mighty metal body was useful, but their exoskeletons served the same purpose, albeit temporarily.
The remaining Elites, exclusively Torch Dragons and spiders at this point, broke for the front gate. They scuttled back and forth to avoid taking more fire, but a couple more fell to the raiding party. Erik stopped shooting first, followed by Jia.
“Cease fire,” Cabrina ordered her soldiers.
The enemy didn’t swarm back for a rally. They leapt onto the wall and scampered over like terrified vermin, eerie given their size.
“They gave up?” Cabrina scoffed. “These guys fought to the last man before, and now they don’t want to die?”
Jia frowned. “Something’s wrong. Remote detonation of the bombs?”
“Those bombs go off, running a couple of kilometers away isn’t going to save them,” Erik noted. “I could see them doing it, but if anything, they would have fought us harder to distract us. No, they left for another—”
A massive explosion nearby scattered the exoskeletons, leaving them prone. Jia’s ears rang and she shook her head, trying to figure out what had happened. Instinct kicked in, and she fired her exoskeleton’s jets and pushed to her feet.
“Scatter!” Erik bellowed.
The four exos ran in different directions, and the soldiers around the turret broke for the garage. This time Jia spotted
an incoming shell in one of her camera feeds. It struck where they’d be standing a moment before, adding another crater to the landscape.
Jia continued running, making a sharp turn every couple of meters and desperately seeking the enemy. Erik’s machine gun roared, and something exploded in the air. Small dark pieces fell to the ground.
“How the hell are they firing at us without a spotter?” Cabrina shouted.
“Who cares? The important thing is they’ve got something with serious firepower nearby that has indirect capability.”
“Like what?” Jia asked.
“I’ve got some ideas,” Erik replied, his voice strained.
Cabrina snorted. “Now we know why they were clearing out. They weren’t running to save themselves from us.”
A ground-shaking blast consumed the front gate. The exoskeletons backed away, not keeping any of the tighter formations that had defined the battle. A whir and a hum grew louder behind the wall, a portent of something approaching.
Jia let out a dark snicker when a large barrel cleared the wall. She was beginning to question their luck.
“A hovertank,” Erik muttered. “This ought to be fun.”
Chapter Fifty
The boxy gray tank came fully into view, hovering half a meter off the ground, a massive single-barreled cannon sticking out the front. The huge beast made the MX 60 seem like a tiny toy. It wasn’t the largest tank Erik had ever seen, but they were usually on his side. Rebellions with that kind of firepower were rare. The armored vehicles he’d faced off against when dealing with the syndicates were a pale, distant threat compared to this tank.
A smaller autocannon adorned the top of the turret, along with twin high-velocity point-defense cannons to take care of grenades and pesky rockets. Layers of armor and an invisible grav shield meant that even four exoskeletons with trained operators might as well have been poking sticks at it. Winning against the tank wasn’t impossible, but it’d take all their training and skill, along with a large kiss of luck from the Lady.
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