“Keep mobile and circle around it,” Erik barked. “Exchange positions as much as possible.”
He didn’t care if Cabrina’s squad understood that already. They didn’t have time for any misunderstandings, and he wanted everybody to use the same tactics.
The cannon swung toward him. He was already jumping into the air when the tank fired and the explosion gave him more altitude than he would have liked, but this wasn’t the first time in his life flames and pain had pushed him. The autocannon screamed to life, and his ballistic shield protected him, disturbingly large pieces ejected with each hit. Too many direct hits and the rounds would tear right through the shield, the exo, and his body. He didn’t feel like replacing his arm again.
Jia and the others opened fire, with their machine guns, rockets, and grenades. None of the grenades made it to within two meters before getting picked off by the point-defense anti-grenade system. The faster rockets made it farther, one surviving the overwhelmed defensive gauntlet and digging a fair-sized hole in the outer armor. A good start, but not enough, not nearly enough. Bringing down the mammoth would require more than a nick.
The tank sped up, zooming through the burning wreckage of the front gate. It fired another round, this time toward Cabrina. Erik didn’t know if it was luck or skill that had her leaning to the side, but she avoided the direct hit from the explosive shell. The projectile continued past her and flew across the camp until it hit and dug into the wall, blasting out a shower of debris. A couple of solid hits from a tank like that, and they could have dug their own tunnel through the wall.
The hovertank might not have the full grav shield that was only available with the power of something like a ship’s reactor, but that didn’t make its deflection or slowing of most of the machine gun rounds any less obnoxious. The rounds that made it through sparked and scratched, but it was like mice trying to take down a bear by nibbling on it. To win, they needed to get their explosives through, but that meant beating the point defense, which required simultaneous volleys or faster reinforced rounds.
A lot of civilians made the mistake of equating exoskeletons with tanks. A well-trained assault infantry soldier in an appropriate exo could clear out a platoon of regular infantry by himself, but that didn’t make exos tank-killers. For an Army that wanted to suppress trouble in urban environments without massive collateral damage, exoskeletons were a key tool, but in the brutal, unrestrained New Samarkand rebellion, the Army could have used a lot more tanks and a lot fewer exos.
“You’re brave little insects,” a hollow voice broadcasted from the tank. “You understand what I am, don’t you? You didn’t think Elites were restricted to small bodies, did you? This colony will fall and be the start of my masters’ new order, but first you will die, trembling in fear, knowing there is nothing you can do.”
“Yeah, keep thinking that,” Erik called back. “Here’s a hint. Kill us first, then gloat to your buddies. Doing it beforehand makes you look desperate.”
The tank whipped around with surprising speed and lined the cannon up directly behind one of the exoskeletons. The pilot’s reflexes were impressive, but there was only one choice left to the man. Ejection flung him free before the cannon incinerated the exo. The blast knocked him forward, and he landed hard on the ground and didn’t move, the back of his tactical suit shredded and the flesh burned.
Erik gritted his teeth. They were down to three exos, and that pilot needed medical attention. Some of the others probably did too, but they at least had someone nearby and conscious to apply emergency med patches. The quicker they took the tank, the greater their chance of saving the soldiers’ lives.
“I can see the future, the light, the glory,” cried the tank Elite. “It begins in fire, but it has to be done when they demand it, not before, never before. Disloyalty and chaos are what have brought us to this sorry situation. You should never have come here. Then you wouldn’t have to know the fear and trepidation that comes before the fire.”
“When they stick your brains in those cans, do they add something that makes you prattle on like assholes?” Erik shouted.
The autocannon swept in a circle, not firing at Cabrina, Jia, or Erik directly, but forcing them back. Erik concentrated on moving his exo, based on the position not of the tank but of the main turret. His exo could survive direct hits from the autocannon, but his shield wouldn’t protect him if the enemy tagged him with the main cannon.
An Elite meant a human brain in a metal shell with a lot of weapons and defenses. That human brain might belong to a crazy zealot lackey, but psychological warfare went both ways, especially for someone who seemed as in love with the mission as this Elite. Erik increased his mic’s volume.
“You know who we are, Elite?” he shouted.
“Dead soon?” The Elite laughed. “Future charred fragments?”
Erik jumped back, darting from side to side to avoid the autocannon’s relentless attention. It resembled a bizarre reverse skiing attempt, but it was effective.
“Didn’t you big, bad Elites wonder how a small group of exos found your special little base and cargo?” he replied. “Especially after all your little friends in the Core went to all the trouble of killing all those ghosts up front? Haven’t you figured it out? Two of these exos are obviously not Army issue. Do they not tell you guys in the field anything?”
Cabrina flung two rockets toward a front corner of the hovertank. The Elite’s defenses took out one, but the lieutenant managed to land a surface hit that rocked the target, making the tank’s entire body wobble. It swung its main cannon around with a bestial roar, but she was on the move. The smaller autocannon raked her exposed side, but she kept running. Jia fired a plasma grenade on the ground in front of it, but a sharp turn saved it from an explosion underneath.
“It doesn’t matter who you are,” the Elite insisted. “You will die here. Any successes you think you have achieved will die with you. Do you understand that, insect?”
“That was what Luca and Primul probably thought.” Erik laughed. “You know them? I haven’t done the math, so I’m not sure if you’ve heard about us kicking their asses on Chiron. They liked to talk and call people names, too. It didn’t save them from us. Easy shit. Elite? The only thing you’re Elite at is dying.”
Adding that they’d blown off his arm didn’t strike Erik as useful in his manipulation. Leaving out details and exaggeration weren’t inappropriate when dealing with zealot cyborgs with delusions of grandeur. Maybe similar taunts would work if he had to face off against aliens in the future. It never hurt a man to practice.
Cabrina’s attempt to flank the tank again ended with autocannon rounds slipping past her shield. They tore through and mangled her machine gun and the barrel of her rocket launcher, leaving the arm sparking and smoking.
“Damn it,” she shouted.
An exo without a gun could still crush a human. Against a tank, it waited to be crushed.
“Pull back,” Erik called, injecting his full officer energy into his command voice. “We’ve got this.”
Cabrina didn’t hesitate despite the frustration in her voice. Running backward in an exo at high-speed while constantly changing direction wasn’t something Erik was sure he could pull off that well, but she managed her withdrawal as Jia and Erik continued pelting the tank with gunfire in an attempt to distract the Elite.
Mechanical laughter sounded from the tank. “Are you supposed to be impressive? Are you supposed to scare me? You speak and threaten and mock, but this colony will fall, and you’ll die knowing that all your scrambling, all your pathetic, temporary victories amounted to nothing.”
“We’re the Last Soldier and the Warrior Princess,” Jia yelled. “We’ve beaten the Core more than once. If you’re not scared of that, you should be asking yourself how the hell we’re even here?”
“I see. It all makes sense now. But past victories are no guarantee you’ll win.”
With only two active exos, the amount of punishment they co
uld deliver was reduced, but it was far easier to dodge at full speed without the risk of colliding with a friendly. The Elite had become more selective with its fire, but Erik and Jia were on opposite sides in constant motion, only passing each other for brief seconds in crisscrossed reversals of position, their previous offensive practice earning a defensive application. From the air, it would have looked absurd, the two exos jerking back and forth while running around the hovertank Elite in a twisted dance.
As a tank, the Elite’s speed would be impressive if it had time to accelerate, but its constant turns and directional changes left it almost a tree with the so-called insects buzzing around it, avoiding its attempts to swat them.
“Do you know what luck is, Blackwell?” the Elite asked. “What it truly is?”
“Where opportunity meets preparation?” Erik replied.
“No. Something that always runs out. Arrogant insects like you conflate mere chance with skill. You can keep running, but you’ll get tired soon. Your weak exoskeleton will continue to suffer damage, but you’ve barely scratched me. If your exoskeleton doesn’t fail first, your mind will, and then if I don’t kill you instantly, I’ll enjoy taking the time to blow you apart piece by worthless piece.”
“Monster!” screamed a man.
Erik spared a quick glance at one of his side feeds. “What the hell?”
Damir stalked toward the tank, no vehicle, no weapon in hand, no carryaid on his back. His cloak fluttered, concealing his body, but the trail of red he left behind him and his blood-soaked face made his condition clear. It was impressive that the man was up and moving after his crash, but Erik couldn’t see what he hoped to accomplish. He couldn’t punch a hovertank into submission.
“You perverted our rebellion!” Damir shouted, shifting to a jog. “You made a mockery of our freedom. You made a mockery of my father, you monster.”
“Words won’t win you freedom, insect,” the Elite taunted. “And they won’t defeat me. Watch now, Last Soldier and Warrior Princess. He’s giving himself as a sacrifice because I’ve finally broken his mind. That’s your future there. Depressing, isn’t it?” It turned both its main body and its cannon toward Damir but kept plinking away at Erik and Jia with its autocannon. “I haven’t killed anyone on this planet by crushing them. That might be interesting.”
Damir continued approaching the tank. Something glinted under his cloak.
“Soon, little insect, every last one of these pathetic colonists will be dead,” the Elite offered with a snarl, edging forward. “But feel free to go first. It’s less painful not to have to watch others die.”
Erik ceased fire, his heart rate speeding up with the realization of what Damir intended to do. Without line of sight, since Jia was on the other side of the tank, he couldn’t use the laser comm to speak or risk saying anything too loudly, but he hoped she took the hint. Seconds after he stopped firing, she did too. Both exos kept moving, despite the Elite also ending its attacks on them. The crazed rebel had become everyone’s focus.
“You understand now, don’t you, both of you?” the Elite roared. “You understand it’s pointless. All your struggles, your pointless bravery, your clever tactics don’t mean anything. You know the name of my masters. You know the Core. You know you will join them or die.”
Damir leapt into a sprint and charged. He was no longer heading straight toward the tank. His angle of approach would take him near the more damaged side.
“For the FSA, for my father, for freedom!” screamed Damir. He jumped toward the front of the tank, his body hurtling toward the front corner where the top layers of armor had been stripped off. He slapped his PNIU and yanked his cloak open. Grenades covered the front of his body, along with a black canister. Erik couldn’t be sure from this distance, but it was probably the explosive L-48.
“You maggot,” snarled the Elite. “How dar—”
The thunderous boom was so loud that the sound filters in Erik’s helmet muted all sound around him to save his hearing. His light filters did their best to keep him from being blinded, but that didn’t mean he could see anything through the expansive explosion. Both exos were too close to the explosion, and the shockwave hit them like the punches of an invisible giant, sending them scraping along the ground, bodies straining against the harnesses inside.
Erik groaned and shook his head. He quickly got the exo back on its feet. Being prone in front of a tank was asking to die. The shadowy outline of Jia’s exo stood in the thick cloud of dust floating around them, and that was not the only thing still moving in the darkness.
Jia was the first to fire. She charged forward, her machine gun on auto. Erik joined her, returning to his defensive movement pattern despite the minor actuator damage reported by the exo’s system. The Elite let out a primal, guttural scream and fired its main cannon at random. Rounds disintegrated portions of the wall or blew holes in the garage. One landed uncomfortably close to the trucks.
“Die, die, die!”
The dust began to clear, revealing the damaged enemy. He floated at an angle, the front dipping and scraping along the ground, a good chunk gone, the circuitry and mechanics underneath exposed. Fluids dripped to the ground like lifeblood. Erik and Jia concentrated their fire on the gaping wound, their bullets digging deeper and deeper. The grav shield was no longer active. It was like the bastard was begging to be killed.
Erik launched a plasma grenade. Jia fired another right after him, but their staggered rounds exploded in front of them. The Elite might be wounded, but not all of his defenses were disabled. The exos continued their stream of bullets, and the tank turned slowly toward them. The main cannon fell silent, but the Elite continued roaring and snarling, a wounded metal beast.
The autocannon jerked shakily toward Erik’s exo. He stopped his evasive maneuvering and charged straight toward the tank, ignoring the deadly rounds ripping into his shield and concentrating on carving deeper and deeper into the vehicle. Any monster, no matter how powerful, would die if you ripped out its heart, and it was already bleeding. Jia skidded to a halt to line up her shots with Erik’s.
“You didn’t waste your chance, Damir,” Erik murmured.
An explosion rocked the hovertank. Its engines cut out, and the rest of it fell to the ground with a massive crash, kicking up a cloud of dust and spewing small chunks from existing holes. Seconds later, a larger explosion ripped the tank apart, sending huge pieces flying everywhere. Half the autocannon barrel slammed into Erik and knocked him over.
Pieces of the tank rained down from above. Erik groaned and released his primary harness before climbing out of the exoskeleton. There were holes all over the upper body, arms, and legs, and the shield was gone in spots. The Elite had delivered more punishment than he’d noticed during the fight. Lanara would have a lot of loud things to say about it.
Jia righted herself, her exo still operational, before opening it and stepping out. “You okay?”
Erik rubbed his shoulder. “I’m fine.” He jogged toward the wounded soldier and checked his pulse. The man was still alive. Erik applied two med patches to stabilize him and shook his head. “Say whatever else you want, Damir was committed to his cause.”
Chapter Fifty-One
Jia and Erik carried the wounded soldier over to Cabrina and the others. Everyone sported at least one med patch and still seemed to be breathing, though some of the burns Erik spotted would require more extensive treatment. After the loss of Damir, he couldn’t claim a victory with no deaths, and even after getting treatment at the hospital, Erik doubted the rest would be back on the front lines soon.
“When you blew up the tank, the jammer died,” Cabrina explained, gesturing at the burning wreckage. “I’ve managed to get hold of HQ. They’re sending an evac flitter and a platoon to secure the bombs, but with everything that’s going on, they estimate it’ll take an hour. They have to establish a safe flight corridor. It’d be nasty to survive all this shit, only to be taken out by a SAM on the way to the hospital.”
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“An hour?” Erik frowned. “Even if we cut that time down on the assumption they would have come this way with Dragons, they would not have been able to help us in time if we’d called them before.”
Cabrina nodded. “That’s what I figure. I’m sure I’ll get my ass chewed anyway, but we made the right call.”
“How are your soldiers?” Erik asked, concern in his voice.
Cabrina managed a weak smile. “You know how it goes. Whatever doesn’t kill you sticks you in the hospital, waiting for them to grow you a new limb. I think my squad’s going to be getting some well-earned R&R, but everyone looks like they’ll pull through. It could have been a lot worse, especially against that tank. I can’t forgive that rebel for being part of all this whole ridiculous waste of life, but he was a brave bastard in the end, and we couldn’t have done it without him. If they had gotten away with those nukes, it wouldn’t have mattered how well we fought.”
“We all make mistakes,” Erik replied. “It’s just a matter of who’s around to take advantage of them.”
She jerked her thumb over her shoulder toward a door in the back. “I’d love to chat more, but there’s something you should check out. I had someone sweep the halls to see if we were alone. I figure you have some ID gizmo that might have a better chance of figuring it out.”
“What is it?” Jia asked.
“Not sure. My guy just took a quick look.” Cabrina leaned against the wall, her soot-covered face a mask of weariness. “And I’d rather stay with my squad right now rather than worry about intel shit. Sorry.”
Jia looked at Erik, who nodded. They headed toward the door and followed a narrow hallway until it ended in a tightly packed control center with only two chairs and a small table built into the wall. Data windows and sensor displays filled the wall and the area in front of it. Two extra-long data rods protruded from IO ports.
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