Jack pushed his teams relentlessly. Soon it became time to say goodbyes, board the transport ships, and start their journey. Jack's whole family waved goodbye to him as he boarded. Jack hated that part of what he did, leaving them for so long at a time. He had high hopes for this new virus--it would be a major edge in the war.
Space travel had become routine for Jack. They practiced on the simulators almost every day. They planned for every possible contingency. The day of the invasion arrived, and everybody watched Forward Admiral Creech's Corvette fleet take on the Dreadnaughts. A cheer rose up on the Human ships when the last Dreadnaught lit up like a Christmas tree.
The Human transport ships landed a kilometer from city center. Hover tanks flew out of the ship's belly, and suits of armored infantry marched out on planks, while fighter planes launched from above and streaked towards the target zones. They formed up in vanguard formation, with Jack in the center taking point. Thirty hovers formed his right wing, and the armored infantry were on his left wing. Team Hawk would be in the grid next to Jack's. Six squads of five Kilken each lined up behind Jack on his left and right.
As the fighters flew over the city, their sensors scanned everything. The computer analyzed the data and started spitting it out onto Jack and Wilson's view screens. The Lithor had a perimeter in place, as well as concentrated troop sections within the city but no nuclear weapons. Just what Jack and Wilson planned for. They wished for an orbital bombardment or two, but the Corvettes literally didn't have the guns for it anymore.
Jack looked at his view screen, all his units showed green, and the first red blips showed within a few hundred meters. Jack said, "All units, advance."
Jack hit the zoom on his gun sights and fired off bursts from his fifty calibers at infantry that were scrambling to get to fortifications. Jack saw his first Lithor tank of the day and blasted it with one shot right on the tank's sweet spot. He slid his sights right again and aimed dead on another tank. He pushed the thumb button out of instinct and flames jetted out of the top of the big tank. Jack gunned down more infantry and advanced.
Some of the Lithor made it to the trenches and fired blast rifles at Jack's hover. He punched the accelerator down and flew over their trench, dropping a gel-pack. He watched the flames in his rearview mirror. Two more big tanks turned onto the street in front of Jack, and he blasted the right one and then the left. Jack looked in all directions and paused to monitor his battle computer. All units advanced as planned on Jack's screen. He punched a button to radio Wilson and broadcast, "All is green!"
Jack turned south towards city center and proceeded to destroy everything in his path, pausing from time to time to watch the rest of the battle.
* * *
Team Hawk walked off the transport plank before the rest. They lined up next to Jack's hover and waited. Hawk stood 10 meters in front of Sarah and Rob, behind them stood their two newest members, Charlie and Rasputin, and each had ten rockets attached to their back.
Sarah pushed her radio button. "Lieutenant, what's the holdup?"
"We're still unloading, Corporal," Jack said. "Ten minutes tops."
"Thanks, boss."
Sarah let go of the radio button. "Ten minutes," to her team.
Hawk spoke, "It's kill or die time. Isn't it?"
"You'll do ok, Hawk," Rob said. "We've seen you fight, and we've seen the Lithor fight. You're better than they are."
"If you say so…"
Sarah smiled this kind of grin you'd expect from a cat who finally figured out how to open the canary's cage. "Let's not worry so much about the dying part, and stay focused on the real issue which is the killing."
"Speaking of killing," Charlie said. "At max zoom, there are targets…"
Hawk turned and fired without even thinking, cutting down three Lithor with three short bursts from his Gatling blaster. Jack's voice echoed through everybody's radio, "Who's firing?"
Sarah radioed back, "Hawk Team fired, sir. Are we under a cease fire?"
"No, I guess not, not today… All units fire at will."
Sarah looked back around her, and it seemed to be that all their units had unloaded and formed up. Jack spoke on the radio, "All units, advance!"
Team Hawk took off in a run towards the city, using their zoom sights to kill Lithor as they rallied to their fortifications. Sarah called out, "Missiles." Both Charlie and Rasputin grabbed a missile off their back and held it ready. They couldn't use their blaster with a missile ready, but could launch grenades. Two big tanks rolled into view. Charlie and Rasputin launched their missiles at them, direct hits, and both Lithor tanks burned.
Team Hawk ran and fired their blasters at the Lithor fortifications. Moments after reaching minimum range for grenades Hawk launched one in a high arc aimed for the enemy trench line. The grenade detonated with a ball of fire and a thump. Burning white phosphorus chunks streaked in all directions from the impact. Hawk laughed. Sarah yelled, "Cut out that chatter!"
Two big tanks fired their main guns in unison at Hawk. The shells landed a good two to three meters to Hawk's right, and the blast knocked him to the ground. Sarah barked, "Missiles!"
Charlie and Rasputin just needed locks on the tanks. Barely in range, it took a moment. The missiles launched and smoke trails ran from the suits to the Lithor tanks detonating in flame.
Hawk made it back to his feet and ran a quick diagnostic while Sarah and Rob covered him, blasting everything that moved. Hawk nodded. Sarah glanced at her tactical screen and said, "Advance."
The two burning shells of tanks sat directly in Hawk's path. He figured there would be infantry behind the tanks. He ran straight for them. Red blips started to appear behind the smoking husks. Hawk targeted one of the farther away ones and launched a grenade over the tanks. He couldn't see the detonation, but red blips on his screen blinked out. Smoke clogged his view of the street beyond the tanks. Smoke didn't clog his sensors though, and more red icons came into view on the radar as he advanced.
Two of their anti-aircraft guns showed on Hawk's sensors, and he sent a grenade at each one. Rob and Sarah cut down Lithors left and right, running to keep up with Hawk. Charlie and Rasputin kept pace with them, watching for tanks and opportunities to lob grenades.
* * *
It started on Jack's screen as two red blips in the distance, anti-aircraft icons. It grew by four more dots, two more anti-aircraft and two tanks. They sat in Jack's way. Jack decided air support would be a good idea. He set waypoint Alpha on his tactical display over the nest of enemy units and radioed, "Red Squadron, engage at waypoint Alpha."
An, "Affirmative," followed on the radio. Jack waited and watched the battle progress on his tactical readout. He looked around himself to make sure he still waited in a safe place, nothing moved down either side of the alley. The airplanes did their job: red blips at waypoint Alpha blipped out one by one. Jack glanced at his tactical display again when he saw Hawk's suit blip out. Pilots almost never survived if their suit took enough damage to stop broadcasting an ID. Damn, he thought…
* * *
Team Hawk rounded a corner and all of a sudden a horde of Lithor children started running out of a building on their right. Hawk aimed his Gatling high and looked for legit targets. Some of the kids ran right at him, and he thought nothing of it. One ran right up to his suit, and he had to stop so as not to step on the kid. That's when the Lithor pulled a half globe shaped object from behind its back and stuck it on Hawk's leg and pressed a button. Hawk's suit froze, dead as nails.
Rasputin cut the kid down with his blaster. Sarah cursed and then started to think, she barked, "Form a perimeter!"
Rob, Charlie, and Rasputin faced off in different directions and cut down Lithor as they came into range.
Sarah walked over to Hawk's suit, put her mechanized hand on his shoulder, switched her radio off, and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Can you hear me?"
A moment later she heard a faint echo back, "Yes."
"Eject!" She shouted.
She started to wonder how much air he had when she saw Rob signal to her, pointing at his ears, she switched her radio back on and heard Jack growl, "Advance!"
"We can't!"
"He's dead, Sarah. Advance."
"He's not dead, Jack!"
Jack hissed. "Have him eject and fall back! You know the drill."
"He can't, Jack. They have some kind of EMP Bomb. A kid attached it to his leg and set it off! You need to warn the others."
Jack paused to think. One, the designers of those suits claimed they could withstand EMP blasts from atomics, and two, they claimed the suit would always have enough juice leftover to eject a pilot, even if massively damaged. Then he thought of Hawk. How much time did he have?
Jack conveyed the info on the EMP weapon to Wilson who posted everybody on the battlefield. Then Jack radioed Fleet Science and queried them about Hawk's air supply. Two-to-four hours they told him, depending on his physiology and if he starts to burn a lot of calories. The battle might last until sunset, and the sun still sat just barely over the horizon. Maybe they could get a repair team out to their position, maybe.
Jack touched the screen marking their grid section as waypoint Beta. "Computer, mark waypoint Beta as a strongpoint."
The computer chirped back, "Grid marked." Marking a place as a strongpoint would mean that damaged units could regroup there and recharge shields.
"Red Squadron, planes one and two, proceed to grid Beta and search and destroy."
"On our way!"
Jack scanned at the tactical screen, looking for the closest Kilken squad. He radioed, "Kilken Squad D proceed to waypoint Beta and search and destroy."
Josh and Rodriguez could get there the fastest. Jack radioed, "Josh, Rodriguez, waypoint Beta, get rid of their tanks!"
"Check."
Jack paused, watching as his forces left formation to converge on Beta. He heard Sarah radio, "Thanks, boss."
"He only has two-to-four hours of air in that suit. You're going to have to get on the horn to repair and get them to do a pickup."
"We're in the middle of a firefight. This grid is hot!"
"You've got reinforcements coming. I have a battle to fight."
On that note, Jack punched down the accelerator, flying out of the alley towards the front line.
* * *
By mid-afternoon they broke the majority of the Lithor resistance. No turrets or big tanks remained. Many of the Lithor soldiers abandoned their weapons and put on civilian clothes. Jack surveyed his tactical map one last time and radioed Wilson, "Heading back to the ships, bossman. Looks like things are clear."
"Affirmative, return to base camp."
Jack parked his tank and walked up the gangplank. He didn't want to store it in its space on the ship in case they ran into an unforeseen force. The closer he got to the bay doors: the louder the screams became. He could see Hawk's suit, in an odd position, with one leg bent and the suit face down on the deck, and a large industrial drill was cutting holes in his faceplate, and they had a tank of air that they fed to him through a tube through the hole. Two technicians had portable terminals out and seemed to be studying something. The screaming continued. Hawk team stood around hopelessly. Sarah looked ready to burst at the seams.
Jack broke the technician's trance by shouting, "Report!"
One of the technicians looked up and said, "Well, there are a couple of different things we can try…"
More screams filled the bays. Jack asked, "What things?"
"Well, we can try and restore power to the suit, if that works the eject should work. That's the fastest solution, but we don't know if it will work. The circuitry is likely fried…"
"Next."
"We can drill out the locks that hold the armor plates in the front then physically separate the armor pieces, opening the suit. It's going to take a long time, but he won't be hurt, and it will work…"
"And?" Jack shouted over Hawk's screams.
"Three, we start disassembling the suit from the back side, taking out every component piece by piece. Problem is, before we'll be able to get him out we'll have to cut through parts of the suit, namely behind his shoulders and butt. He'll suffer significant third degree burns. But it would get him out quicker than drilling the front would."
Hawk continued to scream. He must have either developed some kind of claustrophobia, or part of the suit pinched his body in the wrong way. At least he had air now. Jack thought for a moment.
"Disassemble the suit," Jack said. "Cut it open. Now."
The technicians grabbed tools and went right to work. Jack asked, above the screaming, "How long?"
"Nobody has ever done this before. At least 2-3 hours…"
Jack nodded. He knelt down to be close to Hawk's helmet and shouted, "Private! You need to calm down!"
Nothing but more screams.
Jack thought back to the kid's personnel file. "Private Jeremiah Hawk! Can you hear me?"
The screaming stopped, but Jack could hear whimpering and sucking breath in and out, like Hawk was hyperventilating. Jack said, "Give him more air."
The medic replied, "I'm giving him enough."
"That wasn't a request!"
The medic turned the dial on the tank a good solid turn, and Jack could hear the air flow along with Hawk's whimpering. "Private. Can you hear me?"
A very faint, "Yes," followed.
"You need to relax. They're going to have you out in no time, just a couple more hours…"
Hawk immediately went back to screaming.
"Private Hawk, I order you to quiet down," Jack shouted. "You'll face this like a Fleet soldier, or you won't be a Fleet soldier. Am I clear, Private?"
Jack didn't actually know if he could get Hawk dropped out of Fleet, but he could drop him from his command, so the threat wasn't completely without weight. Hawk started gulping for air.
Jack quickly said, "Try and think of something happy. Think of your family."
"They're dead, sir."
His Fleet record listed next of kin, so Jack asked, "Your Fleet record lists next of kin on it…"
There was a long pause, and Hawk's breathing slowed down considerably. "They died sir, when the Lithor came to Orion… A Major took me in and helped me prepare for Fleet…"
"I'm sorry to hear that, Private. What about a girl? You have a girl back on Orion?"
"No, no girl." Then Hawk groaned loudly.
"Are you in pain?"
"My left leg is completely cramped up, and the way the suit is sitting, it's crushing my nuts, sir…"
"Well, just sit tight…"
"Aye, sir…"
Jack sat and talked with Hawk for the next hour and a half. The technicians moved faster once Hawk stopped screaming. The technicians got out the torches, and Jack said, "They're going to cut through parts of the suit, Jeremiah. It's going to hurt. You can scream if you want."
"I'll do my best, sir."
The kid didn't scream. Jack smiled. They lifted the whole backside of the armor off in one piece, and there were burns. Jack growled. "Painkillers."
The medic scrambled to get a shot ready and dose Hawk. His body slumped downward when it took affect. Jack asked, "How do you feel now?"
Silence followed.
Jack looked at the medic. "How much did you give him?"
"It's not how much but what and how much. I gave him a standard dose of our strongest painkiller."
"Well done then, thank you."
Jack looked around himself. Team Hawk still waited, and the technicians still worked. The medic listened to Hawk's heart. Jack asked, "How much longer?"
"Fifteen minutes or so."
Jack said, "Send for a stretcher."
The medic radioed for a stretcher. Jack waited, and the technicians lifted the last pieces of armor from the suits shins and forearms. A technician said, "We should be able to get him out."
The medic grabbed an arm. Jack grabbed an arm, and the t
echnicians grabbed legs. They lifted Hawk out of the suit and carried him over to the stretcher. His head slumped down the whole trip. They set him down, and he started to snore. Jack smiled and looked at the technicians. "I want his hard drive recovered. I want the data sent to the main computer for analysis, so his record will reflect the kills he made today."
"Aye aye, Lieutenant."
"If you can't recover the hard drive, cycle his team's to the computer, and have it estimate his kills."
"Aye."
Chapter 38
A.D. 2135
The end for Steve…
Immediately after broadcasting the data on the new class of Dreadnaughts to Fleet, they received a message from Fleet for Steve Creech's eyes only. He went to his cabin and opened it. The battle for the planet below would be starting soon, and he planned to watch from the command deck. The message contained two things: one, they made Steve a full Admiral; two, field promotions were in order, and Steve should be liberal with them. Steve just smiled. He could care less about rank for himself, but being able to reward his crews with it made his job a lot easier.
Steve went back to the command deck and watched the ground battle unfold. Clearly the Lithor hadn't planned for an actual ground invasion. Within an hour Steve started to relax. The Humans, while outnumbered severely, possessed better technology, better training, and better tactics. The Lithor didn't even have an air force.
By noon Creech ordered a bottle of Scotch and a bucket of ice for the command deck and poured a drink for his command crew. They'd only taken about five percent casualties on the ground while they figured they'd suffer about ten percent by noon. Steve punched his comm button and said, "Engineering, report on weapon's status."
"We did a real number on them. I can restore about twenty percent firepower, but it's going to be two to three weeks. The rest I can't bring up unless we start working in the machine shop making replacement components."
"Do your best to cannibalize parts from broken systems. We need our guns."
R.A.E.C.E. Genesis Page 26