The Price of Liberty (Empire Rising Book 4)

by D. J. Holmes

“We’ll see,” Hawker said. “I’ve received reports of uprisings in four of Haven’s five other large cities. By our estimates, there are no more than a thousand Indian soldiers garrisoning each city. Even so, a thousand men in combat armor is a significant force. From what I hear many of the uprisings are turning into bloodbaths. I’ve dispatched half a battalion to each city to aid the resistance, however, four hundred marines won’t be enough to liberate each city. I fear some of the resistance may blame us for not coming to their aid quick enough.”

  “You’ve done all you can,” Cunningham said. “I’ll assure Councilwoman Pennington of that later. She has to know Liberty is the priority. If we can force the Indians to surrender here, then the rest of their troops should give up.”

  “Let’s hope she sees reason,” Hawker said as he turned to look at the holo display. “Now, let me fill you in on what we’ll be doing later. I plan to make a strike straight for the Council Chambers. However, we’ll have to throw in a few distractions first.”

  As Cunningham listened to Hawker outline his plan in detail, he couldn’t help thinking of the visuals of the fighting at the supply depot he had watched two days before. Once the Marines had breached the outer defenses the fighting over the supply depot had turned to deadly close combat, even resulting in marines and Indian soldiers taking each other on hand-to-hand. As Hawker outlined his plan of attack, Cunningham could see the coming battle was going to be even more deadly; Hawker’s marines would have to fight building to building to drive the Indians back.

  *

  “You know you don’t have to be here,” Lieutenant Stromboli said to Sergeant Briar who was crouched beside him. They were on the fourth floor of a tall apartment building, looking out one of its windows towards their objective. More than three and a half kilometers of dense housing and commercial buildings lay between the apartment complex and Liberty’s main power plant. The six fusion reactors housed within the structure provided enough energy to feed more than two thirds of the city.

  “I’ve come this far,” Briar replied. “I can wait a couple more days for a good shower.”

  “In that case,” Stromboli said. “What is our best plan of attack?”

  “Do you see that tall building to the right of our objective?” Briar said. Without waiting for Stromboli to answer he continued, “that’s a sniper’s dream location. It overlooks the large open area between the end of this street and the power plant. Its lower floors are a death trap. I suggest we swing out west of it and avoid it altogether.”

  A sudden explosion not five feet from the window they were looking out caused both men to dive onto their bellies. “Goodness sake,” Briar said after he let out a couple of expletives. “When will the Indians learn enough is enough?”

  Stromboli could only nod as he pulled his friend back on his feet. Since the supply depot had been captured two days ago an intense aerial battle had broken out over the city. Not one involving air superiority fighters or landing shuttles, but one between the hundreds, even thousands of drones both the Indians and the British were putting into the air. Both sides were seeking to obtain visual coverage of the battlefield and were trying to keep a constant fleet of aerial drones over the city. Stromboli knew that almost all the drones were less than the size of his fingernail and he never bothered to look out for them. However, as both sides were also deploying hunter killer drones designed to find and destroy enemy reconnaissance drones, there was an incessant series of explosions all over the city as drone destroyed drone. From the intensity of the battle Briar would have thought the Indians should have been trying to conserve what drones they had left. However, they seemed intent on forcing the British to use up almost all the drones they brought with them.

  “Let’s get back to Colonel Sanders,” Stromboli said. “He’ll be eager to get going.”

  Both men reported back to the building Colonel Sanders had set up as the temporary HQ for his battalion and Sanders came straight over to them. “Did you get a good look at the lay of the land?” he asked.

  “Yes Sir,” Briar replied. “I think I’ve picked out a good route for us. I’ve travelled this way a couple of times. There are a few large squares directly between us and the objective. I suggest we loop around to the west to avoid them and a large building I’m sure the Indians have fortified.”

  “Our orders are to flank the target,” Sanders replied. “I guess we may as well take the long route. I’ll report back to Lieutenant General Hawker and let him know we are ready to go. You may re-join your platoon, you’ll be taking point.”

  Stromboli saluted as Sanders turned to consult with one of his COM officers.

  “Let’s go,” Stromboli said to Briar.

  When they got to Stromboli’s squad there was a message from Colonel Sanders instructing them to push forward immediately. “Alright lads, let’s get ready to move,” Stromboli said over the platoon’s COM channel. “The other battalions will be pushing directly towards the power plant or fighting round to the east. Our job is to flank to the West and engage any Indian forces we come across. You know this is only a diversionary attack but we need to make it look real so no holding back. Sergeant Briar will take point with Privates Quaker and Jackson. He will be our guide.”

  Briar saluted and jogged towards the front of the platoon. “Move out,” Stromboli ordered as soon as Briar was in position.

  As the platoon advanced Stromboli couldn’t help but notice how many marines were missing. Before the invasion his platoon had consisted of five squads of eight marines totaling forty men and women. Now he had been reduced to three squads. Not all of the others had been killed, more than half of them were back aboard one of the marine assault ships in sickbay. Even so, their losses in the attack on the supply depot had been significant. I wonder how many are going to be lost today, Stromboli asked himself.

  *

  Briar was amazed they hadn’t encountered any Indians yet. The attack on the city’s main fusion reactors was being launched from a small pocket of the city the marines had already cleared. Briar had expected the Indians to have set up a defensive line around the pocket to resist any further advance.

  “It seems a little too quiet,” Private Quaker said as she poked her head around the side of the building to look up a dark alleyway. Seeing there was no sign of life, she moved across the alleyway to the next building, making sure to stay tight to any cover available.

  “They’re out there,” Briar said. “Stay sharp.”

  Briar instinctively ducked as a plasma bolt exploded less than five centimeters away from where his head had been. He retreated back around the corner of the building they had been walking past. “Thank God for combat armor,” he said. The marine assault ships hadn’t carried any extra special forces combat armor, but even the regular marine combat armor was a welcome change from having to fight in his bare skin. “Did anyone see where that shot came from?” he demanded.

  “Two buildings on up the street, I think it was from the fourth floor. I didn’t see what window though,” Quaker said.

  Briar was leading the platoon along a reasonably wide street that led in the general direction of the power plant. Traversing such an open street was risky, but no riskier than getting ambushed in a tight alleyway.

  “We need some covering fire,” Briar said on the platoon COM channel. “Second building on the right ahead of our position, the one with the red sign on the ground floor.” He added after poking his head out to get a better look at the target.

  “Come on,” Briar said to the two marines beside him. “That sniper will have relocated, but he’ll still be in that building. We are going to pay him a visit.”

  “We are in position,” Stromboli said. “Second and third squads will give you covering fire on your mark.”

  “Fire,” Briar ordered.

  As tens of plasma bolts shot from behind their position and peppered the building the sniper was in, Briar, Quaker and Jackson jumped to their feet. In a sprint, Briar crossed the side st
reet to get to the next building between him and the sniper’s building. When no Indian fire came his way, he sprinted to his target. Rather than searching for a door, he jumped and, with an outstretched arm, burst his way through a ground floor window.

  With Quaker and Jackson right behind him, they quickly searched the ground floor. “Clear,” Briar said as he searched the last room.

  “Moving up to the next level,” Jackson said.

  “I’ll take level two,” Quaker replied.

  “I’ve got three then,” Briar said.

  “Your sniper is still in there,” Stromboli said over the COM channel. “Private Daniels just took a plasma bolt to the leg. We didn’t see what floor the shot came from though.”

  “Roger,” Briar said as he made his way up what appeared to be the building’s only flight of stairs.

  As he got to the third level he carefully looked left and right down the corridor. Closing his eyes for a second he pictured the structure of the building and tried to figure out where the sniper was likely to be. Southside, he thought. Methodically, he made his way from room to room. He froze as the familiar sound of a plasma rifle firing echoed from the next room. Taking a step back from the door he had been about to burst through, Briar pulled out his nano carbon combat knife.

  The door slowly opened. As the nose of a plasma rifle poked out, Briar reached out and grabbed it. Yanking the rifle out of the room, Briar wasn’t surprised to see the sniper in combat armor come with it. A soldier’s instinct was always to hold onto his weapon. As the sniper looked around in surprise, he missed the real danger. With his other hand Briar drove his combat knife through the sniper’s chest, piercing his armor and his heart. As soon as Briar felt the sniper’s grip on his rifle weaken he knew his opponent was done for. As the sniper fell to the ground Briar dropped his rifle beside him. “I’ve found the sniper,” he said over the platoon COM channel. “He won’t be bothering us anymore.”

  Several minutes later Briar was back at the head of the platoon, leading them towards their objective. For the next ten minutes, they carefully picked their way across Liberty’s outer suburbs. Twice they came across a single squad of Indian soldiers holed up in a building or manning a barricade. Both times Stromboli sent a squad forward to engage them while directing his other two squads to flank the Indians. One of the Indian squads fought to the death while the other fled as soon as they spotted the flanking forces.

  “We should be less than half a kilometer away,” Briar said as he passed one of the buildings he was using as a reference point. “If we turn north-west we should come up on the left flank of whatever Indians are defending the reactors.”

  “You’re our guide,” Stromboli said over the COM channel. “Just make sure you keep your eyes open. The Indians are bound to know we’re on our way and I’m sure they have an outer perimeter around the power station.”

  “Look,” Quaker said after they covered another hundred meters towards their target. “There’s a barricade right across the street around this next corner.”

  Briar came up beside the private and poked his head around the corner. Just as she had said, there was a makeshift barrier of aircars and other large vehicles placed across the street. There was no sign of any Indian soldiers manning the barricade but Briar guessed they weren’t too far away.

  “Wait here,” Briar ordered. Then, taking a few steps back from the edge of the building he had peeked around, he launched himself into a sprint. In less than four seconds he crossed the street in full sight of the barricade.

  Just after he got to cover behind a building, four plasma bolts tore down the street in a vain effort to hit the augmented marine. “I guess there’s someone awake down there after all,” Briar said.

  Without waiting for a response from the marines, he continued along the building until he got to its end and the beginning of the next street. Carefully, he peeked his head around the buildings’ edge to look down the street towards the power station. There was a similar barricade across the street and the soldiers manning it were obviously alerted to Briar’s presence for a stream of plasma bolts shot towards him.

  “I think this is as far as we get,” Briar said over the COM channel as he turned and sprinted back towards Stromboli’s platoon. By the time he got to the street holding the first barricade he was at full speed and easily crossed the open ground before any of the Indian soldiers could hit him.

  “That is some speed,” Quaker said as Briar came to a halt beside her.

  “It does have its advantages,” Briar said with a grin. He knew the private couldn’t see his face but she was likely to hear the grin in his tone of voice.

  “What are we facing?” Stromboli asked as he came up to speak to Briar.

  “There’s barriers across this street and the next,” Briar said. “I imagine it’s the perimeter you were expecting. They’ve probably set up barricades all the way around the power station. I imagine each of the buildings in between are also fortified.”

  A large explosion erupted no more than a kilometer away. As soon as the deafening sound of the explosion faded, the quieter signs of other explosions and heavy plasma cannon fire reached the marines’ ears.

  “It sounds like the rest of the battalion has reached the Indian line,” Stromboli said over the COM to the rest of his platoon. “This may be a diversion, but we need to make it look real. If we can break through the defensive line here, it will threaten the rest of the line. First squad, you’re going to break into this building and get up to the third and fourth floors. Find good spots from which to lay down covering fire. I’m going to take second and third squad through the ground floor of each building. We’ll break into the building that is a part of the defensive line and take out any Indian soldiers within it. From there we can flank the barricades and drive the Indians off.”

  As the first squad used its power armor to break through the outer wall of the building they had gathered around, the second and third squad waited for Stromboli’s signal. “Where do you want me?” Briar asked.

  “You can stick with me,” Stromboli said. “I’m sure your fast reflexes will come in handy.

  “Let’s move out,” he said to the rest of his marines.

  Second squad quickly took point, following Stromboli’s orders. After clearing the ground floor of the building first squad had entered, they used their combat armor to break several holes in the permacrete wall of the building. After two marines poked their heads out to see if there were any Indian soldiers in sight, they sprinted across the small alleyway to the next building that ran parallel to the street the barricade was on. Again, they burst through the building’s walls and cleared its ground floor. As they got to the far end of the building they paused and waited for third squad to catch up with them.

  “Time for some covering fire,” Stromboli ordered over the COM channel.

  At the sounds of plasma rifles firing and explosions erupting, both among the Indian defenders and his own men, Stromboli gave the order to attack.

  The Marines from the second and third squads punched their way through the permacrete wall of the building they were in. Without waiting to see if there were any Indian defenders nearby, they charged across the alleyway and burst through the walls of the next building. Two marines fell as plasma bolts from the barricade, now less than ten meters away, cut them down. The rest of the marines made it into the safety of the next building before any more Indian soldiers could fire on them.

  The three Indian soldiers on the ground floor of the building the marines burst into, being unprepared for two squads of British marines appearing on top of them, were quickly dispatched. “Second squad head up and clear this building. Third squad with me,” Stromboli ordered.

  Stromboli charged towards the front doors of the building they were in. As they got to the doors, six Indian soldiers were already coming into the building in an effort to find out where the British marines had gone. A firefight erupted. One marine was killed while three Indian sol
diers fell to the ground. The other three fell back under heavy fire.

  “Let’s flank them,” Stromboli shouted.

  The Indians manning the barricade were still focused on engaging the first squad. There were at least twelve Indian soldiers in sight using the barricade as cover as they fired into the building. The three who had fled from Stromboli’s attack were frantically trying to get their attention. Without waiting for an order, the marines of third squad charged down the steps into the street behind the barricade and opened fire on the Indian soldiers. Five of them were killed before they knew what was happening. Just as the rest began to turn and return fire, more plasma bolts rained down on them from second squad who were now above them, firing out of the building they had just cleared.

  The Indian fire withered as their numbers were reduced to five soldiers. As if each of them realized at the same instance their position was overrun, all five jumped over the barricade and ran towards the next street and the second barricade Briar had spotted. As fire poured down on them from first squad, one soldier fell dead before the other four ran out of sight.