Nerva came out of the medical area, Tyler, Jerome, and Mark shot to their feet, ready to be moving.
Nerva’s eyes might have glanced from Tyler to Alexis for a few moments before he looked to them all.
“We’re going back; we’ve got preparations to make,” Nerva said.
***
General Orlav looked at the videos again, the troopers had taken losses with the counterattack but they hadn’t been totally unorganized and their weapons were made to inflict the most damage possible.
He’d had his weapon emplacements moved and opened up the roofs of the corridors so that the troopers couldn’t just run over them again.
He had been expecting the EMF to press an attack as soon as possible but now they were sitting in the second tier of defenses. He hadn’t been able to get much information on the activities of the troopers but from long-range scopes it looked like they were building defenses.
He had a year’s worth of food stuffs so he wasn’t worried about that. Though they had to know that he had that kind of supply packed away.
They could be settling in to stay out there for a year. Though everything I’ve read makes me think that they’re doing something else, they hate waiting around.
He looked to the tunnel map and his face turned dark, the EMF had moved into those tunnels and advanced far enough that he had to close them off. They’d hashed together what looked like shields and advanced, one holding the shield while another shot through a port cut in it.
It had started in district seven and spread.
Whoever is in District seven is being a royal pain in my ass.
“Something the matter General?” Sylvia asked.
“I’m just wondering why the bastards are digging in. They’re damned good offensive troops, we’ve seen that and the EMF isn’t known for sticking around longer than they absolutely have to. So I have to wonder what the hell they’re planning on doing,” Orlay said.
“Maybe they’re taking a rest, letting their troops get their breath before continuing on,” Sylvia said.
It made a certain amount of sense, the troopers had been moving from city to city and through them at a pace the Orlav knew his people couldn’t keep up with.
That said he doubted that whoever was in command would stop that kind of forward push for any reason.
They seemed to care little for their troops so giving them time to tend to their needs didn’t seem likely.
“Or maybe they’re trying to whittle us down with that damned mortar support,” Sylvia said through gritted teeth as alarms went off, mortar shells rose and started to descend onto the corridors and open areas between the factories.
“Looks like a bunch of duds again,” Sylvia said, over the past few days there had been dud shells dropping all over the place but people didn’t know whether they were live or not until they exploded overheard.
It was starting to wear on Orlav’s troops, so he was going to start rotating units to give them rest and put fresh units on the line. He had already done so in the worst districts.
Sylvia looked to his data pad, combing through the information on it, checking to see what damage the EMF’s rounds had done this time.
“We have incoming from Reclaimer,” Danielle Turner said, her voice tight.
“What readings do we have from it?” Orlav said, his voice dry as cold fear filled his stomach.
Is this it, is this your master plan? To drop a nuke on us?
“We haven’t got any solid readings, though it doesn’t look to be coming at the kind of velocity we’d expect from a Kinetic energy weapon!” She said, her voice becoming panicky.
“I want all batteries brought to bear on it,” Orlav said, trying to keep the fear out of his voice as the object came down lower and lower. “Send the order to all units to push through the EMF’s defenses.”
“Sent, units will take a few minutes to respond,” she answered.
Orlav knew that their charge was going to be a panicked one, there wasn’t going to be anything organized about it in the least, but if they could break through those defenses and it was a nuke, then maybe, just maybe he could save some of his people.
He watched as units started running for the defenses just a few minutes later, abandoning the safety of their own defensive works.
Batteries opened up and Orlav’s eyes glued to the object that was descending through his planet’s atmosphere, heading straight for the centre of Processing city.
I’d hoped that the city was too valuable for them to try and bomb it and us, was I wrong?
Missiles from combat shuttles that were resting behind the EMF’s defenses leapt towards the batteries.
“Shoot those missiles down!” Orlav said. Batteries started shifting fire as a round found the falling object, making it tumble and tilt.
EMF mortars opened up and Combat shuttle’s missiles plunged into open the courtyards.
There was a cheer as the missile disintegrated, it didn’t explode but simply fell apart.
Orlav sat back in his chair that he hadn’t realized he’d stood up from in the excitement.
“Tell the gunnery crews I owe them a beer. I bet the EMF were wishing they had gunners as good as ours. Their missiles aren’t even hitting our batteries. I want our gunners to pull back from their weapons before the EMF get any better…”
“Sir, they didn’t miss.” Something about Sylvia’s tone sent a shard of cold down his spine.
“What?” He demanded.
“Those missiles are filled with gas, our gas,” she whispered in horror.
Orlav tried to swallow but couldn’t. He had never wanted to make the gas, but it had made sense to deploy it across the wide open areas of the planet to impede the troopers. There had been reports of it working, but it looked like they had become immune to it’s effects.
Orlav’s people hadn’t however.
“What are we looking at?” The command centre was deadly quiet all eyes and ears turned to Sylvia.
“The mortars they dropped were filled with gas and all of our people that just ran to attack the EMF without masks got the worst of it. It’s spread across the entire surface and it looks like they’ve deployed it in the tunnels as well,” Sylvia said.
“I want everyone with respirators and to pull back to their defenses immediately,” Orlav said, the words seemed to spark action as people pulled out their respirator systems and put them on. Orlav did the same and word was passed to every unit. People who had been celebrating the destruction of what had to be a nuke were so involved with celebrating that they didn’t hear summons until people started choking on the invisible toxin.
“I want readings on that bomb. I have a feeling it’s not nuclear. I want antidotes for the gas moved out to every unit.” The antidote was only good if someone had the gas in their system, and had to be used within a few minutes after exposure.
Right now Orlav was wishing that he had never allowed the chemists to make such a vile weapon.
He didn’t have anything like the advanced system the troopers had to show friend foe and the status of his personnel, but as reports came in the display changed and the Army of Sacremon was reduced in quick and brutal fashion.
All the while mortar rounds fell, their charges weren’t duds anymore as they exploded, their payloads ripping through the fragile flesh of unarmored personnel.
***
Tyler settled back in his perch, Nerva had released them from his protection detail and ordered them into a new section under Sergeant Donahaue, everyone called him ‘Don’. He was a solid man but definitely lacking compared to Sergeant Pullo. He had been a Corporal when they landed on the planet. Losses had pushed him up the ladder as it had pushed Tyler, Mark and Jerome.
“How’s it looking?’ Mark asked from his cot to the side and behind their perch in the corner of the five story factory they now called home.
“Messy, the gas seems to have covered the interior of the city and the tunnels. If anyone was not wearing a
suit, then they’re probably dead. The higher ups weren’t pissing around with that stuff. It’s so dense it’s become liquid in certain condescend places. The missiles have stopped and it looks like they got most of the batteries. The mortars have cut down as well,” he said, turning to find Jerome passed out on his cot. The three of them had become inseparable over the last week or so since they’d dug into their new positions. Tyler was the best shot and no one really wanted to attract Mark’s ire for splitting them up. Not even Sergeant Don was going to try. They’d been partnered up and put in this corner to keep watch of the factories, see if anything was going on in the district.
Jerome was one of the repulsor gunners meant to be set up on the second floor, no one raised any eyebrows when he moved his kit into the corner with the Victor brothers.
They’d been in a shitty situation more than once and they’d made it out alive. They trusted the other troopers, but they just didn’t have experience with them yet.
“Chow time,” Groshva said over the section’s communications channel.
“You go, I’ll keep watch,” Tyler said, turning back to the hole in the wall his rifle was pointed through, tracking any movement that might appear.
Mark made a noise of agreement, pulling himself out of his cot. He grabbed his rifle and headed towards the ramp that led to the first floor.
The factory had become a fortress with Captain Nerva using every suggestion his people could do to reinforce the corridors, walls, and roof. When the Colonists came they were going to pay heavily for the attempt.
He moved his rifle, looking for colonists wandering around. An E-12 fired some distance away. Tyler didn’t even flinch. Hearing random shots were normal to him now. Mortar didn’t wake him unless it was closer than a kilometer away.
When I can get to sleep and the nightmares don’t leave me in a sweaty mess grabbing my rifle as soon as I wake up.
Everyone dealt with their stress differently. Mark and Tyler acknowledged the stress wearing on one another. Mark still watched over Tyler and now Jerome, that responsibility had to be wearing on him.
He awoke from sleep slowly, as if restraining himself from jumping to his feet and grabbing his rifle.
Tyler had seen his eyes many times when he awoke. While Tyler’s dreams forced him to wake up, Mark’s made him watch whatever horrorr his brain could come up with.
The haunted look in his eyes sent a shiver down Tyler’s back, but he didn’t know what he could do about it.
Both of them knew that they were trying to deal with the deaths of others, they didn’t feel bad for them, it wasn’t their fault they were here. The Colonists had killed them, but they wished there could have been something else that they could have done.
It was a mean cycle, their minds were constantly telling them it was okay, but their bodies and emotions ripped them up inside.
Tyler saw a group of colonists running towards his factory.
“I’ve got twenty or so Colonists trying to sneak up on us. You see them?” He asked Davis, the trooper underneath him with a repulsor.
“Yeah,” Davis responded
“Give them a few minutes before lighting them up, then they don’t know where we’re seeing them from,” Tyler said.
“Okay,” Davis said, she was a woman of few words.
She waited a handful more seconds before letting off a long burst that walked across the colonists, tracers ripped through them, she didn’t need to make a second pass.
None of them had survived.
“I don’t see anymore movement, good shooting,” Tyler said.
“Anytime,” Davis answered in tired responsive kind of way. Tyler continued looking for any others that might try their luck with the factories.
Another group larger this time were pushing up.
Tyler called out their range and location to Davis, tagging them before he looked around, movement catching his eye.
“Sir I’ve just had three groups try to approach us in the last ten minutes,” Tyler said on a direct channel to Captain Nerva. After spending so much time with the man Tyler felt a lot less apprehension with jumping into a private channel with him.
Davis opened up and then Kara on the other side of the building with their repulsor.
“Everyone on watch, man your positions, everyone else I want you on standby,” Nerva said, cool as a cucumber, it was a green looking thing that Tyler had seen for the first time a few months ago in Growing City.
Tyler could now make out fire from other districts where EMF troopers were encountering Colonists seeping out from their factories.
Mark returned, putting three hot meals on his cot before giving Jerome’s cot a tap with his boot. Jerome looked around bleary eyed.
“What’s up?”
“Colonists moving around in large groups. Nerva’s called stand-to,” Mark said, Tyler listened with half a mind as he hummed to himself, looking for potential targets. He didn’t even designate who should shoot them as he just marked their positions, repulsors raked their positions as mortars arced overhead and came smashing down on the open areas around the colonist held factories.
The Colonists were firing back, their fire wildly inaccurate at the ranges they were at.
Only takes one lucky hit. Tyler thought as his rifle bucked, taking out one of the shooters as a repulsor swept the area.
“Shit.” Jerome got up, grabbing his rifle and heading towards his gun. Mark moved up beside Tyler, putting his rifle on the lower rest that they’d made out of various items.
No one slept or did anything outside of their armor if they could help it so it wasn’t long before the walls were manned and repulsors were picking up their assualt.
“Shall we go leader hunting?” Tyler asked, putting a round through someone that had escaped a repulsor’s ire by falling behind some part of a factory wall.
“Yeah, and look for flankers. I don’t like how those rubble walls between the factories give them cover,” Mark said, firing, his gun moving after a few moments. Tyler’s barked again and talking ceased as they looked for colonist leaders, or anyone that looked to be directing them. Their sniper fire was blocked out by the repulsor fire that hammered out on the floor below.
Tyler saw one of the colonists thrashing on the ground, people dragged them into cover and Tyler held his fire, waiting to see what would happen. It looked like the poor bastard had an opening in his clothing and a good amount of the gas had gotten in.
Someone with a large guard rushed over to stab them with a needle.
“Jerome, hit the area I’m marking,” Tyler said.
“Got it.” Jerome faithfully lit up the area. Tyler, not leaving things to chance put a number of rounds in what must have been a medic.
It was cold logic, the man must have something that fought off the effects of the gas, maybe even some kind of immunization. Killing them was more important than taking out a commander. It built panic amongst the colonists and would make them more prone to stupid decisions like running at the EMF’s defenses.
Let’s just hope that they don’t all come at us in one go.
“Enemy mortars!” Someone yelled and Tyler tilted his head, hearing the odd warbling cry of enemy mortars which landed, rocking the factory he hid in.
“Support, I want those mortar teams,” Nerva said.
Reclaimer was in orbit overhead the city, their telescopic cameras relaying information to the troopers on the ground. It made it a lot easier for a mortar sergeant to give out corrections when they could see what was happening to the enemy in real-time.
EMF mortars traversed onto the enemy’s position, not before one of the heavier and powerful explosive rounds hit the factory wall, blowing out another section of it, killing two troopers and injuring another.
The enemy mortars went silent and the EMF mortars turned back to raining deadly shrapnel rain down on the defenseless bodies of colonists trying to get into the fight.
Tyler didn’t see it but rather sensed it before it h
appened. The colonists broke, the fire power coming down on them, their inability to move forward with the numbers they had. It all came to a head when they realized that they weren’t even getting any support from their own mortars and that their own shotguns were only scoring glancing hits on the heavily fortified and armed factory.
People turned for the rear and ran. Without shooting at the troopers they made easy targets. More and more broke, rushing to the rear as the troopers fired at their retreating backs.
It was messy and the colonists paid heavily just to run away.
Cheers rose up from the Troopers, noises that reminded Tyler of people that had escaped the reapers clutches so many times that they had become familiar with him.
We did it again, but how long until they start putting real weight behind those attacks?
He tried to not think about that as the order came down for people to stand down from their positions.
“You eat, I’ll keep watch,” Mark said, looking over the battlefield.
“Thanks.” Tyler got up, stretching the kinks out of his body as he moved to the trays of food that rested on Mark’s cot.
Mark had changed since they had left the slums. He had always seen his brother as a strong and deadly man when he needed to be it. He had an anger to him when someone evoked it and he was dangerous. Now Tyler didn’t think of his brother as just dangerous.
There was a hardness to Mark’s eyes now, the kind of hardness that aged a person and showed that when the time came they could put their feelings aside and devote themselves completely to destruction.
Mark had been a dangerous man when he needed to be before, now he was a man holding that side at bay. He had seen Mark when he fought in hand-to-hand combat with the colonists coming from both sides.
Mark had moved through the colonists with an almost systematic violence. Bursts of fury drove him to inflict enough damage on his enemy to put them down before moving on the next. He always hit them with everything he had instead of holding anything back.
Sacremon (Harmony War Series Book 1) Page 30