"And the mission?"
She wiped the tears away with the back of her hand. "Now it's even more critical that we get those ships."
They arrived at the stargate just as it popped open. The cargo containers moved through first, and then the personnel. Umi stopped on the edge and glanced back at the display. It hit him that he might never see Earth again, and he wanted just one last look.
Then he stepped through.
#
Chapter Seventeen
Planet Squire, Kalivostok System
Vasilov-Kvinsk Xeno-Archaeology Research Camp
That night, in the shadow of a low and craggy rock, they halted at the research station. The unit spread out and took up defensive positions around the facility. The armor, despite the rocky terrain, was able to find good purchase and good defensive positions.
The bulk of the pillars rose into the sky. The closest one was a dozen kilometers away, the farthest about double that. The stargate itself was obscured in the distance.
The distance was just far enough that they couldn't make out any Kadan or Emflife units. A few teams crept closer, but with the evening winds, nothing was seen.
The tanks rotated through the main facility and took time to recharge their cores. At the same time, they topped off on ammunition and supplies. It was the first time they'd had a chance to rest since they arrived.
Colonel Clarke followed behind a squad from Alpha Company and entered the steel-sided building. The air inside was silty, the filtration system dead. Emergency lights were strung out around the main hall. A dozen soldiers stood at attention with a half-dozen civilians behind them. "At ease."
The soldiers relaxed. One stepped ahead and saluted. "Lieutenant Suvov, Kali 27th Supply."
Colonel Clarke returned the salute. He saw two rows of soldiers lying on the floor. Some propped themselves up to see better, while others were covered in bandages. "Get in the med teams."
"Yes sir," Captain Diego, Alpha CO, said.
One of the civilians stepped closer. He was pudgy, with a T-shirt tied around his face. "When can we get out of here?"
A woman ran up to the civilian and pulled his elbow. "We can't leave! Not now!"
"Lieutenant?"
Lieutenant Suvov wiped his face. "We were on a supply run here, sir. Then the bomb hit at the gate. We made our way back, recovered who we could, then got out when the tanks came through."
Colonel Clarke could see the fear in his eyes. The lieutenant looked strung thin. "Did the armor follow?"
"No, sir. The first ones through went straight down the highway. Then another group went through later with giant, uh, robots?"
Colonel Clarke nodded. "Yes, yes. And more?"
The lieutenant shook his head.
Colonel Clarke looked around him and thought for a moment. Why didn't they push the gate? The Emflife had every advantage here.
A stomping outside shook dust loose from the ceiling.
"There's Charlie," a civilian said. The man was hunched over with a blanket wrapped tight. "Always on time."
"One of the old walkers, sir," Lieutenant Suvov said.
"Now when can we get out of here?" the man said.
Lieutenant Suvov pointed to the man. "That's Grigor Swenson, he's the lab administrator."
"And he's an idiot!" the woman said. "I'm Doctor Sokoloff. This is my facility and I tell you, we cannot leave now!"
Medics ran into the room and started seeing to the wounded soldiers.
"Wounded go first," Colonel Clarke said. "Then the civilians."
Doctor Sokoloff nearly stomped in anger. "We cannot! After all this time, and now, just now, something is happening!"
"I don't care!" Grigor said angrily. He stepped closer to Colonel Clarke. "I told them we had to go, but they won't leave!"
"Enough from both of you. Lieutenant, what is this place?"
"It's an archaeological facility, sir. They study the pillars and the walkers."
"Which is why we can't leave!" Doctor Sokoloff said. "Everything is, well, it's doing things!" She spread her arms out and leaned close to Colonel Clarke. "Something is happening."
Colonel Clarke glanced at Lieutenant Suvov and then looked back at the spindly scientist. "Like what?"
***
They led him through dusty corridors to a cluttered research lab. Dark machines, all dead from the lack of power, lined the walls. Only a single console hummed in the center. Cables snaked out of it and disappeared through the wall.
Doctor Sokoloff sat down and keyed up the display. "A few days ago, this was what our sensors showed."
A set of sensor banks all showed flatlines. A few blipped up an almost imperceptible amount.
"Then when the Kadan came, this happened."
The sensors all shot up to their upper limits.
"What's it mean, Doctor?" Colonel Clarke said. He'd specialized in engineering long ago when in the academy, but this level of science was beyond him.
Grigor said, "She doesn't know. They're archaeologists, not physicists."
"Which is why we need to observe and collect as much data as we can!" Doctor Sokoloff said.
"Ma'am, I respect your research, but this is a war zone. I don't have the resources to protect this facility."
Doctor Sokoloff set her chin. "I don't need protecting."
"Sonya! Listen to the man!" Grigor yelled.
"I'll get you out as soon as I can," Colonel Clarke said. He turned and walked out of the room. He glanced at his tablet and saw a dozen messages, all requesting his input.
For a second he stopped and took a deep breath. He was tired through and through. Everything about the operation felt wrong. He had no backup other than two infantry regiments. If he could plan it right, they'd recon the gate and get the hell out. He could settle with a rolling firefight back to the gate, but he knew they'd never take the outgate back.
Grigor and Doctor Sokoloff continued yelling at each other in the research room.
Colonel Clarke's commset buzzed. "Go ahead," he said.
It was Commander Arap. "Cole, we've got a problem."
***
Colonel Clarke watched as the comms technician delicately adjusted the master comms set. It seemed a difficult process, but the technician would not be discouraged. He squatted down, poked at an antenna connection, and hummed to himself.
"What was the last transmission?" Colonel Clarke asked.
"The Sixth reported hostile contact, then that was it. Comms went dead."
"Still no enemy contact here?"
"Nothing."
"Can you get Fox Company?"
Colonel Clarke had left Fox as the rear guard. They were deployed five kilometers back.
The comms tech sat back down. He whistled to himself and tapped his hands on the side of the console. "It's going to be rough, sir."
The speakers blared a solid tone. The comms tech slapped at the volume control and hissed. His hands danced on the console and the tone disappeared. Then the voices came through.
"...heading to you! ...armor on...flank collapsed...without...be on your position in...artillery at grid seventeen to twenty-four..."
Commander Arap swore.
"Get Bravo, Charlie, and Delta out now!" Colonel Clarke snapped up his map and waved over Arap. "Keep Alpha watching the pillars."
Now his greatest fear was coming true. They were cut off from the Kalivostok stargate. Even worse, on one side was the hostile stargate, the other a hostile armor force, and behind them nothing but the dusty waste. They were as good as surrounded.
"Are we pulling back?" Arap said.
"No, I'm afraid it's too late for that."
#
Chapter Eighteen
Planet Squire, Kalivostok System
Grid 765.4, -221.3
For Tomi, at the controls of Bulldog, his world was very different. His eyes were open wide and absorbed every single detail around him. One eye saw an overlay of all the diagnostics while the other watched the
topographic map.
They drove through low ridges of carved stone. Dips and draws crawled inward and offered a million hiding spots. It was craggy, rough, and as windswept as it could be. For now they were in the cover of a forward ridge, but gaps were coming.
He felt the controls surge and pulse with every rock and rise. The rumble of the tracks went up his spine, and he used it to gauge the toughness of the trail. The whine of the final drives told him how strained the engines were. Finally he listened to the way Bulldog shifted and groaned as all forty tons of her swayed from side to side. It was like driving a mining rig to him, and he'd logged more hours on those than all of the 19th ACR combined.
He knew the speed. He knew the heading. He watched the dust disappear with every meter they passed. The spectrum analyzer dispersed the nearer bits, but further out was like a gray fog. In that fog was Fox Company, with the Emflife right behind.
"They're close," Mick said. "Watch out, they'll be moving fast."
The autoloader cycled. They'd learned that if you left a round in the chamber, the dust would jam it up.
In the rear, Hutchins finished loading his grenade launcher. The bulky weapon sat heavy on his lap. Next to him, Puck slapped a magazine in, his mouth moving silently as if in prayer.
Vinovy prayed loudly. His hands clenched and unclenched his weapon. Kallio sat right next to him and watched him with a curious smile.
Gous, as always, was watching a pornographic video on his tablet. The light of it illuminated his eyes. He told them that if he was gonna get it, he'd want to go out with a boner.
Everyone else prepared for the moment in their own way. Some prayed. Some joked. Hess and Wellington gambled while Mueller tried to pinch cards. Such was the way that humans greeted war.
"Get ready!" Mick called.
Bulldog crawled up the side of a rocky slope. Bastard and Baloney Pony took up the flanks. All three were but a small piece of the combined force of the regiment. But no one knew what lay over that ridge; the comms were still jammed.
Tomi caught his first glance over the ridge. On the opposite side was a kilometer of rocky debris that ended at another ridgeline. Pools of dust sat like snowdrifts. For a second he thought of Lishun Delta as the spectrum colored everything to be shades of gray. He saw the weapons fire, and the adrenaline kicked in.
"There! There!" Mick said. He highlighted a position next to a half-cracked boulder.
"Hold fire until I call!" Bastard called.
Bulldog pivoted and skidded on the rock. A second later, the front edge thudded against the cover of the stone. Bastard came up fifty meters away and tucked into a low rise with Baloney Pony dropping down the other side, struggling to find cover.
"Good God," Mick whispered.
Fox Company was in the midst of the boulder field. Cannon fire surged down from the opposite ridge, devastating the exposed units. One tank spouted flames into the air like a geyser. A few others burned, and the inky-black smoke was dark gray in the spectrum view.
The targeting system struggled to acquire a lock on the opposite ridge. Mick furiously tried filter combinations to get the system to engage. "Going manual!"
Artillery fire rained down on the boulder field. Shards of stone blasted high into the air. Then it stopped, just as it suddenly as it had begun.
"Infantry out!" Bastard called. "Secure the leading edge, we've got hostile infantry inbound!"
"Go, go!" Puck yelled.
The rear hatch slammed open, and the squad raced outside.
Tomi watched them run down the slope and place themselves into cover.
Puck steered them and dragged Vinovy with him. The newcomer cradled his weapon in his arm like an old pillow.
Mick mumbled behind Tomi. "Come on, come on."
Tomi felt the time stretch out. They didn't want to fire until the infantry was clear, otherwise the incoming rounds would keep them all pinned.
A Vasilov tank darted out from behind the cover of a boulder and raced to the next. Hostile tank fire slammed into the ground around it. One of the rounds glanced off and tumbled into the sky, a white baton of fury and light.
More rounds sailed across the expanse. Muzzle flashes roared for a split second across the gap but were lost again. The Emflife tanks, hidden in the dust and in cover, were slowly picking away at the retreating Vasilov tanks.
"I can't acquire targets!" Baloney Pony called.
"Go manual," Mick called back.
Puck radioed in, his voice was almost lost in the wind. "In position."
"Bulldog ready!" Mick called.
Tomi's hands hovered on his controls. He keyed up the autocannon turret and slung it from side to side.
The comms came alive as units across the ridge acknowledged position. The armor from Fox Company sat in cover and waited. It was a simple plan: get into position and then hammer the opposite ridge while Fox made it clear.
Colonel Clarke came on the comms. "All units, open fire in three, two, one..."
Cannon fire ripped through the air. Rounds sailed across the expanse, over the top of Fox, and slammed into the opposite ridge. Most disappeared into the dust, but a few blue flashes marked where Emflife armor took a hit. The accumulated fire of nearly thirty tanks slammed across the gap.
"Fox, go!" Captain Janke's voice called on the open comms.
Tank fire arced across the gap. Artillery rained down onto the Emflife units. It didn't seem to have any impact, but the enemy shields glowed with every impact and a few more tanks were lit up. The comms were wild as tanks described hostile positions.
"More left!" Mick called. "No, no, right, right, there! There!"
Three tanks from Fox rumbled past and crested the slope. They turned and added their cannon fire down the line.
Bulldog fired in bursts of three. The cannon laid out a plot, sent three rounds out, and then keyed up to the next target point. Mick labored silently and marked positions as he saw muzzle flashes or the blue winking of shields.
One Emflife tank erupted into bluish-white flame. Another way down the ridge ripped open.
"We're hit!" Danger radioed.
"Get ready to move," Mick said.
Tomi glanced behind him and picked his path.
Hutchins opened fire with his grenade launcher. The rounds sailed into the darkness and fell in a circular pattern a few hundred meters out.
The bulk of Fox was through the boulder field and climbing the ridge. A supply truck burned brightly at the base of the slope. Soldiers ran up the ridge, the wounded stumbled along, and some died just as they reached cover. The infantry from Bravo, Charlie, and Delta helped those that they could.
"Black, black!" Puck called. It was the code word for the Emflife synthetics.
"Shit," Mick said. "Load FEP! FEP!"
Down on the ridgeline, the infantry slapped in new magazines.
Then the line of Emflife synthetics raced out from cover.
The black-suited infantry darted from one piece of cover to the next. The movement was coordinated, smooth. At each boulder they were closer.
The FEP rounds slammed into one, and a massive chunk of it blasted away. It faltered and stumbled. The infantry on the slope concentrated fire. The frangible portion of the round delivered almost the entire force, and then the explosive penetrator buried itself before finally detonating. The combination of blunt force and shock was what it took.
But still they came closer.
"Bulldog, get back now!" Mick called.
The last of Fox Company was clear of the boulder field.
The infantry leapfrogged from cover while the armor continued to fire across the gap. The blue flashes were less frequent as the Emflife armor pulled away.
Puck raced ahead and then halted in cover. He turned and fired, and then someone else would move up. It was painfully slow to watch.
Hutchins huffed up, dragging Vinovy with one hand. Behind him Gous and Kallio ran. Kallio struggled to attach a bandage onto Gous. Further down the line, Hess
and Wellington worked as a pair, both running and firing.
Tomi finally had his chance. He laid the aiming reticle for the autocannon onto the edge of the boulder field. Something moved, and he opened fire. Rounds slammed into the rock and exploded out. Tracers, visible only from the back, flared all around.
A synthetic came into view, and the rounds pulsed into it. The creature rolled and tucked, and Tomi couldn't keep the autocannon tuned fine enough to stay on the assault. He gritted his teeth and focused on that one creature.
It disappeared behind one rock and then came out the same side it went in on.
Tomi slung the cannon and fired more. It was moving fast now, sprinting; its arms swung hard.
Hutchins came through the back and tossed Vinovy inside before running back out. Kallio was in with Gous a moment behind. The others, as they arrived, took position around Bulldog and fired.
"Boso! Boso!" Puck yelled.
Bosovitz rose up from cover way down the slope. He struggled to move, one leg obviously wounded. He dropped his rifle and scrambled like an odd crab.
The synthetic saw him and sprinted across the open ground. FEP rounds exploded around it. Tomi slung the autocannon as fast as he could toward it.
"The main cannon won't go low enough!" Mick yelled.
Bosovitz raised up a hand toward the synthetic, a pleading gesture.
The synthetic sliced downward with his blade.
Bosovitz collapsed in a heap.
"Pull back! Everyone go, go!" Colonel Clarke called.
"Fuck! Everyone in!" Mick yelled. "Tomi, move once we're buttoned!"
Tomi released the controls of the autocannon. His eyes were locked on the advancing Emflife synthetic. A single FEP round slammed into its leg, and it fell suddenly onto its face. It disappeared out of view.
The soldiers piled inside Bulldog and the hatch was sealed.
"Move out!"
Tomi slammed the tank into reverse and backed away from the edge.
Steel Storm (Steel Legion Book 2) Page 13