Umi watched around him with his pistol at ready. The gravity slowly eased up. He steadied himself with his pistol and wished very much that he had two working arms.
"Why aren't we firing?" Rachel said.
"I don't know!" an engineer yelled back.
A crawler darted through the door and stopped in the middle of the room. It raised up two antenna and swung its head from side to side.
Umi snapped up the pistol and struggled to hold his aim. The novelty of zero gravity had worn off quickly. To him it was nothing but a pain in the ass. He missed his boots in the mud.
Then the mass driver opened fire. The starship engaged thrusters and the main drive in sporadic bursts. The whole ship twisted and turned in minute movements, and all the while the mass driver fired. The silvery streaks flew through space and connected with the Vek ship.
The leading rounds flared against the armored nose. The few rounds just behind missed completely. The next barrage plowed into the armor, with starbursts of molten metal cascading past.
The mass driver slowed firing until one round trickled out and then nothing.
"Ammo?"
"Four percent," Raziz yelled.
The Vek starship was closing fast. They fired another burst from the particle accelerator.
The ancient starship swung again and showed the strongest sector to the attacker. The AI was still alive, still defending, but was waiting for something.
"We're entering the debris now," the astrogation engineer called.
Umi focused off the Vek starship and was surprised to see that they were already into the orbit of the planet. The starship was headed directly for a tumbling sheet of debris. It glinted in the light as it spun. "Oh shit."
Just a split second before the starship struck, the panel lazily spun, and they passed within meters of the plate.
The bridge went suddenly silent. Rachel pushed off and grasped onto the main console. Her feet floated gently behind her. The realization set in that the AI was a clever thing, and knew more about orbital combat than any of them.
The Vek ship adjusted course and clipped one edge of the spinning debris. It struggled to adjust course, and the main drive flared behind them. They had closed to within a few kilometers. A moment later, the missiles fired.
One entire side of the Vek starship blossomed in flame. Individual missiles weaved and darted as they homed in. One missile exploded, then the next, then a handful more.
"Are we doing that?" Rachel said.
"Negative!" Raziz said. "They're hitting debris!"
As the missiles burned closer, they had to fly through a sea of structural debris and remnants of the capsule, but most of all, thousands and thousands of corpses.
"Fusion launcher is powering up," the weapons engineer said.
"Reactor spike!" Raziz yelled.
The Vek starship burned closer. Hardpoints deployed from the hull and a multibarreled cannon swung out.
The fusion launcher fired. Twin orbs of raw energy blasted across space, shedding plasma as they flew. The Vek ship fired thrusters, the nose dropped, and the main drive suddenly cut out. One of the orbs flew harmlessly into space; the second scorched the hull of the Vek ship, but little damage was done.
The Vek ship fired the particle accelerator again, and this time the rounds connected. One console exploded into sparks and was dead. More alarms cascaded onto the screens. The mass driver was silent. And still the Vek closed.
Umi snapped his head to the side. The crawler was gone. He hadn't seen the door open. A dread came over him. The AI was clever, devious, and at this point his best friend and worst enemy.
He trained the pistol ahead and only looked where it pointed. The pistol swung across the ceiling and past any likely hiding spot. He didn't intend to shoot it, not yet, but he didn't like it skulking off.
The crawler leaped out from the ceiling behind him. It clawed onto Umi's back, and the spindly metal legs locked onto his neck. The sharp claws dug in and stabbed into the EVA suit.
Umi kicked off from a console and tucked himself into a ball. Fear raced through him. It was as if a massive spider was clawing its way into his suit. "Get it off!"
He crashed into opposite side of the room. He ripped at it with one arm but couldn't break it free.
The pain grew. It stabbed again, trying to puncture the stiff fabric.
"Help me!" Umi screamed. He flailed and fired the pistol behind him. The room tumbled. He bounced off one panel and the next. He had no idea where he was, ceiling or floor.
"Disengaging AI!" Rachel yelled. She kicked off, grabbed onto the AI cube, and plucked it out of the mount.
The crawler went limp and gently landed. All of the screens went blank and slowly rebooted themselves. One console after the next came to life.
Umi grasped onto some conduit and caught his breath. The adrenaline slowly seeped away, and he tasted metal in his mouth. Fear.
The main display blinked on. The Vek ship was in a matched orbit barely five hundred meters away.
A new window opened on the display, and an audio panel wavered.
Koric's voice crackled through the suit's communication system. "We have no debts."
Then another barrage of missiles flared from the Vek starship.
#
Chapter Forty
Planet Squire, Kalivostok System
Near the Eastern Pillar
The rain fell in giant drops that plopped down into the dust. They hissed through the air and landed as muddy globules. More raindrops streaked through the sky, and the dust sucked up every drop. But as more fell, the dust turned to a slurry, and then finally into a boot-sucking mud.
Slowly the silver capsule rose up with streams of water running down beneath it. The very peak of it climbed through the clouds and began to disappear.
Tracer rounds sailed through the growing mist and pounded into the chain plate.
"Keep firing!" Colonel Clarke yelled. He peeled off his headset and rushed out the rear hatch. The rain fell in massive sheets, and he simply stood for a second. "Rain."
Auroch and Cunningham were crouched next to the side of the unit and cracking off rounds. Both of the men were soaked through. From the waist down, they were caked in mud.
Colonel Clarke took one step into the mud and regretted it. He sank down to his ankles and a cold glop of mud suctioned onto him. He struggled to free his leg. When he finally broke free, he fell back onto his ass.
Auroch trudged a few steps toward Clarke. Every step was a sucking sound. He grabbed Colonel Clarke under the arms and pulled him up.
"Thanks!" Colonel Clarke said. He had originally come out to get a better look at the chain plate, but that wasn't happening. Now it was an effort just to get back inside.
"Something's happening!" Major Bresov said.
Colonel Clarke leaned over her shoulder and studied her console. The chain plate was just visible in the mist, but the metal itself looked different. He didn't know exactly what was happening, but they were making a difference.
"Bravo is taking a beating, sir! Requesting backup," Captain Delovic said.
"Send—" Colonel Clarke said and stopped. He felt the weight of the mud on his feet. "Send Devil Dog."
"Roger!" Captain Delovic leaned over his console.
Colonel Clarke watched him and knew the conversation.
Captain Delovic looked up. "They're stuck, sir."
Artillery detonated in the distance. It sounded muffled. Clumps of sticky mud landed near Apex with a hefty thunk.
"Incoming!" Auroch bellowed.
Colonel Clarke grabbed his rifle and stomped to the door. He turned and yelled back at Sergeant Chibisov. "Keep firing!"
Apex fired almost continuously up into the mist. The rounds blasted through the air with barely a two-second gap. Empty casings tumbled out the side of the tank and landed on top of a growing pile.
At the same time, the autocannon fired at a much more rapid pace. All down the line, the tanks laced out
a steady stream into the advancing ranks.
Colonel Clarke slogged through the mud and squatted down next to Cunningham. He wedged his rifle against a section of track. He sighted down the barrel and opened fire.
The Kadan trudged ahead in a massive wave. They'd shed any extra weapons or heavy equipment. It was just a wall of infantry plodding ahead. They fell in droves. It was a slaughter of epic proportions.
Down the line, a single Emflife synthetic thrashed through the mud. It tossed a Kadan soldier ahead and leaped onto its body. Tracers laced into the mud around it, and soon the whole creature was coated in muck. It fell to the side and was buried to its waist. It thrashed and howled but was firmly stuck. Shortly after, a tank round connected with it.
Colonel Clarke fired one round at a time. He keyed up his comms and had Bresov send out a conserve order. They'd be out of ammo soon, and that was not an option.
The sounds of the main cannons firing was steady. Like hammers on an anvil. It was only broken by the high-pitched crack of the tank destroyer guns. The slightly larger-bore and heavier propellant load lent a much deadlier strike.
Cunningham slid back and struggled to draw out a new magazine. Just then, he was hit on the shoulder. The slender man screamed.
In an instant, Auroch was around the edge of the tank. He grasped Cunningham under the arms and wrenched him free from the mud. A half second later, and Auroch tossed the wounded man inside of Apex. "Wounded!"
The rain hammered down even more. Pools of brown water grew in the mud. Colonel Clarke was soaked right to the bone. It was so intense that he had to angle his head down just to keep breathing.
Auroch trudged past, knelt down, and opened up with a heavy machine gun. Casings tumbled down around him. He set his massive jaw, leaned into the recoil, and fired without regard.
Colonel Clarke caught movement. Just as he spun his weapon around, a pair of Kadan soldiers emerged from the side of the tank. They had somehow snuck past the first line through the torrent of rain. He fired and caught one in the shoulder.
The insectoid dropped and fell face-first into the mud. The second soldier fired a three-round burst right at Auroch. The first round buried in the mud, the second into Auroch's thigh, and the third clanged off his body armor.
Auroch growled, spun, and fired a quick burst at the Kadan. The alien fell backward and disappeared into the mud. Auroch looked at Clarke. "We need to get you out of here, sir."
Colonel Clarke fired two more rounds. "Negative!" He had to yell to be heard over the sound of the rain.
He listened to the comms chatter and heard the same thing everywhere. They were all stuck. Every single tank. Some could move a few meters but were then mired once again. The Kadan advance was stalled, though pockets of resistance raged on.
The capsule finally disappeared into the clouds. It wavered as it climbed, it seemed to struggle to rise, but then it was gone from view.
Colonel Clarke felt his heart sink. How long until the next capsule? Would there be a next capsule? The one chance they had was to snap that line while the load was the greatest.
A fresh wave of Kadan troops appeared out of the pouring rain. They threw down debris, plates, planks, anything they could to advance. The lead troops fell and the aliens behind them struggled on. For every Kadan that toppled, two more were behind to throw more down.
"We need to move!" Auroch yelled again. He fired at the approaching group, and then the weapon was empty. "We'll get to Devastator, sir!"
Colonel Clarke looked behind him. Devastator was five hundred meters back. Its main cannon was pointing into the air. The autocannon didn't fire at all, and there was a massive pile of brass beneath it. He turned back to the line. It was time to fall back. "Bresov! Send the order. Alpha, Bravo, fall back to the next line! Delta, cover our retreat. Everyone get ready!"
Major Bresov emerged from the tank with her weapon in one hand and a box of ammo in the other. "Order sent!"
Behind her the rest of the crew crawled out.
Sergeant Chibisov was the last soldier out. He glanced in one final time and then slapped the steel of the hull. He was already soaked. "Thermite burn in one minute!"
Colonel Clarke wiped the rain from his face and stared at the distance to get to the next line. Five hundred meters of mud, water, and leg-sucking muck. It would be hell in training, but now it was nearly impossible. "Get ready!"
All down the line, soldiers emerged from their tanks. They fired around the sides, cracked off the last of the main cannon ammo, and fired the autocannons until they were dry. Yet the Kadan still raged ahead through the hellish muck.
A groan sounded from above, a sound like metal bending. The origin of the sound was lost in the mist.
Colonel Clarke snapped his eyes up and blocked the rain. Too much mist, he couldn't see a damn thing. He keyed his comms. "Devastator! Keep firing at that plate!"
Delta Company broke off engaging the chain plate. Their guns went silent, all except for Devastator. Colonel Clarke radioed each of the tanks and instructed everyone to move en masse. Each and every crew was to make for the line.
"Delta, open fire! Everyone go!" Colonel Clarke yelled. He wanted to sprint, to pump his arms and run, but the best he could do was slop from one hole to the next.
Behind him, Auroch struggled through the mud with Cunningham on his shoulder. Bresov was next to him. Captain Delovic ran side by side with Chibisov. It was a mad dash at a slow pace.
As soon as they broke from cover, Delta opened fire. It was one massive barrage from every piece of operational armor. Autocannons spewed tracers around the fleeing crews. Artillery shells thudded in the Kadan line, but didn't have much effect. The antiair tanks had swung the turrets low and were pouring a line of intense fire into the heaviest Kadan concentrations.
Then the Kadan caught on to the fleeing troops and opened fire. Only the intensity of the rain dulled the aim of the alien troops. It was a torrent of biblical proportions. Waves of rain raged from the sky and made an almost-complete whiteout.
Colonel Clarke wheezed as he ran and struggled to breathe. He'd never seen rain like this before. He felt a heavy smack on his back and stumbled. He caught himself just before going face-first.
"You're OK!" Bresov yelled.
Colonel Clarke took two breaths and kept running.
Captain Delovic ran alongside. He gave Clarke a grin, and two steps later fell dead. A slug entered just below his helmet and exited through his neck.
Colonel Clarke stopped and went to kneel.
Auroch grabbed onto his shoulder and pulled him up. "He's dead!"
Slowly the distance closed. Through it all, Devastator kept firing into the rain with her cannon pointing high. The groaning sound grew louder. There was a far-off boom, and a ripple in the clouds like a wind shook rain free from the clouds. But still it kept coming down.
Colonel Clarke ran with every bit of strength he had. He was past the point of physical exhaustion. It was the moment everyone trained for, that time to give every single last ounce of energy. The place you only know of if you've been there. His only goal: to get his soldiers to cover.
Finally Chibisov climbed the berm. Then Bresov and Auroch, with Cunningham still on his shoulder.
Colonel Clarke threw himself over the rise. Instead of a graceful leap it was a thud, in the mud. Hands pulled him out of a puddle and stood him up. He turned, knelt down, and watched his soldiers flee, and fall, across that muddy gap.
Men were lost in the rain. They ran with an awkward gait. Some crawled, others disappeared into the mud. Hundreds of men and women fled through a storm of steel, mud, and a torrential rain like the ocean descended from heaven.
"Is that all of them?" Colonel Clarke said. He tried to pick out anyone still crossing the gap.
Devastator fired again. The high-pitched crack deafened everyone outside. Even the rain halted for a split second in the shock wave. A moment later, the groan grew louder, even though the detonation was lost in the mist.
"Negative!" Major Bresov said. She held her ear and listened. "Torori says one crew isn't out."
"Damn it!" Colonel Clarke said. "Which tank?"
Major Bresov looked out across the gap. Only one tank on the original line was still firing. "Bulldog!"
#
Chapter Forty-One
Planet Squire, Kalivostok System
Near the Eastern Pillar
Tomi slammed the accelerator forward while pivoting the track. His eyes were locked onto the strain gauge. Slowly it rose, and just when it hit the peak he hammered it back and put the unit into reverse. "Almost! I'll get it out!"
Waslinski screamed in the crew compartment. Kallio struggled to apply a dressing. She had one knee on Waslinski's hips, and it took all of her strength to keep her down.
"We gotta go!" Puck yelled. "They're already all out!"
Gous clutched one case of credits tight to his chest. His eyes were wild. "Tomi can get it! He can get it!"
"One more try!" Tomi said. If he could just break the suction free, then he knew the track would ride on the mud. He knew it. He wasn't about to abandon the tank, not now.
"Everyone get ready to move!" Mick said. He climbed out of the TC position and pulled out his rifle. "Main cannon is empty."
Outside, Puck and the others were in the cover of Bulldog. They stood half a dozen meters away and fired to the sides. The Kadan avoided the front of the tank but were coming in closer on the sides.
Mick pulled on Tomi's shoulder.
Tomi sat ahead and punched the accelerator again. "I can do this!"
Then there was an unmistakable metal ping. A shearing sound that announced the end of the final drive. The reactor spun up loud, and then the automatic throttle toned it back. The only sound now was that of gunfire and rain.
"Everyone in!" Puck called.
First came Hess and Wellington, with Sophia just behind. The three men tumbled onto the floor and spun around with weapons at ready. Mueller ran in, with Puck pushing on his back. Hutchins came next, with Vinovy last.
Steel Storm (Steel Legion Book 2) Page 25