by M. D. Cooper
Williams deployed two drones from his AB-99, the surveillance bots shooting up to hang several hundred meters in the air, giving a live view of the battlefield.
The enemy was moving their missile launchers back off the bridges, evidently worried that the Marines were going to fire on the weapons systems.
Damn straight we are.
He fired a trio of missiles into the air, setting their target and letting the tank’s NSAI manage their flight paths while he advanced. Rounding a corner, he came into view of the bridge, a low span arching gracefully over the water.
His main guns coughed, and rail-accelerated DPU fire leapt forth. The sabot-encased uranium rods leapt from the tank’s twin guns and streaked over the water. Metal and plascrete sprayed into the air, and enemy soldiers ran for cover as the shots tore massive holes in the side of the bridge.
Most of the Veefs and Diskers ran for the far side, so Williams lobbed two more DPUs at the far end of the bridge before ducking back around the corner. He walked further back to a rear corner, and then proceeded to climb the structure.
From the bridge and across the river, the enemy was firing on either side of the building, waiting for Williams to emerge.
Suckers, he thought with a laugh as the AB-99 topped the building.
He prepared a salvo of missiles and primed the railguns. Upon reaching the edge of the structure, he let loose the barrage, striking two bunkers on the far side with one DPU, and the enemy launcher with the other. His own short-range missiles rained down on four other locations, silencing many of the Disker guns.
Williams jumped the AB-99 off the building, and reached out to his Marines via the surveillance drones.
Williams wondered if it was because the MICI thought he was going to get shot out of the sky. The concern that Smith was coming along to carry out whatever vendetta Agent Jones had been attempting still lingered in his mind.
Smith hadn’t done anything to cement that fear, but intelligence agents were very good at hiding their intentions.
Williams pushed the worry from his mind and gauged the distance he needed to jump the tank over the river. After plotting his trajectory, the onboard NSAI added a short thruster burst to ensure they cleared the embankment on the far side, as well as two more bursts to jink randomly, ensuring that they didn’t describe a predictable arc over the water.
The four tanks surged forward, each building up speed until they hit their top velocity at the edge of the river. Twelve articulated legs thrust them into the air, boosters adding height.
Within seconds, rounds ricocheted off Williams’ tank, all small arms fire that couldn’t penetrate its armor. The automated defense guns targeted the shooters and returned fire while Williams spun up the chainguns and swept the far bank with kinetic rounds.
As his AB-99 soared through the air, he caught sight of a pair of young boys crouched behind a decorative stone pillar that sat near the edge of the river. Behind them, a squat, armadillo-like Disker drone moved down the street, slinging rounds at Williams’ tank.
He realized that it was going to slice clear through the pillar, and the debris would kill the kids.
Fucking shit, he swore, triggering a burst from the tank’s thrusters, moving to get a better angle on the drone.
An alert flashed on his HUD, noting that he might not have enough fuel to make the far bank if any further evasion was necessary.
Another string of curses came to mind—the AB-99 should have had enough fuel for multiple jumps like the one over the river. Either the TSF hadn’t properly fueled it, or there was a leak somewhere.
He dismissed the concern, focusing on the drone. The DPU rails got a lock, and he fired, twin sabot rounds coughing out into the late afternoon air, streaking toward the drone.
The first round only fractured its armor, but the second hit only half a meter further back. The impact made a resounding crack, and the back half of the machine was blown away.
Smoke and fire billowed out, obscuring Williams’ view. A second later, his tank hit the riverbank, its rear legs in the water.
The other two tanks had taken a few hits, but hadn’t suffered any major damage.
Williams directed his attention to the overhead scan, and saw an entire regiment of Disker soldiers moving through the city toward the Serya’s banks.
To punctuate his words, Williams pivoted his tank and fired a trio of rounds from each gun at the nearest bridge, tearing through one of its supports in the process. For a moment, the unsupported span hung in place, seeming to defy gravity.
Then it dropped into the river.
Satisfied that pursuit would be slow, Williams ambled his AB-99 past ‘Barney’s Famous’ and between two larger towers. A squad of Veefs came into view, took one look at the arachnid-like tank, and ran. If they’d been enemy soldiers, he would have considered chasing them with a stream of bullets, but these people were only in light riot gear, clearly just civilians who had become mixed up in something more dangerous than they expected.
Once the area was clear, he clambered out of the tank and nodded to Smith, whose invisible body stood nearby—or so his IFF ident said.
The gunnery sergeant set his tank to follow after the others in the formation, passing its control to Kowalski.
* * * * *
With full stealth at their disposal, Williams and Smith made good time through the downtown core. From what he could see, there had to be over five thousand well-armed Disker soldiers patrolling the area, with a much larger contingent of Veefs backing them.
Some of the Venusian locals were well equipped, some wearing Coastie armor, while others sported gear the Marines often saw on mercenaries. The bulk were wearing little to no protective gear, just orange bands on their arms to signify that they were part of a patrol, and not civilians out in a war zone.
The echo of Marine weapons was a distant drumbeat as the gunnery sergeant and MICI agent moved through the streets. Judging by the direction of the sound, it was likely the 24
2 was advancing through the northern end of the city, pounding the retreating Diskers.
That far-off thrum was punctuated by periodic bursts of fire coming from west of the city center.
One/one is giving it like they always do.
He felt a pang of worry over his Marines, just four AB-99s up against a sea of enemies. He gained a modicum of relief in that he only saw Veefs moving west to defend against the tanks. The more heavily armed and armored Diskers were standing their ground.
If ever there was a group of Marines who could stand against all comers, it was the five men and women of one/one. Add in Kowalski, and it would take an entire planet’s worth of civilian militias to take them down.
Smith was ahead and had sent a ‘wait one’ signal. His sporadically reporting IFF placed him at the edge of a glass tower that rose a kilometer into the sky.
The structure’s smooth surface was on their right, and to the left was a garden consisting of overhead lattices, fruit hanging down off long vines that created a canopy over walkways, close-cropped lawns, and artfully placed benches.
According to his map, around the corner lay a maglev station, six wide tracks, an open, mall-like plaza, and then the uplink tower.
And probably a thousand Diskers.
Sporadic fire came from positions high on the tower, pelting CFT-shielded bunkers set up in the plaza. The enemy was responding with random fire of its own, both sides showing only token strength in what appeared to be a long-running stalemate.
He reached out slowly, searching for Smith’s stealthed body, his hand finally coming in contact with an invisible object he took to be a shoulder.
A wave of relief flowed over Williams.
Williams had heard that Admiral Urdon was a hardass. As a member of the Scattered Worlds Admiralty—the group of five top military officers who commanded the entire Scattered Worlds Space Force—he was a powerful man, and likely one who was used to getting his way.
It had shocked the Marine to learn that someone of his rank was mixed up in the Disker presence on Venus. He had assumed that it was some sort of rogue element that was trying to create problems elsewhere in Sol—not that it went right to the top.
Still could be a rogue element, I suppose.
Smith said after a minute.
The agent moved around the corner, and Williams followed after, keeping close to the building as a troop of Diskers jogged past. Here, they weren’t even hiding their origins. Official markings and ranks were on their armor, their posture and discipline identifying them as well-trained military.
It was slow-going, moving through the enemy troops. Stealth was well and fine when it came to infiltrating sparsely populated areas, but it became increasingly difficult to thread one’s way through crowds when that someone was invisible to everyone else.
Twice, the gunnery sergeant clipped a passing Disker, but each time, there were enough soldiers around that the person he bumped into thought it was just one of his comrades.
After a third harrowing incident where two soldiers began yelling at one another over who was responsible for kicking a charge cable from a point-defense beam array—which had been Williams’ fault—they reached the six wide steps that led up to the maglev station.
They waited for a trio of lieutenants to open the doors, and slipped inside after them.
Williams noted that while the officers appeared stoic and focused, none appeared to be grim or worried—something he would have been, with several regiments of TSF Marines closing in.
The station’s central foyer had a half-dozen holotanks set up, with an array of colonels, majors, and two generals looming over them, gesturing at icons noting troop movements. One of them was muttering about the bridges that the ‘TSF fucks’ had blown up, and he resisted a laugh.
What he didn’t see, however, was Katelyn, the NSAI node, or the mech-wearing AI that had shot him.
He moved around the room’s perimeter, toward the doors that led out to the tracks, while Smith bravely approached one of the holotanks.
The agent paused there for a moment, and then moved to Williams’ position near one of the exits, and touched his arm.
Williams was worried about being detected, if they were sending over-the-air signals in the room.
The gunnery sergeant nodded, waiting patiently for several minutes, soaking in the sights and sounds.
Despite the enemy showing little fear or worry, he could see from their strategy that all of their movements were a delaying action. Rather than holding key points until the bitter end, they were falling back slowly. Because the Marines knew they weren’t greatly reducing the enemy numbers, they were forced to advance with care, clearing buildings in case of ambush or sabotage.
The gunnery sergeant clenched his jaw.
Smith sent a derisive snort over the Link.
The MICI agent passed a feed showing Katelyn and the mech—still holding the NSAI node—entering a maintenance tunnel beneath the maglev tracks. She looked grim but resolute as she disappeared from view.
Dammit… The gunnery sergeant shook his head. What the hell do you think you’re doing?
He didn’t want to think about what he might have to do to stop them before they completed their mission. Didn’t want to think about it—but was prepared to anyway.
STORMING THE TOWER
STELLAR DATE: 3227476 / 06.06.4124 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Tarja, Teka Continent
REGION: Venus, InnerSol, Sol Space Federation
Whatever the TSF landed on Tarja had done so with four very loud, ground-shattering booms.
“Go! Go!” Aaron urged the Veef, one steel hand pressing between Katelyn's shoulder blades and propelling her forward.
A new channel invitation sprang into being over the Link, the connection ID indicating she could audit but not participate.
She sent Aaron a mental
She accepted the token, and immediately felt like she'd been dropped into a sea of chaos. A caco
phony of voices assaulted her, transmitting over one another, each one yelling in an effort to be heard.
Abruptly, the mental presence dropped off the net.
A map of Tarja appeared, and Katelyn heard Wren’s voice, speaking calmly over the pandemonium.
Katelyn felt the timbre of her connection to Aaron change as a shaft of unease colored his thoughts.
a new voice announced, and a window popped up, floating atop the map.
A hush fell over the combat net as all eyes fixed upon the red icons edging along the far side of the Serya River.
They remained stationary for a long moment, and then they began to move. Katelyn was shocked at how rapidly they progressed along the riverfront, covering kilometers of urban sprawl in mere minutes.
It edged around a building, and fired a pair of railguns at one of the bridges, tearing holes in the structure and sending defenders flying.
Katelyn sent the worried thought to Aaron as they pelted into a turn, following their Venusian guide.
The AI didn’t respond. He surged ahead, taking the lead when a team of Disker troops waved them onward, weapons held at the ready.