The cool weight of his dog tag rested against his chest. He didn’t think about much each morning when he put it on, but it was not something he ever forgot.
It was a symbol of his promise to the men and women of his unit during those days when he wasn’t about to jump out of the back of a cargo flitter and go after the people responsible for their deaths.
The cargo flitter skimmed the treetops, flying low and fast. Erik watched course updates on his faceplate display. Their drop zone was seven klicks away from the mansion.
Emma’s dense drone swarm looked like some sort of mistake on the display. She’d broken the initial mass apart and was circling the target, her extensions weaving through the trees. They would soon rise to draw the enemy’s attention. They might have been noticed, but there was no reaction from the mansion.
Erik took a slow, deep breath and let it out. He’d said more than once that fighting was the one thing he knew he was good at.
It had defined his life.
His only major vacation from battle lasted only for the length of his trip back to Earth from Molino. He’d been fighting ever since, but his raids as a cop, even the ones working for Alina, hadn’t felt the same as being in the military.
He’d worked alongside soldiers in some, but he felt more like the contractor showing up to help them out.
Things had been different recently. The Hunter ship op and the current one sent him straight back to his Army days. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
That was why he didn’t like the tug in the back of his mind. It wasn’t the Lady. It wasn’t some strange sixth sense. That would be easy to ignore or push off.
This was something different. The feeling wiggling into the back of his thought was born of decades of experience shaped by life-or-death struggles where deadly decisions had to be made in seconds. Sometimes ignoring the illogical meant ignoring a vital detail your subconscious had noticed.
Erik established a direct channel to Colonel Adeyemi and Jia. He was in command of the mission, but these were Adeyemi’s men.
“We sure about this op, Colonel?” he asked. “Something about it is bothering me.”
“Sure?” The colonel snorted. “Hell, no. This is all heavily relying on the ID, and Koval came to me because it’s been compromised. This is textbook desperation based on half-ass intel. If it didn’t involve the conspiracy, I wouldn’t be involved.”
Erik worried about that. Vengeance could blind a man, but he didn’t believe Adeyemi would throw away the lives of the loyal soldiers who served under him.
“Is something wrong, Erik?” Jia asked.
“Something’s bothering me about all this,” Erik admitted. “The conspiracy is staggering from our hits, and they had to assume there would have been a tracker in someone like Ahmed. But they didn’t bother to do anything about it until the ID figured out where he’d been taken.”
“You think it’s a trap?” Jia concluded. She sounded more curious than worried.
Emma’s drones formed a complete circle about four kilometers out from the target. They were waiting for the cargo flitter to move closer before charging. Erik doubted the enemy could fail to notice that many drones that close. Playing dumb and innocent might make sense for the occasional flyby, but an entire squadron of drones meant an attack. The plan partially required the enemy to focus on those drones, too.
Was he worrying too much?
Colonel Adeyemi grunted in frustration. “I’ve been wondering the same thing, but the conspiracy also couldn’t be sure we wouldn’t blow the hell out of the place from the sky. It’s in the middle of nowhere, which makes it a lot easier to be loud without explaining things away. Alina might believe in old-school honor, but not everyone in the ID does.”
“I know,” Erik replied. “That’s what’s bothering me. It’s not worth it to weave some elaborate trap to take down a couple of squads or some agents. They would have to really want to take the risk. I don’t care how much they’ve prepped things, there’s always a chance they’ve left evidence behind that we can use, and any crumb that gets us closer to them means we can throw more forces at them.”
Jia let out a rueful chuckle. “I can think of one thing the enemy wants. Something that would be worth a scheme to kill a handful of people.”
“Alien artifacts?” Erik guessed.
“No. If Ahmed knew about that kind of thing, Alina would have told us, and I think the colonel’s right. There’s a good chance that some people in the ID would be more than willing to risk losing him rather than let the conspiracy get a line on any more artifacts.”
Erik could understand. They’d taken a tremendous personal risk to stop the Hunter ship. Everybody aboard the Argo and Bifröst could have been killed by their nested jump trick.
He’d made the call, and he stood by it. He didn’t know if he could judge others if they made the same call, but at least he’d been willing to put his skin on the line.
The cargo flitter’s positional indicator got closer to the mansion. They didn’t have much time left for an abort. They’d gone over squad assignments right after loading up. Everyone was prepped and ready to go, but they’d discussed emergency exfil under jamming conditions, not aborting the whole op.
“If not artifacts, then what?” Erik demanded.
“Us,” Jia suggested. “You and me, the big reoccurring factor involved in a lot of these plans. Alina already said the ID is watching our backs, which means the conspiracy will have trouble coming at us directly without risking leaving a trail. But a nice, juicy trap with nice, juicy bait?”
Erik’s jaw tightened. Sometimes a unit had to move into a dangerous ambush location for the overall goals of the operation. People engaged in the fine art of killing other people could rarely make it risk-free.
“That’s a guess,” Colonel Adeyemi complained. “People make mistakes. The ID does, and Lord knows the military does. If the conspiracy was flawless, they wouldn’t have taken any losses.”
If they scrubbed the mission, they might not be able to get an off-the-books military team like this together again for some time. Colonel Adeyemi had taken a lot of risks to help Erik and Jia, including using his clout to discourage the military from trying to recover Emma. Every time he did anything, there was a risk.
They couldn’t quit because of a bad feeling. There was no way they’d win against the conspiracy that way, and if it came down to it, Erik was more than willing to hold the line while the squad retreated.
Erik transmitted to the entire squad. “Listen up. I have reason to believe we might be coming in hot despite our distraction and our distant drop zone. Emma’s drones will help, but I want every man and woman ready to shoot before we’re on the ground.” He turned the exo toward the bay door. “We’ve got three minutes before Emma initiates the distraction and then two minutes before the drop. Try to not pee yourself, and remember, a good soldier doesn’t die for their cause.”
“What do they do, then?” asked a soldier.
“It’s like General Patton said. They make the other son of a bitch die for theirs.”
The soldiers chuckled. Erik couldn’t see their faces behind their helmets and faceplates, but he had a feed of their vitals. Mild elevation in some, nothing out of the ordinary. Everyone was ready to fight, for Colonel Adeyemi, for the UTC, for themselves. The information was motivation, nothing more.
Erik regulated his breathing and waited for the seconds to tick by. He’d command this raid the way he’d lived his life: first one in, last one out.
Chapter Fifteen
“Initiating swarm,” Emma reported.
Erik’s heart rate kicked up from a rush of excitement, not fear. He would never deny enjoying taking it to the enemy. He’d respected a lot of the rebels he’d fought in his time in the Army, but he had nothing but contempt for the conspiracy.
This wasn’t war, this was trash cleanup.
The circle of drones shrank in one fluid movement like a noose t
ightening around the neck of a condemned man. Erik reminded himself they were there for a rescue, not an execution, but he wouldn’t mind flinging some pain along the way. A team of twelve exos with extra ammo was a solid unit, but it wasn’t a massive army. Depending on the enemy defenses, there might only be so much they could do.
Erik appreciated that everyone was a volunteer, but he wasn’t going to get anyone killed. If things got too hot, the ID informant would be the loss, not the soldiers with him, let alone Jia. The DD hadn’t been the ones to let the man get captured.
The drones broke into erratic flight patterns as they passed over the target area, and some disappeared from the display. It was too late to abort.
“The enemy has initiated antiaircraft fire,” Emma announced. “Extensive and powerful local jamming has been initiated. I’m glad I kept back an outer ring of drones to keep the rest under observation, but don’t worry. They’re successfully executing their autonomous disruption program. That might complicate comm on the ground.”
“Everyone knows what they need to do,” Erik replied. “Get ready to drop, people!” he shouted as the bay door opened. “We’re leaving this bucket in sixty seconds. Keep to your squads and execute the plan. Remember your Patton.”
Erik piloted his exo toward the door, its metal feet clanging on the floor of the cargo bay. Sometimes being a leader was more literal than others.
It wasn’t bad. Jumping out of a flitter was nothing like dropping onto a planet. He could now see what Jia had been talking about on their way to the rendezvous point. There was something almost sacrilegious about having to battle on a beautiful place on Earth. Unfortunately, the enemy had chosen the battleground by placing their facility there.
Explosions sounded in the distance, but Erik couldn’t see anything, given the angle of the flitter. He wasn’t paying much attention to the pulsating and swirling patterns of the distraction drones. If there was a significant problem, Emma would inform him.
“Movement in the forest near the drop zone,” Emma reported. “I’m seeing it with long-range cameras from drones outside the engagement zone. They’re blending in well with the forest using some sort of camouflage, though not active optical. They’re running unusually hot on thermal and seem to not be directly appearing from the mansion. Four-legged.”
“Dogs?” one of the soldiers suggested, sounding surprised. “They’ve got dogs in the woods?”
“If only it were so easy,” Jia muttered. “It’d be easy to scare off dogs with a couple of good warning shots.”
The conspiracy made it easy. They never let him feel any qualms about who or what they were facing.
That made sense. They couldn’t rely on good people to execute their plans. Even the average greedy bastard would balk at the carnage many of the conspiracy’s plans involved.
“She’s right,” Erik agreed. “Those aren’t dogs or wolves. We’re most likely about to engage heavily modified yaoguai intended for combat. The enemy has shown off a lot of different types in the past, some more alien than any space raptor. Don’t play around. Take them down, and watch your asses.” He took a step down the cargo ramp. “Jumping in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Go, go, go! It’s time to kill some yaoguai!”
He leapt out of the back of the flitter with a spin. Jump thrusters weren’t enough to make an exo fly, but they were enough to keep him in the target zone. The loud booms and rhythmic crack of the enemy’s air defenses continued unabated, but they stayed close to the mansion.
The enemy might not have been able to do much to the cargo flitter given its low altitude, or they might have been confident their ground defenses would be sufficient to stop anything that came out.
He couldn’t decide who was more arrogant, the man who came at a secret conspiracy base with a modest squad, or the people who thought they could win against highly trained Special Forces with jumped-up genetically-engineered toys.
Victory would prove one side right.
Emma’s drones resembled a dense flock in the distance, the swarm’s constant formation changes eerily beautiful in their own way. Bright explosions and clouds of dark smoke filled the sky. Sunlight reflected off the thick chaff. Flares become temporary suns.
It all looked impressive, but it wasn’t accomplishing much but wasting enemy ammo. The exos needed to hit the ground and make their move.
The denizens of the nearby forest understood something dangerous was happening. Birds fluttered desperately away from the battle. Deer charged through the trees. They knew they didn’t want to get caught up in it.
Jia and the other soldiers jumped from the flitter in a loose formation. Everyone extended their shields and angled their weapons down. They all knew something was down there waiting for them.
Erik swept back and forth, though Emma’s info made it clear they wouldn’t land in the middle of the yaoguai. The monsters were moving fast, but there was enough distance to give the squad time to prepare.
The exos cleared the canopy, everyone firing thrusters to continue to slow their descent and avoid branches. Despite the earlier warning, thus far, the only things with four legs they’d seen were the deer, the threat closing in but not yet there.
Yaoguai were the perfect guards for a remote mansion that functioned as a hidden base. It was likely no one other than conspiracy members had visited since the place was built.
Had some poor bastards helped supervise the construction, only to be fed to some monster later? Erik wouldn’t put it past the kind of people who were in charge.
The twelve exos successfully landed with loud thumps in a staggered group. Without orders, they broke into three squads of four, forming an inverted wedge. Erik’s and Jia’s squad formed the tip of the spear.
“Everyone stay sharp,” he yelled because of the comm interference. He didn’t want to rely on laser comms. It’d be too easy to lose line of sight. “Our welcoming party will be here soon enough, and we don’t wish to be rude and not show them we care.”
He shifted to his thermal overlay. The explosions in the distance were clearly visible through the trees, as was the rapidly approaching temperature mass marking the yaoguai.
So much for a complete surprise. They should have loaded Emma’s drone swarm with explosives like the men who had tried to assassinate the NSCPD chief and smashed them into everything but the mansion. That would have been a spectacular distraction.
“We need to clear the distance and fast,” Erik ordered. “Kill anything that looks like it came out of a lab. Ready your frags. We don’t need to burn down half of France. I don’t want you using any plasmas until ordered to. All heavy ordnance exos, hold off. We might need those rockets for something far scarier than overgrown test-tube pets.”
He downplayed the yaoguai threat but wondered how bad it would be. Not every soldier had experience dealing with genetically engineered monsters. Exotic and twisted creations threatened a soldier’s mind and slowed his reflexes.
Four legs didn’t sound so bad. At least it wasn’t a tentacled horror that looked like a reject from alien porn.
A flick of a finger set his autoloader for fragmentation grenades in his launcher.
Three exos in each four-member squad were equipped with high-powered rifles and grenade launchers, including both fragmentation and plasma ammo. The fourth member carried a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, but Erik worried about running into other exos, full-conversion Tin Men, or armored vehicles.
The yaoguai might be nothing more than an appetizer.
Overlapping deep, low howls came from ahead as the enemy approached, accompanied by the rustle and crack of branches.
Howls he could deal with. He didn’t care how they dressed up a dog or a wolf with their mad science. They could paint it with polka dots and give it a venom-filled mouth for all he cared. In the end, it would just be a predator who had forgotten man had developed nicer tools than spears and stone axes.
“Hold position!” Erik shouted, aiming h
is grenade launcher. “Use your thermals. It doesn’t matter how hard they are to see on regular optics then. Wait for my order to fire. Remember, yaoguai aren’t normal animals. We’re not going to be able to scare them off with a couple of kills. Don’t just shoot to kill. Shoot to obliterate.”
Erik glanced at a side window showing his non-thermal feed. The undergrowth rippled in front of him. Branches and shrubs pushed themselves to the side. Other plants and branches looked like they were moving forward, except for one thing—the bright yellow eyes.
It took more steps for Erik to realize the approaching enemies weren’t using some sort of adaptive camouflage that matched them to their surroundings with each step. The patterns and coloration of the pelts of the yaoguai were static but perfect for the forest. It was obvious they’d been created to guard this exact location.
Camouflaged wolves. That’s what they were, huge dire wolves twice the size of anything natural.
They bounded through the forest without further howls, only the sound of cracking branches and the thuds of their footfalls signaling their approach. It was time for their attack.
A genetically-engineered monster could possess all sorts of advantages over their natural kin and humans, but it took a human brain to understand military strategy. The dire wolves continued rushing forward, oblivious to the pain readied for them. The yaoguai might have their fear stripped from them through conditioning and genetic engineering, but the soldiers had the bravery of those fighting for a cause they believed in.
Erik waited, taking slow, measured breaths. There were too many trees and shrubs around. If they fired early, the effects of the barrage would be blunted. He wanted to maximize the destruction and ensure none of the first wave survived.
Awaiting his orders, none of the soldiers fired. Discipline was what turned a man into a soldier, and Erik had complete confidence in theirs. Colonel Adeyemi wouldn’t have sent a bunch of hotheads with him.
It was Erik’s job to be the hothead.
Desperate Measures Page 12