The Iron War: A Xander Cain Novel

by P W Hillard

  “What the hell happened to you?” Xander said. He noticed that a small readout had appeared in his vision, floating beside Sandhu’s battered mech. It was pointing out weakened armour plates and had highlighted the left ankle joint of the suit. Another advantage provided by Matthias.

  Xander was still unsure of the AI. It had been helpful, certainly, but Xander wasn't sure he quite believed it that it couldn't remember anything. It seemed oddly convenient. He put his worries aside, for now he needed the strange computer program, and once his mission was done it wasn't his problem anymore.

  “We had a run-in with another Merc unit, one hired to try and nab our VIP. Small outfit, but we got hit by those Black Rose fuckers at the same time. We saw your interview by the way. They're all like our bald friend?” Sandhu's mech had thin streaks of black across its surface, a tell-tale sign of laser hits, the reflective paint scorching from the heat but preventing any real damage.

  “Yeah. You still have him?”

  “Nah, we dropped off our VIP and left him with them. Our job was done, so we decided to try and bug out. Dropship pick up was scheduled for next week, we did have leave scheduled in-between. That’s one big bust. Elevator seemed like the next best bet. I’m assuming you’re headed the same way?”

  “Yes.” Xander turned his machine to face the towering black wall. “Truth be told I’m glad to see you. Recon puts the enemy at forty or so mechs, plus tanks and at least one infantry battalion. I could use the back-up.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t know how much difference six suits and some infantry are going to make against that lot then. What the fuck are you riding anyway?”

  “Ha, right, yeah. This is the cargo that was on that loader. Some of it anyway. Corp I'm working for dug it up somewhere. Believe it or not, we have a chance with this.”

  “Wait,” Sandhu said, the realisation audible in his voice. “This thing is lost tech? A working lost mech? Weapons and everything?”

  “Yep. Trust me, this thing can get the job done.”

  “Yeah, I can believe that.”

  “Analysing the other pilot’s voice, he does not appear to be lying,” Matthias said. Xander ignored it. Matthias had the same tone of voice he did when performing a function, so Xander assumed perhaps it was an automated response on the AI’s part.

  “Look, I’m more than happy to help you get to the elevator, but I do need something from you if that’s the case,” Xander said.

  “Anything,” Sandhu said. “We still owe you from yesterday by my reckoning.”

  “I need you to send half your mechs and all your infantry down there,” Xander said pointing over the side of the highway to the tunnel below. “That leads to an underground train station, cargo transport direct to the climber. You’ll find the rest of my outfit down there. They could use the backup.”

  “Why are you up here if that’s the case? I’m not going to like the answer, am I?”

  “Our mission is twofold. First, create a big loud distraction to draw as many forces to us as possible. Second, we need to capture the climber control room and set the thing moving. So, pick your best, because we'll be up against those forty mechs I mentioned.”

  “Right. Right. So, a suicide mission then?” Sandhu didn't seem remotely upset at the prospect. Suicide missions were an alarming regularity for most mercenaries.

  “Only if we lose, and I don’t have any plan on doing that.”

  “Ok, Briggs and Merton, you’re up here with me, the rest of you get into the tunnel. Double time it.”

  “You’re coming with?” Xander asked. Whilst stories of company leaders throwing themselves into danger were popular, it was rarely the case. Losing the person in command was a terrible idea, regardless of how dashing or heroic they were.

  “And miss seeing that thing in action? No way, I’m not sitting that out.” Sandhu’s mech lifted its weapon, holding it tight across its chest. “Besides, you wanted the best right?”

  ***

  The silence was nearly unbearable. A lingering heavy malaise had settled over the people inside the loader, only the slow chugging of its engine echoing through the tunnel providing any background noise. Occasionally one of the mechsuits would get close enough to the cabin for the stomping of its heavy feet to reverberate through it. Even the pirates were sat still, not saying anything.

  Xander had vanished out of sight as they had driven away, into the subterranean path that would lead to the train. Despite the incredible machine he was encased within, the assault was a big ask. No-one had said it out loud, but Xander’s chances were slim. Even if he got to the control room in one piece, activating the climber controls and still having time to get aboard the ascending platform seemed wildly unlikely.

  “He’ll be ok, right?” Tamara said, finally breaching the silence, her words more a gentle push rather than a loud punching statement. “That thing will be good enough?”

  “Let's hope so,” Sergei said. He was leaning against the railing, staring at the bound pirates. Sergei didn't seem like the trusting sort at the best of times, only begrudgingly putting up with the mercenaries. The pirates were a step too far. He had stared at them constantly since they had been brought into the cabin, his eyes threatening to bore through them one at a time. “If he can't get the climber moving, it won't matter if we make it."

  “And you’re sure there’s a ship up there?”

  Sergei nodded. “The Sunchaser. The company bought it specially for our cargo, actually. I have no idea what kind it is, ships aren’t my thing, but I know it cost a fortune.”

  “Sounds like your company isn’t the best with money. Xander did mention you can’t even pay him without selling the stuff in the back.” Tamara smiled. Inside information on corporations was popular news.

  “I wouldn’t know. I was just in charge of the warehouse. Even ordering this trek was technically beyond my authority. But yeah, when I asked for support, the company said it wasn’t able to budget for it at the time. Not able to pay for extra support on the biggest find for centuries? That’s bollocks. It means the company is on its arse.”

  “There’s a logic to that, sure.”

  “Hell, we even cheaped out on the mercs. No offence to these guys, but the company underplayed the mission just to get freelancers. I don’t know, these Black Rose guys maybe have a point? We work so hard to get somewhere, and what does it get us? Fuck all.” Sergei sighed, resting his hands on the railing. “Four years in business school, and for what? To be in charge of some boxes in a building somewhere. It’s hardly what I imagined. I wanted to be running my own company, you know, the cut and thrust of big business?”

  “Hah, we’re not so different I think,” Tamara said. “You know what a producer is for?”

  “Isn’t it just a bullshit title so people can get paid for nothing in exchange for their name?”

  “That’s executive producer. No, a producer’s job is to do what it says. Produce. Produce a show, produce a product, produce money. When a big movie comes out, the director gets all the accolades, all the congratulations, but that’s rubbish. A producer, that’s the key person. A director might assemble all the parts of a movie, but it’s the producer that gives them those parts to start with.”

  “I think I get you,” Sergei said. “You’re the guiding hand that keeps the creative types on track.”

  “Bingo. Art is all well and good, but if you can’t sell it what’s the point? And yes, whilst art for art’s sake is all well and noble, you show me an artist who says they don’t want to do it for a living, and I’ll show you a liar. I’ve worked my ass off to get where I am, and I’m still only working for a small-time outfit. It’s hard.”

  “Wow, you lot are worse than us,” Mikal said. “At least pirates are open about doing it for the greed. If you want more, go out and fucking get it. Instead of working with a system designed to keep you on the bottom rung, why not just tell it to fuck off and do your own thing?”

  “Yeah, because it’s working out
so well for you at the moment,” Tamara said, sneering at the pirate.

  “Normally does. Fair, this isn't ideal, but you gotta pay the piper sometime. At least I own my mistakes. Sounds to me like you’re blamin’ someone else for your problems. That’s bullshit that is. If you don’t like the rules, fuck the rules. You, corporate bloke, you said you didn’t have the authority to do any of this?”

  “No, I didn’t, but what other choice did I have?” Sergei said with a shrug.

  “See, you’re already on that road. Do what needs to be done, regardless.”

  “He’s got a point. Maybe not as extreme as he’s going for, but if this war is going to be as bad as we think will be, it’s going to be on us to survive,” Tamara said. She had picked up her tablet again, typing furiously. “Here, Sergei, take a look at this, tell me what you think?”

  ***

  “At this current pace we will arrive on target in fifteen minutes,” the formal Matthias said. “You do still use minutes, right?”

  “We do. Don’t you know that from my memories?” Xander was focused on the road ahead, the head unit of the paladin adjusting its cameras as he turned it side to side. The road was open, a perfect place for an ambush.

  “I’ve trying to respect your wishes and not access them. I can change that if you would like?”

  “No, no, this is fine. How are we on ammunition?”

  “We’ve used just two of our missiles. The left gauss has twenty-two shots, the right twenty-three. The gas usage of our plasma burst was negligible,” Matthias said. Figures appeared in Xander’s vision. “I have made the data available in the HUD.”

  “Thanks.” Xander wasn’t keen on the way Matthias kept referring to the mech as being theirs, rather than just Xander’s. It made him feel less in control than he would have liked. Despite that, Xander could feel the paladin responding faster than any other suit he had ridden. He wondered how much of that was the superior machine, and how much was the AI's assistance.

  “Speaking of missiles, I still have those locations locked from the aerial surveillance, might it be prudent to open fire?”

  “Not yet, we need to let the enemy forces concentrate, just a few more minutes.”

  Xander could see the entrance to the complex clearly now. The highway split off into a dozen separate lanes, each blocked by a barrier. Immediately behind the security checkpoint was a tangled mass of signs and road markings, each sending traffic off into the massive parking structures that surrounded the elevator. There was a dip in the road before Xander, some of the parking located beneath the main building.

  A line of tanks rolled up the road, appearing into sight from underground. They had lain in wait, hiding themselves until it was time to attack. Xander knew they would fire and then retreat down the ramp out of sight. It was a common but useful tactic, whoever was commanding the forces here was a cut above the enemies Xander had fought so far.

  “Scatter!” Xander said, causing the three Viper Legion mechs behind him to spread apart. Cannon shells exploded in the road around them, concrete and asphalt spraying into the air like geysers. Xander could see the missile locks in his vision, square icons highlighting each tank.

  “Shall we fire now?” Matthias said.

  Xander snarled within the cabin. “Launch missiles,” he said.

  Lost Tech - Wonders of a forgotten age!

  Excerpt from a recorded tour held at Hades Museum of Technology.

  Come along now children, don't dawdle, yes, I mean you at the back! Welcome, everyone to this, the noon tour of the museum. Now, I must warn you in advance you are not to touch the exhibits, you must not climb on the exhibits, and you certainly shouldn't lick them. Yes, that's happened before. More than once. I must also ask you to follow the arrows at all times. There are a lot of visitors here, and a lot of tours, and I wouldn't want you to get lost. You wouldn't want to miss one of our riveting exhibits.

  Now, this here is our first piece. A fantastic example of pre-collapse technology, this device was, we think, used for drilling. Possibly for an oil derrick of some kind. Notice how the tip of the drill is smooth? We think it used some kind of energy field to do the cutting. Yes…like the kind of knives that mechsuits carry. There will be plenty of opportunities later on the tour to see pieces that inspired mechsuit equipment. I think you’ll find that what we have learnt from devices unrelated to fighting much more intriguing. Things that you now encounter every day! Much more interesting, right?

  This particular item is currently on loan from the TaranisTech Corporation, also one of the sponsors of our exhibit. This relic, though the drill function no longer works, does feature a hydraulic system more efficient than what we use currently, that is now being rolled out across space. Soon your doors, elevators, all kinds of things will have real-life lost recovered technology in them. Exciting isn't it?

  Moving onto our next exhibit, this is a what we think is the rear half of a motor vehicle. Notice it has wheels, like ours. It would seem that despite all the things you see in movies and webshows, where pre-collapse society has flying cars, teleporters and a whole host of science fiction nonsense, they actually used wheeled vehicles, just like us. I'm told the materials in the rear bumper have inspired new plastic composites, and the exhaust is…hey, keep with the group, please. Don't skip ahead! The exhaust is now in use for most modern cars.

  Ok, now our third exhibit. Simmer down, simmer down. Where was this enthusiasm for the previous two? Our third exhibit is the upper torso and left arm of pre-collapse mechsuit. Its complete design is unknown, though we expect it to have been roughly the size of our modern suits. Let me answer a few questions for you before you go asking them. We don’t know what weapons it had, we don’t know what this model is called, and no, we haven’t gotten it working. What we do know is that the cabins found in this and other pre-collapse mechsuits show they were piloted by humans. That is despite any rumours you may have heard to the contrary. This exhibit was also donated by TaranisTech. I am contractually obliged at this point in the tour to remind you that TaranisTech is the foremost provider of research and development services within the Iron Belt. TaranisTech, harness the thunder.

  Now that’s over with, I will give you a moment to take photographs before we move on. People always want to take photographs of this one.

  Ok, that’s long enough. Let’s move on, other groups will be coming through soon, and people always seem to clump here. Now our next exhibit is a collection of household objects from pre-collapse…

  Chapter Twenty-One

  A storm of missiles streaked free from the shoulders of the paladin, launchers popping out from their hiding place to rain death. The tanks had retreated backwards, moving out from line of sight behind the sloped road. It didn’t matter, the tiny projectiles were fast, manoeuvrable in a way Xander didn’t think was possible. Almost in unison, they punched through the armour of the tanks, leaving a distinct glowing hole as the energy field sliced through the metal. The detonations weren’t large, they didn’t need to be, each explosion killing the crew and damaging fragile internal components. One of the tanks exploded, its ammunition stores catching fire, whilst the others simply froze, the only hint of death the thin wisps of smoke leaking through gaps in the armour.

  The barrage continued, missiles shrieking off towards targets chosen in advance. They curved over buildings, around corners and down ramps, seeking their prey. Where they found them, they struck, tiny daggers that cut deep into the metal flesh of mechsuit and tanks alike. Some missiles found themselves without a target, floundering as their designated mission had changed. Some simply impacted the ground, no time left to change their course, others followed their comrades, a second strike to ensure a wounded target was dead.

  “Missile launch complete,” Matthias said. “I estimate a sixty-seven per cent kill rate on pre-selected targets. Hmm, I think we could have managed much higher, I’ll have to work on the missile targeting algorithms.”

  “Do that later,” Xande
r said. He didn’t want the AI distracted, if that was even possible. He had little understanding of how the program worked. Besides, they had fired just over thirty missiles. A sixty-seven per cent kill rate was insane, that meant they had taken out nearly a quarter of the estimated forces in seconds. “Sandhu, keep your mechs tight behind me. We’re going right to the target, hard and fast. No matter what we do we’re going to get flanked, so we’re just going to have to blitz ahead.”

  “Got it, Cain.” Sandhu was an experienced rider. He knew Xander was right, getting involved in a long shooting match was a recipe for getting ground down by the enemies’ superior numbers. Punching right through the line and leaving the enemy to scramble behind them was an effective tactic, one that mechsuits excelled at. Sandhu wasn’t afraid to admit the suit Xander was riding scared him. It had taken out a tank squadron with no effort and had launched dozens more of the missiles deeper into the complex. Sandhu instinctively knew it had just scored more kills in seconds than some mercenaries did their entire careers.

  The Paladin proved itself again not moments later. The sloped road the tanks had appeared from had large sets of steps on each side, leading up to a walkway that opened up to a plaza, a massive fountain dominating the white stone. A mechsuit had popped up on the walkway, its weapon resting on the low wall that ran along the edge. It was laying prone, trying to obscure its body from the attacks below. It was a smart idea if it weren't up against Xander.

  He fired, a single shot from the right gauss cannon flying from the blocky barrel. The air around the weapon rippled, heat from the electromagnets dissipating into the air. The dart hit the walkway, the concrete giving way to the kinetic force of the shot. It punched through, exploding out from the back of the mech, an eruption of concrete, metal, and blood that just moments later fell onto the road below. The shattered mech hit the asphalt with a clang, rolling partway down the ramp until it hit one of the disabled tanks and stopped.