Siege Protocol: The Separatist Wars: Book 3

by Thomas Webb

  Hale nodded. “Solid plan, Shane. You mentioned there was something else?”

  Shane nodded, keeping her eyes glued to the holo instruments. “Yeah. A smaller ship jettisoned from the bigger one. Headed toward the surface. Vector was right toward our target.”

  Hale frowned. “Shit.”

  “My thoughts exactly. They’re trying to beat us to the punch.”

  Hale checked his chrono. “How long we got before they get on target?”

  “Minutes,” she said. “Plus I have to get us clear of the bigger ship.”

  “Copy that. So what are you thinking for getting us down there?”

  Shane had been giving it some thought, and she had something in mind that just might work. “That HALO gear still stowed onboard from the training op?”

  “Yeah,” Hale answered.

  Shane quickly pulled up a holo map of the AO. She pointed a gloved finger at the map. “The target structure is positioned on this overlook right near the coast.”

  “Right,” Hale said, recognition of Shane’s plan lighting up his face. “I think I see where you’re going with this.”

  “Yep,” Shane said. “FAST suits into atmo. The entry signatures should be small enough to escape that cloaked ship’s sensors. Then, as soon as you break ATMO, transition to an old-fashioned HALO insertion.”

  “Right,” Hale said, rubbing his chin. “Yeah . . . that could work, Shane.” He grinned. “I knew there was reason I liked you.”

  “Good,” Shane said. She made a mental note to flip him off later. “Now get your ass back there and geared up. You better double-time it. That jettisoned vessel isn’t wasting any time getting to our target, and that cloaked ship isn’t gonna follow us around forever.”

  -18-

  “Stand by to deploy chutes,” Hale ordered. “Pop at your own discretion, soon as we break the eleven thousand-meter threshold. Make sure you engage your anti-grav backups,” he reminded them.

  Clicks all around acknowledged his command. This op was similar enough to the one they’d just trained up on. A few minor tweaks, and the bones of the plan were still good to go.

  Much like his days in the Corps, they’d canked the op they’d originally conducted the training for at the last minute. As it turned out, the asshole target of the planned snatch and grab had disappeared.

  The target’s disappearance hadn’t been a complete surprise-it fit a pattern. The same thing had been happening with the rest of the ULS senior leadership. The timing was both mysterious and noteworthy. They’d all dropped off the proverbial holo map right before a whole slew of interstellar warrants were issued for their arrests.

  High above the planet and plummeting at this world’s version of terminal velocity, Hale was glad to see the training they’d logged hadn’t been a complete waste.

  A chime inside his helmet let him know the altitude threshold was fast approaching. A quick check of the altimeter in his HUD confirmed it. Hale transitioned his body from FAST drop to the freefall position—belly down, legs slightly bent, arms out, and palms up for maximum drag. Just like he’d learned at solar system jump school. He felt like it was a good time to remind himself that if his chute didn’t pop and his anti-grav failed, not even FAST armor would keep him from becoming little more than a pile of pulverized slush-meat inside his suit.

  The altimeter’s beeping grew more urgent. At the sound of the final beep, a continuous tone sounded. Hale waved off and deployed his chute. The force yanked him skyward. Before his feet dangled beneath him he was checking his HUD. Three other chutes popped green, their speed and altimeter descent markings roughly matching his own. It was looking like they’d made a successful drop. Outstanding.

  Within minutes Hale was mere meters above the green ocean waves. He cut away, hitting the water with a splash.

  In some ways, the depths of the alien world’s seas were no different than the depths of space. Sealed, climate controlled, and with their own oxygen supply, the FAST suits were good for either environment. Now it was a simple matter of covering a klick and a half of distance to the target. As he sank to the ocean floor, Hale adjusted the pulse rifle in his arms and keyed his comms.

  “Razor One to all elements. Check in. Over.”

  “Razor Two up,” Zombie said. Hale touched bottom and clicked on the ambient light outside his helmet. A fish with six tentacle-like appendages swam by. As he was neither a threat nor food, the creature paid Hale little mind.

  “Razor Four, up,” Lash reported.

  “Razor Three, up,” Kris said.

  “Good copy, all. Nice work on that drop, team. Form up on me. Standard patrol pattern. We’re two mikes ahead of schedule, but we need to step it out. Our opfor’s probably already on target.”

  Hale called up a three-dimension map of the sea floor, pointed himself and his team toward the target, and advanced. An uneventful undersea double-time got them on target quickly. They emerged from the surf, setting foot onto the beach with rifles up and ready.

  At Hale’s silent hand signal, the team spread out and got low. The planet’s twin suns threatened daybreak as they stepped up the beach. Darkness would be their ally for only a few minutes more.

  Hale scanned the area. Just ahead was a jungle trail, leading up the side of a set of cliffs and to the overlook above. Hale took point, his jungle-striped FAST armor blending in with the local fauna. The ambient sounds of the jungle washed over them. The buzzing of insects, a night creature scuttling away to its bed off in the bush, the distant cry of a winged predator somewhere in the tall green trees above.

  The path took them on a twisting, almost vertical climb. They reached the top just as the twin suns fully broke the horizon. A small home sat in a clearing atop the cliffs. Six figures in blacked out armor were already stacked and positioned on the door.

  Hale urged the team into action. Kris shifted up alongside him, while Zombie and Lash spread out on the flanks. Hale and Kris rolled in on the United Les Space kill team from behind, opening up on the drag man and dropping both him and the soldier in the stack ahead of him. Sloppy of them to have no rear security, but their mistake was Hale and his team’s gain. Caught unawares, the first two went down easy. Then the rest of the kill team woke up.

  “Contact front,” Hale said into his comms, calm as if he were sipping his morning coffee despite the pulse rounds screaming past.

  “Covering,” came the response.

  Lash opened up with his 267, sending a swarm of pulse energy toward the enemy position. Hale’s Heads Up Display indicated a spike in his heart rate as he leapt and rolled into the cover of the jungle. His FAST armor took several pulse rounds before he was able to scramble behind the thick, rotting trunk of a downed tree. Hale got prone behind the pulpy mass of wood, then got his rifle up and began working the trigger.

  Kris covered behind a boulder just off the pathway to the house, her position at a forty-five-degree angle from where Hale lay. Rounds smacked into the rock, scorching her cover.

  Zombie had taken up a slightly elevated position and was owning the left flank. She poured STAR pulse fire into the attackers right where they’d set up near the building, but with the house providing cover they were holding their ground. Through the chaos of battle, Hale heard the 267 go quiet.

  “Changing,” Lash announced over the comms.

  The big Salayan had covered further back in the jungle, where Hale spotted him switching out his gun’s charge cans. Before anyone could pick up the covering fire, the ULS kill team shifted into motion. A quick look told Hale they were taking advantage of the pause in fire. They were breaching the house.

  Shit.

  “They’re moving on the target,” Hale said over the comms. “We gotta collapse on that structure. How’s that 267 coming, Razor Four?”

  “All set, One,” Lash responded. “Resuming covering fire.”

  The sweet sound of one-thousand pulse rounds per minute rang out, and Hale and his team moved out under its protection. Half the enemy
had already made entry and were presumably searching the house. The other half had fallen back just inside the door, covering from the deadly fire of the 267. But Lash’s big gun wouldn’t hold them down forever. Hale and the team had to get inside.

  “Razor Four—keep those straggler’s heads down,” Hale said. “Two and Three, on me.”

  Hale waited for Lash to shift his field of fire. Then he darted out, taking the right side of the door. Hale snapped inside, unloading before the closest black-suited kill team member managed to get her weapon up. He heard fire coming both from his left and the room’s center.

  “Clear right,” Hale called, already kicking the downed enemy’s weapon away.

  “Clear left,” Kris said.

  “Clear center,” Zombie replied, stacking up behind Hale.

  He counted two more dead assailants, courtesy of Zombie and Kris, before turning his sights down the hallway.

  “Razor Four, on the move,” Lash reported. “Got squirters out the back. Should I pursue?”

  “Negative,” Hale said, already stalking down the small hallway. “Meet us inside. Cover our six at the entry.”

  As Lash double-clicked his comms to acknowledge, Hale heard fire from the last room of the structure. He swore and doubled his pace, clearing all the way down and knowing Zombie and Kris would be able to keep up. When they got to the door Hale signaled for a quick entry, then called it off. A glance at the lock setup told him there was only one way the were getting in. He patted his helmet signaling ‘breacher up.’ Lash came shuffling forward, with Kris switching places and taking the rear security slot. The Salayan shifted the 267, slinging it across his wide back. He drew the breaching gun from his armor.

  As Lash took aim, Hale’s comms crackled to life. “Razor One, this is Valkyrie.”

  “Go for One,” Hale said.

  “That cloaked ship broke off pursuit. I led them away from the planet, but they’ve adjusted their vector. I think they’re on to you. They’re probably headed back now with reinforcements.”

  “Copy, Valkyrie. Can you buy us some time?”

  “I’ll try. What about your exfil?”

  Hale frowned. “One problem at a time, Valkyrie. Just give us a minute or two.”

  “Copy. Valkyrie out.”

  The transmission complete, Hale gave Lash the nod. The shotgun boomed, blasting the locking mechanism. A high-velocity shell filled with peristeel pellets disintegrated lock, door, and handle. Hale kicked the remains of the door open, hitting the room with the rest of the team tight on his six.

  Hale took in the space at a glance. The HVT lay dead on the floor. The pulse burns had gone clean through his skull, execution style. The remainder of the kill squad stood stacked against a wall wired with explosive charges. As Hale’s brain registered that the enemy were about to create their own exit, one of the black-clad fighters casually tossed a plasma grenade.

  “Cover!” Hale shouted.

  He shoved Zombie back through the doorway and dove on top of her, just as a flash of superheated plasma exploded behind them. The heat washed over him, perceptible even through the thick plating of FAST armor rated for reentry-level friction. The plasma material scorched his armor, eating through almost to flesh. His HUD flashed red.

  Armor integrity compromised, the message read.

  Lucky for him he’d dodged the bulk of the blast. A direct hit would have burned through armor, meat, bone, and anything else in its way. The bedroom wall exploded in a field of pulse energy, exposing the jungle outside. The kill team filed through the opening. They were getting away.

  “They’re rabbiting!” Zombie shouted. She threw Hale off of her and leapt to her feet, giving him a hand up and helping him to stand. In a flash they were both through the destroyed wall and in pursuit.

  The jungle outside erupted in pulse fire. Hale dropped to prone and returned fire in a single, violent motion. “I count four,” he said into his comms.

  “Copy that,” Zombie said. “I make the count four.”

  Kris and Lash, both right behind them, clicked acknowledged. Hale’s HUD had taken damage from the plasma frag. He was able to verify four remaining enemy, with the indicator blinking in and out. The four were positioned perfectly for a holding action. Smart of them. All they had to do was sit tight and wait until the cloaked ship arrived with reinforcements.

  Hale checked his chrono. “We gotta move, people.”

  “How can we flush these fuckers out?” Zombie asked.

  Hale looked down at his impaired armor, considering the plasma frag that had inflicted the damage. If it worked for the enemy, maybe it could work for them, too?

  “All hands,” Hale said. “Stand by to deploy frags.”

  “Copy, One,” Zombie replied.

  Hale waited a beat, then gave the order. “Frag out,” he said.

  Hale pulled a pulse frag from his gear and tossed it in a neat arc. The rest of the team immediately followed suit. A second later there was a flash as the blast tore through the section of jungle in front of them. Two of the hired ULS goons went flying, armor and all. Regular pulse frags would require direct hits for maximum damage in an open space, but Hale hoped frags from the experimental section of Kushite intelligence might be a different story.

  Hale’s damaged HUD read two of the closest troops, an Andarian and a human woman, with vitals near zero. Hale waited a second for Zombie to join him before moving out to the downed enemy. He dumped a half pulse mag into his to finish her. Next to him, Zombie did likewise. It was a ruthless move, but better to take them out now than have them circle back and finish off someone on his team.

  “I’m reading two more,” Hale said. “Both down. Kris and I will take the one on the left. Zombie—you and Lash take the downed tango on the right. Move.”

  Hale got his sights on the downed enemy and moved in. His HUD wasn’t functioning well enough to tell if they were dead, but there was no movement as he approached. He got low and stalked in.

  “No rifle,” he said, checking the black armored figure on the jungle floor.

  “Careful,” Zombie said. “I’m reading low vitals on this one. Barely perceptible, but there.”

  “Copy,” Hale said.

  Zombie covered as Hale unlocked the sidearm from the enemy’s holster and tossed it. He kicked the body. “No movement.”

  “We have one enemy here,” Kris communicated. “They are KIA. Blown apart.”

  “Search what’s left,” Hale replied. “Then You and Lash go back and do a quick sweep of the house. And I do mean quick.”

  Hale and Zombie examined the enemy fighter, both with their weapons trained.

  “They came here for something,” Hale said, keeping an eye out for even the slightest twitch.

  “Yeah,” Zombie said. “Hopefully we can friggin’ find it.”

  Hale kicked the armored body over, his barrel aimed in at the head. Still no readings, but with the damage his armor had taken it wasn’t a surprise. He searched the back of the armor, checking each compartment but coming up empty. The kit was similar to his own—med supplies, ammo, but nothing else.

  Zombie paused as she searched the downed fighter’s boots. “I got something, boss.”

  “What is it?”

  “Holo chip,” she said. “Right heel.”

  “Nice find, Zombie. Can you get a read on it?”

  “Hold one.” Zombie inserted the chip into the forearm of her armor. “Shit,” she swore. “It’s encrypted.”

  “We take it anyway,” Hale said. “Let’s get this one secured. If they’re still breathing inside this armor, our people will get something out of them.”

  Hale was finishing up getting the captured enemy hog-tied with peristeel cable when his comms buzzed on. “One, this is Valkyrie. I’ve harassed the cloaked ship—got them chasing a holo HUD ghost, but that won’t hold them for long. I’m coming in fast. Two minutes out. Be ready to move your asses. When I hit a meter off dirt, we’re bugging the hell out. We got zero ti
me to waste.”

  “Good copy, Valkyrie. We’ll be ready. See you in one-hundred twenty. Over.” Hale switched comm waves. “Everybody get all that?”

  “Affirmative,” Kris answered. “We have completed our intel sweep. We are exiting the structure now.”

  Kris and Lash appeared a second later. Kris had a goodie bag gripped in one armored gauntlet, her Tauranian long gun in the other. Lash had the dead ULS exec draped over one massive shoulder. Hale studied the dead man. Thoughts of the Velusian accountant who’d died on Luna floated to the top of his mind.

  “No one who flips on ULS seems to be able to stay breathing,” Zombie said. She was right. United Les Space had literally world’s worth of deaths to answer for.

  A spark in the morning sky caught Hale’s eye. He looked up and zoomed in with his HUD. It blinked out, but when it returned there was a shaky image of their gunship, streaking toward them at a fast clip. Hale reached down and hoisted the restrained kill team member onto his shoulder. Whoever it was would be secured onboard the Avenger for the trip home and interrogated later.

  “Valkyrie to all Razor elements. Touchdown imminent. Prep for boarding. We can close the hatch when we’re airborne.”

  “Ok team,” Hals said. “You heard the lady. We got what we came for. Now let’s get the hell outta here.”

  -19-

  Kaizen reduced the powered to her small ship’s thrusters, pivoting and setting down in a clear space of jungle just above the emerald-green tide line. This tiny island had seen quite a lot of action during its most recent daylight cycle. Her ASI targets were long gone now, having dispatched the United Les Space kill team hours ago. At this point they would have already traveled through this system’s jump gate, and were probably well on their way through the series of portals leading back to Earth.