by TR Cameron
A moment later, a new window opened in his display as the tiny aircraft climbed upward from their position. It was almost too small to see normally and had the same adaptive camouflage panels as the jumpsuits, which rendered it invisible. Even metal and heat detection failed to notice it. The one thing they’d found that did work was tracking the disruption it made in the air passing over it, but that was rather far afield from standard sensor practice.
It cycled through sensing modes every few seconds, from visual only, to sound, to thermal imaging. No results came back from outside the buildings, and the interior of the structures appeared equally vacant. “What the hell,” he muttered under his breath.
Athena offered, “It appears the town is abandoned, Jax.”
He rolled his eyes. Yeah, it certainly does. “All right, people. I’m open to suggestions here.”
Venn sounded as confused as he was. “Doesn’t make sense. Why would they put up such a fight up top after leaving the only city they’d claimed behind?”
Welker suggested, “Could the buildings interfere with the readings? Or electronic countermeasures set up inside them?”
Thinking back to a mission a few planets before, Jax added, “Maybe they have an underground complex that we missed.”
O’Leary shook her head. “Possible but unlikely. I’m sure that’s one of the first things the intelligence folks looked for with the satellite, and they had plenty of time on this one to do any checks they wanted to do.”
Lyton shrugged. “So, are we agreed that it’s a trap?”
Jax nodded. “Trap.” Each of the others replied identically, including the voice in his head. “Damn, it’s unanimous. Even Athena thinks so.”
O’Leary laughed. “What’s it like to finally be as smart as the rest of us, boss? A whole new world for you, I’m guessing.”
“Ha. That’s a black mark on my report for taking such an easy shot. Aim higher, Wasp.” He rose to his feet and patted the spots where his grenades, extra magazines, and pistol lived. Everything was in place. “Okay. We advance slow. I’m center, Wasp and Dare to my left, Strings and Books on the right. Outermost also protect our six. We stay together unless we need to break for cover, then you four go in pairs, and I’ll be all heroic and hoof it on my own.”
Venn snorted. “That’s so you, boss.”
“I know, right?” He inhaled deeply, then blew out his breath to center himself. “Game faces. Anyone pops up who’s not us, put them down. If they don’t show weapons, stun them, and we’ll apologize later. If you sense danger, shoot to kill. Something’s definitely not right here, and whatever game they’re playing, it’s up to us to knock over the table and punch them in the mouth for trying it.”
They approached with rifles raised, moving with care but still covering the ground rapidly. They cleared the buildings as they came to them, with Lyton the designated door kicker and Venn sending the drone in to check for enemies or evidence. After the first couple, the process was irritating. When the fifth one revealed nothing of interest inside, Jax called a halt. Athena, any connection to the Cronus?
“Negative. The jamming continues unabated.”
Damn it. “The Cronus is still unreachable. The fact that there’s jamming is a good sign, means we haven’t lost.”
Strings countered, “And that we haven’t won.”
“Minus one point for negativity.” He waved his hand as if making a mark on an imaginary chalkboard. “I see three options. One, we fade into the forest and watch and wait. Two, we keep doing what we’re doing until we’ve cleared all the buildings. Three, we go inside them.”
O’Leary replied, “Dislike the first, dislike the second, hate the third. If they did abandon this place, there’s almost no chance they left without trapping it to hell and back. It’s what we would do.”
A squeal rang through their comms and caused Jax to bite his tongue hard enough to taste blood. A tinny voice wavered in and out of audibility as if its owner was screaming through a narrow metal pipe from the other side of the planet. He could only make out three words, “Reese,” “Trap,” and “Incoming.” The way the others’ rifles snapped up into guard position suggested they’d heard the same ones.
“What do you think about getting under cover now, Wasp?”
She growled, “I vote for the trees.”
“Good plan. Run, people.” They’d only managed about fifteen seconds of flight before ships screamed into view from above. Three transports about the size of their shuttle but hardened for landings in active combat zones headed for the town. One vectored to cut them off from the woods, another clearly intended to set down on the far side of the area, and the third appeared to have chosen the middle of the structures to touch down in. He yelled, “Faster. Maybe we can beat it.” Getting caught with that ship between them and safety would be bad.
A UCCA fighter announced itself in a flurry of munitions and nailed the centermost transport with lasers and a missile. The enemy craft might have dealt with the first, but the second punched through the hull and detonated inside. It crashed into one of the buildings and exploded. The force wave knocked all of them from their feet.
As if the initial structure’s destruction was a signal, every single other building in the town went up in simultaneous fireballs, which sent shrapnel and debris in all directions.
Chapter Three
Jax wound up on his back, staring up at the bright sky. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion as the portion of the debris that had been blown upward and outward from the surrounding buildings arced gracefully through the shafts of sunlight connecting heaven to Earth. Oh, wait. I’m not on Earth. How did I wind up like this? Where am I? Apparently, a place with gravity, anyway, to judge by those large chunks of rock starting on their downward trajectory.
Athena’s voice was a shout that cut through the haze in his head. “Roll left, now.” Her tone was urgent enough that his response was automatic, and he hurled himself sideways in a tumble. His brain came back online as he moved. Oh, right, the Confederacy town. She ordered, “Stop, pull in your legs.” He did, and a huge block of foundation landed where his feet had been. “Now stand.” He complied, and his right arm whipped out in a reflex strike to knock aside a piece of wood headed for his skull. That was faster than usual. He’d been working on increasing his proficiency with his prosthetic’s amplified abilities but had never gone that fast. Finally, his mind caught up to the moment. We’re going to talk about that, Athena.
“Survive first. Both transports have dispatched enemies. I’ve taken control of the drone through your helmet interface.” A window opened on the right side of his visual display to show a view from high above. A group of eight moved in from the back of the town, relative to their entry point, and another squad of Confederacy troops advanced along the route he’d hoped to use for escape.
Jax growled, “Damn it. Incoming. Sound off and rally to me, people.”
O’Leary’s groan was the first to reach his ears. “Wasp.” She stumbled up beside him and swayed a little. The others responded with varying amounts of vigor, and Venn had a hand on Lyton’s shoulder to steady him. When they were all assembled, he ordered, “Stim,” and pulled his dispenser from the med-pack on his belt. He stabbed the point through his uniform into his arm and depressed the button on the metal cylinder’s top. Cold energy flowed into him as the stimulant raced through his body. His people noticeably straightened as they did the same. “All right. We’re going after the ones in front of us and will use the transport as cover against the rest when they get here. We’ll have to move fast.” Assigning specific targets was unnecessary since when they chose one through their helmet’s systems, the data would link to the other team members.
“Two by two, Venn with me in the front, Dare in the middle.” Lyton still looked a little unsteady, so keeping him inside the formation would give him some extra time to react. “Switch to lethal options.” No more stunning for this bunch. The stim had muffled his headache, but
he still felt it creeping around the edges. Athena, did I forget anything?
“No. The enemies ahead are walking forward in an arc, presumably so you can’t slip past them.”
That’s we, Athena. You’re one of us by default.
The AI laughed softly. “I stand corrected. So we can’t slip past them.”
He nodded and regretted it as his brain banged around inside his skull. “Okay, move, people. Fast march, shoot as soon as you see something worth killing.”
Jax kept his rifle pointed directly ahead and watched their approach to the enemy line in his display’s birds-eye-view window. Limited cover was available since all the buildings had been reduced to rubble. He’d been carefully avoiding the stuff as he moved forward. The realization that his brain still wasn’t working right hit him like a stun blast to the temple. He called, “Everyone down, prone behind anything that will shield you,” and dashed ahead to a chunk of rock barely big enough to obscure his crouched form.
He’d figured the enemy might halt their advance since they surely had a high-level view of the action as well. But they kept coming and began firing at maximum range to force his team to keep their heads down. Simultaneously, they slowed their approach, and the reason for it couldn’t have been clearer. “Damn them. They’re delaying to let the ones behind us join in.” His frustration blinded him for a moment, then he pushed it aside and refocused. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.”
He didn’t get to finish his thoughts before another occurrence dramatically shifted the playing field again. A Special Forces transport rocketed into view at top speed, and Captain Catherine Lorenzo’s voice sounded in his helmet. “We have the ones behind you, Axe.” A string of black-clad bodies leapt from the ship as it skimmed near the ground. They hit and rolled several times before coming up with rifles pointed toward the enemy’s position. He far preferred the high altitude insertion drops to those that carried so much risk of the shuttle being shot down on the way in, but the drop suits were designed to protect their wearers in either circumstance.
“Acknowledged, Valkyrie. Let’s take it to them, team.” He jumped up and ran while firing projectiles in full automatic mode. His magazine was empty in seconds, and he ejected it and switched to a new one on the run. The armor plates scattered over his body took several hits from energy blasts and bullets, one of which knocked him off balance. He turned the stumble into a forward roll and landed in a small depression. He grabbed the grenades on his belt and threw smoke and web in sequence although their foes were at the edge of his range.
Or, they had been, before adding his prosthetic arm to the mix. They arced to land behind the lead person on the left since his team’s concentrated fire had already dropped the middle two. The webs covered them, and he shifted his aim to the ones not yet encumbered. The last three, having seen their comrades taken out while failing to do more than moderately injure his team, turned and ran for their ship. Jax pelted after them while calling, “Stun the webbed ones. We need to find out what the hell is going on here.” He flicked his weapon to nonlethal, fired at the fleeing Confederacy troops, and dropped one. Presumably, some communication passed between them because one of the pair stopped and discharged a series of controlled bursts that forced Jax to juke and dodge, and slowed him down.
Venn sounded furious as she reported, “The webbed ones are dead. Shot from behind.”
O’Leary snapped, “Bastards. Haven’t they ever heard of loyalty?” She flashed past on his right. “Keep up, old man. I’ll take the closer one out of your way.”
He nodded and got himself moving again. “Strike two. First the lame insult, now this. I don’t think much of your chances for promotion, Wasp.” He groaned as a pain he’d noticed but hadn’t paid attention to suddenly asserted itself. Damn, cracked rib.
Athena replied, “Probably broken.”
Thanks for the pep talk, Coach. He ignored it and ran faster after throwing his heavy rifle aside, focused on covering the distance to his enemy. The vectors drew themselves in his mind, and he figured he had at least a fifty-fifty chance of catching his prey before he or she made it through the open back door of the transport. That calculation changed slightly as the vessel rose two feet off the ground and rotated to put its rear hatch right in the running soldier’s path. Bloody hell, I hate competent enemies. It would be challenging but possible to get a grenade inside the thing, but he hadn’t brought any explosives. Idiot. “Athena, can you do anything about the shuttle?”
“May I destroy the drone?”
He panted, “Absolutely. And yes, I know, I don’t have to talk, shut it.”
The combination of his damaged side and the distance he’d run slowed him down, and he feared he wouldn’t be able to catch the other person. Then three things happened in quick succession. First, he saw a flash of light off the drone’s metal wing as it turned off its camouflage and plummeted toward the front of the transport, right where the bow camera would be. Second, the pilot reacted to it, doubtless by reflex, and slewed the ship slightly. And that was enough to cause the fleeing soldier’s jump to miss the rear hatch and bounce them off the vessel’s side instead.
Jax arrived as his opponent returned to their feet, turned, and waved a fist at the shuttle climbing into the air. He called, “Let’s settle down now. Your folks left you behind, and I have no desire to kill you.”
The other person rotated to face him, and he saw a woman’s face through the transparent shield. She triggered her external speakers. “You’ll have to, or I’m going to kill you.” She sidestepped toward her rifle, which had fallen on the ground beside her. He drew and fired his pistol in the same instant. The energy bolt blasted her weapon, scorched the surface, and rendered it unsafe to fire, at best. Still, she dove for it, snatched it up, and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened. She snarled a curse and tossed it aside. “The fun way, then.” She charged at Jax with a scream of fury, fists raised. He holstered his pistol and met her flurry of punches with a series of blocks.
“You’re outnumbered. There’s no chance you can win.”
She threw a right hook that he blocked with his left. The reinforced knuckles of her gauntlet met the armor plate on his forearm. “I’m not in it to win it. I want to make sure you remember the fight.” She spun and landed a kick on his damaged ribs, and he groaned.
Jax grumbled, “Okay, enough of that.” She followed up with a left hook, and he snapped his left arm out at full speed and broke her forearm. The blow carried sufficient velocity to break her balance and drop her to the ground. Beatrice O’Leary stepped into view and took her out with a stun blast. Jax shook his head. “How long have you been there?”
She shrugged. “Since she tried to shoot you and failed.”
“And, what, you thought you’d watch?”
O’Leary laughed. “You said I wasn’t doing well, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to learn from your example, oh wise one.”
Jax couldn’t contain his grin. “You’ll fit right in with the other captains, Wasp. Now tie her up and let’s drag her painfully through the town as we rejoin our comrades. If you see a piece of rubble, or maybe a long splinter, officially, you should avoid dragging her across it.”
“Unofficially?”
“As squad leader, you’ll face many difficult decisions. Consider this the first.”
Chapter Four
With the town’s destruction, the UCCA didn’t bother locating its temporary base on that site. Instead, a shuttle picked up Jax and his team and took them a dozen miles away to a wide grassy expanse that provided excellent sightlines in all directions. The Special Forces weren’t involved in the setup of planetary defenses, but he could picture a ship seeding the system with spy satellites, and another doing the same around the planet in a much thicker net. On the ground, four turrets sat atop four scaffolds, one at each corner of their perimeter. Workers busily reinforced the towers with structural metal plates that connected to a sunken foundation.
At the center lay a medical facility, and each of them had been treated for wounds absorbed during the fight. Mostly they’d taken damage from shrapnel, although a bullet had caught O’Leary in the shoulder. Wasp had laughed as the doctor dug it out and claimed she’d add it to her souvenir collection. Aside from Jax, she was the only one who required anything more than some surgical glue and painkillers.
Four rectangular buildings were positioned around the med center, two longer and two shorter. The former included a barracks and dining hall, and the latter an administrative building and security office with integrated prisoner lockup. Arrayed on the next layer outward were smaller structures like warehouses, tool shops, and other essentials for setting up and maintaining their foothold on the planet.
More of the small installations would be dropped strategically across the world, each with a limited force ready to defend their claim. The expense and logistics of it were undeniably staggering, but Jax didn’t worry about it overly much. His part was done, save participating in some data collection. While he and his team would typically accomplish that task by searching through the stuff left behind by the enemy, in this case, the stones and splinters had very little to offer. So they’d have to rely on human intelligence, namely the soldier Wasp had taken down.