by Kal Spriggs
No one answered. We had all hurried back to the drop point. From the look of things, over a hundred enemy “scouts” were headed our way. It looked like there were upwards of six hundred of the enemy.
“Did you identify any gaps?” Kiyu asked. She sounded subdued. I wondered if she felt overwhelmed as the rest of us and just hid it better.
“No, they’re spread evenly through the different levels. There are a few spots were there’s fewer of them, but not enough to matter,” Nadzeha answered.
Everyone went silent at that. With how they had flooded the factory with bodies, there was no where to hide. There wasn’t a thin flank to turn and pile through. We couldn’t
We were running out of time. “We have to move,” I spoke into that silence.
“There’s nowhere to go,” someone said, his voice almost a sob. “We’ve got no room to maneuver.”
“Then let’s not maneuver,” I told them. “Let’s go right at them.”
“Thunder run?” Osmund asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “We don’t have time to try to turn a flank. There’s too many of them for stealth. I say we go right up the middle.”
“If it goes wrong, they’ll swarm us under,” Jonna growled.
“If we stop, yeah,” I wasn’t talking to her, I was talking to everyone. “We have to work together. Watch your buddies. No one falls behind, we don’t stop, we don’t slow down.”
Silence met my statement. The few times I’d done it my way, we’d mostly come out with a win, but this was different. This was real. Our lives were on the line.
“Well,” Kiyu spoke into the silence, “it isn’t as if we have much of a choice. Let’s do this.”
I let out a tense breath. “I think it’ll work best on the upper levels. They’re a bit thinner on the ground there and that way we don’t have to fight our way up to the exit after we get past their first line.”
“First line?” Someone asked.
“If there’s this many of them, we have to assume they have a second or even third line,” I told them. “Maybe even a final defensive position around the exit.” That sure cheers everyone up. “We hit them hard, we keep moving fast. When we smash our way through the first line, we don’t stop to regroup. Push on to exit. Pick up anyone who falls.”
Since the enemy had sabot rifles, anyone hit by one of those wasn’t going to survive.
My sensors began picking up enemies. Two hundred meters out and closing. “Jonna, you have the left sub-flight. Kiyu, you have the right. Osmund, you’ve got the center. I’ll coordinate. Move out.”
We hurried to the factory wall, moving through the breach that Osmund and I had used. There was a series of ladders and columns there and we quickly began climbing. I spread them out across the uppermost solid level, three floors up. The enemy scouts on this floor were still a bit further out and I took a moment to form everyone up.
“Maximum force. Don’t hold anything back,” I reminded them. “This is all about shock and surprise.” I took a deep breath, feeling my stomach clench in a mix of fear and anxiety. Was I about to get us all killed? I would much rather have let Kiyu or Jonna lead with their tactics, now that the moment was here. But there were too many of the enemy, we had no other choice. “Jade Flight,” I called out, “Move out!”
***
Something the scenarios hadn’t captured was the thunder of eighteen thousand kilograms of armor stomping through the echoing factory at a run. Someone in the flight must have had a thought and a moment later, booming music cranked out over a set of speakers and through our helmets. I didn’t recognize the words, but there was a lot of wailing and booming instrumentals.
Almost on instinct, we fell into step, thirty-six sets of armored boots striking the floor in sequence, like some kind of angry god.
We smashed through the masonry wall ahead, not even slowing as the exosuits smashed brick and concrete flying. We were close enough to the forward scouts on this level that bricks and chunks of concrete exploded among them, sending the opposition tumbling. We didn’t even have time to fire, we were just running through them. I elbowed one man who stood gaping in shock, sending him spinning through the air. A man in front of me raised his rifle, and I kicked him, flinging him twenty or thirty feet through the air, and I ran on.
None of them had time to get off a shot and Jade Flight went back into the loose formation and within seconds we’d adopted the booming synchronized steps once more.
We plowed through the next set of walls and right into the next enemy position.
There were a hundred or more of them and they couldn’t have failed to hear us coming. But they froze as we exploded through the walls and opened fire in one mass.
I swung my TBA-2 around, firing off strings of shots, not even really seeing individuals, just identifying threats and firing off bursts as I ran. I couldn’t tell if I hit anything or not, running as I was, but I was shooting as I ran and so was everyone else in the Flight. “Cover left!” I yelled as I saw Balani stumble as several people took her under fire.
Jonna’s sub-flight opened up on them and I shifted over, helping Balani back to her feet. “I’m good!” She shouted and we ran on.
The enemy formation had sort of dissolved but we didn’t stop. My exosuit’s sensors were picking up hundreds of hostiles, now, like a swarming mass of ants or hornets. They were coming in from all directions, but we weren’t stopping to let them hit us.
The formation ran on, smashing through the next set of walls and into one of the big, open assembly areas. Dozens of enemies boiled in towards us, but we were coving the distance at thirty kilometers an hour or more, not even slowing down as we fired. I smashed shoulder-first through the far wall, counting heads even as I fired back over my shoulder, using my implant to aim more or less at the clusters of enemy pausing to try and fire at us as we ran away.
Osmund took a round through his knee-joint and he swore as it gave way underneath him.
I was right behind him so I just reached down and caught him by a lift point on the back of his armor and started dragging him. He was shooting back the way we’d come and didn’t stop as we plowed through a tangle of machinery and then through a wall.
I saw Bahn stumble as a heavier round took off her right arm at the elbow and flung her rifle spinning through the air. Her exosuit cinched down on the wound and Gowri caught her under her other arm, helping her to run on.
We’d gone halfway across the factory and now most of the hostile signatures were well behind us. I saw a few people starting to slow, to reload or try and take stock. “Move!” I bellowed over the net. “Keep moving, don’t give them time to regroup!”
The opposition knew the building. If we gave them time to get over the shock of what we’d done, they might be able to get around us. If we slowed down and they had other defenders at the exit, still, we would give them time to prepare a better defense.
We thundered on. I was still dragging Osmund along while he reloaded. I had about half a magazine left on my TBA-2. I couldn’t reload while dragging him, though, and I wasn’t about to stop.
We came to maze of old offices and again, we started just running straight through the walls. Flimsy plastic walls and old metal furniture went flying and a handful of enemies scattered out of our way, not even trying to fire on us as we stormed through the rooms.
Of course, that was when a section of floor collapsed under Kiyu and Nadzeha.
I saw it happen. One moment they were running along and the next, the floor crumbled and both of them tumbled into the hole. The rest of her sub-flight swerved around and they started to slow, but I bellowed at them, “Keep moving!”
Sanjaya was near me and I shouted at him, “Take Osmund!”
He came up next to me and I let Osmund go, while Sanjaya caught him and kept running. “Hayden, you have them, get them to the exit!”
I knew it didn’t matter if they made it or not if we didn’t have everyone. I ran over to the hole. I could see why it had c
ollapsed. At some point, the inner section of the building had collapsed. Maybe they’d covered the hole over with something as a trap, maybe this floor had just barely held out until our weight hit it. Either way, the drop went five or more floors, straight down.
In all likelihood, Kiyu and Nadzeha were both dead or seriously injured. My exosuit sensors couldn’t detect either of them, not in the rubble and debris down below, but they did pick up hundreds of enemies headed our way, the entire front line headed towards us in a wave of bodies. They knew that if we got out, then they’d stay here. We were their tickets to freedom… and all they had to do was prevent us from getting everyone to the exit.
If they pinned us up at the exit, they’d whittle us down or just bury us in numbers. Either way, we’d never get out of here alive. I had to get Kiyu and Nadzeha, I had to get them back up here. Alive or dead, it didn’t matter. Otherwise we’re all dead.
I picked out a stable-looking ledge, two floors down and jumped.
***
I dropped the last three meters to the lowest floor and looked around. Debris and tangled machinery lay everywhere. I couldn’t see Kiyu or Nadzeha. Enemies were coming quick, though. “Kiyu, Nadzeha, where are you?”
Silence met my call. I moved to one of the bigger tangles of debris and with the exosuit, I was able to pick up two hundred kilos of concrete and throw it out of the way.
I thought I saw a glint of green armor and I pulled another huge chunk out of the way. Half buried in rubble, there was an exosuit.
“…Armstrong?” A dull voice asked. It was Kiyu
“Vars,” I corrected automatically. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll live. My Kavach isn’t responding.” I caught her by the arm and levered her up out of the rubble. Clear of it, her suit’s diagnostics started reporting damage. Her power linkages were damaged. Her armor was basically dead weight. She had partial use of her arms and not much besides that. I heard a shout and someone appeared on the edge of the hole above us. I fired from the hip and the man dropped back, but there were others coming and I was running out of time.
I hoisted her over my shoulder. I still had to find Mikita Nadzeha. I moved over to another rubble pile, digging through it with my free hand. I didn’t see him. “Mikita, are you here?” I shouted.
I caught a slight movement and noticed a bit of rubble shift off to the side. Just as it did, a pair of men came through a side door, “There!” One of them shouted, “There’s one of them over here!”
I turned to them, firing my rifle. One of them fell, but the other dove for cover and started returning fire. Bullets peppered the area around me and I felt impacts as a couple struck my armor at angles and bounced off. I couldn’t wait. I had to move. I let off another burst of fire at the doorway and ran for the rubble I’d seen shifting. I shoved my arm down into it, grabbed at what I hoped was a part of Nadzeha’s armor and pulled.
He pretty much exploded out of the rubble. His arms flailed a bit, but I didn’t wait to see if he could walk on his own. I threw him over my shoulder and ran for the far side.
More and more guns began to open up, but I tucked my head and ran. I didn’t bother to look for a door, I bounded over a big, rusted generator and then smashed through the wall above it. I stumbled onward. My heads-up-display showed the rest of the flight were up near the exit, but it also showed there was a lot of gunfire up there. We were really running out of time.
I didn’t bother to even look for a set of stairs. I ran to a point below the next floor, jumped up on a rusted hulk of machinery and then jumped up, smashing through the floor. There’d been a few of the enemy there and they went flying. I didn’t stop to see if they were able to fight back, I just kept running. Five hundred meters, Shadow told me.
I saw a set of stairs ahead, but a dozen or so of the enemy were running down it, bringing their weapons up. A combined mass of fifteen hundred kilograms of armor at thirty kilometers an hour hit them like a wrecking ball. I didn’t slow, I just ran right through them, people bouncing off, weapons flying in all directions.
Someone behind me started shooting and I felt the impacts but again, I didn’t slow. I didn’t have time. I had three more floors to cover. The floor ahead of me opened in a gaping hole, four or five meters across. With the extra weight of Kiyu and Mikita Nadzeha, I didn’t think I could jump that so I skidded to a halt and went right. Smashing through the wall, I stumbled into a large room. There were thirty or forty armed men, all of them frozen in shock as I exploded among them. “Wrong way,” I said and I went right back out the direction I’d come, smashing through another wall, even as they began to open fire behind me.
This time I emerged into a stairwell and I leapt up it, one, two, and then three flights. I kicked a door at the top of the stairs right of its hinges, sending it spinning like a flyswatter into the men who’d been waiting behind it. I ran right over the top of them.
Something fast and close screamed past me and exploded against a wall. That was a missile, Shadow told me helpfully. I’m picking up three more of them.
I dove sideways as they fired and explosions blasted around me. A concussion picked me up and flung me through another wall. I heard parts of the building begin to collapse.
Nadzeha and Kiyu had been blasted clear of me. Kiyu was sitting up, firing her TBA-2 back at the enemy. I grabbed her by the back of her armor, and then Nadzeha, and started running again, dragging them, one on each arm.
Three people came out of a corridor in front of me and I just ran them down. Past them, though, stood a half-dozen more and they were swinging their weapons around. I skidded to a halt, but I had nowhere to go. More gunfire exploded through the corridor, bullets cutting through the concrete at waist level and the firer unknowingly cut down his compatriots. I took off running.
One hundred meters, Shadow told me.
Someone fired a magnetic sabot rifle and a chunk of wall the size of my head exploded next to me. I kept running. Another one whipped past so close that my helmet display cracked. I heard gunfire from ahead of me now and as I smashed through the last wall, I emerged into a large chamber at the front of the building. It looked like it had been a landing area for skimmers or shuttles. The rest of Jade Flight were in a perimeter around the far end, next to a big set of armored doors.
About a hundred or more of the opposition had them surrounded and all of them turned in shock as I exploded among them.
I could see the exit. But there were too many people between me and it. I gave a grunt and flung Nadzeha skidding along the ground towards safety, his armor smashing through people in his path. I swung up my rifle, firing until it went dry as I ran forward. Kiyu was firing behind me as I dragged her. Bullets smashed into me. Gunfire ripped out around me as they were so close that they were hitting one another. For an awful moment, I felt like my armor were being beaten by hammers.
Then I stumbled through their field of fire and staggered into cover.
Two of the flight had grabbed Nadzeha and dragged him behind a stack of metal crates.
We’d made it. I looked up at the big doors and slowly, ever so slowly, they began to grind open. “Go!” I shouted. My flight started running for the doors, firing back at the enemy as they did.
I limped that way, my armor was barely responding. I smelled smoke inside my helmet. Sanjaya staggered through the door, still dragging Osmund. Isagani went through. Jonna and Bahn went through.
I picked up Nadzeha and then grabbed Kiyu and ran for it.
More gunfire crackled after me, but they must have realized it was over. The gunfire died off, a couple last rounds bouncing off my back-plate as I stumbled through the doors. They ground closed behind me.
We were standing on a landing platform. A skimmer pilot stood there, next to the same skimmer that had carried us in. He wore a shocked expression. There were a couple medics there too, and they looked just as stunned. “Medic,” I croaked. “We’ve got injured.”
We did it, we survived. The realization s
tunned me.
“You’ve been hit,” someone said. Their voice seemed far away.
I looked down and only then noticed that a few of those last hits hadn’t bounced off my armor after all. I had three holes that had punched out the front of my armor. “Oh,” I said.
Then I fell over.
***
Chapter 19: Maybe I Need Some Downtime
I woke up back in my bunk in the barracks bay. I sat up quickly, half fearing it had all just been some horrible nightmare, that we’d have to go do the Second Screening for real.
Then I gasped as my entire chest erupted in agony.
“Sit back, you’ve been shot,” Jonna told me. “Idiot.”
I swallowed, and craned my head down. I wasn’t wearing a shirt. I had three patches on my stomach and lower chest. They were transparent, so I could see the pink, raw holes in me. “Should I be worried?” I asked. Talking hurt. It hurt a whole lot. In fact, I didn’t know if I wanted to talk ever again.
Breathing hurt too, come to think of it. Looking around, I had some kind of needle stuck in my arm with fluids going into it from a bag hanging on a hook over my bunk. There were a lot of fluids there, which made me wonder just how much blood they were trying to replace.
“You took five bullets to the torso somewhere in that last bit of fighting,” she told me. Her tone was brisque, but her blue eyes were worried. “Three punched in and through your armor, which was actually good, overall, they were armor penetrating rounds so they went all the way through and they didn’t do too much damage. They just perforated your left lung, your intestines, and your stomach.”
I swallowed and even that hurt. “There’s a but, there.” Even saying that much hurt.
“But… you weren’t so lucky with the other two rounds. One of them came in from the side. You can’t see it, but you’ve got several wounds along your ribs. That one came up under your ribs, bounced around through your lungs, and lodged near your heart. A couple more millimeters and it would have killed you.”
