Cerberus

by John Filcher

  “Clear!” yelled Guthrey over the commlink channel as the next in line quickly scooted through with weapons drawn. The team quickly located the closed hatchway leading to the tunnels to the underground base.

  “It’s unlocked, Bravo One,” reported Bravo 5, Pvt. Terry Allison. “Sounds like an invitation to pay them a visit,” he noted.

  “Yeah, that’s what your mama said last time, too,” Guthrey quipped.

  “You only wish!” replied Allison, to the guffaws of the rest of the team.

  “Alright you animals, get your heads in the game. Move out!” Blackwater replied.

  Cerberus — Delta Station

  “Captain, the Bulldogs have returned. They report successful insertion of the Marine teams,” reported LeCroy from his Tactical station.

  “Good. Alert the deck chief they’re back and have them made ready to resupply the Marines as soon as possible.”

  LeCroy nodded quickly. “Chief Taylor, Bulldogs are incoming. Confirm ready to receive?”

  “Aye, we’re ready for them! Taylor out,” replied a harried-sounding Chief Taylor seconds later.

  Ronin opened a commlink from his console node to Capt. Hu Nagun. “Cerberus Actual to Kitty Hawk Actual. Boots are on the ground. What’s your status?”

  The open commlink communicated the sounds of combat from Kitty Hawk’s bridge for a second before Nagun’s voice filled the comm. “We took a few hits from their guns when we got a little too close because we had to help your squadrons as bait for the 112s to draw them off. Damage wasn’t to mission critical areas of the ship, and light casualties. Your Tomcats are still heavily engaged keeping the Type 112s off us. We’re staying just below the sight horizon so the base’s guns can’t target the ship.”

  Ronin couldn’t ask for more than that. “Roger that. Keep us informed if the situation changes. Cerberus Actual, out.” He looked over at LeCroy. “How are Taurus and Leo squadrons doing?”

  Cerberus Tomcat Squadrons — Wolf 14

  The sunless sky on the moon’s dark side was filled with bright missile streaks and engine flares. If he wasn’t so busy jinking and trying to stay alive, Sunderland would have thought it quite pretty.

  “Sunderland, we’ve lost another bird in Taurus squadron,” reported Chris.

  “How many are gone?” came the reply. “Fourteen destroyed in Taurus, three more disabled. Twelve gone from Leo, four disabled. Thirty-eight Type 112s destroyed. Unknown number disabled.”

  The view outside the Tomcat suddenly spun wildly as Sunderland rolled it and nosed down towards the moon to get a better attack angle on a couple of 112s who themselves were trying to gang up on someone from Leo squadron.

  “I sure hope those Marines find what they’re looking for fast,” muttered Sunderland after he closed the channel.

  Bravo and Echo Teams — Staging Area

  “Echo 3, Shift your fire to the right and take out that turret!” Blackwater yelled over the combined commlink used by Bravo and Echo teams.

  Echo team’s heavy weapons specialist, Pvt. Rhee Lee, immediately shifted his fire. For the moment, he was in a reasonably protected position shooting through the narrow line of sight created from behind a pair of metal shipping containers. Bravo team already lost three Marines in the trap sprung by the Collective’s troopers who were waiting in the other end of the large underground staging area. There were only three ways out of the staging area. The way they came in, and the two passages on the far side, which were currently defended by troopers not terribly inclined to give them up. Once the trap was sprung, Echo and Bravo quickly blew away the defensive auto-turrets, but the troopers were much more difficult to dislodge.

  “How far do you think it is to the far end?” Blackwater asked his opposite number, Echo 1.

  Cpl. Toshi Kanagawa risked a quick glance over the top of his cover position. “About 75 yards, give or take,” he replied. Just then, the catwalk along the upper right side of the chamber blew up in a spectacularly pyrotechnic display after Bravo 6 launched a rocket grenade at it to stop the troopers who were advancing along it. Kanagawa’s question that followed his reply was drowned out by two more explosions and gunfire.

  “Echo 1, say again?” Blackwater yelled.

  “I said, we can provide covering fire for our rocket grenades. See if we can take out their positions inside those passages? They’re pretty far.”

  Blackwater thought about it for a moment as he watched Bravo 6 try to get under cover despite the light gravity, which gave him an idea. “We can throw grenades there!”

  Kanagawa shook his head in disbelief. “What! Nobody can throw that far!”

  Blackwater smiled evilly. “You mean, nobody can throw that far, on Earth.”

  Kanagawa froze for a moment as he processed that. “Oh, YEAH! I didn’t factor in the low gravity!”

  Blackwater responded quickly, “Echo and Bravo teams, on my count, use hand grenades synced to my signal. Echo team, take the left tunnel, Bravo take the right. Make sure you adjust your aim for the low gravity.”

  While the rocket grenades relied mostly on their kinetic energy to cause damage by punching holes in target, the powerful hand grenades relied solely on explosive power for more of an area damage effect. Moments later, both teams had the pins pulled on their grenades as they crouched behind their cover and waiting for the signal.

  “Three, two, one. Now!” Blackwater called, as they all did their best to throw the grenades without exposing themselves to the incoming fire. Most of the grenades were thrown accurately enough, and as they arrived in the target area, Blackwater eye-clicked the Detonate All button option that was shining on the inside of his visor as he braced himself.

  The thunderous simultaneous explosions of fourteen grenades shook the entire staging area, with several pieces of shrapnel ricocheting off the walls behind them and from the cover they were hiding behind.

  “Bravo 4, send up the Butterfly! Where are the rest of them?” Guthrey screen-clicked the Launch button to send the tiny Butterfly drone that was attached to his back up into the air for a look. Its sensors wasted no time in marking the remaining enemy targets. “Acquisition. Sending targeting info to your screens,” Guthrey reported.

  Blackwater and Kanagawa saw there were fourteen remaining troopers. Three of them appeared wounded.

  “Echo 2, job opportunity.” said Kanagawa. “Link your Stinger rounds to the targeting data from the Butterfly.”

  Cpl. Adrian Longman was quite pleased to comply. He quickly selected Airburst mode as he wanted to inflict a lot of pain. The guided rounds would burst into deadly slivers of metal just before hitting the designated target. He was ready within seconds. “Firing now,” he said as he fired the large, guided rounds to the target hiding behind a loading vehicle as the targeting data indicated this trooper had the clearest view of fire.

  The magnetically propelled, hypervelocity round was far too fast for the eyes to follow, but its downrange effects could not be missed as the round passed over the loading vehicle and burst into shrapnel that was automatically directed towards the designated target.

  “Target one, down.” Longman noted dryly in his Aussie accent. He methodically fired at the next most dangerous target. “Target two, down.” Longman repeated this process until all the targets were down and half his ammunition expended.

  “Echo team, secure the far end of the room. Bravo team, search for survivors,” ordered Blackwater as he was in overall command of the combined assault team.

  Kanagawa did a weapons and ammo check after the room was secured. “We’re running pretty low on ammo,” he said to Blackwater, who nodded at the expected report.

  “I’ve already called in Bulldog 4 for resupply.” Blackwater then opened a commlink to Private Cupper. “Bravo 6, take Echo 5 and 6 with you to ferry the resupplies Bulldog 4 is bringing to our landing zone.”

  The
assigned three acknowledged and they quickly returned to the landing pad because they were getting dangerously low on ammunition.

  Cerberus Tomcat Squadrons — Wolf 14

  “Kitty Hawk Actual, this is Cerberus CAG. Can you shoot these guys off our tails if we swing them past your position?”

  Sunderland was jinking his Tomcat wildly trying to shake the four Type 112s pursuing Sunderland and his wingman. They were too good.

  “Cerberus CAG, this is Kitty Hawk Actual. We can do you one better. Sending you the coordinates for a hot spot. Go through there in two minutes. If you’re coming through fifteen seconds later, you’re a dead man.”

  Sunderland didn’t know what to make of that. From what he knew of Captain Nagun, he was all business during a fight so if he said don’t be late, you best not be late.

  “Affirm. We’ll be there! CAG out.”

  Sunderland switched to the commlink with his wingman. “Bouncer, you hear that? Two minutes fifteen seconds. The clock on your screen is counting down.”

  Bouncer wasted no time in responding. “Affirmative. Right behind you.”

  As he closed the commlink, Nagun turned to his tactical officer. “OK, Petty, time to see if you’re right. Execute hot spot.”

  The Kitty Hawk synced computers with Sunderland’s and his wingmen, then suddenly launched several missiles and a cloud of rail gun rounds at the designated spot. Due to the distance from the ship, they would arrive at the designated spot when the synced timers reached zero.

  “I hope we can keep these guys occupied for two more minutes without getting blown outta the sky,” Sunderland muttered to himself as he threw his Tomcat into a wild spin to barely avoid a line of lead tracer ordinance spewed by one of his pursuers. The tracer rounds passed by so close they lit up the Tomcat’s cockpit, and Sunderland was sure there would be scorch marks along the side of his fuselage.

  “That’s way, way too close for comfort, CAG!” said Chris from the rear seat.

  Sunderland snorted in reply before he was able to think of anything witty. “Just trying to keep them entertained!”

  It was the longest two minutes of Sunderland’s life. His Tomcat took a few rounds through the fuselage, but the ship integrity wasn’t too compromised. As the two Tomcats’ flew through the soon-to-be-hot-spot, Sunderland felt the hairs on his neck rise with that feeling you get when you just managed to avoid a speeding car.

  The Type 112s never stood a chance, as two of them were obliterated by the kinetic ordinance that was timed to impact the fighters. The following two realized the trap too late, and attempted to bob and weave the rounds. They were too busy to see the missiles, which ended them from behind.

  As his pursuers were suddenly erased from his long list of concerns, Sunderland looked at his Tacnet plot. “Scopes have cleared up quite a lot. Only thirty bandits remaining, and they’re bugging out,” Chris noted. “What’s our status?” Sunderland asked.

  Moments later, Chris responded, “Taurus down to ten effectives, Leo only has nine. There’s a handful of disabled Tomcat’s that might be repairable. Search and Rescue birds are collecting our survivors. Six are alive so far.”

  Cerberus — Delta Station

  Ronin was shocked at the carnage in the Cerberus Tomcat squadrons. Seventy-five percent of Taurus squadron wiped out, slightly more for Leo. He knew this would be a tough assignment when the orders came down to hit the newly discovered moon base, hard, but that did nothing to make him feel better about the exorbitant cost in pilots and crews. “This had better be worth it,” he grumbled to Mueller when she approached. She nodded, not saying anything. What was there to say?

  “Cerberus Actual, Gamma 1. We’ve taken out the base’s surface-to-ship defenses. Do you copy?” Ronin thumbed his reply button. “Gamma 1, Cerberus Actual copies. Kitty Hawk is sending reinforcement unit to your position. ETA five minutes.”

  Blackwater quickly acknowledged the update.

  Bravo and Echo Teams — Staging Area

  The 6s (Bravo and Echo) and Echo 5 finished unloading the resupply from Bulldog 4. As Pilot Officer Reggie Parsons lifted off, he was just about to jump the Bulldog back to Delta Station when a weapons lock alarm suddenly sounded.

  A second later, the Bulldog exploded from the missile impact. “There’s someone still alive in that turret next to the landing pad!” As they were in an airless environment up in the landing area, all the Marine teams heard the unidentified call at the same time over the commlink channel.

  “Gamma 3, Gamma 1. Do you have eyes on the target?” called Blackwater over the commlink. The target had already been designated by Bravo 5 over the Tacnet.

  “Roger that. We’re setting up rocket grenades now.”

  Suddenly a loud voice broke into the commlink, “Belay that! Take cover. Incoming!”

  There was barely enough time for the warning and command to register before two unseen kinetic bombs impacted directly on the turret. Despite being 500 yards away from where the resupply was unloaded by the three Marines, the force of the impact knocked them off their feet in the low gravity.

  Captain Nagun had fitted out his ship’s Bulldogs with a kinetic weapons package in case some extra boom was needed to help get the reinforcement Marine units safely to the surface. “Target eliminated,” announced the pilot of the lead Bulldog, as they settled down and quickly discharged four units of Marines.

  With all the extra hands, the resupplies were quickly delivered to the underground staging area where Echo and Bravo teams held station. Corporal Mackey spoke to the four teams now under his company command. “Echo and Bravo, gear up. Two minutes till we move out.”

  Blackwater didn’t bother to ask about casualties. Despite their armored exosuits, his Tacnet feed reported three dead on Bravo team, two for Echo, and one wounded but operational. Zeta and Theta teams obviously had none as they’d just arrived.

  The teams quickly made ready for the push further down into the base. Zeta team’s electronic warfare specialist, Private Gregory Paulson had hacked into the base network.

  “Bravo 1, Zeta 3. Intel from the base net coming over your screen now.” Paulson announced over the commlink.

  Blackwater watched the screen display on the inside of his helmet that Private Paulson sent. The path to their objective was clearly marked, giving him the route from the choke point they now held. He opened a separate command channel to the 1s of the three other teams in the company.

  “Ones. There’s only the single route down. Easily defensible because there’s another choke point, here.” As Blackwater emphasized the word “here,” their screens lit up with the point he had designated.

  “I don’t like this target profile,” muttered Theta 1 muttered.

  “Yeah. They know we’re here now. It’d be a shooting gallery,” agreed Zeta 1.

  Blackwater’s AI had been listening in, of course, and startled the team leaders by suddenly speaking. “Corporal Mackey, analysis of the base blueprints that were obtained by Private Paulson suggests there may be an unconventional, alternate route to consider.”

  Blackwater’s first thought was something back on the surface or something, so he asked the AI to continue.

  “The base has a large air duct system. I suggest your team gain access through this wall, then follow the route indicated on your screen maps.” As the AI said this, a red arrow blinked on all the 1’s individual screens to identify the wall that needed breaching, followed by a map with the alternate route superimposed over it.

  Theta 1 thought about it before commenting first. “Runs right through the main air plant, but we can get through that.”

  Echo 1 quickly added a highlight to the map. “Right here we can pop back into the main passageway behind the choke point, and it’s on the inside of the security perimeter for their safe zone. We can hit them from behind and grab the objective.”

  Plea
sed, Blackwater, who was company leader by virtue of the earliest swearing-in date of among the 1s that were on the mission, decided. “I like it. Simple. Easy to remember. Avoids a near certain kill box of a choke point. AI, you’re not getting paid enough.”

  For some reason, Blackwater’s AI had developed a somewhat quirky personality in its time with Blackwater, which isn’t unusual. Marine AI’s had been designed to develop their own personalities to better mesh with the team leaders. The AI’s quirky personality startled the other three team leaders when it suddenly responded in a very seductive female voice, “Oh, I couldn’t agree more, darling!”

  “Darling?” smirked Echo 1.

  “You call me that again, I’ll kill you so hard you’re whole family will die along with you.” threatened Blackwater. The other 1s burst into laughter at the exchange. Their own AIs often did something similar to them, so they knew this kind of stuff happens.

  “Echo 5, job opportunity,” called Kanagawa.

  “You got something for me boss-man?” responded Pvt. David Danfries as the rest of Echo team perked up now that the leaders had obviously decided how to continue their incursion.

  “Blueprints for the base are telling us we want to be in the air duct on the other side of that wall to avoid a kill box downrange. Make it happen.” Kanagawa ordered. The team’s helmet screens likewise showed a blinking spot on the wall where they needed to make a hole.

  “My pleasure, Echo 1.” Danfries responded as he grabbed his gear and some boomsticks before bouncing over to the wall. He inspected the wall for a few moments and compared his thoughts to the blueprints. “Echo 5, can you make a hole?” asked Echo 4, Pak.

  Danfries smirked inside his helmet even though no one could see it. “One boomstick should do it,” he responded before spending the next few minutes rigging up his breaching explosive. The rest of the Marines migrated over behind cover in anticipation of the blast. Knock, knock, thought Danfries as he finished the rigging.

  “Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole!”