Free Company- Red Zone

by D K Williamson

  “Jacks, Carmag’s volley firing missiles and recoilless rounds at the walker.” As he spoke, a dirty blast obscured the view for a moment, a round that escaped the heavy walker’s bolter defenses and struck its target.

  “It almost looks like a coordinated move on our part,” Jacks said.

  While still sending bolter shots at the Keen Steel walker, Myles saw two more hits on the vehicle before the trees blocked the view.

  “I’m taking us south to the other end of the trees,” Jacks said. “If we can get the walker to reverse course, Clark’s troopers might have a shot at its ass.”

  Feeling the walker slowing, Myles kept his sight picture on the edge of the trees, but before any visible sign of their opponent showed, a brilliant flash of light cut through the trees severing branches and igniting green wood as the beam tore the air ten meters ahead of Lunatic Red.

  “Son of a bitch,” Jacks growled.

  As Jackson reversed course, Myles asked, “How did they spot us?”

  “They didn’t,” his partner replied. “I think they took a guess.”

  Still watching the vid displays, Myles eyes widened. “The water, Jacks. Ripples in the water pushing ahead of us, that’s what they saw.”

  Looking at his own displays Jackson nodded. “I think you pegged it. Log that one in the lesson book.” Pausing for a moment to think, he continued. “Maybe we use that against them.”

  Another energy beam tore through the trees, this time well behind them.

  “They think we’re going back north, right?” Myles said.

  “Looks that way. We step clear of the trees, put a few rounds on them and see where we stand.”

  Jackson moved quickly, turning Lunatic Red to sidestep clear of the trees with the weapons facing their opponent. What they saw wasn’t what they had hoped.

  With the heavy walker’s main turret rotating toward them, it was apparent they had not fooled the Keen Steel troopers.

  Both men in Lunatic Red snarled and fired, 90mm, auto-cannon, and bolter all spitting at the monster just a few hundred meters away.

  Maybe they were setting us up, Jackson thought.

  Myles targeted the acquisition array at the front of the main turret and inwardly winced at the sight of the energy cannon’s maw squaring up on them as it crossed his sights. Knowing he could do nothing else but fight, he pressed the fire control. Registering at the edge of his senses, Rivers could hear the thump-thump-thump of the 30mm just before the 90mm barked.

  At the shudder of the main gun’s discharge, Jackson feigned a move right hoping to confuse their opponents before turning and launching Lunatic Red left as hard as she could go. As her right foot dug into the mud, Lunatic shuddered again with a shriek of raking metal, alarms and warnings sounding in the crew compartment.

  “We’re hit!” Jacks yelled as he took them back behind the trees.

  Myles looked at status displays and said, “Thirty mike-mike is down. Lots of yellow and red on the right side. Motive system—good. Gyrostabilization—good. Power and hull integrity are fine.”

  “Got it,” Jacks said in a voice tightened by stress. “Load a spiker and watch the readouts. I’m taking us northwest toward that heavy stand of trees. Make that and we’ll take a better look at what we’re dealing with.”

  “Spiker, up!” Myles called.

  Jackson ignored the warnings ringing over the headphones and ran his walker hard, teeth gritted while willing her to go faster. Concerned mostly about the heavy walker’s energy cannon, he glanced at his vid feeds to see if the main turret was tracking them.

  That damned beam at this range doesn’t need to worry about leading us, he thought. If that gunner gets the sight pipper on us, we’re done for.

  The heavy walker's projectile cannon flashed, but the round missed and Jackson’s experienced eye told him they had too much lead.

  We’re slower in the water but the gunner didn’t take that into account.

  Hearing the crackle of the overhead bolter, Jacks knew what Myles was doing. Gritting his teeth he thought, Eight seconds and we’re clear.

  As they reached their destination, the last view of the heavy walker showed the monster headed directly at their position.

  “No new warnings?” Jacks asked.

  “I would’ve called them if I’d seen them. What tagged us?”

  “Spiker round. It deflected but gouged a dent down the right side and stripped off some of the armor, vid points, and bolters. The thirty is done for. Nearly every single warning we have squawking at us is right down the line of the dent. You notice something strange and wonderful in all that?”

  Myles snorted. “No. I was too busy trying to keep from messing my pants and stay steady on the bolter. Seeing that turret gawking at us wasn’t wonderful.”

  “Hmm,” Jacks said. “Maybe it was, Myles with a Y. The energy cannon didn’t fire once in our exchange, just the main turret projectile cannon. What were you targeting?”

  “The acquisition array on the main turret. Don’t know if I managed to—”

  “I’d hazard a guess you did manage. If you tagged the array or the projector lens or something else on the energy cannon, well, we still have a shot at taking that thing down.”

  “So we’re staying in the game?”

  “We are,” Jacks said. “That’s a real good crew aboard that monstrosity. This won’t be easy.”

  “Easy? They wouldn’t have sent us if it was,” Myles said.

  Jacks growled. “Now I know how you feel when I say shit like that. Let me scan the warnings before our opponent gets much closer.”

  Taking but a few seconds to look over the displays, Jacks said, “We’re operable. I don’t think the ninety mike-mike has enough to punch through the front or side armor. I’ll see if I can put a round or two on the cab and if that doesn’t work we’ll need to get them in the ass or cut the legs out from under that thing.”

  “Small targets. That means—”

  “You got it. We need to be close. Hopefully it won’t come to that. Our main advantage is our mobility.”

  A deadly dance began, the plodding heavy walker striding after the far more nimble Lunatic Red amongst soggy wooded islands and trees that grew from the marsh floor. After exchanging fire a handful of times with little result, the Keen Steel crew seemed to know full well their advantages and after a few failed attempts at closing switched tactics that Jackson soon understood.

  “They’re herding us into deeper water,” the sergeant said. “If we get in over Lunatic’s knees, we’re done for.”

  “What’s the plan?”

  “Load a lance round and we’ll see if the cab can handle it. If so, I’m taking us east and see if the terrain over there might favor us.”

  “Lance, up!” Myles called.

  Stepping clear of the trees, Jacks fired and knew he had scored a hit. He also knew it had little effect if any. Returning to the cover of trees, the heavy walker responded with a round from its cannon which exploded within the foliage.

  “That does it,” Jacks said. “We go east and see if they come after us. If so we’ll try to find a spot where we can outmaneuver them. If not we pack it in or get help.”

  Pausing to look at the navigation screens, Jacks snorted. “Our terrain imagery of this area doesn’t help us much,” Jacks groused. “I’m worried one of these stands of trees is going to turn out to be a finger of woods and we’ll find ourselves walled in.”

  “What if we go back toward the grunts?”

  “Are you betting on Clark and some of our guys having the upper hand?”

  “I guess I am.”

  “Good enough for me. I said we get help if needed and Clark’s troopers are fighters.”

  “Not to mention some of our guys ought to be in the area.”

  Jackson decided to try deceiving their opponent with waves in the water again. Walking rearwards toward the west a few steps, he changed course and started trudging east. With water reaching almost to Lunatic
Red’s knees, Jacks knew sprinting was not an option, but bounding was and once the walker was moving fast enough he did that very thing.

  Myles faced the overhead bolter to the rear and watched the bouncing video image of the tree stand they’d been using as cover and concealment. As it receded, the shape of the heavy walker appeared on the left side, both cab-mounted machine guns flickering with muzzle blast and tracers arcing their way toward them. As he returned fire, the sound of strikes thumped on the back of the hull.

  The projectile cannon flashed and before Myles could utter a word, the muffled freight train howl of the round made its way into Lunatic’s crew compartment. A quick glance at the vid feeds showed an explosion far ahead of them.

  “The water’s shallower over here. We’ll be able to outrun them,” Jacks said.

  Looking ahead at the tree line he could see the point of land and water beyond that led to more trees. Hoping the point was the end of an island, he readied to cut behind the trees as soon as they were past.

  The main turret on the Keen Steel monster flashed once again and moments later Lunatic Red jolted and shook at the sound of an explosion. Jarred by the shock, Myles was still able to see the vid feeds—a geyser of dirty water dominating every screen covering the left.

  Alarms and warnings sounded anew—a grinding, creaking sound emanated from below as Jackson ignored it all and sought to reach the safety behind the trees.

  With every move of the left leg, the sounds continued and it was glaringly obvious Lunatic Red’s gait was impaired.

  While Jackson raced for cover, Myles brought up system feeds and frantically sought data.

  “Outer extensor system on left leg is down,” he yelled as he ran down the long list of warning reports. “Irreparable. Left secondary upper servo is damaged. Upper mid rotation joint distorted but functional. There’s a helluva lot more but those top the chart.”

  “We’re still up. That’s what counts,” Jacks said. “Hang on.”

  Gritting his teeth as he cut hard to the left and hoping the left leg could handle it, Jacks gave a sigh of relief when the heavy walker disappeared from sight.

  Looking to the south, Jackson found the point of land was not an island but a finger-like extension of exposed ground, yet to his relief he saw open water to the southeast and a route toward friendly forces.

  Looking over the damage the high explosive round had caused, Jackson winced but soon nodded.

  “We’re gimped up, but I can reroute some of the systems. We won’t be as fast as we were, but we’ll faster than we are now. If that heavy walker wants another crack at us, it’ll need to hook around the point we just rounded. By the time it does, we’ll be well east of here,”

  “Anything I can do?” Myles asked.

  “Try the com. I expect we’re still jammed, but if not….”

  A minute later, Myles announced, “Nothing but noise.”

  “Figures. I’ve done what I can. Let’s get moving. Watch our tail and I’ll get us out of here.”

  Jackson started Lunatic Red moving and grimaced at the sounds she made as she limped into motion. Rounding the tree line a few hundred meters to the south, he turned east and could see the flashes of small arms muzzle blasts in the woods ahead.

  “It looks like Carmag’s still kicking,” Jackson said. “We’ll try beamed coms when we get a better picture of what’s going—”

  “Jacks, we got trouble!” Myles said.

  Hearing the overhead bolter crackle in discharge, Jackson looked at the rear vid feeds and said, “Shit!” at the sight of the Keen Steel heavy walker crashing its way through the trees on the point of land. “Fucking bastards are shortcutting us.”

  “And we’re taking them back to the grunts,” Myles growled and he squeezed off shot after shot.

  “I know,” Jackson said as he pushed east. “We’ll find a spot and make a stand, make them focus on us and not the grunts.”

  “What do you want loaded?”

  “Spikers until further notice. I’m shooting for the legs. When time allows, zot anything you can.”

  The water depth lessened with every step and Lunatic’s pace increased accordingly. Seeing the tree line flaring to the left, Jacks followed its course an instant before the heavy walker fired once again.

  The deep sound of the passing projectile was frightening, but also heartening as it meant a miss and also meant time to find cover.

  Despite the damage, Jackson nimble pirouetted his vehicle and backed northward toward dry land, watching the edge of the trees for their opponent. Drawing machine gun fire from the woods to the east, he ignored it but smiled grimly as he heard Myles reply with the bolter.

  Watching the rear vid feeds, Jacks could see the ground sloped upward before declining to the north.

  “We have some ground that might give us some cover behind us,” the sergeant said. “Watch the edge of the trees. It won’t be long until that heavy shows.”

  “On it,” Myles called.

  Tracer fire crossed Rivers’ view, an indication friendly troopers could see the closing Keen Steel vehicle.

  As Jacks crested the rise, Myles called, “Here it comes,” just before he opened fire with the bolter.

  Not waiting to gain better position, Jacks fired and was rewarded with a burst of sparks from the left front leg of the enemy walker.

  A flash from the muzzle of the monster’s main gun preceded the roar of a near-miss and the bang of Lunatic Red’s 90mm breech slamming closed.

  “Up!” Myles shouted.

  Knowing the 90mm would be the deciding factor if they were going to bring down the Keen Steel walker, Myles focused entirely on loading and drew another spiker round from the magazine.

  Moments later, Lunatic Red’s main gun barked again and the breech slammed open, heat waves and smoke rising.

  Myles loaded a spiker round and as he began to yell, “Up!” the vehicle jarred as a thudding, ripping sound passed through the crew compartment and like a boxer staggered by a blow, Lunatic Red fought for several seconds to stay upright.

  “We’re hurt, Myles!” Jacks yelled. “Gyrostabilization is down and we’re headed that way as well. Crash position. Hold on!”

  Rivers looked at his partner and saw the man fighting the controls sidestepping the walker as it swayed. A look at the vid screens showed a blur of motion due to the frenetic activity of the vehicle. For a brief moment, he caught a clear view of the Keen Steel heavy walker firing, a frightening and appalling sight, but no round tore through the hull, the blaring warning tones drowning out the sound of the shot’s passing. As the disorienting sensation of falling took hold, Myles pressed his chin to his chest.

  As a violent shock drove Myles away from the gun, an equally hard jolt stopped him when the restraining system did its job. The armor on the right side buckled with a sickening shriek, but lessened the impact felt by the crew. Going by what he saw before they struck the ground, Myles was highly impressed by Jackson’s quick thinking and swift hands that kept the 90mm and the upper bolter pointed in the direction of the heavy walker.

  As fumes and smoke clouded the interior, Myles pulled his mask over his face as he looked up at the 90mm’s breech above him on the left bulkhead now turned ceiling.

  “We’re on the back slope of the rise,” Jacks called as he shut down the warning alarms. “You intact?”

  “More or less. We still have power?” Rivers yelled through his mask. “The evacuation system is kaput.”

  “We have power, but half the systems are dead or at least down. Pop the upper and lower hatches.”

  “Don’t we have a walker to kill?” Myles growled savagely as he pounded on the vid screens and was rewarded with several coherent images of the exterior as the devices came back to life. “It was still closing last I saw. I think we’re pointed in the right direction to get a shot in if we can.”

  “I like the way you think. You’re right. We are. If that thing is coming for us, well, let’s see what we can do. My
display is mostly down. Is the ninety loaded?”

  “Roger that. Spiker round ready to go.”

  “All right. Get on the bolter.”

  Working the bolter control, Rivers found he had at least some range of motion. “I have some play in the bolter. Not much, but it’s there. Tell me what to target.”

  “They’ll be damned close so if you can find it, range-finder first, vid and vision ports after that. Stand by to reload.”

  Rivers tried the magazine hatch and found it inoperable. “All I have is what’s in the rack. The mag’s locked down.”

  “We’ll get two shots at best. Once the gun is loaded for the second, bail. That’s an order.”

  “Not questioning your judgment, Sarge, but this loader’s vest I’m wearing has considerably less armor than Lunatic does. I’d just as soon take my chances in here. Maybe you forgot, we’re crewmates.”

  “I didn’t forget. It’s why I wanted you clear, but you got a point. Man the bolter and… how the hell are you going to reload?”

  “I’ll manage. How the hell are you going to drop that walker?”

  Jacks grinned wolfishly. “The same way you’ll reload. I’ll manage.”

  Myles considered the job at hand. Effectively lying on his back suspended by the restraint system, he knew reloading the 90mm would be radically different now. Looking at the forward vid feeds he could see the top of the Keen Steel heavy walker coming into view.

  “We’re about fifteen degrees from having a shot,” Jacks yelled. “We still have compression and containment in the power gen. Let’s see if I can do something about changing our position.”

  “Should I fire on it?”

  “Wait until we see if this girl’s got anything left. If not, we play dead.” Grasping the controls, the sergeant hoped his gamble might pay off. “C’mon Lunatic, give me just a little,” Jackson coaxed.

  The walker groaned and creaked, but the legs moved, shifting the vehicle’s position.

  “On the bolter, pardner!” Jacks yelled.

  Seeing the midsection of the heavy walker coming into view over the rise, Myles also noted it was now in his field of fire. If it’s in mine, it’s in the ninety’s, he thought. We have a chance.