One of them shouted in surprise and raised his weapon. Rose startled visibly, dropping her shoes and shying away from the shout, her hands raised protectively. Dane clearly noticed Rose falter and snapped into a fighting stance in front of her. They were close enough that Ray could clearly see the fear in Rose’s eyes. The two figures approaching menacingly. The first soldier was yelling
“On the ground, on the ground.” Rose made to comply but hesitated when she noticed Dane still standing.
Ray heard Jonah whispering “Don’t look, don’t look,” but Dane in his panic didn’t think fast enough. He cast the smallest of glances into the trees. His head turning just enough. Instinctively, the lead soldier followed Dane’s eye line and stared into the trees where the group were concealed.
“Better call it in,” the soldier said to his partner training his weapon back on Dane. “On the ground or I’ll blow your fucking head off.”
The soldier in the rear reached for his communicator just as Dane was about to comply. Two dull percussive thuds emanated from either side of Ray and sprays of pink mist erupted from both soldiers’ chests. Ray looked sideways seeing the long menacing barrels of the sniper weapons still trained on the now downed soldiers. Marines on either side sprang into a sprint staying clear of the firing line between the snipers and their prey. They crossed the short distance in seconds. Two grabbing the arms of each dead soldier and one each to manhandle Dane and Rose into action.
Almost as quick as they had headed out, they were back, dragging the corpses and almost dragging Rose with them. There was nothing that could be done about the bright red pools of blood and blood trails that stained the dirt behind.
“Did she get it? Jonah asked immediately of Dane who, unimpeded, made the safety of the trees first. Dane nodded and handed Jonah a scrap of paper.
Nettle made a fist pump to nobody and Ray leapt to her feet as Rose arrived. She grabbed her off the marine and hugged her tight. Rose collapsed into Ray almost knocking her to the ground.
“No time,” Jonah announced. “We go now! Dane stay with her. You three on me.”
Ray handed Rose to Dane and formed up with Nettles and Sparks. The marines in the meantime had dumped the bodies behind a tree and reformed, ready to run.
Jonah got the attention of the two snipers. “Jones and Adams, over-watch. There and there. “Jonah indicated two buildings pointing with all his fingers. The snipers responded immediately, each man moving swiftly across the dirt towards their targets. Each with a second marine trailing slightly back and to the right.
Jonah checked the main body of troops. They numbered just eight now including the three Dianians. Nettle stood with her sidearm gripped tightly in her hand.
“Holster that,” Jonah instructed. “Get it out if you have to use it, otherwise leave the killing to us.”
Nettle frowned and reluctantly did as he asked. Ray could tell Nettle was busting to shoot at something.
“Ready… go,” Jonah instructed in a firm tone. The group jumped into action, the marines running smoothly, muzzles pointed into the dirt, the Dianians thumping along in the rear. They made the first building and Jonah waved half the troop to the other side of the dirt road where they could get a clearer view.
They leapfrogged one another for several buildings, each covering the others progress. Ray, Sparks, and Nettle moving when and where they were instructed. They rounded another building at a jog. One of the marines in front was dragging a black clad body behind a bush in somebody’s front yard. Ray could see a gaping wet hole in the CDSE soldiers back. She hadn’t even heard the shot, but the snipers were clearly doing their work.
Jonah signaled the two groups to a halt and beckoned Ray forward.
“We are almost at the barracks. You know this place best. What’s our best approach?”
Ray thought for a second.
“Through the barracks. Then you only need to make short runs between buildings. That’s how I would do it. That is how we used to do it when we were kids and didn’t want to be seen.”
Jonah grinned. “Good enough for me. There will be people in them though.”
Ray nodded. “They must almost all be there considering how few people are out and about.”
“Worth the risk,” Jonah surmised. “Let’s go then.” Jonah made the watch me hand gesture, checked both ways and scudded across to the nearest barracks door. He opened it quietly and beckoned the others across holding the door and keeping a watchful eye on the road.
The barracks was empty and appeared to have been vacated in a hurry. There were beds unmade and clothing lying on the floor. Ray started to feel uneasy. She raised her eyebrows at Nettle who shrugged and looked uncomfortable. This was the first of three barracks in a line making a spoke on the wheel radiating out from Town Hall. Two more to go.
The troops made the dash across the dirt to the second barracks and found it in a similar state.
“Where are they?” Sparks signed to Ray looking worried.
Jonah peaked through the crack of the exit door and closed his hand in a fist beside his ear. The marines dropped to a crouch, still and silent. Ray, Nettle, and Sparks emulated them once their brains caught up. Jonah beckoned one of the other marines to the front and he also peaked through the gap. He nodded at Jonah and indicated to the group to retreat to the back of the barracks. Jonah gathered them in a tight circle by the far door. He spoke quietly.
“Four guards outside the last barracks. The same on the barracks left and right. I suspect that they have the Dianians in there. If we attack, the guards on the other barracks will flank us and we will be outnumbered. Thoughts?”
The group looked around at one another hoping for inspiration or for somebody else to speak.
Ray noticed Sparks’ expression change to speculative.
“You have an idea?” she asked.
“Maybe…the central barracks always has the fuses for the spoke. Maybe I can override the fuse and generate a current somehow to blow the lights. Might create a distraction.”
Jonah scratched his chin, thinking,” One probably won’t be enough. If we could knock out two spokes and get rid of the guards watching two doors, then we could bust between the barracks and hit the main doors hard. Hopefully get inside before they know what’s going on.”
Sparks looked at Ray. “Unfortunately, there is no need for electricity storage here with the sun out all the time, so no batteries. We still need to find an electrical current source big enough to blow the lights.”
Jonah’s eyes lit on the sidearm hanging at Nettle’s belt.
“Those things have a stun mode, remember? Like I showed you before. Flick that slider along the top and two metal panels poke out the muzzle. Once they are deployed the trigger will operate the stunner. What sort of current does one of those put out?”
“Plenty I would imagine, “Sparks speculated. “If it’s enough to knock someone over.”
Jonah nodded. “Do it then. The rest of us will line up back a bit and with a view of the guards. I imagine they are more interested in keeping people in than guarding against us hopefully. If they move, we move. As soon as you blow the circuit, sprint back and join us. Remember we need you in there. Don’t get shot, OK?”
Sparks and Ray nodded in unison. Ray handed the HHI to Jonah. “Just get this inside. Any one of us can take it from there but Nettle would be quickest.” Jonah nodded and tucked the unit inside his body armor.
Ray and Sparks conferred briefly over the fuse panel on the best way to hit the circuit to do the most damage. Sparks stripped a couple of small sections of earth wire that they both agreed would be tough enough to override the fuse without melting.
Ray and Sparks checked that the digital clocks on their pistols were synched. Ray gave Sparks a brief hug and then moved back out of the barracks, so she could skirt around and into the adjacent spoke. At a gesture, one of the marines moved with her.
She moved swiftly ignoring the discomfort of her injuries. Her clock cou
nted down the ten minutes they had agreed on to blow the lights. She forced herself to ignore it as she moved. Focusing on being quiet and watching for CDSE guards and patrols. Her and her guard had a short dash across vacant space between the barracks furthest away from Town Hall.
Luckily, both sets of guards who might have seen them were looking out towards the distant crackle of gunfire in the forest and talking to one another. Ray made it into the barracks and ran through swiftly. She checked the gap between buildings briefly at the end door and scuttled across the gap into the central barracks. She located the fuse box and quickly unlatched the panel around two hundred feet from where she knew Sparks waited by his identical fuse board.
Ray jammed one end of her override wire into the fuse clip and then protected her fingers with strip of insulation as she jammed the other end into the clip at the far end of the fuse. The wire sparked as the current diverted through it and the lights flickered slightly. Ray froze and listened hoping that the flicker would not raise any alarm. She doubted it. The electrics were old, and fluctuations were not uncommon.
Ray checked her clock again. Three minutes to wait. Suddenly the seconds seemed like hours. Ray drew her sidearm and flicked the stun slider forward, checking that the indicator light changed position. Two minutes thirty seconds. Ray realized her heart was hammering. It was still laboring from the sprint across and the tension of the situation. She couldn’t believe she was about to sprint between two groups of armed men probably intent on killing anybody not in a CDSE uniform. This was crazy.
Ray found herself counting down the seconds. She was so paranoid about losing concentration that she almost did. Lost in a fantasy about failing to hit the stunner at the correct time she realized twenty seconds had ticked by and she hadn’t even noticed.
She forced herself to look away for a while. One minute thirty to go. Plenty of time. She tried to make herself relax. Piece of cake, she could do this. One minute to go. Again. She forced herself to look away. She caught the eye of her marine guard, his jaw tense and eyes wide. A joke would be nice right now she thought to herself. Thirty seconds to go.
Ray took the pistol and aligned it so the stunner pads bridged the fuse as agreed with Sparks. She counted down the last twenty seconds. Pressed down firmly and pulled the trigger. The LED bulbs in the long dim barracks went off like a camera flash and a sizzle of miniature lightning fizzed around the board as the massive whack of charge ionized the air and discharged wherever it could.
They were immediately plunged into darkness as the LEDs burnt out and dissolved. Ray was grateful the marine had thought to leave the far door open otherwise she may have lost her bearings.
She felt a hand on her arm, pulling her and she leapt into action, sprinting to the Town Hall end of the barracks as fast as she could, watching the silhouette of her guard bobbing between her and light emanating from the door.
They broke into the sunlight and veered right, the bright light searing their retinas and making Ray squint. She could see the bulk of the troops already running for the gap between the two barracks. The guards had vanished. It must have worked. They had gone inside to investigate the blowout.
Ray ran as hard as she could, some one hundred feet behind Jonah and the group leaders. She could see Nettle up with them and was relieved when Sparks drew alongside, grinning from ear to ear. He tried to give a thumbs-up but it got lost as he stumbled slightly on an uneven patch of ground.
Ray turned her attention back to the path ahead. They were between the final barracks before Town Hall and would break into the real fight any second. Before Ray and Sparks emerged into the open they heard the sharp cracks of automatic weapon fire ricocheting around the corner.
Ray rounded the bend and had to jump immediately to avoid tripping on a downed marine. Ray could see the arrow head of marines advancing fast. Their weapons raking the door and walls of town hall. Several CDSE soldiers already lay dead but several more were fighting around the protection of the door frame.
Ray saw Jonah stagger as a round hit his body armor somewhere. To his left a marine wrenched a grenade off his collar. The pin dangling, still attached to the strap. He held it for two strides and then tossed it underarm into the doorway. The front most marines veered left and right, crashing into the walls of Town Hall and flattening themselves as the percussive boom of the grenade spat smoke and debris out the door.
Ray felt a sting of something clipping her thigh as she ran, the pain making her realize she was still running flat out toward the doorway, despite the guns, smoke, and confusion.
A CDSE man stumbled out the door clutching his side and was immediately gunned down by several marines. The men against the walls beside the door moved in unison as if they had some psychic connection. The two lines zipping in to one another. The last two dropped into defensive positions inside the door as the rest disappeared into the smoke.
Nettle sprinted through the barricade as Ray and Sparks dashed towards cover. Ten feet from the door, the first shots from behind them rang out and they all instinctively ducked, imagining a bullet smashing into the back of their heads.
Sparks grunted as the neared the door and suddenly he wasn’t there. Terrified, Ray slowed and turned. Sparks was sprawled on the ground a mask of shock on his face. Ray skidded to a halt and made to turn back to him. As she spun someone in the doorway grabbed her arm and wrenched her into the hallway. She was pulled clear off the ground and sprawled headlong into the corridor.
Feet rushed by her face as she struggled to get up. The smoke in the air and the mind shattering noise of the gunfire up ahead in the corridor made her feel like she had vertigo. Sparks…Where was he? Ray staggered and turn back towards the door thinking to help. A hand closed around her upper arm and she whipped her head around, the weapon in her hand clutched tightly. She relaxed a tiny bit at seeing Jonah.
“We’ve got him,” Jonah said simply, and Ray turned back to see two marines dragging Sparks. A bullet ricocheted off the wall beside Jonah’s head, whining away down the corridor.
“Let’s get out of here,” Jonah advised.
Ray watched as Sparks tried to stand but something was wrong with his left leg. Jonah’s urgent grasp on her arm had her moving and the marines continued to drag Sparks.
The clatter of gunfire ahead lessoned somewhat but the noise from the door still battered at Ray’s senses.
She was running again. Following Jonah this time. Bodies slumped against the walls, mostly in black but a couple in marine camo. Ray felt a welling of relief and adrenaline as they rounded a bend, out of danger from the bullets still peppering the walls behind them.
They were in!
CHAPTER 33
At a fork in the passage Jonah hesitated and looked back. Ray passed him and took over running the familiar route to control central. They charged into the main control room to see Nettle already logging in to a terminal. They halted, watching her tap the code in off the piece of paper that Rose had handed Jonah.
Jonah held his breath and Nettle would have if she could. If the code didn’t work, then this whole thing was in vain. The marines would have died, and Sparks injured for nothing.
The login wheel turned slowly like a demon’s eye on the gates of hell, deciding whether they would be lifted up or squashed like cockroaches. Nettle clasped both hands to her forehead, the tattoos on her arm shining with sweat and veins popping out in her neck.
Ray began to feel sick watching the screen. Nettle suddenly released both hands and used them both to pull the finger at the login wheel taunting them. As if by magic the screen flicked to the black entry screen and the login details scrolled down in a short column. Nettle spun and punch Ray in the arm hard.
“Fuck yeah,” she signed and turned back to her work. The terminal adjacent lit up.
“You’re up,” Nettle signed. Plug in there. We are going to overlay the Netmap with new data. Make sure to only do local map otherwise this will take too long. Encrypt the data on the way in and f
or fucks sake remember the key. We are not going to have time to do this again.”
Ray jumped to the terminal without answering. She knew what to do. Nettle’s fingers were flying. A box popped up on Ray’s screen. “Update Net map, load new coordinates.” Ray clicked through options on her HHI to encrypt the upload data stream and unwound the cable she had wrapped around it. The cable plugged into a jack on the terminal. Ray imagined that the sound of gunfire from outside was coming closer. She uploaded the encryption key to a flash stick first, and handed it off to Nettle.
“Ready,” she said. Nettle was spinning a rendered digital globe of Diana and used her fingers on the touch screen to block out a region of space above Atlas. She swished her finger to the side and the image appeared on Ray’s screen. The indicator on the screen changed to update region, load new coordinates. Ray selected the HHI from the list of options and hit enter. A stream of gibberish started peeling down the screen. The encrypted names and locations of all the jets that held the nets in orbit. The jets that could be used to furl or unfurl or move the nets as required. The upload bar indicated five minutes until complete.
Ray and Nettle looked at each other. Ray grinned from ear to ear and Nettle grinned back fiercely. Both their smiles disappeared as a percussive whump emanated from somewhere down the western corridor.
The noise from the direction they had come from was definitely closer and now it appeared CDSE forces had made their way around the back of Town Hall and were also attacking from the west.
Jonah sprinted across the room to aid the two lone marines who were rapidly barricading the far door with a coffee table and printed metal chairs. Jonah and one of the marines were in the process of dragging a heavy cabinet over when splinters of wood began to eject from the door leaving jagged bullet holes behind.
“Shit!” Ray thought, still three and a half minutes and then they needed to move the nets and log out.
Earth-Net Page 28
