To Hell's Heart (Crimson Worlds)

by Allan, Jay

  The energy readings from the base were off the charts. Cain and Hofstader had no idea what their scanners were detecting but, whatever it was, it was something they’d never seen before. They couldn’t get any real details…the shell of the fort blocked most scanning activity. Maybe it was what they’d come for…some technology they could use to face the enemy on closer to equal terms.

  Everything about the enemy base was conjecture, but Cain and Hofstader had chosen this spot, so that was where her people went in. She had 3,000 Obliterators massed on a front barely 3 kilometers wide…her people ripped right through the First Imperium defenders, and now they were almost to the armored bastion itself.

  The enemy base was a massive construct, built into the side of a mountainous ridge. Cain had asked Hofstader for his best guess on where to enter, and the German scientist had given it to him. It was wild conjecture, but it was all they had. They had no idea how big the facility was, or how far underground it stretched.

  McDaniels’ people had bombarded the area heavily with hyper-velocity missiles and plasma bombardment modules. She’d done everything she could to knock out the weapon emplacements that could fire on her units. Now it was time to storm the wall and plant the heavy charges. If they were lucky, the plasma mines would breach the armor. In case they didn’t, her teams had nuclear charges as well. The atomic weapons would be harder on the inside and pose a greater risk of causing damage Cain wanted to avoid. But they were getting into that base one way or another.

  “Assault team A, advance.” She’d barely finished issuing the order when 400 of her most experienced troopers moved forward. They swept toward the wall, gradually fanning out, forming two lines perpendicular to the fort, covering the flanks of the breaching team. The area in front of the fortress walls was a relatively flat plain, though it had been torn up by bombardments during the initial fighting. There was the detritus of battle everywhere, mostly shattered First Imperium bots, but also her own dead, lying in the twisted wreckage of their heavy suits.

  There was sporadic fire on each side, a few surviving enemy bots continuing to engage her advancing troopers. Her people returned the fire, hosing down the flanks with heavy autoguns, quickly silencing any pockets of enemy strength as soon as they exposed themselves. A few of her people went down, but they had overwhelming local superiority, at least for the time being. They’d hit the enemy forces hard and fast here, but she knew the gains wouldn’t last. Enemy reinforcements would already be heading toward the area…and those counterattacking forces would probably be Reapers. She had over 2,000 of her people in reserve, ready to march out and block any enemy advance to the area, but she wanted to get Colonel Storm and his team inside the base before she had to worry about fresh enemy attacks. Then it would be Storm’s problem to take the facility…and hers to defend the breach against the enemy’s attempts to seal it off.

  “Breaching team forward now!” She shouted into the com, speaking slowly, clearly. Sixty Marines in their hulking Obliterator suits ran forward in small groups. To any but a trained eye they would have looked bizarre, waddling ahead in their massive suits, crouched low. There were six 4-man teams, each carrying a large plasma charge and escorted by another 6 Marines, weapons at the ready.

  They closed the distance to the wall in less than two minutes. There was no fire from the fortress itself…the bombardment had taken out the gun emplacements along this sector. A few enemy cluster bombs came in, fired from mobile launchers off to the flank. Most of them went wide, but one spread came down around one of the breaching teams, taking out five Marines and destroying the charge they were carrying.

  The rest of McDaniel’s people made it to the wall without further losses. They knew what they were there to do, and they sprang into action immediately, setting the massive plasma charges and priming them for detonation. In a minute, perhaps 90 seconds, everything was ready.

  “Charges in place, General McDaniels.” Major Travers was the commander of the breaching group. “We are withdrawing now.”

  “Well done, major.” McDaniels was standing upright, watching the action on her monitors. “Now get the hell out of there. I’m blowing these things in one minute.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  McDaniels watched the group withdraw. She was proud of her people, even more than normally. She had some of the pick of the Corps in her Obliterator brigade, and they had put everything they had into mastering the powerful new suits. Now she watched Traver’s group move back in perfect order, pausing only to pick up their wounded.

  She waited, watching the retreating Marines struggling to move quickly while carrying several wounded comrades. The Obliterator suits were massive and enormously heavy. It was extremely difficult to carry one…even for other Obliterators.

  She glanced at the chronometer. It had been 55 seconds, but the breaching teams were still too close. She knew she couldn’t wait long…she had to get Colonel Storm’s people inside before enemy reserves arrived. But she stood still and watched the seconds click off. One minute fifteen…one minute thirty. She took a deep breath and pressed the button.

  There was a flash of blinding white light along the fortress wall as the charges released their compressed gasses and superheated them into plasmas. No physical substance could withstand the heat of those charges…by every law and theory of human science, when the plasmas cooled, they should leave a massive breach in the wall.

  “I’ve got two more teams moving over there to back you up.” Carlson’s voice was ragged, hoarse. Things were hot on the line…very hot. The enemy was pushing hard, and the Reapers were driving through 1st Army’s lines in several places. Carlson’s section of front wasn’t one of those, not yet…but it was damned close. “Still, it’s gonna take at least ten minutes to get them set. Until then, it’s all you guys.”

  The HVM teams were the only reason Carlson and his people were still there. The hyper-velocity missiles were really just projectiles that broke into a dozen pieces near the target, each delivering a massive blast of kinetic energy to anything it impacted. An HVM shot could take down a Reaper, but only with a direct hit.

  “All units, focus your fire on the standard bots supporting the Reapers. Let the HVMs handle the bigs.” Carlson was trying to think of orders to give his troopers every couple minutes…just to give him a reason to talk to them. He knew his lines were shaky. They weren’t even lines anymore, just a bunch of shattered remnants clustering together. He doubted he had a squad with even half its strength still in one place.

  He zigzagged forward, trying to keep the rising elevation between him and the Reapers he could see moving forward. There were three more HVM teams coming up, and he was going to place them personally. Every shot counted if they were going to stop the Reapers. Every shot.

  “Captain!” Carlson’s eyes focused on his visor projection, his AI automatically displaying the name and location of the Marine on the com. Sergeant Packer…up on the extreme left of the forward firing line. “They’re pulling back! They’re breaking off.”

  “Get a grip, Packer.” Carlson snapped his response. “Give me a real report. Now!”

  “Sorry, sir.” The veteran sergeant sounded exhausted, and distracted. “Sir, the enemy was attacking us aggressively until just a minute ago. They abruptly stopped, and now they are retiring.” There was a short pause. “It’s a miracle, sir. I can’t explain it. They had us. There was no way we were gonna hold out.”

  Carlson was just as surprised as Packer. Then the rest of the reports started coming in. All across the line…the enemy was abandoning its attack and pulling back. Pulling back, Carlson thought…what the hell is going on?

  He called up Brown on his com. “Colonel, I have to report…”

  Brown didn’t let him finish. “You have to report the enemy ceasing its advance and commencing a withdrawal.” There was confusion in Brown’s voice as well. “I can’t explain it, Jake, but it’s happening all across the line.” He took a quick breath. “And not just our fro
nt…the same thing’s happening in front of Farooq’s people. Everywhere, from what I’m hearing.”

  Nearly a kilometer away from each other they had the same thought…Erik Cain…what the hell did he pull off now?

  “Hang on, Jake. I’ve got incoming orders.”

  “Yes, sir.” Carlson’s stomach tensed, and the relief he’d been feeling drained away. He wasn’t sure why…he just had a bad feeling.

  Brown was only gone a few seconds. “Jake, I’m back.” There was a pause, a long one. “I’ve got orders for you…”

  Carlson listened quietly, but he knew what was coming. He could tell from Brown’s voice. His stomach clenched the rest of the way, and he could feel the sweat building up around his neck. He could hear the words before Brown even uttered them.

  “Pursue the enemy. Attack.”

  Chapter 24

  Alliance Intelligence HQ

  Washbalt Metroplex

  US Region, Western Alliance, Earth

  Alex sat quietly at the conference table, seething with anger but hiding it well. She was alone, but she knew that meant virtually nothing. A hundred people could be monitoring her, and she’d never know it. Alliance Intelligence could spy on virtually anyone anywhere…but deep in their own building there almost nothing they couldn’t be monitoring.

  She was wearing a pair of silk pants and a tunic…hers, though she still hadn’t been back to her apartment yet. She’d been a guest of Alliance Intelligence since Stark’s men had pulled her out of the Washbalt slums. At least, she thought, they put me in one of the VIP housing units. They could just as easily have thrown her into Sub-Sector C, she supposed. The maximum security detention and interrogation unit of Alliance Intelligence was one of the most feared places on Earth. It wasn’t someplace she wanted to end up…death was a far better option if it came to that.

  She ran her fingers over the soft material of her tunic. The outfit had cost more than a Cog family earned in a year. It was one of several appropriate articles of clothing she’d found waiting in her new quarters. It was hardly surprising that Stark’s people had been in her flat ransacking her closets, but she found it unnerving nevertheless. It had been many years since Alex Linden was on receiving end of that kind of treatment. Normally, she was the one violating someone’s privacy, and she didn’t like being back on the other side. Not one bit.

  I suppose that’s the point, she thought, tamping down on her rage as she did…this is all about showing me my alternatives. Stark was nothing if not a master of manipulation, something Alex knew better than anyone. If he wanted me dead, she thought, I’d be in a ditch somewhere already.

  She moved around in her chair, unable to get completely comfortable. She was restless and itchy, and she found it hard to sit still. It was the Mindblast; she hadn’t realized how addicted she’d gotten. The best she could figure, it had been two weeks since she’d had a hit, and the edginess had already peaked. The withdrawal from the drug was fairly moderate, certainly nothing she couldn’t handle. But it was unpleasant nonetheless, and a distraction when she needed to be at her best and sharpest.

  They’d treated her wounds, at least. The bites were already completely gone; she couldn’t even see where they’d been. The cut had been deeper; it was mostly healed, but her leg was still a little tender.

  Her mind was sharp, at least…clearer than it had been in months. She’d been confused and uncertain for a long time, but her field reflexes had snapped back into shape. Seeing Sarah had shattered her single-minded resolve and challenged everything she’d believed for so long. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about her sister…the hatred and anger were still there, mixed now with affection she’d thought long dead. But that was something she’d have to face later. Right now she knew she was in a fight for her life. A twisted contest of some sort, no doubt, but she didn’t kid herself. Garret Stark had the upper hand right now, and she knew he was trying to decide whether he should keep her alive or not. All the personal uncertainty and pain was still there, but Alex Linden was a survivor above all else, and she needed her wits now.

  She heard the door slide open, but she resisted the urge to turn. She’d been careless on Armstrong, but now she was focused, ready. “Hello, Gavin. How have you been?” Her voice was neutral, non-committal…she might have been greeting an acquaintance at a cocktail party.

  “I am well, my dear Alex.” That voice…she hadn’t heard it for two years. Charming, polite…but something else too. Something that sent a chill through her body. “Happy to see you still have those eyes in the back of your head.”

  She turned, slowly, with no sense of urgency. “It takes more than eyes, Gavin. You should know that.” She’d almost called him Number One, but she wanted to draw at least somewhat on her closeness with him. The two had been sexual partners for quite some time, though she wasn’t foolish enough to think that would stop him from having her terminated. She couldn’t take familiarity too far or expect too much from it; she knew that. An appeal to friendship or affection would be weak and ineffectual…and an attempted seduction would be obvious, clumsy. No…casual familiarity was the way to go. She glanced at him with a friendly smile. She almost suggested they get right to the point, but she decided to stay silent and let him move the conversation.

  He walked across the room, pulling out the chair at the head of the table. The Directorate’s meeting room was palatial, a wood-paneled bastion of power and privilege, its wall of floor-to-ceiling windows providing a kilometer high view of the Washbalt skyline. To the northeast was a cluster of similarly majestic skyscrapers, the government buildings that housed the Politicians and their staffs…the people who ran the Alliance. Who thought they ran the Alliance, at least.

  “Alex, my dear. I am so pleased that we were able to find you and extricate you from those terrible circumstances.” Stark’s voice was impossible to read, as usual. To anyone listening, he was expressing genuine concern. Alex knew better, yet she still couldn’t get a feeling for what was truly going on in his sociopathic mind. “You must be more careful in the future.”

  Alex almost sighed, but she caught herself. Be patient, she thought to herself…play along with his little farce. “Indeed, Gavin. I am most happy to be back inside the Core.” She paused, then added, “It has been quite some time since I frequented neighborhoods of that sort.”

  Stark leaned back in his chair, eyes focused on her. He wasn’t leering, and there was no sign of anger in his expression. He just stared over with a moderately concerned look on his face. “Perhaps we should discuss the future.” He paused, his glance unchanging. “I must say, I am a bit confused about your visit to Armstrong and some of the…shall we say, decisions, that you made there.” His voice changed slowly, almost imperceptibly. He was getting serious…there was a tone there…pointed, almost threatening.

  “Gavin, I know I performed poorly on Armstrong.” She knew she had to express some sort of remorse or regret. It had to be just right. Too much and he wouldn’t buy it…or he’d take it as weakness and assume she was beyond salvation. That would be a ticket to Sub-Sector C or, more likely, just a quick disposal. “I was not adequately prepared to handle my sister. I experienced some vestigial feelings I hadn’t realized were there, and it threw me off-balance.” She spoke calmly and coolly, her tone not changing at all. “And the First Imperium incursion and Erik Cain’s resulting absence made it impossible for me to execute my mission.”

  Stark didn’t respond immediately...he just leaned back in his chair watching her closely. “Number Three…you are very aware of this organization’s policies on matters such as this. Indeed, you have been instrumental in carrying them out on more than one occasion.”

  Number Three, she thought…he’s giving me a ray of hope, suggesting I can maintain my position. But the threat was obvious too. Alliance Intelligence tended to deal harshly with agents who’d strayed far less than she had. “Yes, Gavin, I am.” She’d almost called him Number One, but she decided taking his lead so obvi
ously would be pandering, weak. She considered elaborating, offering a further explanation for her behavior, but she stayed silent. It was better to hold back, to give out information slowly.

  Stark sat quietly, his eyes boring into hers. Finally he stirred, shifting slightly in his seat. “Alex, I never ordered you to harm your sister.” His tone was different, not apologetic certainly, but the tiniest bit softer. “Sarah Linden is of no interest to me or this agency. You may deal with your sister in whatever manner you deem appropriate. Forgive her or terminate her…I do not care.”

  Alex was quiet, considering Stark’s words. He sounded sincere but, of course, that mean nothing where the head of Alliance Intelligence was concerned. Gavin Stark was a true sociopath and a pathological liar. But it was all she had to go with. “I understand.”

  “However…” His voice became darker, more ominous. “…your affection, if any, for your sister can never again interfere with your duties.” He took a deep breath and paused. “Never.” The word was dripping with menace. “Do we understand each other, Alex?”

  “Yes, Gavin.” She let her tone soften slightly. It was dangerous to play mind games with Stark…he was better at them than everyone else. But she needed him to think he’d gotten to her, at least a little.

  “So I can count on you?”

  She paused, just for a second or two. “Yes, Gavin.” She almost told him he could depend on her, but that seemed fake, transparent. “I am ready to get back to work. With no distractions.” Better. More professional, less pandering.

  Stark watched her as she spoke and for a considerable period after. “OK, Alex.” He smiled and stood up slowly. “Then I need you back on Armstrong…and wherever else your mission takes you. General Cain is currently battling on the surface of Planet Sigma 4 II. If the campaign to defeat the First Imperium is successful, the war will be over.” Stark stood with his hand on the backrest of his chair, his eyes glinting coldly. “In that eventuality, you may do whatever you choose with your sister…but you must kill Erik Cain. He is a grave danger to our future plans.”