Exodus: Empires at War: Book 8: Soldiers (Exodus: Empires at War.)

by Doug Dandridge

  He had a thought while watching them recede into the distance. A lot of people had said that an assault by Phlistaran infantry was synonymous with an old time cavalry charge. Now he started thinking about new possibilities. Probably wouldn’t work, but it’s worth kicking over to Army Command.

  “This is probably the only part of the operation going according to plan,” said Rear Admiral Jacob Coker, the Fleet Commander in charge of this stage of the evacuation. Ten of the gates on New Moscow led to this world, the developing planet of Hang Dou, a world with almost two hundred million people living on it. The Army had staged out of here, all of the Rangers and a brigade of the heavy infantry. It was planned for a hundred and fifty million of the refugees to evacuate to here, which would put some strain on the food and medical systems of the planet, not to say the available shelter.

  There were superfreighters in orbit filled with millions of tons of food. Twelve medical battalions were on the surface, augmented by a hospital ship. And every large venue on the planet had been converted to temporary quarters, while the semi-permanent structures used for military deployments had been placed within kilometers of each gate.

  “I think the reason for that is that the evacuation has not gone as planned,” said Major General Carla Manuel, the liaison for the Army. “Not meaning any disrespect, Admiral, but if as many people as we thought were coming through we would be swamped right now.”

  “No blame on anyone,” said Sean, looking from one officer to the other. “Nothing like this has ever been attempted before, definitely not on this scale.”

  “But, if we don’t get them all off the planet fast enough, and the Cacas take it back,” said Coker, closing his eyes and shaking his head.

  “That is not going to happen,” said the Emperor, patting the Admiral on the back. “No matter what it takes, we are going to get those people to safety. They’ve been through enough.”

  Sean looked back over the field, at the wormhole that was still transiting almost a score of people every five seconds, and the mass of people moving away from it in a semi-orderly fashion. Most of them were still confused, though he thought relief must have been the dominant emotion. I will get you out of this, thought Sean, standing there and watching the evacuation. That I promise, on my crown and my throne.

  * * *

  PLANET NEW MOSCOW.

  “I need you to get two platoons of your people over to the southeast perimeter,” said the voice of the Ranger Colonel over her com.

  Captain Stella Artois grimaced as she looked at the location the Colonel was ordering her to go. Or at least two of her platoons. Not that I would let over half my command go there without my presence, she thought.

  “I already have a squad in that area reinforcing their fortifications. Do you want us to fortify them to an even greater extent?”

  “No, Captain. Captain Walborski’s company is about to get rolled over by the enemy. I need your people to act as heavy infantry and reinforce them. I’ve sent everything I can to them, but it probably won’t be enough.” The man on the other end of the com coughed. “I don’t have time to debate this with you Captain. You have your orders. Now follow them.”

  The com went dead, and with it any hope Stella had of questioning the Colonel. He was correct. She was under his command, as were her people. All had been trained as heavy infantry before attending engineering training. And all knew that they could be called upon to fulfill that function again.

  She made an immediate decision on which two platoons would go. She wanted them to come back, so it only made sense to send two that were at full strength. And her command section as well. That would give her just over a hundred troopers, all in heavy armor, many with heavy weapons. She sent out the orders, indicating a rally point. The Colonel hadn’t said that the attack was in progress, only that it was imminent. If she was going to lead her people into battle, she wanted them deploying as a unit, and not fed in piecemeal. That done, she lifted her suit five meters into the air and flew over the heads of the civilians that were flowing toward the lift shafts so they could get out of the line of fire.

  * * *

  “We have movement,” said one of the tank commanders over the com, their sensors linked into the drones and ground units they had recently deployed. “Estimate nine hundred hostiles, including fifteen large contacts, most probably mecha.”

  The sky was clear, natural twilight coming to this part of the planet. Due to those conditions the last method of attack would not work. The Cacas would spot them on their night vision from their movement, even if their ghillie suits would have stopped most of the infrared from impacting on those kind of sensors. No, this time they were in for a stand up fight, and there was nothing the Captain could do to keep it from happening.

  Cornelius attempted to contact the air support net, hoping to get some ground attack craft to hit the Cacas before they started their assault. All the bands were busy with back and forth talk, or the static of jamming that the Cacas were putting out at heavy volume. When he finally got through all he was told was that nothing was available at the moment, but would be sent his way when available.

  At least I have some on call artillery at hand, he thought, looking over the positions of his men.

  He still had what was left of his company, plus two platoons of Rangers that had been seconded to him from two other companies. All were dug in as well as they and the engineers could set them. His two vehicle tank section had also been reinforced by two more heavies and a pair of medium armored fighting vehicles, all also dug in. He had also been given sections from three of the platoons in one of the heavy weapons companies assigned to the regiment. Each section was twelve strong, all soldiers in heavy combat armor. One section was equipped with four heavy pulse lasers, fearsome crew served weapons that came with power packs that required the lifting power of the other two members of each team. One was a rocket section, with six hyper-velocity launchers. The last was a mortar section, with three automatic heavy mortars, each throwing thirty magazine fed warheads in the two hundred millimeter range in a minute. It was a powerful defense, but one he was sure was not going to stop a reinforced Caca battalions, especially not if they were mostly equipped with heavy suits, which was what the sensors were showing.

  The engineers had helped to dig the positions, then sprayed nanite hardening solution on the earthworks. The nanites were still working at fusing the earth into stone, and were well on the way on most of the positions. Cornelius would have preferred to have another hour for the earthworks to truly set, but it looked as if his opponent wasn’t going to give it to him.

  “To all of the men, and women, under my command,” said Cornelius into his com. “We are not going to let these bastards through. No matter what, we are going to stop them here. We will stand shoulder to shoulder if need be. They must face us, the best soldiers of the best army in the history of the Milky Way Galaxy, if not the Universe. Remember that. Watch out for your brothers and sisters, and they will watch out for you. You will never be alone. If today is our day to die, we will die in the company of heroes. So do not give an inch.”

  “We have incoming,” called out one of the tank commanders.

  “Everyone to cover. And when you have a target, give them hell.”

  The shells started to drop around their positions. Everyone that could covered up as best they could, while lasers and particle beams flailed the air, detonating most of the shells before they could land. The earth was pelted by shrapnel, but pieces of jagged flying metal could not penetrate their suits, much less the tanks.

  Some of the shells released guided devices as they arced in, those that weren’t picked off before they could deploy. The devices identified targets by energy emissions or visual patterns, and boosted on small grabber units to their targets. When they hit their shape charge warheads blew holes through suits, or shot deep into tank armor without full penetration. The first soldiers started dropping off Cornelius’ plot, and he ordered all of his own indi
rect fire weapons to reply to the enemy.

  The heavy two hundred millimeter mortars fired a round every two seconds, the light organic mortars fired their light shells even faster, while the on call artillery chimed in. Earth spurted into the air six kilometers ahead, while many of the shells exploded in the air, victims of the Caca artillery defense.

  Now the Cacas charged forward at full speed. Their commander must have realized that his men were at a disadvantage in this kind of duel, being out in the open. The mecha trotted forward at the same speed as the infantry they could have outdistanced, preferring to stay in the mass. Scores of Cacas were still blasted into the air, or penetrated by smart bomblets. Some of those thrown into the air got back to their feet once on the ground and plugged on. One of the mechas intercepted a two hundred millimeter mortar which vaporized the upper portion, along with head and most of the torso of the operator.

  The shells continued to rain down on both sides. The human heavy mortars ran through their ammo, and it took some time to reload, but the smaller mortars and artillery kept up the barrage. Some fighting positions took hits on their forward berms. Those that had hardened sufficiently showered rock chips all around, while the softer ones blew torrents of dirt into the air. A couple of positions took direct hits that killed the medium suited Rangers in place. A heavy weapons position took a hit that destroyed its launcher, but failed to do more than stun the soldiers in their heavy armor. Tanks were hit, one of the mediums losing its turret to a penetration, a heavy sustaining some damage to its left side turret laser cross.

  The tanks fired, sending their heavy projectiles at superfast velocity toward the mechas. Half the shells hit, the others missed when their guns’ targeting systems were spoofed before the shot. The tanks reloaded and fired again, followed by a volley of the rocket launchers. Enemy rockets returned, and two heavy tanks died when they each took multiple hits from hyper-velocity weapons.

  Now the emplaced heavy weapons opened up. First the pulse lasers, firing a burst of laser power sixty times a second, each burst more powerful than an infantry rifle. A half second of bursts ate through the armor of a suit and into the body below, and scores of Cacas were blasted out of this life before the rest even knew what was going on. Many of the rest opened up on the laser positions, and the Rangers with heavy particle beam rifles chose that moment to open fire themselves, taking advantage of the enemy distraction. The tanks opened up with the particle beams between shots to take out mecha. One mecha got in a lucky shot with its own beam weapons and fused the turret of a heavy tank, locking it into place, then firing a volley of hyper-velocity missiles at close range into the point where turret met hull. With a fearsome blast a rocket punched through, followed by another, and the turret separated from the hull of the tank in a ball of fire that propelled it high into the air.

  “All units fire,” ordered Cornelius into the com. The front of the Caca wave was now within three hundred meters of the human line and moving forward quickly. Almost a hundred went down before they got much further, caught in multiple crossfires of heavy weapons and infantry rifles. Grenades popped over both lines, strings of firecracker sized explosions that were capable of penetrating armor, most times causing serious damage, but also able to kill.

  Now it was hell on earth, both sides trying their best to kill the other at close range. Cornelius sighted down his rifle at what looked like a Caca squad leader trying to rally his men. The particle beam would have hit the creature in the chest, but he jumped in the air at the last moment and caught it in the leg. It landed heavily and fell on the obviously wounded leg, and a pulse laser took the head off the creature. An incoming beam struck the rock hard parapet protecting the Captain, and a flurry of rock chips struck the Ranger in the side of the helmet. His faceplate rang, and half of his HUD went offline.

  Then the Cacas were into the line, and the Rangers rose out of their fighting positions to meet them. Now it was close combat, the hell where most shots hit something, and a hit was almost sure to damage, or kill. Cacas and Rangers fired beams into each other at point blank range, and a hundred soldiers combined from the sides died in ten seconds. One Caca sprung onto the top of a heavy tank and placed a large charge there. Before he could jump off a pulse laser in the hands of a heavy infantry trooper killed him, blasting a hole through the side of his suit between the arms on that side. The device he planted went off an instant later, killing everyone in both turret compartments of the tank.

  “Not a step back,” yelled Cornelius into his com as the Cacas started to overwhelm his force. A beam struck his left arm, not full on, but enough to melt alloy and burn his flesh beneath. The Ranger screamed out in agony, then activated his augmented nervous system’s pain block. The arm still worked, though weakly, but enough to steady his rifle, and he no longer felt the distracting pain. He rolled on the ground and back to his feet, shooting the Caca through its face plate.

  “Retreat,” yelled one of the new platoon leaders, and Rangers started to turn to run. Not all of them, but enough. The men were not cowards, but anyone would think about retreat in a situation that seemed certain death.

  “Belay that order,” yelled Cornelius in his best command voice, killing another Caca with a well-placed shot at the same time. “Stand your ground.” The men, including the platoon leader, all turned back and continued the fight, just as he knew they would.

  Cornelius turned in time to see the largest Caca he had ever beheld, probably massing a ton and three quarters in his battle armor, come charging at him. Most of the Cacas could run fast enough due to their stride, but were slower of limb than the humans, especially those augmented like the Rangers. This one moved faster than normal, and was sweeping his rifle down into firing position so fast that the weapon took the Captain’s shot. Alloy splashed, and the Caca brought the now nonfunctional weapon down in a butt stroke to knock the humans rifle away. His lower fists struck in a double punch to Cornelius’ chest, knocking him back, then swinging the butt of the rifle up in a strike to the human’s head.

  Cornelius flew back from the power of the stroke, his suit sensors going completely offline for a moment before coming back up. He landed on his back, stunned, aware that the Caca was coming at him in his rifle raised as a club. Moving at the last moment, he avoided the rifle, which hit the ground with a crack as it broke through at the point it had been hit by his beam. The Caca stepped back and pulled a wide blade from a sheath at his side and advanced again.

  Armored suits could run fast, a hundred kilometers an hour an more, because the suit could run itself faster than the human limbs underneath. It could move the upper limbs much faster as well using the same principle, using the nerve to suit interface to read commands. The one thing it could not do was act faster that the nervous connections between brain and interface. But the Ranger’s augmentation made those nerve impulses, in Cornelius’ case, four times faster than the human norm. Now he went into overdrive, a condition he couldn’t maintain for more than a few minutes, and his nerve impulses sped up to an even higher rate.

  Jumping to his feet, he launched a side kick into the stomach of the Caca, and felt like he had hit a wall of steel. He ducked away from the sword, only to be hit by another lower limb, then the next in a combination that knocked him back to the ground.

  The Captain realized his error at that moment. In true hand to hand he could have really hurt the Caca, even though it was stronger than he was. His greater than human strength, especially in overdrive, would have allowed him to seriously hurt the Caca with his blows. His suit, which possessed five times the strength of a strong human, only struck with five times strong human strength, despite his own organic power. The Cacas heavy suit was possibly stronger than thirty humans, and there was no way he was going to hurt the being with kicks and punches.

  And he also realized that he was trying to fight an individual battle in the middle of a firefight. That in itself was a losing proposition, since it took all of his awareness to handle this one foe at c
lose range, and this was not a fighting ring. The first Caca that could get a bead on him would blast a particle beam through his suit. I need to finish this, fast, was his thought as he dodged another swing of what had to be a molecular blade, then dodged three hands strikes that came in rapid succession. What he didn’t notice was the left leg that thrust out and hit him in the shoulder, knocking him back and almost off his feet.

  Cornelius extended the monomolecular blades from the forearms of his suit, then moved quickly, sliding his feet over the ground and thrust the left hand blade at the join between upper and lower right arms. The blade, which could cut through steel as easily as flesh, barely penetrated, and Walborski had to jump back to avoid the swipe of the sword, which he was sure would badly damage his own armor, and maybe even slice through.

  As the blade passed he thrust his left hand blades into the joint at the elbow of the right upper arm, and felt the satisfaction of penetration. He jerked the blade out and followed with one to the left upper elbow at the inner joint, getting another penetration and smiling as blood spurted from the hole. The Caca roared and brought the sword down, but the blade slipped from his hand and went flying. With a motion Cornelius retracted his blades and pulled his particle beam pistol from its holster. He aimed the pistol from the hip and sent the beam into the armored faceplate of the Caca, one of the weak points. He kept the beam focused for several seconds, while the Caca tried to duck away.

  Damn, he thought as the creature was able to get an arm in the way. The pistol was just not powerful enough. His curse turned into a whoop of joy a moment later when the Caca retracted his face plate. The shot must have damaged the optics of the helmet, forcing the Caca to expose his face, which was the break the Ranger was waiting for. A quick shot and that grimacing face was gone, converted to steam and ash, and the formidable Ca’cadasan warrior fell to his back, his limbs twitching.