by Chris Hechtl
Pain like he'd never felt before tore at his guts. He folded over the arm holding it, gasping but then his breath caught and he stopped breathing. He dropped to his knees and could only gasp as the sword arm twisted and withdrew, then came back to stab him right between the eyes ending his pain forever.
<)>^<)>/
Lobo disengaged the sword and then turned to the samurai. The man was on his knees, cradling his missing limb to his chest. “Please give me the honor of a clean death,” the samurai said as he disengaged his helmet and let his face mask come off.
Lobo grimaced. “Happy to oblige,” he said as he swiped hard and fast, using his claws to tear the man's throat out. The man's eyes went wide, then he gurgled, blood spurting. He fell, topping face first on to the ground.
Lobo's muzzle continued to grimace as he pulled his rifle out of the bodies. He checked it over thoroughly for damage. When he was certain it was good, he reloaded it and then went hunting for more enemy.
<)>^<)>/
“Son of a bitch!” Dimitri snarled as Askdall pointed out the three fallen suits. He noticed they had been taken out by one suit. “Frack!” he growled.
“They were almost out of ammo. They tried to draw the enemy in, but …”
“I don't care what they were trying to do, what they did do was monumentally stupid!” the captain snarled. He keyed his communications. “Ung. This is what I want you to do,” he said coldly.
<)>^<)>/
Corporal Ung heard the order from the captain and grimaced. “Roger that,” she said. She stepped back and pointed to the others. “Boss wants us to drop the house here. Be prepared to run,” she said as she pointed her weapon to the most distant support.
She opened up, and the others did as well. The support cracked with incoming fire, then splintered and exploded. It fell out of place and the roof beam dropped with it. She turned and fired on another, and then another.
<)>^<)>/
Lobo saw the roof supports being cut down in his area and stopped himself. There was no telling if he could get through that. He started to back away when coyote pointed to the ceiling. “Run!” Coyote urged.
He turned and ran back the way he'd come. He got halfway back to the three fallen enemy bodies when the roof came down. He managed to shoulder through some of it, but he took a couple of hard hits before he was thrown forward.
The inertial dampeners in his suit protected him to some degree. He noted his cloak was down and his shields were sparking. He tried to move, but his legs were trapped. He twisted his torso enough to knock some of the looser debris off him, then he used his tail to push against the rocks pinning his ankles. He managed to get just enough leverage to slip his left leg out. He then turned and used his tail and hands to move the rock pinning his right leg. He propped rocks up under the thing, and then kept tilting it until he got enough leverage to ease his boot out. It was crumpled though.
He turned, sitting there, panting and leaned against the fallen debris. “Well! That was fun!”
“Let's not do that again. It was too close,” Coyote replied.
“You could say that again,” Lobo said dryly. He stared at the pile, then keyed his radio. Coyote laid a laser on the nearest relay he'd left behind.
“This is Baker Four to Alpha One. Cave-in here. They deliberately dropped the ceiling. Watch out for that.”
“Roger that,” Jethro replied. “SITREP?”
“I've taken some damage. Mobility impaired,” Lobo grimaced as he flexed his ankles.
“Well, we're not going that way,” Lobo said as he checked his gear. His right leg was at 50 percent. He wasn't certain if he could cloak. “Find us another way out of here.”
“On it,” Coyote said, pulling the map up. He immediately plotted a different course.
<)>^<)>/
“The way is blocked, sir,” Corporal Ung reported.
“Good. That will force them to focus on another path. Check that out. Hold it, but if you start getting pressed, drop the ceiling as before,” the captain ordered.
“Yes, sir.”
<)>^<)>/
Jethro moved forward once the latest engagement with Jasper was finished and the enemy had backed off once more. They had dropped more ceilings, which was an ominous sign. They definitely had a back door out of the place; there was no way around that. Or they knew they were screwed and were hoping to drop the ceiling on his cloaked troops.
It also meant they were getting desperate. That meant they were low on ammo and people, possibly both. He could take that as both a good and bad thing.
The good news was, each time they closed a corridor, it simplified his way of advance. But it also forced them to stack up.
<)>^<)>/
Bast tried to hack an ODN line, but it had been cut. She passed on an order to the other A.I. to try when they had the chance.
<)>^<)>/
Lobo looked down at the fallen enemy, then grimaced and went to step over it. Something stopped him however. “What the … hey what gives?” he demanded, tugging at his body but not moving. “Coyote? What is going on?” he snarled to Coyote as the A.I. took control of his suit.
He watched as Coyote directed the suit to kneel next to the fallen enemy and rest a hand in the hole in the armor. He opened his mouth to object. He was not exactly squeamish, but … then he stopped and stared as lines were projected over his arm and hand into the opening. Then a second set of lines appeared, those were in blue and returned to his suit. As he looked closer, he noticed the lines were like trails of ants. Then another set of lines went in, this on in yellow.
“Okay, what are you …?”
His question ended when he noted data being pulled, most likely from the suit's computers. There was a burst of energy and then that endeavor ended abruptly, however. “The suit's self-destruct has been partially triggered,” Coyote said, clearly disgusted.
“Okay … get anything useful?”
“A lot,” the A.I. replied as the yellow lines terminated, then a new white line went in. Lobo blinked when he noted his energy level creep upwards, but that wasn't what really got his attention. It was his ammunition count and suit function. His right foot firmed up a bit. He could see some of the dents move out. “Okay … how …?”
“Nanites of course,” Coyote said as he used the nanites to strip the metal from the armor and made more ammunition for the suit. He also made new butterfly probes and finally made as many repairs to the armor as he could to get it functional again.
“Cool! I didn't know you could do that!” Lobo said enthusiastically. “We're back in the fight! You are just full of all sorts of tricks, aren't you?” he said as Coyote finished and straightened up.
“You don't know the half of it,” Coyote said slyly.
“Show off,” Lobo muttered as he went in search of fresh prey.
<)>^<)>/
Jethro had been careful to leave the Winchesters and Cocoa to watch their backs. Pam had been cut off again, so she and Omri had regrouped on Lance's path of advance and were following in his wake. It was the opposite of what protocol called for, RECON was supposed to be out in front, but so far, Lance hadn't hit any resistance.
He'd also gotten cute and welded or booby-trapped doors that he'd run into as he cleared rooms.
Blue Eyes had gotten Jasper and Nia to another intersection before they'd been cut off by smoke and another enemy barricade. The two heavy suits didn't have any more toys to get around the corner and hit the barricaded troops however. They traded weapons fire by leaning around the chewed-up corners.
The Horathians had robots and sentry guns covering one part of the intersection and at least two heavy suits covering the other. Since there had been a few cave-ins, they were limited to three lines of advance. He was tempted to send someone to back Lobo and Roarack up, but if the blueprints were right, then they'd join up soon enough.
Cocoa and Tikaani were upstream covering the main line and their retreat.
Letanga and Uraj were
stuck covering Jasper's flanks further downstream while also running munitions to the heavy suits. Jethro realized their advance had stalled on that front. That meant it was up to attrition and the other two attacking forces at the moment.
“Keep them pinned here. If we get somewhere on one of the other fronts, I'm going to move in to support them,” Jethro growled.
“Roger that,” Jasper said. “I almost like them and feel sorry for them,” he said, then rolled slightly away from the corner as it began to disintegrate again. “I did say almost,” he said as he used his weapon to fire underhanded back around the corner at the enemy. He tried for a few ricochet shots.
“Right,” Nia drawled in amusement.
<)>^<)>/
Dimitri scowled, then shook his head as he watched Don Jensen's trio continue to duel with the enemy heavy suits. They were at least blocked in that direction he thought. But in the others …
He grimaced. He had to get the weight off, to pull them away, and make them rethink their advance. Dropping the ceilings was doing that. It had slowed their advance, made them more cautious. But …
He had a couple plays left but his option menu was getting depressingly slim. “Ung, I need you to take your squad and go out the back door, then circle around and hit the enemy from behind. Move fast, don't hesitate,” he said.
<)>^<)>/
Corporal Ung heard the order and knew it was a death sentence. She knew the enemy undoubtedly had air cover out there waiting to pounce on them. She also knew it was an order, and an order had to be obeyed. “Yes, sir.” She shouldered through the lines and got to the door. Lieutenant Robinson and Lieutenant Kinoshita stared at her.
“The one good thing about this plan is we got a chance to reload,” she said as she grabbed what ammunition she could. Her squad did the same. Lieutenant Robinson nodded mutely. She had simple armor on but lacked a helmet.
“Let's do this,” the corporal said as she set herself and nodded. Lieutenant Kinoshita nodded back as he triggered the door sequence. A section of wall that looked like rock opened towards them. He reached over and swung it all the way open for them.
“Good luck,” the male lieutenant said as the troops pounded up the pathway to the second door. “You're going to need it,” he breathed under his breath as he shut the door behind them.
<)>^<)>/
Sergeant V'n'r saw the energy signature of eight suits leap out into the open where they shouldn't be. One moment there was a cliff face, the next they were there and sprinting for the main door of the cave. “We've got eight tangos on the way to the door,” the Veraxin said.
“I see them,” Wolf 2 reported.
“We've got dibs,” V'n'r said as he settled himself and triggered his missile packs on the middle of the group, then his mortars on the rear while Sylvia engaged the lead units. The other two members of his fire team didn't have the line of sight to engage.
<)>^<)>/
Corporal Ung was ready for resistance. She knew it would most likely come from the air, but she had to keep an eye on the ground around her as they moved as fast as they could. Twice, one of her people had slipped on the snow and icy rocks. Nothing had been hurt but their pride. She'd passed them and allowed them to recover on their own, outracing her point in the process.
Which was why she didn't see the missiles coming in from her five o'clock to hammer into the suits behind her. She was thrown forward by the explosions, however. She rolled to see the devastation and then started to crab backwards, kicking her legs. “Cover!” she snarled as the mortars landed on her rear units, tearing them apart. “Cover!” she said, pointing to a cluster of rocks just as Sylvia's mortar rounds came in and took away any lasting need for cover or anything else for the rest of time.
<)>^<)>/
Dimitri snarled as he saw Ung's force go down less than a third of the way to the cave mouth. They'd gone down with brutal efficiency. He grudgingly had to admire how good the enemy was, far better than the forces they'd fought before. Cadre indeed he thought. They were truly on Sun Tzu's fabled Death Ground; that loss proved it. Anyone who tried to retreat was doomed.
“Go Mackie, Askdall. I've got this,” he said, resting a hand on Mackie's shoulder.
“You sure, sir?” Mackie asked as he turned.
“Go. That's an order. Get in there and kick some ass. I've got this. Get some ammo, as much as you can carry to Jensen, then kick ass,” the captain said.
Both enlisted personnel rose and then nodded and went to the door. They picked up their rifles and kits and then took off. The captain listened to their footfalls recede and then knelt in front of the computers like a priest in front of an electronic alter.
<)>^<)>/
“Eight tangos down,” Sergeant V'n'r reported.
“See why I left you out there?” Jethro asked.
“Right. Well, we know the general location of their back door, sir. Should we assault it?” the Veraxin asked.
“No. Put one or two of your people on that. We don't know if it is their only back door though. Make sure you saturate that area with probes.”
“Roger that. I wouldn't mind some of these Marine heavy suits relieving us though. We'd like a few more playmates,” the Veraxin said.
“Something tells me your playmates think you play too rough,” Jethro chuffed back. “We'll see if we can save you some, V'n'r. Be patient.”
“Aye aye, sir,” the Veraxin replied.
<)>^<)>/
James saw Mackie and Askdall pass by and realized they were it, the last reserves. He finished tack welding a piece of armor back together and then lifted his visor. “Okay, you're done. Go,” he said.
He went over to his personal weapons and drew his favorite heavy caliber Gauss rifle. The rifle had a molecular battle ax on the tip of the barrel like an oversized sight and an underslung rocket grenade launcher.
“The armory is officially closed, boys and girls. You think you can fix it yourselves, go for it. But I'm going to get it stuck in,” he said as he hefted his rifle and then went off to war.
<)>^<)>/
Lieutenant Zevaya saw Mackie and Askdall show up. She grimaced but then nodded to them as they set down ammunition loads for the two heavy suits.
“Anyone seen Tex?”
“He got cut off. He's only got one way back,” Mackie replied.
“Frack.”
Chapter 66
Jethro got to the first battle scene and noted the enemy bodies. He checked the status and then nodded and returned his attention to the enemy suits. Absently, he noted that some of the Death's Head armor was made out of armor components from a variety of sources. There were parts from what looked like private security suits, militia, military surplus, some parts from suits from the Xeno war, and a few that might be mercenary suits. Bast scanned the suits thoroughly and uploaded her results.
From the look of it, there were no common defects or weaknesses. Some of the suits had copied parts of lower-grade quality than the original. A few had field-expedited repairs.
Each suit was a slightly different style; there were a few that looked like they had parts from alien or Neo species. They were all decorated too. They kept to a basic matte or gloss black for a base color, but their helmets all sported some sort of skull face mask or full skull helmet. One of the ones he was looking at had a silver skull and markings. Another was bone; according to Bast, it was a real human skull with gold teeth. The canines had been replaced with long vampire chrome ones.
He shook his head. They were garish but had fought better than expected in some ways. They'd adapted. It remained to be seen though, were the suits that had fallen so far their best or their worst? Were their best yet to come?
<)>^<)>/
Dimitri closed his eyes in pain for a brief moment. He was down another squad of troops. He had twenty-two undamaged troops left including himself. The enemy was going to win; there was no doubt. But he wanted them to pull the rest of their people in deeper to reinforce the troops ass
aulting Lieutenant Zevaya before he went and activated his final option.
<)>^<)>/
"I'm getting tired of this tit for tat," Jasper said as he fired a short burst. He didn't have a target so he was trying to ricochet the rounds around the corners to hit the other side. The rounds would lose a lot of energy in the initial impact but would still make them jumpy and keep their heads down.
If he could just push them back a little further, he might be tempted to charge forward and take out the robots while pushing the suits back.
"I say next time we get some pack animals going for the ammo. Maybe pack robots or something," he growled. The A.I. had shown them Zenko's method of rearming. They had also scavenged the enemy dead for materials; that was the only reason they were keeping the pressure on them.
He looked over to where someone had drawn a series of skulls on the wall. "I wonder about these people. What's with the whole death thing?" he asked rhetorically.
Nia snorted at him. Jasper was turning into something of a character as the battle continued. He was calm, collected, and almost whimsical about the fighting. "I'll back the pack robot idea. It's a good one."
"So, you doing anything tomorrow? Other than sleep and a shower?" Jasper said as the enemy chewed up the corner a little. It kicked off a lot of gravel and dust.
"Why? You …?" Nia ducked away as more of the weapon fire chewed the corner apart, spraying her with shrapnel. " … making plans? I mean, after all the paperwork and crap? A parade?"
"Paperwork … you really are being nasty, aren't you? I'm half tempted to get shot just to avoid it."
"They give you more paperwork when you do," Nia warned him.
"Frack," Jasper said as Nia chuckled at him. "I wouldn't mind a parade," he said thoughtfully. Banzai rolled his eyes on his HUD. "What?"
"I think I can wait on being in a parade. Too much of a sniper target," Nia said. "Anything else?" she asked.
"Well …" Jasper waited for the enemy to reload and then leaned enough to get the tip of his barrel around the corner and squeezed the trigger. He didn't need to see them; he was just firing suppressive fire. "Well, I figured I'd think of something. Go to a park, shop, restaurant …"
