Enemies on All Sides (Maraukian War Book 4)

by Michael Chatfield

  VCF Hope

  Earth Orbit, Sol System

  10/3556

  “Give them a shot across the bow.” Archibald looked to the tracks of the incoming containers.

  The tugs had been busy; the containers that didn’t have anything useful were connected together off to the side.

  The first drop-ship released its payload; a tug grabbed it and brought it toward the Novum. The drop-ships turned and poured power into its engines, pushing away from the freighters, cutting its momentum and heading back down toward the planet.

  There were several positions where tugs were waiting, grabbing the released containers and connecting to them to the freighter before returning back to the hand-off point.

  This continued again and again as the drop-ships cut and headed back toward Earth once again. There were thousands of containers to change hands.

  The cannons on the Hope fired across the closest ship’s bow.

  “They’re still coming and showing no signs of slowing down.” Steltson looked at her captain.

  “Weapons, looks like you will be needed. Wait until they enter weapons range and then pummel them. I don’t want our people under threat at the hand-off point. Pass the word to Captain Lela.”

  “Entering range,” Steltson said nearly twenty minutes later. “Firing solution is ready. Sending.”

  The cannons up and down the port side of the ship opened fire. Accelerated rounds rushed across the engagement envelope. The ship started to change its trajectory, but it was fighting against Earth’s gravitational pull and they hadn’t built up any momentum. The entire ship was like a whale. The crew, who weren’t military trained, instead of reducing their profile, tilted up and away, exposing the underside of the ship.

  The rounds slammed through the ship’s unarmored belly. The ship’s internals were torn apart, with secondary explosions going off. All readings of power from the ship died down.

  Emergency ships started ejecting moments later, the ship dead in space as it went off on a wild trajectory.

  “Clear our skies,” Archibald said as more ships were entering their weapons fire envelope. Their cannons opened fire as missiles streaked out to meet the drifting first ship.

  It was met with the silent explosion of the two chemical warheads. They weren’t as powerful as nukes, but they tore the ship apart, turning it into a cluster of debris that would drift overhead.

  Parts of the ship were drawn into Earth’s gravitational field.

  “Did we really need to do that?” Dodson asked in Archibald’s ear.

  “That ship was going to attack and try to board us. We just showed we won’t give them mercy. What do you think the people on the other side are going to think when they’re ordered to come close to us? Also, it was blocking our sensors. If I was the enemy, I would get behind it and use it as cover to bring another ship right overtop us,” Archibald said in calm and measured tones.

  Dodson looked at Archibald in a new light. He was from the Yard and he had heard of Archibald’s exploits from others. He saw his cold ruthlessness here and the man who played with his children and doted on his sister. He finally connected the two different people together.

  Dodson didn’t like it, but he would back his brother-in-law’s play.

  The Hope and Novum showed that their weapons weren’t just for show as they opened fire on the ships that tried to get close to them at first.

  Quickly, the ships tried to escape. Seeing their broken fellows, they didn’t want to simply waste their ships on a battle they couldn’t win.

  Other ships started to move, these ones larger and bulkier, many of them personal transports for the higher-ups in different corporations. These were palaces with engines—palaces with protection so that the people inside couldn’t be threatened or kidnapped.

  They didn’t hide their intentions as weapon systems were revealed and a few of them started to push out their mobile space fighters or armed shuttles.

  “Looks like this party has just started. We will defeat them with a wall of fire. Steltson, I want waves of rounds and missiles on them. Flood their defenses and take them out. Request that some of the drop-ships stay for protection. We need to clear the skies to keep the handover point secure. I want drop-ships watching over the handover points and ready to provide defenses against any long-range attacks. The rest I want ready to protect our hulls from enemy fighters. Use our weapons fire as cover to get in among the enemy. Talk to the air commander on the ground and get them to organize the three different groups,” Archibald said. Being a combat shuttle commander, he knew the strengths of these craft and how to split them up to make the best use of their capabilities.

  An answer came back just moments later.

  “Air commander is getting them organized; has called them forces Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie,” the communications officer replied.

  “Very well,” Archibald said. The map behind his eyes changed as his NIAI pulled the information and updated the symbols.

  The drop-ships, instead of making their way back to Earth, moved into new positions, creating wings and defensive perimeters.

  These crews might be using their ships for the first time but they had been training for months. They were ready for this.

  It would take some time before those heavy hitter ships were in position, giving the drop-ships and the two mega freighters the opportunity to move into better positions. They couldn’t move too much; after all, they were still transferring containers the entire time.

  Archibald’s eyes moved to the two freighters that were slowly moving to a new position. It looked as if no one noticed the two simple freighters that looked as though they were just trying to get out of battle.

  This time, we rule the skies.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Westerly Three Complex

  Earth, Sol System

  10/3556

  Dominguez heard that telltale crack and whiz of chemical-backed rounds off to the right side of the platoon.

  “Contact!” a sergeant called out as his section came under fire. They marked the targets that had appeared. They were halfway through a square when they came under contact. The section fired at the attackers, a wall of fire pushing them back as they dashed forward into cover. Then, using fire and movement, they started to get into an extended line.

  “Two Section, move to the buildings behind them and support Three Section. Three Section, move into better cover when you can. One Section and Support Section, move to flank the right and cut them down!” The second lieutenant snapped off orders, getting his people moving and reacting.

  Dominguez and her protection detail were that support section. It would be their job to advance through the field of battle, clearing house by house and removing the attackers.

  They jogged around the third section that were jumping upward, getting to the second and third floor of some buildings, then smashing through walls with their armor.

  The rate of fire increased on the attackers, pinning them in place as the support section and one section kept their weapons up and moved through the buildings on the right side.

  Using the buildings as cover, they started to spread out in a line, ready to advance on the enemy’s flank.

  “Contact!” Phillips yelled as he set his feet and fired his repulsor from the standing position.

  Rounds cut down the alleyway between buildings, cutting down five gang members who had been running toward them.

  Dominguez dropped to her knee, slamming into a wall with her weapon up as she fired down the hall. “I’ve got long shot!”

  “Rolling thunder—I’ll take lead. Riflemen, behind me to clear passageways!” Phillips said.

  His repulsor was a mean round spitting machine, but it laid down a cone of fire. It was meant to saturate an area with rounds, not be an exact instrument. Dominguez could aim down the alleyway and hit targets accurately at range.

  With Phillips advancing, he covered the front. The riflemen were there to rush down an
y alleyways they came across, covering them as they advanced.

  As Phillips and his riflemen with the rest of the stack moved on, Dominguez felt someone pull her upward. She stood and lowered her rifle, falling into the third last position. Behind her, there were two repulsor gunners moving from cover to cover, checking the rear.

  In close quarters, threats could come from everywhere so people scanned the buildings on either side, looking for targets.

  “This is Warrant Phillips. We’ve come into contact with enemy forces. Looks like we’re not the only people thinking of flanking. Going to advance on an angle toward the enemy position so that we hopefully sweep all of them up. I advise checking the left flank and having a rearguard for the sections advancing on the enemy position.”

  “Understood, Warrant. Sergeants, you hear that?”

  Green lights appeared.

  “Carry it out!”

  Dominguez was pleased to see their reaction time as they adjusted their positions to cover their asses.

  The net fell silent. Dominguez could hear the people moving around, their heavy footfalls and the scuffing noise in the red dust or their weapons moving as they covered any possible angle.

  She could hear the weapons fire. Even though it was only a few buildings over, it sounded as if it were miles away.

  She let out a cool breath and focused, making sure she didn’t tunnel, checking her arcs for threats.

  She knew that hell would descend in just moments. But there were no thoughts of running away; instead, a flush of adrenaline made her heartbeat pick up as she gripped her rifle tighter, checked her information and focused her mind.

  “Door,” one of the people in the stack said. They were pressing inward now, creating a line to advance into the enemy’s position.

  People watched either side as a stack held to one side of the building, not at the door.

  Rena, wearing Defender Armor, shook her head. “Fucking one door coming up.” She ran forward, building up momentum before slamming her shoulder into the wall. With a grunt, she went sailing through the red mud and metal sheeting wall with a resounding crash.

  Those waiting outside rushed into the new “door.”

  “Clear! Door right!” Eian said as Rena got off the floor.

  Eian rushed forward and through the wall. The enemy would be expecting them to come through the door, so they went through the walls.

  They proceeded forward, crashing through walls and clearing the houses and apartment buildings.

  Dominguez followed behind, not allowed to be in the lead stack.

  They exited the building into another alleyway and rushed into another building. People covered either side of the street.

  Rena groaned as she made another entrance.

  “Civs,” she said as they entered.

  They filed in, finding a mother and daughter in a corner, both of them holding a pistol.

  “Clear out.” Phillips pointed to the doorway with his repulsor.

  The mother grabbed her daughter and they rushed out of the building.

  Dominguez shook her head as they pushed forward.

  “All right, we’re on the line,” Phillips said.

  The whole process seemed to have taken hours, but it was only about seven minutes.

  “Good! Firing line, be ready for friendlies walking across your front. Watch your fire!” the second lieutenant ordered.

  “Right flank, advance!”

  The two sections’ worth of people on the right flank moved forward toward the enemy.

  One section’s advance fell on the apartment building that had been hammered by three and two section. The support section was past that, clearing anything that was behind the apartment building, including several low-lying buildings scattered about. The round and thrown-together structures were only two or three stories tall.

  Dominguez and her people slammed open doors as they moved forward, crossing the open streets, talking and communicating to one another, covering one another as they advanced.

  “Contact!” Eian yelled as he fired his rifle. Targets appeared in everyone’s view.

  “Don’t punch up—keep spread out! There might be more out there.” Dominguez moved forward.

  “Repulsors, get high!” Phillips used his power armor, jumping on top of the low-lying buildings to get a better vantage point.

  Weapons opened up across their front as they advanced.

  “Move in, fire teams,” Dominguez said, reacting to the fighting. “Covering!” Dominguez yelled to the person closest to her.

  “Moving!” Pai rushed forward. In the Defender Armor, they got pretty far before they had to crouch down.

  They were only twenty meters away from other members of their section who were under fire. But in an urban area, especially one as built up as the slums of Earth, even ten meters could be a world apart.

  “Covering!” Pai yelled back.

  Dominguez slammed through a restaurant, going through the back door and crashing through the counter. She reached the seating area, looking out at the tall buildings, garbage strewn about and a maze of alleyways between buildings.

  “Covering!” Dominguez yelled.

  Pai rushed out of the alleyway next to the building, heading forward toward a street that was split by a building, creating a Y intersection.

  Dominguez picked up movement as people moved out from cover around the corner of a restaurant. She opened fire on them as her armor pinged them and updated the map in real-time.

  A repulsor gunner with a bead opened fire on the group.

  They didn’t stand a chance under that hail of rounds. Some of them tried to run or get cover but they were in shock, or not fast enough to escape the rounds.

  Pai, hearing the rounds, had ducked into cover and looked over the area.

  “Air support is incoming,” the second lieutenant said.

  Fighting in the slums was hell, but at least they had support to make things easier.

  The drop-ships’ main job was pushing containers up to the waiting freighters, so they had to be used sparingly for support missions and only when the enemy had been confirmed did they come out to assist.

  “Moving,” Dominguez said.

  “Covering,” Pai said.

  She ran through the dirty plastic that had been cut in lengths, sliding up to the next building.

  “Contact on the left flank!” a corporal called out as a new firefight broke out.

  “We’ve got a platoon moving up on our right. They’ll move through and clear. I’m sending over people to support.” The second lieutenant sounded calm even as they were now in two different engagements.

  Rounds struck the ground as missiles went off. Their drop-ship support had arrived.

  The drop-ship appeared moments later, flying overhead. Its cannons blasted anything that looked like a threat.

  The enemy forces that had been pinned down were cut down wholesale as the drop-ship relayed its sensor data to the combatants on the ground, highlighting buildings where the enemy gangs might possibly be.

  Weapons fire targeted the drop-ship that sped up and shot out of the battlefield.

  Their fire died down as the drop-ship banked around in a big arc. Chemtrails appeared under its wings.

  Missiles struck an apartment building, tearing it and anything that was inside apart.

  The people in the slums knew that a fight was happening and they had quickly evacuated. There was no mercy in the slums.

  “Continue the advance,” the second lieutenant said.

  The two sections rose up and pushed forward. Dominguez grouped together with others, forming a stack as they went close to one of the houses that had been marked.

  Dominguez pulled out a charge and tossed it on the wall. She checked the others and detonated it.

  The wall blew inward. Pai ran in before the debris had even finished falling.

  His rifle barked as the next person ran in and then Dominguez. Her eyes moved with her rifle. Seeing a gang
member round a door inside the building, she fired on him. Two rounds punched through his basic armor, dropping him to the ground. She scanned the area and moved away from the door.

  “Door front!” Dominguez yelled as she looked about the room. Four more gang members were on the ground.

  “Stack up!” Pai yelled. Once again they got on top of each other.

  “Set!” the fourth person yelled and they moved forward.

  “Right left,” Pai said.

  “Understood,” Dominguez said from her position as second in the stack, moving her body slightly.

  “Go!” Pai turned around the doorway to face the right as Dominguez did the same but for the left side.

  “Exit, no doors,” Dominguez said.

  Just as she did, she heard weapons fire from the other side.

  Pai was firing on other contacts. Dominguez lowered and turned, coming to a knee on Pai’s side. Her weapon snapped up as she fired on the targets.

  Pai let out a gurgling noise as he was hit. Dominguez shouldered them to the side, dropping them back in the room.

  Those in the room dragged him to the side as another member moved into his position.

  “Ready to advance!” Dominguez yelled. It was a broken-up area with seating of all kinds over the place. She fired her grenade launcher into the mess.

  The weapons fire died down.

  She rose up and grabbed the person’s drag tab on their back.

  “Move forward!” Dominguez yelled.

  They rushed forward, their weapons up. Dominguez moved her rifle around to the side to support as they moved to the opposite wall.

  More ran after them as they stacked up on the wall nearest the open area.

  “Open area, one left, report, one right,” Dominguez yelled.

  “Understood,” the lead said.

  “Set!” the fourth person said.

  “Go!” Dominguez yelled. The first person swung around the corner.

  “Short wall counter left!” Dominguez was right behind them, swinging right to see behind the wall on the right.

  She fired a burst into the moving gang members. The second person moved behind her as there was no room on the left wall to move in.