The Conscripts: Fight or Die (Blood War Book 3)

by Rod Carstens

  They had orders to destroy all downed ships so the Xotoli could not get any intel out of them. Lee pressed the throttles to the wall, heading back for the port. They should have the casualty collection point established by now. They could drop off Annan and get back to the fight.

  He glanced at his display of the spaceport. There were too many Mike boats missing. The drop had gone bad. Where had the defenses come from? There’d been nothing in the briefings about resistance this stiff. He had to get back into the fight.

  135th Penal Battalion

  3rd Company

  First Platoon

  “Squad leaders, on me,” Striker said.

  Fenes, Minga, and Ardan left their positions and met Striker at the bottom of the bowl formed by the dune. They had been setting up their position and getting their people into place for the past half hour. The dune bowl made a good position with its stone foundation. The platoon was where they were supposed to be, but no one else was, and they had heard nothing from them.

  “Everybody in position?”

  “Yeah, Sarge.”

  “Roger that.”

  “We’re good to go.”

  “Look, I’ve got nothing on the command net. We don’t have an electronics-warfare tech with us, and we got nothing bigger than our rails right now. While we’re safe now, we need to get out to find out what’s going on. I don’t like the fact that we haven’t heard from the company, or the battalion for that matter,” Striker said.

  Then he paused. “I need a volunteer,” he said. Before any of them could answer, he continued, “Thanks for volunteering, Fenes.”

  “I think I’ve just been voluntarily told.”

  “Good guess. You and I are going back to the LZ to look for lost souls, comm equipment, heavy weapons, and any electronic-warfare type we can find. Meantime I want you two to get everyone down and lie dog. Don’t pick a fight. Only fight if they step on you. Watch for the Marines on your left flank. With any luck, it won’t be long before they get here. Any questions?”

  All Fenes could think of was that maelstrom back at the LZ and how lucky he had been to survive it once and now he was going back.

  “Okay, this fucking war is not going to wait. Let’s un-ass this place, Fenes.”

  Without another word Striker took off back toward VF LZ. Fenes had to work to keep up with Striker—he was big, strong, and knew how to get the most out of his armor. His strides and leaps covered more ground than Fenes had ever seen anyone’s do. They moved as quickly as they could while using what little cover there was toward the LZ.

  Each time they topped a dune, he caught glimpses of the LZ. There seemed to be more fires than when he left. He could count at least a dozen of the APCs the penal battalion used down and burning. The fire from the ridgeline was increasing. He lost count of the number of different positions in the it. The Xotolis must have had an extensive underground strongpoint along that line. The ridgeline was the edge of the escarpment where the spaceport was, so the Xotolis must have fortified the whole thing.

  Fenes and Striker reached the edge of the dunes, and Striker stopped and lay down at the top of the last dune. Beyond the dune there was nothing between them and the LZ except the big, flat plain they had crossed to get to the dune field. Fenes increased his magnification so he could see the LZ better. The penal battalion was supposed to have secured the crater and then provided strongpoints on each flank for the Marines to link up with. He could see no organized defenses on this side of the crater. In fact there was nothing except bodies and burning ships.

  “Where is everybody?”

  “Lesson number one: the war is not everywhere. Sometimes the bad guys miss you. When they do, count your blessings. They missed us for whatever the reason. Now we need to figure out how to survive longer. So everybody is hunkered down and trying to stay alive until the VF armored units land. Here they come now,” Striker said.

  At first all Fenes could see were lights in the night sky. The armored skins of the ships burned brightly as the ships entered the atmosphere at a steep attack angle, trying minimize their exposure to defensive fire. They looked like meteors in a formation. A bright white light at the head of the streak with white, gold, and orange following in its wake. It must have played hell with the Xotoli weapons systems trying to sort out what was a target and what was chaff. There were over a dozen, with more showing up every second. They tore through the atmosphere until they approached their transition altitude. Retros fired and they bled off speed. Defensive rockets exploded around them, scattering chaff as they made their approach to the LZ. It was quite a sight. He hoped the Xotoli were as impressed as he was.

  The first wave of ships flared and landed on the LZ. Plasma and rail cannons on top of the ships were pouring fire into the ridgeline. When a round struck the ridge, an explosion of rock and sand blew outward and up. It looked as if they were really pounding the Xotoli positions into dust. The back ramp on one APC dropped, and a hover tank slid smoothly out of the rear of the ship. The turret on top rotated, and it fired its plasma cannon at the ridgeline as it moved forward. Two lines of armored infantry followed the tank down the ramp.

  “Okay, this is our chance,” Striker said. “They will be concentrating on the armor, so a couple of guys running around is not going to draw much fire. You ready?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  “Listen, move as fast as you can. You hit thirty miles per hour in the sim. See if you can beat that speed now. Vary your bounds and zigzag as you move.”

  “Check.”

  Striker hesitated then said, “Now.”

  He was up and gone before Fenes could stand up. Fenes got to his feet and tore over the flat, open ground faster than he’d thought possible. He varied his bounds in height and distance, always changing direction when he landed.

  Neither he nor Striker drew any fire, but as they got closer to the LZ rounds, plasma, and laser streaks flashed near them. They weren’t being shot at—it was just random fire from the LZ. Fenes could see Striker ahead of him. He was keeping a good quarter of a mile of separation. Then he saw him veer to his right and disappear into a crater. Fenes did not immediately change his direction. He waited until his last bound, then cut to his right and jumped in the crater next to Striker. It was huge, and at the bottom it glowed red with heat.

  “We'll have to thank the boys on those destroyers for being such lousy shots. This wasn’t here when we first crossed.”

  Fenes could only stare at the glowing red sand at the bottom of the crater. Finally he turned and looked over the edge. He could see the LZ spread out before him. They were just outside of the main landing areas, which gave them a perfect view of the whole scene. The tanks were moving forward now, with the VF armored infantry in support. They turned toward the ridgeline and opened fire as the infantry spread out and ran for the crater, the main objective for the Von Fleet landing. APCs were beginning to lift off when it was as if a string of flood light lit up a ancient dry riverbed that ran meandered through the three LZs. Dozens of rockets streaked out of the riverbed and raced for the APCs.

  The first to reach an APC exploded against its bottom. The ship broke in half and fell, burning. APC after APC was being knocked out of the sky. Fenes had been so busy watching the rockets striking the APCs he missed the one that arced over the LZ until it exploded a hundred feet above the ground. The explosion released a dozen or more smaller rockets that sought out their own targets. These secondary rockets each targeted a hover tank. The rocket came straight down hitting the tank on the turret where the armor was thinnest. Tank after tank exploded as the rockets struck and detonated the ammunition inside the tank. Intact turrets weighing tons were thrown into the air by the force of the explosions as if they weighed nothing. Fenes could not imagine the hell it had to be inside one of those tanks. The armored infantry raced for the crater, as fire from the ridge poured into the running figures. It looked like a slaughter.

  “Fuck, Striker,” Fenes said.


  “Yeah, it’s not looking too good right now. But wait.”

  More APCs landed and more tanks emerged with infantry around them. Then Fenes saw what could only be described as a swarm of small armored robots that looked like miniature tanks being dropped from a low-flying APC. They landed and immediately raced off toward the dry riverbed on tracks. They looked for all the world like a bunch of remote-control ground drones Fenes had used to play with as a kid, but these drones were lethal. They began to fire rails, small lasers, and other weapons.

  “They’re using a robot swarm against the fortifications. Now this will take care of those fucks,” Striker explained.

  Fenes watched as the swarm of small tanks headed for the dry riverbed and ridgeline. Then, from the Xotoli lines, another round of rockets were fired. These exploded above the robot swarm and released hundreds of smaller rockets that targeted each of the robots. When they struck the robots they didn’t explode. Instead the rocket drilled itself into the top of the robot. The robots continued to move and fire at the ridgeline and dry riverbed unaffected by the rockets on their turrets.

  “That didn’t work. Stupid fucking aliens,” Striker laughed.

  As soon as the words had gotten out of his mouth, the robots struck by the Xotoli rockets stopped firing for a moment then began to fire on the other robots. Now instead of a swarm of robots heading for the Xotoli lines, you had a confusion of robots fighting each other. Some turned and headed back to the LZ, firing at the VF troops and tanks. What had been an organized LZ was turning into chaos as the troops and armored vehicles fought not only the Xotoli but the robots that had turned on them.

  "What the fuck is going on?!" Fenes said.

  "Those rockets must have reprogrammed the robots on the fly. I've never seen anything like it," Striker replied.

  They both could only watch in amazement as the troops and tanks were now not only fighting the Xotolis but their own robot tank swarms. A scene that was beginning to become organized disintegrated into chaos.

  “This is turning into a clusterfuck,” Striker said quietly. “We won’t find anything useful in midst of that and if we tried there a good chance we get ourselves killed. We need to get back to the platoon.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  “I don’t fucking know. But I know one thing—we are going to survive this shit. Now move.”

  They both stood, turned their backs on the chaotic Von Fleet landing zone, and started bounding toward the dunes. As they did huge red streaks crossed over their heads. At the top of one bound, Fenes glanced back. Someone had called in naval gunfire on the riverbed. A tremendous explosion ripped through the night when the naval round struck the riverbed, sending a huge burst of orange and yellow into the night. The LZ now looked like a living hell with all the weapons firing, bodies covering the ground, burning ships and tanks. He was glad it wasn’t him, but how in the world were they going to survive if Von Fleet armor and armored infantry were being torn apart like that? Fenes hit the ground and bounded again.

  1st Raider Battalion

  Alpha Company

  First Platoon

  Hu shot at a hybrid but it ducked behind a large piece of equipment on the runway. He flipped the round selector on his weapon to penetrating and fired a three-shot spread. The rounds ripped through the machinery, leaving a glowing red hole where each had entered. A mist of blood splattering on the wall behind the equipment let Hu know he had hit his target. Not much could stand up to a penetrating round going close to 5,000 miles per hour. After the metal-storm runs by the Mike boats, the rush of hybrids had all but stopped. The ’brid Hu had killed had been one of the last standing. Hu continued to scan the runway and the hanger area for more targets there were none. There were a few more shots from the rest of the platoon but they slowly stopped for lack of a target. Stopping that rush had not been part of the plan. They were behind their mission clock they needed to clear the hanger.

  “Entry leaders, explosives,” Lieutenant Taro ordered.

  Hu smiled to himself, Taro was ahead of him. He was turning to a damned good leader. The squad and fire-team leaders had explosives to enter from the roof. Hu glanced over at the next man to make sure they had their spacing right. He pulled the explosive charge off his vest and held it. Taro had stepped to the head of the line and waited until all of the leaders were in position then said, “Now.”

  Hu and the others threw their explosives down on the surface of the roof. The explosives were specially designed for entries; they were shaped charges that blew the debris into the hangar in a deadly spray of concrete and rebar. The charges blasted holes large enough for an armored marine to drop down through into the hangar below. Hu stepped forward and dropped the twenty-five feet to the hangar floor. He bent his legs as he landed and let his armor take the force of the drop. The hangar was totally dark. Nothing moved except the other marines dropping from the ceiling. He flipped his filter to night vision. All he saw was an empty space with a few pieces of equipment scattered around. It looked like any empty hangar in any spaceport Hu had seen, waiting for a ship to be pulled in for repairs. The only difference was everything was larger it was as if they were built for some giant to use.

  “Clear,” Hu said.

  A rail to his right fired. He saw Nani standing with her legs spread, her rail up in the firing position.

  “Now it’s clear,” Nani said.

  “Where the fuck have you been?” Hu asked, so relieved to see her he almost went to hug her.

  “I’ll explain later. It's a long story.”

  “Looks all clear, LT,” someone said.

  “Bullshit,” Lieutenant Taro said. “When things go too good it’s an ambush. Spread out and be on your toes.”

  “LT, where’s the rest of the battalion? Charlie Company is damned sure not on the runway or Hangar Three. That was full of hybrids.”

  “Worry about your piece of the war, Retig. I’ll do the thinking around here,” Taro snapped. It was obvious from his tone that Taro was worried as Retig. If Charlie Company was so off target that they still had not made to their objective they could be in some very deep ship.

  Hu knew Retig was right. They had to clear the buildings so they could fortify them for the inevitable counterattack the hybrids always used, but they weren’t going to do that without the rest of the battalion given the resistance they’d already encountered. So where the fuck was everybody, Hu thought.

  Taro was at the far end of the hangar. The rest of the platoon was spread throughout the huge structure. All Hu heard were clears from everyone. The platoons initial objective had been secured. Their secondary objective was to assist the second platoon in clearing the control tower and the administration building at its base. He had just turned his head in that direction when there was an explosion behind him. He spun toward the blast.

  As he did someone yelled, “’Brids! ’Brids!”

  Hu turned to see hybrids, and for the first time in the war he face to face with Xotoli. He had seen the video from 703, but up close and personal they more intimidating. The Xotoli were huge to begin with, but their black armor made them look even bigger and more intimidating. The human hybrids barely came up to their chests, and the Xotoli was twice as wide as a human at the shoulders. The face of its armor was a complex of pincer like extensions and flaps that seemed to rise and fall when it breathed. Armored hybrids were pouring out of a breach in the wall behind the Xotoli. The Xotoli was directing at least a squad of them. Taro was the nearest to the breach. He turned and fired almost point-blank into the hybrids.

  One, two, then another went down. The Xotoli took two huge strides and grabbed Taro by the neck. It literally tore his head off and stood there staring at the rest of the platoon, then threw Taro’s body into the middle of the hangar as if it were a rag doll. Elias was nearest to Taro. She pulled her fighting axe off her armor and killed a hybrid that was rushing her. Then she jumped at the Xotoli.

  Her jump took her over the heads of th
e hybrids between her and the Xotoli. She was about to land on its chest when it casually caught her in midair with one hand by the neck. It was reaching for her head with the other hand when Elias threw something at the Xotoli’s chest. The other hand never reached her because the breaching explosive that she had thrown exploded. A huge hole appeared in the Xotoli's armor where its chest had been, and it collapsed to the floor with Elias still in its grasp.

  The hybrids swarmed over Elias. She was soon buried in a mound of armored hybrid bodies. Hu began firing into the mound of hybrids as he along with the rest of the platoon raced for writhing mound of hybrids trying to kill Elias. The platoons fire blew hybrid after hybrid off of her, but they continued to pour from their entry hole. As he approached the hybrids, Hu snapped rail into the bracket on his chest and out of his way.

  He pulled his rail pistol and grabbed his shovel off his leg. If they were going to save Elias they had to go time for hand-to-hand. He reached the mound hybrids on top of Elias and shot one in the back of the head, then sank his shovel into the head of another. He was raising his shovel for another strike when he was thrown to the floor by a hybrid coming from his right. The hybrid mounted Hu and pulled out a pistol and fired at Hu’s head before he could move. The new sloped armor deflected the round, but it still felt as if someone had just hit him in the head with a baseball bat.

  Hu swung his shovel. The hybrid ducked and took it on the shoulder—it only bounced off its armor. Hu turned and managed to reverse the mount. He brought up his shovel for a final blow, and the hybrid drove a laser knife into his side. It didn’t completely penetrate his armor, but it lacerated his side, cutting through his flesh. It felt like a hot poker being raked across his ribs. Instinctively he arched his back in pain. This only gave him more power for his shovel strike as he drove the shovel through the faceplate of the hybrid. Blood exploded out of its helmet all over Hu and the ground around them.