"That was fast." Mikkhael said.
"Their commander is efficient, capable, and not to be underestimated." Aurora replied.
"Neither am I." He engaged Starkindler’s active camouflage and infrared masking abilities, setting off for a target nearby that he chose randomly. The environment was decidedly target rich enough that he could pick targets at will. With Aurora’s guidance, the oversized Mech armor plodded along the harsh terrain slowly, barely able to remain under control, requiring the assistance of running the engine output at nearly eighty percent to provide sustained lift overburdened as they were.
* * * * *
Two of the most frustrating hours ever experienced by the professional soldiers passed slowly in the Command and Control Center until SSgt Anderson broke the oppressive silence. "General Akari, Sir. The terrorist appears to be acting at random while causing as much wholesale destruction as possible. Computer simulations are unable to determine any kind of pattern to the enemy pilot’s actions. Without the Reapers to provide overflight capabilities and the satellites out of commission, our forces remain blind to the threat until the terrorist is among them, and then due to the terrorists overwhelming firepower, it’s too late. That is the third outpost he’s destroyed in the last four hours, I am requesting that we continue to tighten our perimeter and engage him with the reinforcements on standby to pin him down."
A red-faced, pudgy two-star General from High Command wheezed as he interrupted, talking down to the SSgt in an assumed haughty manner that reeked of imbecility. As part of General Akari’s deal to obtain the extra three divisions for the operation, High Command became directly involved in the mission planning, going so far as to send the obnoxious political dandy to interfere with operation plans as much as possible. From the moment the pudgy man arrived, he seemed intent on offending as many people as possible. "Negative Sergeant.” He said, placing extra emphasis on the man’s lower rank. “That moment will come, but the time isn’t right. The path the terrorist chose, whether by chance or skill, allowed him to skirt the range of our heavy artillery units until now. The next position he attacks will force him to reveal himself long enough for us to accurately engage him with the long range artillery and land-to-land missiles. With enough luck, this threat will soon be proved overblown and the assembled armies a waste of time and valuable resources."
General Akari remained silent throughout the dandy’s petulant usurpation of authority, shaking his head at the SSgt who forcefully began to act when the plutocrat intervened. SSgt Anderson followed his General’s unspoken orders and did not contest the Party representative. This far out from the main cities, they had not been forced to deal with official Party oversight that any other major theatre command would have considered to be normal operating procedures. Even though General Akari outranked the dandy, because the outsider was from High Command and was the official Party representative, in such a capacity the pudgy dandy technically had authority over resources High Command provided for the operation. That included the ability to override a command by General Akari himself should he choose to make that mistake. The plutocratic General was in command of the artillery and land-to-land missile units, and only one of several Party representatives sent to meddle in matters of life and death they had no business involving themselves in. Politics threatened to undermine the very efficiency required for Akari's plan to unfold properly.
* * * * *
Mikkhael pulled off into a small crag to rest. As advanced as Starkindler was, its stealth systems would eventually be worn down by the continuous fighting and heavy operating time. Pausing to allow the reactor to cool when he could would help his long term survivability throughout this already doubtful endeavor. Unexplained disappearances on his part would also make the opposing command structure sweat; as long as they could not locate him, they would not be sure if he was moving to strike somewhere farther away. Signal jamming worked equally well against both of the opposing forces. Therefore, the PDF would be forced to maintain their forces spread out over as wide an area as possible if they wanted to box him in, allowing him to continue taking them on in numbers he was able to handle while operating solo.
He jettisoned several empty cases of ammunition bolted onto the external frame, slowly reducing their overall radar profile and weight. Each bullet used and empty munitions case ejected only served to make him more deadly from here on out. Within the feedback received through the controls of the flight handles, he was already feeling the near-drunken handicap fading as he engaged in nearly contiguous battles.
"They will use artillery next;” he said aloud. “I would in this situation anyways. The moment that I show myself again the big guns will take their turn at attempting to kill us." The broken silence was awkward. He was not used to talking out loud, his voice still raspy and sore from having a breathing tube down his throat for the last week. The sound of his voice rang harshly in the otherwise silent cockpit, the dull hum of the reactor muted during their idling period.
Aurora did not reply to the rhetorical statement. With nothing else needing to be done and no enemies nearby for the time being, Mikkhael immediately fell asleep, still critically weak from being woken up too early in the medical ward. She let him and Starkindler rest while she waged a different kind of war, one that was as equally important to the eventual outcome as the physical engagements. Her battles were bitter and tedious, consisting of incalculable strikes and counter strikes. They were being waged instantaneously on thousands of fronts at once across all of Martian cyberspace.
For nearly twelve hours now, she fought at an extreme disadvantage against the surprise and well-coordinated counter-offensive the PDF cyber divisions began waging against her vast network. Mikkhael had nearly evened the odds with the destruction of two of the local PDF signals jamming units, but she was still handicapped, her connection to her network remaining tenuous at best as the cyber divisions cut her off from the bulk of her resources. Her adversaries had spent a considerable amount of time planning their offensive with detailed precision on how best to cripple her before they made their move; their chosen methods proved surprisingly effective, catching her off guard with the sheer size of dedicated resources they committed while at the same time denying hers. They were trying to limit her finesse and skill in the cyber world; containing her to a battle of brute force they had a better chance of winning. Within the cockpit, the aura of her self-representation smiled; it had been a good attempt on their part, but she would win in the end.
* * * * *
Mikkhael jerked awake. Aurora turned his I.V. feed on, feeding him large amounts of cognitive boosting drugs, not so subtly ending his nap. The short time asleep left him refreshed while still clear headed. He checked the mission timer, seeing seven hours passed since they left Mount Olympus and more than eleven since Commander Ultor woke him up in the medical ward. So far the StormCrows heeded his request and remained out of the fight; but there was no telling how long they would honor his request before attempting to take matters into their own hands. His duty now was to reduce the PDF forces as much as possible before they did, so that they would have some chance of survival. There was no doubt in his mind that they would eventually sally forth, just as there was no doubt that Eve and the other members of her team were dead regardless. The cynicism of the thought pained him, but he forced himself to remain realistic about the current situation, knowing that Aurora still had no clear picture of just how many opponents they faced, possessing only enough data that a very limited set of outcomes to the present situation existed.
He sat up and readied himself, scanning the HUD and threat gauges several times over, ensuring that nothing was missed before placing his hands inside the hand grips. The pilot chair adjusted around his new posture as Aurora spooled up the reactor to full output, charging the energy shields back up to full status along with charging the left arms electro-magnets. With the fusion reactor’s temperature now back down to around normal operating range and the reserve coolant cha
mber once again displaying a ready status, he headed back out into battle towards the nearest high priority marker flashing on his HUD.
The local environment continued to remain abundantly target-rich; patrols abounded as the PDF strained their resources, searching near his last known position across hundreds of miles of some of the harshest terrain on the planet to find him. Thousands of crags, small mountains, and ravines ensured his advantage over their limited detection abilities. Without regard of the repercussions, Mikkhael saw the world around him increasingly through shades of red tinged with pure darkness. The rage that had become an integral part of who he was ever since his parents, family and loved ones were taken from him became a living entity within him, parasitically feeding off of his pain, fighting for complete control of his body and actions.
Now it demanded it release and he granted that wish, letting the rage and pain sweep him away as he continued fighting. With no need for encouragement, he mowed through any of the smaller patrols they came across with total impunity, eliminating them with ease while simply avoiding any of the larger, more capable ones. Starkindler skimmed across the broken terrain as they quickly approached their next target, leaving a trail of devastation in their wake.
"Do not let your guard down during this fight. This particular Forward Operating Base is more permanent. They have fortified their position inside a dome with significant defensive improvements in preparation for your arrival. Within, are Marauder heavy tanks, as well as mixed varieties of drones and plenty of Mech armor stationed within the walls, all prepared to respond once attacked. I recommend drawing them out first in order to eliminate them." Aurora's hologram looked down on him, like a mother admonishing her child that was about to knock over a bees’ nest.
"We are attacking the base directly. The jamming unit and artillery within are the highest priority, if needed we can make a tactical withdrawal. Speed and accuracy are more important now; it is important to not get pinned down in the next few hours." Mikkhael replied, his deadpan voice providing a stark contrast to her own.
She placed her hands on her ephemeral hips, as dangerous a motion by a woman whether performed in bytes or reality. "Tactical withdrawal? You mean retreating don't you."
He ignored her, neither of them had time for the idle chit chat. On one level, he registered that she was trying to relieve his tension, keeping him from falling fully into tunnel vision, but her worry was overblown, there was plenty of release directly in front of him.
Drone sentries picked up their presence as they approached within two miles of the base, and began tracking them in preparation to fire. For this part, Mikkhael delegated that Aurora command their weapons, letting her trade fire with the unmanned sentry positions at distance, promptly destroying them.
Starkindler's energy shields dropped only a few percentages upon being struck by the weak lasers. The sentries real utility lay in their alerting the rest of the FOB to his presence. Weapons loosing everything they could as rapidly as possible, they tore their way through the air-lock using speed and surprise to overwhelm the defenders. Once inside the FOB, he de-cloaked, the time for subtlety had passed.
They passed a temporary barracks where hundreds of atmosphere suited men and women raced to the adjacently cleared field towards dozens of armored vehicles standing ready for action. Mikkhael reacted without thinking, temporarily suspending his humanity from the necessity of the situation. He squeezed both high-explosive grenade triggers, holding them down, distantly feeling the terrible thumps wash over the local vicinity as chemical fire raged violently, ripping apart man and machine alike, reducing all to ash.
Aurora fired continuously while he piloted farther into the center of the FOB towards the location blinking on his HUD, destroying targets of opportunity as they appeared. They were done within minutes, finding the jamming unit and artillery emplacements recklessly sitting next to one another underneath the special airlock at the top of the dome for the artillery to fire out of. Another round of grenades eliminated both, and then he performed the tactical withdrawal, exiting the base from the opposite side he entered, carving a hole in the far perimeter wall with the energy blade. Aurora launched a missile that struck a weapons depot, setting off terrible secondary explosions that threatened to consume the FOB and all within. The entire operation had been successfully completed in less than ten minutes from start to finish.
* * * * *
"Generals! FOB Epsilon has been effectively wiped out! The terrorist made sure to hit the jamming unit as well as the artillery pieces. The survivors are urgently requesting back-up, reinforcements, and the evacuation of the wounded,” announced one of the technicians at the far end of the room responsible for monitoring alerts from Field Commanders.
The General from Central Command let out a wheezy cheer that surprised everyone, unsurprisingly misreading the tone of the situation. "We have the bastard now! Order the artillery units from the other two nearby FOBs to saturate the surrounding area with high-explosive ordinance; they will have sufficient range to be able to reach him. Activate the satellites to provide visual tracking. Inform missile command they are to launch a saturation bombardment once coordinates are received."
SSgt Anderson stopped in his tracks along with the other technicians. "Sir, need I remind you that are our forces are still present within the kill zone you have described? That amount of indiscriminate firepower would kill hundreds of our own men.”
The plutocrat looked down his preposterously long nose at the mere SSgt that dared question his orders. "Your tone borders on insubordination, Staff Sergeant. I gave the order as the senior ranking Party representative present. If we don’t kill this bastard now, many more of your men will die before we eventually bring him down. Ground-to-ground high-explosive copperhead missiles are authorized. Carry out my orders. Your refusal would be most unwise."
The Sergeant hesitated, swallowing hard, choking on the responsibility of ordering the death of men and women on his own side who would be caught up in the bombardment, but he carried out the command so that his General would not be forced to stain his hands with the blood of his own men and women under his command.
The dandy grinned as his orders were followed, the act of which made him sweat, requiring him to wipe his brow with his already soaked handkerchief.
No one offered him a replacement.
* * * * *
Aurora was of course the first to notice. "Mikkhael, incoming artillery fire, move into cover immediately! Missiles will be arriving directly behind the shells; it looks like they will turn the entire valley floor into a crater in order to take us out!" She screamed into the cockpits speakers.
Mikkhael swore, activating the thrusters to full power and then engaging the afterburners along with the few remaining RATO’s. IFR detection bleating warnings as the heat signature climbed steadily. Mikkhael ignored the warnings, instead prioritizing the steady drone of incoming fire warning. “We knew this would happen eventually, but they were supposed to wait until we at least left their base! Those sick bastards are going to kill their own men just to take us out?!”
Under the immense amount of additional thrust, Aurora was still forced to help compensate for the still overburdened Mech’s sluggish responses as they fought to get the lumbering machine airborne and keep it there. In mere moments, high explosive shells and missiles began raining down randomly around them as they raced away from FOB Epsilon that rocked and buckled under the fratricidal onslaught. Geysers of red soil fountained forth as the valley floor turned into a sea of explosive fire. Dust from the saturation bombing choked the air as hundreds of semi guided artillery rounds crisscrossed the valley floor in search of the fleeing Mech armor, the chemical haze of expended high explosives rendering all sensors useless.
Starkindler was faster than any other combat Mech armor, overburdened or not. With wings stretched out wide, Aurora redirected all reactor power to the engines, red-lining them in order to clear the danger zone, even as the valley behind the
m continued erupting under the chemical onslaught. A few close calls shook them; playing havoc with the internal computers, but otherwise nothing except a spray of small debris hit them. In the safety of some of the innumerable ravines that crisscrossed the Cerberus region, Aurora signaled the all-clear, relying on the metamaterials to conceal them from prying sensors while they recovered. Regrettably for those left in the FOB, they had not been so fortunate. Mikkhael viewed an overhead assessment from one of her few working satellites that activated for a few minutes during the barrage before once again cutting out, showing Epsilon completely wiped off the face of the map after several dozen direct hits, its shattered dome laying collapsed over the base.
PDF High Command must have believed that Mikkhael never made it outside of the FOB; there was simply no other explanation for the unnecessary carnage. He slammed both fists into the cockpits dashboard in frustration.
“If you knew they would go so far as to wipe out their own base trying to kill you, I should have been informed beforehand!” Aurora screamed at him, her self-representation pacing around the small projector in frustration and rage.
Mikkhael fought for control; doing everything he could not to lose himself to the rage that threatened to entirely consume him. His anger at the wanton slaughter of the PDF’s own forces caused his hands to shake. He closed his eyes, breathing slowly. The red wall of rage subsided but did not pass, contained for the moment. “I didn’t know. I had a gut feeling that was all. Akari is in command, that is where the opposing tactical skill is apparent, but he would never kill his own men with a bombardment like that. There is someone else sharing power with him, probably how he fielded so many Mechs. They ordered the fratricide. We will divide them and force them to work against each other; Akari will not have taken the slaughter of his own men well.”
Starkindler (MechaVerse Series Book 1) Page 31
