Resilience (Warner's World Book 6)

by Dave O'Connor

  “All right. It’s down to Warner then. Just make sure you stop Melnar. But remember we need to find the location of those devices.”

  “Understood” and Arkimon terminated the call. He turned to Salinta and said “You’re in charge here. I’m going after Melnar. I’ll take Titus and Plenta. Let our team know we’re coming. Call me if there are any problems. Best if there are no problems.”

  Part 4

  The Cauldron

  The prize in the pot beckoned the lot

  So they fought for it tooth and nail

  So much blood shed and so many dead

  But all knew only one could prevail

  Anger turns to rage as the forces engage

  But still they come and still they strive

  Into the cauldron without caution

  Determined to attain or to deprive

  Chapter 1. Lewista 1700, 21 September

  The report in from Lizzy was that the lead battlewagon had engaged an enemy vehicle up ahead and now both their surviving battlewagons were engaged in a firefight with at least one enemy AFV.

  Dave’s vehicle had immediately pulled over to the side of the freeway. As Dave disembarked with Chase’s assistance, he felt the oppressive humidity. Thick almost black cumulus clouds were unfolding at a rapid rate low in the sky above. A late afternoon storm was in the offing and Dave cursed not having worn his full suit.

  He could feel his body perspiring as he hobbled forward, leaning on Chase’s shoulder. His left foot hurt like all hell. Each time it took any weight, he winced.

  “Perhaps its best if you stay here” said Chase. “I can check on Lizzy.”

  It was a kind offer but Dave wanted to do this himself. He did not know Lizzy, had no knowledge of how she operated and knew that if she needed prodding it was best he do it. “I’ll be right” said Dave and he made a conscious effort to take more of his own weight.

  Together they moved up the rise. The freeway crested not more than fifty metres away and Lizzy was waiting for him just on this side of the crest, next to Tango 2, the second battlewagon. She was crouching down. Every now and then she popped her head up enough to peer over. Tango 2 was hull down, with just its turret visible form the other side. As Dave approached, it fired a shot from its big pulse cannon.

  “So what’s happening?” asked Dave.

  “Just as Tango 1 crested the hill” replied Lizzy “they could see a column of enemy vehicles up ahead. The freeway ends about a kilometre on, where the road levels off and enters the built up area. The enemy appear to be engaged in a firefight with some other force in the buildings lining the road at the top of the next hill. Anyway Tango 1 fired on an enemy AFV about a click away. They reckon they hit it, but it disappeared behind a building.”

  “Have you tried making contact with whoever it is up ahead that has engaged the enemy?” asked Dave.

  “Yeah, on the Republican open channel, but no one’s responded.” Lizzy looked to Dave expecting to be told what to do.

  “So what are you going to do?” asked Dave.

  “Oh! Um, what do you think is best Sir?” she countered.

  “No Lizzy, what are you going to do” reiterated Dave with emphasis on the ‘you’.

  “Oh…aah…call in for some fire from the support droids?”

  “Nah, out of ammo.”

  “Right, well uh…I suppose we could go around them.”

  “And how long do you reckon that will take to head back to the last off ramp?”

  “Yeah it’s a fair away back isn’t it? So we need to clear them?” Dave nodded his head. Lizzy looked to Chase for a contribution but Chase wasn’t forthcoming. “OK then, um… we attack them. I’ll get everyone disembarked and we’ll put in an assault.”

  “How about before that we have a look” said Dave. He wasn’t very impressed with Lizzy so far but he counselled himself against letting her know that. He knew all too well that this was probably her first time in actual combat. He was prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt but not if that was going to cost lives.

  Lizzy said “OK” and started to move up to the forward edge of Tango 2 and the crest of the hill.

  Dave was wary about moving forward past the crest. He knew he would stand out hobbling with Chase’s support and he knew he couldn’t run and take cover. “Wait” commanded Dave. He then hailed Tango 2. “Jess can you supply Lizzy a camera feed and pan ahead. We need to find the best approach to attack from.”

  1st Lt Jess Abib commanded the 4th Arm Pl, 30th Coy. She was a veteran and knew exactly what to do. “You getting this?” she asked.

  Dave could see the feed on Lizzy’s portable console. “Yeah that’s great. Can you zoom in on where the freeway ends?” Jess obliged. “What’s the range from that last known loc of the enemy AFV to where the freeway ends?”

  “700 metres or thereabouts. That’s outside their beam range…but they could have moved closer by now” added Jess.

  Dave looked at Lizzy. She took the hint this time. “Use the Tango’s longer range to overwatch our vehicles to the end of the freeway, deploy off to the left, dismount and form up for an assault.” Dave gave her a bit of a smile, just enough to encourage her.

  Her mind was now gearing up and applying itself to the problem space. “Might be good to have the Tangoes lay down some smoke during the initial move.”

  Dave gave her a warmer smile. “Anything else?” he asked.

  “Lead with the droids.”

  “Yep and?” queried Dave. Lizzy shrugged. A low long rumble of thunder emanated from the brooding dark clouds overhead. Dave was conscious of the time and knew he had to wrap this up. “You’ll need visual signals to control the Tangoes in case the enemy jam our comms. They usually do when we get close to them.”

  “Oh yes, of course.”

  Dave gave her a pat on her shoulder. “Better get to it then, before we all get wet.” He gave her a warm smile and for the first time since coming forward he felt confident she would handle it.

  Some 1200 metres ahead, Major Hecton Malessium was shaking his large head. He could not believe how bad this day was turning into. Leaving aside the fiasco at Mintoslum in which his brigade had lost over half its force, here he now was sandwiched between the Republicans and humans.

  Just when he was grateful for a clear run into Lewista, he had bumped into the back of a column of trucks and utilities. They had shot up the rear two vehicles and the bodies, still strewn over the road, were testament to the slaughter. Alas enough of the enemy dismounted and managed to fire off a volley of rockets, destroying his lead AFV. With the enemy in a built up area and armed with rockets there was no way he could just barrel on through.

  It had taken him a good fifteen minutes to form up for an attack when the human battlewagons bumped into their rear and returned the favour destroying his last AFV. He immediately stopped the attack forward so he could redeploy a screen to the rear. Now he had just finished a call with the Fleet Admiral who was not in good mood. He had left Hecton in no confusion over his course of action – well in fact two courses of action. He was to hand over command to his deputy. They would defend where they were and deny the enemy access to Lewista. Hecton, though, was to personally bypass the blocking force and make his way to the treasury post haste.

  He had now handed over command and, with just three troopers as body guard, was attempting to outflank the Republicans up ahead. The thump and whack of the human battlewagon pulse cannons made him turn back to see the smoke rising from where he had just left. If he was honest with himself, Hecton would admit to being pleased not to be back there. But he wasn’t and so he made no comment about his own feelings or about his erstwhile comrades who were now facing a grim future.

  1st Lt Kalima Gregstorian looked down the hill at the smoke now covering the far slope. The remains of her ISS detachment were spread mighty thin occupying the six story light commercial building fifty metres from where her rear utility vehicles had been shot up by the enemy force.

>   With the shock effect from the enemy fighter’s strafing run, it had triggered pandemonium amongst her troops. She had been frustrated in trying to coordinate their deployment by the local enemy jamming. She had to hoof it and physically round them up.

  When she saw the enemy forces forming up for an attack she knew this would be her last day. After the initial volley at the leading enemy AFV they had only four rockets left. She had at first thought of bugging out and taking to the back streets to get to the Treasury. Oh how she had wanted to do just that. But it was the certain knowledge that there was no other force to stop this enemy and her father’s voice in her head reminding her of her duty. ‘Even after all these years he still nags me’ she had said to herself at the time and reluctantly ordered her troops to defend.

  But since then her fortunes had improved. First the human battlewagons that brought a halt to the enemy’s attack and now the smoke that she believed would herald their assault.

  ‘Just maybe we will survive’ she said with a light smile. If only she could make contact with them. “Branish” she called out to the sergeant peering out through the window.

  Sgt Branish Neklorin was an unusual ISS trooper who had taken a while to be accepted by his comrades. It wasn’t that he was physically dissimilar but mentally he operated in another dimension. He was probably one the best conceptual thinkers on the planet, a great intellect. By some random chance or divine providence he was also blessed with a good technical mind.

  If his parents had had any say in it he would have been a great inventor. But there was a mischievous streak that ran deep in his character and it had got him into lots of trouble over the years. He also had a penchant for danger and risk taking that quite frankly scared most people he came into contact - but not Kalima. She was probably the first and only person who really understood his nature. She saw the potential that just needed to be harnessed and right now she had a task for him.

  Branish turned and gave her one of his tell-tale grins which was in stark contrast to the concerned if not fearful expressions on the faces of his comrades. “Yeah” he replied.

  “Can you break into this system” asked Kalima pointing to the terminal on the desk in front of her “and see if you can call HQ?”

  “Breaking in won’t be the problem” said Branish with a cock of his head “but what makes you think this humble establishment is going to have a cable connection.”

  “Humour me!”

  Branish smiled warmly at her and sat down at the terminal. He pulled out a device from his pack that he always carried with him, placed it on the desk, thumbed a control on its surface and was through the login in in a few seconds. “Well I’ll be!” said a surprised Branish.

  “What?”

  “This establishment isn’t so humble. Mintoslum Corporation no less. Ooh yes we have cable connectivity, connecting now.” It took them a good five minutes to get re-routed via ISS HQ, the ISS detachment with BG Warner and then finally to connect to the human commander.

  “This is Warner” hailed Dave.

  “Commodore this is 1st Lt Gregstorian commanding the 4th ISS Detachment up ahead of you. I can see your smoke and presume you are about to attack the enemy between us. I am sending our positions to you now. How can we help?”

  While Kalima was coordinating with the humans Branish began exploring the system now opened to him. He revelled in breaking through the firewalls. His approach was to knock on all doors, see which ones opened the easiest and ignore those. He was now at a location marked Fulmos Admin. It was an innocuous name. ‘But why have a triple A grade security access?’ asked Branish. ‘Let’s see then, hey?’

  Most would have given up when the access control asked for the biometric scans, but not Branish. He pulled out another device from his backpack and while it took a few more minutes he finally cracked it. He let out a triumphant “Yes” as Tango 1 and Tango 2 began laying down some direct fire onto what Branish hoped was the enemy’s position.

  “Leave it Branish” said Kalima “the attack’s starting.”

  “You can handle that there can’t you? I’m onto something?” He had a glint in his eye and an almost manic expression.

  “All right but hurry. If I call for you again, you come.”

  “As always” said Branish without looking up to her. He was now navigating through the directory structure of this new treasure house. He came to a diagram file and launched it. The screen now showed a detailed plan of what appeared to be an underground tunnel system below Lewista. “Well I’ll be” said Branish out loud.

  Kalima ignored him. She was focussed outside. The smoke was lifting from down below and was now blocking her vision to the battlewagons on the far hill. But it was dissipating fast. A sudden flurry of pulse fire from below told her that contact had been made.

  Almost at the same time there was bright flash of lightning followed by an almost immediate crack of thunder. The heavens opened and the rain poured down in big droplets that smacked you when they made contact. Kalima smelt the rain and it felt good, though now she was regretting knocking out the window pane. She was getting wet as the rain splashed onto the window sill. She took a step back. The rain was coming down so heavy, like a sheet, masking her view of the battle in progress.

  “Come and see this” called out Branish.

  Kalima couldn’t see anything anyway so she stole a quick look at Branish’s terminal. “What is it?”

  “Did you know there was a tunnel system under Lewista?” Kalima frowned at him as if to say ‘really?’ “No this is different to the public tunnels” added Branish.

  That piqued her interest and she walked over quickly, scanned the diagram and her focus was drawn to the pointer Branish had positioned over a particular location…theirs. He then moved the pointer over to another one several kilometres away marked Treasury and then to a third location marked Casement.

  “So what’s there” asked Kalima. Branish brought up the manifest. “Oh shit” said Kalima. She barked some instruction to one of her other NCOs and then hailed Dave.

  “I think we’ve found it” she said.

  “What?” replied Dave.

  “The devices…you know the ones the enemy are after.”

  “Where?”

  Kalima asked Branish to annotate and copy the file to Warner. “A file’s on its way.”

  “Got it but can’t read it. What format is it?”

  “Damm.” After a minute’s discussion they realised that they had no conversion software that would work.

  “You will have to come to us and we can show it to you.”

  “That may take a while yet. Can’t you just give me the coordinates?”

  “Well we can but it’s in a secret tunnel complex under the city. There is an access at our location.”

  “All right hold on then.”

  Dave tried to call Lizzy but she was too close to the enemy and being jammed. “Chase I need you to get to Lizzy and tell her we need to break through to this location asap. She needs to step up the tempo. Time is now more important than casualties.”

  “Right but what about you?” said Chase.

  “Go, go now. I’ll be fine.”

  Chase took off at a jog down through the pouring rain. His fatigues were warranted to be showerproof but this was definitely more than a shower and he was already drenched. He cursed to himself as he looked up to see ahead only to have the rain smack his face. So he bent forward and ploughed on down the side of the sloping freeway.

  He found the luminous marker that had been laid out to indicate the turn to the forming up place (FUP) for the attack. He could just hear the wack of pulse shot some way off muffled by the rain as he followed the markers. They were meant for the assault troops to help find their way in the smoke but now proved useful for Chase in the downpour.

  From the FUP Chase headed for the sound of fire. He counted his paces as he jogged forward, not trusting that his GPS would work with the jamming. He knew from his earlier scan of the map
that the enemy positions had been located about a 100m along. But he had so far counted 120 paces, which should have been around 100m and still no contact. At least that meant Lizzy’s force was making progress. That comforted Chase.

  He heard a brace of grenade explosions that sounded like they impacted about 200m ahead. He wasn’t sure if they were friendly or enemy and knew there was only one way to find out. He reverted to a quick walk and moved on up the wide side street. On his left was a wire fence and he could make out some containers stacked on the other side but beyond that it merged into a white wall of water. Visibility was down to about 20m. On the far side of the street what looked like a double storey building came into view when the rain eased a little. He peered towards it, bringing up his borrowed rogan pulse rifle into his shoulder and looked through the sights. He was pleasantly surprised when he managed to adjust the zoom. But it was of little use right now.

  He pushed on down the street and came to a junction with a cross street. The rain prevented him seeing down the cross street and that meant the enemy couldn’t see him either. The pulse fire sounded a lot closer now. He estimated no more than a 100m, maybe closer.

  He moved across quickly and realised he was standing next to a much taller building on his left. He leaned his head back to peer upwards but immediately realised that was a mistake as the rain stung his face. He wiped his eyes with his left sleeve. The effort didn’t do much – it was purely instinctive.

  It was then he was challenged by a marine. In fact Chase almost barrelled into him. He was grateful the marine had held his cool – an old hand Chase surmised. “She’s down there, second building on the right” said the marine. “Be careful, enemy on the other side of the street.”

  Chase was grateful for the warning. He could not make out the second building just yet. A few more paces and it came into view. Another marine was posted at what looked like a loading bay. This one fired at him.