“Well, I fucking hope they don’t send me the bill for this one,” Hall said, finally able to get a full lungful of air.
Chapter 90
Mega City
Earth, Sol System
8/3349
There was an Earth-shattering boom from overhead. People ducked in response.
“The fuck was that?” Alexis asked, looking to her reports as there were more concussive cracks.
“Fearless, and…,” Ortiz looked at the sky, waiting for something. There was another massive boom that drowned out the weapons fire inside the citadel. “That, was Justice.”
“Well shit, that didn’t sound healthy,” Dominguez said.
“Oh fuck no, they used everything they could to get here, stripped the ships bare, rammed Earth’s atmosphere, engines first and going full blast. Seems Hall didn’t want to leave us to have all the fun,” Ortiz said.
“You have a weird definition of fun,” Alexis frowned.
“The fuck was that?” Tyler asked, jogging over.
“Reinforcements,” Mark said, watching the barricades.
“Well, that’s one hell of an entrance, when will they get here?” Tyler asked.
“No known time estimates,” Ortiz shrugged.
“What are you doing here?” Alexis asked Tyler on a private channel.
“I’m not about to let you and my family run into this shit storm without me,” Tyler said, ending any argument.
Alexis hugged him, scared to lose him and scared to die.
“I love you,” he said, putting his arm around her, the other arm holding his AMR.
“I love you too,” she said, tears coloring her eyes.
They’d gone through so much. When most people would have separated, they had come together. He had always been there for her, and she couldn’t have wished for a better husband. She just wished that they had many more years together, that they’d found one another sooner. She knew it was illogical.
Even with reinforcements, the Chosen were just meters away. She’d take as many of them down with her as she could, but in the end either or both of them might end up laying face down on citadel’s scarred and casing-covered floor, just another body among the masses.
She saw Mark move and Tyler tense. A Chosen climbed over the top of the barricade, only to be greeted by Mark stabbing them in the neck.
Jerome tossed a grenade over. It went off as the Chosen started throwing grenades behind the barricades.
Alexis and Tyler released one another, pulling out their blades.
“Troopers, cut these motherfuckers down! No mercy!” Ortiz yelled, using a desk and Mark to jump over the barricades.
“Over the top!” Mark shouted, sticking his blade into the ground and bracing his hands. Troopers ran as Mark tossed them over the barricades and into the Chosen.
Jerome, Hughes, and Dominguez did the same, a wave of grey Troopers bearing their vibra-blades and yelling their anger.
Alexis yelled and jumped at Mark. He tossed her up and over. She cleared the barricade and came down into the cleared area where Ortiz and the other Troopers were fanning out. She clipped a PAC as she landed, and drove a blade into their chest as she rose.
Her twin blades cut a rifle apart, slashing the user and stabbing the one beside him.
She felt a bump from the side as another Trooper with dual blades danced.
“May I have this dance?” Tyler asked taking off an arm, a leg, and a head.
“Most certainly!” They fought beside one another, moving sideways or across, as if they were one puppet guided by a single master.
Mark landed among the Chosen like a bull in a china shop.
His extra height and mass made him a big target. He moved liked a buzz saw, cutting down anyone that was reacting and a few that didn’t know what the fuck was going on.
Jerome, Dominguez, and Hughes made a line from the large group of Troopers to Mark, and another pocket of Troopers fought their way through Chosen.
Chapter 91
SLS Liberator
Sol System
8/3349
“The last battle has begun. EMFC Fearless and Justice have dropped off their reinforcements. It is unknown if they will get to the citadel in time. All of the Troopers and Chosen are engaged in close combat fighting. You trained them well,” NIDenise said.
“Do anything we must to get us there faster,” Nerva thought-spoke. He was so close, but things were spiralling out of control.
“Yes, sir.”
Nerva looked at the Powered Armor sitting in his room, contemplating the kind of things that would get Roma and the Legions chasing after him.
If it keeps them alive, then I’ll do it.
Chapter 92
Citadel
Earth, Sol System
8/3349
It was pure and utter chaos inside the citadel. Fusaro knew that any orders he gave would just be washed away. It was simply the Chosen and the Troopers against one another.
He watched as the Troopers leaped over their defenses, carving paths through the Chosen towards the heavy guns that were laying silent.
“Alexandria, get your people in there. There’s no way you can shoot them without hitting our own people,” Fusaro said.
“Sir.” The Chosen behind the Heavies charged in with abandon. More grist for the grinders.
Fusaro took cover behind the second barricades, watching the AMRs shoot down onto the Chosen. Repulsor gunners gave up their positions and jumped into the fray as their positions were covered in Troopers fighting the Chosen.
Something caught Fusaro’s eye.
Hours of watching every video about the Troopers had trained him to search for specific people. His eyes drew him to the group of Troopers that were making a line and advancing straight into the Chosen.
He knew the armor, the actions, the way that they worked together.
There was General Ortiz on the front lines, fighting the Chosen in close combat. To his sides were what remained of the Triple Twos.
They moved forwards, blades slicing as they traded blows and stepped over bodies. Troopers were hurled over the barricades, landing and then charging into the Chosen.
They were terrible killing machines. Training so ingrained it was a natural reaction, while augments turned off pain, and dialed up their concentration. A Trooper lost an arm, but continued fighting with their other, head-butting and kicking two more Chosen into submission until blood loss slowed them enough that they were cut down.
Fusaro watched the battle, new horrors over every inch. He had watched the battles from his screens and from afar, but now it was just meters from him.
He felt a trickle run down his leg as he saw the absolute hatred in the Troopers’ and Chosen’s eyes, doing anything and everything to kill their fellow men.
Fusaro pushed off the barricade in fear and horror at what he had brought to pass.
His armor rang like a bell as he sank to the ground, and he coughed, blood covering his screen.
Another round hit his helmet. Fusaro might have realized the horror that he had brought onto Earth and Her Colonies through Harmony, but no one was going to find out. He had a bleeding hole in his armor, and he dropped to the ground.
Chosen saw it and fought with renewed energy, fighting for the ideal that he and other greedy people had pushed for and lied about. Their lie lived on through them, for them it was real, their path to victory.
***
Tyler was tiring, but there was no time to think of his body’s needs. He was bleeding from a dozen points as he and Alexis fought side by side.
They savaged and tore the Chosen.
Tyler slipped on a Chosen. One behind brought a spear down, aiming for Tyler’s chest.
Hughes leapt forward, kicking the attacker back into his fellow PACs.
Alexis cleaved a red line through their armor.
Hughes pulled Tyler to his feet.
“Thanks, Hughes,” Tyler said, stepping back into his spot.<
br />
Hughes stepped to his other side.
“No problem, sir,” Hughes grunted, snap kicking a PAC in the helmet, stabbing them as they reeled. By the time his foot was back on the ground, he was fighting another PAC.
“Front line, hold! Second line ready. On my command, front line will take one step back. Second line will take one step forward!” Moretti yelled.
“Switch!” Tyler slashed and stepped backwards. On either side of him, Troopers and those that had been stuck in Powered Armor, stepped forward, hacking at the enemy.
Tyler drank from his water as he was pushed back behind another line of waiting combatants.
“Where the hell did you get that one from?” Mark asked.
“Ortiz and I have been talking about close-combat tactics. Turned to talking about the Romans and how they switched out their lines,” Moretti said.
“That was just looking at how other militaries operated to keep their troops fresh. Seems that you came in at the right time. I’m friggin tired,” Ortiz said.
“Must be all of that cafeteria food,” Jerome joked.
“Well we’ll be back in it soon enough,” Dominguez said.
Tyler looked around. They were twenty meters from the third line of barricades. The dead in their armor lay across the floor. Medics were hauling Troopers to the barricades and fixing them up as best as they could. The Chosen didn’t look like they were even trying to see to their wounded.
They were all swept up in a rage.
They were pressed forward, making it hard for the lead PACs to move. The Troopers who were sticking to their lines were making short work of them as they held their ground. They were a grinder being fed more meat.
Though how many PACs can we keep back?
There were many more PACs than Troopers, and every one of them was fresh as they got into the fight. The Troopers might have started rotating out, but they hadn’t slept in days. Ultimately, the strain would take its toll and people would fuck up.
“How long until those reinforcements?” Alexis asked.
“Five hours, maybe,” Ortiz said.
Fuck, Tyler thought into the tense silence.
“Well, looks like we’re going to have to do things the hard way,” Mark said, spinning his blade and flicking it clear of blood.
“Tip of the fucking spear,” Tyler agreed.
“Second line, prepare to change with first line!” Ortiz called. The Troopers out front were flagging with the pressure. Twenty minutes of fighting at the front was the limit of most people’s endurance.
An explosion went off along the line, a Chosen had blown themselves and their friends up to open a hole in the Trooper lines. It worked, and Troopers were cut down with the blast.
Chosen ran through the opening.
“On me!” Ortiz said.
Tyler followed as they moved to plug the gap. His body might be tired, but that wasn’t going to stop him.
He growled as Ortiz led them right into the Chosen black armor that was pushing past the Troopers’ lines, which had devolved into chaos.
Chapter 93
Tower
Earth, Sol System
8/3349
Nivad watched Trooper feeds parsecs away. A section entered what looked to be a fridge. It was declared clear and someone moved around the room as if looking for something. They stopped, tapping the floor with their foot.
Another Trooper moved up, placing charges on the section of floor.
Troopers stood back.
The room filled with dust as the floor blew up and metal doors below the floor blew open to reveal stairs under the freezer.
Troopers rushed down through the smoke.
Nothing moved as they pushed along a corridor. Another hatch, and this one was opened with a breaker. Again, the Troopers broke into a new room.
This wasn’t just a room, but a massive cylinder with cryo-pods stacked from the floor to the ceiling.
Troopers that were entering from other points spread out in the massive facility that looked identical to the cryo-pod bunkers under every tower in the colonies.
Thousands of Peter Quinn’s supporters lined those walls, asleep for five decades, hidden under Housapel Actual.
Troopers moved along, and Nivad watched as names and identifications were made as facial recognition pinged the people that were asleep.
The Troopers paused outside of a cryo-pod.
Luke Holden. It took a moment for the computers to make a match.
Head of the Osdal Harmony Chapter.
Nivad finished reading the message as gunfire suddenly lit up the trooper’s feed.
He looked back, to see Luke Holden’s corpse bleeding inside a holed and bloody cryo-pod.
Nivad typed in an order to the Troopers.
Open the bunker to Housapel’s air and open the pods.
Housapel was still covered in toxins, and only when the new colonists arrived would Nivad fire a warhead to clear the toxic air out.
Pods started opening a few minutes later. corporation officers woke up without any medical treatment, and a good number of them died from just that. They were the lucky ones, as the others had Troopers looking at them as they found they couldn’t breath.
They would be fully cognizant of what was going on around them, as their nervous system was disabled and they died from their lungs failing to understand the brain’s signals.
Nivad watched with cold curiosity, then opened up a channel to Wallace.
“Start destroying the Harmony FTL relays.”
“Yes, sir, it will be done.”
Nivad closed the channel, and pressed another command, so the view of Housapel was replaced with the citadel.
Troopers were engaged with the Chosen directly.
The Chosen were pushing the Troopers back across the ground, inch by inch. They were bloodied and taxed well beyond their limits as they fought for survival.
Nivad checked General Jones’ accounts. A final large sum had been sent from several accounts to an unknown party.
Pity, we could have used them.
Chapter 94
Citadel
Earth, Sol System
8/3349
Mark stabbed a PAC, and his blade cut their side instead of their belly. Mark turned as the PAC stabbed back at him.
Alexis cut the man’s arm off and Mark brought the blade he’d missed with across the PAC’s stomach.
They went down in a scream, their guts open to the world.
“Thanks,” Mark said.
“Stay focused!” she grunted, fighting her own battle.
Mark cut down a dagger-wielding Chosen. Another stabbed his leg, and he yelled as his combat pump filled him with chemical induced clarity.
“Front, second, switch!” Ortiz barked.
Mark stepped backwards two steps, leaving room for the Troopers behind to smash into the Chosen again.
Mark was breathing heavily; he felt like he would puke as sweat poured down his body. He bent over in fatigue as his armor forced oxygen and other chemicals into his face.
“You good?” Tyler asked, similarly panting.
Mark looked at his leg and the dagger that was sticking out of it.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, trying to sound optimistic as he told his implants to stop bothering him about his injuries.
Alexis and Tyler were beside one another. Dominguez was looking over the line with Hughes and Ortiz. Moretti and Yu were on the front line. Jerome, Young, and Bobbie were in the medics’ care, their wounds too severe for them to cover up.
Mark looked up as there was a commotion. It was hard to pick up, just something alerted him to something wrong.
He stood up, looking over the Troopers and at the Chosen.
He heard a noise and a flash, then he saw the Chosen moving backwards.
Mark pulled up the maps that he had pushed aside so that he could see what he was fighting.
“Ortiz, the reinforcements are here!” Mark yelled, a new energy fill
ing him.
“Thank fuck,” Ortiz said, ending the channel. “Troopers! Our reinforcements. I want everyone to the line ready to make a push forward!”
The Troopers moved forward. They had got maybe a few minutes to rest, though all of them felt more energy than they had in days. It came down to one thing: hope.
Mark could now hear the distinct noise of weapons fire over the Powered Armor melee.
The Chosen started to turn and look at their new attackers, removing the pressure on the front lines as the Troopers pushed forward. The Chosen fought like the rabid dogs they were.
Mark was more than happy to watch them cut down.
It felt like those that he had lost were watching over them as the Chosen moved to separate in two groups, one charging the security contractors, the others slashing and attacking the Troopers.
An explosion went off among the Chosen charging the security contractors. One of them had caught a bomb wearing PAC.
Holes started to appear in the Chosen’s formations.
It seemed that the Chosen were suddenly reminded that they had bomb vests, as more of them started to go off.
Mark threw his blade nailing a Chosen in the chest as they made to pull their cord.
“Troopers, move up!” Ortiz said.
Mark took five steps and cut down a Chosen engaged with a Trooper.
His blade almost cut them in two as he punched another in the head, kicking them back and spearing another in the armpit.
The Chosen line was falling faster and faster as the Troopers pressed forward. The security contractors were firing at big groups of Chosen. Others had pulled out their blades, engaging the PACs in combat.
It was a furious melee for a few minutes.
“Advance!” Ortiz barked.
The Troopers moved forward.
“No mercy!” Ortiz cried, and the Troopers yelled back with the same words.
“Advance!” The Troopers pushed past the mound of dead that had formed, and made the Chosen step backwards.
“Advance!” Ortiz called out the movement as the line moved forward.
There was a noise behind the Chosen.
“The security contractors are hitting the Chosen from the rear!” Tyler yelled out.
“Who are we?” Ortiz bellowed.
“TROOPERS!” The line yelled back.
Earth (Harmony War Book 5) Page 24
