Standish

by Donald B McFarlane

  Scanning the surface, Standish could see dozens of operators moving about in good order, suited in armour painted in various colour schemes. It wasn’t hard for her to spot the Beta One-One team members in their red and black armour.

  Not wanting to forget the immediate threat, Standish quickly spun around, and lay down on the synthetic surfacing material that was on the ground at the top of the escalator ramp, and pointed her weapon back down the slope, joined by Mils.

  “We are fucked if they rush us.” She said in a hushed tone over their private comm line.

  Mils didn’t respond, but just a moment later, Cryne came up from their rear and proceeded to lob several grenades down the ramp.

  “Let’s start to move.” He ordered.

  Standish didn’t want to wait to see what the grenades may or may not do to the ramp, and anything approaching it. Jumping to her feet, she gave her load-out on her armour a spot-check and ensured that her backpack was synched down tightly.

  Turning around, she noticed that the remainder of the operators that were still in AO Bronze were starting to move with some urgency towards the Royal Palace, or at least around the side of the Palace to the front of the building.

  Looking over to Cryne, Standish tried to get some answers. “What’s happening?”

  Cryne pointed in the direction that the rest of the operators were running. “We need to move toward the rail station quickly.”

  Standish didn’t get the chance to ask a follow up question, because as soon as Cryne replied, her armour detected an incoming mortar round, and before she could react, the munition exploded fifty metres away, kicking up dirt, grass, and a variety of scattered material from the battlefield and at least one corpse.

  Dropping to her knee, Standish checked her AI for the point of origin of the round, and it rapidly informed her that it had come from the park in the middle of the city. Well, it seems like the attack wasn’t being contained to sub-surface developments, she thought to herself.

  Jun came over the team-wide net and got some semblance of order back into the unit. “We are rear guard, along with Five-Zero, and Four-Three. We are falling back to the HSR station, and then taking that conveyance to AO Sky, then getting off this world.” Jun took a step towards Standish, but before he could say anything else, another mortar round was detected by Standish’s armour, and she dove to the ground in anticipation of its impact.

  Jun didn’t move as fast, and when the high explosive shell hit the ground, it landed just next to what was left of one of the stealth drop-pods and detonated. The force of the blast sending a wave of pressure out in all directions, and shoving the heavy drop-pod away from the impact point like a leaf.

  Not all of the damaged pod made it the twenty metres to the top of the underground station’s entrance, but a metre long shard did, and it cut through the air with a tumbling grace and slammed into the back right shoulder of Jun’s armour, piercing the hardened shell with ease, and rushing through the soft tissue in the middle before coming out the other side in a jagged point. Alarm sensors went off inside every member of Beta One-One’s suits, alerting them to the fatal injury that their team leader had just sustained.

  Standish looked up from her prone position just in time to watch Jun’s body slump to its knees, then keel over onto his right side.

  “Jun!”

  Systa K was the first to reach the body, but it was already clear that he was dead. There was nothing the suits medical nano-bots could do to heal a wound of this magnitude. The fatal mistake that K made when rushing over to Jun’s body was exposing herself to the threat from the underground station, and quickly drew laser fire from the Sentinels that were now moving up the escalator, one of which hit K in the side of her helmet, sheering half of her head off. Her body slumped to the ground next to Jun.

  “Move!” Cryne came screaming over the net.

  That was the moment everything changed.

  That was the moment it went from a tactical withdrawal to a rout. The panic might not have infected every single operator sent into AO Throne, but once the mortars had an effective range, and their intensity increased, there was nothing to do but move out of the kill zone and to safety.

  “Get to the HSR!” Cryne ordered.

  Taking her eyes off the bodies of her comrades, Standish pushed herself to her feet, got a good grip on her weapon, looked at Mils, and encouraged him to follow her. “Let’s get the fuck out here!”

  He didn’t require the invitation. While some of the other teams were in disarray, Beta One-One maintained unit cohesion, and once Cryne was certain that Ho, Mo, Nik Has, Standish and Mils were in tow, he started sprinting towards the east side of the Royal Palace, and the way towards the High-Speed Rail station.

  Standish moved like she had trained to in the fitness studios ever since she had joined the forces. Her legs were fresh, and her lungs healthy, and her armour allowed her to run across the flat grass surrounding the Royal Palace at fifty kilometres an hour. All she could think of at that moment was getting away from the mortar shells that were landing between the palace and the barracks, and perhaps most importantly, the lethal mecha force which was coming up from the underground station below her feet.

  65

  The Present

  Fury 161

  The hits came in fast and furiously. Standish dropped to one knee and adopted a protective posture, trying to keep her head out of the line of fire, but it was no use. The thugs that were beating on her had fists made of iron. Her old frame and body weren’t used to an assault like this.

  66

  The Past

  Qera

  AO Diamond

  “What do you want to do?” Reyn asked, his helmet off and under his arm, his rifle dangling casually on the front of his armour.

  Bender was at the desk, looking down at a map with a tactical display of all units in the city, including their strength, locations, equipment and weapons load-outs. The information did not make for good reading.

  Reyn leaned closer to his team leader. “AO Bronze is collapsing towards the HSR station. Sentinels are reported inside the underground station.” Reyn set his helmet down on the table, then turned to look out the panoramic windows of the room they were in. It was a magnificent view overlooking the city that was neatly spaced around the massive park in the middle, and beyond the city, nothing but desert.

  Reyn knew that Bender had a plan, but he also knew that Bender was stubborn, yet Reyn even understood, perhaps more keenly than anyone would have known, that both he and Bender were going to survive the day and live to get off-world. It just wasn’t going to be easy. It would be messy and cost many lives on both sides of the battle, and Reyn knew that he would have to summon all his powers to even arrive at a modestly acceptable outcome.

  “Let’s move.” Bender finally ordered. “All Gold units, move to HSR and secure it. All Bronze and Silver units, make your way to AO Sky via the HSR or by foot or alternate means.” He looked at Reyn. “How long will that HSR keep running?”

  Reyn shook his head. “I’m surprised someone hasn’t shut it off already.” Reyn picked up his helmet and put it on. “Either the trains operate on an independent power source, or someone hasn’t hit the kill switch yet.”

  Bender put his helmet on, synched up his systems, and checked his weapon before collecting all his planning and operational gear from the table. “Let’s move.”

  The pair started towards the doors of the chamber that led them to an ornate ramp running around the sides of the building all the way to the ground floor. The other six members of the team provided security, four at the front, and another two trailing the two senior members of the group. They didn’t move with much urgency. They both knew that the Coalition forces were probing for weakness. The mortar attacks on the backside of the palace and the threat of a mechanised assault from the underground station were all attempts to get the Alliance units to act.

  Unfortunately, and without any choice, they were doing something.
It wasn’t clear to Bender what the Coalition was trying to force them to do, but there were only two clear options on offer. Fight in place, or retreat. They had chosen the latter. The choice was between honour and life, and for this battle, Bender had decided that it was better to get off-world with some of the assault force intact, than leave them dead on a battlefield where no positive outcomes would be affected.

  Bender didn’t hurry as he and the rest of Prime made their way down to the ground floor. He needed time for a perimeter to get set around the HSR, and then the teams that were racing there required a chance to get out of the area and over to the spaceport. He intended to be on the last train to AO Sky.

  As he continued his walk down the ramp, Bender took a moment to look out of the large windows that he passed, while at the same time checking on developments through his helmets HUD. From the information he was receiving, it looked like a large percentage of the forces that had dropped onto AO Throne were still operational and moving towards the HSR. It was a miracle that they still had a semblance of a fighting force on the ground, even if all the teams that were in AO Law were gone.

  The closer they got to the bottom of the structure, the more mentally prepared Bender got for the approaching fight. He knew that regardless of what games the Coalition were playing at the moment, at some point they’d tire of toying with the strike force and launch an all-out assault to crush the Dynamic Operators once and for all.

  Reaching the ground floor, Bender maintained his calm composure as he and the rest of his team walked towards the large central doors of the palace which face towards the large park. The main entry area of the Palace had a clear view all the way up to the top floor and was covered in marble just as black as the exterior of the building. The floor was covered with a myriad of debris, loose papers, data-pads, personal belongings and other assorted items that the building's staff had discarded while fleeing the building.

  In the corner next to the entrance was a small stack of dead bodies, all local security, and on the opposite side of the door another pile of destroyed droids and drones that had probably offered some form of resistance when the AO Gold teams had stormed the building. The entire structure had been taken without a single casualty reported. Walking up to the massive doors, Bender took a second to appreciate the light that was flooding into the chamber from the outside and then glanced down at a large bucket of data-pads and memory-sticks that was sitting just inside the door. He had requested that all the teams collect any information that could prove useful to the war effort, he just didn’t expect them to leave it all behind in a bucket.

  “Reyn, make sure we take all this with us.”

  Reyn quickly ordered one of the junior team members to secure the kit in a large duffle-bag that he had been carrying around. Once the contents of the bucket were loaded, Reyn walked up to Bender who was standing motionless in front of the doors.

  “You want to sack the building?” He asked in a hushed tone. “I’ve accessed the buildings environmental and electrical grid. Wouldn’t be hard to start a fire.”

  Bender turned around slowly and looked at his second, then up towards the upper levels. There were blast marks everywhere. The entire building looked like it had been turned inside out. Dropping his gaze, he turned around again to face the door and removed the safety on his rifle.

  “No point.” He said calmly. “The HSR is at two o’clock when we move off. Look for contacts from the park at our twelve, and possible contacts coming around from the rear of the building.” Bender stepped forward and put his left hand on the door. “I am on point. Reyn is securing our rear.” He looked down and to the left, a final contemplation. “If we encounter Sentinels, do not stop and try and fight them. Keep moving.” He looked up, his white armour reflecting the light that was streaming into the building, and push the door open.

  When the massive door was opened onto the steps of the palace, it attracted the attention of the operators that were streaming past from AO’s Bronze and Silver. It did not draw any enemy fire. Bender moved down the flight of broad stairs at the front of the building quickly, stopping when he reached the manicured lawn at the bottom and took a knee, his rifle oriented towards the park which was in the distance.

  “I’m set.” Reyn reported. “Looks like one last group of operators left to pass.”

  “Understood. Once they’ve passed, we’ll move.” Bender replied.

  “Deploying drone.” Reyn said over the net.

  The small machine detached from a slot under Reyn’s left arm, and quickly climbed to an altitude of forty metres, and oriented itself on top of the team’s position.

  Reyn made sure that the feed was accessible to the entire team, and once the drone had detected enemy formations, they were quickly highlighted on his HUD, giving him a very clear understanding of the battlefield around him, and from what he could see, there were two concentrations of enemy forces in the immediate vicinity. One was emerging on the other side of the Royal Palace from the underground station, and the other was massing five hundred metres inside the park. The force from the station was almost entirely mecha, the dominant threat, while the force inside the park was made up of infantry. They were caught in the middle.

  When the last member of AO Bronze streamed passed the Prime team, Bender got to his feet and looked towards the HSR station. Using his AI’s personal tracker, he quickly identified the senior personnel on the station and opened a secure communications channel with them.

  “Zaros. What is your status?” Bender quickly switched to a team internal channel. “Let’s start moving. Reyn, Clar, focus on possible threats from the underground station, everyone else, keep your weapons trained on the park.” He switched back to his other line.

  “I have several teams securing the station, and we’re sending the first train towards AO Sky now. Fully loaded.” Zaros replied.

  “What’s the travel time?”

  “Ten minutes each way.”

  “Capacity?” Bender asked.

  “Small, limited to two teams.”

  Bender knew how many trips that meant. He also knew that depending on the loading and unloading times, it would take a considerable amount of time to get them down to the spaceport. In that time there was every chance the station would be attacked, or someone would fire a missile into the rails and derail the trains. Waiting where they were wasn’t an option.

  “Send half the teams down to the AO Sky on foot, now.” Bender ordered.

  “On it.” Zaros replied.

  Bender didn’t like the way things were going. It was apparent to anyone with a set of eyes that they were in trouble, but the fact that they weren’t already dead gave him pause. The recon footage from the drone was showing that they were surrounded, but for some reason, the Coalition forces weren’t pressing their attack, and that was what worried him. There was an excellent chance that the Coalition ground forces commander was merely applying enough pressure to push the remaining D-O teams towards a single point in the city, and once there, they could bomb them from a safe distance.

  As the group of eight operators moved methodically towards the HSR, Bender opened a channel to Reyn.

  “Tactical analysis?” Bender requested.

  “Same thing you’re thinking.” Reyn replied. “But there is no alternative. Recon data is showing that the forces massed in the park are far too strong to attack head-on, and the mecha is pushing us east.”

  It was the same thing that Bender was thinking, and because of it, he knew that he needed to change his plan at once. There was no point in assembling everyone still alive at the spaceport for a final stand and evacuation. The evacuation needed to start now while there were still viable operators to evacuate. That could have the desired effect of forcing the Coalition forces into attacking sooner than they wanted to, but Bender now had to contend with the genuine reality that if some of the assault force didn’t get off the planet now, then none of it might survive.

  Switching communications channel
s, Bender got Den back on the line. “Status?”

  “Several ships warmed up and ready to load.” Den replied.

  “I want you to load them now and have them jump out.” Bender ordered.

  “If I do that, I’ll weaken the perimeter defences and-”

  Bender cut him off. “We need to salvage whatever we can of the teams. Start getting them off-world.” Bender looked skyward for a moment. “Order them to jump once they cross ten thousand metres.”

  “At that altitude.” Den tried to voice his concern, but Bender had made up his mind.

  “Do it. Now.” He cut the channel. He knew jumping inside a planet’s atmosphere posed risks, but there were more significant threats at hand for Bender to consider.

  He had just made a move. Now it was a question of seeing how the enemy forces responded. Would they strike or bide their time? Bender quickly looked over at Reyn. His white armour was immaculate, his movements so precise. He was the perfect warrior, and Bender knew that Reyn wouldn't let anything happen to him, but he also knew that Reyn had rules about the use of his powers, and there was nothing that Bender could do to change them.

  67

  The Present

  Fury 161

  Standish was barely conscious when she was dumped outside the building. Rain was falling, and the ground was soaked.

  “Don’t come back!” Barked one of the thugs.

  Liboa had accompanied the hooligans down to the surface. “I don’t know why she sent you. It’s just a little ring” He leaned in towards Standish’s face. Her eyes were barely open. “I can’t remember where I know you from.” He shook his head. “No matter, I hope for your sake the wild animals don’t eat you.” He smiled and returned to the building.