Then again, to risk a shuttle flight and send so many must be putting the social stability of Jezero under enormous pressure. There would be those who would hate her for forcing them into this position, risking the stability of Jezero to stop the crisis in Syrtis from destroying them all—a crisis partly of her making.
The ground trembled, and the 3D image on the holo-table rippled in concert with the vibration.
"Shit, what was that?" She spun around and looked at Lloyd.
"Ballistics," Lloyd replied without looking up from the belly of the riot droid he and the tech had disemboweled. "They've started."
Mia glanced back at the video feed from the street. Lloyd was right: the spider tank wasn't firing upward, it was simply taking the buildings out from street level. She could see a gaping hole in the row of structures, filled now with a tangled mess of twisted, crumpled metal. A hail of plasma fire rained down on the tank from the rooftops on either side, to no apparent effect.
More plasma fire lanced out from behind the makeshift barricade just as another shell from the tank exploded a few meters in from it. The fighters ran for cover as the tank moved in for the next shot that would surely take it out completely.
"Lloyd, unless you can get Gizmo working in the next few minutes, we're gonna be out of time. That tank is mowing down everything in its path."
Lloyd lifted out a section of the droid’s innards. "That's not enough time. It’ll take at least another thirty to get this power cell hooked up, and I still don't know if it's going to work."
"Shit, we need to buy more time somehow. What about those EMP devices—would those stop it?"
Lloyd shook his head. "No more left. We just had one."
"Then we're done. Plasma weapons aren't going to stop that thing."
Lloyd pursed his lips. "Wait a minute. I've an idea." He ran back to the carcass of the riot droid. The tech was already running diagnostics on some the components that they had extracted earlier. Lloyd clambered on top of the dead droid and started to hack at it.
"What's the idea?" A note of desperation had entered Mia's voice.
"Fight fire with fire," said the engineer, freeing a short, stubby cylinder from the carcass. "Plasma cannon power supply." He held it up to show her. "This has potentially an enormous amount of stored energy. Short-circuit it and all that energy is released in a high-intensity reaction."
"A bomb?"
"Sort of, depending on how much energy is left in it. It won’t explode as such, but it will burn at a temperature high enough to melt the casing on that machine. If it burns long enough, it will start to drip inside and destroy the tank from the inside."
Mia left the desk and came over. "Can you get it to detonate?"
"Working on it." He attached the unit to a screen terminal and started perusing lines of code.
The tech was looking over Lloyd's shoulder at the screen. "You could expose the core. Then a high-intensity plasma blast could be enough to melt the insulator, and boom."
Lloyd looked at the tech for a beat. "You're a goddamn genius. That could work."
They then set about dismantling the unit.
"I'll do it," said Mia, after a few minutes.
Lloyd gave her a concerned look. "No, let Marcus take care of it. You don't have to go."
"We don't have time, Lloyd. It needs to be done now. We can’t wait for Marcus or any of the others to come back here to collect it. Just tell me what I need to do."
Again, Lloyd looked deeply concerned.
"You know I'm right. If we wait any longer then we're all dead anyway."
He shook his head as he acquiesced. "You have to get it onto the tank somehow, preferably on top of it. Then shoot it with your highest weapon setting." He lifted up the stubby cylinder and moved it around in his hands. "Now if we had a way to make it stick, you might get away with just throwing it."
Another rumble echoed around the hangar, and they all instinctively ducked a little.
Mia grabbed the unit. "No time. I'll figure something out."
There's a stairway at the back of the hangar." Lloyd pointed. "It will take you to the rooftop. Be careful—at the far end, that's where the dome wall comes down. You don't want that thing detonating close to the dome."
Mia nodded.
"I'll tell Marcus to expect you, get you some backup."
"Okay," she said with a certain resignation. "Wish me luck."
"Good luck." Lloyd raised a hand as she sped off to find her way up to the rooftop.
18
Spider Tank
Mia stuffed the device inside her jacket and unclipped her plasma weapon as she exited onto the roof of the warehouse. The edge of the vast dome that enclosed most of this sector seemed to be only a hand's reach away—on the other side of which the mother of all dust storms endlessly raged, mirrored now by the storm playing itself out across the city. Another boom, much louder this time, reverberated off the great dome's surface and almost deafened Mia and she spun around to look for its source.
The rooftop was a maze of ducts and air filtration systems that facilitated the double-skinned approach to the city's building codes. The vast outer dome being the first, the internal buildings and physical infrastructure within being the second line of life support. Should the dome be breached, then the citizens could seek sanctuary within the buildings. At least, that was the theory. But the endless dust storm had undermined that design. With consistent system failure and the shortage of spare parts, it was all they could do just to maintain the integrity of the outer dome, and even that could not fully keep the incessant dust at bay. So much so that Mia could not see all the way across to the other side of the great dome, just a tangled mess of rooftops disappearing into a thick, murky fog.
Plasma fire split the haze, and Mia oriented herself to head for its source. She picked her way across the roof and saw Anka running over to her out of the gloom.
"Over here. Quick, quick." Mia could see she was breathing hard, even though her dust mask dulled the sound of her voice. They kept low and inched their way to the edge of the building. The sounds of the battle grew louder as they approached. The area was thick with the smell of ozone as the plasma weapons ionized the air. Mia crouched down using a squat industrial unit as cover. Anka did the same as she proceeded to map out the battle.
"The tank's around fifty meters that way." She pointed with the muzzle of her weapon. "Marcus and the main group are up on the other side, over there. We've got several buildings collapsed between us and them. There's another group at street level, but they're boxed in."
"Okay, I get the general picture. Anyone else here with you?"
Anka's face took on a pained expression. "No, I'm all that's left here."
"Milo?"
She shook her head and looked away. "He was on that building there when it was hit and collapsed. I don't know if he's still alive."
Mia said nothing. There was nothing to say. What she needed—what they all needed—was for her to take this machine down before it killed them all. Mia carefully crawled her way to the edge of the rooftop and peeked over.
The street below was a scene of pure carnage. Whole buildings had simply crumpled, and many of those that still stood were scorched and blackened. Bodies were scattered all along the street, interspersed with the wreckage of ground cars and containers.
Up ahead, the massive asteroid mining machine moved through thick, billowing smoke as plasma fire raked it from both sides of the street. More weapons fire was returned from the Montecristo security following along behind.
"Holy crap." Mia had not truly visualized the sheer size of the mechanical beast that was slowly pushing its way toward her. On the feeds it had seemed less intimidating. But now, face-to-face, so to speak, it evoked a deep, primordial response in her, a kind of long-dormant evolutionary fear, one reserved for creatures that walked around on eight legs—arachnids.
"I hate spiders," she said. More to herself than to Anka, who had now crouched down bes
ide her.
Mia studied it for a moment, trying to figure out how she might get the incendiary device attached. The machine was slow and ponderous, made more so by two of its legs having been damaged. Its forward-facing body was armored, presumably to protect it from any debris generated by its ballistic weapon. Yet this was not a military weapon; it was designed to work on the surface of asteroids, engineered for operation in the vacuum of space. It was also hardened against cosmic radiation, making it virtually impervious to both EMP and pulsed energy weapons. Nevertheless, it did have its vulnerabilities, and that was its lack of physical armor on all but the front-facing section of the machine.
For Mia to have any chance of bringing this thing down, she would need to get high up and try to lob the incendiary device down into the exposed engineering on its topside. She scanned the roofline for a suitable attack position. She needed to hurry; the machine was moving ever closer, and it would soon be too late.
"Anka, I'm going to try to get up on top of that cooling tower over there." She pointed off to a two-meter-high structure jutting up from the roofline. "When the spider comes alongside, I'm going to lob this into it. Then I need lots of firepower directed at it so it detonates. Can you contact Marcus and the others, get me some cover so I can reach that tower?"
"Sure, can do."
"And tell them to pass on the message that once I throw this in, they need to focus all their weapons on it."
Anka cupped a hand over her earpiece and started talking. Mia wasn't sure what she was saying, as a building across the street crumpled under another explosion.
Mia got herself into a crouch, ready to move. Anka gave her the thumbs-up as a hail of plasma fire started raining down on the Montecristo security following the tank. She took her opportunity and ran for the cooling tower, dodging the returning fire from the security contingent down on the street. She made her way to the back of the tower and clambered up a metal ladder. Mia spread herself flat on the roof and eased her way to the edge. From this vantage point, she had a good view of the battle down below.
The spider tank was now directly beneath her and in the process of orienting itself to fire directly on the warehouse where the rebels had made their base, and where Lloyd now worked to retrieve the information held in Gizmo's datastack.
Mia pulled the incendiary device from inside her jacket and looked over to where Anka had taken up a concealed position. She was watching Mia intently, waiting for the moment when Mia lobbed the device into the tank. She gave her the thumbs-up. Mia nodded back and took aim.
But she must have been spotted, as a bolt of plasma hit the tower just as she released the device. The tower's metal casing buzzed and snapped as the energy from the shot dissipated. Even though Mia was not hit directly, she still felt her nerves jangle and her muscles spasm as the residual charge rippled through her body. In the mayhem, she lost sight of the device's trajectory. Shit, did I miss? she thought as she fought to get control of her body and regain some motor function.
As the worst effects of the plasma pulse receded, she was able to move enough to look down at the spider tank. She scanned the machine and the surrounding area, trying to find where the incendiary device had landed. Then she spotted it, wedged between two structural ribs on the back of the tank. With a Herculean effort, she unclipped her plasma weapon and started firing at it.
The others could now see where she was aiming, and those that had a clear view also started firing, including Anka.
The device ignited in a brilliant white flash. Mia shielded her eyes, as the light was intense. It burned like a small sun, spitting out hot globs of molten metal in all directions.
The tank stopped moving. One of its spindly legs gave way, then another, and finally it crashed down to the ground and lay still as the ball of burning metal wedged in its gut grew smaller and smaller. A huge cheer rose up all around.
The security forces that had been using the underside of the tank for cover now found themselves exposed to attack from the rebels, who had the high ground. Realizing the situation they were now in, their bravado seemed to crumble, and they beat a hasty retreat back down the street, the rebels firing after them.
Mia slowly stood up on top of the cooling tower, and the rebels raised their weapons to her and cheered.
Vance Baptiste watched the destruction of the spider tank from a makeshift operations room that had been hastily assembled in the cargo hold of a large transport rover. He was not happy.
"What the hell just happened?" His voice was tinged with frustration.
His head of security didn't answer; he was too busy trying to get a handle on the situation. He hopped from one terminal to another, then back to the central holo-table, which displayed the battle for the maintenance sector in real time, all while the assembled techs shouted out status reports. "Asset down... Contingent withdrawing... Awaiting orders..."
Baptiste didn't really need an answer; he could see very well what was happening. That bitch Sorelli was living up to her reputation and throwing a very large spanner in his carefully laid plans.
"Talk to me, Orban." Baptiste's voice now betrayed his anger.
He had taken a shuttle down to the surface of Mars from his private orbital a few hours ago, setting it down around three kilometers from the edge of the city. He had then transferred to this rover, which had been hastily retrofitted as an operations center. It currently sat just inside the maintenance sector, as close to the battle as Orban deemed safe.
Baptiste had wanted to get closer, "to see the sweat on their foreheads," as he had put it. But the head of security had chosen to be more cautious. Just as well, as their forces were in retreat, having lost their big advantage: the tank that was now a smoking ruin.
"They fashioned some sort of incendiary device, the spider tank is dead, our personnel are retreating under fire," said Orban as he scanned the incoming data.
"Goddammit, where the hell did they get that?"
Orban just shrugged.
"Well, the decision has been made for us." Baptiste's voice was calmer now, more certain. "We do what I suggested at the very outset. Had we done that at the start, then it would be all over by now."
Orban took a step back from Baptiste and raised a hand. "I would not advise that option. The potential for innocent people to die makes it too much of a risk."
Baptiste's face grew stern. "Since when do you care? Remember, this is a war, and innocent people die all the time in war."
Orban lowered his head a little and shook it. "I don't like it. It's just too...extreme."
"Bullshit. We've no other option."
"We're going to need approval from the board of Montecristo before implementing that option."
Baptiste's face curled into barely concealed rage. He took a step toward his head of security and stabbed a finger at him. "I don't need board approval for anything. So, stop stalling and let's get this done." He lowered his finger and relaxed a little. "Alternatively, you go find another job."
Orban considered his boss for a moment, then shrugged. "It seems we have no other choice." His voice was low, conciliatory, that of a man who knew when he was beaten.
"Good. Then give the order for everyone to leave the sector. Give them thirty minutes, then seal the doors. After that we start evacuating the internal atmosphere." He jabbed a finger at Orban. "This time, no one is getting out alive."
"We'll need to let MLOD know, give them time to get out any people they have in that sector." He turned to Baptiste. "And the chief ain't going to like this."
"You just get it started. I'll deal with Becker."
"This is going too far. I got people in there, as well as agents from Jezero. What the hell am I going to say to them?" Chief Joshua T. Becker was borderline apoplectic.
"Not my problem, Joshua," said Baptiste. "You'll just have to think of something, because this is happening. Say what you like to them, just get your people out of there."
"Goddammit, I'm already getting it in the ear
from Poe Tarkin. We should at least warn them, give Sorelli and that rabble a chance to surrender. That way we can say we tried." Becker's voice was pleading.
Baptiste thought about this for a moment. "Okay, here's what we do. We broadcast an alert that, due to rebel activity in the maintenance sector, the outer dome has been compromised. Decompression alerts will activate in thirty minutes, and the sector doors will seal soon after. That will get everybody out. And we blame it all on Lloyd and his group of reactionary scum."
"That...could work." Becker was beginning to calm down now.
"In fact, I could also broadcast that appeal directly to the rebels, make it seem like we’re doing the right thing by offering them a way out."
"Yes, that would be better."
"Okay," said Baptiste. "Get me a comms link to Sorelli and we'll broadcast it. If they don't take the offer, then it will be on their heads. Nobody can accuse us of not trying."
"Very well, just don't seal the doors until I have my people out."
"Well you better get on it, then. And get me that link."
19
Decompression
Every nerve ending in Mia's body still jangled as Anka helped her down from the cooling tower. Her muscles ached where they had gone into spasm when the tower was hit. But she was buoyed up by the destruction of the spider tank, and the adrenaline pumping in her body helped mitigate against the dull background pain. And she was recovering fast; by the time she and Anka had reached the floor of the warehouse, Mia was walking unaided.
Colony Mars Ultimate Edition Page 81
