“Maybe we should share with Yawen?” Iruuk said.
Alice looked past him for Yawen and saw her with Ute, talking to Captain McFadden with a few other officers. Cadets were making quick work of organizing chairs around the folding tables they were setting up. “Later. I’d like to make sure you know about this stuff first, big guy, because I know you don’t want to believe this is a competition, but let me tell you, it’s only a competition. Our instructors need us to compete so we can become better Officers, and you have to shine even brighter than you do now, because you don’t have any experience in the field. I want to get to day thirty-one with a hundred and ten points, and I think it would be really cool if we were the only two to pull it off.”
“If it’s a competition, then why not try and take the lead alone?”
“Because a good Captain is always thinking of the fleet, and if we work together to set the bar higher than anyone ever expected, everyone who follows will try that much harder. That, and I want to make captain before I graduate.”
“I could be your First Officer,” Iruuk whispered with a smile.
“We can both make Captain,” Alice said. “And I bet you’d make a good one.”
Chapter 31
Alert
Alarms woke Remmy, the kind he only ever heard during drills on Freeground. “We are under attack from the Order of Eden. Please move to your predetermined hardened location. Announced a female voice that sounded far too calm for what it was telling everyone. He started slipping into his armour and ran from his room, meeting Dotty in the hallway, who was dressing as she walked at the same time. “Where’s Liara?” he asked.
An explosion went off outside their posh temporary lodgings and pipes burst through the hallway, pinning Remmy’s hip to the wall. The old pipes didn’t puncture his suit. “I’m all right, just check on Liara.”
Dotty opened their charge’s door and a wall of flame greeted her. The armour made to protect her covered her in time, and Dotty charged inside without hesitation. The synthetic muscle in Remmy’s suit flexed as he forced the heavy pipes pinning him back, and he slid free on the wrong side of them. To his relief, Dotty emerged with Liara in her arms. She’d managed to get the woman’s suit on, or get her on top of her suit so it put itself on her. “Is she all right?”
Liara nodded, coughing.
A fire suppression system activated, drawing the oxygen out of the air. In turn, the hood on Remmy’s suit activated, providing breathable air. The flames went out and oxygen returned to the room. The apartment shifted, as though breaking loose from a support. “We’ve got to get out of here, this old place might not be that safe.”
Dotty nodded and put Liara down on her side of the pipes crossing the hallway. “You have to crawl under, reach to me,” Remmy told her.
Liara began crawling under the pipes, stretching her hands out, Remmy caught them and pulled her the rest of the way, then did the same for Dotty. The deck beneath their feet tilted suddenly, just enough to verify Remmy’s fear. “This place isn’t stable, we have to get out or down.” He led the way to the door and, when it failed to open, scraping its frame, he didn’t hesitate in popping the cover for the crank off and turning as fast as he could.
“What about the transit car?” Liara asked as he led the way through the door.
“We’re running on the path beside the track to that door there,” he said, pointing to the end of the straight transparent metal tube suspended over the forest below.
“Oh, I didn’t realize there was a corridor beside the track,” Liara replied. “Three days here and I never thought to check.”
“I doubt they would have let us go anywhere interesting anyway, so you weren’t missing much.”
With Liara behind him and Dotty taking the rear, the trio ran down the hallway as it shuddered. “There’s something really bad going on,” Remmy said. “Whatever attack the Order has launched against the station has gotten clean through their new shields and they’re not regenerating.”
“You’re right,” Liara said. “The station is so massive that most attacks shouldn’t make it shake like this.”
“Inertial dampers must be down in some areas too,” Dotty said. “Maybe they’re redirecting power to something else?”
Remmy didn’t have a chance to answer before the sounds of metal clashing with metal filled the air. He looked up in time to see the noses of boarding pods drilling through the station’s hull enough to open and spill dozens of padded black containers into the forest below. “How many?”
“Scanning,” Dotty said. “Two hundred eighty seven.”
“What?”
“Those containers are all framework soldiers. Those pods drilled through the outer hull and several decks to get here. They’re too close to command.”
“Oh my God,” Liara said, staring down through the transparent floor of the transit tube.
Remmy followed the line of her gaze and spotted what she was watching. One of the packages burst open, laying a metal skeleton flat on the ground. A rifle and bag was at its feet. The skeleton materialized flesh, muscle, organs and skin in seconds. The soldier woke, activated the bag at his feet and it covered him from head to toe in armour with flexible metal plating. He picked his rifle up and was joined by more than a dozen freshly generated framework soldiers.
A wave of relief washed over Remmy as he punched the heavy door control and it opened. “We have to find Freeground soldiers so we can coordinate with them. I don’t think their standard arms are configured right for this either.”
“What do you mean?” Liary asked.
“To kill those frameworks you have to fire an electromagnetic pulse round that has an explosive charge built in, otherwise they’ll regenerate. I know their rifles will tear those guys to pieces, but they’ll just take cover and regenerate over and over again.”
“What happens if you separate the head from the body?” Dotty asked.
“The skull can’t accumulate enough energy to regenerate a body, but the body can regenerate a head with basic programming, and that’s all most of these soldiers need,” Remmy replied as they ran down the much older looking hallway. The metal was dark grey along the walls, the incursion alarm blared, and red lights blinked above the doors. “Hold, we need to secure that door,” Remmy said, turning and pulling a slim suppression grenade from his belt. He set it to maximum power and effectiveness then tossed it carefully at the middle of the door. A semi-translucent, grey material covered the door and the jamb around it. “That’ll bond and keep it shut, they’ll have to cut through. C’mon, my tactical scanner is picking up a group of soldiers ahead.”
“What happens if you cut a framework soldier in half?” Dotty asked as they started running down the hallway again.
“The half with the brain takes priority and the two parts re-assemble together if they’re close enough. If they’re not close enough to regenerate together, the lower half will only generate a torso and the rest if it has enough reserve energy and intact backup segments for programming in its femurs. If it doesn’t have enough juice, it collects it passively from heat and gravity until it does. The upper half can generate a lower if it has enough reserve energy, and it could keep fighting the whole time. Order Knights are worse because they have programming backups in all the major bones, and they can wirelessly share energy over long distances, so you have to slag the hell out of them. Why is this coming up now?”
“Just always wondered,” Dotty said.
“I’ll have to make an info packet and send it out,” Remmy said.
“I can help with that,” Liara said, nearly out of breath. She was in good shape for a civilian, but not compared to Remmy or Dotty.
“Can you contact the shuttle?” Remmy asked her.
“I’ve been able to get through intermittently, but the Order is jamming, it’s definitely them.”
“So the frameworks are operating on set plans that don’t require continued communication, or they have Order Knights with the
m,” Remmy concluded. “That is not good.”
“Or both,” Dotty said.
They came to an abrupt right hand turn in the hallway and Remmy directed them to stop. “Freeground soldiers, right around this corner,” he said as he verified using the tactical display inside his helmet. “Hey guys! We’re from Triton Fleet!” he said, waving his hand just around the corner. “Don’t shoot!”
“We know who you are, step out, Sergeant,” a strong female voice called out.
“Sergeant Remmy Sands,” he said as he stepped out into the hallway’s four way intersection. “I’ve got Private Dotty Bedel and Lieutenant Commander Liara Erron. Our mission is to protect her.”
“We know who you are, you’d better get behind us before that intersection fills with Order soldiers.”
Remmy did so, making sure that Dotty and Liara were close behind. “That’s not a good plan, Lieutenant…”
“Becker,” she answered. “Why not? We have another fire team coming to create a crossfire.”
“That,” Remmy said, pointing at the middle of the large hallway intersection. “Is enough space for framework soldiers to create cover and detonate munitions. They’ll hit everything from that spot out to thirty metres in all directions first.”
“You’ve fought Order soldiers like this before? The regiment that they just broke through reported that they were regenerating.”
“In short, yes,” Remmy said.
“One hundred and five kills solo while clearing Order of Eden bases on Tamber,” Dotty added. “He’s a bit of a legend.”
“Everyone clear back, half way down the hallway,” the Lieutenant said. “Drop shield pads and get ready to fire, they’re less than a minute away.”
“Your weapons are only going to slow them down,” Remmy said as he helped the soldiers drag heavy shield projector pads down the hallway. “Do you have electromag grenades?”
“We each have one, so thirty five between us,” Lieutenant Becker said. “That’s what’ll stop them from regenerating?”
“After you cut them down, drop three or four in succession on top of them. If you see an Order Knight - they’ll be in conforming power armour, you can’t miss them – use every explosive you have on them and when their shields are down, when their armour is ruptured, drop a pair of electromag grenades in their lap. It’s the only way to keep them dead.”
“Command wants at least a few survivors to study,” she countered.
“Ignore that. You said these Order soldiers just broke through a regiment?” Remmy’s tactical display showed that another group of thirty five Freeground soldiers were setting up in a hallway to the right, the frameworks were coming up a large lift chute straight down the hallway from them.
“They did,” Lieutenant Becker said. “Everyone recording what the Sergeant is saying? We take no prisoners, use your electromag grenades on my order, set rifles to their highest setting.”
Remmy saw as many frightened eyes as he did stoic steely gazes through the soldiers’ transparent visors and nodded. “That, and a few extra tricks got us through bunker busting on Tamber.” He could hear the enemy trying to break through the lift door a hundred metres down the hallway. “Just remember, these guys have a habit of standing up and shooting you in the back at the moment you think they’re dead for good.”
“Activate shields!” Lieutenant Becker said, her voice carrying loudly down the hall. Energy barriers appeared between the soldiers and the hall intersection. “Stand ready!”
Remmy began to guide Liara and Dotty to the rear of the firing line, towards the interior door.
“You’re not staying to help?” Lieutenant Becker asked.
“I have to get the Lieutenant Commander to our ship,” Remmy replied. “Good hunting.”
“We should stay and help,” Liara said through her private communications link between her, Dotty and Remmy. “You have weapons that could take them down in a shot.”
“The framework soldiers took out a regiment, that’s fourteen hundred trained Freeground military,” Remmy said.
“All the more reason.”
“It’s not happening, Lieutenant.”
“I could order you to stay,” Liara said.
Remmy turned towards her. Over her shoulder he could see the Freeground soldiers readying themselves, three squads of them. Their equipment was impressive, but the prototypes he’d seen elsewhere were only in a few hands. The majority of the soldiers had older, recycled weapons that would do damage, but not enough fast enough to stop the Order of Eden framework soldiers. If there were Order Knights on the way, everyone he could see would be dead within ten minutes, most likely less, unless they had some amazing commanders and surprises he couldn’t see. The Order of Eden soldiers were half way through cutting themselves a door at the end of the hallway. “You could order me to turn and fight, but that’s not why you’re here. That’s not our purpose either. I’m here to make sure you get around safely, and if you’re in danger, we have orders to get you back to the shuttle so it can cloak and take a wormhole to a predetermined rendezvous point.” He pointed to coordinates on the screen of his command and control unit for emphasis. “Your mission is done, you know everything you’re going to learn about the people here, now let me do my job, please.”
Liara glanced over her shoulder then nodded at Remmy. One soldier from the rear of the Freeground defenders ran past them to the exit and opened it for them so they could retreat. “Close it behind you,” he said as he returned to his unit.
“Thank you, good luck,” Remmy led Liara by the hand at a run, Dotty at his side. The hallway flashed with light as the Freeground defenders opened fire on the incoming Order of Eden soldiers. Remmy made a point not to look back. He wasn’t the only framework slayer, Dotty was just as accomplished in all but formulating strategy. Perhaps the two of them could help enough to make a difference, but for once in his life, he felt he had orders that could not be bent, so he ran to the waiting transit tube and closed the door behind them. “Dock thirty-eight,” he told the computer, and the car started accelerating upwards.
Chapter 32
Admiral Dron
The whole of the Glorious Battlegroup was wrapping itself around the area Freeground Alpha had foolishly called home for nearly an entire day. Admiral Dron watched the two storey all hologram of the action from his tall dais aboard the Glorious Base Ship. The carriers were at the rear of his lines, battlecruisers in the middle firing their heavy weapons at the main supports that held Freeground Alpha together for centuries while they launched defensive fighters in a picket line. Ahead of that were the more manoeuvrable corvettes, a hundred and eighty two of them, along with seventy destroyers. They harassed Freeground Fleet, fighting to separate them from Freeground Alpha so they had to leave the ancient circular station behind.
Drop ships had a clear path to launch their incursion pods, and the fourth wave was on its way. In less than two minutes another eighteen hundred framework soldiers would be delivered to Freeground Alpha along with eighteen Order Knights who would survive to tell the tale of the station’s defeat. “That’s the last wave, no more incursions,” he said. “We want our victory to come with some effort so the Knights have worthwhile stories to tell.”
“Sir, a group of Freeground fighters have broken from the main group, they have gotten behind us,” one of his thirty tactical officers reported from the foot of his dais.
“Are they setting off our radiological or antimatter alarms?”
“Three of them, yes Sir,” she replied. “There are twenty eight fighters in total.”
“Assign the closest two wings of fighters to counter. Let our human pilots get the first shots, we want them to take some glory home as well. If the enemy comes within one hundred thousand kilometres, launch two hundred drones and exterminate the enemy fighters.”
“Why not start with the drones? Wipe the enemy out, remove the risk?” the hologram of Admiral Lodds asked from his left hand side.
“You
don’t think we’re here to actually crush a rebellion, do you?” Admiral Dron asked with a little smile. “These poor people are refugees who thought they’d land somewhere then turn around and fight us. We’re only here to teach them the most important lesson. They’re only refugees, nothing more. We’ll break Freeground Alpha’s spine, kill most of their soldiers, and then retrieve our people. Their fleet will survive, but it’ll be crippled, scattered. What’s worse, their friends from Haven Shore are already too late. Freeground Fleet will be highly dependent on Haven Shore but they’ll also wonder where the Triton and the Revenge were when they were needed most. I know. The Revenge is licking their wounds, and the Triton was spotted only two hours ago, scouting one point eight light years away. I expect them any moment, but not before we break through the new command section of the station. Watch.” Admiral Dron focused in on the starboard side of the station as several heavy impacts weakened the structural supports for the armour plating in a square section. A flash of light followed as twenty-four battlecruisers blasted the space between the supports with their beam weapons simultaneously. A group of torpedoes struck three seconds later, shattering hundreds of metres of ancient metal plating and revealing decks beneath. “That was their new primary command hub. The station is headless, Freeground Nation is a memory, what remains will burden our enemies while we arrange an invasion on the Rega Gain system.”
“Disgusting,” Admiral Dron heard someone beneath him say under their breath. He couldn’t resist finding out who it was. Using his command interface it took him seconds to find out. “Would you care to elaborate, Commander Vinen?”
The young, dark haired man seemed startled for a moment, but stood and turned towards the dais. “Sir, I only wonder if this is even necessary. The Glorious Battlegroup could push on and be out of the nebula in a week instead of pursuing these refugees.”
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