Green lights confirming they’d heard him went across the top of his HUD. No one was talking now because they were probably trying to retain control of their stomachs. Jerome saw their hands touching their kit, knowing where it all was by feel.
Jerome looked to the extractor facilities, they were identical to one another.
Anchoring lines snaked down from different points of the lowest platform, at the center there were extractor lines that dropped at various heights to gather the gasses at that level.
Above the lowest platform were massive tanks that the gasses were refined and pressurized in. Above that were maintenance platforms, offices, command centers and living quarters. Each platform would get smaller ending in a line that snaked out of the atmosphere. Freighters would hook up and draw various gasses to be shipped from the line extending out of the Gas Planet’s atmosphere.
It wasn’t long until they got the five-minute warning, they lost speed as the Combat Shuttle brought them right on target, it’s ramp also had an air lock in the middle of it.
Orange lights whirled through the cargo hold and harnesses released, only one needed to be jimmied open.
All of the troopers were on their feet and facing the airlock as it’s lights lit up confirming connection.
A few moments later it opened up.
Jerome moved first, the dual airlocks on the other side were open as well, allowing him to walk right into the living quarters of the Gas planet’s workers.
It was the same as any living space on a colony. Blank corridors and rubberized flooring with numbers printed to allow people to figure out where they were. Lifts, supply closets and doors leading to apartments spread out in an expandable grid pattern.
Each intersection had large airlocks where they’d been attached to their counterparts. They were all open as the station was pressurized. If someone holed the exterior, then the nearest airlocks would seal with the pressure loss.
Jerome’s section was first out of the shuttle.
“Dooks front, Huang, take longshot down the corridor, anything shoots at us, you kill them. Remember there are friendlies in the facility, don’t need to start pissing them off by lighting their buddies up, Sasaki, Ishida and Kaj, you’re with me, Kaj we’ll fire team up. Once we get to the first corridor we’ll split left while Tyler goes right, good?” Green lights appeared.
“Shuttle, cleared, thanks for the ride,” Zukic said, Jerome picking it up on the leadership channel.
“No worries, happy to help, let us know if you need support,” Yu said, the airlock’s closing behind Tyler’s section as they moved up to the right of Jerome’s.
“Tyler move right, I’ll move left,” Jerome said.
“Gotcha,” Tyler confirmed, moving his section into place.
“Rest of the platoon should be coming in ten. I’m going to pull Dooks and Obe to cover down the entry corridor,” Zukic said.
“Good by me,” Jerome said, coming to the first corridor and signalling for Ishida and Sasaki to take the corner when Tyler’s section was ready.
Dooks and Obe went to Zukic lying down to cover the corridor they had entered.
“Three, two, one,” Ishida called out the timing, Jerome and Kaj went right as Ishida and Sasaki went left.
They moved down their new corridors their section following after them as Zukic moved Dooks and Obe up to get better cover.
Jerome and Tyler coordinated clearing out rooms. It was a timely process but they didn’t want anyone coming in behind them.
Haas, Mark and Holm came in with the remainder of the platoon. Green dots showed the troopers moving in to the facility on all levels, clearing as they went, turning grey areas into green.
So far, so good,
Nerva moved up with the forward platoon, NIDenise pinged the first contact.
Greens went to yellows and two blacks as people moving through the mechanical areas of the facility were hit by Harmony fighters.
He saw as other platoons in the areas came across civilians, moving to support their lines with their own fire power. The civilians were using security shotguns and whatever they’d been able to convert into weapons.
Chapter 26
Extractor Thirteen
Gas Planet, Masoul System
10/3240
“You’re going to want to see this,” NIDenise said. Nerva pulled into a secured room, a section following him as he accessed the image.
There was a row of civilians ranging from teenagers to retirees strung up in the rafters.
Nerva knew violence, he could tell when a person was killed cleanly and when they’d been made to suffer. Everyone in the rafters had suffered for days before dying.
Nerva silently transmitted it to every officer.
“No mercy, kill them all,” Nerva said.
Green lights went across the top of his helmet.
Alerts from higher came in, orders to secure the processing tanks. It cut to a video of facility nine turning into a fireball.
Nerva passed on the orders, it seemed the fanatics were driven to the point of blowing themselves up instead of letting the troopers get to them.
He sent the message to all the Majors he knew. Some people wouldn’t send information to the ground troopers. Happy to sit up in their command centers, watching their screens in boredom.
He’d seen the feeds from the command center on Reclaimer more than once. Every time it made him want to go up there and clear out the useless fuckers with a repulsor.
Nerva used his HUD and implants to give different platoons and companies new way points, moving troopers to help where combat was and search for any altercations the bastards might have made to turn the whole thing into one big bomb.
A new marker went up as yet another platoon came under contact.
The marker was all too familiar.
“For fuck sakes, Triple Two’s!” He sighed. Haas had been a Sergeant just a week ago, but he was a solid officer. He knew how to handle his people, and his platoon was hungry to make the Harmony fighters pay. They had lost more than any other unit and the rumors and videos surrounding their fight made them something of a myth.
They were good at their job and having them engaged on the line was making other officers and platoons push forward.
They wanted to prove that they were as good as the Twenty-Two A Twos, that had been nicknamed the triple twos.
***
Tyler looked at the corridors and offices that showed evidence of battle.
They’d cleared the living quarters and command centers with the other platoons, but for the office spaces they’d spread out, there was only a few levels to go before they got the maintenance levels where the fighting was the hardest.
They’d heard the fighting in the offices before they saw it.
Haas got them organized and gave them roles.
Holm would lay in supporting fire, Zukic would get casualty point sorted out with Qi. Tyler’s section would go first, followed by Mark and Jerome’s. The aim was to overwhelm the Harmony bastards with firepower and run through their lines, they’d get in behind them and make a bad day worse.
“Go,” Haas said, Tyler turned the corner, red and blue halos started appearing.
“We’re behind Harmony not civilians,” Tyler said over the command channel.
“Deploy a fighting line, Tyler get down,” Haas said.
The sections spread down the office area they’d entered; weapons fire being traded just a few hundred meters away.
They formed a line behind the enemy, it wasn’t the best and could have led to the civvies or troopers shooting one another.
Thankfully the civilian’s weapons while good against vac suits and skin weren’t all that effective against trooper’s armor.
Well most of them, the one’s they’d fabbed together in the years since Harmony had made their play on Masoul Actual were simple airguns, but with the power to go through anything but a trooper’s main plates.
“Okay, stand and pick
your targets, Harmony only. On my Mark,” Haas said.
“Now!” Haas barked.
The entire platoon rose, red tracers ripped into the Harmony fighters unguarded rear.
The Harmony fighters were thrown into disarray.
“Move forward!” Haas said troopers moved around their cover to new cubicles. Civilians seeing the troopers laid down, the Harmony fighters turned to their new targets at their rear.
“Grenades!” Haas said.
Tyler pulled up his launcher firing three grenades across his frontage, being careful to not hit the civilians past.
Red halos disappeared as the grenades made the floor shake and turned cubicles, office supplies, and hasty barricades into shrapnel.
The Harmony fighters didn’t even have time to react to the incoming fire, shrapnel piercing them and others turning to sprays of gores and grenades exploded on impact.
Tyler didn’t dare glance to either side, they advanced, the Harmony fighters fire had ended.
Here and there an E-12 barked, making sure their enemy wouldn’t get up.
Civilians started rising looking at the troopers.
Wonder what the hell we look like wearing full armor and loaded out for war, Tyler thought, deciding that the faceless quality of their helmets were probably the weirdest part of their setup.
They reached the civilian lines. Warrant Zukic looked to make a casualty area, getting security in both directions as Second Lieutenant Haas walked up to the civvies after a few moments someone came and talked with him.
“Check your ammo,” Tyler said, opening a channel to Zukic.
“Stay with Haas, they might be on our side but they ain’t troopers.” Zukic said.
“On it,” Tyler switched to his section’s channel. “Watch the civvies, nothing aggressive. We’re here to watch Haas’ back.”
Qi worked on the civilians, thankfully none of the Troopers had anything worse than a scratch.
A few of the civilians had been too close to the grenades and others had been wounded before the troopers showed up.
They didn’t have augments and were weak from the marginal food that was supplied by their company, it only lowered their chances of survival.
Tyler hoped they made it out of this alive, but they weren’t his responsibility. Tyler got his people watching the surrounding area, but ready to react if the civvies got aggressive.
Haas pulled out a tablet he and the group of civvies worked on it for a few minutes, circles appearing on the map.
“Okay, we’ve got three possible enemy locations. This group has been cut off from them since two days ago. I’m not expecting much but we need to check it out. Zukic get them ready to roll. I’m going to check with higher,” Haas said, his briefing over.
A location was highlighted on the map just a couple of offices over.
“Mark you have lead, Tyler, Holm and Jerome in the rear, move into it,” Zukic said, already pushing them out of the offices and towards their new target. Qi passed on medical supplies to the civilians and gave them a short talk before he slung his medical pack back on and was following Zukic, both of them getting into the formation.
Red halos appeared ahead of Tyler, weapons fire came from Mark’s section as their progress barely slowed.
Haas was with them as they exited the offices they’d cleared. They covered corridors, two staying as the others moved quickly, word would pass quickly among the Harmony fighters, they needed to move faster if they were going to be able to surprise them.
“Contact, large body of Harmony fighters, came in on their flank, move up fire support,” Mark called out as weapons fire escalated, the ground was shaking with explosions from grenades.
The sections continued to move forward spreading out into the new office space and putting fire into the Harmony fighters, tracers ripped through officers and grenades sent bodies flying.
Desks were flipped and used as barricades.
Tracer fire ripped through the air, the Harmony forces charged, yelling, screaming and crazy. After a week of solid fighting something gave in them.
Death was probably kinder than what the civilians wanted to do to them. Everyone had seen the pictures and videos of Harmony’s acts perpetrated against civilians when they didn’t do as they wanted.
“No mercy!” Haas barked.
Tyler’s round punched through Harmony fighters sending them tumbling to the ground. A few jumped over obstacles, rounds hitting them in mid-air and throwing them back.
The Harmony fighters were just meters away, wild and still charging. The troopers yelled and bellowed but they didn’t give up their ground, only stopping to reload.
Ali went down, Obe was already there, applying first aid. Ali showed red but he got Ma to put him against a wall so he could keep firing.
Mcnara, Bairamov, Jerome, Dooks, Niemi, their names went from green to yellow and red.
Even with their injuries many of them continued to fight the Harmony fighters. Tyler slammed a new magazine in as one of the Harmony fighters jumped out from behind a desk, sinking a blade into Dalhousie’s neck.
“Mother fucker!” Tyler said staggering and bringing his barrel between him and the Harmony fighter. The gun fired as the barrel matched up with the bastard’s head.
Gore and blood splattered on Tyler’s armor.
He pulled sealant from his hip, they’d learned to keep it handy. He sprayed the blade still in Dalhousie’s neck and went back to shooting the fuckers that had put another member of his section down.
Another platoon moved into support, taking the pressure off of them and breaking the Harmony fighter’s charge.
The tables turned and the hunters became the hunted.
Troopers threw tables and crap out of their way, moving forwards, their red tracers cutting down fleeing fighters.
They weren’t under-fed or new to the concept of war. They were Earth-born troopers.
“Even the devil screams when troopers come for him,” Mark said, the saying wasn’t in any official troopers training pamphlets. It wasn’t official but it was one of the many that the Troopers kept alive.
It had an effect on the Troopers.
They tightened up their formations, worked together even if they weren’t from the same platoon. Their fire cut down fleeing Harmony forces. It was chaos and it was fast, but troopers pushed up, covering one another before moving themselves.
People fell and they moved on. Medics and those detailed looked after the wounded in the rear. The rest concentrated on fighting. There wasn’t rank in their advance. It didn’t matter, actions and killing the fuckers that thought about attacking their homes did.
***
“Launcher left!” Someone screamed as the trooper’s fire shifted, finding the gunner and his launcher out in the open.
Rounds pulped them and caused the launcher to explode.
The catwalk the gunner had been turned to superheated debris raining down on the lower decks.
Alexis was in the maintenance areas on the lowest level, there were five floors in the place with machinery that went the length and intervals where there was nothing but catwalks above.
It was a maze, something that the Harmony Fighters were making great use of.
Motherfuckers. Alexis looked over her section and platoon, they were spread across the facility with half sections above them fighting to clear their overhead.
It was slow going but they took every advantage they might get.
“Move up on the left flank, that explosion might have fucked them up!” Captain Harold yelled, getting the side into motion.
They pushed on, covering and moving so that there was always rounds coming down on the Harmony fighters.
“Grenade!” A trooper tossed a grenade, disappearing under the whine of high-velocity rounds.
Alexis saw the tracers; they were all too familiar.
“They’ve got repulsors!” Alexis called out, marking the area and sending it up her chain of command.
&nbs
p; The grenade went off on a higher level. Harmony fighter bodies were thrown away. With all the fighting they hadn’t even noticed the grenade.
Now they weren’t Alexis’s biggest concern, sure they were up there, but the enemy having repulsors, if they had a dug in position, it was going to be messy as hell.
“We’ve got two platoons moving in from the office spaces, they’re chasing the Harmony fighters,” one of the half-section leaders from above reported.
Something exploded, in these extractor facilities it was hard to know what the fuck was going to explode or not. There was a clear don’t touch a fucking thing policy.
It kind of went out the window as the ‘shoot those motherfuckers’ policy was in force.
Black’s reds and Yellows showed on the left flank of the force.
“Hold the line, move down to cover. We’ll get the fresh platoons to flank. Calling in aide,” Harold said.
Alexis ran down the line, her fire team being donated to cover the section of line that had been blown to hell. She passed writhing and burned bodies.
Other troopers were grabbing them and running off to the medic’s in the rear.
She passed a trooper, they went down with a round through their facemask.
She jumped and rolled into cover.
“High powered shooter in the uppers, aiming at helmets,” she said, confused by how calm and collected her voice sounded compared to the confusion, fear and anxiety that raged inside of her.
She got up and fired at where she thought the shooter might be, pumped a few grenades for good measure and took off again.
The lines were a mass of troopers firing and reacting to Harmony-fighters.
If they saw the enemy, they launched grenades into the area and shot it up.
***
Nerva moved out of the room he was coordinating efforts from and ran to Captain Ortiz, his long legs quickly outpaced the section.
“Ortiz, Demar let’s get in this shit,” Nerva said.
“Yes sir, all forces, move to reinforce Captain Harold, move out!” Captain Ortiz said over his company’s command channel.
Troopers that had been on reserve status waiting to be committed were now in motion. Ortiz, reading the situation had readied his people for multiple different missions.
Masoul (Harmony War Series Book 2) Page 18
