The Tenth Awakens (Maraukian War Book 1)

by Michael Chatfield

  “Going to need to fix that.”

  “Agreed. As you say, no such thing as too much firepower,” Sarah replied.

  Dominik obviously said something as the shield wall opened just long enough for the heavy rail guns to slide into position.

  “Second line, you’re first watch. Third, check your ammo and get some water into you,” Mark ordered through the contubernium’s net. “First line, stay as you are.”

  A legionnaire with powered armor could hold a shield indefinitely but Mark would rather have them with rifles as a reserve. Now, once they had the heavy rail guns emplaced and fully integrated with the sensors of the room, they would kill anything within their arcs.

  Or when Maraukians were concerned, it just slowed down their progress.

  Chapter 18

  Crisidium

  Tricticus, Emarl system

  6/3351

  “What’s happening?” High King Hael Desialias clamped his helmet to his blue smeared suit, still unused to the weird sensation of using his NIAI to communicate to others.

  As a result, much to his personal guards’ complaints, he took off his helmet as often as possible. Plus, hell, he was a king; people needed to see his face when he talked, he’d said more than once. That left his royal guard and command team even more nervous wrecks than before, especially when he personally led to give the army breathing room in corridors.

  “Four cohorts of legionnaires are currently in support, taking over the defense of the walls. We’re moving the units there to a rest, reload, and re-arm station,” commander of Crisidium’s forces Froleck Taleel answered.

  “They brought ammunition, supplies, and heavy rail guns we’re using as mobile gun platforms, rolling them down the corridors and putting them in the middle of the shield wall. We’re pushing back the Maraukians at an amazing pace. Most ammunition is being turned over to external support, which is all online and actively pummeling the Maraukian swarm in front of the gates. The Bellona, Badgers, and four cohorts of legionnaires are dug into the Galesk riverbank.” Taleel queried his NIAI to ensure he had not forgotten anything. “That about sums it up, my king.”

  “Looks like the legion have come once again to whisk our arses out of the damned fire by the Gods.” Hael snorted.

  “They do have a knack for it. I forgot to inform you it is your daughter and Chyna Taleel who were deployed with the reinforcements.”

  “Okay, well, if my daughter and your father are with them, we can be rest assured we’ll be free of the Maraukians in our corridors soon. Get everyone rested and I want engineers ready to fix these corridors as soon as possible. We’ll get these Maraukian bastards the hell out of our city,” High King Desialias said with finality. He looked around to the command group, all armored and sitting on whatever they could find, tired and strung out from weeks of fighting.

  “After you get those guns moving, I want you all on the schedule for rest. Don’t want you making stupid decisions because you’re sleep fucked,” Hael said in a commanding tone.

  “Yes, my king.” Commander Froleck Taleel gave a faint smile and a small nod as his king put his helmet back on.

  “Me, on the other hand—I’ll have a little walk around, and I’ve got these guys here to watch my back so I’ll be safe.” He gestured to his royal guard, even now undoubtedly scanning the area from within their helmets, their weapons ready for any threat.

  Hael grinned once his helmet was on. The command team had good intentions but Hael would take fighting in the frontlines over controlling from the rear any day. He knew many of them felt the same but he was still their king and they were protective.

  Hael’s royal guard was filled with the finest warriors of Crisidium. Whether they had to be pulled from the far reaches of Tricticus or from the darkest jails, they were all loyal to their warrior king. All of them were sworn to the city and it was time they did something about helping out those on the frontlines again.

  He did the rounds as his NIAI alerted him that the Death Dealers the unit his daughter was in had one of their contuberniums pushing the Maraukians into the main wall confines. He checked the schematic for the wall as he could see the legionnaires advancing steadily through the corridors, helped by everything that hindered the Maraukians. As much as it was strange, the NIAI was useful in certain situations, he allowed as he followed a bouncing ball.

  Engineers were already rushing up with armorite processors to fix the damage done to the corridors and patch the wall if they were able to.

  It sucks to be king sometimes. All he wanted to do was to rush down the corridors and put his own men and himself at the contubernium’s disposal to hold the wall and alleviate some of the pressure.

  Instead, he continued walking through the med bays, careful not to get in the way as he tried to give a helpful word or a comfort to those left out of the battle. Many of the trained high-level medical morph users were too drained to use the nanite tanks except for the deadliest wounds. Otherwise, biogel and bandages were doing the trick.

  So much death and pain had fallen upon his people; it pulled at his heart as he saw all of the wounded. Any fatigue he felt disappeared as he kept moving and seeing to his peoples morale and welfare. It was his job to protect them and he’d be damned if he was going to do anything but his all to do so.

  ***

  Mark had used his nanites to bond the shields, creating a wall stronger than a destroyer’s. Dominik and Xers had taken over rotating through groups who would fire through the shields’ firing ports; the rest sat, ready to counterattack. The largest concern was keeping the heavy rail gun in the center of the shield wall resupplied with ammunition and stopping the Maraukians from hacking it apart or melting it into slag.

  Mark had two silver lines running from his power plant to other suits, bringing whoever was connected into green levels.

  The third contubernium of the Ape Killers announced their arrival to the corridor entrance that ran parallel into the same main wall. “Felt like joining the party,” Ivan Epaphras, commander of the third contubernium, said to Mark.

  Mark opened up a general net between the two contuberniums. “So happy you could come. Just enjoying the view. It’s like a regular picnic.”

  “Well, we forgot the beer and sandwiches.”

  “You come late and you don’t even have the essentials? We’re going to have to talk about taking picnics in someone else’s hallway one-on-one when we get back. Can’t have a fellow optio forgetting the basics now.”

  “Well, I believe there’s a despicable lack of beer, even for people of our standing, but I think I can get some people to rustle up some sandwiches.”

  “Might as well send mine—don’t want you to bring back density blocks swearing they’re ration bars.”

  “I’d never,” Epaphras admonished Mark, as if he would ever think such a thing—to the laughs of both contuberniums, who knew of Ivan’s infamous pranks.

  There was a cross corridor that Mark got central command to open. Ammunition passed between the two groups and Mark was able to seal the shield wall to the actual walls with nanites and charge anyone running low.

  The cross corridor was a massive slab of one foot of carbon hendral and a further twenty feet of armorite that retracted into the ceiling but when dropped, looked indistinguishable from the wall.

  Mark sat along the wall. His nanite layer formed a tube he ate from; unlike the rations, which were a disgusting undistinguishable paste, he was having steak, potatoes, and gravy. Other people might be disgusted where the food came from, seeing as the suit recycled everything, from sweat and unwanted hair to any other excess waste he produced. It was all broken down and then reassembled into tasty food and drinkable water.

  You wouldn’t think the legionnaires were at war the way they sat around joking about some trivial matter you’d expect to hear in a barracks. Mark checked in with Ivan and the command group every hour, otherwise talking with the legionnaires and getting to know them.

  It was stra
nge as the Maraukians were unlike any enemy he’d faced. They kept coming through the breach nearly continuously. Any human force would’ve stopped by now or pulled back to fire heavy weapons through the breach before trying to take it. The constant loss of herd commanders by legionnaire sharpshooters in the dried riverbed meant any kind of controlled push was usually dead before it began.

  Mark and Ivan’s food bearers returned and handed out the Crisidium rations of some kind of meat and vegetables and a green type of bread.

  “BREACH!”

  Alerts flashed across his HUD. Sarah showed him the green dots of legionnaires turn into a sea of red as a contubernium was cut apart and pulled back through the corridor as they pulled themselves into some kind of semblance of order. The nearest herd commanders were already moving toward the new breach, opening it rapidly with vibro-blades.

  Mark looked at the distances on the map. “Mark Victor requesting to be part of support. Dominik will take over command of my contubernium,” he said over his command network to Michales.

  “There’s nothing we can do, Mark,” Michales said, pain in his voice as he watched.

  “They’re alive, aren’t they?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then there’s everything to do.”

  Michales let out a breath in a hiss. “Do what you can.”

  “Dominik?” Mark asked, making sure he’d gotten all of it.

  “I heard, boss. I’ll hold the fort. Good luck.”

  Mark was up and moving before Dominik had finished. He disengaged merging locks and his armor prepared for him to merge. He closed his eyes, feeling his hot breaths as he accelerated and sprinted at a hundred and eighty down his corridor.

  Battle chemicals released and Mark’s breath seemed cold against their lips as Mark left his body behind and they became the Pluto-powered armor. Power rushed through every nanite, every inch of carbon hendral as they threw themselves into the air. Anti-grav systems worked seamlessly as they accelerated more and more.

  They let out a murderous howl that shook the buildings of Crisidium as they passed. They were awake, they were merged and today they would do what they did best: kill the enemy.

  ***

  “Shields, front! Shoot as you move into position!” Dodger yelled as confused and scared legionnaires were given direction and fell into place.

  “I need those reinforcements now!” Dodger’s NIAI Alicia faithfully relayed through the command channels. Anyone close to them had their hands full; she knew it was probably futile but NIAI or not, she was going to do everything to keep herself and Dodger alive. Sensor readings picked up an anomaly, immediately getting her attention.

  “One incoming suit. Can’t access information. It’s a minute out.”

  One man? There’s no way. Unless… He pulled up the map as he watched the suit going through corridors adjacent to Dodger at speeds of three hundred kilometers an hour.

  “What the hell does he think he’s doing?” he said in his suit as he realized it. “Get me a channel to him!” The comm to Mark connected. “This isn’t time for heroics, Mark.”

  “No, it’s time for superior firepower, though.” Mark’s voice came through the channel in a blur as Dodger recognized the super-speeded communication. Even the step-down program was having a hard time compensating.

  Dodger cringed in pain at the volume as he wondered what the hell the maniac was up to now. Hope filled him as he lifted his M19. “Give them hell, boys and girls!” Dodger roared. He’d take as many as he could with him. He’d have an honor guard waiting for him in Valhalla yet.

  ***

  “MARK! GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!” Dodger hoped the other man didn’t listen to him but wished he wasn’t going to just commit suicide for nothing. Dodger was a veteran and he knew he was going to die.

  “No can do, Optio. Get behind the next blast door when I give the signal.”

  “What signal?” Dodger winced. Mark needed to work on the step-down program. God, it hurt his head.

  “You’ll see.”

  Dodger couldn’t explain it but he could feel the humor behind the words instead of the emotionless words of talking over the net. “I will not have you being an honor guard for me and my legionnaires.”

  “Honor guard? I don’t wish to die today, Dodger.”

  Mark’s icon stood behind the final door of a nearby corridor which entered the same section. Dodger heard a whisper through the door and above the Maraukians grunts and fire.

  The door opened before Mark as he opened fire. M20s turned muscle and bone into blue mist. The rounds hit with so much force the Maraukians turned into hydrostatic bombs.

  Mark advanced, taking a knee so his suit could grip the floor and not blow him back as he fired.

  Alicia showed Dodger the withdrawal plan open on his HUD. Shaking his head, he grinned ferally inside his helmet. There was a time and place for retreating.

  “All right, boys and girls, that is Mark Victor, one of our own. Now, I ask those of you who would wish to retreat to do so now. The rest, we’re going to take back this wall and show these fucking Maraukians what happens when you pound on OUR door. Any of those not with me, step back. I won’t…”

  The entire shield wall moved forward as one, the rear gunners reloading. Pride filled Dodger as new energy filled him.

  “Let’s show the Maraukians what the Ape Killers name stands for! Second rank, fire! Third, reload. I want a continuous stream of rounds, as one. For-ward!” Again, like a well-oiled machine, the shield wall advanced as eons ago their forefathers had against every enemy on Earth with devastating effect.

  “Huh!” the legionnaires said as their shields slapped the ground. The second covered their heads as the third rank fired over them with their M19s.

  “Forward!”

  “Huh!”

  “Blades!” Dodger said.

  Blades rang free in the first rank.

  “Forward!”

  “Huh!” The shield wall hit Maraukians. Blades were shoved out, cutting into Maraukians’ softer lower limbs, they twisted and then pulled back.

  “Forward!” Dodger yelled.

  “Huh!” Again, they pushed forward, blades sinking into Maraukian flesh. The second rank killed any Maraukian they’d stepped over.

  They were beyond tired, beyond fatigued. They weren’t human anymore. They weren’t individuals. They were a machine. Blades flashed, rail guns cracked and shields slammed together as they advanced.

  Their suits were covered in blue gore as they stomped over the bodies, always advancing. Here and there, a legionnaire went down. Without an order, the second rank flowed into their position and a person in the third rank replaced them.

  Dodger replaced a man on the shield wall, advancing and covering the men and women behind him and to either side who did the same for him without thinking.

  Mark spewed rounds. Gray light connected him to the Maraukians. He was holding back the tide, but Dodger sensed he couldn’t keep it up for long.

  “Forward!”

  “Huh!” The legionnaires, his legionnaires, pushed forward as one entity.

  Dodger and the Ape Killers cleared the hall; the second line again making sure any Maraukians that fell stayed down.

  “Turn and drive into them on the left; drive them out of the hole they came in. I’ll hold up fire on the right.” Mark’s voice sounded unnaturally calm as it cut through the chaos inside Dodger’s head.

  “Shift left. Right side, cover the flank. Ready.” Dodger paused, drinking from his water tubes. “Shhh-ift!” The entire formation turned; the right collapsed so they faced sideways instead of forward. Blades continued to cut into Maraukians, trusting Dodger knew what he was doing.

  “Forward!”

  “Huh!” They advanced. And started to push the Maraukians back.

  “The gods,” Dodger whispered in his helmet.

  Mark knelt behind a pile of bodies that would’ve come up to a normal man’s chest. His forearm-mounted guns were rock stead
y even as they spat light at the Maraukian lines, dissolving the chaotic Maraukian mass now.

  The gunners in the shield wall picked off the herd commanders every so often, making their herd confused and looking around as if they were lost.

  The fire coming from the wall was too much for the other commanders to know which one had done it. They sprayed wildly with their coilgun and plasma guns mounted to their backs as they tried to run through the gap that was being pushed from the other side by other Maraukians.

  Systematically, the shield wall moved forward, laying into the Maraukians as Mark cut them down as if a hose against toothpicks. The Maraukians still pushed. Soaking up their dead, they forged ahead to meet their own deaths.

  Dodger lost all sense of time as he ordered his legionnaires forward. Changing his formations. Switching out the frontline with the second line, who were tired beyond thought. Always, constantly pushing forward. Throwing fresh bodies into the grinder and back out just before they collapsed from exhaustion.

  “Armorite processors should be here in a few minutes to repair the wall. Reinforcements too. Get your men ready for turnover. I’m going to join the wall,” Mark said as Dodger assessed his new surroundings.

  “Yes,” Dodger’s tired mind replied. He breathed and steadied himself. “Reinforcements coming in.”

  He looked as the fresh legionnaires moved and took up his third and fourth lines. Mark moved and fired so he was behind the shield wall.

  “First and second rank, push!”

  The shield wall pushed against the Maraukians. Their blades came out, but they didn’t step forward.

  “Switch!”

  First and second rank stepped backward and turned sideways. Third and fourth rank flowed between them in one seamless movement. The new first and second rank’s shields snapped into place before the Maraukians pressed the attack.

  “Forward!” Dodger said.

  “Huh!” The wall moved once again, as if nothing had happened.