Earth Song: Etude to War

by Mark Wandrey

  * * *

  This is not a good idea, Minu thought as she rode in darkness. All through her Chosen career she'd never feared against long odds. But this felt like borderline insanity. There were too many factors, too many unknowns, and she knew too little of what she was attempting. The only thing she was certain of was that if she didn't act immediately, Gregg's division was in danger of being completely wiped out.

  Going against the shambling mounds was not something she looked forward to. Was humanity going to be forced to battle all the higher order species one after another? There weren’t many left.

  “We're set, mother,” Lilith whispered through the implant.

  “So are we,” Minu replied, then shifted to an audio radio frequency. “You're up, honey.”

  “I'm on the record as considering this reckless at best,” her husband spoke to her. The stress was evident in his voice. Minu did her best to not let it show in her own.

  “Noted. Now please proceed.”

  * * *

  The Leesa platoon leader watched through a virtual battlefield as the human lines firmed up. The intel provided by the Mok-Tok spoke of the hominids’ tactic of taking large losses to rescue compromised units. It was a ludicrous tactic against all standard conventions of war as dictated by ancient and tried Concordian teachings. Losses were to be expected in war. Why would you commit additional resources to rescue a unit that was lost anyway?

  Using this weakness, the current strategy had been launched by his platoon. They'd isolated and cut off two squads of human warriors and were pounding them with heavy ballistic weapons. The enemy was holding with their shields and forcefields, for now.

  The platoon leader and two others nearby were putting just enough force into their attack to make it appear as if the human squads were about to be overrun. Intel had just shown reinforcements on the way to help the trapped unit. At least a company in strength, they would arrive in minutes.

  The Leesa hissed in anticipation. An entire battalion of his troops were secreted nearby. They'd moved into place over hours using abandoned underground transport and sewage tubes. A slaughter was in the offing.

  Suddenly the humans stopped returning fire. Imaging showed they were diving under cover, hiding as best they could in the two blocks of partially demolished warehouses that was their defensive point. They must be low on ammo or power, the platoon leader thought and quickly sent the intel up the chain of command.

  The higher command concurred and the attack was moved up. With coordination borne of long practice, a thousand Leesa emerged from cover with a hissing scream and rushed towards the hapless hominids… and died.

  The sky lit with a series of blinding strikes linking the heavens to the ground. Where the light touched, everything ceased to exist and thousands of tons of debris were catapulted into the sky with deafening roars. It all took less than five seconds. Five seconds to decimate an entire battalion of warriors.

  The platoon leader stood with his jaw hanging in utter horror at the tableau. Until a sensor hundreds of kilometers above noted his CP, and another lance of light reached out.

  All across the landscape of the city beams of anti-matter charged particles lanced from orbit, each impact yielding nearly two kilotons of force. Targets were pinpoint and carefully chosen.

  Large concentrations of enemy troops, heavy equipment, and two platoons of Mok-Tok tanks unlucky enough to have just emerged from an underground avenue. were all obliterated within seconds of each other..

  The hairy Mok-Toks, masters of starships themselves, quickly realized the dire threat and withdrew from orbital observation. Some were still hit by coordinates called in by Ranger and Chosen forward observers.

  The unfortunate Leesa had no idea why or how they were dying. Units that had been unobserved broke cover and attempted to flee behind the Mok-Tok line, only to become targets in seconds. The moment the orbital bombardment ceased, the shuttles came screaming in.

  The four needle shaped shuttles lanced through the upper atmosphere at Mach 20, dropping to under five thousand meters then employing their powerful gravitic drives to break at hundreds of Gs more than any other craft would be capable of.

  Still traveling three times the speed of sound, they streaked across the city raining death in crisscrossed patterns of energy weapons. The craft were controlled by an augmented mind many times more powerful than any biological pilot.

  Before the Mok-Tok and Leesa realized that the nature of their deaths had changed, the shuttles were executing wide hypersonic turns and coming back for another pass. The fifth shuttle went almost unnoticed.

  * * *

  “Time on target,” Aaron called out, “five… four… three… two… one… hack!”

  Minu braced herself against… nothing. She didn't even feel a shudder as she was dropped from the bottom of the Phoenix shuttle piloted by her husband at better than Mach 5. Encased in a dualloy shell, she possessed only what senses were imparted into the projector over her left eye from the tablet at her waist linked into the virtual battlefield.

  A dozen dualloy shells were shed from the Phoenix as it executed its parabolic arc across the battlefield two kilometers high before angling back to low orbit.

  Minu bit her lip and gave her faith to the engineering that went into the pod she was inside. A design mined from the depths of the Lost computer database aboard the Kaatan. A design created by engineers who had been long dead before her species learned to harness fire.

  At one-kilometer altitude flaps opened around the outside of the shell, biting hard into the air to somewhat slow and stabilize the shell. The flaps tore away after just five seconds, as designed, spinning away to create a cloud of chaff around the shell.

  Air friction brought it to just below Mach 2, then when it was only two hundred meters above the ground, the gravitic brakes kicked in.

  Despite the compensators and strapping Minu cried out as she was slammed against the padded restraints that didn’t quite fit perfectly. The brakes burned out, dropping the shell below the speed of sound, and then the shell slammed into the ground at nearly four hundred kilometers per hour.

  Minu shook her head as the aftereffects of the stasis field wore off. It had only functioned for a half second, during the actual impact with the ground as the shell crumpled to absorb the massive forces involved.

  She didn’t want to think about what would have happened to her if the field hadn’t worked at precisely the correct moment. The last function of the shell was to verify she was awake and alert, and then explode.

  Aaron had dropped the twelve shells right across the heaviest concentration of enemy troops near the portal spire. The Mok-Tok watched the shells scream in to slam into the ground without reacting, but the Leesa didn’t know what to make of the phenomenon. The first eight shells landed a few seconds before the last four, of which one contained Minu.

  When the first one crashed in, a curious squad of Leesa soldiers raced over to investigate. Ten seconds after impact, the shells exploded.

  Two kilos of high order explosives killed everything within dozens of meters and injured scores more from flying debris. The Mok-Tok watched on.

  As soon as the shell around Minu blew outward she was instantly alert. It only took a couple seconds for high velocity projectiles to flash off her forcefields and remind her she was definitely in a combat zone. She lumbered free of the framework of the drop shell and stood upright for the first time. “Update virtual battlefield,” she ordered and the small AI went to work, synching with her three fellows who’d just been inserted into the midst of hell.

  “Cherise, Kal’at, See’ta, report.”

  “That was fucking insane,” Cherise said, her voice shaking, “but I’m okay and ready.”

  “An intense ride,” Kal’at spoke, “I am ready too.”

  “As am I,” See’ta spoke, the leader of the Rasa military squad. “Let us do this.”

  Minu nodded as more rounds bounced off her shield and an energy beam sen
t swirls before her eyes. “Let’s see what these things can do!”

  Chapter 41

  May 9th, 534 AE

  Planet K, Contested Territory, Galactic Frontier

  The Leesa light armored combat vehicle rolled on its six wheels around the corner of a partially collapsed distribution center in response to a squad calling for fire support. They reported that one of the bombs dropped by the shuttle minutes ago had landed without detonating. They were taking pot shots at it but nothing had happened and they were now worried it would go off unexpectedly.

  The driver watched the screen through lidless eyes as they came around the corner, confident that his vehicle could resist most attacks long enough to withdraw to safety. The bombs might be dangerous to unsupported infantry, but he had a centimeter of dualloy and an active shield between himself and any threats. Yes, there was the downed bomb, its metallic casing badly crumpled. He just began to swing his main weapon around when it exploded.

  The driver winced and then looked with curiosity. The detonation was small. Much smaller than the others he’d gotten reports on. More curious was that a framework was left behind, and it was moving.

  “Oh no,” he hissed as that framework shifted and stood up on two powerful legs. “Combat suit!” he yelled over the radio and fired his main weapon.

  The shot was not properly aimed and the heavy accelerator round winged off the edge of the suit’s defenses. It responded instantly, side stepping the follow up shot which missed entirely and raising an arm to point right at the vehicle. There was a blinding flash.

  The squad that had summoned the combat vehicle watched in horror as the combat suit fired a trio of arm mounted energy weapons, obliterating the armored craft with one salvo. A moment later one of the squad’s heavy weapons crews fired a beamcaster which drew a red line across the suit’s defensive shields. It spun around and began spraying the squad with hypervelocity slugs.

  Minu marveled at the combat suit operating around her. She was strapped into the machine, arms and legs held within its interior so she could not move, yet by just ‘trying’ to move an arm or a leg, the machine responded as if it was an extension of her body. The hectic hours configuring the suits en route to Planet K was paying off. They worked flawlessly.

  Armed with beamcasters, lasers, miniature bomb launchers and a trio of hypervelocity cannon similar to what the Rasa preferred, she felt like some avenging angel from the myths she’d read about as a child, striding across the battlefield completely invulnerable. That was when another combat suit slammed into her from behind like a freight train.

  “Damn it!” she barked and was catapulted into a ceramic concrete wall with enough force to shatter it and send her sprawling through the other side.

  “Head and torso glacis armor damaged,” reported the suit AI in her ear, “reduction of efficiency by five percent.”

  “Thanks,” she replied and shook her head to clear the cobwebs. Now that she was grounded, the powerful gravitic compensators no longer functioned. She was just a mortal woman wrapped in a thousand kilos of dualloy, moliplas, and super hi-tech ceramics.

  She rolled in the debris of the building she’d been shoved into and raised a hand just as the distinctive three legged Mok-Tok combat suit began to barrel in after her.

  She triggered all three of the beamcasters in volley fire mode and the enemy suit fell back behind the wall for cover, its shields flashing momentarily.

  Minu rolled the suit back onto its feet and backed against the far wall of the space she found herself in, which might once have been an engineering building of some sort.

  The Mok-Tok tossed a trio of bombs around the corner and she unconsciously threw up her hands to protect her face as they detonated, tearing the wall apart behind her and once more sending her flying. She fell off balance backwards, sprawling painfully into a street.

  “This is klothshit,” she snarled as the Mok-Tok came scrambling through the hole after her. She triggered the jump-jets, rocketing upwards as the enemy suit swiped a clawed hand and just missed her legs. “I don’t know what these things are capable of,” she complained silently.

  Pointing down with both arms she unleashed several bursts of beamcaster fire. The Mok-Tok rolled with startling grace as a pair of her shots hit it, before returning fire where she hovered, an easy target.

  “Danger, excessive incoming fire!”

  “You don’t say,” she growled and fought to make the flight system respond to her wishes. She finally succeeded in flying backwards over a rooftop and out of the line of fire. She was temporarily safe, but this entire dance was defeating the purpose of her deployment here. She activated the radio. “How is everyone doing?”

  “Making progress,” Cherise reported.

  “Same here,” Kal’at agreed, as did his man See’ta.

  “Any enemy suits?”

  “I had one,” Cherise told her. Minu’s adversary scrambled up the side of a building like a Traaga and recommenced spraying her with energy weapons. She spat and spun away from the fire.

  “How the hell did you deal with it?”

  “With as much unarmed combat training as we’ve had? Please, it was easy.”

  Minu clamped her jaws together and silently berated herself. The combat suit was much more than a weapons system; it made the operator superhuman. Her Mok-Tok adversary hadn’t been trying to use weapons and gimmicks to defeat her, he’d been was using them to corner her and try to grapple. His suit was larger and likely more powerful. Minu’s was better armed and faster.

  She also knew these machines were largely not manufactured anywhere in the Concordia any more, while hers was new and never seen combat.

  She landed in the center of the building’s roof she’d used for cover and waited. It only took a moment for the Mok-Tok suit to clear the roofline and flip onto the top.

  A pair of beamcaster bolts lanced out at Minu as she danced sideways and leaned forward. Highly compact and powerful motors drove her mechanical legs in a small hop and dug dualloy sharpened traction aides on her armored feet into the roof to accelerate with inhuman speed.

  She closed in a second, running low and arms pumping. The Mok-Tok combat suit, mainly a squat torso with three long arms ending in three claws and a pair of short manipulators underneath the tri, scuttled at her like a crab. It fired twice more as it rushed; she sidestepped one of the shots and the other glanced off her shields just over the left shoulder.

  At the last second she slid like a runner going in for a baseball plate, flat on the ground with the pieces of roofing flying like dust. The Mok-Tok suit tried to arrest its forward momentum and failed as Minu snagged its forward leg and jerked. Her own momentum pulled it under with her and the enemy suit flipped up and over her, crashing to the roof with a boom.

  One of its clawed arms flailed at her, sending sparks flying from her armored chest. Minu flipped and simultaneously batted the arm aside. Now astride the combat suit, she formed a knife edge with one hand and drove it straight into the underside of the suit, right over where she assumed the operator would be situated. The armor crunched and parted, her thrust driving straight through and into something soft. She made a fist and pulled back a huge handful of gore. The Mok-Tok suit jerked spasmodically once, and was still.

  “You doing okay?” Cherise asked, and Minu turned her suit’s head to see her armored friend standing on the edge of the roof.

  “Sure,” Minu replied and flicked gore from her hand. “All in a day’s work.”

  * * *

  “Kal’at, See’ta, link up. These suits work better in teams.” Minu nodded as she joined Cherise, her suit head mimicking the gesture. They did look a little like chaos-era knights in armor with these things. The proportions were a little wrong though. The arms were longer than they should be and the torso somewhat too compact; a legacy of the Lost who’d used them. She found it a minor hindrance in combat at the worst, and the longer arms a benefit. “We can’t really afford to lose any of you, or those su
its.”

  They both replied affirmatively and Minu synched up her virtual battle field to verify their location. Less than a kilometer remained to the portal spire. She turned and verified visually, even though it was really cameras she was looking through.

  The inside of the driving compartment head area was painted with active display making it almost like she was standing outside, unprotected. At first it was disconcerting. She was getting used to it.

  “Fighters,” Cherise warned and Minu pegged it on her own display. As one they both turned as a trio of Mok-Tok fighters screamed in over the horizon, no doubt scanning the battlefield for the threat that was taking out their combat suits.

  “Splash them,” Minu said and raised an arm. The computer AI in her suit took over at her command, used a laser rangefinder to compute the distance and target velocity. Her suit linked with Cherise’s suit, and they both fired at the same time.

  Three kilometers away two of the fighters were washed with three beamcasters each over and over. Caught by surprise only one of the two quickly evaded, its shields mostly depleted. The other one’s capacitors overloaded and the ship exploded into a fireball.

  Again the suit AIs communicated and worked together, both firing on the injured fighter. The third and undamaged craft tried to cover for its wingmate. The suits were too accurate and a second fighter bloomed into a fireball. The last one retreated at Mach 2 with several beams chasing it.

  “These suits are almost like a video game,” Cherise commented.

  “Some game,” Minu said as she glanced at her suit’s right arm, dripping blood to the elbow.

  “Gregg, this is Minu.”

  “Online, boss.”

  “We’re almost in position. You ready?”

  “Second and Third Bats are mounted up and ready to go.”

  “And your First Bat?”

  “We’re covering the retreat. Don’t try to argue with me, we both wear two stars. I’m in charge of the Rangers and I’m not turning my back on these shambling mounds to let them chew us up from behind.”