“Captain,” began Jane, “do you think the jamming signal is planetside?”
“It is pretty damn strong, isn’t it? It didn’t even lose strength when we went out of the city, which implies an orbital origin. I thought there might be multiple sources, but then it wouldn’t be so clean. Getting rid of the jammer would give us a better chance, but there’s no way to know where it’s coming from. If it is planetside, then someone will at least find its source and let us know. Until then, let’s not focus on what we can’t control.”
The shuttle headed away from the center of the city, where most of the ships and fight was concentrated in. If even a single fighter decided to make the shuttle its target, they would have little hope of out running or out gunning it. The militia did have a handful of frigates and fighters, but the jammer would make mobilization difficult. The citizens were at least reacting quickly. Jane was glad to see that few were still on the streets, and she knew from her earlier work that the city was well organized and had plenty of shelters underneath most government buildings and skyscrapers.
Knowing that the main shelter entrances were guarded by the bulk of the militia, the captain had the shuttle head for a large, but secondary entrance he knew to be under a walkway. The hope was that the elevated footpath would give them some much needed overhead cover. The shuttle successfully zipped behind buildings to keep out of sight, eventually parking itself beneath the wide walkway it sought in the middle of the block. They joined thirty-five other defenders in the area, mostly consisting of fellow soldiers, the highest ranking of which was another captain. Lance’s seniority essentially made him the commanding officer of the group. There were also some armed citizens. Supporting them were a couple of fifteen foot tall mechs being piloted within by a soldier, who could just be seen behind a sliver of transparency used in the event their HUD became inoperative. The shuttle parked on the opposite side of the large blast doors that led into the skyscraper’s expansive first floor, which were still open to permit stragglers. The captain ordered the corporal to stay inside the shuttle and use the remote controls and cameras to operate the machine gun mounted on the roof. The sergeant was told to link his skills with a few snipers nestled throughout the block’s high-rises. More comfortable with their own kind, the militia members joined up with their own factions.
The pirate attack did not reach the streets just yet. While she defined it as a pirate attack, Jane knew that one of this size would have many kinds of degenerates involved. The least worried about were scavengers who were only interested in finding expensive technology they could sell. More terrible than the pirates, who mostly threatened their victims with death if they did not transfer their credits, were the slavers. These scum of the galaxy simply abducted people to sell to sex rings, cheap labor for pirate gangs, or, worse of all, to Depraved cults. That a Depraved cult was also associated with the attack wasn’t out of the question, but even the foulest of pirates rarely worked directly with them. One of the sure fire ways a criminal syndicate could incur the wrathful attention of the military was for it to be a known partner of a blasphemous sect.
For the next hour Jane and the others only occasionally left the cover of the walkway to take some shots at some passing fighters with their heavy weaponry, but most of the combat was regulated above and away from them. Nonetheless, their snipers ultimately updated that the air battle was subsiding. They saw more and more frigates able to drop off their ground forces to begin the process of stealing whatever they saw fit. One of the main goal of the enemy would be to infiltrate the subterranean world and force the populace to transfer all their credits to them or face death or abduction. Though most of the shelter entrances could be locked to buy some time, it was little defense against an army of torches and explosives.
Combined with the fact they were not seeing any more people in the streets, most began pulling back behind the blast doors, including Jane and the snipers. The spacious first floor of the building was lined with closed specialty shops and a few restaurants. According to the digital map being displayed at the corner of her HUD, the first four basement floors were filled with either apartments or more shops. The deepest of these levels could be reached using the elevators, but to prevent easy access by invaders, the lifts did not reach the shelter itself. The elevators could also be locked, but if an enemy could get past the main blast doors, this precaution would not present any real trouble at all. The walls and ceiling of the first floor were reinforced by hyper-steel and dense concrete, so the weapons of their foes would have just as much trouble reaching them from above as from the flanks.
The sunny day soon revealed the first wave of pirates turning the block’s corner. It was a small scouting wave and the shuttle’s machine gun and the mechs made short work of them. If there was one good thing about the jammer, it was Jane thinking the pirates couldn’t likely bypass the prevailing hindrance themselves, or she would definitely be worried about the pirates receiving fast and effective air support. Still, someone would notice the scouting party wasn’t reporting in and would track down the problem in due course.
Sure enough, larger waves of the enemy made themselves known less than ten minutes later, and these came more prepared. The shuttle and mechs handled most of the malevolent arrivals, but one of the criminals shot a flare into the sky. Seconds later and a fighter strafed their part of the street with its central rail cannon and a few thousand slugs from its machine gun, blasting a good part of the walkway and taking out a soldier. One of the mechs was able to fire a couple of heat-seeking RPGs at the airborne attacker, one of which was able to impact a wing, though it did not bring it down.
Another enemy unit reinforced the last wave with two mechs of their own. The titans of metal traded explosive blows with their heavy caliber slugs and short-range missiles. The better training of their pilots, their larger stature, and the backup it received from the shuttle’s gun helped to shred through the inferior mechs within a minute of their garish appearance, but they were replaced by another mech and another fighter from the air. Wanting to keep the biggest punches intact for as long as possible, the captain ordered for the shuttle and mechs to pull back behind the blast doors and for them to be locked, which would activate the external shield. By the time his orders were carried out, the shuttle’s shield had ruptured to allow a few direct hits on one of its engines. They estimated that if those on the other side of the blast doors committed their horde of munitions on them, then they had a maximum of half an hour before they broke through.
As they worked to create cover forty yards from the blast doors and just in front of the elevators and stairs that led to the lower levels, the lack of exterior thumps on the doors meant they were being given some extra time. Jane figured they were concentrating on the primary shelters for now. They used emergency barricades of hyper-steel stockpiled near the shelter to make a defensive line at this level and the last. There were also some human-sized, mobile kinetic generators placed in front of the barricades. In addition to the inorganic battlements, they were able to call upon a handful of volunteers from the shelters and equip them with spare armor and weapons, though these men and women were not to involve themselves unless absolutely necessary.
After the first hour of preparation went by quickly, the following ones dragged on. The mechs and shuttle were worked on by the best of the mechanics, but Jane wasn’t one of them. All she could do was remain on alert. As was the case for most of her coworkers throughout the ages of war, it was the waiting before the battle that messed with you.
There was finally some sense that time existed when the first of a series of reverberating thumps hit the external shield. Everyone had largely been quiet before, but now it was if no one was even in the building with her. She was near the middle of the defensive line of barriers, which was bookended by the mechs. In front and in the middle of the line was the forward facing shuttle. At the ten minute mark, the shield gave out completely and consistent metallic bangs began to tremble the doors an
d walls. Ten minutes after that and their side of the doors began to dent and crack. The captain ordered for most of the lights to be turned off, leaving on only a handful of soft recessed bulbs in the ceiling. A particularly loud detonation combined two of the most prevalent cracks and formed an actual opening for a stream of daylight to shine through. Black smoke also used the opening to invade their domain.
The doors were now flexing and pieces were blowing off the frame. A hole was made. Everyone raised their respective weapons. The hole was made larger with the aid of what appeared to be a fighter’s cannon. When the gap was large enough to allow a large mech to enter, there was a sudden hush that befell on the world. The brief stillness was shattered by two pirates peeking around the hole and firing their over the shoulder RPGs. One of these rockets hit the shuttle head on, but all of its shield’s strength was focused on its front side and was able to deflect the ordnance. To Jane, it felt like every trigger in the world was pulled at the same time. Some small, hovering drones attempted to provide cover fire for a few infiltrating pirates, who were then supported by a twelve foot mech. When the mech came through, the captain dropped the mines that had been set up on the twenty foot high ceiling. They dropped and detonated on the mech and near a few of the fish-shaped drones. The shuttle’s gun next put the enemy mech permanently out-of-order.
For the next half hour their foes held a pattern of sending a wave of drones and proceeded that by attempting to infiltrate the building with heavier weapons carried by pirate or mech. Each wave was repelled, but the cost in ammo and spent energy was greater each time. In truth, if the other defenders were as well as entrenched as her own unit was, Jane knew they could continue deterring the enemy almost indefinitely if they had an endless supply of ammunition. However, even with some stores found in the shelter’s small armory, their overall supply was rapidly dwindling away, particularly the heavy ammo used by the mechs and shuttle.
At one point, their frustrated enemy began focusing on making the hole in the doors bigger. When they were able to make it wider and taller, a fighter began firing its gun and cannon inside the room every so often. When it was able to obtain the right angle for a long enough moment, the fighter’s armaments devastated their barricades. The shuttle was the first to suffer a knockout blow from the cannon, though the corporal was able to make it out unscathed. Seeing their decreasing advantage, the captain ordered a steady withdrawal to the lowest level. The captain had already locked all the elevators and placed mines in them, but knowing that was likely to be easily circumvented, the defenders were forced to skip down all the way to the floor containing the actual shelter entrance. The pilots in the mechs were the last to leave. Before they did so, they set their walking machines to fire the last of their ammo on autopilot, as they could not take the lumbering giants with them. The level they had retreated to had the shelter’s blast doors located on the opposite side of the elevators and stairways, so they positioned their barricades in front of this last, all important entrance and waited under the dim string of lights for the pirates to realize resistance had lessened above.
It wasn’t long before Jane heard the muffled explosions up the elevator shafts. This was followed by the hot hiss of torches creating an opening at the elevator gates. At the same time, she and the others started firing at drones and pirates coming down the stairways. Now without heavy weapons to defend them, more militia members and fellow soldiers started dropping at a faster rate.
Captain Adelson connected his radio to Jane, the corporal, and Sergeant Grissom, telling them, “There’s an unmarked utility door behind me. It’s pressure sensitive. According to the unpublicized layout, it should lead to a single emergency elevator that will take you up to the building across the street. Take it and use it to flank them from behind. We won’t last much longer without fighting them on two fronts. Go now!”
Jane led the procession to the gray wall behind the captain. Only by pushing a lighter section of the wall did the entry reveal itself by sliding open. They went down a narrow hallway that branched out to a few other rooms, but they ignored these and went toward a wall more benign than the other. This access exposed itself when Jane was able to push the right section of the upper wall. Once the elevator took its passengers 120 feet up, its door opened to a small, bare room. The sergeant was successful in pressing the right part of the wall. They stepped out from a disguised pillar into the empty lobby of the building across from the captain’s, left alone due to its official disconnection to any shelter.
Jane peeked around a corner to see the street through the almost completely windowed wall. Between her and the crumbling blast doors were a surprisingly low number of enemies and only a single unpiloted mech in the area. It appeared to her that this group of bandits were on their last legs. After another short elevator ride to the fifth story, the trio took positions behind the walled sections of the expansive window. She and her teammates next opened fire on the twenty-some-odd flesh and mechanical adversaries they could see. Their attack completely threw off the composure the enemy had been exhibiting, making them scatter and counter with inaccurate gunfire. The sergeant used grenades fired from his rifle’s underbarrel to severely debilitate shields while Jane modulated her rifle to fire the largest slugs it could fire to rip open armor. The corporal opted to use her rifle’s rapid-fire ability to speedily shoot as many slugs as possible. These tactics, combined with the ever strategically important higher ground, made short work of most of those located on the street. More pirates revealed themselves from within the original building, which Jane took as a good sign. The more that concentrated on her unit, the less there were to take on the shelter.
Some went for the mech, but Jane and the sergeant focused on making certain no one reached it. The corporal, on the other hand, was instructed to keep anyone from entering their building. The trio was successful on both accounts. The remaining half dozen pirates began to find cover behind the blast doors. Before Jane was able to fell him, however, one of the pirates was able to fire a flare into the sky.
“Shit, we have to find cover deeper inside.”
The last word was barely spoken before a fast moving shadow zipped over the street. The three soldiers backed away from the windows and sneaked behind some marble pillars that were sprinkled throughout the office floor. Not caring that it could no longer see them, the fighter started firing its machine gun at the building a moment later. Not waiting for the pirates to ambush them, Jane led her team back down to the first floor. On reaching it, she found that the pirates were using their air cover to escape, not regroup. A few minutes later and even the fighter moved on.
Unable to reach the captain, Jane said, “Corporal, return to the captain and update him of our situation. If and when he no longer requires assistance, meet us on the seventh floor.”
Except for the sound of distant gunfire and the occasional outburst from explosive and person, their block converted into an almost peaceful sereneness over the next few minutes. As the sergeant and herself were watching the street from their roost, the comparative quietness was progressively substituted by an odd buzzing noise coming from high above them. For Jane, the clamor sounded like a tremendous swarm of bees was plunging onto them. The shadow of the noise maker settled on the street. She and the sergeant kept their backs to their respective corners, hoping not to be spotted by whatever craft was taking an interest in their desolate boulevard.
She initially assumed it was another fighter, but the craft that descended was unlike any ship she had ever seen before. It was larger than a fighter, but still too small and light weight to be considered a frigate. It was more akin to a navy corvette, though their minimal armor, weapons, and shielding normally prevented craft of their size to be actively involved in a battle outside the system or station they were guarding, the implication being that the skies were no longer dangerous enough for it to worry about an attack. Its sleek, ninety foot long frame looked too clean and advanced for the typical pirate. The shape of the int
ensely black ship was a bit like a thin spearhead or leaf, where its broader edges then curved upward to form vertical wingtips. The buzzing was originating from a large circular thruster at the stern, which emitted a soft blue light. She saw no windows anywhere. The ship lowered all the way to the ground.
A moment after landing, a ramp facing the blast doors lowered and out exited a dozen, heavily armored reprobates. They all wore a similar kind of dark purple armor, something the average criminal outfit rarely did. Most pirates simply wore what they could afford to steal or buy, making for a diverse cast of armor styles. Yet this uniformity implied a more daunting enemy, possibly a trained mercenary group, though she knew of none with that particular armor style or ship. As the ten man division jogged toward the blast doors, Jane could also see that most were consciously surrounding a particularly tall figure at the center of the group. Its height told her that the figure and lean form might belong to an eldrick, but the armor and helmet made it impossible to judge for certain.
Then, just as she and the sergeant were about to pull their triggers at the new arrivals, a ramp facing their own building started to open. From this one, a unit of four similarly outfitted individuals came out and dashed for their edifice. The soldiers were unsuccessful in bringing down a single adversary. Their slugs bounced off shields more powerful than any she had encountered yet. In fact, the enemy did not even bother firing back at them, focusing only in entering their fortification. Once the enemy infiltrated the building, the two soldiers rushed toward the marble pillars and separated far enough to allow them to cover as much of the elevators and staircases as possible.
To give them a precious few seconds of preparation more, Jane outstretched a hand and began to freeze the water in the air around all the entries she could see some fifty feet away. She was able to warp a wall of ice a few inches thick by the time one of the elevator doors opened a couple of minutes later. Forced to pause and fire at the ice wall that met him instead of an opponent he could see, Jane was able to use the distraction to line up a perfect shot from her rifle’s grenade barrel. As the grenade exploded on this first target, another elevator opened nearer the sergeant. Meanwhile, Jane started firing at her target’s weakened shield, rapidly weakening it to the point the armor was being shredded. Still, her opponent was able to fire back at her with slugs dynamic enough to turn much of the marble pillar to a fine dust. Her own shield was struck a couple of times, the impacts obliging her to take a step back, and she was surprised that this was sufficient to deplete her shield’s strength by almost half. She doubted she had ever faced off against such a well-equipped enemy. In any event, her opponent’s defenses were soon completely broken and a head shot made him drop to the floor, and not a second too soon.
Generations (The Nimbus Collection Book 3) Page 21
