“Once we clear the battery we will support the main attack on the radar station and only then do we go after Archangel. Any questions?”
There were none. All thoughts were on the imminent danger. They had no delusions about their chances, and questions of glory didn’t come into the equation. Would they hold it together? Could they hold it together? Most were trying to summon up their courage from within, even those who had previously professed to be atheists. At that moment Warner recalled the words of a famous WW2 general that went along the lines of ‘there ain’t nothing like an airborne assault to give a man religion’. And while he was not a supporter of religious organisations he was a believer in the divine presence within.
He closed his eyes. Took a deep breath in and exhaled long. He said his mantra. He beseeched his Guru for protection and offered up his actions. He prayed for the courage to do his duty and then he thought of Rihan. He prayed she may be kept safe.
“One minute to objective” called out Parinya on the intercom. “Alain be ready to raise your turret but don’t do so until I say.”
“Roger that.”
They were slowing rapidly now. The air was tearing at the craft and it began to shudder. Warner unstrapped and turned to ensure the others were doing so. Yes they were. He looped his left arm through his backpack. He wouldn’t be able to swing it on fully till he exited. His right hand gripped his rifle.
So far there was no sound of firing, but it was unlikely that they could hear anything other than large calibre stuff. Then he heard something followed by Parinya’s statement “Missiles away. Turret up. Impact in 5, 4, 3, 2, Go!”
Chapter 28. Alpha Phi 1910, 25 April.
Kiralenko was first out hitting the ground ten paces out. The rest of the payload piled out in quick succession. The warthog’s engines were blowing a fierce wind as the shuttle was doing a 180 degree turn. Alain’s cannon was deafening. There was no stop, just a constant railing sound. As the warthog rose it was raked by pulse cannon from their objective. Its armour could handle a pulse cannon. It was the missile launchers that Warner was worried about.
Warner could hear the sounds of battle off to his half right. Mainly small arms stuff. He heard a long burst of pulse fire that told him their quantos were still operating. That was a good sound to hear.
He went thermal and started to stand but was then blown over by the force of the backblast from the warthog as Parinya hit the boosters, some 20 metres above them. It knocked the wind out of him. Sue who was a few metres next to him, thought he had been shot. She crawled and stumbled over to him in the dark, as she had yet to go thermal, but found him breathing hard and she helped him up as best she could.
Warner thanked his lucky stars that the warthog had survived. But now his focus was on the hill ahead. Kiralenko was up and had his two charges, one on either side. He was crouching and looking toward his right.
Trooper Weiss found Warner and Warner pointed to his left. So that’s where he went. Through the green tinge of the thermal imaging he could still see that he was frightened. Fear was etched into his earnest face and he was gripping his rifle like his life depended on it and Dave knew that right now it did.
On his right were Chalker and Grimshaw. Grimshaw was carrying a quanto and he actually looked keen to get going. Warner thought that was encouraging. Grimshaw was a strong, solid young man with a good sense of humour that made him popular amongst his fellow marines.
They were in dead ground to anyone on top of the hill. That was exceedingly beneficial and Warner said a thank you to his Guru. The dead ground had allowed them to deploy and probably saved the warthog.
“Parinya are you OK?” queried Warner.
“Affirmative. We are in dead ground 3 Ks SW of your position.”
“Patch me through to the Hermes.”
“You’re right to go.”
“Hermes this is Golf Delta we are down safe and commencing assault on the battery.”
A very much-relieved Rihan responded “Roger that”. She so dearly wanted to add ‘take care and I love you’ but she knew that would not do.
At that moment a rolling barrage of sound erupted from the unseen hill above Warner. He knew what it would be – the rocket launchers were firing a salvo most probably at the Hermes.
“We have incoming, Out” said Rihan and the connection was terminated.
Up in the Hermes command centre, the big central display had three missile tracks running. Rihan had expected six, one each from the launchers of the battery. But she was grateful for small mercies.
Aubrey seeing that Rihan was still communicating stepped in and responded to Crystal’s detection call “Missiles Engage runners 1 to 3. Default 1 for 1 salvo.”
“Missiles away” called out Crystal. She launched three missiles of their own, pairing them against the enemy missiles. Standard practice was to match 2 for 1 but Aubrey was well aware that they had a limited number of missiles and they were still to engage the enemy corvettes, if they were indeed on the deck.
But she didn’t have to wait long to find out. A new icon appeared on the display, that of an enemy light combat vessel. “Hostile corvette launching, bogey 1” called out Crystal.
“Missiles Engage bogey 1. 2 for 1 salvo” called out Aubrey.
“Missiles away” came the response.
Rihan looked across at Aubrey. She could see that she had things in hand and so she let her continue calling the shots. She would only now intervene if, in her opinion, they needed to go to automatic override. At the moment the detection and assessment processes were fully automated, albeit with manual override. The ship’s sensors would detect entities and their activities, identify them, assess their status, current actions and intentions and declare them as friendly, hostile or other. This involved an enormous amount of processing and the ship’s AI did it in microseconds, far faster than a human brain could.
However being human meant wanting to be in control and so few crew would surrender the right to authorise engagements. It was well accepted that the AI’s engagement protocols were as good if not superior to the average human’s abilities in this area. But humans clung to their belief that their judgement should be paramount. They would only surrender control to the AI when it appeared they would be overwhelmed by numbers. With a honed crew such as on the Hermes they could reasonably expect to cope with an engagement where they were outnumbered in terms of launchers two or even three to one. So it was going to be touch and go as to whether they needed to invoke the automatic override.
Down below on the planet surface, Delta team was on the move over the open ground heading up the hill on which their objective was deployed. To their right somewhere in the dark distance beyond the effective range of Dave’s thermals was another lower hill on which a large building housed the radar station. The smell of earth and grass met his nostrils as Warner kept looking left and right down the line. It was important to make sure they kept in line and he was particularly concerned about Chalker. So far, so good.
They were still in dead ground but soon would be cresting the curve of the hill and then if the enemy had thermals they would most likely come under fire. From then on they would have to fire and move their way to the objective, with one group firing while another moved in a short rush. This was exhausting dangerous work and he wasn’t looking forward to it.
Normally an enemy Surface to Space Missile (SSM) battery would comprise six launchers and about 50 troops, half of which would be devoted to protecting the unit from ground attack while the other half operated the launchers. So that meant they could expect to meet 25 or so ground troops and here they were with just seven. But Warner was banking on them having sent some of these to reinforce the fight raging in the radar station below. That would hopefully even up the odds a bit.
In any event he also expected that their ground defences would be facing towards the radar station now that the battle there was underway. If that were so then his team would be hitting them in their flank and the
y could roll them up and defeat them in detail. Well that was the plan anyway and Warner knew all too well that few plans survive contact with reality.
Just then he heard another salvo being unleashed from the battery overhead.
“Golf Delta we have more incoming from your objective. Please expedite” said Rihan.
“Roger that” puffed Warner as he pumped his legs up the slope. Rihan’s voice sounded more composed and that’s what he liked about his XO. She was cool and calm when it counted.
But things were heating up in the command centre.
“Missiles engage runners 4 to 6” called out Aubrey.
“Missiles away” from Crystal and then” hits on runners 1 and 2, 3’s a miss.”
“Missiles engage runner 3”
“Missile away” and then “Hostile corvette launching, bogey 2”.
“Missiles engage bogey 2, 2 for 1”
“Runners 7 and 8 from bogey 1”
“Missiles engage 7 and 8” called out Aubrey. She was starting to quicken the pace of her voice, a sure sign of stress.
“Runners 7 and 8 have hit missiles 5 and 6.”
“Shit” said Aubrey, albeit still in a fairly measured tone. She was annoyed because she had just wasted two missiles against them, thinking that they were targeting the Hermes, when in fact they were targeting their own missiles. They could not afford another mistake like that.
“Hostile corvette launching, bogey 3” quickly followed by “runners 9 and 10 from bogey 2.”
“Likely target on runners 9 and 10?” Aubrey queried.
“Runners 11 and 12 from bogey 3” called out Crystal.
In exasperation Aubrey raised her voice “Likely target on runners 9 and 10?”
“Hermes” cried out Crystal “and we still have runners 11 and 12” and that was quickly followed by “missile miss on runner 3, again” added Crystal for emphasis. And then “runner 3 impact in less than one”.
Rihan sensed the moment had come “Activating automated engagement protocols”. From then on their fate was in the hand of the AI. Rihan tried to keep up with the changes on the display but they were happening at such a rate. She did note the destruction of bogey 2 and then bogey 1. Everyone noted the firing of the two main 100mm cannon batteries one in the dorsal and another in the ventral turrets. These began thumping out round after round. Everyone knew then that they were danger close.
The cannon batteries had a theoretical maximum range of 200 clicks but against enemy corvettes with their armour protection were really only effective at 30km. Against missiles they could start engaging at 200 kms. But their missiles would be traveling at just on 15km per second (kps), which meant they had just under 13 seconds to destroy the incoming threat. The big 100mm cannon was hard pressed to fire more than 1 round every 5 seconds. As impressive as that might be it didn’t amount to a high hit probability. If they hit, it was curtains for the missile.
Rihan was holding her breath. Then the 30mm auto pulse guns opened up with a railing barrage. The noise was becoming deafening even inside the control tower. These had a relative short effective range against incoming missiles of just over 20kms. So when you heard these you knew you might only have a second left to live.
Rihan looked across at Aubrey but her eyes were glued on the display. She tried to breathe but she couldn’t. She gripped the edge of her terminal, preparing for the impact. ‘I don’t want to die’ she cried out inside ‘not now. I’ve only just started to live’.
But no impact was felt. The relief in the command centre was palpable. Rihan, everyone, was taking in their first breath for some time. Then Crystal cried out “scratch bogey 3” and a moment later “No runners”.
Joy followed relief. A few let out a “yeh” but most remained silent.
“New runners 1 to 3” called out Crystal. That cut the rug out from the few preemptory celebrations and Rihan called out “It’s not over yet.”
The AI had already launched a salvo of its own. Aubrey called out “They’re from the battery” and then to Crystal “Missiles available?”
“Seven” came back the reply.
“Shit” said Rihan. “Golf Delta we need those batteries neutralised now or get out of the way and let us strike. All bogeys down.”
Delta team had crested the hill and come under fire from an enemy pulse gun and what Warner estimated to be four rifles. He had immediately gone to ground and was firing his rifle when Rihan’s call came. He knew that his XO would not have said that unless they were critically short of missiles to counter those from the battery.
“Good work with the bogeys. Am engaged now. Can’t extricate. Will expedite assault.”
Rihan took a deep breath. She had hoped Warner’s team could extricate and then she could destroy the battery with a salvo of their own. ‘Damm’ she thought. “God speed” she said out loud, and then to herself ‘go safely my darling’.
Warner could see that Sue and Grimshaw were bringing the enemy pulse gun under fire. Its rate of fire was slackening. He knew they had to press on fast. “Chalker, pour it into them. Group 1 move.”
Ivan Kiralenko knew this was coming and was dreading it. Now he had to resist that instinct within him that was pleading to stay put. He knew that Chang and Phillips were looking at him. He had been called a traitor already today. He was not going to be called a coward. He jumped up with a surge of adrenalin yelling “Move!”
The enemy fire surged in response but it was too high. Kiralenko’s legs were pumping like they had never before. ‘One, two, three, four’ he counted to himself and then dived down. Oomph, as his arms took the impact. ‘Crawl’ he yelled at himself. He began internally barking out the same instructions he had received in training. ‘Away from the line of march…get into a position to fire…pick a target…aim…hold your breath...fire’. He glanced right and left. Phillips and Chang were also firing. ‘Thank God for that’ he thought. ‘Keep firing’ he reminded himself.
“Group 2 Move” barked Warner. It was his turn now and he charged forward and up the slope. A rifle barked ahead. He heard the sound of air parting on his right but knew they were off by a good two metres. They couldn’t be that well trained these guys thought Warner. ‘Their loss’ he said to himself. He hit the ground, took aim and fired a three round bust at the location from which the enemy had just fired. Missed. Damm. He shifted his aim slightly. Forced himself to maintain a steady breath while he squeezed off another burst. Paydirt. A thud was heard as the enemy was hit. No scream, no other indication that a life had been just taken. Just a cessation of activity. ‘Geez I hope I get the opportunity to let out a scream and tell the world I’m going’…’be careful what you wish for Dave’…’come on’.
He glanced left. Weiss was not there. He looked back. The bugger had dived early and was now two metres behind him. Warner hailed him. “Weiss get your arse up here.” He knew he must be scared but this was no training drill. He couldn’t afford to let him hold back. Every man had to be counted tonight.
Once Weiss had crawled up into line and started firing, Warner ordered “Group 1 move!” Ten more rushes later and they were 50 metres from the enemy line. No casualties so far, which confirmed his view that these were not crack troops. Warner, however, was buggered. His group was down and firing. ‘I’m getting too old for this’ he thought. Chalker and Grimshaw were now some 100m behind. They were keeping up a steady fire against the enemy pulse gun and every now and then Grimshaw would spray across the enemy line as well. That helped keep their heads down. He hadn’t heard the enemy pulse gun for two rushes now. Maybe they had knocked it out or it was redeploying or had run away.
Then he heard two quick explosions. Hand grenades. Phillips let out a yell of pain. The rest of his group went to ground. Warner let off another burst across the front of Kiralenko’s group hoping to prevent more grenades being thrown.
“Phillips is hit” said Kiralenko. “Shit…” Kiralenko had crawled over to where he saw Phillips go down. Phillips was writhin
g in agony holding his right thigh. Kiralenko couldn’t see anything with his thermals. He turned them off and while his eyes adjusted to the moonlight he felt down towards Phillips. He found his chest and moved down telling Phillips to keep still. He felt the wetness on his suit. He reached for his emergency dressing in his bumpack. Struggled for what seemed like eternity trying to unwrap it. Finally did so using his knife. As his sight improved he applied the dressing, wrapped the attached bandage around and under his leg coming back up and tying a pretty crude knot. He remembered that it had to be really tight. So he gave it a strong pull.
“What the fuck are you doing” cried out Phillips.
That was a good sign, thought Warner. Kiralenko told Phillips to stay put and reported “He’ll live”. He then raised his rifle and started firing.
“Group 2 move” yelled Warner. This time he was overtaken by Weiss on his left. Weiss’s blood was up as often occurs in the heat of battle when some bastard is trying to kill you. As soon as he hit the ground Warner yelled at him to not get ahead.
The next rush by Kiralenko saw the enemy in front turn tail and run. Warner popped up onto his knee and started firing at the fleeing enemy. Weiss followed suit. Another two were hit as they tried to crest the hill. It felt good not having any return fire.
Warner knew the launchers would be just over the rise. Their operators would probably flee too as soon as they saw their defenders running back through them. Now was the time to pursue. “Groups 1 and 2 up. Form Line. Advance” barked Warner. This only amounted to four riflemen but Warner knew that anyone on the other side listening to this wouldn’t know that.
He crested the rise and there before him was carnage. Three of the launchers had been destroyed by the warthog’s initial strike. Bodies were everywhere. There was no one left that could move. They had obviously fled a few minutes earlier. Warner pulled up, but Weiss kept moving, with his rifle at the port and taking shots every few paces. Warner realised he hadn’t given the command to halt. “Halt. Cease fire” he ordered. Grimshaw let off one last burst of the quanto and there were a few desultory shots taken down the line.
The Awakening: Book 1 of Warner's World Page 15
