Siege of Terra (The Mavrik Woods Series, Book 1)

by Robin MacMillan

  SIEGE OF TERRA

  Robin MacMillan

  A Mavrik Woods Novel

  Volume 1

  TEXT COPYRIGHT © 2013 ROBIN MACMILLAN

  ARTWORK COPYRIGHT © ROBIN MACMILLAN

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  To my wonderful family and friends that have given me lots of love and support, without them I don’t think I would have ever finished. Huge thanks to all those that helped me out.

  Table of Contents

  SIEGE OF TERRA

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Day 34: Cycle 3: Period 2: Year 2397

  I wake up, the world around me in utter chaos. Screaming. Blood. Explosions light up my surroundings. My ears ring from the heat of battle. Thopium bursts flying randomly through the air, hitting friendlies and enemies alike, their owner not caring if they kill their own.

  My head is still ringing in my helmet; the electric systems have been knocked out, probably from the EMP that was fired from the Mortar tanks at the northern barrier line. I watch through the burned-out eye sockets in my helmet as enemy soldiers advance on my unit. It was too late though, the armour locked up after it was hit. All I can do is watch in horror as my fellow soldiers are being obliterated by weapons fire from seemingly every direction.

  They broke through the southern wall of the command outpost. The men that are under my command are oblivious to the fact that the enemy is right behind them. I shake my head inside my helmet. I decide to do whatever it takes to win this battle, we must win it. Otherwise Terra might fall. I will not let them destroy my home, even if it means my death. I look around my surroundings for something that I could use to take out as many hostile soldiers as possible.

  I grope on my right hip for my pistol, finally some good luck; my trusty pistol is still in its holster. I bring my other hand up to the side latches on my helmet, the manual release clamp that would enable me to unseal the neck clip, allowing me to breathe in fresh air.

  I hear a faint hiss as the stale air from inside my helmet is released into the world. Luckily though when my suit was fried by the EMP, the life support activated. The emergency oxygen cylinders had come to life. Letting me breathe air, although stale air, but air nonetheless while I was unconscious.

  I haven't had my helmet off and my head exposed to the outside world for almost ten hours. Being in my armour for that long is not my idea of fun, but necessary. Either you live in your armour in the middle of a war zone and act like it's a second skin, or you die. Most people don't make the transition smoothly, but I could care less. Almost. Being in it for so long still gets me a bit edgy. What I would give for a decent sleep and a hot meal. Maybe later.

  I let my helmet drop to the ground since it’s useless now, unless my gun runs out of ammo, then maybe I could use it as a club. Oh, the irony. I only give myself a few seconds to enjoy the fresh air then I do my best to drag myself around the corner of a charred and blown up barrier; that was where the pulse knocked out my entire electrical system.

  The unpowered armour now feels like it weighs an extra forty kilos. I know that will slow me down, although because it was not a hundred percent electric, I can still function with it being offline. It has several nice features when it is active though; it makes me stronger, faster and boosts one’s natural senses and abilities. I know the after effects of the EMP shock wave would wear off my body eventually, allowing me to move freely and fight without restraint.

  “Aspin Base come in, Aspin Base this is Colonel Woods, over. Come in Aspin Base, respond immediately. You have multiple hostiles on your six. If you can hear me, I repeat, you have multiple hostiles on your six, closing in fast,” I wait for a reply that I know would never come. The EMP blast must have also fried my wireless implant.

  If I stay here to recuperate the rest of my men would be slaughtered, the only thing I could do is to pull it together and help them as best as I can, even in my condition.

  I reach into one of my compartments on my belt, taking out a small vial, revealing a needle at the end of it. I feel down my leg for the tiny gap between the Graphite plates on my armour. Feeling the slight indent as my hand runs over it I inject the needle into my leg. I feel a warm sensation course through my body and into my bloodstream. Adrenal Stims were not always the best to use in combat, but in my case I would allow this one exception.

  I brace myself up against the barrier, pushing into the ground with my boots to push myself up.

  On my feet and feeling more confident in my abilities, I do my best to race through the rubble of the blown up buildings and speeders. Dodging between obstacles, everything almost had a blurred look to it, this was the first time I have ever taken an Adrenal Stim; I have always just relied on my body, not heightened drug affects.

  It was ironic, having all this technology and advanced armour, the built in HUD was supposed to make combat easier. History reports that I had studied said that back in the day people on Earth had gotten themselves into seemingly pointless wars, just wearing the clothes on their backs and a weapon in their hands.

  Now, here I am, in a heavy metal suit, doing exactly what my long dead ancestors were doing hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Although this war had the ultimate purpose, this war would help prevent human extinction.

  I’m not even paying attention to the surrounding area as an explosion cracks through the night sky, waking me from my own thoughts. I peer through the hole in one of the buildings. My ears still ringing from the previous explosion. I have never gone into battle without being fully immersed in my armour; sounds have been amplified without the noise dampeners in my helmet, seeing as my armour is offline.

  I reach over my shoulder to grab my sniper rifle attached to my back plates, carefully navigating it so the barrel wouldn’t brush up against any rubble and give away my position. Usually sniping with this rifle was easy; my helmet would be connected through the wireless receivers inserted directly into all my weapons.

  Looking through the motion sensor scope of the rifle, I line the sights up to target one of the enemy soldiers. A motion scope was the only scope that was useful against the Hakorian soldiers because they are cold-blooded humanoids and they give off no heat signature to track. Still looking through the scope, I quickly count how many targets I would have to take out.

  I count seven before I make my move.

  I squeeze the trigger and fire off a few shots in rapid succession. I watch as the rear three soldiers fall down dead. The fourth goes down wounded as the last shot passes through flesh, bone, and then directly threw the other side of the third soldier. The energy round leaves nothing in its wake but a gaping cauterized hole directly in the middle of the thirds stomach.

  With three left standing and now alert of my presence I drop my sniper rifle on the ground seeing as it would only slow me down.

  I run towards the remaining targets. I reach into my holster and take out my gun.

  I line it up to the fifth targets head.

  I pull the trigger.

  The Hakorian dies before it even has time to hiss in agony. I don’t even take the time to notice the death of the fifth as I continue to run towards them. The sixth and seventh Hakorian soldier -now aware that their comrades died just mere seconds ago- begin to c
harge me.

  They run towards me, hissing and cursing.

  I fire off two more rounds, hoping to take them out from a distance; they easily sidestep them though.

  Most men wouldn’t dare try to take down a Hakorian in hand-to-hand combat, although most men aren’t like me.

  I yell a war cry as I get close to them. They were almost on me as I twist my back leg towards the ground and slide through the dirt.

  I eject my hidden blade in my left gauntlet and slash a long gash in the Hakorians right leg. Hissing in fury it drops to the ground. I roll off the ground and stab into the midsection of its stomach. I feel the resistance as the blade passes through the rib cage and directly into its heart, its eyes are wide in shock. It lies there looking into my eyes as thick green blood poured out of its mouth. It had only taken three seconds to take out the sixth.

  One left.

  I spin around just in time and avoid being decapitated by its razor sharp claws.

  Bringing my right hand up I fire off two rounds, aiming for the stomach. My shots are too slow though. The first shot goes far to the left. The second one skims the right side of the Hakorian, injuring it only slightly. I bring my left hand up to guard my face as the Hakorian tries to claw me, only to meet failure as its claws bounce off my armour plating, leaving a lengthy thin line extending from my gauntlet down across to my right hip. I try to shoot it again, this time from point blank range. The Hakorian is too fast though and must have expected what my next move was going to be.

  I watch as my gun flies from my hand, the blow that I receive feels as if a speeder hit me. My teeth are still rattling as I bite directly into my tongue. With my back on the ground I roll out of the way to avoid being stepped on.

  “There iss no esscape human, you musst realize that.” The Hakorian hisses at me.

  I begin to circle it as I draw out my hidden blade, ready to end this fight. “Come and finish it then.” I spit on the ground, taunting it. It hisses angrily as I roll to the ground, slashing at its uninjured hip, my blade passes through the flesh with ease. The Hakorian falls to the ground, clutching its hip in pain.

  “That won’t save you, and you know it, you’re as good as dead.”

  It tries its best to stand up. The Hakorian gets on its knees. Dark green blood is beginning to flow out of its mouth. It has only minutes to live; minutes in pain could feel like hours.

  I was trained to kill people, not trained to injure and watch them suffer, regardless of the species. I bring my knee up into the Hakorians jaw, snapping its neck backwards; the corpse falls to the ground, its head at an unnatural angle.

  I search the body for anything useful.

  My hand traces over something metal in one of the small open compartments on the Hakorians hip.

  Dog tags; some of the names I don’t recognize, but one catches my eye, half of it is covered in dried up blood. I rub off the blood with my thumb. A shiver traces up my spine as I see the call sign.

  T-Rave.

  I stand up, ready to leave this place. Getting back to Headquarters is my only priority now.

  “Rot in hell,” spitting on the corpse as I turn around. Only to see a giant fist centimeters away from my face, I have only a split second to register what is happening. It’s a gloved human hand, not a clawed Hakorian hand.

  Pain. Sharp pain tracing up my face, what follows shortly is white light, then darkness.

  It feels like I’m falling into an abyss.

  My name is Mavrik Woods.

  We thought we were alone in this universe, but we were wrong. They came, they killed and they destroyed. My mission was to stop them. Now, I fear that I have failed.

  One

  Day 7: Cycle 1: Period 2: Year 2397

  My eyes snap open. The inside of my nose is filling up with smoke.

  I lunge out of bed and rush through the house, hoping to find the origin of the smoke and put out a fire if necessary. I dash through the hallway and I rush towards the kitchen. It’s the only logical choice for where the fire is coming from.

  I swing open the kitchen door.

  My eyes water as smoke bombards my eyes. I grope through the smoke towards the emergency air filter; my hand fumbles for the button as I reach the wall. I sigh in relief as I pull it, I watch the smoke vent outside, leaving behind a very dirty Syreena in the middle of the kitchen. She’s batting away at the air with a pan, in an attempt to clear out the air faster.

  Her long brown hair is all frizzy from the smoke and the early wake up.

  I laugh as I walk up to her, “wow, you really don’t know how to cook do you?” I reach up to her small roundish face; I rub off some of the grime from her cheeks. Her dark green eyes are easier to recognize now that her face is a little bit cleaner.

  “Of course I do, I just went into the bathroom, and then the whole electrical outlet spiked, burning everything in the pan. You’d think that this kind of technology wouldn’t do that,” her arms waving over her head angrily.

  “Yeah, well, you said ‘technology’, ‘course it won’t work. Technology never works the way people want it to work. At least you’re ok; however you do smell like you’re the one that was in the pan.”

  “Yeah, better hop in the shower, guess we never really got around to that last night,” she said, flashing me a grin, “sorry about your shirt, might want to wash it after.”

  It was hard at first to notice that she was wearing my T.A.R. Army shirt, all blackened up, it now has a barbeque smell to it.

  “Well at least the Phoenix on the front looks more realistic now, being in the ashes and all,” the shirt reads T.A.R. on the front with a Phoenix emerging from the ashes and “Tactical Advanced Recon” on the back, along with Lieutenant Colonel on the right shoulder.

  “You know, it’s only our first day of being a married couple and we almost burn the house down. Your uncle would’ve been pissed.”

  “Well, I’m not the one that started the grease fire, now am I? You know, it’s a shame that I’m so tall. Otherwise that shirt might actually fit you…” I say, watching her walk away, the shirt just long enough to flow down her curved body to her exposed thighs. I sigh to myself, dragging my eyes away with great difficulty.

  I head back towards the kitchen, getting the proper ingredients for a fresh and un-burned meal.

  I’m on my way to the cupboard when my earpiece on the kitchen table goes off and starts buzzing away. I walk to the table, inserting the ear bud into my ear.

  “Hello, Woods speaking,” I say.

  “Colonel, this is General Anders. You might want to turn on your Holo-Projector and set your frequency to forty nine point three. After you’ve done that you and the entire T.A.R. squad must come down to briefing room six as soon as possible, understood?” The General says curtly through the receiver.

  “Understood Sir, Woods out.”

  I go to the living room and stand in front of the wall where the Holo-Projector is. “Run frequency forty nine point three,” I say, the lights on the wall signalling the device is coming online. Static noises emanated from the device as the wireless interlink tries to connect to the requested frequency.

  An image of a newswoman pops up.

  “Hundreds of reports are pouring in from all over Terra of strange objects seen hovering over cities. The military thinks that these are scout ships, seeing as they are the only ones that can be spotted by the naked eye so far. Other reports from deep space communication say that they have been able to track the energy signature of the ships to their origin. They appear to have come from the opposite side of the solar System from a planet that we learned several years ago was uninhabited, stand by while we get more information.”

  “Honey, you might want to come and see this,” I yell down the hall.

  “Aren’t you a little old for that game? I mean serious-” she stopped in mid-sentence as her eyes drift over to the projector.

  “You were saying?”

  “The military has just released more informati
on about this unknown world. Roughly twenty years ago the military was sending out manned ships to explore and Document our neighbouring planets found in this solar System,” the News reporter continues.

  “How is this possible? This solar system was supposed to be uninhabited,” Syreena says.

  “That’s what they told us, not sure if the military was trying to cover anything up or if they are just as startled as we are,” I say.

  “The man that was on the flight mission to this planet was Charles Woods. He was the one that took the first mission to the planet, and this is his official report that he filed almost twenty years ago.

  ‘Woods expedition One, I just touched down. We discovered this planet only a period previous. The colonization of Terra took more time and labor than we originally thought; I guess everyone wanted to relax after being cooped up on that ship for so long. The people decided to enjoy the planet while it is green and natural before we rip up forests and move mountains. Most people had never even seen trees, so the military had decided to give them some slack before we go tearing up the planet. We have to be careful what we do, we don’t need this being another Earth fiasco. Alright, I’m going into the airlock, I’m putting on a protective suit, just in case there’s no breathable atmosphere outside. The readings from orbit said there was though. Still, I’m taking no chances. There, I made touchdown, the gravity is similar to what Terra is, so that won’t be a problem, not much of anything out here. There are many tunnels though leading underground, they must be lava tubes or something. Heat scans show everything underground. Mostly just small pockets of heat, this planet is probably early in its phases. There is definite movement underground. This place is just a big volcano, just waiting to go off at a moment’s notice. Alright, nothing special to see here, better start to head home. Another few days and I’ll be hopefully sitting in a brand new house. I can’t wait to see my little boy. He’s growing up so fast, he’s probably playing outside in the streams, enjoying himself like a normal boy should, not locked up on a ship. Ok, the ship is in sight, just about to activate the airlock. Wait… the movement scanners are showing abnormal amounts of activity just below the surface, better get out of here quick before this whole planet eru-’ the transmission cut out.