The Fate Of Nations: F.I.R.E. Team Alpha: Book One
Page 26
Another guard, this one an officer, appeared from behind a computer console and leveled a sidearm at Carter. Wanting to avoid damaging the equipment that the team might need to complete the mission, he rolled beneath the officer’s shots, tackled him to the floor and away from the console, and shot him beneath the chin. The top of the head burst open in a spray of bone, blood and tissue.
On the opposite side of the room, Burgett fired his rifle in three shot bursts. Each burst ripped into the chest of a different guard. Detonating at the center of the body the micro-explosives emulsified the torsos and let left five gore-soaked armored vests to fall to the floor.
Two more guards fired down on him from the catwalk. Burgett leaped twenty-five onto the catwalk as bullets struck the floor where he had just been standing. Burgett shot the astonished Guards before they could redirect their weapons toward him.
Panicked technicians trampled one another as they fled toward the main entrance. Others climbed beneath consoles and desks hoping to escape the carnage. A few remembered the emergency exits at the rear of the room but were killed by Carter and Burgett as the clamored toward them. Some were to freighted and stunned to do anything at all. Those that managed to exit the front door were cut down by DeFontain from her position in the hallway.
Carter placed a proximity grenade near each of the two emergency exits, moved to the main door’s threshold to aid Defontain in dealing with enemy reinforcements that were sure to come.
The front rank of those reinforcements triggered the two proximity grenades that had been placed at the corridor junction and were killed instantly. DeFontain bolted from her position in front of the ruined blast doors and threw another, time delayed grenade which detonated just as a second group of enemy soldiers came round the junction’s corner. Before the debris from that blast had settled DeFontain rounded the corner herself and shot each of the six surviving enemy troops in their chest at point blank range.
With Carter providing cover, she set her last grenade to proximity fuse, concealed it among the fallen enemy troops and retreated to shelter behind the control room’s threshold. More guards could be heard making their way, more cautiously this time, down the corridor. Defontain changed the magazine in her rifle, and waited.
Having killed the guards and control room staff, Carter joined Defontain in defending the room’s entrance. “Work fast, Gadget!” Carter implored as he tucked his pistol under his injured arm to change its magazine. “Things are about to get really crowded!”
“On it Boss!” Burgett replied. “I’ve got to get physical access the central processor and imprint the plague program!” he added as he surveyed the cavernous chamber holding the massive super-computer that was the heart of the command complex.
“I don’t care if you have piss in the fucking radiator!” Carter shouted; “fast is good!”
The grenade DeFontain had place among the slain guards exploded; announcing the arrival of more enemy troops. Carter and DeFontain began firing through the dust the explosion; their augmented reflexes and coordination allowing them to fire with a speed and accuracy their enemies could not hope to match. Nearly every round the two Alpha operators fired found a lethal mark; driving the eight surviving guards back around the corner to relative safety.
“Stay sharp,” Carter advised. “The frontal assaults didn’t work. They’ll be back; and they’ll use their heads the next time.”
“Boss,” Burgett’s voice said over the radio. “I’ve found the processor and am imprinting the plague program now’ thirty second to completion.”
“Understood,” Carter replied. “Prime the EMPP as soon as it’s done.”
“Roger that,” Burgett confirmed.
“Why have they not charged us again?” Defontain wondered out loud.
“They’re waiting for reinforcements,” Carter replied; “probably with heavy weapons.”
“The plague program is imprinting now!” Burgett shouted. “I just need a few more seconds!” he added as he removed the base section if the EMPP device from his pack.
Placing the dinner plate-sized device base of the EMPP at the center of the control room, he then moved toward Carter and Defontain to retrieve the other two pieces of the EMPP from his teammates.
“Coming up behind you Boss,” Burgett informed Carter as he opened the colonel’s pack and removed a two foot long cylinder. Approaching Defontain, he took second, more conical section from her pack.
“The imprinting is done and I’ll have the bomb armed in less than a minute.” Burgett said.
Burgett placed the cylinder from Carter’s pack and placed it into a receptacle at the top of the base section before plugging the conical section onto a second receptacle on the top of the cylinder; creating an assembled device that resembled a one meter tall metal mushroom. He entered a twelve digit code into a keypad on the base section and a five minute countdown began.
“She’s hot, Boss!” Burgett said moving toward his teammates.
“All right we have no choice but to fight our way through the guards in the corridor; speed and aggression troops,” Carter said. “We go in three.”
Three seconds later the operators charged through the threshold. Bullets began to rip through the corridor’s wall before they could round the corner. Chunks of concrete were sprayed into the corridor like thousands of shrapnel-like projectiles
“Gauss rifle!” Carter shouted, recognizing the tell-tale shriek of the weapons report as it use electromagnetic fields, not gun powder, to propel tungsten steel flachetes at hundreds of times the speed of sound.
Carter and Burgett continued the charge. Rounding the corner the fired on the move; relying on their speed on accuracy to overwhelm the enemy.
His pistol’s magazine exhausted, Carter slammed his right shoulder into an enemy soldier as he tried to change rifle magazines and kneed him the groin with enough force to lift him a two feet off of the floor. The soldier fell to his knees; in too much agony even to scream. Cater stuck him with the butt of his pistol shattering the skull.
Burgett drove the butt of his rifle into the throat as bullets fired by two surviving guards missed him by inches. As the guard fell and gasped for breath, Burgett drew his sidearm and killed the other three surviving guards; placing two shots in the chest of each.
“Bandaid,” Carter shouted, changing magazines. “Sound off!” There was no reply.
Carter and Burgett rushed around the corner. They found DeFontain’s nearly headless body. “That gauss rifle had thermal scope,” Carter observed, kneeling at DeFontain’s body. “They could see us through the walls and shoot through them. She never knew what hit her.”
“Shit,” Burgett said.
“How much time until the EMPP goes off?” Carter asked.
“Three minutes, forty three seconds.” Burgett said.
“Grab her weapons and ammo,” Carter ordered, “we may need them.”
Burgett complied; slinging her rifle over his shoulder, stuffing her rifle magazines into his IBOS vest, and handed her spare pistol magazines to Carter. “We should run like hell now, Boss.” he said.
“Get going,” Carter said, thumbing open the safety cover and depressing the activator button on an incendiary grenade and placing on DeFontain’s body; knowing that it would burn the body to ash and leave no trace DNA for enemy scientists to analyze.
“Prowler to all teams; all call signs,” he said into the radio as he followed Burgett down the hallway. “Be advised; Bandaid is KIA! Repeat; Bandaid is KIA!”
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“Sir,” the young technician said, his exited voice cutting through the normal low drone of low voices that were a constant in the combat operations center of the amphibious assault ship USS Inchon. “The Central Command just went dark!”
“You’re sure?” Hicks asked the young man, repressing his own excitement as cheering broke out in the command center.
“Yes Sir!” The technician said. There are no electronic emissions of any kind.
“And there goes the Air Force headquarters!” the first technician exclaimed. “They did it sir!”
“Get the extraction force airborne!” Hicks ordered. “And keep an eye on the Ural facility.”
Good boy, Doug, Hicks thought. Now get your ass back here alive.
“Sir,” the senior technician said. “The Ural facility just went dark! Zero electronic emissions!”
The command center erupted into cheers again. This time Hicks cheered too.
[][][]
The lights of the Central Command’s main building flickered and went out. Computers and other electronic devices short circuited; some catching fire. The complex was cast into darkness as the energy pulse from the EMPP disabled both the primary and emergency lights. The hallways were filled with the sound of panicked people shouting into the darkness; pleading for someone to tell them what to do.
“Well, the others must have made to the control room alright,” McNamara said as he activated the night vision capability of his goggles. “They’ve touched off the EMPP.”
“We have to join them at the exit point,” Williams said, waiting near the still smoldering door of the security control room.
The three operators shoved their way through the people groping their way through the pitch-black corridors. The few people who had found flashlights found, to their dismay, that the lights only drew gunfire, not only from the Alpha element, but from panic-crazed guards as well. The night-vision equipped Alpha members made their way quickly to their rendezvous point; killing several squads of sightless enemy troopers as they moved. Carter and Burgett joined them as they approached the blast hole made by the other assault teams.
Carter glanced out of the hole and found the outer compound in chaos. Enemy troops were running randomly about, firing in all directions not knowing how many enemies they were facing or precisely where they all were. A few hundred yards away he could see the WCA’s army command center in flames. Renner’s mortars were still raining shells onto the compound. In the distance he could see fires burning in throughout Brussels as the city’s resistance cells rose up all over the city and added to the chaos.
“Prowler to all teams; all call signs,” Carter said into his radio. “Alpha is at the exit point and coming out with four!”
“Brains for Prowler,” Sains’ voice interrupted over the com-net. “Be advised enemy mechanized infantry is moving to surround all three extraction zones. EZs Alpha and Charlie are cut off and EZ Bravo is under threat.”
“Roger that, Brains,” Carter said. “Show me on the data-net.”
Sains adjusted his rifle scope’s optics so the images from its sensors could also be seen on Carter’s goggle-display. Hundreds of enemy troops and dozens or armored vehicles had encompassed the two parking lots that were to have been where the FIRE team’s primary and secondary extraction zones. The third possible EZ, the roof of a large parking structure, was in the process being surrounded.
“Prowler to all teams; all call signs,” Carter said into his microphone, “rally at the perimeter breach! We’ll converge on extraction zone Bravo together after we’re out of the command compound! Repeat; converge on perimeter breach!” Carter ordered. The other team leaders quickly acknowledged his order.
“Alright,” Carter said. “Let’s go.”
Burgett darted out of the blast hole into the compound, followed by the rest of the team. Carter, after covering the operators as they jumped, was the last to leave the building. Bullets began to churn up the ground and gouge the wall around the operators. Having an enemy they could accurately locate, hundreds of enemy soldiers converged on the team.
“Advance by elements!” Carter commanded; “Assault to the right!”
Williams, leading Nagura and McNamara, went to cover and began pouring fire to the right; concentrating on one section of the enemy line as Carter and Burgett charged the same part of the line. When Williams and his section were forced to reload, Carter and Burgett found whatever cover they could and began firing at the same section of the enemy line as their teammates advanced. Simultaneously Roth, with Sains directing her fire, used her heavy sniper rifle to kill the enemy heavy weapons crews that were an immediate threat to their teammates. The team repeated this relay tactic until William’s element was in the range of thrown grenades. The three operators timed their throws so that the grenades detonated in mid-air, within inches of each other. The combined blast tore a hole in the line of WCA troops; killing several of them. Before the sound of the blast had faded, Carter led the team through the gap.
Having broken through a section of the nearest line of enemy troops, Carter turned the team to the south, toward the exit corridor being held by Captain Renner and his resistance unit. Renner and his group had hastily entrenched themselves, and had already weathered several assaults, but were now facing a coordinated attack from all sides.
The remains of five Mark-23 powered armor suits lay smoldering only feet away from Renner’s lines; brought down by shoulder fired anti-armor missiles. Dead from both sides of the battle were strewn in all directions. Horrid, high-pitch screams from the wounded penetrated the deafening combination of exploding mortar shells and small arms fire. The smell of burning flesh mingled with that of scorched earth, spent explosives, and burning buildings. Smoke and dust from dozens of differing sources swirled and about to form noxious clouds that almost seemed to have a malevolent, demonic will of their own which compelled them to smother every living thing around them.
“Captain Renner,” Carter said in to the com-system, “Prowler is approaching from the north with four. Repeat friendlies approaching from the north!”
Carter led his team toward Renner’s position’ literally killing their way across the fifty meter distance. In the minutes it took to fight through the enemy, the deaths of three members from the other FIRE teams were announced over the com-net. Death was becoming incidental while time became critical. The surviving team members could do nothing but fight on. The enemy was recovering from the initial shock of the FIRE teams’ attack and was beginning to fight back in a coordinated manner.
When, at last, the team was able to join Renner they found the survivors of Teams Bravo and Echo had already arrived. Carter found Captain Renner and Mason Price, the leader of team Bravo, sheltering behind one of the meter-high concrete walls that stood on either side of the access road that led through the gate that the underground fighters were defending. He could see Isaac Muller and team Echo defending a section of the wall directly opposite them.
“Where are Frogger and his team?” Carter asked as gun fire passed inches over their heads in what seemed to be a constant stream.
“They’re still inside the Navy headquarters!” Price replied, shouting over the battle-din. “They touched off their EMPP and put the facility out of action, but there’s a squad of power armor pinning them down inside the building. We were about to go get them!”
“Right,” Carter said. “You and your team come with Team Alpha and we’ll relieve Frogger and his team!” Carter ordered. “Chuckles!” Carter shouted, using Muller’s call-sign.
“Sir!” Muller said, moving toward Carter in a half-crawl. Carter put a hand on the Austrian’s shoulder.
“I need you to stay here and help Renner hold the door open. Pirate and I are going to help Team Foxtrot!”
“It will be done!” Muller affirmed.
“We’ll need your teams IMS-7s!” Carter said.
Muller quickly collected the four IMS-7 missiles carried by his team; adding them to the one still possessed by team Alpha and distributing them among teams Alpha and Bravo.
“Teams Alpha and Bravo; we’re heading for the naval headquarters!” Carter said into his com link. “Team Foxtrot is pinned down by a squad of powered armor and we’re going to break them out.”
Each team member replied with: “Roger
that!”
“Alpha has the right; Bravo takes left!” Carter commanded, vaulting the barrier wall. “Move out!”
“Covering fire!” Muller shouted as Teams Alpha and Bravo went over the wall and started fighting their way to the naval headquarters.
Team Echo began firing in unison. All along the wall dozens of Renner’s fighters joined them. For several seconds a continuous torrent of directed gunfire forced the WCA troops to seek whatever shelter they could find. This furious, concentrated fusillade protected the two advancing teams like and invisible, moving shield as they rushed forward; annihilating anything in their path.
Carter led Team Alpha to cover behind a destroyed armored vehicle that had obviously fallen victim to a man-portable missile. To the left he saw Price and his team crouching behind a bullet ridden SUV-like patrol vehicle. Twenty yards in front of them was a line of eleven enemy Mark-23 powered armor suits firing volley after volley from their shoulder mounted twenty millimeter cannons. They were supported by a platoon of First Earth Guardsmen.
Twenty yards beyond that was the naval headquarters building. It was engulfed in flames. Concentrating on containing team Foxtrot within burning building none of the troops besieging Team Foxtrot did not seem to take any note of the approach of the newly arrived FIRE teams. Intermittent firing from other, less target-fixated enemy troops continued on all sides.
Fire from Team Foxtrot cut down a wave of assaulting First Earth Guardsmen as they attempted to enter the burning headquarters building. The exhaust plum from and IMS-7 emerged from a second floor window and destroyed a Mark-23 that was attempting to advance toward the building. Unsure of how many missiles the defenders of the naval headquarters still possessed, the remaining powered suits elected to continue their siege.