by Peter Lok
“Penny, recon the airstrip. We’re playing the waiting game.”
Penny launched a small drone RPV from her HARM to reconnoiter the route to the air strip as well as the air strip itself. It was a stealthy little device that would provide vital battlefield information and an overhead view. HARM AIs acted much like a co-pilot, weapons officer, and navigator, and her AI would do most of the flying for the drone.
***
The power outage made it easier for the commandos to move around the facility. None of the interior guards they encountered wore more than regular body armour and only one or two had night vision gear. Moving silently in the darkness that was punctuated by emergency lighting, the commandos easily took care of them all. An unfortunate pair of technicians who had been trying to restore power also lay unconscious in their wake.
"Main lab and the vault are around the next corner," Willie whispered. He poked the camera probe built into his suit's gauntlet around the corner. "Damn. Looks like we have two guards in full battlesuits. No way by them. We'll have to take these guys out the hard way." He readied his C11 advanced combat rifle. The ACR fired armour piercing 4.5mm caseless rounds at a rate of a thousand rounds a minute. Even though the rifle had a hundred round magazine it had a very useful burst fire mode to conserve ammunition. "Tamotsu. With me. I'll take the one on the left, you take the right."
Tamotsu nodded. He readied his rifle. Willie gave a 3, 2, 1 count by hand signal and the two swung around the corner and fired simultaneously. Two bursts of high-velocity rifle rounds shattered both guards’ visors and ended their lives, taking them down before they could react.
"Go!" Willie called out. He and the rest of his team ran down the hall and assumed breaching positions around the lab door. Two team members with flash bang grenades in their hands stood ready to swing the double doors to the lab open. Willie and Tomotsu took their positions to enter the room after the stun grenades went off.
"Ready," Willie spoke. "Go!'
The doors were thrown open, and blinding flashes of light and deafening bangs went off inside the already messed up lab. Willie and Tomotsu rushed into the room, rifles ready. It was all training at this point. Each commando rapidly scanned the room for hostiles. Willie’s rifle fired one burst and a blinded guard fell backwards, his rifle arcing up into the air. Tomatsu fired and a second guard went down. Rifles pointed, they did not fire on the four dazed scientists in the room.
"Shani Tsvato!" Angie called out, recognizing one of the scientists in the room. She lowered her PDW and ran over to her. She steadied Shani. "Are you alright?"
"Y-yes," Shani replied, still dazed by the stun grenades. She then realized that rescue was here and tears formed in her eyes. "Angie, I can’t believe you are here!”
The two women hugged. “Is your son here?" Angie asked.
"No, they won't let children down here. But he is nearby, hidden in a supply closet --- I need to get him!" Shani was beginning to recover.
Angie reassured her. "That was good thinking. We'll get him. But before we leave, we need to get the artifact."
"Yes, of course. The Colonel locked it back in the specimen vault. I have the access code."
"Good." Angie called out to Willie. "Artifact is in the lab vault. Let's get it."
Willie and Tomatsu headed over to Angie and Shani. The rest of the team handcuffed the other scientists and secured the hallway.
Shani walked over to a large steel vault door. She quickly tapped in a series of numbers. On the first try she was nervous and fumbled it. She apologized and tried again. This time the vault door made a loud thunking sound as its locking bolts disengaged. They swung the thick door open and entered the vault, which was on battery lighting. Crates of mineral samples occupied the room. In the middle of the room was the egg shaped alien artifact. Although it was barely a metre high, its presence seemed larger that its size.
It’s more beautiful than I expected, Angie thought. She stared into it and it seemed like she was gazing into the depths of an amber sea.
Shani saw Angie's reaction. "It is beautiful," she concurred. "I did the same thing the first time I saw it. Sometimes it almost seems like you can lose yourself inside it... Like you're floating in space."
"Yes, you're right." Angie suddenly realized she had been distracted by the artifact and needed to refocus her attention. "Willie. We need to prep this thing to move."
Willie and Tomatsu easily lifted the heavy artifact from the cradle it was resting on and loaded it into a protective metal case with a padded interior. They each took hold of a handle at one end of the case, and carried it with no problem between them. Augmented by the power assist in their raider suits they could easily trot along with the heavy artifact.
They had exited the lab and begun heading down the main hallway when an alarm began ringing. A deep male voice began speaking in Swahili. “Alert. Alert. Intruders are within the facility. All guards are to go to maximum alert. Use deadly force to stop them.”
Willie stated the obvious. "I think they have the intercom and alarms working again. Mitch, we’re on our way.”
“Roger,” Mitch responded over the radio. “We are securing transport. There’s more movement up here, so sooner is better.”
Rejoining the rest of the section, they followed Shani to the supply closet that she had hidden her son in. Shani and Angie went in and brought Kwasi out. They took longer than expected as the twelve year old had been scared by the alarm and had had been quietly crying. He was quickly reassured by his mother and Angie, who had prepared him for the heavily armed commandos waiting outside the room.
Willie greeted the boy with a big smile. “You’re doing great, son. We’re here to take you and your mother to safety. We’ll be going to a plane and you can wear my helmet when we get there. It has all kinds of cool displays.”
Kwasi’s eyes brightened. “Really?”
“Yeah, really. Let’s shake on that.” Willie’s armoured gauntlet dwarfed the boy’s small, dark hand, but he shook it gently.
Shani was amazed with Willie’s kindness. “Thank you. We’ll be no trouble.”
“No problem,” Willie replied. “I like kids. I have a few little nephews myself.”
The brief stop was more than Willie wanted. They had to get going now that the alarm was raised. Willie and Tamotsu took point. Behind them, two other commandos carried the artifact in its case. Angie, Shani, and Kwasi made up the next group. Finally, the last section member acted as a rearguard. They continued moving back into the stairwell with their weapons ready. Echoes from all of their booted footsteps echoed throughout the stairwell as they climbed back up to ground level.
Willie opened the door and checked his corners. Tomatsu covered him as he exited and secured the next corner. Tomatsu then advanced. The rest of the group emerged from the stairwell and fell into position behind them. His helmet HUD showed Mitch’s section about 100 metres away at the garage. There was still a great deal of building to go through first.
“Mitch. Sitrep.” Willie called over the radio.
“Taking some fire,” Mitch replied. “We have secured two trucks. Hostiles are starting to come out of the woodwork. We’re holding for now, but you need to hurry.” A burst of rifle fire was then clearly heard over the radio.
“Estimate about three minutes to your position.” Willie turned to his team. “Let’s move people. Our rides are waiting.”
Tomatsu swapped with Willie and led the way. After navigating through several office areas, checking the cubicle farms as he went, he ran into two guards at short range. The African soldiers came dashing around a corner with their weapons ready. Both sides fired almost simultaneously. Bullets smashed through thin cubicle partition walls and shattered desktop monitors. The Chinese AK90s fired with their duller barking sound on full auto, while shorter, sharper sounding, controlled bursts came from Tomatsu’s C11 rifle.
Tomatsu’s accurate fire took out one guard almost immediately. The man spun backwards and down to
the ground. The second guard’s fully automatic firing hit Tomatsu on his chest plate, causing his second burst to miss as the impacts knocked him back. His chest armour held though, and he fired again. This time the aim was good and the guard flew backwards, his rifle firing into the ceiling as he went down.
Willie had just caught the end of the whole thing and arrived at this side. “You okay?”
Tomatsu was both grimacing a little and swearing in Japanese. “It hurts a bit, but I think I’m good.”
“You got three pretty big dents on your chest plate.” Willie moved ahead. “Good thing the armour held. I’ll lead---” He interrupted himself by firing a burst at a doorway. Another guard had just popped his head around the corner.
***
“Looks like the show’s started.” Joshua could hear the alarms going off at the research facility on his external audio pickups. They had originally planned for low casualties, but the odds of that were quickly becoming non-existent. “Confirm targets and coordination, X.”
“Targets confirmed between Unit One and Unit Two,” the AI responded. Joshua’s targets were lit in green silhouettes, while Penny’s were in red. The enemy’s APCs and HARM units were the primary targets, followed by the barracks and headquarters building.
“Penny, how is the situation at the air strip?”
“Quiet. A few light aircraft, some dozy guards. Basically no activity. The highway is also clear all the way to it.”
“Good.” Their HARM data links could tie into the short range net used by Alpha Team. His tactical display showed Mitch’s section engaging guards around the garage. One by one, the hostile indicators disappeared. Willie’s section had emerged on the ground floor and was heading towards Mitch’s position. Thermal signatures inside the barracks indicated people were on the move. The enemy troops were mobilizing quickly. Life would become very difficult for the commandos in the next phase of the operation without Penny and his help. “Stand by to engage targets.”
Penny was ready. The HARM units were going to give up their element of surprise shortly. Not even Alpha Team knew where they were as their outbound data links were not transmitting and they were running under full active camouflage with their heat signatures masked. Stealth was gone once they started shooting, so they would hit fast and hard. Both of the HARM AIs had orders to establish two-way data links with Alpha Team after the shooting started to coordinate their forces.
“Engage HARMs, then APCs,” Joshua ordered. “Coilgun, single shot.”
“Coilgun, single shot,” his mecha’s AI acknowledged.
Joshua’s pilot suit was plugged into a skeletal support frame that provided both physical support for him and force-feedback to show how the unit was responding to commands. His operator motions were captured via his pilot suit and fine tuned via the cybernetic pilot’s helmet he wore, which read his brain waves to provide enhanced control. Joshua raised his arms inside his cockpit to aim at his designated HARM unit. His helmet’s 3D HUD display showed his HARM mimicking his motion to raise its rifle-like coilgun to a firing position. Centering the crosshairs on the enemy HARM, he motioned squeezing a virtual trigger with his finger.
Bang! The coilgun shot out a hypervelocity penetrator made of depleted uranium. The penetrator was fired through the air at over 3500 metres per second, over Mach 10. It crossed the kilometre to the target HARM in less a third of a second and struck with devastating impact. The enemy HARM’s active molecular armour had not powered up yet and the shot punched clean through the chest of the enemy mecha into the power plant and out the back side. The power plant promptly exploded in a massive ball of flame. Fragments of the enemy mecha’s torso were scattered through the area. Next to it, the other HARM met a similar fate under Penny’s shooting.
Immediately after firing, his coilgun loaded another round into its chamber and started flash charging its capacitors for another shot. The electromagnetic cannon required a lot of power from his mecha’s chemical fusion plant. It would take four seconds to get off another shot.
“Both H2 HARMs destroyed,” his mecha’s AI confirmed. “Begin engaging secondary targets.”
Joshua sighted on an APC. “Coilgun to burst mode.”
“Coilgun in burst mode,” acknowledged the AI.
This time his coilgun fired a burst of three projectiles within a second, each penetrator moving at a third of the speed of a full power shot. This speed was useful against lightly armoured targets, and it allowed the weapon to fire after less than a second of recharge. The APC burst into flames. Joshua switched targets and fired again.
In less than ten seconds all the vehicles had been destroyed. Soldiers who had been trying to get the vehicles running and the mechas up were either dead or running for cover.
“Secondary target vehicles destroyed. Engage other targets at will.”
Holding out his mecha’s left arm, Joshua aimed his light automatic cannon, a 30mm chain gun integrated into the forearm. The light automatic cannon was used against infantry or for suppressing targets with a high rate of fire. “Chain gun, ready high explosive rounds.”
“High Explosive rounds ready,” his mecha’s AI responded.
Joshua and Penny raked the barracks buildings and the headquarters building with automatic cannon fire. They did several passes over the next minute, leaving the buildings a battered, smoking ruin. The exterior walls were pitted with small blast holes and broken glass was everywhere. Small fires burned here and there, adding more smoke.
The enemy infantry were no longer organized. Casualties had been light, but the chaos inflicted on them had scattered and panicked them. Even the facility’s alarm no longer blared after it was silenced by the attack on the headquarters. The two HARM pilots were still evaluating their work when their AIs called out at an attention-getting volume.
“Six missiles incoming, 12 o’clock high!” X warned. “Evade now. Deploying countermeasures.”
Joshua dodged his HARM off to the side, while Penny did the same in the opposite direction. Their big machines sent broken branches and foliage raining down as they crashed through the trees. A burst of flares, metallic chaff, and anti-laser reflective particles fired from each mecha to form a shimmering and obscuring cloud of cover. The wave of missiles missed the HARM units, losing them in the chaff cloud, and detonated against the ground where they had been moments earlier.
Joshua’s AI had analyzed the missiles and their trajectories. “Missiles are typed as Stabber AT-26 self-guided missiles. At least three unknown enemy units firing from the other side of the research facility.” X marked the launch locations on the tactical display. “Estimated launch locations are marked. Fire counter-strike missiles?”
“Fire one missile each!” Joshua authorized.
“Helldarts away.” Three anti-tank missiles launched up from the missile packs on the HARM’s back and arced towards the enemy launch positions. The self-guiding missiles searched for targets on their own and exploded against empty ground when they found none. The enemy had already run.
Who was this new enemy? Joshua thought whoever it was had good equipment and training since they had not detected any enemy activity. They could be Pan African Alliance. “X, which militaries are equipped with the AT-26?”
“The AT-26 is only known to be issued to the Russian military. It is their latest anti-tank missile.”
“Penny,” Joshua spoke out. “I think we got Russians to deal with. They must be after the artifact too.”
“I agree.” Penny concluded. “There might be Russian troops in the facility already.”
“Willie, we’ve got Russian hostiles in the area.” Joshua radioed. “We don’t know numbers, but they might be inside already.”
“Mitch’s section is taking fire. “ Willie responded. “They just got the drop on us! Mitch’s section is engaging a twelve man squad of Spetsnatz commandos in the garage. Marking coordinates. Requesting fire support if possible.”
Joshua looked at the Russian positions on the
tactical display. Both sides were deep within the building, making long range fire support by missile or gun impossible. “Negative. They’re too far inside. We’re going to have to close in to support you. Penny, advance on my right flank. X, launch the RPV. Let’s get a better picture.”
A small saucer-shaped reconnaissance drone detached itself from the head of Joshua’s HARM. The small drone immediately began to feed data back from its sensors. Whatever had fired the missiles could not be spotted. It was likely they had moved and were lying low under camouflage. Still, a large mecha unit would not have been able to hide from the drone, so they were probably dealing with combat walkers or heavy battlesuits.
The two Fenrir HARM units spaced themselves 100 metres apart to avoid bunching up, but close enough to provide support for each other. Coilgun ready in the right hand and automatic cannon ready on the other arm, they began a trotting advance towards the research facility. Every so often they would fire a burst from the automatic cannons on targets of opportunity.
