by Peter Lok
***
The large garage occupied one end of the research facility, with a floor of offices above it. It had a high ceiling supported by concrete pillars, and a cement floor. There were loading docks at one end, with vehicles parked all the way to the large entrance to the outside. CAJUN commandos were heavily engaged in a firefight near the loading docks. They had begun by fighting against African forces, but when a second enemy force appeared the Africans had been caught from two sides and wiped out.
Several grenades went off almost simultaneously, spraying smoke and shrapnel all around. Juri’s heartbeat monitor suddenly flatlined on Mitch’s section monitor. “Medic! Juri’s down!” He looked over and saw him slumped behind a pillar. He raised his rifle again and killed one of the Russians who had thrown a grenade. John, the team’s medic, arrived behind Mitch. “I’ll cover. Go check him out. Leon, cover fire for John!” Both men laid down long bursts of automatic fire, temporarily suppressing the Russians, while John dashed over. The medic dragged Juri behind a shipping container and began working on him.
Mitch’s team of five was down to three fighters as John was trying to resuscitate Juri. Leon had an arm wound, but was still in the fight, leaving him and Cathy as the main shooters. The Russian commandos outnumbered them two to one even after two of them had been taken out. Worse yet, the Russians were beginning to flank them as their higher volume of fire was keeping them pinned. Cathy fired a grenade from the launcher mounted under her rifle at a Russian dashing between cover positions. The grenade exploded next to the battlesuited Russian and sent him flying through the air. Chips of cement bounced off Mitch’s helmet as Russian bullets gouged pits in the pillar next to him. He threw a hand grenade at the flanking Russians, trying to stem their advance. The blast kept the Russians under cover and bought them some more time.
“Willie, we need backup!” Mitch shouted into his radio. “You need to hit them in the rear.”
The Spetsnatz - elite Russian commandos - were very good, thought Willie. He could see the dire tactical situation on his HUD. “Hold on. We’re almost there.” They had to make this work the first time or the situation was going to become a drawn out firefight that would result in more casualties for his team. Willie’s section was just outside the garage at another entrance to the parking area. To their far left were the loading docks, ahead were some parked cars, and ahead and to their left were the Russians flanking Mitch’s section.
Willie used the camera probe again to determine the Russian positions. “Tomatsu, you’re with me. We’ll go left. Kristen, take your guys and go right. Grenades then rifles.” He then looked at Angie. “You protect the artifact and the civilians.” Angie nodded. She readied her PDW and checked the hallway.
The section formed up at the door, readied grenades, then fanned out at a run. Kristen’s rifle fired a grenade from its undermounted grenade launcher that hit an armoured Russian dead on, bursting his armour open. Four more thrown grenades were already in the air when the Spetsnatz reacted to this new attack. Explosions rocked the Russian positions, blowing another soldier back against a wall. Five rifles began firing into the Russians from behind and from the side. Two more soldiers dropped. Over half the Spetsnatz were down and the others were falling back out of the garage, shooting as they went.
“Let’s go, Mitch!” Willie shouted out. His section fired as they advanced on the Russian positions. Leon and Cathy also advanced from the loading docks and added to the volume of fire. Smoke from explosions and gunfire filled the air. Mitch ran over to Juri and helped John carry him. John had managed to revive him with a portable defibrillator and staunch the flow of blood with medical foam. He now had a weak pulse, but that was the best they could do. They headed towards a medium-sized cargo truck where they loaded him into the box. Mitch took the driver’s seat of the truck and started the engine.
Angie had Shani and her son crouch down next to the artifact case. The sound of bullets ricocheting off the cement wall of the garage transmitted through to the other side as dull thuds and cracks. They were in a short hallway that went straight out into the garage at one end and ended at a T junction at the other end. On either side of the hallway were storerooms that had back walls against the garage. Angie stood at the T junction and nervously scanned both ends of the connecting corridor through her shouldered PDW’s red dot sight. There were multiple doorways off this hall and she could have sworn she had heard faint footsteps. Her night vision wasn’t showing anything though. Suddenly, she saw a head peek from a doorway on her right and she fired a burst at it. “Hostiles behind us,” she called out on the radio.
The head darted back and the bullets left pock marks in the doorway. Another soldier peered out further back and fired a burst of bullets at her. They went wide, but forced her back under cover. She popped back out right away and fired a two long bursts at each position. The first soldier ducked back, but a round hit the second soldier even as he fired again. With a cry of pain the second soldier stumbled backwards. Angie caught him with a full burst as she fired again. This time the soldier went down, the armour piercing rounds punching through his body armour.
There was a stabbing, searing pain in her left shoulder. The loud cracks of a couple of magnum pistol shots echoed down the hallway from behind her. Angie cried out, saw stars from the excruciating pain, but managed to spin back behind cover. A magnum bullet had managed to penetrate her armour from behind. She gasped for air, fighting the shock her body wanted to give in to. Her left arm felt numb and she weakly held her PDW with her right hand only.
Colonel Kybera had a smile of success on his face. He had clearly shot and badly wounded the enemy soldier. His plan to use his bodyguards to distract the foreign soldier had worked. One of the fools had managed to get himself killed, though. He still couldn’t believe that a handful of foreign soldiers had managed to decimate his soldiers and destroy all of his equipment, but he had called for reinforcements. They had stolen the artifact and were now trying to get away. The artifact must be more valuable than he could imagine, and he vowed he would get it back.
“Advance!” Kybera ordered. He ran toward Angie and fired another shot in her direction to keep her head down. Angie shifted back down her hallway, grimacing in pain and fired a wild burst to cover herself.
“Get down!” she called to Shani. She let her PDW hang from its sling and pulled a grenade out with her good hand. She felt lightheaded but concentrated on pulling the pin out. Her left hand didn’t seem to want to obey her and she had to try several times. Succeeding, she counted to two and rolled the grenade around the corner towards the Colonel.
Kybera’s eyes went wide when he saw the grenade appear. He twisted backwards to dive down to the floor, but still caught most of the explosion's force. The blast shredded Kybera and blew the other soldier down. While most of the grenade’s energy had gone down the long part of the corridor, some of the blast caught Angie. She was pushed against the wall, but her armour absorbed it.
Angie staggered back to Shani through the smoky hallway. She felt really weak. Her raider suit had been monitoring her vitals and flashed a warning on her HUD along with the message "Administer combat medication?" Angie activated the medical system. Painkillers and stimulants entered her bloodstream through built-in injectors. Her mind cleared and the pain dulled. “We need to move,” she gasped. “Help me with the crate.” Angie tried to lift the crate, but stumbled instead.
“You need help,” Shani said, as she steadied Angie. Her son had come through the violent events well and also came forward to help. Tomatsu came back in from the garage with another commando. “Angie’s been shot,” Shani told him.
“We’re getting out of here,” Tomatsu replied. “Take her out to the second truck.” He made sure the enemy soldiers were down then grabbed the artifact crate with the other soldier.
Tomatsu helped lift Angie into the box of the second cargo truck. He loaded the artifact next to her and helped Shani and Kwasi climb in. Kristen returned with
the other commando and took the driver’s seat of the truck.
Willie and the remaining commandos began to fall back, firing covering bursts behind them. He threw another grenade through the door that the Russians had retreated through as he boarded the back of the truck that the artifact was on.
“Joshua. We’re ready to go.” Willie could tell from his own visor tactical display that the HARM units had arrived at the research facility.
“In position,” Joshua replied. “I’ll take care of the Russians. Penny will escort you.” His HARM advanced past the garage entrance with its automatic cannon ready.
Dawn had finally arrived at Kahamba. The sky, Joshua’s HARM, and everything else on the ground was lit a fiery red as the sun peeked above the horizon. The Russians who had been forced out of the garage had all been marked on his tactical display by his RPV. He prepared to pivot around the corner to fire on the Russians with the automatic cannon.
His mecha’s AI suddenly called out a warning. “Enemy combat walkers detected ahead.” In the tree line four, not three, enemy light mechas appeared.
Combat walkers took a number of different forms. They could be bipeds or quadrupeds, human-piloted or purely robotic. These particular bipedal walkers were Russian T22 Reapers carrying human pilots. Each unit was four metres high, and equipped with an light automatic cannon arm and missiles.
These mechas had been waiting to strike again. They were split into two groups and fired on Joshua’s HARM from two quadrants with cannon and missiles at the same time. Armour piercing 30mm shells exploded against the active molecular armour of Joshua’s HARM even as he jumped backwards and dodged to the side. Molecular armour was an incredibly tough alien material that became even tougher when energized with sufficient voltage. Only a HARM unit or other large vehicle could contain a large enough power plant for it.
“Deploying countermeasures,” X automatically replied. Chaff and flares popped out from the HARM again. “Eight incoming missiles.”
The HARM was only taking minor damage from the concentrated cannon fire, but it could always become more serious if sensors and joints were hit. The real danger was from the anti-tank missiles, whose warheads could burn through molecular armour.
Joshua turned his HARM sideways to present the smallest possible cross-section to the missiles and ran. Additional chaff burst out. The missiles were supersonic and he had just seconds left. A squealing tone over his headset indicated that a missile was about to hit and he power jumped his HARM. The jump shot him up in the air over 20 metres of distance. Between the chaff and the jump, five missiles missed and exploded behind him. In mid-jump, X tracked the remaining missiles and automatically detonated beehive boxes mounted on the HARM unit. Each beehive was a curved sheet of explosive coated with flechettes, much like a claymore directional mine. Several dense waves of projectiles shot out, exploding the last missiles in the air.
“Missile threat eliminated,” his mecha’s AI confirmed.
Landing rockets fired and the HARM’s legs bent to absorb the impact shock of the landing. Joshua was jolted inside his cockpit and immediately turned his HARM to face the enemy mechas again. Seeing their attack had failed, the enemy mechas all popped smoke and dodged back. Joshua managed to target one. “Coilgun, burst mode.” He lined up the coilgun and fired a burst that tore one Russian mecha into flaming pieces.
Behind his HARM, Penny called out “Engaging.” She fired a burst from her coilgun and a second mecha exploded in a ball of flame.
“Two T22s destroyed. Other enemy mechas are retreating,” X confirmed. “Target remaining mechas with Helldarts?”
Checking his tactical display, he saw that the remaining Spetsnatz were also in full retreat. They were bounding away in their battlesuits as fast as they could. There was no point in engaging. The Russians had tried, but they were outmatched this time. “Negative on Helldarts. Do not engage.”
“Standing down on Helldarts,” his mecha’s AI confirmed.
The mecha engagement had been short, but sharp. “It’s all clear,” Joshua called out.
“Let’s get rolling,” Willie ordered. “Get us out of here.” The two trucks drove out of the garage past Penny’s HARM unit. Her HARM unit turned and easily kept pace by running next to the vehicles with its massive strides. Joshua’s HARM brought up the rear.
***
The two trucks drove down the two lane highway, staying at 70 kilometres per hour so the HARMs could keep up. The drive away from Kahamba had gone smoothly so far. Penny’s HARM ran ahead of the vehicles, while Joshua’s HARM brought up the rear. They would shortly arrive at the old airstrip that was still a long distance away.
“Bad news, amigo,” Willie radioed to Joshua. “Angie was shot in the back. She lost a lot of blood, but I’ve stopped the bleeding. Readouts say she’s stable for now. The medic can work on her some more in the plane. He’s good.”
“No!” Joshua was stunned by the news. He hadn’t been prepared for anything like this. This morning he would have never expected his girl friend to be shot in combat. Joshua’s mind was racing. “Shit… How did it happen?”
Willie could sympathize with his friend. “Final minutes of the firefight in the garage. She was behind, protecting the artifact and the civilians. Some of the local soldiers hit us from the back---“
Joshua cut in. “Goddammit! You were supposed to protect her!”
“Listen!” Willie changed his tact, his tone becoming firm. “It was a mess in there. She could take care of herself, and she did. She took out three enemy soldiers, saved the artifact, and saved the civilians. You should know better.”
“But…” Joshua halted himself in mid-sentence. He had to calm down. He took a deep breath. “Sorry about that,” he apologized.
“It’s all good.” Willie accepted his apology. “Wait, Angie wants to say something."
Angie's voice was weak. "I'm not dead, you big lug." They had taken off her helmet to work on her injury and passed her the headset from it. "Don't blame Willie. Blame me. I'll pull through, but you get us to the airstrip.”
“Gotcha,” Joshua replied. He was still worked up, but calming down.
"I know it's complicated, but I love you. We’ll work all this out later. That's a promise."
"Okay. I'll hold you to that. I... I love you too."
There was a slight chuckle from Angie, followed by a grunt of pain that told him she shouldn't have been laughing. "Men..." she said, "Love you too. Now get us out of here."
"You make sure you take it easy. I'll get us out." Joshua closed the channel.
“She's tough,” Penny added after the conversation stopped. “You don't hear 'I love you' on the comms every day," she joked. "I think she’ll be fine,” she said more seriously. “I like her, Joshua - she’s a good person.”
“Thanks,” Joshua smiled a little to himself. Penny was always the sensitive one in the platoon. “I know. Lots of shocks today. Lets get this mission done.”
“Roger that. My RPV still shows the airfield as clear.”
“That’s good. Signal for pickup," Joshua told Penny.
X broke into the conversation. “Captain Scott, local signals traffic has been increasing.” The AI had been scanning the surrounding terrain and monitoring the radio frequencies. “An air raid alert is now being issued.”
Joshua was worried about their ride home. “Did they detect the transport?”
“Unlikely. Air defences are activating to the west of us. Our transport is to the northeast.” The AI paused for a second to process more data. “Pan African missile batteries have engaged six unknown targets approaching at supersonic speed, but to no effect. They are coming in low and cannot be effectively engaged. Unknowns originated in the Congo and are likely Blue Newt in origin. They are large units and appear to be mecha carriers.”
Things were not getting better, Joshua thought to himself. “Where are the unknowns heading?”
The AI almost seemed to hesitate, something which was not within
operational parameters. “Current course indicates they are coming directly at us. They are approximately four minutes out. I do not understand how they have found us.”
“Maybe it was the EMP?” Joshua guessed. “Expect more action, everyone. Looks like the Newts are heading for us too.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Willie shook his head in disgust. “Why don’t we just place an ad on the front page of the news next time? Everyone seems to know about this.”
“That would not improve operational secrecy,” X replied.
“That was humour, X.” Joshua had to smile. “Listen up. I don’t have much of a plan, but let’s try this unless someone has a better idea.”
“I’m listening,” Willie replied.
“They’re going to be after the artifact too. When they arrive, Penny and I will hold them off. Willie, you just drive straight for the airfield at full speed. We’ll buy you the time you need.”
