"Airtank!" Arie said. Oh no! The airtank floated over the enemy troopers like a guardian shark, leisurely drifting around the building, apparently in no hurry.
"That's so stupid!" I said in astonishment. "Why would anybody have an airtank way down here? What the hell are they afraid of?"
"Don't give it a thought, Prophet," Smiley said. "My chainlink was specifically designed to bust airtanks. I can erase that bucket of bolts in an instant, no sweat at all."
"They’re setting up to stop us. They're waiting for us," Doggie said. "They heavily outnumber us, and they're heavily armed. Look at all those portable tacstar launchers. Eyemote, enemy count please."
"I count forty-two Darks and twenty-four Demons. Likely it's a combined task force – probably five Dark squads and four Demon squads, with portable artillery and an airtank."
"Attacking head-on will be suicide," Doggie said. "Can't do it."
"So what do we do?" I asked.
"Prof, private please," Doggie said.
They talked for awhile on private, then Doggie returned to the squad net.
"Safeties on," he said. We complied. "All right, here's what we do. We're going for a little walk. I want total silence. No shooting, even if we're fired on. The Prof and I have decided to give our cloaking a little field test. Single column. Maintain your distance. Follow me."
We headed away from the intersection, fading into the massive industrial park that was all around us, walking in pitch darkness past mountains of military supplies with no time to inspect them. Dolly had sketched out a projected path for us. I followed it on my tacmap to see where it led. At first it meandered roughly northwest past scores of huge industrial buildings that were now deserted and silent. Then our path looped around to head west and southwest, then almost directly south, then a sharp turn to head east – and intersect with Track 932. There Dolly's path stopped. Track 932! I followed 932 northeast on the map to the intersection, trembling in excitement. There it was! We were going to hit them from the rear! They were all set up to block us as we headed along 932 out of the northeast. But we'd be attacking them in the rear, from the southwest. Excellent!
It wasn't easy getting there. We proceeded into the dark very carefully. It was nice not having anyone actively trying to kill us, so we were highly motivated to watch our steps. Once we spotted a small group of Darks ahead so we had to make a wide circle around them. Once we came across some biosuited humans who were desperately trying to get a little minecar operating. They never noticed us.
"It's a walk in the park, kiddies," Scout said confidently. "Enjoy it!" There was some sporadic firing off in the distance, but nothing major.
"Looks like they lost us," Arie said.
Blackie was cloaked too so he was just as invisible as the rest of us. He padded along beside Doggie, evidently enjoying the walk.
"Alert! Demons!" They were coming right at us, trotting along the narrow walkway between two rows of building blocks that we had been using as an avenue of approach.
"Against the walls! No movement!" Doggie ordered. There was no place else to go.
It looked like a whole squad of Demons in armor, shielding activated, glowing green in the dark, hauling plasma battle weapons.
"D's safeties are off," Dolly informed us calmly. I went to one knee with my Battlestorm pointed right at the D's. The rest of Delta was strung out along the walkway, frozen against the walls. Honey showed them to me as outlines, but to the Demons they would be invisible – with luck. Willow was wrapped in lizard camfax like some kind of bizarre surprise birthday present – to be opened at your peril.
The Demons jogged past us, crackling green force fields, dirty dark armor, dark green faceplates, black plasma battle rifles. Filthy beasts – I could almost smell them. Their A-suits were full of slimy little parasite worms that attached themselves to the D's, and the symbiosis was so strong that the D's would perish without the worms and the worms would die without the D's. I knew all about these creatures. I had worked with them closely, me and the Prof.
They passed us by, continuing their mad march into the dark. I felt no fear for them – only hatred, and contempt.
"All right, boys and girls, that was fun, no? Let's resume our walk," the Prof said.
Δ
Once we reached Track 932 again, we had to proceed with even more caution. The Darks had left Demon sentries scattered in pairs along the route, maybe to act as a rear guard or maybe just as a routine precaution. Lucky for us the Demons could not defeat our cloaking so we were able to creep our way around their positions without incident and proceed to the next sentry post. We did that several times before we came into sight of the target again – a ghostly tall building plunged in darkness, right at that strategic crossroads, surrounded with Darks and Demons that glowed green in my darksight. The airtank was parked and motionless. We took attack positions along both sides of the road.
"Smiley, you will take out the airtank first with chainlink tacstar, then hose down the troops," Doggie said. "Prophet and Willow, you will fire auto lightning at all Darks and Demons. You will continue firing until there is no further movement. The rest of you, fire canister to penetrate the enemy shielding, then xmax and laser to penetrate their armor. If it's Darks, remember what Prophet said about keeping the focus steady. Hold fire until I give the word. I'll first fire ECP to counter the Demon's ability to launch plasma. Then I'll order you all to open up. Once things look right I'll order an advance – be ready for that. And once you start moving, keep moving. They may or may not be able to see you, but they'll see where the fire is coming from. Our objective is to seize and hold that building, but first we have to kill everybody who’s there. Any questions? Good!"
"Alert! Dark squad approaching on foot!" Damn it! They were coming from the southwest, from our rear, trotting along the road headed for the intersection where the Darks were setting up. And we were between them and their destination. Darks! If they got much closer they could detect us!
"Starburst!" Doggie ordered. "Get away from the road, out of the detection radius, your tacmods will guide you. Set up there and be prepped to return to our attack positions after they pass. Now!" We starburst, as carefully as possible, taking care not to disturb anything. I settled down just out of range and watched the Darks jogging past, lightning rifles at port arms, camfax capes flapping behind them. Hopefully, they would all be dead shortly. And I realized that we, also, might be dead in the same action. But I was dead already, I reminded myself. So it didn't matter, did it?
Δ
As the Dark squad neared the intersection, we re-formed behind them and Doggie fired a couple of ECP rounds. Those were soundless so the Demons were unaware that the plasma function on their battle rifle weapons was now non-functional. I had a good position in a ditch by the side of the road. I raised the Battlestorm's stock to my shoulder. A warm wave flowed through my body. All right, all right, be still, heart. We're all set. This is for Delta, for Honeyhair, for everyone I love.
"Fire," Doggie ordered. I touched the trigger with a lover's gentle caress.
Chapter 17
Rockpile One
The shock of our initial barrage ripped a searing hole in reality and blasted to atoms most everything that was within the target area. Smiley's chainlink tacstars disintegrated the airtank to sparkling fragments in a microfrac, producing a thunderous burst of crackling hissing tracers and as the blinding micronukes whipped towards the cavern roof, Willow and I sprayed the entire area with auto lightning and the bolts burst and cracked and pulsed and shredded everything in a horrific dancing electric blue sphere that gave no sign of ever ending. Then the xmax hit – hundreds of x bursts, auto-x to end the world, deafening and final, and a faint buzz that you could feel more than hear, like a million crazed killer bees, canister darts flying in with the x to take down Dark and Demon shielding. And then laser tracks suddenly appeared, winking and slicing through the shocking light show, just in case anything was still left alive. The squad of marching Darks disappe
ared, blown all to hell from behind. The target area was erupting like a super-volcano and we couldn't see a thing but we did not stop firing. I did not believe anyone could still be alive over there but we were going to ensure it.
"Delta, advance," Doggie ordered. "Kill anything that moves. Take out any resistance from inside the building. Secure the area, enter the building and secure." I got up and moved forward, still firing lightning bolts. There was no let-up in our firing. I aimed at the building, main door, windows, roof. The building slowly disappeared into a glowing eruption of lightning strikes, tacstars and auto x.
"Alert, taking fire! Note enemy positions." The positions appeared on my tacmap, taking fire from those windows, from the roof. I blasted them and the windows blew away and the building shuddered. Somebody was doing airburst x over the roof but I didn't bother doing that. Die, you bastards! Take on humanity, will you? Take on the Legion, huh? Did you think it was going to be easy? Nothing to it – they're just humans. Die, you stinking alien freaks! We're not afraid of you!
We were walking into the inferno, shrapnel pinging off my armor. Somebody was firing flame, spraying it over the rubble just like a garden hose. We were stepping through Hell, a glowing junkyard of shredded, smoking armor, blackened flesh still bubbling, blood spurting, my armor turning red from the heat. Movement! A Dark survivor, slowly burning alive. I brought my E up and blasted him with x. He stopped moving.
"Cease fire! Stay alert!" Doggie ordered. "Ensure they are all dead. Prophet, Smiley, you're on point, get in that building and cleanse it. Go! Delta, follow and set up. I want three hundred and sixty-five degree coverage. Anything that approaches this building is going to die."
Δ
By the time we chased down and finished off the Dark squad that was hiding inside the building, all hell was breaking loose outside. The enemy had figured out exactly where we were, invisible or not, and we were going to live with the consequences. It was a giant six-story building, constructed of massive blocks of artificial stone, and it was serving as a warehouse, full of all types of war material. We didn't have time to investigate anything as the missiles were falling on us almost as soon as we entered. Tacstars and antimats, blasting everything all to hell. Artificial stone was almost indestructible – almost. The building shook and shuddered more with each impact. The noise was deafening. We scrambled to get in place.
"Prophet, you're on the fourth floor," Doggie ordered. "Cover the west – the route and everything else that comes at us from that direction. Smiley, you're on fourth on the east to cover the route in that direction, but be ready to move fast to wherever we need the chainlink. Bees, you and Willow are on fourth to cover the front of the building, the route and the south. Stay dispersed. The Prof and I will be on or close to the roof to let everybody know what's coming. Scout, cover the rear of the building and the north, again on the fourth floor. Saka, you're on the first floor to cover the north. Ice, cover the west from one, the ground floor, and be prepared to guide everybody towards the stairwell to the underground levels if it comes to that. Nitro, cover the east from the ground floor as well and also make sure you can find that stairwell to the basement levels on your side." A series of missiles blasted right into the roof and the building shook.
"Doggie, we've got two more intact lightning weapons we recovered from the gang we took out inside the building," Ice said. "Willow has removed the friends deflection function so they’re set to go. Who gets 'em?"
"Great!" Doggie replied. "Scout and Nitro, now! That way we'll have lightning firepower on all four sides. All right, we're a good target but this is one big bad building and it's going to make a fine fortress when it’s a pile of rubble," Doggie said. "We don't move from here. This is our last stand. Everybody feel free to change position whenever you want, just cover your assigned target areas. Now get in position and check out those eyemote views, there's a whole lot of bad guys coming to visit, real soon. Move it, Delta!"
I hustled to the fourth floor up a stairwell choked with rock dust as tacstars flashed above us and lit me up in fluorescent blue light. I found a good wide window and blasted out the plex. I had a fine view of the southwest and I could cover the road perfectly as it snaked towards us. The eyemotes showed hosts of Darks and Demons, at a dead run along Track 932, headed our way. My! Such enthusiasm. I could hardly wait to blast them with my lovely Battlestorm lightning rifle. It was almost miraculous – the damned thing never needed ammo. Just choose the target and touch the trigger, contact was made, and positive and negative electrical charges sought each other out like murderous traveling lovers and bam! Somebody dies. What a wondrous concept. I could hardly wait. And I felt no fear at all, waiting for those Darks and Demons. None at all. I was dead already, you see? What did I have to fear?
Breakblade, this is Black Angel. Do you receive me? It was Bees, probably at the Prof's direction, trying for telepathic contact with Breakblade.
Black Angel, Breakblade, go.
Situation report. We have attacked into Industrial Sector Nine, we have blocked track 932 and are holding as shown. They're going to have to come through us to get to you.
Understood, Black Angel. Do you require assistance?
Negative, we do not require assistance. Just keep killing Darks.
Will do, Black Angel. Our thanks. We will relieve you when we can.
Good luck, Breakblade. May God's will be done.
More missiles, impacting. The roof started to fall in – huge blocks of stone, tougher than steel, crashing down, raising blinding clouds of dust.
"Recon Ops, this is Delta Research, General Prof. Do you read me?"
"Delta, Recon Ops, we receive."
"Recon, please note our zero," the Prof said. "Sitrep. We have been separated from our host Task Force Glory as they had to emergency teleport to another site. We have attacked into Industrial Sector Nine and are now blocking Track 932 which leads to Zero Alpha Fourteen, which is under attack by the Darks. We're going to hold here."
"Is it just you, Delta?"
"No, we have one Bright with us."
"What's that? You're with a Bright squad?"
"Um, negative, Recon. One Bright trooper. Our total strength is ten."
"Ten. All right, we can't reinforce you, Delta. We've got nobody anywhere near you."
"No problem, Recon. We don't need help. Well, I've got to go. We have visitors."
"May Deadman be with you," Recon said.
No, I thought. We don't need help. We can handle this bunch by ourselves. The lead Dark element was almost within range, hustling along the road. I lay in my position by the open window and targeted the road, waiting for them to appear. Something awful erupted against the outside wall just above me, spraying debris. A little lower and I would have been history. Several tacstars hit all around our fortress, shaking everything. Just a little longer, I thought. Let me kill some Darks before I have to go. Let me do the right thing.
Δ
I laid down an exceptionally accurate field of fire on the advancing Darks and Demons as they came at us from all sides, a giant circle of shielded, armored soldiers, Satan's finest, firing lightning bolts and tacstars and auto x and laser. By that time, the Demons had discovered that their plasma firing mechanisms did not work so at least we did not have to worry about plasma.
They all learned very quickly that they could not march through the lightning that I was dropping on them. Willow, Scout and Arie were blasting them with their own lightning bolts. Ice was firing on them with canister darts and auto xmax from below me, and Bees was doing the same from her fourth floor position at the front of the building. Prof and Doggie were joining in from the roof. The rest of the gang was equally busy because the hostiles were coming at us from all sides. The enemy was trying to break free of the conflagration of lightning, tacstars, canister darts and auto x but was not succeeding. They were being torn to shreds and cut down – like a scythe through grain, I realized with a thrill. My prayer! Give them strength, let their aim b
e true and let them move through the enemy like a scythe through the grain.
"Smiley, move to east, Nitro, keep covering the west. We need the chainlink to stop these crazy bastards."
"Doggie, Smiley. Coming."
Enemy missiles were now dropping on us like rain, thundering and flashing, rattling the building to pieces. I could see them on my tacmap, coming at us like swarms of bloodsucking mosquitoes, dropping fast and erupting on our fortress. The top floors began to collapse.
"Building coming down," Doggie said. "Seek shelter and–"
An awful rumbling boom shook us all and the building buckled, falling in on itself. It felt like it all fell on me personally as I struggled to flatten myself on the floor of a narrow aisle between stacks of large dropboxes. Two stories and the roof, right on my head. I closed my eyes and prayed for life. I was not through yet! I wanted to dig myself out and keep on killing Darks. I wanted to die defending my comrades!
It's hard to hurt yourself in an A-suit. I opened my eyes. I was alive, but it was dark all around me. The noise of the battle continued. I was surrounded by rubble, giant blocks of stone and unidentifiable debris, barely visible in my darksight. I had no idea where I was. My cloaking was off. Honey reported my torch spot was damaged. I dug into my ratpack and pulled out the little present that Good Soul had given me. I activated it and was immediately encased in a soft blue-white glow that lit up everything beautifully. Light for the darkness, she had telepathed. Peace and love. What a touching present. There was nothing magical about it – it was just a torch. But it was straight from the heart. Light – and love.
"Crawl southwest, Prophet," Honey said. "As marked." I crawled, struggling between giant chunks of stone, using the A-suit's superhuman strength to push aside impossible obstacles. I reached a breach in the wall. I could see the Darks, coming at us, as if revived by seeing the building go down. I poked the Battlestorm out the breach in the wall and fired. I fired auto, spraying their line of advance. The bolts tore them to pieces. I was overjoyed.
Prophet and the Blood March (Prophet of ConFree) Page 37
