by Dan Davis
There was not quite room for all of them to fit in. Ram passed the wounded engineer to the others to carry so that the injured man would quickly get to relative safety. While Milena and the civilians went through the cycle, Ram stood outside and watched the distant Marine fire teams spreading around the new threat. Rounds ricocheted from the armor of the rumbling enemy tank but many of the Marines kept up their fire anyway.
“They should hold fire,” Ram said to the Marines around him. “Unless they’re trying to lure the alien tanks to them. What do we have that would take out those Wildcat vehicles?”
Ensign Tseng scoffed. “You do not have anything. Leave it to the real professionals, Seti.”
When the airlock door hissed open, Tseng and Private Cooper ducked inside.
“You too, sir,” Sergeant Stirling said from beside him. “Into the airlock,” he added.
“I’m going to help,” Ram said, pointing across through the drifting dust at the edge of the battle beyond.
“Going to attack the alien tank with your sword, sir?” the sergeant said.
“If I have to.”
“If it’s a fight you’re after, sir, the wheelers are also attacking the front of the outpost, which is full of useless civilians looking to us Marines to help them,” Stirling said. “So, respectfully, sir, get inside the fucking airlock.”
Ram ducked inside and the Sergeant slammed the airlock door behind both of them.
CHAPTER FOUR
“That’s a bloody wheeler tank, Mehdi, one of those Wildcat bastards,” Kat shouted from the cockpit. “Get your skinny ass back down here, now.”
The view through the cockpit windows showed little more than views of the green-blue sky and the tops of the jagged, black hills with the clouds above. But she had sight of the entire area through the shuttle cameras relaying live images from all around and could see the enemy approaching the outpost. Even though the square structure was big enough to house over a hundred people, from this distance it seemed so isolated and vulnerable. A fort in enemy territory.
“Marines will deal with it,” Mehdi said, speaking with infuriating slowness. “Remember the briefing on it? They had one in the last attack and it withdrew after they hit it with small arms. I don’t think that weapon on top has the range to reach us. There’s no rush, Kat.” He was up on the roof with his gear and enjoying his vantage point.
She took a breath before answering and focused on keeping her voice level and professional. “That weapon is on a vehicle, Mehdi. A wheeled vehicle that is rolling this way, which makes the range on the weapon of little relevance, right? Don’t make me say it, mate.”
“Kat—”
“I’m Lieutenant fucking Xenakis and I’m ordering you down from the exterior of my shuttle. Now.”
Mehdi hesitated before he grumbled his reply. “Acknowledged.”
“Jesus Christ,” Kat muttered to herself, “why does he have to argue about every single little fucking pointless thing? Twat.”
Sheila piped up. “Fuel rebalancing completed. All engines ready.”
“Thank you, Sheila, love. Are these batteries reading correctly? Sixty-eight percent?”
“Confirmed. Kinetic breaking restored twelve percent of total capacity.”
The aliens were pressing their attack against the outpost but she could not see them directly from her view out the cockpit window. That was just fine by her. Kat wanted to get the hell out of there, just as soon as the wounded were all onboard.
A wheelhunter shell burst close to the cockpit, showering Captain Cassidy’s Command Team with debris. Surely, the teams close to the outpost were getting hit by direct enemy fire. The Marines were certainly shooting back, she could see them
It was unsettling to have the comms jammed and be unable to communicate with them, with Captain Cassidy in particular. But she had to trust him and his Marines to do their job and she had to be focused on her own.
“How long until Optimal Launch Window for fastest rendezvous with the Victory?”
Fuel was not a consideration as they had enough to do two trips without refueling if need be. But she had a duty to get the wounded up to the ship’s medical team as soon as was possible.
“Optimal Launch Window in twenty-two minutes.”
Kat whistled. “Nice. Where are the outpost evacuees?”
“First group boarding now. Second on the ground, approaching at speed.”
“Sheila, have I ever told you that I love you?”
“I live for those moments.”
“Ha ha, Sheila, you crack me up.”
Behind her, Mehdi dropped down the ladder in a shower of equipment and microdrones.
“They can’t take out that tank,” he shouted. “It’s stopped advancing but they hit it with three rockets and it’s still firing.”
She turned in her seat. He was frantically stowing his gear into the lockers. “All the heavy weapons are in the crates on the landing strip, they haven’t had time to deploy them.”
Kat hesitated. She did not want to get involved with combat. That was not her job. On the other hand, there was an option they had trained for.
“Mehdi,” she said. “Go and help Sergeant Wu set up the cannon on the ramp? We’ll try to provide supporting fire as we take off.”
“There’s not much time,” Mehdi said. “I’ll get Gunny Wu to man the weapon.”
“No,” Kat said. “Him and his team are going to stay planetside so you’ll have to man the cannon.”
“No way,” Mehdi said. “No way, link the controls to Sheila remotely.”
“You know she can’t operate weapons, Mehdi.”
“That’s only on humans,” he said. “Not aliens.”
“Yeah, I know but it’s a core restriction. It’s embedded in her. She just can’t do it.”
“Bullshit,” he said. “You get around every other restraint it’s supposed to have, why not this? Sheila? You can operate a weapon against aliens, right?”
The AI, wisely, kept silent.
“You’ll be okay,” Kat said. “There’s no indication that the wheelhunters can shoot up.”
“Are you joking right now?”
“Mehdi, don’t be a coward. Anyway, you don’t have to make any decisions here, it’s alright. I’m ordering you. Now get back there and do your job. You said yourself that the Marines need our help. If you live through this, you’ll be a hero, Mehdi. I swear to you, I’ll make sure you get a medal. They’ll put your face on all the UNOP promotional shit, you’ll see.”
He sighed dramatically and stomped out of the cockpit. All he ever wanted was recognition. She felt sorry for him, felt sorry about the fact that he was so easy to manipulate.
That’s the job, Kat. Professional asshole.
The internal cameras showed wounded evacuees were strapping into their chairs in the passenger compartment. A few more pulled themselves up the steps into the shuttle.
Out the front window, the Wildcat kept up its rate of fire, spitting long streams of white-hot plasma or whatever the hell it really was. The Marines were huddled in the craters caused by the wheelhunters and any slight depressions and decent sized boulder on the plain. She had to get in the air.
“Sheila, spin up the wheel motors and make sure they’re running okay before we taxi.”
“Confirmed.”
While the huge electric motors hummed into life, Kat brought up the video feeds of the rear. They showed Marines driving away in the two ETAT-24s, both machines weighed down with equipment and dragging cargo sledges, moving away from her shuttle. She could see no one else outside and just a few crates and scattered packing material, nothing that her wheels could not crush with ease.
Mehdi was making last minute additions to his heavy weapon emplacement on the cargo ramp. The heavy-duty tripod was bolted to the deck, the gun system mounted on the gimbled joint in between. Kat watched Mehdi fixing the belt of ammo to the gun and locking it in place. The shells were massive. She hoped that they would do the tr
ick.
I need to get in the air.
“Sergeant Wu, please confirm that you and the Marines are clear and away.”
The response was garbled and died away into nothing.
“They are well clear, Lieutenant,” Mehdi said, coming in clear. The shuttle’s comms system was powerful and shielded well enough for space, whereas the Marines’ comms systems—integrated into their armor—was puny by comparison. “I’m seriously exposed back here, Kat. The nest we’ve built isn’t exactly a bunker. Can you see this? Some crates glued together, and a bunch of saggy sandbags on the outside. There’s no way it will stop one of those wheeler shells.”
“Well, you’ll just have to make sure you take them out first. You’re looking great, Mehdi. Raise the ramp by two meters and strap yourself in tight. Pilot out.”
“Take them out first? Are you crazy? You do know I’m never going to hit one of those tanks with this absurd, great—”
She muted his comms and checked her control panels.
“Sheila, are there any problems?”
“Rather surprisingly, everything is nominal. That has to be a first, Kat.”
Kat laughed. “Keep your witticisms under control until we’re in space, Sheila. We don’t have time for personality right now.”
“Confirmed. Boring mode enabled.”
Kat rolled her eyes and disengaged the breaks and eased the shuttle backwards. It felt good to be moving again. Moving away from the battle that seemed to be growing in intensity with every passing minute.
Ahead, where the Wildcat sat shooting bursts of fire at the Marines, a second armored vehicle, a Wildcat identical to the first rolled forward.
It advanced beyond the immobile one, probably going at no more than 20kph but it was enough to scatter many of the Marines that were roughly in its path. Some fell back toward the Lepus, others headed northwest, toward the outpost. But this bought them across the line of fire for the stationary, possibly damaged, wheeler Wildcat.
Kat was watching through her cockpit window with her own eyes just as one of the Marines was hit by a burst of white tracer rounds. It happened moments after as he popped up and started to run for the next depression. The wheeler weapon fire shredded the Marine. The momentum of their run carried them forward but the force of the shots sent the body tumbling away, too. As it did so, the Marine’s body came apart, shredded but elongated and held together by the strength of his EVA armor. There was no blood. Perhaps the rotation of the remains kept the blood inside the flesh and inside the suit. The elongated, shredded body smashed into the black ground like a wet blanket and rolled to a stop, wrapping itself around a cluster of small boulders.
“Sheila, keep an eye on the rim of the lowered ramp. Raise it before it hits the surface.”
She backed away from the battlefield, slowly at first and then accelerating to get completely clear of the remaining cargo sitting in the airstrip.
“We’re going to have to get up in a hurry,” Kat said to Sheila, “so you make sure to turn off all the limiters.”
“Confirmed,” Sheila said, in her serious voice.
“I mean it, don’t you go overriding me.”
“Confirmed,” Sheila said. “I trust you completely, Kat.”
The enemy tank advanced from the hills, swerving now as if turning for the shuttle.
“Spinning you about, Sheila.”
The shuttle’s huge wheels could each turn up to 180 degrees and so her turning circle was as tight as a duck’s ass. They were halfway round when the wheeler shelling began bursting close enough to cause damage. A series of explosions erupted under the left wing, the blast waves rocking the huge machine back and forth. The hull resounded like it was raining metal.
“What the fuck was that?” Mehdi shouted, his voice slow like he was speaking through treacle. Kat’s ERANS had stepped up a gear in response to her spike in adrenaline. It was there to enhance her decision-making speed which was life and death to a combat pilot. But trying to converse with normal humans was infuriating.
She ignored him. “Sheila, report damage.”
“No damage sustained.”
“Really?” Kat felt herself grinning. “Well, alright—”
An almighty bang. The shuttle lurched and Kat felt the impact through her hands and her ass before the sensors reported the damaged location. Her fear response ramped up. As adrenaline surged through her system, her ERANS slowed her perception of reality and so increased her objective reaction time. She watched as the panels around her flashed, the glowing pulses apparently slowed, only for her, from small red dots into photon blooms that fused into lines and curves of text.
DAMAGE. WARNING. RCS THRUSTER #3P.
Just a portside thruster. A minor problem to address when reaching orbit and no danger to takeoff or atmospheric flight.
Mehdi shouted an incoherent cry, the shuttle turning him into full view of the advancing Wildcat and the cargo camera showed a shower of hot debris cascading down from the engines above the open ramp. Mehdi was ducked down inside his sandbagged gun emplacement on the open ramp. She hoped he would not take any direct fire.
As the Lepus came fully about she relaxed a little from the initial panic and immediately felt the world begin to speed up as the adrenaline uptake reduced.
Still, it would take a long time, subjectively-whole seconds in objective time-for the ERANS to back off.
On the screens, she saw the mobile alien Wildcat tank firing its weapon at her shuttle, the images flicking slowly through the frames, a dashed streak of white fire chewing through the exterior of the thruster.
After a final check of fuel flow screen, Kat hit ignition for the Gyrfalcon Engines. She exhaled the breath she didn’t know she had been holding when the shuttle rumbled into life. Praying that nothing would break, she pushed the throttle toward takeoff speed.
The powerful engines responded and the shuttle leapt forward, pushing her back in her seat. It was a delicious feeling and she savored the massive power pushing the machine down the airstrip.
Mehdi was making some sort of groaning sound. She checked the cargo camera and he did not appear injured, simply afraid of getting hit now that the rear was open to the enemy Wildcat fire. But they surged away from it and the enemy fire dropped off.
“Mehdi,” Kat said, hearing her voice come out infuriatingly slowly, “Just like we discussed. Just like we played. Please return fire on those alien tanks.”
Despite her order, he did not move or even acknowledge it. She had to adjust her expectations for the response time for people who did not have ERANS augmentation.
The shuttle bounced down the airstrip, engines purring as they approached optimal output and the amber lights indicated takeoff speed was approaching. She eased the stick back and the barely-loaded shuttle—other than a handful of wounded passengers—responded immediately, almost leaping into the air. She climbed to five-hundred meters, rolled the shuttle and banked to the north.
“Mehdi, you with me, mate?”
“Jesus Christ,” he said. She looked at him on the screen, gripping the massive gun but ducking down behind his meagre protection. “This is crazy, Kat. This isn’t going to work. It’s just like you always say. Let the Marines do their job and we should do ours. If the wheelers take us out, how does that help the mission?”
“I’ll line you up,” she said, not willing to have a debate. Despite that, she had to coach him into acting properly. “And all you need to do is point and shoot. You’ve trained on that gun, Mehdi. Coming about. You’ve trained for it. Point and shoot, that’s all.”
“Jesus Christ, Kat.” She watched his image shaking its head.
“I’m taking us out to the north now and we’ll circle around the outpost once, staying just this side of the hills. I’ll bank over as we go over the wheeler forces. Focus fire on the larger vehicles and leave the wheeler infantry. Even a few hits with the cannon might weaken the armor enough for the rest of them to help.”
“I’ll be
lucky to even hit a mountain with this.”
“I’ll descend and go slow as I can.”
“Jesus Christ, Kat, don’t stall, okay?”
“Mehdi, come on,” Kat said. “Who are you talking to here?”
Looking down on the outpost as she made a wide circle around it, she saw how the wheelers had advanced all the way to the eastern perimeter. In fact, they might have already broken inside. The wheelhunter vehicles rolled out of the hills, just six of them in total but one was hard against the northern corner of the eastern wall - crashed into it, maybe - and the aliens themselves in their black suits were scrambling all over the walls and the roof of the outpost like gigantic spiders.
Most of Cassidy’s Marines were attacking the flank of the wheelhunter assault but they were suppressed by two of the Wildcats. As she banked around the final turn she watched another rocket streak across the surface and smash into the leading tank. The Wildcat shuddered with the impact and stopped in its tracks.
Kat completed the final turn and reduced her speed.
“Time to be a hero, Mehdi.”
“I’m ready,” he shouted, then added something else that broke up.
Her screens flickered. The instruments but also her external and internal cameras, so she could not see what was underneath her cockpit. The wheelhunters flooded the electromagnetic spectrum as part of their attack but Kat had assumed her shuttle was shielded enough to resist that interference. Perhaps passing over them at 500 meters hadn’t been such a good idea.
“Sheila, can you do anything about this jamming?”
The shuttle AI did not answer.
Oh, shit.
The AI core at the rear of her cockpit was protected by additional shielding but it was obviously not enough to guard against the alien electromagnetic disruption technology. However they had weaponized it, they must be going through an enormous amount of energy to send out an endless series of varied pulses, or whatever the hell the bastards were doing.
The shuttle slowed to a hair’s breadth above stalling speed as she passed above the alien attack. Making her best judgement, she fully extended the cargo ramp, increased her speed, climbed and rolled the shuttle to give Mehdi a clear view of the aliens.
