He realized he was on the ground, he didn’t try to shake his head, feeling the groggy pain that seemed to wrap his skull.
“MOVE IT TROOPERS!” Someone yelled through the channel. Mark didn’t need any more damned encouragement. He certainly didn’t need anyone yelling with his fucking headache.
He grabbed his weapon without conscious thought, his legs pushing him off towards his target. He looked for Tyler, seeing his brother ahead of him, running like damned hell.
He ran like he had never run before, his augments powering him onwards.
The emplacement he had been firing on were down but others kept going. Tyler opened a hole in a wall, Jerome and Pullo were with him. Mark looked on the map seeing Captain Nerva was wounded, he’d lost his legs and was bleeding out.
Mark changed his direction, letting his commanding officer die on his watch was not going to look good in the least.
“Captain, put that fucking hand up.”
“Not about to surrender right now Mark,” Nerva said, his voice tight with pain but still keeping that measured cool tone.
“Put it up!” Mark jumped between boulders and over jagged metals and shit that stuck up all over the place. He saw men and women get cut down, like the crops of a field that must be cut down by a scythe.
Nerva did so and Mark grabbed it, rolling and feeling it come out of it’s socket as he heaved Nerva on his back, even without his legs he was still pretty damned heavy.
Mark didn’t pay it much heed as he rocked on his feet, but pushed forward.
He used the wall to stop himself, Nerva’s stubs hitting the wall.
“Fucking Hades Mark!” Nerva said, his voice containing heat for the first time since Mark had known him.
Mark got him off of his back, pulling out his med kit covering his stubs with spray liberally.
“I got it, get those fucking emplacements down,” Nerva said, grabbing his own med kit.
“Sir.” Mark pulled his rifle up and around, firing grenades into an emplacement along the side until it went silent. He reloaded without thought, slapping mags into his gun and popping them off as fast as his gun was lined up with his target.
A gun emplacement fired turning the wall he was beside into dust. He fell backwards, backpedalling, his heart beat seemed to rock his chest, anger drove him to his feet as he dropped out his old grenade mag and slapped in a new one. keeping his mind focused on where that gun had shot at him.
He stepped out, firing as fast as possible, a gun fired again and pushed him backwards.
“Other side Mark!” Nerva said.
Mark turned and ran past Nerva to see the emplacements firing into the night. Again he fired his grenades. One of them exploded outwards but it hadn’t been one that he was firing at.
He pulled back, opening his map. Some forces had made it inside and were helping to break in.
Mark switched to his comms, “hey Tyler, get your ass back here. Nerva got his ass knocked backwards, lost his damn legs and all.”
“Coming,” Tyler answered.
Mark leaned against the wall, slapping in a new magazine. While he’d been looking at the map he noticed a group of three guns were wreaking havoc on the troopers.
He needed something that packed more damned punch than his grenade launcher.
“Nerva, I have a target for you if you can get one of the combat shuttles to launch a missile at it,” Mark said.
“Aim your weapon at it and transmit it and I can get you missiles,” Nerva said.
Mark aimed at a target, the automatic range finder acting like a locating system to get the position of the target.
Missiles thundered into his target, the wall erupting into a burning wreck and a fountain of rubble.
“Booyah!” Mark yelled, aiming at a new emplacement.
Someone slapped him on the shoulder making him turn around in confusion.
“Hey Bro, let’s see if we can’t get in on some of that action.” He pinpointed more targets for the combat shuttles. They continued to stay away from the city but their missile pods were still ready and waiting.
Other units around their districts were getting the same ideas, emplacements that had revealed themselves were now getting smashed from above by missile fire.
“Get back here and get the Captain into cover!” Pullo said, just getting to the wall, he was wounded but not severely. Gupta and Utkin’s profiles were solid red, Jerome was in the building fighting; Mark couldn’t see Dolche’s tag but it didn’t matter since he had no time to check on everyone. He was already moving to help get Nerva inside.
The Captain needed a printer and soon, right now he was more of a liability than an asset.
Explosions made the world tilt occasionally, their helmets sound canceling systems unable to keep up with the onslaught.
“Put me against a wall and push into the city. We need to establish a beach head,” Nerva said.
“Sir…” Pullo started to protest.
“Sergeant that is a direct order. I’m one man and there are thousands of our troopers out there, pushing into the colonist’s front door. There sure to try and get rid of us, hopefully that will mean diverting people from the guns on the outside. We need to capitalize on our initial push, so get our people together and push forward, as more come in I’ll send them your way. One of the medics is sure to find me and get me mobile again, now move!” Nerva said.
“Yes sir,” Pullo turned from Nerva. “Any and all personnel inside the colonist’s district, I want you to link up with myself. I will be moving forward in order to pressure the enemy and press the attack further.” His marker started blinking on the map as he made himself a rally point.
Mark and Tyler followed, Jerome wasn’t far behind, others from the regiment added themselves from different avenues. They were in a factory that much was clear, but it had been stripped bare.
An explosion rippled force from the distance, sending the remains of whoever had unfortunately stepped on it flying away.
Pullo growled, “Fucking mines,” at what remained of the trooper. Then he turned back to his group and continued, “okay we’re going to do this quick and dirty. Troopers with E-12’s in a line, walk your fire from in front of you to across the room, be liberal with grenades.”
Shouts came down for people to move down as a line came into existence, Pullo and those in the centre were already firing, their grenades setting off the mines in front of them. The colonists had got smart, too smart for Mark’s liking, Fuckers were using the metal in the floor to hide their own mines.
It was as quick and Dirty as Pullo had said.
They had nearly two-sections worth of troopers with them now.
They ran forward towards one of the corridors that linked with the old factory they were in with one past it.
A weapon emplacement fired, it’s heavy thumping rounds turning the first trooper to cross its path into red spray, the second who was going too fast to stop lost a chunk of their side and a leg.
People on the other side of the corridor rushed to pull him out of the way and administer medical aid. Mark was pretty sure it was already too late.
“Shit, Mark, Tyler go and check the other access corridors.’ Pullo said.
“I’ve got right,” Tyler replied, moving away from the gaggle of troopers around the corridor.
“I’ve got left.” It didn’t take Mark long to get to the next corridor. He peeked out, his helmet’s sensors registering the emplacement that lay waiting.
“Got one here,” Tyler said.
“Same,” Mark sounded.
“Shit,” Pullo .
“Why don’t we go over the top? Run on the corridors or beside them and come in from the sides?” Tyler asked.
“That’s exactly what we’re going to do, good thinking,” Pullo said, jumping on the wider-spread channel and passing out orders.
Mark pulled back from the wall, giving himself some good distance before he fired a grenade into the wall, it shifted but didn’
t open. It took two more grenades to open the wall up, sections of the wall above coming down with his remodeling.
He moved up to look outside, his scanners had some trouble with the dust and shit but they recognized some mines on the ground.
“Sir, we’ve got mines on the ground, running on top of the corridors would be my bet,” Mark said on a private channel.
Pullo didn’t acknowledge but instead changed his orders. People moved away from the walls and blew holes in them.
A group moved to Mark. He got outside, bracing himself against the topped corridor and linked his hands together, other troopers used him as a ladder.
The last two reached down and helped to drag/lift Mark’s ass onto the roof.
“You put on a few pounds or something?” One of them said afterwards.
“Just gotta make things interesting,” Mark joked, paying attention to the other groups that were getting onto their corridors.
“Okay, move it Troopers, blast open those walls and drop grenades right on those fucking guns,” Pullo said, before he finished his sentence Troopers were running for the other factory the corridor’s connected.
The lead trooper’s grenades arced into the wall above the corridor, Mark couldn’t see if it fell or not but they kept on firing.
To his right Mark saw a corridor’s roof open up as a gun fired into it, they had figured out what the troopers were doing now.
Repulsors fired back as other troopers rushed on, continuing to fire their grenades as fast as they could.
The gun at the end of Mark’s corridor was ominously silent.
Mark’s HUD populated with threat markers inside the factory and he could see weapons fire coming through the holes of the factory.
“Get on the second floor and fire down on them!” Pullo barked.
Mark fired into the windows of the second floor. Others acted as ladders this time, people used their hands to jump themselves onto the second floor.
Mark felt sorry for the trooper that took his weight as he dragged himself onto the second floor. He was on a catwalk that cut off the factory into bays.
There were colonists everywhere on the factory floor, they had been hiding behind the weapon emplacements that were now silent as their gun crews looked to face off with the threat from above.
Mark thumbed grenades and tossed them down at a gun emplacement, he was rewarded with a building-shaking explosion as the weapon turned into twisted slag and its ammunition cooked off.
He fired grenades into the groups that were trying to find cover on the bare factory floor. Some massive machines had been left but the E-12 under-barrel grenade launcher earned it’s pay pushing them out.
Mark used his weapon as a machine gun, holding it down as he directed it across the colonists that were now trying to retreat.
“Don’t let them get away, keep engaging them from the rear!” Pullo said.
New fire from below ripped into the fleeing colonists, a new section was pushing up from behind through the now dead gun emplacements.
“Out onto the corridors and move forward!” Pullo yelled.
Mark got up, finding he had a piece of shrapnel in his lower back where his unarmored ass met his back armor plates.
Grunting he pulled the damned thing out and moved on, he didn’t have time to spray, they needed to keep the pressure up.
Chapter 18
Processing City
Sacremon Actual, Sacremon System
7/3171
General Orlav had the history of Sacremon, reaching as far back as when the first colonists had settled on the planet. They had toiled under the companies to etch out a living on the planet that fought them every step of the way. The CEO’s lived in the top of their towers and watched their suffering families devote their lives to trying to make something for those that would follow.
The system rewarded those that screwed over their neighbor for positions. The CEO’s only cared about production costs, showing off to one another while making as much money as possible. To them life wasn’t a struggle, it was a game where having money was the ultimate way in which one should their capabilities and that helped them maintain their grasp on power.
Orlav and the people of Sacremon asked for more food to feed their families, it was the first time in history that they actually stood together as a people and demanded a share of equality, so that they could prosper as a people and provide a better future for the next generation. They were rewarded with a twenty percent cut by their CEO’s.
They knew what would happen if the planet rebelled, the stories of the EMF descending on planets that had rebelled against their CEO masters were a constant on Television.
What they didn’t know is just how damned possessed the bastards are. He looked to the map of Processing city, all of the other cities had fallen. Four million people had been spread across those cities.
He had thought he had them when the cities started defending themselves. Then the EMF came out of the forests and attacked Growing City.
They’d used a CEO to get the support they needed to save the seventy or so troopers that were left from that initial wave. When the combat shuttles had descended he had watched with cold fury as they systematically wiped out the cities defenses and proceeded to take it from the people.
In a day they had gone from nearly wiping out every force that had landed on the first wave, to losing and entire city and having a carrier group’s worth of Troopers pressing out on every other.
“The forces in District Seven are in retreat, Troopers are right behind them,” Dawson Sylvia, one of Orlav’s aides said.
“Show me,” Orlav said, his hands tightening on the table which displayed the entire city with colored infographics.
Cameras input showed on one half of the wall, the other half showing a close up of the area which was slowly but surely falling back.
Colonists that had never seen the kind of destruction that EMF troopers could dish out. They were fleeing past weapon emplacements, blocking the gun’s line of sight.
Rounds cut into the backs of the retreating colonists but none of the troopers appeared in the corridors.
Then explosions rocked the gun emplacements as holes appeared from above.
“They’re running on top of the corridors to shoot down on our people,” Sylvia surmised.
Orlav ground his teeth. They had come up with weapons, plans of attack and defense, they had developed weapons and tactics but they had never come under engagement. His colonists were farmers, workers, some had been more prone to violence than others but in the large part they were peaceful people pushed to do what they had to do in order to defend their families.
“Third district’s outer defenses have fallen,” Sylvia said, a note of satisfaction in his voice, the casualties being inflicted by the outer defenses were terrible. Yet the EMF rushed onwards into that fire, their missiles and mortars had pounded his emplacements from above.
Other district’s outer defenses were now falling but Colonists manned those walls, piling fire into oncoming troopers who used their mortars as covering fire to move in for the kill.
His eyes darted back to the information on district seven.
“Reinforce them and give the order to gun emplacements to shoot the corridor’s roofs. Have our people use the tunnels to get behind them and push back at their walls, then we’ll smash those that are advancing into our defenses between our forces,” Orlav said, wishing he didn’t have to use his tunnel system so early in the battle.
“I want the next factory moving forward and ready to engage, we need to counterattack and halt these bastards as soon as possible,” Orlav said, his face grim as he looked at the troopers that had gotten through a quarter of his district’s defenses.
He watched as one fired through a window bashing through it with his body, not even regarding the shards that rained off of him as he fired down onto the fleeing forces.
There was a quick and deadly proficiency to the troopers as they fi
red into their victims without any seeming remorse.
It was hard to think of them as humans behind those featureless helmets. Only their dead that lay to the rear showed that they weren’t the juggernauts they appeared to be.
***
Mark slammed a new mag into place and ripped the bolt back to the rear, firing as soon as the first round slammed home.
They had the colonists on the run and they were pressing hard. There had been no time to see to the wounded, the medics were following behind getting them back into action as forces moved through the already secured area, trying to keep up with the lead elements.
“I’m out, dropping pack!” Someone yelled.
“Covering!” Mark said, he only had a few mags and a pack holding enough ammunition for four people.
“I’m good!” They yelled and Mark changed out with them, they were on the upper floor of a factory, this one’s catwalks were more substantial, giving them better cover, but also making it hard to see below. As they continued there was more and more machinery that had been left behind which gave the colonists better cover.
It’s taking us longer to get reinforcements and while we’re losing a few here and there, and killing a hell of a lot more colonists. The colonists have people in every fucking factory.
Mark heard fire from behind him as he pulled magazines out of the pack and threw them in his various pouches.
He paused looking in the direction and pulling up the information of what was behind him on his implants.
“We’ve got colonists behind us!” He yelled to Pullo.
“What?” Pullo said, sounding caught off guard, Mark could hear his weapon firing in the background and then die off.
“Fuck,” Pullo said, announcing that he had seen what Mark was seeing. “Troopers hold firm, clear out the factory Warrant Demir I want you to take half of our forces and perform a rearguard it looks like the colonists got behind us somehow.”
“Sir.” Demir picked his people, Mark was one of them.
“Alright we’re going to move back to the old factory and hold there. Move it!” Demir said, about a section of the three sections that were on the front moved back. Seven were on the second floor, the rest were on the ground.
Sacremon (Harmony War Series Book 1) Page 27
