Price of Freedom: Age of Expansion - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (The Bad Company Book 3)

by Craig Martelle

  “Suit up!” Kaeden ordered and fifteen warriors left the formation to join him. Familiar faces and names—Praeter, Capples, Kelly, and more. They climbed in, buttoned up, and cycled the systems as part of a functions check.

  Sixteen mechs with sixteen unarmored warriors as partners. They’d deploy two by two because they had to cover a lot of territory. Being bunched up might have been safer, but it would not have accomplished the mission.

  That had been Terry’s reasoning, and no one disagreed.

  They split up, either two or three mechs per drop ship plus the warriors, the Weres, the vampires, and the enhanced.

  Bundin ambled aboard with Dokken.

  Extra water supplies had been loaded into the shuttles, and the ballistic canisters had been loaded with ammunition and water in case combat expenditures exceeded estimates.

  Terry’s estimates. He was counting on a few pieces of the puzzle to fall into place. By way of the shuttle’s boosted communications system, he had a direct line to Ted. Timing would be critical for his plan to work.

  The colonel surveyed the hangar bay. Once the drop ships had been loaded, it was as if they’d never been there. Terry twirled his finger in the air, and one by one the drop ships buttoned up. He strapped in as the ramp closed on his shuttle.

  “Smedley, begin the countdown,” Terry ordered.

  “From three. Two. One.” The drop ships launched into space simultaneously and then assumed unique vectors toward the atmosphere. Using the hot zone as a buttress, they planned to clear the northern hemisphere first, then exfiltrate and conduct a similar operation in the southern hemisphere.

  Less than fifty people in teams of two.

  The drop ships skipped and burned as they descended, but once into the clear air it was time.

  “Ted, activate the weapon,” Terry said, and Smedley made sure the signal got through. In moments Charumati started to blink and looked around her, tilting her head.

  Cory’s eyes stopped glowing and panic seized her. “I can’t heal anyone!”

  Terry flexed his arm. He felt weak and suddenly tired. He growled. “Power through it, people. The nanos are now drawing power from you! Eat some jerky or a protein bar. These creatures are going to be suffering, too, but I know we can operate without the Etheric energy. I am betting that they cannot. We’re here for a reason, people, because in the whole universe there’s one fighting force that can adapt, that can operate no matter what they’re up against. The Skrima can stand by. Here comes the Bad Company.”

  He started to rock as he prepared for the landing.

  “Ted, activate the infrared sensors and let’s see what we see.”

  The front screens of the six shuttles were overwhelmed by heat signatures from the planet. Incrementally, Ted engaged filtering algorithms until the screen cleared up.

  “How many Skrima are we looking at?” Terry asked, seeing few blips.

  “Four hundred and twelve,” Smedley replied.

  “Thank God! Adjust drop locations to maximize engagement envelopes.” Terry unbuckled and moved close to the screen. He blocked the view from the other passengers, but something had tickled his brain. “The Skrima are exclusively in the northern hemisphere, but they’re not bunched up. It looks like they hunt in pairs.”

  “New drop locations are highlighted on the screen,” Smedley reported.

  Terry stepped aside for all to see. The mechs remained facing the rear deck, but Terry had no doubt their cameras were zoomed in on the screen—unless Smedley was projecting the images directly onto their HUDs.

  “Kimber. I need you to take three teams and set up a blocking location here.” Terry traced a location between the northernmost Skrima and the Benitons’ largest city, and Smedley added it to the screens in all the drop ships. “Those overachievers need to have the errors of their ways explained to them.”

  “Yes, sir,” Kim replied through the ship’s speakers from her shuttle.

  “Marcie. Take three teams and set up a line here, farthest west from the Rift, and start pushing them east.”

  “Kaeden. Same in the east. Don’t let any of the Skrima get past you. Christina. You are the hammer. Take three teams and stay along the transition from the hot zone. If they try to head into Wasteland, finish them. If they are heading for the Rift, make sure they have a clear shot. Each team will be covering hundreds of miles. Call the drop ships if you have nothing in front of you and a long way to go. We’ll leapfrog the teams as necessary.”

  Terry ticked off the players in his mind before continuing, “Joseph will be here with two teams. Aaron and Yanmei will be here with two teams. Cory, Ramses, and Auburn, you’re in this gap due north of the Rift. I’ll be at the tear with Char and Bundin. Dokken. It’s too hot for you out there. I want you to go with Cory to protect her.”

  I understand, but I don’t like it.

  “I don’t like it either, buddy, but it’ll be a lot cooler where they are, which is where I’d prefer. I doubt I’ll enjoy losing half my body weight in sweat.”

  The screen showed the drop ships heading in. The first two landed, disgorged a team, and raced skyward again. Like a frog hopping lily pads, the drop ships deposited their teams along a broad arc across the northern hemisphere, using terrain to delineate between areas of responsibility.

  In some cases the warriors were a hundred kilometers apart, and in others only two. The warriors in mech suits saw exactly where the Skrima were, thanks to Ted’s satellite system. The enemy didn’t fade from view because they were blocked from using Etheric energy.

  Unfortunately, so was everyone enhanced with nanocytes.

  ***

  Kimber ran from the drop ship, the first to do so. “Lead from the front” was her father’s motto and she embraced it, never shying from a fight. Kelly, decked out in her mech suit, ducked as she exited the shuttle, which lifted off without bothering to close the ramp.

  “Targets?” Kim asked.

  “Two this way, one kilometer.” Kelly hatcheted her arm to show the way.

  “Lock and load, and let’s go say hi!” Kim took off running, but it was nothing like what she was used to. It felt like she was wading through molasses, so she got angry and let the adrenaline feed her. The nanos started to pull energy from her body to give that boost back and she picked up speed, but knew she wouldn’t be able to maintain it.

  Kelly loped along beside her. The suit helped offset some of the effects of Ted’s Etheric-neutralizing weapon.

  They ran through a field of wild grasses and sparse trees. The Skrima were in a copse at the far side. The two put a hundred meters between them. Kelly ran with her railgun raised, ready to fire. Kim’s JDS was in her hand, swinging with her arms to help her maintain momentum.

  “Your two other teams have landed and are on the move.”

  Kim didn’t reply, since she needed her air. When Kelly slowed, so did Kimber. She brought her pistol up and weaved as she walked, looking over the sights and ready to fire the instant she spotted her target.

  Soon enough the Skrima came into view, but they were wandering in circles with vacant expressions. Kim took aim, but couldn’t fire. Kelly held her railgun steady, waiting on the order to unleash the weapon.

  Kim pulled her comm device from her pocket and keyed it to broadcast to all personnel. “We’ve encountered the Skrima. They are confused, and not aggressive. I don’t think they see us even though we’re standing right here. Orders?”

  Terry Henry’s voice crackled through. “Get them to move, no matter what you need to do to accomplish that. We don’t have the transport, so they’ll need to haul themselves back to the Rift.”

  “Roger. Out.” Kim stuffed the comm device back into her pocket. “Come on there, nice Skrima. I need you to get moving.”

  Kim held her pistol steady, having recovered her breath from the short run.

  The creature finally seemed to notice her. It opened its mouth and made guttural noises. The second Skrima stopped meandering and stood shoul
der to shoulder with his comrade.

  “Not sure what’s going on, but I don’t like it,” Kelly said using the suit’s external speakers.

  The Skrima hissed at her, and faster than the eye could follow they both charged. Kim snap-fired into one’s face and blew its head off, but the other bowled her over. Her ballistic vest stopped most of the attack from the second creature, but her arm was unprotected. The claws raked across her forearm as they both tumbled to the ground.

  Kelly danced around, trying to get a clear shot.

  Kim tried to kick the creature away, but he was much larger than her and had better leverage. She caught his wrist as it slashed toward her head, but he grabbed her wrist and gripped tighter and tighter. Kim knew the bones would give way soon.

  She screamed in fury and bucked as she tried to free herself, then the Skrima’s head jerked sideways as Kelly butt-stroked it with her railgun. With its skull caved in, it collapsed. Kim kicked the dead Skrima off her. Blood trailed down her left arm.

  Kim holstered her Jean Dukes Special and used her free hand to tie a bandage around the wound. She grimaced and held one end of the tie-off in her mouth, pulling tightly on the other. Blood leaked through.

  “Ahh, for the good old days when we could shrug off injuries. I miss them.” She tried to show bravado, but the injury scared her.

  She activated her comm device. When Kelly picked her up to carry her to their next set of targets, Kim screamed in pain. “Son of a mother fuck, that hurt!”

  “Report!” Terry replied.

  “Don’t believe them. The Skrima still have super speed, and once they realized we were there it was game on. They are faster and stronger than us. Do not let them close on your position. They ignored the mech and both came after me. And if you get a claw job, that shit hurts and the nanos aren’t healing it.” Kim tried to relax as Kelly loped across the uneven terrain.

  “Two more targets six kilometers out.”

  “The others?” Kim asked.

  “Four Skrima down. They are advancing.” Kelly tried to maintain an even voice, but blood from Kim’s wound ran down the front of her armor.

  “Roger,” Terry finally replied. “Hang on for another thirty minutes. We have something coming that will help you out.”

  ***

  Kae heard the report from his sister, and his lip quivered as a snarl formed. He had been the second-last on the ground, and felt like he was behind. The run hadn’t bothered him as much as he thought it would, even though he was in a suit.

  The railgun felt heavier than normal, but he had no intention of going into combat without it. His rockets had been reloaded, and he was ready to use them.

  Kaeden picked two Skrima that were between his team and the next one. He targeted the rocket and sent it on its way. Other mechs were doing the same to increase the amount of space they could cover.

  He tallied the other teams’ reports and found that none of the Skrima had run. Good, he thought. I like an enemy that is willing to stand and fight. It’s stupid, but hey…we’re giving them the choice.

  As he and his partner zeroed in on a pair of Skrima ahead, they saw what Kim had seen. The demon-looking creatures wandered aimlessly, eyes unfocused.

  “Sniper mode,” he whispered from the suit’s speakers, and his teammate moved to the side and covered his ears. Kae took aim and fired, then rapidly adjusted to the second target and fired a spread of three rounds in case the Skrima moved.

  It didn’t. Both Skrima exploded from the impact of the hypervelocity rounds. “Mark. Two down. Advancing,” Kae reported. He checked his HUD to find his team efficiently moving forward.

  “Maintain your spacing. Rockets to grid seven, Cap.”

  “Aye, aye, sir. Targeting. Firing.” In his mind, Kae could see Capples’ half-smile as he tracked the rockets through the sky. “A custom delivery by airmail,” he would say—something that the blimps had brought back to a recovering Earth.

  Airmail was the fastest way to deliver a package to friends and family.

  “Your package has been delivered. How would you rate the service you received today?” Kae mumbled as the two IR targets disappeared after the rocket’s impact.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Terry had landed his shuttle and kept it on the ground. He stood where he could see the screen, preferring to be outside despite the nearly unbearable heat.

  The Rift was a kilometer away, but they were on the side where he could see it with his naked eye. “Smedley, set an alarm if anything comes through or if anything approaches.”

  “Of course, Colonel Walton. I’ll notify you the second a creature comes through the Rift. None of the Skrima appear to be inclined to run from the Bad Company. There are none approaching.”

  Terry kicked at the dead ground, and wisps of dust rose into the air before slowly settling back in. There wasn’t a breath of wind, and the air smelled like the dust of the Wastelands. No humidity. No life. Terry imagined that if Mars had air, it would smell the same way.

  Bundin lounged outside the drop ship, his four eyes taking in the surroundings. “Finally, some decent weather,” the Podder said conversationally.

  Char remained inside. The shuttle’s climate control system kept the inside cool by using the atmospheric shield that covered the rear opening. It shimmered occasionally as dust flitted off its surface.

  Terry took a long drink of water. He listened carefully to the team reports Smedley funneled directly to his comm chip.

  “How many Skrima down?”

  “Over one hundred. This is going more quickly than I projected.”

  Terry looked at the monitor. “I think we’re right on schedule. Why was your estimate different?”

  “The unknowns. I calculated the number of Skrima and came up with a projection that was quite high. You seem to have ignored the extreme, correctly so, but how did you know? I had no data to suggest such a small number was possible.”

  “Gut feel, General. Moving a mass of soldiers onto a battlefield is a major logistical undertaking. I don’t think they can feed here. It was my impression that they are creatures of the other dimension, and need to be there to survive. They are here to explore and wreak havoc, but not to live. A hundred thousand of them? They couldn’t get through or back quickly enough to sustain such a number.”

  “I’ll be,” Smedley conceded.

  “Emergency. Kimber is unconscious from loss of blood. Request emergency extract.”

  “Stand by,” Terry replied. “Break. Break. Ted, turn off the jammer so Kimber can start her recovery. All units, hold your advance and dig in. Ted, give me fifteen minutes, then turn it back on, please.”

  The effect was instantaneous. Terry’s chest seemed to swell with the power that the Etheric flooded into his nanos. Char walked through the shield and joined Terry in the heat. She kept her hands on her pistols. Bundin remained unaffected.

  “Kelly?” Char asked.

  “Alert!” Smedley blasted from the shuttle’s speakers. “A creature is coming through the Rift.”

  Terry took aim and with his strength, he dialed his JDS to eleven. He braced himself and fired at the form moving within the tear.

  The impact vaporized the Skrima, but the explosion on this side of the void was minimal. Terry clenched his teeth as he worked the pain from his shoulder. “Where was the Earth-shattering kaboom?” he asked in a high-pitched voice.

  Char elbowed him in the ribs. She closed her eyes and explored the movement of power from the Etheric. When she opened them, she smiled. “I expect anyone who was on the other side of that opening is having a really bad day.”

  “Maybe we pop a round in there every now and then?” Terry offered.

  “What if they pop back?” Char countered.

  Terry squinted to see the Rift better. It had returned to its former state—a small swirl in the middle of nowhere.

  “Then we probably don’t want to be anywhere near there. We haven’t seen any kind of technology from them, so I�
�m not sure they can shoot back.”

  “Terminator?”

  “Where only organic material could travel through time? I don’t buy it. I think they are intelligent, but not technologically so. I can’t discern a purpose. There’s no rhyme or reason to what they’re doing besides murder and mayhem. What’s their end game?”

  “I don’t know. Smedley?”

  “I got nothing.”

  “I love the new you, Smedley,” Terry replied.

  “Kelly? Anything from Kimber?” Char asked.

  “Kim here. Thanks for the boost. I’m slugging all our water now. Give me five minutes more and I’ll be back in the saddle.”

  “That’s good news,” Char said, relief in her voice and on her face.

  “Report!” Terry called.

  “We’re blind out here,” Kae replied first. “Once the interruption in the energy flow was reinstated, the Skrima disappeared from IR. Stay frosty, people!”

  “We’ve continued to advance. These creatures are ghosts in the mist, but we can still see them. We’ve got two teams converging on a pair now. They’re moving, and we don’t want them to get away. FIRE!” Christina yelled all of a sudden. The sound of railguns opening in automatic mode filled the channel, then there was a brief pause.

  “Christina?”

  Before she could answer the railguns opened up again, then just a mech’s oversized gun continued to bark. “Dieee!” came a Pricolici voice.

  ***

  Praeter had been assigned as Christina’s suited companion. He hadn’t worried about being able to keep up, and was mildly surprised that she was hard-pressed to keep up with him even in her reduced state.

  When the power came back on, his HUDs blanked out. Christina smiled and used her power to see what was in front of them. She announced that the Skrima were coming so Praeter prepared himself, counting on her to point the enemy out before they got too close. He had heard Kimber’s report, as they all had, and it put him on edge. If they were fast before, he expected them to be little more than blurs now.

  He rotated his railgun through a figure eight before him, ready to fire the instant he saw anything.