Crimson Worlds Collection II

by Jay Allan

  Cain, Storm thought…what the hell is he doing here? There was no way the commander-in-chief should be in here exposing himself to God knows what, at least not until his people had established some kind of secure zone. “Yes, sir.” He paused. “Sir, I really think you should hold back until we can get this place scouted out better.”

  “Noted, colonel. And ignored.” Cain’s voice was firm, but not scolding. Storm was only doing his job. “There’s no place for normal procedures now. We need to get this place scouted out, and we need to do it now.”

  “Yes, general.” Storm still disagreed, but he kept his mouth shut.

  “I’m sending you the revised tactical map. You should be receiving it now.”

  “Yes, sir.” Storm was watching the map on his display change subtly, as his AI added the information Cain was sending, expanding on what was already there. “It’s coming in now, sir.”

  “Good, now keep moving. Our units are catching hell out there on the surface, trying to keep the enemy forces from breaking through and trapping us in here. So I need your people to haul ass!”

  “Yes, sir.” Cain had already cut the line. Storm could only imagine what the commander was dealing with on the surface. He flipped his com to the unit-wide line. “Alright, I’m feeding updated tactical maps to all squad leaders. We’re going to pick up the pace.” All of the Marines down in these corridors had ten years or more service, and most of them had served in Cain’s special action teams during the Third Frontier War. Fighting men and women just didn’t get any better. They would do whatever they were ordered to do if it was humanly possible. Storm wondered if they could do a bit of the impossible as well. They might just get their chance, he thought as he jogged forward, deeper into the seemingly endless depths of the tunnel.

  “Fourth Company…advance to the left…now!” McDaniels had just watched 3 of her Obliterators blown to bits right in front of her. The enemy pressure on the flanks had been getting steadily stronger. They must have pulled everything back, all across the line and thrown it at us, she thought. She wasn’t surprised. She’d expected some sort of panicked reaction once the enemy got word that forces had penetrated their base.

  Expecting it and being able to handle it were different things, however. She’d had 2,000 Obliterators in reserve, ready to face anything that moved against the breach, but now, after the 4th moved out, she’d be down to her last uncommitted company.

  “McDaniels, how’s it going out there?” Cain’s voice was softer than usual, warmer. He knew what she was facing.”

  “It’s bad, sir.” She was trying to sound as firm as she could, but the strain was wearing her down. She wanted to scream at him, tell him he’d promoted her too fast, that she wasn’t good enough to handle a situation like this. But he didn’t give her the chance.

  “Erin, keep it together. I have complete confidence in you.” His voice was reassuring, supportive. “If I didn’t, trust me…I’d be out there in a flash.”

  In spite of the crushing tension, he almost managed to get a laugh out of her. “Thank you, sir.” She wondered how long she’d have to serve with Cain before he stopped surprising her. He was such an ice cold automaton on the battlefield…unflappable, irresistible. Now he spoke to her and the empathy was almost overpowering. She knew he understood what she was feeling…he’d been in her place many times, and he’d always managed to prevail. He was telling her she could too, and somehow, through some connection she couldn’t even fathom, she believed him.

  “Just do the work, General McDaniels. You’re exactly the person we need there right now.”

  “Yes, sir.” She could feel the adrenalin, her own body responding to Cain’s words. She wasn’t sure what she thought of Erik Cain personally, but failing him when he’d placed his confidence in her…that was unthinkable.

  She looked at the tactical display. The forces on the left were really taking it hard. There were columns of enemy Reapers moving up, and the entire area was getting pounded by cluster bombs. This is the enemy’s big push…if we can stop them here, we can hold out. “Let’s go, 4th Company, move your asses!”

  She checked her display; there was heavy action on the right too, but nothing like the left. She turned her head, looking off toward the position the 4th was on the way to bolster. She was two klicks from the front line, but she could see the inferno of the battle. “Time for me to get over there.” She muttered softly to herself and started jogging toward the hottest part of the line.

  “Are you sure, Friederich?” Cain’s question was genuine. Hofstader carried a colonel’s commission, but that was just a convenience. The German scientist was a brilliant man, and well on his way to becoming one of Cain’s few real friends, but he wasn’t a soldier.

  “Yes, general. As I’ve heard you remind your subordinates, time is not on our side. And if we are going to discover anything immediately usable in this facility, I suggest that I am more likely to identify it than any of your Marines.” He stumbled forward clumsily. The armor was a special-purpose AI-assisted unit. They were used mostly to accommodate dignitaries or other non-combatant officials who visited a battlefield. You couldn’t do much but stagger around in one, but there was no way Cain was letting Hofstader into the base unprotected. Not until it was a damned sight more secure than it was at the moment.

  Cain admired the scientist, and his respect grew each time they worked together. He demanded a tremendous commitment from his Marines, but they were trained, veteran warriors. Friederich Hofstader had spent his entire life in a lab until the First Imperium invasion hurled him into the front lines. Cain was continually surprised at the physicist’s courage and perseverance. Without Hofstader’s research and the resulting weapons flowing from Tom Sparks’ labs, Cain knew his Marines would all be dead now…and the war lost.

  “OK, Friederich. Come up and meet me. Your escort knows the way…and you are to remain with them at all times. Agreed?” Cain had assigned two veterans to escort Hofstader while he was in the combat zone. He was genuinely concerned for his friend, but it was more than that. Losing Hofstader would be an incalculable disaster for the Pact. A mind like his was simply irreplaceable…and there was no other human alive who better understood First Imperium technology.

  “Yes, general.” The scientist’s voice betrayed fear…but also excitement. The equivalent of thousands of years of human advancement was laid out before him. Now he was looking for anything that could be adapted quickly enough to aid in the war effort. But if the victory was won, he could properly research the facility. He could only imagine the scientific advancements he might make given time. “We are on the way.”

  Cain glanced back at the tactical map Hector was projecting inside his visor. It was growing as new data came in from the scanners his forces were setting up at various points in the facility. The immense scale of the structure was slowly becoming apparent. There were hundreds of empty storage areas, cavernous rooms that once held tens of thousands of battlebots and Reapers. It was becoming clear that all or most of the ground forces his Marines had fought had come from here. He tried to imagine attacking a base like this if most of its ground units hadn’t already been expended…if a quarter of a million robotic warriors were formed up to face any assault.

  He drew his mind from such pointless conjecture. Besides, he thought, we faced those bots…we fought them on a dozen planets, and we have the dead to prove it. “If we have an easier time here, it’s only because of the sacrifices Jax and Kyle Warren and a hundred thousand others made.”

  “Are you addressing me, general?”

  Cain hadn’t even realized he was speaking out loud. “No, Hector. Just indulging myself with pointless thoughts.”

  “Very well.” The old Hector would almost certainly have delivered a more sarcastic reply. “General, I have Colonel Storm on the line.”

  “Eliot, what’s up?” Cain got right to the point. Storm wouldn’t be calling now if there wasn’t a problem.

  “We’ve run into
resistance. They appear to be some type of security bots. They’re not all that hard to kill, but they’re armed with close range particle accelerators…and the damned things slice right through our armor.” Energy weapons were rarely used during ground battles. Atmospheres quickly diffused the power of lasers – or particle accelerators – greatly reducing the effective range of such ordnance. But for short range security - where the fighting would be at close quarters in the corridors of a base – they could be extremely dangerous.

  “I’m sending you the reserves. They should be there in a couple minutes. I need you to push ahead, no matter what the cost. McDaniels’ people are catching hell out there keeping the enemy off our backs.”

  “Yes, sir.” Storm sounded surprised. Getting reserves out of Cain was generally considered the next closest thing to impossible, especially on the first request. Not even request…Storm hadn’t even asked. Erik Cain liked to have the last uncommitted forces in a battle, but there wasn’t time for that now.

  “I know you’re all exhausted and hurting, but we’ve got to hit them again. The battle is not over, and victory has not been won.” Jake Carlson was up in the front lines, doing everything he could to rally the shattered remnants of his battalion. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest…the tension, the fear…the feeling in the pit of his stomach. But there was no time now for his weaknesses. Carlson the warrior, the Marine, was firmly in control now. He knew what he had to do. “General McDaniels and her people are facing everything the enemy has, fighting and dying, but not giving a centimeter. They need us, and there’s no way we’re leaving fellow Marines to fight alone!”

  He started walking forward, slowly at first, just a step at a time. “I am tired and hurt and mourning friends too. But I know what I am doing now. I am attacking the enemy; I’m going to aid my fellow Marines, and I will do it if I must stand alone and battle all the enemy has to face me. Anything else would be a disgrace to our brothers and sisters who died today.” His voice was hoarse and he couldn’t hide the fatigue, but he forced the words out with raw force. “Who’s coming with me?” He accelerated, working up to a jog, zigzagging from boulder to boulder, grabbing what cover he could as he lurched forward. The ground was rough…rocky and chopped up from the bombardments, slowing his pace.

  He glanced at his tactical display. No one else moved…not for a second or two. Then, almost as one, the entire mass surged forward, the previously silent com assaulted with a cacophony of screaming voices. The battalion – what was left of it – was with him. To a man.

  The enemy forces were heavily engaged with McDaniels’ Obliterators, and Carlson’s forces were moving against the First Imperium rear. They advanced against light fire, sweeping away the scattered enemy units in their path until they linked up with Commander Farooq and his Janissaries. The combined force continued forward, charging the small enemy rearguard and, after a quick, bloody fight, seizing the heights that overlooked the main fighting.

  “HVM teams, deploy along the ridgeline. Target enemy Reapers.” Carlson was shouting his commands. His blood was up, his earlier doubts and complaints forgotten. If he had to die, what better place than here, surrounded by his brethren…by Marines.

  He watched as the HVM teams swarmed up onto the hillside and began deploying their heavy launchers. “Squad leaders, advance to the nearest HVM team and deploy.” There was no point in issuing more specific orders. The battalion was a wreck, scattered survivors from a dozen units hopelessly intermingled. Now it was the sergeants and corporals who mattered. “All Marines, rally to the nearest squad leader. Cover the HVM teams.”

  The enemy was sandwiched between the remnants of the former battle line and McDaniels’ Obliterators. The ridge was an ideal firing position, and all along the line the HVM-armed groups hastily set up their weapons. Carlson’s people and the rest of Brown’s Marines were positioned right next to Farooq’s Janissaries. And across the whole front, Colonel Sawyer’s hyper-velocity missile teams were ready…ready to open fire and rain death down on the enemy Reapers. “Now is the time,” Carlson yelled into his com. They would either win here or die.

  Cain moved quickly down the corridor, followed by Hofstader and a dozen Marines. He’d almost taken off at a dead run when he got Storm’s last message. His people had found something…deep in the center of the base and a dozen levels below ground. They had no idea what it was, but they knew immediately it was something. This could be why we’re here, Cain thought as he rounded the corner, a bit too quickly for Hofstader to follow. The scientist tried to keep up, but he stumbled. He would have fallen, but the AI running his armor corrected his balance.

  “Sorry, Friederich.” Cain slowed and looked behind. “I’m just anxious to see what they found.”

  “No more than me, general.” The scientist was out of breath, but he was moving forward again. “Don’t worry. I will keep up.”

  Storm’s people were scattered throughout the facility. The security bots had turned out to be only a minor danger. Their weapons were deadly, but there weren’t many of them, and they were easily tracked down and destroyed. They were clearly intended to address small incursions, not a full-fledged invasion of the base. Presumably, enemy doctrine called for the thousands of stored bots to deal with that kind of occurrence. But the robotic defenders of the base had been largely expended in invasions of human space…and the rest were outside, engaged in a death struggle with McDaniels’ forces.

  Once they’d eliminated the security bots, Cain had ordered Storm and his people to scatter and explore as much of the base as possible. It was a risk, certainly, but one he felt was worthwhile.

  They reached what looked like a core area. The center was open, surrounded by a wide catwalk. Cain walked slowly to the edge and looked over. The shaft descended into darkness, farther than he could see, even with his helmet lamp on full power. There were concentric rings every 10 meters or so, all the way down. He couldn’t even guess how deep the lower levels of the facility were.

  He looked around. Storm had said there were ramps around the outside of the circle that would lead his people down. His eye caught an opening in the floor about ten meters around the circle. “That looks like the ramp,” he said, pointing.

  Two Marines of the escort immediately rushed to the spot Cain indicated, clearly wanting to go down before they allowed the commanding general to do the same. Cain sighed softly, but he let his bodyguards have their way. They were good Marines, and he appreciated their loyalty.

  Cain followed the guards down. Storm had told them to come ten levels. It took about fifteen minutes for them to reach the designated spot. When they got to the tenth level they discovered that Storm had left a group of Marines there to lead them to his location.

  “Colonel Storm sends his greetings, sir.” The hulking Marine snapped to attention, his armored boots slapping loudly against the metal floor.

  “Thank you, sergeant.” Cain was looking around as he spoke. The facility didn’t look all that different than an Alliance base, not really. Still, there was an eerie feel to it…something strange, alien. “At ease.”

  “Thank you, sir. Colonel Storm requests your presence. I am to lead your party there.” The sergeant was a huge man, well over two meters tall. His voice was loud and deep, though there was something else there too. Cain recognized it immediately…intimidation. He never ceased to be amazed at how these grizzled killing machines quaked in his presence. He knew it came from respect, but he sometimes wished they knew how uncomfortable it made him. The hero worship stripped him of what little of his humanity remained.

  Cain pointed, though it was more a gesture than anything. He had no idea which way they had to go. “Lead on, sergeant.”

  “We’re losing it, general. There are just too many of them.” The voice on the other end of the com was ragged, cracking. Major Sorenson was a veteran of 20 battles, but he sounded close to the end of his rope. Very close.

  “Pull back, maintaining fire.” McDaniels was try
ing to hold it together herself. She was just realizing she had paid more for those stars on her collar than she’d thought. Her people could have doubts, they could call her on the com looking for reassurance, confidence. But she had no one. She was the top of that chain, and she’d given up the right to be afraid or unsure…even human.

  She did have Cain…he was the one who truly had no one to turn to. But she knew the commanding general was busy, and she’d rather die here on this alien world than tell Erik Cain she couldn’t handle the job he’d given her. No…she’d rather face anything than that.

  “Sorenson, I’m sending you some backup, but you need to keep your people together. Fall back 500 meters and, by God, you hold there no matter what comes at you. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, general.” He didn’t sound solid, not exactly. But she was pretty sure he’d hold. At least for a while. She had no idea where she was going to get the reserves she’d promised him. She paused for a few seconds, thinking. “Captain Claren, I need you to organize the staff and lead them to support Major Sorenson. Immediately.”

  “Yes, general.” The reply came back almost instantly. Claren was a good aide, but a little young and inexperienced – at least compared to most of her other officers.

  She didn’t have much of a staff to begin with, but right now she needed them in the line more than she did attending to her. She didn’t know if 30-odd Obliterators would make the difference for Sorenson’s people, but it was the best she could do.

  McDaniels sighed. So close, she thought. We almost pulled it off. She’d hoped the forces attacking the enemy rear would be enough, but she knew in her gut they were too battered, too exhausted. Against a human enemy, yes. But the First Imperium warriors weren’t scared or shaken by the rear attack. They simply reordered their formations to face to both sides. It was still a tactical disadvantage to them, certainly. But the crippling morale effect simply wasn’t there.