AMP The Core (19 page)

The fighting was fierce as the Colossuns pushed further down the wall line in both directions. Frost, York, and the others joined me in the southern section. Together, we were able to bring the enemy advance to a standstill. The Colossuns moving northward, however, were in an almost free run. Every attempt by the Bulgar to stop the Colossun progress was met with a new breach of the wall just behind them. When a kilometer-wide section of the outer wall had fallen, the defense of the inner wall began to crumble. There were not enough Bulgar fighters in reserve to fill the holes left by those who had lost their fight with life.

York spoke. "I expect that call from the Colonel anytime now, Mr. Grange. Nevil is now a lost cause. If you look at the new stats on your HUD, you will see that the Colossuns just reinforced with another hundred or so of those mega-transports. I expect this city will be a landing pad for the next ten million or so soldiers."

I replied, "The thing that surprises me is the fact that we haven’t seen any vehicles. I would expect ground assaults to be loaded with tanks and armored transports. I think those fighters have proved to be a red herring as far as the strategic fighting has gone so far."

Frost cut in. "A red herring? Aw, please don’t start back with those sayings from the archives! It makes our conversations hard to follow!"

York laughed. "He’s just saying that the fighters haven’t had any effect on the battle so far."

Frost paused from her firing. "I know what he meant, Yorkie. I just don’t want to have to spend my brainpower figuring it out."

With the inner wall breached, the ion inhibitors began to be taken offline as the Colossuns pushed ever forward. The dome that had kept the city secure from orbital bombardment was soon completely down. With the loss of the dome, the fighters were free to attack the three walls that ringed the city.

The Colonel came over the comm. "Grange, time to pull out. Those fighters will have that place mopped up in fifteen minutes. The Bulgar put up a better fight than what could be expected. I’ll see if I can send a message on to their home world when this is over. The families of those soldiers will deserve to know how valiantly they fought."

The Colonel continued, "Fall back to Tackor; it should be on your HUDs. It is the least defended of the surrounding cities, and I would expect it to be the next in line for an assault. The fortification there is staffed by Admiral Chaulk’s men. Do what you can to help them out. If we can hold Tackor for half a day, we will consider that campaign a success."

I replied, "Can’t we just evac our troops from there to a better-defended city? I hate to give any ground, but I would do that to preserve our people."

The Colonel sent his battle projections to my HUD. "We are in a war of attrition now, Grange. Those fortifications will extract a toll before they are taken over. I’m afraid there is no better way to say this other than sacrifices have to be made if we want the bulk of our species to survive. It’s not an easy decision to make, but I can assure you that every Marine and soldier at that post is aware of what they are facing. We haven’t had a grumble come out of there. Chaulk’s men and women are as proud as they come. If this is what it takes, they are still in for the early beating."

I sighed. "Again, Colonel, I’m just venting at the potential loss of anyone. We will do our best to hold the line at Tackor for as long as we can."

As I powered away from the remnants of Nevil, I took note of the fields of destruction surrounding the once-thriving Gonta city. We had extracted our pound of flesh from the invaders. Hundreds of ships, and more than four million assault troops, had been sacrificed to gain a foothold.

When I set down in Tackor, our troops were busy positioning stockpiles of blaster ammo. I took a moment to check the flashing yellow light on the top left corner of my HUD. My BGS computer was telling me I was in need of rest. The Colonel had placed a time estimate of twelve hours before the Durians would make their next move. Consolidation and supply of their new base would be their first item of business on the planet’s surface.

I recalled the Swift from its current mission circling the globe, strapped myself into the pilot’s chair, and set it back to its previous program. I sent word to York and the others to take advantage of the break as well. The BGS suit injected a sleep aid, and I was soon dead to the ongoing war that surrounded me. My wake timer was set to answer a comm from the Colonel, or a four-hour limit, whichever came first.

The defenses surrounding Tackor were better manned and better equipped. The same three-wall structure surrounded the small city. The outer wall was covered in Tantric armor, as was the inner wall of the innermost wall. The Admiral’s men had taken to heart the failures of the walls surrounding Nevil. Full efforts were under way to raise plating on the inner wall of the outermost wall. All breaches would have to come from over the top.

In addition to the new plating, the thirty-meter-high outer walls were being raised another five meters. By the time my wake timer had sounded, nearly one-third of the updates had been completed.

As the stimulants from my BGS suit kicked in, I raised the Colonel on the comm. "I’m just letting you know that I’m back online, Colonel. Any new developments while I was out?"

The Colonel replied, "We had some great news from Molov! The first two Wrens arrived. They set down in the quad where you had programmed them to go. Frig left a note that he had successfully combined 1,024 portals into a single wormhole over a centimeter in diameter. He seemed very excited by his progress. We should see two more Wrens tomorrow and three the day after. Also, as a consolation, we have another twenty BGS suits to distribute to our Marines for training."

I removed my helmet and rubbed the sleep from my eyes before snapping it back on. "I’ll let York know that she has new troops to train, Colonel. How’s the occupation of Nevil going?"

The Colonel half laughed. "That is the one area that we planned our defense around that has really paid a dividend. The Durians are losing 45 percent of the ships they are trying to land there. So long as the cities that surround it stay in our hands, we will continue to penalize them heavily for being on this planet. However, their minor losses are easily absorbed by that fleet up there."

I replied, "Any more ships join their ranks?"

The Colonel sent a new listing to my HUD. "No more troop transports, but another 218 of those ships that put up that pattern showed up. It appears they may be trying to set up a shield surrounding this planet. If they are successful, we won’t be getting any more Wrens from Molov."

As I browsed through the data, I replied, "Well then, I guess we have to start thinking about how we can prevent that. In another couple weeks, we should be seeing twenty Wrens coming in a day. With that kind of force at our disposal, we will be able to put a real hurt on that fleet. Give me fifty ships like the Swift, and I will send the Duke into a raging depression over his losses!"

The Colonel spoke. "In all honesty, I don’t think the Duke cares who wins. He’s just here to prompt us all into fighting one another. All we can do is oblige him while doing our best to be the lone survivor."

I replied, "Unfortunately, I think you are right. He indicated as much to me in our prior discussions."

The Swift had continued its circling of the planet during my rest. Another 6 Durian fleet ships had been destroyed and 108 damaged. All of the ships of the fleet now stayed in constant motion, making targeting difficult.

As the Colonel had predicted, the new Durian ships were taking position around the planet with the goal of setting up a web to capture any incoming or outgoing Human ships. I suspected the Duke had passed information on to the Durians through his operatives. The Swift had a vulnerability, and the Durians were now able to take advantage of it.

I stood on a wall that faced Nevil. The ground that once made up the city was covered with the small black fighter craft as well as arriving and departing transports. The Colonel’s latest estimates placed a force count of over five million soldiers standing at the ready. A battle for Tackor was coming soon.

After several minutes of contemplation, I decided to pay a closer visit to Nevil. The high-resolution cameras we had aiming at Nevil from the surrounding cities had kept us informed of troop numbers and movements. I wanted to know the fine details of what might be coming our way. Besides, I had no tasks of my own to keep my mind occupied.

I enabled my active skin and powered up my BHD glove. I was soon hovering over the mass of enemy troops that were standing in row after row. I took note of the twenty large transport ships that remained on the ground while the other transports had dropped their troops and returned to orbit.

I powered over to the nearest vessel and drifted inside. "Colonel, we have a new problem."

The Colonel replied, "If you are referring to the tracked vehicles, we are aware of them. York did a fly through for us several hours ago. It appears they are automated and have a more powerful ion cannon on them. Our best estimates place the cannons at just below what is needed to penetrate our wall armor. We don’t see them as much of a threat at the moment."

As I looked over the automated cannons, I began to smile at the thought that had entered my head. "Colonel, you say these are automated. What are the chances that we can plant our own programming on them? Imagine these bay doors opening and these tanks rolling out blasting their own soldiers!"

The Colonel replied, "We’ve had a team working on that very scenario. York brought back a processor unit from one of the machines. I’m still not sure how she managed to get it out of there, but she did. Anyway, we have been attempting to crack the encryption on the processor without much luck so far."

I again smiled. "Colonel, I’m coming back. The Swift has a cracker program in her computer that Frig wrote some time back. If we can run that on it, we might have a shot at breaking in."

I powered back to the city of Mirada, where the Colonel and his staff were waiting. The Swift was ordered to the ground, and the engineers that had been assigned the task of taking control of the processor carried it out to the waiting ship.

I stepped up into the Swift’s hold as the engineers followed. "Set it over here. In this locker, you should be able to find the necessary interconnects for power and communications. I’ll bring up the application we used."

The engineers knew their work. The processor was connected to power and brought online. Once it was connected to the comm circuits, a scan was conducted for any malicious content. The processor was clean and the decryption application was enabled. Within a few minutes, an image came up on the holo-display showing the estimated layers of encryption followed by a percent complete number, which currently read "0."

I spoke to the engineers. "You might as well have a seat. This could take a while. This button will deactivate the active skin and open that door if you need out of here for some reason."

One of the engineers replied, "Active skin?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it’s a technology this craft has. I hate to say it, but it is also a need-to-know security asset, so I can’t explain it further. Just know that you should be better protected in here than you would be out there."

With the cracking program running, I made my way back to the Colonel’s office, where I was soon seated on my stumps in the chair by his desk console. "Colonel, I want to send one of our Wrens back to Molov with the intel we have on those new Durian ships. I think it’s imperative that Ashley, Frig, and the doctor know that we can be detected in these ships. If the Durians establish a screen around this planet, we are going to have to figure out what to do with our Wrens as they are built."

The Colonel replied, "Excellent idea, Grange. We are going to be knee deep in Colossun androids in a few hours. We will be needing all the help we can get from those Wrens. And Grange, aside from not having any legs, which hasn’t seemed to hamper you at all, you have been full of good ideas lately. I think that DNA shot you took is working!"

I laughed. "I will admit that I feel better than I have in a while, Colonel. But smarter? I think the jury is still out on that one. I would just say more experienced is a better fit."

The Colonel shook his head. "Call it what you will, Grange. It’s a good thing either way. We need all the great ideas we can get. As those enemy numbers increase out there, our estimates for holding onto Tackor keep falling. Our conservative estimate is now down to four hours, with our best guess at six. If that city falls, we expect them to immediately follow up with an assault on Ganitee. Our best estimate for Ganitee is twelve hours, but that estimate has been dropping all afternoon."

I replied, "At what point do we stop them, Colonel?"

The Colonel leaned back in his chair and crossed his massive arms. "We don’t. At least not until they reach the core."

I inquired, "The core?"

The Colonel sat forward and brought up a map on his console. "These four cities are the ones that contain the underground bunker complex. They are the most heavily defended. They are the core of our existence. If any one of those falls, we are doomed, but we aren’t going to let that happen. We are estimating that the Duke’s ground forces should be depleted to the six-to-seven-million-soldier range by then. If that holds true, we may even be able to go on the offensive."

I smiled. "Offensive—I like the sound of that, Colonel!"

The Colonel replied, "Unless we hold those four cities, we are done for as a species. The Duke may have his victor in the next week or two."

When my discussion with the Colonel had ended, I returned to the Swift to check on progress. I found the engineers poking around in the cabin, looking intently at the technology that they could not identify.

I spoke. "Some fascinating stuff, huh? I would love to sit and tell you about it, but the fewer who know our secrets right now, the better. I wouldn’t put it past the Duke to still have spies amongst us."

The first engineer replied, "Sorry for our being nosy, Sir. I do want to ask you about it all in a big way, but I will keep my trap shut until advised otherwise."

I patted the engineer on the back as I floated past him to sit in my chair. "Thanks. In a few weeks’ time, you will probably know everything or nothing, depending on how well we do out there."

As I brought up the programming for the Wrens, a new thought occurred to me. The engineers would be on the Swift for some time as the cracking algorithms ran their course, and I could control the Wrens from my HUD. I would send the Swift, along with the engineers, out to Molov to deliver our latest intel to the others. If upon their return the Durians had been successful in establishing their screen perimeter, the Swift would then fly back to Molov and into the capable hands of Frig.

I spoke. "Guys, I am sending this ship on a mission, and you will be aboard her as she goes. You don’t have to do anything other than making any adjustments to your connections that the cracking application calls for. The ride out and back may be a bit boring, but you will be traveling far faster than you ever have before. You should be back here in just over eight hours."

As the Swift lifted off on its journey to Molov, I powered my way back to the defenses at Tackor. The city sat on a slight rise in the terrain, giving a more commanding view of the farming plains that surrounded it. I parked myself on a parapet that looked directly towards Nevil.

A lieutenant standing next to me spoke. "How’d you lose the legs, Sir?"

I replied, "Ion explosion cut them off. They were prosthetics. I would get new ones, but I don’t have time to train them, so I would just be dragging them around."

The lieutenant laughed. "Tell me about it, Sir. I still have trouble with some of the more subtle tasks such as squatting to pick something off the ground. Those are the things that take all the practice, the ones that you are not naturally doing, such as walking."

I looked over at the lieutenant. "How long have you had yours, Lieutenant?"

The lieutenant replied, "Three weeks, Sir. I do like the fact that I can jump down off this wall and then land on my feet without breaking my back. Might come in useful once this all starts up."

I smiled. "Well, let’s hope we all at least get the opportunity to make that jump, Lieutenant. There are hard times coming our way."

The lieutenant laughed and shook his head. "I’ve been through this enough times that the prospect of dying doesn’t bother me anymore, Sir. Fretting about it doesn’t solve anything. Besides, staying focused on what I need to do is what’s kept me alive this long. And the Admiral, he gives one heckuva pep talk. You come away inspired, despite the odds you face."

I replied, "If every Marine thinks the way you do, Lieutenant, the Durians are going to have one beast of a time taking this planet."

For the next few hours, I walked the walls of Tackor. Again the waiting for what I knew was coming was torturous. As I turned and looked back over the city, our Marines continued their efforts at raising the walls and increasing the Tantric plating on them. The only other sound was the occasional whump the ion cannons made as they fired upon a descending or ascending Durian ship.

A set of large ion explosions rocked the wall behind me as the alert sounded in my helmet. From my vantage point, I had a two-kilometer clear view of the farmland in front of me. The assault started as a thin black line on the horizon. That black line was soon matched by the skies behind it growing dark as the hundreds of thousands of fighter craft lifted off. I looked back at the buildings that made up Tackor for one final time. In an hour, there would be nothing left standing.

I took aim with my coil gun and began to fire rounds out towards the coming black wave. Almost as far as my eyes could naturally see across the horizon, the enemy soldiers moved forward.

I looked at the lieutenant standing next to me. "Best of luck up here, Lieutenant."

The lieutenant tilted his head as if in question. "Where you going, Sir?"

I pointed out towards the fields. "I’ll be mixing it up out there for a bit."

With my statement made, I blinked out and turned my BHD glove on full. I dropped down in a field twenty meters in front of the oncoming army. My coil gun fired rounds into the troops on the left as my ion blaster fired to the right. The dark-gray-outfitted Dakar soldiers that I had landed in front of exploded, with body parts flying into the air.

As the ranks of the dark army overtook my position, I turned to continue my slaughtering of the species that had once called themselves allies. I was joined soon after by York and another forty BGS-equipped Marines. The killing was relentless.