AMP The Core (20 page)

As my fingers once again became numb from pulling the trigger, York came over the comm. "Mr. Grange! I could use some help over here! I have about five hundred Durian Helgrons coming towards me. My tungsten rounds are knocking them down, but they are getting back up. Ion blaster has no effect!"

I powered over to York’s position in time to see her first encounter with a Helgron fighter. She blinked out, punched her fist into the oncoming soldier, and then blinked in for only an instant. A gaping hole opened in the Helgron’s chest.

York spoke. "It’s the only way we are going to kill them, Sir! They are not going to stop when they hit that wall!"

I replied, "Call in the other BGS-equipped Marines. We have to stop them before they make it to there!"

Word went out, and one by one the BGS Marines powered over to our position. The Helgrons were falling, but not fast enough. When they had reached the wall, the first to arrive dropped to their hands and knees, forming a single step. Those that followed repeated the process. In under a minute, the stacked wall had grown to eight meters high. I continued to punch and blink, but the fighters were too many in number.

At twenty meters in height, the Helgrons began to divide, allowing Colossun androids to take position within their center. At thirty meters high, a wedge had formed that ran outwards from the wall to almost fifty meters’ distance. The oncoming soldiers began forming up behind the wedge.

I spoke. "York! If they get this thing built, they are going to be topping that wall sooner than the Colonel estimated! What can we do? We need ideas!"

York replied, "Bring down a Wren, Sir! Park it in the middle of that pile and have it blink in and out!"

I stopped firing for only a moment to allow the idea to sink into my head. "Excellent suggestion, Major! When that ship blinks in and out, it will take the part of that stack equivalent to its size with it!"

I brought the first Wren, which we had christened the Monitor in honor of our newly discovered naval history, up to the wall. When it had settled at ground level, I set the active skin to disable and then once again enable, the result being that every bit of matter that occupied the same space as the Wren was instantly turned into a void. The stack sank by five meters’ height.

York yelled, "Hit her again, Sir!"

After the sixth time of deactivation followed by activation, the Helgron pile had been reduced to only two meters in height. The second Wren was then ordered to follow the same process at a separate location. After more than an hour of continuous onslaught, the outer wall of Tackor had not been breached.

The Colonel came over the comm. "How are you faring out there, Grange? Nice work with making use of those Wrens. We are expecting another surge within the next ten minutes. I’ll try to forward the positions of any Helgrons to you when that happens."

I replied, "Thanks, Colonel. Using the Wrens was York’s idea. I think she might be due for another promotion after this. By the way, what are our casualty numbers looking like?"

The Colonel sent a chart. "Not bad. Sixty-two Marines are out of duty; four of them are dead. We had a section of wall that hadn’t received its Tantric yet that took a heavy bolt. The energy of the shrapnel was enough to take out our boys."

I spoke. "That is fantastic, Colonel! Not the losses, of course, but the low casualty count. How about our troops with prosthetics?"

The Colonel replied, "Only a dozen of the Tackor Marines have had the upgrade. We have about fifteen hundred that are scattered across the other cities and another fifteen thousand here at our primary bases. These are the cities that we absolutely have to hold."

The Colonel continued, "The Swift should be making its turnaround at Molov now. Those new Durian ships continue to stream in. If their rate stays constant, we can expect this planet to be isolated in the next few days."

I replied as I continued to blast away at the enemy, "We can’t let that happen, Colonel. If they shut us in, they only need to wait for further reinforcements while they pick away at our numbers. As soon as I get a break, we need to get a team together to brainstorm this."

York came over the comm. "I’ve got another pack of Helgrons coming my way! Could use some help!"

The Colonel spoke. "I don’t think we are going to see a break, Grange. This ground war will likely be constant from now until whatever end comes about."

I replied, "So that rest I had earlier may be the last time I ever sleep?"

The Colonel laughed. "Always looking to take a break, aren’t you, Grange!"

I shook my head. "Hey, not what I meant, Colonel. And when was the last time you had a rest?"

The Colonel replied, "I have your BGS suit on now, Grange. No more resting, no more eating, and no more wasted time on the crapper. I’ll be running this from this seat from here on in."

I again shook my head as I blinked a hole through an onrushing Helgron. "We all need rest, Colonel. Even if it’s just a catnap. Take fifteen or twenty minutes when you get the chance. The suit will put you out and wake you up."

The battle for Tackor raged on. Three times the wall had been breached by a handful of the enemy soldiers. Three times Admiral Chaulk’s men had pushed them back. The attackers came in an endless stream. The battlefield ebbed and flowed with each new offensive. Tackor was not going down easy.

During the fifth hour of battle, the Swift returned with the engineers. Frig had added to his application algorithm, and on the flight back, the processor encryption had been cracked. The Colonel’s team had a new operating system at the ready for the automated tanks of the Colossuns.

The Colonel spoke. "Grange, we need you to take one other BGS Marine with you to those tanks. We have the code; all you need to do is swap out at least one of those processors aboard each ship, as they are all controlled from a single point. If we get that controller, we can make the lot of them do what we want. And Grange, we need this in a hurry. The analysts are telling me the next wave is likely to be the one that tops that wall in multiple places."

I replied, "On it, Colonel. Frost, you are coming with me!"

I powered over to the quad and picked up the processor. Two minutes later, I was landing in the cargo hold of a Colossun tank ship. I pulled open the control box on the nearest tank and swapped out the processor unit. The tank immediately came to life.

As I looked on, the next tank and the tank after that powered on one by one as our new operating system spread throughout their numbers. I pulled the processor I had inserted, replaced the original, and then handed the altered unit to Frost.

Frost looked at the processor. "What am I supposed to do with this one, Sir?"

I shook my head. "There are another fifty of these ships parked out there. Maybe you can start the process on one of those?"

Frost laughed and nodded. "I got it, Sir. Sorry, my head was still stuck in the fighting back there."

I replied, "Well, let’s get it going; the Colonel thinks we only have about five minutes before the next big push happens. They are predicting that this will be the one that takes out Tackor."

Frost inserted the processor into a pouch on her pant leg and then blinked out. I removed an altered processor and made my way to the next available tank ship.

As we reached the halfway point of the conversion, the Colonel again came on the comm. "Grange! The push is starting! We need you and Frost back on the lines as soon as possible!"

I replied, "Give us three minutes, Colonel. And, I’m ordering the Swift and the Wrens to start strafing those farmlands out there, with a focus on any groups of black uniforms. Those Helgrons can handle a hit from my coil gun, but not from the Swift or a Wren."

When the last of the processors had been placed, we raced back to the battlefield and set down near a half-crazed York. She had been continuously firing both weapons while simultaneously blinking in and out. She commanded a death zone that covered fifteen meters to either side of her position.

As I settled back into my killing position, the forces around me changed from a steady march to an all-out run.

I yelled to the Colonel over my comm, "The rush is on, Colonel! Anytime you can get those tanks running will be all right by me!"

The Colonel replied, "Bay doors are opening now, Grange! Give them five minutes to reach your location."

I shook my head as I backed towards Tackor, firing the weapons on each hand. "I don’t think we have five, Colonel!"

I turned towards the thirty-five-meter-high wall in time to see the first of a half dozen early breaches. The forces had again arranged themselves into live bridges upon which the troops following after would run up and over the wall top. With several thought commands, I had our latest casualty count displayed. The low numbers began to climb quickly.

Once again, I called the Swift and the Wrens into action to collapse the wedges of enemy soldiers that had piled up against the walls. As quickly as a wedge was taken out, a new one would form to either side. I continued to blast away as the onrush of soldiers passed my location.

As the enemy soldiers spread out inside the outer wall, the hastily installed Tantric plates were removed. I turned back away from Tackor in time to see the mechanized cannons taking their toll on the soldiers who remained in the field. The larger cannons caught a platoon of Helgron fighters as they raced forward. With three ion bolts, the Helgron attackers were fractured into a thousand pieces.

I powered my way up onto the wall in an effort to assist with the battle on the other side. Thousands of Colossun and Dakar troops fired their weapons as they moved forward along the wall interior. Our forces were outnumbered and being overrun. The tank battle that had begun only minutes before was quickly brought to an end as the Durian fighters began to work over the farmlands.

The first sections of the outer wall were blown, and the remaining enemy soldiers flooded in. The secondary wall fell soon after, followed by the ion inhibitors that protected the city from attack from above.

I continued to fire my endless stream of tungsten rounds and ion bolts in an effort to give Admiral Chaulk’s remaining men time to flee, but there was nowhere to run.

The Marines fought to the last man as the Colonel came over the comm. "Grange, time to move out. Had we gotten those tanks out sooner, we would have only delayed the inevitable. Move to the fields in front of Ganitee. They are already massing for an assault in that direction."

The battle for Ganitee lasted for fifteen hours with the same result. The walls were overrun and the ion inhibitors shut down. Ninety thousand Human Marines had perished, but not before taking out another half million Durian fleet assault troops. Again, our troops had fought until the last man could no longer pull the trigger on his blaster. As was done with our own side, prisoners were not taken.

As the Durian screen began to close around the planet, three new Wrens came through. I ordered the Swift back to Molov with instructions for Frig to keep her safe. As the Colonel had predicted, we were now well into our war of attrition.

Over the next two days, five more of our cities fell to the Durians. Three additional Wrens made their way into my control before the Durians had closed their net. The eight Wrens were set to circle the air corridor over Nevil, as our ion cannon fire from the surrounding cities no longer existed.

The transport ships of the Durian fleet dropped through the atmosphere and unloaded in an almost continuous stream. Twenty million soldiers of the various species allied with the Durians spread slowly across the globe. The Colonel’s newest strategy involved protecting the city walls until a full breach was imminent. At that point, our BGS units were called in with the direction of opening an escape corridor to the next fortified city. Only 40 percent would make it through to safety, but it was 40 percent that we would otherwise have lost.

The Durians pushed forward in an ever-widening spiral. The battles had lasted almost to the hour that the Colonel’s analysts had predicted. On the third day, the fighting had reached the largest city, Belfor. The sixty-meter walls and more than a million Gonta soldiers posed the largest obstacle to date for the Durians.

I took position in the fields in front of the western city walls along with our force of seventy BGS Marines. As we waited for the onslaught of enemy soldiers, I was startled by a slap on my back.

A grinning Colonel spoke. "Grange! Look alive!"

I shook my head. "Remind me next time to fully blink out while I’m waiting for the fight to start."

The Colonel laughed. "Eh, it’s less fun anyway, now that you don’t have to worry about soiling your pants."

I replied, "What brings you to the front lines, Colonel?"

The Colonel spit and then pulled his visor shut. "The Gonta insisted on running their own show. This is their planet, and that will likely be their last city. We are here in support. I don’t have troops to direct in this fight, so I thought I would get a feel for the front lines."

I shook my head as the first of the assault troops showed on the horizon. "They will be here in about three minutes, Colonel. Then it is nonstop action until that city falls."

The Colonel grinned. "If I never said it before, Grange, I like action!"

As the force drew nearer, a voice came over the comm. "This is Major Garner at command. Just thought you should know, the bulk of that force coming your way is Targs. It looks like the Durians just finished unloading about fifty million of them. Some of you have experience against the Targ. You might want to pass that info around."

I rolled my eyes. "Great!"

The Colonel spoke. "Anything special I should know about the Targ, Grange?"

I replied, "Yeah, they won’t quit, and there will be a gazillion of them. They are armed with hand weapons that won’t have an effect on your suit, but for those who they can physically assault, they will swarm you until you are overwhelmed."

The Colonel grinned. "Well, if they don’t mind dying, I don’t mind killing!"

I shook my head. "It’s not that they don’t die easy, Colonel. There is just a seemingly endless number of them, that’s all."

The Targ were soon upon our position. I blinked out fully and began the task of the endless killing of the small, furry savages. The air surrounding our position lit up brightly with Gonta ion cannon and blaster fire from the city walls behind us. The Targ raced forward, unaware, and uncaring, of the killing machines that were now centered amongst them. Again my fingers ached as I squeezed the triggers endlessly.

A tungsten round from my coil gun was taking out forty to fifty at a time, the ion blaster an even dozen. I glanced in the Colonel’s direction to see a grin on a man who was enjoying what he was doing. The days sitting in a chair watching all the action from a console screen had evidently taken their toll. I could just make out York cutting a swath through the onrushing Targs, several hundred meters away.

The Targs would rush the walls, take heavy losses, and then fall back to regroup. The ghastly scene of suicidal assaults was repeated over and over again as the hours rolled on. When the third hour had passed, I looked over at the Colonel. His earlier grin had turned to an expression of irritation. The fun part of being in the fight had worn off.

I spoke. "How you holding up over there, Colonel?"

The Colonel replied, "I’m starting to see what you meant about shooting these things, Grange. Blow one away, and two jump out of his ass."

I chuckled as I continued to squeeze off rounds. "It looks like they are down about 10 percent now. Another twenty-seven hours and we should have them whipped!"

The Colonel grunted. "Baahh! There has to be a better way to kill these things. They aren’t making progress on those walls, but they just keep coming anyway. And you know that if you quit, they will make progress."

I replied, "We fought with them for three days, Colonel. Short of killing them, they will not stop."

The Targ surges continued well into the night. Again the fields around me were littered with hundreds of thousands of corpses. The injured lay bleeding and moaning while their comrades trampled over them with each new wave. It was a type of fighting that would crush a man’s soul. Just seemingly senseless killing where killing or being killed were the only options.

Just before the dawn, an alert came up on my HUD. Belfor had been breached. Seven large holes had opened on the ground just inside the city’s outer walls. Tens of thousands of Targ fighters were emerging in a continuous stream. The Gonta blasted away, but the attackers continued to come, swarming over all they encountered.

The Colonel ordered the BGS Marines back inside the city walls. It would be our job to close off the tunnels the Targ had dug below us. It was the only logical move we had, but in the end it was meaningless. The Targ soon topped the unguarded sections of the wall, and the city fell hard over the next two hours. The Gonta had fought as well as could be expected of any species. The sheer numbers put forth by the Targ were overwhelming.

The Colonel came over the comm. "Grange, I am tired of getting badgered by this guy. I am patching the Duke through."

Before I could say no, the Duke was speaking on my comm. "Mr. Grange! I am delighted to see that you are still in the fight! I was worried that you had somehow fallen in battle. I suppose that was too presumptuous of me!"

I replied, "I hope this extravaganza is living up to your expectations. I know I am just talking to the wind here, but wouldn’t it be better if we all worked together to build a better league of worlds that would benefit everyone? Think of the spectacular palaces that could be built in your honor. Monuments to the Duke could spread the word of peace and prosperity to all."

The Duke was quiet for a moment and then laughed. "Haha! Mr. Grange, there was a time when I followed that path. I built a great empire that spanned an entire galaxy, with many monuments and towering structures. I ruled as a benevolent leader for thousands of years. There was one thing, one characteristic of almost every species in my domain: they did not like to be ruled over."

The Duke continued, "I soon had rebel factions popping up on nearly every world. My great achievements for peace and my willingness to forgive were taken as signs of weakness. As battles raged between my loyal troops and the rebellious species of my empire, I found the spectacle to be entertaining. The thrill that came with a crushing defeat of the enemy, and even with a crushing defeat of my own troops, was a thrill that I found myself longing for."

I spoke. "So, now you just pit one species against another in a giant game to the death? Certainly that must be something that you have grown tired of. I thought you considered yourself sentient."

The Duke laughed. "Ah, Mr. Grange. It seems I can always count on you to throw out a word or two to tug at the strings of my humanity. Your attempts at making me feel self-conscious about what I am doing are easily seen through, and yet they are somehow entertaining as well. Perhaps one day I will grow tired of all this that surrounds you, but I can assure you that day is not today! All this? The spectacle, the horror? It is the very thing that drives my being to exist another day. The constant push and pull, the struggle to survive, the surprising defenses and overpowering offenses, these are the things that I live for!"

I shook my head and replied, "I’ve said it before, Duke. As soon as I get the chance, I am going to delete that sick program you call your conscious mind. When you stand in front of a Borak bull and poke at it endlessly, you run the risk of getting trampled. And we Humans are so going to trample you when we catch up to your sick ass."