Assault on Ambrose Station: A Seth Donovan Novel (34 page)

56.

“Now!” I shouted, pointing at Renthal.

He slapped the activation pad on the Auto-Mortar and threw himself to the deck. Instantly, a loud
fwoomp!
sounded and a bright orb of hardlight launched from the telescoping barrel rising from the box. As the weapon detected and locked on to more hostiles, it began launching a barrage of the orbs into the air.

Fwoomp, fwoomp, fwoomp, fwoom, fwoomp!

Then I began to hear the impacts of the first rounds. A loud, bass growl accompanied with cries of pain, immediately cut off. Wet, meaty sounds, almost like tossing a bucket of mince onto the deck finished off the sounds of the first hit. I didn’t dare look over the rim, not yet.

When the next barrage landed, the railcar reached the platform and the mortar continued to fire. More yells were echoing about the hub, and I had little time to source them out. We needed to get moving.

“Out! Out! Out!” I ordered, vaulting the side of the cart and leaping twenty metres away. My exo-rig took the brunt of the force and I slid to a halt beside a flowerbed full of dead plants. Artemis dashed across the concourse to me, followed by Kekkin and Tac. Loud cracks of gunfire began to sound, and I could see several streams of hardlight bullets from my own squad zipping about the battlefield.

Kekkin leapt clear over the flowerbed,
lurzak
in hand. A startled yell behind me caused me to turn and see Kekkin smashing into a grub who had raised up on its rear cybernetic legs. He dispatched the Ghantri and dashed into another group exiting a building to our right. I stood, resting my rifle on the flowerbed. I spotted another group of three coming to the aid of the ones fighting Kekkin and opened fire. They immediately broke up and dove for cover. Artemis moved to flank them, heading left.

“Stay down, Tac.” I warned, “We’re moving in a few seconds.”

Ballistic projectiles started to hammer into my cover, sending plumes of dirt into the air. I ducked down as the fire got too much. I used the opportunity to access the feed from one of the recon drones, tagging the three assailants on my Tactical App. They turned to fire at Artemis, no longer threatened by my fire. I rose again and snapped off a three round burst into the torso of one closest to me. His shields winked out and the last bullet reached his flesh. It roared and turned it’s weapon towards me again. He was too slow as I opened up in full auto, tearing his body apart with whittling fire.

Artemis had to redirect her attack as a pair of Ghantri started shooting at her from a walkway to her left. It looked like she was in trouble, trying to avoid fire from two different angles. I checked Kekkin, he was finishing off the first three in hand to hand combat, so I leaped the flowerbed and charged the two still alive from the second group. One of them turned to fire at me, but I emptied my clip into his shield and forced him back under cover. Instead of changing my clip, I dropped my rifle onto my sling and drew my PX-2 and
lurzak
. As I came around on their flank, I slashed the blade out at the nearest, smashing his gun from his hands. I shot off four blasts from the PX-2 straight into his neck. Grey, foul smelling blood spurted from his wounds and he grasped in futility at them. I kicked him aside and advanced on the last one. He turned to face me, too late to save himself from my first blow. The
lurzak
  chopped into its left arm, the electric charge bursting into his body. Meat flew in all directions, but the Ghantri pressed the attack. Three razor sharp robotic limbs shot from all directions from his back, arcing down to stab at me. I sidestepped and avoided two, slicing neatly through the third with my sword. The grub tried to grab at me with its good arm, but I stepped out of reach. I was going to go back in for another attack, but the two remaining cyber arms attacked again. I deflected them both, then fell back as they tried to attack again. The larger grub was bearing down on me, using his size to force me back. He growled and snarled, gnashing his teeth in excitement, the nasal flaps on his face flapping wetly.

A normal combatant would be nearly incapacitated by now. The Ghantri’s left arm was a smouldering mess, and I knew the burst from the
lurzak
must have done damage to his torso. The ability for the Ghantri to ignore horrendous wounds in combat was a terrifying advantage, and I knew that nothing short of killing this demon would be enough.

I missed a block, having misjudged the stride of the beast, and a cyber arm struck my left shoulder plate. Luckily the blow didn’t penetrate, but it drove me to my knees. I used the strength of my exo-rig to push back, launching straight under the Ghantri’s reach. My shoulder barged into its centre mass, driving it back wards. I sliced left and right, cutting deeply into my adversary’s abdomen. Thick, rubbery guts fell onto my legs and I nearly slipped. The force of my attack had pushed the Ghantri backwards and I shot into his head with my pistol. The third shot killed it.

Comms node neutralised!
came a text from Rego.

I checked on Artemis, she was still pinned but was avoiding fire from the last group. As I looked around for a safe way to flank them, I saw a pair of drones whiz by overhead and start peppering automatic fire into the remaining Ghantri. They stopped shooting at Art and tried to hit the drones, missing due to their tiny size. Art got up and fell back towards Kekkin and me. I could see she had taken a few hits on her armour, but was otherwise okay.

“Tac! Over here!” I called.

I could see that a small shopfront was secure, and would provide ample protection for Tac while we cleared out the Ghantri. I used the break in gunfire to check in on the other fireteams.

Harris had made it to his perch. He and Carro were taking their first shots, supporting Renthal on the far side of the platform. Masters’ team was taking fire from several sides, but they were returning fire with grenades, blasting apart anyone foolish enough to show themselves. Renthal’s fire team were pushing through a squad of Ghantri ensconced in a courtyard barricaded by what looked like a food court eating area. It was surrounded on all sides by decorative flowerbeds, devoid of any plant life.

I brought up the feed from Triptych’s helmet cam, saw that he was working on the comms node beside the bodies of several other Jaani. Renthal had moved to another cover location, and together with Geko started pressing the attack. A grenade from Masters landed near a pair of Ghantri that were pinned by Renthal’s fire and the explosion shortly blocked my view.

I switched to one of the recon drones. A large number of Ghantri had fallen to the Auto-Mortar, including over thirty near the entrance to one of the large hangar buildings. A quick check of the mortar’s power told me we would have only another two minutes of fire remaining before it was depleted. The horrific effect of this weapon was now evident. Where one of the hardlight shells had landed, a perfect sphere of wreckage was wrought. I watched as one round landed amidst a group moving from cover to cover toward Renthal’s team. A bright flash preceded a rippling motion in what looked like the very fabric of space-time. Everything seemed to distort, briefly, and slow down. Then anything made of flesh was torn apart in a spray of gore.

It had given the Ghantri pause. They were advancing carefully, risking only two or three troops at a time. I could see many more within the relative safety of the hangars, though, once I switch the recon drone’s optics to infrared. We needed to get the rail turntable moving soon, or we’d have to face this next wave of Ghantri unassisted.

“Where am I going?” asked Art, beside me. She was impatient to get back in to the action.

“I’m scanning for possible wheelhouse controls, I don’t want to send Tac out until I’m sure. Can you check these three buildings?” I sent her the waypoints on her overlay.

The sentry drones had finished off the Ghantri threatening our area and were about to move on, but I ordered one to follow Art and provide air support.

With a grin, Artemis dashed off, careful to stay within cover.

An alert suddenly flashed on my overlay. I brought up Master’s fire team and saw Gunther crouched over Masters, trying to get his M4 MAEL suit controls to allow access to a damaged section of his suit. Masters was conscious, but had taken a blast to his chest piece that had penetrated. Gunther was having a hard time as he had to fight off incoming attacks as well as help Masters.

“Kekkin, we need to help Masters.” He nodded and sheathed his
lurzak
, readying his rifle. I did the same. “Tac, stay down and don’t risk taking fire. Commandeer the other sentry drones if you see any Ghantri coming near here.”

Kekkin and I ran across the platform. It was clear of hostiles, so we didn’t need to avoid fire. Masters was nearly a hundred and fifty metres away, but with the PAT-9 exo-rigs we could run fast. We leapt more than we ran, clearing obstacles with ease. The last thirty metres we traversed airborne, firing madly at the surrounding Ghantri pinning Gunther down. The added elevation gave us clear shots of the enemy and I saw more than one go down under our fire.

I landed next to Masters and ordered Gunther back on the firing line. Kekkin joined him. I looked over Masters, he was still awake, but barely responding to my calls. I held him down with my hands and sent nanites into his body, looking for damage. In moments, I could see two rounds had entered his chest, one had pierced his left lung while the other had bounced around after shattering some ribs. The bullet had ended it’s trajectory against his cybernetic heart. He was struggling to breathe, blood foaming at his lips.

“Shit. Hang on, Masters.” I said.

Ormund! I need help,
I sent over the battlenet.

What do you need?

I need Zoe to walk me through these injuries. Sending scan results now.

While I waited, I send a jolt of energy into Masters with my Repair Paradigm. He was weakly clutching at my arm. An explosion sent pieces of shrapnel ricocheting off my suit, and I covered Masters with my body.

Zoe says you need to access his diagnostic app on the cyber heart. Emergency responder code A45-ZRTE_ANGEL1.

I used my overlay to link up with Masters’ and sent the code through. Data began to scroll through my vision as the Aug gave me its information. I sent it back through the battlenet link.

It’s not good, she says. There is damage to the pulmonary semilunar valve, letting blood into the ventricular chamber.

How do I fix it?

The valve is a very delicate flap that closes when the right ventricular muscles relax, but in the cyber heart it’s just a mechanical valve. The diagnostic is saying that the valve is jammed, if it can be loosened hopefully it will start back up again. You’ve got other problems, though.

The lung?

He needs to have the air trapped in his chest cavity evacuated, Zoe says, or the lung won’t re-inflate. He won’t be getting enough oxygen with the pneumothorax and the valve issue with his heart, so you’ll need to keep hitting him with that Repair Paradigm. I’m sending through a medical procedure for getting the air out of his chest cavity, you’re not going to like it though.

I opened the file and went through it quickly.

I need to punch a hole in his chest? How is that going to help?

You need to get that air out, or the lung won’t inflate. There’s a very real chance the other will collapse as well.

What about the hole in it?

Blood should clot it up soon, but it won’t work if the lung doesn’t open.

Okay, says I need a tube of some sort.
I started to rummage around the medic pack that Kekkin had tossed upon arrival. I found a few syringes and a clear plastic tube with a small valve on one end.

Masters is unconscious,
I reported

You need to hurry.

I sensed around with my nanites, looking for where the pocket of air was forming around his lungs and stabbed one of the syringes into it. I pulled on the plunger and foamy, bloody air filled the syringe’s chamber. Using a scalpel, I cut a small hole and fed the tube into the wound. When it was mostly inside, I opened the valve on top and more of the air escaped. I noticed almost immediately Masters started to breathe normally.

Okay, looks like his lung is working. How do I fix his heart?

She says you need to use your nanites to do it, something about remote manipulation.

This is a little too fine for my experience. I’m worried I’ll screw up the rest of the heart. Small locks and hand held appliances are about my limit.

She says you just need to let the nanites see what needs to be done. I’m sending through a 3D schematic of the cyber heart.

A dead Ghantri almost fell on top of me, a smoking hole in its chest. Both Kekkin and Gunther were up on the barricades, bracing for automatic fire. A small metallic object fell from the Ghantri’s hand and rolled near my foot.

“Grenade!” called Gunther. I instinctively kicked the grenade away. The explosion flew debris up into the air and knocked Gunther over the barricade as I covered Masters again with my body. I felt several impacts against my armour from the blast. Kekkin reached over the barricade and hauled Gunther back, who scrambled to his feet and continued firing. A small part of my mind registered that the Auto-Mortar had ceased firing.

Kind of hard to work here,
I texted