Invasion of Kzarch (23 page)

“Don’t worry. Kate’ll take care of them.”

“She’d better. Or this battle might come to a quick, premature end.”

“At least it
would
be quick.” The two laughed quietly for a second, then sobered.

“The battle’s stalling, Frank. They’re digging their heels in.”

“You want my Marines to go in.” It was a statement, not a question. General Fil’dwis winced slightly, but nodded.

“I want them
breaking.
We need to smash them hard before they can really get their act back together; and we still have to get to their leaders.”

“Understood, sir.” Lieutenant Harsmith saluted, and keyed his com on as he headed forward.

“All Marines, form up by me and get ready for some hard combat. We’re going in…”

***

“Well, things aren’t going well, are they?” Bloody Jack said mildly, but his eyes were hard.

Hamil swallowed.

“Captain, I don’t…”

“Our gunboats gone,” They had finally gotten a messenger from the now all but useless hangar. “-the defensive line being pushed back and the Kzarchians nearly here. Did I miss anything, I wonder? Oh, yes, and perhaps the worst of all, we’ve lost
all
three of our ships. What do have to say about all this, Hamil?”

“Bloody Jack, it wasn’t my fault!” The hard-bitten pirate was nearly wailing. “How could I- what could I have
done
?”

“Hmm… What
could
you have done?”

“I don’t know! It’s not my jo-” Then the operations officer went for his gun, as he sensed a sudden change of atmosphere from his captain. But as fast as he was, Bloody Jack was faster.

Even as his pistol was leveling on pirate chief, Hamil burst into flames. Going into spasms, the pirate thumped to the floor, as he was burnt away by regular shots from Bloody Jack’s flamer.

“It
was
,” the pirate said coldly, pulling the trigger a final time. Glowering around, Bloody Jack holstered his gun. Everyone else was staring at the burning half corpse, half skeleton.

“
Get the situation under control,” he ordered. There was a sudden straightening. “I’ve lost an operations officer today. I would hate to lose anyone
else
here… Unless it was necessary, of course.” He gave a
very
toothy smile. Everyone immediately became
extremely
busy.

“Good. Keep things in hand. I’m going to take command of the troops.” Spinning on his heel, Bloody Jack marched out of the room.

As he strode through halls, he absently wondered if any of them would leave the operations room before the bomb went off.

***

The twelve Marines charged straight into the pirates’ guns… For a second. The next, and they were flying above the pirates’ shots. The pirates tried to lock back on them, but they were moving forward too fast.

After but moments of flight, the Marines came down heavily amidst the pirate army, wegs and guns blazing, as they shot at every target that caught their eyes’ notice. And they were noticing a
lot
. The old and tired phrase ‘fish in a barrel’ couldn’t help but come to mind.

The Marines had specifically chosen the very center of the pirates’ formation to make their attack. After all, the intention was to cause the pirates to break. What better way to do that than by splitting their forces in half?

But the pirates were being more stubborn than usual. Their situation was desperate. Almost literally, their backs were against the wall. With no real other choice, the pirates were throwing all they had into blasting away at both the Kzarchians and the Marines.

The battle surged back and forth, volleys of bullets, energy blasts and explosive shots crisscrossing the battlefield in massive volleys. Pirates and Kzarchians were dying constantly, and two Marines in the splitting attack had already been killed.

Then a new factor was added.

Four huge explosions ripped into the pirates force.

“Sorry we’re late,” Sergeant Kate’s voice said over the com. “But did you
have
to start the dance without us?”

Frank grinned, and absently took out a pirate with his left weg.

“Blame the tides of war for that, sergeant.”

“Excuses, excuses…”

The lieutenant laughed, as another four SIAMs slammed into the pirates.

Wait…
four?

Sobering, the voice on the other end of the line reported, “I’m afraid we can’t keep this up sir. We’re running low on ammunition.”

“Understood. Hook into the platoon net now,” Lieutenant Harsmith snapped, uneasy. Moments later, the heavy squad appeared on his helmet’s screen.

“Oh,
damn
.” he whispered to himself. Another two Marines dead. But now wasn’t the time for grieving.

“Sir? Should we continue our bombardment?” The lieutenant considered the situation a second.

“Hold back until you receive the order. I want your next barrage to smash any remaining resolve they have.” Then he switched the com channel to the general’s line.

“Tom?”

“They’re breaking, Frank!”

“Maybe, but my heavies are running low on ammunition. I’ve ordered them to hold for the moment.”

“Oh. That’s bad.
Hmm
…” The general reviewed the situation for a moment. “In that case, I’ll have my wings go to heavy fire. Plus a charge if they start weakening… Have your men keep them as confused as possible.”

“Right.” Switching channels again, Frank gave the orders.

Then, he hastily turned the channel back to Sergeant Kate to demand a full report. He listened to it while fighting ferociously, killing several more pirates, and taking two light hits himself.

“Good job, Kate. Have your people prepare themselves. I think General Fil’dwis is just about ready…”

An instant later, the Kzarchian forces opened up with everything they had, in a massive barrage of firepower, the pirates’ army almost seeming to lean back from it, as its front ranks began falling.

It was too much.

They had lost too many men, too many of their leaders, and had by this point lost most of the battlefield… and now, they lost what remained of their courage.

It was only a few for the first second or two, but then more and more turned and ran, desperately looking for somewhere,
anywhere
, safe to escape to.

Such places, however, were hard to find… even if they had the time to do so. They didn’t.

Seeing them beginning to break, General Fil’dwis ordered a charge. The entire Kzarchian army, mad with blood-lust and the taste of victory, rose and began dashing forward, shooting their weapons while screaming their triumph and hate to the running pirates.

The entire pirate army was now in flight. And then the h-squad sent two volleys hammering into the few places that had any remaining cohesion.

With that, the pirates were finally finished.

They broke into small groups, or even mere individuals, as they tried to escape; the Kzarchian army hunting them down, showing them no mercy.

But it was going to take a good bit of time before they could complete their task…

Chapter Sixteen

Bloody Jack’s steps didn’t falter in the slightest as a large
boom
hit the governor’s mansion, though it shook the entire building.

Smiling quietly, he reviewed his evacuation plan to date.

Plant a bomb without anyone noticing:
Check.

Leave the room before the bomb went off:
Check.

Ensure that all records show that he was still in the room when the bomb went off:
Check.

Edit the sensor readings beforehand so they’d show the explosion was caused by a missile coming from outside the building:
Check.

Use the explosion as an excuse to have all recording and sensors shut down:
Check.

All in all, a clean sweep of all conditions.

The pirate chieftain could only hope that everything else would go as smoothly. After all, the Kzarchians were likely to at least provide
some
trouble. But his pirate crew should be able to hold them off for a bit; at least long enough for him to escape.

Whistling quietly, Bloody Jack headed off to the next piece of his escape plan.

***

Just seconds earlier…

“Oh,
shit
.” The pirates in the command center stared wide-eyed at the main display where it had just finished showing the utterly deteriorated situation.

At first, it hadn’t seemed so bad. Just a few Marines causing trouble. Then the heavy squad had shown up, sending SIAM volleys ripping across the pirate’s formation.

And
that
had then been followed by a heavy outburst of fire from the Kzarchians, and then an
infantry
charge
, of all ridiculous things!

Now, the display was showing the remaining pirates fleeing for their lives, as the Kzarchians and Marines hunted them down.

“Damn… What are we going to
do
, Crossbones?” The operations room second-in-command, now first, didn’t answer for a second. Then he awoke with a jerk.

“We’re going to do our jobs!” he snapped. “Keep an eye on the situation, I’m going to contact the captain.” Actually the pirates had quite a few captains, but it was clear who he was referring to.

Scrabbling for his com, Crossbones wondered what Bloody Jack was going to say. Undoubtedly it wasn’t going to be pleasant; that was why Crossbones hadn’t informed him of the events as they had come up, in the hope something would fix them before he had to. But there was no hope for that now.

Even as his hand touched the com button, the bomb Bloody Jack had placed in his left-behind weapons box went off; destroying the operations room and everyone in it in a huge surge of explosive energy.

***

“Frank? We can finish up here. If you could go ahead and seize the governor’s mansion…”

“Got it. We’re on our way. Marines! Form up on me! We got something to take care of…”

“And here’s hoping it won’t be
too
hard,” the lieutenant added under his breath, as he studied his battlesuit’s readouts. His suit was getting battered, and his energy was down to only just above ten percent.

No time for a recharge though.

His ‘platoon’ forming up behind him, Lieutenant Harsmith headed on, to his next objective.

***

Bloody Jack tapped in a command code, and the small hangar’s door opened. Inside were several airships, which originally had been meant for the governor’s use. Now, however, they would serve a rather different master.

Humming, Bloody Jack selected a small airship and programmed a course into it. Then he hopped out, and chose a second one…

***

“An airship? Looks like someone’s trying to escape.” Popping up from the as yet still obscured mansion, an airship was rising into the sky.

“Shall I…?” offered Sergeant Kate.

“Nah. Don’t think that’ll be necessary, sarge.” Raising his arm, the lieutenant took the airship down with a single well placed shot.

Then another one appeared, and a third.

“Take ‘em, people.” Another few shots, and these too were down.

“Alright,” Frank said after a half-minute’s wait. “Looks like that’s all for the moment. Forward!”

The Marines got in gear again.

***

Pursing his lips, Bloody Jack had to admit his plan had hit a snag. The three airships he had sent as tests had all been blown away. Which meant that he couldn’t plan on escaping by airship anymore.

Not that it was per-se a surprise. Sending some Marines to keep an eye on the opponent’s command center, or maybe even a few Kzarchians, was certainly what
he
would’ve done. But it
was
a nuisance.

Ah, well.

As always, he had a back-up plan. Leaving the small hangar, Bloody Jack headed towards the governor’s basements. Like all good evil governors, Kzarch’s former ruler had his own private escape tunnel; and Bloody Jack had made sure to find it.

***

“Looks pretty empty. Most of the pirates must’ve been with their ‘army’, or by their barracks.” The ‘platoon’ had split, half going to take control of where most of the pirates had bivouacked, and the other to the governor’s mansion.

Frank had taken command of the one to the governor’s mansion; on the basis it was the one more likely to get in trouble.

“Maybe. But what caused that explosion? It took out a sixth of the building!” And the mansion’s shields; that was how the Marines had been able to enter easily. Frank glanced down, where the explosion had ripped a hole in the center of the building. It hadn’t been obvious from the outside, the mansion’s walls still standing, but the explosion had blown away a good part of the inner structure.

“A wayward missile?

“From who?” The Marine shrugged. Then Sergeant Kate’s voice came over the com.

“Sir, I don’t think it was a missile. The explosion’s hole isn’t…
right
for it.”

“Hmm…” Frank took a dubious look at the hole.

“I’ll have to take your expert word for it. At any rate, we’d better find any survivors. Everyone; spread out! Try to take prisoners if you can; we want to know what happened here!”

Taking the lead, Frank jumped over across the chasm Bloody Jack’s bomb had ripped in the building, aiming at the floor above.

Soon, the Marines had spread out across the building, searching for any surviving pirates or anything else interesting.

After walking through empty halls and rooms -empty, that is, of people- and several turns, Frank found himself back by the large hole.

Glancing around, he was just about to jump across it to a lower level, when he noticed something moving at the bottom.

Frowning, Frank scanned his sensor readouts. No, nothing.

Still…

Shrugging, the lieutenant stepped out into the empty air. Using his battlesuit’s gravity controls, he let himself drop slowly to the very bottom of the hole.

Peering around, all he saw was a well-stocked wine basement. Something flickered on his screen, singling a momentary sensor hit.

“Wha-”

Then a bolt of flame hit his battlesuit’s shield and penetrated, washing for a second against the battlesuit itself. Cursing himself for being taken by surprise, the lieutenant immediately lunged for the floor, as he desperately searched for the sniper.

Another couple of shots flew by, missing him this time, but smashing several rows of bottles and setting the wine inside ablaze.

“Oh, come
on
! I already walked through fire
once
today! Wasn’t that enough?!” Frank grumbled to himself. Almost as if in answer, a sprinkler turned on, and began extinguishing the flames.

“Ah. Well, thanks.” Crawling away from where he had originally hit the ground, Frank waited impatiently for his sensors to locate his adversary. Unfortunately, his enemy decided to take another shot before that could happen.

The bolt passed just a foot away from the lieutenant, causing him to realize with a start that his shield was completely down. He sent an urgent command through his implant to reboot it, though he doubted it would do much.

Cursing, Frank flipped and sent a shot from his personal pistol at where he thought the shot had come from.

Although he missed, the momentary flash of the exby’s explosion showed him the brief outline of a person dodging.

Immediately, Frank sent a fan of shots at it, but they all missed. By now though, his battlesuit sensors were finally beginning to locate his adversary, who apparently was using some sort of scrambler.

“Stop shooting and surrender!” Frank called, moving stealthily. “You’re outclassed!”

“Oh, am I?” a voice called back. Then a grenade bounced over to Frank.

“
Dammit!
” Frank threw himself over a wine rack, frantically trying to bring up any remnant of his shield, a moment before the grenade exploded.

Although a shield weakly flickered up, it didn’t do much. Most of the force of the grenade was taken by Frank’s battlesuit, forcefully throwing him through two racks.

But damaged as it was, the battlesuit survived, and so did the person inside.

Coughing, Frank examined the readouts of his suit, and in particular, the damage report. He winced. His battlesuit badly needed a full recharge and week in the shop.

But his still-barely working sensors had finally gotten a hard look on his assailant. Currently, he had left the basement room, and was heading up.

“Oh,
no
, you don’t,” Frank growled, getting up, and proceeding painfully forward.

***

“Damn, damn,
damn
…” Bloody Jack hissed, running up the stairs towards the ground floor. His way to the stupid passage had been caved-in by his bomb! And then a
Marine
, of all unlucky things, had dropped in on him before he could get through to it.

His only choice now was to escape the mansion on foot and try to get away through the woods. Actually, his chances weren’t
that
bad; with most of the Kzarchians busy, and the Marines focused on taking control of the mansion and barracks, once he got to the woods, he had a good chance of making it.

If
, that is, he could get out of the mansion.

***

Clambering painfully to the first floor, Frank looked around. Where had the pirate gone?

“Sir?” came over the com, overriding his search.

“What?” he snapped.

“Your battlesuit’s sending warning signals. What happened?”

“Tangled with a leftover pirate. Hit me with a grenade. Anyone else find anything?”

“Not really. Got one or two pirates, not much else.”

“Good. Then help me catch
this
one. He’s slippery; got some sort of sensor scrambler. Probably other tricks too.”

Three of the Marines were busy, but the rest began to make their way towards the lieutenant. But he had no intention of waiting for them.

Slowly easing his away through the halls and around corners, Frank tried to track the pirate. He wasn’t achieving any particular success.

“Found him!
Wha-
Aaah!” came over the com from a Marine.

“What happened?!” the lieutenant urgently demanded, running now, towards the Marine’s location.

“He hit me with a flamer; I wasn’t prepared for it,” the Marine admitted. “Then he ducked away. But I think he’s trying to get out of here.”

“No
duh
.” one of the other Marines commented dryly.

“Cut the chatter and
find
him
!” Frank ordered. He was getting more and more sure that the pirate was someone important. Not that it really mattered
now
; but…

“I’ll go to the east side of the mansion and guard the outside,” offered one of the Marines. “He’ll most likely try to escape that way.”

“Do it.” the lieutenant ordered. “Everyone else, spread out and try to cordon him. I think this guy’s important; and I
want
him. Copy?”

They did.

***

Damn, damn, damn!

Cursing, Bloody Jack rolled away from the unsuspected Marine, after dowsing him with his flamer.