Sacremon (Harmony War Series Book 1) (28 page)

           
He fell in beside Xiao checking the main corridor.

           
“Let's move to Gupta,” Mark whispered. Shooting tailed off as they moved around the elevator bank.

           
The elevator banks made a triangle, rising from each of the lobbies on the first floor. At the centre there were living spaces and offices, the rest of the building was similarly covered in identical rooms.

           
Each section had come up through a different elevator bank and split their forces between them. One section still had nine people, two had just five. They had taken casualties on the run from the tree-line to the tower. They'd made sure others had gotten to the tower, paying with their lives.

           
They found Gupta and the rest of the section had opened up into an empty corridor.

           
Markers started appearing on their HUDs as the controllers in the command station on the bottom floor updated them on where enemy combatants were hiding.

           
“Time to clean up,” Gupta said, his voice harsh, it wasn't even a fair fight.

           
They moved past walls, aiming through them to shoot the people on the other side, the markers disappearing as people died.

           
“Walls are reinforced,” Simmons said as the markers weren't going down but shifting as the towers sensors tracked the inhabitants.

           
“Take it, use grenades,” Gupta said. He fired into a room with five people in it, stabbed his gun through the resulting hole and fired off a stream of grenades from his launcher.

           
None of the markers were moving anymore. The section had split so that Gupta, Utkin and Dolche were now clearing rooms by themselves. Simmons, Tyler, Mark and Xiao doing the same.

           
Xiao set up in a living quarters opposite the one they needed to clear. His gun pointing from his doorway right into the other room.

           
“Mark, kick the door down, Tyler, you and me will throw grenades, Xiao, make sure no one runs out,” Simmons said, checking everyone was nodding and agreeing.

           
She and Tyler dropped their rifles on their slings and grabbed grenades as Mark fired into the locking mechanism.

           
The door which had been rigged with explosives fired out into the hallway, throwing and turning a yelling Mark.

           
Tyler and Simmons didn't pause in throwing their grenades and getting the fuck out of the way as Xiao fired into the room.

           
“Fucking shit!” Mark said, pushing himself backwards with his feet as he cradled his right side.

           
The grenades went off, dust and shit blowing out of the room. Simmons and Tyler followed up the explosion of the grenade, their guns letting loose as Mark looked at his injuries.

           
“Clear! Mark, how you looking?”

           
“Like something took a fucking bite out of my side,” Mark said, coughing blood as pain made him contort himself into a position to try and alieve it.

           
“What is with you and…” Tyler was cut off as shooting erupted on the floor.

           
“The colonists are moving out of their rooms and trying to counterattack. The floor from above and below are helping out, there's apparently a way to get between the levels that the people in the command centre missed.”

           
Mark looked over himself, his right side was peppered with shrapnel and burn marks, but his armor hadn't let anything through.

           
The armor was cracked and split, showing the red of opened flesh underneath.

           
Mark pulled out a spray, he didn't have time to pull the shrapnel from his body. The spray sent cool relief over the wounds, making him shiver in pain and cold.

           
He doused himself liberally with the spray, the red turning to a pink as skin and muscle re-knitted itself.

           
Mark's breaths were coming out in hisses as the first Colonist rounded the corner of a living pod.

           
Mark fired his E-12 in their general direction, making them duck back as he started kicking his way towards Xiao.

           
Simmons and Tyler ran from their room, grabbing Mark's shoulder straps and dragging him into cover.

           
“Thanks,” Mark said, the skin he'd partially sealed opened once again. He sprayed it again as Simmons moved to the door.

           
“Get him sealed up,” Simmons said, running back out of the room.

Xiao's repulsor was now firing in a series of bursts, reports were flying over the communications channels.

           
Rebels were rushing out of buildings, charging the one that fourth regiment occupied.

           
Gas was fired at the building, covering it as machine guns from other towers raked the building.

           
The EMF troopers used the gun emplacements that they'd cleared and turned them against the other towers.

           
Charlie company's first platoon was engaged on all fronts with colonists coming up from the floor below and the floor above. Weapons fire filled the air. A cermite shard found its way through where the plate's on Tyler’s side met, his forward facing plates went down in a sprawling mess.

           
“Tyler, spray the damn thing!” Mark said, his brother followed his words as Mark got a better hold on his rifle with his left hand.

            Tyler got to spraying the wounds, Mark looking up at the ceiling, his augments would keep him going, but damn if his side didn’t hurt.

           
That was when they found out that the rockets that had been fired at their shuttles could also be fired into other buildings. The tower shook violently as missiles carved holes into the tower.

           
An axe appeared in the wall, trying to carve a hole into the room to get behind Simmons and Xiao who were hammering oncoming colonists.

           
Mark used his left knee to push his gun into his shoulder and fired into the wall, he didn't hear a scream but whoever was on the other side stopped swinging the axe.

           
Tyler got to his feet as the world turned into white noise. An explosion ripped through the building's floor, missiles had hit thirty meters from their position.

           
For the second time that day, Mark went flying from an explosion.

           
Tyler did as well, his wound had made him push back a few meters from Simmons and Xiao. They simply disappeared as Tyler went through the wall behind him.

           
“Mother fuckers!” Mark yelled, his armored ass had been picked up and thrown into a wall. Now his augments dulled his pain and gave him the energy to stand.

           
“Tyler?” He called out, there was a fire going on in a nearby room, light flickering into the room.

           
A groan came back over the channel, Mark tore his eyes from the readings on his HUD, Simmons and Xiao were gone. Utkin was down and the cobbled together one and two section were also engaged. No one was coming for them.

            Mark saw a new hole in a wall behind where Tyler had been.

            “Ah shit,”

           
Mark turned to the wall, taking a few steps backwards before running full-tilt and slamming his good shoulder into the wall. It gave way and he was sliding onto the other side. He saw a colonist recovering from the blast, he fired a burst, putting them down. He held his gun awkwardly in his left hand, tucking it into his armpit, his right arm was still weak.

           
“Tyler, what's up?” Mark asked, dust and the wall coming around him as he looked for more colonists.

           
“Got a fucking hole in my side, my fucking left leg is broken and I have one hell of a headache,” Tyler groaned.

           
“Alright, I'm going to hook you up to my back and we'll go see Gupta and the medics,” Mark said.

           
“Sweet, been a while since you gave me a piggyback,” Tyler coughed, it was a wet thing and sent a fresh pang of panic through Mark who pulled the straps on his backpack. Tyler put down three colonists as Mark pulled Tyler's pack off and took his sling, he looped them together and used the clips to secure them, he got it over Tyler's shoulder and under his one arm, doing the same to himself.

           
“Mines,” Tyler said.

           
Mark grabbed the mines from the pack's activating them and throwing them, putting the last two under each pack and stuffing his pockets with extra magazines.

           
A colonist group moved into the corridor in front of Mark. He let himself fall sideways, grabbing his rifle that had been lying across his knees, he pulled Tyler with him.

           
“Corporations!” Tyler swore as Mark pulled the trigger on his weapon spraying the colonists who were turning the hallway the two brothers were in, into a debris filled mess.

           
Mark wasn't that accurate but he made them try to scramble, their rounds embedding shrapnel in his forward armor, and adding to the collection of exposed skin from his side.

           
He fired three grenades, raking the group. Nothing was left after that.

           
Mark made angry noises into his helmet, as if they would relieve the pain he now felt.

           
You don't have time, get to a medic they'll put you back together, need to get Tyler to safety.

           
Mark pushed himself up, checking the number of rounds in his gun on his HUD the display was flickering some because of the damage visited on it.

           
Tyler started firing and Mark saw that as his que. He drove himself to his knees and then feet, moving onwards as Tyler's firing faded away.

           
“Think they're hiding now,” Tyler sounded as tired as Mark felt. It felt like it had been a day when he woke up downstairs.

           
An explosion blew in a section of the tower up ahead, sunlight blazed in through the new window as Mark fought to stay upright.

           
He eased his rifle from his left arm to his right.

           
It was painful but he needed to put down anyone that he saw, he was a big target and giving anyone time would be a bad idea.

           
A colonist eased out of a corner, Mark, hyped up on artificial battle hormones twitched in their direction, a grenade flew behind the colonist, hit the and ripping the corridor apart. The colonist's simple clothing could do nothing to protect them.

           
Tyler fired a burst off, followed with a few grenades.

           
“Out of 'nades, changing out,” Tyler said. Mark turned the corner that the colonist had come from, the walls showed the insides of the housing units behind them. Fires flickered from combustibles which had sparked a flame.

           
Mark dragged Tyler on.

           
“Mark, I think I need some aid,” Tyler said.

           
“We'll just go in one of these rooms and get you patched up,” Mark said pushing into one of the housing units with its walls still somewhat intact.

           
He lowered himself and Tyler, grunting with effort. Tyler wasn't the lightest man, add in his armor, weapons, ammunition. And he was damned heavy.

           
Mark got him on the floor and pulled out his med-kit, he used Tyler’s can of sealant to spray the wounds he could see.

           
Tyler's medical computer was saying, to get Tyler to a med-bay as soon as possible.

           
Mark put as many healing drugs he understood into Tyler and gave his own side a new spray.

           
“Pull back to the elevators! Let's get the fuck out of here!” Pullo yelled on the Platoon-wide net.

           
“Alright Bro, we've got to move,” Mark said.

           
“Okay.” Tyler's voice was weak and tired, the normal happy demeanour replaced by the tone of someone trying to hide their pain.

           
That fueled Mark as he hooked himself back into the harness, putting his full strength behind it. He needed to get Tyler to the medics as soon as possible.

           
He came out of the housing pod, turning and finding what looked like ten or so Colonists around a holographic map of the tower. Mark fired two grenades right into their middle, the destruction was enough to turn anyone's stomach but Mark trudged on, he would endure the hell he now walked through for his brother. Tyler fired as people turned down the corridor.