Virtues of War (33 page)

The team shuffled in behind her.

Movement flickered in her light beam. She swung the beam side to side carefully. She saw a leg move. There was someone in front of her.

“Alpha-One—contact!”

Armor plates clicked behind her as her troopers reacted.

She raised her beam to shine at the man’s face. He was short and sinewy, like so many Cerberans. His hand tried to block the light from his eyes.

“Please,” he said softly, “put down your light. I have a lamp we can use.”

He held it up for her to see.

“Go ahead,” she said.

As he fumbled with it, she saw Sakiyama’s beam from behind her settle on a second figure who was crouched against the far wall. Although this was an equipment bay, the thick curtain to their right had reduced the space to a dark corridor. Much too close for comfort.

“This is the Terran Astral Force,” she said. “We’re not here to harm you. We are here to arrest Centauri agents who have committed crimes against our nation.”

“We are just farmers,” the first man replied. “We want nothing to do with outside wars. Please don’t hurt us.”

The lamp flickered on, and the space was filled with soft light.

The man with the lamp looked familiar as he stared openly at Katja with intense eyes. Those eyes were a brilliant blue against his dark, weathered skin, with wisps of white hair haloing his head. But she was the one with the gun.

“Thapa,” she said, feeling the rage growing within her as she advanced slowly. “I thought we were friends. You haven’t been very nice lately.”

Recognition ignited in his eyes.

Dropping the lamp, he screamed and lunged forward. Shadows danced as the lamp bounced when it hit the floor.

Katja pulled the trigger, but the wall above exploded as Thapa’s powerful hand knocked her barrel away. His small body crashed into hers. She stumbled backward, gasping as she felt her feet slip out from under her. As she pumped the trigger, explosions all around showered them with twisted material. She smacked against the floor. Thapa’s hysterical face filled her vision and she felt continuous thumps against her armor.

Then he was wrenched off her and thrown out of her vision. She saw Sakiyama move past her, shouting commands at the Cerberans.

She struggled to her feet. The abandoned lamp still cast illumination on the scene. Sakiyama pointed his rifle at the two men, both of whom were on their knees with their hands above their heads. Thapa glared with open hatred.

She could barely contain her own fury.

“Alpha-Two, take these prisoners into custody. We’ll clear them from the building and continue the search.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Chang moved into her vision, dwarfing the two men before him.

“Remember me?” he said to Thapa, before smacking him with an armored backhand.

Thapa’s rage seemed undimmed by the blood that trickled from his mouth. Chang hauled him up and slammed him face-first into the wall. He expertly slipped on wrist restraints and threw him back down to the floor.

Katja keyed her comms.

“Sierra-Two, this is Alpha-One. Shots fired, no casualties. Two Cerberan prisoners. We are withdrawing from the building to hand off same.”

“Sierra-Two, roger,”
Lahko said.

The second man was bound, and Chang took ahold of them both. Cohen and Alayan led the withdrawal out through the small room and into the brilliant sunlight.

Katja spotted at least five pairs of troopers covering them, and Lahko approached with a sixth. She turned to Thapa. He looked nothing like the meek farmer she had questioned before. Now all she saw was the murderer from the news footage.

“Thapa, you picked the wrong side,” she said. “And because of you a lot of people are going to die.”

He met her gaze fearlessly. “Starting with you, whore.”

Her fist smashed into his face.

“Listen up!” she shouted for all to hear. “This is the man—the actual motherfucker—who assaulted and murdered the
Kristiansand
crew!” Lahko came up next to her, and took Thapa’s ragged face in his gloved hand.

“This is the guy?”

She nodded.

“We’ll take care of him.”

He threw Thapa down. The Cerberan stumbled and fell awkwardly. Lahko kicked him in the stomach, almost absently, then nodded toward building ten.

“Must have been waiting for us,” he said. “We’re gonna bust this scene open.” Then he issued orders for four of his troopers to target the garage door with grenades. On his word, four more troopers targeted the pair of new shacks.

Katja said nothing. Lahko’s methods were a bit brutish, but she wasn’t in command.

“Sierra-Two, Drop Command. Air hostiles inbound from the south. Strike Cover intercepting.”

Katja glanced at Lahko. Enemy aircraft inbound. He reflexively glanced skyward, but remained focused.

“Fire!” he commanded.

Simultaneous explosions rocked the east side of building ten and the twin shacks as Second Platoon grenades impacted against the thin materials.

Katja raised her rifle instinctively, trying to keep both dust clouds in her view as the troopers advanced.

Her left peripheral gave the first warning as things went to shit.

T
he first trooper to reach the smashed opening to building ten flew backward in the air, his insides exploding out of his torso. A heartbeat later a trooper near one of the shacks collapsed backward in pieces. Then all eight advancing troopers were blasted apart, and silver machines came bursting into the sunlight through the dust.

Katja was running before she even formed the thought to do so. Heavy slugs punched into her side. Her feet went airborne. Her vision spun as the red horizon tipped ninety degrees and the hard surface reached up to smack her head.

She slid along the ground.

Then she was motionless on her side, explosions and shouting all around her. The gravelly dirt was warm against her cheek. She took a quick breath, coughing on the dust. Her left ribs ached with each cough.

Not daring to lift her head, she strained to take in her limited field of vision. Troopers were shooting on the run. Some were falling. Others were exploding. She could just see the silver glint of an APR past where her own feet were sprawled. It was rolling forward slowly, twin cannons spraying the air over her head with heavy bullets. Shoulder-mounted rocket pods tracked independently and picked off scrambling troopers. Its shining armor was already crumpling under the counterassault of Second Platoon explosive rounds, but Katja could tell by the explosion patterns that the rifle fire was random, panicked. The weak spots weren’t being targeted.

She lifted her rifle to aim, otherwise remaining still as the APR loomed closer. She gripped her grenade trigger. At this range, it was hard to miss.

Target the left rocket pod.

Fire. Fire.

Target the right rocket pod.

Fire. Fire.

Explosion in the left peripheral.

Left cannon bearing down.

Roll!

Slugs chewed up the ground she had just occupied. She reared up into a firing position and loosed two grenades at the cannon that was turning to target her. She angled right and engaged the second cannon with two more.

Twisted, blackened appendages jerked uselessly, but the APR continued to roll forward. As it picked up speed, Katja scrambled to her feet and ran for the nearest cover.

Chang and Sakiyama were hunkered down behind the crumbling corner of building seven. They motioned her in behind them.

“Good shooting!” Chang shouted over the roar of battle. “You got a way to get us out of here?”

“Back to the drop ship!” she shouted back.

He shook his head and pointed over her shoulder. She spun around and saw the billowing clouds of black smoke filling the central square. The flames underneath were fueled by the remains of the drop ship.

“First thing they took out,” he said. “And we’ve lost comms with Drop Command.”

“Down!” Sakiyama threw himself on both of them.

Katja grunted as she hit the ground again.

The walls above them exploded. Chunks of plastic fell heavily. Katja shielded her face with armored forearms and struggled to breathe in the choking air.

Sakiyama rolled off and opened fire on another APR that was advancing on them from building ten. Grenades smashed into the machine’s forward armor, but did little real damage. She struggled to her feet and grabbed him by the shoulders, yanking him down to a crouch.

“Target the weapons systems!”

Each trooper only carried twenty grenades. Katja had used nearly half her stock on her first APR. Sakiyama had pretty much blown his load in a fireworks display.

Chang was pulling himself up, shaking off debris. Katja did a quick visual assessment. The APR had switched targets to attack some troopers on its flank. The one she’d disarmed was rolling forward, still capable of providing target information to its counterparts.

Around the corner at least two other APRs were advancing on unseen troopers on the far side of building seven. One of them had only the blackened remains of a rocket pod on one shoulder. Troopers were taking cover behind every building she could see, firing indiscriminately at the Centauri war machines.

Scott Lahko was visible with one of the groups. All around him, his platoon was getting scattered and pinned down.

She spoke into her helmet mike. “Sierra-Two, Alpha-One.”

No response. She repeated the hail.

Chang tapped her. “I can hear you on the circuit.”

“He must be on another freq.”

She took in the situation again. Lahko’s position was closer to her than the armed APR’s, and the enemy seemed to be focusing on Terran groups at the south end of the compound. In small groups, the troopers didn’t stand a chance.

“Follow me,” she said. “Don’t shoot at the APR!” Then she sprinted across the road, praying that by not shooting she wouldn’t draw the attention of the enemy mechanicals. Her prayer was answered, and she reached the cover of building thirteen without exploding.

Three Second Platoon troopers stared at her as she crouched down beside them.

“Use grenades only,” she ordered. “Take care with your shots, and only target the weapons systems. The body armor’s too thick.”

She left them to it and shuffled back to Lahko. The big man’s eyes were hidden by his visor, but the grim line of his mouth was info enough.

“We’ve got no comms with Drop Command or Strike Cover.”

She nodded. “I know, but we still have platoon comms. Get back on the circuit!”

“We need the big guns,” he responded. “One volley from orbit would end this battle.”

“Scott, we’re on our own,” she said. “We need to fall back and regroup.”

He shook his head and made another fruitless attempt to raise Drop Command.

“Lahko, get your damn troopers back!”

He shoved her away. “I’m in fucking command!”

“And I’m here to tell you what you fucking
need to do
! Pull your troops back to the north end of the square. As a united force, we can pull together enough firepower.”

He bit down a retort, his face going deep red.

“All units, Sierra-Two!” She heard him both live and in her helmet comm. “Withdraw to the north end of the compound.” He studied his forearm display. “RV north of building eleven.”

Katja checked her own readout. The rendezvous point was a hundred and fifty meters north of their current position, at the edge of the central cluster of buildings where the long greenhouses began.

Chang and Sakiyama joined Lahko’s troops in lobbing grenades into the battle down the central avenue. Glancing around, she realized that she hadn’t seen Alayan or Cohen since the battle began. She grabbed Chang.

“Status!” she shouted above the noise of battle.

“Two APRs visible,” he reported, his voice clipped. “They’ve focused their attention on some troopers pinned down behind building fourteen—they’re putting down suppressing fire on both sides of the building, but not advancing. Even when they shoot at us, they still keep one cannon on suppressing fire.”

Katja looked at her readout again. She was at the north end of building thirteen. The trapped troopers would be able to make a clean escape up the east side of thirteen, if they could get a break in the fire.

But why weren’t the APRs advancing?

It smelled like a trap.

In her helmet she could hear Lahko coordinating with all his squads. Roughly half the surviving platoon was pinned down behind fourteen, and the remainder was taking a pounding as they slowly retreated up the west side of the compound. Lahko ordered intensive fire down on the nearest APR, to try and open an escape route for the troopers trapped behind fourteen.

Katja still didn’t like it. She pulled Sakiyama back, and punched Lahko’s arm. He glared at her, but gave her his attention.

“We’ll cut round the back of this building and cover the with-drawal of the troops from fourteen,” she said, and Lahko nodded.

Katja motioned for Sakiyama to follow her. “How many grenades do you have left, Trooper?”

“Two.”

She nodded. “You provide covering fire—I’ll take out the heavies.”

They reached the northeast corner of thirteen. She did a quick quantum-flux check through the corner. Clear. Shutting off the quantum-flux, she peeked quickly around and withdrew. Clear. She motioned them forward.

The east side of building thirteen seemed like another world. There was a thin shadow cast by the building in which they moved, easing the heat. The avenue between buildings was much narrower, and clear of choking dust. The buildings were all intact. And the sounds of battle were distant, leaving what seemed like silence.

She checked her intel. Building thirteen housed the school, the main kitchen and dining hall, and a common room. There were windows and doors along the wall at frequent intervals, making it an easy place for an ambush. Katja activated quantum-flux again and signaled to Sakiyama.

Me, quantum. There. You, visual. There.
She would watch the inside of the building, and he would watch the street as they advanced.