Authors: Max Feinstein
He was about to open up a channel with his platoon when an alert message flashed on his display. It immediately opened into an automated mayday message a damaged Centaur IFV. It took Dexter all of a second to
realize that the IFV designation code was, Zedock, the same one that belonged to General Stelle’s personal transport. The urge to drop everything and sprint towards the crash site swelled up inside him, but he suppressed the feeling long enough to think through the action. Dex knew there was no way he could abandon his men and make it there in time to do anything. The decision was made easier, however, when an acknowledgement signal came on from another unit within the crash site’s vicinity. It being the General he knew that that all available units would respond to the alert with most haste.
“Graves
, Two Actual, I’m on my way to you,” Dexter finally transmitted to his 2
nd
Lieutenant and saw her face appear within his visor, “gather as much MultiSpec netting as you can get your hands on and drape the Centaurs. The enemy is using some sort of mind control device. Stay under MultiSpec whenever possible.”
He watched Cassandra’s eyes dart side to side
as she engaged the approaching enemy forces before responding, “Copy that sir, we will try our best. It’s getting a little hairy here, but we’ll keep the door open for you.”
Knowing that he needed to find some assistance for his beleaguered troops, Dexter simply had to think about nearby fire support units and let the uniform’s internal systems locate th
ose assets within range of 2
nd
Platoon. The system responded instantly by pushing out from the current map and began to display even more of the surrounding area. At the same time new army units began to appear within the map in a sky blue color to indicate their ‘Friendly’ status. Most of these units were already busy engaging other enemy units that had landed. Suddenly the map zoomed out even further and shifted quickly to the west. Dexter watched a good portion of Secturo Park flash by his eyes before the image focused once more on a small hundred and seventy-five meter high hill. A new bluish symbol popped up designating an Army artillery unit holding position in that area, over fifty kilometers away.
“
Sledgehammer, Iron Fist Two Actual. Requesting fire support Priority Oscar,” he requested after marking various targets around 2
nd
Platoon’s position with the operational satellite, “transmitting targeting data now.”
“Iron Fist Two-One, Sledgehammer Actual,” the reply came back with
only the slightest of pauses, “target package received and distributed...ordinance outbound.”
After not having complete access to the Net for
the previous days Dexter was actually a bit surprised at how fast everything was being manage and accomplished and quickly commed Cassandra, “help on the way lieutenant, arty inbound. Relaying strike packages to you.”
In a matter of seconds the area around his platoon lit up with multiple plasma and missile explosions as the incoming artillery fire found its mark. Thanks to the satellite guidance data each round impacted on target and with no damage to friendly units even at a danger close distance.
Dex witnessed as more than seventy-five percent of the enemy force disappeared from the sensor readings. He also watched as an unfortunate descending dropship overflew one of the targeted positions and took a direct hit. Whether it was critically damage or simply knocked off course, he watched it slam into the surrounding trees and crash into the hard soil of the forest floor. Dexter never got a chance to see whether anyone escaped the crash as he began to run towards his platoon once again, taking mind to avoid stepping out of MultiSpec covering.
CAPTAIN ALOKOW
was just as surprised when the Cyclone broadcast a full Tactical Battlefield Network signal within the area. It was like someone had taken off a set of blinders from his eyes and opened up the entire world to him once again. The limited and mostly directional sensor feed instantly expanded to cover almost the entirety of Telfor. It now had access to every air, ground, and space tracking system on the continent, which allowed him to detect a large group of enemy fighters on the Atmospheric Disturbance Scanner, descending through the atmosphere at high speed. Their projected course would take the directly into Secturo’s airspace, which would greatly hinder the evacuation effort underway at that base. Serti knew he had to do something to delay them, but there was no way his wingman and him could take on almost thirty-six of those incoming fighters.
As if that wasn’t enough, another detection alert came on right after the first. This time the ADS showed four larger craft coming down from orbit in three different locations. Three of these
were shuttle sized ships that were maneuvering towards Secturo base as well. Unlike the others, however, the forth craft was slowing down to a hover just over a hundred and fifty kilometers away and was larger still. The captain was about to start issuing orders when another paralyzing wave of pain exploded inside his head, causing his hands to spasm for a second and tighten around the flight controls held in them. It took all of his strength and self-control to keep his eyes open and the interceptor under his control. He watched as Griz’s Cyclone did a slow roll before quickly recovering.
“Sorry sir, caught me off guard there for a moment,” his wingman informed him in a slow grunting manner, “good to go Lead.”
Serti admired the man’s strength and dedication as he tried hard to control the horrible feelings rising from within him. It was the same assault that he had felt before and knew that it was the enemy trying to destroy his will to fight and distract him enough to make him combatively ineffective. What he noticed after the first seconds, though, was that the sensations were not nearly as powerful as they had been the first time. His recovery was also getting much faster. Perhaps his mind was adapting to the assault, but Serti had no evidence of this only the fact that he was rapidly regaining full control of his faculties and pushing the thoughts of surrender and death from his head.
“On me,” Serti finally called out while pushing on the throttle and banking the craft towards some of the incoming drop ships, “let’s see if we can’t help out our brothers on the ground.”
The dart shaped Cyclone jumped forward under his command and pressed him back into the absorptive seat as it accelerated towards the group of three enemy transports. It became apparent within the first ten seconds that whoever was in command of the alien force had detected their approach because a large number of enemy fighters suddenly broke away from their original flight paths. As Serti watched the sensor display projected in his visual field through the implants within his brain the twelve fighter craft closed with the transports and formed up a screen in front of them. In response Razor One pushed the throttle harder and gained altitude to adjust his angle of attack so that Griz and him would arc in from above instead of below. The enemy saw this too, however, and followed his move to get between his flight and the transports once more.
“We’ll force our way through, Griz. Transfer all available power to shields,”
Captain Alokow ordered calmly and ordered his Cyclone to cut power to the energy based weapons in order to strengthen the shields.
Just then, as if someone had heard his internal plea for assistance, a friendly search-and-track warning alarm range out and his sensor display filled with multi
ple missile launch indicators. He watched as forty-five of these Adino missiles raced into the air from three different locations somewhere beneath him. What he didn’t know was that the remaining four SA-241 Batteries had shattered throughout the forest after Crossbow Three’s destruction from the orbital strike. By dispersing all of these systems it was hoped that they would last longer against any type of enemy attack.
This group of projectil
es accelerated to top speed as they zeroed in on their targets, but before they reached them, dozens of bluish particle beam shots raced cross Serti’s cockpit towards the fighter screen. For some reason the enemy force held their positions within the screen, only conducting minor evasive maneuvers, until a number of them vanished from the Cyclone’s sensors. Finally they scattered slightly in order to make themselves harder targets. With new data coming from the ADS, however, the Adino missiles were not affected by these actions and closed on their separate targets.
Serti followed as many of the enemy fighters as he could in his display, trying hard to fight through the nausea swelling up inside him from the headache.
Try as they might to avoid the missiles there was no way to escape the tracking capabilities of the ADS. One after another the fighters began to disappear from the sensor readings of the Cyclone as the Adino’s found their marks. He also noticed that some of the missiles punched through the fighter screen and descended on the incoming transports. Magnifying the video feed from his front camera Captain Alokow was able to study the dropships and noticed that from the bottom of two of them was attached some type of armored vehicle. One of these large vehicles actually separated from its dropship and fell towards the ground as two Adinos exploded against the rear and side of the carrier craft.
Another launch alert came on at that second, this time from another area of Secturo’s perimeter, and showed the launch of another forty-five surface-to-air missiles. While continuing to fly forward Serti turned his head to starboard and followed the missiles through his enhanced eyes. He saw
them fly into the air with slight ignition plumes stretching out behind them. Inquiring as to their intended target, Serti confirmed his initial guess and searched the sky for a second until the large new alien ship came into view. The curved oval craft still hung in midair and looked somewhat similar to the gunships he had seen previously. What separated it from the other ships was that it had two flat oval discs projecting from the top and bottom of its hull. Both of these seemed to be attached to buttress like support structures. For some reason these discs made him think of communications or sensor arrays. Something inside him told him that the ship was important to the enemy and had to be taken out.
“Nine, shift target to Bravo Four and follow my lead,” Serti ordered as he swung the craft around, seeing the Cyclone’s body rotate around his cockpit as he pointed the interceptor towards the gunship-like ship.
THE PAIN
disappeared rather quickly as the analgesic began to infuse into Felix Logwari’s system and allowed him to start recollecting what had happened. For a second there was only confusion, but then memories of the explosion and crash came rushing back to him. He remembered being thrown around the cockpit as the IFV smashed through the forest trees before blacking out. It was that thought that caused him to finally realize that he was still in darkness and couldn’t see anything. Felix blinked his eyes just to make sure they were open and quickly became aware of the fact that the floor he was laying on was actually the Centaur’s ceiling, meaning the entire vehicle was upside down. Feeling something brush against his side caused Felix’s arm to reflexively fire out and grip the object tightly.
“It’s just me sergeant,” the familiar voice of the Centaur’s pilot sounded out in the darkness, “you ok sir
?”
Felix thought about the question for a fraction of a second and couldn’t really answer that truthfully. He wasn’t sure if he was ok or not, but he knew that they couldn’t stay in this wreck.
Triggering his helmet’s enhanced optics he finally saw through the pitch blackness of the cockpit after the display adjusted. Turning his head and looking up the sergeant laid his eyes upon the pilot and confirmed that it was indeed her standing beside him, crouched down slightly at the hatchway in the rear of the cockpit. With that Felix let go of her leg and tried to get up off the metallic floor.
It was at that moment that he realized that he couldn’t really feel his legs at all nor move them
in the slightest. His suit must have sensed the attempt and instantly brought up a medical diagram of his body with multiple warning signs around it. Felix’s worst fear was realized when he saw the red outlines along his entire lower back area indicating sever vertebral fracturing and some severing of the spinal cord in the lumbar region. Another medical note came up right after and informed him that the suit had begun to infuse him with Omniheal, which was a collection of semi-adaptable nanites that helped heal injuries from within. It was highly effective for some injuries, but less so for other more extensive types of damage such as his own.
“I’m fine Specialist,” Sergeant Logwari lied as he pushed his upper body up with his hands, “go back and check on the General. I’ll be there in a second.”
His eyes followed the specialist as she acknowledged his order and proceeded to enter the Centaur’s passenger compartment. Not wanting anyone to see his new disability Felix waited for her to disappear completely before trying to force himself up. Being one to never give up he concentrated hard on moving his legs. For a moment nothing happened, but then suddenly his left leg moved slowly until he was only kneeling on one knee. Instead of being a normal smooth motion, the movement came in twitches, utilizing the powered suit’s interwoven musculature to move the leg through pure thought power. While he could see the leg moving, Felix noticed that he still couldn’t feel anything below his waist. No matter how much he wanted the Omniheal to take effect he knew that realistically it would take a long while until it would fix the spinal cord injury.