Grendels (5 page)

Vibrations rattle through the ship while heat warps the metal, whining miserably against the strain.  Sanders watches the three dimensional tactical overlay of the air space over Solace.  In just two hours the carrier fleet stationed just behind an asteroid cluster has shifted into deployment position. 

Twelve thousand total ground troops poised to drop onto the surface of the rock and
seize control of any weapons systems. 

From the ground several air defense stations begin to light up the night sky trying to intercept the amphibs. 

“All ships, evasive maneuvering.  I say again all ships evasive maneuvering.”

The commander of aerial operations looks just like Sanders remembers his pilots looking, somehow detached from the action but intensely in control. 

“Gunships, move on those installations.  The AA is focusing on our transports.  You should be able to get in close enough to bring them down before they take you out.  Move!  Those transports won’t last long when we get up close.”

Suddenly a battery of return fire flickers down through the atmosphere exploding and flashing, Most of those rounds will never reach the surface.  Got it Sir, do something.  Maybe we got lucky and a few of those rounds penetrated the atmo.

Sanders watches the tactical map with his advanced overlays as commander of ground operations.  Several of the gunships wink out as additional arrays of defense measures activate. 

“Atmo AA active.”

Little late, boss, Sanders sighs watching two more gunships wink out before the gunships focus their fire on the close in air cover destroying their compatriots.  The short tanged AA doesn’t last long against the direct attack.  With the ground based shields the more expensive long range AA continues pounding out rail rounds close to C.

A transport splinters in the atmosphere spilling equipment and personnel.  Sanders grimaces, “First casualties.”

A counter spins up on his screen.  The timer counts down from forty seconds.  He calls off the intervals starting every five seconds at thirty.  As the last few seconds approach the jerks of the parachutes and rockets drive each passenger ferociously into their seats. 

“I forgot how much this sucks,” Davis says.

“The next part is going to be far worse,” Sanders sighs.

“Not hunting squids anymore, huh?” Miller says and asks, seeking someone to talk to and delay the inevitable.

The counter reaches zero and the crate smashes into the ground sides popping on explosive bolts and dropping flat.  Ahead a small city sprawls out with hundreds of other parachutes raining from the sky.

“Turn us around Mils!  We dropped between the city and the airfield,” Sanders taps the screen setting waypoints on the map and dragging units along routes to the target.

“All units, roll out, engage only as necessary.”

“Roger sir,” Miller responds to the command to spin the vehicle.

Ahead through the feed from the Hunters, the fully loaded soldiers watch as several smaller lighter hovercraft dart out the gate of the space station.  Each of the small vehicles is mounted with a small cannon on its roof.

“Pretty sure those aren’t authorized for daily use,” Davis laughs.  “Drill ‘em,” he says activating the weapons console.

Thompson sweeps the vehicles with the Gatling cannon.  Each of the vehicles gets several shots off with its small cannon but the rounds ricochet noisily off the hull.  A few seconds later several of the much larger caliber rounds from the cannon rip the hovercraft into debris.

“Well this is all going smoothly,” Davis says clipping his rifle back onto his shoulder.

“Yeah but they have armor and aerial support somewhere. . .” Sanders says on the short range.

“All ground forces,” Sanders says switching channels to command, “This is commander Sanders over ground forces for KS, Keep an eye out.  We know they have significant aerial and ground support equipment.  We should be expecting heavy MBTs.  Be sure to mark anything on the command map that pops up.”

“Dave,” Davis says interrupting the end of the battle speech.

Sanders focuses ahead and spots the MBT glide around the corner of the
star port.

“Oh, Shit!  Everybody out!  Thompson Miller, stay on the run and keep hitting it with the one fifty.”

Sanders drops from the open door rolling free from the vehicle at more than forty kilometers per hour. 

“Stay down!  Miller lure him out.  He’s going to need to get close to pin you down with that cannon.  If you can get him closer we can hit him with the anti-armor.”

“Rog,” Miller says sounding busy.

Sanders pulls the disposable missiles from his right shoulder blade, “Alright folks wait for my call and make them count.  You only get one shot and if we screw this we die. . .”

Sanders watches as the MBT chases the Hunter out into the thicker ground slowing it slightly.  The team in the tank fire several rounds trying to hem Miller in but the experienced operator out maneuvers their simple traps.

“Rip it!” Sanders yells.

Three missiles explode across the hull of the tank.  A missile strike to the rear quarter sends the drives crashing and the tank pulling hard to the left dragging the turret off track and punching a hole harmlessly in the ground.  Before any of the soldiers can reach for the second missile the turret on the Hunter tears open the hull of the tank with the one fifty.  The ripping metal pops and hisses before the internals explode ripping the tank wide open.

Sanders shakes his head at Davis, “That was way too close this early. . .”

Leaning over the displays Sanders huffs before slowly blowing out the rest of the air in his lungs.

“So many,” he says standing up and stretching out his back. 

Around the room dozens of personnel swivel back and forth in their couches scanning through data and sending off messages to front line troops. 

“Sanders,” Davis calls stepping into the room.

Calling over his shoulder, “Yeah, go.”

“Main just called.  They want a status report for this last holdout.  Estimates on recovery and losses.”

“Tell them I’ll get it to them when
it's not going to cost them a fortune,” Sanders snaps back irritably.

On the holos hovering around the command dais Sanders tracks the movements of vehicles, air support and troops.  Each of the units is color coded and numbered to allow quick differentiation. 

Two battalions of Grendels are moving quickly towards the last spaceport, hitching a ride on a couple of Hunters from the cavalry units.  Ahead a small remnant of track based MBTs rolls into a fighting position.  The massive MBTs fielded in the latter half of the war would have been game changers if they had been completed.  The massive anti-air rail guns mounted along the topside would have enabled the enemy to deny access to any and all drop zones.  It would have been an unwinnable standoff. 

Moving more quickly towards the MBTs three ice creams cones flicker from green to red as they engage the targets from a few miles out.  The MBTs engage counter measures and the
missiles become distracted before the ice cream cone shaped fighters turn on the radar and angle directly for the formation. 

After just a moment of direct fire the tanks flicker to black marks on the holo.  More enemy ground units, light cavalry and possibly mechanized infantry fighting vehicles move to engage the
Grendels. 

Overhead drones provide a hundred camera angles
that the computer molds into a full size live view of the battlefield. 

Sanders watches as the much more heavily armed and armored
Grendels sweep through the lines of regular infantry.  The high-powered rifles swinging between both hands rip metal armor away from the Grendels but the return fire drops the aggressors before they can capitalize on the vulnerability.

In moments the cavalry sweep across the enemy line and into the space port itself.  The
Grendels follow clearing away any remnants of resistance falling in behind the vehicles.

“Sir,
we are on site!”

Another camera shows the actual view from the soldier standing in front of a half dozen starships grounded in the dry docks.  The computer system quickly generates as much data as possible from the overhead views by the drones and the half dozen views from ground forces.  In just seconds various bits of information populate the screen showing estimated completion levels and potential capabilities.

Chiming in from Main, “Finally Sanders, you delivered to me something worth capturing.  It was well worth the wait.  Those ships are going to easily net the company a few billion.”

“Sorry to keep you waiting Ms. Owens,” Sanders says frowning at the number of soldiers dead or injured.

“Sanders, I told you to call me Sarah.  It’s weird to have you call me Ms. Owens.  You called me Sarah for as long as I can remember, now that I am in charge no reason to change that.”

Allen looks up from his terminal and begins sorting through several of the holo screens quickly, “Sarah where are you?”

A brief pause, “Spot is that you?”

“Yes, where are you?”

“Look I am not ten anymore I don’t need you watching me every second.  That is what I have the fleet for.”

Sanders selects a ship and sends the coordinates to Allen.  Allen looks at the coordinate and frowns, “Excuse me ma’am but you are well within range of their long range guns on their ships.  I think we would all be more comfortable if you removed yourself back to more protected air space.”

“Spot, Allen, calm down.  It's going to be fine.  We have them on the run.  They won’t be trying to pop my atmo.”

Sanders leans forward wanting to rub his hands across his face and blink
slowly hoping to restore something of the world that had existed up until yesterday.  Just a world where we kill the squid and take their world.  I don’t much care for the one where we take things from each other.

“Alright Sanders, Wrap it up here and then get your team back to Main.  Dock it in the compound.  With this little rebellion put to an end I think it’s safe for us to go back down into the valley of a planet and maybe give up the high ground in orbit.”

Sanders looks across the dozens of holos showing various bits of interesting events.  Several of the screens show the mop up on the planet’s surface below while one holo displays the cast images from a small naval skirmish out in the asteroid belt in the local system.  Glancing back and forth from them slowly he starts to answer.

“Sanders what the hell is this?”

A new holo image pops up.

Sanders takes a single glance at the ship, “Sarah get the hell out of there!  That’s a squid warship!”

“There aren’t any more squid warships.  We chased them to extinction well before I was born!”

“Shut up!” Sanders barks in his command tone, “Get your ship up and get out of orbit.  Your defensive formations are not setup to withstand attack from an actual war vessel.  There are probably reinforcements coming!”

“No there is just one.  He’s heading for the planet.  No course deviation to even put his turrets in targeting lock.”

“They aren’t there for our ships.  They are there to kill the people and the planet itself.”

“There was no way we could have known then that they were going to learn from us.  They took our Seekers, rebuilt the virus that we had impregnated the spores with and then sent a single ship to each human world.”

“The remnants of the old squid armada were consumed overnight as delivery vehicles to make sure the virus reached the surface.  At first we didn’t understand what was happening until half a dozen hours later the virus started acting up and killing people en masse.”

“Sarah took her cruiser down to the surface to pick up her family but then the rest of the naval fleets private and coalition grounded every ship on every planet.  Forcing them to stay grounded kept the infection from spreading further.  Her reports of the first few days were terrifying because the virus killed the majority of the populace nearly immediately.  After that the raids began and people began killing people looking for supplies.”

“That’s when we broke through the blockade and put Hercules on the deck.  We extracted her and her family from the compound before the masses swept through and raided everything.”

“Having an entirely different genetic code and multiple redundant systems we were naturally immune to the virus.  Sarah Owens died two weeks later after finally coming into contact with someone infected while we were running.”

“Since then we have been watching after her son Felix.”

The two black helmets sit and talk about the first few months of the outbreak, “Was this Sarah Owens of KS?”

“Same one.  I saw her grow up from the age of three before her father passed and handed the company off to her.  I worked for him for nearly twelve years though.”

Miller and Allen creep back into the camp, “All clear boss.”

“Rog,” Sanders replies, “Keep ‘em open.  No stragglers inside the perimeter.”

Sanders only vaguely listens as the pair compare their power status.  His mind wanders from the past to his gear, how much longer before those solar panels cut out?

“So what are you guys doing here?  Don’t you have your ship still?”

Davis leans in, “We had it hidden for a long time.  Some jackass back during the quarantine found it and thought to themselves that they were going to fire it up and run the blockade with it.  As soon as they powered up the main engines an orbital bombardment blasted it into a giant crater.  We didn’t even know until we saw the missiles falling from the sky.”

“So now we are trapped here,” Sanders finishes leaning back.

The small armored soldier leans in and pokes the fire.  The transparent face screen shows his bunched up face deep in thought. 

“My rescue crew can take all of you, but the children are going to have to learn some kind of skills.  I can’t file a report that I am transporting fifteen people half of which have no use to the ship.”

Allen jumps in on the conversation remotely over the comm, “Look we aren’t putting these kids on the ground!”

The face in the mask squints hard at the name and then looks up and around, “Look pal, you don’t have much choice.  Either they can learn to operate as part of a rescue and resupply crew or they can stay here with you boys and try and survive on this burnt out husk.”

Sanders jumps to the private channel quickly, “Calm down Allen we can keep the kids safe.  But we might have to negotiate with this guy at first.”

Davis’ name lights up, “Or maybe we just kill him and take his ship after we get in orbit.”

“Or that,” Sanders grins behind the full face metal helmet. 

“Before the outbreak people generally avoided us, what makes you think they aren’t going to just shoot us on sight?” Sanders asks
switching back to the main comm.

“Since then you guys have become like angels.  The deviants seem to be as terrified of you as the squids were and the innocents look to you as pillars of light and justice.”

“Funny how things swing that way when the lights go out,” Davis laughs.

“Hate you for being a monster, until they need one monster to fight another. . .”

END