LANCEJACK (The Union Series) (17 page)

The
hologram flickered to a new image and my jaw dropped.

I
simply couldn’t believe my eyes. There stood in front of us was none other than
Sergeant Evans, dressed in civilian clothing with the green band of NELA
wrapped about his upper arm.

‘Jesus
Christ…’ I breathed.

‘This
man,’ the OC pointed a finger at the image, his face contorted with disgust, ‘Is
James Evans, formerly Sergeant Evans of the 3rd Battalion, the English Dropship
Infantry.’

A
murmur of surprise spread across the ranks, which quickly subsided when the CSM
appeared behind the OC, searching for the source of the noise.

I
looked across to Westy, who sat in front of his platoon staring up at the image
of our old platoon sergeant impassively. I wondered if he had indeed known all
along, he certainly didn’t appear shocked.

Loyalty
was a funny old thing. Troopers were fiercely loyal to one another, but when
that clashed with their loyalty to the Union, which way would they go?

‘James
Evans went AWOL after the liberation of New Earth,’ the OC went on, ‘And has
been completely unheard of until now. It is believed that he is the military
mastermind behind the recent chain of events, having extensive knowledge of our
tactics and procedures, although he is not believed to be the overall leader of
NELA in the Nieuwe Poort province.’

I
suddenly thought of Geany, who had seen me take advice from Ev during the
second ambush. Had he recognised the image? If he told somebody that I had been
in contact with the rebels’ tactical advisor, then there was every chance that
I would be singled out as a collaborator and thrown into jail. I searched the platoon
for the senior trooper while the OC continued his brief.

‘We
believe that the enemy intends to hold onto the Citadel for as long as
possible, using its computer mainframe to gain access to various arms factories
across the city, as well as collecting vital software for certain more advanced
pieces of equipment, such as robotic vehicles and visor targeting systems, all
of which are useless on their own. It is therefore assessed that he will seek
to delay any advance into the Citadel, fighting floor-by-floor and only
withdrawing when the defence of each section becomes untenable. He will seek to
maintain a withdrawal route, which in this situation is clearly downwards via
the ground floor, and he will fight with everything at his disposal to keep
that route open. It is worth remembering that he still possesses several LSVs,
and potentially a saucer, all of which are assets we expect him to use in order
to do just that.

‘Does
anybody have any questions with regards to the enemy situation?’

I
finally spotted Geany a few metres away from me. Like Westy, he too watched the
image of Ev with a blank expression. I relaxed slightly. It was entirely
possible that Geany hadn’t remembered the face of the man who had told me to
destroy the glass roof in the confusion of the ambush. I prayed that he hadn’t.

‘All
is not lost,’ the OC assured us, ‘There is no doubt that our new enemy is a
hard bastard, and we may well have that traitorous wretch to thank for that,’
he jerked a thumb toward the image of Ev, ‘But we are far from beaten. I have
shown you what the enemy have managed to do to us, but now I will show you what
we are going to do about it.’

A
message had been sent to the rest of the battalion, the OC explained, who by
now knew of our plight, but not the full extent of it. The message had been
passed not by optical cable or over the net - both of which were cut off by the
enemy and most likely monitored anyway - instead it had been passed by a far
more simple means; a written document carried by a dropship that had left
minutes before our brief had begun. It contained a full schematic of the enemy
dispositions and capabilities as well as the OCs interpretation of their
intent. It also contained his recommendations for how to deal with the
situation, for the task required more than a mere company of drop troopers and
fewer conscripts.

‘No
doubt the Commanding Officer will be studying my recommendations as I speak,’
the OC said, ‘But it is highly unlikely that he will disagree with them, since
we do not have the time to argue, and so the orders I am about to deliver are
unlikely to change.’

Ev
disappeared as the hologram returned to the image of the Citadel, zooming up
toward the top of the spire, and the OC smiled at the nervous murmur that
spread across the company once more. We weren’t just going for the Citadel, we
were going straight for the very tip of it.

‘Listen
in for a set of orders for a company assault onto the Citadel…’

11

The Citadel

It
took us little more than a minute to get to the Citadel, in one of the most
breakneck rides that I had ever experienced inside a dropship. The company
hurtled out from the landing pad of Eindhoven, our fleet of dropships weaving
in amongst the city domes leaving little more than a few metres between their
hulls and the glass, before soaring upward toward the towering spire in a
sudden manoeuvre that left my stomach somewhere hundreds of metres below me.

The
dropship pilots were pushing their craft to the limit, leaving us in no doubt
of the threat below. We were at war, there was no hiding it now. The city below
us was in the hands of the rebels, but not for long.

We
had taken away their primary weapon, the city net. The battalion commanding
officer had agreed to the OCs plan and the power to the entire city had been
cut, knocking out every transmitter that didn’t come with a battery. Below us Nieuwe
Poort would be in chaos, its terrified population running to their homes in
search of shelter from the coming battle. The sky was thick with a whole battalion
of dropships, whilst an army of conscripts slowly formed a ring of steel around
the city. A fleet of dropships and unmanned saucers waited a few kilometres
away for targets to strike at, and far above us the orbital platform had been
joined by Invincible, a battleship capable of levelling entire grid squares
with a single salvo.

There
was no escape, and there would be no mercy. The rebels wanted blood, and we
were ready to give it to them.

‘Prepare
yourselves, lads, this is it!’ I bellowed, regaining my composure as I felt the
dropship turn a hundred and eighty degrees into a position to safely unload its
cargo.

At
some point during our rapid flight back into the heart of the city, a burst of
darts had been fired by the dropships into the Citadel windows in order to
create an entry point.

The
company plan was simple enough. We were to assault the Citadel as platoons,
starting from the upper floors and then striking again and again, one platoon
after the next. Each platoon would strike two floors at the same time, to
hasten our assault and also produce maximum shock effect against the enemy.
They were allowed to strike down into additional floors in order to seize the
initiative, so long as they didn’t become over extended.

We
didn’t want the rebels to stand and fight, we wanted them to run from us,
because once we had them on the run they would become vulnerable. We could
harass them all of the way down to the ground, until finally they met Major
Ruckheim and his company of conscripts who waited in a ring of steel around
base of the building.

Westy
and his platoon had assaulted the spire of the building only minutes before us,
and had reported no enemy. The spire contained little more than power
transformers, transmitters and ventilation systems, of little value to NELA.
They believed that they could hear somebody in the floors below, however, and
that was where my platoon were going.

Various
scenarios ran through my mind. I had never assaulted into a building so high,
and had no idea what would be waiting for me when the ramp dropped.

‘I
feel sick,’ Jackson said.

I
ignored his complaint. We all felt sick, but we had a job to do, and I wanted
to get it done. I knew that Ev was somewhere inside the Citadel, and I wanted
to be the one who found him. I wanted to know why he had joined a rebel
organisation who slaughtered countless Union troops. How could he allow himself
to stand alongside a group that killed his own comrades?

Ev
was a
traitor
. I still couldn’t believe it. It was as though the ground
had disappeared from under me, for one of the few men that I looked up to had
become my enemy. Westy had appeared upset too, he had barely been able to speak
to me when we left Eindhoven.

‘It
can’t be true,’ he had said to me after the brief, shaking his head in total
disbelief.

I
remembered his lack of surprize at seeing the holographic image of Ev, though,
and I couldn’t help but wonder if he had known.

The
world has gone mad
,
I thought. I cast the thought out of my mind and prepared myself mentally for
our imminent assault onto the Citadel.

‘Stand
by!’ Konny shouted, and I snapped back to reality with a jolt, ‘When we exit,
Charlie fire team will go left, Delta will go right!’

With
that, the ramp fell away and wind rushed around the compartment, biting cold
against my neck. My straps disengaged, releasing my shoulders and I reached out
to grab my rifle.

‘Let’s
go!’ Konny stood, and with the sound of seven rifles powering up we exited the
dropship onto the top floor of the Citadel.

We
quickly fanned out into a large fifty metre wide office, our weapons raised and
ready to engage any rebels hiding in amongst the wrecked furniture. The
dropships had made a mess of the place, tearing desks and electronic equipment
apart to make the office appear more like a furniture scrap heap.

Wind
whistled through the smashed glass wall behind us, reminding me that we were
very high up indeed, at the top of the tallest building in the southern
continent.

Behind
us our dropship fell away and out of view, only to appear again seconds later
hurtling across the cityscape with its battle brothers hundreds of metres
below. They didn’t need to remain nearby, I reassured myself, since they could
get to us so quickly.

‘Remember,
don’t shoot up or down, and no grenades other than smoke,’ I reminded the
section over the net as we cleared through the wreckage toward the far wall, ‘Your
darts will go straight through the ceiling and hit your mates.’

I
heard a noise just in front of me. I pushed an upturned desk out of my way with
my boot and found a terrorist curled up into a ball. He wasn’t wearing his
respirator, and he gasped desperately for air.

‘Enemy
casualty,’ I announced automatically, seeing the blood soaking the man’s
abdomen.

I
kicked the rebel’s weapon away from him and continued to advance toward one of
two doors on a wall at the far side of the office. We didn’t need to stop for
enemy casualties, they would be dealt with by Johnno. The platoon sergeant’s
work party were already unloading from their dropship behind us.

Just
as we reached the far side of the office there was a series of almighty cracks
as an unseen enemy fired a burst of darts through the wall just over our heads.
Instinctively we threw ourselves to the ground.

‘Contact!’
I screamed.

Several
of us opened fire, though we had no more of an idea of what we were shooting at
than the enemy did, our darts punching through the wall leaving holes far too
small to see through.

I
gave Konny time to do something… I gave him a couple of seconds. Now that may
not seem like a lot of time, but in situations like the one we were in - two
seconds was a
very
long time indeed.

He
did nothing, and so it was then that I decided for the last time that enough
was enough.

‘For
fuck’s sake, Konny,’ I shouted at the frozen section commander as I picked
myself up and ran around the back of the section, toward the door.

It
flew open toward me as somebody kicked at it from the other side. They rebels
were slightly too late, for just as the door opened I kicked it back and fired
several darts through it.

I
heard somebody scream in pain. I leapt to the side of the doorframe and ducked
out of the way, just before the rebels returned the favour. The door swung open
once again with the force of their fire.

Somebody
patted my shoulder urgently from behind me.

I
took a glance rearward and saw that Okonkwo and Jackson had followed and were
now stacked up ready to go. The rest of the section sprayed the wall to the
side of us with darts.

I
saw that Okonkwo was holding out a prepared smoke grenade and I took it, pulled
the pin and threw it through the doorway, watching the mechanical fly off lever
spring away as it went.

Outdoors
a phosphor smoke grenade was a nasty bit of kit if it was used as a weapon
rather than for what it was intended, but indoors it was a vicious thing
indeed. It detonated with a massive explosion and a cloud of white smoke and
molten metal billowed through the doorway.

‘Go!’
I hissed, and we burst into the room beyond in seek of our prey.

My
visor spotted a figure staggering through the smoke as I entered, and I dropped
the man with two darts and continued my advance. Okonkwo fired another two shots
from beside me, and as I looked to my left I saw another figure collapse.

The
smoke cleared slightly, although my visibility was still reduced, and I could
see four enemy dead sprawled out across a smaller room lined with what had
probably been very expensive computer hardware before our little fire fight.

‘Room
clear, four enemy dead,’ I made the announcement to Konny and his fire team as
quietly as I could so that I didn’t give my position away to a keen listener,
‘One door on the far side, I’m gonna go again.’

There
was no reply, but I knew Konny had heard me. I continued to move cautiously
toward the door, followed by Okonkwo and Jackson.

‘One-three-Charlie,
this is One-zero-Bravo, that’s my call sign unloaded onto your floor,’ Johnno announced
to me. He had been dropped off into the office behind us, ready to bring up the
rear with his work party and deal with whatever we left behind, including the
enemy casualty. His party could also be used as a fourth section as well if
required.

I
silently acknowledged the message with a quick double tap against my datapad.

With
a downward wave of my hand, we crouched as low as we could as we drew close to the
door, and I gestured for Jackson to stand to the side of the frame.

Jackson
knew what it was that I wanted, and as soon as I nodded he used the butt off
his mammoth to smash against the door, sending it flying open. We exploded into
the next room bringing with us a swirling cloud of smoke.

Beyond
was an office identical to the one we had been dropped off into, except that
its wall of windows remained intact. Desks were still arranged neatly, and I
even noticed a sandwich on one of the desks, untouched.

‘I’ll
have that,’ Jackson said with a grin, sweeping up the sandwich and stuffing it
into one of his pouches.

‘You
tramp,’ Okonkwo laughed as we checked around the room for any hiding rebels. There
were none.

‘Room
clear,’ I reported to Konny, and then flicked to the platoon net to speak as
section commander to Mr Moore for the first time, ‘One- zero, this is One-three-Charlie,
that’s our floor seventy-five percent clear.’

‘One-zero,
roger,’ the platoon commander replied quickly. He was more interested in what
he and the other two sections were doing, clearing the floor above us.

Our
floor appeared to comprise of no more than two large offices which were
separated by at least two smaller rooms, including the computer room and
whatever lay on the other side of a second glass doorway further along the wall
behind me. The glass door appeared to be identical to the one in the office
where we had exited from our dropships, and I guessed that it probably lead to
the lifts and stairwell.

We
couldn’t assault up or down the stairwell or we would end up risking a blue-on-blue
with the other sections, but we still needed to secure it in order to prevent
anybody from escaping, or worse, infiltrating back onto our floor.

‘Konny,
you need to take the room through the glass door, mate,’ I ordered over the
section net, ‘I think it’s a stairwell lobby that connects to the office I’m
in.’

There
was a moment’s silence on the section net, ‘Yeah, roger.’

I
didn’t know if Konny was angry, and I didn’t care. I had taken command of the
section for the third time and had no intention of returning the reins to him
again. It wasn’t worth the risk.

‘Do
not fire further left than my mark,’ I ordered, and quickly marked my location
for him to see on his visor with a blue crosshair.

I
waved Okonkwo and Jackson to step back with me out of the way of the floating
symbol that I had created. If Konny came under contact as he entered through
the glass doorway on his side of the building I didn’t want him to accidentally
slice us up at the same time.

‘I
won’t,’ he replied after a pause.

We
tucked ourselves out of the way just in case, waiting for Konny to announce
that he had cleared the room. I had Jackson train his mammoth onto the glass
door on our side, just in case anybody used it to run away from the advancing
fire team. If they did then the brutal weapon would make short work of them.

‘What
the hell do they want from this building?’ Jackson wondered aloud without
turning around.

‘No
idea, mate,’ I said, ‘But you said yourself it runs half the defence industry
in the city. That’s got to be worth something!’