Masoul (Harmony War Series Book 2) (29 page)

              Anger focused her as she moved forward, giving Lux room, slapping her attackers arm away and drawing a red line through her arm.

              ***

              “Fuck,” Tyler said, feeling his heart twist in his chest as an alert he hoped to never come up appeared on his HUD.

              “What?” Jerome asked, Tyler was on the command channel.

              “You got this? I need to be somewhere,” Tyler said, pulling up a blueprint, using his hand implants to manipulate a hologram only he could see in real-time.

              They were on the fifth floor of the maintenance area. The Harmony fighters had got creative with booby traps and gun positions hidden in the tubing which was the opposite of the precise and ordered offices they’d begun their fight in.

              “The hell are you talking about?” Mark said.

              “Gotta do something!” Tyler cut the channel as he took off from his position, firing his grenade launcher to confuse the Harmony fighters targeting.

              He jumped off of a catwalk onto a pipe, he jumped off of it, rolling on a catwalk below. He rolled, coming up firing as red halos appeared.

              He ran straight, cutting right, then left, eyeing his HUD and the tentative route he’d made.

              He felt the catwalk shaking with others running on it.

              He picked up his pace. He couldn’t get slowed down here, if he did then Alexis might die. He ran faster, firing bursts at any red halos or movement that wasn’t outlined in green.

              He came to the end of the catwalk, not even slowing as he jumped, using the railing as a launch pad. He let his rifle dangle from his harness as his extra dense muscles threw him fifteen feet to a thin pipe. He caught it, wrapping his arms and legs around it.

              He looked down, seeing Alexis and another trooper tagged as ‘Lux’ below.

              He released his grip sliding down past floors until the pipe turned away, ending five feet above the fighting.

              Tyler sighed, released the pipe and fell, right on top of the person Lux was fighting, his legs hurt with the impact but he grabbed his rifle, the stunned looking Harmony fighters getting a full magazine of rounds.

              More were swarming and Tyler’s gun clicked empty, he didn’t have time to reload.

              He heard twangs and noises of metal moving above him.

              An all too familiar shadow was dropping down catwalk to catwalk. His bulk landed on the floor, he rolled onto a repulsor Tyler hadn’t seen.

              Tyler whipped his arms to his sides, twin blades now in his hands as he took over for Lux who was bleeding from a dozen places and panting. She was listed as a yellow on Tyler’s HUD.

              Tyler moved up onto the Harmony fighters, his left blade up his right along his forearm as he bobbed, weaved, landing harsh punches and opening blood vessels with his blades.

              Tyler heard the sounds of a repulsor behind him. He didn’t have time to look as he dropped to his knee, under an attacker’s punch, stabbing into their leg and dragging it up to their groin.

              Blood pumped out as the person fell screaming and holding their leg.

              Tyler kicked them in the face and pulled back, using them as a barricade for the next fighter who tried to step over his buddy, focusing on his footing on the blood-soaked decking and squirming comrade.

              Tyler tilted to his side and kicked the man in the chest, throwing him into his friends, winded and useless his friends dropped him, a new attacker moving up.

              “Tyler, move!” Mark barked.

              Tyler turned for the maintenance corridor which was the only real cover and dove, seeing Mark with the repulsor in his hands, only one of the straps holding the ammo pack on.

              Behind Mark the scene could only be called an abattoir.

              As soon as Tyler was clear, Lux was sitting on the ground, working on her injuries and out of the way.

              Mark held the repulsor and fired, tracers ripped down the corridor, grinding anything and anyone in his way.

              Shell casings fell at his feet as Tyler felt a sliver of cold pass through his spine.

              Tyler got to his feet, spying his rifle, he grabbed it, pulling magazines as the shooting ceased.

              Both hallways were clear on either side and fighting could be heard all around.

              Tyler put his grenade mag back in place.

              “Next time, give me some warning you idiot,” Mark growled, his own ammo pack had been used long ago as they’d moved through the offices.

              He pulled the repulsor’s other strap on, glowering at Tyler before turning his attention to the gun.

              “Sorry bro,” Tyler said, shrugging.

              Mark sighed securing his rifle to the side of his pack and looking to Lux as Alexis jumped at Tyler, wrapping him up in a hug.

              For a second they held one another, then she stepped back and punched him.

              “Shouldn’t be down here you idiot, your platoon is five levels up,” she said, anger in her voice.

              “Good to know you’re keeping tabs on me,” Tyler joked.

              “This is war Tyler Victor, as much as I’m thankful you pulled Lux and my asses out of the fire, you should be leading your section, not down here. You even brought Mark down here, that only leaves your platoon with two section leaders, and we both know Holm is nervous since it’s his first turn as the section commander,” she said.

              “I know, but they’re only slowly advancing and I trust Mark made sure that someone was leading our sections before he followed me,” Tyler said, wincing as he tried to fight her accusations but they were all too true.

              He
should
be up there watching over his people, but he couldn’t have left Alexis to die.

              “What’s done is done, Haas is gonna have your ass, now we need to clear this area out if we’re going to survive this,” Mark interjected, helping Lux to her fee. Tyler could see her wincing but as soon as she was vertical she was checking her rifle.

              Alexis looked like she was going to say something else but simply nodded, “yeah.”

              “You two lovers take left, Lux, you’re with me on the right,” Mark said, pulling the repulsor to his shoulder.

              Tyler took the lead as they separated, Alexis at his back, his barrel looked for fighters coming out of any nook and cranny he saw between the piping.

              The corridor angled to the right, Tyler slowed his pace, trying to see what was down the bend.

              He saw five people scattered around what looked like a supply closet, red halos tagged them as he slowly moved back into cover.

              “You hit the ones on the right with grenades, I’ll hit the ones on the left,” Tyler said, pulling his grenade launcher magazine and checking he had enough rounds.

              “Got it,” Alexis said, doing the same before slapping it home.

              “I’ll go low, you high,” Tyler said, facing the supply closet but still behind cover. He was wishing he could say so much more, but right now they just needed to survive, not think about the fact they were in love with one another.

              “Good,” Alexis said.

              “Three, two, one,” Tyler said, they both stepped out, grenade launchers ready.

              They fired on their targets, the supply room’s door blew in and the decking got torn to shit, but so did the red halos which disappeared.

              Alexis pulled Tyler to his feet and they moved up, looking for any of the fighter friends that might show up.

              The piping opened up to show consoles but no other entrances.

              “Well fuck, no wonder they were guarding this place, looks like an armory or ammo point,” Tyler said, moving to the door.

              “Three, two, one,” he went in the room and to the right, seeing nothing but ammunition boxes and weapons. “Clear.”

              “Clear,” Alexis said, letting her rifle drop as they looked over brand new E-12 repulsors, ammunition for all of it and a smattering of Harmony guns and their ammunition.

              Tyler looked to Alexis, even covered in gore, her armor plates showing silver lines from impacts, slashes and ricochets. Her smart clothes were torn and stained with smoke, fire, and grime. She still took his breath away.

              “Eyes front trooper, we get off this platform there’ll be plenty of time spent studying,” she said, smiling in her helmet.

              “You do know what I mean by studying?” She asked, cocking her leg and looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

              “Going to the library and getting a study booth?” He said as if he was guessing.

              “
Very
good!” She smiled, shaking her head and grabbing magazines.

              Tyler let out a snort and did the same, it didn’t take them long to fill their pouches and toss two ammunition packs they’d found.

              ***

              Jerome had wanted to follow after Tyler and Mark, it had only been Mark telling him to stay and asking permission to follow Tyler that had stopped him.

              He realized that the three of them had become brothers just as Mark and Tyler had. Not by blood but experience.

              Haas had given Mark permission probably knowing that Mark wouldn’t be effective with his mind on other matters, plus Tyler needed back up.

              He certainly wasn’t pleased about it but he’d done it, better to give an order he knew would be followed, than one that wouldn’t.

              The Platoon was moving forward slowly; under their feet they could see all the way to the bottom of the maintenance area. Getting shot from below was a big problem as were avoiding broken catwalks. Most didn’t do too well after being hit by a few grenades.

              “Huang, Kaj, move up through those machines in the center,” Jerome said, they were moving forward, wary since no one had shot at them in some time.

              Huang and Kaj seemed to wake them up, weapons fire came from several directions where Harmony fighters had dug in.

              The trooper’s response was immediate and destructive, grenade launchers
thoump
-ed their rounds away as streams of tracers outlined the firing positions.

              Jerome checked his HUD as he moved up, firing burst after burst into Harmony fighters hiding behind a pipe. He saw a spark growing and being pulled towards the pipe.

              Then he was five feet backwards, ash and dust slowly falling to the ground as the pipe he’d been shooting at and everything around it became melted metal.

              “Fucking MOTHER FUCKER! This place is a fucking bomb making site of certified fucking idiot monkey fucks!” Dashtund yelled. Jerome saw him pulling himself up and shooting at Harmony fighters wandering around, they shell-shocked and stunned by the destruction.

              Jerome couldn’t bring himself to his feet just yet, so he shot them from on his back.

              His HUD showed Kaj and Huang as reds, medics and their helpers were already moving up.

              Jerome’s ribs felt like they were broken, he and his people were a myriad of yellows and reds. Still they were doing better than the Harmony fighters.

              It looked like the opposite side of the level had fared a lot worse, flames could be seen pouring out from other places the pipe had exploded.

              Without armor and right in the middle of the destruction, the Harmony fuckers weren’t having a good day.

              “Move in. No Mercy!” Haas yelled, his words getting Jerome to his feet.

              “We are troopers!” Others responded, remembering Captain Harold’s words as they moved forwards, focused and determined. Fatigue from before forgotten, washed away with augmented combat pumps and all-natural adrenaline.

              They jumped over broken catwalks, the Harmony fighters, stunned and confused, tired and scared were no match for the wave of troopers that met them.

              Jerome grunted with the pain of rubbing ribs, augments pumped him with painkillers and stims to dull the pain but keep him alert.

              Other augments did what they could to start healing the damage.

              Jerome fired a burst into a moving group of Harmony, already troopers passed him as the last dropped to the ground. He caught up with the tail-end of the troopers and passed them seeing they had their situation under control.

              So it went, clearing the fifth floor by overwhelming the Harmony forces in dozens of locations and pouring rounds into them.