Masoul (Harmony War Series Book 2) (41 page)

              Tony did as ordered; the man bucking against him and another enforcer.

              The man screamed out and writhed, yelling his innocence.

              The educator made soothing noises taking their knife and drawing it down their chest.

              The man screamed out as the educator asked him questions, skinning the man’s chest.

              The man’s screams and tears dissolved into incoherence.

              A matter of hours later and the man was talking about how the accuser was trying to make moves on his woman. The accuser looked shocked and hurt, saying that they were turning the blame on him.

              The educator sighed, telling the accused that their lies would not help them here. More hours passed, blood covering the educator’s hands and the man looking more like a biology experiment than human, he died in agony. Mark was disgusted, he wanted to kill them all.

              He had seen a good number of terrible things in his life, but nothing as crude or terrible. All because a man was accused of not believing.

              As much as Mark hated it, he watched and went through it. If he killed them all then his people would have the same or worse done to them. It was cold hard math. He didn’t want this to happen to his friends so he did the only thing he could think of.

              He slipped his blade along the man’s veins, quickening his end.

              The enforcers nailed him to the wall and the educator wrote absolved in their blood. Then they walked away. Mark had heard them talk about various Harmony religious texts as blood covered their clothes. It was like nothing had even happened.

              “Damn that’s thirsty work, let’s get a beer,” Tony said, unfazed by the violence.

              “Haven’t seen anything that fucked up in a while,” Mark said.

              “Yeah City Eight didn’t get many non-believers, here at central with a bigger population they can hide out, though we
always
find them,” Tony said, dark satisfaction on his face.

              Mark had later followed the accuser, found him as he was breaking his way into a household. Mark heard a disturbance inside, the accuser was forcing his way onto a woman as a boy pitifully tried to fend him off.

              “Get back or I’ll do to you what I did to your father!” The man yelled, pulling at the woman’s clothes.

              She’d given up fighting when she saw Mark come through the door.

              He’d grabbed the man by the collar and pulled him out of the doorway. The man struggled but Mark’s hand was a vice as he pulled him out of the house and down the street, and people spat on the man as he cried for mercy.

              Mark saw the white of an educator.

              “This one used the edicts of Harmony to kill a father and tried to rape his wife,” Mark had said.

              The educators were a sadistic lot, but largely emotionless about their work. Mark saw a flash of anger in this one’s eyes.

              The educator pulled up the man’s shirt, seeing the tattoo of Chosen.

              “Was the man he had put to death Chosen?” The educator said.

              The man was now crying, resolved to his fate.

              “Yes,” Mark said.

              The educator nodded.

              “You have done well, enforcer,” the educator said, raising a communicator to their face, moments later, educators were walking through the crowd, and they took the man from Mark.

              “For the sake of Harmony,” Mark said saluting to them.

              They repeated the vow, solemnly, turning their attention to the man.

              He lasted for days, educators moving through as they each inflicted their own unique brand of torture .

              Harper and his followers had brainwashed the population and assured their rule through a combination of kindness and loving words, but when they were crossed they reacted with public displays of controlled violence. Enforcers were the cops and jury; educators were the executioners.

              The system worked and made Harper’s words the words of a higher power, one that people believed they could never surmount.

              “Today our great leader Harper will lead us on a parade of the city, I don’t want any fuck-ups. We are there to show the people of Harmony how we will beat the troopers, to inspire them with our strength and power, to assure them that their hard work has not been in vain,” Tony said, his helmet open as he looked at them all. His neck was covered by the bulk of the large armor, making him practically invisible.

              Nods and agreement came back. They were nothing close to a military unit.

             
Most of them at least,
Mark thought, his eyes falling on his people.

              “Good, let’s go.”

              Mark and the others had adjusted to using the powered armor. It had been slow going but Moretti’s enforcers spent every waking minute that the powered armor wasn’t charging, using the things or the weapons they were given.

              They had hardened blades, rudimentary grenades, and a repulsor. There was no aiming assistance. Aiming was done by using the tracers to draw a line to their target.

              They were getting better at hitting targets by feel, but it took practice. They were up to max strength whenever they could be.The training area was much too small to actually open up full throttle and truly run, but it was a freeing feeling. There were a number of issues with the command software and the internals of the powered armor.

              Everyone cataloged the weaknesses and made sure to not work on them or raise them to the techs.

             
Don’t want Harmony improving the machines if they could help it.

              They closed their helmets, screws and bolts sealing them, showing angles that were supposed to help deflect blasts and rounds.

              The rest of the armor looked like an oversized human with long arms and shaped armor plates that were meant to take massive frontal damage. The back was hardly armored, another flaw that tank gunners a few centuries past were all too aware of.

              People looked at them in awe as they marched through the testing area, towards the command center. They waited there; enforcers, Chosen and others looking at them and cheering, whooping, and yelling all kinds of Harmony propaganda.

              Mark was thankful he was inside his armor and could openly show his disgust at them. He silenced the audio, scanning the crowds.

              Harper walked out and people went wild as he stepped among the powered armor wearers. He was smiling and waving, saluting to a few, he was more celebrity than a leader. At least at this moment he was.

              Mark looked around, they were safe here, but outside was different. If there was a threat he would have to react. He hated the need to protect Harper, but if he didn’t then the whole operation would be in jeopardy.

              They exited the barracks and walked through not only Central Tower but also the other towers that made up Landing City.

              They walked and walked, and after about four hours Mark was bored but watching the crowd when he saw someone move forward and bring a gun out of their jacket. Mark started to put his body in the way of Harper’s. Moretti who was also part of the procession, pushed Harper down, a pistol coming up in his hand.

              Tony reacted, and the man’s rounds hit powered armor as Tony’s repulsor blazed, a five second burst turning the man and those unfortunate enough to be behind him, into clouds of gore.

              Moretti had Harper up again, his pistol searching as pandemonium broke out and people scattered in every direction.

              “Take us to the nearest barracks,” Moretti ordered.

              “Spread out and cover them,” Haas said, over the private circuit with the troopers.

              The powered armor troops fanned out around the group, taking off at a run. People ran away from them as their repulsors looked for targets.

              A bomb went off somewhere, adding to the panic.

              It wasn’t long until they reached the nearest barracks.

              “A bomb went off in Tower Three’s barracks,” Moretti said, stopping before they entered the barracks.

              “Let me send a few of the armored enforcers in to check the barracks out with their sensors,” Moretti said to Harper, who was looking shocked.

              “Tony, check it out please,” Harper said, giving the man a weak smile.

              “Mark!” Tony said, using his speakers. He and the other
Powered Armor Chosen
or PAC’s hadn’t got the hang of using armor to armor communications.

              “Coming,” Mark said, following Tony, his sensors going to full as he looked around the room. His back had pretty clear blind spots as well as his sides so he had to compensate using his forward sensors to check the place out.

              It was declared clear and Harper and the rest of the party hustled in.

              “Powered armor cover the entrances. Tyler, Dooks with me, we’ll cover Harper. Mark see to the defenses,” Tony said, he and the two others following Harper into the medical facilities, the enforcers with him looking at everyone with stony eyes. Moretti was on his communicator talking to central control.

              “Got it,” Mark said, making sure that people were at every entrance ready to fight anything that came along.

              The resistance had been pushing for an operation to show their defiance of Harmony’s presence, but the troopers had told them to not go through with any such antics.  Doing so would only mess up their own plans.

              So they’d compromised, the troopers taught the resistance, hiding their identities with masks and implants messing up their voices, and the resistance waited. The troopers kept their plans to themselves, not trusting the resistance. It seemed that their distrust was well founded.

              Mark didn’t want to even imagine what could have happened if they had told the resistance about their plans.

              Information started coming in, the barracks had been hit, but there had been no more attacks. At least it would make Harmony think that it was only a small group, but it also meant that Harmony knew the resistance could get a bomb into their barracks and if they could do that then they could get one into most places. Security was about to become tighter and Mark knew that the educators would be called out on more than one witch hunt. Maybe they’d actually get a resistance fighter. And if they did then they could start painting a picture that none of the troopers wanted painted right now.

              “Sending message,” Haas said over the private channel. No one needed to be told what message he was sending.

Chapter 37

             
EMFC Reclaimer

             
Shipping Station, Masoul System

             
12/3241

              Nerva got a priority alert as rounds whizzed around him and the company he had moved up with. He ducked behind cover and checked it out.

              There was no shock, just his teeth tapping together in thought. It was a recording of the attack on Harper and a message from Haas. It was only two words.

             
Begin operation.

              Nerva contacted the other majors on the field and in reserve.

              “The operation begins, we push forward, slow at first, over the next three weeks I want to be at full strength. No Mercy,” Nerva said.

              “We are troopers,” The other majors returned, green lights making rows on the top of his HUD.

              He sent orders to his captains. It was time that they stopped pissing about and got to the real fight.

***

              General Wai looked over the information with bored interest. She knew that reports were going to Earth and that someone was reading them, but other than orders to complete the operation, she was giving Nerva enough room to hang himself.

              She wanted definitive proof of him stepping outside the boundaries before she jumped on him. She had ordered his lieutenant colonel and colonel to stop issuing orders, she’d had the others lessen the degree to which they held the reins over their pawns.

              When he’d got the message from Masoul, he’d issued orders to the other majors. Yhat was something that no one other than her should have done.

              At this rate she would have enough on him to get him removed before they reached Masoul. Then she might send a message to this Harper about Nerva’s prized platoon who were spinning up wild stories about powered armor and that this band of colonists were working with others.