Mission Origin View (Final Days Trilogy) (34 page)

“
Let’s try the door, sir. If we try and burn our way in, we just might set something off,” Xia said.

“
Agreed. Use your
electronic warfare scanner
. Scan it, and if it’s clear of intruder traps, try and open the lock,” Gideon said.

“
On it, sir,” Xia said, walked over to the door and began scanning.

“
Sir, the door is open,” Xia yelled to Gideon over his shoulder.

Gideon walked over and commented,
“That didn’t take long.”

“
I didn’t have to brute force the lock open, sir. It was already open,” Xia said.

“
Manelly, Kindle, Sipes…Gunny and I are going to take a look in the building,” Gideon said over the platoon channel.

All chimed an acknowledgment.

Xia turned the door handle and pulled the door open. He stepped into a small entrance room
, and Gideon followed. A single dim red light flashed in the dark on the adjacent wall. Gideon closed the door behind him, and his helmets’ auto vision system adjusted to the dark so he could see. The blinking light was located by another door that looked to be the entrance to the rest of the building. A few seconds later the light started blinking green. Xia used his
electronic warfare scanner again
. “This door is open too, and there are no alarms or traps. It also looks like this room is used as an environment buffer between the outside atmosphere and a normal human environment inside. The temperature is normal now, and there’s enough oxygen in here to support us without our armor,” Xia reported.

“
I assume the flashing light is an environment indicator,” Gideon said.

“
Yes, sir. That’s what my scanner shows,” Xia said, paused and added. “The door leading into the interior of the building is also shielded from infrared and motion scanners. I still didn’t know what’s in there.”

“
Let’s go in, Gunny. Assault entry. You go right, fire low, and I’ll go left and fire high,” Gideon said as both men shouldered their weapons. Xia turned the handle to the door slowly with his right hand until the door opened, and with his right foot he quickly pushed it in. Xia went in to the right as Gideon followed and went to the left.

Both men held their weapons at firing positions
in case there was resistance. Seconds later Gideon saw something he didn’t expect. The building was a single room with women and children huddled together in a corner of the building. The women’s faces showed terror as they searched the darkness to find out who had entered the room. The children started crying.

Gideon and Xia stopped and stood there
, looking at the group. The women wore torn, dirty clothing that barely covered them, and most of the younger children were totally nude. They were all thin and looked to be severely malnourished. There were seven women and twelve children.    

“
We’re United States Marines. We’re not going to harm you,” Gideon said through his helmet speakers. The women and children jumped when he began talking but seemed to settle down once they were told they wouldn’t be harmed.

One of the women stood and asked
, looking into the darkness, “Sir, can you get us some water?”

“
Yes,” Gideon replied over his speakers, then switched to the platoon channel. “Manelly, Kindle, Sipes…we have people in the building. Sipes, gather water bladders from Manelly and Kindle, and bring them to me.”

“
Yes, sir,” Sipes said.

Gideon then looked for a way to light the room
, saw several
biochem light panels on the ceiling, but couldn’t find a lighting control panel. “Gunny, look outside for the light controls. There has to be one out there,” Gideon ordered.

Xia pulled his water bladder out of his armor
’s hydration system and handed it to Gideon. He then walked out, closed the inner door behind him, and exited the outer door to preserve the atmospheric temperature and air inside the building. A few seconds later the lights came on, and the women and children instinctively covered their eyes with their hands. Gideon’s auto vision instantly adjusted to the light, and, using his normal vision, he could see other things he hadn’t noticed when the room was dark.

“
The light control panel was on the atmosphere unit behind the building,” Xia informed Gideon. Then he asked, “Did the lights come on?”

“
Yes…yes, Gunny,” Gideon struggled to answer when he saw human waste and trash in another corner of the room and bodies of dead women and children stacked in another corner. He was glad he hadn’t taken off his helmet. “Gunny, keep an eye on things out there and let me know the second the czar soldiers land.”

“
Yes, sir,” Xia said.

Joseph entered the building
, carrying water bladders, and stood by Gideon as he looked around at the awful sight.

“
Here’s some water,” Gideon said over his speakers. The woman who had asked for water walked toward Joseph, and he handed the bladders to her. Joseph stood frozen, he didn’t know what to do and said nothing.

“
Sipes, go back outside with Doctor
Qasim
,” Gideon said over a private channel. Joseph didn’t respond and walked out.

“
Sir, Michael just showed up and brought some escaped prisoners. Should I tell ‘em to leave?” Xia transmitted to Gideon over a private channel.

“
How many prisoners?” Gideon asked.

“
Eighteen, sir, and a few are armed with some czar weapons they must have taken off the dead czar guards and soldiers.”

“
No, let ‘em in. They shouldn’t be in the way, and they don’t have anywhere else to go,” Gideon answered.

“
Sir, since a few of them are armed, we could send ‘em out as a diversion, and maybe that’d buy us some time till Tidwell arrives. The prisoners aren’t our responsibility, especially if we can use ‘em to save us,” Xia suggested.

Gideon considered
this for a second. He knew the prisoners wouldn’t get very far before the czar transports spotted them, and it would take only seconds for the czar transports to kill them. “Let them in the area. They’ll be killed if we send them out, and it won’t buy us enough time to make a difference. Post the prisoners with weapons around the perimeter.”

“
Yes, sir,” Xia said with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

“
I’m going out now. I’ll be back soon and let you know what you should do next,” Gideon said over his speakers to the women and children, who were eagerly sipping water from the bladders. None of them said a word as he walked out.

Gideon close
d the external door to the building behind him, turned, and saw Michael looking at him. “You gave the women and children water,” Michael stated in a deep voice. “That is good.”

“
Do you know why they’re in there and weren’t grouped with the other prisoners?” Gideon asked Michael.

“
The women are widows of the Czar Socialist Society and were sent to the labor camp because they had no one to take care of them. They worked until they were too old or injured and could not work; then they were sent here to die. The children are orphans and have no one to take care of them. All orphans of the society are sent to a camp. If they can work, they live. If they are too young or if they are injured, they are also sent here to die,” Michael said.

“
Why don’t they just kill them?” Gideon asked in disgust, “Why make them suffer?”

Michael walked closer to Gideon, selected a channel for everyone to hear
, and, using a deeper voice, answered, “The Czar Society are a vile people whose feeling for their fellow man has grown cold. The death of these people in this building is a game to them. They bet precious metals every day on how many will die in the building and how many will die when they just decide to walk out and end it all,” Michael answered.

“
Incoming enemy aircraft detected! Incoming enemy aircraft detected!” each marine’s Anna reported in unison in their ears.

Gideon pulled up an area tactical heads
-up display and saw three aircraft, marked red, coming in from the east. The three aircraft suddenly broke formation, each vectoring to a designated LZ outside the prison camp.

Seconds later the three
czar assault-troop aircraft came into view, Gideon watched as the aircraft landed. Four czar platoons of soldiers from each aircraft poured out and took up defensive positions as the aircraft took off. Moments later, four platoons from one of the aircraft fanned out and entered the camp.

Gideon knew t
hey were looking for survivors. Their own survivors they’d help; everyone else they’d kill. He also knew the czar commander of the assault force knew where he and his marines were. Their aircraft sensors had surely detected them and reported their location. As soon as they had filtered through the camp, they’d attack the hill. They could use the aircraft to destroy everyone on the hill if the commander desired, but that wasn’t the Council of Czars way. Lives of czar soldiers were cheaper than the utilization of expensive armaments. The deployment of expensive weapons would only be used either as a last resort or to test a new weapon.

“
Tidwell. ETA?” Gideon transmitted on a private channel.

“
Twenty minutes, sir. The landing gear is still stuck!”

“
Do you know the current location of the czar aircraft that just landed the czar assault group?” Gideon asked.

“
They’re twenty-five miles north of your position, circling at ten thousand feet in an air-support formation. I haven’t been detected, and my present vector will take me within two miles of their location; permission to destroy the enemy aircraft as I pass them, sir?” Tidwell reported and requested.

“
Permission granted to destroy the aircraft. On approach to our location, you’ll see our beacons on a hill west of the camp. Destroy enemy targets as close as twenty yards from our location upon arrival,” Gideon ordered.

“
That’s kind of close to your position, sir,” Tidwell said.

“
If you see targets that close to us, we won’t have long to live anyway,” Gideon replied.

“
Yes, sir,” Tidwell said.

“
Sir, the czar soldiers have completed their search of the camp and are moving toward us,” Xia transmitted over the platoon channel and helmet speakers for the few escaped and armed prisoners to hear. Gideon looked and saw the twelve platoons of soldiers running to positions around the bottom of the hill.

“
Hold your fire until they begin their assault. Use all your mag rail rounds set for high velocity first and switch to
particle
-beam microbursts,” Gideon ordered.

The
marines chimed acknowledgments.

As soon as the last enemy platoon was in position, the
czar attack began.

VTOL
Bernice
, Planet Leonis

0609
—February 28, 2372

Tidwell used
Bernice’s
AI to target the three enemy aircraft as he neared their position. He allowed the AI to calculate weapons’ trajectory to the targets and allowed fully automated firing control. The three red target tag indicators on Tidwell’s attack console began flashing red as soon as the AI had performed the attack calculations. Seconds later the AI initiated the attack.

The
weapons pod doors under
Bernice’s
belly suddenly opened and the magnetic rail gun pod dropped, rotated, and locked into firing position. One of the ten magnetic rail guns in the pod fired; then, per the AI attack calculations, two other rail guns fired microseconds later. As quickly as the pod deployed and fired, it suddenly retracted into
Bernice
.

The three mag rail projectiles streaked to
their individual targets, and within a second all three enemy aircraft were destroyed
simultaneously.
Tidwell watched as the red flashing target icons on the attack console changed to a green destroyed icon.

Tidwell then took a second to check the status of how the AI was troubleshooting the landing
-gear problem. The word
WORKING
continually flashed on the problem-isolation display.

Small Building , Political Prisoner Camp, Planet Leonis

0611
—February 28, 2372

“
Fire!” Gideon ordered as the czar troops assaulted the hill. The four marines fired their
MPB-92 mag rail guns. Plasma spewed out of their weapons as they continually fired projectile after projectile. As soon as the marines began firing, the few prisoners began firing their weapons. Their weapons consisted of a mix of czar laser and low-powered mag rail rifles. Within seconds the enemy answered with their own laser and mag rails.