RECCE II (The Union Series Book 5) (32 page)

Despite the south-eastern sangar coming under
attack, and despite the platoon of oddly dressed figures approaching the
Trondheim perimeter, not one of the other guns appeared to notice us, and it
didn’t take long for me to see why. As we drew to within a hundred metres of
the sangar, we caught our first glimpse of the embattled slave camp to the
east. Two robotic dumper trucks were speeding through the mass of atmospheric
tents and plastic domes, their metallic hulls spraying sparks as they drew fire
from all the automated guns. Completely unmanned, the vehicles had only one
objective, to bring their cargo of explosives up to the main gate that
connected Trondheim with the home of its slave workforce where they would
detonate. They were the final piece in Aleksi’s feint to the east, a
spectacular suicide attack that any defender, automated or human, would be
forgiven for mistaking as the main offensive. Even the battle for the slave camp
itself, which raged around its perimeter, was ignored by the heavy weapons as
they turned their collective power against the approaching trucks. Machine was
pitted against machine, leaving the human element as if it was nothing more
than a sideshow, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Just before it reached the main gate, the first
truck disappeared inside a massive cloud of dust and smoke, sending burning
fragments hundreds of metres in every direction and followed seconds later by an
almighty thump. Though I couldn't see what damage had been done through the
cloud, I knew that nobody standing near to the explosion could have survived.

'Have it, you bastards!' Myers hissed from behind
me.

‘Shut up!’ I panted over my shoulder. ‘Keep going!’

I could now make out the shape of the sangar, as
well as the perimeter of Trondheim. The sangar was enclosed inside a five-metre-high
compound wall, almost like a keep within a small castle. In contrast, the perimeter
fence that surrounded Trondheim barracks was exactly that, a wire fence, though
that fence was re-enforced by numerous coils of concertina wire. Nobody could
cross it as long as the sangar guns were operational, which was why capturing
one was so crucial for Aleksi’s plan to succeed.

As we covered the last twenty metres to the sangar
wall, the second truck hurtled toward the main gate, hoping to break through
into the barracks and detonate itself inside. Unfortunately, something appeared
to go wrong, and the vehicle veered sharply left as if it had lost control.
Perhaps the guns had damaged its steering somehow, or knocked out the last of
its robotic cameras. Either way, it was never going to make it into the
barracks, and so it too detonated close to the gate - though too far away to
have any effect.

I slammed against the relative safety of the sangar
wall, chest heaving as I looked back for Weatherall. Following just behind
Myers with the ladder over his shoulder, the trooper was with me within
seconds, and I reached out to help him as he planted it onto the ground.

We drove the ladder’s legs into the wet earth,
slamming it against the top of the perimeter wall. Griffiths instantly swung
around the rear of the ladder, clutching it by the legs and using all of his
body weight to hold it firmly in place. There was always a chance that the
ladder might slip in the soft soil, especially since it was going to take at
least two heavily laden troopers at any time.

'Go, go, go!' I drove Myers up the ladder, following
just behind him.

We sped up the ladder, knowing that we needed to
scale the wall as quickly as possible.

Myers stopped just before he reached the top of the
ladder, careful not to expose his helmet above the wall and the sangar that
loomed above it. We didn't want the enemy to know we were there, and if they
did then we certainly didn't want them to know where our ladder was, not until
it was too late.

I climbed the ladder until my helmet was just below
Myers’ boot. It was important for me to stay as close as possible so that I
could cover him when he made his descent on the other side of the wall.

From my vantage point near the top of the ladder, I
could see the battle that now raged to the east as the Bosker rebels spilled out
from the trees and through the wire fencing that surrounded the prison camp. It
looked as though both of the sangars that guarded the camp were destroyed, but
the remaining three sangars that guarded Trondheim were ripping through the
tents as they engaged anything that moved. I couldn’t tell whether the guns
were inflicting casualties upon the Bosker fighters or not, but I knew that the
occupants of the tents were getting hit . . . I could hear them screaming.

I ignored their plight, reminding myself that it
didn’t matter, not as far as our mission was concerned. The Bosker attack was
loud, brazen and chaotic, and in being so it drew the Militia’s attention from
the southern sangar.

Keeping his head low, Myers drew a grenade from his
belt kit, quickly setting its timer. He looked down at me to make sure I was
ready.

I nodded. 'Do it.'

There was no need for an exaggerated throw. Myers
simply popped the grenade over the lip of the wall with a flick of his hand,
then waited for it to detonate. All of our headsets bleeped in warning only a
second before the grenade exploded with a loud thump. Small clods of earth
leapt from behind the wall, passing over our heads before falling back to the
ground below.

As if released by the explosion, Myers stood up to
full height, leaning over the wall and aiming down into the sangar compound.

'Clear!' he shouted. 'No enemy!'

'Well get down there, then!' I snapped.

Myers hesitated, unsure about the drop below him.
The wall was almost five metres high, high enough to make the fall dangerous no
matter how well it was controlled. Unfortunately for him, he was the first man,
and as such his descent was always going to be the most dangerous.

'Myers!’ I hissed at him. ‘Get down there!'

Deciding that a five-metre drop was far less dangerous
than my rage, Myers swung himself over the wall and then lowered himself down
the opposite side, scraping his kit against the masonry. There was no way he
could fall five metres without severely injuring himself, so he needed to
reduce the distance between his boots and the ground as much as possible before
letting go.

Not waiting for Myers to drop, I clambered up to the
top of the ladder, grasping my rifle where it hung at my side and then swinging
it around to take my first look into the sangar compound.

No more than thirty metres across, the compound was
little more than a muddy rectangular courtyard, with the sangar on one end and
a small outbuilding on the other. A few crates were stacked against the wall,
and pieces of discarded litter were strewn everywhere, indicating that the
sangar was at least occasionally occupied. Whoever stayed in there was
undisciplined, I quickly decided, but that didn't necessarily mean that they
couldn't handle themselves.

Myers continued to slide down the wall until his
arms were fully extended. Then, after a second’s hesitation, he let go, falling
awkwardly to the ground and promptly collapsing in a heap.

Conscious of exposing myself above the lip of the
wall, I quickly swung myself over to the other side before lowering myself
down, just as Myers had. Once I let go, I landed next to Myers, allowing my
legs to give way underneath me. Collapsing to the ground absorbed some of the
shock of my landing, reducing the risk of injury. We weren't high enough to
break a limb, especially on the soft earth, but a severely sprained ankle would
be just as serious in such a dangerous environment where casualty evacuation
was a major issue.

Myers was already on his feet, covering to his left.
I sprang up, quickly composing myself and taking up aim to the right. At least
initially, the upper portion of the sangar was being observed by whoever waited
at the top of the ladder. Since there were five of us, that afforded me a
reasonable space of time to focus upon securing the courtyard itself.

As soon as Weatherall hit the ground next to me, I
lifted him to his feet and pointed toward the outbuilding.

'Keep eyes on!' I ordered.

Weatherall nodded his understanding. The main effort
was to secure the sangar itself, rather than a smaller building. Without any
visible windows to shoot from, anybody hiding inside it only posed a threat
once they stepped out into the open, and into his sights.

I patted Myers on the shoulder. 'Let’s go.'

The two of us followed the base of the sangar in a
clockwise direction, hugging the sides of the structure to avoid exposing
ourselves to any potential observers above.

The entrance to the sangar was a single, sturdy-looking
airlock door that appeared to be sealed shut, with a keypad beside it to
prevent people gaining entry.

‘Mouse hole!’ I ordered, pointing at the door
itself.

‘It’s in my daysack!’ the young trooper responded,
turning to present his daysack to me.

I removed his smart launcher, placed it on the
ground, and then began to dig inside his daysack. Finding the mouse hole
charge, I pulled it out and then quickly returned the launcher.

‘Andy!’ Puppy called over the net. ‘We’re all in! Two
Section are coming up behind! I’m gonna clear that small building!’

‘Roger!’ I replied, fixing the mouse hole to the airlock
door.

Due to the small size of the sangar, I doubted that
there was a second door to the lock. Even if there was, the directed power of
the mouse hole charge would probably blast through that as well.

Once I was finished, Myers and I stepped around the
side of the sangar, and I detonated the device moments later.

We stormed through the smoking airlock. As I had
expected, there was only one door to the lock, since the sangar wasn’t built
for human comfort. It probably had some form of air purification system so that
the occupants could occasionally remove their respirators, but it didn’t matter
if the clean air got out.

Finding nothing more than a collection of smashed
computers and other electronic hardware, we pounded up a metal flight of stairs
that led us to a trapdoor at the top of the sangar.

We didn’t throw any grenades through the trapdoor.
It was already virtually bent in half, and the scorch marks surrounding it confirmed
that our smart missiles would have killed anybody inside.

We clambered up and quickly swept the room,
inspecting the damage we had caused. The walls were blackened, and rows of
electronic equipment still burned and smouldered. Firing ports that lined the
walls had been blasted open by the overpressure caused by the smart missile
when it exploded, allowing the smoke to escape and block our view out into the
barracks. There were no bodies, not that I was expecting any, and whatever
electronic equipment that had controlled the automated gun on the roof had been
completely destroyed.

I flicked to the platoon net. ‘One-Zero, this is
One-One-Charlie, sangar fully cleared. One-One-Delta is currently clearing an
outbuilding within the sangar compound.’

‘One-Zero, roger. I’m inside the compound now,
located with your Delta fire team. One-Two is about to start preparing fire
ports in the compound wall using explosives. Once your clearance is complete
then help them where possible.’

‘One-One,’ I acknowledged, then turned to Myers.
‘Let’s get back down.’

Myers indicated toward the firing ports. ‘We could
use these when the smoke clears?’ he suggested.

I shook my head. ‘No, mate. This thing’s a dart
magnet. The other sangars will cut us to ribbons. Come on, let’s go.’

‘What are we gonna do now?’

I regarded the young trooper gravely. ‘Prepare to
defend ourselves.’

14

Compound Defence

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page

‘Mouse hole!’ somebody shouted in warning. ‘Take
cover!’

The compound was lit as though it was day when the first
of Two Section’s mouse hole charges detonated, just as Myers and I returned to
the sangar airlock. Dust and masonry scattered across the courtyard as it
blasted a small hole through the northern compound wall and into Trondheim
itself.

‘And again!’ the same voice warned, just before a
second mouse hole exploded on the wall beside where our ladder had been,
creating a safer entrance to get the remainder of the platoon inside.

The sangar compound had become a scene of organised
chaos as troopers scurried along its walls to prepare more charges. We needed
to establish ourselves as rapidly as possible, since we had no idea what was
going on outside the compound. The remaining sangar guns were still firing,
causing the air to roar as the torrent of darts passed nearby. The guns didn’t
appear to be firing at us yet, but an army of Militia might be about to burst
through the metal entrance door on the northern wall for all we knew. If that
happened, then we were likely to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

The sergeant major swept through the swirling dust
like a demon stalking through the underworld, chopping with his hand as he
indicated toward the first of the two holes. ‘Get a man in there now! I want
arcs into the barracks!’

Corporal Kamara quickly drove his remaining mammoth
gunner into the smouldering hole, whilst two of his men began preparing another
charge nearby.

‘
Five metres
!’ the sergeant major bellowed at
the two men as they hurried away from their device. ‘You only need to be
five
metres
away as long as you’re not behind it!’

The two troopers skidded to a halt, then crouched
where they were and lowered their heads to protect their visors.

‘Mouse hole!’ one of them shouted.

They fired the charge, blasting another man-sized
hole into the wall and engulfing themselves in the resulting dust cloud.

‘Let’s go, Two Section!’ The sergeant major gestured
toward the new hole. ‘Get another man in there!’

Just as Corporal Kamara sent a second man toward the
fresh hole, his mammoth gunner opened fire with a long burst, strafing into the
darkened barracks beyond.

‘Contact!’ the trooper cried out over the scream of
magnets. ‘Multiple enemy dismounts!’

That marked the end of our ruse to the east. After
all the grenades and mouse hole charges we had used during our seizure of the
sangar, there was no doubting the true direction of our assault. I knew that
the Militia’s efforts would have shifted to preventing the breech in their
defensive perimeter, and so would the sights of their automated guns.

Sensing the need to regroup, I activated the section
net and then scanned the courtyard, spotting the resulting crosshairs that
marked the remainder of my section. All three of them were inside the nearby outbuilding,
helping Puppy to complete the clearance of the sangar compound.

‘Follow me!’ I ordered Myers.

Ignoring the firefight that was intensifying along
the northern wall, we ran toward the outbuilding. Whilst we hurried across the
courtyard, blinding light flashed to my left as two more charges exploded on
the western wall. Two Section were busy increasing the number of available fire
positions so that they could defend the compound, and each fresh hole was
quickly occupied by another trooper. Nobody was going to use the large metal
door as a fire position, since it offered far less protection.

Just as I reached the outbuilding airlock, Puppy
emerged in the entrance. ‘Building clear,’ he reported. ‘No enemy. It’s just a
small accommodation block for sentries to sleep in.’

‘Roger,’ I replied, then ushered Myers inside. There
was no sense in keeping all of my men out in the courtyard. Supposedly the
Bosker army massing behind us were equipped with their own automated guns to
counter the threat from enemy missiles and guided grenades, but I still didn’t
fancy risking my men in the open.

Flicking to the platoon net, I notified the sergeant
major that our clearance of the sangar compound was complete. Though he was
within earshot, the message was better sent over the net so that everybody
could hear it.

The sergeant major was located near to Two Section’s
mammoth gunner, who continued to fire through the hole on the northern wall. He
answered without turning his head from the ensuing battle. ‘One-Zero, roger.
Keep your men inside the outbuilding until called for. One-Zero-Bravo and One-Three
will occupy the lower half of the sangar once they reach the compound.
One-Zero-Bravo, acknowledge.’

‘One-Zero-Bravo!’ Abs panted his acknowledgement. I
saw that he was already through the hole that had been blasted beside our
ladder, and was now ushering Three Section through to the compound. Being the
last of the three sections to cross the open ground, they must have been
relieved to have made it in one piece.

I tucked myself into the airlock entrance, then
Puppy and I watched as Two Section took over the battle, transforming the
compound into a small fortress.

Corporal Kamara had created five holes around the
compound wall, two on the north, two on the west, and a single hole to the
south that Three Section were using to enter. Each of the four holes facing
into Trondheim were manned, and the two facing north were both firing at an
unseen enemy. Having established fire positions for his section, Corporal
Kamara was leaning over his mammoth gunner, trying to see what his men were
shooting at.

‘One-Two, this is One-Zero, what have you got?’ the
sergeant major demanded over the net.

Corporal Kamara responded by sending an image to us
all, displaying the view he had into the barracks. With a tap on my datapad, I
placed the image on my visor display, enabling me to look into Trondheim for
the first time.

Much of the Militia barracks was open space, dotted
with small buildings and networked by roads and low, compound walls. The sparse
layout provided little cover from the surrounding sangars, giving the towers
the ability to mutually support one another in the event of an attack such as
ours. Though smoke still drifted across the barracks, it wasn’t as thick as it
had been on our route up, so I could see the outline of the north-eastern sangar,
and presumably the south-western one as well if the angle of the image allowed
it. The north-eastern sangar was still firing into the slave camp, still
seemingly convinced that the greater threat came from there. Our ruse had
worked perfectly, I noted . . . for now at least.

At the centre of the barracks were two large,
rectangular two-storey buildings that ran side by side, cutting a dark
silhouette that obscured the north-western sangar. The gap between the two
buildings was bridged by a vast greenhouse to create an outdoor parade ground
with no need for respirators. The glass was still intact, glittering as it
reflected light from every explosion from the orbital bombardment that
continued outside the barracks.

Groups of figures were running in all directions,
taking up positions across Trondheim as the Militia prepared to defend
themselves. I noted a large party of almost twenty men hurrying toward the
north-eastern sangar, and a smaller group taking up fire positions along a wall
less than a hundred metres away from us. Presumably the Militia were attempting
to bolster their sangars, but the group headed toward us had been caught in the
open by Two Section’s mammoth. I had no doubt that there were multiple bodies
hidden behind the wall, since our Two Section’s mammoth was unlikely to miss at
such short ranges.

‘The Militia are trying to cross from the main
buildings to the sangars,’ Corporal Kamara said, summarising the image. ‘It
looks like they’re standing to!’

‘How many Militiamen, One-Two?’ the sergeant major
asked.

‘About a section per sangar, maybe more! We’ve got
the group that were headed for us pinned behind a wall!’

‘Good! Remember, as far as we’re concerned there are
no friendlies within that camp. I want utter chaos in there until the Boskers
show up, so kill anything that moves! One-Four, send update!’

‘One-Four,’ Wildgoose acknowledged with contrasting
calmness, though I could tell that his breathing was laboured from having to
crawl and dash from cover to cover. I imagined his small team slowly creeping
across the battlefield in their ragged disguises, weaving through the smoking
craters in search of more targets. ‘We’re moving around to engage the north-eastern
sangar. The ground here is pretty low, so it should enable the next wave to
approach in cover from the two western sangars.’

‘Understood,’ the sergeant major replied. ‘Poltergeist-One,
this is Blackjack-One-Zero, acknowledge the last message from One-Four.’

Aleksi answered seconds after, using his
Einsatzgruppe-19 call sign. ‘Poltergeist-One, roger. I’m ready with the main
assault force at the FUP. Let me know when you want the Boskers to come through
and I’ll release them. If your One-Four call sign has a preferred approach
route, then have him mark it on the net so I can forward it to the Boskers.’

‘One-Zero, roger. One-Four, acknowledge.’

‘One-Four,’ Wildgoose acknowledged.

‘How long until you’re in position to engage the
north-eastern sangar?’

Wildgoose’s reply was immediate. ‘One minute.’

We could afford to wait a minute before calling for
Aleksi’s Bosker army, I thought. And assuming that Wildgoose and his sniper
team were successful, we would create a safe route through which they could
pour into Trondheim, unopposed by the automated defence system.

Suddenly there was a tremendous roar as something
battered against the western wall, causing Puppy and I to collapse to the floor
instinctively. Both of the two troopers that had been covering through the
holes to the west were instantly consumed by dust.

I knew straight away that the noise was that of the western
sangar gun switching its fire onto the compound wall. The sheer power of
thousands of oversized, magnetised darts chipped away great chunks of masonry,
sending one of the two troopers ducking for cover, and the other sprawling to
the ground.

My visor flashed yellow over the fallen trooper, and
my heart leapt.

‘Man down!’ Puppy shouted, seeing the same warning
on his own visor.

We didn’t wait for the sergeant major’s orders. Whilst
he and several other troopers ducked for cover, Puppy and I sprinted out from
the relative safety of the airlock, hurrying to the aid of our comrade.

Stray darts were striking the ground just inside the
hole where the casualty had been hit, flicking soil across the courtyard. The
immense overpressure caused my body to vibrate, and I had to use all my
willpower not to back away from the onslaught.

The trooper was dead. I knew it the second Puppy and
I grabbed him by his daysack straps, ready to drag him away. The dart that had
struck him had punched a hole right through him, turning his chest into a pink
and red pulp.

We dragged him back anyway, leaving a gory trail as
we pulled him unceremoniously through the muddy courtyard, all the way into the
outbuilding.

‘He’s dead,’ Puppy told the rest of my section as they
came to help us drag the trooper through the airlock.

Curses echoed through the darkened rooms of the
outbuilding as everyone saw the horrific injury sustained by our stricken
comrade. There was nothing more awful than seeing a fellow trooper suddenly
turned into a bloody mess, whether you knew him as a friend or not.

‘Strip his kit,’ I ordered, with a coldness that
surprised even me. ‘Ammo, water, everything.’

My men obeyed, and I turned back to the battle
outside whilst they raided the dead man’s kit for anything of value. He no
longer had any need for grenades or explosives anymore, so I doubted that he
would mind.

As I returned to the outbuilding entrance, I saw
that everybody had scattered from the courtyard, leaving only Corporal Kamara
and what remained of his section covering through the holes to the north.