Sacremon (Harmony War Series Book 1) (12 page)

           
His helmet beeped telling him he was ten feet from the ground, his descent speed was good, he grabbed the manual release.

           
It activated perfectly and he hit the ground, rolling and coming up with his weapon.

           
He checked the area with his gun, using his gloves to manipulate the information. He’d get implants to make the whole thing faster when he became a trooper.

           
He picked a site two kilometers away from their drop point, sending it to the whole platoon.

           
The last person dropped to the ground.

           
“All around defense,” Mark said, the Section moved into a circle, they weren’t trusting the holograms that made their own circle.

           
The combat shuttle’s engines were already fading away, the trees shaking.

           
Mark had thought the trees and green of the planet interesting the first few times he’d been in the training area. Now they were just a new challenge, new opportunities.

           
“Alright, move in fire teams. Bravo upfront with the pulse, Alpha on me behind them, Charlie, Delta and pulse trail. Move for the Platoon objective,” Mark said. Green lights filled his screen.

           
“Move out,” Mark said, the repulsors moved to either side of the line as the rest of the section spread out, weapons section mimicked them, moving parallel.

***

           
Fredrickson’s eyes returned to the room as she stopped using her implants.

           
“Well this should be interesting,” she said, sipping coffee.

           
“Better, win, I bet Ting thirty credits,” Balhauser said exhaling his fragrant smoke, his look of perpetual annoyance and weightlifting pucker would make most people think he was angry.

           
Fredrickson had been around Balhauser for seven years, a lifetime in the EMF. She could see the glimmer of excitement in his eyes. They both knew their platoon had what it took. At this point they wouldn’t be happy to lose people. Once someone was broken here they were no use as a trooper.

           
If you said you couldn’t crack it once, then it was all the easier to fail again. Fredrickson and Balhauser were not in the practice of letting failures through their training.

           
Their Platoon had regrouped and moved towards the city. Their helmets relayed their positions back to the staff. The recruits were moving into the city trying to find enemy positions.

           
Fredrickson knew there was a whole other platoon in those cities.

           
“The Four to one rule,” she sighed, drinking more coffee.

           
“If there’s three or less enemy dug in, use a section. A section’s dug in, use a platoon. A platoon’s dug in, use a company,” Balhauser recited from memory. “At least they’ll understand the reason behind the four to one rule.”

           
An alert came up on Fredrickson’s HUD.

           
“Looks like they requested air support,” she said looking to Balhauser.

           
“Victor brothers?” Balhauser asked.

           
“Yeah, Mark, Tyler’s scouting with his people.”

           
“Those two are scary, pulled some files from goings on in Westerly Three Complex. Seems that they are two rather deadly criminals few hope to cross, diablo and SWAS. Diablo’s a bigger brute who loves to fight. SWAS is a sniper, uses a bolt action. They say he can kill people even in the middle of a category five sandstorm,” Balhauser looked to Fredrickson, the two of them sharing a knowing look.

           
“SWAS?” Fredrickson asked.

           
“Serviced With A Smile, cause he’s good looking, and can service any target anywhere,” Balhauser let out a snort. “I don’t think it’s about his prowess in bed, though recruit Alexis Xin would beat the crap out of him and anyone he was caught in bed with.”

           
“When did you figure out they were an item?” Fredrickson laughed.

           
“Clearing rooms, I told them to stack up behind one another with twats and twigs to ass. I swear they were in one another’s underwear,” Balhauser laughed, shaking his head and smoking.

           
Fredrickson laughed as well, Balhauser had a way with words.

***

           
The city was like every other colony city.

           
In the center were the tallest and oldest towers, other towers spiraled around the central tower, each shorter with each new building project. Polished steel and the crystal matrix, which substituted glass, shone in the light.

           
Mark heard the shuttle’s work rather than actually see anything. A simulation could only do so much.

           
“Get into the city, spread out!” Mark said, the green dots of his platoon turning and heading for the city, the shuttle was five minutes early.

           
The Weapons detail opened up with their mortars, mounted repulsors and screamers.

           
Mark was out and running across the cleared ground towards the city, there was just five hundred meters, half of what it would actually be on a colonist planet.

           
“Shift out, don’t group up!” Mark yelled, people pushed apart as they ran.

           
“Contact!” Alexis yelled from Mark’s right, her section slowing as they fired.

           
“Fire and keep moving. Repulsors, give those fuckers something to worry about!” Mark said, people’s markers disappearing on his HUD as the defenders picked them off.

           
He gritted his teeth and kept running, scanning the windows for weapons fire.

           
“Mark targets!” Tyler said, red halos started appearing, guiding fire onto their positions.

           
Chai Tea apparently caught a round in the head, swearing he laid down on the ground.

           
Mark couldn’t focus on that, instead he scanned the buildings.

           
There’s going to be no one left by the time we get to the city.
Mark thought, chewing his gum in anger.

           
Mark saw a window shot apart as two more went down.

           
“Pulser!” Mark said, haloing the target, he fired his under barrel grenade launcher into the building. Others with sights on the repulsor’s position opened fire.

           
The oncoming fire stopped.

           
Mark looked at his overlay, fourteen were dead, five wounded. They were getting slapped.

           
“Tyler get your section to make entry on the nearest tower,” Mark said, they were just a hundred meters from the city.

           
“Rog,” Tyler said as a way point appeared.

           
Tyler’s section barely slowed, smashing through the nearest access door, barreling into the lower levels and spreading out.

           
Mark was right behind his section. They’d done clearing rooms nonstop. The lower levels of a tower were all the same, lobby faced towards the central tower, three desks lay in a rough U shape. At each corner of the U there were stairs that led up to elevators and a corridor that led to more elevators and the offices and work spaces that were used to maintain the tower.

           
They were coming in through the access door to the right of the lobby, through what looked to be a water purification system.

           
“Xin, set up a casualty area and get us control of the tower, SWAS keep moving forward, will support,” Mark said.

           
Two green lights lit up on the top of his HUD.

           
 “CS four-nine moving off of position,” the pilot cut into Mark’s thoughts.

           
Mark greened up, acknowledging their message and checked the weapons detail, they were down to two shooters.

           
“Cease fire and look to your wounded. Be prepared to give fire support if requested,” Mark said.

           
He pushed the info off of his HUD and headed in behind the latest group waiting for the lead person’s request for support.

           
It wasn’t long before they were running through an office, passing troopers watching the lobby’s entry and the elevator banks.

           
They swept into rooms, weapons up and ready as they moved through the office cubicles, simple constructs that had been around since the twentieth century, just with holographic screens that flickered with projected light.

           
The building shook.

           
“Got incoming for the lobby, weapons detail supporting,” Yilmaz said.

           
Mark could hear his people returning fire trough the walls.

           
“We need to secure this floor and now, toss mines on the entrances, our people need our help,” Mark said to the platoon.

           
The ear splitting shriek of a screamer ended in the ground shaking and a number of markers in the lobby changed colors. Mark grimaced, Alexis’ marker disappeared, they were down to nineteen people still able to fight.

***

           
Lastrade, Fei, Fredrickson and Balhauser watched the mess’s screens; each showed a different platoon fighting it out.

           
The rest of the training staff were also watching the videos.

           
Xin had gone down but they were fighting on, supporting the fighters in the lobby and pulling people back to the casualty area where the people who did the best on their first aid course were patching people up as best as possible.

           
Ammunition and medical supplies were pulled from the dead and pushed up.

           
The first floor was clear and a pitched battle was going on in the lobby.

           
Tyler was trying to get Combat Shuttle support as he accessed the tower’s controls, entering codes that would give him control of the tower’s systems.

           
CS was unavailable but he still got the control systems.

           
“Not bad,” Fei said, high praise as another breath of smoke drifted up to the mess’s fans.

           
“Ting better give me my creds,” Balhauser said.

           
Fredrickson felt a smile on her lips even as her eyes flicked between the attackers and defenders.

           
The defenders had reacted to her platoon’s attack and moved in to counterattack. The problem was they were now in the open with only transport vehicles, cabs and an array of trees and planters for cover and the attackers were now the defenders.

           
Fortunately for them, they had set up fire support to cover their movements which was turning the lobby into hell.

***

           
“Moving to the third floor, get an angle on the fire support,” Tyler said, scanning cameras as he locked down the tower and made sure there was no one on the second or third floor.

           
A green light showed Mark understood. He’d moved to the lobby and offices. Coordinating the efforts there.

           
Tyler rushed past heading for a stairwell. Red tracers crossed through the air, sending parts of the wall spraying across the lobby and tearing into the haggard desks Mark and the remains of one and three section hid behind.

           
Tyler heard another screamer hit the lobby.

           
He flinched but didn’t act on his impulse, Mark’s best chance was if he got to the third floor and killed the fourth section who were all using repulsors and had items like mortars and screamer missiles. Most people just called them weapons detachment instead of four section.

           
Ecke, rammed the stairwells door open.

           
“Clear, covering down,” Ecke said, the rest of the section flowed in and headed up, their weapons searching for targets as they moved quickly, knowing their brothers and sisters were relying on them but not wanting to fuck up and put those around them in danger.

           
Someone opened the second floor door and tossed mini mines behind it before they continued to the third floor, Ecke acted as last man, making sure nothing came from below, all that was down there was the cryo pods for the non-combatants.