The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #4, Retribution (19 page)

“
We are going to have to slow them down a little. You up for some fun
?
”

“
Just give the word, Admiral
,
” the private said, eagerly.

Cat did a quick inventory of their weapons
.“
I do
n’
t think our kinetics are going to have much of an impact on armor. Our pointers are only good against biologics so they wo
n’
t help either. We may need to get more creative
.
”

“
I have four grenades and a bunker-buster in my pack
.
”

“
Those will help
,
” Cat acknowledged
.“
Our marines have been dropping tanks in holes by creating sudden chasms using demolition charges. Unfortunately after about the fifth time we did this our opponents got wise to the trick and now are using ground-penetrating sonar to avoid potential hazard zones
.
”

“
So, m
a’
am, if the goal is to slow them down, ca
n’
t we just engage them in a series of quick firefights and then just change our AO before they can fire back
?
”

Cat began to scan the adjacent buildings using her AI and enhanced senses. She had her systems conduct a structural analysis looking for potential weak spots.

“
I
t’
s not a bad ide
a
… except that our area of operation is limited to line-of-sight with these weapons.
I’
m not at all sure w
e’
ll be able to change our AO before they can get a couple of shots off in our direction. Given that they are firing explosive shells, plasma beams, and three-kilo kinetics, they do
n’
t even need to hit us directly to seriously inconvenience our personal shields
.
”

“
Sorry, m
a’
am. I had
n’
t thought it through
,
” the young man apologized.

“
I
t’
s just the two of us, Anthony
,
” Cat said, kindly
.“
I encourage my people to freely exchange ideas. Yo
u’
re no exception
.
”

“
Thank you, m
a’
am
,
” he answered, while peeking over a section of collapsed building.

“
S
o…,
” Cat said, while shifting her position to point to a building off to the right
.“
There are typically two ways to engage an opponent who is stronger than you. First, you can use their strength against the
m
… or second you can outsmart them
.
” She tagged a section of the wall across the street with a red laser pointer from her rifle
.“
I want you to place a charge just to the left of that beam by the door on the building across the street
.
”

As Private Stone moved to hand place a grenade in the crevasse Cat had indicated, he asked
,“
So which method are we going to use
?
”

Cat smiled
.“
Both
.
”

***

Sergeant Broke-Fin barked orders to his squad
.“
Hammers three and four take point. One and two cover their flank. Sonics on maximum. We should be the only Syndicate forces in the are
a
… so if you hear so much as a leaf-tipper grun
t
… frag it with your primary turret and then cover the scatter with your plasma gun
.
”

“
Sarg
e
… How do we know if the people we are hearing are rebels or civilians
?
”

“
Why, private, i
t’
s actually quite simple
,
” Broke-Fin answered glibly
.“
If they make noise, we treat them like fighter
s
… if they do
n’
t then we shoot them anyway
.
”

Before any more could be said, a pinging sound emanated from the sensor panel in front of the private. The private, who was in Hammer One, quickly confirmed the others had detected something as well. Hammer One currently occupied a rear position. The sensor arrays on all four armored vehicles were detecting movement in a building just to their right. It was impossible
to tell because of the acoustics how many people were in the building but the sound of heavy equipment moving was unmistakable.

“
Everybody, listen up. Use your sonics to target the enemy. Ligh
t’
m up on my mark.
Mark
!
”

As one the four heavily armored Syndicate vehicles fired at the building from which the sounds of activity had apparently been detected. Half a block away a silver figure smiled and fired her own plasma rifle at a target barely one hundred meters from the four armored vehicles. At first nothing happened, but then there was a small explosion as a hidden grenade exploded. The damage it did to the building was negligible, compared to the damage already done; however, it set into motion a series of events that were far more impressive.

The Syndicate onslaught effectively destroyed a primary support for the building. The grenade that Cat triggered destroyed the secondary support. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the building began to collapse. In the process it buried the four Syndicate armored vehicles which struggled, unsuccessfully to clear the area before the buildings collapsed. Ca
t’
s Heshe-enhanced hearing heard the armored vehicl
e’
s sergeant swearing up a storm as he and his men were buried. Their vehicles would protect them but they were not going anywhere soon.

Cat signaled Private Stone on his commlink. He was located on a very specific rooftop about a hundred meters from the actio
n
”

“
You okay, Private
?
”

“
Affirmative, Admiral.
I’
m still not sure why you needed me to stand at this exact spot, and I sure as heck do
n’
t know what just happened. Why did they just bury themselve
s?
Seems kin
d’
a foolish
.
”

“
I’
m sure they are feeling foolish right about now. I used your Mark Si
x’
s crowd control loudspeaker to send an ultra-high frequency audio signal at the building they targeted. My suit sent a matched signal that was designed to interact with your broadcast in such a way that it appeared that there were armed forces holding out on that building. In point of fact, they were really hearing a time and frequency shifted recording of their own movements
.
”

“
Nice
,
” Private Stone said.

“
W
e’
re about four blocks from our o
b…,
” Cat had been about to say
objective
but before she could - every alarm in her suit went off at once. This was accompanied by sensor feeds showing a truly impressive number of inbound mortar rounds.

Pushing her Heshe reflexes to their limits she raced in the general direction of the Private. Sh
e’
d made it about a third of the way when the first of the rounds hit her.

"Run!" Cat yelled at Private Stone.

The young soldier, who had come down off the roof remained frozen in place. His armor showed signs of heavy abuse but she doubted a malfunction was the source of the sudden freeze-up. That would be the massive line of enemy track vehicles moving in their direction that suddenly appeared on their suit scanners. Admiral Cat Kimbridge kicked his shin. The metallic exoskeleton of his battle suit shuddered with the force of the blow. A normal human would not have had the strength to budge the high-tech battle armor but she was far from a normal human by any measure. It was enough to get his attention.

"Run?... Yes, m
a’
am... Good idea, m
a’
am"

The sound of gun fire was deafening. The smoke and fire made visibility difficult. In the background Cat could hear the sound of Syndicate heavy armor moving in their general direction.

"If we can make it to that ridge, I can call in an air strike. How much juice do you have left in your suit?" she yelled over the deafening noise of the battle.

The soldier paused as he checked the combat computer built into his Mark Six battle suit. The last several minutes had taken their toll. His suit had been hit several times by flying shrapnel which would have killed him instantly had he not been wearing the suit. Unfortunately its energy reserves were growing critically low.

"I'm down to about twenty percent on my mains plus two percent on my backups." Private Stone paused for a moment as he double checked a readout. "My AI is showing only thirty-eight percent combat effectiveness due to damage. If I let the repair systems have the power to fix things up I'll drain both my reserves and be dead in the water."

Cat nodded her silver-clad head. Her last meal had been over a day ago. In short, her own energy reserves were critically low as well.

She looked around. The buildings in this part of the Modos capital city of Harromog were thoroughly trashed. Days of mortar fire had pretty much destroyed everything in sight. Each side had taken and lost the city several times in the last weeks. The spaceport where her shuttle had crashed three days ago was now just so much rubble. She could see dust clouds nearing her position as the Syndicate armored lines advanced one last time. Most of the in-theater GCP forces had been neutralized. They were quickly running out of options.

Her ultra-sensitive hearing detected the rising pitch of another incoming mortar round as it whistled through the air. The shell would land a few feet away but before it
could impact with the ground, Cat's Heshe enhanced reflexes reacted. She threw her body over the young marine, tackling him in the process. The force of the explosion sent shrapnel flying in every direction. Several pieces struck her armor. The active shielding in her armor warped local physics and reversed the momentum of the objects hitting her. They bounced off her like balls bouncing off a wall. The cost was a few thousand calories. She was seriously hungry.

Cat
contacted her embedded AI. "Cal, do a sensor sweep. Give me enemy movement and let me know if there is a functioning power source nearby."

"Enemy movement detected. I estimate your position will be overrun in three point four minutes. A significant power source has also been detected. It is currently outputting thirty-six thousand kilowatts."

"Perfect... that's exactly what we need. Where is it?"

"Approximately two hundred meters directly below you."

“
Privat
e
… Do you still have that bunker-buster handy
?
”

***

Commodore Jason Ruck inched forward in his seat on the bridge of
WhimPy-101
. Unlike the time when he was on the bridge of the
Mador
, his role here was purely that of observer and advisor. The
Mador
and the
Yorktown
were on the other side of the su
n—
still in orbit around Naanac. They were part of an elaborate ruse. Field emitters on the skin of each ship had been reprogrammed to create the illusion of the massive Heshe weapons platform. Meanwhile,
WhimPy-101
had jumped directly in front of the
MS Retribution
. The plan was to deal with the threat the
Retribution
represented quickly and then jump back to the picketing position above the planet before the Syndicate forces knew they were gone. Unfortunately, no plan ever survived contact with the enemy.

WhimPy-101
emerged from the Hyperfold intent on quickly subduing the enemy vessel but quite to his surprise the enemy vessel was already firing on them as they folded back into local space-time.

The
WhimP
y’
s
   shields took the brunt of the assault but they were drained by a full sixteen percent. In his rather extensive life time, the Heshe weapons platform had never seen an attack this energetic. A vessel would need the entire radiant output of a small sun in order to equal what had just been fired against the shields. Immediately, 101 started rotating his defenses and began to fire a collimated anti-proton beam at the attacking ship. The beam in question should have decimated the other shi
p’
s defenses and vaporized it in an instant. Normally the WhimPy would not have contemplated using force of this magnitude but a suspicion first voiced by Admiral Kimbridge was looking more and more likely. There was a third player in this conflict and this player was in all likelihood the most powerful of the three. WhimPy-101 activated a special circuit that had been installed a millennia ago in the hopes it might never be used. It was a distress beaco
n
… one that could only be heard by the Heshe.