The War Across the Stars (13 page)

“I think we could get to the target in eight minutes…” Nevin said.  “If I remember right about how this location compares to it.” 

“Yah...” I agreed. 

We ran as fast as we could toward our destination.

Then I saw it.  The white orb appeared on my TacMap.  It took us nine minutes, but we made it. 

“Let’s go,” I said as the armor’s speakers let my words escape. 

We approached the door and leaned up against the wall on either side of the door.  I pulled out my breaching charge.  It was given to us specifically for this mission.  All of us had one, but just one.  This excluded Ryan, who being our explosives expert, had four.  I put it on the door and set the timer to five seconds.  I instantly was back up against the wall.  It exploded, expelling a column of flame.  Immediately three crimson dots lit on my motion tracker.  Nevin and I slipped through the door and let our SMG’s send bullets across the room.  Two dots went black and faded.  The other one jerked and the stopped, simply fading off my tracker.  We advanced cautiously and I signaled for Nevin to cover one side of a piece of equipment.  I moved around the other and fired.  A Vorgian grew still as the bullets impacted.  I gave Nevin the thumbs-up for all clear.

“Now what?” he asked. 

“We wait for Phil...” I answered. 

No sooner had I answered, nearly twenty new contacts appeared as they came into range. 

“Uh-oh,” I said, reloading my weapons.  “They should have to use that door to get in.”

“Yup,” Nevin agreed.  We scooted several desks into a line and overturned them.  The metal desks were heavy, sufficiently so I probably couldn’t have lifted them without my armor.  Once they were positioned, I crouched behind one and aimed my SMG at the door.  The red dots came closer and closer.

Then, the door sprang open and Vorgian base personnel and Marines came out.  I immediately took aim and fired while Nevin panicked and sprayed the entire area with rounds.  They dropped fast but there were still many left.  A crewman jumped out with a pistol and fired several rounds.  They dented my armor, but didn’t pass through it.  I returned additional fire, dropping the crewman and a soldier.  I pulled my head down behind the cover of the desk.  I pulled out a fragmentation grenade, activated it, and tossed it into the doorway.  A deafening explosion roared as the grenade detonated.  The last four crimson dots faded black and then disappeared all together.  I peeked up over the desk. 

I gave Nevin a thumbs-up and said, “Clear.” 

“Intense,” he responded. 

“Let’s go were they came from,” I suggested. 

“But what if the rest of the team gets back?” he asked. 

“You’re right,” I agreed.  “Uh… You wait here… I’ll see if I can find something.”

             
I took off through the door and barreled down the vacant halls.  I finally found a room labeled as
Ops Center
.  It was open from its recent abandonment.  In their haste they had left the door open.  I walked in, glancing at several screens.  Suddenly I was interrupted by Ryan’s voice over the COM. 

“This is Ryan! We have a slight delay!” he yelled over the sounds of explosions and gunfire.  “A Vorgian platoon was entrenched on our path.  We were almost clear, when a dropship produced another platoon.  I dunno how they all squeezed on, but they sure did.  We aren’t clear yet so I don’t have an ETA… Over,” Ryan finished, cutting the COM.

I looked around the room and observed each of the consoles.  One of them flashed several green dots on a map.  I moved close and discovered that is was an old TRIAD display.  Each of the four green dots were labeled as Wildcat Support Dropships.

“Prex…” I cursed. 

I comprehended what this meant.  They had major reinforcements inbound, and we had two soldiers.  Our Corsair Heavy Assault Dropships could carry one platoon, or eighteen people.  The older Wildcat Dropships normally sustained twelve people, or two squads.  But Ryan’s COM had told me that they were flying eighteen around on those things.

The first two were labeled with two minute ETA’s while the other two were eight minutes.  I quickly looked around the room.  I saw a map of the building posted on the wall.  I searched for an armory.  Then I saw it.  It was only a few halls away.  I darted for the armory as fast as I could, hoping for something strong enough to give us an upper hand.  I arrived in less than a minute.  The door was open, like the Ops Center.  The base personnel must have stopped by for those weapons.  I saw two machinegun turrets and a fusion cannon.

The fusion cannon was capable of several levels of spread and ammo consumption.  It could be fired with a shotgun-like spread or as small as an AR’s spread.  In addition it could fire one, five, ten, or twenty-five rounds at a time.  To use it effectively the burst size needs to be considered in comparison to spread.  With an AR spread, anything more than five was a waste and with a shotgun spread, anything less than ten was too little to matter.  It fires small pellets that run through catalyst material when fired.  It causes a chemical reaction, igniting it to a superheated state.  It does wonders for melting things.  It had a magazine box on the bottom that contained a thousand tiny pellets.  The pellets are actually smaller than most bullets, allowing more shots to be carried.  Our machinegun belts only held three hundred rounds and were slightly larger.

I didn’t know how the Vorgians had managed to get a fusion cannon, but I grabbed it and a machinegun and carried the heavy load back to Nevin.  I reached Nevin within forty-five seconds, despite the weight of the weapons. 

“Dude,” I panted. 

“What?” he asked. 

“Vorgians will show up any second now, a whole lot of ‘em!” 

“Whoa!” he exclaimed, as if he had thought we’d stay clear. 

We quickly set up both turrets and pointed at the door.  Luckily it was as simple as spreading the tripod and swiveling the gun.  Just after we finished setting up the turrets, I heard the roar of a dropship.  Then I heard voices as the dropship's engines faded.  They grew louder as they approached.  I tightened my grip on the fusion cannon.  I didn’t know how to adjust its blast radius.  I simply hoped it wasn’t too big.

The first pair of Vorgians appeared at the door, Nevin let loose heavy fire with his machinegun.  Then more soldiers arrived at the door.  I pulled the dual trigger, releasing superheated waves of pellets.  The Vorgians instantly vanished, taking the rim of the doorway with them.  The stream of Vorgians had stopped momentarily.  They probably had just realized that the base they were reinforcing was held by hostiles.  Which of course was our doing.  I had a short sense of pride for the effectiveness of our position, but then I remembered how much could still go wrong.

Outside I could hear yelling, so I listened intently to catch what they were saying. 

“There has to be at least a squad!” 

“How have they captured the base so fast?”

“Let's try a grenade.”

Then one appeared at the door grenade in hand.  I fired the cannon and heard the grenade pop as it and the Vorgian were melted by the wave of superheated fusion pellets.  Then, an assault rifle poked around the melted opening of the doorway.  Nevin opened fire but the gun retracted to the other side of the wall.  I turned the cannon and fired at the wall.  It, and any Vorgians leaning against it, were gone.  Another few came out and met the same fate.  Nevin’s machinegun had proven effective, but not nearly effective as the fusion cannon.

“We’ve probably beaten at least half the platoon,” I said quietly. 

“Yeah,” Nevin sighed. “You have.” 

“Right,” I chuckled.  “I just have a better gun.  Now focus.”

I then glanced at my motion tracker, “Prex!” I yelled as I whirled around to see two Vorgians with combat knifes charging at me. 

I couldn’t turn the turret backwards fast enough so I pulled my H-81 and pulled the trigger as fast as I could.  I emptied the whole fifteen round magazine, though both Vorgians collapsed on the ground. Only then did I fully realize that their combat knives wouldn’t have had much effect on my battle armor, unless they targeted a soft spot.

“Wow James...” Nevin stated, “Fast reflexes!” 

I merely smiled in response, slightly relieved by his uplifting comment.  I reloaded my H-81 and looked around the room. 

“Apparently there’s another entrance,” I murmured. 

I returned my H-81 to its holster and picked up the turret.  It was unwieldy since its tripod was still extended.  I didn’t worry about it firing accidentally; it had two triggers, one aft-port and one aft-starboard.  Both had to be squeezed to fire.

I set the turret back down and scanned the room.  It had a field of fire that covered both doors. 

“Nevin, keep your eye on that door,” I said, “and I’ll keep mine on their back door.” 

“Okay!” Nevin responded plainly. 

We waited there for at least three minutes, ominously uncontested. 

“Where is that other dropship?” I asked. 

“I dunno, go check,” Nevin said. 

“Will you be okay?” I asked. 

“I’ll be fine, just go!” Nevin shouted. 

“Okay, Okay,” I said as I darted back through the door.  I tried to remember where the Ops Center was and after what seemed like a three-minute search, I barreled into the Ops Center.  I moved over to the TRIAD console, finding that the other two Wildcat dropships had broke off and were not heading for this base. 

“We must’ve scared ’em off,” I chuckled to myself. 

I turned around and started my run back to Nevin’s position.

“Nevin!” I said as I went through the door.

“Yes?” Ryan answered. 

“They’re here,” Nevin said excitedly. 

Ryan, Phil, Max, and Second Squad all stood in the room with Nevin.

“Do you have the intel?” I asked. 

“No, Nev said you would know where to find the console,” Phil answered. 

“Oh, of course!” I said, “I just came from there.” 

“I know,” Nevin answered. 

“All right, let’s go,” I responded.

We went back down those same halls.  Finally, we were back in the Ops Center.  Phil observed the room thoughtfully. 

“Ah-ha,” he said suddenly. 

Then he walked over to one of the room’s consoles.  He began to press buttons and then inserted the data chip. 

”Just a few minutes,” Phil informed us. 

“You better be fast,” Ryan said as he began to set up the Eupholium. 

We waited several minutes. 

“It’s almost completed the transfer…” Phil said. “Done!” 

“Let’s go.” 

Ryan moved over to the Eupholium and hit a button. 

“Timer’s on, we have eight minutes.”

I was completely exhausted, but I still ran as fast as I could.  We ran across Vorga’s green fields for at least five minutes without resistance.  Then we slid to a stop as we saw another encampment of Vorgian machine gunners. 

“Take aim, but hold your fire,” Ryan instructed. 

I peered through my Oracle Scope.  I picked a machine gunner that had a position in a small hole in a cliff.  I waited. 

“Everyone ready?” Ryan asked in a hushed tone. 

We nodded. 

“Now.”

We all fired.  My round missed and hit the rock cliff behind the gunner.  Frantically, I fired again.  This time I hit. If even one gunner noticed us, he would have had a powerful counterstrike.  

“Is it clear?” Sergeant Peterson of Second Squad asked. 

“Yeah,” Ryan answered as he stood back up.

Then, with the way cleared, we proceeded to the outer perimeter of target Digamma. 

“There it is,” Sergeant Peterson murmured as it came fully into view. 

“Swap for your SMG,” Ryan ordered. 

We did so and begin closing in on the base.  We moved closer to the door.  We all leaned up against the wall. 

“Corporal Cooper!” Sergeant Peterson said, “Blow the door.” 

“Yes, sir,” A deep voice muttered as a large armored body moved to the front door and set up a charge. 

He backed away and five seconds after he placed the charge, flame irrupted into the building.  Corporal Cooper was the first to enter the building.  Suddenly, several machineguns opened fire, Corporal Cooper stood vibrating from hundreds of rounds impacting his armor.  He fell to his knees, and then toppled over onto his face.  At least five machinegun turrets were in sight from the doorway. 

“Fall back,” Peterson ordered. 

I stopped where I was.  I hadn’t made my way inside yet by the time the order was given.  But I had seen what happened to Cooper.

“We have a problem!” Ryan said over the COM. 

One of the armored Marines backed out of the building firing his SMG-56 through the doorway.  Bullets flew out past the soldier.  One round hit the soldier’s arm and he stumbled.  He waved his arm around a second and slipped to safety.  Sergeant. Peterson peeked around the doorway and tossed a fragmentation grenade.  A loud pop filled the air as it detonated.  Peterson peeked back inside and quickly retracted his head.