Trial by Ice (18 page)

William shrugged. “I’d expect a launch to be there, they’d have to leave something.”

“Not a launch, a ship, with a crew, a corvette I’m told.”

The men stopped in the cover of the entry building.

“Well not for long, they’ll be out of here once they realize what happened,” William said as he helped Avi down.

Sebastien tapped his ear instinctively and nudged William. “Can you hear it?”

William shook his head and watched as a smile spread across Sebastien’s face. “Comms?”

Sebastien crunched his jaw and slid it from side to side. “Toothpick, this is Lumpy, I read you. Check Naval comms channel for the Gentleman.”

William had forgotten about any communications system. He, along with all personnel, had a set of nanites implanted in the jaw and ear that would allow for nearby communication.

William felt a dull pop in his jaw and a mellow tone before a click brought a voice into his head.

“Gentleman, this is Toothpick, can you hear this?” the comm system echoed into his ear.

He clicked his jaw to the side and felt that subtle tone shift in his ear to indicate he was transmitting. “I hear you, Toothpick, good work, any losses?”

“Negative, we’ll see you soon, a truck is on the way,” Xan said.

“Are these secure?” William asked Sebastien.

Sebastien nodded. “The encryption is unique.”

* * *

The men waited in the steadily falling rain. A newer truck pulled up with Tero driving and Peter in the passenger seat. Both men grinned. Peter wore a slash on his right cheek that looked like he slept on a filet knife. He held a slender canister, which he offered to William. He was missing two fingers on his right hand.

“Well done!” Peter shouted. The smell of alcohol seeped from him. His eyes wore the pain of loss and grief, but the triumph of the day shone through.

William took the canister and pulled a surprisingly smooth smoky drink. He stifled a cough and handed it back. “Well done to you and yours.”

The three climbed into the back of the truck and bounced slowly through the streets. People were streaming out of the hovels and beginning to mourn and celebrate. The slender canisters of alcohol seemed to be everywhere.

“What about the virus?” William asked.

“Vito shut it down, there’s a nanite system at the elevator.”

William sighed. He slumped against the side of the truck. A weight that had been burning into the back of his mind finally cooled. He wondered how that guilt would ride when he set the elevator moving downwards with a bomb attached. He’d done enough to these people, he didn’t want to inflict more.

They arrived at the elevator complex and pulled into a mostly empty yard. Shipping containers were stacked in neat rows. At the end of the line was a large gantry crane that hovered over them. The elevator itself emerged from the peak of a squat building. The darkness and rigidity seemed to pulse in the cloudy sky. It disappeared into the whiteness above. A pair of bulky climbers clung to the edges of the ribbon.

William dropped to the ground and almost collapsed in pain. The tenseness in his ribs was stunning. He helped Avi down and the three men walked inside of the complex. Dark blast marks scorched the walls.

Tik was the first soldier they met. She was sitting on a plain gray chair with an assault shotgun cradled on her lap like a small dog. Before her were half a dozen bound men. The plastic cord was wound from hand to foot and then to the next man.

“Mr. Grace!” she called out with a salute. The shotgun never wavered from covering the sullen faced Samoans.

William returned the salute with a stiff arm and continued into a hollow area where the ribbon disappeared into the floor. The room hummed with the tension of the ribbon.

Selim greeted them with a salute and a smile.

“Exceptional work, Sergeant. Mind regaling us with the tale?” William asked as he returned the salute.

Selim shrugged and pointed to a cluster of chairs near the edge of the wall. “You look like you need a seat.”

William nodded and shuffled over with Avi on his arm. Sebastien strode to the ribbon and looked upward.

Selim talked softly to himself for a moment before turning his attention to William. “Leduc will be here shortly with a patch for you and Avi.”

“I guess I’ll take the help from the Army just this once,” Avi said, with a slow wink.

“We came in, got close, it was buttoned up tight. There was only a handful of guards and they were all tucked inside. Tik dropped a present inside and then we swarmed in.” Selim shrugged. “We hardly even got shot at. Once we were in, the remaining troops surrendered.”

“Hmm, that seems a bit odd,” William said as he watched Sebastien pace to the back side of the ribbon.

Selim shrugged. “Doesn’t bother me any. After that, Von Hess found the VTOL console and the rest is history, right? Xan is still working on getting the comms going. Seems you cut every connection we needed.”

“Oops,” William said. Not that he had much choice, it wasn’t like the wires were marked.

Sebastien strolled back to the conversation. “Crow is coming, it’s time to get up the elevator.”

William nodded and looked up the ribbon. “Did they break orbit yet?”

“I’m not sure, we’ll need to check with Xan and Von Hess, they’re in the control room,” Sebastien said as he pointed down the hallway.

“You okay, Avi?” William asked.

“Yes, sir, I’m just going to nap a bit,” Avi said as he slumped down. He closed his eyes like he hadn’t slept in years and nodded off.

Selim pointed to a body near the center of the room.

William walked slowly over. Grue lay at his feet with shrapnel peppering his body. “Well, that’s Berry and Grue. James must be around somewhere, too.”

* * *

They walked through the silent corridor with polished concrete walls. The building felt old. The design was in the fashion of eighty years before. It was vaguely nostalgic, but unusual at the same time.

They passed through a doorway with no door. Inside was a set of relatively simple control equipment. Xan and Von Hess sat near more sophisticated equipment.

Xan nodded and continued to work at the console. A gaggle of wires and tubes emerged and were strung up the wall and into the ceiling.

Von Hess sat in a cloth-lined chair like a hammock. His fingers were locked together on his chest and his eyes were barely closed. He tilted his head from time to time and was mostly silent.

“Xan, how’s it look?” Sebastien asked.

“Eh. The elevator is in working order, and it still shows someone docked. But I’ve got no feeds or details.”

“Did they cut them?” William asked.

Xan shook his head. “Negative. When they designed these they made them dirt ass simple, so simple a farmer could run it. Plus they wouldn’t function from the ground until someone came from up top. No camera necessary, unfortunately.”

“So how do we take it?” William pointed at the yellow berthing light.

“Insert with two teams, one in each climber. Hopefully they don’t have many troops upstairs. Stream in from two sides and pinch them. After that, you grind your way in,” Sebastien said.

“What if they have a full compliment?”

“They don’t. If they did, it’d already be on the ground.”

The NCOs discussed the finer points of close-quarters assault. None seem satisfied with any of the methods discussed. Selim kept wishing for things he didn’t have and Crow kept dismissing the ideas that Sebastien did bring forth. All three grew tense as they argued over the objective that was so close at hand.

“Can we talk to them?” William asked.

Xan looked up and blinked. “Maybe, but not yet.”

William turned to Von Hess and watched as his movements became more erratic. His teeth clenched and his fingers squeezed up tightly. Sweat began to bead on his forehead. The NCOs stopped the argument and watched, puzzled.

“Is he okay?” Crow asked as he stepped closer.

“Hess?” Eduardo called from the other room. The short man stalked in with his arms bared. The tattoo was a vibrant wreath of carnations that encircled and bloomed. “Well, he found something.”

Hess’s eyes open. He sighed a deep whoosh and relaxed his body into the cloth below.

“What is it?” Sebastien snapped.

“Shhh, give him a moment, if the link was severed it’ll take a few minutes for him to recover,” Eduardo said. He held a hand out as if to keep everyone away. The tattoo slowly shifted into a haze of gray.

Everyone in the room watched as Von Hess controlled his breathing and stretched his limbs. The first motion he made was to pry the plastic contacts off of the carbon pads. The adhesive seemed to resist as if it penetrated into his skull. He gently scooted himself into a sitting position.

“Gentlemen,” Von Hess said in a soft voice. “I swept the edges of the city and saw nothing of interest. I spooled it farther south and saw great scars in the earth, trenches that followed the ridges.”

“That’s how they usually mine this sort of thing,” Selim added.

“Yeah, so I followed them and ran into an armored column moving this way,” Von Hess said with a sigh. “I strafed the column, but then they opened fire. They had four low-profile tanks and a group of APCs.”

“Did you manage to knock any out?” Crow asked with his eyebrows furrowed.

“No,” Von Hess replied sadly. “I think they are Hun.”

“That can’t be, they’re eight months away, this is closer to Sa’Ami space,” William said.

Eduardo stooped over Von Hess and cleaned away the adhesive from the carbon pads. The pilot slid back into the chair and winced as the terminals were bared.

“How long?” Sebastien asked.

“Two hours. Maybe less,” Von Hess replied.

“Xan! You have that link up yet?” William turned and asked.

“To the ship?”

“No, we need you to connect to the orbital batteries,” William said.

“We need to assault that ship and get the hell out of here, there’s no way we can take out an armored platoon,” Sebastien said. He stood next to William and jabbed his finger out.

William stood his ground in the face of the much larger Marine. “Negative. Those tanks get into the city and they’ll destroy the place and park where we can’t hit them.”

Sebastien glared back. “This is a bad idea.”

“My day has been full of bad ideas, they’ve just been better than the alternatives.”

Sebastien strode out and beckoned to the other NCOs. “C’mon, we better figure out how to stop a tank without anti-tank weapons.”

William watched them leave and felt a lost sense of accomplishment. It was all for naught unless they could contact those batteries. “Xan, it’s really important that we get in touch with the orbital launchers.”

Xan nodded and kept his eyes locked on the screen. His fingers danced on the keys as he spoke. “I know. I’m working on it.”

William turned away and kneeled next to Von Hess. He thought that the man looked ten years older. “Von Hess, thank you.”

Von Hess smiled weakly. “You were lucky my friend, I was going to just blast the comm tower away, good thing I looked.”

“Good thing you looked,” William replied, and walked out to find the rest of the troops.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Bottled up

The scratch defense rolled through the edge of town into hovel country. The sounds of celebration still echoed through the air. None in the truck had the spirit to say otherwise.

William and his crew bounced along with a pack of civilians. One man clutched a blocky shotgun nervously. Another hugged a slender rifle and peered at it mysteriously. A particularly drunk individual wore a set of pattern armor with crushed panels. The Marines and soldiers regarded the civilians with mild curiosity. Following behind was two more trucks of civilians in various states of sobriety.

“You’re kidding,” Leduc said whenever he looked to the civilians across from him.

Crow tapped William on the knee and pointed. “We need to hit them in the stamp mills, bottle ‘em up.”

William nodded and racked his brain for ideas. They had industrial explosives but they weren’t exactly ideal for using as anti-armor charges. “What happens once they’re in?”

Crow turned his head and looked to the stamp mills. “Drop down onto the tanks, pitch the charges.”

“And the infantry support?” Sebastien asked.

“Troops on the ground will cover.”

Sebastien shook his head with closed eyes.

The men in back all watched Sebastien’s body language. The augment stared at the floor of the truck and wore a look of pure dissatisfaction.

A dull click sounded in William’s ear. “Go ahead.”

“I got something here, but I can’t get all of the batteries going. This piece of shit can only link to one,” Xan’s voice crackled in William’s ear.

William tapped Crow on the knee. “We’ve got a battery online.”

Heads turned and the tone shifted.

“It’s coming around in a few minutes, it’ll be back in ninety minutes.”

William thought and pictured the armor rolling up from the south. In ninety minutes they’d be sitting squarely at the elevator. “Can you connect to any of the other batteries?”

“I barely have a connection here, if I drop it there’s no guarantee I can get any of them back, the orbit might have decayed on the others.”

The truck stopped abruptly. They had reached the bounds of where the southern road intersected with the stamp mills. The alloy and concrete towers rose around them. To the south lay a packed road completely devoid of vegetation.

William knelt in the center of the truck. “We’ve managed to connect to a single battery. Unfortunately it’s overhead right now and won’t be able to fire again for about ninety minutes.”

Groans echoed from the military personnel. The civilians were silent and looked vaguely confused.

William turned to the civilians. “In about sixty minutes the armor will arrive, we need to keep them bottled up here, before they can break through the stamp mills.”

Crow sat up and pointed to the towering masses of concrete. “We rig ‘em and blow ‘em once they’re in. If we can keep ‘em bottled up we can bring down the hammer from above.”

“Did anyone know they had armor in the mines? Troops? Anything?” Sebastien asked. His tone was short, annoyed, angry.

“The trucks come from the mine, they’re all automatic, they unload at the stamp mills. We don’t go there,” the particularly drunk man said.

Sebastien stared at the grit-covered floor. “Crow, get the charges set. Selim, tuck these civvies away, get everyone, and I mean
everyone
, out of sight.” He stood and smoothed his crumpled uniform before dropping down into the mud.

“What are you doing?” William asked, as he lowered himself to the ground.

Sebastien stopped and turned slowly. “Making sure they stay where they’re supposed to. Blow the towers on my signal.”

“At least it stopped raining,” Avi said.

William watched as the augment strolled into the nearest refinery complex alone. He had no doubt of the man’s capability, but he didn’t understand the anger. They were all in a bad place, but hitting the elevator didn’t sit well with him, not when tanks were coming.

* * *

The civilians milled about in poor cover until Sergeant Selim broke them into pairs and did his best to apply the meager force. Whatever troops that busted out of the APCs would be hardened professionals, not something the civilians could deal with for long. His face was drawn tightly as he directed them into cover with a monotone voice.

The Marines and soldiers took up position near the towers to be collapsed. They assumed that two charges on each would be enough to topple it. The concrete was chalky and crumbled relatively easily at the base. Whoever had designed it hadn’t thought that permanence was of importance.

With the charges set and the positions prepared, the defenders were left with nothing but the shrill hiss of the north wind. The moment that all soldiers reflect upon before combat rolled across each man; self doubt tinged with a facet of fear. Whether of failure or death, no one could quite say. The two were not necessarily the same.

William crouched in the shadows and peered outside. The word had passed that no one was to venture out. Drones. Scouts who hovered far above could relay back positions and they’d be hit without ever seeing the enemy. The urge to want to poke out and look was almost overwhelming.

Was this what his father had felt like? When they had finally won the day against overwhelming odds, did they know? Or was it always in doubt? He realized that it was always in doubt for everyone involved until the bullets stopped flying. Anything could happen.

He stared down at his hands. They seemed thin and looked so fragile. Two men with those fingers, those frail implements of flesh and bone. He glided his hand on the damp coolness of the rifle.

“You hear that?” Kerry said as he cocked his head.

William strained his ears and heard nothing. He shook his head.

“I hear something, something outside,” Kerry said in a hushed whisper.

“Wait for Sebastien,” Crow said.

“But what will he do? How will we know? What if we miss the signal?” Kerry said.

“Private.” Crow tilted his head. “When have you ever known a Marine to be subtle? We’ll know.”

William rested his hand on the clammy concrete. The slightest vibration hummed through his fingertips. He raised his eyes and saw Crow nodding to the men. The armor was on the way.

The rumble grew in intensity and tone. The sound and vibration would peak before diminishing and then growing louder. The armor rose over the hills and dropped back down again moving at full pace forward.

Would they know the signal? They had a narrow window to blow the first tower. He didn’t want to ping Sebastien on the comms but the anticipation was getting to him. “Lumpy, this is Gentleman, report.” He listened to the silence and waited a moment. “Lumpy, do you read?”

“Grace, comms clear,” Sebastien replied in a flat voice.

William rolled his shoulders and stared outside into the gray sky. The sound was growing louder with every second. That hint of adrenaline began to creep and grow as he pictured the column rolling forward. He could taste the steel in the back of his throat.

In a sudden shift of sound the vibrations dampened before growing louder in his ears. He could picture the column just outside the walls, they felt so damn close. What was Sebastien doing? He was somewhere between the two stamp mill towers.

An enormous trio of explosions rang out into the cloudy sky. The sound bounced off of the low clouds and echoed in rapid succession. William’s heart broke loose from the restrained beating and let the adrenaline wash over him.

A dull click sounded in his ear. “Go.” It was Sebastien.

William didn’t need to tell Crow to pull the tabs. The Sergeant held both of the priming tabs in his hand and was already on his way out the door.

The column had powered straight down the main supply route with no regard for what laid ahead. A bulbous tank in the lead was stopped with the trailing elements one hundred meters behind, waiting. The tank rolled forward slowly as if testing a strained limb. The turret slung to the side in a high pitched harmonic whine. The first rounds traced the upper edge of a stamp mill. A man screamed and was silent.

William followed Crow with the rifle at ready and took position near a slag heap. There was a moment’s pause. The silence seemed to have returned. Then all of the armored vehicles erupted in a horrible ripping sound of weapons firing and drones launching. Rounds scattered and pinged onto the concrete buildings.

“Move! Get into cover, they’ve got drones out,” Crow said. He dashed inside a low building.

William followed in a crush with Kerry bouncing against him at the door. The thought of being shredded or shot by an assault drone tended to speed things up.

“Shouldn’t it have gone off?” Kerry said.

The rasping sound of the explosion was like a giant tearing of cloth. The boom was a magnitude louder than the trio of explosions earlier. The ground shook for a brief moment and William could feel the explosion in the center of his gut. He unconsciously grinned at the expression of such force.

The building they had fled from billowed out gray dust. The tower seemed to float for a split second before rolling and dropping itself down right into the middle of the road. The huge mangled form of the alloy stamping mechanism was sprawled in a pile of pistons and motors.

A moment after, a second explosion powered through the air. This was the clincher, the one they really needed. Without it, the armor could simply back up and take another route.

William peeked out from the doorway and watched the tower through the gray smoke. It wavered for a split second and stopped. “Shit.”

A slender metallic body dropped down from the peak of the building and sprung at William. It was like a praying mantis with sleek legs powering it. The eyes were fearless and dull, but the mouth clacked and sang with rebounding steel. The drone was no larger than a cat.

“Gah!” William screamed as he tumbled back. He fumbled for his weapon as he rolled.

It spread its razor legs in midair. It paused for a moment with digital eyes locked on him. As suddenly as it jumped, it vaporized into an explosion of steel and electricity. Kerry lowered the weapon from his shoulder.

“Thanks!” William replied as he brushed the still humming scraps. “We gotta get that tower down!”

He emerged from the low building with his weapon at his shoulder. He moved slowly and scanned all around him for another one of the anti-infantry drones. Each footstep was deliberate, slow in pace, but perfect in execution. The weapon swung wherever his eyes moved. Following behind were Kerry and Crow doing the same and covering all the area around.

“Any ideas?” William clicked.

A drone skidded through the air and pivoted almost perfectly. A slender cannon was mounted on the underside. It danced in the wind for a moment before beginning to fire a high pitched round.

“Move!” Crow yelled as he fired at the hovering drone. Rounds pinged off of its body. One finally struck the rotor pivot and it spun like a broken top right into the concrete.

“Shit,” William said as he bounded forward. He could feel a tiny pin-prick wound in his shoulder. He tapped it with his fingers and felt the burning of a tiny hole. Sticky blood stained his fingertips.

“Oooh!” Kerry said as he pulled William’s uniform aside to look. “Just meat!”

Gunfire erupted from the area. Teams of civilians and military personnel alike engaged the packs of drones. For a few brief moments the assault of the drones eclipsed the will of the men. The thumping of the cannons from the armored column clacked against the concrete walls in a furious display of force.

William burst onto the street and flailed himself back into cover. A few meters away was the last vehicle of the armored column. The body had slight dimples where the nanite rounds had hit and glanced off. As he slid into cover, he marveled at the adrenaline enhanced sharpness of everything around him.

“Where are the troops?” Selim clicked over the comms.

“Grace,” Sebastien said, “move the men out, I’m sealing the exit.”

“All units, this is Gentleman, sweep for the civvies and move north. Rally at the needle,” William clicked off. Behind him, Crow blasted another drone.

“C’mon, Grace, get moving!” Crow yelled back as he shifted away from the killzone.

William turned and glanced at Sebastien moving through a refinery across the street. In his arms was a deep black carbon rod. Behind him trailed a woven cluster of conducting wire.

With the men clearing out the drones would converge on Sebastien. Augmented or not, William knew that he’d be swarmed and killed. “Crow, hold the fort,” he clicked.

“What?”

“Xan, load the firing pattern. The pre-planned coordinates if you would, please, fire when available,” William clicked, planning his next move.  

“Four minutes,” Xan said.

“Crow, Selim, get everyone to the needle, we’ll be right behind you,” William said. He wondered if they’d have enough time to get clear. Hell, he wondered if
he
could get clear.