Children of Steel (58 page)

I unstrapped my pack then letting it fall to
the end of its ten foot tether, looked at the horizon and waited
for the shock of the ground. I rolled when I hit, cut my chute
loose and dragged my pack over. I then got out my rifle, slung my
backpack, checked my grenades, locked, loaded, and gathered Hess
and Marko up.

By now everybody was pretty much together and
it had taken us maybe forty seconds total. The explosions from the
shuttle’s missiles, not to mention the sonic booms from the two
drop ships, had woken up everybody in the place. We had landed in
the center of the parade ground, and took off for the nearest
building, firing as we came.

I had started out following John's lead, but
as we came among the buildings of the installation, we split into
half squads and went looking for trouble. Some guy in his underwear
came running out of a building right in front of me, so I cut him
in half with a burst and ran inside, motioning Hess and Marko to
follow.

The place was packed with people all trying
to get out the door I was coming in. We put our guns on full auto
and just burned out our clips fanning the crowd. When I ran out I
locked and loaded another and we moved through the building, which
turned out to be a barracks, putting a bullet in the head of
anybody still moving.

We caught up with a group trying to get out
the back door and cut them down too. All I could think about was
paybacks and was loving every minute of it. I ran across to the
next building which was also spilling out people and we repeated
the process.

"Shit," I swore to Hess over the com as we
slipped in new clips, "Too bad these heard us coming, I think we
only got about fifty this time!" I looked around quickly then and
headed off towards a group of low buildings spread out to the east
of our position. Marko tossed an incendiary grenade into the second
building and followed up behind.

"Just in case there were any hiding inside,"
he smiled.

"Good thinking!" I said and stopped to shoot
somebody I saw diving into a window.

The buildings ahead turned out to be more
living quarters, but not barracks like on the edge of the field.
These were more along the lines of single and double residences.
Probably where the instructors and staff lived. I bypassed the
first twenty we came to running as fast as I could, the squads
behind us could handle those. Then I stopped and ducked into the
nearest one, signaling Hess and Marko to take another.

I shot some old guy as he was still putting
on his pants, he looked surprised to see me, and even more
surprised as I put a round through his heart. I looked around
quickly for anything worthwhile, saw a folder, and stuffed it in my
backpack. I then went next door and repeated the process. This guy
was a little smarter and had his pistol out as I came in, he shot
me then jumped on me screaming. The armor deflected the shot
fortunately, and I quickly broke his neck and continued on.

The next hour was pretty much the same thing,
go into a house, shoot anything that moved and grab anything that
looked worthwhile. After the first few houses I rarely ran into
anyone, most were fleeing before us. Every once in a while a small
group would try to make a stand and while Hess and Marko would
exchange fire, I'd sneak around behind them and charge right
in.

At one point I ran out of ammo, and rather
than change clips I just waded in and used my knife, killing the
two left standing in close combat. It felt good.

"You okay sir?" Asked Hess running up.

"Just having a little fun!" I laughed back at
him and he looked at me kind of strange for a moment, then went
back to work.

By the time we had run out of buildings and
hit the perimeter, I got on the radio to John and asked if he
needed any help.

"Nah, things are going pretty easy over
here." I heard a burst of autofire through his radio, "I got a
report of a group holding out at the command center, why don't you
drag your people over there and see if you can help?"

"Sure, where's it at?"

He gave me the coordinates and I looked at my
wrist unit and figured out the direction.

"Come on guys," I said turning to the other
two, "Break’s over, everybody back on their heads!" and led the way
to the center.

We ran into a few small firefights on the
way. The people we were coming up against now were definitely
better armed, some were even in armor, but they were still
disorganized. I was scavenging ammo now from everybody I shot; I
only had six clips left and was trying to save those.

Coming up on the command center we could hear
the fighting from several blocks away. I switched frequencies and
got the Lieutenant, who was now running the attack.

"See if you can find a way in from the rear,"
came the order, "I think we've got most of them drawn to the front.
But play it safe, I've got a squad with an artillery piece on the
way over."

"Where did they get that?" I asked as I led
my half squad through a courtyard.

"Found it on a practice range of all places!
Even had a round in it, I've got more people scavenging for ammo,
so I don't think this place is gonna' hold out much longer."

We came up to the back of the building then.
It was a large four story structure, made from reinforced concrete.
There were no windows on the first three floors, those on the
fourth were just mere slits and there was a mini gun on each of the
corners of the roof. If we had brought some armor along it wouldn't
have lasted ten seconds, of course we hadn't though.

"Any suggestions?" I growled as I looked over
the back of the place, I just knew there were a lot of people worth
killing in there, and the idea that I might not get to was driving
me crazy.

"How about we strip off the uniforms of a
couple of those corpses back there and just try and run right in?"
Suggested Marko grinning, "All of our troops are on the other side
right now, and who knows? They just might buy it!"

I was still full of bloodlust, the fighting
had been way too easy to satisfy me. More of a slaughter
actually.

"Let's do it!" I said and sprinted off to
find a dead body.

"Hey I was only kidding!" yelled a shocked
Marko as they followed me.

I came to the last group we had shot, and
started stripping the biggest one. "Damn, I'll have to ditch the
armor!" I mumbled as I changed clothes as quickly as possible. "At
least he has a helmet."

"Sir have you lost your mind?" Marko was
eyeing the bodies with visible distaste, they were all very
bloody.

"I don't think either of you will fit in any
of those either," I said as I wrapped my tail around my waist and
pulled up the pants of the uniform. I stuck on the helmet. "How do
I look?"

"Like a leopard covered in blood and shot to
hell. It'll never work sir," he was pleading now.

"Why?" I stopped and looked at him.

"Your feet and hand's are dead giveaways, one
look and they'll know for sure!"

I thought about that a second and an idea
came to mind.

"Listen; chase me all the way up to the back
door, taking cover just out of range of the mini gun's, if they see
you shooting at me they might not stop to look at their monitors or
view ports too closely. Don't forget, these are humans, they have
lousy night vision.

"Now let's go!" and I took off. I saw Hess
grab my pack then and follow.

When we got to the killing ground around the
center, I kept my head down and just ran for the door. There were
bullet's flying all around me, but at least they weren't hitting. I
didn't see the stairs until I stumbled over them; I still had my
head tucked down so only the helmet showed. I stumbled and crawled
all the way up and as I made the rear door, it opened and somebody
grabbed my arm and pulled me in. I buried my combat knife in his
chest without even looking up, then I looked around to see who else
was there.

The guard manning the door controls took one
look at my face as my head came up and went for his gun. My knife
was still in his buddy so I used my claws and teeth on him instead.
It was messy, but it was quick and I got a lot of personal
satisfaction out of it too. There was nobody else around, so I
retrieved my knife and used one of the guard's guns to wedge the
door open. I had lost mine coming up the stairs.

I couldn't find the fire controls for the
rooftop guns here, so I looked around. Luck was with me then, for I
saw the fire exit and setting off the alarm, I pushed through the
door and into the stairwell. I ran up the four flights as quick as
I could and using the other guard’s pistol, blew the roof accessway
open. I tossed my last grenade into the access hatch on one of the
rear guns, then ducked behind an outcropping as it went off
destroying it.

Next I crawled up behind the other one, and
using all my strength I rammed my knife into the belt feed for the
ammo. The carbon alloy steel went right through, and suddenly the
gun jammed. I stood up and waved to Hess and Marko, who charged
across the grounds to the door.

I headed back to the stairway stopping only
long enough to strip off the bloody uniform I had on. I didn't want
to get shot by my own side now! I went down one floor, and it took
all of the remaining rounds in the pistol to get the door open. I
kicked the wreckage out of the way and dove inside.

When I stopped rolling and stood up, I
noticed I was in an empty hallway. Going down it, I started looking
in rooms as I went along. They were all empty offices, nothing much
of interest. I moved along faster and started listening and seeing
if I could pick up any fresh scents. I had turned a corner and was
going down a second corridor, when I suddenly heard a noise coming
from the room at the end of the hallway.

I charged the door and hit it feet first,
breaking it open and flying into the room. I rolled across the
floor as somebody put a few rounds where I had been just a moment
ago and grabbed the first thing that I went by and threw it at the
sound of the gun fire.

I heard a few more shots, and felt a burning
in my arm as I was hit. The chair then made contact and I jumped at
the man with the gun, knocking it aside before he could shoot me
again. He put up a pretty good fight then, for a human that is, but
it still didn't matter.

"Well what have we here?" I leered down at
him. I was sitting on his chest pinning his arms with my knees, the
claws of my left hand grabbing his throat. "Cat food?" The
excitement of the battle was burning in me like a fire and I was
beginning to remember the things I had learned on Pharaoh.

"I won't tell you anything, you animal!" he
snarled.

I looked at him puzzled, "If that was
supposed to be an insult I'm afraid I missed it." I looked around
at the room then, "Well what's all this now?" I wondered out loud.
I got up dragging him to his feet with my good left arm, which
still had him by the throat. My right arm hurt pretty badly, but I
just ignored it for now.

The table was full of papers and memory
modules; he had been stashing them in a large burn barrel when I
entered.

"Unfinished business perhaps?" I grinned at
him.

"I'm not telling you anything!" he spit at
me, "and you can't make me either!"

"But I don't want you to talk!" I smiled at
him slowly showing my fangs, he suddenly looked very scared. "Lunch
isn't
supposed
to talk!"

Hess and Marko were the first to find me,
about fifteen or so minutes later as I was stuffing all the papers
and modules in a garbage bag to carry out.

"What's that stuff?" Marko asked pointing to
the bag.

"File's they were trying to destroy," I said
calmly, "I figure it's important."

Hess was looking me over, "How much of that
blood’s yours?"

I looked at the crude bandage I had made out
of a shirt. "Enough I guess, I lost my gun and had to do some hand
to hand."

"What happened to him?" Marko said pointing
to a pair of very bloody legs that where sticking out from the burn
barrel.

"He gave his all for the movement," I said
picking up the bag in my good hand and leaving. "Come on, I want to
get my gear before our pickup comes."

I passed the Lieutenant as we headed out. The
building was secure now and they were deciding what to do with the
prisoners. I handed over the bag and went off to find my things. My
rifle was still where I had dropped it, and Hess had stashed my
gear in a bush before going in. I got dressed, and then headed off
to the recall site. Any of the locals left alive had all run off by
now, so we really didn't have any more trouble.

I did make one slight detour however; I
stopped in some house's bathroom and puked my guts out, retching
heavily into the toilet for a good five minutes. I was surprised to
find that what I had done back in that room was starting to bother
me. In the heat of the moment it had been easy of course, but now
as reason began to take over I found I didn't like what I had done.
Guilt flowed through me and I knew what I had done was wrong, maybe
not on places like Pharaoh, and maybe not for my enemies, but for
me it was; Herza, Balizar, and especially Cassy would have been mad
at me.

I realized then that the burning anger was
finally gone, replaced with a cold determination. I still wanted to
kill the enemy of course and get my revenge, but I felt that I
finally had a grasp on my temper, and myself. What I had done back
there in the room was the lowest I had ever sunk in my life, even
lower than on Pharaoh. I was going to find the bastards and make
them pay of course, but I knew I would never try and eat somebody,
especially while they were still alive, again.

The trip back up was quiet. We had twenty
wounded counting me, six of which were serious, plus another five
dead. Not too bad considering I guess. It was less than ten percent
and four of the dead were less experienced troops like me. With the
way I had been behaving down there I was lucky that it wasn't six
dead instead.