Masoul (Harmony War Series Book 2) (43 page)

Tyler opened a secret pocket on his enforcer jacket and pulled out several folders, throwing them on a desk near her.

              “We should have had weeks to plan this out and have the people trained up, now we’re going to have more fatalities, but if we’re to succeed we need to hit hard and fast before Harmony starts reinforcing these positions,” Tyler waved to the folders.

              “Tyler, we still have time,” Song argued.

              “Not any longer, we don’t. The EMF is on the move. Pausing their advance only gives Harmony more time to reinforce positions and turn this FUBAR situation worse. These towers will become abattoirs if we wait much longer. The resistance needs to keep Harmony off balance until the EMF reaches us,” Tyler said, watching Song carefully.

              She looked at the table, studying the folders.

               “Right now, they’re in shock, and we need to press that advantage before they find their balance. Get your people armed and in the fight. If we don’t attack now it will only be worse for the resistance and the EMF. Hopefully, it will take some attention from the witch hunts that will be started because of Dasan’s antics,” Tyler said, his tone softer.

              He waited, as she searched for an answer in that table top. The room was quiet, none of the people along the walls or throughout the room talked, all of them feeling the tension in the air; they stood on the precipice of war.

              Finally, she nodded, the motion becoming harder and firmer as she did.

              “The resistance will fight,” she said, looking up to Tyler with new fire in her eyes.

              Tyler didn’t whoop or cheer, he simply nodded and advanced.

              “Good, then we have a lot of work to do,” Tyler said, opening one of the folders in front of her.

***

              Explosions started going off and the sound could be heard in the distance. Jerome, Kojo, and Huang looked to one another, nods passing between them. They turned from the market vendor, heading back to Moretti’s apartment.

              It didn’t take them long to reach the apartment. They tapped on the door in a set code, and a slot opened; Jerome knew there was probably a gun pointed at his groin.

              “Hey, Tal, want to let a guy in?” Jerome asked.

              “Hey, boys,” Tal said, opening the door, as the three came into the room.

              Minutes later there was more banging.

              Haas came in, escorting Moretti, Bairamov, and Domo with him.

              Jerome grinned, as the rest of the enforcers arrived.

              Moretti was complaining about the noise, but he and Mark grabbed cigars and started puffing on the couch.

              Jerome pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

              Everyone was safe and accounted for. Jerome just hoped that the plan they’d cooked up for the resistance worked out.

              Jerome took a long drag on his cigarette, flicking ash into a tray.

              He didn’t particularly like the normal cigarettes, but the flavoured typed with stims and relaxants were pretty nice, plus the activity gave him something to do.

              Some read books, others pulled out a deck of cards, a game of euchre was started in one corner, but most smoked and talked.

              Tal and Iliev were at the door, their weapons ready. They talked about this and that, and smoked, but their eyes were always around the door.

              “I wonder how long the resistance will take to beat down,” Mark said.

              “Depends really, I wonder what the hell they’re going for,” Moretti said, looking to Mark and the others in the room. Maybe one day they would tell him, but for now it was best for his security and theirs if he didn’t know.

              Moretti recognized that on a level, and grinned, sitting back in his seat and puffing on his cigar.

              Jerome noticed the way it shook.

              Not for the first time Jerome wondered how the man had stayed sane and kept doing his job through all of Harmony’s occupation.

              Jerome had seen him among his ‘followers’. They might see Moretti as their guide to Harmony over Harper, they were enamored with him and he could do no wrong. They happily did whatever he asked.

              He treated them better than any other unit, made sure they were fed, and then let them do as they wished. He had carried off missions of the highest importance, second only to Harper. They were all Harmony and they all trusted him with their lives.

             
What a shock that’s going to be when he stabs them right in the back,
Jerome thought.

              He had also wondered more than once if Dan Moretti would have liked them as much if they had met at the beginning of Harmony’s rise to power.

              He showed his mean streak now and then, but with the troopers he relaxed. He didn’t treat them as equals, but they were from the same place, they had similar values and that was something he hadn’t shared with many in a long time.

              Dan Moretti wasn’t a trooper by any stretch and he was a bit of a snot still, but he had become one of the few people that Jerome wouldn’t mind having a beer with once this was all over.

              They watched one another’s backs in different ways. The way he had organized the freighters to be over Gas Planet when EMFC Reclaimer and Fearless arrived would get him a beer from any trooper he asked.

              The fighting was still going when Moretti got a message.

              “Seems that they are attacking weapon and ammunition vaults… used some rather interesting ways to enter the places,” Moretti said, as he looked around seeing the interest on all their faces. He smiled, scanning the contents of the file, making sure it wasn’t traced.

              That done he sent it to all of their implants. Without the medical techs and implants available no one had received implants in years. Those that had them and longevity treatments were good to go, everyone else was down to using surfaces, earbuds and their mark one un-altered human body.

              Jerome looked through the incoming reports, the battle was fluid but the resistance had hit a few hours after a shift change, late enough that the first shift had gone, the area had cleared out and the people had got bored.

              Explosions in more barracks put people on alert and busy responding, which was perfect for the resistance fighters to swarm the various armories and holding facilities.

              So the night went, people wasting their time away as the resistance hit Harmony again and again.

              It lasted thirty-six hours, everyone staying inside as a war was waged throughout Landing City.

              Then it ended and people started putting the pieces together.

              Eight armories had been hit all over Landing City. After further investigation another twenty-three had been burrowed into, and groups had used the distractions of the attacks to haul away entire armories. When they were opened bombs exploded, destroying anything left behind and killing Chosen.

              Jerome hadn’t seen his platoon this happy since Tyler’s wedding and before ‘that’ shuttle ride.

               “Looks like those damned troopers are making progress on Shipping Station. Makes you think that the resistance and the EMF are working together,” Moretti said, flashing everyone a smile. There were a few grins but everyone was tense, the operation that they’d been planning for months, and wasn’t supposed to happen for a few more had been started.

              There was no giving up or backing down, it was do or die, not for just them but for the people of Masoul, as well as the troopers and combat shuttle crews of Reclaimer and Fearless.

              Jerome knew that more than one of them was going to have trouble sleeping over the coming days.

Chapter 39

             
EMFC Reclaimer

             
Shipping Station, Masoul System

             
3/3242

              Alexis stepped off of her combat shuttle, waited for all of her section to make it off, then she followed. Ever since they’d reached Masoul it had been a hard fight to hold the ship, then Gas Planet, and finally Shipping Station.

              Gaining entry to Shipping Station had been the biggest problem, but once they were aboard they pushed through Chosen’s lines with good speed. That was until they met the booby traps.

              Higher-up agreed with the troopers on the ground in a rare display of common sense.

              Progress had slowed to a halt, they’d dealt with booby traps, adapted to Chosen’s tactics and taken their time to move forward, then in the space of a few days they’d gone from making slow progress to bringing their full strength against Chosen.

             
Fucker’s didn’t like that much,
Alexis thought as she remembered the troopers rushing the Chosen positions that they had thought to be impregnable. Troopers had moved over the hull and they’d hit Chosen from every direction possible.

              It had taken time, as Chosen had numbers on their side and better weaponry than on Gas Planet but in the end they fell.

              It had taken a toll but it was nowhere as bad as Alexis and others had feared.

              A large part of that was due to the majors working together in the field.

              Alexis looked up as she heard a commotion over near one of the combat shuttles that had just been raised up from its landing hangar to the flight deck.

              A message came over Alexis’ HUD.

             
They’re trying to arrest Nerva, fuckers are saying that he went over their heads to cut orders that kept us alive!

              The hidden chat rooms and networks were filled with angry words and clear annoyance.

              Alexis wondered what idiot thought to arrest Nerva when everyone was coming back from Shipping Station. They were pissed and filled with anger, preparing themselves for the next battle and taking a moment to remember those that they had lost. Just as they were starting to relax they pulled this shit, when every trooper still had their armor and weapons on them.

***

              General Wai looked at the reports coming from across the ship; armed and armored troopers were demanding information on Nerva and the other majors that had been taken into custody for being in violation of the EMF code of conduct.

              She looked at the reports with disgust.

             
Pawns should know their place instead of making trouble for others,
she thought.

              A communications tech let out a breath in a hiss.

              “I will not have any of that conduct in my command center,” Wai said.

              The communications specialist ignored her and walked to the planning table where the lieutenant colonels hung out. The ones that were still attuned to the troopers on the ground.

              The man walked right up to Colonel Domashev, the only colonel in the group.

              “Communications tech! When the general gives you an order you listen; consider yourself relieved, get put back to sleep, another will take your place,” Wai said, waving at the man; she’d see that he had no livelihood once he was kicked from the EMF.

              He had been Lieutenant Colonel Domashev on Sacremon but his work had got him an extra rank, though it hadn’t been enough to get his mind off of the troopers on the ground. Thus why he was at the kids table.

              General Wai felt something was wrong with the way that the communications tech was bowing to the colonel deeply.

               “Thank you, son,” Domashev said, as moving from the table, he pulled a surface from a charging drawer. He quickly crossed the distance to Wai’s seat and passed her the surface.

              She was about to yell at him too when a seal passed over the front of the surface, it was from the commander of Earth’s Military Forces.

              She pulled it from the man, wondering why the hell he would get the message before her.

             
General Wai,

             
Upon receipt of this message, consider yourself relieved from the service of the EMF, place yourself in storage until a time you can be revived. Colonel Domashev will be taking over your duties for the duration. With this the officers that you imprisoned are free to carry out their tasks for the coming attack on the EMF.

             
Do not anger this Ministry more.

              There was no signature as one wasn’t needed with the seal; the message had been sent minutes ago. Though the part that scared her the most was the capitalized ‘Ministry’ that wasn’t a reference to the EMF, it was a reference to the Ministry of Intelligence.