Osdal (Harmony War Series Book 3) (43 page)

Other Chosen started firing on them, turning it into a wild shooting match.

They were scared, and the toxin was deadly and fast.

Another view came into play; PACs were wading through dead and dying Chosen, who were looking around wildly, obviously confused.

The timer on Yu’s console hit zero as they passed over the last landing pad and Yu took full control of the craft, lining it up with the 75th floor.

He fired on the level with his auto-cannons, and the rest of the Combat Shuttles following him took this as their signal, firing on the level.

Combat Shuttles across the city were doing the same, heading right at a floor, and firing everything they had into it, clearing out any Chosen still left standing.

More shuttles were coming in from orbit, their tails streaking water vapor. More rose from the maintenance pad turned forward operating base, their engines at full power.

Yu applied his air brakes, slowing the shuttle. He winced as he went inside central tower. Still standing parts of the tower were smashed by the nose of the shuttle and its wings.

His landing struts came out as he lowered the craft to the ground, leaving divots in the floor. He fired his forward thrusts at full, bringing the shuttle to a halt. The other shuttles also piled into the level and auto-turrets fired on any Chosen that were in the area.

Ramps that had been half open dropped all the way, Troopers rushed out, circling the Combat Shuttles and taking control of the level. Yu fired his auto-cannons, clearing a hanging section of warped metal out of his way.

He powered his engines, looking at the torn up housing area and entertainment sector. He gritted his teeth, his shuttle’s wings breaking through the cheap walls, plowing an exit out of the tower for his fellow shuttles. It was painful hearing the damage he was doing to his shuttle’s wings. The chief engineer was not going to be pleased.

Finally, he was out of central tower and dropping, and he powered his engines and pulled up, scared that his wings would fall off.

He rose up, his air flaps complaining against the debris in their mechanics, but the air cleared it away.

Should have had more faith in the old girl,
he thought, letting out a breath and patting the Combat Shuttle’s console for luck.

“Let’s never do that ever again,” Bobbie said.

“Agreed. I can only imagine how much work it’s going to take to get this thing cleared for service after all of that,” Young added.

Yu was just happy to have survived the whole ordeal. He headed for the maintenance pad, the Troopers were going to need supplies soon and Yu wasn’t going to leave them hanging.

***

Jerome watched as PACs started falling over - and not from the Trooper’s weapon fire. They were exchanging fire from the entrance of the cryo-bunker to the stairwell that went down to it.

Some of the smarter ones were using the Repulsors left behind against the Troopers.

Collins got hit and fell backwards, and Jerome was there hauling her out of fire. Her hip was fucked up. Jerome quickly unlocked her armor and got inside.

“You’re lucky Collins,” he said, covering the area in sealant. She had a small flesh wound, not two inches from the artery running through her leg.

“Doesn’t feel like it Sarge,” she complained, not looking happy at all.

“No I bet it doesn’t,” Jerome laughed, putting the sealant away. “You’re good to go, stay back though.” She would need to take time to let the area heal and hopefully see if her servo motor was working properly.

“Sergeants and higher link in,” Lieutenant Sook said. “We’ve got word from higher, apparently the city is getting coated in some kind of toxin that shouldn’t affect Troopers, but will kill Chosen just fine.”

“If it’s all the same, ma’am, I’m going to order my people keep their armor shut unless they’re wounded,” Mark said.

“Agreed. Now, this shit is supposed to kill the Chosen if they breathe it in. If we see a break in their ranks I want us to be ready to move. We don’t have the supplies to hold out for more than a few hours, it’s now or never. We might be able to get some shuttles to rush us out of here, but we need to book it, because our lives very much depend on this one shot. Get your sections together, I want a situation report and be ready to run if you need to. If that means leaving behind compromised armor, do it. You have five minutes, be ready to move after then.”

Jerome cut off the channel and quickly passed on the message to his section.

They started up tests on their armor, reported ammunition levels and Master Corporal Ko checked them over one by one.

Jerome saw Mark stepping out of his powered armor, and saw he was still wearing his plate armor underneath. How the large man had done it Jerome didn’t know.

It looked like a number of people had done it, and those with armor but functional PA gave it to Troopers without both. Ammunition was drained from the broken powered Armor’s ammunition packs, divided up to the other units. It looked like Zukic’s two platoon would be taking point on this one, getting the majority of the ammunition and moving into position around the cryo-pods entrance.

***

Ortiz’s plan was simple: take half of his people and insert them into different floors by Combat Shuttle. Sometime they were lucky and they had landing pads, otherwise they had to make their own.

They targeted floors with the least amount of activity based on what they could see on the city’s sensors.

The Troopers secured the floor and headed up and down.

The Chosen, whose people were dying all around them, would now be fighting on multiple sides, with the Troopers using the shock of the Chosen’s friends dying to take them unprepared. It was a good plan, one that used the toxin’s physical and psychological effects and capitalized on them.

Yet Ortiz couldn’t help but feel dirty using such tactics. He knew it would work to some degree, yet it was a terrible thing to do and a tactic he hoped to never use again.

His mind cast back to Sacremon, and he shook his head to clear those thoughts. He needed to be in the present, thinking of past battles wouldn’t help him. He could deal with his morality and nightmares later. He needed to win control of Mining City Twenty-One.

“The Combat Shuttles are coming in with the supplies now. We have fire bases set up in the majority of towers, at least two per tower, not including original insertion points,” one of the aides rattled off, and Ortiz’s tired mind took a moment to conjure up his name. Botsuei.

“Good,” Ortiz said, nodding and looking back at the hologram which showed the entire colony city. Slivers of green were growing up and down red towers, showing the Troopers’ growing area of control.

They had the Chosen reeling from the sudden attacks and they were pressing forward with everything they had. It had been an hour since the toxin had hit.

“How are the Troopers in the basement doing?” Ortiz asked.

“They’re holding out, Lieutenant Sook has them preparing to push through the PAC blockade force and attempt a rescue,” Skovgaard said.

“Thinks on her feet, good. Have a flight of Combat Shuttles ready and waiting to cover them, or haul them out. Make sure the Combat Shuttle crews know the risks,” Ortiz said.

“Yes sir.” Skovgaard got back to working her holograms.

Ortiz put his hands behind his back, hiding them from the aides as he squeezed his thumb nervously.

So this is what you were talking about, hating watching the whole damned battle. It does feel like you’re just throwing darts into a hurricane, hoping that some of them even come close to hitting the dartboard,
Ortiz thought of conversations he’d had with Nerva.

Ortiz would give anything to be down with his Troopers, fighting on the front lines, instead of watching it on holograms, knowing all too well that his decisions could send people to their deaths while he shared little of that risk.

***

Mark rolled his shoulders and moved his head from side to side. He was wearing his powered armor’s helmet, and the thing wasn’t the best, but it was better than running outside without one.

It had been two hours since they had checked their gear and prepared to escape. A PAC had fallen over earlier, and more of them were falling and none of them were currently firing down the hall.

Sook had passed warning orders, waiting to make sure it wasn’t a hoax, and then placing a call to the Combat Shuttles.

“Two platoon, followed by one and three,” Lieutenant Sook said.

Zukic’s platoon rushed past one platoon, who were covering the entrance to the cryo-bunker.

His people made it to the stairwell and continued on, their sensors were being relayed back to the other people in the company.

No red halos appeared out of thin air and one platoon moved to follow.

“Well, let’s not get left behind,” Mark said after one platoon disappeared up the stairs.

The large room before the stairwell was covered in bodies, and he didn’t touch the floor on his way to the stairwell. It was even worse. Thankfully one and three platoon had shoved bodies and dead PACs out of the way.

Most of them didn’t even have a mark on their armor. Mark saw a few Chosen without powered armor, and their faces smoked lightly. He saw one person’s cave in. It looked like their bodies were dissolving from the inside.

Mark’s platoon was halfway up the stairwell when two platoon came under contact.

“We’ve got PACs that were hiding in the tower. They look to be healthy, probably not part of the original guys attacking us,” Zukic said, and Mark sped his pace up as red halos appeared on his HUD.

Mark came out into the middle of a firefight. One platoon was on the second floor of the lobby, two was on the first. Both were engaged with PACs hiding in cover and their earlier confidence was gone.

The Repulsor fire was sure to keep their heads down as tracers stitched holes in whatever walls and surfaces were left.

Mark felt the Combat Shuttles before he heard them over the weapons fire. Air swept in through the opening shutters to the lobby.

“Three move it!” Sook yelled, and Mark saw that she was on the first floor, side by side with her Troopers, firing into the PACs.

“Wounded and one section first, two and three on the second shuttle, fourth with me on the last.” He kept the channel open with Haas so he could coordinate the remaining lifts.

The shutters opened all the way and two shuttles were waiting, a third settling down. Two more shuttles rushed overhead, firing on the surrounding towers, missiles sending fireballs through buildings and auto cannons rolling fire echoing through the city.

The first shuttle barely had the last person up the ramp before it headed off, and the second followed moments later.

Mark followed the rest of his platoon onto the last shuttle. It rubbed him the wrong way to be on the last shuttle, but someone had to leave first.

The shuttles sped off and he looked at the tactical screens. One was pulling back to the first floor, two was pulling back to the entrance to the lobby. They kept up their fire on the enemy the entire time, their tracer fire lighting up the night.

***

“Two platoon, you’re next!” Haas barked.

“Understood!” Zukic replied.

A Combat Shuttle’s engines could be heard behind Tyler, and dust and crap messed up his powered armor’s night vision.

They were now at the outside of the lobby, firing in.

Tyler saw two platoon rushing off onto three shuttles that were waiting for them. More Combat Shuttles were holding position above, their weaponry making anyone moving around regret their decision.

“Close support!” Sook said, moments before two missiles streaked through the lobby’s two story windows, detonating inside.

The Troopers’ fire slacked as they looked for PA that had survived that onslaught. If they had, they weren’t brave enough to put their heads out.

The shutters to the lobby closed. PACs rounds sparked as they hit the armored shutters.

The last of two platoon’s shuttles took off, the first of one platoon’s touching down.

“Ali, Waz, first Combat Shuttle, Alexis, Dashtund second,” Tyler said.

The platoon ran for the shuttles. Some enterprising assholes must have sensed it was their last opportunity to hit the Troopers and opened fire on the shuttles.

Some thirty Repulsors and four Combat Shuttles opened fire on the offenders, ripping the tower’s facades apart.

“Move!” Tyler barked, as sections swarmed into the two remaining Combat Shuttles.

Tyler was the last in, holding onto the overhead netting Combat Shuttle as it took off, the ramp coming up as they climbed into the air. For a few moments Tyler thought he might fall out the back of the shuttle, then the ramp shut, cutting off the rushing wind outside. Tyler sank into a chair, sighing.

He looked over the list of dead and wounded. Five Troopers had died in their exit, including Holm.

There were no whoops or cheers in the Combat Shuttle as they left Mining City Twenty-One and headed for the maintenance pad.