Audacity (Warner's World Book 5) (41 page)

“Go” hailed John “No more missiles. Go!”

“Definitely Rollinium” hailed Chad “ETA in 4”

‘And if it’s Rollinium then it must be here’ thought Art. He and Sue raced up the stairs but Art had to clear some debris at the top. They lost a precious minute there.

Sue took off while Art placed the dislodged panel against the wall. She had to meander her way through the mess. There was a strong ray of light beaming down from above. It took a few seconds for the penny to drop. Sue glanced up to confirm that yes there was a three metre whole in the ceiling. As she got closer to it she could see straight up. The hole was bigger in the floor above and got bigger with each level. Part of her wanted to stop and stare but she forced her eyes ahead and aimed for the doors to the service area. She could hear Art’s feet pounding behind her as she pushed through the doorway. It was normally dark here without lights. There were no lights but light streamed through the whole in the far wall. All the dust, raised by the explosions, was fluttering in the rays of light.

She smiled when she passed the maintenance bay and saw her command droid and its six standard droid escorts all lined up and intact.

As she climbed into the back of the command droid she heard Art pass her. He had picked up two rizstorms and with those slung over his shoulder raced for the outside door. He hit the release button on the left and the left side door began to slide to the left.

Art had wished he had his suit on, because the dust was dreadful. He started coughing big time. He pushed out through it aiming for the hangars on the rise where the Trojans had deployed on the 15
^th
. He advanced about forty metres and the dust cloud had thinned enough for him to realise that the hangars had been flattened, including the one that had housed their shuttle.

‘Pointless’ he thought to himself. With no cover available anymore he would not escape detection nor find any suitable cover there with which to engage the enemy from. He pivoted around back toward the terminal building. “Oh shit” he said out lout as he realised that the terminal building had been effectively reduced to a ruin. He could see some of Rentra’s warriors clambering up near the top setting up a heavy pulse gun.

There were two huge craters now in the runway. But everywhere he looked for a possible vantage point he discounted for lack of cover. He saw Sue’s command droid emerge through the door followed by her escort droids. She was lining them up behind some rubble on the eastern side of the terminal.

“Fuck it” said Art and he began jogging back to her position.

“Two shuttles on final approach ETA in 1” advised Chad.

“Shit” said Art and he lengthened his pace. He made for the closest rubble where part of the top floor had hived off and was now leaning at an angle outside the base of the building. There was cover from view but he wasn’t so sure about protection. “Too late for that now” he said out lout to himself.

“Where are you?” hailed Sue.

“Off to your left about 50.”

“Where?”

“In the rubble on your left.”

“Everything’s rubble out here. I see your spot on my display but I don’t have visual.”

“Don’t worry. Here they come.” Art could hear the thrusters even if he couldn’t see the craft.

The two shuttles landed simultaneously, one to the south and one to the east. Art could hear firing form the south where Rentra’s warriors had opened up with their heavy pulse gun. It was pumping shot after shot in a steady thump, thump, thump pattern. Art did not have a good view to his front and therefore could not see the enemy shuttle. He faced south, knowing he would not be detected till they had passed him. He would be able to enfilade them firing down their extended line. He placed the rizstorms on his right along with his two grenades. He hoped it wouldn’t come to these.

“I count thirty two in the east” hailed Sue. She expected a report of the numbers to the south but got none. “Beela how many south?” No reply. A salvo of enemy rockets could be heard exploding in the south. The heavy pulse gun stopped firing. “Shit” said Sue. “Rentra you need to reinforce the south. We have 32 advancing from the east, 150m and closing. Will engage at 100.”

Finally Rentra acknowledged Sue’s call but that was all she got. It was too late to worry about that now the enemy were about to enter her kill zone. She gave the order for her escort droids to engage. The Impie warriors went to ground and began returning fire. They were deployed in two lines of 16 soldiers about thirty metres deep and 150m across the front of the line. The odds were stacked against the droids but they had the rubble to partially protect them.

They knocked out two droids in the exchange of fire and began to rush half their line forward while the other provided covering fire. Sue moved a little to the south from behind the rubble which had so far masked her. She flexed the droid so it could bend and fire from around the rubble with its 25mm cannon. This tore into the enemy that were rushing forward felling several and forcing the rest to take cover on the ground. She had to withdraw in a hurry though as two rockets slammed into the rubble where she had been.

The other half of the line now rushed forward. They were only 40m away now and the exchanges of fire were brutal. It was nigh impossible to miss. Another two droids were destroyed but ranks of the enemy were thinned dramatically.

Sue ordered her two remaining droids to withdraw inside. “I’m pulling back inside” she hailed Art. “I’ll cover you.”

Art could not yet see the enemy but he knew they were just behind his left of vision. He knew they would cut him down if he ran back now, even with Sue blazing away. “Negative. I’ll stay here and take them from behind.”

“No!” said Sue emphatically. “Pull back now!”

“That won’t work. It’s too open. I won’t make it. You pull back. Do it now!”

Sue fought her emotion. Tactically she knew Art was right. She toyed for a second with the prospect of running across and shielding him, but she knew that wouldn’t end well either. “Pulling back” she said and she withdrew into the service area hailing Rentra for backup as she went.

But Rentra was having her own problems in the south. She had committed her reserve to shore that up after her perimeter was overrun by the enemy. Some of them were now lodged inside the power substation at the south end of the terminal. Rentra ran back herself with four warriors and they took up positions inside the service area, south of the doorway to fire on any enemy entering through it.

Sue with her remaining two escorts was on the northern side of the service area. They hoped to cut down the enemy in crossfire as they entered.

Half of the initial assault force from the east lay dead or wounded in that first 100m of their assault. The surviving sixteen reformed into a shorter frontage but still with two lines. It took them two minutes to do this. They fired another rocket at the closed right door. It buckled back. Then they advanced at a walking pace. The first of their lines passed by Art. The nearest warrior was only twenty metres away but his focus was directly ahead.

Art knew all too well that their minds would be filled with dread at having to rush that doorway. He let the first line pass by it cleared the remaining distance to the doorway and it split into two groups of four on each side of the doorway while the second line advanced to them.

Grenades were rolled in. The explosions sounded like several muffled bangs to Art but inside he knew the sound would have been deafening. The first warriors pushed in and were cut down. The second wave was now just slotting in on either side of the doorway ready to charge in. The leader tapped the warrior next to him and he and three others pushed in to the sound of firing and popping grenade launchers.

Art fired one of his rizstorms at the left side of the doorway where the leader was. It took the entire group out. Those on the right turned to face a series of aimed single shots from a range of only seventy metres. By the time they pinpointed him it was too late. Art had despatched them all. He waited a few seconds, saw no movement and hailed “Clear out here.”

“Clear in here” hailed Sue in reply.

Art picked up his grenades and the remaining rocket and poked his head out to the east. He saw a figure in the hatchway, took up a fire position supporting his forearm on the rubble and fired one shot. The range was about 180m. The figure collapsed. The engines of the craft started to fire up. Art dropped his rifle, took up the rizstorm and fired it once he had a lock. At this range with a lock it wasn’t going to miss.

The shuttle thumped back to the ground and its rear end, where the rocket hit, broke apart. Art went for his rifle and kept watching the craft through its sights. Two figures emerged on the far side. But the first Art realised was a minute later when they made a dash southward. The range was now about 300m and he knew he would be lucky to score a hit with a pulse rifle at that range. “Two on foot heading south” he hailed.

Somewhere from high up in the terminal a series of sniper shots rang out. First, one of the figures fell and then the other. Satisfied there was no one else out here Art made a dash for the doorway, dreading a bullet in the back as he did so. He had to clamber over the bodies in the doorway while ducking his head. When he got in Sue was not there, just two of Rentra’s troops guarding the doorway. They pointed him southward where the firing was still coming from.

Art could see half a dozen bodies on the inside of the door. One had actually pushed fifteen metres into the big open service area. He lay next to two resistance fighters. Art put that out of his mind. “Where are you?” he hailed Sue.

“In front of the power plant. They reckon there are five or so holed up in there.”

Art came up to Sue’s position on the northern side of the delivery bay. To his right was the power plant. Forward was south and there was a dirty great big hole in the wall made by the earlier missile impact. By the fall of the bodies Art could see that the enemy had poured through there. But inside in the delivery bay there were dead bodies everywhere. It had been a real melee. One wounded warrior was moaning from the pile of bodies near the opening but no one was going there till the situation was resolved.

Inside the plant room a small desperate group of warriors were facing a bleak future.

“I’m going to send in the two droids” hailed Sue.

“Before you do that can we try something else?” asked Art.

“What?”

Five minutes later Beela stood next to the plant room wall adjacent to the doorway. She lobbed in a package. Several pulse shots twanged near but missed her hand before she retracted it. Cautious of the angles she made her way back to the main line of defence.

Rentra hailed those inside the plant room with the communicator that had lobbed in. It took her a good five minutes to secure their surrender. They came out with fearful eyes but they were alive. They were the lucky ones.

After they were led away Rentra said to Art “You surprise me Commander Simons. You also shame us. It’s hard to give up your hate but we must try, mustn’t we.”

Art nodded.

John appeared, rifle in hand. He looked ashen as his eyes took in the dead. Pulse fire at close quarters had ripped open bodies. There was a pool of blood he had just stepped in. “All over?” he asked Sue, who had dismounted from her command droid.

“Yep” said Sue “and guess what? We have an imperialist shuttle out there waiting for a new owner.”

“Well it’s not going anywhere in a hurry” said John “Our two unfriendly frigates are still overhead.” At that moment John caught sight of a rogan face staring up at him, its eyes locked open in absolute shock. The body had been hit multiple times across the chest but it was the hand failing to hold the guts in that overwhelmed John. “Oh excuse me” he added and rushed to the wall where he threw up. Art came over and offered him a tissue and his water canteen.

Rentra began martialling her survivors. There were a number of seriously wounded Impie fighters being attended to by two medics near the big opening on the southern wall. One of the medics called for assistance to help move them. The other was trying to deal with a wounded warrior who was in a lot of pain and crying out. By the high pitched sound, Sue guessed it was a female. Finally something was jabbed into the wounded warrior’s arm and that made her stop.

Satisfied that things were in hand Rentra took a gulp of water, splashed more on a neck cloth and used it to wipe her brow. She looked at Sue, whose shirt was sticking to her body from the sweat generated in the command droid and offered her the canteen of water. Sue accepted it and splashed her face.

“So we have the ground and they the skies?” stated Rentra. Sue nodded. “Did any of your support droids survive?” Sue shook her head. “Pity.”

Chapter 32. Dyritka 1500, 24 August

Agent Torine checked her terminal after landing. She transferred the address details to her communicator. The Likta Corporations office was downtown of course. She made a call to the ISS station chief, secured local transport and arrived at her hotel.

According to the local ISS chief, Aras Leptude had arrived earlier this month. All background checks had been conducted and his bona fides verified. He had forwarded her a copy of their file on him and most importantly his home address.

She ran a 3D compare of their physical dimensions. These were very close. But as she studied the imagery of the fugitive Meeka Sallusam and the seemingly innocent Aras Leptude she had to admit that the transformation in his appearance was nothing short of amazing. But she knew that with the best surgery that money could buy it was possible.

Regardless though the real evidence was in the data files on her console that she had retrieved from the president of the Likta corporation. A smile came over her face as she thought how these private corporations lauded their own security and yet how easy, relatively, it had been for her to break into their systems.

‘Oh Mr Likta how you will pay’ she said to herself. ‘But first things first.’ She picked up her communicator and hailed the ISS chief “I need that flyby now” she demanded. When the ISS chief tried to make excuses she cut him off with “NOW!” and hung up.