Con-Red: Recourse (34 page)

A thunderous blast erupted somewhere outside
as one of these sections of debris slammed into the forest floor.  He felt the ground trembling underneath the entire bunker and quickly calculated the approximate impact point.  It was also at this moment that a red warning message appeared within his helmet to confirm what he had already suspected.  An alarm blared out from the room’s speakers as soon as the tremor ceased to mark the base’s exposure to the outside world. With no time to waste the Staff Sergeant reacted immediately at this new situation.

  “CC is compromised, sir, we have to get you out of here,”
Felix yelled out as he ran forward and put his armored hand on General Stelle’s shoulder, softly pulling him back from the table.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw his partner move out of his own dark corner and start checking to make sure the emergency egress tunnel was still operational.  For a second
Felix felt the general hesitate in leaving the bunker, perhaps ashamed to abscond for a second time in almost as many days.  After a long moment, however, he relented to the suggestion of his protector and turned one last time to look at Colonels Carbera and Hofens.  Exchanging nods of acknowledgement both of the other men turned away and ran for the bunker’s main exit.  It was then that Felix was finally able to pull Brinek away and guide him towards the evacuation tunnel.

At the tunnel’s entrance the general paused and looked back towards the other soldiers still manning their separate stations, “everyone out!  Get to the IFV.  We’re done here.”

With those last orders to what remained of the command staff General Stelle turned and rushed through the passage towards the Centaur IFV waiting on the other end.  Nolan ran first, ahead of the general, while Felix brought up the rear.  Following behind them hurried five other men and women.  Each one carried a pair of rectangular shaped individual computer terminals, folded up into small handheld containers.  They were not Felix’s concerns, though, and as such he did not keep tabs on their progress.  His only concern was for the safe egression of the general.

The three of them reached the parked IFV
without trouble and ran into the already open side hatch.  Sergeant Logwari left Nolan and General Stelle in the cabin as he made his way through the vehicle to check on the pilot.  The female pilot sitting there turned to look back at Felix and nodded to signal an all clear.  She was no rookie and already had the IFV ready for flight since the enemy had overflown Secturo.  After the quick acknowledgement she turned back towards the control panel just in time to see the side hatch warning light turn green from red.  With that armored door finally sealed she waited not a second longer before pointing the Centaur up and accelerating through the layer of forest floor overhead. It was so sudden that Logwari almost stumbled backwards through the open cockpit doorway before quickly steadying himself against the bulkhead.

They were all on their way to safety when the whole transport experienced a bone-jarring collision from the rear. 
Right after that impact a wall of fire sped past the craft, enveloping it thoroughly before receding just as quickly.  Felix was only able to form a single question inside his mind before the whole vehicle pitched down and onto its back, sending the sergeant’s heavy armored body propelling forward into the back of the pilot’s seat.  He stayed coherent just long enough to watch through the forward viewport as the vehicle hit a thick tree trunk before veering away to flip sideways and slam into another series of trees.  It was at this point that Felix was tossed around hard inside the small cockpit.  His body hit the various walls with enough force to knock him completely unconscious.

REACHING
the medical center at a dead run Dexter Iorns emerged through a thick cloud of dirt, dust, and remains into an area filled with sheer devastation.  The center he had visited not an hour before was completely gone.  It was in turn replaced with a burning pile of rubble surrounded by a heavy layer of settling debris that had once been the medical building.  Parts of that building had been vaporized and scattered by the force of the explosion through the whole area.  Only two of the primary walls were still stationary and he saw a large portion of fuselage sticking out from the center of the ruined structure.

Rescue vehicles and damage control personnel were already at the scene and were exting
uishing the last of the fires.  Dex slowed to a walk as he approached the wreckage and began to see a pair of armored medical transports sitting off to the side of what used to be the med center’s courtyard.  Each one had their rear hatch completely opened, allowing Dexter to take note of the stacks of black rectangular boxes laying one of top of each other within their interiors.  He knew right away without a second though that each one contained a deceased person.  As he stood there looking around for an eternal second he was able to witness half a dozen soldiers in white and red armor moving around the site collecting various strewn body parts that had been sent flying in all direction by the explosion.  The scene was horrible and made the situation that much more real.  Dexter had only experienced something like it during simulated training exercises, but as intense as those had been they were not enough to fully prepare one for the real thing.

His emotions were quickly dulled, however, as the combat suit slowly administered a dose of medication to help control the emotional state.
  A sudden proximity alert signal helped to further root him into the reality of the situation and caused him to step aside reflexively as a tan and brown colored Army Engineering Corps vehicle sped by towards the crash site.  The transport vehicle stopped abruptly and turned in midair so that the rear faced the rubble of the hospital before settling to the ground on its repulsors.  Dexter started forward again as the transport rocked slightly side to side before a large MTES robot emerged from the rear.  Nicknamed Sleip, after an eight limbed children’s cartoon character of the same name, the semi-autonomous Modular Tactical Engineering Systems was able to follow commands on its own or mount an operator should the need arise. 

Stepping down the large robotic system unfolded its four massive arms
, each ones with a different appendage, and proceeded to the demolished building on two sets of limbs.  Dex came up alongside of the transport just as a group of army engineers hopped out of the same rear hatch as the Sleip and ran to follow it.  One of the men stood off away from the others and was obviously the one in command.  The soldier pointed to various sections of the medical center to let the others know what to do.  Those men and women went to work immediately trying to excavate the ruins, but what helped them most was the MTES.  It was equipped with a specialized detection unit that scanned deep into the wreckage for any signs of life.  Once located the system would automatically try to retrieve that person.

Dexter let the engineers do their job for the given moment and took a second to look back over at the Army ambulances
.  He scanned over each of the casualty transfer vessels in an effort to find out if any of those bodies were from his company or regiment.  It surprised him that he no longer felt the same sort of emotional pain as he had moments ago.  Attributing this to the drug infusion Dex actually felt grateful for the assistance and instructed an automatic search of the CTVs.  The profile of each soldier casualty cascaded down his heads-up-display before finally stopping without any search results, letting him know that those men were still inside the rubble somewhere.

With renewed resolve Lieutenant Iorns looked back to monitor the engineer squads work.  He was watching them move about through the thick haze still floating in the air when all of the sudden that dirt and dust fell to the ground.  The surrounding air cleared up immediately and Dexter’s helmet readjusted back to normal vision. 
His investigating gaze settled on the large MTES walking across what remained of the medical center’s perimeter and saw a section of the unit’s rear light up.  The attached Static Field Generator had ionized floating particles, causing them to get attracted to the ground and in turn settle at a much faster rate than normal.

By the time Dex reached the engineering crew
, the Sleip had already moved away to another location.  It must have found someone inside because the unit stopped its scan and gestured one of its arms towards the debris.  Activating an FGMS beam into the wreckage pile the unit began to lift a section of rubble slowly into the air.  The Focused Gravity Manipulation System was one of the many different attachments designed for the MTES’s multiple appendages.  Commonly referred to as a tractor beam by most people, the system was able to lift and move heavy objects from a short distance away.  It now heaved the slab of fallen wall off the ground and began to levitate it away from the collapsed structure to expose what was beneath.  Moving in tune with the robot’s limb, the slab was repositioned in a pre-designated area and released from the beam’s grasp causing it to slam onto to forest floor and shatter into multiple smaller pieces.

With the machine’s assistance the army engineers ran in to help survey that section of the collapse.  They worked quickly, but cautiously in removing the piled on material until a small tunnel was established leading somewhere into the debris’ interior.  Ready to help as best he could
after seeing this portal Dexter ran forward towards the engineers.  He stopped, however, by the team’s leader, who quietly put his hand on Dex’s chest and shook his head slowly.  This action stopped the lieutenant in his steps and made him realize that the engineers were experts in his sort of operation and that he would most like be a hindrance in their effort to save lives.  Standing back with the ‘foreman’ he watched as one of the engineer’s slid what looked like a tan box into the tunnel and took a number of steps back. 

For a moment nothing happened and caused Dexter to start getting frustrated, but then all of the sudden that part of the rubble
shook and expended out in all directions.  The tiny tunnel grew wider and wider as debris around it was pushed away by an invisible force.  After a second everything stabilized and stopped moving.  Part of the engineering crew’s arsenal, the repulsor field generator was an invaluable tool in situations such as these.  The field generator allowed them to quickly create an effective barrier that was able to make passageways through a field of debris and keep those routes open through a continuous repulsor field.  With the wreckage now finally stable the MTES moved in and began to pull away large sections of collapsed building away without any fear that it could destabilize the surrounding heap.

In seconds the crew was inside the rubble and carrying out bodies.  Dexter remembered how many soldiers he had seen inside that part of the building earlier that morning and was not all surprised to see large number of bodies getting pulled out.  Each was taken to an outside area set up by the medical staff.  He continued to watch until finally a few dirt covered individuals began to emerge from the rubble under their own power. 
This sight actually made Dexter break into a smile, at least someone survived the impact.

During the next search two engineers stepped out with a stretcher floating between them.  On it was a pale faced man with his head turned towards Dexter and half closed eyes.  Even from a distance Dexter recognized the soldier as PFC Fellerman
and rushed towards the man.  He grabbed the soldier’s hand in his own armored one and squeezed slowly as he looked over him.  To his horror the man’s legs were completely missing from the mid-thigh down and the remains were now wrapped in a silvery bioseal bandage.

“You’re going to be just fine Fellerman, you hear me?” Dexter said as his visor slid back up into the helmet to expose his face
and he looked down at the private.

Opening his eyes a little wider Private Fellerman followed the voice and finally looked back at Dexter’s face.  He smiled weakly and took in a hard breath, “just got those legs fixed too.  Sorry about that LT.”

“You should be, private.  When you get better we are going to have a talk,” Dexter joked and smiled at him, patting him on the shoulder.

He walked with the man until his stretcher was maneuvered into position behind a newly arrived ambulance.  As the wounded soldier was being loaded inside
, Dexter heard something heavy impact the ground a short distance behind him.  Still looking down at Fellerman’s face he saw the man’s eyes widen with fear at the same time that he heard other soldiers around him shouting.  Dexter activated his faceplate and turned quickly towards the impact while detaching the rifle from his chest at the same time.  He completed the turn with his BR-112 already fully extended and at the ready against his shoulder.

What he saw directly in front of him through the gun sights was a newly destroyed prefabrication building with a long teardrop shaped capsule sticking out of it. 
Almost at once he knew what it was and shouted, “contact!”, just as the sides of the object exploded out.  Before these blown off sections hit the ground three large Teddies ran out from the exposed interior with weapons in their arms.  They were firing from the very first second.  One of them ran out on all fours and engaged the closest soldier with its back mounted cannon.  That trooper was one of four assigned to guard the medical personnel in the area and took three hits at point blank range.  Dexter watched the man get tossed backwards, his left leg severed from the knee down as the blasts stitched down his body.

The other enemy warriors were carrying their weapons and shooting without pause as well.  These two fir
ed grenades on the move towards the engineers as well as in Dexter’s own location.  He braced himself as a concussive wave from one of the grenades passed over his entire body and pulled on the trigger, sending four plasma rounds towards the enemy soldier.  All four shots burst against its armor covered belly, but failed to penetrate the material.  It was learned from the thorough medical scan of the captured alien that these creatures contained their heart down low within their abdominal sections.