Exodus: Empires at War: Book 8: Soldiers (Exodus: Empires at War.) (35 page)

The sky was
clear, natural twilight coming to this part of the planet.  Due to those
conditions the last method of attack would not work.  The Cacas would spot
them on their night vision from their movement, even if their ghillie suits
would have stopped most of the infrared from impacting on those kind of
sensors.  No, this time they were in for a stand up fight, and there was
nothing the Captain could do to keep it from happening.

Cornelius
attempted to contact the air support net, hoping to get some ground attack
craft to hit the Cacas before they started their assault.  All the bands
were busy with back and forth talk, or the static of jamming that the Cacas
were putting out at heavy volume.  When he finally got through all he was
told was that nothing was available at the moment, but would be sent his way
when available.

At least I
have some on call artillery at hand
, he thought, looking over the positions
of his men.

He still had
what was left of his company, plus two platoons of Rangers that had been
seconded to him from two other companies.  All were dug in as well as they
and the engineers could set them.  His two vehicle tank section had also
been reinforced by two more heavies and a pair of medium armored fighting
vehicles, all also dug in.  He had also been given sections from three of
the platoons in one of the heavy weapons companies assigned to the
regiment.  Each section was twelve strong, all soldiers in heavy combat
armor.  One section was equipped with four heavy pulse lasers, fearsome
crew served weapons that came with power packs that required the lifting power
of the other two members of each team.  One was a rocket section, with six
hyper-velocity launchers.  The last was a mortar section, with three
automatic heavy mortars, each throwing thirty magazine fed warheads in the two
hundred millimeter range in a minute.  It was a powerful defense, but one
he was sure was not going to stop a reinforced Caca battalions, especially not
if they were mostly equipped with heavy suits, which was what the sensors were
showing.

The engineers
had helped to dig the positions, then sprayed nanite hardening solution on the
earthworks.  The nanites were still working at fusing the earth into
stone, and were well on the way on most of the positions.  Cornelius would
have preferred to have another hour for the earthworks to truly set, but it
looked as if his opponent wasn’t going to give it to him.

“To all of the
men, and women, under my command,” said Cornelius into his com.  “We are
not going to let these bastards through.  No matter what, we are going to
stop them here.  We will stand shoulder to shoulder if need be.  They
must face us, the best soldiers of the best army in the history of the Milky
Way Galaxy, if not the Universe.  Remember that.  Watch out for your
brothers and sisters, and they will watch out for you.  You will never be
alone.  If today is our day to die, we will die in the company of heroes. 
So do not give an inch.”

“We have
incoming,” called out one of the tank commanders.

“Everyone to
cover.  And when you have a target, give them hell.”

The shells
started to drop around their positions.  Everyone that could covered up as
best they could, while lasers and particle beams flailed the air, detonating
most of the shells before they could land.  The earth was pelted by
shrapnel, but pieces of jagged flying metal could not penetrate their suits,
much less the tanks.

Some of the
shells released guided devices as they arced in, those that weren’t picked off
before they could deploy.  The devices identified targets by energy
emissions or visual patterns, and boosted on small grabber units to their
targets.  When they hit their shape charge warheads blew holes through
suits, or shot deep into tank armor without full penetration.  The first
soldiers started dropping off Cornelius’ plot, and he ordered all of his own
indirect fire weapons to reply to the enemy.

The heavy two
hundred millimeter mortars fired a round every two seconds, the light organic
mortars fired their light shells even faster, while the on call artillery
chimed in.  Earth spurted into the air six kilometers ahead, while many of
the shells exploded in the air, victims of the Caca artillery defense.

Now the Cacas
charged forward at full speed.  Their commander must have realized that
his men were at a disadvantage in this kind of duel, being out in the
open.  The mecha trotted forward at the same speed as the infantry they
could have outdistanced, preferring to stay in the mass.  Scores of Cacas
were still blasted into the air, or penetrated by smart bomblets.  Some of
those thrown into the air got back to their feet once on the ground and plugged
on.  One of the mechas intercepted a two hundred millimeter mortar which
vaporized the upper portion, along with head and most of the torso of the
operator.

The shells
continued to rain down on both sides.  The human heavy mortars ran through
their ammo, and it took some time to reload, but the smaller mortars and
artillery kept up the barrage.  Some fighting positions took hits on their
forward berms.  Those that had hardened sufficiently showered rock chips
all around, while the softer ones blew torrents of dirt into the air.  A couple
of positions took direct hits that killed the medium suited Rangers in
place.  A heavy weapons position took a hit that destroyed its launcher,
but failed to do more than stun the soldiers in their heavy armor.  Tanks
were hit, one of the mediums losing its turret to a penetration, a heavy
sustaining some damage to its left side turret laser cross.

The tanks fired,
sending their heavy projectiles at superfast velocity toward the mechas. 
Half the shells hit, the others missed when their guns’ targeting systems were spoofed
before the shot.  The tanks reloaded and fired again, followed by a volley
of the rocket launchers.  Enemy rockets returned, and two heavy tanks died
when they each took multiple hits from hyper-velocity weapons.

Now the emplaced
heavy weapons opened up.   First the pulse lasers, firing a burst of
laser power sixty times a second, each burst more powerful than an infantry
rifle.  A half second of bursts ate through the armor of a suit and into
the body below, and scores of Cacas were blasted out of this life before the
rest even knew what was going on.  Many of the rest opened up on the laser
positions, and the Rangers with heavy particle beam rifles chose that moment to
open fire themselves, taking advantage of the enemy distraction.  The
tanks opened up with the particle beams between shots to take out mecha. 
One mecha got in a lucky shot with its own beam weapons and fused the turret of
a heavy tank, locking it into place, then firing a volley of hyper-velocity
missiles at close range into the point where turret met hull.  With a
fearsome blast a rocket punched through, followed by another, and the turret
separated from the hull of the tank in a ball of fire that propelled it high
into the air.

“All units
fire,” ordered Cornelius into the com.  The front of the Caca wave was now
within three hundred meters of the human line and moving forward quickly. 
Almost a hundred went down before they got much further, caught in multiple
crossfires of heavy weapons and infantry rifles.  Grenades popped over both
lines, strings of firecracker sized explosions that were capable of penetrating
armor, most times causing serious damage, but also able to kill.

Now it was hell
on earth, both sides trying their best to kill the other at close range. 
Cornelius sighted down his rifle at what looked like a Caca squad leader trying
to rally his men.  The particle beam would have hit the creature in the
chest, but he jumped in the air at the last moment and caught it in the
leg.  It landed heavily and fell on the obviously wounded leg, and a pulse
laser took the head off the creature.  An incoming beam struck the rock
hard parapet protecting the Captain, and a flurry of rock chips struck the
Ranger in the side of the helmet.  His faceplate rang, and half of his HUD
went offline.

Then the Cacas
were into the line, and the Rangers rose out of their fighting positions to
meet them.  Now it was close combat, the hell where most shots hit
something, and a hit was almost sure to damage, or kill.  Cacas and
Rangers fired beams into each other at point blank range, and a hundred
soldiers combined from the sides died in ten seconds.  One Caca sprung
onto the top of a heavy tank and placed a large charge there.  Before he
could jump off a pulse laser in the hands of a heavy infantry trooper killed
him, blasting a hole through the side of his suit between the arms on that
side.  The device he planted went off an instant later, killing everyone
in both turret compartments of the tank.

“Not a step
back,” yelled Cornelius into his com as the Cacas started to overwhelm his
force.  A beam struck his left arm, not full on, but enough to melt alloy
and burn his flesh beneath.  The Ranger screamed out in agony, then
activated his augmented nervous system’s pain block.  The arm still
worked, though weakly, but enough to steady his rifle, and he no longer felt
the distracting pain.  He rolled on the ground and back to his feet,
shooting the Caca through its face plate.

“Retreat,”
yelled one of the new platoon leaders, and Rangers started to turn to run. 
Not all of them, but enough.  The men were not cowards, but anyone would
think about retreat in a situation that seemed certain death.

“Belay that
order,” yelled Cornelius in his best command voice, killing another Caca with a
well-placed shot at the same time.  “Stand your ground.”  The men,
including the platoon leader, all turned back and continued the fight, just as
he knew they would.

Cornelius turned
in time to see the largest Caca he had ever beheld, probably massing a ton and
three quarters in his battle armor, come charging at him.  Most of the
Cacas could run fast enough due to their stride, but were slower of limb than
the humans, especially those augmented like the Rangers.  This one moved
faster than normal, and was sweeping his rifle down into firing position so
fast that the weapon took the Captain’s shot.  Alloy splashed, and the
Caca brought the now nonfunctional weapon down in a butt stroke to knock the
humans rifle away.  His lower fists struck in a double punch to Cornelius’
chest, knocking him back, then swinging the butt of the rifle up in a strike to
the human’s head.

Cornelius flew
back from the power of the stroke, his suit sensors going completely offline
for a moment before coming back up.  He landed on his back, stunned, aware
that the Caca was coming at him in his rifle raised as a club.  Moving at
the last moment, he avoided the rifle, which hit the ground with a crack as it
broke through at the point it had been hit by his beam.  The Caca stepped
back and pulled a wide blade from a sheath at his side and advanced again.

Armored suits
could run fast, a hundred kilometers an hour an more, because the suit could
run itself faster than the human limbs underneath.  It could move the
upper limbs much faster as well using the same principle, using the nerve to
suit interface to read commands.  The one thing it could not do was act
faster that the nervous connections between brain and interface.  But the
Ranger’s augmentation made those nerve impulses, in Cornelius’ case, four times
faster than the human norm.  Now he went into overdrive, a condition he
couldn’t maintain for more than a few minutes, and his nerve impulses sped up
to an even higher rate.

Jumping to his
feet, he launched a side kick into the stomach of the Caca, and felt like he
had hit a wall of steel.  He ducked away from the sword, only to be hit by
another lower limb, then the next in a combination that knocked him back to the
ground.

The Captain
realized his error at that moment.  In true hand to hand he could have really
hurt the Caca, even though it was stronger than he was.  His greater than
human strength, especially in overdrive, would have allowed him to seriously
hurt the Caca with his blows.  His suit, which possessed five times the
strength of a strong human, only struck with five times strong human strength,
despite his own organic power.  The Cacas heavy suit was possibly stronger
than thirty humans, and there was no way he was going to hurt the being with
kicks and punches.

And he also
realized that he was trying to fight an individual battle in the middle of a
firefight.  That in itself was a losing proposition, since it took all of
his awareness to handle this one foe at close range, and this was not a
fighting ring.  The first Caca that could get a bead on him would blast a
particle beam through his suit. 
I need to finish this, fast
, was
his thought as he dodged another swing of what had to be a molecular blade,
then dodged three hands strikes that came in rapid succession.  What he
didn’t notice was the left leg that thrust out and hit him in the shoulder,
knocking him back and almost off his feet.

Cornelius
extended the monomolecular blades from the forearms of his suit, then moved
quickly, sliding his feet over the ground and thrust the left hand blade at the
join between upper and lower right arms.  The blade, which could cut
through steel as easily as flesh, barely penetrated, and Walborski had to jump
back to avoid the swipe of the sword, which he was sure would badly damage his
own armor, and maybe even slice through.

As the blade
passed he thrust his left hand blades into the joint at the elbow of the right
upper arm, and felt the satisfaction of penetration.  He jerked the blade
out and followed with one to the left upper elbow at the inner joint, getting
another penetration and smiling as blood spurted from the hole.  The Caca
roared and brought the sword down, but the blade slipped from his hand and went
flying.  With a motion Cornelius retracted his blades and pulled his
particle beam pistol from its holster.  He aimed the pistol from the hip
and sent the beam into the armored faceplate of the Caca, one of the weak
points.  He kept the beam focused for several seconds, while the Caca
tried to duck away.