Galactic Empire Wars: Rebellion (The Galactic Empire Wars Book 3) (23 page)

“Lieutenant
Nelson launched several drones and they recorded no movement anywhere on the
spaceport,” Captain Foster added. She patted her RG rifle, which she'd set on
explosive rounds. She still enjoyed blowing things up.

“Everyone’s in
position,” Beth responded as she checked the HUD in her command suit. All the
glowing icons were still green and the last drop ship had taken off to return
to the ships in orbit. It had been over six years since she'd last seen combat.
Taking a deep breath, Beth prepared herself for what was ahead.

She had five
hundred Space Marines on the ground supported by twelve hover tanks. Major
Stevens was on their left flank with all eighty of his marines in their Type
Four battlesuits. She was curious to see the new suits in action.

Beth activated
her long-range transmitter, which put her in contact with her husband up on the
Defender. “Wade, there’s no evidence of any Kleese at the spaceport; could they
have gone somewhere else?” She waited tensely for Wade’s response. She knew he
would be checking the Defender’s sensors.

“No,” he
replied after a moment. “Beth, they have to be there. We’ve been scanning the
spaceport with the ship’s sensors and we're detecting a lot of power readings,
but we can’t tell if they’re Kleese or part of the spaceport’s infrastructure.”

“Maybe they
all got off the planet,” Beth suggested.

“No, we know
that didn’t happen,” Wade responded. “We've established contact with the
planet’s government and they are insistent some Zaltule warriors remain. They
claim there are some in the capital city, but the majority are holed up at the
spaceport.”

“They must be
in the buildings, then,” spoke Beth, sharply. “We’ll have to go in and drag
them out.”

“I think they
want you on the blastcrete,” answered Wade, pensively. “Don’t forget Beth,
these are professional warriors. They won’t be easy to take down and won’t make
mistakes.”

“We could use
the tanks to take out all the major structures,” suggested Beth. She knew that
would be the safest and easiest method to eliminate the Kleese. “Or even our
suit explosive rounds.”

“No,” Wade
sighed. “We want to cause as little damage to the spaceport as possible. We
would like these people as allies.”

“What if they
won’t come out of the buildings?” Beth asked. “We could lose a lot of marines
if we have to go inside to get them.”

 “If we see
the Kleese are too heavily entrenched, we’ll use the Defender’s railguns to
clear them out,” Wade replied after a moment. “I don’t want to, but I also
don’t want to suffer a lot of casualties to save a few buildings. We need to
get them out of the buildings if possible.”

“Then we do it
the hard way,” Beth answered as she shifted her RG rifle in her hands. “We go
in and try to lure them out.”

“Use the hover
tanks to take them out, if possible,” Wade ordered. “I want to hold casualties
down to a minimum.”

“We’ll try,”
answered Beth. She closed the circuit and switched over to the general com
channel for all the marines taking part in the attack. “Scouts ahead, I want a
full squad backing up each scout. The rest of us will advance in staggered
formation along with the tanks. Move out!”

-

“Crap,”
muttered Private Parker as he moved out and walked toward the edge of the
blastcrete, which designated the beginning of the spaceport.

“Don’t get
your ass killed,” cautioned Lauren as she moved from behind her tree, walking
twenty meters to the left of Alexander. “Remember, if you see a Zaltule, stun
him and then report to the lieutenant.”

Behind them,
two five man squads followed in a staggered line ready to support the two
scouts if need be. Everyone was using their enhanced vision, hearing, and their
suit’s sensors to scan for any signs of the enemy.

Ryan was
walking between the two tanks and a little behind keeping his eyes open. He was
breathing faster and he could tell his nerves were on edge. Looking ahead, he
saw the scouts were stepping out onto the blastcrete followed by the two
supporting squads. At any moment, he expected firing to break out.

Casey took a
deep breath as she reached the blastcrete. She was behind the two squads trying
to keep an eye on everyone and everything.  Gazing at the blastcrete up ahead,
she noticed several areas, which were badly tarnished. Before she could say
anything, six popup weapons rose up from the tarnished areas and swung their
barrels toward the advancing marines.

“Down!”
screamed Casey as she threw herself to the hard, unforgiving surface. Even in
her battlesuit, she felt the pain of the landing.

The popups
fired and one of the hover tanks exploded in a fiery blast as it was struck by
some type of explosive round. The other tank quickly responded, firing its
energy cannon at the nearest popup, blowing it apart. Two others were quickly
eliminated by explosive rounds fire from RG rifles. However, the others were
firing explosive rounds at the pinned down marines in rapid succession.

Ryan felt
himself picked up and thrown violently to the ground as an explosive round hit
the spot where he had been recently standing. He tumbled and flung himself
prone, raising his head up just high enough to see what was happening. On his
HUD, he saw two icons turn amber and another red. He felt nauseous, knowing he
had just lost his first marine. He knew if not for the tough composite armor of
the suits many more would have been lost. Looking at the hover tank, he saw Sergeant
Morris standing behind it, firing her RG rifle calmly at the popups.

The hover tank
quickly targeted another popup and blew it away as the marines finished off the
other two. Then quiet reigned briefly, only to be suddenly interrupted by the
sound of other explosions going off on both their flanks. Other marine
companies were coming under attack.

“Lieutenant
Nelson,” came Major Steven’s voice over the command channel. “Report!”

“I lost one
hover tank, one marine killed, and two injured,” responded Ryan as he stood up,
looking around. “We’ve eliminated the popup weapons in front of us.” There were
about a dozen small smoking craters nearby from the Zaltule weapons fire.

“They came out
of areas of the blastcrete that were extremely tarnished,” Casey added. “I
don’t see anything else like that in front of us.”

“Hold your
remaining hover tank at the edge of the spaceport,” Major Steven’s ordered.
“Lieutenant Felton lost one also as well as three more marines KIA.”

For several
more minutes, Ryan held his marines in their current position until the firing
around them died down and came to a stop. When there were no more sounds of
explosions, Ryan assumed the other units had annihilated the popup weapons in
their areas. It made him wonder what other surprises the Zaltule had waiting
for them.

“Resume the
advance,” Major Williams announced over the command channel. “Scouts ahead and
stay vigilant.”

“Move out,”
ordered Ryan as he began moving toward the blastcrete.

“Just like God Damn Charring Mountain,” mumbled Alexander as he stood up and looked over at Lauren.

“You’re still
alive,” Lauren was quick to point out as she moved out further onto the
blastcrete. “If this were Charring, you would be lying face down in the dirt!”

She felt
highly exposed as there was no cover close by. Even though she was encased in
an eight-foot tall battlesuit, she still felt vulnerable. Lauren held her RG
rifle at the ready, looking for any signs of movement.

“Only because
those damn popups fired at the hover tanks and the marines behind us,” retorted
Alexander. Too often he'd been hit by stunners on Charring Mountain and he knew how lucky both he and Lauren were to still be alive. They had been the
closest to the Zaltule popups.

Just behind
them, Casey and the two squads with her stepped farther out onto the spaceport.
Looking to the flanks, she could see other marines from other units appearing.

“Spread out,”
spoke Casey, gesturing to the marines in the two squads to increase their
spacing.

A few moments
later, Ryan reached the blastcrete and ordered the hover tank to come to a
stop. He also ordered the marines still with him to take up covering positions
around the tank.

“Keep an eye
on those buildings and the ships,” he ordered as he used his vision optics to
inspect the spaceport. There were numerous large hangers and other buildings
scattered about on the blastcrete as well as several tall communications
towers.

“I still don’t
see anything,” spoke Sergeant Morris. She had taken up a firing position behind
a large tree right next to the blastcrete.

-

Inside the Spaceport Operations Center, Minor War Overlord Braton glared in anger at the reports
coming in to him. His Zaltule warriors had been too far into the city to be
able to withdraw with the fleet. Now he was faced with incoming Humans in Type
Three Battlesuits and some other smaller suit he was not familiar with.

“All popups
have been eliminated,” reported Caltill his chief aide. “The enemy continues to
advance.”

“These are the
Humans we have heard so much about,” Braton responded in a cold voice. “Their
fleet commands the orbital approaches and we will not be rescued.”

“Then we will
die as Zaltule warriors,” spoke Caltill with a nod. “It is the way of the
warrior caste.”

“But we’ll
take many of them with us,” Braton replied as he studied several viewscreens in
the Operations Center, which showed the approaching Humans. “Inform our
warriors to open fire.”

-

Suddenly, from
over a dozen buildings, Kleese began firing from windows, doorways, and
openings they'd made in the walls. Beams of energy and high-powered RG rounds
struck the inbound marines, killing many of them.

“Take cover!”
yelled Casey as she felt her suit impacted in the leg by an RG round. It hurt
like hell, but her suit damage display indicated it was still intact. Looking
about, she saw a small vehicle close by and darted toward it. Other marines
were going prone on the ground and beginning to return fire.

Ryan quickly
assessed the situation, not liking the vulnerable position his marines were in.
While the Type Four battlesuits were superior to the Type Threes, in this type
of situation they couldn’t be used as they were designed. “Take out those
weapons emplacements with your railgun cannons,” he ordered the tank crew. He
knew they had been cautioned about damaging the buildings, but his marines were
under fire. He would worry about the repercussions later.

Instantly, the
hover tank began firing railgun rounds in rapid succession at the buildings.
The tank’s central computer could detect inbound weapons fire and redirect the
tank’s twin railguns to return fire along the same trajectory.

Casey was
hunched down behind the small vehicle firing explosive RG rounds at the
buildings. Her suit was identifying potential targets and she was firing nearly
nonstop. Around her, other marines were doing the same, occasionally changing
position when enemy fire came too close.

Watching the
battle carefully, Ryan realized quickly that not all of the Zaltule had started
firing at the same time. Many had waited and as their fellow warriors were
taken down were stepping in to keep up the deadly fire on the marines. Once
fire from one location was eliminated, it would start back up somewhere else.
On his HUD, he saw another icon turn a glaring red.

“They’ve
pretty well got us pinned down,” spoke Sergeant Morris as she fired at an open
doorway in a building where she though she had seen some movement.

-

Beth was
standing behind a small building with Sergeant Russell and a full squad of
marines. On her HUD, she could see over twenty red icons and close to thirty
amber ones. Whatever weapons the Kleese were using, they were quite effective
against her marines.

With a sharp
breath, she activated her long-range com. “Wade, we’re under heavy fire from
the buildings. The Kleese aren’t coming out and we’re taking heavy casualties.”

“We see,” Wade
replied from the Defender. “Don’t allow your marines to advance. We’ve
pinpointed where the heaviest fire is originating from and are preparing to
take the building out with ship weapons. I spoke to a head government official
a few moments ago, and he has given us permission to use whatever force is
necessary to remove the Kleese.”

-

Up in the
Defender, the crew prepared to fire the ship’s planetary railguns.

“Ready to
fire,” reported Captain Damon. She was standing next to Lieutenant Craig
Coleman at Tactical.

Wade nodded at
Commander Greer, indicating for him to initiate the firing order. He just hoped
there were no marine casualties caused from the hellfire they were about to
rain down upon the spaceport. Most of the buildings were made of heavy metal
and they were designating two rounds for each one. He hoped Beth was far enough
back. He knew she preferred to be in the thick of things so there was no doubt
in his mind she was on the spaceport somewhere.

“Fire!”
ordered Commander Greer.

The large
planetary bombardment railgun turrets locked onto their assigned targets and
then eight of them fired twin shells into the planet’s atmosphere. They lit up
space like a fiery meteor but were traveling much faster. Down through the
atmosphere they hurtled to impact the planet’s surface.

-

Beth knew what
to expect as she had seen railgun fire used against the Kleese Communications Center on one of her earlier missions. Suddenly, in front of her, massive
explosions shook the blastcrete as huge sections of the buildings blew outward
and multiple concussion waves traveled across the spaceport, rattling the
remaining structures. Rising black smoke and fire indicated where the rounds
had struck.