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

Instantly,
along the line of trees up ahead grenade like explosions began tearing into the
steep slope throwing rocks, soil, plants, and even small trees up into the air.
Some of the debris spilled down upon the forward skirmish line. After a minute,
the explosions tapered off and it became quiet.

“I think we
got them,” Alexander reported as he stood up and stepped out into the open.
Alexander braced himself, but nothing happened. “Yep, we got them.”

Lauren only
shook her head. “Don’t step out into the open like that or you’ll be the next
casualty.”

“Just keeping
you safe, sweetheart,” Alexander answered glibly on their private channel.

“I’ll make you
regret that comment,” Lauren replied, icily.

Ryan stood
back up and stepped away from the boulder. He glanced at his HUD, which now
showed three red icons and four amber ones. Looking up the mountain, he knew
they still had a long way to go to reach the summit. If this kept up, he would
run out of soldiers long before then. He needed to come up with a better plan.
He wondered just what it was that was causing the hidden weapon emplacements to
activate. The most obvious were movement and heat sensors. Since the
battlesuits were self-contained, the likelihood of it being heat that was
triggering the popup weapons was minimal. The most obvious remaining method of
detection was movement.

Looking up, Ryan
watched the tall trees swaying in the wind. The dome was a controlled
environment and could simulate almost any type of weather. He wondered what his
brother would do in this situation. He knew his sibling had taken this training
when he was being held captive by the Kleese. Wade had never told Ryan how many
times it had taken him to reach the top. For several minutes, Ryan studied the
terrain ahead and thought about the resources he had available. He could clear
a path with explosive rounds, but he suspected they would run out well before
they reached the summit. RG rounds were useless unless they could hit one of
the emplaced weapons multiple times. That left the energy beam cannons that six
of his remaining soldiers were carrying.

His eyes
returned to the tall trees as an idea came to mind. “Corporal Hunter, I want
our soldiers that have energy cannons to fire at the tops of the trees to bring
some of the branches down. Perhaps it will cause the popups to respond.” Ryan
hoped if the embedded weapons were using motion sensors, the falling limbs
might cause them to react.

Casey quickly
passed on the orders as she scanned the trees up ahead. “Fire into the taller
ones about ten meters up,” she ordered. From what her sensors were reporting,
some of the trees were as tall as twenty meters. “I want to see limbs falling
and hitting the ground!”

A few moments
later, first one and then the other five energy cannons opened fire. The energy
cannons were large, bulky weapons and fired a beam of blue energy. The beams
played across the upper sections of the trees, shearing limbs and trunks in
two. Limbs began to fall and sure enough, four popup weapons made an appearance
and began firing at the falling debris.

“Take out
those weapons!” yelled Casey, seeing the red threat icons appear on her HUD.
“Use suit explosives!” She felt the adrenaline flowing through her body as she
fired several rounds at the popup weapons.

Instantly,
upon the slope twenty grenade-like explosions smashed into the ground, throwing
up dirt and other debris, which came raining down on the two lines of
battlesuits. In four locations smoke drifted up into the air, indicating the
destroyed weapon sites.

“Move up to
that line of trees and we’ll do it again,” Ryan ordered over the general com
frequency. “Scouts stay on the lookout. There’s no guarantee this will work
with all the weapons; some may not be responding to movement.”

The four
scouts moved carefully forward, using all the cover they could find. However, a
ten-foot tall battlesuit was difficult to keep hidden. It was just too big a
target.

Private Parker
was the first to reach the trees and took up position behind the largest one he
could find. Looking to his right, he could see the other scouts including
Private Adams, who was on the far end of the four. “I don’t see anything,” he
spoke softly as if he was afraid the embedded weapons would home in on the
sound of his voice.

“I don’t
either,” Lauren replied as she used her suit’s sensors to scan the slope above
them. There were several open spaces as well as numerous tall trees and brush.
Popup weapons could be hidden anywhere.

Corporal
Hunter was listening to the scouts and after a moment, felt the area
immediately ahead was safe. “Move out,” she ordered, standing up and beginning
to move forward. “Keep your eyes open and watch your sensors.”

Casey had
turned up the sound in her helmet so she would hear even the quietest noises.
She could hear the heavy footsteps of the battlesuits, the crunching of
branches, and even the wind in the trees. A ten-foot tall one thousand pound
battlesuit was nearly incapable of stealth.

They reached
the next line of trees without being fired upon, and once again, Ryan had the
soldiers carrying the energy cannons fire into the tops of the trees ahead of
them. Once more, several popups made their presence known and were quickly
eliminated. Ryan was beginning to feel more confident. If they could keep this
up, they would make it to the top with the majority of the platoon. Perhaps Charring Mountain wasn’t as difficult as everyone claimed.

-

In the dome’s Command Center, Colonel Wade Nelson and Major Winfrey were watching the platoon’s progress
on several large viewscreens. Wade had come to the dome to watch his brother’s
first attempt at Charring Mountain. He'd made sure Ryan was not aware of his
presence.

“Clever,”
Dylan commented impressed by the young lieutenant. “He’s using the falling
limbs to eliminate the embedded weapons.”

“Ryan was
always the clever one,” Wade spoke with a grin. He was pleased to see how his
brother was adapting to the drill. “If he keeps this up, he might just make it
to the top.”

“We don’t want
to make it too easy,” Dylan said, folding his arms across his chest. He quickly
passed on some new orders to the techs, who were operating and controlling the
weapons upon Charring Mountain. “We’ll switch off the motion sensors and use
the metal of the suits for the weapons to home in on. No one makes it to the
top of Charring the first time!”

Wade nodded
his head in agreement. The purpose of the drill was to teach the soldiers in
the battlesuits they were not invincible. Now he would be curious to see how
Ryan reacted to this new change in the scenario. Wade settled back in his chair,
knowing this drill was far from being over and was about to get much more
interesting.

-

Ryan and his
platoon had made it to the next grove of trees upon the slope. So far, his plan
of using the falling limbs to activate the hidden popup weapons was working
well. He hadn’t lost another soldier and he was halfway to the top of Charring Mountain. He paused, taking in a deep breath and used his suit’s sensors to scan
the slope up above them. He knew the drill was being controlled down at the
training base Command Center. Ryan strongly suspected his method of activating
and destroying the embedded weapons wouldn’t be allowed to continue all the way
to the top of the mountain.

He watched intently
as Corporal Hunter directed the next firing of their energy weapons, once again
several popups appeared and were quickly eliminated. He let out a breath of
relief as he stepped back out into the open and began moving up the steep
slope.

The four
forward scouts began advancing cautiously, followed by the two larger skirmish
lines. They had only taken a few steps when six more hidden embedded weapons
popped up and began firing.

“Take cover!”
yelled Corporal Hunter as one of the scouts went down with their suit icon
turning red. Around her, soldiers in their battlesuits darted for cover. While
the battlesuits were large and even seemed cumbersome at times, they allowed a soldier
to move extremely fast.

“What do we
have?” demanded Ryan as he crouched down behind several boulders. He could hear
the fire of RG rounds and the occasional zapping noise the stunners made.

“Six popups,”
Casey reported as she used her suit’s advanced sensors to spot the weapons.
“One hundred and ten meters further up the slope.”

The fire from
the popups was nonstop as they searched for targets. Two more battlesuit-encased
soldiers went down with their icons turning to red in Ryan’s HUD. Several
others were showing amber from being struck by RG rounds.

“Privates
Parker, Adams, Matheson can you take the weapons out?” demanded Casey as
several RG rounds struck the ground near her. The three scouts were close enough
they should be able to fire upon the weapon emplacements. The rest of the
platoon was pretty well pinned downed.

“Yeah,”
Alexander answered as he looked cautiously around the tree he was hiding
behind. “We can take them out, but I don’t know if we’ll survive.”

 “How bad can
it hurt?” Lauren asked. Due to Alexander’s comment earlier, she was really
hoping that at some point in the drill he would get hit by a stun beam. “It
can’t be any worse than some of the other stuff we’ve been through.”

“I just don’t
like the idea of lying immobile in this damn suit for several hours,” muttered
Alexander. Then looking over at Lauren and Matheson he nodded. “Now!”

All three
remaining scouts stepped out from their hiding places and began firing RG
explosive rounds at the targets. As soon as they stepped into the open, the
weapon emplacements’ sensors quickly targeted the three battlesuits. Alexander
was instantly hit by several RG rounds in the shoulder and then two stun beams nailed
him squarely in the chest. With a loud moan, he slid to the ground as his suit
shut down except for life support.

Lauren didn’t
waste a moment worrying about Alexander as she fired RG explosive rounds in
rapid succession at the emplacements. She managed to take three of them out
before a stun beam struck her battlesuit, immobilizing it. She was amazed at
the intense pain the beam generated. She felt as if a dozen wasps were all
biting her at once. She regretted wanting Alexander to feel this type of pain
even after what he'd said. Lauren fell to the ground and lay still, listening
to the battle still going on around her. The stinging and burning sensation was
gradually beginning to fade.

The remaining
scout managed to take out two more emplacements before he too was struck by the
remaining stunner. Moments later, the stunner was blown apart as Corporal
Hunter hit it with an RG explosive round. She'd managed to move closer until
the aggravating weapon was within her sights. Casey shook her head, looking at
the scouts lying prone on the slope.

“Weapons
eliminated,” she reported over the general com frequency. “All scouts are
down.” She looked at Alexander and Lauren’s still forms almost regretting
choosing them as scouts. She hoped they'd learned their lesson.

Ryan nodded
and ordered the rest of the surviving members of the platoon to move up to the
area where the weapons had been destroyed. It was time to come up with a different
strategy. He glanced at his HUD, seeing nine glaring red icons with another six
showing as wounded. That was well over half his platoon. Charring Mountain was
beginning to take control of the scenario.

-

“Guess that
will slow them down,” commented Dylan, glancing over at Wade with a chuckle.

“We’ll see,”
Wade replied as he studied the viewscreens, wondering what Ryan would do now.
It was a shame that Beth wasn’t here to watch this. She was currently back home
at Vesta working with General Bailey on some new upgrades to the asteroid’s
defenses. He knew she would've really enjoyed watching Ryan’s first attempt at
the mountain.

-

Ryan stood
next to one of the destroyed weapon emplacements, realizing that the parameters
had indeed been changed. The embedded emplacements were no longer using motion
sensors to find their targets. They seemed to be homing in on the battlesuits.

“What now?” Corporal
Hunter asked as she stepped over closer to the lieutenant. “I don’t think the
popups are responding to motion any longer.”

“They’ve
changed the programming on the weapon emplacements,” Ryan said as he looked up
at the steep slope ahead of them. “I think it’s time we used more of our RG
explosives. Gather the RG rifles from those that are down. We’ll lay down an
explosives’ barrage in front of us and advance up the mountain as far as
possible behind it. Order each of our soldiers to save four rounds for use on
weapon emplacements. This is about to get down and dirty.”

For the next
thirty minutes, they moved steadily up the mountain, blasting a swath one
hundred meters wide in front of them. Ryan moved his soldiers closer together
toward the center of the cleared area to lessen the possibility of attacks from
embedded weapons on the perimeter. He finally called a halt when Corporal
Hunter indicated they had expended all the explosive rounds except those being kept
back to take out the embedded weapons.

Looking ahead,
Ryan guessed they only had three or four hundred meters to go to reach the
summit. He let out a deep sigh as he gazed at the beckoning heights, which
signified victory. He wondered how many others had made it this far on their
first attempt.

“What now?”
asked Corporal Hunter from Ryan’s side where she was also gazing up the
mountain. She hadn’t expected to get this far.

“We use the
energy weapons to clear us a path,” he answered. While the energy weapons had a
much shorter effective range than the RG explosive rounds, they should at least
be able to get them further up the slope. “Spread our six energy weapons out
along a line so we can clear a space one hundred meters wide.”