Masoul (Harmony War Series Book 2) (45 page)

              Tyler and his people were now firing down from their position in the command center.

              Mark’s implants showed that Holm’s section with Zukic and Haas had cleared out the armories and were pushing into the catwalks.

              Weapons fire reduced as fewer red halos appeared.

              “Jerome, take your section to clear out the catwalks. My section will support,” Mark said. He wanted to be in there and fighting. It would keep others out of the line of fire, but he knew he would be a liability with his busted leg.

              “Understood, move up one section!” Jerome said.

              They did so.

              Mark glanced at the catwalks, they looked like a holed mess. Lights were broken, machinery smoked, and electronics gave off bursts of sparks. The bodies of enforcers, Chosen, and techs lay everywhere.

              Weapons fire told of Holm’s section finding enemies within the catwalks.

              It was a tense twenty minutes with bursts of ferocious close fighting. Mark felt useless as he held his fire, not shooting for fear of hitting his own people.

              “Clear! Mark take care of the enforcers at the door,” Haas said.

              “Ko, could you do that, I can’t walk right now,” Mark said seeing his closest section member.

              “Gotcha,” Ko said, and moving to the door, he let his E-12 fall, the sling pulling it back under his duster as he pulled out a pistol, and checked it was loaded with the silencer on firmly.

              Mark ambled over to the door. Ko went through; there were two flashes of light in the blacked out darkness of Central Tower.

              “Can I get a hand?” Ko asked.

              Mark made to help.

              “I’ve got it, boss,” Dominguez said. “I think you’ll want to deal with
that,
” she said, pointing to Tony.

              “Yeah, I do,” Mark said, ambling over to Tony whose eyes widened as he tried to grab a gun, blood coming out of his gut and side.

              Each cough made his face screw up in pain, telling of a punctured lung.

              Mark opened the powered armor, pulling a pistol from his side.

              “Fuck you, Tony,” Mark’s gun barked. Tony’s limbs ceased to move and his chest deflated.

              Mark turned, feeling eyes on him.

              He saw Tyler looking at him. He saw the concern in his eyes. Mark had seen a lot of things that would stain his soul for a long time. Killing Tony would make him sleep easier. He might act like a good guy, but his fanaticism had made him sadistic.

              With the stories Tony had told him about rapes and torture, Mark was only sad he hadn’t killed the piece of shit earlier.

              Mark gave Tyler a thumbs up and went to the charging cradle he’d taken the powered armor from; his leg was hurting something fierce.

              “You okay, sarge?” Niemi asked.

              “God, it’s good to hear that,” Mark grinned, getting a smile from Niemi, who had blood on her face from her first kill. They’d been only just a few feet away.

              To some she might have made them piss their pants, but Mark found it reassuring.

              “Want me to have a look at that?” she said, lifting her chin to indicate his leg as he limped.

              “Yeah, got fucking shot,” Mark said, as getting into the cradle, it linked up with the armor and unlocked the rest of the panels.

              Niemi made him lie down in the repulsor casings and got to work on his leg.

              Mark looked over his HUD, it had taken just ten minutes to secure the research and development area, he’d been the only one to get hit.

              He let out a sigh of relief.

***

              “All clear and tombstone tapped,” Ali said. Tyler nodded. Nothing but troopers alive behind him.

              “Good, activate the bombs and send word to the resistance,” Tyler said, feeling his tension ease. Now they could stop with the spy crap and focus on being troopers.

              The three pulled sheets out from their dusters, each claiming a station. The room smelt like copper and crap. Tyler hated dead bodies.

              The three didn’t know what all of the codes did but they followed instructions and input them.

              There was screaming now, Jerome, Bobbie, Yu, and Dashtund’s game of Euchre was spread across the crate they were using, the door to the supply closet was open, and they were dragging gear out.

              Haas could be heard coordinating the other troopers, Mark, Ko, Niemi, and Dominguez moved through the main door leading out of the tech area, blades in hand.

              Tyler watched it all, hoping that it was fast enough. They needed control of the area, and now.

              Tyler felt more shaking, this time from around the tower and Landing City instead of above it.

              “Seal the suits!” Tyler barked to the three working in the room, still checking that no tech or Chosen was going to try and walk up on them.

              Mark came back into the room carrying two bodies, and dropped them on the ground.

              Tony was still alive. Mark pulled out his pistol, dropping the bodies inside the doorway.

              Tyler watched Mark look at the man and tombstone tap him, the back end of the man’s head a pile of mush.

              Tony was no longer of this world.

              Mark turned to Tyler, probably feeling his eyes on him. Mark held his thumb up and ambled over to Niemi who was pulling out a medical kit.

              Tyler heard someone making their way up the catwalk, the stairs ringing with their feet, Tyler pulled his rifle up and turned the corner, pointing right at Haas.

              “Hey, boss,” Tyler said, his rifle coming down as the officer approached.

              “How we looking?” he asked, pushing past Tyler.

              “Boys are getting the codes in; we clear?” Tyler asked, looking out on the rest of the tech area.

              “Yeah, the rest are doing a final sweep,” Haas said, taking a sheet from Obe and working on inputting more codes; it shouldn’t be long now.

              “Done,” Kojo announced.

              “Do these ones,” Ali said, giving him more codes.

              It took sometime before all of the codes were read out, sent to the right triggers and read as working.

              “So, what did we just do?” Tyler asked.

              “Took out power generators, and the sewage system is flowing backwards now, plus air recycling systems blown to shit. Multiple armories are gone, sensor grids out of action. Blew up the majority of the tunnels, destroyed the fuel containers and a ton of energy banks, the power plants are all on lockdown. Ammunition and armor manufacturing areas ain’t there anymore. Hit the food stores as well, gave a number of them a good dose of bacteria from the waste recycling systems,” Haas looked at Tyler with a grin on his face.

              “We just took the feet out from under them and it looks like the second phase is just starting,” Haas said.

              The others in the room grinned and laughed, it wasn’t a kind thing, it was the sound of a job well done and relief that they’d carried it out.

              “Now let’s get down and help up-armor that powered armor and make some real war-machines.”

***

              Dan Moretti looked pissed as hell, like he wanted to rip someone’s head off. He was actually enjoying the looks of panic in the command center.

              He
loved
seeing Harper’s face whiten a few shades and the way he rubbed his hands nervously.

             
Oh, what was that, did we just cut you off from your masters so they’ll never know the results of the battle? Whoops!
Moretti had requested that Nivad not show all of the battle for Masoul Actual, and his request had been accepted, the video would be heavily censored before going out. No one wanted Harmony learning more from the battle than necessary.

              Some remote sensors were working, and their fuzzy videos caught the explosion that appeared above Masoul Actual.

              “The hell?” someone asked. A few eyes watched the screen, but most of them still worked their systems.

              Moretti knew that new ground was being broken here, nukes hadn’t been used against a colony ever, that he knew of.

              He waited, time seemed to stretch and people stopped caring about the explosions in the sky, they were more concerned about the ones that were happening in their city.

              Then systems started going blank. At first it was just a few, then it was all of them, as lights started to go out and the smell of burning and ozone cut through the air as the command center descended into darkness.

              Moretti pulled out his lighter, flicking it on.

              “The hell just happened?” Dashtund demanded, looking at where the techs were. “I can’t see a fucking thing, it’s darker than a witch’s asshole.”

             
That Dashtund does have a way with words,
Moretti thought.

              “You’d know,” Moretti said low enough that only Dashtund could hear him. It was hard for Moretti to not smile.

              “Looks like the power is off,” someone said. Others were trying to get consoles working, lighters were coming on.

              There was a
WHUMP!
As the crapper off to the side of the command center went up in flames and a person came flying out.

              Flames erupted from the room, burning anything they could find.

              Moretti remembered the reports on the waste disposal systems being reversed. Many people forgot how shitters were damned essential and dangerous. All those fermented goods travelling through the pipes to be separated were now being pumped right back into the population.

              Most of those gasses were flammable, as the poor bastard trying to find their way out of the shitter just found out.

              Moretti looked at his cigarette and quickly stubbed it out.

              “Let us move to the secondary command center,” Harper said.

              “Harper, if you don’t mind I want to go and check on the powered armor, if our electronics are down then they might be as well,” Moretti said.

              Harper looked at Moretti for a moment before nodding.

              “Good, go and send a runner back to report. Stay there and coordinate things from that position,” Harper said.

              “For the sake of...” Moretti never got the words out as Landing City shook with an explosion that made the railgun rounds from before seem like love-taps.

              “They’re bombing us!” Someone said hysterically. Panic spread through the command center.

              Moretti took his leave, grabbing a flashlight that was working and taking an enforcer with him.

              Moretti didn’t care and marched out of the command center. The barracks were even worse than the command center, they were rallying and running in every direction, but there was no control. It wasn’t panic but they were throwing themselves around and heading upwards, most of them believing that the troopers had arrived.

              Moretti stayed out of their way and took back routes to get to the research and development area; there weren’t any enforcers around but lights were on down near the doors and armed figures stood behind barricades.

              “Who goes there?” someone sounding like Domo said.

              “Domo, that you? It’s Moretti, here to take command, seems something took out the electronics. Is the powered armor working?”

              “Ahhh, yes, sir, sorry about that, sir,” Domo said, his gun lowering.

              “Good man.”

              “For the sake of Harmony!” Domo said, saluting.

              Moretti hoped the enforcer with him wouldn’t pick up on the sarcasm in his voice.

               “You, go back to Harper, tell him that I am with the powered armor and it looks to be functional,” Moretti said to the man.

              He saluted, did the goddamn “for the sake of Harmony,” and fucked off. Moretti walked past the lights to where Domo and Niemi were.

              “Holy shit, I’ve heard those fucking five words too much for a lifetime,” Moretti said.

              “For the sake of—” Niemi started, raising her fist and laughing at his pained expression.

              “No, for the love of all things holy,” Moretti shook his head, speaking freely for the first time in nearly fifty years. “God, it feels good to talk without worrying someone’s going to hear you,” he said, pushing open the doors to the lit development area.