Masoul (Harmony War Series Book 2) (50 page)

              “Okay,” Jolie said, lowering her pistol.

              “Fuck, that’s nasty in there,” one of the two boys sent to grab ammo and weapons said, as they and Ali walked back to the group.

              “Hmm?” Jolie asked.

              “They killed all of the tech people, including Stan. The lunchroom is nasty as hell,” the boy continued, looking pale.

              That seemed to seal the deal, and the others lowered their pistols.

              The doors to the research and development area opened, Holm and Sasaki returning with Moretti.

              The pistols came up once again.

              “The fuck are you working with that piece of shit for?” Jolie said.

              Moretti’s head swiveled over and locked on Jolie. He walked towards them, and Holm and Sasaki adjusted, following.

              “I’ll let him explain,” Tyler sighed.

              Jolie and the others held their fire as Moretti approached.

              “Hello, Jolie, how’s the leg treating you? It’s been some time since I sent you the message and medical supplies,” Moretti said, stopping.

              Jolie’s eyes went wide and her face drained of blood.

              “No fucking way.” Her shock turned to anger. “You couldn’t be…”

              “The Hand? Oh, well, I most definitely can. Why do you think you got warning about the latest raids, and people sent to you that were good with fighting but pissed at Harmony? I’ve kept far away from you lot. You’re passionate but not exactly the best at controlling yourselves. Look at what Dasan did,” Moretti said.

              “I guess that kind of makes sense,” Jolie lowered her gun for the second time.

              “Now let’s get to using my Chosen to blow these fuckers up. Those grenades good to go?” Moretti asked, looking to the bags.

              “Yeah,” Jolie said hesitantly.

              “Then let’s get this show on the road. Got three hours before the dumb fuckers show up, four before we’re deployed, unless Harper sends us word before. If we get it before then, the troopers are being stopped or advancing too fast. Either way, the Chosen will be piled up trying to get to the front lines. I just hope we have enough ammunition to get through the lines,” Moretti said.

              “We’ll make it,” Tyler said.

              Moretti gave him a small smile.

              “I wish I had your optimism, Tyler. I’ve seen too much shit down here to be overly optimistic,” Moretti said.

              Tyler saw the shadows move behind the other man’s eyes.

              “Alright, I’m going to get something to eat. If you have any questions about Hand things, ask me. Pretty proud of you lot. Had to deal with a lot of shit, but you came out of it stronger than ever before. After all of this, contact me,” Moretti said, looking to all the resistance fighters. They didn’t all look convinced, but it mattered little if the plan worked out.

              Moretti smiled; it was a sad thing.

              Tyler thought he understood it. Moretti had played the devil in order to get where he was. He’d played the position well, and even those that he had directly helped couldn’t see him as their greatest aid when they’d only seen him as their second greatest enemy.

              Moretti wandered off to the ongoing euchre game.

              Holm and Sasaki walked off to get out of their powered armor.

              “We’ll have all of our spare grenades to you as soon as possible,” Jolie said, looking confused by everything that had gone on.

              “Thanks, we’ll be here. And take whatever you want from the stores; some of the grenades should work here, to make up for yours. We just need something that they won’t think of as grenades and will work no matter what,” Tyler said.

              “Weird to think that for once we might have better weapons, with our low-tech options, than the Chosen,” Jolie said.

              “They’re going to have to get used to nasty surprises,” Jerome said, finishing his nails and holding his right hand up, the blade slipping down to the holster around his triceps.

              Mark let out a humorless laugh as Tyler smiled.

             
Not long now,
Tyler thought, feeling the need to be in the middle of the fighting instead of sitting back on the sidelines.

              It was hard not knowing how Alexis was doing. His smile fell away as he started to wonder if she was even alive. It tore at his soul, but he pushed that pain and those doubts away.

              Soon his brothers and sisters would need him, and this time he couldn’t run off and leave them to fend for themselves.

              Alexis wouldn’t want that, no matter his reasoning, and he would hate himself for it.

***

              Alexis was following behind another platoon. They were spread out through the universal housing quarters, clearing rooms and pushing up into the center of the level.

              The lead trooper opened a door and the second walked through. It was fluid and precise. The second trooper even got off a few rounds before the Chosen machine gun opened up. The lead trooper, the one through the door, and the one right behind them were all hammered with rounds; they didn’t even scream out as they dropped to the floor.

              Alexis didn’t need to check her HUD to know that they were dead.

              As they dropped, the troopers jumped into motion; those stacked up and ready to breach the door jumped for the nearest cover.

              Someone threw a sensor through the doorway and red markers opened up. They were at the bottom of a T-intersection, the single path leading right to two dug-in machine guns.

              “Pull back!” the commanding officer said. Troopers moved out of the housing unit as holes were ripped through the walls, furniture, and any troopers unlucky enough to be in the weapons’ path.

              Pedro was hit in the leg, and he went scrambling. The rolling pick-up Mark and Tyler used had passed on like wildfire. A trooper behind him grabbed the good leg, rolled, and pushed on for the doorway.

              With a glance, Alexis saw that Pedro’s leg was gone. The Chosen machine guns fired rounds as powerful as the anti-material rifles’.

              Others were cut down. They needed to throw the Chosen off balance or else they might overrun the troopers’ lines.

               “Follow me!” Alexis said, heading down the corridor they’d emerged into.

              Her section followed as she kicked open a door to a room that had been cleared. She moved in, her weapon up and ready, not willing to trust that the room was still clear.

              There were no signs of life.

              She fired her grenade launcher. The main wall in the living room disappeared. Dust and crap filled the air.

              Alexis moved for the new exit, and her section followed, coming out at the top right of a T-intersection.

              She checked her HUD, seeing that there were machine guns along every corridor leading to the center of the level.

              “Stack up,” she said, checking her map and heading away from the gun, coming to a stop outside a door opposite the housing unit they’d just blown through.

              She opened the doorway and tossed a sensor stick as hard as possible.

              Nothing happened. No machine guns opened up, and no new contacts showed up on her HUD.

              “Follow me,” she said, heading into the doorway. Beyond it, a long corridor stretched down the length of the twelve housing units. The companies were nothing if not economical. All of their towers, with their offices, cafeterias, lifts, and housing units, were laid out the same.

              The corridor branched off every fifty meters or so, leads and pipes connecting into the housing units. Alexis was in the maintenance corridor between housing units.

              Her section moved forward, the platoon they’d been following now split up behind her and moving for the same maintenance corridor on the housing unit on the left side of the T-intersection.

              They didn’t talk, focused entirely on their goal as they reached the end of the corridor and the door that led out of the maintenance area.

              “Ready?” she asked. Green lights made rows on the top of her HUD.

              She took a breath, then kicked the door open and went right. Chosen looked at the door, their interest turned to shock as Alexis sent bursts into the group of three.

              She felt someone slam on her armor to tell her they were ready and good to go.

              “Advancing right!” Alexis said. She heard weapons fire behind her, but trusted those troopers to deal with that threat as she advanced down the corridor.

              A bank of housing units lay to her left, creating a wall; the housing units she’d run through to her right.

              She saw movement thirty meters ahead, where the corridor ran between the housing units to her right.

              A Chosen moved out; Alexis and a trooper behind her opened up. Alexis fired rounds, while her second threw grenades.

              They never stopped moving, absorbing the Chosen’s shots and advancing.

              Wild firing came from the corridor. They were now behind the machine gun positions. The guns that had dealt out terrible damage couldn’t be rotated to fire on the troopers to their rear and sides.

              “Keep the grenades up, hopefully we’ll catch something,” Alexis said.

              Fires burned to give the Chosen light, and worked to mess with the helmets’ feeds.

              The grenades hit something useful; Alexis halted as the corridor shook with more than just the grenades’ impact.

              The corner of the housing unit closest to the corridor was now gone, and the housing unit opposite was a shrapnel-peppered mess.

              She moved up. There were few survivors; it looked like the grenade had landed on an ammunition crate. The rest was history.

              Alexis changed to semi-auto, tombstone tapping the Chosen she could see.

              New contacts filled her HUD as Chosen rushed in from lower levels and from the center of their current level.

              They were a few hundred meters off to the left, but Alexis’ HUD did nothing but add more numbers.

              “Pull back!” she said, raising her rifle and emptying her grenade clip into their front.

              Her section listened and pulled back.

              “Set!” Wiz said.

              She ran, sticking to the wall to keep out of Wiz’s line of fire. He fired past her. Her grenades seemed to incite the Chosen; they were full-out charging as Wiz fired his repulsor into their midst.

              Alexis was back in the corridor, passing another trooper.

              They covered Wiz as the man ran back; he stumbled, screaming in pain.

              Alexis dragged him in with the other trooper’s help.

              “Grab his gun, I’ve got him,” Alexis said to the other trooper.

              “Yeah,” the trooper said, scared but pulling the ammunition pack and repulsor from Wiz.

              They turned back to the corner and fired. A sea of red contacts showed on Alexis HUD. The troopers had hit hard and fast throwing the Chosen off balance, giving the troopers the time they needed to pull themselves together.

              Alexis hauled the grunting Wiz onto her back and ran.

              The covering trooper wasn’t far behind, with her own section—and the rest of the platoon she’d been following—running down the maintenance corridor.

              Alexis ran, one hand holding Wiz to her, the other on her rifle.

              Wiz did his best to hold on.

              Rounds pinged off of the walls and their armor. The trooper behind dropped to a knee and fired back, his onslaught buying them time.

              They fired for a few more seconds before rushing after Alexis, who hadn’t stopped.

              She got out of the maintenance corridor.

              Rounds fired behind her. A yellow dot turned black as the trooper that had covered her and Wiz came sliding out of the maintenance area.

              The troopers holding this position fired down the corridor. Others grabbed the trooper’s body and Wiz’s ammunition pack and repulsor.

              Alexis cleared the housing unit she’d put a hole in and got Wiz to the medics.

              The trooper whose name she hadn’t even known, and who had died giving her cover, was pulled into the hall, his weapons and ammunition stripped.

              Alexis was going to make sure his sacrifice hadn’t been in vain.