Point of Origin (War Eternal Book 4) (30 page)

"We knew this wouldn't be easy unless they surrendered."

"No response to hails, sir. I don't think that's going to happen."

Mitchell closed his eyes, picturing the chaos on the flip side of FD-09. There would be ships everywhere, mixed in a field of projectiles and laser fire, quick flashes of burning air and lightning strikes of blue from the shields. There was no way the people on the surface wouldn't see or know about the attack. Would they try to escape the planet?

"Hold on tight," Long said. "Taking evasive. Here comes the atmosphere."

The Corleone began to shake for real as it continued its descent, the sudden addition of the atmospheric pressure adding the motion. Major Long was bringing them down hard and fast.

"One minute," Major Long said. "Opening drop doors."

Mitchell heard the clang as the door locks were released. A moment later the screaming of outer gasses passing through the interior of the jumpship drowned out any other possible sound. Even the fleet reports coming in through the helmet were lost in the whine.

"We're on target," Long shouted, knowing it would be loud in the rear of the ship. "Dropping in twenty. Picking up ground response. Be ready for a hot exit."

Mitchell shifted his thumb, flipping the switch that activated the mimic system. Then he adjusted his hands, being sure to keep them at his sides while placing them in the joystick grips and resting a finger on each of the weapon activation triggers.
 

"Ten seconds," Long said. "Still on target. Atmospheric fighters incoming."
 

The jumpship jostled as Long made adjustments to their course, taking moderate evasive maneuvers as they closed in on the drop point.

"Releasing modules," Long said.

Mitchell heard the pop of the holding clamps, and then the roar of the thrusters as the modules were pushed away from the jumpship, blasted towards the ground. He felt his stomach drop as the module fell, yawing left and right as the stabilizing rockets worked to even the load and keep them steady during the fall.

"Wooooooo," Ghost yelled over the channel. "Been a while since I got a ride as rough as this one."

Mitchell tensed against the suspension rig, ready to move as soon as the module door opened. He rested a finger on the release mechanism, lost in the moment, the rest of the battle in orbit forgotten.

The module hit the earth hard, shaking violently and sending him bouncing forward in his rig. He resisted the urge to reach out with his hands, blinking as the hatch began to open and reveal a bright orange sky. Ahead of them was nothing but reddish dust and rock, though he could see the facility rising in the distance, a large exhaust tower and excavation rig meant to persuade orbital scans into believing this really was a mining facility.

He also saw the streak of missiles headed toward the module from incoming Federation mechs.

"Alpha squad is down," Mitchell said, hitting the release. The clamps holding the mech in place slid away, and he started walking inside the cockpit, the mech matching this stride. "Platoons, report."

"First platoon is down."

"Second platoon is down."

"Third platoon is down."

"Fourth platoon is down."

"Fifth platoon is down."

"Stay close to the modules while we clear off the heavy artillery," Mitchell said.
 

His HUD was showing him the position of the friendlies, including the other mechs clearing the clamps behind him. The first round of missiles slammed into the shell of the drop module, scorching and denting the metal. Canisters launched from the sides of the module, hitting the ground a hundred meters away and casting a dense fog between them and the enemy, buying them the time they needed to clear the modules and gain some ground.

"Come on you bastards," Psycho said, getting his mech to the front of the line with Mitchell.
 

Mitchell's HUD was showing the estimated position of the enemy targets, thrown off by the same electromagnetic screen they were using to protect themselves as they moved into position. One squad of mechs had gone active the moment the Corleone had been picked up. The second was in motion now further back. The first responders were lighter mechs, agile but less armored compared to the Franks or the Dominators.

Mitchell reached around his back, gripping the fake hand rifle strapped there and bringing it around, cradling it against his body. He hit the trigger on his left grip, sending a stream of missiles through the fog towards the enemy's position. It was doubtful he would hit anything, but he wanted to keep them on their toes.

"Raptor, go over," he said. The Knight had a jump pack, and in the less-than-Earth gravity would be able to go high and get a solid view of the enemy's formation.

"Roger."
 

He heard the Knight's jets fire and then saw it arc up toward the sky, railgun in hand. Muzzle flashes followed as she fired down at the mechs on the other side of the screen while a bank of missiles headed her way. Her missile defense systems fired, cutting down the projectiles as the reached the top of her arc and skipped laterally, avoiding a stream of rifle fire.

Mitchell drove the Frank into the smoke screen and through, beginning to get a better feel for the manual controls now that he was in motion. He came out only two hundred meters from a lighter Cyclops, firing with the handheld railgun and the chain guns on the abdomen. The Cyclops fired back at him, but he dug his heels into the floor and moved the Frank into a quick backstep that forced the Cyclop's fire to run short. Mitchell's slugs tore into the mech, blowing off an arm and a leg before the pilot could recover. The Cyclops toppled over, out of the fight.

"Nice shooting, Ares," Shogun said, his Dominator clearing through the mist. He fired on a second Cyclops to the left that was using an outcropping for cover. Rock exploded in front of them, forcing the pilot out into the open.

"Clearly not the cream of their crop," Psycho said, helping Shogun down the mech in a hail of missiles and rifle fire.

"Ares, this is Valkyrie. Uh." Major Long paused, his voice wavering. "We've got trouble upstairs." He paused again, giving Mitchell time to look up for himself.

Goliath was impossible to miss in orbit above them.
 

So was the Tetron floating next to her.

Kathy hit the wall and bounced off, her ears ringing and her vision blurry. She didn't have time to wonder what had barreled into her because she sensed it was coming in again. She threw her arms up defensively, getting her hand on the surface of the weapon and letting the momentum move her out of harm's way. She let go, allowing herself to tumble down the opposite corridor, rolling to a stop five meters away.

She gripped the spear, forcing herself up. She got her eyes on her attacker, causing her to gasp. It was a strange aggregation of human and machine, a monster of metal and flesh. Part of its face had once belonged to Private Klein while the eyes and hair were the blue and red of Sergeant Grimes. A layer of liquid metal ran between both.
 

The odd combination of skin and alloy continued downward, to the shimmering shapes of female breasts with large, pink, erect nipples floating on a small patch of areolae, to the half-machine penis hanging between its legs. The only thing that was wholly inhuman were the hands. They were oversized and solid, made to beat her to a pulp.

It stepped towards her cautiously, running calculations and trying to guess her next move. She blinked her eyes a few times, clearing away the stars, and crouched with the spear held up and level with her head.

"It didn't come out quite right," the thing said to her. "The integration is defective."

"You can say that again," Kathy said, backing up a step for each step it took toward her.

"We're here, sister. So is Mitchell. His ships are burning. There's nothing he can do to stop it."
 

"I can stop it."

"You cannot. You tried to take me. You didn't succeed. I took you. I captured your source. I know what you are."

"You don't know who I am."

She started to shift her weight, to turn and make a run for the core. It was twenty meters back and through the hatch on the left.

The thing lunged for her, preventing her escape. She sidestepped, slapping the spear down on its shoulder, the force enough to push it to the wall. It recovered quickly, hands up to deflect her quick strikes, pushing the spear aside and hitting her in the gut. She felt the air rush out of her, but she didn't pause. She ducked low under another punch, stepping around the outer left and throwing her fist. It hit the thing in the side, denting the metal and pushing it back again.

"You can't defeat us," it said, laughing.

"Oh no?" Kathy asked. She raised the spear again, moving towards it in a quick series of jabs. The Tetron configuration blocked most of them before the point of it found purchase in its side.
 

"No," it said. It grabbed the spear, wrenching it from her and breaking it in half. "I learned from you."

It countered her attack, striking back with moves that Kathy knew came from her education. She felt a twinge of hopelessness as she realized the Primary wasn't lying about capturing her source, the part of her makeup that made her only half-human. Not that it had stolen it, but it had read it and made a copy and integrated parts of it with its own systems. It had learned to fight.

It had also learned her secret.

If it escaped, if she lost, it would be even more dangerous than she had previously imagined. Her existence was not something that was ever intended for the children. They weren't wise enough to use it properly.

Heavy fists hit hard off her blocks, sending waves up pain up her arms. The Tetron configuration towered over her, its face emotionless as it pressed the attack. She continued to back away, using her size and agility to her advantage and staying away from its hardest strikes. She couldn't defeat it. She only wanted to get away from it, to reach the core. If she could get to the core, she could do something.

A blow hit her shoulder, cracking the bone and throwing her against the wall. She felt the pain of the dislocation and breakage, but she couldn't waste time on it. She lashed out with her other hand, hitting the thing in the face. It stumbled for only a moment, and she kicked at the dangling appendage between its legs. Her foot struck hard. The machine didn't react.

It reached out with its other hand, swallowing her neck in its fist. It lifted her easily off the floor.

"Goodbye, sister," it said.

"What are we going to do?" Major Long asked. "Abort?"

Mitchell returned his attention to the battlefield, nimbly stepping aside as enemy fire churned up the rock at his feet. Retreating would mean returning to the drop modules, clamping in, and waiting for the Corleone to drop over them and scoop them up. It wasn't the fastest process, especially when they were still under attack. He had made pick-ups like that before. It was typical for the mech squad to lay cover fire while the infantry made their modules and were lifted. Then the dropship would circle back and do a "hot grab", where the pilot would duck in and hook the module before it was fully closed and secured.

Even though they had just landed and were close to the point of origin, it would take a good five minutes to get everyone out. Looking back up at the Goliath and the Tetron, five minutes would be way, way too late.

"No. Keep going. Stick to the mission."

"Ares, how-"

"Stick to the mission," Mitchell repeated. "They'll have to take evasive and fight back. They do their part; we do ours."

"Roger."

Mitchell kept moving forward. The first squad of light mechs was down, taken out easily by Tio's surprisingly well-trained jockeys. They had moved back into formation behind him without him giving the order.

"Are any of you not former Alliance or Federation Marines?" he asked. He smiled when no one replied.

Mitchell checked the sky again. Everything was diluted through the gaseous atmosphere, but he could see the tip of the plasma stream growing at the head of the Tetron, preparing to fire into the fleet. He felt a moment of angry doubt, wondering if he would have been able to do something if he had stayed in the S-17.