Warrior Chronicles 4: Warrior's Wrath (9 page)

“Fair enough, Captain.” Turning to the others, Cort said, “Get me a flexpad.”

Tapon Homeworld

Miku was at his desk when he heard the knock. After finalizing his strategy for defending the planet, he planned to go to the rainforest for a few days. Just a little while longer and he could leave. The relaxation would be needed if what he knew of the humans was true. Addison was probably still alive. Having not heard from the squadron assigned to kill the warrior, it was prudent to assume they had failed. And intelligence reported that nearly all of the human fleet had left their systems in warp bubbles. Assuming that somehow the humans knew exactly where the child was, he had a third of a season before the humans arrived. By that time, he would be ready. The outer worlds were sending thousands of fighters, and around the planet the defensive net was already at thirty percent defensive capacity. Once Addison and the humans were gone, it would be time to move against the Nill.
Then we will be back home, and this world, while lovely, will no longer be our beautiful prison.
Another knock. “Come in.”

Che was nervous. “What is it Che? You look as if you have seen your mother fall from a bough.”

“They are here, sir.”

“Who? The council? It is about time. They are nearly half a sun late. Send them in.”

“No, sir. H’uum’s fleet is here.”

“What? How did they escape the humans?” Understanding began to sink in. “Why are they here?”

“I cannot say. They are not responding to our hails.”

“How do they have a fleet? The humans would not allow that.”

“Perhaps the humans are in ships they took from H’uum’s people.”

“You said the humans cannot jump in their ships.”

“It would do great harm to them sir, but the jump is possible.”

“Is H’uum here to cast his loyalty to us?”

“That would not be their way, sir.”

“How many ships?” Miku was genuinely concerned. He had only a few million fighters on planet, and the defensive net, while functioning, could not survive a heavy assault yet.

“Thousands of ships.”

--

“Bloody hell. Are you seeing this, General?” Lex was on the bridge but had no doubt that Cort was following the invasion from his bed in the infirmary. In the first wave, a dozen ships were lost to the underpowered satellite array around the planet. But for every ship that was lost, ten more targeted the arrays.

The swarm of ships was not what was incredible though. Once the ships began gliding through the top of the Tapon atmosphere, they slowed down and began dumping H’uumans into the air. Lex had never seen a locust swarm, but in primary school he did a paper on them.
They are swarming. They are going to destroy this planet. Oh gods!

“Yeah, I see it, Lex. It’s like a swarm of moths,” Cort said, remembering the miller moth invasions of the Denver area three hundred years before.

“I was thinking locusts, sir. If they had been able to invade Government World, we would have lost.”

“Probably. I’m glad they are on our side this time. I’ve been through an attack from them before and I don’t want to be on the wrong side of one again.”

The image was from a ship in the middle of the group that was dropping troops. As Cort and Lex watched, the sky turned a grey-brown color as it filled with H’uumans.

How is my boy, Bazal?

Dalek is fine, Cortland. And those guarding him are diligent about their duty, but they won’t harm him. For some reason, they have unloaded their weapons.

I wonder what would cause that. Thank you, my friend. Tell him we are almost there.

Dalek sees that the sky has changed color, so I told him that we are here. He is excited to see you.

Soon.

--

“The H’uumans are still not answering, sir,” Che said.

“It does not matter. Clearly they are here to attack us. H’uum is perhaps buying his people’s freedom. Whatever his reasons, we will lose the first battle of this war. Can we evacuate?”

“Yes, sir. If we leave now, most of our government can evacuate.”

“Very well, bring me the human child and we will go to refuge.”

“Yes, sir.”

--

H’uum contacted Cort and said, “General, have you been able to ascertain where your son is?”

“Stand by, H’uum.”

Bazal, have you found him yet?

I have, Cortland. Just now. In the daylight area there is a city on the smaller continent. If you look at an image of the planet, I can tell you which one.

A moment later, Cort thought,
Okay, I’m looking at the planet.

Do you see the small continent on the lower part of the planet, the one that is just touching dusk?

Yes.

Dalek is in the city to the upper right. Just to the left of the mountain range.

Okay, I see it. The scanners can find him from there. Keep me informed if you find anything else. Bazal...Thank you.

I love him, Cortland.

“Okay, H’uum, look at a map.” Cort went on to explain the boy’s location and added, “Can you drop my people near there?”

“Yes, General. Tell them to prepare. Gliding into the atmosphere will be turbulent, but the effect will only last a brief time. You people will have two minutes to disembark before we re-enter space. The shuttle you are sending should depart now, to save time.”

“Shuttle K-1, launch!” Cort ordered. A moment later, the shuttle left the barrel-shaped ship, and H’uuman crewmembers began assembling the drop rails that would deploy the Marines.

Lex spoke to the humans. “Okay boys and girls, we know where Cowboy is, let’s go get him. Remember, when anyone is within five klicks of him, everyone’s HUDs will start pinging. Swarm that location the second you get it. Signal any nearby H’uumans, the bug kind, too. They do not have the pingers.”

On a private channel a moment later, Cort asked, “Cowboy, Lex? Where did that codename come from?”

“He rides Heroc… he rode Heroc like she was a horse. So some of the base personnel started calling him Cowboy. I guess it stuck. I’m surprised you didn’t know about it.”

“You should know by now, Lex, that for every item of scuttlebutt a leader knows, there are ten that he or she doesn’t. That fact is as old as command structure.”

“Yes, sir. I had better get back to the team, General,” Lex said.

“Thanks, Lex. Good luck.”

Lex heard anxiety in Cort’s voice and wanted to reassure the man, so he closed the channel with, “Don’t worry, Grandpa, we will bring Dalek back.”

--

“We cannot get to the human child, sir,” Che said a few minutes later. “His guards are not responding, and we do not have enough time to go there. We must assume they have overtaken the holding facility.”

“Send someone, anyway. That child is the only leverage we have over Addison. It must not be lost.”

“Yes, sir.”

--

After the shuttle left the ship, the wolfpacks were the first teams to offload. Like all Marine drop troops, the human-wolf pairs slid off the rails and began a free fall that would reach upward of two hundred and fifty kilometers per hour. Once they were below one thousand meters in altitude, gyros on the suits would change their attitude so that delta wings could deploy and the men and women could glide to the ground, releasing the wings just before they touched down. The maneuver allowed them to land at a dead run. The wolfpack troops had to slow enough to drop their wolf pods, but the unencumbered Marines would continue at full speed until they were in formation.

As the ground troops formed into a recognizable unit, the shuttle landed behind them. First off the shuttle was Jane Munroe in the HAWC, followed by Kim in her CONDOR, because the latter was not trained to execute a high altitude deployment. The shuttle immediately lifted off again, and took station over the advancing ground troops.

For Munroe, it was like a dream come true. She was in the HAWC finally, and she knew things about the suit the General probably didn’t. After all, in her sims, she had torn it apart, rebuilt it, and destroyed it hundreds of times.
Should I do it? What will the General say? Fuck it. I am here.
She jumped, landing on both legs and, after squatting and springing forward, began to run the way the wolves around her did, instead of on two legs.

What the hell?
Cort thought, watching her deploy from thousands of kilometers overhead.
She won’t be able to do that while using her sidearms, but I wonder if she’ll use the shoulder mount.

As if in answer to his question, Munroe deployed the railgun from her shoulder. When the first enemy appeared over a hill in front of her, Jane started firing.

--

“Sir, the humans are here. The Ares Federation humans. They launched from one of the H’uuman ships.”

Miku looked up from the case he was packing as he prepared to evacuate the planet. “Then they are in league. But why would H’uum’s people help their captors? Where are they now?”

“Attacks are taking place all over the planet. But the federation fighters are all near the city.”

“
This
city, Che? How could they know the child is here?”

“I cannot answer that question, sir. Nonetheless, they are almost here. We no longer have enough time to evacuate.”

“When will the child be here?”

“We have lost contact with the team we sent to retrieve him, sir. Their comms are online, but they are not responding.”

Miku opened his screen and looked at the updates for himself. “Che, what is happening out there?”

“They responded more quickly than we expected. I have already notified the other planets. A secondary plan is being advanced, and we are to delay the enemy as much as possible.”

“Very good, Che. Let us do so then.”

“Sir…”

“Yes, Che?”

“I have been ordered to take you into custody.”

Miku’s sigh was like a low growl, but it carried no malice. “Do you remember when the humans first stood before the Collaborative Government?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I thought the timing was divine providence. To have that lower species arrive just when the Core was about to be disabled seemed too good to be true. The Cuplans were the only threat to us retaking our ancestral home, and the humans neutralized them. And that same threat, now as H’uumans, have been the demise of our attempt anyway, because they now stand with Addison. The one thing that could stop us, and it has come to fruition. Is that also divine, or has our real enemy been the insectoids all along?” Miku waited for Che’s answer. When none came, he said, “I suppose we shall never know. Perhaps the shrewdness will learn someday, but I will not.”

“I am truly sorry for this, Miku. In addition to my leader, you have been my friend for a very long time. And I do not believe you are at fault. As you say, providence has stood against us, it seems.”

“Thank you for that, Che, but there must be one who assumes the blame. I have been chosen this time. How many times have we ordered that fate upon others? The circle is complete.”

“Shall we go, Miku?”

Miku looked at the case he had been packing. He wouldn’t need it now. Leaving it on the table, he walked to the door.

--

The wolves were never far ahead of their companions, but they were ahead of them. What that meant for the Marines was they had to aim high. With targets that averaged almost three meters, the same height at the taller CONDORS, that wasn’t a problem. What was a problem was that the enemy had weapons that, while not effective against the CONDORS, was effective against the FALCON-like armor worn by the wolves. While the animals’ smaller profile helped, as did their speed and agility, wolves were still going down. But then, so were H’uumans and Tapons. Finally, the wolfpacks were ordered to the rear. If Lex needed them in tighter areas, he would call them up again.

Jane Munroe was upright now and running full speed. As she charged enemy lines, her ten-meter form first brought shock, then terror, to the apes. They had been told that General Addison was light years away, yet there he was in front of them. Like Addison himself just a few hours before, they had no idea anyone else could be in the giant suit of armor.

On another continent, the H’uumans were moving across the landscape like a wildfire. Behind them, the grass was still somewhat green, but it was trampled and the land was barren except for the bodies and debris that marked their passing.

Cort watched the destruction from his medical bed, seeing the battle through ships’ cameras and the suits of his Marines. Kim’s vid was always active, as was Captain Munroe’s, but the other screens rotated as he monitored all aspects of the action below him. The doctors monitoring the transfusion of his synthetics noticed a spike in his heart rate and blood pressure when the vid of Munroe’s HUD began flashing. “She’s got him!” Cort yelled over the combat channel, “Form up on Munroe!”

--

We are almost there, Little Warrior.

“I heaw the booms, Bazal.”

That’s how you know we are there.