Authors: Peter Lok
Tamotsu nodded. He readied his rifle. Willie gave a 3, 2, 1 count by hand signal and the two swung around the corner and fired simultaneously. Two bursts of high-velocity rifle rounds shattered both
guards’
visors and ended their lives
, taking them
down before they could react.
"Go!" Willie called out. He and the rest of his team ran down the hall and assumed breaching positions around the lab door. Two team members
with flash bang grenades in their hands
stood ready to swing the double doors to the lab open. Willie and Tomotsu took
their
positions to enter the room after the stun grenade
s
went off.
"Ready," Willie spoke. "Go!'
The doors were
thrown open, and b
lindi
n
g flashes of light and deafening bangs went off inside the already messed up lab. Willie and Tomotsu rushed into the room
,
rifles ready. It was all training at this point. Each commando rapidly scanned the room for hostiles. Willie
’
s rifle fired one burst and a blinded guard fell backwards, his rifle arcing up into the air. Tomatsu fired and a second guard went down. Rifles pointed, they did not fire on the four dazed scientists in the room.
"Shani Tsvato!" Angie called out, recognizing one of the scientists in the room
. She lowered her PDW and ran
over to her. She steadied Shani. "Are you alright?"
"Y-yes," Shani replied, still dazed by the stun grenades.
She then realized that rescue was here and tears formed in her eyes.
"
Angie, I can’t believe you are here!”
The two women hugged. “
Is your son here?"
Angie asked.
"No, they won't let children down here. But he is nearby,
hidden
in a supply closet ---
I need to get him!" Shani was beginning to recover.
Angie reassured her. "That was good thinking. We'll get him. But
before we leave
, we need to get the artifact."
"Yes, of course. The Colonel locked it back in the specimen vault. I have the access code."
"Good." Angie called out
to
Willie. "Artifact is in the
lab
vault. Let's get it."
Willie and Tomatsu headed
over to Angie and Shani
. The
rest of the team
handcuffed the
other
scientists and secured the hallway.
Shani
walked over to
a large
steel vault door. She quickly tapped in a series of numbers. On the first try she was nervous and fumbled it. She apologized and tried again. This time the vault door
made a loud
thunking sound as
its
locking bolts disengaged.
The
y
swung the thick door open and entered the vault
,
which was on battery lighting. Crates of mineral samples occupied the room. In the middle of the room was the egg shaped alien artifact.
Although it was barely
a metre high, its presence seemed larger that its size.
It
’
s more beautiful than I expected
,
Angie thought. She stared into it and it seemed like she was
gazing
into the depths of an amber sea.
Shani saw Angie's reaction. "It is beautiful," she concurred. "I did the same thing the first time I saw it. Sometimes it almost seems like you can lose yourself inside it... Like you're floating in space."
"Yes, you're right." Angie suddenly realized
she
had been distracted by the artifact and needed to refocus her attention. "Will
i
e. We need to prep this thing to move."
Willie and Tomatsu easily lifted the heavy artifact from the cradle it was resting on and loaded it into a protective metal case with a padded interior. They each took hold of a handle at
one
end of the case, and carried it with no problem between them. Augmented by the power assist in their raider suit
s
they could easily trot along with the
heavy artifact
.
They
had
exited the
lab
and
begun
heading down the main hallway when an alarm
began ringing.
A deep male
voice began
speaking in Swahili. “Alert. Alert. Intruders are within the facility. All guards are
to
go to
maximum alert.
Use deadly force to stop them.”
Willie stated the
obvious.
"I think they have the intercom and alarm
s
working again.
Mitch, we’re on our way.”
“Roger,” Mitch responded over the radio. “We are securing transport. There’s more movement up here
,
so sooner is better.”
Rejoining the rest of the
section
,
they
followed
Shani to the
supply closet that
she
had hidden her son in
. Shani and Angie went in and brought
Kwasi
out
.
They took longer than expected as t
he
twelve year old had been
scared by the alarm and
had
had been
quietly
crying
.
He
was
quickly reassured by his mother and Angie
,
who
had
prepared him
for
the
heavily armed commandos
waiting outside the room.
Willie greeted the boy with a big smile. “You’re doing great, son. We’re here to take you and your mother to safety. We’ll be going
to a plane
and you can wear my helmet when we get there. It has all kinds of cool displays.”
Kwasi’s eyes brightened. “Really?”
“Yeah, really. Let’s shake on that.”
Willie’s
armoured gauntlet dwarfed the boy
’
s
small, dark hand, but
he shook it
gently
.
Shani was amazed with Willie’s kindness. “Thank you. We’ll be no trouble.”
“No problem,” Willie replied. “
I like kids.
I have a few little nephews myself.”
The brief stop was more than Willie wanted. They had to get going
now that the alarm was raised.
Willie and Tamotsu took point. Behind them, two other commandos carried the artifact in its case
.
Angie, Shani, and Kwasi
made up the next group
. Finally, the last
section
member acted as a rearguard
.
They continued moving back into the stairwell with their weapons ready.
Echoes from all of their booted footsteps echoed throughout the stairwell
as they climbed back up to ground level
.
Willie
opened the door and checked his corners. Tomatsu covered him as he exited and secured the next corner. Tomatsu then advanced.
The rest of the group emerged from the stairwell and fell into position behind them.
His helmet HUD showed
Mitch’s
section
about
100
metres away at
the
garage.
There was still a great deal of building to go throug
h first.
“Mitch. Sitrep.” Willie called over the radio.
“Taking some fire,” Mitch replied. “
We have secured two trucks. Hostiles are starting to come out of the woodwork. We’re holding for now, but you need to hurry.”
A burst of rifle fire was then clearly heard over the radio.
“Estimate about three minutes to your position.” Willie turned to his team. “Let’s move people. Our rides are waiting.”
Tomatsu swapped with Willie and led the way. After navigating through several office areas,
checking the cubicle
farms as he went, he ran into two guards at short range. The African soldiers came dashing around a corner with their weapons ready. Both sides fired almost simultaneously. Bullets smashed through thin cubicle parti
tion walls and shattered desktop monitors. The Chinese AK90s fired with their
duller
barking
sound on full auto, while shorter, sharper sounding, controlled bursts came from Tomatsu’s C11 rifle.
Tomatsu’s accurate fire took out one guard almost immediately. The man spun backwards and down to the ground. The second guard’s
fully automatic
firing hit Tomatsu on his chest plate
,
causing his
second
burst to miss as the impacts knocked him back. His chest armour held though
,
and he fired again. This time the aim was good and the guard flew backwards, his rifle firing into the ceiling as he went down.
Willie had
just caught the end of the
whole thing and arrived at this side. “You okay?”
Tomatsu
was both grimacing a little and swearing in Japanese
.
“
It hurts a bit, but I think I’m good.”
“You got three pretty big dents on your chest plate.” Willie moved ahead. “
Good thing the armour held.
I’
ll lead---
”
He interrupted himself by fir
ing
a burst at
a doorway. A
nother guard
had just popped his head around the corner
.
***
“Looks like the show’s started.
”
Joshua could hear the alarms going off at the research facility on his external audio pickups
.
They had originally planned for low casualties, but the odds of that were quickly becoming non-existent.
“Confirm targets and coordination, X.”
“
Targets confirmed between Unit One and Unit Two,”
the AI responded. Joshua’s targets were lit in green silhouettes, while Penny’s were in red.
T
he enemy’s APCs and HARM units were
the primary targets, followed by the barracks and
headquarters
building
.
“Penny, how is the situation at the air strip?”
“Quiet. A few light aircraft, some dozy guards. Basically no activity. The highway is also clear all the way to it.”
“Good.”
Their HARM data links could tie into the short range net used by Alpha Team. H
is tactical display
showed
Mitch’s
section
engaging guards around the
garage
. One by one, the hostile indicators disappeared. Willie’s
section
had emerged on the ground floor and was heading towards Mitch’s position.
Thermal signatures inside the barracks indicated
people
were on the move.
T
he enemy troops were mobilizing
quickly
. Life would become very difficult for the commandos in the next phase of the operation without Penny and his help.
“Stand
by to engage targets.”
Penny was
ready. The HARM units were going to give up their element of surprise shortly. Not even Alpha Team knew where they were as their outbound data links were not transmitting and they
were
running under full active camouflage with their heat signatures masked. Stealth was gone once they started shooting
,
so they would hit fast and hard.
Both
of
the HARM AIs had orders to establish
two-
way data links with Alpha Team after the shooting started to coordinate their forces.
“Engage HARMs, then APCs,” Joshua ordered. “
Coilgun
,
single shot
.”
“
Coilgun
, s
ingle shot
,”
his mecha’s AI
acknowledged.
Joshua
’s pilot suit
was
plugged into a skeletal support frame that provided both physical support
for him
and
force-feedback
t
o show how the unit was responding to commands.
His operator motions were captured via his pilot suit and fine tuned via the cybernetic pilot’s helmet he wore, which read his brain waves to provide enhanced control. Joshua raised his arms inside his cockpit to aim at his designated HARM unit. His helmet’s 3D HUD display showed his HARM mimicking his motion to raise its
rifle-like
coilgun
to a firing position. Centering the crosshairs on the
enemy
HARM, he motioned squeezing a virtual
trigger with his finger.
Bang! The
coilgun
shot out a hypervelocity penetrator
made of depleted uranium
. The penetrator was fired through the air at over 3500 metres per second
,
over Mach 10. It
cross
ed
the kilometre to the target HARM in less a
third
of a second
and
str
uck
with devastating impact. The enemy HARM’s active molecular armour had not powered up yet and the shot punched clean through the chest of the enemy mech
a
into the power plant and out the back side. The power plant promptly exploded in a massive ball of flame. Fragments of the enemy mech
a
’s torso were scattered through the area. Next to it, the other HARM met a similar fate under Penny’s shooting.
Immediately after firing
,
his
coilgun
loaded another round into
its
chamber and started flash charging
its
capacitors for another shot. The electromagnetic cannon required
a lot of power from his mecha’s chemical fusion plant. It would take four seconds to get off another shot.
“Both H2 HARMs destroyed,”
his mecha’s AI
confirmed.
“Begin engaging secondary targets.”
Joshua sighted on an APC. “Coilgun to burst mode.”
“
Coilgun in burst mode,”
acknowledge
d
the AI.
This time his coilgun fired a burst of three projectiles within a second, each penetrator moving at a third of the speed of a full power shot. This
speed
was useful against lightly armoured targets
,
and it allowed
the weapon to fire after
less than a second
of recharge
. The APC burst into flames. Joshua switched targets and fired again.
In less than ten seconds all the vehicles had been destroyed. Soldiers
who
had been trying to get the vehicles running
and
the mechas up were either dead or running for cover.
“Secondary target vehicles destroyed. Engage other targets at will.”
Holding out his mec
ha’s left arm, Joshua aimed his
light automatic cannon,
a 30mm chain gun
integrated into the forearm
. The light automatic cannon was used against infantry or for suppressing target
s
with a high rate of fire. “Chain gun, ready
high explosive
rounds.”
“H
igh Explosive
rounds ready,”
his mecha’s AI
responded.
Joshua and Penny raked the barracks buildings and the
headquarters
building with automatic canno
n fire. They did several passes
over the next minute,
leaving the buildings a battered, smoking ruin. The exterior walls were pitted with small blast holes
and
broken glass
was
everywhere. Small fires burned here and there
,
adding more smoke.
The enemy infantry were no longer organized. Casualties had been light, but the chaos inflicted on them had
scattered and
panicked them. Even the facility’s
alarm no longer blared after it was silenced by the attack on the
headquarters
.
The two
HARM pilots were still evaluating their work when their AIs called out at an
attention-
getting volume.
“
Six m
issiles incoming
, 12 o’
clock high!
”
X warned.
“
Evade now.
Deploying countermeasures.
”
Joshua dodged his HARM
off
to the side, while Penny did the same in the opposite direction.
Their big machines sent broken branches and foliage raining down as they
crashed through the trees.
A burst of
flares,
metallic chaff
,
and anti-laser reflective particles fired from each mecha to form a
shimmering
and obscuring cloud of cover.
The wave of missiles missed the HARM units, losing them in the chaff cloud
, and
detonated against the ground
where they had been moments earlier
.
Joshua’s AI had
analyzed
the missiles and their
trajectories
.
“
Missiles are typed as
Stabber AT-26 self-guided missiles. At least three u
nknown enemy units firing from the othe
r side of the research facility.
”
X marked the launch locations on the tactical display.
“Estimated launch locations are marked.
Fire counter-strike missiles?
”
“
Fire
one missile each!” Joshua authorized.
“
Hell
dart
s away.”
Three anti-tank missiles launched up from the missile packs on the HARM’s back and arced towards the enemy launch positions. The self-guiding missiles searched for targets on their own and exploded
against
empty ground when they found none. The enemy had already run.
Who was this new enemy
? Joshua thought w
hoever it was had good equipment and training
since
they had not detected any enemy activity. They could be Pan African Alliance. “X, which militaries are equipped with the AT-26?”
“The AT-26 is
only known to be
issued to the Russian military. It is
their latest
anti-tank missile
.
”
“Penny,” Joshua spoke out. “I think we got Russians to deal with. They must be after the artifact
too
.
”
“
I agree
.” Penny
concluded
. “
There might be Russian troops in the facility already
.”
“Willie, we’ve got Russian hostiles in the area.” Joshua radioed. “We don’t know numbers, but they might be inside already.”
“
Mitch’s section is t
aking fire
.
“ Willie responded. “
They
just
got the drop on us!
Mitch’s section is
e
ngaging
a
twelve man
squad of Spetsnatz commandos in the garage. Marking coordinates. Requesting fire support
if possible
.”
Joshua looked at the Russian positions on the tactical display. Both sides were deep
within
the building, making long range fire support by missile or
gun impossible.
“
Negative. They’re too far inside.
We’re going to have to close in to support
you
.
Penny, advance on my right flank
.
X, l
aunch
the RPV
.
Let
’
s get a better picture.
”
A small saucer-shaped reconnaissance drone d
etached itself from the head of
Joshua’s
HARM.
The small drone
immediately
began to feed data back from its sensors. Whatever had fired the missiles could not be spotted. It was
likely they had moved and were
lying low under camouflage
. Still, a large mecha unit would not have been able to hide from the drone, so they were
probably
dealing
with combat walkers
or heavy
battlesuit
s
.
The two
Fenrir
HARM units
spaced themselves
100
metres apart to avoid bunching up, but close enough to provide support for each other. Coilgun ready in
the right
hand and
automatic cannon
ready on the other arm, they began a
trotting
advance
to
wards
the research facility.
Every so often they would fire a burst from the
automatic cannon
s on targets of opportunity.