Resilience (Warner's World Book 6) (28 page)

“What?”

“This establishment isn’t so humble. Mintoslum Corporation no less. Ooh yes we have cable connectivity, connecting now.” It took them a good five minutes to get re-routed via ISS HQ, the ISS detachment with BG Warner and then finally to connect to the human commander.

“This is Warner” hailed Dave.

“Commodore this is 1
^st
Lt Gregstorian commanding the 4
^th
ISS Detachment up ahead of you. I can see your smoke and presume you are about to attack the enemy between us. I am sending our positions to you now. How can we help?”

While Kalima was coordinating with the humans Branish began exploring the system now opened to him. He revelled in breaking through the firewalls. His approach was to knock on all doors, see which ones opened the easiest and ignore those. He was now at a location marked Fulmos Admin. It was an innocuous name. ‘But why have a triple A grade security access?’ asked Branish. ‘Let’s see then, hey?’

Most would have given up when the access control asked for the biometric scans, but not Branish. He pulled out another device from his backpack and while it took a few more minutes he finally cracked it. He let out a triumphant “Yes” as Tango 1 and Tango 2 began laying down some direct fire onto what Branish hoped was the enemy’s position.

“Leave it Branish” said Kalima “the attack’s starting.”

“You can handle that there can’t you? I’m onto something?” He had a glint in his eye and an almost manic expression.

“All right but hurry. If I call for you again, you come.”

“As always” said Branish without looking up to her. He was now navigating through the directory structure of this new treasure house. He came to a diagram file and launched it. The screen now showed a detailed plan of what appeared to be an underground tunnel system below Lewista. “Well I’ll be” said Branish out loud.

Kalima ignored him. She was focussed outside. The smoke was lifting from down below and was now blocking her vision to the battlewagons on the far hill. But it was dissipating fast. A sudden flurry of pulse fire from below told her that contact had been made.

Almost at the same time there was bright flash of lightning followed by an almost immediate crack of thunder. The heavens opened and the rain poured down in big droplets that smacked you when they made contact. Kalima smelt the rain and it felt good, though now she was regretting knocking out the window pane. She was getting wet as the rain splashed onto the window sill. She took a step back. The rain was coming down so heavy, like a sheet, masking her view of the battle in progress.

“Come and see this” called out Branish.

Kalima couldn’t see anything anyway so she stole a quick look at Branish’s terminal. “What is it?”

“Did you know there was a tunnel system under Lewista?” Kalima frowned at him as if to say ‘really?’ “No this is different to the public tunnels” added Branish.

That piqued her interest and she walked over quickly, scanned the diagram and her focus was drawn to the pointer Branish had positioned over a particular location…theirs. He then moved the pointer over to another one several kilometres away marked Treasury and then to a third location marked Casement.

“So what’s there” asked Kalima. Branish brought up the manifest. “Oh shit” said Kalima. She barked some instruction to one of her other NCOs and then hailed Dave.

“I think we’ve found it” she said.

“What?” replied Dave.

“The devices…you know the ones the enemy are after.”

“Where?”

Kalima asked Branish to annotate and copy the file to Warner. “A file’s on its way.”

“Got it but can’t read it. What format is it?”

“Damm.” After a minute’s discussion they realised that they had no conversion software that would work.

“You will have to come to us and we can show it to you.”

“That may take a while yet. Can’t you just give me the coordinates?”

“Well we can but it’s in a secret tunnel complex under the city. There is an access at our location.”

“All right hold on then.”

Dave tried to call Lizzy but she was too close to the enemy and being jammed. “Chase I need you to get to Lizzy and tell her we need to break through to this location asap. She needs to step up the tempo. Time is now more important than casualties.”

“Right but what about you?” said Chase.

“Go, go now. I’ll be fine.”

Chase took off at a jog down through the pouring rain. His fatigues were warranted to be showerproof but this was definitely more than a shower and he was already drenched. He cursed to himself as he looked up to see ahead only to have the rain smack his face. So he bent forward and ploughed on down the side of the sloping freeway.

He found the luminous marker that had been laid out to indicate the turn to the forming up place (FUP) for the attack. He could just hear the wack of pulse shot some way off muffled by the rain as he followed the markers. They were meant for the assault troops to help find their way in the smoke but now proved useful for Chase in the downpour.

From the FUP Chase headed for the sound of fire. He counted his paces as he jogged forward, not trusting that his GPS would work with the jamming. He knew from his earlier scan of the map that the enemy positions had been located about a 100m along. But he had so far counted 120 paces, which should have been around 100m and still no contact. At least that meant Lizzy’s force was making progress. That comforted Chase.

He heard a brace of grenade explosions that sounded like they impacted about 200m ahead. He wasn’t sure if they were friendly or enemy and knew there was only one way to find out. He reverted to a quick walk and moved on up the wide side street. On his left was a wire fence and he could make out some containers stacked on the other side but beyond that it merged into a white wall of water. Visibility was down to about 20m. On the far side of the street what looked like a double storey building came into view when the rain eased a little. He peered towards it, bringing up his borrowed rogan pulse rifle into his shoulder and looked through the sights. He was pleasantly surprised when he managed to adjust the zoom. But it was of little use right now.

He pushed on down the street and came to a junction with a cross street. The rain prevented him seeing down the cross street and that meant the enemy couldn’t see him either. The pulse fire sounded a lot closer now. He estimated no more than a 100m, maybe closer.

He moved across quickly and realised he was standing next to a much taller building on his left. He leaned his head back to peer upwards but immediately realised that was a mistake as the rain stung his face. He wiped his eyes with his left sleeve. The effort didn’t do much – it was purely instinctive.

It was then he was challenged by a marine. In fact Chase almost barrelled into him. He was grateful the marine had held his cool – an old hand Chase surmised. “She’s down there, second building on the right” said the marine. “Be careful, enemy on the other side of the street.”

Chase was grateful for the warning. He could not make out the second building just yet. A few more paces and it came into view. Another marine was posted at what looked like a loading bay. This one fired at him.

“Shit” called out Chase as he dived onto the road, ending up in a large puddle of water. “Stop your firing” he yelled at the top of his voice. With the competition from the rain it was only just loud enough. After a few stern remarks from Chase the marine escorted him to Lizzy.

His fatigues were now well and truly drenched but he was glad to be out of the rain. He found Lizzy with her subordinate commanders gathered around for an orders group. She looked up, surprised to see Chase, but didn’t say anything.

“I need to have a word…straight away” said Chase. He could see by the pained expression on Lizzy’s face that she had changed. She was not the same person he had known only fifty minutes ago. But he knew that combat and especially killing could do that to you.

“What is it then” said Lizzy making no attempt to move.

Chase would have preferred to deliver the message in private but time was of the essence. “The boss wants you to focus on this location here he said pulling up his portable console. That’s where the 4
^th
ISS Detachment is holed up. They seem to have found the devices we’re after and the entrance to the tunnel system that will lead us to it is there. It’s imperative we break through to them asap.” Chase looked at the wary faces looking back at him. But he knew he had to add this next bit even if he felt damm uncomfortable delivering it. With the most serious demeanour he could muster, he stated “Time is more important than casualties.”

“Is that all?” asked Lizzy, a hint of indignation in her voice.

“That’s all.”

“Leave it with us then” she stated without breaking her gaze. Chase knew she was telling him to piss off.

Chase nodded his head. He didn’t fancy going back out into the rain but he didn’t want to be breathing down Lizzy’s neck either.  So he made his way back to the entrance and sat down on a crate that some frustrated soul had kicked a hole in when they made their break into the building. Chase took a sip of water. Surprising with all the rain, he felt particularly thirsty.

He knew he should go back in and check up on their plan. He decided to give her two more minutes. After only one he was surprised to hear a volley of grenades and then so much pulse fire that the twangs merged into a blur of sound as the automatics and rifles let rip.

Chase stood up and made his way back to where the orders group had been in progress. No one was there now. He could hear a quanto firing from the floor above. He found the stairs and climbed the steps three at a time because they were built for smaller legs. He heard a huge explosion out in the street. He came up behind the gunner and his mate to see what it was. The gunner’s mate glanced to see who he was but then faced back ahead of her and fired off another shot. There were some flashes from across the street and Chase had to duck as some incoming fire flew over their heads.

As quickly as the storm had started, it ended – just a few desultory drops and then it was finished. Steam billowed up from the hot pavement and mingled with the dust and debris from the explosion. There was a huge whole in the wall of the building across the street. A marine body lay next to a destroyed droid.

It was the movement of the shapes below that caught Chase’s eye. A phalanx of six droids pushed through the breach. Grenades, rockets and pulse fire erupted from within. A line of marines followed quickly behind. Chase recognised the one in the centre as one of the subalterns at the orders group. He saw him fall as he crossed the breach but the other pushed in.

Chase felt a wrenching in his gut. He knew that he was partly responsible for this. He took a deep breath in as another group of marines charged in. The support fire from this side of the street ceased as the enemy abandoned its position. A figure came back from the breach and in the now fading light waved its arm to beckon the others forward.

Chapter 2. Lewista 1830, 21 September

“What makes you so sure?” asked Dave inside the Mintoslum building that Kalima claimed as her own. They were crowded around the terminal driven by Branish.

It had taken one more breaching operation before Lizzy had broken through and that had claimed another of her subalterns. She had a bitter expression on her face when Dave had thanked her for breaking through to the objective. But he did not have time now to address the feelings of his subordinate.

He hadn’t been too sure of the expression on Kalima’s face when she first saw him hobble in using a metal rod as a support staff. But that too was of no concern. What was driving him more than anything now was the need to secure or eliminate those devices.

Dave was now seated next to Branish. Dave did note the grin on Branish’s face. That was unmistakeable as were his large dark green eyes that almost seemed on fire. ‘Drugs?’ queried Dave of himself. But he put that aside too. Now it was Dave’s dark blue, smoky eyes that scrutinised Branish.

For the first time in a long time Branish felt the power of a strong intellect penetrating him. He acknowledged the moment with a nod to Dave that almost but not quite conveyed mutual respect. With a flick of his finger Branish brought up the manifest for the Casement. He then started dismissing the items with a flick of his finger till the top of the list showed one particular item. “That’s one of the devices.”

Dave knew that was not an answer to his question and he could feel the frustration rising within him. ‘Temper’ he reminded himself and took a breath in deliberately letting out long.

Branish gave a quick smile and then added “The reason I know that is because I have correlated every instance of this item prefix and they all relate to this project here.” Another flick and the screen changed to show a progress report. You see that there …Grendolium Ningtitis. It means New Dawn Final Test.” Branish hit another control and up came a message. “This is from the project manager to a logistics officer requesting conveyance of a consignment to the fleet base at Lewista spaceport. The dates I believe coincide with the departure of the IRS Fustus as reported in that Resistance footage publicly broadcasted.”

“Interesting” said Dave not totally convinced. “But it could just be for some standard comms gear.”

“Nothing is standard or comms related about this project. Let me show you something else. Here is a manifest for the delivery of a huge quantity of materials, none of which are regularly used in communications equipment. If it smells like a rat?” and Branish gave Dave a knowing look. “Besides do we waste more time debating or are we going to secure this location now.” Branish looked up into Dave’s eyes with an even bigger grin on his face.

Dave gave him a smile back. “Fair enough then.” Dave looked around at the others. “So can we get vehicles down this elevator?”

Chapter 3. Lewista 1840, 21 September

It was a weary Hecton that finally made contact with his 3
^rd
Brigade comrades. It had taken him an hour of tedious walking just to bypass the enemy and then another half hour to cover the few kilometres to the Treasury.