Star Force: Origin Series (17-20) Page 32

  “Third on the left,” Harrison suggested.

  Paul walked down to the third set of stalls and opened the door on the left, finding their gear satchels stacked neatly on the floor. He opened the one containing their plasma rifle ammo and pulled out several small disposable boxes that held 9 rounds each, then sat down on the floor in the middle of the room and began to reload his weapon.

  “Now that we’re in…” Harrison asked.

  “Thin their numbers,” Paul answered, still loading. “Randomly. Hit above and below this level, but don’t try to carve out any territory. See what kind of reinforcement rate they have and if we can bleed them dry. If we can’t, then we move our base up progressively until we get near the barricades, then we find or make a hole to get through.”

  “Before or after we run out of ammo?”

  “Depends how many lizards they’ve got to throw at us. If need be we use their weapons, but the more we kill here the less they have to redeploy elsewhere. And you’ve already seen that they’re setting up this building for a long term occupation. The more we disrupt that the better,” Paul said, finishing his reload and standing up.

  “Pairs?”

  “Singles. Kali, Fred, make a run through the two higher levels. Keep it random and a straight shot and shoot what you can on sight, but don’t get pinned down. Harrison, you’ve got this level. I’m going back the way I came for a weapons grab.”

  Harrison walked past Paul and headed out the far door while Paul backtracked through the half mile wide building to the staircase he’d come up, finding the stack of bodies where he’d left them. Listening for sounds of activity further down he began rifling through the corpses and pulling out their plasma rifles, tucking a stack of four under his left arm before retreating one section over and stashing them in a random office, hiding them under a desk.

  He repeated the process in other rooms across the level, killing two more lizards who had the misfortunate of running into him. He left those bodies and the others where they were for the other lizards to find, not wanting to give them the impression that he cared about this level more than the others by cleaning it up.

  Afterwards he conferred with his fellow Archons and began following up their raids with sneak runs to grab up the lizard weapons. He wasn’t always successful, as more lizards began moving into the areas they were cleaning out, but later on that day his captured weapon count surpassed 120, which he used to create small weapons caches around the building that he marked on the battlemap for the others to find should they run out of ammo without being able to return to base.

  The next day the incoming flow of lizard reinforcements coming up from below suddenly stopped, with Paul thinking they’d finally bled them dry until Kali happened across a group of lizards coming down from above and heading straight through the 10-15 levels that the four Archons were terrorizing without even bothering to get off the staircase. Paul found that odd so he caught up with and followed the lizards down all the way to the lower five levels, noting that all others in between had been empty as far as he could see.

  The usual check points, barricaded halls, and guarded rooms were devoid of lizards. Paul even made a side trip over to what they had identified earlier as a lizard stronghold, finding the room full of lizard gear but completely empty of occupants. Frowning, he retreated back over to the staircase and followed the lizards on down, wondering what they were doing…and hoping that they hadn’t decided to blow up the building.

  To his surprise blue dots began popping up on his battlemap when he descended to the 4th floor, suddenly explaining why the lizards had been moving down en mass.

  Abandoning his recon run Paul charged down to the third level, then the second before he caught up with any of the lizards, running up on the back of a group of six that were holding a barricade checkpoint near the stairwell as others were retreating back to their position in ones and twos.

  Tucking his rifle onto his back Paul whipped out and activated his stun sword, running up behind the lizards and getting the drop on them, jabbing and slashing them into unconsciousness until he claimed the checkpoint barricades for his own, then he switched over to his rifle again and began shooting the retreating lizards from cover, sparring a shot now and then for those on the ground around him.

  After clearing out the hallway Paul abandoned his position and ran forward, searching out the closest firefight. He caught two more lizards in retreat before he came up on an intact barricade defense onto an overlook of the building’s main lobby that was the size of several football fields. As he got closer dozens of blue dots began popping up all around him, with most of them centered on that open area…and all of which were tagged as Canderians.

  Paul switched weapons again and ambushed this barricade from behind as he had the last one, then he kicked aside one of the sturdy, but not incredibly heavy, plastic-like obstructions and ran out onto the walkway ringing the lobby. One level below him there were knots of lizards holding out against the Canderians, but only because they’d been cut off from any hope of retreat. To his right and left there were more defenses set up, but many of them were pulling back as Canderians in full green body armor were popping up at various positions on the second floor perimeter and flanking the turrets and gunners firing down on the invading troops.

  Paul did likewise, running off to the right and taking down a lizard manning a more beefy, manually fired turret that was blasting away parts of the floor below. Paul kicked it out of the small gunner’s seat and shot it dead, then moved on to a knot of snipers, taking two down before the other three even noticed he was there. He continued running the edge of the 3-sided box all the way up to the windows on the front of the building as the Canderians swarmed over the lizard defenses, then he backtracked and met up with a group coming up one of the stairwells, killing a retreating lizard in the process.

  Paul waved the four Canderians forward and led them across the level to the nearest knot of resistance and helped them take it down before his helmet comm activated.

  “Sir, Arc Tribune Raines reporting. We are at your command.”

  Paul located his signal position on the battlemap and started jogging towards it through the hallways.

  “Glad to have the backup, Tribune. The lizards have been reinforcing this building periodically, so I need you to establish a defensive line in the lobby and all other level 1 entrances. I’ve got three other Archons on the higher levels and we’ve been thinning their numbers for the past two days, but they’ve got the upper part of the building locked down and that’s where we need to go,” Paul said as he rounded a corner and saw Raines’ ID tag pop up over one of several identical green suits of armor roaming the hallways.

  “What do they have up there?” the slightly taller man asked as they met faceplate to faceplate.

  “They’ve been redecorating the entire building with various pieces of equipment, but I think they’re using the comm systems to send out the jamming signal messing with our battlemap.”

  “There’s more than one signal, I’m afraid. Control had identified a minimum of 4 sources before we entered the dead zone, and that was 4 hours ago.”

  “What’d you come in on?”

  “Assault shuttles, but we had to ground several blocks away and fight our way up here. The lizards have mobile anti-air vehicles roaming the streets along with what we’re calling ‘chip’ missile launchers mixed in with their infantry. Something new, I think, as far as the intel reports have indicated.”

  “How many men have you got?”

  “Four centuries on the ground, with the others being flown down as fast as we can get them here. We would have liked to have landed on the roof, but the lizards have it full of anti-air emplacements. If we can take those down my men won’t have to hoof it several kilometers over here after landing.”

  Paul nodded his agreement. Four centuries meant approximately 1000 soldiers in play, which should be enough to hold the building at ground level, but if the lizards were using
the landing pads on the roof it was possible they could have been reinforcing from that direction…though to date he hadn’t seen any kirbies flying that high, probably due to the fact that they didn’t want to risk being taken down by the defense towers.

  “How many defense towers are down?”

  “Two more since yesterday, both ground affairs, but their cruisers are so beat up we’ve still got air superiority at altitude, just not down in the trenches. Skeet and gunship assaults are being fended off by their anti-air assets, but they were able to provide a distraction for our landing.”

  “Any mech support on the ground?”

  “Yesterday six dropships of reinforcements from up north were intercepted by a lizard cruiser. Two were shot down while the others were able to retreat. That cruiser is still lingering about, out of turret range, and preventing any of our larger transports from getting to the city. I think they know our mechs will eat up their vehicles and don’t want us getting more in play.”

  “Damn it,” Paul said, looking around at the growing number of Canderians standing and listening to the two men. “I want sweeps on the ground level immediately, with checkpoints on all stairwells and elevators. Once cleared, we move up and repeat on the next level. I also want your best evocaton released to me to push upwards. Keep one stairwell with a man on each level to act as a relay for our comms and battlemap.”

  “I’ll have your evocaton here within 3 minutes,” the Tribune promised, getting in contact with his men as Paul headed over to the nearest stairwell and waited, switching his comm gear over to relay status. In addition to his own identification signal his armor’s built in gear now began transmitting his battlemap data out as well as serving as a data relay for short range signals passing between distant targets. Normally transmitters within the city or on mechs and aircraft would handle those duties, but given the extreme short range the troops were facing with the whiteout they were going to have to link up their armor systems to stay in contact.

  A few minutes later the 43 troops of his evocaton arrived. 6 Triarill, each composed of 6 troops and their leading Triarii, made up the larger Canderian unit, led by an Evocati that Paul’s HUD tagged as Lila-A623-34. Like the Archons all Canderians only had one name with an identification number to follow. In their case the first sequence identified their orisect, which was the family unit they’d been raised with, followed by their ‘familiar’ number used within that orisect, ranging from 00-99. Canderian converts, made up of initiates who did not enter their training programs at birth, had their orisect number listed first, followed by the letter, while those who joined through periodic or individual training had a sequential number bracketed by Rs, such as R236R, indicating that they were of ‘rogue’ origin.

  “Lila,” Paul said as she arrived with the others. “We’re going up to rendezvous with 3 other Archons. Follow me by twos and keep it close. Have all your men set their helmets to relay mode.

  “Lead on,” she prompted before giving unit commands that Paul couldn’t hear to her Evocaton.

  He took to the stairs, sword in hand, and led them back up to their base of operations, dispatching 20 of their men by 5s to guard the four walkway access points to the surrounding buildings on the way up. As soon as Kali’s dot appeared on his battlemap he got on the comm.

  “Switch to relay mode, we’ve got Canderous reinforcements. That’s what the lizards were running towards. What’s the activity level been up here?”

  “A few passing groups headed down,” she answered as Fred and Harrison’s dots popped up on separate sections of the map, adding them into the teamcomm. “Other than that it’s been quiet as a tomb. Harrison went up to check the floors above.”

  “Quiet all the way to the barricade line. Drew some fire there, so they haven’t abandoned their positions. Looks like you made some friends?”

  “There are 1000 more downstairs and more on the way,” Paul said, finally seeing Kali as she stepped out into the hallway from her hiding place. “They’re going to execute a floor by floor sweep and keep the walkways covered. In the meantime we’re poking a hole into the upstairs.”

  Paul turned towards Lila. “Give her a Triarill and assign two more for the other Archons. You and the remainder stick with me.”

  The green armored Canderian made two quick hand gestures and a group of seven troops broke off and advanced to Kali’s position.

  “Are the elevators functional?” Lila asked.

  “We cut the power feeds a few hours ago so the lizards couldn’t use them,” Paul said as he ran off toward Fred’s dot elsewhere on the same level while Harrison was coming down from one above. “They hacked the controls from the upper floors where the Duke had locked them out and I don’t have the gear with me to override from down here. Besides, they’d be stupid if they didn’t have the exits guarded with those portable turrets of theirs.”

  “Stairs then?” she asked, dispatching Fred’s men with another quick gesture as the Archon came into view. Paul took a quick turn and headed a different direction, reducing the Canderians following him down to 9.

  “They’ve upgraded the furniture piles the Duke made with additional junk, leaving only one route clear and that’s heavily guarded.”

  “We have men with explosives downstairs,” the Evocati offered.

  “We’ll save that as a fallback. We’ve got a few options already laid out, we’ve just been low on manpower.”

  A few steps later and they were at another staircase, meeting Harrison as he came down.

  “Take your men and hit point 5,” Paul told him as they ran by and he took to the stairs with only Lila and one other Canderian following him.

  “You taking 4?” Harrison asked over the comm as Paul disappeared up to the next level.

  “We’re keeping 1 honest and redeploying as necessary. Issue your troops lizard rifles, two each.”

  “On it,” Harrison said.

  Paul ran up three flights of stairs before making a detour to the south, hopping over a dead lizard that the others hadn’t bothered to pick up yet, and darting into a residential block consisting of only 4 quarters with doors all facing one another. They were used either by high ranking staff that migrated from location to location on a temporary basis or by those regulars that didn’t work a standard shift and spent repetitive, irregular hours in the building, such as Duke Hightower.

  None of these four were his, and two of them were currently unused. Paul led his pair of Canderians into one of them and back into the small bedroom, placing his stun sword on top of the geometrically shaped bed as he knelt down on the other side and pulled open a storage drawer from underneath it.

  “Extra firepower,” he said, tossing the Canderians four lizard rifles from one of the Archons’ many stashes.

  6

  Paul ducked behind what was left of one of the lizard barricades, trying to contort his body around the holes the plasma from their portable turret had melted out. He and his two Canderians had managed to take down the first line of lizard defenses around point 1, eliminating their guards on the first row of three barricades in two opposite facing hallways. Getting up to them had been problematic, but Paul was now positioned on the outside of the first row as the turret was blasting away and eating through the barrier trying to get at him.

  A particularly close blast lit up his faceplate with a flash of green as he patiently crunched down, waiting for the others to attack from the opposite side.

  It took the pair some time to run around the flank, having to retreat quite a ways to get around the block and come in opposite their previous position. They’d already hit that side earlier, but the lizards had reinforced it with additional personnel…one shy of what they had earlier, which he took as a sign that the others were drawing off a lot of attention. That had been his job, which meant they needed to hit this position harder, hence his one man assault on the turret.

  “It’s spinning,” Lila said through his helmet as she fired off both her captured lizard rifles f
rom the opposite side, nailing one of their troops in the head on accident as she aimed for the armored turret. Her plasma missed wide and high at first, given the length of the hallway, but she caught a few hits on the gunner’s seat shields, which flashed opaque as they protected the lizard from behind. The plasma turret started to spin around with a decidedly slow rotational speed then fired at the Canderians down the length of the hallway.

  The green orbs that came their way were more than three times as large as the ones coming from the rifles of the lizards behind the barricades. The turret was elevated to fire over their heads, so Lila had to keep around the corner behind cover to avoid getting mowed down, but poked one of her arms around to keep firing plasma their direction, hoping to grab their attention and not accidentally hit Paul on the far side as he leapt over the first line of barricades firing away with his Star Force plasma rifle.

  He wasn’t aiming for the turret, however, despite the fact that the shields had to be near depletion. His aim was on the pair of lizards behind the second row of barricades. He had to take a hit to his right arm to get at them, but he shot them down inside of 1.5 seconds and hurdled the barricade.

  He knew he should have slid down behind it, or at least the third one and fought it out inches away from the others, but his objective was knocking out the turret and drawing up more lizard reinforcements. Other than the hit on the shoulder his armor was in fairly good condition, with only a few nicks here and there, so he decided to get reckless and jumped over the third barricade…and the lizards kneeling behind it.

  He landed on one’s tail, then spun kicked the nearest one in the head, knocking it out with one blow just before he shot the one next to it, taking a shot in his back at the same time.

  Paul rolled forward and twisted over, shooting back over his head and downing the last two lizards there as the turret spun and tried to shoot him…but he was now under its depression angle and it couldn’t lower the weapon low enough to target him. Before the other lizards stationed in the stairwell niche could fire at him he scurried across the floor and positioned himself between the turret and the wall opposite the stairs, then fired into the backs of the lizards on the opposite barricade as the Canderians were continuing to exchange fire with them, of which a few plasma blasts were hitting the turret.