Star Force: Marauders (SF63) Read online

  “If our people aren’t geared up, get them so. We’ll be there shortly.”

  “Good luck,” Krivan offered before Mason deactivated the headset and tossed it back to the merc at the comms station.

  “Caught the last part of that,” Le’han’trel said, appearing behind Mason. “Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?”

  “What am I thinking?” he said, continuing to read through the detailed reports. “Take us down,” he added to the helmsman.

  “That we can’t do anything about their navy, but we could make a big impact on the ground.”

  “Depends how many more troops they keep bringing in.”

  “And it’s possibly the biggest payday we’ve ever seen.”

  Mason half smiled. “That thought had occurred to me.”

  “And?”

  “And I also know that if this force takes the planet, it’s going to destabilize the entire region. That means a lot of trouble, and our previous clientele list is going to dry up real fast…save for jobs probably fighting against these guys at some point or another.”

  “You think they’re after more than a full planet?”

  “I have no idea, but so much cargo goes through this system that it will wreck the economies of at least a dozen other worlds if Tieor falls.”

  “Chaos usually means good business for mercs.”

  “For the unscrupulous ones maybe, but remember that our clients have to have funds to pay us with, and if their cash flow gets disrupted their ability to hire will disappear when their bank accounts run dry.”

  “Point,” Le’han’trel conceded. “So, you want in on this?”

  “We’re going to take on some small missions just for the payday, but there’s no way we can handle an invasion this size on our own, even if the local defense force doesn’t totally fold.”

  “If you call in other units from the surrounding systems we can make one hell of a dent.”

  “That I’m not doing,” Mason said firmly. “This is Brayden’s Marauders, and Brayden will have to make that call.”

  “That’s a long delay.”

  “Which is why I’m recalling every unit under my command to have them standing by just in case he does give the go ahead. Damn it, get base back again,” he said, motioning for the headset. Once the merc keyed up the transmission, he tossed it back to Mason. “How many ships do we have insystem, and have any been sent out with word of what’s going on?”

  “We’ve still got the 13 parked in the spaceport, and the 29 came back with Nevil’s squad, but no one has gone out to spread the word, at least not from us.”

  “Get the 29 prepped for takeoff with a minimal crew as a courier. Have every bit of data you’ve collected onboard and I’ll add a final message once we hit planetside. Headquarters has to know what’s going on.”

  “They’ll be ready before then,” Krivan promised.

  Mason took the head set off and tossed it back to the comms station as the planet grew rapidly larger on the vid screen in front of them. “How do we look?”

  “No one is heading for us yet,” the helmsman said noncommittally.

  “Get us down quickly, but not too quick. We don’t want to make ourselves a priority target.”

  “Speedy turtle, copy.”

  Mason tapped Le’han’trel on the shoulder as he rushed past him, with the Protovic dropping into step beside as he headed back to where most of his team was situated, with him and the others in his wake making a few detours to round up the others and bring them all into the main lounge, cramped as it was with the full complement them in there.

  “Listen up,” Mason said as the last few scurried in. “Tieor is under attack by an invading fleet of unknown origin. They’ve already taken orbit and are kicking the crap out of the defense force on the ground, with several cities already under their control or soon to be. Our base is secure for the moment, and while we’re sending a courier back to Brayden to see what he wants to do about this we are going to take the local government’s generous offer for assistance and do some trimming around the edges. It’ll be some quick credits, for these guys aren’t all that well equipped, but they’re continuing to get more troops in from orbit so there’s no knowing how far this will escalate.”

  “Things look fairly bad now, but as most of you know, taking a planet is a long, tedious process and it looks like that’s what these guys are here to do. We’re going to slow them down a bit, make some profit, then let Brayden figure out the rest. Those of you with wounds I want back in base holding our little piece of real estate. The rest of you armor up immediately. Once we set down in the spaceport we’re taking the shuttles and heading out immediately. I doubt there’ll be much haggling over the contract given present circumstances, and I expect to have it signed and confirmed before we arrive at the periphery of the fighting.”

  Mason took a deep breath and let it out slowly in an audible sigh. “This is bigger than anything the Marauders have tackled to date, but nothing compared to what we’ve gone up against versus the lizards or Skarrons. I don’t want any sloppiness in the transition, because I expect we all have a bit of rust to shake off. Life as a merc is a lot less strenuous, and we’re going to have to dust off our old skills to make this mission a go. We’re going up against an army again, so don’t underestimate the opposition. They’re primitive compared to us, but they’re not just randomly hitting Tieor. They’re doing so with a well-executed plan thus far, and we’re going to disrupt it as much as we can. Expect reprisals, and if I say to pull out don’t hesitate.”

  “They also have tank and air support, so we’re going to have to be cautious. We’re not devoting ours this early, so this will just be infantry ops. I’m leading the first mission to see what these guys are made of, and until we get a proper name we’re referring to them as ‘Tangos.’ Once I get a feel for the Tangos we’ll send out multiple strike teams, but I’m taking an initial team of 20 out, with volunteers getting first dibs…and since the guys on the ground aren’t up to speed yet, you guys get first call. If you don’t feel up to this then don’t step up. I need sharp guys for this first mission, given that we don’t know what we’re up against yet.”

  “Gear up regardless. Unless you’re in your bunk I want you ready to fight at a moment’s notice. I don’t know how this is all going to play out, so we’ve got to be ready to adjust and adapt quickly. Also, there are going to be other mercenary units out there fighting alongside the Tieor troops. We’ll try to avoid them as much as we can, but don’t put it past some of our competitors to stab us in the back if they get the chance, so keep your eyes open and our base secure. Going forward there are no guarantees.”

  Mason made eye contact with several of the varied races around him, seeing looks of anticipation and gravity. These were all seasoned vets that knew the score, and like himself they were ready for a bigger challenge than usual…especially if they were going to get paid a lot to do it.

  “Alright, get going,” he said, with a clap of his hands, prompting everyone to start moving in a controlled hustle out of the lounge, save for Willis who was sitting on the couch with the hole in his shoulder still plugged up with healing packs.

  “You stay put,” Mason said as he left, pointing a finger at him for emphasis. Next order of business was securing a contract with the locals, so he headed back to the bridge to give the defense force the good news and to settle on a price.

  10

  July 18, 2735

  Noop System

  Tieor

  “What?” Mason half-yelled into his helmet as he ran through Tieor’s streets. He and two other Marauders were heading to a breach point in the city of Machna that had just come under attack, but the Tangos had caught them out of position by finding some subsurface tunnels to skirt the perimeter defenses. No one else had caught it yet, and the Lieutenant knew that they were the only ones that could plug the hole in time. For all he knew, they could be sending an army in through the shafts, but if they could ca
tch them confined they could bottle them up. He had other Marauders closing in, but his trio was the closest.

  “Dropships coming down,” another Marauder told him, situated back in ‘safety’ and coordinating all of their disparate positions throughout the chaotic city as the populace began to flee, making running through the streets problematic, even in armor, for Mason was constantly having to avoid or bump out of the way the locals scrambling about. “Big ones, headed for the outskirts of the city. Looks like they’ve got a lot more troops heading your way.”

  “Who the hell are these guys?”

  “Don’t know, boss, but you’ve got a few minutes before they hit dirt.”

  “Copy,” Mason said, knocking aside a Vichni as the fat alien jumped out in front of him from a nearby building. The merc half twisted to make it a moving hit, for every second he delayed the enemy consolidated its strength inside the city.

  Not much further up he came to a cross street of smaller width and turned hard left, running into a group of Donklap and half jumping over them with his legs hitting their short heads. He turned the fall into a crude somersault, landing on his armor’s pack and turning over onto his feet. A moment’s delay and he was back up into a run after making sure none of his weapons had fallen off their attachment hooks in the tumble.

  The other two Marauders were still with him a few strides back when they got to the tunnel cupola, which was ominously empty. The subsurface transit system moved throughout the city, but didn’t pass beyond it, meaning the Tangos had found a service link or something to make their way into it. With no people moving about, it meant they were down there and had killed or scared off everyone.

  Mason pulled his rifle off his back rack hook and primed it, finally flicking on his energy shields now that there were no pedestrians around to run into as he got to the stairs and dropped to a knee as he slung the side of his body around to the right and scoped out the descent.

  A yellow plasma orb flashed by his head, with him firing a blue lance back almost on reflex into the knot of troops stationed below behind some trash cans and other impromptu barricades they’d rearranged. With just that second of a glance he knew they were holing up to protect more troops coming through, which meant they had to act quickly.

  Mason fired off three more shots, causing two of the Tangos to duck down while one kept firing at him, finally grazing his shoulder and draining some energy off his shield.

  “Blow through!” he ordered just before the other two Marauders caught up to him. At his word they didn’t slow and made the turn at a run, barreling down the stairs and firing as they went.

  Mason stood up and followed them down the moment they were past, with all three fanning out laterally so they could fire without blocking each other. They all took hits, but between their shields and speed they got on top of the defenders within a few seconds, firing into them at pointblank range before switching over to hand to hand and knocking the dozen or so of them aside with fist, foot, and rifle butts.

  It was a risky ploy, but Mason knew from experience that if they waited it would only get worse. The Lieutenant smashed one of the unfamiliar bipeds back into a support pillar, with its thick, armored arms flailing wildly with the hit as it spun off the stone to the floor. A green plasma streak hit it on the way down, then two more from the other Marauders burnt through the rest of its armor before Mason was back to hand to hand, flipping another over and onto the ground before squeezing off a single shot against one that Vick had knocked back.

  The mess of brown armor around them dropped to the ground over the next half minute, with the red stripes on the blue Marauder armor gaining a host of melty dots alongside them, but all three mercs had avoided any penetrations and sought to avoid any further chance by going around and pumping shots into the fallen Tangos, dead or not, just to make sure. They had about 10 seconds to work through them before another two came up from below and opened fire.

  The mercs broke up and ran to the sides of the landing at the base of the stairs, with Mason diving over a trash can and coming up out of a combat roll firing. A few crisscrossing, well-aimed shots downed those two Tangos before they could do much damage, though Mason’s left thigh now sported a new melt mark just above the knee.

  “Down!” he yelled over the comm as he ran forward and over the next set of stairs.

  “On your six,” another voice said, with Mason glancing back and seeing four more Marauders at the top of the stairs coming in to back them up.

  Mason didn’t wait on them, leading his pair and them down further into the tunnel junction and immediately seeing the Tango’s entry point, along with another three coming out of a wall panel on the other side of the monorail line that crossed left to right. He fired on the first of them immediately, veering right to expose the firing lines of those behind him as yellow plasma came back his way. He was able to dodge the first few shots, then a fireworks display of blue lances shot out past his left side and took down the Tangos after a few seconds of repeated hits to their chest armor.

  A fourth was just coming out of what looked like a maintenance crawlspace, so Mason shot him twice before running up to the position and pulling him out the rest of the way, dumping him on the ground for the others to finish shooting as the Lieutenant put his barrel into the shaft and fired repeatedly down it at whoever else was in there.

  “Blow it,” he ordered, knowing that one of the men behind him had some small explosives in his pack. Mason and most of the others didn’t, carrying ammo resupply for what they expected to be an extended firefight, but they’d learned long ago that a few ‘boom booms’ could come in handy now and then.

  A yellow orb flew out of the shaft and hit Mason in the helmet, partially deflecting off his regenerating shields, but the rest got through and melted his faceplate, giving him a distortion over his left eye as he ducked to the side and away from the shaft. Two other Marauders stepped up and fired inside, then the other came forward with a pair of grenades and chucked them in.

  “Back!” he said as Mason and the others scrambled away. A few seconds later they detonated and blew out half of the wall in a plume of dusty debris.

  “Check it,” Mason ordered, still to the side and inspecting his helmet from the inside with an armored finger pressing against the melt point to see if it had broken through the material or not. Fortunately it hadn’t, but there wasn’t much material left and he figured another solid shot would make it through to his face.

  “Back!” he heard again, turning his face away as another large explosion burst out in all directions, covering him with small bits of debris as the Marauder added another grenade.

  “Sealed,” he heard through the dust, then a gust of fresh air from above pushed the grey fog aside and he could see the mess of wall and machinery blocking what had once been the maintenance shaft.

  “Put an eye on it,” Mason ordered as he headed back to the stairs.

  One of the Marauders pulled a small camera out of his pack and stepped up on a trash can so he could reach the ceiling, where he glued it in place focused on the grenade damage. He activated the telemetry and checked that the controller was getting the feed. Once confirmation was made he hopped down and ran off after the others, leaving the live feed to monitor the debris in case it was dug out and the Tangos tried to come through again in lieu of leaving a man behind to watch over it.

  “Lieutenant, get to a building top now,” the controller said.

  “What’s wrong?” Mason asked, looking around and spotting the tallest building near him and heading towards it as the rest of the Marauders split up.

  “I need visual confirmation of the landing ships.”

  “On my way,” the ex-commando said, finding the local’s equivalent of a stairwell and climbing up the emergency ladder shaft that ran next to the lift. He didn’t want to bother with it, not knowing how many other people were cramming inside or how long he’d have to wait, so he climbed the plate-like steps until he came to the top cupola that
ended in a phone booth-like structure on the roof. He ran outside and looked around, guessing as to the direction the landing craft would be based on the current fighting going on in the southeast quadrant.

  Sure enough that’s where the ships were, three of them in total and spaced at least a couple miles from the perimeter defense lines where the Tangos were currently engaging the defense forces and mercs stupid enough to line up in their path. The Tangos spreading out and trying to flank those more or less stationary positions were what the Marauders were going after, supplementing the defenders without getting themselves involved in more than they could handle with the few dozen infantry he had deployed.

  He didn’t recognize the design of the ships, but two were clearly troop transports. The third, however, was a grounding craft, carrying underneath it something that Mason hadn’t seen in a very long time, and the sight of the white sphere sent a shiver down his spine.

  “Confirmed, control. That’s a Skarron Type-5 walker.”

  “How the hell did these guys get their hands on one of those?”

  “I don’t know, but we don’t have anything here that can take that down, and neither do the locals.”

  “What do you want to do?”

  “Keep our fighters the hell away from that thing. In fact, don’t let any of our units get within spitting distance. We’ll work on their infantry…and see where this goes.”

  Trayven walked into Brayden’s office, knocking on the open door to get his attention. The Colonel of the Marauders looked up from the datapad that had the report from Tieor on it, with him going over the military aspects of this unidentified army for the umpteenth time.

  “Are the ships loaded?”

  “Not yet, we’re still waiting on a couple of transports,” Trayven said, holding up a datachip. “We just got another courier from Tieor.”

  “Bad news?” Brayden guessed, gesturing for his ops commander to toss it to him. It’d been several weeks since the first courier arrived, but to send another so quickly meant something had to have changed or they wouldn’t have wasted the ship.