Merkiaari Wars: 04 - Operation Breakout Read online

  “Semper-fi!”

  “Oo-rah! Get it done, Sergeant, and don’t sweat the ammo.”

  Barnes organised his squad by placing himself in the central, and arguably the most dangerous, position before ordering his crew to lob sensor balls around the corner. Perry approved of the idea though the few he had used earlier hadn’t lasted longer than the time it had taken for the enemy to target them. The golf ball sized sensors had a number of uses in the field. On a battlefield under an open sky, they could be placed at a distance to increase the range of helmet sensors—a very real benefit. Here though, they were only useful in the way they allowed everyone to see the enemy visually without stepping into line of sight. Barnes didn’t care about that obviously, because he didn’t wait to view the take from the remotes. His squad followed the devices around the corner, and opened up on the barricades while the hijackers were fragging the sensor balls.

  Priceless, Perry thought gleefully, determined to remember the trick. The enemy lost a precious few seconds killing the sensors, and Barnes’ crew took full advantage. Three M3B autocannons spun up and hosed the barricade. The distinctive ripping sound of hyper-velocity rounds deafened those nearby as Barnes’ and his men marched in lockstep playing their fire over every exposed surface. The two AARs seemed a mere sideshow in comparison, but they actually did more damage per shot than the M3Bs. The difference was hard to determine however. With barrels spinning at 3000rpm and spitting flame, the autocannons’ tracer rounds sliced everything in their path like a laser scalpel. The brilliant lines of light connecting marines to their targets were a beautiful sight to Perry and his men. It said progress was finally being made. The AARs thudded repeatedly blowing gaping holes in walls, deck, overhead, and barricades. Where the autocannon rounds seemed to cut surgically through men and material, the rail guns smashed, hammered, and generally bludgeoned through everything in their path. Railgun rounds were solid slugs of destruction. They hit obstacles so hard and fast that they vaporised upon impact, converting their mass and the mass of the target to boiling gas and metallic particles. The flashes of light were bright enough to polarise helmet visors, darkening them to protect vulnerable eyes.

  The hijackers couldn’t possibly hold. Those that weren’t killed immediately fled, or tried to. Barnes didn’t check fire. If anything he encouraged his crew to pour it on. He had taken his orders to heart, and besides, marines loved kicking arse. Killing the killers of marines? Bonus! His squad poured fire downrange until one after the other the autocannons fell silent. Out of ammo. The two AARs, one of them in Barnes’ own capable hands, continued thudding, mangling the remains of the hijackers and the ship’s structure nearby, until even he began to have doubts that Perry would approve, but he would have been wrong there. Railguns had a much lower cyclic rate, which meant they still had ammo to burn, and as long as the barrage continued, any surviving hijackers could not organise to prevent the advance.

  “Keep going!” Perry ordered. “Take and hold the junction beyond the barricade.”

  “You heard him,” Barnes growled on the squad circuit. “Simms, Lipton, Grady… disengage your cannons. We’ll pick them up on the way back. Use your rifles. Take and hold the junction. Jackson, hug the right wall, I’ll take the left. We’ll cover them.”

  “Aye, aye,” Barnes’ squad chorused.

  Perry noted his orders being carried out only peripherally. He had all his men on sensors, but was more interested in splitting his force into two assault teams. He would command the attack upon the bridge, while Lieutenant Barrass and Deacon took care of business in engineering. Barrass was still a little green. Deacon could babysit. He decided to give Barrass one of the AARs too. Jackson. Perry wanted Barnes with him, but would let the sergeant choose who among his squad to send with Jackson.

  Perry quickly gave his orders, and they split into two assault teams. Perry led his half of the men along the backbone going forward, while Barrass led his team the opposite way toward engineering. With sensors trawling for any sign of the enemy, and with squads clearing side passages and compartments leading off them, Perry quickly gained ground making up for lost time. Appleford hadn’t mentioned any time limits, but Perry knew Captain Colgan would want the fight expedited if only because there was another battle upon the raider ship to attend to. As far as Perry knew, the plan called for Jean de Vienne’s capture, not its destruction, which meant marines would be needed aboard to secure her.

  Resistance finally stiffened and brought the advance to a crashing halt.

  Pulser fire crisscrossed the open passage between the two forces. Perry ordered grenades used, and Barnes’ hammered away with his AAR, but unlike last time the raiders hunkered down and took their punishment. It wasn’t as if they couldn’t retreat. They could. They were holding a major junction, and any of three directions would let them escape the fire they were absorbing, at least briefly, but they didn’t take any of the choices offered. Perry puzzled over it briefly before calling up a schematic on his HUD. It took no more than a glance to provide an answer. The left and right passages were of no importance, leading to crew berthing areas mainly, but the one behind the raiders led directly to the main elevator shaft connecting this deck with the others. One of the destinations available to that elevator would be the bridge deck and computer centre.

  Voyce hadn’t sallied, which said to Perry this wasn’t the force laying siege to the bridge itself, but it had to be the last blocking force left to stall his marines. Take them out, and the battle was as good as won. He considered and discarded options. He didn’t have many. He couldn’t flank, he couldn’t advance, and he wouldn’t retreat. What else was there? Negotiation maybe. The thought didn’t appeal. He wondered how things were going in engineering and decided to ask.

  “Assault Two, Assault One. Report,” Perry said and adding his own fire to that of his men. He didn’t hit anything but the raider he had aimed for ducked back out of sight.

  “Assault One, Assault Two,” Lieutenant Barras responded. “We’re at the final hatch now. Hostiles are inside.”

  That wasn’t good. The hijackers could depressurise the ship and turn off the lights. Neither eventuality would hamper the marines too badly. Their suits were self contained. They didn’t rely upon the ship’s air, and their helmets had the full package. Motion sensors and infrared sensors meant his men could fight in absolute darkness if they had to, but there was another thing the jackers could do that would be a serious problem. They could turn off the gravity. Hell, they could do worse than that. They could scuttle the ship. Boom, everyone dies.

  “Are they talking?” Perry said.

  “No, sir. I’m about to take them by storm. Orders?”

  Orders, right. Barrass was on the spot, Perry shouldn’t second guess him, but he really wanted to. He wanted to warn him not to shoot up the ship too badly; he wanted to remind him what could happen if the wrong thing in there was hit. He wanted to say don’t fuck up! But he didn’t. He couldn’t undermine the man’s confidence that way. He comforted himself with the knowledge that Barrass had Deacon riding herd on him, and Deacon was an older head with decades of experience. Besides, Perry himself had been an LT like Barrass only last month and they were of an age. They’d both had the same training and knew what was at stake.

  “You know what’s needed, Paul,” Perry said. “And you’re on the spot. Report when you have all secured there. Assault One out.”

  “Understood. Two out.”

  Perry prayed he’d just done the right thing. There wasn’t anything else he could do, and he had his own situation to deal with. He ducked as enemy fire sought him out, slugs ricocheting off the wall by his head followed by plasma. They had him zeroed. More plasma flashed toward him, and he felt the heat even through his suit. Plasma splashed all around him suddenly, burning and scorching his armour. He rolled away, as his armour’s nanocoat reacted becoming mirror bright trying to reflect and refract the shots. Light bloomed and flared all around him briefly like a halo as his
armour battled to save him. God damn them! He scuttled away and out of the line of fire.

  He halted his retreat further back from the front line than he wanted, but even so, he was still vulnerable. They all were. At least the enemy would have to expose themselves for longer to hit him back here.

  Someone screamed, and Perry flinched. He lowered the volume of his comm. His men were taking casualties. He couldn’t tell who it had been, but it had been on his command circuit. Not one of Barrass’ men then. He tried to see if anyone was down, but most were lying on the deck already to snipe at the enemy.

  “Who was hit?” Perry asked over his all units channel. No one replied. “Sound off damn it! Who screamed?”

  “It was Lawson, sir,” Barnes said. “She’s dead.”

  Damn them! “Copy.”

  He considered ordering a charge. Archaic, but it might work. It should get them closer at least, but he would take losses out in the open like that. More losses. Another shout, but this one turned into curses until Barnes told Grady to shut it down. Only wounded, Perry realised relaxing a little. He was taking too long to decide what to do! The longer he hesitated, the more casualties he would take. What would Appleford have done at this point?

  He called up the schematic on his HUD and tried to find a way to flank, but there wasn’t one. This was the only way to their objective. What was left? He considered negotiation again. Trying to talk wasn’t what he wanted to do, especially after Lawson, but it might save lives on his side. He sighed. He figured there was nothing to lose by trying.

  “Check fire!” Perry ordered and waited a few seconds for his men to comply. He selected a new channel and his voice boomed from external speakers. “This is Captain Perry, Alliance Marine Corps! Lay down your arms and I guarantee safe conduct to my ship and good treatment.”

  “Fuck you!” someone yelled back.

  “You cannot win. We have your ship outgunned and my men are taking engineering from your friends as we speak. Lay down your arms.”

  This time there was silence. No weapon’s fire could be a good sign, but no talking could mean anything. Maybe they were debating the situation or asking for orders. Not likely asking for orders; they weren’t soldiers, just pirate scum. Maybe they were checking on their buddies in engineering.

  “How do we know you won’t just kill us?”

  Perry’s eyebrows climbed. That had actually sounded promising. “Because I’m a marine and I say so!”

  More silence and then... “We’re coming out!”

  Perry quickly ordered his men to hold fire but to be ready for any tricks. He watched with his rifle up and aimed as nine space suited figures stepped into the open with hands empty and raised.

  “Barnes, get them checked for weapons and squared away under guard.

  “Aye, sir.”

  Perry turned his attention to his objective. The bridge. “Captain Voyce, your situation?”

  “Still holding. They’re burning through the hatch.”

  “Right. We’ve taken care of the final blocking force. I’ll be with you in less than two minutes.”

  “I’m going to hold you to that,” Voyce said trying for calm but Perry could hear the terror barely contained. “We lost contact with engineering.”

  “I know. My men are dealing with that right now. Perry out.”

  He turned to find Barnes’ had ordered the raiders to strip. Without their suits they would be less likely to get fractious. The sergeant detailed two squads to hold the prisoners under their guns. More than enough to prevent trouble and more to the point it gave them plenty of men to assault the force attacking the bridge. Thinking about the bridge had Perry advancing to check out the elevator controls. If he’d been them, he would have locked the elevator controls down. He was hoping the raiders hadn’t done so. They’d left a blocking force to perform the same task, so there was a good chance the elevator was still operational.

  He jabbed a button and the elevator doors opened. His shoulders sagged in relief. He hadn’t looked forward to climbing the shaft in a suit with the enemy a single button press away from sending the car down to scrape him and his men off the walls. He would have ordered the attempt and been first up, but he was glad it hadn’t come to that.

  “Okay, ten men with me into the—” Perry began but Barnes interrupted.

  “Recon first, sir. I’m sure you meant me and ten men to recon the situation, didn’t you, sir?”

  Perry flushed. “Well, of course. I thought that was a given.”

  Barnes didn’t laugh and he had the decency to pretend Perry hadn’t nearly made such a basic error. “Very good, sir,” he turned away and ordered ten men to join him at the elevator. “You heard the Captain. Standard snoop and scoot. Sensors up!” Barnes ordered and entered the car. “Grady, Lipton, you two run the remotes. The rest of you, guard them and watch the take. Frag any hostiles you see...”

  Perry watched the doors slide shut and listened in as Barnes assigned the men their jobs. Everything sounded calm and professional, like a training exercise almost. Just another snoop and scoot, no big deal... and then the doors opened.

  “Down!” Barnes yelled making Perry jump. “Get him, get him, get him!”

  Perry could hear the sound of the AAR hammering, muffled by the sergeant’s helmet. He wanted to ask for a report, he wanted to charge up there, but he didn’t even know if his men had exited the elevator. He punched the call button, and jabbed at it again and again. No response.

  Someone screamed in agony.

  “Okay, buddy, you’ll be okay,” Lipton said to someone. “They can fix it no sweat. Let me look at it… let me look!”

  The someone groaned in pain.

  Perry had waited long enough. “Barnes, report!”

  “A little busy here, Captain. They—” more sounds of firing. “They were bunched up outside the elevator waiting for us. We’re getting a handle on it... Grady! Grenades now!”

  Perry waited for the explosions before replying. “Do you have control of the elevator? Can I send up the next group?” There was no answer. The sounds of combat intensified. “Barnes?”

  “Aye, sir. I’m sending Bell back to you. He’s walking wounded. Needs a new hand. I could use some more trigger pullers up here. This is what’s known as a target rich environment!”

  Sarcasm. Perry sighed in relief. Sarcasm was good. “Right. Send him down. I’ll expedite those reinforcements.” He had every intention of being one of them himself.

  “Copy. He’s coming down.”

  Perry waited impatiently for the doors to open, the moment they did he ushered a corpsman forward to help Private Bell. Perry winced when he saw the remains of Bell’s right gauntlet and the red dripping mush pushing through holes where knuckle joints had been. He peered into Bell’s helmet and found a white face with glazed eyes looking back at him. His bots had already dosed him for the pain. He was in shock, but as Barnes’ said, only walking wounded. He would be fine.

  Perry ordered two squads to remain behind guarding the prisoners, and the rest into the elevator to back up Barnes. They had to split into three groups. Elevators aboard ships were never intended to carry squads of marines in hard suits. Perry muscled his way in to join the first group despite some disapproving looks from the men. He needed to see, dammit! How could he make decisions without seeing what was happening? The men didn’t care about that. They cared about keeping him out of danger. Bloody babysitters, the lot of them! Well, this baby had a rifle and knew how to use it.

  The doors slid aside and revealed the aftermath of battle. Blood splattered walls, burn scars, and crumpled bodies were everywhere he looked, but a quick check revealed none of the dead wore marine hardsuits. The distinctive white nanocoated marine armour would have stood out starkly against so much red. It relieved some of his anxiety, but not all. He could hear the sounds of battle somewhere ahead, pulsers firing in long bursts and the heavy thudding of an AAR. An explosion felt through the deck witnessed grenades still being deploy
ed. The battle was far from over.

  Perry waved the men forward and exited the car himself so that he could send it back for another load. The doors slid closed and he advanced behind his marines as they performed the job they knew so well. Perry stepped over mangled bodies lying on blood drenched decks, trying not to slip in the stuff. The damage to the ship wasn’t too bad, he thought, noting the scarring and an occasional hole in the deck. Certainly nothing that would prevent Voyce getting underway. That was a relief. It wasn’t his priority by any means, but it was a consideration. Warrior would have to guard Astron for however long it took her to get gone. Anything that extended that time would not be welcomed by Captain Colgan.

  The sounds of combat intensified as Perry finally reached the front line. Barnes and his men were firing almost in a frenzy, trying to keep the hijackers from organising. It was working. Perry had no need to make any changes. He opened fire himself, as did the men with him. A minute or so later the reinforcements he’d left behind joined in, and the enemy were overwhelmed. Barnes’ AAR fell silent before the end, finally out of ammo but it made no difference to the outcome. Twenty or more men and women lay dead, pirate scum yes, but still people. Perry stared at their remains and swallowed. Just meat now. It made him want to puke, seeing them like this, but he had to maintain composure for the men. He swallowed back the bile, and thanked god no more of his marines lay amidst the carnage. Seeing faces he knew mixed with that... that abomination would have been too much. Blood and other nasty things ran down walls and dripped from the overhead where arteries had sprayed or explosions had thrown it. He cleared his throat of the thickness that seemed wedged there.

  “Okay, good job. Barnes, see if you can get that hatch open. There’s a very frightened merchy captain in there waiting for us. I need to check on engineering.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  Perry turned away. He needed not to see that blood for a minute. He had another thought and turned back briefly. “Send half the men back to help move the prisoners to our shuttles.”