Eden's Children (Earth Exiles Book 2) (5 page)

Mike and Everett had run training scenarios to get them up to speed, and over the past few months, Sec and Mech had done pretty good.  Combined arms still ruled the day.  The training had involved the mechs and the grunts working as a team.  Still, training could only go so far.  There was no such thing as a fair fight in the real world.  Combat was where you thrived or you died.  You had an innate capability to apply controlled violence or you went home in a body bag.  In this scenario, it was unlikely that Jennifer’s team would have casualties.  If there were casualties, it would most likely be the Spec or Sec teams that had them.

The Sec team all had shotguns, with pistols as their secondary.  Mike and his team all had their Sig 716s ready, Sig P220s as secondary.

“Ken, is your team in place?”

“Roger Mike, team is set.”

“Jen, Spec and Sec are in place.  Can you share the threat situation with us?”

Since the A.I.s that the non mechs had were limited, most of the heavy lifting was done by the mech A.I.s.

“Roger Mike, hostile sit is coming to you, now.”

Mike’s display suddenly lit up with all of the hostile targets.  A wall of orange showed up in front of him.

“Jesus Christ!”

Ken’s voice cut in, “Joseph, none of that!  Everybody, check out your display.  Threat is orange.  Once it’s in range, it will turn red.  Nobody engages until I give the word.  Let me know that you understand.”

The sec team replied from the highest ranking, down to the lowest ranking, starting with Murphy, and ending with Kendrik.

Mike reported to Jennifer, “Spec team is a go.”

Ken was next, “Sec team is a go.”

“Roger, all teams are a go.  Spec and Sec, we have primary.  We’ll stop anything coming in.  If something gets past us, take it down.”

“Roger, Mech leader,” Mike and Ken replied, in sequence.

Mike didn’t have the map display that Jennifer did, which would show where the hostiles were in relation to the friendlies.  The only thing he could see was the orange dots that marked the threat in front of him.  There were eight large threats, and hundreds of smaller ones.  The smaller dots blinked in and out as the heat signatures moved behind trees and rocks.  They looked like an invading army.

Mike thought, and the neural interface cued a private channel so that he could talk to Jennifer privately, “Jen, you’re in charge.  You need to talk and let everybody know what you’re seeing.  If you don’t tell them, they’ll start imagining the worst.”

“Thanks Mike,” Jennifer acknowledged his input.

Jennifer ran with Mike’s advice and started giving orders, “Okay, ladies, we have some targets starting to present.  The eight targets in front are the grown dragons.  That big one there is probably the Ancient.  I’m going to paint him as target one.”

A number 1 showed on Mike’s heads up.

“The three small ones are probably the brooding females.  They are now targets six, seven and eight.”

The four medium targets are the other males, they are now targets two, three, four, five.”

“I’m not going to number the smaller targets.  Engage them when you can, targets of opportunity.  We don’t know what’s going on.  We’re on defense until we can figure out what the hell the Ancient is doing.  When we have an idea, we’ll react.  Hopefully, the wall will keep them from getting to us, and we’ll have a target rich environment.”

Since Jen had the situation well in hand, Mike switched over to the Spec team channel.  He heard Rob talking.

“I’m telling you, Stephanie Lane has an amazing ass.”

Tom replied, “Dude, Michelle will beat your ass if you talk like that around her.”

“No she won’t.  She loves me.  She does exactly what I want her to.”

Mike decided to mess with Roberto, “You know you’re broadcasting on an open channel and Michelle can hear everything you’re saying, don’t you?”

There was a sudden silence on the other end.  Mike started laughing.

“Oh damn, Mike, that’s just not right,” the relief in Rob’s voice was palpable.

Mickey’s voice rumbled into the conversation, “You have only yourself to blame.”

“What do you mean?” Rob asked.

“You’re the one with the roaming eye.  Besides, Stephanie’s hanging with Rich.”

“He’s a boy.  Stephanie wants a man.”

“If she wants a man, she’s not going to be looking at you, Roberto,” Tom replied.

“That hurts, Tom.  Deeply.”

“You are so full of crap Rob.”

“Yes, that is why my eyes are br . . .”

Jennifer’s voice cut into the conversation, the command channel overriding, “Mike, do you see that?”

“What’s that, Jen?”

“The dragons have stopped.”

Mike checked his display.  The hostile overlay had painted the threat red, “Kind of hard to see that on my display, Jen, though they do look like they may be stationary.”

In front of Mike, without the hostile overlay, nothing looked different.  The dragons were hidden in the forest.  It looked suspiciously liked they were acting tactically.  Mike didn’t have a good feeling about this.

“Is there a wind out here?” Everett asked.

Mike thought that was a strange question, “I don’t think so, why?”

“Why are those trees moving then?”

Mike looked up.  The tops of the trees were swaying like there was a strong wind.

Mike started cursing, “They’re trying to push over the trees.”  He called to Jennifer, “Jen, how tall are those trees?”

“I don’t know Mike, why?”

“Because the clearing is about a hundred feet across.”

Jennifer and Ken started cursing.  Jen took over, realizing the danger.  She started directing everybody back from the danger, “I want Spec and Sec to go down to the courtyard.  Mechs, move to the back of the wall.  I don’t want to find out the hard way how much damage a falling tree could do to a mech.”

Mike turned to follow the rest of the infantry down to the courtyard.  Cursing, He switched to the team channel, “I can’t believe it.”

“What Mike?” Everett asked.

“I can’t believe we got played by that damn dragon.  It wasn’t trying to eat us, it was measuring the clearing.”

Tom’s voice carried his disbelief, “There’s no way the dragon is that smart.”

Mike continued, “Maybe, maybe not.”  He switched the subject, “Okay guys, I need input.  If they push down the trees, what are the odds that the dragons would be able to get onto the wall?  Rob, you’re the structural guy, what do you think?”

There was a pause, “No, there’s no way that those trees would hold their weight.  Not leaning against the wall.”

Mike was relieved, “Well, that’s good news.”

“Still, I don’t think we want to have to fight 150 pit bull sized dragon spawn.  They’re going to swarm up those trees,” Everett added.

“I can’t believe that I didn’t have the tree line cleared back,” Mike fumed.

“You can’t think of everything, Mike.  It’s not like we were going to be shot at from the tree line,” Everett responded.

“Hey, how about a funnel of death?” Mickey asked.

“What do you mean?” Mike asked, looking over at Mickey.  The heads up display painted Mickeys name on him.  He wouldn’t have been hard to find, though, since he towered over everybody else.

Mickey pointed at the tunnel, “They’re coming anyway.  Might as well open the door for them.”

Mike smiled.  It was an elegant, though extreme solution, “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.  The infantry is going into the tunnel.  We’re going to open the portcullis . . .”

“Are you kidding me?”

Mike couldn’t figure out who that was.  Ken singled the voice out, “Joseph, shut up and listen.”

Mike continued, “We’ll have Spec forward, and Sec in the back.  If they come down the tunnel, we can fill it with a wall of lead.”

“Claymores?” Everett asked.

“Yeah, if we can get them out there quick enough,” Mike replied.

Jennifer spoke, “You’re not going to have enough time, Mike, the first tree is about to come down.”

Mike’s hearing was enhanced by the helmet.  He heard the tree groan as the last roots gave way.  He ran to get up against the wall.  The others saw him move and quickly emulated him.  The sound of the tree crashing against the compound wall was deafening.

Jennifer’s voice called out, “I need a SITREP.”

Mike checked his team and got a green from everybody.  He called this into Jennifer.

“Murph, you there?”

“Yeah, man, what’s up?”

“You think you can get the portcullis up?”

“No prob.  Joseph.”

“What?”

“Get your lazy ass in gear and help me.”

The two set off up the steps to get the portcullis raised.

Mickey stepped over to the portcullis.  He leaned down and grabbed ahold of the rebar.

“You need help?” Mike asked.

The only reply was a low, rumbling chuckle.

They heard a clunk from above as the lock was disengaged.  Mickey grunted and the portcullis started up. “Damn Mickey, you going to wait until we help, or you gonna do it all by yourself? Murph asked.

“Just getting it started for you,” Mickey answered.

Mickey got it about waist high, then the portcullis started moving faster as Murph and Joseph grabbed it.  They heard Murph kick the latch to secure the portcullis.  The team headed into the tunnel.

Mickey and Rob were in the front.

“Not sure that’s a great idea, Mickey,” Mike said.

“What?”

“You being up front.”

“Why?”

“We can’t shoot around you.”

“I say we leave him up front.  We can use him for cover,” Rob quipped.

Mickey grumped, “Come on Mike, let me stay in front.”

“No, can’t do it.  Tom, you get up there.”

“Gee thanks, Mike.”

“No problem.  Anytime.”

They stopped about fifteen feet from the opening.  Another tree toppled over.  Mike heard confusion over the radio as the Mech team dealt with tree trunks and branches.

“Tom, you think you could foment a little disharmony out there?” Mike asked.

Tom hefted his Sig 716 rifle and answered, “Well, it’s not the Desert Tactical, but at this distance, I think I can probably piss something off.”

“Mind if I help?” Rob asked.

Mike suddenly remembered Murph and Joseph, “Hey Ken, are Murph and Joseph back?”

“Yeah, they just entered the tunnel.”

“Tom, Rob, Stack ‘em up, knock ‘em down.”

The helmet was a problem with standard sights.  Infrared lasers turned on, enabling Tom and Rob to target hostiles.  The dragon targets were wall to wall red in front of the compound.  Tom took a moment, then squeezed off a shot.  One of the small, red shapes dropped and started cooling.  Rob was next, same result.  They started trading shots, back and forth, hammering the hostiles in front of them.  As each one dropped the movement of the others became more frenetic, agitated.

“You’re riling them up out there, keep it up,” Mike told them.

“This isn’t going to work,” Mike heard Everett say, “You need to move back.  I can’t see a damn thing.”

He felt Mickey and Everett shuffle around and change positions.  Mike had another idea, “Tom, Rob, can you kneel?”

They both slid down to take a knee.  Mike and Everett stepped up and started engaging targets as well.  Mike felt Mickey lean forward, the muzzle of his rifle about six inches in front of Mike.  It was a good thing the helmets had proactive sound suppression.  All five of them started hammering targets.

The spawn broke from the forest, a wave of carnivorous death and destruction, howling as they came.  Maybe it was the smell of blood or the death of their brothers that drove them, Mike didn’t know, didn’t care.  A bellow sounded from the Ancient as it realized the spawn were charging.  The trees were still shaking and dropping as the spawn charged.  Some of them climbed the trees to go over the wall.  Many of them headed towards the tunnel mouth where they saw the muzzle flashes from the rifles.

There were so many bodies in front of them they couldn’t miss.

“They’re coming!” was the only thing Mike was able to shout out to warn the security team behind him.  Magazines ran dry.  The sing song, “Out, Changing,” was mixed with the sound of bolts slapping forward to drive a new round into the chamber.  Bodies dropped as the spawn charged across the clearing. 

Then they hit the tunnel entrance.  Ravening, snarling faces were all Mike saw as the spawn tried to get to their tormentors.  Somehow, the smaller pit bull sized dragons, their tentacles whipping in a frenzy, were even more horrific to Mike.  He kept pulling the trigger, knowing that if he stopped, he would die.  Bullets smacked into flesh.  Even as they fell, the spawn still tried to crawl forward to get to the team.  Head shots shattered skulls and the bodies piled up at the opening of the tunnel.