Sacremon (Harmony War Series Book 1) (25 page)

           
“Alright, move to the defensive circle we've made, Jerome head in that direction about fifty meters, Victors, that way fifty meters,” he said pointing in one direction and then the complete opposite.

           
“See you later gents,” Jerome gave small salute before heading off, Tyler and Mark did the same.

           
Gupta put Mark and Tyler in positions around the circle that watched the forest for any threats.

           
The section Captain Nerva sent gathered the prisoner while the weapons Detachment and two section spread out. Apparently, their shuttle had crashed nad those in the front sections were crushed.

           
Nerva had got them sorted out and sent them in the direction of the rest of their platoon, bringing them up to thirty-seven combat capable people.

           
It didn't take long before the whole platoon was up and moving, three section took the lead with Gupta dispatching Mark and Tyler as one of the three scouting parties that ranged ahead and tried to search out any enemy in front of them.

           
They were still twelve kilometers away from the city but Pullo wasn't taking any chances as the scouting parties took their time in making sure the area they were walking into wasn't filled with enemy combatants.

           
Mark and Tyler checked the canopies and found a few mines with their simplistic sensors. They tagged the locations and moved on, not wanting to fuck about with them, or set them off and alert anyone to their position.

           
“It's going to take a carrier of engineers to clear up all these goddamn traps,” Tyler said in hushed tones as they moved past a mine that had been hiding in a tree's leaves, a length of vine acted as the trigger, they hadn't found the cord until they cut it and traced it back. Their sensors didn't pick up natural vegetation as being anything harmful, they only picked up explosives and metallic objects.

           
“Yeah,” Mark said, not happy to be playing minefield rat out in front of the platoon. “I've got to call this one to Pullo.”

           
“I'll take point,” Tyler said as they crept forward.

           
“Mark?” Pullo asked as the channel connected.

           
“We just found a booby trap that was using natural vegetation as a trigger.”

           
“So you might have missed other such booby traps because scanners don't pick up natural vegetation as a threat.” Pullo's tone wasn't harsh but understanding, “Very well continue.” He cut out of the channel as Mark saw an alert pop up on his visor. Mark flicked to Tyler's channel.

           
“Down,” Tyler did as Mark said without thought, both of them scanning their arcs.

           
“Looks like the locals got creative and made some natural man traps, one of the scouting parties have run into explosives with natural trip wires and another had just run into a natural booby trap. It looks like some kind of spring powered item. Keep your heads on a swivel,” Pullo's voice was harsh, Mark saw medics and a security detail moving out to where the blinking icon that said indicated someone was injured.

           
Pullo changed to a channel with the scouts except for the injured person.

           
“Alright, McLaughlin, what does the trap look like? In detail.”

           
“Fuck, like a frying pan I guess, it sprang up from under the small crap and just smacked Diez with its sharpened points. It didn't pierce her armor but it went right through the smart cloth,” McLaughlin said.

           
“Good work, McLaughlin stay where you are, the rest of you, I want you to push forward we still have a lot of ground to cover before we're able to see Growing, get moving.”

           
Four other people went down, only one needed extensive aid. Even then he'd taken fifteen minutes before he was good to go again.

           
Mark got on his belly as he saw the mega-towers of Growing in front of him.

           
Mark sent back a feed to Pullo and started scanning the area for movement.

           
Tyler shimmied up next to him, popping his bipod out and using his scope to get a closer look at the buildings and the people in them.

           
“Good work Mark, the other scouts are also getting into position. I'm going to get our people deployed back here and then I'll get someone to switch out with you two. Nerva's pushing up everyone in his company and the remainders of two other companies to our west.”

           
“Understood, Sa, erm, sir.”

           
“No worries Mark,” Pullo said sounding as if he was smiling.

           
“Way to go,” Tyler said, Mark could hear the grin in his brother's voice, he gave him an elbow before settling behind his scope and starting to check out the buildings. They ranged from a hundred meters tall, to nearly three kilometres.

           
They started tagging the gun emplacements, the planet boasted a population of nearly a billion and it showed. While Mark and Tyler couldn't see past the forward towers there were an easy ten thousand people moving through some of the larger buildings.

           
“Taking this place is going to be a bitch,” Tyler said, finding a missile battery.

           
“Growing was the first city founded by the Sacremon partnership between Salafil foods, Credari builders and Montasiri growers, do you think that they're going to accept anything less than completely clearing the city. This one planet makes enough food for seventeen planets. While other cities tend to the massive fields that cover the planet with a few growing towers, this city is nearly all growing towers, they produce food all year round, and foods that are bartered between CEO's not just to feed their populations.”

           
“Thank you Mr. History lesson, you forgot the part about this also being one of the biggest testing areas for growing operations. That means they'll have tech, know how to use it and you remember Zela' complex's gardening explosion,” Tyler said.

           
Something about the chemicals in Zela complex's gardening areas had been off, something had caused the mixture to ignite and the gardens had gone up in a massive fireball. Twelve hundred people were killed and Zela had effectively died out since there was hardly enough food to trade.

           
If gardeners had done that by accident, then what could they do if they wanted to do that on purpose?

Chapter 11

           
Growing City and surrounding area

           
Sacremon Actual, Sacremon System

           
8/3169

           
Tyler slapped Mark's armor, waking him with a rush. They had been rotated out from their position back to the defensive lines.

           
Pullo had the medics hit everyone with their vaccine and Captain Nerva had come up to the position with the rest of the forces that he was able to scrounge from the surrounding area. More troopers were coming in slowly but everyone was spread across the planet. He had apparently gotten some information from the prisoner but it hadn't been much.

           
They'd shot the prisoner, making sure that he couldn't pass on any information, plus he would take up more resources that could be put to better use keeping the troopers alive.

           
No one batted an eye-lid, Mark and Tyler's old boss had told them about how nations, basically different corporations that were picked by the people defined rules by which they fought one another. Similar to how the EMF was supposed to leave as much of the infrastructure in working order as possible. They were also mandated to kill any resistance that might appear.

           
The colonials weren't going to treat the Troopers with any kind of kindness, neither was the EMF.

           
“What's up?” Mark asked, his body remembering he had just been asleep a few moments ago, but keeping in mind there was no threat.

           
“Looks like the Captain has a plan, Alpha Company is moving out to check out the area,” Tyler said.

           
Captain Nerva had put his best trained and hardest fighters in Alpha Company, all of them were veterans and were damned good soldiers. Nerva had secured a special stipend for them as they had proved to be more valuable than normal troops. This made others vie for their positions more. Most sections still wanted to do the BM so they got passed over, but in Nerva's Regiment that thinking was changing slowly but surely.

           
“So why the hell did you wake me up?” Mark asked, missing his comfortable place against the tree. His smart clothes could keep him cold and warm on every planet humanity had colonized. That added with its waterproof qualities meant he could happily lie against a tree, on the beach or in a snow bank.

           
“Pullo passed the word, we're moving out when it gets dark,” Tyler replied.

           
“It's going to be hard to sneak up on them with all of us,” Mark said, looking to a map centered on Growing.

           
“Yeah,
we're
moving up, Simmons, Xiao, Damon and Feng are coming as well. Aren't you happy we grabbed those silencers now?” Tyler said rhetorically.

           
Mark sighed and grabbed his from his back, winding it onto his gun's barrel. His mind turned to Damon and Feng, both of them hadn't forgotten how Mark had broken Feng's knee, and Tyler had knocked Damon out cold with a snap-kick.

           
They were pretty good with blades, which made sense if Pullo and Nerva wanted things done silently.

           
But it could turn out that we're the ones that get quietly 'removed'.

           
“Come on, they're waiting for us,” Tyler said. Mark followed him, their visors weren't amazing with night vision, but it was a hell of a lot better than the pitch black night. The moon's reddish tinge doing little to improve people's ability to see.

           
“Good of you to join us,” Pullo said, his voice pitched low and in warning.

           
“Sorry, sir,” Mark said, he wouldn't fuck up Pullo's rank a second time. His shoulder patch now had the silver star of second lieutenant, Drashkov, the newly appointed Warrant by the circle on their arm cast a glance in their direction before looking back to Nerva and two large Corporals that were scanning for threats.

           
“Your purpose is to use tonight to get us a foothold into Growing. We've got forty-three hours until it's light again. In that time teams from around Growing will be moving to the towers and wreaking as much havoc as possible. I want you to clear out main gun emplacements and clear the first floors so that we have somewhere clear to move the rest of the regiment into.” Nerva's helmet was as opaque as anyone else's but Mark felt that his eyes were boring into all of them, as if to somehow read their thoughts through blast-proof glass.

           
“Understood sir,” Simmons said, others adding their quiet agreement. Even though they were close to three kilometres away from the towers and just stepping on a branch sounded like a gun shot.

           
“Good, check yourselves over. I want you moving within the half-hour,” Nerva said, the briefing clearly over.

           
Somehow the darkness made Mark more comfortable with the thought of assaulting the city. It gave him an extra layer of security somehow.

           
Simmons pulled everyone from first platoon off to the side.

           
Someone tapped Tyler's shoulder.

           
“Jerome! What you doing out here?” Tyler asked.

           
“Ahh, seems that they want my blade. Did you and Mark volunteer for this one too?” He asked, probably seeing Mark was on the same channel.

           
“Nah, volun-told,” Tyler said.

           
“More like wake up with someone shouting your name and told 'oh yeah, see that city, yeah, well we're taking it,” Mark growled.

           
“Those with silenced weapons on my right, those with blades on my left,” Simmons said, stopping any further conversation.

           
Mark, Tyler, and two others had silencers.

           
“Alright, those with silencers I want you up front. Everyone check your gear, I'll be coming around,” she said, following up on her promise a few moments later.

           
Satisfied with everyone having the right kit she got the silencer two-some's to push forward, she staggered the knife wielders so that if they were caught out in the open they wouldn't all be seen.

           
Mark and Tyler knew how to move quietly and fast.

           
“Corporations,” someone swore as Mark and Tyler hunkered down, spacing their footing out and using just the balls of their feet to move.

           
Contacts lit up on their HUDs as they moved for the closest tower. Their method of making them quieter pushing them to run faster and faster.

           
For a normal human this would have been a terrible journey. Mark and Tyler's helmets pumped in enriched oxygen making sure they never ran out of breath. Their augments and the hellish training they'd put themselves through while others had slept, mixed with Quentin Richter's training took care of the rest.

           
They were eight hundred meters from the tower when they slowed, their visors highlighting mines and pinging the information back to those behind them.

           
They moved through slowly, getting to the cermite pad that surrounded the city and headed off towards the city called Processing. Nothing except industrial tools could cut into cermite. Well, industrial tools and EMF ordinance.

Mark and Tyler moved quickly, and silently, alert and ready,

           
“I've got two in an emergency doorway having a smoke,” Tyler said as they approached.

           
“I'll use blades, cover,” Mark said, holding his rifle ready as he advanced. He clipped it to the side of his ammo pack so it wouldn't get in his way as he twitched his triceps, advancing as the twin blades slipped between where his shirt ended and his gloves began.

           
The two guards were smoking behind their little fortification, one was standing, leaning on the fortifications as they looked towards the treeline, the other was sitting on a box also looking outward.

           
They were making small-talk to make their shift pass faster.

           
Thankfully they didn't have armor. Mark flicked his blades so he held them upright in his fists. His footsteps were slow and cautious as he moved up to them. He tried to breath less, his mask making each breath sound like the winds back on Earth. The one on the box heard or caught sight of him, turning, the other did so as well. Mark flipped the blades so they pointed towards the ground and slammed them into the two guard's necks.

           
He grabbed their rifles from their hands as they fell.

           
They thrashed as Mark put the guns away and grabbed his combat blade, he struck quick and fast, a blow to the temple a piece. Mark was cleaning the blades on their clothes when Tyler put a hand on his shoulder. Thankfully he'd made sure his footsteps were light but clear so Mark grunted instead of putting a blade into his face.

           
“Messy,” Tyler commented, grabbing one of the rifles, putting it in the clips on the side of his pack and stashing the single extra mag in his leg pocket.

           
Mark did the same, having an explosive firing shotgun might be useful in the future.

           
Mark pulled his rifle out of his armor where it had been annoying his back with the weight displacement.

           
“I'll take point,” Tyler said.

           
“Got you covered,” Mark answered, flicking his gun off of safe and staying to Tyler's shoulder, his weapon up and ready.

           
The tower was largely dark because the corporations had cut the power. Penetrating them would be difficult, the power plants were encased in armor and had their own auto-cannons. Getting to the damn thing would take a nuke and then it would probably become unstable and take a good section of the city with it.

           
Generators, solar panels and batteries powering small but powerful lights were thrown around sporadically, casting shadows around the rooms. Most of them were turned off to save power, leaving Mark and Tyler in darkness as they moved.

           
They made it into the central offices before they met anyone. Tyler and Mark took out people watching the screens, well watching a movie and glancing at the cameras.

           
“Yo, Wera you're not watching that same...,” A
chuff
from Tyler's E-12 made them drop to the floor.

           
“Good shot,” Mark whispered as they moved to the secondary lobby that faced the tree-line they'd run from.

           
Mark and Tyler moved quickly and quietly, feeling the floor beneath their feet as their eyes, body, and gun moved as one entity. They turned into the lobby, five people manned a barricade, two were on break and three were on bunks asleep.

           
“Right,” Tyler said, his gun
chuff-
ing again.

           
“Left,” Mark confirmed, his own gun firing as they shot the five standing behind the barricade from the side they'd been given.

           
The fifth combatant had just fallen as Mark put a burst into the two having a break.

           
One of the sleepers looked around blearily, Tyler put him and the other two with them.

           
Mark and Tyler flowed through the room, their guns searching for anywhere someone might be hiding.

           
“Upper floor,” Mark said, feeling Tyler come up behind him.

           
“Good to go,” Tyler replied.

           
“Made entry, proceeding to other secondary lobby,” the other scouts said as they entered the building. They're name being displayed as Indho.

           
“How far are the others behind you?” Tyler asked, Mark focused on the stairs which switched back. Tyler right behind him as if they were glued together. Mark seeing it was clear made his way to the second floor. He covered the stairs going to the third floor and Tyler switched to watching the door to the second floor.

           
“About five minutes or so, that minefield slowed us right down,” Indho said.

           
“Good to know.” Tyler and Mark closed the channel, they needed to focus on what they were doing right now, not what information Indho might be able to give them.

           
“I'll open you move,” Tyler said.

           
“Got it.” Mark turned and moved to where the door would open. Tyler pushed it open delicately. Mark looked right as much as possible and swung right, he fired two quick bursts into two people that had been walking through the hall.

           
Mark felt himself thrown forward as an explosion went off, followed by a burst of rounds.

           
“Mark!” Tyler yelled scanning and moving as he moved to Mark.

           
“I'm fine, what the hell exploded?” Mark said, getting on his feet and looking for threats.

           
“A shell did when it hit you in the back,”

           
“Oh. Well we've got to get moving they've got to know that we're here now.” As if to punctuate his words, yelling could be heard as well as people moving with heavy weaponry that started firing.

           
“Fuck,” Tyler said.

           
“Let's move to that secondary where Indho is,” Mark said, hearing explosions ahead of him.

           
A group of four or so people turned into the corridor Mark and Tyler were walking down, they both fired into them, one put a few rounds into the ceiling, making Tyler and Mark flinch as they turned into an office area identical to the one that they had trained with aboard Reclaimer. They quickly cleared it and headed out into a different corridor, closing on the secondary lobby which sounded like it was having a pitched battle now.

           
“We're in the building,” Simmons said, friendly symbols moving through the exit Mark and Tyler had come in through. Explosions went off in the distance.

           
“Just cleared a path for others into here, but we're going to need to clear this level at least before anyone starts coming over.”

           
We're fucked unless we can secure this mega-towers floor.
Mark translated.

           
“Feng, get into the towers computers and lock the tower down I want us to control the entire damned thing,” she said.

           
The EMF had a 'key' it was a grey box that fit easily in your hand and could unlock any door or system that had been ever created. No one knew how it really worked, and if you tried to keep it then you would be shot.

           
In training people weren't given them, but here in combat, troopers could take complete control of a mega-tower, it was also the only way to open the massive bunker that lay underneath the tower, filled with supplies and cryo pods for those that didn't wish to take part in the rebellion.

           
“On it,” Feng said, a few moments later and massive cermite shutters closed off the lobby's as emergency exit doors swung closed, sealing the tower.

           
“Hook us up to the tower's live feeds and link in Pullo,” Simmons said.

           
Mark and Tyler were now at the stairway that would take them to Indho's last location. Indho and his partner registered as dead and the firing seemed to have stopped a bit ago.

           
Mark and Tyler swung into the stairwell, then down it.

           
There were several combatants hiding against various pieces of cover they'd found.

           
Mark and Tyler opened up and pressed in, the enemy got their shots in as well.

           
Mark took a blast straight on, the shrapnel digging into both of his arms.

           
“You fucking, mother fucker!” Mark fired back, taking down the asshole who'd shot him as other explosive rounds turned the lobby's decorations and furniture into shrapnel, pelting Tyler and Mark.

           
Mark felt hits in his side and leg as he kept shooting. They weren’t as bad as Lastrade blowing his calf off. Tyler tossed a grenade behind a counter, light illuminated the room as the grenade popped, spraying death at anything around it.

           
Then the fighting was over.

           
“Mark?”

           
“I'm kind of fucked up, just need a medic or some of that healing shit,” Mark said, grunting in pain as his augments tried to accelerate the healing process and keep him in the fight.

           
His armor now had gouges through it and his smart-clothes had been torn to shreds in places.

           
“Keep their attention on you, Captain Nerva has ordered us to push forward,” Pullo said over the forward people's communications gear. “Tyler, Mark get over here, we still need to clear the main lobby and then we can use the lifts to get to those weapon emplacements.”

           
“Mark's been hit a bit, I can see that, we'll sort him out. You still good to fight Mark?”

           
“Don't think I have much choice,” Mark grunted.

           
Simmons let out a short dry laugh, “No, no you don't.” Mark and Tyler got themselves into the control room. Tyler shoved his gun on a desk, getting Mark on another as Jerome helped him to pull shit out of Mark's arms, side, and various other wounds. They sprayed and threw bandages on him that would have him with fresh pink skin in a matter of hours.

           
Mark pulled himself up, feeling a hell of a lot more tired but functional and with limited pain.