Conquest

-30-

When Sandra and I reached the production base, hidden deep within the western interior of Andros, we found the garrison consisted of only two companies. I’d ordered a third to move to reinforce the position, but I still felt that was thin. We just didn’t have time to move our forces around at this point. The enemy were right under our feet and we didn’t have Crow’s ships to transport my men. Modified hovertanks were doing most of the work, puffed out to whale-size personnel-carrying form.

I didn’t like seeing the hovertanks in that state, as big as buses with metal skins as thin as a soup can. They seemed so fragile when facing a serious enemy like the Macros. Branches could dent those ballooning skins when they were in that state, and any beam hit would punch right through and kill the marines inside. I made a mental note as I observed the transports: I needed heavier armor units in the future. I watched the hovertanks as they reconfigured themselves, folding down into a shark-like shape. Even in battle-configuration, they were easily knocked out. These hovertanks had the same design I’d come up with to repel U. S. forces from Andros, then used later for the Helios campaign against the Worms. They were really light tanks, not much better than a flying humvee with long range weaponry. When I had the time, I would have to come up with a new design for heavy armor. Something that could stand up to a Macro machine and take a punch or two.

I felt more confident when I saw my marines piling out of the light vehicles, however. These men in their battle suits were superb fighting systems. They were the most versatile element of my forces. They’d managed to prove to me they could even be effective in an underwater battle. They could fight anywhere, including in space. I looked forward to seeing how they performed head-to-head against the Macro invaders on dry land.

We landed the flitter in the central region of the base, bypassing protocol. A dozen men in battle suits swarmed, exactly as they should. They rose up into the air and encircled the flitter with their weapons trained on both of us. Only after we’d landed and identified ourselves to their satisfaction did they relax. The biggest battle suit landed on the flitter’s tail section and began complaining.

“Colonel? This is a breach of protocol, sir,” Kwon said.

“Indeed it is, First Sergeant. My apologies.”

“We would have been within our rules of engagement to bring down your aircraft, sir,” Kwon continued.

I could tell he wasn’t quite willing to let this one go. “The laser turrets would have fried me if I was a Macro, Kwon. Relax. The enemy is under our boots, not in the sky today.”

“We don’t know that, sir. Remember the recent attack upon your person? Not every enemy is a machine today.”

I glanced at Kwon as I marched toward the officer’s quarters, Sandra followed on my right side, while he followed on my left. Directly behind us, a squad of marines suspiciously poked around at the contents of our flitter, as if they thought we were robot mimics and the flitter contained a bomb of some kind. I chuckled.

“That’s why your men are so jumpy. I think those assassins wanted to kill me, not all of Star Force.”

“Why, sir?”

I shrugged. “Not everyone likes me, Kwon. I make a mistake now and then, and they blame me for the entire situation. They’re all a bunch of armchair generals, enjoying the clarity of hindsight.”

Kwon stopped asking questions. I was surprised he’d asked so many. Usually, he didn’t sweat the small stuff. I’d placed him here at the factories to guard them, but hadn’t really expected him to see much action. He knew the lay of the land, having fought here before. Now that the battle was on, I was glad to have him at my side again.

The base CO was a new guy, Captain Francisco Diaz. At least, he was new to me. He’d joined Star Force over a year ago, but I’d never really had the time to chat with him. I didn’t have the time today, either.

Diaz was a chunky fellow, built wide and low to the ground. He wasn’t fat—but he wasn’t thin, either. He was bald on top except for a scrim of hair around the ears and had eyes like twin drops of black oil.

“Diaz, good to meet you,” I said, thrusting out my hand.

He saluted first, then shook hands with me. He seemed somewhat surprised to see me. I supposed everyone on the base was.

“Good to meet you too, Colonel,” he said.

“Time for a full report later—maybe,” I said. “Right now, get your battle suit on, marine. We’ve got company coming.”

Diaz stared at me with his liquid black eyes. “Uh, I had assumed you were going to ride this out at headquarters, Colonel.”

I stared back. “Captain, I do believe I gave you an order.”

Diaz jumped to attention. “Yes, sir,” he said. He snapped off another salute and went right to the lockers. He pulled out the first suit he saw and began climbing into the legs.

“Help him, Kwon,” I said. “Full helmet now, Diaz. I’m suiting up too. Sandra, help me into this contraption. You’ll put on a lighter scout suit.”

“I’m okay,” she said.

I threw her a glare. “What is it with everyone ignoring my instructions today?”

Sandra shrugged. “We know the machines are down there, but they might take hours to dig up into the base. And we have Nano-alloy nets to prevent it.”

“Is that right? Get in your damned suits, people. If you have to urinate, use the elimination systems or let it run down your leg. The nanites will drop it out of bottom of your boots eventually.

Kwon laughed at that. The other two seemed less amused. As we suited-up, two lieutenants wandered in. I ordered them into gear as well.

“Kyle,” Sandra asked me quietly over a private channel as she helped me slide the helmet down over my nose. “Why the rush? We know where the enemy are. The Macros—”

“Have fooled us once already today. I’m not giving them a second break. Now, everyone come with me up to the observation deck.”

On top of the officers’ quarters, which doubled as the command post for the base, was an observation deck with thick railing that was perfect for a rifleman to fire over. I inspected it briefly, approving of the design.

“Is this fortification your work, Diaz?” I asked the captain as he clanked after me.

“Yes, colonel. I’ve been experimenting with programming and shaping constructive nanites.”

“Good work. I need creative men. Take a look out eastward. Make sure your autoshades are on.”

We all stood on the upper deck and stared to the east. I could see the nearest of the three central forts. From this distance, the black arms holding the projectors were too small to make out, but I could see the beam projectors aiming toward the distant ships. They hung over the eastern horizon, so large and black against the sky they could be seen easily with some adjustments to our helmet zoom controls.

Periodically, as we watched, the big guns flared. There wasn’t much to see, a streak of burning atmosphere. A dimming of our helmets as the autoshades kicked in. Most of the dangerous light was in the infrared.

“Enough power is being released that those heavy weapons could damage our optic nerves even at this distance.”

“I don’t hear anything,” Sandra said.

“You won’t. Not at this range. They are beam weapons, not cannons firing shells. If you were close enough, you would hear a thunder-like effect as the atmosphere has holes punched through it.”

We stared and suddenly, one of the ships dipped forward, as if it were hung by wires—and one of the wires had just broken. It slid downward then, nose first. Smoke trailed behind it. The ship fell until it vanished below the horizon.

Kwon hooted. “We got one, sir!”

“Where did it go down?” Captain Diaz asked.

“Either over New Providence, or into the sea itself,” I said. “It’s difficult to tell at this distance, even with the helmet zoomed to max. Because of the curvature of the Earth, we can’t see the endpoint of a crash landing.”

“Why does it take so many hits to bring one down?” Kwon asked.

“Because they are at the very limits of our range. We can damage them, but it takes a lot of pounding to do so.”

“What are they doing out there, Kyle?” Sandra asked. “Aren’t they going to move? Are they going to let us just destroy their ships one at a time?”

“Unfortunately, I doubt they will,” Captain Diaz answered her.

I rotated my helmet to look at him. “What do you think they will do, captain?”

He extended an armored arm. I followed his fingertip and zoomed in on the spot. There, engines were flaring. The ships in the farthest northern end of their formation were moving now. And they were coming toward us.

“Looks like they are going to pull back, sir,” Diaz said.

“Good,” I said, presenting a confident exterior that I didn’t really feel. Out of their three options, this was the least helpful. If they’d stood there, we could have had fun blasting them. If they’d advanced and committed themselves, we would have known this was it, the final battle was on. Since they’d retreated, we could concentrate on their burrowing forces, but with the knowledge their fleet could change its course and get into the fight whenever they wished.

“Looks like we’re driving them off, Colonel,” Diaz said.

“Doesn’t matter,” I lied smoothly. “We’re ready for them no matter what they do.”

Unexpectedly, the building we were standing on shook. We all stumbled.

“What the hell was that?” Sandra asked.

We scanned the horizons, looking for a telltale pall of smoke rising up out of the surrounding forest. I didn’t see anything. Another trembler hit, making the building rock and sway under us for a moment.

“Charges sir,” Captain Diaz said suddenly. He was listening to his headset. “They are detonating charges under the base.”

As the base C. O. he had plugged himself into the local tactical channel. I hadn’t done so yet. I worked the setting in my helmet, and it connected almost instantly.

“They’re in bunker eleven, sir!” I heard a voice say. It sounded young, high-pitched and terrified.

Suddenly, I got it. They weren’t going to come up and attack the base directly. They were going to dig into the bunkers where each of the Nano factories were hidden and attack them individually. Using that approach, they could isolate our defensive forces.

“Damn it,” I said aloud. I flipped the override and spoke right over Diaz. “This is Colonel Riggs. I want a squad deployed underground in every bunker with a factory unit in it. Report enemy contact immediately.”

I keyed off my transmission and spoke to Kwon. “Get a platoon together. We’ll play reserve support and rush down to every hotspot.”

Kwon didn’t ask any questions. He took a flying leap off the building, switching on the repellers in his boots. He sailed down into the center of the base and began bellowing orders at every marine in sight.

“Sir,” Diaz said to me, looking alarmed. “That will leave us very thin up top. They could march right into the base.”

“I don’t think that’s their intention,” I told him. “Besides, another full company of reinforcements is due to arrive in—eighteen minutes.”

Diaz began to say something else, but I was already flying after Kwon. I vaulted over the observation deck railing and sailed down into the center of the base. I didn’t much care about Diaz’s objections. I had to protect those factories. Human lives, this base—everything was secondary to that goal.

I sensed in Diaz a certain level of dismay at losing command of this base in the midst of what was probably his first real combat experience. I also sensed he would get over it eventually. And if he didn’t…well, that was just too bad.