Chapter Eight
Orkhana
“Here they come, they’re almost inside the ambush point. Commander?”
The Commander nodded slowly, “Weapons cleared. When they hit the target point… eliminate them.”
The final order given, the Commander cleared his own sidearm from the holster and began making his way forward.
“Commander… where are you going?”
He didn’t pause as his Second questioned him. “To the front.”
“That would seem to be… ill advised, Commander.”
“There is nothing more I can do here. I may as well be somewhere of use. See to it that the remains of the unit are evacuated according to the plan.”
“Commander! Wait!”
He ignored his second, leaving the other man behind as he made clear he wouldn’t be deterred. He had failed his people before. This task was an opportunity to redeem that failure and yet he found himself forced to abandon it too.
Another failure.
All because of these investigators.
He considered himself a calm being, uninterested in the pursuit of conflict despite his position in life, but he had limits. His pride, it defined those limits, and he was well cognizant of the fact that he had reached one of them.
A brief check of his weapon assured him again that it was prepared for combat, leaving him with only the immediate task in which to occupy his focus.
Infuriating, He thought tiredly. To come so close, and have redemption snatched away… Just… infuriating.
*****
“You see them?”
“See? No,” Kriss snorted. “But I could smell them some time ago.”
Sorilla blinked at that but noted it idly in her files on the Lucian as she prepared for the fight that was to come.
“Nice little ambush,” She said aloud. “I’ve got… fifteen soldiers in the first kill zone. I expect at least as many flanking to setup a fall back kill box behind us once we pass.”
Kriss scoffed at that, “A waste of manpower. I am not going to fall back.”
Sorilla smirked under her helmet, hands dropping to the thigh holsters that held her pair of MsTak-44s, a pair of superposition magazine pistols that she had come to favor as her primary weapons of choice. She mentally put firing control of the left-hand weapon over to automatic, allowing her processors to target through the weapon’s sensors and manage firing control of her off hand. The one in her dominant hand, she would maintain personal control over.
The grips of the paired weapons were a comfort in her hands as she lifted them smoothly from the holsters, letting herself sink into the Ross map that was still projecting through her accelerometers.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a real-time projection, and she couldn’t see the ambushers through it, but she could see the positions ahead and knew where they would be just from that. With that advantage, actually spotting them through her enhanced sensors was almost child’s play.
“They will attack when we reach that open area, where the corridors cross.”
“Yes, they will,” She responded to Kriss’ observation, not changing her pace. “Unless we make our move first.”
“Indeed,” Kriss grinned. “Attack?”
“Attack.”
Kriss was clearly pleased to no end by that confirmation, but he didn’t charge forward quite as impetuously as she had half expected.
“Just before we reach the ambush point,” He said instead. “Handle your side while I handle mine?”
Sorilla nodded slightly, “Deal.”
The ambush point was coming up on them quickly and she started taking a measure of the walls, ceiling height, and lightly crossfire positions. The enemy would be using Ross pulse weapons. She could already feel them charging through her accelerometers, which gave her positional data on the map now that she was running something with spatial awareness. The resolution of the sensation frankly shocked her, before it had been more like getting a general direction on the location of their weapons… now, with the map data being projected, it was like having milspec GPS directions down to the millimeter.
The pair said no more as they closed on the ambush point, neither hesitating, not slowing, not speeding up. That wasn’t to say they were exactly hiding their preparations either, they just felt no need to making any changes in their pace. Not until they were almost on the target.
The moment came and Sorilla was surprised that neither of them needed to say anything. Both she and Kriss began sprinting at effectively the same moment, their weapons clearing the holsters smoothly as he went left and she went right.
There was a shocked pause as they blew past the expected ambush point, no fire coming down on them. But to the enemy’s credit it only lasted a second or so before they opened fire from their ambush positions.
That second or so, however, was sufficient for Sorilla to clear almost fifteen meters further along than the optimum position for the intended crossfire, and more than enough for her to reach the right-hand wall and effectively block fire from that direction as the fire team struggled to shift their arc of fire around the wall.
She brought her pistols up, aiming to the left side, and let her fingers curl around the triggers of both guns. The one in her off hand opened fire first, the computer automatically firing as targets appeared in the gun’s camera sight. She kept manual control of the right-hand weapon, eyes on the camera feed as it broadcast directly to her corneal implants. As it crossed over the targets, she mentally prodded the gun’s firing mechanism and let it roar a few tenths of a second after its twin.
An ambush was one excellent way to maximize the force multipliers in your control. However, in the moments just before one was properly tripped, the ambushers were in many ways at their most vulnerable.
Sorilla and Kriss flipped the ambush on the enemy, taking the element of surprise that had been intended to play against them and turning it upon their ambushers in a few seconds of shock.
Kriss fired with his pulse weapon, whirling coils of twisted spacetime erupting from his weapon to shower the enemy positions with sudden, and shocking, moments of compression and expansion that tore apart chemical bonds with a terrifying ease, though thankfully did not have the power to do the same with the atomic bonds that Ross ship and artillery weapons managed.
Sorilla’s personal weapons were cruder, of that there was no doubt. Heavy depleted transuranic rounds propelled by caseless plasma propellent might be sophisticated as firearms went, but ultimately, she was still just throwing rocks at the enemy.
Heavy, custom designed rocks, but rocks, nonetheless.
For all that, however, the effectiveness was only marginally less as the heavy rounds punched through the concrete that Kriss’ weapon tore to shrapnel and continued on through the targets hiding on the other side with little pause.
*****
The Commander heard the sudden eruption of weapons fire up ahead and knew that the ambush had been tripped, but there was something wrong to the sound.
He paused, holding up a hand to bring his followers to a halt.
“What is it, Commander?” A young officer asked, uncertain.
“Too long.” He said after a moment.
One of his men, an older and more experienced grunt nodded. “Should have ended by now. You hear that, Commander?”
“Explosive weapon, yes,” The Commander nodded. “That is not Alliance issue. Not any that I’ve seen.”
He made a decision, “Ahead slow, be wary. The ambush may have encountered problems.”
The soldiers with him nodded and slowly got moving again, spreading out their formation as they moved to cover the corridor ahead of them.
*****
Sorilla hugged the wall as she came up on the corridor, putting two rounds into one of the Sirhan soldiers across the way with her left hand while firing a trio of armor piercers into the wall on her left with the weapon in her right. The rounds tore through the concrete, exploding out into the corridor beyond, showering anyone there with shrapnel.
“Do not steal my kills!” Kriss snapped as he stepped over the soldier she’d shot, swinging his pulse weapon around the corner as she did the same on her side.
“Then keep up,” She snapped back, eyes and implanted optics sweeping the carnage for any mobile targets. “Clear on this side.”
“Sadly, it is the same here.” Kriss sighed, lowering his weapon as he stepped among the corpses, idly toeing one over unto its back. “Rather unimpressive showing.”
“Complain about their training later, when Murphy isn’t listening.”
Kriss frowned, casting about in all directions, “Who is Murphy? I see no one else here.”
“Murphy is always here.” Sorilla declared, offering no other explanation for the moment.
She knelt down by one of the fallen and holstered her right sidearm to free up a hand to flip over his weapon. She was unsurprised to see that it was of Alliance manufacture, but without any of the markings she’d been told to look for in legitimate production gear.
More interesting was the fact that she recognized the signature the weapon was giving off to her accelerometers.
“Check their weapons,” She said. “The workmanship says alliance, but my gut says something else.”
Kriss shot her an inscrutable look, but nodded and plucked up one of the weapons himself. He flipped it over, checking for markings as she had, but paused almost immediately.
“This is… It is a Ross weapon.”
“Yeah,” Sorilla said, rising to her feet. “That’s what I thought.”
“No, not merely Alliance adapted, it is Ross military issue,” He said urgently.
“Yes, I got that.”
“These are not merely controlled within Alliance space, they’re effectively banned,” Kriss grumbled. “Or would be if the Ross ever made them available for sale. What is going on here?”
Sorilla didn’t answer that question, for several reasons.
Leading the list was the fact that if Kriss and Sienele weren’t bright enough to work it out for themselves. She wasn’t sure she wanted to clue them or their bosses in on what she was fairly certain the Ross were up to.
Pretty close behind that, however, was the fact that she could hear movement coming their way, and that was going to take precedence in short order.
“Heads up,” She called. “Incoming.”
*****
“The firing ceased, Commander.”
The Commander snorted. He could hear that for himself. What concerned him at the moment was whether the firing ceased because the ambush had succeeded, or because it hadn’t.
At the corner before the junction where they’d set the ambush he slowed to a halt and signaled the others to do the same, keying in a recognition signal over the tactical network and waited for the response.
None came.
That answers that, I suppose, He thought grimly.
“The ambush failed. Signal the flankers to close in from behind the enemy,” He ordered. “Have them moving quickly. We will keep their focus here, on us, while the flankers take them from behind.”
“Yes Commander”
I hope that will be sufficient, but I had also hoped that the ambush would have been sufficient as well. I suppose we will see, won’t we?
*****
Portal Ship
The infiltration subjects have engaged the Alliance inspection forces.
Is entropy present?
Uncertain, but likely.
Ensure that they are aware that entropy is considered a priority target. Eliminate at all costs.
The conclave considered that before they unanimously placed their agreement with the order.
Issue the orders. Rewards for entropy’s confirmed death will be issued to both the infiltration species and to the individuals who accomplish it.
*****
Orkhana
Kriss nodded, half turning to look down the way they’d come.
“The flankers have caught on that something has gone wrong with their ambush,” He confirmed.
“Not only them,” Sorilla said, looking the other direction. “New force approaching from the direction of the target. They’re being cautious, however.”
“Foolish,” Kriss grunted. “There is a time for caution, but now is not that time. If they overwhelmed us, likely they could at least eliminate one of us with little issue.”
Sorilla snorted, not missing the slight emphasis on the word ‘one’ as Kriss said it, and having no question in her mind as to which one of them he expected could be eliminated. She wasn’t willing to say he was wrong, of course, but the casual ego amused her. It was very much in keeping with certain forward operation special operations groups she was familiar with.
“True enough,” She said aloud, popping the barrels from her left pistol and letting the partially depleted over/under barrels drop to the ground as she smoothly replaced them with a fresh load before moving to do the same with the holstered one.
The super-positioned nature of the pistols she used combined the barrels and the magazine into one part, removing all moving parts from the weapon and making it one of the most rugged pieces of equipment she carried. Her pistols almost literally could not fail, unlike almost everything else she, or the Alliance as far as she’d seen, had.
With both pistols reloaded, she spent a moment evaluating the approach of the targets she could hear from ahead of them before making a decision.
“Best take out the flankers,” She suggested. “The backup team is holding back too much to worry about just yet. Wish we had claymores.”
“I am not familiar with that term,” Kriss admitted as he turned to move back, lifting his weapon into a ready position.
“Directional mines,” Sorilla said. “Explosives, mostly antipersonnel.”
“Ah, yes I believe we encountered some of those on Hayden,” Kriss said, shrugging with an unimpressed grunt. “Underpowered, if I’m being honest.”
“Only against your thick ass,” Sorilla snorted. “But you probably have a point. They don’t do much against armor either.”
“It is a pointless wish,” Kriss said, dropping to one knee as he brought his weapon up to get a sight picture. “Sienele would never allow us to carry such weapons into an Alliance production facility. He is far too knowledgeable of Lucian Sentinels for us to slip that past him…”
Sorilla nodded, unsurprised.
“… again.” Kriss finished.
The belt of laughter that escaped Sorilla was short, loud, and entirely uncontrolled.
“I will make a note of that,” She said, taking a breath as she got control of herself again.
“Do so,” Kriss said, clearly amused though focused as he nodded. “They are here.”
*****
Weapons fire erupted ahead of them, causing the Commander to curse.
He’d ordered his men forward, but the enemy had been supposed to continue forward to engage his team, not double back.
“Forward! Hurry!” He ordered, not knowing exactly what his soldiers were up against, but fully aware that the enemy had already eliminated a staged ambush with what appeared to be a frankly ridiculous measure of ease.
His team rushed down the corridor, barely able to maintain formation and discipline as they ran.
Who are these people? There should only be two of them!
*****
Sorilla took the measure of the soldiers she was dealing with as she fired, only part of her mind on the fight while she focused the rest on the overarching situation.
The firefight itself was nothing to write home about, enemy soldiers running a very standard assault on entrenched positions this time as opposed to them defending from entrenched positions in the previous fight. Thus far their reactions had been by the books, the sort of thing she would expect from reasonably trained regular forces, and not from a specialized infiltration team.
These Sirhan, whatever else they are, aren’t on the Job, she noted with a mix of satisfaction and annoyance.
The Fifth wouldn’t fight like this, not in this situation, not unless things had gone completely amuck, and she didn’t think that they had for the Sirhan just yet. They were professional soldiers, certainly, but she’d personally rank them as Second World professionals.
That wasn’t, in any way, a put down. It was just a comment on the sort of training she believed they were bringing to the table.
The Second World, on Earth, were those nations allied to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. First World nations were allied to the West, and Third world were technically unaffiliated with either.
Certain training philosophies took root in each of those three groups, and they persisted on Earth even into the modern days.
Second World nations tended toward a more brutal and face forward approach compared to the defter touch adopted by the First World, which was precisely what she was seeing at the moment. Sorilla would hold any judgement in reserve for when she had more data, of course.
The firefight dragged on a bit longer before she noticed something that made her reconsider that evaluation, however.
“They’re trying to pin us down,” She called. “Taking up the pressure so the others can flank us to the rear.”
“Agreed,” Kriss responded over his own fire. “Suggestions?”
Sorilla grimaced.
Honestly, there weren’t a lot of reasonable options in the current situation. Calling in backup or breaking contact were the two that were most considered ‘sane’ and by the book, but both were not exactly good options at the moment. That left defending on two fronts… or…
“Split focus, strike both at one,” She offered, knowing who she was talking to well enough by that time.
Kriss laughed, his voice booming over the extended firefight.
“Colonel, if I did not know better, I would swear you were born a Lucian. Let us do this then.”
“Right, you deal with these then, I’ll give our friends sneaking up on us a warm greeting. Break on three. Three!”
The two pivoted and split apart, moving to battle.
*****