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Author: Istvan1956
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Omens
By Istvan1956
Hidden by the leaves of the alien flora I carefully sighted in on my target. He was a Vanu Sovereignty officer, merely of field grade rank but vital to the men and women he was leading. I steadied the heavy Bolt Driver rifle and took a deep cleansing breath, then a slower one, finally a half breath and held it. The target paused, possibly talking on his helmet radio. That was what I was waiting for. The rifle bucked in my hands, the recoil pushing my shoulder back. But I was braced for it and kept the scope on target. I saw the big round punch a hole through his helmet visor and explode his head.
Before I had time to reload the single shot weapon I sensed a presence behind me. I turned to the right and tried to bring up the butt of my rifle to protect myself. I was blind with panic as I heard his laughter yet saw nothing. Then I felt the knife enter my throat slicing through my carotid artery. My blood spattered crimson across the foliage that I foolishly thought would hide me. Dropping my rifle I desperately grabbed at my neck to stem the pulsing flow but it was pouring out of me too quickly. With my left hand I pulled out my medical applicator. That’s when I heard his voice, a soft yet malicious baritone voice that whispered, “Tut-tut! I can’t have you doing that,” as he pried the life saving device out of my weakening grip.
As I fell back on the forest loam he materialized above me. The red trimmed black uniform marked him as a Terran Republic soldier. It also showed that he was a cloaker, one who could turn invisible to the naked eye using stealth technology. But that didn’t matter as my sight grew dim. It was the scarred face and evil half-smile that held my dying gaze. He was getting off on my death. The sick bastard…so unlike me. Or was he? My mind mulled the thought as I died.
And awoke with a gasp. I sat up from where I had lain naked between the sheets of my bed. Sweat ran down the small of my back in a room that was cool to the skin. My bunkie rolled over and tried to snuggle to me but I ignored her as I felt my neck for a wound. Of course there was none, it was just a dream. A reoccurring dream that had come more often as the war progressed on Auraxis. I had died and been reborn using the same ancient Vanu technology that allowed cloakers to exist. Yet never had I met the fate I dreamed about, nor the man whose face I saw…
There had been so many faces. Men and women I had shot down coldly and calmly as if I was on the practice range. Faces in the rifle scope I keep so perfectly clear
I can tell the color of their eyes. It wasn’t murder, it was war. And I dispatched them quickly so they didn’t suffer. Not like I suffered in my dream.
As a former medic I knew about suffering. Soldiers hit by explosives and torn apart. Somehow they lived for a while despite their innards being spread across the battlefield. I couldn’t heal them, there wasn’t enough of them left for the nanobots to reconstitute. So I had to load them up with drugs and tell them it would be all right. The Vanu respawning technology would give them a new body as good as they had before, maybe better. It would just be a few moments…then the drugs would do their work and the guy or gal would convulse a little and die in my arms.
That’s what led me to applying for sniper school, the sight of so many friends and comrades dying around me despite my best efforts. I couldn’t take working with a squad anymore so I worked alone. Stalking the enemy and dispatching them one by one, cleanly. Occasionally I worked as part of a team. That’s how I met Lance Corporal Miriam Weismann, my bunkie. She was another sniper/scout who had a medical background. We paired up now and then but there was no permanent commitment between us. We were equals who had needs. And who each had demons of our own.
I rolled over and looked at the clock. It was 0318 hours, middle of the frigging night. I had a mission in the morning on Forseral. Miriam was going with me as my observer/gunner. We were taking a Harasser scout car and doing a little recon behind enemy lines. Engaging the enemy only as a last resort. We’d be in Vanu Sovereignty territory so I wouldn’t be meeting any T.R. cloakers. Or so I prayed to whatever gods watched over the damned on Auraxis.
They said that there were once people on Old Earth who believed that chosen warriors who died in battle were taken to Valhalla. There they would battle all day and then be reborn to feast all night. Auraxis was the closest thing to come to that myth. Only it was more like hell than heaven. Men and women were losing their humanity, more and more of them where becoming basket cases as the war went on and on…
Turning to Miriam I laid back down beside her. In the dim light I traced the outline of her back. It was clean of scars, two days before she was caught in the blast of a V.S. Flail cannon and blown apart. This body was her seventeenth reincarnation since the war began. It was still as beautiful and flawed as the first. Her full breasts were slightly different in size. Her nose was a little crooked from a fight that occurred before the medical nanobots ever entered her bloodstream on Auraxis. Then there was the tiny skull and crossbones tattoo on her right buttocks with the words “Mess with the Best, Die like the Rest” that was done on board the ship from Old Earth. These flaws existed on each reincarnation as the medical matrix duplicated her exactly as she was when she reported for duty on this hell world. Yet they couldn’t duplicate the clean soul that had inhabited the body. The new body bore the same weight of memories that now caused her to twitch in sleep just as I had moments ago.
I forced myself to relax and to go back to sleep. A soldier catches what sleep he can, when he can, as there are too many times when he can’t afford to sleep at all. Or the enemy will get him and his buddies. I held onto Miriam and felt her go calm in my embrace. At least for one of us the demons were stilled.
The alarm woke us at 0500 hours sharp. I silenced the warbling tone with a slap and reached over to turn on the light. Miriam stretched like a cat and I felt her reach over to claw my back. I knew what she wanted, a little P/T (physical training) before breakfast. We had just the exercise program…
Breakfast was in the mess hall. Our small platoon seldom ate together and today was no exception. We had fortified protein paste, basically gruel, not bad when fresh, hot and masked with plenty of syrup and soy-milk. When served cold in the field it could sit like a rock in the belly. Yet Miriam liked it plain and dumped hot sauce on hers for some reason I never fathomed. The flapjacks were sourdough, not my favorite and what passed for erzatz coffee reminded me of what came out of the oil pan of my scout car. At least there was no lack of food though it was of mixed quality. Miriam and I ate in silence.
At the armory I drew out my rifle and shotgun. Both were custom tuned by the master armorer but I still stripped them down and checked them. Sgt. Major Williams wasn’t offended as we all did it. “See here, Corporal Istvan Szekler,” she began. “I had to change out your scope stablizer again. You need to take better care of your equipment.”
“Righto, Sergeant Major. Next time when face to face with a Prowler tank I’ll do much better at finding a deep hole to hide in so my equipment doesn’t get dinged.”
“Smartass, get out of my sight.” She smiled and noticed the private that served as her assistant was also smiling. Her steely glare changed that soon enough. The woman pulled cannons out of Thunderer APC’s by herself. She could twist the scrawny private into a pretzel. He scampered back to work.
Miriam was field stripping her Gauss assault rifle. I preferred the punch of the heavy Jackhammer shotgun to the bullet hose she carried but that was personal taste. These were our back-up weapons as we both carried the Bolt Driver as our primary weapon. I grabbed a pack of plasma grenades. These were perfect for clearing an area of enemy soldiers. The green phosphorus would burn through armor and flesh. It was especially rewarding to catch a cloaker in the blast. Suddenly they would become visible as they ran around trying to get the plasma off of them. It never worked and even if they were able to grab a med kit they were such an easy target that we never ceased to get them.
We checked each other’s equipment load. Nothing rattled or was missing. We headed to the vehicle terminal to pull out the Harasser. From there it was to the broadcast warpgate where we would break off of an armored column for our reconnaissance mission. While the enemy was busy fighting our Vanguards and Thunderers we’d slip away. It was risky but better than going in where the enemy was just waiting for some fool to show himself.
My part in the overall campaign on Forseral was tiny. Miriam and I were to watch the left flank while the main push broke out of the Southern Warpgate. As this was not the only warpgate where combat was going on the forces committed were small, about a brigade in strength. The enemy was thought to be even weaker, no more than an oversized battalion blocking the southern approaches to the enemy’s stronghold at Anu Tech Plant. They wouldn’t last long and we’d overrun them unless they received reinforcements from Eadon Amp Station. We were part of the early warning system to counter that possible threat.
First through the warpgate and out the bubble on the other side were three flights of aircraft, one consisting of Mosquito interceptor/scouts and two of heavier Reaver gunships. Next came the armor battalion, three companies equaling thirty-six Vanguard Medium Battle Tanks (MBTs). The mechanized infantry battalion consisted of four companies, three were in Thunderer and Deliverer amphibious APC’s while the heavy weapons company used the Sunderer APC to carry MAX power-suited mobile infantry. They were accompanied by a platoon of assault buggies, Enforcer tank destroyers and Skyguard Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA). Facing such an onslaught the light screen of V.S. air and land forces were quickly scattered or destroyed. The Gate Outpost Gun Tower was ours.
We were part of the second wave of vehicles. The brigade’s reconnaissance company covered the flanks, my scout/sniper platoon spread out in Harasser two-man buggies or solo on armed Basilisk and Fury ATV’s. The scout/infiltration platoon used cloaked Wraith ATV’s. Engineer and support units followed the main push. Advanced Mobile Stations (AMS) trucks trundled off to their designated rally points. Advanced Nanite Transports (ANT’s), basically a glorified fuel truck, deployed in the warpgate to help replenish fuel silos of captured bases. Combat engineers laid defenses around the tower.
Ducking out of the main column Miriam and I missed most of the action. There was a sharp engagement at the first road block. The Vanu Sovereignty forces weren’t napping. The skirmish at the warpgate tower was just to sound the alarm. The V.S. had set up a deep minefield around a crossroad southeast of Anu supported by drone Spitfire turrets. This would’ve been easy to clear or bypass but they also had a platoon of Magrider hovertanks that crossed the lake to the east to hit our flank. They in turn were supported by two Flail self-propelled artillery pieces parked well out of range of our weapons.
When the column halted after the lead tank blew on the mines the V.S. opened fire. The range was long but the Magriders have rail guns that have little deviation to them. Basically whatever they aim at they hit. We lost 3 more tanks to their fire before the Reavers got on them. The V.S. pulled back losing two of their own tanks…loses they could sustain so long as they could quickly respawn and pull out more tanks from their tech plant ahead of us. We had to push on to the objective quickly.
It was the Flails that caused the most damage. They had a forward observer someplace behind our lead units. Likely a cloaker with a Wraith of his or her own. Fire from the Flails hit our waiting APC’s and smashed seven of them while they were jocking to flee the column. Our air units chased down the fire to destroy the enemy artillery but it was too late for us. Soldiers can respawn at an AMS but can’t replace vehicles in the field. Now there was an infantry company that was humping it on foot to the target.
Meanwhile we were off in left field doing our own thing. I had parked the Harasser in a copse of trees. Miriam was up one of the trees while I was manning the roof mounted chaingun. She gave me a running narration of the crossroads battle while I scanned the western horizon. Just when the Flails were getting pounded I spotted a flash in the distance. Miriam stopped talking mid-sentence. The next thing I know she tumbles down in a heap. I knew from the way her body fell that she was dead before she hit the ground. Tabbing the butterfly trigger on the chaingun I suppressed the spot where the enemy sniper fired from. I know it was a waste of ammo but I was ticked. A good sniper moves after firing one shot. This guy was good getting a one shot kill at that distance.
Miriam would be respawning at a AMS a click behind me. I couldn’t drive and man the turret gun at the same time so I bailed out and zig-zagged to the driver’s seat. Another round went off but this time he missed. The armored window was no match for the oversized slug of a Bolt Driver. It punched through the polycarbonate windshield like it was butter. That just made me move faster. I tore out of there calling for a back-up unit to cover my sector. My sitrep included the two likely locations where the sniper had fired from. I don’t know what happened to him, only that he didn’t get anyone else.
She didn’t say much when I met her at the respawn tube of the AMS. Miriam just stomped over to the weapons terminal and ordered up her equipment. I provided overlook for the AMS and made sure none of our infantry friends decided to make off with our Harasser. One lieutenant looked like he was going to try to commandeer it but I stared him down with my hand on my Jackhammer. He swallowed hard, picked up his gear and gathered a few of his men around him. They moved off together at the double time with only a couple of dirty looks my way.
Miriam plopped down in the gunner’s seat and simply said, “Let’s go hunting.” I nodded, fired the scout car up and peeled out of there. It wasn’t long and we were back covering our assigned flank. Smoke from burning vehicles rose at the crossroads on our right. We were far enough away to not smell the roasted flesh but we could still hear the ammo cooking off. Especially the 150mm shells of the Vanguard tanks. One tank blew its’ turret 20 meters into the air. Not as high as I’ve seen a Prowler turret blow but hey, it was impressive none the less.
Harasser scout cars can really move if you give her full throttle. However, in battle that will likely get you spotted quickly and killed. We would hang back in cover and scout ahead with our sniper scopes and bionic implants. We both had enhancements as snipers, range magnification and target enhancement implants. I also had the dark light implant to find cloakers, Miriam wasn’t senior enough to have earned three implants. With her chest it was a joke in the platoon that she unfairly had more implants than the rest of us. When one wag said that in her presence she took the offender aside. First she proved they were real and then she proved that he didn’t have brass balls by kicking them with her combat boots.
Anyway, after checking as best we could that the coast was clear we’d drive to the next place of cover and concealment. Then we’d dismount and do it all again. It was slow and tedious but most of the time it kept us alive. That’s how we spotted the V.S. relief column before they had a chance to spot us. We had flanked Anu and were near the Eadon-Anu road when I heard the whine of hovercraft fans. The New Comglomerate possess few hovercraft, basically ancient tech vehicles like the Switchblade and the Flail self-propelled artillery. But we didn’t have any in our brigade’s “TOE” or Table of Organization & Equipment. And it was the wrong direction for our vehicles to be coming from. That made it enemy, likely V.S. since they loved hovercraft vehicles.
“F’ing A! It’s a Thresher,” Miriam quipped as the enemy vehicle pulled into view. The assault hovercraft was a two-man scout but much heavier armed and armored than our light buggy. Not that we were even in the scout car when we identified the armored fighting vehicle. We were lying on our bellies on a small knoll behind some bushes. Now I have a disposable three-shot Decimator rocket launcher in the trunk of the car for just such a problem as this but I’m not here to engage the enemy. Our mission was to provide a screen and early warning. Besides, the Thresher wasn’t our only worry.
“There’s another one. And a bunch of Magriders too! Crap, there is a whole battalion of tanks there.” Miriam was getting a little excited. Knowing that our ground forces were fully engaged at Anu this was going to be a rude surprise if we didn’t warn them. I got on the platoon frequency.
“Romeo-One-Three to Romeo-One-Six, over.”
“Romeo-One-Six, go ahead One-Three.”
“Reporting ducks and geese on the road two clicks west of target, a full flock. Repeat, ducks and geese on the road two clicks west of target, a full flock.”
“Roger, ducks and geese. What is their formation?”
“They are running for speed, estimate five-seven minutes from target.”
“Roger. One-Three stand by.”
“One-Three standing by.”
I wondered what the lieutenant was doing. Likely filling his drawers but hey, that wasn’t my worry. Miriam was down at the Harasser getting the Decimator in case we were found but I figured that would just piss the enemy off more than hurt them. The outfit was in trouble if they couldn’t disengage enough tanks to meet this new threat.
Earlier I had been listening on the brigade net while scouting ahead. The V.S. battalion had dug in at Anu and was effectively defending the place. Every one of their Phalanx turrets were up and firing. The few Magriders they had were covering their entrances and their own MAX suited mobile infantry were jump jetting up, blasting away at our aircraft and tanks before ducking down behind the walls again. It wasn’t the cakewalk senior command thought it would be. We had lost about a company of Vanguards, more than a company of APC’s and much of our aircraft. While the enemy suffered greater losses they were able to respawn immediately and pull new vehicles out. We were not able to replace our vehicles. Even our repair aircraft, a Lodestar, had been shot down by a Reaver that somehow got through our air screen. We needed to turn the tide and someone at Brigade had better figure out how to do it.
My radio snapped out another message. This was someone new, “Romeo-One-Three this is Angel-Five-Six, over.”
It was the air commander for our brigade. “This is Romeo-One-Three.”
“One-Three get clear of the road. We have Rolling Thunder inbound.”
I got up and started running down the slope to the car. As I passed Miriam I spun her around causing her to lose the Decimator. Between breaths I replied. “Roger, Five-Six, we are exiting the area to the south. Bring them on in.”
Someone had wised up at Brigade level and appealed for heavier support. “Rolling Thunder” was the call sign for a bombing mission by a squadron of Liberator heavy bombers. They would carpet bomb the length of the road. If we didn’t get out of the way we’d become one with the planet. Nobody likes dying, even if you do get to respawn right away. Besides, we had a mission to complete. Miriam was still buckling up when I gave the Harasser full juice. Debris flew out from under the rear tires like it was a leaf blower. I just said, “Hang on.”
The V.S. were traveling fast and dumb. They never had a chance to disperse enough to avoid the bombs. Three flights of bombers in vee formation, one vic after the other pounding the column. Fifteen bombers dropping load after load of anti-armor bombs. Then they’d turn and spread wide, three vics becoming one great vee formation as they finished off the survivors with cluster bombs.
I didn’t want us underneath the rain of death. Heading due south I ran the RPM’s up past redline. We were flying due to a little tinkering I did with the engine when I picked up the car. The engine started to smoke in protest but I wanted as much distance as I could get away from the enemy. We passed two ATV’s from our own outfit before I shut the car down. Miriam looked annoyed, “You know they put governors on these things for a reason. You shouldn’t have disabled it. Now you’ve burned out the motor.”
It was true, the engine was off but it was still smoking. I could smell fried electricals from under the hood. I tried to start it up again. The car sputtered and then shut down for good. I lamely said, “Well, at least we made it out of there alive.”
The look Miriam shot me did not bode well for my chances of company in bed tonight. She pulled out her Gauss rifle and struck off into the brush. I pulled my Jackhammer and followed her thinking, “So we have to walk from here on out. At least we weren’t walking from way back where the AMS is parked.” That wouldn’t have done my case any good so I kept these thoughts to myself. Then my radio went off, “Romeo-One-Six to Romeo-One-Three.”
“Romeo-One-Three, go ahead One-Six.”
“Sitrep?”
“We are on foot in One-Two’s sector heading north to verify effects of Rolling Thunder. Vehicle is disabled.”
“Roger One-Three. Proceed with mission. We are unable to replace or repair your vehicle at this time. Deconstruct it.”
“Roger One-Six, proceeding with mission after deconstructing vehicle. One-Three out.”
Now it was my turn to swear. Miriam was monitoring the frequency and gave me a “told you so” look. I was going to be in the doghouse for a long time. I set the Harasser’s controls to deconstruct and stepped back. Nanobots were released seconds later to reduce the vehicle to its’ base components. Soon there was no evidence of our vehicle save for the tire tracks.
What we traveled over in minutes with the Harasser took a lot longer to cover on foot. When we got back to the slope we had occupied when we spotted the Thrasher it was in ruins. It was a scene of apocalyptic destruction. The ground was cratered and blackened. What trees still stood were devoid of limbs and branches. Wreckage littered the ground. It was hard to tell there had been a battalion of men here. The debris was too finely shredded and mixed with the earth. Miriam picked up a handful of leaves, bits of metal and V.S. uniform. As she dropped it again she commented, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
“Come on, let’s get out of here before the SOB’s respawn and come back here looking for blood.” Miriam nodded and followed me back into cover. I switched frequencies to the Brigade and caught an automatic countdown. We had hacked into Anu and had only minutes to go before the base would be ours. That would give us the foothold we needed to push outwards. Our forces were already taking down Gwidion Tech Plant to the east. Denied their tech plants the Vanu Sovereignty would be unable to fabricate heavy weapons such as Magriders, Flails and Liberator bombers. The tide would swing heavily to us, the attackers.
I heard a familiar and welcome sound, Vanguards. We paused by the edge of the woods to watch. It was C Company of the armor battalion. They set up a hasty ambush along the road in case the V.S. were able to scratch together another relief column. I switched over to their frequency and chatted with the CO. It was their executive officer, the CO caught a round that took off a hand and the doc’s were busy replacing it. The gist of our conversation was simple. We were their eyes and ears. He was going to monitor our net for sitreps. That would mean that he’d get the word as soon as we told Brigade, not later after going through umpteen channels. So Miriam and I slipped back into the woods and double-timed it toward Eadon.
The Liberators hadn’t stopped with pounding the relief column. They had gone on and pounded the heck out of Eadon. It looked like every Phalanx wall turret was down though there was a beehive of activity prepping the base for our attack. It looked like the V.S. had given up on Anu for now. I reported all this back to Brigade.
What happened next took me by surprise. The V.S. were swarming around like ants in a stirred up nest when suddenly there was Flail fire from the west. We didn’t have Flails or forces to the west of Eadon. It dawned on Miriam and I at the same time. “Oh crap, the Terran Republic is crashing our party.”
While I got on the horn to warn Brigade, Miriam trained her sniper scope on something west of the base. Before I could stop her she fired. “Damn cloakers,” she said.
“We are here to snoop and poop, not rack up kills,” I reminded her. She just glared back. Miriam hated cloakers, more so than I did. But she was taking a risk firing from our position. Either side could find us. Then Brigade would be out two scouts who had the best ringside seats for the coming battle. Reloading her Bolt Driver she repositioned to a new firing spot. I dutifully followed covering her back with my Jackhammer. Again she raised her rifle and scanned to the west of the base. I tried to satisfy my curiosity, “Was it a T.R. stooge?”
“I think so. It was a cloaker. I shot him. That’s good enough for me.” I saw her steady her rifle and begin her breathing drills. She was going to do it again. For some reason the stealth technology that allowed infiltration suits to become nearly invisible to the naked eye were more visible when viewed through a rifle scope. It had to something to do with the ruby lenses we used. Miriam used that to her advantage more than once. Not this time though as I knocked her rifle barrel down. She almost came unglued on me. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Stand down, Miriam. That is an order!” I hated pulling rank on her but this was important. We had a mission to accomplish and personal vendettas were not part of it. “We are pulling back and repositioning so we can observe the T.R. attack without detection.”
“Bah!” she spit out but she obeyed. I never learned what had caused her to irrationally fear and hate cloakers. I mean everybody hates cloakers, they are spies and assassins. We take our chances wearing the same uniform as everyone else. They skulk and hide in plain sight. You walk by one and he or she dumps a loaded magazine into your back. Or plunges a knife in your throat. Which made me uncomfortable enough that I turned on my darklight implant to check around for cloakers. It reduced my vision to only a couple of meters so I quickly scanned and turned it back off. We were in the clear for now.
“See, you worry about them too.” Miriam had caught me. I was not going to get into an argument with her about it so I moved on. She followed silently but burning holes in my back with her eyes. I figured we were through as a partnership. But we were going to accomplish our mission no matter what the personal cost.
Meanwhile the Terran artillery was pounding Eadon Amp Station. Flail fire took down the newly repaired turrets, leveled the vehicle terminal and cleared the catwalks. The T.R. definitely had several forward observers in the area, most likely cloakers but possibly snipers like us. We had to be very careful not to be spotted by them. I selected a good observation post and we stalked it like the enemy was there. I used my sniper scope and then my darklight when I was close enough. No enemy had taken up residence there, a good thing since we wanted it. If it had been occupied we’d have backed off and moved away unless we were detected. Then I would’ve sic’d Miriam on whoever it was. She’d rip them apart with glee as mad as she was.
As the artillery barrage lifted the main assault began. It was an airborne assault. Mosquito fighters and Reaver gunships barreled in low strafing the base courtyard. A flight of Galaxy class transports hotdropped a company of infantry and MAX units onto the roof of the base. Many died on the way down or right after they hit. The artillery hadn’t detonated all the mines or destroyed the drone Spitfire turrets the V.S. engineers had laid in preparation for our attack. Also the V.S. MAX units sallied forth to battle with their T.R. counterparts. The T.R. first wave faltered and then failed.
I kept the Brigade fully informed, giving a blow-by-blow description like I was a sportscaster at a prize fight. Brigade was busy consolidating their hold on Anu and replacing lost equipment. They told us to expect no help for now and to keep out of sight. I reiterated this with Miriam but she just glared at me.
The second wave was an armor assault. Led by Prowler tanks a dozen Raider APC’s tried to roll in through the main gate. Many didn’t make it as Lancers, Decimators and V.S. MAX units blasted the armor, particularly the thin-skinned Raiders. However the V.S. were too weak after fighting off the first wave to hold for long. Terran Republic soldiers poured out the surviving APC’s and captured the courtyard.
It would take more soldiers than they had to take the main installation. Infantry and MAX’s owned the inner fortress. Armor vehicles were no use there. And the T.R. didn’t have the numbers as yet. That’s when we saw the enemy AMS roll up by the back sally port of the base. It only had a Marauder assault buggy as its’ escort. I pointed this out to Miriam and then relayed that fact to Brigade. If any of our own cloakers were in the area and could jack the AMS we’d not only have a way into the base but also a close respawn point.
The AMS deployed and cloaked itself. The Marauder moved off on patrol. Terran Republic soldiers began to respawn at the truck and headed down the back door. Base defenders poured Lasher fire, blue orbs of death that mowed down everyone in a hall way. I knew first hand how deadly they were as I had died that way more than once. The orbs would hit your buddy and then shoot out lightning to either side of the target taking you as well, no matter how much cover you had between you and them. Soon I began to recognize the same guys respawning and running back into the fray. It looked like the battle was stalled as both sides were too evenly matched.
Brigade loved to hear that part. They had something going but didn’t want to share it with us grunts on the front line, communication security and all that. All I know is that we were suddenly ordered away from the back door. Brigade wanted to know about the west road to the warpgate where the T.R. were coming in from. Dutifully we hustled over that direction.
Fortunately I am just paranoid enough to check every few meters for cloakers following us. There was one on our tail. I blasted her with my Jackhammer. As her suit failed her I noted that she was from the Terran Republic Army. Miriam spat in her direction. I agreed with the sentiment. The nightmare kept coming back to me.
Now we had to move quickly away from the scene of the encounter. New Conglomerate weapons have their own sounds, very distinct from T.R. and V.S. weapons. If the enemy didn’t know we were here before this they knew it now. Besides, that cloaker was going to be looking for revenge. It would take a while now to get around the battle zone.
Brigade wasn’t as patient as I liked. I really didn’t want to get my ass shot off running into a squad or two of T.R. soldiers. Miriam looked like she was spoiling for a fight. This was when she looked the most alive, during battle and sex. I think that if we did get into a fight she might even forgive me for pulling rank on her. Well, maybe that was wishful thinking.
I kept us off the trails we encountered. We kept to the thickets and brush. When units passed by we hid, Miriam doing her part to maintain our cover. She was a pro, just a bit hotheaded. We really worked together well, covering our areas of responsibility and moving with just a minimum of hand signals.
Finally we were in position. The warpgate bubble was crowded with T.R. vehicles and aircraft. There was a major push coming in and we were clearly outnumbered. The brigade was not up to taking on both the V.S. and what looked to be a T.R. armored division. Brigade ordered us to pull back.
We never made it out. A pair of Mosquitos caught whiff of us on their look-down radar. Nothing we carried was meant to take on aircraft or to withstand 12mm chainguns. They chewed us to bits. At least it was quick. One minute we were running for our lives and the next minute we were dumped out of a spawn tube. At least it seems that fast though in reality it takes a while to grow the cloned body. Even with the miracle of nanobots we were too long out of the loop to know what was going on in the battle. After getting the basic standard uniform and minimal weapons issued to respawning troops we checked out where we were and what was going on.
Miriam and I were at the Northeast Anu Air Tower. I wondered why we had been routed there instead of a field AMS or the base itself. A noncom from the infantry battalion explained it to me. Anu was under a ghost hack. Until it was resecured everyone was being shunted to alternate respawn points. We walked over to an equipment terminal and requisitioned our reinforced exo-armor (aka “Rexo”). Then we pulled back-up weapons from the storage lockers. The number one priority was resecuring Anu.
Ghost hacking is typically a job for a cloaker. The spy infiltrates the base and hacks into the main computer system. The worm he or she introduces crashes the base’s system so it has to reboot, making it vulnerable to another virus which turns the controls over to a new user, i.e. the enemy. The hack job isn’t likely to successfully turn the base, it is mainly just a diversion for a more powerful attack. So we headed for the base in a flat out run to reinforce the walls while the turrets and other defenses were down.
There was no general attack. The base was resecured too quickly for whatever the enemy was planning to come to fruition. I heard that the Vanu Sovereignty were responsible which didn’t make sense. They were being pressed hard at Eadon by the T.R. so why mess with us? We were the lesser threat.
Walking down to the vehicle bay we got in line to requisition a replacement for our lost Harasser. I promised Miriam I wouldn’t tamper with the governor on this one and she actually smiled at me. Things were looking up when the general alarm went off. We were under attack by the V.S. It seems they wanted their tech plant back after all.
I felt we would be of more use in the field then stuck on the walls in the open. We could try to flank the attackers and pick off their leaders. Miriam seemed eager to get going and almost got into a fight with a tank crew ahead of us. She tried to cut in line and they weren’t going to brook any of that. Time dragged on as we waited for our turn at the vehicle terminal.
When we finally got our Harasser we drove up the ramp from the underground bay into a full firefight. Fortunately the main attack was at the back door and not at our gate. We were able to push our way out and then into the woods beyond the base. The attack had to be coming from Ogma Bio Lab to the north. That meant that the air tower we spawned at earlier was a priority target for the enemy as it lay directly in the path of the attack.
I was wrong on two accounts. The attack came from Caer Interlink Facility to the east. The V.S. had used their advantage in amphibious vehicles to push across the lake and hit us from the rear. Still, Miriam and I were able to move clockwise around the base till we were well away from the main action. We ditched the scout car, deconstructing it to remove any trace of our presence before we melted into the bush. We were on the hunt again.
Snipers can’t do much about armor units. We can occasionally pick off an unwary crewmember who sticks his head out the hatch. Mostly we work on enemy infantry with the priority being: 1. Enemy Snipers 2. Cloakers 3. Officers 4. Vehicle crews. Miriam may not agree on 1 & 2 but hey, they are the biggest danger to us so we target them first.
The enemy consisted of Magrider hovertanks, Thresher assault hovercraft, Aurora and Deliverer APC’s. To mess with any of them was inviting death. We waited till the infantry in the APC’s disembarked. It didn’t take long to spot the leaders. Creeping into a group of trees Miriam and I were separated by three to four meters. She had her bush and I had mine. We independently picked our targets. I went for a loud-mouthed guy who was rallying a platoon. Likely he was only the platoon sergeant but that would still cause confusion in the ranks.
After he went down I scanned the enemy for another leader and saw him. It was the V.S. officer from my dream. I quickly turned on my darklight and turned around. There wasn’t anyone behind me. I slowly scanned from right to left and that’s when I saw him. He was creeping up on Miriam with his knife drawn. She was focused on the enemy. I had one shot in my Bolt Driver but I couldn’t use the scope with darklight on. I had to fire from the hip.
“Die you son of a bitch!” I yelled as I fired. The heavy slug tore through his unarmored chest like a hot knife through butter. His infiltration suit sputtered and shorted out as he collapsed onto his knees then onto his face. I felt exhilaration and relief. Then I saw the look on Miriam’s face. She was frozen with fear. Before I could tell her what happened I was hit with a plasma blast and my world vaporized.
I didn’t see Miriam for the rest of the day. She never was able to rendezvous with me after my respawn. Headquarters pulled us off of Forseral deciding that a three way fight wasn’t the best use of New Conglomerate resources. The brigade fought its’ way through to the East Warpgate to join up with the rest of the division. I was part of the rear guard covering the combat engineers who booby-trapped everything they could. Let the V.S. and T.R. blow themselves to bits. We would target another continent that they weren’t watching as closely, say Hossin.
When I finally caught up with Miriam it was in chow line. I don’t know which I wanted more, hot chow (my first since breakfast) or the smile Miriam gave me. Actually, it was pretty easy, it was the hot chow. The kiss she bestowed on me was much better than the chow and brought a few cat calls from guys and gals in line. I didn’t care. We took our mess kits and walked out of earshot of the crowd. (Yes, we did stay in line for the chow. We were both very tired and hungry.)
“I’m glad to see you,” she started out. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you since your death.”
“Why?” Now I was curious. The experience had put one of my demons to rest. What did she know about it?
“Did you see the face of that cloaker you killed?” Miriam’s expression reminded me of the look of terror she had when I shot the SOB.
“No, I didn’t have to. I recognized the guy from my dreams.”
She looked startled, “What do you mean from your dreams?”
I explained about the reoccurring nightmares. Now she was puzzled. “How long have you been having this dream?”
Thinking back it had been five months or so. When I told her she nodded her head and explained. “I’ve been having the same nightmare for six months now. I didn’t recognize the officer at first. By the time I did I was panicked by your shout. I checked the body after you were killed and it was the T.R. bastard with the scarred face. How could we both have the same dream?”
I mulled it over a bit while chewing my food. Then it hit me. “My grandmother told me a story about my family. We are from a part of Old Earth that is called Transylvania. My family were outcasts, not local Romanians but Hungarian speaking Gypies. Maybe it is a gift?”
Miriam nodded in acceptance. Her family background was unique as well, coming from a nation that was once a pariah, Israel. She put her arms around me and kissed me deeply. Tonight looked like we wouldn’t be fighting demons. In fact it looked like we wouldn’t be getting much sleep at all.
Planetside and Auraxis are copyright, 2003 by Sony Online Entertainment. All rights reserved.
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