Blood War 1: Last Stand of the Legion: Rift (28 page)

RIFT

K.V. BARICCO SPACE PORT

PARKING GARAGE  7

CHARLIE COMPANY

WARDOGS

2
ND
PLATOON

FIRETEAM 3

When the fireteam reached their scoot position
, they stopped and leaned against anything they could find to catch their breath. It had been a running fight at times with aliens suddenly showing up in their path or close behind them.

The scoot position was
on the second floor of the parking garage below the main maintenance deck. A low wall faced the Terminal. Various types of vehicles stood silently waiting for their owners who would never return.

"All right
, enough rest. Let's get the vehicles on their sides."

Hu with
Nani grabbed one vehicle turned it on its side and shoved it to the retaining wall. Then they grabbed another. With Sim and Dolan doing the same they soon had a strong point of vehicles and concrete surrounding them. Behind them a set of stairs led to the tunnels beneath the garage. It was their next scoot exit when they needed one. They fired their rails through the vehicles making murder holes in the cars to shoot through. When they were finished Nolan notified command.

"Fireteam three in position."

"Roger three, standby. We're waiting for one more team then we are going to blow it."

Hu was searching for targets through his murder hole
in one of the cars he had overturned. He could see aliens moving quickly everywhere in the Terminal clearing it of any stragglers. Hu found one standing still. He put the cross hairs of his rail on the alien. It seemed to be a leader because it was directing other aliens.

"Permission to fire
?" Hu asked.

Their orders had been to hold their fire until they were cleared once they reached their scoot position.

"Negative," Dolan said. "Wait."

Hu had a hard time not firing but he waited
, keeping the alien in his sights.

"Take cover
," Dolan said.

Hu ducked down below the murder hole and waited.

"Three, two, one."

A massive explosion tore thought the
Terminal, then  another and still another. Almost in slow motion the Terminal on the upper most level of the Port began to collapse.

"Fire at will.
The last fireteam is in position "

The alien Hu had in his sights had disappeared
under the tons of rubble but others were diving through windows and jumping off the roof to escape the explosion. Almost as one the fireteam began firing at the surviving aliens. Hu caught one as it jumped out a window. The round blew it apart. He fired at some he could see trapped in the rubble trying to escape. He continued to fire until there were no more targets.

"It worked just the way they said it would
," Dolan said.

Hu glanced up at his HUD. The other scoot points were manned and firing.
Hu's fireteam and the other fighting outposts joined the rest of the Battalion already in the garage. Together they formed a hedgehog defense of strong points with interlocking fire in the garage.

Hu took the temporary lull in the battle to take a long drink from his water tube
in his armor. He knew his medical systems were feeding him fluids but his mouth was so dry with fear it was hard to talk. He took a long drink as he watched the dust slowly settle from the collapse. Even before the dust had cleared, the aliens began to fire from the rubble; they had already established firing positions. The aliens had spotted a fireteam to their left and were concentrating their fire on their position.. The explosions were tearing apart the make shift barriers of the other fireteam. Hu was not sure how long they could last.

"Hey
, anyone need something to hide behind?"

Hu turned to see a team of engineers climbing up the stairs. Each had a large tank on their back.

"We could use a little," Dolan said with a laugh.

"No shit. What those aliens are using is going right through the civilian vehicles."

The engineers walked up to the overturned cars and began to spray grey foam all over the backside of the vehicles. It almost instantly solidified into a concrete like substance. Hu touched it and it was as hard as steel. It only took a couple of minutes to foam their vehicles into an almost impenetrable strong point. They made sure not to cover their murder holes. When they were finished they turned and went down the steps to the next strong point.

"Fuck this shit is good
," Nani said.

"No, shit. I've seen demonstrations in training but not for real."

"Lets stop admiring they're work and get back to ours."

Hu and rest of the fireteam took up their positions
again. Hu saw that part of the terminal had not completely collapsed. The bottom two floors had collapsed and the other three floors had partially collapsed onto the bottom floors. This created an ideal position for alien's heavy weapons. They had cover and an excellent field of fire into the parking garage. Fire from these positions began to explode against the garage as they probed for strong points.

Small groups of aliens began to charge the garage. They were cut down with fire from the strong points.

"They are probing for gaps in the strong points. I hope they find what they are looking for," Dolan said.

The strong points had been planned
so the strong points created kill sacks along the line of defense. These kill sacks appeared to be gaps or weak points in the line. When the aliens found the apparent gap they would rush troops into the 'gap in the defenses', only to find it was a trap. Each strong point looked down onto a kill sack with another strong point opposite and heavy weapons positioned at the base of the U. So when the attackers entered the sack they were would find themselves in a U shaped ambush.

A group of three aliens flashed past their strong point on their left flank. It was the entrance into a kill sack. Dolan and Sim continued to fire into the terminal.

"Nani, Hu move."

Nolan
had the fireteam practiced this same movement for hours in preparation for the exercise - now they were going to use it for real. Hu and Nani moved to the murder holes on the left flank of the strong point. Nani set up her mini and Hu made sure she had additional ammo before taking up his position. They could see the three aliens below carefully searching the area. One had the horizontal crescent and was directing the other two and they carefully moved through the debris scouting for Legion positions. Hu wondered if they could all of the eyes that were watching them as the carefully moved through the debris.

"Hold your fire. Be patient
," Dolan said.

Hu took careful aim at the leader and gently pulled the trigger so his suit's targeting system knew
its target. He moved slowly keeping the leader in sight. Finally it ducked down behind some debris and the other two came and took up positions facing away from the leader. They were waiting for reinforcements.

"Here they come."

Dolan and Sim began firing furiously at the charging aliens trying to make the aliens think that they were defending their area normally.

"Wait for the heavy weapons to kick it off
," Dolan said.

Aliens began to appear moving faster than Hu thought possible, jumping impossible mounds of debris to make it to the "weak point". Hu quit counting when he reach
ed twenty-five in the trap. That is when the heavy weapons opened up. Three were hit before Hu could fire and they simply disappeared in a blood mist. Hu fired and the head of the leader disappeared. Nani was firing her mini spraying the area catching any alien trying to move and cutting them in half. The other strong point was pouring rail fire into a now disorganized alien force. Each time they turned and tried to return the fire they were struck from another side by rail rounds. Some were able to get off a few shots but they did not last long. Soon the floor of the garage was littered with the debris -pieces of armor, smashed weapons, and body parts. Blood literally ran in a small stream down the concert into the storm drain.

Hu
saw one of the aliens slowly sit up. It was missing an arm but the bleeding had stopped. It pulled off its helmet with its one good arm. Through his scope he could see it was a female. She had long blonde hair that was matted with blood and was very pretty in spite of her condition. He had to remind himself no matter what she looked like, that this was not a human it was an alien, a hybrid of human and alien DNA. She looked like a girl he knew back home. Yet she was different in ways he could not define; more muscular, maybe. Her movements were different than normal somehow. He hesitated before firing, fascinated with the fact this was an alien that looked so human.

A medic from the strong point suddenly appeared. She moved slowly toward the alien showing her hands to make sure it knew she was not going to hurt it. The alien
’s face looked puzzled then it smiled. The medic, thinking that she had made her intentions known, slowly approached the alien, she knelt down and began to treat it. It smiled at the medic and touched her chest. The medic reached to open the alien’s armor when it laughed. The medic and the alien disappeared in the flash of an explosion.

"You fucking bitch
," Nani said.

Hu could only stare. Suddenly he knew what no quarter meant.

"Nani, what happened?" Dolan said.

"A wounded alien waited until a medic came up to treat her then she blew herself and the medic up."

"
Kak
. Waste the fuckers," Sim said.

"No quarter
," Nolan said.

"No quarter
," Hu said. Now he knew exactly what it meant.

He and Nani began to put rounds into every alien body they could see. The other Legion units were doing the same. Soon rail rounds and explosions filled the area below them. Dust mixed with sprays of blood filled the air until the Legionnaires were satisfied that all of the aliens were dead. As the dust settle
d there were only body parts and broken concrete visible. There was not a single whole alien body in the ruins. 

"You guys finished?" Dolan asked.

"Yeah, nothing left but pieces parts," Nani said.

"Then get back to your positions
. The war hasn't stopped, you know."

Hu and Nani went back to their original firing positions. The attacks had stopped
- only occasional rounds exploded along the garage wall.

"They are organizing for another wave of attacks. Be prepared
," Dolan said.

"We got incoming aircraft
," Sim said.

A formation of large aircraft suddenly appeared over the Terminal. They had
short and stubby wings with some sort of engines that rotated as they hovered over the Terminal's debris. Doors along the side of the aircraft opened and fully armored troops began dropping out onto the roof. As soon as the first formation aircraft had dropped off their loads, a second flight of aircraft swooped in to drop off their troops.

"Danger, danger, tango's overhead. Repeat tango's overhead."

Hu's armors artificial intelligence began to warn him of landings on the roof. The armored troops in the Terminal began firing into the Legion's positions in the Parking Garage. Then the first flight of aircraft after unloading their troops rose then swooped in close over the Terminal, firing cannon and laser weapons. The wall in front of Hu exploded blowing him backwards. The world went black before he landed.                            

LYTEN SYSTEM

RIFT

FLEET HEADQUARTERS

BRIGADE COMMAND POST

ARMORED EXPEDITIONARY  BRIGADE

COMMAND GROUP

"Aliens!"

Sand and Aijuba turned as one to see armored aliens pouring out of a tunnel entrance that had been cleared and sealed. The explosion had blown a new opening in the wall. The Xotoli were firing from the hip they came, filling the room with explosions as their rounds found their targets. The Xotoli armor was black, blacker than black, it obviously contained some sort of light absorbing element Sand thought.

Instead of the nano form
-fitted helmets the Legionnaires wore, the aliens had large helmets with slanted faceplates. Some sort of mechanism topped the helmet with a round ball-like device with a green lens that seemed to rotate constantly. A targeting system would make sense, Dasan thought. Each alien trooper had various types of gold and silver adornments on the chest of their armor.

Every trooper carried an oversized rifle-like weapon that was connected to its ammunition supply with a thick tube that ran to an attachment on their
back. When an alien brought up their rifles to fire, a green screen mounted on top of the rifle glowed brightly when they fired. The first rank stood in a line firing providing covering fire for those behind them. They made no attempt to find cover, while those behind them ducked behind columns or any other cover they could find. A round exploded in the center of Sand’s chest, knocking him off his feet.

He lay
there too stunned to move, for a few seconds. He wasn't wounded but the round had done its job, it had taken him out of the fight even if it was only for a few seconds. He was lucky another alien did not have the time to take him out. If a round with that much power exploded at a joint it would take his arm off. If more than one struck at the same time it would have killed him. All of these thoughts flashed through Sand’s consciousness in the split second it took him to react to the attack.

Sand's helmet had closed the instant it detected the initial explosions and before he was struck. The only weapon he had at hand was his rail pistol as he turned to face the onslaught
. He began to fire carefully at the onrushing aliens his suits’ targeting system making sure each round found its target. The pistol rounds were bouncing off the alien armor.

"Danger, danger
, Tangos at one o'clock thirty meters and closing," his suit said.

Explosions were rocking the garage as the alien rounds found troops and equipment all around Dasan. Sand fired again and again but the pistol rounds were simply
bouncing off the alien’s armor. Granted it was only a pistol and its rail coil and battery were not nearly as strong as a rifle, but they were still rails. He couldn't believe that they wouldn't cause some harm.

"The faceplates. The faceplates
," Aijuba said over the all-hands frequency.

Aijuba walked up
to Dasan firing as she moved to stand next to him, dropping an alien with a headshot with each round. The aliens had a foothold now. Enough were behind cover to begin more carefully aimed fire. Explosions filled the floor throwing shards of concrete and metal against Dasan’s armor. It hurt even through the armor when the shrapnel was large enough. More and more aliens went down as Legionnaires began firing at the faceplates, but so were the Legionnaires around Sand and Aijuba. Dasan's comm man fell screaming, his leg blown off at the knee. His armor immediately sealed the wound and flooded his system with painkillers and fluids. He turned onto his stomach to face the aliens and begin to fire as the drugs began to take effect.

Sand, Aijuba and what was left of the command group
, ducked behind columns as their numbers had dwindled to just five effectives. Unless they got reinforcements the aliens would overrun the Command Post. It was then that the four sergeants and the rest of the bodyguards slowly walked toward the aliens in skirmish line, firing their minis and rails carefully. Sergeant Kifle Elias was hit in the shoulder and her left arm went limp. She simply switched her mini to a one-hand grip and continued to move forward. They were using classic reaction drill that had been drummed into them. When caught by a surprise attack form a line and return the favor with an assault with everything you had.

The sergeant
’s attack gave Sand the second he needed to grab a nearby rail dropped by one of the casualties. He took his place in line with the sergeants and began firing the rail into the aliens, and Aijuba next to him. Dasan brought the cross hairs on an alien and pulled the trigger, the suit took care of the rest. Soon all of the Legionnaires able to stand were in line and firing. This was no fire and movement attack, this was as ancient as war. This was a frontal assault that would end in hand-to-hand combat. There was no cover to make a stand - you either attacked immediately or the aliens would reinforce and they would have a toehold in the building. 

A grenade exploded down the line dropping two of
the troopers, those beside them simply closed ranks and continued to move forward and fire. They had to close or the aliens would have reinforcements soon.

"Charge!" Sand screamed over the command frequency.

As one, the Legionnaires ran forward, screaming their own war cries over their suits speakers until the garage was filled with cries of warriors as old as humanity itself. The aliens did not falter; they too charged. The two met with a violence not seen since ancient times where lines of men with swords and axes fought to the death; the only difference now was  their strength was magnified by technology.

Sand fired his rail into the face of a
n alien, its head exploded in a red mist. Another swung a laser sword, and Sand blocked it with his rail. The laser cut through the rail like a knife through butter, but the alien had taken too wide a swing and it exposed its side. Sand drove his shoulder into the alien knocking it down. He followed it to the floor, mounting it and swinging at its head with what was left of his rail. It only bounced off the armored helmet. Dasan rolled off and stood. The alien brought the laser up trying to strike him in the stomach. Dasan side stepped the blow and grabbed the alien's arm with both hands and twisted. He was able to turn the blade toward the armored alien. With all the strength he had magnified by his armor Dasan then drove the laser into the alien's stomach. The laser cut through the alien armor as easily as it had cut through his in the early attack. The alien went limp but Dasan continued his attack; he jerked the laser upward eviscerating it. Intestines actually poured out of the armor and onto its legs. It dropped to the floor and was still.

Sand turned around to face the next opponent. All of the aliens were down. He looked over the scene of carnage. Arms and legs were lying among the bodies of both aliens and legionnaires. A severed helmeted head of an alien slowly rocked back and forth from the violence of the blow that had separated it from
its body. Blood was gathering in pools all around Dasan. He could see the medical systems in the shoulder pads on the Legionnaires suits jump as they began to treat each trooper.  Then the trooper down beacon began flashing. It wasn't long before the eerie tones signaling that the troopers injuries were life threatening and in need of immediate treatment. The signals began to sound all around Dasan until the garage echoed with them.

Sand turned and found Aijuba standing
with an axe in her hand covered with alien blood. Her helmet was closed so he could only see visual lens lights on her helmet glowing red in the darkness. The red light cast weird shadows on the "face" of her suit but he knew it was she. She had a distinctive way of carrying herself; he could recognize even in her armor. She nodded and he returned the nod. Medics from Zhao's makeshift hospital were rushing out to treat the wounded or move them immediately back to the hospital. Dasan put his hand against a column to hold himself up when the exhaustion of battle hit him.

Immediately his suit began to flood his system with energy drugs to help counteract the adrenaline let down. Once the drugs hit his system he quickly recovered and stood. Around him the men and women of his command group were taking care of their dead and wounded.

Padma, their command medic, was already taking care of Elias. Padma, who had treated Dasan earlier, was considered one of the best Devil Doc's in the brigade, the highest praise a Legionnaire could give a corpsman. It meant they were willing to fight side by side with anyone, but when a Legionnaire was wounded they would go anywhere and do anything for them. Padma was one the best. Even though they were both females Elias stood head and shoulders over Padma. Padma's helmet was hinged back as she worked; she was a pretty brunette who wore her hair like Aijuba in a Mohawk. She was applying nano medical paste directly onto Elias’s wound.

"Ouch. That hurts
," Elias said.

"You are such a little girl Kifle
," Padma said.

Elias looked down at Padma and said
,

"How come every time I get wounded you are around? I think you are bad luck."

Padma looked up at Elias. She wasn't so gentle when she spread the nano paste after the comment.

"Dam
mit Tara that hurt!" Elias said.

"You
’re lucky I would still treat you after our last leave."

Elias looked embarrassed and glanced around to see who had heard. Yu and Masa both laughed. Elias turned to see Taro had heard too. She rolled her eyes knowing it would be a long time before she heard the last of that remark from the other three.

Padma finished spreading the medical nano paste on Elias’s wound, then put an armored patch on the hole in her armor. She slapped it to activate the nanos to seal the armor.

"
There, cry baby. Now I am going to treat some people who are really injured."

Padma
had turned and moved toward several downed troopers, when a trooper said,

"We got a live one here doc."

Padma turned and began to move carefully toward two troopers who were standing over a downed alien. Its armored helmet was off, it was a young good- looking male, his face covered in blood.

Padma held her empty hands in front of her to show the alien she had no weapons and slowly began to approach it. The two troopers stood with their rails pointed at the downed alien.

"See nice alien. I don't have a weapon. I just want to fix you up, so we can torture the shit out of you and find out why the fuck you invaded."

Padma was smiling
, her voice low and soothing.

"Now be a nice alien and let Padma take care of your sorry ass."

The alien held up its hand to show it had nothing in it. It smiled at Padma through the blood. Padma continued to approach slowly and carefully. Finally when she was close enough she knelt down.

Aijuba had been directing the remaining troopers into a defensive perimeter when she turned to see what Padma was doing.

"No!" Aijuba screamed.

It was too late
. The alien had an explosive in his other hand and pushed the button. It blew all three legionnaires back. The two guarding the alien were down but all right. Padma had taken the brunt of the explosion as she was the closest. Her helmet had been hinged back so the explosion blew most of her head off and she fell forward onto what was left of the alien.

"Ahhhh." Elias screamed when she saw Padma killed
. She dropped her rail and started to run to her. Masa and Yu grabbed her and held her back.

"Remember her the way she was. Don't Kifle. Don't
," Yu said.

"He's right Elias. Tara would want you to remember her the way she was. Keep that last leave memory. Not this one. Not this one."

Elias let herself be led over to a column. She stood there facing it, pounding her fist into the concrete until it began to chip.

"Kill them all. Put extra rounds in every one of the
cao's
," Aijuba said.

"
Guerre à mort
" Sand said.

The remaining Legionnaires carefully blew the head off any body that still had one. Then they threw the bodies out of the garage into a large pile so the aliens could see they too could be just as ruthless.

Elias had said nothing since Padma was killed. Once the bodies were rounded up and taken care of she walked over to her rail and picked it up. Then she went around the room taking the extra ammunition from the wounded and dead Legionnaires. The other three sergeants watched in silence. They exchanged glances and began to do the same until they were all loaded with as much extra ammunition and weapons as they could carry. When they finished they turned to Sand and Aijuba for orders.

"Where does that tunnel lead?"
Dasan said.

There
were a few moments hesitation as one of his command staff checked the blueprints.

"Sir, that
a is pedestrian tunnel from Rigil Kent."

Sand and Aijuba exchanged a glance.

"That means either we've lost that platoon or they've been forced up in the building and have lost the ground floor. The aliens now have  underground and above ground routes to here. They are going to be back with a bigger and coordinated attack."