Revolution (51 page)

    “Maybe they should have found a way to soundproof this thing!” Rayne shouted to Garland.

    “What?” Garland shouted back, uncovering his ears briefly to listen to him.

    “Never mind!” Rayne shouted above the roar of gunfire.

    Rayne thought his eardrums were going to burst when the second rear Gatling gun opened fire. He watched as the second gunner swiveled 90 degrees in his chair so he was facing almost directly backwards.

    “I hope they’re hitting something,” Peter muttered, realizing he couldn’t even hear his own voice.

    He wished someone had warned him about the side effect of traveling in the troop compartment: complete hearing loss. Rayne felt like his stomach was moving into his chest cavity as he felt the air ship drop like a roller coaster.

   
Are we going to crash
?

    Rayne kept his ears covered from the onslaught of machine gun noise. For a few brief moments, he thought he had finally reached the end of his mission until he felt the craft leveling out. His stomach lurched again as the air-ship took a hard right, diving toward more unseen enemy combatants. The roar of the machine guns was relentless. Peter thought that if he hadn’t been able to cover his ears with his hands, he most certainly would have become deaf.

    Rayne’s stomach informed him the chopper was ascending fast. The roar of the machine guns actually ceased for a moment, but he still didn’t dare take his hands away from his ears. Glancing around, he saw everyone else was doing the same. A few seconds later, he felt the air ship diving again and the dull metallic roar returned in full force.

    I hope the air assault will be over soon
.

    Rayne endured the thundering machine guns and the chopper’s sudden dips and turns as best he could. He lost count of how many times the craft rapidly changed altitude. Closing his eyes, he pretended he was on a carnival ride. It didn’t help.

    After long, tense minutes of waiting, the roar of thunder suddenly ceased. Rayne heard a muffled voice speaking from the vicinity of his right knee. He picked up his headset and placed it back on.

    “Peter, you there?” a voice spoke into his ear.

    It took Rayne a second to recognize the lieutenant’s voice.

    “Yeah, I’m here.”

    “I was trying to get you!”

    “Sorry about that. The noise level was rather severe.”

    “Understood. We’re getting ready to set down next to the Bureau of Statistics. Are you ready to assume command of the squad?” Pearlman asked.

    Rayne felt nowhere near ready to assume command of any squad. But if his experiences had taught him anything, it was how to fake it.

    “Sure, no problem,” he replied with forced casualness.

    “Okay. We’re setting down now. I’m going to drop you guys off and then continue fighting in the air. There’s more resistance than we thought.”

    “All right. Sounds good,” Peter lied.

    He felt his stomach lift suddenly into his chest. The next thing he knew, the troop compartment doors were opening. Rayne unbuckled his safety belt and was the first person to stand shakily to his feet. He walked down the aisle several feet to the open door and paused when he heard Pearlman’s voice speaking again in his headset.

    “Peter, I won’t be coming with you so your second-in-command is going to be Corporal Brennon. Don’t worry. She’s the best in the business. Now get moving and good luck! I’ll see you when it’s over.”

   
I certainly hope so
.

    “Received, Lieutenant. Good luck to you too,” Rayne said.

    There was no answer. Rayne turned toward the seated soldiers. All of them had taken off their seat belts, but none of them had made any move to follow him. Apparently, no one did anything without orders.

    “We’re going now,” he said to the group, feeling like an idiot.

   The squad stood at attention. Rayne gripped the edge of the doorway and jumped down to the ground. The rest of the group followed. The squad of nineteen men and women quickly assembled around him like football players in a huddle, awaiting their orders.

    “Okay, here’s the deal,” Rayne said. “As you probably already know, we’re going down into the Underworld.”

    “The Underworld?” Brennon asked, surprised.

    The phrase was repeated by half the soldiers before Rayne spoke again.

    “Okay. So, maybe you didn’t know,” Rayne said, cursing Campion for keeping everything a secret until the last possible second. “There’s an elevator in the Bureau of Statistics. It leads down to the Underworld. We’re taking it down. We’re expecting to encounter significant resistance. Understood?”

    “Yes, sir,” the group said with one voice.

   
I can’t believe this is happening
.

    “It looks like you’re my second in command,” Rayne said to Brennon.

    “That’s right, Sarge,” the attractive blonde-haired woman replied, grinning at him.

    “The last time I traveled down to the Underworld there was a pair of guards in the building lobby. I’m assuming they’ll still be there. We’ll probably have to take them out,” Peter said.

    “You’ve been down there before, Sarge?” the corporal asked, surprised.

    “That’s the only reason I’m leading the mission.”

    “What?”

    “Never mind. Let’s go.”

     Sergeant Rayne and Corporal Brennon took the lead, pointing their rifle barrels ahead as they moved closer to the wall, ducking and moving toward the front glass doors. The rest of the squad broke into groups of two, following them. When they approached the glass doors, Rayne lifted his right arm, signaling them to stop.

    “Why don’t you and I make a surprise entrance?” Rayne suggested to Brennon.

    “Sure, Sarge,” Brennon agreed, her green eyes glinting with anticipation as she clutched her rifle in a tight grip.

    “Let’s do it,” Peter said, turning the corner and kicking open the front glass doors. 

    There was no one in the lobby. They stepped into the deserted area, sweeping it with their weapons.

    Suddenly, a blue-armored figure appeared from a side door on the right. Brennon’s rifle thundered and the Shock Trooper dropped before he could lift his weapon. Rayne read the sign above the door; MEN’S ROOM.

    “Nice shooting,” he said.

    “Thanks, Sarge,” Brennon replied.  “I’ll cover the lobby. Why don’t you tell the rest of the group it’s clear?”

    “Okay,” Peter said, ducking back into the street and waving the group in.

    
Now I know why they assigned her to me
.
I’m beginning to suspect that she’s actually number one and I’m really number two on this mission. Well, it doesn’t matter. We’ll see what happens when we go down into the Underworld. Things might change.

    Rayne saw Brennon exit the men’s room.

   
She checked to make sure the other
guard wasn’t in there
.

    Brennon walked confidently across the lobby and met with him.

    “All clear,” she said.

    “Great. But where’s the other guard?” Rayne asked.

    “Maybe he abandoned his post when the shooting started,” Brennon suggested.

     Rayne figured he was probably hiding, if he was smart.

     A second later, Rayne had his answer when another Shock Trooper appeared suddenly from the corridor on the left, firing at them. Two rebel soldiers dropped in a pool of blood as the rest of the squad pointed their weapons at the blue-armored intruder, ripping him to shreds with automatic gunfire. The Shock Trooper crumpled to the ground with bloody cracks in his armor like a squashed beetle.

    The corporal checked the two soldiers who had been hit.

    “They’re both gone,” she said, after checking their neck pulses. Then she added, “Explosive bullets,” by way of explanation.

   
This isn’t good
.
We’re down to eighteen already. Still, eighteen is better than one. I was here by myself last time and I still made it. Of course, the circumstances were slightly different then
.

Chapter 37

Firefight

        Campion felt relieved as she sailed toward the eastern sector of the city.

       
The outer defenses are
down
and the police headquarters is destroyed
.
Now we’ll see how lucky we are with the rest of the city
.

    She switched to B-Squad’s channel to see how Rayne was doing.

    “L-1 to L-2. Come in Bravo Squad,” Jane spoke into her headset.

    “This is L-2. Go,” a harried-sounding voice replied.

    “L-2, what’s going on? Have you reached the Underworld yet?” Campion asked.

    “Commander, it’s much worse than we thought!” Lieutenant Pearlman shouted into the radio receiver. “They must have called for reinforcements from the mainland when the defense computer went down. They were able to launch more than fifty government choppers before we could hit the airfield!”

    “Fifty choppers!” Jane exclaimed, shocked.

    “We’re still fighting them!” Pearlman said.

    “What about the drop at the Bureau of Statistics? Have you made it yet?”

    “It’s all set. I set them down a few minutes ago. But it’s still pretty hairy here.”

    “Received. We’re on our way,” Campion said, pushing forward all the way on the thrust. She heard a roar from the engines as she increased speed and switched channels on her headset.

    “L-1 to Battle Group. Come in, Alpha Squad,” Jane said.

    “This is S-1. Go ahead, L-1,” Sergeant Jacques answered.

    “All units resume attack formation. I repeat, resume attack formation. Aborting secondary target. I repeat, we’re aborting secondary target.”

    “Aborting secondary target,” the sergeant repeated.

    “We’re heading to the northern sector. Battle Group, follow my lead. Bravo Squad is engaged in multiple dogfights with enemy choppers.”

    “Received, L-1.”

    Campion’s chopper squad came together and formed the familiar V-shaped wedge similar to the one they used during their attack on the police headquarters. They increased speed toward the northern sector. Jane checked her radar. The rebel choppers had transmitters on board that gave a specific signal. All rebel choppers were represented as green blips. All enemy aircraft were represented as red blips. Jane looked down at her radar and saw a massive swarm of red blips with a smaller amount of green blips, which she thought didn’t bode well.

    “Battle Group, we are approaching the enemy. Prepare to engage,” Campion said, poising her thumb above the missile button.

    She switched on her targeting computer and a holographic image appeared in front of the cockpit’s windscreen. The hologram consisted of a luminous green square that represented the sights of the chopper’s front-mounted missiles and Gatling guns. All she had to do was line up the enemy and fire. Easier said than done. The holographic sights worked well with the guided missiles, but it was more difficult to line the sights up and get an accurate shot with the guns.

    “Battle Group, maintain formation until we’re right on top of them,” Campion instructed, spotting a number of black specks in the distant sky.

    The small black specks above the city horizon became steadily larger as they approached until the details of the choppers were visible. Campion steered her chopper toward the closest red blip, preparing to press the missile button. She raced in and dropped down like a bird of prey behind a speeding government air-ship, trying to line it up in her sights. Jane saw that her target was pursuing a rebel chopper. She observed white sparks shooting out from both pursuer and pursued as they exchanged gunfire.

    They’re out of missiles
.
Too bad I’m not
.

    Campion lined up the government chopper in her sights and fired, watching the twin trails of fire from her missiles as they closed in on the enemy ship. She veered sharply to the right as a fireball exploded in the space the enemy occupied seconds before. She steered her ship toward the next closest red blip.

    Jane had to duck down and veer sharply to the left to avoid a collision with an oncoming government airship. When she passed the ship, she came to a full-stop and rotated 180 degrees, hitting the thrusters. She shot like a missile toward the chopper that had almost struck her. Her right thumb hovered above the missile button as she closed in on the enemy. The fleeing airship attempted to avoid her by diving down toward the city. Campion followed like a hawk, closing quickly. She smiled at the thought of Timothy Leland’s contribution to the aerial dogfight.