Time War: Invasion (25 page)

“Can you fly this?” Corwin asked Tano as he climbed aboard.

“Seriously?”

“We’ve still got no idea where we are going. No flight plan, no clearance,” said Hotwell.

Corwin shrugged. “Make do, improvise, and overcome.”

“I can outline this for you,” added Williams. He was slumped beside the wing just off to their flank.

“Oh, no, Colonel, you are with us on this to the very end.”

He reached forward and grabbed Williams. He shoved him towards the door where Rane helped him aboard.

“You have to trust us on this one. We also need to trust you, Sir,” added Corwin.

The last of them were loading up when they heard two vehicles approaching. Corwin didn’t want to appear a threat to whoever it was, so simply turned and waited for who or whatever it might be. Two jeeps rolled into view and stopped before them, and a number of soldiers leapt out to confront them. He could feel his grip tighten slightly on the Bren gun slung over his shoulder, but he knew he had to refrain from using it.

“Captain Corwin?” a voice asked.

He couldn’t help but feel they were busted, but then the source of the call stepped info view. It was Lieutenant Burr.

“What can I do for you Lieutenant?”

“Sir, whatever you are doing, and wherever you are going, we want in.”

The Lieutenant stood beside eight of his men. Corwin recognised all of their faces. They were all survivors of their mission to destroy the missile silos in France.

“This operation isn’t exactly on the books, Lieutenant, or particularly legal.”

Burr took a deep breath and smiled.

“Captain, my boys here are confident that whatever you are doing, it’s doing a lot of good. Our Battalion has been smashed. We’re getting amalgamated with others in the Brigade. But we are still here, and you are still here. Whatever it is you are planning, it must be important, and we want in.”

“And if I told you this is probably the most dangerous and stupidest thing you’ve ever done?” asked Corwin.

“I’d ask, where we can sign up?”

“Then climb aboard.”

They rushed to the door and clambered in, but Hotwell was not happy.

“Don’t you think you’ve caused enough trouble here?”

“Why stop now?” replied Corwin. He climbed aboard and reached down to help the Captain in.

Corwin went past everyone to reach the cockpit where he found the Colonel sitting in the co-pilot’s seat.

“You know where you’re going?” he asked Tano.

“I’ve got a pretty good idea.”

He fired up the engines, and they were soon on their way. Time seemed to pass quickly when Williams shouted out to him.

“We’re coming up on the spot!”

He rushed back to the cockpit. The moon provided some light, but the ground below was in almost complete darkness in blackout conditions.

“Find us someone to put down,” said Corwin.

“You don’t land these things like a DART, you know.”

“Never mind that, just find us somewhere.”

They began to bank and after a few minutes Tano had settled on a location. They reduced speed and came in for a smooth landing on a field that proved to be bumpier than they expected. The Skymaster bounced several times before crashing into the soft ground, digging and cutting channels across the field. They finally came to a standstill just a few metres short of a line of trees.

“You’re crazy, you know that?”

“Possibly, Sir, but not stupid,” replied Tano.

They jumped out of the aircraft and found themselves in complete tranquillity. Corwin had no idea what part of the country they were even in, but it would mean nothing to him, so he didn’t bother asking.

He tossed a Sten gun and a bandolier of magazines at the Colonel and added, ‘Lead the way.”

Any hostility Williams felt had vanished, as he could not help but be endeared to Corwin and his unusual methods.

“We are going to get to the house and find nothing untoward at all,” he stated.

“We can hope,” replied Corwin.

“We must be about half an hour out,” he replied as he quickly surveyed the terrain and set off. They worked their way across farmland and woodland for the whole trip and saw no signs of life at all. Then they broke through some foliage to a clearing, and there was a large manor house way off in the distance. Corwin raised his hand and called them to a halt. He knelt down to survey the scene.

“You see, Captain, do you see anything wrong here?” Williams asked.

He could make out the silhouettes of a number of soldiers patrolling the building and surrounding area. Two armoured cars were parked beside the building and several other cars and jeeps. Corwin shrugged.

“All this way for nothing. So what now? We can’t go bursting in there and introduce ourselves. We’d be shot before we get close. I am afraid it might be back to prison for you lot. Might be time to let this go now before you make it any worse.”

But Corwin refused to accept that.

“No, we wait. Whatever is happening it is going down tonight.”

Three hours went by, and Corwin constantly checked his watch. He knew they were getting close to daybreak, and he was starting to doubt it all, when they heard the roar of engines overhead. Three large prop plane bombers flew in at low altitude, and they could instantly see they were of German design.

“Oh, my god,” said Williams.

“They’re too low to drop bombs,” said Beyett.

They watched dozens of soldiers leap out from the aircraft, but they did not use parachutes. Small jets fired on their backs, and they descended rapidly to the ground, landing in the grounds amongst the soldiers on patrol. It was too far to see for sure, but they looked larger than any normal human.

“Protect the Prime Minister!” Williams shouted, rushing forward, and the others tried to catch up.

Corwin quickly caught up with the enthusiastic Colonel when he reached the outer railings. He grabbed the officer by the back and jumped with him so that they both cleared the two-metre obstacle with no effort at all. The rest of Corwin's team followed suit, and the Paras leapt up nimbly to clear them like any normal human would do.

Automatic gunfire rang out as they approached the vast manor house, and one of the enemy fighters was firing some kind of horizontally magazine fed machine gun. But most strikingly of all, the soldier wore a mechanical armoured suit. Thick armour plating covered his back and chest, with lighter plates reaching down his shoulders and thighs. It resembled a primitive and smaller version of the immensely powerful mech suit they had encountered at Villiers’ base.

Rifle and submachine gun fired bounced off the armoured German soldier, and he returned fire, cutting down three British soldiers at the entrance to the house. Others ran for cover as more of the mechanised suits advanced without effort. Corwin took aim at the back of the nearest one and fired from the hip with his Bren. The weight of fire caused the soldier to stagger forward slightly, but he seemed unharmed. He turned to return fire, but Rane stopped beside him and squeezed the trigger on his Browning.

The heavy machine gun thundered to life with slow thunderous rate of fire. The huge rounds punched holes through the armour and exited the back of the soldier’s rear plate. He was killed instantly.

"I like this!" Rane hollered.

Six of the armoured soldiers rushed in through the front of the house as they opened fire, but it was too late; they had got inside. Gunfire hit the ground around Corwin, and he looked up. Dozens of paratroopers were dropping from the sky. A number were firing sporadically at them as they made their descent. He raised his Bren to the shoulder and took aim.

They wore lightweight body armour and carried assault rifles. Two bursts from Corwin's Bren cut through the groin and into stomach of the one that had been shooting at him. The soldier slumped dead and dropped lifelessly to the ground as his parachute encompassed his body.

"Keep moving!" Corwin ordered.

He kept firing from the hip at the paratroopers landing amongst them. He felt two shots in his back and jolt him slightly, but he made it to the colonnade that led to the main door of the house. He ducked behind the cover of one of the wide columns and slammed a new magazine into his weapon. He raised it up beside the cover and took aim. Most of his team had made it along with him, and the British paras were running amok amongst the German troopers as they fought to get free of their parachute lines and harnesses.

Corwin fired a burst into the face of one and killed him instantly as muzzle flashes lit up the open field before them. Chas was darting in and out of them with a pistol in each hand, as if practicing an elaborate dance rather than fighting. She shot one point blank in the face, leapt over his body, firing into both legs of another, and finally shooting into his throat. She then carried on.

"We've got this. Go!" Vi yelled across to him.

Corwin, Porter, Nylund, Beyett, Hunter, and Williams rushed through the entrance of the house. They found the bodies of three British soldiers at the foot of a lavish double staircase.

"Why would they try and do this by hand, why not just carpet bomb the place and flatten it?" Nylund asked.

"The bunker under this place is rock solid. I'm not sure they'd even touch it. And even if they could, you know how many doubles there are of the Prime Minister? If they are going to kill Churchill, they will need irrefutable evidence that no one in the world would disbelieve," replied Williams.

"Lucky for us," added Corwin.

"We've got company!"

Vi flew through the door firing her Thompson on rapid fire. Gunfire ripped through the doorway and hit one of the paras as they rushed inside. Harland grabbed the webbing of the wounded man and hauled him inside, and they all ducked down for cover.

"If we can hold for long enough, the whole bloody Army will get here. We just have to make sure they don't get to Churchill!"

Corwin agreed with the Colonel.

"Rane, Hunter, Harland, take the east wing. Porter and Lecia, you're with me. The rest of you hold this ground. We'll deal with whatever is inside, but you must hold back any further advances!"

"I'm coming with you," said Williams.

“Okay.”

The others smashed out several nearby windows and began laying down fire. He nodded for Rane to go on, and then turned and led the three he had with him to the west side of the stairs and further into the house. They could already hear the gunfire intensify at the entrance they had just left, but Corwin knew he could not afford to be distracted.

They heard the rapid fire bursts of the magazine fed light machine guns they had seen carried by the up armoured German soldiers minutes before, and he knew they must be close. Several Sten guns rattled off shots in the distance but were soon silenced by the relentless advance of the German forces. Corwin took a bend to find they were at the far end of a corridor, with two of the German soldiers facing away and advancing ahead.

Under the lights of the house he could now see better what they were dealing with. The soldiers wore a mechanical suit that extended the length of their body to the ground for load bearing, allowing them to carry far more weight than a human should be able to manage. The armour that covered two thirds of their body looked thick enough to have come from an armoured car.

"Rane sure would be useful right about now," whispered Porter.

But Lecia was not deterred. She raised her rifle and took careful aim at the rear leg joint and squeezed the trigger. The shot hit one of the shocks on the knee joint and seized, causing the soldier to tumble over like a ton of bricks. As he went down, Porter and Corwin opened fire with repeated bursts from their Bren guns. The soldier spun around as bullets bounced from his armour and revealed he carried a huge breaching shield in his left hand. Dozens of shots ricocheted from its surface, and the man began to run towards them.

"Oh, fuck," said Corwin.

He kept up the fire until his magazine ran dry, and he ducked back to load in another. But the soldier rushed through the doorway and hit Porter square on. He was launched through the air and crashed into a vast mirror mounted over a fireplace three metres from where he’d been standing. The soldier carried a machine gun single handed in his other hand and spun it round to target Corwin. But the Captain released his grip on his Bren and grabbed the receiver and stopped it dead as the soldier pulled the trigger. Automatic gunfire strafed the wall.

He kept his grip with his left hand and drew out his knife, thrusting it deep into the inside elbow where there was no protection at all. The soldier let out a cry in pain from beneath his enclosed face helmet, but quickly lashed out with his shield. The edge of the table-sized slab of steel was thrust into his face, and he felt the impact almost break his jaw and cut his lip open.

He recovered quickly and ducked under the shield, pulling his knife back out from the soldier’s arm and thrust up into his groin. The man keeled over with the knife still embedded deep. Corwin took hold of the soldier's helmet in both hands and snapped his neck.

The body slumped heavily to the ground. He caught a glimmer of movement out of the corner of his eye. Lecia was on top of the soldier she had disabled with her first shot. She was holding his arms down with one hand and driving a fine blade into the eye slit of his helmet. He finally went limp. Porter groaned as he got back to his feet.

"What a mother fucker," he complained, as he picked up his weapon.

Williams stepped out from cover where he had stayed out of the vicious struggle. Corwin flipped over the body of the one he had killed.

"Pretty much no armour on legs and lower arms," he said and carried on towards Lecia.

Several explosions rang out that vibrated violently through the floor.

"They must have found the entrance to the bunker," said Williams.

* * *

Harland led the way, and they passed the bodies of several British soldiers. They came across one of the German armoured warriors trying to get back to his feet. His legs and left arm were bloody where he had been hit by submachine gun fire. Harland stepped up to the soldier and placed a foot down on his rifle that pinned it to his body, and he was stuck. He reached down and took hold of the front of the man's helmet and ripped it from his head. The leather strap was torn from its rivets.

He held up the helmet for a second to study it. It weighed as much as the Bren he was carrying, and looked more like something from an age of armoured knights than anything close to a time he knew. He looked down at the soldier to see the man couldn't understand how he could not fight his way free from Harland's grip.

"Come on, we have to keep moving," said Rane. He and Hunter went on.

Harland swung the helmet into the wounded man's face and crushed his skull with a single strike before tossing the helmet aside and carrying onwards. Hunter was in the lead now, and he reached a doorway where he stopped dead as he saw Robak lift up part of a damaged metal trap door and toss it aside.

"Robak!" he screamed.

He lifted up his Bren gun and fired repeatedly from the hip as he rushed toward Villiers’ henchman. He wore the same thick steel armour that the rest did, but with no need for mechanical enhancement to support the weight. Bullets bounced from his armour, but he leapt through the hole in the floor without paying any attention to Hunter.

"Stop!" Rane shouted.

He and Harland rushed after the young soldier. Gunfire landed at Hunter's feet as he ran onwards. They reached the doorway to get a full view ahead. Three German soldiers were firing at Hunter, and he jumped and slid along the floor, dropping into the hole unscathed. The Germans turned their attention to them now, but it was too late. Rane opened fire with the Browning and ripped through their armour. Shards of wood and brickwork littered the air. The three soldiers vanished into a haze, and finally he stopped firing. They got one foot forward when they heard an almighty explosion and felt the wall behind them cave in.

They were showered with debris as they ducked down and sheltered their eyes. As they looked back up, the silhouettes of dozens of enemy soldiers were advancing towards the breach, and they knew they had to try and hold them back.

Hunter landed hard almost ten metres down from where he had slid into the hole. He coughed and spluttered as brick dust filled his lungs, and he got to his feet. He saw a shadow disappear up ahead and heard the heavy footsteps of Robak. He looked back up as if hoping for some help, but it never came, so he ran onwards without any caution at all. Gunfire rang out from a low calibre pistol, and he took the bend to find Robak snap a soldier's spine over his knee before tossing him aside.

He quickly took aim and fired several bursts into Robak. The weight of the rounds was enough to knock him back slightly, but not one penetrated his armour. The huge creature squared off against him and almost filled the narrow corridor. He took one last careful aim for a headshot and squeezed the trigger. He heard a click, as the bolt went forward and found an empty chamber and magazine.

Robak grinned and stood defiantly with no weapon in hand, but Hunter was not deterred. He asked himself what Corwin would do, and he knew immediately. He lifted the sling of his Bren gun off his shoulder and threw the weapon to the ground. He drew out his knife with his right hand and his pistol with his left and ran at Robak. He fired repeatedly until the seven shot magazine was empty. One shot skimmed Robak’s neck and cut deeply, hurting him enough to give Hunter the smallest of openings. He dropped the pistol and jumped into the air with his knife aiming for Robak’s collar. Hunter landed with his arms wrapped around Robak’s chest and his blade running sure and true for its target.

The tip of the blade got to within a few centimetres when Robak’s hand flew into view and blocked its path. The blade pierced his palm and ran up to the hilt and stopped short of his neck. He responded with a head butt that sent Hunter hurtling to the floor with blood spewing from his nose and mouth.

Robak drew out the knife and threw it aside as he strode forward. Hunter tried to get to his feet, but it was too late. Robak delivered a swift kick to his flank. Several of his ribs cracked on impact even through his armour, and he was once again launched through the air and landed hard on the cold concrete floor. He spat out blood and winced in pain as he got back to his feet, gesturing for Robak to come forward.

“Come on, just a little longer,” he whispered to himself.

* * *