Trial by Ice (17 page)

“Anyone see a way up?” Sebastien asked, poking his head quickly around a pipe.

Aleksandr rose up in his heavy armor and dropped back down. “Da, I see stairwell.”

“Hit it,” Sebastien said, rising and taking position behind Aleksandr.

The heavy armor was blocky but oh so precious in an assault. Aleksandr started slow but gained momentum as he approached the stairs. The rest of the crew bounded after. The autocannon took a moment to adjust before it began to fire at them.

William ducked his head and gritted his teeth as the rounds exploded around him. He caught himself just as he was about to fall and instead rolled up against the cold wall out of the view of the autocannon. His eyes focused on a body laying in the center of the corridor in a pool of red. Xinhu was crumbled like a broken wreck on the gray concrete.

“Xinhu’s down!” William shouted.

Crow snapped his head back to look and returned his attention to the stairwell. “He’s dead, keep moving!”

William looked behind him once more at the unmoving form. How many more would he leave behind? He wanted to dash out, pull him to safety and check, just check, and see if he was alive. The form of the man was so still in the violence surrounding it. He felt a hand tugging on his shirt and he turned to reluctantly follow Avi.

The assault team hunched near the stairwell leading to the command center. The hulking mass above them provided cover from the relentless autocannon. Behind them the civilians continued to stream in, eyes wide with panic. The razor drones were slicing their way through those outside while the autocannon hit those inside.

Peter sprinted up and slid next to Sebastien. His cheek was a ragged crimson mess and one arm useless. The razor drones had struck. “You need to get moving! We’re getting torn up above and below. What the fuck?” His eyes were wide with adrenaline and anger.

Sebastien peered up the stairwell and shook his head. “Not through there we’re not.”

“We’re dying for you!” Peter pleaded.

“And if we go up that stairwell, we’ll die for nothing,” Sebastien replied.

Crow pointed along the edge of the wall. A set of piping and a covered ladder rose skyward. “Can we pop the comms, kill the drones that way?”

Xan nodded slowly as he clutched a wounded arm. “There’ll be a comms array up top, knock it out and they should power down.”

“
Should?
” Crow asked. He turned the stubby weapon slightly and checked the drum.

“Those boys upstairs are smart. They’re not going to move an inch, they’ll let the drones and the virus do the work,” Sebastien said with a snort. “William, Avi, get upstairs and knock that thing out. We’ll take our chances that it might disable the drones. If anything, it opens up some options.”

“Let’s go, boss!” Avi stood and raced towards the piping.

William nodded to Sebastien and followed. He turned to look and saw Crow and Aleksandr in the heavy pattern armor move closer to the stairwell.

The two men took flanking positions and ducked forward, then back, egging on those above. They advanced a step, then another, then in unison tossed grenades up the stairwell. They sprinted back to the edge and were greeted with a half dozen grenades coming down the stairwell. The explosions rattled off in successive concussions. Crow sprinted in, tossed a pair of grenades, and ducked back.

“C’mon!” Avi called down to William. He was already climbing the white ladder that was tucked inside of the process piping.

William turned his gaze from the assault and climbed his way upwards. He had never, surprisingly, had much love of heights. Floating free above a planet never evoked anything, but a wobbly ladder would make him lightheaded. This, he thought, was going to take his mind off all of the people with guns.

* * *

Sebastien sprinted up and slid next to Aleksandr. The stairwell before him was filled with smoke and scarred with shrapnel. So far he hadn’t seen anything besides the bounce of a grenade.

“I’ve got a pair left,” Aleksandr said.

Crow slid along the opposite edge and peered up the edge of the stairwell. He raised his weapon and let a burst fly into the upper reaches. He was rewarded with a cry and a grenade bouncing down the stairs.

The detonation was too far up the stairs and didn’t do much except make more smoke.

“Ideas?” Crow said as he watched up the stairwell with his weapon on his shoulder.

“Not until they run out of grenades,” Sebastien said.

“Charge them?” Aleksandr asked.

Sebastien shook his head. He hoped William was having more luck. Once the drones were out of the sky, the civilians would become a force multiplier. He turned his head and caught a glance of the carnage behind him. “Negative, we wait for the drones to drop.”

* * *

Avi and William climbed slowly, methodically up the never ending ladder. After what felt like an eternity of rough rungs, they reached a small platform with another ladder. They took a brief breather and peered below them. The command bunker was spewing out fire onto the civilians who still continued to stream inside. Women and children were huddled behind giant containers of stamped ore.

“Good god,” Avi said. “The drones are driving everyone inside.”

“Let’s go,” William said. It was one thing for the drones to repel the attackers, another for them to terrorize the population.

They reached a second, darker platform. The piping below them spidered out into a lattice only an engineer could appreciate. The sounds of gunfire was eerily muffled. They turned and continued to climb.

William’s hands throbbed. The arches of his feet felt like they were seared with a rolled iron bar. He scanned to his side as the piping slid away and into various silos and process equipment. An elevator tube was in the middle of the wall one hundred meters away. It dropped down into the top of the command center.

The open car was rising upward with a pair of men looking out to the carnage below.

“Avi!” William hissed. “Stop, stay still.”

Avi, experienced in enough combat situations, locked himself still into the shadows of the ladder and hugged it tight.

William closed his eyes to the tiniest slit and watched as the men in the elevator reached the roof. Something seemed vaguely familiar about one of the men. The pair continued to climb up to the hooded roof access.

They reached the raised cupola with a steel lattice floor. A narrow door led outward. Avi checked his weapon and William drew his pistol. Avi leaned forward and slapped William on the shoulder.

“You ready, Mr. Grace?”

William nodded with a slight smile. “Yes, I’m ready.”

“You pop the hatch, I go first and we both get to the nearest cover. If we’re close to the comms, you get that first and I’ll keep you covered—if not, we’ll nail the two guys.”

“Avi, let’s do it!” William reached out and popped the latch.

The air from the inside of the building rushed outwards in a whooshing gust blasting the door open. White light streamed inside that was dulled only by the cloud cover above. Avi jumped out of the hatch and burst into a dead run.

William followed immediately behind, pumping his legs like he’d never run before. He could almost feel the eyes on his back, tickling, teasing, as he expected to get shot. A square box was bolted to the roof with a slender stack rising upwards. Ten more meters. Almost. His knee burned.

“Hey, hey!” a voice called out to his right, and the gunfire began.

William ignored the call and slid himself behind the metallic cowling and clutched the pistol to his chest. He trembled slightly with the adrenaline dancing. He peeked around the edge and saw a man in blue coveralls sprint past.

“Avi, he’s coming at you!” William called. He turned his head in time to see the other man roll onto his side and level his weapon. William tucked himself back behind the cowling just as the thuds of gunfire echoed against the metal. He hoped that whatever it was wouldn’t punch through the supports.

Gunfire rattled through the forest of pipes and vents. William could hear Avi firing, and someone firing back at Avi. He rolled to the opposite side of the cowling and turned his head just for a moment.

The man rushed from around the cowling with a stubby rifle at his side. His face was set but his eyes were wide with surprise. If he sprinted a step more and he’d be in position to hide from William and mow down Avi. But only if William missed.

William turned, raised the pistol with an extended arm, and fired. The pistol recoiled lightly. His nose tickled with the tang of burnt nanites as the wind blew in his face. He crept forward. A rising set of pipes before him masked where the man had fallen. He kept the pistol pointed where he walked and slid forward.

Around the mass of pipes his target lay sprawled out as he had fallen. The edge of the building was only a meter past. The dizzying height was lost in the mist, though William didn’t venture near enough to tell. The stubby rifle he had hoped to acquire was nowhere to be seen.

William dropped down into a crouch and peered around. The edges of the roof were lost in a mist. Droplets of water scurried down every vertical surface. The only sound that came was the dim wind and a dull echo of gunfire below. He crouched and started moving.

The dim silhouette of a communications array loomed into the sky. Around it grew spires of black topped with smaller cups and domes. Water ran freely down the large dish and pooled below it. A mass of painted white wires was tucked into a giant round coupling.

Avi was nowhere to be seen. William was hesitant to call out. He crept closer and watched with heightened senses as his eyes scanned the vertical white vents. His objective was before him. He decided that cutting just one of the wires wasn’t enough, he was going to slice every single one of them.

William tugged on a cable and found that it was fixed tightly. He stuffed the pistol back into his jacket, dropped the satchel, and drew out the polymer blade. He hoped that whatever the blade was made out of didn’t conduct electricity. The first cable cut with a slight hiss. He was about to cut the second when a voice halted him.

“Oh Captain! My Captain!” called out a voice with a southern drawl and an angry tilt.

William felt his stomach drop.

That voice…

He turned his head and saw Corporal Berry charging.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Rumble

Berry drove his body forward and plunged his shoulder into William’s chest. The blow crashed William directly into the conduit and spun him onto the roof deck. The polymer blade skittered away.

“You’re fucked now!” Berry yelled. His lower lip was caked in wet blood while his right arm was a sticky mess of bloodstained coverall. Wherever Avi was, he had shot well enough to seriously wound the deserter.

William smiled and slid his hand into his grimy coat. He realized his pistol had dropped out when Berry tackled him. He took his eyes off Berry and scanned for it, but it was gone.

Berry lunged forward and knocked William backwards. The Midshipman fell in a heap with the well fed Southerner perched on top. A fist smacked William’s forehead with a crunch. Stars danced in his eyes but William landed a roundhouse punch that was forceful enough to stun Berry just for a second, but it was all William needed to wriggle away.

“I had rather hoped you’d drowned,” William said, as he gave himself some distance. The knife was at a point equidistant to both of the men. Could he handle Berry with a wounded arm? He knew he had an advantage, but Berry had the edge on combat training. William recalled the words from the Academy close combat teacher: only do what your enemy expects you not to. William dropped his shoulder and decided to see what Berry was like without bringing the knife into the mix.

“
Oh hoh!
” Berry hollered as he caught the full weight of William’s drive right on the sternum.

Berry
oofed
out a sickening sound. His diaphragm was crushed, knocking him backwards. William took the initiative and stood up, delivering a hearty kick into his stomach. Berry curled up into a tight ball.

Berry spat out a mouthful of blood and grinned at William with stained teeth. His breath came in wheezes as he tensed in anticipation of another kick.

William turned and ran to where the polymer blade was dropped. He would have rather shot Berry, but if a slice was what it took, he’d do that too. He stooped down and picked up the cold, wet blade and turned to find Berry staggering away into the piping.

“C’mon you bastard, you useless son-of-a-bitch! If you’d been dead, then I’d be a running the command. You screwed us all,” Berry said.

William ran as fast as his aching ribs would allow. The pain from the tackle bloomed in his chest as he realized that his ribs were quite possibly broken. He gritted his teeth down hard and chased after.

* * *

The gantry crane rose with a loading bar directly across the top of the elevator. The cargo lift hung limply with a large iron hook near the edge of the ribbon. Tik looked up along the steel body and slung her weapon against her back.

She gripped her hands onto the electrical conduit and pulled herself up. While her legs didn’t work well, she had enough upper body strength to climb to the top.

The girder was wet and rusted. She carefully placed one foot in front of the other. Below her was the flat form of the top of the complex. Her goal was the center area where the ribbon passed through the ceiling. She crawled up next to the crane motor and peered down. Grue was hunched out of the rain and looking towards the door.

Tik patted her jacket and palmed one of the filament grenades. She lobbed it against the elevator. The grenade made a gentle bounce and landed with a metallic thud a meter away from Grue. He turned his head and was slammed aside by the shock.

She grinned. Some things made for a pleasant payback.  She leaned over and took her second grenade and slugged it as hard as she could towards the front barricade. The grenade skittered and slid before coming to rest among a group of approaching defenders. The explosion was satisfying.

She sliced through the electrical supply cord and dropped it into the expanse below. One hand over the other she descended into the building. Before her lay a mass of mangled men and a cracked open door.

“C’mon in!” she yelled as she advanced on the wounded defenders.

* * *

William ran after the deserter. The diameter of the pipes dropped from the thickness of a man to slender pipes like saplings. Gusts of white gas purged out from the tips a few meters above.

“Gah!” Berry howled as he grasped one of the pipes and began to push and pull. The stresses pinged the metal until it gave way after a second cycle. He almost fell backward before catching himself and pointing the ragged tip like a spear.

William slowed himself and eyed the tip of the spear. It was pinched together. The white paint gave way to a gray serrated point. He continued in an arc and went farther into the pipes at an angle to Berry. He dodged the first thrust with ease as he kept his distance.

Berry growled and stepped back before plunging the pipe forward. He lunged again before feinting and swinging the spear sideways, catching William on the shin.

The pain shot up William’s leg. It was almost as if a steel ingot had smashed into him. He dropped onto the ground in an awkward roll and prepared himself to feel the searing pain of a stabbing at any second. Behind him was a lattice of piping that left him cornered.

Berry leapt closer and held the pipe over his shoulders with the tip a meter away from William. His eyes were wild with a grin that spoke only of death. “All they had to do was offer me a hot meal.” He spat blood onto the wet roofing. “That’s all it took, we were damn neared starved, our tongues were like rocks.”

The polymer knife was the only weapon William had. He scooted back against the piping and watched for an opening that would let him parry or slice into Berry. “It’s a shame you were sold so cheaply,” William said.

Berry raised his lip in a snarl and raised the spear to strike. A sudden blast of air almost knocked him down. He took a step backwards and laughed loudly. “Care to dance with a VTOL?”

William rolled onto his side and turned to see the insect like form of the VTOL that had attacked the capsules on those first days. The autocannon glistened with the mist. A cluster of cameras and sensors winked at the pair.

Berry took a step forward into the raging wind. “And I’ll even have it on camera to watch again.” He raised his arm once again like a striking legionnaire.

The VTOL opened fire. The autocannon spoke out with a horrendous roar that was guttural and animal-like at such close quarters. The VTOL rolled slightly under the recoil. The stubby cannon was pointed just over the heads of the two men sparring in front of it.

In that moment of beautiful confusion, William rolled forward and lunged out with the blade. He plunged it as deeply as he could into Berry. This time the blade went home quickly. It passed between ribs and was buried to the hilt.

Berry saw it coming just a fraction of a second too late. Had he not been injured, he might have parried it and managed to spear William. He looked down with surprised eyes and gasped once before dropping to his knees and tumbling to the ground. He looked up to William and looked almost sad. He coughed and was still. The pipe tumbled from his grasp with a clang muted by the rotors of the VTOL.

William turned slowly to face the VTOL. The vicious craft hovered for a moment before wiggling its wings and sliding back into the mist. He stood for a second and listened, wondering what the hell just happened. He shook his head and stumbled back to the coupling. The sounds of the heavy autocannon still echoed from inside of the building.

The remaining wires sliced with barely a spark. William scooped up the satchel and pistol when Avi collapsed next to him. The always cheerful Private sported a bullet wound to the chest and an angry yellow bruise growing on his head. 

“Oh shit, Avi,” William said as he helped Avi back to his feet.

“Berry, eh?”

William nodded. “C’mon, I’ve got an idea.”

The two walking wounded shuffled across the slick decking until they arrived at the now empty elevator. William helped Avi sit before running back to the conduit. His hands closed on the thoroughly soaked bag of explosives. He hoped rain wouldn’t bother it.

Avi nodded with a wide smile as he watched William run back with the satchel. “The only problem is, I’m going to have to climb down that damned ladder again.”

William smiled as he focused on prepping the explosive charge. He estimated roughly a minute for the elevator to reach the command center. He pulled the time tab, slid the charge into the elevator and pressed the down button. Just as it started moving he ripped off the set tab. “I think we should move.”

Avi nodded and struggled to his feet.

William worried that the method to neutralize the nanite virus was inside. If they couldn’t take the command center it wouldn’t matter anyway. But still, the thought of leaving the entire planet in the midst of a horrible sickness stuck with him.

The pair rushed through the mist back to the stairwell access. The air rushing through the entryway paused for just a moment as a dull roar shuddered the entire complex. Avi whistled. “Well, is that how they do it in the Navy?”

“Absolutely, I’m coming for your job, Marine.”.

Avi let out a pained laugh. The pair began the slow descent down the access ladder. The sound of gunfire was now limited to single shots. They still had no idea if the drones had ceased their assault. The view below was masked in an acrid smoke that smelled like plastic and tasted like bitter popcorn.

At the first platform, they rested. William’s ribs felt like an iron jacket was being heated in a forge. He coughed a dry cough and expected to see blood come out, but none did. They applied a rudimentary dressing to the bullet wound, which luckily had not penetrated the lungs. Avi paled but declined any assistance.

“A matter of pride, Mr. Grace,” Avi said anytime William asked.

At the second and last platform, they were just below the smoky haze that hovered above the refinery floor. It danced in the turbulent air as it was slowly sucked out of the building. Below was a symphony of chaos.

Streaming in from the door was a trail of bodies, some still moving, others wracked apart from the fire of the autocannon. Men and women shuffled among the dead and wounded. Scattered about was the inert spheres of the razor drones like drifting sand. The command center was crumpled. The middle collapsed down into itself with the outer edges shattered and torn.

Packs of the civilians were ripping into the debris field pulling out the bodies of the dead mercenaries and an occasional live one. A single blocky orange dump truck shuttled the wounded away from the wreck command center. A group of wounded mercs sat in a circle surrounded by men with fierce eyes. William wondered if they’d last the day.

Sebastien stood at the base of the piping and waited for Avi and William to limp down. His face was triumphant, but he wore no smile. “A bit of trouble up top?”

William dropped down with shaky legs and helped Avi to the floor. Avi rested his back against a dull white pipe and closed his eyes.

“A bit, but we delivered some trouble of our own,” William replied. “Is that it?”

Sebastien beckoned towards the collapsed stairwell. “It’ll take some time to dig it out, it’s a damned mess. I’m sure there are more survivors inside, but the fight’s gone out of ‘em.”

“Why aren’t we moving on the elevator?” William sat down on a large coupling. “The VTOL came in, fired above us on the roof.”

“They already took the elevator.” Sebastien cocked his head towards the entry door. “Everyone else is outside, the VTOL is doing a sweep.”

“What? How can that be?”

Sebastien finally smiled. “Selim found a skeleton crew at the elevator and made an assault. Seems they turtled up here, I think they planned on letting the virus knock out the civilians and then they could mop us up. Von Hess was able to sync with the VTOL.”

William blinked and shook his head. Had they really finally done it? So long, so far, men lost, all to finally hold the elevator. He could hardly believe it. He stood stiffly, helped Avi to his feet, and followed behind Sebastien. “Where is everyone else?”

“Helping the wounded, scrounging for supplies, or already at the elevator.”

“Xan is trying to get a commlink going. Some interesting news out of the elevator too,” Sebastien said, as they emerged out from the refinery and into the open air.

William stopped and stared outside. The price had been high for the civilians. Bodies were scattered as men had fallen in the initial assault. All throughout the yard lay bodies, some with bullet wounds while others were savaged by the razor drones. He felt sick. The price would be high, but he had no idea what the bill would look like.

“Medical supplies?” William asked as he felt his stomach tighten.

Sebastien shook his head. “Inside the complex.”

The three stood in silence as the mist washed over them and diluted the blood that seeped into the now hallowed grounds.

“What’s the news?” William asked as he shuffled with Avi away, towards the gate.

“There’s a ship docked above.”