Opus X Series Boxed Set One

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The three squads exploring the mine met up at the first intersection and started to make their way back to the main entrance.

“Knight Four, have you seen anything?” Erik transmitted.

“Nothing, Knight One,” O’Malley responded. “Just dust and rocks and the big planet in the sky. Wait. The drones are acting weird.” There was a second pause. “O’Merral, did you expand their search radius?”

“Weird, how?” Erik brought up the drone status on his AR display.

According to his information, the drones were still executing their previously programmed flight path.

His stomach tightened.

What’s going on, Lady Luck? You finally get angry with me? I push you too hard all these years by flirting with Death?

Erik’s HUD glitched the barest amount. What the hell? He started running, waving to all of his people to follow. “All squads back to the entrance, full speed, weapons hot,” Erik bellowed.

The loud clank of metal on metal echoed in the tunnel as the soldiers sprinted, their exoskeletons helping them barrel forward. They might not be able to outrun a flitter in an exoskeleton, but terrorists on foot would have no chance of escaping.

An alert popped up on the side of his AR display.

DRONE ALPHA SIGNAL LOST. DRONE BETA SIGNAL LOST. DRONE GAMMA SIGNAL LOST. DRONE DELTA SIGNAL LOST. DRONE EPSILON SIGNAL LOST.

“What’s going on up there, Knight Four?” Erik shouted.

“The drones all just slammed themselves into the ground at high speed, sir,” the lieutenant called back. “They just pointed themselves straight down and accelerated.”

“Anything else?” Erik continued rushing ahead of the rest of his squad. “I think our terrorists are trying to cover their escape. Base, this is Knight One. Prep additional drones and get the Dragon ready to fly. I don’t want these guys getting away because they outran us.”

“Knight…repeat…ference,” came the static-filled response.

The terrorists hacked a Corps drone, and now they’re messing with our signals? Who are these people?

The major, along with the other soldiers, arrived at the entry to the mine, where Squad Four stood, spread out, rifles ready, along with a few rocket- and grenade-launchers ready on their shoulders. Squads one through three fanned out, everyone looking back and forth.

Erik switched to his loudspeaker. “Everyone shift to direct audio. The terrorists are jamming signals.”

Without the drones or comm, we don’t have decent coverage. He looked around. We have no idea where they went.

Something rumbled in the distance. Loud thumps and clangs echoed from within the mine.

What the…

“Everyone to the side of the mine,” Erik ordered. “Full speed, and jump if you have to. Shields out.” He darted to the side, running a few yards before leaping into the air and pressing a button to cancel his grav field. With the lower natural gravity of the moon now tugging at him far less than Earth standard, he flew through the air.

Erik twisted to point his gun at the tunnel entrance. With a clack, his defensive shield expanded from his left arm, the clear alloy barrier providing decent coverage without blocking his line of sight.

Most of the soldiers cleared the front of the tunnel. An overlapping cacophony of heavy booms sounded, and a barrage of bullets slammed into two lagging soldiers.

Bullets sparked as they bounced off the exoskeletons. Several rounds made it deeper, ripping through tactical suits.

One man went down with a groan. The other fell forward. Despite the beating, the exoskeleton and suit might save them if they could recover them quickly.

“Prepare for recovery,” Erik shouted.

A howling roar sounded from the tunnel. Several rockets emerged a moment later, slamming into the downed soldiers. The booming explosion consumed both men, and Erik screamed a curse.

Bullets continued to emerge from the tunnel.

Something flashed from the top of a nearby warehouse.

“Light them up at 1 o’clock high,” Erik roared, his heart racing. It’d been a long time since one of his soldiers had been seriously wounded, let alone killed, and now some terrorists bastards had taken out two.

The soldiers unleashed streams of bullets. Two fired rockets. Three launched grenades. Their rounds struck the top of the warehouse in a massive explosion, sending two of their previously hidden enemies careening off the edge—men in black exoskeletons with their own shields.

The Knights’ swarm of high-velocity rounds finished them off before they hit the ground.

“What the hell?” Biyu yelled. “Those are military-grade exoskeletons.”

O’Malley hissed, “Why would terrorists have that kind of gear? How the hell did they smuggle it here?”

The stream of bullets from the tunnel had diminished, but occasional bursts erupted. He had no idea how many enemies might be in there, or where they had come from if not from behind the locked door.

The tunnel fell silent.

Erik looked at the charred warehouse. The lack of oxygen had already smothered the fire caused by his team’s attack. “We’re too exposed here. All Knights, defensive formation gamma. Move quickly but deliberately toward the warehouse.”

The squads formed up in an instant, every angle of fire now covered as they made their way toward the warehouse.

Several distortions bent light in the distance, near the entrance of the tunnel. Erik might not have understood what he was looking at, but he knew what he had to do.

“Enemy at two o’clock near the tunnel,” Erik called. “I don’t care if you see them. Fire.”

A good soldier knows when to think for himself and when to shut up and follow orders, and the Knights Errant were good soldiers.

Half the platoon wasn’t in a position to fire, so they maintained coverage of the rest of the area. Everyone else opened fire, a good chunk of their bullets bouncing off the air.

It didn’t take many rounds before the distortions crystallized into six black exoskeletons.

“Movable optical camouflage,” Biyu related, her voice a mix of frustration and wonder. “I heard that wouldn’t be ready for primetime for years.”

“Can the chatter and finish them off,” Erik ordered. Several rounds bounced off his shield, adding to the extensive dents and cracks. Even an advanced anti-ballistic shield would only last so long against high-velocity advanced rifle rounds.

The soldiers kept up their barrage. Enough rounds made it past the armor and shields of their enemies to down them. It was as Erik had said before: taking on an opponent with the same basic gear but inferior numbers could only lead to defeat.

Be smarter than a reptile.

The men in black exoskeletons stumbled back, only managing a few decent shots in return before a near-simultaneous volley of rockets and grenades from the Knights blew their armor and the men inside into pieces.

Erik took several deep breaths and checked his platoon’s status display. Two red dots marred squad three’s green circle. All the gunfire had drowned out the rumble from before, but it was now much closer and more obvious.

Did they get my request to send the Dragon after all? A little air support would be nice.

He chanced a look before shaking his head. “We need cover,” he called. “Let’s go.”

The Knights kept their formation as they closed before breaking apart and reforming into a squat wedge.

Erik pointed to the warehouse and then to two nearby men. “Open it up the direct way.”

The soldiers nodded and fired a couple rockets at the wall, blowing a jagged hole. The new fire died just as quickly as the others had.

Erik motioned toward the new hole and tapped his wrist control again. Two flares launched into the sky and exploded overhead. Proper protocol meant the support personnel back at the base would at least be looking in the general direction, and they were only kilometers away. The Dragon support craft would even the odds with whatever invisible enemy might be out there.

Assuming it wasn’t already on its way.

“This is insane,” O’Malley muttered as the troops hurried inside and took positions near the hole and around several massive metal cargo containers filled with ore. “How can we fight them if they’re invisible?”

“I don’t think they can maintain that,” Erik noted. “Those guys didn’t fire when they were invisible. I think they wanted to get close. We’re two men down, but they’ve lost the element of surprise.”

Ahuja shook his head. “There’s no way those were terrorists.” He looked up, then around before stopping when he faced Erik. “What’s going on, Major?”

“What’s going on is that we were ambushed by whoever took out the auditor,” Erik responded. He swapped out his nearly empty magazine and slapped in a new one before selecting quad-fire mode. “As for who? Doesn’t matter. We’ll kill them, and we can let some UTC investigators figure it out later.”

“We’ve got movement,” Biyu shouted. She squeezed off a few rounds at black forms rushing toward them, each taking huge leaps with each step. More exoskeletons.

Rounds flew at the warehouse from the outside, pelting the thick metal outer walls of the building but bouncing off. The approaching enemies broke into three groups. They all fired quick bursts but didn’t follow up with rockets or grenades.

Erik took his opportunity and held down the trigger. The quad barrels came to life and vomited bullets. Shell casings cascaded to the ground like a metal waterfall.

The ammunition counter surged from full to zero as he kept firing, the advanced anti-recoil system keeping him on target. A man leaping through the air without a grav field and taking advantage of the natural low gravity of a moon wasn’t always great about keeping his shield up, including the two men Erik shredded. The gun ran dry, and he ejected the magazine and slapped in a new one.

The enemy reversed course, bouncing backward and firing smoke charges to cover their escape.

“Not so tough when they don’t have us in the open.” O’Malley sneered

Erik narrowed his eyes. “Wait. Hear that?”

Now that the rumble was close, it was familiar. The lower pressure of the atmosphere had changed the sound, but Erik recognized it.

“It must be the Dragon,” Biyu suggested. “No wonder they’re running away.”

“No. It’s not the Dragon. Too noisy,” the major answered.

Something nagged at the edge of Erik’s thoughts, but he didn’t have long to consider the surprise. Several explosions rocked the warehouse. Hot metal flew from the roof, along with several drones. The soldiers jumped or ran to avoid the avalanche of debris, but large chunks of the roof crashed down on three and buried them.

An unmarked black craft zoomed overhead, its engines at full burn and its secondary thrusters on the sides and front rotating for a quick turn. The thruster layout, narrow wings, and thrust instead of grav engine suggested a vehicle meant primarily for Zero-G operations. They’d gone from a couple of terrorists infiltrating the mine to squads of exoskeletons with prototype gear and fighters, plus the enemy also had military-grade jamming.

Erik slapped his comm to broadcast at full strength on all frequencies. “Base, this is Knight One. We are under fire and need immediate friendly air support.”

Another series of explosions ripped the warehouse apart.

“Back to the mine,” Erik ordered.

“What?” Biyu snapped her head in his direction. “They might be in there, too.”

“We can win against the exoskeletons,” Erik pointed out. “We’re not going to win against a fighter.” He looked at his platoon display. The buried troops were already dead. The only thing he could offer them now was revenge. “Go! Let’s take a few bastards out along our way.” He charged forward and held down the trigger, sweeping from side to side as he emerged.

The enemy exoskeletons crouched, their shields in front of them. Maybe if the enemies were facing a few militia with normal rifles, they might have survived, but the high-velocity rounds and explosives of the Knights overwhelmed their shields, armor, and tactical suits and gave many of them a one-way ticket to hell.

The soldiers had made it halfway to the mine entrance when the fighter made another pass. Erik expected a strafing run or missiles, but it screamed overhead, not firing. A couple seconds passed before he spotted the bomb dropping straight toward the warehouse.

“MOVE!” Erik bellowed.

The bomb struck the building and a massive red-white blast consumed it, the roar like an angry giant’s. Its hungry shockwave cut into the fleeing soldiers, picking them up and strewing them about the landscape.

Men and women screamed over the comm. Green turned to red on his platoon status display as soldier after soldier died.

Erik didn’t even realize he was soaring through the air, his armor flashing and beeping at him, until he crashed into the wall of the tunnel and thudded to the ground. He let out a soft groan and managed to open his eyes.

Black exoskeletons appeared at the edge of his vision, this time taking carefully aimed shots at the downed and vulnerable soldiers—at least the few who survived.

Biyu jerked as a man finished her off. Then Ahuja. O’Malley. Pena. Jekowski. Others gasped, their cracked helmets letting precious oxygen escape before their assassins shot them.

With a growl, Erik slammed the emergency release on his exoskeleton and crawled out, his body screaming in pain and the frigid air of the moon slicing at his burnt and exposed flesh. His exoskeleton was destroyed and his skin exposed, but he still had a helmet, and even without the backup unit, that meant he had enough air to at least take few more of the enemy with him.

He reached over with his cybernetic arm, the wounds and burns on his natural right arm making it all but useless. With a couple of quick yanks and slaps, he reloaded the TR-7 and aimed it, gritting his teeth.

I’ll make you pay. You murdering bastards slaughtered my people, and as long as I’m breathing, I won’t stop until everyone responsible pays.

Erik pulled the trigger, catching a nearby enemy by surprise. The four-barrel burst caught him in an exposed weak side, and he yowled in pain. With a bestial roar, Erik held down the trigger, finishing off the first man and then moving on to a second. A third man fell before the enemy fired another quick shot.

A wave of pain shot through Erik’s chest, and he slumped, his rifle falling out of his hand.

Two more men in exoskeletons came into his vision, carrying a huge metal container between them.

Why, Lady? You abandoned us, but at least let me live long enough for revenge.

His eyes closed.