Battleframe (The Mindwars Book 1) Read online

Page 3


  Happy cursed between clenched teeth, “Oh frap.”

  “You can say that again. We need to warn Central about what we’re seeing.”

  Whizzbang switched his communications back to the wider comnet. “Central, this is Whizzbang, Romeo, Oscar, Sierra, two, niner.”

  “Acknowledged, Whizzbang, Romeo, Oscar, Sierra, two, niner.”

  “We’ve tapped directly into the Freehold scanning tower and are viewing a complete Scourge invasion with only Freehold and yourselves in the green.”

  Whizzbang listened to the sound of the Central handler tapping on a keyboard before they spoke. “You must be mistaken as we have green across the board Whizzbang.”

  “Central, I’m telling you that there is something seriously wrong with the defence network.”

  “Negative Whizzbang. Diagnostics indicate all in the clear.”

  Whizzbang took a deep breath to calm himself down before asking, “Is General Frank McCleod available?”

  “Pilot, as you know, the General is a busy man and is currently in conference now.”

  “Can you get the General online? This is important.”

  “No I can’t. General Felesh gave specific instructions that all the Generals were not to be disturbed.”

  “I’m telling you! Interrupt Franky now!”

  “Negative Whizzbang. Central out.”

  With that, the Central command handler cut the connection.

  Happy said, “They weren’t very helpful.”

  Whizzbang nodded thoughtfully. “He’s just doing what he was ordered. We have some major trouble. The scan would also explain why we haven’t heard any battle chatter on the comnet. With the Scourge controlling the majority of districts there wouldn’t be anything stopping them from blanketing the airwaves with powerful static. What I don’t understand yet is why Freehold command hasn’t sounded the alarm?”

  Whizzbang suddenly spun around to stare intently down the hillside and held up his hand for silence, “Did you hear that?”

  Happy paused before replying, “Sure did. I think we’re about to have some ‘pink-eyes’ come and join us.”

  The two pilots listened to the distinctive discordant hum of a Scourge probe further down the hillside as it made its way upwards towards the scanning tower. About the size of a pilot’s torso its golden surface was shaped like a backbone with a bulbous head that was studded with instruments as well as offensive and defensive armaments. The probe hovered on a repulsor plate that caused the all familiar hum. Scourge engineers often launched probes to scan out the territory before a fist of warriors moved in.

  Happy dropped his remaining two turrets and peered into the darkness towards the humming.

  Whizzbang resisted the temptation to sound the alarm and alert the enemy. He pulled out his Charge rifle from its back holster, quietly laid down and peered through the light enhancing telescopic gun site. Whispering he said, “Probe target, two hundred metres directly down the hill. Wait for enemy fist.”

  “CT.”

  Whizzbang swung his scope to the side to get a better view of an alleyway between two huts. He was just about to move his rifle again when he caught site of an enemy Scout leading a small fist of Scourge warriors around the corner of a thatched hut.

  Whizzbang again whispered, “Scout spotted, two Shocks and a Slayer.”

  “Any Jugs?”

  “No Jugs.”

  Whizzbang could hear Happy sigh with relief across the comnet and broke into battlespeak to say, “Turrets take out probe. I’ll deal with the fist. Watch my back for surprises.”

  “CT.”

  Happy had always marvelled at the absolute calm that surrounded his friend as he went about his gruesome business. He seemed to enter a zone of serenity as he focused on his work.

  Whizzbang aligned the cross hairs on the enemy Scout’s forehead as it waited for the rest of the fist to join him in front of a trash compactor. Whizzbang automatically adopted the training he had received twenty years earlier and relaxed his muscles by controlling his breathing. He heard his heart slowing in his inner ear as he entered his state of calm.

  He was at one with his weapon.

  He was at peace while delivering death.

  He waited for his heart to pause.

  It beat twice in rapid succession.

  He pressed the firing stud.

  A brilliant pulse of intense blue light leapt from the barrel of his rifle and streaked across the open ground to the Scout below. Upon striking its head, the brain matter instantly boiled to over one thousand degrees, exploding the skull outwards with a characteristic popping sound. The beam did not stop but continued unabated to burrow, claw and rip a hole the size of a man’s eye in the side of the trash compactor the scout was standing in front of.

  Without waiting, Whizzbang moved the cross hair to his next target and subconsciously timed the firing after his next heart beats. The first Shock trooper fell to the ground dead just as brain matter from the Scout sprayed its body.

  Within the calmness of his mental zone, Whizzbang felt his heart surge as it again pushed the blood through his veins. Timing his shot to perfection, he pressed the firing stud for the third time just as Happy’s turrets opened up on the probe. The final remaining enemy was a Scourge Slayer that was definitely more brawn than brains. Bewildered at the sudden loss of its comrades it stood stunned before being ushered into the next life by Whizzbang’s fourth shot.

  The whole engagement had taken less than ten seconds. Whizzbang scanned the area again carefully noting if there was any further enemy activity.

  “Enemies?” Happy asked.

  “None present.”

  “Why haven’t the auto-alarms gone off? You’d think that this place would be crawling with Concord battleframes by now.”

  Whizzbang stood to his feet and walked over to the mangled Scourge probe. The turrets had done their work and riddled the casing with depleted tellurite rounds until the probe had collapsed deactivated to the ground. Whizzbang wrenched the drone’s backbone from its upper casing and walked back to Happy.

  “What you got that for?”

  “Freehold command needs to see this. I think that it’s about time everyone woke up.” Whizzbang toggled his wrist-comp open once again and tapped a series of commands on the screen. The Freehold warning sirens immediately commenced their low mournful call and the whole of settlement was floodlit by brilliant tellurite vapour lamps positioned strategically around the town atop huge poles.

  Happy grunted his agreement. “That’ll certainly get everyone’s attention. Whizz there must be a lot of frames out there in trouble tonight. What do you think we should do?”

  “I need to head down south to see if I can find Bosk and any of the others. We need to get the squads into some semblance of order so we can defend ourselves against the invasion. Can you travel to Central and warn the Generals of the attack? My guess is that like Freehold, they don’t have a clue what’s going on.”

  Happy nodded thoughtfully in agreement. “Are you sure you don’t need some help?”

  “I’ll be fine,” and then with a chuckle Whizzbang added, “How would I hide from the Scourge if you were stomping around beside me?”

  Happy did not bite at the good-natured jibe, things were starting to move fast and there was too much at stake. He looked directly into his friends eyes. “You keep safe, that’s a lot of black sectors that you’re about to fly into Whizz.”

  Whizzbang did his best to put a smile on his face. “I’ll be fine. My guess is that someone or something has pulled down the wider comnet so that no alarms are sounding anywhere. You just make sure that that Central stays in one piece.”

  “CT. I’ll be seeing you Whizz.”

  “You too, Haps.”

  Whizzbang watched as Happy jump-jetted to a higher position to gain some height prior to dropping a nanite glider pad down. The nanites instantly built a launching platform and propelled Happy several hundred feet into the air for the glide to Cent
ral Command.

  It was almost 1am as Whizzbang picked up the Scourge probe’s spine and blasted his jump jets at maximum burn to cut across the town square and on up to the Freehold command centre. Within the next twenty-four hours, every battleframe in Alpha Three would be put to the test.

  Chapter 3

  War has come

  From his height, Whizzbang watched as freshly awakened Concord officers disappeared through the Freehold command doorway. Even as they buttoned their dark blue shirts, tightened belts and adjusted pistol holsters Whizzbang proudly acknowledged the discipline that refused to yield to the Scourge. Dropping to the ground with a controlled burst of his jump jets, he pushed his way past the scurrying officers. The guards at the energy wall took one look at his Raven battleframe and ushered him past. The wall was less about defence and more about keeping out the elements from the delicate instruments housed in the command centre.

  A buzz of activity greeted him as he stepped across the threshold and into the command centre. A bank of huge screens lined one wall and provided a snapshot of the status of each Concord district. They also displayed the readiness of the local Freehold defence grid.

  Whizzbang looked up and cocked an eyebrow when he noticed there was no sign of Scourge activity on any screen. Despite being in his Raven a few officers shouldered past while avoiding the Scourge probe’s backbone in his hand. Each officer made their way to their consoles and quickly donned comnet headsets so that they were ready to receive and issue orders.

  From the back of the room a voice bellowed, “Who in the frap sounded the alarm?”

  Whizzbang pushed his way past a few aids and looked up towards the senior ranking officer’s raised control desk. “I did sir!”

  Colonel O’Brien was a typical mid-level Concord officer that had risen to his rank not because of ability but because his superior officers had died of old age. Despite the hour, he wore and impeccably pressed uniform even while his grey bushy moustache quivered in anger. Looking down at Whizzbang the Colonel bellowed, “Squad Leader Whizzbang. I should have known it would be you or one of your friends.” If it was not for the fact that battleframe pilots were semi-autonomous fighting units and outside the regular chain of command he would have had been happy to throw Whizzbang in the stockade for this act of tomfoolery.

  The Colonel gestured to the screens opposite him, “What in fraps name did you think you were doing sounding the alarm when the board’s clear!” The Colonel continued shouting, “Is this your idea of a joke Squad Leader?”

  With a clatter, Whizzbang heaved the probe remains up onto the Colonel’s desk. He then assumed his more relaxed fighting stance and calmly said, “They’re wrong sir.”

  Colonel O’Brien gave the probe a bit of a shove with a metal ruler lying on his desk. “Where in the frap did you find this?”

  “About fifteen minutes ago Happy and I toasted a Scourge fist in lower Freehold just down from the scanning tower.” Whizzbang indicated the probe on the Colonel’s desk. “I brought this along as proof that Freehold is about to be assaulted.”

  “Fifteen minutes ago?” All the bluster had vanished from the Colonel’s voice as he took his seat behind his command desk. “You said they’re wrong? What do you mean our sensors are wrong?”

  “Sir, I’m not sure why your screens are incorrect but after tapping directly into the sensor grid tower, the picture looks a little different than what your screens indicate.” Flipping open his wrist-comp Whizzbang asked, “With your permission sir?”

  “Yes, yes, you have my permission,” Colonel O’Brien replied irritably. Reaching down into a cupboard in his desk, the Colonel pulled out a bottle of whisky and began pouring himself a glass.

  Whizzbang tapped into the command centre’s systems and beamed his sensor data directly to the main screens. Rather than a clear board the screens across the command centre now displayed a sea of red Scourge activity or black districts that were presumably already under the enemy’s full control. Silence settled like a blanket on the officers at their consoles. Scurrying aides stopped and stared at the screens, taking in the disaster that was unfolding before their eyes.

  Whizzbang watched as fear gripped the officers in the command centre like a jackal locking its jaw on its prey. They had been sitting at desks too long rather than fighting the enemy face to face. Wrestling physically with an enemy helped you recognize fear, appreciate it, control it and then use it to heighten your own senses so that you could survive another day. The men and women around him may be disciplined when all was well but this was a moment when they needed to decide how they would respond to their own fears.

  Colonel O’Brien lifted his glass in a shaking hand to his mouth. He needed something, anything to calm his nerves. Displayed on the giant screens opposite was an impossibility. With only the districts of Freehold and possibly Central Command left, the Concord would lose Alpha Three to the Scourge. This would mean the end of the war as the tellurite being mined on Alpha Three would stop flowing. All these thoughts passed through the Colonel’s mind as he almost whispered, “What in the frap is happening Whizz?”

  Whizzbang watched the Colonel down the remaining whisky in his glass and said in his crisp squad-leader’s voice so that everyone could hear, “You can’t trust your screens Colonel. It appears that the Scourge has hacked the scanning network and very likely the defence grid itself. Colonel, I’d recommend getting some cables down to the scanning tower and run a bypass directly to here. Sir, we need up to date accurate information and we need it now!”

  “Oh frap! I never thought I’d see this day.” The Colonel absently reached for the bottle to pour himself another glass.

  “Colonel, permission to speak freely?” Whizzbang said with a flat voice.

  “You’ve never been one to hold back Squad Leader but go ahead.”

  “We also need to run bypass lines to the rest of the Freehold defence grid as it’s very likely that it’s compromised as well. We need to do this as fast as possible sir! We could be all that’s left of the Concord on Alpha Three and we must hold. I’ve just sent Happy to Central Command to see if they’re still up and running but it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to rely on them for any help. We need some pilots out scouting as fast as possible until we can get some more reliable intelligence.”

  Despite his gruff manner, Colonel O’Brien had always liked Whizzbang and his squad. They got things done. “Yes, of course, you’re right Squad Leader. We never envisaged the entire defence grid going down.”

  “We’re going to have to sort that out another time Colonel but right now we need to see to the defence of Freehold. And one more thing Colonel.”

  “Yes, of course…”

  Officers overhearing the conversation would have been confused into thinking that Squad Leader Whizzbang was actually the superior officer. Whizzbang leaned forward and said in a much quieter voice, “Colonel, I need you. In fact, we all need you sir.” Whizzbang reached over the desk and carefully took the bottle of Whisky from the Colonel’s hands and passed it to an aide to take away.

  The Colonel nodded his head and he smiled back at Whizzbang. Although the he may have been officious, he was no man’s fool. Straightening his back, the Colonel subconsciously smoothed his moustache with his left hand as he issued the order that no member of the Concord ever thought they would hear. At the top of his voice he yelled, “Instigate general order Epsilon Nine One Three. Freehold will stand!”

  The stunned silence instantly transformed into a flurry of activity as years of drills and practice runs for such an eventuality were acted upon. The survival of Freehold was at stake and it would take everyone’s coordinated effort to keep it free.

  Turning to Whizzbang Colonel O’Brien said, “Thank you Squad Leader. Sometimes us desk jockeys need to be reminded what taking action is all about. I give you my word that Freehold will not fall.”

  “That’s good to hear sir.” Indicating towards the Scourge controlled districts he continued, “I
need to get going and find out if there are any battleframes still fighting.”

  “We could really use you here.”

  “Sir. I’m a recon and I need to do my part in another way.”

  “Where will you be headed?”

  “South, that’s where Bosk was headed and I need to find him.”

  Colonel O’Brien nodded as he smiled. “I’m not surprised that you’d be going after him. You two were always inseparable. Good luck Squad Leader. If your scans are right you’ll be heading into some rough territory.”

  Memories threatened to intrude into Whizzbang’s thoughts as he suddenly remembered happier times with Bosk. Times of laughter, joy and a deep friendship that had grown since the Scourge had killed both their parents. Focusing back on the Colonel he replied determinedly, “I’ve got to go anyway sir. I know that he’d do the same for me.”

  “I could order you to stay.”

  “You won’t sir.” Whizzbang pointed at the Scourge controlled areas of the map, “You know I’m best out there.”

  Colonel O’Brien let out a short huff. His breath momentarily flicked up his grey moustache. “You’re right. Go and do what you do best Squad Leader.”

  Whizzbang saluted the Colonel in the Concord fashion of his right fist across his chest. He then extended his arm above his head with his pointer and middle finger pointing to the sky. “Colonel, you just keep the lights on.”

  As Whizzbang strode out of the command centre, he noticed that the officer’s discipline was winning the battle against their fear.

  Colonel O’Brien watched Whizzbang spin on his heels and head out the double doorway. That man is a born leader he thought to himself. Pushing aside such thoughts the Colonel turned to his nearest aide and said, “Patch me through to Central.”

  “Yes Colonel, patching through to Central.”

  “Central, this is Colonel O’Brien, seven, seven, four.”

  “Acknowledged Colonel.”

  “Patch me through to General Frank McCleod.”