Battleframe (The Mindwars Book 1) Read online

  “I have strict instructions from General Felesh that while the Generals are in conference they are not to be disturbed.”

  Colonel O’Brien took a deep breath. “Priority override Epsilon nine, one, three.”

  There was a brief pause as the communications officer realised the ramifications of the order. “Patching you through to….” Suddenly a burst of static disrupted the signal and the connection with Central cut.

  Colonel O’Brien turned to his aid and ordered, “Get Central back online!”

  “I’m trying sir but the static is overriding everything.”

  The Colonel nodded his head in acknowledgement. It looked like Freehold was on its own and Central was about to have their own problems. It would not be long before the attack. Turning to the men and women around him Colonel O’Brien straightened his back and began relaying a series of orders in preparation for the defence of Freehold.

  Chapter 4

  Called in Help

  With a flick of her head, Selfia let the wind whip her long blond hair out of her eyes. Her ponytail must have come loose again. A battleframe pilot having long hair had its drawbacks but it was her one indulgence. She thought irritably to herself, “If General Alban could have long hair then why couldn’t she?”

  Acheron glided beside her, his massive Anvil close quarters battleframe kept aloft by its larger energized wings. He saw her reaching back to try to retie her hair in mid-flight and gave a little laugh over the comnet. “You having trouble with your hair again Self?”

  Selfia made a face at him. “Oh just shut up would you!”

  Acheron ignored the mild reprimand. “It’s been so long since we’ve been back in Freehold I can almost feel the back massages and sun on my face.”

  Selfia finally gave up in her attempt to subdue her hair. “What I need is a long hot bath.”

  “Need some company?”

  Selfia giggled. “I might at that.”

  “Sorry about the honeymoon.”

  Selfia looked down at the wedding band on her left ring finger. The exquisitely crafted blue tellurite crystal seemed to glow in the moonlight as they sped southwards. “CT Ach. You have a lot of making up to do.”

  Acheron feigned mock hurt. “It wasn’t my fault; Central said we had to go north to help the digging crews.”

  “What’s that got to do with it? I’m still going to extract some retribution in the tub. I think that you owe me at least one back massage.”

  Acheron smiled broadly and let his eyes wander over his wife’s petite body. Why was it that her Eagle-claw sniper battleframe seemed to accentuate her figure in all the right places?

  They had been gliding since early evening and finally Freehold was in sight. The glow of the freedom torch stood out in the distance like a beacon of hope in the darkness. After a quick descent, they pulled up abruptly and retracted their wings to land. Selfia was in the lead and with a few quick steps she rapidly slowed her landing down.

  Behind her, Acheron did the same and not surprisingly, she felt his strong arms wrap around her body. “We’re here,” Acheron whispered into her ear.

  She let out a sigh and for a few minutes, they stood together as she snuggled further into his embrace. Turning slowly around, Selfia looked up into Acheron’s eyes as she brushed a strand of his short dark hair out of his eyes. “Yes, we’re here.”

  “Let’s go and see about that tub.”

  Selfia put on her sternest expression. “CT Acheron. I order you to take me to the nearest tub!”

  They both laughed as they headed down a stone stairway and past a number of thatched huts.

  At the bottom step both Selfia’s and Acheron’s comnet crackled for a second and then a male voice spoke, “Selfia, Sierra, Alpha, Romeo, four, seven this is Central. Respond.”

  Selfia rolled her eyes towards Acheron. “Central this is Selfia, Sierra, Alpha, Romeo, four, seven.”

  Selfia listened to the thumping sound of a microphone passed across to another person. “Selfia, this is General Frank McLeod.”

  Acheron looked questioningly at Selfia. She shrugged her shoulders to the unspoken question, “What would not just any General but the General McLeod want to speak to them about?”

  “General, it’s an honour sir,” she replied.

  “Let’s cut to the chase Lieutenant. We need both you and your partner’s help and we need it now.”

  “Sir, we’ve only just landed in Freehold after our time up north.”

  “I am aware of that but this can’t wait.”

  Selfia sat down on the bottom step and put her head in her hands. Acheron watched the play of emotions across his young wife’s features. She was exhausted, they both were. After the tour of duty up north, it was a long trip back down to Freehold. What they needed was a hot tub and a week’s rest. With a clunk of armour, he sat down beside his wife and put one arm around her comfortingly.

  Selfia took a deep breath to relieve some of her pent up tension before saying, “Yes sir. What would you have us do?”

  “I need you to play a little bit of guard duty for a very special battleframe pilot.”

  “Pardon me sir?”

  “You heard me Lieutenant.”

  Sighing deeply Selfia replied, “Yes sir. Who is the pilot and where is he?”

  “Squad leader Whizzbang. He’s just left Freehold to head south towards Research Ravine.”

  Acheron said in surprise, “Whizzbang? Isn’t he the one who rescued those pilots and diggers out of a big mess to the west of here?”

  “He’s the one Second Lieutenant Acheron.”

  “We have reason to believe that he’s about to poke a stick into a hornets nest of Scourge and we need you two to ride shotgun for him.”

  As the senior officer, Selfia gave Acheron a little glare for interrupting and then rested her hand on his knee to temper the mild rebuke. “All due respect sir but pilots get themselves into hot water all the time. That’s why we wear the frame sir.”

  “He’s special Lieutenant.”

  Selfia drew a deep breath, “I’m sure that he is sir. Can’t this wait until morning?”

  “Lieutenant, I know that you’re both newlyweds and I’m sure that you’d like to get some time alone after your mission up north. I wouldn’t have called you personally if this wasn’t really important. One other thing, under no circumstances are you to reveal to him that I’ve sent you. Is that clear?

  “Crystal clear sir.”

  “Hold Lieutenant!”

  In the background both Selfia and Acheron listened to a muffled but frantic conversation. Through the comnet they could make out the distant sound of heavy weapons fire.

  “Sir, is Central under attack?”

  A strained General McLeod replied, “Yes, we are under a massive Scourge assault. It looks like this is the beginning of a complete invasion.”

  “We are on our way to assist.”

  “You have your orders Selfia. Provide all the assistance you can to Squad Leader Whizzbang.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he’s not really here…”

  Selfia was about to reply when a burst of static wiped out all possible communication between her and Central Command. It was common for the Scourge to scramble the comnet during an attack and right now, their electronic counter measures were in full force.

  Acheron looked over at his wife, “What did he mean that Whizzbang wasn’t really here?”

  “I think that he just got cut off.”

  Acheron nodded thoughtfully. “So what do we do now Self?”

  Selfia gave a little smile and said, “We obey orders.”

  Chapter 5

  Research Ravine

  Whizzbang jump-jetted to the top of an adjacent building and dropped a bundle of nanites from a pocket in his battleframe. Their programming quickly formed a glider launch pad from the tellurite energy impregnated in the packet. The shimmering blue energy spiral would only last a few minutes before disintegrating. He oriented him
self with the moon Arkona overhead and stepped onto the launcher. The wind roared in his ears as the pad instantly propelled him several hundred feet into the sky over Freehold. Upon reaching his maximum height blue glowing wings energized out the back of his Raven battleframe to allow him to glide quickly to his destination.

  For the uninitiated jumping on a glider pad tends to be a moment of terror quickly followed by a series of airborne stalls and a crash through the trees below. Gliding at night is an especially dangerous activity. In the darkness, a pilot cannot see the horizon and the balance provided by their ears would often lie. Whizzbang had experienced “the leans” a number of times. Despite his ears, telling him he was flying “straight and level” he soon discovered that he was actually descending rapidly or even flipped over on his back. The instruments in his wrist-comp helped save his life a number of times but it still took careful training to overcome his natural senses.

  Glancing down at his wrist-comp, Whizzbang locked in a glide angle for maximum distance and then adjusted his course southwards. After thirty seconds and confident that his flight was stabilized he pulled his rifle out of its back harness. Peering through the scope, he scanned the area near his first landing point for enemy activity.

  Even from his present distance, Whizzbang could make out the walkways high above the ravine that housed the research centre. The scientists had named their facility Research Ravine after the shallow canyon that it was located. The engineers had constructed the laboratories in a “U” shape with each nestled against the rocky walls for protection from the elements. The top part of the “U” was open to the ravine that cut its way through the foothills and flowed down to the ocean in the east. As he silently glided Whizzbang dialled up the light enhancing capabilities of his scope and resumed his search along the plasteel scaffolds and stairways for enemies.

  Other than the more exotic tellurite, plasteel was one of the toughest and most flexible building materials available and used extensively by both the Concord and the Scourge. It was a blending of high-tech plastics and traditional high tensile steel. Like building blocks, square, standard sized plasteel grating was commonly used to quickly construct many structures in Concord colonies.

  Through his scope, Whizzbang surveyed the aftermath of a recent battle. A number of dismembered human bodies lay strewn about and even a few Scourge accompanied them. Scorch marks from blaster fire darkened the grating in places and smoke still billowed from a number of pieces of equipment

  Whizzbang’s diligence was finally rewarded when he picked out the shapes of a number of Scourge warriors. They were guarding the empty scanning tower emplacement in the centre of the platforms above the northern research buildings. By taking out the scanning towers and cutting off all communication, the Scourge disrupted the Concord’s ability to build a solid defence.

  Even at his present distance, and without the aid of his scope, Whizzbang could now make out the ghostly pale faces of the Scourge warriors in the moonlight. A brief scuffle appeared to have broken out between three of them as they fought over something. Whizzbang again brought his sniper scope to his eye. It was not a something; they were fighting over who won the prize to eat a raw human leg. Finally, a Shock trooper roared in triumph and began gorging himself on the flesh.

  Whizzbang felt sick in the stomach at what he had just witnessed and lowered his rifle as he continued to glide. He personally knew a number of the scientists at the research centre and wondered if the warriors were fighting over part of one of them. They were harmless civilians studying the indigenous life forms of Alpha Three. The Scourge viewed them as nothing more than food.

  Bracing himself for what he might see, Whizzbang raised his Charge riflescope to his eye and this time he entered his zone. No one had taught him about the zone, he had stumbled into the perfect snipers mindset while terrified in a battle long ago. He was alone defending a tellurite Digger mining crew against a dozen Scourge warriors. They had suddenly poured through from the other side of the scintillating pale purple Barrier on the edge of Concord controlled land. Any human caught on the other side of the Barrier died within a few seconds of exposure.

  The Scourge had developed the Barrier from an energy that consumed human life force. They had then attempted to wrap the energy around the entire planet, making it their own. If it was not for the quick thinking Concord scientists at Blue Sky, they would have succeeded and Alpha Three would have been lost. The scientists built huge repulsor generators that pushed back the Barrier and made a small section of Alpha Three habitable to humans. The generators consumed vast amounts of energy and a large portion of the mined tellurite went to replenishing the repulsor reserves.

  The Digger crew should not have been mining that close to the Barrier but it was often where the richest tellurite veins were located. Where there was money to be made, there would always be fools willing to take a risk to make it. In the heat of the battle, Whizzbang had discovered a place of absolute deadly calm amidst the storm around him. Over drinks, the miners later recounted how he took out the two Scourge fists without getting a scratch.

  Centred in the zone Whizzbang counted the number of enemies and assessed the difficulty in retaking Research Ravine. From this high up and wearing his camouflaged Raven’s armour, he was almost invisible against the black, star filled sky. Smiling to himself, he lined up a Scourge engineer between its pink glowing eyes and pressed the firing stud on his Charge rifle. The beam sliced through the air, met the target and continued out the other side. It was a spectacular shot considering he was still gliding. Even at his present distance, Whizzbang was rewarded with the sound of exploding grey matter as the brilliant blue energy beam pierced the Engineer’s forehead.

  A second and then a third target met the same fate as the first. Pandemonium broke out amongst the remaining Scourge as they sought out their attacker. Indiscriminate Scourge weapons fire ricocheted off metal girders and bounced off the plasteel plated roofs of the laboratories below as they sought out their attacker.

  At the last second, Whizzbang retracted his wings to land just short of the edge of the ravine. From this high up it would provide an ideal sniping position on the remaining enemy below. He slowed himself down with a few quick steps, before diving to the ground for cover. Crawling along the ground to peer over the edge at the enemy he aligned his cross hairs on a Scourge slayer and fired. Not bothering to wait to see if the slayer was dead, he swung his Charge rifle into its back holster and quickly pulled out his short-barrelled grenade launcher.

  While the Charge rifle requires a special sense of precision, the grenade launcher in Whizzbang’s hands was more like a surgeon using a machete to perform a delicate operation. For all its lack of finesse, the grenade launcher is a forgiving weapon. All you have to do is roughly aim it in the direction of the enemy, pull the trigger and the concussive impact would do the rest. Upon detonation, thousands of tiny pieces of shrapnel would explode outwards at a ferocious velocity. The flying metal would sever exposed limbs and bore their way through everything other than the thickest and toughest armour. With six freshly launched grenades soaring through the air it was not long before he had cleared the thoroughly stunned Scourge from around the scanning tower platform.

  Whizzbang holstered his launcher, jump-jetted down to the plasteel grating and landed lightly on his padded feet beside the tower’s call down terminal. Scourge body parts, blood and gore splashed outwards from where the grenades had detonated. He hated the smell of Scourge blood. It had a musky sour scent to it that made him think of a rotting garbage dump. Wrinkling his nose in distaste, he stepped over the torso of the Shock trooper that had formerly won his human prize. A soft ping emitted from his wrist-comp to indicate that he was within range and connected to the tower’s call-down terminal.

  As long as the DNA verified as human, a battleframe’s wrist-comp could interface with any Concord system. Upon connecting, Concord pilots were required to key in their personal unique code to gain access to the system
or service they required. With the previous scanning tower vaporised, Whizzbang activated the call-down sequence to request a new tower from the orbiting Concord manufacturing facility.

  The massive scanning towers were exceptionally sophisticated pieces of equipment that had to be manufactured in a zero-G environment. Pilots could call down replacement towers in the event that one had failed or been put out of commission by the Scourge.

  Whizzbang leaned against the railing that surrounded the scanning tower platform and looked down in the courtyard below as he thought about what to do next. Everything seemed to be going to plan; fly-in, tick, kill enemy, tick, call down new tower, another tick, win sector, major tick.

  Whizzbang peered down through the plasteel grating at the roofs of the research buildings that formed the “U” shape below. So far, the courtyard between them and the ravine beyond appeared to be vacant of enemies. Leaning back against the railing again, he looked upwards into the lattice of makeshift scaffolds and walkways that led up and out of the ravine. Thankfully, no enemies were present.

  What concerned him was that calling down a scanning tower was a magnet for a Scourge counter attack. Looking across at the huge empty tower locking clamps, he willed the one he had just called to hurry down as fast as possible.

  Cocking his head to the side to listen better Whizzbang let out a resigned sigh. He knew the tell tale distant screeching coming from the sky above. It was like fingernails dragged down a school blackboard and it quickly grew to a reverberating roar that climaxed in a cataclysmic thump, followed by a deathly silence. He wrinkled his nose in distaste at the putrid stench of sulphurous fumes now filling the air. He was well acquainted with both the sound and smell of a Scourge battle-pod.

  Chapter 6

  Training

  Ray listened to the calm soft female voice in his earpiece say, “Breathe out, breathe in.” They always used female voices for helping you to relax during an exercise. Apparently, studies had shown that it had something to do with the maternal child relationship.