Night Song (The Guild Wars Book 9) by Mark Wandrey (best management books of all time .txt) 📗

to come. The alarm sounded bare instants before the first missile hit the building, and concussive force launched her over the side. She corrected her fall and landed smoothly on her feet.

“Let’s go!” she yelled, and advanced into the growing haze of battle.

* * * * *

Chapter 12

The Fields of Battle—E’cop’k

“Watch the left!” Rex yelled and sideslipped. A particle bolt crackled through the air where he’d been only an instant before, vaporizing a huge rock and exploding the ground around it. He brought his MAC in line and triggered a blast. Craaack! The tungsten penetrator, accelerated by a rare-earth sabot, left the gun barrel at multiples of the speed of sound, issuing a meter-long flame as a tiny amount of the barrel was turned to plasma from the speed of passage. The sabot released the penetrator, which travelled between the gun and the tank in a fraction of a second, hitting with the force of a bomb. It splashed on the tank’s shields with a flash of brilliant white and blue light, static crackling in all directions.

“We can’t crack its shields,” Drake yelled, firing pulse after pulse from his heavy laser.

“Someone try to get some K-bombs under it!” Bana barked from cover. “It’ll roll right over them and they’ll explode under it, inside its shield.”

“Yeah, we just have to stand here while it rolls through us,” Sonya said.

The tanks had been steadily pushing them back. Every time they tried to flank, Zuul mercs on foot had been there to repulse the attack. Their father, Colonel Porter, was a few hundred meters back at the base of the hill, trying to reach Ripley in the hopes of another missile barrage. The tank’s shields could be overwhelmed with enough firepower, just not the kind the CASPers were carrying on this mission.

“What we need is one of the Raknar,” Shadow said from his own position.

Rex watched his brother pop up and fire a line of shells from the arm-mounted chain gun, pushing back the Zuul who’d been trying to move in under cover of their tank. Then Shadow had to scuttle back, moving positions. The tank fired its enormously powerful weapon again, annihilating the covering boulder Shadow had used. They had four damaged CASPers so far. It was a miracle none of them were out or dead. But the attack had come to a jarring stop.

“What about the Lumar?” Drake asked.

“The Pushtal have them tied down, too,” Corporal Plesh said. “It’s turned into a right great cockup.”

“Terrence and Peck are down,” Captain Anderle called on the open channel. “Second tank is moving laterally, look out!”

Rex shifted his view and saw it, only a couple dozen meters away and moving fast. The broken field of boulders made for difficult maneuvering for the massive six-treaded tanks. But they were nimble, with multiple turrets holding not only the particle accelerator cannon, its main weapon, but two smaller ballistic cannons, and several lasers. The behemoth was heading right toward where Shadow and Sonya were hunkered down. They didn’t see it coming.

“Shadow, Sonya, move!” Rex yelled and fired his jump jets. As he soared up, he fired his MAC as fast as it would cycle at the oncoming tank. Wham, Wham, Wham, the hyper-accelerated penetrators slammed into the tank’s shield. Each time they hit, the splash on the shield got brighter and brighter.

“I’m getting through!” he yelled. There was a small spot in the shield, a shimmer where he thought it was weakest. He cut his jumpjets and lined up a shot. Wham, with a crimson splash of light and electricity, the MAC round went through the shield and hit the tank’s main turret, shattering the relatively delicate main weapon.

The mercs cheered as Rex fired his jumpjets to slow his descent. The particle beam from the other tank would have taken him in the chest if he hadn’t fired the jets at that moment. Instead the beam just missed, but the static discharge played across his CASPer, overloading half the jumpjets.

Rex’s control board flashed a dozen red warnings as the computer struggled for control. Being inexperienced, he fought the automatic system that would have brought him down more or less okay. Instead, he tried to apply more power. The remaining jets flipped him over and into the ground head first. Inside his CASPer, he was slammed into the top of the cockpit and into darkness.

* * *

Veska had been leading her squad around, trying to flank the Humans. Their leader, Porter, was an excellent small unit commander. The bulk of his forces were well trained, and in this strange low-G environment, their powered armor was a sizeable advantage. Each wore the equivalent of a small ship or tank, and could maneuver quickly to avoid a thrust, or advance to take advantage of an opening.

It was damnably frustrating. Enough to make her almost forget she was facing four young Zuul. Not just Zuul, she thought. Hosh! Her mind flashed, trying to find a way to salvage this entropy-cursed situation. So far, no lives had been lost. She had two injured, though minor. The tanks were causing confusion on both sides. The Humans’ armor couldn’t take them out with direct fire, but the tanks were still vulnerable to being overrun. The tanks also kept getting in the way of their own lightly armored troopers.

She was about to ask the captain to consider withdrawing the tanks. Maybe this Porter would rush ahead, hoping to exploit the withdrawal, and she could encircle them. Then instead, one of the CASPers made its crazy assault. What else could she call it, a single armored trooper against 150 tons of fusion-powered tank? Yet, despite all odds, despite any logical reason, the shots penetrated the shield, and the tank’s particle cannon was destroyed!

“Impossible!” she heard someone yell.

Veska shook her head, disbelief fading as she watched. The