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  Sage shoved the thought of the loss of young lives away and concentrated on the battle. He squeezed the launcher’s trigger before the Zukimther could regain his balance. A tight cluster of gel-grenades hugged the merc’s chest over his heart, but he still charged Sage’s position.

  Sage ducked behind another pile of ruins once his opponent had gotten close enough to leave him in the blast radius of the grenades. He held his position and waited, listening to the dulled thunderclaps of the charges exploding.

  Blood and splintered bone spread over the immediate vicinity and coated the AKTIVsuit’s armor. Holding his position, Sage fit his left hand to the grenade launcher’s loading gate and linked his armor up, pumping in fresh explosives from his ammo backpack through his wrist reloader. The Armored-Kinetic-Tactical-Intelligence-Vestment suit packed ammunitions throughout its frame.

  “Master Sergeant,” Murad called. “There is movement in the building ahead of you. Looks like the tangos are putting some kind of machinery into play. We’re unable to confirm.”

  “Roger that,” Sage replied. “I’ll take a look.”

  Up again, Sage glanced at the battlefield. The Zukimther had staggered back toward the central building they guarded during the initial attack, but now they pushed back, cut into the Terran soldiers, and drove them into small groups like pack predators closing in on prey. He couldn’t clearly see the building’s windows either from where he was.

  Sage didn’t know what the mercs hoped to accomplish by withdrawing to the building because it wouldn’t stand, then two 100mm cannons opened fire from the target building’s second floor. The weapons whumped as they launched their lethal payloads. Almost immediately, two pockets of Terran soldiers vaporized and only smoking craters marked where they had stood.

  TWO

  Offworlders’ Bazaar

  Makaum Sprawl

  0318 Hours Zulu Time

  “Where did they get those big guns?” Murad demanded. He wasn’t calm or confident now, but he wasn’t panicked either. Yet. “No one said anything about the Zukimther having cannons!”

  Cursing, ignoring the lieutenant’s question, Sage ran toward the nearest Zukimther, who was driving three soldiers back into a corner filled with foundation remnants. Wondering how they’d missed the intel on the mercs’ weapons wasn’t nearly as important as figuring out what to do about it. Murad would learn to ignore curiosity while engaged. Figuring out how surprises happened and where to place the blame was amateur thinking. Survival was key.

  Stumbling over the uneven terrain, two of the soldiers dragged a wounded third. One of the standing soldiers wore armor with a dark scarlet ypheynte marked on the chest that only showed up with the faceshield’s enhanced vision capabilities. The insect reminded Sage of a Terran dragonfly but was one of the creatures revered by the Makaum people because of its ability to survive hardship.

  The domestic recruits to Charlie Company had taken to wearing ypheynte graphics after the recent attack during the Festival of the Beginning that had left so many innocents dead and injured. Colonel Halladay had tried to prevent the adoption of the insignia, and had even pointed out that the added graphic wasn’t official, but the local recruits wouldn’t give it up even after the colonel told them it marked them as targets for local dissidents and offplanet gunmen.

  The young men and women hadn’t cared and had stood by their chosen colors. The colonel had given up that fight in short order because the Makaum scouts now in the muster were valuable in the field as well as for public relations, especially since the local population was divided between supporting the Terran military and the Phrenorian Empire.

  On the run, Sage lined up a shot, aiming for the Zukimther’s head because that would at least disorient the merc. Just as he squeezed the trigger, two 20mm rounds slammed into his stomach and right thigh, hurling him through the air. He went with the momentum, turning the fall into a roll that brought him to his feet again. His senses swam for a moment and pain wracked his body. The armor had saved him, but the hydrostatic shock had penetrated with bruising force.

  Do you require centering? the suit’s near-AI asked. I have a pain and focus suite ready.

  A screen of available stims flashed in the lower right quadrant of Sage’s HUD.

  Sage ran, crouching down to provide a smaller target. Stims kept a soldier up and moving, but they tended to take the edge off and turn reflexes sloppy. On the battlefield, a split second made the difference between life and death. “No.”

  The Zukimther who had shot him laid down quick bursts of 20mm ammo that dug craters and plasma bursts that blistered patches of ground into glass. His attention drawn by Sage’s previous attack, or maybe warned by one of his team, the second Zukimther swiveled around and brought his weapons up. Together they would catch Sage in a lethal crossfire.

  Hoping his armor would hold up long enough to get to cover, he fired the grenade launcher at the opponent closest to him. At the same time, the other Zukimther’s head suddenly exploded, cored through by one of the sabot rounds fired by the team’s snipers. The ammo had been designed for use against heavily armored powersuits and troop transports, but it worked equally well against the Zukimther.

  Sage’s trio of gel-grenades landed on the first merc’s chest and thighs. Moving at the speed he had been, Sage hadn’t had time to do anything other than aim for center mass. Before the grenades detonated, the Zukimther’s head snapped back as a sabot round drilled through his eye, then the delayed charge emptied his brain pan.

  Sliding into cover behind huge chunks of plascrete, Sage took a moment to reload his weapon. One of his team skidded into place beside him. The soldier’s AKTIVsuit glowed cherry-red in spots and smoked from plasma charge hits.

  Sage’s AI identified her as Private Remedios Escobedo from Rio de Janeiro.

  “How is Raetsch?” he asked her. Raetsch was the wounded man.

  “Stable, Master Sergeant. Private Chouteau is making sure he stays squared away.”

  “Good.” Sage hoisted his rifle and took a measured breath. He glared at the Zukimther reinforcements taking the field. The mercs had evidently added to their number. More than the estimated twenty-seven were in play.

  And they had those cannons too.

  Sage looked at Escobedo. “Are you ready?”

  Escobedo took a fresh grip on her assault rifle and rose into a crouched position, like a runner in the blocks. “Roger, Master Sergeant. Confirm ready.”

  The 100mm cannons blasted again. The explosive rounds demolished one of the crumbling buildings soldiers had taken cover behind and spilled tons of plascrete over them. Smoke rolled over the area and concealed most of the destruction, but Sage spotted soldiers struggling to get out from under the rubble. Other soldiers weren’t moving.

  “Good, because we’re going into the building after those guns.” Sage peered around the cover and noticed the Zukimther mercs had spread out around the base of the building and started taking cover.

  Kiwanuka and her snipers were taking their targets down. A half dozen Zukimther corpses lay across the battlefield. Most of the bodies were headless. Others had their chests blown open.

  Unfortunately, the snipers’ successes had been noted by the Zukimther forces as well. The next salvo from the 100mm cannons smashed into the wall surrounding the bazaar. As the din of the explosions rolled over the area, a section of the wall spilled to the ground in jagged chunks. One of the snipers came down with it and got buried in the avalanche.

  “Sage,” Kiwanuka called over the private channel he’d set up with her. “They’ve got my people in their sights. We hadn’t counted on long-range weapons like this. We can’t stay stationary and hold overwatch.”

  “Copy that. Get moving. I’m going to try to take out those cannons.” Sage switched frequencies. “Lieutenant Murad.”

  “Copy, Sage,” the lieutenant replied. He was on the move sixty meters away to the right, closing in on a group of Zukimther.

  “Maybe it’s time to
bring in the powersuits, sir.”

  “Roger that.” Murad switched to the powersuit frequency. “Sergeant Ekonomou, bring your team in.”

  “Copy that, sir. Oscar Team is on the move.”

  Ekonomou was young, but he’d seen action against the Phrenorians before getting a medical evac from the last planet he’d served on. After he’d had new legs and an arm vat grown, Command had reassigned him to Makaum to finish out his rehab with “light” duty. Like Sage, he’d wanted to get back into the Phrenorian War.

  On Sage’s faceshield, four of the eight purple pixilated images of the powersuit squads lurched into action while four others held back to protect a retreat if necessary. Also, jamming the battlefield with the big units while the foot soldiers were scattered didn’t work well. The powersuits needed room to move.

  Eight meters tall and three meters wide, covered in heavy black polycarbonate armor, the powersuits were dreadnoughts in the combat area. They stood in blocky humanoid shapes and moved on tree-trunk-thick legs. At forty-plus tons, they had plenty of speed, but lacked adroitness because stopping that much tonnage quickly was a problem. The powersuits bristled with weapons, from 20mm cannons to flamethrowers to missiles.

  Ekonomou led the powersuit charge, lifted a thick arm, and crashed through one of the U-shaped arches over an entryway choked with brush and brambles only partially cut back. Plascrete chunks scattered like chaff before him and the heavy clank of the articulated joints rattled like a basso tambourine.

  A Zukimther merc opened up with his 20mm machine gun thirty meters in front of Ekonomou. The powersuit’s ablative armor exploded in response but left thinner protection in its wake. Ekonomou raised his left hand and sprayed a roiling blast of napalm over the merc.

  Covered in fiery liquid, the Zukimther squalled in agony and abandoned his position. He managed only two steps before the fire filled his lungs and his corpse collapsed to the ground.

  As Ekonomou raced across the bazaar, Terran military soldiers hurried out of his path so they wouldn’t get stomped during the confusion. Even with the powersuit’s HUD tracking and sorting friendlies and foes, moving that much tonnage quickly was problematic even under the best of conditions. Traversing a landscape pitted by craters and ruins made the situation even worse.

  Corporal Jasper tried to take his powersuit over a collapsed building, got almost to the top, then sank into it like it had turned into quicksand. He fought against the structure’s remnants and shoved off huge pieces as he tried to extricate himself.

  A Zukimther merc took advantage of the corporal’s plight and fired a steady stream of plasma and 20mm ammo at the polycarbonate bubble that protected the driver’s head. Cracks and chips appeared in the soldier’s helmet. Jasper picked up a large section of wall, heaved it at his opponent, and buried the man in a pile of rubble when the projectile shattered on impact.

  Ekonomou fired on the move, riddled pockets of Zukimther mercs with 20mm rounds, and laid down suppressive fire to protect the soldiers pinned down by enemy weapons. He rocked back and looked up at the windows where the 100mm cannons were, then fired two missiles from the pods on his shoulders.

  The missiles streaked 150 meters, halfway to the main building where the Zukimther had holed up, before they met with anti-aircraft fire that detonated them early. The two bright yellow explosions triggered twin concussive waves that swept across the battlefield and indiscriminately rained down flaming debris over all combatants. The flashes of light caused temporary blindness as Sage’s HUD tried to compensate.

  Sage took cover and pulled Escobedo with him just before a wave of fire crashed against the broken wall where he’d set up. He waited a heartbeat, then looked at Escobedo.

  “You still with me, Private Escobedo?”

  “Yes, Master Sergeant.” She sounded a little shaky and seemed to be having trouble focusing, but she kept it together.

  “Good. Because we’ve got some work to do.” Sage slapped her on the shoulder, causing her to reset herself, making sure she was reacting, not frozen up. “Let’s move.”

  Breaking cover, Sage ran for the main house. Escobedo sprinted behind him, covering his six.

  “Kiwanuka.” Sage swiveled the Roley and blasted a Zukimther who spotted him and swung his weapon toward him. The depleted uranium staggered the merc back, leaving him open to a trio of gel-grenades that plastered his chest.

  “I have your six,” Kiwanuka replied calmly.

  An overlay of her screen tinted Sage’s faceshield, letting him see what she was seeing, which was a Zukimther taking cover behind a building out of sight to the left. The merc stepped forward, intending to blast Sage when he came into view.

  “You have an active tango at your twenty,” she stated.

  As the Zukimther covered with gel-grenades exploded, the other merc staggered to the side and blood trickled from a hole in his temple where Kiwanuka’s sabot round had entered. Before the Zukimther could instinctively cover his wound with a hand, the delayed charge exploded within his skull and caused him to lurch.

  Coming up on the falling dead merc, Sage pushed a hand on the toppling corpse and vaulted across while Escobedo ran out wide around it. Sage threw himself forward and gained ground while the powersuits attracted most of the Zukimther attention.

  The enemy cannons fired again, and this time the payloads took out the wall where Kiwanuka held her position. Sage didn’t know if she’d gotten away or not and he had to resist the temptation to go back for the sergeant.

  She’s a professional. She knows what she’s doing. You’ve got green soldiers out here who need your attention more. Sage focused on the building.

  Ekonomou fired another three missiles. More anti-aircraft fire took out two of them, but the third missile got through. The projectile smashed into the third floor, penetrated the wall, and filled the room with an explosion that leaked flames out all of the windows.

  Before Ekonomou had a chance to set himself again, the 100mm cannons fired twin rounds that punched through the polycarbonate armor and tore the powersuit to pieces. The armor died instantly and all of Ekonomou’s readings went off-line with it. Sage didn’t know if the man was alive or dead.

  Focus, Sage told himself.

  Around him, 20mm cannon fire dug divots in the ground and slammed into fractured plascrete. He concentrated on the doorway ahead and knew the Zukimther might have planted anti-personnel mines there because it was something he would have done if he’d held the position.

  And there was the fact that none of the Zukimther mercs had tried entering the building once they’d charged out to meet the attack. Something kept them from seeking cover there.

  Sage brought the Roley to his shoulder and put two gel-grenades on the door, then plopped two through the doorway. The explosions widened the doorway and lit up the room briefly before triggering more explosions from the charges set within.

  Without hesitating, Sage entered the burning opening, leaped up the steps leading to the entrance in two long bounds, sprinted to the door, and took cover. As soon as Escobedo joined him on the cracked wraparound stone porch, Sage lowered the Roley into position and whirled around the door.

  When he stared into the flames, his HUD automatically shifted into thermographic. The vision filtered details better when fire clung to the walls than the low-light capability. One dead and one dazed Zukimther lay sprawled on the floor amid shattered pieces of worn furniture.

  Sage moved into the room and dropped down into a semi-crouch with the Roley leveled and ready. Escobedo was at his heels and selected a covering field of fire three steps to his right.

  Some of the Zukimther gunners outside in the bazaar spotted Sage in the building and hammered the area with rifle fire. The 20mm rounds chopped into the building and destroyed what wasn’t already broken. The rounds ricocheted from Sage’s armor, which was taking a beating, already flashing red in several areas on his HUD report suite as his protection grew steadily weaker. Then the Zukimther barrage thinned out as t
he Terran military troops reorganized and turned up the heat under Murad’s orders.

  Sage grinned mirthlessly. The lieutenant was developing quickly, figuring out survival was aided by enemy units dying as fast as possible. Combat did that to a soldier as long as it didn’t get him killed.

  Moving quickly, Sage pushed through the debris and bodies till he reached a plascrete stairwell that led up to the next floor. Keeping the rifle at the ready, following the sights of his weapon, he spotted a Zukimther ahead and above him.

  Firing the Roley one-handed, Sage ran up the steps, knowing he couldn’t blast the man out of his path. Bullets ricocheted from his opponent’s thick skin and kept him off balance. Too close to use the gel-grenades, Sage allowed the Roley to hang from its shoulder sling while he drew the Smith and Wesson .500 Magnum from his hip. Leveling the pistol only centimeters from the merc’s left eye, Sage pulled the trigger as his opponent tried to dodge.

  The large caliber round tore through the soft tissue and had the same effect as the snipers’ sabot rounds, evacuating his combatant’s skull. As the Zukimther sagged, Sage grabbed the big merc with his free hand and yanked him toward the edge of the stairs. The stairway railing held for just a moment under the Zukimther’s weight, then tore free and dropped the corpse to the floor below.

  Sage holstered the Magnum and brought up the Roley again. Two more stories up, the cannons belched flames and death again, filling the hallway with light from the room where they were located. The overlay on Sage’s HUD revealed a cluster of soldiers flying backward from the detonations in the bazaar.

  Immediately, injuries queued up on his faceshield. He dismissed them because ending the threat would save more lives than dealing with the fallout at the moment. He rushed up the stairs leading to the third floor, getting the most from the suit’s augmented strength and speed.

  Just as he turned onto the next narrow set of steps, an explosion ripped into the wall where he’d just been. Caught by the concussive wave from the blast, Escobedo slammed back against the wall behind her and dropped under the remnants.