The Lost Aria (Earth Song Book 3) Read online

  All the displays went blank for a moment and when they came alive again it was understandable. Tog Concordia script was taught in the Keeper’s Academy where Minu attended school for ten years. The other Chosen learned as soon as they joined if they weren't already fluent. All the gun batteries’ systems were displayed with icons and status displays. She studied them with frenzied intensity. Main system on line, power on line, targeting on line, stabilization off line. “Tell them to get the damn stabilizers working,” she yelled over the whine of the machinery.

  “Company B to commander,” the voice in her radio spoke into Minu's ear. “We have engaged the tanks.”

  “Shit,” she spat, “out of time. Have them clear away!” she barked and activated the battery.

  Outside the main transport opened and the ten meter long tube of the weapons barrel was erected by robotic arms. It teetered dangerously without its supporting arms and Minu grit her teeth, hoping it held. On one monitor she watched as the crew, heedless of the danger, bravely continued to attach the stabilizers. Minu swallowed and did her part, ignoring them and bringing the weapon on line.

  In one eye she could see her two companies of soldiers fighting for their lives. They were raining down a steady stream of fire on the advancing tanks which seemed to take no notice of the attack. Even the Shock Rifles which passed straight through the shields lacked the punch to do more than explode small pieces of heavy armor. The tanks dual heavy beamcaster turrets spoke, turning one of their transports into a fireball, and ten soldiers flashed to KIA.

  “Hold on,” Minu told the soldiers. The gun battery status flashed to 'operational' with warning lights. She stabbed the screen, overriding the warnings, and the targeting screen came alive. One of the tanks was only two hundred meters away, just on the other side of a low hill. Tanam soldiers were also dug in over there, waiting for the tanks to do enough damage that the warriors could go in and mop up. She shook her head in disgust at the tactic. The tanks were ideal cover for advancing troops, to just lay low and wait was to leave them vulnerable. The target data scrolled across the screen, colored a blue green with another warning. “Friendly.” It advised her. “Thanks, but no thanks…” she mumbled, stabbed the override again, and fired.

  Energy weapons employed as artillery had some disadvantages, regardless of the raw devastating damage potential. Principal among their limitations were range, and indirect fire. Atmosphere made the energy beam attenuate rapidly and lose effectiveness. And since the beams couldn't bend, you couldn't fire over obstacles. The robotic holders of the weapon were capable of lifting the gun almost a hundred meters straight up, but Minu decided surprise was more important than maximum damage.

  The gun bucked as mega joules of energy were pumped into the particle accelerator, then towards the target. The blast tore into the low intervening hill, and through it. Rock and dirt were vaporized, exploding out the other side as the beam slammed into the back of a tank. Its shields flashed through the whole spectrum, but held. Minu snarled and fired again before the crew could react. This time the blast already had a hole to utilize and the entirety of the energy was transferred into the tank’s shields.

  Like all shields, they dumped incoming energy into the EPC until they couldn't hold any more. On both sides of the behemoth, plates exploded outwards, the shield EPC detonating like tiny, spectacular lightning storms. The spectacle was only visible for a split second though, because as soon as the shields failed, the beam sliced the tank in two and turned it into a fireball.

  When the tank exploded all hell broke loose in the enemy lines. The tanks responded by turning around to face the unexpected attack while the Tanam warriors abandoned their dug in position because they were now vulnerable to attack. In response the human soldiers charged at the flanks of the tanks.

  Minu targeted the battery again and quickly fired. This tank was close to the peak of the hill. The gun had less dirt to shoot though. The tank exploded, throwing debris high enough for her to see from the command truck. The soldiers working on her battery cheered. She picked another target just as the first tank came into view over the hill. At only a couple dozen meters, the blast took out the shield, cleaved the tank, and kept going high into the chilly sky.

  A pair of heavy beamcaster bolts slammed into the batteries’ own shields, turning them crimson and setting off yowling alarms. Minu yelped and slapped the 'counter battery fire' control. The robotic arms spun the weapon and it fired automatically. The tank that had fired on her met the same fate as the previous three. Then her men screamed and dove for cover as the entire gun battery recoiled sideways, and toppled over with a ponderous crash.

  “Clear out!” Minu yelled and abandoned the command truck at a dead run. A second later the final two tanks cleared the hills and combined fire on the battery. When it exploded she was no more than twenty meters away. The shock wave lifted her off her feet and tossed her to the ground, and into unconsciousness.

  “Come back to us, boss.” Minu heard the familiar voice and struggled out of the darkness. Gregg and her personal squad were all looking down at her in concern. “You okay?”

  “Do I look okay?” she croaked and sat up. Nothing seemed to be damaged so she continued to her feet. She taped the tablet at her belt but the eyepiece remained transparent. When she looked down there was a five centimeter long fragment of heavy beamcaster battery sticking from the computer. “Oh,” she said.

  “Here's a backup,” her squad sergeant said and handed her a new tablet. In seconds she linked it with the eyepiece, logged into their portable network, and was in command once more. The first thing she did was check for active enemy units. There weren't any.

  “We mopped them up,” Gregg told her. “Right after our battery blew up, Second and Third platoons got the other two heavy beamcaster batteries running and took out the last two tanks. Our guys were chewing up their soldiers and the Beezer finally came out of hiding and neutralized the other three heavy turrets. They surrendered a few minutes later.

  Minu continued to use the eyepiece to confirm the field was clear of combatants, eventually nodding and heaving a sigh. They had won, but twenty-four soldiers were dead, with ten more out of action. Two transports were also destroyed. It wasn't a small butcher’s bill, but the Tanam paid a higher price. Forty dead Tanam warriors, a dozen wounded, and thirty-one captured. Add to that five intact heavy beamcaster batteries that now belonged to the humans, and it wasn't a bad day.

  The Beezer commander appeared a short time later, a huge three meter long ballistic weapon cradled in its arms like a toy, combat armor from head to hoof and gold trim along the helmet rim. “We are grateful for your assistance,” he huffed and grumbled like an earthquake, “but we must leave quickly.”

  “What is wrong?”

  “Serengeti is under attack, and we must return home.”

  “We'll have the Chosen scouts hold the garrison here and go with you.”

  The Beezer cocked its massive head as the translation came through. “Your Chosen are already on Serengeti, they left as soon as the outcome of the battle here was no longer in doubt.”

  Chapter 13

  Octember 24th, 521 AE

  Capital City, Serengeti, Beezer Leasehold

  It was years since Minu last set foot on Serengeti; not that it wasn't a great world, if you liked endless plains of grass and brutal heat with humidity to match. She'd been there many times in her early day as a Chosen still in training, but never since. The Beezer's leasehold of Serengeti was a hundred thousand years old. It was an unremarkable world, not really suited for large scale agriculture despite the endless plains. There was little available water, the majority either in small streams and lakes or in the air. It also lacked a large skilled population for industry. But it was a Class A environment, sporting one large city of five million, and was home to a species vital to the Tog's survival. For as long as they held the leasehold, the Beezer were the Togs defenders and muscle. Few would challenge one of the massive grazers, u
nless you knew their true nature. The problem was over the last few centuries the secret was out; the Beezer were all horn, and no fury.

  Minu's transport slid through the Portal and jogged sideways, shields coming on and soldiers ready to jump out. Nothing happened and the rest of the transports came through one after another.

  "Using the transportation hub Portal was inspired," Gregg said. Minu gave him an annoyed look and he laughed.

  "It made sense that they would ignore these Portals," Minu said. "Big boys don't come in through the back door." The Concordia rules of warfare again, she thought. She'd learned this from the Rasa, attack the weak points.

  "No, just loser clients like us." She grunted and nodded. As her forces rolled through the Portal her tablets were already linking with the local network. She supplied the pass codes, given by P’ing an hour ago, and they were linked into the city’s defensive computer grid. In moments a virtual battlefield came alive on her display providing a rich textured image of the land around the terminal. Minu donned her headset and linked it with the tablet. She knew she might not be able to sit comfortably in the transport for much longer.

  "Try and establish a link with Christian," she ordered.

  "Here so soon?" was the first thing he asked.

  "Might have been nice if you’d told me you were bugging out," she said in her coldest, most level voice, "now we're here."

  The connection was quiet for almost a minute. Minu knew he was weighing the situation, like any good scout. He might be riding an ego trip, but the job came first. As she waited, the radio link with Christian started relaying data from his team. More maps became available to her. The virtual battlefield expanded by leaps and bounds. Christian commanded twenty scouts in the central defensive complex next to the capital’s Portal Spire. They along with about a thousand Beezer soldiers, had the Tanam pinned down inside the spire and were taking only sporadic fire. After all the reading she’d done, Minu knew what was going on in moments. The cats were preparing to execute a textbook breakout maneuver, right out of the Concordia play book.

  "Hold your position, we have this under control," he said finally. “We'll call if we need you.”

  "Your back is against a wall," she said, "you launched an attack half an hour ago."

  "They can't make a move without getting their asses shot." Minu started to tell him just how much trouble he was in but he cut her off, yelling over her. "God damn it Minu, you're here under orders to assist me, and that means waiting until I call for you." She considered telling him what an idiot he was being, trying to explain to him that when the cats broke out, they’d envelop that five story defensive mini-fortress and chop them to pieces. But it wasn't worth the time. Time they just didn’t have. With a curse she cut the voice channel, keeping the data coming in to feed the virtual battlefield.

  "Orders boss?" Gregg sat behind her in the command transport waiting patiently. Of course he'd heard the exchange. Minu wondered if Gregg would take her orders over the First among the Chosen, then she chastised herself for thinking that. Of course he would, all her friends would. And she’d do the same for them.

  "There are hundreds of warehouses around this distribution Portal complex," she said and called up the maps. "Link back home and contact the fort, and here's what I want done.

  Minutes ticked rapidly by as Minu directed her soldiers in their frantic labors. There continued to be only sporadic combat around the distant Portal Spire, the tallest building on the planet and just five kilometers distant on the city’s skyline. She kept the virtual battlefield steady in one eye as she gave orders. Every time the eye piece flashed a warning of weapons fire, she stopped what she was doing and watched, praying that this wasn’t it. After each brief exchange wore down, she went back to work. "Every ten minutes or so," Gregg observed.

  "Just enough to keep our attention," Minu said.

  "You figure the cats are just buying time?"

  "Without a doubt. Standard Concordian military procedure when facing a dug in enemy is to deploy as much force as possible and break out with un-opposable numbers.” She used a hand on the tablet control at her belt, changing views on the virtual battlefield. The Portal Spire came into view soaring more than a kilometer above the tallest nearby building.

  Gregg turned to watch a trio of transports being frantically loaded before speaking. "The Beezer aren't going to like this."

  "They'll like it even less if we fail." Gregg just nodded but still looked concerned. "What I wouldn't give for some artillery.'

  "The Concordia don't really use it." He glanced back at her then at his wrist chronometer.

  "Well, they have huge high energy direct fire cannons, the closest thing to arty, I guess."

  “We roll the couple we took intact through this Portal and they’ll know it, right away.”

  “I know,” Minu grunted and continued to examine the maps, “that’s why they’re being moved back to Fort Jovich and not here. Did you ever confirm what I asked about a few minutes ago?”

  Gregg busied himself with a tablet, pretending to ignore her. She punched him in the back, hard. “Ow, damn it!”

  “Answer me.”

  “Yes, he's with Christian.” Minu looked down and signed. She'd expected it all along, but finding out Aaron was fighting a few kilometers away sent a jolt of unexpected fear into the pit of her stomach. “He was ordered to work with the unit because of his experience under you. He didn't do it because he wanted to.”

  “I never said he did, now get back to work.”

  “Yes, boss.”

  Minu turned to her tablet and tried to stop thinking of the powerfully built Aaron. Handsome Aaron. Aaron who always smiled when he saw her. There was so much more there, and she struggled not to allow it to dominate her mind. She needed all her faculties just now to concentrate on what she was trying to pull off.

  The lack of artillery was a fundamental shortfall in her ability to fight like a human army. “The projection of force beyond the curvature of the horizon,” was how it was referenced in old earth military manuals. The invention of long range artillery on Earth had fundamentally altered how wars were fought. In among the thousands of hours on Concordian military doctrine which Pip had helped Minu steal years ago, before he was critically injured, was a few minutes showing high energy cannons in use. The damage they could inflict was beyond description. Brought to bear against an unprotected city you could carve it up like a pie. Even in the many thousands of years in Concordian history they'd seldom been used except in the most deadly of wars. An enemy would usually surrender once defenses were battered down, or at the mere sight of a battery of high energy cannon being set up. It was the Concordia way. Better to give up and salvage something. To not acknowledge the inevitable when you are about to be overwhelmed was considered insane. If it wasn’t for the small primer, she’d have never been able to use the ones back on Amber against the Cats.

  She again turned to look at the distant Portal Tower. Gregg looked away from the dark expression on her face. Even a few dozen old howitzers would shake things up. She made some notes and turned back to the work at hand. The Portal was open again and one after another transport was sliding through. They were painted in the same green/brown scheme as her own, but each had a little red outstretched claw on the nose. Green army was arriving.

  "How much longer?' she asked him after a moment.

  "Six done two more to go, maybe an hour?"

  "Maybe?" He shrugged and she grumbled. "Where is Cherise when I need her?"

  "Probably drinking mead in Chelan," Gregg said and checked off something on his tablet.

  Weapons fire erupted at the Portal Spire. Minu spun her view in the virtual battlefield and watched. After a moment the intensity doubled, then quickly doubled again. "We're out of time," she said and ran for her transport. "Get the logistics people back through the Portal and mount up!"

  Her transport hummed to life and began lifting off as the last man was boarding and the door still clos
ing. "First and second company, on me!" she called and tapped the computer control. With her other hand she checked her gear to be sure it was ready. Shock rifle over one shoulder, light pack with extra equipment, miniature energy shield on her belt, its switch taped to the back on one hand. They'd trained in the use of the new shields, getting the hang of when to turn them on and off. They covered you out to a little more than half a meter. Turning them on prematurely could spend them against weapons fire that wasn’t going to hit you. You only activate them when you’re directly exposed, and in harm’s way. Once you’re hit, your training was to fall back behind someone else who was still shielded. And lastly was the dagger on her waist. An older design made from steel native to Bellatrix instead of dualloy. It dated from her trials and carried a heavy emotional meaning to her.

  Satisfied that her gear was in place she checked on deployment of her forces. Dozens of transports poured out of the factories around the remotely located Portal she'd been using. The Tanam weren't monitoring the area; one lone Portal out on the periphery of the city was of no concern. The Portal Spire held dozens of Portals, and the cats had been making use of them for hours. How many thousands, she wondered. Tens of thousands? Was this a smash and grab, or an army of occupation?

  As they cleared the warehouse complex and began approaching the Spire from a circular course, she could see the Tanam in full battle suites working to set up heavy weapons defensive points just outside the Spire, under cover of withering beamcaster fire. Christian, with only a few dozen Chosen and the overly cautious Beezer soldiers, fought furiously to stop them. The sectional shields on the structures protecting the Chosen and Beezer were failing in rapid order leaving the fighters unprotected. And still there was no call for help. He meant to fight to the death in spite of the help available only a few kilometers away. There was no way he could face the Tanam in those suites. Their battle suites were a smart suit of armor, the equivalent of an old Earth tank, with built in computer controlled weaponry and counter measures.