The Lost Aria (Earth Song Book 3) Read online

  "You fucking moron," she hissed, "you stupid testosterone soaked stubborn man."

  "Don't indict all men just because of him," Gregg pleaded. She could see the pilot nodding in agreement, but she could also see them both smiling.

  "I'll think about it. Var'at, you there?"

  "Ready to go," hissed the Rasa from his own, more capable combat transports. When the lizard and his force surrendered and were later taken in by the forgiving Chosen, they'd had dozens of their own transports. It only made sense for Minu to let them keep the machines. Besides, the interiors were scaled to their own more modest builds.

  "Begin your bombing run," she commanded.

  "As you order. It is good to work in our profession again. We are not farmers!"

  A dozen of the more advanced and heavily armored Rasa transports broke formation with Minu's wing and screamed away in wings of two craft each. They covered the distance to the Spire in a minute, hugging the side of the spire and looping around just under the speed of sound. And in a flash they descended on the Tanam massing there. The enemy was intent on their breakout from under the guns of the Beezer and Chosen and didn't notice the new combatants entering the scene until they were on top of them. Chosen and Beezer looked up in surprise as the Rasa transports raced over their position and dropped a line of glittering canisters around the base of the Portal spire. The Tanam dove for cover as the projectiles began falling among them; even massively powerful battle suites avoided the attack as quickly as they could. Incredible war machines the combat suites might be, with their armor, life support, and weaponry but a bomb could destroy them. Still, Minu wished her soldiers had similar tech. The ECM module alone would be beyond Ted's capability at the moment. Once again, she grieved Pip's loss.

  The bombs didn't explode. They were covered with razor sharp spikes that slammed into and stuck against whatever they hit, be it moliplas, dualloy, or ceramic concrete. Feline faces rose from protection to blink in confusion at the spiny cylinders, just as they burst and unleashed a swarm of bots. Minu had all but emptied the bot stores at Fort Jovich before deploying, and Logistics wouldn't be happy. She knew this was a make or break mission for the soldiers, and maybe humanity. If the cats took Serengeti, it was only a matter of time before Herdhome fell. The soldiers weren't ready for a battle of that magnitude. Bellatrix would be defenseless. What happened to a client species when their protectors fell was a gray area. She didn't want to be living under the whiskers of the Tanam while it was all hashed out.

  The myriad of bots attacked the Tanam and their equipment in earnest. Crab bots used pincers to snap weapons and bone with equal ease while turtle bots brought lasers and beamcasters to bear. Much rarer and many times more expensive dragonfly bots zipped among the Tanam using deadly miniature energy weapons to blind, maim, and kill. The Tanam breakout fell into momentary disarray.

  "Christian, come in," Minu called over the radio.

  "What the hell are you doing?"

  "Attacking," she said deadpan. "I would think that is all but obvious."

  "We had the situation-"

  "Completely fucked up," she finished for him. Gregg snorted and covered his face. "Yes, I can see how under control it was. I'm sending you coordinates; get the hell out of there. That defensive installation is going to fall in five minute-" Minu stared at the dead screen in stunned silence.

  "He severed the connection," Gregg told her.

  "Stubborn son of a bitch," she snarled.

  "Oh, you two were made for each other."

  The Tanam followed procedures in dealing with a bot attack and threw out canisters of their own bots to fight the enemy machines. Their canisters popped and scattered arrays of more modern and more deadly bots, which stood there and did nothing. Minu knew their operators would be panicking now, trying to understand what was happening. "So predictable," she said, "and they still haven't figured out what we're doing to their bots."

  "Why would they?" Gregg asked. "You don't mess with the bots; you just send them to fight. Isn't that what the Concordia book says?"

  "Yep," Minu agreed, "but still, sooner or later they'll figure the PUFF out and come up with a way of countering it."

  "Then we'll come up with something new again," Gregg said confidently. Minu wished she shared his confidence. Ted and his crew improved the PUFF so it only affected enemy bots. But with the inventor of so much of their advantage lying in a coma, it seemed their ability to invent new tricks was severely diminished.

  "Order the four Achilles transports into the air." Gregg spoke into his mike and Minu saw them leave the warehouses. Through the virtual battlefield she watched the Tanam battle the thousands of bots with hand to hand weapons and their claws. Battle suite wearing warriors seized bots in their strength boosted arms and crushed them or smashed them on the ground by stomping powerful legs. "B Company and C Company, Green Army, Red Army, hit them from opposite sides." She indicated the locations on her computer and the information was forwarded. Transports broke formation and darted away. Unlike the bombers, these stayed low and wove through quickly deserted avenues around the Spire. In minutes they were landing to deploy hundreds of soldiers, both human and Rasa. The troops formed up and began moving forward even before they were all on the ground. Hundreds of hours spent doing grueling drills were paying dividends.

  "Get in as close as you can," she told them. The Tanam continued to fight the bots without realizing they were being encircled. When the soldiers were within two hundred meters she gave her order. "Attack!” And hundreds of weapons fired as one.

  Beamcasters, flechette and shock rifles spoke, mowing down hundreds of Tanam before they even realized what was happening. Caught flat footed, they tried to rally as the humans and Rasa rained down death on them. The human shock rifles bit through shields like they weren't there, and the Rasa used beamcasters to disable shields then finished off the unprotected soldiers with their deadly streams of flechette darts. The Tanam began to fall into disarray. Being caught between the marauding bots and the withering fire of the soldiers was like being fed feet first into a wood chipper. The Tanam finally organized enough to begin retreating back into the Portal Spire under unorganized cover fire, taking casualties at every step.

  “Push them,” she ordered the troops. At her words they broke cover and began to advance, marching in long lines and firing in volley. It was a rolling wave of high energy death. Minu observed the slaughter and swallowed, her mouth suddenly gone dry at the spectacle of death. The Tanam had no idea what to do with carnage of this magnitude.

  "Now it gets ugly," Minu said. "Achilles ready?"

  "Orbiting at one kilometer," Gregg confirmed.

  "Okay, send them in."

  "Company C command to CIC..."

  Minu flipped to the channel immediately. C Company commander didn't call unless something was wrong. "Minu, go."

  "The Chosen are abandoning their defensive positions."

  "About time, what is their angle of retreat?"

  "They aren't retreating," the man told her, "they're attacking the Spire."

  "No, damn it, no!" Minu roared and tried to reach Christian. Gregg looked over and shook his head. The channel was open but he wasn't responding. "Christian, don't go in there! They're massing for attack! We're going to hit them hard, you don't want to be in there!" Still no answer.

  Minu slammed her fist against the transport bulkhead in her fury. She knew Christian saw a momentary advantage and was going to try and decapitate the Tanam by finding and neutralizing their leader. Kick them while they're down, as one might say. The problem was they weren't down; she'd just managed to screw up the dance by smacking them in the face hard and fast. They were recoiling from a bloody nose, but not defeated. Their disarray wouldn't last. Unable to make room for the thousands more Tanam at their backs, they'd retreated to the relative safety of the Portal Spire. Minu spun her controls on the virtual battlefield until she found them. A dozen brave Chosen leading a few hundred foolhardy Beezer. Too la
te, they'd already reached the Portal Spire and were flooding in through an auxiliary freight entrance. "Christian, please, stop! I'm begging you?"

  "I just bet you are," he finally replied, a laugh in his voice. "Thanks for the opening, now I'm going to finish this."

  "You don't understand, there are thou-"

  "It's you who don't understand, Chosen can do things your scurrying soldiers can't. We don't use tricks, we use brains and speed. We're a scalpel, compared to that sledge hammer you've made. I'm going to end this with as little bloodletting as possible."

  "Christian, there are thousands of Tanam in there, you're going to get yourself and all those Beezer killed!" Only silence answered her. "You moron," she said quietly.

  "The Achilles are holding position," Gregg said. Minu was about to yell at him for not following her order, but then she just sighed. The virtual battle field followed the Chosen in to the spire then began to dissolve, but not before the first wave of Tanam began to descend on them.

  "We can't just let them die," she said, arguing with herself. "But he knows what he's doing. Damn it, why do men run around like crazed kloth in combat?"

  "Comes with the testicles." Minu gave Gregg a veiled look and he turned away.

  "Red Army, Green Army, Companies B and C, hold them in there. Pin the damn cats down and don't let them get a whisker out of that spire. Hold until relieved."

  "Done," Gregg said.

  "Company A, on me." she ordered and her own company peeled off towards the Spire.

  Chapter 14

  Octember 24th, 521 AE

  Portal Spire, Capital City, Serengeti, Beezer Leasehold

  It wasn't part of the plan, but since when did battles ever go as planned? Minu remembered something about a general on old Earth making a statement to that effect. The Tanam in the Portal Spire now knew beyond any reasonable doubt that they were surrounded and desperately wanted to break out. The feint against Amber had failed to distract the Humans long enough. Minu knew the Tanam must have spent hours pouring vast amounts of war materiel through the Portals. The inside of the Portal spire was probably as crowded as a Chelan bar at quitting time. Hundreds of troops with their transports and weapons to be used in the pacification of Serengeti were crammed into the building.

  The garrison of Beezer and a handful of Chosen scouts had believed they were successfully holding the cats inside the Spire. The reality was exactly the opposite. The Tanam commander was biding her time, just letting the humans feed on their own delusions. With a good sense of what little in true opposition she was facing, she knew she could easily break out and encircle the defenders and finish them off piecemeal. Minu's arrival with almost two thousand specially trained soldiers was tearing the carefully laid plan to pieces.

  "Can anyone tell where the scouts are inside the spire?" she asked over the command frequency. There was no answer. If they assaulted through the same entrance Christian used to penetrate the spire they were all but certain to meet the stiffest opposition. On the other hand, if they forced entrance elsewhere it could take a long time to find them, even if they were still alive. The Spire was average in size, only half a kilometer across at its circular base and four times that tall. Hundreds of landing pads circled its exterior to ease in the arrival and departure of traffic. The upper levels contained many offices of trading companies and were often only used for foot traffic. It was easier to move people up to the heights than it was cargo. The Tanam would be forced to use the lower levels to bring through and stage their war machines. Likewise it would be all but impossible to move any heavy equipment or transports up the rapidly thinning interior and exit through those openings. However that could work to Minu's advantage.

  "Establish a reinforced perimeter," she ordered her platoon commanders. "Up for a little special close in work?" she asked Var'at on a private channel.

  "Always," he hissed. She transmitted details and knew the alien would be smiling, in their open mouthed manner. It was risky and unplanned, exactly the sort of tactics that Minu employed to defeat the Rasa during their Vendetta. "We are with you, leader!" She heard the hissing cheer of other Rasa in Var'at's personal transport. Rasa were bred to battle and happy to be back at their trade after long months in exile. Minu felt relief that the question of the Rasa loyalty was now forever put to bed. She believed they might well fight to the last for her, something they had been unwilling to do for the leaders from their own species. But would they fight like that for any human commander? She wasn't so sure.

  "Take your best platoon and follow me as I break off," she told the Rasa commander.

  "You teach us, commander, and we will learn."

  "Come and we will learn together!"

  "Yes, I like that!"

  Minu tapped out orders on her tablet for the rest of Company A. "Cover the top of the Spire, no matter what the cost. If they break out, all is lost." The transport made almost a complete orbit around the spire as the soldiers deployed. Two kilometers below, weapons fire poured into and out of the Spire like a holiday fireworks display, beautiful and deadly lances of energy trading back and forth. Every second there was more fire lighting up the sky. Beamcasters and sporadic shock rifle blasts sought out the entrenched enemy Tanam while they fired back with withering volleys of beamcaster and hypervelocity accelerator guns. No signs of the heavier energy weapons, at least not yet. Her people would be keeping a sharp eye for the first sign of the heavy weapons and be ready at a moment’s notice to direct all fire at them. The Tanam would wait as long as possible out of fear of losing the guns.

  The city of Serengeti and the Spire was taking the worst of it. The pitched battle was tearing the city apart as effectively as a demolition company. Heavy beamcasters sliced and tore at the surrounding structures like wild animals. She could see a hundred in flames, and dozens collapsed already. Minu just hoped that those buildings had been evacuated before the worst of it started. Christian would have informed the city leaders of the coming battle. And in the midst of the swirling maelstrom her soldiers fought and died.

  The battle was as well in hand as it was going to get. Minu looked the situation over one last time, both out the window, and through her virtual battlefield, then spoke into her radio. “Ready Var'at?” she asked.

  “Always for you,” he replied.

  Minu tapped the driver on his shoulder. “According to the plan,” she told him.

  “Yes ma'am,” he said and she felt the transport change course towards the Portal Spire. It was hit almost immediately by a beamcaster. Minu could see the first warning light come on. Weapons fire seared the air all around them and the pilot began to maneuver radically.

  “Get me there, soldier,” she said.

  “I will,” he assured her and the transport danced like a fish.

  For a short time as they raced towards the Spire they flew unchallenged. Then at roughly the halfway point her transport was acquired again and they started taking fire. The pilot was not going to be taken so easily. He dodged his craft with dizzying turns and spins and pure instinctive flying.

  Then suddenly they came up against the Spire. The pilot spun them around and they moved along for a short distance before setting down to the fastest landing Minu had ever experienced. “The soldiers are yours,” she told Gregg as she leaped to her feet and raced for the door.

  “Don't be long,” he told her. She could see how badly he wanted to go with her.

  “Hold them, Gregg.”

  “We will,” he assured her, and a second later she was out the door with her personal squads.

  The change from the relative quiet of the transport to the horrendous roar of battle was stunning. Like all her soldiers Minu wore high tech ear plugs that compensated for dangerously loud sound spikes, but the base line noise was so loud it was almost like not wearing them at all. The pilot set them down on one of the small upper level landing pads, on the opposite side from where Christian made his ill-advised intrusion. Only a few meters below were hundreds of Tanam sold
iers all firing their weapons and themselves being shot at. The sounds of firing beamcasters, high powered accelerator guns, big brothers of those the Rasa carried, shields being hit and overloading with a screaming blast, and that of the building itself being torn to pieces was a serenade straight from hell. Minu understood for the first time the old statement of no atheists in foxholes.

  “Through here,” she called the squad leaders to follow her. Minu chose a maintenance entryway, the hatch sitting slightly ajar, possibly dislodged by a nearby weapons impact. “We need to get out of the fire line before we get tagged by friendly fire.”

  “Friendly fire, isn't!” intoned all of her squad as one making her smile grimly.

  The two squads made it safely to the hatch and quickly through to the interior of the Portal Spire. Before going inside Minu bumped up the power on her radio to maximum. If she lost eyes and her virtual battlefield, she'd lose her ability to command the army. The last man pulled the hatch closed, and they were inside.

  “Find us a jump tube,” she ordered her men. The interior was a maze of tunnels and crawl ways, little more than a maintenance area. Two men scurried off into the labyrinth. Less than a minute later they'd found something, but not what Minu hoped for. “You're kidding, right?”

  She'd wanted one of the hoverfield lifts common in elevated facilities. A small out of the way jump tube would go unnoticed by the Tanam who were momentarily fully occupied with the rampaging soldiers. Jump tubes used all kinds of sensors and safeties to be sure users were delivered to their destinations unharmed and at a safe speed. They'd found a dedicated light cargo lift, using the same hoverfield principals, minus the bells and whistles. “Damn,” said the senior squad sergeant, another man whistled. The hoverfield projectors were a couple meters across and hummed menacingly. They'd all ridden a jump tube; this was more like a moon rocket.