CHAPTER 1
Year: 575, Rise of Man
Day 1
2058Neutral District, Col
D1-6: STNDBY
What the fuck do you think we've been doing, sir? Hellick thought.
The blinking letters appeared as if they had been lasered intocrystal. Crisp and translucent, they gave off the faintest red hue alongtheir etched edges. The text box hung on the left side of his visor screen.The tactical overlays and data that normally filled the rest of his visorhad been filtered out for the moment.
He knew his bitterness had nothing to do with his lieutenant'sorders.
Sitting with his grenade launcher standing between his knees,Hellick Primus appeared calm. His hands were steady, folded on theweapon's butt, his Paw boots still on the armored flooring, and his headwas leaned back so that his helmet rested against a mounted ammunitioncan. Despite his outward tranquility, he was glad his helmet's tacticalvisor was down. His face was slick with sweat.
Hellick firmly reminded himself, An Axi NCO is a rock. I am aprofessional. I do not show emotion ...
After a moment, he added Don't let them see your nerves.
Hellick forced himself to do his pre-combat breathing exercises.Inhale. Hold. Hold. Exhale. He could feel his shoulders slump beneathhis tactical vest. He had not realized that they had been in a pinchingshrug since sitting down.
Hellick tried not to think about what was coming. He knew theimagination would create far worse scenarios than anything his peoplewere about to face. Worse though, he tried not to think of home. It wasan impossible dilemma. Here they sat, ready, feeling trapped in the backof an APC. For close to two hours, first and second squads had beenwaiting to execute what had taken over a year to prepare for. Intensehyper-simulations, the secret deployment, the month of waiting in awarehouse, hoping not to be discovered before this night ... leaving hisfamily.
Bellina.
He shook her from his mind. He could not afford to think abouthis wife, or his two sons. They were a painful distraction. Right now,he could only focus on this family and keeping them alive. Turninghis head to the right, Hellick looked down the line of ten troopers, allsuffering as he was in their own way. Right then, these were his onlychildren. In the next few moments, they would all be looking to Hellickto keep them alive, and he could not afford the drugging indulgence ofremembering his other family. For the time, Hellick had to forget them.He drowned out the last moments he had shared with them. He hid theirfaces as if they never existed. He buried them.
In the steady drone of the armored personnel carrier's idling engine,Hellick ignored Falx Primus Priori beside him, as he fidgeted with histactical kit.
I set the tempo for their emotions, he recited to himself, If I tip, theyfall. If they think I'm anxious, they'll wonder why, creating doubt; doubtturns to fear. Fear is the enemy.
Hellick sat across from Second Squad's NCO, Ruddic Primus, closeenough that their knees touched. Ruddic was also a veteran. Hellicksmiled to himself beneath his visorits subdued surface hiding hisexpression. Ruddic's doing the exact same thing. He's hiding any signsthat the waiting is digging at him.
Both the men knew that the greatest thing they could do for theirsquads, lined in tight rows beside them, was to appear calm, almostsedated. The stretching wait was hell. The squads were locked in aperpetual state of anticipation. The glowing standby command a gougingreminder that at any moment, the soft red letters could shift to green,and their wait would be over.
Choke me, he closed his eyes again, trying to steady his breathing, Iwould kill to be able to smoke. Fuck, I'd kill for just two puffs.
The visor blinked again: STNBY
2059
10 kilometers south of the Neutral District
173rd Legion's Command Post
From within his command trailer, Cipro "The Boar" Legion Commandersat forward in his command and control chair. A node sat on each ofhis temples, their haptic controls at his fingertips and set along hisscalp. His head was surrounded by a semi-circle of command screens,depicting everything from real time tactical maps to live weapon camfootage. Call out boxes displayed his units' strengths and statuses,allowing him to view each of his five regiments as a whole or dig fourlevels down to the squad level. Cipro could see everything: the planet'scities, his legion, the objectives for each phase, the enemy's positions,the ever stretching desert. Kurz, the silicon intelligence, managed thedata silently. The only indication that the program was active was a tinyicon at the edge of Cipro's vision. At this moment, Cipro was literallyan armchair general.
Behind him, his staff sat waiting in their own C2 chairs, watchingthe red timer that hovered above all their screens. The digital clockcounted down the seconds, racing toward zero. The room was silentexcept for the hum of the computers. The clock continued to race,numbers vanishing, evaporating into time. 0000.
2100 hours standard Col time.
Cipro returned to his operation displays. He closed his eyes andheld his breath.
This was the eve, the hour, the second of setting a new precedence.No army had ever conducted this type of operation on such a scale inmodern warfare. Over 12,000 troopers stood by, waiting to risk theirlives, on his order.
A grisly hiss crackled in both his ears. With a licking voice thatsounded like paper crumbling, it simply said, "Do it."
As Cipro Legion Commander turned to look behind him, the screensfrom his right node faded. A lean figure dressed in gray stood at the backof the room, partially cloaked in shadows, despite the trailer's completelighting. The Firefly stood, its arms by its side, head cocked to the right.An eyeless mask, seamlessly connected to its skin like clothing, staredback at Cipro. The blank sockets seared through him. With a shiver heturned to his left, to look at his superior, Nezertain Combined ForcesCommander. The senior officer only stared forward in his typical glare,his steel eyes betraying none of his thoughts.
Cipro deepened his voice, letting it carry the weight of the moment,then spoke aloud. He said, "Tyr." His voice was transmitted to everycommander that sat poised on the planet, every troop leader with a radio,every tactical battle monitor, every pilot, and every one of Kurz's clonedcells. The code word was the command for the invasion to commence.
Within seconds of one another, the blue dots on all of his mapsstirred to life. They flowed like an amoeba, consuming terrain, cities,and the red dots of the enemy in a blossoming explosion.
"May the gods watch over the lives of my troopers," Cipro murmuredto himself.
"The gods do not care about your war," Firefly 7 snarled frombehind him," They are busy preparing for their own."
When Cipro turned around, the Firefly was gone.
2100
Neutral District
Main City Intelligence Hub
The Neutral District's central processing intelligence, the coordinatingmind behind the city's transit, communications, water, power, sanitation,and every other daily function necessary for life on the planet, begansounding alarm claxons through every level of the monitoring station.Its human monitors scrambled to their interfaces, reacting to its multiplepleas for help. By the time they even realized what the threat was, theAxi silicon intelligence had already recoded the city's AI processor.
Seconds later, the grid fell. Technicians were locked from theirinterfaces and stood helpless as they watched their city succumb to theforeign processor. Power was reduced to key areas, and then all civiliancommunications were jammed. The Axi had technical control of thecity; now all that remained was the battle for physical control.
2101
Neutral District
Major General Sherman, the Col Defense Guard division commander,sat in the back of his luxury air-car, his tired back finding comfort inthe fat black leather seating. A cigar smoked in one hand while the mostrecent sports scores hovered above his node in the other.
"Fucking Sharks lost again," he grumbled to his driver.
"They'll never make—" his driver lost his voice as the air-carjerked suddenly and fell several meters from the air. There was a metal-on-metalthud, and the engine warning lights came on. The frontelectromagnetic drivers slowed and then the rear ones, but not at thesame time, so the floater kept tilting forward and then back until thefloater finally crunched down onto a rooftop, breaking several ventingfans and snapping its own rear differential drive.
The driver unbuckled his two shoulder straps and turned to see ifthe general was alright. Sherman saw him open his mouth, then therewas a cracking sound, the window spiderwebbed, and the side of thedriver's head exploded.
General Sherman's door was flung open. Lights mounted on theends of rifles stared at him as he dropped his node onto the red velvetfloor. Three iron-strong hands seized him by the shoulders, anothergrabbed the front of his uniform, and all at once, they yanked him outof the vehicle. His captors wore small dark helmets, beady night visiongoggles, and dark red bandanas over their noses and mouths. Roaringhover-bikes idled all along the rooftop. Sherman was shoved towardsone with a mounted sidecar and forced to get inside of it. The last thinghe remembered was a sharp pain at the back of his neck just before hepassed out.
2102
Northern District
Detromier Air Command
A neatly burned hole in the fence allowed the Commando pod to sliponto the airfield. Pre-planted shape charges on one of the fuel trucks andan ammunition dump covered their movement with chaos and fire. Abreach charge to the tower door gained them fast access to the elevatorand stairs. A few flights up, three shots fired, and they found themselveslooking at the entire airfield. The air force command held their arms inthe air above them, over the sights of the Axi Commandos' rifles. Thirty-oneaircraft seized. Forty-two pilots and copilots captured.
The report was radioed to Cipro's command post, "Airfield secured."
2103
Doors to warehouses within and surrounding the Neutral District werethrown open, some having been rigged to simply fall outward whentheir restraints were released. Engines roared as the first wave of the173rd's conventional mechanized forces rolled out.
The 11th Armor Regiment rushed to secure the northern perimeter,while the 12th Rifle Regiment moved to secure the southern. The 15thSupport and Command Regiment remained within their depots, readyto send supply convoys to the combat forces.
The 13th Rifle Regiment, pre-staged within the Neutral District spreadout to their objectives marked within the city's perimeter. Tall, box-shapedWolfe tanks charged two by two from yawning entranceways, crushingchain-link fences and pouring onto the avenues around the warehouses.Black armored jeeps rolled out, deep red and gray Commando bikes hoveringon their flanks. Lynx fighting vehicles mounted curbs and medians, smashingthrough parked civilian vehicles. The less armored Wildcat APCs traveled inspread formations behind the bulkier Lynx units. Infantry sat packed in theirrear cabins, peeking through firing ports at the city that slid past them. Bootspounded the pavement as detachments raced after the mounted vehicles, thegroups splintering from one another as they headed towards their objectives.Ultra heavy class infantry suits stomped in their giant bobbing gait untilthey were clear of the warehouse ceiling, and then fired their rear thrusters.Launching beside their smaller partners, the robotic Venator units, theylobbed into the air where they weaved around skyscrapers and rooftops.Outside the city, Hornet attack shuttles lifted from their pads in groups ofthree, moving to conduct sorties all around the city.
2102
Neutral District
Main Col Spaceport
Pre-planted Gheist Watch agents had already begun their phase of thetakeover. Dressed in plain khaki pants and black shirts, the agentstraveled with near impunity to their objectives. Small cells of three orfour agents acted swiftly, shutting down the outer perimeter's securityfence, then taking over the guard stations with silenced Wasp machinepistols. Most of the cells only needed to shoot one of the civilian guardsto cause the rest to surrender.
With the perimeter down, the Commandos were free to enter thetarmac. Twenty civilian off-road vehicles rushed through the open gateand charged across the massive airstrip. They darted through the crowdsof shuttles, planes, and large carrier floaters. Each vehicle had removed itssliding side doors so that the Commandos inside could aim their weaponsfrom both sides of the vehicle while traveling. When they reached theend of the northern tarmac, the cloud of vehicles split like a trident. Eachof the three prongs spearheaded towards the spaceport's main hub.
Inside, more Gheist Watch agents continued to take down securityhubs as well as capture the control towers and administration centers. Atelecommunications trooper dispatched bogus orders to the police squadsto get them out of their well protected "bunkers." The misinformationadded to the growing chaos, which prevented the local security unitsfrom organizing and sent them directly into waiting Commando pods.When a handful of unarmored police armed with pistols and one shotgunturned the corner and were suddenly facing automatic rifles, heavymachine guns, and grenade launchers, they quickly surrendered.
The cells swarmed the administrative center so quickly that onlytwo personnel had time to make emergency calls. Those calls failed asthe Axi SI had already shut down the grid. The airfield administrationhad their wrists bound with constricting wire and were then linkedtogether in a human chain with gag bags over their heads. The bagsblinded them and could be triggered by remote to release a chemical thatwould immediately induce vomiting. All four towers were taken withinminutes of one another, without a single shot being fired.
With the space control towers seized, there was no one to warn thepilots, crews, or passengers that the port had been taken over. Over thenext few hours, each craft would be given instructions, from what theybelieved was their regular space control, and then seized.
Hood EUC, Enhanced Units Commander, stood with his hands onhis hips and surveyed the port from the rooftop.
"Well," he said, and then turned to the Geist Watch operative besidehim, "That was easy."
The agent said nothing, as she continued to manipulate retinacontrolled node, guiding and directing her multiple cells throughoutthe spaceport.
"Riiiight," his said, his eyes narrowing after being ignored, "Finethen, have your people secure me a shuttle. I'm going to head south andlink up with one of my pods."
Hood left the rooftop, rallied Pod 47, and ordered them to load intothe rectangular civilian ship. As he was trotting down the tarmac, Hoodnoticed a group of captured civilians who had not been gag-bagged,specifically a thin, blonde woman.
Hood relieved her from the guards and escorted her, still cuffed, to hiswaiting ship. Once inside, Hood took her hands and looked admiringlyinto her green eyes. With a soft voice, just audible above the shuttle'sVTOL engines, he said, "I'm going to kill you, but not before doing,just ... unspeakable things to your body," and then he kissed her hand.
The craft's door slammed shut, drowning the woman's crying.The spaceport grew smaller behind them as the Gheist Watch agentsand remaining Commando pods prepared the spaceport for futureoperations. The entire port, spanning several city blocks, with thousandsof personnel and hundreds of security guards, had been taken withoutone Axi casualty. With the Neutral District Spaceport in Axi control,only two military ports remained unoccupied on Col.
2114
Neutral District
Two blocks from Col Defense Guard Headquarters (CDG HQ)
Drop Infantry Force Command
The Wildcat operator took a bump hard. Twenty-two troopers lifted fromtheir seats, then slapped back down. Shouts and curses from 1st and 2ndsquads filled the troop compartment. Hellick's visor was growing morecluttered. In addition to his text boxes, he could now see the Wildcat'scam and its overlays. They were following a trail marker left by a Lynxunit. Beside the screen was a map with a bird's eye view of the streetthey drove on. It only displayed a few meters in every direction of thevehicle, in an iconic format, rather than actual live feed.
Hellick's guts trembled, and he resisted moving a hand to hisstomach.
Glad I did my pre-combat dump, he thought as he watched StiekAdept, his squad's machine gunner, try and urinate from the Wildcat's"portal."
The portal was a compartment at the back of the Wildcat that heldthe defecation hose. Stiek struggled to keep hold of the grip above hishead, hold his penis with his other hand, and stay on his feet through thewild turns. Stiek's broad shoulders and heavy arms dwarfed his lowerbody. His legs were not scrawny, but their bulk was not in proportionto his upper body.
"Stiek, hurry up!" pleaded a trooper from second squad, "I gottashit! And it's not waiting on you!"
"Ah, choke on my dick!" he shouted, "I'm done when I'm done."
The vehicle took another bump. Stiek Adept staggered, pivoting toone side, his stream of urine hosing the trooper sitting to the left. Stieksprayed all over her shoulder, and then on her chest. The trooper did notknow what to do. She raised her arms and looked down at her uniformin shocked disgust.
Stiek quickly put his penis away and rushed back to his seat, "Uh,sorry Utima."
The stocky Falx was laughing so hard, Hellick could see his faceturning red.
D1-6: RDY
The "ready" command came from their detachment leader, BraddicLieutenant Priori, designated by his call sign Driven 1-6, or "D1-6" asit appeared in the visor. It had been sent to 1st Detachment's four squadleaders.
Hellick leaned forward, looked to his right, and shouted over thevehicle's engine, "First Squad: get it on!"
Ruddic Primus relayed the same order to 2nd squad. Both unitsobeyed, their troopers deploying their tactical visors with a press oftheir helmet's quick release button. With a soft snap, the visors slid overtheir faces, hiding their expressions behind a subdued screen of gray.The trooper's visors were narrower than those of the primus helmets,shaped like upside down trapezoids. The helmets were all-encompassing;the visors ran to the bottom of their chins. Hellick and Ruddic's visorswere wider to allow more data screens, and their helmets were bulkierto account for the computer upgrade. As leaders, the primus neededmore command, control, and communications.
