“Wood.” Nikita opened a private channel to the former member of the Canadian Joint Task Force 2.

  “Go.”

  “Jam all communications in the area except ours.” Nikita ordered.

  “On it.” Wood replied.

  If Nikita’s suspicions were right, there was no rescue coming for the Coalition infantry, but he wanted to make sure that they were unable to communicate with the ships in orbit. There was always the slightest chance that they were still able to bombard the surface, and he knew that his armour couldn’t withstand hits from ships in orbit.

  Inside his helmet, Nikita was smiling. It was good to be back on Earth, and now that their primary mission of taking out the tower was complete, it was time to go hunting. Looking to his left and right, he briefly took in the green jungle-covered hills that rose above the valley they were in before stepping onto the dirt track that ran the length of the village.

  Nikita toggled his team-wide comm channel.

  “Engage the enemy at will.”

  Nikita wasn’t sure who fired first, but as soon as he had given the word, laser fire erupted from the north side of the road where Visser’s team was moving. Seconds later, more weapons fire came from the south flank where Evans and his team were in an elevated position to fire down into the village.

  “My team, file on me, increasing pace.”

  Nikita didn’t want to be the last one to the party and increased his pace to a light jog. Moving down the dirt trail that was the main thoroughfare for the village, Nikita kept his weapon up and ready to engage the first hostile he came across.

  Turning left, Nikita reached an opening. A space in the middle of the village that looked like it had been used as a sports pitch. Now it was covered in the dead bodies of the locals. Most looked as if they had been killed by energy weapons, others appeared to have been killed by bladed weapons.

  “No prisoners.” Nikita said over the net and increased his pace.

  65-Gold Team

  “Ca va?”

  “No.” Jensen replied, his blast shield flipped up. “I am not, ca va!” He shook his head. The shore was almost pitch black. It was just after two in the morning, and his operators were standing in their armour, still dripping from the water of the south Indian Ocean. Trying to calm himself, Jensen looked at the French scientist that had emerged from the dozen or so buildings that made up the La Roche Godon research station. “We’re fine.”

  “Bon.” The male in his 60’s responded. “Then you will be going up the hill to see our visitors?” He said in a thick French accent.

  Jensen looked up towards the highest point on the island where an eerie blue light was beaming towards the sky.

  “I’m going up there to kill whatever is there.” He said.

  “Tres bon.” The scientist responded.

  Jensen leaned his head back and took a deep breath. “Has anyone been up that hill?”

  “Oui. Two of our colleagues went up there the morning after it arrived. They never came back down.” The male replied.

  Jensen nodded and looked past the warmly dressed Frenchman at the group of almost two-dozen men and women who had gathered near the water's edge to see the Terran Strike Group members after they emerged from the sea.

  “Is the rest of your team here?” Jensen asked.

  “Oui.”

  “Fine.” Jensen turned around and looked at his team. “The gun platform and whatever else is at the top of that hill tracked our landing. De Vries, I want you to stay here with McDonald, Wilson and Teller and prepare to make a diversionary assault towards the enemy position. Everyone else is coming with me. We’re going to haul ass down the coast, then turn ninety-degrees and attack the enemy once De Vries’s team has got them distracted.” He looked at his Dutch second in command, a former member of the Korps Commandotroepen. “I expect you to draw hell in your direction, give us a chance to make our assault.”

  De Vries nodded. “Not a lot of concealment up there.”

  Jensen looked up towards the blue light, then back to the Dutchman. “I know. Make sure there is enough spacing between your team when you move out. I’ll give you the green-light once we’re in position.” Jensen said, locking eyes with De Vries. “Give them everything you’ve got, and once you’ve opened up, we’ll move in for the kill.”

  De Vries took a step back. “McDonald, Wilson, Teller, on me!”

  Instantly the two English SAS operators and the US Navy SEAL moved off from where they were standing and moved to De Vries.

  “Au revoir.” Jensen said to the French scientist. “Let’s go, Gold Team.” He turned sharply and started moving southwards along the coast, flipping down his blast shield immediately.

  There wasn’t much in the way of illumination from the moon, but his helmets advanced optics gave him a crystal clear image of the terrain that he raced over. His combat armour and physiological enhancements allowed him to run comfortably at high speeds over the ground that was covered in light foliage. Any plant life more prominent than that was simply charged through.

  The eleven operators of Gold Team that were headed south in a file had a simple mission in mind: destroy the tower on the island. There was no concern about the costs.

  It didn’t take long for Jensen and his team to get into position. Once they were set, the order was given for De Vries’s team to slowly make there way up the gentle slope towards the top of the island.

  This was the most dangerous time for everyone. If the gun platform on the top of the island was good enough, it could kill the support team before the assault team could get in close enough for the kill. That was a worry in the back of Jensen’s mind, but there was nothing to be done about it now. He needed to steel his mind to the task at hand.

  Scrolling through his commanders heads-up-display, he selected De Vries’s helmet cam and watched the footage. De Vries had the supporting element low crawling towards the top of the hill. Maintaining a low profile until they were able to get into firing position of the enemy. It was a good plan, and if they were lucky, the gun platform was only able to engage targets on or above the horizon.

  “Contact!” McDonald screamed over the net.

  The gun platform had seen the support team and engaged them. No time to think; must assault the hill.

  “Go!” Jensen shouted.

  The way he figured it, it was at most three kilometres to the top of the island and the target that they needed to destroy. How soon they would come into contact with the gun platform, he wasn’t sure, all he could do was pump his legs furiously inside his combat armour, and ready himself for what awaited him at the top of the island.

  66-Support Team

  Captain Zhou Lee was lying on his back. His heart rate was slowed, and his breathing was shallow. He should have been dead, but his armour was doing everything it could to keep him alive and get him back in the fight.

  “Shift right!”

  Zhou wasn’t sure who it was. He was zonked.

  “Shift fucking right!”

  There was constant gun-fire in the background.

  Even though he was drowsy, Zhou remembered everything. He had tried to move in a stealth-like manner up the ravine towards the objective, but there was more than just a gun-battery protecting the site. There was a Sentinel.

  At first, he wasn’t sure what they were up against, the machine’s first shots made him duck into the short grass, but what he didn’t realise at the time was that the robot was using that time to move to engage other elements of his team.

  It was a lesson Kol Fine and Z7 never had really taught them. He didn’t know why. Maybe the real lesson would have been too demoralising to acknowledge that they couldn’t handle a Sentinel, which meant what they had learned on Jax Ar 2R didn’t prepare them for combat against a killer robot.

  They had all seen some of the footage that Colonel Hunt had supplied from the Sentinel Commander’s combat tape from Lasqueti Island, but when they watched it, no one could believe he was actually moving that fast. Even with all the enhancements that he had received on Jax, Zhou wasn’t ready or capable of dealing with a combat robot on its game.

  “Lee!”

  “Lee!”

  He wasn’t sure who was trying to communicate with him. His HUD was smashed, and he wasn’t getting information on his team's status. Mustering his strength, Zhou rolled himself onto his stomach and looked up the hill towards the tower that was clearly visible on the islands highest point. Even though his vision was slightly blurred, he could see two of his operators laying still face down in the grass just ten metres away. They weren’t moving.

  Bringing his left hand up, Zhou pushed himself slowly off the ground. He wasn’t sure how much work he was doing and how much the armour was doing it for him.

  The gunfire had drifted off to his right, which could mean several things, but he hoped that whoever was left in his team was drawing the machine away from the tower, either way, this might be the opening he needed to accomplish his mission.

  Looking down at his rifle, he confirmed that it was out of action, then pulled his pistol from his holster. Bringing the weapon up, he looked up to the top of the hill and started limping towards the summit.

  Without his HUD, Zhou didn’t have any of the gear that would have aided him in guiding him towards his objective while avoiding pitfalls. It didn’t matter. He was just metres from the top of the hill, the highest point on Alejandro Selkirk Island.

  With his face-shield gone, there was a gentle breeze on Zhou’s face as he took one step one at a time. Sweat was running down his face, and while he couldn’t feel pain, he knew he was in bad shape. The front of his armour was scorched, and while he wasn’t sure what was wrong with him, he knew that it wasn’t good.

  The crackle of gunfire continued to his right. It meant at least one of the members of his team was still alive, and if they were alive, they might just give him the chance to accomplish the mission.

  Walking up the side of the ridge, Zhou kept his eyes locked to his front. The short, rough grass offered little to the imagination of what lay ahead. Zhou knew that there was at least an anti-air battery at the top of the island next to the tower, but he wasn’t sure what other enemy forces could be at the top. He knew he wasn’t in any shape for a fight.

  With each step, Zhou could hear the sound of the fight move to his right, which put the Coalition Sentinel on the far side of the next ridgeline over. He might have been out of the line of sight of the enemy, but he was well aware that a machine like that could cover the distance in a heartbeat and be on him without notice.

  Reaching the end of the ravine, Zhou dropped to his stomach, and started crawling forward ever so slightly until he was able to see the top of the island, and there it was, the target that he was going to destroy, and a single air defence unit, which appeared to be continually scanning the sky for more threats.

  Rising to his feet, Zhou stumbled at first, then regained his footing. He was seventy metres from the Nexus Drive when the air defence unit swung in his direction. He had been detected, but the systems guns weren’t able to lower to a point where they could engage him.

  A smile came across Zhou’s face as he continued his uneven walk towards the tower. He was going to make it.

  Then out of the corner of his eye, he spotted it: the Sentinel. It was painted in red, and it was rushing up towards the top of the island. It looked heavily damaged, and without visible weapons, but it was moving fast.

  Zhou tried to increase his pace, but his legs weren’t working well. He had his demolitions pack ready, but he needed to place it on the tower, not near the tower.

  It was a race to see who was going to get where first. Zhou to the tower, or the Sentinel to Zhou.

  Captain Zhou Lee tried to keep his focus on the prize, but his fears betrayed him, and he couldn’t help but glance towards the ten-foot tall war machine that was sprinting towards him.

  Fifty metres.

  Thirty metres.

  The Sentinel was covering ground at an unbelievable rate, and Zhou was still twenty metres from the tower.

  Ten metres.

  Zhou could almost feel the heat from the machines reactor as it closed in to make the kill. At the last second, he glanced towards the tower, and with all his might, he lunged towards the base of the tower, hoping to land his explosives satchel close enough to destroy the structure, but his dive landed him five metres from where he needed to be.

  Hitting the rough, short grass of Alejandro Selkirk island face first, Zhou closed his eyes. He had failed.

  He waited for the Sentinel to finish its business, but instead, he heard a mighty crash. Two metallic objects colliding with each other at high speed.

  Looking up, Zhou looked towards the tower and spotted that the Sentinel had taken a nosedive into the base of the structure.

  “Wunderbar!” A voice yelled in German.

  “Shén me?” He shouted out loud in Mandarin.

  “Gut?” The voice replied.

  Zhou looked to his right and standing there was Steven Mack, his rifle resting on his hip, his blast shield flipped up, and a smile on his face.

  “Hello, Sir.” The German said in English.

  Zhou left out a breath and buried his face back in the grass. Extending his left hand, he waited for Mack to take the demo kit, then pressed himself off the ground. Using what was left of his strength, Zhou rose to his feet and walked over to the base of the tower where the Sentinel was lying immobile, and inspected the blast Steven had made at the rear of the machines head.

  “Nice shot.” Zhou said.

  “Danke.” Mack replied. The native of Munich was the only non-military member of the Terran Strike Group, formerly having served with GSG9.

  “Set the charges.” Zhou ordered. He needed to focus on keeping himself upright. His injuries were starting to take their toll on him.

  “No point. The Global Energy Field is down.” Mack answered. “Just got the message from command. We were too late.”

  “Wo cao.” Zhou’s eyes closed. “I’m feeling a little.” He fell backwards, hitting the ground with a thud, unconscious.

  “Verdammt.”

  67-Sentinel Commander

  The Sentinel Commander’s internal altimeter was counting down rapidly. The impact was just minutes away as the cruiser he had disabled continued to fall from thirty thousand feet. On its current path, he projected that the ship would crash into Salina Kansas. That gave him much to think about, his Advanced Sinus Six Tactical Command Computer was running possible permutations on what would happen once the ship hit the ground.

  There was no telling how many members of the ship's crew would survive the crash, along with possible fighting bots and other droids. He knew that he could have a fight on his hands once he hit the surface. There was also the slim chance that the survivors of the wreckage would not put up resistance. Regardless of what happened when the ship hit the ground, including possible damage to himself, the SC was preparing himself for any possible outcome.

  Looking ahead of the ship, he could see the town of Salina grow larger. The town of almost fifty thousand people was in for the shock of the week, other than the colossal space battle above the planet’s surface. Anyone on Earth in the last ten months had gone through enough surprises and revelations to last a lifetime, but the looming reality that an alien spacecraft was about to crash into their town was going to be a highlight.

  Looking to the rear of the ship, the SC gave thought to those that were engaging Coalition forces at the Barrier Generator and wondered if he could have assisted there. Then he thought about his friend Joe Hunt. They had been separated for some time, and he, even a machine, was missing the simpler times when he would see his friend daily.

  One-thousand metres.

  The alert came through to his neural net, and he immediately scanned towards the front of the ship. The nose was pointed directly at the campus of Central High School. As the cruiser passed over Interstate 70, the Sentinel Commander knelt and took hold of a part of the ships hull. It wasn’t much, but it was the only thing to grab onto where he was standing.

  By the time the ship crossed over the Salina Country Club, the SC was less focused on the grey coloured skies above and trying to run all the calculations possible to prepare himself for the landing. The crash landing.

  Flying over the densely packed residential area leading to the school, the panicked residents could do nothing more than looking skywards with their mouths ajar. They had feared that the war would come to their town one day, and on the day of the attack to liberate Earth, disaster was unfolding above the town.

  The ship crossed over East Crawford Street at an altitude of not more than fifty feet. The nose of the ship heading straight towards the Salina Central High’s tennis courts, finally ploughing its nose into the tennis court next to the parking lot before crashing into the two-story red brick school with devastating effect.

  Debris was thrown into the air from the impact on the tennis court and the parking lot while the northern section of the high school was completely destroyed by the massive three-hundred metre long spacecraft.

  When the nose of the ship struck the ground, the SC re-evaluated his options, and sprinted towards the side of the vessel, jumping clear. He sailed through the air for twenty metres before landing in one of the undisturbed tennis courts. His heavy feet smashing up the court where they touched down.

  Instinctively, the robot went into a combat roll, taking out the net and wrecking the court. Springing up, the SC turned around and brought his large laser rifle up to the ready position. Watching the ship come to a smouldering halt, the SC righted himself and contacted the Epsilon.

  “Ranix here.”

  “Ship Master, I have landed.” The SC reported. “Will now secure Coalition prisoners.”

  “Understood. We are at the Global Energy Field site.” Ranix replied. “Will be to your position shortly.” The channel was cut.

 

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