Chapter 013: Battle

The Genetic Wars were a series of military campaigns waged during the later part of the Golden Era of Mankind, today mostly overshadowed by the horrors of the War of Purity. During the Genetic Wars, forces of the Solar Commonwealth and soon-to-be Transhuman Alliance came under sudden assault of the so-called genetic warlords.

The source of the Genetic Wars was the Battle of Serenity-VIII, during which some Gene Artificers were misplaced. They resurfaced 18 years later when the Genetic Wars started. In the meantime, their new owners used them to create several genetic templates that wouldn’t receive an approval of the Solar Commonwealth's Commission of Genetic Ethics.

Resulting supersoldiers (either cloned or grew naturally) were then used by their creators to wage war against the Solar Commonwealth. In the era before the War of Purity and creation of the first Enhanced, their genetic improvements offered an overwhelming advantage over the regular soldiers of the Commonwealth. As a result, Solarian forces suffered several humiliating defeats. This, in turn, led to many pirates and political radicals joining the warlords.

What led to the downfall of the genetic warlords was both the industrial and numerical superiority of the Commonwealth and the perpetual lack of unity among the warlords. Each of them waged their own war. Their ranks varied between sadistic psychopaths like Reaver and idealists such as Purifier. Many warlords were seemingly waging the war for nothing else than the twisted sense of humor and search of attention, leading to actions such as warlords taking photos with defeated Commonwealth officers and then posting them on social media in hope of gaining fame.

After the defeats of Reaver and Purifier, the remaining warlords started losing steam. The Commonwealth’s reformed military began cornering them one after another. This process lasted until the Day of Sorrow and the beginning of the War of Purity. Once the scale of the transhuman betrayal became apparent, the last four active warlords joined the decimated remnants of the Commonwealth garrison of the Core’s Western Quarter in their attempt to slow down the transhuman march towards the Homeworld. The resulting Battle for Noricum-IV led to a complete extermination of allied forces, with the last supersoldiers of the Genetic Wars era wiped out by the forces of the Transhuman Alliance.

Encyclopedia Galactica

Book 7, page 167

***

Why does it have to keep happening to us?! Why?! Is it because of the Guide and that still unexplained ‘mission’ of mine?

“Another bot went dark.” Tendrik confirmed their worst fears. “I put the sites of the disappearances on the map of the Hastati. I think whoever is destroying them is drawing closer. We have maybe five minutes left.”

Christopher checked the commlink. Still in distance. Good enough.

+Ryan, are you there?+ After a few seconds, he got an answer.

+Yes. A soldier is looking over Nekia’s shoulder, we will not blow up anything essential, I promise.+ Good to know, but not important right now.

+We have company. Hostile company. They will be here in five minutes. Can you finish securing the side routes?+ He had to stand by for the answer for a while. A painfully long while in such circumstances.

+We should make it. But we’ll make temporary blockades rather than seaingl them completely.+ I don’t think we’ll hold the hangar long enough for it to matter.

+Hurry up.+

“I updated Lieutenant Nowak.” The Corporal said, picking the moment perfectly. Christopher just concluded his talk with Ryan when the Texian spoke. “We’re to slow down the attack. Reinforcements are on their way. If the pressure becomes too strong, we can retreat. Though it might turn ugly if we try to escape with a pursuit on our tail.”

“Well, hopefully, it’s just a bunch of random crew members, not marines.” Christopher replied. “Tendrik, tell me you found something out.”

“Give me a second, I’m struggling here! They are good.” Tendrik was hunched behind one of the covers they deployed earlier, using his comm-implants to oversee the scout bots. “Uh oh.”

“Teendriik.” Christopher had enough of it. “Speak to me.”

“I caught some of them on the camera.” Fewer pauses, more speaking. Do I demand too much? “At least a squad of marines, probably more. They’ll be here in two minutes.”

We are so fucking dead.

Corporal started barking orders, placing people behind the covers, and having some of them man the machine gun and the anti-tank gun. Ryan’s group returned right in time, running behind covers.

At least this time we all know more or less how to shoot, and we are better armed! Rifles for everyone. And more! Super-light exoskeletons connected with armor plates in strategic places, each of them too heavy to carry without reinforcement. Support equipment, like the bots. Heavy weapons.

Great. Not like it will help us a lot.

***

“Report from Major Teryenko.” The face of his exec spoke volumes about the contents of the report. “He is getting pushed back. Forty-seven percent of marines dead or incapacitated. Each time he establishes a defensive position, something arrives and slaughters everyone.”

Rear Admiral Hao Yunqi couldn’t believe his own ears. Five hundred veterans, armed with both cutting-edge equipment of the Confederation AND the exalted weaponry and augments granted to him by the Seekers. He could count forces in the Human Space capable of beating his marines with equal numbers on one hand. Keller’s marines were slaughtering them despite being outnumbered at least two to one.

They suffered casualties too. Heavy ones, that could be said without a doubt. The fragmentary data from the security system - continuously massacred with wide-scale electronic warfare from both sides - left no doubts about it. Dead bodies littering the outer section of the hull included those wearing uniforms of Echo’s marines. But they weren’t dying fast enough.

This couldn’t be happening… but it is. Who the fuck did he send with his marines? What sort of abyss spawned monster does he command?

The list of people he could ask for their opinion was shrinking too. The link with Nietzsche was terminated soon after Captain Faust vomited blood for the last time and collapsed dead. Nietzsche’s computer systems and communication arrays were now assisting Keller’s boarding party, its ceaseless hacking assault slowly cracking Hercules’ electronic defenses.

How? How could a nanopathogen spread this fast? Nanomachine patterns capable of generating effects analogous to bio-diseases of old are a staple bioweapon, but… I never saw one killing its victims this fast and yet spreading so quickly. All crew members of the Nietzsche had inoculations, there were nanomachines in their blood designed to counter such infections. Even against an unfamiliar strain, they should have at least slowed it down!

Not to mention that it had spread before the assailants could reach the main air supply. This doesn’t make sense!

Worse, if reports from the Agreement were correct, they were about to drop from the battle. The Hercules was losing section after section, while the Hastati’s citadel was nearly breached. If that last desperate flanking assault will not push the attackers’ back, that cruiser would be lost, too.

We can’t even fire at Echo anymore. None of our ships still controls its weaponry. The amount of transcendental code-based viruses their boarding parties unleashed is something I never imagined I would get to see in my life! Weaponry, shields, engines, everything gone. The only external thing we still control are communications and it’s just a matter of minutes before it's gone too.

His thoughts were interrupted with the sound of an explosion followed by nearby gunfire coming from the speakers. He noticed its source immediately. Agreement. Captain Arthval leaped off the captain’s seat, drawing her gun. Before she could point it towards the enemy, something (Shockwave? Telekinesis?) threw her away from the camera. Some unfortunate lieutenant who stood next to her had less luck. The impact of multiple rounds threw him at a nearby computer terminal. He slumped to the ground, obviously dead.

Seconds later, the link was terminated.

Time for plan B.

***

The attack was overwhelmingly strong, yet straightforward. There was no subtlety in the marines’ assault. Then again, did squashing cockroaches require subtlety? All you need is overwhelming strength. And the marines had it.

The first heralds of the assault were grenades. Flash grenades detonated as the first ones, though with the scout bots warning the defenders of the attack they blinded almost no one. Smoke grenades detonated shortly after, enclosing the entrance with a nanomachine infused smoke, impenetrable to both naked eyes and most sensors available to the defenders. Mines placed near the entrance didn’t detonate, remotely disabled by the marines’ hackers or by the nanomachines of the smoke cloud.

A heavy machine gun opened fire, raining death upon the entrance. With the smoke coverage, it was a suppressive fire at best. The sound of bullets hitting plastic walls was quickly joined with an almost continuous sound akin to an electrical discharge.

Two towering marines in powered armors emerged from the smoke. Their armor’s outer layer was shaped to resemble a Roman legionnaire armor. Each of them carried a shield - a small metallic buckler surrounded by a wall of translucent hexagons. When the machine gun operator turned his attention to them, the sound of discharges ascended into a deafening cacophony as the shields began devouring the bullets even faster.

Christopher didn’t hear the orders, but he heard the result. The anti-tank gun fired, the round hitting the shield of one marine. The resulting burst of light and a horrible noise felt almost like a flash grenade. The shield broke, the marine collapsing on his knees. Bullets rattled on his armor, the several layers of ceramic repelling them with nothing but a minor inconvenience to the soldier underneath.

The soldier kneeling behind the gun was about to fire it once more, hopefully killing the downed shieldbearer. Seconds before that, a missile emerged from the smoke with a loud whizz. It flew right to its target, obliterating their only anti-armor weapon in a giant fireball.

As if it was a signal, the downed shieldbearer stood up, pulling a machine gun from his back. The other one pressed forward, closing the distance between him and the nearest cover. The machine gunner directed its attention at the heavy machine gun emplacement, tearing it to pieces in a few seconds of sustained fire.

The reason for the shieldbearer’s charge became evident once the distance between him and the nearest line of the covers. They were marines behind him, wearing full combat suits decorated in a way similar to their heavy troopers. The rain of bullets suppressed the defenders while they crossed the distance. The two nearest soldiers of Echo were riddled in holes in seconds when they tried to move back. The third one got grabbed and pulled to the other side of the cover. Once his killer raised from behind the cover, an unexpected bullet landed right in the middle of his facemask.

One kill for the Recovery Team 8, at least judging from the victorious howl of Rukh. We lost four soldiers, and if I see things correctly, the enemy might have numerical superiority. Also, that hit was a goddamn fluke, regardless of what Rukh might say.

Christopher didn’t want to kill people. He was, deep inside, a pacifist. A product of more peaceful times. But right now people around him were dropping dead like crazy. And he was confident that the Hastati marines weren’t concerned with taking prisoners. Thus, for the first time in his life, he pointed his gun towards another living being. Taking full advantage of the fact that his side of the cover was covered with electronic displays connected with minuscule cameras on the other side of the artificial wall.

He fired without having to stick his head outside. The marine he tried to shoot dived behind the shield-bearer. So much about my debut as a soldier.

One marine flung a grenade from behind the cover. Christopher looked in that direction and acted quickly. His telekinesis grabbed the grenade midair and held it there until the detonation. It was enough to startle the nearest marines, giving the defenders precious few seconds.

At least that was what Christopher had hoped would happen. Instead, the marines reacted almost instantly. A grenade launcher launched a grenade much faster than he could react to, exploding mid-air a few meters away from him, right next to the Corporal, Tendrik, and Nekia. The Corporal took the brunt of the damage, dying instantly. Nekia seemed to have gone through the detonation unscathed, even if stunned, but Tendrik was much too close. He collapsed to the ground behind the cover, blood dripping from several holes in the suit.

“Tendrik!” Tiriel, the closest their team had to a paramedic, was about to leap from her cover towards Tendrik when Christopher interrupted her.

“Wait!” Christopher shouted through the microphone. Tiriel froze.

The battle still raged in the backdrop. Since marines noticed the enemy had a sorcerer amidst them and weren’t sure if they got him with the grenade launcher, they played it safe. The smoke near the entrance was slowly dissipating, but with the number of marines around, they didn’t need it anymore.

They were entering the hangar in groups of three, one carrying a transparent and glasslike shield and the others using that cover to rain fire on the fortifications. Marines probably had several crawler-like vehicles with spare ammunition following them, so that wasn’t an issue. They were slowly advancing, with the remaining Echo soldiers and crew members suppressed. Soon they would get close enough to pick them off one by one.

“He will bleed out!” Tiriel urged him. Tendrik added some mumbled groans. “Stop moving, Tin Can!”

“Wait!” With the cloud dispersed, Christopher could see a soldier armed with a long tube which he had just finished reloading. He was surrounded by two marines with shields and pistols.

They want a sorcerer? They will get one.

Christopher focused every single ounce of psychic strength, concentration, and sorcerer training he had on his telekinesis. It would be his magnum opus. The greatest achievement of his supernatural powers. A proof that even a weak sorcerer talent could be of immense use on the battlefield when used with creativity.

The soldier with the grenade launcher finished reloading and pulled the trigger. The projectile left the tube… but one meter later it arrived at an invisible wall. The unexpected detonation enveloped the soldier with the launcher and his two protectors in a giant fireball and rained shrapnels on nearby marines. The shockwave pushed aside those close to the detonation and startled those who were farther away. The remaining Echo soldiers used that occasion to raise from their covers and rain bullets on the surprised marines.

The post-power usage backlash was intense.

“NOW!” Tiriel leaped from behind her cover, closing distance to Tendrik quickly. As she started administering first aid, Christopher had a chance to review the overall situation on the battlefield.

They had eight soldiers left out of thirteen. Nekia was curled behind her cover, her light machine gun broken by enemy fire - ordering her to shoot enemies with the pistol was probably a recipe for death. Tendrik was out, and Tiriel was too busy keeping him alive to fire at attackers. This left the Recovery Team 8 with Christopher, Rukh, Ryan, and Kivanna.

The last one hadn’t even fired thus far and seemed to be gripped with a panic attack. Ryan was a terrible marksman. Christopher was ok with the rifle, but he was as far from being a soldier as possible and besides his telekinesis, he was of little use.

The enemy still had two heavy troopers which they could do little against, and an increasing number of marines that at this point surpassed two squads in number. At least five of them died, some were wounded. The brief respite caused by the grenade launcher’s self-detonation was coming to an end, as the marines reorganized themselves.

As two more Texian soldiers fell, forcing the rest of their side to hide once again, Christopher had come to a decision.

“Tiriel, can he move?” The cacophony of suppression fire grew louder. If both sides weren’t using special bullets, ricochets would have already murdered everyone in the hangar.

“Yes, but not for long.” Great.

“Everyone, smoke grenades on our position, NOW!” Even soldiers listened to him. When the smoke began enveloping their side of the hangar, their suits adapted to the circumstances. Most of the smoke-filled vision began being replaced with the computer rendering of the area, with approximate positions of people and the terrain. Based on sounds and, in case of people on their side, the electronic signals of their suits. There was even a minimap in the corner of his view.

“We are retreating.” We did enough. Also, I need to learn that goddamn military talk asap. “Start throwing your grenades towards the enemy, then hurry to the exit. Keep your goddamn heads down! Tiriel take Tendrik. Ryan, make sure Kivanna is with us. Rukh… eh, do whatever you want.” Christopher said, resolving that of all the people on their side, Rukh was the only one who had a clue how combat worked. And despite acting like a berserker, he was sane enough to retreat in time.

Their team marine trainee responded with a loud and triumphant howl. Did he kill another one?! Fuck it, not now.

As the grenades began exploding, and the suppressing fire temporarily died down, all defenders who could still move started running away. Christopher was among them… when he noticed one small green point on his minimap staying behind.

“Nekia?” He received no answer. A second later the dot disappeared. No. No. No wa… wait a second. I can still see the Corporal’s dot, though it’s grey now. Nobody’s signal just disappeared.

He stopped his escape and turned back. Her last known position wasn’t far. It took him two or three seconds to pass the few meters distance… after which he almost tripped over her body, lying on the ground right next to her cover.

Dead? No time to check.

He grabbed her, the servomotors in his exoskeleton protesting against the additional strain. Then the alarm rang and Christopher found himself staring at a marine who emerged from the smoke right on the other side of the cover.

Before the marine changed Christopher into swiss cheese, he was pushed back into the smoke by impacts of several bullets. Rukh roared triumphantly from the background once again.

Christopher took the occasion to run towards the exit with Nekia in his arms, ignoring the bullets whizzing above his head. And somehow he survived the run. He passed Rukh, who was standing near the door and firing at the smoke cloud.

Behind the door was a corridor where the three crawlers stood. They had no time to evacuate them and the equipment still stored aboard them. Christopher ran beside them, almost getting to the end before he heard Rukh’s voice.

“Hall!” Christopher turned back, to see Rukh jumping off the first of the crawlers and then sprinting towards him. “Throw something above that crawler!”

Without thinking about it, he did as ordered. He pulled Nekia’s pistol and then threw it with his telekinesis. He had no idea what Rukh was plotting… but he found it out almost instantly, as the crawler exploded.

The blast was powerful enough to throw Rukh at Christopher. In fact, because of occurring in a corridor, it had enough power to throw them all away from it. They landed in the middle of the corridor after flying through both the crawler corridor and the intersection.

Christopher was still slightly stunned when the rest of the group got to them.

“Holy shit, what did you do?!” He heard Ryan’s voice while trying to raise from the ground.

“I set some leftover mines in the crawler for movement detonation triggers. Then Hall threw something right above them, caving in the corridor.” I swear I will kick his ass for calling me by my surname.

Finally, the ringing died out and Christopher stood up. His entire body was in pain, despite the bits of armor that he wore. He started with a question.

“How much time do we have?” That was the most urgent thing to find out.

“Five to ten minutes.” Ryan responded. “They have to blow their way through one of the cave-ins.” That should be adequate. But we have to hurry. A quick check of ourselves, then we go.

Eight surviving soldiers and the Recovery Team Eight were crowded into the corridor. They were mostly out of ammo and at least some of them looked like they were going through a serious case of shock. Not surprising - the marines had swept the floor with them in an orgy of destruction and murder, and they barely escaped with their lives intact.

“Rukh, and… you.” Christopher pointed to one of the soldiers who looked like they still had some fight left in them. “Guard the intersection behind us.” If I remember the ship blueprints correctly, the corridor intersecting with us goes right beside some of the passages that Ryan and Nekia blocked, the most likely assault route.

“Tiriel, what about Tendrik?” She was kneeling beside the cyborg. Tendrik was resting with his back on the floor. Some parts of his armor were removed to expose wounds, now draped with some translucent… something. Probably a futuristic bandage. Another thing to learn.

“Lost a lot of blood, but he is stable. Getting him to a hospital would be a splendid idea, though. Some shrapnels are lodged in his right arm too deep for me to remove them here. If we lose too much time…”

“Then… I might have a… pretext for a… cybernetic arm.” Tendrik said, his left hand making a thumbs-up gesture. His voice was faint.

“Now I’m motivated to save it.” Tiriel shook her head. “And I told you, do not move and do not try to speak. You don’t feel the pain because of painkillers, but it’s still the… wait, what happened to Nekia?”

“I suspect a suit malfunction.” I’m not telling anyone that I virtually forgot about her after Rukh blew up the corridor. Being half-conscious is scarcely an excuse. Tiaa would have murdered me! “Ryan, check it out.”

After maybe half a minute he got an answer.

“I think a shrapnel hit her on such an improbable angle that it somehow lodged in a bundle of cables right next to the suit’s main battery, without damaging it or anything else. But when she tried to run away, the movement pushed the shrapnel deeper and sliced off part of the cables. Without energy, the suit went offline.” At least she isn’t wounded. “Come help me, we need to free her from the suit.”

Both of them kneeled beside Nekia. Ryan did most of the job. Christopher helped when Ryan told him to. The process was a bit more lengthy than they hoped for. It took them two minutes to free the upper half of Nekia. After which said half immediately raised and grabbed Christopher in a rather trembling hug.

Christopher stared at Ryan for a second. The engineer grasped the meaning of it and nodded, returning to the process of freeing Nekia from the broken armor.

“Nekia, it’s all right. We’re safe.” He wasn’t sure if she could hear him. He could understand that.

They fought a battle - which was scary enough for civilians. They were almost wiped out with utmost ease by an enemy they hadn’t expect to be there - at this point, even their soldiers had enough. Not enough experience, not enough bloodthirsty warmongering. Only Rukh seemed to feel great.

And then, when she was about to run to safety, her suit malfunctioned. Leaving her motionless and in darkness. With an enemy nearby, who probably could kill her or worse.

Kill… I killed people, didn’t I? Sure, they might have been corrupted, and they would kill us. But I killed them. Blew them into pieces with that grenade. Not even three months here and I have already become a killer.

It will take me a while to get used to that fact.

Finally, he decided that he wasn’t interested in his public image and he hugged Nekia back. He couldn’t feel a lot of it because of wearing a full suit, but it was the intent that counted.

So many emotions swirling inside me. A battlefield is a horrible place for an epiphany, but… it will not be the last time. Especially if the Captain keeps pursuing that whatevercult.

Even today, we could have died. I didn’t sign up for this! I signed up for scavenging work! I signed up to follow in my mother’s footsteps, and…

The first counter moved up, the signal waking him up.

Those weren’t my thoughts! What just happen…

“They are here!” Rukh’s warning came a second before he opened fire down the corridor. And two seconds before a grenade flew past him, bouncing off the wall and landing a meter away from Christopher.