Gods Dogs, Book 3

I do not believe in using women in combat, because females are too fierce.

Margaret Mead

Later that day, River was reviewing the battle plan with Pax by tac-net.

“We climb up and trigger the sensors. Bad guys send a squad. We take out the squad. They send more. We take them out. They send the whole gang.”

“They will leave some behind,” Pax said. “The marshals should be able to handle a few.”

“Well, we’ll see how that goes.”

“Moss, Christy, and Sonny will be in exo-suits. Snipers will have rail-guns. The rest of us have blasters.”

“We don’t know how they fight or what it takes to bring one down.”

“There is that,” Pax allowed. “Should be fun.”

“Right,” River snorted. Then she asked, “Did the other recon teams get what we needed?”

“Bad guy locations and taps into the government’s comm system. I think the marshals will monitor those once we engage.”

“I’m not happy about them shuttling in.”

“It’s what they want.”

“When I can, I’m coming back here to provide cover for them. The cyborgs are too big an unknown to trust the marshals can beat them.”

“We’ll see. If they are a bigger threat then we suspect, I’d take Moss with you.”

“Okay. Another hour to dark. Then we move.”

The nano-ropes they used to repel into the valley were still in place. One of the features of the nano-composite was camouflage. The ropes were virtually indistinguishable against the rock face, but they lit up to a pulse from their A.I.s. They used mechanical ascenders to haul themselves out of the valley.

Once on the trail they followed to get here, Pax sent on tac-net, “We’re ready to trigger the sensors.”

“Go ahead,” Quinn answered. “We’re in position.”

Pax and River continued along the trail and began descending into the valley.

“First one tripped,” River said. “There’s another about fifty yards ahead.”

“Yeah, and a sign that says ‘keep out.’”

“Nice of them to warn innocent hikers.”

They continued at a brisk pace and triggered two more sensors before the camp responded. River checked the stealth drones she left around the camp to monitor it.

“Looks like a three-man fire team,” she reported.

The three cyborgs jogged across the camp and up the trail. They looked a lot like marines in heavy armor, but their speed and agility were far better.

River unsnapped her sniper rifle and waited. The other two snipers, Angus and Eli, were on the rim, also waiting.

“I’m clear to fire,” River said.

“Clear,” the other two reported.

“3-2-1-fire,” River said.

The heavy, armor-piercing rounds screamed down the valley from their rail-gun sniper rifles. The slugs ripped off half the heads of the three cyborgs.

River switched her HUD to view the drones monitoring the camp. It took five minutes, but the response was what they expected.

Fifty cyborgs swarmed toward the trail but soon spread out to take different routes up the steep sides of the valley.

“Snipers, weapons free,” Quinn announced.

It was more difficult to get head shots now, and body shots were inconclusive. Hits to legs and arms were effective, but the damage didn’t slow the cyborgs down.

Pax, who was still with River as a spotter and security, told her, “Time to go.”

“One more shot,” she said and fired. “Got him. Okay, let’s go.”

Quinn watched them as green dots on his HUD. Then Shiva flashed an update. Quinn sent it to the group, “Thirty-eight hostiles are still effective. They will be coming over the rim in ten seconds.”

He stationed the teams in a semi-circle around where he figured the cyborgs would top the ridgeline. He was mostly right. They boiled over the lip of the steep slope on a fifty-yard wide front.

The sound of the exo-skeleton cannons firing and the zip-boom of blasters now filled the air.

The cyborgs responded in kind, but the superior shields the Coyotes fielded blunted the effectiveness of the return fire.

By then, the snipers had relocated to tree stands and added to the carnage below. After two shots, they zip-lined to a new location, fired twice and moved to third location. From there they zipped back to the first platform.

Because of the embedded A.I.’s ability to aim the exo-skeleton cannons, and enhance the aim of the handheld blasters, virtually every shot the Coyotes fired hit the target. Not all were killing shots, but all were disabling.

Eight cyborgs rolled over the ridge and escaped. Others pulled themselves to the edge attempting to escape, but the Coyotes finished them off.

River checked in with her monitors and reported, “Looks like they are sending ten to flank us from the north. Ten others are joining up with the eight survivors. I think they mean to hold us in position here so the flankers can roll us up.”

“Jolene, Rob,” Quinn sent, “you deal with the flanking force. Well hold here.”

A few minutes later, River reported, “They are bringing up mortars or rockets. Both groups are getting them.”

Moss took up position in the middle of the fifty-yard battleground, but back in the tree-line twenty yards from the ridge. Quinn and Pax flanked him twenty yards away. River was on a platform near the center but further back.

Once she was settled, she checked the surveillance feed.

“Yeah, Moss, it’s mortars. They are setting up at the bottom of the cliff. Becky is sending coordinates.”

“Got it,” Moss said. The missile pack on his back rotated to the correct firing position, and Moss warned, “Firing.”

One missile streaked out, arched over and hit the mortar team.

“Now they know where you are,” Pax quipped.

“Do you want to change places?” Moss shot back.

River interrupted them, “There’s some kind of cannon coming out of the roof of one of the buildings. I don’t recognize it, but my guess it’s artillery. Sending Moss coordinates.”

“It’s not the command building, is it?” Quinn asked.

“No. It’s one of the barracks.”

“Okay. Weapons free, Moss.”

“Firing.”

The building exploded as the small missile torched off the stored ammunition in the barracks.

Jolene checked in, “River, can you get coordinates for the mortar team over here?”

River checked and she could. “Sending coordinates.”

Moments later, that mortar team was gone.

“Engaging now,” Jolene sent.

Quinn told his team, “They should be attacking right about now.”

Grenades flew over the ridge. When they detonated, the cyborgs rushed forward and dropped behind their fallen comrades. River had the angle, though, and began picking them off.

She zip-lined out as the cyborgs stood to charge. Her platform was shredded when they focused their fire on her, but the time they wasted doing so gave her team mates time to wipe out most of the cyborg force.

Four of them rolled over the lip of the ridge and escaped.

Jolene reported, “We’re done here, Quinn. Threat neutralized.”

“Understood. River, call in the marshals.”

“Okay, but there are still two cyborgs at the base.”

“Probably,” Quinn agreed. “What do you want to do?”

“Give the marshals support. Me and Moss.”

“We’ve still got four unaccounted for and this whole pile of bodies to process. Moss stays here.”

Pax offered, “I’ll go.”

“Okay,” Quinn agreed.

The marshals were in two assault shuttles and dropped to the camp within minutes. The landing was unopposed, but once they disembarked, the shooting began.

River figured there were from thirty to forty people left in the base. The marshal’s SpecOps team numbered sixty. It should be enough, but she felt it wouldn’t be.

She and Pax repelled back down to the valley floor and ran to the position she prepared for support. Within ten minutes of the shuttles landing, she was in position.

[Becky, find the platoon network,] she directed her A.I.

[Found. Linking you to Lieutenant Foster.]

“Lieutenant, this is Coyote sniper River. I’m sending you our IFF and location.”

“Got it. Thanks for the assist. See if you can loosen up the tangos on my left front.”

“On it,” River said and began checking her camera feeds.

Foster’s left front was where the barracks were. The one closer to the other three buildings was still standing. Her angle to the building was behind it and closer to the other buildings. Not much of an angle to do anything, since she couldn’t see who was shooting or their location.

She switched to an IR feed, but that was inconclusive due to the fire still burning in the other barracks.

She switched to her surveillance cameras, moved one of the drones, and finally found Foster’s problem.

She told Pax, “Looks like both cyborgs are in the last barracks and pounding Foster’s left flank.”

“You don’t have a shot from here.”

She grinned. “Maybe. Maybe not. I can shoot through walls, you know.”

[Becky, get coordinates from three of our drones on those two cyborg positions. I need to triangulate exact positions if I’m going to make these shots.]

After a few moments, Becky said, [Feeding the first one now.]

River looked through her scope and brought the aiming dot into the grid that appeared. When it locked on, she fired. Moving to the second reference grid, she brought the aiming point to a lock and fired.

Return fire streaked through the tree she was in.

Becky said, [Shield at 92%.]

Pax told her, “It’s those cyborgs that escaped. There are only three, and they are behind you.”

“Where’s the fourth one?”

“No idea.”

“I’ve got a zip-line out of here,” River said and climbed up to it.

When they reached the next hide, River asked, “Where did they go?”

“Into the main building – the one with antennas.”

River checked her feeds again. The marshals were steadily advancing on the three main buildings, now that their left flank was clear. Their technique for assaulting a building was textbook.

“LT, Coyote River. Three cyborgs just reinforced the building with the antennas.”

“Copy that,” Foster said. “Any suggestions?”

“Yeah, .65 caliber rail-gun rounds to the head. You can slow them down with blasters, but it won’t kill them.”

“Understood.”

Blasters were plasma-based weapons and, because of the physics, were short-range weapons. Lasers were better for long range, but the need for large batteries was the problem. Let alone the need for radiation shielding and protecting the eyes from reflected laser bolts.

Rail-guns and their variations were the weapons of choice for ground troops. So were various forms of grenades and grenade launchers.

The cyborgs were fitted with smaller rail-guns than an exo-skeleton, blasters, and grenade launchers. Their rate of fire and accuracy was superior to what the marshals fielded. The additional problem was their speed and agility. Having fought them now, she recognized the serious threat they were.

With these thoughts bouncing around in River’s head, she knew she needed to storm the building.

“Quinn,” she sent by tac-net, “three cyborgs made it back here. Not sure where the fourth one is, but I got the two that were on-site. I don’t think the marshals can take the last building.”

“We’re about done here,” Quinn said. “We got the fourth one. We’ll have your back in about ten mikes.”

“Okay. We’re going in.”

She turned to Pax. “Well, today is a good day to die.”

He grinned and slid down the tree. She followed, leaving her sniper rifle where it was, and pulling her butterfly swords free. Pax slapped his rifle to his back and pulled his sword.

[Shield back to 100%,] Becky informed River. [I suggest you make entrance from the roof. There is a maintenance hatch for the antennas at the southeast quadrant.]

[Thanks,] River replied and leaped to scramble up the building wall.

The LT called, “What are you doing?” It was apparent he was watching River’s IFF signal on his HUD and saw her and Pax scale the building.

“Evening the odds,” River sent back.

She heard him order, “Covering fire!”

The Coyotes dropped in through the maintenance access door. River slashed the power line from the basement generator when she exited the maintenance room. If they hadn’t erased their computers so far, now they couldn’t. With the power out, so were the lights. The cyborgs could see in the dark, but the unassisted human could not.

Pax moved left from the maintenance room into the cubicles that made up much of the ground floor layout. The fighting was mostly on the north and east. Pax started on the west wall to move north. River went right from the door and flailed her way to the east wall.

One of the cyborgs came at her, firing his blaster. She rolled under the fire and came up to slice at his left kidney.

He pivoted forward to avoid the cut and came around with a right spinning backhand. River blocked with the short sword reversed against her left forearm. Then she slashed across the left side of his neck with a right forehand.

The block cut off the cyborg’s right arm at the elbow, and the neck hit staggered him. River spun the left sword to a forward position and chopped the right side of the cyborg’s neck, which decapitated him.

[Duck,] Becky told her, and she dropped straight down amid the cyborg body parts. A blaster bolt fizzled over her head.

She grabbed the severed forearm and flung it at the blaster the second cyborg was aiming at her. The forearm exploded with the next bolt, and River used the distraction to leap high, pivot a half-turn, and come back down facing the cyborg’s back. Both blades, now in a reversed position so the tips were facing down, cut into the cyborg’s body on either side of his neck. Through the lungs, and the left blade cut the heart. The cyborg dropped to the ground.

River grabbed his blaster, found cover behind a steel desk, and opened the armor’s loud speaker.

“Surrender or die. All your cyborgs are dead. I will start shooting you in the back. The marshals are coming in the front. Surrender now or die. You have five seconds. Five-four-three….”

“We surrender,” one of them shouted.

River replied, “Safe your weapons. Put them on the floor. Stand and face the nearest wall. Hands on your heads and interlace your fingers.”

As they complied, River opened the platoon net. “LT, River. They surrendered. Please secure the room.”

“Copy that.”

The marshals made tactical entry through two doors. River stood as well, arms out and the blaster sitting on the table.

One marshal said, “The other Coyote is wounded.”

Becky told River, [It is bad but not critical. Max is using the suit’s medical suite to stabilize Pax, but he needs immediate care.]

The LT approached River and said, “We’ll get him on the first shuttle out. Two more shuttles are on the way to process this site.”

“Thanks, LT,” River said.

[Becky,] River directed, [send Quinn the helmet-cam footage.]

[Sent. And I had Max send his.]

[Thanks.]

Quinn arrived and checked on Pax, who was now on a stretcher carried by four marshals. Then he told River, “Go with him. Satya’s medical people are prepping to receive him.”

Lt. Foster approached Quinn and said, “The cyborgs out-classed us. Your guys made the difference.”

“River’s intuition,” Quinn replied. “She demanded to come down here to back you up.”

“I’m glad you let her. The two of them took out five cyborgs. We couldn’t touch them.”

“We would have been here sooner, but we had seventy cyborgs to process up on the rim.”

“Marshal Warren didn’t think we needed Coyote teams,” Foster said. “I’ll let him know how wrong he was. I think this,” he gestured to include the body room, “is cause for another star on Coyote Wall.”

“Thanks, LT.”

Quinn and Moss rode a different shuttle to the space station. It was loaded with the prisoners. The SpecOp platoon was now busy processing the camp as their forensic people were now on the ground.

McIntire met them as they disembarked. “Pax is in a tank. Blaster wounds on his torso and right shoulder. It looks like his shield overloaded and failed, but it protected him enough to keep him alive.”

“That’s good to hear,” Quinn replied.

“Your other two teams are on their way to the next planet. I’m going to stay here to see what intel we can get on those other two planets. You can head out when you’re ready.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Quinn said and turned to go.

“Thanks, Quinn,” McIntire called after him. “You saved lived today.”

Moss snorted as he clunked along in his exo-suit. “I like Billy McIntire, but he needs to work on his gratitude game.”

“He said, ‘thank you,’” Quinn pointed out.

“That’s true, but the rest was cliché.”

“He’s a marshal, not a poet, Moss.”

“Yeah. So, have you looked at Pax’s feed yet?”

“I did. He took three bolts and still managed to nearly cut that cyborg in two.”

“Left-handed.”

“Pretty impressive. Did you get everything?”

“Yeah. River’s sniper rifle and the drones she scattered all over the place.”

“Then we’re good to go to the next planet.”