Thirteen

Chapter Seventy-Nine

Siding With The Parents

Garrison Hollifield didn't have the benefit of the spell of destruction from Galen, but he did have a very talented technomage with him. Andromeda's specialty was in creating deceptions, and she was engaged in a massive distraction as their forces made their way towards Tauronopolis. The Cylon basestars had been taken out a day ago by the Argo and the Independence, and now were sending fighters down to the planet on strafing runs on the city. The Cylons had their hands full, as Andromeda sent pterodactyl, thunderbirds, and assorted other flying creatures to harass the Centurions. They had run out of anti-aircraft missiles in attacking these mirages, so the enemy could not do anything to prevent the Thunderbolts from strafing them from the skies.

The Centurions, or their masters at least, must have known they were in a predicament, so they decided to try a counteroffensive to throw back the attackers. All that did was make them vulnerable to another of Andromeda's schemes, as she used an illusion of hordes of oncoming troops to draw the fire of the Centurions, allowing their forces to pick them off at their leisure.

The first objective to be taken was the spaceport, and that fell with ease, as the Centurions were overwhelmed by the guerilla tactics of the special ops forces, who had among them many of the second generation clones who had not been as influenced by the Cylons as the first generation had been. They fought hard and never seemed to back down, no matter how many casualties they took.

It wasn't a cakewalk though. The Centurions had managed to outflank the southern advance and kill off almost a dozen troops before they were beat back. It had caused them a significant delay, because they were unable to enter the city until the next day.

The next day, though, they did enter the city, and the fighting was fierce. Andromeda created illusions to outfox the enemy and to distract them from creating ambushes, while Hollifield used his telepathy to snuff out any other ambushes set up on his end of the attack. His wife directed the troops as he concentrated on finding the enemy and doing what he could to hinder them before the troops had to engage them.

As they were about to round a corner, he felt the machines sitting on a rooftop, waiting for them to walk onto the street. He saw that the chimney on the roof had some loose bricks, and he decided to make use of them. He closed his eyes and focused on the bricks, loosening them further and freeing them. Once the top bricks were free, he grabbed them and flung them using his telekinetic abilities at the Centurions, who were taken by surprise and turned all of their firepower on the chimney. That allowed his people to sneak around the corner and shoot them in the back without the Centurions knowing what hit them. It wasn't very sporting, but then war wasn't a sport, so they thought nothing of taking advantage of the machines.

Street combat was what every infantry soldier dreaded, but at least these grunts had a powerful telepath with telekinesis and a highly experienced technomage on their side. It seemed that the Centurions thought that they could just run straight at the enemy and destroy them, but that arrogance was met by hot plasma burst from their PPG rifles, which were much more effective than the weapons that the Colonials often used.

The enemy retreated towards a large complex in the center of town, just down the main thoroughfare in city from the government building, which had already been liberated by Hollifield's forces. After cleaning out the enemy from the building, they soon found out why that building was heaving guarded. The advancing allied forces had captured one of the IL-series, and he had not been able to escape with the Centurions.

The machine's name was Specter, and seemed nothing like a ghost or apparition. He looked to be a very nervous machine, similar in the form of the Centurions but much smaller and not nearly as well armored.

"We'll get you for this! The Imperious Leader will see you all dead!" Specter yelled.

"We know who he is. Do you have a way of getting a message to him?" Garrison Hollifield replied.

"No, and I wouldn't even if I could! You and the Colonials won't succeed! God won't allow it!" Specter said defiantly.

"Tell us what is in that building that your forces retreated to, or else I'll rip it from you!" Hollifield said in a menacing tone.

"A mere human? Ha! I'd like to see that!" Specter said, not realizing whom he was dealing with.

Without words, Hollifield sent his mind slamming into the machine, and it visible shook at the onslaught. "What are you doing? How…?" Specter said.

"I'm not your ordinary human! Sorry to disappoint you!" Hollifield said as he invaded Specter's electronics and drove his mind towards his memory banks. He technology was relatively primitive by Earth Alliance standards, but it allowed him to get what he wanted.

"Are you going to destroy me now, human? I don't know how you did it, but you won't be able to use what you've found to defeat us!" Specter said defiantly, but with a tinge of desperation.

"Would you really like to know something?" Hollifield said.

"What? I won't buy any of your lies!" Specter said.

"We were the ones who turned your precious human Cylons against you, you bastard! How do you like that? Hmmm…c'mon, answer me!"

"Liar! You lie!" Specter yelled out.

He turned to his wife, "Twanissa, bring in the Cally clone, please!" Twanissa nodded and left the room, only to return back with a Cally model, who was in Earthforce fatigues and was holding a very menacing PPG rifle.

If Specter had a jaw, it would have fallen. "Cally, bring your rifle to bear on this human and kill him, then kill the female!" Specter demanded. Cally looked at him with an impish smile and said, "No."

Hollifield walked up to Specter and said, "See? The game is over, pal! You're about to get your ass kicked out of this system, and there's not a thing you or your Cylon God can do about it. Besides, I know who he is anyway!"

"What do you plan to do with me?" Specter asked desperately.

"Well, I've gotten all I need from you, so I'm not sure." Hollifield looked over at Cally and at her rifle, and said to her, "Cally, would you love to strike a blow for the liberty of the human Cylons?"

"Abso-fraking-lutely, sir!" she said with glee.

"Light this son of a bitch with your rifle, if you please!" Hollifield said with relish.

Cally smiled and said, "With pleasure, sir!" She turned the rifle on him and blasted away, and Specter barely had time to mutter an incomprehensible syllable before he became a thoroughly modern example of metallic Swiss cheese.

"I take it that you enjoyed that, Cally?" he asked.

"You're damned right I did! Anymore of these bastards you want me to frak up?"

"Not right now, but you'll get your chance. We've got that building to deal with, after all. Get back in your gear and head out. We'll be there to join you shortly." Cally smiled and walked out of the room with a visible skip in her step.

"Why did you frag that machine?" Twanissa asked of her husband.

"To send a message. I allowed Specter to send off one last message to Vacit before we killed him. I want him to know we're here!" he replied.

"Well, it doesn't make our job easier, but I see your point." Twanissa said as she watched her husband begin to walk out of the room. Grabbing her rifle, she followed him out.

The building was a heavily fortified fortress, which had been home to the Colonial military on this world. The Centurions were holed up inside, and had to be flushed out the old fashioned way, using tactics known to ground troops since the days of World War II, when urban combat became especially deadly. Those G.I. Joes didn't have to deal with Centurions, but they also didn't have a technomage to assist them. The battle lasted almost into the next day, but they managed to flush out the last of the metallic robots and turn it into slag.

Like on Picon, they found another farm with humans hooked up to breeding machines. "Is it like this all over the place?" Hollifield asked Andromeda.

"From what I've seen through the probes, yes. They can be saved, but they'll need plenty of medical attention. They're very malnourished."

"Well, Specter gave up his secrets before he died. Vacit's trying desperately to get more human Cylons, but he's having trouble. That's why he's stepped up the work of these farms." He turned to his wife and said, "Get some medics down here to get some IV drips going. Once they're fit to travel, I want them taken to Kobol as soon as possible."

Twanissa headed out to find some medics and Hollifield turned to Andromeda and said, "Now I know how those American soldiers felt when they liberated those camps at the end of World War II."

"I know, but I doubt even Hitler would have been capable of something this barbaric!" Andromeda replied.

"Maybe not, but Vacit sure is. He'll get his soon enough, though."