The Hipno Chronicles:
Ghosts of Liandris
Chapter 7:
Intruders
0645 HOURS, OCTOBER 31, 2552 (IMPERIAL CALENDAR) \
ZETA MULDRADIS SYSTEM, NEAR SECTOR ZERO,
PLANET LIANDRIS BETA
Two flash-bang grenades detonated--balls of lightning and thunder and fluttering leaves.
Adrian fell and reflexively curled into a ball. He'd seen the steel hexagonal tubes a split second too late, and then their images had been burned into his retinas.
They'd been too well camouflaged, chest level in the trees. Stupid. He wasn't thinking, letting his blood rise and get the best of him.
He uncurled and rolled to his feet. The only thing he heard was his hammering heart; otherwise, he was deaf.
Adrian blinked to clear his blurred vision.
Team Saber was down. Echo, Maddison, Holly, and Dante were on their knees. Their SPI armor camouflage buffers had been wiped by the flash-bangs, and only the faintest beige camo patterns were beginning to resolve like bruises. The new photoreactive coating technology could mimic a wide range of EM radiation, but it was still sensitive to overload.
He pulled Ecko to his feet, shook him. Ecko nodded and then got the others up.
Adrian motioned them back, reversing the direction they had walked into this trap. They only had a moment before Team Katana moved in for the kill.
This was his fault. He'd been too eager, too easily pushed into action without thinking. Ecko had spotted a sniper from Katana, and Adrian had too quickly decided to flank to the left...and walked straight into the real trap, the flashbangs.
But that was the point of this exercise, wasn't it? Compress three Hipno squads into a square kilometer arena--think fast or die.
Or worse, in this case, think fast or lose.
Adrian held up a hand, halting his team. They would not fall straight back. If he were Team Katana he'd have set up another trap for a retreating enemy. He motioned for them to hook right.
Team Saber moved in a crouch through the brush, slow, careful, eyes wide. Maddison took point, and she vanished into the green shadows.
Ringing started in Adrian's ears. That was a good sign. Another half-meter to those grenades and he'd have lost the eardrum. In situ cloning was an excruciatingly boring process, and he'd be happy to avoid the two-week mandatory downtime.
A red status light blinked from Maddison. The team froze. Five meters ahead, a fern bent and sprang back.
Adrian rapidly blinked his green status light: the signal to open fire. This was the best target they'd had all morning.
Suppressed gunfire surrounded him. The fern exploded into a shower of confetti.
A single Hipno hidden by the fern turned, their SPI armor flashing silver from the staccato of stun rounds that peppered its surface. Their foot caught on a root and he stumbled.
Adrian repeated the go-ahead signal, and his squad made sure the target stayed down with several bursts of well-placed rounds. The ballistic gel underlayer of their armor could take a hell of a pounding before breaking down.
After three seconds, he flashed red, and the ceased fire.
Maddison moved up and slapped a lime-green sticky flag on the still-writhing Hipno's back. The target was now officially "dead." Adrian activate a NAV marker and alerted C and C for pickup of the "corpse."
The ground trembled, just for a moment, but all the Hipnos of Team Saber froze, and then scanned the jungle, looking for the source of the disturbance.
Earthquake? Not likely. There was no tectonic activity on Liandris. That left only two possibilities: impact or detonation. Neither was especially welcome.
Adrian motioned for Saber to move out. They slinked through the jungle and emerged on a plain. Here, small limestone granite and quartz mesas, grottoes, and fissures extended to the north--up and beyond the high fence of Sector Zero.
The Sector was where the "ghost" of Liandris was supposed to be. It'd been spotted once or twice according to other Hipno candidates: a single eye in the dark. They just made that stuff up to scare plebes. Adrian had, however, heard of a Beta Company squad that had vanished near here and had never been found.
Another dull thump echoed off the distant mesa walls, and dust rose from the hardpan. Team Saber instinctively dropped into a crouch. Adrian pulled his sidearm.
"Big one," Dante muttered. "Artillery? One of the new 4-40's?"
"I don't think the General would use artillery on us," Adrian whispered.
"Not normally," Holly replied. "But this is the last test. Maybe he's pulling out all the stops to figure out who'll get top honors."
Over TEAMCOM, Adrian said, "Mad, you get a direction on that blast?"
Maddison's status light winked red.
"Okay," Adrian said, "we'll assume it's artillery for now. I can't believe General Mantadurru would be using it...but Mendez is another story. You hear incoming, scatter, and take cover."
Four green LEDs lit his HUD, acknowledging his order.
Adrian had read somewhere that you never heard the artillery shell that killed you. He had no desire to personally test that battlefield legend.
"What's the plan for Katana and Gladius?" Echo asked.
"Katana's down one," Adrian replied. "We'll focus on the weaker of the two. We'll find--"
Another thump and the ground shuddered.
"Closer," Maddison whispered over TEAMCOM. "Vector north."
Forty meters to the north was the triple fence surrounding Sector Zero. Electrified razor wire, motion sensors, and lanes of minefields made an effective barrier. If pressed, Team Saber could have gotten around it--but they wouldn't. The General's orders had been crystal clear: DO NOT CROSS. It would count as an instant disqualification for top honors.
There was a dust storm about three kilometers into Sector Zero, a wall of sand, swirling smoke...and fire.
A distant mesa exploded--vaporized into a mushroom of glittering quartz dust, a hail of boulders, and roiling flame. Adrian instinctively ducked, and his insides clenched. He'd seen big explosions before, but nothing like that.
He unslung his sniper rifle and sighted through the scope.
They were drones of some sort. But not LEGION MAKOS. Not Furian Siren fliers either. They were a few meters long. Three dull steel booms that surrounded a central eye, glowing like molten iron. No obvious jets. No cockpit. There were a dozen of them.
"Has to be an experimental prototype," Dante said. "Maybe Sector Zero is a testing range for new weapons?"
"They wouldn't be 'testing' a megaton worth of destructive force while we were close," Adrian countered.
The drones moved from the atomized mesa, drifted closer to Team Saber's position, stopping short just on the opposite side of the Sector Zero fence, where they circled another butte.
Adrian spied motion atop that formation. Shutters from a camoflaged bunker popped open, and heavy machinegun fire strafed the drones.
The lead drone's three booms snapped forward to make a triangular flat plane. A glimmering film of gold popped into place and .50 caliber rounds impacted and bounced off.
"Energy shields!" Dante said. "Has to be Furian."
Adrian reluctantly agreed with this assessment. This was no game, no final honors test.
The war had arrived on Liandris.
He broadcast over and open COM channel: "Currahee C and C, come in. This is Saber One. We have an emergency."
No answer. His radio light was green. He was broadcasting, but no one was listening.
"Radio check," Adrian said. "Everyone try to get the General or the FBC. Try to raise the Freedom Dawn, too."
Keidrian emerged from the bunker, carrying M19 missile launchers.
The drones' eyes flared to a brilliant gold--energy projected forward, flicking like a rapier strike.
The furries and bunker wavered for a moment, erupted into flames, and vaporized. The mesa top then detonated into a cloud of dust and molten rock.
Adrian squinted through the haze.
The drones had scattered and moved forward, zigzagging over the rocky terrain: a search pattern.
At that same time, Adrian noticed that the sun had moved since he last looked at the sky, which was five minutes ago.
No, it hadn't moved. There were two suns.
This new sun faded and a ring of smoke expanded around its center. This fireball seemed to pause, and then it shattered in a starburst of glittering molten metal.
In high orbit, the Freedom Dawn exploded.
Adrian went cold. He keyed his mike and risked another open COM broadcast. "Team Katana, Team Gladius, Furian activity in Sector Zero. Forget the test, guys. We've got a situation."