The Battle for Lashmere Read online

  A Faded Star 3

  The Battle for Lashmere

  Michael Freeport

  Copyright © 2018 by Michael Freeport

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover images purchased under license from depositphoto.com

  Created with Vellum

  To everyone who has supported me on this great journey so far. The best is yet to come.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Chapter 1

  Impacts from energy shots hit all around Valencia as he ran, his armored boots pounding on the gray pavement of Istyul City. “Keep them moving, Coop!” he shouted over his external speaker. He turned and lined up the closest Woduur. The short burst went into its chest, and it staggered, but didn’t stop. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the people rescued from the inside of the ring were twenty or so meters ahead, moving as fast as they could. He turned and ran to catch up. A shot plinked into the armor on his back.

  The status display inside his helmet showed minor damage to his back armor. Nothing severe, but he could already use an overhaul to his combat suit. “Get into that apartment complex on the right,” he said. He could use his suit to suit comms, but he wanted everyone to hear his orders. Cooper was the only other person with powered armor.

  The status display showed five more Woduur following. Cooper herded the noncombatants into the lobby of the apartment building, and most of them collapsed onto the floor. The Woduur were still approaching fast. Cooper and Valencia took aim through the blown-out windows Cooper hit the lead Woduur in the head and it dropped. Valencia blew the leg off another one. The Woduur pressed forward, not taking cover. Energy blasts flew through the windows and impacted on the walls. They kept firing. Valencia received a glancing energy bolt impact on his left shoulder and he was spun sideways. Still, they kept firing until, finally, all the Woduur were down.

  “What’s your ammo status, Coop?”

  “Down to six-fifty, Sarge,” Cooper said.

  “We’re going to have to conserve as much as possible. Keep your eyes open for any of our guys down and strip them of ammo and grenades.”

  “Will do, Sarge,” Cooper said.

  The harried flight into the city had exhausted his adrenal glands, and his nerves were absolutely fried. “Okay, good.” He glanced at the chrono on his status display. Only thirty minutes since they’d gotten everyone out of the ring ship. Many of them had been gunned down inside the first few minutes when they’d demanded to stop and catch their breath. No one had asked to stop after that.

  Valencia pushed the door open and checked on his charges. The civilians were all lying on the floor gasping for breath. A couple seemed okay, but most of them were so exhausted from the twenty-minute run that it was unlikely he could get them even to walk any time soon.

  Sixteen Marines were rescued with the civilians. None of them had weapons except for one Woduur knife. They had all been stripped of their armor, which included their shoes. Their feet were bleeding badly and they all looked to be in rough shape.

  He picked out a pair of civilians who were still up and moving. Turning his external speaker down to a soft speaking volume, he said, “I’m Sergeant Valencia. My squad mate, there, is Corporal Cooper. Do either of you know one end of a gun from the other?”

  The woman nodded and said, “I’ve handled a gun a few times.” The man just shook his head.

  “Good,” Valencia said. He pulled his sidearm from the holster built into the leg of his armor. “I want you to creep up to the front door and keep watch. Let us know if there are any more of those creatures coming at us. Don’t shoot unless you have to and only if you are sure they’ve already spotted you. Aim for the face. That pistol won’t do much to them, but hitting them in the face with it will stun them a bit and give Cooper and me time to get back to the door. Understand?”

  The woman nodded. “Yeah, I understand.” She stood and walked to the door, where she crouched behind an overturned garbage bin to watch the street.

  “Cooper, come here,” Valencia said through his suit comm.

  “Yeah, Sarge?” Cooper’s armored figure crossed the room to stand next to him.

  “Open your suit computer port.” When the corporal complied, Valencia pulled the hard link cable out of his utility compartment and connected the two suit computers. With the hard line in place, the computers could work in tandem, greatly increasing their processing power and analytical capacity.

  “Just running a battlefield analysis, Coop. Stand by.” Cooper nodded. Valencia turned his attention to the computer interface. “Sensor scan log, computer, last five hours.” That would more than cover everything from when the ring first started towards the city to the present. A short progress bar appeared and then ran down in a few seconds as the computer collated the data from both suits.

  “Frequency analysis,” Valencia said. This progress bar took longer, nearly a minute. A graph of frequencies recorded by the computer appeared. Valencia highlighted the ones from when they’d been running from the enemy soldiers. The selected portion expanded to fill the virtual screen inside his helmet.

  “Complete inverse waveform analysis.” This time, the progress bar moved quite slowly. Even with both computers, it was a complex task to pull a stable waveform out of all the clutter and noise of a combat environment. At various points, the bar seemed to stop moving and then suddenly covered a bit of progress quickly. His eyes flickered over the civilians as he stood, waiting.

  Most of them seemed recovered, but he knew they would be unable to run for an extended period. His movements would need to be short, from one safe point to another and only taken when there were no enemies around. Finally, after what seemed like a short eternity, the computer beeped and showed a waveform that it calculated would null out eighty or more percent of the enemy sensor scans. Without more powerful transmitters than the ones in the suit computers and a more complete analysis, it was unlikely to get any better than that.

  He unplugged the hard line and restowed it. “Cooper, it looks like we’ve got a good frequency to use. Take that civilian,” he pointed at the woman, still dutifully squatting by the door, “and sweep the building. Look for other civvies and try to find some first aid supplies and something to help the other Marines with their feet.”

  “On it, Sarge,” Cooper said and then went over to the woman. The pair moved further into the building, while Valencia took up position by the door. The suit sensor systems weren’t meant to complete the kind of tactical analysis he now had. They were intended to send the information back to a central base with a big computer
to do the work. Fortunately, he had had some training in those systems. He hoped what he had was good enough to keep them and their civilian companions safe for a while.

  He brought up the raw sensor feed from his suit sensors as he stood waiting for Cooper to complete his sweep. As time went on, the suit computers would use a heuristic learning algorythm to get better at detecting the enemy and blocking their sensors. He brought up the tactical map. The suit displayed a small overlay of the structure he was in, as far as his suit had observed it.

  Valencia overlaid the signal strength from his suit sensors and saw the small unit could only cover an area within about a five meter radius from where he stood. To cover more than that, he would need a much larger and more powerful transmitter, probably along with a significantly more capable computer.

  His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Cooper returning. He had several more civilians in tow. “Sarge, this is everyone we could find. I didn’t spot anyone else up on the sensors.” Nine more civvies. It would be difficult to keep them all inside the range that would block enemy sensors. “I got these first aid supplies and we can wrap the marine’s feet with these towels.”

  Valencia turned on his external speaker and dialed the volume down to a soft whisper. “Everyone, gather around, please.” The group of civilians clustered close to him so they could hear. Cooper took the first aid supplies to the injured people. One of the Marines had some medical training and was already tending to the injured as best he could. Cooper then went to the door without orders and took up watch on the street. Valencia silently approved of the corporal’s initiative.

  “I have a way to keep us safe from these invaders, partially safe at least. Everyone here needs to stay close in around Cooper and me when we move. Within four meters, ideally.”

  One of the civilians snorted loudly. Valencia turned his attention to the man. It was one of the people Cooper had brought down from further inside the apartment building.

  “You mean to use us as human shields, do you, Ebrim?” The man’s Karn accented voice came out far louder than Valencia’s.

  Valencia suppressed the urge to slap the man. “Of course not. I’m trying to keep everyone safe.” He was about to continue when the Karn spoke again.

  “Safe, Phagh!” The Karn screwed up his lips and spat a thick wad of phlegm on the front of Valencia’s helmet.

  “Sir, if you don’t believe me, you are certainly free to go. My interest here isn’t in who’s from where. I’m trying to save as many of us as possible from these invaders.”

  The Karn shook his head. “I know you Ebrim. I think you brought those creatures here to kill us Karn. It looks like they turned on you too. Sure, you’ll promise to keep us safe right up until it suits you to have us die in your stead. Ebrim can’t be trusted.” Hate and contempt blazed from the man’s eyes.

  “That’s crazy. Like I said before, I’m trying to save as many lives as possible. I don’t care where those lives come from. The enemy is outside there,” Valencia pointed out the windows at the front of the lobby. “They attacked our fleet in space. They landed a ship on this city. If you think your rhetoric will convince them to leave you alone and attack just the Ebrim, feel free, but I have a feeling they aren’t going to make that kind of distinction.”

  The man stood, his face went blotchy and red. “You self-righteous dirtbag. You know damn well they landed here to attack the Karn first. Once we’re all nice and controlled, the Ebrim will swoop in and make a treaty to ‘save the day’.” The man turned and made air quotes at the rest of the gathered civilians.”

  The man continued, “For everyone’s information, these invaders are called the Woduur. I got that from a hard data feed that comes from the north. It stayed up much longer than any of the local radio stations. Why did your government send these creatures attack us? Well, Ebrim?” The man had a smug smirk on his face, and a light of moral superiority filled his eyes.

  Valencia bit back a sharp reply. Inciting the man to further attack wouldn’t solve anything. He was about to speak when the woman previously assigned to guard duty spoke.

  “Listen you fool. This man has literally stood between me and these Woduur things. Look at his armor! Do you see those burn marks? That’s where he shielded me from my death. That and the death of the rest of us. He is a hero, not some Ebrim villain you’re trying to conjure from some conspiracy theory. Now, shut your damn idiot mouth.”

  The man sputtered for a few seconds and then split a hard stare between Valencia and the Karn woman. “Fine. I’ll just see to myself.” The man started to walk away. “Worthless Ebrim sympathizers,” he muttered as he went deeper into the apartment building.

  The woman turned to Valencia and said, “I’m sorry for him and I’m sorry for interrupting you, but I couldn’t let you continue to listen to his unhinged tirade.” She patted his armored shoulder.

  “Yeah, thanks. What’s your name?” With all the running and hustle to get away from the Woduur, there hadn’t been any time for introductions.

  “Call me Minnie. It’s short for Minuet, which I can’t stand.”

  “Sounds good, Minnie. Thanks again for your help.” Valencia rubbed his gauntleted hands together. “What we need to do is find a safe harbor. Someplace the Woduur won’t find us.”

  One of the Karn stood up and said, “My name is Derrick, and I’m a security officer at the Istyul City hospital. It’s a couple of kilometers from here, but if we can get there, it has a huge basement. Some of the rooms have electromagnetic shielding because of the medical scanners. X-rays and stuff like that. Might hide us from the invaders.”

  Valencia whistled. “Good thinking, Derrick. Give me a moment.” He pulled up the small tactical map of Istyul city on his suit computer. The hospital was clearly marked. Major roads ran along all four sides of the complex of buildings. He did not have an internal layout of the buildings. “Which building has the basement, Derrick?”

  “It’s a common basement. With the heavy rain we get here, there’s a large thoroughfare between all of the buildings. We can get in and out of any of them.”

  “Do you think there will be anyone still there?”

  Derrick shook his head. “I don’t know. The Woduur seem intent on dragging a lot of us away. They sure didn’t stop to ask me any questions before stuffing me into that cage on their ship. If they went through the hospital, I guess they might have gotten most everyone. There may be a few people hiding.”

  “How well do you know the facility?” Valencia asked.

  “Like the back of my hand. I’ve worked security there for eleven years, and I’ve got access to most of the areas.” He smiled and held up a large ring of keys.

  “Perfect. I’m going to need to give you all some special instructions.” The small group gathered around Valencia. “When we move, I’m going to wait for darkness. I don’t know if the invaders see any worse at night, but I’m hoping they do. When we go, you all must stay within a couple of meters of either myself or Cooper.” Valencia gestured at the corporal. “We have electronics in our battle armor that may help us block their sensors. Any questions so far?”

  Heads shook negatively all around, but some of the civilians looked frightened.

  “I know this is scary, but we have to find a better safe haven than this apartment building. If the Woduur sensors are half as good as ours, they can see right through these walls. Until we can get to a solid underground location with some decent shielding, we might as well be standing in the street waving at them.”

  Valencia’s comm channel clicked, and Cooper said, “Laying it on a little thick, aren’t you, Sarge? It’s not that bad.”

  Valencia clicked over to the private comm channel. “I know, Coop, but I don’t want anyone questioning my orders if we run into any problems out there and I don’t want to risk gathering a lot of civvies in such an exposed location. That underground basement sounds too perfect to pass up. Remember, civilians don’t follow orders like Marines do.”
/>   He switched back to his external speaker. “We have a few hours until full dark. I want everyone to try to get some sleep. Cooper and I will keep watch while you all rest.”

  The civilians exchanged nervous looks, and no one made any move to lay down. “Get some sleep, people. You’re going to need all the rest you can get.”

  Cooper said, “I’ll take first watch, Sarge, when do you want me to get you up?”

  “Two hours.”

  The civilians started breaking up into small groups and making themselves as comfortable as possible. Valencia checked on the injured Marines. They all had been treated and their wounds were bound up. Two looked particularly severe, but they all seemed ambulatory. They looked like they were doing a little better. Most had their feet wrapped with some kind of dressing, and they said they could move when needed. Cooper took up a watch station near the door.

  Before Valencia knew it, Cooper was shaking him awake. “Two hours till dark, Sarge.”

  Cooper and Valencia traded places while everyone else slept. Valencia watched over his charges silently. Most of them were barely dozing, the slightest sound causing most of them to start awake, if only for a few seconds. The street outside remained silent until it was time to get everyone moving.

  Valencia woke everyone quietly, and the small group set off into the night. It was a nerve-wracking journey and the pace was slow. Two kilometers was a relatively short walk over paved ground, but some of the injured people were struggling. Fortunately, the suit sensors reported the closest detected Woduur patrol never made it within a one klick safety radius Valencia kept up on his tactical overlay.