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visor.
"Shit, I'm out!"
Sergeant Jackson held his railgun barrel up over the fountain wall and peered
at the visor display for a target. There were plenty. The QM tracking and
sighting system showed forty-three known targets while his ammo depository
displayed one hundred and seven rounds left. He aimed as best he could from
behind the wall at the nearest mass of ground troops hammering away at them
with railgun fire and depressed the trigger. The Seppy troops were moving too
fast for an over-the-head shot to be useful as a pinpoint shot, but as cover
fire it slowed the ground troop advance some if a second or two could be
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counted as some
.
A whining screech and then an explosion a few tens of meters on the enemy side
of the fountain sent shrapnel flinging into the already black smoke-filled
part of the city. Brilliant flashes of mecha cannon fire and directed energy
weapons lit up the smoky battlescape of the largest driving circle in the
solar system. The whirling winds caused by the gaping hole in the dome
continued to whip the smoke and debris into small dust devils and gustnados.
They were illuminated by bright orange and red flashes from mecha exploding.
Several more whining screeches followed with explosions and then
forty-millimeter cannon fire picked up continuously. The spitanging of HVAR
rounds on the fountain and statue ceased but the spitap spitap spitap of HVAR
rounds being fired only increased flinging shrapnel buzzing around the other
side of the fountain like many angry bees.
Lieutenant Colonel "Burner" Masterson ran his configurable FM- 12 strike mecha
at full trot in bot-
mode onto the north side of Dome Circle and pierced through the whirling smoke
clouds into the opening firing anti-mecha missiles into three Seppy drop tanks
and then fired his jump thrusters launching the sleek Mars red humanoid-
formed fighter mecha into a full forward flip while multiple beams pulsed from
the main directed energy gun in the left hand of the FM- 12. The mecha looked
like a giant robot with an armored cockpit in its upper mid torso through
where a head should be, flanked on either shoulder with swiveling
forty-millimeter HVAR cannons.
"Fox three!" Multiple mecha-to-mecha missile tubes stacked along the torso of
the lethal vehicle left faint blue and purple ionization trails as the
missiles scattered from the FM-12 seeking Seppy targets to kill.
"Whew!" Masterson grunted to offset the g-loading on his lower extremities.
The heads-up display on the canopy was lit up with multiple targets having
locked on to him and his warning klaxons and the
"Bitching Betty" were ringing loud in his ears. "Now come get me! Guns 1, Guns
2!" He let out a howl and released multiple bursts from the shoulder mounted
cannons and several DEG bursts.
As the Seppy Orcus drop tanks focused on the lieutenant colonel, the remaining
twenty-three FM-12s of
Cardiff's Killers brought death from the sky, from behind buildings, within
the whirling smoke debris clouds, and one even tore upward through an
overpass. The surprise of two dozen American Marine strike fighting mechas
threw the more numerous Separatist drop tanks into a state of confusion.
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- Chapter 8
At first they scattered aimlessly, like mice skittering for cover, with no
clear plan or forethought into where that cover might be. After the initial
shock of the surprise attack dulled, the veteran Seppy mecha pilots began to
fight back with some effectiveness. But their numbers had dwindled to even or
less with the Americans. And the Americans were moving swiftly and deadly.
Cardiff's Killers were doing what they did best kill.
"LT? Sarge? Can you make a run south?" Corporal Shelly announced over the QM.
"The mechaheads are covering the north and me and Kootie are bouncing to ya!"
"Oorah! Shelly!" Sergeant Jackson called back as he brought his city view back
to the forefront of his visor. There were the blue dots for Shelly and Kudaf
but not a sign of the FM-12s or the Seppy Orcus drop tanks he could see with
his own eyes.
No time to think about that
, he thought.
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We ain't gonna die today damnit!
Oorah!
his AIC Susan replied.
"Shelly, we got you. Sarge and I are bouncing south for better cover. We're
out of ammo you gotta give us some cover." Washington tried to bear-crawl away
from the fountain as best he could with a half-
meter-long hunk of steel sticking out of his left leg. The pain resurfacing
from each movement forced him to grit his teeth and focus. He knew he had to
focus on surviving and getting the hell out of there.
Tammie! Where do we need to go? We need a retreat route now!
Thomas asked his AIC.
Here sir! The southbound interstate overpass gives you the best cover!
She highlighted the escape path on the map in his head. She then transferred
the same data to the sergeant's AIC.
"Shelly, Kudaf, here is our rendezvous point!" He relayed the data to them
through the QM. "Let's bounce, Sergeant!" He stood quickly and released the
jumper field on his boots, flinging him twenty meters southward. The jarring
motion of the jumping rushed up through his bum leg and sent sharp needles of
pain piercing through him. The pain medication was beginning to wear down. He
needed medical attention. The second lieutenant gritted his teeth and dreaded
the next landing and bounce. He adjusted his stride so that most of the impact
would be taken by his right leg instead.
"LT, hang on to my shoulder." Sergeant Jackson saw the second lieutenant
shudder on his first bounce and thought he was going to collapse, but the
tough young officer pushed through the pain. Jackson caught him by the second
bounce and grabbed his left arm. The two men bounced as fast and far south as
they could manage. Fortunately, the Seppies were otherwise preoccupied.
It had taken nearly thirty minutes for Alexander and his band of misfit
refugees to backtrack through the main dome to the nearest downward accessing
elevator without being spotted by the Separatists who had overrun Mons City.
There they had taken the elevator down three levels to a maintenance travel
shaft where they took a small electric buggy through all the way to the main
elevator shaft of the city. The
Separatist troops had not bothered to make it as far below the city yet.
Hopefully they would keep it that way.
For a brief moment, Senator Moore and his AIC had considered walking out of
the dome through the lower levels, but that would place them at the edge of
the dome more than seventy kilometers from the evac point south of the
dome too far to run to in time. On the other hand, if they traveled up the
elevator to the maintenance shaft and then up again to the top of the dome
they could base-jump with the gliderchutes and cover the territory in ten or
twenty minutes, depending on the prevailing winds.
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- Chapter 8
Jumping still seemed like the best option. The other alternative might be to
hide out in the city bowels until the city was liberated by the American
forces, but that seemed dangerous. The fact that it seemed more dangerous than
jumping off the top of the city dome might have been debatable but Alexander
preferred action and escaping rather than evading and hiding in occupied
territory. He had been captured before in his life and it was no fun then. He
didn't care to repeat the experience, especially with his wife and
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