Ryan’s hand settled on her shoulder and she gave him a slight smile.
“Piece of cake,” Ryan said, his voice muffled through their helmets since he wasn’t using the feed.
“Walk in the park,” Maria answered.
“A park infested by insane dead people,” Lindsey added.
Nervous laughter was glared into silence by Vanguard Stillson.
Maria’s helmet readout abruptly turned red.
The battle had begun.
The sound of the Maelstrom Platforms on the walls erupting into action startled the soldiers crammed into the tiltrotor. Twisting against their straps, they watched through the ports as the large superposed load platforms (or SLPs) reduced the crowd of Scourge outside the immediate walls into so much bloody pulp. The large, long rectangular guns perched on the city walls were boxy in appearance due to the many barrels packed on top of each other. They were capable of firing four thousand rounds in two seconds flat, and they shredded anything in their path.
The aircraft with heavy machinery payloads drifted out over the destroyed bodies as the Maelstrom Platforms continued to pulverize the Scourge near the walls. In a perfectly timed synchronization of actions, a Maelstrom Platform would fall silent just as an aircraft dispatched its heavy payload onto the blood-drenched ground below. Immediately, the dispatched machine rolled into position on its massive treads and extended long unfolding steel mesh wings. The first to land immediately attached to the city wall and the ones that followed lined up to create a perimeter. Each squat machine was a cog in a mobile wall that the military engineers hoped to use to extend outward into the valley to push back the Scourge.
“Unbelievable,” Ryan said in awe, watching the action below.
More machines landed and extended their walls. Turrets slid out of the tops of the squat forms and opened fire on the Scourge swarming toward the newly erected perimeter glinting in the sunlight. The new walls latched onto the machines landing as the tiltrotors above performed a graceful ballet, while the Maelstrom Platforms alternately fired. A few hundred meters had been carved out of the Scourge masses by the time the final machine extended its walls.
Maria swallowed hard as the tiltrotor dropped in altitude and flew toward the wide expanse of bloody land that had been cleared. Already, the Scourge struggled to reach the new perimeter. The Maelstrom Platforms fell silent as the tiltrotors ferrying the troops headed into the fray. The energy expenditure for the Maelstrom Platforms was high. Each individual bullet was ignited by an energy spark and with so many platforms firing, the already strained grid was forced to go dark in some areas of the city.
The turrets on the mobile wall continued to fire below. The tiltrotor began to descend into the new staging area, and Maria lost sight of the Scourge.
Glancing toward her friends, Maria could see the tension in their faces. Ryan gave her the thumbs up while Lindsey blew her a kiss. The jolt of the landing reverberated through her legs, then Maria was free of her harness and hurtling out the hatch.
The Scourge had long ago trodden the grass and foliage as they had milled around the wall. The ground beneath Maria’s feet was a muddy mix of pulverized flesh, bone and dirt. As she rushed to her position amidst the rest of her squad, her boots sloshed through the gruesome mess. Shallow craters pockmarked the ground were the salvos of the big guns had impacted. The remains of the thousands of bullet rounds flashed in the sunlight before being trampled into the mud.
The military engineers were busy at work ensuring the new perimeter was erected properly while reinforcing the locking mechanisms. The steel mesh comprising the walls was supposed to be the strongest ever created.
The troops spread out along the perimeter as the howls of the Scourge filled the air now that the Maelstrom Platforms were silent. Other weapons and equipment continued to be offloaded as The Bastion soldiers quickly erected their new base outside of the city.
A tiltrotor dropped a heavy payload in the designated spot near Maria’s squad. Maria and Ryan grabbed a crate by both ends and lugged it toward the new, high wall. Popping the latches on the container, Maria felt sweat starting to pool between her breasts and slide down the back of her neck. Her armor’s cooling unit was obviously not working properly. Ryan and Maria punched in a few codes into the panels on both ends of the container and darted back as it rose up into a catwalk that attached automatically to the mesh perimeter.
Scaling the ladder, Maria felt her chest tighten as she neared the top. Reaching her post, she hooked her safety line onto the catwalk, then finally dared to look upon the enemy.
The Scourge panned into view, screaming and thrashing about as they rushed over the shattered remains of their comrades. From above, the new wall looked terrifyingly thin and vulnerable to the crush of bodies swiftly approaching.
“Keep them back from the wall!” a voice barked in her helmet.
It was Chief Defender Reichardt. He stood in the center of the claimed territory directing the deployment of weapons and equipment.
Maria raised her rifle and took aim at the creatures surging toward the new perimeter. The turrets continued to fire as the soldiers who had never faced true battle stared into the faces of the victims of the ISPV plague. This wasn’t a holographic projection in the training rooms, but the true, deadly Scourge. Their cloudy eyes, tattered clothing, tangled hair, and seeping wounds were the only indicators that they weren’t human. Maria could now vividly understand why the ISPV victims had originally been perceived as wounded living beings. How easily their cries must have been interpreted as appeals for help.
“They look so human,” Maria muttered. Her trigger finger hesitated as the face of a young woman filled the scope. Her muddy blond hair and dirty face obscured a pretty face. The Scourge woman looked horrifyingly alive as she screamed.
“Keep then back from the wall!” the order came again.
Maria realized she wasn’t the only one hesitating in firing. Beside her Ryan kept readjusting his aim.
The crowd was now a few hundred meters from the walls.
The news vids flashed through Maria’s mind, images of the Scourge attacking the living...
The sharp bark of Ryan’s weapon released her paralysis. Squeezing off a shot, she saw the young woman’s face disappear in a gout of blood. Immediately, she aimed at the next Scourge and fired. It was woefully easy to keep pressing the trigger once the first few rounds had been fired.
The air hummed around her as another aircraft set down more of the mobile wall units. Behind her on the sodden ground, she knew the military engineers were swiftly hooking the units together and preparing to expand the wall again. The tensile strength of the expandable walls would prevent collapse, but Maria was leery of the mesh-like structure into which Commandant Young was placing so much faith.
Beside her a turret died and a soldier rushed to reload it. The one just beyond Ryan also went silent. Maria felt her stomach clench as the Scourge gained ground now that the two turrets had ceased firing.
“Hurry with those turrets!” Chief Defender Reichardt’s voice barked through the feed.
Maria switched her weapon to full auto and strafed the Scourge charging the wall. Ryan and the other members of her squad followed suit just as Vanguard Stillson gave the order.
“Expanding the wall,” a voice announced over the feed.
Maria focused her attention to demolishing the Scourge below. Blood, bone and viscera poured onto the dry soil. The Scourge slipped and fell over their brethren, but kept coming.
The turret beside Maria sprang to life again, but the Scourge had advanced further than anticipated in the mission briefings. It was a matter of seconds before they hit the wall.
“Beginning wall expansion.”
“This is a bad idea,” Maria muttered, gripping the handhold next to her.
The catwalk shuddered as the military engineers activated the mobile wall units. The connected catwalks also came to life, the treads pushing forward as the wall expanded. A cluster of the machines were connected to the apex of the wall and rolled forward as the wall unfurled like a blossoming flower. Maria crouched, glancing over at Ryan. He tried to get off a few shots before giving up. It was too difficult to aim with the wall moving. The wall shuddered as it met in an unyielding mass of flesh, and Maria clutched the handhold with both hands.
“We need the Maelstrom Platforms loaded and firing!” Chief Defender Reichardt’s voice commanded.
The overwhelming wave of the Inferi Scourge pressed against the perimeter and the engines whined furiously as they tried to gain traction on the slippery ground. A few tiltrotors roared overhead as the flight crews strafed the crowd, but most of the air support had already retreated to the safety of the city. The fuel reserves were too low to keep the tiltrotor fleet up in the air for extended periods of time.
Commands barked over the feed as the tiltrotors firing at the Scourge were ordered back to the city. The mobile wall trembled again as it continued to unfurl. The treads of the units rolled over the sodden ground, struggling over the pockmarked terrain. The turrets continued to fire bursts as the soldiers feverishly reloaded them.
The massive Maelstrom Platforms finally opened fire, pulverizing the Scourge a hundred yards from the expanding perimeter.
