Redemption (The Alliance Series Book 1) (27 page)

              It was impressive. The shield was generated by three things that had both of their hands up standing to the rear of the first squad. They were at equal distant intervals, one generator on the end of the heavy hitters one in the middle and one at the other end. The energy they were releasing came out of their fingers, well, where their fingers should have been. Instead, there was a weird array of metal protrusions that spread out and emitted the shield.

              The electricity followed the shield down towards the three generators and immediately upon contacting them, the shield died. All three creations arched their backs as the electricity interacted with their nervous systems. The machinery that was emitting the energy needed for their shields was mounted on the front of their bodies. This way they were protected from incoming rounds.

              Whatever it was that allowed them to produce the shields apparently was allergic to my lightning. The packs that made them all look pregnant exploded in a spectacular fashion taking most of their upper abdomens with them.

              I don't know if it was the concussion from the explosion, the effects of my magic, the wards using up all their juice or a combination of those things. The same time that the shields dissolved the containment field evaporated.

              Everything sped up at that point. I reached the end of my ramp and launched myself into the air.

              The grenades, that were held in stasis, took off heading for their targets. One hit the gates and destroyed them as I sailed over the grenadiers heads. Flipping once and rotating I landed behind the first squad facing their backs.

              I saw from my peripheral vision movement from the trees. Animals of all shapes and sizes made out of stained wood erupted from the forest and assaulted the troops behind me. They were ferocious.

              I couldn't take the time to appreciate how a squirrel could harass a killing machine. I had my own problems to worry about.

              As I landed, I immediately unleashed another amber lightning bolt that I spread out to hit all of the nasties launching grenades. I hit them in their spines, directly at their central nervous system’s highway. They all convulsed. Foam formed at their mouths and their eyes rolled up in their heads. Sparks and smoke started coming from their cybernetics. They all stopped moving and fell forward.

              At the same time I tried to concentrate on protecting my back and I felt it as my shield was enacted to protect me from rounds that the nasties were able to get off in my direction. It felt as if someone were hitting me with fast thrown snowballs. I staggered once and used the forward momentum to run back towards the gates.

              Someone had the good sense to release a smoke grenade. I quickly started running through the ever-thickening red smoke that helped obscure my position. The sensation of being hit in the back slowed, then ceased. I looked down to see that more than half of the stones on my bracelet were a dull brown.

              I was startled as two large shadows appeared in the smoke heading towards me. I saw the black marble bears briefly as they sprinted past me, one on either side, to go wading into the oncoming enemy.

              Everything got very chaotic for a few minutes after that. The Alliance, having realized their rounds would be more effective now that the shields were down, unleashed more firepower. The bears elicited a lot of attention and diverted an entire squad to try to stop their rampage. The rest of the enemy began their advance towards the cabin.

              I heard the roar of an injured bear and the answering snarl of an angry one. I concentrated on getting towards one of the bunkers that had dotted the path towards the gate.

              I cleared the smoke and easily found one that I was able to reach and slide down into.

              I looked back towards the advancing squads but couldn't see through the smoke very well.

              One of the things the Alliance had done was create a manmade barrier that drove the nasties towards choke points. Couple that with Peotr’s suggestive wards, which he altered to gently push them where we wanted, and we were able to get a fairly dense concentration of the enemy in the spot that Nathan had set up his second layer of defense. Even after they had cleared the gate, the idea was to keep them on the main road creating a shooting lane that we could use to decimate their numbers.

              A gentle breeze had begun to blow the smoke away enough to see the advancing troops. About twenty of them had cleared the gate and were slowly marching towards the cabin.

              They were the machine gunners.

              Their arms looked like someone had cut them off at the elbow and replaced them with machine guns. They also had larger back bulges. Used for carrying the rounds that they were busy sending our way. Their eyes looked larger than normal and gleamed with a metallic shine. Wherever they looked or turned their heads their arm/machine guns followed. The firepower they were laying down was devastating.

              Two men in the bunker across the street from me were killed as enemy fire found its way through the small windows of the bunker. I dropped down as my bunker was laid into.

              All this changed when Nathan’s wards did their thing.

              I've witnessed some of Nathans brand of I.E.D.'s. His are great for supernatural threats. Some beings are immune to bullets or flying shrapnel and can heal rapidly from massive damage. Nathan’s plan was to create damage on such a grand scale that even a zombie would have a hard time crawling away from it.

              His wards released the energy they had been storing in the manner Nathan intended. There was a flash of blue light as the wards that were laid across the street came to life. A small blue ball popped up from the ground and got as high as the gunners necks. They then detonated in a wave of destructive energy. They didn't explode in a circular pattern but in a wave aimed at the enemy. The energy was concentrated to a thin blade and accelerated, as it got closer. The wave passed through the enemy and quickly dissipated.

              The gunners took a couple more steps before their heads toppled off. Their bodies took a second to comprehend what had happened, and then they too, fell to the ground in a bundle of machine and meat.

              The silence from the cessation of the gunfire was deafening.

              The smoke cleared enough to see the rest of the enemy troops.

              Where the bears had entered the fight there was a large pile of bodies in a circle around the remains of their marble frames. The enemy was just too numerous to not have been able to destroy the bears. The stone sentinels had made a good account of themselves before they were defeated.

              There were other bodies lying where the wooden animals had been able to inflict enough damage to kill. The wooden defenders body count wasn't large, but what they were able to do was still impressive.

              The nasties had stopped to allow the gunners to get through. They all looked towards the cabin with machine-like detachment, ready for the next command.

              I figured Simmons had to be somewhere nearby giving them their orders. He couldn't be too close because my magic was still effective.

              Personally, I think he was too scared to show. He wanted to let his muscle do all the work.

              The initial assault and the ensuing retaliation had taken a toll on the nasties numbers. They had lost roughly one quarter of their forces. That still left around seventy beefed up super soldiers to deal with. Joy.

              There was a small pause in the action as the Alliance recovered from the shock of Nathans wards.

              That’s when the jumpers attacked. From the back of the formation flew a dozen modified soldiers. They looked like mechanical kangaroos. Their legs were almost seven feet long. They had the same proportions of kangaroo legs, designed specifically for jumping. You could hear the release of the hydraulic pressure as they leaped into the air easily clearing the nasties in front of them and landing near our bunkers or directly on top of them. I met one that jumped towards mine with a lightning bolt to the chest, ensuring he was unable to complete whatever function he had in mind.

              I soon realized what they were doing when I saw the one across from me set an explosive device on the bunker and jump uphill in a hundred foot leap and land on the next defensive position, again planting an explosive device.

              The timers must have been short because as the jumpers landed on the second set of bunkers the explosives set on the first ones went off.

              They were high grade C-4. They eradicated the bunkers the Alliance had worked so hard to build.

              I knew it was time to retreat towards the cabin. We had to regroup and hope the jumpers could be stopped before they made it all the way up the hill.

              I turned uphill and started running, immediately coming under fire. I felt my shield protect me from a few rounds and made sure the men in the bunker with me ran in front, protecting them as I went. We used the trees as cover and soon outpaced the progressing enemy.

              I could hear multiple explosions as the jumpers advanced and devastated our bunkers. I could also tell that we were trying to take them out. Every time a jumper would land on a bunker there would be a concentration of fire at his location. They were too fast.

              That is until Master Sgt. Roberts had his say. From the roof of the cabin, dead center of the building Sgt. Roberts began taking out the jumpers in mid-flight. It was an amazing display of accuracy.

              The skill he showed was much more impressive than watching someone shoot a flying skeet. In skeet shooting, you have a plate launched at a pretty straight angle and you have to anticipate that angle and hit the target, with a shotgun.

              Now take that same target and have it bouncing in quick cessation. Unknowing which way they will go next and having to hit that target at more than two hundred yards, with a sniper rifle.

              When Sgt. Roberts started shooting, five of the eight bunkers were already destroyed. Two of the ten jumpers had been killed, one by me and another after he landed on a bunker and took too long to set his explosive.

              When he was done, seven of the eight bunkers were destroyed and nine of the ten jumpers had fallen. The last one leaped from the bunker he was on and flew towards the cabin, having made it all the way up the driveway and within range of the building.

              His flight ended abruptly when he slammed into Peotr’s own shield.

              He reminded me of a bug that hits a windshield at eighty M.P.H. Roberts made sure he was dead by placing one round through the jumper’s left eye.

              The rest of the enemy troops made it about halfway up the driveway when Nathan’s third and final defensive measure took effect.

              There were about fifty remaining enemy troops. From the looks of them, they were the light infantry force. They still had the same camo look and were moving in a rather well defined line. They were using the trees and other cover to advance up the hill, taking oncoming fire from the Alliance.

              Every few moments we would get one or two of them, slowly reducing their numbers.

              This last group seemed to be made for quick assaults. They were smaller in stature than the larger nasties. These too had smaller machine guns where their forearms should have been. Only they had them on one hand. The other looked normal, enhancing their ability to scramble over obstructions. These troops had the distorted back humps as well, allowing them far more ammo capacity than a normal soldier.

              It is amazing how many rounds you can carry when your spine and legs have been augmented by cybernetics. Not to mention the large container implanted in your back to allow a belt system to continuously feed bullets to your forearm gun.

              Their approach was fast, nearly as fast as our retreat, which was amazing, actually, considering they were under constant assault.             

They had spread out in a wide swath, stretching a hundred yards on either side of the driveway, making it difficult to effectively concentrate our fire. If allowed to continue in a spread out formation, they would be able to approach and surround the cabin quickly while keeping their numbers strong.

              The ten or so Alliance fighters that had survived the initial onslaught quickly dashed into the cabin while I took position on one side of the cabin behind a barricade made of logs and pushed up dirt.

              The infantry made quick work of the uneven terrain, able to ignore all but the largest obstructions. Easily scaling barricades or jumping razor wire.

              That was until Nathan’s third and final wards were enacted.

              There was a loud buzzing sound. Similar to when something that uses a lot of electricity is turned on.

              A translucent wall appeared on both sides of the road running slightly perpendicular to it. Visible only when a nasty physically contacted it and emitting a light blue impact point.