Chapter 16

The ground forces had been in their quarters during the battle against the Zytol ships and they had felt the Scout shudder time and time again as the enemy missiles blasted the ship's shields. When no major alarms sounded, they assumed the shields had done their job and that the ship had escaped any major damage.

Each of the group leaders was considering the orders that had been delivered to them by the Scout's AI, preparing for another trip down to the planet's surface.

Carson saw that he had been tasked to attack a large Zytol force that seemed to be guarding one of Woden's life support hubs. These hubs were where the previously polluted air had been cleansed and then pumped into the network of enclosed thoroughfare's and bubble buildings.

It had been the Zytol capture of a number of these hubs that had led to the Emperor broadcasting his message telling the Wodenites to end their resistance. Without clean air, the population wouldn't have lasted long. Now, of course, things were significantly different. The repair to the ozone layer and the improvement in the air quality meant that the hubs were no longer a strategic target, but neither Marlon nor the Zytol seemed to have worked that out.

According to the Scout's scanners, there were over a hundred Zytol troops stationed at the hub and Captain Marlon wanted Carson and the blue group to lead an assault and capture the facility.

A second target had also been picked out for the blue group, this one a large hospital on the outskirts of the Capital itself. What scant intelligence there was suggested that there were several hundred Zytol based on the sprawling campus.

Carson scratched his head. He couldn't see any logic in the targets he had been assigned other than the fact that there were a significant number of enemy troops at each one.

"There's absolutely no rhyme nor reason to this. What is the Captain's strategy? We're not focusing on targets of strategic importance. We're not trying to take and hold territory; we're not even trying to hold the facilities we have taken so far. Does he really think we can just keep wiping out little groups of Zytol and that that will be enough to liberate the planet? Surely not, even Marlon can't be that stupid!"

The members of blue group were in a much better frame of mind when they gathered to be transported down to the surface again. Their victory at the farm had bolstered their confidence — they had been 'blooded' in their first engagement with the enemy and they had been victorious.

There was still a lot of tension amongst the group, but now it was focused rather than nervous and each squad member prepared him or herself effectively for what was to come.

The tele-port passed off without incident and Carson found himself exactly where he had asked to be put down — just over a mile away from the life support hub. A cautious advance took just over an hour and the main body of the group rested while one squad of four went forward to reconnoitre what they faced.

Four hours later the squad returned and the squad leader reported what they had found to Carson.

"It's not too much different to the farm, Lieutenant. Fewer buildings this time, but the main Zytol force is all in one place again. We saw four different patrols, so they're obviously alert and on the lookout for trouble, but we did manage to pick out two different approaches that would provide plenty of cover."

"Maybe there's a chance of using the special gift that General David gave us?" Carson mused.

"I think that would work, Sir," agreed the squad leader.

The Celestialite's love of weapons and the knowledge that they would soon be involved in fighting to liberate Woden had led to David experimenting with various ideas that had their genesis in Woden's distant past.

One such idea had been developed and shared with the Wodenite trainees before Marlon had ordered them all back onboard the Scout. Now Carson could see an opportunity to try out David's weapon. If it worked, he could possibly attack both of his targets at the same time and that would be a prize worth having.

"Okay, why don't you and your squad grab some rest. I'm not planning on launching an attack anytime soon, there's some further work to be done first," he said.

Two of the other squads were dispatched to make their way to the hospital campus, which was barely three miles away. Carson wanted intelligence on how difficult a target that would be before committing himself to the plan that was taking shape in his head.

"This is just the kind of thing that Simon was always encouraging us to think about. Do the unexpected, hit them and hit them hard, that's what Simon would do." Carson found those thoughts comforting and reassuring — he wasn't comfortable in his role yet, but the notion that Simon might think of doing the same thing he was planning somehow gave his ideas legitimacy.

The blue group spent a quiet if uncomfortable night undercover, waiting for their scouts to report back on the situation at the hospital. When they returned, their report wasn't as positive as that of the squad who had scouted the life support hub.

"There are hundreds of them, Lieutenant. They're spread all over the site and there are quite a few civilians mixed in amongst them."

That news helped Carson make up his mind. He didn't want to attack the hub and risk the Zytol at the hospital being alerted to their presence. The hospital clearly sounded as if it was going to be the tougher of the targets too, so he wanted his troops as fresh for that battle as possible.

He contacted the Scout and made enquires about whether tele-port facilities might be available to help with what he planned to do. Marlon was still licking his wounds while he thought about a new way of attacking the Zytol ships, so it was possible that the Scout's shields could be lowered for the time it would take to use the tele-port. Everything seemed to be working in favour of Carson's plan and he decided to roll with it.

"And we're positive there are no civilians inside the hub?" Carson checked for the fourth time. He didn't want to inflict what he was planning on any of his fellow Wodenites.

"No, Sir, only Zytol," was the answer.

Once darkness fell again, the chosen squad worked their way as close to the life support hub as they dared. Their handheld scanners pinpointed to within millimetres where they wanted to be transported to and the Scout's tele-port technology swung into action.

The squad of four found themselves balanced precariously on the very apex of the main dome of the hub and they fitted the weapon they had brought as slowly and as quietly as they possibly could. The squad leader set the weapons timer and then used his throat mic to request that they be tele-ported back to the remainder of blue group.

"The job's done, Sir. It's timed to go off at exactly 04:30, that gives us three hours to make it into position around the hospital," reported the squad leader.

"Well done, that couldn't have been easy," Carson congratulated the man.

"Actually, it was easy, Lieutenant. We were a bit nervous that someone might hear us up there, but the tele-port took most of the strain to be honest."

The main group were quickly roused and a forced march took them away from the hub and on towards the hospital campus. Carson knew that he would need to split the group perilously thin to take maximum advantage of the surprise that he had planned. The scouts had reported where the various groups of Zytol seemed to be stationed at the hospital and he wanted his troops close enough to each of them to try to kill as many as possible in the first exchange.

The squads split up and quietly slipped through the grounds of the hospital, using their night-goggles to find the best cover they could close to where they had been told the enemy would be. Once in position, there was a nerve-jangling wait of thirty or so minutes before the show began.

High up on the dome of the hub, the timer on David's weapon clicked round to zero and a small motor whirred into life. The motor powered a pump that was connected to a large reservoir at one end and a long thin tube at the other.

The tube extended down through the air vent on the top of the dome until it was inside and then a tough but flexible mevlar based skin was inflated to form a bubble about ten feet across. The motor began to pump the jellied benzene and polystyrene from the reservoir into the mevlar skin until it was full and bulging.

Without pause, the weapon exploded the skin and simultaneously ignited the napalm mixture, sending the sticky burning substance raining down on the unsuspecting Zytol below. Very quickly many of the Zytol were coated in the fiercely burning mixture and their screams were animalistic in the extreme.

The mixture had two other effects that proved deadly — it rapidly used up the available oxygen within the enclosed bubble of the hub, so that some of the Zytol were quickly suffocating through lack of air and it also created carbon monoxide in huge quantities and that had its effect too.

From the outside the hub dome looked an incredible sight, as the intense flames lit up its interior. The screams of the dying were thankfully short-lived due to the lack of oxygen, but one of the patrols on the outside of the dome contacted the hospital to warn of an attack.

At the hospital, the Zytol forces throughout the campus were quickly warned about the attack on the hub and troops could be seen moving to take up pre-planned defensive positions. This was the opportunity that Carson had hoped for.

The various squads of the blue group now opened fire on the scurrying Zytol, catching them in the covered walkways that linked the various hospital buildings. The fact that it was the middle of the night meant that there were no civilians up and about and that helped ensure there was little risk of the squads hitting their fellow citizens.

Back at the hub, the one squad that had been left behind moved forward cautiously to check for any survivors. The stench of the burning fuel was almost overpowering, but they were still able to detect something else — the smell of roasted and burnt flesh. The two male members of the squad were quickly vomiting over their own feet, as they realised what the smell was, but the two female members remained focused and they began checking that no one had survived.

One of the Zytol patrols surprised the two men and opened up on them. Only their shields saved them from death and their sickness was instantly forgotten as they dropped and began returning fire. Over the course of the next hour, all of the remaining patrols were dealt with and the squad leader reported to Carson that everything was secure.

At the hospital, things were not going as well. After the initial surprise, the Zytol had recovered quickly and two of the squads found themselves pinned down under withering fire.

Carson recalled all the squads that he could and took stock of what they had achieved. His squad leaders estimated that perhaps as many as fifty Zytol troops had been taken out in the first volleys, but that still left perhaps as many as one hundred and fifty of the enemy to deal with.

"We need to help get squads three and six out of trouble," said Carson. "After that, I think we should withdraw, there are too many of them for us to take on alone."

He received nods of agreement from those around him and they re-joined their squads and began picking their way towards where the first squad was pinned down. The arrival of support and the covering fire that five squads were able to lay down opened an opportunity for squad three to scurry back from their position and rejoin the main group.

Together, they moved off in the direction of the continuing fire that had squad six pinned down. Carson oversaw a repeat of the covering fire to try to help squad six withdraw and it seemed to be just as effective as it had been the first time. He could see the four squad members running away from the Zytol positions when one of them tripped and fell. The other three made it back to the group and joined the others in trying to suppress the enemy fire.

With only one clear target to aim at, and with the fury that comes from seeing their comrades killed, the Zytol troops all focussed their fire on the member of squad six who had fallen. The fire from as many as twenty rifles was concentrated on the fallen man and at first his shield was able to protect him.

As it had with Arnold's shield, the concentrated fire drained the troopers shield faster than it could replenish itself and within a few seconds the alarm was wailing to alert him to the danger he was in. He staggered to his feet and began to run for cover. The rifle fire from the Zytol followed him however, and before he could reach blue group, the shield failed. Carson watched as the man was flung about like a marionette, as round after round slapped into his body.

As the man's dead body slumped to the ground, further shots struck home and jerked the corpse where it lay. The entire blue group force actually paused in returning fire, stunned at what they were seeing. Realisation that one of their comrades had fallen sunk in and a collective scream of anger escaped from their ranks.

Carson didn't even realise what he was doing, as he got to his feet and ran forward, firing his rifle as he ran and screaming out his rage. Fortunately for him, blue group chose to follow his lead and within seconds thirty or so troopers were storming the Zytol position.

With more targets to choose from, the Zytol fire was no longer concentrated on any one individual and the Wodenite's shields did their job effectively. Once again the Zytol were disconcerted by the fact that their rifles seemed suddenly ineffective and they began to fall back. More than half of the twenty strong Zytol force lost their lives to the frenzied charge of blue group, but ten managed to slip away through the covered walkways to join up with other Zytol troops.

With sheer will-power, Carson somehow managed to stop blue group from continuing the charge. Belatedly he had come to his senses and realised the danger they would be in charging around in the dark fighting what was still a much larger force.

"ENOUGH! RE-GROUP!" he shouted.

Reluctantly, the various squad members slowed their charge and began to make their way back to where Carson was standing.

"We've got no idea where the Zytol are out there anymore. It would be too easy for them to ambush us in the dark and you've all seen that the shields are not guaranteed to keep us safe. I think it's time to collect squad seven from the hub and ask to be tele-ported back to the Scout."

The growling of several of the group told Carson that some disagreed, but he couldn't see any advantage in continuing the assault.

"Some of you pick him up, we're not leaving him lying here," ordered Carson, nodding his head towards the dead trooper. "Make sure you get his shield, I want to know why it stopped working."

The death of the trooper from blue group was the only casualty that the Zytol had managed to inflict as far as they knew. The red, green and white groups had also carried out further attacks successfully and the Zytol command were desperate to find a tactic that gave them some chance of turning the tide.

Most of the Zytol ground forces had been taken off of Woden after the civilian population had been effectively subdued, but the events of the past few days had resulted in many of them being transported back down to the planet to bolster defences.

When the news that one of the Wodenite troopers had been killed reached the Zytol commanders, they demanded to know every single detail of how the death had occurred. Quite quickly they came to the conclusion that it had to have been the concentration of fire on one man that had made the difference. That titbit was soon shared with every location, along with orders for the force commanders to work on a plan of how they would use it if they found themselves under attack.

The Admiral in command of the Zytol ships also realised that he had been guilty of a stupid mistake. All of his attention had been focused on trying to find and destroy the Wodenite space ship, with all of his own ships dedicated to that task.

Although they had stolen all of Woden's technology, the Zytol hadn't yet figured out what the tele-port facilities did. They had started out believing the ground attacks had been mounted by groups of civilians, but with more intelligence now available it was clear that the attacking forces were trained troops. The Admiral realised that the most likely source for such troops to have come from was the Wodenite ship.