The Return: The Conglomerate Trilogy (Volume 1) Read online

  By any standards, it was crazy and suicidal. Luke had reviewed Bronkaw history. None of the smaller races had dared to attack the Bronkaw on their territory or sought to engage them in close combat. The Bronkaw still fought each other and were no strangers to infantry combat, but fighting the smaller races was not something they had any practice at and to most people reasons were obvious. There were few races in the Conglomerate as large and the Bronkaw were the only real aggressive ones.

  Luke would change that.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Momentum

  Luke grabbed a rail, making sure his magnetic clamps were secure as the escaping atmosphere attempted to force them out, and he kept a death grip on a handhold just in case. When the air thinned out Luke pointed his weapon at the hatch and the warbots moved. He felt the world around him slow down as his diagnostics reported green and his cybernetics accelerated his thoughts and reflexes.

  Doors would have slammed closed, isolating the Bronkaw but slowing down the assault. There was no easy way around it but perhaps it would work out better for the attackers.

  Luke fell, and he grabbed out at a bar nearby, his panic turning to a grim smile, but the warbots around him had no problems adjusting to the lack of gravity. The Bronkaw were trying to give their troops the advantage, they would be stronger now and didn’t have to use their muscles to offset their own mass. Smaller and lighter could move faster and with more precision than the more massive Bronkaw, but the Bronkaw wouldn’t need powered armor. Launching himself Luke landed on the ceiling, other warbots launched themselves to land on the walls. Now the battle would be in three dimensions instead of just two, and Luke doubted the Bronkaw were better at null gravity combat than his warbots. The biggest danger would be losing contact with a surface and becoming a drifting, easy target. Small handheld grav chutes on their belt would help, but combat moved too fast for them to be much of an advantage.

  Without gravity, the Bronkaw might not have any weight but they had plenty of mass, which would be harder to control, even if they were stronger. Most Conglomerate races fought in gravity. The Bronkaw would be massive, powerful juggernaut's, easily targeted by precise fire but their weapons, armor and mass would make them small tanks.

  In his internal heads-up display, called an ‘InnerBuddy’, his ghostly displays were visible only in his mind’s eye and all the warbots displayed their identity as an alphanumeric code floating above their head. Their identity would be faint unless he focused on it and then the display would solidify. He could keep several screens up, aware of them all, and still see what was going on around him.

  For this operation, the first number showed squad, the second number was fireteam, and the last number showed the team member designation. “244” would mean squad two, team four, member four. When he deployed platoons and companies, each designator would start with a letter for the company and then another number for the platoon. “C2244” would be Charlie Company, second platoon, second squad, fourth fireteam, member number four.

  Luke had twenty-six warbots with him inside, organized into two squads, with thirteen warbots per squad, four warbots per fireteam with was one warbot acting as a specialist. Back in the old days the thirteenth member would be the squad leader, but these warbots didn’t need a squad leader and Luke needed a specialist.

  Team 21. Second squad, first team, was in the lead, just in front of Luke with the other teams behind him.

  211 gave the signal and everyone poured into the station. Luke got his first look at the inside of a Bronkaw station. Everything looked like the endless simulations he had been running. No surprises, this could be a simulation for all the variations he was seeing. They were in a storage room, with wall lockers full of space suits. Several crates were magnetically attached to the walls and floor. Luke felt like a child in an adult’s room because everything was large and built for beings much bigger than he was, but children didn’t carry assault weapons, and the size of everything meant it would be easier for smaller targets to find cover and concealment. Big targets wouldn’t have those luxuries. It close quarters for them. Luke glanced at the air ducts but it would be impossible to traverse those. They were big enough but instead of one big duct, there were numerous smaller ones. On a space ship, or station, the more numerous parallel ducts were more resistant to damage. One, or numerous penetrations, did not invalidate all the ducts.

  “How’s it going?” Gray asked.

  “No surprises yet,” Luke said.

  “Any second now,” Gray said and Luke smiled. Just like the simulations.

  One of his specialized warbots, 100 by designation, found a promising looking console and ripped it apart to gain access to the battle wagon’s hard-wired network. The warbot would also act as a relay for communications to Luke’s fleet and a conduit for Luke’s shipboard AI’s hacking into the Bronkaw station network.

  If the out-of-date plans were at least partially accurate, up ahead was a weapons control station. One maybe two Bronkaw would be there.

  Luke gave the corridor ahead a knife hand and more warbots moved forward to clear the way.

  Purple lights flashed and a Bronkaw voice was talking, sounding like sputtering chain saw. The warning was an automated hull breach warning according to Luke’s translator. Were they clueless or just trying to mislead him?

  “Commander,” Nelson said, disrupting Luke’s train of thought. “Our actions are proceeding according to plan. Kukri has sustained minor damage. The fighter wings are entering extended range now and external squads have created a gap in the wagon’s coverage so the fighters can cover the assault.”

  “Good job Nelson,” Luke said checking his maps and deciding. “Keep ‘em busy. I’ll be going for generator number two.”

  “Copy that Commander,” Nelson said. “The assault waves are on schedule. So far, everything is going according to plan. I expect the cock-up to occur any minute. Please make sure it does not revolve around you.”

  Luke smiled. Nelson didn’t want Luke to die, anything else was manageable.

  The network intrusion warbot, called an NIW, and Ultio were now linked. Luke’s flagship would assist the warbot in compromising the Bronkaw networks. There would be a noticeable network delay because of the range but it wasn’t Luke’s problem. The NIW had enough onboard computing power to get things started.

  A Bronkaw Marine stood up and screamed his battle cry, but died with a pinpoint blazer round to the head. Luke swore. Warbot 211 had scored the kill. If he had not been talking with Nelson, he might have beat the warbot. Damn. Was he getting slow? His reflexes and thought process were boosted but he should have gotten it. He felt recovered from the cold, radiation damage maybe? What had the Bronkaw thought to accomplish by screaming a battle cry? The body of the Bronkaw Marine hung there in the corridor now, drifting, a cloud of blood spreading away from it. The body was huge and Luke felt it would fall and crush him as he pushed his way past it. He kept his eyes and weapon focused on the corridor instead of the body. He didn’t want to see the eyes.

  Two more Bronkaw Marines arrived and died just as quickly, and once again Luke barely had time to shoot. It was now obvious warbots and humans were faster and more accurate than the oversized Bronkaw. Luke suspected they weren’t boosting their reactions either, interesting enough, a lot of Conglomerate fighters didn’t. Bronkaw had brute force, heavy armor and were big targets. However, even the heaviest armor could not stop a high-powered blazer round from slicing through it, and you only had to penetrate the front of the armor, not the back. A blazer round passing through a body part would flash fry surrounding flesh, causing water molecules to explode, causing damage far out of proportion to the size of the round. Luke and the warbots had big slower moving targets; the Bronkaw had smaller, faster moving targets. Luke wondered why nobody had tried this before.

  A directional pulse blast pierced the door to the weapons control room as the squad moved past it. Warm air escaped into the cold, creating a fast moving, swirling mist.
There wasn’t enough pressure to push it all out though so the mist hung there, obscuring normal vision but Luke and his warbots had sensors with the ability to see through it. One of the warbots shot a magnetic grenade through the new hole and everyone moved on.

  The side doors were breached but not searched. Speed was of the essence as Luke led the squads deeper. Usually, the door breach kept the door from opening.

  Only one Bronkaw Marine managed to obliterated a warbot with a lucky hit but it died as fast as the warbot. Luke’s luck wouldn’t hold. It never did, but he was still alive.

  A nasty volley of fire from prepared Bronkaw Marines destroyed two warbots near Luke and was the first sign they had reached a power core. The second sign was the massive, armored door behind the barricades. Heavy armor walls, magnetically attached to the deck, were strategically placed in the room, and gave the Bronkaw good positions to fight from. The room itself looked like it could be a workroom or storage room for engine parts which could be moved through the large door in the back of the room. Its purpose did not matter so much as the defenders blocking his path. They were well placed with multiple firing angles on the hatch Luke wanted to get through. The armored walls were shaped and looked like they were part medieval battlements, part barricades, allowing the Bronkaw to fire from multiple positions while exposing as little of their body as possible.

  “Team 23,” Luke said picking them out from the surrounding ones. “Find a nearby room, punch a hole in the wall and execute a flanking sniper.”

  “Aye, aye,” warbot 231 answered for the team.

  “Hammer the weasel,” Luke said to the other warbots and took a position to the left side of the door. The warbots assembled around the large door, using the lack of gravity so they could position all around it.

  The first warbot popped out and fired a shot, only the head and weapon visible. Data from its sensors broadcast to the others giving Luke a ghostly view of what was inside the room and where potential targets were. The Bronkaw returned fire while other warbots clustered around the hatch analyzed the rounds coming through the opening, tracked their lightning fast trajectory and using it to backtrack to the source. Again, the ghostly image inside the room was updated and the next warbot popped out to fire, cutting down another Bronkaw. The data collected was accurate enough to determine which side of the armored walls each Bronkaw was shooting from.

  An explosive round burst in the hatchway but Luke and the warbots armor protected against it. The Bronkaw couldn’t use anything too heavy, and right now the heaviest explosives they had, would only be a nuisance to Luke and his warbots. However, Luke couldn’t rule out the Bronkaw getting lucky. It wasn’t fun though and delayed Luke’s response for a microsecond as he shook his head, trying to clear it from the ringing. He popped out and fired a shot, catching yet another Bronkaw by surprise. Return fire slammed into the hatch and past him as he pulled his head back, his sensors feeding the warbots. Another warbot popped out to shoot and Luke wondered how long the walls could sustain enemy fire before rounds penetrated and endanger Luke’s forces. The rounds slamming into the wall just on the other side of his head were being fired to distract or intimidate Luke and his warbots, or to chew through the wall and turn their cover into a useless sieve.

  “Requesting distraction,” Warbot 231 said and one of the warbots near Luke flipped a grenade into the room. For the armored Bronkaw Marines, it would be a distraction, but it sufficed to mask team 23 from using a breaching charge to cut a hole in a wall so they could shoot into the Bronkaw’s chamber from another angle.

  Another one of the warbots popped up and fired but the Bronkaw were ready and shredded it before it could fire. The warbot exploded, sending pieces in all directions, something slamming into Luke’s visor and arm. Luke swore before he popped out and drilled another Bronkaw using the targeting data from the now destroyed warbot.

  Team 23 should now be sniping.

  Luke did a quick count, checking the sensor data. About three Bronkaw left unless one or more were cowering and not firing. Not likely since the Bronkaw had egos as big as they were.

  Pieces of another warbot flew past Luke, and he swore. His turn, he popped up and drilled a Bronkaw in the neck. Not an instant kill but sufficient, and the return fire almost killed him. It would be easy to slow down when ducking, but he would be breaking his oath. He had to do his best. His shoulder was hot, and he had burns, but nothing his nanites couldn’t fix.

  For a brief second the firing at the hatch slowed down and when Luke looked, he saw them firing at the wall team 23 had breached.

  “They found us,” Warbot 231 reported. “Moving to another position. Only two targets remaining now.”

  Luke smiled. Only two. This was dangerous, nasty, dynamic and intense. Best place to be. They discovered the sniper quickly, proving they were more competent than Luke gave them credit for.

  It took less than a minute to eliminate the last Bronkaw, well, nine seconds, Luke saw checking the mission log. The assault landings would not occur for another ten minutes. Crap. If this was a simulation, something bad was about to happen. Since it was taking a long time, then something terrible would occur. Luke smiled and stepped back to look around and evaluate. Nothing, but sometimes excessive caution was worse than just simple paranoia. He couldn’t let tunnel vision control him.

  A warbot came up with one of the plasma cutters and worked on the door to the engine room while the others spread out to cover the other hallways and move the barriers so they could use them.

  The airlock to the generator was breached quickly, but making the hole big enough to use would take time. Already blazer rounds were slamming into the airlock, letting Luke know the Bronkaw inside would do their best to discourage anyone from coming in. The cutters would need time.

  Warbots down one hallway started firing. Luke checked his tactical display and saw Bronkaw Marines, with regular crew, were trying to push down the corridor. There were not getting far, but they were trying. The crew was not armored and any hit on them forced them to retreat to patch their suit if it did not kill them outright. It looked like they might be massing for a charge.

  Another warbot shattered, spraying parts everywhere and Luke swore and took his place at the doorway to play hammer the weasel. Massive rail gun shots slammed through the open area, along with the occasional plasma round, and some were ricochets off the walls and doorway. Any hits would involve luck and every time he popped up to fire, Luke expected his ‘luck' to run out. The door frame was also being hammered hard. Maybe they should stop building their battle wagons and the internal bulkheads so damned tough.

  “Breach,” the warbot with the plasma cutter reported and Luke ordered a reserve warbot to take his place. His job was to lead the group, not guard a doorway. It would be more dangerous in the engine room anyways.

  “Roll ‘em”, Luke said when he got to the air lock to the generator room. Frequent shots sliced through the new doorway, preventing anyone from entering. One warbot threw a missile fragmenting, seeker grenades (MFSG) into the shattered doorway. The warbot with the cutter was pouring smoke into the breach to cover their actions. Blazer rounds sliced through the smoke in an unending barrage of death, aimed at keeping anything from using the doorway. The enemy fire was a wall of death and gave Luke pause; would it be suicide to leap through? He almost didn’t go, but there was no easy way. The MFSG fragmented and fired numerous seeker missiles at suspected targets. They also fed targeting data to Luke and the warbots.

  “First Assault wave is landing,” Nelson reported.

  Ten minutes already? Luke calculated. It would take them a few minutes to reinforce him. His plan would probably work unless the Bronkaw came up with a miracle or he could not get through the hatch. Luke scowled. The Bronkaw were tough and capable, but preferred to use brute force instead of guile. It was one of their weak spots. Never in a million years would they have expected to have their station boarded by a small group of smaller beings and Luke expected this to t
hrow them off balance. Like having the Ultio invaded by small team of monkeys. A smaller, weaker opponent was sometimes harder to take seriously when they were trying to use force against a larger more numerous opponent.

  Another warbot threw a grenade hard, and it bounced around inside the large power core chamber before exploding and launching the small seeker missiles. Hopefully, they would destroy nothing critical. It was a risk Luke was willing to take though. Worst-case scenario the antimatter containment would fail and they would all die.

  The firing ceased as the shooters died, ducked behind cover, or found something more important to do. After the third grenade Luke leapt through the hatch and found a large heat pump to hide behind. The other three warbots were to follow him but the second one took a hit and flew backward in a shotgun blast of pieces, taking the third warbot back with it.

  Luke’s tactical display tracked the incoming rounds and calculated where they had come from. The smoke was not normal smoke, it was nanites in a networked particle cloud, it provided concealment from numerous type of sensors but it also acted as sensors tracking the path of destroyed nanites. The path of dead nanites pointed right at the shooting Bronkaw on Luke’s heads-up display. Shapeless red ghosts behind ghostly walls.

  The Bronkaw kept shooting and Luke appreciated their dedication. He backtracked one burst and fired a burst of his own. Hit or not the shooter stopped. He picked another shooter and repeated. The other warbot was doing the same thing.

  It was over quickly, but the smoke remained, thinning out slowly. With no airflow or significant gravity, it would be awhile before it dissipated. Another warbot entered the chamber and Luke looked around for the anti-matter containment field. The body of a Bronkaw floated near a wall, blackish blood leaking out instead of spurting out of a neck wound. It was most certainly dead. Luke saw another Bronkaw body not far away, the massive helmeted head shattered where a seeker missile had found it. Besides the thinning smoke, the room was now full of blood droplets, armor, weapons and body fragments. Flashing purple lights and flickering control boards gave everything a ghostly, surreal look, like something out of a purple nightmare.