Tears of Ulecia by David Tranter

Author:David Tranter [Tranter, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-05T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

In the remnants of a long-disused flight yard, beneath the flight tower and behind the curtain wall sat an ISR camp in the darkness. It was dimly lit from back here, but it was enough if you knew what to look for, but if Inoke’s lot didn’t spot it on their way north, it would’ve surely gone unnoticed amongst this lingering ash and dust. To the north and closest to Tazan from an opposing skyscraper was the first entrance. The other followed out through the yard and back out onto the main road. Two laser turret emplacements were at each checkpoint, one on either side of the track. There was no definitive wall or barrier, only the surrounding rubble and debris that had been swept up alongside the flight tower and around the compound to create the two entry points. The hangar bay followed the tower southward. Two doors were open, the first revealed three ISR tanks with grey with green highlights. All treaded, with thick plated armour. Each equipped with a railgun as their main armament as well as a laser mounted auxiliary gun. One was being pulled out into the yard as a few of the crew worked on a dormant gear in its frame. X-0A model. The right arm held an X-0 laser rifle, the left held a giant plated shield. Its head was straight as the crew moved a platform underneath it. Tazan continued his scan across the camp. Beyond the hangar and on the southern side was a hydrogen fuelling station. Two soldiers operated the pumps that both linked to two fuel silos at the base of the hangar. A two-storey communications towers was near the southern exit. Two red lights were polled up along with an antenna on a slanted roof. To the east, and positioned behind the rubble wall were four modular pods brandishing the ISR logo on the northern side. Tents, roughly ten or so, followed these pods towards the northern exit. ISR soldiers of mixed species cooked in their pots, talked to one another or walked across the yard to their duties while two of them moved towards the tanks in the garage. Thirty BP-0s, essentially modified VS-0s fitted for combat and armour-plated, stood dormant nearby. All carried lasers armaments fixed to one of their arms. Ten BAU’s, Bipedal Assault Units, were next to them—Specialised machines for war. The model was unknown to Tazan from here, but they were two and a half metre tall weapon platforms fitted with advanced combat protocols. In contrast to the modified BP-0s, the BAUs weapon systems were directly mounted on their agile frames. Laser and ballistic modules, one for each arm, and an MMRLS, Miniature Multiple Rocket Launcher System, fitted to the back of the unit that contained four to six warheads. BAUs were typically used for offensive operations, using their firepower and speed to overwhelm a defence.

Tazan removed his binoculars. “Shrokk,” he said as he turned to the others. Inoke and those who dropped with him were here on the fourth floor of some textiles company.

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