Distant thunder seemed to roll off the peaks of Callos IV, muted under the heavy cloud cover that had been forming for the last several days.  The thunder would be silent for minutes at a time, then five or six roiling echoes would sound down the steep canyon walls leading further back into the mountain fastness, sending the occasional small pebbles cascading down from further up the rocky slopes from the mile distant rumblings.

Must be at least eight main batteries up there hammering that poor place thought Spyder.  Doubt they can take much more of that… with any luck they won’t have to, if we do our job right.   Spyder checked her sensors again, her face dimly lit by the interior of her suits manifold displays and readouts.  Everything seemed quiet enough, with no new data from her sensors even though she had been checking every few moments.  Something about the still calm made Spyder all the more nervous.  Hope our intel was right and they actually bring the re-supplies up this pass, otherwise we don’t get paid.  She checked her displays again, scanning once visually, then again on infrared, then did a final sweep looking for any electro-magnetic anomalies that may give away the enemies movements.  Still nothing.

A few moments later the squad's low-frequency scrambled channel came to life, “Lieutenant, I have visual contact from one of our remote sensors.  Looks like a heavily armed convoy moving up the pass towards our position.  Feed isn’t good enough from the remote to get an exact count on their numbers as of yet.”

“Acknowledged Xev.  Stay put where you are and try to get a better fix on their position.  I am going to contact CIC.”  Spyder checked that her Reaper Cannon was powered up and ready for use as she put the call through to the Military Corvette Scimitar in high orbit above them, “Scimitar, this is Recon Force Alpha.  We have visual contact of our intended target, and request a scanner sweep of the area.  Over.”  While waiting for a reply, she checked on the positions of her men.  A tactical map superimposed itself over her helmets main display, showing a rough topological map of the area, with the three other members of her team illuminated in blue.  Xev was the furthest down narrow canyon pass, a good three hundred yards distant and on the high slope next to the winding mountain road.  Immediately across from Spyder on the opposite side of the road was the team’s one human, Jimmy “Smoke Dog” James.  Spyder wanted him close to her so she could reign in any of his “impulses”.  He kept his cool in a firefight, but often got a little carried away if he wasn’t watched.  Another two hundred yards up the road was Kallos, completing her squad’s displacement.  Everyone was where they should be, all she could do now was wait for more information to come to her.

If all goes right, they won’t notice us until we are in their midst.  The powered Stealth Suit that her squad wore rendered its wearer nearly invisible to the naked eye, and blanketed out over ninety-eight percent of electronic and heat emissions that would otherwise give them away to more advanced sensors.  Spyder had been taught how the suits managed this small feat of technological magic, but truth be told she hadn’t paid much attention to those parts of her lessons.  She knew how to use them in the field, and how to jury rig an emergency repair in a pinch.  She left the mystery of its science to the egg-heads back at base.

“Spyder, this is Xev.”  His voice was hardly more than a whisper, as if the enemy could hear him inside his suits helmet over the encrypted channel the squad used for communication.  “There looks to be a lot more of them then we bargained for.  I count over a half dozen armed vehicles, and twice that number of transport.  Numerous ground troops in escort, more than I can get an accurate count for.  It looks like they’ve brought the whole of their reserve to the field tonight.”  Frak,, this isn’t what we expected Spyder cursed silently to herself.

“Understood.  Move a little closer to us if you can, and keep monitoring those snoops.  I’ve got a call coming through from CIC, out.”  Spyder’s mind raced as she switched channels to take the incoming transmission from CIC.

“Recon Force Alpha, this is Eye-In-The-Sky.  We have confirmation of sixteen vehicle signatures moving up the pass towards your location.  Six appear to be heavier tracked vehicles acting as escort according to their heat signature and profile, three up front and three in back of the convoy.  The others appear to be large wheeled vehicles of local design, most likely transports.  We are patching that information and their rough location through to your system now.”  A new set of dots colored in red appeared on Spyder’s heads up display.  They were still roughly a kilometer away according to the data.  “We will alert you if we receive any additional data.  Out.”

Spyder was considering her options when her comm flickered to life once more.  After having been silent for hours while the team lay in wait, this frenzy of activity was in extreme contrast.  “More bad news Spyder.  Just got this feed from one of the snoops before it was crushed.  Patching it through to you now.”  Xev’s voice sounded concerned, a thought that gave Spyder the shivers.  Xev was the toughest member of her team by anyone's standards.

A separate window appeared to the side of Spyder’s field of vision, showing a grainy low-resolution image from one of the remote snoops the team had seeded further down the path earlier in the night.  It showed a steady stream of headlights moving up the mountain road.  Scores of searchlights swept over their flanks as they advanced, their shapes slowly becoming more distinct as the images grew closer.  In the lead was a huge black silhouette, backlit by the following vehicles.  As it approached it came into deadly focus.  It appeared to be a Mordant main battle tank, most likely sold off by the Dominion and bought and re-commissioned by this planet’s corrupt military that was now staging the coup.  The armor plated vehicle practically bristled with weaponry from its armor ceramoferite hull.  Twin plumes of black smoke rose up from it as it led the winding vehicular column.  The last image the snoop transmitted were massive churning tracks dominating the screen before they ran over the poor electronic device.

“Move closer to my position Xev, and good work on the recon.  Don’t worry about the armor, we don’t plan on going head to head with these guys.”  The words sounded good, Spyder just hoped her very real doubts hadn’t carried through in her voice.  “Kallos, get into position across from me next to Smoke Dog.  We have incoming.”  She heard his terse acknowledgement as she tracked his movement on her display.  Damn, there’s just too many of them Spyder fretted.  I have to contact Command.

Spyder was loathsome to contact her immediate superior while in the field.  She prided herself on being able to take care of any situation that was thrown at her once she was given her orders, but there were limits.  This seemed like one of them.

“What is it Alpha One?” snapped Commander Nama.  Spyder cursed silently.  She heard the impatience in his voice, instantly regretting having called.  She momentarily considered terminating the call and feigning ignorance.  “Alpha One, are you there?”

Dammit.  “Affirmative Command, this is Alpha One.  We have visual confirmation of the re-supply column moving up the pass sir.”

“I know, I’ve just received the update from CIC just n….” the sound of a massive explosion cut his last word short.  There was a brief period of silence as the noise limiter in the comm system blanked out the intense sound that would have otherwise been a deafening roar threatening hearing damage to those listening.  When sound returned Commander Nama was already in mid-sentence, “…just have to handle it yourself.  We’re getting pounded up here.  You have to stop that column, understand me?  I don’t care what it takes!”

“But sir, they have a…”

“I don’t care what they have, you’re just going to have to do it.  I’ll see if I can re-direct one of the fliers to support you. Commander Nama out.”  The resounding silence on the comm left Spyder with a hollow pit in her stomach.

Another set of salvos echoed off the canyon walls.  Spyder was just able to see the initial headlights of the vehicles coming through the dense mountain fog towards her squad’s position.  Trees rustled nervously as a light drizzle started to wash down upon them.

Xev was now only twenty meters or so to her left from her current position high on the ridge above mountain road.  Nearby on the other side of the road Smoke Dog and Kallos lay in wait just below the lip of the cliff face.  The road itself was a simple two lane affair, little trafficked until the recent conflict broke out.  It wound its way gently up through the mountain peaks and offered a great view of the valley floor below during a clear day.  Tonight it was shrouded in darkness with a heavy cloud cover and slight rain, so no such views were forthcoming.  The hills in this region were craggy, with large slabs of bare rocks rising out of the ominous gloom.  A few sparse trees and bushes dotted the landscape, clinging to what purchases they could afford.  The area Spyder chose for her ambush had a steep cliff wall rising ten meters high above the road below it.  A crown of boulders afforded additional protection at its top.  Across the road the mountain dropped off sharply into a sparsely forested slope.

The re-supply column had been moving past her position for over two minutes now.  The rumble of the vehicles engines drowned out any sound besides the occasional thunder from further up the mountain.  The Mordant had led the column, its massive turret sweeping back and forth looking for targets.  Spyder couldn’t help but hold her breath as the lumbering ex-Dominion tank trundled past her position.  It was followed by a pair of clanking Vanguard troop transports, their searchlights sweeping the hillside nervously in an attempt to pierce the gloom.  Twin columns of mud spattered foot troops marched on either side of the vehicles, miserably looking from side to side as they advanced through the cold and the rain.  Behind the Vanguards were a series of massive eight wheeled cargo trucks, Alpha Team’s real targets.  The cumbersome vehicles were little more than a long bed with an armored cab up front that would fit a handful of men.  The beds could be reconfigured to either carry troops, minerals, or in this case ammunition and fuel.  Several had massive tanks that had been bolted to the bed of the truck, others had crates upon crates, each meticulously labeled “Danger - High Explosive”.  Ammunition for their damn artillery.  The truck in the very center of the column seemed to hold some large racks of portable rockets that could be setup in the field.

Alpha One had observed strict radio silence for the last half an hour as the vehicles approached, on the off chance one of their sensors would pick up the squads communiqués.  Even if they couldn’t crack the encryption, it would tip their hand that something was afoot.  If Alpha One was to stand a chance at all, it would need ever bit of surprise it could get… and a great deal of luck.

Just as the cargo truck carrying the missile payload passed underneath, Spyder gave the order to attack, “Now!”  She and Xev stood as one from behind their boulders and took aim below them.  The Reaper Cannon on her right arm hummed to life as she took sight on the truck bed directly beneath her.  Several soldiers rode in the truck bed as well, holding their pulse rifles at port arms, ready for action.  You’re not going to be ready for this… Spyder thought grimly.

Xev fired an instant before her, raining plasma bolts down upon the column of foot troops walking alongside the trucks closest to them.  Reaper Cannons sacrificed range for an immense rate of fire, capable of leveling entire squads of troops in mere seconds under a rain of high-energy fire.  They were designed as the ultimate in anti-personnel weaponry, with enough stopping power to drop even a feral Saurian in its tracks and punch through the toughest of modern flask vests.  Xev’s initial bursts at this range couldn’t help but hit the unsuspecting soldiers almost directly beneath him.  The shrieks and howls of the dead filled the night as he quickly walked his fire down their line.  The soldiers instantly went prone, looking for where the fire had come from and trying not to panic.  Unfortunately for them, the age old soldier’s instinct of dropping to the ground when being fired at did not help them in this case, as Xev was directly above them.  If anything, they now offered a larger target then they had before.  A glowing set of craters from where the plasma bolts had hammered into the road beneath them was left glowing as the Reaper Cannon continued to do its work.

Spyder opened fire only moments later, raking the bed of the missile truck with high-energy doom.  Every time she triggered a burst she was giving away her position slightly. Even the holographic disruption field created by her Stealth Suit could not prevent the opposing troops from tracking the fire back to its approximate origins.  Every precaution had been taken to muffle the noise and flare of the Stealth Suits primary weapon, but Spyder was paranoid by nature, a trait that has kept her alive in the field.

Her shots hammered into the bed of the truck, snapping cables, smashing missile carriages and felling a pair of soldiers almost by accident.  Glowing pockmarks now marred the backside of the truck bed.  Spyder took no chances, and fired her suits main jets to displace to a boulder ten meters to her left, further down the enemy line.  Xev stood where we was, continuing to rain fire down upon their ranks.  Dozens of men lay dead or wounded beneath him.

The distant sounds of firing now broke out on the other side of the column as Smoke Dog and Kallos began their attacks.  Why did they wait so long?  Spyder wondered.  She had little time for contemplation, as things had just started to get interesting on her side of the battle.

A pair of spotlights had managed to tag Xev where he stood firing from atop the cliff.  A series of laser blasts began to mark the area, mostly impacting off the boulder's granite surface.  With such a volume of fire being returned, it was only a matter of time until a pair found their mark, deeply scoring the Stealth Suits armor.  Xev stopped firing at that instant, jerking back and leaping behind cover.

“Xev, you ok?” Spyder asked as she spotted where the searchlights had come from.  The closest was mounted on the roof of the truck immediately following the missile carrier.  Without hesitating Spyder loosed a half second burst from her Reaper Cannon into its roof, shattering and destroying the light.  Several of the bolts went straight through the thin metal as well, proving the roof to be a weak point on the armored cabs of the trucks.  In a split second decision, Spyder moved her aim slightly over and triggered a good, healthy two-second sustained salvo into the roof of the vehicle a second time.  Flaring white and magenta flames leapt two meters from the muzzle of her cannon as it poured untold thousands of rounds at her intended target.  The roof split apart as if tissue paper in a hailstorm and fell inwards as molten hot globs of metal spattered the ruined interior.  Controls exploded and sparks flew over the insides of the cabin.  The poor crew strapped into their seats were reduced to their component atoms as the blood in their bodies flash boiled in the intense heat.

Spyder had little chance to observe the results of her handiwork, as she was suddenly bathed in a blinding white light.  The other searchlight had found her.  Her suits systems fought to polarize her suits visor fast enough in order that she could still see.  Acting out of pure instinct, she leapt high into the air, firing her main jets on full as she spun from side to side evasively.  The combined fire of several squads split the air around her and passed through the area she had been standing mere moments ago.  Her vision was just returning when she heard a massive impact.  It sounded as if two gravtrains had just rammed into each other at full speed, the torturous sound of rending metal piercing the night.  The truck she had fired upon had careened into the missile carrier in front of it, careening out of control, its crew having been reduced to so much ash and steaming body parts.  As if in slow motion, she saw the front cab crumple inwards from the force of all eight of the massive vehicle's wheels churned forward out of control.  The front of the cab crumpled inwards in a ball of fire, slamming into the missile laden cargo of the truck in front of it.  The missile carrier’s rear bed disappeared into the front of the exploding cab, loose missiles and men flying everywhere.  A second later the fuel tanks on the truck ignited as one, sending a fireball out in every direction for over twenty meters.  The shock wave reached Spyder a moment later, snapping her attention back to the present.

The explosion had given her a temporary respite from being shot at as most of her assailants had been knocked flat to the ground by the shock wave.  She took this opportunity to drop back down to the cliff top further down the enemy line, her booster jets flaring.  She allowed herself a split second to check on Xev’s vital signs on her heads up display.  They read normal, but with a high heart rate.  His suit was eighteen percent damaged according to her readout.  He would be fine.

Quickly glancing over the edge showed the area where the trucks had collided bathed in liquid fire.  Directly beneath her the nearest truck had slammed to a halt as the column of soldiers moved to the front, taking what cover they could.  Many were nervously triggering shots at random into the air and the fire in front of them, not being able to place their enemy.  Spyder was used to this response from less professional troops.  People tended to panic when they were confronted with an enemy they couldn’t see.  Overhead the sky was suddenly lit up with a high volume of heavy laser fire from the end of the column.  Apparently the trailing Vanguards had caught glimpse of her ascent a few moments ago, and now wanted to exact their revenge for the damage she had wrought.

You’ll have to do better than that if you want a piece of me she thought grimly.  Just then the ridgeline where Spyder and Xev had originally hid exploded into an inferno of shattered rock and roiling flame.  A fraction of a second later, the dull boom of the Mordant’s main battle cannon sounded.  What the…? 

“Spyder, Kallos here.  Smoke Dog is down.  He took a shot to the leg when a bunch of the troops on our side jumped off the road to get away from that explosion you made up there.  They damn near landed on top of us, we were firing as we withdrew, but there were just too many of them, too close.”

“Get him to safety and set a beacon on his location.  Then double back and see if you can’t get that…” Spyder’s words were cut short when the ridgeline not more than twenty meters away from her exploded in a massive balloon of fire.  She forgot about Kallos’s plight for the moment as she leapt from her perch atop the ridgeline, kicking her thrusters to max as she dove down to the road below her.  She would have loved to escape high into the night air, but it was still filled heavy laser fire.  She cut her thrusters at the last minute, jamming them into reverse as she slammed into the road and went into a roll.  Sparks flew from where the Stealth Suit contacted the road, and for a few moments her suit became visible, flickering in and out of sight.

A few of the more vigilant guards that weren’t covering their eyes from the latest tank round caught sight of her plummet into the road.  She heard their shouts before she heard their shots, another indication that these were a far cry from professional soldiers.  Spyder found herself rolling across the road as laser bolts slammed into the pavement around her.  Backlit by the raging inferno of the two trucks that had collided, she was an easy target when they could see her.  The closest soldier couldn’t have been more than fifteen meters away.  A series of long, full auto bursts strafed the area, held too long and fired to quickly to be very accurate, but a few rounds couldn’t help but strike their intended target at that range.  Spyder's head was rocked to the side as a round slammed off her helmet, glancing away into the night.  Her heads up display suddenly went dark, with several of her other combat screens turning to static.  A second shot hit her square in the torso and was absorbed by her suits armor.

Spyder fought down the rising urge to panic and kicked herself up and out of her roll across the road.  She had crossed it in less than five seconds from when she left the ridgeline, but it had felt like an eternity.  More of the soldiers were starting to react to the cries of their companions and add their firepower to the attack.  Luckily most were still firing into the road where she had first been seen.  A few, however, were not.  These were the ones Spyder killed first.  Short, controlled bursts from her Reaper Cannon into their ranks, specifically targeted on those aiming in her direction.  The bolts all found their mark, flying through the light flak armor of the soldiers and continuing on into their second rank.  The amount of fire coming Spyder’s direction dropped significantly.

A moment later the ridgeline across from Spyder exploded as a Mordant round struck it, squarely where she had been standing moments ago.  Damn them, they must be shelling the ridge line to flush us out.  I’ll be damned if it isn’t  working too.  Maybe they know a thing or two after all…  This explosion was so near the troops firing at her were knocked to the ground by falling debris, and a few lost their nerve and turned the other direction and began running.

Spyder didn’t hesitate for a moment as she thumbed her Reaper Cannon to full auto mode and raked her fire across the front of their lines.  Distracted by the explosion, the troops made easy targets.  Even so, a few turned their attentions back to her and returned fire.  Spyder was on gentle thrust from her jets, floating backwards and up slowly as her Reaper Cannon spit out plasma death to all it touched.  Unfortunately, she was at her most vulnerable when firing like this, so many of return shots found their way to her.

A good half of the squad lay dead across from her when the first laser blast slammed into the exposed inside of her armor’s left shoulder pad.  It blew it off completely as she felt her entire left arm go numb. Sparks flew up and down its length as her arm went rigid, servo motors overloading as energy crackled over them.  Somewhere far away Spyder heard her suit's System Control AI inform her she had sustained “significant damage”.  Still she fired, raking the troops across from her.  Luckily her Reaper Cannon was mounted on her right arm, and still seemed quite functional.  The soldier that had just hit her was chopped into several pieces as four bolts traced their way across his dancing form.

A second shot slammed into her leg, knocking her foot back but not quite penetrating her armors thick metal hide.  Still she fired, pouring plasma into the few remaining standing troops.  The distant sound of her suits insistent warning chimes were all but ignored now.  The third shot grazed her side as it ricocheted off into her suits backpack and flight system.  There was a loud crackling sound as energy played over Spyder’s body.  Her suit suddenly became visible and stayed that way as she fell from air.  She smashed into the ground five meters below her, electricity playing over her suits smoking form.

She lay there for several moments, too dazed and stunned to move.  There was a dull rush in her ears as she tried to concentrate on where she was and what had happened.  She felt as if she had just awoke out of a deep slumber, and couldn’t remember who or where she was.

Reality came washing back over her as her beloved suit, that had been ominously silent ever since that last shot had hit her, chimed back to life, “Suit has sustained seventy-two percent damage.  Communications Unit, disabled.  Flight System, disabled.  Stealth System, disabled.”  Damned infernal machine, why does it have to sound so calm and relaxed when spelling out my doom like this?  “Armor at fifty percent.  Reactor at thirty percent.  Reaper Cannon – operational.”  That means I’m still in business.

Spyder had the peace of mind to roll to her side while getting the grim status update on her suits condition and roll off the road.  She dropped a few feet and landed in thick brush.  The hillside here sloped relatively gently down into sparse forest.  She righted herself and crept back to the edge of the road, finding the simple action difficult with large parts of her suit immobilized.  The fact I cant feel large parts of my body at the moment probably doesn't bode well...  She mentally shrugged to herself.  Frel, I'll worry about that if I get out of this in one piece.  Just as she reached the lip of the road she heard a series of seemingly random explosions nearby.  They lacked the force and power of the Mordant’s main battle cannon, but they were much closer than she would have guessed.  Spyder hazarded a peek over the edge.  Several of the munitions on the cargo beds of the two collided trucks had begun to catch fire in the blazing inferno. Several had begun randomly igniting, flying off in random directions.  So far it has been mostly harmless, but it had the potential to get bad in a hurry.

Spyder was so preoccupied with the inferno and its potential resulting explosion, she missed the fire team of six men running towards her position.  She turned just in time to see them close with her and bring their arms to bear.  There’s no way they can miss at this range she realized.  It surprised Spyder to learn the fact that she was going to imminently die didn’t particularly upset her.  She had always known this was a possibility being a mercenary.

Fate is a curious thing, and much to Spyder’s surprise, she did not in fact die.  Just as the fire team lowered their weapons, fingers on trigger, a violent explosion erupted from the inferno of the two trucks, carrying dirt, metal and debris into the air as a plume of flame one hundred meters tall erupted into the sky.  Moments later the missiles carried by the lead truck ignited as well, flying forward randomly into the front of the vehicle column in front of them.  As each missile vectored out of control into the ammo trucks in front of it, their super heated warheads ignited, engulfing each vehicle they hit in flame and destruction.  These in turn set off yet more munitions in a massive chain reaction that blew a half-kilometer section of the road away from the cliff face and down into the forested slope far below.

The last Spyder saw of the fire team, her would-be-executioners, was their black silhouetted shapes before they were incinerated by the initial blast.  She barely had enough time to duck below the lip of the road as fire and metal flew overhead.  She found herself running blindly into the forest down the mountain slope, a rising tower of flame and explosions erupting behind her.  Her suit’s legs propelled her at great velocity down the trembling slope, the right sparking as it ground out the last of its life, her armored form smashing through young trees and underbrush.  She made it a fair distance away by the time the main explosion ignited, collapsing the road and sending a shower of rocks, debris and bodies high into the air.  The resulting shock wave sent her flying head first into the darkness of the forest, smashing through tree and bush with her arms pin wheeling vainly.  She landed heavily and wondered if she was getting paid enough to do this job.  She decided the answer was most definitely no.

Next Chapter: Chapter Four