Galactic Empire Wars: Rebellion (The Galactic Empire Wars Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

at his HUD, which now
showed three red icons and four amber ones. Looking up the mountain, he knew
they still had a long way to go to reach the summit. If this kept up, he would
run out of soldiers long before then. He needed to come up with a better plan.
He wondered just what it was that was causing the hidden weapon emplacements to
activate. The most obvious were movement and heat sensors. Since the
battlesuits were self-contained, the likelihood of it being heat that was
triggering the popup weapons was minimal. The most obvious remaining method of
detection was movement.
    Looking up, Ryan
watched the tall trees swaying in the wind. The dome was a controlled
environment and could simulate almost any type of weather. He wondered what his
brother would do in this situation. He knew his sibling had taken this training
when he was being held captive by the Kleese. Wade had never told Ryan how many
times it had taken him to reach the top. For several minutes, Ryan studied the
terrain ahead and thought about the resources he had available. He could clear
a path with explosive rounds, but he suspected they would run out well before
they reached the summit. RG rounds were useless unless they could hit one of
the emplaced weapons multiple times. That left the energy beam cannons that six
of his remaining soldiers were carrying.
    His eyes
returned to the tall trees as an idea came to mind. “Corporal Hunter, I want
our soldiers that have energy cannons to fire at the tops of the trees to bring
some of the branches down. Perhaps it will cause the popups to respond.” Ryan
hoped if the embedded weapons were using motion sensors, the falling limbs
might cause them to react.
    Casey quickly
passed on the orders as she scanned the trees up ahead. “Fire into the taller
ones about ten meters up,” she ordered. From what her sensors were reporting,
some of the trees were as tall as twenty meters. “I want to see limbs falling
and hitting the ground!”
    A few moments
later, first one and then the other five energy cannons opened fire. The energy
cannons were large, bulky weapons and fired a beam of blue energy. The beams
played across the upper sections of the trees, shearing limbs and trunks in
two. Limbs began to fall and sure enough, four popup weapons made an appearance
and began firing at the falling debris.
    “Take out
those weapons!” yelled Casey, seeing the red threat icons appear on her HUD.
“Use suit explosives!” She felt the adrenaline flowing through her body as she
fired several rounds at the popup weapons.
    Instantly,
upon the slope twenty grenade-like explosions smashed into the ground, throwing
up dirt and other debris, which came raining down on the two lines of
battlesuits. In four locations smoke drifted up into the air, indicating the
destroyed weapon sites.
    “Move up to
that line of trees and we’ll do it again,” Ryan ordered over the general com
frequency. “Scouts stay on the lookout. There’s no guarantee this will work
with all the weapons; some may not be responding to movement.”
    The four
scouts moved carefully forward, using all the cover they could find. However, a
ten-foot tall battlesuit was difficult to keep hidden. It was just too big a
target.
    Private Parker
was the first to reach the trees and took up position behind the largest one he
could find. Looking to his right, he could see the other scouts including
Private Adams, who was on the far end of the four. “I don’t see anything,” he
spoke softly as if he was afraid the embedded weapons would home in on the
sound of his voice.
    “I don’t
either,” Lauren replied as she used her suit’s sensors to scan the slope above
them. There were several open spaces as well as numerous tall trees and brush.
Popup weapons could be hidden anywhere.
    Corporal
Hunter was listening to the scouts and after a moment, felt the area
immediately ahead was safe. “Move out,” she ordered, standing up and beginning
to move forward. “Keep your