Galactic Empire Wars: Rebellion (The Galactic Empire Wars Book 3) by Raymond L. Weil

were ever
involved.”
    Kelly nodded.
After discussing a few more details with General Mitchell, he stood up and left
the office. He needed to take care of the promotion of Commander Adamson to
admiral as quickly as possible. He knew it would be pleasing to a number of
people who'd already mentioned to him that Adamson was deserving of such a
promotion, they just hadn’t had a fleet for him. Now it appeared that they did.
    -
    Ryan grimaced
as one of his soldiers fell and another icon turned a glaring red on his HUD.
Eight down and twelve remaining and they were only halfway to the top of the
damn mountain. “Grab Private Swen’s energy weapon,” he ordered as everyone
waited to begin moving forward again. “Private Parker and Adams move up, but
take your time. We’re going the rest of the way in single file and we’ll be stepping
in each other’s footsteps.”
    Lauren sent a
confirming reply over her suit’s com and began moving forward very slowly.
Alexander was about four meters behind her, scanning to their left and right
with his suit’s sensors while Lauren used her energy weapon to burn a narrow
path directly in front of them. She was burning a swath about twenty meters
wide, and whenever her energy weapon’s charge became exhausted, another energy
cannon from one of their fallen comrades was passed forward.
    Twice she
narrowly missed being struck by stunners, and once several railgun rounds hit
next to her metal encased feet, showering her with dirt. She took a deep,
steadying breath and continued firing her energy cannon ahead of them. She moved
it in a gentle arc, burning through everything. Trees, brush, and even the ground
burned as the deadly blue beam annihilated everything before her. Occasionally
a small explosion, a bright flash, and a pillar of rising dark smoke would
indicate where the beam had struck a hidden popup weapon.
    Behind her,
Alexander had exchanged his energy cannon for an RG rifle and was using its
explosive rounds on any popups that appeared on their flanks. Whenever he
missed, it invariably meant another soldier would be hit by stunners or painful
RG rounds. Alexander was trying his best not to miss!
    Corporal
Hunter was following closely behind the two scouts. She found it remarkable
that neither had been hit since they were leading the platoon up the steep
slope of the mountain. Like Private Parker, she was carrying an RG rifle set on
explosive rounds and was watching intently for any hidden weapon emplacements
Alexander might miss. So far, she'd taken out eight of the painful weapons,
though she and Alexander had missed a few, which had resulted in them losing
eight soldiers so far. Each was lying in a Type Three battlesuit behind them,
immobile until the drill was over. Lieutenant Nelson made it a point of taking
the fallen soldier’s weapons each time one was hit.
    -
    Major Winfrey
looked at the viewscreens, which were showing numerous views of Charring Mountain and the platoon of Type Three battlesuits that was slowly advancing
toward the top. It was beginning to look as if Second Lieutenant Nelson was
once again going to reach the summit. The latest computer estimates predicted
he had just enough power in his energy weapons to get to the top. The question remaining
was how many soldiers would he have left?
    “Definitely Colonel
Nelson’s brother,” commented Major Stevens with a grin. “The son-of-a-bitch is
going to make it to the top of Charring on his second try.”
    “Looks that
way,” replied Dylan, thoughtfully. No one had ever made it to the top and deactivated
the embedded weapons this quickly. At the moment, he didn’t see how he could
stop the young lieutenant. “He made it to the top on his first ascent, but the
stunners around the pedestal took him out.”
    “I would never
have thought of using the energy weapons that way,” Mark went on impressed by
what he was seeing. “They’re clearing out a narrow path directly ahead, which
means they only have to