by James McEwan
Stone watched as the Cockroach fired its cannon again, this time catching one of the Conquerors in the chest. The beam flashed through the robot leaving nothing more than some smoking, sparking, dead legs. “Shit,” he exclaimed and rolled off the roof on the other side of the gate housing. He hit the ground, rolled, and popped up onto his feet, gun in hand. Stone ran to the smashed guardhouse firing wildly, not really trying to hit anything, just keep their heads down. However, these were Dreenoi and they never put their heads down. Stone killed three of them without really trying.
He didn’t stop for the door; instead, Stone smashed through the wall and skidded to a stop short of the arm sticking out of the burning pile of rubble. He grabbed Patten’s hand, which snapped closed around his own. “I got you brother,” he tried to reassure his buddy.
Over their comms the wounded man replied, “Hurry up man, I’m in a bad way.” Patten transferred a list of injuries to Stone’s heads up display on the faceplate of his helmet.
Stone read the list of injuries and knew if he failed to get him out and to the medic soon he would be returning with his friend’s body. Trying to keep Patten in good spirits, Stone joked with him as he dug to free him, “Oh is that all, you big baby. The way you’re acting, you’d think a building fell on your head.”
Patten laughed, “I think one did, now shut up and dig!”
After a minute of frantic digging, Stone reached the wounded marine to find what had pinned him to the ground. It was a three-inch metal tube that had once helped hold the missile launcher in place; it was now holding him down. The force of the impact had thrust the metal tube all the way through Patten’s armor and through his hipbone, exiting out his back and into the ground, effectively pinning him. “This is going to hurt,” Stone said as he grabbed his friend by the arms.
“Just do it!” Patten screamed. Stone pulled with everything he had, and successfully yanked him off the metal tube. He then cracked the med kit that was in the tube on the back of his belt, and quickly filled the hole in Patten’s hip with bio foam.
“That should do it, now let’s get the hell out of here,” Stone said as he helped the wounded man to his feet. Patten was on the verge of passing out from blood loss, so he didn’t bother answering and simply nodded. The other man was so focused on saving his buddy that he didn’t notice that the swarming Dreenoi seemed to have suddenly abated. As he helped his buddy out of the hole in the wall, he saw why.
The remaining Conqueror class robot had run back to the weapons shed when the first one had been taken out, and while the marines were busy, the robot returned to the battlefield wielding a vortex cannon. The robot fired the cannon, and with a stream of plasma hotter than the surface of the sun, he had cut down all the Dreenoi in range. He ducked another blast from the Cockroach’s particle beam, then ran straight for the walking tank and fired. His first shot took the front two legs off. The Cockroach had been trying to change direction at the time, which caused it to have too much weight on its front legs. As soon as the legs disappeared, the tank wobbled for a moment and then crashed forward.
The Cockroach went down hard, smashing the weapons systems and damaging the particle cannon. The Conquerors second shot caught the Cockroach in the power cells. The whole damn thing exploded in a flash of fire and smoke. The Conqueror robot withstood the explosion, though the paint was burned away and most of it showed charring.
The two marines stopped long enough to see the smoking, charred robot standing in a mess of twisted burned Dreenoi bodies. The sand around the robot’s feet began to vibrate and then disappear. Before their eyes, they watched as the giant robot disintegrated from the bottom up. Another Cockroach had been using its slaver disintegrator to tunnel directly underneath the robot. Now the Guardians were gone, and they were the only thing standing between the Dreenoi and their prey.
The wounded Marine fired wildly as his buddy helped support him, and they tried to retreat. The Cockroach exited the tunnel followed by more Dreenoi. The main gun fired and the remainder of the guardhouse disappeared in a flash of blue light. The super-heated air expanded and blew both men to the ground. The wounded marine lost his weapon while his buddy held on to his, but it was useless because several Dreenoi dropped on top of them. His arm was pinned to the ground.
The Dreenoi thought they had easy prey, but they found out first hand why the Terrain Marines were considered some of the toughest troops in the universe. The enhanced strength in his armor came in handy as Stone let go of his weapon and grabbed the Dreenoi’s arm just above its claw like hand. He snapped the Dreenoi’s arm like a crab cracker snapping a crab’s leg. The Dreenoi let out a high-pitched scream, which didn’t last long as Stone had freed his other hand and with both hands free, he grabbed the Dreenoi’s head and crushed it as if it were a rotten melon. He tossed the dead Dreenoi aside, but before he could regain his feet, Stone experienced what many experience in that moment in time when one is forced to confront his or her mortality. Another Dreenoi had shoved the muzzle of his weapon against his faceplate. It was that fraction of a second when Stone realized he was about to die. In that fraction, he reviewed his life and felt he had served his people well. If he died today, he did so knowing that others lived because of his sacrifice. He was ready and accepted his fate, but death did not come to call.
Stone was puzzled, Dreenoi never hesitated and they never took prisoners, yet he was still drawing breath. In the next second, his faceplate was splattered in Dreenoi blood and ooze. The faceplates on a Terrain Marine helmet contained a small laser designed to vaporize any liquids or substances that might obscure the vision of the Marine wearing it, a feature he was immensely grateful for today. The next second the laser flashed, and his faceplate was clear again. It was then that he understood why he was not dead.
Stone looked over his shoulder to see a grav bike rapidly approaching. He watched in awe as he witnessed Colonel Grunt using Thad’s shoulder to stabilize his weapon, and with each report of the weapon, another Dreenoi fell. He quickly dropped all of the Dreenoi that were near the two marines.
Thad brought the bike to a quick stop, inches from the downed marines. “Nice shooting Colonel,” Thad said as the bike came to a halt.
“Thanks,” he replied as he dismounted the bike. The amazing thing was he never stopped shooting, nor did he miss.
Being their commanding officer, he had full control over their systems so the Colonel pulled up both of their medical status. He read with one eye and aimed with the other. “Stone, take the bike and evac Patten.”
“Yes sir,” Stone didn’t question the order. He grabbed Patten and helped him onto the bike. “Hold on Mike,” he said before punching the accelerator.
With the two marines out of harm’s way, for now, Thad and the Colonel turned their attention to the Dreenoi pouring out of the hole in the ground. Without pausing his fire Colonel Grunt spoke as if it was a lazy Sunday afternoon on the firing range and not in heated combat, “We need to deal with the Cockroach first, then close that hole if we have any chance of slowing them down.”
Thad was wearing a helmet that hid the smile on his face, “Leave the Cockroach to me. You worry about closing that hole.”
That stopped the Colonels firing, “Excuse me son? You’re going to take on that thing by yourself?”
Thad and Grunt were standing face to face discussing their plan when a Dreenoi who had gotten too far from it’s Cybercom and was no longer under control, ran towards them. Both men raised and fired their weapons without looking, or pausing their conversation. The combined fire tore the top half of the Dreenoi away. The bottom half of the dead Dreenoi flopped down and the two men’s feet were a wash in Dreenoi blood.
“Yeah, I can handle one bug,” Thad said, then ran towards the approaching Cockroach.
Colonel Grunt dropped three more Dreenoi, “That’s one hell of a big bug. Good luck!” The Dreenoi fired back, but their fire was less accurate and the few hits they managed to land did nothing more than singe
the Colonel’s armor.
Thad ran with all the speed he could muster. He zigged and zagged to avoid being hit, his armor was good, but not as heavy as the Colonels, and he really didn’t want to find out just how tough it really was. He had been trained as an assassin not a soldier, and though he had never faced Dreenoi before, he found them to be just as easy to kill as any human he had ever killed. As he closed in on the Cockroach, he could see that the Dreenoi designers had left the walking tank with a fatal flaw. They must have believed that their forward advance would never be compromised, because there were no weapons on the rear of the tank.
Thad ran to its rear and with one good leap, he jumped half way up the Cockroach’s rear leg. He wrapped his legs around the cold metal and started to climb. The driver of the Cockroach seemed to sense that something was on one of its rear legs because it stopped moving forward and tried to shake him off. The Cockroach shook the leg violently and Thad had to stop his climb to hold on.
Colonel Grunt had to stop shooting so that he could climb over the pile of bodies. He looked up just in time to see the Cockroach shaking his hind leg wildly. “Just one little bug eh?” Grunt said over the comm.
“Hey, I never said it was little!” Thad yelled as he held on, trying not to be shaken lose.
Grunt fired a short burst into a Cybercom’s head and watched as the Dreenoi near it lost all focus or control, and began to attack one another. “Need help yet?” Grunt chuckled and fired again.
“Nope. I have him right where I want him!” Thad said as he lost his grip, slid down the leg, and ended up sitting on the foot.
“I can see that,” Grunt said as he killed a few more Dreenoi.
“Don’t worry about me, just close that hole!” Thad said as he started to climb up again.
The Cockroach pilot realized he couldn’t shake the intruder lose. He issued an order to a nearby Dreenoi that was carrying a PML (portable missile launcher) to shoot him. The Dreenoi fired the missile. It covered the distance in a fraction of a second. Thad’s armor alerted him to the threat and he let go of the leg just in time. The missile slammed into the leg, right where Thad had been. It was the best shot the Dreenoi had made all day.
The missile exploded and severed the leg just above the foot. The Cockroach shuttered, but the loss of one leg was not going to stop it. It rotated to face the Dreenoi who fired the PML, targeted it, and fired its main cannon. The Dreenoi and the two near him were instantly vaporized.
“That’s new,” Grunt remarked.
Thad rolled over and regained his feet, “What’s new?”
“I’ve never seen a Dreenoi fire on it’s own before,” Grunt said as he killed another Dreenoi. He reached the edge of the hole, slung his weapon, and pulled the large square plate off the back of his armor. He then grabbed a disk off his belt and slapped it on the plate. He flipped the lid on the disk open. It housed a keypad. He punched six numbers into the pad then closed the lid and tossed the plate into the hole.
Just then, a Dreenoi popped out of the hole and fired a slaver disintegrator at Grunt. The beam hit the Colonel in the upper left arm. The disintegrator created a resonating frequency that vibrated the atoms until the bonds between them broke and the atoms separated. Not a great way to die, however the beam only affected the upper portion of Colonel Grunts upper arm. The beam disintegrated his armor and a good chunk of his arm.
Grunt felt a buzzing sensation followed by an intense burning in his arm, but never missed a beat. With his right arm, he fired his weapon, and the Dreenoi never got a chance to fire a second time.
Thad was back on his feet and this time he wasn’t going to try climbing the leg again, as the approach hadn’t worked out so well for him before. He had discovered another blind spot, below the belly of the beast, and was managing to stay alive by following the path of the giant Cockroach, avoiding its scans as he exploited the unseen area.
The bug scurried back and forth trying to find Thad, but Thad stayed underneath the thing. Thanks to Colonel Grunt’s continued efforts, the Dreenoi around them were now all dead, effectively reducing the Cockroach driver to just his own sensors, and they couldn’t find Thad.
Colonel Grunt ran to get clear before the charge detonated. The Cockroach gave up on its attempt to locate Thad, and started scanning for other targets. This gave Thad the opening he needed. He scooped up two of the discarded Dreenoi laser rifles, and ran to the front leg, jamming the rifle into the ankle joint. He then pulled out his force blade and cut the muzzle end off the rifle. Then he set the rifle to sustained fire, but without the focusing chamber that was located in the end of the barrel, the energy had nowhere to go. Thad ran to the other front leg and repeated the process.
He barely got clear of the second leg when the first rifle overloaded and exploded. The Cockroach had lost two legs on that side and now was struggling to stay up right when the second rifle blew sending the Cockroach crashing down on its front, damaging its weapons systems. Thad was now able to run up the damaged cannon, and with the help of two force blades, he climbed up the rounded nose until he could stand on top of it.
The ground shook and sand was kicked high into the air, high enough for the people at the compound to see it. Eve was so worried she tried to comm Thad, but only got back a short response, “Not now woman, I’m busy!”
She smiled, “He called me woman!”
The explosion collapsed the hole, and for the moment cut off the flow of Dreenoi. When the charge detonated, Thad had been standing on the top of the Cockroach. The shockwave pushed him sideways and he lost his balance, tumbling off the side of the walking tank. Although the explosion had closed the gaping hole, it did nothing to stop the endless stream of burning ships as they continued to streak across the sky, cascading down to Nome. It seemed more crap was falling from the sky now than ever.
Chapter 6
The fight in space was no picnic either, as the Damocles was continually slammed by Dreenoi ships. They simply kept coming and coming. Although some of the ships where armed and would shoot at the Damocles, their weapons were no match for the Damocles’ screens, at first. The Damocles, in response, was using every weapon system they had, but it was not enough to destroy all the Dreenoi ships. There were just too many. Every tenth ship would survive the Damocles rain of fire and slip through the screens to smash into the hull of the defending ship.
“Sir another hit on the port side,” a tactical officer cried out.
“Any hull breaches?” Commander Perry asked.
“None yet Sir, but the hull plating can’t take much more,” the officer replied.
“How much longer to do we need to hold this position?” Perry asked.
“Not sure Sir, the comm signals are being scrambled by all the weapons fire,” the communications officer answered.
Commander Perry was feeling the pressure and wished that the Captain would get back to the ship. “Okay, hold us here for now and keep up the fire.”
“Sir, we have another problem. One of the larger Dreadnaughts has broken loose from the formation and is heading our way. That thing may have weapons that can hurt us.”
Perry frowned, “Anybody here have good news?”
As an answer to her question, a marine stationed at the entrance to the bridge sounded the bosun’s whistle, “Captain on the bridge!”
“Report Commander,” Wesson barked out in a tone that told the bridge crew he was in a foul mood.
Commander Perry gave a rather short, yet complete, report of their situation. After her report, she stood ramrod straight waiting with bated breath. Captain Wesson stared at her intensely then spoke, “Take charge of the refugees Commander.”
“Aye Sir,” she replied then spun on her heels and headed for the door.
She had almost reached it when Wesson said, “Oh, and Perry.”
“Yes Captain?”
“Good job,” he gave her a slight hint of a smile.
“Thank you Sir,” she replied and exited the bridge.
> Captain Wesson turned his attention to the problem at hand, “Comm officer, I don’t care what it takes, you make sure the next lift meets us at these coordinates,” he then listed them off. “Tell the MAG gun crews to stand down and load starburst rounds.”
The order was so strange to the young weapons officer that he thought to question it, “Starburst rounds Sir.”
“Did I stutter Lieutenant?”
“No Sir,” the young officer shrank a little in his chair, wishing he could melt all the way into it and out from under the Captains gaze.
He didn’t have to wait for long as the Captain turned his gaze to the navigation officer, “Ensign I want a hyperspace window ready to open right in the path of that dreadnaught.”
“Aye Sir, do you want it open now Sir?”
“No, not yet. I want it opened on my command.”
“Yes Sir,” the officer replied as he went about setting it up.
“Sir the weapons crews are reporting ready with the starbursts,” the weapon’s officer reported.
“Good, tell them to fire on my command only!”
“Aye sir.”
All of the officers were worried about what the Captain was planning, but every one of them trusted him with their lives. He had a well-earned reputation for surviving the un-survivable. Yet one would have to question the wisdom of using a non-combat round in the MAG cannons. Starburst rounds had only two uses. First it could be used as a giant flare that was fired into dangerous pockets of gases that would normally damage the ship’s hull, burning them up. Second, they were used like a sonar boom of old. When inside nebulas or other space clouds they would use starburst rounds to measure the density of the cloud, or map the inside of the nebula. The only idea anyone could think of was that the captain was going to use the starburst rounds to blind the enemy while they jumped into hyperspace.
