by JR Handley
Scent Leader Thann knew he was cutting it close as he sat in his beloved Vengeance fighter. Only a few seconds after the last of the ground crew had taken off for the rendezvous point, Thann fired up his craft. He smiled as his body painfully shook with the engines. Vendar had ordered the entire 5th Squadron to assault the fortress in some suicidal attempt to destroy the newly working anti-aircraft guns. Thann had agreed to leave and take his squadron with him, he just failed to mention the change in itinerary.
Once airborne, floating above the trees, the entire 5th Squadron accelerated in a blur of speed toward the fortress. Thann began to laugh as the entire squadron banked into a barrel roll and switched direction toward the rendezvous point his brother had provided them.
While the Janissaries on the ground shouted at the fleeing fighters and fired futilely into the air at them, Thann spoke over the open Hardit channel.
“My unpolluted brothers and sisters, now is the time to rise against the Grand Perversion that is the New Order. If you’ve avoided the defilement, and are still a Hardit as the gods intended, then rendezvous at the abandoned outpost on Serendine’s northwestern most peninsula. It is time to seize our Righteous Freedom! All righteous Hardits should abandon the defiled New Order. Not, ‘one scent, one people,’ we are many scents, many packs, and the stronger for it. And we are males and females, as the gods intended, unlike the factory produced Janissaries. Vendar, you drenting abomination, give my regards to Zempi.”
After setting the message to repeat, in hopes of clogging the main Hardit battle communication networks, Thann switched his nav controls to auto pilot. With flying out of the way, he began formulating plans for the restoration of the Hardit people. He only hoped he didn’t live to regret siding with the Human Legion.
— Chapter 80 —
Mid Afternoon, Post-Revival Day 22
Outside of Fortress Beta City, Serendine
1st BN, 18th GravTank RGT, New Order Army
The first moments after the Vengeance squadrons had abandoned the field were intense. The enemy’s Drako fighters had followed the attack with a strafing run of the Janissary infantry regiments and managed to destroy three companies of gravtanks. The seven Janissary companies were replaceable, but the loss of the gravtanks was devastating. After recovering from the air attack from the human scum, the New Order troops righted and adjusted the line before continuing their slow advance through the minefield. Luckily, Subaltern Kytrush’s section of line had escaped unscathed in the air attack.
Taking advantage of the lull in battle, given to them by the aerial combat overhead and the subsequent abandonment of the aerial field, Kytrush and the rest of the New Order line meandered through the mine field. They were largely uncontested as the Marines on the walls either hunkered down or focused on trying to take out the remaining Vengeance fighters.
Kytrush suspected the gravtanks were nearing the end of this obstacle, but they would have to clear it without the benefit of a distracted enemy. Unlike the militia crew, the young Janissary wasn’t afraid of the combat to come. In fact, Kytrush was itching to get into the fight.
While waiting for the crew to clear another ten feet, which was how the Janissaries were inching their combat line across the field, Kytrush drank a hot glass of tarngrip tea and rested. When the line had been pushed out, the order was given and the gravtank driver moved forward. The process then repeated itself.
While Kytrush directed her driver to move forward, somewhere off on the western flank a mine exploded. Some idiotic militia fool had become complacent. This echoing sound reminding Kytrush to pay closer attention to the militia crewmembers around the gravtank.
An hour later, after the line continued to inch forward unobstructed, they began to experience some reluctance from the militia. One crew tried abandoning their gravtank. Running on all fours into the minefield, they were blown to pieces before the Janissaries could fill them with sabots. Looking down from the comfort of the gravtank, Kytrush shouted at the stunned militia crewmembers who had stopped working to watch.
“That is the price of being disloyal. Run, and you die.”
Kytrush took great joy in pointing out to the cost of cowardly disobedience. The young Janissary wondered what prompted the dead crew to bolt in the first place. Focusing three eyes on the fortress, Kytrush didn’t waste any more time thinking about militia. Instead, the Janissary calculated the best way to bring down those walls.
— Chapter 81 —
Mid Afternoon, Post-Revival Day 22
Fortress Beta City, Serendine
Baton Co., 5th BN, 70th RGT, 18th DIV, 5th Army, 2nd Army Group, Akoni City Regional Army, Human Legion
Staff Sergeant Carleton had been pulled from his nap by a renewed aerial assault on the walls. Thankfully, the anti-air cannons, Drakos, and his fellow Marines had managed to swat the Hardit scum from the sky. Despite the absence of enemy aircraft, he knew, without having to be told, that eventually they’d have to clear the field in front of them with a suicidal charge. Enough gravtanks and ground troops remained to threaten the walls.
The Hardits were using their defenses against them, preventing them from simply bombing them into oblivion. Scanning the field, he saw the gravtanks were still stalled in the minefield. Deciding to take the initiative, he had his AI overlay the location of every placed mine.
While he waited for the overlay to process, he messaged his commander, requesting permission to counterattack the stalled enemy. His request was denied, as expected, so he began thinking of alternatives. With the air free of Hardits, all that was left was to wipe out the gravtanks and ground forces. They would have to weed them out, one combatant at a time. He figured it might take the officers a bit longer to reach the right conclusion.
Though the officers were dithering, Carleton couldn’t, because inaction was killing him. He couldn’t tolerate the enemy killing fellow Marines and destroying the fortress he’d helped build. Looking at the latest distance readings he had ordered his Marines to provide, an idea struck him like a sabot round between the eyes.
Working quickly, he wrote up the target list for his section, prepared a message for the other sectors of the wall, and sent it to his Marines. He worried that the CO or First Sergeant might object, but he remembered that they were on their down time. A benefit of being the CO’s aide was knowing when you could do things without him knowing.
After sending out the targeting coordinates, he did a quick check to ensure they were still accurate. Once they’d been confirmed, Carleton ordered every Marine in his section to sight onto their assigned target and fire on his command.
Normally, they’d have questioned his orders, just out of spite, and made him come back with a pat on the head from the ranking officer. Today, they wanted something to do. Marines weren’t bred to sit and watch, and everyone had a fire in their belly to get back at the forces who’d been bombing and killing them for last few hours. When he judged that he’d given everyone time to get ready, he started a countdown.
“Three, two, one – FIRE!”
All down his section of the wall, in front of the western edge of the field, Marines pulled their triggers. Sabots, missiles, and rockets went down range and Hardits died in numbers. Most of the Marines quickly hit their targets and cheered, but Carleton watched the carnage he’d just orchestrated and felt at peace.
He’d ordered the Marines to aim their sabots at the mines and their rockets and missiles at the ground under the tanks, rather than the tanks themselves. The results were even more destructive than he’d envisioned.
Carleton saw mines blow up in front of Hardit gravtank crews. On his sector, unprotected Janissary companies were torn to bits by the exploding mines. One of the rockets sent downrange by Carleton hit a mine on the rear edge of the gravtank, exploding underneath it. The explosion blew the gravtank into the air where it summersaulted arse over end until it landed several feet in front of the Hardit line. The flying gravtank landed on another mine, causing it to blow into
the air again.
I bet that they’ll be the first tank crew to qualify for pilot’s wings! he chuckled to himself.
The second explosion had only blown the gravtank straight up. It landed back in the crater generated by the exploding mine but continued to vibrate for several minutes afterwards. Satisfied that his plan worked, with the gravtank in front of him still vibrating, he began searching for his XO, who should be patrolling the walls. He was hoping for permission to get other sections of the line to repeat this process, but instead he ended up being called over by some engineering colonel.
The Jotun officer stalked, rather than the normal walk of her species, over to where Carleton stood. While most Jotun Marines were scary on a good day, during battle, the normally jovial Colonel Gaarjar was fearsome. When she finally stood in front of him, staring down at him as if he were a rodent in one of her science experiments, he sucked in his breath. Unauthorized action in the face of the enemy, which often included anything resembling initiative, was punishable by death. At least, it had been under the White Knight Empire.
After staring at him, into him, for a few moments, she finally spoke. Unlike other Jotuns, she spoke the human tongue without the use of a voice box to translate.
“Marine, who gave you permission to engage the enemy in such a way?”
When he didn’t immediately answer, the colonel unsheathed her claws on all four of her hands. Her combat armor elongated at the fingers and the claws looked like twelve glistening spears. Carleton took the hint.
“Ma’am, I did. I couldn’t stand and wait for them to kill us any longer, so I acted and passed the order down the chain of command. My commander and first sergeant were on their rest cycle, per your orders, so I made the call. My Marines were just following orders.”
Once he’d said his part, Carleton tensed, expecting the worst.
The Jotun colonel stared at Carleton for several long moments, headless of the clamor of war which echoed all around them. After seeing that he didn’t back down, her claws retracted as she slapped his shoulder with her lower left hand. Carleton almost fainted as the action was so quick he thought she was moving to rip him two. Then, to add to his shock, she leaned down and bared her fangs at him. The mouth under the snout of her helmet shifted into a toothy smile.
“Congratulations, Lieutenant Strabane, we need that sort of initiative when appropriate. The enemy was in range and you took charge, killing them in a tactically sound manner. Well done. I’ve taken your plan and passed it up and down the line. On your order to fire, more of these New Order monsters will die.”
Not wanting to be told twice, Carleton gave the order to all the Marines on the wall to fire on their designated targets. The results were even more spectacular than before. Two more gravtank companies were destroyed or disabled and four companies eliminated. For the first time, Carleton didn’t feel like the most hated Marine on the walls anymore.
— Chapter 82 —
Late Afternoon, Post-Revival Day 22
Tunnels Underneath Fortress Beta City, Serendine
2nd Co., 4th BN, 7th New Order Janissary RGT, New Order Army
Captain Golorn Pelom-Bonga walked on all fours in the tunnels around the fortress they planned to soon capture. Golorn had most of the features of a male Hardit. He hadn’t been birthed from the slime of an incubation tube, he had been neutered. This caused him much grief among the other younger Janissaries at first. Despite this shortcoming, he had carved out his leadership role with two clawed hands. Now, if anyone questioned the neutrality of his gender, he ripped their throats out.
Senior Scent Leader Talmadge gave the order to move out in company formation, securing every tunnel as they pushed forward looking for the route which would get them into the fortress. That was all Golorn needed to move his Janissaries out. The promise of darkness, and human blood, was enough to stoke their collective fires.
Unfortunately, they were slowed by the order to lay archaic commo wires behind them. He felt Talmadge gave the nefnasts too much credit, they probably lacked the ability to hack the New Order comms lines. But orders were orders, so Golorn had his Janissaries string the commo wire.
Golorn wasn’t happy with their progress as they patrolled through the tunnels, time was lost stringing the wires and the formation was getting sloppy. Not to mention the noise. The spool of wire echoed down the tunnels as it unrolled.
When they got to an area that looked like it could be defensible, he ordered a halt to allow his company to rest and swap out the Janissaries laying the comms. While they rested, Golorn inspected his Janissaries. When he came upon one with a dirty carbine, he took a moment to beat the fool in the head with the dirty weapon. The Janissary began cleaning the weapon as Golorn moved to the next. The others saw the example and began cleaning their equipment as well. He knew they had time before they were close enough to the fortress to worry, but he didn’t want his Janissaries to become complacent.
They rested for an hour, then began moving again. He sent a quick update to the battalion commander as the company stalked forward. They’d been tactically advancing through the passageway, when it took a sharp turn. He was about to order a scout forward to check it out, but the lead element didn’t stop or even slow down. He was working his way forward to correct the situation, planning on every nasty thing he’d do to the offending squad, when the sound of carbine fire defiled the serenity of the tunnel.
Rushing to the front, Golorn couldn’t believe the number of rounds being fired at them. The sabots blasted away at the tunnel. Two Janissaries were down, and their bodies continued to jerk as sabots impacted them.
Positive they had run into a superior element, Golorn ordered his company to fall back. Grabbing the nearest officer, Golorn shouted at the Janissary.
“Tactical withdrawal! Use the sharp turn of the tunnel as a kill point. If anything, or anyone, peeks around the bend, you slaughter it!”
Shouting orders to coordinate the withdrawal, Golorn ran to the rear to notify the senior scent leader of their discovery. Golorn’s plan was to pull back to the main element so he could have the numerical superiority to crush his enemies, though he wasn’t sure the battalion commander would approve. Making the call, he waited for a response on the antiquated comms line. He hoped the response would come soon, as the crackle of incoming sabots wasn’t slowing.
— Chapter 83 —
Late Afternoon, Post-Revival Day 22
Tunnels Underneath Fortress Beta City, Serendine
Kilo Co., 6th BN, 42nd RGT, 11th DIV, 3rd Army, 1st Army Group, Akoni City Regional Army, Human Legion
Captain Gabrielle “Gabby” Quinn was already pissed. She hated tunnel patrols more than anything. There are only two options for movement in a tunnel: forward and backwards. Add darkness, a tunnel loving enemy, and walls that ricochet sabots, and you have a perfect cluster-frakk recipe. Taking a deep breath and a few moments to vent to her AI, who predictably responded in a sympathetic manner, she got back work supervising her company. Luckily, her NCOs were competent and more than capable of picking up any slack whenever it was needed.
After receiving their orders, Gabby couldn’t help but note that this combat patrol was unique in that they were stringing communication wires behind them to prevent enemy infiltration of their comms networks. It was a necessity because the White Knight and Human Legion comms systems were so similar, and the Hardits potentially had experience maintaining them. This forced the use of older technical solutions. All Gabby knew, was it slowed her normally efficient company down.
Shaking off the annoyance, she focused on the patrol and checked on her Marines to ensure they were never anything less than lethal. This, she knew, was her most important role as a company commander. Kill as many of the enemy as she could, while bringing back as many as her Marines as possible.
Gabby was at the front of the patrol when they rounded a blind corner and ran into a group of Hardits. At first, surprise led to inaction on both sides, but it lasted for less
than a second before Kilo Company proved their lethality and sent hundreds of sabots into Hardit flesh. Two of the beasts fell to the ground.
Hardit combat suits sure make them harder to detect, but it ain’t doing much against our sabots, thought Gabby as the grabbed two Marines and pulled them backwards.
Gabby sent an update to the trailing reinforcement company and ordered a sergeant to link into her helmet camera. The sergeant could independently decide if he needed to call his unit forward by seeing through Gabby’s eyes.
Figuring the Hardit’s were likely waiting for them to cut the corner, Gabby bounced a flash grenade around the bend. The Hardit’s sensitive eyes were likely trained on the curve in the tunnel, and she needed to blind them. The moment the grenade exploded, the Marines of 1st squad ran around the corner, abandoning their columns.
The blood-hungry 2nd Squad Marines let their adrenaline get the better of them and followed the 1st without waiting for orders. Marines bumped and pushed each other to move forward in the tunnel. Gabby managed to regain control and hold back the other half of her company from stepping around the blind corner. The sound of gunfire ahead indicated Marines had contacted the enemy.
“Marines, listen up,” Gabby shouted into the LBNet. “This isn’t an open space with wide fields of fire. The more everyone rushes forward, the higher the chances are of killing each other instead of the enemy. Stay in your columns and wait for orders. When these tunnels straighten out, get off the walls. You hug those walls and the enemy will simply bounce sabots down them and kill you.”
In orderly columns of two, Gabby and the remaining Marines in Kilo Company began turning the blind corner. Marines and Hardits littered the ground around them as they walked. A few surviving Marines shuffled around, probing the darkness with their helmet lights. Other than the dead Hardits on the tunnel floor, none remained.
