by Aer-ki Jyr
All three went down within a second, then as their rifles fell silent Morgan and Sati heard more weaponsfire coming from other locations as the Archon teams fought their way towards their initial targets…theirs of which was the anti-air tower fifty meters inside the wall.
It rose up higher than the other towers, poking up above the angled topside shields so that the base could remain protected against bombardment and fighters simultaneously while being set back from the wall far enough for the heavy plasma turrets to retain prime firing position over the sides. Inside the base it appeared as a long, slender rod shooting up high into the sky with a slightly bulbous top that held the rotating anti-air batteries that they needed to take out so the skeets could come in and put some serious hurt on the base.
There was an entryway at the base of the tower that Morgan and Sati ran towards, firing at any Nestafar infantry lounging, walking, or flying nearby that they came across…then they rushed in the turret’s unlocked access door to find an open air tube rising up to the top in place of stairs. Given that the Nestafar could fly that made all the sense in the world, as well as making it nearly impossible for enemy troops to scale the tower.
Fortunately the Archons had discovered the design layout from a previous base and came prepared. Cranking up their jump packs to maximum, both Archons leapt off the ground in Jedi-esk jumps and flashed by the intervening levels, with Morgan noticing a scattering of Nestafar in her peripheral vision. Her jump pack’s capacitor nearly depleted before she dialed it back at the apex of her jump to ‘leveling’ rather than ‘ascending’ and used her hands on the topmost ceiling to pull her over to the side.
She ran out of power a little short and dropped back down, catching her hand on the edge of the floor and dangling for a moment as her capacitor started to recharge…then she gave herself a small boost and pulled up over the top directly into a plasma blast from a Nestafar pistol against her helmet.
Her vision immediately dimmed from the flash, as well as the melting effect on her faceplate, but the helmet kept the blast from getting through and before Morgan could respond weaponsfire from Sati took the Nestafar down, along with three others on the top level. The Archon ignored Morgan and pointed her rifle back down over the edge, firing a pair of shots and discouraging any of the Nestafar from the idea that coming up after them was wise.
“We’re clear,” she said as Morgan got herself up onto her feet, silently cursing the weight of all the gear she was carrying. Her vision was partially obscured with a rippling effect over her right eye, but her left was still clear and, distracting as it was, she could still function without discarding her helmet.
Morgan pulled out a grenade from her pack and chucked it into one of the mechanical access hatches overhead and pulled the hatch shut behind it. A couple seconds later an earthquake shook the tower, grinding her teeth together from the vibration as the bulk of the anti-air mechanics were slagged.
For good measure Morgan went around and shot all the control and maintenance computer stations on the top level with her plasma rifle, along with anything else that looked important, then she headed back over to where Sati was still guarding the central shaft.
“Done,” Morgan reported, adjusting the chest controls on her jump pack.
“Hold up,” Sati said, raising her left hand so Morgan wouldn’t jump off. “Bit of a party downstairs.”
Morgan poked her head out over the shaft, seeing a few wingtips sticking out occasionally but nothing overtly troublesome.
“Two dozen, minimum,” Sati answered her unspoken question. “Waiting to ambush us on the way down.”
“Plan B then,” Morgan said, heading back over to the bent access hatch that she forcefully pried open. Inside was a mess of burnt/broken components, some of which fell out in a cascade of destroyed electronics.
“Might as well just blow a hole in the wall,” Sati suggested, keeping her aim on those below.
“I don’t want to waste a grenade,” Morgan said, wiggling her way up and immediately getting her pack caught. She backed out and stripped off her gear and weapons down to her basic armor and tried again, this time disappearing up into the wrecked anti-air turret cupola like a mole digging through dirt.
Sati shook her head, unsure if this was going to work or not, then took a shot at a bit of shoulder that stuck out of cover half the distance down the shaft. She missed it, but clipped the attached wing, twisting the Nestafar around and bringing its head into sight. Her second shot was a clean hit and the dead soldier fell out into the shaft and landed with a muted crunch at the bottom.
A waterfall of debris started flowing out of the access shaft Morgan had disappeared through, along with consistent noise of pieces of junk being shuffled around. Sati let her work, keeping her focus on the shaft, until a very loud boom sounded, followed by the ceiling of the chamber she was in denting down a few inches.
“Morgan?” she asked over the comm.
“I’m alright…just improvised a little explosive,” the ranger said as her feet appeared through the hatch and she stepped down, kicking aside the pile of junk below enough for her to slip back through…then she began rifling through the debris trying to find her pack and weapons.
“We’ve got our way out,” she said, pulling her jump pack back on. “It’s a tight squeeze though.”
“Tight I’ll take over a wall of plasma any day,” Sati said, rotating her way around the shaft until she got over to Morgan’s side. There she waited until the other Archon got geared up and awkwardly climbed over the debris pile.
“Let’s go,” she said, disappearing up into the damaged cupola.
Sati gave her a two second head start then followed her over, climbing up the debris pile and squeezing herself and her heavy pack through the contorted hatch. After that it was a zigzag climb through the melted/leaking innards of the junked machinery following Morgan’s lead until they finally wound their way around into daylight where one of the firing apertures had been knocked out.
“Oh crap,” Morgan said, with Sati a step behind but unable to see past her out the jagged and narrow breach.
“What?”
“Giraffe headed our way…and looking up at us. Move now!” she yelled jumping out the hole into the open air and falling from view. Sati trusted her judgment and shot out behind her before she could get a good look at where the walker was…then a massive red plasma blast consumed the air behind her as she dropped out of the tower.
Both Archons tagged their chest controls and used the jump packs to slow their descent, but not so much that they became floating targets. As soon as Morgan’s feet hit the pavement she sprinted off towards cover, not even bothering to fire on the heavily armored giraffe, though she did shoot two infantry flyers that headed her way before ducking around the corner of a building and getting out of the walker’s line of sight.
Sati followed her down to the ground then took off running another direction, knowing that following Morgan would be too predictable and that even a near miss by the giraffe’s heavy plasma cannon would be enough to do her in. Instead of cutting across the street she followed the wall of the turret until she was able to sneak around the end and out of sight…followed by another huge plasma blast whose pressure wave knocked her forward off her feet as the air suddenly overheated and expanded less than a meter behind her.
“Sati?” Morgan’s voice asked for confirmation.
The Archon picked herself up and fired wildly down the narrow side street between the anti-air turret and the cattycorner anti-mech turret, causing a group of infantry flyers to scatter. “Still alive. I’ve got this turret, find something pretty of theirs to blow up, will ya?”
“Copy that,” Morgan said, leaving her fellow Archon behind and running off south through the various buildings that ringed the central courtyard. The gaps between them varied, but most were wide enough for the giraffes and…
“Damn it,” Morgan said, skidding to a halt and backtracking a few meters to a door as a pr
otomech rolled around the corner in front of her and began deploying out of ball mode. The stupid door was locked so she had to shoot the latch out and kick really hard to get it to pop open, then she ducked inside before the small mech could target her.
Inside were dozens of Nestafar sitting at booths doing who knew what, but Morgan didn’t stick around to find out as she ran straight through the lot, hitting and ramming some of them out of the way as they all leapt up in a panicked ruckus, apparently unarmed. Halfway across the building she found another ascension shaft and jumped up it with the help of her pack, getting off on the third floor and chucking another grenade into what looked like a very intricate database or comm system bank of servers.
She took a jumping step up the shaft to the fourth level before the grenade blew, then hopped from one side to another up the shaft until she hit the top level, all the while the Nestafar within the building were fleeing in a chaotic mess. She killed three that came after her, apparently having found some weapons to use, before she reached a roof hatch and climbed up and out just in time to see a formation of skeets fly over the shield and release torrents of blue plasma in streaks into the energy barrier, sucking up its strength but not completely penetrating.
Around the perimeter she also saw a scattering of individual skeets firing beneath the shield directly at the heavy plasma turrets guarding the entry road. The big guns didn’t have a hope of hitting the fighters aside from pure luck and were quickly being taken apart now that all the anti-air towers were non-operational.
Morgan ran over to the side of the building, pulling a collapsible rocket launcher off her back and unfolding it. She had four shells to use, snugged up in her pack and she brought the first one out and loaded it in as she came to the edge of the roof, looking down to try and find the protomech. Instead she saw a swarm of infantry, apparently having come looking for her on the lower levels of the building. Before she could back away from the edge she was spotted and several of them started flying up her way.
She set the launcher aside and whipped out her assault rifle, taking a few steps back and waiting for them to come up over the edge where she could gun them down…but the buggers were smart and split up, coming up on the right and left where she couldn’t target both groups at the same time.
Knowing better than to give them a stationary target Morgan ran right while firing left, knocking two down before she whipped her rifle’s muzzle around and shot those nearest her. She got tagged in the leg by one red plasma blast, but killed the other three Nestafar on the run before circling around and taking the fight to the others. Her and the four flyers exchanged fire, a lot of which missed due to her agility and their airborne acrobatics, but she took down two of them before they got in another hit…then a dozen more came up over the side of the building and opened up on her.
Morgan didn’t stick around to find out what would happen and took off sprinting the opposite way, running a zigzaggy path to throw off their aim as her helmet comm activated.
“Morgan! Turn and fire!”
Trusting her fellow Archons, she did as instructed just in time to see two silver-armored acolytes jumping in from another building from the right side and blasting away at the infantry from the flank, taking down several before getting the others’ attention turned on them.
Morgan took a late hit to her chest, dazing her for a split second, then charged back towards the enemy firing rapidly, targeting both those still focused on her as well as throwing a few shots towards the others, trying to sow as much confusion as possible. Between the three of them the Archons mowed down the infantry, taking only a few minor hits to their armor.
“Drop something?” Prion asked, picking up her rocket launcher.
“Yes, thank you,” she said, extricating it from his grasp and lowering the business end of the weapon down towards the street where she saw yet another protomech rolling up in ball mode from the left. She jerked the trigger and the projectile shot off in a stream of smoke that led straight down to where the rolling ball was about to be.
She’d timed it perfectly and the plasma warhead exploded nearly dead center, creating and spilling the hot, ionized gasses that melted through the round casing of the mech and took away its smooth demeanor. No longer a perfect sphere, the mech began jerking and wobbling with every rotation, then bits and pieces began flying off from the centrifugal force before it finally toppled and skidded to a halt almost directly underneath Morgan’s position.
“That your last one?” Vaca asked from beside her.
“No, my first. I’ve got three left.”
“We’ve used all ours, just a few grenades left.”
“Did you get the barracks?”
Prion pointed off to the southeast. “Second smoke signal to the left.”
“I got a little distracted, where do we stand?”
“Primary targets are down, lots of secondaries are left.”
Morgan’s comm lit up again. “Anti-air rocket infantry are deploying on the north side. As soon as the shields go down they’re going to start popping the fighters.”
“Like hell they are,” Morgan whispered before altering channels. “Skeets, break off your attack once the shields go down and you slag the generator. There are some rocket launchers we need to take care of before you start hitting the mechs.”
“Copy that,” Steve-652 said as he passed over the base on another strafing run. “Let us know when we’re clear.”
Morgan pulled another projectile out of her pack and loaded it onto the portable launcher before handing the weapon to Prion along with the two extra rounds.
“Make use of that,” she said, pulling out her sniper rifle and eyeing the slightly taller building ahead of her as she glanced towards the center of the base. “I’m headed up top for support.”
“Trade you for those grenades?” Vaca asked, pulling out a box of sniper rifle ammo.
“Gladly,” Morgan said, happy to lighten her pack a bit further. She tucked away the ammo then jogged back 20 meters from the building’s edge to get enough room for a running start as the other two Archons dropped off the side and down to street level. The ranger sprinted after them then jumped when she got to the edge, triggering her jump pack and launching herself up and over the street to where she easily landed on top of the next building with half her capacitor still full of energy.
Not wasting any time she crossed to the north edge of the building and set up shop, deploying a small tripod and sighting in her lachar rifle on the little dots of infantry in the distance.
“I’m up, guys. Tell me who needs shot first.”
6
Steve and three other skeets shot across the fungi forest a few meters over the tree tops and released another salvo of plasma streamers into the base shield. The first portions of the vivid blue streams impacted and absorbed, then the shield finally succumbed and let the last bits pass through. One hit a building and the other three missed clean into the sky, then the skeets were pulling off at random angles to avoid flying over the exposed base.
“Shield is down,” Steve announced to the other pilots. “Target the generator then get clear. We have rocket infantry inside that need taken out before we hit the walkers. Pick on the heavy turrets from range until we’re clear for strafing runs.”
A small flash appeared in Steve’s peripheral vision as he banked to the right and gained a bit of altitude. When he circled around and glanced back at the base another of the perimeter defense turrets was smoking, though he hadn’t seen any fighters hitting it. He assumed it must have been the infiltration team as he looked for the shield generator, located near the interior LZ and low to the ground, meaning he was going to have to get devious in targeting it.
Just then he saw a pair of skeets strafe the base from the far side, dipping down into a hail of rocket fire and pummeling the shield generator with scatter gun and streamer fire…with him wondering what in the world was the pilot doing using a scatter gun on infrastructure. Steve lost visual tra
ck of them behind several buildings, then the pair rose up and raced back into the sky, one of which was smoking heavily but still under control.
“Shield generator destroyed,” Brad reported.
Morgan rhythmically pulled the trigger on her lachar sniper rifle, tagging one rocket launching infantryman after another, until a flash of blue sparks mowed down half of the targets in her scope. She pulled her helmet back just in time to see a pair of skeets roar through the area and the trailing one nail the shield generator with a plasma streamer, taking it out of commission and leaving the base permanently vulnerable to air attack.
Fortunately both skeets came out of the bold attack run, even as numerous little missiles popped up from the infantry and flew after them. Morgan put the unobscured side of her faceplate back to the scope of her rifle and started sighting in on the remaining infantry she could spot, knowing that there were more hiding out of range behind adjacent buildings. Those the others could take care of up close, her job was to get the easy, exposed ones and thin their numbers.
Before long she had to reload, cursing the time it took away from the battle…then she was fortunate that she had done so as she noticed a pair of flying Nestafar come up onto the rooftop from the back side. They took a moment to recognize her as a threat and redirect their rifles down towards the roof, during which time Morgan dropped her sniper rifle and grabbed her plasma one as she twisted around and rolling up on one knee, then started running sideways as she came out of the twist, firing one handed across the rooftop.
The two flyers broke apart and returned fire with Morgan tracking the rightmost one. Several shots missed before she finally got it boxed in and nailed it in the chest. As it fell to the rooftop another Nestafar came up into view from over the building’s edge and took aim at her immediately. Two more followed it. Then another. Then another three.
“Crap,” she said, firing off two more shots before abandoning the effort and running back over to where her sniper rifle lay, hooking her plasma rifle on her back as she did so. She took two hits to her right arm and leg before she was able to reach down, scoop up the weapon with her left hand, and do a headfirst dive off the side of the roof and out of the free fire zone before they turned her into a plasma piñata.
