by Aer-ki Jyr
Morgan looked around, seeing a chaotic mess taking place and almost no Calavari resistance. Zooming back out she chose another city, working her way through the other 7 in turn and seeing that not all of them had yet come under heavy attack. Two of them hadn’t been touched, as far as visuals could confirm, but she did see a single fighter landing on one of the decks and being pulled underneath a protective overhang. She caught a glimpse of battle damage and sent a request over to the analyzers to give her numbers of enemy and allied starfighters in the area.
2 minutes and 15 seconds later she got a tally sheet back.
0 Nestafar/14 Calavari
That meant the Alliance had air superiority, weak as it was…which meant Star Force also had an opportunity to act.
Morgan activated her earpiece as she darted out of the quarters and ran over to the sanctum’s armory. “Captain, I want every available dropship from all four warships prepped for civilian evacuation and I want Knight guards accompanying them to protect the LZ…and have them equipped with firearms, otherwise the Nestafar will fly up out of reach and pick them to pieces.”
“Single evacuation or round trip?” Wilkinson asked, already working through the logistical possibilities.
“There are millions of Calavari that need rescued, so the shorter the trip the better. See if you can find a safe location nearby on planet, if not we’ll have to make one and have the Calavari come pick up their people later. Up and down from orbit will take too long.”
“Where are we talking about?”
“City complex in the mountains under Nestafar assault. The Calavari have air superiority but they’re getting overrun on the ground and the civilians are getting slaughtered. I know we can’t save them all, but I want to get as many out as we can.”
“I need coordinates.”
“Sorry, I’m on the move here. Check the request feed, group of eight cities in the southern hemisphere’s primary mountain range, requesting any and all Alliance assistance. Not a specific Star Force request.”
“Timestamp?”
“About 12 minutes ago.”
The Captain was silent for several lengths of hallway then came back on just as Morgan was getting to the armory doors.
“I found it. Which of the eight did you want the evac to target?”
“Any aside from the one getting hit the hardest,” she said, walking into the armory and over to her personal storage lockers and the three sets of unscathed ranger armor tailored to fit her dimensions exactly. She pulled the boot section of one of them out and slid it on over her thin shoe in a quick and well-practiced choreography.
“Where will you be going?” he asked, anticipating her answer.
“Where the heaviest fighting is. I’ll thin their numbers as much as I can, just keep the dropships running as long as possible and make sure the Knights stay with them. They’re coming to protect our assets, not battle the enemy.”
“Understood. I’ll have one ready to go as soon as you can get to the hangar.”
On approach to the city swarming with Nestafar, Morgan had the pilot contact the Valeries in the area and organize a little diversion to give the eagle a patch of rooftop all to itself. The window of opportunity didn’t last long and the dropship’s shields took a diffuse, long range plasma hit from a protomech, but it did drop down close enough to the pad for Morgan to jump out before rocketing off back into the air and across the mountains to one of the other cities where it would start to pick up evacuees and ferry them off to wherever Wilkinson had arranged.
That wasn’t her concern now, killing Nestafar and keeping them from transitioning over to the other cities en mass was…so she planned to make herself as big of a nuisance as possible. To that end, as soon as she was down on the pad she repositioned over to the edge and pulled out the rocket launcher from her armor’s rack, then disconnected her pack entirely and set it beside her, popping open the top so she could reach in for the extra rockets more easily.
There wasn’t any infantry in her exact spot, but there were a few buzzing around in the sky, keeping watch or passing to and fro over the killing fields that showed dozens of dead Calavari lying about…and she suspected the interior of the city was going to look much worse.
Morgan pulled the launcher to her shoulder and sighted in the protomech that had hit the dropship, tagging it with a targeting laser and firing off the round. She held the bead on the chest of the stubby, walking machine as it moved until the streak of rocket exhaust stretched all the way to the target and a concussive explosion occurred.
The trailblazer didn’t wait to see what happened past detonation, busy pulling out another concussive round and snap loading it into place. She twisted to the left about 20 degrees and targeted another a bit further away, fired, then picked up a plasma round and loaded it in. That she deposited into the side of a Nestafar transport three times further away than the protomechs but still in the same direction. It took an agonizingly long time for it to streak over to the target, but when it did a huge blue plume of plasma materialized and ate into the unshielded hull as it sat on the pad.
Morgan loaded and fired off her last remaining rocket, also a plasma variety, at another transport then ditched the launcher and picked up her pack, closing the flap and reattaching it to the back of her armor with a few quick clicks. She pulled her plasma rifle into hand and took off running as sounds of heavy footfalls from the opposite direction started to get painfully loud.
She ducked close to the wall blocking the view of the higher tier that connected via a sweeping turn of an ascension ramp that the protomech was coming down, then she darted off right and ran to the side of the ribbon-like walkway assembly and found a stairway over the side and down into the gap between itself and a higher inset ribbon that several specs of infantry were flying over…and coming down towards her position, preceded by several badly aimed red plasma blasts.
Morgan ran down the exterior catwalk made of some form of decorative concrete in the red/orange motif that seemed to dominate most Calavari architecture and ducked inside the city, removing herself from the firing lines of the protomechs and the flying infantry.
The hallways were larger than Star Force standard, given the size of the occupants, but she didn’t have much time to consider the view as the sound of weaponsfire drifted her way almost immediately upon entry. She followed it through the curvy hallways, spotting the occasional corpse, until the labyrinth opened up into a promenade that seemed to mimic the gradual curve of the surface rings.
There were bodies everywhere, with a pair of Nestafar flying low to the ground to keep their wings clear of the ornamented ceiling. Morgan snapped off a rifle shot at one, clipping a wing and sending it screaming in pain down to the ground where it landed on top a pile of the bulbous Calavari blood-slicked in deep orange.
Morgan ignored it and shot the other one, peppering it with three shots at distance to make sure she connected with either the torso or head, then as it fell she ran forwards, eyes on the other, and shot it dead about halfway across the gap. She took a moment to look around, still hearing weaponsfire but seeing none. She did a complete visual sweep in a slow, agile spin, then picked her best guess as to where the current fighting was going on and jumped her away across the bodies, noting very few Nestafar among them.
All along the perimeter of the promenade there were compartments, most of which had their doors open. She assumed the Nestafar had searched through them all, killing any Calavari they’d come across. Part of her wanted to check the closed ones, seeing if there were any survivors inside but she knew it would be a waste of time. Even if they were still alive she couldn’t get them out of here. In truth, the Calavari in this city were as good as dead…she was here with the sole purpose of killing Nestafar and buying time for Star Force and whatever Calavari transports were available to evacuate the other city/buildings.
She knew they wouldn’t get them all out and she didn’t want to guess at the percentage, but she knew it would be lo
w. Had they been Human they could have squeezed more people into each dropship, but the Calavari’s larger size was going to diminish the amounts they could carry per trip.
Then again, as Morgan ran towards battle, she noticed a large number of smaller Calavari amongst the dead, guessing that they were their females until she got a clear view of one of their heads and confirmed the theory. That, at least, would increase the numbers of potential evacuees…as well as meaning those still left alive in the city wouldn’t be as much use in hand to hand combat if a large number of them were female. Even without weapons, the males were still dangerous to the Nestafar, especially indoors.
She didn’t know who was left alive, but someone was shooting it out ahead because she heard the varying pitches of both the Nestafar and Calavari plasma weapons. Not their rifles, but one of the smaller, single hand pistols that some of their techs and support personnel carried.
Morgan followed the sounds down another staircase and off the promenade, then wound her way back down underneath it, coming up behind several dozen Nestafar on the ground, wings tucked, and taking cover behind various pieces of what looked like sculptures in some sort of indoor park laced with trees and other greenery.
The Archon didn’t waste time and started blasting away at their backs, taking three down before the others even noticed her presence. The rest didn’t last long, some of which were hit by the hidden Calavari as they turned around and rose up to fire on Morgan as she dashed back and forth evasively, while methodically downing the enemy with precision chest and head shots.
“Clear,” she announced when the last of them was down, then she walked out into the space between where the two groups were fighting, which was already clogged with bodies, suggesting that this wasn’t the first firefight to take place in this location.
“Our thanks,” a Calavari male said as he came out from behind a tree, behind which a pair of females was cowering down in the crook of a wall segment. Elsewhere a few more armed males came out of cover, followed by even more unarmed ones, several of which were oozing their bizarre orange blood. “Are you…Human?”
“Rescue?” another one asked eagerly.
“Human yes, rescue no,” Morgan said, walking through the lot and spying an exit out the other side. “I’m here to kill as many of them as I can while we evacuate the other cities. This one is lost.”
“How many of you are there? Can we not evacuate from your landing zone?”
“Just me,” Morgan said, not wanting to waste time but not wanting to abandon them without explaining herself. “Find some place to hide and hope they don’t find you. I’ll distract them as much as I can.”
“How are you getting out?” one of them asked as she walked past them, glad that she didn’t have to look them in the eye with her helmet in place.
“I’m fighting my way out,” she said, disappearing out the doorway.
5
March 23, 2405
Brokal System
Sri’ka
Wilkinson was waiting in the hangar bay when Morgan’s dropship arrived, bringing her back from her 5th solo mission on Sri’ka. When the boarding ramp lowered and she walked out he was taken aback at how much damage her armor had. The formerly green plates were covered in black char from plasma strikes and some impact points were showing the softer blue inner armor ballistic gel layer seeping through. Her helmet also had a nasty melt spot on the left side, but by her casual movements as the Archon walked over to him he didn’t think she’d been injured.
“You look like hell,” he offered, falling into step beside her as she walked towards the inner doors.
Morgan pulled off her helmet and flipped her ponytail loose. “Busy couple of days.”
“The O’Neill’s raid was a success. I haven’t seen the telemetry data yet, but apparently they got the jumpship on the first try.”
The trailblazer glanced at him. “Pleasant news. What’s their current status?”
“Holding their stellar orbit for the moment. They’ve disabled the ship’s gravity drives, so it isn’t going anywhere.”
“What’s the range of the Calavari transports?” Morgan asked as they transitioned out of the bay and into the warship’s hallways.
“I just made an inquiry…seems they’re capable of interplanetary travel. The Calavari also extend their thanks for your recent efforts.”
“Has the jumpship surrendered?”
“Not as of yet. Captain Morai is applying the necessary pressure. The Kvash are also requesting our assistance with the fleet orbiting Dar’ma.”
“What are we looking at?” Morgan asked, trying to remember the last intel reports from the 2nd planet in the star system.
“They want to move a jumpship into orbit and open up a ground campaign, but they said they can only spare four cruisers as escort. There are currently 56 Nestafar vessels in low orbit, with another pocket of 23 stationed around one of the moons…though it won’t take much to redeploy their larger fleets elsewhere if they want to counter the counter invasion.”
“Did they get another jumpship in system?”
“Yesterday morning.”
“Where’s it right now?”
“Sitting next to a battleship around Arn’nat.”
“Why not deploy the troops there?”
“They said the ground situation is improving and it’s time to push harder into other areas before the Nestafar get reinforced.”
“They’ll get reinforced if we don’t catch the rest of their jumpships,” Morgan said, stopping at an intersection that led over to the sanctum. So far the others that had escaped their initial ambush had been scattered across the system, staying well away from any of the planets. The Optimus Prime and O’Neill had been sent out to try and intercept them after the Kvash had provided tracking data on their locations, but given their jumping capability Morgan knew it was going to be difficult to catch and surround them…which was why she was also interested in seeing how Captain Morai had pulled off the capture.
“I’d prefer to go hunting smaller groupings of the enemy’s starships than another massed assault,” Wilkinson added. “Trim down their numbers as much as we can before we leave.”
“I take it none have come sniffing close enough to get a good shot at?”
“Unfortunately no. And we didn’t bring along enough smaller ships to do much chasing…and those that can are currently aiding ground ops.”
“What’s our fuel situation?”
“We’ve got a week, maybe two before we have to start skimping.”
“Recommendations?”
“Pick a major target and knock it flat on our way out the door.”
“Like their command ship?”
“I wish, but they’ve got enough escorts around it that we’re not going to touch it…at least, not without losing a significant portion of our fleet.”
“Not an option there.”
“Are you going back down again?”
“Still have a waiting list?”
“A continually growing one.”
“I would, but I’m out of armor replacements. I can use the standard models, but they don’t fit as well…and I don’t want to burn up all the ranger armor in case I need to use it again before we head back home.”
Wilkinson glanced at her pot marked chest. “I assume that’s not repairable?”
“Use and lose…and last I checked Jason hadn’t got the shielded version out of prototype stage.”
“I can see how that would be a major advantage.”
Morgan shook her head. “It’s too bulky, not to mention heavy. Until we trim the tech down it’s not worth the loss of agility. Better to stick with portable shield units for tactical ops.”
“Do we have any of those onboard?”
“A few, but I haven’t had a need for them.”
Wilkinson held up a hand, then pointed to his ear as he received a transmission over his comm. Morgan waited through the long pause, then began to wonder what was up when the
Captain wasn’t speaking back.
“Copy that,” he acknowledged, then looked at Morgan. “A Hycre jumpship has just arrived in orbit, carrying a small warfleet. They have intelligence suggesting the Nestafar are doubling down and sending a large portion of their neighboring forces to this system. The Alliance wants a meeting between all races involved, in person, on Sri’ka as soon as representatives can arrive, which the Kvash say will take them at least a day to organize. They want to know how soon we can attend?”
Morgan frowned. “Why in person?”
“I don’t know.”
The Archon sighed. “If the Kvash can make it in a day so can I, but if I’m going to be standing around and talking for the majority of a day I’m going to get a full workout plus in before I go down there. Make the arrangements…and let me know if the Hycre have any data packages for us,” she said as an afterthought. Their ships had the habit of carrying Star Force messages, as well as those of the other races, with them due to their superior jump speed.
Wilkinson nodded and they split, him going to the bridge and Morgan heading over to the sanctum doors. When she got there she had a choice of options for entry, but hesitated before issuing the verbal code that would give her access. She hadn’t been back to her personal quarters in more than two weeks and made the snap decision to head over there, leaving the locked doors as they were and heading towards the nearest stairwell, feeling like walking rather than taking a lift.
A lot of things played through her mind on the way…the recent fighting at a Calavari factory that produced Valeries that the Nestafar had been keen on capturing, the changing players in the seemingly never-ending game for control of the system, her full bladder that needed emptying soon, a burn spot on her right inner elbow where her armor had been breached, and thoughts of how Jason and the others were doing establishing their foothold against the lizards.
