The Kryth drew his blade and slashed down at Nevlen’s head.
Nevlen went to block the attack but was too slow. The knife tip cracked the clear visor of his helmet as it embedded about an inch.
The Kryth tugged once, then twice, as he pulled the blade out and drove it down again.
Nevlen blocked the arm this time and deflected the knife away from his chest, but not quite clearing his shoulder. Nevlen’s face contorted in pain as the blade found the top of his shoulder armor, driving it through and into his flesh.
Nevlen propelled the Kryth with his legs, upending him about four feet behind him.
Nevlen rolled to his side into a kneeling position and drew his blaster, and fired off a pinpoint shot to the center of the Kryth’s head, sending bone and tissue smattering about the corridor.
Nevlen’s grin returned with pride.
He holstered his weapon and returned to his troops, which were now just responding to the melee between the two.
∞∞∞
Kason’s team approached a large blast door.
“Engineering door,” Maddox responded.
Kason approached. His helmet scanned the door in front of him. “Much thicker than the others, plus it’s reactive-plated.” Kason turned to look at the wall for a control panel. “And no panel pad for splicing either,” Kason said.
“What about flat bastards?” Keelen suggested.
“It would take all of them to get through,” Kason replied.
Just then, Jens approached from down the corridor.
“Are you guys picking this conversation up on command coms?” Jens asked.
Kason intoned to his helmet’s computer. “Bring up command coms channel.”
The coms crackle came through.
“Commander Bossarios, your squads are to hold the center position. I repeat, your squads are not to advance beyond kilo point. Commander Bossarios, come in.” The coms ended.
“What the hell does he think he’s doing?” Kason blurted out.
“My guess, he thinks his troops can take the whole station. One-up us,” Maddox replied.
“Damn, you mean I could have been lounging pool-side while Nevlen’s troops did all the work?” The sarcasm dripped from Jens’ lips.
Keelen and Maddox let out a chuckle.
Kason was in no mood.
“Forget Nevlen. We have to complete our objective, he looked over his men. “I want all flat bastards out, now,” Kason voiced.
∞∞∞
Nevlen’s three squads approached the far end of the station from where they had started near the hangar bay. They were almost upon the docking point where the Legion Flag was located.
The Troopers came to a large center junction point where three other hallways met.
Just as they entered, Nevlen noticed a suspended walkway above, lining the outside wall of the foyer, right before the doors to their front, behind, and to the sides slammed closed.
The thought of a trap entered Nevlen’s mind before green weapon bolts rained down from the walkway above.
“More plasma weapons soon drowned out the human troop’s screams, as a dozen Kryth fired down at Nevlen’s men.
“Take cover!” Nevlen yelled.
His troops were already scattering for the entryways into the junction, which provided little cover, only five meters deep from the closed doors from the center.
More screams punctuated the smoke-filled room as more humans fell.
Nevlen’s squads retuned as much fire as they could, for they did not have the high ground.
Nevlen’s position was a lot more covered than across the way. He told his men to give cover fire as he ran to the other side.
Bolts flashed by him just as his boot caught a dead human trooper, he stumbled. Nevlen scampered to the other hallway, rounds piercing the floor around him.
He began to fire up at the Kryth with a much better line of sight.
“Damn,” Nevlen cursed, for he knew his men’s situation was desperate.
∞∞∞
“Damn it.” Kason yelled through clenched teeth.
He had heard the command coms regarding Nevlen’s location just as they were going to breach the engineering blast door.
“Nevlen’s squads are trapped in an ambush 200 meters from the docking port,” Kason said.
“What do we do?” Keelen replied.
Kason stood, contemplating their next move.
Maddox questioned Kason’s silence. “Boss?”
“I want all flat bastards lining the door frame.” Kason looked over his helmet’s schematics of the reactor room. “Fifteen meters beyond this door lay the main control console…”
“Uh, Boss, what about the ambush?” Jens asked.
“Listen!” Kason snapped. “We will blow this door straight into the control console and destroy it. This will bring down the reactors. We will then proceed back to our entry point and assist Nevlen’s men.”
The Reavers attached, without any further delay, the high explosives charges to the doorframe; all eight of them.
The Reavers moved back down the hall before arming the demolitions.
The flat bastards glowed, beeped, then detonated.
The reinforced door hurled inwards, smashing against console and conduits, showering the room in sparks and fire. Another control panel exploded, electrical cabling hissed and crackled, buckled from the impact.
Smoke and cries of fallen Kryth poured through the open doorframe.
The Reavers began running back up the main corridor towards Nevlen’s troops.
Kason turned behind as he ran, raised his arm, and fired three retro-rockets from his forearm launcher back towards the reactor room.
The miniature rocket streaked, entered the opening, and detonated.
The explosion erupted and fire thrashed the reactor room, rushing back out the open frame doorway, whooshing down the corridor in an orange maelstrom.
The Reaver team approached the connecting passageway between the Legion Flag and the station.
Kason called out, “We are approaching the station. I am getting interference from my scan lay-out interface, how copy, over?”
Maddox confirmed. “Copy that, Reaver Lead. Unknown static interference. Unable to confirm inbound targets, over.”
It was not long after Maddox confirmed what Kason knew regarding their sensor system malfunction, when, as they rounded a corner, stood an armed metal obstruction.
The tri-tracked mobile weapons platform took up the whole hallway. The sentry mech unit was compact but reached the height of the twelve-foot ceiling with ease.
Before the team could react to its surprise presence, the mech’s chest launcher fired a missile, streaking towards the inbound, full-stride Reavers.
Kason and Jens turned sideways against the left corridor wall while Keelen did the same on the right.
The big man, Maddox, not as limber as his other teammates, slid down, fell down under the incoming rocket, spare a few inches.
The projectile impacted the junction wall behind them, erupting in a massive explosion.
The concussion threw the Reavers about the corridor like rag-dolls, bouncing them off walls and ceiling alike.
The blast propelled Maddox’s large frame, spinning him along the floor right in front of the mechanical sentry’s tracked torso.
Fire followed, enveloping the whole corridor and swallowing the Reavers in its whooshing turbulence.
The fire receded just in time for Maddox to see the mechanical claw reach down and grab him around his chest.
A hydraulic whine lifted Maddox off the deck plate, slamming him in to the corridor wall with a crash. The mech pulled the Reaver back, readying to smash him once again.
Maddox struggled to get an aim as he fired a retro-rocket from his own launcher, streaking but just missing the mech’s square head, sending the errant rocket behind the sentry to the far end of the corridor where it exploded against a door.
The metal beast d
rove Maddox again towards the wall, but two micro-wires stopped his erratic flight.
The wires, fired from both Kason and Keelen, wrapped around the large mechanical arm, ceasing its movement towards the wall with Maddox.
The mech turned back to square itself with the corridor, opening its chest launcher, but before it could fire on the Reavers, a metal blade found its way into the shoulder joint of the sentry unit.
Jens’ kodashi sword swung down against the linkage of metal.
The blue glowing edge of his blade sliced through the steel and hydraulics, severing the metal limb holding Maddox.
The sentry never got the chance to counter-attack.
The Reavers’ movements and reaction from the beginning of the encounter was a ballet of precision. Each Reaver knew what the other was doing in their HUD’s from the onset of the attack.
Maddox already knew the micro-wires were in the air as the mech pulled him away from the wall the first time.
Kason and Keelen already knew Maddox was about to fire his retro-rocket at the sentry but had missed.
What they all knew was just before Jens sliced the sentry’s arm off, he had launched a time-delayed high explosive round to the center of the mech’s chest just as it opened, imbedding itself in its core.
The Reavers dove over the mech to the other side of the corridor and, without missing a beat, continued their way towards Nevlen’s troops before the massive explosion ripped open the sentry mech that had once stood between them and their, now, secondary objective.
Data Cell 13
Mistakes can come at any time, some larger than others and by one’s own hand.
An explosion punctuated Nevlen’s thought.
A grenade, thrown down at the human squads, was tossed back up by one of his men only to make it a few feet from his fingers before detonating.
The blast shredded the front of the trooper’s helmet and body armor, hurling him against the few remaining and cowering troops left.
He gave his life.
Nevlen’s coms gear was ablaze with yells for reinforcements as he fought to keep his remaining men alive.
Without warning, the ceiling of the room caved in from where the Kryth were positioned firing down.
A loud bang noise followed the descending debris. A blue energy sphere enveloped the room, moving from the center outward.
Nevlen felt the hairs on his arms and neck stand as the pulse moved over his entire body.
The lights in the room went out.
A thundering crash echoed from above on the walkway.
Kryth yells and screams replaced weapons’ fire. The Kryth blaster fire decreased and Kryth bodies began to rain down, smashing into the foyer floor below.
Nevlen heard another crash against the bulkhead behind him.
Plasma bolts pounded, peppering the metal as dents bulged out from the door’s surface.
Just as soon as the weapons’ fire from the Kryth had begun, it ceased.
Smoke billowed up from around the room and the moans of the injured called out.
Dying Kryth and human lay in heaps upon the floor as Nevlen surveyed the surreal scene.
Nevlen’s men began to come out from the hallway cover looking above to where their assailants had been.
A flash of black armor landed on top of the dead bodies strewn in the center of the room in a semi-crouched position.
The mask was unmistakable. It was Kason.
Kason’s head lifted up, to stare at Nevlen.
Nevlen’s men began to emerge and help the fallen who still had breath in their lungs.
Nevlen’s mind wandered as the large Reaver approached.
He could sense Kason’s emotion with every step he took. The steps were methodical, they had a purpose. He knew the exact expression on Kason’s face even though the mask concealed it.
Nevlen wasn’t going to stand there and be schooled by Kason. He knew he made a mistake but the station was theirs.
Nevlen stepped forward to greet the Reaver. “I’m sure glad it’s you. We were in a bit of a jam until you showed up.” Nevlen gulped.
Kason just stood there.
The sealed doors began to whine open as the other three Reavers appeared from the other side.
“I guess the cavalry showed up.” He looked at the unrelenting stare from Kason.
A right-cross hit the side of Nevlen’s helmet sending him back and onto the floor from Kason’s punch.
Nevlen didn’t have a chance as he saw the Reaver reach down and grab him, picking his whole body off the ground and hurling him at the wall behind.
Nevlen slid to the floor.
Before any troop or Reaver could intervene, Kason had him by the throat again; lifting his entire body off the ground he slammed him against the bulkhead once more.
Kason issued a command for his mask to open.
Whoosh! The air escaped and the faceplate lifted.
“Where do you get the nerve to disobey orders?” Kason spoke with angered breath. “Where do you get the nerve to jeopardize the mission?”
Nevlen struggled to breathe as Kason’s gauntleted vise grip pressed into his neck.
By then, Maddox was on Kason along with two of Nevlen’s men.
Kason let go and Nevlen’s body slumped down against the wall one last time.
Nevlen saw Kason overlooking his now supine body.
He did not return Kason’s gaze. Instead, he removed his cracked helmet and brushed the blood and grime from around his mouth.
“Towards none save my own, huh,” Kason spoke.
Nevlen met Kason’s stare. There were no words to say what Nevlen thought, as the error was his. He had failed and his silence spoke for him.
He saw Kason turn and walk off down the hall.
Kason’s Reaver team followed as they passed the fallen human bodies on the way out of the hallway.
It was the cost of unbridled jealousy.
He heard Kason’s mask close with a sealing hiss of air.
Nevlen watched the Reavers vanish through the smoke-filled corridor.
He then began to feel the eyes of his own men come down on him. He had felt them before, years before. The images from the past seemed so new, just like the ones that surrounded him at the moment.
It was four years ago, in 253, this same scene played out before him with Kason’s Reavers.
The Ordinance sent his team to the Raffix Run asteroid belt near the Kontene system. Sector pirates had been hiding out and attacking the cargo runner ships that ran between them and the Mydian system.
He was charged with taking out a pirate base located on one of the larger asteroids. He and his team had practiced for weeks. They were ready.
The first wave of the mission was a success; but, being optimistic about their advance, he had moved his team too far ahead, beyond their support. They wound up in an ambush, not much different from this one.
The ambush lasted about an hour before his team began to make progress against the pirates with no casualties, driving them back. It was at this time the Reavers showed up.
Within moments the Reavers had cleared the remaining pirate stronghold and rescued the trapped troopers.
Nevlen knew his team was gaining ground and that they needed no support, but Command thought otherwise.
He was angry because the Reavers were small-numbered assets used in strategic situations. The troopers were greater in number and were used as the primary armed forces for the Ordinance, and did 98% of all missions.
There was no reason to send the Reavers, he thought. Command was just eager to use their special weapons whenever they saw a chance.
Nevlen was not impressed by these test tube soldiers.
Even though Nevlen conceded his error moments ago, he was still impressed with his troops as they did advance further and faster than Kason’s team.
Nevlen pushed himself up from the wall.
Grabbing his helmet, he moved to help his troops with the wounded and fallen.
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Data Cell 14
The battle for Sol was over. Just as swift as it had started, it ended. The Kryth had no chance against the human assault, Alon observed, since the planning for the mission had been ongoing for the last 67 years.
It didn’t go perfectly by any means, but the objective was met and the Earth now was back in the hands of its own.
Alon thought about how the exiled humans felt when the Kryth attacked all those years ago. Was it as shocking for the Kryth, not knowing who attacked them and why? Alon hoped that it was.
Alon also thought about what Earth must have looked like in person before the Kryth invasion. He had nothing to go on save for images in data cells.
He could see the ruins on the moon from where he stood on the Orion’s Rage Bridge, a once vibrant colony, just like Mars, all but dead and gone. So were the 22 billion lives, strewn across this vast graveyard of destruction here within Sol.
Alon’s heart was heavy, contemplating the lost people and Earth. She was such a beautiful planet, a perfect balance of various eco systems, climates, cultures, and resources. A jewel in the eyes of many, envy to all.
Alon knew that humans would not populate this planet for some time to come, for they already had a new home, their home on Janus in the Mydian system.
There were some humans who wanted to re-populate the earth and begin restoring her. These, ‘Earthiests’, as they were called, had been trying to push Precepts through the Assembly to make this happen after the Retribution mission. A dangerous proposition that the Ordinance opposed, including Commander Parejas.
Alon knew, though, it was just a matter of time until this happened, but not today.
This battle was just a calling card, a wakeup to the Kryth, or any other race who may decide to cross humanity’s path the wrong way.
Yet, it was still nice to dream of one day returning and living on the planet of their species’ birth.
That day would have to wait.
It had been several hours after the battle. Alon was waiting for the emergency transmission from the home world on Janus and Assemblyman, Mordon Tallis.
Alon didn’t know why Tallis called the meeting, but could only speculate he wanted to stick his nose where it didn’t belong; that’s how politicians were.
Annals of the Keepers: War 267 (Book 1 in the Gashnee Saga) Page 9
