by Isaac Hooke
The rest of the War Forgers and their clones took cover behind the different Sophies and Arias, or nearby trees.
Jason chose a tree trunk for himself.
He waited for an animal to rush past beside him, and then unleashed his energy weapon. The beam tore into its side, cutting a wide gash that caused organs to jut out from within. Rather disgusting, really.
But the animal kept running.
“Sturdy things,” Jerry commented.
Aria opened fire with the tank platoon assigned to her. At least Jason assumed the tanks were hers, because they would be the closest to the party. Plasma bolts and energy beams erupted from the turrets, drilling into the creatures. Some of the animals plowed right into her tanks, which weren’t able to move out of the way fast enough, and either rammed them, flipping them over, or fired their own turrets.
The enemy flyers began to swoop down as the aircraft in the vanguard arrived.
Jason decided to target them, as they were the immediate threat: the Rhinoeyes seemed intent on simply charging forward, and hitting whatever lay in their path. Bokerov would have to deal with them.
Jason heightened his time sense and aimed his weapon at a flyer, which was about as big as his chest plate, and fired. An energy shield kicked in. They were more like the flyers he had faced in the Imperial city, rather than those he had dealt with on Earth. That wasn’t good. Not at all.
“They’ve got upgrades!” Jason said.
Because of the shielding, he unleashed his railgun, too. He switched to his laser, which was less draining on his battery, and fired several pulses. Due to the close range, the damage inflicted was immense, and that shield dropped momentarily. Several dark circles littered the surface, courtesy of his railgun and laser, and the vessel smashed into another beside it, disabling that one’s shield, too, and both crashed into the ground next to the rampaging herd of bioweapons.
“Thank you!” Bokerov shouted over the comm. “Finally, some action! Die, alien bitches!”
Jason glanced at his overhead map and saw that the forefront of the herd was only just reaching his position.
Those flyers continued to rain down. Another large ellipse appeared in front of him: the rectangular section that held the craft’s turrets was pointed directly at him.
Before he could react, energy whips struck it courtesy of Iris, weakening the protective shield that enveloped the flyer; then Cheyanne appeared from behind and split the craft entirely in two, her swords easily penetrating the weakened shield. She was in the air, and began her spinning top maneuver, rotating around in a movement that was almost a blur, despite his Bullet Time. She closed with one of the flyers, and her swords bounced off its shields, but she was rotating so fast that incredible energy was imparted with each impact so that in only a few moments she’d disabled that shield, and instead her blades were digging into metal.
Aria had three tanks fire everything they had at a flyer, and then she unleashed her lightning bolt weapon at it, bringing it down.
Maeran sent her drones into another aircraft, and simply kept them in place around it so that the cutting triangular energy beam constantly enveloped the craft. The vessel tried to break free as its shield flashed incessantly under the strain; eventually the shield failed, and the energy beams cut the flyer in half.
Xin fired the energy beam from her eyes, following a flyer as it darted underneath the branches of a tree. Like Maeran, she kept the beam trained on the craft, and eventually the shield failed, and her beam ate through the fuselage.
That has to be draining on the battery, keeping that beam active like that.
Sophie meanwhile was concentrating on ravaging the herd that was running past her position, where she hid behind a tree. She revolved her micro machines around her, first left, then right, successively chopping into the Rhinoeyes that ran past. Sometimes she cut the weapons right off, or sheared off the knob of a head; sometimes, she merely bloodied the animals.
Drawn by the blood, the Rex Wolves fought close to her, and attacked any of the bioweapons that got past her barrage. They worked in pairs. Their modus operandi would involve one pinning a creature with its jaws, while the other chomped off the weapons. Bruiser almost took an energy blast to the mouth at one point as he ripped off a turret, but thankfully the weapon missed, hitting a nearby tree instead.
Lori was invisible, and she was firing plasma bolts at any flyer that got near Tara. Jason helped her, targeting the flyer with his laser, weakening the shield enough for Tara to stab through with her sword.
The battle proceeded in that manner for the next two minutes. Occasionally Jason or another War Forger stepped out too far from behind a tree where they had been hiding, and they were pummeled by a bioweapon. Usually the creature was too surprised by the impact to do anything while the stricken War Forger fired at point blank range. If the bioweapons didn’t go down, they kept running.
Bokerov made short work of any survivors, his tanks and Cataphracts dispensing death while receiving little damage themselves. Those Cataphracts had attracted the attention of some of the flyers by then, and the bigger units had to deal with them, too. That wasn’t difficult, given the array of huge energy and plasma beams some of those Cataphracts were equipped with.
And then, just like that, it was done. The enemy units ceased arriving. Around Jason and the others, the forest floor was littered with the wreckages of Tyrnari flyers, and the corpses of mutilated bioweapons.
“Well,” Tara said. “That seemed a little too easy.”
“That’s because it was!” Cheyanne had used her wings to fly above the treetops overhead. “Those were just their scouts! The rest of the army is incoming.”
Jason switched to her viewpoint and saw the sky littered with airships and flyers. There were literally hundreds of flyers approaching above the treetops. His counting algorithm reported one thousand three hundred twenty four. And one hundred fifty airships.
“There are definitely more than they started with,” Jason said.
Mechs began to appear to the west, emerging through the foliage. Phasers, and a new type of unit: the size and shape was similar to that of a Modlenth mech, but the hull was covered in glowing plasma.
One of those new units pointed a hand at Aria, and a thick stream of plasma erupted from its hand, heading toward her; she barely swung her shield in place, and deflected the blow. The inside of her shield glowed red hot from impact, and as that attack continued, red became white.
“Can’t hold it!” Aria dove behind a tree, moving out of the line of fire.
The plasma beam ceased. For now.
“Plasma Throwers!” Lori said.
“We figured that out,” Maeran said.
Jason swung his energy weapon and railgun toward the new arrivals.
19
Before Jason could fire, plasma and energy bolts erupted from the trees to the northeast in a concerted bombardment that slammed into the newly arrived Imperial mechs. Most of the Phasers dematerialized, only to be slammed by more bolts when they returned to this reality.
“Hello, Earthers,” Jhagan’s voice came over the comm.
“Jhagan!” Jason said.
From the trees to the northwest, Modlenth mechs emerged. They continued to fire at the Imperials, forcing them back.
Jason realized Jhagan had been shadowing Jason’s advance.
“Now would be a good time to run,” Jhagan said. “We won’t be able to hold them for long.”
“You heard the man,” Jason said. “Everyone, retreat to the south!”
Jason turned south. He glanced at his overhead map, and saw that his army was making an orderly retreat. He started to run, but then paused. “Why are you doing this?”
“We always pay back our favors,” Jhagan said. “The queen sent me to ensure you made it safely to the rift. Go!”
Jason ran once more. He grabbed Shaggy by the collar, ensuring the animal went with him. Tara did the same with Bruiser and Lackey, while Lori handled Ru
nt.
Jason recalled his Explorer, and hurried through the well-spaced trees, until the fighting was well behind him.
He sent the Explorer over the treetops and saw that the hundreds of Imperial flyers and airships had not pursued his retreating army; instead, they were moving eastward, and firing into the trees, no doubt at Jhagan’s detachment, who were fleeing toward the main city. The Imperials would much rather destroy the Modlenth than a few “Earthers,” as Jhagan had called them.
“We’re just going to leave them?” Tara said. She must have been viewing the feed from the Explorer—he’d granted his core group access.
Jason hesitated. “What can we do? They’re on their own now. We have a rift to catch.”
“We should at least stay for a while, and see how they do,” Xin said.
Three large Modlenth airships emerged from where they had been hiding underneath the trees, and opened fire at the smaller flyers in the vanguard, destroying them all. Then they accelerated away as they began to take fire from the more distant flyers.
“See, Jhagan will make it back to the city just fine,” Jason said.
“It’s not Jhagan I’m worried about,” Xin said. “It’s Risilan. If her city falls…”
“She’s right,” Aria said. “It’s in our best interests to help them.”
“How did I know you two would take the same side?” Tara said.
“Think about it,” Aria said. “If Risilan loses, the Imperials will take over, and send their invasion force back to Earth to finish what they started.”
“Sure, but just because Risilan wins, doesn’t mean she won’t also send an invasion force to Earth,” Tara said. “For all her brave words about disavowing the empire, who knows what she’ll do when we’re gone. She might very well decide that whatever favor the empire grants her for more bioweapons will be worth the attempt to take over our planet. Especially if she plans on returning her planet to the way it was, and shutting down local bioweapon production here.”
“No,” Jason said. “She wouldn’t betray us like that. I know she wouldn’t. She rewards loyalty. She sent Jhagan to help us, didn’t she?”
“We don’t actually know whether she sent him,” Tara said. “Or whether he came out of his own sense of obligation.”
“I still think we should stay at least a little longer,” Aria said. “To confirm that Risilan is going to win.”
“I agree,” Cheyanne said. “She might need the help of our army yet.”
“She has the space navy at her command,” Jerry said. “I think she’ll be all right.”
“Well if that’s true,” Cheyanne said. “How come this space navy of hers hasn’t yet opened fire on the enemy units?”
“That’s a good point,” Jason said. “I’ll try to ask Jhagan, while he’s still in range.” Jason switched to the common band, and directed his antennae toward the fleeing Modlenth. “Jhagan, why hasn’t the space navy opened fire on the Imperials?”
“We can’t,” Jhagan said. “Prince Amadan planted what you would call a Trojan in the AI equivalents we have running the starships. He sent a rogue signal to those ships and disabled them all. We’re trying to get them operational again, but it’s doubtful they’ll be ready anytime soon.”
“Sounds like something Bokerov would do,” Julian said.
“Thanks for the update,” Jason told Jhagan.
Jason glanced at his overhead map. They still had quite a ways to go to reach the rift site. Whereas the city was a lot closer to the east.
“Damn,” Jason said. “You know, there’s a chance the city will fall before we reach the rift location. And if that happens...”
“Then there’s no going home,” Maegan said.
“We could increase our pace...” Sophie said. “We might still make it in time. We have to try. And if we do make it, even if the city falls, and the evil queen dies, it won’t matter.”
“What do you mean, it won’t matter?” Aria said. “We’ll still have to deal with the Imperials when they return to Earth.”
“Well I mean, we can plan an ambush,” Sophie said. “We know where they’re going to appear, so we can lay a shit ton of mines. And prepare energy turrets and defense platforms all over the area. Just get ready for a big-time ass kicking, if you know what I mean.”
Jason shook his head. “I’m not sure we’d have time to set all that up. In fact, there might even be a detachment of Imperials waiting for us once we pass through, and we could end up fleeing the area.” He paused. “No, this isn’t right. We can’t abandon the Modlenth, not yet. If we really want to defeat these Imperials, our best chance is right here, right now, while they’re distracted by the Modlenth. We have to return to the city. Anyone who wants to continue to the rift may do so of course.”
“I’ll go with you, of course,” Tara said.
“As will I,” Sophie said. “Grudgingly.”
“Anyone else want to go?” Jason asked.
All of the other War Forgers and their clones elected to remain with him.
“What about me, I don’t get to return if I want?” Bokerov asked.
“Nope,” Jason replied. “You’re my slave. So.” He studied his map. “It’s going to be about a three hours return march. When we get there, we’re just going to watch, for now.”
“Just watch?” Aria said. “No intervening?”
“That’s right,” Jason said.
“But you just said, if we wanted to defeat the Imperials, our best chance was to strike while they were distracted by the Modlenth,” Aria said.
“I did say that,” Jason admitted. “But I don’t want to intervene if the Modlenth are winning. If they’re not, on the other hand, then I’ll think about it. So, watching... that means hanging onto the Rex Wolves this time.” He didn’t want a repeat of the last incident, where the Rex Wolves ran headfirst into the Imperials and led them right to Jason’s army.
He produced the collar from his storage compartment, and wrapped it around Shaggy’s neck. Then he attached the leash. He handed the reins to Lori. “Take care of Shaggy for me.”
“You got it,” Lori said. She had Runt similarly leashed, while Tara handled Bruiser and Lackey.
Jason turned his army east. Well, slightly to the southeast, actually: he wanted to come at the city from the flank, and well away from the Imperials.
As expected, it took about three hours to return to the city. Jason was tempted to switch to VR for the journey, but decided he’d be better off personally watching the trees for signs of ambush now that the Imperials had returned. Repairs were essentially completed by that point, with only a few of the drones still making minor touch-ups to the Cataphracts, so Jason ordered all repair units to their respective storage compartments.
By then the siege was in full force, and Jason watched as the Imperial troops bombarded the city from the west side with everything they had. Almost all of the turrets that lined the base of the city’s dome there had been destroyed, so that only a few returned fire. Also, there were no Modlenth flyers offering any defensive fire, nor any airships, while the Imperials still had thousands of the former, and hundreds of the latter. Jason didn’t know where Jhagan’s detachment had gone—hopefully they’d made it inside the city before the Imperials arrived.
“Well, they’re doing fine, can we go now?” Tara asked.
“Doesn’t look like they’re doing all that fine to me,” Xin commented.
“I’m with Tara on this one,” Sophie said. “We should turn back. The Modlenth are doing just peachy. We’ve done enough for them.”
As Jason watched, the last of the turrets on the western side was shot down. The large mass of enemy troops, both air and ground units, began to concentrate their fire at the base of the dome, toward the western half of the circular ring responsible for generating the protective field that enveloped the city. Plasma, lightning, and energy bolts and beams bombarded the metal surface, inflicting pockmarks and blast craters. Missiles smashed into the weakened su
rface, and the all too familiar black blobs flowed into the craters, expanding outward. The blobs hardened, and successive plasma impacts shattered the entire surface, breaking away large clumps.
In only a few minutes, holes began to appear in the ring, and yellow mist from the atmosphere flooded inside. Automated repair drones rushed to the damaged areas and attempted to stem the tide, but the enemy kept up their fire, and easily destroyed them.
As those gaps grew bigger, they affected the energy dome generated by the base so that long slivers appeared in the protective surface. Those slivers expanded with the gaps, forming large convex regions of unprotected space amid the dome. Soon those spaces outnumbered the intact areas so that slices of energy were the exception rather than the norm, and it looked almost like a few convex bars protected that side of the city, versus a solid wall everywhere else.
“I take back what I said a few minutes ago,” Sophie said quietly.
Several of the Imperial airships landed in the no man’s land between the forest and the wall, and they lowered big ramps to the ground. Before the ramps even touched down, huge herds of Rhinoeyes flowed out. They stampeded over the land so hard that Jason could feel the vibrations even from here. All of the creatures were wearing the weapon turret backpacks so that they acted like mini-gunships. Those turrets were firing at unseen targets past the broken wall as they ran toward the city.
“The Imperials are putting their new favorite bioweapon to use, I see,” Jones commented. “I wonder if that’s illegal, from an empire standpoint.”
“I’m not sure the Imperials care, at this point,” Jerry said.
The bioweapons flowed over the collapsed wall, followed by several Imperial mechs, both Phaser and Plasma Throwers. Flyers joined them, along with airships, firing down into the fray.
“It looks like it’s getting fairly nasty in there,” Maeran said.
“When are we going to join the attack?” Aria said.
