No matter how many the defenders cut down. The enemy transports seemed to belch them out like raving demons from hell.
She wondered why they didn’t see any more of the swirling purple mists and the slayers that moved under their obscuring haze.
Where had they gone? Had the enemy grown so confident in victory that their shock troops alone could finish the job?
So confident that they held their secret weapon in check and no longer bothered to use it against the defenders? Apparently so.
Within the hour. The second defensive line collapsed under intense artillery fire walked in all over it. Followed by another heavy enemy gravtank assault.
Naero and the defenders prepared to make their final stand around the last line of defense.
They dug in and shielded themselves up close with several unit-sized shield projectors.
After the artillery bombardment trampled the area, the enemy armor and infantry units poured into the breach to finish them off.
Jericho and the others surprised them up close by popping up in full-force, still alive and ready to fight. The layered unit shielding had allowed them to fight on.
They cut the enemy advance down at point blank range with waves of interlocking fire.
More troops poured in on both sides.
This was it.
Then the enemy artillery pieces and transports up on the mountainous ridges and high ground shot up in flames, still belching out troops, armor, and fire support.
Explosions rocked the starport and all the landing fields. Spacer Marines and drop troops swept over the enemy units, catching them completely by surprise.
Special cloaked units phazed in and annihilated any enemy command and control.
Elite Spacer fighters and marine gunships shot the Ejjai pilots out of the sky, sending them spinning and wheeling in flames to crash into the surface.
The massed enemy strike units quickly found themselves in a deathtrap of intense, interlocking waves of explosive smart rounds, energy cannons, and particle beams that disrupted shields and cut through almost everything in their path.
Waves of Spacer Marines in Meks and fast-attack, powered armor suits leaped and raced in to cut the enemy further to pieces.
Ranks of marines marched down, mopping up any resistance. Orders went forward over all com links.
Ejjai clones had no value as prisoners and were normally boobytrapped.
No quarter. No mercy.
Then Intel discovered that numerous dead enemy alpha’s were found with holo projectors on their wrists.
Loaded with images of Shalaen.
Their intended prize.
38
Naero stumbled and rubbed her sweating, dirty face after a long night of heavy fighting. From the last several, up-close attack waves, Ejjai blood and gore stained her everywhere, splattered all over.
In close fighting, one Ejjai alpha had ripped off her combat armor face mask.
She had been forced to waste precious energy regenerating several minor, and one serious wound.
A stray enemy artillery strike burst right next to her. She could not shield herself from all of the damage quickly enough.
But Walker’s Spacer Marines had come in like a typhoon of steel and fire, sweeping away everything in their path.
In less than two hours, they slaughtered the enemy invasion wholesale and eliminated the threat almost entirely.
After a full night of using her Mystic abilities almost constantly, Naero’s personal reserves were drained.
She needed both food and rest very badly.
She had done all that she could to help the defenders hold out until relief came.
She tripped over some wreckage and almost fell, unceremoniously onto her face.
Captain Jericho caught her.
“I got you, En. I got you.”
He helped her get back to her feet.
“You okay? You look like hell.”
They both laughed weakly.
“Thanks. I clean up well. Did you check on Arana and the kids?”
He nodded and grinned. “They’re just fine. The underground transports took them forty klicks away to a secret underground bunker, deep below. Then the line was cut off with mining charges to keep the enemy from following in.”
“Just in case we lost. Good thinking.”
“It’ll be a day or two before the line re-opens. They have plenty of supplies until then. And hey, good news. Shalaen is right there with them, helping them stay calm.”
Naero’s eyes widened.
“What?”
“She didn’t go to Kendall-2 after all. She’s safe in the bunker, with her people. One of them got sick, so they stayed behind to get him some help.”
General Big Jim Walker came up with some of his command at that very moment.
Captain Jericho came to attention. Naero followed suit.
At first she thought Walker was wearing a power suit. That he was in a Mek.
Walker was that big. As big as her dad even. A giant of a man.
“At ease, people. See you had a little trouble here, captains. Glad we could help out.”
One of his aides suddenly shouted. Weapon fire erupted all around their position.
“General. Look out!”
A suicide squad of about a hundred hidden shock troops in heavy assault armor and gravwings shot up at them out of nowhere.
Naero couldn’t tell if they were aimed directly at her, or the general.
Didn’t matter.
The Marines were pro all the way.
Half of the enemy got cut down before they could even reach Naero’s position.
Naero’s Chaos blades would not form in her numb hands. She was that weak and out of juice.
She gritted her teeth and drew her battle blades, launching herself into the air to meet them head on with her battle cry.
Jericho gunned down several.
Walker turned at bay and beat them all to the punch. He shredded multiple attackers with the mini-guns mounted on his shoulders.
Only three of the killers got in close.
Walker leaped up and smashed the first two attackers into puddles of sparking tronics and red goo beneath his armored boots.
The third he simply grabbed and slammed it against a burning gravtank, quickly yanking off the Ejjai’s arms and legs. Like taking apart a doll.
He finally pinched off the shrieking head. Tossed the torso aside.
Then he shook his fist at the dark, burning sky like issuing a challenge.
“Bravo Command owns the black. The night is our domain, and we surrender it to no one!”
“Oo-Rah!” thousands of lethal Marines shouted back from the shadows.
“Don’t worry,” Walker told Naero and Jericho with a wide grin. “We’ll have the garbage taken out by morning.”
Naero landed and Walker looked her over.
He suddenly seemed to recognize her and smiled even wider. “I was a big fan of your parents, Captain Maeris. By the Powers–you do look just like your mom.”
To everyone’s wonder, the general immediately knelt down before her on one knee. Right there on the battlefield.
“Naero Amashin Maeris, it is a high honor to fight beside the daughter of Lythe Ivala Maeris, The Invincible Cyclone, and Tarthan Wallace Ramsey, The Annihilator. When I was a just a recruit, I had the honor to fight in the same action with you parents and your aunt, against the Hevangians that we thought killed your brother, and so many others on board your mother’s ship.”
Naero stepped forward and placed her small hand on his enormous shoulder.
“You honor me, General. And the memory of my kin. Thank you.”
Walker smiled. “The honor is mine. I saw your father fall upon those Hevangian assassins that bloody day. We all did. In awe. Beyond anything in all of his amazing matches. Inspiring. Unstoppable. He took fire, ignored wounds. He smashed and tore his way through everything in his path–trying to save his family. I will never for
get the sight of it.”
Naero bent down and kissed his cheek. “Thank you again. I miss them so.”
The general looked down at the ground and nodded.
“We all miss them. The universe weeps at the loss of their blood.”
She stepped back and Walker rose up, turning aside to take some casualty reports coming in from his aides.
A marine captain came up to her. Staring, still in shock.
“I-I’ve never seen him do anything like that,” he whispered.
“What?” Naero asked.
“The general has never bent a knee to anyone. Ever. Not the High Command, or even the Elders. This is a high honor for Clan Maeris.”
“Thank you, captain. Indeed, I’m taking it that way and will inform my Clan elders when I have the chance.”
Tarim came running up. He looked alarmed.
“It’s not over. There’s another enemy strike force even bigger than this one west of here, searching the mountains for the secret bunker the civvies and kids were sent to.”
Om, get some fixers over there. Quick as you can.
Already on it. Fixer spies en route.
Walker heard Tarim and turned to them almost at the same time.
“We’ll jet over that way and take a look.”
“How could they know about it?” Jericho said.
“Tarim, Shalaen is there. In that bunker.”
The blood shot from his face. “What? The enemy could be tracking her somehow. Maybe they have some way to sense her powers!”
Naero wondered about that as well. It seemed logical. The enemy had pinpointed Hashiko’s location on a flagship in the middle of a complex naval space battle.
She suddenly had a very bad intuition.
That’s why they hadn’t seen the weird mists and the strange, lethal alien killers.
They were off hunting Shalaen. Their real prize.
“I’m going ahead,” Naero stated. “I can get out there faster than anyone.”
Exhaustion be damned. She drew upon the last of her reserves and concentrated on her abilities.
She transported to the top of one of the western peaks, still capped with snow. Ignoring the harsh sting of the lashing cold winds.
Looking down, she saw the enemy strike force, already deployed and fanning out from their transports, heading into the thick forested foothills at the base of the mountain range.
From what Jericho said, they were still well away from the bunker.
Good. They hadn’t found it. Yet.
But down below, Naero saw swirls of purple mist sweep in here and there out in front of the Ejjai shock troops.
The aliens closed in on their prey.
As she recalled, they could bore through rock and stone faster than anything she knew of.
We need to be careful, Naero. If these things can capture Hashiko, they can take us down as well. And we are already weary.
Om, I’m not about to let them take Shalaen without a fight.
And she still owed them for taking Gallan from her.
And Jan. And Hashi.
Do everything you can to help me regenerate, Om. I need my powers back online.
She focused and transported half-way between her foes and the bunker. It could not be helped.
How can I help you regenerate? Transport uses up huge amounts of our energies.
Stay on it Om.
Naero studied the terrain.
The fir, larch, and aspen trees there on Celonia-4 were gigantic, the ground littered with deep sloughs and piles of decaying needles the length of her arm, like spikes. The heavy pine-like scent obscured her sense of smell. Perhaps it would do so for the invading aliens also.
Naero sat down and reached out with her senses, at the same time that she tried to help Om regenerate some of her energies. They had a little time, she hoped.
She nearly forgot to call in her position to Tarim and General Walker.
She warned them about the poison mists and the unknown alien threat. They and all of their troops would go in with sealed respirators to filter out any toxins or nerve agents.
Then seconds later.
Naero and Om both sensed it. How could they not?
Something comes straight at us.
Something fast and very powerful.
Naero stood up. Squared her shoulders.
Alone and exhausted in the middle of nowhere.
She prepared for battle against the unknown.
39
A very large, extremely agile-looking reptilian life form swept through the dark trees in a blur. As if it suddenly appeared by magic or some sorcery. A hyper-evolved killing machine.
It sniffed and opened its maw to taste the air.
Naero countered by gauging its range of vision and doing her best to sluna. Staying out of its visual field.
This was one of the whip-like, indestructible terrors in the flesh. One of them slew her best friend and haunted many of her nightmares.
Finally she got to observe one up close.
She guessed from its elusiveness, that this one was a scout for the others. Perhaps an entire hunter-killer pack.
Yes indeed. That made this one a long range scout.
Grayish with streaks of flat black, over six meters long, not including a long, razor sharp tail whip.
Yet she thought that she recalled the one Gallan had fought had been larger, and a greenish hue. But who knew what their color range for their race was.
Naero knew the whipping tails could shatter and slash through almost anything.
Including armored troops.
The creature had long powerful arms and dexterous clawed hands. A squarish, block-like scaled head, armored with dense bone, and massive, crushing jaws, filled with what looked to be large, triangular diamond-like teeth. Fierce, intelligent black eyes in armored sockets.
It appeared to be both agile, and very dense. Much more than just a big lizard.
Perhaps these monsters came from a world with heavier gravity. Which of course would make them even faster and stronger here.
Back in the mines, creatures like this one had ripped their way through metric tons of solid stone in an effort to get at her. Gallan gave his life to keep them from killing her as well.
It flicked its deep black, glistening narrowed eyes and focused suddenly in her direction for the kill.
How had it located her? By scent, or by sensing her presence with its mind?
This was a terrifying creature, devoid of any fear. Well-accustomed to killing anything it came up against.
Its snarling voice rasped like grinding stone and metal.
Whether it used a translator or could manipulate languages, it spoke to her in Spacer common.
“Come out little spack. I am Urrek, soldier of the Imperial Dakkur Empire. You will not escape me. And the others are coming.”
Even Om grew alarmed.
Naero…the Dakkur were ancient enemies of the Kexx. They were servants of the G’lothc. Mortal enemies to the Kexx and their allies, The Drians.
Let’s see what he wants Om.
Naero tapped into the Cosmic flows around her, still struggling to recover her strength. She responded with the voice. Her words echoed all around them.
What do you seek from me, monster?
The creature merely laughed
“I am immune to your tricks, little spack. They do not frighten me. I propose a challenge, of single combat you and I, to pass the time. So that we may test our prowess. I have yearned to test my strength against one of your kind one on one. There is no escape for you in any case. Just like the other female.”
Did he mean Shalaen…or Hashiko?
You have not captured me yet. What do you plan to do with me?
“We shall take you and the other one hiding underground back to our masters, as we have been ordered to do. To join their growing collection. These other humans are but useless meat. We will leave them for our slaves, the Ejjai, to feed upon, after we take a few hu
ndred heads.”
So, these Dakkur were the ones taking the heads.
Naero laughed back at Urrek.
You’re not a soldier. You’re a parasite–a scavenger.”
“Enough talk. Fight!”
Urrek launched himself at her. Blinding fast.
Nearly as fast as her. Yet in her weakened state, her edge would not last very long in a hard, prolonged fight.
And he could be delaying her until the others caught up to them.
Naero certainly couldn’t face an entire pack of them.
She defended and deflected his attacks, using the trees to block and cover her retreat. Trying to gauge his actions, movements, and methods.
He almost got her again.
Naero dodged.
He hurtled past her, smashing through more of the trees as they toppled all around, raising clouds of dust.
Naero staggered back up to her feet, drawing one blaster and her energy cutlass.
No chance of summoning a Chaos katana. Not in her current state.
She couldn’t transport either.
Urrek chortled at her and lashed his tail whip.
“I see why you run and avoid engaging me directly. You are tired and weak, little spack. You can’t use most of your powers. Your pitiful weapons cannot harm me. It’s a wonder you can stand. And you still want to fight a slayer such as myself?”
“No, monster. I want to kill you.”
Naero. Stop bluffing. Get us out of here. We’re burned out. I can’t help you, even if I tried.
Can’t Om. Like you said. No juice left. Gravwing damaged during the battle. Can you fix it?
“Little spack bitch. Why do the masters even want you for their collections? You are nothing. At least the other female was stronger than you–and we took her with only a little trouble.”
Naero readied herself and lifted her head high.
“I’m still me. Come and find out what I am.”
He’s circling. Looking for an opening. He’s bunching to charge.
Naero blasted Urrek right between the eyes.
His personal shield deflected it in a bright spray of plasma.
She tossed a grenade under him.
Urrek’s shield deflected the blast, but it did toss him off his feet. Keeping him from slamming into her.
Modulate my blaster to get his shield down with the next shot, Om.
Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit Page 27
