Starkindler (MechaVerse Series Book 1)

by Jeremy Cunkle

  General Akari’s voice rang clear as he barked orders; chaos becoming ordered process as he took control. Technicians set about their tasks, the moderate hum of their workload occupying the room. Over the next few minutes, as many as two dozen more technicians would arrive to assist wherever they were needed.

  For his part, he could not help the fact that ordering in a Reaper made his stomach churn worse. It was cowardly to use a weapon so powerful that it was banned under three separate treaties, and that if seen in action would cause a major interplanetary incident. He hated himself for the decision, but his men were being slaughtered and his duty was to protect them, or make their deaths count for something worthy of their sacrifice. The assailant, whatever or whomever they were, left him without an alternative for accomplishing either duty. Whatever happened next, the blame was not his to bear.

  He stood silently and tense, reading the changes on the displays reflecting his order in real time. He allowed his subordinates to perform their duties without micromanaging them. The pilotless bomber had none of the associated constraints of piloted aircraft. Foregoing the need of a pilot meant the Reaper could attain speeds and perform maneuvers that would kill a human.

  The entire room went silent except for the quiet buzz of keys being pressed as the Reaper received the new orders, instantly switching priorities to the new target. Afterburners lit, the Reaper changed course, headings towards the new location at a maximum velocity that could shame missiles. An ETA appeared on the top right of the main screen displaying a countdown of seven minutes. He then turned his focus to the remaining components of the 14th Combat Brigade. The task force had been reduced to a pair of Slayers and one remaining heavy Marauder class anti-grav tank. Under his new instructions, they were now headed to regroup back with their infantry before evacuating from the theatre.

  * * * * *

  “Aurora, why the hell did the last formation just retreat? PDF don’t get smart all of a sudden. What’s going on?” Mikkhael stared at the readout in disbelief that had seconds earlier been showing two approaching Slayers and one last Marauder that would have been difficult at best to defeat from his degraded fighting position.

  “No, they do not retreat,” came Aurora’s cryptic reply.

  He stared at the displays in confusion for another moment before realization dawned on him. “Something else is coming, isn’t it? Something better, and they’re pulling back to make sure they don’t get caught up in it, aren’t they?”

  “Mikkhael, you have a choice to run or fight, but you need to decide quickly.” The tone Aurora used was flat and devoid of emotion, but that was not what scared him. She moved the retreating formation to a secondary screen off to the side, replacing the image on the HUD with a satellite feed displaying an indecipherable blur. His eyes strained to focus on the object as she snapped a screenshot, enhancing the image enough for him to recognize what was coming.

  His eyes went wide as he knew true fear for the first time in years. “Reaper,” He muttered slowly, his throat constricted and dry, mind racing with the possibilities. His team planned for fighting the anti-Mech armor weapon while back on Earth using the most realistic simulations they could, but even their worst-case scenario did not have him fighting a Reaper at this stage of his campaign; the chance of sustaining significant damage or losing was very real against the unmanned drones. The threat they posed was very real.

  A wave of emotions crashed over him. Everything inside of him screamed to run, that he was unprepared. Even in the best of circumstances the simulator taught him the difference between winning and losing against the Mech killing drone always came down to a minor detail during the fight, so deadly were their capabilities.

  Oddly enough, it was that very sensation of overpowering dread that made him shake his head, clearing the fog clouding his mind. That level of fear made him remember the briefest snapshot of back in the park nearly ten years previously, standing still, frozen in cowardice, as he was powerless to do absolutely anything, while nearly everyone who mattered to him was murdered as he stood by and watched. Even to this day, recalling that moment in time opened a still raw wound within his soul, requiring the interval of years for Mikkhael to twist the memory and have it serve as the catalyst that fueled his choice to travel to Mars in the first place.

  He released his death-grip on the armrests, furiously typing in commands, not in enough control of his voice to issue the commands verbally. He re-engaged the active camouflage system then detached the rail gun, it would be too slow to use effectively against the airborne drone. His mind continued to race, replaying scenarios where he practiced fighting Reapers in the simulator onboard the SkySail in preparation for a scenario exactly like this.

  He put his wrists back into their harnesses, stood the giant Mech up, and then walked Starkindler over to the kite shield. Through the external camera feeds relayed onto the HUD, Aurora briefly helped him analyze the shield’s status before ripping it out of the ground. Cracks and stress fractures presented themselves from sustaining several direct hits, it was clear the shield would not survive much more.

  He panned his head, the cameras automatically tracking the direction his eyes traveled, scanning his surroundings, finding nearby what he was looking for. A pair of wind-worn pebble smooth boulders each the size of a grav cart detached from the top of the massif during the fighting and fell near each other with just enough space in between them for him to plant the shield into the space in between the boulders. The next few minutes passed quickly. A timer audibly counted down when the Reaper would arrive while he swept Starkindler’s feet back and forth across the ledge, clearing the large debris for solid footing.

  He then rolled the nearest boulder solidly against the kite shield. Starkindler’s joints strained and heaved against the boulder’s massive weight, but in the end he succeeded, bracing the shield solidly between them. Next was the rail gun. With only minutes to spare until the Reaper entered within firing distance, he moved the rail gun over to the opposite side of the ledge across from the kite shield. Aurora performed a quick check, ensuring that she could remotely activate the gun, and they were done.

  Radar warnings flashed in the cockpit, showing that the Reaper’s long-range radar was sweeping methodically across the ledge, confirming that Starkindler had not left position. Out of time, Mikkhael settled into position, surrounded in place by the boulders, shield, and the remaining rock wall of the massif. He did not rush the process, taking the time to do it right, knowing that he could present no weakness. The Reaper already knew his location, now he had to make sure there were no further mistakes.

  Aurora remained silent while he worked, allowing him to concentrate while she focused her resources in an attempt to hack into the command systems controlling the Reaper. It was a long shot at best. She was as unprepared as Mikkhael to be facing a Reaper so early in their campaign, but because of her coding she was as equally dedicated to their mission and would give everything she had regardless.

  She simultaneously ran a pair of hacks, one from a satellite attempting to take control of the drone, while the other wound through the PDF defense network, attempting to sever the drone’s link with its operator. The chances of either working in the timeframe allotted were minimal, but she hoped to create enough static to confuse an order at a critical juncture, thereby providing an opening Mikkhael could then exploit.

  For his part, Mikkhael checked the status of the anti-battery drone. Seeing it barely used with over 90% of its munitions left helped calm his nerves. The other drone remained hidden down on the Martian surface, still completely unused, his ace in the hole. During the previous battles, he expended many of his own missiles in fighting off the successive PDF formations, and could not replenish them under field conditions until he recovered his supply pod, something that was not an option at this time. He was now at a distinct disadvantage when he had one last thought.

  He panned one of the external cameras towards the weakest point in his defenses, th
e kite shield. His mouth turned up in a wry grin, unable to hide his excitement. “Aurora, focus 100% of shields to the front-center of Starkindler; use the cockpit as a point of reference. Create the thickest wall of energy layers that you can, in a cone projecting outward from there. The kite shield will fail first, and that will be our biggest vulnerability in the upcoming battle.”

  Aurora throttled up the reactor, increasing the output as he spoke, knowing that she would need to draw heavily on the extra power for what he asked. Even with the modicum of resources remaining to her, Aurora’s thought process instantly recognized what he wanted.

  “If we eliminate rear shield layers and then weaken the sides, we can boost the frontal shield layers to around 175% of normal capacity in the time we have. A direct hit by the Reapers primary weapons that ends up collapsing the shields will be catastrophic; increasing recharge times by several multiples as well as likely permanently damaging the shield recharging capacitors. Additionally, the possibility of damage to Starkindler directly from the explosive blowback could severely damage the outer layers of armor, leaving them vulnerable to successive attacks. Any further direct damage at that point would almost certainly be deadly.” Aurora’s assessment was short, brutal, and stuck to the facts. Her holographic self-representation left out any emotion during the delivery knowing that their options were that limited.

  “Do it.” Mikkhael did not pause to further weigh the consequences; there was no time. He made his plan and would stick to it, there were only a few minutes remaining before the Reaper reached them. He continued to pan the external cameras around the immediate area, evaluating the integrity of their fighting position, forming predictions of what might occur when his eyes passed over the disconnected rail gun standing twenty feet away.

  With nothing to lose, he pointed Starkindler’s projectile cannon housed within the left arm directly at the rail gun, drawing additional power from the reactor. The magnets within the cannon hummed with potency as they reached their full charge, which Aurora then converted into short-distance microwave beams. The electromagnets on the rail gun began to flare on his IFR sensor as they began to charge. The rail gun appeared to be preparing to fire as the magnets continued to slowly charge, giving the impression that the operator of the gun was cloaked next to the weapon. Mikkhael then engaged the active cloaking system while taking steps to render their IFR output non-existent, disappearing from the Reaper’s view while increasing the probability of the rail cannon being discovered.

  Proximity alerts flashed warnings throughout the cockpit as Aurora announced “thirty seconds remaining,” before the Reaper reached maximum weapon range. Starkindler had one last surprise ready in preparation for specifically fighting against Reapers. Mikkhael activated the system by pulling a head-mounted display down over his eyes in place of his helmet.

  Aurora would control the data that was available to him via the HMD, tuning out the HUD entirely. The HMD provided complete 3D vision, seamlessly allowing him to use the external cameras placed throughout Starkindler’s armor as if he were standing alone on the ledge without being encased within several feet of armor. Behind the scenes, Aurora patched together all of the external camera feeds and combined them with real-time satellite footage, allowing Mikkhael a seamless field of vision regardless of which direction he panned his head. Alyona had nicknamed the system gods view. The system provided the pilot with the most flexibility possible in identifying threats and targets when fighting defensively from a static position.

  She would label both parties’ missiles, rockets, munitions, and targeting lasers, layering them against the landscape, displaying them through the HMD as they raced across the surface with deadly purpose. By editing the footage being fed live to Mikkhael, Aurora could simulate the Reaper slowing down enough for him to track the drone by physically turning his head while his hands remained on the weapon controls, ready to fire.

  Additionally, the system allowed him to override the algorithms controlling Starkindler’s missile flight patterns. He could take personal control of them when the Reaper deployed countermeasures, something no one would expect and no computer algorithm was built to defend against. Lastly, Aurora would use the HMD to display any relevant data from the auxiliary displays, as his attention would be focused entirely within the HMD itself.

  Information from the auxiliary displays filled the HMD as Aurora plotted the Reaper’s path with prediction lines; Mikkhael could only grip the fire control handles, knuckles white with tension in anticipation of when he could finally respond. The few missiles left stood ready to launch, prepared in a specific series depending on how the Reaper fought. Counter battery defenses stood ready as the timer occupying the center of the HMD slowly counted down, finally reaching zero.

  Normal vision could not pick up the Reaper as the drone flew stealthed, too high and fast to track. Even with the help of the HMD, Mikkhael found himself having difficulty keeping up with the drone flying at maximum height and velocity. Fighting through the handicap of mortality, he saw the opportunity and was the first to fire, launching a pair of the largest fire and forget missiles seconds before the drone reached its own optimal firing distance. His missiles would have a harder time closing on the moving target, needing the full advantage provided by the Reaper’s incoming heading.

  Klaxons sounded within the cockpit, warning of incoming missiles. He fired a burst of a dozen small rockets housed within the legs. Aurora remotely detonated the rockets, causing them to air burst in the path of the Reaper’s missiles, creating a wide debris field that shredded them without incident.

  Mikkhael’s own missiles approached close enough that they forced the Reaper to deploy countermeasures as they neared their target. He assumed flight control of the missiles, guiding them straight through the chaff, flares, and decoy rockets that were deployed in increasing numbers as his missiles closed in. The Reaper finally had to resort to a trick they were unaware the drone possessed. Flying in a straight line, lulling the missiles in line behind, it then jettisoned a substantial amount of fuel in a long stream, followed by activating its afterburners which ignited the stream of fuel. The resulting inferno detonated Mikkhael’s missiles out of range of the drone causing it no harm.

  As the drone turned, coming around in a wide second pass from maximum elevation, it opened up with everything it had, and using each of its different kinds of weapons as soon as they entered within range. A second klaxon began blaring as large fire and forget missiles fired from a mere thirty miles out, while dozens of smaller missiles and rockets targeted Starkindler’s general location as the drone approached impossibly fast; blanketing the ledge in an inferno of chemical rage. Maintaining its headlong approach, the Reaper dived briefly, firing depleted uranium slugs from a nose-mounted cannon before climbing steeply to bleed excessive speed as it leaned into a turn for the next pass. As it entered the high-speed turn, it utilized gravity to throw a half dozen bombs capable of leveling most of the mountain from raw explosive force along with another full complement of missiles.

  For all of the technology advantages and measures taken by the successive generations of creators of Starkindler, the amount of incoming ordinance did not need to directly strike Starkindler to kill Mikkhael or even destroy his Mech armor. The concussive forces of the explosions alone would melt his internal organs and then liquefy the reactor, causing a secondary explosion of immense proportions as the fusion chamber devastatingly released vast amounts of barely contained energy.

  Aurora stepped in, holding nothing back; she activated the anti-battery drone, combining its fire with her own. Dozens of rockets from both sides collided head-on, exploding in a maelstrom of chaos as if attempting to light the heaven’s themselves on fire. Columns of fire fountained forth as the anti-battery drone fired small-bore chain guns in conjunction with Starkindler’s point defense cannons to knock down the larger missiles down.

  Chaff, flares, noisemakers, smoke, and electronic decoys poured forth in fountains of screamin
g metal and fire. A cloud of dust coalesced around the massif, surrounding the ledge, pulsing rhythmically with each new explosion. Lightning and thunder exploded violently within the dried blood-red cloud expanding with each fierce discharge, distracting a few of the incoming missiles, the others ending themselves violently within the siren’s grasp, adding their death cries to the unfolding chaos. Pillars of smoke climbed into the air, pulsing with each new explosion, wreathing around the mountainside, engulfing the local area for miles around as the winds of darkness claimed this territory for their own.

  Hundreds of depleted uranium slugs fired from the Reaper’s cannon, gouging man sized holes in the mountain and all around the solitary Mech armor. Mikkhael ignored them, focused only on the bombs that would surely kill him if not eliminated. Aurora assisted him in targeting them as they fell, cursing the thick smoke occluding everything in its choking grasp, including their sensors. Firing repeatedly with a mix of the main cannon, lasers, and miniature rockets, they destroyed each bomb one after the other. The concussive force of the bombs exploding in midair cleared the ledge of small and medium sized debris, grinding large rocks to dust, adding their substance to the growing clouds of debris.

  Even through the layers of Starkindler’s armor, the kinetic absorbing gel wrapped around Mikkhael and the custom designed pilot’s suit struggled to keep him alive. His body was punished, standing center amongst the explosive maelstrom. Aurora fed anti-nausea drugs through the IV mixed with adrenaline and other mental boosters, striving her best to keep him alert and clearheaded. If he fell unconscious during that kind of onslaught there could be no telling when he would wake back up, or if at all. Her efforts were not in vain, even if only just barely sufficing. Mikkhael and Starkindler both survived the attack, bruised and battered but both still standing resolutely.