Starblood: A Military Space Opera Series (War Undying Book 1)

by N. D. Redding

  It wasn’t long before we mopped up the rest of the Aloi troops from the docking bays. I locked eyes with Corporal Rice once more and I saw a glimmer of surprise as he took in my Fyre Armor. It chipped at his pride when he realized that I already acquired Tier 3 and that I stood there in the same armor he so proudly wore. He saluted me and I saluted back with respect. I had no taste for small power-plays, especially not after being shown what someone at a higher level was able to do. I needed to get up there as soon as possible!

  The entire station was still shaking from impacts. Although the battle within had been won, the space battle around the station was still raging. We were winning though, at least from what I could see on my INAS and what they allowed us to see. The Aloi forces were retreating, but not too far. They had established strong positions across Detera and they still wanted orbital superiority, but they refrained from direct fleet engagement. Both sides did as they held half of the air superiority each.

  The reason why the Aloi hadn’t simply bombarded Federation strongholds from orbit was a simple one I learned: detrium mines. If this was any other planet, the surface would have been systematically destroyed, the population massacred, and the atmosphere burnt away, but not on Detera. One badly placed orbital strike could cost you enough detrium to power an entire fleet for a century. There wouldn’t be an Aloi Hegemony without it, nor a Commonwealth Federation for that matter.

  Colonel Winters addressed the soldiers on the station from his comfortable high chair once we were sure it was ours again. He beamed with pride, but everyone knew who the people were that had taken back the station and lost friends, brothers, sisters, and lovers doing so.

  “We will make planetfall in two hours. Our regiment will merge with Colonel Ook’In’s regiment from the Oolan’Jan forces on the ground. Our mission is to take out this Aloi stronghold in one quick coordinated attack. I will lead our regiment on the ground while Colonel Ook’In will have his Oolan’Jan soldiers dig beneath the surface and parallel our movement.”

  He stopped for a moment and looked off-screen as if listening in on someone. I closed my eyes for a second and opened them again, only to look up into Layla’s grinning face.

  “Did you see that hammer strike? It was so cool!” she whispered. I put my fingers to my lips but grinned and nodded.

  “You were great, but don’t let it go to your head.”

  She winked and sat down next to me as the colonel went on.

  “It was just confirmed that we will have air support from orbit. For those unfamiliar with the Oolan’Jan, know this: they are a subterranean race extremely skilled at digging tunnels and moving below ground. Do not at any cost compare them to moles or any other animals, they are extremely sensitive about this. It could cost us this very operation if someone did or said something stupid. If you do insult an Oolan’Jan, I will personally offer your head as an act of goodwill. Now, don’t be afraid, soldiers. You’re doing this to protect your homes and families! Your commanding officers will brief you on any further details.”

  He cut the link and I rolled my eyes. So, he was going to lead the attack, huh? Yeah, right. To most colonels and higher-ups, any war was almost like a strategy video game. They sat comfortably in the back and issued orders over the INAS to thousands and millions on the ground. Seeing death only as a number and life only as an advantage over the enemy. I shook my head to cast away the thoughts, as they wouldn’t breed anything smart.

  “How are you doing?” I asked Leo and Layla as I turned to face them.

  “Seemed easy enough,” Leo said, not even trying to fake courage.

  “I love this hammer,” Layla added while caressing her weapon. The way she held it in her hands made me frown, but who was I to judge?

  They seemed shaken but sober, which was good. Simulation training was a big step forward in military science. Still, there was no kind of wake-up call like getting up close with the enemy. I couldn’t even imagine the shocks a new recruit would go through back in the day. Not knowing what your enemy looked like, how he moved, attacked, what you could expect from your squadmates… It must have been terrifying. But then again, they didn’t face giant fanatically religious robotic spiders with rocket launchers on their backs either. That was for our generation to enjoy.

  Most of the specialists sat around in groups, keeping to themselves, though some threw some nods and waves our way as signs of respect. Most looked rather hostile, but I didn’t care. Glory was for the brave and the wicked, not for cowards.

  I brought up notifications I subconsciously swiped away during the battle and I saw that my nanite capacity had grown once again. Whenever you did something entirely new that the nanites weren’t necessarily used to, it skyrocketed their connection-forming abilities and caused a significant spike in your ability to control them.

  I was proud of my squadmates, too. Both performed admirably and neither of them made any stupid mistakes to get anyone harmed or embarrass our first rank in the simulations.

  “I’m proud of you two, but don’t let it go to your head,” I said as I shooed them away. “I need a minute to rest my eyes and mind, all right?”

  “Sure thing, Sarge,” Layla chuckled. “Thanks for being so honest.”

  “Honest? He’s been brutally honest with us since day one,” Leo protested.

  “He has, but that’s why I’m thankful. If he’d coddled us, we wouldn’t have gotten this gear, and neither would we have been as able to help during the fighting.”

  I nodded and closed my eyes, making sure I’d remember and cherish this moment of victory forever.

  Before I was even able to get a minute’s worth of shut-eye, claxons rang across the station.

  “We’ve been ordered into the drop pods!” Tailor’s voice rang out over our INAS. “Unlike the rest of the regiment, our company has received a special assignment, especially our heroes of Squad 88. You’ve pulled the lucky straw, poor bastards.”

  “Glad to be of help, sir!” I snapped over the comms.

  “Good to hear, Stavos. See, while the rest of the regiment will have transporters comfortably land them miles from the enemy position, we’ll be dropping in coffin-sized drop pods behind enemy lines. You just showed us the price of success in the military.”

  “Make sure more of us die the next time, that way they might reconsider sending someone else,” said a voice I didn’t know.

  “Shut it, Menks. Get up to his rank first and then bitch about it, you sore ass loser. Did it hurt your pride to come in second during the sims?”

  “No, sir!” he snapped back. “Glad to be of service, sir!”

  “Good, now shut up! Stavos, explain how this is going to play out for our new babies!”

  “Yes, sir! We’ll board small drop pods that will be shot toward the surface from the station. Once we breach the atmosphere, thrusters will start firing up and slowing our descent. If they fail, we’ll slam the ground so hard nothing will be left of us. This is the only way to become something even less than a wha-wha! Now we can become Splats!”

  “Right, right!” Tailor laughed. “You heard the man! Pray your thrusters work, ’cause if they don’t, we’ll be scraping you from the pods’ insides.”

  “Say, will there be enough enemies to earn another level?” Layla asked as I thought back on how big of a mess a splat made. Shit, I wasn’t liking this at all.

  8

  It was an understatement to say that I hated drop pods. I hated the man who came up with the idea of sending down soldiers one by one from orbit in teardrop coffins. I hated the acceleration, the tremors; I hated the height indicator, the unhuman impact of landing; and what I hated most of all were the uncertainties of where you’d land. In a ditch? In the sea? In a Ravager’s lap? You never knew, and it was a nerve-wracking endeavor that humans came up with and the Commonwealth Federation adopted. Yes, humans. That was our input to Federation military technology. How about we give the man a standing ovation?

  Despite all that, I still felt
the enormous force and speed during the drop. The thrusters had activated several times now, but my coffin still hadn’t hit the ground. It would soon, but in what state and at what speed?

  I wanted to speak and ask my squad how they were doing, but I couldn’t. No matter how much I wanted it, I just couldn’t utter those words. And then it happened. The thrusters kicked in hard, breaking my fall, and then the pod hit the ground, rattling every single bone in my body. The door hissed open, blown outward.

  I was dizzy as hell but glad to be alive. Every drop was a roll of the dice in equal measure because of the pod and the enemy anti-air weaponry that streaked the sky during the drop. It was almost like throwing yourself into a forest of blades hoping to land on moss. Luckily, the superiors had ordered an orbital bombardment of the surrounding area before dropping to the surface, but the shelling often proved more problematic than helpful because it indicated to the enemy where we planned to land.

  Curtains of smoke rose around us as I found muddy soil eat at my boots. Visibility was dreadful and I started my INAS to scan the area, but it barely made any sense.

  “Are you two alive?” I asked over our squad channel.

  “Sure am!” Layla laughed. She must have found this thrilling instead of being afraid of possible death. In any case, we wouldn’t have felt it anyway.

  “Same here, Sarge. We’ve linked up with 51st squad led by Sergeant Orich.”

  “How far out are you?” I asked, looking around where I’d landed. I was damn alone.

  “Nine miles, sir. You landed quite far off the battle zone.”

  I cursed under my breath and then let out a deep sigh.

  “Don’t embarrass me, all right? I’ll check in on you once I’m closer.”

  “Good luck, Sarge,” Layla said hurriedly before both closed their connections.

  I pulled my INAS back up and checked what I could see from satellite images. What I saw in front of me wasn’t good. It was very bad even. A seven-mile-long canyon separated me from the main battle group, and to add insult to injury, it was filled with enemy encampments.

  Five enemy positions were displayed on my INAS, every single one chosen over their natural defensibility. Deciding on not moping around any longer, I summoned both familiars using spare O-Nans from the pod, then sent Buzzard out to scan the canyon while in deep stealth mode. It wouldn’t be picked up on the radar, though if someone had it in direct line of sight, they could spot the bugger.

  I looked around once more as the drone flew off, trying to make head or tail of my surroundings. The canyon had steep cliffs on both sides, so even if Buzzard found a way around, it would take me hours and luck to climb them. The Federation bombardment around this area did very little to clear out the canyon, so if there were any enemy outposts, I doubted they were harmed.

  The residual smoke from the orbital shelling was slowly clearing out as Buzzard reported its findings. There was a way around the canyon and to the enemy stronghold, but it would create a thirty-five-mile detour. Ah well, sometimes it was better if some doors never opened. At least you got to focus on the options you had.

  I picked up the rations stored inside the pod, packed my reserve O-Nan cells onto Bucky, checked my Fyre Armor for any damage, but it was in pristine condition and just how I liked it, then sent out Buzzard to scout the area ahead of me.

  It wasn’t long before I ran into the first outpost, and as my luck would have it, the place was guarded. The outpost was no particular construction; it was just a very defensible rock formation formed over the centuries. Rocks for cover on the left and right, along with a ditch in the middle. Raintroopers only. Fourteen of them to be precise. The Aloi liked numbers that could be divided by seven for some reason that had something to do with their religion. I guessed they thought it would bring luck or whatever. I’d have to prove them wrong though. My own religion wouldn’t let me turn my back on such an opportunity. I wasn’t schooled in theology, so I schooled them in Technomancy.

  I sent out Bucky first to see how they would react. The Raintroopers didn’t immediately fire at the Golem. Instead, one of them left cover to meet him. I watched the whole thing from Buzzard’s view as he hovered above us, still cloaked. These were some open-minded fools if I ever saw any. I guess all they got to do was sit in this canyon and not even expect any real fighting to happen.

  The soldier that approached Bucky was careless, the sign of a youngster. The poor trooper was pretty decent for his class, above average even, but well below the power level of a Tier 3 Technomancer. He carefully tapped Bucky’s egg-shaped head with the tip of his spear and then turned around to his fellow soldiers, gesturing something I couldn’t understand. How interesting. Had they never seen a Technomancer’s bot?

  It wasn’t too odd though, as the Aloi Hegemony spread across half the galaxy, and while most of their military force was jumbled up in the Ulyx Cluster fighting the Federation, they still led a myriad of minor wars across the stars. Not every soldier knew every enemy. They may have mistaken Bucky for a run-off construction bot or something.

  The rest of the fourteen soldiers left cover and surrounded Bucky, staring at him intently, prodding him with their spears and hands. I almost felt bad for how easy they were making this for me. I haven’t had the chance to use my new abilities yet, and this was very much a perfect scenario. I left cover and closed the distance while keeping my head down.

  When a small piece of rock cracked under my feet, they all turned in my direction at once, spotting me. They flinched and panicked, grabbing their rifles as the commander, or whatever he was, yelled out orders that never saw the light of day. Just before they could spread out and lay down fire, Bucky taunted them all at once.

  The tips of fourteen silk-spears pointed toward the tank bot, but before they could do a single point of damage, I had already gotten down to one knee, pressed my palm against the ground, and sent out 15% of my nanite capacity through the dry earth. The nanites dug their way toward the group in less than four seconds, erupting in sharp spikes all around Bucky. Nanites burst out of the ground and impaled most of them with ease, but the few I didn’t hit went down as I put up my rifle and placed several rounds in their skulls.

  My INAS was flooded with numbers, but I pushed them all away. The spikes did tons of damage to light-armored units like Raintroopers, but wouldn’t be of much help against enemies like the Ravagers or Templars.

  I pulled the nanites back, at least the ones I could save from the impaled bodies. Every time you used an ability like Count’s Justice—and no, I had no idea why someone even called the ability like that in the first place. None other than alluding to Vlad III Dracula anyway—the nanites themselves that didn’t fossilize instantly were good for reuse, and most of them stayed in that shape.

  It took some time to absorb them back into my pack, so it wasn’t an option mid-battle, but these Raintroopers weren’t going to wage any more wars. I was back up to 85% reserve O-Nans. Good. I had an entire batch for reserve. I could go through a couple of hundred Raintroopers if need be.

  A mile down the canyon, I encountered another outpost with double the Raintroopers. I pulled them from hiding with Buzzard this time. Like children chasing a firefly, the bored Raintroopers left their cover and chased my familiar around the canyon. I had to remind myself that I wasn’t fighting some innocent curious race from who-knew-where, but trained Aloi soldiers who would murder me in my sleep if they could.

  I impaled the group with another nanite spike attack once Buzzard managed to get them close enough. Damn. The ability was so cost-effective that I didn’t lose a single cell this time around, as I was fast enough to absorb them back into my pack. I rummaged through their stockpile, but none of it would be of any help.

  My INAS flared up, showing me a score of red dots moving my way. I guess our battle had been louder than I hoped because a whole Raintrooper platoon was running right at me. My INAS reported 112 enemy soldiers, which was… slightly too much. Shit. I had become too overconfi
dent. I could have done the whole thing more stealthily, but no, I had to do it this way. Bah.

  This was a challenge now, but I was confident in my abilities. I hid behind cover and left Bucky behind a rock a few yards in front of my position. I sent Buzzard to hover above me so I had a secondary screen on my INAS with an overview of the battle. When the Raintrooper platoon appeared and saw there was nothing but dead Aloi soldiers in the field, they slowed down and moved more cautiously. I had to group them up again, but no matter how much they bunched up, it was never going to be enough to one-shot them.

  I left cover and turned on my Blade Shield, spending 10% O-Nan cells which left me at 75%. The Raintroopers jumped to cover instead of running right at me. Shit, another bad roll of the dice. I pulled down before they shot my head off, and cursed.

  Bucky ran out and drew their immediate fire as he used Harden, which turned the golem into a ball of defense that could easily absorb the white projectiles... but it left him immobile. I pushed the nanites into the right side of the canyon wall, and with a speed I thought impossible, the nanites streaked through the rocks and exited right behind the Raintroopers in cover. They must have improved the O-Nans over the last years.

  As the nanites burst out, they took a big chunk of the sand and rock from the canyon with them. The heavy load coming off the walls crushed a dozen of them and stirred panic among the others. I jumped from cover, firing the splinter-cannon attached to my right arm while sending nanite chains into the Raintroopers advancing on my position. The splinter projectiles were a force to be reckoned with if a Technomancer used it. Nanite-infused bullets made sure they dug through the enemy one way or another, even if they didn’t one-shot them.

  The chains of my Blade Shield whipped the closest Raintroopers who charged me with their spears, tearing off limbs and heads left and right. From above I sent in Buzzard to catch any stragglers who might run off and warn the others. His Discharge could paralyze a Raintrooper with just one hit.