As Ajax stared into the hollow, dead eyes of the creatures, he knew that something more terrifying and important than simple violence had occurred here and he wanted nothing more than to return to the modest safety of the APC. He’d been a warrior for a long time, fought the Garm on countless worlds, and yet here he stood, nearly petrified by knowledge he couldn’t even fully understand.
“Enough of this, let’s mount up,” snarled Boone in everyone’s ear-piece, snapping the marines out of their thoughts. “Skald?”
“Right, we have what we came for,” nodded Omar. The group of soldiers turned on their heels and moved to put as much distance between them and the ditch as they could, moving in double-time without having to be told.
Once they reached the APC and the marines started mounting up, Ajax, bringing up the rear, could have sworn he heard the bone on bone sound of the Grendel. He spun and dropped to one knee, his rifle scanning the area behind him only to see a quiet field of corpses and the dull glow of a dying sun in the distant sky. There was little in the way of difference between day and night on this planet, but it was enough that Ajax could tell that dusk was upon them. He held his position for a moment, but when no enemy revealed itself, he turned and climbed aboard, shutting the hatch behind him and strapping in for the journey to the objective.
FACE TOWARDS ENEMY
Ajax took modest comfort in the feel of the rifle in his hands as it snarled to life. In seconds the hatch of the APC would open and he would hurl himself into battle against whatever terrible creatures defended the hive ship. Radio chatter indicated that Armor One had struck the enemy a grievous blow, all dozen heavy battle tanks having rushed the enemy position.
The marine’s dreams had been rooted in truth, and the maps he’d helped build were at least somewhat accurate. The hive ship he’d seen in his dreams lay ahead of them somewhere in the gloom, and within it, hopefully, the wounded beast, Grendel. The marine thought it was a good plan, this blitzkrieg assault and hardened extraction point, even if the next phase of it involved his likely death. Perhaps his last if Grendel were to get the best of him.
The construction trucks and infantry units had swiftly erected a pre-fabricated mobile fortress, using parts and scrap hauled from Heorot. Before the creation of the Einherjar, these mobile fortresses were used as forward operations bases that could be erected inside enemy territory within a matter of hours. While they had a certain degree of vulnerability to artillery, as compared to the time intensive trench networks that defended static positions, the speed with which a hard point could be erected inside enemy territory was a potent quality. Within several hours, a small force could occupy the fortress and have everything they needed to form a base of operations for aggressive offensive missions. While these fortresses had proven effective in the wars humanity had fought with itself in the bliss of their ignorance before the appearance of the extinction fleets, they were essentially deathtraps when facing the Garm.
Human soldiers were not likely to throw themselves against well-defended positions in suicidal charges, nor were they likely to attack the base in such numbers that their corpses created mounds that others could climb up to breach the walls. Eventually, it was determined that the mobile fortresses were an ineffective tool against the Garm, and that despite the heavy amounts of casualties a garrison could inflict upon the enemy, ultimately, the entire garrison would be slain and the ground again lost.
The mobile fortresses, like so many other weapons and tactics of modern warfare, had been abandoned as the military of humanity began to regress by necessity. Wars were fought in rather close quarters, reminiscent of the Napoleonic era of ancient Earth, and it was only once these more primitive and casualty intensive tactics were combined with the Einherjar clone soldiers that humanity managed to halt the advance of the swarm.
While the Einherjar had not yet won any systems back from the jaws of the Garm, they had at least managed to hold the line. In this case, the fortress had been pulled out of the deep storage holds of Bright Lance and dropped planetside so that a rapid extraction point could be created deep within enemy territory. They had no idea what awaited them in the depths of the hive ship and it was likely that the survivors would need a swift escape with whatever valuable intel they could recover. The walls might buy them the precious moments they needed for success.
Once they were on the offensive, even if this was a likely suicide mission, they had little choice in the matter.
Such were Ajax’s thoughts as the APC ground to a halt and the skald threw open the hatch. The swarm was successfully grinding away the potency of the military presence here, and unless some asymmetrical ploy gave humanity an advantage then the Garm would inevitably take Heorot.
It was this inevitability, this implacable advance against any obstacles that made the Garm such a terrifying foe. The simple act of going against them on the offensive was incredibly empowering, not just for Ajax, but for all the assembled warriors. It felt like they were doing something instead of cowering behind walls and in ditches waiting for the next wave to crash.
His senses, even shielded as they were by his helmet, were assaulted by a noisy rush of information. He could feel more than hear the deep thumping of the tank weapons as Armor One dove straight into the Garm battle lines.
The thick, opaque, atmosphere of the planet made it all but impossible to determine the exact location of the hive ships that had embedded themselves into the surface of the planet, like parasites burrowing into the flesh of a victim. However, command had accessed old survey reports that remained from when the planet was colonized some years prior to the evacuation. With help from Ajax, they had guessed the most likely location of at least the mothership that bore Grendel upon the blighted surface of Heorot. Ajax’s dream memories had been almost spot on, and Armor One found a piece of the enemy in their sights.
Flares lit up the sky and Ajax could see the gigantic, building sized structure that was the hive ship. To him it looked like a sort of sickening egg sac covered in interlocking chitin plates, and at the base of it he could see several orifices that contracted and expanded to vomit forth scores of Garm creatures. There were divots in parts of the hive ship, and sprouting from them were the wicked muzzles of what Ajax quickly realized were weapons, as they either spewed caustic gouts of viscous fluids or launched clouds of thick barbs at the attacking marines and armor units.
By the look of the scant few Garm that defended the ground between him and the hive ship, it seemed that Skald Wallace was right about the broods needing time to replenish. It was estimated that, given what was known about the Garm, learned by hard and bloody lesson over the years of war with the alien beasts, it would take them several days to fully recover from the losses suffered upon the walls of Heorot.
While there weren’t many individual Garm fighting to defend the ramparts, the defenses themselves seemed to be alive. The Garm had constructed, or perhaps excreted, low, semi-translucent walls of what appeared to Ajax to be hardened resin or mucus. Into these bio-barricades were set any number of meter long spines that were no doubt meant to repel any charges by the enemy.
It wasn’t until a section of bio-barricade contracted and launched one of the spines out of the wall in his direction that he realized it had other defensive capacities. The marine threw himself to the ground only to hear the short-lived scream of a marine behind him.
Ajax rolled onto his back and saw that one of the last marines to exit the APC behind him had been transfixed by the spine, which had punched through his armor as if it was nothing. The man staggered for a moment and then collapsed while the APC churned up the rough ground to roll closer to the enemy as the chain-fire gunner opened fire.
“Ajax, on your feet!” shouted Rama as he ran past the marine, raising his rifle to his shoulder and pumping rounds into the barricade as he went.
The marine scrambled to stand and brought his rifle up just in time to see a battle tank score a direct hit on one of the hive ship’s defensive
batteries. The wet explosion rocked the ship, and it shuddered, whether from the pain of the wound or the force of the explosion Ajax couldn’t tell, but it was one less weapon pouring death down on them.
The marine sprinted towards one of the slag craters created by hits from the battle tanks and leapt into it, knowing that it would at least provide modest cover from the multitudes of enemy projectiles and fluids that were streaking out at the attacking marines.
“If the plan was to come over here and kick the hornet’s nest then I think we did it!” observed Rama as he set his rifle on the edge of the crater and snapped a few more shots at the barricades and the growing swarm of gorehounds and WarGarm that defended it.
“This one’s for Andropolis! For Tarsis Prime! For Ulanti!” growled Boone as he took a knee just above the others next to the crater and started methodically launching grenade round after grenade round, emptying his cylinder while bellowing the names of lost cities and entire planets that had been consumed by the swarm, and then working swiftly to replace his ammo. “For Bashepolon!”
“I think we’ve lost Boone,” observed Ajax as he joined Rama in firing at the barricade, taking notice that his bolts seemed to do more damage when he fired at the somewhat softer tissue surrounding the spines.
“This isn’t about armor or lives, gentlemen,” said Omar as he paused on the other side of the crater to fire several times. “Whatever it takes to get on board that ship. Marines, on me!”
Omar sprinted forward and the others followed as ordered.
“Boone, empty a cylinder on that section of barricade, right where the spines are!” shouted Omar as he pointed, and Boone was swift to comply, still shouting out the names of humanity’s fallen.
As the grenades exploded they ripped apart the wall in a tempest of shredded mucus, broken spines, and shrapnel. Their way clear of enemy fire, at least from the wall, the marines rushed forward without fear of the spines scything through their ranks.
At a signal from Omar, the APC Thane Twelve plowed through the gap, widening it, and giving the marines cover as they finished their rush to the wall. The chain-fire gunner sprayed fire into a handful of defenders as the marines took positions at the rear and to the side of the APC.
The driver revved the engines, but the living barricades were actually regenerating themselves, binding the armored vehicles tracks and preventing it from doing much more than moving a few inches at a time. It was all the driver could do to keep shifting backwards and forwards to avoid being stuck permanently.
Ajax sighted in on a gorehound and put a round through its flesh, the bolt punching through it just beneath its shoulder and causing the entire beast to explode from within. He noticed, despite the fury of battle, that the gorehound had been one of the subtly different sort, and as he took a second look at the enemy, both the living and the dead, he realized that all the beasts he could see were of the altered sort.
Something about this hive had changed, made it different than the usual Garm breeds, and that set his teeth on edge. After putting down another gorehound he saw a WarGarm erupt from one of the infantry orifices in the hive ship. It immediately began unleashing its fury upon the marines, and in an instant its devastating weapon had dropped two good soldiers, who now lay on the ground, wracked with spasms and drying up from the many spikes puncturing their bodies.
“WarGarm on the right!” shouted Ajax as he fired upon the beast, knowing that his handful of shots were unlikely to do much to the beast, but knowing that his comrades would follow his tracers.
Sure enough, the chain-fire gunner took notice and swiveled his weapon around. With the combined fire of the mounted gun and the marines, the WarGarm collapsed in a heap of ruined meat, only to be replaced by another as the hive ship’s orifice erupted once more.
This time the WarGarm knew where the main threat was, and it strafed the APC with its gun, slamming spikes into the thick armor of the vehicle and through Rama’s face. The chain-fire suddenly stopped barking, and Ajax looked up to see that the marine operating it had also died in the exchange. Boone and Omar poured on the fire, but Ajax knew that soon the creature would be upon them.
Ajax scampered up the side of the APC and shoved the spike-riddled body of his comrade back down into the troop hold so that he could take control of the weapon. As the marine brought the chain-fire up he fired it twice, only to have it lock up, the former gunner having forgotten his heat venting discipline, leaving the gun all but useless.
Ajax looked over at the WarGarm bearing down on them and prepared for death, only to see the creature’s head suddenly explode as a thick, high velocity projectile slammed into it. There was no doubt in the marine’s mind that Hart was out there somewhere in the chaos, and he resolved to thank the man when next they met, on this battlefield or the next.
Another APC slammed into the back of the one Ajax was mounted on, causing the marine’s body to whiplash for a moment before he was able to steady himself on the chain-fire. He looked behind him and saw that the APC driver had used his momentum to shove the first vehicle through the slimy gap in the barricade, but now that vehicle had become stuck as a result.
But there was an APC inside the barricades now, and Ajax was happy to take total advantage of that fact when he managed to get the chain-fire up and running once more.
The APC advanced, heading closer to the base of the hive ship, and the marines who had been fighting on foot used the armored vehicle as cover.
Bringing the chain-fire up, he pulverized one of the embedded weapons jutting out from the hive ship noticing just how grievously their wild assault had wounded the living vessel. From his vantage point atop the APC, the marine could also see clearly what a heavy price had been paid for their advance against the hive ship thus far.
Two battle tanks had been reduced to smoldering heaps of molten metal by the various caustic streams and macabre projectiles being vomited forth by the hive ship’s defensive batteries. Several APCs had either been slagged by the hive ship or had been overrun by the continuous stream of defenders that spewed forth from the infantry orifices at the base of the ship. Broken and torn marine corpses littered the battlefield on both sides of the living barricades. Despite such heavy losses, here they were, at the very gates of the enemy’s keep, and that, thought Ajax, was worth the price paid in Einherjar blood.
He aimed the chain-fire at an infantry orifice set higher upon the ship, determining correctly, that it was for the shriekers. When the swarm emerged, Ajax shattered their ranks with sustained fire from his mounted weapon. By the time he stopped firing to vent heat, most of the enemy flyers had been blasted out of the sky.
“Swarms from the other hive ships are advancing, less than a kilometer out,” boomed the voice of Jarl Mahora suddenly, his warning coming loud and clear through the task force channel. “Armor One get clear of those defensive batteries. Screen against the other swarms, see if you can buy us some time. Skalds, get your fire teams into that ship!”
“I can’t believe we’re about to do this,” breathed Yao from shadow of the armored vehicle alongside Sharif, Boone, Ford.
“Silas, get on that chain-fire and keep those batteries feeling the burn,” commanded Omar from his position behind the APC, his voice crackling in the ear pieces of the marines and APC crew of Thane Twelve. “Ajax, get the Blackout ready for deployment.”
As Silas scrambled up the side of the APC and took the controls of the chain-fire, Ajax did as he was ordered and descended back down into the belly of the armored vehicle.
At the front of the troop transport bay was the matte black stasis pod in which the Blackouts were held. Normally, there would be at least two, if not three, minders to properly deploy the frenzied warrior, and Ajax had never attempted it alone. The APC rumbled along as the driver pushed forward, bringing the armored vehicle closer and closer to a large infantry orifice.
Ajax had no idea how many other vehicles would manage to successfully insert their deadly cargo, but he knew that
even one of the fearsome death marines would cause enough havoc inside that the fire teams could maneuver within the ship.
Ajax picked up one of the minder staves and primed the electromagnet on the tip before depressing the activator on the outside of the pod.
Inside stood a fully armed and armored Blackout, held firmly in place by banded restraints. He could see little of the man’s face through the wicked helmet, though he could see that the man’s mouth was moving, screaming of the carnage he would soon visit upon his enemies. It wouldn’t be long before Boone was exiled to a pod such as this, to live out his bloody nightmares behind the armor of the Blackout, forever trapped in a cycle of madness and bloodlust. The marine jabbed the minder stave into one of the slots on the Blackout’s neckpiece, and then with his other hand Ajax hit the release on the restraints.
Instantly, the Blackout surged forward, though how much of that was the warrior and how much of that was the sudden swerve of the vehicle Ajax could not tell. Outside he knew that the APC had slammed into the outer parts of the infantry orifice, and that he only had seconds to deploy the fearsome warrior.
The Blackout flexed its fingers and strode forward to the exit hatch. Only the minder stave and all the strength Ajax could muster kept the warrior from attempting to tear through the hull to reach the enemies that he knew were waiting for him.
“Blackout in position!” said Ajax.
“Deploy and then pop the side hatch so we can follow,” answered Omar from somewhere outside the APC, and Ajax did as he was instructed.
With one armored boot, he kicked the release on the exit hatch and deactivated the minder stave’s hold on the warrior. The exit hatch burst open and the Blackout leaped through the opening.
Extinction Fleet 1: Space Marine Ajax Page 11
