by Jake Bible
“Hooyah,” they replied and got to work.
***
“Bloody hell! Do you understand the concept of math?” Stony shouted at a group of techs. “Do you? I don’t even mean do you understand the math itself! I am talking about the very basic concept of using numbers in conjunction with other numbers to solve problems! Do you understand what words are coming from my lips?”
There was some shuffling of feet, but no one answered.
Stony turned to the vid display and tapped the curved lines that encircled the image of Hrouska.
“The Jethro will come in at this angle,” he stated. “The Dorso will be attached here and here. We must release the Dorso at precisely this point.”
His finger pressed so hard against the vid display that it left a black mark in the image.
“If we do not release the Dorso at precisely this point, then the Jethro will go down with that hunk of shit,” Stony snapped. “I ain’t too keen on that happening. Boss really ain’t too keen on that happening. Got it?”
There were several nods. A hand was raised. Some of the techs scooted away from the fool.
“Oh, yes please, ask a question,” Stony said.
“The probes?” the tech asked. “How do we keep them from burning up with the Dorso?”
“That is actually a good question,” Stony said. “They’ll be shielded by battle armor, all except for the one heading to the LZ. We drop that. But the ones attached to the Dorso will be timed to release at specific points so that the momentum from the wreckage projects them through the atmosphere and across the planet. It won’t be perfect, but they’ll land in locations that should give us a good comms spread.”
Stony grinned wide and the techs scooted further away from the fool.
“Which is what I explained at the beginning of this little talk,” Stony snarled. “Were you asleep?”
“No, Chief, I was calculating–”
“This is listening time,” Stony snapped. “Calculating time was before, and will be after, this little talk. Right now. You listen. Can you listen?”
“Yes, Chief.”
“Good. Then do that.”
Stony sighed.
“Let’s go over it again because now I can’t trust a single one of you idiots.”
***
“Anyone care to tell me what that is?” Morisaki asked as he nodded his chin at a bright light that was growing larger by the second. “I am seeing that, correct? This isn’t some hallucination due to sleep dep?”
“No, you’re seeing it,” Hawker said as she yawned, drank from a mug, spat the liquid out at her feet then drank again, swallowing that last sip. “Looks like a meteor.”
“Anyone care to do the math on that thing?” Morisaki said.
Schroeder came walking up, scratching her ass as she rested her rifle over one shoulder.
“We got incoming,” Schroeder said and pointed her rifle up at the meteor. “Anyone worried? No one seems to be worried.”
“We’re past worried,” Giga said as she sat on the edge of her cockpit, her mech settled a couple meters away from the dawn conversation. “Xenos are getting restless again. I think they’re going to make a huge press at the fence.”
“Okay. Hawker? You keep your eye on the meteor that is probably going to kill us all,” Morisaki said.
“Gotcha,” Hawker said and sipped. “I always knew I’d see my death coming.”
“The rest of you get on the lines,” Morisaki said. “We hold the fences or we don’t. Giga is right. This is probably the last chance we’ll get.”
“The xenos better be ghost hunters,” Schroeder said as she powered up her rifle. “Because I’m coming back to tear them some new ones the second I’m dead. Jethro for life seems too short. I’m going for Jethro for death, too.”
“Hooyah to that,” Giga said and slipped inside her cockpit.
***
“We are entering Hrouska’s atmosphere now, Boss,” Axson said.
The Jethro began to shudder.
“Noted,” Parveet said. “Bridge crew is silent from here on in except for needed communications. I want Axson focused. No goddamn chatter or you meet me in the cages when this is all done.”
“If this is all done,” Stegson said.
“Goddammit, Stegson,” Parveet snarled.
“Apologies, Boss,” Stegson said. “I’ll see you in the cages.”
Parveet smirked. “Damn right you will.”
All eyes focused on the view shield and the growing planet that was filling the display. An orange glow began to fill the bottom of the image then streaks of yellow and red. In seconds, it was nearly impossible to see anything other than flames.
***
“Here they come!” Gore yelled as he started firing. “You empty your damn rifles then you empty another one! We do not stop firing until we are dead!”
“Nice rally cry!” Roar shouted over the comms.
“I spent all night writing it!” Gore shouted back.
The rows of soldiers in front of his mech were giving the xenos at the fence everything they had. When rifles powered down, new ones were handed to them by support crew. And even that support crew was joining the fight, lobbing concussion and plasma grenades as far and fast as they could.
Xenos were dropping, but more replaced those that went down. The numbers seemed exponential and the fence was showing weakness fast. A cry went up for a mechanic then cries went up for medics. Chaos was close to taking over the LZ.
“Hey, uh, I think we need to get down,” Hawker announced over the general comms.
“Not the time, Hawker!” Morisaki yelled back over the comms.
“No, this is exactly the time,” Hawker said, her voice surprisingly calm considering the xenos were seconds from breaching everything and wiping out the LZ. “Yeah. This is the time. That meteor is aimed right at us and I don’t think it’s a hunk of space rock.”
“Excuse me?” Morisaki snapped.
“I’m scanning the shit out of the thing and it’s tech,” Hawker said. “In fact, it’s our tech. That’s a goddamn probe! Get down! Now!”
***
“Probe impact in three, two one!” Wan called then activated comms. “LZ! This is the Jethro! Can you read me?”
No answer, only an incredible amount of static.
“LZ! This the Jethro! Can you read me?”
“What the holy shit was that, Wan?” Morisaki’s faint voice replied. “You trying to get us all killed? That goddamned probe nearly took out two medical tents! If it wasn’t for a mech catching the damned thing, we would have had one serious crater–!”
“Captain, this is Parveet!” Parveet yelled. “Shut up and listen! We are dropping the Dorso into that xeno army! You have less than three minutes before impact! I want you and yours to hunker down wherever the hell you can right this goddamn second! Dig in! Do whatever you have to do because there will be a mess!”
No reply.
“Captain?” Parveet snapped.
“I heard you,” Morisaki replied. “No time to chat now, Boss. Gotta bend over and kiss my ass goodbye. We’ll talk to you on the other side.”
Stegson chuckled. “Told ya.”
“Dorso away!” Axson said as his hands began flying over the controls to initiate the Jethro’s full engine capacity so they didn’t follow the wrecked ship to the surface. “Hang the hell on!”
5.
Gore checked his systems before unwrapping himself from the circle of mechs.
“I’d rather not do that again,” he said as he shut down several alarms that were barking warnings at him as he straightened up and turned around to survey the area.
“I don’t know,” Wall said. “That was a goddamn rush, if you ask me.”
“No one asked you, Wall,” Roar said.
“You folks good?” Giga asked the huddled mass of soldiers and support personnel that were crammed into the center of the protective mech circle.
Several men and women glanc
ed up at the mech with dazed looks. The majority, though, simply flipped Giga off and started to stumble and stagger away to get back to work.
“Morisaki?” Gore called over the comms. “You still breathing?”
“I’m still breathing,” Morisaki replied.
The rear ramp of one of the drop ships lowered and Morisaki came stumbling out. He put a hand on the hull, steadied himself, then turned to look out at the landscape.
“Hot damn,” he said. “That sure made a mess.”
All eyes turned to look in the direction he was staring, a direction Gore was already facing.
“That’s one way of putting it,” Gore said.
“Son of a butch,” Giga muttered.
“Goddammit, Giga,” Gore said as he walked his mech towards the fence line.
A fence line that was severely damaged.
More drop ships opened behind him, but Gore ignored the multitude of voices calling back and forth on the general comms channel and studied what had been a xeno army.
For as far as he could see, there were bodies. A carpet of bodies. A carpet of bodies with a massive swath of destruction down the middle. The remains of the Dorso stuck up and out of the ground like a toppled monument. Flames and sparks lit up the structure, illuminating the wreckage in the early morning light as if it was some art installation.
In fact, Gore couldn’t help but smile at the beauty of the immensity of what had happened. He crossed his heart and kissed the tips of his fingers, something he hadn’t done since he was a little kid at his grandmother’s house.
“We should be dead,” he whispered.
“LZ? LZ, come in!” Wan’s staticky voice crackled over the comms. “Come on, people! Tell us you all are still alive!”
Gore smiled and turned back to face the LZ. They were still alive. There were a lot of wounded to deal with, the LZ did not survive the plan without problems, but overall, Gore thought it looked a hell of a lot better than if the xenos had been able to overwhelm them.
“Jethro, we are still alive,” Morisaki’s voice replied over the comms. “Give us a few and I’ll have a full sitrep. I think your plan worked.”
“Not so sure,” Giga said as she walked her mech up to Gore’s. “Turn around, man.”
Gore didn’t want to, but he knew he didn’t have a choice. He turned his mech back to face the landscape and saw what worried Giga.
“Hawker? You good?” Gore called.
“Define good,” Hawker growled.
“Can you get a team together to start repairing the fence ASAP?” Gore asked. “That is the definition of good I’m talking about.”
“Son of a butch,” she replied.
Gore rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything.
“I can get a team together,” Hawker said. “How much time do we have?”
“None,” Giga answered for Gore.
Out in the destruction, thousands of xeno bodies were shaking and twitching. Hundreds were getting up, their tentacles searching the ground, checking their brethren, finding weapons.
“Mechs,” Gore called. “On me. Now. We’re going in.”
“Whoa! What?” Giga asked. “Gore, you can’t be serious.”
“I am,” Gore said. “We give Hawker time to repair the fence so Morisaki has time to collapse this LZ and pull everyone out. The Jethro can’t drop the MPT until all personnel are gone anyway. Might as well make the best use of our time.”
He pulled his KYAG from his back and checked the power readings.
“Mine’s working,” he said. “Pilots?”
“Working,” Wall replied.
“Working,” Roar replied.
“Working,” Giga said, stepping up to stand shoulder to shoulder with Gore. “Your call.”
“Mechs? Let’s clean up this mess!” Gore shouted.
“Jesus Christ, Gore! That was awful!” Giga said as the mechs ran out of the LZ and into the shit.
***
“What the shit was that?” Shock asked as a huge cloud of dirt and dust exploded across the horizon. “Did you see that?”
“I’m in the same mech as you, Shock,” Chomps said. “Yes, I saw it.”
“I didn’t know if you were awake or not,” Shock replied.
“I’m driving, dumbass,” Chomps snapped.
“Oh, right, sorry,” Shock said. “I’m so damned tired.”
“Me too,” Chomps said.
They were both quiet for a minute as the mech walked across the wide open meadow that bordered the huge forest. They’d left the trees behind thirty minutes earlier and neither of them were too happy about how exposed they were.
“We going to go take a look?” Shock asked.
“Why would we do that?”
“It’s in the direction we’re going anyway. Might as well.”
“Fine, we’ll take a look,” Chomps said. “Only because we already are.”
“I’m so tired,” Shock said.
“Please stop saying that,” Chomps grumbled. “Every time you say how tired you are, it reminds me of how tired I am. Not productive, Shock.”
“Sorry.”
They kept walking, the dust cloud rising higher in the air, a slight breeze pushing it across the horizon.
***
“Those three there!” Gore yelled as he pointed with one hand at a group of xenos moving quickly towards Wall. “Watch them!”
“On it!” Wall yelled and turned to face the oncoming attack.
Gore fired point blank into the maw of a huge xeno, popping it like a tar-filled zit, then swung his KYAG around and used the butt to bludgeon another even larger xeno to death before swinging the KYAG back to point and fire at two smaller xenos that were leaping through the air right for him.
He hit one xeno, but the other got past his weapons fire and collided with his cockpit. Not a problem. The mechs had figured out to how to deal with that. Gore brought his KYAG around the back of the xeno and gripped hit with both hands then pulled it towards him, slamming it against the xeno, crushing the alien into the cockpit’s hatch. He shook like a dog to clear the black gunk from the hatch then dropped to a knee to provide covering fire for Giga as she sprinted to engage a cluster of small xenos that were trying to get their carbines up and firing.
Giga dove, firing as she flew through the air, and sliced two of the xenos in half before tucking her shoulder and rolling up into a crouch. Two of the xenos opened fire on her, the explosive rounds from the carbines shaking her mech, but she didn’t give ground. Her KYAG obliterated one of the xenos and wounded the other, knocking the carbine from its grip.
She came up out of the crouch as three xenos leapt for her, swinging her KYAG like a bat. She caught all three xenos across their bodies, sending them flying back into the cluster and knocking more to the ground. But her KYAG came loose from her grip as a massive amount of thick, xeno gunk coated her hands and arms.
“Got ya!” Roar yelled as she systematically put direct hits into each and every one of the xenos that were about to regroup and take on Giga. “Get your gun and keep going!”
“Thanks!” Giga shouted as she slammed a fist down into a wriggling xeno, crushing it into the ground.
She grabbed her gunk-coated KYAG and double checked it before bringing it up to blast four xenos rushing at her. They were torn apart in less than a second. Giga stomped over their bodies and took aim at a new cluster that was hunting through the muck and dirt for usable weapons.
Two xenos went flying over her and she ducked low, checking her rear vid display to see Wall picking up two more and throwing those before sprinting to her location, his KYAG firing the entire time, ripping the cluster of xenos to pieces before Giga’s eyes.
“Just gotta steal all the fun, huh?” Giga laughed.
“You weren’t sharing,” Wall said.
“Hawker?” Gore called, joining Wall and Giga. “Where are you with the fence?”
“Getting close,” Hawker said.
“Good,” Gore said, h
is KYAG targeted on a small wave of xenos that were slowly picking themselves up and coming straight for the mechs. “Any chance that close could be now?”
“Any chance you can shut your mech mouth and let us work?” Hawker snapped. “You want a fence up and working or do you want a fence up and working that will stay working?”
“Yes,” Gore replied.
“Bite me, Gore,” Hawker replied and the comms went dead.
“She so hung up on you,” Giga said.
“I’m used to it,” Gore replied.
The mechs formed a line, took aim, and fired continuously at the wave of xenos.
***
“Rots! Tell me you have those poles strung together by now!” Hawker shouted over the comms.
Rots finished twisting two fiberoptic cables together, something that every student mechanic was taught never to do, but students weren’t ever facing obliteration by an alien race. She shoved the cables into a pole and slammed the panel shut, activating the device as soon as she had it steady in the ground. It whirred to life and a long stretch of fence became active once more.
“Got it!” Rots announced, pumping a fist into the air.
She sprinted down the line to a couple of mechanics that were struggling with a generator connection. Rots whistled and two crawlers scurried over to her.
“Hold that steady so they can complete the connection,” Rots ordered then faced the mechanics. “Tell them to help with whatever you need. They’ll back you up.”
Rots sprinted down the fence line to the next group of mechanics that were hurriedly working on a pole that wouldn’t stop spitting sparks. The mechanics watched her go then looked at the crawlers.
“Who the hell put that rookie in charge?” one asked.
“Who cares,” the other replied, nodding at the crawlers that were keeping the generator steady. “She built those things, so I ain’t complaining.”
