Book 2: Chapter 39: Skirmish

Book 2: Chapter 39: Skirmish

USD: Four days later

Location: Planet Dedia, Tifara Militia HQ

Elis leaned against the railing of the Militia HQs second-floor balcony. She had removed her MK4B helmet earlier to relax. The humid, earthy smell of the planet had contrasted heavily with the filtered and sterile air that the combat suit fed her. The night sky shimmered with a multitude of stars, and every so often, she could spot a shining streak across the sky.

The sound of the shuttles revving up their thrusters for takeoff echoed over the small town. The colonists had finally grown accustomed to the mostly automated flights being managed by Nameless, and a steady stream of civilians were being taxied to orbit every few hours.

There had only been one accident so far when a piece of micro debris had impacted a shuttle about to re-enter and a quick abort had saved the craft from destruction.

It had taken half a day for Namelesss construction bots to repair it. The delay had annoyed her, because she could feel the calm before the storm. Glancing over in the direction of the landing pads, the area was lit up by the orange flame of the shuttles thrusters. Elis watched as they rose into the air and then took off, following a gradual spiraling course upward into space.

The Rexxors had slowly been increasing their probing attacks against the settlement. Even a few of the larger ones that spit spikes had appeared, and several unlucky militiamen had ended up skewered and half melted in an ambush while on patrol around the outer walls.

Those walls were nothing compared to the massive bastions of the capital city, but they were still a good six to seven meters tall and four to five thick. The automated sentry guns that had been mounted had been quite helpful, as the targeting suites would sound the alarm so the guardsmen could take cover.

The Rexxor didnt seem to take as much notice of the automated defenses compared to the flesh and blood humans manning the walls. Booper had made several solo sorties around the perimeter without being targeted at all. Whether that was because he was not flesh and blood or it was just intimidating, she wasnt sure.

Eliss helmet suddenly lit up and Alexs voice came through.

Elis? This is Alex. Do you read me?

Elis sighed; it was the twentieth time Alex had called her. The other girl had called her almost every hour after they had been separated.

She really liked Alex. The other girls cheerful energy and excitement toward all things new to her was contagious, and Elis often enjoyed the different reactions shed have to different foods or other things. She was quite smart and often came up with solutions to many problems that happened on the Tears that Elis would never have figured out without studying an engineering manual for days.

Part of that was Namelesss support, but the girl was clever on her own.

That made it quite easy for Elis to often forget just how immature Alex could sometimes be. It was hard not to get pulled into something that Alex might not have thought through all the ramifications of.

Repeat. Elis, are you there?

The constant check-ins were annoying, but Elis recognized they were because Alex was afraid for her. It made sense, Elis was the only real friend Alex had ever had, and that had been true for over half the time Alex had been alive.

It was hard for her to reconcile that fact. Alex could be an adult one minute and then show off her giddy teenage side the next. All while only being several months old. Elis had never had a little sister before, but she could easily imagine Alex fitting that role.

Elis picked up her helmet and put it back on, the armor automatically sliding interlocking plates to secure it onto the suit while the facial haptics system activated.

Im here Alex. Whats up?

Elis, Im tracking thermal signatures moving toward Tifaras perimeter. Booper is already en route to the wall there, and Ive just alerted the militia. Looks like a wave of the smaller Rexxors. They are moving fast, ETA 5 minutes.

Elis straightened and turned toward the balconys staircase. Roger, can you transmit to me the location they are expected to hit?

The whine of a gas turbine spinning up caught Eliss attention. One of the few armored units the Militia had powered up and was moving in the attack's direction.

Alexs voice chimed again, Sending now. It should display on your helmets HUD.

Elis nodded to herself before answering. I got it. Going to catch a ride.

Hurrying down the stairs carefully so she didnt damage the building, Elis let loose once she hit ground level. The tank had already rolled down off the tarmac and onto a dirt path that led to the inner wall, but it wasnt moving flat out and she quickly caught up to it.

Just before crashing into it, she crouched and made a powerful leap, sending her catapulting through the air to land on top of the tanks turret with a resounding thump. She had to bite back a laugh as the inter-vehicle comms came to life.

What the hell was that?

Something just jumped on our turret!

Elis cut in before their panic caused any trouble. Relax boys. Were going to the same place, I believe.

Uhh

Master-Sergeant, is that you? What the fuck.

Elis smiled. Your friendly merc power armor suit, yeah. Just tagging along. Easier than walking all the way to the perimeter. Youre heading to the activity report I just got?

Yes Maam. Didnt, uh... know you could outrun a tank in that thing.

I can do a lot more than that, tanker. Elis flexed her suits arm servo and pulled herself into a more comfortable sitting position on top of the vehicle.

Wont get any complaints from us, Maam. Some of our friends been slagged by those spike throwers. Any help is appreciated.

A second voice chimed in on the inter-vehicle comm, Lets just hope we dont see anything like they are on the city line.

Elis nodded even though no one could see her.

It didnt take long for them to travel to the perimeter wall. The tank halted about a kilometer away from it, taking up position in a prepared depression.

Maam this is far as we go. Sorry we cant get you closer.

One was bleeding out from a shattered leg while the other two were attempting to give first aid. He was gripping his grenade launcher tightly enough to make her worry that hed accidentally blow them all up.

Elis reached into her stomach pouch and pulled out a first aid cylinder and slammed it into the mans thigh. The spurting blood ceased as the hemostatic agent took effect. He relaxed his grip on his weapon and his head lolled to the side as the painkillers kicked in.

Guess you guys dont have the good stuff.

One militiaman looked at her in shock, while the wounded man kept whispering a pained mantra, Holy Ertan, Holy Ertan, Holy Ertan, Holy Ertan.

Elis looked away, scanning the wall to their south. Booper had opened fire with both of its miniguns now and was sweeping two fiery lines of tracers across the crest of the nearest hill. All along the wall gunfire was erupting, but as Elis scanned the tactical map, she spotted a problem.

The Rexxors had chosen the section of the wall to assault for a reason. A hill provided cover until the last 50 meters, once they entered its shadow. Worse, she could see they were bunching up by the thousands there, holding position until they could swarm over them all at once.

She switched her Tacnet channel to the fire direction center to call in fire support, but the channel was overrun with panicked requests for help.

Fucking fubar. Nameless! Get me a direct line to that tank I hitched a ride on earlier.

[Affirmative: Commlink override confirmed.]

-fire mission? Over.

Elis glanced at her comm link readout to read their callsign. She was very glad to have twisted the Lieutenant Colonels wrist into giving her an operational callsign and company access to the Tacnet.

IDF Armor Apricot-Alpha this is Red-Star. Priority fire mission. Map 37N target grid 56-FA. My position: 5.651 -28.953, OT direction North, 5 degrees. Distance: 500 meters.

Master-Sergeant? The fuck, youre supposed to go through command FDC, not direct.

Nevermind that, your FDC is fubar, and we dont have five minutes for things to sort out. I have orbital eyes on target. They are massing and coming over that wall if we dont hit them now. Get a fucking map out if you need to.

There were a few seconds of silence.

Affirmative, Red-Star, wait one while we adjust position.

Elis watched as more and more red dots filled the area, a steady stream of them leaking past the massive grouping and getting splattered as they came into the walls line of sight.

Booper had ducked under the guard posts roof and behind the heavy wall to reload its heavy magazines. Elis wished she had ordered it to conserve ammunition, but the destructive power of the miniguns might have also contributed to the Rexxor holding back. That was giving them precious time to straighten out the militias disorganized fire support.

Red-Star, shot out. I say again, shot out.

Elis didnt need to look over her shoulder to see the shells trajectory on her orbital view tactical map. A helpful line drawn by Nameless confirmed it was on target. She waited until the single high explosive shell impacted with a massive cloud of debris flying up into the air.

Apricot-Alpha, this is Red-Star. Adjust distance -50, fire for effect.

Affirmative, firing for effect, over.

A few seconds later, the red dots surged.

The horrifying thought that the Rexxor could somehow sense the incoming projectiles bit at her, but there was no time to contemplate.

Booper, incoming.

Elis reached over the now unconscious, wounded soldier beside her and grabbed the grenade launcher that had been discarded, clicking her pulse rifle into a front sling holder for later.

An unhappy Brooop quickly had her attention and Elis walked over to the bot. It only took her a second to see the problem. One belt had gotten stuck in the gap between the chassis and the loading mechanism and the robots right-side gun couldnt reconnect the ammo feed.

A militiaman was already tugging on it in an attempt to try and straighten it out, to no effect.

Allow me.

The man ducked out of the way and Elis grabbed the belt and pulled, the servo in her armors right arm whining before the stuck belt freed itself. The gun spun, and she helped the belt straighten out as the line fed through the gun, several dozen unfired shells spitting out onto the ground.

It was just in time for a sudden barrage of artillery shells to punctuate the moment.

Show time. She slapped the robot and headed to the wall. As soon as Booper came out of the guard outposts cover, it let loose at the oncoming wave of snarling Rexxors.

And it was definitely a solid wave of the wild alien creatures, half of them scrambling on the backs of others in a mad rush to bite and slash at the militiamen on the walls.

Elis raised her newly gained grenade launcher. When no trajectory analysis lines appeared on her HUD she cursed, realizing it wasnt FedTech issue, so she took a best guess and fired it in what she hoped was a stepped manner across the waves front line.

Incendiary rounds from the LMGs lit up the scene, and Elis had to dial down the night vision in her helmet as the launcher clicked empty and she switched to her pulse rifle.

The entire wall for at least a kilometer in both directions was lit up as gunfire poured out at the incoming horde. Bullets pulverized flesh in wild abandon as the concentrated fire brought the aliens to a halt, Rexxors tripping and falling into the fallen bodies in front of them. Others were left crushed by their brethren pushing forward from behind.

Booper suddenly lit off its jetpack and landed on the Guard Posts roof, the change in fire angle allowing it to fire in the slowly deepening ditch of alien bodies and gore.

Several points along the wall exploded as the long-range spike weapons impacted, but they were not heavy enough to punch through the meters thick concrete. Although some flew over it and smashed heavily into buildings and other civilian structures almost a kilometer behind them.

Apricot-Alpha, this is Red-Star. Adjust distance -150, fire for effect.

Red-Star, be advised 300 meters is on the red line.

Affirmative, but youre going to be shooting on top of us if they get any closer. I say again, Adjust distance -150, fire for effect.