A Flicker in the Ashes

The Bridge Burners: The Planetside Legacy
The Amerish Zerg, Part 2: A Flicker in the Ashes

“Good speech I thought,” Tomskiii commented to Grizzly1, “very rousing.”
“Indeed, I wonder what the actual counter strike is going to entail,” Grizzly mused.
The greatest single assembly of the Vanu Sovereignty had just taken place since the beginning of the War of Purity, drums had rolled and fanfares blared as the Prince Regent and his Triumvirate of Generals took to the stage erected on the steps of the HART terminal. They spoke honestly and with passion about how this reprisal was not going to be some simpleminded act of vengeance, how it was not going to be a diversion from the greater good the Vanu ethos envisioned. No, this was no mere act of revenge, they were going to strike at the heart of a brutal and ignorant foe that sought only to twist the powers of Auraxis to their own base needs.
The crowd of Vanu enlisted now separated to go their separate ways, each heading back to their respective outfits, either directly to the local villas or through the personnel warp columns. The assembly at the Northwest launch base had proved to be a roaring success for the CR5s. It had to have been a success for the loss of an entire continent in a matter of hours was an unprecedented event in the history of the War of Purity. If that sort of thing had been allowed to dwell in the minds of the Vanu it could cause irreparable damage to the Sovereignty morale. It was for that reason alone that the counter strike must succeed, no matter the cost, the loss of Amerish meant the end of the Sovereignty.
The threat was greater than any of them had imagined for at that very moment scientists of the New Conglomerate were trawling through the Bridge Burner’s computer core in Ikanam. The self-destruct charges had failed to blow when the hack went through, and now the NC had access to all the accrued data of one of the most research-intensive outfits in the Auraxis sphere. They had everything from the EWD labs ran by Latex, all the modifications HoaX had developed within the VS Melded Technologies Division in the sub levels of Ikanam. They had MrSubliminal’s notes on recommended improvements to the Phantasm stealth fighter, though thankfully not the craft itself, those files were secure in the VS mainframe at Sanc, and most seriously of all they had the complete archives of Shrikeh’s porn. That still brought a tear to Vastian’s eye, he saw it as a much under appreciated art form. As yet the Conglomerate had no luck in finding any way to activate the warp gate that would take them to the VS Sanctuary to deliver the killer blow. What they did find were Vastian’s mediocre music library and his entire collection of schematics on reverse engineered Ancient Tech.
*****
In the Towers of Artistic License, the great Vanu Sovereignty command centre, the Council of War had convened in the darkened auditorium 3 stories beneath the surface complex. The Prince Regent sat at the centre table with his triumvirate- Generals Costas Enrico, Alex Kimber, and Staceh Bishop; assembled in the auditorium were the rest of the CR5s and numerous ranking military officers and scientists.
“Your Highness,” Staceh tapped a couple of buttons at his console, “several of my men have been working alongside members of the Apothricon Technopolis, and we believe that we may have an undetectable point of entry to Amerish.”
Metal doors to the antechambers behind the auditorium slid silently open to reveal HoaX, Latex, Vastian and Deuldiebob all looking mightily impressive in their purple and teal full dress uniform. They entered the room and took their places around the presentation table facing the Regent and the triumvirate, and after a few moments organising themselves Vastian took to the floor.
“My lord, I am Lieutenant Vastian Gainsborough of the 4th Black Guard and Chief of Ancient Tech Studies at the Apothricon Technopolis. Major HoaX, Head of the 4th Black Guard Sabres and Chief of the VS Melded Technologies Division, and Major Latex, 4th Black Guard Electronics Warfare Division Head, you already know.
“Indeed,” the Regent nodded in recognition, “we owe much to major Latex for the Pulsar.”
Thank God he didn’t mention the Beamer Latex thought as she bowed a thank you to the Prince.
“And finally I present Major Deuldiebob, Head of the 4th Black Guard Outriders unit.
“And the finest Magrunner in the Auraxis sphere,” the Prince smiled, “your legend behind the controls of a tank precedes you, Major.
“So tell me, what has the Apothricon come up with?”
Vastian activated a holo display that detailed the present state of the Auraxian stage, the Auraxis Sphere as it was commonly referred, “Since the Bending event the Auraxian makeup has been in constant flux. Although we are no longer one world the ancient warp energies still behave as if Auraxis was still whole, as if it was still one planet and not many. We have found evidence that the events of recent are part of a regular cycle of capacitance-”
“I’m sorry,” the Regent held his hand to indicate the Lieutenant should pause, “capacitance?”
“Yes, lord. From what we have gathered so far it would seem that Auraxis is merely one part of a giant galactic machine.” Vastian changed the image to the familiar view of Auraxis as it once was, “In what we have called the ‘Planetside State’ Auraxis was acting as a giant capacitor, absorbing localised warp energies released from an unknown quantum anomaly, the same anomaly which bent space-time to create the Auraxian wormhole.”
The image adjusted to show Auraxis warp and split apart, the worldlets twisting to become minor planets themselves and fading out of existence, the map zoomed out to show the Milky Way in it’s entirety with flashing bubbles containing question marks appearing at random points across it’s plane.
“Once Auraxis reached capacitance the world went into flux and the Bending event occurred, and suddenly Sphere was at seemingly random points across the galaxy. Readings taken from Sanctuary, Amerish and Searhus have indicated a steady decrease in warp energies inconsistent with human consumption, meaning that these energies are bleeding away somewhere.”
“But what makes you believe that this is part of a regular cycle?”
Vastian changed the image to display the interior layout of the Supai core cavern, a large crystalline formation glowed prominently in it’s centre.
“Information gleamed from the Core Computer in Supai details what we believe to be a functional galactic engine, for what purpose we don’t yet know, but it seems that Auraxis is the primary power source for this engine.”
A murmur went around the room, somewhere at the back a voice called out, “When will the next Bending occur? Will the wormhole be open?”
Vastian paused for a second, and after taking a deep breath spoke slowly, “Auraxis will return to a Planetside state within the year, we believe that when it does the sudden shift in warp energies will create a massive regional quantum flux. The wormhole will reopen.”
That was what everyone on Auraxis dreaded, if the wormhole was opened there was nothing to stop the Terran Republic from sending a fleet to bombard them all to dust.
Staceh took a deep breath, “Ok Vast, we’ll worry about that bridge when we burn it, for now it seems that time is off the essence. What about Amerish?”
“Yes,” Vastian blushed slightly and changed the image back to a Planetside Auraxis, “sorry. Umm. Ok, so we’ve found evidence that the Bending was part of a regular cycle of capacitance, and as such will eventually return to its Planetside State. In order for this to happen the continents have to know where they all are in relation to one another. We have found a series of Superstring-like coils of warp energy on each of our held continents, and we have been able to identify which string links to each continent.”
“Meaning…?”
“Meaning that thanks to technology developed by Major HoaX at Melded Technologies and Major Latex in the EWD labs we can now open a temporary warp to Amerish.”
Now that caused a stir in the room. HoaX and Latex couldn’t have been grinning wider had they put slits at the sides of their mouths.
“Essentially we have constructed a gateway that will enable us to shift certain materiel undetected to an exit vector just off the coast of Amerish,” HoaX stood, and as he moved beside Vastian he changed the rotating globe of Auraxis to an image of a vast circular gateway. “The device, which we have labelled the One-Shot, needs to be operated with exactly 6.79827 metres submerged so that it will maintain the water level on Amerish and Sanctuary. Once in position superconductive farmium tritide wire will run at a flux roughly equivalent to the total annual electromagnetic output of 3 neutron stars for approximately 71 seconds.”
General Kimber shifted in his chair, “And what happens after 71 seconds?”
“The farmium tritide will become energised to the point that it will consume itself and the device, and the gateway will collapse. Hence One-Shot.”
Deuldiebob stood and with a flick of a switch the holo once again changed, this time to a rotating overview of Amerish.
“Your Highness, ladies and gentlemen,” Bob began, “timing is off the essence in this mission. The Bridge Burner Sabre division will enter Amerish from the warp gate Northeast of Tumas, from there they will proceed to do some ground work in preparation for the main assault, which will be arriving 3 minutes later at this point 4 kilometres due east of the Azeban dropship centre.”
The image zoomed in on the eastern side of Amerish, a glowing purple dot out to sea indicated the Vanu force. An arrow began a low sweep towards the continent, “Our primary target is this base, Mekala, a tech plant and the most easily defensible position on Amerish. What we have is an island with accesses only via a bridge to the north, and one to the south, with high mountains in a horseshoe around the south of the base and a wide plain to the north.
“Our force will separate, those going to the north will begin an immediate assault on the base. Those with the southern bound force will sweep under the island and claim the lagoon, we expect the NC to have a strong contingent at Verica to make sure that the hack goes through. Our main problem is that we can’t go over the land until this,” the image zoomed in to the north of the island and a red grid flashed over its surface, “is cleared. Here folks we have a minefield the Bridge Burners would be proud off, seems that the enemy are catching on.”
“This is going to be a difficult assault with most of our troops stuck in galaxies,” Enrico mused.
“Actually,” Latex now stood, “we can’t take galaxies, or any other aircraft, their power cores couldn’t withstand the gravametric forces of the warp. You see this isn’t like a normal warp, the gateway we open will reduce everything to quantum filaments, which through a tremendous surge of energy will be torn through the very fabric of space-time. There’s only one vehicle in our arsenal capable of traversing the One-Shot.”
“Which is?” the triumvirate and the Regent asked in unison.
Deuldiebob raised his eyebrows and grinned.
*****
Outside the command centre Latex and Vastian waited for Staceh. They’d already said good luck to HoaX who had left to organise the Sabre’s part in the operation. The mission was to be very precise and would require the participation of some of the most famous names in the Vanu Sovereignty, as well as the Bridge Burners air division.
“How’s your head?” Latex asked as Vastian rubbed his temples.
He took a deep breath, “Not good.”
Since the battle at Ikanam Vastian had been plagued by throbbing headaches that came in waves every couple of hours, the result of an issue arising with respawn.
Nobody could explain how a person retained their full memories when they respawned, in theory you should only remember everything up until the last time you preserved your matrix. But this isn’t the case, somehow your mind seemed to seek out your body through the ether, and you respawned whole and as a result of this some soldiers have began to experience pain, or the memory of pain, from wounds that they no longer have.
“I have an aspirin in my inventory,” Latex offered, going through a medkit, “I think.”
“You’re an angel,” Vast said as he popped the pills the Major offered. It wasn’t just Vastian who was suffering from respawn memory, Staceh unconsciously scratched his back every so often and Bags had taken to wearing clothing that almost completely covered his neck.
There was a great fear that respawn memory had deeper psychological effects, especially in the troops who had seen the worst of the fighting, they feared that these soldiers would begin to exhibit negative behavioural changes far beyond the bounds of post traumatic stress disorder. There was no way to test this theory either, unless they could find some poor sap who didn’t mind being murdered a few hundred times, so they just had to watch the troops.
It was a beautiful day on Sanctuary. Under better circumstances the Sovereignty would probably be hosting the final of the Interoutfit Thresher Race around the continent, but unfortunately circumstances didn’t allow it. Bazon and MrSubliminal would have to wait another day to bring home the trophy.
Staceh and Enrico strode down the steps from the northern tower, deep in conversation and shielding their eyes from the sun, they made their way towards Latex and Vastian.
“Good presentation guys,” Enrico said with a nod to Staceh, “a well informed army is a far more effective fighting force.”
“Just a couple of things that we thought you should know,” Latex said as she produced a datapad and handed it to Vast, “first off, since the gateway isn’t part of the warp network it won’t be subject to pop-lock rules. You can send through as many troops as you can spare, in 71 seconds.”
“What’s the other thing?”
Vastian frowned at the datapad and handed it to Staceh. Their commander and Enrico shared a look after reading the information.
There were a few moments of silence, which were eventually broken by Staceh, “This information goes no further than the four of us, understood?”
“Understood,” Latex said, “we just thought that we should let you guys know.”
“What kind of effect will it have on our forces?”
“We just don’t know. There shouldn’t be any effect, we’ll be travelling a single string linked to Amerish, but we really don’t know enough about how the universe behaves at the quantum level. We’ll not really know what happens until we do it.”
*****
“That’s a lot of Magriders,” Shrikeh commented to Deuldiebob as they walked the rank of tanks 20 wide and 10 deep.
“This is the largest single armoured force ever launched by the Sovereignty,” Bob replied with a sense of pride. He ran his hand along the hull of the nearest magrider almost reverently, “Remarkable piece of technology. Did you know that after nearly 4000 years the Terran Republic has never been able to perfect antigravity, and yet here we are with simple, self-sustaining gravitic drives which we have total control over.”
Shrikeh knew well how Bob felt about magriders, and he had to agree. The mag may not have the punch of some of the other tanks in this war, but it was still the most stable and effective weapons platform on Auraxis.
In the midst of the tanks walked MrSubliminal, looking pretty uncomfortable in the infiltrator suit he was required to wear in order to pilot the Phantasm under stealth.
“I don’t know how the Sabres wear these all the time.”
“Still not liking the infiltrator suit, Subs?”
“Not really, it pinches around the crotch.”
It finally clicked with Shrikeh what was wrong with his outfit, “Subs, are you wearing underwear?”
“Is this a come on?”
“The ghost suits are skin tight for a reason,” Shrikeh laughed, “just think of it as taking the term ‘going commando’ to a literal level.”
The three started off towards a mixed group of Bridge Burners and CR5s assembled ahead of a line of Phantasm-Bs, the two-man variant of the Phantasm.
“There’s our airforce commander now.” HoaX smiled as Subs arrived, “We’re at T-Minus 5 to Op, you ready to blow some shit up?”
“I was born ready.”
“Good,” HoaX grinned somewhat maniacally, “Painted’s squad is away through the warp gate on wraiths already, they should be at the target by now.”
Staceh came over and shook each of their hands, “Guys, good luck.”
“To all of us,” Enrico replied, pulling on the hood of his ghost suit.
“Latex is getting ready to fire up the One-Shot, you guys best saddle up.”
The Bridge Burner pilots climbed into their Phantasms, each to be accompanied by one of the legends in the Sovereignty- Enrico, Mistikal, Thunderhawk, Wicky, HoaX and Risker.
“One-Shot charging,” Latex’s voice broke over the comms.
“Roger that,” Staceh responded, strapping on the helmet of his agile battle armour, “Ok Subs, that’s your cue.”
“Ghost Squadron, lets get airborne, remember your targets and don’t get spotted.” As the Phantasms took to the air Subs gave a thumbs up to Staceh, “See you on Amerish, boss.”
*****
The sea was fairly settled this morning, the only real disturbance a thrum of water washing about under the gravitic drives of 200 magriders. Ahead of them a great steel ring partly submerged rotated on end, drawing water into the sky like an old mill wheel. A steady hum filled the air, resonance caused by the superconductors in the heart of the device. The air within the ring seemed to ripple and pulse, a faint green glow turned the air to haze then suddenly massive streaks of light seemed to be dragged into the ring and a great bubble extended towards the magriders. The zenith of the bubble slowly imploded in on itself like a vortex and then the bubble was gone.
“Latex,” Vastian spoke to his gunner, “are you sure the One-Shot is working properly?”
“Yes,” came her response, “are you sure that your calculations are correct?”
“Yes.”
“Staceh,” Latex opened a channel, satisfied that they were ready, “the warp is open, we’re good to go.”
Staceh manoeuvred his magrider ahead of the others, “The clock is ticking guys, 67 seconds remaining. Don’t bunch up and remember that we don’t have any spawns on the other side, don’t bite off more than you can chew.”
And with that Staceh entered the warp.
For a brief second it seemed like the device had failed before suddenly the horizon stretched ahead of the magrider and snapped forward until he was travelling past electrons the size of planets, and deeper still into the subatomic oblivion. The universe seemed to take on a convoluted, almost fluid appearance, like a sea in the midst of a storm, and deeper he went still, through the energy pool and into a vast writhing twine. He could see reflections of himself stretching off into infinity like a hall of mirrors, all held to each other through the mess of threads that seemed to be growing from him. Staceh the marionette he thought to himself and the words boomed loud from his mind and echoed throughout infinity. Before him a bright spot shone, a blinding white-hot light that pierced his very being. He somehow resisted screaming at this intense pain which had come on so suddenly and then faded just as abruptly. The light had long receded behind the magrider and once again he was sailing the purple energy wave down the vast tube of the superstring. A tiny blip of existence began to form ahead as the mag was once again traversing the broiling sea with its gas-giant electron moons. Twinkling stars of neutrons and protons slowly faded and a cool blue wave of light washed softly over him, removing all physical memory of the searing pain.
And then the magrider was drifting softly towards the waypoint 4 kilometres off the coast of Amerish, a bubble behind releasing more mags into the cool, temperate air.
“Well, that fucking hurt,” Dekov cursed over the comms.
“What the hell was that, guys?” Aven was asking Latex and Vastian, and he didn’t sound particularly pleased.
“Well…” Vastian considered how to best answer that, “the string we rode, it kind of passed through a star.”
“A star?!”
Latex cleared up the details, “What you perceived as pain was little more than an accelerated resonance of the quantum energies of your data streams, which your mind translated to pain as it had no other way to interpret the sensation.”
“You could have told us!” Shrikeh felt a tirade coming on, “A little warning would have been nice, even a simple ‘Hey guys, you’re going to get a chance to work on your tan’ would have been better than nothing.”
The chatter on the TS channel was beginning to get quite hostile.
“They informed me and I ordered them to keep it to themselves,” Staceh said bluntly, “this mission is far too important to have the majority of our forces have second thoughts about the trip.” And that was the matter settled.
As the magriders cruised into their ranks there was a deep silence on the Bridge Burners comms channel, it prevailed for about 30 seconds before Dekov finally spoke, “Vast, Latex. Sorry guys.”
“Yeah, orders are orders,” Aven added.
Shrikeh said the first thing that came to mind, “I needed to work on my tan anyway.”
Latex just laughed, “Guys, there’s no need to apologise. We’ll be having a giggle at the cockpit cameras later anyway.”
“Just tell me one thing,” Dekov began, half seriously, “did HoaX know?”
“It was him discovered it,” Vastian laughed, “why do you think that he insisted on going with the air squad? The way HoaX reckoned it there were two possible outcomes: A, there’s no effect; B, we glow in the dark.”
“Remind me to put some plutonium in his soap when we get back,” Shrikeh added with a hint of mischief, “then we’ll see who glows in the dark.”
“That’s the last mag through,” Kimber’s voice filtered through the comms.
The warp bubble flickered in the air then gently die away.
“Split into your platoons,” Staceh ordered, “Vanu, go to war.”
*****
One hundred magriders cruised gently to the north of Mekala Island whilst the other half of the force cruised in a long arc to the south. Amerish rose steadily out of the sea, revealing more and more of the green hills and lush forests that the Vanu loved so.
The sky began to glow and the clouds steadily thinned until the first massive bolt of plasma hammered down on the continental capitol Verica, followed quickly with another blast smashing upon Kyoi to the south. The Orbital Strikes were coming in quick succession, hammering down on seemingly random bases, a ruse to keep the New Conglomerate second-guessing where the VS would attack. In all Verica, Kyoi, Azeban, Qumu, Heyoka, and Tumas felt the burn, the CR5s organising all from their hidden vantagepoints within the Bridge Burner phantasms. With Verica and Tumas hit the main body of the NC armour was just reduced to burnt-out scrap. A great wave of hot air washed out from the continent across the ocean rattling the magriders, but it soon passed into the cool beyond.
On the ground on Mekala Island PaintedTarget knelt by the Kyoi Bridge, the orbital strikes were his signal that the main force was now inbound. He signalled Mikey1 in the north, “Ok Mikey, its go time.” And he clicked the detonator in his hand.
The island loomed large ahead of Staceh who was currently watching the tactical hologram of Amerish that floated by his HUD, estimates placed NC armour now at 37% capability, the initial assault had went far better than anticipated. His train of thought was suddenly derailed when five explosions brought down the low-level bridge ahead of him, the northern barrier that protected the lagoon beyond Mekala.
“Guys,” Mikey’s voice cut across the comms, “you have serious incoming.”
Mikey watched as legions of Thunderer heavy APCs rolled out of Mekala and into the sea. They couldn’t have had such a force just hanging around the base… somebody must have tipped off the NC that there was a threat of an amphibious assault. At least with the bridges down there would be no Vanguards, and hopefully the BFRs would be a while.
“Staceh, its Mistikal,” it was a private comms transmission, no one else would hear this, “there was a major BFR force at Verica, the OS got them, but the smurfs were preparing something big. I think that we may have a traitor in our midst.”
“I think you’re right, we have a major force of Thunderers inbound. The NC wouldn’t have had a force of entirely amphibious vehicles just hanging around on the off-chance that we may strike, and strike at that particular base, unless they were expecting an attack from the sea.”
“At least we can rule out TBB. If it was one of our boys the NC would have been aware of the inbound Sabres.”
There was a WHUMP and a blast of water washed over Staceh’s mag, the thunderers were in range, “Bridge Burners, engage the enemy.”
Heavy shells launched from the gauss cannons slammed into the water as the magriders drifted apart, the railguns opening up as one, the slugs rippling the air as they tore into the NC armour. The sky began to darken as clouds rapidly built up, a sudden heavy rain lashed down upon the battle. The sky flashed with a bolt of sheet lightning and a heavy clap of thunder boomed around them.
“What the hell?” Staceh called over the comms, “This weather system wasn’t forecast!”
“The multiple orbital strikes have created an ionic imbalance in the atmosphere, “ Latex replied, putting a rail round straight into a thunderer’s driver.
“We’ve created a storm,” Vastian clarified, swinging his mag around to face an incoming wave, the sea had turned a dark grey, the waves became rougher and the water churned beneath them.
The mags were scattered by the chop of the sea, but since they hovered 3 feet above the sea they were able to hold their own, the thunderers on the other hand had a much more difficult time, yet still they fought on. Gauss cannons boomed as they sent shell after shell bouncing off the VS armour, gradually weakening their shields. The mags had the advantage of being able to shoot through the smaller waves, dealing much more damage as the firefight raged.
Staceh rode the crest of a large wave in time to see an enormous bolt of purple lightning slam into the minefield outside Mekala sending sparks sailing into the dark sky, mines erupted around the impact site clearing a good portion of the field away.
“Hey Staceh,” Dekov called as he rode his mag over the top of a thunderer, crushing its cab as the gravitic drives forced the vehicle under the water, “do you remember the last time you saw purple lightning?”
“Itan Bridge, I’ll never forget that.”
“Yeah,” Aven cut in, “didn’t you trash your mag there…”
Shrikeh listened to the conversation with a growing interest as he swung his mag between two NC vehicles, the guys were talking about the time long ago when he had first met Staceh Bishop. The thunderers were thrown about by the waves and managed to take each other out whilst trying to hit Shrikeh, who was thinking about how he lay in the broken hull of his Reaver, a bolt driver round lodged in his shoulder. The Vanguard was bearing down on him when out of the blue this magrider charged in, cutting its forward elevators and dropping to the ground like a wedge. It rammed the vanguard and flipped it onto a slope down to the river. Cyssor seemed like so long ago.
“The lightning is a good portent,” Grizzly said, “you definitely have fortune on your side.”
The sea rolled and boiled as the mags cut through the waves, the Conglomerate forces were getting beaten back, many of the thunderers had already retreated to land, they just couldn’t be effective in the storm. Staceh received reports from the southern force, they’d encountered only light resistance, the mountains to the south of the island made it hard for the NC to send armour against them. Conglomerate presence in the lagoon was light, and they’d met the first of TBB phantasms heading for Mekala. A few enemy mossies had tried to pass over, but the Vanu rail guns made short work of them.
Deano swung his mag in a tight arc around a thunderer as Weddup introduced it to the concept of magnetically accelerated projectiles.
“That’s it,” Staceh called, his voice barely audible over the wind and rolling thunder, “the coastline is ours. Get ready to break to squads.”
“Roger that,” Deano replied, wheeling his mag around, “Vast, Spar, Chutney, Damius, follow me in, we’re going to scythe them.”
The magriders moved in a straight line towards the smooth sandy beaches of the north, riding the crests of waves that only seemed to be getting worse. Within feet of the shore the mags turned south and followed the coastline, all the while their gunners fired at the NC armour spread in a disorganised fashion along the beaches. Deano checked his tactical hologram to see the second wave of mags move into a scythe pattern, he also saw the air squadron approach.
The phantasms shot over the island in a wide formation, the CR5s bailing out at strategic points. The mags along the coast opened fire on the phalanx turrets on Mekala’s walls, frightening the NC snipers who were taking up position.
“Here it comes,” MrSubliminal cheered over the comms.
HoaX, the first of the CR5s to bail hit the ground sending a wave of destruction in all directions as his EMP blast took out the nearby CE. Mistikal landed in a crouch and immediately had his Beamer in hand, the blue wash of his EMP clearing another portion of the minefield. He engaged his cloaking gear and slipped off towards Mekala, watching as the rest of the CR5s dropped to the surface.
“That’s it, the minefield is clear,” Staceh spun his mag to face Amerish, “push on Mekala now. Remember your assignments.”
“Staceh, its Ehlana,” one of the Pandion Knights who were leading the strike force in the lagoon, “we’ve just met a major airforce coming your way. Their air cav has been significantly reduced but several gals got through.”
The VS had anticipated enemy reinforcements being dispatched in the air, it was now a matter of who could gain the most ground in the short time before their arrival.
“Roger that, Ehlana. Hold the lagoon for as long as you can, we’re pushing on the primary target now.”
One hundred magriders bounced across the waves and tore up the beach at full speed sweeping aside what little resistance the NC had left.
“Will we make for the tower.”
“No,” Dekov replied, “there’s a flight of galaxies inbound, we can’t afford to get into a protracted tower siege. We have the advantage of force at the moment, stick to the primary.”
“Roger that.”
A group of lightning fast attack tanks sped out of Mekala opening fire on the magriders charging down the northern plain, a valiant if pointless effort sending 20 lightnings against 100 mags. The battle on the plain was swift and brutal. The lightnings did what they could to soften up the magrider armour, several even shared targets and managed to take out 3 mags, but the end was never in doubt. The shields came on at Mekala’s gateways, the Vanu would now be reduced to fighting on foot, and without any spawns the advantage was with the New Conglomerate once more.
The magriders circled the base taking out the remaining turrets and picking off targets of opportunity. They saw the galaxies pass overhead, too high for the mags to hit, they emptied their troop compartments over Mekala.
“I count 40 troops and 10 MAXes,” UUeddup reported.
“Verified,” Weddup replied.
A ‘tell’ flashed up on Staceh’s wrist comms bringing a sly grin to his face, “Thank you, Painted. Shrikeh, some music if you please.”
The sound of a guitar strumming a slow riff danced across the comms followed by the hollow thump of a drum as ‘Paint it Black’ began in earnest.
Vastian swung his mag around the northern gate, tapping the control sticks to the beat, and as he glanced round he saw the gate shield flicker and die, “Painted did it, the shields are down.”
“WOOOOHOOOOO!” cut across the music, and checking his radar Vastian saw Damius swing his mag into the courtyard, followed swiftly by Sparhawk. Soon the courtyard was something akin to a sea of purple and grey metal sweeping aside whatever armour the NC had felt to send against it. Overhead the storm was starting to break, it had spent its fury upon the ground around the base and now only a gentle rain fell, a cleansing rain that seemed to wash away the NC taint outside the base. Without warning Phoenix fire opened upon the mags, the guided missiles raining down hard against the armour as they circled the courtyard, a few MAXes got brave and began firing with renewed vigour.
Deuldiebob was still moving at top speed as he strafed his mag through the northern gateway taking out 3 snipers with his forward mounted PPA cannon, something heavy landed on the cockpit roof with a thud. Checking his dorsal camera he saw a MAX on the roof firing its scatter cannons at the cockpit hatch.
“Tomskiii, we’ve picked up a passenger. Introduce him to the dirt.”
“Roger,” Tom replied, swinging the rail cannon from the left to the right. There was a sudden grinding of metal followed by the sound of alarms going off in the gunnery compartment, “sorry Bob, he’s just shot the rail cannon actuators, I can do no more back here.”
That wasn’t the news Bob wanted to hear, especially since the fire had resumed against the cockpit hatch. Circling the base an idea suddenly came to mind, “Tom, get ready to bail on my orders, we’re going to take two birds with one stone.”
Tomskiii was pressed back in his seat by the sudden burst of acceleration, but all he could really see out of his viewport was the MAX, now leaning forward to grip the mag, and the base looming large ahead of them.
“Oh he isn’t!”
There was a jolt and a screech of metal as the magrider burst through the heavy outer doors of the tech plant’s internal vehicle terminal, ripping the MAX and the rail cannon from the tank.
“TOMSKIII BAIL!”
Bob jumped from the mag and Tom tumbled down the ramp after him. There isn’t a word to describe the noise made when the magrider smashed through the doors at the bottom of the bay. A wayward shard must have pierced one of the gravitic motivators for the doors were suddenly ripped from the walls and began to warp and meld with the remains of the tank. The wreckage came to rest on the construction bay and the terminal auto systems began the process of deconstruction.
Vastian and Latex half ran, half slid down the ramp to Deuldiebob and Tomskiii, spare pulsar assault rifles in their hands.
“You guys ok?” Latex asked as she threw her spare pulsar to Bob.
“Yeah,” he glanced back at the crumpled MAX and smiled, “he fell for the oldest trick in the book.”
“Sabres and Command, this is Vastian. The vehicle bay is open, we’re ready.”
Vast tossed his spare pulsar to Tom and patted Bob on the shoulder, “Its fun time.”
Damius, Aven, Shrikeh, Sparhawk and Maccaria slid down the ramp to the four.
“Ready boys, and girl?” Shrikeh raised his pulsar, “Lets rock.”
The squad jumped the deconstructing sections of door and met a hail of gauss fire from the upper level, slugs whistled through the air around them.
“These guys must be all greenhorns,” Damius sneered, “they can’t shoot for shit.”
Sparhawk picked off 3 of the NC, “They got you man.”
“What?!” Damius realised he’d taken a round in the shoulder, “Pfft, just a flesh wound.”
They pushed their way up the steps until they reached the main terminal, by now more Vanu were on foot and joining the fight.
Vastian drew his REK and spun to the console, “Cover me.”
The REK beeped and whirred as it fought with the NC algorithms implanted within the network, Vastian worked furiously at the terminal bringing down low level security grids one at a time.
“Vast, how are we going?” Aven shouted over the roar of pulsar fire, covering Shrikeh as he took control of the bay’s upper level.
The terminal suddenly beeped a warning that its security grids had failed, “That’s it,” he began entering codes into the console, “go-go-go.”
The first AMS rose out of the NTU bay, Enrico jumped into its cab and gunned the engine, rocketing up the ramp and sliding out the northern gate. The next AMS arrived to be filled by AdamLC.
The Conglomerate tried to make another push on the bay, but the sheer number of Vanu forces inhibited any positive action.
“Come on, keep those AMSes rolling,” Vastian shouted over the tumult, “I don’t know how long I can keep this thing open.”
A squad of NC REXOs emerged from a ventilation duct in the bay’s lower level and opened fire on the terminal. Vast ducked for cover as the gauss rounds ricocheted around him, “Guys! Lower level.”
Before he finished the call he saw Damius swinging through the air, suspended from a cable held by Maccaria on the gantry above.
“Better than any bomb,” Mac shouted as Damius dropped to the floor, cutting down 3 soldiers with the first draw of his sword. Two of the NC backed away, they’d seen how devastating gun kata could be at the walls of Ikanam and they weren’t going anywhere near the crazed VS who was cutting down their squad mates. They dropped to their knees and trained their rifles on Damius, then collapsed in an unflattering mess as their throats spilled open.
“Painted, Mikey.” Aven called from the stairwell as the Sabres materialised, “Hail.”
“Hail,” they returned as another AMS popped up.
“Good to see you guys,” Vastian waved from the terminal.
“Hi, Vast,” Painted shouted as he hopped into the AMS.
There was a pop and suddenly Vastian was showered in sparks, “Shit!” The terminal was completely black, dead, “Well, that’s it guys, the terminal overloaded.”
“How many AMSes did we get?” Shrikeh called from his position on the uppermost level.
“Fourteen,” Vastian called as he returned his REK to its holster and drew his pulsar, “more than enough.”
“Staceh,” Shrikeh opened his comms channel, “we’ve got fourteen AMSes. Repeat, fourteen AMSes are active and deployed in the field.”
A Continental message went out over the all the Vanu TS frequencies, “Vanu, we now have spawn points. Hold nothing back, push on the CC now.”
*****
Bullets whistled through the air as the vehicle bay contingent pushed on the spawns, armour poured out of the room only to be pressed back, battered and broken.
Deano’s force had captured the lobby and was handing out lashers by the dozen to every squad of VS still in their driving gear. Bagdh Dearg led a squad of corpsmen to the lower levels to treat the wounded pushing on the spawn room.
Dekov, Aven, Mashed and Deano rallied their squads in the lobby.
“Ok guys,” Dekov pulled up a 3d holo of Mekala’s interior, “the CC is heavily defended, Sultan’s unit is pinned down here, outside the air terminal. Risk are pushing up the stairwell, but its slow going."
“Mikey tells me we have some 30 plus MAXes on the upper floor,” Deano informed the group, “all equipped for anti-infantry.”
“Shrikeh just checked in, the spawns are down and they’ve shorted the pain field,” Aven announced, “Sparhawk reports that the BBs have secured the lower levels, there’s no way the NC can blow the gen.”
“Vastian has checked in,” Mashed reported, “he reports amethyst lancer indigo squad in gear and requests assignment.”
The medical terminal behind them suddenly exploded, “And I’ve destroyed their medical terminals,” a voice sniggered, and MrSubliminal phased into view, not looking any more comfortable in his infiltrator suit.
Dekov paced for a second, then for another second, “Send Vast out to assist Sultan’s unit, They can pick up whoever is outside and push on getting in through the air terminal. The rest of us,” he smiled, “grab your big guns, we’re going up those stairs.”
*****
“HA! Zero chance against me!” An NC MAX stood on the steps pumping as much lead against the Sovereignty forces as possible. His taunt spurred a commotion in the rear of the Vanu stairwell contingent, a lancer waved high above the VS heads as someone forced their way through.
“Let me through, goddammit! MOVE!”
Imp finally forced his way to the front of the VS forces and levelled the lancer on the MAX, “Shoot my brother in the back you bastard!”
There was a hum followed by a sudden pulse as a beam of light cut through the MAX’s faceplate and struck the wall behind. The exoskeleton seemed to stagger for a moment before stumbling forward down the steps, bouncing and thrashing off the walls and stairs before finally coming to a rest at Imp’s feet. A small pool of blood began to form under its head.
“Jesus,” Risker said, coming up beside Imp, “remind me never to piss you off.”
Imp took a deep breath, considered TKing Risker for old time’s sake then thought better off it.
“Lets move, ubi concordia, ibi victoria!” Imp yelled as he charged up the stairs, followed closely by Risker and the entire stairwell force. They dived around MAXes and with a few close range lancer rounds put them to the ground. A REXO swung around the top corner, jackhammer shotgun at the ready, and Imp slammed the butt of his lancer into his face and shot him point blank. He kicked another soldier in the family jewels and pimp slapped him to the floor. Risker executed the last two REXOes guarding the CC.
“Hey, kid,” he called to Imp, “you’ve done tremendously, the CC’s yours.”
*****
The Bridge Burners ran screaming up the stairs, weapons ready for a great firefight, and they rounded the corner to see Risk forces guarding the control room.
Deano walked into the room and lowering his rifle he called out to the others, “Hey guys, you have to see this.”
The others walked into the room to see the main data trunk wide open with Imp perched on the control console, a leg dangling and his helmet lying on the ground.
“Did you guys ever see anyone look so smug?” Deano laughed.
The others shared the laugh, Imp just quipped, “What took you guys so long?”
Laughing Dekov contacted Staceh in the base’s main control centre, “Staceh, Mekala is ours.”
Staceh smiled to Enrico, “Roger that, Dekov. Get some CE laid to the plains in the north and the mountains to the south, then tell the guys to take five. We’ve got a foothold now, but the fight has only just begun.”