by Aer-ki Jyr
“If I have to use Essence to do it, I will. There are too many minions as it is. I do not want to draw more to us by conserving too much.”
“Nor do I,” Timnim said, flexing his longer, thin legs that had two knee joints that allowed him much longer strides than the others, save for Puar’s quadruped advantage.
“I think the Scionate will know what to do,” Keel’vo said in a hopeful manner. “If they can get us there, we only have to worry about the big one.”
“Let’s hope so,” Puar said as the dropship pilot put a countdown into their helmets. “This is it. No Caretakers to worry about. No Caretakers to protect us. We are free to act and free to die. We are the destiny makers now, and those Scionate are depending on us for our Essence. They are more helpless than us, so keep them alive if they get overwhelmed. They are not expendable.”
“We know,” Juuma echoed. “But it’s worth saying again. Those naval drones are too far away to help. It looks like the Scionate and the four of us are it. We can’t afford to lose anyone.”
“And they can’t afford to lose us,” Timnim noted. “I can see why we’re so badly needed now. I had thought this war would be naval only without any ground combat that mattered. I am glad I was wrong. I want to do some personal damage.”
“We are about to get plenty,” Keel’vo said as he walked to the rear of the ship, with Puar and the other two Varkemma following as their countdowns neared.
“Sorry fellas,” the pilot said into their helmets. “It’s getting heavy up here. I’m going to have to drop you off from the air or we’re going to draw too much attention to the LZ. You guys can handle a 100 meter drop, right?”
“Easily,” Puar answered for the group. “Will there be lateral motion?”
“How much can you handle?”
“Anything under 70 miles per hour is preferable, though we can handle more with forewarning.”
“I’ll get you under 70, but be careful. The ground is rocky and full of ravines. It’ll provide you cover once you’re down, but it makes landing a bitch.”
“We will manage,” Puar said, seeing the tactical map begin to outline those ravines as they neared them. Then as the countdown reached 15 seconds the ramp began to lower. It hit deployed position with 2 seconds to spare, and Puar started running so he left it the moment the countdown hit 0, with him falling sideways and using his armor’s emergency anti-grav to keep him from dropping too fast.
He used his telekinesis to create a crash bag of energy through which his body tore, slowing down rapidly before he hit the side of a ravine, but thankfully the pilot had them running the length of it rather than across. Puar rolled over twice, tearing through brush like a cannonball before he got his feet under him and skidded to a halt leaving 20 meters of slide marks behind him.
The others landed in their own way, all ahead of him, so Puar took off running on a planet’s gravity for the first time, breathing its native air and feeling very odd about it all. The Temples held a variety of landscapes, many actually, but this was an actual planet with its surface curving down, and to a Varkemma that was as alien as a world could get…
9
“We have aerial incoming,” one of the Scionate said as they ran in a group with the Varkemma inside the ring of 32 commandos as they cut a path through the ground minions that were trying to intercept them before they got to their target. “Our shields cannot hold up to sustained attack. You must eliminate them.”
“Keel’vo,” Puar said from his position near the front, but still behind four Scionate that were breaking trail. “They’re yours.”
“I see…them,” the tired biped said as he struggled to keep up with the group, having to draw on little bits of Essence to enhance his movement speed. Fortunately that didn’t pull any extra oxygen requirements, because he was breathing about as heavy as he could.
The battlemap was incomplete further to the east, because the Star Force ships providing the sensor telemetry were low to the west and could only scan so far around the curve of the planet. It was a problem unique to worlds beyond the Temples, where everything was visible to everyone. That meant the flying minions could get close to the attack group before they popped up on sensors if they stayed low to the ground, and this group of 26 had apparently done just that.
The skeets providing them air cover were engaged with, and keeping groups of several hundred each off the pack, but this group was going to get through even as two skeets broke off on a desperate run to try and intercept in time.
Keel’vo began charging up a Sha’mesh as he ran behind the others, pooling the Essence energy above his head as he altered it into the proper form for a Tia’vo, or what Star Force called a ‘Clinger.’ The Sha’mesh was invisible except to those with eyes to see Essence, and even without looking at it Puar could feel the charge building behind him and morph, then it shot out towards the winged minions streaking in and beginning to fire ahead of the Scionate’s path.
Their weaponry looked like little stones being zinged at them, but in truth they were concentrated energy packets and when the pale blue mini-lances hit the ground they exploded in puffs that shot back out the holes in the ground that they’d melted. A few hit overtop the pack, but two of the Scionate were wearing special armor that contained auxiliary shield generators carried on their backs like cargo, and those two were interlinked to provide a dome of protection over the entire group to supplement their weaker individual shields.
Puar could hear several strikes on the shield, each of which made a ‘twang’ as it hit and was negated, then the somewhat accurate firing on their moving, zigzagging position grew erratic with some of the shots going well in to the sky above them as Keel’vo’s attack hit the first flying minion and arced from one to another for a moment before exploding out like a plant growing vines around each one hit. The energy arcs bound the wings of the minions and put them into a stranglehold, with those affected falling out of the sky and rolling across the ground while the Essence bonds held.
Three were out of range for the Clinger to arc to them, but one of the skeets flew in and hovered over the moving group at it returned fire, protecting them with its shields and giving up its maneuvering advantage, which allowed the ground minions to fire on it as well, but it managed to drop one of the flying enemies out of the sky as the other two peppered it with withering shots, none of which did much damage but the continual stream added up quickly.
Keel’vo intervened before that could happen, targeting one of the minions as it flew overhead strafing the skeet. One moment it was there, the next it exploded into a shower of disintegrated smoke that the pack ran through and out of as the skeet downed the other minion and accelerated away from their position.
Puar could see on the battlemap that the other one was over the bound minions and shooting them before they could get back into the air, and that their skeet was going to assist now, meaning they should be clear of air attack for a while…but not ground. Most of the zigzagging the Scionate were doing was to avoid the thickest groups of ground minions, and when they couldn’t be avoided the Scionate were firing their armor’s mounted weapons ahead and to the sides while one or two of them would sprint forward into a thick group of them and take their attention away from the Varkemma.
He’d dive into them, clawing and shooting and busting up their formations enough for the other Scionate to pick open a hole as they rolled through, killing the few minions in the way and allowing the ‘diver’ to recover as he got to his feet and joined the rear of the pack. In this way the Scionate kept rotating through their formation and allowing their shields to regenerate somewhat before the next heavy engage…but they weren’t all escaping with shield loss only. Puar could see several scorch marks on some of their armor and he hated withholding his help, but he knew they might need it later on the way out more than now.
The Dumbo they were going after was now visible in the distance, but still miles away. The minions around it were a lot more dense, and there was g
oing to be no way to avoid them. They were going to have to plow straight through, but fortunately a lot of them were melee only. If they had all been ranged attackers this would have been more problematic, for there was a lot of elevated positions to fire from, but right now the various ravines were shielding them from a lot of damage in what could have been a kill zone if the minions had been different concentrations of ranged varieties.
That meant this was doable, and Puar kept focused on the road ahead while monitoring the position of the Dumbo. It wasn’t moving very fast to look at it, but it was so large each step covered a fair amount of distance. It was 0.8 miles long and nearly a half mile high, and pretty soon it would start firing on them if it could line up a shot, not caring if it hit its own minions in the process.
“How do we approach the Dumbo without drawing its fire?” Puar asked the Scionate.
“It won’t use its larger weapons on a group as small as this. But its point defense weapons will attack when we are beneath it and around its feet. You will have to destroy those first. Our weapons can do the job, but we will have to focus on the minions to keep them off you.”
“Consider it done,” Juuma said, volunteering for that task as a glob of acid from one of the minions hit the top of their group shield and rolled off it like rain hitting the roof of a building.
“Stay in one group,” the Scionate urged. “Splitting up makes us vulnerable on all sides. We have to shield each other’s flanks to make this work.”
“Have you…done this before?” Timnim asked.
“Not against a Dumbo, but we have escorted Varkemma on two assaults against Ultras. One was successful.”
“What happened in the other?” Puar asked, bounding over a rock that the Scionate were a little too small for and they had to split up to go around it.
“Too many minions. They are split up here by terrain, so we have a better…”
The Scionate cut off as a turn in the rocks lead to a group of minions dozens of rows deep. The pack leaders turned hard left, climbing the hill while both groups exchanged fire, most of which slipped underneath the overhead group shield. Puar took two hits to his personal shields and fired back with his armor’s Dre’mo’don cannons, one of which hit dead center in a minion and cored straight through its chest before blowing out the shoulder on the minion standing behind it.
They are weak, he thought as they climbed the rise and tried to go around the thick group, but they are numerous. This is what we were warned about.
The Scionate ahead of him slowed, and Puar wondered why as they turned right and ran along the edge of the rise but just shallow of being able to see over it. Then Puar realized the other Varkemma were having a harder time climbing than the Scionate were. Their little strides got so much shorter, and they were not able to leap up like the quadrupeds could. Fortunately the leaders were watching closely so as to keep the group together and the ring around them intact, otherwise gaps would have formed letting more shots through. As of now the Scionate were physically blocking most of them with their bodies and flank shields that were raised on one side and almost nonexistent on the inside of the formation.
But that formation was still loose, with many temporary gaps, meaning Puar was not safe as they bypassed the minions that were fast in their own right, but packed together too much to all move at speed. The Scionate ran into and rammed three stocky minions while another Scionate jumped into the face of a taller fourth and lightning emerged from all of their armor, disabling more than damaging the minions and using their bodies as an impromptu wall that allowed their pack to pass by without being flooded into.
Puar telekinetically pulled one of the Scionate off the disabled minions as live minions circled around behind them and tried to overwhelm the armored cat. The telekinetic pull was enough of a jerk to get him out ahead of the pursuit, and soon the entire pack was moving again with a large amount of enemies running behind them in pursuit.
And more were behind that. If they slowed down and fought this out they’d be overwhelmed. Only by constantly moving could they make this work, and Puar could see that these Scionate were very experienced in escort missions such as this. They moved as one, despite not having telepathic abilities, and he was confident they were going to get him and the others close enough to do their job…but how exactly were they going to do it?
Best attack suggestion on the Dumbo? he asked the other Varkemma telepathically as they continue to run/fight towards their target.
It has multiple hearts. I do not think we have enough Essence to disable them all simultaneously, and if we do not saturate it enough it will regenerate more. Their biology is heavily resilient, Jumma noted.
It has too much mass to destroy, Timnim added. We have to penetrate the armor and go inside. I can breach it, but Puar, you must do the tunneling.
Timnim and I will go inside. You two must keep the Scionate alive and running around the Dumbo’s feet, but do not get caught underneath or it will crush you when it falls.
“Passing air cover perimeter,” the Scionate informed, noting the range around the Dumbo that the skeets would not encroach on for fear of getting shot down by its inaccurate weapons that became more and more effective the closer one got. “We’re on our own until we pass back beyond that marker or until you kill the target.”
“There are a few aerial…units near,” another Scionate noted as they all scattered around a large falling boulder that was thrown at them by some of the stronger minions. “You will have to deal with those in a more permanent manner if they close on us.”
“I have it covered,” Keel’vo said. “Just get us to the target. We are withholding most of our kill power for it.”
“You will need it. Do not target the ears. They are a waste of time. We must get at the underside.”
Puar knew what he meant, for the Dumbo had garnered its name because the head of the heavy minion had two additional armor flaps that could be maneuvered around to double up protection just about everywhere on its body, even its rear arc, if it chose to pull them in close, but right now it had them half spread out like a ‘V’ and flatted out, providing a roof over many minions running alongside it. Some of which were special units designed for city assault or kamikaze attacks against the mechs defending far ahead of their current position.
“Do we go after secondary targets after the main is taken down?” Juuma asked.
“Only if we are very lucky,” the Scionate said. “Do not count on such luck. Getting out alive will be difficult even if you can take down the Dumbo. If you cannot, we will have to run to the far side and hope we find a break in their ranks to flee through.”
“We’re taking it down,” Puar said confidently. “If we have enough Essence left, we’ll clean up the area afterwards. Do not exhaust yourself unless absolutely necessary to take down the target and protect our pack. The secondary targets are worthless in comparison.”
“Varkemma, we will need assistance now,” another Scionate said from the front of the formation. “We cannot push through that.”
Puar looked ahead and saw a solid line of minions coming at them stretching for several miles between them and the Dumbo. The battlemap couldn’t show them all due to their low position on the ground until a skeet flew way up into the atmosphere behind them to give them a glimpse of what was there…and what Puar saw made his blood boil. There were so many targets to kill, and he wanted to kill them all, but they were pulling away from the Dumbo and creating an open area beneath it, meaning if they could break through this line they would have a clear path over the last few miles to the target.
The problem was, the wave of minions ahead of them was a half mile deep at the minimum.
“Move out of our firing path,” Puar said, with the Scionate ahead of him immediately pulling left and right as he and the other three Varkemma slowed their run and came up side by side with each other, each charging a Sha’mesh.
Mass takedowns were capable in a variety of ways, but the most efficie
nt was a Lian’no that struck at the hearts of the targets and required very little power compared to other death strikes. That meant it was also easy to guard against if you had the skills or technology, but these small minions had neither. They were weak and expendable, which Lian’no had been devised to exploit en mass.
Puar mentally coordinated with the others to not overlap targets too much, and each took a wedge of the formation ahead of them as they got pelted with concentrated firepower from the approaching minions, with some of the smallest and fastest ones breaking from the group and sprinting towards them.
When all four had fully charged their Sha’mesh and altered them into the appropriate attack matrix, they fired simultaneously…with nothing immediately happening.
“Reform and run as fast as possible,” Puar told the Scionate, who immediately sprinted ahead of them towards the closest minions…who soon started to trip and fall as lack of blood flood through their bodies began to cause them to black out and collapse here and there, but all were soon to come down ahead of them, though those on the flanks that hadn’t been targeted would be closing in on them if they didn’t move fast enough forward over the dropping bodies.
“Mind your step,” the Scionate said as four of them sprinted far ahead of the group and started policing the fallen bodies looking for those still capable of firing and putting some pointblank shots into them as they passed over the outliers and into the carpet of falling minions so thick you couldn’t see more than a few bits of ground through the mass of ugly and dying bodies.
As soon as Puar hit the first of them he had to slow down considerably, and the bipeds even more so. This left two walls of minions to the right and left able to move towards them quickly across clear ground outside and inside the fallen, but it was inside that concerned Puar, for they were skirting the edge of those that were afflicted but recovering due to too little Essence reaching them. That left a wave of attackers closing in on the pack as it clumsily ran over the dead minions.