by Aer-ki Jyr
Their speeder kept moving rapidly all the way up to the doors, then decelerated hard to keep from ramming the base. The techs already inside opened up for them but everyone hopped off before they got to the door, leaving only Esna and the pilot onboard as he drove them inside. She hopped off there as he moved the speeder into the garage then ran back to find Rammak, but Tyrenk spoke to everyone through the comms before she could get to him.
“We’re moving out now. One speeder is going all the way to the end of the line, the other two shuffle to a fallback point 10 minutes out. I’m staying here and holding this base as long as we can. After it falls I expect them to be all over us. Their main fleet is here and I think their patience with us is over. First speeder carries no cargo. The other two same old same old. Pilots go on the first with as many techs as you can squeeze in. Get the ship ready but do nothing to betray your position. My gut says the Zen’zat are going to run us into the ground and we need an out. Make sure we have it. I don’t want to have to go topside if we can manage…” he said, hesitating.
“What?” a Protovic asked.
“A contingency plan. Get that first speeder moving in 60 seconds. I don’t think we have a lot of time.”
No one hesitated or asked additional questions, with all the techs moving around rapidly grabbing gear and crates, the latter of which they began loading up on the other speeders while techs in envirosuits packed themselves onto the foremost one out of sight from where Esna was jogging over to Rammak as he came in from the tunnel.
“You’re going with the second ground to the end of the line,” the Calavari said firmly. “But first we have to get everyone to the staging point. You’ll be the last to leave before us. Until then I want you monitoring the surface feeds. If any of the warships underneath the shield move out, tell us immediately even if we’re busy. Especially if we’re busy.”
“So we’re splitting up?”
“We’re heading to the same hangar, but you can’t stay this far back.”
“A while back you said you couldn’t either. Guess you’re more useful than you thought.”
“I have size that the Humans and Protovic lack. At the least I can soak up some shots meant for them.”
“Liar.”
Rammak huffed. “Very well. I may do more than that.”
“You better,” she said, punching him in the gut and not moving his Calavari mass a millimeter as she clamped down on her emotions and moved into a nearby room where there was an empty holotable. Learning from the others earlier, she activated it and linked in the surface feeds from the warships still there making sure the Viks under the shield couldn’t come out and cause the mayhem that Rammak was worried about.
Esna retracted her helmet but kept the rest of her armor on as she got a big map over the table showing the base and everything around it, including their position, but nothing from the other survivors who were still hiding from detection the best they could. She didn’t know how many of them were left, or if the two other splinter groups they’d tried to distract the Zen’zat from had made it, but she really doubted her group were the only ones left.
She hoped not, thinking of the thousands of people she had been living with and learning so much from. If anyone didn’t deserve this it was them, and only now was Esna beginning to realize how bad the V’kit’no’sat were and what Rammak must have gone through on Forso. She’d thought she’d had it bad before, but Star Force had it worse. Far worse.
But thankfully they were more able than she was to fight back against these bastards.
She had no doubt that Tyrenk would keep the Ari’tat and Zen’zat back long enough to get everyone past this outpost, but if a ship flew overhead and fired down on their now marked position they might not be able to run fast enough to avoid the blast, so Esna understood her task. If the others were fighting at the time they might not notice immediately and those few seconds, if it happened, could be critical.
Esna brought up a smaller second map to the side that showed the outpost and the two tunnel sections around it so she could keep up with what was going on without losing focus on her primary task. Already she could see the Ari’tat keeping their distance but chipping away at the perimeter defenses as they took turns firing from their little egg-like speeders, each soaking up a bit of damage on their shields then falling back before they could be destroyed. The weapons on them didn’t look to be any bigger than what the Zen’zat were carrying in their armor, but that was a bad guess based off the size of the flashes. Esna had no idea what potency they all were.
Before she knew it the two speeders were back and picking up more crates and some techs and were off again to the staging point that should be far enough away to be safe from a warship attack on the outpost. Depending on how much cargo they took she probably wouldn’t have to leave on the next trip, but it wasn’t going to be long until she had to leave Rammak again.
Before the speeders made it back the first of the Zen’zat showed up, running at insane speed through the tunnel and slowing down to take up position behind the 14 Ari’tat that were left. They were moving at Archon speeds and now Esna was worried about the others. If any of the groups didn’t have access to speeders…
Esna made sure to keep an eye on the surface, for that was her one job here, but she saw several of the smaller Commandos move out into the tunnel and lay down on their bellies with longer weapons that she hadn’t seen them use before. They must have been carrying them in some of the crates, but it wasn’t the size of them that spooked her. It was the fact that the outpost door was shut behind the three of them, leaving them alone in the tunnel with only the perimeter defenses.
Esna saw them start to fire with their sniper rifles less than a minute later and she realized what they were doing. The tunnel defenses were only going to slow down the Viks if they were careful and deliberate in eliminating them. But if they also had to deal with the sniper shots their job became that much harder, especially when one of the Ari’tat speeders exploded under a combined salvo of turret shots and the three snipers all targeting it at the same time. Its rider fell to the ground intact and scurried off, taking a sniper shot on its shields and surviving, but its speedy ride would not be chasing them onwards past this point.
The Zen’zat quickly switched places with the Ari’tat, preserving their chasing speed and taking the turret shots themselves as Esna realized there were dozens of them showing up and probably even more coming beyond the outpost’s sensing range. They had an army chasing them, and no matter how good the Archon and the Commandos were she realized they didn’t stand a chance fighting that many.
She took a close look at the warships parked underneath the shield. They hadn’t twitched yet and she hoped they wouldn’t at all, for her and Rammak’s only chance of surviving this was to run to the end of the tunnel with the ship hangar. If it was the size that the Mavericks had, and that was only a guess, but if it was, their only hope was to get off this planet before those warships came out and swatted them out of the sky.
And to do it before the army of Zen’zat either overran them or pushed them into a last stand at the end of one of the few tunnel branches left ahead.
20
Esna ducked as a blast hit the ice above her head and dropped half the ceiling down beside her. Fortunately the cave-in wasn’t very deep, but a few pieces still hit her in the shoulder as they shot out faster than they otherwise would have in the low gravity. The expanding gasses from the vaporized ice shoved her into the wall and she bounced off it as she ran for the speeder Rammak had just sent her too.
He’d been holding her just inside the garage as the Zen’zat had breached the base and were fighting the Archon and other Commandos inside, but now that the speeder had arrived back he released her to go and she sprinted to catch up to the already full craft as the rest of the techs and few mechwarriors were shuffling around onboard to make room for her, but she didn’t make it before Rammak was lit up with energy blasts.
Esna turne
d at the sound, seeing him get hit while shooting back, then two Zen’zat came out into the garage. One kept shooting him while the other turned and headed toward Esna and the speeder…but Rammak jumped him and both of them smashed into the side of the tunnel as Esna pulled out her rifle and started shooting at the other.
A few shots hit, then she got blanketed with green energy orbs that sucked down her shield strength as the Zen’zat ran towards her. Esna knew she couldn’t outrun him, so she held her ground and pumped as many shots into his black/green armor as she could before he landed a single punch/shot into her helmet and snapped her head under heels with the blow, then punched her in the back as she floated upside down in the middle of the tunnel.
Esna flew further down the hall, catching a glimpse of the speeder zipping off. They didn’t have any Commandos onboard, just techs in envirosuits with no psionic countermeasures, and there was no point in them sticking around to die along with her when all the Zen’zat had to do was reach inside their chests and crush their internal organs with their powers. Yet the sight of them running still caught her by surprise just before she landed face down and skidding on the ridged tunnel floor.
She got her fingers into that groove and stopped herself, taking a few more shots to her armor that no longer was shielded, then the Zen’zat got knocked the other way, leaving her alive and her armor unpenetrated. When Esna looked up and got a knee underneath her chest she was that the huge enemy warrior had been rammed by the Scionate mechwarrior that must have jumped off the speeder…but the Zen’zat was still flying backwards down the hallway towards the golden armor of the Archon that had apparently also grabbed him with his powers.
He was so much smaller than the Zen’zat that Esna didn’t understand what happened next, but the bigger enemy got bounced around the tunnel as the two exchanged punches, kicks, and pointblank energy blasts that left the Zen’zat falling to the floor and the Archon running back into the base past Rammak…who was limping towards her.
“Thank you,” Esna told the Scionate as she rushed past him, but one of Rammak’s four arms pointed the other way as he managed a hop that turned into a run inside his white armor that now had plenty of scorch marks covering it.
“Going,” Esna said, not sure if his comm was working…or maybe it was hers that got hit. Either way he was telling her to run, so she turned and moved as fast as she could, seeing the slightly melty spot on her chest that didn’t want to flex as much as it had before. It wasn’t too bad though, especially since she had to do the stupid hop/step in the low gravity that required her to hold back effort anyway.
“Can you hear me?” Rammak asked on audio as he suddenly caught up behind her
“Yes.”
“Try your comm only.”
Esna shut her audio transmitter off. “Can you hear me?”
When he didn’t respond she assumed it was her armor that was damaged and turned her external audio back on. “It’s not working.”
“How’s your battlemap?”
“I can still see it.”
“Do you see my waypoint?” he asked as they continued to run.
A little marker popped up in the tunnel ahead of them. “Yep.”
“Get there then stop and dig in. The speeder will meet us there, but we need to provide as much cover fire for the others as we can.”
“What happened to the turrets on this side?”
“Control panel got hit. Keep going, I’ll catch up,” he said, sliding to a stop next to one of the hidden turrets still safely tucked inside the wall.
“Jump on,” the mechwarrior said, with Esna easily launching onto the quadruped’s back and laying down in a bear hug as it ran her down the tunnel as Rammak went through a lengthy comm identifier process before he could use the manual override that required him to be within 5 meters of the turret. He hadn’t done this in a long time, but it wasn’t something one forgot after seeing how useful the things were.
A few seconds later he got it and the ice nearby popped out and fell to the ground as the head of the turret peeked into view and an energy shield snapped over it. He confirmed it was set to non-Star Force signatures then took off after Esna again but stopped for one more turret at the end of the field and manually activated it as well.
Past that he head after the Human and Scionate and trailed behind them until they got to the waypoint he put down, then they stopped and looked back not seeing anyone in the tunnel after Rammak got to them but with the curve of it preventing them from actually seeing the base. That didn’t stop their battlemap from connecting through all the turrets so they could see the dots on the map of all the Zen’zat in the base and the warriors holding there…with the Archon’s dot moving around erratically.
“I don’t have a weapon,” the Scionate warned, “but I’ll do what I can.”
“Take mine Esna offered, holding out her pistol then realizing that he didn’t have the hands to use it.”
“I require special weapons that attach to my armor, but we don’t typically wear them in the mechs. I didn’t have time to grab one on the way out of the base.”
“What about the crates?”
“Replacement power packs, but no actual weapons.”
“That’s dumb,” Esna said, putting her pistol back on her rack.
“Not when they’re part of your armor,” the Scionate said. “I wear this in the cockpit so I can survive after a defeat, not fight hand to hand.
“Is your armor psionic shielded?” Rammak asked.
“Limited duration, but yes.”
“You’re on retrieval detail.”
“Understood,” the Scionate said, circling around behind the Calavari as he looked at Esna.
“Lay down,” Rammak ordered, “and aim steady. Don’t fire if you risk hitting one of us. Shoot wide, then if you miss you’ll either miss clean or hit your target. Even if you hit nothing we need to discourage pursuit of the injured.”
Esna glanced at Rammak’s chest as she scrambled to get her rifle out and lay down, then froze as she saw orange blood seeping out onto his white armor.
“You’re hit.”
“They are light and will close,” he said, with Esna walking around him and seeing two more spots where the Zen’zat’s shots got all the way through his armor.
“What about the cold?”
“I’ll survive. Focus. We have to hold this position until the speeder gets back,” he said as his first turret started firing. Esna dropped to the ground along with Rammak and together they blocked off most of the floor but made for much smaller targets as two Commandos came into view near the turret, one a Protovic and the other a Bsidd that was being carried/dragged as a few scattered shots hit the Bsidd. Esna thought she saw a shield flash but she couldn’t be sure.
“He’s holding to the left side of the hallway. Send your shots to the right,” Rammak said as the Scionate jumped over their heads and ran towards the pair.
“Ok,” she said as not one, but two Zen’zat ran into view soaking up turret hits in order to get to the fleeing troops. Rammak opened fire a moment before Esna did and he had two weapons to her one, meaning they sent three lines of shots down the tunnel landing a few shots on Zen’zat armor that the turret had already stripped the shields off of. The second turret was also landing a few shots, but the armor on the Zen’zat was so good Esna didn’t think any of them got through before he was up on top of the two Commandos.
“Stay,” Rammak ordered, getting up and sprinting ahead as the Protovic and Zen’zat wrestled around on top of the Bsidd that appeared to be unconscious. The Calavari fired a few shots as he went, but the turret was silent, operating on safety protocols that had its target too close to a friendly.
Esna didn’t have those protocols, but she couldn’t get a clear shot either but she did snap a few off further down the tunnel when she could at the other Zen’zat that was beating the first turret into a pulp hand to hand and looking like he had miscalculated its defenses. If she could just hit him once or
twice it might be enough to…
A flash of vaporizing armor hit the same time she pulled the trigger, making her think it was her when it was really another Commando coming up behind the Zen’zat who then turned and headed back, at which point two more Zen’zat appeared with the Commando. Esna ignored them as Rammak got to the first Zen’zat, trying to get a shot…
Esna pulled the trigger three times as Rammak grabbed on with his four arms and threw the Zen’zat back towards Esna, clearing her for the shot if she was good enough to take it. She tried regardless, aiming to the right like he’d suggested, and only got one hit on the Zen’zat before it shot Rammak again and then the Protovic rammed him into the tunnel wall opposite the unmoving Bsidd that the Scionate was now dragging away. Esna tried to find another opening but none arose as most of the warriors in the base now evacuated down the tunnel and headed towards them.
Esna knew they’d finish off these few Zen’zat when they got here, if only Rammak could hang on a little later. Even damaged the Zen’zat weapons were bad and the Calavari’s big mass was soaking up a lot of…
Suddenly the Protovic dove the Zen’zat again and Esna saw him punch into a wound on his armor as they grappled, then a shower of electricity covered them both for a couple of seconds, after which the Protovic rose and the Zen’zat didn’t for a moment, during which the two Commandos finished him off with a slew of pointblank shots.
Esna didn’t know what just happened, but there was so much more going on that it didn’t matter as Rammak put some extra shots into the Zen’zat to make sure it stayed dead then headed back towards her while the Protovic turned and went to help with the other Zen’zat as the closest turret continued peppering them when it had a clean line of fire. The other turret was already smoking junk.