Forever Defend

by Michael Anderle

  Grindlock looked at his wrist comm for orders and smiled. “Looks like we have permission to seek and destroy, but be ready for traps.”

  “Like the idiot Karillians have a real clue about---” D’thock’s comment was cut off as an object about two inches in diameter slammed into his armored body with enough speed to lift the five hundred pound Leath off his feet, armor and all, to slam into the pod behind him.

  Denting it.

  Both the puck and the alien died together on an alien planet, far from the home worlds that had created them.

  Grindlock and his Quarter dropped to the ground as the Quarter Military Leader swore viciously.

  ---

  Bethany Anne watched the data streaming in from below.

  ADAM, filter this shit for me.

  >>Working.<<

  Bethany Anne’s eyes narrowed. “Well, shit, the pucks aren’t as effective as I’d hoped. The damn vegetation down there is a bitch, and they’re being blocked by the trees.”

  Stephen joined Bethany Anne as he looked toward the jungle below. The screams of the Leath killed by the puck defense Bethany Anne had dropped with the twelve containers easily reached his ears.

  So did the destruction of the undergrowth, as he watched trees below start to fall. Most, so far, had been held up by their upper branches, which were intertwined with the trees around them.

  “I’d say the vegetation is getting its ass kicked, Bethany Anne,” he mused as openings in the canopy started to show across the landscape. The trees closest to the twelve containers were taking the brunt of the damage.

  She looked away from her HUD to see what Stephen was talking about. “Well, this is one little tactical flaw.” She chewed the inside of her cheek. “I imagine the General is going to point it out in the AAR.”

  “That’s ok.” Stephen pulled the rifle Jean had fashioned for him more than five years before. “Do you have some of those new cartridges on you, or shall I fetch them?”

  Bethany Anne reached down to her belt. “I thought I was going to be an overachiever with all this ammo, but now I’m slightly concerned.” She tossed him a magazine. “Here you go. One thousand rounds of Jean’s finest Q-Carbon Flechettes.”

  Stephen caught the magazine Bethany Anne tossed him. He ejected his magazine, slid in the new one, and caught the other in the air, sliding the spare into his belt in one fluid motion while lifting his rifle to his shoulder.

  Both of them ducked, their bodies almost disappearing as the stone around them started shattering.

  “Can’t believe this shit,” Bethany Anne muttered. She and Stephen were both prone on the platform’s floor. “ADAM?” she called over the team’s comm.

  “Yes?” he replied.

  “Shut down the pucks on my side of the pyramid. I’m going down to have a look-see.”

  Before she could finish her statement, a boot appeared next to her head. She turned her head to see the sole of a boot, then followed the boot up its leg to the chest, above which she saw John’s face staring down at her.

  “What?” She smiled. “I wasn’t going without you!”

  “Damned right you weren’t,” he growled.

  ---

  Grindlock and his team remained flat on the ground as the cacophony continued around them. One moment, the noise was everywhere.

  The next, it was distant.

  Grindlock’s eyes narrowed as he looked back over his shoulder. He checked his wrist comm and could see that the other three-quarters of the assault force were still under attack.

  His eyes narrowed before he growled, “Prepare for attack.”

  “More?” Tholt asked.

  “Different kind, dumbass,” Grindlock told him. “They stopped bombing this area, so their people are coming in.”

  “Or just initiating a new kind of attack,” Glot commented as he took a knee, preparing for the attack his Quarter Military Leader told him was coming.

  ---

  “Nope, just two of us right now, Stephen,” she said. “You were voted off the team when you chose the wrong weapon.”

  Stephen looked down at the larger rifle and grimaced. She was right. For up-close work while running in a leafy jungle area, pistols were the better choice.

  “Ready, Mr. Grimes?” Bethany Anne reached up and unlocked her sword.

  “Born in fire and blood, Bethany Anne,” he told her, his eyes starting to glow.

  Bethany Anne glanced up and saw a fresh set of tracks starting to drop into the atmosphere. “Let’s make this quick.”

  The two of them took off running toward the edge and then jumped, their angle impossibly acute for a human. However, as enhanced humans using the latest Jean Dukes powered armor, they easily cleared the base of the pyramid.

  They had just about made it to the top of the canopy when a shell exploded near them, tumbling them both sideways flipping end over end into the trees.

  High above them, Stephen shook his head and sighed. “Better keep your head down, Bethany Anne.”

  Her voice came back over the comm immediately. “Might want to make sure your microphone is off when you rag on me next time, Stephen.”

  There was a creak, then four more snaps and a thud. “Well, fucking ouch. That’s one way to get down.” Her voice spoke over the comm to no one in particular. “Not that I’d recommend it as an efficient method to reach the ground.”

  “Glad you found it eventually,” Stephen told her. He eyed the arriving pods. “You have thirty seconds to get your asses back up here.”

  “Plenty of time,” John answered.

  This time Stephen made sure to turn off his microphone.

  ---

  Grindlock’s head pivoted right when all the shots seemed to be coming from one area. “Enemy right!” He turned and took a knee, using the pod for cover as Tholt watched the other side and Glot aimed behind them.

  Didn’t want any annoying Karillians ruining the party by shooting his people in the back.

  Assuming those three-eyed bastards could hit the side of a mountain. He had been told how ineffective their fire was even when they knew that the Leath would be back again, and they had had plenty of time to practice.

  Once each generation his people came and kicked some Karillian ass, and they would continue to do so until this finally became a Leath world. Or a burnt husk. Whichever occurred first.

  Grindlock hated the dense vegetation in this location because he couldn’t see his enemies. But he did appreciate the cover it provided when those enemies were attacking his team. A beep caught his attention, and he looked to see what was happening.

  Good, the next thread was about to arrive.

  He turned to look to his left at Pod He’9114, just in time to see the head of the Quarter Second explode inside his helmet. His body convulsed, repeatedly pulling the trigger as his rifle plowed holes into the ground before his body slid to the right, his finger finally off the trigger.

  Grindlock dropped. “Open fire, three by three-five!”

  “I’ve got nothing, QML!” Tholt told him.

  “H114 Q2 just took something in his helmet,” Grindlock explained as he ripped a short burst in the direction of the attack. “Pretty sure it came from enemy action!”

  Grindlock could hear Tholt’s own burst into the leaves. Both had pings on their HUDs and risked a glance to see where they were coming from.

  ---

  Bethany Anne hit the ground with a thud. Perhaps the jump from the pyramid hadn’t been the smartest move, but other than her ego, she and John weren’t hurt.

  It did underscore the fact that these Leath could hit them. “John?”

  “Got your six,” he told her as she stood up. She took off, running through the trees. Her HUD showed over two hundred tangos in the area around them. Springing upward, she landed on a limb about fifteen feet off the ground. She held on with her left hand as she took five shots, and five tangos disappeared from her screen.

  She jumped down from the tree and saw that three mor
e had been erased by John.

  “Five to three, Mr. Grimes!” She laughed as she took off again, jumping over a tree that had fallen due to puck destruction. She hit a branch, but it just broke when she slammed through it with her armor.

  She stopped a moment, cricking her neck left, then right. She could feel John. “Let’s do this!” she told him as he slotted in behind her. Both pulled out their pistols.

  “Give them Eleven!” she called, and started pulling her triggers.

  Behind her, John smiled and switched the level on his Jean Dukes to maximum. They bucked like a sonofabitch, but the sheer destruction was amazing to watch.

  “TREE LEFT!” Bethany Anne yelled a few seconds later.

  John turned completely around and ran after Bethany Anne, who shot twice as they dodged a tree that their fire must have destroyed. The crash behind them took two more tangos out.

  Bethany Anne jumped on top of another trunk, then bounded up into the foliage.

  “Son of a bitch,” John muttered. “Fucking light people!” He dialed the antigrav up a touch to reduce his own weight, and took off after her. As he jumped from the second to the third tree, bark exploded from the tree he was about to land on. The shot came from his right.

  Although they had probably aimed for Bethany Anne, he didn’t give a shit. He lifted his left leg and kicked off the tree instead of landing on it, and headed toward the location the shot had come from. John ended up in a small clearing with two pods and seven aliens.

  That’s when it got interesting.

  ---

  Quarter Military Leader Beechton was irritated as hell. He had just lost his Quarter Third to what he figured was friendly fire when he saw something red moving in the trees.

  He immediately snapped a shot toward the last location he had seen the body, although he knew he was going to miss. He shot too late.

  “Yesss!” he screamed when he almost nailed a second figure jumping to the same tree. His eyes narrowed when it bounced off and came flying in their direction.

  “Incoming!” he yelled over the comm as he pulled up his rifle to nail the approaching alien. He got off two shots before the alien landed in the clearing between his pod and Pod He’5444.

  The last thing Beechton saw was that this alien had two eyes, not three.

  Two glowing red eyes. Then his head exploded.

  ---

  John shot the Leath soldier who had almost hit Bethany Anne, and took out five more aliens in the group.

  There was one more Leath behind the pod, but he didn’t have time. He turned and ran, crashing through the underbrush and pushing it out of the way as he headed in the direction Bethany Anne had run.

  He glanced at the HUD. They had twelve seconds and eight-seven tangos to go.

  ---

  Bethany Anne could feel John turn in another direction behind her. She trusted that whatever his reason, it was a good one. Jumping down from the tree, she came out into a nice opening without many trees. What it did have was a pod damn near in the middle of the clearing.

  Aiming her pistols forward, she fired two shots into the alien that was slightly to her right. Her left hand moved as she took a long step, shooting the alien on the left. She launched up, flipping in the air a half-turn, legs high over her head, body twisting 180 degrees as the heads of two more aliens appeared on the other side of the pod a full twenty feet beneath her.

  She shot both from above. The body on the left collapsed and the chest of the one on the right exploded, splattering the pod.

  Bethany Anne finished her somersault and landed on her feet, pistols ready. She glanced at her HUD and took five shots, killing aliens who never saw the human woman through the trees.

  Seconds later, John came bounding through the trees himself.

  Bethany Anne turned. “Hey-diddle-diddle,” she called through their comm as she turned in the direction of the pyramid.

  “Straight up the middle!” John finished as he raced behind her. Thirteen more aliens died, but one clipped Bethany Anne as they left. “Those fucking bullets are a pain in the ass!” she complained as they broke out of the underbrush, the majestic pyramid in front of them.

  Bethany Anne holstered her pistol, then slammed her feet into the turf and twisted around, throwing out a hand. John didn’t stop, but holstered his left pistol and reached out to grab her hand. They both disappeared.

  Behind them, new pods started to land.

  Bethany Anne and John appeared in the open level of the pyramid high above.

  Stephen looked them over, noticing all the dirt and twigs that had lodged in their armor. “You two are a mess. I’d tell you to go take a bath, but we don’t have time for that.” He nodded toward the trees. “Seems like a new wave has arrived.

  “INCOMING!” Darryl yelled and the three of them turned to see the telltale sign of a missile heading in their direction.

  QBBS ArchAngel II

  “I can’t do that, General,” Admiral Thomas replied. “We have a monster gate that appeared a few moments ago, and ArchAngel is needed to… One moment.”

  Admiral Thomas could feel the sudden acceleration as ArchAngel started heading toward the gate. He spoke aloud, “Care to give me an update here, ArchAngel?”

  The visage of the Empress appeared on the screens. “I’ve been tracking the gate, Admiral, and we have a major disturbance about to occur.”

  Thomas’ eyes narrowed. “Bethany Anne?”

  “I’ve sent reinforcements.”

  That was all Thomas had time to ask before the nose of a warship appeared in the massive ring.

  “FIRE!” ArchAngel yelled as missiles, pucks, and fighters started erupting from her.

  ---

  Leath Space Commander Kazakstone sat in his command chair waiting for the final transfer of his ship, which would oversee the final eradication of the Karillians. This attack had been long in the making before the gods had agreed to allow a true invasion and extermination effort to occur.

  His ship would be the final solution.

  Should the army not succeed, his people would pulverize the ground with asteroids they captured and redeployed toward the planet.

  After the deaths of those on the planet, their scientists would be able to study the effectiveness of a full kinetic strike and record the results.

  It should, he thought, make for some very interesting reading.

  Personally, he believed the planet’s mantle would crack, spewing ash and dirt into the atmosphere and triggering the death of the world as the rays of the local star were cut off. That would cause most things on the planet to die. Sometime in the far future the planet would come out of its ice age, and his people would be there to reuse it.

  Until that time, it looked like the system had plenty of raw materials, if you had the machinery to mine in outer space.

  Which they did.

  “INCOMING!” Kazakstone turned his head after sensors screamed the warning.

  “Shields!” he commanded. “Pull us away from the gate!” The ship’s engines kicked in, and Kazakstone was pushed back into his seat.

  Moments later, missiles started hitting the shields, and some got through as his people set up their own firing solutions.

  ---

  “We don’t have any time, Lance,” Thomas told him as he glanced at the fights occurring around the system. “Our battleships are engaged, but if they have more of these Capital-class ships coming through, it’s going to get really, really busy up here.”

  The video of Lance showed him chewing an unlit cigar. “Well, we knew they would be surprised to see us. Now I’m surprised as hell to see all of them, too.” Lance considered what the Leathians had thrown at them. “I really wish we knew how many more ships they have on the other side.”

  “Wish in one hand,” Thomas began as he eyed the holographic representation of the naval battle going on around him. The whole battle hadn’t gone exactly to plan, which was always a problem when the other side showed up with significa
ntly more forces and equipment than their own worst projections.

  To top it off, the Empress had focused the alien presence in one area of the world, completely against the wishes of her military advisors.

  “Yeah, shit in the other,” General Lance Reynolds finished the quote. “We need intelligence, Bart.”

  Thomas nodded. “Working on it.” The lights dimmed a moment, and Thomas looked around. “Thomas out.”

  Lance saw the video connection die on his side. He turned, chewing his cigar, and looked around. “Somebody fetch me my fucking field armor.”

  Dan looked up from his desk at Lance and narrowed his eyes. “You know, I think I need a change of clothing as well. Seems like we know where most of the enemy is going to be.”

  “She did make it a bit easier,” Lance agreed as the two men hurried out of Command.

  ---

  “This shit is getting a bit intense!” Gabrielle said, her pistols bucking in her hands as wave after wave of Leath grunts came out of the trees and ascended the sides of the pyramid. Eric was working with her.

  “These animal-fondling long-tittied bunghole-sniffing cretins weren’t supposed to be able to run up the fucking sides!” Bethany Anne yelled, pissed that her carefully selected fighting location was being overcome by some sort of technical capability of Leath armor.

  “Technology’s not so nice when it’s used against us!” Scott grunted when he took a hit to the chest. “Cluster-fucking weed wanker!” Scott yelled, and twisted his pistol to the right, shooting twice.

  Down toward the bottom of the pyramid, the head and chest of a Leath soldier splattered over those around her.

  “Looks like Jean’s going to have to upgrade us again!” Bethany Anne commented as she ducked to her left and laid down suppressing fire. Stephen took aim and unloaded his gun into the group trying to make it up the sides.

  Both dropped back down into cover quickly.

  “Keep making yourself targets and they will get a bead on you,” John remarked from the side of the pyramid to Bethany Anne as a Command override hit their channels.

  “This is ArchAngel,” the EI announced. “Three kinetic objects arriving in fifteen seconds. Please route appropriately.”