The nearest world in trouble.
51
On Nilar-2, one of the sprawling capital cities had been under heavy siege by the Ejjai for four straight brutal days. Fires raged and burned out of control everywhere. The sky day and night obscured by smoke and the stench of slaughter and war, as the unprepared civilian population of twenty million struggled to the breaking point to try to defend itself.
Three entire army groups of Ejjai shock troops poured in sweeping across the planet surface in vast waves. Their meatships right behind them.
Artillery strikes and enemy bombers focused on any pockets of resistance, pounding them to rubble and dust. Then the enemy sent in close assault gunships and gravtanks to wipe on anyone else who kept trying to fight.
The gunships and tanks flushed out crowds of unarmed civilians and cut them down with impunity in the open. Tanks and shock troops fired from all directions, from any given vantage point as the massacre continued.
In a smoky alley near one of the hottest battles, a young brown-haired girl of twelve with a small pistol in her hand, attempted to lead a group of nearly a hundred younger children away from the terrible battle raging right behind them.
The younger kids crowded together in fear, looking around.
Explosions and weapon-fire echoed all around within blocks of their flight, rocking the stricken city to its core.
Several of the children whimpered and cried softly. Many of them clutching dolls, or stuffed animals, or toys of some kind to comfort them. Including a small blond girl of six with a dirty, white stuffed bear. The smaller girl appeared to be the twelve-year-old’s little sister. At least by the way the twelve year-old clutched the little girl’s other hand and would not let go.
“Mally…I don’t wanna leave momma and the grownups. I’m scared.”
Mally turned and snapped at her little sister.
“Shut up and don’t make any noise, Evvy. All of you…shut up. Do you want them to find us? We can’t stay back there with the fighting. We have to find a safe place…somewhere else.”
“I don’t like you,” Evvy said. “I wanna go back to momma. You let go of me!”
Mally cracked under the pressure and snapped at her again and shook her. “Mom’s probably dead by now, Evvy. Along with most of the grownups who are still fighting back there. They won’t last much longer. She made me promise to get you and the other kids away if things got bad.”
Evvy started bawling.
Mally tucked the small pistol in her belt and tried to cover Evvy’s mouth. “Shut up!”
An Ejjai gravwing scout smashed down onto the plascrete right in front of them, and rose up towering in its battle armor.
An energy carbine in one claw and a long, blood-drenched jagged battle blade in the other.
The children gasped in terror and fell back before the fearful creature.
It chortled its eerie laugh at them, thinking them helpless like all the rest.
“Well, what do we have here? A bunch of little juicy skinners, pretty as pie. Don’t move, the lot of you. I swear I will cut down any of you who try to run. I gotta call this in.”
The Ejjai scout lifted her wristcom in excitement. “Captain, I’ve got a nice little treat for us and the unit later tonight. Get over here before any of the other units do. Tell the girls to heat up the fire pits and get the hooks and chains ready. We’re gonna have us a little skinner roast. That’s right. About a hundred at least. Enough for the whole strike force.”
Mally screamed and leaped onto the distracted scout.
She fired her small pistol again and again into the scout’s face and eyes.
The tiny weapon popped repeatedly, barely flashing.
But the scout toppled over dead, like a stricken giant.
Mally still kept pulling the trigger until it clicked repeatedly.
She flung the empty, bloody pistol away, picked up the scout’s carbine, and snatched Evvy up by the hand where she lay curled up and shaking on the dirty alley street.
“C’mon. All of you. Follow me. They’re coming!”
Mally led the children for a few blocks more, away from the fighting, which sounded like it had died down
But everyone could also hear the sounds of the relentless enemy advance. The whine of the enemy gravtanks and and the shriek of the gunship engines and the staccato blast of their ground assault cannons.
And the resounding eerie laughter and cheers of the victorious invaders over the city’s last pockets of defenders.
Six more enemy troops stepped out of the shadows, surrounding the terrified children instantly. Hemming them in.
Mally dropped down and aimed her carbine right at the leader’s face.
“Drop the weapon, little girl. You can’t take all of us down. Give up, and my blade will make it quick for you and some of these others. Otherwise, we’ll stick meat hooks in your backs, and slow-roast and eat all of you feet-first. One at a time while the others get to watch and wait their turn.”
Mally snarled. “I don’t need to kill the others. Just you.”
The Alpha-Ejjai grinned her toothy smile and laughed her eerie laugh, along with the others.
“Just for that, you we’ll save for last, girlie. After we eat all the rest. You get to watch what we do to all of them.”
Mally pulled the trigger, but the carbine didn’t fire.
“Aww…ain’t thatta a shame.”
The next instant, a long red blazing blade cut through the alpha’s head and face, sheering off the top of her skull right through the eyes and her helmet.
The helmet and the spurting alpha collapsed in a heap.
Naero had watched and waited long enough. Keeping an eye on the children from the rooftops and in the shadows.
Expanding orbs of red-glowing Chaos energy scorched and hollowed out the skulls and faces of the other five invaders at the same time.
Naero rose up, red katanas in both hands. She had her togs and her shifting, black night-stealth armor set so that the kids could now see her in part. Like a shadow when she moved.
To the children she would look like a dark phantom or a ghost.
She wore a long black cloak-coat, with the hood drawn back at the moment. Her long dark hair flowed free, but her lower face was still covered in her battle mask.
She focused her keen eyes in the darkness. Reaching out, she teknomanced the enemy security lock on Mally’s captured carbine.
“Good girl, Mally. I’ve fixed the enemy carbine so that you can use it now. But be careful with it. You’re very brave. All of you. I’ve been watching and protecting you for a while.”
Mally cocked her head. “Who are you? Where did you–”
Evvy piped up, her face beaming.
“She’s Shettana; just like in the vids!”
“Evvy, be quiet. She’s not Shettana. That’s just a vid. It’s not real.”
“She is too, Shettana. And she’s come to save us, and kill all the bad guys. I hope she kills them all dead. You will, won’t you? Will you try to save our mom too?”
The other kids started to mumble and mutter, repeating the odd name.
Shettana.
She’s Shettana?
That’s Shettana? Shettana is really here to help us?
Naero chuckled at being taken for a goofy vid character.
“My friends and I are Spacers; we’re here to help. We’ve just arrived, and we’re setting up a little surprise for the invaders. But first, I want to get all of you to a safe place.”
“Where can we go where it’s safe?” Mally asked. A lot of doubt in her voice.
“Not far. I’ve kept several other enemies from attacking you along the way. Don’t worry. They won’t hurt anyone any more. I’m sorry these other ones got so close. We have to go now. Follow me.”
Naero led them two more blocks, until they found a tube station leading underground.
Mally gasped. “The adults told us not to use the tubes,” she said. “The invaders have
them rigged with mines and traps. They’re just waiting for us down there. We won’t be able to run or get away.”
Naero grinned. “Don’t worry. My friends and I have already cleared out this section. We own the black; the night is ours. No one can take it from us. The tubes are safe now, Mally. Just follow me. Once you are all safe down below, we can do our work up here. So we need to hurry.”
She led them into the underground.
They went so far in the darkness, darkness lit only by Naero’s blazing red swords.
Then hundreds of armored figures appeared out of the shadows all around them, as if melting out of the black. Armored troops with fierce looking weapons poised at the ready.
Their various optical displays suddenly glowed red and menacing.
Mally gasped and lifted her carbine defensively.
Naero pushed the muzzle down and kept the child from shooting Spacer Marine Leftenant Mortan Stewart in the belly.
“It’s all right,” Naero told them. “You won’t find better friends right now than the Spacer Marines of Bravo Command.”
Lights came up slightly. Morty and some of his people opened their face-shields. Revealing their human faces briefly for the kids to see.
The kids relaxed a little more at that. Seeing so many big, tough-looking troops ready to defend them.
“Captain Maeris,” Morty said. “We have pockets of several thousand civilians secured at various locations. I’ll have a squad take these kids to join them. Good work. But our fun up top is about to start.”
“Affirmative. Well, we don’t want to miss the show, do we? Thanks, Morty.”
Naero turned back to Mally, Evvy, and the other kids, who continued to stare up at her in awe and wonder.
“I have to go now. You guys are all really brave. I’m hoping that we’ll have your city safe again for you by the morning. If we find any grown ups, we’ll try to keep them safe too.”
“Fight well,” Mally told her. “Thank you”
“Take good care of your sister.”
Evvy smiled and hugged Naero around the hips.
“Bye, Shettana. Thank you and your friends for saving us.” Naero stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head.
The other children filled passed, touching her hands, wishing her well. Telling Shettana goodbye. Waving as they moved off.
Goodbye, Shettana.
Thank you, Shettana.
Morty came up to her. Chuckling.
“What is it, Morty?”
“Those kids actually think you’re Shettana? From those hokey old action-adventure vids? That’s pretty funny. Hilarious even.”
She smirked at him. “Stow it, Leftenant. In a dark moist place, you jerk.”
“No, I can really see it now. The cape, the hair, the mask and the swords. You’re a dead-ringer. We should have noted the resemblance before.”
He lifted his hands and announced in a mock heroic voice, “Shettana, the avenger. Shettana: The Dark Angel of Death!”
Naero put her hands on her hips.
“Must I punch you in the balls? And it’s not a cape; it’s a cloak-coat, if you must know.”
Morty rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Your get-up’s close enough. Anyone in the border worlds will have seen those vids. One look at you in action and they’ll make the connection all right.”
“I’ve never seen any of those goofy vids, and I don’t want to. Now come on. We’ve got a fight to win.”
Up top, the Ejjai battle groups moved into the city, blasting buildings, trying to flush out more helpless civilians to cut down.
They didn’t comprehend that they walked straight into a carefully laid, city-wide trap.
Until the Spacer ghost dragon squadrons and Marine fighter waves swept in to knock out their air cover and bomb their meatships.
In the midst of their triumph, the Ejjai forgot that flooding into the close and constricted confines of the city jammed up their superior numbers and armor.
Tens of thousands of heavily armed stealth Marines stepped out of the shadows like the phantoms they were. The Spacer Marines attacked right through the walls, blasting the startled Ejjai victors into heaps of burning, stinking meat.
And at the forefront of the assault, Naero unleashed her deadly Mystic skills.
To anyone looking on, a small female warrior dressed all in black, fought with her face masked and her long dark hair flowing.
If they were close enough, they could see her wide violet eyes blazing in fury. See her cut the reeling, terrified enemy down with two long fiery red swords. To anyone watching, it might appear that she fought with what seemed to be the strength and agility of a hundred men.
Survivors among the locals did catch glimpses of her lethal prowess in action as the fight raged, and stared in dumbfounded wonder at her terrifying Chaos abilities.
To them she became Shettana, a fleeting legend brought to life right before a desperate populace. A sign of hope. And the landers cheered and shouted her name throughout the city, until even the enemy took it up.
Ejjai screamed the name Shettana in fear, and tried to flee from her in panic, right before she hewed them in half and slew them.
Yet once that city was safe, the battle moved on to the next, wherever the enemy was strongest.
And after Nilar-2, hundreds of other worlds on the border now hung in the balance, awaiting succor and deliverance from the relentless, iron fist of the invaders. And there would be more grim work for Shettana and the doughty marines of Bravo Command.
52
As the war with the Ejjai invasion raged in confusion and chaos, all of the forty-nine Spacer Clans called an emergency Grand Conclave at the severely damaged naval station near Serrek-12.
While the nearby battles on the border still flared.
Once Nilar-2 and several more alliance worlds stood secured, other frightening news of a very different variety reached Naero.
So dire that she immediately left the fierce battles at the front to race back to join the Conclave. She feared greatly for her people. Afraid for them. Afraid what they might do in the midst of their great wrath.
Everyone in the Clans remained angry at what they had endured thus far at the hands of the Corps, and with good reason.
But then she heard that Admiral Klyne had been wounded again in a naval engagement with the foe.
And more importantly, that in Klyne’s absence, hateful zealots on the High Council like General Tobias Ingersol were attempting to inflame the Clans to madness, demanding swift and decisive revenge on their Corps enemies, who now floated helpless at their mercy.
The mad zealots demanded not just genocide for the crippled Corps navies, but Cosmicide for all landers in general.
Naero fully understood the desire for revenge, but it could not be allowed to guide Clan policy and doctrine.
For one thing, Naero and Baeven had updated the math on the enemy invasion strategy.
If the Ejjai invasion continued to advance and spread, even the Spacers would need an alliance with the rest of humanity, in order to have any chance at defeating the enemy. There was no other way around that reality. Destroying the Corps fleets now–as some demanded–might actually spell doom for all of humanity in the future.
Naero staggered into the teeming Conclave Hall on Serrek-12, completely exhausted from three long days of heavy fighting against the Ejjai invaders. Her combat armor and her cloak-coat tattered, filthy, and blood-soaked. Mostly Ejjai blood.
Yet some of the gore was her own, from several minor injuries. All of her reserves completely spent. She no longer had the strength to fully close or regenerate her wounds.
Blood ran down her arms and legs as she moved forward.
But she needed to reach the Conclave and have her say. As was the right of every Spacer by Spacer law. She needed to say things that needed to be said and heard. Things her parents would say if they were still around. Things her people had to hear, and know, and consider–before they made grave mistakes in
both military and moral judgment.
In the past seventy-two standard hours, Spacer forces at hand immediately counter-attacked along the length of the entire border of the war front, retaking and avenging forty-one of the initial one hundred and eighty-nine Alliance worlds under enemy siege or subjugation.
But thus far, Clan forces had neither offered nor provided even tactical assistance or aid to the same approximate number of helpless Gigacorps worlds. Stricken worlds suffering the same grim fates against the invaders on the other side of the border.
With no available forces to come to the rescue of their outmatched civilian populations.
Despite all of the atrocities committed against the Clans by the Corps, in her heart-of-hearts, Naero knew refusing to help the suffering Corps worlds to be a tremendous mistake.
She had once despised landers as well. Before she knew Tarim, and Arana, brave little Mally, and so many others.
Now when she even suggested to others among her own crews that they should surge forward to help the suffering landers, many of her friends and crew responded with impulsive words of anger and hate.
‘They wouldn’t help us! Why should we bother helping them?’
‘They’re getting exactly what they deserve.’
‘See how they like it!’
For months Spacers had suffered costly defeat after costly defeat, and found little mercy from their superior foes.
Now that those tables had turned, and the Corps were at the mercy of Spacers. Fewer and fewer were those who wanted to show them any compassion.
Yet from being at the front firsthand, Naero saw the invaders’ handiwork up close and personal.
Sometimes the Spacers got to their objectives in time.
Other times, they came too late.
Naero had seen firsthand the devastation on Rinnier-3.
It would most likely haunt her for the rest of her days to come.
When she and Walker’s Marines arrived in system, it was already all over for the landers.
There was no one to save. No one left to rescue or fight for.
A colony of eleven million explorers, merchants, and miners from numerous races. All gone. Cut down during the invasion, or already processed indiscriminately into Ejjai food rations. Via the horrific, robotic meatships.
Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit Page 35