"That, my friend, is trouble. They are using dropships to create a dust cloud and then bringing in heavy landers to drop forces behind it. We could do with air cover out here."
The optical unit on his visor tried to adjust to the distant shapes, but the cloud of dust continued to grow until the entire horizon vanished before his eyes. Orders continued to be sent out from Arana surveying the defences from her position high above the others. All the while the workers and engineers brought by the Exiles continued to slave away at the wall, filling in gaps, mending damaged plates, and placing yet more layers of the tough Nanocrystals.
"Yeah. Shame Makos isn't here. We could definitely use a few squadrons of Byotai fighters."
The Jötnar shifted, and his Blood Pack armour groaned.
"How many are there?"
Khan continued looking to the South, but the cloud still blocked his view of the ground and the sky. It might as easily have been a conventional dust storm, yet this was clearly artificial. He kept his eyes glued to the position where he'd seen the shapes and waited. It was not easy, but as the minutes ticked by, so did the sharpness of the image. Khan's jaw hung down low as he looked in astonishment at the force before them, just as they vanished into the cloud once more.
"I...I can't..."
He looked back to Olik who was still issuing orders to the other soldiers. He looked liked a robotic monster compared to the diminutive size of the other defenders.
"Well?"
"Byotai land vehicles and..."
Khan shook his head.
"...and lots of animals, beasts like the ones the Red Scars used before."
Olik lifted his firearm and checked the ammunition feed before glancing back to his friend. He seemed far less surprised by the creatures than Khan was.
"Red Scars? I thought we'd smashed them in the North."
Then for some reason the mention of the animals seemed to peak his interest.
"Yeah, we did. Looks like them, anyway. Maybe Nakoma is using them to lead the attack. Revenge I'd expect. She is one cruel bitch."
Olik looked back, and his armoured helm opened up to show a confused looking Jötnar.
"What kind of animals are you talking about exactly?"
Khan pointed off to the South and then looked back as one of the Exiles began to speak. It was the young soldier with the modified hunting rifle he had spoken with earlier. The translator took a moment, but Khan recognised some of the verbs immediately.
"They are Red Scars. You could tell by the pennants on their mounts. Like our ancestors, they use the Sekieki for reconnaissance and for raiding."
Khan checked to his left and then to his right, making sure the loose alliance of settlers, soldiers, and mercenaries was in position and ready. The figures ranged in height from the diminutive form of Helion freebooters, to the heavily armed Exiles, and the monstrous hulking shapes of the Blood Pack.
"Ready the mortars. We will engage them at the five-kilometre mark."
He then looked back to the wall and up to Arana who was still at the top. She lifted an arm in acknowledgement, and then Khan's internal communicator clicked on the open network. While this continued the soldiers and civilians in the forward position made subtle adjustments to all of their weapons. Guns and mortars were sighted on the predetermined positions far out into the distance.
"This will be the first ground assault against the wall and our new defences, but I promise you, it will not be the last. We will hold them here, and every other time they try and take Melantias."
Khan looked carefully at her while he noticed a subtle change around him. The ground itself was gently vibrating. Not enough to move earth, but he could detect it. He looked back to the South as the great cloud of dust came ever closer. The thermal imagery of his armour tried to penetrate, but the dust cloud covered a large area, and its density made it difficult to penetrate.
How can anything even breathe in the middle of all that?
As he watched and waited, the sound of Arana's soothing voice called out along the fortifications they'd erected. A quick glance behind him showed hundreds of settlers moving into the trench behind Spartan's Wall.
"Defenders of Melantias. Stand your ground and listen to your sub commanders. Those on or behind the wall will follow the directions I have laid out. All outer defences to the South are now under the command of Captain Khan. Follow his orders and defend your sectors. Do not let them through."
As she finished speaking, the first shapes emerged from the dust cloud. Khan looked out and shook his head in amazement. They had almost reached the five-kilometre markers out on the open ground, and just as he'd ordered, the mortars crews were getting ready. There were all manner of light to medium weapons in the fortress, but of them all, the mortars were perhaps the simplest, yet perfect to defend the open approaches to the wall.
Here it comes, finally.
Khan activated all of his systems and then took aim with his Blood Pack Thumper. The weapon was unfamiliar to him, but it hadn't taken much practice to get used to the device. The cloud still obscured the bulk of the enemy formation, but it was now led by dozens of modified vehicles, like some great vehicular horde that had risen from a scrapyard. Khan began counting as they moved ever closer to the white markings made on the rocks at the five-kilometre mark.
"Fire!"
Scores of mortars opened fire, launching simple impact activated high-explosive charges into the air. The majority were from the stocks collected up on Helios Prime, and were 81mm Alliance Marine Corps issue weapons. The man portable weapons weighed nearly forty kilograms and could unleash a bombardment at a rate of fifteen rounds per minute. The thud of mortars filled the air as hundreds of rounds dropped down, hitting the dust cloud and those hidden within. Flashes of yellow filled the horizon from the initial volleys doing their work.
"Looking good, Khan, I have multiple impacts and major secondary explosions. Should we..."
Khan didn't wait but lifted his left arm to point at the explosions.
"Reduce range, cascading pattern. Keep firing, let them all burn!"
He then looked to Olik before clamping his helm shut.
"It's payback time, my friend. Nakoma will finally face my wrath."
Olik checked the rest of the Blood Pack squad was still nearby and then moved along the bastion, encouraging the different warriors to keep on firing. Loading and firing was a laborious process, and it was easy for the gunners to slacken off if not pushed. One Helion mercenary clambered up the ridge and yelled back to Olik. Either the fool had left his translator off, or it was non-functioning. The only word he recognised was the last one.
"Anicinàbe!"
As he called out the last syllable, a flurry of heavy projectiles flew overhead. Khan edged to the right as he spotted an entire barrage coming his way. His gut instinct was to move, but he was well aware the morale of his combined force was untested. There was more to the coming fight than just numbers; he needed to show them there was nothing to fear. One nearly hit his shoulder, and then continued on to hit the wall far behind him. Rock would have splintered, but the Nanocrystal surface layer absorbed the impact and spread out the energy to a much wider area.
"Steady," he said in a firm yet calm tone.
The horizon lit up as hundreds, perhaps thousands of weapons opened fire. From his position at the Southern wall of the bastion, it looked as though a fleet of ships had just switched on their lights, but Khan knew what was coming.
"Take cover!"
The second volley was massive, like a hailstorm, but with projectiles coming in on a flat trajectory. The Helion soldier turned and jumped down, but it was too little too late. A large calibre shell struck and decapitated him with the precision of an executioner. The poor mercenary's head was blasted off, leaving a headless corpse balanced sickeningly at the top of the ridge, like some cruel totem.
"Stay down I said."
Khan checked his flanks and noted with satisfaction the defenders were now keepin
g their heads down, while the mortar crews continued to drop in bomb after bomb. He glanced backwards; hundreds of sparks as hardened slugs struck the slick, glossy surface of the wall. Few penetrated, the majority absorbed or deflected by the crystalline paste.
"Arana, are we good?"
The reply was instantaneous.
"All fine here. I have militia and Exile platoons on the walls, and squads of Widows at the towers, as planned."
"And my reserve?"
The next barrage was so loud Khan could barely make out Arana, even inside the acoustically stable interior of his Blood Pack armour.
"...Helion 5 and the Blood Pack are waiting. The Brothers are agitated. Are you sure they are the best to stay here?"
Khan licked his lips as he considered that.
"Understood, I'll send Olik back there. They will follow him as they would follow me."
Olik spotted two Byotai settlers climbing down from the rampart and slinking towards the rear of the bastion. He called after them but instead of turning back, they ran. Olik twisted around to Khan.
"Not good, my friend. Their staying power is...untested."
Khan saw what had happened, and as he looked at the faces of the many different warriors, he could almost smell the fear on them. He leaned in to Olik.
"Get back to the wall and command the reserve. I need somebody reliable back there."
Olik nodded and didn't seem particularly surprised at the order.
"And the Brothers?"
Khan smiled happily before answering.
"Send them here. I have plenty they can get on with."
Olik moved back without saying another word, leaving Khan with just five guards. As he reached the rear of the bastion, he looked back. Khan was climbing up to the highest position on the Southern rampart, right alongside the fallen Helion officer. Khan pushed the body down to the other side so that it slid from view. He then looked back to the horrified and frightened defenders.
"Stand your ground and fight with us. I will never leave you."
Olik shook his head and moved out of the bastion, making for one of the security gates at the base of the wall. Back at the bastion, Khan and his entourage took aim with their Thumpers. The dust cloud had thickened this close to the wall, and his visibility dropped to less than a kilometre. At least this close he could see the front of the great horde. There were wheeled vehicles and creatures as far as he could see. He connected to Olik. He was now at the wall and moving inside.
"Good work, Olik, my friend. Make sure they are ready. This is going to get violent."
Khan took aim at the nearest group of creatures and pulled the trigger of the Thumper.
"Fire!"
Gunfire erupted along the line of the bastion as Byotai settlers, Exiles, Jötnar, and a bizarre assortment of mercenaries opened fire. Behind them they were joined by the crackle of small arms as the defenders atop the wall joined in.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Prior to the Uprising of 330CC, the armed forces consisted of the powerful Confederate Navy, as well as the Marine Corps and the sprawling Confederate Army. The Army was raised locally, recruits and officers taken from the regional recruitment areas. Equipped with heavy armour and equipment, they were a force to be reckoned with. Though cheaper to maintain and train than the more specialist Marine Corps, they also proved notoriously unreliable. In the Uprising, entire armies changed sides at the whim of their commanding officers. With soldiers coming from a single geographical location, they were much less likely to turn on their own, making command and control next to impossible. One of the immediate consequences of the war was the disbanding of the Army, and its replacement with a far more basic and less sophisticated Colonial Guard. Though often taking the names and history from the regular Army units, this new force was a shadow of its former self, with no ships, transports, or heavy weaponry. The Marine Corps was enlarged and its capacity improved to take on the role now vacated by the Army. The Colonial Guard would never leave their homeworlds, and their loyalties would stay with their own people.
The Fighting Forces of the Alliance
70Kms South of Melantias, Karnak
Spartan held on tightly as the Skiff banked hard to the left. The movement was followed by a sickening lurch as they dropped down behind another of the dunes and out of sight of what remained of the small column. Most of the clan machines were being moved along the Maglev system, but constant attacks on the line by two of his Skiffs had slowed them down. Now this advance party of twelve lightly armed vehicles had been sent ahead to clear the route for the convoy.
"Good shooting!" Syala yelled. "That's the troops transports gone."
Spartan looked back at the burning wrecks of the wheeled vehicles. They might have been fast, but compared to the Skiffs were little more than slow, fat, easy targets.
"Get down!" snapped one of the Khreenk mercenaries. His translator even managed to increase in volume at the end, giving some sense of urgency. Spartan ducked, and a burst of sharp metal harpoons flashed overhead and embedded in the ground. Spartan quickly identified three much lighter vehicles. Each was packed with clan warriors out for revenge.
Okay, that's not so good.
A Black Widow took aim with her gyro-stabilised cannon and opened fire. The high-velocity slugs from the electrically fed L48 variant almost seemed to home in on the first vehicle and punched holes the size of beer bottles through its armour.
"Get out of here, now!"
The Skiffs separated, and the crews opened fire on their pursuers. Few of the rounds hit, with the exception of those fired by the stabilised weapons. Spartan and Syala led two more Skiffs to the right; the others vanished behind another set of dunes. Spartan's Skiff twisted to the right, dropping down to its legs to become a stationary gunnery platform. It was a risky manoeuvre but also the only way any of them on board would be able to offer much in the way of resistance.
Positioned off into the distance, and on both flanks, were two more of the Skiffs in just the same position. Each vehicle was near the top of the reverse slope so that only the weapons and crew were barely visible.
"Here they come," said Syala.
The two lightly armoured wheeled vehicles leapt over the peak of the dune in a great cloud of dust. These were looted vehicles from Byotai stocks, and had been little changed other than the addition of clan pennants and markings. The driver of the lead vehicle must have spotted something because he tried to turn away to their left. It was too late, and a volley of thermal weaponry from the Helion 5 sharpshooters quickly devastated the engine unit. The vehicle lost power and moved on a short distance until it came to a stop. That was when the low-velocity energy blast from the Khreenk hit it. The green energy struck with such power the entire machine vanished in a power flash.
Spartan turned his attention to the second that was gunning its engine to get closer. The clan warriors on the rear were blazing away, but with the vehicle bouncing about so much, there was little chance of them hitting a thing.
"Bring it down!"
A fusillade of thermal rifles opened up from the right, but this time the vehicle managed to keep going. Two clan warriors were blown off the back, and still it moved on. One even managed to embed a round into the flank of Spartan's personal Skiff, much to his annoyance. He shook his head, lifted his carbine, and put two rounds into the driver. A metal screen might have protected the unfortunate soul, but the magnetically cased rounds of plasma had no problem penetrating it.
That's better.
The vehicle overturned, and more thermal rounds struck the underside, setting off a series of explosions that ripped the machine apart. Little remained of the burning wreck as it tumbled down the other side of the dune. Spartan looked back to Syala and opened his visor. His face was grubby, and sweat dripped from his brow.
"That time was pretty close. We need to be more careful."
Syala shrugged.
"Maybe. But that's the fifth scout unit we've peeled off in the last ten ho
urs. They're starting to panic, and we're delaying their advance."
The distance scream of an aircraft's engines pulled his attention from the attack. A fourth Skiff further back was already on it, and Spartan watched with satisfaction as a pair of missiles launched simultaneously. The Rapier unit was an interesting one, and its ability to launch up to three missiles at the same time had proven invaluable.
"Alert, incoming warheads."
The computer's voice was calm, yet stern enough to catch Spartan's attention. The Rapier system and the communication units used by Spartan and the others were fully integrated, using the Secgrid architecture provided by CTC. It was much more advanced than the one he'd used in Alliance Marine Corps, and was already being rolled out to all front line units for command and control. Though offering much the same capabilities as the existing tech, the new CTC system featured a number of open protocols that made it simple to connect new systems, software, and machines directly to it. All secpads were now designed to use the same infrastructure, as well as secure partial data connections to the public Cortex.
"Commandos, move out."
The name was not strictly correct, but with three different units of mercenaries, it proved much simpler to use one word to describe them all. The title also had the ability to unify them, and already they were developing something akin to an esprit de corps. The Skiffs left the area seconds before the laser-guided munitions struck around them. Though carefully targeted, the great speed and manoeuvrability of the Skiffs made them difficult to hit. The Rapier system had proven adept at both hitting aerial targets as well as scaring others off.
They are not the masters of the sky they thought they were.
Spartan brought up an overhead map of the immediate area North of the enemy positions, as they continued to weave around the dust dunes. According to the map, the old Maglev system ran through low depressions filled with large rocks. They were large as buildings, and their surfaces wiped clean by dust storms. As he looked at the topographical data, he was pleasantly surprised to find new overhead scans coming in and automatically updating his current information.
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