“We’ll do our best Whizz.”
DG and Elzetro instantly sprang into action and dropped a number of anti-personnel turrets from their recharged nanite packets. Snarling Slayers came charging forward with eighteen-inch blades in their hands. Behind them, the Scourge Engineers materialised a couple of golden drones while the Shock troopers dropped to their knees and opened fire. Whizzbang’s squad were exposed against the doorway and for the Scourge it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Bullets pinged off armour as the Earthmen gathered around Whizzbang, their bodies providing cover so that he was not distracted from his task.
At last, Whizzbang felt a mental click and he instantly invaded the Slayers mind. Looking through his captive’s eyes Whizzbang began taking in his surroundings. He stood in a small empty antechamber with a door at either end leading into the main dome complex. Conveniently, his companion Slayer stood with its back to him only a few feet away, distracted by the faint noise of the attacking squad on the other side of the door.
Whizzbang walked his Slayer over to his companion, silently drew his blade and plunged it up to the hilt into its back. He then guided the body to the floor so as not to make too large a noise. Turning to the door Whizzbang’s Slayer entered the access code on the control interface and stepped back as the doorway parted in the middle. The Earthmen streamed into the antechamber to the sounds of ricocheting bullets.
Whizzbang ordered the Slayer outside before slamming his open palm against the emergency close button. A hail of gunfire previously aimed at the Earthmen shredded the Slayer and sent a shock rippling through his still linked mind. He quickly extricated himself from being in rapport with the doomed Scourge, just as he felt it drop to the ground outside, dead.
The zing and bang of gunfire from outside penetrated the antechamber and reverberated off the huge concave roof of the command dome. Scourge officers immediately abandoned their consoles and leapt to their feet in battle readiness. As quickly as the noise started, it vanished when the outside door slammed shut. Officers looked questioningly from one to another and within the centre of dome, General Grendig let out a low growl.
The Scourge command centre was immense. The dome rested on thirty pillars regularly interspersed around the circumference that raised the dome a further fifty feet off the floor. The reinforced plascrete pillars each had a girth of six people holding hands in a circle. The command centre was over three hundred feet across and from the middle of the floor to the domes peak was at least two hundred feet. The dome was fashioned from solid plasteel and rested on each of the immense pillars. A series of mounted automated gun emplacements looked down from where the pillars joined the dome.
Radiating out from the central throne, like spokes on a wheel, were places for almost a hundred officers to man consoles. Some of the officers were still standing while others had regained their seats. All of them had headsets in place that allowed them to communicate with strike leaders. General Grendig sat in the hub of the wheel on a raised dais and stared up at the three massive screens attached to girders high up in the dome.
As soon as the Earthmen walked from the antechamber into the command centre pandemonium broke loose. Scourge officers reached for non-existent weapons and screamed curses at their predicament instead.
“No weapons?” Bosk asked.
Whizzbang replied, “When you’re running an organisational structure based on fear you can’t afford to have lessors with guns around you. It’s likely they’ll be turned on you. The guy we’ve got to watch is…”
Just as Whizzbang completed his sentence, the command throne swivelled and General Grendig turned to face them. The General’s mouth split into an evil sharp-toothed smile and with a flick of his clawed hand, he pressed a red stud on the top of his right armrest.
Instantly the automated cannons mounted on top of each pillar swung around and started firing balls of superheated plasma at Whizzbang’s squad. Nano-heightened reflexes were all that saved them from annihilation as the squad split into six different directions on a blaze of jump jets.
As he shot upwards, DG dropped a number of small turrets and a health station in case any of the others required emergency meds. Elzetro followed suit and scattered additional turrets so that they deployed half way up the dome walls.
The blast of the Scourge auto-cannons, the turrets, jump jets and the squad’s returning fire reverberated off the metallic silver dome high overhead. The concave shape focused the sound down into the middle of the command centre in a deafening roar. General Grendig screamed a series of curses as he flicked a claw at another switch that powered a personal shield around his throne. The shield deadened the noise to a more bearable level and provided him protection from stray gunfire as he looked up at the spectacle taking place above him. Those officers closest to the throne lay sprawled comatose in their seats or writhing in pain beneath their consoles with blood pouring out of their ears.
While hurtling through the air Bosk and Whizzbang brought their Charge rifles to bear on a number of the cannons and silenced them in a pyrotechnic explosion of molten metal fragments. Scourge officers dove under tables and consoles in an effort to avoid the falling debris. Here and there, fires burst forth and belched black acrid smoke as reports, equipment and even flesh caught afire. Screams of the wounded and dying echoed off the dome above even as the automated cannons attempted to track and extinguish the Earthmen’s lives.
Pyro levelled his huge chain gun at a number of the cannons and sprayed them with depleted tellurite slugs as he shot towards the domes apex. Sparks and spent shells rained down onto those below in a torrent of metal and fire.
Bosk looked up as Elzetro blasted an auto-cannon and mentally cried out, “Elzetro left! Left, Left!”
Elzetro instantly pivoted in the air and blasted his jets at maximum just in time to dodge multiple plasma launches from three cannons. In the process of turning, he looked directly up at Pyro and yelled a thought, “Pyro! Dance right now!”
Without even thinking, Pyro sideslipped right through the air and used the concussive force of his massive chain gun to propel him faster than normal. Flecks of rapidly cooling plasma splashed harmlessly across his left side while the bulk of the super-hot liquid slammed into the plasteel dome, eating great chunks of the hybrid plastic metal before dissipating. Down below in the command centre, molten slag dropped from the roof, instantly incinerating desks, consoles and several Scourge officers.
Kheldar sent a barrage of fire towards the General’s chair but soon discovered that Grendig’s shield easily dissipated any direct attack. He then turned his attention to the auto-cannons and the health of his squad mates as he sent waves of nanomeds to bolster damaged frames.
It was mayhem above and below as bolt after bolt of energy sought the deaths of the Earthmen and yet each time they managed to dodge out of the way in the nick of time. The devastation below was immense. Bodies littered the floor and purple blood sprayed the walls in a multi-coloured display of the devastation wrought from the battle above. Still sitting on his command throne in the centre of the complex the General was immune to the carnage and ignored the cries and screams of his officers as they died.
Whizzbang sent a thought to the squad, “Bosk, cover me! I’m going to try and drop the outer shield.” Glancing at his wrist chronometer, he thought to himself, “Any second now.”
Bosk replied, “CT Whizz!”
Sitting on desks and equipment Elzetro’s and DG’s turrets extracted their deadly toll. Any sensible Scourge officer kept their head down with their hands firmly over their ears to dull the noise of the gunfire.
Outside the command dome, Strike Leader Aldarg struggled to bring some sense of order to the chaos. The surprise assault on the fortress from within the Barrier shook him to his core. “How could this be?” he thought to himself.
It was clear that the three times accursed StarBlade was leading the attack and that he was now inside the command dome itself. How the Concord pilots managed to breach the
outer plasteel doorway would be a matter for later investigation. As soon as he had assessed the situation, he ordered the mobile cannons from the barracks brought up so that they could blast their way in.
“Squad Leader Barrav,” Strike Leader Aldarg barked.
“Yes sir!”
“Take your squad and find out what’s taking those cannon’s so long!”
Squad Leader Barrav slung his sniper rifle onto his back, ordered his squad to fall in behind him and raced off in the direction of the barracks. Messengers from the outer wall reported no activity and the Barrier was still clear of all hostiles. At least that is good news Aldarg thought to himself.
Six massive explosions, each one quickly after the other, rocked the ground under Strike Leader Aldarg’s feet. The shockwaves flowed out from the direction of the Barrier towers flattening temporary structures like a rampaging deranged Spyderlynx. Bolts, nuts and plasteel sheeting whizzed and zinged like bullets outward from the epicentre of the explosions, cutting warriors in half or riddling them full of holes. Scourge soared through the air like flotsam on the surface of the sea and Aldarg watched as Squad Leader Barrav pin wheeled end over end past him. It was only by instinctively reaching out and grabbing the command dome’s entrance support beam that the Strike Leader did not find himself in similar circumstances.
Aldarg screamed in agony as the explosive pressure wave passed over him, rupturing his inner ear drum in its destructive journey. Purple blood seeped out of each ear canal and his knees collapsed beneath him as the intensity of the pain continued to increase. Finally, after what seemed minutes but was only seconds he gained some semblance of control over himself and unsteadily stood to his feet.
As he rested one hand against the support beam, he gingerly tested his balance as he said to himself, “What was that?”
Through the dust and smoke, Strike Leader Aldarg looked up in horror as he watched the enormous twenty story high Barrier towers, sway back and forth like two trees in a strange dance, waiting for the final bow at the end of a song only they could hear. In a wrenching scream of plasteel reinforced plascrete, the outer pylons that supported the tower’s superstructure finally crumbled and gave way. Even while the Barrier lightning continued to flow up and down their height the two towers parted company for the last time.
Both structures teetered and gained momentum as they fell towards the ground below. Finally, with a crash and a roar like a wounded animal, both buildings collapsed along the north and south sides of the command dome and shattered into their component parts. The resulting concussive impact of thousands of tons of structure slamming into the ground sent multiple waves of destruction across the fortress. Windows shattered in outbuildings, buildings blew apart and the outer wall breeched in two places. Scourge that were once alive and well, were now nothing but a memory, buried under fifty feet of rubble.
As the Barrier towers collapsed, dust and smoke jetted out of portals and cooling vents, forming a great billowing grey cloud. With a final crash, torrents of fine particulates flooded the area, gushing around the still intact command dome and covering the entire fortress in an eerie white powder.
Coughing violently from the quantity of dust he had inhaled, Strike Leader Aldarg wretched violently and gasped for breath in between each tumultuous heave of his stomach.
“I am still alive! I am truly a Scourge!” Aldarg thought to himself.
Ripping off a section of his uniform, he tied it around his mouth and eyes to afford at least some ability to both see and breathe. That was when he noticed that the purple haze of the Barrier was gone.
High up in the stratosphere Selfia looked out a portal in the side of her drop ship at the landscape far below. Even though it was dark, she could see Barrier lightning crackling its purple haze back and forth, illuminating the mountains like some strange strobe light.
Tilting her head to her side, she spoke into her comnet, “Selfia niner, three, one, four to General Alban”
“Alban three six four eight copy Selfia.”
“Any news General?”
“Nothing as yet. We’re almost at bingo fuel and we’ll have to turn back within the next fifteen minutes.”
“I’m sure that Commander Whizzbang and his squad will come through.”
“We can only hope Selfia. Hang on a second…”
Selfia could hear the General furiously tapping at instruments in the cockpit of the lead drop ship before she said, “Self, can you check if you can see the Barrier?”
“I was just looking at…..hang on. It’s gone! They’ve done it!”
General Alban switched from Selfia to broadcasting across the entire local comnet. “General Alban to all drop ships the Barrier is down, I repeat, the Barrier is down! Drop all cargo in thirty seconds.”
Selfia could not hide her smile as she thumped Tiny on the back, “Time to smash Tiny!”
Tiny smiled his trademark shattered teeth grin, spat out his old cigar and in the blink of an eye, a newly lit one materialised in his mouth. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment. I knew those Earthmen were built of tough stuff.”
Selfia squeezed Acheron’s hand and whispered, “I love you Ach.”
“I love you too Self.”
“You keep yourself safe down there.”
“I will, if you will Self.”
Tilting her head again to the comnet Selfia said, “Selfia niner, three, one, four to Gardner and Happy.”
“Gardner, five, five, five, five here.”
“Happy, niner, three, two, seven here.”
One of these days, she was going to have to ask Gardner about his unusual number designator. “Gentlemen we leave in fifteen seconds. I wish you and your squads all the best as we finally rid Alpha Three of the Scourge.”
“CT Selfia,” came Gardner’s drawl reply, “It will be a time well remembered.”
“Tonight’s drinks are on me Self,” Happy replied.
Selfia watched as the large launch door at the back of the drop ship opened, revealing the sight of a dozen vessels behind them. A similar number were ahead and filled every operational battleframe the Concord could muster. The roar of the wind drowned out conversations that were not via the ear pieces built into each battleframe’s comnet.
General Alban’s voice crackled, “Battleframe pilots ready to deploy on my mark. May God be with us all. Five, four three, two, one, mark.”
In an orderly fashion, the battleframes exited the ramp, energised their gliding wings and formed up around their individual Squad Leaders. As designated Group Strike Leader, Selfia was at the apex of the “V” formation, leading the way for the nearly one hundred pilots.
Whizzbang spun wildly in the air, dodging Scourge auto-cannon fire while the rest of the squad played their own game of chicken with the cannons that were tracking them. As luck would have it, he gained a moments respite as the cannons targeting systems tried to predict the movements of the darting, wheeling and dashing figures of the rest of the squad. He had to work out how to shut off the shield generators. Hanging onto a huge girder attached to one of the giant monitors in the domed roof Whizzbang took a quick breather to assess the situation
Fires continued to burn around the command centre, consoles sparked and spewed choking dark black smoke. The good news was the smoke seemed to disrupt the auto cannons tracking systems so that they were not as accurate.
Gunfire continued to reverberate off the domed roof in brief controlled bursts. The deafening noise of each expended bullet sounded like a herd of stampeding cattle. Whizzbang watched his squad mates darting in and out of the smoke and slowly but surely getting the best of the auto cannons. It looked like DG had received a blast to his right side. It would take a long time before the nanites could repair a hole that size in his armour. He must be feeling it Whizzbang thought.
Suddenly, it felt like the whole dome lurched into the air and then dropped back in place. Desks, chairs, monitors and consoles shot upwards and came crashing down. Whizzbang
used a quick blast of his jump jets to maintain his position holding onto the girder.
“Looks like the Barrier towers have just come down.”
“Is that was that was,” Pyro telepathically replied.
Elzetro yelled jubilantly, “Yeeeehaaaa!”
Amongst the excitement, DG knew he was in trouble. He had lost count of the number of plasma bursts that he had dodged while he continuously lashed out with his Tesla lightning gun. He had already disabled a number of auto-cannons but it appeared that the remaining guns were taking their revenge by tracking and firing at him continuously.
“Hey guys, I think I’ve got a problem here.”
Pyro answered, “Drop straight down and get out of there DG. I can see that you’re frame has already suffered a hit on the right. See if you can give it some time to repair.”
“Sorry guys, I’m…”
For a second time, burning hot plasma engulfed DG’s right side and he felt himself tossed like a leaf on the wind across towards the centre of the dome. Even a battleframe is no match for the super-heated elements that normally reside in the centre of a star. The pain in his side was unbearable and thankfully, his body did the only thing that it could do. He passed out. The problem was that he was still over a hundred feet above the command dome floor when his jump jets failed.
As if in a dream, Whizzbang watched DG take a second hit. Plasma greedily ate at his battleframe armour and the force of the impact blasted his friend into the centre of the dome. Whizzbang cried out as DG’s unconscious body crashed to the floor at the foot of General Grendig’s dais. There would be no emergency porting from this side of Alpha Three.
“Man down, man down! Kheldar, can you heal DG?” Whizzbang screamed his thoughts as he lined up his Charge rifle on the General.
In a panicked thought Kheldar replied, “I’m all out! I need some time to recharge!”
Whizzbang pressed the firing stud just as the General’s throne detached itself from the dais and hovered towards DG’s body. The beam splattered against the General’s shields and Whizzbang watched through his scope as Grendig looked directly up at him then smiled, with the full force of his sharpened teeth. It was grotesque; macabre; the look of pure evil. He was safe in the knowledge that no weapon that the hated StarBlade possessed could penetrate his shield.
Battleframe (The Mindwars Book 1) Page 33