“Boy, we need you to do this for us.”
I didn’t know why he kept calling me “boy,” as he never called anyone else that way. Tailor just stared at me while Winters explained the situation.
“General Qualt of the Eres race is stranded here.” He pointed at the holographic map projected on his table and then tapped his index finger several times. “He’s hunkered down with the entirety of the Second Army, which amounts to almost a million Eres soldiers that are sitting between two Aloi armies.”
“What do you expect me to do about it?”
“Oh, we’ll save them, boy. Don’t you worry about that.”
“But sir, how did he come to get stuck there?”
He looked up at me and nodded slightly as if pleased by my question. It was obvious the man was looking for someone to talk to, and since I was the first to arrive, he used me to relieve some of his stress.
“General Qualt led his army in a full-frontal attack on the Sardok Mine, which is, as you know, the biggest detrium production facility on this side of the continent, in hope of scoring a swift victory. He had ground and air superiority, abundant intelligence reports, and most of all, he was a damn legendary commander.”
“So what went wrong? Sir?”
“What didn’t go wrong?” he snapped. “Those morons in the Navy let a whole fucking fleet of Aloi carriers through and broke the orbital blockade with frigates and fighters. How the hell they managed to fuck up so badly, I have no idea, but they did, and what’s even worse, they landed a whole Aloi army on top of Qualt and his forces. What they want us to do now is to go and save the Second Army,” Winters hissed and slammed his fist against the table as if it was somehow my fault.
“I can’t describe how excited I am to join this endeavor.” I spewed as enthusiastically as a man reading a eulogy. The sarcasm was lost on Winters, however.
He looked back up at me and nodded, his lips curled up slightly.
“The general is here, Stavos. He’s hunched down between the Sardok Mine and this area here. He managed to steal a pretty defensible position, but he has had massive losses.”
I hated where he was going. Don’t get me wrong, I was amped up for war more than I had ever been, but the longer the colonel spoke, the more I felt like my killing spree would be very short-lived. The meaning of Winters’ words piled up into a heap of shit that weighed more with each sentence. I screamed internally, wanting to know my place in this hell.
I opened my mouth to ask another question, but Tailor shook his head.
“Shh,” he said, pressing a long index finger against his lips.
“This needs to be executed perfectly!” the colonel yelled. I knew Winters for years and the outbursts of his were nothing new, but I had never seen him so completely nerve-wracked. The mission itself may have been tough, but this type of behavior in superior officers could spell catastrophe even if everything else worked out great. He made me nervous, and I hated him for it.
“But that’s not all, boy, as the fucking Navy is all in disarray! Now we have fifty battleships closing the hole in our blockade while more goddamn Aloi keep streaming in! They want that piss for...”
Winter’s face was like a meaty steam pot spilling spit from his mouth and onto his white beard. “That damn fucking mine! They won’t fucking have it!” He slammed his hand onto the table. I didn’t flinch, but I was slightly flustered. The man was losing his mind, but the main thought that came to my mind was how he must’ve explained this plan twenty times already. How the hell could he still get so angry about this? That made me wonder who his first victim was. Poor schmuck must have had a shower in Winters’ spit.
Tailor finally stepped in and took over. Thank life for Tailor, as I wasn’t able to stand Winters for another second. He was the usual no-shit tough-guy Tailor, formal, abrasive, but straight to the point:
“It’s two versus one out there, Stavos. The general doesn’t have much time and we’re the only reinforcements. We have less than two regiments: one human and the other Oolan’Jin. We have two Mark 2 mech legions with us that just arrived from space, as you’ve noticed. We also have one Mark 4 mech, the Donnerjack.” He stopped as he noticed the look in my eyes. The Donnerjack was a legendary mech that had spawned an entire line of toys, even the so-called Mech-Pla and Mech-Alloy lines where you had to assemble the mech and all his extensions, weapons, and armor plating with hand from plastic or special lightweight metallic alloys.
This was a very serious situation though, as the Donnerjack was a Mark 4; only an Imminy could pilot it. Imminy on the ground, shit’s bout to cloud, we used to say. There was the explanation to Winters’ more-than-usual shit mood.
“I see, sir,” I replied as I tried to remain calm on the surface.
“So you understand? We’re attacking into an entire army outside of a mine’s range, you know what that means?”
“Full artillery on both sides.”
“Full artillery on both sides, anti-air, anti-ground, anti-everything. We’re going to the ninth circle of hell and you”—he stopped and laughed for a second before finishing his sentence—“you’ll be digging for the tenth.”
I didn’t find it so funny, but I joined in on the laughter, not wanting to kill the mood. And with it annoy the two commanders.
Winters coughed and interrupted Tailor’s speech.
“We’ll have the Imminy’s eyes on our backs, so we better prove ourselves today. You won’t let us down, soldier! Do you hear me?”
“Yes, sir,” I said calmly. And fuck you, sir, I thought inwardly.
“Skull Company will fly over the battlefield, Sergeant. Do you follow me? The whole company is going behind enemy lines.”
“With fighters in the air, sir? And anti-air on the ground?” I couldn’t help myself.
This was a complete suicide mission. Winters was throwing us to the wolves to impress the Imminy. The trapped general and his army needed real support in the form of a whole army and real air superiority. Instead, we had two regiments and a space battle overhead raining explosions and debris on the battlefield. Why was Tailor on board with this?
“Exactly, Sergeant. That way you’ll warm up for what comes after landing.”
“I’m sorry, sir, I have to ask: how are we supposed to survive this?”
Winters slammed his hands on the table.
“Is this how your sergeants answer to your orders, Captain? No wonder my fucking regiment is in disorder!” He turned to stare at me and growled. “Do your goddamn job, boy!” he hissed pointing his finger at me.
I did the only thing a soldier could when a higher-up pisses in his face.
“Yes, sir.”
To certain death in a dropship, yes, sir. To certain death at landfall, yes, sir. To certain death fighting an army with a company, yes, sir. Whatever you want, you fucking piece of decorated shit! All the politics played had surely gotten him far, but if you weren’t real officer material, you would fall from grace sooner or later.
I stood there silently as they explained how we would land in Sardok Mine and attack the Aloi army within. Just us, Skull Company, while the rest of the regiment would attack the enemy position from the side. Once we established a perimeter and weakened the Aloi in the mine, General Qualt would heroically swoop in and take the mine. That way, we would secure both a strong defensive position but also force the Aloi to retreat. Great, they were already setting this whole thing up so others would get the fame. Nothing new, I guessed.
“One more thing, Sergeant,” Tailor said as I was about to leave. “You’ll coordinate the Technomancers once you hit land, and don’t even ask why. You’ll see when you get there.”
Of course! There was no better way of explaining things than to say “you’ll see when you get there.”
I left Winters’ office in a weird mix of moods. On the one hand, I wanted to murder Winters for how he dealt with the whole situation. I bet it wasn’t even the Imminy’s order to attack the Aloi army like this. No, I bet
Winters said something in the manner of us happily wanting to die for the Federation. On the other hand, I wanted to bloody the grounds of Detera with as much Aloi blood as possible.
My whole life I felt cursed for choosing the path of the Technomancer. People were equally awed and terrified by our class. Some of the best Technomancers in the galaxy were individuals whose physical abilities were only outshined by their self-control and restraint. Having to witness one of us being confined within a bot and forced into slavery was terrifying, at least for me. From that all-enveloping fear came all-enveloping anger. Anger that clouded my judgment enough to ignore all the warning signs of this mission, and oh boy, there were many of them.
Some seventy drop ships flew over the battlefield, escorted by four fighter squadrons. The ground below was a killing field. Two regiments together with two mech legions spearheaded by the Donnerjack charged into an entire Aloi army. Pieces of spacecraft rained on both ground forces as broadside salvos tore into the gargantuan hulls of Star-Eaters and Crusader-class battleships, ripping out chunks that streaked the skies like comet showers.
We had lost fifteen of the seventy dropships that were supposed to land on Sardok Mine before we even got into drop range. The fighters protecting us were almost completely wiped out, and I even lost visual of the ground force’s advance. We were now directly above the mine and the anti-air cannon fire had become too intense. We had to drop down there but nobody knew how we would land alive. It was like throwing yourself into a field of knives and hoping you’d get stabbed somewhere it didn’t hurt too much.
Tailor’s words came back to me as I had to do something.
“Drop now or die!” the pilot screamed; the man was out of his mind.
“Be ready to jump,” I said both over the Technomancer and my own squad channels. A chorus of “yes, sir” followed quickly. I winced inwardly, not interested to lead such a large group of people in the least, but if someone could do it, it was me.
“Sir? Do we stick with the techies?” Layla asked.
I nodded and tapped my INAS again. “I’ll jump first. You follow ten seconds after I’m gone. Don’t use the landing thrusters until I give the command, and most of all, be ready to fight as soon as we land.”
My squadmates nodded and Layla looked quite excited as she hugged her hammer.
“Will we survive this?” Leo asked with fear plastered to his face.
“See you on the ground,” I replied and looked through the hatch.
The mine was right beneath us; it was a bloody fortress filled with half a million Aloi. Anti-air rounds exploded around the ship. Streaks of bullet fire, detonations, screams, and death accompanied me as I jumped right into the Aloi maw of death from a damned tiny troop transporter. All three of my familiars followed with me.
Other Technomancers trickled from their dropships, one after the other, as I did my best to make a target that was small as possible. First a dozen, then several dozen, and finally a score of Technomancers followed after me along with whatever familiars they had. We had a single goal: draw enemy fire so the rest of our people could drop in as well.
The air smelled so bad that I wanted to throw up. It was filled with smoke, burned detrium, and burning fuel. I popped my Blade Shield on as I streaked toward the ground, finishing the first step with that. The second one was harder as I had to extend the protective field of the shield enough for everyone behind me to benefit from it. I used a hundred O-Nan cells, which was almost half my capacity to spread the shield out. I had to be careful not to do it too quickly or the nanites would spread out too much, weakening their effectiveness.
I glanced over to the other dropships as I kept falling, now going slower thanks to the shield. Dozens of shields spread in the air as the others followed my lead. It was a strange sight if I had to say so, as we looked like grey umbrellas that were falling from the sky.
“Squads, drop now!”
Leo, Layla, and the other squads from our dropship followed right after me. My extended Blade Shield worked pretty well until the Aloi realized what was going on and they started focusing on myself and the other Technomancers, firing barrages at our shields.
Private Hew from Squad 19 was the first to eat an anti-air projectile. It broke through his shield and picked the promising young Technomancer from the sky. The rest of his squad, now completely defenseless, quickly followed his untimely demise. I had to focus on my own though, so I focused on doing my job.
My tactic was good. Out of the remaining 700 soldiers or so, more than 500 made landfall across Sardok Mine. The problem now wasn’t the landing, it was the fact we announced ourselves in the worst possible manner. Not only did we tell them we were coming, but we also told them exactly where we landed. It was either that or dying midair. What a choice. Fuck you, Winters. Fuck you for all of this. If I survived today, I’d make sure to pay him back for killing most of us off.
Just before I was about to hit the dirt, I turned on my thrusters, slowing my descent. I had visuals of the enemies on the ground, and oh boy, what a view. Thousands of Raintroopers were firing at our shields, which were depleting very quickly. I couldn’t spare more O-Nans on renewing it because I had to leave something for the fighting itself, and of course, for repairing my familiars.
As if on cue, my trusty Beast sent out a missile barrage just before he hit the ground, his four legs absorbing the blow. The tiny missiles tore into the enemy lines where the Raintroopers were thickest, killing them by the dozens. More assault bots fired their payloads while others were shot out of the sky, showering the ground beneath with nanites.
I cut my thrusters and dropped on the roof of one of the storage facilities. My shield was gone but none of the Raintroopers were quick enough to kill me. I dropped flat on the ground and out of their visual range, buying myself several precious seconds.
I scanned the enemy positions on my INAS. A big bunker teeming with Raintroopers and several Ravagers sat about fifty yards to my right. What better way to come in than with a bang, right?
I jumped from the roof onto a portion of the wall that surrounded the Sardok Mine as I ordered Beast to get into Siege Mode. Bucky and Buzzard followed after me. The small drone, which was four times the size than it had been at the start, was equipped with mini-guns, and boy did he let loose. A small generator on top of his back created a forcefield that let projectiles out but protected the drone from any incoming fire smaller than a missile. It fed on basically anything to restore its energy, but under such fire, I didn’t have high hopes for the little bugger.
Bullets followed my acrobatics and slammed into the railing and wall behind me as I moved, some dinging off the slower Bucky, but he wasn’t fazed in the least. Ravagers fired their Silkfire barrages at my position, but I was a nimble target that wasn’t easy to hit. At least not anymore.
I ran down the side of the wall and threw a grenade into their midst. Just before it exploded, Beast’s shell exploded against the side of a Ravager and bit through it, exploding just as it exited its other side, both stunning and killing whatever was in the bunker. My frag grenade finished the lone Ravager off and whatever Raintroopers were still twitching.
Bucky flashed past me and ran toward a second position with more Raintroopers. I injected forty cells of O-Nans into my fist and slammed it into the ground, sending a column of spikes into the enemy formation. The Raintroopers were stunned but mostly unharmed. They looked at each other and the column in the middle of their defensive position, almost as if asking themselves what was going on.
The spikes withdrew, formed two thick blades that burst out at their center, which began rotating with incredible speed, pulling the troopers in like a blender would, and shredded them apart. The Aloi soldiers didn’t even have enough time to realize they’d been fooled, but once the blades started slashing, their screams echoed and filled my ears with music.
The column swirled in place, cutting heads and limbs by the dozens and causing incredible amounts of damage and pain. The f
ew who made it out died as I raised my splinter cannon and shot nanite-injected bullets. Six had made it out of the blender. All six ended up with a fist-sized hole in their disgusting faces. If this was my last mission, I’d drag as many of them as possible to hell with me.
A Ravager burst out from behind cover, one I hadn’t seen, and was rewarded with a Silkfire barrage that streaked right toward me. Bucky caught me with his hooked claw and threw me aside just as the metal construction beneath me exploded. I got hit by shrapnel and a blast wave.
Pushing myself off the ground, I tried to get my bearings, knowing very well I had to get a hold of the situation and group up with the others, but there were so many of the bastards that no matter where you looked, there were so many of them. My head felt as if I just got hit by a jackhammer. It was ringing and ringing.
A hand grabbed me under my arm and pulled me to my feet.
“You good, Boss?” Leo asked as he released a barrage from his rifle and steadied me with his other hand.
My view cleared as the H-Nans worked overtime.
“Damn head hurts,” I muttered as I felt Beast’s explosive bullets streak the enemy line, clearing everything ahead of us. Bucky was already up there and defending the assault bot’s back, deflecting most of the incoming fire and providing some of his spare O-Nans for extra ammo.
“I’ll patch you up right away, Boss,” Leo said as I saw Layla running right toward us. Her hammer was already a bloody mess of viscera and flesh. Behind her, a dead Ravager sulked in its own blood.
“That one won’t cause trouble no more,” I muttered.
I checked the status report on my INAS. Skull Company was down to 412 soldiers. That’s 412 specialists, sure, but that was also 412 specialists against an Aloi army of more than half a million Aloi.
Starblood: A Military Space Opera Series (War Undying Book 1) Page 19