Invasion of Kzarch

by E. G. Castle

  “The thing is, see-” Hamil said awkwardly. “I… forgot.”

  “You forgot. I see.” An instant later, the pirate’s flamer was in his hand, aimed at the operations officer’s eye.

  “And if you make another mistake like that,” Bloody Jack continued pleasantly, “I’ll see you dead.”

  Backing away slightly, Hamil gulped.

  “Yes, captain, I will! Er, I won’t!”

  “You’d better.”

  ***

  “Frank, you think…?”

  “Yeah, their fires slowing. How long do you think we’ve got?”

  “Not very. Wait a second…”

  Several moments later, General Fil’dwis broadcast to all the troops.

  “Everyone prepare to charge on my mark. The pirates have temporarily run low of ammunition. We need to get on them while their still re-supplying. On my mark, in three… two… Mark!” Immediately the entire army rose and charged forward. Into the shots coming their way, Kzarchians and Marines ran without faltering, shouting and firing as they went. Inevitably, some fell.

  But those were few. General Fil’dwis had timed things well.

  A bullet hit Frank’s shield, and an energy blast passed nearby. Tom took a scratch on his thigh, but continued forward, doing his best to stay in the Marine’s lee.

  “Almost there!” Lieutenant Harsmith called, slipping around a tree. “Just another- Oh, shit.”

  “What?” the general panted, but Frank simply sped up.

  Several seconds later, and the general saw what had suddenly worried the lieutenant.

  “Forest fire. Dammit. How bad is it?”

  “Pretty,” Frank said grimly. “It started on its own I’d say, but then some pirate had a bright idea, and…”

  “Well, damn. We’ll have to go around. What about the left and right flanks?”

  “They’ll need to skirt it a bit, but they should be able to do it without much trouble. Our unit, on the other hand…”

  “Right. I think we’ll head north, should be easier that way.”

  “Actually… I think I’m going to take the Marines through. We’ll be able to provide a distraction for you. Give you some cover.” Indeed, the shots were already beginning to pick up.

  The general only took a moment before giving the go-ahead.

  “Fine. If you think your battlesuits can take it.”

  “They can.” Frank said confidently.

  His troops, four Marines, were a bit more dubious about the idea, especially since he wanted them to do it without their shields on.

  “Sir, why don’t we just go over? Or use our shields?” one of the marines asked.

  “Because it’ll use up more of the battlesuits’ energy, and won’t be significantly cooler. Unless you’re suggesting we fly high over; in which case I imagine we’ll make nice big, obvious targets.”

  There were some grumbles, but no-one disputed the point further. That one.

  “Sir, even with the suit’s air reserves giving us oxygen, I don’t know if we can make it across. Even with a battlesuit, it’s gonna be bad…”

  “We’ll be fine,” the lieutenant said impatiently. “The heat is well within the suits’ tolerances. Everyone ready?”

  Some more grumbles came out, but the Marines were.

  “Right. Then, as fast as possible, we’re going to go straight through the fire. No hesitating! All ready? Then let’s go!” Swiveling, the lieutenant paused a moment, then charged in, the rest of the Marines just a few steps behind him.

  Almost immediately Frank found he could no longer see anything, and was forced to rely on what information his sensors could give him. The raging fire and smoke made seeing anything impossible; and as a further difficulty, they were also causing problems for the battlesuit’s sensors.

  Frank did his best to run, but soon found himself reduced to a stumbling lope, almost constantly tripping and bouncing into things he could barely see.

  Inside the suit, despite its protection against heat and internal air-conditioning, Frank found himself sweating heavily and panting.

  I’m about halfway through, if the sensors are right… he thought, as he hit a rock and instinctively lunged forward to regain his balance. Unfortunately, he only hit another rock, then a hole, making him drop towards the ground.

  Smoothly throwing himself into a roll, he got back to his feet and continued forward. He spared a second to hope the other Marines were doing all right; his sensors kept losing them.

  Then a bullet pinged on his shoulder, as some pirates noticed something flickering on their sensors.

  “Oh, shit!” he swore, and did his best to speed up, now constantly swerving.

  He wasn’t noticeably successful.

  Where the hell is the end of this? he wondered.

  ***

  Silently, mentally, Bloody Jack cursed. Some idiot pirate had gotten a bright idea, and now the Kzarchians’ attack had stalled, and had been split. Just great.

  With the fire in the way, the center Kzarchian group was going to have to spend some time moving around it, which meant the pirates would have plenty of time to reload. And now their attack was split. If Hamil suggested-

  “Sir, I think we’ve got a chance to smash them!”

  “Oh?” Bloody Jack said, still thinking furiously.

  “If we send the defensive line down south, they’ll be able to overpower the group there. Then they’d have a much better chance on taking down the northern group! We have an excellent chance to defeat them in detail!”

  “True… But we at least need to wait for our forces to be re-supplied,” Bloody Jack said, buying time to think of something. If he couldn’t, he’d have to give the order. It would be too suspicious not to.

  “Right.” The operations officer’s enthusiasm dimmed a bit when reminded of his earlier failure.

  “At any rate, I think now would be a good time to call up the gunboats…?” Hamil said suggestively.

  “Do it.” the pirate chief ordered. Shit, shit, shit…

  Then something changed on the display.

  “What-?” Hamil’s expression suddenly changed. “Oh, damn.”

  ***

  It actually took several seconds for Frank to realize he was out of the firestorm. Although the fire had been left behind him, the smoke still filled the air for a ways after it.

  His sensors, now able to take more accurate readings, noted that his Marines were just behind him, also beginning to emerge from the flames.

  “Forward!” Frank croaked over the com, then flinched as bullets began to spang around him.

  The battlesuit’s sensors were being less interfered with, but so were the guerrillas.

  “Dammit. Everyone, shields up and forward! NOW!”

  The Marines charged, firing their wegs more or less at random, the mass of pirates in front of them too packed to make out individual targets.

  To the pirates, despite the warnings from their sensors, the Marines seemed to simply materialize from amidst the smoke.

  It was five to a thousand five-hundred or so… Which made it all the odder the pirates had no chance.

  “Mix in!”

  Within in moments of their appearance, the Marines were in the midst of the pirates. Which meant that every time the pirates took a shot, they had fair chance of hitting one of their own.

  Indeed, with their lack of fire discipline, they had a far better change of hitting a fellow pirate. Quite literally, the pirates killed more of their own than the Marines did.

  ***

  “Tell them to organize and spread out.” Bloody Jack ordered calmly, closely watching the suddenly changed situation. “Things have just got messy, Hamil. Get those idiots organized! Then call in the gunboats.”

  “Yes, captain!” Hamil issued a rapid set of orders and curses as he tried to get the pirates to coordinate; and stop killing themselves.

  “Of course, they’re still going to be in trouble,” the pirate chief mused, as the operations off
icer ordered the gunboats to launch. “Anywhere they go the Marines will simply stay with them. But at least if they sort themselves out, they’ll be less likely to shoot themselves.”

  “This is ridiculous! How could a squad of Marines possibly stop an army!?” Hamil blurted out, somewhat enraged. “They’ve never-”

  “Always before they’ve been working hand and hand with the Kzarchians,” Bloody Jack pointed out dryly. “Now, they’re roaming free. And they’re Marines. They are going to take full advantage of the situation.”

  ***

  They were.

  In middle of bedlam, the Marines were springing about, appearing here, then there, blasting at anything that caught their eye.

  The pirates were constantly trying to shoot them, but, despite the attempts of their commanders to organize them, they kept missing and hitting their own.

  The Marines were quite obviously in their element.

  But being in their element didn’t make them invincible.

  As Frank took down a pirate who looked like he was giving orders, a death notification popped up.

  “We’ve lost Dan!”

  “Keep the com clear!” Frank ordered in response, absentmindedly taking down another pirate with his right weg.

  “Sir?”

  “What? What is it, sergeant?”

  “Left wing is about to make contact,” Sergeant Kanova, slightly reproving. “Right wing is behind, but should be catching up soon. The center has just swung around the fire-break, they’ll be reinforcing the left wing in about five minutes.”

  “I see. Thank you, sergeant.” The lieutenant was slightly ashamed of himself. He should’ve known better than to forget to keep an eye on the overall battle, not just the part he was currently participating in.

  Instinctively ducking a blast -uselessly, as it hit his shield anyway- Frank took a couple of seconds to mentally run through the situation. The three Kzarchian wings were beginning their final approach, but there was still a bit of time left before they would all made contact.

  The Marine distraction of the defensive line was working; so far at least. With the Marines constantly moving around and disordering their formations, the pirates were having a hard time sorting themselves out. But it was hard to say how long that was going to last.

  And to further complicate things, the Marines’ battlesuit power was beginning to run low; the intensive combat taking its toll on their resources.

  Lieutenant Harsmith's own battlesuit was dipping below thirty. He grimaced. The way things were going, they couldn’t afford to run out just yet. In which case…

  “All Marines, fall back towards the right wing! Repeat, head towards the right wing! We need to conserve our battlesuits’ power!”

  There were some grumbles, but the Marines followed his lead, breaking away from the pirates, and heading up to meet the right Kzarchian wing. As they did so, another death notification popped on Frank’s screen.

  “Shit!” the lieutenant cursed softly, not breaking stride. Another Marine dead. His ‘squad’ was now down to three.

  ***

  “Where the hell are our gunboats!?” the operations officer roared into the com.

  There was no response.

  Turning to Bloody Jack, Hamil shrugged helplessly.

  “I don’t know what’s going on. I can’t raise them at all. And the com was working just minutes ago!”

  “Keep trying,” the pirate chief ordered. Not that he thought it would help; but it would keep the operations officer distracted.

  Pursing his lips, as he looked over the display, Bloody Jack wondered what had happened to the gunboats.

  ***

  Several minutes earlier…

  “All the lines are cut, sarge. Think they’ll notice?”

  “Good, and I have no idea. But probably not. They’ve got quite the large distraction to the west. I doubt they’ll notice their sensors here have suddenly stopped working. Hopefully,” she added under her breath.

  The heavy squad had spent the last half an hour or so slowly hiking to their secondary objective. To avoid notice, they had done the trek with their suits off. Walking in unpowered battlesuits was never any fun, but with the heavier h-squad version, and with the additional missile launcher and SIAMs they had to carry, the heavy squad felt as if they had made the trip while trying to carry elephants.

  Turning now to gaze at a large, shielded hangar in the distance, Sergeant Kate wondered what to do next. Should she launch an attack and hope they could penetrate the shields? Or wait until they launched?

  The point was moot before she could decide.

  “Sarge, the bay doors-!”

  “I see them. Keep the suits down everyone, but get ready to launch SIAMs. Hold for my mark!”

  The half-sized squad prepped their missile launchers, each keeping an eye on the distant, opening gunboat bay doors.

  “Get ready…”

  Two gunboats launched out, then another.

  “Three targets. Designating… Alpha, beta, gamma. Alpha first. On my mark… Fire!”

  Five missiles slammed out towards the unsuspecting gunboats. But not unshielded ones.

  Still, five SIAMs was more than a single surprised gunboat could take. A Blastfire disappeared in an explosion of energy.

  “Get your battlesuits on!” ordered Sergeant Kate frantically, as she re-loaded her missile launcher.

  “New target; Beta! Launch!” Another five missiles went out, but this time the targeted gunboat was ready.

  It cut down two missiles, then a third. The other two made contact though; and while it was still reeling from that, another mass launch locked onto it. Moments later, the second gunboat blew up.

  “Gamma! Move it, move it, move it! Fire!”

  The final gunboat and the h-squad exchanged fire. Four SIAMs got cut down, then the fifth impacted against the gunboat’s shields, to little significant effect.

  “Load! Hold fire for the squad! On my ord- Point-defense!” The spread-out Marine squad cut down the missiles launched from the gunboat.

  “Wait for it- Fire!”

  Another five missiles speared out, and this time two got through. But it wasn’t enough.

  “Re-load, re-load!” Kate and her squad chanted, as the Blastfire bore in again.

  Missiles and beams pounded their positions, then the gunboat was past.

  “Launch!”

  Four missiles slammed out of the h-squads’ launchers.

  Four? Oh, damn. Sergeant Kate thought, as the death notification popped up. Not only had she lost a Marine, she had lost a fifth of her launchers.

  “Keep pounding it!” she ordered, loading her missile launcher again from her badly diminished ammunition supply.

  The gunboat and Marines exchanged fire, and this time the sergeant herself was hit; by an energy beam.

  “Sarge!”

  “I’m fine!” she snapped, despite her rather scorched and battered battlesuit’s evidence to the contrary.

  Blinking for a second, she focused on the read-outs of the situation.

  “Ah!”

  The Blastfire had finally been hit. Two more missiles against its shields had been just too much for it, and a good bit of the missiles’ explosions had leaked through. Currently, the gunboat was attempting to fly rather drunkenly away.

  “Finish it! On my order…” A frantic few seconds spent in re-loading.

  “Launch!”

  One of the missiles got killed, then the other three detonated in a triple wave of explosive force. The gunboat burst under the assault, temporarily sending a shower of scrap metal to the ground.

  The three h-squad Marines cheered wearily, until their sergeant hauled them up short, and got them moving again. There was still a battle going on, and she didn’t intend to miss it!

  Tiredly, but still game, the three remaining heavy squad members followed after their sergeant, as they headed to the battle in the west.

  ***

  The battle there, betw
een the guerrillas and pirates, had now been fully joined. The left wing of the Kzarchian forces had made contact, then, several minutes later, so had the right wing.

  The conflict was going at a furious rate, both sides pouring fire into each other.

  Then the center had reinforced the left wing, and the battle, already in full swing, redoubled. Despite their best efforts, the pirates were forced out of their defensive line, and back towards the governor’s mansion.

  “We’re pushing them back, Tom.” By this point Frank had made his way back to the center.

  “Maybe. But they still outnumber us by a considerable margin. If their gunboats or their spaceships show up, we’re going to be in real trouble.”

  “Don’t worry. Kate’ll take care of them.”

  “She’d better. Or this battle might come to a quick, premature end.”

  “At least it would be quick.” The two laughed quietly for a second, then sobered.

  “The battle’s stalling, Frank. They’re digging their heels in.”

  “You want my Marines to go in.” It was a statement, not a question. General Fil’dwis winced slightly, but nodded.

  “I want them breaking. We need to smash them hard before they can really get their act back together; and we still have to get to their leaders.”

  “Understood, sir.” Lieutenant Harsmith saluted, and keyed his com on as he headed forward.

  “All Marines, form up by me and get ready for some hard combat. We’re going in…”

  ***

  “Well, things aren’t going well, are they?” Bloody Jack said mildly, but his eyes were hard.

  Hamil swallowed.

  “Captain, I don’t…”

  “Our gunboats gone,” They had finally gotten a messenger from the now all but useless hangar. “-the defensive line being pushed back and the Kzarchians nearly here. Did I miss anything, I wonder? Oh, yes, and perhaps the worst of all, we’ve lost all three of our ships. What do have to say about all this, Hamil?”

  “Bloody Jack, it wasn’t my fault!” The hard-bitten pirate was nearly wailing. “How could I- what could I have done?”