by Jyr, Aer-ki
Most of the lizards he was seeing were standard variety, for the maulers didn’t work against Star Force troops given their armor. The lizards’ forearm blades were vicious against exposed lifeforms, and should the Bsidd have been engaging them hand to hand without armor they would have been a serious threat in groups, but their blades only tickled the purple/black battlecasts they were wearing.
The flexible, stretchable armor was unique to the Bsidd to accommodate their varying sizes and movement ranges during fitting, then it would harden into a form unique to that Bsidd on the portions of its body that didn’t move much. New armor suits were kept in gelatinous state, similar to a wet suit, so that when Arvak or another needed a new one they’d put it on then go through a minute long series of movement drills allowing the armor to adjust to the individual’s body before hardening where appropriate. After that it was more or less standard armor akin to what the other Star Force races wore.
His set was for thetas and wouldn’t work for any of the other Bsidd variants, but it would work for all thetas, meaning they didn’t have to get individual fittings and everyone could use stock units. He knew the Archons that were leading the Bsidd army had their armor personally molded to their bodies during fabrication. That was a perk of their superhard armor, and applicable due to the fact that there were so few of them. Star Force would never have been able to do the same with the Bsidd and their rapidly growing numbers.
Arvak kept popping out blue sammy beams along with a few others from nearby targeting the same patch of dry river that was quickly becoming wet with lizard blood. His shots only fell on a small section of it, with others having better angles and disappearing behind trees as they shot across his sights, but they were felling a good number of targets. It didn’t seem that way given how many were crossing the river, but every dozen that he mowed down was a dozen less for the infantry to deal with a few minutes from now.
Arvak had expected the river crossing to be quick, but as he stood his position and continued firing more and more lizards kept coming out of the forest in a long wave that seemed as if it would never end. Knowing that he had to keep focused and firing nonstop, else let a lizard past that he otherwise could have killed, Arvak forced himself to not think about the numbers but as he stayed within his mental sniper targeting zone his stomach clenched up with apprehension…for he’d never seen enemy numbers like this before, not even in training sims. They were literally everywhere, and armor advantage or not, the Bsidd could easily get overrun if they didn’t play this smart.
And even then he wasn’t sure how many would be too many to take down.
Tvey was waiting in formation with the other Bsidd betas as they jogged through the forest behind one of the mechs breaking a path through the tree branches. He was mid left in a row of four and six rows behind the pair of silver-clad Archons leading his group that stretched back in a line nearly 500 meters long, and there were other lines moving forward nearby like snakes through the thick trees. He knew from his battlemap that the enemy was close, and when they got to them they were going to be fighting the tree branches as much as the lizards, given their enemy’s smaller size.
Tvey stood taller than the Archons and even a bit taller than a Calavari, though he massed considerably less. His body resembled the trees around him, with numerous appendages sprouting out from a nonlinear central body, all of which was covered in armor that gave him some sense of security, knowing that both the shields and the hardened plates would protect him from numerous plasma blasts before they got through to his skin. It was the lack of movement in the trees that worried him.
As he ran forward, stepping over occasional limbs that the mech had snapped off, he got deployment orders on his HUD from the Archons and suddenly the long line began to split apart. Tvey went left along with a group of three others and headed to a random position in the forest, coming up on the waypoint then holding position with the others as he read the orders coming across in text.
The four Bsidd all activated their six appendages that held plasma rods, or more accurately were plasma gauntlets, for in lieu of any actual hands they were just a pole covering the ends of their appendages for approximately half a meter in length. The ‘lightsabers’ as they were commonly referred to operated the same as the plasma nubs that the aquatics division used, in that they held a contained amount of the destructive, superheated gas within a shield until physical contact was made. When it occurred the plasma would be released then replenished, giving them a melee weapon in addition to the gun-type weapons that Tvey and the others wore on additional appendages.
The orders that came across were to cut branches and create a kill zone for them to operate out of before the lizards got here, and the beta gladly lit up his six blue limbends and got to burning through the horizontal sticks. The smaller ones were clipped instantaneously, but the larger ones took several hits to get through, with a slight pause in between being required for the plasma to reform within its containment shield.
He and the other three hacked out as much room as they could around several trunks, then picked up the branches and piled them in three spots, pushing them down into a thick enough wad that they thought the enemy couldn’t crawl through. That would constrict their approaches but still give the Bsidd multiple options to reposition elsewhere if needed. All around them other small groups were doing the same thing, with the mech walking back and forth and plowing down roads along with breaking down some entire trees and positioning them as barricades using its six arms that did have hands…something the Bsidd pilots had to learn to use with a lot of practice.
Tvey heard/saw it crunching away a ways ahead of him then saw the explosion nearby as it vaporized a tree trunk or two with a mauler blast…but it wasn’t aiming at the trees, rather the first of the lizards swarming around it. That mauler impact was followed by several others and an assortment of additional weapons, not only from the mech but from the surrounding Bsidd infantry.
Tvey hacked away a few more limbs then cleared them, with his other three fireteam members doing likewise as they set themselves and looked ahead, their plasma rods glowing ready and their pair of gauntlet rifles sticking out between the six blue lightsabers as they heard rocket impacts against the mech, indicating that the lizards were coming with more than just their standard plasma rifles.
Then suddenly they were upon them, with dozens appearing amongst the trees and running straight at the Bsidd, bypassing other groups nearby heading straight for Tvey. They started popping green plasma orbs a moment later as more of the lizards swarmed the other positions, but there were so many targets nearby that he couldn’t monitor them or even the mech, suddenly taking shield impacts and seeing the lizards stop just short of their little kill zone.
Tvey and the others fired back with their rifles, popping blue plasma streaks that were far more lethal than the lizard versions. The type of weapon dated back to Star Force’s origins, and rather than replace it with orbs or another weapon system the Star Force techs had simply kept tweaking the design to its now extremely efficient and powerful concentration of plasma. One hit was all Tvey and the others needed, which was good, for it looked like they were going to exhaust their full ammo supplies if they lived long enough to use them all.
Frustrated with the lizards sticking in the trees to snipe from, the Bsidd next to Tvey ran forward, hacking a few more branches before wrapping some of his free appendages around a pair of lizards and throwing them back towards Tvey and the others.
A down thrust plasma rod hit one in the head, burning through its skull while Tvey shot the other at pointblank range before jumping over to one of the brush piles and circling around it, executing a backdoor on some of the other lizards massing up just beyond and filing into firing lines that would allow them to pepper the Bsidd with enough plasma hits to get through their defenses.
Tvey stabbed three of them with his plasma rods but didn’t bother shooting the others. Instead he pushed into the group with his rifles and o
ther appendages forming a wireframe snowplow, hooking the ends to keep them contained, then rammed them forward into the kill zone depositing some 8 or 9 of them into view of the others while his back took numerous plasma strikes.
He didn’t stop his momentum, pushing through then stepping on and over the group until he got behind the others and into a bit of cover as they stepped forward and slaughtered the lizards. Tvey brought his rifles up as he turned around and fired off a few shots between them, seeing more and more enemy infantry moving through the trees towards them and the others, so many that they seemed to be a living tidal wave coming forward to wrap around their legs.
Superior as they were, Tvey began to fear for their lives until he caught a glimpse of silver streaking through the forest nearby and lizards dropping all around it.
They had Archons with them, and so long as they said to fight Tvey and the others would, knowing that they wouldn’t be left here to die. If a retreat was needed the Archons would order it, but up until that happened it was slaughtering time.
With that thought banishing his fear, Tvey went left and started another backdoor run around a brush pile, finding plenty of lizards nearby to grab and shove into their kill zone.
6
Krissy ducked her skeet under a wisp to avoid three others coming in so close she was sure they meant to ram her. The sky was dotted with clusters of them, all of which were trying to either shoot the Star Force fighters down or keep them distracted and away from the ground troops that were in need of air support. Reports were they were holding their own, but as typical the lizards were spamming them with insane numbers that her scattergun was fated for.
Getting to them was difficult, but she was almost through the wisp formations and dipping down to tree level to get under this one. A few more threw down green plasma orbs around her, two of which hit her right side engine but the shields covering it held and she accelerated hard to try and lose her pursuit. Other skeets were scattered around, far too few to take down all the wisps in time, so she and a number of them were tasked with getting through while the others went for kills.
She wasn’t near any of the others and that isolation drew a lot of attention to her, for as soon as she zipped away from the group peppering her from above two more formations angled in on her and forced the Star Force regular to bank up and away from the forest, allowing them to come at her from all sides and not seeming to care about friendly fire.
Her shields were dipping lower and lower and it was just a matter of time before these gnats stung her to death. She wasn’t going to let that happen and would pull up and head for orbit if need be, for there was no way the wisps could keep pace when she entered super pursuit mode, though that required a clear line ahead and a bit of prep. Unfortunately Krissy couldn’t use that speed here because it was straight line and she was having to maneuver like crazy to even get close to the ground battle ahead.
The moment of choice was nearly on her, when she would have to choose to head out of the mess of fighters or keep on pushing forward. Problem was the armor on her skeet was thin in order to afford her the movement capability that was more desperately needed. It would take some plasma hits and keep her flying, but it wasn’t tank armor by any stretch of the imagination. The fighter’s shields were its primary defense and they were slowly being whittled away.
A signal from another nearby skeet also pushing its way through the mess of wisps prompter her to turn hard left and head for the source of the brief comm signal. The lizard fighters around her changed course to follow and soon she saw the tiny dot that was the other skeet highlighted on her HUD ahead, with her dipping down slightly for what was going to be a passby. She readied her scattergun and waited for the skeet to wink past, taking a few more hits as she flew a straight line towards the rendezvous.
When the two fighters nearly rammed each other they both opened fire on the other side, targeting the wisps directly following their twin. The plasma scattergun fired off numerous little potent packets of plasma in a cone rather than at a specific target, catching numerous wisps as both pilots held in on the trigger and fanned the area ahead for a couple of seconds before banking hard and coming back around towards the center point.
The unshielded wisps took hits, some going down to crash in the forest below and others moving off with damage, unable to keep pace with the maneuvering skeets that now linked up in paired mode and aggressively attacked the wisps swirling around them. Whenever one of the enemy fighters would align on a skeet the other would hit or scare it off, and between the two of them they took down some 14 fighters before returning to their primary objective with more wisps moving in to fill the void of those they’d just shot down.
Krissy and the other pilot stayed together but with enough space to allow each to maneuver in a wavy line as they dodged some of the incoming fire. Plasma traveling through air diminished more rapidly than through a vacuum, which meant shorter effective range and the lizard wisps exclusively used plasma. The skeets had longer range weapons that they could use to skillfully poach them, but right now that wasn’t the point…getting to the ground troops was.
That meant punching through and trying not to get hit as much as the wisps would like. Those that were further away were firing ahead of the skeets, hoping they’d fly into the bands of plasma rain and it was those that the Star Force pilots were weaving around, for it was almost impossible to dodge a single plasma shot. While they didn’t fire at lightspeed, nor close to it, they were not slow through the air and aside from a slight twitch of the flight controls there wasn’t much you could do against a well-aimed shot.
The trick was in getting the wisps to make bad shots, but to get to the mission point as quickly as possible you needed to fly a direct line…which was predictable as hell. That was the conundrum Krissy faced, but now with two skeets together the enemy had twice the number of targets to shoot at and that actually diminished the number of hits her fighter was taking.
That convinced Krissy to risk it and she continued forward, with the other pilot eventually comming with a strategy and telling her to go low to the riverbed. She agreed and the other skeet flew directly overtop of hers, with their silhouettes matching up from top view, then Krissy dove down as the other skeet went aggressive and tried to draw as much attention to him as possible.
She took her skeet back down to the forest and angle/braked hard to turn her momentum into the twisty line of the river, flying so low that there were trees to either side of her as she skimmed the dry wash. There were no lizards here, but a couple of kilometers ahead there were, crossing into the open en mass and just begging to get hit.
The wisp pilots knew that too and some came after her with a vengeance, but she ignored them and stuck to the river bed pulling some Mario Kart worthy skid turns to keep from careening into the tree walls as numerous plasma blasts rained down around her and kicked up dust plumes from where they hit dirt and rocks.
Krissy’s course kept whipping back and forth, then suddenly there was a sea of green heads and she hit the brakes, using her gravity drives to slow her forward momentum down to a slow flyby as she tilted the scattergun firing angle down and unleashed her blue rain onto the riverbed.
Burnt flesh flew everywhere like confetti and dozens of lizards fell per heartbeat as she made her way up the river with the overhead plasma blasts still coming down and hitting the lizard troops with the misses. Apparently they felt it was worth the tradeoff if they could kill her, and they were probably right mathematically speaking, but shooting your own troops to kill a target was colder than cold and just one more reason why these dishonorable bastards had to die.
Krissy pushed through the river for more than half a mile before the stream of lizard infantry ended. When it did she pulled up, intent on making a loop and dogfighting for a handful of seconds before heading back down for another pass for the disruption she’d made in the troop flow was already disappearing as more came out of the forest to cross, erasing the gaps she’d made
in their fleshy flood of slowly moving bodies.
When she got back to decent altitude she had to linger longer than she’d liked, for her shields were near to breaching. Going evasive she avoided fire long enough for them to start ticking up a bit with recharge, then she engaged and killed three more wisps before heading back down for another pass just in time to see the other pilot strafing a section of forest nearby. Krissy didn’t know what that was about and was going to shoot the targets out in the open, but there were three more skeets headed their way and they were dragging a lot of wisps with them…meaning her time here was going to be short, for she couldn’t sustain much more plasma fire, no matter how bad of shots the lizard pilots were at speed.
Knowing that, Krissy ignored the incoming fire and dove back down to make one more pass, intending to bug out as soon as she’d completed it. Her topside shields got hammered as she flew through a few meters over the riverbed, but the carnage her scattergun was unleashing more than made up for it. When the other side of the flood came into view she was just about to make for the sky when a request for fire support came in from an Archon on the ground.
Krissy shot off across the empty riverbed and weaved between the tree walls, seeing if the lizards would still follow her…which they did, but two or three wisps peeled off as she got further away from the ground troops. Biting her lip, she decided to do something stupid and pulled up just enough to get over the treetops and turned back, heading for the location for the air support request that was a few kilometers away. She’d be damned if she left an Archon hanging, and was going to risk some hull damage to give him some help…then she’d bug out.
With a plasma hit to her tail that flashed a 7% warning for that section of shield Krissy got mad and flicked her skeet up through as tight of a backwards loop as she could, with the wisp following her through it given the craft’s nimble nature. What it couldn’t cover was the hover twist she put her skeet through, spinning it around and flying backwards long enough to fire two small mauler blasts, one of which hit the wisp and blew apart half its hull.