There was a Lillindian casualty and two Edenfall deaths, individual shallow graves were dug to accommodate their fallen comrades and proper burials would be conducted when time allowed.
Trilby continued running, came back up the slope and asked Boots what would happen next, but his answer was interrupted by a message arriving in his helmet communicator. It was Buzz, “Boots acknowledge.”
“Boots here, Buzz what’s up?”
“There’s big trouble at the lake, Kyle’s party has been detected by the aliens and they could be in difficulty, he may want re-enforcements.”
“Sure Buzz, we will get there as soon as, keep me informed with any intel you get. We are on our way, out.”
Looking down on the petite Trilby, Boots tried not to be too stern, “Trilby we have a developing and dangerous situation over at the lake, it’s turning into a battle and it’s one we may not win. I have to go now and help our colleagues.”
“Boots I want to come with you, I can fight.”
“I know, but you have a vital job here, you and the other Edenfallers are going to have to get the women back to Edenfall, which alone is not going to be easy. There is also a matter of taking the arms and ammunition back, the other booty we have liberated and the wounded prisoners. There are not many of you to do this so you cannot be spared. Make sure that you get to Jubilation safely and if we survive we will see you there, now go and help organise.”
She reached both arms up and placed them around Boots’s neck, “Please come back.”
Boots was quite glad he had his helmet on because he got the impression that the youngster may have just tried to land a kiss.
“Be off and we WILL see you later.”
As Boots turned away, he thought that he caught sight of tears on the young girl’s face.
*******************
At the Lakeside things had taken a decided turn for the worse, the darkened skies were now as bright as day as a form of electronic discharge was directed into the air above the hidden rescuers.
Shots were coming from both the alien sentries and the pirates within the encampment. Trails of brightly coloured plasma and ionised metal seemed to be all heading towards Kyle’s group.
Kyle’s first thoughts were to take evasive action and he threw himself into the yielding mud, but as leader, he also knew that there were people there who were relying on him.
“Winkler take your men and clear the pirates, then return to me as soon as possible.”
“Lillindians will advance, save some aliens for us.”
“I don’t think that will be a problem Lieutenant, Good Luck.”
Winkler rallied his men and moved into the camp at a run, exchanging fire with the pirates. The attacking Lillindians were met with an initial barrage of fire, but many of the shots went over their heads as the pirates struggled to adjust to the size of the mini marines. It was not long before the accurate fire of the marines had reduced the pirates to just Benji and one of his men, both of whom crawled into the middle of the seated female prisoners for cover.
It was not a wise decision, as one of the nearby women had hidden a long boning knife inside her skirts and the two pirates were totally oblivious to anything but their attackers. The knife was brought down with both hands into the middle of Benji’s back. It went into his body with such force that the blade broke off at the hilt. There was no scream, just a gasp as the leader of the band breathed his last. The remaining pirate was overwhelmed by a torrent of women, who fell on his prone body, pinning his limbs to the ground, whilst the woman that had killed Benji drew the pirates own dagger from his belt and struck several times into the struggling body until it struggled no more.
Kyle whispered into his helmet comms, “Time to be legends gentlemen, let’s kick some alien ass.”
Moving and firing at the sentries, the four Seeker of Moons men edged their way forward through the bambog grass, which spread outwards from the lake.
Kyle noticed that the plasma bolts fired exploded around 25 metres short of their intended targets. The energy bursts blossomed into blue and yellow flowers against an almost invisible silver curtain, which he immediately recognised as a generated force field. Even when they switched munitions to ionised canister rounds it was just like throwing bottles at a wall.
Even worse, the fire from the sentries could pass through the defensive curtain they all experienced the tingling sensation of electrified metals peppering their armoured suits and Kyle was apprehensive about prolonged impacts if the aliens pinned them down. Although the situation was bad, it soon got a whole lot worse, as down the ramp of the alien ship, marching in synchronised steps strode a platoon of the huge aliens. They were dressed like the sentries but each had a transparent helmet, which looked like an upside down bucket covering their heads.
In front of them the silvery force field expanded so that Kyle’s group still could not land shots. Like automatons the aliens fanned out from the centre column in perfect unison, the long barrelled weapons carried on their right shoulders would soon be looking for targets.
Kang came over the helmet comms, “Any ideas Lieutenant?”
Off the top of his head Kyle said, “Let’s see what happens to that force field if we draw them out further, withdraw and keep shifting positions and firing.”
Shiner, Ploughman, Kang and Kyle moved back towards the pirate’s encampment, where they linked up with Winkler and his men, who had taken the precaution of digging foxholes into the soft earth to provide some defence. Winkler had sent the women further back for some safety and the defenders of this slightly raised outcrop readied themselves for an assault that they expected to be final.
Chapter 10
Edenfall Dawn
The towering line of aliens formed up on the edge of the grassy area, their force field still shimmered but was not as noticeable as it had been. Kyle guessed that the aliens were at the limit of the invisible barrier and would have to attack without cover over the open ground in front of them.
Kyle wasn’t able to be scared, he was too busy co-ordinating defence and instructing which munitions should be deployed but thought perhaps they did have a chance. That was until he saw a second line of giant warriors moving into position behind the first.
Winkler lifted the mood “Only 3 of them against 1 of us are they nuts?”
The defenders ceased fire, stared out from their trenches and cover points, waiting for the inevitable.
Kyle went to general comms, “Be ready and fire on my signal, we cannot let them pass, we won’t let them pass!”
The flares faded in the evening sky and silence prevailed before a loud shout from the ranks of aliens rang out, to the ears of the defenders it sounded like ‘Kiiaaaram’. There was a stamping of alien boots in unison and the first line unslung their weapons and advanced. The first few steps were a measured stride which gradually quickened to a lope, their guns began firing, seeking out targets as they drew ever nearer to the defenders.
“Ready men, ready, fire,” screamed Kyle and a sustained volley of plasma and ionised lead bombarded the alien attackers but none were injured, though some staggered for a while until they regained equilibrium and then re-joined the charge.
Winkler was quite calm and spoke into his helmet comms, “Mortar team, vector 85 and fire at will.” The Lillindians carried two old style mortars which had been set up to cover the approach to the redoubt, the mortars fired rounds like the ancient versions but many times more powerful and in a range of strengths from High Explosive to Sub-atomic.
The first couple of rounds were HE and these were trial rounds to test accuracy, they were fired just to the left and slightly behind the charging aliens, so did little damage but made quite a din.
“Mortar Teams, ‘88’ and ‘300’ SA, 4 rounds, fire.”
Kang came through on the comms sets, “Seal helmets and hit the dirt, fire in the hole!”
Each mortar fired two shells which lazily climbed into the night sky, disappeared into the
darkness then came back to earth exploding with huge bangs, sending shock waves of humid dusty air out in all directions.
The charging aliens disappeared in the initial explosions and when the dust began to settle there was a gaping hole in the centre of their line, the mangled bodies lay in unnatural poses in the mud.
The remaining ‘boneheads’ on the flanks gathered themselves. Instead of reforming to charge they clumsily bent at the knees and began shooting at the defenders who found it safer to remain in cover than to return fire. Kyle raised his head from his shallow trench and could see the second wave of aliens approaching a lot faster than the first group and behind them a third wave had emerged from the ship and were marching quickly to catch up.
Kyle asked Winkler and Kang if they had any ideas left, they were minutes away from being overrun, as the second wave were now too close to use further SA’s.
Something caught Kyle’s eye, he glanced skywards, seeing two extremely fast shimmering shadows approaching very low. They were the flying disks coming to their aid, the first piloted by Boots smashed straight down into the second wave of attackers, scattering bodies everywhere. The next was flown by Sunshine, who tried to repeat the same sweep on the third wave, who were still inside the force field, but although he slightly misjudged the approach, still managed to run down the right wing, mangling a number of the tall aliens.
Both disks were now grounded and the occupants spilled over the sides to join the battle. Winkler rolled into the trench next to Kyle, “Permission to advance Sir.”
Kyle thought that if he refused, the diminutive Lillindian may have gone anyway, so he replied, “Permission granted Lieutenant. Clear out the remnants of their first wave and attempt to join up with the disc teams. Keep me in touch with developments and be ready to exploit any weakness you detect in the aliens position. Lastly, I know that you and your men are not afraid of death but take care, we need you for Chamtofi.”
“Thank you Sir, we will bring you victory!”
Rounding up his men at the redoubt, Winkler could be seen pointing at a number of supposed objectives and with a shout of ‘Lillindians forever’ the band of marines raced off in pairs to join their brothers.
Kyle was not too sure whether he and the remaining Seeker of Moons team should leave the redoubt, but if they did they could try and aid the Lillindians by providing covering fire. However, the force field caused them the same problem as before, whilst they could see the aliens recoil from hits, they were still protected from energy weapons by something they were wearing.
Kyle suddenly remembered that a number of the pirates favoured old style projectile weapons rather than the hi-tech energy variety, so sent Ploughman around the camp to see what he could find.
On the lower ground some of the marines were picked off by the alien’s energy rods, but others acting in pairs managed to distract their giant adversaries by singling out individuals and attacking from opposite sides. As one marine would dart in front and take the risk of being hit by an energy beam, the other would dodge to the side and then run in close before ramming a sticky grenade against the alien’s legs or lower back. The tactic worked well and many of the boneheads erupted in a cataclysm of blood and bone, but it was at a horrendous cost to the brave Lillindians.
Ploughman came back with three old style sub-machine guns and five clips of extra ammunition, he passed the guns and ammunition to Kyle and Kang. A quick check over the weapons and a test burst showed they were ready and the three armoured troops leapt from their hiding places running towards the action.
Their armour had now changed to a smoky black colour to mirror the night sky. There was only the flash of explosions and the stream of light from energy weapons providing illumination to the scene. As they ran nearer to the carnage, the smell of battle, burning air and flesh permeated the filtering of their helmets causing Kyle to feel nausea.
Following Kyle’s lead, the three zig-zagged their way towards the remnants of the first wave of aliens, Kyle received a number of energy hits which lit up his faceplate, but was still mobile and a bonehead appeared in his machine guns range. His first few rounds were off target but he quickly compensated delivering a burst right in the centre of the alien’s torso. The plated armour was not of substance and it shattered to let the bullets straight through. A shriek of pain came from the aliens slackening jaw and his legs gave way resulting in the body collapsing onto the sodden earth made even wetter by the gush of brown alien blood. Kang and Ploughman achieved the same results and with the Lillindians grenades accounting for even more casualties they moved into the second wave.
Inside the alien craft concern was growing amongst the crew and the captain, who could see things were not going well for his troops. Fighting was not in the alien’s plan this should have been a straight forward cargo handover. The Captain knew he could not go home without the women, this would bring dishonour to him and his clan, but even worse he could not risk losing the ship.
As a last throw of the dice he authorised the release of the last section of troops he had available in his ship and they weighed into the fight causing Sunshine’s group to falter and start to fall back. That is except for Marine Paribas, who chose glory over self-preservation.
Paribas had been waiting his chance, he had slipped passed the melee and dodged under the spacecraft's ramp after the re-enforcements had rushed out. When the thumping feet had passed by he lifted himself up onto the ramp and ran in through the unguarded hatch. The dimensions of the ship were huge and the internal corridors looked like vast tunnels as Paribas sought out the engine room from the strength of the vibrations in the metalwork. Rounding a corner the Lillindian came face to knee with one of the boneheads, this one was not one of the soldiers and was clad in an orange jumpsuit, he did not seem to have any weapons but was certainly huge close up. When the bonehead had regained his composure, he reached his long bony arms towards Paribas but the first lunge with outstretched fingers only touched thin air as the marine quickly adjusted his position. A second lunge also missed but the third connected and Paribas was knocked on his back. In two paces the alien could stomp on him and probably kill him. After one step, the alien’s features appeared enlarged and brutal, but Paribas had located the pistol in his belt. As the giant raised his foot to stamp down, Paribas turned his pistol still in its holster upwards and fired a stream of molten green plasma at his unarmoured attacker.
A nasty gurgling sound came, then went quickly and the smouldering bulk of the alien crashed backwards shattering the crystal dome protecting the brain, allowing the contents to leak on the metallic floor.
Paribas had no time to reflect on his good fortune and was soon continuing his search for the craft’s engine room. He came to double doors, which would provide access to the source of the growing vibration, unfortunately he could not see a mechanism to open these. In frustration he kicked it, which immediately caused it to slide open and an orange suited bonehead stuck its head out into the corridor to see what had caused the noise. The alien failed to look down, but being inquisitive he stepped out and with a weapon rod in hand stalked off down the corridor.
Slipping inside the engine room, there were no other crew members immediately visible and Paribas recognised nothing which resembled a reactor from his world. Whilst there were cryptograms and illegible writing, he had no clues for a suitable target.
Paribas’s thoughts were disturbed by the shriek of an alarm, he realised it must have been the discovery of the alien body inside the ship and he would not have much time. With only three sticky grenades left, he set the timers to five minutes and placed them on the larger structures within the room, then ran like a hare for the exit.
Outside, the battle was finely balanced, the new wave of boneheads pushed forward and as they did their weight of numbers pushed Kyle’s men back bringing more casualties. Ploughman had used the initial bullet clip and also the spare, he had selflessly passed the other two spares on to Kang and Kyle, which meant that when a c
lick came from the magazine he knew he was in terrible trouble. Ploughman went back to his Dominator, but every round he selected had no effect on the approaching aliens in their energy defying body plates. Making a fatal mistake, he panicked and forgot to imagine the face plate menus for his suit, instead, as the first of three boneheads drew near, he took a leap, grabbed the first alien by the neck and kept kicking until it crumpled. The accompanying aliens bounded onto Ploughman and their fallen colleague, hitting him with burst after burst of electrified atoms, which not even the Castorian armour could take for long. Ploughman’s face mask went dark and the life ebbed from his body but this wasn’t the only loss, as Sunshine got hit so many times that his body could no longer take the shocks and he went down trying to protect their flying disk. Similarly, Winkler made one charge too many, even when the grenades ran out he tried to accomplish more but all he achieved was meeting his end at the point of an energy rod.
It looked to Kyle as if this was going to be as far as the Seeker of Moons rescue team got, but the next minute changed the course of events.
Firstly, Speedy flew the Spotted Canary in low and I mean low level, the deafening noise and proximity caused all the combatants to pause.
The second occurrence was the eruption of explosions from inside the alien ship, as the explosives which Paribas had placed went up, one unknowingly had been placed on the power generator for the anti-gravity motor and the energy thrown out by the explosion broke the back of the alien craft killing all on board.
Total shock swept across the battlefield and the fighting alien troops halted, they appeared to look at one another for ideas, before a melodic whistle carried across the carnage of dead and dying. It came from an alien with a banner, tattered and burned but no doubt of great importance to the boneheads. This one raised his hands to the heavens and sang a phrase that none of the earth descendants could understand. As the last note tailed off there was movement from the aliens across the field and each one dropped to one knee, holding out their energy rods in both hands as a sign of surrender.
Seeker of Moons (Cassidy's Command Book 1) Page 17