Our guns on the other hand were keeping the area in front mowed, and at a steady depth, but in front of me the shredded plant matter rose from knee height to the underside of the main barrel of the gun.
It was clearly possible we’d be here all night.
Another hour went by, and we were now going backwards, purely from the mass of dead plant material in front of each knight. Added to that, all our guns were now approaching the recharge necessary point.
Ironically, ultra-low tech would have been much better here. A good old fashioned mangonel throwing anything burning would have been more use than what we had. In fact, just lobbing the accelerant containers would have worked, if followed by fire arrows. But they didn’t have anything that could throw that far.
“Willow?” I finally said again.
“George?”
For the first time I began to hear fatigue in her voice. I knew she could hear it in mine. I had my suit locked, with only the elbows moveable, and it was only the suit holding the gun up now.
“We need to rethink this.”
“Suggestions?”
“I’m not a general.”
“But if you were?”
“I’d pull all the knights out here back into the trees on the sides only, and let your rail guns loose.”
“That will only work for a time as well.”
“Until your shot runs out?”
“Yes. They were designed for random fire, not constant fire for a long time.”
“Still, I’m guessing we need a break sometime soon, and time to think of a new plan.”
“What do we need?”
“Very large flame throwers, or a lot of very old machine guns.”
“We don’t have either, and no time to build them.”
She paused, during which her sword never stopped moving, and my gun continued to arc and fire.
“But I know someone who does.”
Twenty Eight
By dawn we were a considerable distance away.
We’d followed my suggestion and withdrawn to the tree line, forming a barrier through which the plants couldn’t cross into the forest. They were not coming down over the forest, just the area in front of the walls. Probably meant the plants couldn’t climb down trees. And according to Willow, they were not coming down over the sea at all, so probably couldn’t swim either.
Willow passed command to her second, and Sim, Gor, and I shifted back into our normal wear, and followed her into the trees. Neither Willow or I had the energy to run like we had before, but she set a long striding pace. We’d taken an hour break in the small hours, which I mostly slept through, while Gor stood guard, and Sim was trying to piece together a full tactical picture using the comnavsat in orbit.
She gave us a brief rundown before we set off again. All the major cities were besieged, but fire was holding the plants away from the walls, although they continually tried to get through, and every now and then, one very singed plant made it to the wall and started climbing. None made it to the top anywhere. In orbit, troop shuttles were continually flying back and forth, dropping more troops across the planet.
The bad news was another fleet was inbound with new troop transports. We didn’t know why, but the Trixone really wanted this planet. Maybe it was their booze, who knew? The good news was the rail guns were inflicting a lot of damage on the attackers. I had a gut feel though. Things were only going to get worse.
My Excalibur was now flyable, but not yet ready to fight. And against troop shuttles, it would do fine. But orbit was also swarming with plant fighters, and a single Excalibur had no chance up there. Sim also reported Scimitar now had decks one and two sealed, and the Lightning was now being worked on to act as a jump start battery. But the ship itself had no chance of getting off the ground yet, let alone being able to fly or fight. She was however working on getting launchers repaired, which, when power was back on, could at least lob capital ship missiles into the middle of the invaders. But this would clearly only be a desperation move, since the moment the trees in orbit detected a heat bloom or a launch, Scimitar would be destroyed. Still, I told Sim to keep going, just in case.
I mulled over the situation as we continued striding towards wherever Willow was taking us.
Basically, we were screwed.
The locals hadn't had a war since they departed tiger space, and other than what I’d seen already for wall defense, had nothing in the way of weapons I’d expect a normal civilization to have, even if they were in museums. They were set up for small scale skirmishes against something they weren’t telling us about. Against an army with seemingly unlimited reserves and no apparent care about lives lost, they could only hold the line until they ran out of ammunition or accelerant for the fire along the walls, or ran out of soldiers who could still fight. At some point, they would start taking casualties, and once Trixone entered civilian areas, it was game over.
The only thing going for them was their soldiers seemed to have an endurance light years beyond anything I’d seen before. But they did tire, and tired soldiers made mistakes. And one mistake with this enemy was death. If a knight was finally pulled down, the plants could pull the helmet off, and swipe. I knew they could do this from reports on other planets where protective clothing was effective until they put you down and pulled a piece off. Then you died.
By mid-morning, we were well into another range of hills, the next wave of paratroops were landing, and according to Sim they were also coming down in other clearings, and assembling battalions to enter the forests. Willow ordered her knights back behind the walls, to avoid them being surrounded and cut off.
I was now regretting not having brought food with us. I was close to running on empty now, and while Gor could carry me if necessary, I’d never live down the embarrassment. So I was very glad Willow slowed as we approached a rocky outcrop. A few minutes later, she stopped.
“Do you feel like we’re being watched?” she asked me.
“You are being watched,” said a voice from above.
And before we could do anything, we were surrounded by a dozen men wielding ornate spears, all the same short people as the king, wearing similar garments. One of them motioned for us to surrender our weapons, and I shrugged at Sim. We removed guns and swords, handing them over after first turning the guns off electronically. They were fascinated by the guns, but were unable to fire them.
They herded us towards a cave entrance, and we were soon underground. The technology was identical to the city, but everything was scaled up in size, way beyond even Willow’s height. Maybe they had war machines in here somewhere? We could only hope, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath. A massive set of doors led into a huge cavern, which was filled with people, all apparently waiting for us.
One man stood alone on a raised area, and we were ushered into his presence. Our guards stepped back, leaving the four of us before him.
“Willow,” he said, making it sound like a swear word.
“Lasencion. Nice to see you again.”
“Not really. You were told never to come back. Why have you?”
“I would have thought that was obvious. Our world is on the brink of annihilation. Those of us on the surface can only hold the invaders at bay. We need your help to remove them.”
“And why should we care if the topside is wiped clean?”
“Because you’ll be next,” I said.
“What are you, and what makes you think your voice will be heard here?”
“He is human,” answered Willow, before I could. “The invaders are attacking countless worlds, and only his people are holding them at bay, the same as ours are here.”
“Have they attacked the tigers?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Good. How well do they fare?”
“Badly. They refused any help for too long, but we are starting to halt the plant advance now.”
“Why do you help them?”
“Because they need help, and because we can help.�
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“You help our ancient enemies, and expect our help in return?”
“The enemy of my enemy is my ally.”
He laughed, and the entire cavern laughed with him. Sim frowned. I turned to her.
“What?”
“The Trixone just dropped a battalion at the entrance we came in.”
Lasencion stopped laughing, and looked over towards the doors as a single figure ran in. We waited while he crossed the floor, and whispered something which visibly upset him. The messenger gave a nod sort of bow, and departed. He turned to Willow.
“You brought them straight to us.”
“No,” said Sim, quietly.
“NO?” he bellowed, the last of the laughter now gone.
“They dropped troops on twenty other cave entrances at the same time, all across the planet.”
“How could they know where to find us?”
“Most likely they’ve figured out most of the population live underground, and are scanning for variable heat sources near the surface, and where they appear and vanish on the surface.”
Another messenger ran in. Not so much a run this time, as sprinting as fast as he could. There was more whispering. Lasencion’s face went through a mixture of shock, anger, and finally outrage. He turned to us.
“What are these creatures who can kill at a single touch? Who can kill even US?”
“They are a plant,” I said, “with a stinger which has a contact poison that kills all animals with a single touch.”
“WE ARE NOT ANIMALS!” he bellowed.
“All flesh based species seem to be vulnerable to them. The only defense is to not allow contact with the skin. Even your people’s skin is not a protection.”
“Why have you come to us?”
“We need fire,” said Willow. “For now, fire in front of our walls keeps them out. But there is only so much accelerant to feed the fires, and once gone, they will swamp us faster than we can make more. We need your fire to burn them wherever they are.”
Lasencion turned to the messenger, whispered for a moment, and the man sprinted out again.
“Why don’t you use fire?” he demanded of me.
“Our approach is more high tech. Our guns shred plants faster than fire burns them. But we too started with swords, and rapidly found ourselves killing too slowly. Some of the planets we’ve helped so far used fire, but individual people carrying flame throwers are not much more effective than swords on their own. They needed to mass the fire in order to stop the Trixone from reaching them even while burning. Our approach works better, but here, I have no ability to recharge the weapons. When they stop working, we become vulnerable as well, and although our protection is better, eventually an overwhelmed person would become vulnerable to the stinger. For us, it just takes longer.”
“We can’t project enough fire to burn out the invaders,” said Willow. “Only to protect our walls.”
“Tell me everything.”
We were still talking when the messenger sprinted in again. More whispering, but this time Lasencion grinned. He turned back to us.
“Our fire does work. And so do our protections as well. Those at our entrance have prevailed.” He turned to the messenger. “Send word to all of our people, so they may protect themselves.”
The messenger sprinted out again.
“Thank you,” he said to Willow. “You have in a small way repaired the rift between our people and yours.”
“Will you help us?” she asked.
“Why should we? Your people slaughter ours on sight. Why should we care?”
”Because we are all one people. You know that. Your society exists because ours supplies you with people. Without us…”
“Without you, we will stop losing innocents, and our numbers will grow to cover this world.”
Sim seemed to be having a lot of trouble following this, and I was as well. Gor didn’t seem to care. But it was Gor who spoke.
“You cannot hide down here forever. If the surface dwellers fall, and you keep the plants out of your caves, they will simply bombard the caves from orbit. They kill because they consider us food. But what they can’t eat, which isn’t a plant, they destroy.”
Lasencion looked at Gor, then back to me. I nodded.
“The cities are being shielded. Unless you have the same shielding ability which can cover the entire cave system you live in, your caves will become your tombs. Even if you can shield such a vast area, they will continue to bring enough firepower to eventually batter down the shields.”
“So in the short term we can prevail, but in the long term all are doomed?”
“Pretty much. In space we hold our own through tech and magic the plants can’t duplicate. We lose ships, but magic saves our pilots so they can fight again. We keep changing our tactics, but they adapt. We have fought them to a stalemate, but they keep coming regardless of casualties.”
“So ultimate protection comes from space?”
“Keeping them out of the solar system is the only way to stay safe. We have the means, but the first task is removing them from both the planet and the system.”
“And after?”
“You either develop your own system defenses, or you join us and negotiate for ours.”
“And what would we have that your people would want?”
I grinned at him.
“Your beer for a start. Our Imperium is based on two things. Mutual protection, and trade. We have a magic means of negating the distance between planets, allowing trade to flourish without the expense and time of conventional movement between the stars.”
“And are the tigers part of this Imperium of yours?”
“No. But for now, we have a non-aggression pact with them, and limited access to their space to help them defend themselves. Since most of our space is within theirs, it’s in our interests to help them. In the fullness of time we hope to trade with them, and all the individual species which make up their space.”
“And what of those who hate them? Do you allow them that hatred?”
“Are you asking if we would allow anyone to make war on them across our network?” He nodded. “No. We will not allow that. But trade does not require direct contact. You would be able to trade with anyone, while at the same time not allowing others to come to your planet. We do this already. Several of our members have restrictions on travel to their planets, but are slowly realizing the benefits of trading with all. But it’s a decision each member makes as to how much interaction they allow with other members. We provide the framework.”
“And the system protection?”
“In several ways, yes. The main way is giant battlestations at where others enter a system. But our Imperator wields a magic which can render the jump points impassable. We use it as a last resort, because most planets we’ve found trade with others in some way, and unless the trade is maintained, isolation can prove fatal.”
“We require isolation. We came here for isolation. You offer us nothing.”
“We offer you survival in the long term. But anyway, this is all for the future, assuming we survive today.”
Sim gave me a look which suggested not saying any more. I had been about to mention no-one knew where I was until I could make contact again, but this might just give him ideas about preventing me returning home. Willow had already suggested it, but these people didn’t seem as reasonable.
“You are correct. We need to safeguard our planet first.”
He looked around the cavern.
“It seems we must go to war. Show your agreement.”
So he wasn’t a king as such. He was now looking at the people closest to us, and the nearest made fists with his hands, before bashing them together hard enough to make me wince. The next person did the same, and this continued like a wave around the cavern, with very few doing a double hand shake instead. He waited for all to vote.
“Then it is decided.”
He paused, looking at us, as if trying to decide som
ething further.
“TO WAR!” he cried, and his form shimmered and shifted, growing larger and larger, until I finally understood why the ceilings were so high here.
He was a wyvern.
Twenty Nine
“I hope you’re rested.”
‘A damn sight better than you,’ I almost replied. Jon still looked tired, even after all the rest he’d had. Unless he hadn't had as much rest as I had, but I wasn’t going to ask him.
“Pretty much, yes.”
And I was. I’d exchanged vids with Chris the night before, in between watching the nav map expanding exponentially. Chris and his small task force were still cleaning up the jump point the battle had been at. In technical Brit terms, apparently I’d made ‘a bit of a mess’. And his ships were not as well equipped for dealing with a big mess as others were, so it was taking longer.
One of the freighters now jump drive equipped had gone out his way, so he now had a lot of warning of the next plant fleet approaching his position. The others had started in different places, and expanded out across the core frontier space, through both Keerah and Ralnor space.
Already it was apparent the scale of the invasion was well beyond anything anyone could have had a demented nightmare about. The Trixone were moving like the ocean. Wave after wave as far as the eye could see.
“Good. Jane will be giving Chaos a set of jump points to move through. I want you to hit them for most damage at the jump points themselves, so they get delayed jumping by their own debris. But I don’t want you hanging around. And I don’t want you being predictable. We need to take the pressure off our own choke points, and slow down them bringing more fleets against us, by hitting fleets further away. We’ll make them think about their own defense, instead of single mindedly moving fleets our way.”
The nav map highlighted the systems he wanted hit, and I took a moment to look the course over.
“We can do that.”
“Good. The girls have had orders already to report to Fearless. I’m moving ships around ready to hit several systems where the comnavsats have identified locals barely holding the plants out. We don’t have the resources to help all of them, but we can help a few. The teams go in to help in the worst positions, while the ships clear their space. After that we take in a station, and rift in troops like we did before.”
Imperium Knight Chaos Rising (The Hunter Imperium Book 6) Page 13