“We have to get those shields down. Then we can soften them up and get in before they can cut loose!”
An intense barrage of micromissiles and negation pulse bombs swarmed at the enemy and detonated with a flash. Multiple loud, rocking bangs, pops, and explosions went off to further stun and startle the enemy.
Right as the enemy shields collapsed.
But two enemy autoguns came online, just as it looked like the Marines would overrun the enemy position.
The rapid-fire enemy guns disintegrated two Marine meks up close, and cut down a score of other attackers.
Naero sent in a wave of fixers.
They swept in and penetrated the enemy defenses.
The Triaxians couldn’t shoot them all down. The devices were simply too small and too many.
Once at the big guns, the fixers quickly dismantled and reduced them to non-functioning components.
With the top sections clear, Naero sent her forces down at the enemy from above.
Hayden and the Marines regrouped and came at the foe from below.
Caught in a terrible crossfire, three-score remaining foes went down under a hail of heavy penetration fire, rockets, and grenades.
Naero and Hayden called in the remainder of their assault forces, almost at the same time.
“Get the rest of our people down here,” Naero said.
“Send in the Marines,” Hayden ordered.
She glared at him and cocked her head.
“Seriously, Jeremiah?”
He laughed. “I always wanted to say it–finally got the chance.”
“Do you think taking every deck is going to be like this? We don’t have enough time for that.”
More troops from the second assault wave poured in through the tubes.
“We’ll find out,” Hayden said at last. “We don’t have to take down the entire ship–just the main bridge and those missile tubes.”
“Copy that.”
The Kronos lurched forward suddenly.
Explosive robotic charges on the outside of the vessel suddenly ripped the boarding tubes away.
The Kronos broke free from The Hippolyta, and flung itself off.
Dozens perished right before their eyes.
The outer portions of the hangar transformed into a ragged, gaping wound in the enemy flagship.
Their gravwings struggled to keep all of them from getting sucked out into the vortex of space.
“Everybody inside!” Naero commanded. “That’s the only way forward now. Remember our objectives. We’ll divide our forces up accordingly.”
“You heard the lady,” Hayden said. “All in.”
They made their way into the interior of the ship. The cut and blasted through sealed bulkheads and hatches as needed.
Naero asked Hayden his professional opinion as they checked their complement readouts.
“Do we have enough troops to complete both missions, still?”
He nodded. “I think so, but it’s slim now. Sorry, N. Either way, this looks like a one way ride. Pretty sure we can complete both missions, but I’m thinking we’ll still get a super tan in the end.”
Naero took his hand briefly.
“Forward it is then,” she said. “I’ve transmitted our situation to the fleet. If they can send help, they will. Let’s get our part done, and trust to our mates. Leftenant Commander Tyber, proceed with Gunny Kowalski and his Marines with the other half of our fighters to the missile bays. Blast your way in if you have to. Wreck those devices. They cannot go off in the sun, at all costs, whatever happens to anyone. Got me?”
Ty smiled. He actually saluted. “You know we will, sir. We’re on it.”
Zhen would be proud, but angry at Naero if they all died in the process.
Naero and her team went with Captain Hayden and the heavy Marine assault unit.
Strangely enough, they faced very light opposition on their way up toward the main bridge.
A few attackers with small arms and grenades, taking shots at them here and there. Easily dealt with and put down or bypassed.
Too easy. What was waiting for them?
Nothing to do but find out.
“Proceeding to the main bridge,” Hayden announced. “Just through that open deck and beyond those blast doors, and to the next wide open deck around the curve. Perhaps this won’t be so difficult after all.”
Naero studied the schematics.
And her sense of warning went wild.
“I don’t know, Hayden. This is the only approach from this entire side of the ship. It’s wide open, but it also looks like a perfectly designed kill zone to me. Let me send in some fixers to check it out and scan our approach.”
“Fine by me. Send those goomers up ahead for a look see.”
Naero did so.
As soon as they emerged from around the curve, into the open…
A heavy, blinding wave of solid interlocking fire shredded them to pieces and heavily pock-marked the thick opposite blast wall.
49
The main bridge to the Triaxian Flagship lay dead ahead according to the brief scans the destroyed fixers sent back.
Protected by heavy, defensive blast shields, bristling with rows of auto-guns set in the very walls, and vault-like bulkheads, completely blocking their way.
The heavy weapons set within those blast shields, stood poised and ready to mow down any troops that dared to attempt any kind of assault.
But this was it. Their tough nut to crack, and they had no choice.
They had to get past those guns somehow and take out the bridge, before they all died, the flagship went into the sun, and everyone in half a parsec got killed when the star went nova.
Naero tried sending in larger waves of fixers first.
“They can dismantle those guns and chew through the walls, breaking them down into raw components.”
She sent in hundreds.
No dice.
She sent in a cloud of thousands.
No good.
Those that the autoguns did not take out directly were dropped by electron pulse waves and disrupted before they even made contact with the guns or walls.
Tyber and the teks sent over a beam cannon, cannibalized out of one of the enemy secondary defensive batteries.
The enemy shielding even held up against that.
Several blasts couldn’t even make a scratch, before the Spacer-rigged weapon completely burned out.
Captain Hayden and his spacer Marines did not look any more eager than Naero and her crew to take those guns on up close and personal.
“That’s and intense amount of firepower,” Naero said. “How can we beat them, let alone breach those blast walls?”
“I’ll send in a mek unit with overloaded shield pods. It’s our only chance. They might get close enough to set some bunker busting fusion charges.”
Hayden lifted his hand, giving to the order to Leftenant Tycho’s valiant meks.
Everyone else hugged the walls.
The meks shot forward, glowing shield pods blazing and warping the air in waves directly in front of them.
As soon as they got into the open, the auto-guns flared, blinding the entire area with their intense, withering fire.
The six meks formed a wedge of interlocking shields that shrieked and screamed against the intense assault trying to chew through them.
They leaned into the barrage and struggled to push forward with all of their enhanced power.
The meks tried to launch volleys of micro-grenades and rockets to take out some of the guns.
The enemy rate of fire was such that any ordnance that the left the mek shields was instantly vaporized and repulsed.
The meks would need to reach the walls, and set the bunker-busters manually.
One auto-gun jammed and stopped firing.
The mek wedge instantly made for the weak point.
The other auto-guns kept blazing.
Hayden watched his readouts.
“Leftenant,
pull back. You only have minutes left on your shield pods at best. They’re overloading too fast!”
Tycho ignored him, always glacier-cool under fire.
“Almost there, Cap. About to set the first charge.”
“Tycho, get your people out of there. That’s an order, damn it!”
The mek on the far left took out one of the autoguns up close.
Then her shield pod went down.
She ignited her rockets and tried to shoot forward.
She overloaded her power core and activated her bunker buster.
But the autoguns chewed through her backup shields and her mek in a heartbeat.
Corporal Flannery was instantly vaporized.
Her fusion charge cooked off and damaged two more autoguns and scarred the bulkhead.
Light damage at best.
“People, only seconds left on our pods,” Tycho noted. “Set your charges and your suits to critical like Helen did and in with me. Let’s punch this fucking hole! Ooh, Rah!”
“Ooh, Rah!” four Marine voices yelled, in fearless unison.
Naero and Hayden read the blast projections at the same time.
“Retreat to the last bulkhead!” Naero screamed.
“Get back!” Hayden ordered.
They made it half way to the other bulkhead when a tremendous, partially shielded explosion rocked the enemy flagship, tore through the defenses, and ripped another gaping, ragged wound in the hull of the ship.
The explosive decompression sucked out a mek and several Spacers and Marines.
Naero and Hayden led their remaining forces forward.
A glowing rupture yawned amid smoke and flame.
Most of the autoguns were down, but not all.
Hayden sent in his last two meks to clear a path for their combined strike force.
The meks and their shield pods stepped into the teeth of the remaining autoguns, giving the strike force a clear path straight in.
Spacers and Spacer Marines set their shields and gravwings and swept through the breach.
Naero led the sortie to port.
Hayden took starboard.
Within, the bridge was partially filled with smoke and all of the lights, gravity, and power seemed to be down.
The flagship listed, powerless, but still propelled toward the sun by its own, rapid, forward momentum.
At some point very soon, the gravity of the star itself would latch hold and suck them all in even faster.
Grenades and weapon fire from enemy positions rocked their shields, knocked people around, killing two troops outright.
The Spacers propelled themselves off every angle and commenced their attack. Enemy fire revealed their positions behind a barricade of blast shields and consoles.
The enemy took fire from almost every possible direction.
Spacer grenades and charges gnawed at their shields and disrupted their defenses.
Then, at the right moment, Naero sent her fixers sweeping in to activate a negation pulse, similar to the enemy disruption blast.
Every Spacer and Marine instantly got a coded command.
Take cover.
Power down all shields!
Their people pulled back, just as the pulse hit.
It thrummed through the shattered bridge in waves, knocking out all the enemy shields.
As it passed, the counter-sign was given.
Shields back up.
Resume the attack!
Now their weapons punched straight into the enemy and cut them down.
Half of the enemy number perished in a few instants.
High Admiral Maximillian Jaxxon Dreth activated a reserve shield pod around himself and started laughing.
Why was the bastard laughing?
A full score of enemy meks popped right out of the walls where they had been held in check. Enormous sterodan warriors in combat armor emerged out of the floor, walls, and ceiling, backed up by squads of Ejjai shock troops in full battle suits.
At the point of victory, the Spacers found themselves cut off and outnumbered–seven to one.
And the enemy troops kept pouring out of every hidden shaft and hole.
Nothing to do but fight.
Chaos and death erupted within the dark, smoky orb of the shattered enemy bridge, as the helpless flagship spun further and further out of control.
Only the matchless Spacer expertise for fighting in zero-G environments kept them from being swept away and killed right at the outset.
But against fresh forces, and hi-tek numbers, they would not survive for long.
Like everyone else, Naero spun, kicked, and cut loose with her weapons in the tumult.
She shot Sterodans in the face and head as the enormous brutes fired at her and tried to drag her down.
If they got hold of her, they’d tear off her arms and legs.
As she saw them do to others.
Her assault rifle empty, she drew blaster pistols and blazed away rapid fire into the snarling teeth of the Ejjai shock troops. She whirled, spun, and kicked, snapping necks and shattering bones.
Bubbles and blobs of blood bobbled and boiled everywhere from the dead and wounded.
A com came in from Tyber.
“Good news, N. ”
“A little busy, Ty.”
She shot the legs off an Ejjai alpha at the hips.
The bitch still tried to blast her, spinning away and bleeding to death.
“We’ve reached the solar disruption warheads. Our fixers are disarming them as quickly as we can. Where did Triax get tek like this? It’s way beyond anything I’ve ever seen before!”
A wounded sterodan body-blocked her from behind, nearly winding her her.
Naero spun and flung three exploding energy knives into his head and shoulders.
The explosions decapitated the muscle-amped freak, just before he grappled for her slender legs with his huge meaty paws.
Naero sliced off his fingers at the same time.
“Naero, you still with me?”
“Just barely, Ty. We’re getting murdered up here on the bridge. Outnumbered. Finish up there and get what help you can to us, ASAP!”
“On the way. Leave the fixers behind, everyone. Get to the bridge any way you can!”
Below, on her six, Naero wheeled and spotted Captain Hayden and a big knot of Marines.
They just finished blasting their way through the last enemy meks.
Now they charged Admiral Dreth’s position in a direct, all out assault.
Both elements concentrated heavy fire directly at the other.
Personal shields warped and winked out on both sides.
This was the kind of up close, heavy punching match that the Marines excelled at.
But they were still outnumbered.
And the enemy closed in on them from every angle.
Naero had her own problems.
Only three surviving friendlies nearby–all fighting for their lives.
A sphere of enemies closed in on her directly to take her down.
Flashing, spinning, zero-G kicks knocked several enemies back as she played off them with her gravwing.
Naero whirled in flight, flinging grenades, bomblets, and energized throwing knives and blades in a full spread.
Then she curled up in a protective knot.
All of her ordnance went off the next second, at close range.
The intensity of the blasted negated her shields and bounced her around.
But she took out scores of enemies, all attempting to close in on her.
She looked through her cracked visor on her combat armor and tried to get the damaged suit to heal itself and re-seal.
It wouldn’t respond.
Fire erupted on her three. Ty and the others poured in, trying to assist.
She drew her battle blades and energized them. Not to explode, but to slice through nearly anything they touched.
Naero raced at top speed, becoming a blur, slicing and cutting their foes as she she
raced and circled past at top speed. She became a blur of death.
Other Spacers noted her attacks and quickly imitated her.
Soon the enemy numbers found themselves caught in a slashing hurricane of energized blades.
When her blades cut out, Naero sank one into a sterodan face. The next into an Ejjai belly.
At last, it looked like they had a chance to win.
Then the flagship groaned and buckled. Suddenly accelerating forward.
Oh, no.
Haisha! The star’s gravity had them.
Even if they won the fight, now there wouldn’t be any time to escape.
No more time to think about that.
Just keep fighting.
Down below, she caught sight of Captain Hayden dueling straight up with Admiral Dreth.
Both of them circled the other, firing pistols at each other. Shields went down. Shots penetrated both their armors.
Neither combatant let up.
Guns empty, they drew energy swords.
But something went weird with the enemy Admiral.
Even as Naero tried to fight her way down to help Hayden, she watched as the Marine captain ran the admiral through the chest and abdomen four times in as many instants with his glowing blade.
How was Dreth still standing? Still alive after such terrible wounds?
Naero drew her own energy cutlass and sliced an Ejjai in half.
Then what looked like either steam or ichor of some kind roiled off of the admiral, and he literally began glowing from within, as if there were a power core inside of him.
His veins seemed to pulse and glow with weird, coruscating energies. His very flesh radiated like hot orange and greenish-yellow coals, translucent and glowing. The energies burned right through his ragged combat armor.
Captain Hayden ran the admiral through the throat, but Dreth only laughed and backhanded him–sending him flying twenty meters to smash against the wall.
Dreth yanked the energy sword out of his throat as it were an annoying insect. He broke the sword over his knee and cast aside the pieces.
All of his terrible wounds seemed to seal back up.
Two more Marines stepped in and fired their heavy blaster cannons right into Dreth.
What ever kind of monster or thing Dreth had become, he strode forward impervious, crushed the armored helmets of the two Marines with his fists, and incinerated them in their powered armor where they stood.
Citation Series 1: Naero's War: The Annexation War Page 32