Another several minutes passed, then Wade felt the drop ship suddenly slow and level off. He could feel his weight increase as the drop ship’s inertial compensators struggled to maintain normal gravity. Then they were down and the hatch came slamming open.
“Let’s go!” Wade yelled as he jumped up and moved quickly down the ramp, his RG rifle held at the ready.
He paused at the sight in front of him. The area immediately around the drop ship was clear of Wren troops, but in the distance he could see hundreds, if not thousands heading toward them. The ground was relatively level with small rolling hills. Abut two to three kilometers away was the beginning of the spaceport. Even from here, Wade could see that it stretched on for kilometers.
Looking to his side, he could see the other drop ships that were under Captain Jenkin’s command. Their marines were also pouring out and had paused at seeing all the Wren soldiers coming toward them. This was going to be a battle much more intense than any they had fought before. As soon as the marines were all unloaded, the ramps rose up and the hatches closed. Soon after, all twelve of the drop ships took off, heading back up toward the safety of space. Wade knew they were on their own, and the drop ships would not be returning until after the battle was over.
“Form up in a staggered skirmish line!” Jenkin’s commanding voice came over the com as he took stock of the situation. “Use of RG explosives is permitted, let’s thin those insects out!”
“Move it!” Wade yelled over his com, seeing that the Wren soldiers were moving extremely fast. It wouldn’t take them long to reach the skirmish line. “Sergeant Stern, lay down a suppression fire with RG explosive rounds, Sergeant Perry, I want to see energy weapons sweeping the front of those advancing enemy troops.”
All eighty suits of battle armor in Lieutenant Nelson’s command instantly formed up in a staggered skirmish line and began firing. Eighty dark, nearly black, ten-foot tall battle suits were an imposing sight. They were quickly joined by the other units, and soon two hundred and forty marines were firing into the horde of advancing Wren. Explosive rounds began going off in the midst of the charging troops, killing dozens at a time. Blue energy beams flicked out cutting the Wren in two.
From the Wren troops, weapons fire began to echo up and down their advancing line, and a few explosive rounds fell harmlessly amongst the marines. Even with the massive losses from the explosive rounds and the energy weapons, the Wren continued their charge.
“Intensify your rate of fire!” ordered Captain Jenkins, seeing the enemy were coming closer and seemingly unaffected by their losses. It was as if for everyone they killed two more rose up to replace them. A solid black mass of charging Wren was bearing down on the armor-encased marines.
Wade took careful aim with his RG rifle and began firing off regular rounds in a steady and controlled rate. He found quickly that it was taking more than one round to bring down a Wren soldier. He quickly switched to explosive rounds and began firing nonstop at the advancing enemy, knowing if that massive wave of bodies reached them there could be serious problems.
“There’s too many of them!” Private Dawson exclaimed with worry in his voice. “I don’t think we’re going to get them before they reach us!”
“Just watch your damn neck!” Private Russell replied as he fired an energy beam into two advancing Wren, cutting them down.
Wade watched as blue energy beams swept the front of the Wren troops, cutting them in half. Even then, the body kept moving with the head and torso continuing to crawl toward the Human lines. It was a chilling sight. “Captain Jenkins, we need to use the suit explosives to help clear some of these Wren out or we’re going to be overrun!”
“Agreed,” Jenkins replied quickly, he had already reached the same conclusion. “Every fourth marine step back and fire off two rounds from your suit tubes. Target is two hundred meters in front of us; I don’t think we want to fire any closer.”
Wade felt the first concussion as one of the suit explosive rounds landed, blasting a huge crater in the ground. It was immediately followed by dozens of others as an entire area nearly two hundred meters wide and a kilometer in length was leveled. Wade knew that several thousand Wren troops had been obliterated, if not more, but the others were nearly upon them. For the first time, Wade got a close up view of a Wren. It stood nearly eight feet tall and had four arms standing on two legs. Large wings on their backs indicated they were capable of flight. In one of their arms, the Wren held some type of rifle and what looked like a large war axe in the other.
“They’re going to get to us,” Lieutenant William’s voice came sharply over the com. “We’re not going to be able to stop them all!”
Wade checked the HUD in his helmet. Only two suits showed amber from the Wren weapons fire, but he wasn’t sure how a suit would hold up if struck by one of the large battle axes the Wren were wielding. “Everyone, this is going to be hand-to-hand really quick. Use the energy lances!”
Wade slung his rifle back over his suit and grasped the energy lance at his waist. As he pulled it from his scabbard it instantly lit, emitting a blue surging light and making a crackling noise. The first Wren soldier was almost upon him as he thrust the lance into the midsection of it, cutting easily through the body. Wrenching the lance free he made a swinging motion, cutting the insect completely in two. All around him he could hear the sizzling sound of energy lances cutting through flesh and the occasional scream of a marine as he went down under the weight of Wren troops.
The fighting grew more intense, and Wade suddenly felt another battle suit bump into him. “We need to stay close together,” Sergeant Stern said as she lopped off a Wren’s head directly in front of Wade. “The energy lances work best if two marines work together. Stay away from those damn axes; I saw one of them cut right through a suit of armor.”
“You heard the sergeant,” Wade yelled over his com. “Groups of two and cover each other.” Looking at his HUD Wade saw that eight icons were now amber and three were red. Marines were dying!
For what seemed like hours, Wade swung his energy lance, killing Wren after Wren. But they still came on and soon Wade and Sergeant Stern were standing upon Wren bodies as they continued to pile up. Then he began to hear more explosive rounds going off and suddenly felt himself hurled upward and slammed into the ground. For a moment, Wade laid there stunned and couldn’t move. Opening his eyes, he realized a Wren was lying on top of him. Shoving the dead Wren to the side, he staggered to his feet. Next to him, Sergeant Stern was still on the ground, and he heard her roll over with a moan.
“What the hell happened?”
“Someone fired suit explosives almost directly on our position,” Wade answered as he saw the four smoking holes in the ground less than fifty meters from their current location.
Looking around, all he could see were piles of Wren bodies all cut apart or blown to pieces. More marines in battle suits were standing back up. A few were now using their energy weapons or RGs to finish off the few surviving Wren in the immediate area or whose bodies were still moving.
In the distance, he could hear the rumbling of more explosions. The far side of the spaceport was being attacked, and he could see several buildings on fire. The marines on that side of the spaceport had obviously reached their objective.
“Lieutenant Nelson, we have a problem,” Lieutenant Williams said in a strained voice over the com system. She had been the one who had ordered the explosive rounds to be fired, realizing too many marines were being injured or killed. It had been a dangerous decision, but it had worked.
“What is it, Lieutenant?” Wade asked as he sheathed his energy lance and looked toward the lieutenant’s position. She was about one hundred meters away from him.
“It’s Captain Jenkins, he’s badly injured.”
“Crap,” responded Wade, feeling as if he had been punched in the gut. “I’m on my way. Sergeant Stern get our people organized and back into a skirmish line. We need to begin advancing before the Wren can h
it us again.”
“Yes, Sir,” Jamie replied as she turned and moved off to carry out his orders.
Wade hurried over to Beth’s position to find her leaning over a prone battle suit with several other marines standing vigilantly by with their RG rifles at the ready. It took Wade only a moment to recognize what was wrong. One of the Wren had made it to Captain Jenkins and managed to tear or bite the complete right arm of his combat suit in two. There was blood everywhere, and the captain wasn’t moving.
“What happened?”
“It was the Wren,” sobbed Beth, knowing the captain was near death.
She had already checked his vitals, but even with the suit he had lost too much blood. She wondered if the Wren had injected some type of poison into his system when it had bitten him. The captain’s arm had been torn or bitten off at the shoulder, and there was also a ragged hole in the side of his suit where one of the Wren battle axes had struck. “They overran us and the captain got cut off. Before we could get to him it was too late!”
Wade bent over and tried to speak to the captain. “Captain Jenkins, can you hear me?”
“I’m done for,” Jenkins replied in a weak voice. “My suit’s too damaged. You have to take charge, Wade. Tell General Mitchell that’s what I want.” Captain Jenkins’ left arm raised up to grasp Wade’s shoulder. “Wade, get our people back to Earth someday.”
“I will, Sir,” Wade promised as the captain’s grasp relaxed and his arm slid back down. On his HUD, one of the amber icons turned red.
Letting out a deep breath, Wade stood back up and gazed around. A number of marines were standing close by in their battle suits, watching. Others had taken up their positions in the skirmish line. “Captain Jenkins is dead,” Wade announced over his suit’s com. “Let’s move out and finish this job; we can mourn the dead when the fighting is over.”
Wade turned to leave when he felt a hand on his right arm. He saw that Lieutenant William’s battle suit was still next to him.
“Wade, did you really mean that about going home?”
“Yes,” Wade replied with conviction in his voice. “I promised the captain, and I keep my promises.”
Williams nodded and releasing the arm of Wade’s suit, turned and strode over to her marines. “Get in the skirmish line! What are you waiting for? We have a battle to finish!”
For the next hour, the marines slowly moved forward, encountering occasional resistance from Wren forces. Most of the resistance was light, and it quickly became evident that they had used most of the troops available to them in the initial charge. Only Wade and a few others fully understood how close the Wren had come to winning that battle. One of the things that confused Wade was why the Wren hadn’t attacked them from the air. If they were capable of flight, it only seemed to reason they would have attempted to do so. But not once so far in the battle had he saw a Wren take to the air.
They finally reached the edge of the spaceport and began lobbing their suit explosive shells from the two tubes on the back of their suits at their designated targets. A few worker Wren were spotted, but they were deemed not to be dangerous as they seemed to be wandering around without direction. Buildings, gantries, assembly structures, command and control centers were targeted and were soon piles of burning rubble. Smoke filled the air and the marines in the battle suits stood impassively as they leveled everything within range.
“All targets destroyed,” Lieutenant Jeffries and Williams reported when the last suit explosive round had been expended.
Wade checked the HUD one more time as he used the sensors in his suit to scan for active power sources. There was nothing. The spaceport was destroyed, and nothing remained that could ever be used to construct or launch a spaceship. This same procedure was being used all across the planet by other marines that had been dropped on the surface.
“I wonder how the others did?” Sergeant Stern asked as she walked over to stand close to Wade with her energy weapon cradled in her arms.
“Our units are the only ones with the Type Three suits,” Wade responded. Adjusting the optics in his suit, he could see other battle suits on the far side of the space complex. Even from here, he could see they were wearing the Type Two suits. He suspected their casualties might have been higher.
A noise distracted him and looking up, saw the drop ships were returning. It was time to return to the assault ship and administer to their wounded.
All the dead would be going back also and memorial services would be held later. Looking around at the destruction around them, Wade could see the devastation they had caused. This can’t go on much longer, he thought. If it does, we will lose what makes us Human; we can’t allow the Kleese to turn us into soulless killing machines.
After making sure all of his marines were aboard the drop ships, Wade climbed the ramp and took his seat. There was very little talking as the ship took off and headed back up into orbit where the assault ship was waiting. This had been the most difficult battle yet, and a lot of good marines had lost their lives.
Later, Wade made it to his quarters on the assault ship and collapsed upon his bunk. In his dreams, he saw the Wren falling before his weapons. He and his marines killed and killed, but nothing could stop the advancing Wren.
-
Marken stood in the Command Center as his ship used its Space Fold drive to warp space in front of the ship. It would take them six days to travel back to the station.
“A lot of the Human warriors were killed upon the planet,” Skagern commented from his side.
“Many more than expected,” sighed Marken, shaking his head in regret. “We can’t afford for the Humans to take casualties like this if we want to set our plan into motion.”
“Everything is ready,” Skagern replied in a lower voice. “It is a shame that Captain Jenkins was killed; he would have played a key role in our escape.”
“I will recommend that Lieutenant Nelson be promoted to fill his position,” Marken responded as the assault ship continued to pick up speed. It was already traveling at many times the speed of light. “General Mitchell already suspects something is up, though we haven’t filled him in on any of the details.”
“How soon before we tell the Humans what we’re planning?”
“Soon,” answered Marken as he folded his arms across his chest. “When we get back I will meet with the others, and we will set a date for our revolt. Once that has been done, I will begin speaking to the key Humans. This will only succeed if we have their trust and support.”
“What about their home world; when are you going to tell them that it was destroyed by the Kleese?”
“When we make our escape,” Marken replied with a heavy sigh of resignation. “We don’t know how they will respond to the knowledge that most of their species was annihilated. We can only hope that enough survived so that someday we can take the fight to the Kleese and free our own home world.”
Skagern nodded and returned to his duties. They were traveling in a bubble created by the Space Fold drive, which warped space directly in front of the ship, making the distance between two points come closer together. The more space was warped, the faster the ship traveled. No one was certain what the upper limit was. Skagern suspected the Kleese might know since the top speed was completely controlled by the amount of power a ship had available to generate the warp effect.
Marken watched his second in command go back to his duties. In the battle upon the Wren’s planet, they had lost over seven hundred of the Human soldiers out of the nearly ten thousand they had deployed. That didn’t include the six hundred that had died when eight assault ships had been destroyed. Marken allowed his gaze to wander to the large, heavily shielded windows in the front of the Command Center.
There were thousands of stars out there, and if you watched closely you could almost see them moving as a result of the warp effect. The Kleese controlled most of those stars, and what Marken and the other Kiveans were planning would shake the Empire to its core if they suc
ceeded. Leaning back, Marken thought deeply about the plans that had been made. It would be risky, but they would turn the Humans loose on the Empire once they were told what had been done to Earth. Marken let out a deep breath. It was difficult knowing that the future of his race now depended upon the Humans.
Chapter Fourteen
Marken and his group were sitting in a small conference room on the space station meeting with General Mitchell, Colonel Bailey, and recently promoted Major Wade Nelson. Under Marken’s urging, Wade had been promoted to the rank of major due to the fact that his units controlled all of the Type Three battle suits. Those battle suits would play an important role in the coming insurrection.
“I don’t understand why we’re having this meeting,” General Mitchell began with a frown. “We have no new deployments planned for the next several weeks, and after the disaster with the Wren, our people need some downtime. Several of the units deployed to the planet suffered major casualties.”
“Casualties we were assured wouldn’t happen,” Colonel Bailey reminded Marken pointedly.
“This doesn’t concern any planned Kleese deployments,” Marken replied carefully as he eyed the three Humans.
General Mitchell was an older man and very good at organizing the troops under his command. Colonel Bailey was younger and received a high level of respect from those under him, while Major Nelson was a doer. Give him an order and he would accomplish it using whatever means were necessary. They were just the type of people Marken needed to carry out his plans.
“We are also distressed by the losses,” Marken assured them. “Need I remind you that eight assault ships were also lost, and several of those crews were Kivean?”
Galactic Empire Wars: Destruction (The Galactic Empire Wars) Page 22