by Aer-ki Jyr
It quickly pulled back and the pressure on his legs released, just in time for Boen to look up and stare into an identical, yet green helmet a few inches away from him.
He was about to say something but an armored finger shot up in front of the helmet, indicating that he be silent. It followed with several Archon hand signals, telling Boen that there were troops nearby.
The Archon got to his feet and responded in kind, noticing crushed plates on Mark’s armor along his left leg. He pointed to it and Mark responded with a ‘snapping’ motion, indicating that the bone had been broken and his leg was out of action.
Putting all questions aside, Boen signaled to Mark to wait, then began walking off a few meters in other directions, trying to get a feel for where the Nestafar were without leaving the trailblazer behind. He had wisely tucked himself up under a shelf-like section of wall that had blown out and was just high enough for him to slide under while laying down, making for the perfect ambush hole.
He wanted to use his suit to suit comm to talk to him, but if Mark had restricted himself to hand signals then there was probably a reason, so he responded in kind and kept the dialog to hands only. Around the next corner he heard footsteps and slinked up against the wall and waited…then grabbed the Nestafar by the throat as it appeared and shot it with his pistol in the chest twice, splattering green paint laden with stun energy on its ugly body before tossing it aside.
Boen ducked around the corner, searching for any others but finding none. He pulled the unconscious enemy aside and stuffed it in a hole in the wall before he went back to Mark where he signaled that he had a way out.
Mark nodded and reached out a hand, then bit down hard on his teeth as Boen dragged him out and up onto his one good foot, then he grabbed Mark’s arm and ducked his torso underneath, hefting him up into an uncomfortable fireman’s carry on top of his weapon’s rack, though the armor on Mark’s chest kept him from feeling the jabbing pressure. Boen kept his pistol in his right hand as he wrapped it around Mark’s good leg, trying to keep as much pressure off the bad one as possible, then in a crouching motion he carried him back the way he had come using his constantly updating battlemap to recall the route he had come in on.
Boen moved Mark back a third of the way through the artificial mountain before he finally set him down and took his own helmet off, with Mark following suit. To Boen’s surprise his face was bloodied, though from what injury he couldn’t be sure.
“You look pretty banged up, boss,” Boen whispered.
“What are you doing out here?”
“Looking for you.”
“What’s the condition of the base?”
“Holding. The Nestafar pulled back and are camped just a little ways yonder. We busted up so many of their walkers I think it put a hold on their plans, but we’re low on skeets.”
“What about the other entrances?”
“We’ve secured the auxiliaries, but they’re gaining ground in the tunnel and we can’t stop them. They’ve only got the troops hiding in the tunnel, because we’ve cut them off outside, but they got a lot of protomechs in there along with the infantry.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know, could be through already if they caught a natural fissure. It took me forever to get here.”
“Thanks.”
“Haven’t got you out yet, and we can’t go back in through the main doors either. They’re sealed up real good by now.”
“Get a dropship to pick us up if we can get clear…assuming we have any left?”
“That’s the plan, but we’ve got a long way to go and most of it is above ground…and they’ve got patrols roaming the debris.”
“They’ve been after me ever since the crash. I dug out underneath the debris and tried to avoid attention but they found me halfway through. Couldn’t get at me with so much junk in the way, until they brought in one of the walkers and tried to crush me. Caught my leg, but I was able to pull free and find my way in here. It’s messed up pretty bad.”
“How’s your head?”
“Fine as far as I know, why?”
“Your face is bloody.”
“It’s from my leg. I had to go upside down several times crawling and it seeped through my armor.”
“You don’t sound like you’re in a lot of pain.”
“Only when I move, right now it’s just numb.”
“That’s a bad sign.”
“I know, and my body’s run out of ambrosia, so I’ve got those headaches to deal with and not enough to speed up my healing, though as bad as it felt when it broke I think I’m going to need a regenerator.”
“Which is up on the seda.”
“Details,” Mark said sarcastically. “Let’s get moving.”
“Don’t suppose we can chuck your armor.”
“If you can get the Nestafar to agree to not shoot me, sure.”
“Just saying, you’re fairly heavy,” he said, glancing around. “Reason for no comms?”
“Just didn’t want to give them a signal to trace.”
“Let’s keep it that way,” Boen said, rotating his helmet around in his hands. “We’re going to need every advantage that we can get.”
Mark nodded. “Let’s go,” he said, putting his helmet back on and reaching a hand up for Boen to grab.
4
Ashley knelt next to the wall silently, pressing her ear against the bare rock as the other Archons and Scionate around her kept absolutely still.
“I hear it,” she said softly, looking up at Ske’rar. “They’re digging parallel to us.”
“We only have one choice if we wish to prevent them from breaking through,” the Scionate said in a frustrated snarl. “To go outside and fight our way back in…unless you’ve learned how to walk through rock.”
“He’s right,” Chase-918 agreed.
Ashley sighed then glanced up at the other Archon from her kneeling position. “You up for some running?”
“Always,” he said eagerly.
“Four man team, me, Chase, Less, and Terry. Everyone else keep slowing them down,” she said, standing up and walking back along the tunnel and accelerating up into a jog with the other three joining her.
Ske’rar also followed. “I will come as well.”
“So long as you can keep up, because we’re going on foot,” Ashley said, gradually increasing her pace.
“Why not use a transport?”
“Because I think the only reason the big boys stopped hammering on the front door is because they think they can get through the back one. If we land outside their tunnel entrance and pour in troops they might not be so confident and resume the main attack.”
“Regardless, we only delay the inevitable.”
“The more time we have the better, so let’s get what we can.”
“Very well, I will meet you topside,” the Scionate said, jumping over the Archons and landing in front of them lithely before sprinting off far faster than the Humans were capable of running.
“Showoff,” Ashley muttered.
Boen knelt down and gently dumped Mark off his back, setting him up against what was left of the corridor wall and moving forward a few steps to get a look at the exterior of the debris mountain. He poked his helmeted head out and looked around, seeing one patrolling Nestafar in the distance as its wingtips flipped up over top of one of the many junk piles dotting the area. It was now midday and brightly lit…and he still wasn’t sure how he was going to get Mark back to base out in the open.
The Archon looked around, trying to mentally plot out their first move after leaving the interior ‘structure.’ Part of him was glad to be on the way out because he was constantly worried that it was going to fall down on their heads, but even with his agility and speed, avoiding the patrols was going to be difficult and he was far less game carrying Mark on his back.
He spotted the last bit of cover he had used on the way in, but quickly nixed that path. He needed more, somewhere he could lay Mark down
while he moved around, figuring he’d have to fight past at least some of the patrols. That said, the best of all available bad locations looked to be a slight overhang off to his right, down low enough for Mark to crawl under. It wouldn’t hold two of them, however, so he needed to plan this out as much as possible before they started to move.
Boen took a few steps outside, getting a better view with and listening for the sound of more patrols. Skulking low to the ground he moved out halfway towards where he was planning on putting Mark down and tried to find some place to hide himself, seeing a few possibles that had partial cover that he could duck back and forth between.
That was going to have to do, because there wasn’t much else to work with.
He headed back to the crack in the starship hull jutting up out of the landscape and ducked inside, bringing Mark out a moment later and walking as fast as he could down to the impromptu blind. He laid him down as gently as he could and the trailblazer pulled himself underneath as Boen ducked off behind cover. From there he bounced around from point to point, looking for another place to stash Mark as they began their long and hazardous journey back towards the base while the Nestafar patrols continued to sweep the area.
Ashley led the short line of Archons down the mountainside through the thick grasses on a controlled sprint, during which the Scionate merely loped along behind in its metallic armor, seemingly bored by the Humans’ pace. As for her, she was running hard the whole way down from the auxiliary entrance that had been held and pacified in the previous hours. As it was the tunnel incursion was the only active assault on the base…probably because it was the one deemed most likely to succeed.
The Archons remained silent during their run, not even bothering to chitchat over the comm. They wanted to be as covert as possible, hoping that their approach might go unnoticed long enough that they wouldn’t have Nestafar spilling back out at the entry point as they came down the slope without cover.
But she shouldn’t have worried, for when they got down to the multiple breach points there was nothing left alive moving about, only trashed walkers from the previous aerial assault that had driven the Nestafar troops inside the tunnels, protomechs and all. During the last few meters of the descent Ashley whipped her rifle off her back and slid to an almost stop before dropping off over one tunnel entrance and twisting around so she landed facing in while absorbing the fall by bending her knees and compressing down into a crouch.
She stayed there a moment as the others dropped down behind her, looking into empty tunnel, with Ske’rar pawing about behind them.
“Which tunnel shall we take?” it asked, seeing six spaced out, dug into the mountainside.
“You’re the one with the ears, you tell me,” Ashley prompted.
Ske’rar retracted his helmet, leaving only a control bit in its mouth. He sniffed the air several times and cocked his cat-like ears, then walked over to each of the other tunnels in turn as the Archons remained still and silent, knowing that any movement on their part would interfere with the Scionate’s senses.
“There is activity in four, the loudest of which is here,” he said, walking back over to the second from the right. “I believe it holds the digging device.”
“That’s our primary target,” she said, running over and past Ske’rar. “Let’s go.”
Kara watched from the Star Force column command center as another line of Nestafar dropships came down from orbit and began depositing more walkers, protomechs, and thousands of infantry into the LZ that slowly began to make their way up towards the base camp where the super dragon and the rest of the assault force were gathered…now revealing the reason why they had paused the assault.
The Archon knew they were screwed. Even if the southern bay doors could magically be repaired it wouldn’t be enough to hold back the coming onslaught. Though the walkers couldn’t all attack at once and would have to pick their way through the debris field, it was only a matter of time before they breached the entrance defenses again and sent in their infantry and protomechs. At that point there’d be a fierce battle inside, for they’d prepared well, but during which the breach in the doors would be expanded upon until the larger walkers could come through, at which point it would be game over.
They’d have to fall back to the columns, which were fairly defensible and thick enough that the walkers’ weaponry couldn’t penetrate all the way through, meaning the Nestafar would have to attack hand to hand inside, though the protomechs were small enough to fit through some of the corridors in ball mode. If they could find their way up to the ceiling hallways they could unfurl and walk about, given the size of the structure, which would force the Alliance to hole up in individual chambers in defensive actions against wave after wave of infantry.
She knew they’d make a good fight of it, and the Nestafar would be hard pressed to take down the Archons in hand to hand combat, but short of help miraculously appearing in orbit Kara saw no way to end this conflict aside from death or surrender…and to her knowledge the Nestafar hadn’t so much as contacted the Alliance to gloat since the backstab had begun, let alone offer terms for surrender.
And with Mark gone, their chances of survival had gotten that much slimmer. The only hope they had now was to take preemptive action before the base was overwhelmed. It was looking more and more like they were going to have to call for an evac from the seda, and getting the dropships by the blockade was going to require them to take the long route around the planet. Fortunately no more Nestafar Valeries had appeared in the skies, though there were at least a few squadrons left in orbit, helping to assure that another cargo ship didn’t drop down and obliterate their ground forces again.
She knew she had to do something, now, before events escalated beyond their control, but what options did she have?
Kara pounded her fist on the table once and stormed off, leaving a slight imprint where her armored hand had hit.
“Where are you going?” Sandra asked, pausing her earpiece’s audio for a moment as she directed the ongoing construction efforts at the southern bay doors.
“To do something really stupid,” she said, not sticking around to elaborate.
Half an hour later she walked up to the Protovic guards stationed in the Nestafar-dug tunnel, nudging her way past several Gnar and other races wanting access to the Keeper cave. When the other armored bipeds let her pass through there was a clamoring of protests but she didn’t care. The base was about to get sacked and all these poor excuses for pilots could think about was grabbing goodies out of the technological treasure chest.
She climbed down the ridged walls until the ground leveled out and made her way to the stasis chamber where she met up with Dre’for who was patiently guarding the sleeping alien.
“Mark has been shot down,” she said firmly, looking up into the slightly taller cat’s head that reminded her of a saber tooth without the big teeth. “That leaves me in command.”
The Scionate rumbled a low growl as it looked her silver-armored form over. “You want to wake the beast?”
“We’re out of options. The Nestafar just landed more troops and they’re on their way up to the base as we speak. We don’t have enough fighters left to hold them off, and I don’t know if we’re going to be able to stop the tunneling team or not. We need to see this through while we still have time.”
“What if all we do is unleash another enemy at our throats?” Dre’for asked, glancing back at the cryo-chamber and the huge lizard inside.
“I know there are no guarantees, but if that thing can help us I’m not just going to stand by and wait while everyone gets killed because of what might happen if we wake it up. By the way, have you figured out how to do so yet?”
The Scionate ignored her question. “The Nestafar once served the Keepers, it is likely that bond will be honored here. You will only add to our list of enemies.”
“They didn’t wake it up,” Kara pointed out. “And if it’s half as skilled as you all keep insisting they are, it c
ould have helped them secure the base. Instead they leave it there, frozen, and start ripping apart tech.”
“I will admit that is a possibility, but not a certainty.”
Kara pulled off her helmet and looked up at Dre’for’s much larger head. “Everyone is going to die unless we do something radical. The Nestafar have us beat. What would you have us do?”
“I do not know, Human, but what you propose is too rash. Mark did not want it woken, nor do the Scionate. Focus your efforts elsewhere. We are not defeated yet.”
Kara dropped her helmet out of her left hand to hit the ground where it rolled off, as it did so her right hand came up into view holding her stinger pistol. With a flash of reflex Dre’for tried to move aside but for once the Human got the best of him. She drilled a green stinger into his forehead then tracked the big cat as it recoiled, pumping shot after shot into its unarmored head until it finally fell to the ground unconscious.
The Archon slipped the pistol back into its slot on her armor with a sigh. “I thought you’d say that.”
Kara walked over and retrieved her helmet, slipping it on before she set herself in front of the stasis chamber’s controls. She’d looked these over thoroughly when she was down here the last time and had thought she’d gotten the gist of it, but if there was a complicated revival procedure she could very well kill the thing because she couldn’t read a bit of the script on the controls.
She knew it wasn’t completely frozen, because there was active life support in the chamber and she’d stared at it long enough to see it complete a very shallow breath, but there had to be more than just the cold keeping it down, because there were no feeding tubes attached. Kara didn’t know how long it had been here, but even minimal breathing would have required calorie expenditure, so the machinery must have been sustaining it in some fashion.
There were four active systems, as far as she could tell. Without touching any of the controls she’d guessed out the means by which to turn it off and had discussed it with Dre’for earlier, to which he had disagreed with some of her assumptions. He had argued that if the beast had been put here for a reason, then there should have been a plan to wake it up, such as an automatic trigger. He didn’t think the manual controls were meant to be used, but since the thing hadn’t already woken up they were all she had available to work with.