He picked up his pace, memories flicking through his mind as he focused on his path through the destroyed city.
It didn’t take him long to get to the space port.
Commandos, HAPA’s and personnel moved in marching order to the massive Free Fleet warships and Merchant freighters. He cast a look over the city that was perched on the edge of a cliff. The sun was near afternoon, but the red dust from bombarding the planet so many times with the Free Fleet’s shipboard guns made it look pink. Some said that it would remain for generations.
A month of fighting and we changed an entire planet for generations. He shook his head, not knowing if he felt disgust, guilt, anger, or just frustration.
He opened up his HUD, information filling his field of view. A line showed him the way to his ship. He joined the moving mass of a hundred a seventy-three thousand Commandos.
It was quiet other than the thumping of armor on the space port’s reinforced pad. They all knew where they were going and they all knew some of them weren’t coming back.
They were veterans, one and all. Gone were the illusions of heroism or the belief that they couldn’t be killed.
I just hope I kill more of the bastards before they take me out, Wesom summarized their feelings as he thumped aboard a shuttle. The doors sealed and the shuttle took off, he fell into a seat, a harness clamping over him.
The rough jostling was nothing like the pounding of the Free Fleet’s cannons, he quickly fell asleep.
He’d need all the rest he could get before Ershue.
***
Fal looked at the main screen that displayed what had come to be referred to as ‘The Mound’ on Ershue.
The landscape had changed in ways he had never thought possible since the Kalu landed. Swathes of sacred forest had been ripped apart by both the mound's artillery and the Kalu's lasers.
The mounds flat top had been dug into with massive trenches. The three-kilometer-wide and three story tall base that he stood in was the center of it all.
Smoke rose from the forest. Trees for kilometers around the mound had been turned into wreckage. The vibrant colors of the forest colored with destruction.
It hurt him inside to see the new scars that his planet now bore.
"We will rebuild Fal," Kurft said, reading his thoughts as he too looked at the main screen.
"I know," Fal replied, their eyes meeting briefly before they looked towards the screen again.
"We have word coming in from the guerilla forces," Poj said, referring to the platoon sized Ershue units that had been deployed around the planet to make the Kalu's lives a living hell. They'd done well in their duties, poisoning food and water so Kalu were barely able to fight, booby trapping their lines of approach and designating camps for bombing targets.
It hadn't been without risks. Hundreds had died in order to carry out their duty.
"On screen," Kurft said. The guerilla forces always got priority.
It was an artillery designation, the reason that they were asking for confirmation was because it was on a fueling facility.
The Kalu weren't as dumb as they looked, they had brought machinery and supplies with them in order to keep themselves and their weapons going. Including Helium processors that could turn water into fusion fuel.
"Confirm target and send," Kurft said, his voice gruff. He knew the kind of damage that would come on the planet. Fal felt as if he was bartering a bit of what the Human's called 'soul' away as the order was given. A number of Ershue had needed to be removed from the command center as they watched their planet being destroyed. Their planet was their legacy, their home. It was a part of them in a way that few other races felt.
Kurft seemed to be touched by it and understood it on some level.
Somewhere in the base Planetary Rail Cannons fired, and a swathe of Ershue was cleared of all life. The area of forest on the screen bloomed into a cloud of destruction. There seemed to have been a power plant on the location. It had been punctured by the artillery fire, reacting from the opened storage tanks of Helium-three and turned into a bomb that shook the base with its ferocity. Kilometers of forest burned. Fal just hoped that there was little to no fallout so that they might one day reclaim that portion of their home.
"The Kalu look to be massing along sector three," Poj said, sadness, but determination in her voice.
"Alert the HAPA units in that sector, have artillery see if they can coax them out," Kurft said looking to the map.
The Mound base had thirteen trench lines that extended to within a few kilometers of the incline that led from the forest to the barren rock face.
Seven of those lines had been pulled back from, sealed off and their booby traps activated.
Fifty-nine thousand Commandos, both from the fleet and Ershue had died in the defense of those lines. It was a small price to pay for the more than a hundred and fifty million Ershue that hid in the catacombs cut under the base and inside the mound.
“I’m going out,” Kurft said, passing his pad to Fal.
“I will come too commander,” Fal said respectfully, their HAPA numbers had been ground down, Fal was certified and he didn’t want to sit back as his commander went out there and fought.
Kurft looked over him and nodded, pulling the data pad back and handing it to Poj.
“Keep us safe,” Kurft said.
There wasn’t the nervousness Fal would have expected to see in Poj’s wings. She knew her abilities and if Kurft bestowed his trust in her, then she would carry out her task to the best of her ability.
Fal clamped his helmet closed, Kurft did the same. They weaved their way through the base, it was a large base but they knew it well. It wasn’t long until they were in the grimy armory racks. HAPA’s powered up and moved, their users making sure they were running properly. Racks shifted as people moved to join their units. Ammunition belts rattled as ammunition was fed into the beast’s magazines and then up to their medium rail cannons. Elevators dropped from the floor above, more HAPA’s following.
The room was appeared to be in hard use, grease and scars ran across the walls and ceilings.
Fal twitched his wings, his powered armor translated it into walking. Ershue didn’t walk all that much, but the heavy powered armor translated these movements.
In space with their reactive thrusters, they were free to fly.
Fal climbed up his HAPA and ambled his way in, he didn’t miss the easy way that Kurft swung himself into position and started the powering up sequence.
Fal orientated and powered up, the machine rumbled to life underneath him.
Again he used the interface between his wings and powered armor to move, which made his HAPA move. He rocked with the HAPA’s large gait, he walked, flicking switches to bring ammunition to both guns and alter the gait of the HAPA to better suit him. Another closed the harness around his powered armor and mated it to the HAPA’s.
He checked the harness and grabbed the dual joy sticks to either side of him. He flicked a toggle on the side. His missile pods came up on both sides and locked into position.
Kurft was ahead of him and moving through the HAPA commandos towards the hallways that surrounded the armored facility. These would put them in front of the approaching Kalu.
HAPA’s were jogging, a simple enough looking practice, but one of the most complex.
Fal hit another toggle on the sides of his joysticks, they became free, whirring as he brought them up, he shifted his arms and the cannons on them from side to side, checking his range of motion.
“All good?” Kurft asked over personal communications channel.
“Five by five,” Fal said, remembering a human saying that had stuck.
Kurft let out a huff of air and picked up the pace into a jog. Fal followed, switching the second last toggle on his joysticks. The guns rotated, revealing plasmid swords. He hit the toggle again and the cannons came back.
He felt his body moving side to side with the elongated steps of the HAPA. It had felt
so odd and heavy compared to flying. After months of training he was finally used to it.
Kurft turned and came out of the corridor.
A hatch had been opened to allow the HAPA’s to stream out. Kurft’s arms came up his rail cannons firing.
Fal followed, checking his cannons again.
Then he too was going through the hatch and saw a sight that training could never replicate. HAPA’s stood or took a knee in any depression they could find, grouping together and firing at the oncoming Kalu. Artillery rained down over the edge of the mound and on the side of it. There wasn’t enough additional support to keep them all back and the Kalu had spread out enough that the artillery didn’t kill that many of them.
Fal realized he had blanked for a moment, thankfully he hadn’t stopped moving and slid down a crater wall. He used the opposite side to stop himself, other HAPA’s came around and joined him.
While training couldn’t make up the sights he was seeing, it did train him to react. He raised his cannons, his HUD showing him the cameras mounted on them, and he found his first Kalu.
He squeezed his trigger, seeing it slump down in a hail of rounds.
He paused, realizing that he had just killed another creature.
Not going to help if the Kalu overrun you and kill your family and friends.
His wings tightened and sunk into his training, finding targets and filling them with rounds.
He was no longer sub-commander Fal, he was just another Commando trying to hold the line as Kalu charged over their lines and dove into the trenches.
The Kalu scampered up the edges, jumping on the HAPA’s where they could.
Plasmid blades buried themselves into the Kalu’s shells, others fired their guns even when in close combat. Metal giants fought armored wolves.
Fal fired his last remaining missile into the oncoming Kalu, firing his cannons at the pack that were racing through entrenchments, all of the booby traps had been destroyed at this point. While the remaining trenches were too short to give powered armor and HAPA’s cover, the Kalu were half the size. They raced through the trenches, using their cover to come charging at Fal.
“Commandos on me!” Fal barked over a close-communication channel, turning his bulk and bringing his cannons to bear, his cannons roared, rattling his entire frame.
It was a kind of exhilaration that he had never thought to feel. His cannons moved independently, tracking down the multiple runs of Kalu. HAPA’s announced their arrival by sliding around him or rolling to a stuttering step, pausing their mass. Their guns blazed and for a moment they held the Kalu back.
For a moment Fal hoped that they could get enough time to push back.
He hadn’t been watching the large contingent of Kalu join the smaller pack that had gained entrance into the trenches.
The Kalu in the rear surged over the sides of the trenches, giving the HAPA’s too many targets to handle.
Fal likened them to a nest of seldar.
“Blades!” One of the Commandos said, guns rotated and set in place as the first HAPA’s were rocked back with incoming Kalu.
Fal realized he was screaming as his arms moved wildly, bashing, cutting and attempting to stave off the Kalu.
The Kalu had trained from birth to kill others with their teeth and claws. Fal had learned how to fly, to play to have joy.
Kalu blood covered his HAPA, he fought, not thinking about the reasons he was there, to stop was to die.
He felt pain in his side, he released an arm joystick and grabbed his shotgun, it bellowed, clearing the Kalu off of his HAPA. He struggled upright, his side in pain. He didn’t dare to look down. Another Kalu lurched at him. He grabbed his joystick and dragged his blade through them, he weaved, as if drunk.
The Kalu writhed in dying agony, the movement made Fal stumbled and almost fall, his right arm stopped him from falling over completely.
He took a breath, looking at the ground, glancing to his sensors and hearing more Kalu on his back.
Fury rode him, he yelled pushing off of his arm and slamming on his back, he hit the ground with his left arm and rolled away, getting to his HAPA’s feet, being on the ground was death.
He switched his right to a cannon, firing it into the two recovering Kalu that had been on his back.
His HAPA locked and Hellfire made him go rigid.
He grunted and wailed through his suit, it was a big dose. He knew that wasn’t a good thing, the Wake up got him back into fighting order within moments.
“No rest in the Commandos,” Fal said, remembering the words of other Commandos as he stumbled towards the line he had been holding, he switched his left arm’s blade for a cannon and fired as he walked up the small rise. He had work to do.
The artillery had stemmed the flow of Kalu and made the oncoming Kalu manageable. It looked like they had broken the Kalu’s charge, for now.
The ground rumbled with more HAPA’s reinforcements coming in and adding their firepower to Fal’s and the three survivors of the line, there had been seventeen on the line before.
Fal bit back his emotions shifting to a new position with better cover, warning signs were all over his armor.
“We’ve got this now, go and get yourself sorted,” a Commando said on a private channel.
“I can...” Fal started.
“Be quick about it. That hellfire and wake up is going to drain off and you’re going to be in a damn sorry state,” The Commando said.
“You may have a point,” Fal said. “Vamp me first,” Fal said moving back from the line and holding out an arm at the Commando.
They reached their arm over, connecting ports. Fal watched as his ammunition dropped to ten percent, pouring into the Commandos internal magazines.
“Good luck,” Fal said, heading for the base at a jog, he got a few laser strikes on his back, but the HAPA barely dipped below yellow.
He got into the hatch, his vision swimming while his Wake-up was wearing off.
He weaved a little, gritting his teeth and heading towards the HAPA armory. He locked out his arms and made sure to keep out of people’s way. A medic saw him and waved for him to stop. He ground to a halt, it was hard for him to keep his eyes open. The medic jumped up, making sure the HAPA was locked into place and started staring at his side. He felt new hellfire go raging through his system. The auto-injector must be dumping its remaining reserves into his system as he desperately wanted to hit the medic who’d activated it.
Fucking hellfire!
Oblivion took him and he slumped into his harness.
From Furies Forged (Free Fleet Book 5) Page 37