Existential Threat: Chapter 12 Part 7 of 8 (Patreon)

The rounds stopped.

“Don’t shoot me!” Ken yelled, running into the room, releasing the back of his gun, dumping out the spent casing.

He fished out a screwdriver, pushing it out and shoved in another round as Dur slammed the door shut, seeing a dead alien on the ground.

Per was letting out short wheezy breaths.

“You okay, you hit?” He cursed the low light, grabbing her harness and turning her around.

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” She pulled back and drew the bolt of her rifle back, pulling out a round and reloading the weapon, shaky with the first, more sure with the second.

The cannons fired, the shot and the impact coming just seconds apart. The building shook, throwing dust on them.

Sparse racks of parts, most, most of them broken filled the room.

“Lets get up to the offices,” Ken said, pushing through the racks and to the stairs that led to the second floor. Dust was less up here, but in the mines it got everywhere. The second floor offices had windows to look out over the mine and the four working bays, two movers with parts and metal repair gunk filled goopers around them.

He snatched up a pair of looking glasses next to the head-man’s window and looked out.

“Kra-taken.” He hissed. Lines of the Adraxi’s fire moved through the mine, those massive cannon carrying beasts firing, destroying miners, collapsing cranes.

“What is it?” Dur asked, entering the room.

Ken checked the path between them and the mining offices, his people were fighting, trying to run back, getting cut down with those lines of light and cannon fire.

He ducked as a shadow passed overhead, waving at the floor, crouching as he saw six creatures dive for the offices, turrets snapped up, attacking them as they snapped out their wings and tried to run.

Two slammed into the ground, detonations shaking the office compound, breaking buildings and smashing walls.

The canon beasts fired on the offices as well.

A part of him thought that they might lose, but another, a burning hope kindled in his stomach sought out the possibility to survive, to defeat this Adraxi from the stars, to defeat them.

A part of him wanted to lie on the floor, wrap up into a ball, another wanted him to yell and rage, to scream at the universe. Another, the part that had held him together, had seen them make it from worker town 34A, started to categorize what ammunition they had, the parts they had and the supplies inside the building. Today might be his last day, but just as he wouldn’t take living under the oppression of the Aer his whole life, he wouldn’t just roll over for these Kra-spawn.

He cleared his throat, passing the glasses to Dur, Per in the doorway, holding her rifle. He held her eyes, saw her seeing right through him. Watched as he reloaded his weapon and carefully locked it closed. As she had the last three days, she seemed to grow up before his eyes, his annoying younger sister, always trying to sneak off with boys, messing around with the latest fashions.

“Well looks like we’re bunking in the parts shed for a bit,” He managed to force out a grin, a smile might break his false bravado. Tears wouldn’t help them.

By the ground, he wished she could annoy him with one more tale about her friends, about drama at night school. Now he realized what all those annoying things were, it was her being a child.

“Per, go through the offices, check for food and water, see if they have a sink hooked up to water, fill it up if so. Dur, give me a hand,” Ken moved for the stairs.

“What we doing?”

“Going to see what we can do about those doors and shutters, see if we can’t put down some of those tunnel poppers.”

A phone rang in the office, Ken nearly blasted it as Per flinched. Dur grabbed it and pulled it from its housing.

“Who is?” Dur frowned.

“Uhh huh.” A nod. “Yeah, here he is.” He held out the phone to Ken. “It’s for you.”

Ken raised an eyebrow and took the phone. “This is General Foster of the Orion Belt Enterprises Legion, we offer support to clear out these Adraxi from your lands. Do you want our assistance?”

“What do you want?”

“To save as many of you as possible and cleanse the Adraxi from your world.”

“What do you want from us in return?”

“Agreement to not fight us and hopefully we can come to an alliance, it would be nice to have allies in the unknown.”

“Why you talking to me Aer?”

“Everyone else that is higher ranked than you, we haven’t been able to get into contact with, or they are dead. We’re not Orkaran, we’re human.”

Ken looked at Per, looked at Dur. We’re dead anyway. “Save as many of my people as you can.”

“You require assistance.”

“Yes I do, Foster of the humans.”

“Good.” Foster’s voice turned low, predatory and hungry. The phone went dead as radios flared to life.

“Shelter in place, shelter in place, get underground if you can, if not get into a secure structure! Incoming Legion forces and heavy weaponry!”

Every speaker across the mine repeated the message again.

Ken dropped the phone on the cradle. “I saw a bunch of blocks and moving gear, lets get those stacked by the door and see if we can’t move those  movers to cover the bay doors.”

***

“Jump in,” Foster’s voice rolled through Luke’s ears as he selected his bot. The spawn screen cleared, his bot secured in the drop-ship harness as the ship shuddered through atmosphere.

>Powerplant: 100%

>Armor: 100%

>Structural integrity: 100%

>Thrusters: 100%

>Nanites: 100%

Primary: Heavy Machine gun

Secondary: Interceptors

Melee: Auto-sword

>Ammunition

>>Heavy Ammo (AP): 1500

>>V1(APFE): 350

>>V2(CAD): 100

>>V3 (AD): 50

>>Missiles (Mini)

>>>12

“In,” Junx said.

“In,” Fin said.

“Feels like a party in here,” Moose muttered.

“Here,” Shiro said.

Moose, Shiro and Fin repeated after her.

Luke flicked through screens, splitting his vision between his own and the nose feed from the ship underneath, a map in a top window. “They’re laying it heavy.”

“Rail-cannons and orbital strikes, went to nuclear already” Fin said.

Bots in the other harnesses, regulars, checked their gear. Each had a repair tool, factories and ingots filled the middle of the catwalk between them.

Luke checked his mission parameters.

“Plan is to move in and secure an agricultural city. Once secured we’ll defend the location, build up bots, bombs and bullets. Evacuate the locals if we can, defend them if we can’t. Main mission is to create fire bases and advance into Adraxi territory, fire bases support we advance. Break the Adraxi defenses to the point that fleet can smash them flat into the ground.”

“Easy enough,” Jynx said.

The dropship rattles with atmospheric entry bumps. Turrets, factories, extra ammunition and ingots filled the space between drop seats.

“Going to be a bit bumpy here, side of atmospheric entry with nuclear undercurrents and-“ the dropship shuddered and shifted sideways. “-near fricking misses.” The pilot hissed through the ship-chat.

Alerts jumped on Luke’s notifications.

“Looks like these Adraxi got air assets, and turned some of their pods into air defense stations.”

“These Adraxi aren’t like the ones we fought in the past, they’re different. Close air support is reporting that they have their own air assets, be ready for anything. You see something different, shoot it up, we need to learn, adapt and overcome quickly.”

“They’re using fucking nukes!” Luke yelled against the dropship’s engine howl.

The entire craft was lifted up and dropped down, jarring everyone against their harnesses.

“Pretty though,” Moose said.

The turrets fired.

“That’s not normal,” Fin said.

“Cheating cockroaches, I think you should go tell the gaming commission, report them,” Jynx said.

Fin pried his middle finger from his harness.

Luke snorted as Jynx laughed.

The ship banked so hard Luke was looking down from his seat before the craft dove, spinning, chaff and smoke spalling out.

Impacts jarred and shuddered the craft.

Ships were coming apart under laser fire, from the debris of fellow craft hurled through the sky, fighting the pressure waves of the air itself.

“Well that was use,” Luke grunted as the pilot threw them through the air as if they were a hellcat and not a dropship.

A part of his mind absently noted that the turrets were firing.

A laser burned through the armored hull, a bot and out the side of the bay, wind howled through the clicking and ticking super-heated metal.

“Well sucks for that guy,” Jynx said.

Rounds pinged off the side of the dropship it staggered and the engines warbled instead of howled.

“Left side engine out,” Moose peeked through the line cut in the hull, just inches from his head.

“Nanites will be working on it,” Shiro said.

Chaff and smoke rippled out, spilling through the new ventilation slits.

Luke covered his head as rounds tore through the other side of the dropship, shredding several bots.

“Any of you still alive over there?” Luke asked on local command chat.

“Golf squad’s down three,” Kaalim said.

“Hotel has had two leave the building,” Martinez said.

“One of Foxtrot’s looked at a laser pointer for too long,” Scalia sighed.

Rounds pinged off the heavy belly armor, ringing through his feet.

“Echo is looking good,” Luke said.

The dropship titlted, rounds cut through the walls, Shiro, Fin and one of Foxtrot’s guys.