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

“Fuuuuck,” Fin complained Luke’s head tried to shove down into his pelvis as the dropship was slammed sideways, buoyed and then dropped like a rock.

“How bad is it?” Shiro asked.

“It stitched through your stomach and through Fin’s chest,” Jynx said.

The Dropship pulled out from its dive throwing everyone against their harnesses.

Luke slammed his heavy boot down on a factory trying to escape being locked between racks- mag clamping onto it as his servos whined in complaint.

“Echo down two,” Luke muttered.

Martinez laughed.

“Got shot right in the damn face,” Scalia muttered.

The pressure leveled off, Scalia’s bot, lolling in its harness. Round impacts from shoulder through what had been his head.

“Yeah that ones going to be tricky to fix,” Luke said.

“Nanites are working on Fin and Shiro already,” Jynx said.

The pilot cut in on ship-chat. “Well that was some hairy ass shit, we’re down under the Adraxi ship’s horizon now. Ichika is ordering all ships that make it down to the plane to remain here instead of go through that shitstorm again. Fleet is going to pound the almighty hell out of the Harvesters to open up some more flight corridors,”

“How are the other ships looking?” Luke accessed his map, checking out the ground they were passing over and different objectives.

“Well the nearest friendly one is about a hundred kilometers away. Though there’s a mountain range in between and if we go over it, then the nearest Harvester is going to have a shot at us. I don’t think we should expect any reinforcements until someone takes out a harverster or two, or others hump it across the ground. That defense fire was effective as hell, taking us under one hundred meters.”

“This is a recording to all forces that have made it to the planet. Link up the locals where you can, use your factories to put up command posts and build Forward Operating Bases. Foster out.”

“So where we going Luke?” Kaalim asked.

“Got to do me like that,” He muttered, scrolling over the first target that came to mind, checking it was linked to everyone and opened up the broadcast chat.

“Target is a mining camp. We’ve got reports there are or were locals fighting from this location. Enemy has breached the walls and are pushing them. We’ll drop off at this switchback on the road leading up to the camp. There’s a flat space where trucks must’ve stopped or turned around.” As he talked he added markers to the shared map.

“Hotel get up the turrets, the medium factory and your squad’s small. Build a fighting position as best you can and get the bots that are down back up and running.”

“Copy.”

“The rest of us will move up the road into the base taking one small factory and two turrets per squad. I want to secure the repair facility as a firing position, we’ll reinforce it and move up. From there we push to clear the facility. Once the repair station is secure I want Hotel to move up and in. They have miners and belts on the ground, we’ll use those to feed the factories.”

“Rog.”

“Alright Dropship Three-Two you’re going to be all of our weapon support, you register nukes or anything coming in like that, fire interceptors. We’ll call in targets if absolutely necessary.”

“Tracking, we got three minutes till we’re at the switchback.”

“Questions?”

Silence ran through.

“Oh thank the small mercies for that. Keep your shit tight, keep up communication. Fox, Golf you’re up on lead, Echo will follow with our heavies. Lets get it done I’m going to talk to command.”

Luke pinged higher and filed his plan.

“Of course you’re the one that made it to the ground, just a few hundred miles off target,” Stephen said in his ear.

“Didn’t think it warranted the General of First Army chatting with me.”

“It didn’t the second part does,” He could hear his dad’s grim smile. Just like when he gave Luke cleaning out the sewage tanks or something he wouldn’t like.

“Your plan is good, go ahead with it. Your focus is to secure that facility and turn it into manufacturing bots and building the rest of first Army. Going to see if we can’t orbitally drop you resources and factories. We got chewed up coming through those orbitals and that southern harvester you’re nearest has one of the smallest sections of sky to watch so its been nailing everything that came down on it. There are three other dropships in your area, too far for link up at this time and we need to get working on our counter-attack.

“Twist of fate or murphy, the Orkaran that asked us for assistance is in that mining facility, but it went quiet several minutes ago after signs of vicious fighting around the command post. Good luck Luke smash them flat.”

“Thank you General,” Luke said.

The channel cut off. Luke took in a breath and let it out. All alone with minimal support and extra firepower. Hell they weren’t even carrying a tank.

The harnesses unlocked and snapped away. Luke grabbed his rifle, checking and loading it. The rear ramp lowered, wing pulling at netting and cloth as the sun streamed into the cargo area, beating back the red light that bathed all the bots and gear, alpine forests of thick green trees whipped underneath.

The ramp’s motors ceased their whining.

“I’m back in,” Fin said. His bot shifted as he jumped in, opening his harness, nanites still moving in his wounds, grey instead of the light-eating black.

“Thanks for joining us,” Shiro thumped him on the shoulder.

“And miss this crazy shit?” Fin laughed.

Luke clomped to the rear of the ship, the red light covering everyone.

The treetops shook from their passage.

High altitude nuclear detonations continued to bloom above as Luke scanned the ground, pockets of Adraxi growth spreading.

“Looks like its just drop pods up here,” He said on local.

“Thirty seconds!” The pilot said.

Luke tightened his hand around the pistol grip, they came between trees the switchback going from lower to higher, stone and dust making up the road billowed out as the light went green.

Luke stepped forward into mid-air holding his rifle.

His thrusters fired as his heavy bot slammed into the ground, dropping into a slight squat as he stepped forward, sensors at maximum. He felt Fin drop behind him, the dropship and stones hitting his armor making it impossible to hear.

Jynx was next with Moose who slapped Luke on the shoulder.

Luke switched with him, turning to the craft.

Bots ran out, holding pull tabs that dragged the payload of the dropship out with them. The ‘dead’ bots were dumped unceremoniously off the ramp.

“Clear!” The last bot said. The drop ship’s ramp started to close as they gained altitude and banked away.

Martinez’s people grabbed turrets, placing them around the level corner of the switchback, watching the upper bend, lower bend and the forest.

Ingots were shoved into factories already set with which parts to make.

Kaalim raised his head to get Luke’s attention “These are yours.” He tapped a factory and turrets with his boot.

“Cheers,” Luke clamped his rifle, throwing a factory on his back. He picked up the turrets one in each hand. Running it to Jynx.

“Giving you a turret.”

She nodded, watching her arcs. He clamped it to her back and tapped it. “Good to go.”

“Thanks.”

He ran to Moose, repeating the process.

“Martinez let us know when you’re ready,” Luke said on squad leader chat.

“Bots back online,” Shiro said on squad chat.

“Was about to leave without you,” Luke said.

“Got to have someone to patch you all up.”

Shiro’s bot jerked and stood up, joining them.

“Turrets are up, factories are pumping, you’re clear,” Martinez said.

“Lets move out,” Scalia said. He’d got one of the other bots, his too damaged for quick repairs.

The medic was ripping up the remaining bots, harvesting parts to get at least one of the three remaining back online as quickly as possible.

Different parts dropped out of the small and medium factory. Martinez had two of her people with drill attachments digging up the ground to create cover and gather materials.

Golf squad had the lead up the hill, moving into the tree-line instead of the road. Foxtrot right behind and Echo trailing.

They moved through the forest quickly without running. Moose crashed through a sizable tree, the ground breaking underneath him.

He shrugged off the shavings as the tree fell into the forest.

They kept running till Golf halted, spreading out in a line.

“We’ve got the camp ahead, fifty meters of open ground before the walls. Don’t see anyone up on it,” Kaalim said on squad chat.

“Moving up,” Luke signaled the others with gestures, moving up-line with one another.

The distant weapons fire grew, something detonating within a building. The sounds as familiar as his father moving around the bridge in the morning.

“Don’t see anything. Echo will take that entrance there, Golf, you get that one, Foxtrot,” Luke said on local as he marked up breaches in the wall that had blown in.

“Watch your targets, remember there are innocents in there. Keep to the AP. Unless you’re one hundred percent sure you’re not going to hit anyone. Whatever squad comes under contact will become the firebase, Echo will move to support, the other squad will move to flank and clear.”

Kaalim and Scalia showed green ticks next to their names.

“Lets do it.”

“Golf!” Kaalim ran across the opening, reaching the walls.

“Foxtrot,” Scalia ran over with his men.

“Boys and girls,” Luke said.

He ran through the broken trees, over the dead Adraxi and burning ground. Tabbing his squad leader chat.

“Hotel there are dead Adraxi up here for you to claim if you want. Looks like some of the repeaters made it down, these ones are ashing up.”

“Understood.”

“Adraxi, engaging.” Scalia said.