Existential Threat: Chapter 17 Part 2 of 3 (Patreon)

Ichika pulled up out of the stream, staying just over the trees she banked to the left, seeing the opening in the distance. She put it behind her, looking at her rear-facing cameras.

Spitters fired flak shells, shredding the trees, several made it through, detonating and hurling their shot across the sky, peppering the missile, cracking its outer shell.

A few hundred meters mattered with machine gun fire and road-trips. With nuclear weapons they were more of a rounding error.

The missile started coming apart a small chip detecting the shearing fired a charge into the detonator, releasing its charge throughout the payload, causing instant fusion.

One hundred and ninety five kilotons detonated in a flash of light that shorted out sensors. Ichika saw the frame of her fighter, the world blotted away in fury.

Filters left only a bright burn-in on her retinas, the screens of her net-suit unable to emulate the sheer blinding power of the weapon.

A fireball of lightning and fury spread and rose like a demon stretching up from the pits of hell. Ichika puncher her throttle, breaking the speed of sound to stay ahead, the fireball chased her, releasing its blast wave in rage. Ichika focused on flying as the air hunted forth, implacable wall of madness. Trees were smashed aside, she could trace it behind her. The trees smashed flat, bending right down to the ground as it lost energy the white wall of wind stripping them and finally rustling their leaves as a wave of fire followed behind.

The forest ignited in several places under the heat.

Sweat ran down her back as if she had just escaped a dragon or a demon she almost felt a mavolent devil staring at her, angry to have missed her in its rage. Shit that’s scary.

She let out a shuddering breath, breathing in to get herself under control. In space it was one thing, on a planet it was something terrifying, something a part of her never wanted to get used to.

She checked through her maps looking for an icon, it was futzying around, she smacked the read-outs clearing it up.

“Carver?”

“That was a close one,” He let out a nervous chuckle.

“Had to flip back and power away, nearly didn’t get through the flip.”

“Wing One Alpha, status!” Luke demanded.

“We’re up and running, ran into some kind of Adraxi birthing place, blasted it, that should be the source of your Adraxi problem.”

“Glad to hear it, we’re engaged with several of their drop units right now.”

“Watch out, the thermal bloom on the missile did a very good job of turning the forest into a bonfire.”

“Command is wanting us to use the silver iodine rounds to calm down the atmo and clear the skies. I’ll get arty to test a few out on that convenient cloud pillar.”

“We’ve got heavy ammo left.” Ichika glanced at the counters.

“Trees are still thick as, get re-armed, if they’re already building secondary birthing facilities they’re going to have more.”

“Permission to patrol and push towards the Harvester?”

“Granted, you know the air better than I.”

“You’re the commander,” Ichika grinned at the suffering on the other side of the line.

“Golf watch those fuckers on the right side! Ken, why the hell are the movers coming up this far, they’re to load people on the other side of the city! I got to go Ichika.”

“Understand, catch you later.”

Ichika watched the forest burning around the pillar of smoke rising in the sky. One of a half dozen pillars she could see. Tracers continued to skip between trees around the city, several buildings rubble fighting positions as she accelerated for the mining facility.

“I’m going around the long way,” Carver said.

“Link up here and we’ll head back together,” Ichika pinged a location.

“Copy.”

Markers showed bot squads, Orkaran fighters and movers spreading through the region to the spread out settlements. She met up with Carver and headed to the camp.

“Welcome back to Camp Thirty Four,” The dropship pilot called out, stuck on the job of covering the camp from divers and sensors over the area.

“Good to be back.” Ichika said.

Markers showed where to land, Gloria was rising up on her thrusters, kicking in her engine and flying off, Keno right behind her.

Roads had been cleared, the craters filled in. The area around the factory warehouse was spreading out its organization. Automated miners and belts were operating in series, feeding the facility.

Orkaran fighters were being trained in a square in different groups, going over weapons and armor. Others were getting a medical course.

The walls around the compound had been repaired, sheeting and buildings thrown up to cover the people underneath. Movers brought in people and wounded.

Turrets tracked her coming into land and twitched away to scan their sectors.

An Artillery turret fired, followed by a second and a third, repeating from the first again.

Ichika landed, Orkarans and one bot ran out as the wind just started to settle. Ichika’s bomb doors opened her ports opening as she leaned back into her seat.

“Going to be ten minutes to load you and repair everything,” The engineering bot said as Orkarans hooked up ammunition feeders to her ports and carefully wheeled out medium missiles.

“Can you load me up with an interceptor rotary?” The missiles were a little too effective.

“What we got is what we got unless you want to have your nanites print it as you fly.”

“I’ll take the mediums.” I’ll take excessive fire power over none anyday.

***

A group of Adraxi slid down between rocks and a dirt hill, small defiant trees shaking as they hit them. One was laying down, covering them with his spitter.

Luke came around the corner between two collapsed buildings, firing a burst of AP, the rounds punched into the Adraxi shooter’s armor, creating a vacuum inside the creature and punched out the other side the force tossing the creature to the side and throwing up dirt.

Another tried to slide down the hill. Luke’s rounds smashed them back wards in a spray of ichor.

A half-dozen spitters fired on Luke, including those that had slid down.

Rounds struck the rubble around him, throwing stone chips as he fired bursts back.

Gonna get shot in the friggin head. He kept shooting.

Stones under tires behind him, brakes squeaked, a heavy machine gun fired over Luke. CAD rounds  pasting the tree-line beyond the village.

Rounds detonated against the hill, an Adraxi, still firing was hit  head on, they disintegrated under the blast. Others were bowled over, the pressure cracking their armor breaking their internal organs.

A half dozen other mover-mounted machine guns joined in, the hill obscured by dust from the Cad rounds, tracers lighting up the dust as lines worked back and forth across the Adraxi front.

Oh, that’s why they drove up.

Luke tracked an Adraxi running forward and firing, giving him lead he pulled the trigger, the Adraxi ran into his sights, AP rounds going through the less-armored side, blowing out through their other side and back, crumpling to the ground.

Luke ran forward into what had been a building, securing his footing and looking over the wall.

Four crab tanks crested the hill, two missing legs, one with a broken cannon that was re-growing, the fourth burned and scared but operational, spitters raking the city’s outer-limit. He didn’t have time to change round types as he slid to a stop, hitting a wall, causing it to collapse as he raised his rifle at the scarred and burned crab.

He took a half second to aim for the gap between the two shells, locking in his heavy and pulled the trigger. Every fifth round was a tracer, the line of light striking the crab, the AP rounds cracking armor, peeling it back, the crab reared back, the rounds playing over its lower shell, Luke guiding it back on target, chipping through the knobbly edges of the shells.

The crab lowered its front, rounds stabbed into the thin gap between shells. The crab let out a pained scream as rounds hit the trunk connecting the shells.

A crab came apart under fire in the corner of Luke’s eye.

A missile streaked out punching through another’s legs, blowing it out.

Luke’s rounds found an opening, the penetrators stabbing deep into the crab’s trunk, its weapons firing in spurts as it roared, lowering its ‘head’, Luke’s rounds sparking on the creature’s shell, marring it but not enough in the same place to break through.

Luke flipped to V-1’s the loaded hissing as it withdrew rounds, clicking over to the secondary storage.

The crab reached the bottom of the hill, weapons fire sparking off it. A missile struck behind it.

The loader whirred as his tell-tales went green.

Luke pulled the trigger.

The rounds hit the creature’s armor, detonating and driving its penetrator through, pulling the explosive release of energy with it.

The crab struggled forward as Luke fired in the same spot, the rounds detonating inside the creature.

He must’ve hit the reactive organs as flames shot out of where he’d shot between the crab’s shells and the new hole in its upper shell.

It dropped forward. Luke lowered his rifle, scanning over the smoking barrel, the other crabs burning wrecks or separated. Heavy machine guns and rifles kept firing.

“Cease fire!” Luke growled. It slackened but didn’t stop.

“Cease fire or I will shove those fucking guns so far up your goddamn asses you can taste metal through your nose!”

The fire stopped.

The Orkaran aren’t used to our tactics or fighting. He checked his timer, they’d been running for some nine hours already, not including the time the Orkaran had been fighting for their world.

“Friendlies coming in from the left to the right! Watch your fire!” Luke yelled on local. Foxtrot, Jynx, Shiro and the Orkaran fighters bounded forward into the Adraxi lines, cresting the hill they had been firing from, now pockmarked with craters.

Adraxi silhouettes appeared on the hill.

Luke snapped over and fired, the round catching one, detonating and levevling the group, the pressure difference ripping the internals out of the others.

He clicked back to AP, scanning and checking his map out the corner of his eye. They needed to get up defense, on the city to cover the evacuation of the civilians.

Orkaran hunters moved through the houses, pulling people out to the movers that had stayed back. Scalia led his people across the back of the hilly feature outside the city.

“Friendlies crossing!” Luke yelled, hearing Martinez and Kaalim yelling it too.

Luke watched the hill, weapons fire rolling over from the flankers push. Nothing materialized on his side.

“All clear! We’re setting up a firing position, sending Orkaran back to you,” Scalia said.

“Copy. Ken, get your heavy mounted movers to push to each corner of the village. Golf you take the North West, Hotel you take the North East, plant repeaters. Have your people help move the locals.” Luke turned in the rubble, armed and armored Orkaran moving through the city. “Squad leaders organize resupply from the movers, I want everyone charged and loaded up. Adraxi are starting to put up satellite birthers, be ready for anything.

He opened a private channel with Ken, grunting as he stood up.

“Replace your injured fighters with those coming in. They need rest, food and water.”

“They want to fight.”

“I know, but if they’re tired or hurt, then they’re going to start making mistakes. This is about winning the war, not just the next battle Ken,” Luke put force on his name.

“Yes Leader Luke,” He sounded frustrated, but hopefully he understood.

Luke flexed his legs and back in series. Orkaran and bots worked the rubble, clearing it. Bodies were laid out in the street. Some of the civilians cried out, recognizing their loved ones, their friends in the street. Orkaran fighters tightened their jaws, gathering up those mourning, herding them to the movers, having to pull others, fighting, kicking and screaming as the forced them into movers, shutting the gate as they were cursed, spat on, the mover accelerated away.

Repeaters went up, pushing the thin purple fog back.