Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Three: That's a Pretty Hill Station You Got There (Patreon)

“Breach confirmed,” Pemberley informed us over the command channel. “The Hierarchy is sending through a wave of transports.”

“Do we know how many?” Shaw asked.

“Estimated at three hundred alien transports. Each roughly the size of Carnotaur landing craft in London.”

“Three hundred Carnotaurs?” mused Tansy Patridge. “We’re going to be a bit outgunned, ma’am.”

“We don’t know it’s Carnotaurs yet, Tansy. Could be anything, including stuff we haven’t seen before. On the bright side, they’re making a straight-line course for their target.”

“How is that the ‘bright’ side?”

“Because they’ll land somewhere on the western coast of India.” There was a hint of glee in Pemberley’s voice. “The Stratospheric Guard confirms the Indian Army is mobilizing. We can count on at least three thousand additional tanks, four hundred artillery, and close to two million troops from ‘local’ support.”

“Hallelujah,” Angus Shaw exclaimed. “Decent local support. I was afraid it’d be someplace like Dubai.”

“What’s wrong with Dubai?” I asked, curious.

“It’s a fine place, but their entire military is the size of a couple of infantry divisions.” 

“No discriminating against countries with low populations, please,” groaned Pemberley. “We’re supposed to be an international force. Eventually.”

“Do we know where in Western India?” Anne asked. 

“New updates just came in. They’re projected to land in a place called… Lonavala.”

“As in, the location of Earth Defence Base Lonavala?” I asked.

“That’s the one.” Pemberley’s tone was grim. “Seems like the Hierarchy doesn’t like the idea we might set up anti-ship defences.”

“And confirms the Gellatoids are still feeding them information.”

“That was expected. All right, everyone - get your backsides in gear and through the portals. We’ve got a battle to win.”

Fifteen minutes later, we were in Lonavala.

For those of you who haven’t been to the town - it’s really quite pretty. A nice, quaint hill station with an old-world charm.

I’d visited Earth Defence Base, Lonavala, exactly once before - at Atwood’s request, to check the construction plans and make sure we weren’t ending up with another Farting Mountain. (Kenya had been fresh in everyone’s minds at the time.) That trip had lasted all of four hours, with Atwood and I spending most of our time walking around the partly finished base.

A base which was now, for all intents and purposes, finished; except for the minor matter of ‘fitouts’.

Specifically, the construction was complete, but there were no guns. No masers, no heavy-duty lasers, no missiles or heavy armament. 

There were five thousand on-duty troops assigned to protect the base, entrenched behind heavy concrete walls with lead-and-steel layers interwoven. Fully protected against radiological, chemical and biological weaponry.

Not so protected against a Carnotaur ripping through the walls and eating the soldiers like tic-tacs. 

The Division took up positions outside EDB Lonavala with practiced ease. The Armoured Boar brigade led the way, breaking up into companies, squads and fireteams. 

They’d probably be a bit more chewy than tic-tacs…..

<Nanocloud>: Do you have snacks?

<Belessar>: I forgot.

<Nanocloud>: Is that why you’re muttering about tic-tacs?

<Belessar>: I didn’t realize I’d left the channel on…

<Nanocloud>: Command tent is getting set up, as well as a staging area for incoming ultras. We’ve also hooked up with the local liaison - Lieutenant-Colonel Sandeep Vohra.

<Belessar>: How many troops are available right now?

<Nanocloud>: Apart from the five thousand in the EDB, another eight thousand have arrived so far. The Indians are having some delays mobilizing.

<Belessar>: Maybe they should move faster. You know, given that it is their city.

<Nanocloud>: Vohra says they’re running late due to a shortage of Travelers. Units are being routed but it’s going to take time.

<Nanocloud>: Pemberley’s sending your missile supply trucks forward. Once you fire, reload the Starfalls immediately.

“Bandits on radar,” Captain Miller’s voice announced over the command channel. “Enemy transports inbound … they’ll land four, five kilometres out from the base.” 

“Artillery status?” Pemberley asked.

“All guns ready to welcome them, ma’am.”

“Good work, Colfax. Miller - drones in the air, jets and choppers on standby. We’ll give the artillery a clean shot. Tansy?”

“Tanks ready, ma’am. Give the word and we charge.”

“Indian air defence just launched missiles,” announced Miller, “and they got shot down. There’s a Strikefighter escort with the transports - at least twenty.”

“Belessar, can you take out the Strikefighters?”

“As soon as I have a visual,” I replied. “How far are they?”

“In visual range in six… five … four…”

The Shadowcat’s optical sensors were sensitive enough to pick up the incoming spacecraft. As Group Captain Miller counted down, the enemy appeared as tiny dots - rapidly growing larger. 

Twenty Strikefighters. Distance, ten kilometres and closing fast.

Heatwaves shimmered off the incoming shuttles - each the size of a small building - as they slowed down. The Strikefighters weaved around them, providing cover for the incoming transports. 

As usual, Observe updated my information about the enemy.

HIERARCHY STRIKEFIGHTER

LEVEL 65

HP: 2,000,000 / 2,000,000

SHIELDS: 200,000 / 200,000

SHIELD REGEN: 2,000/SECOND

Can’t have that.

The portal that opened in front of me consumed almost all of my MP. Five thousand, four hundred MP for a breach in spacetime, that stayed open for less than a second.

Long enough for the four Starfall missiles I launched to race through. 

The Starfall-II missiles I’d launched weighed as much as their predecessors, and were similar in every way - except one. The new missiles included an onboard guidance computer.

Which meant that, as they exited the portal, each was able to target a different Strikefighter and zoom in on it. 

Four brilliant suns bloomed in the sky.

4x ALIEN STRIKEFIGHTER DEFEATED! +400,000 XP!

The explosions occurred within fractions of a second. The aftermath was equally spectacular. 

Shockwaves from the blast spread outwards, buffeting the Hierarchy ships as they tore through the atmosphere. Some tumbled off course, their computers taking precious seconds to correct. 

One unlucky shuttle blundered into the path of another. 

The resulting fireball was …. spectacular.

2x HIERARCHY LANDING CRAFT DEFEATED! +500,000 XP!

BONUS XP FOR ONBOARD COMBATANTS:

1 LESSER CARNOTAUR DEFEATED! 

4 GRIZZELOID STEALTH TANKS DEFEATED!

200 LYNXIAN COMMANDOS DEFEATED!

500 GRIZZELOID WARRIORS DEFEATED!

+1,000,000 XP!

That was a nice spot of luck - getting a million XP from a shuttle collision….

It took a second for the implications to catch up to me. 

Two landing craft were destroyed. The Hierarchy was sending two hundred and ninety-eight more. 

“Carnotaurs!” I yelled over the command channel. “Incoming landers have Carnotaurs and Grizzeloid Stealth Tanks onboard!”

“How many?”

The numbers raced through my head rapidly. 

One Carnotaur, four Grizzeloid Tanks and seven hundred troops across two shuttles, multiply by a hundred and fifty…

“At least … a hundred and fifty Carnotaurs, six hundred siege tanks! Minimum ten thousand supporting infantry!”

“Burning hell,” Colonel Partridge blurted. “My tanks are going to be outnumbered.”

“How sure are you, Belessar?” Colfax asked.

“... It’s an estimate based on powers and math, Colonel.”

“Good enough for me,” barked Pemberley. “Partridge, hold your tanks back till we can engage the Carnotaurs. Focus on a few at a time. Colfax - when the Grizzeloid tanks emerge, I want a continuous barrage, even if you burn through your barrels. Belessar - we’ll need you to engage the Carnotaurs as they emerge. Any other ultras available?”

“Quantosphere, Chequers, Unity, and the Endurance team arrived,” Nanocloud announced. “We’ve got over sixty more reporting in so far. Mostly Rangers and Herculeans, a fair number of Flyers and Elementals as well.”

“Alien landing craft are reaching the objective,” Miller announced.

I turned my attention to the enemy. The landing craft had slowed almost to a stop, virtually hovering above an empty field four-and-a-half kilometres away.

Suddenly, objects shot down from the lead shuttles. Large, triangular pods, ten or eleven feet tall.

They slammed into the ground.

The pods blossomed open like flowers, revealing … squads of Gryzelloid warriors. Who swiftly moved forward, each squad taking up a fixed position - seemingly in the middle of an open field with no cover. 

“Firing!” Colfax announced.

Artillery shells raced through the air, hurtling towards the Grizzeloid squads. 

Blue shimmers blossomed from the squads, coating them in a shield. 

As we watched, the Grizzeloid squads backed away, revealing Hierarchy Shield Towers in their midst. 

Two of the squads had been slow to get their shield towers up, and Colfax’s artillery shells had landed in the middle of them, wiping the unlucky Grizzeloids out. The remaining squads - almost forty in number - had their Shield Towers up.

The dome-shaped shields overlapped with each other, creating a continuously shielded space. A space large enough for the hundreds of alien shuttles to land, without being bombarded to pieces. 

Hierarchy landing craft had their own shields, but those needed to be lowered while landing. A tiny window of vulnerability, that allowed artillery - if present in enough numbers - to damage the enemy. And the time window when the shuttle doors opened - before the enemy could put up their shield towers - was also a window when artillery could strike. 

With their new tactic, the Hierarchy troops had closed those windows. 

Now, we were forced to watch as the shuttles landed unmolested. 

“I can try to take the shield towers,” Partridge suggested. 

“You won’t win,” Pemberley replied. “That’s been tried twice and the tanks were mauled to a crisp. Besides, even if you take out one tower, there’s - what? Forty more. Hold your position until the Carnotaurs show.”

“One of the shuttles hasn’t landed yet,” commented Miller. “It’s hovering above the others.”

“Ground-attack element?” 

“The Strikefighters are still around for that.”

“Belessar, any more you can take out?”

“Unfortunately not,” I replied. “They’ve climbed to an altitude of twelve kilometres. I can launch Starfalls from here, but the Strikefighters will have enough time to see them coming and dodge.”

“Understood. Hold your missiles in reserve, then.”

I grabbed fresh missiles from the resupply truck, rapidly filling my missile launch slots (all four of them).

Times like this are when I miss the Wolf, with its eight slots...

At that moment, letters scrolled across my visual interface.

NEW QUEST ALERT: DEFENCE OF LONAVALA BASE.

LONAVALA, THE HILL STATION. THE SPOT OF PICTURESQUE BEAUTY, ROLLING HILLS AND GREENERY, WITH THE JARRING COUNTERPOINT OF A STRATOSPHERIC GUARD BASE NESTLED IN BETWEEN.

THE HIERARCHY HAS DISPATCHED A STRIKE FORCE TO WIPE OUT EARTH DEFENCE BASE, LONAVALA. NOT BECAUSE THEY CARE ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT OR NATURAL BEAUTY, OF COURSE. 

THE ATTACK IS A SHOW OF FORCE, INTENDED TO DRIVE HOME A MESSAGE: THAT THE DEFENCE BASES PROJECT IS DOOMED TO FAIL. 

PROTECT THE BASE FROM DESTRUCTION, AND DESTROY OR DRIVE OFF THE HIERARCHY FORCES.

SUCCESS REWARD: +25,000,000 XP, 2 NEW TITLES, 4 NEW SKILLS. 

FAILURE PENALTY: CHANCE OF DEFENCE BASE PROJECT BEING ABANDONED INCREASES FROM 10% (CURRENT) TO 40%. 

RELATIONSHIP PENALTY WITH STRATOSPHERIC GUARD.

RELATIONSHIP PENALTY WITH FACTION: GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 

I hadn’t even known there was a ten percent chance of the Earth Defence Bases project being abandoned… 

The twenty-five million XP reward was impressive. Unfortunately, it also called into perspective the difficulty of the quest. 

Taking down the Xeranai battleship had been a quest worth five million XP.

What fresh hell were we about to face?