Chapter 185: (Delvar) (2/2)
”Is everyone all right? Still alive?” Del'Var asked. The rocks had shifted during the impacts but there was still one space large enough to climb out if they needed to.
One by one the other five admitted that even though they'd lost control of their bladder and bowels during the bombardment, they were all alive and intact.
Del'Var climbed out of the rocks and looked up.
The debris was starting to streak to the right, the turning of the planet in one direction and the orbit of the moon in the other making the debris funnel into a narrow point.
”It's going to be a ring,” Kle'Var said.
Del'Var almost screamed. He hadn't heard his cousin coming up behind him.
”By the wind and tides,” Jo'Kar breathed. ”They blew up a moon!”
”They're still fighting,” Ne'Var said, looking up into the sky with his scope. ”Woah, there's some big ships up there, looks like they've got other ships coming off of them.”
”Troop transports,” Del'Var said. He looked around. ”We don't have anything but the jumble of rocks to...”
”LOOK OUT!” Tre'Vur yelled. Del'Var looked at him and saw he was pointing down the mag-lev tracks the way they had been going.
Del'Var grabbed his second cousin Ne'Var and yanked him away from the tracks with a shout.
The mag-lev train sped by, the tortured magnetic levitation system screaming in agony as the train went by at over a hundred miles an hour.
The engine was on fire, completely engulfed, the fire spreading back across the other cars. More than a few cars were missing huge chunks and were burning wildly.
The train seemed to go forever until it whipped by, vanishing into the darkness.
”They're on the planet,” Jo'Kar breathed.
Gul'Par nodded, climbing up on the rocks. ”We're in trouble.”
”Look,” Tre'Var said, pointing into the sky. ”They're coming.”
Streaks were dropping out of the sky, bright sparks that didn't go out as they got closer to the ground. Dozens, hundreds of them falling out of the sky. More and more were touching down as even more appeared as bright slashes through the night sky.
”But... but... there's millions of soldiers here,” Ne'Var said. ”The Overseers said there's no way the Terrans would dare to come here.”
”Tell them that,” Del'Var said, watching as some of the bright sparks began to get closer. ”I think we've got incoming.”
”Where?” Ne'Var looked at them with his scope, still letting everyone else look by passing the image to their visors.
The vehicles were massive troop transports, slamming to the ground. According to the scope they fifteen miles away, the sides slamming down. Tiny dots streamed out of the ships, spreading out around the ships in a mass of tiny dots.
”There's thousands of them,” Gul'Par breathed.
”It's not a scouting probe, it's an army,” Tre'Var said.
”I think they're mad,” Jo'Kar said softly.
”Think it's the Terrans?” Ne'Var wondered again.
The ships seemed to break into multiple parts and suddenly stand up, revealing themselves to be bipedal robots that, according to the scope, stood a whopping hundred and ten meters high. Each ship broke into ten or fifteen of them while other parts seemed to move on their own.
There looked like sparks at the upper right torso of one of the massive bipedal robots.
”What is...” Jo'Kar started to say.
”INCOMING MISSILES!” Del'Var said. He ran for the rocks, pulling the others with him.
They barely managed to get into cover when the missiles started pounding the ground, hitting the rocks hard enough to fracture them, screaming close then arcing up into the air to explode and rake the ground with shrapnel.
The six N'Kar huddled in the rocks, holding onto each other, screaming as nearly a hundred light missiles pounded into the ground.
After a moment it stopped.
Del'Var looked at the other N'Kar. ”Definitely the Terrans.”
They sat in the darkness for a long time.
”Think we can come out yet?” Kle'Var wondered.
”Why don't you peek out and check?” Ne'Var suggested.
”Just be quiet,” Del'Var said.
After a few minutes the ground started to tremble, the red microfines that had covered the six N'Kar trembling and dancing on the surface of the sand. It was interspersed with heavier thuds, but the trembling kept the sand shifting to the thudding sound making the fines jump and plink like droplets of water.
”I'll look,” Del'Var said. ”Stay in here.”
The others all agreed as Del'Var crawled through the half-collapsed tunnel. He looked out and saw that the sand had covered any blast craters except for the ones on the faces of the rocks.
That wasn't what had his attention.
It was the approaching horde.
They stretched for miles to each side and from only a few hundred feet away out to the horizon.
It wasn't the gigantic robots that made Del'Var gasp in fear.
It was the soldiers running at his poor little cluster of rocks.
Tens of thousands of them.
Four legged insects, two arms beneath heavy bladearms, armored in jet black armor, weapons held in their hands, on their lower abdomens, across their backs. They ran in perfect time, in perfect unison, rushing forward faster than some ground cars that Del'Var had seen. Giant insects in black armor, taller even then the Overseers.
Del'Var squealed in fear, crawled back around, and bolted into the shelter between the rocks.
”What is it, cousin?” Ne'Var asked.
”Insects. Mantids. Millions of them. Billions of them!” Del'Var said, feeling himself cover with sweat.
”Mantids? Big bugs?” Gul'Par asked. ”Here? I thought it was Terrans!”
”Just be quiet,” Del'Var snapped.
The rumbling of tens of thousands of feet seemed to go on forever. Heavy stomping footsteps impacted the ground on either side of the cluster of iron heavy red rocks then faded away.
Finally it was silent.
”We're still alive,” Kle'Var breathed.
There was a sharp, hollow, knocking sound from outside the rocks.
”You can either come out or we can roll some grenades in there to keep you company,” A voice said, synthesized Unified Standard. ”Surrender or die.”
”We surrender!” Del'Var said. He looked at the others. ”There's thousands of them and I'm not dying for Overseers who ran off and left us here.”
”Throw your weapons out,” the voice ordered. ”Don't get clever.”
”Give them to me, I'll toss them out,” Del'Var said.
One by one his squad-mates handed him their weapons and Del'Var tossed them out.
”OK, come on out. Six weapons, six of you, and any more or any less and we toss grenades in there and count the pieces,” the voice said.
Del'Var crawled out, shivering in his armor. He slowly got up and stared at the beings around him.
Four legs on a long abdomen, a long torso, two arms ending in hands under two arms with long blades, a triangular helmet with two bubbled eyes.
”We give up,” Del'Var said.
”Good plan,” one of the insects said. It lifted a bladearm up and tapped the side of its helmet. ”Dust-off Six Two Alpha Two, this is Captain Tilkatak, I've got six EPOW's. We need transport for them.”
”Get down on your knees, hands behind your head,” another big insect said.
”Easy with them, Sergeant. Don't frighten them,” another insect said.
”What will happen to us?” Del'Var asked.
The big warrior insect in front of him made a non-commital noise.
”You'll go to the EPOW Camp, get a medical check, fed, in-processed, and a safe place to stay,” the insect said.
”You will not hurt us?” Kle'Var asked, his voice trembling.
”No. That's against the law. Terran Confederacy Law states that all enemy prisoners of war are non-combatants and must be treated with respect and dignity,” another insect said.
Del'Var wasn't sure what respect and dignity they could be given.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
GOD DAMN IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK IN THE FIGHT!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
MANTID FREE WORLDS
You don't have to be so joyous about it.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Don't be a killjoy.
You're just jealous that we won 28.84% of all combat engagements with the Terrans.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
Man, you're going to ride that statistic to the end of time, aren't you?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
You're goddamn right.
Raise your hand if you beat that score!
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---
TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Yeah, that's what I thought.
Keep wishing, suckers.
---NOTHING FOLLOWS---