Chapter 212: (Ralvex) (1/2)

Private Second Class Ralvex hurried down the corridor of the massive troop ship TCSFN Crazy Nick Cage, the jumpsuit he was wearing whispering as he hurried to the briefing room. The slight vibration beneath his feet has changed pitch and he could feel the faint plucking at his bone marrow of C+ cannons firing. Once the ship felt like it lurched to the side and he bounced off the wall, barely keeping his balance. He grabbed Kelvak and boosted him up by the back of his jumpsuit.

”Thanks,” Kelvak said, hurrying next to him. ”I thought we were just going to Belvack-8 for training to integrate with First Cavalry Division.'

”Must have been some enemy in the system,” Ralvex said.

”Space Force is really going to town with the big guns,” Kelvak said.

The door to the briefing room opened and Ralvex moved in with Kelvak next to him. Instead of everyone sitting at desks and being briefed by officers there was only a single Terran Confederate Space Force Navy ensign waving at them.

”Go to your arming bay,” he said. ”Hurry up. Second Telkan's dropping as soon as you're ready.”

Ralvex and Kelvak stared at each other as they hurried through the far door and rushed down the hallway. The holographic markings on the door listed the units preparing in the drop bays beyond. Kelvak went through the door to 4th Regiment while Ralvex hurried through to 2nd Regiment, from there moving over to the armor racks for 3rd Infantry Brigade, 2nd Scout Battalion, Delta Company, Second Platoon (Mobile Scouts).

Less than half the platoon were locked into their armor, a quarter of the platoon was still running checks or climbing into their armor, the rest were empty. He saw 525 wave at him and noted that the little green mantid was in his own armor. The mantid flashed the icons for 'hurry hurry' above his head and Ralvex nodded.

Ralvex's armor was in a T-pose, the inside of the plate flashing the data stream for 525's maintenance checks. He faced the armor and stepped into it. Left foot, right foot, arms into the sleeves, face into the helmet, and activated the armor.

It closed around him and he swallowed thickly as he was enveloped in darkness. The pressure sleeve inflated and filled with kinetic-gel, the neural jack locked into place and it felt like warm slick fire running down his nerves. He blinked several times in reflex.

The display flickered a couple of times and then streams of code rushed by and stopped.

”DEPLOYMENT LOCKOUT” was on the front. Ralvex doublechecked his implant to ensure he had the lockout override codes. One was locked since 525 was still with him and within communications distance, the other was his half of the code.

--Ride or Die-- 525 said when the protective armor section that made Ralvex look hunchbacked closed over his onboard mantid engineer.

”I'm with you, 525,” Ralvex answered. ”How long are we...”

The armored moved suddenly, smoothly sliding from the cradle to the deployment system. His visor cleared and he could see his Terran CO's face.

”All right, men. We hit Precursor ships in force when we jumped into the system. Space Force said they've got a new tactic of not bothering to take full control of the system and the orbitals, they instead push their landing forces directly for the planets they want,” Captain Smalls said, her face lit by scrolling words on the inside of her own visor. ”That means we've got to make planet-side, move to protect the population, and work to secure the planet while Space Forces slam-bangs up here.”

She waited a second. Her lips moved, going blurry as the onboard software edited out what she was saying. She came back.

”The Cage is going to do a high speed run past the planet. III Corps will be doing a hard insert. Terran forces via dropship first, since they're SUDS'd up. Second Telkan, we'll be podding it. We've all done this before, and we'll be podding by squads will full combat loadout and triple ordnance loads. When you're on the ground, you know the drill. Reassemble by the numbers,” she came back and said.

”You'll be landing under fire. The Digital Omnimessiah protect us all and take those of us who are killed on insertion unto his grace,” she said.

”Amen,” Ralvex reflexively answered.

--hate this part-- 525 said as the armor bumped.

The pod let him know that he was loading in and he crossed his arms until he felt the pod lock in. He knew he was facing the drop-down armor plate on the side, his hands felt the his weapon, a heavy Mag-Acel autocannon, lock into place and the weapon's smart-systems went live in Ralvex's brain.

His visor cleared up and he saw it was his squad leader. A Terran Space Force Marine Corps Sergeant by the name of Mlixit.

”All right, boys, we're hard dropping. They're going to try to get us less than five miles outside a suburb, but the Cage is engaged already. We'll be going in full stealth, unpowered, till the retros kick in. You've done this in training, so pray, play cards, whatever you want to do. The lockout will be lifted at impact,” Sergeant Mlixit said, then cut the feed.

--hate this-- 525 reminded Ralvex.

”I know, but...” before Ralvex could finish it felt like his stomach dropped then flew up into his throat. He could feel the topside thrusters firing, driving the drop-pod into the atmosphere of the planet and guiding it. Within a few seconds he could feel the shudder of the atmosphere thickening up, the pod hammering through the thickening atmosphere.

--ugh ugh ugh ugh--

Ralvex just gritted his teeth and kept swallowing so he didn't vomit against the faceplate.

Something hit the pod hard, sending it spinning, and he faintly heard someone scream loud enough that he could hear it. There was a second impact then silence.

The thrusters are out, he thought.

His squad leader appeared, blood running down her face. She coughed, blood spraying the video camera. ”PUNCH OUT! HARD LIGHT CHUTE HALO! OPEN AT TWO HUNDRED METERS! GOOD LUCK, MEN!”

--shitshitshit-- 525 got out.

LOCKOUT LIFTED - SQUAD AUTHORITY flashed on his faceplate.

The armor suddenly went completely live as the side panel in front of him blew off.

He reacted instinctively, hours, days of training kicking in, yanking his autocannon close so it mag-locked to his chest-plate, reaching out with both hands to grab his loudout boxes by the handles and tightening his grip.

The pod was spinning rapidly, the ground and sky flashing by, the only way Ralvex could tell were the lines of energy weapons firing across the ground and the lights of the three cities he could see. Ralvex tabbed up a piece of non-stim gum.

3

He pulled the loadout boxes from their storage brackets. He tabbed up a second piece of gum.

2

525 spun up the grav spike and brought up the stabilization program. He tabbed up a third and final piece of gum.

1

Ralvex managed to get the pieces of gum between his middle teeth, one on each side, and the third piece between his front teeth.

LAUNCH

It fired him out and 525 deployed the grav spike. Ralvex grunted as his jam slammed shut and a giant's fist punched him in the gut hard enough his spine crackled. 525 did the business of orienting him so he was in the X-position and falling.

--51,283 meters and dropping-- 525 said.

A heavy particle beam scorched by, close enough to overload his visor, lighting up the entire world. He saw, for a second, a figure in the X-position get bisected by a particle beam wider then they were. They streaked, edged, and dissolved.

COM-LINK OFFLINE flashed then vanished as another beam shot by and his suit's EM shielding held out but had to cut the antenna out of the linkage.

”525, can you get our commo and HUD online?” Ralvex asked.

--not yet wait till ground pound--

He was still dropping fast, over 200 mph, constantly having to shift his body, like he'd learned in training, to compensate for his two loadout boxes in his hand, his heavy autocannon in his hands, and the creation-engine amplified ammo pack on his back.

He was less aerodynamic than a warsteel brick.

”They're really scrapping down there,” Ralvex said, staring at the flashing lights. He could see the smashin coronas of nuclear round hits, the shaped directional nuclear charges going off on impact.

--no omnidirectional. yet--

”what's the ammo-box loadout?” he asked.

--standard hex--

”Start printing out APHEX. Those are Precursors, they're gonna be armored,” Ralvex said.

--roger roger-- 525 answered. --sing song--

SENT FROM THE SKIES blared over the speakers and his headphones.

Another particle beam, obviously aimed at the dropships that Ralvex knew the Crazy Nick would be shedding, sliced by close enough that the hair on his arm inside his armor raised up.

JUMPED INTO THE UNKNOWN! kept going.

525 had a real thing for Pre-Combine Era Terran music. Most green mantids did, from what Ralvex had found out.

His armor's scanners came back up with a snap and he could read dozens of dropships, their EM signatures artificially raised to give the drop pods a chance, sleeting into the atmosphere. Two of them were listed as BOLO tank dropships.

”Heavy metal's joining us,” Ralvex said.

--too big not fight in city--

For a long second there was nothing but the whistling of wind around him, the dropships were peeling off, leaving a wide corridor for the drop pods. The Crazy Nick Cage was past the drop zone and the Precursor fire was concentrating on the two massive BOLO transports, the Crazy Nick, and the hordes of dropships.

It doesn't do any good to kill the dropships. Most of those humans will step out of the cloning cradles in less than 30 seconds later, he thought to himself. I don't see how they can do it. Dying over and over and over again just to take a few meters of ground.

Then it dawned on him that he was willing to die forever for that few meters of land.

We're Second Telkan, Stand or Die! he thought to himself.

--8322 meters-- 525 warned.

”How bad of a shock?” Ralvex asked.

--hard opening-- 525 said. --10-18 G--

Ralvex swallowed thickly. ”I'll black out. Wake me.”

--roger roger-- 525 answered. --1831m--

Ralvex bit down on the gum again, making sure it was in his teeth. He'd cracked two molars on his first drop and a Terran told him about the gum trick.

--600m WARNING--