Chapter 212: (Ralvex) (2/2)
Ralvex closed his eyes and inhaled so he could take the shock, making sure his body was straight up and down, his spine straight, legs straight, arms straight, armor locked.
--400m--
Oh, Digital Omnimessiah, watch over your servant as I bring safety and peace to those in need and...
--DEPLOY DEPLOY DEPLOY-- 525 flashed on the faceshield.
Ralvex didn't see the second one as the hard-light chute deployed, crushing him against the liner, which squeezed to keep the blood going to his brain.
The electric shock, delivered through his linkage, woke him up with a jerk. The cases and his gun had dropped on the lines.
--IMPACT IMPACT IMPACT-- 525 warned.
Ralvex hit, feet first, the grav-spike flaring dark blue light around him, down on one knee, fist against the ground, other fist pulled back, let the grav-spike dump all the kinetic energy. His armor flashed a warning and he felt pain flare in his knee for a second. He looked up, scanning.
Loadout boxes to his right and left, his gun only a few meters ahead.
--you alive--
”I'm OK, thanks, little buddy,” Ralvex said, getting to his feet and hustling forward to grab his autocannon. He hit the stud and the support system connected to the smartgunner harness built into his armor. He reached down, grabbed the feeder, and plugged it into the ammo hopper.
”Anyone else make it?” he asked as the gun synched up fully. He had 5,000 rounds of APHEX, gun was in optimal condition, nano-forge at 4.5% heat and 2% slush, targeting system online. In the upper right of his vision a box opened up to show what his weapon was pointed at.
--none close lots chaff--
”Already, let's deploy Tiny Tim and Stampy,” he said, moving over to the first loadout box.
Part of him was shuddering, a small part of him that had been a teenager when the Precursors had attacked Telkan-2, but training overrode it all even as a brace of missiles roared by overhead, staying Nap of Earth to avoid Precursor LIDAR. He popped open the first box, kicking it twice to get the door to drop down.
The small little wheeled robot sang a little beeping song as it rolled out of the box. Ralvex undid the catches over the twin 20mm autocannons, the two missile racks, and the mortar launcher. He put his palm on the little robot and ordered it to cook up APHEX 20mm rounds, HEAP missiles, and a mix of recon drones, smoke, chaff, and microprism mortar rounds. It beeped happily and started shivering as the creation engines went to work.
Stampy was a four legged robot that rushed out of the crate, deploying his two head mounted guns. Not quite a FIDO, but a close robot approximation.
”Anyone, yet?” Ralvex asked, looking up. The night sky was lit with streaks and flashes. There was a sudden bright spot as a nCv round hit the atmosphere and exploded with the equivalent of a 150mt nuke going off as the thin wisps of the upper atmosphere compressed to impenetrable density.
His radio clicked and popped in sympathy as it happened twice more.
--no-- 525 said. --no transponders--
”Find out how far off the drop zone we are,” he said. He put Stampy in drag and Tiny Tim off to his right and looked around, orienting himself. The heavy energy weapon discharge had screwed up the ionosphere, making his suit's compass have to guess at north on a planet it hadn't calibrated too yet. Still, it was only slightly off.
There had been a good sized city off to his right and another off to his left, but both of them had shown the intricate network of high energy weapon discharge around them so he knew they were defended. There had been a small town to the rear of him, 'south' according to his armor. He ordered his two smart-frame drones to reconfigure for silent hover flight. When they were done, weapons hidden and stealth shielding engaged, he rolled his shoulders inside his armor, hefting his autocannon.
”Pop a whisper drone, 525, let's see if we can get some commo, then fire a second one. I want a scan of that town to the South,” Ralvex ordered, turning around and starting to move, slowly getting up to the fifty-mile an hour jog of Telkan heavy mobile infantry scout armor. He could put bursts up to eight miles an hour, but a bad step would leave him tumbling across the ground.
Five minutes and nothing on the whisper drone. The commo bands were absolute hash. Jamming, electronic warfare, Precursor and Confederate signals, and worse. There was a panicked Hesstlin on video screaming that the Precursors had breached the bottom of the new studio skyscraper but she'd stay on the air as long as possible. The feed was full of static but the window had daylight where Ralvex was running through the darkness.
--85 miles off beacon-- 525 said. --launching accountability drone--
”Let them know I'll be defending the town. Grid it out,” Ralvex said.
--roger roger--
The feed was starting to come in. A small town, maybe fifty, sixty at the most, buildings, several main streets. Vehicles were moving, it looked like they were trying to flee. There were two local vehicles with flashing lights that Ralvex tagged as possible law enforcement.
It didn't matter that there wasn't anything of note in the town, the Precursors would hit it because it contained living beings they could kill.
They like to strip the flesh off their victims and drape themselves in it, he remembered.
--ok?--
”Yeah, just... memories of the Precursor War,” Ralvex said.
--i here now you no worry we got armor we got guns we second telkan marines we bring fun--
Ralvex laughed, slowing down slightly. According to the recon drone only a few hundred meters ahead of him he was coming up on a highway. Vehicles were fleeing in both ways, the cars heading south, coming from the town to the north, were all damaged. An open back cargo truck had huddled Hesstlins inside. They looked at the drone, started screaming and pointing at it, huddling donw.
He recalled his drone and jogged out next to the highway. It was sloped to the south, dug into a high cliff, slowly raising up.
Ralvex looked around.
Perfect.
The people coming from the north, heading south, were yelling at the Hesstlin moving north, urging them to turn around and go back, that 'they're there! they're killing everyone!' and to turn around.
”Fuck,” Ralvex bit off the human curse. He let the gun hang from the harness and stepped into traffic, engaging the grav spikes in this boots and putting his hand out to stop a hovercraft driven by a panicked looking Hesstlin. Her eyes were wide, her furry ears were flat, her whiskers were shaking.
STRESS LEVELS AT 82% MEDICAL TREATMENT MAY BE NEEDED flashed inside his visor.
”Turn around. Highway's closed,” He said over his loudspeaker.
A male leaned out.
”Get out out of the way! You can't stop us!” he yelled, shaking a fist.
”TERRAN CONFEDERATE MARINE CORPS! TURN YOUR VEHICLE AROUND!” Ralvex bellowed out over the speakers on his armor.
The male slipped back inside as the female turned wheel and turned around.
”Tiny Tim, in the median. Deploy your battle screen generators. Stampy, dig in over there,” he ordered. ”Deploy drones up the highway, I wanna know when they're coming.”
--dismounting hunch-- 525 said. The protective hull opened between his shoulders and 525 climbed up on his shoulder, bringing up ball of swirling data. --deploying Stampy--
Another vehicle tried to push by him, the driver nudging him with the bumper. He leaned down, grabbed the front of the vehicle, and lifted.
”BY ORDER OF THE TERRAN CONFEDERATE MARINE CORPS, TURN YOUR VEHICLE AROUND! ROAD IS CLOSED!” Ralvex ordered. He glanced at the drone feed. It was heading north at a good clip and he could see fire on the horizon. The large town/small city as nearly thirty miles away and it looked like the Precursors were having a good time. So far, it was just Hesstlin vehicles.
--no commo yet. on our own-- 525 said. --no like--
”Me either,” he said. He shook his head. ”I'm not fully trained for this, I'm only a Private Second Class.”
--deploying holodisplays road closed marine corps--
”Good idea,” Ralvex said. Tiny Tim beeped a happy tune.
**JOB COMPLETE** showed on his faceshield.
The battle-screens came up with a crack, the shimmering fields crackling. They'd been tuned to have a light blue color with a hexagonal pattern to warn anyone coming close.
”GET OUT OF THE WAY!” a Hesstlin yelled.
Ralvex turned around, hefting the autocannon so they could see it in the light of their headlights. Both the male behind the controls and the two females with him drew back against their seats.
”MARINE CORPS! TURN AROUND!” he ordered.
The male nodded jerkily, turning into the median and heading back south.
”Hey, soldier boy!” came a yell.
Ralvex turned, expecting more complaints. Instead it was a Hesstlin with a fat face and a hat driving a cargo hauler and two trailers.
”Keep moving south, sir,” Ralvex ordered.
”How about I drop a trailer across the road, then about a half mile drop the other, block off the northbound lane?” the guy offered.
”What's the cargo?” Ralvex asked.
”Appliances. Big ones, nice and heavy,” the trucker said.
”All right, if you want,” Ralvex said. ”I can't order or request you do.”
The Hesstlin nodded. ”Hey, soldier boy, I gotta drop my trailer.
The vehicle moving north saw the trucker back the trailer onto the road and slammed on the brakes. The trucker disconnected the trailer, joined the traffic heading south.
Stampy got dug in and was producing mortar rounds.
The drone showed that the road was empty of moving Hesstlin vehicles for almost five miles. Nothing but burning wreckage and Precursor light vehicles. The drone counted nearly three hundred before it was knocked out of the air by a heavy laser.
--they're coming--
”I know,” Ralvex said. ”Timmy, set up the battlescreen projectors on the other side of the highway. Don't activate them, then take position on the other side of the highway.”
*ROGER! TIMMY HELP*
Ralvex checked his autocannon.
”Get ready.”