Chapter 215: (Ralvex) (2/2)
**TIMMY HOT** the little warboi beeped the warning it had to reduce the cyclic rate of its dual guns. The barrels were starting to glow red.
--swapping barrels-- 525 said, the cover on Ralvex's back snapping open. The little mantid dropped off Ralvex's back as he jumped past Timmy and onto the ravine wall again, firing as soon as he was locked in.
The advance was being slowed. The enemy had revealed dug in firing positions on the cliff walls. Analysis had shown there were at least eight firing positions that were able to be quickly recovered after each destruction.
The enemy was taking casualties, but not enough.
Push through. Destroy the building complex beyond.
Ralvex tabbed a piece of stimgum and two pieces of regular gum, chewing at them as he dropped down into the middle of the road, behind his battlescreen, and cranked the cyclic rate up. The Precursors were flooding up the road, ignoring the casualties the Big Momma's little offspring were inflicting on their rear ranks. They were under the elevation of most of the weapons, the 155's and 60mm's having to fire high parabolic arcs.
The right upper arm strut started flashing red as the vibration increased and somehow picked up a harmonic that rattled Ralvex down to his bones. His left boot graviton generator started whining and fluttering, trying to keep up with the harmonic.
Ralvex kept traversing it right to left, not even bothering with the smartlink cutout, just laying down a steady string of nearly 2,500 rounds a minute, the gun shrieking, his ammo pack howling, and the creation engine actually starting to whistle like a teapot.
The entire front of the Precursor force dissolved into shrapnel as the APHEX rounds hammered everything, sometimes punching clear through two vehicles to detonate inside a third. The first of the massive ones recoiled slightly as the heavy rounds slammed into the front, punched through the armor, and started detonating inside.
**STAMPY HELP!**
The mini-hellbore round hit the largest leading on dead between the forward sensor nodules that looked like massive compound eyes, the directional shaped nuclear blast exploding deep into the massive vehicle.
For a second there was only a smoking hole between the eyes as Ralvex's rounds bounced and howled off the heavy facial armor, the armor around the hole smoking white and dripping.
Then the middle of the massive vehicle hunched up, light started leaking from the cracks, it seemed to almost swell.
It exploded, sending a mushroom cloud up into the sky.
Ralvex hit the graviton anchor, ignoring the beeping as he kept laying fire into the onrushing Precursors.
He didn't know how he knew, but he knew.
This was it.
The chamber suddenly slammed shut and the overheated bolt warped, jamming the chamber. The puff of liquid nitrogen to cool the barrel instead hit the warped metal and the weapon immediately went dead in Ralvex's hands.
**TINY TIM HELP!** the other warboi chirped out, adding a little tune as it opened up with its twin guns, the barrels and one bolt carrier replaced by 525, who scrambled across the street, hot footing it across the shimmering nearly-liquid asphalt.
Ralvex slung the dead weapon aside and dropped the overheated ammo-forge. He jumped next to Stampy and grabbed the ammo forge off of the cradle, swinging it onto his back and locking it in place. 525 scrambled up his leg, signalling little icons of boots with flames under them, and locked himself into the clamshell to check all the autonomous weaponry as Ralvex grabbed his last 20mm autocannon.
”BRING THE FUN!” Ralvex yelled out, clamping down on the firing grip and cutting loose with 600 rounds a minute. The autocannon roared, lashing at the smaller vehicles clambering around the dead giant one. On the top of the mesa the guns were firing and signaling *DANGER CLOSE* and *ACTION FRONT* as they swept any Precursor machine that crawled up the face of the mesa back off to land, shattered, on the reddish sands of the desert below.
The fire back was intensifying as 525 ordered up more masking grenades. Lasers were starting to get through the smoke, a particle beam ripped at one of the 'fighting positions' that Ralvex kept jumping too, and Ralvex took a light anti-vehicle laser hit to the hip but the armor piece stayed a stubborn amber on his HUD.
**STAMPY HE--OUCH** Stampy chirped, tilting forward as the lower half of one leg blew away. Stampy crouched down so he was level again. **STAMPY HELP**
ATOMIC ATOMIC ATOMIC flashed across his visor and Ralvex just snarled, keeping up the heat, taking two steps closer to the flashing and howling battle-screen.
The blast hit the wreckage of the big one, which was being slowly pushed up the ravine, and the mushroom cloud clawed for the morning sky, for a split second the explosive hellfire outshone the morning sun.
The second round hit the wreckage before the blast cloud from the first could even fully form, before the shockwave could travel the quarter mile to Ralvex. The third hit right afterwards.
The shockwave hit, the battle-screen lighting up brightly and crackling. Sparks started showering from the right hand projector and the left hand started smoking even as Ralvex kept up his fire. The screen spluttered and flickered as the blast wave passed by, rolling over Stampy and Tiny Tim's battlescreens. As soon as it passed the little robots dropped the shields and resumed firing. Stampy's minihellbore was out of ammo, the compressed deuterium darts used for fusion depleted, but it still kept shooting the 10mm hv-magac rounds from the single gun left on the side of its head.
A HV railgun round slammed through the battlescreen and Ralvex took a step back, the barrel of the autocannon dipping for a split second before training slotting in and he yanked it back up into position and kept firing.
--still fight?-- 525 asked.
”In it to win it. Play us a song,” Ralvex snapped, bracing his feet and twisting at the waist to traverse his autocannon to rake the draw again. It was overheating, something going wrong with the cooling system of both the weapon itself and the ammo pack.
”I AM KRATOS THE DESTROYER I'M THE HARBINGER OF DEATH!” roared out over the speakers, the Preglassing War Lament echoing off the cliff faces and buildings to sound out across the mesa.
”Really?” Ralvex panted, sweat running down his face. The pain was all consuming, a fire, but he ignored it, concentrating on maintaining his fire.
--step off-- 525 sent a smiley emoji.
From out of the atomic fires the last one burst through the wreckage, flames wreathing its head, half of the spiderlegs in front of the jaws blown away, the jaw twisted and torn, teeth shattered, one eye a flaming pit of molten metal and circuitry. It ignored everything as it rushed up the draw on its treads and centipede legs.
”ALL THE GODS TREMBLE BEFORE ME AS THEY DRAW THEIR FINAL BREATH!”
With a roar the final one crushed the few crippled secondary machines between it and the enemy lines, rushing through the annoying smoke, slamming into the battlescreen and causing it to fail in a cascading hellfire of ravening energy, and slowly coming to a stop to analyze the situation as the heavy cannon fire stopped.
A single figure all in black stood at the top of the road. In its right hand was a long bar with black metal teeth that ran around the bar. Two little secondary machines limped up next to the lone figure, beeping little tunes even as the sonic assault continued.
Ralvex stood at the top, able to see the last of his battlescreen projectors protecting two LawSec vehicles behind him where a handful of male and female Hesstlin were crouched down with weapons that Ralvex had asked Cutter to drop during the night. They were dressed in makeshift combat armor, the best Cutter could wet-print, but determined to defend their little town.
Nemarlie might not be much of a town, but it was theirs, dammit.
”Ave Caesar morituri te salutant!” the lone armored figure between the frightened citizens of the town and the massive Precursor vehicle said, holding aloft the clattering chainsword with his single remaining arm.
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Staff Sergeant Utini stared at the wreckage around him as his tank slowly clattered south from the city. He could see dozens of spider-mines running on either side of him, the massive amount of Precursor wreckage littering the road and the surrounding desert. His driver kept having to weave between the craters of light hellbore blasts, but the particle screening on the light tank kept the radiation at bay.
”This place is dead. Looks like we missed it,” Utini said, looking around, using her visor's magnification to search the area surrounding it.
”Got literally a dozen self-replicating minefield master control units out there. They're all complaining about heat and slush levels,” his Commo Tech called out from inside the tank, her voice tight. ”ID's say they're part of Cutter's inventory.”
Utini swept around again. The spider mines were scuttling quickly from cover to cover, like he couldn't see them rushing between each chunk of debris.
The problem was, there was a lot of debris.
”Got a beacon, pretty chewed up. Second Telkan Marine Division,” Utini said, magnifying the image to get a closer look. ”Looks like Marine Corps drop cases.”
”These guys ran into the Telkan Marines? That explains all this,” Utini's driver, PFC Merrimot said, guiding the tank slowly into a set of four overlapping blast craters. ”They pack four hellbore drones per weapon's platoon.”
Utini nodded, doing another sweep of the desert. ”Just two canisters though.”
”Probably buried the others or used them for cover. You know the crayon eaters. Waste nothing,” his Commo Tech, Spec-Five Torgunsun said. ”This area is hashed. Lots of chaff in the area.”
”Marines ruin everything,” Utini laughed.
”Looks like they pulled back into that ravine in the side of the mesa,” Merrimot said.
”We're being scanned. LIDAR and RADAR, Confed,” Torgunsun called out. ”Looks like ranging and artillery systems.”
”Make sure our IFF is squawking. These guys obviously have been in the shit all night. Locals said the entirety of the clanker forces left the city to hit these guys,” Utini called out.
The ride was silent, just the crackling of the tank's protective fields and the clattering of its tracks. The tank had slow down repeatedly to move around large piles of debris or push through it.
The draw had been scoured clear by hellbore fire, the destroyed clankers thrown against the sides. Half-failed integrity fields crackled on the surface of the stone and an overloaded battle-screen flickered weakly in the northbound lane.
Merrimot slowed the tank as it reached the top of the ravaged highway.
Utini saw the lone black armored figure struggle to its feet, using one hand on the LawSec vehicle it had been leaning against, the weight of the armored figure pushing the car down on its shocks for a moment.
Helmets peeked up over the edge of the car and light weapon barrels were poking up.
”Hold your fire,” the figure said, holding up his hand.
Utini noticed the voice sounded tired.
”You with Second Telkan?” Utini called out.
”Yeah. You with First Cav?” the figure called out.
”Yeah.” Utini answered. Before he could say anything the one armed Telkan spoke.
”You're late.”