Chapter 261: (Hesstla) (1/2)
Mantid Engineer 222 AKA Triple Deuce AKA Triple Dee looked up at the whirring thudding and felt a tingle of excitement. His Marine, one Kelvak, was approaching wearing his prosthetic exoskeleton draped with two heavy assault power armor battlescreen projectors, Terran power armor pieces welded to the frame, and two heavy 25mm guns with power assist harnesses attached. Mantid 640 waved one bladearm, his other hand holding an impact wrench and his gripping hand holding a fusion torch.
--brother we ride this Telkan into battle for the glory of Hateful Mars-- 640 said.
--for the glory of the Wrath Forges of Mercury and the Hate Anvils of Mars-- 222 answered.
**I do not fear for thou art with me oh Lord in the name of thy servant the Digital Omnimessiah** Kelvak sent across the datalink that had been the only way he could communicate for nearly a week.
**ROLLER HELP** the little 80mm hellbore packing gunnery assistant squeaked, spinning his tires that had replaced his legs.
**BURPY HELP** the gunnery assistant packing two chain guns added, shivering with excitement.
”Let's go,” Kelvak said. He looked up at the howl of graviton engines and saw two assault strikers coming in, flashing the red and white lights of medivac. ”They need time.”
Kelvak headed forward, ignoring the medics rushing by carrying patients, and concentrated on the gate. He could see the Terrans laying on the berm, firing back at the Precursor machines that were assaulting the striker base. The gate was open, used for tanks to come in through the S-curve, and Kelvak knew without even wondering why he knew that the Brain Suckers were going to try to swarm it under.
The pistons at his joints hissed, the chains rattled under the armor plates that would fit a Terran that were wrapped around his exoskeleton's limbs, the guns on either side hummed with malevolence. His hands could do little more than squeeze, he had no strength in them, no digital dexterity, but 640 had just used standard firing grips and locked his almost useless arms into the hastily built frame.
He stomped into the gate, moving through the S-curve, and stepped out in between the berm and the battlescreen.
Ahead of him were hundreds of Telkan and Terran sized Precursors, taking heavy fire that destroyed them enmasse, but the larger machines behind, some of them crawling out of craters, vomited up a hundred for every one destroyed.
Kelvak planted his feet and leveled the guns.
”Soft podling, brave podling, clever podling, strong podling. One and one is two, two and two is four. Marine podling hold the enemy at the door,” Kelvak whispered to himself.
And opened fire.
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Ralvex let off the trigger, letting the barrels spin and cool as he waved the weapon back and forth and advanced with the Terran infantry. He looked up at the sky and saw that the amount of enemy trying to make planetfall had thinned out and those that were coming in were being harassed by strikers and fast movers. The artillery was pounding down less than a score of meters from him, blotting the enemy away with high explosives, some of them detecting armored vehicles below and using time delay after impact fuses to drive the heavy weight of the massive artillery shells into the vehicle before exploding.
”How's your heat and slush, Private Ralvex?” one of the Terrans asked, his voice muting the sound of the Telkan choir. His retinal link showed ”SFC Shin” on the upper right.
”High yellow, Sergeant,” Ralvex answered. ”525 is controlling it.”
”Good man,” the Terran said. His voice was crisp, calm, businesslike. The link clinked and the display turned to 'all units' in his HUD. ”All right, men, we can hold this. Reinforcements are dropping all over the planet, so we're going to hold this.”
”Yes, sergeant,” came back the multiple replies.
Part of Ralvex wondered what was going on this time with the Terrans. First it had been two months of warsteel chewing wrath and rage and fury, now it was businesslike cold calculation.
”Ravlex, am marking for an atomic,” the voice was a captain. ”You're our heavy weapons.”
”Roger, sir,” Ralvex said, wondering if combat beside the Terrans was always so crazy. The marker showed up on his HUD and he cross loaded it to Stampy.
**STAMPY HELP!** rang out.
ATOMIC ATOMIC ATOMIC flashed on the visors. Stampy shivered with glee and fired his 80mm Hellbore, a new sun blossoming on the surface of Hesstla as a 50kt directed nuclear blast vomited from the end of the barrel and smashed into the heavy Precursor vehicle.
”HOO-WHEE!” came a couple of shouts over the comlink.
”GIVE IT TO 'EM!” sounded from a couple more.
INCOMING MAT-TRANS flashed on his visor.
Ravlex felt his guts clench. The last time he'd seen that hundreds of heavily armored psychopaths had appeared right in the middle of the enemy and broken the back of the dwellerspawn attack.
ALL UNITS CEASE FIRE appeared on his visor with the signature of a full bird colonel.
Ralvex let the barrels keep spinning and tossed orders to Stampy and Tiny Tim to hold their fire.
The mat-trans gates opened up in front of Ralvex, which made it look like thousands of Terrans in the white with gold edging armor of the Imperium just stepped out of mid-air to appear in front of him in rows of hundreds.
”GLORY TO THE FIRST MAN TO DIE!” roared out one of the infantry as the Terrans scrambled up the wall of wreckage, waving a banner of the Imperium over his head.
”All units, fall back,” Came the Captain's voice.
Ralvex began stepping slowly backwards as the humans in front of him, all clad in armor that was blackened and scorched climbed over the wreckage and began attacking the oncoming Precursor machines.
”Captain? Can I ask you something privately?” Ralvex asked as he slowly backed up.
”Go ahead, Private,” the Captain said.
”Who are they? That's twice I've seen them,” Ralvex said.
”The Legion of the Damned, kid,” the Captain said. ”Cursed to fight but never taste the fruits of victory.”
”Oh,” Ralvex said. Confident that he was back far enough he carefully turned around, letting go of the grip so the barrels could slow to a stop.
”You didn't know?” The Captain said. ”I thought you saw them on Telkan.”
”We didn't know who they were, just that they were there when we needed them,” Ralvex said.
”You a believer, kid?” the Captain asked, moving diagonally to walk next to Ralvex. Ralvex noticed that the Captain wasn't even wearing heavy armor, just Terran Army adaptive camouflage with the standard vital strike plates and his helmet.
”In the word of the Digital Omnimessiah, yes,” Ralvex said.
”You know the parts that mention that there were those who broke their oaths?” the Captain's voice was low and slow. ”Imperium troops?”
”Yes,” Ralvex glanced at his heat and slush: 7% and 22% respectively.
”That's them,” the Captain said.
”Clones and SUDS?” Ravlex asked.