Chapter 454 (2/2)

”Thank the Digital Omnimessiah for the Navy,” the Gunny said.

”Indeed,” the Major said. He looked at his arm, where thick claw marks scored the armor from shoulder to elbow. ”We got overrun. Thankfully, most of the boys have experience from the Dweller War, so we went back to back.”

”All engineers, check temporal and phasic stabilizers,” came over the command channel.

The greenies hurried out of the little shelter room they'd taken cover in, their antenna still tingling with the aftershocks of an orbital bombardment. They had left the greenies of the Telkan Marines back to recover, most of them having been outside when the Temporal Resonance Cannon had hit, just the Telkan armor's compartment protecting them.

”All NCO's, do biometric checks on all soldiers in blast area,” came another command.

Undrat saw the channel go live and a little window of what was being looked at. It paid attention to scars, tattoos on his body, lingering over his barcode birthmarks.

”Dread Corporal Stenpi'irlik, post,” the Major said.

One of the Telkan came out of the back passage. To Undrat, it was glaringly obvious that the Telkan's armor was different. There were Imperium of Rage eagles on their shoulders, their weapon was not one that Undrat recognized. They had a missile launcher on the wrong side and instead of the grenade launcher they had a small six barrel low caliber minigun.

”Looks like you're with us now, Corporal,” the Major said. ”Were you deployed to Hesstla?”

”Affirmative, sir,” the heavily synthesized voice said.

”895, check the Dread Corporal's temporal stabilizer. It must have blown out,” the Major said.

--roger roger-- one of the Mantid said, climbing up on the Telkan's back.

”MOS?” the Major asked.

”Heavy assault infantry, sir,” the Telkan said. ”Director's Wrath Regiment. The enemy's teeth shall shatter on our unyielding purpose.”

The major nodded. ”We'll catch you up to here after the battle. Welcome to the Third Telkan Marine Division.”

”For Scarred Telkan, the Widow, and the Elven Queen, sir,” the Marine said, crashing a fist against their chest.

--temporal stabilizer blew out-- 895 said. --repairing--

Undrat considered it, mulling it over. The versions of himself that he had seen extending into eternity must have been real, only his temporal stabilizer ensuring that the version of him that belonged here returned. The Dread Corporal's had blown out and they had replaced the version of themselves from this place and time.

Undrat found that interesting and promised himself he would think upon it, perhaps ask the Gunny if that was common. The biometric check suggested that it was not unheard of, but Undrat suspected that this current battle was full of things that were unheard of.

”Request permission to ask a question, sir,” the Marine asked.

”Go ahead, Corporal,” the Major said.

”Does Terra still stand?” The question, to Undrat, seemed urgent, burning with purpose.

”It does,” the Major said.

”Praise be to the Second Coming of the Digital Omnimessiah and his disciple Undying Vuxten, praise be unto their names,” the Dread Corporal said.

”Go back, let the greenies do maintenance on your armor, fab up munitions,” the Major ordered. ”As soon as they give me your specifications, I'll know where to put you.”

”Where the enemy is, sir,” the heavily synthesized voice answered. Another fist against the chest. ”By your orders and holy ordained command.”

The Marine moved off, heading back deeper into the bunker.

”Well, there's something you don't see every day,” the Gunny said, exhaling a long stream of smoke. ”Sounds like it went pretty bad on Telkan in that timeline.”

”Second Coming, huh?” the Major said. He shook his head. ”That makes my ears fan out.”

Undrat kept watching the fog that had covered the battlefield as the creatures dissolved.

”One and one is two two and two is four Warbound Podling will hold the door,” roared out above him.

-----------

General of the Copper (1-Star) P'Kank stared at the holotank. Only a last minute orbital bombardment by the battleship Time After Time had kept the entire northwestern sector from being overrun. He stared at the holotank, noting that the entire planet had ”The Enemy Has Broken Contact” icons flashing over virtually every unit. As soon as the orbital bombardment had started it seemed to ripple out that the enemy just dissolved.

He made an annotation and tossed it to his threadbare Military Intelligence Battlefield Analysis Section to follow up on the fact that it appeared the temporal resonance cannon had done more to stop the enemy's endless waves then anything else.

”Signal from Admiral Thrush,” one of his men said. For the life of him, P'Kank could not remember the Captain's name.

”Put it here,” P'Kank said, waving his bladearm through the holotank and dismissing the image of the planet.

The Admiral was an uplifted Ursine, massive in their Confederate Space Force uniform.

”P'Kank, you scrawny plotter,” the Ursine rumbled. ”Good to see you, bug-nuts.”

”Oh great, four Pubvian cuddles in a bear costume stole a Space Force uniform,” P'Karnk retorted.

The massive ursine gave a rumbling laugh.

”Time After Time's guns are recharging,” the Admiral said. The lights flashed behind him. ”We're still heavily engaged up here, but I wanted to let you know something odd happened.”

”Pray tell,” P'Kank said.

”Time After Time started its orbital bombardment and after each firing of its main guns probes and scanners spotted massive temporal energy flares from the Atrekna ships. By the time the bombardment was over, two of the five massive ones had broken up, two others were venting debris, and the last is tumbling,” the Admiral said. He reached up and scratched his head with a gauntleted hand, wrinkled his nose, and stared irritably at the blunt ends of the fingers of his gauntlet. ”Damn armor. Anyway, those shots give you breathing room?”

P'Kank nodded. ”The enemy disengaged across all fronts. Broke contact or were killed,” he said. ”My men needed the breathing room.”

”My men believe this is a primary thrust, not a diversion or a secondary attack,” Thrush said, scratching beside one ear again. ”Unfortunately the Time After Time is the only ship I have currently manned with temporal resonance cannons.”

That gave P'Kank an idea and he tabbed the icon to summon General Melfunt and General Gu'unmo'o.

The icon flashed that the laser communications array was losing contact.

”Do what you can, ya big fuzzball. We'll hold them on the ground,” P'Kank said.

”I know you will, ya smouldering plotter,” the Ursine laughed. ”Admiral Thrush, out.”

”P'Kank, out,” the Treana'ad said.

He pulled out a cigarette, bringing back up the map. He played the timestamps in slow motion, starting roughly a minute before the first orbital shot had hit. He'd requested the temporal resonance cannon since it would do the least amount of damage to the living. Time was a function of speed and gravity and the devastating weapon would do less damage than hard shot, plasma, or even particle beam.

Starting at ten seconds before the first gun fired several units reported that the enemy was breaking contact.

P'Kank brought up the armor telemetry of those units, looking through the eyes of the Telkan Marines fighting.

The Telkan was fighting hard, his rocket launcher jammed, his rifle broken, his cutting bar in one hand and his pistol in the other as he fought with his back against two others. The dwellers pressed them from every angle and he barely got his cutting bar up in time to rip the legs away from an attacker that dropped out of the sky.

The entire view was full of the dwellers surrounding pockets of Telkan Marines fighting back to back.

”HOLD WHAT YOU'VE GOT!” a Telkan with the icon of Lance Corporal Tpulkrit roared out over his armor's speakers.

The larger ones, the ones that looked like their brains were on the outside due to the way the biologically extruded warsteel was folded and ridged, suddenly exploded. The ones around them shrieked, some of them turning on each other. Another set of them exploded even as the Telkan Marines laid in the firepower.

One of the big ones, a biped, with what looked like an exposed brain and greasy hide had a Telkan Marine in its mouth and was chewing while the Marine had his arms and legs tucked in so they were in the fetal position.

That one suddenly exploded in a shower of blue gobbets and the Marine dropped to the ground, coming up with his cutting bar and laying into the creatures around them.

The temporal resonance cannon hit nearly two hundred miles away.

The camera went crazy, showing impossible images.

P'Kank drew back from the image of a Treana'ad Matron chewing on his own head, his body skinny and unadorned by awards.

It cleared up to show that the creatures had been ripped apart. Disconnected organs still throbbed and pulsed, some bags and hunks of meat that P'Kank realized were the creatures only turned inside out, still tried to move and struggle.

The Telkan who's camera he was looking through activated their plasma thrower and began guiding long jets of white hot flame into the surrounding meat.

P'Kank cut the archive feed and turned around as he heard the elevator open.

Melfunt had on his body armor where Gu'unmo'o was wearing adaptive camouflage. Melfunt's face was exposed, his helmet hanging off his belt, like most Pubvian leaders.

”Gentlemen,” P'Kank said. ”How was the trip?”

”Exciting,” Gu'unmo'o said. ”The Warsteel Herd came under fire as we entered atmosphere.”

”We drop-cradled in,” Melfunt said. ”My men are deploying as we speak.”

”Recall them,” P'Kank said. He looked at the two new arrivals. ”I think I know how to turn the tide. It's not a guaranteed victory, but it's going to have a disproportionate effect.”

Melfunt took out a pack of Treana'ad cigarettes and lit one. ”What might this be?” the Pubvian asked, puffing on it for a moment.

”My men haven't deployed,” Gu'unmo'o said. Half of his face was black warsteel with engraving on it. ”I wished to check on the effectiveness of the covering orbital bombardment.”

”It's the orbital bombardment that gave me the idea,” he said. He turned back to the tank. ”We'll put one tank in each company with a different gun as soon as the engineers can manage it.”

”What gun?” Gu'unmo'o asked. His men were trained and ready, decades or centuries of experience at warfare. Although the tanks were new and the doctrine was different, it was still war, and war never changed.

P'Kank rewound the holotank, stopping at sixty seconds before the bombardment commenced.

”Temporal resonance cannons,” he said.