First Contact - Fourth Wave - 471 First Telkan (1/2)
The Atrekna were feeling an emotion they had long considered purged from their persons. A feeling of cold logical frustration was the first part. Then, as they attempted to roll back time around the captured forces of the enemy, they found that the enemy themselves were temporally stabilized, and they began to feel anger. Normally the Atrekna excluded the enemy from being brought back to the strength they possessed at the beginning of the battle through a simple trick of temporal folding, which meant the enemy had been forced to undergo the passage of time while their own forces could be brought back, fresh and whole.
But the enemy seemed to want to be left moving through the time stream in such a way. Rather than their strength diminishing, their strength either stayed at parity or increased.
Worse, as the Atrekna forced the enemy to undergo another revolution, some kept up with the same tactics that had enabled them to carry the battle previously while still others tried different methods.
It was bad enough that nearly a fifth of their Conclaves and Quorums were forced to hold a single enraged primate in position to keep it from being supported by friendly units or moving to those unit's support, but bringing forth the slavespawn from the breeding ring was only seeming to give the enemy target practice with their weapons that apparently had bottomless ammunition capacity.
The new enemy was different than the Ancient Enemy. The Insectiods have moved with one mind, one purpose, and when their Overmind was shattered the Insectiods had broken into small units, still controlled locally by powerful psions. They were familiar, beings of appetite and logic, as were the Atrekna, and so they were able to be defeated.
The Lanaktallan had been, like all herd species, moving as one coherent whole. While their Overmind had never extended to the battlefield, merely their society, their War Mind was easy enough to recognize and counter.
The Atrekna had fought individualistic species before. They were easily overwhelmed, unable to withstand the Atrekna Overmind.
The new enemy, however, seemed to combine the worst of both cooperative species and individualist species.
They operated, strategically, as a whole, as if they were being controlled by an Overmind. Even suppressing communications did not seem to work. They followed intricate battleplans, quickly moving to support one another. Additionally, the new enemy seemed to constantly seek out battle, advancing into the Atrekna forces. They seemed to not pay attention to the Law of Diminishing Returns, instead pushing harder at the Atrekna forces.
There was an insectoid species, true, but they lacked any Overmind. The Lanaktallan that could be detected in orbit were missing the War Mind and Herd Mind. The Mantid, the cruel hated Mantid, were lacking an Overmind.
Overlaying all of this new enemy was a scream ripped from a raw and bloody throat, raised up in once voice.
”DIE ALONE!”
The majority of the primates were missing, and the Atrekna felt satisfaction that the new warrior slave species of the Mantid had been dealt with.
But the ones that remained, specifically the roaring enraged individual that had been the first to make planetfall, were proving to be a lot to handle.
The Atrekna knew they could win. There could be no other outcome. They were the masters of the temporal tides of this or any other universe. Despite the fact that it took an almost logarithmic increase in energy and effort to reach back to the point that all that could be brought forward were copies, they were still able to master the energetic tides.
The problem was, the new enemy seemed unaware of the simply reality of an Atrekna victory.
Trapped in discrete bubbles each forces fought as if they had not been engaged in combat already.
The Atrekna were discovering frustration and anger.
They didn't like it.
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Ekret stared at the rippling colorful wall in front of him. His outer scouts had noted it, that it was to the north and south of his forces as they sped along on their hoverfans and graviton repulsors, engaging any groups of enemy they found along the way as they hurried to engage the enemy that was streaming toward two large cities and relieve on of the military bases that had already been present on the planet.
”What is it?” Ekret asked, taking the empty ration tube out of his mouth.
”No clue, boss,” Bouncy said.
”Anyone else know?” Ekret asked.
”729, in Tank 13C4, thinks it's an effect of the temporal attacks. We can see it because we're outside of it, inside who knows how it looks,” Bouncy said.
”Hmph,” Ekret said. He slapped the top of the turret. ”Pull back a half mile, let's see how much it likes a few main gun shots.”
”Will do, boss,” Bouncy said.
After a second the tank slid backwards, the hoverfans roaring. The entirety of HHC Company pulled back a half mile and rotated to face the wall.
Ekret dumped the saliva out of the ration tube as he looked up. A way up it looked like the wall tilted inward.
Probably to form a bubble, he thought to himself.
”Let's try some lawn dart war shot first,” Ekret said.
One by one on his visor the tanks of HHC notified that they were ready.
At the signal they all opened fire. The wall vibrated, shook like it was made of gelatin, then settled down.
Ekret zoomed in with his visor.
The APDSFSDU rounds lay on the ground in front of the wall, the rounds gleaming dully in the light. They were still needle sharp and the fins were intact.
All right. You can bleed off kinetic energy, he thought to himself.
”Give 'em a snap-crackle-pop volley,” Ekret ordered.
The tanks fired. Bright actinic flashes bloomed on the wall. It rippled again, making a booooinginging noise. The wall turned iridescent, then slowly the white faded and the colors began separating back into twisting and flowing bands.
”Give 'em a phasic,” Ekret ordered.
This time it took long moments for the wall, which had turned black, to return to normal.
”Huh, didn't like that,” Ekret said. He took the tube out of his mouth. ”Bouncy, can we still talk to Fleet?”
”The time/date stamps are off, but, yeah, boss,” Bouncy said.
”Upload the data,” he said. He turned and looked off to the south-east, toward the mountains that were beyond the curvature. ”Let's head out, try to avoid getting into one of these bubbles.”
”Will do, boss,” Bouncy answered.
Ekret chewed on the end of the empty ration tube as his tank turned and began heading back along the route that would take them to where Dwellerspawn were being reported attacking towns.
Nothing is completely inert. Everything can be affected by something else. We just have to figure out how to affect it, he thought as the tank kept moving.
There was a battle to win.
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Morgork of the Six Hats roared out his rage as he clamped down on the firing grips in his hands, which caused all twenty of the guns on his dakkaharness to open fire, the roar of the gunfire merging with his own bestial roar of rage.
The Dwellerspawn were all around him and his boys. They'd zappa'd down to the planet to find themselves immediately surrounded.
”SHOOT DEM ON ALL SIDEZ!” he roared out.
The ClankyBoyz were in their armored cans, buzzsaws and flamers and grabbers making fast work of the Dwellerspawn that came too close. The Flamerboyz were washing everything with fire, sometimes puffing out big clouds of little bugs before they could get too close.
The jungle was alive with Dwellerspawn, but Morgork and his boyz had been born in jungle, had been raised by it. By a dangerous and lethal jungle that ate whatever it could.
It wasn't personal. It was just how it was.
Morgork's mind was full of conflicting memories. Of plasma fire raining down on the seas of Venus, of the sands of Anthill, of the blasted plasmaglass of Wolf-359 and Wolfster's World, memories of almost ten thousand years of fighting.
He could even remember being an elfy-boy.
A little girl happy that her mother had given her a little flower to take of.
An elderly humie who puttered around her garden in the warm sunlight of Sol, tending to the flowers and plants with love and care.
He remembered being all of them.
And he roared with all of their murdered fury at the Dwellerspawn that screeched and screamed around him as him and the boyz tore them apart with dakka and rage.
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The shimmering stopped and for the third time First Telkan Marine Division was entirely enveloped by howling radioactive dust. Atomic weapons detonated and he could hear himself talking to Casey, ordering him to switch munitions.
He paid no attention to his own voice, watching the feed from multiple drones speeding through the slight soap-bubble border between First Telkan and where Casey was fighting. The Dwellerspawn were so thick that he couldn't even see the ground. They were running over the mangled and trampled bodies of those who came before, the bodies so thick that Vuxten couldn't see the ground through the high resolution cameras.
Two of the drones went dead.
Then two more.
--casey three miles-- 471 said.
”Almost...” Vuxten replied.
Three were knocked out of the air by a graviton impulse round going off that 'fluttered' gravity from negative two G's to a crushing 10Gs in the localized area.
It tore Dwellerspawn into fine chunks, leaving them raining out of the sky.
--two point five miles-- 471 one said.
”Pop the first one,” Vuxten ordered.
The sole remaining temporal stabilization round armed drone fired off.
For a split second everything went white.
The scouts at the edge of the 'bubble' reported that the shimmering boundary pulled away nearly a hundred meters.
Only one drone remained, less than two miles from where the seismic sensors said Casey was operating.
The high definition camera picked up the armor.
Vuxten just stared. Casey was standing in the middle of a massive crater formed by overlapping craters. Plasma glass had thick ichor boiling on the surface, chunks of chitin the size of a groundcar were scattered everywhere.
As he watched one of the massive Dwellerspawn, easily the size of a dropship capable of carrying a fully armored Marine company, reared up above its fellows, its massive carapace easily meters thick of biological armor that was a matrix containing biologically extruded battlesteel and warsteel fibers.
The heavy gun over Casey's right shoulder put a single round into it as he strafed the edge of the crater, ripping out chunks of the edge, extending the edge of the crater. His right hand was firing a steady stream of 30mm projectiles that shredded any Dwellerspawn hit by them. His left hand was extended out, a cutting bar surrounded by a bright red nimbus of energy ripping the face and front legs off of a Dwellerspawn.
The armor was entirely wreathed in purple and red lightning.
The massive Dwellerspawn turned inside out as the main gun hit it, everything around it exploding away in rags and chunks that rained down, joining the steady ash fall that was covering everything.
A smaller gun on Casey's left shoulder oriented, the barrel flashed.
The drone feed cut out.
--2421 meter anti-air/point defense range it looks like-- 471 said.
”Fab up the next set. Make sure they're squawking Confederate ID's,” Vuxten said.
He turned to the main holotank, checking on the Division. No major injuries. He had three Marines with broken limbs who had been caught by temporal arrival merges, another Marine with a concussion from where a Dwellerspawn had picked him up and beaten him headfirst against a light armored fighting vehicle before the LAFV had gutted it with a single 20mm gun shot.
The terrain rippled and Vuxten closed his eyes.
The city was back. For a third time.
”Send the orders to 17th Field Artillery,” Vuxten said, not opening his eyes.
”Acknowledged,” Lieutenant Markal said. ”They're firing.”
Vuxten squeezed his eyes shut tighter, balling his fists.
”Negative detonation. Drone survelliance shows the rounds hit something at the six thousand foot mark and were destroyed,” Markal said.
Vuxten opened his eyes, moving to the holotank. He rewound the telemetry feed and watched.
At 6,122 feet the telemetry suddenly cut off. Drone feed showed the contrails ending and a large explosion going off.
Not the nuclear warhead. The fuel in the rocket assisted artillery rounds going off.
”Order them to fire again,” Vuxten said.
”They're fabbing. Fifteen to twenty minutes till they can load the rounds,” Markal said.
Vuxten swore, staring at the holotank.
A cartoon meme popped up in his vision. It was of Lieutenant Jekti in a paper work uniform with an Atrekna looking down at him.
WORKER JEKTI YOU HAVE BEEN FINED TWO WORK PERIODS FOR UNAUTHORIZED FLIGHT PLANS was written on it.
Vuxten snorted. At least it wasn't me.
Another meme popped up.
WORKER VUXTEN, YOU ARE FINED TWO HOURS PAY FOR DISREGARDING MAXIMUM FLIGHT CEILING was written on a picture of him flying a kite and the kite suddenly exploding.
”Tell 17th to load the chemical rounds,” Vuxten said.
”Acknowledged,” someone said.
”Who's got fuel air or HIT rounds fabbed up?” Vuxten asked, still staring at the holotank.
LT Markal consulted his console, which still gleamed like it was wet despite the fact that it was completely dry to the touch.
”11th Field Artillery,” he said. ”They're at the southeastern corner, currently trying to see if they can overstress or drop the bubble wall. They're outside the city by a mile.”
”Tell them to change fire, fire on the city center. Maximum height for the parabolic arc is three thousand feet. I want the HIT to go off about halfway up the buildings. He's got to shatter that plasteel and crysteel facing,” Vuxten said. He glanced at the corner of his vision, where the Confederate Field Manual for operations involving chemicals was still displayed. ”Otherwise the Dwellerspawn and those machines are just going to rush into the buildings where we can't see them.”
”Roger that, sir,” Markal said.
Vuxten turned and looked at the drone feed for the 'bubble wall'. He'd ordered it edged with FASCAMs and as he watched a group of Dwellerspawn rushing for the edge hit the minefield and began taking heavy casualties.
”How long till we can get autonomous self-healing minefields out there?” Vuxten asked.
”Twenty more minutes,” someone said from behind him.
”Any signal from Fleet?” Vuxten asked.