Chapter 473: First Telkan (2/2)
”FALL BACK! FIRE AS YOU GO!” A'armo'o ordered as the air around his tank began to waver. ”FRONT GLACIS AND TURRET TO REAR!”
The massive tank slowed, the turbines roaring, the transmission howling. The clattering tracks stopped, then began going in reverse.
He spun the tank commander's lift, bringing around the machinegun to face the direction the tank was going, over the back deck.
Creatures screeched as they appeared out of mid-air.
”YEEE-HAW!” A'armo'o yelled out, pressing his thumbs on the butterfly trigger.
Lemur guns are just so... so... fun!
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Vuxten looked at his status reports. He had two companies already at psychological damage threshholds, nearly thirty men injured with broken bones, concussions, collapsed lungs.
No deaths. Not yet.
He considered himself lucky.
He checked the stream of memes and other 'chatter' on another window.
His men had lived the majority of their lives beneath the iron shod hooves of the Overseers, had lived lives of desperation and helplessness.
Now his men were helpless as the terrain shifted and they saw millions die over and over, knowing that they couldn't be saved.
One caught his attention. A three picture meme, one on top of another, annotated.
It was a Telkan armored Marine surrounded by the dead of a city. It read ”When all seems hopeless” on the top. The middle picture was of the Marine crossing his arms over his chest and squeezing tight. ”You can always hug yourself.” The bottom picture was of an atomic explosion. ”And brighten everyone's day.”
”Find who did that one. Alert Psych-Med,” Vuxten said, clenching his fist.
He understood their frustration, their anger, but he didn't want them giving in to hopelessness.
Wars had been lost by superior forces who's morale had collapsed.
We have to find a way to fight back.
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Sergeant Major Awgwarkawk was panting as she leaned against the control panel. Her Team, the twelve left, were gathered around. The two Navy techs were sitting down, activating the consoles on local power and control. Both had battery systems that let the panel boot up.
”Alpha to Team Leaders, we've reached the bridge. Total dark,” she said.
”Kilo Team here. Reactor's ready to fire up,” the Captain in charge of the force said. ”Our Navy guy's hurt bad, but she says she can get the reactors online.”
”Do it,” Awgwarkawk said. She could feel the robotic medical kit and the internal nanite medical system kicking in, debriding the dead flesh from her arm, sealing vein ruptures, stunning damaged nerves and nerve bundles.
The shade had torn a pale flickering version of her arm out of her armor and left the meat behind, numb and burned and shredded.
The bridge lights flickered and came on. Panels and consoles went through auto-start.
”Gamma Team here. We've reached the temporal resonance cannon,” the Lieutenant said. ”Our Navy guy says its ready to fire, but I have bad news.”
”Tell me,” Awgwarkawk said.
”The creation engine is cold. It'll take ten, fifteen minutes to warm up, another ten to twenty just to print a second rounds. There's one round in the chamber, that's it for half an hour,” Gamma said.
”Targeting online, Sergeant Major,” one of the Naval ratings said. Her voice was slurred, half of her face paralyzed from a shade raking the front of her skull with curled claw-like fingers.
”Get the Admiral. Get a targeting solution,” Awgwarkawk snapped.
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”Signal from the away team. Temporal resonance cannon is ready! Thirty minute delay till second shot!” a commo tech called.
”Send the data,” the Admiral ordered. He looked at the screen. ”Alert First Telkan. Either they hear us, or they don't.”
”Aye-aye, sir,” the commo tech said.
”V Corps (Dead Blood) has made planetfall.”
The Admiral flinched slightly.
”May the Digital Omnimessiah have mercy on us for what we have done here,” the Admiral said softly.
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Awgwarkawk shook her head. Charlie Team had reported the phasic systems were all blown out, like they'd taken a heavy surge. They estimated it would take at least an hour for the system to be repaired, cleared, and brought up to operational levels.
”All troops, one hour till phasic systems,” Awgwarkawk warned.
”Signal from Fleet. We have the target,” was called out.
She looked at the rating as she sat down in the Captain's chair. ”Run the firing solution. I'll fire the gun myself.”
The two ratings nodded. The system kept trying to reject the solution as it was planet-side. When the Sergeant Major took over the Captain's chair, it authorized the targeting solution.
”Temporal Resonance Cannon ready to fire, Ma'am,” the Naval rating said.
Awgwarkawk nodded, reaching forward to grip the lever. She squeezed the grip, feeling the mechanical safeties unlock.
”Firing main gun,” she said.
The entire ship felt like it turned inside out for a split second.
The streak of light lanced out, flaring as it hit the planet's magnetosphere, ripping through the layers of speed/gravity temporal banding that made it so that time moved slower at the highest peak compared to the deepest valley.
It hit to the southeast of the rippling distortion covering First Telkan Marine Division.
Everything for fifteen hundred miles in every direction went white.
”Direct hit.”
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The Atrekna had had enough. They had tired of the resistance of the feral primitives on the surface. The stubborn resistance in many different temporally shifted pockets was proving more strenuous than it was worth. The rabid primate was taking more and more effort to hold in place, getting stronger with every passing moment.
They reached out, finding what they needed. It required effort, it exhausted a quarter of their number.
But it worked.
They turned their attention back to the planet and their conquest.
Everything went white.
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The Admiral was staring at the forces of 8th Infantry and 3rd Armor as they drove deep into the Dwellerspawn hordes.
A section of the planet went white.
”Stop Hitting Yourself reports direct hit,” one of the techs said.
The Admiral opened his mouth to reply.
”STATUS CHANGE!” was barked out. The Admiral whirled around. ”MANY MANY POINT SOURCES!”
Nearly two hundred specks burned brightly on the stellar system map.
”TYPE FOUR BOGEYS, DESIGNATING FORCE ALPHA!”
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Vuxten was reaching for the communications buttons when it happened.
Everything turned inside out, upside down, backwards, and was smooshed into a single point of light that expanded into infinity then began to flutter like butterfly wings.
One of the temporal stabilizers blew out in a fountain of sparks.
The long, stuttering, eternal second passed.
He could see six flares of phasic energy on his map. He snapped his finger out, tapping them all rapidly.
”OPEN FIRE!” he yelled over the commo to the units close by.
He knew he needed to overcome their shock at what just happened, what had been happening.
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The Atrekna reeled back as time itself was chopped into split pieces of seconds, stretched here and compressed there, for an eternal frozen second it all vibrated, wildly out of synch.
The ones still guiding war machines in exploded in splashes of purple blood and gobbets of purple flesh. The ones bringing forth more slavespawn were knocked loopy, dizzy, losing their grip.
The slavespawn came through in a spray of tissue laden mist and the temporal gateway links shattered.
The ones holding the primate in lockdown had their focus slip for just a moment.
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The pilot of the armor was almost alone. He had been for a long time. He no longer knew how long.
It didn't matter.
There was only the enemy.
And the enemy existed only to be destroyed.
His only companion was a woman who whispered in his ear, whispered in his soul, spoke to him gently, and knew him more intimately than anyone in the universe.
A second, a heartbreat, a moment, the sky flickered and there were a half dozen moons in the sky.
A fragment of video with a shattered chunk of audio wriggled through the cracks of the walls holding the pilot in place.
The pilot opened it, expecting orders, updates, something pertinent to destroying the enemy.
Instead, there was a face. Bluish. Gray. White filmed eyes. Bruising around the eyes, the mouth. Familiar even in death to the pilot.
It said two syllables.
”Kay...” it moaned.
”...seee.”
The transmission ended.
The pilot held still, shocked into immobility. The lightning around the suit faded and went out. The guns went silent.
The creatures around the pilot that had survived shrieked their victory and charged.