Chapter 540: 4th & 10 (1/2)

General of the Copper (1-Star/Brigadier) P'Kank was a warrior of large size and excellent coloration. His eyes had two more hexagonal 'rings' than most warriors, his antenna had one additional sensing section than most warriors. His fore-brain was slightly larger, more dense. His mid-brain was connected to his fore-brain by a spinal cord slightly thicker than other warriors.

His pedigree matched his superior physical advantages.

He had come up artillery, with a stint in 75 Rangers and eight tours with 7th Special Forces. He was orbital drop qualified as well as having recertified only a year before hostilities had broken out. He could drive a tank, a grav-lifter, an aerospace striker. He was as adapt in the jungles of an over-active yellow star as he was running through the deserts of a cool silicate world orbiting a red sun. He had been active military for nearly four hundred years of his allotted (roughly) five hundred years of lifespan yet could complete the Confederate Armed Services Physical Performance and Fitness Test as if he was a warrior caste of less than 15 years.

He had theater defense and offense citations, he had been awarded for personal bravery, and had been wounded six times during his career badly enough to require time in a regeneration cast.

Twice, as a staff officer, he had led his men directly, himself, into the howling inferno of modern combat. Once, as a Company Grade officer, he had been vidded raising the Terran Confederacy's banner over the ruins of a Dark Elf fortress, his armor still smoking, his weapon discolored, and the pale fibrous appearance of a 'field dressing' across his chest where the medics had resealed his cracked and damaged armor.

He had taken part in the final battle of the Mithril Nebula Conflict, the Clownface Nebula Conflict, and dozens of others.

He had spent 15 years as a High Matron's Ceremonial Cattle Guard. Ten years as the personal guard of a diplomat.

Just before his deployment to the Lanaktallan Conflict Zone, back when it was just Precursor Autonomous War Machines, he had been promoted from Field Colonel, his beloved 19th Combined Arms Regiment and placed in the staff of III Corps, where he had been put in charge of 3283rd Infantry Horde, an honorable posting with a distinguished unit.

When the Great Die Off had occurred, he had found himself the highest ranking officer in the entire Corps.

Humans were less than 10% of the Confederacy's population.

They were 82% of the Terran Confederacy Armed Services, if one discounted the greenies and the vast Treana'ad Infantry Hordes. If you counted those, they dropped to 45%.

That over representation of the known universe's most aggressive omnivore predator had been almost fatally wounding to the Terran Confederate Armed Services. Entire military bases were left with nothing more than a handful of Telkan or Rigellians looking around going ”Uh... hello?” to a base filled with corpses.

Worse, from P'Kank's point of view, III Corps had been involved in close combat with the Atrekna over the ownership of the Hesstla System.

He could still remember, with a chilled shudder, how nearly everyone in the command center had either suddenly sighed and slumped to the floor...

...or worse.

He had fought, side to side with the remaining non-TDH command staff, against every beings worst nightmare.

Enraged Humans.

They had won, but the cost had been tremendous. Yes, less than one out of every five hundred TDH had gone enraged.

But one naked Enraged Human could take on a heavy tank bare handed and unless the tank crew got lucky, the human would rip the crew out of the tank and tear them apart with his teeth.

But General P'Kank had done it.

He had rallied the non-TDH, killed or captured the Enraged TDH, and even managed to get control of the battlefield and push back the sudden Atrekna counter-attack.

Which is how the 2.5D mural on the wall of the III Corps Tactical Operations Command Center ended up painted by several people. A mural that embarrassed P'Kank every time he saw it.

It was of P'Kank standing on top of the Command Center, firing a flare/commo-drone combo into the air to signal all units to rally and hold what they had, his other hand waving the guidon of Phantom Corps over his head.

That, in P'Kank's opinion, was bad enough, but the fact that the painter had chosen to draw P'Thok's head in the clouds looking down approvingly was enough to make P'Kank duck his head in embarrassment every time he passed the mural.

P'Kank slowed down, looked around, and saw that nobody was in the hallway.

Digging in his pocket, he pulled out two objects and slapped them on the mural, then hurried down the hallway to return to the Operations Center from his bathroom break.

The Operations Center was extremely busy. The local Hesstla had stepped into the gap, training literally tens of thousands of volunteers in the last four years. Everything from office workers to computers to intelligence analysts to grav striker pilots to tankers to infantry.

P'Kank welcomed them warmly. III Corps and 2nd Telkan and 5th Herd could use all the help they could get.

P'Kank moved up to the biggest holotank that showed the entirety of the planet. Yellow and red concentric rings were pulsing from dozens of points around the planet, signifying combats at the Regimental level or higher.

”Anything out of the ordinary?” P'Kank asked.

”No, General,” 2nd Lieutenant Cretmee, a recent graduate of the Hesstla Officer Candidate School, said, shaking her head.

P'Kank spun the globe, letting it slowly rotate. So far everything was in expected tolerances and below projected casualty estimates for Hour Twelve.

Captain Ulk-Kulk-Lulk, Fifth Amphibious Commandos, came limping in, his right leg in a regen cast. He moved up to P'Kank and leaned close.

”Sir, someone defaced your mural again,” the Leebawan said softly.

”Oh no, did they?” P'Kank said, not looking away from the map.

”Yes, they put googly eyes over your eyes again. I'll have some enlistedmen remove them later,” the Leebawan officer said.

”Very well. Make sure that you use enlisted assigned for extra duty due to non-judicial punishment,” P'Kank said.

”Yes, sir,” the Leebawan commando said. He nodded respectfully and moved over to the holotank where the amphibious commandos were being shown.

P'Kank turned his attention to where III Corps was locked in combat.

Multiple Atrekna Leadership Caste had been sighted and he regretfully reminded his commanders that it was not quite yet time to knock them out.

In the last twelve hours nearly two thousand Atrekna Leadership Caste individuals had been identified. They usually were in groups of four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, or one hundred-twenty eight.

Which made sense to P'Kank. Hey had four fingers on each hand, including their thumb, so the fact that their numerology was Base-8 was the first clue they had needed. The new technology out of CENTCOM and it's use as defined by TRADOC had enabled P'Kank to identify individual elements of the Atrekna Leadership Caste by their phasic signature. MILINT was quickly able to identify groupings as well as who was part of them.

The constant pressure, and Operation Lock Stock six months ago had wiped out half of the Atrekna Leadership Caste. Over the last six months steady pressure as well as rebuffing Atrekna assaults had identified not only the new reinforcements the Atrekna had brought in, but now MILINT was sure of where they were bringing them in.

One month ago during Operation All The World, P'Kank had ordered the Time After Time to simulate a weapons malfunction. During the month the Atrekna had carefully tested to see if the Time After Time was inoperative. First moving in Dwellerspawn light units, then the larger units, then the Atrekna Autonomous War Machines, the finally, in bright sparkles hidden by the influx of larger Atrekna Biological Warfare Units and AAWM's, more Atrekna Leadership Caste.

Each time the Time After Time had just swung by, even the temporal scanners inoperative, just standard active sensors sweeping the planet. The heavy battle wagon was still spilling debris after the 'explosion' from the interior. Debris that quietly moved under full stealth until the entire planet was covered by the passive sensors on the massive slowly deployed sensor vanes.

The Atekna had learned to counter the temporal disruption rounds that could be fired by tanks and even crew served weaponry and P'Kank had followed orders not to issue out new versions. He had followed additional orders to have a lot of activity around a large 'factory' building, then start producing munitions delivered to tank and artillery units, that fired off temporal disruption rounds.

The Atrekna had thrown wave after wave until they were able to force the Confed forces back from the factory. They had destroyed it and retreated in the face of a counter-attack.

CONFEDMILINT had played puppet-master with P'Kank. He had a ground commander's leeway, but they still had given him orders that had looked conflicting, looked crazy, but slowly the pattern had emerged.

Discover the capabilities of the Atrekna beyond their ability to move in reinforcements from time periods past in some type of 'copy' of previously existing units.

P'Kank understood it. He had a 5 to 6X temporal dilation effect going on planetside and a 30X effect in orbit and in the system itself. That allowed him to spend months or weeks testing CONFEDMILINT's crazy ideas and reporting back a wealth of knowledge.

He glanced at the logistics plan.

The rounds had been fabbed up by creation engines in heavily shielded areas, moved under the cover of darkness, in heavily shielded vehicles, and loaded into vehicles that had been 'destroyed' during the last few months.

Some of the templates had started out, four years ago, as legacy templates from the last Temporal War. Now they were streamlined, more effective, and in some cases, miniaturized.

He rolled the planet again to take a look at it.

Thirty Two Temporal Zones where the Atrekna were furiously bringing in reinforcements.

Twelve hours in and the Atrekna did what P'Kank knew they were going to do.

Brought in exactly one-hundred twenty-eight ALC elements.

Then two hundred fifty six.

P'Kank reached out and touched a hologram.

A button rose up out of the holotank, a plastic shield over it.

P'Kank slowly lifted the shield as he took a key from around his neck.

512

He inserted the key into the lock and turned it.

1024

He put his finger on the button.

2048.

The fighting on the surface was furious, the AAWM and the ABU trying to force the Confederate Forces from the TZ's.