Chapter 540: 4th & 10 (2/2)
4096
Every TZ had at least 128 Atrekna Leadership Caste at it.
Brand new reinforcements.
He heard someone call out ”STATUS CHANGE! TYPE-V AAWM - TYPE-III ABU DETECTED IN ALL TZ!”
8192
That meant the new Atrekna Autonomous War Machines would be coming through, same with the Atrekna Biological Units.
16384
P'Kank opened his mandibles in a snarl. He could practically feel the greasy cloying surge of victory from the Atrekna.
almost...
32768 individual Atrekna Leadership Case units.
One thousand per TZ.
”FIRING HOME WRECKER SHOT!” P'Kank called out.
He pressed the button.
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In orbit the satellites released by the Time After Time had started charging their weapons when P'Kank had turned the key. The heavy gun was shielded with the best tech that the Confederacy had been able to develop in the few months that P'Kank and III Corps had been pinned down in Hesstla.
Chronotrons were spawned, charged, and streamed into the chamber. Phasic energy was used as a 'suspension fluid' for the chronotrons. The compression chamber was readied. Targeting was checked, double-checked, triple-checked, then moved to real time tracking. The weapon would be precise enough that it could hit an eighteen digit grid coordinate.
The nuclear compression charge fired. The heavy warsteel chamber recoiled into the primary chamber. The mass of chronotrons were compressed until they were almost a plasma-like semi-solid. The nuclear propellant charge was fired, the warsteel ringing out with a clang.
The beams hit at the exact split second they were fired, a bright yellow shaft with a white and brilliant violet core.
Each beam hit one of the Temporal Zones.
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The Atrekna knew they had the upper hand now. They were flooding Dwellerspawn and Servitor Machines into the planet, forcing the defenders back from their initial push against each of the Temporal Shifting Zones. Multiple shift-seeds had been deployed until an actual gateway to where they had grown millions, billions more of the Dwellerspawn, where they had manufactured tens of thousands of the Servitor Machines.
There was a bright flash as the heavens reached down and slammed a hammerfist down into the Atrekna controlled zones.
The temporal cloning gates collapsed as the energy from the beam washed through it, disrupting the targeted cloning area. In all but a single zone the connection back to the Prime Systems were severed and the next wave of thirty-two thousand Atrekna were torn apart by the violent rippling and shuddering effect of the temporal resonance with a phasic 'twist' enhancement that slammed down.
One TZ stayed open. Only one gate, where the Atrekna managed to hold the portal open even as they reeled under the onslaught of out of control chronotrons liberally loaded with phasic energy vibrating on a frequency that caused crazing, splintering, and shattering of the phasic crystals used in every piece of Atrekna technology.
One gate.
That led straight to the inhabited planet of the Prime System.
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”PRIMARY GATE IDENTIFIED!” P'Kank heard. It appeared on the holotank.
Right where MILINT had estimated.
P'Kank motioned to his XO, his S2, and the Senior Command Sergeant Major.
All of them moved up to the holotank, pulling out keys as the holotank lifted up plas-shield covered big red buttons that said ”DO NOT PRESS!” on them.
They unlocked the covers and flipped them up.
They then inserted their keys and on the count of three unlocked the button.
In orbit a single satellite warmed up the mass driver after triple-checking the targeting solution and then moving to real time targeting.
”Prepare to press,” P'Kank said.
He disagreed with what was about to happen.
He had disagreed with creating such a weapon.
He had submitted his objections in writing to deploying such a weapon.
But while he objected to the weapon, it was not illegal, and his orders to use it did not constitute an illegal order.
”Target acquired,” one of the techs said.
”Press button,” P'Kank said gravely.
It clicked, the small noise of each button loud despite the bustle of the command center.
”Payload fired,” the tech said.
”Digital Omnimessiah forgive us,” P'Kank said softly, watching the holotank.
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SP4 Melinvae held tight to the oh-shit bar, rocking back and forth slightly. She had managed to grab almost five hours of sleep during the holding pattern that 1st Cav was doing. She felt the striker dip suddenly and snapped to full wakefulness instead of the mostly asleep but not quite but I'm still getting a nap but I'm awake sergeant I think I'm dreaming but I know what's going on that she had been floating in for five hours.
The grav-striker she was on was dropping through the clouds.
”TWO MINUTES!” came the shout from her squad leader.
She chinned the button to signal green as the doors opened on the sides of the strikers and the door guns deployed.
A single lance of light speared down through the clouds. An object streaking through the atmosphere at high speeds, leaving behind a fiery trail behind it and a thunderclap as superheated air collapsed back into the path of the object as it cooled.
She expected there to a rumble, or a ghostly soft thud against her bone marrow, or maybe the taste of blueberries across her back teeth.
Instead, she tasted...
Oranges?
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The object passed through clouds, lancing down, and striking directly on the gate that led from Hesstla to the Prime System. The outer layer of chronotrons was keyed to the same pattern as the gate, allowing it to pass through.
The remaining Atrekna pulled back in fear, more than a few fleeing for the crystalline fortresses in the mountains, as the object passed through the gate and impacted on the surface of the planet. Where it entered the atmosphere a supersonic shockwave of super-heated air rolled out.
The planet of the Prime System shuddered, the impact creating a massive crater and throwing gigatons of dirt into the air. The object blew a crater nearly a quarter-mile deep in the surface.
The Atrekna looked at the crater beneath a suddenly boiling sky. There was a bright half-dome in the middle of the crater, inside the inner ring of the dual-ringed crater. The phasic shockwave was still reverberating through the communal mind and most of the Atrekna were stunned, a significant amount of them had been killed outright by the phasically charged chronotron cascade that accompanied the arrival of the object that had impacted at over MACH 15.
The interstellar gate collapsed, severing the connection between the Prime System and the critical system that the Atrekna so desperately needed in order to firmly put over a hundred food systems under their dominion.
The blackblast cleared and there was silence across the section of the continent that the crater sat on.
The Atrekna watched.
A Thrint Stasis Field cut out.
The Atrekna using remaining survelliance systems saw a figure in heavy armor was kneeling in the just cooled bedrock. As they watched lightning, thick purple phasic lightning, wreathed the figure and it slowly stood up. It had a heavy short barreled weapon on its hip that its hand dropped down to even as the other hand dropped to the haft of a Mark-II Cutting Bar.
The planet was still shuddering from the impact as the Enraged Terran Descent Human wrapped in modified Imperium of Rage armor began walking toward the edge of the massive crater.
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P'Kank heard it from far away, feeling his stomachs churn with what he had done.
”Operation Florida Man Complete.”