First Contact

Chapter 763: The Inheritor's War

Guys who pilot Davion Class Warmeks are an interesting breed.

If you've never met any, you can't understand it.

If you've met them, you probably cringed.

But they're great to have around though, when the metal meets the meat. - LTC Var-lu'k, Lanaktallan Mech Corps, Operation Iron Piglet

In the bloody mists and smoke of Terran history the deployment and detonation of atomic weaponry required authorization by the supreme commander of a nation's military forces, with the advice of dozens of advisors. The strength of the weapon ended a global conflict almost instantly.

But that was then.

And Operation Iron Piglet was now.

So when some infantry crunchy caught sight of a good target, the trigger was pulled by a simple private with less than two years in service and a year in rank.

The Bowie-Spike screamed from the launcher, accel provided by the grav-driver. It streaked across twenty-two hundred meters. The warhead checked its instruction, the warboi screamed and gibbered and beat its face against the target sensors, and the criteria was met.

The 135kt atomic blast blew the AAWM in half, taking it straight in the 'waist', the atomic blast actually forged into a unidirectional lance of ravening energy through the magic of Terran "physics does what I say" science.

The AAWM gave a biological sounding scream as it collapsed. Some guns went to autonomous, its arm tried to pull itself away, and secondary explosions bloomed up and down its eight hundred meter length.

The infantryman was already reloading his rocket launcher with thermobaric cluster munitions to clear out the overgrown parking garage he was jogging toward.

Not that Rek.let knew any of that beyond the white flash over his left shoulder.

He was busy pinning a Dwellerspawn against the half-melted candle-stub that was all that remained of a six thousand story skyraker. His left hand held it by the throat even as it scrabbled impotently at his Davion Class Storm Reaver Assault Warmek.

In between it's eyes was a transparent chitin bubble strengthened by phasic energy that contained four Atrekna leadership caste.

They were obviously screaming and holding on to one another as Ret.lek pulled back his right fist, and engaged the hyperpistons. The large decorative spoked wheel on either side of his elbow giving a loud high pitched whine as they spun, the graviton driver in the fist spun up, wreathing the fist in glowing blue energy, and blue lighting crackled up and down the heavily armored forearm of the warmek.

Ret.lek slammed his fist into the chitin globe and activated the "Sleepy Time" system.

The massive fist, the size of a bank vault, slammed back and forth on pistons, only moving five feet or so for each punch.

About eight punches a second.

The chitin shattered, the Atrekna liquified and sprayed across the shattered nu-stone of the skyraker stub, and Ret.lek led the corpse of the Dwellerspawn fall to the ground.

"Have eliminated Atrekna leadership units. Stealth scouting still underway," Ret.lek reported across the hissing and popping FM band. Ret.lek turned and looked down the street of the overgrown city. It was full of smaller Dwellerspawn, all rushing him, so he triggered his plasma ejector, venting reactor heat into the front ranks.

They crisped up, their screams more steam escaping their chitin armor than vocalizations.

"Excellent Job, Sigma-Four, continue with stealth mission," Captain Stomp You Guts Out said.

Ret.lek stomped the firing bar and put a quad-load of short range Hellfire missiles into the swarm of Dwellerspawn. The missiles flew over the swarm and detonated, spreading FOOF enhanced plasma-napalm all over swarm, igniting the Dwellerspawn, the moss, the vines, the road, then lit the air on fire for fun before burning the ashes.

Ret.lek turned the corner before the FOOF got down to the fun stuff, like separating the air into the burnable components and burning them, which for FOOF, was all of them. His tread shook windows and a car alarm went off before Ret.lek stomped on the car.

Rek.let let his heat drop as he walked across the wide open space that had been an eight lane traffic circle, stomping the fountain flat without noticing. Someone popped a Bowei-Spike three miles away into the side of a skyraker, blowing everything but the skeletal superstructure of hyperalloys out of the upper middle fifth of the skyraker. The debris sleeted across the sky even as the burning clouds raced back in to fill the gap.

A monorail that hadn't moved in Kalki only knew how long fell from the track above, scattering angry looking bees the size of small cars. Ret.lek stopped and hosed the bees, the nest, and the ground with more Detainee's Kimchi Suprise from his left forearm ejector, then took a right at the stoplight, accidentally stepping on it as his warmek ponderously turned the corner.

Two inch thick plates of macroplas was falling on the sides on the twelve lane boulevard as Ret.lik moved down it. There were two more Bowie-Spike flashes, the white flash reflected on the macroplas windows of the buildings and vehicles.

"Be advised, Sigma-Four, there's a Jaeger somewhere around you," Lance Commander Norgulk warned, his voice buzzing in the middle of the statement.

"Someone need a small moon killed?" Ret.lek snorted as his warmek thudded down the street in the middle of the city. He spotted a handful of smiler pods hanging from the side of a building and stomped the firing bar. The shoulder mounted covers slid open, both 15-pack launchers launched the missiles, the smiler pods hit by the hypersonic, grav driven rounds that exploded with thermobaric fury, wiping the smiler pods off the buildings.

The flaming biomechanical tissue, macroplas, and burning office furniture rained down from the swaying skyraker.

"Rumor says that in your stealth mission area there might be a..." Lance Commander Norgulk started.

The skyraker in front of Ret.lek shattered as a massive two-hundred fifty meter Jaegermek exploded through it. Its massive hands were wrapped around the neck and one of the arms of a huge bio-construct. The armor was dented and torn on the Jaegermek but the creature it was wrestling with was rent and torn, bio-luminescent blood raining down.

"KAIJU!" Ret.lek yelled over the channel even as he slid to a stop.

The Jeagermek let go of the kaiju's arm, extended out a sawblade with a roaring chain on it, and plunged it into the body of the kaiju, which raked the chest armor of the Jaegermek with its claws. Explosions were blooming on the kaiju's back and thick lines of tracers raked the lower back and the two back pair of legs and tail as the kaiju and the Jaegermek stumbled back into the wide street.

One of the Jaegermek's massive feet stomped down in front of him as the Jaegermek set itself to stop the kaiju's forward momentum, blue graviton energy flaring around the armored foot. The graviton caused the ferrocrete to compress around the Jaegermek's foot as Ret.lek backpedaled.

Blisters were popping on the hide of the kaiju, smaller creatures were falling from blisters in a shower of biofluid, landing on the ground and shrieking as they raised up and scrabbled their bladearms at the air.

"FOX OUT! ALL IN!" Ret.lek stomped the bar and put a full missile alpha strike into the lower third of the kaiju's side, stomping again when the SRM's fast reloaded. Heat flushed the cockpit and Ret.lek was covered with sweat suddenly.

The Jaegermek turned at the waist and threw the kaiju into the skyraker behind it. The kaiju flailed as it flew backwards and the Jaegermek ran after it, swiping with the sword. The skyraker rumbled and collapsed straight down into itself, filling the street with debris that forced Ret.lek to go to non-visual sensors.

Dozens of miniguns and missiles hit the kaiju-spawn right before a massive block of Treana'ad ran over the debris then through the kaiju-spawn, chasing the kaiju and the Jaegermek as the pair crashed through the skyraker.

"Sigma-Leader, this is Sigma-Four, my stealth mission is still intact," Ret.lek said as the Treana'ad paused long enough for the second skyraker to collapse and then charged through the rubble, their heavy battlescreens popping, glittering, and sparking.

"Understood. Continue mission," the Lance Commander answered.

Ret.lek waded across the street, climbing up the piles of rubble that had been modern skyrakers only a few minutes before.

He had six pips of heavy phasic energy on his scanners.

Ret.lek smiled widely.

He was still undetected.

He would surprise the Atrekna leadership caste then move on to the next point.

-----

The system was full of Atrekna biological war machines, all moving in on the planets and gas giants. The scattered wreckage of the defenders, who had fought a bloody, ugly, hopeless fight against the massive Dwellerspawn, slowly spread through the system.

On the ground of the single inhabited planet the citizenry packed into bunkers, shelters, basements, or gripped weapons with gasmasks on their faces. On the military bases the nanoforges were running hot, the BobCo marketing jingle sounding out constantly as the nanoforges and creation engines ran off BobCo Valued Customer VIP Status weapons, armor, even vehicles.

The citizenry and the (largely conscripted) military looked up at the sky as the first of the meteors entered the atmosphere, burning smokey trails across the sky to fall on the ground, blasting deep craters. The meteors released jets of steam for a long moment, then cracked open.

What emerged were horrors. An obscene blending of animal, sea-life, and insect in a hundred different forms. Moss spread across the craters, ugly greyish-green moss that was thick and greasy to the touch. Spores and pollen erupted from the inside of the shells even as thick biofluid sloshed into the crater, using the moss as a lining. The creatures heaved themselves or scurried from the craters, some fluttering wings to dry them.

The biofluid turned acidic and dissolved the shell of the landing spore.

The Dwellerspawn swarmed at the urban centers, rampaged across farms and ranches, poured into the wilderness.

In less than 72 hours the military was down by 45% from fatalities, another 15% from wounded, and 10% from desertion. The civilian populace was 34% gone.

The planetary director, a Lanaktallan of elderly years, ranted and raved and cursed the Unified Military Council remnants for fleeing the system rather than defending it.

The clock hit zero.

Iron Piglet started marching.

In the middle orbit of the stellar system huge ships streaked into existance. Two dozen of them surrounding three larger ones, bracketing on the left, right, and front of an even larger one. They were all of the same lines. A rounded top and bottom, a huge command bridge, and shaped like a diamond.

Immediately the wedge shaped ships disgorged hundreds, thousands of fast and agile aerospace fighters.

Six the huge wedge ships streaked away then reappeared around the planet in carefully plotted close orbits, actually between the moons and the planet, in a formation so that they had the entire planet within their firing and visual arcs.

Heavy guns opened up on the Dwellerspawn in orbit as the six wedge shaped ships launched hundreds of craft each.

Hundreds of them made least time courses.

Strike pods were launched at the surface, the pods slamming into the ground to unfold and reveal massive four legged war machines or agile two legged warmeks.

The least time course ships slammed down, the back and sides crashing down into ramps. Infantry charged out, completely silent, clad in pristine white armor, firing their weapons into the hordes of Dwellerspawn.

Unloaded, the troops ships clawed for altitude then dove back in, providing close air support even as the aerospace fighters fought fiercely to contest the Dwellerspawn air superiority.

One the ground the robots stomped toward spawning pools, firing heavy lasers, firing missiles, and carrying heavily armored troops clad in grey and black power armor. White armored Lanaktallan charged into combat, firing heavy weapons as they advanced at a rapid pace. Leebawan Commando dropped into the ocean to swim deep, holding sonic implosion charges close as they swam for the depths to show the Atrekna they couldn't hide from the eyes of those searching them out.

The white armored bipedal infantry charged the lines, pushing the Dwellerspawn back. They moved as one whole, coordinated and orchestrated, stopping once they had cleared a large enough area. Charges went off, digging trenches or large holes. Instant foxholes and trenchworks were put down, the system unfolding. Guns were deployed, crew served weapons set up, fast moving cargo screamers dropped pallets of ammunition, food, water, and big fucking guns.

Artillery and mortar sections set up, the infantry escorts fighting to push back the Dwellerspawn. As soon as the outriggers were anchored the breaches were loaded and the infantry dove to the ground as the call of "ACTION FRONT!" rang out from the gun masters. The artillery fired cluster munitions into the face of the Dwellerspawn, sweeping them aside.

Within two hours there were over a hundred beachheads on the massive protocontinent that were slowly expanding. Orbital fire was raining down from the wedge shaped ships, striking island and oceanic breeding areas, striking at wilderness spawning pits.

The Atrekna themselves found themselves hunted by phasic trained troops in red armor that appeared from thin air, dropping their phasic and technological cloaking to attack with polearms bladed with graviton shaped plasma.

Hoverbikes whipped through the desert and plains, the troops gathered in groups of fifty, using slashing tactics that ancient horseriders of the Terran steppes would have recognized. Four legged mechs stomped across the plains and deserts and tundra, destroying Dwellerspawn by the droves.

There was still Dwellerspawn without number and the Atrekna were sure that the casualties the white armored force was taking would surely be leveling a heavy toll and start affecting the attackers offensive capabilties.

The Atrekna felt cold satisfaction as the huge wedge ships reoriented and streaked away, to reappear further out in the system and join the fight against the larger Dwellerspawn capital organisms.

Six ships engaged with the Dwellerspawn suddenly reoriented and streaked into existence around the planet in the same orbit the previous ones had held.

That was when the second wave was launched.

In the Planetary Director's office the Lanaktallan wiped his brow, still wearing his personal body armor, a pistol at his waist and a bandage on his left rear flank. He stared at the holotank, at the figure within.

"My apologies for tardiness, Governor Spynk'kr," the black armored figure wheezed. "I dispatched a task force as soon as the chronotron flare was detected," the black armored figure seemed to loom larger.

"The Empire honors its defensive pacts and alliances."

[The Harmonous Empire Has Joined the Server]

-----

THX-1138, Tee to his friends, smacked aside the bladearms, stepping to the right, then slammed the vibroblade at the end of his rifle into the side of the Dwellerspawn before triggering a burst to explode the carapace and internal organs so that the blade didn't hang up as he yanked it free. He turned, grabbing another by the open mandible and yanking half of its face off, kicked the knee and watched it explode. Another rushed him and he shot it twice at the juncture of the front legs, at the bottom of the thorax/abdomen joint, then shot the screeching one. He ducked down, let the bladearms pass over him, then stood up and buttstroked the bug thing in the head hard enough it popped off.

It fell to the edge of the foxhole and slid down the sandbags, making gurgling noises.

Tee shook his head, chinning the switch to use electrostatic systems to clear his visor. He looked at the Senior Sergeant he'd served under the last five years since being Born Whole.

"Daxin's swinging balls, I love this job!"