Impact
Aiko staired down at the Imperials far below her, taking steadying breaths. She had been pelting at full speed across the region. Whipping through the network of underground passages her…friend…had provided her. To her silent frustration, she had been unable to close any of them, let alone the one the Resistance had taken. Instead, she focused on devouring and forming portions of the land into tubes, shells, and adjusters. In other words, mortars. Capable of delivering payloads over the course of kilometers. Then the whisper came into her head that there was a craft, what humans would call an interceptor, wrecked and buried in the jungle. She had gritted her teeth at that. Time was short enough as it was. From the comm chatter she could track, the troops were beginning to group up right, if her internal map was correct, where the
Cotopaxi crew had trekked through the tunnel to reach those darling stone pillars. Still, it couldn't be helped. That dust-ridden Imperial fighter was still whirling about. Not to mention the shuttles which, while not strictly combat craft, had enough fire power to get along with. So, she had driven herself, still silently running, to the location of the arial sentinel. It was in sorry shape, that was for certain. Apparently, it had activated its stealth systems before it went down. Blending into the environment before trees grew up around it. That certainly wouldn't help it if main power could be restored. Enough piping had been ripped open that, as soon as it kicked off the ground, it would be venting plasma. Still, nothing for it. Aiko jacked in and went through the diagnostics at light speed.
User Password Re…****** …Accepted. Fledgling, repair this….Override accepted. Integrating syste…Accepted. System integration canceled. Input comman…Accepted. Accepted. Combat Parameters: Accepted. Approach determined. Standby…standby…Power-up sequence started. Forming storm front. Fall upon them, Dust-Wing.
The miner popped free. The sky began to darken. Deep clouds rolled in at the command of the interceptor. Aiko smiled before rushing back. Hurtling at top speed until she whipped up a curve of space to the top of one of the monolithic stone structures floating in the air. Transparent to all sensors, she prepped her approach trajectory before whispering two words: "Trion, engaging," and kicked her suit into full, visible gear.
***
The images on pillar, covered in black pools of oily ink and clear blue sky, began to splash, flow, and ebb in response to the building power of its painter.
***
Sweeping her senses outward, Velshia sought after the psionic entity. Any entity, really, that wasn't a teammate. But mostly the psionic one. She just couldn't understand it. Where, in the name of Cassadrel, had that thing gone? It was quietly aggravating that the thing hid so effectively. The wind had kicked up as well. Dark clouds were beginning to blot out the sky. The already charged particles all around them were beginning to spark. The Captain was getting the initial report from the boys to prep their advance. Details about this odd little tunnel that led…somewhere. Everything seemed to be going to plan. Comms were up and as strong as they could be. Still, she felt worried. Keenly honed instincts from a career as an agent whispered to her that not all was as it appeared. For one, where had this front appeared from? Sure, they were on an alien planet with unknown weather patterns, but she could have sworn that nothing in the initial scans had indicated a storm was on its way. For another, where was the Resistance? They had been obvious enough that it should have baited some response or at least something more than a burst transmission. Even if they were planning an ambush, there should have been data. They would need absurd amounts of silent coordination to prepare anything of the sort. The last was, of course, that psionic entity. What side was it on? Where was it? With three, large unknowns, she felt very wary about advancing forward from their position. Then, at long last, she detected something. A building rumble of power.
"Captain," she called out, "psionic disturbance up high and…"
The roar of challenge was deafening. Assaulting the ears and the mind alike. Velshia gasped in pain before shunting the entity out enough to open her watering eyes and look up. There, standing upon one of the monoliths was a distant figure. Black armored, imperious, and imposing against the charged sky. It stared down at the Imperial taskforce with a will of adamant and obvious intent. Nobody wasted time in targeting it.
The roar of Imperial weapons leapt to answer the challenge of the beast. Assault rifles and heavy cannons barked and blared. Shredding against the rock and blowing chunks out of the floating stone. And all of them missed. The raw speed that the distant machine had suddenly accelerated to surpassed even the most generous marine's shots. Leaving a stream of bullet holes behind it as it tore down the face of the pillar. Tearing out chunks of stone as it ran. Before anyone could adjust their aim, it suddenly disappeared.
A collection of expletives and exclamations erupted from the squads as they all tried to pick up the target. But, in almost the exact same moment, a scream of pain erupted from their midst. Velshia whirled to see the black machine lithely twirling away from a collapsing armored trooper. She tried to track it, line up a shot, but it whipped into the mobile infantry. Spoiling her and her allies' aim and wreaking havoc. In the midst of it all, Velshia couldn't help but feel a touch of awe as the squads struggled to engage. It moved with the utmost precision. Dexterous as a thief but as powerful as a bullet train. With brutal efficiency, it jabbed its fingers, the size of Velshia's arm, into one soldier's chest. Launching him a meter back and sprawling in agony. A low kick snapped another marine's leg that was followed by a blow to her head. Knocking the trooper unconscious.
"Give space! Space!"
"I can't get a clear line…there! Shoot! It's running!"
The power-armor swept out, through another two infantry troopers. Hurtling in erratic patterns around the trees. Automatic fire barked from the Imperial forces. Blasting through the trees with tracers lighting up the shaded glades. Before, just as suddenly, it evaporated from the scopes.
"I tagged it! Tagged it solid! No effect!"
"Anti-armor you idiots!" barked the once Sergeant, now Commander, Gad.
Variable rifles shifted from automatic spray to heavier, single shot rifles. Shredding a more massive piece from their ammo to increase penetration power.
"It's gone back up into the towers!" Velshia shouted and pointed as she found the entity with her mind again.
"Tordren, can you track it?" Angstrom asked.
"Yes, Ma'am!"
"Good. Do so."
I-6 snapped its railgun into position, targeted, but just before it fired, billowing white smoke suddenly erupted around the enemy machine. It let loose anyway. The round plunged deep into the stone edifice while several dumb-fire missiles slammed in right after.
"Did we get it?"
"No," Velshia said, "it's still running up there!"
A mere moment after Velshia spoke, the unit suddenly appeared two meters above another mechanized unit. Dropping like a meteor, it slammed both feet into the machine's back. Crippling the unit before it sprung off again. Velshia kept her focus on it, but it couldn't understand how on earth it was seemingly teleporting through space at will!
***
Aiko was deep in it now. Whipping off the back of the crumbling enemy, she slipped in close to the next one. Slamming both her fists down onto the shoulder mounted grenade launchers before they could angle downward, her opponent attempted to grapple her into a bearhug while tucking its head low against her chest to prevent her from simply clapping her hands together against it.
"I have it!" the trooper called, "I have…"
Aiko dug her fingers into the joints of her enemy. Lancing out her nanites into weaker armor weave and connecting with the soldier's skin. A quick pulse of energy sent an arc of electricity into the trooper. Shocking him unconscious. Aiko whipped free. She couldn't afford to get bogged down. Launching herself to the next mobile infantry as one of her eyes saw that robot with a railgun try to lock on. In the nick of time, she hurled the trooper between herself and the bot who was forced to swerve its aim. A line of trees just in front of her exploded into splinters. Aiko, still flowing forward in the slowly passing seconds, dispatched the trooper. Then she turned back and faced the squads as she rushed forward. Slots opened on her wrists, firing a spray of flash-bangs at the enemy before she leapt for the next curve in space. Howls of pain from the ones who weren't able to get down fast enough reached her ears as the grenades detonated. Still, two of her enemies' rounds found their mark before she whipped up to one of the stone monoliths. They hadn't reached her body, this time, but had carved two-inch deep holes in her armor. Her nanites sealed the breaches and began rebuilding the armor. Slowly. Extremely slow to her hyper-processing eyes. Aiko was tired. She could feel it in her bones. Poor rest mashed against her mental strain of both keeping the memories of the colored pillars out and restraining her own mind had already gnawed at her will. The raw number of thoughts and computations it took to launch an attack sapped at her body's…her system's ability to rebuild itself. Yet she drove on with a will of stone and a body thoroughly flooded with artificial adrenaline. She would win this fight. Aiko couldn't afford to lose another.
So the miner stretched herself to the limit. Running, leaping, crawling, Aiko avoided anti-tank rounds and the explosive crack of now two railguns while the shrapnel rain of exploding stone and fragmented metal clamored against her armor from detonating grenades as she spewed out more smoke. Absorbing the occasional hit from the lighter weapons and pushing forward. All the while, she punched deep into the stone as she charged towards the next curve in space. Depositing payload after payload into the edifice. Her sensors saw where the infantry had set up the second rail gun. They were on the way to a third.
Great, just great, she drawled to herself as if she wasn't already pushing it,
time to increase the tempo.
Whipping around another curve of the pillar, Aiko activated her first trap.
***
"Blasted thing is still moving," one of the marines muttered.
"How thick is that armor? Something should've snapped when you hit it square on!"
"Stow it!" Gad interjected, "our weapons are effective! Get that next rail set up and keep it suppressed! T-1, T-2! Sweep around and engage. T-3! Remain on stand-by. P-1! Provide overwatch and wait for a clean shot."
Angstrom had not directly engaged the machine. Not yet. She let Gad continue to command as she observed them carefully. Standing calmly next to the visibly strained Tordren as she continued to track it. There was something odd about the machine's actions. About this whole affair. For one thing, almost all local forces were immediately drawn into battle. Forgetting their core objective of taking out and capturing the Resistance forces. Even Angstrom had to focus to recall the objective. Surveying the havoc the enemy unit was wreaking, Angstrom was struck by something else: none of her soldiers had died. Disabled and possibly severely injured, certainly. The squad medics were rushing from trooper to trooper. Hard at work stabilizing them. But not one fatality. The unit certainly had more than enough firepower to do so, but it wasn't. Why?
"It's coming again!" Tordren called.
Angstrom quirked a smile, "good."
Her comms officer shot her a look.
"I'm onto its ploy," she explained, "one more pass will confirm it. Tell me, is it some…ability of yours to move through space as it can?"
"No, Captain. Not to my knowledge at least."
"Interesting…" but before she could say anything else another cry shot out.
"Mortars! Mortars incoming! Ten…twenty…forty shells!"
Gad let out a curse before shouting for two of the armored units to engage in point defense and for the mobile infantry to find cover as the battle reached its next pitch. Shells detonated like horrifically powerful fireworks as the PD intercepted them. Missed rounds rained down. Trees exploded and dirt flew. Angstrom grimaced as she flattened herself, still trying to keep an eye on the unit as it hurtled out of the forest and into the midst of her pinned troops. Slamming, as was her wont, straight into one of her armored troops at incredibly high speeds. It carved its rapid path of destruction through two infantries and a rail gun emplacement before hurtling towards into the trees. I-6's railgun roared to life a third time as half of the unit's shoulder exploded. Angstrom's eyes widened slightly as she saw, for a brief second, the armored suit begin to slowly stitch itself back together. Just like her own machine arm did when damaged.
"Bendar, Hashka, after it!" Angstrom bellowed as she wondered where the hell the Resistance had gotten all those mortars from. They had assumed the force on the planet would be small. Unless they had been wrong…no, impossible.
The soldiers she commanded charged forward without hesitation. Sprinting full-tilt into the woods until, "huh? The hell! Grab on to something!"
"What happened!" Angstrom yelled over the explosions of the mortars, noting that the troopers were now transmitting their call outs.
"We're on the stone structures! How the…oh shi!"
Cries of pain cracked through the comms before the vague outlines of two bodies plummeting from the heights. Angstrom had no fear for their lives. Marine suits all came with Emergency Decent Shoots, EDS, to save their wearers from such falls.
"Captain," Tordren chimed in, "I think…I know I sense something where the troops went. Something, odd or twisted about space there."
Angstrom nodded. So that was it. She didn't understand the mechanics of how it worked, but didn't need to. Whatever it was, these odd spatial distortions allowed the unit to jump across space in an instant. Allowing it to constantly ambush her forces from numerous angles.
"T-1!" Gad ordered, "get eyes on where those mortars are coming from and blast that position!"
It swung to obey as the dark clouds that had gathered burst forth with rain. Lightening erupted into the charged atmosphere. Arcing across the sky, from stone to stone, and striking against tree and earth. Further blinding the troopers against the ceaseless barrage of attacks. Then, as if born from the storm and unnoticed by anyone, came a ship. Small and lithe with sharp, sweeping wings that, despite being made of metal, beat against the air. Soaring through some unknown device and painted the same dark colors as the storm itself. Blue-green fire spewed forth from one of its wings, giving its graceful moves an off-beat limp. It dove upon T-1 as lighting connected to it and then arced off. Slamming into three of the four engines on the shuttle. Sending them into sparking ruin as the vehicle swerved off course.
"Hit! Hit! I'm going down! I have it! Controlled crash! Controlled crash!"
"Touch down at the evac point!" Gad ordered, "We'll pick you up on our way out! T-2, T-3, get the hell out of dodge!"
Phantom-1 whipped into the engagement as the other two shuttles hurtled out. Having been unable to find a good angle on the enemy power armor, it seemed almost gleeful for a target to shoot at. Forcing the alien fighter to whip away from its spray of shells. Entangling both into a whirlwind of a dogfight. Yet, even in that instant, thundering feedback blasted across open radio channels. The magnetic field began thrumming madly. The stone towers started shifting and swaying to this new, exotic beat. Angstrom narrowed her eyes, wondering what new madness the Resistance seemed to be conjuring up.
***
High above in space, the two ships in stealth mode watched on. Each trying to grasp an understanding as to what was going on below. But the cloud-cover blocked all visual sensors and the magnetic field ruining all the rest. Suddenly, each saw the field fluxing and pulsing. And the eyes aboard the
Cotopaxi perceived a code taking shape in the madness. Understanding, the Resistance vessel followed its commands while the
INS Ophelia silently puzzled in confusion over these changes.
Back down on the ground, the Imperials were faltering under the continued pressure. Unable to absolutely dispatch the power armor and having its forces continually picked off while suffering continual bombardment had placed immense strain on its forces. Gad snarled as a fresh rain of mortars fell in the continual sheets of water from the storm. The Resistance clearly had far more forces on planet than initially assumed. His own forces had lost any ability to contact the
Ophelia and had no hope of regaining it. With all the shells and the commitment of only two units, the Commander believed that the enemy's objective was to try and capture as many of his troops as possible. He couldn't allow that to happen. And Gad knew that, unless the situation changed, it was going to push his troops past the breaking point. They would start surrendering and that would be the end. It was time to pull back and regroup. Get out of this thing's insane play structure.
"Troops, begin to fall back!" Gad shouted, "We need to get clear of this bombardment!"
"Belay that order!" Angstrom countermanded.
"Captain, we can't sustain…"
"Belay it! This thing is distracting us!" Angstrom had it. She knew it. Even now, as the enemy machine blasted through another sweep of strikes against her forces, not a one died. Flashbangs, crippling strikes, even the fighter and mortar were all only disabling. Delaying and playing for time. Their initial assumption was correct, she was sure of it. The Resistance just had a few fancy toys to allow the rest of them to run away like cowards. She would dismantle it. The might and unity of the Imperial Military would shatter their designs. "Squad 1, merge with Squad 2 and hold this position! Keep that thing distracted. Gad, keep command. Squad 3, push through that tunnel, now! Engage and capture or kill whatever is on the other side! Stealth squad, support them! Remnants of Squad 4, on me! Bring plasma throwers! We're taking that thing out! Tordren, show me one of these twists in space."
"Yes, Captain!" Sounded off all around her.
They could win this thing. Together. Battered and beleaguered, the Imperial forces rallied around the might of their Captain. They shot off at a low running crouch as the mortars continued to rain down as, one last time, the power armor tore through her forces. Despite its regenerative ability, there was an ever-growing number of punctures and cracks in the armor from the Imperial rounds. Its shoulder hadn't fully reformed from I-6's railgun and the machine, despite still boasting incredible speed, was flagging. Jittery, as its internal hardware was unable to perfectly operate all its joints. Angstrom nodded to herself. The machine was breaking down. Gradually under Imperial might. As a team, they would prevail. She just needed to overcome this one unit. This one,
infernal, unit and they could pull out a win.
And with that simple thought, Angstrom fell for the trap.
