Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit (31 page)

37

Naero sent Tarim with Captain Jericho and
Arana to make sure that they and their kids reached the army fortifications.

With the sirens wailing, lines of people rushed out of their homes and raced toward the mining tunnels with any weap
ons and supplies they could carry.

Very little panic and confusion.

The miners had been through wars. Another was just more of the same. They scrambled to their shelters, hardpoints, and defensive positions with very little wasted effort.

The slight warning gave them a headstart.

Enemy fighters and bombers swept in and seized the skies above the city. Then the starport.

The few air defenses that the miners had were quickly overwhelmed and neutralized.

In keeping with military doctrine, the enemy drop troops captured the starport and any landing fields at the mines. Then they brought in their heavy transport ships to deploy the bulk of their ground forces.

The Flying Dagger
cloaked and escaped early on.

A few
other merchant vessels weren’t so lucky, and got shot down trying to flee. Some of their wrecks still burned on the tarmac, and in the surrounding area.

Some of Naero
’s advance forces made it down to the surface to join with the military defense forces. But most were still en route.

Naero
cloaked early on and finished surveying the enemy invasion up in the air with her gravwing. She fed crucial intel to her people via her secure channels.

She popped
down to rejoin her friends at the defensive hard points, while the last remnants of the civilian population still scrambled to get to safety.

Then she spotted the invader
’s forward skirmishers.

Ejjai shock troops.

Enemy scouts and forward units cut down any stragglers they found with glee wherever they fell upon them.

But the Ejjai shock troops al
most always made the mistake of stopping to glut themselves on fresh meat.

Along the way to
the fortress and the defenses, Naero continued gathering forward observer intel on enemy troops and weapon system deployments.

She also
dropped down in several isolated spots to interrupt the Ejjai feeding frenzies.

And the last
thing many bloated and bloody enemy scouting units saw before they died were twin blazing red Chaos katanas, sizzling in the humid night air.

At the
primary shielded barrier, Captain Jericho and the miner defense forces put up a stiff resistance.

Among other things, t
hey used modified starship engines, and huge plasma mining borers to roast the attackers and burn them back.

But the
Ejjai were cunning and determined foes who kept on coming, probing the defenses constantly from every angle. Looking for any weak point to exploit.

They
attempted to use gravwings to drop in among the defenders.

Air defense batteries an
d heavy chain guns cut them out of the sky.

The enemy gave up on that tactic
, for the time being.

But the defenders remained
boxed in.

Every time they tried to break out or counterattack from hidden t
unnels, a weird haze of purple mist would swirl around.

Concealed within that strange
cloud, something ripped the miners apart. Something swift and deadly concealed within that haze.

When the mists cleared, the bodies
of the defenders lay everywhere. Missing their heads and torn to pieces.

Down below the
defenders could all see the enemy gravtanks and hover assault vehicles deploying and forming up.

Enemy artillery units set up in the distance to bombard the defenders from several kilometers away.

Anyone with any military knowledge could predict how it was all going to go down.

Eventually the
invaders would blast the shields down, then pound and chew their way through the static defenses up close.

The defenders could not hold out forever against such odds
, and such concentrated firepower.

Up in orbit around Celonia-4, the starlit sky
grew blotted out by a brilliant light show of blasts and explosions as the enemy fleets duked it out with Naero’s attacking forces.

“Don
’t worry. My people will fight their way down here to help us, captain. Fight well, my friends.”

Some scrambled transmissions and reports made it through the enemy jamming.

Corps fleets now protected the enemy invaders. Corps fleets with ion cannons.

The
latest modified Spacer shields could now withstand several more hits before going down.

But this was offset by the new fact that that enemy
support fleets and their ion guns had somehow increased their rate of fire.

Both sides constantly struggled to adapt and overcome.

Less than three hours later, after intense bombardment and several assaults by waves of enemy gravtanks, the main front defensive wall collapsed.

Three
bells standard time sounded.

It remained dark. A
nd the naval battle up in space around the planet still raged, deciding the fate of Celonia-4.

But by that point
, Captain Jericho had most of the defenders and their heavy weapons already re-deployed behind the secondary and tertiary lines of defense.

The miners went down hard, defending every hardpoint, every gun emplacement
, every bloody foot to the last troop. That was just their way.

But the numbers and hardware
of the invaders made it very clear.

Despite their valor, i
n a matter of hours, they were all going to be swept away.

Naero
knew exactly, firsthand, what would follow. Once most of the fighters were dead. The Ejjai would begin their culling process and bring in their meatships. The adults and the old would be dispatched, and the young would be at the mercy of the invaders.

Who saw them only as
a delicacy.

Naero kept firing her
long range, Gauss sniper rifle, silently taking out target after target. Reloading as needed.

The Ejjai shock troops kept coming.

No matter how many the defenders cut down. The enemy transports seemed to belch them out like raving demons from hell.

She wondered why they did
n’t see any more of the swirling purple mists and the slayers that moved under their obscuring haze.

Where had they gone?
Had the enemy grown so confident in victory that their shock troops alone could finish the job?

So confident that t
hey held their secret weapon in check and no longer bothered to use it against the defenders? Apparently so.

Within the hour. The second defensive line collapsed under intense artillery fire walked
in all over it. Followed by another heavy enemy gravtank assault.

Naero and the defenders prepared to make their final stand around the last line of defense.

They dug in and shielded themselves up close with several unit-sized shield projectors.

After the artillery bombardment trampled the area, the enemy
armor and infantry units poured into the breach to finish them off.

Jericho and the others surprised
them up close by popping up in full-force, still alive and ready to fight. The layered unit shielding had allowed them to fight on.

They cut the enemy advance down at point blank range
with waves of interlocking fire.

More troops poured in on both sides.

This was it.

Then the enemy artillery pieces and transports
up on the mountainous ridges and high ground shot up in flames, still belching out troops, armor, and fire support.

Explosions rocked the starport and all the landing fields
. Spacer Marines and drop troops swept over the enemy units, catching them completely by surprise.

Special c
loaked units phazed in and annihilated any enemy command and control.

Elite
Spacer fighters and marine gunships shot the Ejjai pilots out of the sky, sending them spinning and wheeling in flames to crash into the surface.

The massed enemy strike units quickly found themselves in a deathtrap of intense, interlocking waves of explosive smart rounds, energy cannons, and particle beams that disrupted shields and cut through almost everything in their path.

Waves of Spacer Marines in Meks and fast-attack, powered armor suits leaped and raced in to cut the enemy further to pieces.

Ranks
of marines marched down, mopping up any resistance. Orders went forward over all com links.

Ejjai clones
had no value as prisoners and were normally boobytrapped.

No quarter. No mercy
.

Then Intel
discovered that numerous dead enemy alpha’s were found with holo projectors on their wrists.

Loaded with images of Shalaen.

Their intended prize.

38

Naero stumbled and rubbed her sweating, dirty face
after a long night of heavy fighting. From the last several, up-close attack waves, Ejjai blood and gore stained her everywhere, splattered all over.

In close fighting
, one Ejjai alpha had ripped off her combat armor face mask.

S
he had been forced to waste precious energy regenerating several minor, and one serious wound.

A stray enemy artillery strike
burst right next to her. She could not shield herself from all of the damage quickly enough.

But Walker
’s Spacer Marines had come in like a typhoon of steel and fire, sweeping away everything in their path.

In less than
two hours, they slaughtered the enemy invasion wholesale and eliminated the threat almost entirely.

After a full
night of using her Mystic abilities almost constantly, Naero’s personal reserves were drained.

She needed
both food and rest very badly.

She had done all that she could to help the defenders hold out until relief came.

She tripped over some wreckage and almost fell, unceremoniously onto her face.

Captain Jericho caught her.

“I got you, En. I got you.”

He helped her get back to her feet.

“You okay? You look like hell.”

They both laughed weakly.

“Thanks. I clean up well. Did you check on Arana and the kids?”

He nodded and grinned.
“They’re just fine. The underground transports took them forty klicks away to a secret underground bunker, deep below. Then the line was cut off with mining charges to keep the enemy from following in.”

“J
ust in case we lost. Good thinking.”

“I
t’ll be a day or two before the line re-opens. They have plenty of supplies until then. And hey, good news. Shalaen is right there with them, helping them stay calm.”

Naero
’s eyes widened.

“W
hat?”

“S
he didn’t go to Kendall-2 after all. She’s safe in the bunker, with her people. One of them got sick, so they stayed behind to get him some help.”

General Big Jim Walker came up with some of his command
at that very moment.

Captain Jericho came to attention. Naero followed suit.

At first she thought Walker was wearing a power suit. That he was in a Mek.

Walker was
that big. As big as her dad even. A giant of a man.

“A
t ease, people. See you had a little trouble here, captains. Glad we could help out.”

One of his aides suddenly shouted. Weapon fire erupted
all around their position.

“G
eneral. Look out!”

A suicide squad of about
a hundred hidden shock troops in heavy assault armor and gravwings shot up at them out of nowhere.

Naero couldn
’t tell if they were aimed directly at her, or the general.

Didn
’t matter.

The Marines were pro all the way.

Half of the enemy got cut down before they could even reach Naero’s position.

Naero
’s Chaos blades would not form in her numb hands. She was that weak and out of juice.

She gritted her teeth and drew her battle blades, launching herself into the
air to meet them head on with her battle cry.

Jericho gunned down
several.

Walker turned at bay and
beat them all to the punch. He shredded multiple attackers with the mini-guns mounted on his shoulders.

Only t
hree of the killers got in close.

Walker leaped up and smashed the first
two attackers into puddles of sparking tronics and red goo beneath his armored boots.

The third
he simply grabbed and slammed it against a burning gravtank, quickly yanking off the Ejjai’s arms and legs. Like taking apart a doll.

He finally pinched
off the shrieking head. Tossed the torso aside.

Then he shook his fist at the dark, burning sky like issuing a challenge.

“Bravo Command owns the black. The night is our domain, and we surrender it to no one!”

“Oo-Rah!” thousands of lethal Marines shouted back from the shadows.

“Don’t worry,” Walker told Naero and Jericho with a wide grin. “We’ll have the garbage taken out by morning.”

Naero landed and Walker looked her over.

He suddenly seemed to recognize her and smiled even wider. “I was a big fan of your parents, Captain Maeris. By the Powers–you do look just like your mom.”

To everyone
’s wonder, the general immediately knelt down before her on one knee. Right there on the battlefield.

“N
aero Amashin Maeris, it is a high honor to fight beside the daughter of Lythe Ivala Maeris, The Invincible Cyclone, and Tarthan Wallace Ramsey, The Annihilator. When I was a just a recruit, I had the honor to fight in the same action with you parents and your aunt, against the Hevangians that we thought killed your brother, and so many others on board your mother’s ship.”

Naero stepped forward and placed her small hand on his enormous shoulder.

“You honor me, General. And the memory of my kin. Thank you.”

Walker smiled.
“The honor is mine. I saw your father fall upon those Hevangian assassins that bloody day. We all did. In awe. Beyond anything in all of his amazing matches. Inspiring. Unstoppable. He took fire, ignored wounds. He smashed and tore his way through everything in his path–trying to save his family. I will never forget the sight of it.”

Naero bent down and kissed his cheek.
“Thank you again. I miss them so.”

The general looked down at the ground and nodded.

“We all miss them. The universe weeps at the loss of their blood.”

She stepped back and Walke
r rose up, turning aside to take some casualty reports coming in from his aides.

A marine captain came up to her. Staring, still in shock.

“I-I’ve never seen him do anything like that,” he whispered.

“W
hat?” Naero asked.

“T
he general has never bent a knee to anyone. Ever. Not the High Command, or even the Elders. This is a high honor for Clan Maeris.”

“T
hank you, captain. Indeed, I’m taking it that way and will inform my Clan elders when I have the chance.”

Tarim came running up. He looked alarmed.

“It’s not over. There’s another enemy strike force even bigger than this one west of here, searching the mountains for the secret bunker the civvies and kids were sent to.”

Om, get some fixers over there. Quick as you can.

Already on it. Fixer spies en route.

Walker heard
Tarim and turned to them almost at the same time.

“W
e’ll jet over that way and take a look.”

“H
ow could they know about it?” Jericho said.

“T
arim, Shalaen is there. In that bunker.”

The blood shot from his face.
“What? The enemy could be tracking her somehow. Maybe they have some way to sense her powers!”

Naer
o wondered about that as well. It seemed logical. The enemy had pinpointed Hashiko’s location on a flagship in the middle of a complex naval space battle.

She suddenly had a very bad intuition.

That’s why they hadn’t seen the weird mists and the strange, lethal alien killers.

They were off hunting Shalaen. Their real prize.

“I’m going ahead,” Naero stated. “I can get out there faster than anyone.”

Exhaustion be damned. She drew upon the last of her reserves and concentrated on her abilities.

She transported to the top of one of the western peaks, still capped with snow. Ignoring the harsh sting of the lashing cold winds.

Looking down, she saw the enemy strike force, already deployed and fanning out from their transports, heading into the
thick forested foothills at the base of the mountain range.

From what Jericho said, they were still well away from the bunker.

Good. They hadn’t found it. Yet.

But
down below, Naero saw swirls of purple mist sweep in here and there out in front of the Ejjai shock troops.

The aliens clos
ed in on their prey.

A
s she recalled, they could bore through rock and stone faster than anything she knew of.

We need
to be careful, Naero. If these things can capture Hashiko, they can take us down as well. And we are already weary.

Om, I
’m not about to let them take Shalaen without a fight.

And she still owed them for taking Gallan from her.

And Jan. And Hashi.

Do everything you can to help me regenerate, Om. I need my power
s back online.

She focused and transported half-way between her foes and the bunker.
It could not be helped.

How can I help you regenerate? Transport uses up huge amounts of our energies.

Stay on it Om.

Naero studied the terrain.

The fir, larch, and aspen trees there on Celonia-4 were gigantic, the ground littered with deep sloughs and piles of decaying needles the length of her arm, like spikes. The heavy pine-like scent obscured her sense of smell. Perhaps it would do so for the invading aliens also.

Naero sat down and reached out with her senses, at the same time that she tried to
help Om regenerate some of her energies. They had a little time, she hoped.

She nearly forgot to call in her position to Tarim and General Walker.

She warned them about the poison mists
and the unknown alien threat. They and all of their troops would go in with sealed respirators to filter out any toxins or nerve agents.

Then seconds later.

Naero and Om both sensed it. How could they not?

Something co
mes straight at us.

Something fast and very powerful.

Naero stood up. Squared her shoulders.

Alone and exhausted in the middle of nowhere.

She prepared for battle against the unknown.