It was dawn when they set out from Greenway the colony where Elias was currently based. The sun now sat high in the sky as they drew close to their destination. The featureless landscape that is characteristic of a planet covered in Crust made the Hive ziggurat stand out as a blot on the horizon well before the bleached steps were visible. He checked his gear once more; experience reminded him that being ready too early was always better than too late. Looking left and right along the benches in the troop carrier he nodded as the rest of his squad did the same, their upgraded equipment and calm contrasting with the buzzing energy coming from the new recruits who were sat closer to the ramp that would disgorge them out into the oncoming enemy once they arrived.
He turned his attention to the energy weapon holstered at his waist. He pulled the two grips and checked through the settings, ensuring they were synced fully with his neural link. They were by far the best thing to have going up against the Swarm. In each hand he held a grip that could be placed together in different formations to create a wide variety of weapons. The grips formed in their default setting of pistols as he drew them from the holsters. He held both in line, right hand behind left and the nano-tech within formed a rifle. Switching to bring his left hand back towards his right the weapon transformed into a heavier weapon that acted more like a shotgun. Finally he pulled the two grips apart and willed the left hand into a shield while the right became a blade of energy before returning them to their default and placing them back in the holsters.
Weapon checked he used the integrated display to check over his armour at the same time as a physical review. He tapped each of the focus points that could form small power shields to protect his body. Arms, legs, head, torso and back. Each could be boosted and he pushed a little energy to them while watching the small figure in the upper left of his vision light green in the corresponding areas. With his weapon and armour checked he pulled off and then reconnected the two batteries which attached to the front of his thighs. Removing one he watched as the display for his energy weapon flashed red, returning to full charge as he replaced it. The other caused the blue tinge that represented his armour fade, he replaced it with a click. A quick check of his bandolier loaded with ration pack, med pen and a couple of grenades completed the review and allowed Elias to relax as he listened to the chatter around him.
"Look at the fodder." Said Jones to his left. "I think I can smell the piss already." A couple of the others sat at the back laughed.
"Better them going first, save our energy for something worthwhile." Elias replied.
"Depends who's leading them. Look, his neural link is still fresh." Jones said, pointing at a nearby soldier who had a red scar showing on one side of his forehead.
"Oi, boy. When did you arrive?" He went on to ask.
"Yesterday. Sir." Stuttered the recruit, trying to replicate a salute he had probably only seen in cryo-sim.
"See, they're fucked." Said Jones. "Fifty credits says we have to get involved in the first wave."
The others ignored this comment, concentrating on checking their body armour rather than rise to the bait of talking to Jones. They all knew his thoughts on the new recruits, commonly known as fodder due to the fact that most commands threw them into a battle of attrition against the Swarm as soon as battle started. They also knew that it was Macon in charge of the operation so the tactics would be straight from the Imperial rulebook.
"No takers?" Added Jones, nudging Elias with an elbow. "Come on E, you always think the best of the fodder, not going to put your money where your mouth is?"
Elias turned his head to look at the fifty new recruits who were sitting in four rows. They were decked out in matching; standard issue body armour highlighted in the Xanon Corps colours red and black. Their expressions varied from outright fear like the recruit Jones had picked on through to sheer determination. Almost all had the telltale signs of a newly installed neural link; the red scar running from left temple up to the centre of their forehead. A couple still had the dressing that the autodoc would have applied covering the area.
"No chance Jones. Not with Macon in charge, I'd be better just giving you the creds." The look of disdain on his face goaded Jones to reply.
"You think you'd do better? Two modules in command don't mean shit to the companies and you know it. Macon may lose some lives but she gets the job done so show some respect."
Elias just shrugged and nodded to Jones not wanting to draw the conversation out any longer. Jones was right, until he had completed the theory and then demonstrated application of the skill in sim his neural link didn't register the command skill. No-one could deny that Macon had the skill but that didn't mean it couldn't be applied better. Instead of sharing his thoughts he turned his attention to the integrated display on his headset.
The deployed drones were streaming a tactical map directly to his display meaning he could watch as the first two carriers reached their destination. They swung out left to form one of two pincers ziggurat sitting in the centre. The next two carriers swung right leaving the remaining command vehicle and troop carrier to complete a rough C-shape around one half of their target. It was only a level two ziggurat, meaning that other than the base level there were only two steps to the top. This far out they had not drawn any attention from the Hive, all six vehicles stopped in the grey zone that marked the edge of their awareness on his map. From experience Elias knew that the first stage would be drawing as many of the swarm out of the dome protecting the structure. Then the assault on the lower level would begin involving either the elite incursion teams or the fodder depending on difficulty. The final stage of the operation would be undertaken by the incursion teams; climbing through the inner structure to reach the pinnacle of the ziggurat and destroying the crystal that powered the dome.
A green line formed on his display as the commander marked the battle formation at the same time as the ramp forming the front of the carrier started to lower. Two hundred and thirty men and women split out on Elias' display in real time as the troop carriers were emptied. They spaced themselves along the marked line leaving a loose group of ten either end to prevent flanking. Unfortunately, no one had told the groups either end that was their purpose so the new recruits stood in a group looking lost. It was one of the many failings of basic training in cryo-sim. All the recruits would have taken part in a clearance drill but the sim would have placed them all in central positions. Only the most observant would have noticed what happened to the two ends of the line as it swept forward. To stop the line being overrun they needed to form a lip at either end catching any Swarm that tried to find their way out around the formation.
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Having followed the recruits out onto the orange-yellow surface of the Crust Elias found himself surrounded by the spare recruits who were yet to move into line. It was clear some of the recruits had come straight out of cryo-sim and been sent out on this mission, they were stood around looking at the Crust in awe, feeling the buzz of energy as the chargers in the boots of their armour refilled their batteries. Elias thought back to his first encounter with the odd layer of hard inert material that covered all planets with Swarm on them. When it had been initially discovered the explorers thought that the Crust had been placed by the Swarm, but they soon learnt that it was more of a symbiotic relationship with the Crust being used by the Swarm rather than part of them. It was a semi-organic substance that lay about a foot thick over the underlying geography of a planet making everything appear uniform and dead at first glance. In fact it turned out the material was slowly gathering and condensing energy from within the planet, forming it into the Shards and Crystals that the Swarm hoarded. It didn't take humans long to work out how to exploit the Crust too, its energy gathering nature twisted to maintain the charge on their batteries.
Elias turned from his thoughts and picked out one of the recruits rather than waiting for the inevitable forced command from Macon.
"Hey, you, you're on flanking duty. Form up." He said, gesturing in the direction of the end of the line.
He watched as the group made their way forward before looking confused once more. The recruit he had picked out turned to him.
"Ummm, 'scuse Sir, what do we do now?" He said sheepishly.
Before Elias was able to help further they whole group winced like they had been hit over the head and then moved robotically into position. Once positioned they all sagged like a puppet with its strings cut then one by one adopted more natural stances. Elias chuckled as he remembered the first time command had used the neural link to force orders on him. The dissociation and lack of control was worse than the pain; at least the pain faded with repeated uses.
Troops in line Elias checked his neural interface for current orders.
Sweep behind front line. Manage breaches as necessary.
A visual cue of the area they were expected to cover was overlaid on his display. They needed to support the right end of the line. Being in charge of his group of five Elias was given the freedom of allocating the squad without further guidance. The neural link updated his map automatically as he imagined the support zone split in half. The half behind the flank had two men while the centre had one.
"You all know its going to be a long day. Half hour shifts, rotate left." He pointed back to the carrier with his thumb. "Sammy, you're starting on rest. Han, you're support. Rodriguez take centre. Me and Jones will take the flank. It's a level 2 Zig so I don't anticipate any problems. I'll rearrange when we get off the Crust."
Elias sighed as he ignored Jones grumbling at the unfairness of having to start furthest from a break. He knew that Jones would moan wherever he was placed, probably even about starting on a break. No point in trying to fix that problem today. At least all of them would pull their weight when needed. He had definitely been in worse squads in that regard.
Now they had their assignment Elias was glad to see his squad professionally switch their utility weapons to rifle mode and that they had all turned off any boosts to their armour. He wanted to say something to the idiots in the line in front who had swapped from the standard settings or had done something stupid like leave their weapon in melee mode. It wasn't his place though so instead he watched and waited for the march on the target.
The start of the march was organised chaos. Few of the recruits noticed as the timer on their HUD hit zero and those that did failed to notice the first waymarker that meant they should stop to wait for a response from the Swarm. This meant that as the first creatures burst through the Crust half the recruits were still being robotically driven back to the line by command via the neural link.
This far out it was a mix of Harvesters and Drones that they had disturbed. The Harvester were the larger of the pair of sub-types but both lacked the thicker carapace and weaponised front limbs that true Swarm possessed. It would take an idiot to be taken down by a group of either. Unfortunately such an idiot existed in most groups and was displaying to all the group how not to attack Swarm.
Idiot One, for there would be more Idiots this day, boosted the legs of his power armour. This allowed him to leap the twenty metres separating the Harvester from the line in a move straight from a higher level simulation. Rather than hold the boost to support the landing he released the power back to the rest of his armour before hitting the ground. This meant that the impressive blow from his blade was marred by the breaking of both his legs. While he had killed the first Harvester this meant that two neighbouring Drones moved in quickly to finish the recruit and cut his screams short.
The brutal and quick death seemed to snap the other recruits out of their trance. Those that had selected the rifle mode on their weapon brought up the guns and started shooting. Any who still had melee or shields selected switched their weapons and joined in the shooting. It was only as they started to clear out the foe in front of them when the first wave of Swarm appeared.
It was hard to compare the real thing to the animations that were recreated in cryo-sim and through graphics in recruitment. Even after years of fighting and winning against much more deadly versions the crests rippling through the Crust as they approached still sent a shiver down Elias' spine. The recruits were already shooting as the crests rose to reveal the creatures beneath. With a segmented body they initially approached using all eight of their limbs as they rose through the channels the Harvesters and Drones had cut through the Crust. As they reached the surface they reared up, releasing their front two limbs that could cut or stab once in range. The insectoid body and face had an effect on the human brain and caused several of the new recruits to freeze up.
In the end Jones was right that the recruits would need help as early as the first wave. Around half fell, leaving those that were either lucky or more skilled to face the next wave released by the Hive once the first had fallen. They had started to realise that the Swarm would all approach through the same channels; directing their fire would cut them down quicker with less risk. By the third wave they had managed to form smaller groups with a single member watching for any Swarm that broke through the initial attack and targeting them specifically. Elias had two of his squad members move up into the offensive line to give direct support as the number of recruits able to fight dwindled. Once the last of the Swarm fell of the fifty recruits they had been supporting only sixteen remained in line. It was little consolation to them that over double their number of Swarm had been killed.
There was a brief respite from the fighting as they followed instructions to move the line forward to where the Crust had been fully cleared around the ziggurat. From here they had the first proper, close up view of their target. A Hive was almost uniform in its structure and development. Until they reached the fifth level almost all their behaviour could be predicted. A good example of this was visible in the structure itself.
The top step would be almost exactly ten metres wide and five metres high the shape appearing circular from afar while actually being a polygon with exactly one hundred sides. This became more obvious as the structure grew with each layer adding twenty metres in diameter meaning the sides widened the further down you looked. The ziggurat they were attacking was therefore fifty metres in diameter at its base. Standard Hive behaviour was to clear the Crust an equivalent distance from the base as the diameter of the base. So the outer edge of a second circle with a diameter of one hundred and fifty metres was their next target. The mapping drones had marked out the concentric circles and as they moved forward to come closer to their destination, rather than shorten the line of recruits Macon had them wrap around the cleared area.
"Fucking flanks." Said Jones as they finally reached their position. "The others have been resting an hour already as we sweep round and clear out any straggler Drones round here."
"What are you complaining about, you spent half that time resting in the troop carrier." Came the retort from Sammy as she picked off the last of the Harvesters with her rifle.
"Not all of us need the target practice." Jones sniped back.
"Shut up Jones, we have an update from command." Said Elias ending the chatter. He checked his HUD to see that the circle had now been divided in to five segments by Macon.
Transferring command of recruits to segment leaders. Advance from Crust to secure ziggurat edge.
Elias watched as the sixteen recruits were added to his squad command.
"Great, more babysitting." Grumbled Jones under his breath.
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that." Said Elias while waving the whole group to gather at his central position in front of the carrier.
Now he was able to take more direct command, he would see if they could all survive the next phase of the attack.