Admiral Drai watched the battle closely, directing the fighters to keep a close eye on the star trees for signs of great eye activity or hugger mine release, though the pilots had their hands full keeping after the hordes of void wasps that poured out of the trees. He had his communications officer on high alert for signs of more ships jumping in from the direction of T’Lakia, as well.
Despite the Admiral’s vigilance, two things happened at once: closed lids snapped open to reveal a multitude of great eyes across a number of star trees, and a small cluster of ships appeared on the battlefield opposite of T’Lakia. The small ships and the great eyes fired simultaneously, and Drai fell to the floor as the ship was rocked horribly by the blast.
“What’s our status!?” roared Drai as he picked himself back up and stared into blank screens.
“Dead in the water, Admiral!” answered his engineer. “Ripmed is out of commission, broadside cannons are crippled, centralized comms are down, our main thrusters are blown to bits.”
“Providence guide us!” shouted Drai. “Find me a comm system that can reach the rest of the fleet.”
He watched helplessly from the bridge as the other ships in the fleet reacted to the incoming Koomite gunships. The Apex was closest to them and took one out with its cannons, but the others launched another barrage of missiles at the same time a lesser, but still massive, volley of great eye bolts landed on the transport’s hull. Like a kicked hornet’s nest, the Apex spilled out a swarm of skiffs, which darted around the Koomites, picking off their guns as they dodged void wasps.
“Your comm should be patched through to the local broadcast system, Admiral,” said the engineer. “It took me a moment to set up a secure and viable line, but you should be talking to all our ships and none of theirs.”
“All hands, this is Admiral Drai,” he said. “The Pinion is in rough shape, but, mark my words, we will see that one gun feels like one hundred. Stay the course, and reach out to the Wingspan and the Gladius immediately. Providence shine on us all.”
***
Tank looked over the sparking controls with cool eyes. Now was no time to panic, so he simply wouldn’t. The cannon controls had been taken out by the attack, but the flickering readouts indicated that the weapons were still functional. He walked over to another console. The Robot who had been using it laid a few feet away, crushed by a beam that had swung down from the ceiling. There was nothing to be done for him now.
Flicking through the screens, Tank managed to bring up the cannon controls, and was delighted to find that some of the tertiary thrusters were still functional. He trained the cannons on the star trees and set a course in their direction. Their fire was on the ship instantly. Tank got up and started jogging towards the hangar. Maybe he’d get to a skiff before the Apex exploded. He laughed internally at his own joke as the world around him erupted into flames. If he had a mouth of flesh, he would have smiled. He had no serious regrets about his life as a pirate, it was all he had known. But he knew somehow that his life under Admiral Crush had been more worthwhile. His last thoughts were not unhappy ones.
***
Jylik watched as real-time data of the battle over Quarry flickered over his display membrane.
"The Koomites have certainly helped turn the tide," said Trilia from over his shoulder, pride evident in her voice.
"So far, yes," said Jylik, a hint of annoyance tainting his voice. "Let's see how they fare against Talon Squad and the others before we celebrate, hmm?"
***
Swampy watched unhappily from her fighter’s cockpit as the Apex exploded and the remaining Koomite gunships flew down to the surface, but the waves of mines and wasps coming from the Astralbians kept her from being able to do anything about them. At least the detonation of the Apex appeared to have crippled at least one of the remaining star trees.
"Ground team, be advised," she said. "Hostile gunships heading your way."
That was all she could do. She returned to the fight, dodging bolts and playing defense when she'd much rather be making bombing runs against the star trees.
***
Hearing the message, Raivyn coordinated the clayside response.
"Let's get the ships into the cave," she ordered. "There's no sense meeting them in the open."
The caves had been cleared, and any remaining Astralbians had evidently fled into the lush, green wilds of Quarry.
"I see them," said Reclan, watching a scanner feed on her tablet. "Looks like three gunships are heading this way."
The two shuttles were parked at the massive cave mouth and started blasting at the Koomites gunships the moment they were in range. The gunships returned fire as they landed.
"This situation looks alarmingly familiar," muttered Reclan in the shuttle's cockpit, thinking back to when she first landed a few hours prior.
"Yeah," said Vanbrook, "but we're ready for them."
Vanbrook climbed down the shuttle's ramp to join the rest of Talon Squad on the floor of the cave. A number of Hrudukites were lying in a makeshift infirmary further back in the mountain, a few more were lying in a makeshift morgue, but most of the stalwart warriors stood gathered in the cave, ready to defend themselves from the approaching attackers.
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The ships traded fire for a moment, but the Koomite gunships took off quickly, having taken too much abuse in the battle above to sit under the shuttles' assault for an extended time. Left behind was a small force of figures in black and purple robes, their faces painted in garish black, whites, and reds.
Reclan held her fire for a moment, unsure whether she should fire on the evidently unarmed cultists. The pilot aboard the Apex's shuttle clearly had no such compunction and fired immediately.
The shots bounced off a telekinetic shield as the cultists marched forward. A wave of fear rippled through the forces gathered in the cave, emanating out from the cultists.
The Hrudukites' natural psychic defenses and hearty spirits kept the attack from having the desired effect, and Talon Squad and the RTS were more or less accustomed to this kind of attack and handled it well.
"Looks like a full psychic unit," said Trebor. "This is where we shine.”
Raivyn’s lip curled up in disgust but she said nothing, taking a stand beside Yellup.
“Okay, Hrudukites,” she said. “Any warriors with psychic giftings, please line up with us. We’ll be doing coordinated counter attacks and we’ll need all the force we can muster.”
Two female Hrudukites and a lone male broke off from the main infantry force, joining Raivyn and Yellup. Trebor regarded them with a cold eye.
"They're not under your jurisdiction, Trebor," sneered Raivyn.
"Hardly the time, Specialist," he retorted.
"On three, we target the shield itself with a kinetic counter wave. Everyone else, fire everything you've got!"
The cultists advanced, chanting Koo L'Koom's name as even the shuttles' guns bounced harmlessly off the shield.
"One…"
A wave of fear that crescendoed in a sensation of rage broke over the troops.
"Two…"
A few Hrudukites' began to swing their hammers wildly, going berserk under the pressure.
"Three!"
The counter wave crashed into the cultists and their shield shattered. They scurried for cover, now close enough to the cave to avoid the shuttles' guns. Maddened Hrudukites continued to break the ranks apart as the cultists rained down a hail of T-bolts and pulled short, curved blades from beneath their robes.
Raivyn and her fellow psychics reached out to find the source of the psychic manipulation. Following the tendrils of T-waves that swirled throughout the cave, Raivyn tracked it back to a Krauqian wearing a wicked grin under red face paint.
She slammed a spike of T-waves into his mind, distracting him. The Hrudukites fought mightily to bring their forces back into order. The Krauqian's eyes snapped over to Raivyn and he fired a volley of T-bolts at her, forcing her to dodge.
Reclan had regained her composure and joined the others on the cave floor, her drones surrounding her and zapping any approaching cultists as she fired her rifle at them. Vanbrook stood at her side, deflecting the long knives and blasting anyone he could draw a bead on. D'Jarric was standing shoulder to shoulder with Hrake, their fists and hammer bringing down scores of enemies. Doc stayed to the rear, picking off cultists who stopped to focus on using their powers for too long. The RTS agents were a storm of lead and steel, their advanced T-blocking technology keeping them relatively safe.
The tide of the battle turned when Raivyn put a lethal T-bolt through the head of the Krauqian Koomite who appeared to be the leader of the group. Once he fell, the rest of the cultists seemed to lose their zeal, and the Hrudukites fell on them like a crushing wave. Soon all that was left was to count the bodies. Raivyn looked around the cave floor, her heart sinking when she saw how many Hrudukite warriors had fallen.
***
Drai had nearly despaired when the Gladius finally appeared in the aether beside the Silver Star Fleet, blasting the enemy the moment they’d acquired a target.
“Admiral Drai? This is Captain Grepk of the Gladius. Where should I be focusing my fire?”
“Captain!” exclaimed Drai. “You’re an answer to prayer. Focus your fire on those star trees, my fighters can handle the wasps.”
“Will do,” said Grepk. “Hope you don’t mind if I provide a couple reinforcements for your fighters.”
Two figures, one larger and one smaller, jetted out of the Gladius. Krum-Bahk and Keshri wasted no time engaging the wasps and taking some of the burden off of Swampy and her pilots.
A few moments later the Wingspan arrived, relatively fresh and ready to lay down some serious firepower. The remaining star trees called their wasps back and fled, clearly outgunned. Drai’s shoulders relaxed for the first time in many hours and he fell back into his command chair with a sigh.
***
Tapping his chin, Jylik watched the star trees retreating from the battlefield, jumping back towards Gateway. He hated to bring the losers back into the fold, but he wanted Gateway to be as defended as possible for the coming battle.
"What about the Koomites?" asked Trilia.
"We haven't heard from the ground forces," mused Jylik. "I assume they're all dead. The gunships are coming back this way."
"Hopefully they made a good accounting of themselves before being wiped out," pouted Trilia.
Jylik smiled wryly. "Your pets served their purpose. We'll send more next time."
***
Skritka ran through the halls of Griffon Keep to his office, his legs burning from the unfamiliar work. He had been trying to reach the royal couple of Wabuluba for weeks now, and he wasn’t about to miss his chance. Breathless, he burst through the door and answered the call, the two monarchs appearing on his office screen.
“Your Majesties,” he said, huffing as he bowed.
“Prime Minister… are, are you alright?” asked Queen Vuluh sincerely.
“Yes, fine, fine, just, um, out for a bit of exercise,” stuttered Skritka.
“Of course,” said King Buluh. “If now isn’t a good time-”
“No, no,” said Skritka, waving him off. “Now is fine, I assure you. Please, tell me what’s on your mind.
The King nodded. “I’ll be frank, Prime Minister. The cult known as the Koomites have garnered quite a following among some of the Wabuluban, and some of our people have even deserted their homeworld to join this religion. Worship of Koo L’Koom was once quite prevalent on Wabuluba, and the appeal to history has proven quite compelling.”
“I can understand your concern, King Buluh,” said Skritka carefully. “But why discuss it with me?”
“We understand that the Koomites have now aligned themselves with the Astralbians,” said Queen Vuluh. “Is that correct?”
Skritka was surprised. He had only gotten confirmation of that rumor a few hours earlier from Admiral Drai.
“My compliments to your spies, Your Majesties,” he said.
Buluh smiled. “We did say this conversation would be frank, didn’t we? All jesting aside, we’re quite concerned that a cult with a history of violence has established itself on our world. We have discussed the matter and wish to work more closely with the Griffon Republic in their war effort.”
Skritka kept his smile subdued and polite, though he was inwardly beaming. “That would be most appreciated, Your Majesties.”