“So I take it these beast soldiers are pretty tough,” said Reclan.
The shuttle glided past the battle, going unnoticed by the drones and war trains, which were focused on the fighters and gunships respectively.
“You've seen the same footage we have,” said Vanbrook, shaking his head.
“I've been getting regular updates from Griffonia,” said Raivyn. “Some psychic seems to have cracked their defenses, I'm hopeful I can do the same based on their work.”
“I guess all we can do is find out for ourselves,” said Reclan, shaking her head. “We're just about there.”
The hangar bay was wide open, and they landed in an open space. A technician shut the door and pressurized the hangar. As soon as he had, an officer rushed through the door, meeting Talon Squad as they walked down out of the shuttle.
“Are we glad to see you! Come with me, I’ll take you to the fight,” said the officer, turning back out of the hangar and leading them towards the sound of gunfire at a near-run. He was a grim looking Raki with a scar running across the armor plates on his face. “They hit us a few different places. They're tearing through our heavy troopers. Fang Squad is already aboard and heading for the bridge, two crafts hit that area.”
“Fang Squad!” exclaimed Vanbrook. “Yeah, they're stationed with Red Shield, aren't they?”
“Yes, they came straight from the Keel,” said the scarred Raki. “A squad of Marines is on the way, as well. They were clayside but we called them up since there's person-to-person combat.”
The gunfire rang out louder, and roars and screams could be heard as they approached a sealed bulkhead door. The officer went to the panel and punched in the code to open the door.
“I can feel the beasts,” said Raivyn, putting a hand to her temple. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Sliding up into the ceiling, the door revealed a scene of blood and chaos, and Talon Squad and the officer opened fire on the three beasts who were tearing through a squad of heavily armed and armored sailors. One of the beast’s heads snapped towards Talon Squad, murder in its eyes. D’Jarric punched out a massive burst of energy, slamming into the beast’s face. Its head snapped back violently, but it quickly righted itself and leapt, roaring at D’Jarric.
Vanbrook intercepted the monster with his energized saber, extending it out while he braced himself behind his buckler. The sword pierced the beast’s skin, but was deflected off its impossibly tough ribs. The crackling blade tore through skin as it skimmed off the beast, spilling a modest amount of purple blood, but doing more to anger than to harm. Even while under fire from the other members of Talon Squad, it swatted Vanbrook away like a child’s doll, sending him sprawling across the floor.
Seeing that it planned to follow after Vanbrook and finish him off, Raivyn focused on the beast, seeking out the source of the digital blockade that kept her from puppeteering it. D’Jarric’s sustained attacks kept the beast off of Vanbrook for the moment, giving her a moment to work. There was intense psychic resistance from the beast’s built-in defenses, and a vicious headache bloomed in Raivyn’s mind. She ignored the pain, pressing her attack, and was rewarded by the rush of success. Having bypassed the defenses, she quickly dug her psychic fingers into the beast’s mind. It roared, shaking its head, but Raivyn soon subdued it.
Vanbrook stood up, holding his shield arm up and against his chest, his face a mask of pain.
“You got this guy under control?” he asked.
Raivyn nodded, turning the puppeteered beast soldier towards the remaining two threats. Despite Reclan, Doc, and the Raki officer’s best efforts, the last of the sailors had been taken down by the other two beast soldiers, who now turned towards Talon Squad. However, they were met by one of their own, now turned against them. The first attack was utterly unexpected, and one of the beasts had their throat torn open by a deadly swipe from their erstwhile comrade. The other howled in furious indignation and threw itself at the traitor. Vanbrook stepped over, still favoring his left arm, and stabbed into the non-puppeteered beast’s trunk below the ribs. The blade went home, but the beast wrenched his body to the side, knocking Vanbrook off-balance. He fell to the floor, trying to catch himself with his one good arm and toppling over onto his left shoulder with a thud. The beasts seemed to take no notice, and one soon lay dead, Vanbrook’s sword still in its stomach.
“I can’t hold this much longer,” said Raivyn, straining to keep the beast in check.
Its eyes flickered, anger returning to its features. There was a large gash across its face from its former comrade, and D’Jarric charged his fist and slammed it into the wound. The beast staggered and fell, the blow finishing the wounded beast off.
“Van!” shouted Raivyn. “Are you alright?”
He shrugged. “My arm’s busted, I’m not sure how badly.”
Doc lumbered over to him, taking the arm gently in his hand. “It’s not broken, at least not obviously so. I’ll have to take a closer look. But you’re only going to get yourself killed if you keep fighting like this.”
Vanbrook shrugged. “It’s not that bad, really.”
“No arguments, Van,” said Raivyn sternly. “Go back to the shuttle, we’ll keep pressing the fight.”
“Providence shine on you, Specialist,” said the officer. “The rest of you, follow me. There’s more hotspots to deal with.”
Vanbrook sighed and turned, walking back towards the shuttle.
Reclan gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, there’s plenty of Drakmundi to go around. You’ll get your chance.”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
***
Out in the aether, the fighters were overwhelming the Drakmundi war trains. Despite throwing the last of their serpent drones at the enemy, the Griffonian fighters were holding their own. Worse yet, other forces had come to join them, and now small skiffs manned by drones or robots of some kind, a number of what appeared to be massive wasps, and fish-like craft had joined the Griffonians.
Grefli watched in horror as a second war train erupted. There was nothing to do now but try to regroup and return with a larger force. However, he would not do so without giving the enemy a parting gift.
“Captains, fire all infiltrator craft,” he said bitterly. “Target any vessel with substantially weakened shields.” He ground his teeth, every fiber and wire of his being hating the words he was about to speak. “And make preparations to return to Griffonia.”
***
Hunt looked on in awe and appreciation as the FRF, Wabuluban, Astralbian, and Griffonian forces worked together to dismantle the Drakmundi fleet. Their disruptor rays neutralized and their shields bypassed, they were not nearly the juggernauts they had seemed to be.
Another wave of boarding ships was launched from the remaining war trains, but the fighters were ready for them and the majority were destroyed before they could exit the shield bubbles. One slipped through, sped up and slammed into the Dagger, but it was a small fraction of the danger it could have been.
Something changed, and Hunt realized that the purple bubbles around the three remaining war trains were pulsing, and the foremost cars were beginning to arc around.
“Drixen, get everyone out of those bubbles,” he said over comms. “I believe the Drakmundi are preparing to retreat.”
***
Inside the Dagger, Talon Squad had made their way to the bridge, passing by three dead beast soldiers along the way. Reaching the stairway that led directly to the bridge, they spotted five warriors, all keeping up a constant barrage of fire on the stairway entrance, where beast soldiers kept trying to rush down the stairs, only to be turned back by the overwhelming suppressive fire.
The largest of the group was a masculine Robot, over six feet tall and firing a ballistic minigun into the stairwell. A slender Talpidarian female stood by his side, her hands held to the sides of her head as she concentrated. A lanky Human male with dark goggles was firing an energy weapon of some kind, a squat Krauqi female sneered into the lit-up opening, holding pistols akimbo and waiting for her best shot, and a Raki female with a large, overloaded backpack fired bursts from her long rifle. All five of the warriors seemed to have sustained some kind of serious injury, either a bloody face, or a cracked or dented armor plate, but all five had an air of grim determination about them, as well.
“Fang Squad!” shouted Raivyn. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to keep them at bay!” said the Robot, looking over his shoulder at Raivyn. “With you here maybe we can do more than that!”
“Risha, can I help?” asked Raivyn.
“Yes! I can’t get through their defenses!” answered the Talpidarian psychic.
“We can if we work together,” said Raivyn with a confident nod.
“The rest of us can help keep up the pressure,” said D’Jarric, firing bolts of energy into the doorway as Raivyn and Risha worked to break through the Drakmundi’s barriers.
A chorus of roars proved that the two psychics had pulled off their trick and both squads stopped firing and ran up the stairs, D’Jarric leading the charge, the massive Robot on his heels.
***
Vanbrook sat in the shuttle, cradling his arm and wearing a sour expression on his face. He’d wrapped his arm with bandages to keep himself from further injuring it, but, having accomplished that, he now sat in the pilot’s seat feeling useless and listening to the comms channels for updates.
The four Marines from the surface entered the hangar via jetpacks, leaving their small gunship floating outside. They landed with a resounding clank, activating their mag-boots and marching towards the bridge as the hangar tech pressurized the room again.
The scene was interrupted when something crashed into the ship, sending the Marines sprawling. Vanbrook watched in horror as one of the Drakmundi infiltrator ships plowed into the hangar, crashing into the Marines by dumb luck. One of the Marines was hit directly and spun off like a ragdoll, slamming into the far wall. They looked to be stuck in a dent of their own making and did not move. The other Marines scattered, knocked around and taken off guard.
The beast soldiers clamored out of their craft and reached out for the armored Marines. One was grabbed by the ankle and repeatedly slammed into the hangar floor. They started fighting back valiantly, but the Drakmundi pressed the advantage they’d earned with their ambush and a second Marine was dead before a point-blank shotgun round to the eye ended one of the beast soldiers.
Vanbrook scrambled down out of the shuttle, his pistol drawn, not willing to sit idly by as the Marines were slaughtered. By the time he got down the ramp and rounded the shuttle to face the enemy, the last surviving beast soldier had crushed the last surviving Marine to the floor, punching their helmet until it caved in and the Marine stopped fighting back.
Vanbrook raised his pistol and fired at the beast. The shot caught the monster on the side of the head, but all this won Vanbrook was a roar and the singular attention of the beast soldier. It turned to him, and he fired again, this time the round impacting directly on the gemstone on the beast’s forehead. Its head snapped back, but again it seemed more angered than injured. It barrelled towards him, and Vanbrook knew this wasn’t going to go his way. He suddenly wished he’d tried harder with Raivyn and a pang of regret swept through him. Pulling back the hammer again, Vanbrook hoped that he’d have time for a third shot, and that it might actually do some good. The beast lunged and he fired, but his shot went wide.
“NO!” screamed a voice from the hangar doorway. Raivyn put all the energy she had left into a single, vicious T-bolt. It tore through the hangar and drilled into the beast’s mind, blowing past its damaged defenses and splintering its mind. The dead beast slammed into Vanbrook, knocking him flat to the ground and skidding them both back along the floor.
Raivyn, eyes wide in fear and disbelief, rushed to his side, followed by the others. Vanbrook was still, flattened beneath the beast soldier. She grabbed at it, trying to tear it off Vanbrook, but couldn’t lift it. Suddenly, it gave way, and she vaguely noticed that D’Jarric and Reclan had grabbed it as well, successfully lifting it off of Van.
Finally free of the beast soldier’s weight, Vanbrook groaned and clicked his mag-boots back onto the hangar floor. He opened his eyes and saw a mass of people standing around him. “Oh, hey, Fang Squad! How are you guys?”
“Van, shut up!” snapped Raivyn, dropping to her knees and helping him sit up. She grabbed his face to check him over. “Are you okay!?”
“Well- I-” said Vanbrook, unsure how to respond to the strangely juxtaposed sentiments. “I’m fine. Or no worse than I was. The Marines, though…”
“Yeah, it’s a similar story across the ship,” said the large Robot, shaking his head. “But with the nine of us working together we cleared out the rest of the beasts.”
“Oh, word just came over the comms,” said the lanky, begoggled Human, holding his hand up to a bulky earpiece he was wearing. “The Drakmundi, they’re retreating! Our pilots are pulling back and letting them go!”
Vanbrook smiled. The battle was over. They’d won. He could rest now. The last thing he remembered seeing as he passed out was the worried look in everyone’s eyes as his body went limp.