The Precursors were coming and in force. At their current rate of speed they'd be at the spot where the highway cut up into the ridge in a steep grade in less than thirty minutes. That didn't leave Private Second Class Ralvex, Gunnery Specialist, Second Telkan Marine Division, 2nd Regiment, 3rd Infantry Brigade, 2nd Scout Battalion, Delta Company, Second Platoon (Mobile Scouts), Heavy Weapons Squad, much time to prepare.
Normally he'd have at least his squad, more likely the entire platoon, there to help him set up.
All he had were his two smart-drones and his green mantid engineer, but like the First and Second Telkan Wars had shown, the greenies were a massive force multiplier.
Ralvex brought up a field manual and speed read part of it, skimming to the sections he needed.
"Stampy, build a berm across, on this side of the battle-screens, dig the ditch on the other side, grenade sumps every five meters. Give me a fighting position in the median," he ordered, cocking one wrist to bring up his holoslate and making quick drawings from what he had on the field manual.
**STAMPY HELP**
"Timmy, run up some light mortars, put them here, here, and here, smart-frame connection, print out four sticks each, wet print the payload dry print the exterior," he ordered.
**TIMMY HELP**
--vehicle coming-- 525 said, flashing a picture of what he could see in a small window on the upper left.
It was obviously a LawSec vehicle, the paint job and the flashing lights gave it away. The traffic from the south had cut off and Ralvex hoped it was because no more of the Hesstlin were leaving town and turning back.
"Let them through. Let's see what the locals have to say," Ralvex said.
--incoming transmission whisper drone whisker laser looks BOLO-- 525 said.
"Ralvex here, Second Telkan," he said, opening the channel.
"This is BOLO Cutter, do you need a status report?" the BOLO replied.
"Abbreviated is fine, Cutter, I'm setting up," Ralvex said. He checked the new drone, a high altitude stealth drone using only passive. The Precursors were taking the time to rip apart the vehicles. He swallowed thickly as several of the Precursors ripped open a mass transit bus and started pulling out Hesstlins.
"Am engaged with the enemy at 24% capacity. Combat effectiveness at 99.978% and holding. Am advancing on Precursor vehicle of Jotun class. I am beyond planetary curvature of you and cannot provide direct fire support to your unit," the BOLO said.
Ralvex gave a wry chuckle. "It's just me, Cutter. My unit's drop pods took direct fire and we had to punch out at fifty-kay meters."
"Is there any support I can provide?"
Ralvex thought for a moment, then checked his data. "I'm sending you a topography map. I need area denial munitions in the anti-vehicle range at these locations. If you can send me a supply drop via rocket-sled I need point defense, ammo hopper nano-forge, counter battery capability up to the 60mm mortar range, and smart-frame capable auto-turrets."
There was silence for a second. "Launching VLS, estimated time to deployment is six minutes for FASCAM-AV/T rounds. Packing VLS for support drop."
"Thanks," Ralvex said. "Second Telkan out."
"Cutter, out," the BOLO answered.
The law enforcement vehicle nosed around the front of the trailer and Ralvex stepped in front of it, holding out his hand. Timmy was preparing a mortar pit, scooping up dirt and loading sandbags. The LawSec vehicle stopped and four Hesstlin got out wearing riot control gear. One had a grenade launcher, the other three all had combat rifles.
"Nemarlie high threat response," the one with the grenade launcher said.
Ralvex noticed his armor couldn't find any transponders on their gear that it could recognise.
"Ralvex, Second Telkan Marines, Terran Confederate Space Force," Ralvex said. He looked up the hill. "Get your people into shelters or basements, it's going to get really ugly really soon."
"We came to help," one said. Ralvex's armor had finally found the transponder frequency. It was queried only and encrypted, although 525 had already broken the encryption to find out that the officer was merely labeled HTR-2.
Ralvex shook his head. "You will last less than thirty seconds into the probing attack in that armor with those weapons. That's plasteel riot gear, those are Precursors."
"You can't expect us to just hide in the basement," HTR-3 protested.
"If you want to help, prepare fallback positions with plenty of hard cover. Remember, concealment does not equal cover and that standard Precursor high-v kinetic rounds will penetrate up to a half-meter of plascrete and still be effective," Ralvex said. "Other than that, when, not if, when they get by me, you won't be huddling in the shelters."
"What will we be doing?" HRT-1 asked.
"Fighting the Precursors as they rip open anything less than warsteel to get at your citizens," Ralvex told them bluntly.
Cutter had sent him the packing list of the four incoming resupply missiles. A good amount of weaponry, some screen projectors, smart-frame capable weapon mounts, and two nano-forge ammo hoppers. Ralvex signalled his appreciation even as he stared at the four LawSec.
"They're going to bypass me with air mobile forces and indirect fire while I'm engaged with their ground forces," Ralvex said. "Your people need to be in shelters or fortified basements, since some of the payloads will be micro-drones."
The four officers looked at each other.
"We still think we'd be a help here," HTR-4 said.
Ralvex shook his head, continuing to be blunt like the field manual said. "Only to provide an additional target during the probing attack, after that, you'll be dead. You're bringing plasteel riot control armor into a fight where we're going to be using anti-tank weapons."
Ralvex hefted his autocannon, letting them see the size of the shrouded barrel. "This is a 20mm magnetic acceleration autocannon, it fires 350 rounds a minute of mission configurable variable munitions with a maximum armor assisted effective range of forty-two hundred meters. Right now it's loaded for armor-piercing high explosive which can penetrate up to twenty-two inches of hardened laminated battlesteel composite armor before exploding and overload a two thousand watt battlescreen in less than three seconds of direct fire."
The four LawSec officers stepped back slightly.
"I could shoot through all four of you, lengthwise down your vehicle, and blow a two meter wide crater in the highway behind you with a single round," Ralvex continued. "Not even your vehicles ceramic induction engine has enough mass to trigger the HEX or slow down the AP."
He gave them a moment to digest it. Behind him, to the north, a long rippling crack echoed through the night as the FASCAM rounds deployed anti-vehicle self-healing minefields across five miles of highway in a five mile radius. 525 hooked the Big Mommas from each of the fields into Ralvex's tiny Battle Tactical Net when they reported in.
Twenty-five in all. Each in charge of hundreds of little scuttling mines.
"The Precursor vehicles coming mount much larger weapons in much more amounts," Ralvex said.
"You can't win," HTR-2 said softly.
"But I might be able to keep us from losing," Ralvex said. "You need to clear the area, I've got an automated supply drop coming in."
The officers piled into their vehicle with unseemly haste, turning off their flashing light and whirring away, back toward the town.
--they never listen-- 525 said.
"Nope," Ralvex replied. He looked around. The horizon was glowing to the north, two points to the north-east, and one point to the north-west. In several spots hair-thin bright streaks flickered down from the night sky or up into the air as the battle for air superiority continued.
--drop in five seconds--
Ralvex just chinned the smiley icon and waited.
The rockets came in low, running on anti-grav, only making a hum as they set down. The front third cracked open to reveal crates that were neatly packed.
Ralvex set to work, keeping an eye on the clock and the drone feed. The Precursors had slowed down, no more traffic was coming and Tiny Tim had activated the battle-screen across the northbound lane and had set up additional screens so that the front screens meshed with the cliff face. 525 set up integrity fields for the cliff face behind them so that a lucky hit didn't bring a couple thousand tons of rocks down on the position.
Ralvex got the point defense, air defense, and counter-battery systems up first, starting with the six sensor packs. Tiny Tim and Stampy placed the ammo-hoppers and warmed them up, Stampy carrying boxes of 20mm rounds to various points behind the berm.
The Precursors were only four miles out when Ralvex saw the point defense systems go live and start firing, the variable frequency pulse lasers firing from the rotating barrels of the Templar Air Defense Systems. The sky lit up but a quick check of his HUD showed Ralvex that less than 75% of the munitions were being intercepted.
He wished, oh how he wished, that he could have prioritized the ones heading for the town. While that was the noble thing to do, that would mean his position would get pounded while he was still setting up and that would make it easier for the Precursors to get through him.
525 was busy ripping apart the missiles. Most of it went into the mass-hopper for the ammo-hopper's creation engines, but the green mantid was pulling parts to attach to the auto-turrets.
"Wish the squad was here," Ralvex sighed.
--me2--
"We're probably going to die here."
--yes--
"Put on some classical music. Sabaton, if you will," Ralvex said, kneeling down and connecting the thick power lead from the field combat reactor to the secondary battle-screen projectors.
"CRACK OF THE LIGHTNING SPLITTING THE GROUND!" roared out over the speakers on 525 and Ralvex's suits.
Clouds had gathered and rain started, making the battle-screen and integrity fields spit and spark, the rain full of carbonized metal and ash.
"THUNDER IS SOUNDING, ARTILLERY POUNDING!"
Cutter fired an artillery barrage, halting the Precursor advance momentarily as the surviving light vehicles waited for their bigger cousins.
--use screamers?--
"No, I hate those things. Something about them creeps me out," Ralvex said, shaking his head. The little robots had a circular saw front mounted weapon and moved underground at rapid speed. They were called 'screamers' due to the sound the sawblade made underground. They would jump up at hit their target, shredding it, ripping through it in a handful of second, before vanishing underground.
The extra time gave Ralvex time to fortify his position more. The smart-frame guided guns had interlocking fields of fire, multiple reloads, and the target profiles were loading up nicely since the Precursors hadn't seen the small stealth drone circling them.
Looking at another field manual he spotted another situation that was applicable.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
"Cutter, this is Ralvex, do you read?" he said.
"Cutter here. Engaged in combat," the BOLO answered.
Ralvex didn't mind the terse reply. He figured that when it all came apart on him he'd sound terse too.
"Can you lay a thick FASCAM minefield along these coordinates?" Ralvex asked.
"Roger. Three minutes. Cutter, out," the huge sentient tank answered.
"Timmy, Stampy, let's go," he said, moving off to the right.
--you sure?--
"No. Clamshell up, I'll need you to keep an eye on the smart-frame weaponry. We've got enough to make it look like a whole company of locals dug in. The fight by wire system won't have any EM leakage, so the Clankers shouldn't be able to catch on," Ralvex said. He hefted the autocannon and then nudged the power to the harness. The powered assist and graviton generators came on and the autocannon suddenly felt 'alive' in his hands.
If doctrine is right, they'll hit the minefield and stop once one of the big-boys get gutted. They'll send the lighter ones in to probe or they'll just roll in the heavies or start clearing it with explosives. Either way will be my chance, he thought.
--systems online--
"As soon as they hit the minefield, wait for them to group up a little, then hit them with the 60mm's and the snub-nose 155's Cutter sent us," Ralvex said, putting on a boost of speed and sprinting five miles in as many minutes. He stopped, catching his breath, feeling an ache in his shoulders.
I've worn this armor for hours and never been this sore before, he thought to himself.
"Cutter, you read?" he asked.
"Engaged with the Enemy," was the reply.
"Can you still provide VLS or artillery?"
"Roger. File fire plan," the BOLO answered.
Ralvex figured the massive war machine was probably heavily involved in the fighting a few hundred miles away. The entire sky was lit up past the horizon and it looked like a particularly heavy rainstorm. He knelt down, drew up the fireplan and fired it. Cutter just provided a thumbs-up emoji.
--theyll be boxed make them mad--
"It ain't about us," Ralvex shrugged.
--ride or die--
Ralvex gave Stampy and Timmy orders then knelt down as the two warbots crouched down and waited while Ralvex watched the stealth drones data. The Precursors had picked up speed, the bigger ones falling behind the smaller ones.
"Is it just me or do they look weird?" Ralvex asked.
525 highlighted a bunch of of them then flicked through the database, coming up with no profile matches.
"Load the data into a long flight high altitude drone, get it up there and have it watch for any friendly ships they can offload the data to. Send Cutter the data too, no response needed," Ralvex said, tabbing up a piece of stim gum and chewing it.
--roger roger--
It took only another few minutes for the lead Precursor vehicles to hit the minefield. They rushed forward but the Big Mommas were spawning new burrowing and crab-mines as fast as they were going off. Ralvex told Big Momma sto sweep around twenty of so high speed crab-mines and wait for the big ones.
The Big Mommas sounded almost offended at the suggestion and pinged that they'd already prepositioned nearly two hundred mines a mile toward the city, far enough that the lead heavy Precursor vehicles were already passing them.
The stim-gum was already clearing his head, pushing the pain away, as Ralvex hefted the heavy autocannon, ran one last system check, and increased the size of his smartgun link window.
The first of the heavy clankers was weird looking. Dozens of centipede legs in the front and heavy tracks in the back, what looked like jaws covered with more centipede legs in the front, and huge multifaceted eyes.
--not mantid make. not type one. not evil cow make not type two--
"Designate Type Four," he said, aiming at the exposed running gear for the treads. It was more than just disabling the running gear but according to his Terran instructors many species didn't have heavy armor between the running gear and the interior spaces of the tank like Terran tanks did.
Could be because Terrans have been slam-banging tanks since they invented the wheel, Ralvex snorted to himself.
The Precursors were bunched up, the lighter units trying to forge a trail across only to have the burrowing mines replace the detonated ones within seconds. The Big Mommas had layered the mines eight deep, running their creation engine nano-forges till they were forced to pop thermal cores to cool down in order to make the multilayered self-healing minefield.
Ralvex pulled a microprism grenade from his harness and chucked it out, then grabbed a chaff grenade and chucked it. Fog bloomed out from the microprism grenade as water droplet suspended micro-crystals filled the air. The chaff, microscopically thin strips of metallized mylar, almost unchanged since humans had developed it thousand of years prior, all cut to specific wavelengths blew out into the air.
Ralvex repeated it twice more, then ordered his nanoforge to slow-print HEDP grenades.
Sure, Precursor sensors would report nothing but a solid block, but that meant they'd know where he is.
"Send the signal and let's have some classical music," Ralvex said.
"FAR FROM THEIR LAND AS THEY MADE THEIR STAND!" rang out over the speakers, echoing off the cliff face to the south, almost hiding the roar of the autocannon as Ralvex squeezed the firing grip. He'd dialed it back to 250 rounds a minute, but still the autocannon roared as the harness held it still. The heavy APHEX 20mm shells hit the running gear, shattering it, then slammed into the Precursor battlesteel armor.
The weapon was made to pierce laminate armor, the Precursors used solid battlesteel.
An explosion lit up the night as the HEX component of the Armor Piercing High Explosive rounds found something good, the entire back of the Precursor exploded outward, the shattered armor scything away the smaller ones around it as the fusion reactor went off.
Almost as one the entire group of Precursor vehicles turned toward him.
"THEY STOOD STRONG AND THE LEGEND STILL LIVES ON!" rang out.
Ralvex was hammering at running gear of the largest of the Precursor machines, shattering it. One particularly energetic round bounced slightly off a foot thick battlesteel axle and got up underneath the skirts, bouncing around in a shower of sparks as it tumbled and shattered everything it hit till it blew up toward the back, blowing the skirt away.
The autoturrets back at the fighting position Ralvex had abandoned cut loose, the smart frames adjusting their fire plans based on the targeting data from the drone. A half dozen heavy weapons slammed kinetic rounds into the suddenly exposed sides of the Precursor vehicles. The mortars began chugging and the 155mm artillery tubes went to slow autofire at a round every ten seconds. The rockets that Ralvex set up fired, screaming over the battlefield to deploy hundreds of tiny little propeller winged computers that were little more than a RAM chip, a CPU, and a commo circuit. They detonated with an EM pulse.
Ralvex knew that the invisible EW battlefield was now full of feral half-baked warboi hashes looking for any chink or crack in the Precursor armor.
The FASCAM (FAmily of SCatterable Mines) systems fired by Cutter deployed with a rippling crack as the massive 11" missiles dropped submunitions all over the rear ranks and behind the Precursors, cutting them off from retreating and blowing up Precursors with too thin topside armor.
--they mad--
"Yeah," Ralvex said, watching as the microprism clouds lit up as lasers hit and the amplified light was split into thousands of different wavelengths by the machined microprisms. His whole body was shaking as he clamped down on the trigger and hosed another vehicle that had jumped up into the air, anti-grav pods deploying out the side. The heavy rounds punched into the vehicle and it exploded in mid-air, crashing to the ground and exploding.
Cutter's second wave of FASCAMs exploded in front Ralvex, who managed to avoid recoiling or flinching only by gritting his teeth on his gum and falling back on his training. The big BOLO dropped the ordnance right where he'd been asked to.
From the Precursors to only ten feet in front of Ralvex.
Ralvex could tell that the Precursors weren't sure what to do by the way they paused for a moment. He used that time to rake three vehicles trying to get airborne out of the sky, his smartlink holding fire as he traversed the weapon between them even though his hand was tight around the firing grip.
One of the big vehicles suddenly started ramming another, opening up on the nearest ones with its own weapons. A half dozen smaller ones leapt on a bigger one, tearing at it with their claws.
Warbois found the vulnerability, shoulda updated your OS, went through his mind.
The vehicles were shooting back at the emplacement he had left behind, the battle-screens flaring to life and dimming but he wasn't worried, 525 would let him know if there was any problems. Two larger ones tried to turn around, got ten feet, and hit mines.
**NOW?** Timmy asked.
"Not yet," Ralvex grunted, switching fire to a Precursor the size of a semi-trailer. The heavy rounds slammed through the armor by the fifth shot, hitting the same point repeatedly, digging deeper each hit, until the fifth shot punched through the thin battlesteel at the bottom of the crater and exploded inside. The Precursor hunched slightly and exploded, breaking in half.
The mist went green as a high wattage particle beam hit it.
##NOW?## Big Momma #3 asked.
"Wait for it..." Ralvex said. The Precursors were turning toward him, probing the ground in front of them with explosives. Several fired rockets that lost lock and detonated too early or off to the side.
--they mad-- 525 repeated. --real mad--
"THEY WOULD NEVER COMPLY THEY WOULD RATHER DIE!" rang out.
The vehicles lunged toward him, ignoring their casualties, attempting to swarm the thinly layered mine field.
"NOW!" Ralvex yelled over the link.
The scuttle-mines jumped up, shaking off the dirt, and ran forward on their spider legs, quickly accelerating to seventy miles an hour as they chose targets. There wasn't any profile recognition to pull priority or targeting from so they just paid attention to Big Momma's processing.
Tiny Tim shivered, huddled down, and opened fire with the twin-linked autocannons, running them at the full 800 rounds a minute. The world erupted with a BRAAAAAAP! as the little dog-brain AI giggled in glee and swept the four to one tracers across the Precursors.
It beeped a little tune that was lost in the roar of classical music as it fired off it's 66m HEAP missiles and 40mm chaff, smoke, microprism, and thermal masking grenades.
Stampy deployed his 80mm cannon and shifted, using its legs more as stabilization outriggers, and fired. The little 10mm rounds 'pepper sprayed' the Precursor machines and were almost comical when the cannon detonated a 25 kiloton nuclear blast, compressed it, and vomited it from the barrel as a 'slug' of ravening energy that hit the largest of the remaining Precursors.
Stampy carried his own mini-hellbore.
The little mines jumped on the Precursor vehicles, scrambled up to the top, squatted while broadcasting happy chirps and clicks, and went off. Explosively forged penetrators drove deep into the vehicles by the dozens.
More vehicles were firing at each other even as Ralvex picked off any who looked like they had made a decision. His autocannon's heat was well within tolerance and his ammo-nano-forge was only running at 45% to keep up with his tightly controlled bursts.
If you are properly prepared and follow your training and doctrine, the fight will seem almost too easy, Ralvex heard the voice of the Terran instructor. Screw it up, and you'll be lucky to survive. Don't think because Vuxten fought his way out of some of those fights you can too. You're not Vuxten. Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
The Precursors tried to respond to what their sensors, experience, and data was telling them was a concentrated ambush by at least a division of enemy troops. So far the only local units that had put up even a tenth of that much firepower and resistance were concentrated around a handful of military bases that still fought on despite suffering orbital kinetic strikes.
Enemy forces that had made landing were putting sporadic but highly effective defenses. The six massive armored vehicles the size of a stadium were destroying any forces that they found and were moving across the continents to come to the aid of the cities.
The group on the ground, that were trying to follow the highway to pursue those who had fled the city, were now trapped in a box of surrounding minefields taking fire from two sides. To top it off, attack programs, something never seen before, were ripping through the basic security and shredding into the systems to take over key systems and attack the Precursors themselves while howling and gibbering with insane glee.
Ralvex let off the trigger and ran to the right, putting twenty meters between him and Stampy while Tiny Tim rolled twenty meters in the opposite direction while Stampy, who's weapon was line of sight, backed off fifty meters.
Explosions lit up the night seconds after they'd repositioned and Ralvex knew the Precursors had made their decision.
"Sing for us, 525," Ralvex said softly.
The strains of music floated through the night. The Precursors vehicles dedicated code strands to ensuring that it wasn't some type of attack, encoded battle orders, or communication.
The Precursors rushed foward, legs clattering, wheels squeaking, hoverpods humming, tracks clattering.
"Hooooooold," Ralvex said, tabbing another piece of gum. The scamper-mines were running behind the Precursor vehicles in a swarm a hundred deep, streaming apart to target seperate vehicles. The mortars and the two 155 snubnose went quiet as their bases rotated on bearings.
The Precursors were still firing at the fighting position, obviously hoping to get out of the angle of the interlocked fields of fire.
"Hoooooold," Ralvex repeated, moving the barrel of his autocannon back and forth and letting it cool while the graviton generators bled off the stored kinetic energy.
They were within a half mile.
"LET 'EM HAVE IT!" Ralvex yelled, squeezing the trigger.
"ACROSS THE BATTLEFRONT THE SOUNDS OF CONFLICT!" roared out from the speakers, the female singer's voice slicing through the roar of the guns like a scalpel.
The WAPOOM! of Stampy's cannon blew up a torus of dust around the little robot. Tiny Tim beeped along with the classical song as it cut loose with its cannons.
In the town of Nemarlie, behind Ralvex, the twelve police officers that made up a quarter of the police force were garbed in riot control armor and crouched down behind their vehicles. Behind them multiple buildings were on fire, even more had collapsed under the pounding of artillery, but the fire fighters were getting it under control.
Just past Strebble's Drop the night was flashing with energy weapons and was rocked with explosions.
Two of the officers, in High Threat Response Riot armor looked at each other with fear in their eyes, but shame filled relief too.
"You'd last thirty seconds into the probing attack..."
-----------------
Precursor Autonomous War Machines in strength on planet. Vehicle profile and types are of unknown types and capability. Resistance to standard EW packages is extremely low. Armor is standard non-laminated unrolled battlesteel with no sign of reactive armor packages and little to no point defense systems.
Are designated Type IV Precursor AWM.
Second Telkan casualties are estimated at 11% due to heavy ground fire during drop. III Corps casualties are at 132% but are now at 100% deployment on planetside and ordering recall and redeployment of forces to protect cities.
Local non-Terran forces have taken extreme casualties and are effectively destroyed. Local Terran forces are holding at operating bases and have suffered total of 3% casualties. Local communications net is collapsed.
Fighting is heavy. Many units out of contact and scattered. Type-IV use heavier jamming and communications interruption than previously encountered and recorded AWM systems.
At this time priority is being put on successful rallying of planetside units prior to defense of civilian areas.
III CORPS
------------------
ALL UNITS GO TO LOCAL COMMAND! RALLY POINTS TO BE DETERMINED! TAKE AND HOLD FIGHTING POSITIONS UNTIL FORCED TO MANEUVER! LINK UP WITH III CORPS FORCES WHEN AVAILABLE!
WE STAND AND FIGHT!
SECOND TELKAN MARINES (SCOUT)
----------------
Precursor forces in system despite distance from Long Dark. Civilian estimates that Precursors arrived in system a mere nine hours prior to Task Force Tiamat. PAWM forces arrived via jumpspace and made immediately for planet-fall and were intercepted by TF Tiamat via hyperspace insertion.
Casualties were immediate. No mission killed vessels as of this writing, however all ships have taken hull and armor damage. Combat devolved to local melee style attacks. PAWM deployed hunter-killer torchships immediately and moved to engage at extremely close range.
Ground fire was heavier than previously encountered. Vehicle and ship types do not match previously encountered PAWM, including weapon systems. nCv cannons are of lighter caliber and terminal velocity. Ship sizes are notably smaller with no Harvester Class vessels. Weapon types are of unknown configuration.
Included is imaging of enemy vessels.
Note space dust and other signs of age.
Forward all data to CONFEDMILINT.
FIRSTEST WIT DA MOSTEST!
--Admiral Karen Grwarga Thennis, Commander, Task Force Tiamat.