Smoke drifted across the battlefield, which was littered with the torn and blasted flesh of vile creatures from beyond space and time. Here and there giant pillbug-esque corpses still burned as the fatty tissue were consumed by flames created by the detonation of low yield high flash battlefield tactical nuclear weapons. The sky was the colored of bruised flesh, purple and red, lit by the fires on the ground reflecting off the low cloud cover that hid the night stars.
Here and there were shards of white armor, now and then a corpse still mostly intact. A four legged armored troop transport slash assault mech moved slowly across the battlefield, the armor slagged on one side to reveal the protective air-gap in between armor layers. It was missing one powerful bolt caster from the left side of its head, the underslung cannon from below the jaw on the same side. It had an ugly looking scab on the side where the internal emergency armor replenishment system had activated when the 'head' armor was breached.
But it still moved across the battlefield, shifting its course slightly now and then to bring one massive foot down on any still twitching life forms.
White armored figures were stacking sandbags, rebuilding the wall that had failed in the final minutes of the attack. One of the armored figure's IFF stated he was a Captain, but he was still helping move sandbags in a long chain. The emplaced guns were being reloaded, the ammunition loaders letting the nano-forges cool and deslush.
It had been close, but close air support from the Navy had pulled victory from the jaws of defeat.
Further back in the encampment, pass the mess tent, pass the medical aid station, between the motorpool and the communications center, the Tactical Operations Command shelter squatted in the churned mud, unobtrusive and dull looking.
Inside the officers conferred with their peers in orbit, with other peers around the planet, all with one singular goal.
To liberate the planet from the Dwellerspawn that were landing in force.
Out back of the TOC, sitting on sandbags around the motorpool, a quartet of white armored troopers sat on sandbags next to their speeder bikes, which bobbled and hummed. One sputtered slightly and the mechanic banged on the side with a wrench, the hover-system evening out before the mechanic went back to trying to fix the forward fixed weapon systems.
"You all right, Tee?" one of the sitting troopers asked.
THX-1138, Tee to his friends, nodded. "Yeah. Didn't think we were going to be," he said honestly.
"First time out of the can and dropped in country is always rocky," another said. His orange shoulder pads had been tossed away and he looked like any other trooper even though his IFF ID'd him as a Senior Sergeant. "You'll be fine, kid."
Tee nodded. He had rapidly come to grips that he might have the knowledge of warfare, battle, tactics, and movement under fire, as well as muscle memory of training, but what he had been Born Whole with and the lessons he'd learned over the last week were two different thing.
The others nodded at the words. They'd all been there. Born Whole in the service of Darth Harmonus and the Harmonous Empire, they'd all gone into their first battle with the knowledge and how to use it, quickly discovering that there was juuuuuust enough difference to make it so that you learned fast or died.
The Senior Sergeant tilted his head slightly, a habit he'd picked up over the last few years that was solely his own and not his Born Whole memories and reflexes. After a moment he nodded, almost to himself, and pinged the group for attention.
"Command thinks they got the squiddies that were bringing these things in, but they want us to take a chrono sniffer and do a sweep for that or psyker readings," the Senior Sergeant said, standing up.
"Pretty sure I fixed it. Looks like bio-acid got in there, melted part of the wiring harness. I swapped the whole thing out," the mechanic said.
"Thanks, Corporal," the Senior Sergeant said. He climbed on his bike and settled down, leaning back slightly and twisting the control, making the power plant roar as the small zero-point fed power to the closed system turbine that generated steady power. He looked at the other three. "Mount up."
Tee nodded, swinging a leg over his speeder bike. They were fast, dangerous, and exhilarating to ride. They required split second reflexes and a higher visual cortex processing rate than normal. He knew his DNA, taken from the Holy 501st in the months following the Glassing of Holy Terra, was standard for speeder bike pilots, but it still felt lucky.
Being Born Whole meant you had memories, knowledge, and the ability to use them.
But being part of the 501st geneline, and being part of Darth Harmonous's forces, did not mean you were born with either no memories or 'shake and bake' memories. Darth Harmonous had spared no expense for his Born Whole System, and Tee had lived an entire life in the virtual reality of the highly expensive Born Whole System. He had had parents, who he could still talk to, friends, most of whom were his fellow troopers, although some were scientists and technicians, that he could still talk to, and had life experiences from growing up in the system.
It was no different than growing up in a Digital Sentience Hashcreche.
Darth Harmonus's Born Whole System even added life experience to a clone's body when they were force grown and bioprinted.
Tee had a scar on his arm from where his little sister had bit him over an argument. A bone-scan would show a bone fusion line from where he had broken his leg after being hit by a car. He had a tattoo just below his belly button of a fish that he got on leave between Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training.
It wasn't the common misconception of 'downloaded reflexes, memories, and knowledge', like so many believed. He had actually lived the training. Had proven he had what it took to run speeder bikes. As a kid he had ran a hover bike till the fenders had fallen off. His reflexes were embedded into his mind and muscles from training and experience.
And his first battle had sunk those reflexes deep into his mind and body, making the final fusion.
He wasn't thinking of any of that as he fell into line, a good ten meters behind the man in front of him and ten meters in front of Corporal DMX-5050, who was pulling up the rear. Instead, he was concentrating on whipping around obstacles as the squad threaded the battlefield, heading out toward the target area.
In a few minutes the squad hit more open terrain, opening up the throttles on their speeder bikes and shifting from a line to a diamond. Normally there was six in a speeder bike squad, but Private KLN-9931 had been injured badly enough he was still in surgery and IVT-4126 was nothing more than scattered chunks of meat and armor shards, his bike exploded on the side of a massive beetle.
His helmet clinked at the Senior Sergeant PGL-8571 opened the chat channel.
"You know, in a way, we're the Resistance or the Rebellion or the Defiant," the Senior Sergeant chuckled.
"Ain't seen no Leia around here," NVW-8767 said.
"Wouldn't mind buttering some space buns, ya know?" GGV-7777 chuckled crudely.
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"No, seriously, we're more like the Resistance then Sheev's old Empire from the old fick-hizzes," the Senior Sergeant said. "Sheev'd be a Lanky for sure, probably some Great Grand Superior Ultra-Super Most High of Highs Above High, but he'd be a Lanky."
"Naw, Lanky's actually kept their shit running for a hundred million years, Sheev got his colon probed by a farm boy, a smuggler, and a walking carpet making him air-tight after something like twenty years," Gee laughed.
That got chuckles.
"Still. We roll in, we overthrow a corrupt system, lock down Imperial Law on the citizens, make sure everyone has the freedom to just... be... you know? No more hoof in the face. Take these poor bastards, for example," Sergeant Peegle said. "Lankys take away their home system, gentle them, strip mine the place. Then the purple guys show up, fry everyone's brains, summon up horror show shit from beyond space and time, then we land AT-AT's and start doing the Terran Monkey Stomp Ballroom Blitz Dance on everyone."
The got chuckles as the group wove around dead carapaces of beetles the size of small buildings that had been caught in the open by the TIE pilots.
"Most of them were against the wall with only a broken off plas butterknife in their hand when we hit the system. In comes us Impies to save the day," Sergeant Peegle laughed.
The group shot across the surface of a lake, sending up a spray of water behind them. Tee kept an eye on his readouts, making sure nothing nasty surfaced above them. They did move around a large patch of algea, the Sergeant having them slow down and toss implogrens into the fibrous mat. The grens tossed up huge plumes of water when they went off, and the speeder bikes raced back off.
A group of refugees huddled around a troop transport waved at the quartet as they zipped by.
They whipped by grain fields, then down a highway through a forest, weaving around destroyed ground vehicles, then whipped through the highway that went through a city. On the other side they slowed down, moving to the side as Imperial Troop Transports went by in the opposite direction.
"Lotsa troopers," Gee mused.
"Big city. Lotsa civvies. Someone's gotta guard them in case the squiddies make another push," Sergeant Peegle said.
"Clone banks gotta be running hot," Corporal Navwa said, watching another set of ITT's go by.
All four speeder bike troopers held up their fists as the ITT's went by, almost crisp looking with their newness.
Finally the last one was by and the NCO swung his bike around.
"Let's get going," he said.
---------
The quartet slowed down and came to a stop, putting their feet down into the churned up mud.
"Yup, Navy boys are right, it's a spawning point," Sergeant Peegle said. The valley was full of mist, covering the entire thing.
"We going in? Looking around?" Tee asked nervously, staring at the mist.
"Hell no," Peegle said. "That's a sucker move. That's some straight up Rebel shit there. You guys take five, stretch, grab a nutripaste squirt."
Tee got down slow, stretching. The constant vibration of the bike had soaked into his arms and legs, almost numbing the joints. He saw the tight beam broadcast antenna raise up on the Sergeant's bike as he slowly did a set of stretches he'd learned in training. The other two enlisted did the same thing, slow steady movements designed to work the fatigue toxins out of the muscle and tighten back up vibration loosened tendons.
Tee took off his helmet, revealing that he had short brown hair, brown skin, and pale green eyes. He grabbed a tube of nutripaste out of his belt, dithered over which sigil to press, and eventually settled on Turkey Surprise. He pressed the icon, waited for the tube to change color as he leaned against his bike and dug out his canteen.
He determined, eating the ration tube, that the surprise part of Turkey Surprise was that it was entirely made from turkey buttholes.
"Tee, come here," Sergeant Peegle said, lifting up a pair of macronoculars.
"Yes, Sergeant," Tee said, slapping his helmet back on and activating the seal. It gave a hiss and his ears popped. By the time he'd gotten over to the NCO his visor was synched up.
"All right, the others, they know how to do this. I know they trained you to call in fire support in school, but I'm gonna have you do it now. Let's burn those reflexes in," the NCO said, handing the set of magnifiers and target designators to Tee.
Tee lifted the macronoculars up, and followed the NCO's instructions. Identify at least three landmarks and keep them in mind before starting. First make sure it was synched up with Naval Fire Support. Then pan the area holding down one button to establish the target region. Then tag all three landmarks. Then, and only then, move the designator to the desired spot.
Normally, geo-sats would provide grid coordinates down to the millimeter, but there weren't any in orbit yet and there was still some time dilation effects going on here and there on the planet.
"OK, click the red. The Navy will fire a standard white light laser," the Sergeant said.
Tee followed instructions and ten seconds later a thick white light stabbed down from orbit.
"Is it where its supposed to be?" the NCO asked.
"Yes, Sergeant," Tee said.
"Kneel down," the NCO said, putting his hand on Tee's helmet and pushing him down even as he followed his own advice.
"OK."
"Click the green three times," the NCO said.
Tee did so.
The sound was immense. The turbolaser flashing down through the sky, impacting right where the white light was touching. There was shrieks as the heat flash-burned everything in the valley and the mist vanished as the heavy vapor was converted to base molecules and burned away.
"TANGO TANGO TANGO!" Navwa called out, yanking his pistol free.
An invisible fist punched him off his bike.
Tee felt something coming at him. He rolled, clumsy in his armor, and came up with his pistol in his hand, the macronoculars dropped. He saw his phasic shielding drop from 100% to 82% and heard the phasic shielding system whine.
Sergeant Peegle was struggling in mid-air, grunting as he strained against something trying to pull his arms and legs out straight. Purple sparks shot out from the top of the pack on his back as his phasic inhibitor overloaded.
Navwa got up on one knee and fired into the air. Once, twice, three times. The first two zipped into the sky.
The third hit something and sparks showered.
The Sergeant's arm tore off and he screamed.
Tee fired at the area the explosion had happened, snapping the trigger back as fast as he could, burning through his ammo pack. Navwa got off two more shots before he was hauled into the air by his leg. Gee was firing, moving toward the bikes, helmetless. Something grabbed him by the neck, pulling him back.
Something gave out and four of the squiddies hovered in mid-air, standing on purple discs of phasic energy, their robes glittering in the lights of the fire that filled the valley.
Gee yelled as something grabbed his arm and began pulling him in two different directions. He felt his hip pop out of the socket. Navwa was grabbed by the helmet, yanked into the air, and slammed against the ground.
All of it took place in less time than it took Tee to inhale and exhale.
His reflexes, his memories, his knowledge didn't cover fighting squid headed phasic weirdos that were hovering thirty feet up and using psyker abilities to rip apart his fellow squad mates.
But his brain insisted combat was combat and the rules were no different here then they were at any other point.
Tee snatched a grenade off his belt, thumbing the trigger and letting it up.
one one thousand
He felt something and rolled again. His shielding dropped to 64%.
two one thousand
He could hear the snarl from something as he chucked the grenade underhanded up in the air.
The return blow knocked him from his feet and as he hit the ground on his back he felt something grab his ankle and yank him into the air as his phasic protection system completely collapsed and went offline.
The implosion grenade went off five feet from the creature's faces slightly less than a second after it had left Tee's hand.
The vortex sucked in flesh and bone, stripping it away, ripping cloth which is sucked in. Then the compressed matter exploded outward.
All four of the troopers hit the ground.
Tee got to his feet in time to see the Sergeant sit up, pulling his medijector out of his belt and stabbing it into the bleeding ruptured socket.
"Don't go into shock, Sergeant," Tee said, moving forward.
Gee and Nawva got to their feet, grabbing their weapons and moving around.
"Too late for that," the NCO chuckled. He tilted his helmet back as if he was looking at the sky as the medijector hissed. "Ahh, that's the stuff."
"Digital Omnimessiah, that was close," Gee said, shaking his head. He walked over to where a few legs were scattered around, poking at the shredded purple flesh with the toe of his boot. "Gonna have to tell command we need to start packing better phasic inhibitors."
Tee walked over and grabbed the Sergeant's arm. The Sergeant held out his hand and Tee helped him to his feet, then handed him his arm.
"Should probably get this back before it stiffens up," the Sergeant lamented. "Aw, man, I'm never gonna hear the end of this."
Tee holstered his pistol and moved over to the macronoculars.
"Gonna tell them scouts need to pack light blaster rifles," the Sergeant said, throwing one leg over his speeder bike. He set his arm in front of him and adjusted it for a moment. "It's two hours back. We better get going."
"You OK to drive?" Gee asked.
"Feeling better already, but go ahead and slave my bike to yours," the NCO said. He looked at Tee. "Let's go, new blood."
Tee nodded, throwing his leg over the bike. It was still vibrating, the engine ready.
"Let's move out," the Sergeant said.
Gee took the lead, the NCO behind him, with Tee next and Navwa pulling drag.
Behind them the valley burned and the local equivalent of flies started landing on the shredded purple flesh that had been scattered on the hillside.