Barten opened his eyes slowly. He relished the cool morning breeze that hinted of dew. The last week had been a lot of work, and not a lot of time to relax at all. Meeks had rung him through the wringer again and again. If it wasn’t for the physical stats that he had raised Barten wasn’t sure that he would been able to make it
In front of him was one of the sights around Charlie Base. Since it wasn’t in the mountains it wasn’t as nice or peaceful as Alpha Base. But it was enough. The meadow that he was looking out over was spotted with the bright colors of wildflowers that swayed in the light wind. He found that he was able to notice the many different insects that were milling around the flowers. The blinking blue light in the corner of his vision told him that he had achieved what the perception bump that he was aiming for.
He sighed before he stood and started back to base. The call to action had been made. Enough pilots and davs had been mustered. And they were ready to destroy the object that took his friends and squadmates from him. More time could have always been better. But they made the most of what they had. And while his new squad didn’t fit as well as his old one. It would serve well enough.
Once Barten was back on base he met with Sergeant Myles and the others. “We’ve been over this enough times that I’m sure that you all have it memorized by now.” Myles said. Then he squinted over at Dane who showed a goofy grin. “But a quick refresher might be needed for some. So here we are.” His laptop was already set up and up on the screen was an image of the object.
“Given what we now suspect of the enemy and their AI capabilities we are going to use squad teamwork and tactics to deal with them one at a time. The goal is to overwhelm them with pressure from multiple fronts. And hope that they don’t suddenly become even more powerful than they already are.
“In the case of dealing with the turned… Don’t give them any quarter that they wouldn’t give you. We don’t know what to expect. They could not even be on the battle lines. And it’s possible that they have been sent somewhere else. But, why not use their familiarity with us to unnerve our soldiers? Fighting a friend or comrade isn’t going to be easy. And until we know if we can save them or not it’s better not to fall to them ourselves. Lest they one day wake and are not able to live with their actions.
“The end goal of this attack is to destroy the object. Research had found 3 spots that might be either important, or count as power sources for the Goliaths. If we are able to destroy all of them it is believed that the entire object should stop functioning. Which will leave us with only mop up as our final task.”
Myles turned to the group once more. “Your new squad name is Foxtrot 6. And you have been assigned as one of the squads attacking the southern of the 3 points. If you manage to destroy one, use your judgment to either push to destroy another or retreat. It is expected that the interior of the object will interfere with long range communications. And that once squads are inside they will only be able to connect to davs suits within a very limited range.” Myles took a deep breath. Then a sip of water. “Any questions?”
Dane shot his hand up into the air. Only the 5 pairs of eyes that rested on him caused him to drop it slowly. “Do we get lunch before we go? I guess really it should be breakfast given the time we are leaving. But meals are important, you know?”
“Are there any mission specific questions?” Myles asked and looked around. Seeing none he spoke again, “Alright. Get your flight suits on and head over to the hangar.” He glanced at Dane who had raised his arm again. “There should be enough time, Dane. To run over to mess and get something quick. Just don’t be late.”
“Sweet!” Dane said and was off, running down the corridors towards the mess hall. Barten didn’t know if he should be happy or sad. He had gotten used to the man’s antics, and they no longer bothered him. As much. And well. Sometimes they still did. Like that time with the lemons- Barten shook his head to clear it of the useless thoughts. There would be time for that later.
The squad didn’t say much as they walked towards the hangar. Everyone knew what this upcoming battle held. Either they would get rid of the Goliaths and their minions. Or they would once again be pushed back. No one wanted to even think about such an event. And Barten tried to keep it out of his mind. As that they might lose their chance to save Smith and the others.
Once changed they got into their dav suits and waited for the call. With a moment to kill Barten called up his status.
—
Kyle Barten
Level 3 Pilot
Titles: Progenitor
Unspent stats: 3
Stats:
Strength: 12
Constitution: 17
Agility: 12
Dexterity: 16
Perception: 18 (new +1)
Psychic Res: 20
Psychic Resonance: 4 (new +3)
Skills
Shooting 1, Piloting 4, Running 2
—
He spent the 3 skill points that he had into Psychic Resonance, bringing it up to 7. Even though he had spent most of his time training when he wasn’t with the squad. He was only able to get another 2 points in the stat. Boosting it like that would give him quite the advantage in the upcoming combat.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
Barten also called up his Class.
—
Pilot 3
4598/5000
—
He was close to another level up. Since stats went up quicker in combat, Barten was anticipating getting another level soon. And while he didn't know what was coming with the level up, it could be something that would help him in a pinch. At least he hoped so.
“Alright, everyone is here and we’ve gotten our orders,” Griff’s voice came over the comms. “We’ll be moving single file until we reach the object’s location.” Griff’s dav stepped forward and slowly walked out of the hangar as Barten and the others followed. Since Barten’s winged dav had the most mobility, he was given the rear guard position. As long as he had some resonance left he would be able to move quickly to help the others or respond to attacks.
They would move to Alpha Base first for rest and refueling. And then onto the object the next day in the early morning light.
***
When the object came into view it appeared different from what Barten remembered. The fallen thorns were still in place. But there were other ones that had been constructed in their place. Just as he wondered what was going to happen with the defense system, 2 groups of davs flew by overhead. They were lightly geared and had been stripped of almost all of their armor. Leaving just the pieces around the cockpit.
Barten held his breath as he watched them fly through the air and into the Goliaths attack range. They scattered a moment before a beam of energy flew through the pace they had just been. As their cannons shot plasma towards the new thorns, beams of light much like the objects came flying out of the mountains. And aside from an unlucky hit on one of the flying davs, the newly built defensive thorns were quickly demolished again.
“Alright, that does it for the defenses,” Griff said over comms. “We’ll charge in now and see what pops out of the woodwork. Remember the teamwork we’ve worked on.”
Their squad split off from the rest. Their goal was a suspected access point that would leave them to the southern reactor site. Only it was quiet as they went. No beetle or millipede types could be seen on the wasteland. “Let's be super careful with this,” Griff said. “Given the lack of defenders I can’t help but have a bad feeling.”
Barten saw something climbing one of the thorns. “Hostile on thorn at 2 o'clock,” he called out. Foxtrot 6 all moved back as a unit and put their guards up for what may come. Several type 3s jumped down from the thorns. Dust flew out from where they impacted the ground. Had they missed seeing the type 3s the resulting ambush could have taken out the squad.
“Did we ever get a good nickname for these by the way?” Dane asked. “We got beetles, and millipedes. Someone shot down daddys though. I really liked that one.” They clashed with the first one. Command quickly added melee training to combat the oversight they had made in the last battle. Dane, and Yin were on point and were equipped for melee. With Dane having a sword and shield. While Yin went with a sword and a pistol version of the plasma cannon. Though dav sized. While Crisp and Griff took the midrange and Barten was in the back, all with plasma cannons.
The type 3 went down quickly to the combined assault of Dane and Yin. Crisp and Griff fired their shots in such a way to keep the pressure off of the front two. Who then moved to engage another. While Barten would circle around trying to get a lucky shot. His first shot was quickly dodged by one, while it winged another.
“Were they reacting slow since they weren’t the target of the shot?” Barten asked. He lined up another shot, where if the first one dodged there would be another on the path to be hit. It went even better than the first time and the type 3 went down when the plasma hit its body. “Confirmed. At least for now.”
“Save your tricks until we need them,” Griff said. “I’d rather have them dumb for longer than felling them quickly at at the start.”
“How about we call them spiders? I think that someone mentioned that before. Though they only have 4 legs instead of 8. And they don’t really look like they have eyes at all. Do spiders also have 8 eyes? Or is it 6? Anyways. I think that I like spiders better.”
Barten kept an eye out as they finished off the last of the type 3s. “I think that I like spider better than any of the others,” Crisp said. “It’s a nice, normal sounding name. All this type business makes it hard to really remember what’s what. If in another location the first type encountered was the millipede, then wouldn’t that be type 1 there? While it’s type 2 here?”
“We’ll call them spiders for now,” Griff said. He had just flanked the spider that Yin was keeping in check with her sword and landed a shot of plasma at the joint between one of the legs and its body. Yin stepped forward and carved a deep rent in the oval body of the spider.
“All squads still outside of the object beware the type 5. It is a humanoid enemy suit that might be a variant of the type 3s. They are dangerous and should be the priority to be neutralized before the type 3s.”
Foxtrot 6 didn't miss a beat as they continued to fight with the type 3s. Barten called out the addition of a few more. “Notice how they did not say to destroy the type 5s?” Yin asked.
“What do you think that means?” Dane asked. “Probably nothing good I bet. If I were a betting man. But I’m not. They don’t pay us enough for that. Also. Until we see one we can’t be certain. But I feel somewhat off calling the type 5s after humans.”
Griff laughed grimly over the comms. “It probably means that those taken from us might be piloting them.”
Barten stopped back from combat and motion to look over the object. “It means that we’ll have a chance to rescue those that were taken.”
“If they let us,” Yin said. “It’s not like we can put them down easy enough.”
There was a blast of static that came through the comms then. Barten winced as he searched for a way to mute the sender. But it slowly faded away. “Well hello you lovely humans!” a voice called out over comms. It was one that Barten was quite familiar with.
“Wait? Conners? I thought that you were dead man? What are you doing calling us from beyond the grave like that!?” Dane asked.
“Not dead. No. Never dead! New and improved is all.” There was a plume of dust that exploded out from one of the thorns and a black, dav sized, humanoid appeared. It looked like someone had taken the type 3, stood it upright and gave it a longer body. And then fixed the four legs to look more like human limbs. “Now. Welcome to our humble home. But, we are sorry. As we are not taking visitors at this time.” One of the type 5 limbs rose up. There were several holes where the fingers should have been. And Black bullets came shooting out of them of them towards Dane.
“Hey! That's not friendly at all,” Dane said. One of the type 3s flanked Dane and sent a spear leg towards him. Only Yin was there with a well placed sword parry. “If you come back from the dead you should always bring gifts. Like snacks or something. Or things that you can only get on the other side.”
“I said that I was never dead!” Conners said and put the type 3s between himself and the squad. “Now. Let's play some. Maybe some of you will get lucky and get to join the Aethergarblind like myself. I can say from personal experience it is quite the honor,” he said and laughed.