Combat
Succubus shuddered a little as the torn remains of the shield buffeted the ship like turbulence, however the hell an energy shield produced space turbulence was well beyond Gato. The arrow shaped stealth ship rushed through the hole before it could close on them and made for the planetoid, missile bursts across the station would distract point defense system with all the thrown shrapnel and disguise the drop of Sin and Virtue squads. Bay doors opened and thirty-two marines launched themselves out of Succubus, pressure sealed armor protecting them from the voids cruel conditions. They landed on the arched walkway that connected the base’s massive domes, and immediately got to work with plasma cutters. Escaping atmosphere did half the work of moving the newly made manhole for them, they shoved the freeze-dried bodies away and made a magnetically assisted drop into the corridors.
Wrath was first down as always, he trained his gun’s sight down one side of the hall, while Kavic trained his sights down the other. Nothing but floating frozen bodies. Kavic fired several shots into the door on his side, they didn’t need to go that way and didn’t want new company either. Two men placed an energy seal over the hole they had made while the rest of the team moved into position on either side of the door as Gato kicked the door. A lot of alien construction failed under the Terrans strength, but this one was actually built more solidly than most door. Instead of wasting any thermite on this door Gato used the inhuman power of his advanced biomechanical enhancements and reinforced bones to crack it open.
All of the marines were enhanced in one way or another, but Gato’s new muscles were second in quality only to the captain’s. And she didn’t have the time to train as relentlessly like him. Most deathworlders could out muscle any non-deathworlder, but despite that massive lead they refused to let being ‘only human’ slow them down or ever be the reason they lost a comrade.
In a flurry of movement they pushed through the door, a quick moment of atmospheric venting before near invisible shields patched their entrance hole. The exact moment they burst through the door Virtue team burst through the domes roof, using Sin’s breach as cover for their own breach, and prepared to crack the dome open.
Terrified eight-to-nine feet tall aliens in bright neon vests immediately dropped what they were doing and ran, Wrath squad could have easily shot each and every one of them as they fled, but didn’t. They were killers, but didn’t need to kill everyone in sight to do their job. They fired a few shots over their heads to keep them moving and out of the way.
Temperance and Charity deployed to opposite sides of the dome while Wrath and Lust used biometric detectors to sweep the vicinity. Greed charged the door to the next dome and made a breach and began to pour through.
“Contact, Gaw’s mercs are here and packing heat.” He heard Kavic, Greed lead, call over coms.
Wrath and Lust finished their methodical search before they ran to support Greed. The mercs had quickly erected cover and were raining antitank fire down on them, looks like they finally learned how to deal with Hellworlder marines, took them long enough. Gato loved it when they clashed with Gaw’s crew, nothing made a man feel better than killing slavers. The marines had been very happy to hear that Gaw had taken to defending this station.
Sin team bullied their way through the breach and moved like lightning, refusing to be pinned down by shots that could potentially pierce their armor. Today was going to be fun.
~~~*~~~
Satellite fire slammed into the Astaroth’s port flank, no penetration but defiantly hull warping. These satellites were getting more accurate with time. Aster was a little impressed, some egghead on that rock was likely one hell of a programmer. Narrowing down firing solutions this quickly took skill, especially with Astaroth’s E-warfare playing havoc on sensors.
A satellite’s shields suddenly shut down without warning, and without hesitation the gunnery crew had missiles and cannons trained and fired. In a flash the enemy satellite they designated as 009 was out of commission, with 007 already destroyed that gave the gunnery crew a new target of satellite 008.
“Helmsman, maneuver in optimal fire range of D-sat 008, lets make a solid hole in their net.” She ordered and was obeyed.
~~~*~~~
“You idiot” the chairman screeched at the Icutoo tech, who still couldn’t keep up with his superior’s speech pattern of clicks and whistles “Why did you shut down the shields”
“I,I,I, didn’t sir” he bleated “something made it go into power saver mode”
“Gaw said watch for hackers, why aren’t you focusing on that!”
“I can only do so much sir, I’ve been busy with firing algorithms.”
Tch’ceck’s whole future depended on one incompetent Icutoo keeping that ship busy, and he was failing. He felt a sense of doom rise up within him.
~~~*~~~
Ghost had identified an admin terminal and had pointed Wraith over to it, within a minute he had convinced a single satellite that there was no active space battle. In another he had camera feeds.
“Boss, come here” he called.
Not good, Wraith rarely gave her orders, only when it was really important.
“Look at this” he said pointing at a feed.
Alice squinted until the five strange looking shapes suddenly made sense. “Shit!”
~~~*~~~
“Wrath, you have five armored mining mechs heading your way” Ghost called over the comms. Gato had just torn through a machine gun nest when he got the message
“Recall” he fired back.
“Five armored mechs moving your way, 140° from the breach. Wraith says they look modified, don’t know how” she reported as a lance of plasma hit the crate Gato was one, throwing him off and on to his back. Good thing standard gravity wasn’t worth shit or else that would have hurt.
“Plasma lances!” he called on open comms “Five modified mechs with plasma lances. Clear your areas, don’t get pinned, and try to group them up.” He ordered as he moved before a second lance could fry him.
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~~~*~~~
Gaw was pleased, they had seen the mining mechs and figured out how to weaponize them on their first day here. They were in charge of securing equipment and had used that access to discreetly modify them, and trained with them whenever the station slept.
His lance missed the fearsome warrior in black and gold armor, whose helmet was the terrifying visage of a Terran spirit of the apocalypse, the jaguar. This man Gaw hated in particular, he had charged the creature the last time they fought. It had dropped to all fours and swiped him aside with disdain. And instead of killing him quickly it had left his broken body to recover over many months. He hated this one the most for looking down on him.
The Hellworlder tactics changed, and they had surrounded his armored soldiers. “Good, that made them easier to kill.” He thought as he switched to rapid fire.
~~~*~~~
The machines arms clicked and whirred as a new barrel moved into place and the plasma lance turned into a minigun of wild arcs plasma bolts. Sin team ducked for cover and fell back. Limey was hit head on and knocked back several feet.
“Limey report” Gato shouted into his comm.
“Alive, but cooked in ‘ere, the bursts aren’t isnta-kill. Bloody ‘ell this hurts like a Muslim crucifix”
Wrath leveled a glare at the armored machines. They moved in tandem and made sure never to become separated and get picked off. They were like a column of tanks. How do foot soldiers handle that?
Air support, not anytime soon, Astaroth was still pinned, and the dropships didn’t have bodkins.
Anti-tank guns? No good, theirs were not working.
Something else?
He looked up at the roof and grinned “Patience, patch my helmet feed to your team”
“Done” the gruff gorilla, Kong, answered.
“Katea, if Temperance could get you up there could you bring the roof down?”
A girly voice answered “I dunno, maybe? Yeah I think so. All that ribbing means its steel not titanium. I would need to use all my heat though” she said, ‘heat’ referring to her thermite and explosive reserves.
“Do you need any for your dome?”
“No” Temperance answered “Wraith says it slides open for pickups; we can get ours open without heat”
“Good, you and your squad escort Kate to the roof, we’ll try to keep them grouped up.” He grinned and gave orders to his team.
~~~*~~~
“Captain, we’re losing pressure on reactor three” a technician called.
“Get me Heizer” Aster ordered. Seconds later Heizer’s voice came through her PA “Talk to me Heizer, why have we lost power on three”
“The coolant can’t keep up; it was going to overload.” He shouted; his voice almost overpowered by the sounds of roaring machines.
“What can we do to get power back to the shields?”
“Switch us to nuclear push, those ions are sucking up most of the power”
The captain frowned and ran the numbers, switching to push would limit their maneuverability, and put a time limit on the engagement, they only had so much hydrogen in their bunkers. But maneuverability could be compensated for, and ten minutes worth of fuel was still enough to get the job done, she hoped. “Do it” she ordered, “Get me three as soon as you can Heizer we’ll need it for our escape”
~~~*~~~
“We just got word from the Astaroth, Cap’n says to quit playing grab ass with Gaw and finish up” Patience said over the radio.
“You think I want a handful of Gaw’s spiney ass” Wrath roared over open comms.
Alice couldn’t help herself “Oh come on Gato, I heard they’re spiney in other places too” she said while dangling upside down from one of the domes support struts. She turned to look down on Gato’s position, he couldn’t see her, but he flipped the bird at her general direction.
Alice chuckled to herself, pissing off Gato always made her happy. Switching to a private comm she turned to Kate Maureen the ships demolitions expert, “ETA?”
Kate didn’t respond, Alice knew better than to break her concentration. The girl acted like a typical dumbass marine, and claimed personally to be an airhead. But when it came to her job as the ships explosive expert she was a savant.
“Done” she said as she finished setting up the last charge. “Wrath needs to get them in the center-ish, and it will take a few seconds for the thermite and shaped charges to collapse the dome, but that’s fine cuz we’ll need time to hide. This roof will hit them and us”
“Got it” she said and then switched to an open channel. “Wrath, Kate says we’re good to go. Corral them into the middle, send the signal, and them get your furry ass under cover.”
“Roger, move your team to safety and give me the detonator codes.”
~~~*~~~
Gaw was having fun. He had already gotten three with the plasma bursts, and while they weren’t dead they were badly hurt and easier to target with the lance. He just needed one lucky hit to get them.
Damn Hellworlders were too nimble, all that armor should have slowed them down. It occurred to Graw he should have told that sniveling chairman to turn the artificial gravity up. He and his elite were all in power armor that shielded against high-g’s so it would only affect them.
Something about the raiders tactics changed, suddenly they were on the offensive. No longer scurrying like Grippas. One of his elites got too close to a loader and the jaguar warrior jumped onto his back and stabbed into the shoulder joint, disabling the suit’s plasma lance. Gaw’s vise like hand shot at the warrior as he tried to leap away and caught him by the leg. Gaw tossed him into the center of the storage bay, just like the jaguar warrior had tossed him.
Unsatisfactorily the warrior twisted midair and landed on all fours before rocking back onto his hind feet and engaging a power shield. Only a millisecond before Gaw’s plasma lance slammed into it. “Cover me while I roast this Hellworlder” he ordered as he advanced slowly forward.
The Hellworld warrior retreated back slowly, a mighty warrior reduced to hiding behind a flimsy shield as the prospect of a painful death approached. Graw had made sure the plasma lance didn’t kill instantly, instead the weapon would melt the armor into a solid piece of slag and cook the occupant alive. The victim would writhe, unable to move and die alone.
Light and fire filled Gaw’s eyes as he had the cocky warrior right where he wanted him, his whole vision consumed by the flames.
Graw wasn’t sure what had drawn his attention upwards, maybe a loose spark that didn’t come from his lance. Whatever it was Graw spared a glance from his imminent victory to look up. And saw the fires of thermite go out as explosives placed all around the ceiling’s supportive structure went off.
Gaw realized that he had been played by the Jaguar warrior, he had used himself as bait and lured Gaw and his remaining crew into a trap. He disengaged the plasma lance and tried to retreat backwards, only to barrel into his faithful elite who had been guarding his back. Their stalwart vigil dooming them all.
Gaw only had enough time to think “well, Krell will have his blood in the end” as he saw that the jaguar warrior would be hit by the metal as well
~~~*~~~
Wrath had led and the mechs had followed. Only the lead one had noticed, and had fled the wrong way. They had waited a minute before a collective cheer wrung through the open comms.
“You did it Wrath, all hostiles neutralized” Ghost said into open comms.
Silence.
“Wrath lead report” she ordered. More silence.
His squad immediately jumped into action, all except the injured Limey.
“Medic, Wrath has been harpooned by a girder.” Someone called.
“Whatever you do don’t remove it,” Charity lead, Brevot, called.
She couldn’t see what was going on from her end of things and waited tensely for a few minutes that stretched like hours.
“Call in Succubus, I can stabilize him here, but he needs time under the blade” Charity called. Under the blade was their own code for surgical operations.
Dread filled Alice’s chest as Gato and Limey were lifted aboard the stealth ship followed by Charity. Wrath needed to get to Bones and Doc as fast as possible, and that all depended on how quickly the Astaroth broke through the defense sats’.
~~~*~~~
Astarte had teetered back and forth on whether to remove the nuclear push engines. They had less net kinetic output than ion engines, added to Astaroth’s mass with a second set of engines and the massive amounts of hydrogen they needed. The hydrogen storage and cooling was expensive, and due to the astronomically tiny size of hydrogen atoms the storage lost a small amount due to the atoms slipping through the container walls.
But right now though she was glad to have them, better have and not need, than to need and not have. Though better cooling systems would be infinitely more preferable. As it was the long arcing vectors the Astaroth now needed for maneuvering had slowed down their progress. And she was now wondering if it was about time to install a fleet of nimble stealth fighters, the enemy fire only really hit because of Astaroth’s size and lack of agility. Load them with some javelin or bodkin missiles and they could potentially be effective enough to justify their existence.
That was all thought for later, Aster only had the time to think of extraneous things because the Astaroth had lined up for her last attack run. Concentrated pulse cannon fire and the javelins that came after had annihilated the last satellite that could threaten the Astaroth and Tartarus as they moved in closer to the base.
“Signal Tartarus,” she ordered. Computer techs below here calculated the exact coordinates for a point only 50 meters from the Astaroth’s port flank. And in a blink of an eye the Tartarus appeared next to them. Warp travel often looked a little like teleportatiuon to the naked eye, but really it was just that the Terran eye wasn’t made to perceive objects at FTL speeds. They focused all the Astaroth’s shields on the groups starboard flank, and the Tartarus focused hers on the port side and completed the protective cocoon.
Together they advanced on the base where one dome was sliding open, and another had been blown out completely. Tartarus deployed her small fleet of haulers and began to collect the perfectly assembled crates of valuable alloys, while others stole the expensive chemicals used in the refining process and brought them to the Astaroth’s open bay.
“Incoming message from Succubus” the bridge talker called. “They say they have wounded who need immediate aid. Gato and Limey. Gato’s chest and lung were pierced by a steel beam.”
Dread flooded through captain Astarte “Inform Doctor Bachir and Djani” she said after a pause of grief. Gato had been on the ship for years, and had pulled off many miracles and had saved her life twice now. Losing him would hurt.