Solarian Down

“The Kuru look pretty confident from here.” Thought Reissole. He had been placed on the third floor of a blown out tenement building with two of his men for security. They were far enough in so as not to be seen by the enemy but with a good overlook of the AAA, as Blackwell called it.

The time decided upon came so he transmitted the last checkin. [All units this is the Riddler, are we set?] He could hear his men give a small giggle when he said his “call sign.” They wouldn’t tell him what the joke was and the humans swore it was just a name. BUT he could see the merimment in their eyes.

{Coyote1, set.} | {Coyote2, set.} | {Coyote3, set.} | {Coyote4, set.}

| {Coyote5, set.} | {Badger, set.} | {Snowman, set}

Reissole’s men had been split into bait teams and one hunter team of tanks. The humans and Lenaga’s team would slip in once the bait was taken.”

[Coyote1, go.]

Reissole watched as the first two man missile sled slid to the mouth of an alley. It was several hundred meters from him. The enemy probably chose this spot because of the large flat expanse that surrounded it. They apparently thought a thousand meters from the ruins would provide enough security.

The first salvo of 20 missiles blew the near side troops and equipment into chaos.

[Repeat, Coyote1.]

Reissole didn’t wait to see the second salvo land. [Pull back, Coyote1.]

The first rounds of return fire began peppering the alleyway after the sled had moved.

[Coyote2, target active heavy weapons and go.]

Another sled pulled out and fired a salvo at the anti-vehicular weapons the Kuru were using.

[Coyote2, pull back.]

Reissole was about to call the next sled but paused. The last assault had decimated any heavy weapons on this end of the Kuru encampment. The only enemy fire he could see were their infantry rifles. It took him a moment to realize…

{...Riddler this is Snowman, what’s wrong? Over.”

[Snowman, I think this target is so big that the idiots do not realize they are under attack. Give me a moment.]

[Coyote1, 2 and 3, I want a line of fire down the middle of their AAA. Coyote1 take the North, 2 take the middle and 3 take the South. Return to target and fire.]

He watched as more and more of the enemy were killed across the base. Equipment, men and supplies were burned, destroyed and hurled across the terrain. He had them do it again. And again. Until finally he saw the Kuru organizing into a counter assault.

[Coyotes 1, 2 and 3, go to secondary positions. 4 and 5 get ready.]

{All units this is Snowman, looks like flight teams are running for their birds.}

{(Snowman this is Badger. We are set.)}

[Coyotes, wait until they are in the middle of the field.] Reissole ordered.

He watched as Kuru infantry and vehicles rushed toward the missile sleds. Badger had been placed on the far side of the Kuru Aircraft Holding. He noticed the first two Kuru fighters begin to lift off. Then two Anti-vehicle Heavy Hard-light beams blew them into debris.

[Get ready, Coyotes… FIRE!]

The sleds only had a few salvos left but they expended them all. Reissole watched as over half the Kuru in the open field died in mayhem. He looked up to see five more aircraft blow up before they could move out of the Holding area,

{This is Snowman. We’re moving to our vehicles.}

[All Coyotes, withdraw.]

A few moments later Reissole watched as two of the Kuru craft lifted off, kept low and zipped out of the area. A few of the remaining craft saw this and tried to do the same. Only to be obliterated before they could get twenty meters. Badger team continued to fire on the craft until there were none left. Then moved on to other important portions of the Kuru base before the enemy realized they were there. When it appeared that the Kuru Commander might have a clue. Reissole ordered Badger off the target.

The two Kuru shuttles separated after they cleared the atmosphere of Luthiel. Each one headed for a different battleship of the Kuru fleet. Thankfully the battle for space superiority over Luthiel had ended. This would make their approach much easier.

“Lenny, this isn’t going to be like the pirate ship. There’s just too many orcs between us and the bridge. And these people know how to repel boarders. That means we have to cut our way in.” She and her men nodded in response. “We’ll get the shuttle as close to the ship as we can before exiting it to meet the ship. We’ve got personal thrusters and we’ll tie ourselves together to make sure no one gets lost.” He waited for another nod before continuing. “Once we’re onboard, it will be EXACTLY like the pirate ship.”

That got him some laughs.

“On the ground you told your Bravo team “Go for what you know.” What does that mean?” She asked.

It was his turn to nod. “In this case it means breach, clear the halls, get the Bridge secured and when the time comes start firing.” He smiled “Simple.”

She nodding with a big mocking grin. “Yeah.”

“Ten minutes!” Yelled the pilot.

“Everybody button up!” John yelled.

John watched as everyone slid their visors into place and checked their armor’s seals. When he got the “thumbs up” from all of those onboard, he slid his plate into place and made a communications check. Once that was good he motioned for the teams to get the thrusters ready. The rest began to tether themselves to each other.

The team was tethered in two rows each behind a man near the rear hatch holding a particle thrust engine. The engines were about the size of a small table. They used magnetics to draw space dust in and shoot it out the back at a high rate of speed. They were normally used for doing exterior work on large space vessels.

“Two minutes!” Called the pilot as he set the speed and heading. The shuttle was set to drift passed the battleship and off into space. Lenaga let her breath out. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding it in.

John gave the order to open the rear hatch as the pilot tethered himself in to the end of his squad.

It didn’t feel like two minutes to Lenaga when John yelled, “GO! GO! GO!” And the next thing she knew, she was running along with the rest of them as they jumped out of the back ramp of the shuttle. It took her a moment to remember to grab the feet of the man in front of her. It was when she felt Cailhem grab her ankles that she used her tether to get closer to John and grab his ankles. The Lead men had already engaged their engines.

“Well, that was terrifying.” She commented.

She heard several people laugh.

The trip to the battleship seemed to just drag on. After what seemed like hours, “Five minutes!”

She wasn’t sure who said it. One of the drivers maybe.

“Lenny, you and the twins stay strapped to me when we touch down.” John ordered.

“Understood.” They had discussed that part. The Solarian Army armor came with small gravpads in the feet. That would allow them to stick themselves to the ship’s hull. Her Luthiel combat armor did not.

“Two minutes!”

By this point the battleship appeared to be only a few feet away. Lenaga took a moment to look around. The ship was massive.

“Locking on!”

Lenaga watched as each one of them was pulled in and helped to make contact with the surface of the ship. Her, Daroon and Cailhem were bringing up the rear. So when John’s feet were attached, he left them floating on the tether. The one called “Gambler” was working on the outer door to an escape pod’s socket. They were going to pull the pod, get in the empty cavity and seal the hole behind them. Then they would breach the inner hull. This was going to take a while.

She could see all of the 509th had strapped their Plasma rifles to their backs. She didn’t know what the others normally carried under their right arms. But they all had Heavy Hard-light pistols now. Even John had swapped out Bertha for one. At close range they would penetrate Orc, err KURU armor and they were quiet.

“This sucks.” Daroon commented.

A resounding, “Agreed!” came from twenty other voices followed with laughter.

“OK ladies, we’re venting air from the socket.” Gambler stated. “It’s not a leak so just that the socket was pressurized. Few more minutes and we can pull this pod outta there.”

“What does the socket being pressurized mean?” Lenaga asked.

John faced her. “Nothing. It’s just how they do escape pods.

She heard a laugh from one of them.

“What is it?” John asked.

“Nothin. I was just thinking about Riddler.” Another laugh. “I thought he was gonna pull his hair out when those Orcs didn’t go for it at first.”

There was much more laughter.

“Well, Riddler seems to be a very dignified man... He probably didn’t expect he’d have to explain to them that he just kicked em in the nuts.”

Even Lenaga laughed.

“We’re in.” Gambler stated as he pulled the large circular chunk of metal out of the hull and let it go into space. The size of the pod meant the rest of them had to help pull the thing out of its socket. But soon they had it slipping off into space as well and were moving inside. They cut a large piece of material from inside the socket and laser welded it over the hole. The gravity had kicked in when they entered the socket. Once the hole was filled John unhooked from Lenaga and her men.

“The next part of this mission is the “not so funny” part. Once Gambler opens that inner door we’re in the hall to the Bridge. According to the plans of this vessel it should be a straight shot from this pod/ We have to cross four halls to get there. Hopefully we won’t run unto anyone on the way but for a ship this size…” He was nodding.

“We are going to.” Lenaga finished.

“Yeah.”

“One minute/” Gambler called out.

Lenaga saw all of the men pull their Hard-light pistols. She readied her Heavy repeater and looked to her team to make sure they did the same.

“We’re in.” Gambler said. He pushed the escape pod door open and walked right into a two man maintenance crew for the faulty escape pod.

Lenaga heard the familiar “Click.” “Splat.” “Click.” “Splat.” of a Hard-light weapon.

The team moved out of the socket into a “T” intersection. Gambler and the first four men behind him stepped to the sides. Two to watch the left and right halls. The other two to help put the Kuru and their gear into the empty pod socket. The fifth man through proceeded straight on toward the Bridge. Gambler and the rest fell in behind Cailhem once they closed up the hatch to the socket.

At the next hall the first man hugged the corner and pointed his pistol down the left hall. The second man switched his weapon to his left hand and did the same for the right side hall.

She would have looked to see them fall in as well but a Kuru came out of a doorway ahead of them. “Click.” “Splat.” She saw him go down leaving blood on the walls. The first man stepped over the body and opened the door. “Click.” “Splat.” “Click.” “Splat.” While the second man drug the body into the room.

No one spoke.

They had done this before.

The paratroopers moved steadily on toward the Bridge.

They would fall out to secure hallways and fall back in at the rear. And Lenaga’s place in the queue quickly inched her to the front.

She was grateful when they got to their destination. She could finally do something. “Just open the door and keep moving in as you fire.” John told her. She instantly opened the door the moment her hand hit the handle and stepped in. She shot the first Kuru she saw and moved forward to the next and the next.

“Click.” “Splat.” “Click.” “Splat.”“Click.” “Splat.” “Click.” “Splat.”“Click.” “Splat.” “Click.” “Splat.”“Click.” “Splat.” “Click.” “Splat.”“Click.” “Splat.” “Click.” “Splat.”“Click.” “Splat.”

There was blood over most of the controls. When the last of the unit came in they secured all four doors and began to take over the ship.

“Tommy, whatdya got?” John asked.

“Secondary Bridge in engineering is shut out but this ship has a tertiary in the Captain’s quarters.”

“Can you get it?”

“Gimme a second. Uhh, Gambler? You still got that laser welder?” Tommy was already walking toward an access panel before Gambler could answer.

“Yeah.” He said as he followed Tommy.

Tommy removed the panel and pointed to a metal pipe. “Here and here.”

Gambler removed a one foot section of the pipe that looked to be filled with wiring. “That should do it.”

Tommy had returned to his control panel. “We’re good,” He announced.

“OK! We have twenty minutes! Let’s start getting those fire missions loaded up! No target locks until Zero hour.” John ordered. “Tommy? I want all interior doors locked in the open position if possible.”

“Except for the Bridge doors, you mean.”

“Well, of course I don’t mean the Bridge doors…”

“You said “all...”

“Tommy?

“Bridge doors are a part of…” Tommy made air quotes. “All.”

“Can we not do this now?”

“You’re always throwing words around and sometimes…”

“Tommy, we have elves present, man.”

“Oh. Sorry… Doors are locked open now.”

After the laughter died down. “You think this old bird is gonna last long enough to finish all these fire missions?” Lenaga didn’t know who asked it. But she knew the plan was to target eight nearby Kuru battleships and destroyers.

“It would be nice, Gonzo. But to be honest, we’ve eliminated a veteran Captain and his bridge crew, so I think we’re already ahead of the game.”

Soon the others called out that the missions were set. Now they just had to wait.

The time drug on.

“Alright gentlemen. It’s time. Lock on targets! Open all exterior doors! And fire.”

To Lenaga, the catastrophe taking place in the fleet was nothing compared to the screams. All of the oxygen was suddenly vented into space. Most of them were killed before they ever reached space. Having been beaten to death by the bulkheads of the ship.

Lenaga and her friends had to wait several minutes for the air to finish exiting. The men at the controls yelled out damage reports for the enemy ships they were attacking. They were just opening the Bridge doors when the first shots started coming in from the rest of the Kuru fleet.

“Make your way to the escape pods! That’s all that matters right now!”

Thankfully, all of the crew were dead. Or stuck in the few locked down rooms whose doors were not open like the iffy Kuru system claimed. They ran back to the pods which were one man vessels. Everyone grabbed the first one they came to. Lenaga came to the first available one and jumped in. She paused long enough to see Daroon and Cailhem get into their pods. Then she slammed the door, strapped in and pulled the launch lever. She felt the inertia push her against the straps. The pod accelerated toward the nearest planet. The instrumentation inside the craft was spartan by Luthiel standards. She could see her speed and estimated time to landing but nothing more. She waited, again. When she saw how close she was to landing and that her speed was still too high, she braced herself. The Kuru pod slammed into the ground and she saw stars. It slammed again and she went out.

She had been ripped out of the pod and bound before she knew what was happening. They tore her helmet off and finally her senses started to return. The Kuru had captured her and Daroon. They were laughing about it and almost celebrating as if this was some great victory.

A big dark green Kuru with one eye grabbed her by the chin and leaned in close. “We have much fun wit you, Luthiel.” He snarled.

Then his head disappeared just before the whip crack report of a plasma rifle. His body slouched to the ground as his men turned to face the threat. She could hear them return fire with their giant calibre projectile rifles. But she also heard several plasma burst and saw a few of the Kuru go down. She heard an explosion and looked up. She thought she saw a piece of camouflaged armor flying through the air. The Kuru with the grenade launcher fired again and again.

Lenaga saw Daroon slip his hips through the loop of his arms. His feet were tied but all of the Kuru were looking at the threat or cheering the grenadier. She began to work her arms in front of her as well. Daroon leaped on the back of the nearest Kuru and wrapped his arms around his neck. When the binds they tied him with were across the warriors throat, he pulled back hard.

It takes seven pounds of pressure to crush a man’s throat. The same as the trigger pull on a Colt .45 automatic (M1911A1). But the Kuru were larger, stronger and heartier than Luthiel. So it took eight.

Lenaga could see the soldier firing from a different corner. She watched as several of the Kuru went down, dead and wounded. They fired on the corner but he was gone and popped out from the other side of the building with another burst. She jumped on the back of the nearest Orc and pulled back as hard as she could until she heard his throat crack. The creature went down with a wretched gasping noise. She looked up to see the soldier pop out from another building and drop a few more Orcs. But it looked like one of those large rifle rounds hit him in his right thigh.

She took the dead Orcs knife and cut her bonds. Then the ground shook in a way she hadn’t heard since that pirate ship. She had just cut her feet loose when she looked up and saw John limping for some cover and firing Betty. He was killing them but there were just too many. She watched as he took three rounds in his chest and went down.

Lenaga’s scream was drowned out by the cheers of the orcs.

The sound of her and Daroon opening up with two orc rifles got their attention. Daroon drug her down behind the armored bodies of the dead orcs. Using them for cover as they fired on the trash that shot John. The orcs were running for cover and trying to flank them. Daroon saw Heavy Hard-light beams start ripping through the enemy as well. Soon Cailhem was coming around the corner as they killed the last one.

Lenaga dropped her weapon and ran to John. He was face down and his helmet was gone. She rolled him over. His left forearm was gone. He had three holes in his chest and his left cheek was sheared off. He smiled.

“Hey Lenny…”

“Hey Johnny.” She smiled back and wiped her tears.

And then she saw the light leave his eyes as his body sagged in her arms.

“No.. NO! DON’T GO!!”

“More are coming!” Cailhem yelled. “Click! Click! Click!”

“Lenaga, we have to go!” Daroon yelled. “Bam! Bam! Bam!“

Click! Bam! Click! lenaga Bam! Click! cannot Bam! Click! Bam! lenaga Click! Bam! Click! Bam! Click! plasma rounds Bam! Click! Bam! Click! Bam! thank the mother Click! Bam! Click! Bam! almost here Click! Bam! Click! Bam! Click! Bam! Bam! Click! Bam! Click! Bam! Click! Bam! {She OK?} [Orcs got reinforcements coming.] {Fuck!} [Maybe a company of em]

>Snowman is down… Snowman is down.<

!!!HEY!!!

Someone was shaking her by the collar. She looked up and recognized Tommy.

“He wouldn’t want you dying here! You understand?!”

She nodded.

“Get your shit! We’re gone!”