Chapter 212: (Ralvex)

Private Second Class Ralvex hurried down the corridor of the massive troop ship TCSFN Crazy Nick Cage, the jumpsuit he was wearing whispering as he hurried to the briefing room. The slight vibration beneath his feet has changed pitch and he could feel the faint plucking at his bone marrow of C+ cannons firing. Once the ship felt like it lurched to the side and he bounced off the wall, barely keeping his balance. He grabbed Kelvak and boosted him up by the back of his jumpsuit.

"Thanks," Kelvak said, hurrying next to him. "I thought we were just going to Belvack-8 for training to integrate with First Cavalry Division.'

"Must have been some enemy in the system," Ralvex said.

"Space Force is really going to town with the big guns," Kelvak said.

The door to the briefing room opened and Ralvex moved in with Kelvak next to him. Instead of everyone sitting at desks and being briefed by officers there was only a single Terran Confederate Space Force Navy ensign waving at them.

"Go to your arming bay," he said. "Hurry up. Second Telkan's dropping as soon as you're ready."

Ralvex and Kelvak stared at each other as they hurried through the far door and rushed down the hallway. The holographic markings on the door listed the units preparing in the drop bays beyond. Kelvak went through the door to 4th Regiment while Ralvex hurried through to 2nd Regiment, from there moving over to the armor racks for 3rd Infantry Brigade, 2nd Scout Battalion, Delta Company, Second Platoon (Mobile Scouts).

Less than half the platoon were locked into their armor, a quarter of the platoon was still running checks or climbing into their armor, the rest were empty. He saw 525 wave at him and noted that the little green mantid was in his own armor. The mantid flashed the icons for 'hurry hurry' above his head and Ralvex nodded.

Ralvex's armor was in a T-pose, the inside of the plate flashing the data stream for 525's maintenance checks. He faced the armor and stepped into it. Left foot, right foot, arms into the sleeves, face into the helmet, and activated the armor.

It closed around him and he swallowed thickly as he was enveloped in darkness. The pressure sleeve inflated and filled with kinetic-gel, the neural jack locked into place and it felt like warm slick fire running down his nerves. He blinked several times in reflex.

The display flickered a couple of times and then streams of code rushed by and stopped.

"DEPLOYMENT LOCKOUT" was on the front. Ralvex doublechecked his implant to ensure he had the lockout override codes. One was locked since 525 was still with him and within communications distance, the other was his half of the code.

--Ride or Die-- 525 said when the protective armor section that made Ralvex look hunchbacked closed over his onboard mantid engineer.

"I'm with you, 525," Ralvex answered. "How long are we..."

The armored moved suddenly, smoothly sliding from the cradle to the deployment system. His visor cleared and he could see his Terran CO's face.

"All right, men. We hit Precursor ships in force when we jumped into the system. Space Force said they've got a new tactic of not bothering to take full control of the system and the orbitals, they instead push their landing forces directly for the planets they want," Captain Smalls said, her face lit by scrolling words on the inside of her own visor. "That means we've got to make planet-side, move to protect the population, and work to secure the planet while Space Forces slam-bangs up here."

She waited a second. Her lips moved, going blurry as the onboard software edited out what she was saying. She came back.

"The Cage is going to do a high speed run past the planet. III Corps will be doing a hard insert. Terran forces via dropship first, since they're SUDS'd up. Second Telkan, we'll be podding it. We've all done this before, and we'll be podding by squads will full combat loadout and triple ordnance loads. When you're on the ground, you know the drill. Reassemble by the numbers," she came back and said.

"You'll be landing under fire. The Digital Omnimessiah protect us all and take those of us who are killed on insertion unto his grace," she said.

"Amen," Ralvex reflexively answered.

--hate this part-- 525 said as the armor bumped.

The pod let him know that he was loading in and he crossed his arms until he felt the pod lock in. He knew he was facing the drop-down armor plate on the side, his hands felt the his weapon, a heavy Mag-Acel autocannon, lock into place and the weapon's smart-systems went live in Ralvex's brain.

His visor cleared up and he saw it was his squad leader. A Terran Space Force Marine Corps Sergeant by the name of Mlixit.

"All right, boys, we're hard dropping. They're going to try to get us less than five miles outside a suburb, but the Cage is engaged already. We'll be going in full stealth, unpowered, till the retros kick in. You've done this in training, so pray, play cards, whatever you want to do. The lockout will be lifted at impact," Sergeant Mlixit said, then cut the feed.

--hate this-- 525 reminded Ralvex.

"I know, but..." before Ralvex could finish it felt like his stomach dropped then flew up into his throat. He could feel the topside thrusters firing, driving the drop-pod into the atmosphere of the planet and guiding it. Within a few seconds he could feel the shudder of the atmosphere thickening up, the pod hammering through the thickening atmosphere.

--ugh ugh ugh ugh--

Ralvex just gritted his teeth and kept swallowing so he didn't vomit against the faceplate.

Something hit the pod hard, sending it spinning, and he faintly heard someone scream loud enough that he could hear it. There was a second impact then silence.

The thrusters are out, he thought.

His squad leader appeared, blood running down her face. She coughed, blood spraying the video camera. "PUNCH OUT! HARD LIGHT CHUTE HALO! OPEN AT TWO HUNDRED METERS! GOOD LUCK, MEN!"

--shitshitshit-- 525 got out.

LOCKOUT LIFTED - SQUAD AUTHORITY flashed on his faceplate.

The armor suddenly went completely live as the side panel in front of him blew off.

He reacted instinctively, hours, days of training kicking in, yanking his autocannon close so it mag-locked to his chest-plate, reaching out with both hands to grab his loudout boxes by the handles and tightening his grip.

The pod was spinning rapidly, the ground and sky flashing by, the only way Ralvex could tell were the lines of energy weapons firing across the ground and the lights of the three cities he could see. Ralvex tabbed up a piece of non-stim gum.

3

He pulled the loadout boxes from their storage brackets. He tabbed up a second piece of gum.

2

525 spun up the grav spike and brought up the stabilization program. He tabbed up a third and final piece of gum.

1

Ralvex managed to get the pieces of gum between his middle teeth, one on each side, and the third piece between his front teeth.

LAUNCH

It fired him out and 525 deployed the grav spike. Ralvex grunted as his jam slammed shut and a giant's fist punched him in the gut hard enough his spine crackled. 525 did the business of orienting him so he was in the X-position and falling.

--51,283 meters and dropping-- 525 said.

A heavy particle beam scorched by, close enough to overload his visor, lighting up the entire world. He saw, for a second, a figure in the X-position get bisected by a particle beam wider then they were. They streaked, edged, and dissolved.

COM-LINK OFFLINE flashed then vanished as another beam shot by and his suit's EM shielding held out but had to cut the antenna out of the linkage.

"525, can you get our commo and HUD online?" Ralvex asked.

--not yet wait till ground pound--

He was still dropping fast, over 200 mph, constantly having to shift his body, like he'd learned in training, to compensate for his two loadout boxes in his hand, his heavy autocannon in his hands, and the creation-engine amplified ammo pack on his back.

He was less aerodynamic than a warsteel brick.

"They're really scrapping down there," Ralvex said, staring at the flashing lights. He could see the smashin coronas of nuclear round hits, the shaped directional nuclear charges going off on impact.

--no omnidirectional. yet--

"what's the ammo-box loadout?" he asked.

--standard hex--

"Start printing out APHEX. Those are Precursors, they're gonna be armored," Ralvex said.

--roger roger-- 525 answered. --sing song--

SENT FROM THE SKIES blared over the speakers and his headphones.

Another particle beam, obviously aimed at the dropships that Ralvex knew the Crazy Nick would be shedding, sliced by close enough that the hair on his arm inside his armor raised up.

JUMPED INTO THE UNKNOWN! kept going.

525 had a real thing for Pre-Combine Era Terran music. Most green mantids did, from what Ralvex had found out.

His armor's scanners came back up with a snap and he could read dozens of dropships, their EM signatures artificially raised to give the drop pods a chance, sleeting into the atmosphere. Two of them were listed as BOLO tank dropships.

"Heavy metal's joining us," Ralvex said.

--too big not fight in city--

For a long second there was nothing but the whistling of wind around him, the dropships were peeling off, leaving a wide corridor for the drop pods. The Crazy Nick Cage was past the drop zone and the Precursor fire was concentrating on the two massive BOLO transports, the Crazy Nick, and the hordes of dropships.

It doesn't do any good to kill the dropships. Most of those humans will step out of the cloning cradles in less than 30 seconds later, he thought to himself. I don't see how they can do it. Dying over and over and over again just to take a few meters of ground.

Then it dawned on him that he was willing to die forever for that few meters of land.

We're Second Telkan, Stand or Die! he thought to himself.

--8322 meters-- 525 warned.

"How bad of a shock?" Ralvex asked.

--hard opening-- 525 said. --10-18 G--

Ralvex swallowed thickly. "I'll black out. Wake me."

--roger roger-- 525 answered. --1831m--

Ralvex bit down on the gum again, making sure it was in his teeth. He'd cracked two molars on his first drop and a Terran told him about the gum trick.

--600m WARNING--

Ralvex closed his eyes and inhaled so he could take the shock, making sure his body was straight up and down, his spine straight, legs straight, arms straight, armor locked.

--400m--

Oh, Digital Omnimessiah, watch over your servant as I bring safety and peace to those in need and...

--DEPLOY DEPLOY DEPLOY-- 525 flashed on the faceshield.

Ralvex didn't see the second one as the hard-light chute deployed, crushing him against the liner, which squeezed to keep the blood going to his brain.

The electric shock, delivered through his linkage, woke him up with a jerk. The cases and his gun had dropped on the lines.

--IMPACT IMPACT IMPACT-- 525 warned.

Ralvex hit, feet first, the grav-spike flaring dark blue light around him, down on one knee, fist against the ground, other fist pulled back, let the grav-spike dump all the kinetic energy. His armor flashed a warning and he felt pain flare in his knee for a second. He looked up, scanning.

Loadout boxes to his right and left, his gun only a few meters ahead.

--you alive--

"I'm OK, thanks, little buddy," Ralvex said, getting to his feet and hustling forward to grab his autocannon. He hit the stud and the support system connected to the smartgunner harness built into his armor. He reached down, grabbed the feeder, and plugged it into the ammo hopper.

"Anyone else make it?" he asked as the gun synched up fully. He had 5,000 rounds of APHEX, gun was in optimal condition, nano-forge at 4.5% heat and 2% slush, targeting system online. In the upper right of his vision a box opened up to show what his weapon was pointed at.

--none close lots chaff--

"Already, let's deploy Tiny Tim and Stampy," he said, moving over to the first loadout box.

Part of him was shuddering, a small part of him that had been a teenager when the Precursors had attacked Telkan-2, but training overrode it all even as a brace of missiles roared by overhead, staying Nap of Earth to avoid Precursor LIDAR. He popped open the first box, kicking it twice to get the door to drop down.

The small little wheeled robot sang a little beeping song as it rolled out of the box. Ralvex undid the catches over the twin 20mm autocannons, the two missile racks, and the mortar launcher. He put his palm on the little robot and ordered it to cook up APHEX 20mm rounds, HEAP missiles, and a mix of recon drones, smoke, chaff, and microprism mortar rounds. It beeped happily and started shivering as the creation engines went to work.

Stampy was a four legged robot that rushed out of the crate, deploying his two head mounted guns. Not quite a FIDO, but a close robot approximation.

"Anyone, yet?" Ralvex asked, looking up. The night sky was lit with streaks and flashes. There was a sudden bright spot as a nCv round hit the atmosphere and exploded with the equivalent of a 150mt nuke going off as the thin wisps of the upper atmosphere compressed to impenetrable density.

His radio clicked and popped in sympathy as it happened twice more.

--no-- 525 said. --no transponders--

"Find out how far off the drop zone we are," he said. He put Stampy in drag and Tiny Tim off to his right and looked around, orienting himself. The heavy energy weapon discharge had screwed up the ionosphere, making his suit's compass have to guess at north on a planet it hadn't calibrated too yet. Still, it was only slightly off.

There had been a good sized city off to his right and another off to his left, but both of them had shown the intricate network of high energy weapon discharge around them so he knew they were defended. There had been a small town to the rear of him, 'south' according to his armor. He ordered his two smart-frame drones to reconfigure for silent hover flight. When they were done, weapons hidden and stealth shielding engaged, he rolled his shoulders inside his armor, hefting his autocannon.

"Pop a whisper drone, 525, let's see if we can get some commo, then fire a second one. I want a scan of that town to the South," Ralvex ordered, turning around and starting to move, slowly getting up to the fifty-mile an hour jog of Telkan heavy mobile infantry scout armor. He could put bursts up to eight miles an hour, but a bad step would leave him tumbling across the ground.

Five minutes and nothing on the whisper drone. The commo bands were absolute hash. Jamming, electronic warfare, Precursor and Confederate signals, and worse. There was a panicked Hesstlin on video screaming that the Precursors had breached the bottom of the new studio skyscraper but she'd stay on the air as long as possible. The feed was full of static but the window had daylight where Ralvex was running through the darkness.

--85 miles off beacon-- 525 said. --launching accountability drone--

"Let them know I'll be defending the town. Grid it out," Ralvex said.

--roger roger--

The feed was starting to come in. A small town, maybe fifty, sixty at the most, buildings, several main streets. Vehicles were moving, it looked like they were trying to flee. There were two local vehicles with flashing lights that Ralvex tagged as possible law enforcement.

It didn't matter that there wasn't anything of note in the town, the Precursors would hit it because it contained living beings they could kill.

They like to strip the flesh off their victims and drape themselves in it, he remembered.

--ok?--

"Yeah, just... memories of the Precursor War," Ralvex said.

--i here now you no worry we got armor we got guns we second telkan marines we bring fun--

Ralvex laughed, slowing down slightly. According to the recon drone only a few hundred meters ahead of him he was coming up on a highway. Vehicles were fleeing in both ways, the cars heading south, coming from the town to the north, were all damaged. An open back cargo truck had huddled Hesstlins inside. They looked at the drone, started screaming and pointing at it, huddling donw.

He recalled his drone and jogged out next to the highway. It was sloped to the south, dug into a high cliff, slowly raising up.

Ralvex looked around.

Perfect.

The people coming from the north, heading south, were yelling at the Hesstlin moving north, urging them to turn around and go back, that 'they're there! they're killing everyone!' and to turn around.

"Fuck," Ralvex bit off the human curse. He let the gun hang from the harness and stepped into traffic, engaging the grav spikes in this boots and putting his hand out to stop a hovercraft driven by a panicked looking Hesstlin. Her eyes were wide, her furry ears were flat, her whiskers were shaking.

STRESS LEVELS AT 82% MEDICAL TREATMENT MAY BE NEEDED flashed inside his visor.

"Turn around. Highway's closed," He said over his loudspeaker.

A male leaned out.

"Get out out of the way! You can't stop us!" he yelled, shaking a fist.

"TERRAN CONFEDERATE MARINE CORPS! TURN YOUR VEHICLE AROUND!" Ralvex bellowed out over the speakers on his armor.

The male slipped back inside as the female turned wheel and turned around.

"Tiny Tim, in the median. Deploy your battle screen generators. Stampy, dig in over there," he ordered. "Deploy drones up the highway, I wanna know when they're coming."

--dismounting hunch-- 525 said. The protective hull opened between his shoulders and 525 climbed up on his shoulder, bringing up ball of swirling data. --deploying Stampy--

Another vehicle tried to push by him, the driver nudging him with the bumper. He leaned down, grabbed the front of the vehicle, and lifted.

"BY ORDER OF THE TERRAN CONFEDERATE MARINE CORPS, TURN YOUR VEHICLE AROUND! ROAD IS CLOSED!" Ralvex ordered. He glanced at the drone feed. It was heading north at a good clip and he could see fire on the horizon. The large town/small city as nearly thirty miles away and it looked like the Precursors were having a good time. So far, it was just Hesstlin vehicles.

--no commo yet. on our own-- 525 said. --no like--

"Me either," he said. He shook his head. "I'm not fully trained for this, I'm only a Private Second Class."

--deploying holodisplays road closed marine corps--

"Good idea," Ralvex said. Tiny Tim beeped a happy tune.

**JOB COMPLETE** showed on his faceshield.

The battle-screens came up with a crack, the shimmering fields crackling. They'd been tuned to have a light blue color with a hexagonal pattern to warn anyone coming close.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" a Hesstlin yelled.

Ralvex turned around, hefting the autocannon so they could see it in the light of their headlights. Both the male behind the controls and the two females with him drew back against their seats.

"MARINE CORPS! TURN AROUND!" he ordered.

The male nodded jerkily, turning into the median and heading back south.

"Hey, soldier boy!" came a yell.

Ralvex turned, expecting more complaints. Instead it was a Hesstlin with a fat face and a hat driving a cargo hauler and two trailers.

"Keep moving south, sir," Ralvex ordered.

"How about I drop a trailer across the road, then about a half mile drop the other, block off the northbound lane?" the guy offered.

"What's the cargo?" Ralvex asked.

"Appliances. Big ones, nice and heavy," the trucker said.

"All right, if you want," Ralvex said. "I can't order or request you do."

The Hesstlin nodded. "Hey, soldier boy, I gotta drop my trailer.

The vehicle moving north saw the trucker back the trailer onto the road and slammed on the brakes. The trucker disconnected the trailer, joined the traffic heading south.

Stampy got dug in and was producing mortar rounds.

The drone showed that the road was empty of moving Hesstlin vehicles for almost five miles. Nothing but burning wreckage and Precursor light vehicles. The drone counted nearly three hundred before it was knocked out of the air by a heavy laser.

--they're coming--

"I know," Ralvex said. "Timmy, set up the battlescreen projectors on the other side of the highway. Don't activate them, then take position on the other side of the highway."

*ROGER! TIMMY HELP*

Ralvex checked his autocannon.

"Get ready."