Chapter 747: The Inheritor's War

Chapter 747: The Inheritor's War

"Ignorance you can cure with a book, stupid takes a shotgun and a shovel." Anonymous Age of Paranoia scholar.

"Sign up to be a Citizen today at the nearest Confederate Recruiting Center! Non-Military jobs are a priority! Get free sash badges just for showing up! Earn achievements and gamertags! Gain the coveted 'Citizen' tag and receive multiple lifetime bonuses!" - Lanaktallan Space Citizen Recruitment Advertisement, Late Second Precursor War

"There are jobs only YOU can do! From mail delivery to driving street sweepers to in-person comlink incoming call answering! Do your part for your community, your world, your star nation, and your people! GUARANTEED SASH DECORATIONS!" - Sign outside of Citizen Recruiting Office

"Service guarantees Citizenship!"

Staff Sergeant Undrat stood ready in the drop pod. He could feel the thrumming of the hyperdrive engines driving the massive troopship "I Got What You Need, Baby!" through the lower hyperspace bands. His stomach twisted slightly from the weird feeling of water rushing through him but he closed his eyes and recited his mantras.

When he opened his eyes he did a quick visual observation of his HUD. Weapon M318 20mm autocannon, wireless link OK, ammo at full, slush at 6%, heat at 3%, usable condition. Armor: MXR-821 Heavy Infantry Assault Suit, neural jack OK, ammunition at 100%, slush at 5%, heat at 4%, armor integrity at 100%, all systems OK.

He was in a drop pod, ready to be fired through grav drivers at the planet for rapid insertion. The pod was heavily armored enough that it could even survive a C+ cannon hit that destroyed the Needy Baby and the onboard engines would get them to a planet within a few days, long before life support in the suits failed.

He knew his job but he opened the file and watched the briefing again, looking at the topological maps as well as the initial operational plans.

It was good to make sure that one knew all the details they were cleared to know about.

He noticed a creek on the map that did not seem to be accounted for on the map and pinged his Company Executive Officer as well as the Operations Officer with a cut-out of the map section.

Before he could get an answer the ship dropped out of hyperspace.

Undrat's stomach clenched and dropped at the same time and he could feel the Needy Baby rolling in space, reorienting.

The engines fired off, filling his vision with sparkles, and the microjump made Undrat feel like there were three or four copies of himself stretched out that took a second to catch up.

Immediately the ship started shuddering like it was being pounded on by jackhammers.

"Heavy Weapon Section, Third Platoon, sound off," Undrat ordered over his NCO command channel.

All twenty-six men of the two thirteen man squads verbally checked in.

Right afterwards there was a hard blow to the ship that made the entire thing shudder.

"DISMOUNT DISMOUNT DISMOUNT!" the order flashed in his vision right before the doors to the droppod dropped down and the restraints released.

The pod bay was massive, housing two thousand pods, each pod surrounded by fire grav-rails and an iris beneath the pod. At the far side were the grav-plate acceleration strips to fire the strikers toward the planet. Past the strikers, which were fully loaded and waiting for deployment in a risky maneuver, were massive doors.

"What is transpiring?" Undrat asked Sergeant First Class Kwradwark.

"Unknown. Orders from the battle bridge," the Platoon Sergeant said. "Stay alert."

"Roger," Undrat said. He clicked over to his two squads. "Stay alert, men."Rêạd new chapters at novelhall.com

Captain Kelly Logan Iltwek suddenly broke into the channel. "Recycle all ammunition, fab up copper jacketed lead core frangible ball rounds with bronze casing contained chemical propellant only, four to one red tracer mix. Depower all hypervelocity systems," the CO ordered, her voice tight. "Deploy chamber gas pressure modules."

Following that was a digital note for each weapon in Echo Company's inventory max cyclic rate. Madame Three-Eighteen was limited to ninety rounds a minute firing rate, which made Undrat nod. Vacuum caused difficulties with heat dispersion. The casings and the low rate of fire would keep her heat levels down to manageable levels.

All according to doctrine.

Undrat heard his platoon leader answer affirmative, and gave the order to his own men automatically. The gas pressure module would ensure proper heat dispersal as well as allow the chemical propellant to function.

Shipboard combat munitions, Undrat thought to himself. He had read that Field Manual six month ago and sometimes still mulled over the knowledge it had contained.

He requested permission and received it, then forwarded the pertinent sections of the FM to his two squads. He knew the other Section Sergeants would be doing the same thing. Each of his men signaled receipt.

"To the front, doubletime, two rank serrated firing line!" Captain Iltwek ordered, the line appearing in Undrat's HUD. "Ready weapons!"

Undrat jogged forward, leading the way, his two squads behind him. They moved in front of the strikers, leaving a large enough gap for the noseguns to fire, and faced the huge doors at the far side.

Undrat saw the sparkling blue of the permeable atmosphere and integrity screen come on-line.

The whole bay had the razor-sharp clarity of vacuum and Undrat nodded. Confederate Naval regulations stated that all ships with the possibility of combat were to have the atmosphere pumped out and all crew be in armored vacsuit.

Undrat stood between the two heavy weapons squads, waiting.

The vibrations through the floor were getting heavier.

ALL CREW - PREPARE TO REPEL BOARDERS appeared in his vision with the icon for the ship's Battle Bridge and the ship's captain.

The doors shuddered and Undrat could feel it through the floor.

Claws punched through the gap in dozens of places.

GUNS FREE AT BAY CHIEF DISCRETION appeared in his vision, again, signed from the battle bridge.

"Men, deploy guns," the CO of Echo Company ordered.

The claws bent so that half were touching the lower half of the door, half the upper part of the door.

Undrat and his men lowered their M318 20mm autocannons.

The vibration picked up and Undrat knew whatever it was was trying to open the two meter thick doors.

GUNS FREE! appeared with the icon of the Deployment Bay 17 Chief Operations Officer.

A slight gap appeared between the doors and what looked like large purple and white tongues pushed into the door, licking the inside of the door, leaving behind bubbling trails of slime.

Undrat tagged the tongues and forwarded it to his two squads.

"Reconfigure your weapons to the attached file's specifications. Mantid engineers, grav-lock boots for external hull movement. Check your cutting bars. Navy has its hands busy, it's up to us to clear the hull," the Major stated, her voice clear and steady and slightly musical.

Undrat enjoyed the accent most Rigellians possessed.

"Anything we can fire isn't going to get through the Needy Baby's armored hull, but no antimatter. Each Section Sergeant will be operating under your own authority. Route any orders through me for archival and after action report examination," the Major said.

A line appeared on Undrat's HUD.

"Each of you Section Sergeants will be moving to a designated sally port and assigned a hull area to clear and keep clear. You may engage any spaceborne targets up to a range of ten kilometers. Additional tasks may come in from Naval Ship Combat Control."

"Roger, sir," Undrat said.

He followed the line, ending up near an external hatch where four armored Naval ratings were waiting.

"Beyond this is nothing but space and hull plating!" one of the ratings yelled out.

Undrat noted that the rating's helmet was dented.

"You have a head injury. Seek medical attention," Undrat ordered the Navy sailor, pointing at his helmet.

"He will once you guys are out," another said. A third revved his cutting bar, which Undrat noted was smeared with ichor. "If you lose connection with the hull plating use your grav-line to pull yourself back. Trust your greenie, he knows how to operate it."

"Roger," Undrat said. He clicked the channel to his men. "All mantid engineers, review grav-skyhook system deployment and usage in a zero-G environment."

The mantids all blinked icons back.

"Good luck, Army," the rating said. He used the hand-crank to open the airlock door and Undrat led his men inside. Once in, he gave the rating a thumbs up once the door thumped shut.

The outer door slid open silently and for a moment Undrat stared outside.

The other ships of the landing force were visible to the naked eye. Mixed in were Dwellerspawn vessels under ten kilometers away. Both sides were firing at one another at what was basically point blank range for a naval battle. One closest to the I Got What You Need, Baby! was shedding objects that unfurled wings, gathered stellar mass energy, and glided toward the Needy Baby on gossamer strands of gravatic energy.

"Follow," Undrat ordered. The men of Third and Fourth Squad, Echo Company, signaled ready.

Undrat trundled out onto the hull, taking the long strange step where he rotated ninety degrees to stand on the hull.

Up ahead were what looked like barnacles gripping the hull.

"Fab for armor piercing high explosive incendiary," Undrat ordered. "Anti-armor rounds. Adjust cyclic rate to three hundred rounds a minute."

The icons blinked back.

"Deploy primary weapon," Undrat ordered, bringing his own Madame Three-Eighteen into play. He tagged the nearest barnacles and passed the targets to the two squads, leaving four men total, two from each thirteen man squad, on point defense and close quarters defense.

"Targets marked," Undrat's voice was cold, remote, dispassionate. "Staggered firing line. Advance."

The Tukna'rn infantrymen began moving forward, heading toward the barnacles as they moved into two ranks, separated by five meters each, with the second rank shifted so they were in the gap between the troops of the first rank.

"Watch your fields of fire. Mark friendlies for smartgun and reflex trigger exclusion," Undrat ordered.

The icons flashed back as the Tukna'rn thumped forward.

"All elements, probing attack. Engage marked targets," Undrat ordered. "Twenty rounds, observe effect, pause firing. Mark."

He squeezed the firing lever, raking one of the barnacles. The explosive rounds hit, shattering the thick shells and revealing shredded internal biological structures. Ichor and blood sprayed out and froze in the vacuum, causing a sparkling fairy-dust plume.

"Munitions effective, go to active engagement," Undrat ordered.

The two squads opened fire on the barnacles, shredding them. Many released their gripping foot suction hold once the fire ripped at their internal tissues, floating away from the ship, propelled by the impact of the heavy 20mm rounds.

To the Tukna'rn infantrymen, it was a simple job. Move forward, engage the barnacles, kill them, move on.

Twice the infantrymen had to use their cutting bars and power armor enhanced strength to rip the twenty meter wide barnacles away from where their tongues had bored into the hull and their mouth-claws had gripped the hole.

Six times the Dwellerspawn creatures, strange and twisted, with hard chitin shells to protect their internal and soft tissues from the harsh vacuum, attempted to assault the Tukna'rn infantrymen.

Madame Three-Eighteen let the Dwellerspawn know that the Tukna'rn weren't interested in entertaining visitors.

Three times the infantrymen turned their weapons to help with point defense against the swarms of biological units disgorged by the dead or dying Dwellerspawn ships. Each time their firepower was added to that of the ship, raking the enemy from the skies.

Finally the recall notice came.

Undrat did a visual check to ensure all of his men in his two Heavy Weapons Squads were present, then marched them to the nearest sally port. He had them slowly turn around, then had Corporal Mafrek run his plasma fueled 'flamethrower' over each soldier, the plasma induced fire still working in vacuum, just to make sure there was no tiny biological attackers hiding on the armor.

Undrat and his section clomped their way into Troop Mess Hall 32C, standing against the wall. The Regimental Commander themself came in and addressed the Heavy Weapon sections of 19th Infantry Regiment. The command channel clinked on the suits, voice and speakers useless outside of armor since the atmosphere of the ship was still contained in the mass tanks.

"Excellent job, men. The Captain extends his compliments," the Colonel said.

Undrat felt a rush of pride.

"The Needy Baby is clear. Return to your drop pods. Insertion will be on the next orbital pass in four hours. Get sleep while podded. Ground combat is heavy. All Company Commanders, ensure proper lock-in," the Colonel stated. "Brigade Commanders, take charge."

"BULWARK!" everyone present, including Undrat, barked over their suit commo.

Undrat felt the warm glow of pride as he returned to the deployment bay.

Clearing the hull of a spaceship engaged in combat had been a unique experience for him.

He couldn't wait to write his former Overseer about it.