Chapter 762: The Inheritor's War

Chapter 762: The Inheritor's War

Never forget, they aren't gone.

They're just basically in a jar. Behind glass.

Where the malevolent universe has labeled: Break glass in case of smartass. - Mantid archeologist Footsteps in the Stone

Heaven's on Fire. - Unknown, Pre-Glassing Terra

Ret.lek reloaded his rotary autocannon, bending his arm at the elbow and making cocking motion. The massive autocannon clacked like the doors of Hell slamming shut as it reloaded the heavy magazine.

"FOX-ONE! AWAY FIFTEEN!" Ret.lek yelled out, stomping the bar at his feet to fire the heavy fifteen launch tube long range missile launcher on the right shoulder of his Davion Class Storm Reaver. The missiles were what the mekhounds called 'blunts', which mean no warboi, no VI, no seeker, just a fuze and a shitload of warhead with solid prop acceleration and, as a special treat, a grooved missile jacket to let everyone around the missile impact eat a face full of shrapnel.

In the other hand of the massive assault class warmek Ret.lek held a massive hyperalloy I-beam he'd ripped from the wreckage of a fallen skyraker.

The missiles howled out, straight line drives down center-field, slamming into the face of a massive Dwellerspawn. Bioarmor shards exploded from its face, its teeth shattered, its eyes exploded, but it still charged out of the cloud and debris, running over the smaller Dwellerspawn, most of which had been raked by the shrapnel.

"Get some! Get some!" Ret.lek yelled out, leveling the rotary autocannon that took up most of the space of his right forearm. The cannon roared, the ammo counter falling rapidly, as he hosed the mag into the creature's exposed tissues. The heavy 203mm rounds hit and slammed deep into tissue, the endosteel jacket shredding along the grooved lines to peel away and cause massive damage, the hyperstatic shock gel interior expanding as it rebounded the kinetic force.

Then the unstable proto-matter core went off with a wet snap that Ret.lek could feel on his little toes.

The Dwellerspawn stopped dead.

Literally.

The bright flash of a Bowie-Spike erupted less than two miles away, the warhead detonating on the side of a six hundred story skyraker covered in moss, vines, barnacles, and massive pods and flowers. The skyraker disintegrated like a leaf pile hit by a tornado, everything but the hyperalloy superstructure shattered by the 250kt blast.

Ret.lek noticed the bright flash but little else as his proximity radar started singing that there was something coming down from up high. He looked up and saw a large shape diving through the smoke and dust, the tail coming back in an arch that Ret.lek knew would give the phasically strengthened lance the power to penetrate warsteel.

Ret.lek didn't bother with anything fancy as a huge stingwing dove at him, he just grabbed the I-beam with both hands of his mek, braced his feet, and swung the massive girder.

"HOOOOOOOOOOME RUN!" Ret.lek yelled out as the stingwing's soft body, built for flight and quick slashing attacks, exploded in purple slurry and rags of chitin sailed away.

In the engineer spaces of the mek the strands of the latest album from the oldest Terran band in existence roared out as the engineer mantids ran a bypass patch to get the six pack launchers hooked back into the sensor systems.

Rippling MRLS rockets came in fast, nearly a thousand, only two miles to the west, all clustered together and burning hard on chemical propellant. The missiles had no network connection, just slavering half-baked warbois shrieking and pounding their code streaked faces against the optics. They all went off in one coordinated explosion.

Several skyrakers, kilometers in height, began to crumble.

From out of the dust and smoke rushed a stream of smaller Dwellerspawn, these the size of train cars and ground cars, all of them raising up their thoraxes and scrabbling their tiny bladearms at the massive warmek that appeared out of the smoke.

Ret.lek laid around him with the girder, smashing Dwellerspawn, stomping with his feet, keeping an eye on his heat levels.

It was bright red, the beeping filled the cockpit, he was drenched in sweat.

Hell, he'd even done the emergency coolant release and pissed down his own legs to take advantage of the evaporation cooling.

He was panting with the heat, but smiling as wide as he had ever smiled.

"Sigma-Four, how's the heat?" Lance Commander Norgulk asked as Ret.lek stomped a Dwellerspawn the size of a bus into flattened chitin, ichor, and goo.

"Hotter than a Rigellian duck with a spread tail," Ret.lek said.

An Atrekna Autonomous War Machine popped out of the smoke and debris, firing heavy particle beams, most of their power sucked up by the dust, debris, pollen, microprisms, and water vapor. It still thundred like lightning as the air superheated along the path and insta-cooled, collapsing back into the partial vacuum.

Ret.lek hot his arm up in time to block the one that would have hit the cockpit.

Ret.lek grabbed up a ground car, crushed it in his fist, and slung it at the AAWM. It hit the front, not caring about the puff of pollen and spores that would wreak havoc on any seeker, bouncing off.Follow the latest novels at novelhall.com

The AAWM had bigger problems as Ret.lek's big assault mek broke into a run, kicking vehicles at the AAWM as he ran forward, holding his left forearm in front of his face even as he bent his right arm at the elbow and made a pumping motion.

The autocannon reloaded again.

None of the hits from the AAWM did much more than scar the warsteel and Ret.lek was on the machine, grabbing the girder with both hands and slamming it into the huge 'eye' on the right side, shattering crysteel, bursting through electronics, puncturing the light armor.

He fired the autocannon straight into its face as he stepped back.

The golden sphere flashed, the girder gave a loud BONG, and the globe flew across the slurry covered field, sliding in the goo to come to a stop in the middle of the field.

The Atrekna were all in a heap at the bottom of the globe.

Ret.lek wasted no time, chasing the glowing ball.

"FIELD GOAL!" Ret.lek bellowed out over the external speakers.

The Atrekna had enough time for two of them to grab a hold of each other, screaming.

Ret.lek cranked the graviton systems as he kicked the golden ball that barely came up past the top of his foot.

It sailed across the field, leaving behind a glowing golden stream of energy, even as the Atrekna inside hit the inside of the globe hard enough that they splattered. The ball sailed out, went in between two large posts that had banners hanging from them, then winked out of existence.

The shattered pieces of the Atrekna sprayed across the empty seats.

"Sigma Leader, this is Sigma-Four, the Atrekna are still unaware of my presence," Ret.lek said. "Continuing with stealth recon."

He ran across the field, crashing through the side of the stadium, and out into the huge parking lot.

"Good job, Sigma-Four," Lance Commander Norgulk said.

In the field beyond was a massive horde of Dwellerspawn.

"FOX FUCK YOU! ALL IN!" Ret.lek yelled out, laughing, as he fired off all of his missile racks in a single 'alpha strike' even as he kept running forward, the girder in one hand.

It was good to be a warmek jockey.

-----

The day was hot, humid, with ash and dust raining down from the burning clouds in the sky.

Ret.lek sat on the foot of his huge mek, munching on a Countess Crey Ultimate Power Bar, Cranberry and Pumpkin flavor, a Liquid Hate in his other hand. He was watching his engineers repair the graffiti of the Detainee on his mech. They had added naked, laughing versions of her on the legs of the Storm Reaver mek.

Maintenance techs had huge coolant hoses attached to his mek, there was a heavy data cable running from his mek to the military intelligence tent nearby.

Lance Commander Norgulk moved up, deftly stepping over the heavy coolant hose. Beside him Captain Stomp Your Guts Out hopped over the hose, the black mantid's helmet on his hip, the gleaming chrome of his cybereye catching the light of the burning city around them.

"Private Ret.lek," the Captain said, his voice slightly buzzing.

"Yes, sir," Ret.lek said, swallowing the moutful of power bar.

"Nice job on the recon," the CO said. He snickered. "Them purple people eaters never saw you coming."

"Thank you, sir," Ret.lek said.

"Carry on, Private," the Company Commander said.

"Thank you, sir," Ret.lek said.

The black mantid moved away, reaching up to touch his implant.

Lance Commander Norgulk stepped up, climbing up to sit next to Ret.lek. The Pubvian stretched, his middle leg straight out, grabbing the toes with his middle arm for a moment to stretch the muscles.

"Commander?" Ret.lek asked as the Lance Commander dug out a Goody Yum-Yum bar.

"Good job, son," Norgulk said. He chuckled. "Nice field goal."

"Thank you, Commander," Ret.lek said.

"You got a knack for assault mek stealth recon," Norgulk said. He grinned, showing that four of his teeth had been replaced by warsteel implants. "Once they're done with the coolant flush and the slush dump, we'll be going back into the city on another recon. Command thinks there's more purple people eaters."

Ret.lek nodded.

The Lance Commander stared up at the burning clouds.

"Menhit's bouncing tits, I love warmeks."