Star Force: Paladin (SF94) (Star Force Origin Series) Page 5

  “Are we in danger from exterior involvement?”

  “Unlikely, but we can never rule it out. Do not build against that contingency though. Put everything we’ve got against the reavers and towards securing the Vittis. If there is exterior contact we’ll have to improvise and we have one warship here to cover us.”

  “How are the reavers surviving against our orbital bombardment?”

  “Exclusively through the use of fast carved tunnels.”

  “Can’t our weapons reach them?”

  “Some go very deep. Too deep to get at quickly. These reavers do not act as native lifeforms. They act like weapons. I want to know why.”

  “Curious,” he said, suddenly silent as he thought with Myra taking a peek into his thoughts.

  “There are parallels,” she agreed. “But do not let them trap us into fighting on their terms.”

  “We are Star Force,” the Viceroy said with a mix of confidence and pride. “We do not fight like the Li’vorkrachnika.”

  “We’ve already lost far too many people, and most of those were not due to mistakes. They were overrun holding positions protecting others. I can’t be everywhere at once, so make sure our troops aren’t overwhelmed again.”

  “Have we found their origin point yet?”

  “Nothing that we can hit to stem the tide. All obvious targets have already been bombarded, but the flow still continues. The rock of this planet limits sensor range enough that their burrow depth exceeds it in places.”

  “Places to hide. Very well, we will fight them here for now. If you have further instructions make them. Otherwise do not let me waste your valuable time.”

  Myra held up her right arm and balled her fist. “KSA.”

  The Viceroy repeated the gesture and touched his larger, scaly blue fist against her armored one.

  “KSA,” he repeated, then the Archon put her helmet back on and left, leaving the Viceroy in full command and knowing that he’d take care of everything in her absence…and then some.

  6 years later…

  Paladin Hastati charged into the tunnel entrance they’d just fought their way up to, backtracking a reaver web tube that had been seen to be suppling far too many reinforcements to be just a simple offshoot. Rather than bomb it out of existence from a drone flyover the Paladin had mounted an attack and pushed their way up to it, with their primary hand to hand troops diving into the seemingly empty tunnels head first.

  They crawled down the steep slope on all fours, as their armor was built to accommodate, making and sending a battlemap of the route back to the rest of the forces above ground, expanding upon the orbital scans as they charged down a straight shaft that led to several intersections with branching tunnels. They ignored all but one, following what the scans had told them would lead down below sensor range.

  They weren’t alone but they did ignore all reavers that didn’t come attacking them, and there were plenty of those. Not in full attack surge mode, but in the small tunnels you couldn’t fight more than 3 or 4 at once so it didn’t matter aside from ammo reserves and their pace of descent. When the hastati did come face to face with the reavers they used forearm gauntlets on all four limbs to stab and shoot at point blank range.

  The blades themselves were energized so that they inflicted cauterized cuts, but they could function without power as well, meaning that the hastati would never be completely unarmed. The weapons worked well enough on the reavers, and with just as many or more hastati coming down the tunnels and piling up on top of each other they quickly killed any opposition that crossed their path.

  They continued lower and lower, eventually coming to tunnels that zigzagged back and forth to get more depth, passing below sensor scans and into uncharted territory. They added onto their map with every meter they crossed and kept a signal line all the way back up to the surface with Paladin stationed at intervals to act as transmitters through the rock and dirt.

  The Viceroy watched them live from his command center, for this wasn’t an assault mission. Rather it was reconnaissance intended on giving him the information he needed as to what was down there and potentially where the reavers were spawning so many reinforcements. The riddle of their food supply alone had to involve some subterranean supplements, for there simply wasn’t enough on the surface to sustain the numbers they were producing despite the fact that they ate both the Vittis and their own dead.

  What was down there? An enclosed ecosystem full of plants or their own version of livestock? Nothing seemed to make sense and it was time to get some answers, risky as this was. Without knowing where the reinforcements were coming from he could be unwittingly sending his hastati into a trap, but knowing their affinity for tunnel fighting he was fairly confident they could fight their way out of it if needed so long as they weren’t flanked, thus he was keeping pockets of troops all the way down the line to act as reserve flankers of this own should any of the comm relay posts report a counterattack against their position.

  So far there was nothing but small incidents, but he kept pouring troops down and extending the scouts out a bit around the main tunnel to give their lifeline a bit more width as the lead group continued to push farther and farther underground…so far in fact that heat levels began to rise to uncomfortable levels for those unarmored. The reavers were apparently immune, or at least resistant, to it, for the tunnel walls were not insulated and little more than carved rock with many cracks and vents hissing steam and various liquids out into the confined atmosphere, though it was still breathable despite there being no sign of life support systems to recycle it.

  More and more waves of reavers kept arriving in their path and getting mowed down, but no huge surge appeared and the hastati eventually came down to a new tunnel branch after a very long time in one descending tunnel. They split up, sending scouts both ways while the bulk of their forces stayed put and waited for what seemed like a very long time for the Viceroy to give the order.

  He was watching all the expansions from the point of view of the hastati’s armor camera when one suddenly exited the tunnel shaft into open air…for that’s what it looked like. He could see a few hundred meters before mist cut out the view and there was nothing solid in sight save for a descending cliff face that was scalable at about a sharp 30 degree angle with lots of little handholds carved into the rock.

  A switching of the hastati’s HUD revealed what was inside that fog and the Viceroy’s eyes widened. This was no chamber. This was a pocket geodome miles wide and containing thick vegetation…

  No, this couldn’t be right. The vegetation wasn’t random when viewed from the big picture vantage point. There were clusters of various types of plants set into geometric patterns meaning that this was all designed, not naturally occurring.

  He gave the order for his troops to move there, securing the entrance and the line back up, then pushing out in force to search the area without getting front heavy.

  That last caveat was what saved his hastati when pores on the geodome’s floor opened up and thousands of reavers came crawling out at lightning fast pace. The Paladin fought through an organized retreat despite the fact that it looked like they could win, but the Viceroy knew that there was no way to ascertain their true numbers. They obviously didn’t want them here and that meant there could be a lot more on the way. The hastati had got him some valuable intel, but pushing on now could be unwise. He hated giving up the foothold that he had, but launching a full invasion right now was a gamble that his competitive drive wanted to take, but his Star Force memories told him that letting go one possible win was often the path to setting up many more future ones.

  Heeding that advice he ordered them to pull back up the narrow tunnels as fast as possible while sending now more hastati at the same time to thicken the numbers in the side branches in order to push them out to keep the main shaft clear. Not soon after he did that there was no less than three heavy flanking attacks that the hastati stopped cold, though the fighting at those locations was so
intense the hastati had to rotate out with fresh troops coming in as their armor and strength was shredded under the power of so many claws and thrashing limbs hitting you minute after minute with no pause or end.

  The flanking units held the shaft long enough for the main body to make it back up to them, then they all merged together with the Viceroy watching the local commanders coordinate the withdrawal, ensuring that no tendril of their formation got caught out and ready to intervene if necessary. The few casualties that they had were already being passed back up the line and carried to the surface and the medics waiting there. If their wounds weren’t too severe they would probably survive and be back into fighting shape within a month even if new limbs had to be regrown, but he was getting fatality counts already in some sparse numbers.

  The Viceroy growled. Each one lost was a defeat, but it could have been far worse if they’d acted with a bit less caution. Not satisfied with that counterpoint, he pulled up the logs from the medics that were treating the first ones up to identify how his hastati were being killed.

  Neck and head wounds…with missing helmets.

  The Viceroy frowned momentarily, then his ire spiked as he suspected the cause. He compared additional reports and found an alarming trend. It was rare compared to how many troops were involved, but those dying seemed to have been losing their helmets not due to damage, but to them being removed intact.

  There was an external release latch that the hastati could use if the internal retraction mechanisms didn’t function. If they did they’d pull the helmet back into a lump behind the neck, but if the manual was used it came off entirely.

  He had his analysts do some quick checks of camera data stored from all the hastati involved in the attack and they eventually came back with visuals of the reavers intentionally reaching for the latches when they got a hastati on the ground. Not all of them would. Mostly they clawed at their armor doing a little damage with each strike and wearing them down for the others to come, but some were going for the latches. When they were almost randomly successful they would then try and pry the loose helmets off and get to the hastati’s exposed necks.

  “Hive mind,” he said with distaste. Someone, probably at random, had hit a latch and they saw that the helmet popped off. Then they or the theoretical controllers saw it and passed that knowledge through the group…and they were hiding the fact by not having all of them go for the same tactic.

  That worried the Viceroy more than anything, for it meant the reavers were far more cunning than their sheer brutality suggested. A ravenous horde didn’t do anything more than claw their way forward, but one that utilized tactics in proportional numbers was a foe to respect no matter what their combat ratings were.

  As the medical reports started to shift to ‘they will live’ markers a lot of casualties began to fade from the list. Those that were still in danger or not yet untreated glowed active…along with those that had already died, though in Star Force’s case that didn’t mean they were permanently dead. The Paladin had technology that could revive you shortly after damage incurred, and despite their lack of adequate resources some of that regenerator tech was available to them.

  The Viceroy saw a few hastati that were marked ‘dead’ switch to ‘active,’ which was a small relief, but not all of them did. Some were too badly damage with the head wounds, though those with only neck damage were recoverable if they could get to them fast enough, and passing the casualties back up the link as soon as they were damaged meant some were saved while others didn’t last to the end of that journey.

  Final count after a full retreat was executed came to 78 casualties, meaning dead and injured, with the final deceased count falling to 12. Their loss wasn’t worth the information, for none of his Paladin were expendable, but at least they hadn’t died for nothing. Now the Viceroy had a location and a lot of information for his analysts to digest, but for the moment he linked in with the Clan warship in orbit and arranged for two drones to fly into position over that tunnel site.

  At which point they began to unload their beam weaponry on it and did not relent, gradually coring further and further underground through the rock for hours until they finally penetrated through to the geodome…at which point other weaponry was fired down through the very narrow corridor that had been carved out and went to work killing everything that it could touch with splash damage.

  Another drone came in that was carrying missiles, which it sent down into the open area beneath at a slow enough velocity that they could arc away from the crater at the bottom of the shaft and turn to target and hit everything around it.

  And with the naval rain dripping down the pipe, everything in that geodome was eventually destroyed.

  6

  February 12, 3518

  Tekin System (Rim Region)

  Plataro

  Ten shurikens flew in formation up and over a mountain ridge, coming into view of a huge throng of reavers hundreds of thousands strong. They were appearing out of numerous subterranean exits and flowing like a river across the ground towards a nearby Vitti stronghold at the precise moment when all naval drones were occupied with anti-surface activities elsewhere. The tunnels carved up to the surface were freshly cut minutes ago and the army was skittering across the ground as fast as it could to get to the emplacements before any naval assets could be repositioned.

  But the shurikens had gotten here in time and lobbed tiny bloons down onto the reavers, each of which mushroomed out and killed hundreds of them…but there were so many in play it didn’t seem to matter. The Paladin squadron strafed them multiple times until their ammunition was depleted, then they just hovered over them, noses pointed down, and targeted individual reavers with their heavy lachars.

  When the fighters stopped moving a mass of acid attacks shot up at them, blanketing their shields in goo that should have done little to affect them, but this time was different. The pilots saw their shield levels drop slowly, but it stacked with additional acid hits on them until the drain was so furious that the squadron had to break off. They flew towards the southern mountain ridge but not all of them made it. The acid penetrated their shields then fell onto the hull, burning into and scarring it on most of them, but a few suffered more damage.

  Two of the fighters had actually gotten more than 8 inches of acid built up on the shields, and when that fell onto the shuriken it slowly began to eat through the resistant armor. A few patches from previous battle damage where an explosion had torn gashes into the hull dissolved faster than the regular armor and exposed the innards to it. The pilots were fine inside their internal armored cocoons but the rest of the shuriken was not.

  One of the pilots tried to roll and throw the clinging goo off via centrifugal force but the tactic came too late and he still lost power. Both shurikens rammed into the northern-facing mountainside while the others managed to survive thanks to their armor consuming all of the acid and still retaining a bit of protection.

  The fighters immediately circled around and confirmed that the pilots were alive, but the reavers had seen them go down and a large tendril of them were diverting and heading their way. It’d take half an hour or more for them to get there, but if they didn’t get the pilots out they’d be sitting ducks. Given enough time the reavers’ sharp claws could chew through the armor, though it looked like the acid splitters were staying with the main group to provide aerial cover.

  Two of the fighters went to ground while the other 6 hugged low to the terrain and accelerated towards the reavers again, intent on staying out of range of the acid spitters but shooting some of the approaching melee versions and extending the window of rescue, for the downed pilots were still reporting acid on their craft that had yet to be neutralized.

  AVN-449218 landed some 140 meters away from one of the downed shurikens and popped the hatch carefully. He stood up on his pommel seat and looked at his own craft, seeing the acid damage and assuming that little bits of it were still dangerous even if the bulk had completed its che
mical reactions and created the ghostly white residue that looked like tiny soap suds or bloated sand. He knew better than to touch it even in his pilot’s armor, but he realized if he jumped out and onto the ground he would have no way of climbing back onboard.

  He looked all around the topside of the craft, seeing no areas free of the white residue. The reavers had literally coated the whole thing and he wondered how they didn’t get killed by their own attacks, for every shot that missed had to have fallen on their own troops.

  Each acid shot was small, but he’d been hit with so many it was mindboggling. He knew the reavers’ numbers were insane, but this was the first blanketing he’d ever gotten from acid…let alone acid that could weaken shields. He didn’t know if this was a new upgrade or just an accumulation of hits, but the white residue was new. They’d never managed to hit Paladin armor before, but where they hit Vittis’ tech it fizzled into clear goop most of the time.

  The pilot sat back down but kept the cockpit open, then he altered the life support controls and turned up the gravity as much as he could stand. His feet, legs, and tail were squashed against the pommel as he fought to stand up, poking his head out above the shuriken. Then from there he reached down and leaned on the controls, pulling his fighter up a bit before rotating it over.

  Suddenly he was upside down but only his head felt it. The rest of him was being sucked firmly to the ship as the two different gravities literally pulled him apart, stretching his neck between the two as he coasted over to the downed shuriken that was partially imbedded into the soil. He got right up next to it, grabbed a set of tools from beneath the pommel, and jumped as hard as he could, getting his torso out of the high grav bubble but it wasn’t enough. His heavy legs pulled him back inside, then he dialed it back enough that his second jump broke him free and he fell headfirst to the ground a meter below.