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  He immediately switched over to command data on his helmet, checking on where his other teams were and finding all but two were back in the vicinity of the landing ships.

  “Everyone recall,” he ordered as the Nu’avi were carried up the ramp but the rest of his unit stayed underneath the shield yet outside the ship as they stood ready to fight again as needed. Yui assigned evac routes to three positions on the shield, ordering three new ‘gates’ opened in it, and soon his other units began filing back inside in spurts.

  Then one of his starfighters took a critical hit and spiraled down into the landscape with an unimpressive thud as it hit and stuck in the ground, killing a few Hadarak on impact, but with the rest immediately swarming it. Yui knew the pilot would be dead before he could get a team to him, so he ignored his fate and focused on the rest. A few minutes later the last of the ground team came through carrying a Meerioss missing a leg, but all were accounted for.

  The shield sealed up again as the ship continued to fire down from extended turret bulges poking out through it ever so slightly so it could cover the ground immediately around the shield perimeter. The crawlers that had no more targets to go after were now swarming the shield and ramming it…to their deaths…but more and more came and tried, with two more piles adding up on the opposite side of the main one.

  If they got too large the ship would have trouble taking off. Yui had seen it before, but they weren’t there yet.

  He made sure he was the last person up the ramp, then stayed at the door as it sealed before giving the order to lift off. The incineration shield had to drop to do so, with the normal hull-tight defense shields reassuming as power that had been going to power the incineration now had to be diverted to the engines.

  The agile and streamlined craft lifted off, leaving the Sho’joo behind to fight to its destruction, and pushed through dead and living spawn alike as an flock of aerial Hadarak rammed it and splattered engine dampening goo across the shields in splots.

  The ship fell to the ground, hitting on its still extended landing skids as the shields remodulated and shirked off the goo, then it took off again only to get hit a second time at higher altitude. They nearly dropped, but managed to repeat the process while still in the air and gaining horizontal speed.

  Turrets on the sides of the landing craft racked up kills, but the flocks were thick and without the starfighters moving in to assist the landing craft would never have gotten up to speed. Once they did the enemy could only ram from one direction, with those approaching from behind not having the necessary collision inertia to splatter themselves on their targets. They bounced off when they hit, while those ahead ran into concentrated firepower from the landing ships with the starfighters peeling off as much heat as they could.

  Another one of them went down in the effort, then the landing ships were pulling up out of the atmosphere where most of the flyers could not go on their biological wings…but naval spawn were descending towards them in their own flocks, though they were intercepted by long range fire from the nearest warship as Yui’s command raced towards it.

  As soon as they were mostly in the clear, he turned his attention to the other distraction assaults as well as the main attack on the Zanderline…only to see shield walls set up around the site on the ground creating a second perimeter beyond the main shield dome covering the artifact as it was being dug out of the ground.

  Yui had no idea how big it was beneath the surface, but already he could see it was at least twice as deep as it was high, looking like a giant crescent but missing the smooth curves.

  “Pilot, redirect our course towards the Zanderline enroute to the warship.”

  “That’s not a enroute. It’s far out of our way.”

  “Do so, but keep our altitude,” he said, reaching back and pulling off his survival pack augment that was plugged into the omni slot between his armor’s shoulder blades. He walked over to an equipment wall in the landing craft and opened a cabinet, pulling out a jump pack and clicking it into the empty armor slot.

  “They’re not going to be able to hold the site long enough to get the Zanderline out,” he told everyone in the hold. “I’m going down to help them. I’m ordering you back to the warship and you can be reassigned from there. If you feel like disobeying orders and following me to your death, I won’t stop you.”

  Yui didn’t stand around and count. Instead he moved to another locker to get another shield gauntlet as well as some additional weapons. He’d seen what was going on down there in a single glance, and knew they were all going to die unless they abandoned the Zanderline and pulled out…which they couldn’t. They would be as good as dead without their price of passage out of this galaxy, and Yui didn’t intend to wait and watch while someone else determined his fate.

  When the landing ship eventually came into the hazard zone, Yui had to tell the pilots to ignore the wave off orders coming from the local commanders, then he and as many who wished to follow jumped out of the ship as it flew, falling down through the sky towards the surface miles below.

  Yui saw dozens of dots pop up behind him, then the landing ship quickly redirected course and shot away from the Zanderline as 42 Meerioss in armor fell through a free fire zone around the shield perimeter, with Yui angling to come down in the gap between the outer shield walls and the primary shield.

  He let his speed continue to accelerate, but their arrival was not unnoticed and a section of the local flock of spawn turned their way, causing him to lead the others in an acceleration horizontally as they fell, making them race around the curve of the bubble-like shield covering the section of the city with the Zanderline in it.

  Two of his men were hit, literally, as the spawn rammed them and knocked them out of formation…but the Hadarak died and the Meerioss flew back towards the group, though lagging behind as some of them tried to take shots at their pursuers, but firing backwards without being able to look more than over your shoulder wasn’t very effective.

  “I need four high and everyone else to pivot and fire,” Yui said, seeing four volunteers move upwards slightly. “Now!”

  The four continued to fly, but increased their altitude, drawing the flock with them somewhat as the rest of the Meerioss turned around and braked, essentially standing in air as they got their faces towards their pursuers and opened fire with pistols that were easily accessible on their hips despite the harsh wind pushing at their backs.

  Their firing wasn’t accurate, but it was decent and they didn’t spare any ammo, cutting into the leading edge of the chasing flock before it had a chance to divert. Several spawn rammed the Meerioss, on accident this time, knocking them out of formation, until the rest of the Hadarak scattered in the confusion and lost their attack profile.

  “Dive!” he ordered, taking advantage of the momentary lapse as all of his men accelerated straight down towards the ground and gave up their chase around the perimeter. They ran hard down, using gravity to their advantage, then braked at the last moment to allow them just enough time to null out their fall as they turned and flew a few meters over the cityscape, with Yui holding up long enough for all the rest to catch him, then they flew firing down on the Hadarak as they headed for the nearest gap in the outer shield wall on their left while the main spherical shield was on their right.

  And all matter of carnage was happening in between.

  The outer wall had gaps in it on purpose, to force the Hadarak through them where the Meerioss had heavy weapons ready to slaughter them, but too many were getting through, and the aerial spawn could still attack from above, as well as pick up and deliver the crawlers one at a time to drop in behind the heavy guns.

  One of those gun batteries was where Yui decided to make their stand, flying his unit through the air up to the perimeter of the walking platform that had multiple weapons on it, but the main gun was a continuous beam that was filling a third of the shield gap ahead of them and waving back and forth trying to hit as many minions as it could that were pourin
g through in an ocean of hardened flesh.

  Yui dropped to the ground, glad to have his feet back on a solid surface and eliminating a hemisphere of potential attack vectors for the enemy. He pulled out his shield gauntlet and ordered the others behind him, with one other Meerioss coming up alongside him and doing the same, creating a joint barrier as they ran towards the nearest glut of Hadarak that were assaulting the flank of the gun battery.

  And there is where they would fight their last fight, as warriors, not helpless victims. They had a mission to accomplish, and each one of them bought as much time for that gun battery as was physically possible before it was eventually overrun and knocked to the ground by spawn climbing upon spawn in a living tidal wave of mass.

  Yui and the others bought them a total of 19 minutes, and in those 19 minutes the gun battery killed more than 400,000 Hadarak. Far more than Yui’s unit could have hoped to achieve on their own.

  Their deaths were well spent, as were the deaths of all the other elite troops fighting around the perimeter as excavation units continued to cut down into the bedrock and free the underside of the Zanderline as hovering cranes were already ready to pull it out the moment the base was free.

  The Deoglade watched the carnage below, proud at how well the Meerioss fought and equally dismayed by the ferocity and numbers of units the Hadarak were able to move across the planet so fast to counter them. His team had been at the Zanderline for less than 3 hours, and already it was a hopeless situation being held on to by the sacrifice of his men, most of whom were now dead, with the last survivors retreating into the giant transparent blue bubble covering the site as the Hadarak began beating on it with their full force around the exterior as the warships kept the naval spawn away.

  They almost had it. The Deoglade felt how close they were, and knew this was going to go their way or the enemy’s based on a number of minutes. He watched as the cutting teams tore out the bedrock around the unknown subterranean shape of the artifact, finally getting under it with only a few more minutes of cleaning around the rest of the base needed.

  As they did, burrowing Hadarak units were coming under the shield perimeter, with special defense units that the Deoglade had ordered inside to wait for just this threat responding immediately to keep them off the excavators. The retreating troops from outside aided them in this as the Deoglade’s hearts were pounding so hard in his chest he could hear the thumps over his shallow breathing. The margin here was razor thin, and this was the moment of truth.

  Breaches in the shield started to form, with the weak spots glowing before they actually broke so those inside would be warned. When they did, only a few Hadarak slipped through before they reformed, but that scattering of units was increasing with each minute that passed, and put an increased strain on the last of the defense troops, but they were holding. Feverishly holding with a vigor the Deoglade had not seen in his race for centuries. They had an attainable victory before them, not another hopeless, pointless holding action merely delaying their demise. This was a way out for some of them, and they were going to fight to the death to insure that at least some Meerioss made it out of this galaxy to tell the tale of those who had fallen and keep their race from total extinction.

  They fought harder than hard, with such speed and accuracy that the Deoglade became distracted watching their final stand and missed the release of the Zanderline. The cranes pulled it up immediately, with it moving a third of its height before the Deoglade realized it.

  He immediately sent in landing craft to pick up the remaining troops as the building-tall blood red artifact was pulled up through the shield dome and allowed to pass through the top…with swarms of starfighters moving around it in escort formation, along with several shield barges that flew in parallel with their prize and extended their protective auras around it.

  The Deoglade gave the pullback order to the diversionary attacks across the system, but there weren’t many troops or ships left alive to contact. The few that were responded instantly…as they were able. Some were doomed, unable to move or stranded on the ground with no landing ships able to get to them.

  The Deoglade saw all this, as he had seen it before. Most coming here knew it would probably end like this, but he had promised them that victory was possible, and as the Zanderline pulled up out of the shield bubble completely as the multi-color sheen below attested to it being near total collapse, that great red crescent was their victory in progress, and was visible to all those nearby who were not going to make it off this planet as it rose up into orbit and was slid inside a waiting warship as others were nearby fighting and taking massive damage to shield the one tagged for transport of the artifact.

  The Deoglade gave it the highest priority, even over his own flagship, and had it moving off towards the star before the last of the evaced troops made it into space. He stayed behind until the last of the landing ships docked, saying a silent farewell to the dead and those left behind that were about to join them.

  Then he ordered his remaining ships…less than a quarter of the number that had arrived…back to the star and out of the system before more enemy reinforcements could get to them and take back what they’d just stolen from their conquerors.

  7

  January 3, 154967

  UTOVI GALAXY

  System 92881-44824

  Low Stellar Orbit

  The Deoglade sat in his quarters with his upper tunic removed. The fur on his arms and neck was missing on his chest, making his ranking tattoo show easily on his nearly white skin. His fur was dark brown and his smooth face was speckled with spots of orange…the sign of his Clan, or rather his former Clan before becoming Deoglade.

  When that occurred his name was erased and he became his position, which was one of only a rare few within the Meerioss that could command all. When the Neofan gave him an order, it was his responsibility to carry it out as he saw fit, for they did not care about procedure, only results, and it had been previous Deoglades who had shaped the Meerioss into what they were…or rather what they had been. His race was being exterminated, and unless other Neofan had pity on their Deoglades as his master had, he was most likely the last of his kind.

  His rank came with more than a tattoo, for within him was knowledge encoded into his mind. Knowledge the other Meerioss did not have, and were not meant to have. Knowledge of more than their race. Knowledge of combat and how to wield one’s body as a weapon. Knowledge of Essence techniques beyond his skill. Knowledge of a great many things that had been given to him to make him a better servant of the Neofan. But none of those things would allow the Meerioss to survive in this galaxy. Without the Neofan, their twin enemies were too powerful to defeat in more than a few battles.

  The Deoglade’s life was destroyed, yet he still lived. The pain in this did not twist into despair or panic. He did not lash out at the walls or throw himself into a rage. He analyzed and mitigated. Making good on what he had available to him even as everything else fell and was beyond his saving. But inside him, deep down beneath the numbing, he was in agony. The one constant in his life was the Neofan…their leadership, their superiority, their trust. The Meerioss owed them everything and would gladly die fighting by their side.

  But they weren’t even given that. They’d been discarded, and the Deoglades betrayed as little more than outdated equipment that had to be decommissioned. And that hurt. It more than hurt. It threatened to break his nerve…yet his nerve was unbreakable. The Neofan had seen to that in his training and testing.

  He was leading what was left of his warfleet back to their home port rather than heading straight to the Outer Rim. Most of the people in the system would be left behind, but he would take as many as possible. He steeled himself to the fact that he was going to have to turn away so many, but again, this was mitigation. Without his efforts they would all die, and leaving the warships behind would not save them.

  Still, he did not like taking away their only defense fleet. But it would be destroyed if it stayed
here, for there was no way to save the system from the Hadarak when they arrived. Everyone that remained here was as good as dead. Sadly this system hadn’t realized that yet and still had a will to fight, and it gnawed on him that he wasn’t going to be able to give them that fight.

  But this wasn’t the first time he’d encountered this. It was an old story now, for the galaxy didn’t collapse all at once. It happened one system at a time, with the same story playing out in slightly different variations. The Neofan were leaving for a reason, and that reason was their utter lack of ability to win against both the Hadarak and the Pafdreng at the same time.

  The Deoglade had known they were going to lose for a long time. What he hadn’t seen coming was the betrayal. And still, he did not understand why. If everything was going to be destroyed, what would it matter? Were they that afraid that some might escape beyond the galaxy? Or was it their hubris in play?

  When they arrived back to where they began he’d given orders that didn’t need him on the bridge, and he intended to wait here or on the lower decks until the time came to leave. Every ship in the system would be taken into their fleet and stuffed with as many people as their supplies would maintain. Hopefully they could pass through more Meerioss systems as they traveled and add more ships, for the travel cost for the Zanderline was far greater than what it would take to move his small fleet. Star Force had supplied enough for a thousand times the ships he had, if the Rudumak had been truthful. He was basing everything on their word.

  And if they were lying or exaggerating…well, that was a problem he’d have to face later. But if they thought they were going to get the Zanderline from him without payment, they were going to be seriously disappointed, for he’d already had it rigged with explosives to make sure it didn’t fall into any hands other than the Neofan’s or Star Force’s.

  Odd, how he reflexively still considered the Neofan to his masters. He wondered how long that would last with the sting of their betrayal still corroding his insides as virulent as any assassin’s poison.