Authors: Max Feinstein
Breathing a sigh of relief, he turned away from the scene as Delta-One’s men were lifted up and carried into the waiting IFV, when someone shouted, “inbound enemy, three o’clock high!”
Turning in that direction Dexter looked up in time to see a large shuttle like craft descend towards the area of the forest where the recent orbital strike had detonated.
“Thumper!” Specialist Donte Mansur shouted
, causing Dex to reexamine the shuttle more thoroughly.
Sure enough one of the large armored
quadrupeds hung from the underside of the slowing shuttle. The Thumper was a terrifying armored beast of the enemy’s creation and could unleash horrible death and destruction. As he zoomed in further through his helmet visor he could see the shuttle craft decelerate to a hover in order to unload its heavy cargo. Dex knew that it had to be stopped at all cost if they were going to get out of here alive. Some of his men must have read his mind because two missiles, fired from one of the Centaur’s, sped by his vision and exploded against the shuttle’s shields a second later. Its shields flickered crimson, but held as the craft itself rocked slightly in midair from the force of the shaped charge warheads.
“All load up,” Lieutenant Iorns commanded through the TacLink, while w
atching the enemy ship restabilize.
Its shields lit up once more as particle beams joined the assault against it and the Centaurs unleashed another wave of missiles
. This new salvo in three separate groups slammed into the shuttle as the armored vehicle hanging beneath it dropped towards the forest floor. The six missiles in the first two groups seemed to bleed the shields dry because the third one impacted against hull material itself. Explosions erupted along the whole side of the craft and Dexter watched it wobble side to side before dropping uncontrollably towards the ground.
A loud cheer rang out among the men of 2
nd
Platoon as the shuttle disappeared, but quickly ceased as a single rocket streaked out of the forest towards them. Each soldier in the vicinity scattered to get out of the way. The large rocket barely missed one of the Centaur IFVs, its aim thrown off by the MultiSpec covering on the vehicle, and hit a building located just behind it. After tearing through the syncrete wall the weapon detonated in a flash of blinding light before that same radiance was suddenly sucked back towards the epicenter of the blast. Dexter watched the entire building tremble and break apart as it was sucked into a glowing vortex at the center of the structure until there was nothing remaining except for a circular impression within the earth.
Dexter had been briefed on this type of weapon a day prior, but this was the first time actually seeing it in action. Another
pair of projectiles emerged from the tree tops and arched towards 2
nd
platoon as most of his men were in the process of loading into their respective transports. Waiting outside for all of his men to finish getting into the four IFVs he watched his vehicles respond to the new barrage with more defensive fire. A number of missiles leapt into the air on intercept missions, but only one of the incoming warheads detonated in midair. The second slipped through the screen, however, and proceeded to strike a support vehicle holding position beside one of the Centaurs. The light transport itself cracked almost in half from the impact alone and disintegrated milliseconds later as the missiles exploded. Another vortex appeared in the center of that detonation and a field of extreme gravity expanded from it in all directions. Every object within the radius was lifted into the air and pulled towards the center as if attracted by a massive magnet. Dex watched in horror as one of his men, running towards his own vehicle, was swept off his feet and hurled towards the spinning singularity. The soldier disappeared as soon as his body came into contact with the swirling core.
Before the vortex of death dissipated, however, one of the nearby Infantry Fighting Vehicles dipped in midair from the heavy gravity forces against it. It was forcefully attracted to the singularity, its front hitting the forest ground hard. Evening weakening considerably the weapon still exerted enough force to drag the heavy vehicle half way to itself before vanishing from existence. With the gravity waves no longer
affecting it the Centaur was finally able to right itself and proceed towards its soldiers.
No other rockets approached 2
nd
Platoon from that moment, but Dexter suddenly began to feel the ground beneath him quiver. With each passing second the intensity of the vibrations increased until everyone could see the trees along the western perimeter start to sway as if parting for something massive moving through them. Dexter knew it was the Thumper coming for them and urged his men to move faster. He watched the last of them retreat between a set of prefab buildings with one of the units Bison autonomous vehicles following behind. They were all firing back at another ever advancing enemy force coming from the north. His four Centaurs knew what was approaching them as well and turned their particle cannons towards the threat. Dexter watched their turrets rotate and the shimmering netting attached to them rip away in pieces.
Many things happened almost simultaneously from that moment forward
. The first was the Centaurs unleashing a hail of particle beams into the trees ahead, their advanced sensors helping them target the large armored walker approaching them. At almost the same time multiple explosions rang out to the North as the Shredders placed there went off. These small directional mines were smart munitions used to protect perimeters or slow down advancing enemy soldiers. They were powerful enough to damage even armored vehicles, so Dexter hoped they would be enough to give the enemy some pause. It was at this point that the last of his men boarded their transports and Dex was finally able to maneuver towards his own Centaur.
He made it to within only a few meters when the Thumper emerged into view, ripping through the thick trees like toothpicks and sending their
remains flying in all directions. Its shields glowed brightly as the IFVs continued their relentless assault, but held without fail. The earth shook all around them as the metallic beast stomped its four massive limbs into it, leaving large imprints within the packed soil. Dexter saw its large diamond shaped body rotate and angle down to look at 2
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Platoon’s armored vehicles. Before he could say anything a series of lights began to glow around the sides of the body and quickly coalesce into a single area at the front. He had seen the same happen before on an enemy gunship and instantly recognized what was happened. Without further warning a solid beam of orange light discharged directly at one of his IFVs, the very same one that was unlucky enough to get caught in the rocket blast seconds before.
Watching with eyes wide and not blinking Dexter saw a sphere of blue appear around the entire armored vehicle as the energy beam slammed into it.
For a fraction of a second the shields around the Centaur held, flaring a deep blue at the impact point before the orange ray finally punched through. The narrow beam of light then sliced through the armored hull like a plasma cutter through paper, causing the composite armor to boil and melt away. Without pause the beam went through the entire Centaur from top to bottom and curved around towards the rear of the vehicle. Underneath it Dexter saw the ground itself ignite as the light moved through the armor. The repulsor projectors lining the bottom of the Centaur were simultaneously destroyed and the whole transport crashed down into the ground before ripping apart in a huge explosive blast when the beam finally emerged from the rear of it. In a matter of a few seconds all of Charlie squad, eight men and women, vanished from existence.
They all had to get out of this area or face the same consequences, Dexter knew, and started running at full force again. He reached the open hatchway of his Centaur and jumped through it. Instinctively he grabbed the overhead hand holds to slow and steady himself before running through the cabin towards his command seat.
“Lets the get the hell out of here!” he yelled out to his entire platoon while watching the Thumper turn towards another of his Centaur’s through his viewfinder.
Being ready of his orders the three remaining IFVs lifted higher into the air and scattered into different directions.
Behind these IFVs were the seven remaining transporters full of precious supplies. As Dexter watched, another energy lance accelerated out from the Thumper and barely missed Knight Two as the vehicle sped away into the forest. The massive walker readjusted once more, this time smashing through a number of buildings with its large legs and focused on another Centaur. Dexter knew it probably wouldn’t miss again, but before the beast could fire something heavy and traveling at immense speeds, slammed into the Thumper’s topside. He saw its shields flash just before another impact hammered home with enough force to cause it to sway sideways. Something blurry finally punched through the red shields and impacted one of the walker’s mechanical legs. One of the knee joints shattered and Dex watched the Thumper stumbled sideways as its other legs tried to compensate for the injury. As his Centaur pulled away from the area he cause a glint of a large Buzzard transport hovering above the treetops.
DUNTAN’S
entire body shook as the hypervelocity cannon balked against his armored shoulder and sent another 55mm slug of ultra-dense alloy at the large enemy Thumper. He watched it strike the already wavering shields surrounding the walker before the tip pierced through and struck one of its heavy legs. The armored animal staggered awkwardly as that leg joint disintegrated upon the slug’s impact, causing the support to grow useless. Being already in motion at the moment the Thumper failed to compensate in time and fell to the forest floor, sending up a shower of dirt into the air.
Looking out of the modified cargo transport’s open side hatch
the colonel observed the final remaining Centaur IFV from Alpha Company, 2
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Platoon escape into the distance just above the treetops. He wished them much luck in their evacuation and refocused the heavy cannon held in his hands at the fallen enemy unit below. Through the falling debris he could already see the vehicle starting to stand back up on its three remaining appendages. With the crosshairs projected in his field of vision sliding over another knee joint he squeezed down on the trigger again.
This time it took only two rounds to shatter that leg
. Like a helpless creature the Thumper dropped back to the ground with the damaged limb detaching from the rest of the body. Its other limbs stabbed and ground into the thick soil beneath in a futile attempt to rise once more. Even heavily injured, though, the walker would not give up its fight, sending a pair of high speed missiles into the air from its backside. These warheads ascended quickly and he gripped the side of the open hatch calmly in anticipation just before the Buzzard transport tilted quickly. It banked into a tight turn under evasive action, all the while discharged a pair of interceptor missiles of its own. These small interceptors ejected from the rear of the vessel and quickly locked onto the incoming projectiles. One of these exploded early as it made contact with the Buzzard’s own missile, while the other continued unabated.
It was only thirty meters out when a stream of bluish plasma bolts intersected with it and burned through its body. The rocket engine within that section
now destroyed, the weapon pitched over and tumbled down towards the forest. Turning his head slowly, Duntan saw Broke, Sergeant Zawelak, standing beside him with his rifle stretched out against his left shoulder. Giving his teammate a nod of appreciation, Duntan turned back towards the still moving Thumper.
“Ready?” he questioned Echo team and quickly
received two green lights in his helmet display.
“Light them up!” Duntan exclaimed a second later
as he sent another pair of hypervelocity slugs at the Thumper, this time directed at its body.
Throughout the whole engagement he had been using the Buzzard’s sophisticated
sensors to monitor the alien walker’s power generation and distribution. It had noted the various surges in energy usages as the Thumper was engaged by the Centaur IFVs and through its own responses with weapons fire. With all of this information Duntan was able to use his own deductive reasoning to estimate the approximate location of the walker’s shield generation unit. It was only a guess, but it proved fruitful when the shields around the unit disappeared as one of the slugs detonated inside the Thumper’s hull.
Upon this direct hit the entire surrounding forest lit up with a rising wall of fire as multiple munitions dropped from the modified transport exploded. They had dropped seconds before from
weapons pods hanging on hardpoints throughout the Buzzard’s fuselage and wings. Since their drop, the plasma dispersal devices had been slowly loitering the airspace above their targets, waiting for the command to strike. Upon receiving such a command all six of these autonomous bombs retracted their glide wings and dropped from the air. They all detonated within close proximity for enemy soldiers, killing or maiming many of them as the intense plasma vaporized everything within its path. To keep other alien units at bay and away from the Thumper for a short period of time, other weapons deployed from the Buzzard and scattered dozens of mines throughout the area of operation.
With phase one of the mission complete Duntan gave the all clear
, “jump!”