Authors: Max Feinstein
That line of thinking led him down a darker path, however. What if the Federation was no more? Could the aliens have attacked Earth and every other seat of power? It was this that finally caused him to come a single piece of realization.
For the first time since this all began his family appeared in his mind as clearly as if they were standing right in front of him. With the war they were now probably in jeopardy, perhaps every one of them was already dead and buried beneath a pile of rubble back on Erdinal. That thought alone caused his heart rate to quicken.
Jennifer, his kind, enduring, and passion wife, seemed to materialize before his eyes stilling smiling at him. She was always smiling always there for him and the kids.
The kids, two of them Martin and Gabby, would he ever see their faces again Jonathan began to wonder. They were both getting ready to leave home for college in the coming year. So many thoughts and memories flashed through his mind at the moment that he could hardly control them. He had been holding them back all this time, but now it was as if the floor gates had opened. The wave threatened to subdue and overtake him completely.
Training, years upon years of training and experience, is what finally reined them all in. Once he knew what was happening Jonathan was able to slowly control it. He wrestled control back from within himself and began to gather his thoughts, forcing them back being the wall he had built up.
Panic and doubt quickly started to pass and his beating heart returned to normal as he pushed the feelings deeper inside. They were not conducive to his mission here. If he was going to get home he had to think and act with a clear mind. At the same time he had hundreds of soldiers and thousands of civilians to care for. For now they were his family and responsibility and needed him to function at his utmost to protect them. In the end Jonathan allowed himself only one last consoling thought, that Erdinal had no military value whatsoever and was therefore not even a viable target or threat. That was one of the reasons he had chosen it as a real home for his family. It was a place he couldn’t wait to go back to. A place where war could be the furthest thing from his mind.
“When do you think we’ll get the go ahead on Destona, sir?” It was Charles Helvik that interrupted him this time and Jonathan couldn’t have been more grateful for the man’s distraction.
In truth he actually had think about the answer. The plan about Destona had been put together under General Stelle’s direct authority and it was his call on the proper time to execute it. General Stelle had not been heard back from in almost three days, ever since that day the communications satellite appeared in orbit out of nowhere. It had also been on that day that everyone witnessed the general’s transport fall out of the sky and into the forest. They never found out what happened from that crash since the satellite cut off just as suddenly. Was the Frontiera Command still alive or had the Commander of all military forces on the planet perished at that moment? Answers were far and few between with the communications blackout. All Jonathan knew was that General Stelle’s wishes still stood and they were in accordance with his own. The people still alive inside the occupied city needed to know that the military had not abandoned them. At the same time as many of them as possible had to be evacuated if at all possible.
“We wait a few more days. If we don’t hear anything from FRONTCOM we go it alone,” Jonathan stated with nod and turned to walk towards the rooms exit, “I’ll be in my quarters if needed.”
Perched high up on a large Fronta tree branch Duntan Slaige felt the thick tree trunk against his back and looked down at the forest below. He was actually slightly surprised that the branch could hold the combined weight of him and his armored suit, but then again the planet’s trees had always been known for their remarkable composition and strength. Movement below caught his attention as a group of goteers run past. These four eyed animals looked like a cross between a large goat and a deer and inhabited the forest in great numbers. He knew they were fleeing something happening beyond his vision. His HUD confirmed it by showing the presence of three Echo soldiers moving through the dense trees below on his area map. Duntan could see two of them move as one while a third held steady before the first pair stopped once again and the third rushed back past them only to repeat the pattern once more.
After dispersing from Secturo he had sought out Colonel Carbera and presented him with a plan he had developed. With the
help of the 98
th
ACR Duntan’s team could help lure away the enemy troops pursuing Colonel Hofens and his entire infantry regiment. The 23
rd
Regiment had been charged with evacuating the entire supply convoy from Secturo on their way to Mirjian Peak. To buy them more time the Markus’s Reapers had separated from the actual main force and drawn as much attention to themselves as possible. Markus had agreed with Colonel Slaige that it was time to stop the running and actually hit the enemy from time to time. It was time they knew that the Federation military forces could inflict losses on their troops as well. Duntan was determined to start making the enemy pay for each square kilometer of ground they managed to take.
In accordance with his plan some of his men were now
inside the forest distracting and harassing the enemy squads operating in the area. Minutes ago some of the Armored Cavalry Regiment had popped out of the dense trees for just seconds and had made their presence known. It didn’t take long before a group of alien transports appeared over that very area and dropped off a reinforced platoon sized unit. Duntan’s troops had let those soldiers have a few minutes peace before letting them stumble upon them. It was now these men and women that were moving through the forest and drawing as much fire as possible. Groups of the large enemy soldiers advanced against them and Duntan watched these larger objects finally appear on his map. A group of five moved to take each position abandoned by his own forces while other enemies spread out among the trees.
“Cat ready,” he heard and looked up at another tree over a hundred yards away, where just like him Sergeant Katherine Questok crouched on a thick tree limb.
“Mule ready,” confirmed Faiad a second later from another tree further down the line.
Duntan sent back a nonverbal acknowledge and looked back down at the ground in time to see Jade or Lieutenant Aldrish run by. In one fluid motion she stopped mid-stride, twirled around, and kneeled on the leaf covered ground before firing in the direction she had just come from. In response two orange beams flashed by
with one striking the ground beside her and the second shattered a large chuck off a nearby tree truck. More weapons fire, both friendly and not, was hear right after as two other human operatives ran past. Captain Porter and Lance Corporal Liandro could be seen moving past Jade in their powerful armored suits. Jade waited a few more seconds before he too turned and ran further into the forest behind his two other comrades.
It was at that moment that Duntan finally visualized the enemy.
First it was just a pair of the bearish looking soldiers that ran in on all fours. As they began to stand up in order to fight a barrage of blue plasma bolts hit them from beyond visual range. Each shot was either absorbed or completely deflected by the full body armor worn by the Teddies. Still Duntan was patient and waited for the rest of the group to catch up. It didn’t take long before five other brutish soldiers jogged into view almost directly below the colonel and began to fire back towards the operatives harassing them. Two soldiers stood firing like the first pair while the rest hunched over to bring their large back mounted cannons to bear. These three unleashed a loud and deadly counterattack directed at his men.
His map display
showed other groups of enemy soldiers moving through the forest in order to flank his own warriors, but Duntan had hoped for this to happen. Those flanks had been exposed for a reason. The positions had been prepared by him and his men before the fight had even started. Unbeknownst to those alien creatures they were being lured into those areas.
“In position,” Cat and Mule transmitted almost at the
exact same time to indicate that the two other groups were now in proper places.
Finally
it was time and Duntan triggered the shredder mines. The first group to his left went off a millisecond before the others, sending a cloud of matter and dirt into the air just as those below him detonated. What had only a second ago been seven clearly visible enemy soldiers became a thick cloud of mixed of debris and green blood. He watched various detached body parts fling forth from the center of the alien formation in all directions as the hundreds of bullet shaped explosive flechettes tore into the enemy. Having seen the effects of the shredders before Duntan was relatively unfazed by the gore beneath him. With his special helmet optics he was able to see directly through the thick cloud. Five of the Teddies lay unmoving in multiple pieces and the forest floor was now soaked in green fluids. As he kept watching two of the enemy actually rose off the ground on all fours and stumbled around, trying to regain themselves after the concussive blasts.
“Now,” was all the colonel said to the rest of his team before leaping off the Fronta tree in the direction of one of the unsteady enemy soldiers.
As he fell silently through the air towards his target Duntan’s left hand pulled back and a narrow blade extended outward from its wrist. The Teddy was still in a state of daze when he slammed into its exposed back. His weight drove the creature back down into the ground. This disorientation gave Duntan all the time he needed to pull the cannon atop the soldier’s back away and drive his wrist blade into the area between its neck and shoulder. He felt only the slightest vibration in his left arm as the disintegration field activated around the knife as the tip encountered resistance from the Teddy’s armor. The field was active for only a split second, but it was enough time to destroy the armor beneath the blade and let it slide cleanly into the creature’s body.
Having studied the being’s anatomy days before from the one captured by Alpha Company he knew exactly where to position the blade. He angled it just enough to sever two major arteries and mostly importantly its spinal code at the thoracic level
. The effect on the Teddy was similar to that of a human being. Its lower extremities instantly went limp and the large body collapsed forward to the blood soaked ground. His cut complete Duntan ordered the blade’s retraction and swung both armored hands up to grab the enemy’s head. The entire move to break the creature’s neck was purely instinctual muscle memory, but was a good reassurance to its death.
His right shoulder vibrated at the moment to warn him of motion in the direction and allowed him to quickly turn in time to see the second Teddy rush towards him.
To Duntan it was actually a testimony to the lack of training and combat experience the enemy underwent. Instead of firing its weapon from a distance the soldier had let rage overwhelm him. Before the Teddy even covered half the distance between them Duntan raised his right hand and triggered a directed repulsion pulse. The effect on the enemy was instant. For a moment it seemed to be stopped directly in its tracks, as if hitting a solid wall, before getting quickly thrown back to the ground.
Duntan was upon the Teddy before it could even think about getting back on its feet. He leaped into the air and came down on top of the other soldier’s body, his armored knees smashing into its large chest.
The alien let out a deep guttural groan and tried to swipe at Duntan with its power arm in order to knock him off. Anticipating the fight he clamped down on the Teddy’s wrist with all his might, feeling the armor plating surrounding it crumple from the force applied on it by the powered exosuit. This multiplied strength allowed him to push the Teddy’s limb out of the way, almost completely across its head, to expose the softer underarm area. Not taking any more time Duntan jabbed his left fist into this fur covered armpit and triggered his blade once again. The disintegration field assisted blade instantly stabbed into the creature’s body. Feeling the arm go instantly limp told Duntan instantly that he must have severed the nerve plexus heading into it and the Teddy roared out in pain. He maneuvered the wrist blade inside the alien until the enemy let out one last scream and convulsed before finally going still beneath him.
“Chief, behind you, new group of Teddies,” said a soft voice through his TacLink just as his sophisticated external audio sensors picked up something large fall to the ground a good distance behind him.
Turning around in the already kneeling position Duntan detached his PC-105 carbine from his chest. He brought the weapon up to his shoulder just in time to see another enemy soldier drop dead after its entire head exploded. Having seen damage like that before Duntan knew right away that the kill was the doing of Broke, Sergeant Zawelak, and his hypervelocity rifle. Broke was the team’s designated sniper for his mission as well as overwatch of the entire battlefield.
Duntan mentally thanked the man and squeezed his own trigger at another Teddy as a
third soldier went down a second later with another head shot. This time the explosive armor piercing slug sliced through the soldier’s abdominal armor plate before detonating and shredded the creature’s heart. Even without a functioning heart the Teddy kept moving forward for a moment with its rifle firing deep orange energy bolts in various directions under reflexive neural impulses alone. The movement caused Duntan to adjust his fire and a trio of plasma bolts hit the dying soldier into its now exposed bleeding abdomen. Whether it was those final shots or not that brought that large beast down he would never know, but the Teddy finally succumbed and fell over motionless.