Authors: Max Feinstein
A tree trunk exploded to his right at that moment, shattered the tree in half, and sent a concussive wave into Duntan’s body. Inside the padded suit he was fully protected
from the change in air pressure. The exosuit also protected him from the heat and shower of splinters that flew in all directions from the blasts center. Using the wave to his advantage Duntan rolled to the left even as he felt pieces of debris glace off his armor plating and came up on his feet already running and firing. Each shot was dead on even mid-run, taking down another of the Teddy’s with multiple shots to the neck and head. At that point he was too close the two remaining enemies to use the carbine so he quickly let it and allowed it to automatically reseal itself before attaching to his chest once more.
It was at that exact same time that he finally braced himself and slammed his shoulder into the closest soldier
. Thanks to his armors synthetic musculature he was able to actually stun the large creature push him into a nearby tree, feeling its chest armor crack from the impact. Remarkable it recovered rather quickly and tried to punch him away. With increased speed Duntan avoided the assault while reaching behind his back to grab one of his grenades. He punched the creature thereafter with the same hand, blocked another swing with the other arm, and stuck the grenade to the alien’s chest. Right after he slammed his elbow into its jaw with all his might. The power behind the elbow destroyed the lower part the soldier’s helmet and fracturing its jaw. Disoriented and growling, with green blood pouring from its mouth, Duntan used all of his enhanced strength to lift the heavy creature into the air. Without a moments delay he launched the over half ton weighing being at the last enemy soldier taking aim at him. The creature was able to only fire off a single shot before the body of its squad mate crashed into it and detonated, killing both in the process.
“Four new transports
on approach, ETA twenty seconds,” Broke informed him at that moment, relaying the data given to him by Colonel Carbera’s Reapers.
Duntan acknowledged and took a quickly look around him. Beyond the dead bodies, some of which were still twitching, littering the immediate area he saw other Echo members finishing off the other enemy squads. The three
operatives that had previously been used to draw the enemy in had quickly returned to fight and were helping mop up the remaining alien forces. He noticed one of his soldiers had damage to his one of his legs and was limping around the field of battle, while another had his right arm held tightly again his chest plate. The unit’s TacLink connection gave the colonel instant information on both soldiers indicating that Cat had a fractured tibia and Joker had broken his humorous. From somewhere behind him a thunderous explosion went off, vibrating the ground beneath his feet and taking his attention away from the health status display. The initial blast was followed by a string of others almost immediately after only these were a little closer than the first.
“
Reapers report new enemy formations coming from the West and North,” Broke transmitted right after the last detonation.
“I guess we’ve overstayed our welcome,” Duntan said and glanced around him one last time, “everyone pull back to EZ Two.
Let the Reapers deal with those transports.”
SITTING
two kilometers away in his Multispec covered Beacon armored command vehicle Colonel Markus Carbera watched the entire ambush engagement unfold atop a wooded covered hill. From this elevation his instruments were able to monitor Colonel Slaige’s SOU Echo and his own armored cavalry platoons maneuvering through the dense forest. Some of his units were now hovering steady just above the forest canopy and were starting to bombard the newly detected enemy forces. These units were almost completely invisible to all means of detection due to their adaptive camouflage. Divided into three separate forces the alien formations were trying to surround the Marine Special Operations team and close off their escape routes.
Upon his orders the Regimental artillery unit let loose with a barrage against the centermost formation before moving to a new location in order to avoid return fire that would surely be coming. Markus knew they only had a limited time before the enemy ships in orbit
flew over their location and firing down on them. When he heard Duntan call for extraction at the secondary zone he quickly reorganized his forces. One formation composed of mostly infantry fighting vehicles and half of the Reapers Chimera tanks broke away and began to fight their way towards EZ Two. These heavy units had little trouble breaking through the enemy infantry formations. On the glowing screens in front of him Markus could see a few of his IFVs take some damage, but none of it was excessive enough to warrant much attention.
At the same time the rest of
the camouflaged Reapers tanks rose slightly higher above the tree tops and unleashed a concentrated salvo of particle beams against the incoming alien transports. A number of cameras affixed to the Chimera tanks allowed him to visually see the blue particle beams strike the large transport craft as they flew towards what was previously team Echo’s combat location. To try and avoid the fire the enemy formation split up and began evasive maneuvers. For two of them it was already too late, their shields held for a few seconds, but the heavy barrage took its toll, causing the crimson protective layer to sudden fail. The first transport quickly detonated in midair. Its shattered debris hadn’t finished falling to earth when the second craft lost altitude after taking multiple hits across its entire body. Markus saw large holes form in its weakened hull plating and a number of large bodies fall out before it slammed into the forest canopy.
On the other display he watched the small beacons representing Duntan and his marines finally emerged at the small clearing labeled EZ Two. His units reached the locations seconds later and Markus thankful saw each individual of Echo disappear into one of his IFVs
. Without waiting the armor vehicles accelerated towards another predestinated meeting area. It was at that moment that part of the forest exploded up sending whole trees flying into the air. The blast was followed and two others in the exact same location before the underground detonations switched a new area of the forest.
Only an insignificant shudder could be felt as the Centaur smoothly accelerated forward once more. What remained of the 23
rd
Infantry Regiment surged ahead as one cohesive unit with the rescued cargo transports inside its center. They had stopped for a short break as well as a quick meeting between all of the unit commanders headed by Colonel Benjamin Hofens. After days of travel it was still clear that no one really knew where they were going. General Stelle had ordered them all to Mirjian Peak, but had revealed no other information to them. Now they were approaching this distinct location still had no idea of what to expect or do once they got there. Everyone assumed it was some type of hidden military installation or bunker, but nothing about it was noted on any tactical maps they had of the area. As such Colonel Hofens had devised a plan in which small units would break off from the main force and scout around Mirjian for any sort of entrance. At the same time his communications specialists would broadcast a constant message over TacLink in case there were actual troops or at the very least an RAI looking over the facility.
Spread out around the 23rd, in the different small valleys between the many hills of the region, were other small units that had made it out of Secturo.
They were patched together formations of armored and infantry platoons as well as lighter support units. Their original units had been caught off guard just like everyone else during the start of the invasion and had been decimated by the enemy. The assault on Secturo had further degraded some of their capabilities. Still, even with so many losses, they continued to fight on. Hatred for the enemy now fueled their ranks and gave them something to fight for. Besides, there was really nowhere on the planet to retreat to if they wanted.
Inside his moving IFV Dexter Iorns knew those men and women would continue to fight until the last of them. It was what they had trained for and
it was the reason for their being on Frontiera. The planet’s sole purpose was to function as a garrison in order to help stem the tide of any would be invasion into United Plants Federation space. Anyone serving on it knew their role in the order of things and knew what it meant for them to serve on Frontiera. Each one of these soldiers also had families spread across the entire Federation. Because of them they would fight not only for themselves, but more importantly for their husbands, their wives, their children, as well as their mothers and fathers. Without saying a word Dexter knew what everyone was thinking. The war couldn’t simply be on this one seemingly insignificant planet alone, which meant that those same families were now possibly in danger.
In this time of hardship they were all brothers-in-arms and did their utmost best to keep one another from crumbling beneath the heavy burden facing them.
Thinking about everyone around him caused his mind to wonder about those were not. Some had not been so lucky and had perished without even firing a single shot, but others had died bravely in battle never to be seen again. Most of their bodies had not even been covered due to the fact that there simple had not been enough time and opportunity. Others, however, were not with the main group for an entirely differently reason. They were out there now trying to hit back at the enemy, something Dexter deeply wanted to do. Sitting there inside the safety of his armored vehicle Dexter bounced his knee up and down wishing he was out there with Colonel Slaige and the 98
th
ACR. Lieutenant Iorns knew the rest of his platoon felt the same way.
Unlike them Dexter was instead charged with babysitting a bunch of cargo carriers, while those in command
tried to figure out what to do with Mirjian Peak. To him they should instead be devising plans on how to recover the lost General Stelle. Few really believed that the enemy had killed him. They wouldn’t have extracted him from the crash of his transport if they had because they would want everyone to see the body in hopes of being demoralized. At least that’s what he would have done, Dexter thought to himself. The only way to be fully certain was an organized rescue operation. Word was that Captain Karina Paitel’s recon units had tracked the flight of the alien craft from the abduction to Destona or the area surrounding it.
Trying to get his mind off the situation he really had no control over, Dexter turned his elevated seat towards the front of the Centaur and glanced at the display monitors of his command station.
To either side of him were the other three Centaurs of 2
nd
platoon moving forward in formation. Each was still clad in cut out sections of Multispec netting and were barely visible to the naked eye except for their slight shimmer effect as they moved over the purple colored grass that lined the valley. Around these IFVs were other units of the Infantry Regiment, some of which had also been covered in the netting under orders from Colonel Hofens. There was not enough of the material to get every vehicle, so it had only been approved for use on a mission priority basis. Command vehicles were the first to be protection in order to ensure a functional command structure. Secondary units such as those assigned to air defense were then distributed what little netting remained.
Further out,
as far as the eye could see, was a sea of hills. These rolling mounds of earth and rock made up the geography of Telachia. The entire continental region was composed of variable elevation hills and the valleys that connected them. Near the forested area to the west and north these hills were densely wooded, but this feature slowly gave way to tall grass covered ones. The further one ventured from Secturo Park and the surrounding preserves the more the landscape changed. If war had not been the only thing on Dexter’s mind he would have actually found the region quite beautiful, with its tall purple grass contrasted by bright multicolored flowers that blossomed at the higher altitudes. In opposition to the many hills the entire region of Telachia only had a handful of real mountains, the tallest of which was Mirjian. Even so it was still relatively low in elevation by mountain standards of Frontiera. To the general onlooker there was nothing really special about the geographical landmark.
It was during this look around that Dexter began to note something very strange. Various vehicles, first as singles and then in pairs or more, began to slow and fall behind as the formation advanced. They seemed to be slowing to a halt and simply hovering in one place without any movement whatsoever. He instantly recognized the sign and started to call out a warning across their regimental TacLink when a pair of enemy Alpha fighters appeared on the horizon and began to race across the entire length of the moving column
of military units. To their credit the defensive barriers shattered throughout responded to the threat almost immediately. From well camouflaged locations a dense web of concentrated particle beam fire erupted over the airspace.
With only a pair of fighters to deal with Dexter watched the beams quickly find their mark.
It seemed like both of the craft were hit at the same time. Their shields flared, but held for a moment. He saw one beam catch the left side fighter directly under its wing with enough force to spin it upside down. At almost the same moment a missile streaked up and exploded against the wing, taking half of it off in the resulting explosion. The Alpha spun out of control, but recovered rather quickly. It turned away from the fire and seemed relatively safe until two other particle beams struck its fuselage. The small craft detonated before it could even leave the edge of the Regimental formation. Another explosion caught his attention at that second and Dexter switched his view in that direction. There he saw a plume of smoke rising from the top of a hill. A closer look exposed the strewn wreckage of the second Alpha fighter.