Chapter 11

Trenta was a quiet backwater of a planet. It was quite lovely, but had nothing to distinguish it from any other of over a hundred similar planets that had originally been terraformed. What it had done though was arrange to scatter its non-essential population over many of the thousand islands in its seas rather than stick them in one huge defence bunker. It had then invited the Ground Force Battalion stationed on the planet along with a swiftly formed planetary militia to defend its capital and essential services against the approaching ‘reaper’ ships.

The 467^th, the 33^rd, the 708^th and the 102^nd Regiments of Drop Forces, guarded by the 4^th Fleet, emerged into the system as close to the planet as we could get and we then dropped to the surface to assist the big cities deemed critical to Trenta’s economy.

The 4^th Fleet then went off to try and interdict as many of the alien vessels approaching the planet as it could using massed stocks of missiles and railgun rounds. In this they did well, though rapidly ran out of missiles and were having to replenish them from Fleet Tenders. This break allowed several ‘reaper’ craft to begin their descent to the planet despite all the planetary defence grid could do to stop them.

The medic team I was attached to landed near the largest city on the planet and swiftly set up our station, whilst the other Troopers of the Regiment dug in and prepared what was essentially a massive ambush of sorts for the aliens. That said, we doubted it would be that much of a surprise once we sprung it, as the aliens would no doubt come on anyway.

“Ugly looking thing,” I commented to no one in particular as the ‘reaper’ vessel descended.

“Yep, definitely a total lack of aesthetics on their part,” Meditech Ginnon agreed.

“When we engage, you’ll follow the Meditechs to the front, Kiria, and try to scan the aliens attacking the line,” Senior Healer Flinn spoke up.

“Yessir!” I saluted the lady in charge today.

“Try not to get killed,” she added.

“Do my best,” I grinned, despite my nerves.

In the background a series of sharp cracks sounded as the Troopers with railguns opened up on the still distant enemy. I automatically reached for my polearm (not my original one, but one supplied by Ground Force) and followed Ginnon towards where the firing was coming from.

Lessons it appeared, had been learned. There were no signs of hyperbeam weapons being used, just groups of Troopers formed up to fight as teams surrounding a Trooper carrying a railgun.

“You Healer Kiria?” a Monitor, who already clearly knew, asked as we reached some quickly thrown up defences.

“Yes, Monitor Dalla,” I replied to him.

“Stick with me, Sir, and let’s see if we can get you an alien.”

“No stupid risks,” I advised. “If it looks like it’s going to get loose, kill it and find another.”

“No problem with that order, Sir!”

Soon enough we heard the sizzling ‘roar’ that told us a pack was approaching. All around me the Troopers were gripping their polearms tightly with the pointy end aimed straight at where the aliens were expected to come.

And then they were there, leaping the defences and trying to get in amongst us. Many impaled themselves on the spearpoint of the polearm and were then despatched by a short chop of the axe part of the head. The protocols now installed in the armour stopped excessive wild swings and kept what eventually would be called ‘the mincer’ as efficient as possible.

“Healer!” Dalla yelled as I saw three of the Troopers holding down a raging alien, struggling to get to its feet with three polearm spearpoints holding it down.

I swiftly activated my wand and began a scan, observing the basic details of the creature as well as what I suspected was the shield. I also noted other parts of the Healer network linking in to beef up my suit’s AI and speed up the process.

All around me whilst I did this there was chaos as more and more of the creatures threw themselves against our line.

“Ah, corrillium stranding in the bone structure,” I murmured. “Looks like they’re using mezon waves to cause it to absorb and redirect energy beams away from its body surface.”

“Well spotted, Kiria,” Flinn’s voice came over the comm channel. “Information has been passed on to Fleet.”

“Built in weapon system ... no, built in power supply for a system,” I corrected myself. “Also appears to be immune to various pathogens and poisons, so neurotoxins won’t work.”

“Interesting,” I heard Torun comment. “So physical weapons are our best bet still.”

“Extracting nanite samples into stasis compartment ... bugger!”

“Bugger? What’s a bugger?” Pillot asked. “Never mind, tell me later as I take it something went wrong?”

“Damned thing died on me,” I commented. “It’s nanites just basically ate it.”

“Want another, Sir?” Dalla asked.

“If you don’t mind, Monitor Dalla.”

“No problem. You heard the Officer, she wants another!” he ordered the Troopers.

All along our perimeter there was fierce fighting as the Troopers essentially kept the aliens from going any further. It wasn’t always going our way, of course, but, it wasn’t always going their way either. We were just well dug in and their lighter harvesting aliens were matched by that and our armour.

Hence we soon had another struggling alien pinned down as I went to work examining as much of it as I could, with the results being passed into orbit to a hidden scout ship and hence on to Vreekoos or wherever the results were being examined.

Behind our lines were the civilian volunteers. They were all wearing Guardian armour and were being used in many cases to carry out the coup de grâce on the aliens as the Troopers very often had to move to the next opponent before checking to see if they were dead.

In the ‘reaper’ itself the intelligence that drove the hordes to attack pondered what, to all intents and purposes, was a stalemate. The entire point of invading the planets was to harvest the food of the gods for the masters, not to actually fight the inhabitants. Nor was the being permitted to use the weapons of mass destruction ... at least until the ‘reaper’ made a final retreat, and only then to prevent pursuit or capture. Numbers were not as yet a problem, but, a breakthrough needed to be made and hence the decision was made to send in the next tier of harvesters, along with the weapon platforms to sweep away the rabble that was holding up the mission.

“New creatures sighted!” the AI warned us in its harsh, flat tones.

“One of them is that bomb firing thing, never seen the other kind before; looks like the small ones on steroids though,” Halla commented as I finished up on my last creature and began to heal up wounded Troopers and civilians.

“They have a weak point just at the base of their throat,” I replied. “The armour has to be flexible there. It’s not much but it’s all I have for you for the moment.”

“More than we had before,” he nodded. “You heard the Officer. Go for the throat!” to the Troopers.

The Troopers put up a valiant effort, but it was apparent that these larger creatures were not going to be easy to take down, particularly as they would rush in after one of the bomb firers had done its work. Hence, we were pushed back away from our original defence works to a secondary line which had been constructed of tougher materials as well as being overlooked from our side by taller buildings, from where a series of railgunners were setting up.

“Another gods-damned retreat,” sub-Monitor Braxlis sighed as we pulled back, with me still sorting out his arm from a puncture wound caused by a bomb firer.

“It’s because we got used to fighting a more advanced technical war,” I replied to him. “Beam weapons are useless against these things. Only crude stuff from the past like swords and spears, along with pellet firers, are any use.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” he nodded.

“Empire’s big, we’ll soon produce stuff that’ll work better,” I encouraged him before sending him on his way.

“You’re being ordered to return to the Healer station, Healer Kiria,” Halla informed me.

“No problem. Nice working with you, Monitor Halla,” I replied as we traded salutes.

“Route is clear for you, but I still advise caution, Sir,” he added.

“Good advice. Take care,” I nodded, then headed back to where the Healer station had been set up.

The route was clear, but I wished that the Empire could produce some heavy weapon platforms that could start taking down the aliens at a distance rather than a few sporting weapons and muscle power. Yes, our armour gave us a lot of protection, but even the smallest of the aliens could rip it apart in a one-on-one situation. ‘Can’t be that hard, surely?’ I asked myself.

The Healing station was busy, mostly with civilian casualties as the Troopers were making a good account for themselves with their hand weapons coupled with their armour. The heavier aliens were currently stuck at the new defence line and the war of attrition had resumed. There had been a few attempts by the aliens to travel to the islands where a good few of the population were in hiding, but these had been turned back by a crude missile firing system set up by ex-Fleet members along with a few tech experts from the planet itself. The design had been passed on to FleetInt, but, like with a lot of things, what went into FleetInt never came out until they were ready or had an answer.

“Well done, Kiria,” I was congratulated by Senior Healer Flinn when I arrived.

“Was straightforward enough. Our Troopers can hold a fixed position with their polearms, given numbers and some defences,” I grinned.

“Yes, the government here seems to have had some good ideas on protecting their people, though the news we’re getting from elsewhere is not so good,” he nodded.

“Damn, we need to find a way to fight and win!”

“That we do, but it’s information similar to what you gathered that will do it.”

The intelligence on board the ‘reaper’ correlated the data that was constantly returned to it and went over options. It was clear that the central populated area was well defended and could not be easily breached by the harvesters. Several other areas where high populations could be detected were also protected. Attempts to reach various islands where others were cowering had been turned back and had faltered when the scouting units had been destroyed. Communication with other ‘reapers’ on the planet had confirmed this was not an isolated incident and although they had collected some of the nectar of the gods, they had failed to get to the majority of it.

‘Order a mass assault, ‘ came the eventual consensus.

“Prepare for a major assault!” the AI warned us as the background noise of sharp cracks increased.

“Looks like they’re throwing caution to the wind,” Torun commented.

“Let’s hope we can stop them,” I replied as the first casualties started to come in.

“Different,” Flinn frowned as he examined a Trooper. “Looks like they’re firing some sort of enzyme that dissolves the armour.”

“Nasty,” Torun nodded as she went across to check.

“Also highly toxic as well as corrosive,” he confirmed. “Armour should be able to cope though, once we supply the new data on this stuff.”

“Better hurry,” Torun added. “I doubt the Troopers will be having a good time whilst whatever the hell is throwing this stuff around is attacking.”

She was right, the aliens had breached our perimeter and were attacking and feeding on the remaining now exposed populace who were trying to make it back to some sort of cover, protected by a dwindling number of Troopers as well as the Guardian types who were managing better as the enzyme did not affect their armour as much.

“Have a solution!” I announced.

“AI check, please,” Flinn requested.

“The solution will work. Uploading to all armour!” the harsh tones replied.

At this point there was a sizzling roar and one of the smaller aliens leapt into the Healing site and dashed straight at Torun, only to come up short as I and Meditech Ginnon got between it and her with our polearms. This enabled Torun to draw her falchion as we grabbed our breath slightly and in my case got into the ‘zone’ as I used the pole arm in a similar manner to a staff weapon as in using either end to jab or smash down on it, causing it to draw back further.