A Rain of Demons, Page 2

  “Yah, Giles lead their way.”

  A short Croatian local nodded and motioned for us to follow. “This way.”

  “Oh!” I said before we left. “There is a big freaking hole in the door. You might want to do something about that.” The soldier grunted and started plodding down the hallway with weapons raised. They were brave but I worried that their weapons wouldn’t be enough to keep the ‘Tal at bay under even light attack.

  The young soldier lead us around hallways and stare wells as we worked our way back to the great hall from the other day. “What is the situation?” I asked the man.

  “I don’t know if your cleared Sir.” he said. “But between us its not good, they landed outside our turret range and started swarming toward the city. We think they are going for the AAs so they can land their main force in the city.”

  “That sucks, and I’m not a knight.”

  “What?” he asked.

  “No Sir.” I said. “I’m not a knight.” We reached the huge room and it was buzzing with activity. The rest of the space had been filled with more war tables and displays filled with tracking dots and ships that were in varying degrees of detail depending on working sensors and machines.

  “Grumman!” Bernard shouted. “I can use your opinion on this.”

  “Well I’m glad to see you too.” I said.

  “Yes, yes, I’m happy to see you survived your little excursion but your alive and we’ve got a lot of fish to fry.”

  “OK,” I said. “What do you need?”

  “This.” The man said, “is a display of the southeastern quadrant, of which I have been put in command.”

  “You have experience in C&C?”

  “Decidedly not.” The Governor’s assistant said, “and neither does any of our soldiers. Nothing but training and regulation, and none of the forces will take commands from the other.”

  “Fallen Earth.” I said, “your in a fox hole without a reload.”

  “Exactly, which is where you come in.”

  “I don’t have command experience,” I said.

  “No,” he agreed. But civil defense is part of the core curriculum in every Imperial preparatory school and academy and you’ve been under fire yourself. I need your assistance.”

  “Fine,” I relented. “What are our assets and intel.” Bernard waved his hand at the closest display. The Croatians may not be as militarily powerful as the Empire but their functional tech was on par, and the screen reacted to his cybernetic signature and displayed the city in a battlescape. Units under the command of the Governor and other two commanders appeared in blue and Bernard’s were in green. Known ‘Tal locations were read patches on the map. The alien’s jamming tech prevented us from detecting individual aliens and gave them a comparative tactical advantage. While blinding both of us the aliens always fought without pinpoint sensors.

  “As you can see we are under attack from all directions. The city walls have been breached here, here, and here in our sector. The inner walls aren’t doing much to slow them either.”

  “At least you had the foresight to build them,” I said. “Its delayed them enough for you to organize any sort of resistance.”

  “Its funny.” Bernard snorted. “Its such an archaic method of defense.”

  “But oh, so effective.” I finished for him. Bernard just grunted.

  “What am I doing wrong?”

  “You are trying to hit all of their teams simultaneously. Condense your forces and strike at targets of opportunity. The ‘Tal prefer docile and whimpering populations when they can get them so they won’t breach most buildings unless they think its tactically advantageous or someone is shooting at them from it. That is until they think the defenses are crushed; then all hell breaks loose for civilians, and I mean that in the most literal sense.” Highlighting several units in succession Bernard ordered a series of tactically complex moves that would flank several known units of aliens. While untrained the man had a serious tactical mind.

  3

  Considering the raw nature of the local militaries they responded well to the change in tactics and I watched as they successfully brought heavy firepower to bear on several enemy positions and overrun them in short order. Fortunately for the colonials the ‘Tal couldn’t do much against a firing line if their numbers weren’t high enough to get close. As long as the AA guns remained a threat it that wouldn’t be too big of a problem.

  Suddenly the building’s power shut down and there were shouts from deeper in the building. The fireplace on each wall cast eerie glows on the walls. There was one great balcony overlooking the city proper and a terrifying sight presented itself. Tarin’Tal landing craft were breaking atmosphere across the visible sky. Thousands of them, many more than the ships in orbit could have launched. The aliens had received reinforcements. “No.” Bernard said in denial.

  “Fallen Earth.” I said.

  “Fallen Earth.” Half a dozen men echoed. A wave of light filled the room and I feared the worst, but it wasn’t an orbital kinetic hit. The power had simply come back on and the room exploded to life again with reports streaming across every screen. Only half the AA guns were active and even though they were cutting devastating swaths of destruction among the aliens the ‘Tal kept coming. Heavy casualties are always acceptable to their tacticians in exchange for territorial victory.

  “I’ve lost contact with squads eight and nine.” One of Bernard’s officers yelled.

  “Four was just hit by three enemy squads” Another said in haste. Reports of defeats and routs were pouring in from every station in the room. The ‘Tal reinforcements were landing in the city itself and there wasn’t anything the colonial militia could do to stop them.

  “Recall all troops to the southern gate!” Bernard demanded. “Disengage.” He looked to me for reassurance and I nodded.

  “There’s nothing you can do against those numbers. All we can do is try to keep them more concerned with us than the civilians in the city.”

  “I wouldn’t blame you for heading to the pads.” Bernard Said. “Just because we are going to burn doesn’t mean you have to too.”

  “No,” I disagree. “It does. You see that?” I pointed to a streak of known enemy positions. “They know where the main ports and lines of transportation are and have cut us off. Besides there are hundreds of gunships in the air already. We’d never get airborne let alone off world. The ship is safer where it is.” Bernard grunted.

  “Makes sense.” He continued giving more commands and issuing final orders to his retreating troops.

  “What are we going to do?” Suzie asked. “And don’t give me a little kid answer.”

  “Well,” I began. “first we are going to fight, then we are probably going to die or be enslaved by the Tarin’Tal along with this planet.”

  “Why are you so calm?” She said again.

  “Because… I don’t know.”

  “Ok.” Suzie clenched her fists. “Then I’m going to be calm too. Lets not be slaves.” She said emphatically.

  “But that means death.” A young woman who had been serving drinks to the thirsty officers until the power outage said.

  Suzie walked directly up to the woman and looked strait into her eyes. “Lady, I don’t know what you’ve done in your life to have such smooth hands and clean cloths but I can tell you that every day of the week I’d rather be dead than work for one of those monsters. They killed mommy and daddy and by Fallen Earth I won’t help them with one second of my time. If mommy and daddy and Vince aren’t afraid to die then neither am I.” The little girl huffed, spun on her heals and marched back to me, adjusting her gravity gauntlet as she walked.

  “Well that settles that.” I concluded.

  “What say you? How about we go plug some holes downstairs?” I said looking down at the fierce little girl.

  “OK.” She said cheerily.

  As we walked I could hear a quiet exclamation of “such profanity.” From the aristocratic woman. Suzie’s entire
point was lost on her; but by the growls from several soldiers I could tell that the loss of Suzie’s little speech was hers and only hers. The child had done more to embolden the cities defenders than any general could ever hope.

  Giles followed us back to the breach point where the Tarin’Tal had been trying to burn their way into the capital fortress and sure enough the outer wall was glowing red hot as more tried to force their way into the building. “Someone get a pulse cannon ready!” The commander yelled. To their credit his subordinates had already set up two of the heavy weapons in crossfire positions and we all waited for the enemy to breach the door. The beam of superheated partials pulsed outward as it broke the opening wider and started to track left, hoping to catch the defenders unaware. Before the beam reached them, however, the pulse cannons began firing back up the stream and struck the weapon platform, causing the beam to cut out and a loud boom to reverberate off the outer walls.

  The soldiers foolishly ceased firing in the green hope that their enemy had been vanquished by such obviously overwhelming force. “No! Keep firing!” I shouted, but it was too late. A huge bull, its tusks extending a full two feet in front of its jaw, burst into the room, impaling one of the defenders instantly. Giles, for his part, opened fire along with me and the beast’s shoulder suffered several hits. Suzie then fired her weapon, which was seriously dangerous to everyone in such close quarters, but the blast was high and only clipped the ‘Tal, tearing its torn shoulder almost completely off. I advanced and double tapped the beast in the head.

  “Advance!” The commander shouted.

  “No!” I shouted. “Don’t!” It was too late and to the commander’s credit and misfortune he was the first out of the breach. He returned less than a second later, his entire upper body charred and burned by a full kinetic blast. The rest of the soldiers wisely heeded my advice and took cover as another series of blasts hit the wall opposite the breach.

  “What do we do?” The second in command asked me. I glanced out of the hole only to yank my head back to avoied another blast.

  “Suzie, when I tell you hit the outer wall with a full blast.”

  “But I almost killed everyone firing it inside a second ago.” She screeched.

  “I know, just do it ok?”

  “OK.” She agreed.

  “Everyone get ready, when I tell you form a firing line and lock shields. This is going to get messy and hard to see, so check your side men now.” I gave the soldiers a half second to make eye contact with each other before throwing the plan into action, it relied on speed. “Now.” I told Suzie and threw myself to the internal wall a split second before the outer structure facing the attacking aliens was blown from its foundations. The concrete and other building materials had been weakened by the ‘Tal’s own attack and had turned into deadly projectiles that slashed skin and crushed bones.

  I was about to shout NOW! to the soldiers but their training had kicked into overdrive and they already had their shields locked together in the now open space between us and the ‘Tal. The great thing about any human military was the interlocking shield wall, it made any human line infantry a serious and deadly force to be reckoned with. The ‘Tal unleashed their blazing hell on the soldiers but the energy scutum shields absorbed their weapons with ease. Unless the ‘Tal quickly flanked the line the soldiers could chew through the aliens at will, and chew they did. “Steeeady, fire!” BLAM! their plasma rifles cracked. “Steeeady, fire!” BLAM! the human soldiers discharged their weapons again and again. Over half the attackers had been cut down before the realized what was going on.

  “Suzie!” I yelled. “Don’t let them around the left!”

  “Right!” Her little voice rose above the turmoil. I switched to high yilded plasma rounds and took a kney, waiting for the inevitable ‘Tal to come flying around the side of the line, seeking to tear them open from behind. The first one burst into the light from the dust, blood trailing where it had been hit by chunks of rock and a few plasma blasts. I exhaled and tracked its head. Crack-blam! The shell exploded out the back of its head. The beasts may be able to take several hits to the body, but you take away the brain and they are as dead as the next alien.

  4

  I hared the faint sound of grav distortion and then a bone-shattering crunch from behind me. I chanced a glance back and saw that Suzie had thrown a big bull back several hundred feet into the remains of a fountain. The end soldier put several rounds into its chest and ended the alien’s life. A second of silence turned into two and I stayed waiting and listening to the panting of the soldiers and watching the curling of dust in the air, searching for any trace of alien movement, but all the attackers were dead.

  The exchange had turned the entrance into a wide foxhole and the soldiers quickly went to work turning it into a fortified position. “Keep low.” I warned. The enemy controls the sky and we don’t want to attract their attention. I looked up and watched the gunships and landing vehicles buzz through the sky, homing in on targets and pre assigned landing zones.

  “Not good.” One of the soldiers said. “They’ll swarm us again any minute.”

  “What do you want huh?” Giles said. “To give up? Only twelve craft have landed in the Southern Zone so far and our squads in the city are still on their way back. They have a chance to get back. If they get back we can fight, maybe take them all with us. We can do that right?” He asked me.

  “How do you know twelve?” I asked.

  “I’m good with maps and trajectories.” He said dismissively. “We can hold can’t we.”

  I took a deep breath, hoping there wasn’t anything toxic in the rubble that now filled the air. “With a few squads and some more firepower…” I looked back at the wreckage of the pulse cannons that were somehow destroyed in the mayhem. “Against twelve ships? It’ll take a cohort of guardian angels and the complete massacre of their air force but maybe.”

  “See that!” He shouted. “It Captain Grumman thinks it’s a maybe for beating them, then by Fallen Earth we can give them bloody hell for hitting out planet.” There was a grumble of agreement from the remaining soldiers. They were all locals and were seething with rage as they watched the glow of buildings burning in their city. All of them had either been children in the exodus from old human space or had grown up with the stories, so all of them knew first or second hand what they had gone through to build New Croatia.

  “Wow. EM off the chart.” The remaining tech said. “I’ve got comm.” He tried contacting command through the device but the voice coming back through wasn’t human. Instead a rumbling growl greeted him. He slammed the receiver down shouting “bloody ‘Tal!”

  The remaining cloud cover was blown away in a distant gravity wake, which while we still felt, didn’t throw us off our feet. “NO!” Several of the locals yelled. A huge juggernaut had entered the planet’s atmosphere and was picking targets on the planet to aim its capital weapons at, obliterating everything it chose. “We are all dead.”

  Another series of gravity wakes buffeted the foxhole and this time we felt them hard. The ships had to be right above us. “This is the end.” Giles finally agreed. I looked the huge shadow but didn’t see the ugly underbelly of a juggernaut with a cannon aimed down at our heads, but instead the sleek form of an Ishikawan destroyer, guns blazing and Imperial Crest as vibrant and glowing as an angel’s avenging sword.

  “Looks like we have our cohort of angels!” I said, grinning. “You don’t know the boys back home.” The destroyer’s forward weapons were trained solidly on the juggernaut and the top and bottom cannons fired in unrelenting rotation, driving it beyond the city’s outer wall. Suddenly another flash and gravity wake hit us and the second destroyer appeared next to the Juggernaut, unleashing its own weapon. The destroyers were only a tenth the size of the alien warship, however, and they were taking a serious beating. One of the destroyers top cannon took a serious hit and fell silent.

  The blow must have caused the captain to swallow his pride and radio th
e Relentless because it was then that two dozen orbital shells rained down on the juggernaut, blowing its midsection into dust and taking it down. “They wouldn’t have come without a full siege brigade. I said to the soldiers, find something to hang onto. This is going to be rough.” Immediately as I predicted a huge sensation of weightlessness hit me and I had to grab onto a support beam sticking out of the fox hole’s rim to keep from floating a few feet off the ground and slamming back down; which would have hurt all the more in the planet’s gravity.

  We were now entirely in shadow and the wonderful, brilliant, and blessed sound of Peregrine fighter engines flooded the city. Hundreds, no thousands of the agile weapons of destruction poured from the form floating form directly above New Croatia’s capital. “What is that?” A soldier stammered as he starred directly upward, his jaw as slack as an empty coin sack.

  “That,” I said, looking up at the circular form bristling with cannons, gatling, flack, and energy weapons, “is an Imperial BattleWagon, the Constitution, and its here to help.”

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