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Blue Glitter Water
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POST SOUNDTRACK: Irving Force - Entering Misantropol
You mulled your thoughts for a short while.
"I'm thinking of ways we could drag this out, bait them into sending more troops but not too many at once, and defeat them piecemeal. Floater air cover is thin and I doubt they can talk to each other through this jamming."
"They can," Riggs answered, "The jamming has been pulsing at regular intervals, leaving comms open for a few microseconds. Their encryption is wild so I don't know what they're telling each other, but from what I know of their bandwidth, they're not getting much data through. At a guess I'd say location data of known friendlies and hostiles. I've been trying to predict the next pulse and get a message off to command, but it's just too fast. The intervals are obviously following some kind of cypher, because they're never less than five or more than nine seconds apart. In theory we could hit a Floater fast enough and his buddies wouldn't even know where he went."
"Good to know." You replied. "Right, so safe to assume units on the ground are operating autonomously, save for direct LOS comms. That also means they aren't calling home to warn anyone they're losing. Here's what we're gonna do. We're going to hit them in the middle of Downtown with a feint and retreat south-west. Focus on Floaters, everything else has to hoof after us. We can watch their moves and see how well coordinated they are. We're going to collect a supply dump that Brady will have arranged, and we're going to blitz the Franklin portal. Close it if possible, but otherwise smash materiel and limit their ability to pressure friendly forces. If we hit hard enough they might even close the portal to prevent further strikes. We're not going to hang around and find out. As soon as we've struck, we're sweeping back north-east and smashing into the vanguard that comes after us from the city centre. If we're fast enough we can lay an ambush but otherwise we'll just hammer them from the air."
"That sounds like trying to fight a war on two fronts." Cotton grumbled.
"Get used to it; we're capable of rapid redeployment and that's how these large-scale battles are going to go. If we swat enough Floaters we can thin out their jamming, and command will finally get off their asses and-"
"Finished!" Riggs said cheerfully, standing up. You appeared to have a gauze pad, still wrapped in plastic, taped to your chest. "I know you're not stupid Riggs, but why is the gauze still in the bag?"
"I made a really basic one-way valve! It's open on the back side, but if your chest tries to pull air in through the wound, the plastic schloop gets sucked shut!" She mimics the motion with her hands. "The wound is way too big to try and stitch shut, so I've packed it with gauze and bacta-foam. I managed to get halfway decent sutures on both sides of the lung, so it should reinflate all by itself if it hasn't already. Remind me to tell V that we really need some pneumothorax patches for this kind of thing."
"I don't think shock weapons tend to leave penetrating wounds like this," you replied dryly.
"They do when you get stabbed by them!" Riggs shot back.
You took a deep breath. It felt good, and when you exhaled, you felt a faint tickling gurgle under the bandage.
"It works!" Riggs said gleefully.
"Good work," you said with genuine admiration, "If I can't get you Corporal for your air-to-air skills, we can definitely get you there as an assistant combat medic." You could feel Riggs beaming clear through her helmet.
"Question," Cotton chimed, "How do we know the enemy are going to chase us after we've hit 'em? Like you said, they might just fortify Downtown and start looking for civvie bunkers, if that's their objective."
"The feint is going to be a running fight. I've got a better idea now of how these assholes work together, as long as we don't run too fast, they'll keep chasing us. The Occs won't be able to keep their Warriors on a tight enough leash while we're right there shooting at them, and everyone else will fall into place around them to maintain fighting effectiveness. We just have to stir them up enough they don't get too comfortable while we go back up Franklin Park. Riggs, I want you monitoring air traffic so we don't get grounded. Cotton, ping every single contact you see on the ground, along with their vector. I'll keep the tac-feed updated and painted with their movments. Just keep your ears open and I'll call how we move."
"And the resupply?"
"It will either be a truck from Fenway, parked on the 93 overpass directly west of here, or if they air drop they'll aim for the middle of the transport depot immediately east of the overpass; it won't be hard to spot. Any other questions?" With that you broke camp and were off again.
Your team climbed to 2000ft while heading west-northwest. To the north you saw a trio of Floaters dive into the safety of the skyscrapers of Boston. Further out still you can see the flickers of more Floater engines, zipping among the urban sprawl. The crater that used to be the USPS distribution centre was burning, and from your elevation you saw the entire transit terminal behind it had been turned into an enormous drift of debris, pushed clear across Atlantic Avenue and partially burying the multi-storeys on the other side. There were about a dozen Skut picking through the debris. While you watched, one dug a Warrior's arm from the ruins and began gnawing on it. Several more dived for the prize and a fight broke out.
"Ferals?" Cotton asked.
"I dunno," you replied, "they never behaved like that on the other side. Maybe these ones aren't sentient and the Occs control them."
"I can't tell if that's better or worse than them using suicide vests because they're fanatics."
"Lots of Floater movement to the North." Riggs said. "I can't get a clean lock but looks like at least two dozen. Maybe sweeping? They're changing direction a lot."
"Think they already mobilizied and that's their air cover while they push North?"
"They're looking for something." You replied. "The Collective always have their own objectives, and they very deliberately avoid loitering over friendlies. They'll be on standby to swoop over when we engage ground forces. The main force is elsewhere."
Downtown and North Point were dead. In the grey of the pre-dawn light, the cruelty of the Golborians had become clearer. Even through the choking smoke, you could see the streets were littered with crashed cars and bodies, strewn in radiating lines like debris after a tsunami. Too few to be everyone, but more than could have been claimed in the initial landings. While you were pinned down in Fort Point, the enemy had been busy. The ghostly apparitions from the bottom of the channel flashed in your vision, and you blinked them away. There was no sign of the enemy.
"The fuck did they go?" Cotton blurted.
"Underground?" You said, while pulling up engagement data. "How many of them are left, they can't have all just-"
"Oh shit." Riggs said. "They're in Back Bay East, hoofing straight for Fenway."
Without questioning you wheeled around and jetted back south-west.
"It was hard to make out among all the fires but I was sweeping with thermals and realized one plume was too cold to be a fire. It's dust from an infantry march."
Within seconds you got close enough that the smoke cover thinned and like a reverse mirage, a large mass of contacts became visible marching along the large gardens in the center of Commonwealth Ave. Warriors, some purple-clad, casually pushed trees over as hundreds of Skut milled around them. You spotted several Occulot officers, the distinctive orange sashes of rank draped across their shoulder spines.
"Don't stop shooting until your guns are at 1%, and then you run like hell for the resupply," you said flatly, "I'll cover your withdrawal."
"You'll be overrun!" Riggs blurted.
"You haul ass and go when I tell you, and I'll still be alive when you get back. No creative interpretations or bending the rules, that's a direct order."
Riggs didn't have time to say anything further before you landed hard on a rooftop overlooking the enemy. The Royal Legionaries were already sprinting for cover, but the rest of them weren't even looking at you as your two squadmates landed on an opposite rooftop.
The next fifteen seconds were a roar of gunfire. You fired indiscriminate bursts of machine guns into anything that moved, while your 30mm fired as quickly as the actuators could move from one Warrior to the next. A shock core sailed into the street below you, followed by the searing white arc of a shock beam. In your peripherals you saw Cotton was wielding a shock gladius, complete with auxilary core launcher, while his Rotary-50 vomited rounds so quickly the tracers became a solid beam. Another explosion rocked the next block over, and Riggs reported she'd expended her ammo. You saw her spin on her feet and slice a Skut clean in half with the leading tip of her wing.
"GO!" you roared, jumping off the rooftop and jetting down to street level, picking up speed and deploying a barricade onto your arm before bodily slamming into a Legionary that stepped out of cover. Your sword was already thrusting past your guard and into their chest before they could even steady themself. You twisted their body to face an Occulot and caught the psychic blast intended for you. Cyan fire shot out of the corpse's helmet as their armor contained the conflagration. You fired a 30mm round over the shoulder of your impromptu shield before shrugging it off you. Skut sprinted at you, mouths gaping. You steadied your footing, before scything through them in a series of short, sharp steps and whips of your blade. It was almost exactly like the 3rd Kata. The surprise had worn off and the enemy were starting to congregate on you, shock beams tearing up the asphalt as you launched for cover. You spat several more short bursts towards enemies that were only visible as grey-white ghosts in the thermal range, and were rewarded with the wet thuds of at least one salvo hitting their mark. A Warrior grabbed a parked car and hurled it at your corner, forcing you to fire your jets and scoot backwards into the street behind you. More beams tore up the brickwork as they pushed the street corner, and you sprinted up an alleyway perpendicular to them. You burst into the next street to see a group of them standing in the open, still shooting where you'd been. Your airburst a 30mm round among them and watched them disappear in fire and dust. The first Floater came howling in, cluster bombs already falling from her chest, as another 30mm round burst in her face. You flung yourself the rest of the way across the street, through the glass facade of a cafe and into the backroom as explosions tore up the street outside.
By your count the ambush had killed over two hundred contacts in under thirty seconds, there would only be stragglers left now. It was suddenly quiet inside the darkened building, the sound of burning fires only punctuated by the distant barks of Garakton.
Move to kill!
Where are they?
It's just one left
I'll kill it with my hands!
You only needed to tease them out for another few minutes before Riggs and Cotton returned, fully loaded.
There was a flash of red light and you felt a sensation almost like something hit you. You turned to look as the light blazed again, and then it was like a wave crashed onto you, pushing you to the bottom of the ocean. Your face itched. The source of the light strode towards you, and if you hadn't already been stunned, the sashay of her hips might have done the job anyway. Something in the back of your mind screamed alarm, but it was a long way away. Her body armour did nothing to hide her curves, if anything it enhanced them. Clawed hands unfurled slowly, flexing delicately before they closed again. You were aware of a pawing sensation, as hands gently explored your crotch. You felt the groin zipper of your bodysuit come undone. For a moment you tensed as you expected the phantom sensation to delve deeper, but no exploration came. The face behind the glowing eye smirked. You couldn't actually see it, your vision was becoming a teal negative as your retinas reached exhaustion.
No.
You didn't have retinas, you had bionic vision. Suddenly her face was crystal clear, the glow of her eye a mere glimmer. You could still see the illusion, like a movie playing on a bad projector, but you were aware of the deception. The occulot either didn't notice or didn't care as she continued to pad silently towards you. You struggled to concentrate as the illusion faded. Wait, the light was the illusion, wasn't it? That was getting brighter again. The hands found your groin.
1]] Resist the illusion
2]] Play along and wait for an opportunity
3]] SUCCUMB
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