First Contact

Part Sixty-Four (Rixen)

Rixen opened his eyes. His mag-rifle opened its eyes, stretched, and linked up with his onboard cyberware. Rixen saw his visor flicker, the firmware and the onboard warboi load up, then it went clear.

He was in a dropship. Across from him was Telrik, who's visor had just cleared.

I live

Rixen heard the docking clamps release and the dropship was, well, dropping.

Nuclear fire lanced near the dropship as it popped chaff and flares, brought up its battle-screens, slammed it's Electronic Warfare suite to maximum power, brought up the targeting arrays, saw the massive armored continent below it and got off three missiles with the seekers primed to find and lock onto targeting guidance wavelengths.

Rixen felt the ship shudder, roll slightly. He looked to the right, where Hepra was next to him.

He saw the thermonuclear forged lance of energy rip through the ship, a split second, a neuron's firing worth the time, frozen as the suddenly molten energy blew through the ship, reaching for him with talons of liquid energy surrounded by the halo of released particle beam.

The dropship exploded less than a kilometer from the huge ship it had dropped from.

I die

Rixen opened his eyes. His mag-rifle opened its eyes, stretched, and linked up with his onboard cyberware. Rixen saw his visor flicker, the firmware and the onboard warboi load up, then it went clear.

He was in a dropship. Across from him was Telrik, who's visor had just cleared. Rixen stuck his tongue out at Telrik, who snorted.

I live

Rixen heard the docking clamps release and the dropship was, well, dropping.

The dropship nosed down, firing thrusters, hurtling toward the vast ocean of armor below it. It got its battlescreens up, popped chaff and flares, thew the EW to max, and rolled to the left. Rixen felt it as the ship suddenly tried to go in every direction at once, the engines howling and shaking the entire ship.

Rixen felt the missile launchers go to rapid fire as the ship corkscrewed down to a Precursor ship so massive it generated a natural gravity field.

The ship suddenly screamed and began to tumble, end over end.

A missile, meant to gut a capital ship, hit the dropship dead on the nose, reducing it to a smear of atomic vapor.

I die

Rixen opened his eyes. His mag-rifle opened its eyes, stretched, and linked up with his onboard cyberware. Rixen saw his visor flicker, the firmware and the onboard warboi load up, then it went clear.

He was in a dropship. Across from him was Telrik, who's visor had just cleared. Telrik winked at him, tabbing a piece of gum.

I live

Rixen heard the docking clamps release and the dropship was, well, dropping fast, rolling as soon as it was clear of the massive ship's battle-screens. It flew through the chaff and vaporized armor of it's own corpses, bringing up EW, popping a drone, and letting loose the entire load of missiles in one screaming jittering ejaculation of guided nuclear penetrator missiles full of dancing capering warbois slavering to slam themselves against the armor of the enemy.

The dropship spun, rolled, and corckscrewed, it omnisensor pace seeing where two point defense batteries were down. The warbois computed the blind spots and jerked the dropship toward it as it launched a second flight of missiles and ejected a thermal core.

Rixen yawned right as a point defense cannon, shooting at the shoals of missiles raining down upon the armored death machine, hit the dropship.

It exploded into fragments.

I die.

Rixen opened his eyes. His mag-rifle opened its eyes, stretched, and linked up with his onboard cyberware. Rixen saw his visor flicker, the firmware and the onboard warboi load up, then it went clear.

He was in a dropship. Across from him was Telrik, who's visor had just cleared. Telrik rolled his eyes and both he and Rixen tabbed another piece of stimgum to chew on.

I live

Rixen heard the docking clamps release and the dropship was, well, dropping. A controlled fall boosted by afterburners as the ship dropped out of its mother's protection. It fired up its own battle-screens, sent its EW howling across the spectrum, and launched every missile it could lay its hands on, aiming for the weakened point defense battery to starboard and the massive nCv battery to port.

Rixen felt the ship go wildly evasive, the fly-by-wire system doing its job and letting the blocky looking dropship quickly respond to the pilot's mental commands. It already was designed so that the dropship wanted to go in every direction at once, only the fly-by-wire system allowing it to be controlled, which meant when the pilot wanted it to go a direction the ship responded quickly because it already wanted to go in that direction.

The dropship was firing everything it had as soon as it came in range, smashing at point defense, main and secondary batteries. It computed it had left the cloud of chaff deposited it by itself and others so it fired off another set, the wavelengths shortened and more precise as the dropship's omnisensors recorded more data, sending it back to the mothership.

It hit the retro's, slowing, trying to get ready to land.

A main battery nCv shot caught it dead center when it got between the cannon and the heavy cruiser nearly 2 light seconds away.

It exploded.

I die

Rixen opened his eyes. His mag-rifle opened its eyes, stretched, and linked up with his onboard cyberware. Rixen saw his visor flicker, the firmware and the onboard warboi load up, then it went clear. Rixen sneezed in reflex after seeing everything in front of him turned inside out.

He was in a dropship. Across from him was Telrik, who's visor had just cleared. Telrik shook his head and then laughed silently behind his faceplate.

I live

Rixen heard the docking clamps release and the dropship was moving, powering, going to full thrust and popping chaff and flares into the diffuse cloud that was already becoming ineffective.

Dropship Tango-331-Alpha took a hit when it slammed into a piece of molten metal that had gotten through the carrier's shields. It spun out of control and slammed into its neighbor.

Rixen had enough time to see the hull buckle before everything exploded.

He managed to start a sigh.

I die

Rixen opened his eyes. His mag-rifle opened its eyes, stretched, and linked up with his onboard cyberware. Rixen saw his visor flicker, the firmware and the onboard warboi load up, then it went clear. Rixen finished his sigh and shook his head.

He was in a dropship. Across from him was Telrik, who's visor had just cleared. Telrik had that weird look that one gets when one started to yawn, got killed, reborn, and their body didn't know whether or not to yawn. Rixen snickered at him.

I live

Rixen heard the docking clamps release and the dropship was powering through the debris and chaff cloud, its engines thundering. It's EW and point defense had been updated, the warboi knowing the wavelengths and frequencies and which cannon could shoot where and what the math looked like for intercept angle.

It fired off a shoal of missiles, yanked the ship counter-clockwise into a corkscrew, then popped chaff.

The nCv shot missed. The missile missiles missed. The particle beam four meters wide and three city blocks long shot wide by three miles. The point defense ate a barrage of missiles.

Rexin tabbed a piece of stimgum. He was getting a bit bored.

The dropship hit the retrothrusters, going slightly nose up.

The skids hit the armor of the behemoth and Rexin perked up.

The sides blew open, the dropship infantry ramps slamming down silently in vacuum, and Rixen's drop-cradle released him. He lifted his rifle and ran out of the dropship.

He had a brief view of a cluster of point defense lasers. Telrik was looking the wrong way and when the beam of light touched him he exploded.

Rixen fired a grenade, the grenade slamming out and blowing up a point defense pod.

By the time the grenade had hit Rixen had been hit by a point defense laser and was free floating carbon vapor.

The dropship reported the armor was three kilometers thick right before its battlescreens overloaded and it exploded, the shrapnel killing the remainder of the thirty men who had ridden down on an express elevator to Hell.

All three of them.

I die

Rixen opened his eyes. His mag-rifle opened its eyes, stretched, and linked up with his onboard cyberware. Rixen saw his visor flicker, the firmware and the onboard warboi load up, then it went clear. The rapid fire rocket pack on his back synch'd up and went to ready.

He was in a dropship. Across from him was Telrik, who's visor had just cleared. Telrik crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue, making Rexin laugh.

I live

Rixen heard the docking clamps release and the dropship was moving, hammering down, nose first. It fired off the atomics ahead of it, released EW, then fired off the missiles following it. It popped chaff in a stuttering pattern as it flew through its previous cloud, thickening them, correcting the wavelengths to be blocked, adding to them or strengthening them.

The atomics hit and bright flashes tore into the armor of the behemoth, gouging a huge hole into it.

The dropship spun, launched more atomics, and tried to avoid...

...the massive plasma cannon shot turned the ship into vapor.

I die

Rixen opened his eyes. His mag-rifle opened its eyes, stretched, and linked up with his onboard cyberware. Rixen saw his visor flicker, the firmware and the onboard warboi load up, then it went clear. His rocket-pack reported everything was fine.

He was in a dropship. Across from him was Telrik, who's visor had just cleared. Telrik rolled his eyes back in frustration.

I live

Rixen heard the docking clamps release and the dropship was on the move, firing atomics, going to max power, corkscrewing and reversing then dropping through the middle of the screw as it fired a second wave of atomics.

The crater grew deeper.

There, the omnisensor detected and open area.

The dropship, and the hundreds just like it falling through space, hit the retro-rockets as it came in, filling the surrounding space with the thunder of unshielded nuclear rockets that threw out a massive EMP storm.

The dropship was the only one to make it into the massive crater, through the kilometer wide hole. It slammed down on the 'floor' and deployed chaff, shifted its battle-screens, and began to reconfigure for armor support.

The sides dropped down, Rexin's harness released, and he charged out, giving his surroundings a quick view. His warboi in the rocket-pack ID'd a half dozen machines charging in and blew out a quarter of the rockets, reconfinguring the creation-engine for armor-defeating hypersonic missiles.

Rexin saw the notification on his HUD and charged, completely confident in the instructions. He slid behind a vast conveyor belt that had identical pieces of metal moving by. He slapped a sticky charge, jumped to his feet...

...the conveyor belt, hit by a rocket fired by Hepra, fell on him, reducing him to smear.

I die

Rixen opened his eyes. His mag-rifle opened its eyes, stretched, and linked up with his onboard cyberware. Rixen saw his visor flicker, the firmware and the onboard warboi load up, then it went clear. The rocket-pack checked. Loaded with mini-missiles, not micro-missiles, with a fast reload creation-engine and a warboi. The warboi sneezed, a common reaction to sudden rehashing.

He was in a dropship. Across from him was Telrik, who's visor had just cleared. Rixen looked to the side at Hepra who snickerd and shrugged. Rixen stuck his tonge out at her.

I live

Rixen heard the docking clamps release and the dropship was hammering down as fast as it could. Screens, EW, flares, chaff, point defense hot and wiping out missiles that it knew what the missiles would do. Spinning right when a plasma-cannon battery shot left, ducking underneath a nCv volley, orienting and getting right just in time.

The doors slammed down and Rixen charged out, across the open space. He triggered the explosive as he ran and saw the massive fabricator rip itself apart when the inversion charge went off. Rexin ran through the smoke, first down the massive corridor. He fired off two missiles configured for cartography, moved around a corner.

And fell down a two mile deep shaft.

I die

Rixen used his jump-belt to clear the shaft opening, moving fast, firing off two more cartography missiles and dropping an alert beacon behind him. He followed the diamond on his HUD, paying attention to the datastream.

I live

He passed Hepra, dead with her head torn off by a machine that had been killed by Telrik who was dead twenty steps ahead, torn apart by a missile. He jumped over the bodies of his fellow troops, landing and spraying off a full load of missiles at the massive machines waiting in the huge cavernous bay in front of him.

Their return fire hit Rexin before his rockets hit them.

I die

Rexin jumped over his own body, spreading out behind the rest of the platoon, keeping up interlocking fire patterns and scrapping machines as they came in. Behind him the dropship, reconfigured for ground assault, clattered on its massive tracks.

I live

Hepra took a missile to the face, blowing her upper body apart, as the machines rushed the invaders. Rexin overrode the slush warning and let the gnashing and wailing warbio fire the hypersonic missiles at enemies he could barely see.

Hepra exited the Assault Shuttle, running full speed, a heavy rocket launcher in her arms, her armor reconfigured for heavy assault. She knelt down.

"ATOMIC OUT!" she yelled over the crackling and static filled channel. The rocket fired out, got a hundred meters from the platoon's front line, blew stealth shields off and went hypersonice.

Hellfire blotted out the machines coming into the massive cavern almost two miles away.

Another Assault Dropship clanked up, blowing out pressurized super-heated coolant up and away from the craft.

Rexin got on one, fired an illumination missile, and revealed the assault that was attempting to get close.

A Precursor anti-armor rocket hit him dead center, blowing him in half.

I die

Rexin felt his armor go live and thundered out. His armor was a heavy assault model, four tons of warsteel and hatred. He left the assault carrier, his omnisensors, as good as the Assault Dropship, reached out and looked for targets. The massive manufacturing bay was behind him. This was a corridor over 200m wide.

I live

Four Assault Shuttles were behind him as he moved up, past the line of soldiers in power armor.

Hepra flashed an 'eat a dick' icon at him and he flashed back a 'rip my ass' icon back.

Telrik signaled that he'd found something new and different. Rexin charged up, all his weapons warmed up, including the massive particle projection cannon over his shoulder. Telrik stood beside tiny doors that had actual switches, not just blank surfaces where the machines would just radio it open.

Bladearm switches.

They were close.

Hepra flashed out a set of cartography missiles and Rexin watched it update his internal map.

Rexin waited for Telrik to move aside the ripped apart the alloy door with his power armor guantleted gloves. Beyond was an auditorium.

"We're close," Rexin grunted.

"FOUND IT!" Hepra yelled.

A maintenance machine dropped from a vent and snapped her head off with a heavy plasma cutter. Other machines swarmed and Rexin let loose with his onboard weapons, wading through the robots, smashing with his fists and crushing with his feet even while his armor's warboi pumped out terrawatts of power from his lasers, particle beams, and masers. A pair of atomics through two different vents resulted in rumbles over a mile away each when the warhead's detected and destroyed enemy machines.

The troop door opened up on the Assault Shuttle and Hepra came out, a thicker neck on her armor. She moved up next to Rexin and checked her status as the missiles linked back up with her.

"Two kay, that's it!" she called out.

The Confed Drop Marines (Clone Worlds) shouted their war cry as they charged toward the Strategic Intelligence Housing of the Goliath.

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TO: Admiral Xhulamir

FROM: Captain Ferniax, CWNV Dancing Geisha

Goliath neutralized. Clone banks at 62%. SUDS Stack at 72%. Slush at 23%.

Am transmitting cartography of this Goliath for analysis.

WE LIVE! WE DIE! WE LIVE AGAIN!

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TELKAN GESTALT QUESTION

Why?

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MANTID FREE WORLDS

You guys be quiet.

TSQ>Why what, dear ones?

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TELKAN GESTALT

Why do they do that? Keep charging in even though they get killed en-masse. Why?

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MANTID FREE WORLDS

Because it's what they do, dear one. Don't be frightened. It's just how they are.

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BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

Ook ook! Me break stuff! Me bored! Ook Ook!

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TELKAN GESTALT

?????

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TERRASOL

They think they're funny. Don't worry, kid. You'll understand eventually. Just hold on to that.

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DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

OH SHIT! IT'S DAD! RUN!

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TERRASOL

Ha fucking ha.

Get off my damn lawn.

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