Ravens of Eternity

Chapter 77

77 Massacre at Dendrus, Pt 111 Years Ago – Dendrus IV

Fire fell from the sky as multiple fleets tore each other apart in the upper atmosphere. Dendrus IV’s gravity pulled down the debris and detritus greedily, and burned them to atoms as they descended. As though in offering.

In turn, the ashes and soot darkened the sky and blotted out the sun.

Cast under ominous grey shadows, the planet was battered by constant conflict year after year for nearly a decade. This left almost all of her surface scarred and wounded and incapable of life. Those who fought for domination of the planet left it little more than a ravaged, barren rock.

Amidst the ruins of a once-bustling Federation city, Legionnaires defended bitterly against a combined platoon of elite Hegemony Hussars. Unlike the hard, solid angles of the Legionnaires’ mecha, the Hussars’ mecha chassis were much sleeker, flashier, and more agile.

The wreckages of their mecha lay strewn all over the battlefield, many with their cores torn open and bloodied.

Just beyond the empty husk of a city was a large Federation bunker dug into the side of a large hill. The hill itself was riddled with deep craters and scorched earth. Surrounding the hill and flanking the heavy bunker airlock were over a dozen heavily reinforced pillboxes armed with monstrous chainguns. They kept an eye out for any intrusions, and fired red-hot explosive rounds at anything that came within range.

It was as though the guns spat streams of dragonfire at their targets, to the point where there was nothing left but molten slag.

The airlock doors were being attended to by a number of diligent repair mecha. The front set was heavily dented and damaged, and so half the team was focused on repairing. The inside doors were relatively untouched, but the other half of the team worked to reinforce them further.

.....

They knew it was only a matter of time until the next wave, and they patched up the worst breaches possible. But with their repair materials dwindling, they knew that they wouldn’t even come close to repairing them all.

Just on the other side of the paired airlock was the mecha hangar, half of which had been converted into a repair yard. There, numerous mecha lay in pieces as drones and mechanics worked to put everything back together. This too was a scene of chaos as man and machine worked tirelessly to keep their mecha up and running.

Only a scant few hundred mecha were ready to join the fray, having only recently been patched up. Metallic scars were criss-crossed all over their armor. Deep in their cores were their exhausted pilots, sleeping soundly. With few moments to rest, they took whatever they could, whenever they could.

In the corner was an ever-increasing pile of scrap parts. Most had been dented and crushed by devastating blunt weapons, and were inoperable. Others had been wrenched apart by sheer force, and were irreparable. A few had taken such a beating that it was impossible to tell what part it used to be, and were useless.

A number of drones hovered over to the pile and activated shimmering antigrav fields underneath them. Various loose parts were slowly pulled up into those antigrav fields, and stabilized within.

Once all the drones had collected an assortment of scrap, they then traveled down a number of hallways, and maneuvered their way deeper into the bunker. They were programmed to cart the parts back to the forge, where they were to be melted down and re-printed anew.

Along their pathway was a guarded, highly secure door that led straight into the bustling command center.

Inside, dozens of technicians sat at their stations while a handful of officers stood in the center. They were surrounded by screens along all four walls, while the center was a dull metal table with a large, dynamic, three-dimensional tactical map overlaid on top of it. It looked as though the city had been carved out of a single slab of titanium, and every detail was exacting.

It mirrored the city precisely, down to the cracks and debris around the destroyed buildings. Every unit on the field was represented on it with unit markers that exactly matched its real-life counterpart. More impressively, the markers moved and the map changed according to what was actually happening on the field of battle.

The tacmap was a technological marvel, the finely ground titanium was controlled by a nanite cloud connected to every sensor in the area. It reported every action in real time.

On it, the mecha that were on both sides of the fight were in a pitched battle against each other. The different sides were distinguished by holographic flags that were projected above each of their markers. Federation units had the Sol logo on their markers, while the Hegemony’s interlocked triple ouroboros hovered above theirs.

And the city was beyond being a disaster zone.

Reason being, there wasn’t a clear battle line in the city any longer. Friendlies and hostiles were intermixed, and everyone was flanked by everyone else. There was nowhere to turn without running into a stream of bullets, and the engagement devolved into a brutal two-way massacre.

Both armies had taken heavy casualties throughout all the fighting – unit markers fell one after another, their flags replaced with red X’s.

A number of officers that stood around the tacmap looked on at the chaotic spectacle, too stunned and afraid to move or speak or think. Cold sweat gathered on their brows and collars as the bodies piled up before them.

“We’re doomed,” said a junior officer.

The words cut through the room and lingered in the air.

On the tacmap, the once-mighty 56 Alpha Legion was reduced to less than a couple dozen. They had been pinned inside of the ruins of a large building, and were surrounded on all sides.

More and more Hussars joined the encirclement, and completely closed off the Legionnaires. They continually assaulted their position with all manner of weapons fire. Bullets, plasma beams, grenades all hammered them.

Federation mecha fell, one after another until there was only one left.

The officers watched as the last mecha leapt out of cover and headed right to the center of it all. Then, like the others, it simply turned into a red X. But then, the ground under that last one expanded into a circular crater. Hussars that were closest turned into red X’s as well, as though a wave of death had caught them.

Before anyone could speak again, the entire bunker rocked as a shockwave passed through them. The muted rumble of an explosion came right on its heels. Some were thrown to the ground or knocked aside by the sudden force.

Another officer pulled himself up off the ground, his hand on the tacmap edge for support. When he came up to it at eye level, he stopped completely. He was shocked by what he saw – red X’s covered the entire city.

“Core detonation,” said another officer, her voice solemn and hoarse.

Her face was hard as stone as she absorbed their losses. One of the other junior officers however was filled with anxiety and dread.

“We are so fucked!” he cried. “Most of the legion’s dead, those who aren’t are fuckin’ traumatized, and we ain’t got shit left for defenses!”

“Pull yourself together,” barked a senior officer.

Earlier, the senior officer had fallen painfully on his knees, but he still pushed himself up and dusted himself off regardless. He didn’t have a choice, anyway. The only thing that mattered to him was his orders.

Losses were always hard, but failure to carry out orders was hell. At least, to him.

While the junior officer collected himself, the senior officer quickly moved to a fallen comms operator and helped him back in his seat.

“Send an SOS to HQ immediately,” he ordered. “Relay: Legion Five-Six-Alpha, virtually neutralized. Seventy-five percent down, eight percent out. Defenses nearly exhausted. Loss of position imminent. Request immediate reinforcement.”

“Yessir.”

The comms operator immediately turned towards their terminal and relayed their status to high command. His hands sped around the terminal as they expertly worked their way through ComSec protocols.

The senior officer turned back towards the tacmap and leaned on it for support. The pain in his knees hadn’t subsided, and he winced with every step he took.

The junior officer was aghast at his superior’s actions, and didn’t hesitate to make himself be heard.

“Why’d you even bother sending that? They’re not gonna reinforce us. There’s nothing important or strategic about our position. All that we’re here for is to grind down their numbers – along with ours! I already said that we’re gonna die. And it’s ‘coz command’s gonna let us.”

“Watch your tone!” snapped the female officer. “Or do you wanna be charged for insubordination and contempt?!”

If it were possible, her gaze would have shot a gaping hole right through him. Conversely, his sneer could have snapped her in half.

“Yeah? What’re they gonna do? Arrest me? Hah! I’d be happy if they did! Means they take our little Legion seriously! But they don’t! They threw us out here at half strength with zero backup and minimal resources. Doesn’t that make you feel like fucking bait? Don’t you think we’re supposed to die?”

This time the woman was taken aback. She was angry, yes. But he had opened her doubts wide open, and her faith in the Federation was shaken. Badly.

Would they actually do that to us?!

“Enough!” yelled the senior officer.

Everyone stopped and stood still as his voice reverberated around the sealed room. The two junior officers cooled down and backed off, but left a dark rift between them.

The senior officer continued, his voice harsh and yet filled with conviction. Although he directly admonished his junior officer, he made sure that everyone in the room heard what he had to say.

“It doesn’t matter if we’re the most or least favored Legion in the entire history of the Federation. It doesn’t matter if we’ve been left out to dry. What matters is that we do our duty! If we’re to hold here to the last soldier, then so be it! Or have you forgotten your oath so easily?”

His words sank down into each of their minds and settled deeply. He was right, of course. It was their duty to die for the Federation.

They had all sworn to it, and were reminded of it daily.

But they had done so in the belief that it was in defense of their families, their homes, their people, their lands. Not for some colonial planet on the other side of the galaxy, a hundred thousand light years away from home.

Before anyone else could speak, the comms operator butted in. His voice was shaky, unsure if he was even allowed to interrupt. But what he had was too important not to.

“Major,” he stammered. “HQ sent word back.”

The senior officer quickly spun around, his eyes wide open.

“Well, spit it out!”

“Reinforcements inbound, heavy phalanx mecha, two thousand strong.”

The major relaxed slightly, and exhaled a sigh of relief. He knew they wouldn’t simply abandon them all. It would have been disastrous for the entire campaign if they lost any more ground at this point.

“ETA?”

The operator shook his head.

“None given, sir. High command simply stated we should hang tight until they arrive.”

“If we can hold out,” said the anxious junior officer, defeat deep in his voice.