Ravens of Eternity

Chapter 84

84 Massacre at Dendrus, Pt While the colonel was distracted, the captain immediately retreated from the fighting. With the pillboxes mostly useless, there was no point in them continuing to defend their positions. All they were doing was be more fodder for the slaughter.

“Fall back!” he ordered. “Point alpha-sixer, acknowledge!”

“Hooah!”

His remaining squadron officers confirmed and pulled their troops away as quickly as they could. They were battered and in pieces, but jetted over to the captain’s designated rendezvous point.

The mecha set up a small perimeter less than a hundred meters south of the bunker’s entrance. This allowed them to cover the airlock and the two remaining pillboxes, and vice-versa.

While their most damaged sat in the center and was repaired by whoever was left of the RR mecha, the least damaged planted their shields in the ground defensively.

One of the RR mecha attended to the captain, and stitched his damaged armor back together. But his missing left forearm and right shoulder were still severely damaged, and the mecha had very limited mobility.

Still, he picked up a spare rifle and did his best to remain field operational.

“Gimme a headcount,” he ordered.

.....

His officers quickly went through their ranks and performed roll calls within their squadrons. When he got the report, his heart fell.

They lost 253 of their fellow pilots to the Hussars, and were down to a mere 131. There were another 71 mecha inside the bunker, but they were mostly RR and nonlethal support.

A major wearing a crested pilot helmet appeared on his comms display. His face was rugged and hard, as though it had been that way since birth. He spoke thunderously, and commanded respect with his tone.

“Captain,” he said. “Incoming on your position, T-minus thirty...”

At the same time that the captain had withdrawn from the fight, the colonel also ordered her regiment to regroup. She and her unit sped over to the northern end of the hill, close where one section had completely collapsed.

“Everyone, to my location!” she barked.

“Oorah!”

All of her Hussars also left their battles and sped straight towards her location on the hill. They quickly reorganized themselves into a loose formation.

The sight was impressive, despite the damage they had taken throughout this engagement.

“Colonel,” said one of her officers. “I’ve run the numbers, and we’ve suffered 177 casualties. Dead unknown. Of the remaining Hussars, most have suffered light damage, with close to a third more heavily so. All still combat-capable and ready for orders.”

The colonel’s mind raced as she thought out her situation. She was reduced down to six hundred and twenty-three mecha. There was no way they could face two thousand Heavy Phalanx with what they had. It’d be a one-sided slaughter if they even tried.

“Reserves made planetfall during our skirmish,” added the officer, “and are now enroute to our position, along with our five hundred rearguard.”

“ETA?”

“Two minutes.”

Some of the officers sighed in relief, perhaps more audibly than was called for. But they were right – they weren’t outright doomed now that the numbers were going to even up. Hell, they even had a bit of an advantage.

It was still an uphill battle regardless – the Phalanx’s equipment outranked their own. Getting through their armor was problematic in and of itself.

The colonel suddenly lit up as an idea struck her out of the blue.

“Issue an equipment change for the rearguard,” she said. “I’ve got the perfect welcoming package for these invincible flyboys. And get everyone patched up and ready for a charge.”

“Yes, colonel.”

~

Wind buffeted around them as the Heavy Phalanx fell from the sky like meteors. The pilots inside were unafraid and undaunted by the rapid descent. They calmly controlled their mecha and adjusted their trajectory with their thrusters.

Their displays pinpointed their landing zone just south of the captain’s position.

And as they neared the ground, powerful jets on their backs powered on and opened up with maximum thrust. The reverse thrust greatly slowed their descent, almost as though they had deployed parachutes. Though it didn’t slow them down to a crawl, it was more than enough for them to land safely.

The Heavy Phalanx hit the ground hard by the dozens, and made WHOOMPH sounds with each combined impact. And where they landed, waves of force spilled outward. Dust and debris was blown in every direction.

The Phalanx immediately advanced as two separate units. The first headed straight for the captain and what remained of his squadron. They quickly formed defensive lines, which gave them greater breathing room to repair.

Their thick, imperious bronz armor was crested with a corinthian-style head that had a tapered titanium-carbide crest along the top and back. Beneath the curved eye sockets were two of mecha’s main sensor suites, albeit protected by a tough transparent titanium alloy. Their shields were large, round, and impossibly thick.

All of that combined ensured the survivability and toughness of the Heavy Phalanx.

Very few things in the galaxy could penetrate their armor. Well, at the time anyway.

While half had set up a defensive perimeter, the other half marched towards the hill itself. Their target were the Hussars still on the field.

The captain ordered the remaining 71 within the bunker to come out and lend their support. With this many Heavy Phalanx, their victory was all but assured. What was needed now were some much-needed repairs.

But when he noticed that the Phalanx began to march up the hill, he realized that they were going to be fighting on it. He quickly sent a comm to the other captain in a near panic.

“Start evacuating!” he said the moment she came on. “They’re gonna be brawling right on top of you!”

“We’re on it,” replied the female captain.

Ever since the Phalanx had landed, a great amount of rubble had fallen down inside. Each step they took thundered in the hallways, and ferociously shook the bunker. There was no helping it – Phalanx mecha were designed to throw their weight around.

So she ended up ordering the evac long before he even thought to contact her.

“Thanks for the heads-up, though,” she continued. “Glad to see you’re still alive. You’re now in charge of battlefield ops. This station is shutting down.”

She then turned to the techs around her and yelled out her final command as acting base commander.

“Time to get the fuck outta here!”

Everyone quickly got up out of their stations and ran out of the room. The female captain took a few final glances, then ran out when she was the only one left.

The others on the base had already gotten into environmental suits and had reached the hangar. There, they prepped all of the land vehicles they had, loaded them up with personnel, then got the hell out of the bunker.

Tires squealed across the surface of the hangar – the entire base shook more and more as the Phalanx made their way up top. It felt as though the hill was going to fall down at any moment, and that pressure drove them to go even faster.

The first few cleared the relatively humongous airlock doors just as the Phalanx reached the top. They sped straight for the captain’s position, which had become the safest zone on the battlefield.

Up above, the Phalanx began their marching advance on the colonel’s Hussars. Their legs stomped down in lockstep, and caused the bunker to shudder and shake violently.

Many who were running down the hallways were thrown to the ground, or to the side – the pressure was intense.

One fell down, and the captain immediately ran to her side. She helped her up with an arm as she looked back behind her. Down the hallway, more and more pieces fell from the ceiling, and dirt began to fall in greater streams.

“Everyone on the double!” she yelled.

Those around her picked up the pace as best they could.

“Hussars!” yelled the colonel. “Pound these fools into dust!”

The Hussars who still had their rockets stepped up to the front line, and aligned their targets on the oncoming Phalanx. They specifically placed their reticles on their crested helms – the symbol of their superiority.

And fired.

The Phalanx frontline immediately dropped down onto a knee and dug their shields slightly into the ground. Behind them, their brethren stepped forward and placed their shields up front and above, and formed a curved shield wall. The movements were so precise that it only took a second for them to perform.

The Hussar rockets slammed into the shield wall with great force, but when the dust and smoke settled, no damage had been done.

The only thing that even indicated an attack had happened were the blackened blast marks on the shields themselves. There were perhaps a few scratches here and there as well, but nothing so much as a dent.

With military precision, the shield wall retracted, the Phalanx front line stood, and they resumed their forward march. But now in double time.

The ground shook as they ran across the battlefield.

“Here it comes, Hussars of the 201st!” yelled the colonel. “Set hammer frequency to optimum. And charge!”

The Hussars cried out as they charged the Phalanx. Their hammers hummed with destructive force as their thrusters opened up to the maximum.

The Phalanx mecha fired on the charge with their Shock Cannons, and streams of bright blue electrical energy shot out at the Hussars.

Though most evaded, a handful were caught by the blasts. Some were clipped slightly, and the limbs where they were struck overloaded and powered down. Modules near the point of impact were immediately burned out and rendered inoperable.

Those who were hit squarely on the chest were far unluckier. Their power plants bore the brunt of the electrical charge and quickly lost energy. The electricity also shot through the pilots themselves, and roasted them into a crisp.

Their bodies shook uncontrollably as their mecha fell forward in a useless heap.

The colonel and the rest of her units had no problems getting right up to their faces, however, and slammed their hammers on them.

WHONGGG!

When they struck those shields, not only were they dented slightly, but they vibrated wildly and resounded like giant gongs. The Phalanx’s shield arms shook uncontrollably as the vibrations rattled their internal mechanisms.

And just as the siege Hussars slammed into melee, the rifle Hussars approached from the flank. They fired their rifles wholesale into the Federation mecha – but they were summarily ignored.

Most of the bullets simply bounced harmlessly off their armor. The rare few shots that landed in the gaps between did only minimal damage. Since all they could do was harmlessly harass the Phalanx, there wasn’t even a reason to pay attention to their actions.

Instead, the Phalanx counter-attacked the Hussars with their SMGs, and fired on them at point-blank range. The superheated razor-sharp shards that the Barracuda guns spat out easily tore through the Hussar’s armor. It was as though it didn’t even exist!

Many Hussars were torn apart by the SMGs. They caused significant damage to any module or system that they struck. Parts were pierced and punctured easily, and jammed up any mechanical parts into lumps of metal.

Cores were punctured, and pilots were severed into pieces.

The colonel grit her teeth at the losses they suffered, but their sacrifices weren’t in vain. Her hammer came down on an enemy’s SMG, and smashed it into pieces.

Before her target could recover, she wove around him with quick dashes as she swung her hammer all around her. She spun it expertly and swipe the Phalanx’s head clean off, along with most of it sensors.

And as it stumbled around, she knocked the shield away, and then slammed down just above its armored chest with a powerful overhand swing. The structure underneath gave way and compressed the core below.

.....

The pilot was crushed in an instant.

She pulled the hammer out of the now-dead Phalanx and took note of the battle around her. Although the Phalanx had taken some casualties, it was nothing like what they received. Within the first few moments of the opening melee, nearly a hundred Hussar had been torn to shreds.

But they had achieved exactly what they wanted – they loosened up the Phalanx’s formation, and spaced them out a great amount.

The colonel had lured the Phalanx mecha into a trap, and all she had to do now was trigger it. She opened up a direct line to her rearguard, her voice filled with resolute authority.

“Fire on my location! Raze everything to the ground!”