Naero's War: The Citation Series 2: The High Crusade (27 page)

“Well, you’re being awfully damn quiet about it,” Mike said. “That’s not like you at all. So spill. What the hell happened to you? You get a hangnail or something?”

“No, nothing like that. It’s…it’s a serious injury. I nearly died.”

Kesha gasped. “Haisha! Oh my gosh. Holy krap–Acer got his balls shot off!”

“No, no, no…my boys are still here. Thank goodness.”

Now Bessa gasped this time.

Acer cut her off. “No, don’t worry, ladies, the heavy artillery is still there, too.”

“Oh, come on, Acer. Just tell us,” Naero insisted.

Adams took a breath. “I got my ass shot off.”

After another pause, the other eight of them exploded with laughter.

“It’s not funny, guys. Did you ever lose your ass?”

“In a dice game, once,” Baylor noted.

They all roared even harder.

Finally it grew quiet again.

Acer spoke up. “I think I may have to kill all of you, once I get out of here.”

They couldn’t stop laughing after that.

“You’re killing us right now,” Trisha said. “By getting us to laugh ourselves to death.”

“Get the medteks,” Moses said. “I think I’ve torn my wounds open.”

“No, wait. Wait. Quiet down, you morons. Be serious. Acer, look, tell us the truth. All of us got our asses shot off. It’s just a figure of speech, right? Tell us true.”

“Naero, I wish it was. My ass is completely gone.”

They exploded with laughter again.

“Oh, and it was so purty, too!” Bessa said.

“Stop. Stop!” Trisha said. “My head’s going to explode!”

“This isn’t funny, guys. I have no ass!”

“Mercy! I can’t breathe!” Kesha warned them.

“Well,” Moses said, “I guess you’ll be sitting around for a while in the regen tanks…re-developing you cheekiness.”

“You won’t be needing those assless chaps of yours anymore for Dance Night.”

“Hey–how would we know?”

Another explosion of mirth.

Baylor couldn’t stop laughing. “And picture this, guys. Somewhere out there–Acer’s ass is just hanging out some place, just swinging or flapping in the wind. Or maybe it’s just lying there, sizzling like two, juicy ham steaks on a griddle.”

“No, no,” Deb shouted. “Then a hungry slasher will stroll by, and say, ‘Oh, my. Why what is this?’ Then that snack-hungry bitch will slap those two pieces of fried assmeat together, and have herself a nice, dandy little hairy ham sandwich. Maybe with a little mayo, and a dash of mustard.”

“I think I smell bacon,” Moses said.

“I am going to hurt you,” Acer fumed. “All of you.”

Later that night, when they were just drifting off to sleep, all someone had to do was whisper, “Mmm…bacon!”

Then it all started up again. The bad jokes and the silliness just kept going.

“Hey, I went to pat Acer on the butt, and missed! It was like there was nothing there.”

“Acer’s going to be more careful at night, now.”

“Why is that?”

“Because, it’ll be darker. There won’t be a full moon out for quite a while.”

25

Wenga-1 was another winter world, but at least the atmosphere was breathable.

Currently, most of the planet was enveloped in various blizzard hurricanes, whirling and whipping across the endless plains and fields of snow and ice. Entire fleets were grounded in their starports for months.

Visibility was nil, nada, nacha. Scans were disrupted by the weather, the magnetic effects of the planet, and the metallics and particles in the swirling snow itself and the atmosphere.

This was winter in the northern hemisphere. Anyone would have to be insane to execute any kind of invasion under such conditions on a world such as this.

But the Ejjai invaders were never know for their sanity.

Besides, the population on Wenga-1 of 4.5 billion were all trapped in fixed locations, in nice, little, heavily shielded domes and pyramids.

How very convenient.

The Ejjai invaders spread their battle groups across the surface in groundtanks, armored personnel carriers modified and shielded for the harsh winter conditions. With the high winds, it was impractical to use anything that floated or flew. That left out gravtanks, gunships, and even starfighters.

But it brought back the use of something else.

A real blast from the past.

Megatanks.

Megatanks were gigantic tanks with guns as big as starship spinal guns, and secondary batteries larger than the regular artillery pieces that most armies deployed in battle.

They were vulnerable to air power and orbital naval fire, but in an environment such as this, they were nearly invulnerable except to direct assault.

With twenty battle groups in system, the invaders had ten megatanks onworld, and they were currently unstoppable.

The megatanks attacked in pairs to support each other. They pulled right up to dome and pyramid cites, wore their shields down, and blasted the locals into submission. Then the invaders inserted troops and a number of the mini-meatships to clean out the bodies and any survivors.

They moved methodically from one location to the next, wiping out everything in their path.

After all, they had all winter in order to do so.

Bravo devised their plan of attack and went at the enemy with modified ground tanks and meks.

The MCLs got in close enough to board the megatanks with insertion teams, and assaulted their crews and forces from within.

Shetanna and the Marines used a new form of combat armor that didn’t so much rely on stealth, but focused on providing extra protection against the very real secondary threat: the intense cold and bitter high winds.

The battles for Wenga-1 turned brutal and up-close, at short range and poor visibility in the terrible weather, on a world where scanners were all but useless.

At times the visibility was so poor that the opposing units did not know where each other was until they actually started to slam and crash into each other, separating just enough to fire right on top of one another. Or they went after each other hand-to-hand or with blades.

Both enemy and friendly units even got crushed under the treads of the rumbling megatanks.

Corporal Reyes Keller from 1
st
Platoon, Squad 2, Fireteam 3 perished when he was struck by an enemy tank, became lost in the snow for a time, and then froze to death from his armor being cracked open like an egg, all in the course of a major battle.

Ops usually lasted from a few hours to one or two days. With determination and enough firepower, a megatank could eventually be worn down and blasted to scrap, from within and without.

But it was quickly discovered that MCLs and boarding teams could treat them like grounded starships, and destroy them much quicker from within. They killed off their crews and leaders, moved them away from the civilian cities, and blew up their power cores and ordnance, causing near atomic-level explosions.

The enemy countered by driving their last remaining megatanks right into the heart of the capital gigacity, the largest of them all.

Blowing up those four megatanks would do the enemy’s job for them. The resulting blasts would lay waste to nearly the entire area.

That forced Bravo to attempt to use direct assaults, not to destroy, but the attempt to capture each of the megatanks, neutralize their crews, and remove them from the gigacity to a location where they could be safely destroyed.

Shetanna led the attack on one of the four megatanks, backed up by two thousand Marines, including Company 36.

They swarmed over the megatank like ants, fighting at first with all the Ejjai external troops and defenses. To anyone witnessing such an assault, it was indeed very much like insects clashing on a hill of metal with the addition of roaring guns and cannons.

Each of the enemy super vehicles kept blazing away at the stranded local population, tearing the gigacity open further, dealing death and destruction each second.

They had to be stopped.

Shettana didn’t even need to blast or cut open a hatch. That would just alert the invaders to her insertion point. She used her Mystic abilities to transport straight inside and went to work where the enemy least expected her to strike.

By the time the slashers realized they did have a dangerous intruder, Shetanna had dozens or scores of other hatches and access panels open and marked for Bravo Marines to pour through and slug it out with the troops inside.

While the Marines did what they did best, Shetanna continued on, making her way either to the power plant or the bridge. In this case, they couldn’t disable the megatanks until they got them back outside of the gigacity, so the best option was to take out the megatank leadership and ops.

The problem was reduced to fighting in very tight, close quarters with the enemy, but the Marines were already highly trained and used to doing that very thing on starships.

Shetanna could cut the Ejjai down quickly enough, but then their bodies would often block the way as well, among the confusing networks of tunnels and corridors.

Explosives and microbombs simply made too big of a mess, and brought about a greater risk of igniting fires that would grow out of control and lead to even larger explosions.

Om cooked something new up with the fixers and presented them to Naero.
Try these new microbombs, N. Immolation and incineration charges.

She hit the Ejjai with them. The invaders burst into flames and shrieked, reduced to ash and charred bits of bone and melted equipment. Problem solved. No piles of dead bodies blocking tight passages.

That’s the ticket, Om. Keep ’em coming!

All the while, Bravo Marines shot their way deeper and deeper into the core of the megatanks.

Om had the fixers send them all more of the new incineration microbombs and grenades.

Naero was closest to the bridge, while the Marines seized vital areas such as the engine rooms and power cores, keeping the enemy from disabling them or blowing up the megatank themselves.

“I’m going on to seize the bridge,” she told 36. “If you can get control, move the megatanks out of the gigacity. Stop those guns from firing!”

Naero studied the layouts Om fed her and transported straight up, while the megatank she was in started clanking back the way it came. But half of its guns were still firing.

The enemy command crew attacked immediately when she appeared on the bridge like a ghost, and Shetanna was quickly the center of yet another intense firefight.

She raced upside down across the low ceiling, slicing and cutting the Ejjai heads and helmets open.

The bodies simply dropped to the ground. Plenty of elbow room on the bridge now.

After she cut the megatank captain in half, she jumped down into the fire control station. Using teknomancy, she quickly overrode the megatank sec codes.

In seconds, she poured heavy fire at the other three megatanks even while her tank retreated.

In short order, all three of the other megatanks stopped firing on the gigacity, and poured fire at the renegade megatank. Then more guns on the others went silent, and they began to withdraw. The last enemy tank that could still fire pursued the megatank that Nero was in and continued their duel. Soon both ginormous war machines were on fire, blazing and dueling away at one another.

“Keep it up until we’re out of the gigacity,” she commanded. “Bail out before they blow!”

Both dueling megatanks exploded just outside of the gigacity. Shetanna and the Marines on both vehicles just barely got out in time.

By then, all four megatanks were neutralized or destroyed, and the rest of the enemy invaders were hunted and cut down in a matter of two hours after that. Victory had at last been achieved.

36 celebrated on Sixthday Binge Night. Naero and Jonny scored some bottles of Spacer Poteen and went to get drunk with Chime and a few other of their mates.

But when they found Chime, she was all by herself in her bunk with what looked like a new book.

And a blaster pistol beside her within reach.

Even her cousin Jonny and Naero approached cautiously. Chime didn’t always like to be interrupted when she was reading. She had been known to get a bit testy.

They watched and observed her for a bit, all the while inching closer.

As long as Chime’s hand didn’t drift to her pistol, they were fine.

Suddenly she slipped her golden book mark in, snapped the hardcover book shut, and tossed her head back with a deep and satisfied sigh.

Chime closed her pretty brown eyes, gritted her teeth, and stamped her drumming bare feet under her blanket in a little happy dance. She literally squealed with glee.

Jonny’s mouth drooped open. “Wow. That must be some book!”

Then a serious look washed over Chime’s enraptured face. “Haisha!” she yelled. “I’ve been reading all day. Get out of my way, guys. I hafta pee!”

Not wanting to get wet, they made way for her as she streaked for the head.

When she returned, they were still waiting for her.

Without even being asked, Chime began gushing about the book. “Guys, this was one of the best books I’ve read, in years. It’s called
The Library of Alantia
, by Jack Ruel
.
There’s this magical library, see? And it has the power to roam from city to city and world to world. Some of the books are magic as well, and allow the readers to actually enter those worlds. Those special books are actually magical gateways into still other worlds and dimensions.”

Chime barely paused to suck in a breath.

“But the best part is the main character, named Chimaera. And it’s scary, because this character is me. And I mean, she isn’t just like me. She is me. Scatterbrains, and book crazy and all. She even looks like me. But Chimaera is in great danger. There’s all of this sorcery and intrigue. Her parents died in a mysterious fire years ago that destroyed the book they were in and part of the library itself. And get this! Chimaera was raised by her batty grandfather, one of the chief librarians–and by and within the magical books themselves! And there are these evil mages and dark demigods trying to take control of this library, which is the last of its kind, thanks to the bad guys. Then there are the Vixani, the werefox people who are both allies and trickster guardians of the ancient librarians. Jimmy the foxboy is a shapeshifter friend that Chimaera grew up with, but they get into dire trouble up to their necks. And then, just when you think Chimaera is dead, this beautiful dark wizard boy named Aston saves her and they become allies and lovers and it is all so terrifying and wonderful, heartbreaking, and romantic! His own father is the leader of the dark mages, but his mother was one of the demigods who actually wrote the magic books for the libraries, and she passed that power on to her son–before her husband murdered her–but Aston doesn’t know that yet. Whatever Aston writes in one of the Cosmic books actually happens in some dimension somewhere. The bad guys want to destroy the library, the magic books, and the remaining demigods who write them–

“Chime, Chime!” Naero kept shouting and waving her hands above her head to get her friend’s attention. “That’s great. We’re all very happy for you. Where in the hell did you get this book?”

That stopped her in her tracks. Chime’s mouth fell open and she looked completely stupefied. “Why…I…I don’t know. I didn’t buy it. I just found it on top of one of my crates today. I opened it up and started reading out of curiosity, and I just couldn’t put it down.”

They all chuckled.

Then Peter Cooper from Squad 4 walked up. “I gave you the book, Chime,” he told her. “In thanks for all of the Reading Nights and great books that you’ve shared with all of us. With my great thanks.”

Pete was one of the quiet and sturdy ones, a bit lanky, but still ruggedly handsome. He wore his dark hair rather long, and he had dreamy gray eyes that looked as if they could drill through titanadium.

Yet those eyes looked softer and even yearning whenever he looked at Chime. They hadn’t noticed that much before, until now.