Frozen Soul, and other works: Chapter 200

(Dharram Enclave, Coldana Prime)

“They’ve broken through the western wall!”

Colonel Lurhak Hardminer cursed under his breath as he looked at the command plot. The moment they heard that the X’thari were coming, they had known that the world was doomed, but they weren’t going to simply go down without a fight. Plans had been put in place, quickly fortifying as many areas as possible. He and his marines had dropped from the Fires of Khazad-dum and the other ships of the fleet to support the local militia. The populace of Coldana had been pulled back into thirty-seven enclaves around the world. Three billion sentients crammed into thirty-seven enclaves originally rated to hold no more than twenty million each.

They knew they were doomed, but they had come together, and decided to make sure that the damned bugs bled for their world. Every man, woman, and child who could hold a gun was armed, and those thirty-seven enclaves became holdouts that would give any rational enemy pause. Millions upon millions of people in too tight a space with nothing to lose? That was the kind of situation that armies broke upon.

But the X’thari had numbers uncounted, and threw themselves against the enclaves in waves. Thirty-seven enclaves had started the siege. Two days after it began, Norwurh, the last enclave to be completed, found that they had rushed the job a bit too much. The X’thari found a weakness in the walls, an access to the sewers that had not been properly sealed. They came up out from under the ground inside the enclave, killing everyone over the course of several gruesome hours. There was nothing anyone else could do, except listen. They all knew that would be their fate, eventually.

Norwurh was the first to fall, but it wasn’t the last. One by one, an enclave would suffer a breach. Maybe it was through the sewers, or maybe they managed to break through a wall, but there would be a breach, and the X’thari would pour through. There would be a few hours of screaming, and then silence. Even in defeat, though, the enclaves made the X’thari burn, setting off fusion bombs as a last act of defiance, bleeding more of the Swarm’s strength.

There were only ten enclaves remaining. Little more than seven hundred million souls and dropping, from a population of three billion. But they were still here, and they were still fighting. Now, it looked as though it was Dharram’s turn to fall. And then suddenly, hope emerged.

“This is the BSS Flux Capacitor to all Consortium forces remaining on Coldana. Relief forces inbound, including ground troops. Send target information on this frequency.”

Hardminer’s head whipped around at the comm setup that they had half-forgotten, the one that had connected them to the Fleet, before they were wiped out. The entire command post was shocked for a moment, and before he shook his head. “Well, what are you idiots waiting on? Give them our location! And get the reserves over to the western wall! We have to keep those bastards out of the bunkers as long as possible!”

“Flux Capacitor copies, says to expect reinforcements in twenty minutes!”

Twenty minutes? They would have to be practically jumping directly into orbit for that to be true. The X’thari ships were still encircling Coldana, keeping anyone from getting off the planet or acting to unite their enclaves against the threat. But if they said they would be here in twenty minutes, then his troopers would damn well hold twenty minutes! He grabbed his rifle, and gave the orders for the command staff to join the lines. They had bugs to kill.

Nineteen minutes later fire trailed through the night sky as ships forced their way into Coldana’s atmosphere. Twenty minutes after the initial call for aid, explosions rocked the ground as three assault craft, supported by fighters, both of a type Hardminer had never seen before, strafed the X’thari positions, concentrating on taking out heavy weapons sites. The next trail of fire was a modified Marine Assault Transport, laying down fire on positions closer to Hardminer’s troops. Marine drop ships blasted clear a landing zone, and the marines, all wearing matching black armor, flooded out, weapons blazing as they faced the X’thari.

“Pass the word! Check your targets! Friendlies incoming, wearing black armor! Everyone hunker down! We’re the anvil and those glorious bastards are the hammer. Let’s see how the damn bugs like being caught in between!”

There were cheers on the line as Hardminer’s orders spread among the troops. Not just from the troops, but from the people in the bunkers, as well, who, just before, knew it was only a matter of time before they were forced to fight for their lives. Now, it looked like, against all odds, that there might be hope for them yet.

He looked around, and pointed out his intel officer. “Graystone! I don’t recognize that armor configuration! Who are we dealing with?”

The intel officer looked through his viewfinder, and frowned. “The armor is modified Imperial Marine armor, but the color scheme is not any known design used by the Terran Empire. High likelihood that this is a mercenary group of some kind.” He paused, taking a look at the fighters flying overhead, helping to provide air support. “Those fighters match ones intelligence has attributed to the Black Star Navy. Given that the Fleet was in contact with Black Star ships before they were wiped out, and the ship that contacted us was the BSS Flux Capacitor, these should be the Black Star Marines.”

Mercenaries? Damn, he’d been hoping for regular military. But at the moment, he didn’t much care, so long as they were on his side. “Do we have comm codes for them?”

“Negative, Fleet’s never worked with the Black Stars before. But if they hired them, we should be getting communications from them shortly on the merc frequency.”

“Dharram Enclave forces, this is Major Chris Khan of the Black Star Marines. We have a plug on that hole in your wall now. Thunderfury and Vicious Return are using their shields and point defense to keep the bugs out, so if we can clean up the ones inside the wall, you should be secure, for the moment.”

Well, that was the best piece of news that Hardminer had gotten all damn week! “Major Khan, Colonel Lurhak Hardminer, Coalition Marine Corps. Thank you for the assist. We’re all for a target rich environment, but it was getting a little uncomfortable down here.”

“Glad to help. We have forces dropping on Darboldar as well. All other enclaves are under attack, but holding, for now. Coalition Army is setting up base camp at the capitol city’s spaceport, trying to draw the X’thari away from the enclaves, and get a beachhead to start driving back the bugs. The situation in orbit is still fluid, but we’re trying to solve your little Harvester problem.”

“Yes, we’d been wondering why the Harvester didn’t simply come and consume us all. Didn’t make sense for the X’thari to try and wipe us out this way, when their Harvester could just eat the planet. The science types have any word on that?”

“Well, it looks like your fleet did more damage to the Harvester than they thought. It has been hanging around the wreckage of the fleets, eating them and trying to heal itself, we think. And the X’thari are probably smart enough to realize that you wouldn’t be past unleashing a few nasty surprises right in the Harvester’s mouth if they tried to eat Coldana without neutralizing you.”

“Hmph. At least we gave them something to think about. How are you for supplies, Major?”

“We have enough weapons and ammo for an extended campaign, and facilities on Thunderfury for making more. Rations and power cores enough for a week of hard fighting. By that point, we’ll either be sent for respawn, or we’ll have been reinforced by more ships coming from orbit.”

“Respawn?”

“First Company, Black Star Marines is entirely composed of Nomads, Colonel. These bugs don’t know what they’re messing with.” There was a pause, and then, “They’re about to hit the Harvester! Prepare for psychic scream!”

Hardminer didn’t respond out loud, simply pointing to Graystone, who issued the warning through the command network. He remembered the scream that had stunned them on the ground when the Harvester was attacked last time. Having one come through while in combat was not ideal. They didn’t have the resources to block the scream, but they could at least make sure no one had live grenades ready to go when the scream hit.

Darkness hit along with the scream, but it soon passed. He pushed himself up off the shattered wall where he’d fallen, and looked around to see what was going on. Slowly, his people began picking themselves up, and started firing. Right. The enemy. What was happening with the enemy?

The X’thari were floundering about, running wild. No longer attacking the defenders of the enclave en masse, but acting like feral beasts, if they were conscious at all. Easy prey for the fighters.

Minutes after the scream, the darkness gave way to light as a brightness like that of the noonday sun filled the sky. Hardminer blinked furiously as he shielded his eyes, but soon the light faded away, and the darkness of the night sky returned. And on the battlefield? The X’thari broke, scattering in every direction, attempting to flee the death waiting for them inside the walls of the enclave, but there was no escape for them. They were between the hammer and the anvil.

Finally, the last X’thari inside the walls fell under a hail of gunfire, and Hardminer could finally breathe easily for the first time since the assault began days ago. He sat down on a pile of rubble, looking down at the figure of a slain X’thari warrior. So much death. So much slaughter. Seven hundred million survivors out of a planet of billions. And all of it for what?

That was where the man in the black armor of the Black Star Marines found him. He walked easily, rifle slung across his shoulder, his armor’s helmet under one arm. The X’thari had been pushed back outside the enclave, so there wasn’t anything for him to fear here, not really. The tall human reached out a hand to him, and said, “Colonel Hardminer?”

He reached out and grasped the offered hand, allowed the big man to haul him to his feet. “Aye, that’s me. Major Kahn, I take it? That was a mighty timely arrival you and your men pulled off. Not ashamed to admit that we were being overrun, like the other enclaves were. Lots of civilians in the underground who will be damn pleased to see you guys.”

The man shook his head. “Well, you can thank the Starhunters for the timing more than anyone. The combined fleet was gathering, and trying to figure the best time to hit the Harvester. Best plans they had were to put tarpits out between it and the next system on the menu, and fight it there. We were under the assumption that you were all dead, right up until the Starhunters snuck in a few days ago.”

“A few days? We only heard from them just now!” They’d been watching for days? How many lives could have been saved if they had just let everyone know help was on the way. Grabhammer Enclave fell just two days ago, the civilians setting the fusion plant to go critical when the X’thari breached the walls. Better to go out in fire than to be ripped to pieces. If they’d known help was on the way, maybe some of them would have survived!

Kahn nodded. “They were under orders to keep radio silence. And they were only five scout ships. Nothing they could have done, especially if they got detected and let the X’thari know the fleet was coming. They did what they could, however. When they confirmed survivors on Coldana, they sent word back immediately, and the fleet’s planning went into high gear. That miniature sun earlier? That was the Harvester getting taken out. In space, the fleets are hounding the X’thari and driving them out of Coldana, as individual bands instead of the Swarm.”

He clapped an armored hand on Hardminer’s shoulder. “You might be thinking of all those who died on your watch. Know I would be, in your place. There will be a time for remembering the dead. For now, every living soul on Coldana is one more than anyone was expecting there to be when this was over. And they’re alive because people like you and yours held the line, even when it was hopeless, even when there was no help coming. You held the line, and they survived. Remember that.”

The human Major had the good grace to stay silent as Hardminer finally broke down and wept. He knew it wasn’t dignified, but he did it anyway. He couldn’t stop it. He’d earned that much, hadn’t he? Major Khan answered the unspoken question the way a soldier should, just resting his steady hand on his shoulder and letting him get it all out.

He had earned that much.

Previous Chapter Table of Contents Next Chapter

Be sure to read my published works!

Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):
Frozen Soul - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT
Tales of the Void Traveler - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37
Memoirs of a Supervillain - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R9NWS8J

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy GameLit):
Volume 1 - Tutorial
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X