Frozen Soul, and other works: Chapter 258

(Dedzog Military-Industrial Megacomplex, Maccara)

The sky roiled with fire over the industrial and military center of Maccara, and the Yathru Corporation as a whole. Gravitic engines had long ago eliminated the need for every ship descending from space to create a flaming trail as they reentered the atmosphere, so this was a far from common sight. The only time one saw such a thing was when a ship made a power dive into the atmosphere, like military vessels doing a ‘hot’ insertion. And this was not one fireball, but seven central ones, along with thirty-six smaller trails!

The entire Fourth Company of the Black Star Marine Corps descended upon the military chief stronghold of military might on Maccara. Five Crow-class assault ships led the way, along with the fighters of Wyvern Squadron in their Thunderbolts, sweeping aside the few fighters and assault ships that managed to lift off. Flying behind them, Drake Squadron’s Thunderbolts supported Wyrm Squadron’s Dragons, as the bombers began taking out all the heavy air defense emplacements above the military base.

The Black Star Heavy Assault Transport Tiamat, which was designed for situations just like this, descended through fire and flame, her weapons laying waste to buildings across the complex. All Yathru Corporation buildings were legitimate targets in a Corporate War, and there was no building in the district that did not belong to the corporation. The entire industrial complex began going up in flames, a wound that, itself, would be enough to ensure that Yathru would be years, if not a decade or more, in recovering from this debacle.

But it wasn’t over.

As the escort carrier Orochi took up position nearby the Tiamat, adding her point defense weapons to the onslaught. Those weapons were too weak by far to deal significant damage to starships at ranges that could best be described by referencing how long it would take the light of an action to reach the observer, but against unmoving, unshielded buildings close enough that the distance was measured in meters? They were more than enough to add to the devastation.

Then, as Tiamat continued her work of leveling the district, her launch bay doors opened, and the six drop ships containing the actual troops of the Fourth Company entered the fray. Their own weapons, suited for both ground assault and close air defense, joined the fighters and the Crows in clearing away any threats to Tiamat or Orochi. And when they landed, the galaxy got their first look at the Black Star Ihm Marines.

One thousand Ihm marines had joined Black Star after the Battle of Second Cordana, and the fall of the X’thari Harvester. Four hundred had been assigned as ship-board troops for the Second Group of the Fleet, commanded by their former Warleader. Another hundred had been shifted to other companies as reinforcements, and to help fill out heavy weapons roles. That left five hundred Ihm descending upon the Yathru Corporation’s military high command.

Each Ihm Marine stood at two and a half meters tall, clad in power armor that looked beefy enough to qualify as a light truck in some jurisdictions. Squad by squad, they wielded weapons too large and powerful to be anything but crew-served weapons for a normal human. Some of them even had the weapons attached to their very armor!

Soon, the military base was filled with the cracking sound of powerful rifles firing explosive rounds, plasma weapons blasting apart their targets, and rushing roar of heavy flamethrowers that washed over the enemy. But the sound those that lived through this nightmare would remember most was the roar of whirling blades, as the Black Star Marines brought their most vicious of weapons to bear, the bastard son of a longsword and a chainsaw that chewed through even heavy armor. And in unholy harmony with them were raised the screams of the dying and those too slow to escape the Black Stars’ onlslaught.

The military forces had nowhere to run. The orbitals had been taken over, and wiped clean of support. Air transport was shot down long before they could even land, much less evacuate troops. And on all sides the military was surrounded upon the ground. Steadily they were pushed back, into an ever-shrinking cordon, as more and more of their number died. Oh, it was not bloodless on the Black Stars’ side, but for every Black Star that fell, a hundred, perhaps two hundred Yathru warriors were piled before them as sacrifices.

(Yathru Corporation Headquarters, Rak’kun City, Maccara)

On the other side of the continent, a smaller firestorm descended upon the city. Yathru’s headquarters was designed with aesthetics in mind, to show off their power to all who witnessed the grand city. Massed air defense platforms were ‘unsightly’, and so the city relied primarily upon a powerful city shield, and the few weapons that fit in with the city’s aesthetic planners.

The shield was a common one. It prevented energy weapons from passing through, and attempted to block all physical objects that were going faster than a certain speed. Forcing landing shuttles to slow to a near-stop as they passed through the shield would make them an easy target for the few cannons, and landing outside the city shield would put invaders outside the aesthetically pleasing, and yet otherwise defensively worthless, city wall. Thus, the planners gave the city’s armed forces the chance to fight from prepared positions, while the enemy would be slow, and bottlenecked in getting reinforcements, allowing for massed fire upon the entry points.

In theory, this would allow Yathru’s forces to hold out against a far stronger force so long as the shield remained up. And since both the power source and the emitters for the shield were inside the shield, once raised, there was little chance of an enemy defeating them unless they brought power great enough that defeat was both certain and likely to be total. In theory, they were correct.

Those theories were shattered along with the city’s shield as ten Dragonsbreath torpedoes struck the shields within meters of each other. The kinetic kill weapons unleashed all their power on the shields, and the emitter for that section exploded, opening a gap in the shield almost forty meters wide. Through the gab flew the fighters of Firelord Squadron, their Thunderbolt IVs unleashing hell upon the few active air defense stations. By the tie the shield had begun to recover, and started sealing the hole, it was already too late, as the Crows of First Company followed closely after the fighters, and the closest shield emitters fell under attack. Not long after, the shield collapsed entirely, and the Thunderfury and Fool’s Gambit came roaring in, their guns striking like thunder bolts, ripping into all ground and air traffic within their reach.

The Black Star ships cut their way across the city, until they came to rest above the Yathru headquarters. A second shield surrounded the building itself, but that was no concern for the Black Stars. Drop ships launched from the Thunderfury, and deployed their Marines of the First Comany around the building.

Unlike the Marines of the Fourth Company, First Company’s Marines were of all races. But, like the Fourth Company, they were clad in power armor, larger and stronger than any but the most elite military forces in the galaxy had seen before. They unleashed similar weaponry upon the corporate security forces, and the security guards fared no better than the military, as defenders were hewn apart along with their defense positions.

Every exit to the building was stormed, even the underground parking garage. Fire from above wrecked the last few air defenses within range of the headquarters building. The executives tried to escape, but the ships above ensured that anyone getting any ideas about trying to fly away was quickly disabused of those notions. The few who didn’t get the memo were informed of the new travel restrictions a bit more forcefully, and their remains were now scattered across the ground in flaming chunks.

Floor by floor, the corporate security forces tried to stop the onslaught, and floor by floor they were pushed back. Those who tried to run were shot in the back. Those who tried to stand and fight were slaughtered where they stood. Not even the office workers were spared.

The Marines’ orders were simple. Destroy the enemy. Their Rules of Engagement were clear. If it was not wearing Black Star armor, it was the enemy, and it was going to die. Only those who managed to completely and unequivocally signal their surrender, and met the Marines kneeling or on the ground, with their hands up, were spared. Those were cuffed, and left lying where they were, but they were left alive. Most did not have that level of self-preservation ingrained within them, having relied far too long on their position to cover them and keep them from harm.

(Board Room, Yathru Corporation Headquarters, Rak’kun City, Maccara)

“I don’t care where you get the guards from! We need them here now!”

In the board room, the executives of the Yathru Corporation were calmly discussing the opening gambits of the corporate war with Black Star.

“Damn you to the Abyss! STOP DYING, YOU FOOLS!” One of the Ihm Executives yelled into a microphone that was broadcasting to the troopers in the building. Looking at her fellow executives, he hissed, “What do we pay these idiots for?”

A second executive, this one a gauz, shook his head. “Ashf’rd, yelling at them will not suddenly make their populace suppression weapons work against military-grade power armor. Even the military is being slaughtered in Dedzog.”

Ashf’rd whirled on the other executive. “Damn it, Birkin! And damn you! This isn’t supposed to be happening! People just don’t do this in corporate wars!”

Birkin shrugged, and walked across the room to get a drink from the bar. “Perhaps someone should have informed Black Star about that, then? The fact is that we thought we could get an easy score out of them, but we got burned. Screaming won’t help that.”

Zwellspn’cer, the president of the Yathru Corporation, shook his head, his eyes narrowing at Birkin. “For someone that is just as deep in this mess as the rest of us, you certainly seem to be rather relaxed, Birkin. Is there something you’re not telling us?”

Birkin emptied his glass of the amber liquid in a single go, before refilling it again. “No, just acceptin’ the facts as they are. There’s no point yelling about it now. They responded far more actively than any of us possibly predicted, and now, we are looking like we’ll lose everything.”

Gl’dman, the executive in charge of shipping, slapped her tail on the ground in disapproval. “No, most of our shipping was out of port! We can still rebuild, if enough of the ships evade capture.”

Birkin spat on the ground in front of him. “Have you been reading the status reports? Or have you just buried your head in the sand like a Tarkad dulx bird, and ignored the reality of how badly fucked we are?”

Gl’dman looked shocked, but Birkin continued. “This isn’t just an attack on Maccara. We have FTL comm confirmation of attacks on every major facility or system we have, with entire systems going dark to us. The Black Stars aren’t just hitting us here. They’re hitting us everywhere, all at once, and they have sufficient forces left over to devote this much to us!”

Zwellspn’cer sighed. “Unlike Gl’dman, I have been reading the reports, and I am forced to agree with you. Unfortunately, it appears that we are decidedly the losers in this corporate war. We must act swiftly if we are to save anything. We have to surrender.”

The board room erupted in yelling as everyone tried to speak at once. Finally, there was a slap on the table, shocking the room into silence. All eyes turned to the most junior of the executives, and the only human in their number. He was an odd one, wearing darkened eyewear, even while indoors, and he rarely spoke in meetings, preferring to gather information before moving. Half the individuals on the board had even forgotten he was there.

Zwellspn’cer looked at the human. “You have something to add, Wesker?”

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