(Art source unknown)
Index: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 6 Chapter 7
Chapter 5
Gone with the railguns
A Taz’aran mechanized formation, the 3022nd armored infantry, aggressively advanced forward. Their goal was a reinforced hill only a couple sensor grid blocks (otherwise known in their military as swips), away from their current position. There, they and Supreme Colonel Sayzen’s stormtroopers would commence an extensive search of the area. The main target was a hidden bunker and its Terr’aan-made anti-orbital guns. Orders were to take and not destroy, but they knew the furtive Humans would rather kill themselves and blow up their own tech, rather than it fall into enemy hands.
That was exactly what the Taz’arans would do in their boots.
The composition of mechanized troops stationed at this backwards border of the Imperium was not that different from frontline units. Armored fighting vehicles, light tanks, and armored scout cars, supported by a platoon of mobile artillery. All AFVs carried one armed to the faceplates assault squad of eight line troopers, commanded by a lieutenant and a supreme sergeant. While the officer might not be a veteran, to qualify for this post, the supreme sergeant had at least one successful invasion behind him.
The light tanks used the offensive punch of their 2 inch bore particle-beam main cannons to blast what the 100mm plasma shells of the battalion’s mobile artillery could not melt to slag. Scout cars with their ops specialists were responsible for encrypting the battalion’s comms, effectively augmenting everyone’s eyes and ears with their long-range scanning gear. Though each car was fitted with automatic observation drone launcher, because of electronic warfare, these were used sparingly. A thing of the past, most commanders considered drone deployment a waste of resources at best, and a danger to their unit at worst.
Bar their equipment, Taz’aran mechanized units were virtually the same. Only active frontline formations were outfitted with brand new gear, while everything old and in need of retirement was “gifted” to border troops and bases on the galactic ass of nowhere. There it would slowly rust away or get cannibalized for parts, until one day, these units received the next batch of phased out equipment. However, that was not always the case and the 3022nd armored infantry drew a better straw than most.
When Lord General Kulin was given command of this sector’s armed forces, the old commander quickly reformed all units of company size on digi-file into real battalions. Single platoons left after this restructuring, he intended for replacing or rotating out damaged formations. Of course, all gear was either overhauled and updated up to the latest specs or scrapped, and the salvage utilized to build more modern vehicles and weaponry.
The 3022nd charged under artillery cover, plasma shells hitting targets picked up by ops specialists, riding on their Crot VF scout cars. These had a sturdy sensor pack, a bit on the old side, but highly dependable and resistant to hacks. Another barrage from the Arcol 33N mobile arty leveled a number of fieldworks, turning concrete, metal, and enemy troops into burning sludge. Six engineering grav-vehicles, lacking turrets, but equipped with tractor beam emitters, proceeded to demine a wide enough path for their comrades to use for their assault.
Borbeth TZ2, fast on its augmented grav-drives, exploited the breach, blasting everything on their targeting screens with focused particle-beams. Though the tank was not famous for its survivability, no sane Taz’aran commander would employ it against heavy entrenchments or send it to fight main battle tanks. Its job done, the single platoon of Borbeths flew back to their formation, point defense turrets spewing a literal wall of beams. These, however, were unable to shoot down every single anti-tank missile or RPG shell the Terr’aans fired, and two tanks got hit.
Acceptable casualties, thought the battalion’s commander, and sent his upgraded Malanzan QD5 armored fighting vehicles forward. Turrets fitted with automatic grenade launchers and 1 inch bore particle-beam repeaters, the vehicles did indeed perform a great attack, one fit for the famed glide-raider units. Their assault squads deployed on the float, landing by use of their grav-belts, and quickly poured into entrenchments vacated by the Terran soldiers.
Giving suppressive cover so the light tanks could once more raid what was left of the enemy earthworks, the Taz’aran troopers systematically assailed every pillbox and stongpoint. High-explosive hand grenades, PRG rounds, aided by Borbeth 2 inch particle-beam barrages, overwhelmed all resistance.
Or so the Taz’arans thought.
Fireteams, the last live of defense, emerged from their masterfully concealed foxholes. From point-blank range, these rugged troopers unleashed a withering barrage upon the Taz’arans. Machineguns, anti-tank lasers set on wide dispersal fire, automatic handheld grenade launchers, RPGs, and handmade cluster bombs, all wrought terrible damage upon grav-vehicles and personnel. Though that sneak attack was quite devastating, this enemy force consisted of no more than one reinforced platoon. As soon as the Taz’aran troops returned fire and killed a number of Humans, the rest enacted a fighting retreat.
The defense circlet around the hill was now successfully breached. Any other enemy would abandon it altogether, but the Terrans simply swiveled their guns. All Taz’aran vehicles exploited the breach and swooped at what they assumed was the Terran rear, only to be met with a devastating wall of railgun and laser fire. Entire sections of trenches flew up in flames, detonated by the defenders who’d primed remote explosives in case they were flanked. Brutal hand-to-hand slaughter began and for each step forward, the assault troopers of the 3022nd paid for with more lives.
Their casualties would mount even higher, yet Sayzen’s stormtroopers swooped in with their heavily armed dropships. Aided by the timely flight of Black Leaf skaers dropping their bombs and strafing enemy trenches, they forced the Terrans to retreat. Assaulting the earthworks together with soldiers of the 3022nd, Taz’aran stormtroopers quickly claimed the hill. Once more, casualties suffered by their forces were numerous; one entire tank and two AFV squads, plus over sixty troopers dead and wounded, yet they have completed the mission.
Rushing to occupy the trenches, they stumbled upon a number of booby traps and, thus slowed down, were forced to wait for the crews of their engineering grav-vehicles. The specialist took their time and with the cost of one more soldier, cleared the earthworks. All the while, stormtroopers planted their seismic charges around the hill, and aided by scanning beams from the Crot VF cars, eventually located a supremely well hidden bunker door.
It was only a matter of time.
Supreme Colonel Sayzen emerged from one of the earthworks, his vibroblade bloodied and mind shaken. He, one who invaded many a world, has seen a lot of last stands, yet what he witnessed today chipped away at his Taz’aran being. Everyone among the officer core assumed... no... they believed these Terr’aan troops elite formations sent here by their Sirius Command. Those who killed the assault troopers of the 3022nd and some of his own elite stormtroopers, they were heavily armored, armed to the faceplates militiamen. Faces very much, perhaps even more hardened than those of his own men and women, they were all civilians.
More, the way these old men fought betrayed many a savage battle fought and won.
His appearance on the battlefield, timely as it was, forced those Humans who’d suffered mortal wounds to stay behind. These Terr’aans sacrificed themselves, but allowed what was left of their troop to retreat. A unit, which in all actuality had to have been of battalion size, yet in reality was just an overstrengthtened platoon.
“Colonel,” – saluted him the captain of the 3022nd – “Thank the Throne for those skaers and your stormtroopers!”
Sayzen’s face twisted into a sardonic smirk under his helm – “Captain, thank the Terr’aan shortage of manpower instead.”
“Excuse me?” – the glide-raider canted his head, one hand pointed at the ripped asunder enemy soldiers and destroyed equipment.
“Captain, all I am saying is that if they had a full strength battalion here, we’d need a company of glide-raiders... plus my stormtroopers.”
“Cap, blowing the charges now!” – in his comms cracked the voice of one of Sayzen’s engineers, followed by a devastating explosion.
The colonel observed his co-commander cant his head and proceeded to pat him on the glove. Twice. The man’s demeanor changed a bit and he straightened his back when Sayzen said:
“Captain, consider this a triumph. Most novice units would’ve broke and ran facing an enemy like the Terr’aans. Order the rest of your troops into defensive positions and give me a squad of glide-raiders. It is time to capture that tunnel network!”
Soon the hill was once more abuzz with activity, though this time it was Taz’aran boots and the emitters of their grav-drives which trod the soil. Two engineering vehicles of the 3022nd used their tractor beam projectors to remove crumbled remains of the massive armored doors so the troops could enter. The same vehicles floated at the front, sweeping the Terr’aan megaconcrete floors for mines, before the main force could enter.
Four AFVs, their assault troopers fanned out, took to the front. Holo-lights and scanning rays scoured the cavernous hall, where mag-rails and various machinery signified that the colonel had discovered one of the tunnel network’s entrances. It would appear that everything was on rail platforms and moved with rapid speed. Maglev rails were rarely used in the advent of grav-drives, but whenever one could not employ the latter due to anomalies or lack of tech, said rails were a godsend.
“Assault troops, secure the second gate!” – the Colonel ordered the soldiers of the 3022nd gesticulating with open glove, watching scanner and visual feedback like a hawk he commanded his own troopers – “First, go screen these storage units. Second, keep their backs safe. Third platoon, I want the cranes captured. Everyone, watch out for ambush and beware of traps!”
Soon it became apparent that this facility could safely and quite comfortably operate not just one rail cannon, but three, and all at the same time. Why, by Her Mantle, did the Terr’aans not unleash a volley with their full power? Sayzen left the answer to this question for his Lordship since he was about to clash with the security units guarding this tunnel.
To say they assaulted his force suddenly would’ve been an understatement. Three heavies or how the Humans called them, PA, followed by a single platoon of exosuit clad soldiers, unleashed upon his own stormtroopers and the soldiers of the 3022nd. Enemy troops were concealed by cheap but efficient chameleo-cloaks; waiting till the last possible moment, they opened fire from their heavy auto-railgins, lasers, and multi-missile launchers. The colonel’s sound sensors were overwhelmed by the mighty crack of railguns, the fiery hiss of lasers, and the violent pop of high-explosive munitions.
First in Terr’aan targeting reticules were the three AFVs infantry squads. These assault teams had nearly reached the second gate when they were ripped apart and blasted to gory bits, their armor melted by intense laserfire. Bar two of their supreme sergeants, not a single trooper was even able to return fire...
That, however, was just the beginning of the massacre.
Alert and in cover, nevertheless, his troopers still suffered casualties. Armor piercing railgun projectiles bore through otherwise priceless maintenance equipment as if it was made of polyplastic. Missiles blasted a dozen troopers with their first volley alone, and the lasers dug glowing craters in the megaconcrete, melting more than a handful of Sayzen’s priceless stormtroopers as their beams hissed through the air.
He had never seen the likes of these heavily armored exosuit troops either. Only twelve, they nevertheless proceeded to lay down such a brutal suppression fire, that their PA managed to blast, shoot, and otherwise burn to cinders another fifteen Taz’aran soldiers in but a few star-seconds. The colonel did not care that their Terr’aan armor plating appeared ragged, as if scrounged from scrapped vehicles. Nor did he give a wozzy-ass that they obviously used jerry-rigged armaments, old guns stripped from fliers or scout cars.
They were killing his men!
“AFVs, quick, bring the mechs down!” – roared Sayzen, while he lobbed a guided hand grenade, blasting one of the heavy troopers.
As the machines proceeded to rip the air with particle-beams aimed at the buzzing overhead mechs, the trooper he wrecked the legs of pushed off the floor with one hand. The Colonel immediately doused this refusing to die man with a withering swarm of particle-beams from his snub assault rifle, yet this one managed to shoot at and hit him before he fell. On the floor, Sayzen had the perfect angle to look at the dead Terr’aan. Faceplate blasted by his beams, the colonel witnessed yet another oldster’s twisted face.
One of the Terr’aan mechs got hit, but the pilot ejected. Before he could be killed, the grizzled old pilot fried two stormtroopers to death with his overcharged laser gun. Colonel Sayzen observed the two remaining mecha and what was left of their support squad pull back towards the secondary gate. They did so, but slowly, as if their reinforcements were on the way.
“Forward men!” – commanded he, leaping up on his feet and reloading on the move – “We must breach into the tunnel network proper! Second platoon, take positions near the inner gate. First, secure their flanks. AFVs... didn’t I tell you to bring those mechs down?!”
He was about to give another command when the second Terr’aan PA was caught in overlapping beamfire and fell slagged on the floor. Not to be taken without one last deadly strike, the third mech unleashed a swarm of missiles which blasted not one, but two of the glide-raiders’ AFVs. Hit by RPGs, particle-beams, and a couple of anti-tank hand grenades, finally, the last Terr’aan mecha was destroyed. The four heavy Terr’aan troopers that remained standing, nevermind their efficient, thick armor, they were overwhelmed by concentrated beamfire and blasted to bits, mere steps before the second gate.
“I don’t get it.” – reported a stormtrooper section leader from the first platoon when the dust had settled and the heat from laser beams and railgun rounds, dissipated – “Storage containers are full of slagged metal bits”
“Good news, M’lord! We had just seized the first gatehouse and are soon to gain entry inside their main tunnel network.” – Sayzen was in the process of reporting their success to his Lordship, when another stormtrooper sent him a link:
“Sir, there is not a single plasma wire here! All this massive maintenance equipment was powered by portable power packs.” – bellowed a lieutenant from his third platoon.
“Either our scanners are being spoofed or there is nothing behind this gate.” – mumbled one of the engineers, reconfiguring his hand scanner for the sixth time.
“Colonel, sir,” – reported another engineer from the top of the inner gate, where he climbed to enact a thorough search – “no matter how hard we looked, we could not find a control panel on this side. I don’t think this gate has ever opened or closed since its installment. Something smells here.”
Sayzen’s otherwise calm face changed colors.
His comm-link to ITS Drakh still open, the colonel roared:
“Everyone oooouuuut!”
Up on the bridge, Lord General Kulin winced as he suddenly receive garbled, loud static, instead of his prized stormtrooper commander’s lively reply. A few star-seconds later and his sensor feed showed him that the hill had vanished. In its place, there was a huge mushroom cloud and it was rapidly raising...
Even the most daft person knows not to corner a rabbit in a warren. Those teeth hurt and rabbits have claws, four of them. Oh well, the tazzies will eventually learn.
Dang….