"Sir, got a minute?"
Lieutenant Steve Mitchell looked up from his perch from where he was overlooking the lights of Texarkana at his communications specialist (newspeak for radio operator) and asked, "What is it, Perkins?"
Corporal Dave Perkins presented a minicomp and said, "This just came in, and I thought you'd like to see the whole message yourself."
Steve took the minicomp from Perkins and hit PLAY. The picture on the screen was that of Jonathan Wolfe, a legend in the Robotech Expeditionary Force for his "Wolf Pack", an unit consisting of Veritech Hovertanks much like what the 10th ATAC was using and had used throughout the Second Robotech War. The REF had set up a small base at someplace known only as Point K, and were covertly supporting Earth's beleaguered defenders through another invasion, this one from strange beings known as the Invid.
Wolfe looked straight into the pickup, his mirrored sunglasses obscuring his eyes. "Greetings, Lieutenant Mitchell," he said. "We don't have a lot of time, so let's get to the point. Intelligence thinks the Invid have a hive set up about four klicks northwest of your position. Rumor has it they're working on some special project involving protoculture, although we're not sure what it is. I don't need to tell you how the war's going, nor how we need to make sure the Invid don't finish that project."
Steve mulled this over for a few minutes. Protoculture was the mysterious power source that powered not only cities, but every mecha on Earth manufactured by humans or aliens. It was cheap, clean, and sufficiently desirable to have alien invasion fleets hammer humanity's defenders time and time again to obtain it. The irony of the situation was that not even the best scientific minds known to man could unlock the secrets of its manufacture. To power the mecha that had repulsed both the Zentraedi and the Robotech Masters, Earth's military-industrial complex had been reduced to the level of children assembling kits. And the Invid supposedly had sensors that could detect (and target) protoculture emmissions.
Which was why the war was going as badly as it was.
"What we need you to do is to take your squad, find out what exactly the Invid are up to, and stop them. If you can't wreck their equipment or don't have the time, you can blow up the power core. That will gut the hive, but you'll only have thirty seconds to get out if you take that option. Your backup will be a flight of Logans, plus a REF Legios unit. That's all we can spare," -- here Wolfe swallowed hard -- "so protect them until you can enter the hive."
The REF colonel took a deep breath before continuing. "What I'm about to say next isn't for public consumption, so get everybody but your second-in-command out of earshot." The playback automatically paused, and Steve looked up before saying, "Perkins, tell Sergeant Reilly that I need to see him by that oak tree over there."
The communications tech nodded and said, "Yes, sir," before departing. Steve ran both his hands through his thatch of thick black hair and sighed. From both the tone and body language of Wolfe, Steve knew that whatever he had to say could not be good. As if another reminder was needed that the war was teetering on the brink of unwinnable! He got up and wandered over to the oak tree he had indicated earlier, leaning up against it as he slapped the minicomp against the palm of his free hand.
At length, Steve's second, Sergeant Tom Reilly, appeared by the oak tree, accompanied by Perkins. "Ok," Steve nodded to Perkins. When Perkins hesitated, Steve said, "Take a hike!" As the signal corpsman left, Reilly noted, "Do I need to be taking this sitting down, sir?"
Steve looked at him for a second. "Never was any fooling you, Sergeant," he replied at length.
"Comes with experience, lad," Reilly replied in that Irish brouge of his. "Now, are you going to play the secure part of the briefing, or are you going to commiserate with an old noncom?"
Steve hit the PLAY button once more.
"As you are already aware," Wolfe began, "your backup is comparatively light. Reason being, the Invid hit Point K pretty hard a couple hours ago." Sergeant Reilly had far too much military bearing to show much surprise other than a deep breath, but Steve's jaw dropped. "By the time you get this message, Point K will have already been evacuated. It's gone straight to hell, Lieutenant. You're effectively on your own starting now. Good luck... and God help us all."
Steve sighed as the screen faded to a RDF/REF insignia and the words "END TRANSMISSION". "Tall order, isn't it?"
"If it were easy, sir," Reilly said with a hint of a smile, "then even the TASCers or partisans could do it." The Tactical Armored Space Corps were the flyboys of the SCA, and had the attitudes to match. Between the mechanics of interplanetary invasion and poor operational planning which soon degenerated into attacks for nothing more than the honor of the flag, they were the hardest hit of all the Armies of the Southern Cross during the Second Robotech War.
"Unfortunately," Steve replied, "they're all we got for backup right now. That REF Legius, or whatever that is... I don't know how good that's supposed to be. The Logans, on the other hand..." Another sigh. The Logan bore the dubious reputation of being an eggshell. Then again, the only thing it had in its defense was being designed during a time in which the current hope was that the REF could negotiate with the Robotech Masters and prevent another invasion. Fat lot of good *that* trip had done the planet.
"May I ask what our target is, sir?" Reilly asked at length.
"We're supposed to take out an Invid hive that's rumored to be an experimental base."
"They really want us to earn our pay, don't they?"
"They certainly do. I take it this bounced around Point K Command until they found somebody who couldn't pass it on. It's risky, bloody, and dirty as hell. Unfortunately, it's ours now."
"I take it you have a plan?" Reilly offered.
"I suppose what we could do is use the Logans to create a diversion while we slip inside," Steve suggested at length. "It'd have to be away from the hive, but it should draw away most of their ready reaction forces."
"And the insertion plan?" Reilly asked.
"Standard leapfrog up to the hive entrance. Once inside, we shift to Battloid and make our way to their lab."
"Ok, sounds good. We may wanna maintain radio silence, seein' how the Invid love to send false orders."
"Copy that. This should go off early tomorrow morning.. get the men up at say, 0430?"
"I take it you'll want the usual order passed as well," answered Reilly.
"Yes. 'Nobody dies.' Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get some sleep." Steve stood straight, returned his sergeant's salute, and headed off to bed. Inside, his nerves were screaming higher than a dog whistle.
-Well,- Steve thought, -this is what you've been trained for. Let's show them that all that time in the barrel during the Second War wasn't a waste.-
Based upon the Robotech universe (created by Carl Macek)
and the Rifts universe (created by Kevin Siembieda)
(Timothy Z., if you're reading this, consider the choice of title as a compliment to your taste, ok?)
"I don't like this," Steve muttered. "We should not be in here this easily!"
The insertion had gone off easily enough. Between the diversion and the Legios lying doggo behind a rock formation, the 10th had taken out the perimeter guard and made it into the ground-level of the hive. They were currently sweeping through sublevel one, looking for the lab in the briefing.
"Sir!" came the voice of Nathan Campbell, a tanker in Reilly's element. "Found something you should see!"
"Hang on, Campbell," Steve responded. "Reilly, how's it look from there?"
"Perkins and I are still over at the core working on Plan B, sir," Reilly replied.
"Right. Finish up what you're doing and get over here post-haste. I'm going to check out Campbell's sighting." And with that, Steve jogged his VHT (called the Plow, after a similar hovertank he had read about) over to Campbell's position.
Campbell had his VHT crouched near the entrance to a nearby chamber. Inside were what appeared to be slugs that had somehow gained a roughly humanoid appearance, dressed in robes, and were busily engaged in poking, prodding, and otherwise examining things ranging from dinosaur fossils to a woman strapped to a table.
"We gonna let them do that, sir?" Campbell asked, and Steve could relate to how his trooper was feeling. But such rescues were certainly not done in an Invid hive. Not without a good deal of backup.
Steve turned around and made hand signals to the rest of his squad to come up. "Bryant, Jones, Harper, you're with me and Campbell. The rest of you, watch our backs. We move after the scientist-types are picked off." Campbell raised his gun pod and took aim, already anticipating his lieutenant's orders. Everybody named for the strike soon followed suit. Shortly thereafter, every slug-looking creature hit the floor, charred by particle beam fire.
Campbell got up and started toward the woman on the table. "Campbell!" Steve hissed over the radio. He was going to say "Get back here," but he saw something else first. Tens of glowing lights around the perimeter of the chamber. Lights that told Steve one of two things:
1) The lights were motion-activated room lighting
2) Or all the Invid mecha in the world were about to fire on Campbell.
"IT'S A TRAP!!" Steve shouted just as annihilation discs and heat beams clawed forth for Campbell's VHT.
# Stabbing Westward "Save Yourself", Darkest Days
As tough as the Veritech Hovertank was, it simply could not survive large numbers of Invid Shock Troopers and Command Units firing at it. And as in the previous two Robotech Wars, numbers did not favor mankind at all. Nathan Campbell died within the space of ten seconds as annihilation discs tore open the VHT's armor and heat beams melted whatever remained to slag.
-Don't take it so hard,- Steve thought to himself. -Someone had to spring the trap.- Instantly, he felt a wave of revulsion at the sheer unworthiness of that thought and brought his Plow's gun pod up to shoot at Shock Troopers.
An explosive shout from Willard and Simkin in the rear told Steve that the 10th's rearguard had problems of their own. Hurriedly, Steve keyed his radio. "Tango One to Buzzkillers, we are taking heavy fire, assistance needed, over."
"Buzzkill One to Tango One," replied Reilly, "Also under attack, ETA five minutes!"
"Recommend you expedite!" Steve yelled as a shot from his gun pod punched through a Shock Trooper's "eye", causing a green liquid to fly out as the crab-like mecha fell onto its back and laid still.
"Jones, Harper, MacCauley, Rivers, go to Guardian mode now!" Immediately after Steve's command, those VHTs shifted to their most powerful mode, soon resembling a gun platform with legs. The Guardian mode VHTs soon added blasts from their heavy ion cannons to the carnage, knocking down Invids left and right. But Steve knew that that kind of firepower couldn't last forever. He too brought the Plow into Guardian mode, just as a Pincer Command Unit began to take an interest in him.
The Pincer's heat cannons glowed for a second and fired, only to hit a section of floor as the Plow jumped high in the air, completing its transformation just in time to land on the Pincer's heat cannon booms before impaling the offending Invid mecha with a blast from its ion cannon.
Looking around, Steve saw that the chamber was almost cleared of Invids, but several more were pouring in as the rearguard was falling back. "Buzzkiller One, Tango One. The chamber is secure, but enemy reinforcements are inbound. I need you here now!"
"Negative, Tango One. Perkins got hit bad; he isn't answering the comm."
"Understood. Tango One, out."
Steve snorted. "Ok, boys, this is where it's gonna happen. When they hit us again, we're gonna fall back towards me. Better button up those pieholes, because here they come!"
As another wave of Invids rushed into the chamber, Steve pointed the Plow's main gun down at the floor and fired until he had shot a hole through the floor. Meanwhile, the defense of the chamber had taken a turn for the worse. Simkin's VHT doubled over and hit the floor, smoke rising from its chest as Invid Troopers began to savage it mercilessly. MacCauley had gone down as well under a carefully-timed fusillade from a Shock Trooper. And the Invids were starting to bring in their Scouts to further split the 10th's fire.
"Break off, break off!" Steve sang as he ordered Bryant into the hole he had created, followed by Jones and then himself. The sounds and lights of combat continued overhead as Steve twisted to get a view of the new chamber he was dropping into. He took one look before muttering, "Oh, you have got to be kidding me!"
What awaited the 10th below were even more Invids, plus some brown tentacled reptilian-yet-humanoid thing mounted on a platform that had seemed to have eyes on it. It was best described by Corporal Bryant as his Battloid looked up: "You are one UGLY motherfu--!!"
That was all he could get out before a blast of green energy erupted from the staff the unknown was carrying, hitting Bryant's VHT square in the head and knocking it back a good 25 meters.
"Buzzkiller One, Tango One. The situation's taken a big nosedive. Am now on sublevel two, needing an escort home, over."
Tom Reilly had been in worse situations. He was just having a hard time thinking of one. Already the battery on his ion cannon had run dry, forcing him to use the quad-plasma cannons that comprised the Guardian VHT's secondary weapons.
"Almost done here, Tango One," he replied as the last Trooper in the wave went down under the cannons.
However, another scream could be heard over the radio, followed by Lt. Mitchell's voice. "We're out of time, Sergeant," he replied. "Head for home and do what must be done."
-Was he serious? Of course, boyo. If there's one thing we've learned about the LT, it's that he doesn't ask such things unless he means them.-
"Roger that," Reilly replied. "Buzzkiller One clear." The ATAC three-striper set the timer on the charges for one minute and ran his Battloid VHT down the hall toward the main gates.
Reilly didn't see the flight of Armored Scouts fly by and hose his vehicle down with annihilation discs.
Jones had gone down at the hands of the reptilian thing and a handy Pincer Unit. Now Steve was in Battloid, trying to stem the tide of Invid with just his gun pod. It wasn't helping.
[Why do you resist?] a voice spoke in his head.
-What the... GET. OUT. OF. MY. MIND!-
[It hardly matters, foolish one. There's nowhere left for you to run.]
Steve looked up at the reptile-borg and fired snap-shots from his gun pod at it, only to have the shots bounce off an octagonal shaped forcefield of some kind.
[That was unwise. Now I'll just have to kill you.]
As the thing raised his staff toward Steve, two things happened. One, a bright light of an eye-tearing explosion illuminated the hive, followed by a rolling fireball that heated up the ceiling, soon melting it into so much slag. Two, the shockwave from the explosion knocked the Plow backwards to the floor.
That is, it would have, if the Plow wasn't standing directly in front of a portal that was also surging with bright blue energy.
Everything turned blue.
He was certain that the rift was still operational when that humanoid contraption fell through it. Then one last power surge had fried the generator's workings before the hive completely lost power. What Karkath Dorr was uncertain about was where in his home dimension the robot had arrived.
"You have no idea where that robot emerged from the rift?" he asked the Enforcer that was currently filling in for the brain.
"Absolutely none," the Invid replied. "We are certain that the human and his mecha have arrived on your own Earth, but the probability that the rift exited into Atlantis as programmed is only 0.85%."
Karkath Dorr glared at the Invid. "Our business here is concluded," he grated. As the slaver chanted the spell that would return him to Atlantis, he couldn't help but feel cheated.