Nova Wars

Everyone's gangsta until they hear HEAVY METAL IS HERE! and a Terran task force comes across the wall. - Kyl'lrmo'o, former Lanaktallan System Cluster Grand Great Most High, now Poet and Author, 24 TXE.

The transport ride was about as fun as Vak.tel knew it was going to be. What surprised him was how long it took, nearly four hours. The whole ride there Vak.tel wondered, just like everyone else, exactly what was waiting. All they knew was their TO&E (Table of Organization & Equipment) was being loaded onto transports and moved to a ship named The Warsteel Fist of Hated Fates, which damn near sounded Lanky to Vak.tel.

Finally, the transport ship reached the other ship, docked, and Vak.tel was led through the hallways until they got to the enlisted quarters. To be honest, Vak.tel expected the enlisted to be housed in a large bay, like on every other Confederate space ship.

Instead, it was comfortable three man rooms. Five meters by five meters, plenty of space to put stuff away, a single bunk bed and a single bed, a desk, three chairs, a coffee table, even a limited template access nutriforge and its own bathroom with fresher.

He was assigned to room with Private First Class Nrexla and Lance Corporal Juvretik, both Telkan Marines out of Telkan-2 and 7th Division. The three Telkan quickly put away their clothing, uniforms, and what little personal effects they owned.

Within an hour Gunny Heltok came in and inspected everyone's room with Captain Kemtrelap, CO of Kilo Company, to make sure everyone had all of their clothing and gear.

Then the notification came over the datalinks that everyone was off-duty until further notice, but to stay within Company and Battalion areas.

Vak.tel just laid on his bunk, staring up at the ceiling. Nrexla and Juvretik both left then came back after about an hour.

"Find anything good?" Vak.tel asked.

Nrexla shook his head. "Nope. Just scouted out the edges of the Company area. We share a chowhall with the rest of 17th, same with the gym and the Troop Medical Clinic. There's a couple of rec areas, but right now they're off limits."

Juvretik shrugged, punching up a Countess Crey fizzyblast on the nutriforge then sitting down with it. "17th Rifle Battalion's area is pretty large," he reached out and used his implant to activate the holoemitter built into the wall. "As near as I can tell, it's damn near as big of the Black Calm Waters that we were on."

Vak.tel sat up. "Just the Battalion area?"

Juvretik nodded. "Just the Battalion area. It's pretty big. That doesn't include the armory, the morgue, or the motor pool," he kept tapping his fingers. "Apparently they're bringing out vehicles over too."

"How big is this thing?" Nrexla asked.

"Got it," Juvretik tapped a key in mid-air and a wireframe of an irregularly shaped ship appeared. It zoomed in fast to show a room. "There we are."

Vak.tel nodded. He could see his tag hovering in the room.

"Let's zoom out. Take it slow, have the areas around us colorized for who is in charge or living in what area," Juvretik said.

It zoomed out slowly, showing first the Battalion area, then the Brigade area, then finally the Regimental area. Then it kept zooming out.

And zooming out.

And zooming out.

"How big is this tub?" Vak.tel asked.

It finally stopped.

Juvretik pulled a data window free and looked at, then whistled. "You aren't going to believe it."

"What?" Vak.tel said. He jumped off the bed. "What aren't we going to believe."

"It's a Light Colossus class Super-Carrier and Transport," Juvretik said.

Nrexla leaned forward, looking it over and whistling. "It's massive."

"Look at the guns," Juvretik said. "String compressor cannons, obsolete, C++ cannons, obsolete, plasma wave phase motion guns, obsolete. Man, it's loaded up with obsolete guns."

"Flight bays, launch bays. Fruit flies? What the hell are those?" Nrexla asked.

"Clone Warfare sections," Vak.tel shook his head. "Cloning hasn't been worth a shit in forever."

"Pacific Rim Class Jaeger Bays," Juvretik whistled. He squinted. "Wait, what's that?"

"What's what?" Nrexla asked.

Juvertik zoomed in.

"Hey!" Vak.tel had been looking over the dropship types. There were nearly ten different types, including something called an Overlord Mech Dropship and a Omicron Powered Drop Cradle System.

"Trust me..." Juvretik kept moving the wireframe. He suddenly stopped. "There!"

All three leaned in close.

"First Telkan Marine Expeditionary Force - Old Blood," Vak.tel read out. "Old Blood? What the Hell is that?"

"Not sure. Part of something called III Corps, Old Blood," Juvertik said. He shook his head. "OK, First Cavalry Division, Old Blood, Second Armor Division, Old Blood, First Infantry Division, Old Blood, Fifth Mechanized Infantry Division, Old Blood, 13th Sustainment Command, Old Blood, Five-two-two Mantid Sustainment Group, Old Blood, One hundred first Airborne Division, Old Blood, Sixtieth Special Tasks, Old Blood, 19-19 Treana'ad War Horde, Old Blood, 14th Pubvian Infantry Division, Old Blood, First Telkan Expeditionary Force, Old Blood," he leaned back. "This thing is huge. I've never heard of a Corps this big. It has to have at least twenty divisions attached to it, not to mention about fifty regiments and groups."

"It's even got Aerospace assets," Vak.tel said. He squinted. "Am I reading this right?"

"What?" Nrexla asked.

"They've got six BOLOs, including two continental siege engines? I thought BOLOs were a myth," Vak.tel said.

"What, on this thing?" Nrexla looked closer. "That can't be right. Those things were supposedly massive."

"Yeah, and lost about twenty-five thousand years ago. They're a myth," Juvretik said. He checked. "Damn, they're outside our allowed zone."

"What, you wanted to go look at them?" Vak.tel asked.

"Yeah. Four of the six don't have any combat awards. Only one of the siege engines and a heavy combat model have any awards," Juvretik said. "Man, the siege engine started as a Mark XXVIII and was upgraded to Mark XXXV recently."

"Any data on it?" Vak.tel asked.

"No," Juvretik said. He shook his head. "Locked out," he leaned back and took a long hit off of his drink, "Still, everyone agrees Terra's stuff is like 30K years out of date."

"That's what happens when you get bagged up and the rest of the universe carries on," Vak.tel said.

0-0-0-0-0

They'd been in hyperspace or jumpspace, Vak.tel wasn't sure which, for weeks. The Telkan of 6th Infantry Regiment and the rest of 7th Telkan Marine Division had been largely confined to their own areas. Still, with a ship as big as the Warsteel Fist of Hated Fates that was quite a bit of room.

Training on their weapons, radio call signs, communication protocols, vehicle recognition, and everything else ate up the days, boredom and video games ate up the nights.

Vak.tel had finally been summoned to the morgue, the huge bay where the power armor and smaller mechs were stored, with orders to have his armor resynched and ensure it was ready for whatever happened.

Rumor control stated that the Task Force was only a day or so out of the deployment zone, somewhere in the Ornislarp Noocracy, so Vak.tel wasn't surprised that they were finally getting around to make sure everyone's weapons, armor, mechs, and vehicles were ready to go.

He'd already done a virtual requalification on orbital drop training, already gone to the massive ranges inside the ship to requalify on his weapons, and had done the virtual reality requalification on his armor.

Now all that was left was to climb inside, match up his biometrics, and have the mechanics go over it.

When the elevator door opened he stopped and stared.

It was a lot larger than he had expected was the first thing that came to mind.

"Is that... is that a Pacific Rim class Jaegermech?" Nrexla asked.

"Which one?" Vak.tel asked, pointing at the right hand wall. He realized Nrexla was pointing at the left hand wall.

"Look at the size of those tanks," Juvretik said.

"Tanks are obsolete," Nrexla said.

"Tell them that," Juvretik said.

Vak.tel saw the racks were stored three or more high next to the massive 100m Pacific Rim class Jaegers. The blue line popped up, leading the trio through a winding path between tanks and armored vehicles.

"Woah, did you see that?" Nrexla asked, pointing up to the side of one of the massive tanks.

"What?" Vak.tel asked.

"A green mantid. I swear, I just saw a green mantid!" he said.

"Bullshit. Greenies don't leave the Mantid Free States," Vak.tel said.

"I'm serious, I saw one for a second. It was climbing down into the hatch," Nrexla said.

"You need to lay off the stimweed," Juvretik chuckled.

A few more minutes of weaving between the vehicles and the trio found the Battalion armorer sitting on a box, smoking a Treana'ad smokestick and drinking a fizzystim.

"Old Man catches you drinking on the job, there will be the piper to pay," Juvretik told the other Telkan.

Staff Sergeant Mepwalk just glared, taking a drag off of the smokestick and blowing a cloud out.

"Then he can do this shit," Mepwalk snarled. He waved around. "I have to make sure that all of you are loaded up into the IFF banks. Not just your armor, but your personal datalink and biometric codes in case you end up ejecting from your armor."

"Why would I do that?" Vak.tel asked, shaking his head.

"I asked the same thing and the guy I was talking to just shook his head and called me a boot. Me! A boot!" Mepwalk snapped.

"Let me guess, some Terran that hasn't seen combat in forty-thousand years," Vak.tel guess.

Mepwalk shook his head. "No. A Telkan. Big guy, probably a third of a meter taller than me. Missing an eye. Not even a cybernetic implant. Told me that I was thinking like a boot, that we must be prepared for anything," Mepwalk snorted. "Then he fucked off. He'll be back as soon as I pull your armor."

The trio nodded, then put their hands on the scanner.

The gantry system whipped into motion, grabbing all three armors and bringing them down the floor. The standard M9221A4 Heavy Assault Combat Protective Powered Suit.

Vak.tel felt a surge of pleasure seeing his. True, there wasn't anything beyond the stenciled number on it to really identify it, but he knew it was his. Thick and heavy Vodamn Armor, Neolinnium plating, built-in 40mm forward facing grenade launcher, forearm missile launcher.

It was carnage and protection wrapped into one package.

"Let me start the fuel injection. As soon as the power comes on, we'll get you into the suit and running your biometrics and synch," SSG Mepwalk said.

Vak.tel could tell when the suit's reactor was online. It was almost like it was trembling, eager for the next drop or next assault. After a moment it unfolded at the back and Vak.tel stepped into it. It closed around him, he felt the neural jack squirm for a second, then it locked in and the housing spun to make sure the locking ring was secure.

The suit went live and he checked it over. His biometrics loaded, he felt the firmware embedded down his spine and at the base of his skull synch up.

It only took five minutes before he opened the suit and stepped backwards out of it.

He felt naked even though he still had on his duty uniform.

"All right, we're..." Mepwalk started. He suddenly went silent, his face going grim.

"You have completed the task, yes?" the voice was low, gravelly,

"Yes," Mepwalk said.

Vak.tel turned around and stared.

The other Telkan was a good foot taller than anyone else, but that wasn't what got the stare. He had heavy crude looking cybernetics replacing one arm and one leg, a missing eye, and black chrome down the opposite side of his muzzle.

Hard bitten was what came to Vak.tel's mind when he stared at him.

"Who are you?" Vak.tel heard his own voice say and wanted to kick himself.

"I am Ivan Wektaki the Telkan, of the Black Skull Blood Drinker Vodkatrog Warsteel Horde," the Telkan said. "You may call me by my Telkan name and rank, which was Field Sergeant Impton."

"Uh, what happened to your eye?" Juvretik asked

The Telkan stared at Juvretik for a moment. "I once saw a Warsteel Baba Yaga and she took my eye," he said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Uh, OK," Juvretik said.

"The suits. They passed the tests, yes?" the strange Telkan asked.

"Yes," Mepwalk answered.

"Your armor witches have examined them?" FS Imptom asked.

"Uh..." Mepwalk.

"Your greenies?" FS Impton tried.

"We don't have greenies any more," Nrexla said.

"In the Warfather's name, I have not heard such foolishness," FS Impton said. "I should give your commanders a taste of my shoe."

Juvretik snickered and FS Impton turned to face him.

"I have said something amusing to you?" the scar faced Telkan asked.

"The Warfather Vuxten was just an amalgamation of multiple different Telkan during the Second Precursor War. Like the Digital Omnimessiah, he didn't exist and everyone..." Juvretik started saying in a slight mocking tone.

Impton grabbed Juvretik by the throat, lifting the other Telkan even as he choked and started to kick.

"I served with the Warfather Vuxten during the defense of Telkan-2," the strange Telkan said. "Shoulder to shoulder with him I stood."

Impton threw Juvretik away, the other Marine crashing to the floor.

"Speak such words in my hearing again and I will present broodcarriers your guts to wear as garters," Impton said, turning away.

The four Telkan watched as the other Telkan disappeared between the vehicles.

"Man, what an asshole," Juvretik said, standing up.

"I hope we don't have to deal with him after this," Vak.tel grumbled.