Nova Wars

He had fought the Terrans before and didn't like it then.

He didn't like it now. - Unknown, Second Precursor War

"THEY DO NOT HAVE THE BLISS!" Senior Bladearm Leader F'Rekik bellowed out over the comlink. Even with the comms built into the helmets and his vocal volume, he was still barely heard. The engines of the dropship were screaming, there was clanking against the side of the dropship as kinetic projectiles, nearly spent, hammered against the armored hull, and the atmosphere itself was roaring, making the dropship vibrate so badly everyone inside saw double or triple.

"THEY CAN STILL FIGHT WITH A MORTAL WOUND!" SBL F'Rekik yelled.

There was a knocking sound and two dents punched deep into the interior armor.

Everyone below it flinched.

"DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE OF THINKING A MISSING ARM OR LEG MEANS THEY ARE DOWN AND DYING! THEY CAN STILL KILL!" came the shout as the dropship heeled over to the side and dropped rapidly. An explosion, large and close enough to be heard through everything, shook the dropship.

"ENGAGE THEM ONLY THREE ON ONE OR BETTER! THEY MAY BE SMALL BUT THEY CAN TEAR A WARRIOR CASTE IN HALF WITH THEIR BARE HANDS!" was shouted out.

The light went from red to yellow and everyone inside the dropship shifted anxiously.

"THEY CANNOT SEE BEHIND THEM! THE ARMOR IS WEAK AT THE JOINTS AND WAIST!"

The dropship suddenly lifted up at the nose, the engines screaming.

The yellow light blinked. The restraints released and everyone inside stood up, getting in line.

"DO NOT ENGAGE WITH BLADEARMS UNLESS YOU WANT THEM STUCK THROUGH YOUR OWN HEAD!"

The line shuffled to face the back of the dropship.

The green light blinked.

The dropship slammed down so hard that half of the gathered up warriors felt their abdomen armor hit the floor.

"FORM UP ON THE NEAREST LEADERSHIP BEACON!"

The door slammed down.

"GO GO GO GO!"

Tracers were whipping back and forth. Explosions filled the air. Chunks of armor and pieces of destroyed aircraft fell to the ground. Lasers and plasma rounds shrieked by, answered by impossibly high velocity kinetic rounds. Artillery and mortar rounds hit the ground even as aerospace strikers from either side strafed the ground or dropped their payloads on the enemy or were knocked out of the sky to hit the ground and either explode or tumble along shedding burning parts.

The Treana'ad aboard the dropship surged out.

P'Thok held his plasma rifle tight as he followed the one in front of him. His faceplate immediately went to hash as the Terran Third Republic jamming shredded its ability to do anything. He chinned the button and it went polarized but crystal clear from inside.

Kinetic rounds howled around him as he sprinted for the nearest leadership beacon.

He braked, skidding to a stop, as a half-dozen artillery shells slammed down on the beacon's position. Around the location was nothing but smoking craters and shredded Treana'ad. He activated the comlink, wincing as the howl of jamming warbled through his ears. The channel was full of confusion, everyone shouting different things.

He could faintly hear Terran laughter in the channel.

"SIGMA SEVEN TEAM! POINT ECHO! POINT ECHO!" P'Thok shouted over his commo, skittering to the side just in time to avoid a burst of kinetic rounds.

The warrior behind him jerked and shivered, then collapsed.

It was P'Thok's seventh combat drop and third world. He knew the warrior had been killed by little metal cones that expanded and tumbled as soon as they hit armor or chitin. The warrior might only have a few holes in their plasteel armor, but the 'bullets' had shredded his internal organs and hydrostatic shock had liquified things he probably really needed.

"LET'S GO!" P'Thok yelled, turning and sprinting for point Sigma-Seven.

A Terran weapon emplacement was hammering hate down on the dropship and P'Thok reached back to grab the rocket launcher on his back. He didn't bother with anything fancy, didn't bother to stop, kneel, and take the time to use the targeting computer.

He did what he had learned to do on his first drop.

He fired it on the run, emptying out the three pack launcher, throwing the expended launcher away as he put on more speed.

The emplacement blew up. Two intact appearing Terran Republican Guard flew away from the explosion.

"JunIklikik, POP SMOKE!" P'Thok yelled to the warrior in front of him.

The newbie pulled two smoke grenades from his harness, throwing one in front of him, dropping the other at his feet, after banging the top against his chest.

A burst of Republican Guard slugs shredded JunIklikik before he took enough steps to get into the cloud of smoke, the leader warrior's arms and two legs shredding away even as huge holes were blown out of his backplate.

"KEEP GOING!" P'Thok yelled over the warbling com-channel.

The warrior next to him went down and another took his place only to be cut down before three steps.

He could see Point Echo now.

There was a Terran Third Republic anti-aircraft position on it. The RG's were clustered around it, firing outward in all directions as P'Thok and the tens of thousands of other warriors charged the position.

Artillery shells slammed down, P'Thok feeling several pieces of shrapnel bounce off his plasteel armor. A few limbs and two torsos flew over him.

He was firing now. Not aimed, just leveling the plasma rifle and yanking the trigger almost spasmodically. He wasn't doing the careful two count to make sure the barrel cooled, wasn't verifying his targets. He was just firing.

Three RG strikers came in low. Someone got off a set of anti-air missiles, the MANPAD six-pack hitting the striker. It exploded and the flaming wreckage hit the ground, bouncing and tumbling through the ranks of Treana'ad who were still charging. Tanks were firing, ignoring the rockets that were hitting them, denting and twisting the armor, just firing back as they roared at the right flank.

Someone got a brace of missiles through the Terran point defense and the AA site exploded. P'Thok still charged forward as he saw Terrans, some smoking, pick themselves and get back into the fight, sprinting at their slow max speed to get behind cover. One caught a missile and tumbled, getting back up and managing to limp behind cover.

The sandbagged berm was coming up, Terrans popping up to fire then ducking back down. P'Thok didn't remember reloading his rifle but he was still firing so he must have reloaded right but he didn't remember and he was just sprinting as two dozen warriors on his right were torn apart by a heavy gun and an explosion ripped apart everyone on his left to splatter him with shrapnel and ichor and chunks of chitin and the Terran popped up and fired narrowly missing him and he had the rocket launcher pulled around as the Terran ducked down and a handful of warriors put on a burst of speed and passed him and a striker dropped burning napalm on the left flank but the warriors charged through it because oh god they were committed and there was no turning back and he threw the empty mag away and slotted a new one and grabbed the missile launcher again firing to hit the Terran as it popped up throwing the Terran backwards and he was in the trench and he was stabbing with the bayonet and firing and firing and a Terran had a chainsword hacking down warriors and he fired the missile launcher the Terran flung back and rolling to one side as warriors rushed and getting up right before the last missile of the triple ripple pack hit him again and P'Thok joined the other warriors to start stabbing and someone was screaming was it him it was him he was screaming as he stabbed because it JUST WOULDN'T DIE until it went down and he was scrambling out of the trenchwork, still sprinting and his side and feet hurt and bullets were everywhere and oh god charlie company just exploded and the Treana'ad in front of him were reduced to chunky salsa and still he was running and firing and last missile launcher and one out JUST DIE and another out STAY DOWN and the last out DIE DIE DIE and he was in with them now swinging the empty launcher and stabbing with his bladearms even though you never do that his psychic suppression was redlined and he could taste blood and fresh mown kiknik grain on his grinding plates and a Terran lunged out tackling the warrior almost three times his size and five times his bulk and the Terran ripped the warrior into three pieces before he could stab the Terran and why are they so strong and tough why does god hate me so much and run up behind it and stab and stab and stab over and over who is screaming its me I'm screaming Terran Terran Terran oh god I'm going to die one came out of the foxhole and swung a cutting bar his rifle shattered as he blocked one of those terrible cutting bars and he jabbed the sheered off sharp end into the Terran and stabbed and stabbed and he was knocked down oh god don't let me be dead and he was up and fighting and he was screaming the Terrans were roaring and the red light went out of its eyes as he stabbed and stabbed and...

there was nothing but Treana'ad standing.

A rifle fired and P'Thok was dimly aware it was him, firing a burst you never fire a burst into the back of a downed Terran before it could get up. stay down stay down stay down another rifle fired a grenade went off oh god they're everywhere coming out of the holes and wreckage and fight fight for your life stab and stab grab a rifle off the ground wrench it from dead treana'ad hands and fire and fire whose screaming it's me i'm screaming and fire and fire holy shit that terran just ripped superior officer n'trekalk in half with his bare hands and WHY WON'T YOU DIE and fire and i'm screaming i'm screaming as i'm beating this terran to death with a broken rifle and its punching me in the chest and i can feel my carapace crack and JUST DIE and hit and hit and stab and hit and scream and

silence again.

Just the crackle of flames, his own breathing inside his helmet.

"Sound off," P'Thok ordered.

He checked his visor as the declarations of life came in.

Less than ten minutes had gone by.

He couldn't remember any of it.

He greedily drank from the sippy straw, his mouth parched, his grinding plates feeling like they were burning.

Someone screamed in terror and rifles fired. There was a kinetic weapon discharge then a dozen plasma guns and stabbing bayonets. The Terran grabbed one of the rifles, pulling himself forward and slapped the warrior's head off.

P'Thok rammed the bayonet in from behind, pulling it free and ramming it in again and again.

The Terran went down and P'Thok fired point blank at the weak spot in the armor at the base of the neck.

Now it was quiet. Only the crackling of flames, the distant sound of artillery and strikers.

P'Thok looked around.

He was the only one with banding on his legs.

He pointed at the huge device sitting in the middle of the black glittering sand that was now nothing more than a slurry of Treana'ad ichor, Terran blood, lubricants, and chunks of Treana'ad and Terran scattered everywhere.

"Blow that up. We'll regroup," P'Thok said. He looked at the horizon. "We have a planet to take back."

Part of him flinched, muttering no no no no don't make me but he pushed that part away.

The Treana'ad liberation of Piklikiktik was underway.

0-0-0-0-0

The egg tender gently set the egg into the glittering black sand then used his bladearms to smooth the sand over it. There were two others with him, one singing, the other carrying the basket of eggs. He patted the sand over the egg and moved on.

All across the glittering black plain worker Treana'ad put eggs into the sand. Tens of thousands of workers planting, others singing, still others moving back and forth to gather the eggs in woven baskets as tradition demanded.

The time for a Great Hatching had been five years ago.

The Terrans had promised the Treana'ad people that they would fight and die to give the Treana'ad people the five years they needed.

The Treana'ad believed them.

The egg tender worker kept moving across one of the oldest Great Hatching Worlds in Treana'ad space.

The Great Hatching World had only been taken from the Treana'ad people once. The Treana'ad were a powerful and mighty people and had wrested it back from the galaxy's premiere predator through bravery and foce of arms.

It had only been taken once.

And never again.

The workers, under the warm red sun, enjoying the nitrogen laden breeze, kept moving through the vast glittering deserts of Piklikiktik.

TERRASOL

How's the Great Hatching laying going?

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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Good. We're up to 20% of the eggs laid.

It's funny, you know?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

What is?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

The best warriors come from one particular planet. We'll hatch tens of billions of warriors on that planet. They'll all have amazing coloration, excellent intellect, amazing reflexes.

It's just kind of funny that that world in particular produces the best warriors.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

AKLTAK FREE FLIGHT

Which one?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Piklikiktik.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TERRASOL

That was one hell of a fight.

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LANKY LANKY YOUR NAME IS FRANKY

Really?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TERRASOL

The Treana'ad managed to push us off the planet in slightly less than a year.

They were endless. Kill one and a dozen more take its place. Day. Night. Rain. Shine. Fog. Clear.

The Treana'ad just kept coming. They'd swarm tanks. They'd charge machinegun positions till the trigger went click.

On top of that, they were three times our size, tough as nails, and nasty fighters.

Even nastier than the Mantid.

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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

It was a different time.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TERRASOL

We're gonna need some of that Pik Soldier action, Trea.

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