Nova Wars

Even though I was the only green combat engineer for much of my time with The Gray Lady I was never alone.

I had Jaskel, my Telkan, who I rode into fire and glory. - 881.4.A, Green Mantid Combat Engineer, Equations of the Faithful, New Mantid Press, 12 Post-Terran Emergence, Mar-gite Extinction War

Jaskel parried the tentacle with his chainsword, panting in his armor, sweat down his back slicking his fur. The teeth on the Mark-IV Cutting Bar ripped apart the armor, sending the crystalline plating shards showering across the corridor. He kicked out, slamming his boot against the conical inner body and fired his SMG directly into the body.

The huge, terrifying Terran Monster Class Polyphasic Infantry on his left grabbed the large tentacled creature and ripped half its tentacles off in one roaring yank.

Jaskel turned, managing to parry another tentacle strike, this time the teeth ripping at the blade extended from the tentacle, showering sparks across him. His battlescreen was down, his rifle was broken, the heat in his armor was mounting.

But he wasn't about to back down.

The other Terran had grabbed on of the large ones and had it by two of its tentacles, pounding it on the deck plates of the Mar-gite Controller Ship.

One of his squad was down, one arm and one leg torn off by the squids.

The electrical field on his armor crackled and popped, but the power was depleted.

--almost almost cooling zero-point array now almost-- 8814 said.

Jaskel just nodded, parrying another strike but spinning in place to come around with the blade and catching the creature just right into the opening, going in between the whipping tentacles to strike in between the tentacle bases and into the body itself.

The cutting bar sprayed crystalline armor, then thick rubbery skin, then orange-yellow blood as flesh was ripped and chewed by the jagged teeth of the cutting bar blade. It gave a bubbling screech, vomited up day-glo orange and some blue chunks, and the tentacles went limp.

The tentacle strike hit his shoulder pauldron, staggering him, but he whipped around in time to see one of the Terrans grab the central cone and crush it in one massive hand.

--got it got it got it-- 8814 said. There was a crackle and the high voltage anti-grappling system went live. Two of the creatures jerked and screeched, steam rolling off of them.

The creature collapsed and the system went dead again.

"Get it back up!" Jaskel snapped, parrying one tentacle and slapping another aside.

--trying-- 8814 answered.

The two Monster Class were smashing into the swarm that had just come writhing down the corridor. One leveled a first and started firing the implanted autocannon, but for every one of the blue-light illuminated tentacle creature six more took their place.

Jaskel was vaguely aware of a figure in old style Confederate adaptive camouflage, complete with breathing mask, appearing next to the downed troop in a twisting puff of purple mist. The figure grabbed the severed leg and arm, put one hand on the down troopers back.

"Two to beam up," the figure said. Jaskel saw it said "LEGION" on the nameplate.

It vanished in a puff of purple smoke.

Jaskel kicked out, pinning two tentacles against the wall, firing his SMG with one hand while he desperately tried to parry other tentacles. Blades scored his armor, one squealing across his visor, but any of them the cutting bar's toothed chain caught were ripped apart.

One of the Terrans grabbed the two creatures attacking Jaskel and smashed them together repeatedly until the parts stopped falling off, dropping the dripping chunks on the ground.

Jaskel looked around. Out of a five man team, he was the only one still on his feet.

"Almost to the objective," the Terran rumbled.

Jaskel nodded.

--got it-- 8814 said.

His system went live. Jaskel checked the heat monitors and saw he was still spiked into the high reddish purple.

The Terrans were already moving and Jaskel hustled after them. His right arm hurt from where three of those blue lighted tentacle things had grabbed him and twisted his arm around, their strength overpowering the servos in his armor.

At least they hadn't twisted the limb off.

He felt a cool sensation down the inside of his right arm and the whole arm started to tingle. His medcomp was back online.

--resetting firmware-- 8814 said. --not sure how they flashed it--

"Just stay on it," Jaskel said. His psychic shielding jumped from 56% to 62.5%. He could taste glitter and blackberries on his back teeth.

The two Terrans ripped apart three times their number in tentacle creatures in half as many seconds. Each time the psychic shielding would jump, then drop a little, only to increase as the trio moved further into the central core of the spaceship.

The two Terrans stopped outside an iris door that had the silent weight feeling of a heavy blast door.

His shielding was at 72.62%.

The Terrans each grabbed a side of the iris and ripped it aside, revealing another door. Two yanks and the door was tossed down the hallway behind Jaskel. The last iris lasted two hits before the two Terrans pushed it aside.

His shielding jumped to 102%. His vision tunneled down as he followed the two Terrans into the hexagon room beyond. He could see dark suckered tentacles writhing in from the sides of his vision, static shook and streaked across his vision along with sparkles that lit up and danced.

Inside were seven creatures unlike any Jasked had seen before. They looked like a fountain made of clear crystal, the bowl at the bottom had barbed and hooked tentacles hanging from the bottom. The thick stem went up almost a meter before there was a thick fluted central ring that had five multi-jointed arms that ended in eight fingered sharp claws, then more of a fluted column that reached up to a large section with two huge eyes, a visible brain inside the crystal clear body, and a small mouth. Its strange organs could be seen, along with almost completely clear blood rushing through the body.

The two Terrans charged in, heading for the biggest one in the middle of the room.

Jaskel went right.

There was a ripple in midair, like the air had turned to gelatin. The two Terrans suddenly slowed, struggling to move forward.

Jaskel's shielding spiked all the way to 162%. He could hear it howling at the back of his helmet, taste scorched glitter and burnt sugar blackberries. His vision tunneled down and he knew his nose was bleeding.

The Terrans were slowly moving forward, black fluid leaking over their skin, pushed backwards by the rapidly thrumming waves that moved through the air, emanating from six of the seven creatures. The seventh, closest to Jaskel, was facing him.

The waves of force hammered him, even as he tried to move forward.

165%

He lost the vision on his left side. He could feel the fur below his left ear get wet and he couldn't hear the alarms from his armor on the left.

175%

He could smell scorched fur and overheated molycircs. 8814 was only putting out garbage equations over the link.

He dropped his SMG from nerveless fingers.

178%

The two Terrans were still moving forward, into the ripples that hammered at them. The fluid was cracking, revealing red light. One opened their mouth and roared, red liquid warsteel pouring out.

The one facing Jaskel suddenly turned, facing the Terrans, as they took another step toward the center one, reaching for it with their hands that suddenly had curved bone protrusions that looked like claws extending from their knuckles.

145%

--ow ow ow ow--

"Take off the interlocks on my shielding," Jaskel whispered past dry, cracked lips.

--but--

"Do it!" Jaskel managed to get both hands around the hilt of his cutting bar.

He saw the icon warning him the safety interlocks were disengaged on his psychic shielding.

The two Terrans were less than a meter from the center one, both snarling, both covered with rippled black chitin that had bone spurs sticking out across their shoulders, down their spine, above their eyes, on their jaws, on their chests, on their knees and elbows. One was roaring, the other just had their mouth open and was drooling molten warsteel that pooled on the floor.

"When I saw, ramp my shielding to max," Jaskel said.

--ok--

Jaskel could tell 8814 didn't like it.

But there wasn't any choice.

The two Terrans were stuck, unmoving, as the seven creatures hammered them with psychic force.

"now..." Jaskel whispered.

**WARNING**

His whole brain lit on fire. He could feel pain across the back of his head. Something felt like it snapped wetly inside his skull.

But he was free.

He lunged forward, clamping down the handle trigger with both hands, hauling the blade back and swinging from one side with everything he had.

He was almost blind. The tentacles had receded, the grainy black and white was gone, his vision was no longer tunneled, but he strangely couldn't really see the crystal clear full color image his eyes were recording.

The roaring blade of the cutting bar caught the creature between the middle ring of arms and the upper section with the eyes and visible brain. Clear fluid turned brownish yellow when it met air, the flesh showered over Jaskel and across the room. The blade severed the fist-thick fibrous looking cord that ran from the brain down to the ring of arms.

Something snapped like a rubber band in his brain and he stumbled forward.

The two Terrans roared, one grabbing the mid-column of the creature in front of him and squeezing. The flesh bulged and ruptured, one of the eyes popped out, and the flesh turned to liquid in the Terran's fist. The other turned, grabbed the metal panel on top of the control panel and ripped it free, throwing it one handed. The metal panel cut one of the creatures in half.

One Terran jumped forward, grabbing the top of the creature and crushing the brain and eyes in his fist. The other grabbed the side off the console and whipped it, slicing the top off of the creature's column-like main body.

Jaskel tripped and fell, bouncing off the wall to hit the floor.

8814 slapped the psychic shielding back to normal.

35.78%

He was drooling inside his helmet, his eyes bloodshot. His heart was hammering but he wasn't aware of it.

One had a chance to squeal as it backed up before the Terran grabbed it and ripped the top away from the arm ring. The other shuddered and collapsed as the other leveled a fist and punched a handful of heavy .70 caliber rounds into its body.

One of the Terrans moved over next to Jaskel, putting his hand on Jaskel's back. He activated his t-linkage.

"Man down. Psychic injury," the Terran rumbled.

There was a puff of purple smoke and Legion appeared, kneeling down. He put his hand on Jaskel's back.

"Two to beam up," Legion said.

There was a puff of purple smoke and both vanished.

Another version of Legion appeared, looking at the fallen creatures.

"Secure the perimeter," Legion ordered.

The two Terrans nodded.

Legion bent down, touching the biofluids, then moving up and touching the tissues splattered around before moving over to one of the more intact ones. He touched it here and there, often using a vibroscalpel to expose near tissue or organs so he could run his bare fingertips over them.

One of the Terrans ripped out what looked like a large crystal embedded in crystalline foam, with smaller crystals around it.

"Found a phasic storage unit," the Terran rumbled.

Another version of Legion appeared, took the hand off, and vanished with the massive crystal.

"Sound recall, we have what we need," Legion said. He looked at the two Terrans. "Get back to the dropship."

"Yes, sir," the higher ranking of the two Terrans said.

Legion vanished in a puff of purple smoke.

Jaskel hit the ground in the medical center, Legion's hand on his back.

"Medical override," Legion snapped.

Jaskel's armor unfolded, the protective housing unfolding and dumping 8814 onto the floor in a puddle of kinetic gel. Two russet mantids rushed forward, one with a pressor stretcher. Legion helped get Jaskel onto the stretcher as the other loaded 8814 onto a smaller one.

"Patient is a Telkan male. Psychic shielding overload cerebral damage," Legion snapped.

Another of him, washing his hands, nodded.

"Patient two is a green mantid combat engineer, same injury. Unknown species psychic assault injuries," the Legion helping to carry Jaskel said.

The two russet mantids just nodded. It got real confusing real fast with how many of Legion was in the medical bay.

Jaskel wasn't able to talk, able to answer, and he wasn't really aware of where he was when they laid him face down on the table.

"Nighty-night, champ," he heard even though his brain didn't register it.

The lights went out.