Star People

Chapter 57

Destructive Aftermath

July 3^rd, 15 AE, Kingdom of Naran, just after the emergence of the two Planet Ravagers…

“What the Hell are those things?!”

“They look like mutated Battle-Mechs!”

“Did those Planet Ravagers come up with Battle-Mechanoids?!”

In truth, the two Ravagers and the first one that had been Deriaton One, had already assimilated the blueprints of the captured Steel Soldier, and had added their own improvements. Since the Steel Soldier was built specifically for combat, it was logical to use its design to create Mechanoids to deal with Free Land’s Battle-Mechs. Although requiring more materials and time to create, the Battle-Mechanoid was tougher and possessed ranged weaponry. They were more advanced than their predecessors, which took on the form of beasts or geometric shapes.

The Battle-Mechanoid stood about fifty feet tall and took on a crystalline appearance. The core was deep inside its chest and the entire Mechanoid took on a general humanoid appearance. The crablike claws had been replaced with tri-pronged manipulators. Each Battle-Mechanoid now sported several weapons protruding from its body. This included arm-mounted blasters, shoulder-firing projectile launchers and a heat-ray emitter from its chest. This made it more dangerous as it was now capable of killing from a distance. Several dozens of the new machines began firing on any innocent civilians that were still in the area as the two Planet Ravagers headed toward the location where Deriaton One had transmitted its distress signal.

The Starfighters found themselves in a difficult situation as they couldn’t unleash their full firepower on the Ravagers or their creations without harming bystanders or causing massive collateral damage. It also didn’t help that the Battle-Mechanoids were shooting back with anti-aircraft fire. The Free Land pilots needed the help of Battle-Mechs to get in close. Fortunately, they had the means to quickly bring Battle-Mechs to the battlefield.

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“This is Captain Yeager, to all pilots of the First Valiant Squadron! We’re about to enter the combat area in twenty seconds! The Star Hawks and Byattas will provide covering fire as soon as we transform and land! Our mission is clear! We are to destroy all Battle-Mechanoids we encounter and assist the other fighters in destroying those two Planet Ravagers! Mind your fire and make certain not to endanger any civilians!”

“Acknowledged, Sir!” Yeager’s second-in-command responded. This was Commander Justin Franks as he and three dozen pilots of the newly-developed Valiant Battle-Mechs would have their first trial-by-fire against the newest versions of Mechanoids. “I’ve just received word that the Lexington has just launched two Bot Haulers as backup. The Seventy-First and Sixty-Seventh Squads of the Four Hundred and Seventy-Second Battle-Mech Division will be joining us soon!”

“Good to hear!” Yeager glanced at his tactical display and nodded. “All units, we are now approaching the battle zone! Get ready to transform and land on my mark! Three… two… one… TRANSFORM!”

On Yeager’s command, each pilot initiated the process to transform their fighters into their humanoid configurations. With their Beam Rifles held at the ready, each Valiant touched down and began running towards the combat area. On Yeager’s signal, the transformable Battle-Mechs split into two groups, with one heading towards Deriaton Two and the other towards Deriaton Three. Energy beams and armor-piercing projectiles started to hammer away on the former Naran vessel and their creations.

The Battle-Mechanoids began to shift their focus and firepower on the newcomers, which in turn gave the Starfighters an opportunity to resume their attacks on the Planet Ravagers. They were also joined by a squadron of Ariatols as the surviving dwarf pilots started to make their own assaults.

Near the area where Deriaton Two was, Captain Yaeger assessed the abilities of the new Mechanoids as they traded fire with their Free Land counterparts.

Hmmm, they’re a lot more solid than the higher levels of Mechanoid. And they’re not attacking like a pack of wild beasts. They’re actually coordinating their attacks with each other. They’re using basic fire-and-maneuver tactics and using the surroundings as cover. That makes things a little more difficult to deal with them.

Though they were sturdier than their predecessors, the Battle-Mechanoids still didn’t measure up in comparison to the standard Hunter model of Battle-Mech, at least in Yaeger’s mind. Their crystalline armor could probably withstand a few rounds from their 100mm Machine Guns but the Valiant’s sensors told him that the Battle-Mechanoids were composed of an inferior version of the usual Cryterian crystal-matrix alloy. Their imitation Beam Rifles had shorter range and lacked the overall punch that a Free Land weapon possessed.

He signaled to two of his men to give him covering fire against a trio of Battle-Mechanoids, as he moved his Valiant in a flanking maneuver. As his subordinates let loose with a barrage of particle beams, Yaeger activated his G-Force nullifier systems and his Valiant jetted across a stretch of rocky terrain. He engaged the targeting computers and fired off a burst from his Beam Rifle. The shot slammed into the chest of one opponent and broke the core. As the lead Mechanoid crumbled, the other two turned their attention towards Yaeger. This gave Yaeger’s men the opportunity to catch their targets in crossfire. After a few well-placed shots, the two Battle-Mechanoids fell. However, there was still a lot more enemies to put down. Both Ravagers began releasing swarms of regular small-type Mechanoids to reinforce their Battle-Mechanoid hordes.

The tide began to shift in favor of Free Land and its allies as two Bot Haulers arrived on the scene. Both dropped their cargo modules near the edge of the battlefield and beat a fast withdrawal. The front loading ramp came down and Jerry Vandelin led his squad out. The other module’s ramp came down as six Scrappers, led by Commander Kraits, emerged to take on the enemy head-on.

Then more reinforcements arrived from Free Land’s allies as the Battle-Mechanoids found themselves being bombarded by high-explosive projectiles from long range. Jerry’s Star Gladiator turned to its right and spotted a group of six-legged mecha approaching. Each Diaraga was firing its kinetic accelerator gun at a rapid rate. In addition, their side guns were constantly swiveling and firing, picking off any small Mechanoids that approached them.

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In one Diaraga, the commander barked out his orders as his machine made its way toward the area where the 67^th Mech-Squad was mixing it up with a dozen Battle-Mechanoids.

“Target the closest abomination and aim for the legs!” Commander Orgut shouted.

“We’ve got some Mechanoids coming towards our left flank!” The pilot announced.

“Keep them off our backs until we have target acquisition!”

On the port side of the Diaraga, the dwarf crewmembers began letting loose with their electron-pulse machine guns, shredding several of the smaller Mechanoids.

“Target acquired!” The gunner announced as he had the knee-joint of a Battle-Mechanoid dead center in his viewfinder.

“FIRE!”

The muzzle of the Diaraga’s main weapon released a thunderous blast as it sent a hyper-dense projectile towards its target. These were orihalcum-tipped shells that had the same density as depleted uranium. Using Dwarf runes to increase the penetration power of the shell, the projectile was about three times more potent than a Sabot round from an old Abrams tank.

The projectile slammed clear through the Battle-Mechanoid’s leg, causing it to topple over. The round continued on and hit another Cryterian machine as it tried to take cover behind some rubble.

Commander Kraits and his men were quick to take advantage and swarmed the two fallen Battle-Mechanoids. After destroying the Mechanoids’ cores, the leader of the 67^th squad gave the Deriaga’s crew a thumbs-up for the assist.

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High above in the skies, the drone of propeller and jet engines were heard as F-86 Sabres and Corsairs finally arrived to assist the Starfighters in strafing the Planet Ravagers. Though they didn’t possess the same level of firepower as their Star Alliance counterparts, they could still do some damage to the imitation Cryterian super-weapons.

“Sky Blue Leader to Blue Sky Wing! “ Captain Yaks Werrin called out. “All pilots are to aim for that big bastard on the starboard side! You are to expend your entire ordinance! Okay, let’s go!”

The Sabres dove down at Deriaton Two, letting loose with their newly-developed Air-Hammer missiles. The pseudo Planet Ravager managed to shoot down nearly all of the incoming warheads, but a few got past its defenses and did moderate damage to the outer hull. However, it wasn’t enough as it began to spew more Mechanoids against the Atlans jets. Several of the Sabres were sliced apart as several starfish-shaped monsters ripped through their ranks. Captain Werrin barely managed to eject as three Mechanoids plowed clean through his jet.

Deriaton Three found itself being showered with high-caliber bullets, rockets and bombs as the Sath Corsairs used their ground-attack abilities to their fullest. Despite being warned to stay away from the Ravagers, Captain Larno decided to lead his men against them. However, they too were not invulnerable as the Planet Ravager retaliated with beams and Mechanoids, causing dozens of planes to explode or crash into ground. Larno sustained several hits but managed to keep his plane flying.

Despite taking considerable losses, the allies of Free Land held their own. After a full minute of pitched battle, the two Ravagers found themselves cornered and unable to move further to aid their brethren. They had also sustained quite a bit of damage. As they sensed the approach of more Free Land vessels, they made the tactical decision to withdraw.

Huge fields of distortion appeared behind them as energy portals similar to Deriaton One’s came into view. Almost instantaneously, the pair of planet killers vanished from sight, leaving only their Mechanoids and Battle-Mechanoids behind to cover their escape.

Everyone present was surprised to see the Ravagers vanish from sight, but they couldn’t leave the remaining Mechanoids free to ravage the rest of Vados. It would take another fifteen minutes before the last of the monstrosities were destroyed. Though the capital city of Naran was in ruins, most of the population had managed to survive.

However, at this point all three of the Planet Ravagers had gotten away.

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Later, in the Conference Chamber of Prime Directors…

Director Rodera frowned as he and other members of the Council members conversed with Prime Minister Haykin via holographic communications link. They were also linked with the conference rooms of the Missouri, the Iowa, the Yorktown, the Lexington, and the Johnston, as well as the representatives of Atlans, the Empire of Sath and several other top-tier nations.

“Before we begin this inquiry, Prime Minister Haykin, we the Prime Directors, on behalf of all citizens of the Star Alliance, do hereby offer our deepest condolences to the loss of your Emperor and all those who were killed during rampage of the three Planet Ravagers.”

“The Kingdom of Naran appreciates the gesture.” Haykin replied solemnly. “Emperor Shenshirine will be sorely missed. And I pray that those innocent people will find peace and happiness in the afterlife.”

“Yes, but now we must attend to more pressing matters.”

 

“Indeed.” Director Nasaak growled and stood up from his chair. “One of the biggest questions on my mind is what possessed Naran to resurrect a Cryterian doomsday device?! Have you gone completely insane?!”

“How dare you…?!” The Naran Prime Minister began, only to stop as Benjamin raised a hand and gave his Catian comrade a disapproving look. Once Nasaak calmed down and took his seat, the Terran Director addressed Haykin with an apologetic tone.

“Please forgive my associate’s outburst. However, he does a valid point. Why did Naran use Cryterian circuitry in Deriaton One and those other ships? I would think that after the last Planet Ravager destroyed Euracon, one would steer clear of such dangerous technology.”

“We had no reason to believe that the Mechanoid remnants that were discovered in our nation posed any threat.” Haykin explained. “And to let such advanced technology just sit idly by and do nothing with it would have been a waste! It was found on our lands and therefore, it was ours to study and make use of. Think of the technological leaps we could have accomplished with it!”

Nasaak let of a loud snort of disdain, catching everyone attention. “You think you’re the first ones to come up with that idea?”

“Our Catian colleague is correct.” Nerto stated. “We had spent years fighting the Cryterians and the thought had occurred to us to utilize their technology.”

“Unfortunately for the Star Alliance, that was grave and deadly mistake.” Anida let off a tired sigh. “We learned the hard way, as you had today, that Cryterian technology is only good for one thing; killing all organic life. There’s just no way to circumvent that primary directive.”

“Primary directive?” Captain Retora asked.

“All Cryterian technology, whether it is circuits, alloys or mechanisms; will follow one primary order, to kill all organic life.” Viska explained. “If you try to integrate that technology into others, like we did; that programming will eventually override everything else, turning it into a Cryterian killing machine.”

“Though I am a newcomer to the Council,” Sierg said. “I have read files on the Star Alliance’s attempt to use Cryterian circuits. After losing two hundred thousand people to that monstrosity, the project was shut down and all captured Cryterian technology was destroyed. Hence the reason why General Order Seventy-Five was created.”

“I am not familiar with this… General Order Seventy-Five…” Haykin admitted.

“It’s not surprising, since Emperor Shenshirine had cut all ties with Free Land.” Ben pointed out. “You couldn’t have known about General Order Seventy-Five. Simply put, all Cryterian technology, active or not, is to be destroyed without question. We cannot allow another tragedy like the one we saw today, happen again.”

“Unfortunately, there’s still the matter of three imitation Planet Ravagers on the loose.” Nasaak pointed out as he addressed Haykin. “There were only three that you used Cryterian circuits on, right? Or should we expect a few more Deriatons turning into Ravagers? Just how many did you have?”

“That is one of Naran’s closest secrets!” Retora shouted out. “We can’t tell other nations about the devices of the First Ones...!”

“Stand down, Captain Retora!” The Naran Prime Minister ordered. After she complied, the elf leader let off a tired sigh as he faced the Council. “I suppose at this point, it doesn’t matter if everyone knew. In answer to Director Nasaak’s question; we only had three battleships of the First Ones. And I did not know that Shenshirine had Cryterian circuits implanted in the other two. Before the Zedan war, we only had one functional warship, Deriaton One. I suppose after seeing the improvements those circuits made on it, Shenshirine decided to add them to the others to make them functional. Alas, that idea worked too well.”

“That is an understatement.” Captain Delan remarked. “Now the most important question of all is what we’re going to do about this situation?”

“If it is like the first time when a Planet Ravager came to this world, wouldn’t the same countermeasures be applied?” Captain Hodder asked. That meant that all nations would again be supplied with defense technology and Scrappers. He was eager to get back into those mecha again.

“Things are far more serious, now that there are three Ravagers instead of one.” Anida pointed out. “We may have to bring down more of the fleet.”

“More of the fleet?” Haykin asked. “You have more of those ships?”

“To be truthful, yes we do.” Ben admitted. “However, we also need to come up with countermeasures for these mutated Planet Ravagers as they seem to possess abilities they didn’t have.” He then gave the Prime Minister a hard expression. “And I’m certain you could tell us about those abilities, correct?”

Retora stood up again in protest. “Prime Minister Haykin! We cannot just reveal our secrets so casually…!”

“Stand down, Captain Retora, or I shall strip you of your rank and have you thrown out of the service!”

This threat immediately silenced the hot-headed dark elf as Haykin again let off a tired sigh.

“Very well, Director Rodera. I suppose that the Kingdom of Naran is at fault for this dire situation we are in. Military secrets are not as important as the safety of the world. And yes, it would be best that you know of what the Deriatons are capable of. So what exactly do you wish to know about them?”

Ben and the other Directors spent the next few hours, interrogating the Prime Minister about the ships of the First Ones and trying to come up with a strategy for when those monsters would reappear.

To Be Continued…

Author’s Notes

I’ll be taking a bit of a hiatus and the next chapter should be ready in a two to three weeks.