"Blow it!"
Taking cover behind the wreckage of a tower that once loomed over the wall, I give the command and wave my hand. A second passes, and a massive explosion shakes the area. Debris from buildings and the defensive wall shook dangerously. Soldiers fell to the ground, and a couple of unlucky bastards got to fly off the wall.
A wave of dust and heat rolled across the area, bringing with it the stench of burnt meat and smoldering earth. The thick mixture of foul aromas forced its way through clogged filters, causing thick saliva to pool in my mouth, but there was nothing left to vomit. Everything that could come out had long since left, and by the fourth day of the siege, we couldn't even eat properly, so fiercely and relentlessly did the Korunnai attack our positions.
Peering out from behind my cover, I stare at the burning strip of land that had formed between us and the savage troops, granting us a few quiet hours. The heat wave reached all the way to the top of the walls; one can only imagine what the natives felt, whose camp was only a couple of dozen meters from the blast...
There were no screams, no panic, nothing else. Only a gruesome, all-consuming silence, interrupted by falling debris and the crackle of the line of flame.
"Altman to all. We have two hours," I said, switching on the general network. As soon as I finished the first part of the sentence, the soldiers before my eyes began to collapse, falling asleep right in the middle of the former battlefield. "Rest, rotations, medical aid... And a separate offer for all volunteers and fools. We need to clear our dead and collect everything useful from the bodies."
With a groan of disappointment, the Helldiver sitting nearby sat back down on his backside, then began to stand up. Seeing their comrade's feat, the soldiers lying in heaps groaned, cursing the initiator in every way possible for wanting a personal meeting with initiative... But they followed anyway, to help and work while there was free time.
From the ruins, craters, wreckage, and piles of bodies, warriors with wild eyes began to crawl out. As if in a drug-induced haze, they hobbled across the corpse-strewn field and walls, gathering the dead and looting.
Sitting down on a nearby stone, I wasn't idle either. Turning on the PDA—though I had to give it a good tapping to clear the settled dust—I began to read through the reports.
Losses. Losses. Losses. Prisoners. Sabotage. Evacuation. Losses. Losses. Evacuation. Reinforcement request. Losses...
"Fucking hell."
Yeah, the Korunnai really dunked on us, burying us in bodies. Though, what else is to be expected when there are fifty of these bare-assed assholes for every one of ours.
Looking around, I got stuck staring at the sight of a couple of Helldivers driving a sort of bulldozer—only steam-powered—to the walls and starting to drag the corpses into one pile, having first pulled out all of our men and the militia.
Actual hills of savage bodies were quickly being organized. Tens of thousands of bodies, soaking the air with death, char, and rot... An indescribable aroma.
Grimacing, I pull out the last filter for my helmet and, taking the sweaty bucket off my head, begin to slowly replace it. For the first moment, my eyes stung from the stench, my nose tickled, and a lump rose in my throat; the smell was that strong.
Blinking against the bright sunlight, I inspect myself from head to toe with a fresh gaze, noting hundreds of fresh small chips and marks decorating my armor. Pieces of metal were missing here and there, rust or acid had eaten through in spots... And of course, blood.
A lot of blood covered me from head to toe. Ash and dust settled on it, sticking into a thick, viscous crust that hindered movement.
"Damn... I should ask Somnia to drive a tanker of water here." Attempts to shake off the offal yielded nothing, so I took to cursing the Korunnai in the local fashion. "Fucking Kornai... And they eat all kinds of shit... God, how it reeks. No, we definitely need some water."
"And maybe you want a couple of Twi'leks and some Alderaanian wine too?" Sitting down nearby, my dear deputy collapsed onto my shoulder, resting her forehead against my pauldron. Her cloth face mask was entirely covered in sweat, spit, and blood, causing it to cling to the lower part of her face. She looked even "prettier" than I did. Dented armor plates, traces of enemy claws and blades, several blaster hits. The girl's hair was singed at the tips and now stuck out funnily in different directions, and a thin streak of dried blood ran from her left cheekbone. Noticing my gaze, Somnia rolled her eyes. "An Akk dog fell from above..."
"Fell?"
"Yeah, someone gutted it and threw the carcass off a roof, so it crashed right onto me..."
"You could have come up with a sea of awesome stories, but you chose the one about a dog falling from the sky?"
"Go to hell." Closing her eyes, the girl's breathing slowed and became more peaceful, and the corners of her lips lifted slightly. "As if I chose how to get a new scar. And in what world can you call that thing a dog?"
Nodding toward the corpse of the beast in question, which a couple of Helldivers were dragging by the tail, Somnia relaxed even more, almost falling over from exhaustion. I had to catch her, putting an arm around her shoulder.
At that moment, I noticed several Helldivers watching us closely. One of them gave me a thumb's up, for which he immediately caught a clip round the ear from his commander. After frantically bowing a couple of times, while also shoving his negligent subordinate down, the squad leader sidled away behind the nearest house, from where hissing and solid cursing were soon heard.
Quietly laughing at the soldiers' antics, I simply return to work calmly, trying not to disturb my exhausted deputy. Her quiet, rhythmic breathing gradually grew softer until she fell asleep.
****
"All systems ready for combat. The right foot is acting up a bit and the arm is jamming. The signal feels like it's arriving with a delay."
"That's normal." Slapping the side armor, the one-armed pilot reverently ran his palm over the metal. His face was a mess of bandages and bacta poultices, leaving only one eye exposed. "This big-booty babe has handled worse... You just take care of her until they put me back in service."
"Of course." Knowing the attachment of walker pilots, Salco Sharus, a born Jabiimite, could only nod and agree. "You won't even notice the changes..."
"All pilots. Seal your machines. Repeat, all pilots. Seal your machines. Readiness in two minutes."
"Well, alright." Out of habit, the pilot first extended his stump, then got embarrassed and laughed, offering his healthy hand, which Salco shook with pleasure. "Good luck. May Holy Liberty watch over you."
Smirking at those words, the Jabiimite struck his fist against his chest, then closed the walker's cockpit. With a crash and a clang, the armor latches engaged, sealing him inside the metal box.
Exhaling through his mouth, Salco nervously gripped the control levers, preparing to go into battle again, only this time in a real machine of war.
When they had introductory classes in boot camp, he couldn't have imagined things would turn out like this, but that's how life turned. And now he would go into battle in the cockpit of an EXO-45 Patriot Exosuit, though everyone out of habit called them walkers.
"Well then... Silvia?" Reading the machine's name above the screen, Salco rolled his eyes and laughed; in his eyes, pilots were still total psychos. "Let's show these creatures what the real power of Democracy is."
"All pilots, this is Sam Altman speaking." Immediately putting on a serious face as if standing on a parade ground, the Jabiimite listened intently to every word spoken, as if the machine were recording them into his head. Fanatical devotion and loyalty to the Helldivers Commander was inherent to all residents of the rainy planet, but Sharus had personal reasons to follow Altman as well. "A serious and difficult task rests upon you. Our operation is entering its final phase, and you will be the ones to write your names in large letters into the chronicles of the Haruun Kal campaign."
Feeling the tension, Salco's fingers gripped the control handles tighter, and his back stiffened in position.
"The enemy is advancing on a broad front across our entire defensive line. They have thrown fresh forces and many of their battle beasts into the fray," the Commander's speech was fast, clear, and confident. His voice didn't break for a moment; there wasn't a single hesitation, just a steady, well-modulated voice broadcasting from the speakers. "But in the sixth quadrant, at the site of the wall breach, they have sent their best forces. You will be the rocks against which these endless waves break. Together with the Shock Troopers from the Second Regiment, we will stand in the way of the savage elite and show them that one should never underestimate the power of Liberty! There are more of them, many times more than us. But has that ever mattered for the Helldivers?!"
Without turning on his microphone, Salco shouted the answer just like hundreds of other soldiers preparing to repel the attack.
"Helldivers, Second Echelon fighters, militia, and civilian personnel... All of you who stand in defense of our great Republic and Democracy. I am proud to go into this battle with you! Out."
"HUA!"
"All pilots, combat readiness, begin the operation." Smoothly turning a lever resembling a child's gaming joystick, Salco moved his walker forward, being one of the first to leave the cozy interior of the hangar and step onto the city streets. The exosuit's sensors came online, crashing a massive stream of data down upon the fresh pilot. Hundreds of sensors showed various parameters, the purposes of which Sharus didn't even try to remember. Tilting the cockpit upward, he watched with a long, studying gaze as a flight of Shock Troopers moved in for an attack, then joined his group, taking a spot in the second row of the formation. "Group Three, route plotted. Move to position."
"Copy that, Nest. Commencing task."
"Good luck." The connection with HQ cut off, and in total silence, the war machines moved through the city streets, turning the asphalt of the planetary capital into mush.
The thunder of metallic steps echoed throughout the area, and it seemed there was nothing but it, but that was only until the tanks and battle speeders followed behind him. Under the hum of anti-gravs and the clatter of treads, the armored regiment moved toward the escalating battle.
Salco looked around carefully, as if expecting an attack at any moment. But the narrow, cozy streets of the old city were filled with silence and life. Life that they would be protecting today.
There, a few kids peek out of a window, pulling back the curtains. A disgruntled mother grabs them by the ears and pulls them back into the depths of the apartment, then hastily closes the curtains, pressing a hand to her mouth.
A couple of old men on a bench watch their column with a squint. One of them struggles to his feet, bringing a hand to his temple, and stands by the road until the very last tank passes, though even a casual glance makes it clear how difficult this process is for him.
A squad of soldiers runs past them, and for a moment, a couple of greenhorns from the Second Echelon freeze with their mouths open, staring at the combat walkers marching toward the fight at a brisk pace.
One of them had his helmet askew, and the second literally gaped, making a silly "Wow" sound.
The last thing Salco noticed was an ordinary little lizard, one of the few domesticated pet species on Haruun Kal. Sitting on its haunches, the creature watched them intently, as if it could see through the armor, but soon lost interest and curled into a ball, warming itself in the sun.
"One hundred meters to contact. Prepare. Weapons hot."
The voice of the lead machine's commander hit his ears, instantly dispelling the trance and relaxation. Goosebumps ran across his shoulders and back, a cold bucket of water flushing out the remnants of any semblance of sleepiness.
Grabbing the levers, Sharus brought his weapons to combat position, starting to spin up the beam gun on his left arm and checking the response of the rockets on his right. The signals from the flares and smoke mines on his back were steadily positive, but the Jabiimite suspected they wouldn't even need to be used. No matter how good the Korunnai were as close-combat fighters, they were probably the shittiest army the guy had ever had to see... or even hear.
"Contact!" The lieutenant's shout snapped him out of memories of boot camp, where they were shown recordings left over from ancient times. Instantly assigning targets for himself, Salco confidently drove "Silvia" forward, opening fire on the move. "There are enough of these damn savages for everyone. Good luck, boys!"
After that, Sharus stopped listening. Squeezing the trigger, he watched with delight as the blaster bolts merged into a single line of plasma that cut through the natives who had turned to face them. Rotating the chassis, the Jabiimite mowed down nearly a hundred freaks before the rest began to react and do anything at all.
"LIBERTY!"
Accelerating the walker, Salco plowed into the crowd of savages, knocking a dozen freaks to the ground. Trampling them underfoot and deftly spinning the war machine's cockpit, he didn't stop firing, counting the seconds to overheat in his head. He had a full thirty seconds of continuous fire, so it was worth making the most of it.
Running straight through the enemy formation, he was one of the first to reach the wall breach, which had grown significantly larger over the four days. The crooked, acid-eaten walls had melted and flowed onto the ground, creating a level plateau. Everything around was strewn with corpses, right on top of whose heads a new battle was now taking place. The Shock Troopers from the second regiment fought like wild beasts, frequently engaging in hand-to-hand combat and allowing themselves to break necks or rip out Adam's apples with their bare hands—which the bare-chested natives didn't protect at all.
Locking into position, Salco aimed his right arm at the very center of the breach, through which new Korunnai were constantly arriving in the city.
Aiming the rockets, he unleashed a salvo with all his generosity, emptying the box to the bottom.
A series of deafening explosions knocked down many participants of the battle; for a few minutes, the local highlanders' forces were left without reinforcements, which meant it was time to take advantage of this.
Crushing a couple of weaklings crawling wounded near his feet, Salco again opened fire with the beam gun, hitting the largest targets with precise bursts, especially those damned Akk dogs.
A smile blossomed on the fresh pilot's face. Deftly handling all the control buttons, Sharus was beginning to understand the crazy operators of these war machines more and more.
With excitement and fury, he killed dozens, hundreds of enemies, but it didn't seem like enough, so the Jabiimite tore "Silvia" from her spot again and burst into a large enemy formation, starting to crush them with his feet and sharp turns of the chassis.
His armor was covered in blood. Someone's brains and skull fragments hung from the muzzle of the beam gun. And the walker's powerful legs sank dangerously through the dead bodies accumulating beneath him. Every new step could be the last, but that only spurred him on.
"Holy Liberty! Feel her fury!" Squeezing the trigger again, Salco traced a line along the entire horizon, killing all Korunnai in sight, but then an explosion rocked his machine.
Swaying, the walker almost fell on its side, but the chassis held and the exosuit stayed on its two feet.
Turning the cameras toward the attacker, the Jabiimite broke into a bloodthirsty and cruel smile. Opposite him, sitting atop a huge, mature Akk dog, sat the leader of these subhumans. One-armed, with a bone prosthesis. Covered in scars and with a brutish face that was just begging for a few lessons in Managed Democracy.
Leveling the machine, the Jabiimite didn't wait for an invitation and immediately opened fire, trying to hit the large lizard or, if lucky, its rider. But these bastards moved as one, easily avoiding the beam gun shots, gradually closing in until the Akk dog sank its teeth into his weapon and the old man's spear slammed into the center of the cockpit.
Glancing down, Salco swallowed thick saliva, staring at the blade frozen before his eyes, from which a suspicious blue liquid was dripping. Cursing, the man leaned back in his seat and activated the emergency evacuation with his free hand, which blew off the front armor plate.
Throwing the old man back a dozen meters, Sharus grabbed his pistol, hoping he could shoot the Akk dog before it reacted, but it didn't work.
The massive muzzle shoved into the cockpit, closing on his wrist. With a jerking motion of its jaws, the beast bit off his hand along with the weapon with a squelching sound. In one gulp, the Jabiimite's wrist went into the creature's belly, and the Akk dog itself opened its fanged maw and prepared to pounce.
Saliva and blood dripped from its teeth. A few armor plates from the glove remained in its mouth, but the monster ignored them. Leaning closer to Sharus, the lizard was already intending to bite off his head when its own head was blown to pieces.
A thunderous shot took off the Akk dog's body, mangling its neck and lower jaw. Had Salco not been wearing his usual heavy armor, he would have certainly been shredded by shrapnel; as it was, he only got away with a light concussion.
Turning a blurred gaze toward his savior, the Jabiimite recognized with surprise Commander Altman, frozen opposite the one-armed savage Chieftain.
"Looking for me, Kornai?"
***
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