Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit (41 page)

The rest go
t on their com units and called out to their forces.

Naero and Intel observed what happened next.

Within minutes, all along the strategic and tactical screens, half of the total Corps fleets broke and fled from the front lines in disorderly confusion and panic. Where they had just seconds before been winning decisively, even in the midst of battling the Clans.

They
panicked, turned, and fled.

Racing
back home to defend their own stricken worlds.

The other half bunched up and began a slow fighting retreat. With the vengeful Clan fleets giving chase, licking at their heels.

Some Corps fleets even began fighting each other in the complete confusion that followed.

Back in their own space, t
he Corps fleets within range abruptly turned on their allies and attacked the expanding Ejjai invasion.

Naero and Intel intercepted
further heated calls between the former allies. Trying to pinpoint the location of the new aliens.

Then to everyone
’s surprise, the aliens played a hidden trump card.

The Corps had been so quick to refit their ships with the new alien ion cannons.

But when they tried to use them against the alien invasion...

Every ship so-armed lost power and listed dead in space. Immobilized by the very same
tek that had made them nearly invincible.

One by one, the mi
ghty Gigacorps fleets lost power and became useless. All of them, crippled in a matter of hours.

Even the few Spacers and others who took pity on them and tried to help them restart their fusion cores could not find a way to do so.

At the exact time that the full weight of these Corps fleets were needed most in the resulting Crisis.

Left adrift, far from the
same Corps homeworlds that desperately depended on them for defense.

Su
ddenly the Corps fleets found themselves helpless and surrounded by their enraged foes among the Spacer Clans, who–until just recently–the Corps had been devastating without mercy or quarter.

Things did not
look very good for the Gigacorps or their navies. Or the Corps worlds that needed them at such a dire time.

Naero and her fleet raced to join General Walker and his marines, repelling an Ejjai invasion on Nilar-2, a Joshua Tech homeworld
annexed from Triax.

The nearest world in trouble.

51

On Nilar-2, one of the sprawling capital cities had been under heavy siege by the Ejjai for four straight brutal days. Fires raged and burned out of control everywhere. The sky day and night obscured by smoke and the stench of slaughter and war, as the unprepared civilian population of twenty million struggled to the breaking point to try to defend itself.

Three entire army groups of Ejjai shock troops poured in
sweeping across the planet surface in vast waves. Their meatships right behind them.

Artillery strikes and enemy bombers focused on any pockets of resistance, pounding them to rubble and dust. Then the enemy sent in close assault gunships and gravtanks to wipe on anyone else who kept trying to fight.

The gunships and tanks flushed out crowds of unarmed civilians and cut them down with impunity in the open. Tanks and shock troops fired from all directions, from any given vantage point as the massacre continued.

In a smoky alley near one of the hottest battles, a young
brown-haired girl of twelve with a small pistol in her hand, attempted to lead a group of nearly a hundred younger children away from the terrible battle raging right behind them.

The younger kids
crowded together in fear, looking around.

Explosions and weapon-fire echoed all around within blocks of their flight, rocking the stricken city to its core.

Several of the children whimpered and cried softly. Many of them clutching dolls, or stuffed animals, or toys of some kind to comfort them. Including a small blond girl of six with a dirty, white stuffed bear. The smaller girl appeared to be the twelve-year-old’s little sister. At least by the way the twelve year-old clutched the little girl’s other hand and would not let go.

“Mally…I don
’t wanna leave momma and the grownups. I’m scared.”

Mally turned and snapped at her little sister.

“Shut up and don’t make any noise, Evvy. All of you…shut up. Do you want
them
to find us? We can’t stay back there with the fighting. We have to find a safe place…somewhere else.”

“I don
’t like you,” Evvy said. “I wanna go back to momma. You let go of me!”

Mally cracked under the pressure and snapped at
her again and shook her. “Mom’s probably dead by now, Evvy. Along with most of the grownups who are still fighting back there. They won’t last much longer. She made me promise to get you and the other kids away if things got bad.”

Evv
y started bawling.

Mally tucked the small pistol in her belt and tried to cover E
vvy’s mouth. “Shut up!”

An Ejjai g
ravwing scout smashed down onto the plascrete right in front of them, and rose up towering in its battle armor.

An energy carbine in one claw and a long, blood-drenched jagged battle blade in the other.

The children gasped in terror and fell back before the fearful creature.

It chortled its eerie laugh
at them, thinking them helpless like all the rest.

“Well, what do we have here? A bunch of little juicy skinners, pretty as pie. Don
’t move, the lot of you. I swear I will cut down any of you who try to run. I gotta call this in.”

The Ejjai scout lifted her wristcom
in excitement. “Captain, I’ve got a nice little treat for us and the unit later tonight. Get over here before any of the other units do. Tell the girls to heat up the fire pits and get the hooks and chains ready. We’re gonna have us a little skinner roast. That’s right. About a hundred at least. Enough for the whole strike force.”

Mally screamed and leaped onto the distracted scout.

She fired her small pistol again and again into the scout’s face and eyes.

The tiny weapon popped repeatedly,
barely flashing.

But the scout toppled over dead
, like a stricken giant.

Mally still kept pulling the trigger until it clicked repeatedly.

She flung the empty, bloody pistol away, picked up the scout’s carbine, and snatched Evvy up by the hand where she lay curled up and shaking on the dirty alley street.

“C
’mon. All of you. Follow me. They’re coming!”

Mally led the children for a few blocks more, away from the fighting, which
sounded like it had died down

But everyone could also hear the sounds of the relentless enemy advance. The whine of the enemy gravtanks and and the sh
riek of the gunship engines and the staccato blast of their ground assault cannons.

And the resounding eerie laughter and cheers of the victorious invaders over the city
’s last pockets of defenders.

Six more enemy troops stepped out of the shadows, surrounding the terrified children
instantly. Hemming them in.

Mally dropped down and aimed her carbine right at the leader
’s face.

“Drop the weapon, little girl. You can
’t take all of us down. Give up, and my blade will make it quick for you and some of these others. Otherwise, we’ll stick meat hooks in your backs, and slow-roast and eat all of you feet-first. One at a time while the others get to watch and wait their turn.”

Mally snarled. “I don
’t need to kill the others. Just you.”

The Alpha-Ejjai grinned
her toothy smile and laughed her eerie laugh, along with the others.

“Just for that, y
ou we’ll save for last, girlie. After we eat all the rest. You get to watch what we do to all of them.”

Mally pulled the trigger, but the carbine didn
’t fire.

“Aww…ain
’t thatta a shame.”

The next instant, a long red blazing blade cut through the alpha
’s head and face, sheering off the top of her skull right through the eyes and her helmet.

The helmet and the
spurting alpha collapsed in a heap.

Naero had watched and waited long enough. Keeping
an eye on the children from the rooftops and in the shadows.

Expanding orbs of red-glowing Chaos energy scorched and hollowed out the skulls
and faces of the other five invaders at the same time.

Naero rose up, red katanas in both hands. She had her togs and her shifting, black night-stealth armor set so that the kids could now see her in part. Like a shadow when she moved.

To the children she would look like a dark phantom or a ghost.

She wore a long black cloak-c
oat, with the hood drawn back at the moment. Her long dark hair flowed free, but her lower face was still covered in her battle mask.

She focused her keen eyes in the darkness. Reaching out, she teknomanced the enemy security lock on Mally
’s captured carbine.

“Good girl,
Mally. I’ve fixed the enemy carbine so that you can use it now. But be careful with it. You’re very brave. All of you. I’ve been watching and protecting you for a while.”

Mally cocked her head. “Who are you? Where did you–”

Evvy piped up, her face beaming.

“She
’s Shettana; just like in the vids!”

“Evv
y, be quiet. She’s not Shettana. That’s just a vid. It’s not real.”

“She is too, Shettana. And she
’s come to save us, and kill all the bad guys. I hope she kills them all dead. You will, won’t you? Will you try to save our mom too?”

The other kids started to mumble and mutter, repeating the odd name.

Shettana.

She
’s Shettana?

That
’s Shettana? Shettana is really here to help us?

Naero chuckled at being taken for a
goofy vid character.

“My friends and I are Spacers
; we’re here to help. We’ve just arrived, and we’re setting up a little surprise for the invaders. But first, I want to get all of you to a safe place.”

“Where can we go where it
’s safe?” Mally asked. A lot of doubt in her voice.

“Not far.
I’ve kept several other enemies from attacking you along the way. Don’t worry. They won’t hurt anyone any more. I’m sorry these other ones got so close. We have to go now. Follow me.”

Naero led them two more blocks, until they found a tube station leading underground.

Mally gasped. “The adults told us not to use the tubes,” she said. “The invaders have them rigged with mines and traps. They’re just waiting for us down there. We won’t be able to run or get away.”

Naero grinned. “Don
’t worry. My friends and I have already cleared out this section. We own the black; the night is ours. No one can take it from us. The tubes are safe now, Mally. Just follow me. Once you are all safe down below, we can do our work up here. So we need to hurry.”

She led them into the underground.

They went so far in the darkness, darkness lit only by Naero’s blazing red swords.

Then hundreds of armored figures appeared out of the shadows all around them,
as if melting out of the black. Armored troops with fierce looking weapons poised at the ready.

Their various optical displays suddenly glowed red and menacing.

Mally gasped and lifted her carbine defensively.

Naero pushed the muzzle down and kept the child from shooting Spacer Marine Leftenant Mortan Stewart in the belly.

“It’s all right,” Naero told them. “You won’t find better friends right now than the Spacer Marines of Bravo Command.”

Lights came up slightly. Morty and some of his people opened their face-shields. Revealing their human faces
briefly for the kids to see.

The kids
relaxed a little more at that. Seeing so many big, tough-looking troops ready to defend them.

“Captain Maeris,” Morty said. “We have pockets of several thousand
civilians secured at various locations. I’ll have a squad take these kids to join them. Good work. But our fun up top is about to start.”

“Affirmative.
Well, we don’t want to miss the show, do we? Thanks, Morty.”

Naero turned back to Mally, Evv
y, and the other kids, who continued to stare up at her in awe and wonder.

“I have to go now. You guys are all really brave. I
’m hoping that we’ll have your city safe again for you by the morning. If we find any grown ups, we’ll try to keep them safe too.”

“Fight well,” Mally told her. “Thank you”

“Take good care of your sister.”

Evv
y smiled and hugged Naero around the hips.

“Bye, Shettana.
Thank you and your friends for saving us.” Naero stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head.

The other children filled passed, touching her hands, wishing her well. Telling Shettan
a goodbye. Waving as they moved off.

Goodbye, Shettana.

Thank you, Shettana.

Morty came up to her. Chuckling.

“What is it, Morty?”

“Those kids
actually think you’re Shettana? From those hokey old action-adventure vids? That’s pretty funny. Hilarious even.”

She smirked at him. “Stow it, Leftenant. In a dark moist place, you jerk.”

“No, I can really see it now. The cape, the hair, the mask and the swords. You’re a dead-ringer. We should have noted the resemblance before.”

He lifted his hands and announced in a mock heroic voice, “Shettana, the avenger. Shettana:
The Dark Angel of Death!”

Naero put her hands on her hips.

“Must I punch you in the balls? And it’s not a cape; it’s a cloak-coat, if you must know.”

Morty rolled his eyes. “Whatever.
Your get-up’s close enough. Anyone in the border worlds will have seen those vids. One look at you in action and they’ll make the connection all right.”

“I
’ve never seen any of those goofy vids, and I don’t want to. Now come on. We’ve got a fight to win.”

Up top, the Ejjai battle groups moved into the city, blasting buildings, trying to flush out more helpless
civilians to cut down.

They didn
’t comprehend that they walked straight into a carefully laid, city-wide trap.

U
ntil the Spacer ghost dragon squadrons and Marine fighter waves swept in to knock out their air cover and bomb their meatships.

In the midst of their triumph, the Ejjai forgot that flooding into the
close and constricted confines of the city jammed up their superior numbers and armor.

Tens of thousands of heavily armed stealth Marines stepped out of the shadows like the phantoms
they were. The Spacer Marines attacked right through the walls, blasting the startled Ejjai victors into heaps of burning, stinking meat.