The Duchess watched from this position on her back, being carried to an alien nest as ants might carry home squirming, living prey. She was at the north end of the valley, where things were relatively quiet. As they climbed the cobbled streets toward the valley exit and the assault ships that waited there to shuttle her to Gladius, she saw a battle erupt at the distant southern end of the valley, miles distant. It had to be Aldo. Why had he attacked the opposite end of the city?
There were no witnesses, so the Duchess allowed herself to cry.
Twenty-Five
Baroness Droad’s knights swept up toward the rear of the alien garrison at the southern entrance to Lavender City. The aliens unleashed withering fire in every direction, but they were surrounded and badly outnumbered.
The raging army of mechs reached the lines first. Many had been damaged by fragmentation bombardment from the ship above. Some were dragging themselves or the ruined bodies others. The bombardment stopped the moment they reached the canyon entrance, and the mechs fell upon the alien lines in a frenzy.
The aliens sent out a wave of culus and shrade teams to soften up the charge, while peppering them with laser fire from killbeasts in the rear. The tactics were very effective against humans, but much less so against mechs. The mechs grabbed up shrades, which twisted and lashed like grass snakes in their grippers. The shrades were on average seven feet in length and tremendously strong. They were no match however, for steel and servos. They were torn into lashing fragments and tossed aside. Expert fire and sweeping power-blades cut the culus numbers out of the air as well before they could return to the safety of their line.
The killbeasts, working laser rifles with precision, did better. They soon realized a single hit might rock a mech back on its servos, but did not finish them. In fact, a dozen random hits on the chassis of a perrupter did little to slow it down. The Imperial troops quickly adjusted their fire downward and focused on the ball joints holding together the leg struts. Three or four hits there reduced a charging mech to one that only crawled over the ground, dragging itself with its grippers.
This adjustment to their aim came too late. The fast moving wave of mechs charged into them before more than a dozen were maimed. The mechs came into direct conflict with little fanfare or finesse. The laborers reached out, grabbed up killbeasts with one gripper and dismembered them with the other. The perrupters were even more effective, severing limbs with their flashing power-blades and firing lasers point-blank into the thorax of any exposed killbeast.
The vitality of the killbeasts was legendary, but in this situation that attribute just meant they took longer to kill. They slashed with their horn-bladed feet, kicking at the orbs and grippers. Steel being harder than flesh, bone or horn, they won very few of these fights once the mechs were in close. The mechs swept away the initial line and advanced into the streets. Every mech chassis was burned, scarred and dented, but they had not been stopped.
Nina watched all this with grim pleasure. She enjoyed every moment of the alien destruction. For years, she’d been watching vids of these creatures preying on helpless humanity-especially on distant colonies that had much lower mech populations. These creatures might be superior combatants when compared to other fleshly beings, but when faced with human-machine hybrids they could not stand.
Now, it was her turn. With a raging army of mechs assaulting their front line, Nina’s knights charged the alien’s flank. She felt a battle fury rising up within her. She’d come from a line of fighters, and unlike her father, there was a part of her that reveled in open conflict rather than quiet contemplation.
The knights encountered very little fire as they swept close. The enemy were too focused on the mechs that were destroying them so inexorably. Their lines were shattered completely when the knights were suddenly among them. Nina lay about her with both her swords, cutting down aliens from behind. Even though the fight was hopeless, she found they were still dangerous. When a killbeast recognized her presence and brought up a laser rifle, she ducked and more than once felt the heat of a passing beam. The enemy took such potshots in many cases, even if they were engaged with a mech in a final death struggle. Knowing their own doom was at hand, they switched to the easier human target and attempted a kick or an angled shot, even as they were being beaten to death by the mechanical monsters. One killbeast fired three shots at her, even at it was being dashed against the stone walls of a nearby building, spoiling its aim. Nina was alarmed at the quick viciousness of the aliens. They knew they were doomed, but there was no attempt whatsoever to run, or to beg for mercy. These beings knew nothing of surrender or fear. They fought like biological machines themselves.
The culus creatures however, did flee. Unlike the killbeasts, they understood the better part of valor when a battle turned into a slaughter. They took flight and a hundred circular shadows swept over the knights, making them wince and duck when their strange shadows passed by. The culus flock swooped, flying low overhead and then went deeper into the city. Knights and mechs fired up a score of lancing shots, and brought a few of them down to flop on the cobbles.
Nina, realizing the killbeasts were almost extinguished, fired with the rest. “Mechs, knights, form up!” she shouted, amplifying her voice with a boom mike in her helmet. “Come troops, after them! Kill them all for Twilight!”
A ragged cheer went up. A thousand throats and a thousand speakers took up the cry. The knights charged after the fleeing enemy-it was in their nature to do so.
As the nife traveled the ship’s tube-like steel corridors to meet with the Empress, his stalks drooped down below his maw. In his short life, he’d never had a worse day. He could barely open his cusps to reveal his orbs, which were sticky with dry fluids. His worries had grown by the hour. What had looked like a perfect assault on a reef packed with nearly helpless meat-creatures had turned into a pitched battle-with the Imperium troops on the losing side. They had every advantage, but could not employ many of them.
The biggest problem was the Empress’ rigid rule against bombarding the human city. With a relentless barrage of missiles launched by Gladius, they could have made short work of the human army. But instead, they’d only managed to score a few hits as they charged into the city itself, thus forcing the missile batteries to follow their rules of engagement and break off the attack. It was almost as if these humans knew what absurd restrictions the Skaintz were operating under.
“My Highest Lady,” the nife began when he entered her fetid den. “I have grim tidings from the battle below.”
“Due, no doubt, to your incompetence?”
“Due to unforeseen events. Warfare is rarely a mathematical exercise.”
“You are wrong…again. It is a mathematical equation, and in this case you have miscalculated. I expect an immediate return to balance. I barely have enough meat-creatures to provide my person with sustenance. There isn’t enough for a breeding stock as well. They breed so slowly, these humans. We must procure many more.”
The nife had prepared a ploy for this situation. His stalks rose a fraction as he presented it hopefully. “You are correct! These creatures aren’t really suitable as a dietary staple. There are many other animals to taste, however. The world below is a veritable buffet of fresh flavors. I would recommend-”