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First landing

  February 21, 2106 (military calendar)Iv'Lux(transted) 40, 1(Tukyarid calendar)KlicksHabitable candidate 6 ( Tukrayid designation) My antennae twitch in anticipation. Hive queen Bellum sent me to the system the human ship was spotted to be her direct presence. Such a thing is a great honor to be the representative of an entire hive.

  Getting aboard a ship was easy enough because those disgusting eight legs pay us no mind. We were able to set up a courier system with this where a member of the crew will switch with whoever needs the ride.

  After nding on candidate six I made contact with the local queen who pretended to bow to our enemy. While doing so leaves a bad taste it preserved the hive's mind and now she can send out the message that soon our time has come.

  After that, I had to wait around until anything interesting happened. Interesting being fleet movement or the appearance of a human fleet.

  To every tukyarids pleasant surprise such a fleet arrived a few days after I arrived. I’ve been monitoring communications and watching the outer system with various satellites when in a fsh a fleet arrived.

  They immediately accelerated and engaged with the accursed oppressor fleet. I watched both graceful and sharp maneuvers, bright fshes, and streaks of light.

  In silence I watch on knowing many are dying out there most of those deaths I’m happy beyond words for yet I know the humans must also be dying for us whether they know it or not.

  On and on the battle rages until the human fleet is victorious and accelerates towards our pnet. Several hours ter the sky erupts into explosions and the screaming of aircraft.

  ColeThe onager (start of the battle) My stomach lurches as we drop back into real space. I push all my discomfort away as I focus entirely on this battle.

  I check again on everyone’s suit status and everything is green. The reactor is well into the green and while we are way off course the fleet is within an acceptable spread.

  “Comms monitor all traffic in system and rey to the fleet my orders. Weapons spin up everything we have. Sensors notify me the second we get a glimpse of another fleet”

  I feel a tug in my gut “Helms change course local reference for now bring us into a high arch in system trajectory. Rey to the pilots to make ready but don’t let them unch yet”

  I keep an eye on the system map that’s slowly forming as we get sensor returns. Nothing is out of pce just yet.

  A short while ter the sensor station shouts “Ship returns sir the enemy has been spotted” I put more attention to the map “mark them and their trajectory”

  A moment ter red icons pop up. We are heading straight for them. Guess my gut was right. I start marking different targets for different ships so everyone is zeroed in well before we get in range.

  “Launch half the fighters now rotate as needed. Be ready to drop some missiles for silent burn” Hanger doors open up and disgorge fighters and they form up around the rger ships ready to turn and burn at a moment’s notice.

  A handful of minutes ter the weapons station calls out “entering extreme range sir” At a guestemet it’s around ten light seconds even pulse sers would be unlikely to hit maybe a regur ser but it wouldn’t do much damage.

  “Wait until our guns travel in less than ten seconds then weapons free” The seconds tick by and while no one on this bridge is a stranger to void combat the wait before a weapons exchange is always filled with a thick silence.

  Finally, I give the order “fire” The ship shuddered as all our cannons fired and the frigates built around massive coil guns shook visibly. The space between the fleets erupts into violence.

  The smaller cannons tear holes through ships venting any air they can some even scoring luckily hits on a bridge and creating a dead ship.

  The frigates though, I might request more of them or even utilize their design for rger ships. Their cannons rip through and through the ships stem to stern igniting reactors and one even hit a second ship behind the first. Two ships with one shot.

  “Keep up the pressure coordinate missile strikes and drop a few sleepers for when we pass them” the sensor station calls out “Retaliatory strikes incoming” I bark over the entire fleet “All hands brace”

  I pull up a control on my seat. One that hasn’t been tested much but I specifically asked for. I did some quick mental math of the incoming projectiles and my fleets predicted evasion routes.

  A small grin breaks my lips “Firing hardpoint boosters” I announced half a breath before I hit the button. A resounding bang reverberated up and down the entire ship and the superstructure groaned as eleven million tons suddenly shifted unevenly to the side.

  The three rger shots aimed at us cleanly missed and sailed on by. Thirty seconds ter we scream past their fleet in retively speaking knife-fighting range.

  We drop missiles and open up with every gun we have. Point defense, missiles, main cannons. The frigates even fire off a few of their spinal-mounted cannons and score more hits.

  While we shred their fleet we take some damage as well. Hulls are broken open but due to protocol, they aren’t venting air.

  Several engines have been damaged but the worst hit was the Osowiec. A lucky hit penetrated their reactor section and while it didn’t explode a radioactive fire is raging both on the hull and in the section.

  The Rex maneuvers under fire to attach their hard points so the one ship will move both as the Osowiec shuts down their reactor.

  The bass pro and Hound break from their formation to cover them and flip so they are flying ‘backwards' their point defense roaring and the main cannons firing as fast as they can recharge it.

  Their fleet did the worst thing possible and did a full flip and burn dramatically limiting their mobility. I waited as both fleets continued to fire at one another.

  Finally, the moment I was waiting for, they passed the dropped missiles and now have their primary engines exposed to them.

  I trigger them and aim the conventional-shaped charges at the engines that looked to be half melted and the fusion warheads at the clusters of ships.

  Preoccupied with us to their front they failed to notice the final nail in their coffin to their rear. The missiles pound home and outright destroyed several ships or destroyed reactors some even cooked off.

  Satisfied that the fleet is either entirely destroyed or at the very least a non threat I give the order “helmsman set a course for the ground pounders nding zone. Recall all escort fighters”

  Tanya RexHanger of the onagerThe ride in system was much more shaky than I expected made worse by the fact everyone is in our dropships ready to go.

  After a while, it got smoother and now the moment I’ve been waiting for arrives. “General you're over the drop zone” I grin as I feel the cmps release and the dropship turns into a slight roll as we make a powered reentry.

  Before long I feel like I’m getting shaken apart all over again but this time from the atmosphere. I pull up an external camera feed and watch missiles from the fleet race past us and impact several locations on the ground.

  I pull the most recent orbital imagery we have. Now I see what the missiles hit. Anti air empcements. I assign points to different elements for capture or assign squads to shadow our armor.

  Mostly satisfied I send out the orders and then say for one st reminder “It’s open season on the spiders but don’t shoot anything else down there” Once I finish someone decides to py screaming eagles for everyone and I think it’s quite fitting.

  We suddenly level out and the nose chaingun is burning through its ammo as the ramp drops. Everyone sprints out taking the six-foot fall with practiced ease. I’m the st out and can finally see the carnage that’s around us.

  There are bug parts everywhere mixed with some destroyed weapons and other things. Dropships nd low enough to disgorge its soldiers then burn away to clear the airspace for more to drop off.

  Casper motions and points out Griffin and his squad with the bug. I’m a little surprised he decided to come down on the first wave. Might be because Griffin didn’t want to wait.

  Cargo elevators are secured same with ramps leading down from the tops of the nding pads. I'm not sure why they built them elevated just to have to move any cargo down to ground level.

  As the first groups are pushing to the ground the first armored vehicles are dropped off. “Casper get me a situation report”

  Shortly after I’m getting sent a video. It’s the Tukyarid actively hindering and some even outright fighting the spiders. “All units whenever possible prioritize aiding the Tukyarid some are taking up arms”

  As the first marauder mechs are set down they form groups of three and march to the front lines the pounding of one of Mick Gordon's songs emanating from their collective external speakers.

  With practiced ease the infantry forms up loosely around their feet to aid against infantry. Casper clears his throat “So far only minor injuries it seems the good admiral did a fine job softening them up. The reports of friendly agitators are coming through more frequently I suspect they hesitated because they didn’t know if we’d shoot them”

  “As for enemy combatants, their weapons seem ill-suited for actual combat. Most of it is high fire rate sacrificing damage.”

  Another clip is sent to me and it clears up the weapons. One of the spiders is by itself against a bunch of Tukyarid and hoses them with its weapon cutting down the swarm. I pass it along to Casper.

  “They are geared around suppression not peer-to-peer combat” I comment. I gnce at Griffin's squad again and notice Jed is set up as heavy weapons and kheks has a long-range unit on his stomach presumably to stay out of the way of his wings.

  “Where are the Tukyarid concentrated” I ask. “Dead or making it to our lines” I nod “Burn out the tunnels we need outside these walls now so we can nd the rest of our forces”

  He passes on my order and fmethrowers are moved to the front and tunnels are filled with fmes. Horrific screeching echoes out from them but my men march into the fmes to ensure everything burns.

  I spot Griffin and his team climbing the surrounding wall it seems he’s going to jump over to avoid the fmes. “Come on Casper let’s have some fun before the other divisions nd… speaking of pass along that they can begin nding”

  I walk to the edge of the nding pad and step off. I free fall for a moment then hit my thrusters to soften my nding. Once my feet hit the ground I head for the closest access tunnel.

  As Casper catches up I unsling my rifle and make sure the magazine is feeding shredder rounds. We enter the smoke-filled tunnel and go past burning corpses.

  A few moments ter we reach the men marching down the tunnel burning it as they go. Some sporadic gunfire is aimed at us but does little to stop our advance.

  “Break into a jog and push I want the engineering vehicles outside setting up nding zones before the rest nd” I bark out.

  The pace is picked up and I spot a spider and aim a shot. Its guts are ripped out the back of it. Past its corpse I see sunlight.

  Less than half a minute ter and we are through. There is an active firefight as several other groups had the same idea as Griffin and two of the other tunnels sprinted through theirs so they weren’t the st through.

  The marauders are walking around still bsting music and being a menace. I smile. All in all our first extrasor pnetary nding went well.

  The ground begins to rumble as engineering vehicles roll out of the access tunnels and get to their work. I spot a small firefight still going on and head for it.

  It’s Griffin's squad protecting some locals against around ten spiders. Kheks looks like he’s speaking rapidly to the locals probably trying to calm them.

  This presents an interesting opportunity. I shoulder my rifle and squeeze off a few shots each dropping a spider. I stop by kheks “Can you help me ascertain the situation on the pnet”

  He bobs his head and I transmit this to Cole and the leaders of the liquidators and devil dogs. Ivan Ivonich and Alvin York respectively.

  Shortly after we started gathering information York and Ivonich join me in person.

  KellEarth, prime / Matrioshka brain I spin the design again and let out a sigh. I’m going to need help with this. I ping Ace, fermi, and Silver. They immediately show up.

  Ace and Silver say a greeting but Fermi is distracted by the design in the air. “What is this” she asks. I shrug “an anniversary present but I’m having some issues with it”

  Understanding why I called them they poor over the design. Silver speaks next “I understand why you called me and ace now… kinda but why Fermi instead of Varian”

  Fermi butts in “Normal materials won’t suffice for this. Your reactor isn’t nearly big enough either how about this” The design warps and twits until something entirely new is before me.

  “That’s a bit bigger than before” I state but Silver smirks “This is for your guy's big anniversary isn’t it so why not go big” She’s right

  Ace rubs his chin “Let me check again but I believe I know where the perfect A-css star is that we can use, lots of pnets too”

  I grin “Thanks guys soon the Nidhogg will rise again” soon for our time scale but likely a century maybe more depending on how secretive we try to be.

  Silver asks the next important question “What do you pn for weapons” I shrug “Befitting of destruction herself so lots of firepower and several pnet-cracking weapons and at least one nova sparker”

  The true scale both physically and technologically hits home.

  Neutronium alloy armor pting measuring not in the meters or miles but in astronomical units. Cannons with bores in the hundreds of meters or even miles.

  Thousands of atomic printers to supply billions of rounds of ammunition and ser lenses covering acres.

  It will be unstoppable destroying anything it’s pointed at. I’m sure she’ll love it.

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