Posted by: Þórgrímr
« on: September 14, 2007, 08:09:16 PM »
Chapter Twenty Nine
(L + 5 months)
Praefectus Classis Horatius was not a happy man. To have his career saved by that drunken Gaul was the utmost in insults to him. He had almsot pulled his sidearm and put Labienus out of his misery, yet, in the deepest parts of his mind he knew Labienus was correct, and it burned to not be able to come up with an alternative option. He knew it had to be done...
"Praefectus! We have detected signs of combat on the planet Nova Tarentum II! All indications are that the remnants of the combat forces dropped several months ago are still actively resisting the Siliconates!" The Sensor Centurio shouted out.
Horatius immediately knew what he was going to do. "You do not get to slag this world Labienus," he muttered under his breath. He began to quickly record a message to Labienus. "Legatus, we have detected signs of combat on the surface of the planet, which indicates to me that the forces originally dropped here are still in active resistance. Therefore I have ordered the deployment of the IX Manipularii Army and the XXIV Consular Army to be dropped immediately to assist the forces still in active resistance.?
Horatius paused a moment and hit the record button again. ?Legatus, I firmly believe that if we act swiftly enough we will not have to implement the 'Damnatio et Memoriae' directive on this planet. So I urge you to proceed to Nova Tarentum with all haste and bring the reinforcements to retake this world.?
?You may relieve me but as soon as the manipularii carve out a drop zone, I am going to send down the other two Consular armies to reinforce the forces on planet. Praefectus Horatius out.? He turned to his Comm Officer, ?Get that sent out now!?
He turned to the Classis Gunnery Officer. ?Tribunus Yamashiro, I want a bombardment plan to hit anything that can be confirmed as Siliconate. I don't care where it is located, if it is Rockhead, we kill it. I want them to know we are up here, to stay, and our vengence will be terrible. The look on all the faces in the CIC showed that all were in agreement with Horatius. The Siliconates would find out just how deadly Humanity can be.
***
In the end, even with the artillery fire, there was nothing Sempronius' Maniple could do.
The Siliconates, having found a way through the flank, had attacked without pause, wave upon wave of the rocky bastards, climbing over the bodies of their dead to close with the human defenders. With only 140 troopers and 5 papilio's, including his legati, left. There wasn't enough fire pressure to stop them cold and they came on, yard by yard, against a relentless tide of fire.
"I'm running dry!" one of the legionarii cried as even the seemingly inexhaustible supply of gauss rounds started to run low. "I need resupply!"
The cry went up all down the line as legionarii after legionarii found his ammo supply running lower and lower, the counters going from the hundreds to the tens and then zero.
"Breakthrough on the left!" Saturninus called, standing up out of the driver's hatch and lowering his rifle to fire. The group of Siliconates had forced their way through to the remnants of III century and broken the center by the simple expedient of swarming the legionarii.
With the sundering of the line the beleaguered Roman legionarii seemed to give up hope. legionarii after legionarii lifted himself out of his fighting position, stepping to the rear, those with remaining ammunition firing to try to keep the Siliconates at arm's length.
"NO!" Sempronius cried, scrambling out of legati. "INTO THEM!"
"Centurio's down!" a legionarii from III century called out and was cut off in mid cry.
"By Iuppiter's Bloody balls, Decurio!" Saturninus cursed, sprinting forward to the side of Sempronius while laying down blasts from his gauss rifle. "GET BACK IN THE LEGATI!"
"I Am Not Going To Give Up On Those Men!" Sempronius snarled, shooting to his left. But the tide was irresistible and even he could finally see that. II and III centuries were either falling back or just gone. The Siliconates had the line and nobody was left to defend it. The legionarii still in the line were dying far too fast.
"Fall back!" he called, glancing at his surroundings. "Fall back on the base!"
***
Metellus was firing as fast as he could line up the targets, flipping out magazines one handed and reloading as each expended mag dropped from his rifle. But nothing seemed to help. The remaining legionarii were running from the oncoming tide of Siliconates and no firepower in the world was going to stop them.
"Manipularii, prepare for short-ranged final protective fire," he called as the Siliconates passed the line of fighting positions that had once been filled with Roman manipularii and legionarii. He didn't even bother to try to figure out who was left. It was him and his manipularii and that was more or less that.
"Have to die someplace," he muttered. He flipped another magazine in as Varus slithered over the side of the fighting position followed by Macer.
"Hit the deck and continue firing!" Metellus called out, flipping around and starting to lay down fire.
"Ammo! I'm out!" One of the legionarii scrambled into the supply cache, tearing open boxes, and then cursed. "triari ammo!"
"Triari, open fire!" Metellus called as the front of the Siliconate assault came within thirty yards.
The four Triari, early Roman Powered Armor, were each mounted with four gauss mini-guns, and the hail of metal slivers opened a huge rent in the Siliconate mass, even checking it for a moment. But the pressure from the rear pushed the front ranks forward against the tide of fire and the down side to the horrendous amount of fire the mini-guns could put out was that they ran dry fast.
"Dry!" Antipater called. "I'm running dry!"
"Gotcha," a legionarii said, popping open the ammunition container and opening the triari's reload bin. "Ammo coming up!" he said, tipping the container up and dumping the contents into the bin.
"Feed me!" another triari called, laying down a wall of fire to the north.
But as the triari went through bin after bin, and the remaining legionarii, most of them commanders, laid down their fire, the ammunition ran lower and lower and the wall of Siliconates closed in on the surrounded fighting position.
"I'm dry!" Antipater called, then looked around at the person behind him. "Hey, Met."
"Then use those mini's as fancy clubs!" Metellus snarled as his magazine dropped into the fighting position.
"Boxes are empty!"
"I'm out!" Varus called as his last magazine dropped free. He reversed his rifle and swung it into the face of the first Siliconate to the fighting position. The heavy duty stock smashed at the impact, leaving him holding only the tritanium barrel. Which he then used to smash the next skull in line.
Metellus smashed two of the Siliconates before the first melee weapon caught him on the shoulder. He hardly noticed it but then another descended and then another and he could feel himself tiring, trying to slash and crush in all directions, but it was no use, the triari were backed up to the rear of the position, trying to beat the Siliconates back with their fists and Macer and Antipater were down under a tide of bodies and Varus was nowhere to be seen and...
The sky lit in fire. For just a moment he could see the pupils of the possessed human's bloodshot eyes tighten down to a pinpoint and the reflection of the Thunderbolt of Iuppiter in their irises. And he hit the deck just in time.
He dug his hands into the ground and focused all his effort onto holding on as, again, the hammer blows descended on his back, lifting him up and slamming him down over and over again. He felt himself lifted up and slammed against the wall of the fighting position and his arm cracked backwards, painfully. He could feel that it was broken. He waited and waited, for a moment, for an eternity, but finally the last echoes of the Thunderbolt died away and he could look around.
For a time, it seemed like hours, he could not determine anything in his surroundings. But then slowly the dust settled and he could get some sense of what was around him. he took a look around and there wasn't much. A legionarii here. A legionarii there.
***
"Metellus?"
"Decurio?"
Metellus scanned his surroundings but the Decurio was nowhere in sight. Varus and Macer were both heavily injured and no officers were alive. Even with an arm so dislocated and broken, he was as good as it got. But he had less than half of a century left so it wasn't a particularly heavy burden of command.
"Yeah. I'm alive. I'm in contact with the classis overhead. That blast was a friendly love tap from them, hope you didn't mind?" Sempronius said, imagining the look on the principale's face.
"Nah, I don't mind Decurio, but next time do you think you could move the aim point just a wee bit further away?"
"I will take that under advisement principale." Sempronius said with a chuckle. "Meanwhile I've contacted the Retarius; it's prepared to deliver on-call fire from now until the local Siliconates overrun us or somebody comes to save both our asses. You look like you're in the clear."
"Yes, sir. No Siliconates in view."
"They seem to be trying to reconsolidate by Dionysopolis. I'm calling for fire. But it shouldn't affect your position. Hunker down and hold what you got. You look to be clean for the near future."
"Yes, sir."
"Longinus, out."
***
"Retarius?"
"Go, Decurio."
"One pila strike, UTM North 496506 East 284965."
"Roger that. Ah, what's your position, over."
Sempronius looked down at scorched legati; "Secure. Please launch the pila."
"Launch, out."
Sempronius smiled as the nuclear fireball consumed the gathering enemy host.
He waited until the majority of the dust had dissipated then looked around for more targets.
"Relief commander, we can reach the surrounded legionarii. And we'll be there sooner."
***
The voice Metellus heard on the comm frequency was in metallic-accented Latin and in the background a song was playing, just too faintly for Metellus to pick out. As Metellus watched a streak of fire like a meteor descended from the heavens and a nuclear fireball, followed by a mushroom cloud, erupted over other Siliconate positions.
In the distance he could see beams of light leaping into the sky and more beams, and streaks of fire, coming down. He looked around and the same could be seen in every direction into the distance.
"Defenders of Nova Tarentum, hold what you got," another voice entered the comm net. Presumably all the nets. "This is Praefectus Classis Horatius, Commander IV Classis. Heavy fire incoming. Stand by."
In the distance a wave of fire seemed to leap from the ground as fireball after fireball erupted into the sky. It was clear that energy weapons were taking out every single Siliconate position and settlement for as far as the eye could see. And undoubtedly beyond. Around the whole globe.
Metellus looked up and half shook his head as a line of transports and shuttlecraft, seeming half matter and half fire, dropped out of the sky. Manipularii began spouting from the sides, dropping on pillars of fire then assembling at impossible speed. They were Median, and like the ships, seemed only half there, as if one with the land and sky. The air was filled with music and he shook his head and laughed hysterically again as the strains of "Galerius Orianus" poured through the air.
He lifted himself out of the fighting position as a shuttle approached and an armored figure dropped to the scorched and blackened ground. He waited until it approached and then saluted the figure with the Double Eagle of a Roman Pro-Consul on its metallic shoulders.
"Pro-Consul," Metellus said, dropping the salute as it was returned.
"Principale," the Pro-Consul replied. The face was hard, metallic and very familiar.
" Sorry we took so long, we had a wee bit of trouble on the way," Pat-142 said, then wrapped the smaller human in his arms as he collapsed from exhaustion.
