"Copy that Tibulus!" Stryker said, he hailed the Revenant immediately and called for them to come in with the air support.
"Aye aye Captain" Ace replied "Might wanna make it quick down there though, the long range scanners just picked up something entering the system. It's a ways off still, but whatever it is.... it's big and headed straight for this planet."
"I read you pilot" Stryker replied "Hit them with two strafing runs, then come down and evac the team. Once you free us up to move in, our squad will take out the rest of Sol's people and the man himself, and evac on the Maelstrom"
"Acknowledged sir." With a blip the comms cut out.
"Over there" Carver observed "I got eyes on Qresh and Sylva. With K'arr, Amon, and Nekten already confirmed KIA, they're the last two standing. No clear shot" A pause while he brought the local squad comms up "Vulcaan, time to do your thing."
"On it" The old man grunted. He was in cover about 20 yards away from Carver and Stryker. From where they sat, they could clearly see the barrels of his portable gatling gun spooling up. With one hand he reached up and pried a few grenades loose from his bandolier and popped them into the grenade launcher. Caught up in the moment, he yelped a war cry that could be heard even without the comms and cackled as he stepped out from cover and began to lay down fire.
The chaingun ripped through pirates, left right and center. The poor bastards didn't stand a chance. The few that escaped his first volley of hellfire were obliterated where they stood when he began firing grenades into the remaining crowd.
Kira and the twins watched on, contributing with a few potshots to clean up survivors. She peeked out of cover again and saw the generals retreating towards separate entryways to the fortress.
"They're falling back" she shouted to her husband.
"Vulcann, you've got the crowd. Sylva's the higher-value target, we'll pursue him first, move in!"
The squad began moving between cover points, advancing rapidly on the fortress. The twins, Juli and Jen shared a look, both felt the same way. Kovitar Qresh had killed their father, and there was a slight chance of him getting away when they had him on the run. No way. In unison, both sisters engaged the lift boots on their suit and propelled themselves up above the rapidly falling army of foot soldiers. they came down just in front of the steps down to the door Qresh had gone through.
"What are you doing? Get back here!" Kira shouted over the comms.
"I'll get them Kira, don't let the bastard get away" Vulcaan rumbled in reply, still mowing down the pirates with reckless abandon.
-----
Over on SAL's side, things could be better. Sure Kaeci had killed one of their main targets, but they had lost one of their number in the attempt, and the pirates really didn't react well to seeing their leader go down. They had in fact doubled their efforts. The Revenant's first run definitely thinned their number, the ship's weapons firing at full capacity from extremely low altitude. SAL calculated it to an amazing probability that none of his remaining people had gone down to friendly fire. Although, Lexi had disappeared into the crowd of pirates not long ago.
"This isn't workin' tin man" Joe said as he racked in more rounds to his shotgun "Our cover is shit and the fuckers ain't letting up, we gotta try and fall back until the ship comes for us!"
"Our odds fall astronomically if we leave this entrenched position" the robot replied calmly as he popped up from cover to dispose of three incoming pirates with three well-placed shots.
"Never tell me the odds tin man" Joe said as he jumped up from cover to return fire of his own. The ship was coming back around for it's second run. After cutting a swath through the remaining legion of pirates, it began to pitch and come in for a landing on a flat stretch of land 50 yards away.
"Alright, you listen to me for a second" Joe said, pointing to Kaeci, still hunched, defeated over Harriet's body "Our friend there seems a bit out of sorts. You and Tobi get him to the ship, I'll cover you!"
SAL ran a quick calculation, mathematically speaking, it seemed like a straight-forward plan. He nodded in acknowledgment and signaled Tobi to help him out.
-----
"Ames, listen to me lass... I don't think we can get 'im out of here." Grayson said through gritted teeth as he struggled to drag Arex's body out of the cave "Feels like he weighs at least a ton. If we had SAL over here even, it would work, but with just us.... I don't know."
He let the bod slip from his grasp and doubled over, hands on his knees as he caught his breath.
"You heard Stryker though, we gotta get ourselves of here, get to the ship before whatever's coming arrives. Listen to me... listen.. we'll come back for him. I promise you."
He took Arex's sword, sheath and all and clipped it to his back. He'd hold onto it until they could come back and claim the man's body. And, taking Amy's hand in his own, he began to lead her from the cave.
FourtyTwo