Year 248 P.L. Rychter Calendar
Coordinates: 42.1°S; 11.6°E
Site Designation: Badlands Liaison Post

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In a screwed up kind of way, it was just like old times.

Ryke let loose a spray of fire from his cannon, aiming high and bringing a column of shattered stone crashing down in front of the onrushing Scraegan pack. He could see the Alpha's huge mass stomping through the gloom in the background, shepherding the even larger silhouette of the priest away from the fighting.

Small mercies that he didn't have to fight those two. At least, not yet.

"Defensive pairings!" Ryke thundered through the comm. "Avalanche, Two-Step, suppressing volleys on our flanks." He spat another burst of cannon fire. A searing furnace-cannon bolt whipped overhead in response, sending heat alarms blaring through the Hunter-Killer.

"How far you wanna take this, boss?" Preese asked as he sent a Scraegan reeling with a thunderous punch from his mech's metal gauntlet. "They're playing for keeps right now."

"Drown in all," Ryke muttered, before opening the comm again. "Do what you've got to do, people." He accented his words by surging forward and smashing his shoulder shield hard into an onrushing Scraegan, sending the brute tumbling backwards.

A gun emplacement further back in the crags raked the Scraegan line with explosive shells, buying them a few precious moments, before a flurry of furnace-cannon blasts reduced the cupola of rock to ashes.

The war's back on.

Bitter frustration coiled in his guts. Had they really come this close only to have the whole thing undone by one random act of violence? He couldn't bring himself to believe it would end like this. Peace gone forever.

"Vannigan, do you read me?"

Lieutenant Brackenshaw's voice snapped him out of those grim thoughts. Twisting, he moved in close behind the mech of Landis 'Headstone' Garrett, watching the rookie pilot's back as they edged forward to keep the Scraegans at bay.

"Reading you, loud and clear," he snapped, twisting his mech to avoid the blare of another furnace blast. It whipped by him, screaming across the base until it smashed into an empty truck, the blast flipping the heavy vehicle end over end.

"Situation?"

"Full engagement," Ryke barked back, his eyes flickering across the HUD. Red indicators blistered across the arc in front of the Hunter-Killer line. "Two full packs. We lost our the infantry gunners in the first salvo."

"Copy. Everybody who's still in one piece is loading up and bugging out, but we need more time."

"How much time?"

"Five minutes. Long range seismics have three more Scraegan packs on approach – that's how long we've got till they get here."

"You think you can get everyone out?"

"Let me worry about that. Just do what you do, and when five minutes are up you haul your rigs out of there. We'll be waiting to cover your fallback. Brackenshaw out."

"What happens to anyone still around after five minutes?" Qadira asked.

"Guess they're not getting out," Scantlin muttered grimly.

Ryke gritted his teeth. "Maybe we can bloody some noses to buy a bit of space, eh? Lockjaw-Valley?"

"Go ahead, Lockjaw."

"Ready to do some damage?"

"Everflowing, yes, sir!"

"Then follow our lead. Form up, assault formation." Ryke scanned the layout of the Liaison post as he spoke, cobbling together a plan to carve out more than a measly five minutes. "We're going to cut you a path, straight ahead. Once we open things up, bring your Goliaths forward and collapse the mouth of that tunnel. Knock down anything else you can find while you're at it. We're going to make a mess, soldier."

"Copy that, Lockjaw," Valley replied, the young squad leader's voice charged with determination. "Pulling in behind you now."

"HK-Rupture," Ryke snarled, stomping forward with fire spitting from his cannon. "On my lead! All Riot mechs swing hard left and leap-frog around me. Don't leave anything behind you – I wand a clear road. Haunter, Rabbit, kick right and swing around the edge to pincer them off."

Acknowledgements streamed down the comm as he took his place at the tip of the spear, his eyes fixed on the massing dark shadows of the Scraegans beyond. Killing them wouldn't help things – not in the long run – but right now his only concern was getting the rest of the human contingent out in one piece.

Only Hunter-Killers could stand toe-to-toe with Scraegan warriors. Only they could buy the time Brackenshaw needed.

So he swallowed down his doubts and his questions and his discomforts, and hurled himself forward. Fire thundered from his cannon and he bulled straight into the first warrior, dipping low and wedging his shield up beneath the warrior's swinging club. Pistons screamed as he drove the legs of the Hunter-Killer hard, the mech's toothed feet ripping great divots in the ground.

As he shoved the Scraegan back, Preese hurtled past him, collecting a second Scraegan on his way, driving both bodies to the left. Shots from Brigg and Erin thudded into their foes, corralling them into a brutal melee with HK-Rupture. One by one the Riot mechs followed suit, prying the Scraegan line open like wedging a door open with a crowbar.

Valley's HK-Atom plunged into that gap.

Moving in a standard wedge shape, the second squadron barrelled through the narrow space Ryke's team had carved for them, guns blazing as they battled their way into range. Ryke could only half watch them, shaking his warblade loose as the Scraegan warriors came at him.

One fell back bleeding from a gouge in its shoulder, and he forced another away with two thunderous barges with his shoulder shield. A Scraegan axe from a third smashed off the crater-shaped bowl of armour beneath his mech's head section, and sent the blow glancing off skyward.

Not without a corresponding screech of alarms inside the cockpit. Ryke felt like he'd been punched in the face, the neural feedback jolting his skull.

"Lockjaw, covering!"

Landis swept in, cannon pumping shots at the offender. The new pilot wrestled his way forward, swivelling back and forth as Ryke straightened himself out.

"Headstone, your right!"

A shout from Fenix snapped his attention, and he saw a bulky Scraegan charging at Landis's flank, head lowered ready to simply run the Hunter-Killer over.

"COVERING!" Ryke yelled, his mech lurching into motion. In a stumbling run, he hurled himself head on into the Scraegan before it could crash into his squad mate.

Impact alarms blared through his mech from the bone shaking force of the collision. Plating buckled and he felt an unhealthy screech of warping metal from his right. Structural integrity indicators along the upper right side of his mech winked from green to yellow in an instant.

The Scraegan wasn't in much better shape. They staggered drunkenly, Ryke's warblade embedded its full length into the warrior's torso.

"Valley, any time now!" Ryke bellowed.

"Copy, copy!" Valley blurted. "Ego, Topspin – firing solutions now!"

The two Goliaths shakily yelled back their responses. Ryke dragged his warblade loose from the dying Scraegan and stumbled backwards, glancing back in time to see the mechs from HK-Atom open fire.

Stabilisers set, the pair smashed out three quick volleys at the tunnel mouth where Scraegan warriors were still emerging from. The high explosive shells shattered huge sections of the rocky overhang with every strike, and it wasn't long before the whole structure imploded in on itself.

Scraegans could dig their way through, but it still added precious moments to any reinforcements arriving from the easiest route.

"Valley, tear this place apart!" Ryke ordered. "HK-Rupture, tighten up your ranks. Sound off!"

The pilots responded in quick clips of speech, reporting minor damages and heavy enemy contact. Exactly what he would have expected, more or less.

More shots from the Goliaths of HK-Atom rocked the plateau as they turned their attention to some of the great craggy columns that littered the plateau. The roar of collapsing stone filled the audio filters as their fire immediately bore results. Huge avalanches of smashed rock crashed down into the Scraegan side of the Liaison Post, belching smoke into the air and obscuring everything afresh.

"Nice shooting," Ryke commended as he locked himself back into line alongside Landis, turning his cannon on the Scraegans again.

"Thank you, sir!" Valley replied. "A few more shots and-"

"Incoming! WE HAVE INCOMING!" Mayder Ricardo hollered over the comm from further ahead in the smoke. "Oh, Everflowing..."

"Rabbit, what-," Ryke turned in the direction of the Scout mechs further ahead, but the words died in his throat at the sight of a huge shape in the gloom. It advanced unheeding through the smoke, and a bellow like rolling thunder made the auditory filters crackle with static from the sheer volume.

The Scraegan Alpha had returned.

"Back!" Ryke roared in desperation. "Everybody get back!"

Too late. He saw the huge, writhing shape of the Alpha's whip rise in the gloom like a giant serpent. It snapped forward with speed that shouldn't have been possible for something so massive, and struck one of the mechs of HK-Atom.

Long barbs bit into the Hunter-Killer, punching through the heavy armour and lodging in like fish hooks. The Alpha have a great heave, and the war machine's entire front section simply came apart, torn into shards of warped metal, and the Hunter-Killer went flying, slamming into a boulder in a mangled heap.

"By the Lords..." Valley gasped. Having pushed forward to get their firing solution, they were closer – right in the huge Scraegan's war path. "HK-Atom, on my lead. Open fire!"

"Belay that!" Ryke howled over him. "Get your people away from that thing right now!"

Two powerful steps brought the Alpha crashing forward out of the smog, its massive jaws agape, blunt teeth bared as it swung again. One of Valley's Goliath mechs had its legs ripped out from under it, and a shriek of agony from the stricken pilot blasted the comm link.

Ryke swore, punching his blade through the eye of another Scraegan warrior as their foes surged forward. Twisting and shifting his footing, he tossed the dying beast away, trying to pivot towards the Alpha.

"On my lead!" he yelled. "Fall back to my position! All mechs, suppressive fire."

The Alpha looked like it was about to continue its bloody rampage, raising the whip for the kill as HK-Atom milled in disarray before it. Before the next blow could land, a metal shape went hurtling past its left side, cannon spraying. Armour piercing shells peppered the great beast, a few even cracking off its huge skull.

It snorted in irritation and swung awkwardly, missing the Hunter-Killer by a hairsbreadth.

Ryke looked at his HUD.

Horror swelled up inside him. "Rabbit, what in pissing Rivers are you doing?!"

"Valley, go, go, go!" Ricardo answered. "Just giving some cover, boss!" His voice was tight with effort as he wheeled around. The Alpha tried to follow his motions, and the distraction allowed the stunned pilots under Valley's command to regroup, finally backing away.

"Get out of there, Rabbit," Ryke called, unable to do anything else to aid his pilot. There were too many Scraegans pressing in on them now from both sides that he had to use all his attention just to fend them off. "Job's done!"

"Copy, copy." The whip missed him again, just barely, but struck the ground with enough force to send Ricardo's mech stumbling clean into a rock face.

He moved just in time as the Alpha struck again. The rock blew apart as the barbed metal cord ripped through it.

Ricardo was off and running, dodging and jinking past the scattered Scraegan warriors nearby. He broke clear, kicking up a furrow of dust in his wake.

The Alpha swivelled its huge bulk around with astonishing speed, and in the same motion lashed out, extending its huge frame at full stretch, the whip snapping forward like the flicker of a snake's tongue.

And the weapon smashed down right on top of Ricardo's slender-bodied Raptor mech.

Swift as he was, he just didn't quite outrun the sheer reach of the thing. The barbs slammed right down through the head section, and the tremendous force pulverised the mech into the blasted earth.

There was no scream.

Just static.

"RABBIT!" Kim's anguished scream tore across the comm link, wrenching at Ryke's lungs. He stared in horror at the ruined Raptor mech for a moment, every bone in his body wanting to leap back into the fight.

But it simply wasn't a fight they could win. The Scraegan Alpha tipped the odds all by itself, never mind the other reinforcements closing in on them any minute.

"Pissing Rivers," Ryke hissed under his breath, before raising his voice, unable to keep the boil of anger out of it. "All Hunter-Killers, pull back. I say again, pull back. Haunter, front of the queue. Find us a path out of here."

"I... yes, sir." She sounded too shell-shocked to argue, the abrupt loss of her fellow scout gutting her emotions for now.

"Valley, get your people in line, right now!"

"C-copy, Lockjaw. Withdrawing now."

Slowly the HUD began to reflect his orders. The Hunter-Killers dragged themselves back from the battle line, where the Scraegan Alpha just stood like some ancient sentinel, its huge head moving back and forth as it surveyed the seen. Barked commands echoed across the plateau.

For a moment he could have sworn it looked straight at him.

"SC-10 – Lockjaw," Brackenshaw's voice cut through everything like a blunt knife. "Your five minutes are up, Ryke. Time to get out of there."

"We can't just leave him there," Fenix gasped.

"No choice," Preese said sharply, sparing Ryke from being the bad guy for once. "Sorry, Riptide, but we gotta go. We go back in and we're all joining him for a long swim in the River."

"Lockjaw – SC-10, we read you," Ryke spat out, slowly walking his Hunter-Killer backwards, forcing the others to move with him. "We're leaving." Through the mech's forward optics he got a very good look as the fragile peace five decades in the making died right in front of him.

Dead Scraegans, dead Hunter-Killers, infantry gunners, scout skiffs, Blackwater guards and even Minister Bressant – all gone. And what had they died for?

Another war.