STARSHIP STORMTROOPERS

by LCM Roth Jalis

Familiar title huh? For all you guys who know what I am talking about and still think that bugs only come to live in movies, think again. They're out there, and they're coming. 

At the far edge of the Emperors Hammer territory, just in the unknown regions a brilliant white star was sending it's heat and light to a half a dozen planets and their moons. This system looked like paradise itself. As there were thousands of systems in the Galaxy almost identical, this one was one-of-a-kind. Each planet and moon capable of sustaining live, no harsh environments, no gas giants.
Nowhere else you can find so many inhabitable planets so close together.
The probe that discovered this system 4 month ago did a sweep of each planet and moon. Even though it was not equipped with a landing system for a surface investigation, it's sensors showed in a fly-by that all planets were not yet populated.
* * * * * * * * * *


The emptiness of this system was suddenly filled up by the arrival of an Imperial colony cruiser. Flanked by a squadron of tie-fighters it set course to the planet which was chosen to be the first one to be colonised.
Two giant engines were the main propulsion of this huge ship.
With its cylindrical shape it measured almost 1200 metres in length and another 500 in diameter. Even for imperial standards it was an impressive sight. On board this cruiser were almost forty thousand colonists. An extra six thousand crewmembers and seven hundred troopers, providing security, were stationed on the cruiser. From the bottom of the ship where its many hangers were located the first shuttles were departing, bringing troopers and war material to the surface as it was standard Imperial procedure to first investigate new planets. 

Hundreds of Imperial troopers and vehicles had been brought to the surface. In separate operating squadrons, the area, where the colony was to be build, was searched. Equipped with surface scanners large areas were quickly checked by speederbikes, followed by infantry and small ARV's (armed recon vehicle). The operation was well over five hours underway, when… 
-"LCM , cave right ahead".
-"OK, we're going in. Unit four, take lead".
The cave was well over three metres wide, and it took the troopers fifteen minutes to get to the other end. It was a large underground lake. Sensors showed nothing spectacular, the area was hundred-and-fifty metres wide and thirty metres high. Other caves could be seen, above and beneath water level. It was clear that this was only part of a large underground system of caves that had been formed by water over millions of years. 
-"There is nothing out here for us to investigate at the moment. Squadron, head back. LT, I want a movement detector placed here at the entrance of our cave." 
-"Yes, Sir. Sergeant Miles, you're with me, rest of unit 3, go with the squad."
As the rest of the squadron moved out of sight, the two trooper began installing the detector, an easy but very effective piece of scanning equipment.
-"Sir? This place gives me the creeps, it almost feels like we're being watched."
-"Sure, just like that big flying bug you saw three hours ago, huh? Perhaps I should recommend you for the lunatic-squadron, hehe".
-"But I really did see it!"
-"O.K. we're done, the detector has been placed. Let's see if we can find any of those ghosts of you."
"setting sensor range on two hundred metres. Damn, piece of junk. Look at this, movement readings are of the scale. Quality sure isn't priority anymore these days. I'll try switching it off and on again, that always works. … There, they're gone. Must have been an adjusting problem. Let's head back."
* * * * * * * * * *


-"Yheeaaa." "Pushing her to the limits."
-"He, hot shot. Get back in formation, NOW!"
-"Oh come on LT, we don't fly in a Tie Interceptor everyday. This is much better than those boring Bombers."
-"Follow my command or else I'll make sure you'll be flying garbage freighters for the rest of your life."
-"Yesúrioo LT, following your orders." 
Four Tie Interceptors were flying in a maze of canyons. This was part of the training area on Irii 4. A squadron of Tie Bomber pilots was send here for an refreshment course, part of the course was to fly in close formation through the canyons. All flight groups had already passed in their bombers, now they would have to show their skills in the faster interceptors.
-"Form up into close formation, space is running out here real fast."
In perfect flight the four ships flew through the fist part of the canyon. 
-"Ok, that looked real good, now we're going for the real stuff, the tunnels. We're going in one at a time, Jenkins, you go in last."
-What? Why me, why not Cardolis, he can't keep up anyway."
-Don't question my order Jenkins , you know how I think about hot shots like you."
The ships were now entering the tunnels which were man-made only thirty years ago to serve as the perfect training ground for imperial pilots.
As the ships flew further into the tunnels the LT and ship number two were taking some distance from Cardolis and Jenkins.
-"Come on Cardolis, your losing them, step on it."
-"He, don't push me will ya, I need more room to go faster."
-"You need to lose some more weight to go faster, now step on it!"
-"I keep telling you, there is not enough room, and besides we are used to fly Bombers and they don't go this fast."
-"Not enough room huh, if we ever want to fly in some real ships we'll have to show how good we are. Get out of the way, I'll show you some real flying."
Jenkins maneuvered his ship directly above Cardolis', the only place in the tunnel with just enough room for two ships.
-'What are you doing Jenkins? Are you crazy, you'll get us both killed."
-"Just keep her steady, I'm almost through."
Still flying with just a few inches of space between the two ships, Cardolis' ship came closer and closer to the wall.
-"Ok, I'm in front of you now, see that it worked."
-"Jenkins, when we get baaaaaack…..aaaaa….
Cardolis' ship hit a rock causing it to bounce up into the ceiling and explode with an enormous fireball. 
Jenkins was almost caught up by the fireball but made it just in time.., just in time to be expelled by his commander for endangering his fellow pilot with death as a result.
Normally pilots like him would be kicked out of the navy or put in jail, but someone had decided otherwise. They would probably not place him on a garbage freighter, but it wouldn't be much better. 
* * * * * * * * * *


-One week later-
The green light had been given and the building of the colony was in full progress. Every day thousands of new arrivals had set foot on their new home and many more would follow in the next few days in a continuous stream of shuttles.
-"This is shuttle D-21 to ground control, requesting landing permission of special delivery."
-"This is ground control, landing coordinates will be sent to you. Keep your current flightpath." 
Inside the shuttle two operators were sitting next to a large box containing special scanning equipment.
-"How did we ever get ourselves into this mess? Scanning dead rocks isn't really my idea of making a living you know! 
-"He, don't look at me Tamat, you're the Jedi. If you hadn't snooped around in the commanders head…"
-"I only did it because you wanted to know what kind of secrets he was holding."
-"yeah, but I never thought you'd really do it. If you had finished your training you would have known he was a Jedi Knight.
-"Yeah, yeah, skip it, o.k.? Besides, maybe one day we are actually going to enjoy this work."
The shuttle had landed in the middle of were the colony was being build. All around construction drones were doing their daily task, building as many houses in as short as possible time. One building had already been completed, Military Headquarters. The two men had left the shuttle and were walking with the scanning equipment towards the entrance.
-"This planet is cold" the Jedi noticed.
-"Cold? You must be sick, it's at least 20 decrees."
-"No, I don't mean that, it is something else, something…different."
-"Oh-oh, I hate it when you do that, it has got us in a lot of trouble in the past!"
-"But also out of a lot of trouble, my little brother."
The doors had opened and the two brothers were now accompanied by two troopers. It is generally known that troopers have little respect for other species, but work crews don't do much better in their opinion. With stormtroopers it is not so obvious because of their closed helmets. But the troopers located on this planet were no elite and carried therefore black uniforms with open helmets. The looks on their faces needed no jedi to reveal their contemt.
Even though this building had been finished in only 6 days, it was quite large. Several corridors leading to numerous rooms containing computers, weapons, barracks, command posts and lots more.
The scanner-operators were led to the room of the 'Tactical Officer - Defensive Parameter'. The door was open so the trooper in lead entered the room without notification. Indicating the two operators to stand in the middle the troopers took standard positions at both sides of the room.
The Jedi could sense that the TO was not a man for a nice chat, he was the 'straight-on' type, hard but fair. This would become obvious very quickly.
-"I am commander Banks, and in charge of security. Around the entire building site I have placed movement detectors as is standard procedure, you know that. Above ground they do their jobs perfectly, but we don't receive readings from underground. Normally that would be good, because it indicates there is no movement, but the detectors are being jammed. Without information I can't do my job, so it will be your task to find out what it is that causes it. Take this datapad, it gives you all the information you will need. Dismissed!"
* * * * * * * * * *


-Two days later-
High above the planet surface the colony cruiser was stationed in low orbit. There was a constant flow of shuttles and other support craft coming from and departing to the colony. The huge ship was almost empty now. With the exception of the hangers, activity had come to an absolute minimum.
Half of the crew was temporary assigned to duties in the colony. Because it was now night shift also the bridge was only half-manned. The deputy in charge, commander Ch'all, was sitting in the captains' chair in the center of the bridge. Because the scanning equipment on the surface was not working properly, the more powerful and sophisticated scanners of the ship were used. The first results were now coming in. One of the bridge crew had been given the task to process the data collected.
-"Sir, we are receiving data but it goes no deeper than two metres into the ground?" 
-"Hmm, that should not be possible, the samples we took earlier could be scanned without any problem. Try to boost the signal."
-"Yes sir, setting power to 100%."
-"Any progress?"
-"Not yet sir, the area it too large to scan effectively."
-"I will shut down all non-essential areas and redirect the energy to the scanners. Focus on an area only surrounding the colony."
-"Scanning now with 128% efficiency, I think we're getting something here sir, 5 metres deep, 10 metres deep, 17 metres deep, 23 metres de…what the hell? …What is that?"
The crewmember did not get a reply, the commander had seen the same thing on his monitor and had moved to the communications display.
-"Captain Nabar, sorry for wakening you up but there is something you should see."
The commander pushed some buttons on the panel. Now the captain could see the same data coming from the scanners. 
-"Commander, go to yellow alert and inform ground control. I'm coming to the bridge."
* * * * * * * * * *



At a distance of almost nine hundred metres away from the colony an ARV stopped at the entrance of a tunnel. The same tunnel troopers had entered the first day of their arrival on this new planet.
The Jedi and his brother stepped out of the vehicle pushing the repulsor bed with the scanning equipment. 
-"Why do we have to walk al the way to the other end, the ARV is small enough to fit in this tunnel?"
The trooper who was behind the controls did not even respond, he probably did not want to risk his vehicle to get stuck somewhere within the tunnel.
-"Ok, we'll walk. But at least wait until we get back before you return to the colony."
-"Don't worry little brother, some walking will do you good." Tamat said.
With the scanning equipment the two brothers walked into the tunnel, at the other end they would have to check the movement detector which had been installed there earlier. After some time they were halfway there. 
-"Uh, did you take the datapad with you?"
-"Me? I thought you had it?"
-"Oh man, without it we can't see what is wrong with the detector. Who of us is going back for it?" 
-"I'll get it." Tamat said. "But you have to push the repulsor bed when we are finished here."
He was almost back at the ARV when everything changed. The Jedi felt it immediately, had he sensed some mental barrier since his arrival, it had now disappeared. Whatever caused it had decided it to be no longer necessary. Had this planet felt before like one big dead rock, it was now one big living thing. Everywhere he could sense beings, especially beneath the ground. And they were moving towards….
-"Oh no, the colony."
The hatch at the back of the ARV was still open and he stepped inside. The trooper had seen him come out of the tunnel and had turned around in his seat. 
-"Back already , forgot something I guess?"
-"Sorry no time for a chat, make contact with headquarters."
-"Say, who are you to order me?…ok"
Using his little Jedi powers he made the trooper make contact. He did not use this mind trick very often because he was not to well trained at it but now he had no time to lose.
-"I can't contact them, the base has gone to yellow alert and then all non-essential communication is denied."
-"Then we'll have to go there ourselves. But first we are going to pick up my brother."
-"When you think I'm driving into that tunnel, you're wrong mister."
This time the mind trick would take to much energy to hold on for so long, there was only one other option. From beneath his cloth the jedi took his lightsaber and pushed the button to ignite the saber.
-"I think you'll be able to get out on your own, or do I have to make you?!"
The trooper had probably never before left the vehicle that fast.
Driving the ARV into the tunnel he could sense his brothers' mind to be be full of fear, horror and pain. He pushed the vehicle to its limits, bumping into the wall several times. All he could hope for was being not to late.

Above the planet near the Colony cruiser a modified corvette came out of hyperspace. 
-"This is corvette Gemini to colony cruiser, I have three Tie Bombers which have been transferred to you. Please confirm."
-"This is colony cruiser to Gemini, we have a bit of a situation here, tell the pilots to exit your hanger but let them take positions in space until further notice."
The Tie Bombers left the hanger and took positions in space between the corvette and the cruiser.
-"Well, isn't that a nice ship to spend the rest of you lives aboard?" One of the pilots said with lot of contempt in his words.
-"Yeah, exactly where they drop pilots like us. What is your name pilot?"
-"Jesja 'The Maniac' Wisan. What's up?"
-"Mine is Dan T'ran. How did you get yourself to this forgotten place? "
-"Some time ago we had to bomb a specific building on some distant planet. I was feeling so great that I just bombed the entire village, you should have seen it burn." 
-"Wow, you're wacko. How about you?" Dan asked the other pilot.
-"Nothing much really, they say I made another pilot crash his ship." Jenkins said.
-"At least you guys were flying your ships, I am send here because I had a little fight with my commander." Dan said in a way as if it was no big deal.
-"They send you here for a fight?"
-"Yeah, probably because he lost and for me having him blown up with a detonator." 
-"For as far as I can tell you are both wacko, big time." Jenkins murmured.

Still driving the ARV as fast as possible through the tunnel, Tamat could not sense his brother anymore. This meant that either he was out of his reach or he was dead. He had now reached the other end of the tunnel and parked the vehicle in the opening where he had a clear sight of the cave without exposing himself too much. But to his surprise the cave was completely empty, no sign from any enemy or from his brother. Using his Jedi powers to scan the cave did not reveal anything as well, if they were blocking his mind again to lure him in a trap, he would have felt.
He saw something lying near the lake. Leaving the ARV at the entrance of the tunnel he walked towards the water. There he found the repulsor bed. Or rather what was left of it, it was completely torn to pieces. In the water he saw some parts of the scanning equipment. If the same had happened to…?
No it could not, there was no blood anywhere. Whoever or whatever was here, it was gone now and it had taken the body with him.
-"I don't know who you are or where you are, but one thing is for sure. When I get you…...you will die!!"
The Jedi could feel his anger grow inside him.
-"No…, not again, I will not give in to it again!" he shouted as he was angry for letting himself go like that. Taking some deep breaths he could feel his anger steadily flow away, he needed to clear his feelings to be able to decide what to do next. Staying here in the caves and search for some sign from his brother without any resources or backup for when the enemy would decide to return. Or return to the colony, leaving his brother behind, to warn them from the approaching danger.
In both options the risk of getting killed was great.
For the second time in his life he faced the choice of making a decision between two bad options.
* * * * * * * * * *


Imperial headquarters was loaded with activity, everywhere troopers, officers, ground crew and administrators were running around and occasionally bumping in on each other. It was no longer a yellow alert situation anymore, command had desided to go to red alert. By the time the cruisers' scanners had penetrated the ground the scanners around the colony suddenly were also able to get readings. What they were scanning was important enough to go to red alert.
In the office of the colony commander, General Maldon, officers were discussing the matter when commander Banks came in. He did not participate in the discussion but instead walked directly to Maldon. 
-"Sir, defenses are as ready as they will ever be. Just in time, but will it be enough to hold the attack?"
-"You have done what you could, commander. Now we will need everyone's full effort to help in defending the colonists."
One of the officers overheard the conversation between General Maldon and commander Banks.
-"Sir, are we sure that they are going to attack us? Can't it just be some indigenous species living underground which we somehow missed?"
Tactics were what Banks was good at in the field, but not when it came to conversation. He had to resist in bursting out at the officer in the presence of the general.
-"Of course we are sure! Why else do you think they come from seventeen different directions and all come together within the colony premises?!"
The officer quickly took some steps back, as he didn't want to wait for Banks really getting pissed off.
-"Commander, how much time do we still have?" the general asked.
-"Time sir? Time is the one thing we do not longer have. If you will excuse me now, I have to get back to my men."
The general and the commander gave each other a final salute after which Banks left the office. Maldon turned around to face the window. While he did not admit it openly the general knew the situation was desperate. Some 700 troopers, not even elite, had to protect almost forty thousand unarmed and untrained colonists from an unknown enemy. With time running out and no way getting the colonists of the planet, the situation seamed indeed desperate.
* * * * * * * * * *


From the bottom of the cruisers, fighters and bombers were leaving the hangers. The bombers would have to prove their great strategic importance in the defense of the colony. Commander Banks had a special assignment setup in the defense for them. The launch wasn't going unnoticed. Between the cruiser and the corvette were still the three bombers.
-"Look, they're launching fighters. Don't know what they're up to but it's big. Looks like they are in an attack formation."
-"If it's an attack, why don't they call us in then? What do you think Jenkins? Shall we go after them?"
-"I think I'll just stay out of this, it's not my concern. At least not until they order me."
-"Ok then, we'll wait." Jesja said. "But at the first sign of trouble I'm going in, orders or not!"

The shaking of the ground slowly intensified, whatever it was that had approached the colony from underground was now getting to the surface. It would only take a few more minutes. 
-"Ok, get ready everyone, they're almost through." Banks shouted at his troopers. 
They had taken strategic positions on every building surrounding the calculated sites of the attack. Banks was personally commanding a squadron at one of those sites.
-"Whoever these species are, let them know you can't mess with the Empire. Concentrate all fire on the drilling machine, if we can get it disabled quickly enough it will block their exit."

-"This is Flight Leader Alpha to all pilots, stay in formation until you get the signal to go to your specific targets."
The flight groups of Tie-fighters and Tie-bombers descended in close formation. They were about to enter the dense clouds which had formed above the surface.
-"This is Four. Sir, I'm getting some unknown readings, can't get a good lock on it to determine what it is. The clouds seem to be blocking the readings."
-"This is One. Seems to be just ionisation inside or just below the clouds, nothing to worry about. Stay in close formation."
All fighters entered the clouds, visibility was zero so the pilots used their limited sensors and flying skills to determine their position with the others.
As they descended further, visibility was slowly coming back as they were almost through the clouds. The white and gray of the clouds made way for white and blue colors.
Alpha leader was the first to get through, what he saw there terrified him.
-"Evasive maneuvers!" 
But it was too late. The ship exploded together with the rest of Alpha group. Large amounts of plasma were coming from the surface, destroying ship after ship as they came out of the clouds. The lucky few who made it through in one piece, found themselves without a leader and under constant enemy fire. In the next few minutes they also followed the same fate that had struck Alpha flight group.

The shaking of the ground intensified as the enemy was about to surface. Most of the troopers were closely monitoring the ground for any sign of trouble. Only a few saw what happened in the distant. Hundreds of white with blue plasma beams shot into the sky.
-"Look sir, there in the distant" the comm officer said to Commander Banks "what is it?"
-"I don't know, but as long as it stays there, it is not our concern." "Make contact with the flight leader and tell him to get ready for the assault."
-"Yes sir." 
Banks turned around to face the open spot where it would all begin. Even though he had prepared himself for a situation like this for many years, what happened next came as a complete surprise to him.
The ground started to collapse and with a giant eruption the same ground burst into the air releasing large amounts of dust and rocks. Seconds later visibility was reduced to zero.
Banks suddenly realised that his plan had partially failed, his plan to block the exit by disabling the drilling machine could only succeed if they knew where to fire at. He had to decide in a split second. 
-"Fire!! Shoot at everything that moves!!" Banks shouted.
As the troopers followed his order instantaneous, dozens of laserbolts disappeared in the dustcloud, undoubtedly giving the enemy a hard time. The lasers were accompanied by several proton grenades, each sending more dust into the air but more important causing death and destruction among the poor souls which were trapped inside their own tunnel.
As the minutes passed, dust from all seventeen sites slowly engulfed the entire colony.
-"Hold your fire!!" Banks shouted at his squadron. He could barely make himself heard above the noise of the weapons fire. "Hold your fire!!" he shouted again. "Comm officer, where the hell are you?
-"Right here sir. We have a major problem sir"
-"Yeah well who hasn't. Tell the other squadrons to hold fire, we need to get rid of the dust to give the fighters a clear shot."
-"Well, sir…" the trooper barely dared to look Banks directly into his eyes, there were stories going around about a person literally turning into a soulless body, just by looking him into his eyes "…the problem is that there are no fighters, sir".
-"What? That can't be! Just keep trying they have to be somewhere!" Banks mind was now working at top speed. Tactics, questions, answers, failures were all spinning though his mind. Separate they were good enough for a giant headache, now they seamed to bother him all at the same time. 
In the following seconds all around the colony the sound of weapons fire slowly decreased as the order to hold fire reached all other squadrons. Slowly also the dustclouds disappeared, and the damage that the proton grenades had inflicted to the enemy forces became clear.
The entrance of the tunnel, almost ten meter in diameter, had turned into a black colored moon landscape. The grenades had done their job, there was no sign of the enemy. There was no sign of the enemy at all, no wreckages, no bodies, nothing.
-"I need a volunteer, you there, take a look." Commander Banks looked at the unfortunate trooper who had the pleasure of leading the cleanup.
-"Me sir?"
-"Yes you, if you can spare me a few minutes of your precious time?" 
Sarcasm was obviously one of the few things that Banks enjoyed in his life.
-"I'll have something to motivate you though, what's your name trooper."
-"Sergeant Miles, 1st battalion, 2nd squadron, unit 3, sir."
-"From now on you'll be addressed as lieutenant. Now go!"
-"Yes sir, thank you sir." Miles quickly made his way to the crater, happy about his promotion but most unhappy about his first assignment.
* * * * * * * * * *


Step by step, Miles cautiously approached the edge of the crater, trying to make as few sounds as possible. He only hoped no one could hear his heart bouncing in his chest. He reached the entrance safely and made his way in, out of sight of his fellow troopers.
Just as the trooper got out of his sight commander Banks was contacted by the general.
-"How does the situation look like commander?"
-"Not very good general, we have not yet seen the enemy, my troopers are conducting a recon at this very moment. Our best hope is that we have scared them off."
-"No commander, there is more to it. I've just had contact with the cruiser, they have lost contact with the fighter squadrons."
-"Yes I know" Banks replied "we saw some strange lights coming from the ground, could that have something to do with it?" 
-"At this moment everything is possible commander. Stay vigilant, I just know this is not over yet."
-"You could be right general, something is happening, I can hear laserfire. Banks out!"
Banks turned around to the entrance of the tunnel, he was just in time so see lieutenant Miller crawl out, he was not carrying his weapon anymore.
-"Monsters!! Monsters!! Run for your live." Without looking back or responding to commander Banks' order to stop, Miller ran away from the tunnel as fast as he could. He had a very good reason.
With a deafening roar an monstrous creature came out of the tunnel. Not just a creature, but a 9 metre tall creature. Every step crushed whatever was in its path. A massive head, covered by thick plates of natural armor, giant claws leaving deep marks in the ground and a body larger than the surrounding buildings. Between it's legs hundreds of spider like creatures crawled out of the tunnel, spreading quickly all over the place. While much smaller than the first one, they also were about two metres in height.
-"Fire men!! Fire all you got!!"
Some troopers took Millers' advice and ran, few leaving their weapon as if they thought that would keep them from being attacked. Most troopers though stayed at their position and opened fire. The picture was the same all over the colony, massive 'tankbugs' leaving the tunnels accompanied by hundreds of 'spiderbugs'. 
-"Commander, we're being overrun" the communications officer said as he got reports from all squadrons. 
-"Tell them to hold their positions until the fighters arrive."
-"But sir, we don't know where the fighters…."
-"Do it!! Now!" Banks interrupted "If we can't stop them here, we won't be able to stop them anywhere."
The tankbug was shot at from all sides, but it did not seem to bother him much. With heavy movement it slowly continued it's way in the colony. Causing buildings to collapse as it bumped into them. Some unfortunate troopers which had positions on those buildings were thrown on the ground and quickly overwhelmed by the spiderbugs.
Within minutes the colony had turned into a battlefield, fire had broken out on a dozen locations, proton grenades and rockets shot through the air, hundreds of men and woman were fighting for their own lives as well as for the lives of the colonists. But the troopers had to fight a battle they can't win, hundreds of bugs had already died and their bodies were piling up in the streets, but the flow from the tunnels seamed unending.
Commander Banks was approached by lieutenant Kator, commander of the squadron that Banks was leading. 
-"Sir we're losing too many troopers, we can't hold them for much longer."
-"Yes I know, but before we can make an orderly retreat we need to take out those big ones."
-"We have tried sir, but our weapons don't do much good and it has some sort of armor our proton grenades can't penetrate."
-"It must have a weak spot, how about it's underside?"
-"That is a possibility but we can't hit it from up here, someone has go down there with a detonator." Kator said.
Commander Banks seamed to think about that for second.
-"Lieutenant Kator. I need a volunteer. Pick one of your men."
-"I'll do it" a third voice said.
Banks and Kator turned around to face the person who had volunteered on this suicide mission. 
To their surprise they faced the man that had deserted them just before, lieutenant Miller.
-"Sorry for my actions before, commander. I lost it there for a while."
-"Never mind lieutenant, I'm already glad that I don't have to fill in your demotion form."
-"Thank you sir, I won't fail you."
Lieutenant Kator gave Miller a Thermal Detonator.
-"Be careful with it lieutenant, it is more powerful than a proton grenade, but also more unstable. You can set it to a smaller range, but than the power is less effective, however you might be able to get out of there in one piece."
Miller gave a final salute and was on its way. The distance was about fifty metre between Miller and the tankbug which was going in opposite direction. This short run would be the greatest challenge in his live. The other troopers of the squadron gave him cover fire, cleaning the street before him. Several times he had to jump aside as a bug almost got him, but he managed to evade them long enough to reach the tankbug. He positioned himself between the front legs of the huge creature. The spiderbugs that had scattered all over the place finally knew what he was doing, and were now closing in on him rapidly in great numbers. Miller took a quick look around to find a place where he could run after he had placed the detonator. But from all sides the bugs were coming, even is he survived the blast he would have no place to run. He had no option, switched the setting to full and waited a few more seconds.
With an enormous white flash the detonator exploded. In its blast taking the live of lieutenant Miller. He had paid the ultimate price, but was successful. The tankbug had literally been torn apart by the blast together with dozens of spiderbugs that were too close.

On the bridge of the colony cruiser operators were still trying to get contact with the missing fighter squadrons. 
-"Anything yet?"
-"No captain Nabar, static background noise is all we receive. I think we've lost them sir."
-"Just keep trying, how about those other fighters, have they reported in already?"
-"They have not responded to our calls and we've lost track of them the moment they entered the clouds."
-"Great, just great." Nabar murmured while he made his way to the communications officer.
-"Make contact with High Command, get me admiral Nightflyer." 

-"Watch it guys, this is where we lost track of the other ships." Dan said.
-"Well, they have to come up with something good if they want to surprise me!" Wisan answered.
The three bomber got out of the clouds simultaneous and immediately faced the plasma beams that had destroyed the other fighters before. Only by reacting on reflexes the pilots were able to evade the plasma.
-"Wow. Big surprise!!"
The three bombers managed to get through the first wave of plasma in one piece.
-"At least now we know what happened to the other fighters, I guess they weren't so lucky."
-"Look alive, it isn't over yet, the next wave is coming!" Jenkins said.
-"No problem this time, Jenkins. We can outmaneuver them easily."
-"Yeah, they had the surprise, but we have the payback. Let's kick some ass!"
The bombers descended rapidly now, the plasma went by without even coming close to the ships. As they got in visual range the pilots saw wat had been shooting at them. Large creatures with the body of an ant used their rear body as the barrel of a cannon. Inside their body they created enough plasma for a blast every minute.
-"What are those?"
-"Never mind, now it's our turn, selecting proton missile, locking on target, target locked, fire!"

-"Captain Nabar, your call with the admiral is through." the communications officer said.
-"I'll take it in my office."
Nabar entered the captains quarters, on the wall display screen the image of admiral Nighthawk had already appeared.
-"Captain Nabar it is good to see you again." the admiral said.
-"It is good to see you too admiral, too bad the circumstances are not so good. I contact you because we have a problem here. The colony has come under attack by an unknown enemy."
-"How do you mean, are other species claiming the system?"
-"Not entirely, the planet is not uninhabited as Intel thought, at this very moment my troopers are fighting against uneven odds, they are greatly outnumbered."
-"Have you already made contact with the sector commander?"
-"Yes a few hours ago when we got first enemy readings, but they have not responded to our call yet."
-"Damn bureaucrats. What do you want me to do?"
-"We need heavy reinforcements immediate to push back the bugs."
-"Did you say bugs?"
-"Yes admiral, bugs!"
Suddenly the light in the captains quarters turned from bright white into red, as the emergency lights were activated.
-"Captain to the bridge, captain to the bridge." the speaker system sounded. 
Seconds later Nabar was back at the seat on the bridge.
-"What is it?"
-" Multiple objects coming from the planet surface, it seems to be plasma sir, and it's heading our way."
-"Get us out of here, high orbit, now!!"
The giant engines of the cruiser were at full throttle, maneuvering the ship slowly into an higher orbit. The first beams of plasma barely missed the cruiser. Corvette Gemini, more maneuverable and faster than the cruiser, managed to evade the plasma and reached a high orbit safely, but the cruiser was still in the danger zone.
How hard the cruiser tried to evade the plasma, it got closer every time. It had almost reached the safety of an high orbit when one of the plasma beams hit the ship. The engine section had been hit hard as the plasma continued it's destructive work inside the ship. After a flicker one of the two engines failed sending the cruiser in an uncontrolled spin. 
The cruiser slowly lost altitude sending it towards the planet.
Admiral Nighthawk had been able to see what happened as his display-connection had been transferred to the bridge, but his image got scrambled as the commsystem went offline.

The proton missile hit the plasmabug, leaving not much left of it. The effect of the plasma explosion was better than could bargained for. The explosion spread to other plasmabugs creating a chain reaction that destroyed several of the large creatures. The remaining bugs quickly made their way underground.
-"Let's get to the colony, they might need our help." Jenkins said while sending his ship in a new direction.
Only a few hundred metres away they knew they were too late, everywhere explosions could be seen as well as fire and huge tankbugs making their way through barricades and buildings.
Outside the colony an armed recon vehicle was making its way back to the colony. It was attacked by several flying bugs.
In a barrage of laser fire the bombers took out most of the bugs, making it possible for the ARV to reach the colony safely.

-"Watch out!" a trooper shouted at another that was about to be caught up by a bug.
As the trooper turned around to see what threatened him he was stabbed several times before others could take out the bug. 
-"More coming from the left!" 
Several troopers had made a barricade of a damaged tank to hold off the advancing bugs. 
The battle had now moved inside the buildings and self-made barricades. Waves of flying bugs had driven the troopers from the higher locations.
Commander Banks and his squadron had given themselves the job to take out the tankbugs. They had been successful several times already. Each time they had to fight their way though mass attacks and ambushes but managed to survive by the lead of Banks. The squadron had taken positions in front of an approaching tankbug. Unlike the first time they now used a booby trap which contained a thermal detonator while using a remote controller to detonate it the moment the bug was close enough. It had worked three times already. But the bugs seamed to learn from their mistakes. One of the spiderbugs picked up the camouflaged detonator and made its way to the troopers.
-"Detonate, detonate!" Banks shouted.
The explosion pulverised the bug as well as part of the hideout of the squadron revealing their presence. The tankbug stayed unharmed by the explosion but did increase it's speed. Within moments it had destroyed the remainder of the hideout. The troopers had already made a run for it. Vulnerable to attacks the squadron spit up into several directions. Some troopers were unfortunate to take a wrong turn, sending them into a horde of spiderbugs. Others were grabbed by flying bugs and released high above the ground. Commander Banks and Lieutenant Kator were chased by a large group of bugs. They used their last grenades to keep a small distance, but in an unfortunate decision they entered an ally with a dead end. With their backs against the wall they fired continuous. The bodies of the dead bugs piled up but there was no stopping them, there simply were to many. Kator took the last grenade out of his pocket.
-"Going out with a bang, commander?"
-"Just wait a few more seconds, let's take out as many as possible with us."
The two men waited for the bugs to get close enough before releasing the grenade.
Suddenly the wall exploded in front off them as an ARV crashed though it, splashing a bug against the other wall. The cannon on top of it made short work of the other bugs. A small hatch at the side of the ARV opened.
-"Come on, we haven't all day!!"
Without second thought Banks and Kator got in.
-"Oh uh, one other thing. Please switch that off?"
-"What do you mean? …Oh, this"
In his hand Kator still hold the armed grenade.
-"How did you know where we were?" Banks asked.
-"Let's just call it intuition, shall we?"
-"Wait a second, I know you. You are one of the two men that had to check the scanning equipment."
-"Yes that was me, together with my brother." 
-"Well, you got them working just in time for us to get some defenses up. Or else we would have completely been taken by surprise."
-"It wasn't our doing actually, we even had to call in assistance from the cruiser because we couldn't find any problem that caused the malfunction."
-"Sorry to interrupt, but should we not be on our way to headquarters?" Kator said.
-"Yes you're right. Take us there… uh what's your name?"
-"Tamat Lacai."
-"Good, take us to headquarters Tamat Lacai." Commander Banks said while positioning him at the co-pilot seat.
* * * * * * * * * *

Thus far the battle had mainly been between the troopers and the bugs, but the troopers had been driven back to a defensive circle around the center of the colony. Outside this last stronghold the bugs had no opposition other than some colonists that desperately tried to hold them with nothing more than small handguns or less. Many of the colonists were families trying to make a fresh start on a safe planet where they could live in peace under the protection of the Emperor Hammer forces. They never anticipated to have to protect themselves. While these forces were doing their utmost to protect them, more and more colonists were falling prey to the overwhelming numbers of bugs although most of the colonists had been able to keep their hiding by pretending their houses to be empty. 
General Maldon had brought his wife Carol and seven year old daughter along on this mission. In previous missions he had left them at home on Aurora Prime. He wished he had done so this time. Despite the fact that he preferred to see them safe he felt a moment of excitement the moment they entered his office. His daughter quickly ran to him spreading her arms around his neck as he had kneeled to her.
-"You should take the last shuttle while you still can." he told his wife.
-"No, we will not go without you."
-"You know I can't leave my men, but that does not mean you have to sacrifice yourself and our daughter as well?"
That moment Captain Ficar entered the office. He saluted and waited for permission to speak, but Maldon did not let him. He took the opportunity himself.
-"Bring my wife and daughter to the last shuttle, make sure they board it and that it reaches the cruiser safely."
-"Sir, … that is the reason I come to you general" Ficar said. He hesitated a few seconds before he continued. "The cruiser is no longer."
-"What? How do you mean? Has it left the system?"
-"No sir, look there." Ficar said while pointing his finger at the window.
In the distance high above the planet surface General Maldon could see the cruiser. It was burning like a torch as it had entered the planets' atmosphere in an angle too steep.
He had to think of all the people on board it and the colonists that had been 'lucky' enough to get on a shuttle to the cruiser. Now the chance for an escape had completely vanished.
-"Any survivors?"
-"The cruiser was designed with escape pods, but we have no idea how many were launched."
General Maldon turned around to face his wife.
-"Take this shuttle. How many more lives have to be spilled?"
This time she agreed.
-"Reinforcement should arrive within a few hours, we should be able to hold out as long as that." Maldon said, but as well he himself as Carol knew he was mistaken. Only their daughter did not seem to understand why they had to leave without him.
-"Come I'll accompany you to the shuttle."

The corridors of the head quarters were almost empty. Most troopers were helping in the defenses, while all non essential personnel had been ordered to their hiding places.
The few that remained in the building were busy with the coordination of the the defenses.
Captain Ficar walked in front of Maldon and Carol with their daughter. They had just left the elevator that took them from the third floor to the entrance hall at ground level as the floor beneath them suddenly collapsed. Ficar and Maldon both lost their balance and fell in. As the dust settled back to the ground and the two men got back on their feet they found themselves almost four metres beneath ground level. The entire floor of the hall had collapsed.
-"General, are you ok?"
-"Yes, thank you, but I am not sure it matters a lot. Look." 
About twenty metres on the other side of the collapsed hallway a small tunnel was visible. With a diameter of three metres it was significant smaller than the tunnels outside. From the darkness inside it suddenly several spiderbugs appeared.
Ficar immediately draw his blaster rifle from his holster.
-"Get behind me General!"
With one well aimed shot he took out the closest bug. The second followed two shots later.
The same result on the third and fourth bug.
-"Try to climb the wall!! I don't know how much longer I can hold them!"
-"I'm trying but I can't find any place to hold on to."
More bugs appeared from the tunnel, this time they split up into groups to attack from different angles.
Even though Ficar shot bug after bug they kept coming. The distance had been reduced to only a few metres. Maldon lost his grip again making him fall and land near Ficar's feet.
The bugs took this opportunity as Ficar got distracted for a moment. As he aimed at an approaching bug another one came in so fast Ficar could not react quickly enough. The bug cut of his arm. 
In heavy pain Ficar crumbled to the ground. Maldon not trying to climb out anymore kneeled next to him but was knocked out of the way by a buy. That same bug finished the job.

-"Watch you six, Jenkins!!"
-"Yes I see them. Don't worry, I have a plan."
-"Who's worried?" Dan replied.
Jenkins' tie-bomber was chased by a group of flying bugs, he let them approach to a distance of five metre. 
-"Don't let them come too close, you remember what the other one did to your ship?"
In a previous attack one of the bugs released some sort of acid on the ship. The outer hull and solar panels were slowly corroding as a result.
Jenkins released a burst of chaff. Seemingly an action only a desperate rookie would do. Chaff is used to evade missiles, not as a weapon. But to the surprise of Dan and Wisan the bugs that entered the cloud of chaff burst into flames. Chaff is highly flammable when it comes in contact with certain acids. From the damage to his ship Jenkins knew what kind of acid the bugs used.
-"Whoohoo, they don't come back from that barbecue!" 
-"See them burn, see them burn!" Wisan said.
-"Wisan, you are definitely wacko." Jenkins replied to the obsession of Wisan to fire and everything that burns.
-"Oke, we've taken out those flying things in this part of the colony, let's see if we can do something about those crawling creatures."
-"Sure, and uh …Wisan… try not to bomb the colony in your enthusiasm!" Jenkins added.

As he looked up, General Maldon did not see Carol and his daughter. They probably taken shelter in the elevator. He felt sorry he could not see them one last time but happy they had not fallen down as he and Ficar had. He looked down at the body of his loyal trooper that had given his live in order to protect his. But now he too would die, he was surrounded by bugs.
-"What are you waiting for?" Maldon asked as if he expected an answer, but the bugs just stood there, none of them attacked.
He heard a new sound, of many small feet tapping on the ground. As he turned around to face the direction it came from he looked directly in the face, or whatever it was, of a big shapeless creature. It looked like a pair of human brains, only than three metre high and three metre wide. The tapping sound came from several small creatures that carried the 'brainbug'.
Maldon automatically took some steps back, but stumbled over the cut-off arm of Ficar that still held the blaster rifle. He saw the rifle and knew this was his only opportunity. But the creature saw what Maldon was thinking of and with a gurgling sound it made one of the bugs destroy it. The brainbug now approached to within one metre. Maldon looked into a dozen black colored eyes which did not reveal the emotion of the bug, if it even had emotions.
-'What do you want from me!?"
But no answer came.
The brainbug suddenly made a wild movement making lost of gurgling sounds. The spiderbugs that just stood there till then climbed up the wall that had been impossible for Maldon to climb before. But they did not reach the edge. New laserfire shot them down before they could reach it. Maldon could not see where it came from but it had to be from somewhere near the entrance of the hallway. 
-"Back off!!" a new voice echoed. 
As Maldon looked up to see where it came from he saw a young man jumping down from the edge, which was four metre higher. To his surprise he did not crash on the ground but seemed to slow down a bit, landing him nice and slow between him and the brainbug.
-"Back off!!" the same voice replied. 
The brainbug did move back a bit but the other bugs attacked the young man. From the edge above the two men commander Banks appeared with a couple of troopers, they took out the bugs before they could get close to Maldon and Tamat Lacai. Now only the brainbug was still there.
Tamat could feel the creature probing his mind, it too must have some connection to the force.
The next moment the two minds touched each other. Images, sounds, knowledge, thoughts, feelings. They all came together in that single touch. When the connection stopped it almost knocked Tamat to the ground but he was able to get his mind clear and maintain his position between the creature and General Maldon.
-"I won't let you, even if I must die!!" Tamat shouted at the brainbug.
-"Let him what?" Maldon asked, not quite sure if he really wanted to know.
-"He wants you, or at least your knowledge of the Empire." 
-"Why would he want that?"
-"Knowledge is power, and power is the key to success." 
-"To attack and defeat the Emperors Hammer." Maldon added as he understood what Tamat meant.
Banks had ordered troopers to get some rope. As he threw it down for Maldon to climb up the brainbug made a new effort to reach him. It's efforts though were futile. A mental barrier by Tamat prevented it to get closer. And for the second time the two minds touched each other, this time Tamat was in control. First he only saw flashes of images and thoughts, but he forced the brainbug to reveal more of it. The battle on the surface became visible, this time through the eyes of the bugs. The place they came from, deep underground with many incubation rooms, storage rooms and a maze of tunnels covering the entire planet. 
The image moved away, away from the underground rooms to go deep inside the planet itself. What he saw there explained the sudden feeling of life when the mental barrier was first removed, just before the attack. The planet core was made of one huge entity, the Motherbug. 
That last image distorted the concentration of Tamat, enough for the brainbug to break free from the mental connection. This time Tamat fell unconscious on the ground. Banks and Maldon, who had reached the edge safely, saw what happened. 
-"Shoot it, don't let it get him." 
But they were wrong in the brainbug's intensions. It did not try to kill or take Tamat with him, instead it made it's way back into the tunnel. The laser fire could not prevent it to escape.
Tamat had not regained his consciousness yet, he was still in a state of shock. That last image consisted of two pictures combined together. One was of the motherbug deep inside the planet itself, and the other one was an image of, … his brother still alive.
* * * * * * * * * *


-Two days later-
Evacuation of the colony was in full progress now the attack of the bugs suddenly had stopped. Large holes in the ground marked the places were the tankbugs had surfaced and disappeared. Transport shuttles game and go, loaded with colonists, wounded men and woman and personnel. 
Stormtroopers had taken over security with the arrival of a sector taskforce. 
Evacuation was proceeding well, within a few hours the last would be taken of the planet.
Above the planet at a save distance, the Star Destroyer Immortal had arrived, carrying admiral Nightflyer.
Tamat Lakai, just released from sickbay made his way to the captains quarters.
As he entered he saw General Maldon, commander Banks and some other persons he did not recognise. Probably some high ranking personnel on the ship.
One of them had the Admiral's insignia on his uniform. That same person stepped forward.
-"I am admiral Nightflyer, and I am most grateful to you for saving so many imperial civilians. Please tell us how you did?"
Tamat, a bit surprised by the request the admiral made and certainly not feeling like the hero they made him think he was, started his side of the story. Even though he thought there was not much to tell they probably didn't already know, they listened with full interest.
-".. and that is all I remember before I got unconscious."
-"Very interesting." the admiral said. "You said something about the brainbug, as you call it, that it made it clear to you this isn't over? What did it mean by that?
-"That we will meet them again." Tamat said.
-"So you think they will attack us somewhere in the future?" the admiral asked.
-"I don't think they will, I know they will. This time we were lucky to beat them on their own ground because they did not know we too have access to the force. It scared them off, but it won't the next time." Tamat answered.
-"Well there won't be a next time, this planet is off limits from now on." 
-"Excuse me admiral, but you do not understand completely. They see us as a threat that has to be eliminated. And they won't stop before they succeed." 
-"Than we'll have to make sure they don't leave this planet." Admiral Nightflyer responded.
-"We're to late for that admiral, they have already spread to other planets. It did not became clear to me the first time but I received more images than I thought. Once and a while they flash through my mind, and at one of them I saw the other planets in this system.
They are all populated by the bugs." 


To be continued……………

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FM/LCM Roth Jalis/Demon 3-3/Wing XI/ISD Immortal
ISMx2/CoB [DRAG] {IWATS}