Unknown Star System
Near Orbit
Z MINUS 6 HOURS, 8 May 2017
Jo-jo ran through the corridors from her quarters to the nearest lift, shrugging on her uniform jacket along the way. The alert from the bridge roused her from a light sleep, and energized her as only impending combat could.
The lift doors parted, Jo-jo barely giving them time to get out of her way in her haste to get to her command chair. "Report," she ordered calmly, fiddling with the display screens at her left and right hand.
"It started a few minutes ago," Ensign Anderson replied. "Multiple explosions classified as anti-personnel mines. Impressive plasma explosions followed that up two minutes later. It's hard to tell with the limited sensor gear crammed into the com sat, but it looks like the full compliment of missiles from the two APCs."
Jo-jo reviewed the latest sensor readings. Horde forces were going crazy while the fighters repeatedly strafed specific sections of forest. She suspected Markson might use the carrier's missiles as a diversion. To kick things off this early he must have detected a considerable threat to his position. Not that almost two full divisions of troops and heavy armor weren't enough of a threat without the corvette and three destroyers hovering close by.
"What are the ships in orbit doing?"
Anderson rechecked his instruments. "They're just sitting there, captain. A few fighters patrolling the area, but otherwise they appear to be waiting for something to attempt escape."
"I'm surprised they left that communications satellite alone," Ace commented.
Jo-jo agreed, "So am I."
"Probably considered it a waste of power taking a shot at it," Ensign Comorov put in.
"No sport?" Ace asked. The young man shrugged and turned back to his navigation console.
"Damn," Jo-jo hissed to herself. No options left. If they didn't engage now, Colonel Markson would be overrun before the Guardians could bring their armor into the fight. They might be overrun even if they managed to kill that corvette and destroyer on the first pass before heading in to assist. Mind made up, the captain stabbed the intercom button. "All hands, man your battle stations."
Alarm klaxons rang throughout the ship matched with glowing red bars in the corridors and panels in each compartment. People began rushing to their assigned stations and prepared for battle. Bulky torpedoes were loaded into the forward launch tubes with the pre-arranged warshots and warhead yields. The weapons were raised into the torpedo rooms via elevators from the magazines one deck below. From there ramming rods were employed to push the weapons into the tubes. This operation could be done manually in an emergency, but the reload time was effectively tripled. With the mechanical assist, reloading after the first salvo was launched would take a mere fifteen seconds with the next salvo being prepared in the magazine room.
Panels all over the ship opened to expose laser emplacements, most of which were automated. The only exception was the dorsal and ventral quad guns that required a physical operator.
Two minutes after the call to battle stations, all sections reported manned and ready.
"Target the destroyer. We nail her and loop around for the corvette. If they do get fighters launched, leave them to the point defense and the quad guns. Our objective is to neutralize the capital ships and get below to help our people on the ground. To that end we need to take those warships out as quickly as possible. Once you get a lock fire the weapons. Don't wait for my order." Jo-jo looked each member of her bridge crew in the eye as she explained the battle plan. Simple, but hopefully they could catch the Horde off guard. She turned to Ensign Anderson. "Anything from Colonel Markson?"
The young man shook his head soberly. "Nothing, captain."
No options left. "Full power to engines. Let's get 'em."
The one supreme failing in the Horde mentality was that they had enjoyed such superiority over the planets they conquered, it was inconceivable that anyone would willing attack them save the Masters of the Universe, and She-ra and her rebels. Because of this, the Horde warships had their sensors trained on the moon expecting the Eternia's attack to come from there. No commander in their right mind would leave a force on the ground without some kind of air or space support. Oh, they had the dropships that delivered them to the surface, but those ships were not as effective as true fighters would be.
Because of self-proclaimed their superiority, no one saw the Eternia coming until it was too late.
At maximum range, the torpedoes with reaction warheads launched from the portside tubes. Five seconds after they were away, the plasma torpedoes in the starboard tubes launched. All four weapons homed in on their target without a hitch: the Horde destroyer. The reaction torpedoes feathered their drives in an effort to stagger their impacts. The result turned out to be greater than their designers imagined. Staggered energy detonations against the destroyer's shields in almost the exact same spot, give or take a few inches, overloaded them. The energy blister flickered as the robot crew struggled to keep the shields operating. It was all for naught as they died instants before the plasma salvo crossed the invisible line the shields normally occupied and slammed into the armored hull.
The plasma detonations were even more spectacular as two staggered globes of boiling plasma energy ate the warship from the inside out. The torpedo nosecones were designed to penetrate the hull plates with the drives revving up to maximum thrust second before impact to drive the weapon as deeply into the ship as possible. When the speed began to fall off from the resistance of many bulkheads penetrated, the warhead exploded. The drive section disappeared in the first plasma cloud. The second vaporized the middle leaving the forward quarter to tumble into the atmosphere were it would die an ignominious death.
Eternia plunged through the dissipating plasma clouds, energy tendrils licking at the shields, as Ace dove at the corvette. The commander of this ship expected trouble judging by the speed with which fighters ejected from the launch racks. Jo-jo slapped hands against the armrests and clutched them with a death grip as Ace pulled up at the last possible moment. The starship shook violently as their shields bounced and scraped along the enemy corvette's dorsal shields. Sporadic laser fire chased the starship as it sped away past the horizon. Only a few blasts actually connected with the shields doing negligible damage.
Jo-jo glanced at the weapons status display. All four tubes were reloaded and ready for firing. The forward laser cannons and railguns were also primed and ready. Once out of site around the moon, Ace veered toward open space where he executed a one hundred and eighty degree loop, and rolled on the horizontal axis to bring the starship level relative to the enemy warship.
A dozen fighters swarmed up in pursuit. They closed the range in minutes. When they drew close enough that the point defenses couldn't possibly miss, the forward lasers, quad guns, and port and starboard lasers opened up. One fighter took a pair of twenty-inch titanium shells from the railguns right down the throat. The solid shells accelerated nearly to the speed of light ripped through the unshielded Horde fighter as if it had been armored with paper. A few bright flashes marked its systems failing, and it tumbled away. Two more fell to the dorsal and ventral quad guns, and the port side emplacements badly damaged another.
Jo-jo wasn't concerned with the fighters. They could be handled well enough. It was the corvette she wanted to kill as quickly as possible. As two more fighters blossomed into beautiful fireballs, Ace opened up the drives to maximum. A salvo identical to the one released against the destroyer left the tubes even though the enemy vessel was not in sight. The starship's sensors fed the torpedo brains constant course and speed corrections. Twenty seconds after the launch another salvo of four torpedoes left the launchers. These flights did not stager as the initial assault did. This was largely due to supposition that a corvette could fill the space around it with a considerable screen of laser fire.
However, a lucky hit could detonate one of the torpedoes, and thereby vaporize the entire flight. With that in mind, the flight of weapons broke up their clustered group when the reached their terminal run – the point at which the weapons were homing on their target and sped up to attack velocity.
Horde weapons opened up when their sensors detected the torpedoes inbound. They were so small, however, that they set their weapons for proximity detonations in the hopes of scoring a lucky hit. When Eternia rounded the horizon the Horde robots had a new dilemma. Keep trying for a hit on the torpedo flights, or turn their attention to the human starship.
Further indecision reigned as twenty-inch shells began pounding the stout shields. Jo-jo listened to the thrum-thrum of the electromagnetic weapons pumping out a titanium shell once every three seconds. She had no delusions about a lucky hit. She just wanted to confuse them as much as possible.
One of the plasma torpedoes from the first salvo took a glancing blow. The impact damaged the weapon enough that it veered off course. By a stroke of good fortune it headed out and away from the battlefield where it erupted in a massive plasma globe. Another proximity detonation fried the guidance system of one of the weapons armed with a reaction warhead. That weapon tumbled into the atmosphere. The remaining weapons slammed into stout Horde shields just aft of the bridge. The array faltered for several seconds, but resumed its normal operating strength as the second wave bore down on the warship.
The corvette had turned enough to face its attacker when the second wave struck. Reaction warheads and plasma charges detonated almost as one obscuring the massive warship completely. Although their sensors were not sophisticated enough to target specific areas like the bridge, Lieutenant Denton tried his best. After the massive eruptions obscured the enemy ship, he aimed for the heart of the plasma storm and continued pumping titanium shells into it until the Eternia flashed past.
Jo-jo eyed the aft sensor display as Ace headed for open space to come about for another run. It took a few moments before the enemy ship to clear the plasma storm, but the sensors clearly showed its forward shields were down. Completely overloaded. The Horde ship lined its bow up on the retreating Eternia in preparation to pursue. However, something about its movement seemed just a bit off. The enemy's bow lined up on their adversary, and continued tracking to their port side.
Have we hit a vital control system with a lucky shot? Jo-jo wondered as the Horde vessel suddenly drifted 'down'. The view abruptly changed as Ace brought them around for another run against the ship massing nearly six times their size. He was just lining up for the next torpedo and strafing run when the enemy erupted in a brilliant explosion scattering pieces of itself, some the size of a two-story house, into the moon's atmosphere.
Stunned silence griped the bridge at the sight. Ace was the first to break it. "I guess we hurt them worse than I thought."
"Save the cheers. We still have a job to do on the ground," Jo-jo replied grimly. A sensor sweep of the surface as they flew past the warship indicated heavy weapons fire on the ground in the area of the pyramid. "Heat shields to maximum. Use all non-essential power to reinforce them. Plot a steep dive to get us through the upper atmosphere as quickly as possible."
Ace was used to Captain Majourny's sometimes insane orders, having worked with her in the past, but this topped nearly all of them. Captain, we've never even conceived of a maneuver like that, much less run it through a simulation."
Ensign Anderson chimed in. "Captain, the ship may not take that extreme of a re-entry. If we do make it, the ship may not be in much shape to help."
"I'm well aware of the risks. But if we don't take the chance everyone on the surface is dead. Some are dying even now." She cracked a rare half smile. "Besides, according to the odds of success we just faced against two Horde warships combining nine times our mass, we should already be dead." She pepped Ace with the most serious stare he'd ever had to misfortune to witness. "DO IT!"
Great Pyramid
Unknown Moon
Z MINUS 6 HOURS, 8 May 2017
Remote sentries ripped the forest apart as they emptied their seven hundred round ammo drums as fast as the cyclic rate would allow. Explosive caseless rounds pounded Mark I troopers and shocktroopers alike. Portable sensors showed, however, that something particularly nasty was coming their direction, and the explosive rounds had no effect on them whatsoever. Colonel Markson had a growing mass of dread in the pit of his stomach.
Meanwhile, Horde fighters roared over the battlefield searching for the launching points of the missile bombardments that so devastated the grounded armies. They found their quarry quickly enough when two took minor damage from surface-to-air missiles launched from lone carriers parked in the middle of a clearing a half-kilometer in diameter. The fighters broke off and regrouped in pairs several kilometers away from the targets, and lined up for their runs. The object was for the first pair in line to draw the enemy fire while the second pair blasted the enemy off the face of the moon. Their tactic was most effective. As planned, the automated defenses of the armored carriers scanned the inbound fighters and launched missiles against them. More hits did little damage to the durable Horde armor. The second pairs swept in behind their comrades and unleashed a laser barrage on the launch points simultaneously. Twin fireballs boiled into the sky as roaring explosions marked the demise of the carriers.
The fighters winged over and headed back to their lines as the firing in the forest suddenly ceased. A few sporadic shots marked the demise of the empty remote sentries then silence fell like a blanket.
Colonel Markson ordered several people to shut down the equipment set up in the mouth of the pyramid entrance. With the sentries empty and destroyed, and the carriers lost, there was no more need for the remote computers. Once powered down, everyone waited tensely at their assigned positions. The silence grated on Markson's nerves. He knew the enemy was out there. He could hear the crunching as something heavy moved through the foliage. The comm lines were quiet as the men and women waited for whatever was coming toward them to emerge.
They didn't have to wait long. Tall humanoid shapes edged into the half-light at the forest edge. Three meters tall, they stood on two powerful, armored legs with block-like feet. The entire robot was covered in armor styled to give the thing a slender appearance. The head mounted atop a small bearing assembly was shaped in the same silver-gray armor with a hint of wavy contours while retaining the overall shape of a ten-sided dice. A large black visor scanned the area before the machine with a red, glowing backup camera centered above it sent back images in different light spectrums.
The ten machines spaced along the tree line sported two arms ending in powerful five-fingered hands. Other vague shadows began forming in the gloom as similar machines crunched up to the skirmish line. These models didn't look right, however. Something just looked out of place.
The short hairs on the nape of Markson's neck began rising to attention as more machines continued appearing. This did not look promising. Mark I troopers and shocktroopers were one thing. These looked much more formidable.
And where the hell were the Guardians?
The Guardians in question approached the six towering suits of armor on the raised platform. Kodec and her hidden companion, Corwin watched from well outside the magical boundary that prevented anyone except the true Guardians from approaching. From a distance the suits didn't look any more remarkable than the comic book character Iron Man or the Gundams. But up close was an entirely different story. Up close one could see the incredible workmanship. Identical yet designed with their individual uniqueness. And one could almost feel the destructive power waiting to be unleashed.
Each person mounted the steps following the pull to a particular suit. Although having already inherited whatever knowledge and skills the former owner had to pass along, Adrian still knew what armor was destined for him. As the Guardians climbed the last step, a bright white light flooded the room spreading its brilliance to the farthest reaches of the chamber. When it faded, all six found themselves inside their respective powered armor.
Heads-up displays lit across Adrian's field of vision. The spectrum changed just by thinking about it. He saw Kodec Ugnor and a previously unrevealed humanoid standing fifty meters away. Other status displays came up just by pointing an eye at it and holding the look for a second or two. The technology for such actions and control responses was a level far beyond what was possible on earth even with the technological boon from the Eternia. The view inside the helmet was a panorama. Wherever he looked the helmet moved, but the image displayed was as if he stood outside the armor. Adrian looked down and saw black and silver Etherium armor. All status displays showed fully functional despite a thousand years in storage. Little to no degradation in the power distribution system showed up.
Up and down the line the armored figures regarded one another. The sight made Kodec think of old friends getting re-acquainted with one another. Distant thunder drew her attention to the arch. A fierce battle was happening somewhere out there. And it was time for the Guardians to make their appearance after a thousand years of waiting for time when they would be needed most.
Markson ducked instinctively as the medium and heavy assault drones opened up on the pyramid with everything they had. Explosive armor-piercing rounds, high explosive fragmentation, and something no one had seen before that left white corkscrew vapor trails slammed into the stonework. Three soldiers died without ever knowing they had been hit. Markson and Takamora plastered themselves to the ground as hails of dirt and rock fragments pummeled them.
Frost snapped his sights downward from his perch high up on the stepped exterior and centered them on the nearest robot with an abbreviated right arm where the forearm should have been was mounted a rectangular box assembly containing frightening firepower. He noted the heavy drones carried one such assembly on each arm. Frost centered on the chest plate, inhaled to calm his nerves even as more vapor trails left his target's weapon, exhaled part of the breath, and caressed the trigger.
Fifty-caliber rounds slammed repeatedly into the thing's armored chest. The impacts actually rocked the machine, but did no appreciable damage other than an ugly dent. Frost snapped off his last two rounds, ejected the magazine, and reached for a fresh one. The drone's head scanned the stone structure looking for its assailant. Thermal scans located its quarry at the top. A fair distance, but not an impossible shot considering the firepower and targeting sensors it was equipped with.
Vapor trails jetted through the air as something moved with impossible speed. Stone exploded inches from Frost's face. Combat instincts honed on many earth battlefields kicked in, and kicked him into a roll to his left. More fire ripped through the stone tracking along his movements.
Dietrich spied the drone firing at his friend, and since he was on the first step down from the top, squirmed forward enough to round the corn, lock onto the drone, and began blasting away at it. The diversion worked. The alien machine shifted its aim at him as Frost rolled screaming over the edge. Two more drones, heavy models sporting two weapons assemblies, began blasting away at Dietrich forcing him to retreat.
Frost landed heavily two steps down from the top. Somehow he managed to retain his fifty-caliber weapon, but had the breath knocked out of him. He couldn't stop his momentum after the first drop and rolled right off the next step. Now he lay on his back listening to the chaotic battle going on around him. After gathering his wits, Frost ejected the empty magazine and slapped in a fresh one. He rolled onto his belly and wormed his way forward. Laser fire, high-explosive rounds, and whatever it was leaving the vapor trails continued to pound the structure. Judging by the chaos coming through the tac net, he knew several had been killed in the opening barrage.
Battle drones continued pounding away unmindful of the returning enemy fire. Powerful as their weapons were, nothing seemed capable of penetrating the armored drones. Determined to have some sort of victory before he bought it, Frost trained his sites on a distracted drone and searched for that elusive vulnerable point. Frost carefully observed the drone as it sought out, and shot at, targets of opportunity. The machine seemed unconcerned about the pounding enemy fire gave its armored body. But when pulse rifle fire tracked up toward the head, Frost saw a noticeable adjustment to protect the tinted visor.
Frost just found his weak point.
Taking careful aim, the ebony-skinned man blocked out the raging battle and roaring fighters. He concentrated solely on blasting a fifty-caliber round into that faceplate. Just as he was squeezing the trigger, the machine, acting as if it sensed the danger, turned its head toward Frost giving him the prime kill shot.
The pair fired simultaneously. The drone missed. Frost didn't. The impact spoiled the battle machine's aim just enough that a vapor trail missed Frost by inches. Meanwhile, Frost's shot shattered the visor, ripped through fragile circuits and optics to rebound off the armored back wall of the head. Further ricocheting reduced vital electronics to so much scrap.
Colonel Markson watched the drone shutter and shake from what appeared to be a lucky shot, and finally collapse as Frost's announcement cut across the tac net. Return fire immediately began tracking toward the black visors, and more drones started going down. Colonel Markson lined up on a drone equipped with twin weapons packs just emerging from the forest. It had Markson firmly fixed in its targeting reticule, and fired at the same instant as the human cowering in the pyramid entrance.
Markson's aim was true, but the rounds did not hit as straight in as he had intended. The drone, however hit what it was aiming for. Stone exploded over Markson forcing him to jump away, or try to. Large rocks, and avalanche of dust and debris rained down upon the man pounding him to the ground. As the dust settled, Markson gathered his wits. His rifle lay just outside his grasp, but he couldn't get to it. He wasn't seriously injured - thanks to the armor - but he was pinned from the waist down. As the drone stomped closer for the sure kill, Markson desperately stretched and clawed for the rifle laying tantalizingly just past his fingertips.
Heavy metal feet crunched dirt several feet away. Markson ceased his struggle and stared up at the soulless machine that would be his executioner. The right arm pod traversed to point at his head. He could see four muzzles in twin rows built into the face of the weapon. The upper right muzzle began to glow with the unmistakable priming charge of a laser weapon. Markson put on his best bold face, determined to at least show defiance to the end. Energy built up toward overload when the weapon would explode in the trapped human's face extinguishing his existence.
A powerful globe of energy unlike anything yet seen on the field of battle sailed out of the inky darkness deep in the tunnel. Magical fire erupted on contact with the drone's chest. Circuits shorted out. The weapon pods lost power instantly, and the electrical system fried in seconds. Smoking pouring from its joints and seams, the neutralized drone toppled backwards.
A tall figure, preceded by ringing footsteps of metal on stone, emerged from the darkness. Markson craned his head and shoulders around as much as he could to get a view of his savior. What stepped into the light shocked him visibly.
The armored figure stood impossibly tall for a human; nearly eight feet. Blue forearms and forelegs, white thighs, upper arms, and lower torso, red breastplate unmistakably feminine in shape with a sapphire six-pointed star emblazoned on it, white neck and lower face, green eye lenses, and a helmet eerily resembling the headdress of the Sorceress of Grayskull.
The right hand rose gracefully and moved away to the figure's right. In response, the rocks pinning Colonel Markson to the ground shifted and moved enough for the man to drag himself free. He retrieved his rifle, and stood to face the armored woman.
"Sorceress?" he asked cautiously, scarcely believing what his eyes showed his brain.
The figure merely nodded and walked out onto the battlefield. By now Colonel Markson noticed the firing outside had subsided. He poked his head out and saw more armored warriors lined up across the face of the pyramid. The last one just materialized opposite the heavy forces moving down the overgrown dirt path the Guardian Force had followed to the stone structure. Five in all faced the oncoming Horde army.
Five? There should be six. Where was number six?
Frost flinched away from a bright light that flared brilliantly off to his right. It subsided in moments leaving white spots dancing before his eyes. He blinked rapidly to clear them as the firing subsided. When he could finally see, he about dropped his weapon off the ledge. An armored warrior, like nothing he had ever seen before stood exactly halfway down the same step he lay upon, but facing the battlefield below. He couldn't see much because of the massive shield shaped somewhat like the nose of a fighter blocking the majority of the figure, but what he could see sent a shiver down his spine.
Someone is about to get it.
Brad and Sonya marveled at the power readings in their heads-up displays. There was almost literally nothing that could stand in their way save that heavy corvette hovering over the clearing. The startled robot forces were overcoming their surprise and resumed firing at the enemy. Laser bolts ricocheted off their Etherium armor not leaving so much as a blemish on the paint. Sonya, clad in a suit almost identical to that worn by the Sorceress, right down to the color scheme, snatched the beam spear from the mounting clasp on her back. The curved green energy blade flared into existence, and she sprang with a rocket pack assist into the enemy front lines. The only real different besides weaponry from the Sorceress' armor was Sonya's helmet being adorned with a golden hawk with wide-spread wings and grasping talons reaching down around her cheeks.
Brad was not far behind with twin scimitars drawn. The blades heated up to the point where nothing could withstand them. The pair sliced three robots clean in half before anyone could react. Three more fell to their energy weapons as the enemy fire began tracking them.
At the opposite end of the line, Jeromy drew twin combat laser rifles and began picking off robots one after another. One shot, one kill just as a sniper would do. Sorceress stepped from the pyramid entrance, threw up a magical shield to protect the surviving Guardian Force members with one hand, and began frying battle drones with powerful energy globes with the other.
Adrian high up on the pyramid, and Jake facing the forces coming down the trail filled up the center of the formation. Jake's armor was colored in shades of white and dark green. At his command, giant twin gatling packs snapped away from his back on hydraulic arms and swung around to present the weapons to him in easy reach. Jake took the firing handles causing the hydraulic arms to retract, easily aimed the twin barrels of each assembly at the desired target with the power armor taking the weight with ease, and caressed the firing levels by squeezing his fingers.
Plasma bolts unleashed in a devastating storm that chopped robots and drones limb from limb. Several Horde tanks sporting two cannons and adorned with grinning skulls sighted in on the powerful Guardian. Jake beat them to the punch. Plasma bolts from his four gatling cannons literally flayed the armor off the tanks in great sheets. Once revealed, the robots, delicate instruments, and their power cores within were torn to pieces. The power cores detonated disabling several more tanks coming up behind them.
Only Adrian had yet to engage the enemy. He just stood on high surveying the battle. A pair of robots took shots at the immobile Guardian hoping for an easy kill, but the Etherium alloy dispelled those illusions. When a pair of laser bolts bounced off Adrian's helmet, the impact seemed to wake him up.
"It moved!" one robot shouted to his companion as the enemy's face turned to regard them.
"Never mind," the other shot back. "Keep shooting!"
The massive rifle clutched in Adrian's right fist rose and tracked toward his attackers. The cannon's design allowed for three rapid shots via the three energy cell drums over the trigger assembly, or the energy could be combined into one massive discharge. Adrian selected this, locked the crosshairs of his heads-up display on the ground at the robot's feet rather than either of them, and pulled the trigger. Streams of energy flowed into the muzzle for a second or two before erupting into a blazing white-hot beam lancing down from the pyramid. It struck the ground with seismic force. The geyser of dirt, tree, and robot was seen clearly from the Horde warships.
Commander Zarin was beside himself with rage. What should have been an easy destruction of the ill equipped human force was turning out to be anything but easy. And now communication had been lost with the two warships in orbit. Tanks, troopers, and drones all reported the appearance of powerful battle suits, which suddenly appeared and began tearing them to shreds. Then the powerful energy beam destroyed a fifty-foot diameter section of forest just to take out two troopers.
Before he could start issuing orders, the suits began moving. Two energy beams lanced out from the top of the pyramid, each downing a Horde fighter. On the view screens showing what the robots saw, the one firing those beams dropped to the ground beside the suit equipped with the gatling guns. The pair then began trading fire with the remaining tanks. Because the dead hulks of previously destroyed vehicles were in the way, the Horde machines could not close the distance or maneuver, easy kills for the pair who appeared to be having a game of one-upmanship.
After Colonel Markson assured her he would be all right, the Sorceress moved to join Adrian and Jake. They stopped showing off once she joined them. Together, the six formed a skirmish line the Horde could not break. Indeed, the remaining forces retreated to the clearing where the remaining force waited under the umbrella of fighters and their capital ships. Laser rounds bounced off Etherium alloy, explosive rounds ripped up foliage, but nothing stopped the relentless advance of the six armored warriors as they pressed onward, witling down the enemy as they went.
Zarin waited as the warriors advanced toward his regrouping forces. He disliked calling the retreat, but he would make it work to his advantage. His impatience grew as the enemy methodically destroyed every robot in their way. He itched to give the order that would end their threat once and for all, but he needed a target to shoot at. Explosions marked the demise of still more troopers and shocktroopers and then the six armored warriors exited the tree line.
Got you right where I want you, Zarin thought. "FIRE!"
The heavy corvette and three destroyers opened up simultaneously on the six suits of powered armor. Six blinding blasts of raw plasma energy lanced down from the warships to blast six craters in the earth.
When the debris began to settle, all that remained were six smoking craters where the Guardians stood just moments ago.