First Contact Fallout by Aer-ki Jyr (novels for teenagers .TXT) š
- Author: Aer-ki Jyr
Book online Ā«First Contact Fallout by Aer-ki Jyr (novels for teenagers .TXT) šĀ». Author Aer-ki Jyr
Gonāzu was one of many passengers inside the 540 meter long transport, yet he was the only one comparable to the Eraātran in size. Had he simply wanted them killed he wouldnāt have come, but if these two were from those that had stayed behind at the Zorādo then he needed to know what they knew, and retrieving information from a corpse was not easy. Not to mention it required equipment that he did not have. No, if they were to be taken alive he might have to get involved himself, and he couldnāt trust the troops heād been assigned to get the job done when they were dying to keep the Eraātran alive.
The thing with killing Eraātran was you had to overwhelm them with targets. Send a few, or a single one to them and they were near impossible to defeat. But give them many small ones and while they killed some of them the others would get the job done, and his troops had a fair amount of experience in that department, though attrition kept the number of true experts to a minimum and he didnāt think theyād have the courage to not overuse their lethal weaponry only to disable when their own lives were on the line.
Gonāzu didnāt doubt their loyalty, just their nerve. Oneās natural reaction when being killed was to strike back with as much force as possible, and that could not occur here. At least one of the Eraātran wore no armor and had a single forearm weapon. That would make for an easy target, and too much damage was a subjective thing. His troops were not issued stun weapons larger than a pistol, and very few of them. Those could not be effective against such a large beast as the Eraātran unless employed en massā¦and Gonāzu didnāt have that luxury. He was going to have to injure the Eraātran into submission, and given their nature to fight to the death rather than succumb, he was probably going to have to personally end this fight with his own psionicsā¦for even his own armor did not come standard equipped with stun weapons.
He already had troops in the field pursuing the Eraātran, and apparently they got to the scoutās location before his transport did, for he suddenly started getting combat reports from the location indicating that the scout was dead and they were engaged with Zenāzat on the ground in addition to the Eraātran.
That was acceptable, for there werenāt enough troops on the ground to actually win, but they could begin wearing the Eraātran down and plucking away the Zenāzat they had before he arrived to finish up, though he was mildly concerned that the scout hadnāt reported any Zenāzat. Was there a camouflaged outpost here with more firepower than he was anticipating?
There was another Vākitānoāsat operation going on nearby, outside his command, and he opened up a comm line to the gunship to inquire if they knew anything about the location ahead and if they could assist with the takedown of these Eraātranā¦but he got no response. After several attempts he wasnāt sure if they were just ignoring him or if that was actually a hostile craft, because its automated codes were all responding appropriately.
He used the transportās sensors to zoom in on the gunship just before it dipped down into the treetops. Visuals showed some damage to the hull, so it was possible that the comm system was damaged. He didnāt know how likely that was, for he was not intimately familiar with the craft the Boāja used, but something about this did not feel rightā¦and when the gunship rose up again and altered course towards the fight he wasnāt sure if they had heard him and didnāt respond or if something else was in play.
āTag that gunship as an unknown unit,ā he told his pilots. āTheyāre not responding to comms. Does it have enough weaponry to give us a problem if it turns out to be hostile?ā
āIt wonāt get through our shields, but it has more firepower than we do,ā one of the small, duck-billed biped pilots answered. āIf it sticks around for a slugging match weāll eventually win.ā
āGood. Keep an eye on it,ā he said, devouring every snippet of information coming back to him from the troops on the ground. A few more minutes and theyād be at their landing zone, so he mentally activated his gauntlets and donned his own armor to match the infantry that were already fully suited up and standing shoulder to shoulder around him in the main deck. Not quite enough to make it crowded, for they could have included moreā¦if he had them. As it was, these were all but a handful of the troops that assaulted the Zorādo. A few stayed there to continue investigating and guard the facility, but heād pulled everyone else on this hunting mission. He couldnāt afford to have it go wrong, one way or another.
He was convinced there was something special about that Zorādo, but the only ones who knew what it was were either dead or on the run ahead of him. He couldnāt afford to waste his infantry assets, so grouping them together was the logical move. Spread them out and his casualties would increase. Focused operations in force were the mathematically most viable option for hunting missionsā¦and fortunately he had the assets available for this one while most combat on the planet had devolved down to single units out hunting and engaging each other far from the fortified cities.
But then the gunship arrived at the battle site a few minutes ahead of them, and it started pouring firepower down into the jungle as Gonāzu railed at them on the comm that he wanted the Eraātran taken aliveā¦but there was no response or alteration in course as tree after tree was obliterated from above with who knew what damage was being done to the Eraātran below.
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