Thirty

"Entering engagement zone," Knight Jurgen's voice came through the speaker in Kon's ear. The other man sounded nearly bored, not seconds from breaching a goblin point defense kill zone. Jurgen's squad had the unenviable task of taking out the AA guns on the asteroid. Their ship, a fast corvette that had been heavily modified with drop chutes, would fly parallel to the asteroid and fire the Knights like they were missiles and then drop the shuttles with the Squire support squads to follow up.

Benny would bring the Puca in for a landing after Jurgen's men cleared a landing zone for them. Until then Kon could do nothing but watch the viewfeeds from the dozens of small drones they had released, none of them larger than a fist, which would stream continuous views for them, feeding information to the landing team.

Kon and Diur sat side by side as the hologram in front of them split into dozens of views. Lights flickered through space, each of the small bolts holding the power to rip open an unguarded ship. Nearly a score of weapons stations had opened fire, some of them previously hidden in the craggy ravines of the asteroid, others firmly exposed to the passing corvette.

The Knight's ship wasn't without recourse, missiles and lasers lanced back, scoring hits that disintegrated stone and metal with equal rage, flashes of red and orange tiny dots on the slowly tumbling rock.

"It's almost pretty," Diur said as she leaned in closer.

"Makes me feel small," Kon said as he zoomed into an impact crater from one of the corvette's missiles. It was a hundred meters wide and nearly half that wide, nothing remaining of the AA system that had been there.

"That's the way of it. In our age and day you can have nearly all the power in the world and it doesn't matter. A railgun round will still turn you into mist," Benny said.

"Until you get strong enough that reality warps around you," Diur said, raising an eyebrow at Benny. The old man shrugged, nodding in agreement as they all watched as the corvette pulled out of her dive, running parallel to the asteroid.

"Ships are starting to leave their positions at the gas giant," Diur said, glancing away from their views to the console that showed her the enemy fleet.

"Don't worry about them. Darcy knows her stuff," Benny said, not turning away from the view of the battle.

"Launching," Jurgen said. A split second later the corvette opened up with a withering barrage, missiles, chaff, ballistic fire, and then finally at the end of it all, three Knights fired out of pneumatic tubes.

"It's a wild ride, I'll give it that. Prefer not being shot out of a cannon though," Benny commented. The asteroid rippled as more fire burst across its surface, then three views appeared as the Knight's personal views came up on their screen.

"Landed. No casualties. Targets acquired," Jurgen spoke in short, stilted sentences as suddenly his view became a blur of dark rock. A yellow light filled the screen and Jurgen grunted as the rock around him burst apart, but the Knight didn't slow. Yellow light faded away and revealed an egg shaped turret, a tri-barrel pointed directly at Jurgen.

The Knight lifted his arm and a missile streaked away in a trail of gray smoke. A flash of light and a muted explosion and suddenly the egg shaped defensive weapon was nothing more than scrap. Jurgen kept running, leaping over a thirty foot wide chasm, hitting the ground and sending a spray of ice and rock flying away as he spun around, firing a second missile at a previously hidden turret of similar design. It had been behind a rocky outcropping, nothing visible from the angle the Knight had been approaching at, but now it was nothing more than scrap.

"Cannon fodder coming up," another Knight quipped and Kon looked to her screen to see a row of black armored figures that blended into the asteroid. They ran and used the natural terrain of the asteroid to aid their advances, craters and spires of rock providing cover. The Knight in question lifted her weapon in two hands, pointing the wide barrel at the line of approaching goblin soldiers.

The screen went white. Kon blinked as the sudden glare made his eyes water. He blinked away the tears just in time to see the screen clear up and he swallowed hard at the suddenly cleared, flat, glassy piece of asteroid.

"Damn that shit stings," the unknown Knight said, her camera showing a meted weapon being tossed to the side as her gauntlets glowed incandescent. Kon swallowed again as the Knight ran across the glass, shattering the thin layer of it as she headed toward her next objective.

"Zone cleared. Squire squads deploy," Jurgen ordered as he continued his one man assault as small arms fire rained down on him from a series of bluffs. Kon watched as Jurgen raised a fist, a rune forming to life, all jagged edges, and the bluffs shattered apart. Wherever he swept his hand the rock split apart and sent the small squads of goblin snipers to their deaths.

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"Is…is it always like this?" Kon asked Benny.

"These are Order Knights, the cream of the crop of their generation. They're good and fairly well disciplined. Some of these independents can run a bit wild, especially if they're topped off on cores before a fight. Lots of collateral in that case."

"It is different from what we've seen or experienced so far," Diur said.

"I hope you never see true war. This is fairly clean, a pirate den filled with combatants. Its bad when you have civilians running around, cultivators throwing around city destroying techniques, warships blowing each other out of the sky, millions dead, rifts opening. The stench is terrible," Benny said. He reached over and grabbed his helmet, tugging it on.

"You two ready to get your first glimpse of what the meatheads like to do?" Benny asked.

"No," Kon said as he grabbed his own helmet, clicking it on and seeing the light on his HUD that indicated a good seal.

"They never are. Just stick with me and don't hesitate. All of us have tags, we'll appear in green highlights on your HUD. Anything else gets shot, got it?" Benny said as he started moving the Puca toward the asteroid.

"Yes, sir," the two of them said together.

"Get ready, might be a bit bumpy," Benny said as they got closer to the goblin station. A bolt of light lanced free from a hidden AA gun and Benny moved with preternatural speed, the Puca already moving out of the way of the blast of enemy fire. He twitched the controls again and the ship sank as a missile sang past them, the explosion rattling the ship.

On the viewscreen of the Knights, Kon saw that reprisal was vindictive and deadly. All three of the Knights converged on the last AA gun, pummeling it with a mix of weapons and runic abilities.

"Area clear," Jurgen said dryly even as Benny was already pulling up. Small arms fire trickled in, but the thick hull of the Puca was impregnable against the personal weapons. With a gentle thump they settled on the asteroid, all three of them rising and moving through the twisted halls of the ship with familiarity.

Benny had made sure they were armored and ready before entering the engagement zone. Their weapons stacked by the landing ramp, waiting for them in a locked cage that popped open when Benny touched it.

Kon's familiar mace went on his hip along with a ballistic pistol of a heavier caliber than he normally used. The weight of the pistol felt comfortable on his hip as a contrast to the mace, balancing him. His primary was the same auto-shotgun from last time, this time loaded with metal slugs rather than scattershot.

"Still nothing for distance?" Diur asked as she strapped on her own rifle. She kept to a heavy-duty laser rifle, similar in make to what Kon was used to, but scaled up. Rather than a cheap, easily produced weapon that was best used against unarmored foes or animals, her new rifle was designed for combat against armored figures. The energy draw was intense enough to melt through metal, but it had the severe drawback of burning through batteries.

Diur fixed that by simply strapping on a bandolier of the batteries to her torso. She carried her sword and a twin to Kon's own pistol on her hips with equal ease, her dark armor making her look like a nightmare formed from shadow.

"You're terrifying to look at," Kon blurted.

"Thank you. Something I've always wanted to achieve," Diur said dryly as she shouldered her rifle. Kon licked his dry lips as his stomach dropped as Benny reached over and sealed the hatchway behind them, then depressurized the room they were in.

"It's just nerves, boyo. Stick with me and you'll be fine," Benny said as the ramp lowered. A spark flickered as something ricocheted off of the ramp and Kon flinched before settling down.

"We've fought before. You cleared a rift with a rock. You can do this." Benny bolted down the ramp, a shade darting across the rocks toward their target. Kon got a glimpse of it before he began to run after his mentor. Bright light flashed past him, sizzling quietly as it struck rock.

Stone peppered him as ballistic rounds hit around him, spraying splinters in all directions as Kon kept running at full speed, keeping low to the ground as Benny led the way. Ahead of them the wide, squat, facility took up his viewpoint, buried in a cliffside with dozens of weapons emplacements jutting out like pustules.

Even as he ran, Jurgen and the others were working on it. Multi colored hues of energy reached up to pop the emplacements. He knew that each flare of light was sentient beings dying, but as the ground around him exploded as they tried to kill him, Kon couldn't bring himself to feel for the goblins.

"Down!" Benny shouted, stabbing a finger at a crater still smoking and with scrap pieces of metal all around it. Kon obeyed, leaping into the crater with Diur hot on his tail. Benny threw himself against the wall of the crater and a second later something passed over them, a wave of brown-yellow energy that slashed apart the ground at knee height.

"Diur. Looks like you get your chance after all," Benny said as he peeked over the edge of the crater. Kon followed suit and swallowed as he saw that another charge of goblins had appeared from tunnels in the asteroid, bypassing the Knights and racing toward them.

Leading them was a short figure with a gleaming red sword, ugly aura flickering around them as they waved their blade over their head, rallying the goblins left alive. Behind them the wash of shuttles landing reached them, pebbles flying at them as a wave of dust was kicked up. Squires began to disgorge from the shuttles, armed similarly to Diur and Kon.

"Might have a bit of competition," Kon said as laser fire scythed through the goblin ranks. Diur grunted as she drew her sword, slinging her rifle on her back as she rose into a crouch, ready to go over the top.

"I can lead a horse to water, but I can't make it drink," Benny growled, reaching over and grabbing Diur to drag her down just as several blasts of energy vaporized the attacking line of goblins. The shuttles rose up and left the asteroid, their parting gift carbon scoring and a clear path towards the facility.

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