DREADNOUGHT 2165 by A.D. Bloom

Author:A.D. Bloom
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: space, military scifi, space war, warships, scifi action adventure, military science fiction scifi space aliens, space action adventure, war action adventure, military scifi action, military science fiction series

Chapter 8

Hollis shouted as the Squidies' fire ripped past his helmet like a mag-lev train. "Where the hell are the Lancers? Where the hell is our air support?" Ram didn't know what to tell him so he told him to kept firing.

Simms took something hit high in the chest. He burst. That was the only word for it. He got hit, and his exosuit burst like he was a piece of ripe fruit and the suit was its skin. Pieces of him spun away trailing clouds of boiling, freezing blood-mist and ice.

Ram and his squad pressed themselves down into a shallow blast crater in the Dreadnought's hull near Tick One. It was less than a meter deep.

The Squidies came over the curve of the battleship's hull, 'walking' the way only they can, squidging along on either or both sets of 1.5 meter, boneless appendages that grow at both ends of their ribbon-thin main body mass. They came in exosuits and mechanized suits and they came in firing lines and on the ends of their 'arms', the ones in armored battle suits carried fat hand cannons with rotating cylinders and stub-barrels that flared brilliantly every time they loosed mammoth, blinding rounds. In the pitch black, seen in the infrared glow of the hull, the mechanized Squidies looked like red-orange, Siamese squid ghosts with ten arms apiece, dishing out fire and wrath from all of them.

Unlike the blocky, open-frame knuckledragger mech suits the boarding teams had brought with them from Hardway, the Squidies' mechanized suits were sealed and armored and smooth with graceful lines. Just like the ones Ram had seen on Moriah, the torsos were rigid (unlike the things inside) and the absurdly long and thin 'arms' and 'legs' bent everywhere up and down the appendages. It gave them a freakish gait as they came squidging on the curving arches of all those 'limbs'. It made them look like savages, like animals.

The ones in regular suits managed to crumple and coil their bodies into even the shallowest blast craters for cover. More of them peeked out from behind the bases of the armored gun towers.

"Report in!" Ram called out, "All Ticks report!"

"This is #6. They're still coming from the top of the hull. Lost two more. Drilling depth... 28cm. This hull is some tough shite."

"#4 reporting heavy fire coming from the right side of the skull. They've got some kind of heavy weapons now. We lost two turrets. We're down 26cm into the hull; that's it. I don't know what the hell this hull is made of."

"#2 has lost two turrets. We have heavy casualties. Drill inoperable."

"This is Arroyo in #3. They took out our knuckle-dragger with some kind of anti-armor weapon. It looks like a big pipe. Watch out for it. They hit #5 with it, too. Drill depth 30cm. Squidies in what look like regular exosuits are moving up behind the mechanized ones and taking covered positions. They're coming up over the skull's... uh...nose hole...and pushing hard on this side.

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