Paladin by Aer-ki Jyr

Paladin by Aer-ki Jyr

Author:Aer-ki Jyr [Jyr, Aer-ki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-12-23T00:00:00+00:00


6

February 12, 3518

Tekin System (Rim Region)

Plataro

Ten shurikens flew in formation up and over a mountain ridge, coming into view of a huge throng of reavers hundreds of thousands strong. They were appearing out of numerous subterranean exits and flowing like a river across the ground towards a nearby Vitti stronghold at the precise moment when all naval drones were occupied with anti-surface activities elsewhere. The tunnels carved up to the surface were freshly cut minutes ago and the army was skittering across the ground as fast as it could to get to the emplacements before any naval assets could be repositioned.

But the shurikens had gotten here in time and lobbed tiny bloons down onto the reavers, each of which mushroomed out and killed hundreds of them…but there were so many in play it didn’t seem to matter. The Paladin squadron strafed them multiple times until their ammunition was depleted, then they just hovered over them, noses pointed down, and targeted individual reavers with their heavy lachars.

When the fighters stopped moving a mass of acid attacks shot up at them, blanketing their shields in goo that should have done little to affect them, but this time was different. The pilots saw their shield levels drop slowly, but it stacked with additional acid hits on them until the drain was so furious that the squadron had to break off. They flew towards the southern mountain ridge but not all of them made it. The acid penetrated their shields then fell onto the hull, burning into and scarring it on most of them, but a few suffered more damage.

Two of the fighters had actually gotten more than 8 inches of acid built up on the shields, and when that fell onto the shuriken it slowly began to eat through the resistant armor. A few patches from previous battle damage where an explosion had torn gashes into the hull dissolved faster than the regular armor and exposed the innards to it. The pilots were fine inside their internal armored cocoons but the rest of the shuriken was not.

One of the pilots tried to roll and throw the clinging goo off via centrifugal force but the tactic came too late and he still lost power. Both shurikens rammed into the northern-facing mountainside while the others managed to survive thanks to their armor consuming all of the acid and still retaining a bit of protection.

The fighters immediately circled around and confirmed that the pilots were alive, but the reavers had seen them go down and a large tendril of them were diverting and heading their way. It’d take half an hour or more for them to get there, but if they didn’t get the pilots out they’d be sitting ducks. Given enough time the reavers’ sharp claws could chew through the armor, though it looked like the acid splitters were staying with the main group to provide aerial cover.

Two of the fighters went to ground while the other 6 hugged low to the terrain and accelerated



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