Excerpt: Galaxy Corps: Mission Final

They continued their arrow dive down, and as the landscape grew ever larger, they began to slow their approach, deploying flaps and firing corrective thrusts from their maneuvering jets. By the time the stark geometric forms of the trees in the Vendorian jungle were clearly visible, the Pack was more gliding than falling, and moments before touchdown, they changed out of aero needle shape entirely, resuming Fenrir form. Thrusters now mounted at their feet and backs, the five of them braked to a picture-perfect landing on the beach of the Bay.

Khantur swept enhanced vision over the edge of the forest as Shanni set to deploying a portable sensor array. The other scouts spread out, readying their weaponry, ready for the first sign of movement or glint of robotic carapace armor. Khantur pointed into the jungle. “Let’s get the scanner in there. Coverage might not be as good, but we’ll just have to deal and keep on the move. I don’t like being exposed like this.”

“Yes, sir.” Shanni carted the equipment forward, her Mek’s feet crushing undergrowth as she proceeded some twenty meters in.

“Commander!” This from Derah. “Something’s in the water.”

“Eh?” The Gyran armada wasn’t known for its submersibles, the loose construction of their units holding up decently in space or air but prone to flooding in water. But it wasn’t unheard of, and there did seem to be an odd churning out among the breakers. “Shanni, keep at it. The rest of you, fall back into the trees. Stay spread out and keep your weapons primed!”

Khantur himself dashed up a ridge and lay flat against the hillside, taking cover behind a rock outcropping. He detached his railgun from its hardpoint and braced it, training the sights on the shoreline.

And sure enough, something broke the surface of the bay. A pair of long antennae poked up, then water cascaded off a wide flat metallic form below them that bobbed and rocked as it approached. Another moment passed, and it appeared to have a bipedal form--a great droid several meters tall, with low-slung arms and articulated hydraulic legs.

“Gods damn it,” growled Khantur. How did we end up with bad luck like this? This was supposed to be a clean landing site! “Fire at will, Pack, hit that thing with the heaviest you’ve got!” Unfortunately, the heaviest weaponry they could bring on a high-drop mission was not ideal for an engagement against a hardened target... at least, their heaviest short of their last resorts. But Vendoria and the Galaxy Corps would probably not appreciate their lighting up the surface of a beleaguered planet with nuclear fallout, if they could avoid it.

The Gyran heavy droid had a similarly preemptive attitude. As railgun rounds started dinging its metal shell and a light rocket tore a hole in its right arm, it crouched down and disgorged a spread of screaming rockets from a set of ports that opened on its back. “Incoming! Move!” shouted Khantur, and the scouts fled deeper into the jungle as detonations blew the trees at the forest’s edge into a rain of flaming fragments.