In difficult ground, press on; In encircled ground, devise stratagems; In death ground, fight. - Sunny Zoo, Military Strategist and Chef, Terra, Age of Glory

GENTLEMEN! PREPARE TO DEFEND YOURSELVES! - Last Radio Call, Multiple Conflicts, Multiple Species, Cygnus-Orion Galactic Arm Spur, Multiple Eras

"Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?" - Captain Mayhem Daily, First Industrialized Global Confict, Terra-Sol, Resource Wars Era

The massive dragons reared back, flapping their rotted wings, giving out gurgling roars. Some whistled through damaged windpipes, others sprayed ichor and burning fluid out of rents at the base of their necks. All of them displayed huge teeth and sharp claws as they reared up, pulling their heads back, balancing with their tails.

Bit.nek counted five on the ground, six in the air, and could see the tail of a snake-like one that was sticking out of one of the holes in the nest wall, as well as the one behind him.

He checked his ammo reflexively even as he blinked rapidly, setting up the targeting criteria for his rocket launcher and grenade launcher, as well as the Madame 318 that was still attached to the gunnery harness he only had half on.

299 wished he could chew on the tips of his bladearms or maybe sharpen them, but he was inside his armor, suspended in kinetic gel.

He hoped he didn't go to jail for cracking the gun's nanoforges and crossloading what had to be illegal templates.

Of course, he also hoped he survived the fight.

Bit.nek stepped out of the opening in the nest wall, triggering the gun even as he stepped the side, flexing a non-existent muscle group as he did so.

The Madame Three-Eighteen roared to life even as the missile and grenade launchers went to rapid fire. Three of the four missiles hit directly, straight into the chests of flying creatures. The scales of the chest were dense enough to trigger the warheads to activate the EFP, which drove deep through the body, ripping a channel for the bursting charge to slam through till it detonated.

Two fell from the sky, their chests burning. The other veered off, the tissues of the chest burning beneath exposed ribs the thickness of a groundcar. The other three rolled in the air, avoiding the rockets, then snapped their wings open and began beating at the air, trying to gain altitude.

The last missile whipped off into the sky and detonated inside a suspicious looking cloud.

The grenades arced out, bypassed minimum safe distance, and hit the joint of the neck and chest of all five on the roof. Rotted flesh and clotted blood sprayed out, burning. Two of the huge monsters collapsed, one was unmarred, and the other two staggered as their heads were nearly blown off.

"Wet-print the reloads," he snapped out as he hosed the 20mm autocannon across the face of the unmarred one. The rounds exited the barrel, the discarding sabot cartridge fell away, and the sabot itself slammed forward. The dragon's scales were tough, tough enough to stop the sabots, make them crumple slight or flex to bounce away. That caused the casing to rupture, split apart, and the antimatter explode against the scale, spraying a thin wire of spooky-particle white phosphorus across the scales.

The big creature roared.

The one that had been behind him roared out and Bit.nek walked his fire down its side, the heavy 20mm cartridges blowing massive holes in its body.

It faceplanted and tumbled into the middle of the huge bowl that the creatures had constructed on the top of the skyraker.

Bit.nek kept the fire on it, shredding it.

The last of the snakelike one whipped by him, the body suddenly terminating in raggedly flesh, shattered scales, and meters of trailing intestines.

The 20mm autocannon smashed huge holes in the side of the snake body, shattering scales, blowing out huge fans of flesh, blood, and viscera. Bit.nek cranked up the fire rate, ignoring the beeping warnings in his HUD as the long snake-like lion-faced creature sped by. Two legs fell away, blown off at the hip.

He let off the trigger as the remaining ones on the ground danced out of the way with clumsy, erratic movements, stepped back in front of the opening to the interior of the nest.

The ones in the sky roared at him.

His rocket launcher beeped it was reloaded and he sent another four missiles skyward, all targeted on the remaining fliers. His grenade launcher began chuffing out grenades, putting 40mms of hated into the face and chests of the remaining dragons.

He took a single step back as two more fliers plummeted to the ground, keeping an eye on the heat monitor for the barrel. He knew he'd shot through it, that its accuracy was for shit now, but it was rapidly cooling.

Bit.nek's grenade launcher clacked empty and the rocket launcher gave a two second steady tone of being out of rockets.

Bit.nek had a split second warning as another snake dragon thing rushed him, roaring, its mouth open.

He took off running, across the debris strewn surface of the bowl, jumping over armor and giant hunks of steaming flesh that was scorched from the AM hits. A dragon snapped at him, missing and the teeth slamming closed right behind him. Another snapped, the teeth closing behind him with a crash as he ran out of the missing side of the jaw.

Two of the fliers crashed to the surface of the bowl in front of him as another snake-like dragon emerged from one of the holes. One flier tried to hit him, missed, and crashed into one already on the ground. The other landed in front of him, flapping its wings and rearing back.

Bit.nek jinked and ran by, jumping over the tail.

The snake-one chasing him slammed into the landed flier and both tangled up.

The entrance was wide and tall, making it so Bit.nek had no problem running into the cavernous entryway and down the hallway. His map was already linked and he took two lefts and a right, jumping up and then dropping down a sliding passage before sprinting up a long inclined tunnel.

He came out above the dragons, looking down as he planted his feet.

The grenade launcher made rapid-fire thwoomp sounds as it emptied the magazine, the rockets ripple fired, and he cut loose with the Madame 318. He could tell by the way the tracers wobbled that the barrel was on the edge of giving it up, but he kept the fire directed on the largest one's spinal plates.

It screamed, tried to turn, and ripped in half as the AM got through the scales and skin, exploding out meat.

The four rockets hit, dropping all but one big one.

There was one snake one still moving, and it took two grenades to the face, the skull shattering and blackish-gray brains splattering the rooftop.

Bit.nek's smartlink let him walk his fire to the next one without hitting any of the downed suits of armor. He concentrated his fire on the face as it waddled toward him. Scales resisted for a moment, then shattered, exposing meat, then skull.

When the skull exploded Bit.nek jumped down, landing knee deep in chunks and gore.

The snake-dragon that slid from the opening on his right got less than ten feet before Bit.nek shattered its skull with the 20mm.

He stood there for a long moment, raising his head slightly, his eyes closed, still able to see his proximity sensors thanks to his retinal link.

--we lived-- 299's text was surprised.

"So far," Bit.nek said. He moved over to one of the downed suits of armor and tapped on the housing.

He got four knocks back.

"Let's get to work," the Telkan said.

-----

Major Tut'el watched as the grav strikers landed and the medics rushed forward. He saw PFC Bit.nek jump down, handing off small stretchers to the medics as well as four larger stretchers that had armor missing arms or legs that had been twisted off at the hip or shoulder.

Kilo Company's CO moved up, watching as his shoulder made sure everyone got off of the grav-striker before he followed the medics. The PFC stopped long enough to drop the Madame Three-eighteen at the heavy weapons drop-off point. The clamshell opened up and the small green mantid engineer climbed out, moving up to stand between the rocket launcher and Bit.nek's head.

"He always like that?" the Kilo Company CO asked.

"As long as I've known him," Major Tut'el said.

"All of that and not even a bruise," Captain Vergeskit said, shaking his head.

"Seen him come through worse without much more than a few scratches," Tut'el said. He lit one of his smokes. "Someday we'll find him in a ditch full of expended brass, but it'll be the most expensive ditch the enemy will have to buy."

Vergeskit just nodded.

"Or, he'll be killed in a freak Conex brothel accident," Tut'el said, turning and walking away.

-----

Kilo Company ran for the strikers, some of the more experienced taking long, loping steps that crossed the ground quickly and efficiently, others moving with the slow and steady grace of long-time power armor pilots, and a few others that moved hesitantly.

Bit.nek followed his squad leader, effortlessly keeping up.

"Ready for this, 299?" he asked.

--ready ready cool and steady-- the mantid replied.

He waved each person by, keeping count by their shoulder numbers.

"All on," he said over the external speakers, climbing on.

His new squad leader, a sergeant that had been part of Hotel Company, just flashed his icon twice.

Bit.nek tabbed up a piece of gum as he moved over and grabbed the bar.

The grav-lifter vibrated as it took off.

And the war went on.