Carnage by Aer-ki Jyr (the chimp paradox .TXT) 📕

started popping slow moving globs of pink energy out in an arc to land amongst the leaders, not even needing to hit them as the ‘easter eggs’ hit the ground and detonated, creating concussion waves that knocked the minions away from the epicenters so much they toppled like bowling pins, but most didn’t die. It was more disruption unless they were weak versions, or they took a direct hit, and the ‘Egg Poppers’ were one of many specialized Commando weapons that had proven effective at disrupting the horde in the past.

Esna took aim at one that was momentarily on the ground, putting 7 shots into it before it leapt forward onto its feet and ran a few steps before collapsing and getting tramped by those coming up from behind. She switched her aim to one of them and repeated the process until her rifle ran out of ammo, then she grabbed an extra clip from her pack and reloaded in about 3 seconds. After that she was back to firing again as a few of the lucky minions made it all the way up to the wall and swung at it with their limbs, some firing acid, but none of it got past the energy shield covering the physical wall.

They didn’t last long, with the troops focusing on them while the wall cannons kept their fire further away to disrupt the waves coming in rather than getting caught fighting at pointblank range. That had happened before, and Esna had quickly updated her Clan’s fighting profile to prefer breaking up the attacking waves rather than obsessing over shooting the closest enemies.

Those closer enemies swelled a bit, and some climbed on each other to jump up to the top of the wall only to get swatted down by dampening fields, Archons using their psionics, specialized weapons, etc. But once there were too many, and the wall itself was at risk of being overtopped, one of the Archons signaled the cease fire and Esna pulled back from the wall as the Hadarak continued to jump up towards them.

But the energy field covering the wall now extended up well into the air, stopping the jumpers but also stopping the Star Force troops from firing back, including the cannons that were now covered with the shield as well. A few seconds later Esna could hear the charge building as the energy field grew more and more opaque, almost to the point of not being able to see what was on the other side, then it discharged, pushing outwards as a solid wall and throwing all the minions and their corpses back some 340 meters where they piled up, dead and alive alike, and the shield dropped back down to cover only the physical wall as it began to store up enough charge to repeat the process again.

When it dropped Esna pulled her rifle back up and over the edge of the wall, leaning it on the top rim to give her better aim than free handing it. She fired, over and over again, doing her small part along with everyone else without leading. She was in charge of the entire Clan, but in this battle she was just another Commando. One with basic psionics, but nowhere near the skill level of the Archons and Mavericks here.

She would not being going back to leading from afar. And if she died there were others who could easily take her place. Esna wasn’t exactly expendable, but her loss wouldn’t kill the Clan and that gave her a sense of peace at putting herself on the front lines. She’d tried the ‘lead from afar’ thing, but it’s not what she was cut out for. Monarchs could do that, and Admirals, but even the Archons couldn’t really stand to be away from the hardest fights for too long. Those who were the strongest needed to be on the front lines. That was the Star Force way, and it always would be.

But it was more than that for Esna. Her indoctrination into Star Force had been in battle, on the run from the V’kit’no’sat with Rammak and just trying to stay alive. After living through that, she knew she didn’t belong anywhere else. Esna had been weak and nearly helpless then, but no longer. She wasn’t the strongest or the faster, but she was capable now, and her place was helping those that were weak and helpless, as Rammak had helped her, and there was 2/3rds of the galaxy full of helpless people that these monsters were trying to get to and kill.

And every one of these bastards she killed was one that wasn’t going to do that. Yes, they could grow more and spam more than she could kill, but they were not infinite. She knew that systems like this would slowly develop into Hadarak strongholds and begin producing other varieties of minion. Stronger ones that would then be sent forward to batter the better defended worlds. Scouts were continually bringing information back from those worlds first conquered in this purge, and the images were truly grotesque.

The planets were no longer spheres, with huge arms and webs growing out of them while others had been wiped clean of all surface features and left bare. No Hadarak were on them, and Esna knew that was because the enemy didn’t want to risk overpopulating this galaxy and bringing the Pafdreng down on them. But the Hadarak weren’t going to let anyone else have them either, and they were so far behind enemy lines no one knew they existed, for the space lanes were so full of naval Hadarak only the strongest and faster ships in the galaxy could make it through to scout the area.

To many it seemed that Esna’s Clan was fighting a pointless war, but it wasn’t. To the contrary, it was essential. Every victory made her Clan stronger, and they were good enough to know when they were in