Fiction:Andromeda War/Friends and Enemies

Best Enemies
There was a ripple of electromagnetic energy and a flash of blue light as a Jet-Black IGA stealth corvette jumped into the system, 10,000 km away from the collosal Galactic Blade. Onboard, commanders Rayker and Jingo waited as the stealth corvette fired its GUT engines and began docking maneuvers. A panel flipped out in front of them, showing the face of Supreme Admiral Varcaytya. "Hello", said Varcaytya."We've, well,been debating whether or not its a good idea to deploy both of you in the Xeelos system for a while now, but we've decided it might be a neccesary evil, even considuring, you're little "competition"." Jingo proceeded to punch Rayker in the face."However, we think it might be neccesary for us to take control of the system. Just remember though, youre not on Jin-Git anymore.' The Galactic Blade fired its antimatter cannon, destroying a nearby Grox Cruiser. "Don't worry," laughed Jingo, "My death squads will burn the Grox into dust." "Death squads, Jingo?" Rayker smirked, "My teams are better, and they know the meaning of the word collateral damage." "Rayker, civilians are fair game." "That's not in the rules."Rayker seemed slightly disturbed. "I wrote the rules. Let's go."

Planet --Xeelous 4-- 03:47 Mins since planetfall
"Concentrate fire on the snipers, go, go!" Damn. The entire thirty man scout team, guards and all, had been missing for days. The grox presence seemed to be minor, but dangerous nevertheless. "Halt!" The voice was tinny and robotic. A Grox. Three of those thrice-cursed race walked out into the middle of the street. Rayker's troops had been mostly fighting to secure the drop zone, a small pioneer city made by the explorers. The three Grox trailed five prisoners, all awake and obviously terrified. "Stop firing." Rayker's troopers lowered their weapons. "We offer a trade, puny fleshlings. We give back these five hostages, and you leave this world. We give all thirty of your men, you leave this segmentum alone.

Jingo's disruptor cannons flipped into place and fired, vaporizing a nearby grox battle suit. "No!" Rayker shouted. The Grox incinerated the hostages.Rayker, fired his Rail Rifle, headshotting a battle suit, and jumped into melee combat. The IGA troops opened fire with plasma rifles, killing the last. "Jingo", Rayker shouted "Why did you do that!" "You think that we should have let several billion people die instead?" "All we had to do is wait for snipers to get into position!" "Who cares, lets go."

Suddenlly, they heard a rumble behind them, and a colossal Marinox smashed through the wall. It flicked five Troopers into the air, and then charged at Rayker. Rayker held his ground, and pulled out a stubby shotgun like weapon. "Surprise", Rayker said, and then fired a miniature anti-tank missile into the Marinox's face. Half of it was torn open, and it staggered back, where it was brought down by concentrated plasma fire.

Rayker pulled out his data pad. Orbital satellites showed the main Grox base was around 5 kilometers away. "Alright", Rayker said, "we're close".

21:23 Mins since planetfall.
Rayker looked down at the massive Grox base. Hundreds of soldiers and dozens of tanks, Dronox, and Marinox stood ready, while a dozen star fighters flew overhead. "Okay." Rayker said. "Thats a lot bigger than I expected. But I've got a plan." Rayker pointed at the AA missile turret on the buildings roof. "Basically, Jingo, you and you're squad need to draw as many of them off as you can. Then, me and my team infiltrate the building, free the hostages, and use the AA turret to clear the skies. Then we get on a dropship and get out of here".

Jingo and his squad targeted an orbiting Grox fighter and opened fire. The fighter turned around and screamed towards them, and it's laser cannon fired at a building and collapsed it, killing two Troopers. It then decelerated and began strafing the area with superlaser fire. Suddenly,five IGA troopers sprinted out behind cover and opened fire with plasma rifles, stripping the shields down to 25%. Jingo then fired his shoulder cannons, bringing the shields down to 0%, and fired two missiles, knocking the fighter out of the air.

Meanwhile, Rayker's team had already reached the holding cells. He detonated an EMP charge, deactivating the cell's force field. Each of the Shadows unclipped a bag from their battle suits carrying weapons and gave them to the prisoners. As they ran towards the missile turret, they suddenly heard a huge rumble as a Mecha Dronox stepped on to the platform. "Cover me!" Rayker shouted, and jumped. The IGA troopers sprayed plasma fire into it, distracting it as Rayker jumped onto its head and drove his plasma sword into it's head. He then ran inside the missile turret, which fired a massive volley of missile, destroying the remaining Groxoplanes. The tanks and Marinox opened fire, but suddenly a Guthlac flew in, firing it's 40mm gauss cannons and proton missiles into the Grox troops. Rayker jumped in, and the dropship pulled out, picking up Jingo on the way as the base was glassed from orbit.

The Fall
The Godsword class warship fired its GUT thrusters and exited geosynchronous orbit,carrying Rayker toward the Galactic Blade. Suddenly, as the Godsword flew over Xeelous 5 on the way, all alarm horns blared as a Grox mothership warped in two light-seconds away. The Godsword opened up, firing a massive barrage of antimatter rounds. The mothership was damaged, but not significantly, and as the Godsword reloaded, it opened fire, launching dozens of antimatter missiles. The Godsword's shields were heavily damaged, being stripped down to 56%, and its commander realized that another volley could finish it off. So instead, he concentrated all firepower on weapons. Support cannons were pushed up to teraton yields while antimatter weapons were launched at double or more the normal rate.

The Mothership was heavily damaged,but before it was destroyed it launched another volley. Both ships crippiled, they both tumbled towards the ground.

Rayker stood in an escape shuttle and watched as the Godsword hit the ground. It exploded, slagging most of the continent. This would make things more difficult. The dropships pulled out of orbit and head towards the nearest fleet.