Children Of Gaia

Chapter 12

Niezen's allied forces pushed on past the forest they first took sanctuary in and entered the open plains. There they found a horrid sight, surrounded by scorched earth was the burnt-out shell of the Behemoth Felix and Baxter had taken for the reconnaissance mission. Niezen instructed his driver to halt and he stepped out to investigate. Niezen was followed by a handful of Troopers and Argai as they poked around the wreckage. They circled the shell looking for any signs and on the opposite side they found a body.

A Trooper removed his helmet just in time to vomit, many others looked away, unable to process the gruesome sight before them. In a kneeling position the body was propped up by wooden stakes protruding from the lower abdomen. There was no mandible and all the fingers were missing. There were no other apparent injuries and there was more than enough blood to indicate a slow, merciless death.

"Savages," Niezen muttered under his breath as he took a knee, "I'm sorry I wasn't here to see you off, old friend. You served me well and you certainly deserved a more noble death." Niezen then put down his rifle and called for Troopers to get shovels. He lent down next to Baxter's desecrated remains and set to removing the stakes. Niezen wrapped his fallen comrade in a blanket and joined the Troopers grave digging. Baxter was left to rest in an unmarked grave.

The Allied forces camped 50km South of the Hyperion. Drones were dispatched and confirmed their suspicions before being shot down by the larger class UAV patrolling the skies.

"Well, if they weren't sure about us coming they are now," stated Niezen.

"With an eye in the sky we can't sneak up on them," added Fletcher.

"I have a plan, let's send the Drusai into their first positions now. Then we take out their UAV," informed Niezen.

Niezen split the Drusai regiment in half and sent them NE and NW taking a wide berth from the Hyperion. To keep them from straying too close and being spotted the Drusai platoons were led by drones to their new positions.

The Behemoths sat ready with turrets trained skyward and a pair of drones were sent to bait the UAV. The first drone was shot down immediately and the second led the UAV straight back to the firing line where a salvo from each Behemoth was unleashed, a few shots succeeded in clipping it's wings sending the UAV spiralling down.

"They would have seen us before the transmission cut out," Fletcher pointed out nervously.

"Of course," smirked Niezen, "I'm banking on it. Hopefully they assume the Drusai chose not to join us after losing one of their own," explained Niezen.

"What now?" questioned Fletcher frantically.

"Now we wait to see if that was their only UAV," answered Niezen smugly.

After waiting almost 2 hours without losing another drone, despite sending them right over the compound walls and the Hyperion itself, Niezen was confident they had eliminated the mutineers edge.

The Drusai drones took flight alerting them to proceed to their secondary positions, placing the Drusai platoons just out of visual range. Niezen then had the Behemoths form a line and close in to just close enough to be spotted by the sentries.

"I see Heavies in those towers Sir. And they're every 50m," advised a Trooper manning the drone station. "We've got activity over the wall. They're taking up defensive positions amongst the equipment spread around the compound. Three lines of defence, they look pretty well fortified. There has to be at least eighty hostiles not including the units in the towers."

"Hmmm," pondered Niezen, "that must be close to his entire force. But why would that fool hedge his bets like that?" Niezen muttered to himself loud enough for those close by to overhear.