06:00, Obelisk Project Scaffold, Deep range desert

  “X001 is at 75% sir, almost ready for the first test” Said the officer sitting at the scaffold link

  “Thank you Mr Felinor” replied a tall, blue eyed, pale skinned man in a blue Chief Officer uniform, his light blond, wispy, hair was held down by a peaked cap as he stood in the middle of CSC, Central Scaffold Command, with an air of confidence and command around his posture. This was Chris Lengrang, the most decorated person in scaffold control, he had been sent here at his request, a research and construction job was just the break he needed.

 Chris was going to be in command of the X001 when it was ready and operational, that would be from 80% completed onwards, and Haranka Inshiuda, the dark skinned, green eyed, cheerful officer in charge of all that happened onboard X001 at this moment in time, would become Chris’ second in command.

  “Er, sir, there maybe a problem heading this way from sou-south west” called an Officer from the scanner console, in the red of a junior officer

  “What is it?” asked Chris as he strode across the room towards the officer who had called him to him

  “Um, it appears to be two Alintarian war-pacers, and one Hoverin, MK5 the scanners say,” replied the junior scanner officer, pointing first to the radar then to the scan report screen.

  “Hmmmmm” Chris frowned “charge scaffold weaponry and launch three squadrons of Glinters, I want those machines disabled, not obliterated. We could do with fresh parts”

  The ‘Nenolin peoples Federation’ and the ‘Alintar Confederate of sectors’ had been at war since the Nenolin federation split from the confederation, claiming (with proof, however unpopular) that the confederation was a corrupt organisation run with bribes and threats, living in an upper-class life on the back of now poor nations excessive tribute. The Confederation had replied with a blitz of Neonil, one of the most important cities in the federation, known as the second capital, with massive loss of life, the confederation had used cluster ‘Deepshine’ missiles, the kind that lost its flight stage when at the target, plummeted to earth, launching missiles into the atmosphere before the KR51 nuclear warhead hits the ground, exploding on impact. The clustered second stage bombardment comes about hour later. The confederation launched 50 missiles, and each missile launched 120 more missiles, do the math. Out of 500,000,000, inhabitants, about 375,000,000 died in the first strike, one hour later around another 125,000,000 died in the fires of the second stage. It was not a warning, or an example, it was just a massacre, the Nenolin population unanimously declared war on the Alintar Confederation and sent an air force of 20,000 Gleam fighters and 10,000 Blackout Bombers and obliterated the trade city of the Alintar Confederation, 72 hours after offering the confederation an ultimatum and the city an evacuation request. Although warned beforehand, some 400,000 people were killed, as they probably didn’t believe that the Nenolins would really bomb them. In the beginning the Nenolin council did not want to kill too many people, even if they were Alintarian, that changed when five farming cities, outside the border of Nenolin territory, were obliterated, those cities didn’t even send any tribute or tax to the Nenolin, they were self sufficient, now they’re just craters in the barren wasteland that used to be the lush, green ‘Valley of the Afternoon sun’.

  “Pacer delta one to Hoverin gamma, this is our target, sail in, shoot, shoot then shoot some more, after that, get your ass out of there as fast as that can go”

  “Rodger that delta one, this is Hoverin gamma, were going…ahh, Glinters at three o’ the clock, readying weapons, raising…crrrrrk”

  “Gamma! Come in gamma! Oh shit! Activate weaponry, raise shielding, give me a tactical readout, on the double”

Glinters were the main backbone of the air force of the Nenolin Federation, a long cylindrical fuselage tapering off to a point, with two engines with thrusters on the back, at either side, with stabilization fins, a cockpit near the front with a gattling gun either side of the cockpit and an energy cannon in the fuselage, the muzzle opening just below the taper on the front of the fuselage.

  “Omega squadron, I see our targets, aim for life support, weapons and power systems, we’re to disable these guys, not destroy them”

  “Rodger Omega leader, Landau squadron we’re to take on the other pacer, Golan squadron return to base, your parts done, order us a round of drinks when you get in”

  “I read ya Landau Leader, Golan squadron, back to the barn, we need to order the others a drink”

Golan squad turned back, leaving Omega and Landau squads to take down the pacers, Omega squad headed towards the one pacer with squad leader markings on and Landau squad took on the other pacer. Ducking in under the Tessla claws, omegas 1-5 shot under, round and up, swinging in round the back to take out the main power plant, omegas 6-10 swooped down, omega 8 catching superficial damage from a Tessla bolt, they screamed up towards the weapon power core, taking it out in a concentrated hail of gattling gun fire.

  “All omegas, regroup and concentrate all fire on the life support nodule, and on my mark use energy cannon”

All omegas regrouped into claw formation and opened on the pacers life support nodule, then as omega leader screamed, “mark, go, go, fire” all the omega squadron opened fire with the energy cannons, mission successful.

  Landau squadron were not as lucky, landaus 4 and 8 were hit by Tessla shots but kamikazed into the life support nodule, sending it critical, landau 5 was struck by a chunk of rubble and ejected, after setting the autopilot on a collision course with the weapon power plant, the pilot landing on the top of the bridge of the pacer, busting in and stunning the command crew with tranquilliser rounds from his pistol as the rest of the squadron destroyed the rest of the power plants, Landau 9 getting caught as the life support nodule finally detonated. Landau squadron, mission complete.

When all Glinter squadrons had returned there was a sombre service in the mess hall for the three lost pilots, everyone took a sip of the drinks ordered for those pilots who hadn’t returned as a way of honouring them.

  “This war sucks big time,” said one of the pilots, his flight suit showing him to be from reaper squadron, the best squadron at the scaffold

  “Yeah, but remember who we’re fighting against, those no good, dirty dealing, backstabbing sons of bitches the Alintarian confederate” replied omega leader

This statement was met with curses directed towards the confederate and cheers and praise for omega leader and all pilots fighting in the war.

  “I hope the walker is as decisive a weapon as they say it will be,” said meteor leader, wistfully

  “Are ya kiddin’? That thing’s a walkin’ fortress, have ya seen the guns on it?” a Hercules squadron pilot said, gesturing out the window at what they had been talking about, the war walker, X001.

  It stood at 10km tall, 3km wide and 3km thick, with 1km thick armour plating. In its unfinished state it had neither radar nor secondary construction rig. It was also missing the main solar collector rig and the solar power plant, as the scaffold was powering it at this point in time. When it was completed it would be a mobile city, capable of defending itself easily, able to construct extra vehicles like Glinters, to replace those destroyed in combat as it was going to be defended by ten of the squadrons at the scaffold; Omega, Landau, Golan, Meteor, Hercules, Pegasus, Pliandu, Epsilon, Terra and Reaper. The war walker would stride along on four legs, with a supply of resources from self-built (built by the war walker) resource miner vehicles. And if the three generators in each power plant did end up destroyed then the entire five-levelled command centre could detach and could be carried away on one of the resource mining vehicles.

  “Man, that thing’s invincible, nothing could destroy it” remarked a Pegasus pilot

  “One thing could, the Spideran” replied a Delta squadron pilot

  “There aint no such thing an the Spideran, it’s just a myth” retorted the Pegasus pilot