And so it carried on for the next three days. Rumours about the fate of the Agemman colony, was it the Krenarans? Or was it the panicking population? Was there another cause? Or was the planet even there anymore? No one could tell for sure.
Later that evening Michael was relaxing in the Eagle bar again after his shift had ended. He was watching the viewer again, waiting for any news on the Krenaran activities.
Finally the news flashed up on the screen again, and in an instant the entire Eagle bar fell silent.
“Hello, I am Annika Raumov, this is the outer colony news, the top stories today. There is still no contact with the Agemman colony, there is also a huge refugee crisis at the Aurelias colony. We now go live to our correspondent at the Aurelias colony.”
“Thank you Annika.” The young correspondent replied. “I am here at Bravo Gamma base, a small training facility for the E.D. F troop division; within the past few hours the facility and the landing facilities on the planet below have been simply swamped by dozens of transports fleeing the disaster at the Agemman colony,” the correspondent took a short pause for breath.
“The Aurelias colony has granted landing privileges to some of the transports, however there are simply too many refugees for the colony to cope with; and emergency refugee centers are hastily being erected as we speak.”
The image on the screen changed to the small spherical orbital facility above the planet, the lights from its viewports twinkling in the darkness of space. In front of the facility were dozens of transports of various shapes and sizes, some were in a dilapidated state; decades old and only poorly maintained. Some were new; boasting the latest technology and looked ultra modern. However all were queued up past the facility awaiting landing privileges for the planet below.
The face of the reporter flashed up on the screen again. “Most of the refugees aboard these transports have been traveling without food or water for days. Many are showing the signs of starvation, while some of the elderly have already perished en-route.”
Suddenly there was turmoil amongst the queued up transports, the reporter was buffeted as troops sprinted through the corridor he was standing in, making the image shake. He quickly turned to someone off camera.
“Quick, get some footage of that; move!”
The camera quickly jerked around to see explosions and bright flashes of white and green light, thunderous explosions lit up the rear of the line of transports in bright plumes of flame.
The camera zoomed in to see a fleet of six ships of exactly the same configuration as the ones that attacked the Montfort, as well as a far larger vessel a similar size to the Ulysses and of the same colouring as the smaller attacking vessels.
The six smaller ships tore into the defenceless transports with sickening ease, as they darted through the line of vessels, tearing huge gouges into their hulls as they went. The larger vessel hung back and began disgorging waves of smaller vessels that looked like fighter craft.
The training facility only had minimal defences, since it was not an E.D. F Naval station. Its small point defence lasers were repeatedly firing at the Krenaran fighters, who were now performing strafing runs across the bases hull as the alien craft came in fast and low their energy weapons constantly firing causing huge explosions to blossom across the hull of the station. Shaking the terrified cameraman; two of the alien fighters were clipped by the fusillade of bright blue laser fire coming from the station. And span out of control before exploding in small bright fireballs that lit up part of the stations’ now fractured hull.
The transports were faring much worse, so tightly packed it was near impossible to maneuver. Several rammed into one another in their desperation to escape the slaughter, causing massive damage.
The scream of rending metal sounding eerily like the death screams of mighty beasts; two transports exploded, lighting up part of the convoy and the space around them as they smashed into one another.
Another transport was caught by the green energy beams from the alien vessels; the beams slammed home with a huge explosion which tore the transport clean in half. The two ruined halves slowly floated away from each other trailing fire and torn metal debris. The ruined forward half collided into the frontal section of another transport, the force of the impact sending it smashing through the other transports hull, completely destroying its frontal section, and killing its crew instantly.
Inertia still carried it forward; however its frontal section looked like a massive ragged wound, bleeding fire, and flaming gases into space before it too succumbed in another massive explosion that lit up the convoy once again.
The small base had taken horrific damage; huge gaping holes could be seen through its blasted hull. Fire had spread through several decks.
Only one laser was firing now; but still it continued to blaze away at its attackers. All the other lasers simply reduced to charred smoking craters in the bases hull. The last remaining laser was quickly silenced by a flurry of white energy bolts from one of the ‘stealth’ ships.
Two rectangular pods began to slowly and ominously rise from the huge flat-topped alien carrier, which had maintained its distance from the main battle. The pods stopped rising and with the sound of a muted metallic ‘thud’, locked into place.
Then it ferociously launched a salvo of half a dozen torpedoes from these pods. The torpedoes hurtled their way into the packed transports, each one smashed home with deadly accuracy. Detonating upon impact and with each impact a transport was utterly decimated, leaving but a wide field of debris and flame.
The base itself finally succumbed to the catastrophic damage it had taken and tore itself apart in an almighty explosion. A huge shockwave swept through the flaming smashed convoy; and at that moment the recording ceased.
The Krenarans had culled thousands of lives in the space of a few minutes. Michael turned away from the viewer, sick to his stomach.
“Murdering bastards,” he whispered vehemently under gritted teeth.
The entire Eagle bar sat stunned, not a word was whispered. Everyone just stared blankly at the viewer, displaying the E.O.C. A crest. Both men and women sat pale faced; shocked at the brutality of what they had just witnessed. There was a long silence before the news channel came back on the air again.
In a hushed voiced Annika Raumov spoke again. “The sheer scale of this atrocity almost defies belief. There can be no words to describe the level of slaughter we have just witnessed. All our thoughts go out to those and their families who have perished in this senseless act on this tragic day.”
Dylan leaned over to Michael and whispered with a hint of anger, “I wonder if the E.D. F will do something now.”
Next morning there was another briefing, a tired looking Captain Wainwright was presiding. “The E.O.C. A council has unanimously voted to give the E.D. F full emergency powers. E.D. F command has therefore immediately sanctioned alert level one; and has begun mobilizing the entire E.D. F troop division as well as the Navy. As at 23.40 hours last night, we are officially at war with the Krenaran race.”
The Captain proceeded to play a video from the president of E.O.C. A, James Rushfeldt.
“My fellow citizens of Earth and the outer colonies; we have entered a dangerous new phase in the future of humanity; we have encountered our first alien civilization. However they are committed to the destruction and extermination of the human way of life. In response to this, the E.O.C. A council has passed full emergency power to the commander of E.D. F forces, Star Marshall Dornat,” the president gave a short pause.
“We have no choice but to declare war on these Krenarans, as we cannot stand by while they attack our military; our people; our homes, and our very way of life. They seek to eradicate us, until the last vestige of humanity is wiped from the stars,” pausing to take a breath, he continued.
“To this we say that the human race will not lie down and be destroyed, we will not go quietly into extinction! We will win this war, and we will win it for peace; for liberty; and for the human way of life!”
As one the cargo hold of the Ulysses erupted into cheers of, “for the human way of life!”
The Captain allowed the crew this minor infraction before quieting them down again with a wave of the hand.
“However our orders have not changed, we are still to go to the Agemman colony and find out what has happened there. As we speak the E.D. F Navy is being formed into battle groups to take the fight to the enemy, dismissed.”
And with that the officers left the briefing.
“About goddamn time,” Michael and Dylan both said to one another.
A day later the fleet arrived in the Agemman system. With multiple blinding flashes of light the vessels dropped out of plasma drive, and quickly fired up their inter-system boosters.
Michaels’ wrist-comm. chirped, and he pressed it.
“Lieutenant, anything on the targeting arrays,” the voice of Commander Angel cut in.
“Nothing yet, sir,” Michael replied.
“Okay; stay sharp, we don’t know where or when they are going to show up.”
“Yes sir,” Michael replied into his wrist-comm.
Outside; fighter patrols from the Furious were constantly sweeping the area. The sensor suites located within the main command super structure of the Ulysses were constantly scanning the surrounding area, trying to pick up any hint of the Krenarans’ presence, they still could find nothing.
Several hours later, when Captain Wainwright was happy that it was safe a landing team was organized.
To his surprise Michael was selected to be on the team. I must have really impressed Rennick, he thought.
He was due to form up on the shuttle deck in thirty minutes, however before then he had to go to the ships armoury and sign himself out an Armschlager MK35 pulse rifle.
The pulse rifle was a fairly recent addition to the E.D. F arsenal, only released five years ago. It fired bolts of highly charged laser energy at a target. Similar in function to the ubiquitous point defence lasers used aboard the larger ships and stations, however the pulse rifle was a lot less powerful. It still used a small laser pod which clipped into a receiver where the magazine would be on a standard rifle.
He also signed himself out a type 3 combat armour vest, and headed to his quarters where he quickly changed into his ‘landfall’ uniform; comprising of standard combat fatigues, boots, and a royal blue belt which signified that he was Naval personnel and not part of the E.D. F troop division.
When he had done this, he headed to an elevator and rushed to meet the other members of the landing team. It was made up of Commander Angel with his Mexican countenance, who was considerably younger than Wainwright headed up the team. Lieutenant Commander Janos, the ships medical officer. Rennick, Hudson, and Michael, as well as four members of the E.D. F troop division led by Sergeant Clayton.
The soldiers all had a badge of a Hammer wreathed in flame on their arms, with a number underneath it. This signaled they were part of the 254 ^ th hell hammers infantry division, the number below the image was their squad number; it was the same number 4 on all uniforms.
Before they boarded the shuttle, Commander Angel spoke to them. “Our communications team and the Furious have tried to contact the colony. But we have still had no response. So we don’t know what is down there until we land, I need everyone to be extra vigilant, understood?”
Everyone nodded, “yes sir.”
Together they boarded the shuttle. Rennick sat in the pilot’s seat, with Angel opposite him. Michael and the rest of the team were sat on seats that ran the length of the interior of the shuttle.
One of the small shuttle bay doors opened, revealing the ruddy coloured planet below, flecks of white cloud dotted the atmosphere below them.
The tiny shuttle slowly lifted up off the bay floor and accelerated out of the shuttle bay, and out into space.
Out of the small view port in the rear access hatch the awesome shape of the Ulysses could be seen gradually getting smaller, together with its escorting cruisers.
In the cockpit, there was a large window that ran its length where the atmosphere of the planet below could be seen rapidly becoming larger, as the shuttle closed in on its destination.
The windows on all the shuttles were made of a thick, toughened, heat resistant polycarbonate, and it had a small Gatling laser which provided it with limited defence in case of attack.
The shuttle began to shudder violently as it entered the atmosphere of the planet, flames played across the cockpit window as the heat of the atmospheric entry continued to increase.
The shuddering continued unabated, and the occupants were constantly jostled in their seats. Michael silently prayed they would make it through entry. He never did know why, but it always seemed to unnerve him. Rennick and Angel looked as calm as if they were walking the park however, they had done this a thousand times, where Michael had not.
Deep down he knew the shuttles’ 5cm thick bonded titanium hull would protect him.
Within minutes the shuttle had cut through the atmosphere of Agemman. Two small wings folded out from the underside of the shuttle for atmospheric flight.
As they headed towards the surface, they could see the blasted, smoking, charred remains of the colony pockmarked by craters all around it. From this altitude they couldn’t make out any signs of movement on the ground.
“Jesus; must have been one hell of a fight here too,” Rennick said, remembering the slaughter at Bravo Gamma base. Angel touched a control and the shuttles’ hydraulic landing legs began to lower. Shortly thereafter the shuttle gently touched down on the surface.
The rear access hatch of the shuttle blew, releasing the pressurised air within with a hiss, and slowly lowered. The nine people onboard exited the shuttle and the troop division members quickly fanned out to form a defensive perimeter.
Now that they were on the surface, what they witnessed shocked them all to the core. It was like witnessing the aftermath of an atomic blast.
Buildings everywhere were razed to the ground, rubble lay strewn across cracked, blasted streets. In the distance some of the buildings were still smouldering, which Micheal realised, they must have seen in flight.
The stench of smoke, death, and rotting meat lay everywhere, as bodies of men, women, and children were intermingled with the debris.
Michael let out an involuntary gasp and gripped his pulse rifle; sure the E.D. F had endured its fair share of pirate attacks. But nothing like this; this was wholesale slaughter.
Michael again felt sick to his stomach, especially looking at the maggot infested human wreckage laid all about the once busy streets; he tried not to think about it.
The landing party forced themselves to press on.
“We need to get to the colony hub,” Commander Angel said to the rest of the group. “Maybe there we will be able to find out who did this; follow me.”
They pressed on up what appeared to be a dusty major road, strewn with impact craters, rubble, and debris. On either side of this road, blackened, bombed out shops and buildings stood as testament to the destruction.
Michael noticed how quiet it was, not a moan or cry could be heard, not even an animal call or birdsong. It was deathly silent. It unnerved him.
Sergeant Clayton walked over to a large metallic looking object that glinted in the sun, catching his eye. The closer he got, the stranger it appeared. He tried to roll it over with his boot; it was far too heavy. Slinging his weapon over his shoulder he bent down, and with an effort managed to push it over.
What greeted him was the horrendous face of one of the aliens.
“Holy shit!” he shouted in panic, as he fell scrabbling on his backside. “You guys had better come over here,” he said as he tried to regain his composure.
The rest of the landing party hurried across the road to his position and when they arrived they saw a large being, clad in a kind of silvery body armour from its hip to its neck. Its face was reptilian; almost draconic in nature, and was a deep green colour. Its eyes had a rusty red hue to them.
The teeth looked sharp and pointed; and its legs and thighs were also armoured, however all of this armour appeared to be grafted directly onto the alien’s skin. There were three large tears in its armour at waist height, and a thick milky white ooze seeped out from its wounds.
“What the hell is it?” Angel said.
“Well it definitely isn’t human,” Michael replied.
“No shit, Sherlock!” Rennick said with a shake of his head.
One of its hands passed a close resemblance to a human hand; however it was larger and ended in small sharp claws. The other arm disappeared into a large complex cannon like weapon, with several wires and gauges built onto it. This also appeared to be grafted into the alien’s skin in places.
Lieutenant Commander Janos looked closer at the alien, and pulled out a medical scanner from a pouch on his belt. He passed the scanner over the alien.
“I’m not picking up any life signs, its definitely biotechnological anyway; similar to the Cerberus project the Americans tried before the formation of E.O.C.A.”
“What was the Cerberus project?” Michael asked.
“Project Cerberus was a top secret military project ran by the American government around 2025; it was an attempt to create biotechnological soldiers that could withstand far greater damage than conventional troops. With the hope of reducing casualties in a land war; however the project was cancelled,” Commander Angel replied.
“Why was the project cancelled Commander?”
Janos cut in, “ethical reasons mainly, human rights activists got wind of it; also the biological parts of the test subjects kept rejecting the technology, causing mortality rates to be too high.”
He turned and looked at the body in appreciation. “But this is far more advanced; I’d like to return it to the ship for further study Commander.”
“Sorry I can’t do that Lieutenant, we need to find out what’s behind the attacks, and how they did it. Besides we don’t know if there are any more of these things around, our best bet is still the colony hub,” Angel replied emphatically.
They left the body and continued up the road, although with a heightened degree of caution now.
Onboard the Ulysses, orbiting high above the planet surface; the bridge crew were busily monitoring the landing party, gathering pictures and evidence of the destroyed colony; as well as pictures of the dead alien.
Captain Wainwright watched the communications monitor intently, the glow of which lit up his lined features. A crewman passed him a mug of coffee.
“Thanks,” he said, quickly turning back to the monitor.
The display went completely blank.
“What the hell! Is there a problem with this monitor Ensign?”
“Negative Captain, the monitor is working fine, I’ve lost contact with the landing party, trying to re-establish now.”
“Try to send a message to the rest of the fleet,” Wainwright said as he made his way to the command chair.
“Channel clear sir,” the Ensign said.
“E.D.F. S Ulysses to task force six, communication check; repeat; communication check,” Wainwright spoke aloud.
“No response sir,” the Ensign replied.
“Did they receive the message?” Wainwright asked.
“Negative sir; I think we are being jammed!” The Ensign replied in alarm.
Wainwright raced over to the internal comm. and pressed a button. “All hands battle stations, repeat battle stations, this is not a drill.”
He looked over at Lieutenant Iuliov, the chief tactical officer onboard, “Lieutenant are all main guns fully loaded?”
“Yes sir; however our targeting arrays are having a hard time tracking them.”
“Anything on size or composition of enemy forces?”
“Negative as yet Captain.”
“Damn it, okay keep trying.”
Unbeknownst to the fleet, five ‘stealth’ ships and two large carriers were rapidly bearing down on their position.
Two of the stealth ships broke formation, and quickly veered off to attack the destroyers. While the other three bore down on the massive form of the Ulysses itself.
Back on the bridge of the battleship, Lieutenant Iuliov exclaimed aloud. “I’ve got two; no three possibles inbound, moving extremely fast.”
Wainwright raced over and took a look at the tactical display for himself. “That’s them; it’s got to be, port rail-cannons fire!”
With the sound of an immense thunderclap the rail-cannons hurtled their huge shells at near the speed of light. The entire Ulysses shook as the recoil from the salvo took its effect.
The shells slammed into the enemy ships almost instantaneously, and subsequently detonated with a deafening roar, completely enveloping the small ships in flame.
“We have direct hits on all three ships sir!” Iuliov exclaimed triumphantly, the entire bridge crew cheered their triumph.
The flames from the impacts of the rail-cannons died down slowly, revealing the hulls of the three enemy ships.
“Wait. That’s a negative Captain; targets remain, we barely slowed them down!” A worried Iuliov shouted over the din.
The three Krenaran ships continued to close on the Ulysses at a terrific pace.
The other two stealth ships began their onslaught against the destroyers. The Alberta was torn completely in two, as it was hit directly amidships. The force of the Krenaran energy weapons shearing the two halves of its hull apart, flames roared from the destroyed decks, and the screech of torn and buckled metal sounded its death scream.
The Yukon took a direct hit on its bow; the shot instantly decimating its sloping frontal section, flames wreathed the front of the vessel.
The remainder of the fleet tried to break orbit, but it was painfully slow, the medium cruisers began to turn to get a better shot at their foes.
The fighter bay doors on the upper deck of the furious slowly opened. Its entire fighter wing took flight.
The Ulysses opened fire once again with its rail-cannons, the thunderous boom again ringing out into space; two of its attackers were hit, while the third shot went astray.
The stealth ships returned fire on the mighty battleship. One shot slammed into the portside crew quarters block, causing carnage within as fire swept through multiple decks, dozens of officers and crewmen were swept out into the cold vacuum of space through the huge rents in the side of the ship.
A second shot smashed into one of the port rail-cannon emplacements, turning the huge weapon into a mass of flaming wreckage. The third shot tore into one of its turning thrusters, disintegrating it in a huge ball of flame and debris, which lit up the forward sections of the ship.
On the bridge of the Ulysses it was a scene of similar destruction; flames, collapsed girders, and the smashed remains of consoles littered the area. Several bodies of horribly mutilated crewmen lay motionless on the deck.
“Report!” a sweating, grimy Wainwright screamed over the din of the roaring flames and cries of the injured.
A battered Ensign replied, “We’ve lost port rail-cannon ‘B’. The port forward turning thrusters are also destroyed. Crew Quarters block A has taken a direct hit, heavy casualties reported.”
“Damnit!” Wainwright shouted. “Navigation; have we broken orbit yet.”
“Negative Captain, another thirty seconds at least.”
“Once we are clear, I want all power diverted to the main boosters, and then engage plasma drive; get us the hell out of here.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“What about the crew on the surface?” Iuliov asked.
“We can’t wait for them; we’ll have to leave them behind,” Wainwright responded.
He hated doing it, but it was the only choice. If the Ulysses hung around, the entire ship could be lost.
Slowly but inevitably, the two enemy carriers bore down on the battered, embattled E.D. F fleet. With a certain grim finality those deadly twin rectangular pods once again arose from the decks of the two huge alien ships. At the same time from underneath the carriers, waves of fighter craft advanced on the E.D. F force.
The remaining fighters of the Furious changed course to intercept this new threat, the E.D. F carrier also launched its own bomber wing. The mighty God-hammer bombers closed on the mysterious alien carriers.
Two stealth ships converged upon the Europa, the distinctive green energy beams ripped into its boosters, and the bright white torpedoes smashed into its hull. The flames lit up the impact sites of the torpedoes in a fiery orange glow, which gradually spread throughout the ship as internal fires took hold; before the cruiser finally blew itself apart in a huge fireball sending out a massive shockwave and spraying out debris in all directions.
The Endurance powered up its own boosters and started to chase down a stealth ship, both ships jinked this way and that to avert the mass of flaming wreckage and debris of the other ships.
The small; fast light cruiser managed to stay on the tail of the Krenaran vessel. The Endurance’s forward torpedo launchers lit up as three torpedoes streaked towards the Krenaran ship.
The enemy ship rapidly zigzagged to avoid two of the incoming torpedoes; however the third hit home, slamming into the Krenaran ships rear engines, and in a small explosion the brightly glowing blue strip blinked, and then finally faded out as the Krenaran ship slowed to a halt.
Aboard the battered, smoke filled bridge of the Ulysses, Lieutenant Iuliov shouted aloud in jubilation. “We got one, damnit we got one!”
“Who?” Wainwright shouted.
“The Endurance just took out one of the enemy ships’ engines with a torpedo shot, they must be vulnerable to our torpedoes.”
“Not necessarily, the Endurance may have just got lucky, but concentrate your shots on their engines anyway. Right now, we’ll take anything we can get.”
In retaliation, two of the stealth ships opened fire on the Endurance, twin beams of bright green energy hit the small cruiser directly amidships; blasting a massive ragged hole straight through the vessel; and sending it drifting through space, on fire and powerless. Multiple fires on board overwhelmed the small ship. Before it too exploded in a bright fireball, as its plasma tanks ruptured.
Elsewhere the E.D. F fighters and their Krenaran counterparts were locked in a bitter battle, both sides were taking casualties, as the mass of fighters jinked and danced around one another in a deadly game of cat and mouse.
God-hammer bombers managed to skirt around the worst of the fighting. And closed with one of the alien carriers; their deadly payload ready.
Two other stealth ships flew close to the Ulysses preparing for another run on the damaged battleship, its smaller point defence lasers blasting away in a desperate attempt to keep the Krenaran vultures from picking apart the ship.
The alien ships jinked left, right and quickly barrel rolled to avoid the incoming fusillade from the battleship. Before both unleashed their primary weapons; one shot tore into one of the primary dorsal rail-cannons, detonating it in a huge explosion that lit up the entire upper section of the ship. Flames and debris streamed out from the smashed emplacement.
The second shot sheared the command section clean off the ship, leaving a ragged hole in the hull of the battleship. The drifting; flaming wreckage of the command section became caught in the gravity well of the planet as it slowly began to burn up in orbit trailing smoke and flame.
This final punishment was ultimately too much for the Ulysses, and it listed. The beleaguered vessel caught within the gravity well of Agemman; it began to heat up, as it continued its uncontrolled descent into the atmosphere. The remains of the once proud battleship burst apart in the upper atmosphere trailing fire, debris and smoke.
The Furious, the only surviving E.D. F vessel remaining in the conflict tried to make a break for it. The huge boosters firing for all they were worth as the huge carrier desperately tried to get up some speed. It did manage to get some distance between it and the battle, under the cover of its few remaining fighters and bombers.
Its forward plasma emitters continued to power up, finally, twin streams of bright blue plasma arced out from the vessel and shot straight ahead of the ship; however as it accelerated toward the plasma wake multiple torpedoes from the approaching enemy carriers detonated the Furious’s engines and blew the carrier apart in a massive fireball, sending out a huge, bright shockwave.
Without a stable stream of energised plasma, the plasma wake disintegrated as quickly as it was formed.
The E.D. F fleet had been completely and utterly decimated.
Far below on Agemman itself, the landing party continued to carefully make their way towards the colony hub, completely unaware of the huge battle that had just taken place far above them.
Rennick held out his hand in a motion to stop. The party stopped dead. The Lieutenant Commander whispered, “can’t you hear that.”
“Hear what?” Juan Angel replied looking at Rennick.
The thud, thud, of heavy footsteps was barely audible, but was getting louder, and closer.
“Everyone into the ruins,” Clayton said quickly.
The rest of the landing party complied; and they quickly dove into the ruins. The party readied their weapons as they took up positions amongst the rubble. They were just in time as seven of the alien warriors strode into view.
The entire landing party stayed absolutely still, barely daring to breathe; Sergeant Clayton and the rest of the troops slowly trained their weapons on the aliens who thudded past them; also headed toward the colony hub.
One of the landing party troopers slowly eased into a better position to track the small alien group with his weapon, when a piece of unstable masonry gave way under his boot. The soldier fell, and tumbled down the rest of the broken pile of debris; causing a huge amount of noise and a plume of dust as he fell flat on his back onto the road just behind the alien patrol.
The Krenarans quickly spun around and let loose a guttural roar; levelling their large arm mounted weapons at the lone trooper.
The rest of the landing party hunkered down amongst the ruins and opened fire with their pulse rifles, with a fizz multiple blue flashes slammed home on the aliens.
The laser energy fired from the pulse rifles simply dissipated on the metallic armour of the alien warriors; one of the hulking brutes did go down though, as a shot slammed into its unprotected head; the ruin of its face spraying white ichor onto the cracked tarmac below.
One of the aliens returned fire, targeting the exposed trooper; a loud ‘wuu-doom’ noise came from the alien weapons as the trooper was blasted backwards into the air, completely off his feet and landing with a sickeningly wet thud on the road. His head snapped backwards with the force of the impact and smashed into the tarmac with a crack. A foot wide hole blasted through his mid-riff.
The rest of the alien force followed suit and opened fire into the ruins, their monstrously powerful cannons blasting away large chunks of masonry, and sending plumes of dust and debris high into the air.
Commander Angel took a lucky hit in the arm. The shot blasting his left arm clean off at the elbow spraying out blood from the wound. The force of the shot spun him almost completely around; he screamed in pain before a second shot blasted a hole through his back, pieces of torn intestine and gore splattered onto the rocks in front of him, as he was simultaneously catapulted face first into the debris.
Sergeant Clayton had managed to down another of the burly aliens. His pulse rifle blasting half of the aliens’ skull away; chunks of brain matter and white ichor flowed out of the half destroyed alien head. The warrior collapsed with a thud as its knees buckled.
Rennick poked his head up from his position to line up a shot; and was greeted with a cannon shot slamming into his face, exploding it like a crushed melon; spraying blood, bone, and brain matter onto the walls nearby.
Michael had seen enough of this wanton slaughter and his nerve gave out. He sprinted as fast as he could away from the slaughter; cannon shots fizzed past him as he ran, exploding into the rubble and tarmac all around him.
He never stopped running and never looked back.
Adrenaline kept him going; he ran past numerous ruined buildings, past abandoned shops with dusty smashed windows; empty of all stock.
Then as he carried on running he was rugby tackled to the ground; the bone crunching impact forcing the breath from his lungs.
Mad with panic and desperation, Michael lashed out blindly with his boot at his unseen assailant, catching nothing but fresh air. He felt the cold steel of a combat knife pressed to his throat.
“Who the hell are you!” shouted the man; holding Michael’s head so that he couldn’t make out his features.
“Lieutenant Michael Alexander. E.D. F Navy,” Michael said gasping for air; “who the hell are you!”
The man showed his face, he was a somewhat grizzled man, in his mid-thirties, with a slightly lined face and a dark brown moustache.
“My name is Major Nikolai Vargev; 1 ^ st E.D. F commandoes, troop division. Well now that the formalities are over with, get over there,” he said in a forceful Russian twang as he pointed to a small metal manhole cover; forcibly pushing Michael towards it.