“GO GO GO!,” shouted Ramirez, as the Dropship bays opened, revealing thick purple-gray creep below. “PERIMETER, NOW!”
The 238th sprinted out of the Dropships, and formed up a loose ring around their position, the marines interspaced with the FAVs. Cover was taken, weapons were locked. Everyone was ready.
Lozupone waited before the sound of the Dropships fading into the sky had subsided, and had been replaced by silence and an occasional gust of wind. Then she spoke four words: “Snipers up. Guards down.”
The two snipers raced forward from their position atop the FAVs, running at a dead sprint across the relatively open expanse between Lozupone and their position.
“Reporting, … ma’am,” came the heavy reply, when the two corporals ran up.
“Get up. Advance scouts are to be taken down … move now. Contact to be kept to a minimum. Tell us when we’re clear to go.”
“Roger that ma’am.”
The corporals raced away again, bags shucked, running with only their rifles.
Ramirez appeared by her side, and handed her the electrobinoculars. Lozupone scanned the landscape, searching for their objective.
She was greeted with the most unpleasant sight to the eye. The lush ground was covered with thick Creep, bubbling and oozing wherever she looked. What trees remained were shadows of their former selves – dead, like the rest of the landscape. Small rocky outcroppings protruded through the ground, and then … there – the Hive that controlled planetary defense. It was uglier than she imagined, being almos-
“Contact.” The voice echoed through Lozupone’s head, as some of the 238th, somewhere, had made contact with Zerg forces.
“Engage,” Ramirez barked into the mike. Rifles opened fire, spewing hot metal, their staccato bursts echoing loudly. Alien screeches abounded, as Zerglings and Hydralisks alike were mowed down. Pronounced thumps announced the arrival of rockets, and the loud chattering of Rippers echoed in the night, as Lozupone shoved away the electrobinoculars and sprinted toward the battle.
She pulled up, and screaming obscenities, unleashed her Ripper into action, the muzzle flash lighting up the battlefield. A Zergling leapt into the air, as if in slow motion, attacking her. Lozupone looked, stared, and jerked the trigger, for a long pronounced burst from her machine gun. The Zergling fell, rolling away, its screams gurgling with alien blood, and collapsed in the darkness.
All around her, marines were engaged in fighting off the Zerg. Overhead, two Mutalisks appeared, their grotesque forms spraying Glave Worms down on the marines. Rockets lit off, snaking in, filling the Mutalisks with shrapnel and tearing them to shreds.
Slowly, the firefight subsided. Sporadic rifle fire could still be heard, but Lozupone had claimed two kills, and wiped the corrosive alien flesh from her boots. All around, piles of Zerg carcasses were haphazardly strewn, entrails and exploded, formless body parts lying on the ground.
“Commander, advance scouts taken out. We’re clear up ahead. Follow our navtrail.” The snipers had radioed in.
“Roger that, corporal,” Ramirez spoke into his microphone. He raised his left fist, pumped it in the air once, and silently, the Jack Knifes started forward.
***
“Wow. You guys are good,” said Farrell into his microphone, seated in the HAPC. Although his observation post was atop the hovering personnel transport, he still used the viewscreen to keep an eye on the electronic readout of the battlefield.
“Thank you sir,” came the stern reply from Harris, seated below in the cargo hold, fiddling with electronic equipment, as he, O’neill, and Freeman coordinated the Zerg attacks via computer.
“Corporal O’neill, bring up the battle plan layout for the evening on my screen up here.”
“Yessir. Give me a moment. Would you like the team’s and enemies’ current positions sir?”
“That’d be nice.”
Farrell’s screen flickered, and he saw a readout come up, displaying the Jack Knifes as small yellow triangles on the terrain. The Zerg were tiny red blips, moving back and forth, coming near the yellow triangles every so often, and disappearing off the screen.
“Thank you Corporal.” Farrell leaned back in his seat, and calmly smiled to himself. He had everything under control.
***
Up ahead, in the darkness, the 238th moved on. Approaching a crest in the ground, uglies popped up and ran into the formation. The marines fired back, easily taking down the zerglings. Reaching the hill though, things evolved very rapidly.
Zerg defenses were hammering the Jack Knifes. Hydralisks laid down covering fire, and Zergling rushes over the hilltop were becoming more frequent. The 238th was jammed in between a precipice and the hilltop. The path leading up to the lair was over the hill. Detours meant time, and time was of the essence.
Ramirez called together a few marines, and over the loud gunfire, began giving orders. Moments later, Alpha Squad and Lozupone ran over around the side of the hill, escorted by a FAV.
“Sir, we’re in position.”
“GO DAMMIT GO!” He shouted into his mike, as he emptied yet another clip at the zerglings coming over the blood-soaked crest.
A magnesium flare was shot off, illuminating the battlefield. That was the signal. With a grunt, Ramirez and the rest of the Jack Knifes rose up and sprinted over the hill, into the oncoming fire.
Rifle muzzles lit up, emptying their deadly contents into alien bodies. Hydralisks were flailing, caught in the streams of gunfire all around. Blood was spattered over the marines, as they moved down through their swath of destruction.
Two marines to Lozupone’s right dropped, their CMCs red. She didn’t even look down, redirecting her Ripper to spew hot metal into the Hydralisk that had popped out of the ground. Shouting war cries at the top of her lungs, she inched forward with Alpha Squad, taking cover, shooting at anything that looked like it belonged under her boot. The pronounced thumps of grenades being fired into clumps of zerglings and hydralisks splattered body parts across the ground. The marines kept pressing on, now having the advantage, as they continued their decimation of the Zerg force.
The FAVs raced back and forth, relaying marines quickly from over the hill into battle, aiding their fire wherever needed. One FAV began to flash red, and then flat-lined, the engine dying, as marines jumped off the side, taking what cover they could before they too became a carcass on the ground.
Finally, the last of the Zerg seemed to be driven off, for the time being. A shaky perimeter was established, so the Jack Knifes could reload and quickly re-gather their bearings. Lozupone trotted over to Ramirez, as she ejected a spent magazine and slapped in a fresh one, taken from beneath her shoulder armor. Her visor hissed open.
“Jesus.” In the dying light of the flare, Zerg carcasses littered the landscape, piling up all around the small clearing where the firefight had just taken place. At least a dozen marines had ‘died’ – they collected their gear and began heading back to the extraction point, as required.
“Dammit. I thought we hadn’t lost that many.” Lozupone turned to see Ramirez squatting down beside her, checking his wrist computer. He glanced up.
“We’re down to three complete squads, with nine from Alpha gone.”
“Shit.” Her voice echoed softly across the grotto.
“Oh well. We gotta press on. Move it out.” Ramirez stood, looking towards the horizon. He motioned the Jack Knifes forward, and they set out over the Creep-covered terrain yet again.
***
“Aww. They didn’t fare as well this time,” thought Colonel Farrell to himself, as he watched a few of the yellow triangles drop, as the red blips swarmed around the position, before finally being dispelled.
O’neill’s voice came over the comm. “Sir, because the Jack Knife’s have taken casualties now, they’re going to head back to the extraction point. In fact, I recommend we do the same. We’ve advanced much further ahead given the timetable, and the rest of the Jack Knifes will shortly reach the lair to plant the nuclear charge. I’ll reprogram the computer, so the fake Zerg stay away from us as we head back.”
“Okay. Go ahead corporal. This was interesting tonight. Thank you.”
The HAPC lifted off from resting on the sandy soil, dust scattered and burnt off underneath the exhaust from the turbines. The transport turned, and slow drifted off over the ground.
***
“Target in site ma’am. Charge location locked in. Zerg activity to a minimum.” The tinny voice of the two snipers came into the headset of Lozupone’s armor, as she stood next to Ramirez, gazing into the acrid haze that had settled over the battlefield.
“What?! Excellent! How’s the road in?”
“Good shape ma’am. Light resistance – It’s a walk in the park.”
Lozupone didn’t reply. She tapped her microphone twice, and the Jack Knifes rose from their cover and crossed the landscape, heading for the Zerg nest. No shots were fired. It was too quiet.
***
“Fuckin’ shit, man.” Private Andrew Neckab sat, toying with his rifle, waiting at the flashing extraction beacon.
“No fuckin’ way, man. We’re fucked ‘til Rimmy gets back.” Private John Railer stood next to him, looking out into the night through his electrobinoculars, turning as he saw movement on the horizon. “SHIT! Fuckin’ Zerg took a FAV. And … it’s got seven good guys in back! Fuckin’ A!” Railer spit in disgust.
***
“Captain Freeman?”
“Yessir?” Freeman poked his head through the bottom hatch in Farrell’s observation deck.
“Captain, I though you said the Zerg were staying away from the extraction point. Didn’t you guys program the computer that way?”
“We did sir. What are you talking about?”
Farrell’s eyes widened in apprehension. “Here … see here? This?” He held out his viewpad to Freeman; the same pad which Farrell had been using to watch the battle.
Freeman scrolled around the screen, and saw where the 238th was moving towards the lair. He followed their path backwards, and found the extraction point, a green blinking square, with about a dozen blue triangles, the ‘dead’ marines, nearby.
“Oh shit.” He zoomed out from the extraction beacon, and saw a large ring of red blips moving in around the blue triangles, which apparently had not noticed the Zerg closing on their position.
Freeman took the pad back down to Harris, toying with the holoprojection equipment. “Are these Zerg supposed to be there?”
Harris looked up, and slid his headset off. “Huh? Oh, not at all. It’s a screen glitch. It’s okay. Computer goofed up somehow. Plus, safety protocols are on, remember? As far as the marines are concerned, the holograms can’t see’em. They’ll be fine.”
“Give it back to the Colonel. He’s gonna miss the fun part.” O’neill glanced over from his station.
“Okay, corporal. You better be right.” Freeman headed back to the ladder.
***
“Hey! The FAV got Rimmy! Hellya! Poker! Let’s go!” Neckab stood, dropping his gun where he had been sitting, and trotted over to the newly-arrived vehicle. Railer remained at the beacon, scanning the surrounding ridgeline with the binoculars.
As the marines jumped out of the back of the FAV, Neckab shouted. “Rimmy! Shit man! You died quick! Get down here – poker time! We got a couple hours and shi-”
“Hold it.” Sergeant Jeremy Rimm froze in his tracks, raising his left fist in the air, his right hand jerking the action on his gun. The marines behind him cocked rifles and fanned out.
“Where did your friend go?” Rimm spat out the question, fear in his voice.
“Relax Rimmy. Nature fuckin’ called. Relax man. He’s fine.” Neckab walked back to the beacon, bending to pick up his rifle.
“OH SHIT!” A long, staccato burst from an Impaler rifle penetrated the air. A dark shape flashed past, and Railer’s voice rang out through the night air. Unearthly alien shrieks followed, and a bone-shattering crunch washed across the plain.
“FUCK! RAILER!” Neckab and Rimm ran over to the sound, firing off grenades and their Rippers, shredding alien forms off now-dead John Railer, lying in pieces on the ground. Two marines sprinted up behind, rifles at the ready.
Stimpacks hissed, sending adrenaline into the marine’s bloodstreams. The group spun around in the darkness, trying to find their assailants.
Gunfire lit up the sky, fifty yards, away, and was silenced as dark shapes overtook the position. Still more marines fired into the night, randomly, trying to kill what could not be seen. Screams pierced the sky, as human and alien sounds reached high crescendos, echoing in the basin.
“Shit shit shit shit!” Rimm screamed as all the marines spun and began shooting as a fuel tank exploded. The FAV had been assaulted from behind, the gunner torn off and ripped apart on the ground. Somewhere in the black, something had opened fire on the FAV, lighting up the gasoline, as the armored car blossomed up and out in a beautiful explosion of red and orange across the landscape.
Rimm turned away from the falling debris, in time to catch a peppering of spines across his chest and shoulder, as he dropped to the ground, his gunfire taking an alien form. A zergling sprinted in and leapt up onto his broken form, and began slashing through the body armor, peeling back the exosuit and cutting apart his body. All Rimm remembered was the gurgling of his own blood in his throat as he faded into the black.
Neckab was running in circles, firing his machine gun into the night aimlessly. Marines around him were doing the same, as the alien shrieks closed in.
“NOOOOOO!” He screamed through clenched teeth, as a zergling charged up in front, only to fall flopping underneath the stream of metal spewing from his gun. He ran on, towards a bright muzzle flash from another nearby marine. Neckab arrived in time to gun down another hydralisks attacking his partner, before being knocked down himself.
“FUCK!” He grunted, swinging his armored legs around, dropping his gun. The Eagle 54 sidearm came up from its holster, unleashing round after round into the zergling rolling on the ground. It erupted in an explosion of flesh on Neckab and the body of the marine on the ground.
Grabbing a Ripper, Neckab sprinted to the only remaining cover in the basin – the still burning FAV. He jumped into the middle of the wreck, and was joined a second later by two other marines, one bleeding profusely from his arm.
“FUCK! FUKCIN’ ZERG! You okay?” Neckab asked.
The injured marine grunted, managing an “I’ll be okay,” as Neckab and his healthy companion fired into the night.
“SHIT!” He threw down his empty Ripper, and unholstered the Eagle 54 again, as he shuffled towards the far side of the wreckage. Outside lay a dead marine, his shoulder pads open, revealing the precious ammo inside.
“COVER ME!” Neckab sprinted the ten meters to the body, ducking and firing as he went. Behind him, the marines shot over his head, breaking the night with the sharp sound of gunfire.
Neckab grabbed the loose arm of the body, and dragged his fallen comrade back to the FAV, his partners lighting up the terrain with sporadic gunfire.
Eight meters.
Five meters.
Three meters.
One meter.
Neckab fell, searing pain ripping through his leg. He twisted and shot his sidearm into the black, and was rewarded by a screech and thwack, as something hit the ground behind him. He crawled into the wreckage, pushing aside the now-dead marine who had been wounded in the arm.
Pitching his body out, Neckab hastily grabbed the leg of the ammo-bearer, and hauled the body into the wrecked FAV. Not a moment too soon, as its form was raked with hydralisk spines. Under the fading light of the gasoline fires, Neckab and his partner stripped out the ammo from the shoulders and rucksack of their dead unit mate, taking anything useful.
A chittering nearby announced the arrival of unwelcome guests. Neckab stood; Rippers reloaded, and began shooting into the zerglings as they ran on. He saw at least fifteen. All fifteen of the skinless dogs fell, writhing with each round that penetrated the hard exoskeletons.
Neckab spun as he heard a human scream behind him. His companion was being torn apart by a pair of zerglings, gorging on his body. Neckab, howling, lit off a grenade, blowing all three into fragments no bigger than soup cans.
He was alone.
Something moved, caught his attention. His Rippers followed, tracers burning in the air, behind the shape. It ran circles around him, just outside the range of the CMC’s lights. A loud beeping penetrated the night, as the Rippers each were down to 100 rounds.
The sharp tone rang out, as each Ripper jammed open, the magazines empty. Neckab threw down the useless weapons, and reached again for his Eagle. He followed the shape running in circles around him, and dropped it with two shots from the high-powered gun.
The Eagle clicked loudly, a pronounced metallic chack in the night air. The smoking action opened, ejecting the final casing from the firing chamber. It fell slowly through the now silent night, and bounced off the ground with a soft click, rolling to the scared marine’s feet.
Neckab stared in horror at into the darkness, as his attackers began to materialize out of the black. One, four, ten zerglings slowly came forward through the darkness, interspaced with a dozen hydralisks.
They slowly surrounded Private Andrew Neckab, as he spun slowly facing his adversaries, dragging his injured leg. Neckab’s eyes darted this way and that, sweat pouring off his forehead down around his face.
“Oh shit.”
“AhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!”
***
A few miles away, the rest of the Jack Knifes moved into position at the edge of the primary air defense hive cluster. The Zerg knew they were coming, and had become more vicious in their attacks. Arraying themselves in a loose line, taking any cover available, the 30 men and women of the 238th double-checked their guns, waiting for Ramirez’ signal to open fire.
Lozupone ran low, along the line, before diving into a pile of dirt and creep near the center of the firing line. “We’re all set here, chief.”
“Roger that Krista … Fire on my mark.” Ramirez stood elsewhere, shouldering his rifle, aiming the barrel into the darkness.
“Fire.”
Along the line, loud metallic chattering exploded out of the darkness, muzzle flashes illuminating the night sky. Grenades were launched into the oncoming Zerg and nearby buildings, exploding in gigantic sprays of flesh and mucus, as fires ravaged the Zerg structures anew. Rocket fire took added to the carnage, as the 238th laid a swathe of destruction down. Alien screams abounded, echoing over the roar of automatic weapons fire. The Jack Knifes were screaming and howling at their predators, mowing them down as they came.
During brief respite in the firefight, Lozupone jumped up with the TechTeam and raced forward, covered by her squadron mates. They ran up near the edge of the lair, its ugly towers rising out of the ground like a demonic cathedral. Lozupone pointed her Rippers, and fired. A small hole, the size of a hoverball, appeared as the surrounding tissue was blown away and covered with slippery red entrails.
“EYES UP! NUKE IN!” she screamed into her headset, lining up to cover the techies, as they threw together the launching rail for the Inferno-class battlefield nuclear weapon.
All around Lozupone, rifle fire and the overwhelming whump-whump-whump of the 15 millimeter cannons lit of the night air, as the technicians hastily assembled the weapons platform.
“We’re set! GO GO GO!” One techie threw the nuke onto the rail, and the other launched in through the hole Lozupone had made in the Zerg lair.
“NUKE DEPLOYED, WE’RE GOOD TO G-”
The techie’s words were cut off as he fell beneath a stream of hydralisk spikes. Blood spurted through the holes in the armor, as her eyes bugled out, hands clawing the air in a vain attempt to flee her eminent death.
Lozupone froze for a moment, in a trance. “If he just fell …”
“OH SHIT! BUGS OUT! LIVE FIRE! LIVE FIRE!” Lozupone grabbed the other technician by the shoulder pad, as she spun and fired at anything in view. Together, they sprinted back to the rest of the Jack Knifes, who had ducked down behind what cover the holographic terrain could provide, switching out blank clips for magazines with live ammunition.
The FAVs roared into action, missile racks lighting off Raptors into the rushing Zerg. The 20 millimeter turrets on the back shot everywhere.
“DP 1! HIGH GROUND!” Ramirez screamed into the microphone, as the marines ran to the top of a swell in the land, falling into circular formation, bristling with weaponry. At once, the marines opened fire as the FAVs drove behind, reloading the now empty rockets and cannons.
“WHERE IS THE AIR SUPPORT!” Ramirez yelled at his radioman, desperately trying to raise Cassidy and Greauher in the Wraiths above.
“COMING SIR! ETA 90 SECONDS! TRANSPORTS DOWN IN THREE MINUTES!”
“PRIVATE, SEND MAYDAY! KILL THE HOLOSIM NOW!” Ramirez barked again, straining his voice over the roaring guns and screeching Zerg.
A moment later, the holographic terrain of Mar Sara shimmered, disappeared, and was replaced by the sandy dunes and scrub of Danthor IX. The Creep, Zerg buildings, and some of the Zerg disappeared.
But not all of them. Far too many Zerg remained, charging up the sand dune where the 238th was positioned, sweat pouring down brows, primed to fire.
The next three minutes would be the longest of their lives.
