The ground around John erupted, sending the bodies of terran soldiers flying into the air and crashing to the ground. He could barely think nor hear the commands shouted by the Colonel over the thundering sound of countless siege tanks firing super heated plasma shells across the torn, battered and ruined battlefield. John, along with others, stood, crouched in a mile and a half trench, awaiting the order to charge the enemy; another terran army, belonging to the old, shattered confederacy. The young Private hoped that the order would not come, that the enemy would surrender after being hammered by artillery fire for over five hours. But, John's small hope was gone as the colonel stood up and shouted the command to charge. Thousands of Marines in their armored all climate combat suits quickly rushed out of the trench, gripping their gauss rifles and ran towards the enemy. As they got closer, the other side opened fire; killing twenty soldiers in a spray of bullets and more were dead or dying. Johnny jumped to the side and rolled as a hail of bullets whizzed past him and some other soldiers; they, on the other hand, weren't so lucky and died slowly.
Fear, that's what Johnny was feeling. His adrenalin pumped through his body; causing the veins in his arms and legs to constrict while the blood vessels connected to his vital organs opened and routed more blood to those areas. This of course caused the climate control system inside his armor to raise the tempeture so Johnny wouldn't pass out from shock. Johnny gripped his rifle and fired in one general direction, not trying to aim. He heard a loud thunderous sound and heard an explosion followed by horrid screams, he looked around just in time to see the Colonel and about seventy-five marines die, their bodies charred beyond recognition. He heard more and more sounds of thunder, explosions and then screams as the siege tanks of the enemy opened fire on them, ripping the ground open in huge craters. "Oh man, what am I going to do?" Johnny thought to himself and fired again, hitting some more soldiers. He looked around and saw the second in command trying to round up the army for another charge, Johnny got up quickly and ran to the others and once assembled, marched forward under the hail of their own tanks. As they got closer more and more people dropped, but Johnny and the others tried their best to ignore the cries and looks of pain on the faces of the fallen, he dropped his black faceplate down and focused on what was ahead. His dark purple eyes located a target and opened fire, as did the others. Just as the dominion army was winning the ground rumbled, the sensor system inside Johnny's helmet alerted to him something that was moving in the distance, he looked and zoomed in but couldn't tell what it was other than it was large. Johnny's face got a look of shock as he realized what the large slow moving thing was; a siege tank, and Johnny's sensors detected more; about twenty five. "Crap!" Johnny shouted to himself as he and others quickly fell back and a group of soldiers holding large rocket launchers rushed forward and kneeled down. They loaded their weapons, took careful aim, and opened fire, instantly destroy about half of the tanks. Any shouts of joy were quickly quelled as more tanks took the place of the destroyed ones. These tanks, unlike the previous ones opened fire at the marines, sending many scattering but claiming the lives of a decent amount of men. Johnny jumped and rolled away from an exploding plasma shell but landed on his knee wrong. "Ow! Shit!" He shouted to himself. He was unalbe to rub his knee through the suit, but that was the least of his worries
The tank slowly rumbled towards him, sinking alittle into the mud. Johnny fired at the tank in a vain hope to stop it. "I can't believe it's going to end like this!" Johnny said to himself, bowing his head and closing his eyes; waiting death. "Goodbye momma, I hope dad will return to you soon." Johnny thought to himself, tears forming in his eyes.
Chapter 2
Death did not come for Johnny, he heard a whizzing sound, like something piercing the air then a loud pop and crackling sound. He slowly opened his eyes and saw the tank only ten yards from him. It was frozen in its tracks; the driver trying to in vain to restart the engine. A flash of light caught Johnny's eyes and he looked to hear the familiar whizzing sound and a small explosion, again the tanks that were hit stopped completely like the first one.
"Wait," Johnny thought as he finally saw a small static field envelope the tanks. "Only one thing can do this, a lockdown shell. But, the only ones who can use those are..."
"Ghosts." A figure spoke as he seemingly appeared out of thin air, as did other similar soldiers. He wore an all black suit specially designed to keep him hidden from almost all forms of detection. "You ok kid?" He asked, pulling the infrared and motion detection systems equipped headpiece up.
"Ye-yeah, I'm ok. "Johnny finally got out, in complete awe of the man standing before him, clutching the large c-10 canister rifle.
The Ghost stuck out his hand, offering to help the young marine up. Johnny took the hand and said. "Thanks for saving me."
"No problem." The man replied. "You're wondering why you didn't know that there were ghosts here."
"How'd you know that?"
"I'm a ghost remember?"
"So?"
"Ghosts are telepathic."
"Oh yeah."
"Heh heh."
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing."
"..."
"You shouldn"t be thinking that."
"Argh, stop reading my mind!"
"But it's so fun."
"Oh yeah, read this!"
"Hey! My mom has never even met a Protoss before, let alone do that!"
"Heh heh heh."
The two men walked toward the rest of the soldiers, trying not to laugh about the other.
"What do we do now?" Asked one marine.
"Well, the enemy was relying heavily on their tanks to save them. But, now that those are on lockdown, the remaining forces should be easy to deal with. So I suggest a final charge, I'm sure you can overwhelm them." Spoke the ghost.
"Who the hell are you?" Asked a marine of about 45 years, spitting on the ground and giving the special ops forces dirty looks.
"I'm Lieutenant Trent Malcomson, leader of the Spiders, special ops, you know, ghosts and that kind of thing." He pointed to a girl who looked to be twenty-one years old. "This is my second in command, Second Lieutenant Akura Chang."
She looked Asian with short black hair that was tied behind her head in a ponytail. She had dark green eyes that reflected light so well, it looked like they glowed. Johnny almost fell over when he saw her.
"Easy boy." Trent spoke in Johnny's mind. "She could kill you a thousand different ways if she wanted to."
One of the older marines walked up to Akura. "Well hey good looking." He smiled and looked her over a few times and put his arm around her.
"I suggest," She spoke. "That you take your hand off me now unless you want to have a prosthetic arm and want to be fed through a tube for the rest of your life."
Ernie gave a toothless grin that quickly faded when he felt a sharp pain in his mid-section then his arm. He fell to the ground holding both areas. "Ah! Shit! She broke my arm!" He howled in pain. "Well, that's what you get old man."
Trent said trying to suppress a laugh. Johnny was trying his hardest to do the same but was failing miserably. "Okay, someone take him to the medics." Johnny said, finally regaining some sort of composure.
After fifteen minutes The Terran Dominion army succeeded in a final charge, wiping out eighty five percent of the opposing confederacy forces. The survivors were lead to dropships and hauled away to god knows where. Johnny and the others would head back to Korhal or in Johnny's case; Mara Sara.
