|Viraliv|[20-14]Sliue-Ececs|Ora’s Eye|Tepi|Tepi-3|
11,163,955,738cy
Terraformer Station ‘Favala’, Low Tepi-3 Orbit
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Waiting was difficult for me, knowing that the enemy was getting closer to a unified front by the second. Allowing them to prepare. It made me want to leap out of cover and charge at them even if I was the only one. But the others need rest, and we need to prepare as well. Reorganize our formation, reload, stitch up whatever damages we accumulated. I don’t have much to do besides twiddle my thumbs and check on my brothers. Everyones doing well, our squad had better training and more resources invested in it so we’re better off than the others. Yinik is the outlier of that though. His condition that had stabilized is slowly getting worse due to all of the movement, still better than being dead though; it allows me to push myself harder as well.
Not much time has passed, certainly not enough to fully recover. They’ll just have to push their warmed-up bodies, we don’t have all the time in the world. I tell my brothers, and those nearby, to spread the word to get ready. After I see everyone’s eyes on me, waiting for the signal, I push myself upwards slowly. The weight wants to drag me back to the ground but I continue regardless. My head peaks the cover and the enemies immediately begin their fire, most miss due to the distance. The others start to get up as well, before they can, I start my charge. We’re about half-way from the bunker to the gate. This stretch of land will be horrendous. Cover exists but we can’t afford to use it much, doing so would only slow us down.
Various rounds and charges fire at us creating a light show in my view. My armor is doing a good job of protecting me, at least I haven’t started to smell burning reptile meat. Not many shots have hit me yet, perhaps due to the distance or general unpreparedness of the enemy, but some areas have scorch marks or have turned into slag by the heat. All of the damage is one the pieces welded on though so in the end it doesn’t matter; so long as it doesn’t hit the internals it’ll be fine.
After the complete loss of the first assault team the enemy decided not to send anymore. Instead choosing to turn this into a gun range and mow us all down before we can get to their line. Unfortunately we have to follow along, pressed by time has forced us into the enemies momentum. Nothing we can do about it though, a bad situation usually looks like this and it beats staying in that bunker. The others understand that as well which is why no-one is complaining.
Running through a few scattered lines of fortifications gives us a little bit of cover for the time being. In a second of out-of-character clarity I pick up a large piece of an exploded shield. The enemies have been focusing on me since I began the charge, probably knowing that if they take me down the others will fall easier or might even retreat back to the bunker. The shield should help me in this case, every little bit of material between me and the enemies shots buys more time.
That time is very important and will be used to get to the gate, once there it’s much easier. Well, given that we can force our way through the enemies lines. And given that they’ve adopted a firing line formation, it should be pretty easy to rush through their thin line.
That’ll be the simplest and most dangerous part. After we get through their line, they’ll probably have some team of close ranged soldiers there as a last line. Even if we do break through that then the enemy will have free reign to shoot us in the back, fine for me, but for the others I won’t be there to absorb all of the damage. To avoid taking too many loses we should find some way of getting more cover, like those cover type grenades. The only way to get them would be to scavenge more from the enemies though. It’s something that takes time, and time is death, but it’ll have to be done.
#
We’ve closed a large amount of distance, the others are getting tired but we have no option but to push on. We’ll only have time to rest when we get to the pods, or in death. The battlefield is a wreck, there was basically no time for any cleanup except for near the gates. Bodies, blood, and guts are still scattered all over the floors. The smells of their charring pieces fill my sensitive nostrils. I’m used to it though, every battle involving energy weapons ends like this. Pieces of metal are everywhere too, slagged and smoking. Some people didn’t have a good time during the retreat, some obviously tripped on their fellows bits and fell onto some nearby pieces of metal.
This might have affected the others, especially the newer soldiers, but everyone’s mind is too shocked by now to care about anything beyond escaping. It would be a good bet to say that at least a few of them aren’t even using their brains, their bodies just piloting on their own.
The countless shots by the enemy have found themselves to be more accurate, finding their marks and digging into my armor more often. The sound is like rain falling on a metal roof, or in the case of the energy based weapons, the sizzling of metal. Still, the shield-piece is doing a good job protecting a large part of my body. A few of those behind me have been killed already, mostly by shots that missed me over the enemy actually aiming at them.
The only thing going for us is that the garrison force on the gates wasn’t a large one to begin with. After the battle was lost, and we got forced into the bunker, the enemy moved most of its troops elsewhere. Perhaps dealing with other opportunistic factions. It doesn’t really matter why but, it has given us a chance to actually survive.
The enemies have stopped moving around as much and the reinforcements from the other gates are close to uniting with them. They seem to have become fully alerted by now. That doesn’t matter much now though, given the range between us they’ve become as accurate as possible. Getting closer to them will push us out of the optimal firing range of their weapons, not many enemies charge into the TFS’ military lines afterall. And those that do are dealt with by the heavy weapons, good thing that they can’t use those in the reactor room.
Stolen story; please report.
Their, more accurate, suppressive fire has caused us to slow down a bit. Instead of a charge, it’s more of moving from cover to cover. Safer but slower, at this point, with the reinforcements close to grouping up, it doesn’t matter anymore. What matters more is the amount of us still alive when we reach the gate, too few and me and my brothers will perish. I need the others to at least serve as shields for my brothers. A callous thought from the perspective of anyone not Thelsk.
The little breaks between cover movements help the others recover a bit as well, not enough to really do anything though. They’re already pretty tired, we’ve covered a large percentage of the reactor room which is extremely large in size. Large enough to fit the main reactor that powers the entire station, it’s obvious that the budget was extremely large for this place and it isn’t like anything that you can find on any other TFS ship. Point is, it’s difficult to fight the enemy while you’re tired; even harder if the enemy isn’t tired themselves. So these small rests will save a lot of our stamina overtime, a worthwhile investment now that we’ve gotten this close to the enemy.
Eventually by doing this we get very close to the enemy. Their fire is like the focused rays of a sun, constantly showering us in its warm and deadly touch. We’re currently huddling behind some cover now though so they can’t do anything to us. They’ve tried to throw grenades before but everyone is extremely wired right now so after a few threw the grenades back they’ve stopped giving us the chance. We’re huddling down until we can think of a way to distract the enemy, even I wouldn’t last long this close to the enemy with the amount of firepower they have. Closing into melee will make it easier on us but this is the last wall until that point.
Some have taken it as a time to rest, which is encouraged so long as they don’t get too relaxed. Some of them are breathing noticeably-hard. I can’t think up a solid plan, grenades would have been very helpful in this position. Charging would only get me killed, and any who follow. We need some way to distract the enemies for even a second while we charge in. I have a backup plan but I’d rather not do it. It involves sending ‘Biggie’ into an overcharge, it’s an energy based weapon and a large one at that so its reactor would make a big boom once it goes into meltdown. But I’d have to give up my weapon which means that the fight afterwards will be harder but also for slightly sentimental reasons I’m not willing to give it up. Still, it seems like the only option given the resources we have on hand; sadly.
I start setting it up, turning my closest ally into a glorious bomb. Aside from my brothers who know the weapons capabilities, the others just think that I’m fiddling around with a charred metal stick. Having lost much of its beauty at least it can show itself off one final time, in a show of piercing yellow light.
The enemy doesn’t expect it either, they would’ve recognized it before but with how damaged the gun is they just think that we’ve resorted to throwing scrap metal at them. After about a minute a large boom follows, a bright yellow glow shoots out from the enemies encampment; some body parts do too. The explosion is not small at all, a large epicenter near the middle of the camp can be seen, surrounded by bodies. Those lucky enough to survive, or unlucky depending on how you view it, survived the blast but will likely live a miserable life until they die of the internal damages. About half of the enemy was totally unaffected by the bomb besides the shock and noise of it, some of them are also momentarily blind.
A perfect as any time to attack.
Jumping out from behind cover, some of the others are surprised but most understand and follow me out just a step later. Without my weapon all I have is the shield part, still as deadly as any piece of metal being chunked at you by a Thelsk but not as special as ‘Biggie’. A small sacrifice if it saves my brothers. With that thought, I charge into the disorientated enemy lines, sending anyone I can see into the ground. A shield in one hand to defend me and in the other whatever body is closest to me; alive or dead. The others are close behind, making sure not to get close to me, but pushing through nonetheless. The enemy reinforcements have made it to the far edges of the garrison, providing backup fire where they can but by now it’s far too risky to shoot into the mass of people. And no-one but the stupidest would willingly charge into me.
It doesn’t take much time, the enemy was thoroughly softened up by the blasts, most of them scampered off before they lost their lives, allowing us to push through. The only ones keeping us from entering the halls are the reinforcements and, if one exists, the reserve force just before the gate. This next part is certainly made easier by us being able to route the main defensive force rather than simply pushing through. Regardless of that small bout of luck we still have to push through the crossfire of the enemy reinforcement. My shield can’t defend from both sides; however now that we have enemy bodies lying around us we’ll be able to scavenge some supplies.
A small respite and a welcome thought to resupply, especially for cover type ‘nades. We find a few, enough to blind the reinforcements, they’ll still fire into the cover though but at least they won’t be as accurate. We start our run, by now the others are pretty tired, even my brothers are showing signs of long-lasting fatigue. We’re surrounded by various smoke and smog, forming a corridor or tunnel where our sight leads to the gate, and our very survival, at the end of it. Not much distance left to cover but it’s the crucial moment. If the enemy reinforcements charge at us through the smoke and enter melee with us and there’s a reserve team then we might be in some trouble. Well, my and my brothers will be able to punch through but the others might find themselves in a pinch.
We continued to run, no signs of the reinforcements charging at us but they might clear the smoke to get a better aim at us. We hurdle over a large pile of corpses, one of the areas of mass death at the beginning of this battle. Upon clearing it, the sight of a small group of enemies greets us. These aren’t the reserves that would mess up the plan the most, these are likely just the garrison for the other side of the gate that came to check up. They weren’t prepared at all and the other didn’t even have time to help before I smashed through them like a whirlwind. And now with the pile of bodies behind us giving us some cover even if the enemies come up from behind. A second wind hits the group, they’ve gotten salvation. The group has dwindled down to a very small amount now, only about a dozen not counting me and my brothers.
We quickly rush through the opening in the gate, where the enemies originally cut their way through. It was a tight fit for me but luckily I was able to slowly make my way through it because no enemies stood on the other side. Another stroke of luck, the other garrisons probably thought that there was no need to send even more as the first wave should’ve been enough. It’d be too late if they sent them now. There’s still a bit more distance before we reach the pods, everyone is looking like an adrenaline junkie. Eyes are popping out of their skulls, and they’re acting like a bunch of paranoids but that energy has nowhere to go making them all jumpy. The sudden clanks of the pipes or shuttering of doors drives them to no need.
Unlike what they expected though, we made it to the pods. I can barely fit in with all of the extra scrap metal on my body. It was made easier by the fact that most of it has been blown off of me, or slagged off. We aim the destination towards the colony and hit the button, it’s time to get off this damned station. One quick punch, a sudden jolt from being detached from the station, and we find ourselves falling down to the planet below.