Another Krenaran ship swooped in, unleashing a torpedo straight at the fourth floor, the missile smashed through a conference window and detonated, blasting apart the entire floor in the fury of the explosion. Glass shattered and flames burst from the damaged floor as smoke billowed out, the entire building shook from the force of the explosion.
Vargev and the rest of the command team were thrown to the ground, gradually they got back to their feet, brushing themselves down.
Cannons in the guard towers began returning fire with a deafening chattering roar, as their tracer fire streaked across the night sky, however the Krenaran ships were too fast and too agile and few shots actually hit.
The few Hellfire anti-air units they possessed also opened fire. Their rapid firing heavy laser turrets lit up the night sky in intense flashes of blue energy. The stealth abilities of the Krenaran ships however confused their targeting systems and most of the shots went astray, one however was caught and hit repeatedly, the craft slammed into the ground on the far side of the colony, smoke and flames billowing out from the twisted wreckage.
Vargev ran to where Steel was stood, “we need to get out of this building, fast.”
“ I hope the rear emergency exits are still intact. Everyone with me, we’re evacuating.”
Steel, Vargev and around twenty other troops all ran for the exits, when they got there, they found the emergency escape ladders were damaged but still usable.
“ Move!” The big Russian shouted over the noise of battle outside.
They quickly began to make their way down the steel steps, as a second torpedo slammed into the front of the building with a deafening explosion, violently shaking the tower once again. Vargev and Steel clung on desperately, but another soldier wasn’t so lucky, as the force of the shaking unbalanced him and sent him plummeting over the side of the steps, landing with a sickening crunch seven floors below.
Overhead Vargev could just make out the shapes of three more stealth ships incoming from west to east, as they swooped down, they unleashed a salvo of torpedoes. A hellfire anti-air battery was hit, the force of the impact blasting the near 30 tonne vehicle almost ten feet into the air. The wreckage came crashing down in flames, scattering razor sharp debris.
More shots rained down upon Echo base, blasting a wide hole in a tank factory roof, another torpedo decimated the top floor of the command tower, where Vargev had earlier stood.
Elsewhere another guard tower burst into flames as it too was hit, sending the occupants plummeting on fire, to the ground below.
Vargev, and the surviving troops had made it to ground level and quickly began to take stock of their situation. Chaos was everywhere, two guard towers were burning, and the command building was now thoroughly ablaze after taking several hits, like a giant pyre in the centre of the base.
Luckily the munitions factories had been spared, if they had been hit, with all those explosives inside. The resultant blast could take out half the base.
Amongst the flashes of torpedo fire, anti-air fire and tracer shots, two bulk freighters began to descend bearing E.D. F markings, they hovered low, as though attempting to land on the spaceport. The freighters held position barely two meters from the surface of the pad.
Vargev eyed the transports with suspicion, why the hell are the Krenarans ignoring those transports? Almost in an instant the realization hit him; holy shit!
A hatch opened on both freighters, dozens of Krenarans poured out of the hovering vessels. Their weapons mercilessly scything down the E.D. F troops attempting to stop them landing.
The freighters eventually touched down on the landing pad, releasing a second wave of warriors, their weapons blazing away.
Vargev cast a glance northwards and could see yet more Krenaran ships landing in the dusty fields between Echo base and the colony. This is not going to be a fucking good night.
For the most part, the perimeter fence was holding up to the onslaught, the reinforced concrete was doing its job well. However it wouldn’t last too much longer, already in several places it was cracked and broken.
At the main gate, a dozen or so soldiers were hurriedly forming a barricade.
Vargev sprinted towards the loading area connected to the spaceport. The surviving soldiers there had managed to close one of the sliding heavy steel doors, and were trying to fortify it with anything they could find.
Just outside the building, he could hear the unmistakable ‘thump’ ‘thump’, of the heavy footfalls of dominator assault walkers. Two of them were approaching, Vargev rushed back out and signalled to the pilots, who turned their metal behemoths and began to follow.
“ I want you two to guard that door!” he shouted up to them, “any Krenaran that comes through I want dead.”
The two pilots nodded their understanding. Taking up positions near the door, their multi-barreled heavy assault cannons trained upon it.
Loud metallic ‘clangs’ resounded across the hushed loading area. As fire from Krenaran weaponry slammed against the heavy steel on the opposite side.
Vargev and the remainder of the commandoes readied their weapons.
Powerful explosions continued to light up the night sky outside as stealth ships maintained their assault on the base.
Apollo main battle tanks were directed towards the main gate to provide a defence to the inevitable attack there.
In the distance, General Steel could see multiple explosions lighting up Gamma colony, the black shapes of Krenaran ships silhouetted against the glow of fires swooping in and out, performing strafing runs. He knew however that it was just a diversion to get the forces he had placed there to keep their heads down so they can land more men.
He motioned to a young soldier nearby.
“ Yes sir.”
“ Where’s your comm. unit,” the General asked.
“ Here sir,” the young soldier pulled out the comm. unit out of a pouch on his webbing, and passed it over to Steel.
He input the frequency to contact the forward command post in the Valcasian mountains, “This is General Steel to all units, Echo base is under attack, all units are ordered to return to Echo base; repeat return to base.”
He passed the soldier his comm. unit back, and looked out beyond the main gate towards the hundreds of Krenarans massing for the attack, barely half a kilometre away.
I just hope some of those units make it here, he thought. Another explosion from the burning command centre nearby made him duck.
The main body of the Krenaran force did not advance however, instead they dug themselves in. Knowing they could not yet penetrate the thick outer perimeter. Instead the Stealth ships renewed their attacks, bombarding the base throughout the night.
When the sun arose on the second day, barely two of the guard towers were still standing and smoke hung thick in the air. The Krenarans were well dug in, in the fields between Gamma colony and Echo base.
The burned out command tower still smouldered, though now barely better than ruins. The first rainfall the colony had seen in nearly 3 months gradually began to patter off the armour of the Apollo’s and the Dominator’s.
Barely a quarter of the raider A.T. V’s and Rapier light tanks had made it back from the Valcasian mountains during the night, their blackened twisted chassis could be seen dotting the fields close to the Krenaran lines, wisps of light smoke could still be seen from some of them.
Steel had ordered the Groundhog artillery batteries to remain within the mountains, and co-ordinate their fire with the two other batteries positioned within Echo base, they continuously pounded the Krenaran lines with high velocity shells.
An emergency field hospital was set up during the night in one of the tank factories, and was rapidly filling up with the injured and dying.
Engineers from within Echo base itself were hurriedly trying to shore up the perimeter fence before the attacks resumed again.
Vargev joined Steel, near the main gate. “Well, we made it through the night,” the general sa
id.
“ We may well have to make it through more yet comrade.”
In the distance they could see the faint wisps of smoke rising from the colony.
“ How many casualties?” Vargev asked.
“ 70 dead all told, nearly twice that many injured,” Steel replied with a sigh.
“ Not bad considering the beating we took.”
“ Yes, but not good either. I’ve been a fool colonel, I almost allowed the Krenarans to waltz right in through the front door. Most of the faster units, the Raiders and the Rapiers were left well out of position, you were right to tell me not to put the majority of my forces in the mountains.”
“ What is done, is done comrade, what we have to do now is hold the base until help arrives; at all costs.”
“ The stealth ships won’t attack during the day that’s for sure.”
“ One of the biggest problems we have is how the hell do we re-capture the spaceport?” Vargev asked rubbing his soot streaked chin.
The commander of Echo base General Kalidis approached the two men.
“ Where the bloody hell were you during the attack!” Steel shouted.
“ Cut off; I was in the far tank factory when the attack came. I know of a small entrance to the roof of the loading area, I’ll show you.”
He led them over to the front of the loading platform near to the perimeter fence itself, it was partially covered by foliage. But there was a very small flight of slippery, rusted steel steps that led up onto the roof.
Vargev and Steel climbed up the steps, peering over the roofline, they could make out the Krenarans were busily assembling something. Neither of them had any idea what it was. They were milling about the freighters, going back and forth, bringing out equipment. One massive Krenaran strode into view, standing upon a pair of thick mechanical legs, he was head and shoulders above the others and almost seemed to exude a sense of raw power, he bellowed out orders to the others around him.
Vargev ducked back down, remembering back to the time six months ago when they fought Axus on the bridge of the Liberty, the one who had almost killed Vargev himself. “You must be presented as trophies for my master,” he had said to them at the devastated Agemman colony before taking them both prisoner. Could this be the one, could this be the master that Axus had spoken of; he certainly looked bigger than Axus, that’s for sure, and appeared stronger.
Steel looked over at the colonel, “are you okay, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“ I’m fine,” Vargev lied.
“ Who is that?” Steel asked as he also eyed the huge Krenaran working and directing those around him, typical Krenarans had a single barrel arm cannon, a weapon that was physically grafted onto the Krenarans own arm and was immensely powerful. However this guy’s weapon had not one, but three barrels.
“ I’ve no idea, all I know is that Axus once called him his master.”
The massive Krenaran looked over in their direction and spotted them at once; levelling his weapon he opened fire, three intensely bright green translucent beams hurtled towards them, Vargev and steel barely managed to duck back down as the shot blasted apart a section of concrete next to them, covering the both of them in choking dust, and showering them in masonry.
“ Jesus Christ, that weapon is a hell of a lot more powerful than the typical Krenaran weapons!” Steel shouted over the noise of the blast.
“ You’re telling me, time to get out of here,” Vargev replied.
They made their way back down the rusted steps, disappearing from view of the Krenarans.
During the rest of the day, they had moved all of the Apollo main battle tanks, and the majority of the dominator assault walkers towards the perimeter fence. Vargev could almost feel that the Krenarans would make a push for it tonight, try and break through the perimeter to join up with their other force on the spaceport.
The remaining commandoes; Vargev had ordered into fire teams, taking up positions on the warehouse rooves, near to the perimeter, where their powerful, heavy calibre Armschlagers would tear into the approaching Krenarans.
The commandoes that had fallen back from the space port, regrouped in the loading area, taking up new positions amongst the parked vehicles. Vargev had elected to allow them to stay, in case the Krenarans did manage to break through that enormous steel door that separated the loading area from the rest of the space port.
The Sun of Gamma IV was beginning to set, and night would soon be upon them. General Steel would be leading the defence of the main gate, while Vargev together with the other commandoes would be defending the perimeter. Kalidis would be out saving his own ass again, Vargev thought, he had taken an instant dislike to that man.
The sky had darkened noticeably and night time was fast upon them, it had been steadily raining all day, now it was getting gradually heavier. Vargev took up his position near to the perimeter. The rain had formed small rivulets down his helmet; he offered a silent prayer that he would see the night through.
The rain continued to patter off the helmets and camouflaged fatigues of the dug in commandoes as they silently awaited the coming attack, their weapons had all been checked and were ready for the inevitable onslaught that was to come.
The soft, low pitched hum of approaching stealth ships signalled the resumption of the attacks, just as they had done the previous night. Several of the deadly craft swooped down towards the base, unleashing a salvo of torpedoes as they did so, some of which smashed into the perimeter fence, blasting out gigantic pieces of concrete and masonry.
Another shot tore apart an Apollo M.B. T which was defending the main gate. Its flaming wreckage was sent tumbling end-over-end before smashing into the ruined guard tower. The roar of the hellfire anti-air batteries resounded across the complex as they once again tried to halt the swooping stealth ships, but as yet to no avail.
The Krenaran ships dived to the attack along gamma colony also, their torpedoes and particle cannons tearing apart the tightly packed structures; great plumes of fire and smoke rose high into the night air.
Casualties however had remained light in the initial attacks so far, as the majority of vehicles and men had dug in, or taken cover in or around the buildings for better protection.
The stealth ships swung around in a high arc, to resume their pounding of the perimeter fence once again; explosions lit up the night sky in bright flashes as torpedoes struck home. Throughout the assault Krenaran ground forces were steadily advancing towards the perimeter. Heavy weapons fire from the two remaining guard towers raked the advancing Krenarans, cutting them down as they approached, dozens of the green scaled draconic brutes fell clutching holes the size of fists in their chests.
The Krenaran ground troops were now almost within weapons range. The mighty Apollo’s opened fire with deafening blasts from their cannons, the high velocity rounds throwing up great plumes of charred earth and smoke where the rounds detonated. Several dozen of the aliens were blasted high into the air by the force of the impacts, heedless of their losses the brutal Krenarans continued to advance.
A lone stealth ship opened fire with its particle cannon at one of the guard towers a few feet metres away from Vargev’s position. A huge explosion engulfed the tower, temporarily blinding the colonel. The few men inside that hadn’t been atomised by the heat and power of that particle cannon blast, were engulfed in flames as their uniforms and skin set alight. They ran headlong, screaming in agony and jumping from the tower in a desperate bid to escape the inferno, their bodies slammed into the wet ground far below with a sickening muted thud, the driving rain slowly extinguishing the flames from their broken and lifeless bodies.
The Krenaran force on the landing pad turned their attention towards the large steel doors barring their progress to the loading area. What they had been constructing throughout the day suddenly became all too clear when it unleashed its fury. Like a smaller, portable particle cannon, the force of the shot blasted a gaping hole right through the heavy gauge steel of
the door. Three more times the huge cannon roared its anger, and on the third attempt, the doors crumpled and weakened as they were from the depredations of this awesome weapon, were finally blasted apart in a deafening roar that echoed throughout the entire loading area.
The two Dominator assault walkers which Vargev had stationed there, opened fire immediately, a flurry of. 50 calibre high velocity rounds from their heavy assault cannons tore into the charging Krenarans with frightening ease. Spent ammunition cases clattered to the ground all around the twin behemoths. The commandoes which had took up positions amongst the parked vehicles behind the dominators also opened fire, the immense hail of assault cannon fire and the commandoes own armschlagers was deafening, echoing all around the vast loading area, still despite the incredible amount of firepower being levelled at them the Krenarans still came on.
The miniature particle cannon opened fire again, smashing into one of the Dominators, its heavy armour no defence against the sheer force of the weapon. A pall of thick smoke spewed from the great rent in the armour of the machine, and it staggered a couple of steps backwards, then burst into flames before finally falling backward with a deafening ‘clang’ as its steel armour slammed onto the concrete floor.
The lone surviving Dominator desperately tried to continue the defence sweeping its heavy assault cannon in wide arcs, the muzzle flash blinding as dozens upon dozens of heavy caliber slugs burst from its myriad of spinning barrels, more spent casings skittered along the floor.
There must have been fifty Krenaran corpses piled up all along the corridor to the landing pad, nobody had the time to count, just to shoot. Bodies lay everywhere, the stench of charred meat and blood hung in the air, the alien’s milky white blood formed into tiny rivulets running down the long ramped corridor to where the freighters were docked above.
The huge Krenaran strode forward on his mechanical legs, giving off a hiss of released pressure as the bird-like feet slammed down on the concrete with such a force that it cracked underfoot. Calmly levelling the triple barrels of his weapon at the equally large assault walker tearing chunks out of his men, he clicked the internal trigger, and, with an intense blast of incandescent green energy, the second Dominator stopped motionless, its weapon hung limply by its side and it appeared to gently stoop forward.
E. D. F resurgent (e.d.f chronicles) Page 4
