The Sky is Endless

by Alexander W Meurant

  He heard murmurs behind him as he made his way to the warehouse he had been sheltering in, stopping as his old platoon filed out, following Cyrus. They all filed into the street even as the second group that had been in a nearby building appeared, being led by one of Cyrus' new Sergeants. Nods were exchanged and they all started to move out, a few units breaking off to move around the out buildings and follow walkways between them, lest the main group walk into an ambush.

  Before long, they came to the main street that ran from the city and into the port without incident, and Victor crouched, gesturing for all the men to fan out. When they had tried to attack this place yesterday afternoon, they had found themselves in a cross fire as Imperials came down the main road in their own vehicles, whilst other Imperials had fired on them from the port. They had managed to destroy a good number of the vehicles, but darkness had arrived before they could advance further and then the storm had arrived, forcing them to retreat.

  Now the road was littered with corpses of both Federation and Imperial soldiers, as well as a dozen burnt out vehicles. They would provide decent cover for any vehicles that may come back down the road from the city. He turned backwards and looked at his new Sergeant, the one with a sling around his arm. The man was sporting an energy pistol, and seemed itching to use it.

  "Sergeant. Take twenty men and hole up between those vehicles. Hold it against any imps that come down the road. Make sure you have some heavy weapons with you" Victor stated and smiled grimly as the man nodded silently.

  He turned back to survey the area and rolled his jaw as he looked to the other side of the street. There were a number of low out buildings, mainly destroyed. They looked like they would provide some cover for an advance, if there weren't any Imperials hiding in them. Behind them was a hill that rose up, and at its crest a lighthouse, also destroyed. Perhaps Imperials had been using it as a look out.

  "Lieutenant Cyrus. Can you take your men to those buildings on the other side and advance along that side? I'll advance up this side and we will meet at the port gates" Victor asked, his tone suggesting it was more of an order than a request. Cyrus just shot Victor a look, a scowl on his face.

  "Yes. I can. I expect your men will offer me and mine cover fire of course. There are snipers at that gate if I remember correctly" Cyrus stated and Victor groaned inwardly. This guy was way to jealous now that they were ranked equals.

  "I will. But hopefully you will have a clear run. The Major will be attacking that gate as well, just from the beach side. Inside that gate are all those fortified shipping containers. It’s going to be a hell of a fight" Victor stated and then looked to his right, watching the sun come up over the city, and wash the entire area in a drab orange. The light reflected off a myriad of puddles and Victor squinted his eyes. There was going to be a lot of glare around.

  Quite suddenly, he heard whistles in the distance and a low rumble. The noise of tanks moving forward. Then the tell-tale sound of gunfire. He could never get used to that zap noise. The old days were so much more different with the kinetic weaponry of bullets and rockets.

  "Alright lads! Go! Go! Go!" he yelled and got up running, turning around the corner of the building and sprinting. He heard footsteps behind him as his company came after him, a two dozen men splitting off and making for those vehicles in the middle of the street and hunkering down among their wreckage. Cyrus’s company broke off as well, making a run for the other side of the street and the outbuildings there. But Victor ignored them, instead turning his gate to look at the gate to the port.

  There were two concrete towers flanking the gate, and each one held a spotlight and two Imperials. In each of the towers also, was a mounted gun, and each one had an Imperial manning it. Either side of the gate, were long wire fences, which ran the entire perimeter of the port, stopping most foes from getting through easily. Victor blinked, not seeing any other Imperials behind the fences. Yesterday there had been many more Imperials behind there. Perhaps the Federation really had got the drop on the Empire this time.

  Shouts erupted as the Imperials in the towers saw the Federation marines sprinting towards them, and they opened fire even as the marines lifted their rifles and fired upon the towers in return.

  The exchange was quick and brutal, the Imperials peppering the marines with their fire, streams of energy beams ripping through the packed soldiers. Terrible screams ripped through the air even as nearly every marine fired on the towers, making them disappear in flashes of orange and red. A good hundred charging marines against four Imperials were good odds. As the manned guns stopped firing, Victor heard the sound of engines behind them and he turned briefly, seeing a half dozen jeeps with heavy guns mounted on their roof's race down the roadway, already letting loose erratic gunfire.

  Victor watched a blast of energy shoot forth from the marines holed up into the destroyed vehicles, only to slam into the leading jeep and blow it to pieces. The vehicle erupted in a magnificent fireball and it rolled, finally crashing and coming to a halt on the side of the road. Victor turned away from it and instead kept his attention to the front, seeing the gate only a few dozen meters in front of him. Beyond it, he could see dozens of Imperials rushing out of warehouses and buildings within, getting to their positions. Perhaps they had not thought an attack would come so soon after the failure of yesterday.

  Within moments he was at the gate, him and a dozen others firing into the wooden structure, blasting it to pieces. Before he knew it, the gate fell free from its hinges and fell heavily to the ground, smoking, bits of it plastered all over. Not wasting a moment, he and his men streamed through the gate and into open ground. All the Imperials before them were in open ground as well, and the shouting started even as the gunfire erupted from both sides. Victor lifted his rifle and fired straight ahead, hitting one Imperial in the left part of his chest and spinning him around. The man collapsed shrieking, but Victor ignored him.

  It was a slaughter. Victor dived to the ground and shot over and over as more and more Imperials appeared from buildings, firing into the mass of Marines. Screams sounded behind Victor, and he felt a body fall on his legs, even as another marine fell down right next to him, the man’s head smacking dully into the concrete.

  Victor stayed in his prone position, firing a half dozen times, missing his targets just barely with each one. He cursed and got up to his knees, pushing the body of his legs as best he could. A burst of energy blasts came at him and he blinked, the blasts rebounding off the barrier, and Victor guessed Corporal Blair had arrived. Jumping up, Victor let loose three rounds, two hitting Imperials and downing them, the third missing its mark entirely. Before he knew it all the marines were through the gate, and he guessed there were around one hundred of them left, facing thirty or forty Imperials in open ground.

  Shouts sounded from the Imperials and they turned their backs, running deeper into the port even as Victor and his men shot them in the back. He watched at least a dozen of them go down before turning to look at his men. He looked at the pile of corpses in the gate and gulped, counting around thirty bodies. He felt sick in the stomach. What was all this fighting good for? Not a damned thing. Sucking in a breath, he jolted as he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked into the face of Corporal Blair. She smiled kindly, yet tiredly at him and he came back to his senses.

  His men were already running into the port, looking for cover, and he joined them, Blair at his side. The company all ran towards a large building on the right, and pressed up against its wall, Victor making his way to the corner of it so he could peer around. He gulped at what he saw.

  Major Irwin had not lied when he said the place had been turned into a fortress with the shipping containers. He could see around eight of them, all lined up, and all with small holes cut into the sides, and all the holes had rifle points sticking out of them.

  All of a sudden, a loud boom sounded and Victor whipped his gaze to look at the source, a spot not too far in front of his position and to the left. The first of M
ajor Irwin’s tanks arrived, having broken through whatever defences had been on that side. More and more vehicles appeared, all looking heavily damaged, and platoons of marines came in behind them. It seemed that all hell broke loose as they walked straight into that death trap. The Imperials opened fire on the mass of vehicles and marines, a large number of massive energy blasts displaying that they had a few tank buster guns with them. Victor scowled. He wasn't about to lead his men straight into that. When two tanks blew, spraying the nearby marines and ground in hot metal fragments, Victor gulped. There was definitely no way he was leading his men into that.

  "We go around" he shouted and instead moved away from the building, jogging to its far end. It was built up to the hill, a wire fence running straight behind it, a bare meter between its wall and the fence.

  "This way. Hopefully we can get the drop on them" he exclaimed and went first through the gap, his marines following straight after.

  The building was a good twenty metres wide and when he came to the other end he stopped, looking out around the corner, a line of marines pressed into his back. There were a number of parked vehicles and trucks, all civilian models and a few cranes, those ones with the magnets. They were all parked neatly, and they went right up to the containers. He almost couldn't believe his luck. He went forward, dashing between the vehicles, feeling his elation rise. He heard his men following and could almost sense their glee as well.

  Casting a glance to his left, he saw a number of Federation vehicles out of action, smoking or outright in flames. Marines were piled behind them firing over them at the containers, the rounds slamming into the metal but doing little. They needed heavy guns. Standard issue energy rifles were not meant to pierce metal. They just scorched it. Seeing a blur of movement in the air, Victor watched a grenade get lobbed with perfect accuracy into a hole and grinned as he heard it explode in the container.

  Things took a sudden turn for the worse though, when he saw three people jump up onto a container from some sort of ladder behind it. Two men and a woman. They all clasped hands and Victor felt his hear sink as the woman in the middle closed her eyes and started chanting, the two men flanking her lifting their free hands and twisting and turning them.

  A group of marines were blasted to the ground as force hit them from above, and Victor watched in horror as they were crushed straight into the concrete, their bodies exploding into a mess of flesh and blood. Victor went deathly pale as the mages then turned their attention to a different group of marines and simply flung a blast of magic at them. The marines were flung through the air, crashing into a nearby building, their bodies exploding again from the sheer force.

  Victor watched as terror spread through those remaining marines and they all focused their fire on the mages, their energy blasts bouncing off harmlessly. Turning his gaze away, Victor looked for anything that he could use to stop this slaughter. Looking at a crane, he suddenly got an idea.

  "Cyrus, you take charge. I am going to deal with the mages" he shouted and Cyrus popped his head up from behind a car, looking perplexed.

  "Lead them on a charge you twat" Victor barked out irritably as he jumped into a crane and looked it over, noting the keys were still in the ignition. Brilliant.

  Cyrus looked at Victor wide eyed but seemed to understand, and yelled at the men before sprinting towards the containers, which were angled slightly away from the car park. The marines got behind the leading containers and started on their slaughter, running into more than a few Imperials and engaging them in close combat. Victor turned his attention away from them, and instead focused on the mages, who had now turned their attention to his own company. Feeling sick in the stomach he started up the crane, hoping they did not notice him.

  The crane jolted but didn't start and he hissed, flicking his eyes up briefly and catching sight of Corporal Blair, staring down the mages, her arms outstretched and her expression pained. She must have been trying to shield the marines with her own magic. Victor felt a stab in his heart and grit his teeth, begging the crane to start.

  It came to life, fumes pumping from its exhaust and he guessed it must still run on petrol, like many industrial vehicles still did. Grunting, he pulled the levers on the crane in practised moves, remembering all those times he had been assigned to engineering divisions. Dropping the cranes magnet down slowly, he slapped it on top of a car and hit the switch to activate the magnet. There was a zap and the car attached to it. With a few more pulls of the lever, he lifted the car and started to turn the crane to the left, letting the car swing out.

  Casting a look back at Corporal Blair, he saw her fall to her knee's arms falling to her sides, and Victor felt that same stab to his heart even as he swung the crane back to the right, swinging that car straight at the mages. They saw the car as it came at them and they screamed, unable to do anything. The car slammed straight through whatever shield they had raised and bashed into them, still going. Victor saw the mages break, limbs and bones crunching and he felt a sick satisfaction, thinking they deserved it for turning his men into human popcorn. As the car finished its swing he watched as the three mages were flung clear from the frame, their bodies sailing through the air and crashing into buildings, leaving blood splattered on the walls.

  He sunk into his seat, rather relieved, even as more and more screams sounded from the battle. With the mages out of the picture, and his marines in among the containers, Major Irwin’s marines ran forward too, joining the fight and hunting down any remaining Imperials.

  Pulling himself together, Victor got out of the crane and made his way over to the containers, heading to where he had seen Corporal Blair go down. He found her slumped against a container, sucking in deep breaths with her eyes wide. She looked at Victor and coughed a little, some foam around her lips.

  Victor dropped to his knees and grabbed the back of her head, tipping it forward even as he pulled his canteen from his belt and bit the lid, twisting the canteen as he held it with his teeth. Getting the lid off, he spat it aside before he held the drinking vessel to Blair's lips and tipped it up so that she could drink rather deeply, closing her eyes a little during the process. Victor just looked at her then. Like really looked at her for the first time. She would have been in her early thirties, and had a slightly round face with full lips and brown eyes. She was slightly tanned and was sporting shoulder length brown hair. He coughed a little suddenly realising he was staring way too much. Taking the canteen back, he took a draught as well.

  "Stay with me Corporal. It has all only just begun" he murmured to her and she smiled softly, eyes still somewhat closed.

  "Call me Anne. Corporal sounds a bit, too formal if you ask me" she stated and smiled again, lifting her hands to take the canteen back from him and drink some more. Victor just smiled and looked up, his eyes sweeping over all his marines as they disappeared into buildings and ran down the docks, clearing out the last of the Imperials. He could still hear the occasional burst of gunfire and screams, but for the most part the air was quiet. Almost too quiet. Frowning, he stood up and looked out over the ocean, his hand coming up to shield his eyes from the glare coming off the ocean.

  "What’s wrong? What do you see?" Anne asked from her sitting position. Victor couldn't believe his eyes. This was the worst thing that could happen.

  "Where the actual fuck is our fleet? It’s gone" he asked, his voice shaken as he continued to stare out at the empty waters.

  Chapter 29

  * * *

  "Are you sure this is the first time you've played this game before, you're pretty damn good at it" muttered Manny unhappily as his hand hovered over the board game of checkers that he was currently playing with Sain. Manny finally decided on an action and moved a piece on the board.

  With a small smile, Sain moved one of his own pieces and took three of Manny's in one stroke leaving him only with two remaining pieces.

  "Gah, I can't believe it, how did I not see that coming, I give up, you win" Manny threw his hands up into th
e air indignantly then leaned back in the chair he was sitting in before letting out an exaggerated sigh.

  "Well, it was the first time I've played the game, apart from the other ten times today" replied Sain with a weak smile as he looked over the balding, bearded man. Sain sat on the edge of his bed kicking the heels of his feet into the frame in a rhythmic manner as he looked at the small table between him and Manny.

  "Yeah, well considering I haven't even beaten you once, I can't exactly say it was beginners luck you know" Manny grumbled from his slumped position, an arm resting over the back of the chair even as a hand came up to stroke his full brown beard.

  "It's not exactly a difficult game. I've played plenty of similar games before, so it wasn't that hard to pick up" Sain stated, his smile getting a bit wider as Manny just rolled his eyes and snorted in disbelief. Manny suddenly reached into one of the breast pockets of his flight jacket and produced a packet of cigarettes. Glancing around quickly to see if anyone was watching, Manny discovered that no one else was around. With a small smirk he placed the cigarette between his lips and in a quick practiced motion, produced a lighter and lit up. Still leaning back in his chair he inhaled and then exhaled, making sure he blew the smoke away from Sain, who was still sitting on bed.