"Where the bloody hell..." He was cut off as a slag bolt splashed against the hard cracked ground in front of him, narrowly missing his head as he ducked back below the edge of his foxhole. "Where the bloody hell did this lot come from?" He roared over the sound of slag rifles belching their molten rounds and thick black smoke at his unit's pinned position.
"I don't know captain!" Yelled his communications operative. "By all accounts of this flank they shouldn't be here at all!"
"Well they bloody are aren't they you blithering idiot!" He shouted back. He lifted his feathered head quickly up over the parapet of the crater to catch a glimpse of the enemy. They were dug in hard, a large grey fortification fronted by a maze of trenches that hadn't appeared on any of the reconnaissance Intel loomed up across no-man's land. He cursed again under his breath, they were supposed to be on the far reaches of the battle lines with minimum to no contact he had been assured, but here was what looked like a full battalion holed up across a small stretch of sand and wind blasted rock. Judging by the amount of smoke belching from the firing holes and over the trenches there must have been about eighty to a hundred of them holding their extremely commanding position of the flank. The flank his meagre squad of thirty Thralls were supposed to be the farthest tip of.
"Damn the republic, why are they so intent of taking this bloody rock anyway?" He asked, meaning to be rhetorical.
"It's the pirates sir, they all run out of the space port here before raiding our outer rim" replied his comms officer unhelpfully.
"I know it's the sodding pirates you arse, I was being facetious". He threw a clod of earth at the man before sighing. He glared down at his Gauss rifle, at least they were better armed than the damned pirates he thought, good old Fabricant engineering. It may not have been as fearsome as the smoke and liquid metal belching slag rifles but it was lethally accurate and as reliable as an old boot.
He pulled his thoughts together and gestured to his two officers. "Right you two, fan out around this crater, I want a squad of ten led over to that crater there." He pointed towards a slightly smaller foxhole to the North West of their position. "We will provide covering fire from here and you get your men there, you should be in range to clear some of the trenches from there, how many do we have?" The other officers made a quick tally
"Eight sir"
"Fat lot of good that's going to do." He muttered to himself. It was less than he had hoped for. Their rifles were powerful, but useless against a bunker unless they could fire their shots directly through the firing holes. His men were good but at this range that would be and impressive shot to make without the added danger of slag bolts tearing your face off. "Right well you'd better take all the grenades and clear that sodding trench at least, focus on the sections with more of the bad guys in them, don't waste any you understand?" He looked at them staring back at him. "Right. Well go on then you daft parrots!" He clacked his beak at them to emphasise the parrot joke and they laughed, slightly manically as fear flashed briefly in their eyes before they scrambled back down the bank to relay the orders.
Thralls weren't the biggest or most fierce fighters in the galaxy but they were certainly some of the most tenacious and amongst the fastest, the republic military liked to make good use of them in fast flanking manoeuvres and it was imperative that his men were able to, if not eliminate the bunker, then certainly get around it as quickly as they could so that they could complete the sweep of this section of the planet as ordered by republic command. That would mean clearing the trenches.
His soldiers were lining up along the outer bank of the crater, the sound of their gauss coils charging was a high pitched whine over the crashing and pounding of the slag bolts coming from the pirate's position. He looked down to where the advance squad was gathered, they were watching him as they waited for their covering fire with long clawed legs twitching in their eagerness to be flexed.
He glanced over his line once more with their heads ducked below the edge to avoid the slag storm and he nodded, everyone tensed. "Open fire!" He shouted down at them, and they all rolled onto their fronts, heads over the top and the air crackled with electromagnetically charged energy as gauss bolts sliced through the air between them and the pirates with a snapping, but otherwise eerily quiet intensity. The roar of the slag rifles cut back as their users took cover to avoid the dense projectiles. "Now!" He shouted and the small squad set off, their legs lancing out in front of them, quickly reaching their top speed and covering the distance impressively quickly. The defenders realised what was happening almost too late and smoke once again billowed out of the bunker as red hot slag bolts pitted the earth around the running Thralls.
"Keep firing! Don't let up!" He shouted over the din, but three of the running squad fell before the rest barrelled into the crater to crash down on top of each other out of view from the defenders. The feathers on those who had been hit burst into flames as molten metal buried itself into their lightly armoured bodies and splashed across their skin. It was not a pleasant or easy death and they went out screaming. He shuddered and looked down at his men "OK take cover again" he shouted, seeing the ashen looks on their features. Some were nervously twitching their feathers under the small plates of armour, beaks chattering quietly in anxiety.
Slag bolts were disgusting weapons, designed to break those they didn't kill, the incessant banging and crashing accompanied by the smoke and the gruesome way they killed would turn the hearts of any soldier that was not used to them. He embarrassingly remembered his first training session with slag when he had gone into shock under a burning tree trunk and had to be pulled out by his drill sergeant, whom he had then bitten.
"Right then, now we have command of no-man's land, well done everyone, but it's not over yet!" He shouted cheerily before wincing as a loud explosion burst nearby, apparently they had explosive rounds too, this day kept on improving. "Now we crack open that little nut they're holed up in, ready?" Their faces hardened and they nodded, these soldiers wouldn't be cowering under any tree trunks. "Up! Covering fire!"
The gauss rifles opened up again, their large tungsten slugs peppering the bunker with deep gashes, but only really causing superficial damage to the outer layer. They did have a suppressing effect however and the smoke thinned slightly, enough for the men in the forward crater to stand and throw two grenades. Two was all they managed though. As soon as they stood there was a howling screaming sound and all at once things began to really fall apart.
Out of the forward enemy trench suddenly spewed a mass of howling, screaming, spitting claws and fur. A tide of savage looking feline animals poured as one cohesive swarm, six legs speeding lean black fur covered bodies and snarling fangs across the short distance between the trench and the forward crater. In a heartbeat they fell upon the unsuspecting squad who toppled back in shock, falling out of sight beneath the crater's lip. The screams of the Thralls were drowned by the howling of the feline mass and roars of celebration from the pirate defenders across the way. Those left behind looked on in shock.
"What the...." He started but couldn't finish. The men around him were quaking as the slag rifles fired up again, focussed intently on their position as the felines finished off their comrades, their howls and screeches joining the booming and crashing. Explosive rounds were landing heavy around their position now and he saw two of his men on the far side of the crater explode in a flash of white phosphorous. He looked around, he didn't know what to do. His comms officer was screaming down the com-pack, anguish on his face as he implored the Hub for reinforcements. This would be where he died then, he thought, in a dustbowl on an alien world. He shrugged. There were worse places to go.
The woman to his left took a slag bolt to the face, her beak and skin torn away to leave a gaping gash as her eyes went dead. This snapped him back and he spun to open fire on the enemy position, at least he would go down fighting he thought as he squeezed off rounds at any target he could. Slag was now pouring in a stream at them, the earth in front of the crater acquiring a metallic sheen as it set hard. Another of his soldiers burst into flames further down the line, his screams ringing out over their position. Some of them were crying he could see, one woman was laughing maniacally, the rest just set their faces and squeezed off slug after slug. Then, bizarrely, there was a gentle tap on his shoulder. He turned, bemused, to see the communication officer standing there holding the vox-comm receiver to him, a look of sheer glee playing around his eyes.
"It's for you sir" he said, not terror or despair in his eyes but absolute happiness and relief. Thinking the man had gone into shock he took the receiver hesitantly.
"Hub?" He had to shout over the hammering of the slag rifles.
"Good afternoon commander, how are you lot doing there?" Came an infuriatingly casual male voice down the comm-link
"How... How THE FUCK do you think we're doing?!" He screamed down the link, having a complete sense of humour failure as another explosive shell pounded the earth not two metres from their position.
"Yes that's about as well as we figured, given your poor comms officer's attitude earlier. We have re-tasked some reinforcements for you Captain"
"Good!" He shouted above the din, his heart racing at the thought of a possible rescue "who, where and tell them to hurry up!"
"Yes, the human drop team Hephaestus 4 is on route to your position." His heart stopped.
"A... who?" He asked again, the comms officer was grinning like a mad man now.
"Hephaestus 4 captain, a Greek class human drop team" the machine clearly showing signs of pleasure in the man's shock. "ETA 5 minutes, can you hold?"
"We... yes Hub" He grinned back at the comms officer now, who laughed and stamped his feet on the ground in excitement "Yes! Yes Hub we can hold for 5 minutes!"
His men were glancing at him in confusion as he turned to them, happiness and excitement written across his face. "Right then soldiers!" He shouted over the din, not caring now about the molten death raining down around them "reinforcements are on their way, ETA five minutes!" They looked happily to one another, relief written on some faces, but anxiety still there amongst most and they turned back to their firing positions with grim looks on their faces. "Reinforcements will be the Greek class Human drop squad Hephaestus 4!" He shouted at them again. Silence fell over the crater as they all stopped firing, turning to stare at him in disbelief. He smiled back at them and suddenly grins and excited laughter burst around the crater as the reality dawned upon them. "Does that sound good? Can you hold for five minutes then?" He shouted for the last time.
"Yes Captain!" They roared back at him and cheered, resuming fire as they laughed and excitedly chattered to one another. The smoke still billowed and explosions still fell all around them but to the soldiers in the crater it was as though rain had begun to fall in hell. Almost as if they sensed what was coming the enemy intensified their fire, shells bombarded their position and two more of his soldiers were torn from life in a blinding phosphoric flash, but they held. Against the roar of slag and the explosions all around them they held the crater, the deafening thundering crash of the slag rifles and the howling keening of the felines waiting for an attack did not overrun their position, even when a man on point at the craters edge burst into flames as a slag bolt caught his shoulder plate and splashed melted metal over his feathers. They held. And they were rewarded.
Above the hammering of the pirate's rifles, over the smoke and the screeching defenders, over the explosions and whistling of shells the Captain heard a new sound begin. It was almost inaudible to begin with, a far off sound like a breeze through an open window. A speck had appeared in the sky, a black dot against the light pink refracted light, occasionally obscured by smoke and ash. The sound grew and grew and his men pulled back into the crater, watching as the speck became larger and larger. Now the sound became a rushing of wind, then a roaring gale, then a howling, rending sound that tore at their ears and obscured everything else, even the slag guns ceased firing as defenders and attackers pressed their hands, claws anything against their ears to blot it out. It grew to a deafening crescendo as a human drop pod landed with a world ending crash into the scorched earth in front of them.
Then there was silence. No guns fired, no animals howled, only the slight creaking of cooling metal and sand being blown in the wind could be heard as the drop pod stood proud between the two forces. A shining monument glinting in the smoke wreathed and blasted ground. There was a large number 4 crudely daubed over the side, under which a burning hammer had been stencilled on.
The defenders remembered that they were in a war first and the pounding slag rifles started up again, this time aimed at the drop pod rather than the crater, much to his men's relief. There was a hiss of pressure equalisation and magnetic locking fields as two large panels on the rear of the glinting pyramid fell open to reveal its precious cargo.
An enormous metal boot slammed down on the access ramp and Hephaestus 4 stepped out from their metal chrysalis. Five Humans strode forward down towards them, hulking exo-suits, hung heavy with plates of armour making them twice as bulky as ay normal human. If there was such a thing as a normal human.
"Captain" one of them spoke as she stepped over the lip of the crater, her armour was slightly more fitted than the others, less bulky and clearly designed for faster movement. It was also painted white whereas the following three were gunmetal grey. She removed her helmet to reveal a firm yet appraising look and short cropped hair. "I see your position is tenuous at best."
She cast her eyes around at the weary looking soldiers before looking down at him, meeting his eyes. He barely came to her armpits in height, and even without the suit of armour she would have been at least double his weight in pure muscle and sinew. "Are you alright?" She asked, the compassion in her voice was disarming when coupled with her intimidating physique.
"Ye... yes." He stammered, then hardened. "Their position is well fortified and they outnumber us five to one. They also seem to have a pack of some kind of feline animals in the trenches there blocking any advance on foot, they killed a number of my soldiers."
"Yes we saw the vid-com. Don't worry, we shall clear this, although we would be honoured if you would stay to fight alongside us." He looked up in amazement at her.
"You would have us fight with you?"
"Well of course!" She laughed, then straightened and smiled at the surrounding soldiers "it is always an honour to fight with a Thrall Flank team!" The flattery was clear but the men lapped it up anyway, ten minutes before their death had seemed certain, but now...
The other four Humans entered the crater, three of them held what appeared to be enormous hammers in their armoured fists whilst the fourth made the men gasp. All humans were large, but this one was enormous, both in height and bulk the man towered over even his comrades. In his hand was a gun that hummed and glowed with an eerie red light and on each shoulder was what was clearly some form of artillery. He appeared as a living tank.
"Omar!" The woman in white shouted, beckoning at the enormous man as they joined them in the bottom of the crater. Omar removed his helmet, shaved head and a thick bristling black beard came tumbling out, a broad glinting smile glowing through the tangle of hair. Even standing in the bottom of the crater he had to duck slightly to avoid the slag bolts whistling overhead.
"Hera, my queen, what can Omar do for you?" The man boomed theatrically back to the woman as he approached, smiling to the watching men who couldn't help but smile back. He had a face of boyish glee, the thunder of enemy fire not phasing him in the least.
"Omar you and the Thralls will hold this ridge, you shall lay down covering fire on the bunker and trenches as we advance to within hammer range. As we move up you can follow at a range that you deem suitable, or hold here." The giant was nodding along, a comedic look of feigned concentration as she spoke, one of his hands stroking his beard dramatically.
Once we have cleared the trenches and made it to the bunker we shall reassess... are you listening to me?" She asked incredulously.
"Forgive me my queen" the man boomed again, shaking his head, "I struggle deeply to hold attention with you, your beauty beguiles the senses, it penetrates the very core of my being and leaves me unable..." He never finished as Hera slapped him hard across the face, the metallic slap sound of her armoured glove meeting hairy flesh rung out around the crater. The Thrall soldiers all laughed and even the other three humans could be seen to giggle in their armour.
"Omar, that is not a good enough excuse to use the word ‘penetrate’. Did that help your attention?" She asked sweetly.
"Ah yes my Queen, I understand you completely now" he grinned at her, rubbing a pink cheek as he did as the Thralls howled with laughter. The change from abject terror to laughter and warmth on the battlefield was amazing and the Captain looked down at these humans and realised it was a show. It was a show to warm them, to lift them from despair and to pull them back from the edge of, their casual attitude to the hell that surrounded them relaxing them and bringing them to themselves again.
"Li, Sasha, John you're on point, I'll be running clean-up." The Human leader continued. She motioned to the Thrall captain "Captain your men and Omar will provide fire support from here." She glared at the big man "the Captain has the command at the firing point Omar, understand?"
"I do of course defer to you here Captain" the giant turned and bowed to him dramatically.
"Your role here is vital" She continued, ignoring Omar, "we will need you to pin the enemy down as we advance, our armour is thick but cannot withstand a sustained bombardment for too long. Keep the enemy pinned, we will clear the rats nest."
In all honesty he was stunned, he hadn't been expecting to even be involved once the humans had arrived but here he was being placed in a position of authority and still very much providing what appeared to be an integral part of the assault.
"Yes of course, we will do all we can from here"
"I know you will captain. Right. Sasha, Li, John, step up. Li on point Sasha you're on left, John on right. Thralls!" She shouted turning to his men "let's give these pirate arseholes a reason to fear the Republic again! Rain death on them, pin them down and together we shall tear them from this world!" his men cheered loudly, fired by the human's zeal. She grinned at her three comrades as she placed her white helmet back on her head "Let's go for a walk."
***
The three of them moved off, hefting their massive hammers in one hand. Their leader fell into place behind them as they neared the edge of their crater, she was smaller than the other three, and kept her posture low, one hand on the back of the man in the middle as they took up position just below the lip of the crater. The thundering of the enemy rifles suddenly intruded on their minds again, they had almost forgotten about the pirates over the ridge during the excitement of Hephaestus 4's arrival but now the howling and blasting of their enemy crashed back upon them. "Right then!" Shouted the Captain, shaking himself back from his reverie. "Let's do our job then soldiers! Firing teams on the lip, I want a constant stream of fire on the enemy position, let's keep them pinned."
"And me captain?" Boomed the monstrous Omar, making him jump "Where am I to be positioned in our brave assault?
"Well honestly Omar, I imagine you know where best to stand for yourself" he smiled up at the man, who smiled back
"Agreed captain" the giant laughed. "I shall hold the centre, this will likely also aid your men as I tend to draw enemy fire, and this Hephaestus suit can take a significant pounding" he slammed a fist against the front of his armoured chest, a great metallic crash ringing out.
"Are we ready gentlemen?" The human leader's voice came through the vox comm as they ascended the crater in front of them.
"When you are Miss" replied the captain.
"Ok then, Hephaestus, shields up! Let's move on!" The three giants lifted their free arms up, and from them unfolded large metal sheets that glistened unnaturally in the light. They held them forward, shielding their bodies from the front. Their leader tapped the central Human Li’s back and they moved up over the edge.
Immediately the hammering of slag bolts intensified, focussed on the them. But instead of striking the metal shields held ahead the molten rounds simply disintegrated half a metre before getting there, some invisible field was being emitted by the strangely shimmering material. The captain grinned, human there was an old quote about how any technology suitably advanced was indistinguishable from magic. That certainly applied here.
"Open fire!" He shouted over the din of the concentrated slag bolts. The whine and hiss of the gauss rifles spat out their projectiles, causing the thundering to slow down as some of the pirates took cover. Not enough though. He had lost too many men and his reduced numbers weren't enough to worry the pirates, he grimaced as the rain of molten metal slammed down on the forward team. Then Omar opened fire and all questions on pinning down the enemy were answered.
The enormous cannon in his hands took a few seconds to wind up, a loud throbbing sound like a razor being dragged back and forth along a piano string grew and grew. Omar began to laugh as he squeezed the trigger. A jet of pure red energy exploded out of the end of the cannon in a perfect, constant beam of incinerating power. The Thralls stopped shooting in alarm for a second as the big man directed the astonishing weapon at the enemy trenches, his booming laughter ringing out over the battlefield as the belching of the slag rifles stopped completely.
"Ohhhhhhh what a beautiful morrrrrrning, Oh what a beautiful dayyyyyy, I've got a wonderful feeeeeeling! That everything's going my wayyyyyyyy!"
The giant was singing as he fired death at the enemy, his face illuminated red by the howling weapon in his hands. It was a bizarre sight and the Thralls began to laugh along as they took up their firing again with renewed vigour, hammering away at the enemy position as the four other humans advanced at a quicker pace now across the blasted no-mans land in front of them. Intermittently a pirate would fire of a few rounds at the Hephaestus team from the trenches, but they would quickly be put down by a gauss rifle slug, or would simply evaporate as Omar directed his beam at them. The only fire that came from the enemy now was from the bunker itself, which still spewed smoke at them.
The assault team was coming in line with the forward crater where the small group of Thralls had been brutally torn apart before. The captain shuddered as the snarling and screaming sound of the feline animals came out from the trenches in front of them. The furred creatures flooded out of the trench to pour towards the human invaders. He looked nervously up at Omar, but he seemed unfazed and was in fact whistling nonchalantly as he turned his enormous energy cannon towards another would be shooter in the trenches.
The creatures sped towards the giant humans as they pushed forward amidst smattering of slag and explosive shot. They bore down on the team in a fury, who seemed apparently unaware of their approach, not altering their actions at all. But as the swarm of teeth and claws came within ten metres of the giants the white armoured leader held her right fist in the air. It was glowing bright orange, shimmering with heat as it radiated off the armour. She slapped the back of Li in the middle and they moved as a well oiled machine, Li went to his knees as the two flanks came back to form a protective U shape. Hera took two steps back before running hard at Li and using him as a launching platform to fire herself into the air, fist raised high. She seemed to hang for a moment, armour shining bright in the harsh sunlight, before she brought her hand back down to earth like a meteor just as the pack leapt forward with jaws wide and claws extended.
The earth beneath them exploded upwards and out in a wave. Fire and rock blasted from where her fist had hit the ground, arcing out from the forward team to engulf the swarm. The animals were shredded; their fur catching fire as heated earth tore through them all, quickly removing any semblance of life. Dust and blood mingled in the air as the explosion died back and before the ground had even settled the three shields were back in front of their leader and the humans were advancing again. The whole thing had happened in a shocking blink of an eye, and Omar had continued blasting away all through as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
The captain shook his head, ‘Humans are fucking scary’ he thought.
***
