SWARM
When the Federation Fell
I look at my five fingers while laying on my back. There was no technology in my visor that could hide the sorrow entwined in these five fingers. My gauntlet was blown off by a large blast that had rendered me unconscious. I laid back and took in a deep breath. The sky was painted a sickly orange with the gases of war. The highest sky was speckled with white sparkles. It was full blown war up there. My mind fabricated the squelches and screams of the dying marines and airmen who's ashes were strewn across the thermosphere.
There were loud thuds and roars of fire beyond me. Two cargo ships had just fallen from space. It was a battle between brethren. A product of the worst possible corruption. Two federation troopers ran towards me and I felt an odd uncertainty of my fate. I was lucky, they picked me up and dragged me fast and frantically as the bow of a large flaming gunship approached the planets surface diagonally. About a mile away the massive ship came closer and ripped loose material from the surface as it floated above the ground. A rumble went through my armor, the ship touched down and began to roll, gaining speed and hurdling towards us. My left shoulder was let go of, and my right was dragged down into a trench, my body followed...I was lying on my back under the thick walls of a charred federation destroyer.
We crawled out of the hole. The two hands, one on my left shoulder and the other on my right, had answered my emergency transmission. They had my complete respect. Whomever they were, they had ran nearly a mile to get to me, they were probably artillery men. I remembered a large plume of fire rise behind the destroyer. That was their artillery line.
I was dragged nearly twenty feet when I stopped suddenly. My left shoulder suddenly went numb and dropped to the ground. I heard the sounds of fiery clockwork as the trooper's rifles went off, then a thud. Both shoulders were numb and I plummeted to the ground. I was lying beside two dead corpses...
I saw metallic boots coming closer, the shine of which dissipating under green veins and rubbish. I blacked out, and fell into an abyss of memory... When it all began.
