Star Craft: Agony Prt. 2


Throught out the history of mankind, a solder was the heart of a battle. The outcome of a battle and wars depended on footsolders like myself. Territory was not captured untill a man's foot walked over it. The tradition still lives on even as mankind transended to the stars. Some would say, "Why do we need a marine, if we have all that technology?" No matter how sofisticated the machine is it will never have a soul or a mind of a warrior. So to this day when interstelar wars are fought between alien races, a footsolder still remains the most important piece of warfare.


After 8 hours of rest in the Barracks it was time for us to move out again. I feel much better, I am not even afraid. Arc is the safest place on this rock, A circular mountain range protects the base from the Zerg. There are 2 ways in, one is over the mountains but that is a hell of a climb. Mountains are steap and the peaks disapear in the clouds, the winds up there reach high speeds, not even the Zergs would try to pull that stunt. So the only other option to get into the Arc is through the Canal, thats what they call it here. Thousands of years ago the Arc used to be a Giant lake and the Canal was the river that flowed out of the Lake. But there is no water on this piece of shit now, but you gotta thank the elements of nature for this wonderful natural barrier. The only way to get into the Arc is through the Canal, but thats where Hell's Scar is gonna be. We are here to make sure nothing gets into the Arc.


We marches in two lines of six to the north, the traffic and sounds of the base blared all around us. High winds picked up sand and pebbles throwing them into us. The banging of the rocks on my metal suit annoyed me. As always I was in the end of the line, right next to Ikies to my right. Even though Ikes was also in the back he was already tested in combat, the only reason he was in the back like me is because he didn't have as much experience as the rest of the Hell's Scar. I couldn't really tell what time of the day was it, it seemed to me that it was always day here, because the sun was still intense. After about 10 minutes of marching we entered the Canal. At first it was a straight line going on about 600 meters. There was almost no wind in there, as the hitting of the rocks on the suit stoped. The Canal was narrow and the high speed winds just couldn't get in there. After walking about 600 metters we stoped. "Right there, 12 o'clock." Captain's voice transmited to my com. I scanned with my eyes, which where protected from the sun with tan glassed goggles which adjusted themselves to the intesity of the sun. Three bunkers where set up about 50 metters away from us. First and Second bunkers were set up at the base of the turn, it was a 45 degree turn to my left. As soon as the enemy started to enter the turn the guns in those to bunkers would take them out. The third bunker was set up about 15 metters behind the first two, the enemy that made it past the 1st and 2nd bunker would be taken out by the 3rd. Even if we couldn't take out the whole force of enemy those who'd make it past us would be very few, and no problem for the Arc's troops to take out.


I crawled into the 3rd bunker, I didn't mind to be in the last bunker but I know that Ikes and Locke did. They were seasoned marines but they couldn't disobey the captain's orders. The fourth man in our bunker was Johnson, he was a fireman. He has a tattoo of a fire on his back, it gives me chills. He'd probably burn his own mother, his finger was always on the trigger of the flame thrower. He never talked, well he never talked to me. Johnson and Locke sat quietly on the ground. Ikes was walking back and forth waiting for some action and me well I was there with my rifle out the hole. I was sweating like a pig. I slowly breathed holding the rifle aimed directly at the slop where the bugs would appear out of the turn. We couldn't see the first two bunkers, because they were in the turn and we were set up behind them where the Canal straightened out.


"Lance. Lance! Hey Lance!" I felt somebody grab my sholder. "Would you please calm down" Ikes was in my face. I felt sweat running down my back. My hands were shaking as Ikies pushed me back into the wall of the bunker. "Calm down, or shoot yourself now" He looked at me. "Get yourself together, focus or you will die" I looked down on hands and my rifle. Ikes was right I had to stop the shakes, it was getting much woste then the ones I got during the drop. "I'm sorry. I'm alright, really." I told him. Lockey and Ikes were looking at me as I sighed. Johnson's eyes were closed he was sitting motionless. I stared at him, "He is ok, dont worry about him, worry about yourself." Ikes wispered to me. I straightened out myself and turned into the rectangular hole of the bunker. Nothing changed, still the same old rocks that I was aiming at 45 minutes ago.


Hell's Scar consisted of 12 marines, we were positioned in 3 bunkers, that means 4 marines per bunker. The captain and the rest of them were in the first two, the enemy is gonna have to go through them first and we'd have to stop those who'd get passed them. Didn't seem like a hard thing to do. But the Zerg would make it hard, they always did. I looked down at the rifle in my right hand. It was a brand new model, EMB-01 sweet little killing machine. EMB stands for Electro Magnetic Burst. We have all played with magnets before, and like magnets magnetic fields have polarities, one is positive one is negative. Different polarities attract, same polarities push each other away. The magnetic field in the rifle itself is charged with electricity it has the same polarity as the slug or bullet. When you pull the trigger high voltage of electricity charges up the magnetic field of the rifle. The rifle and the slug have the same polarity and same polarities push each other away. So the slug/bullet is pushed out of the rifle at very high speed. This allows the cartridge to contain more bullets. Overall the marine has over 2000 bullets, with the old model rifles marine could only carry about 500 bullets which were bigger and took up more space.


I found myself staring at my rifle, rubing it with my left hand. Slowly I raised my eyes. Same rocks in front of me. A chill passed through my whole body as I heard the bursts of a rifle in front of me. I pulled mine into the hole. Ikes pushed himself next to me. Locke and Johnson jumped to theie feet taking position few feet away from us in another hole. Not a sound, the silence draged on. My hands didn't shake, because I knew if I let my focus down I'd find myself ripped to pieces or my face burning by the acid. I swallowed my saliva very hard. "....lets do what we do best!" Captain transmited in to the com for all of us. The rifle fire bust out in front of us. We could only pick up the flashes from the rifles of those in two bunkers. The sound didn't stop, it kept blazing and blazing into my ears I was about to panic. Ikies was standing silently next to me, his eyes didn't even blink. I knew he didn't want to miss the sight of the first bug that came into our view, I knew he wanted to make the first kill. " There's to many!...Look out Jerr...y!" I heard Sergant's voice yelling into the com. "Arc we request back up! Now!" then his voice went off. At that moment I just wanted to crawl out of the bunker and run, with all of my might. Every skin cell and every hair on my head wanted to run, my hands began shaking and I tasted sweat on my lips. But something kept me standing there waiting for the bugs, it was my soul. Even if I am a candle in the wind, I can never me blown away into the empty space. Flame throwers were scourching the flesh of the bugs, we could hear them shreaking as they burned. They had to use flamethrowers that meant that it was close combat now, at any moment the bugs would be out of the turn and coming at us.


Ike's rifle went off, it hit a Zerg right into his head as it fell dead on to the ground. Less then two second after that 2 more popped out, Locke and Ikes opened fire as I pushed my index fingure to the trigger. "C'mon kid!" Locke yelled at me as a huge horned beast jumped from out the corner and nother one heading after him. They have both taken hits but kept on coming. I pulled the trigger spitting the slugs out of the barrel right at them. I joined Ike's and Locke's blaze of bullets as they hit two huge Zergs about 7 feet away from us. First monsters head went off and green fluid ran down onto the rocky ground. Johnson's flame thrower went off as the a pipe of fire ignited the dead beast. The second Zerg was heavily wounded. I aimed down at what appeared to be his legs and threw my bullets at them. His massive legs shot off from under him as his head caught fire from the flame thrower, the monster screamed and opened his mouth wide spitting green acid at us. I droped down as Ikes side stepped behind the wall. I raised my head up. Three of them were now back in the holes fireing. Ikes laughed at me not turning away from the hole, "The bunker is made of Tatinium Alloys, acid could never eat through that." I stood up to my feet looking into the hole. A lot of gunfire was still ripping from the first two bunkers as they were taking on the heavy load. I squized the trigger firmly with my finger firing at 3 smaller bugs that were leaping towards us. But they never had a chance. More roaches kept coming through but none of them made it past us, for a time I got lost in the killing, in the slaughtering, but I never wanted to stop. Fire burned and slugs slaughtered whatever was in its way. Hell itself stoop up in front of us, I can't even imagine what kind of battle was going on around the turn. Captain and seven marines stood at the edge of the oblivion looking at the face of the Devil and none of them wanted it to stop.



To be continued....