Prologue
Tightly Troop leader mark 2, Kerx gripped the inside of the his emergence hole two dozen more of his battle hunger comrades with him clinging to the side waiting for the signal to activate the small charge that would cause the last meter of dirt above him so they could begin their glorious accent to the surface and eradicate the Human plague.
Kerx had no doubt that it was possible. With over one hundred more in emergence holes ready open at any moment each with as many soldiers as his along side a horde of wretches, Corpsers this would be the largest attack on the Humans since E – Day. The last of their major cities was about to fall. But this was not going to be just another tragic loss for Humanity, this would humiliate them and destroy what confidence they had left.
The name of the city that was about to be taken was Grimshaw. On E-Day it was the third major city to be overrun by the Locust and four months prior to this attack it had actually been reclaimed by the Humans. A startling victory. During this time the Humans celebrated and in their fragile heads thought it was theres once again. But they are in for a rude awakening Kerx thought happily, a wide sharp toothed grin stitching itself from one side to the other of his rough hauntingly malicious looking face. Behind him his men did the same mentally licking their lips in anticipation.
A soft rumble echoed through ground then another, another each boom coming in quicker succession and louder than the last until finally Kerx had his moment. His depth charge burst to pieces and created a small ripple in the ground above. With a light upward thrust the earth loosened and fell back down the hole. Kerx quickly turned his face to avoid taking a rock on his eye. His hard skull and tough skin protected him made the falling rocks bounce off the back of his balled head. And a moment later he was pulling himself up to the top.
The light obstructed his vision only for a moment as his advanced eyes adjusted to the light right as his fingers gripped the edge of the hole and with his sheer physical strength pulled up through the hole high enough for him to land on the pavement of the alien streets. Immediately gunfire erupted,leaning low the troop leader sprinted for the cover of a large chunk of of stone from building to his left. Pressing his shoulder against it hard waiting for the fore to turn on his following soldiers. Better to have the fire off him so he could take the human position. E 20cm emulsion filled rounds rammed into the stone block ripping out chunks of stone and leaving burnt black holed circled by a glowing ring of emulsion.
Despite the benefits of Kerx's extraordinary strength it also came with its curse. It led to the arrogant troops leaders dangerously risky acts in combat. Putting himself sometimes too close the fire and occasionally he got burned.
Soon, however his men made it to the top and the gun's fire shifted. The first Locust through was quickly beheaded. His head exploding and leaving messy stump where it had been, blood fountaining upwards. But before th corpse could fall back down to the depths the second grabbed it with one arm while using the other to pull himself up and moved quickly to Kerx's position discarding what was left of the first grub to the ground. A pool of blood quickly encircled it. The rest of the troops began to emerge as well many quickly felled by the Human machine gun. The ones that survived sprinted quickly for cover behind wrecked cars and fallen parts of the surrounding structures.
Quickly the Grubs began returning fire with their hammerbursts. Kerx leaned around his cover to catch a glimpse of the enemy position. The gun was the Human's version of the Troika machine gun. Behind stood only one figure behind a sandbag bunker wrapped around a human building that stuck out on the corner of the street across from a square with a chipped and broken fountain placed in the middle. In between his position and the enemies were piles of rubble and scattered shell craters. A straight forward path with plentiful amounts of cover. That would make this assault a breeze. Kerx wasn't just brawn. For a Grub he had especially sound tactical mind and had made far harder assaults in battles past. But what confused the troop leader was that there seemed to be no other enemy soldiers than the one manning the machine gun. But this question would have to wait. Kerx could see more of these heavy guns firing from the upper floors of buildings past his own and so he could spare little time questioning things. He needed and more importantly wanted to act.
Above the sounds sounds of gunfire Kerx roared an order to the Grubs across from him to lay down suppressing fire. Raising their heads above their cover for better aim Kerx's Grubs began firing at the gun. One bare chested Grub with a Human shotgun lobbed a grenade that fell short of the position and exploded harmlessly. Followed by four other Grubs Kerx bounded from cover and ran to a shell hole half between the two sides. In a conscious effort to keep up the six Grubs
behind him struggled to keep close one loosing its right arm half its right side and another took a round in its leg, loosing everything from the shin down, but it held on to life and landed to the ground just out of the window of fire of the gun.
The wounded soldier pulled his bleeding body slowly and painfully forward, trying to reach shell hole. Just as he pulled his head over the edge Kerx fired a round from his pistol and the wounded Grub immediately collapsed as the bullet hit home in his right eye and penetrated his brain. Kerx had no time for slow moving, wounded soldiers. They would only slow him and the rest down and even if he wanted to help, Locust units don't have medics in them.
Kerx poked his head up above the protection of the shell hole and glimpsed the space in between them and the machine gun. A flurry of bullets fly over his head and he quickly pulled it back down.
Kerx sent three of his four men over the top taking one quickly with him behind the three that were used as cover so he and the last of the six could move to a close cover. Behind them the remaining Grubs moved to Kerx left flank and restarted their suppressing fire. Kerx detached a grenade from his his belt and prepped it. Before he threw it he told the surviving Grub run across to the left flank with no specific orders. But the Grub still followed his orders and moved out from the cover of the disbanded car. As the turret spun to tag the moving target Kerx keeping his head below cover threw the grenade over the car and on the other side of the sandbag wall. The grenade bounced off the wall of had had been a cafe before the war and rolled over to the Human gunner, slowing to a stop right at his heals.
Kerx's Grub went down in a chaotic blur of blood and dust kicked up by the high caliber rounds. But with the loss of his charge came the gain of the enemy position. The grenade exploded tearing apart the human, flipping the machine gun over onto the pavement and blowing a hole in the sandbag wall.
Without being ordered the 14 remaining Grubs bounded from cover and raced forwards past the cafe. Other units arriving on the scene in unison. Guns still blazing all over the the city. Off to the right two corpses were moving in on a large building with a tall and wide flight of stairs that reached up to a pair of large, open metal doors from which machine gun fire spewed on the other side of a row of long pillars that held a precipice decorated with Human sculptures and carvings. Kerx could see blood bursting from where the Corpsers were being hit but they continued their assault with an unwavering adrenalin and the guns power did nothing to stop them. The to Corpsers literally tackled the structure collapsing it and destroy the gun nest.
This all seemed too easy. Despite, Kerx's faith in the awesome power of the Locust war machine Kerx knew that the humans should have been more prepared than this. He expected to be up against tanks and artillery and hundreds of soldiers. But instead all he could see were machine gun emplacements scattered across the battlefield. This was barely what he had expected or hoped for. This lack of action took away Kerx's zealous thirst for combat. No outstanding glory or or honour could be gained here in such a pitiful fight. As his men closed in on another emplacement farther down the street Kerx walked over to the wrecked emplacement he had just taken. On the ground lay what looked like the broken body of a Human. But Kerx had seen Human dead before, and unless this Human found away to survive without blood in him Kerx realized that it was fake. Looking closely he saw that the Human replica was a plastic model the top up dressed in their military fatigues. Kerx didn't know what to make of it. Anger coursed through him. With a snarling roar he leveled his hammer bust in one hand and emptied his magazine of the fake alien tearing it into pieces. Kerx stared at the replica for a moment longer his thirst for blood rising back. But before he could redirect his men he raised his head as the sound of rolling thunder emanated from above. Immediately he new what it was.
All across the city thin beams of light shone down from the clouds quickly followed by earth shaking rumbles that almost made Kerx loose his balance. Bracing himself he headed for the inside of the human structure the gun nest had fortified and mentally cursed the Humans for their trickery. There were no Humans in the city. They had evacuated and left behind phony positions to lure the Locust to the top so they could ambush them with their satalight weaponry. The one Human weapon the Locust had no defense against and could only retreat from. Kerx paused at the doorway of the building and turned to see several thinner rays of light shining down and quickly moving closer together to form the larger beam that would bring with it its severe and devastating effects. Hurrying Kerx scrambled into the building knocking over chairs and tables in his fearful retreat to safety. At the end of the room was a flight of stair Kerx jumped down and smashed through a door that lead into a dark basement just as an explosion ripped through the building and the destroying the wall and collapsing it trapping Kerx inside, in the dark.