Raam took long confident strides into the human facility. He hissed his distaste at the human architectural design and vowed to tear down every city these rodents inhabited, and to rebuild them with the locust design. The two-theron guards to either side of his flank sensed their general's unease and tensed with fear.
"Serve the queen!!!" Raam hissed, and began to move towards the stairway to the upper levels. The COG filth would meet their end soon enough.
Just then, a shower of blood sprayed Raam directly in the face as the theron guard to his right exploded in a shower of gore and red liquid.
Thomson withdrew from his assault on Ram, fading back into the shadows muttering "Son of a bitch"
The other theron guards shuffled out of the emergence hole, encircling their leader.
"Now!" Thomson barked viciously.
Raam let out a blood-curdling screech and the theron guards readied their weapons. Those with acquired human lancers (much to their discomfort) placed heir hands at the ready to activate their bayonets.
2nd squad leapt out at the group of therons, gunning down a couple and reloading with practiced efficiency. The theron guards retaliated with their own hail of fire. One shot from a torque bow caught a COG soldier in the gut, exploding a second later and showering the two opposing forces with internal organs.
The rest stayed behind any cover they could find, behind generators, cooling systems, crates.
The locusts were on the unfortunate side, lacking cover. More theron guards poured out of the emergence hole, replacing those who had fallen.
Flashes of light filled the basement as both sides fired unendlesly at each other, only a couple of shots hitting their mark. One by one, COG soldiers dropped as they withdrew from cover to get a better shot, but it wasn't as vast and countless as the locust forces being killed. For every one-locustsoldier killed, it was as if to more would replace it. Theron guards mixed with small squads of grubs made up the dwindling attack force.
"Retreat!!" Raam finally hissed, submitting. The drones charged for the emergence hole, at the lead was Raam, calmly striding and firing the chain gun over the heads of his retreating forces. One stray shot caught another soldier in the face, killing him instantly.
"That's right you sorry son of a bitch!!!! You better run!!!" , Thomson victoriously called out.
The COGs slowly came out of their cover and looked towards the second stairway behind them. They commemorated Thomson at his brilliant plan of an ambush. There were seven of them in number left, all weary and exhausted from dehydration and battle.
The soldiers aimed their lancers toward the hole, before it collapsed upon itself with a well placed grenade by Thomson. He attempted to key his microphone, only it had been destroyed during the firefight.
Carmine looked out and saw the retreating locust forces out in the parking lot before the lamps illuminating the lot shut off, enveloping the soldiers in complete darkness.
"What just happened?" Carmine walked over to Wilson, who shivered with fear.
"Look!!!" A soldier by the name of Legree exclaimed. "The generator!"
Sure enough, the generator for the town erupted in a aura of yellow light, then completely shut down, enveloping those without helmets in total darkness.
Carmine looked around at the remaining forces of 1st and 3rd squads. Only a dozen had survived that attack, and surely the horde would be back to exact its revenge on those men for suppressing their onslaught.
Carmine keyed his helmets' internal mike. "Thomson, the generator just went out, what should we do?"
No answer came to meet them.
"Hello?" Still no reply came.
"Dammit! We're gonna have to activate the generator again, with or without Thomson's command" Carmine said to the other battle-hardened soldiers.
The soldiers looked at Carmine with looks of bewilderment, and they shook their heads in protest.
All twelve of them wiped off their grime covered faces, and looked at each other, only the light of Sera's moon illuminating the looks of dismay at the hopeless odds of survival.