Firebat
Well, I guess I'm stuck here, I thought as I watched the last of the ships take off. I was now a corporal, and a firebat, a heavy assault trooper. Because of the way my promotion was handled, I was supposed to stay here while the rest of the marines left for home on a regular rotation that would give them a few months leave before once more sending them back into the fray to fight and die once more. I was left behind due to my promotion. I would not have refused it though, since I was no longer considered as expendable as I was before I was promoted, due to the cost in training me. Not only that but I was also in charge of shaping the new recruits up…
"Get up!! Get on your feet, you better be able to run better than that if you want to live, and if you don't want to live, then I can arrange that right here and now!!" Yes, getting to bull the new recruits into shape was one of the things that I liked most about my promotion, besides the room to myself, and the better, MUCH better food. I especially liked to "help" the ones that were struggling. I was the best about "motivating" them. I proved this by running after the recruit who I had just flamed, and then doing so literally with the twin perdites that I now had mounted onto my suit. I didn't get him much; just enough to wake him up and make him run for his life. He would need the practice.
I did enjoy that, however.
I was now in charge of a twelve-man platoon, and I intended to get the newbies that were assigned to it in the best shape that they would be in for the rest of their lives. Not that that would be an exceptionally long time. I knew that I would lose at least half in the next month, and I refused to allow myself to like the 10 newbies I had.
Because the time that had been spent was not something that you would enjoy. We had attacks at least twice a day. We had recognized at least two different broods at work in this area, and that was something that filled HQ with dread. We had captured the first continent of this world, world mK3421, and our current objective was to take the mines on the third, witch would allow us to take it, and then the final, and largest fourth. We had gotten about one million troops on this planet so far, and lost about half, with one fourth of those dead or injured beyond help. I was aware that HQ was being pressured to take this world and that there were threats of demotions all the way down the line to me. I myself had had that threat once or twice, and didn't care that much. I knew that they would not replace me, being an assault trooper with combat experience.
I thought that everything was good on this base, at least as well as could be expected, until one day we were attacked. Now, this would not be a problem, and I just waited to see if by some strange reason, I got called in as well. Turns out, we all got called in. I was surprised, but I got up, leaving my warm gruel (as opposed to the marine's cold gruel) half- eaten, and I ran with my squad to our bunker. We got called in very rarely because I had managed to get us assigned to the last bunker in the lines of defense. I wondered the attack that could get through the ironclad lines of defense that guarded the base. I soon found out why. It was the Protoss! Massive warriors wielding psi blades that could cut a man in two with one strike. I immediately heard as soon as I got into my bunker the sound of psi- blades being ignited and screams when they found flesh. From the confines of my bunker I can see a Siege Tank being cut open, and the hapless crew being dragged out and cut open. Their screams rang out into the bloody daylight, mingling with the screams of others, both toss and terran. My squad helped out, and I saw a couple shots hitting the protoss zelots. Those blasted shields were more than enough to keep us from doing any real damage, except for the lucky shots that got through. The wave of zelots ran toward us as well, screaming for our deaths. We fired as best we could at the host that rushed upon us, but they still got close enough to tear at our bunker. As we desperately tried to kill them before they got through, my higher-powered flamer came into effect, and I used it with deadly effect, burning away first shields, then flesh. The smell of burning flesh soon became the main odor of the battlefield. They were nearly through, but they were nearly dead, and few in number. A few more shots, and they were dead, our bunker unbreached. Deathly silence now prevailed over the battlefield. In our frantic attempts to keep our bunker in one piece, we had won the battle, or so it seemed. We heard a massive rumbling in the distance that soon materialized to be our worst fears. Reavers, massive machines of destruction, ponderous, but insanely deadly with their hell-balls. Our defensive line, weakened by the zealot rush, was no match for the might of the reavers. One by one, our bunkers were destroyed, the brave men inside screaming as they were torn apart by the forces unleashed in the explosions caused by the reavers weapons. Their screams will probably stay with me as long as I live. Finally, the reavers, undaunted by our small-arms fire, turned toward us, the last bunker. They readied their hell-ball launchers for firing, and… Were destroyed by the wraiths lasers. A full squadron had arrived and was now tearing apart the remaining reavers. They could not defend themselves, and returned, or what was left of their assault force. My squad heaved a collective sigh of relief. We had made it!!
I got my squad out of the bunker and into the daylight. I started to congratulate them. "Good job men, we managed to keep them from taking over our position, and we" – One of my squad exploded into a pile of gore. The one beside him was abruptly cut in half. I knew what this meant. "Dark Templar! Get back into the bunker!" I ran with my squad into the bunker and hoped that they didn't break through. I cold hear them slicing at the walls. I was on the radio, demanding a Comsat. As I screamed into the radio, they broke in. I ordered my men behind me, and I let loose with the twin perdite flamers mounted on my back. That felt good. I knew even if I didn't see them, my flame would still burn them out of existence. It worked for a time, then one got close enough, daring the flames, and cut off one of my perdites. Even spraying the bunker, I knew that they could now get through. I braced for the slice that would end my life…but that would never come. I heard a sound like artillery, and I ordered my men to duck. We did, and the shell fragments didn't get us bad, but the DT's were massacred. I saw three of the ghostly flames that appear when one of them die. I wondered what had caused the destruction, but it was revealed when I looked out of the shattered remains of the bunker and saw the battalion of siege tanks. "Hey guys, what took so long?"
"Corporal Guy, You are ordered to report to HQ for debriefing." Well, dang man, they don't let a man rest do they? I got into the vulture anyways, and was quickly sped to HQ.
Inside HQ all was spacious, and I envied those in higher offices, who didn't have to worry about a zerg attack tearing their life away at any time. Oh well. I got down to business right about the time the general in charge of the colony got around to talking to me. "Corporal Guy, take a seat, will you." It was not a question and I did what I was told. He went on about how well we did, and how me and my squad were the best, but I got a bad feeling that this was just a pep talk before he told me to do something stupid. Sure enough, he soon said something that confirmed my bad feeling. Dang, I hate being right.
"Corporal, we have decided to do a counter-attack on the protoss base, and I want you and your squad to lead it."
"Sir, lead an attack?!"
"Well, not lead it in the literal sense, but you will be going in first."
"By ourselves?"
"Pretty much, yes."
"What is our mission?"
"You are to do a covert ops assault inside the protoss base, you will have no support, and everyone else will be relying on you to take out a certain target deep inside the protoss base."
"Sir, that's suicide."
"That's your job, corporal."
"Sir, if this is a covert ops mission, why aren't the ghosts handling it?"
"Well"-
"I can answer that question for the corporal. The reason the ghosts aren't doing this is that the average ghost doesn't have the firepower to do this alone without a nuke, and our nuke silos were damaged during the attack, and they won't be operational for some time."
I looked in the direction soft voice, to see whom it belonged to. What I saw would haunt me in my nightmares for the rest of my life. It was a Ghost. He was wearing a suit that seemed to shift in the light, so I could badly get a good look at him. It was probably for the best, because if I had gotten a good look at him, I probably would have wet myself. Even then, what I did see was bad enough. I immediately noticed his massive gun. It was a C-10 Canister rifle, a sniper rifle that launched small canisters filled with a super-high-density substance that caused massive damage upon impact with a living organism. It wasn't as good against armor, but for the assassination jobs that Ghosts usually got it was the perfect tool. To go with it, he had a targeting computer/laser sight covering one eye, but the other eye, it was the worst part of looking at him. It was steely gray, with no pupil. It showed no emotion, and I realized that I was looking at a man who could kill me, my squad, and all our extended family's without shedding a tear. He would just get on to another job. They seemed to have no soul, nothing. Just an emptiness from which no love, happiness, nothing that most humans do for fun, could escape. They were like looking into a machine. The man seemed to be just one machine. A killing machine, devoid of all things that might hinder it in its mission.
The General must have heard him as well, although how he got in I didn't know, since he made no noise when he came in, neither of us knew he was here until he spoke. He could have killed us both without our knowing it. He commented "Ahh, Guy, here is your commanding officer for this mission, Xan. He is a Ghost."
Xan spoke in that same eerie, soft voice that sent chills down my spine. "Thank you General, you may leave now, I will be taking over his briefing as of now.
The General left, and I was filled with even more fear. Anyone who could just dismiss a General so easily ranked very, very high on my list of people NEVER to cross.
"Corporal, you will attacking a pylon that is powering the main turrets at the protoss base, which we have uncovered to location using sources you don't need to know about. Those turrets will destroy any heavy assault against them, so you must destroy them before we can attack."
"How do I get in?"
"We have found a small opining in their defensive lines. There is room enough for one dropship. You will be going in through this opening and destroy the target. "
"Who will I have with me?"
"There is 7 other spots open. You have your pick of anyone in the 7th battalion. I would suggest one explosives specialist, and the other 6 are up to you."
"What resistance will we be facing?
"We know that there is an elite zealot platoon guarding it, and a couple dragoons. There is also one templar guarding the pylon itself."
"Is the templar high or dark?"
"High"
I had heard of the high templars, how they were the greatest of the protoss warriors, and how they could tear the air and anyone that was there apart. They could also make people see things that weren't there. I was not looking forward to fighting one.
"When do we leave?"
"You leave at 0600 hours tomorrow. Use this time to get your squad together, and get some rest. You'll need it."
I got back to my squad, and they thought the same thing I did about the mission – it was suicide. I chose 6 of the best marksmen in the colony, which I am proud to say more than a few of the best were in my squad. I also got one demolitionist, a large man from the marines. The rest of us were armed with impaler rifles around our shoulders, and twin perdites mounted on the shoulders of our battle armor.
0600 came all too fast. One second it seemed, I was hitting my officer's bunk, where my feet actually don't hang out, unlike the marines, then the next second I heard my barracks commander yell for us to get up. I piled into the dropship with the men I was commanding, and signaled for us to lift off.
The length of time until drop seemed endless. Some men used it to tell jokes, or smoke cigarettes. I used it to plan the route we would take from the drop off point to the target. We had to go through a small field right after drop, then a canyon with flanking cliffs. Those were the locations were the anti-air turrets were firing from. Through the cliffs was the only entrance. After that, there was a small forest, then a large plain where our target was. It seemed impossible, and probably was. I wondered how many of us would get through. Probably none of us. I was not afraid for my own death, I had been nearly killed two many times to worry about that, but I was worried about what would happen if we failed.
I didn't have long to worry about it, though. Our target drop site came up soon. The drop-off was textbook, nothing to worry about here. I watched the ship take off, and set my watch. We had three hours to finish this mission. I ordered my men to move out.
The meadow was clear, nothing to worry. When I saw those cliffs, though I knew there would be trouble. I could sense it. There was no way the protoss would leave something like this unguarded. Still, they could make a mistake, but I doubted it. We moved forward, watchful for any signs of an ambush. We still never saw this one coming.
Suddenly, from our left, their came 3 zealots, all screaming something about some place called Aiur. I didn't know what that was, and I didn't need to know. All I needed to know was that they were the enemy, and they were to be killed.
And kill them we did. My men fired like they had trained together for a year. The zelots had no chance against the concentrated barrage of fire we were bringing down on them. Only one of the three managed to get near us, and our flamers roasted him like a pig on a spit. I warned my men that there might be more. We went on, passing through the shadow of those ominous cliffs. We saw nothing for some time, but we knew that it could only last for a little while.
We were proven correct a short wile after when we heard the distinctive whine of an anti-matter engine. I yelled for all of us to take cover, which we did, but I hoped that it didn't see us scrambling for cover. It flew past, so I thought that it didn't notice us, but there was still a chance. We would find out soon, I guess.
We did find out soon. We encountered nothing more inside the canyon, but as soon as we came out, 4 dragoons were waiting for us. I had heard of the dragoons, dead protoss warriors somehow brought back and powering a suit of armor, and the energy burst of those things was unholy. We saw that for sure now, when one of them fired a burst and killed one of my squad. His flesh first fried off, then his blackened bones-all that was left- crumpled to the ground. We returned fire, one of my men hitting the power system of one, detonating it. 3 left. I ordered my men to move around and try to dodge them. One of my men dived out of the way just as a shot nearly got him. Another wasn't that good, and his leg was burned off. Our fire got the best of another one, and my flames seared the armor from the third, allowing the suspension fluid to spill on the ground. We all concentrated fire on the last as my medic healed my wounded man. The last dragoon got one more shot off, burning away another man. 2 dead, this would be hard. Our man was restored, how I don't know, those medics are VERY good at their jobs.
We trudged into the forest, mourning the loss of our comrades. I looked around for turrets or anything else, but saw none. We got through the forest without incident.
Leaving the forest, we saw the target. It was huge, as big as a five-story building. I ordered my men towards it. When we got closer, we saw a few zelots, 2 dragoons, and a High templar. I ordered my men to attack, and they did. We got a few of the zelots before the nightmare began. Suddenly the air around us crackled with lightning! I felt myself being tore apart. The pain was beyond anything I had every known. I ran out of there, screaming in agony. Only 4 of my squad mates got out. 2 zelots got out as well. I fried one with m y flamers, but the other got one of my men in the neck. He fell, screaming. The medic, one of those who survived the lightning, was roasted by a dragoon shot. My remaining men blew away the other zealot. Then the lightning again! I ran out of it, seeing only 2 men left, and the one with the neck wound nearly dead. I ran at one of the dragoons, firing as I went. He fired at me, and I jumped to the side. I got close enough the burn him, but his shields took it. Then I heard a series of shots. The other dragoon was dead, at the cost of one more man. The one in front of me readied to fire and – was killed by the guy with the neck-wounds final shot. He then died. All that was left was the high templar. I aimed- then there was three of them!! I fired at one, but its shields took it. I had my squadmate fire at it as well, and we got past it's shields, fired some more- only to see it vanish in a cloud of smoke. I screamed at the pain now going through me. It had cast lightning again! My squadmate was torn apart, his blood and organs bursting out over the field. I used my flamer to burn another illusion away. All that was left was me and the high templar. He ran toward me, hands ready to strangle me. I burned him out of existence.
When I saw all that was left of the battle was smells and burns, I got the explosives from the marine who was carrying them and placed them on the pylon. I set the timer and ran.
About 30 seconds later, I heard a defining explosion, and saw the pylon crumble into pieces. I got my radio out, and spoke the wonderful words that meant I was done. "Mission Accomplished."
Well, I guess I'm stuck here, I thought as I watched the last of the ships take off. I was now a corporal, and a firebat, a heavy assault trooper. Because of the way my promotion was handled, I was supposed to stay here while the rest of the marines left for home on a regular rotation that would give them a few months leave before once more sending them back into the fray to fight and die once more. I was left behind due to my promotion. I would not have refused it though, since I was no longer considered as expendable as I was before I was promoted, due to the cost in training me. Not only that but I was also in charge of shaping the new recruits up…
"Get up!! Get on your feet, you better be able to run better than that if you want to live, and if you don't want to live, then I can arrange that right here and now!!" Yes, getting to bull the new recruits into shape was one of the things that I liked most about my promotion, besides the room to myself, and the better, MUCH better food. I especially liked to "help" the ones that were struggling. I was the best about "motivating" them. I proved this by running after the recruit who I had just flamed, and then doing so literally with the twin perdites that I now had mounted onto my suit. I didn't get him much; just enough to wake him up and make him run for his life. He would need the practice.
I did enjoy that, however.
I was now in charge of a twelve-man platoon, and I intended to get the newbies that were assigned to it in the best shape that they would be in for the rest of their lives. Not that that would be an exceptionally long time. I knew that I would lose at least half in the next month, and I refused to allow myself to like the 10 newbies I had.
Because the time that had been spent was not something that you would enjoy. We had attacks at least twice a day. We had recognized at least two different broods at work in this area, and that was something that filled HQ with dread. We had captured the first continent of this world, world mK3421, and our current objective was to take the mines on the third, witch would allow us to take it, and then the final, and largest fourth. We had gotten about one million troops on this planet so far, and lost about half, with one fourth of those dead or injured beyond help. I was aware that HQ was being pressured to take this world and that there were threats of demotions all the way down the line to me. I myself had had that threat once or twice, and didn't care that much. I knew that they would not replace me, being an assault trooper with combat experience.
I thought that everything was good on this base, at least as well as could be expected, until one day we were attacked. Now, this would not be a problem, and I just waited to see if by some strange reason, I got called in as well. Turns out, we all got called in. I was surprised, but I got up, leaving my warm gruel (as opposed to the marine's cold gruel) half- eaten, and I ran with my squad to our bunker. We got called in very rarely because I had managed to get us assigned to the last bunker in the lines of defense. I wondered the attack that could get through the ironclad lines of defense that guarded the base. I soon found out why. It was the Protoss! Massive warriors wielding psi blades that could cut a man in two with one strike. I immediately heard as soon as I got into my bunker the sound of psi- blades being ignited and screams when they found flesh. From the confines of my bunker I can see a Siege Tank being cut open, and the hapless crew being dragged out and cut open. Their screams rang out into the bloody daylight, mingling with the screams of others, both toss and terran. My squad helped out, and I saw a couple shots hitting the protoss zelots. Those blasted shields were more than enough to keep us from doing any real damage, except for the lucky shots that got through. The wave of zelots ran toward us as well, screaming for our deaths. We fired as best we could at the host that rushed upon us, but they still got close enough to tear at our bunker. As we desperately tried to kill them before they got through, my higher-powered flamer came into effect, and I used it with deadly effect, burning away first shields, then flesh. The smell of burning flesh soon became the main odor of the battlefield. They were nearly through, but they were nearly dead, and few in number. A few more shots, and they were dead, our bunker unbreached. Deathly silence now prevailed over the battlefield. In our frantic attempts to keep our bunker in one piece, we had won the battle, or so it seemed. We heard a massive rumbling in the distance that soon materialized to be our worst fears. Reavers, massive machines of destruction, ponderous, but insanely deadly with their hell-balls. Our defensive line, weakened by the zealot rush, was no match for the might of the reavers. One by one, our bunkers were destroyed, the brave men inside screaming as they were torn apart by the forces unleashed in the explosions caused by the reavers weapons. Their screams will probably stay with me as long as I live. Finally, the reavers, undaunted by our small-arms fire, turned toward us, the last bunker. They readied their hell-ball launchers for firing, and… Were destroyed by the wraiths lasers. A full squadron had arrived and was now tearing apart the remaining reavers. They could not defend themselves, and returned, or what was left of their assault force. My squad heaved a collective sigh of relief. We had made it!!
I got my squad out of the bunker and into the daylight. I started to congratulate them. "Good job men, we managed to keep them from taking over our position, and we" – One of my squad exploded into a pile of gore. The one beside him was abruptly cut in half. I knew what this meant. "Dark Templar! Get back into the bunker!" I ran with my squad into the bunker and hoped that they didn't break through. I cold hear them slicing at the walls. I was on the radio, demanding a Comsat. As I screamed into the radio, they broke in. I ordered my men behind me, and I let loose with the twin perdite flamers mounted on my back. That felt good. I knew even if I didn't see them, my flame would still burn them out of existence. It worked for a time, then one got close enough, daring the flames, and cut off one of my perdites. Even spraying the bunker, I knew that they could now get through. I braced for the slice that would end my life…but that would never come. I heard a sound like artillery, and I ordered my men to duck. We did, and the shell fragments didn't get us bad, but the DT's were massacred. I saw three of the ghostly flames that appear when one of them die. I wondered what had caused the destruction, but it was revealed when I looked out of the shattered remains of the bunker and saw the battalion of siege tanks. "Hey guys, what took so long?"
"Corporal Guy, You are ordered to report to HQ for debriefing." Well, dang man, they don't let a man rest do they? I got into the vulture anyways, and was quickly sped to HQ.
Inside HQ all was spacious, and I envied those in higher offices, who didn't have to worry about a zerg attack tearing their life away at any time. Oh well. I got down to business right about the time the general in charge of the colony got around to talking to me. "Corporal Guy, take a seat, will you." It was not a question and I did what I was told. He went on about how well we did, and how me and my squad were the best, but I got a bad feeling that this was just a pep talk before he told me to do something stupid. Sure enough, he soon said something that confirmed my bad feeling. Dang, I hate being right.
"Corporal, we have decided to do a counter-attack on the protoss base, and I want you and your squad to lead it."
"Sir, lead an attack?!"
"Well, not lead it in the literal sense, but you will be going in first."
"By ourselves?"
"Pretty much, yes."
"What is our mission?"
"You are to do a covert ops assault inside the protoss base, you will have no support, and everyone else will be relying on you to take out a certain target deep inside the protoss base."
"Sir, that's suicide."
"That's your job, corporal."
"Sir, if this is a covert ops mission, why aren't the ghosts handling it?"
"Well"-
"I can answer that question for the corporal. The reason the ghosts aren't doing this is that the average ghost doesn't have the firepower to do this alone without a nuke, and our nuke silos were damaged during the attack, and they won't be operational for some time."
I looked in the direction soft voice, to see whom it belonged to. What I saw would haunt me in my nightmares for the rest of my life. It was a Ghost. He was wearing a suit that seemed to shift in the light, so I could badly get a good look at him. It was probably for the best, because if I had gotten a good look at him, I probably would have wet myself. Even then, what I did see was bad enough. I immediately noticed his massive gun. It was a C-10 Canister rifle, a sniper rifle that launched small canisters filled with a super-high-density substance that caused massive damage upon impact with a living organism. It wasn't as good against armor, but for the assassination jobs that Ghosts usually got it was the perfect tool. To go with it, he had a targeting computer/laser sight covering one eye, but the other eye, it was the worst part of looking at him. It was steely gray, with no pupil. It showed no emotion, and I realized that I was looking at a man who could kill me, my squad, and all our extended family's without shedding a tear. He would just get on to another job. They seemed to have no soul, nothing. Just an emptiness from which no love, happiness, nothing that most humans do for fun, could escape. They were like looking into a machine. The man seemed to be just one machine. A killing machine, devoid of all things that might hinder it in its mission.
The General must have heard him as well, although how he got in I didn't know, since he made no noise when he came in, neither of us knew he was here until he spoke. He could have killed us both without our knowing it. He commented "Ahh, Guy, here is your commanding officer for this mission, Xan. He is a Ghost."
Xan spoke in that same eerie, soft voice that sent chills down my spine. "Thank you General, you may leave now, I will be taking over his briefing as of now.
The General left, and I was filled with even more fear. Anyone who could just dismiss a General so easily ranked very, very high on my list of people NEVER to cross.
"Corporal, you will attacking a pylon that is powering the main turrets at the protoss base, which we have uncovered to location using sources you don't need to know about. Those turrets will destroy any heavy assault against them, so you must destroy them before we can attack."
"How do I get in?"
"We have found a small opining in their defensive lines. There is room enough for one dropship. You will be going in through this opening and destroy the target. "
"Who will I have with me?"
"There is 7 other spots open. You have your pick of anyone in the 7th battalion. I would suggest one explosives specialist, and the other 6 are up to you."
"What resistance will we be facing?
"We know that there is an elite zealot platoon guarding it, and a couple dragoons. There is also one templar guarding the pylon itself."
"Is the templar high or dark?"
"High"
I had heard of the high templars, how they were the greatest of the protoss warriors, and how they could tear the air and anyone that was there apart. They could also make people see things that weren't there. I was not looking forward to fighting one.
"When do we leave?"
"You leave at 0600 hours tomorrow. Use this time to get your squad together, and get some rest. You'll need it."
I got back to my squad, and they thought the same thing I did about the mission – it was suicide. I chose 6 of the best marksmen in the colony, which I am proud to say more than a few of the best were in my squad. I also got one demolitionist, a large man from the marines. The rest of us were armed with impaler rifles around our shoulders, and twin perdites mounted on the shoulders of our battle armor.
0600 came all too fast. One second it seemed, I was hitting my officer's bunk, where my feet actually don't hang out, unlike the marines, then the next second I heard my barracks commander yell for us to get up. I piled into the dropship with the men I was commanding, and signaled for us to lift off.
The length of time until drop seemed endless. Some men used it to tell jokes, or smoke cigarettes. I used it to plan the route we would take from the drop off point to the target. We had to go through a small field right after drop, then a canyon with flanking cliffs. Those were the locations were the anti-air turrets were firing from. Through the cliffs was the only entrance. After that, there was a small forest, then a large plain where our target was. It seemed impossible, and probably was. I wondered how many of us would get through. Probably none of us. I was not afraid for my own death, I had been nearly killed two many times to worry about that, but I was worried about what would happen if we failed.
I didn't have long to worry about it, though. Our target drop site came up soon. The drop-off was textbook, nothing to worry about here. I watched the ship take off, and set my watch. We had three hours to finish this mission. I ordered my men to move out.
The meadow was clear, nothing to worry. When I saw those cliffs, though I knew there would be trouble. I could sense it. There was no way the protoss would leave something like this unguarded. Still, they could make a mistake, but I doubted it. We moved forward, watchful for any signs of an ambush. We still never saw this one coming.
Suddenly, from our left, their came 3 zealots, all screaming something about some place called Aiur. I didn't know what that was, and I didn't need to know. All I needed to know was that they were the enemy, and they were to be killed.
And kill them we did. My men fired like they had trained together for a year. The zelots had no chance against the concentrated barrage of fire we were bringing down on them. Only one of the three managed to get near us, and our flamers roasted him like a pig on a spit. I warned my men that there might be more. We went on, passing through the shadow of those ominous cliffs. We saw nothing for some time, but we knew that it could only last for a little while.
We were proven correct a short wile after when we heard the distinctive whine of an anti-matter engine. I yelled for all of us to take cover, which we did, but I hoped that it didn't see us scrambling for cover. It flew past, so I thought that it didn't notice us, but there was still a chance. We would find out soon, I guess.
We did find out soon. We encountered nothing more inside the canyon, but as soon as we came out, 4 dragoons were waiting for us. I had heard of the dragoons, dead protoss warriors somehow brought back and powering a suit of armor, and the energy burst of those things was unholy. We saw that for sure now, when one of them fired a burst and killed one of my squad. His flesh first fried off, then his blackened bones-all that was left- crumpled to the ground. We returned fire, one of my men hitting the power system of one, detonating it. 3 left. I ordered my men to move around and try to dodge them. One of my men dived out of the way just as a shot nearly got him. Another wasn't that good, and his leg was burned off. Our fire got the best of another one, and my flames seared the armor from the third, allowing the suspension fluid to spill on the ground. We all concentrated fire on the last as my medic healed my wounded man. The last dragoon got one more shot off, burning away another man. 2 dead, this would be hard. Our man was restored, how I don't know, those medics are VERY good at their jobs.
We trudged into the forest, mourning the loss of our comrades. I looked around for turrets or anything else, but saw none. We got through the forest without incident.
Leaving the forest, we saw the target. It was huge, as big as a five-story building. I ordered my men towards it. When we got closer, we saw a few zelots, 2 dragoons, and a High templar. I ordered my men to attack, and they did. We got a few of the zelots before the nightmare began. Suddenly the air around us crackled with lightning! I felt myself being tore apart. The pain was beyond anything I had every known. I ran out of there, screaming in agony. Only 4 of my squad mates got out. 2 zelots got out as well. I fried one with m y flamers, but the other got one of my men in the neck. He fell, screaming. The medic, one of those who survived the lightning, was roasted by a dragoon shot. My remaining men blew away the other zealot. Then the lightning again! I ran out of it, seeing only 2 men left, and the one with the neck wound nearly dead. I ran at one of the dragoons, firing as I went. He fired at me, and I jumped to the side. I got close enough the burn him, but his shields took it. Then I heard a series of shots. The other dragoon was dead, at the cost of one more man. The one in front of me readied to fire and – was killed by the guy with the neck-wounds final shot. He then died. All that was left was the high templar. I aimed- then there was three of them!! I fired at one, but its shields took it. I had my squadmate fire at it as well, and we got past it's shields, fired some more- only to see it vanish in a cloud of smoke. I screamed at the pain now going through me. It had cast lightning again! My squadmate was torn apart, his blood and organs bursting out over the field. I used my flamer to burn another illusion away. All that was left was me and the high templar. He ran toward me, hands ready to strangle me. I burned him out of existence.
When I saw all that was left of the battle was smells and burns, I got the explosives from the marine who was carrying them and placed them on the pylon. I set the timer and ran.
About 30 seconds later, I heard a defining explosion, and saw the pylon crumble into pieces. I got my radio out, and spoke the wonderful words that meant I was done. "Mission Accomplished."