A pair of Unggoy (Grunts) sat by the shore arguing over whose Commander was better, one waving his funny looking limbs in the air, the other simply yelling. They were stationed on some alien planet with no name and no intelligent life. The sky was deep blue in color and had no clouds but had two huge moons. The stars were still visible, even during the daylight hours. An average day took 42 hours though and it was difficult for most of the grunts to sleep, causing them much stress. The Elites however were used to such treatment and were still able to do their job effectively. Korrosion, one of the commanders, stood upon a large 20 foot high boulder. He staired down at the two grunt's debate, thinking "well, they have nothing better to do." He looked down at his energy sword, unignited, his most beloved weapon. His armor was colored gold, the mark of a highly reguarded Elite.
There were 200 Grunts,54 Jackels (Kig-gars), 10 Hunters(Lekgolo), 12 Elites, 15 Yanme'es and 8 Brutes (Jiralhanaes) stationed here to guard some piece of shit ruins from the recapture by the humans. How long had this war gone on. Korrosion did not know and sometimes even thought that the Prophets had no right to exterminate the humans. But such thought was forbidden to even think about. He probably would get executed for blasphemy for sharing his thoughts even with his most trusted warriors.He knew the other Elites believed and trusted the Prophets and would also die for them. They also had 30 Ghosts, 10 Banshees, 5 Wraith tanks, 13 Shadow transports ,7 Phantoms and 1 beautiful scarab tank. A nice little army but not worthy of these old ruins. What ever the reason he still followed his orders. The second Commander jumped up the side of the boulder and said "There is a radar hit of some peculier objects somewhere in the Tar sector and whatever it is , it is heading this way."
Korrosion replied" Are there multiple objects?"
The other commander, her name was Hedrosh, said"It doesn't look like it but you never know."
"Get the troops ready," Korrosion said.
Hedrosh jumped off the rock and jogged off. Korrosion looked down at the gray sand and the dark blue water. If these objects are of any threat the beach is were they may attack. He ordered some plasma turrets and the most of the Wraiths placed around the beach. He jumped off the boulder and started up the beach towards ruins. The ruins were next to the ocean in the middle of the barren desert. The Grunts were scrambling everywhere. He walked into the front entrance and to the radar computers. Hedrosh was reviewing them and cursing.
" Whats the problem," Korrosion asked
" The objects seem to resemble the human warships but they are much larger and they have multiplied. They will arrive here in 2 hours," Hedrosh replied.
Korrosion pulled out his Energy sword and said" You think they are the humans?"
"I do not know but I do not think they part of the humans we have dealt with before. These ships, if they are ships, are twice the size of the average human warship and are travelling much faster," Hedrosh said dryly.
Korrosion eyed Hedrosh and asked" Does this frighten you?"
Hedrosh shot back" You know I am not frightened of humans!"
Korrosion walked away , 3 Hunters stairing at him, and back out to the beach.
He told his seargents to get ready for a possible battle. They had no ships here on this planet or even in the skys so they would have no space ariel protection. But they did have the Phantoms but they were of no use in dog-fighting. They would have to do. He looked at the sky, 7 hours until nightfall." At least we shall be able to see them he thought. The ghosts were driving about and the wraith tanks were moving into position. With the Wraith's ability to fire their mortar rounds over objects they would not be in direct firing sight from the straight shot tank turrets used in the human armys. Then an unknown grunt came scrambling from the ruin entrance and yelled they are here. Everyone looked to the sky and saw the approaching ships. They looked to be around 200 to 1000 foot long drop ships barreling towards them. They were dark brown in color and had huge jet exhausts which meant they were probably humans, but still what other race could be a threat to the Covenant. No time to think about that he thought. He turned around and saw his automatic plasma cannons let loose their powerful barrages of super heated bolts into the first one of the drop ships. It had no shields and began taking heavy amounts of damage. But there were over 80 to 100 of these dropships covering the sky. He thought how could they have gotten here so fast. The flash from the plasma cannons lit up the whole beach, their loud scream echoing across the ruins. The drop ship tilted sideways and began free falling. It crashed into the ocean waves, sending a huge spray water into the air. The grunts all cheered, just as one of the other drop ships made it to the ground. The front, at least it looked like the front because of the windows and the way direction they were travelling, faced towards them , a huge ramp taking up the whole backside of the ship slammed open. To his amazement, giant 40 foot machines came lumbering out and began a slow march towards the wraith tanks. Then he remembered what they were. They were part of the Great Droid Army he read about in an archive kept by the Prophets. These machines were known as spider tanks, electrical beam lasers their primary weapons. One Spider tank fired at a wraith tank, bursting it's plasma fueled weapons and engine, making an awesome flash. Then the rest of the Spider Tanks began firing at the rest of the wraiths, while the wraiths turned and returned fire. Some of the Spider tanks were taken out showing they were not invincible. He narrowed his deep blue eyes and yelled for everyone to open fire. They made short work of the Spider Tanks, their deaths in huge gloriouse fire balls, but not without loss. They lost 5 wraiths and 2 Shadow transports in the initial attack. He ran back to the ruins knowing there were just three of those spider tanks on that one dropship. And there were still more of them!
Korrosion came running into the ruin entrance again and ordered Hedrosh to fire up her Scarab tank. She looked at him surprised but obeyed. Korrosion ran to the weapon crates and grabbed one of the Brute's grenade launchers. He darted back outside to the beach and saw that over half of the dropships he saw in the sky were now on the ground and unloading their cargo. One dropship was unloading surprising amounts of ground soldiers. He quickly scanned them noting there were the basic battle droid, the more powerful but less numerous super battle droid and the smaller but still deadly dwarf spider droid. The battle droids were holding assault rifles, rocket launchers and sniper rifles. And they opened fire. A huge spray of electrical bolts came screaming towards them. He dropped to the ground as the bolts lit up his surroundings, their blood red flash lighting up the entire area. Another enemy dropship began unloading some AAT battle tanks. They began charging their weapons , their loud hissing drowning out the sound of the dropship's engine. And they released destroying large numbers of the wraiths. The wraiths on the other hand were busy focusing their fire on the dropships, blowing them to burning husks of metal. But that was not enough to stop the rest of the the opposing army from getting battle ready. Now all of their dropships made it to the ground. Then he heard it, the deep ground shaking from the foot steps of the huge scarab tank. It slowly lumbered out into view and began charging it's own heavy plasma beam. It fired on the three AAT battle tanks, sweeping from left to right, destroying them quickly. Then he spotted these funny looking wheeled tanks rushing towards the Scarab. Then he realized they were Hail Fire Droids, the so-called most destructive tank in the droid army, their wheel 35 feet from top to bottom. They began unleashing their purple flashing missiles, each missile with their own computer A.I., locking on to individual targets. But most focused on the Scarab tank. They reached their target in seconds, obliterating the Scareb in a spectacular show of explosions and fire. The Scarab lurched sideways and crashed to the ground , it's fuel tanks bursting , lighting everything up from the plasma. Then the Hail-fire droid's missiles began taking out the rest of the wraiths and shadow transports. Almost all the Ghosts were destroyed and the ones that weren't were not occupied. A few phantoms and banshees made it into the sky but they quickly shot down . His grunts and hunters were all fighting efficiantly but the overwhelming number of the enemy ground troops made it a futile effort. They were all going to die.
The Prophet of Truth had ordered him and Hedrosh to keep this ruin safe at all costs. They told them not to retreat no matter what. Even if the enemy was to powerful. And he intended to follow orders. He ran forward , igniting his energy sword with it's glass breaking noise, and started toward the closest enemy. But the air was ablaze with the flash from the laser and plasma bolts, making visibility very poor. Explosions shook the ground and smoke filled the air. Then a rocket spiraled toward him and he lept sideways, attempting to dodge it, but was unsuccesful. It hit the ground beneath him, the explosion sending him into the air. He landed face down in a crater just as one of the shadow transports rumbled over him and was destroyed, its hull trapping him in the crater. He tried lifting the transport but it was of no use. He could hear the battle raging around him just as another explosion blew the shadow transport to pieces, a piece of shrapnel flew at his face , then everything went black.
Korrosion awoke hours later. He tried standing but his right leg was broken and there was a large piece of metal gouged into his left shoulder. He looked at the sky and saw that nightfall had come. He looked around and saw the destroyed remains of his army. The burnt out husks of the wraiths and shadow transports sat still smoking. The three moons lit up the surrounding area. The bodies of his warriors littered the ground everywhere. He saw the enemy droid army had suffered countless casualtys too. He wondered where they were because he saw none of them left. All the dropships he saw before were gone. Just the decimated ones remained.
He looked at the ruins and saw that they were still standing although a little damaged. He slowly and painfuly stumbled to his feet. He made his way to the entrance and was releived when he saw that it had not caved in. He got to one of the computers, one that wasn't destroyed, and called for assistance. This was the END for now.
to be continued.......