The charge was a blind assault. The vultures plunged deep into the enemy line. So deep, in fact, that they were cut off from reinforcements. Several enemies had been blown to smithereens or quickly trampled over, but it didn't compare to the vultures fate. Sayne could see acid spikes pepper the sides of the vultures. The acid ate at the hover bike, turning it to shrapnel.
From the minor set back the aliens restarted their parade towards the base. The enemy was quickly greeted by two rows of goliaths. The mechanical walkers rapid fired hundreds of rounds into the charging forms. Row after row of Zerg minions fell to the dirt, limp and unmoving. From what Sayne could see the battle was defiantly even, but Sayne also noticed that the Zerg were shifting position. They were sending up a row of crablike flying creatures. Sayne had seen theses before but never saw how strong they were. They were called guardians, but they didn't really guard anything.
Before anyone could predict it, the guardians launched several volleys of acid spit towards the goliaths. The volleys hit taking out multiple goliaths at once. The guardians were to far away for the goliaths to respond with any counter-fire. That was the guardians' specialty. They were slow, but they could attack from great distances. That was enough to kill every single one of the goliaths.
After the goliaths were no more than hunks of wood, the guardians and the main attack force charged once again. They alien menace quickly overcame six bunkers and charged the gate, but the doors was quickly shut upon seeing the furious enemy.
Sayne, Amy, and Jack knew that the doors would not hold forever. Sayne saw Jack kneel down into firing position waiting, impatiently to pull the trigger. Sayne was actually interested in seeing how good Jack was, but Amy, on the other hand, would not budge from her position. He couldn't blame her...somehow he knew that they would lose this battle.
Sayne could hear the general yell out orders to the tanks and snipers, "Don't fire until we give the signal!" Sayne looked off the high wall to see the creatures still charging, they were about 3000 feet away. "Ready...." (2500) "Aim...." (2000)...(1500) "...FIRE!"
Sayne heard thousands of shots go off, and off the wall Sayne saw hundred off zerglings and hydrolisks get knocked off their feet. Hundreds of others were blown away from the siege tanks. Sayne defiantly did not expect the damage to so devastating. About half of the Zerg were gone. But what scared Sayne the most was (1000) that the enemy did not slow down. "Fire! Fire! Fire!" (500). The second volley did not do near as much because they were to close. (0) The enemy swarmed the wall. The generals ordered to aim down the wall everyone obeyed. Without waiting for orders the marines and tanks fired round after round down the front wall. Blood, guts, and smoking filled the air. For five minutes the fire continued until the generals ordered to cease-fire. The marines watched and waited. The smoke was too dense to see the ground. Sayne tried to listen to movement, but all he could hear was his own uneasy breathing.
The smoke cleared to emptiness, and the marines cheered with all their might. Sayne turned to Jack and then to Amy they were smiling, but he was not.
Something was not right. It was too easy. Sayne peered down the wall, and then it hit him... Where were the bodies?
Amy sensed Sayne's uneasiness, and approached him slowly, "What's wrong?" She asked. "We won...we stopped them from getting in the base."
Sayne began to laugh, "No Amy... they are already in the base."
Before Amy could respond, the inner base was filled with the sounds off gunshots. "Get inside the base!" Sayne heard one of the generals yell. The startled marines left their positions and scrambled to make it inside the complex before the Zerg scum did. Dashing for the base, the trio was met by a barrage of Arial assaults. Bat shaped mutilisks swooped down spitting acid on the fleeing marines. Sayne fired as he ran, shooting down as many bat-shaped or crab-shaped beings as he could. When they arrived inside the base they were put into groups of ten and then dispatched to a certain location of the base. Sayne's group was assigned with another group to guard the right wing. When they arrived there they sat down and rested. "What's going on?" said Amy.
Another member answered her, "It seems the fricken things dug under the wall, and now we are stuck here until some dropships arrive."
"Well...I guess that means we wait then." Jack grinned.
"Yep..."
For several minutes the marines waited, their fears rising by the moment. There thoughts wondering if the vile Zerg creatures had breached their inner defenses, but contemptuous silence wasn't enough move the hearts of the trio. They were determined to survive. They wanted to share a life of friendship together. And Sayne promised Amy he wouldn't leave her side.
The marines did everything they could to pass time. Some played cards, but most just talked about their family waiting some where for them. Most of the women and young children were evacuated immediately in the dropships that were already docked at the civilian base. The men all wondered if they would ever see their family again. Sayne, on the other hand, did not. He had not a family to return to. It never occurred to him that it was unfair that he was never given an explanation of why he never had parents. He grew up with Bren who also never had parents, as did many of the other cadets of the epsilon system. It was always a mystery of why they never learned much of their systems past. Why had no one ever called it by the Epsilon system? They called it the solar system.
Sayne was quickly pulled from his thoughts when the ground beneath him began to rumble. Marines all around scrambled from the area trying to get to safety. The ground began to fall apart, and Sayne saw several humans go through and even more Zerg come out. Muffled screams radiated from the mouths of the fallen Terran. The Zerg drew forth in a charge of hack and slash. Sayne saw Amy recoil from a zergling that attempted to decapitate her. Sayne was surprised as he watched her fight. She was fast, almost as fast as Bren. She was good, but what surprised Sayne most was that she was physical. She would punch or kick the enemy if it got too close. Sayne saw her elbow one of the zerglings on the top of the head, and then she snapped its neck between her legs.
Meanwhile Jack was not moving from his position. He had a pistol in hand, and shot down one by one every Zerg he encountered...in the head. Sayne had now raised his rifle and was about to form his own assault when the room trembled from a sonic boom, and the hall was engulfed in smoke.
The smoke was too thick for anyone to see through, but from the sounds Sayne could hear the men retreating down the hall. He fallowed angrily.
"Why are we retreating!" he yelled.
"The dropships have arrived," coughed Jack beside him. "Were out of here."
"Good," bumbled Sayne. "Where is Amy?"
"Right here!" came a voice behind the pair.
The people were happy to know that Zerg had not followed, due to the state of confusion. Up a staircase and a set of stairs took them to a platform high above the base. The rest of the defenders were already being loaded into dropships. Sayne, Amy, and Jack were loaded with their squad into their own dropship. The dropships were too small for everyone to sit, so to fit as many as possible, they were required to stand huddled together.
"Sayne?" Amy spoke up.
"Yeah? What's up?" Sayne asked.
"Why did... why did you choke up?" answered Amy.
"What do you mean?" he replied.
"On the wall and inside the base...you almost never fired a shot. All you did was watch the fight."
Sayne eyes grew wide in intense horror. He had not realized that he didn't fight. He was to busy watching Jack and Amy fight. Sayne bowed his head in realization. He felt inferior to Amy and Jack. It was obvious to him now that they were better them him.
"You guys," he said. "You guys were amazing."
Sayne was surprised to see that the pair did not even become the slightest bit flattered from his comment.
"Yep..." replied Jack.
"We sure are." Mumbled Amy.
Sayne couldn't believe his ears. "Did I say something wrong?"
"No... you just said the truth." Answered Amy.
"Meaning?"
"Meaning we are amazing." She answered. "We are both very good...we are both top class marines. Jack, code named Raven, was top of his class in both SCOPE, the elite sniping squad, and a class A stealth team.
"And you?" asked Sayne awestruck.
"I am..." She paused.
"She's a ghost." Jack interrupted.
"A ghost!" screamed Sayne. "You read minds?"
"No. Not all of us can. I, on the other hand have abilities that almost no one else has.
"Such as?"
"I am...not going to tell you."
Sayne understood. For the rest of the flight they were silent. Upon reaching the starport, the defenders were rushed onto a battle cruiser. From there they were each given rooms. For hours they loaded civilians until not one human being had been left. After that they were space bound.
Sayne sat in a chair, thinking. Sayne pondered his existence. Why could he remember so many things? What training school did he attend? Why couldn't he remember? Why was their no document stating the location of the people who left him on Earth? He looked up in to a mirror. He was handsome, and he would admit that. He had dark black hair and hazel eyes. He was 5' 10'' and today was a special day that's all he knew. Today was his birthday. It had almost been a year since he had traveled with the Alpha Squad.
A sudden jerk proved to Sayne that the cruiser had stopped. For several minutes Sayne waited. He heard foot steps, and then his door was busted open.
"Sayne Johnson," a man said. "Come with us."
NEXT CHAPTER: space pirates/ cell