The overlords had come out of no where; the Terran convoy had no time to react, even though alert Goliath pilots in parts of the convoy managed to kill four overlords in flight but the small amount of death would not be enough to stop the destruction coming. The celebrates plan worked to a tee for the middle of the convoy which was split up and dealt with within ten minutes of the ambush, the front of the convoy would be a different story though.
They had come out of nowhere and dropped Zerg all around his men; Sergeant Colaith had lost four men within the first minute of fighting. He loosened another forty round stream, which took out another Hydralisk; he could not help but smile in satisfaction. All around Colaith however the battle was going the same way it had for the rear portion. The sergeant and three of his men managed to make it up an embankment and continued to snipe off straggling Zerg. As the bulk of the attack force was done with the Terran forces and was proceeding upwards towards the front. All around Colaith the Terran were being wiped out, with all the Terran forces behind him already destroyed, leaving the front portion alone to continue the fight. For the Sergeant and his surviving command the battle had only lasted ten minutes but the cost had been a staggering one, one hundred and forty- five dead or missing and thirty- two wounded, not counting the destroyed tanks and Goliaths.
Further up the line right at the front the Terran finally had some success, with the most skilled of the task force assigned to either the back or front this portion had destroyed the Zerg that had landed to cut them off. The elite seventh Ninjas platoon of the 6th planetary defense force was one such unit They had not only managed to drive off another Zerg wave, but they had managed alone to destroy two Zerg attack groups and save the trapped humans, while suffering only twenty losses.
The two remaining goliaths formed an anchor for the survivors that the Ninjas had just saved but were now facing destruction from the oncoming Zerg. Captain Sania keyed his com-link four times signaling his men to fire. Sania aimed and fired, taking the throat off of a hydralisk. At least forty Zerglings and ten hydralisks were killed in a single withering volley of fire. The Zerg kept coming and they were now within three hundred meters of the Terran front line. Sania had added two more hydralisk kills to his record, then the Zerg got their chance to return fire, within one volley six marines were killed. With the Zerglings only one hundred and fifty yards it was time for some fast action by the Captain, luckily that was his strong point. He keyed his com-link "Fall-back to the tank debris. This quick action plan worked well with the firebats covering the retreating marines and the firebats fell back as well, but this plan did not work well with the Goliath's as they were swarmed over and destroyed. Without warning the Zerg withdrew, the remaining overlords flew in and extracted what they could the rest was left behind to die.
Captain Sania scratched the top of his helmet. He could not figure why the hell the Zerg withdrew, when they could have easily wiped at least half the Terran convoy. For right now though he could care less what the hell the Zerg were up to, as long as him and his men were alive. He called over his two subordinates, Sergeant Major Kellona and Lieutenant Mayes. "Well boys looks like the Zerg have bugged out, not saying this is bad or anything but I think that they are just regrouping. If that is the case, I want a casualty report, just in this area that will be Lieutenant Mayes's job. While Sergeant Major Kellona will search for supplies. Dismissed". Both men saluted and smartly turned to due their orders. Mayes was first to return back to Sania, he saluted the young captain and began his report. " Sir, we have approximately one hundred fully functional troops, which about forty are Ninja and we have one fully functional APC, sir".
" Well Lieutenant, how many men are wounded and how many are critically wounded? As well how many medics do we have on site right now, cause we are going to need them with no air cover there is no way in hell a med. dropship is going to come in here". Replied Sania
" Sorry sir, we have close to thirty wounded, fifteen critical, we have only five medics in this area but if we can make contact with the rest of the convoy maybe we can link up".
"That is not going to happen I will not waste men trying to find survivors in this shit hole my main objective is getting this sad group of men back to HQ. Any ways Mayes the others can take care of themselves, but since you seem so keen on moving then you will lead the mission that will get us out of here".
"What the hell you talking about sir I thought you did not want to waste men sir?" yelled Mayes.
"Mayes you are bordering on subordination with that outburst of yours but I will treat that crap as combat fatigue. Your job Lieutenant is with fifty men and our last APC is to move 2km southeast and take out a group of spore colonies that stand between us and getting the hell out of dodge, you leave now but take with the supplies that Kellona has dug up, dismissed".
With that Mayes turned around and began to collect both men and supplies for the upcoming attack. Sania turned to survey the carnage of the last battle; all over the desert floor was the scattered mangled bodies of Terran and Zerg. The wind was picking up the yellow sand and was slowly covering the bodies, if the Terran ever returned to this area they would have to bury these people thought Sania. Even though he knew that the Zerg would see to most of these bodies but he tried to push that out of his mind for a minute and concentrate on getting the live bodies out of hell.
The plan was simple and perfect; the whole plan played out in Mayes's mind. Take the APC and just drop fifteen troops in the middle of the base, with eight troops deployed with rockets to take out any sunken colonies. After the fifteen heavy troops took out the Hive then the rest would come in hauling ass and take out any Zerg troops stupid enough to move.
Where the plan went wrong Mayes would never know, for once the heavy troops hit the desert floor the plan fell apart. Rockets had destroyed the sunken colonies that were in range but one oversight was the presence of one lurker, which had a field day with the heavy troops, Mayes was one of the first injured as the spike managed to go into his left foot. Mayes rolled to his left, while loosening a couple of shots taking a Hydralisk in the throat. He looked to his left and saw the APC being crushed by the Lurker, there were at least ten men dead around Mayes but reinforcements were coming up the ridge. Mayes and the remaining assault troopers mowed down the remaining Zerg defending the base, but the damn lurker was still wreaking havoc claiming another three troops, two firebats ran past Mayes and started to hose the creep around the Hive with flames hoping to get the Lurker. The creature was not there however and within a minute both firebats were killed. Mayes ordered a full out retreat from the area, expect for the rocket teams, which destroyed the spore colonies. The mission was complete but the cost was high twenty marines lost and the destruction of their last APC. All in all thought Mayes the mission was done and within half an hour they would meet up with Captain and call for transport out.
Keep on reviewing people I would like to have at least two more reviews before I make another chapter. Thanks to those that have reviewed and I would appreciate more.