The Captain started to speak, but was cut short by the familiar sound of the drill alarm. Immediately a soldier appeared, "Sir, a sentry on the tower saw something". In a swiftness, that even surprised Deacon, the captain shoved the soldier out of the way and made for the tower.
The Marines had begun gathering at the base of the tower. " Oh don't worry about it Captain. It's just Private Eisenhower, he probably saw his own shadow." Spoke a marine, followed by a chorus of laughter.
Private Eisenhower was the klutz of the Company. Several times due to "weapons malfunctions" he'd almost killed other marines, including the Captain himself. Unfortunately, he was also afraid of basically anything that moved. To make things worse, of all days, he was on Sentry Duty.
Deacon and Deanson caught up with the Captain as he started up the stairs of the tower. The 3 men made their way up to the top. A Corporal snapped to attention as they filed up on to the platform. Private Eisenhower was still searching the horizon. " Private!" The Captain jetted out. The Private jumped, lost his balance and was saved from falling by a swift hand from Deacon.
" Sorry Sir", jittered the startled Private.
" Private, what's going on?" Asked the Captain.
Eisenhower spoke stuttering," Umm…Just to the North below the ridge in the dunes." He handed over the Field Binoculars.
The Captain quickly scanned the red dunes, " Corporal, did you see anything?"
" No Sir", replied the Corporal.
" Well sir, I was checking the ridge when something caught my eye. When I brought it down to the Dunes, I t-thought I saw movement in the sand dunes. It was only for a moment, then it was gone." the private said, standing tall and trying to look brave.
" Who are they?" spoke Deanson pointing out five figures approaching just West of the Dunes.
" Just one of Patrols, they must be late", replied the Sentry Corporal.
" Captain!!" Deacon spoke with urgency in his voice. The Captain followed his friend's gaze towards the Dune, now seeing the same thing.
"Quick, get that patrol inside the perimeter!" yelled the Captain as he turned his comm. mike on.
" Patrol get back to the Perimeter now!" the Captain screamed into the comm.
" Heh heh, alright Sir, don't have a baby on us now." Joked one of the patrolmen.
The Captain spoke angrily this time, " Boy, this isn't a joke. Get your hide back here now or its gonna be mine."
" All right Sir, cool your jets we're on are wa-", the men on the tower watched in horror as a spray of blood fumigated the air around the patrol. The spike receded from the Patrols leading man's head, blood spurting. Immediately spikes shot from the sand all around. The following men's bodies were ripped apart as separate spikes shot out from different directions stripping limbs from the torso. One of the men still even stood by the support of the numerous spikes, but fell as they receded into the sand.
Private Eisenhower threw up over the tower, and the Sentry Corporal stood motionless, unable to pull his eyes away from the gruesome sight.
The Captain knew why. In the battlefield, you'll blast a hole in your enemy, but move on to the next one. You watch as close friends are torn apart, burned to ash, and lose arms or heads, but you keep fighting. The heat of the battle, the adrenaline, and instinct to survive blinds the sanity. But this was different. There was no distraction, no veil. It was all there and it was disturbing, even to him.
" Too arms! Too arms!" Deacon yelled down from the tower. " Get the turrets online and form up in your bunkers!"
10 hours later
He fired another burst and the zergling fell, but another quickly replaced it; screaming and gnashing its claws as it pounded forward. It made it ten more feet, before its legs were blown out from under it, but still the shooting didn't stop. It hadn't for sometime. It was a constant echoed that seemed to puncture even the most remote places of his mind.
" Captain" a voice spoke from behind. He turned to see Deacon entering the bunker. His standard issue white combat suit was barely recognizable beneath the layer of orange-red dust that covered most of the suit.
" How are the men doing?" the Captain asked.
" Uhh…holding, but I don't think we keep this up much longer. We're an infantry company, not siege engineers.
" What's the casualty report?" he asked reluctantly, looking down at a map of the base. It was shaped like an octagon, with the barracks, command center, and sentry tower located in the center. The Coms. Center was placed in the South East corner of the base and bunkers lining the perimeter wall. Then four small dots represented the sensor tower, spaced evenly on all four corners.
" Well…six from the early attack yesterday when they breached one of the bunkers, and four today from lurker attacks when a turret sensor malfunctioned." Said Deacon as he looked out the bunker slit at the groups of zerglings rushing the base.
" Damn them!" the captain bursted and slammed his fist into the wall, with the help of the combat suit, it created a heavy dent, "They promised me air support 8 hours ago. The Willamette should have been here already,"
" A cruiser would be helpful right about now." spoke Deacon, " but at least they're still only coming at us from the North." He made his way on to one of the make shift cots along the wall.
The Captain turned and moved to looked out the bunker window and let out a sigh, " Deacon, What happened back on Candore? ".
Deacon took a deep breath then said, " I prefer to leave those things from the past in my past. You know that."
" Your right, sorry I asked. Well, if we don't have support by tomorrow, we'll leave a detail behind and then move out and try to reach the Capitol."
Deacon quickly got up and spoke, " Would you like me to inform the squad leaders?" the Captain nodded.
He stepped out the bunker, the command center laid behind him. Deacon, then turned, smiled and said, "Stay safe, and don't go die on me….yet."
The Captain started to answer back, when Deacon was suddenly thrown to the right, out of the view of the door, and the Captain was thrown to the floor of the bunker, as deafening groan echoed the twisting and wrenching of metal, as the entire bunker shook. Immediately the Coms. were blasting with the voices of confused marines.
" All units stay in your bunkers, keep the defense alive. Echo squad, detail on Me." he was able to speak. He quickly pulled himself up and ran out of the bunker. He looked to the right to see Corporal Deacon about 20 feet down the stretch of the wall getting up. " I'm alright, just find out what happened", he heard on the Com.
The Captain wheeled around to see a breathtaking sight. An entire section of the wall had been blown away, and a bunker looked like someone had taken a giant can opener too it. The top was nowhere to be seen, and all that was left of the base was the floor and strips of wrent metal.
The members of Echo Squad emerged from the Command Center and gathered to the Captain. " Alright men, quickly look for survivors."
As the squad began searching the debris, the Captain spoke into his mike, " Bunker Eight, did you see anything?"
" No sir, nothings gotten inside our general range of fire.", replied back.
" Sir, we found someone!" rang the mike.
He jogged over to the group still removing debris from around the combat suit. " Marine, what happened?" he asked as he knelt down.
It was one of the recruits, still very young. This was probably his first battle experience, and it might be his last. The marine coughed and blood sprayed from his mouth.
" We didn't even….see it tell the last-" he coughed again and his breath sounded labored. " It was just too fast. Private Vasquez pushed me away from the window, and then it just all-", he was cut short by the Captain as a rugged Deacon appeared with two medics, " It's alright, your gonna be just fine." The medics quickly pulled him on to a field roller and headed towards the command center.
The Captain stood up, " All units, this is Captain Harris, I need you to watch out for a new enemy, it may be faster than the others. These ones are top priority to take out before you take on the other types. Do you get me!", he spoke it as a statement more than a question, but numerous replies responded. Suddenly gunfire echoed from the Southern side of the base.
" Code Red! Code Red! This is Deanson, We've got multiple bogies coming out of the Southern Desert. We need back up n-", the last of the Corporals sentence was drowned out by another deafening boom and the familiar metal screeching and wrenching
The Captain turned to see several fireballs erupting from the South.
" Shit! 1st Platoon hold your position on the North, Half of 2nd plug up the hole, and the others stay in reserve. 3rd Platoon on me to Southern Perimeter. Corporal Deacon take of the North side. Now Go! Go!" the captain yelled in to the mike.
He turned to observe the situation. Despite being dropped in this heck hole of a base, the 222nd Infantry Company was one of the Elite of the entire Dominion Armed Force. Accordingly, the Platoons were moving to their positions with ease and quickly.
The 48 men of the 3rd Platoon were quick to make their way to him. " Alright boys, get to the Southern walls and take positions on the wall and the breaches."
-Point of view of comm. center computer-
CPT -" Deanson, damage report!"
CD2-" Two bunkers down and one barrier breach."
CPT-"Computer"
CCA-" Yes Captain"
Capt.-" How long would it take the Zerg to have circled around the Mountain chain?"
CCA-"Approximately 10 days "
CPT-" That means they must of come from across the Desert. That's not good."
CD2-" Sir, how is that possible. New Andares is straight across on the other side."
CPT-" I know. That's what's not good."
CD2-" Sir, you don't really think they could've hit New Andares?"
CPT-" I don't now Corporal, I just don't know."