Commander's Log, Sol Standard Date: July 21, 3340, Raytheon System-
Words cannot describe the emotions I am currently feeling. The burning hatred, the sense of failure, the knowledge that twenty billion civilians are now doomed to die. They are all battling for dominance in my head at the moment. The one thing that brings some comfort to me is that those that have just doomed twenty colonies will soon be dead. Pulverized by the shockwave of a tungsten rod slamming into the planet at several times the speed of sound.
Even then, such revenge will be hollow. It will not undo their actions. It will not save those on the exposed planets. The only thing it will accomplish is ending about a dozen Latorii lives in petty revenge. However, it would have to suffice for now. There is still a battle to wage and a starport to defend.
-Daniel 'Storm' Savarin,
Commander of the Allied Confederate Ship Fairlock
The flight back to the starport was a quiet, somber one for the survivors of the recon party. The only sounds being the whine of the engines as the marines leaned their heads back with their eyes closed. At one point there was an ear shattering explosion followed by a shockwave the Fairlock's NOVA Drop connect with the blacksite. The flight itself was rather short as the BGR base had been located fairly close to the evacuation starport, something that was in no way a coincidence. Upon landing and exiting from the Dropship, Storm looked towards the direction from which they had just come. The clouds had a circular hole in them with a thin white line tracing vertically at its center.
The marines disembarked behind him before heading towards the makeshift ammunition depot that had been set up. Storm was sure that they would probably find whatever food they could or a place to rest after filling up their empty magazines. Given that there currently were not any contacts, he would allow it after what they had been through so far.
"We did everything we could have," Colonel Bradley said as he stopped right next to his superior officer.
"What are you talking about?" Storm asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked at the marine.
"I may not be a psychic like you are, but I can still read you pretty well after all these years," Bradley started. "I can tell you're beating yourself up over allowing that hyper wave pulse to go off."
Storm frowned slightly as he looked towards the sky.
"Well… there was one thing we could have done…" Storm answered quietly as the closed his eyes. The wind blowing against his fur under his illusion.
"Sir, with all due respect, none of us are any good to humanity if we are dead," Bradley countered.
"But were the few of us really worth the twenty billion that are now at risk?" Storm said, his voice rising some as he clenched his paws. "I could have ordered Admiral Horner to do the NOVA Drop as soon as we learned of their plan. It would have destroyed the base before the pulse…"
"And us along with it," Bradley finished in a firm voice after Storm drifted off. After that, there was a few seconds of silence between to two men.
"Commander," Bradley said, breaking the silence, "Whether or not it was the right decision, it was yours and it is done. It is in the past, we need you here and now in the present so that humanity can have a future. I stand by the belief that you are the best officer in the entire ACS military and if anyone can turn this war around, it is you. We need our leader here, and we need him focused."
Storm had turned and looked at his top ranking marine as he lectured him, a slight smile had worked its way onto his face. He shook his head with a small laugh before looking back up at the blue sky.
"I still think you have way too much confidence in me," Storm replied, his morale better than it had been. "I am just one person."
"Many events throughout history were brought about by just one person," Bradley countered before placing a hand on Storm's shoulder. "You back? We need our commander."
"I'm back," Storm replied before closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath of air. "Thank you."
"This war gets to us all, sir. It ways on me heavily with every man under my command that I lose. I can only imagine the pressure you feel as you are in command of an entire battlecruiser along with my marines. The best we can do is make it to the next day."
"I suppose that you are correct. Now, let's make sure these people can see tomorrow," Storm said as he nodded his head towards the massive transports in the distance.
"That sounds like a good plan," Bradley stated. "It's good to have you back with us. Now, how about we go find someplace private to discuss what you found out."
"What I found out?" Storm asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Sir, you fully understand what I am talking about. As I said, I know you all too well at this point," Bradley countered, crossing his arms across his chest.
"Are you sure you are not secretly a Latorii?" Storm shot back with a smirk.
"Last time I checked, I did not have a tail, claws, or furry ears," Bradley replied with a short laugh.
"Very well, let's get some ammo and some food, then I will fill you in," Storm said, ending in a serious tone.
The two soldiers quickly found a nearby restaurant in the starport. It wasn't much, but it beat the field rations. Quickly ordering some food to-go, they made their way to a nearby building that was currently unoccupied. After quick search for any recording or listening devices, the two sat down at a table with their food.
"So, what did you find out?" Bradley asked as he set his rifle on the table and cracked open is container, revealing a two pieces of pan fried fish with some lemon slices on the side.
"Not much… Picking through a BGR operative's brain is no easy task, even when they are wounded," Storm replied as he did the same, revealing the same meal. Storm was firmly in the camp that snails were not for eating.
"I can only imagine…" Bradley responded before taking a bite of the fish.
"And given that warning we sent out, I can guarantee you that we will be getting a visit from another BGR operative as soon as we are out of the system," Storm said in disgusted tone before taking a bite from the fish.
"Anyways, you find out where the other detonator was? What happened to the scientists? How they even found that place?" Bradley asked with a barrage of questions.
"Yes, yes, and only a speculation," Storm answered in series. "The first detonator was destroyed in a small skirmish as they were placing the charges. Our buddy there made it back to the armory, synced a new detonator, and blew the charges. The scientists had their minds pulled apart quite forcibly. Anything of value they knew was drained out of them. How to reconfigure the hyper pulse and how to operate the machinery. We can only hope that none of them knew too much more than that. The BGR is pretty good at having their people operate at a need to know basis."
"And what happened to them after that?" Bradley inquired, though he feared the answer.
"They were brain dead. Their minds were quite literally torn apart from within as their interrogators went about their business. The soldiers could hear their screams of agony as they made their way to the power generators," Storm replied.
Bradley remained silent for a bit as he processed the information. He knew that the Latorii were capable of reading minds; however, he did not know the extent to which it went. Even after years as Storm's first in command when it came to ground operations, he still did not know everything there was to know about the alien race.
"As for how they found the base, I can only speculate that when the heavy scout fleet jumped in they conducted a thorough scan of the entire system," Storm continued. "You know what their scanners are like."
"Yeah, centuries beyond what humanity has at our disposal," Bradley responded before taking another bite out of his fish.
"Exactly…" Storm said as he closed his eyes. "It wouldn't be hard to see that a scan they performed could easily detect the unique hyper wave signature of the base. After they troops extracted the information from the scientists, they modify the base's systems to work against humanity. All things considered, we are lucky that the BGR troops there did manage to sabotage the power generators. It very well could have been the end of the war if they hadn't."
"The BGR may be full of untrustworthy spooks, but they can fight and do what needs to be done when it is demanded of them," Bradley stated before pausing for a moment. "I don't like them, but they have helped humanity in this war. They do gather intelligence that has given us the edge in a few battles and exposed weakness in Latorii technology before your mother gave us more information than we could have dreamed of."
"That and she still has a few contacts within the Latorii Empire. They usually feed us vital information when we need it the most. I imagine she will have me contact one of them after this battle to try and get information on this new transportation device of theirs," Storm mused as he took a bite of the fish.
"Still, if they knew about it, why didn't they give us an advanced warning?" Bradley countered. "I'm no expert, but this project of theirs seems like it would be hard to miss."
"I'm sure we will find out soon enough," Storm replied. "Anyways, we should go check up on the troop positions. I imagine things will be heating up rather soon."
"Agreed," Bradley said as he finished off the last of his fish and grabbed his rifle.
Minutes quickly turned to hours as the deployment of marines maintained their positions around the starport. Each passing minute was starting to take its toll on the soldiers. Around half of them had seen combat against the wolf-like aliens before, and were used to the fast campaigns they waged when conquering a planet. The wait they were currently enduring was unnerving for those with experience.
Storm managed to get the local militia to complete the perimeter around the vulnerable starport. Though it took an annoying long amount of time to get their command to comply with Storm's orders. The threat of being charged under War Protocol Seventy-Six quickly changed the stubborn commander's mind about cooperating with Storm and his marines. While the militia didn't have the training of Storm's marines, they would at least provide him some advanced warning if the Latorii were surrounding the starport as he figured they were. It was the only reason he could figure that the starport hadn't been attacked yet.
Storm and Bradley made their way back to the command area after making an inspection of the perimeter defenses. He let out a sigh as he glanced down at the holo-map. He rolled his injured shoulder some as it was still quite sore. Thankfully medical technology had advanced enough that a single bullet wound to a non-vital part of the body was more of a hindrance than anything else. Still, it prevented him from being able to comfortably operate his BowLance.
"We are missing something," Storm said after a while. "Latorii doctrine is to advance with as much speed as possible to their targets and to attack as soon as possible."
"And it worries you that they haven't?" Bradley asked as he also inspected the map.
"Yeah… it means they are finally evolving their combat tactics. We have relied on them being predictable for most of the war, but they have been anything but predictable during their campaign in this system," Storm countered.
Bradley remained silent as he retreated into his mind to think. After a few minutes passed, he glanced down at his watch. His eyes widened some before he grabbed a nearby tablet and started working with it.
"What are you onto?" Storm asked as he looked at the marine.
"Based on the time table we know, it could be that they are waiting for their main force to arrive. At this point, it's only around seventeen hours till the Latorii fleet arrives. At this point, we have lost forty percent of our vehicles and four percent of our marines. Having looked over the militia strength here, it leaves a lot to be desired. We might be outnumbered three to one, or two to one if we include the militia, but they would still take casualties in a direct assault with only one legion," Bradley proposed, explaining his train of thought.
"You may be have a point, but when have they ever cared about the number of casualties that they take. I am more willing to bet they are surrounding us and are going to hit us from all sides with everything they got all at once. It would play to their advantage the most," Storm countered. "Both situations are equally terrible, though we don't plan on being here by the time their main force arrives. If they see that we are about to leave, they won't wait for their main force."
"So what do you propose that we do?" Bradley asked as he glanced down at the holo-map.
"Well, if they are surrounding us, they are going to be close enough that they can still hit us if we are about to leave, yet not close enough that we could detect and engage them…" Storm mused as he typed several commands into the computer and two rings appeared around the starport on the map. "I would suspect that they would be in this zone. Maybe we can flush them out with a series of NOVA drops. If anything it might shake them up a bit."
"Give them a reminder as to why it is a bad idea to sit still? I like it," Bradley said with a sly smile.
Storm smiled back at the marine before entering in a few commands into the computer.
"Admiral Horner, I am sending to the coordinates for a blanket NOVA drop. We are going to saturate the area surrounding the starport," Storm ordered through the terminal.
"I read you, sir. I'll start the bombardment now. Expect the first slugs within the minute," Mark replied.
"Very well, admiral," Storm said before terminating the transmission. "Shall we go watch the fireworks?"
The two soldiers exited the building and waited as they gazed around the surrounding area. True to Admiral Horner's word, less than a minute later a barrage of twelve tungsten slugs slammed into the ground around the base. Thankfully the impact zones were far enough away that the ground only shook slightly. He hoped that the civilians boarding the ships were not too panicked by the orbital bombardment.
Each NOVA drop had a certain amount of beauty to it. The shear amount of kinetic energy each tungsten rod contained provided quite the explosion whenever it connected with the ground. The superheated pieces of tungsten was only visible for a brief second as it traveled at Mach ten. Massive clouds of dust and thrown up at each impact site the rods bore into the ground and unleashed the energy stored inside them.
The beautiful destruction continued thirty seconds later as another twelve rounds fell from orbit. Each rod impacted two miles apart from each other. It only took the two salvos to complete the loop around the starport. The forty-eight mile ring was left completely decimated after the bombardment finished.
"Nicely done, Mark," Storm mumbled under his breath. "Time to see if we stirred the hornets' nest."
Bradley simply nodded his head as he glanced around the falling dust clouds that surrounded the base. The two of them walked back to the command center with their rifles slung over their shoulders.
"Any news from the perimeter?" Storm asked as he came to a stop over the holo-map.
"None yet, sir," a soldier responded.
"What is the progress of the transports?"
"They are ahead of schedule and ninety percent complete. All civilians are onboard and the only tasks remaining are securing the vessels for transport."
"Alright, have all flights been stopped from Eagle Station?" Storm inquired.
"Yes sir," the soldier answered. "They are holding in orbit waiting for the transports to exit the atmosphere."
"Very good," Storm said as he turned to head back outside with Bradley following behind him.
"Where are you off to, sir," Bradley inquired.
"The perimeter wall," Strom replied. "If we did indeed sir the hornet's nest, I want to be leading the men."
"You know most commanders prefer to stay in their command centers," Bradley jested.
"Bradley, you should know by now that I am not like most commanders," Storm retorted with a sly smirk.
"And that is why I respect you as much as I do," Bradley said. "You actually lead the men instead of just ordering them around."
All of the sudden, their radios burst to life as the entire perimeter defenses came under attack. A large explosion shook the starport a ways in the distance. Not even a second later, another explosion sent vibrations through the ground. Looking towards the directions of the thunderous booms, the two officers could see twin columns of black smoke rising from the north.
"And that would be them breaching the perimeter wall…" Storm said with a sigh. "We better get going."
"Agreed," Bradley stated as the two of them started towards the large wall that surrounded the starport.
It did take too long before the sound of gunfire graced their ears. Every once in a while, the boom of a Centauro firing its 120mm main gun could be heard over the constant heavy caliber machineguns and rifle fire. A minute later, the two arrived behind a piece of rubble that had once been twenty meters in the air. Now it was lying on the ground a good ways away from the wall. Marines and militia alike were using whatever cover they could to hold of the advancing legion of Latorii infantry. A few men were still on top of the wall, attempting to fire down at the wolf-like aliens as they tried to fight their way through the massive hole in the wall.
Storm and Bradley crept around the large piece of titanium reinforced concrete before sprinting forwards to a squad of soldiers.
"Status report," Storm ordered as he came to a stop against another piece of rubble.
"Sir, heavy enemy assault. They breached the wall by placing plasma charges on it under their illusions. We won't be able to hold here without reinforcements," the sergeant replied before he stood up and fired several shots at the advancing troops.
"Very well," Storm said before pawing in several commands on the hidden alien device on his arm.
"Admiral, relocate our forces to my location. They have breached the perimeter wall and we are under heavy assault. Any air support you can get us would be greatly appreciated," Storm shouted, trying to get his voice over the constant barrage of gunfire.
"Aye sir, I will have two Dropships to your location momentary," Admiral Horner replied.
"Hit them outside the wall, we are still in control of the breach for the moment, but it won't stay that way for long," Storm elaborated as blue plasma arrows arced overhead. "Storm, out."
With that done, he popped his head over the piece of rubble and closed his left eye as he aimed down his sight. There had to be at least a hundred Latorii advancing towards the massive hole in the wall. Placing the crosshair of his scope on the nearest Latorii soldier that was outside of the main formation, Storm slowly exhaled, before depressing the trigger and letting loose the first round from his Mk.14. The armor piercing round slammed through the alien's skull before his lifeless body crumpled to the ground. Storm quickly switched targets before repeating the process, earning him yet another kill. His next target had a BowLance pointed straight at him. Without a second to spare, Storm ducked back into cover as the plasma arrow shot just over his head.
There was a large crack as the nearby Centauro fired of another round. The high explosive warhead tearing into a chunk of the advancing Latorii formation. The aliens were currently in a tight formation, using energy shields deployed from devices similar to the one Storm had on his left forearm. This had its advantages and disadvantages. While it provided them near immunity to small arms fire, it left them vulnerable to large caliber cannon fire.
Storm could tell the Latorii had been trying the best to destroy the human vehicle as its front was completely scorched and filled with holes from plasma arrows. While the Latorii weapons had great penetration against human vehicles, they didn't do much other than burn through everything in a straight line. Unless they hit something important, the vehicles could keep fighting. Though with that many holes in the front of the Centauro, Storm could easily see why it was firing much slower than usual. For all he knew there was only one soldier left alive inside manning the gun.
"So when is that air support getting here?" The sergeant from before asked as he unloaded another magazine at the advancing aliens. "We can't hold off that formation much longer."
"Soon, I hope…" Storm replied, mumbling the last two words before he also stood up and fired three quick rounds at a few of the wolves that had broken formation to try and engage a squad of marines on their flank.
That was when Storm's powerful hearing picked up on the roar of the Dropships' engines. While no human could possibly hear them under the current firefight, every Latorii knew what was coming. They tried to scatter but were still in the corridor in the wall, leaving them few options. Many tried to rush forward, breaking their tight formation. Every soldier present was firing into the aliens with everything that they had. The wolven aliens were doing the exact same. Plasma arrows shot out from their BowLances and easily burned through the marines' armor, killing them instantly as the superheated gas entered their body.
The wolves were a mere twenty yards from their position before the ground in front of them turned to froth. Four columns of dirt worked its way forwards to the wall as multi-cannons on the side of both Dropships tore through the Latorii formation. Next came a series of explosions as each unleashed a salvo of rockets from their underside. This was followed by two large explosions in the hole in the wall as the large cannon under the nose of both craft loosed a single shell.
The two craft the soared overhead before rapidly climbing to gain altitude. Their shields glowed purple as ground fire from the remaining Latorii rose up to greet them. One advantage humans had over the advanced aliens was the Latorii's lack of ground vehicles and the heavy weapons that could be mounted on them. That being the case, the wolves' ground based anti-aircraft defenses were rather lacking to say the least. While the Latorii BowLance was powerful, against the shielded and heavily armored human ships it took several hundred plasma arrows to break their shields. While this wasn't the most practical of defenses, it has still proven to be quite deadly when entire columns of Latorii soldiers would fire a volley of hundreds of plasma arrows.
The other reason that such a lack of anti-aircraft weapons never bothered the wolf-like aliens was that they usually had their powerful Majestic-class Interdictors in orbit, providing the planetside forces with swarms of Eagles to call upon to intercept human strike craft. However, since this Latorii legion had made it onto the planet via unorthodox methods, there were no such space forces to provide them with the air support they desperately needed.
The Dropships quickly made another pass against the forces that were still outside the wall. This attack was much less effective as the wolves had scattered into a much looser formation outside the wall where they were safe from the marines' small arms fire.
Looking around, Storm performed a quick head count in the brief respite the airstrike had provided. There were only about a dozen of them left as bodies were scattered all over the ground in front of him. Most of them were Latorii, but far too many of them were human. The Centauro was out of action, its barrel exploding after a plasma arrow cut a hole in it right before the vehicle fired. The shell got stuck in the barrel causing it to mushroom out at that point from the pressure of the gas behind it.
"We cannot hold here without reinforcements," Bradley breathed out from under his helmet.
"It won't be too much longer till they try and force their way through again," Storm said as he looked up at the circling Dropships. As long as they were overhead, the wolves wouldn't dare another attack. "Our air support cannot fly overhead forever."
"Don't need forever, just need a few more minutes," Bradley replied.
"Mark, can you give me an E.T.A. on the reinforcements?" Storm asked through the radio.
"They are about two minutes out, sir," the admiral replied, "However, our lines are now stretched dangerously thin. Any attack at any other part of the wall will undoubtedly break through. I have taken all of the men off of the point further from the transports to tighten our perimeter."
"Very well, how long till the transports are airborne?" Storm inquired as he peered over the concrete towards the hole in the wall.
"Their fusion reactors are starting up now. They should be back into orbit within the hour," Admiral Horner responded.
"Alright, I want all of our Dropships ready to evacuate the rest of us once they are airborne. If they've got civilians on them right now, either drop them back off in Eagle or take them aboard the Fairlock for the moment," Storm ordered.
"Yes, sir," Mark said before terminating the radio link.
Two minutes later, two more Centauros rolled up with three Freccias. Two dozen marines disembarked from the IFVs and joined up with Storm's unit.
"Hold my rifle," Storm stated, holding out his Mk.14 towards Bradley. The marine officer grabbed the old rifle as Storm started sat down on his knees. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. Holding out his arm, a blue light engulfing it along with two large pieces of concrete that were lying on the ground next to the wall. The two piece of rubble lifted into the air ever so slightly before moving over to the wall breach before each landed with a thud. While the hole wasn't completely closed off, it provided another obstacle for anyone trying to get through it.
Storm opened his eyes as he exhaled, expelling all the air in his lungs. He leaned forward onto his arms as his chest heaved. A thin line a sweat had gathered on his fur under the illusion that covered him. The task would have been a rather simple one for any Latorii with their psychic power. However, since storm wasn't a thoroughbred Latorii, his psychic powers weren't quite on par with the rest of the alien race. While his raw strength didn't have any problems matching that of the wolven aliens, it did take a lot more effort for him to achieve similar results.
"That… that should help us out a bit," Storm managed to say as he sat back up and took in a deep breath. He placed one of his gloved paws on the chunk of concrete they were using as cover as he reached out and grabbed his rifle with the other.
"That it should," Bradley replied. Even though he had seen Storm do similar feats many times before, it still amazed him to this day what the wolf was capable of doing.
That was when there was another set of explosions on the other side of the starport. Almost immediately, the two Dropships overhead broke off and raced towards the new breach, intent on plugging the new hole with as much munitions as possible.
"There goes the air support…" Bradley sighed as peeked over the chunk of concrete and leveled his rifle at the wall breach in front of him.
"Given that the rest of the wall is rather weak right now, they need it more than us…" Storm said as he did the same.
The thirty or so marines were spread out behind various cover as they waited for the alien assault to start up again. Each was tightly gripping their rifle, stocks tucked in against their shoulders. Storm's eyes carefully scanned over the land in front of him, looking for anything that would be off. He knew the Latorii would usually try and sneak in under their illusions if they could.
That was when a marine to his left unleashed two shots at a piece of concrete near the wall. There was a reverberating sound of metal striking metal as the bullet collided with the armor of a cloaked Latorii soldier. That was when the rest of the line opened up, unleashing a wall of fire. Both main guns from the Centauros opened fire, two 120mm high explosive rounds detonating on the ground near the wall. Dirt and grass were flung into the air as the result of the explosion along with several wolven soldiers.
The Latorii were not taking their losses lightly. As soon as their cover was blown, plasma arrows from their BowLances arced through the air towards the marines. A few of the wolves threw plasma grenades which they propelled forward with their psychic powers towards the human lines. One such grenade was hurtling towards the piece of concrete Storm and several other marines were using as cover. He psychically stopped it midair and threw it back into the Latorii lines. The other marines were not as lucky as the deadly grenades exploded near them, ripping into them or destroying their cover. The number of marines quickly dropped even as they desperately fought to hold the line.
The Freccia IVFs had been firing nonstop with their 25mm autocannons. One of them was a burning wreck as a plasma arrow had burned into its ammunition storage. Both of the Centauros were firing as often as they could, taking the time to use the machine guns between main gun rounds. Even with all of this firepower at their disposal, it was clear that the humans were losing ground.
"Fall back!" Storm yelled out as it became clear that holding their current position was impossible. He switched over to his radio and ordered the remaining vehicle to pop off a smoke screen. Almost immediately, the smoke grenades from the Freccias and Centauros shot out from their launchers and covered the human positions in a thick smoke screen. The marines ran back to the vehicles and mounted them in any way they could. Once the troop compartments of the Freccias were full, men resorted to climbing on top of the vehicles. With everybody on a ride out, the vehicles floored it in reverse.
Not a second later, the smoke screen was forcibly dispersed as a wave of psychic energy tore through the air. The Freccias fired a few parting bursts as they retreated away from the wall. Once they were a short distance away, the vehicles turned around and powered off at their max forward speed as soldiers on the outside of the vehicles desperately clung onto whatever they could. Every little bump in the ground that they crossed over threatening to launch them into the air.
"Admiral Horner, we need a NOVA Drop on our previous location. We were overrun and are clearing the area. Give us forty seconds to exit the blast zone," Storm ordered as he clung on the main gun of a Centauro, riding on top of its hull.
"Yes sir, I should also report that the second wall breach is also collapsing," Mark replied from his position on the bridge of the battlecruiser. "The Dropships that were providing air support were forced out of the area by sustained ground fire that managed to deplete their shields. They are returning to the Fairlock to rearm. I have already vectored in another pair to provide cover."
"Admiral, relay a message to the captains of the evacuation ships. Tell them we cannot hold the starport much longer and that they need to get airborne now! Tell them to skip whatever steps they can in their startup sequences. Initiate Omega Protocol; we need to leave!" Stormed yelled out as the wind from moving at nearly sixty miles per hour whipped at his body, making him wish he hadn't forgotten to put in his earpiece earlier.
Overhead, more Dropships could be seen racing towards the other breach in the wall. Their loud engines easily audible against the sound of the wind. Thirty seconds later, Stormed ordered all of the vehicles to stop as they cleared the one mile blast radius of the NOVA Drop. Moments later, the ground shook with the force of a massive earthquake. Several marines fell off of the vehicle they were riding on from the blast created by the kinetic bombardment. Seconds later, a massive dust cloud surged out from the point of impact, covering everything in its path in a film of fine particles of dirt. All of the other marines were shielded from the blast by the metal plating that made up their armor.
Storm was protected by his armor's passive psychic shield. It wasn't a very strong shield as it was simply meant to protect the wearer from the environment. Anything stronger than that and it would have been too taxing for the operator. It was this same shield that allowed Latorii soldiers to fight on moons without atmospheres.
Storm looked around at his surroundings once the ground stopped shaking. There was still a large amount of dust hanging in the air. It appeared as if he was living in some post-apocalyptic scenario. Soldiers all around him were groaning as those that had fallen off of the vehicles stood back up. They slowly climbed back onto the vehicles before the vehicles started driving towards the landing pads that were close to the massive evacuation ships.
Given the massive size of the starport, it took them several minutes as the vehicles drove at a more comfortable pace than before. The remaining marines and militiamen were pouring in from around the base. Most of them had visible signs of combat showing on them. Given the limited number transports, most of them had sprinted here from their positions on the wall.
As the vehicles came to a stop, there was a massive roar as the engines of the first evacuation ship started up. Looking over at the large vessel, Storm saw it slowly rising into the air after it was released from its docking clamps. The ship looked much like a standard ACS warship, its elongated triangle-like shape. They were older Farragut-class battlecruisers that had been damaged beyond what was seen as practical to restoring to service. The vessels were stripped of their heavy weapons and hanger bays, had more armor plating added, every square inch of the ship filled with very cramped living quarters, and powerful ventral engines installed to help the ships enter and leave planets' gravitational fields.
The ship soon pointed its nose up slightly as its main engines kicked in, supplementing is ventral booster engines as the craft slowly rose into the air. Minutes later, the second ship's engines started up before it started to ascend into the atmosphere. Another ship took off at the same time as they scrambled to get off of the Latorii infested planet and back into space. While most people would have objected to the close spaces in which the large vessels were operating, this was hardly the time to bring up such objections.
Another NOVA Drop slammed into the ground at the location of the second wall breach as the last of marines arrived at the landing pads. Dropships landed with heavy thuds as they started loading surviving vehicles and soldiers. One thousand marines had come down on the Dropships from the Fairlock. Storm could tell that there was substantially less than that present here, even with the militia forces mixed in this his men.
Storm watched the last of the massive civilian ships take off before boarding a Dropship. The ramp folded up behind him and the door dropped and sealed off the troop compartment from the outside of the ship. He sat down with a sigh next to Colonel Bradley.
"Too close…" He muttered as he leaned his head back.
"And we aren't home free yet…" Bradley responded. "Still got one space station to evacuate…"
Massively overdue chapter is massively overdue. I do sincerely apologize for how long this chapter took me to write. I was rather busy over the summer between my job and a summer class I was taking. College so far has been keeping me pretty busy as well. Not sure when the next chapter will be finished, but I will try and get it out faster than I got this one out.
Nonetheless, I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter. I know that I certainly enjoyed writing it.