Episode 11- The short-awaited siege.
Marshall's group arrived at the Magistrate's base only to see it being emptied of, well… everything that could be taken. Colonists already were assembling outside the camp, mostly on foot with vehicles leaden with a myriad of supplies, the only trucks used for transporting people were filled with those unable to walk longer distances, like elderly and younger children. A few groups of marines were patrolling around looking for incoming trouble, and stationary riders placed around colonists, loosely forming a half circle. Looking at the pile of alien corpses near one of the enternances of the camp, security was needed.
Arriving at the outskirts of the hustle and bustle, soldiers exited the trucks, and climbed down the ERK's. Jim and Katarina rode over on their bike/boar to the person shouting orders from the middle of the organized chaos, rightly assuming that someone would be Magistrate, or would know his whereabouts.
This person turned out to be older looking, with an amazing mustache and glinting monocle.
"Rufus, where is the Magistrate?"
Turning around briefly, he said "At the command center, taking what needed, boss lady. Your men can join the moving effort, as you see we are moving out." With that, and an "excuse me", he returned to his duties.
Katarina looked around, then at Raynor and exclaimed "I will help dealing with this, you can talk with the magistrate alone". And off she went. And off he went too.
His target was moving stuff from inside the command center into a truck, parked near the entrance. Jim rode over to him, and started "Mission accomplished, Magistrate".
"And how did it go?"
"We rescued the few survivors that remained, and then returned back. I thought about destroying the zerg that were nearby, but Katarina advised against it, citing unneeded losses, and not enough men."
Putting a heavy crate down, the last one, the Magistrate wiped sweat from his, and leaning against the truck replied, "A good decision, ultimately, there are few of us, and too many of them. Also we are supposed to just evacuate everyone, so let's better do it. Anyway, packing is almost done, then it's time to take shelter in our grand new fortress".
Remembering the other thing, Jim added "Ah, one more thing",
"Yes?" Magistrate stood up, preparing to enter the truck.
"We sent all the flying buildings to this destination, what about them?"
"There is no space in the fortress for them, nor we have time to risk it waiting here, so we leave it alone, the basic A.I in them will find nearby free space at the 20% fuel, land and then shut down. Anyway, off we go!"
With that, they joined the rest, half an hour later setting out, towards their final destination.
"Boss, the Magistrate with the rest of the colonists is on the horizon, they seem to be walking, so they should arrive in three to four hours, i think."
"If it really is the rest, then their forces are stretched thin protecting from every side. "Take all the riders from here, then go to Katarine. Zerg would be mostly focused on the big group in the open, so I will be safe with the marines here".
"Off I go then". With that, the rider with a spartan helmet, metal painted in white and plume in red, rode on his giant boar, speeding off towards the riders.
Dobromir rode over to the gathered marines, who were standing around or sitting close to barracks. Many of those included were men and women, freshly recruited from amble bodied colonists, to defend their own families. They were very basically trained in operating the marine suits, and shooting with their rifles, but it will be enough for shooting the hordes of zerg trying to get past the opening.
"The rest of the colonists, your families or just fellows, are coming here. I want you on the walls, watching for any zerg incoming".
The militia perked up at being finally sent to do something, and not too dangerous. With that, they began to enter the stairs, situated around the inner sides of the mountain. Then they walked on a wall section protruding directly from the mountain, to finally arrive on the front walls, from left and right side. The opening was wide enough for 6 riders to ride in, comfortably side by side, which was still better than before, where opening was wide enough for 60 riders.
The walls were bare, with nothing to hide behind. They were supposed to just narrow the entry anyway, nothing more.
Jim was lost in his thoughts, what with the very slow pace of his vulture, riding at the pace of the group. His thought went over his first meeting with the leader of Tomato Riders, just a kid then, and their short adventure. But was he really just a kid? He remembered Dobromir going around in darkness without illuminating glasses, his eyes glowing. And the casual jumping off of a ship, with distance to easily break someone's legs. And him going out with his riders, now obviously to fight the zerg.
And those boars… giants, he saw them goring zerg on their tusks without much effort. And they seem to have limitless stamina, easily keeping up with vehicles, with seemingly no rest.
Deciding to ask, Raynor rode over to the Katarina, on the vestiges of their small exodus. Gaining her attention, he asked "What's up with your boars? They are certainly much stronger than any other animals I have ever seen."
"They are genetically modified, like all animals on our planet".
"But… why?"
"Because they were all from earth, and were hardly adapted to living anywhere else. So our scientists took them, and made them more flexible. Most animals were only modified a little, with exception of boars and wildcats of course."
"And why use boars as mounts? From what I know humans of olde' ridden horses".
"Because boars are better, obviously. Get them bigger, and they already are the best mounts. Calm, strong, equipped with natural weapons, and intelligent. They have a much bigger potential than horses, and with modification this potential was unleashed"
"Okay, what with the wildcats? I didn't see many of them around when I was in your world, and they didn't seem very special to me."
"Firstly, we bringed the faded wildcat genes back, and secondly, it's relatively fresh work in progress, beginning in this generation."
"Why genetic modification in the first place?"
"Because no one else was doing it where it counts, and it's cheaper than crafting from different components." She looked forward, and saw the approaching group. "Seems the cavalry has arrived, I must be off." Katarina gathered the twenty riders scattered around, and ran off to meet with the rest of the band.
Raynor was left alone, to stew in his thoughts once more.
The colonists were moving to their final destination, somewhat hastier now, with three attacks of zerg already. No one died, thankfully, but still enemy numbers were increasing with each wave, and two or three marines already had been almost killed, if not for the Elite group of riders who saved them in the last moment. Maybe there weren't a lot of them, but every one seemed to annihilate the zerg with eaze, in the beginning stages of evacuation, when people were still packing. If not for them surely there would be fewer people marching towards salvation. And now, Riders were gathering together, forming a truly massive force with their giant boars. Forming a wedge formation, they rode off, towards the rising plume in the distance.
"With a full squad, we can finally go on the offensive. WE RIDE!" Her scream was accompanied with the eager shouts of the rest, off they went.
Their gleaming armor, and their boar armor were almost blinding. They didn't have to wait long, the zerglings were practically running at the top speed.
Katarina was at the front of formation and slightly behind her, Rufus on the Right, and the man with plumed helmet on left.
"I want lances and offhand weapons only!"
Her response was a few disappointed groans, but everyone obeyed anyway.
"SREE!" "CRACK!"
To tell the truth, riders just picked off a few stragglers, most zerglings were simply stomped on by the boars bigger than horse, their bones shattered effortlessly and their flesh pierced like gelatin. The few that remained were quickly finished off, leaving almost two hundred zergling corpses.
"That was quick".
"Of course it was quick, small fry like them are nothing for us".
"They could at last give us some challenge, I mean seriously those guys lasted for like half a minute, what a disappointment".
"Okay, quit your yapping, you know who we are doing this for"
"I know mister awesome mustache, just you know, disappointing."
"Let's go, I see another group, same tactics, you know the drill."
Jim watched from a distance, as one after another group of zerg were simply flattened, leaving only piles of pounded and pierced meat.
With how swiftly they dealt with zerg, he could say for sure they didn't defend their home a dozen of times, but hundred or even more. He just worried they wouldn't be so strong if they met a zerg much bigger than themselves.
Dobromir watched as the last colonist was entering his fortress, marines standing on the front walls raining fire onto another batch of zerglings trying to get in. The attacks got so frequent riders weren't fast enough to deal with all of them, so they were redirecting most of enemy attention elsewhere. Now that the rest was safe, riders began charging towards the base, a lot of zerglings swarming after them.
The only one defending the entrance was the commander, sitting on his Giant Metal Chicken, crushing any zerg with his dual mace. His mount was whirling like a tornado, cutting with its metallic wings. When the riders were close enough, he yelled to his troops on the wall "Go back! Retreat to predetermined positions!"
He too retreated, running deeper. From entrance to the left, to meet a wall and turn right, to finally run up the ramp on the end of the way. The zerglings that followed him were quickly moved down by the wall of soldiers standing at the inner entrance. Ten minutes later the swarming zergling were treated to the roller in the form of riders, who quickly entered the inner fortress, and moved out of the way of guns waiting to be fired.
Giant Metallic chicken stood, perched upon the bunker, with his rider on back.
"Now, let the siege begin".