Episode 13- Long lasting defense, Part 2.
Mina was weirded out, watching some guy (she assumed it was a guy) ripping those flying weirdos a new one. The weird thing is, he was ON some sort of vehicle, not in as any sane person/pilot. She was far enough to not make out any more details, and considering this guy was defending them and she had colonists to take in and out, so no time to stare.
Mina, to her surprise, had a clear and smooth landing without any troubles. She expected to land on rough surface, maybe even lean to one side, what with the mountain terrain and all, but it seems the defenders had time to clear up.
The moment she, and other ladies (It seemed almost all of the dropship pilots were female, for some unknown reason) lowered the ramps, a mass of colonists poured in, taking all the available space. In less than five minutes the rest of the colonists rushed back underground, and dropships started to slowly rise, conscious of their unsecured passengers. There were just many more people than seats, so the flight couldn't be too turbulent. Thankfully the guy from before cleared out any flying menace for the immediate future, so skies were clear, for now.
After making sure transports won't be harassed, Dobromir angled towards base and landed moments later, his Giant Metal Chicken leaving furrows in the ground. He was unscathed, with only a dent here and there in armor. His mount, on the other hand, was damaged in some places, fortunately only armor for now. It was mostly a prototype, lightly armored flying scout, capable of moving in the planet's atmosphere and cosmos. Truthfully, the young leader didn't expect his mount to survive this lengthy encounter.
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Just as he was heading towards the frontlines, he heard throughout the comms "Raynor, behind you!" from the Magistrate. A moment he heard much louder shouting and screams of wounded.
He, and most of the other riders from all over the camps started rushing towards the sounds of mayhem. Upon arrival they saw zerg pouring out of a hole, not far from the positions of now desperate marines fighting on two sides. A few were already dead, big spikes sticking out of their armors, or just torn to shreds by zerglings.
The arriving riders were quick to kill any that tried to go deeper into the base. Then they started to go forward, little by little, the mass of zerg hard to contain.
They reached standstill, the human forces trying to survive, and zerg trying to overwhelm the defenders. Amidst the slaughter a deep squeal of dying boar was heard, followed by silence in that area. That silence was brutally ended by an enraged roar, "YOU KILLED MR. SQUIGGLY!" It was swiftly followed by bloody chunks flying everywhere, as a tornado of flashing steel swept everything in its path. Soon after, the rest of zerg inside the keep were finished off, as the enraged rider with two axes in his hands jumped into the hole, screams of dying zerg following him.
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"What was that?" Asked Jim. His bike was badly scratched, and had armor torn off in some places. The cowboy himself had blood leaking from arm, where the spike barely missed him.
"No time now. Firebats, to me!"
Ten rushed over, more or less unscathed.
"Listen, when our friend gets out, you wait for zerg to appear, and then make an awesome roast". Saying that, he dismounted his metallic mount and jumped in, after his man.
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Now that was something new, some zerg were running AWAY from battle, it seems they still have some primal instincts. And they must be shouting, because they were trying to dash off like mad. Unfortunately for them, the man in a helmet with a T-shaped visor and red plume on top of it, was faster than them.
A hydralisk tried to offer resistance, swiping with both of his scythed arms, but in a blink those arms were flying away, soon followed by the big serpent's head.
"Hey, Don!"
The aforementioned didn't react, swiping his axes at the few zerglings stupid enough to jump him. Two landed with splitted skulls, one got a shattered spine by an armored knee, another was fatally headbutted with a dented in head and the last one just bounced off of a heavy plate, shaped to look like abs. Only to be booted a moment later to crash into his comrades back.
Soon all zerg were running away, scared to the rest by the crazed laughter of bloodthirsty maniac.
"HAHAHHAAHHAHAH! Run, little buggers, RUN for your lives!"
"DON MAKE ME REPEAT MYSELF!"
The terrible pun stopped the raging man, the sound of screeching tires could almost be heard. He slowly turned around, and saw his boss man standing by the entrance to the hole.
One hand outstretched upwards, Dobromir said "Enough playing around, return to surface!"
"But…" "No buts! You had your few minutes, and now you are DON here!"
Cringing terribly, the warrior with twin axes exited the hole, his commander close behind him.
Turning towards the awaiting Fire Squad at the entrance, the leader of riders said "With enough heat, the tunnel should collapse on itself, just wait for the fuel to arrive."
Walking to the side, he contacted the Magistrate "Situation is dealt with, with some dead on our side, let the earth be light for them."
"But I still see the tunnel on my equipment, and a lot of somethings are coming your way".
Zerg chose that moment to get near enough to get roasted. With great streams of fire, the mass of bodies alive and not started to burn. With this enclosed space and great source of heat, stone started to turn molten, and slag off. Some moments later a deep rumble sounded around, proclaiming the collapse of a tunnel.
Magistrate was annoyed by the silence from dobromir's side, that is until he heard and felt the shaking, and his scanners started to go crazy. A minute later, the scan didn't show any funny business anymore, only some small fissures and cracks.
"Anyway, how is it with the dropships?"
Shaking off the surprise, he looked at one of his screens. "They will be here in ten minutes, more or less."
"Aha, so pretty soon then. Guide my boys and girls to the next tunneling vermin, I am sure they will try again. I shall rise to the skies once again!"
With that, chanell ended, and soon after a Giant Metallic Chicken rocketed off, soon slicing enemies again.
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"Raynor, how are you holding up?"
"Shaken, but not stirred, yet. The zerg is increasing the pressure, and the blow to our backs was very painful. But we will hold on, not like we have other alternatives."
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Another wave of flying zerg were soon falling from the sky, in pieces. The dropships arrived again, and took the rest of the colonists. Now the hardest part has begun.
"Raynor, you will need to fall back, towards the landing zone."
"That's nice and all, but how? Those buggers are fast, and are attacking us practically constantly. We would be torn to shreds".
"We could-" "New tunnel, near the barracks!"
"Later Jim. We Ride!"
And they were off, leaving a cloud of dust. Only Don remained, to mourn over his friend. And because he was too slow to keep up. The Colony Marshall turned back, towards the increasing waves of purple.
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This time the zerg didn't have enough time, because moments after they emerged, they were pounded to the ground and slashed to oblivion. Soon after, some grenades were thrown in, collapsing the hole, and shaking the ground again.
"Now that was easy-" "There are two this time! On opposite sides!" "Damn it".
The raiders split up, dealing with menace from below, and the next one, and another one. If not for the mounts, riders would be utterly exhausted. After the last one, magistrate said "I think that's all"
"How come?" Replied the tired voice of the riders leader, practically all of them were fighting from the morning and now the sun was saying it's last goodbyes.
"You destroyed tunnels from practically every side, if they tried to dig through they would destabilize the mountain and bury themselves forever."
Another small earthquake was felt and heard, followed by "Ha! Stupid bugs. By the way, dropships will be arriving in twenty minutes, you will need to hurry up."
"I'm going, don't you fret" He quickly whipped from one of his pockets a small communicator, and smiled seeing 30 on the screen. Putting it away, he directed his warriors towards the front, where the sound of gunfire never stopped. Also, the shooters were called over to join the rest of the group.
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"Raynor, your forces will slowly withdraw through the middle shooting all the while. We will be guarding the sides, preventing any funny business. Any questions?"
"Can you guys really handle it? There will be many more of them than ever before".
"Don't worry, we know what we are doing".
"Just don't die on me." Turning towards his men, he started giving orders.
Soon, a line of marines and firebats stood not far from the entrance, the riders on their left and right, led by Katarina and Rufus. Where was Dobromir? Protecting the dropships, of course.
The wave of zerg already destroyed the few remaining barricades and bunkers at the entrance, pouring in and getting lovingly welcomed by the hail of bullets. Soldiers started to walk backwards, focusing the fire on the closest ones. The waves turned into constant downpour, with no rest for the retreating defenders. Now, they were halfway there, and if not for the firebats, half of the remaining marines would probably be torn to shreds. And if not for the riders on the sides, they would be stretched too thin. To this moment, only a few hydralisks showed amidst their smaller brethren and the flying mutalisks were mostly sliced up and shot out of the air by the combined efforts of riders and turrets. But now, half of them were destroyed by the advancing force of zerg, and the few sharpshooters were busy with the increasing force of hydras trying to take them out from afar.
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Dobromir was zipping around in the air, desperately avoiding all the projectiles directed his way. Fortunately, dropships landed safely, now awaiting their last passengers. Unfortunately, the number of purple in the air increased so much that he was unable to keep up. Doing a barrel roll, then slicing even more flying suckers, he noted another deep hole in his mount. The Giang Metallic Chicken was practically falling apart, not created for this prolonged and intense battle. "Thanks to your service, friend", saying this dobromir opened a part of his bird's neck, revealing a giant red button. He mashed it, closed the part, and jumped off, falling quickly enough to evade any enemies. He soon reached to loops at his legs, putting his hands through and unfurling the fabric membrane, gliding down towards the dropships. The lone metallic figure in the sky started to glow brightly, drawing many zerg in. Not long after, reaching the white color of metal heated to maximum, the sky was lit in a beautiful explosion, instantly exterminating most of the vermin.
Some startled gazes were directed upwards, but only for a moment, returning to desperately fighting for their life.
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The combined forces reached the end of their way, now standing upon the landing platform, dropships just behind them. Problem was, if they would try boarding, zergling would be at their throats in seconds.
Magistrate was standing by the dropships, having left his small command center the moment it was no longer needed. Now he was waiting on the descending leader of the Riders, counting on some bright ideas.
"What now? We are slowly being overwhelmed, and have the sky taken over by those things!"
Whipping up his device for a moment, Dobromir replied "Don't worry, we need to hold just a moment longer."
"Hold for what?" His answer was a finger pointed to the sky, in which a great deal of zerg was gathering to surely wipe them out. Magistrate lost his hope when he saw the hundreds of flying zerg starting to fly in their direction. He didn't have a long time to mourn his last seconds of life, when a great explosions started ripping the amassed force apart. Soon after, gunfire and laser beams were added to the bombastic party, bringing fun to the funeral.
It was a massive ship, not like the battle cruisers, but big enough to have hangars for maybe twenty dropships. It was shaped like a turtle, with the shell at last. Arriving literally in blazes of glory, the atmosphere still burning around it, the crew annihilated the zerg forces in the air in one minute flat, leaving the magistrate gobsmacked.
Still, it didn't end, as the defenders were still fighting for their lives at the ground. This issue was solved by the ship arriving at the battlefield and stopping a little way from the lines. A seconds later, small hatches opened all over the front of the ship, and people just started throwing grenades of all shapes, sizes and colors through. Soon the ground lit up with all colors of rainbow, as zerg were burned, frozen, exploded, cut down, thrown away, melted in acid, electroduced, vaporized, turned to stone and many, many others.
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Soon, ground forces dealt with the few last stragglers and sighed in relief. The massive warship landed amidst the carnage, and a massive ramp lower from the back of the ship, wide enough for five riders on their boars to comfortably fit, side by side. No one stood at the entrance.
Turning towards all the troops, Dobromir shouted "Okay, everyone to their transport, and we are out of here!"
"Wait, whose is that ship?"
"My colony's, more or less. No more questions, let's go people!"
There was mad scramble, as marines and firebats filled the dropships, followed at the end by utterly exhausted Raynor and Magistrate who were filled with questions.
The Riders packed themselves in their own ship, some sporadic shots and explosions still heard from the front of the ship.
Soon, they were off, to the Mengsk fleet and rescued colonists.
The few zerg that tried to follow were quickly shot out of the sky, or just swept away by the four powerful rotors keeping the massive ship afloat.
Reaching the higher atmosphere, the motors rectracted in and were switched out with thrusters which took them the rest way to the cosmos.