romuluzJoin Date: 2010-04-12
Post Count: 18124 |
(A little short series I cooked up detailing a Nafarian soldier's account of the invasion of Darvast, enjoy and as always leave me feedback, as these are rough drafts.)
On the first day the humans held the most resolve. Our slick, screaming dropship rocked from left to right and from right to left as anti aircraft shells pounded us as we came in from the atmosphere. Many of us held onto our seats for dear life in the darkness of the cabin, the only light available to us coming from the pulsating red lights of our visors and armor. I heard someone's foot begin tapping rapidly on the cold, black steel floor as a shell hit dangerously close to our ship.
"Alright! We're low enough! You, legate! Open the hatches!" A gruff, square jawed squad Sergeant yelled at me as he came from the ship's command bay.
He wore more elaborate armor than the rest of us. It held slightly more ornate designs upon the helmet that lay in his arms and upon the chestpiece that heaved up and down with his labored breathing. I quickly obeyed my master's orders, standing up from the safety of my chair as I began to walk towards a bright green button on the side of the ship. The sounds of my boots hitting the floor was drowned out by the explosions that rocked us from the outside.
I quickly made it to the button, pushing through the violent rocking of the ship as I held onto the support bars hanging above me. I slammed my fist into the brilliant green button, and as was expected the hatches open, bathing us all in bright sunlight and allowing us to behold our target. A beautiful city with skyscrapers dotted with explosions and the black specs that marked our shipmates. The tall buildings reached for our ships as if to snatch them out of the sky, only held back by the confines of their support structure and the menacing Nafarian cruisers that shelled the city with arcs of red liquid death. I could only imagine the horrors the people below were experiencing as we came closer to those threatening towers.
“Get the hell away from the drop bay Legate!” My Sergeant barked, waving his hands for emphasis. “You’ll get blown into kingdom come!”
“Yes sir!” I bellowed in response, quickly finding my comfortable seat once more.
“Make final preparations gentlemen! We hit the dirt in five! The last thing any of you would wish is to find yourselves face to face with a human soldier with no rounds to pump into him!” The sergeant continued, gently placing his helmet on his head before whipping around back into the holding bay.
I again hastily did as my commander asked with shaky hands, slipping a thick magazine out from my rifle and checking it, my squad mates mimicking my movements in a near robotic fashion. I then moved to check the rest of my gear, making sure that each and every mechanism to ensure that it functioned properly.
“Your first outing?” A burly looking nafarian next to me asked, nudging me with his pointed elbow.
I looked at him through my visor, only managing to nod in response, which beckoned a hearty laugh from him.
“Don’t worry soldier, the first day’s always the worst. After that, we tend to push them back enough so they aren’t as much of an issue!” He explained in an oddly calm demeanor, yelling over the roar of battle as he loaded his weapon.
“I take it you’re a vet!” I yelled in response.
“That I am my friend, this’ll be my fifteenth deployment to date!”
“Fifteenth?” I asked in amazement.
“Indeed my friend. As I said, the first day’s the worst, but after a while you’ll learn the ropes! Just keep your head down and your eyes straight, I’ll take care of the rest!” He shouted with confidence, before cocking his masked head as if bearing into me with a quizzical glance. “Say, what’s your name?” He asked.
“The Name’s Velsus!” I replied, holding out my hand to shake that of my newfound friend. “Velsus Shal’va!”
“Titus is my own!” My husky friend bellowed, grasping my hand tightly, the metal plates of our armor scraping against one another as he shook each other’s hand.
I felt more confident now in shaking the burly man’s hand, feeling a sense of security in his knowledge. My arms were less shaky now as I finished looking over my gear, only needing to adjust a few straps in my armor to allow for more mobility. I took a look to my right, leaning forward slightly past Titus’ girth to peer out the ship’s viewport and was imedeatly assaulted with the sight of the vast buildings, now level with our swarms of dropships. I could only guess that we were close to the ground, and could now pick up the more clear sounds of more rough and gritty ground combat commencing below me.
“You two! On the guns!” Our sergeant commanded, returning from the ship’s command deck.
He pointed at a pair of more scrawny looking soldiers at the edge of the ship, and they quickly bounced to their feet in unison. They each moved to one of the ship’s openings with swift care, dropping a slat of metal from each of the top frames, and bringing down heavy looking LMG’s, each glowing brightly with roguetonium that ran through veins about it’s surface.
The dropship in turn descended another twenty feet, and I could now clearly hear the shouts of men and Nafarians as they fought below us. This was short lived however, as the sharp, brutal repetition of the LMG’s at both of my sides buried their shouts, the two soldiers sweeping the ground beneath our ship in a clean, methodical fashion, our ship sliding to a halt.
I winced at the sound of energy weapons slamming cleanly into our ship’s armor, and I quickly turned to Titus, searching for answers.
“Why haven’t we landed yet?” I asked in a hushed whisper, fearing the criticism of my squadmates.
Before Titus could answer, the sergeant’s commanding voice once more boomed about the cabin. “Alright soldiers! Ready up! Once these two fine gentlemen clear us a landing zone, we’ll be dropping right into the field! Kiss your nice comfy seats goodbye!” He shouted with an air of cruel mockery in his voice.
“That’s us!” Titus then shouted in response, urging me to stand as he now did so, one hand firmly grasping his rifle, the other holding onto a pipeline of intricate support beams that criss crossed the ceiling above us.
I quickly stood myself, imitating Titus and my other squadmates- many of whom stood nervously in suspense as the soldiers continued to fire down at the humans, probably retreating at the sight of us. I silently hoped that a rocket wouldn’t meet the tail end of our ship as the LMG’s were suddenly hushed, one of the men turning to the sergeant who now stood at the center of the cabin, his rifle held in both hands as he looked over his troops.
“Clear!” The man shouted, one hand still on the smoking weapon.
The Sergeant nodded in confirmation, swinging his foot around to address each side of the cabin, bringing it down with a resounding clang as his foot pounded into the metal. “Bring the dropship down!” He shouted, addressing the pilots who swiftly followed his orders, bankning his dropship down towards the now empty plaza beneath them.
“Men and women of Nafaria! Prepare for combat, remember that the strength of Ven’Ziel rests in your hearts, and the blood of your valiant ancestors pulsates through your veins! Fight hard, and we will see to it that this city thrives under the banner of our people by nightfall! Glory!” He shouted with vigor, each of the soldiers about me, myself included responding to him with a hearty battle cry.
The ship was now nearly level with the ground, and I could see the intricate stonework that lined about the plaza. Bodies of human soldiers lay strewn about the battlefield, and a large pile of stone that was once a proud building lay at the far end of the plaza. I gripped my rifle tightly, and waited for my sergeants orders.
“With me men!” He shouted, charging out into the clearing.
The soldiers sitting at the ends of the dropship swiftly followed suit, along with the rest of the men and women who sat next to them. I followed Titus, as we each piled out of the dropship, slamming into the stone floor of the plaza. My squad mates fanned out in front of me as I raised my rifle, finding no hostiles as I sweeped my gaze from building to building, my squadmates doing the same.
“All clear!” A heavy voice shouted from the front of the position, causing the rest of us to drop our hunched shoulders and relax.
Our sergeant then waved towards the cockpit of the dropship, giving the pilots the ‘all clear’ signal. The ship’s engines whirred in response, deafening me momentarily as it picked up momentum and rose back up through the towering buildings that stood around us. I felt as if the buildings were glaring at us, telling us that this was not our domain, and that we should turn back now or risk death in unfamiliar lands.
“This way! We need to link up with our heavy armor before hitting the center!” The sergeant ordered, motioning towards the pile of crumbling rock as our squad began to trudge slowly towards it’s tall wake.
“Not so bad, eh?” Titus asked, playfully nudging my shoulder.
“Not at all, is it usually like this?” I inquired curiously.
Titus responded with a bellowing laugh, as if I had just told him one of the best jokes I have heard in a while. “Of course not! We’re usually neck deep in human soldiers by now. We’re just lucky the humans here were overwhelmed, makes our job a helluva lot easier.” He said as we reached the rubble, slinging our rifles over our back and beginning the rough task of clambering over it’s mass.
“But don’t worry Velsus, you’ll see your fair share of action. the humans always show themselves to be worthy opponents during the early hours of our assaults. You may even grab you first kill if you're lucky.” He said with a sense of pride.
I quickly followed Titus closely as my hands grasped the outcroppings of rock, a newfound determination in my movements as I eagerly awaited for what lay beyond this dead plaza.
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