Despite scores dying, still more of them came on through the onslaught. Those that couldn’t walk or had lost limbs, crawled through the muddied, blasted ground toward their hated enemies, not giving up for an instant.
Vargev waited until they got into range, before bellowing out the order. “Open fire!”
The roar of multiple Armschlagers all firing in unison, together with the heavy machine gun nests was deafening and awesome in its fury. Tracer fire lit up the main gate as a storm of rounds punched into the Krenaran positions. Big Bertha, and the other dominators added their awesome firepower to the mix, its heavy assault cannon glowed red hot as it poured fire into the Krenarans, cutting great swathes through them, over fifty had fell, their armoured reptilian bodies littering the fields.
Where those had fallen, yet more took their place, heedless of the horrific losses they were taking, the Krenarans still inexorably advanced.
The huge weapon the Krenarans used to breach the loading area doors was now trained on the Dominator’s defending the breach in the perimeter.
The miniature particle cannon buzzed and crackled with barely contained power. Before the Dominators could even react, the operator unleashed the full fury of the weapon, the incandescent green energy beam shot forth once again. One of the machines was hit in the rear, the force of the weapon tore its power plant apart in a deafening explosion that showered the entire area in razor sharp shrapnel. Its flaming wreckage was thrown forward due to the force of the impact and smashed through the perimeter breach.
The second Dominator turned to engage this new threat, however the particle cannon opened fire again. Against a weapon of such power the walker had no chance, its leg was blasted clean off; the war machine toppled backwards onto the perimeter wall itself. A third shot decimated it in a bright ball of flame, lighting up the broken concrete wall and the nearby breach in a bright fiery glow.
The huge Krenaran commander, Alax, stood on the landing pad and oversaw the destruction the weapon had caused with a satisfied grin, the weakling E.D. F have failed, Echo base is ours, he smirked evilly at the thought.
Vargev, embroiled in a titanic fire-fight at the main gate had suddenly realised something was missing. Where were the stealth ships that had been pounding them on previous nights?
For some unknown reason, he ventured to look behind him. There in the night sky he could just see a tiny faint shape moving towards them. His heart sank, here come the fucking stealth ships; right on cue.
As the enemy ship approached, he noticed that this one was badly damaged, it was partially on fire and trailed smoke. Then Vargev noticed the blue indented thrusters on either side of the ship, and realised it wasn’t an enemy ship at all.
“ It’s the Liberty,” he thought aloud.
Two stealth ships were pursuing it, Vargev could plainly see bright flashes of weapons fire in the night sky, as two particle cannon shots slammed into the rear of the former captured stealth ship, it was losing altitude quickly.
With an almighty crash, it slammed into the field at the rear of the base, throwing up huge plumes of earth and gouging a deep trench into the ground as it hurtled uncontrollably towards the base. Its underside screeched over the road sending out a shower of sparks, and the whole ship smashed into the main loading area, slowly coming to rest partway inside the huge structure itself.
Vargev knew that he was hard pressed at the gate, as the firefight intensified, several commandoes lay dead on the tarmac, huge holes blasted through various bloodied body parts.
However he had to make sure that the people onboard the Liberty were okay.
“ Grenades!” He roared over the din of battle, as a cannon shot blasted into the tarmac next to his foot.
Together, the surviving commandoes each took out a single grenade, pulled the pin, and as one, hurled them into the Krenaran lines. A thunderous ripple of deafening explosions tore through the enemy, showering the commandoes in dirt and Krenaran body parts.
That should make them keep their heads down for a bit, he thought as he grabbed the five nearest commandoes and made his way towards the Krenaran controlled loading area.
Big bertha covered them as they made their escape, Greystoke winked down at them as he piloted it. The twelve foot tall war machine stomped its way up the road to reinforce the gate, spraying the advancing Krenarans with heavy assault cannon fire.
Vargev, together with the five other commandoes headed towards one of the munitions factories and climbed aboard an unmanned raider A.T. V, one of them instinctively manned the ubiquitous heavy machine gun in the roof. Luckily the keys were still in the ignition, Vargev started it up and the engine quickly thrummed into life. With a spray of mud from the heavy tyres the vehicle accelerated back towards the main gate.
He chose a slightly more difficult route towards the loading area, between the perimeter fence and the Krenaran occupied buildings, as it would attract less weapons fire. However this was almost all off-road. Nearing the main gate itself, the occupants saw that the fighting had reached its peak, scores of Krenaran and human bodies lay on the road, crawling, shouting, and screaming. The constant chatter of weapons fire was everywhere and the stench of smoke hung thick in the air.
The commando manning the roof mounted Armschlager, swivelled the weapon and opened fire as the vehicle sped along the road. The heavy machine gun bucked and swayed as large calibre rounds thumped into the enemy, the unmistakable sound of empty bullet cases clattering onto the floor of the vehicle once again greeted Nikolai.
The big Russian commando steered the raider off the road, and set off east into a small expanse of field separating the ruined command building from the perimeter fence.
Those Krenarans that had taken up positions amongst the ruins began opening fire on the raider, blasts from their weapons thumped into the ground all around the vehicle
The Armschlager opened fire again in return, blasting apart thick chunks of masonry as the commando gunner sprayed the Krenaran positions with lead. The other four began returning fire through fire ports in the high tensile polycarbonate windows. Two Krenarans screamed as they were hit, tumbling into the dirt.
Vargev yanked the steering wheel hard, the raider skidded and turned south throwing up great clods of earth and grass as it sped between the ruins and the loading area. However, they were now attracting weapons fire from both buildings.
A shot smashed into the passenger side of the A.T. V, and the commando sitting next to Vargev suddenly went limp. His weapon clattered onto the foot-well of the 4x4.
The other commandoes opened fire through the fire ports once again, several Krenarans fell from the buildings as shots slammed home, landing with a dull, wet thud on the ground below. The roof mounted Armschlager raked them with yet more fire.
Nikolai sharply turned the vehicle east again, and skidded through the mangled front facade of the loading area.
The Liberty dwarfed them, jutting out of the front of the building where it had come to rest. Sparks from flailing circuits fizzed and popped around them, smashed girders and crumpled metal debris littered the floor from the colossal impact of the 149 metre long ship crashing headlong into the structure.
Four Krenarans were cautiously advancing on the stricken ship, the roof mounted Armschlager quickly silenced them in a deafening hail of rounds. They fell to the floor gurgling, white blood oozing out onto the smooth concrete floor.
Vargev quickly grabbed his weapon and climbed out of the vehicle. He did a quick visual scan of the Liberty, it had sustained heavy damage, its rear engines were a mess and one of its torpedo launchers reduced to nothing more than twisted scorched metal. He had never seen the Liberty take such a beating. Jesus, he thought, this thing looks like it’s been in world war three.