Vargev ran to where Steel was stood, “we need to get out of this building, fast.”
“ I hope the rear emergency exits are still intact. Everyone with me, we’re evacuating.”
Steel, Vargev and around twenty other troops all ran for the exits, when they got there, they found the emergency escape ladders were damaged but still usable.
“ Move!” The big Russian shouted over the noise of battle outside.
They quickly began to make their way down the steel steps, as a second torpedo slammed into the front of the building with a deafening explosion, violently shaking the tower once again. Vargev and Steel clung on desperately, but another soldier wasn’t so lucky, as the force of the shaking unbalanced him and sent him plummeting over the side of the steps, landing with a sickening crunch seven floors below.
Overhead Vargev could just make out the shapes of three more stealth ships incoming from west to east, as they swooped down, they unleashed a salvo of torpedoes. A hellfire anti-air battery was hit, the force of the impact blasting the near 30 tonne vehicle almost ten feet into the air. The wreckage came crashing down in flames, scattering razor sharp debris.
More shots rained down upon Echo base, blasting a wide hole in a tank factory roof, another torpedo decimated the top floor of the command tower, where Vargev had earlier stood.
Elsewhere another guard tower burst into flames as it too was hit, sending the occupants plummeting on fire, to the ground below.
Vargev, and the surviving troops had made it to ground level and quickly began to take stock of their situation. Chaos was everywhere, two guard towers were burning, and the command building was now thoroughly ablaze after taking several hits, like a giant pyre in the centre of the base.
Luckily the munitions factories had been spared, if they had been hit, with all those explosives inside. The resultant blast could take out half the base.
Amongst the flashes of torpedo fire, anti-air fire and tracer shots, two bulk freighters began to descend bearing E.D. F markings, they hovered low, as though attempting to land on the spaceport. The freighters held position barely two meters from the surface of the pad.
Vargev eyed the transports with suspicion, why the hell are the Krenarans ignoring those transports? Almost in an instant the realization hit him; holy shit!
A hatch opened on both freighters, dozens of Krenarans poured out of the hovering vessels. Their weapons mercilessly scything down the E.D. F troops attempting to stop them landing.
The freighters eventually touched down on the landing pad, releasing a second wave of warriors, their weapons blazing away.
Vargev cast a glance northwards and could see yet more Krenaran ships landing in the dusty fields between Echo base and the colony. This is not going to be a fucking good night.
For the most part, the perimeter fence was holding up to the onslaught, the reinforced concrete was doing its job well. However it wouldn’t last too much longer, already in several places it was cracked and broken.
At the main gate, a dozen or so soldiers were hurriedly forming a barricade.
Vargev sprinted towards the loading area connected to the spaceport. The surviving soldiers there had managed to close one of the sliding heavy steel doors, and were trying to fortify it with anything they could find.
Just outside the building, he could hear the unmistakable ‘thump’ ‘thump’, of the heavy footfalls of dominator assault walkers. Two of them were approaching, Vargev rushed back out and signalled to the pilots, who turned their metal behemoths and began to follow.
“ I want you two to guard that door!” he shouted up to them, “any Krenaran that comes through I want dead.”
The two pilots nodded their understanding. Taking up positions near the door, their multi-barreled heavy assault cannons trained upon it.
Loud metallic ‘clangs’ resounded across the hushed loading area. As fire from Krenaran weaponry slammed against the heavy steel on the opposite side.
Vargev and the remainder of the commandoes readied their weapons.
Powerful explosions continued to light up the night sky outside as stealth ships maintained their assault on the base.
Apollo main battle tanks were directed towards the main gate to provide a defence to the inevitable attack there.
In the distance, General Steel could see multiple explosions lighting up Gamma colony, the black shapes of Krenaran ships silhouetted against the glow of fires swooping in and out, performing strafing runs. He knew however that it was just a diversion to get the forces he had placed there to keep their heads down so they can land more men.
He motioned to a young soldier nearby.
“ Yes sir.”
“ Where’s your comm. unit,” the General asked.
“ Here sir,” the young soldier pulled out the comm. unit out of a pouch on his webbing, and passed it over to Steel.
He input the frequency to contact the forward command post in the Valcasian mountains, “This is General Steel to all units, Echo base is under attack, all units are ordered to return to Echo base; repeat return to base.”
He passed the soldier his comm. unit back, and looked out beyond the main gate towards the hundreds of Krenarans massing for the attack, barely half a kilometre away.
I just hope some of those units make it here, he thought. Another explosion from the burning command centre nearby made him duck.
The main body of the Krenaran force did not advance however, instead they dug themselves in. Knowing they could not yet penetrate the thick outer perimeter. Instead the Stealth ships renewed their attacks, bombarding the base throughout the night.
When the sun arose on the second day, barely two of the guard towers were still standing and smoke hung thick in the air. The Krenarans were well dug in, in the fields between Gamma colony and Echo base.
The burned out command tower still smouldered, though now barely better than ruins. The first rainfall the colony had seen in nearly 3 months gradually began to patter off the armour of the Apollo’s and the Dominator’s.
Barely a quarter of the raider A.T. V’s and Rapier light tanks had made it back from the Valcasian mountains during the night, their blackened twisted chassis could be seen dotting the fields close to the Krenaran lines, wisps of light smoke could still be seen from some of them.
Steel had ordered the Groundhog artillery batteries to remain within the mountains, and co-ordinate their fire with the two other batteries positioned within Echo base, they continuously pounded the Krenaran lines with high velocity shells.
An emergency field hospital was set up during the night in one of the tank factories, and was rapidly filling up with the injured and dying.
Engineers from within Echo base itself were hurriedly trying to shore up the perimeter fence before the attacks resumed again.
Vargev joined Steel, near the main gate. “Well, we made it through the night,” the general said.
“ We may well have to make it through more yet comrade.”
In the distance they could see the faint wisps of smoke rising from the colony.
“ How many casualties?” Vargev asked.
“ 70 dead all told, nearly twice that many injured,” Steel replied with a sigh.
“ Not bad considering the beating we took.”
“ Yes, but not good either. I’ve been a fool colonel, I almost allowed the Krenarans to waltz right in through the front door. Most of the faster units, the Raiders and the Rapiers were left well out of position, you were right to tell me not to put the majority of my forces in the mountains.”