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.”
“ What is done, is done comrade, what we have to do now is hold the base until help arrives; at all costs.”
“ The stealth ships won’t attack during the day that’s for sure.”
“ One of the biggest problems we have is how the hell do we re-capture the spaceport?” Vargev asked rubbing his soot streaked chin.
The commander of Echo base General Kalidis approached the two men.
“ Where the bloody hell were you during the attack!” Steel shouted.
“ Cut off; I was in the far tank factory when the attack came. I know of a small entrance to the roof of the loading area, I’ll show you.”
He led them over to the front of the loading platform near to the perimeter fence itself, it was partially covered by foliage. But there was a very small flight of slippery, rusted steel steps that led up onto the roof.
Vargev and Steel climbed up the steps, peering over the roofline, they could make out the Krenarans were busily assembling something. Neither of them had any idea what it was. They were milling about the freighters, going back and forth, bringing out equipment. One massive Krenaran strode into view, standing upon a pair of thick mechanical legs, he was head and shoulders above the others and almost seemed to exude a sense of raw power, he bellowed out orders to the others around him.
Vargev ducked back down, remembering back to the time six months ago when they fought Axus on the bridge of the Liberty, the one who had almost killed Vargev himself. “You must be presented as trophies for my master,” he had said to them at the devastated Agemman colony before taking them both prisoner. Could this be the one, could this be the master that Axus had spoken of; he certainly looked bigger than Axus, that’s for sure, and appeared stronger.
Steel looked over at the colonel, “are you okay, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
