Rough Writing

A low hum began to vibrate the rough hewn timber of the palisade. Daisa quietly cursed “Another hive!” as calls to arms ran up and down the platforms surrounding the camp. Diasa turned from the medical station and spotted Commander Joni with his red flaring shoulders up towards the hastily erected palisade surrounding the camp. Daisa moved to join him while men dashed back and forth readying weapons that filled the air with their own distinct hum as they prepared to serve death.

For the past day there had been wave after unrelenting wave of the demons crashing upon their small battalion. Mindless hungry beasts that appeared to have swarmed up and overwhelmed the colonists on this blasted planet. Joni and his team had been dispatched after the first distress signal had reached the regional outpost. Pulling into orbit their hails were met with silence so Joni had dropped down with one double squad to investigate. It was pretty common for a colony to go silent for any number of reasons but even still he’d never seen such bloodshed. After the drop they’d entered the city and found no living thing. Destroyed homes and equipment were smashed everywhere and dried blood was splattered over everything. They had not found any survivors or bodies.

The low chaotic hum began to grow closer and pulled Daisa back to the present. They had a fight for survival on their hands. Daisa joined Joni at the base of the palisade and stood waiting. Joni wearily turned toward him and asked for an assessment. Daisa replied “Sir, we’re running low on charges for everything, Chief Medical Po is out of nanites, the engineers are still trying to raise the S.N.F. Reaper with their backup equipment but it will be a minimum of four hours before the Reaper is above us and able to recieve our transmissions, still no word from the men guarding our ship”. Diasa’s tone was matter fact but inside he was worried. Joni had served with him long enough to catch the tell tale signs of worry on Daisa’s face. Joni looked into his eyes and with firmness reassuringly said “Thank you Diasa, let’s make sure we’re all in our places”.

Joni and Diasa quietly joined the men on the palisade’s wall watching over the scorched and churned ground surrounding their small enclave. Joni checked his close range blade and activated his pulse rifle and then began walking the line. His men were worn from the constant stress but they straightened a little when he drew near. Small words of encouragement were all he had for them, it was all they needed. Each one, man and woman, knew the work ahead of them and faced it with grim but determined faces. The weak never lasted long in the colonies.

In the distance the hum grew closer and was joined by the steady drum of clawed feet hitting hard clay. “Throw up the flares Diasa, let the men see the task in front of them” Joni instructed. Diasa tapped his forearm’s small screen and behind him shot up bright lights. The harsh light exposed the incoming horde of mindless beasts racing towards them in the distance. Soldiers equipped with longer range weaponry started to fire large pulses of shining lighting into the horde. Where the lighting touched the ground exploded and threw up bodies and dirt. The holes in the horde quickly closed up. Any creature that paused to try and consume its fallen brethren joined them as the wave rushed forward toward the wall trampling over the dead and dying. As the beasts closed Joni signalled for the fast firing repeaters to begin shredding the incoming ranks. It wasn’t enough.

The wave reached the wall and began climbing up as soldiers unleashed close range torchers and bursts of bright blue pulses from rifles into the writhing wall of nightmarish flesh. Razor beaks, hundreds of dark bulbous eyes and claws half the length of man reached and lashed out trying to reach the human flesh behind the wall. The creatures built a mountain of wrecked flesh as they died and soon the rest of the horde was able to breach the top of the wall. Joni and his soldiers were there to meet them.

Adrenaline and combat supplements flooded Joni’s system as his armor began augmenting his reflexes and enhancing his skill.  The beasts were pushing over the wall and with perfect superhuman clarity Joni began firing his rifle with short bursts that tore through flesh. Gore rained down as his rounds split skulls with each and every sharp pulse of his rifle. He was one with his weapon and the chaos around him. Daisa worked in tandem with him wielding a shorter burst rifle and as the soldiers were slowly pressed back by overwhelming numbers.

Eventually every soldier was firing in full automatic tearing through the endless ranks in front of them. Their armor withstood the slashes but the beasts were clever and each hive eventually stumbled on how to hurt their prey despite the armor of the soldiers. Corporal Jones was the first casualty. With the heat and rush of the battle Joni barely registered the soft beep alerting him one of his men was in trouble. Quickly scanning beyond his section Joni caught the last moments of Corporal Jones’s life as a huge multi-legged hard shelled beast slammed the soldier into the ground back and forth trying to slice into his armor. Despite raising sparks the creature’s claws could not penetrate the nanite reinforced ceramic plating that protected the soldier. Undeterred the creature grabbed the soldier and raised him into the air stretched between two huge lobster like claws and started pulling. Jones’s companion had been knocked from the palisade. A near by pair noticed what was going on and let out a ripping salvo down the center of the creature’s chest. It was too late, with a sickening wrenching sound the creature in its dying throes pulled apart the soldier into two halves. Jones and the creature were immediately pulled back into the swarm and companions of the creature hunkered down as the swarm rushed onward, pulling flesh from the hard shell of the man and beast who had fallen.

The onslaught pushed the soldiers back to the small cleared ground behind the palisade and formed a solid line of blue plated armor splattered with mud and death two men deep. Joni was filled with pride as his men maintained discipline even as the creatures began to yank and pull at the line. Despite their best efforts they were still driven further back towards the support line. Joni and his men fought with every ounce of skill afforded them. Along the line men began running out of charges and started using their short range blades in desperation. More and more soldiers began to fall.

Joni’s arm was snaked by an enormous claw and as he was pulled up and out of the line desperately Daisa fired salvo after salvo into the pressing horde in vain. Joni was gone. Along the line soldiers watched as Joni was thrown up and back, away from their line. Cold rage burst forth from Diasa. He howled at the demon beasts as he frantically turned slash and slash away from him unable to do anything to help. The blue line began to crumple as Joni’s form was tossed back and shredded. Daisa immediately sent out a jolt of overload as command controls switched to his suit and his shoulders faded from purple to crimson red. Backs chemically stiffened the soldiers fought on. Eventually the wave ended and the medics rushed out to begin detox treatments and knitting broken bones. A few searching amongst the mountains of stinking enemy flesh for any soldiers that might still be alive.

“Sir! Captain Daisa! We’ve made contact!” an engineer excitedly shouted as he ran towards Daisa waving his comm pad. “An emergency drop has been initiated sir, they’ll be on a pickup sweep in 15 min”. Daisa received the news in a state of shock. His combat dosages were dropping and he was facing the loss of Joni on his own. Daisa gave the engineer approval to let the men know rescue was on the way. Bloodied and exhausted there were still cries of joy raised as the news travelled through the camp. Daisa leaned back onto an outcropping  of rock and tried to flush the memories of Joni being ripped apart from his mind. Grief threatened to engulf him completely. The rescue ship came, scooped up the remaining men and jetted for the troop carrier in orbit.

The debriefing had been relatively short. The visual logs had quickly revealed they had done an exemplary job despite the higher than normal casualties.. Losses were always expected on any mission but they’d lost half a of the boots on the ground. Dismissed he had returned to his quarters.  After a long hot shower Daisa pulled on a simple grey pull over and woodenly sat down on his bunk. His eyes were empty as he hugged his legs and let the grief overcome him.  It was going to be a lonely night. Joni was gone.