Two Terras

Duty and Honor

Las fire crackled and snapped in the air, explosions and ant shrieks clotted the air. Yenner ducked below the counter again, his blue uniform was stained red from the body laying a few meters away. His rifle was clogged with dust and dried blood. Yenner breathed heavily in his mask and closed his eyes, willing his lungs to calm themselves. He had given up on taming his heart long ago. The rifle was heavy in his hands, the bio wood was cracked and left splinters in his fingers. Stray bullets gouged holes from the wall above him, reminding him of the plight his fellow Carcosians were facing. "Holy Emperor preserve me, lend me the strength of mankind's heroes." He muttered, blinking sweat from his mask enclosed eyes. He crawled to the edge of the counter and pulled a small mirror from his breast pocket. He used the reflection to check if the coast was clear, he saw it was and stood shakily. At the count of three he made a mad dash out of the shattered glass door. His boots crunched broken glass and spent shell casings beneath them. As he exited his eyes struggled to adjust beneath his goggles, the sun blared into his retinas. He brought a hand up to shield them but didn't stop running. It was good that he did not, the plumes of asphalt thrown up from hard rounds chased him up to the edge of a building. Yenner squinted and peered across the road the was in front of him. Through the dust and gloom of the rising yet still hidden sun he spotted the tell tale red lasers of Antax Pattern Laspiercers. Yenner let a slow smile spread across his face, he had found salvation. The joy he felt remained even as a bullet smashed through his mask and ended the man. 

Sergeant Jacob let his eyes lift from the sight of his gun. The EDF trooper spared his kill a last glance before pulling away and nodding to the men beside him. A Ranger lifted an UMAZ launcher and poked it out of a window, angling it towards the fervent Arrivals. Jacob held a hand up and muttered, "This is for HQ, make it count." The Ranger nodded and squeezed the trigger, three grenades were spat out of the weapon. Out of the two dozen arrivals over half were killed instantly. The outgoing fire from their hardpoint that had pinned a Ranger squad across them ceased immediately. The other Rangers popped out of windows to finish up the reeling Arrivals. Only to find their foe was less than reeling, a man with a glowing sword screamed an order and the survivors retreated into buildings to their left. The Rangers chased them with bullets, Jacob began to fire too. He vented three magazines into the Cafe the men had retreated into. As he suppressed the Arrivals he failed to notice the two gas masked soldiers carefully entering their building.  

Inval crept up the stairs, his rifle panning up as he moved. Inval fingered trigger of the Laspiercer as he approached a door, he looked at the man sent with him, both stacked up and one pulled a frag from his harness. "Uno, Duo, Tribo." Inval counted down to three and bashed the door open, the other man tossed a primed and cooked grenade in and seconds after the detonation the two swept in. He sighted in on a soldier crouched by a window sill, shrapnel poked from his back but Inval fired anyway. The Laspiercer whined and Inval sighted down another, he squeezed the trigger and watched a smoking hole be blown in a shocked and dust covered soldier. Three more shots rang out as the two guardsmen dispatched their wounded foes in a fury of red light. "Vuato." Inval said, his rifle lowered. A grunt was his only response, he turned quickly, rifle up. The guardsman with him collapsed with a knife in his throat, a native behind him with an expression of fury. Inval squeezed off a shot that whizzed by the now charging native. He readied to fire another but the weapon was batted aside and Inval was thrown to the floor. A fist crashed into his mask and Inval struck back, His enemy continued to batter him. Inval struggled under the onslaught, finally he found a opening and tugged the man down. he hooked his right leg and flipped the other over. Inval jumped on top of his opponent, he pinned the mans arms down and smashed his helmeted head into him. The native recoiled, struggling to escape, Inval headbutted him again. The native went limp, but remained conscious. Inval growled and unholstered a las pistol, placing it to the native's temple and squeezed the trigger.