The First City Falls - A Sci-Fi Short Story

4 The Garden (1)

Diocletianus saw the buildings around him burst into flames, as Gaius Terrentius' flamer quickly burnt out any kind of infantry resistance. Bodies burnt up in flames, crying for relief, of which they were quickly given by Titus' fast sword arm. Although the defense did all they could, it was nothing more than an exercise for the well-oiled war machine that was the Ninth Legion.

Power armored-men legionaries of the First Cohort quickly suppressed, flanked, and destroyed every machinegun nest and pillbox. Enemies in similar armor were cut down with brave charges, as commanders shouted onwards and forwards, coordinating tactical strikes through their in-helmet communication and controls, making the battlefield from the eyes of a power-armored soldier a series of objectives and markers and paths. They took the city block by block with astounding speed. Even mechanized opponents in tanks and plasma cannons were quickly done with. A throw of a grenade, a suppressing team of riflemen, paired with a charging, force of assaulters launching with their jump packs then descending down to the ground against a shocked enemy.

In the first hour, they did what they could to cause chaos and havoc within the enemy defenses. So quick were the legionaries that the enemy had no chance to regroup and organize a counter attack. Strongpoints were taken with sheer skill and dexterity alone, so was the role of the First Cohort, the power-armored elite members of the Ninth Legion: to pave the way for the rest.

Atop a ruined building, Diocletian saw with pride the art his thirty two men, fit in eight drop pods, had done: they had cleared a section of the town for the drop ships of the second wave; thus the rest of the legion and the heavy equipment could land safely and allow them to proceed to the final strongpoint of the First City... The Underground Citadel. Some squads were still clearing up some surrounding buildings for enemy resistance, and if the buildings had little value, the typical standard operating procedure was commenced. Explosives were lobbed into the windows, followed by a Flamer-Legionary unleashing long tongues of fire that burst through every single corridor, room, and hallway of the building. Swordsmen and riflemen, unaffected by the toxic fumes due to their armored rebreather helmets, cleaned up.

The dropships came into sight not long after. In their hundreds, they spread out to select points of the city, where they knew they had previously identified entry points to the Citadel below. One of those entrances were nearby; a Hunter RITTER unit had destroyed one of the main defense guns which bore a large black mark on the surface. According to the intelligence briefs, the elevator near this gun would lead them underground.

Diocletian had heard fables of the famed subterranean sector of the First City. Although the upper city was entirely urbanized and resembled any other city in the Androsphere, the one under held... Much more weirdly natural properties. There was an ancient forest down below, paired with ancient structures that were older than humanity itself.

An artefact, a relic, of the Precursors, whose dead cities and megastructures were located far and wide around the Androsphere. Each discovery of these ruins brought more questions than answers. The citizens of the First City had thus been the guardians of these ancient grounds for the last three thousand years, and therefore the foremost on the frontiers of learning of this ancient people.

Being guardians of the ancient gardens of the Precursors did not mean that they were humanity's best, however. They used the technology and methods found below for their own benefit: trade, domination of commerce, and cutthroat politicking amongst the many human interstellar lords. And that had been their crime: they held an embargo on Jove and barred Jovian ships from trading in their ports, claiming that Jove's expansionist actions did not reflect humanity's true interests. To back it up, they stated that their actions were supported by the Federation of Merchants and Free Cities, though that meant absolutely nothing to Diocletian. Who were they to judge Jove? Who were they to judge humanity's finest, in their attempt to conquer the stars and make it theirs?