ARES:Gods of War

Night's Terror

He stirred. Things felt incredibly wet and stiff. The thumping sounds of gunfire filled his ears and drummed in his chest. Was he on a battlefield again? No part of him hurt, thankfully, meaning he'd passed out from something else. He felt the thumping of rocket artillery and the thunder of the UNSC's main tank guns, as well as the thundering feet of the advancing Rapture force. He woke as the air from his lungs was knocked out by an explosion and he felt himself thrown into the mud.

His wide eyes caught sight of Rapi sliding town to help him to his feet as the rainy, muddy battlefield around them ran red with blood. His Executive Officer screamed at him, then grabbed his hand and tried to drag him up. She ducked and visibly yelped as what looked like a heavy plasma round singed the top of her head. The man, seeing that, scrambled to his feet and grabbed his rifle out of the mud.

Bullets and plasma guns zipped over their heads. Two Marines trying to cross over the muddy trench on a plank bridge fell, gunned down. Amidst it all, Alyosha slowly, but finally started to regain his hearing. Though they were ringing, his ears finally registered Rapi calling out to him, "Commander! Are you injured!?" as she poked out and fired a burst from her personal rifle. Ducking back into cover, she started looking him over.

"No!" He replied, ducking behind cover, then demanded, "What the hell is going on!?" as confusion struck him. Where were they? What was even going on? Why was an entire Rapture battalion advancing on their positions and-He ducked as shrapnel from a tank ahead blowing up nearly hit him in the face. He swallowed emptily, tasting both mud and blood in his mouth as he saw several more corpses lining the trench wall. Marines and Nikkes alike.

"Raptures pushed us the moment we stepped foot in that old minefield to clear a path!" She replied as she held him close, the ground ahead suddenly boiling as plasma and particle beams struck it. Another Marine behind them fell, face-first into the mud. Alyosha scrambled to grab him and drag him over toward the,, only to turn him over and see he was dead. He gasped, while Rapi told him, "They've got us zeroed with plasma mortars and every weapon in their arsenal out here!" and acknowledging the dead man with a bullet between his eyes with a nod.

Peering over the lip of the trench, the Commander saw Anis and Neon at the front, with Chief and the Lucky Strikes. Niner's MG continued spewing lead despite her bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds and missing half her face. Pinne bled beside her, firing her shotgun as best as she could even though blood foamed at her mouth. Sammy, the poor girl, lay sprawled out on the edge of their cover, her coolant leaking into the mud and painting it scarlet. Layla died just as he managed to sneak a peak at her, while Delta was cradling a wounded Signal, trying to tend to her wounds despite the tears streaming down the girl's face.

In the distance, in the ominous fog lifted by the gunfire and steam wafts of explosions amidst the rainfall, Alyosha could make out the baleful, burning red glares of the machines out to kill them, intermixed with the flashes of guns and the second-sun-like boulders of plasma they were hurling at them. As one of said artillery rounds landed, it landed upon a Scorpion tank. The armor melted and the crewmen, both the one on the MG and the one inside the tank, flash-vaporized, the tank exploding.

An Oryx fired its 30mm autocannon. It'd thrown a track in a ditch nearby, but it still fired, its crew probably wounded. UNSC Artillery and tracers replied to the enemy's own mortars. Another Marine dropped in a ditch next to them, wounded, with Alyosha pulling him into cover as Rapi fired her rifle. Alyosha was stunned to see it was Sergeant Johnson that had been wounded, grabbing onto his half-melted chest armor and speaking hoarsely, "Sons of bitches got me again..." before looking at the Commander and putting a hand on his shoulder. He told the boy, "Give'em hell, Commander..."