Warblade

Silent Battle

Revius was safe from most of the explosion and continued to knock many more planes out of the sky before they disappeared into the ashen clouds. As soon as he could no longer see the enemy he rallied the surviving soldiers and had them prepare for a ground assault. Vulcan rounded up fifty men and volunteered to defend the base of the wall. Revius responded "I shall join you, I'm not much use holed up in the plaza."

"Suit yourself, warblade." Vulcan said. The group quickly moved out of the base to a trench positioned just in front of The Forge's wall and hunkered down.

The enemy was waiting just beyond a huge patch of barbed wire, but Revius and the rest of the defending soldiers could not see them. The barbed wire concealed a massive group of soldiers, a column of tanks, and two battle walkers.

"I can't see a thing through this haze, there could be hundreds of battle walkers and they would easily be able to sneak up on us." Vulcan said.

"No matter what comes we'll hold this trench, no retreat, no mercy." Revius ordered.

There was an unnerving silence that followed, like deep breath before a scream. The defending soldiers held their guns to their cheeks and stared into the orange haze.

The haze began to darken as silhouettes of soldiers and tanks emerged from the drifting ash.

"Do we have any unconventional weapons?" Vulcan asked a soldier next to him.

"We have the warblade, and I think a handful of flamethrowers." he replied.

Vulcan's hopes rose "Well get those flame throwers down here immediately!"

"Yes sir." the soldier said as he grabbed out a radio.

"Hellfire one, and two Captain Vulcan wants you on the ground immediately!" he said through the radio

"Enroute." a voice said through the radio.

Through the haze more soldiers and tanks appeared.

"We need people on those battlements." Vulcan said through the soldiers radio.

"Revius do we wait for them to shoot, or are we taking an aggressive approach to defending this base?" he asked.

"Wait until the first enemy soldier is within 100 meters, let them think we can't see them."

Revius responded. The haze began to thicken as the enemy soldiers approached.

"Hellfire one and two awaiting tasking sir." Hellfire one said in a deep intimidating voice through his mask.

"Go to the front and burn everything that moves." Revius ordered.

Hellfire one nodded silently and he and his partner moved to the front.

The enemy soldiers slowly moved forward waiting for their clocks to reach zero.

"Do you think they can see us?" a collective soldier whispered.

"Through this haze I honestly doubt it." another responded

"Enemy closing to 150 meters."

"Sixty seconds too attack."

"140."

"Forty five seconds."

"130."

"Thirty seconds."

"120."

"fifteen seconds."

"110."

"Five seconds."

"Fire!"

"Fire!"