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Xanieth - Assault at Lilat
Chapter 1/ Chapter 2/ Chapter 3
Night had fallen hours before on the desert world Lilat and the cool dew had settled on the desert sands. The moon shone its frail light onto the desert, creating an eerie look. The winds had died down, and all was quite. Too quiet.
A lone scantid twitched its claws in approval. It eagerly climbed out of its burrow to sample the morsels of life giving water that now peppered the desert sands. Slowly but surely, it made it's way across the turf, taking in each drop of water. The Scantid seemed happy; it's future seemed bright. A shadow fell over the lone scantid in the pale moonlight, casting the animal into disarray. The ground began to rumble, softly at first, but more in moments. Confused, the scantid considered it nothing. It went back to enjoy its meal. The scantid reached down to sample its first morsel, put down its mouth to drink, and- was crushed by the boot of an Infoceptor marine.
The troops continued their march, weapons and sidearms prepared. The SCL Directorate will pay for their abuse. As the troops marched boldly forward, leaving shuffled sand in their wake, teams of Goliaths and Tanks followed closely behind. Another team of air forces could also be seen patrolling the skies, ever ready to start the assault. Marines conversed naturally, anticipating the coming attack. They were prepared to take the fight to the enemy, for they had broken all peace accords. Hopefully this attack would be unexpected by the Legacy forces, and their base would be demolished. After what seemed an eternity of marching, the troops stopped on a ridge overlooking the base and it's components, several hundred yards away. The troops stood at attention, and out of a tank climbed out one of the sector's best, Commander Xerxus. He looked out from face to face of each soldier, thinking through his or her thoughts and feelings. Xerxus always thought that if he wanted to have his troops excel he would have to understand them.
"Listen you all! We're one standard click away from the SCL Directorate outpost! All infantry units will invade first, followed by Goliath Mechs, and finally Siege Tanks to lay supporting fire. I will lead the charge." Xerxus declared with enthusiasm. He preferred to follow his troops directly into combat rather than sit in an office and give orders. He and the Admiral Miccu have had some disagreements in the past over it.
Xerxus flipped open his tank controls and contacted Deathwing's comrades. Deathwing's aide flashed onto the screen inside the tank, lighting the dark chamber. "Sir, we've reached the borders of the outlying colony. Preparing attack." Xerxus delivered.
"Affirmative. Will relay information to Deathwing. Previous orders are to commence attack immediately."
"Roger that."
Xerxus turned to his comms unit and relayed the orders. The small army quickly began to mobilize and head down into the large canyon that bordered the outlying outpost. He flipped on all his systems and started to drive the tank forward, hoping the enemy would not see them in the dead of night.
**********John cursed as he stepped on the third scantid that night, trying to keep quiet. Xanieth looked over and saw John carefully peeling away the remnants of the poor scantid from his brand new marine boots. Laughing, Xanieth said, "So John, looks like you got some trouble there."
"Ah shutup." John said back, distracted.
"If I were you I'd have more important things to worry about."
"Worry my ass! These things cost me three months worth of credits."
"Heh."
"Look at this! I got all this slime crap over it."
Xanieth punched John in the shoulder playfully, hoping to dislodge his friend from his grumpy mood. He focused his attention forward instead, being pushed by the marines behind him. Evidently they weren't keeping the pace. Xanieth cocked his gun and began to load it. His favorite gun was in tow today, he had killed many Zerg with it. "In fact," He thought, "I think I just hit 600 last week."
He heard Commander Xerxus' orders. He was to be part of the invading front line. "I really like this commander, he isn't foolhardy or a bastard like that old gorilla Duke.", He thought.
Xanieth shook his head clear of cobwebs. He had to focus. Staring out of the canyon they had entered, he could see the mile high cliffs on both sides of him, as they converged deeper and deeper into the valley. The cliffs were so high he thought he could see the heat baking off them "Wait! That isn't heat! That's cloak distortion!" He thought with panic. Then the realization suddenly clicked.
They weren't the ones laying the ambush! THEY themselves were being ambushed! Xanieth ducked as the high pitched scream of sniper bullet's filled the air. Hitting the cool desert sands, he rolled under a small ditch in the sand, conveniently dug out by the natural fauna in the area. He looked up just in time to see blood running like rivers and men dropping left and right. A marine twitched uncontrollably and landed on top of him. There was a bullet lodged straight in his forehead, and his eyes were rolled back into his head. Warm blood ran down onto Xanieth.
Cursing, he grabbed his gauss rifle and began to run out of the canyon valley. Anyone who stayed inside was a sitting duck to the snipers up above the ridges. The tank pilots were already leaving, but it seemed the Goliaths were having trouble maneuvering in the soft sand that they had walked into. Another trap.
More bullets whizzed past his head as he ran wildly for safe cover, knowing there was none to be found in a desert. A sniper was within his rifle range now, and he took aim and fired. The bullet hit its mark, right at the target's temple. The sniper simply dropped his rifle and collapsed, killed instantly. More SCL Directorate forces continued to set up on the ridges, firing down into the valleys filled with Infoceptor troops. After some scrounging in the dirt, he finally found another ditch, which had been dug earlier by their forces. More troops were filing inside the trenches, and the mound itself was high enough to avoid fire from the snipers who rested on the ridges. His attention soon turned to his friend John, who was nowhere to be found. Fearing the worst, Xanieth ran to the command bunker to see if Commander Xerxus was inside. Running in, he saw only a sergeant and an aide.
"Where's commander Xerxus?!" Xanieth screamed brashly over the shrapnel and cries of men that were filling the night air.
Looking down, the aide responded, "His tank has not been seen since the shooting's began, and all communication with him or our HQ has been lost. The enemy has disabled our comms capabilities."
Xanieth took this all in and hoisted on heavy armor. "This can protect me For a while." He thought grimly.
Guns fired and Cannons shook the earth with their unreal blasts as Xanieth frantically ran down the corridor-like trenches. Water slapped his boots and caused him to slip and slide as if on snow and ice. Commander Xerxus had to be somewhere. Nobody else cared to find him. He had to. As he rounded the corner he peeked over the trench wall. He saw dozens of marines fighting others in a frenzy of blood and fury. Tank blasts rolled the hills and sent broken earth in all directions. Grenades bounced off tanks only to detonate in close proximity, turning the tank's fine steel into melted slag. Vulture riding troops ran down those on foot and struck with hit and run attacks. The entire battlefield was a slaughterhouse for both sides. Luckily he managed to run through the confusion, and he now found himself back in the warzone.
A marine with a tattoo of "Big Mama" blocked his way, cursing. Before the burly marine could react, Xanieth pulled out his gauss rifle and quickly laid four shots to the head. The marine fell like a rock. "Guess he won't be seeing Big Mama for a while." Xanieth thought as he ran further into the chaos.
**********
Five of the SCL Directorate's marines encircled a damaged tank. It was trapped, and unable to maneuver. Each marine was too close for the tank to fire, and so the driver was helpless.
"Listen, bitch. Get out and we'll end it quick for ya'." A red helmet marine snarled.
"Yeah, get your ass out here, you're through."
Xerxus looked out his small window carefully. His tank was trapped. He had only one reprieve to escape the situation and rejoin the battle enraging around him. He could hear the pings and clangs of bullets hitting his tank, but ricocheting off harmlessly. One person must have had a heavier gun, for the next shot sent his tank into a shudder. "Damnit, now I'm gonna have to recoat that steel armor." Xerxus thought angrily."Oh well, time to rock their world." Xerxus mentioning toward the five marines.
He pushed a button on the inside top of his helmet, and suddenly a great whirring sound could be heard. His tank controls slowly rotated to reveal another set of controls, hidden from normal view. "Time to show these guys the real power of this puppy."
He pushed another button, a shiny red one. This time the tank gave a sudden lurch and metal sheets quickly began to reinforce the broken treads. Xerxus also engaged the tank's small primary autoguns. They flew out of their bindings and quickly took aim at the shocked marines. The one in the red helmet muttered, and turned tail, running for his life. Short life it was, for it ended with his back full of bullets.A scantid peeked out of the blood enriched sand and clicked its claws furiously. With curiousity it examined the fallen humans... It would have a tasty meal tonight.
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