Somewhere amongst the myriad of stars, hidden within the endless vacuum of empty space, rumbling and churning along through the void, a voice called out.

It was not so much just a voice as it was a thought, an emotion, the will of a being, formulated and outstretched searching for the another being who was intended to witness it. The message was the offspring of a pure and unerring nature. It was the embodiment of a being who was, in fact, the embodiment of pure, overwhelming force. This being was a physical representation of overwhelming, overpowering, sheer, unrestrained strength. Its voice called to the mind of it’s master as a rumbling, thundering shock wave. And, when it saw that it’s master listened, its spoke.

“My Queen,” boomed the voice. There was a pause as the being of force waited to be interrupted. When it heard nothing, it saw that as approval, and continued.

“I have news” it said.

Then the voice of it’s master spoke. This voice of thought was not like the first. It was a sharp thought, cold and piercing. It penetrated the first being and chilled it to the core, echoing through it’s head. The voice lacked any audible thunder but resonated with incalculable power none the less.

“How fairs the growth of the Avery on Char II?” it demanded.

“My Queen,” the thunderous voice repeated in reply. Anyone who could have witnessed this conversation, this interaction, would’ve been shocked and frightened by the way this creature of pure force and power was humbled so quickly. “The Aviaries move along as planned. Our mission of growth and preparation continues, but..”

“And how fairs the forge of the waste of Tarsonis?” the mistress snapped.

“As planned, my Queen….” The great, fearful essence said in yet an even more subdued manner.

“Then why have you disturbed me?” asked the mistress. “What news is it you bring?”

The first voice was not offended. He was used to these interruptions and was too fearful of his mistress to do anything even if he was annoyed.

“My Queen, something has happened. On one of the border worlds, on the edge of your domain. We have been attacked. A dormant, young colony,” he sent her flashes of the ‘personality’ of the colony in question.

“Even now it begins to fail under the weight of the enemy it faces. They have attacked by air and by ground simultaneously. This was not expected. It will likely die.”

If this dire news affected the Mistress in any way, she did not show it.

“Who has attacked the colony?” she asked.

“I am not sure, my Queen,” said her servant. “They bear insignia the likes of which we have never seen and are a force we have never accounted for.”

The Mistress seemed to grow curious.

"From where did these enemies come?” she said in a sly, interested voice. “If they are not from here, then from where? Are they from…….my old home?”

“I am not Nargil, My Queen……” the being said in a subdued, yet somewhat rueful voice….

“Nargil is dead, fool. Just answer the question.” She seemed irritated.

“I am not sure, My Queen,” he said. “But, they did come from the same place that the last fleet of that kind fled before we destroyed it.”

“Interesting,” she said. “Surely they could not be back so soon, yet I thought they lorded over the Old Home. This is interesting indeed.”

“My Queen, how do you want us to proceed? Should I send aid to the colony?” the voice asked.

“Hmmm,” said the Mistress, musing. “No. Do not send aid. Gather as much information on them as you can. Tell me what you find.” She commanded. “Their presence intrigues me greatly.” She said.

"I will do as you command, My Queen,” said the voice. And then he was gone.

The form of the mistress he referred to as “Queen” sat back and curled up, her thoughts dwelling on many things. Small, spindly, and angular, her form was the epitome of lethal perfection.

Commander Adam La’Ser paced the deck along his bridge. The usual sounds from the bridge, officers talking back and forth, computers and other devices beeping and blinking, all of these sound continued endlessly, broken only by the constant and repetitive thud of the bombardment space-to-surface laser battery reports. The ground battle was in process, he knew.  Men and women were down there fighting for their lives. Meanwhile it seemed all he could do was stand around and watch the starfighters mop up the last vestiges of enemy resistance in space.

One of the center screens blinked to life and Commodore Chambers appeared on it. Adam snapped a salute which Chambers returned.

“As you were Commander. Listen, I’m sure you have a lot of questions right now, but I need you to put your XO in charge of your ship and take a shuttle over to the command ship immediately. I have asked the captains of the Dragon Maw and the Yoshiyuki to come as well. This is a top priority, commander.”

“Yes sir,” Adam said, feeling resentment towards his old comrade who  had now thrown him yet another curve ball. It seemed that ever since this mission started all Commodore Chambers would do was ask Adam to do strange, potentially dangerous things without offering any explanation at all. There was the matter of that last minute arrival on his ship, for instance…..

“I’ll be right over sir. New Jersey IV out.”

He turned to his XO, who had appeared at his side.

“Take care of her for me,” he said in a low voice. “I won’t be long. I promise you that.” He spoke in a serious, sober voice that told his XO to be on guard.

“Take care, Commander.” The man said.

Adam exited the bridge.

McGuire and his men finally reached the front lines. They had been able to find the place mainly thanks to the endless reports of gunfire and the constant vision of muzzle flashes penetrating the mist. They could now see why the gunfire never seemed to end. The main of the Alliance’s infantry force that had landed on the planet was camped out  in a long line at the edge of the zerg compound. And the zerg were pouring out of the compound in waves, constantly attacking and besieging the Terran force. The compound was actually downhill from them. They sat at the top of a slope that went down into a wide basin where the city-sized labyrinth sat. There was a small area of flat ground down the hill between the compound and the slope and it was there that most of the zerg bit it as they recklessly charged the Terran lines. McGuire and his men found themselves immersed in the battle immediately.

“Crazy Hawk, incoming at your two o’clock!”

“There’s some big ones comin outta that left passageway!”

“Concentrate your fire on the ranged threats. Highwind, blow that hole!”

The com channel was filled with shouts and orders and reports as the Theta Force squad blasted off round after round in to the oncoming zerg wave.

"Roger that squad leader, one dead bug hole comin up!” Highwind said. He hoisted his missile launcher and aimed at one of the exit points.

“Incoming!” someone suddenly said over the com.

Highwind looked up, and to his dismay, saw what was incoming. He frantically rolled to the side and out of the way as a hail of foot—long spikes sailed through the air and landed where he had been perched. He was not in a small ditch, but he got up on one knee and re-aimed his launcher. The weapon gave a beep and he fired. Twin fireballs trailed by smoke roared from the launcher and slammed in to the zerg exit passage, blowing the hole to oblivion.

“Good shot,” McGuire said. “Now, if only someone else up in command could do their job…”

Cadence, the medics, their marine allies, and the Ghost finally reached the battlefield. There wasn’t much time to talk after that. The medics immediately became immersed in their job, ignoring the battle raging around them as they began healing marines who fell. Cadence’s instincts kicked in and she completely forgot about the mysterious presence of a Ghost, or, for that matter, where he had gone……

Tommy Pierce and his boys raced across the flat land completely unopposed. They hit the edge of the slope where the marines were entrenched and rocketed off it’s lip, flying through the air until they landed near the bottom. They kept going and as the zerg came to meet them, they zoomed recklessly in and out of the bug formations, firing their grenade launchers and causing general havoc. The battle began to progress in full swing, and as Tom raced a circle around a doomed hydralisk before blowing him up, he wondered why everyone had been so worried. This was fun……

“We’re approaching the lip of the slope now, ma’am.” The driver said as the tank rattled along. Outside, Amber could hear the sounds of other tanks rumbling along beside and around them—but they were first in line.

“Roger that, Corporal. Give us all you got.”

The corporal looked petrified.

“Ma’am??? You want us to hit that edge at full speed ma’am??”

Amber smirked.

“You heard me Corporal, now step on the gas! Primary gunner, report!”

From the turret above her, the gunners voice sounded off.

“Lead gun ready and waiting ma’am”

“Roger that. Loader, report!”

The second voice also came from the turret above her.

“Loader ready, Sarge!”

She went through the rest of the line in a similar manner, making sure every person in her eight-person crew was ready for action.

The driver’s voice was shaking now and some of the others looked kind of sick as well.

“We’re approaching the edge, ma’am!” the driver cried.

“Yeehaw, Corporal,” she said in a quiet tone, barley managing to keep from laughing.

The tank roared over the edge of the slope and several previously entrenched marines had to scramble out of the way the massive machine appeared over their heads. For a second, the front of the tank hung suspended in mid air as the it rolled forward over the edge. Then the whole thing hit the ground with a fantastic “BAM!” and the tank rolled down towards the melee at the bottom. Inside the tank could be heard,

“Whoo-oo-oa!” cried one of the crew.

“S-s-s-sarge!” one man called out. The tank was shaking and bumping so bad she couldn’t blame them for being hard to understand.

“Per-r-r-mis-s-sion to take the top machine gun, ma’am!” the voice of the rear machine gunner called out.

“N-negative, private!” she said. “Keep this baby sealed. Primary guns, open fire!”

A line of tanks pounded down the hill and as one, fired their great twin guns into the raging melee. 80mm shells pounded into the zerg and completely tore them asunder. The tanks crashed down into the flat zone on the edge of the zerg compound and proceeded to cause chaos everywhere.

Amber’s tank roared halfway across the area between the slope and the zerg cluster and suddenly pulled up short. Another tank halted a few yards ahead of her and each tank began to initiate Siege Mode. As Amber’s primary guns were set into their secondary position and the shock cannon began to rise from the tank’s body, something bad happened. The zerg had been assaulting them repeatedly with small, infantry-sized troops up until this point. But as Amber watched out of tank’s forward viewport, three massive behemoths exploded out of the various exits along the colony’s edge and began tearing their way towards the marine lines. One of them was headed straight for Amber.

Two tanks much closer to the colony were the first to go. One was just finishing it’s transition to siege mode. The other opened fire at the 20 foot monster the moment it came into sight. The creature seemed to just shrug off the 80mm shells as though they were bug bites. The beast possessed two massive scythe-like tusks projecting out of its torso. As it approached the two tanks, the beast swung each scythe simultaneously, ripping both tanks in two. A swarm of smaller zerg now erupted from the same hole the larger beast had exited; spilling in to the combat zone and making a bee-line for the nearest terran troops. The giant monster, however, continued on it’s course—straight towards Amber’s tank.

“Oh my god, it’s comin right for us!!!!” the driver screamed. Amber tried to be strong. She tried to tell him to stow it, to keep his head. But the giant was bearing down on them and the words choked in her mouth. Then, very abruptly, the siege tank a few yards ahead of Amber fired its shock cannon.

“Shock Cannon prepare to fire!” she screamed.

“Charge ready!” the loader shouted back, sounding petrified. “Awaiting command.”

“Fire!” she screamed.

The gunner didn’t even bother to shout the response “Firing”. The cannon simply went off with a tremendous roar. The sound of it alone rattled the teeth in Amber’s head.

She looked out and saw that the first round from the other tank had hit the monster dead on but the beast only paused a moment, as though shaking off the blast, before continuing to barrel right on towards them. The round from Amber’s tank hit it next, but again it only stopped for a moment before it once again resumed it’s mad charge.

Horrified, Amber realized there was no time for either tank to revert to tank-mode and escape. That thing would shear right through them just like the first two tanks. She then realized that she had two machine gunners who weren’t doing anything.

“All guns fire!” she roared. The forward gunner jammed down on his twin triggers and the tank’s two forward imbedded machine guns opened up on the creature, peppering it with gunfire. The rear gunner abandoned his post and took charge of the mini-gun up top. In normal tank-mode, the gun would sit on top of the turret, but in siege-mode it actually stuck out of the base of the 120mm shock cannon. He too squeezed down on his trigger and the eight barrel weapon roared to life, showering Amber, who sat under it, in bullet casings. The tank ahead of her did the same and as the twenty foot monstrosity barreled towards them, they tore away at it with machine guns and their shock cannons as often as they could fire them.

“Sergeant, creature is fifty feet away and closing!” said the soldier at the scanners station.

“We can’t stop it!” cried the gunner, who fired off the cannon as fast as the loader could arm it.

The beast began to stumble more and more with each consecutive hit from the shock cannons, but still it pressed on, closer and closer. The machine guns pelted away at it, now drawing blood but still seeming to have no effect on its pace.

“It’s almost on top of the other tank!” the scanners operator cried.

Amber gritted her teeth and stared hard at the monster, who looked like it was almost close enough to rip apart the other tank, just like it had done to the first two.

“You are dead.” She whispered.

“Gunner!” Amber shouted, determination in her voice. Her eyes had not left the beast as it loomed over the other tank.

“Yes ma’am!” he responded.

“Lower the cannon all the way. I want it level with that thing on our next shot!”

“You got it, Sarge!” he called back.

Amber could hear the grinding of hydraulics as the cannon lowered to point directly at the enemy monster.

“Shock round ready!” the loader shouted.

“Fire.” Amber said.

Outside, the monster reared up, looming over the seemingly doomed tank. It raised it’s massive scythes to rip the tank in two. The shock cannon went off, nailing the great beast dead in it’s partly exposed underside.

The explosion was tremendous. The round ripped straight in to the creature’s body, creating a massive wound that gushed fire as the beast was knocked down. It made a visible effort to get up again and finish what it started, but then sank back to the ground dead.

The great roars of the other two monsters raged outside, but Amber knew they were outnumbered by way too much. With full confidence returning to her voice, Amber said,

“Firing team, raise cannon angle back to sixty five degrees and blast that colony to rubble!”

The tank groaned as the cannon pointed back up towards the sky, and in unison, both tanks fired their mighty weapons, the reports echoing like thunder upon the battlefield.

The smaller zerg poured in waves into the marine lines. McGuire and his men fought desperately to keep them at bay. The bugs swarmed all around them, pressing through the marines’ position by sheer numbers alone.

“Don’t let any of them through!” McGuire bellowed. His men held their ground, pounding into the oncoming wave. At many points in the fight, the zerg became so overwhelming that they were interspersed within the ranks, forcing the marines to watch their backs, fronts, and sides at all times. In the line’s center, an Alliance flag was raised and the marines fought on with new vigor, pushing the zerg back to their colony. One of the smaller, hopping zerg creatures managed to leap and skip its way up to the top of the slope. For a moment, McGuire’s eyes followed it as it was about to clear the crest……

Then suddenly a great metal leg landed right on top of it. McGuire looked up to see the first Goliath, owner of the destructive leg, cresting the hill. It stepped proudly over the edge of the slope, and as more and more of the great walkers began to appear behind it, a cheer went up through the crowd. The cavalry was here.

Dave Wachowski looked out over the raging battlefield. With a grin on his face, he leveled his walker’s twin machine guns at the retreating zerg and promptly blew them away.

“Alright boys, that’s it,” McGuire said as the last of the zerg wave were blown into ribbons by the Goliaths as they marched over the hill. “It’s time for us to go. Main force’ll hold this position and move in slowly while Armor gives us artillery support. It’s time to complete our mission and get the hell out of here.”

“Roger that command, were movin out,” came back the response.

The Theta Force Squad moved off the slope and into the valley where the main battle still raged on. The dying zerg continued to skirmish with Alliance vehicles and the supporting infantry. McGuire was alert at all times, his rifle held ready, looking this way and that for any threats. As they crossed the whole of the valley and approached the edge of the zerg city, the point men, Sgt. Sanchez and PFC O’Reilly took up positions on either side of one of the entrances to the colony. It looked like it had once been part of a street that had led to a terran city before the zerg came, but any vestiges of blacktop were now long gone. They looked down a long, misty corridor. The metal of the walls was still visible under the massive tangle of flesh-colored tentacles that now invaded them. The deep fog that had covered the whole planet remained inside the zerg colony.

McGuire began barking orders.

“Crazy Hawk, JoJo, move in, you’ve got point. Yuizaki and Rommel in second. Highwind, you stay with me. Sanchez and O’Reilly bring up the rear.”

“You got it, brudda.” Responded a deep, menacing voice. JoJo was the call sign given to PFC Damon McEnough, the squad’s resident Jamaican. He was quiet, but also one of the meanest, toughest soldiers McGuire had ever known. Crazy Hawk was another call sign given to Corporal Manwe, a North American Native. He too was quiet, but was tough as steel and highly honorable.

The two of them moved into the compound, followed by two more men, one of whom was the heavy machine gunner. McGuire headed in next, accompanied by Corporal Highwind. Sanchez and O’Reilly brought up the rear.

They jogged down the corridor, but the fog was so thick they couldn’t see much in front of them. McGuire could barely see the two men in front of the line. Suddenly, Crazy Hawk shot his fist in to the air and they all stopped dead in their tracks.

“Report,” McGuire breathed.

“There’s a lot of steam coming out of the ground up ahead.” He replied in his heavy, accented, bass voice. “Can’t see its source though.”

“Copy that,” McGuire said. “All units, slowly move over to the walls of the compound, but don’t touch them. No telling what kind of surprises those tentacles might hold.”

Slowly, everyone moved over to the walls on either side of the path.

“You think it’s some kind of zerg thing, Lieutenant?” Highwind asked. Highwind was the youngest man on the team, only nineteen years old, and McGuire could hear the excitement in his voice. He was in Theta Force because he was a crack rocket jockey and was trustworthy as hell.

“Not sure,” McGuire said. “I would’ve thought all the zerg were engaged at the front, but still…..”

Then, a thought came to him.

“Crazy,” he said.

“I’m here,” replied the thick Native American voice.

“Can you locate any unsecured objects in your immediate vicinity?” he asked.

“Affirmative,” Crazy Hawk said.

“I want you to pick up whatever you got and throw it towards the source of excess steam you saw,” he said.

“Roger, Lieutenant,” Crazy Hawk replied.

“Oy, it’s like a rainforest in ‘ere,” said O’Reilly over the com. “Me mask’s almost fogged ri’ up!”

“Quiet on the com!” McGuire barked.

Crazy Hawk threw the object he had found, which was apparently a metal pipe of some kind. The pipe flew towards the steaming spot in the ground, which was a good several yards away from the closest man, and landed about halfway in between. It had a sharp, broken end and stabbed into the ground, sticking straight up.

Nothing happened.

“Shu’ we be movin along then?” JoJo asked.

“Hmm.” McGuire mused. “You got anything else to throw?” he asked.

“A rock….” Crazy Hawk said.

“Do it.” Said McGuire.

Crazy Hawk chucked the rock, which hurtled through the air and landed very near the pipe. Almost instantly, a stream of spikes erupted from the ground one after the other, starting at the steaming part in the ground and flying right towards the spot where the rock hit. The stream stopped at the rock, but not before one of the spikes had split the thing in two.

“Bingo.” McGuire said.

“Looks like something burrowed itself in there.” Said Rommel. “Was waiting for vibrations or footfall impacts.”

“Seems so,” McGuire agreed, feeling queasy about how close they had all come to being sawed up.

“Highwind!” he called.

“I’m here sir!”

“Kill it.” McGuire said quietly.

Highwind stepped out into the center of the path and got down on one knee. He aimed his missile launcher at the smoking, steaming hole and fired a shot straight at it. The missile blew towards the hole and exploded, creating a fireball where the zerg had just recently been hiding.

“Let’s move!” McGuire called and they started off again.

They ran through the maze of steel and flesh, often having nothing to guide them beyond the glowing nav point on their HUDs. Explosions rocked throughout the colony. Rounds from both siege tanks and Battlecruiser batteries pounded into the colony and Highwind thought more than once that they were going to be blown away by their own cover fire and air support. Fortunately, every shot seemed to find some other mark besides them. Even so, the squad quickly learned that a zerg colony was not a fun place to chill.

At every turn, the zerg seemed to have some new, nasty surprise waiting for them. Nowhere were they safe. Every two seconds, they were looking around to see if some new ambush was about to fall on them. As they came to what seemed a dead end, McGuire held up the squad to take a breather. A large mound of metal and bio matter was blocking the path they had intended to take.

“Now what?” Highwind panted. “We were so close!”

“Stow it, Corporal,” McGuire said. “We’ll figure something out.”

“Hey, man. Look at this!” Sanchez said.

Highwind looked over and saw him pointing to the ground. On closer inspection, Zack Highwind could see what he was pointing to.

The ground was completely covered in what seemed to be some sort of lumpy, purple-ish moss. The stuff covered the entire surface of the ground and had even begun to creep its way up several walls.

“What is this stuff?” he asked.

“Ah dunno man,” Sanchez said. “But somehow it’s gotta be bad. I think it was actually all over the ground since we got in here. We just never noticed it till now, man.”

“Sir!” Rommel called out to McGuire. “Sir, I think we can scale this mound that’s in the way, sir!”

“What?” McGuire asked. “Are you crazy soldier? That mounds like fifty feet straight up!”

"Not any more, sir,” Rommel said. “I was just looking at it and something moved and the next thing I know—look, sir!”

 They all looked and could see what Rommel was talking about. A large portion of the mound had fallen down, creating a small area that the marines could climb up with relative ease.

“Alright then,” McGuire said, sounding pleased. “Guess were gonna climb…”

“Come to think of it though,” Rommel said. “That was pretty weird. I can’t figure out what caused it to collapse…….oh crap!” he said.

Everyone in the squad snapped their rifles up, searching frantically for the source of the disturbance.

“Rommel! Report, darn it! What the hell are you yellin about??” McGuire demanded.

“I saw something sir!” the heavy machine gunner said. “I was wondering what made the wall collapse and then I saw it again! It was like a blur or a heavy spot in the air!”

“Rommel, what the…”

“Over there!” O’Reilly said.

“What—where…”

But McGuire’s question went unanswered, as the men were all looking frantically upwards to see whatever it was that was causing the commotion. They were all too used to zerg ambushes.

Without warning, the air on the edge of one of the walls above them shimmered. Suddenly, a figure appeared crouched on the wall.

The whole squad gasped. A Ghost.

“What the—who are you?” McGuire stammered. The military intelligence spooks, or spies, more literally, were practically something of myth or legend amongst the regular military. Tales of the exploits and activities of MI were highly popular. But if spies and such were legend in the military, the Ghosts were the stuff of nightmares. Ghosts were supposedly spies, assassins and special forces soldiers combined. Popular belief, however, was that they were mainly just one of those things—assassins.

“What do you want?” McGuire asked.

The Ghost sat perched on the edge of one of the walls, staring down at them behind is lens covered mask. They could see the breath being released through the mask’s mechanisms.

“I’m here to see that you succeed,” he said. “Observe.”

The Ghost walked over to an area near the large mound in the road and leveled his rifle at something in the distance. Yuizaki, McGuire, and Zack climbed up to the top of the mound and looked out over the top of the compound.

They were almost at the compound’s center. Not too far away, sitting right on top of the nav point was a massive, completely biological structure. The thing was so large it rivaled many of the larger Terran buildings. Protruding out of it were three, massive, spike-covered spires.

In a matter-of-fact voice, the Ghost spoke.

“I’m going to blow that thing to kingdom come,” he said. “You guys get in there and finish the job. The initial strike won’t kill it. That’s why you’re here.”

“You mean, we risked our necks six million times just to blow somethin up that’s already blown up?” he demanded.

“Yes,” the ghost said flatly. His voice sounded awkward and even more bone-chilling through the filters in his mask.

“Wait,” Yuizaki said. “How are you going to brow sumsing dat rarge up?” Yuizaki spoke with a heavy Japanese accent and was hard to understand at times.

“Watch,” the Ghost said.

He raised his canister rifle and leveled it at the structure in the distance. That rifle had to be one of the biggest hand-held weapons Zack had ever seen. It easily beat the massive, standard-issue spikethrowers they were carrying.

The Ghost moved his hand a bit and a laser emitted from somewhere on the weapon. Zack couldn’t see the dot in the distance but he was pretty sure it was aimed at the massive bio structure.

“Lance leader this is Bushwacker.” A voice came in over the com.

“Go ahead,” Dave said as his Goliath pounded over the purple covered terrain around the outskirts of the zerg colony. The tanks had taken up positions en masse and were blasting away at various places deeper within the compound. Waves of marines and vultures were now pouring towards the colony.

“I’m knee deep in Bug City,” the voice said. “’Bout a click and a half away from you.”

“Roger that,” Dave responded. “Tiger, take left flank. Burnout, you got point. Move to Bushwhacker’s position. I’ll cover you, over.”

“I copy you Jackhammer. Yeehaw.”

Dave smiled. Despite all of their training and knowledge of the inherent danger that was posed to them during combat situations, it was hard not to feel immortal towering about everything else in the battlefield as you stomped on through the chaos, raining death down on your hapless enemies.

The Goliaths pounded over the zerg and the infested-terran structures, bypassing corridors and barriers that would turn back the infantry and other vehicles. The view in front of him seemed to constantly move up and down as his Goliath walked and there was always a tangible vibration with each footfall. An alarm sounded and Dave turned his attention to the area around his Mech’s left foot.

A squad of marines that had been traversing a wide corridor had been ambushed by zerg. The bugs were pouring out of every crack and crevice, quickly swamping and surrounding the unfortunate troops.

Dave swung the Mech’s torso around to point at the ground, bringing his wide crosshairs over the zerg attackers.

Gripped in each of his hands was a joystick. He squeezed the triggers and his twin 30mm Autocannons exploded to life. The sound roared through his cockpit and the whole walker shook with the massive vibrations the guns made. They rattled his teeth and the muzzle flashes were so great he could barely see in front of him.

The zerg were slaughtered. The ground erupted around them and they were slain in droves. Dave kept his fingers firmly clutched around the triggers as he swung the weapons around, mowing down all of the zerg in the area in a rain of fiery metal.

As he let go of the triggers, the dust began to settle. The area around the marines, who were cowering in fear, was a wasteland of tiny craters. Huge gouts of dirt had been torn from the ground and the zerg force was completely neutralized. One of the marines waved up timidly at him in thanks. Dave just swung his cockpit forward again and continued to stomp off towards his lance-mates.

Yet another bright red thunderbolt pierced the sky. There had been a non-stop rain of death coming down on the parts of the zerg colony that the alliance troops weren’t occupying. Even as Dave recognized this, another red bolt came down from the heavens, crashing into the earth some distance away and raising a huge plume of dirt and smoke. Of course, these bombard shots were nothing like the Yamato rounds the Battlecruisers were notorious for using. Enough of those shots could sunder worlds.

As he approached their self-designated rally point, Dave could see it was now where the battle was the thickest. Tiger and Burnout’s Goliaths stepped forward in front of him and entered a curtain of smoke and flashing lights.

Someone’s voice echoed over the com…

“…..his is infant…unit alpha…avo...seven,” the broken voice came through. “We are…..t point zero………two, northwest in Bug City…….request………..backup.”

“Roger that Alpha Bravo Seven. This is Lance leader two one one five. Help is on the way.”

The Goliaths stepped into the battle scene where they found Bushwacker already immersed in combat. It was hard to see the ground due to the smoke, but they could make out many moving shapes and dozens of muzzle flashes.

“Lance group, engage,” he said calmly over the com.

Dave’s Goliath thudded into an extra-wide corridor where a whole platoon was engaged in a desperate battle with a swarm of zerg. He stepped between the zerg and the terran infantry and positioned his Goliath spread-legged, all guns facing the zerg. Then he let loose, quickly blowing them away. Elsewhere, Bushwacker mowed down a line of serpentine, spine-throwing zerg that were perched on a roof with one sweep. Dave rose his mech up out of the hall and turned to see Tiger and Burnout pouring bullets into an advancing, giant scythe-beast, laying it low.

Dave brought his Goliath up and stomped indiscriminately through the battlefield, blasting away any zerg he saw.

“Scythe-giant at eleven o’clock,” Bushwacker called. Dave turned his torso as he walked, and could see Bushwacker nailing another one of the behemoths with a stream of spent uranium. Dave pulled up short, crouching a bit, and flipped a switch on his console. There was a beep and a new weapon selection showed up on his HUD. He aimed at the massive beast and pulled the triggers. His view was covered in smoke for a moment as a pair of missiles streaked towards the great monster and brought it down. Dave could see that some of the marines on the ground were apparently unconvinced of it’s demise and proceeded to blast the crap out of it’s body.

Hey, he didn’t care. It was all good as long as these things got theirs.