Muscle and tendons barked out in protest as they pushed against the loose sand below me. Fire roared ahead as my ears were filled with the cacophony of war. The world around me blurred as my eyes began to focus purely on my target— safety.
I flew forwards with much greater force than I ever expected, even with wounds that would cripple a human man. This alien body was more robust than any of those flimsy—No bad thought...
Despite my leap, I was falling short—way short. My panic was quickly overshadowed as something even greater entered my periphery. A roar of gunfire so violent it drowned my senses; I didn't need to focus on the sound to know exactly which side possessed such a weapon.
Shortly after the rattle, a multitude of miniature explosions detonated somewhere off to my right as one of the Trukks rushed by. It careened through the hellfire with triumph and violence. It was a heaven sen— no, this was all according to plan... Surely.
It drew the attention of the enemy forces, allowing me a brief moment of reprieve. Extending my left leg outwards, I planted it into the ground. My entire weight shook through the leg as I leapt forward once more, covering good ground. Just a couple more...
My breathing quickened, my heart rate increased, and a grin began to form across my face. I was going to make it; I may survive yet. Just one... Last... Jump...
Sinking my right foot into the sand, I sank deeper into the motion. Leaning forwards, I prepared myself for a much more horizontal dive forwards to cover. It proved a smart move as a volley of ionised fire shot overhead— if I were just a moment too late, I'd be done.
Hitting the ground, I slid unceremoniously through the dirt before coming to a halt. I was safe... for the moment. Hauling myself to my knees, I reached around my back and sincerely hoped that my only ranged weapon hadn't fallen from my back in the chaos. Thankfully, it was there, rusty and cool to the touch. Grasping it, I pulled it and the sling forwards.
Sucking in a deep breath of hot air, I hauled the weapon up and set it on one of the many rocks in front of me. Despite having this thing worked on extensively by the 'best' of the Mek Boyz back at camp, it really was just a pile of junk. It was time to test my mettle.
Eyeing through the sights of the shoota, I internally sighed. It really wasn't much better than what I had before. In fact, it almost obstructed my view more than it helped, but it would do. I took in the scope of the field first and foremost to see what we were dealing with.
It was a simple outpost: a couple of centralised buildings with a significant number of large weapons pointing outwards. A main gate protecting the front side of the walled base, with many humanoid aliens hunkered across the barricaded walls. It was a genuinely well defensible position and would be tough to deal with, but we had the numbers and the aggression.
Two Trukks circled around the base, firing haphazardly at the fortifications and doing very little damage, but the suppressive nature of the fire was working. We'd only lost a single truck thus far in the opening scenes of the battle, that one being mine of course... Damn unlucky, but it did mean that I wasn't directly in the thick of it—perhaps a blessing in disguise.
The other two Trukks had actually pulled back and away beyond what I could see, but I could definitely hear their engines screaming out in protest on the horizon. I wasn't sure what they were planning, or even if they were capable of planning. Perhaps they'd just seen my Trukk explode and decided that was enough for the day, but I doubted it. They were nothing if not incredibly stubborn.
The multitude of thoughts rifling through my head came to an abrupt stop as I saw something along the barricades. My new enhanced eyesight allowed me to spot what seemed to be a rocket launcher of some kind; it looked incredibly similar to something you'd see out of World War 2. Blocky, green, and impractical. Worst of all it was pointed in my direction. My entire body tensed as I thought the worst was about to happen. The muzzle of the weapon flashed as a rocket the size of my arm shot out of the launcher and whizzed with unsurprising speed.
Hitting the ground, I gritted my teeth, preparing for an impact that never came. The round flew overhead. Turning, I followed it. It wasn't aimed at me but at a Trukk that was a good 150 meters behind me—it was one of the two that had briefly left. The Trukk made a quick reactionary turn, causing the rocket to narrowly miss, but the vehicle lost a considerable amount of momentum as it skidded across the desert.
Looking back up to the walls, I saw the alien reloading the launcher with our Trukk caught dead in the dirt. This was my chance to actually affect the battle. The loss of this truck would cut our forces at this point by an additional twenty-five percent. I needed to prevent this from happening at all costs.
Propping myself back into position, I set my sights on the most important target on the field right now. Once properly set, I took a deep breath; the air stilled with anticipation. Tugging the trigger, a loud BANG rang out through the air as the spinning slug fired out directly towards the alien. The bullet whizzed by the head of them—a clean miss. "Shit..." I grumbled as I quickly readied for another shot.
The alien didn't even flinch as the shot cracked past their head; they moved with robot-like precision as they began their reload.
BANG
I fired another shot. This time, the shot hit true. The alien fell back as concussive force pushed them from their feet. I thought for a brief moment thinking we were in the clear, only for the alien to stand up once more... I could have sworn that was a clean shot. How the hell are they still standing?
BANG
Another shot rang out as it clearly pierced the shoulder of the alien once more, yet a rocket still fired from the device. Thankfully the rocket veered left as my shot had managed to disrupt their aim. This reprieve meant the Trukk was given full permission to carry on. The vehicle rocketed fowards and directly towards the main gate of the base... They couldn't be trying a full frontal assault, could they?
The second Trukk that went briefly MIA rocketed past my right, heading straight towards the same location as the first Trukk. Two Trukks pushing directly to the gate of the forward operating base, with the other two continually circling and providing a great distraction piece.
Another thick, bright red laser zapped from the base, narrowly missing one of the Trukks—the same one that had melted right through and destroyed my own. Lucky bastards... But this confirmed a couple of things: One, that large laser had a very slow firing rate. Two, the aliens' aim isn't that great when firing it. Three, it was probably their largest weapon.
While I didn't have sight on it currently, if I could find a way to take that weapon or its wielder out, we'd have much greater odds of success in this raid. But from where I was right now—pinned and without visibility—I wouldn't be able to do much about it... If only these green dumbasses used radios, maybe I could communicate this properly. An idea for next time...
My thoughts were once more quickly cut off as another humanoid figure passed across the barricaded walls, only to pick up the rocket launcher from their dead comrade and begin to set up aim once more... Damn, these aliens were tenacious— perhaps a little dumb, peeking from the same angle... But tenacious nonetheless.
I levelled my gun once more and began firing a steady stream of shots towards the new priority target. These rounds were much more accurate this time around; I was quickly getting used to the weapon, the situation, and my instincts far more so than I was while practicing on the range. This did not add up to my human preconceived notions on how practice and implementation actually worked. But it was adding further evidence to my growing hypothesis...
The alien was quickly felled as a slug round finally connected with their head. Once dealt with I watched with anticipation to what the Ork squads in the Trukks were about to do. What were they planning? I continued laying some slow but steady fire over where I felled the last alien—just some nice and easy suppressive measures so that the boyz could worry about one less thing.
The Trukks, however, kept pushing straight forwards with reckless abandon, direclty towards the gate without any sign of them slowing down... It wasn't until I saw two simultaneous flashes of light and fire lick across the gate that I understood their plan: they were going to break through the front door...
Fire and flame engulfed the front gate as smoke billowed, covering the front side of the base in its entirety and blocking my view... Just what the hell... Was this the plan from the start? I thought these brutes were as dumb as bricks. How the hell did they pull that off?