he Last Battle
By
Colin D. Grimes
Copyright 2015 Colin D. Grimes
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THE LAST BATTLE.
The Supreme Commander stared at the vision console. His face could not contain the delight that filled his whole body. Before him, on his console, he could see the last bastion of the vile Volmoths. After more than a year of deadly combat, in which, the Commander had waged war on the Volmoths their last remaining nest was in his sights.
The Commander scanned his console and prepared his men for the last battle. Surveying his troops he found that he only had five warriors in his scout troop remaining. Five troops out of the countless thousands that he had sent against the Volmoths, only five. The Commander put the thought to one side, it no longer mattered, the thousands upon thousands of troops were gone they were statistics, the only ones that now mattered were the five that had made it through the carnage to this point, the Volmoths nest.
On clicking on the lead element of the scout troop he discovered the squad’s details. They were from Charlie Company, 1077th Infantry Battalion attached to the 501st Armoured (Heavy) Division. Good, he thought, from one of our armoured divisions. A smile spread across his face, armoured division scouts always carried with them heavy weapons. The commander flicked through the squads on-line inventory and the smile dropped from his face. Blast, they had used all their heavy weapons on reaching this point; all that they had remaining alongside their own personal assault rifles was a thermite grenade each and one anti-aircraft rocket, which their Sargent carried.
He rubbed his face; they will have to do. The nest should be unguarded, so lightly armed as they are they should be okay. Only one thermite grenade should send the nest to oblivion and this squad had five. The commander clicked on the squad’s commander, a Sargent Savage, and relayed his orders to him.
Sargent Savage received his orders from his Commander and sent a confirmation message back. Savage then deployed his squad according to his Commander’s wishers. Two men he sent to each flank with their rifles at the ready, leaving himself in the centre with the anti-aircraft rocket. Once in place the squad started to move forward. The Supreme Commander watched his vision console without blinking.
Slowly, step by step the scout troop edged their way closer to the nest. Over the rubble of the shattered city they crept; their footfalls and the faint rumble of distant fighting was the only sound audible. The commander felt the background noise to be too much, so he toggled to a menu option on his console and switched the noise off. Now he could only hear the movements and communications traffic of his scout troop.
CLICK.
The commander’s eyes widened, he had heard the click, but it was too late, the warp mine had been set off. One of the two scots to the left of Sargent Savage had inadvertently trod on the mine. The mine exploded with a bright ball of white light that engulfed the two men. The two figures instantly disappeared, warped out of existence.
The commander quickly sent a new order down to his Sargent, beware probable Sucubant Volmoth in area. His Sargent confirmed the receipt of this new message.
The Sucubant Volmoth was a particularly vile creature that was able to vomit up the almost undetectable warp mines. The mines themselves only had a limited life span before they became inactive; therefore if you found yourself in an area containing active warp mines then you could bet your life that a Sucubant was close by.
Sargent Savage and his two remaining squad members commenced their advance towards the Volmoth nest, but this time their progress was slowed by the need to watch that each step they took was not about to land on a warp mine.
Without warning the two scouts on Savages right flank started to fire their assault rifles towards a large crater to their front. “Sucubant spotted, engaging target!” Squawked the commander’s console, NO! The commander screamed in his head as his clenched fist thumped the monitor. Not only had the two scouts started to engage the target but were now charging forward across the open ground towards the crater.
The Sucubant, alerted by the sound of gun fire raised his beetle like head over the rim of the crater. The suppressive fire from the two charging scouts’ soon made him lower it. The Commander typed at his console as fast as he could in an attempt to stop his scouts’ mad charge, but it was all too late. The Sucubant had managed to vomit up a new warp mine and had tossed it over the lip of the crater towards the scouts. The mine landed just short of the two scouts and exploded, but the momentum of the charging scouts carried them into the warp. The two scouts vanished like the previous two.
The Supreme Commander swore out loud, which caused the other commanders in the room to turn their heads, but they soon returned to their own commands. The Commander angrily sent a new command to Sargent Savage; kill that Sucubant using any means at your disposal.
Sargent Savage acknowledged the receipt of his new orders and unslung the anti-aircraft rocket launcher from his shoulder. The Sargent readied the launcher and toggled its setting to heat seeking mode. The wry smile returned to the Supreme Commanders face, he had long-ago found out that a Sucubant generated a distinct heat signature when they vomited up a warp mine.
Sargent Savage painted the crater with the laser target finder on the launcher then squeezed the trigger. The rocket spat forth from its launcher and spiralled high into the sky. A moment later the data regarding its target registered in the rockets programming and it dived down into the crater.
The following explosion sent a large dust cloud high into the sky and spat cobs of stone and soil out towards Sargent Savage. But this did not concern the veteran Sargent. He discarded the now empty rocket launcher and headed for the smoking crater, unslinging his rifle and making it ready as he went.
The Sargent covered the distance to the crater in double quick time showing no fear for any undiscovered warp mine left by the Sucubant. All that was in his programming was to check that the creature was dead.
He clambered up the side of the crater and stood proudly at its rim, rifle level with his eye. He quickly surveyed the inside on the crater, but it was all too apparent that his anti-aircraft rocket had done its job well; along with the odd small fire and chard fragment of the rocket itself there was the unmistakable blue sludge that was Volmoth blood smeared around the whole of the crater. On closer inspection small sections of the Sucubant’s body parts could also be seen.
The Supreme Commander let out a cheer and raised his fist into the air. He then started to issue a new order to Savage. Go to the nest and destroy it.
WHOOSH.
The sound filled the Commanders ears just as he was about to send the new order. The colour drained from his face and he scanned his console. “No, no, it can’t be. I have killed you all; don’t do this to me now!” The Commander placed his hands on his console as he watched in disbelief.
Sargent Savage raised his line of sight from the depths of the crater and directed his head to where the whooshing noise was coming from. At first no discernible object could be seen that could have made that noise, but then from out of the smoke that was still rising from the spent rocket, a Arial-bat swooped down and over the crater.
The Arial-bat was a lightly armoured but deadly Volmoth. It could fly at great speeds and could deliver a lethal payload of molten napalm larva from its large belly, but could be easily destroyed, due to the heat generated by the napalm it carried, by a small manhandled anti-aircraft rocket.
/> Sargent Savage raised his rifle and proceeded to fire round after round into the circling Arial-bat. He scored many hits against the creature, as his ammunition counter on the display of his rifle went from one hundred rounds to treble zero.
Savage ejected the spent magazine and clipped in a new one, but the bat, by this time was already making his bombing run and sweeping in towards him. The Sargent raised his rifle again and pulled the trigger. Empty shell case after empty shell case ejected from his rifle, but none were able to penetrate the bats armour.
The Arial-bat reached its prime release point and disgorged its entire napalm payload on to the Sargent, who still continued to fire his rifle even as the liquid death rained down upon him.
The Supreme Commander closed his eyes and let out a little sob, as he lowered his head on to his vision console. In his mind he ran through the details of the last battle, his eager, active brain attempting to pinpoint where he possibly went wrong. Blast you all, I will have you yet. Next time I will...
The lights in the room flashed off then on as a disembodied voice rang out. “This arcade will be closing in ten minutes, please start making your way to the exits”
Harry Groves raised his head from off the video game screen and watched as it mockingly replayed the last moments of his game. Harry snarled at the screen as the image was replaced by a picture of laughing Volmoths. “Better luck next time Human! – To play again insert more credits.” Harry toyed with dropping some more coins in to the machine, before deciding to head home instead, as he was already late for his tea.
END.
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Colin D. Grimes.