”Charge!!!”
Like a predator lunging for its prey Nebo sprang out of cover and rushed forward, legs carrying him forward as fast as they could possibly manage. The rest of the platoon followed, holding their rifles like spears with their bayonets pointed forwards as they all charged the enemy’s fortified positions. They broke out from the smoke that obscured them and began to scream a battle cry at the Lunies, Nebo allowing adrenaline to overtake him as he let out a guttural roar; his grip on his rifle tightening as he set his eyes on the enemies ahead of him.
It had the intended effect, their enemies’ eyes widening in fear as many of them that still survived the grenades and the white phosphorus turning tail and running from their positions as morale was completely and utterly broken by the sight of the charging Atlesians. Bayonet charges weren’t originally meant to inflict casualties, they were a tactic intended to force an enemy out of their positions without needing to draw out the fight. Of course, any enemy that didn’t turn away and fled wouldn’t be having a good chance of living.
Nebo ran up the sandbag fortifications and leaped towards the first enemy he saw, a Man At Arms with his back turned away from him as he made the poor choice of hesitating before fleeing. Nebo sank his bayonet deep into the Man At Arms’s right forearm, at least he would’ve if his aura didn’t come up to protect him. His body slammed into the man’s back, throwing them both to the ground. The Man At Arms, having fallen onto his stomach, would roll around and onto his back before trying to shove Nebo off him.
With his rifle having fell out of his grasp, Nebo did his best to stay atop the man. The Lunie would strike Nebo across his armoured chin with his fist, only really pushing his head to the side instead of actually causing any harm. In retaliation Nebo’s armoured fist found itself thrown into the Lunie’s throat whilst his free hand snapped ahold of the the Lunie’s wrist, belonging to the arm that was trying to push him off. He would lift his fist back up and throw it at the Lunie’s throat again, before going for his nose next. He went in for left hook on the Lunie’s temple as his right arm lifted to block another strike from the Lunie, his aura breaking from the hit and the sound of the Lunie’s nose breaking soon following.
He managed to get another hit in on the Lunie’s face, the Man At Arms spitting blood and a few teeth onto Nebo’s sterile white armour, before he found himself get thrown off by what felt like someone colliding with him. He was thrown a good feet away from the Man At Arms he was brutalising and was able to look up just in time to a gun barrel in his face, launching a bullet enshrouded in fire straight into his helmet’s frontal plate. He saw a wave of green in his vision as his aura took the hit, allowing him the chance to slap aside the gun barrel to see another Man At Arms glaring down at him with a pissed off look in his eyes and blood caking his face.
Thinking fast, Nebo kicked at the new Man At Arms knees before quickly getting himself up as the Lunie was tripped up. He was up just in time to swipe away the Lunie’s jab, replying to it with a jab of his own to the man’s jaw only for the Lunie to jerk his head back and avoid it. Nebo didn’t allow the Lunie to have much room to react though, slamming his left fist in his gut before delivering another punch straight to his temple as the Lunie keeled over.
He managed to land a punch on the Lunie’s jaw after that and was going in for another hit until the Man At Arms he was pummelling earlier would grab ahold of his waist and pull him back. Nebo would press his chin against his chest in order to prevent an easy chokehold before elbowing the Man At Arms in the ribs, allowing him to break free from the hole and deliver a devastating punch to the side of his head. The Man At Arms fell to the ground and didn’t get up after that.
He turned to face the other Men At Arms just in time to receive his own rifle’s stock to his face, his head snapping back just before he took a hit to the stomach. He clenched his teeth as he set his gaze back on the Lunie and lunged forward, right hand grabbing the Lunie’s left wrist just before he headbutted the man straight in the nose. He delivered a second headbutt immediately after before pulling up the Lunie’s right arm, his left arm throwing a fist directly into the man’s liver. A pained groan left the Man At Arms’s mouth as his own body forced him to the floor, dropping Nebo’s rifle.
Not wanting to waste another moment Nebo grabbed his rifle from the ground, the sling snapped, and stabbed the bayonet into the back of the Man At Arms’s neck, killing him straight away as his spine was severed from his brain. He tugged the bayonet out of his dead enemy’s neck and took aim at the other Lunie, who was slowly trying to push himself off the ground. One pull of the trigger ended his life as a bullet rammed itself deep into his skull, splattering Nebo with blood as a result.
He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, he was breathing at a rapid pace. The corner of his vision has gone red, not because of a lust for blood but his own HUD warning him that his Aura was low. He could taste the irony taste of blood in his mouth, his bottom lip likely split yet the adrenaline in his system had drowned out the pain. He looked to his left to see the grey outline of a fellow Marine, a “Private Szymon M Sobieski”. An exhausted sigh exited Nebo as he walked over to the body, inspecting the cause of Szymon’s death. The visor of his helmet was shattered, beneath it a face with a large hole in between the eyes. A bullet to the face, said bullet having being enshrouded in flame judging by the cauterised wound. Just like the bullet fired by the Man At Arms he fought just before now.
He could tell what happened already. Szymon tried to bayonet a Lunie Man At Arms just like Nebo did, and ended up getting dragged into a melee with him. Both of them broke their auras but the Man At Arms came out on top, shooting Szymon straight in the head before moving onto Nebo in order to help his comrade. Fortunately, the Man At Arms failed and Szymon was avenged. He didn’t know who this Marine was, but he was clearly younger then Nebo was and their was a good chance he and Nebo went to boot camp at around the same time. Either way, seeing a fellow Marine dead is something he’s probably never going to get used to.
He snapped his attention away from the corpse and shouldered his assault rifle, jogging forward as he saw the rest of his platoon charge over the enemy’s sandbag forts and chase them into a three story building. He sighted another Man At Arms running towards the building and immediately opened fire, four bullets slamming into the Foedosian’s back. His aura protected him, but the force of the bullets still knocked the man over. Before the Lunie could think about getting up Nebo’s armoured boot was already kicking the side of his head like a football, hitting hard enough to spin the Lunie onto his back. His boot then slapped down onto the Lunie’s stomach, his face not even having the time to express shock before Nebo had pointed the barrel of his gun straight at his face and firing.
The first bullet was absorbed by the Lunie’s aura, the second broke it, and the third, fourth, and fifth sank their way deep into the Foedosian’s head. He stepped off the corpse immediately after it expired, green eyes displaying nothing but cold malice as he chased the fleeing Foedosian’s with the desire to kill. He didn’t think to question the blood lust he felt, the utter lack of remorse he felt, nor why his aura was beginning to steadily deplete. He felt faster, a soft, emerald green glow being barely visible within his helmet as he caught up to another Lunie just before it could reach the perceived safety of the building. He dropped his rifle and grabbed the Man At Arms by the top of its backpack, pulling it back before delivering a fast yet brutal punch straight to the back of its head. He pulled back harshly and ended up throwing the Man At Arms to the ground, his own aura depleting ever so slightly again. He picked his rifle back up and pointed the stock down towards the Lunie’s face, his boot planting itself on its chest as he began to slam the butt of his rifle down upon the Lunie’s face again and again and again and again and again, until there was nought left but a pulpy mess. He didn’t want to waste anymore bullets.
He turned away from his fourth kill of the charge, seeing the rest of his platoon catch up to him with several of them still engaging in melee with Lunies. He saw Zelenyy unleash a buckshot straight into a poor Serf’s chest, the Lieutenant causing a pair of Men At Arms to spasm to the ground with two shots from his sidearm, and his Platoon Sergeant gunning down a group of Serfs as they tried to climb into the building via a window before ramming a serrated blade into the skull of the Men At Arms he had pinned to the ground with his knee. For a platoon, they were doing a pretty good job. He wasn’t surprised though, as they were Marine Commandos.
Let’s just hope they don’t lose this momentum.
He quickly ran into cover next to the concrete building’s front entrance, ejecting the magazine from his rifle and carefully placing in another one, pulling the bolt back straight after to chamber the first round. He wouldn’t have to worry about quick reloads if he had chosen to carry a dust powered rifle. Just slam in a new dust crystal and he was good to go. No need to worry about jamming too.
”Throwing Frag!” He shouted over his intercom, taking a grenade of his combat rigging before pulling the pin, waiting a couple seconds, before tossing it into the building. It was followed by several other Marines announcing a similar thing, with a few Marines saying that they are throwing flashbangs. The building he was leaning against for cover seemed to shake as multiple hand grenades detonated in quick succession, with the repeated bangs and flashes of the flash bangs still persisting after the grenades had gone off. High speed fragments were launched in all directions within the building, hitting and killing an unknown number of the enemy. Once the flashbangs went silent, the Eight Platoon began to advance into the building.
He paid little attention to the torn up corpses nor the pools of blood that littered the lobby like room he had entered, a glass bottle filled with a blue, sticky liquid shattering beneath his boot. From what he could tell, this must’ve been the barracks for the Men At Arms. Quite luxurious, if you ignored the scorched, brown carpet and the furniture torn to shreds by metal fragments. Looking out a window at the opposite end of the room from Nebo, he could see a small courtyard with a surprisingly pristine marble fountain. Across the courtyard was another building similar to the one Nebo was in. It was being assaulted by other platoons, a much larger force then his from the sounds of it.
The first floor of the barracks was cleared from the sounds of it, his eyes looking away from the courtyard outside and back to the lobby he was on to see his platoon having already checked every room on the bottom floor. From the looks of it, everything of note was upstairs. He could see Zelenyy and a dozen other Marines form up at the bottom of a flight of stairs, preparing to move up to the second floor and begin neutralising the remaining the defenders. He was about to jog on over to them up until he felt a hand grab onto his shoulder and pull him back.
”Not so fa-“ His Lieutenant said before pausing as he got a good look at the front of Nebo’s armour, a pair of of light blue eyes widening briefly before he shook his head. Following the Lieutenant’s gaze, Nebo looked down to see that most of his torso and his rifle had been caked in copious amounts of blood that was still trailing down to his legs, his boots leaving behind bloody footprints and drops of blood were falling from his knuckles. Even his visor had splatters of blood over it, partially obscured by the flashing red of his HUD trying to warn him of his dangerously low aura.
The Lieutenant sighed, his eyes focusing on Nebo’s and wilfully trying to ignore the blood. “Your aura is about to break, you just pummelled a bunch of Lunies to death, and your heart rate has gone through the fucking roof.” He stated, the Lieutenant able to see some info relating to Nebo’s vitals with a prolonged glance. “I want you to stay down here and try to recover a bit of aura. We have the Lunies backed into a corner and I don’t want you to slaughter any potential prisoners because you’ve got a fucking blood rage.”
”Yessir.” Nebo replied without hesitation, his Lieutenant maintaining his gaze before nodding and walking away.
”Keep an eye on them all, Tjur! And keep an eye out for any Lunies fleeing here from the other barracks!” His Lieutenant said to their Platoon Sergeant, who Nebo now knows is named Tjur. He’s surprised he didn’t take the chance to look at the Sergeant earlier to learn his name. But that could be credited to mere fear.
He looked back over to the window facing the courtyard and walked over to it, holding his rifle at rest. He felt numb, the fear he felt when he left the Hailstorm, the disgust he felt when he saw the melted corpses of his enemies, the hate he felt towards the Lunies, and the excitement of the adrenaline rush having faded away. A lot has happened over such a short time, it was still early morning from what he could tell by looking at the clear sky outside, quickly being polluted by smoke. The courtyard was a pleasant sight, really. It was shielded by the barracks that flanked it on all sides, the marble fountain simple yet unique in its strange Atlesian like design. It didn’t contain any of that dust iconography that is common in Foedosian sculptures and looked more like something he’d see in a public park back in Mantle. Really it was just a simple fountain. Nothing special, but it still stood out purely because of how pristine it was.
It was nice.
He turned away from the window and would begin to walk away from it, only for something fast and hard to hit the back of his head.
The last thing he saw was the carpeted floor speedily approaching his face. Everything went black after that.
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