On the planet Azguard, their first warship, the Nebulan-B 2 Yunos, was complete. Crewed, armed, and supplied, they began their first proper interstellar trip to the planet of Krakken IV, a planet in their solar system never explored, or even seen close up, due to the length of the trip and the laziness of astronomers.
The Grand High Poobah Ourvix had sent Regrad To lead Yunos on its’ first grand mission into space. People cheered and shouted and laughed as goodbyes were sent, the ships’ doors closed, and it slowly took off and moved in to space.
Regrad Marched the Halls, capitalized because of the regal and official way he did it, all straight and cleanliness and skilful determination. On the bridge the crew snapped to attention, waited until they were sure that the holos of home and comm. Messages were done, then broke out a bottle of the Azguardian equivalent of cognac and celebrated the ship’s first trip. A moment later they broke into hyperspace, shooting towards the target planet.
Fear began to drip through the crew now, because although this was an excellent ship, designed to function without difficulty, one’s first trip through hyperspace is scary to say the least. Why, the washroom line was already forming into a fair block of people.
The computer buzzed loudly, a warning that they were about to re-enter real-space. The crew shivered in fear, until finally the ship came to a full stop. The Ship floated safely above the planet’s surface. Krakken four was a very varied planet: in some places there was sand, some places there was… darker sand, some places even had sand-coloured gravel!!! In other words, a desert/barrens planet, with areas of dusty mountains.
Regrad was unsure of what to do next.
“Hmm… Lieutenant? Did we bring the shuttle?”
The shuttle was a non-combat, light-transport ship donated by the transport industry of Azguard after they heard of the mission.
“Yes sir, should we send a team down?”
“I’ll go with them sir” said the Radar officer. This would make no sense to any sensible officer, as there are very few uses for a radar officer on an alien planet, so long as his radar is a part of the ship.
“We’ll just send the team down first” Regrad said in a flat tone of voice. He was a sensible officer.
A small scouting group landed on the planet, and secured a drop point. After it was confirmed that the spot was safe, the shuttle went back to fetch more personnel from the ship. Soon a small base was set up upon the planet, and once the atmosphere and gravity were confirmed to be safe for Azguardians to breath/move/eat biscuits on, even the commander came down. High Poobah Regrad, that was what his promotion was when they chose him for this assignment, and now he got to be amongst the troops, leading, commanding, ordering, and all those fabulously simple tasks commanders do.
The 1st infantry platoon of Azguard, in their red coats stood to attention. There was some dissent amongst the men about these uniforms, as the holos revealed that anyone who went in space and wore a red uniform died for some reason or another. The first thing infantry learnt in boot camp was DO NOT, under any circumstances, volunteer for a mission along with the captain and the ships’ doctor to explore an alien world. Anyways, the first platoon, lead by Commander Regrad began to explore the planet for signs of enemy life. Before they left there was a heated debate over whether this counted as volunteering or not, but was decided to be completely safe.
The men marched and Marched and Marched, until finally, when it was almost decided they could just plant the flag, write up a legal ownership of the planet, and call it a day, a bullet, yeas a primitive chunk of metal launched at high speed by a crude metal tube, whizzed in front of one of the search parties. The soldiers were no fools, and though these were primitive in the extreme, they could really bloody hurt. When the search party returned, a quick council was called together, after holding a celebration for the firstlife encountered outside of Azguard.
“We need to find out if there is life, those were our instructions” insisted one officer. “That means that if there is shooting going on, then there must be life! We must Delve further into this planets’ mysteries!”
“This was met with a certain amount of consideration. In the end, Blast shields were handed out to the officers who made a line in front of the infantry as they all marched into the deep caves where the bullets had come from.
Figures rustled in the dark, and the group pressed forward, until they found themselves in a vast cavern-city! A huge metropolis, filled with stone halls and great buildings, everything carved into the living rock itself. The infantry looked on in stunned bewilderment at the work of alien civilization. That is, until they were shot at.
Leaping from hiding places came a race the Azguardians would come to know as the Kraz (pronounced Krauzz) a race of Grey, short, muscular people, with thick, spiky beard-hair, which Azguardians have never seen, sharp, scratching fingers for digging in the earth, and really bad tempers. Sprays of bullets slapped into the blast shields, and the troops fell back from the mountains, Blasters set to stun. Azguardians are a very understanding and forgiving people, and suspected they were being shot at out of fear of strange alien life. In the end, it took two smoke grenades and the Azguardians extending their fangs in a threatening manner to convince the Kraz to leave them alone. Returning to the base, it was decided a new plan would be needed before they could even consider trying that again.
After the retreat, Regrad took a special patrol to explore further out. It was not long before they encountered a second of these cities, but they were not repulsed this time.
People crowded around the Azguardians, gasping and talking and pointing. Soon Regrad went to speak to the city’s leader, a mister Talksa Lot.
An introduction on the part of the Azguardians was short and explanative. Aliens come from space to share miraculous discovery and bring them under a curtain of peace and enlightenment. Talksa had a short introduction as well: apparently the Kraz live in city-states across the planet, or more underneath it actually, and recently a particularily vicious state has decided that it wants a bigger slice of the flowery round pastry covered with a sugary coating. There has been a long war between the states for the past two decades, and although it is a very honourable thing the AGM is offering, they have too many internal problems as of now.
Regrad and his men stuck around for awhile, and the next day loads f his men came, celebrating on finally encountering some non-hostile life. As you might be able to tell, Azguardians celebrate a lot. But no everyone was partying, some men kept their ears open.
The next day, after hearing from his intelligence operatives, Regrad wrote a list of what they knew:
1.* * * * The planet is a desert, with large, homely, tasteful caverns
2.* * * * The people are Small humanoids, in the middle of a large war
3.* * * * There is little technology on the planet, a lot more primitive things like tunnel lizards and long sharp bits of dura-steel.
4.* * * * To resolve this matter, The aggressors should be subdued and the rival city-states should unify.
It was a sticky matter indeed. Force would be needed (No, not the floaty magical kind) or would it? He gathered his troops and spread his plan.
The next day an attack was launched against the aggressor state, but Regrad made it totally sure that his men would use non-fatal techniques, like Azguardians’ natural venom and stun guns. The enemy would have never encountered such things before, and would panic. The battle was swift, his men ran down the tunnels, fixed their blast shields in place and fired at the enemy in waves of blue stun-shots. Many fell immediately. The enemy reacted by a frontal charge.
Azguardians moved back down the tunnels, their shields protecting them from fire. Once the enemy got outside, phase two was initiated. The non-combat shuttle floated to the surface, men onboard firing really big and impressive guns over-head. The primitive Kraz had never seen such a thing and panicked. Their leader surrendered, and was met by Regrad to write up the peace treaty.
“Well, we solved everything.” Said Regrad, checking his watch “And in surprising time as well. Maybe we can all go home earl-“
He was cut off by the sounds of a charge. The sound was feral and vicious, and caused the Kraz to flee in terror. Out of their homes came vicious, armoured hounds, chittious plating and huge claws flickered in the sun.
Regrad turned to the leader of the Aggressors, Rojan Fick “What are those?” he demanded. Rojan quavered under his hard stare “The masters’ beasts”.
By now the Kraz had fled behind a wall of Azguardians, who made a wall of blast shields between the two groups. Out of the caves large humanoids, all Jaw and teeth and Huge-@$$ guns lurched forth to create a ring around their leader, a terrible apparition on black armour, a black robe flowing behind him.
“You, adventurers from the stars” said the figure, his voice dark and low. “Leave now, this war and this planets’ inhabitants do not concern you.
Heroes would, at this point, make some sort of heroic comment, then fight the guards and the evil do-er would escape. Regrad was no hero, but he was a good shot, Gun in hand, three beams of red, deadly light shot through the apparition, knocking him to the ground and tearing off an arm.
No-one knew what would have happened next, and very few guessed he would look at the holes in him, stick his arm back on, and cackle evilly.
“Fools, you have sealed these peoples’ fate!” and with that, his men returned to the deepest caverns.
Regrad watched them leave, then grabbed Rojan by the neck, and with surprising strength lifted him effortlessly from the ground and slammed him into the side of the mountain.
“I want answers, Now!” He bellowed.
Rojan was cowed in fear for alittle, and eventually spoke:
“Two Decades ago, we mined into a ship like yours, crashed deep into the planet. When we dug it up, it was discovered that there was life in there, and the original explorers had survived. Their leader” he paused to shiver as the memory of the apparition floated into view “said that if we did not do as he said, he would slaughter us. We could not abandon our families, and complied. They were to strong to fight, with weapons like yours, we had no choice.”
He shook himself free and looked up with the glint of determination in his eyes “But you have weapons, you must give them to us, we must defeat them!!!”
Regrad was unsure. He created a military council, with his captains, the heads of the city-states, and members of the aggressors who had information on the enemy. As far as they could tell, their enemy was a tall, muscular, and above all else dumb race of great warriors, bad philosophizers. Their leader was an unknown entity of immense power. Since the Kraz have stopped supporting them, they have taken over the whole city and are prepared to fight a heavy battle against all comers.
Regrad shook his head. Worst-case scenario, a heavily armed enemy in a compound with hostages, numbers and experience on their side. But, as usual, he had a plan…
He went to each of the city states, and gathered as many people as he could for the battles ahead, he had a small army of his own men, followed by a large army of Kraz, every fire-arm, sidearm, and weapon on the ship had been taken and handed out to the Kraz. Back on Azguard, a vote went through and Yunos was returned to Azguard, filled with troops and supplies again, and began doing transport jobs to the planet so as to reinforce the men there.
The forces were finally assembled, and a final attempt at peace was made. The messenger came back with a blaster bold to the chest and a broken leg.
Upon seeing this, Regrad used the ships’ PA system to shout out to the enemy: “Fine then, see you on the field of honour!” The city was evacuated, and the war begun.
Both sides scrambled to set up home bases outside the city, which it was clear the heaviest of the fighting would take place. Whoever won the city would win the war. Neither side had any artillery or tanks to speak of, but in the city were all sorts of strange vehicles to use, and the Kraz could ride their great riding lizards into battle better then humans rode horses.
Regrad was flat out against a map in the safety of the base compound, reading reports and calculating plans. It was only a matter of time before the enemy gave in, or so he hoped. The enemy kept getting supplies somehow, he did not know how. A shell from the only piece of enemy artillery hit the walls of the compound. He needed to somehow demoralize them, scare the simple enemies into giving in. It was not easy, but eventually he had an Idea, a lot like plans.
The next day, 70 Azguard troopers, 30 Kraz elite, 15 vehicles and a lot of weapons and explosive roared out from the compound and pushed through the ruined city. The huge gun fired shells towards them, but strong stone buildings were in the way. The men were inside, carefully awaiting instructions. When they were told the plan, they knew it wouldn’t be easy.
The vehicles drew closer to the one piece of artillery, until they were only 500 ft away. Then the team broke up into a group of eighty troopers and a group of twenty. The eighty continued on, and the twenty stayed, pretending to be dead and well into the cover of buildings.
The eighty troops on the vehicles drew up close to the artillery, and fired a few shots at the guards. The commander was no fool, so the two hundred and fifty odd enemy troops which popped out of cover wasn’t so surprising. Racing away, firing heavily, The main group led the enemy down the way they had came and only fifty guards remained. The twenty in hiding came out as the enemy passed and hurried towards the artillery. Fifty versus twenty would have been a slaughter of Azguards and Kraz, but the vehicles had been industrious, dropping small remote mines from a funnel in the back, disguised as small rocks and such. When the guards prepared to fire, they saw the enemy had surrendered. Feeling rather full of themselves, they swaggered up towards the enemy… only to have the Azguard captain to pull a trigger on his palm, setting off the explosives around the enemy position. By-by guard patrol. The Azguards and Kraz came up and turned off the artillery gun.
The plan said that now was the part where they smash it and get the hell outa there, but unfortunately, vengeance overcame duty, and the shelled the enemy compound with an incinetry shell.
The commander of the main group was firing into the oncoming enemies, one minute they’re exchanging blows, the next the enemy pauses, sniffs the air, and runs back fast. Not good.
“Turn these things around!” he shouted, as they tried to draw the attention of the enemy. But then he heard the second explosion.
“@#$%” he said, as the rushed through a short cut. Only that and the speed of the vehicles got them to the artillery a nose before the enemy. The ground shook violently as the third shell landed into the back of the enemy formation.
The team commander was so furious, he didn’t even shout at the attack tam, just started shooting into the enemy. They were really screwed.
The news reached Regrad, who immediately assembled his men for an extraction job. Five hundred assorted troops were brought together quickly and sent en mass Towards the battle zone. Regan in the lead this time.
Streaming ahead, half way through the battle, they were pinned down by sniper fire and an enemy blockade. Of the fifty vehicles they sent, four were separated by enemies, and were two streets back, trying to contain the situation. Regrad brought up his blaster and knocked the head off of another sniper. They were trapped like rats in some sort of trap. The gun came up again, but he saw something which made him pause. A rush. They were charging. Oh crap.
His men came up out of cover and fired into the enemy, but there were too many. Time to play his ace, he hoped it worked.
Leaping out of the air, he and all the Azguard troops dived into the enemy, fangs extended, usually thin and lith arms bulging with rage and anger. The Kraz were mighty warriors, but this terrified them. The Azguardians would jump one, ripe his arm off or something, or shoot his legs of, and then bite into their necks with their retractable fangs. But instead of sucking blood, they excreted a poison so toxic that it paralysed and killed the enemy a minute or two after biting. But numbers conquer all things, and the Azguards were going to falter sooner or later.
Through the red blood-haze, Regrad suddenly saw a blue flare shoot upwards into the sky. He knew what it meant, and let out the order to fall back. A moment later, as they leapt into their transports, a pair of shrapnel shells, one after the other, whizzed through the enemy. Though mighty, they were not prepared to be rushed by super-strong vampire 7-foot monsters, then get hit by shrapnel shells, and so they broke and fled.
Six of the remaining forty-six trucks went back to save their comrades in arms, and the rest rushed the circle of enemies holding the artillery. A bloody battle ensured. Regrad Shot one in the chest, rolled, dodged another with a bayonet, and ripped off both of his testicals with a combat knife, leaving him on the ground. Avoiding two more, gunning down a charging sergeant, and leaping over another and he had made it over the enemy and was next to the artillery. Clearly, Azguard commanders are a lot more hands-on then others.
In a fight like this, the enemy had to flee, too much to fight at once. The original plan was to smash the artillery and run, but now they tied it to the back of one of the trucks to bring it home … No-one really knew which way it was, all these blown up buildings look the same. Anyways, guns blazing they rushed thither and yon, trying to escape. Finally, the comm. Box flickered to life.
“…Bad news sir…. Ten trucks back…. Twenty left in compound four… south wall collapse…”
“Repeat?”
“Bad news sir, the ten trucks made it back, but twenty Kraz and twelve Azguards are trapped in the library. Compound four has a breach in the south wall, and the surrounding buildings have become a crisscross pf theirs and ours. It looks like their final attack, this. The numbers they’re sending, they’re greater then we thought! You’re on your own for now. Radar is jammed so I don’t know where you are. Hang in there sir”
He sighed, he hadn’t expected much. They must get back quickly and-
Ping!
A blaster bolt hit nearby, and Regrad leapt to safety. A small army had pushed into the street, splitting him and three of his trucks from the rest. Damn their dividing tactics, when he found their leader, he’d be sorry. The men took cover, and they fought their way out to escape through a side street. The rest of the troops would be alright. There was him, thirty men, and three trucks. Damn.
But a Kraz pointed to a nearby building “There! There! The library! Reinforcments!”
They rushed over to the building, where sixty of the enemy were hammering at the door. They didn’t see as his men positioned themselves, picked targets, and fired into them.
Once they were dead, the two groups joined up and moved out as a group. Now all they needed was a way out.
Oh yes, and maybe afew thousand extra men.
The Grand High Poobah Ourvix had sent Regrad To lead Yunos on its’ first grand mission into space. People cheered and shouted and laughed as goodbyes were sent, the ships’ doors closed, and it slowly took off and moved in to space.
Regrad Marched the Halls, capitalized because of the regal and official way he did it, all straight and cleanliness and skilful determination. On the bridge the crew snapped to attention, waited until they were sure that the holos of home and comm. Messages were done, then broke out a bottle of the Azguardian equivalent of cognac and celebrated the ship’s first trip. A moment later they broke into hyperspace, shooting towards the target planet.
Fear began to drip through the crew now, because although this was an excellent ship, designed to function without difficulty, one’s first trip through hyperspace is scary to say the least. Why, the washroom line was already forming into a fair block of people.
The computer buzzed loudly, a warning that they were about to re-enter real-space. The crew shivered in fear, until finally the ship came to a full stop. The Ship floated safely above the planet’s surface. Krakken four was a very varied planet: in some places there was sand, some places there was… darker sand, some places even had sand-coloured gravel!!! In other words, a desert/barrens planet, with areas of dusty mountains.
Regrad was unsure of what to do next.
“Hmm… Lieutenant? Did we bring the shuttle?”
The shuttle was a non-combat, light-transport ship donated by the transport industry of Azguard after they heard of the mission.
“Yes sir, should we send a team down?”
“I’ll go with them sir” said the Radar officer. This would make no sense to any sensible officer, as there are very few uses for a radar officer on an alien planet, so long as his radar is a part of the ship.
“We’ll just send the team down first” Regrad said in a flat tone of voice. He was a sensible officer.
A small scouting group landed on the planet, and secured a drop point. After it was confirmed that the spot was safe, the shuttle went back to fetch more personnel from the ship. Soon a small base was set up upon the planet, and once the atmosphere and gravity were confirmed to be safe for Azguardians to breath/move/eat biscuits on, even the commander came down. High Poobah Regrad, that was what his promotion was when they chose him for this assignment, and now he got to be amongst the troops, leading, commanding, ordering, and all those fabulously simple tasks commanders do.
The 1st infantry platoon of Azguard, in their red coats stood to attention. There was some dissent amongst the men about these uniforms, as the holos revealed that anyone who went in space and wore a red uniform died for some reason or another. The first thing infantry learnt in boot camp was DO NOT, under any circumstances, volunteer for a mission along with the captain and the ships’ doctor to explore an alien world. Anyways, the first platoon, lead by Commander Regrad began to explore the planet for signs of enemy life. Before they left there was a heated debate over whether this counted as volunteering or not, but was decided to be completely safe.
The men marched and Marched and Marched, until finally, when it was almost decided they could just plant the flag, write up a legal ownership of the planet, and call it a day, a bullet, yeas a primitive chunk of metal launched at high speed by a crude metal tube, whizzed in front of one of the search parties. The soldiers were no fools, and though these were primitive in the extreme, they could really bloody hurt. When the search party returned, a quick council was called together, after holding a celebration for the firstlife encountered outside of Azguard.
“We need to find out if there is life, those were our instructions” insisted one officer. “That means that if there is shooting going on, then there must be life! We must Delve further into this planets’ mysteries!”
“This was met with a certain amount of consideration. In the end, Blast shields were handed out to the officers who made a line in front of the infantry as they all marched into the deep caves where the bullets had come from.
Figures rustled in the dark, and the group pressed forward, until they found themselves in a vast cavern-city! A huge metropolis, filled with stone halls and great buildings, everything carved into the living rock itself. The infantry looked on in stunned bewilderment at the work of alien civilization. That is, until they were shot at.
Leaping from hiding places came a race the Azguardians would come to know as the Kraz (pronounced Krauzz) a race of Grey, short, muscular people, with thick, spiky beard-hair, which Azguardians have never seen, sharp, scratching fingers for digging in the earth, and really bad tempers. Sprays of bullets slapped into the blast shields, and the troops fell back from the mountains, Blasters set to stun. Azguardians are a very understanding and forgiving people, and suspected they were being shot at out of fear of strange alien life. In the end, it took two smoke grenades and the Azguardians extending their fangs in a threatening manner to convince the Kraz to leave them alone. Returning to the base, it was decided a new plan would be needed before they could even consider trying that again.
After the retreat, Regrad took a special patrol to explore further out. It was not long before they encountered a second of these cities, but they were not repulsed this time.
People crowded around the Azguardians, gasping and talking and pointing. Soon Regrad went to speak to the city’s leader, a mister Talksa Lot.
An introduction on the part of the Azguardians was short and explanative. Aliens come from space to share miraculous discovery and bring them under a curtain of peace and enlightenment. Talksa had a short introduction as well: apparently the Kraz live in city-states across the planet, or more underneath it actually, and recently a particularily vicious state has decided that it wants a bigger slice of the flowery round pastry covered with a sugary coating. There has been a long war between the states for the past two decades, and although it is a very honourable thing the AGM is offering, they have too many internal problems as of now.
Regrad and his men stuck around for awhile, and the next day loads f his men came, celebrating on finally encountering some non-hostile life. As you might be able to tell, Azguardians celebrate a lot. But no everyone was partying, some men kept their ears open.
The next day, after hearing from his intelligence operatives, Regrad wrote a list of what they knew:
1.* * * * The planet is a desert, with large, homely, tasteful caverns
2.* * * * The people are Small humanoids, in the middle of a large war
3.* * * * There is little technology on the planet, a lot more primitive things like tunnel lizards and long sharp bits of dura-steel.
4.* * * * To resolve this matter, The aggressors should be subdued and the rival city-states should unify.
It was a sticky matter indeed. Force would be needed (No, not the floaty magical kind) or would it? He gathered his troops and spread his plan.
The next day an attack was launched against the aggressor state, but Regrad made it totally sure that his men would use non-fatal techniques, like Azguardians’ natural venom and stun guns. The enemy would have never encountered such things before, and would panic. The battle was swift, his men ran down the tunnels, fixed their blast shields in place and fired at the enemy in waves of blue stun-shots. Many fell immediately. The enemy reacted by a frontal charge.
Azguardians moved back down the tunnels, their shields protecting them from fire. Once the enemy got outside, phase two was initiated. The non-combat shuttle floated to the surface, men onboard firing really big and impressive guns over-head. The primitive Kraz had never seen such a thing and panicked. Their leader surrendered, and was met by Regrad to write up the peace treaty.
“Well, we solved everything.” Said Regrad, checking his watch “And in surprising time as well. Maybe we can all go home earl-“
He was cut off by the sounds of a charge. The sound was feral and vicious, and caused the Kraz to flee in terror. Out of their homes came vicious, armoured hounds, chittious plating and huge claws flickered in the sun.
Regrad turned to the leader of the Aggressors, Rojan Fick “What are those?” he demanded. Rojan quavered under his hard stare “The masters’ beasts”.
By now the Kraz had fled behind a wall of Azguardians, who made a wall of blast shields between the two groups. Out of the caves large humanoids, all Jaw and teeth and Huge-@$$ guns lurched forth to create a ring around their leader, a terrible apparition on black armour, a black robe flowing behind him.
“You, adventurers from the stars” said the figure, his voice dark and low. “Leave now, this war and this planets’ inhabitants do not concern you.
Heroes would, at this point, make some sort of heroic comment, then fight the guards and the evil do-er would escape. Regrad was no hero, but he was a good shot, Gun in hand, three beams of red, deadly light shot through the apparition, knocking him to the ground and tearing off an arm.
No-one knew what would have happened next, and very few guessed he would look at the holes in him, stick his arm back on, and cackle evilly.
“Fools, you have sealed these peoples’ fate!” and with that, his men returned to the deepest caverns.
Regrad watched them leave, then grabbed Rojan by the neck, and with surprising strength lifted him effortlessly from the ground and slammed him into the side of the mountain.
“I want answers, Now!” He bellowed.
Rojan was cowed in fear for alittle, and eventually spoke:
“Two Decades ago, we mined into a ship like yours, crashed deep into the planet. When we dug it up, it was discovered that there was life in there, and the original explorers had survived. Their leader” he paused to shiver as the memory of the apparition floated into view “said that if we did not do as he said, he would slaughter us. We could not abandon our families, and complied. They were to strong to fight, with weapons like yours, we had no choice.”
He shook himself free and looked up with the glint of determination in his eyes “But you have weapons, you must give them to us, we must defeat them!!!”
Regrad was unsure. He created a military council, with his captains, the heads of the city-states, and members of the aggressors who had information on the enemy. As far as they could tell, their enemy was a tall, muscular, and above all else dumb race of great warriors, bad philosophizers. Their leader was an unknown entity of immense power. Since the Kraz have stopped supporting them, they have taken over the whole city and are prepared to fight a heavy battle against all comers.
Regrad shook his head. Worst-case scenario, a heavily armed enemy in a compound with hostages, numbers and experience on their side. But, as usual, he had a plan…
He went to each of the city states, and gathered as many people as he could for the battles ahead, he had a small army of his own men, followed by a large army of Kraz, every fire-arm, sidearm, and weapon on the ship had been taken and handed out to the Kraz. Back on Azguard, a vote went through and Yunos was returned to Azguard, filled with troops and supplies again, and began doing transport jobs to the planet so as to reinforce the men there.
The forces were finally assembled, and a final attempt at peace was made. The messenger came back with a blaster bold to the chest and a broken leg.
Upon seeing this, Regrad used the ships’ PA system to shout out to the enemy: “Fine then, see you on the field of honour!” The city was evacuated, and the war begun.
Both sides scrambled to set up home bases outside the city, which it was clear the heaviest of the fighting would take place. Whoever won the city would win the war. Neither side had any artillery or tanks to speak of, but in the city were all sorts of strange vehicles to use, and the Kraz could ride their great riding lizards into battle better then humans rode horses.
Regrad was flat out against a map in the safety of the base compound, reading reports and calculating plans. It was only a matter of time before the enemy gave in, or so he hoped. The enemy kept getting supplies somehow, he did not know how. A shell from the only piece of enemy artillery hit the walls of the compound. He needed to somehow demoralize them, scare the simple enemies into giving in. It was not easy, but eventually he had an Idea, a lot like plans.
The next day, 70 Azguard troopers, 30 Kraz elite, 15 vehicles and a lot of weapons and explosive roared out from the compound and pushed through the ruined city. The huge gun fired shells towards them, but strong stone buildings were in the way. The men were inside, carefully awaiting instructions. When they were told the plan, they knew it wouldn’t be easy.
The vehicles drew closer to the one piece of artillery, until they were only 500 ft away. Then the team broke up into a group of eighty troopers and a group of twenty. The eighty continued on, and the twenty stayed, pretending to be dead and well into the cover of buildings.
The eighty troops on the vehicles drew up close to the artillery, and fired a few shots at the guards. The commander was no fool, so the two hundred and fifty odd enemy troops which popped out of cover wasn’t so surprising. Racing away, firing heavily, The main group led the enemy down the way they had came and only fifty guards remained. The twenty in hiding came out as the enemy passed and hurried towards the artillery. Fifty versus twenty would have been a slaughter of Azguards and Kraz, but the vehicles had been industrious, dropping small remote mines from a funnel in the back, disguised as small rocks and such. When the guards prepared to fire, they saw the enemy had surrendered. Feeling rather full of themselves, they swaggered up towards the enemy… only to have the Azguard captain to pull a trigger on his palm, setting off the explosives around the enemy position. By-by guard patrol. The Azguards and Kraz came up and turned off the artillery gun.
The plan said that now was the part where they smash it and get the hell outa there, but unfortunately, vengeance overcame duty, and the shelled the enemy compound with an incinetry shell.
The commander of the main group was firing into the oncoming enemies, one minute they’re exchanging blows, the next the enemy pauses, sniffs the air, and runs back fast. Not good.
“Turn these things around!” he shouted, as they tried to draw the attention of the enemy. But then he heard the second explosion.
“@#$%” he said, as the rushed through a short cut. Only that and the speed of the vehicles got them to the artillery a nose before the enemy. The ground shook violently as the third shell landed into the back of the enemy formation.
The team commander was so furious, he didn’t even shout at the attack tam, just started shooting into the enemy. They were really screwed.
The news reached Regrad, who immediately assembled his men for an extraction job. Five hundred assorted troops were brought together quickly and sent en mass Towards the battle zone. Regan in the lead this time.
Streaming ahead, half way through the battle, they were pinned down by sniper fire and an enemy blockade. Of the fifty vehicles they sent, four were separated by enemies, and were two streets back, trying to contain the situation. Regrad brought up his blaster and knocked the head off of another sniper. They were trapped like rats in some sort of trap. The gun came up again, but he saw something which made him pause. A rush. They were charging. Oh crap.
His men came up out of cover and fired into the enemy, but there were too many. Time to play his ace, he hoped it worked.
Leaping out of the air, he and all the Azguard troops dived into the enemy, fangs extended, usually thin and lith arms bulging with rage and anger. The Kraz were mighty warriors, but this terrified them. The Azguardians would jump one, ripe his arm off or something, or shoot his legs of, and then bite into their necks with their retractable fangs. But instead of sucking blood, they excreted a poison so toxic that it paralysed and killed the enemy a minute or two after biting. But numbers conquer all things, and the Azguards were going to falter sooner or later.
Through the red blood-haze, Regrad suddenly saw a blue flare shoot upwards into the sky. He knew what it meant, and let out the order to fall back. A moment later, as they leapt into their transports, a pair of shrapnel shells, one after the other, whizzed through the enemy. Though mighty, they were not prepared to be rushed by super-strong vampire 7-foot monsters, then get hit by shrapnel shells, and so they broke and fled.
Six of the remaining forty-six trucks went back to save their comrades in arms, and the rest rushed the circle of enemies holding the artillery. A bloody battle ensured. Regrad Shot one in the chest, rolled, dodged another with a bayonet, and ripped off both of his testicals with a combat knife, leaving him on the ground. Avoiding two more, gunning down a charging sergeant, and leaping over another and he had made it over the enemy and was next to the artillery. Clearly, Azguard commanders are a lot more hands-on then others.
In a fight like this, the enemy had to flee, too much to fight at once. The original plan was to smash the artillery and run, but now they tied it to the back of one of the trucks to bring it home … No-one really knew which way it was, all these blown up buildings look the same. Anyways, guns blazing they rushed thither and yon, trying to escape. Finally, the comm. Box flickered to life.
“…Bad news sir…. Ten trucks back…. Twenty left in compound four… south wall collapse…”
“Repeat?”
“Bad news sir, the ten trucks made it back, but twenty Kraz and twelve Azguards are trapped in the library. Compound four has a breach in the south wall, and the surrounding buildings have become a crisscross pf theirs and ours. It looks like their final attack, this. The numbers they’re sending, they’re greater then we thought! You’re on your own for now. Radar is jammed so I don’t know where you are. Hang in there sir”
He sighed, he hadn’t expected much. They must get back quickly and-
Ping!
A blaster bolt hit nearby, and Regrad leapt to safety. A small army had pushed into the street, splitting him and three of his trucks from the rest. Damn their dividing tactics, when he found their leader, he’d be sorry. The men took cover, and they fought their way out to escape through a side street. The rest of the troops would be alright. There was him, thirty men, and three trucks. Damn.
But a Kraz pointed to a nearby building “There! There! The library! Reinforcments!”
They rushed over to the building, where sixty of the enemy were hammering at the door. They didn’t see as his men positioned themselves, picked targets, and fired into them.
Once they were dead, the two groups joined up and moved out as a group. Now all they needed was a way out.
Oh yes, and maybe afew thousand extra men.