Mercer ran for dear life as red hot debris rained from the sky, destroying everything its path. Smaller balls of debris fell all around him and punched through the street and about everything else in their path. He desperately tried to activate his PAK’s shielding system to no avail; the escape from the ship must have damaged his PAK internally preventing some of the systems from activating. Suddenly a larger piece of debris smashed into the building in front of him. The building exploded, the shock wave sent Mercer flying straight through the window of an old pet shop. He felt white hot pain as glass shards cut his back open and stabbed into his back, his landing serving to only worsen the pain. He screamed in pain as his PAK began to administer pain killers and artificial coagulants into his blood stream.

Now rather numb, he picked himself up and looked around; the rotted forms of animals littered the store’s cages. He felt sick for a moment as debris started to punch through store front and Mercer began to look around for something to use as cover, he quickly spotted a cellar door and rushed inside. His eye implants already began to adjust his vision to the darkness. He leapt under the stairwell as debris began to demolish the store. A foul stench was heavy in the air. He looked around the room, plastic water bottles were lined up against one wall, some of them partially melted and fungus infested, and several stacks of MRE’s was stacked next to it, also burnt and partially melted. Next to all that was the source of the smell, by a table and some sleeping bags were three dead bodies. Two adults and one child, they were Irken and partially rotted but the signs of plasma burns were clear. A family murdered by the machines. Mercer felt like he was going to vomit.

A tremor struck the building and the ceiling of the basement collapsed. Wood and wiring rained from the ceiling as well as flaming debris from space. The stair way then collapsed and Mercer was trapped in the darkness. Trapped in the darkness with three rotting bodies, Mercer whimpered again in fear. He did not like army life at all.

-----

The rain of fiery space junk was strangely beautiful as it was awe inspiring. Sev sat on the waist high ledge of a half demolished apartment building, a blasted droid slumped over the ledge next to him. His energy shield was on full strength and surrounded him a like a yellow bubble. He watched the shower of debris with interest and awe one would normally have during a fireworks display. “If only I had a camera…” he mused. Sev was not afraid of the massive display of fire and death, he was an adrenaline junky and often did things most sane people probably wouldn’t do like sitting in front of a massive meteor shower without a care if he got hit or not, of course that didn’t mean he wanted to die or anything.

A junk meteor suddenly slammed and exploded a building near the block he was in. “Uh oh, shower’s getting closer.” A burning sound alerted Sev to a junk projectile heading his way; he stared at it for a moment, “Yep, definitely getting closer!” Sev quickly dashed to the opposite end of the roof top as the space junk collided with the building. The upper half of the building was separated from its lower and toppled over with Sev deploying his spider legs and leaping onto an adjacent building before jumping off again and landing on the ground. The building smashed into the ground after him and while it or any of its debris failed to hit him the shockwave and wall of dust threw him from his spider legs. He rolled and tumbled for about twenty seconds before suddenly stopping against a fence.

Sev lied their stunned and dazed for about a minute. He groaned before picking himself up from the ground with a fresh grill pattern printed into his face. Sev rubbed his face and looked for cover, small chucks of debris both from the building and from space impacting with his reactivated shield, he spotted a manhole cover nearby roadie ran to it, dodging orbital wreckage as he did. He speared the manhole cover with a spider leg and quickly jumped inside. He landed knee deep in water in a rather spacious sewer. His eyes adapted to the darkness quickly and he began to move run as space trash started punching through the street. Lizard-like vermin and cockroaches scattered as he sprinted down the sewer lines with little to no idea where he was going, except to somewhere space debris wasn’t going through like wet tissue paper. True his PAK shield would block most of it, it wouldn’t do so for long, the few times debris did hit his shield directly drained its integrity drastically.

That’s when a large chunk of wreckage crashed through sewer ceiling. It smashed directly into Sev’s shield, blowing its battery entirely and shocking Sev badly in the water. Sev groaned again and awoke about ten minutes later. He violently spat the soiled liquid from his mouth and brushed his tongue with his hands.

Fortunately for Sev, the water of Palcriss 4 was already treated with chemical so that it didn’t burn Irken skin. Sev suddenly remembered about the junk shower and looked up through the hole in the sewer. The sky was relatively clear; there was rain but none of the fiery from orbit variety. Using his spider legs, Sev climbed up from the whole and found himself in a different section of the city, a large red apartment building was to his left; he looked in front of him and spotted the metallic corpse of a very large droid. He let out an impressed whistle, whoever took that thing down must have been really badass. He looked behind himself to see an escape pod, “Whoo, another pod to loot.”

Sev walked towards the pod, he could see the rain of junk starting to thin in the area and increase in the distance, and he took a gander inside. Like his, this pods occupants were dead and already looted. Apparently someone else followed his ideals. Sev suddenly heard a whistle and looked out the pod to spot several fellow Irkens waving at him. “Ha, ha! Good to see I’m not the lone survivor here!” Though it would have been more badass a story if it were he thought.

“Come on man get up here, the Major’s here to!” the Irken said from the window sill. Sev kicked open the front door and made it up the stairs double time he was a bit lonely and eager for company, not that he would actually say that out loud. He came through the door and spotted the little squad of soldiers. They were all happy to see a fellow survivor and welcomed him with open arms, except Major Karen who smiled by a window. Sev recognized few of them; there was Lerid who was a bit of joker with yellow eyes and normal antennae, he and Sev used to hang out in basic and of course the Major. The other three, he’d seen from time to time but never actually met. One was a petite female with cyan eyes and curved antennae, apparently she was a medic judging by the uniform; the next one was tall and looked old, about forty, with green eyes and one missing antennae; and then there was the last one, he had red nervous eyes and he seemed to twitch from time to time with pick axe like antennae like Sev himself except without the bend near their roots. Sev didn’t know most of these people but still, it was good to be with people; again he would never admit that aloud.

-----

The pile of splintered wood and exposed plumbing that once was a pet store rumbled slightly. The debris shifted again before a small section of the pile exploded. From the dust, Mercer appeared with his spider legs spearing the ground around him and crawled from the rubble. Mercer had been down there a good thirty minutes before he realized his spider legs had lasers in them, he literally slapped himself for not remembering sooner. Anyway he was glad to be out of that horrible place and above ground with the rain pelting his face. Rain! Mercer quickly looked up to see the sky clear of fire, but he could still see it in the distance, bombarding the space port relentlessly. ‘Where’s all this stuff coming from? The Major never said a thing about this place having meteor showers?’ Mercer thought worriedly, ever since they got here it’s been nothing’s gone right.

Mercer decided to try to find some of the other survivors, perhaps he could find a medic among them? He touched the glass shards embedded in his back warily, should he take them out or leave them in? He’d rather a medic decides, and with that he started walking down the street, breathing heavily as he did.  Mercer passed by a large chunk of debris embedded in a building and did a double take. The debris was blackened by reentry but he could out something written in it in large once white letters ‘HMS Dom-’. One of their escort ships was named the ‘Dominion’, this wasn’t any old space rock, this was what’s left of their fleet! Strange, the planets gravity didn’t feel that strong and the fleet was in orbit when it happened so they shouldn’t have just fallen for any reason. Mercer looked up to the sky, were the Machines using it as a form artillery to kill the survivors? No, that’s to low tech for them so what else to could pull scrap from orbit? Mercer pushed the thought aside; he had better things to do then wonder why stuff fell from the sky.

Mercer continued on past the ship wreckage. He continued on for ten minutes before he found himself in a rather familiar area. The goliaths body, the escape pod, he was back where he started! “You got to be kidding me, I have been walking around in a circle this whole time!?” Mercer winced in pain, his PAK’s pain killers were warring off, his PAK in response, injected more pain killers into Mercer’s system. The pain cleared and he could think again, that’s when he suddenly heard a voice.

“Hey Mercer is that you? Get your bum up here!” a red eyed Irken yelled from a nearby building.

“Sev?”
This was good, other people survived! Mercer hardly knew a thing about Sev, the guy just started hanging out with him for no reason, but he could care less right now. He started to make way towards the building as fast as he could, then he slowed when he remembered he was injured, he didn’t want to worsen already bad injuries. He went upped the stairs and walked into the room, everyone in there seemed to have already of gotten comfortable, Major Karen was scanning the air waves for contact signals another female seemed to assisting her, Sev and two other Irkens were playing cards, and last guy stood near a window and kept glancing nervously outside. The room itself was rather large; apparently it was suite of some kind.

“Hey Merc- holy crap man you like shit!” Sev quite promptly announced, dropping the arm he raised in greeting. All eyes were drawn to Mercer, five of sudden concern and one of suspicion, something was wrong with that guy by the window. The girl next to the Major immediately rushed forward and next to Mercer, checking him for any other wounds. She gasped when she saw all the glass sticking from Mercer back. “What happened to you!?” she asked as she pulled a first aid kit from her PAK. “Ugh, blown threw a window, had building collapse on me, uh… lots a bruising not sure if there’s much else.” Mercer answered, slightly high from all the pain killers his PAK was pumping into him. The medic led him to a corner of the room where a large old bed lay.

She laid Mercer onto the bed and asked him to take his shirt off to which he complied before she started plucking the glass and other things impaling his skin from him with a pair tweezers before spreading an anti-bacterial solution on the wound and then bandaging it. As time went on, everyone started to lose interest and had gone back to what they were doing before. Twenty minutes passed before the medic had finished patching Mercer up the best she could. “This is all I can do for now I’m afraid, it should hold until I can get more to work with than just a medical kit.” She said as she closed the kit.

“Well ok, thanks, Ms?”

“Meil, my name is Meil.”

“Well thanks Meil, I’m Mercer.” Said Mercer as he outstretched a hand to which she shook.

“It’s nice that Mercer’s all patched up now but I got question,” Sev said before continuing, “Has anyone seen those Skarath dudes yet ‘cause I haven’t?” A chorus of ‘no’ and ‘not yet’ filled the room.

“Well, actually I think saw something that may have belonged to them.” Mercer announced.

“Really? What was it?” asked the yellow eyed Irken by Sev.

“It was some kind of animal, I don’t know, it was really big and killed that big ass droid outside.”

“Wow, how’d you know it belonged to them?”

“It had some chains and manacles around its limbs and this big collar around its neck, it also had all this junk strapped to it like weird tribal markings on its skin and machine parts hangin’ off it like trophies.”

“Hey I got something!” cried the Major as she stood up, a small radar like dish was poking out of her PAK and rotating around. Everyone crowded around her except Mercer who listened from the bed.  

” Is anyone out there? This is Sgt. Brax, is anyone out there? Over.”

“Sgt Brax, this is Major Karen where is your position? Over?”

“Major? It’s good to hear from you, me and about forty other survivors are gathered around in the Space Port, were taking cover in an old storage bunker from this fecking barrage. Over.”

“Do you need any assistance Seragent? Over.”

“All we can get Major, all we can get, there’s a freakin’ army of future scrap hanging out here and while this meteor shower is destructive as hell, it only took out about half of them, and as of now, I think their converging on our position so the more the merrier! Over.”

“All right Sergeant, were going to move to your position, over and out!”

“Thanks Major, over and out!”

“All right everyone, prepare to move out!” to Major ordered, everyone promptly went to it as she walked over to Mercer. “Can you walk?” She asked, Mercer nodded and got out of bed, putting on his armor as he did. The junk shower in the distance had thinned into nothing, giving them a clear window to move.

“All right soldiers, let’s move!”

-----

The environment was fuzzy but quickly started to clear up as adrenaline coerced unsteadily through his limbs. Concrete rained from the ceiling almost constantly, the lights were flickering all over the place as Leiros sat up. The Skarath around him were all armed, ready for battle, for the gut wrenching carnage to come. Leiros spotted his crozius/spear next to him and picked it up, using it to steady himself as he stood up. A nearby witchdoctor came over to him and tried to ease him back onto the ground. Leiros promptly pushed him away with a snarl; he winced in pain before grabbing the witchdoctor’s painkillers and injecting its contents into his arm. The witchdoctor didn’t dare object to this action, in Skarath society anyone who worked for the Temple or was associated with it outranked and controlled everyone else, which basically meant Leiros and his acolytes could easily boss Sevurak around if they wanted to, they just followed his orders out of respect and the fact that he knew more about strategy then they did, also because the Temple frowned upon such behavior.

Leiros used his crozius much like a cane as he walked near the entrance of the storage container he was in; he passed Zane before doing a double take. He turned towards Zane who was for some reason strapped to a girder. He looked most unhappy there, probably because he couldn’t move. Zane’s face was that of envy and lethargy, despite Leiros having greater injuries than Zane, the witchdoctors allowed him to walk around and such; true, Leiros being a priest meant he got better treatment and more privileges and Skarath could regenerate something fierce, a fracture was nothing even one of severity that Zane had it was still nothing, that burn/cut across his chest was. Skarath had greater difficult healing burns then they did fractures or limb loss.

Either way, Zane wasn’t talking and was probably sedated and Leiros had better things to do at the moment then worry over his brother. Leiros walked further towards the containers entrance, many of the Skarath he passed bowing their heads in respect. Leiros simply ignored them as he stopped by one. “Suvat kier thus mei?”

“Jien beith miin kyos, bue shinni mekt.” The Skarath answered.

“Dei.” Leiros said in thanks, now he knew he’d had to move with the troops when the counter-attack began. He would have preferred to stay here and rest but his moral support and leadership may be necessary in the battle to come. He looked to the belt of painkillers in his hand; he’d go through all of them if he had to if it meant surviving the next battle and ensuring victory. The concrete suddenly stopped raining from the ceiling, a cry of assembly was heard and all the Skarath within the structure immediately began moving out with Leiros slowly making his way too. He will endure this battle. He will ensure that he will survive. He will ensure they will win this one.

-----

“Do we even know what these guys even look like?”

“Lerid, shut it. We’ll know ‘em when we see ‘em, aside from us and what’s left of the wildlife, they’re probably to only other living things here.”

“Can it, both of you!”

“Yes ma’am!”

The entire squad had been moving towards the space ports for twenty minutes now, stopping occasionally for Mercer’s sake. The ground was uneven and cracked, reduced to ash land and debris by the shower of wreckage. It was at this point that they started get an idea of what these Skarath were like; they had spotted things that may have likely belonged to them in the waste; like torn clothing, abandoned swords and other melee weapons, guns, as well as strange, exotic weaponry and by now the fact that they were insectoid judging by the carapace clad severed limb they had found earlier. The electric buzz of lasers and plasma fire as well as the blasts of grenade detonations could be heard in the distance. The squad, even Mercer, started to double their pace.

They rounded a corner and came face to face with a large pile of debris which the promptly climbed, Meil assisting Mercer as they went up. As they reached the top they could see the remnants of the 475th fighting for dear life against a large tide of machines. They were all fighting like men possessed behind a dome shield and a makeshift barricade, turning any droid that got close into partially melted slag and using any anti-armor weapon they had against the tanks that occasionally moved in. Supporting the survivors were three hover tanks, how those got off the carrier, none of them were sure. It was as a heroic an end it could, they’d probably be given a mention in history for this last stand, and Karen and her squad would join it! They started to make way down the slope when a bloody roar filled the air. Both the machines and the brave soldiers’ of the U.I.I turned towards a site more appropriate in some movie set in medieval day.

Appearing over the crest of a scarred and battered slope was a massive horde of insectoid warriors. Banners of strange symbols and runes as well as the tips of pikes and spears could be seen above them, at the head of the horde was a hammer wielding giant who let out a mighty battle cry as the bug men behind it began to cheer and whoop before charging the down the hill of debris and ash as flying beast flew over head and strange creatures charged from the flanks, all of them barreling down the hill towards the machines. Even as plasma fire began to fell them and explosions made it rain limbs and ash, they continued onwards, blood lust apparent in their fury. A horde of frenzied insect monsters, yelling unintelligible obscenities and curses and Irk knows what else over all the noise, firing their guns wildly into the air, like a moving gray carpet that had learned foul language and the how to fire a gun. The survivors didn’t know what to be more afraid of, their supposed friendlies or the machines and began to slowly back away under their shield.

“Well, now we know what they look like.” Sev deadpanned in pure shock.