The Icarian Legacy Collected Edition: Brave Souls - First Strike (Volume 3)

by Kocho Trajchevski

  Kal el Miur looked at the door from which the enemy soldiers opened fire and started coming inside the chamber. Or more accurate would be to say that he looked at where he thought that the door was located. He couldn’t see anything through the white smoke that clouded the room. And as the smoke blocked his view dozen grenades exploded among the front ranks of legionaries and tore them apart. More than twenty legionaries died in the explosions. The rest of his unit opened up with their plasma and laser guns. And the first humans started dying as well.

  Jackson noticed as one of the marines was hit by the enemies’ fire. The plasma weapon burned right through his Kevlar vest and through his chest. The marine didn’t even utter a scream. His smoking body just fell down. There was no blood flowing from the wound as the heat from the plasma cauterized it instantly.

  He lowered his head and ran in the room. Several marines were down. But he could also see that a lot of the aliens lay dead as well. He took aim and opened fire. A large alien screamed as his rounds tore through his body.

  Kal el Miur looked at the rest of his men. More than half lay dead or dying on the floor. More than a dozen humans were dead or wounded as well. But his loses were much more severe. As he looked a new group of human soldiers entered the room and from the opposite side a squad of legionaries entered the chamber as well.

  As they moved in several humans opened up and threw grenades at them. The human weapons tore through the legionary’s armor like through paper. The armor was made to deflect plasma and laser weapons. But it was expected to be able to deflect even the projectile weapons that the humans were using. At least that was what they were told. But it was obvious that the humans were more advanced than they thought. They were clearly using some kind of armor piercing ammunition that had no trouble of penetrating the Legiona armor that he and all the soldiers of the empire were wearing.

  “May the gods give strength and protect our brothers when they fight them... ”

  He turned toward the soldiers that were trying to trigger the missiles to explode. He knew that they have to give them time. He looked at the rest of his man.

  “Maul, call the rest of the soldiers and tell them to move towards this room. We must hold the humans here and give time to the ship’s crew to trigger the missiles to explode.”

  “It will be as you order my lord.”

  The younger centurion spoke in to his com link.

  From the rest of the deck more than four hundred legionaries started moving towards the most important room on the ship.

  The rest of the human soldiers moved towards it as well.

  Stevens looked at Zip. The seal was talking in the radio.

  “Sir the marines located the enemy and engaged them. The SAS teams and Lt. Atkins and Lt. Ellis teams also confronted the aliens. The marines report that they have casualties and are requesting reinforcements. They are saying that the aliens are manually trying to trigger an explosion and destroy the ship. The SF teams are reporting no casualties so far. In total thirty five aliens eliminated.”

  Stevens thought for just a second.

  “Tell Atkins and Ellis to keep searching this part of the ship. Call the others and tell them to head directly in that chamber. Tell the marines that we will try to hit them in the back.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Without a thought all SF teams except the two on the top decks headed towards the arms chamber.

  Jackson looked at the remaining marines. Of the sixty men he had only twenty were combat effective. The rest were either dead or wounded. And it seemed that there was no end to the alien reinforcements that kept on streaming in to the room from the doors on the other side. As he was planning to withdraw the rest of the marines started flowing in the room from behind him.

  Kal el Miur looked at the dead centurion that fell right next to him. He tried to rush and swarm the human’s positions but as his legionaries rushed they were cut down by the humans. He had to give them credit they were fighting like beasts. He remembered the human slaves from the arena, and from the rebellions. He knew that these soldiers possessed the same inner strength but they were also much more lethal than the ones that were part of the empire. It was obvious that they are excellently trained soldiers.

  He knew that he was going to die. Several soldiers replaced the dead technicians and were now working at the missiles. They were almost there. As he turned to see the rest of the incoming legionaries he heard explosions behind them and then a huge wall of fire erupted behind his lines. It was obvious that the humans surrounded his forces.

  Stevens looked at the room below him from the glass. The marine’s obviously had the same idea as him and he could see that they had the aliens surrounded. The SAS teams were with them down there. He looked at the twenty men he had remaining. He lost four men while coming here as they were met by several alien groups.

  “Okay let’s finish this. Take positions on the balcony and open fire on the bastards. Zip, Halo, Ax, Rabbit take out the workers first then engage the rest.”

  Four of the seals stepped forward. They were the snipers of the units. As they moved to the sides the rest of the SF forces spread out on the balcony. On his mark they opened up.

  Kal el looked with surprise as the seven soldiers working on the bombs fell dead on the floor. Before he could notice from where the shots came they started coming from all sides. Human soldiers came from all doors. He knew that the battle was lost. And so did the rest of his men.

  The floor was black from the blood of the legionaries. Several hundred lay dead all over the room. The balconies were filled with dead legionaries and now humans were standing on the top balcony and firing down.

  The rest of the legionaries, about hundred and fifty of them looked at their leader. And he looked at them.

  “In the emperor’s glory we die.”

  He yelled from the top of his lungs.

  On those words all the legionaries stood up from cover and rushed the human positions. They were met with a storm of fire. More than half didn’t even manage to make few steps before they were cut down. As their ranks thinned the marines stood up and started advancing to meet them head on.

  Kal el never saw the human that killed him. A sniper shot from a fifty caliber round nearly took his head away.

  Not even a whole minute passed from his yell and the firing stopped.

  The marines and the SF teams looked at the carnage before their eyes. Hundreds of alien bodies laying literally on top one another filled the room. Their black blood covered the floor.

  Stevens looked at the carnage and nodded to the marine major.

  The major saluted.

  “There might still be some of them throughout the ship. We will check the upper floors, while your men check the lower levels. The rest can guard this room.”

  The major didn’t say anything he just gestured to his men and three platoons continued toward the back of the ship. The SF teams left as well.

  Jackson looked at his own men. In total thirty five marines were dead and additional forty three were wounded. Considering the death toll that the aliens paid it didn’t look like much but it was a hard toil. He knew that some of the wounded won’t make it. But the ship was theirs. And that was the important thing.

  He looked at the dead aliens. It was clearly that they were reptilians. He noticed the black armor.

  “I wonder…”-he mumbled.

  He knelt down and picked up one of the rifles that the aliens were using. It took him a minute to find the trigger. Then he aimed and fired at one of the bodies. He wasn’t surprised when the shot didn’t penetrate.

  “So that is why they looked so surprised when they started dying.”

  The comment came from the young lieutenant that he spoke previously.

  “Yes Cole. Their armor is made to deflect advanced weaponry. If we used lasers and plasma weapons like them the casualties would have been much higher. They didn’t expect to meet us with our armor piercing ammunition.”

  �
��Well beg my pardon sir but it seems that we primitives kicked their alien but.”

  The major smiled at those words and so did the rest of the marines.

  “It seems so doesn’t it? It seems so.”

  “Semper Fi, Major. Semper Fi.”

  The marine’s motto brought another smile on the faces of the marines.

  Half an hour later the last Dacarians on the ship were dead. Not one of them surrendered.

  “Sir Colonel Stevens reports that the alien vessel is secured. All resistance is eliminated. The aliens fought till the end. They don’t have prisoners. He further reports that they are of reptilian origin and that light weight ammunition can’t penetrate their armor. Armor piercing ammunition should be used against them.”

  “Colonel Ivory reports that the marine detachment suffered fifty two casualties and forty nine wounded. The SF teams lost six, four among the Seals and two the SAS.”

  The admiral just nodded with his head and turned his gaze toward the alien ship. It was clearly damaged but he knew that the technology that that ship held would advance mankind beyond its wildest dreams. But he also knew that this is only the beginning and he feared from what was coming next.

  “Do we have any contact from our birds about the last ship?”

  “Yes sir. The ship crushed in southwest Macedonia. Teams from our base in Kosovo are headed there as well as units from the Macedonian and the Greek army. They should be on site in about fifteen minutes.”

  The planes are staying in the area to provide cover in case it is needed.

  The admiral looked at the young officer.

  “Inform the teams going after the crushed ship about the enemy. Relay everything colonel Stevens told you.”

  “Yes sir.”

  As the officer went to his station to relay the information, the Admiral turned his gaze toward the deployed fleet. Dozens of rescue ships traversed the waters between the ships picking up survivors… and the dead. He still didn’t have the exact number of casualties but he was sure that it was going to be in the thousands. He knew that other US and NATO battleships were headed this way and he was sure that soon ships from the Russian Black Sea fleet will join them. He knew that the world started to change before his eyes.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Fillip looked at the beautiful landscape that stretched in front of his eyes. Although the summer was officially coming to its end you could still feel the summer heat. The green forest that surrounded him gave him peace. After the long years of service and the tours he did in Asia with the Macedonian contingents this was his first real break. He smiled. Twenty seven years old and he already had enough experience to last him a lifetime. He had two more weeks before reporting back and he planned to use them well. This trip to the mountain brought him back some good memories of his childhood and the trips he and his friends made almost every day. As he surveyed the landscape he heard a distant sound of jets and something that sounded different. He heard the sonic boom long before he could actually see them. The planes didn’t surprise him. They were an almost every day experience here. But what was surprising was the different sound that accompanied them.

  He could feel the hair on his body starting to rise and his trained instincts warning him. He looked to the place from where he guessed the sounds were coming.

  He heard a strong explosion in the sky to the south as the large black object broke through the lower atmosphere. The object was burning and plummeting at an incredible speed toward the ground. At first it looked as if it was falling right at him but his experienced eye quickly concluded that it was going to fall at least a mile further up the mountain. And from the speed with which it was falling he knew that the shockwave will be big. As he watched he saw four US F-18 flying behind it. They immediately opened fire at it. He noticed that they had no rockets left. They looked tiny compared to the large object. He couldn’t exactly see how big the object was but it looked that it was at least thirteen hundred feet. As he watched the object pass over him at an incredible speed and as the shockwave hit him he fell on the ground. He was expecting it so he was prepared. Just seconds later he felt the tremor as the object hit the side of the mountain. He stood up and without thinking he took out in the direction of the fall.

  He noticed that the jets didn’t leave and that instead they were patrolling the area at wide arcs. He knew that there might be danger ahead but as his training took over he felt no fear. He looked at his knapsack. He took out the soldier knife he was carrying and the gun. It was a force of habit to carry these two items and today it looked like it was the right call. He placed them on the belt around his waist and continued running. He looked at the watch. He knew that he didn’t have much time till nightfall so he picked up his pace.

  Several miles ahead the dacarian frigate cleared a way through the trees as it impacted. The hit was strong enough to break the ship in two parts and created a crater of almost a square mile. Dozen bodies lay all over it. Huge holes on the hull of both parts showed where the missiles and the rounds hit the ship. Fires burned in the rear part where the engines used to be. Huge smoke clouds were rising above the ship and showed clearly the location of the crash.

  In the air you could feel the smell of burning flesh.

  Two legionaries dragged Ristarion form the bridge. One of them took his helmet of and put an injection in his neck. As the injected medicines entered his bloodstream and increased its flow he woke up and tried to stand. As he did he felt a strong pain on the left side of his body and in his chest.

  He turned his head and noticed that a piece of metal was protruding from the left side of his stomach. It was obvious that he lost a lot of blood and that he had internal injuries. One of the legionaries looked at him with a questioning look.

  He just nodded.

  “Pull it out.”

  As the legionary took hold of the piece he clenched his teeth. When the legionary pulled the piece out he felt a strong pain that almost made him faint. Blood started flowing from the wound. The legionary took a suppressant and injected it in the wound. After that he injected him with healing plasma. As he did the pain subsided and the blood flow stopped. As he was doing that Ristarion touched his own chest. He could feel where his ribs where broken, and where they pierced his lungs. He knew that he was dying.

  “Help me stand up.”

  “You shouldn’t move.”

  Ristarion looked at the legionary. It was Huron. The young legionary was his friend since the day he joined the imperial legions. He was from his own clan and came with him as his protector. He knew that he can allow himself a little indiscretion. The other legionary knew that as well and showed no surprise. To the surprise of both soldiers Ristarion smiled.

  “You both know as well as me that my wounds are too severe. I have internal bleeding and lost too much blood. I’m not afraid to die but I will choose the way i depart this life. And I won’t die here. Now help me get up.”

  Both legionaries took hold of his arms and raised him up. As they did the pain came back and he cried out. They didn’t say a word. He looked at the bridge. It was a mess. The bodies of the crew were thrown on all sides. He was the only one alive. The consoles were all broken and several fires were burning. He could see that the deck above the bridge was collapsed and pieces of the hull were protruding to the lower decks.

  They left the bridge slowly. As they did he noticed that several legionaries were waiting for them. All the survivors were from his personal guard. When they saw him they saluted and then went ahead and exited the bridge. One of them dragged the two Sicarian slaves outside. The tall blue creatures tried to resist but he could see that they were both heavily injured. They had large gashes on their bodies and one of them was holding the other trying to help him move. As he did that their eyes met. He knew their names well. They were called Arnos and Agnail. They were warriors Mran managed to capture in the last battle before this mission. He placed them in his custody for the time being of the mission and because he didn’t
want them contacting the humans.

  “Probably the only smart thing he ever did.”

  He turned to Huron.

  “When we get out you must kill them both. But give them a warrior’s death. They deserve that. And then you will give me my death.”

  The legionary looked at him and just nodded. His eyes showed that he didn’t like his decision but that he was aware that it was the right one.

  “Don’t worry my friend we will meet again in the afterlife.”

  “Yes Rista.”

  Ristarion smiled when he heard that name. It was the name only his father and his closest friends used.

  “You must bring my medallion to my father Huron. Promise me that and tell him that I died with honor.”

  The legionary turned to him.

  “You know that I will do that. Have peace”.

  After that they stopped talking. He surveyed the corridors. The ship was a mess. The decks were broken and pieces of the hull frame were visible on all sides. And as he noticed the light he noticed that the hull was split in two from the crash. When they came out he noticed the blue sky. It reminded him of his home. The legionaries sat him on one large stone that lay just outside. He noticed that the others were coming out from the other parts of the ship. He counted them. Together with him only eleven survived. Only eleven, eleven from a crew that numbered six hundred and fifty.

  “May the gods grant you a safe passage and may you find better in the afterlife, all of you...”

  As he said the prayer he noticed the praetorian approaching him.

  “Are there any more survivors?”

  “No my lord, we are all that’s left. The explosions, the tumble and the crash killed most of them although some were killed by the shrapnel’s that those human fighters fired at as before we crashed.”