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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3484402" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 452: Of FireThe skies of Gyndine were in chaos, but it was the ground that had Rulae’s attention for the moment. He’d managed to contact a nearby group of New Republic troops who were holding off a Vong landing party. Rulae had found them by accident, and before he knew it was commanding them...finding that their commanding officer had been taking down before he’d arrived and they were just standing around firing wildly. He may have been a pilot, but he did know at least a bit when it came to ground tactics.    “Tell me you have some charges,” Rulae snapped to the nearest of the ten troopers while he held behind the cover as he jammed a new power pack into his blaster pistol.    The trooper ducked down behind a pair of heavy crates he was using for cover as two loud thuds hit it...thud bugs, the Vong equivalent of blasters but simply thrown little bugs that were much nastier than anything a blaster could do. The trooper was humanoid, but grey-skinned and with an odd ridge on his forehead that the helmet he wore half-covered...it took a moment for Rulae to realize he was a Chev, and he was surprised to see any of them off their home planet at all. They’d been slaves to a completely non-humanoid race for so long that it was still rare to see them around.    “Only one, sir,” his accent was also nearly impossible to catch. This one had learned Basic very well.    Rulae nodded, then risked a glance over his cover.    There were only a few seconds to scan the area, but what he managed to take in was, generally, the same scene that had been in front of him for the last ten minutes. There was a large, open courtyard from what had been a rather nice building that was now a heap of flames and rubble. The Vong landing craft was in the center of it all, looking more like a somewhat oval-shaped rock, with a giant hatch lazily opened at the back in an almost random carved shape. Out of it, the warrior had poured...at least thirty at first, but Rulae and the troopers he’d run into had found good positioning, covering the only exit to the courtyard and holding the Vong in. With crates hastily thrown down into a makeshift wall, the soldiers lined them, staying low under and firing their rifles when and if a warrior got close.    Rulae counted five Vong left standing.    Thermal detonators were all gone, but on their lower setting had caused most of the destruction in the courtyard...and to the Vong. But now they were out and it looked like all they had left were a few more power packs for their blasters and a handful of charges...but that would at least take the ship out.    He raised his voice so that all the other troopers could hear him over the firefight in front of them and above them, “Time to push back at them. Pairs on each end start laying down some covering fire...the rest of us are heading in,” he then lowered his voice and reached a hand out to the young Chev next to him, “Hand me that charge.”    The trooper handed it over hesitantly, and by now all of the others were staring at him. Well, all but the four on either side who had taken the orders seriously and were currently unleashing as much blaster fire as their rifles could manage without overheating the power packs. Shifting the charge into his left hand, Rulae gripped his blaster pistol and look to the rest of the troopers.    After a short moment to steel himself, he got to his feet over the cover, “Move!”    The other troopers were up in that second, and Rulae led the push, blaster pistol ablaze, straight for the Von’g landing craft. Two of the Vong were out in the open, huge, tattooed and scarred, they let loose a battle cry and went straight for the advancing soldiers, but were quickly cut down by the blaster fire.    The others remained behind their cover, tossing those damned thud bugs. To Rulae’s side, one of the troopers took a thud bug to the face, going straight under his helmet and sending him sprawling to the ground without anything more than a grunt. But the blaster fire was heavy enough to pin the Vong down for the few seconds that were necessary, and suddenly Rulae had his back to the strange material that made up the Vong’s landing craft. The three troopers were on the other side, still hurling their weapons when they could while the remaining troopers caught up to Rulae or continued to hold the Vong down.    Rulae turned and shoved the charge hard onto the ship’s hull, noting that it stuck to the thing just like it would a metal bulkhead, then got the timer set. Two other troopers caught on and attached a charge to other parts of the ship, and when it was set, Rulae didn’t need to tell them to move.    The advance quickly turned into a retreat, and though the four troopers still providing cover did their best, the Vong manage more hits...not to mention that one had come around on the opposite side of the ship and was chopping through the troops with the sharp end of his amphistaff. A volley of blaster fire from a nearby trooper took the Vong down, but by now it was getting too late.    Rulae and the main group of troopers had made it back to their cover, diving behind it and ducking low. A few seconds passed and then the charges went off. They were so close that the heat from the detonations was enough to scorch some of the uniforms, not to mention the crates they’d been using for cover. Yorik coral fragments from the ship rained down, as did duracrete and various unidentifiable pieces of both Vong soldiers and the unlucky New Republic soldiers that hadn’t gotten to the cover fast enough.    After a few seconds, and with his hearing slowly returning, Rulae sat up and got a careful look at what had once been a courtyard. The charges had definitely done their job. The entire area was a black mess of...everything. It was not a pretty site, and so Rulae quickly turned to check on the remaining troopers. Most had cuts and bruises, but of the six that were left alive, the worst wound looked to be some minor burns on a young human who hadn’t ducked down early enough. His face was a bit burnt, but he somehow didn’t seem to notice.    And by now, all eyes were on Rulae. He didn’t outwardly sigh, knowing the affect that would have and not wanting to bring the kids down at all. They weren’t his troops, but they had found an officer and latched onto him...and he had just led them to a minor victory. His place may have been in the sky, but that didn’t seem to matter to Rulae anymore. He was needed on the ground now, and this battle wasn’t over thanks to one minor success.    Remembering the short report he’d gotten through his comlink before finding these troops had told him, Rulae got to his feet and motioned for the others to follow. He purposely spoke in a yell, barely able to hear himself and figuring the others were in the same shape, “South end of the city’s got the most of the Vong attacks. They’ll need us there so lets get moving.”    That got a series of nods, and it wasn’t long at all before the seven of them were back on the main streets, running to through the still thick crowds of panicked citizens and watching for more Vong on the way. But they only got two blocks before a loud, alien roar ripped through the sky.    “That can’t be good,” one of the troopers, a grey skinned Twi’lek, shook his head and looked to Rulae for an answer.    Before Rulae could even guess what the source of that noise had been, a jet of flame shot across the sky just above the buildings a block ahead of them. This was followed by another roar, and through the arcing flames that were engulfing the nearby buildings, a huge, bulbous walking shape could be seen.    It was the Chev that asked a question most of them were thinking, “So they have fire breathing monsters now...when did anyone plan to tell us that had fire breathing monsters?”    “Apparently now, Raek,” the Twi’lek mumbled.    Rulae stared at the thing for a long moment, watching another jet of flame shoot from the creature’s mouth...which was a good distance up in the sky. The thing was about the size of an AT-AT walker...and breathing fire. He was starting to wonder how things could get any crazier. He was also starting to wonder how bad of an idea it was to just be standing in what looked to be the creature’s path.    “We need to bring that thing down,” Rulae finally said, giving the troopers a serious look, “Or at least get it out of the city. We’ll have to worry about the fires later,” he then turned and found a good back alley that looked like it would take them to another large street much closer to the creature and started for it, “Lets move!”    “But sir!” it was a human this time, the one who’d gotten his face burned from the explosion earlier, “How are we going to take that thing down?”    Rulae looked over his shoulder to the kid for a moment but didn’t stop running, “We’ll figure that out on the way.”</blockquote>

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