The Human War Walker

[From a story idea that stayed in my mind. What if humans were all much larger than the aliens they found out in the stars?]

The squad had made it to the island in the middle of the river before the flood had raised the water level too high for them to finish the crossing. This was both good and bad in that the enemy would have trouble getting to them when they found them, but it also meant that they were trapped on an island that was slowly getting smaller because the river was slowly rising.

The Captain looked around at his troops and started to think on what they had to do if they wanted to survive the river and the enemy.

“I want 3 of you to be on overwatch to the west and watch the forest edges for any signs of the enemy scouts. They will be following us fairly close after our strike. Use boulders and trees for cover, you know the drill. Wounded to the east side of the island out of sight, we don’t need them getting hit. The rest of you, I want you to build up defensive barriers to protect everyone when the lead starts flying. Move it.”

“Comms, have you gotten any contact with base yet?”

“Cap, I got a message out just as we got here and I think they returned that they are sending a war walker. I’m not sure because we are now being jammed but that is what I heard, so they know where we roughly are.”

“Okay. Here’s hoping that the walker gets here before the enemy does otherwise it’s not going to be pretty. Walkers are good and all but the river may cause a bit of problem.”

[20 minutes pass by before contact is called.]

“Captain my man, we have contact at 200 tuffs in the forest’s edge. We saw scouts briefly appear and scan us before they retreated back into the forest. 5 minutes to full contact.”

“Okay, everyone to your positions. We have the enemy company coming in from the west. I want a couple to keep their eyes out to the north and south because I don’t want to be flanked. Hopefully the walker will get here soon as we can’t hold them off forever. Take cover.”

Shots started to sound from the forest edge as flickers of the enemy were seen. The enemy started to exit the forest and drop into the brush and grass to take up positions behind any cover they could find, as they popped up to shoot at the hiding squad.

The Captain was trying to keep track of how many enemy was shooting at them and suddenly they heard the radio man calling.

“Captain, I have the walker. They are almost here and will be in range in 2 minutes. They say to prepare for fire support.”

‘Fire support? How the hell will a war walker give meaningful fire support against a reinforced company. Sure they are powerful but they don’t carry enough fire power to deal with over 300 enemy troops.’

Suddenly the Captain felt a thud-thud-thud in the ground that kept getting louder and stronger and suddenly a shadow fell over the squad. Everyone suddenly stopped shooting as they looked up at the massive figure. It was at least 45 tuffs tall and it also appeared to be carrying a couple truly enormous weapons in it’s hands.