Chapter 5

When the meteorite impacted the moon the outer layer of rock was blasted apart and sprayed all over the base along with the shockwave of the heavy hitting landing craft which together pulverised the outside of the base and threw up a huge cloud of dust. When this had settled the metallic structure of the craft which was mostly intact if not heavily scraped and slightly embedded into the moon slip open in several places. From these openings the substantial assault force emerged and swarmed into the base and surrounding area.

Gharret was, at the moment of impact, on top of a transport heading towards the base at speed. The shock wave hurled him off the roof of the vehicle which lurched onto its side and skidded to a halt a few metres away. By some miracle the Sergeant had been uninjured other than a load of cuts and bruises. He got up with a groan and started slowly towards the upturned APC. By the time he had reached it the door at the read had swung open and a soldier threw himself out in a heap moaning and cursing. Gharret helped him up just as sporadic gunfire started all around and quickly turned into a huge whirl of noise all around them. The soldier listened for a bit and then spoke

"What the hell..." He wasn't able to finish this however as a shot pierced into the man's stomach. The startled man fell to the floor without a word as the other looked around for the attacker. Sure enough there were two figures on a mound nearby, they opened fire at Gharret but he was too quick and let off a burst from his rifle at one of the figures which was thrown back onto the ground. He then dived behind the upturned metal carcass and the round slammed into it. One of the troopers inside however leaned out and quickly let off a single round which hit the mark on the alien's head, the creature went down as the first.

All the survivors clambered out of the APC just as a Federation thundered down as a fireball and crashed nearby. Everything was happening very fast and his mind was a whirl of thoughts going so fast he could not comprehend enough one of them. Eventually he pulled himself together and spoke to the group of troops

"We need to head to the base"

"You kidding, we need to regroup with the airfield positions"

"No, we are nearer the main-base, that was where we are heading anyway" The others grunted and nodded in acceptance and promptly set off towards the light bursts of weaponry, tracer rounds and missiles rising up into the sky from there showing a raging fight.

As the men climbed up the hill, where wreaks of tanks and bodies of troops lay, they saw the full devastation and fight happening. The entire front of the base was a raging inferno, rounds still coming out and going to of the fire in places. The entrance was a mess with debris covering it so that only a few spaces were there where the large opening once was. Further back fights could be seen on the roof and the tail end of a gunship was sticking out of one of the outer buildings. Gharret looked up at the clear view into space and saw great trails of lights being exchanged between ships and explosions on them. As he looked he saw a huge ship break apart with massive explosion and then break up even more, the Valhalla. He checked his railgun and moved down the hill towards the base. A large group of aliens were at the entrance shooting in sporadically as those inside were defending themselves. The squad set themselves up and opened fire down onto the assaulting enemy; momentarily panicked they wavered allowing more of them to be gunned down. By the time they returned heavy fire on Gharret's men those inside had moved up and grenades crashed down onto the aliens. Those that survived hastily retreated to find reinforcements.

Everyone knew the fight was not over and so the men rushed inside the entrance where a full platoon of both Federation and Imperial soldiers had formed together and were defending the area. Federation Captain Gundersonne of the 28th mobile infantry was commanding the men. Although a proper description would be organising since the Imperials did not consider them under his command at all, he was holding them together. Next to him was the Imperial leader Lieutenant Parks who saluted Gharret as he ran in, the salute was returned and the three men spoke. Gundersonne was a large stocky man with a bushy moustache and large alert beady eyes. Parks however was quite the opposite as he was a slim man, clean shaven and with narrow suspicious eyes. The captain spoke first

"Know what's going on?"

Gharret responded "Well that's my first question out the window, how's the base"

Parks spoke in a disheartened manner "Absolute chaos, multiple breaches all over, a load of em got through here before we could push them back"

"So the base is swarming with them?"

"Correct"

"what about other units?"

"The radio is full of chatter, so there are lots of units fighting just no organisation" Gundersonne chipped in

"Looks like there's an armada facing our ships in orbit. Right I'm gonna try and find Ground Marshall Greyman"

"Good luck we will stay here and hold the entrance, Sergeant..."

"Gharret"

"Ah Gharret, there's another one here" Parks pointed to a corner where a group of wounded were gathered with various injuries. Among them lay the concussed Casandra. Parks spoke up

"She's out of it for now but will be fine in due course, just the shock perhaps, Greyman was with her but when we arrived he told us to hold the entrance and then took a few others and made for the control room."

"As long as she's alright, I'll head there then"

The base was a state, debris was everywhere, the smell of smoke filled the halls and the sounds of gunfire could be heard everywhere. Gharret took five men, ordering the rest to guard the entrance he ran off down the murky corridors. The central terminal was a mess, a large chunk of the ceiling had collapsed and debris now covered the floor, fires raged in several places and battles were going on all levels and in different places. On the ground floor soldiers were scattered around exchanging fire from in amongst the rubble. Above, rounds darted across the hall as men on different sides shot across the room. The battle was not going to die down anytime soon so Gharret decided to take the stairwell to the control tower which was very close by in the terminal and come back to this raging fire-fight later. As they climbed the stairs an explosion sounded a few flights up, Gharret leaned over the railings and looked up to see a large clump of twisted metal being hurled down towards them. As one they all jumped back from the side and pressed against the wall as the wreak clattered its way to the bottom before smashing into the floor. Several more explosions sounded up towards the control tower. The men reached the top and moved into the tower, the stairwell was a secondary exit so they entered from one side of the main door. The tower was covered in broken glass and one whole side of the wall had been blasted off by a shell of some bombardment. At that moment a few soldiers were gathered around the edge of the tower shooting down at enemies below, at the main entrance several alien bodies were slumped alongside human ones, the wounds still smoking from the rounds that ended their lives. Greyman was in the centre, he looked up just as several guns were momentarily raised at the newcomers, seeing they were friendly's' all returned to their jobs.