Chapter 335 – Learning The Dance, The Dance Of Death

December 13th, 2499

22:15 SCT

Wasteland Evacuation Zone

Warning klaxons blared throughout the camp as the Zerg pressed yet another attack. Bubba was torn; he wanted to rush to the bunkers and help defend everyone, but right now he was tasked with following this beautiful woman around and making sure she didn't cause any problems.

"Damn, there isn't any ammo that will work here either. Damn underfunded militias." Emily said, closing the ammo locker in the barracks.

"Sorry, Ma'am. Wish I could help, but the only pistol I know somewhat like yers is Johnny's, but that's 'is own weapon. I dunno where he got ammo fer it."

"It's fine, Bubba. Hey, isn't that his suit? Did he leave the camp without it?" She said, pointing at Johnny's custom black CMC armour with the white skull painted on the golden visor. Bubba had no idea where he got it, but with the militia's mishmash of gear, it wasn't exactly surprising to see different suit models.

"Far as I know, he did. Maybe the techs got around to fixing it."

"It looks almost new. Wonder if they would be interested in working for the army? We could use techs that do this kind of work."

"I doubt it, Ma'am. Most people that come out here are trying to get away from the government, not work for it."

"Well, I can't say I understand, but being in the military isn't for everyone. What about you? Ever think of enlisting full time?"

"Can't. Need to stay here and take care of Ma and Nan."

"You know we provide large bonuses to your family if you sign up for a five-year contract? They will be set for years, and we still pay you your wages."

"Ain't the money, Ma'am. It's the help round the house they need... not that we have a house anymore. Not with these Zergs attacking us."

"I... I'm sorry. I...have difficulty sometimes remembering that not everyone thinks like I do."

"S'okay I ain't insulted, Ma'am. We are just fighting to survive right now."

"WARNING! ZERG HAVE BREACHED THE EASTERN PERIMETER! RAPID RESPONSE TEAMS RESPOND! ALL NON-COMBAT PERSONNEL TAKE SHELTER INSIDE THE NEAREST BUILDING. REPEAT..." The Adjutant's voice blared over the PA system.

"Ahh... crap. We need ta go!" He said, making his way over to the door. He stuck his head outside and raised his weapon and fired at a nearby zergling that was tearing at the door of one of their supply depots. It turned towards him and charged, but he kept his rifle on it, filling it full of depleted uranium rounds. It stopped moving a few meters away from him. He let out a ragged breath, wondering how he hadn't crapped himself. 

*Crrreeeeee!!!*

Another Zergling charged at him, this one much closer. He opened fire, but the beast leapt at him, causing most of his burst to miss. The dog-sized Zerg slammed into his chest, its claws tearing at his armour as its jaws tried to bite his visor. He dropped his weapon and grabbed onto its torso with his hands, trying to pry it off. Its two spear-like arms slammed into his shoulders, cracking the plates but not piercing through to his skin.  

"AHHH!!! YA AIN'T KILLIN' ME YET! MA AIN'T GIVE ME PREMISSIUN TO DIE BEFER 'ER!" He screamed incoherently as he grabbed the two tusks on the side of the ugly beast's face and pulled as hard as he could. He snapped one of them right off, then slammed the spike into its meaty neck. It screamed in pain as it leapt away from him, its blood and ichor spraying all over his visor and blinding him momentarily. 

A burst of rifle fire cracked through the room, and the zergling let out a death rattle a few moments later. Bubba wiped his visor as best he could and rolled over, looking toward the source of the gunfire. 

"While that worked, try not to lose your weapon next time. Jamming the rifle into its neck would have made shorter work of that beast, and you wouldn't have lost as much of your armour's integrity." Emily said, now wearing Johnny's armour and holding an Impaler rifle. She offered him a hand, and he took it, got back on his feet, and retrieved his own rifle.

"Ain't been in many fights before, Ma'am. Not til today anyway."

"Well, the battlefield is a cruel mistress. You won't get many second chances to make mistakes, so be sure to learn from this one. Now, shall we dance?" She said, making her way to the door.

"Umm... dance, Ma'am? I ain't ever danced before, cept with me mum when I was a lil'wun."

"Not that kind of dance, Bubba. Come, we got Zerg to kill, and I need to make sure my charge is okay." She laughed, her voice sounding very cheerful behind her visor. 

"Uh... okay then." He replied, following her out of the Barracks.

It only took them a few moments before they came across more Zerg, and chaos ensued as they rampaged among the supply buildings mostly unchecked. It wasn't long before Bubba found himself locked side by side with Emily as she directed their fire at the attackers, then had them back off some before engaging the next. She continued to give him clear instructions as they slowly retreated deeper into the base, where to shoot them, how to move, all the while preventing the zerglings from surrounding them. It slowly dawned on him that this was what she meant by a dance.

More militia eventually showed up, and she took control of them too, adding them to the dance she was orchestrating and stalling the Zerg advance. Shoulder to shoulder they stood, shooting into the advancing swarm. He thought they were about to start advancing and push them out of the camp.

Then, the Hydralisks showed up.

Shooting their poisoned spikes from beyond their rifles' effective range, the trio of slug-shaped terrors rained fire down on their line. Men dropped to the ground, screaming in pain as the thirty cm spikes cracked open their armour almost like it wasn't there. 

"Take cover behind the buildings!" Emily shouted above the chaos, grabbing hold of a wounded soldier and dragging him behind her. A wall of spikes hit her leg, but she didn't slow until she got the man safely behind the depot wall. Four of them made it here, while the other half of their forces took shelter behind another prefab structure.

"You okay?" He asked her, glancing down at her leg.

"I'm perfectly okay. It's just a flesh wound." She replied, then limped over to the corner and peeked around before snapping her head back as another wave of spikes shot through where her head had been a moment before. "All units, hold position here. Let them get closer. If they move elsewhere, we will circle around and attempt to flank them. Got it?" She said over the radio. 

"You don't want to flank them now? What about those supply depots?"

"No. Right now, they are focused on destroying some supplies, but if we move, they could advance into the evacuee camp. Unless otherwise stated, the general order is to protect civilian lives over non-critical supplies." She said while bracing herself against the wall. With a hiss, she pulled the spike out of her thigh, then flicked her visor open and lit up a smoke. Her whole suit seemed to melt against the wall as she took a long drag off the cigarette.

"Uhh... is this a good time fer that?"

"I got a damn hole in my thigh and no medics nearby. So it's either this or my stim, and you won't like me with those drugs in my body." She said, giving him a happy smile.

"Huh? Johnny's suit has a stimpack? None of the other suits have'em."

"No, Bubba. He doesn't. I have one. I'm a Resoc. A murderer who had my brain messed with to become a loyal Confederate soldier. I'm... required to tell you about my past if you ask, but I assure you, it isn't pretty. Would you like to know more?" She said, the smile on her lips never changing.

"No, thank you, Ma'am. I'll take yer word fer it. We already have enough trouble; I don't want to be lookin' fer more." He said, shying away from her. He was a bit creeped out at how happy she seemed about admitting that she was a murderer.

"Of course." She said, her eyes twitching a little bit before closing them. She took another drag off her smoke before tossing it aside and closing her visor. He could have sworn he saw a tear roll down her cheek, but that didn't make much sense to him. Not that anything was making much sense since yesterday.

Well, she did have a poisoned spike in her leg. I'd probably cry a bit too if I had one of those in me.

"How's he doing?" She asked the other militia member beside them, who was tending to the wounded man she had dragged with her.

"Damn spike pierced his gut. I'm not sure if I should pull it out or not." The man replied.

"Pull it. He might bleed out from the wound, but he will die much sooner and more painfully if that poison gets in too deep." She ordered, then poked her head back around the corner. "They are focused on that depot still. Take him over to the hospital and get back here, soldier. Double time."

"Ah, Yes, Ma'am." 

"Shouldn't you get your wound checked too?" Bubba asked, helping to get the injured man to his feet.

"Hah, and leave you all here to deal with this yourselves? No Bubba. While I respect that you all seem to be willing to fight, you need someone to take the reins before you get yourselves killed. Speaking of which, where is your leadership at? Shouldn't you have sergeants and officers commanding your men?"

"Huh? Well, the Marshal and most of the Deputies were all sent to reinforce the convoys that fell under attack. Brian is the highest ranked here, and last I 'eard, he's out scouting fer Zerg outside of the camp. That were hours ago, though, so I ain't got a clue what is going on. I was just told to make sure you were okay and didn't get inta trouble."

"You were, were you? Who told you that?"

"Johnny did. He seemed worried about ya fer some reason and wanted to make sure you had everything ya needed, though apparently he ain't need ta worry so much."

"He did, did he. Well, that... is unexpected." She said, then poked her head out again as a loud explosion lit up the sky. "Damn, there goes the depot. They are still a bit too far... we won't have any cover if we move up. Let's try something." She said, then raised her rifle and cracked a couple of shots off before ducking back behind the wall. "Militia, get ready. I just pissed off a couple of the zerglings." She said into the comms.

They both stepped back, weapons held at the ready. A few moments later, a trio of zerglings rushed around the corner. She opened fire, and a moment later the other half of their group behind the other building did as well, catching the beasts in a pincer attack. Two of them dropped, but the third leapt at him. He jammed his rifle under its gaping maw and fired, blowing its brains out before it managed to sink its claws into him.

"Shoot! I ain't think that was gonna work. You were right, though."

"You learned quickly. Keep doing that, and you'll stay alive tonight." She said, giving the corpses a wide berth before returning to the corner. "Damn, the Hydralisk didn't take the bait. All militia, hold position. We are going to need reinforcements before we try and take these three."

Just then, a high-pitched scream of a hoverbike blew past them, heading towards the Hydralisk. Bubba couldn't help himself and looked around the corner. A golden glow lit the bike's rider as they jumped off just before it slammed it into one of the beasts, burying its pointy end into its torso. The rider wore armour straight out of some fantasy tale his Nan used to read him and carried a sword. They ran up to the next Hydralisk and slashed it with the weapon, cutting a chunk off its body like it was made of butter.

"All Militia, advance!" Emily shouted across the comms, already moving forward and firing at the third Hydralisk. Bubba scrambled after her and fired at the monstrosity.

The glowing knight took fire from both sides; the Hydralisks pelted them with spikes, but they seemed to bounce off the glow and fall harmlessly to the ground. The one beside him tried to slash them with one of its scythe arms, but they caught it with their sword, severing the massive blade from its arm, then plunged the blade into its body and slashed upwards, bisecting the monster nearly perfectly.   

"Uhh... what is happening?"

"Never mind that! Focus on our fight!" Emily shouted, bringing him back to the present. 

"Oh, okay." He said, firing his rifle at the last Hydralisk. His gaze kept drifting back to the knight, who was now dancing among the remaining Zerglings. A red-haired woman in light grey armour and goggles was now behind him, sending out pulses that looked like electricity, then shooting the Zergs with her rifle. She jumped into the air and landed on the Knight's hand, then was thrown impossibly high, shooting at something he couldn't see from this position before landing on top of the barracks. The knight stopped glowing for a moment, then electricity shot from his sword like a lightning bolt, slamming into the last Hydralisk and finishing it off.

"TO ME! FOR MAR SARA!" The knight bellowed, his voice ringing across the camp louder than the PA system's warning did. He suddenly felt energized, like he'd just had a good night's rest. The knight charged towards the sounds of the battle, and he found himself wanting to race after him.

"Now that's a man who knows how to dance." Emily said, then shouted through the comms. "You heard the man! Follow your Marshal! Questions can wait until later!" 

"Marshal? Wait! That was Johnny's voice?!? What-"

"Fight now, questions later, Bubba. We don't have time to worry about-"

*WOOOSH!!!*

A massive robot passed over them on jets of fire. It landed just past the barracks, its bird-like legs absorbing the impact before it started to walk forward. Four green lasers shot from turrets on its sides at a distant target, followed by four missiles that exploded, engulfing something in a torrent of flames bright enough to light up the darkness. 

"Oh mama, what is happening?"

"It's war, Bubba. Remember, nothing ever goes to plan, and always expect the unexpected. Whatever it is, at least it appears to be on our side. Now run! We still got Zerg to kill and people to save! And that goes for all you louts too! Move your asses or my boot is going to find its way up them!" Emily shouted at all the stunned militia around them.

"Huh, yes, Ma'am," Bubba said, joined by the chorus of replies as the militia charged behind the knight and the robot, lighting up the night sky with their own weapon fire.

That night, the camp repelled the incursion with a minimal loss of life. When the sun finally crested the horizon, it was the corpses of the invaders that littered the battlefield; corpses and very exhausted soldiers who felt too tired to question how they were even alive. Still, with the dawn came questions, questions that would need to be answered very soon. Questions that, for better or for worse, could change the course of their very lives.