Fight or Flight

[Ion Raptor]

This is a creative writing workshop short story that I wrote a couple months back. It's loosely based on 40k and the Dawn of War intro. The critics I got back from it were pretty much all the same, telling me to go wild with the Sci-Fi aspect or take all of it out and make it an alternate modern era.

See if you can find some of the easter eggs I've hidden in the story.

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` Fight or Flight?

Zone Alpha 3
1300 Hours
Planet Deneb

Air support was gone, dropped from the sky like flaming meteors by enemy fighter pilots that weren’t supposed to be that skilled. The dropships were gone, left smoldering wrecks by enemy bombers that air support was supposed to stop. Forward Command was gone, strewn dead all along the now burning field command center by enemy flanker units that had broken through the line, the very same line that fresh troops from the dropships were supposed to reinforce. Yeah, it was going to be a bad day.

I wonder who else is dead…Sergeant Dominic Fin thought as enemy fire rained down upon his pinned squad. He raised himself up over the slab of concrete he’d been shielding himself with to survey the battlefield. The cratered remains of the military outpost were hardly worth fighting over now, then again it wasn’t about taking the base anymore, it was just about surviving. Through his helmet’s built-in image enhancers, he could make out shapes moving between the craters and rubble. Across the field he could see that pockets of friendly units and enemies were having their own miniature wars, and Fin could see explosions going off at random intervals, a clear sign that someone’s battletank or flamethrower had bought it. A bullet screamed by his head, so close that he could hear it coming and going even through the armor of his helmet. Oh yeah, I almost forgot…I’m as good as dead…

“Fin, get your freakin’ head down, sometimes I wonder how you got your command”. A deep brown armor clad trooper somehow managed to spit the words out in between the sprays of bullets he was putting out of his heavy machine gun, and the obscenities he screamed at the enemy while waiting for the weapon’s white hot barrel to cool. “Knock Knock!” BRRRRT BRRRRT “Can Bobby come out and play?!” BRRRRT BRRRRT . “Come on you sons of *****es, come get me!” BRRRRRRRRRT.

Fin’s squad was holed up inside the remains of an office building, now half destroyed, when a friendly fighter craft dropped from the sky onto it. Only half of the squad’s original ten remained because of that unfortunate event, the rest were buried among the twisted and burning wreckage of the aircraft and building. The building itself was one of the few still standing, orbital strikes from the Battleship “Endeavor” had cored many of them before the battalion had even landed. That had been before the enemy had shown that they didn’t want to give up their base on this world, even if it was completely destroyed.

An armored trooper with a long sniper rifle pulled himself from a window, and though the one way visor didn’t allow him to see it, Fin could tell that he was starring daggers from his eyes. “Wallace shut the hell up! Can’t you fire without screaming, we can’t hear any orders with you running your mouth through the comms all the time!”

“Eat me Sortec! Sergeant Fin doesn’t give orders anyway!” Wallace had made sure that everyone in the squad knew from the first day he’d found out that he had been passed up for promotion in favor of Dominic, that he would do anything and everything in his power to make his life miserable, and right now he was succeeding.

The worst part was that, in a way, Wallace was right. Dominic didn’t think that he was fit for command of a squad; he wasn’t a hard ass or inspiring leader, he was just a regular trooper forced into command by battle losses. He’d tried to give it up, but the captain insisted that he was the only one in his squad qualified for the job.

Fin met Wallace’s eyes, and prepared to give out another one of his poor excuses for a tongue lashing and inspirational speech, but fate saved him, this time in the form of the comms equipment carried on his back.

“All receiving units, this is Admiral Genyes, There is a break in the enemy fighter cover while they refuel and rearm. I am sending down another set of dropships to the landing zone to evacuate any surviving personnel. You have fifteen minutes to make it back there or we will be forced to leave you behind. I repeat, this is a full withdraw, all units disengage and retreat to the landing zone. Godspeed to you all.” The link went dead with a click and the sounds of battle returned in full force. Dominic looked out the window once again; he could see many shapes turning from their positions and moving back off towards the dropzones, followed closely by the enemy. It would be a fast and hard retreat; however his squad was lucky enough to get pinned on the outskirts of the base, those ****hest to what was left of the front line would have hell to pay in their disengagement.

It took but a few seconds for the five remaining members of Fin’s squad to look around at each other and wordlessly move out of their entrenched position, solemn disappointment taking over from the thrill and horror of combat. A quick visual scan of the area told Fin that the enemy hadn’t quite made it as far as their building yet.

“Fin!” Dominic looked back over his shoulder to see the sergeant of Squad Ento round a pile of debris, followed closely by his seven remaining squadmates. “Fin lets go! We’ll cover each other on the way back.” Dominic nodded and waved his squad on. Sergeant Ento jogged by him with his squad in tow, with Fin’s squad falling in beside them. When they were clear of the building ruins and out of weapons range of any snipers waiting for an easy shot, Fin chanced a look behind him. At first he thought that the twelve soldiers with him were the only ones to make it out and the thought of the whole battalion being wiped out made his heart skip a beat. Much to his relief, more soldiers began appearing out of the rubble, first in ones and two’s, then whole squads. His relief soon turned to shock as he realized that these troops weren’t just retreating, they were in a dead run. A complete rout.
As if on cue, a battletank burst from the rubble and immediately exploded into a fireball, followed closely by enemy assault squads, many armed with large auto-pistols and close combat weapons. They rushed past the burning tank and cut down their enemies as they fell upon them. Friendly units rushed through his band of thirteen and Fin found himself overcome by the tide, turning and running with them, running for his life back to the now waiting dropships. The enemy wasn’t content with just pushing them off of this world. They’re going to destroy us, every last man and woman. They’re going to slaughter the entire battalion! And if they get to the Endeavor…NO!

At that moment Sergeant Dominic Fin felt a new emotion welling up inside him, not one for himself, but for preservation of his friends and what he believed in. He skidded to a halt at the bottom of a ridgeline and turned back to face the top of it. Dropping his rifle, he unholstered the auto-pistol at his waist and grabbed the sword attached to the side of his comms backpack. The sword was usually reserved for ceremony or as last ditch weapon, but Dominic knew that the advanced blade had no problem cutting through armored infantry. Someone has to slow them down so the others can lift off, but I can’t do it alone. Fin took a deep breath and thrust the sword into the air.

“Rally Squad! The enemy must be slowed so that the battalion may live!” He could see soldiers around him turning and taking up points at the bottom of the ridge, he continued, “With me my brothers and sisters! Firing line!” Fin looked to his side as an armored hand clasped his shoulder. He could tell that Wallace had a huge grin on his face as he took up position beside his Sergeant.

“I’m with you Fin; let’s give them a farewell present they won’t ever forget.”

Fin briefly wondered what was going through the enemies minds as the first wave crested the ridge and was confronted by the firing line, but he quickly tossed the wonder out and thought of what he was going to put through their minds. Ammo.

“Fire!” he called out, and as one the firing line opened up on the enemy infantry.

The enemy line was decimated as the rounds tore through them, the survivors turned and fled back over the ridge in utter chaos and disorder.

“Now! For the King! For the Alliance! And for the Battalion! CHARGE!” Fin screamed from the pit of his soul and a terrific roar from the rest of the line filled the air with him. Indeed, the history books would always remember the day Sergeant Dominic Fin, sword drawn and thrust forward, lead nearly an entire company back over the ridge on Deneb and took the fight to the enemy one last time.