The First S.P.E.A.R. OF ORION Colony

by Silver Centurion

The Machines

As Corde began to realize who was standing only feet away from him, Centurion slowly turned around, and with one great hop, he was on the dropship. Corde quickly hurried over to the dropship as he grabbed the side grip and hoisted himslef onto the dropship, which was nearly full, save for his spot... next to Centurion.

As Corde hesitated sitting next to such a legend he took his seat a bit nervously next to the famed soldier.

"Hey Corde. Alright, close up the doors!" Blackburn said as the cargo doors slowly closed as Blackburn shifted in his seat.

"Alright. We're going in with Foxtrot and what's left of our squads. As you can see, we have a special guet onboard." Blackburn said gesturiing to Centurion as the doors closed fully and the dropship began to lift off with several other dropships.

"I noticed..." Corde said nervously, trying to keep his composure next to his CO.

"Anyways, thought you might like to meet Foxtrot's squad leader. That's Eddie." Blackburn said as he looked over to a soldier in green armor who was juggling roughly a dozen knives with ease.

"Yea, he likes knives..." Blackburn said akwardly as the dropship began to lurch forward and sunlight flooded through the windows.

"Alright! Listen up! We're being deployed to overtake a SPEAR stronghold. Easy enough right? Just keep an eye out, there are still infected out there. Lock and load, we drop in 20." Corde said sternly to the soldiers who readied their weapons in anticapation.

---

"WE'RE BEING OVERRUN!!!!!!!!" a SPEAR soldier shouted as he and his comrades retreated back into a bunker, occasionally firing a few shots at the huge mass of zombies that was making its way towards them.

"MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!YEAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" a soldier yelled as he and half a dozen other soldiers stomped out of the bunker in mechs and began unleashing hell on the horde. As the bullets flew, killing zombies by the dozens, the foot soldiers regrouped and began firing in unison with their mechanized allies as the horde got increasingly smaller.

Jus as the horde was on the verge of dying down completey, the ground began to shake. The sodiers looked overhead to see at least a dozen troops being deployed. " AWW, SHIT! FALL BACK! FALL BACK!!!!" a soldier shouted as the mechs began to file back into the bunker as the soldiers impacted the ground with a huge explosion of rock and dust... well most anyways. A few soldiers completely missed the ground... and burrowed their way clean through 3 mechs.

"Damn! That hurt!" Hector said as he scrambled out of the wreckage of a decimated mech.

"Oh, don't be a baby." Jason said as he pushed a mech arm off of him and stood up.

As the two stood up they looked at a mech that stood completely still... until it lurched over and crashed ino the ground, kcicking up dust as it revealed Eddie standing behind it, knives in each hand as he steped over the mech and walked past the two awe-stricken soldiers.

"GOGOGO! RUSH THAT BUNKER!!!" Corde said as his men sholdered their weapons and mowed down the retreating infantry. Blackburn sprinted up to a mech, which turned around, and tried to hit him as he dodged to the left, climbed up its arm, and plunged his knfe into it's head as the mech's lights went dark.

Blackburn jumped off the mech as it impacted the ground, and sheathed his knife and brought out his shotgun as he blasted a retreating soldier in the back. The soldier fell limp and twitched for a few seconds before blood began run in stream from his body, filling in he grooves of the cement.

"CHARGE!" Corde ordered as he brought out his machinegun, and began running at the bunker , gunning down all in his path ferociously. The men under his command all followed and within a few seconds they had regrouped with Corde, who was tossing grenades at the 4 remaining mechs.

"GO! Give him some covering fire!" Blackburn ordered as a soldier next to him fell to the floor limp, as a straight line if smoke could be seen where the soldier's temple had been in his last seconds of life.

"SNIPER!!!" Hector yelled as he slid into cover with Jason by his side.

"RAAAAAGHHGAGAGGHAHGAHGHAGHGAHAHGARRERRERAGAGHHGAHGHG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A soldier turned just in time to be tackled to the floor by the remainder of the horde. As the half a dozen zombies bit through his armor feverishly, Centurion simply walked over to the soldier, took out a grenade, and pulled the pin. As he dropped the grenade into the writhing mass of metal and flesh, he began to walk away. The grenade detonated with a loud bang as it ripped the zombies and the soldiers to shred.

"Damn..." a soldier muttered, as he looked on in shock. Not two seconds later, he fell to the floor lifeless, a clean hole in his head as blood pooled around him.

"Blackburn! Secure a mech and light these fuckers up!" Corde said as he raised his gun over the cement barricade and fired without looking. As the other soldiers all found cover before they fell prey to the sniper , Blackburn boosted up to the cat walk overhead and began to look for a good ambush point.

"MORTAR!!!" A soldier shouted before a dozen tiny explosives exploded in a cone around him and two other soldiers, tearing them apart.

"Shit! How many more we got Corde?" Jason asked as he quickly sprinted to another barricade and returned fire.

"We've got 7 men left not including us!!!" Corde shouted over the gunfire as a soldier rose out of his cover and hoisted a rocket launcer onto his shoulder before firing 6 times in quick succesion at a single mech.

As the first rocket approached, a figure could be seen droppng down from above onto the next mech. As the first rocket hit, the mech stumbled to the side as its shields flared and crashed into the next mech, which Blackburn was holding onto for dear life, and both mechs toppled to the ground as the other rockets homed in on the heap.

"NO!" was all Corde could say before five rockets impacted, one after the other, the fifth one turning the heap into an orange fireball.

""Blackburn is down! I repeat the major is down!" a soldier yelled over his com to command.

There was a reply, but from where Corde was, he wasn't able to hear it as he ducked from cover to cover, trying desperatley to make his way through the hail of gunfire. He just barely avoded a sniper round as he ducked into cover, and the round hit another soldier behind him. Everything was quickly deteriorating as soldier after soldier fell to the floor lifeless.

"LUKE!!! USE THE BOMB!!!!!!!!!" Corde shouted over the gunfire as a mech crashed to the foor in a smoking heap. As the last SPEAR forces began to retreat back into the bunker, Luke threw a smal black object, which flashed red every two seconds, eventually hitting a SPEAR soldier in the back, just as he made it inside the inner bunker doors.

"3,2,1.... boom" Luke said as he counted down with his fingers. As he said boom, the whole base shook and the last remaining mech, vacant, fell over onto its back, smashing the controls.

"Jason... take a casualty poll." Corde said coughing as he jogged over to his few remaining men. Centurion not among them...

"Where's Centurion?" Corde asked as is stomach knotted.

"I dunno, he mustve bugged out in all the confusion." Luke responded as he checked his armor integrity.

"We've got 18 KIA, 1 MIA, and 5, thats us, still alive." Jason said as he closed his holopad.

"Corde. I heard about Blackburn, god bless his soul... Aside from that I'm sending you reinforcements. They're not exactly what you might expect, but they'll get the job done. They're inbound in a tank. Keep a look out for them and hold your position until Zulu squad comes to take your place." Stone said to Corde over the com as Jason and th other found a good spot to sit down.

"Good. Hey! Listen up, we're getting some reinforcements. They're enroute in a tank. I've also gotten word that Zulu squad is coming to take our place as soon as they can." Corde said sternly to his men, as he looked out across the wide, unmoving expanse of land that enveloped the small SPEAR outpost.

"Well, what do we do until the tank gets here? I can already see a few dozen infected off in the distance..." Hector said absentmindedly as he stared off at a few specks way off in the distance, that seemed to be coming over a lone hill that gently rose in the distance. As the light blue sky slowly began to transition to a vibrant orange, Hector and Jason found their own respective spots to lie down and rest their eyes.

As resting quickly turned into uneasy sleep, Corde and Luke began to approach the front courtyard of the base, where the slowly stumbling zombies from earlier had begun to mass.

"Hey Luke, you take left, I'll take right." Corded said as he pulled his machinegun off his back and readied it by cocking it, and loading the first round into the chamber.

"Got it..." Luke said as he shouldered his assault rifle, and placed the small blue dot over a zombies forehead.

"Good Night.." Luke said, before squeezing the trigger, causing a zombie to fall over, dead -for good- with a good sized gash in its head.

Corde also opened fire on the zombies, as he moved from infected to infected, he never once let go of the trigger. After only what seemed to be about a minute, both Luke and Corde had dispatched the small group of zombies.

"Corde? What's that noise?" Luke asked as he sat down and began to load some explosive rounds into a spare clip.

"I... don't know..." Corde replied, as he strained his ears. And then he heard it. The low rumble of a tank as it sped across the battlefield. But there was another noise too... was that music?

Corde clipped the machinegun to his back as he rounded the corner of the base, and saw a USIF tank making its way to him. From what he could tell, the tank was where he music was coming from. It aproached the 100 meter mark, as Corde walked back around the corner to tell Luke.

What he found shocked him. Corde nearly fell over backwards in horror from the gorey scene that lay before him. What used to be Luke was scattered across the ground... a leg here, an arm there, and what appeared to be his chest and stomach, was overflowing with guts as blood pooled around it. What was even more horrifying was that Corde was next. There, standing nearly 7 feet tall was a human-like robot... but it wasn't moving. oh no, it was just standing there, spattered with blood, holding Luke's severed head in his hand as he stared down Corde.

And then like a brick wall, it hit him. Corde had heard about androids that were built on colony worlds to defend them in the event of an invasion where the armored infantry weren't viable. There standing before Corde was what was known as a terminator...

The machine dropped Luke's head as it clenched its fist and rushed Corde. As the terminator swung a metal fist at Corde, he held his arm up to block it, However that proved to be quite... painful. The fist impacted his arm and with a literally bone shattering sound, ripped Corde lower arm clean off. Blood spewed from the severed arm as Corde fell on his back and tried to pull out a grenade to no avail. The terminator loomed over him as it raised its arm, ready to strike th final blow. It never came... Instead a tank rolled around the corner, gun at the readt, and blasted the terminator point blank in the face.

The endoskeleton erupted in a ball of orange flames as it crumpled to the ground next to Corde. To Corde, it was over, to the terminaor, it wasn't. As the terminator's eyes began to flicker, he reached over to Corde, and with one swift jerk, pulled the pin on a grenade. The terminator's eyes went dark and the endoskeleton went limp as Corde closed his eyes and accepted his fate. The grenade detonated several seconds later, leaving both a charred terminator and a one of the USIF's finest, dead.

Three figures hopped out of the tank to inspect the situation and status of the commander.

"Is he dead?" one voice asked.

"Ya..." another voice replied solemnly.

'Well.... let's get going then, we've got to find the rest of his squad." Yet another voice said as the figures hopped back in the tank.

The tank began to roll around the corner slowly as a gruesome sight came into view. The operators of the tank peered out of their windows and periscope to behold Jason standing atop a pile of destroyed terminators, pistol in one hand, knife in the other. His helmet was gone to reveal a sight possibly even more disgusting than his dead comrades, including Hector, who had been torn in half and guts strewn about the area. Jasons face was a pale green and veins bulged from his face and head as his dark crimson eyes eyed the tank like a wild animal, before dropping down on top of the pile of dead terminators and closing his eyes.... for the last time.

"This is Titan squad, we have eyes on Zulu and First-Recon... they're all dead sir, Corde, and all the rest of them too. No sign of Centurion yet though. Orders?" a female voice said over the com as she slouched down into her seat in the tank.

"Corde's dead? Dammit... Alright, your orders are to head out to a nearby ARM LZ and rendevouz with Commander Thorne. From there, you will proceed with his forces to assualt the SPEAR's HQ. Once that's gone we can cut the power to all other outposts and take out whatever straggler's are left. Oh, and about Centurion, I just got a fix on him. He's heading through a nearby forest called the Everfree. Thorne's assault doesn't start for another 12 hours so if you want, go get Centurion and bring him with you, God know's what the hell he's doing. Stone out." the com replied as the connection died and went silent.

"You guys get all that?"

"Ya, I say we go get him, from what I've heard he's the best of the best."

"I agree too."

"I'm in. Tavi' how bout' you?"

"... Sure ..." a voice replied as the top hatch of the tank popped open and a soldier clad in seafoam green USIF armor crawled out, followed by three others.

As Zulu company, which consisted of 4 tanks, 3 bikes and a dozen foot soldiers, secured the area, the seafoam green soldier, who walked on all fours, passed by another USIF soldier who stood dumbfounded as the small creature said in commanding tone, " You guys can have our tank, just make sure you've got 4 hover bikes prepped and ready to go when we get back, we're kind've on a tight schedule. Kay thanks." The seafoam green soldier said quickly as she led her squad away from the outpost and towards a forest which was about 3 blocks away.

"Listen up and listen good. We are going in there to retrieve what might be our only chance of getting through this war without countless other lives being lost. Now I don't want you hesitate to bring him down if he starts shooting at us though. Now let's do this. Stay together and keep your guns raised." the seafoam green soldier said as she stood up on her hind legs and unclipped her shotgun from her back.

The other 3 did the same. A soldier armored in white aegis armor stood up and clicked a small button on the side of her helmet, which caused the two white eyes on her helmet to tint a dark purple which created a soft glow. She then proceeded to unclip a customized USIF assault rifle which was painted white with purple accents.

A second soldier, clad in grey armor, also stood up and unclipped two standard pistols from her sides and held them at her sides.

Finally a third soldier stood up on her hind legs and took a machinegun off her lavender armor before flicking on her helmet lights, as it was begining to descend into... twilight ...

"Let's get a move on then!" the seafoam green soldier said before she led her squad into the forest, ready to begin the search for Centurion.

Just miles away, a figure opened a long forgotten hatch to an underground labyrinth long forgotten by time. As he heaved the hatch upwards, a single sliver of light caught his silver armor as it reflected the sunlight. Just moments later the figure slipped down into the hole and closed the hatch overhead.

The figure slid down a very long ladder in darkness, aside from his armor lights. His metal boots finally hit the floor and he quickly walked over to a long forgotten monitor that read ' S K Y N E T' across the top of the huge screen. Almost instantly the silver figure pressed a button on the side of the monitor, flipped a few switches, and chose a few buttons to press, as the screen came to life.

And as it did, the figure spoke in a deep, commanding tone. " SKYNET, bring up inventory statistics..." and no sooner had he said that, a long a list appeared on the screen.

The figure scrolled through it, checking that ample weapons, ammunition and vehicles were at hand. Until he finally reached the section he had been looking for. The list read something like this.

TERMINATOR INVENTORY

QUANTITY

T-1: 100

T-70: 250

T-105: 150

T-400: 500

T-500: 500

T-600: 700

T-700: 150

T-800: 1,000

T-850: 750

T-888: 650

T-900: 600

T-950: 500

T-1000: 200

T-1001: 175

TS-300: 200

TOK-715: 100

I-950: 100

T-X: 75

HK-TANK: 450

HK-AERIAL: 300

HK-MINIHUNTER: 400

HK-DRONE: 400

HK- BOMBER: 250

HARVESTER: 500

MOTOTERMINATOR: 475

T-7-T: 450

HK-CENTURION: 1

The figure cracked a smile at the last one as the lights came on and revealed him to be the one at the end of the list. It was in fact Centurion. But more importantly he was something else.

He was a terminator.

Comments

[mesmerwolf]

umm... wut? So we go from powered armored infantry to zombies and now we have SKYNET's Terminators? I is confused. Great story by the way.

[Silver Centurion]

I would just like to let everyone know the new chapter will be out much sooner than my latest one, sorry, kinda just had stuff to do and lost my drive to write this for a little while, but now I'm back! Expect weekly to Bi-weekly updates.