Out of Space
Chapter 393: Trapped?

The city of Silverton, Final Gate to the Citadel

Tyrier reloaded his rifle and took a quick check of his surroundings. His men and the ad hoc Marine support which had grown to almost a small platoon as they picked up more waylaid Marines were currently taking a breather from the close quarter fighting.

They had encountered the Bronze men which were heavily armored. They wore thick plate that protected their vitals and reduced the penetration abilities of their rifle rounds. The Marines and Claymore One had to use their rocket launchers and heavy machine gun fire to subdue any Bronze men which appeared.

Luckily for Tyrier, they had a bag of holding which carried plenty of ammunition for their needs so far. Now, the last barrier to the Citadel where the Emperor was in was before them. There were about a hundred heavily armored Bronze men, wielding massive shields and carrying maces stood before the gates.

Behind them, stood other Imperial soldiers and knights as they nervously guarded the gate. Tyrier leaned back to cover and considered his options. He knew the main gates had fallen by the reports from the radio and companies of Marines were advancing through the city.

The city was in a rough oval shape, with the northern portion sloping upwards to a cliff where the city's Citadel was sited on. It had two main gates, the south which the Marines had broken through and a west gate. The eastern side of the city was the harbor with a wall built out to the sea and had a gate made of chains that was lowered to prevent any ships from sailing in or out.

Beyond the gates, Tyrier could see the pebbled road that led up the slope of the cliff and to the Citadel which heavily defended by both physical and magic means. To get there, he will first need to break through these gates and its guards first and he didn't want to wait any longer for the rest of the Marines to catch up.

"Alright, here's the plan." After making up his mind, he said in a low voice to the NCOs around him. "We hit them with the RPG - 1 and grenades. I want one group to suppress the archers on the battlements while the rest concentrate fire on the Terminators. Questions?"

"How about the magic barrier?" One of the NCOs asked. "We can't shoot through that barrier!"

"Ignore it," Tyrier said. "We kill off the guards than we breach the wall with explosives. Faster and also keeps the Imperial off guard."

The NCOs nodded and they returned to their men to pass on the orders. Tyrier counted down slowly in his mind and when he judged the rest had enough time to be ready, he patted Wolf next to him who had RPG - 1 over his shoulder. "Do it!"

Wolf nodded wordlessly and stepped out of the cover while Tyrier made sure to keep out of the backblast. "ONE ROUND AWAY!"

The 70 mm rocket screamed out and slammed right in the middle of the formation of Bronze men. Instantly, there was loud explosion and bits and pieces of metal and flesh rained out. Following that, several other rocket teams fired their RPG - 1 and creating more destruction and death.

The squad of Marines in charge of covering the battlements immediately fired, dropping helmeted heads as the Imperials peered out from cover. As the smoke clear, more than half of the Bronze men were broken and those soldiers and Knights behind the ranks of Bronze men were also badly injured.

"Grenade!" The Marines cried out their warnings as they lobbed grenades out and the egg shaped explosives bounced and rolled among the bodies before detonating, flaying everyone both living and dead with deadly shrapnel.

"Fireee!" The Marine machine guns swept fire at those still remaining standing at the gate. The more powerful round hammered the heavily armored Bronze men to their knees. Others started their advance while a demo team taking the opportunity to plant explosives at a section of the wall without any magic barriers.

The remaining Bronze men still able to move stomped their way forward towards the Marines and Claymore One troops under cover. They dragged their long maces and raised the heavy shields before them and tanked their way forward.

Sparks and dents appeared on the shield and any exposed part of the Bronze men yet they shrugged off most of the small arms fire ignoring the squirts of black blood coming out from their armor.

One of the Bronze Men reached the cover of a group of Marines. It swung its mace, aiming for the heads of the Marines who ducked and powerful swung smashed the masonry around them. One of the Marine tossed a grenade at the feet of the Bronze Man and the Marines scurried away as fast as they could when the grenade went up.

The Bronze man toppled over as the shrapnel shredded its legs, ripping away its tendons and muscles. It slammed face down and proceed to crawl its way forward. The frightened Marines spam gunfire at the faceplate of the crawling monster and under the repeated heavy punishment, its thick helmet cracked and broke, before the rifle rounds punched through its head and blowing out its jellied brains.

"Back! Don't engage hand to hand with it!" A sergeant yelled as the Bronze Men hit their lines. "Back!"

A whoosh and a Bronze man skittled backward from the force of the rocket, its metal boots trailing sparks on the cobbled street as the rocket impaled itself into the chest of the Bronze man. A second later, the rocket blew up, and a mangled suit of heavy armor toppled backward, it's inside a mess of gore.

The Bronze Men swung their heavy weapons without any fitness, shattering walls and furniture as the Marines dodged and ran from the monsters. An unfortunate Marine caught a glancing blow and was flung against a wall, and slumped down unmoving as his bones were broken by the force.

The rocket teams quickly reloaded and fired at the bare minimum arming distance of the rockets, blowing the Bronze Men to shreds and before long, there was no surviving Bronze Men. The Imperial soldiers remained under the cover of their magic barriers and shot arrows, bolts, and spells at any Marine out of cover.

Tyrier seeing the Bronze Men taken care of quickly rallied the troops, "Ignore those guards! Get in cover! Smoke them!"

He dug out a smoke canister and threw it as far as he could in the direction of the barriers. One by one the other Marines and Claymore One troops followed his example and soon a screen of smoke cover the Imperial's position. "Demo! Blow that wall now!"

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" The explosives planted at the walls blew up spectacularly. Tyrier gave the explosion sometime to settle down before he charged. "ADVANCE! MOVE MOVE MOVE!"

Everyone jumped out of cover and followed the Claymore One leader, as they charge into the smoke. The Imperials shocked and stunned by the explosive could barely stop their advance as their positions were filled with thick foul smelling smoke.

"Go, go, go!" Tyrier hopped over the debris and exited out of the smoke and found himself on the causeway that led right to the castle. He took a knee and fired at some Imperials who came out of their barriers to investigate the explosive, dropping them with well aimed single shots.

'Radio!" He yelled at Loke who humped the radio set. Loke took a knee next to Tyrier and scanned his surroundings with his rifle at the ready. "Lord Actual, Lord Actual, this is Claymore One Actual."

"Lord Actual, send."

"Claymore One Actual, we have breached the final gate and now on the causeway to the castle. Requesting fire support to cover our advance! Over."

"Roger, Standby!"

-----

Outskirts of Silverton, Operation Overlord Command Post

"Get the UAV over to the castle!" Major Joseph called out. "I want eyes over there now!"

The UAV operator skillfully commanded the UAV to switch its patrol pattern over to the castle. Joseph stood before the banks of monitors and watched the footage being relayed over. He saw the group of Marines and Claymore One hurdling behind some ruins beyond the grey stone walls.

"Damn, they did it!" Joseph grinned. "Now all is left is the castle defenses itself!"

"Order the nearest Marine units to advance as fast as they could," Joseph ordered. "We got a way in right to the Emperor! It will be the last fight!"

"Tell support to drop a heavy barrage right at the castle!" Joseph ordered next. "Than switch to smoke to cover our boys advance!"

"Yes, Sir!"

-----

The City of Silverton, Causeway to Citadel

Tyrier leaned out from the ruins of the wall. He saw another group of Imperials trying to advance under the cover a magic barrier, only to be beaten back to the stone guardhouse by their heavy gunfire. "Shit, at this rate we are burning ammo... We won't have enough to storm the castle!"

"Loke, call Command and tell them we need resupply! Or we won't be able to advance!" Tyrier hissed to Loke who nodded and spoke into the radio set.

"Sarge!" Loke looked up from his radio set. "Command says fire mission inbound, two mikes!"

"As for resupply, the nearest Marine unit is about fifteen mikes away!" Loke informed Tyrier. "Command is saying they are throwing all units to our location to reinforce our final attack!"

"Shit, then we hold here till they come and supply us!" Tyrier sighed. He knew they had used up all their rockets for their RPG - 1s. And without any more rockets, if they encountered any more Terminators, they won't be able to defeat them with just small arms fire.

As promised, the shrieks of mortars screamed down overhead and the castle in the distance was covered with smoke puffs as the mortar shells airburst over the walls. The castle's magic defenses shimmered brightly as they blocked the deadly shrapnel from killing the guards.

Tyrier tore his eyes away from the deadly fireworks and turned to the Marine Sergeant. "Hey, get your boys back out the way we came in. Friendlies should be coming to join us in about fifteen mikes! We need to hold this bridgehead here!"

The Marine nodded and gathered his men, and they ran back towards the breached wall to secure it. Tyrier turned back to Loke and said, "Tell Command we are holding the bridgehead here till resupply, our ammo is low and there is no point to assault the castle for now."

"Got it!" Loke returned to his radio and started to relay the message.

"Shit, are we trapped behind enemy lines here?" Hitsu asked as he leaned back in to reload his rifle.

"Trapped?" Tyrier snorted. "We are not trapped behind the enemy... It's the enemy that is trapped here with us!"

-----

The City of Silverton, Citadel, Watch Tower

The Emperor stood at the top of the tower and looked down impassively at the smoke and flames engulfing the city. "Tsk... ants!"

The sky suddenly screamed and smoke puffs followed by thunderous cracks abruptly appeared over the Citadel walls. Immediately the Citadel magic barriers shimmered as they blocked the barbarian demonic weapons, and a thick cloud of white smoke covered the walls.

The Emperor's Lifeguards quickly surrounded him and raised their shields out to protect the Emperor. He felt the shockwave from the screaming spells and frowned as it made his ears hurt. He waved his men away and sighed. "These barbarian thunder weapons are really chaotic."

"My Emperor..." The Governor stood behind the Emperor nervously and said. "W- We should evacuate! It is not safe here..."

"HAHAHAHA," Emperor Varacen laughed wildly. "Safe? This is war! There is no place safe!"

"Don't worry," The Emperor gave a chilly smile which made the Governor sweat more. "Let them come... I want to see how they face off against my own!"