--Archaeus-- To the Ground Below [i]Chapter 7 -[/i] Counterattack (Part I) \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ We flew on the Destroyer back to airfield for a final preparation before we left for the Beta mothership. When we arrived, we saw the last capital ship of the Alphas hovering directly over the hangers. Ceteris landed the Destroyer where the Nex had previously touched down, and we all exited it through the back door that lowered down slowly. Ceteris and his Zealots stayed behind to make some preparations to the ship. "Sergeant, General Mavis is waiting for you, along with Raghath, commander of the GUL Nyr Alpha capital ship." My squad and I made our way to the command center. Along the way, we saw many dead Alpha soldiers laying on the ground, tied up in some type of baggage. I can only presume that the Alphas of the Nyr fleet were going to honor the deaths of these soldiers somehow. "Not a pretty sight, is it, Sergeant?" General Mavis approached me. "No, sir. Certainly not." "Just think, these soldiers had family's back on their home planet. Those family's were all destroyed by the Betas. Their entire planet was annihilated into dust by them. These Alphas we see now are just part of an exploration team that was sent to discover other planets that harbored life. Raghath told me all about it. They've been on the run for about a year now. They arrived at their planets location shorty after their first exploration run only to find nothing there but small chunks of rock." "Wow...that would be an awful experience." I gave a simple gesture to the rest of my squad, signaling they can walk about the base and rearm or what-have you. "And now, here they are. Retreating to our planet as a final stand against the Betas. And were it not for us, they would surely be done for." Just then, Raghath approached us with the device the Alphas use to communicate with us in his left hand. He wore similar armor to Ceteris, except the color of it was very black in color, and his cape was a vibrant gold. "Greetings, human. I would personally transit my appreciation to you for saving my womb companion, Ceteris. He exclaimed that were it not for your intervention, he would be in the hands of our enemy by this moment." "It was nothing, Raghath. I just acted on instinct." "No, human. It was everything. Your actions alone may have contributed to the further existence of my species, and if this should rein true, we shall not forget what you had done." Suddenly, an object on Raghaths wrist begin blinking a red color. He pulled up his arm, tapped on his wrist pad, and a voice came through it. The two Alphas communicated in their language for a moment before Raghath turned off his communicator and looked to Mavis and I. "Humans, you must gather your men and retreat from this place! The ship that looms outside the planet is locking onto this base, and is preparing to fire on it! We have but maybe three of your Earthly minutes to evacuate." "Shit, no!" General Mavis ran over to a button on the wall, pressed it, and sent out an alert across the airfield. "Attention, an orbital attack on the airfield is imminent! If you're hearing this, you have two minutes to evacuate. This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill." Mavis ran back over to us and told us to get outside to the Destroyer. Raghath ran back into the base for whatever reason compelled him to. He just left immediately without warning. Mavis, my squad and I rushed to the Destroyer, offering swift help along the way to soldiers who needed it. After two minutes had gone by, we heard the roaring sound of the VF-11s flying over us. We finally made it over to the Destroyer, there were still large groups of troops hurriedly leaving the base. We told them to split up incase the Betas fired down on them first, but I don't think they heard our screams. Not even thirty seconds later, we heard the whistling sound of the plasma artillery shells coming down and landing on those soldiers, both Alpha and human. Bodies, as well as body parts were flying all over the place. Raghath apparently got to his ship, because once the bombardment began, it left the area. "Humans, we must leave now, before we are spotted! We shall come back for any survivors later," shouted Ceteris from inside the ship. Realizing we have no choice left, we all boarded the Destroyer and it took off in the direction the GUL Nyr was heading. As we flew away, we looked back at the airfield through a small window and watched the destruction unfold. Our entire base, our home, everything belonging to us inside of there was being obliterated, and we were powerless to stop it. Once we reached the GUL Nyr, Ceteris docked the Destroyer in the Nyrs' hanger bay and we both made our way to the control room, along with General Mavis who arrived shortly after. The interior of the Alpha ships looked much different than the Betas. The Betas were mechanical in nature, with large pipes staggering down the walls and ceiling, and an occasional release of steam would burst from a valve, probably to relieve pressure from inside the pipes. The color red was very prominent in these ships. I guess red won at the ceremonial voting of which color the ships will be. The floors were a kind of metal with spherical patterns cut into it; it seems like something us humans would make. The Alphas were very simplistic with their designs. The walls, ceiling, and floor of most of the areas of the ship looked similar to a very fine marble. Like a sparkling marble. We were met by Raghath as we were walking, who then began to lead us to a different area of the ship. We reached a door which split diagonally, a quarter of the way in from each side. The two side pieces retracted towards the left and right of the doorway, while the center piece quickly retracted to the bottom of the doorway. Our eyes were met with the vision of many wounded Alpha and human soldiers laying in what it seems to be an infirmary. "Humans, before leaving your facility, I took it upon myself to carry as many wounded as I could to this ship before leaving. Sadly, I could not save everybody, but many lives WERE saved due to this action." "Thank you, Raghath," spoke Mavis with sincerity. "Of course, human. I felt inclined to show this to you. Let us now make our way to the control room so we may further discuss this assault on the Shyrdon Starship." We all began walking to the control room while I asked Raghath about what the "Shyrdon" were. "Raghath, what do you mean, 'Shyrdon?'" "Apologies, human. The Shyrdon are those who you call the 'Betas'. I only recently found out name they call their own species." "What is your species called then? You never did tell us, nor did Ceteris." "We did not tell you this information because we do not own a collective name for our species. Our leaders, before they were killed in the bombing of our planet, did not focus on such minuscule things. Only advancement in technologies, which is what we all live to do. Most of my people do not even own names for themselves. Only the best and fiercest warriors can have the privilege of a name. Not even our leaders had one. We referred to them as simply one, two, three, and four." Before I could respond, another sliding door opened which cleared the way to the control room. The room was designed similarly to the rest of the ship, with the exception of many monitors and consoles lining the sides which were operated by other Alphas. A large holographic projection of the Earth and Betas mothership occupied the center.