Fighters from all fronts were converging to go over the land bridge. The dropships were unloading more infantry, but this time closer to the entrance of the bridge where we were, instead of back up on the hill where the combat vehicles were still coming from.

Xandra and I neared the bridge when I got contacted by Comandanta E. She was checking in on how many of the original group were still active and so far, she was only able to get ahold of me and eight others who held radios. E was telling me about where to rendezvous so we could all plan out what to do next, but a robotic voice interrupted through my earpiece. “Warning to all units approaching the bridge, hostile lifeforms detected in the vicinity of the trench. Proceed with caution.”

I asked E to repeat herself, right when blood curdling screams drew my attention. Infantry were backing away from two tank-sized creatures crawling out of the trench, resembling crayfish stuffed into a leatherback turtle’s shell. Both animals fought over an unfortunate sod they grabbed until they ripped their prey in half and ate what they got. Then three more of those things, larger than the first two, crawled up from the trench. They scattered the infantry nearby except for one who wasn’t fast enough. That guy got grabbed by the head and squeezed until it popped. Everyone around these creatures shot at them – with some of the rifles jamming or self-destructing, of course – clipping off bits of exoskeleton, piercing carapace, and hitting one of the beasts in the eye. The one that lost an eye reared up, wailed in pain, and fell backwards into the trench, as the others tucked their heads inside their shells and violently waded through the crowds. Bodies were tossed into the air, crushed, and eaten.

A truck drove by two of the beasts, shooting off legs until one of them fell over lopsided. A creature snatched up the truck and destroyed it as it tried for another go-around. Some fighters tossed sonic grenades at the legs and underside of the lopsided one. The detonation shattered the rest of its limbs, causing the rest of the animal to land on top of the other grenades, which finished it off with a volcano-like display of erupting innards. The other creature injured in the drive-by moved towards my general direction. All I and Xandra had were melee weapons, but there were six fighters armed with plasma rocket launchers several yards away from us. Three fired at the hobbling beast, widening a hole left over from where it had one of its legs sheared off, then the other three fired into the hole, making it collapse dead. Another team of six further away tried to fire on a creature smashing two bipedal vehicles, but lo and behold, one of the launchers malfunctioned and explosively melted that team. Instead, tanks made short work of the remaining animals. Goo oozed out of the giant carcasses that then dried up into unrecognizable husks.

“Warning to all units crossing the bridge,” the robotic voice announced through my earpiece, “Hostile lifeforms detected in the vicinity of the trench. Proceed with caution.”

We joined everyone hurrying across the land bridge. I looked up and saw a few drones pass above us and enter the outpost’s smoldering entrance. I whipped around when I suddenly heard screams of distress by the margins of the crowd and saw more of those creatures crawling up onto the bridge, except these were the size of large dogs and the shells were too small for them to tuck into. One of them lifted someone over its head and tossed that fighter into the chasm. Our edges were being swarmed by these things as we tried fighting back. There were disembowelments, stabbings, decapitations, and dismemberments on both sides. A tank got covered with the creatures, veering off into the trench where it exploded when it – I assumed – hit the bottom, and not self-destruct from a random malfunction.

Xandra pointed my attention to a group of three fighting off the beasts surrounding them. Two were of the EPC militia using their rifles as clubs, and one was Dust Hammer and he was ecstatic to be there swinging his sledgehammer all willy-nilly. I told Xandra to stay put as I unsheathed my rapier and ran to the aid of the two militia members. I kicked, parried, cut, and stabbed my way to them, careful not to let the creatures grab my blade. I made it to the EPC members and helped them out through the path I fought through, just as Hammer got overwhelmed and torn to pieces.

We made it back to Xandra when several low-flying somethings bombarded around the edges of the land bridge with a barrage of lasers and energy orb-type bombs, driving away the creatures. I only took a gander of those responsible for saving our asses again. Their armor appeared to be bronzed, had two hands and feet, and wore what looked like oversized helmets. Who were they? Human? Robot? Nobody had an idea what the aliens looked like, so was it them? We didn’t have the time to think it over and guess, since we were urged to proceed into the outpost by the voice in our earpieces.

The two EPC members split from me and Xandra to find Comandanta E. As Xandra and I got closer to the entrance, we were already hearing the battle occurring from inside the outpost. Then, we received another announcement through our earpieces. “Warning to all foot units entering the outpost, hostile fortifications 100 yards from the bottom of descent. Proceed to the far right or far left ramps pass the entry point. Avoid the center and avoid the stairs.”

Many listened to the voice and split off to the left or right, while some decided to charge on through. Why did they decide to do that? Don’t know, but it wouldn’t be surprising if they weren’t getting the message due to another bug in alien tech, just not wanting to trust the voice anymore, or basic stupidity. We ran through the smoke and felt ourselves descending the ramps as we stepped out from the haze into a dimly lit underworld. Infantry were using destroyed vehicles as cover, while being shot at from the fortifications during our approach. Some tanks near the bottom had broken down or caught fire, and the infantry behind those were firing at the Baggsab garrison shooting at them. The screaming from my right drew my attention, and I saw some fighters running off a large ledge and falling down a large drop onto another ledge, or multiple large drops onto multiple ledges if unlucky. Then, somebody rode their bipedal combat vehicle off the ledge, fell onto previous fall victims, and exploded at the bottom. That was when I realized, those were the stairs we were warned about, which makes sense whereas this place was built by giants.

As I continued down the ramp, a hover tank ripped through the smoke at the top of the stairs and glided down the steps with relative ease. It fired a well-placed plasma cannon round and destroyed the turret gun, then some fighters with plasma rocket launchers stepped out from various points of cover and created breaches in the fortifications. The tank created the largest breach when it rammed through the weakened center of the defense’s walls, sending what was left of the turret toppling over. We made it to the bottom floor and headed through the breaches and smoke produced by smoldering ruin.