Day 13, 0304hrs

Darkness. All around the small camp it was dark, except for the occasional pinprick of light that signified a patroling sentry. Sergeant Bradley Taylor lay awake in his bedroll staring at the dark sky, trying to count the stars. Somewhere up there was whatever remained of the Dominion Battleship the Ulysses.

There had been no contact with the ship since a garbled SOS message two days earlier had been broadcast, pleading for help from a Zerg attack. There had been no one to recieve the message, and two hours after the message, the troops on the ground had seen the huge fireball blossom as the Ulysses fusion reactors went critical

Without the Battleship, the Dominion Marines were stranded on the planet that they had been sent to claim.

The planet, refered to on star-charts only as Planet Ceti-Tau III, was a dirtball in space, with absolutely no redeeming factors. Except that is, for the huge deposits of minerals that littered its surface and ran deep under its crust. The deposits had been found by chance, by a explorator team travelling through the system. As sonn as news of it reached main Dominion command, a small task force had been sent to secure it.

Day 1, 1130hrs

Abord the Troop Carrier Marius the marines of the 3rd Battalion, Dominion Line Forces, readied themselves for drop. Thirty squads of marines made final checks of gear, securing lines leads, checking ammunition. In practiced millitary formation the three hundred men and women made thier way aboard the waiting dropships, ready for deployment.

On the Marius's sister ship the Hercules a dozen siege tanks rolloed aboard the drop ships that would carrry them to the surface. Vulture bikes and a unit of five Goliaths was also present, and these too baorded for transport. At 1200 hours precisely fifty dropships began the descent to the surface of Ceti-Tau III.

Day 13, 0346hrs

Sergeant Taylor was on his feet now, his armour firmly strapped in place, as he made his way to the perimiter of the camp. Watches were harder now with so few men to patrol the edges of the makeshift base of operations that served as the command center for the remainder of the 3rd Battalion, and everyone was required to take thier turns on watch.

Day 1, 1245hrs

The interior of drophip U3 shook as the craft battled the upper atmosphere of the planet. Inside, Sergeant Taylor addressed his squad. "We will be landing in around six minutes' time. Our task, along with squads five and seven is to secure the eastern side of the drop zone. We will be accompanied by Tank number four." Taylor puased to make sure everyone understood, then continued "There are no reports of hostiles, but that doesn't mean we can slack off. Any questions?"

Private Jones was the first to speak. "Sir, if there ain't no sign o' hostiles, how come they sending near a whole regiment to 'scout' it out?"

"Who knows why command does anything?" the sergeant replied. "We have our orders, now lets carry them out." As he finished speaking, the lights in the transport dimmed and turned red and a klaxon began to sound. "Ok people, sixty seconds until we hit dirt. Let's get ready to go"

the dropship shuddered as its landing gear made contact with the ground. The rear door opened and the squad filed out at a jog, spreading out into a loose arc as they went. to thier left, squads five and seven also joined formation as they headed to the eastern edge of the drop area. The intercom crackled with voices as orders were relayed back and forth.

Taylor's squad came to the edge of their defined area and began preparing defences. "Jones, Ericson, you two scout those rocks over there. I want to make sure that there's nothing nasty hiding out in them. The rest of you look sharp. I don't want any surprises."

Behind him he could hear the heavy rumble that signified the arrival of siege tank number 4.

Day 13, 0420hrs

The ground around the base camp was rocky and here and there great protrusions of sandy coloured rock jutted jaggedly up from the ground. From his location, Sergeant Taylor could see the faint outline of the Ghost crouched atop one of those protrusions.

Taylor didn't know the Ghost's name, nor did he really want to. Three of them had made the drop, special scouts assigned to the mission by Dominion High Command. One of them had vanished without trace five days earlier, another had been killed in the first attack, skewered on the end of a Zerg claw. The one remaining Ghost had remained distant, speaking only when required and making no attempt to communicate with anyone, unless absolutely nesessary.

Despite being nearly eighty meters distant, the ghost turned his head to look at Taylor, dim starlight reflecting of the visor of his facemask. Taylor shivered and the hairs stood up along the back of his neck as the Ghost brushed his mind, a feather touch of his psionic ability. Taylor turned away and returned to his watch.

Day 2, 1715hrs

In the shade of a drop ship, the marines of squad three passed their offduty time. Red and Ericson were playing cards with a pair of the Goliath piots, and winning so it seemed. That wasn't surprising, Red always had been lucky. Rasheed, or 'cookie' as the men called him was busily working over a small camp burner attempting to improve his field rations into something more edible.

Robertson, the squad Firebat sat quietly cleaning his flamers. A good thing too. If the nozzles became clogged those flame throwers could quickly become a death trap as the fuel ignited still in the lines, literally blowing the user apart.

The rest of the squad, Jones, McLean, 'fat boy' Hogan, Rigby and Talia, the squad medic, would all be nearby ready to move if it was required. Sergeant Taylor, happy that all was well pulled the brim of his cap a little lower and drifted back into his nap

Day 13, 1120hrs

The sun had almost fully risen into the sky and the temperature was climbing rapidly. Red was muttering something about his armoured suit not being cool enough. The personal atmospheric regulators were sensitive, and a hard knock would often put them out of action. The heat was affecting them all, except for Robertson. The heat was the least of thier worries though.

The northern perimiter sentries had not checked in for almost two hours. Stationed around eight kilometers to the north, the two Vulture bikes were meant to be the early warning for any Zerg sightings. Maybe the radios were down, but no one was taking any chances any more.

Day 4, 1905hrs

The lookout spoted them first and had just enough time to send a warning before he was pulled down and torn apart by Zerg claws. The marines had the advantage of being dug in, the defences prepared over the last three days ready to be tested. But the Zerg had numbers. Klaxons sounded and the comms channels buzzed with voices as the Dominion forces prepared themselves to face the coming assault.

As the first Zerg came into range, the Arclite cannon spoke. Huge shells landed and burst into massive incandescent flowers of destruction in the twilight. Zerg died, thier bodies burst apart by the massive force of the shells, but still they came on. The cannon spoke again, tearing more ragged holes in the wave of attackers, but still they came on. Gauss fire spoke, its chatter filling the air as the Zerg came into range of the guns.

As the cannon fired a third time, the Zerg wave crashed onto the defences and hell broke loose. Flames tore into the beasts as the firebats unleashed thier burning blasts that lt up the closing darkness. Round after round poured from the marines' rifles, some bouncing off the hardened hides, some striking true, opening great wounds in the Zerg.

But the horde did not stop. Packs of Zerglings bounded into the defences, draging down marines, splitting thier armour and tearing into the flesh beneath. Men fought and died and slowly the line started to give. First tank number eight stopped firing as its barrel overheated and melted, then number seven was silenced as its adamantite hull buckled and broke under the relentless Zerg tide. Reinforcements arrived from other corners of the camp, trying to stem the tide of the Zerg.

And then they came from the north...

End of part 1