We Stepped Into The Death Zone

The Steel Justice is a Behemoth-class Battlecruiser of the Terran Confederacy. This 1,500-foot-long steel behemoth is equipped with more than 20 cannons and laser pulse cannons accelerated by magnetic coils, as well as laser array defense turrets. A massive Colossus reactor powers the entire warship's life support and weapon systems.

These warships, armed with thick steel armor and heavy cannons, resemble mobile fortresses forged from steel. In wartime, they serve as the command center for the Terran Confederacy Fleets, while in peacetime, they are an extension of the Confederacy's military power.

Augustus, clad in black and gray Power Armor, walked along the ship's corridor from the crew quarters to the launch bay on the Steel Justice, followed by the 1st Squad of the Heaven's Devils. The clattering of his power boots echoed against the cold, hard lines and simple, practical design of the corridor walls.

"Once we take Meinhoff, Kel-Morian won't be far from surrendering. It's October now, two months from now. We can go home around Christmas."

Jim Raynor spoke on the 1st Squad's communications channel about things completely unrelated to the landing mission: "I really want to see my mom and dad. Hopefully our heifer isn't pregnant yet; that old bull of Billy's is always up to no good."

"Jim, don't you know that reality rarely goes as you wish?" Tychus grumbled.

"We all know that Lady Luck is a bitch; she only opens her crotch to her enemies."

"I've carefully reviewed the mission briefing. Meinhoff is not undefended," Londerstein said over the communications channel. "And our commander is clearly deploying forces based on outdated intelligence provided by spies. The situation is constantly changing; who knows if we might just fall into the hands of tens of thousands of heavily armed Kel-Morian Ripper."

"The generals are used to launching wars strictly according to their plans. I only hope that their battle plans are well-thought-out and repeatedly revised. If it were me..."

"You're just a soldier, Arland. Wait until you're a general," Josephine said. "Even I can tell the higher-ups aren't really interested in this 'broken rock from space.' They want resources. We're robbers; we take what we need and run."

"Has anyone seen my peanut butter, little Amy?" Harnack asked quietly over the channel.

"You always leave things scattered everywhere. The last time I saw it was in your pile of smelly socks," Amy Brandon complained. "I'm not your mother, and sometimes I really wonder if you can't live without me."

"I really can't live without peanut butter." Harnack's voice sounded like he was about to die.

Amidst the complaints and chatter of his subordinates, Augustus turned into a more spacious corridor and entered the launch bay, which reeked of ozone and engine oil. Ground crew in orange uniforms ran around the transport planes and landing craft parked on the docking platform, while technicians surrounded the damaged Avenger fighter, the flashes of welding torches incessant.

A battalion of Marines was lining up to board four sculpted landing craft, while ground crew wearing bright orange nylon caps were busy removing the mooring lines securing the vessels.

The Heaven's Devils has its own dedicated transport ship, the newly completed APOD-46, built at the Bennett Shipyard in Tarsonis. Augustus and his men spent over a week repainting the ship, painting the Heaven's Devils's hooded skull and crimson crosses on its dark gray hull.

The forty-odd Heaven's Devils wanted to give the spaceship a unique name, but they argued for a weekend without reaching an agreement, so Augustus decided to call it Little Devil. Harnack's Red Devils proposal was ruthlessly rejected; he doubted that if the Heaven's Devils possessed a larger warship, Augustus would call it Greater Demon.

Augustus's troops didn't have to wait long before boarding their transport ship, piloted by a pilot Jack, who used to fly supply barges between the space station and the ground for a private airline. Fick, the armored technician from the Heaven's Devils, didn't go with them, but stayed on the battleship's mid-spine deck with other workers to repair the damaged cables.

The Little Devil was quickly launched into deep space by the electromagnetic launch pad in the launch bay. This ship, built at the end of the Guild Wars, had more features than the older models. Each seat had a data cable that could be inserted into the Power Armor, and the HUD displays on the Marines' masks could be directly connected to the ship's sensors.

Augustus's HUD display showed six different viewpoints, allowing him to see both the pilot's perspective and the orange-red tail flames of the spaceship. Hundreds of transport ships and landing craft, under the cover of Avenger and Wraith, plummeted into Meinhoff's atmosphere, which was much thinner than that of other colonized planets.

As it passed through the atmosphere, the Little Devil's outer shell was covered in flames, and the plasma flames of the thrusters became even more dazzling. From Augustus's perspective, the spaceship looked like a phoenix falling to earth, bathed in flames.

More and more phoenixes were falling from the deep blue dome of Meinhoff behind Augustus.

As the Little Devil descended to an altitude of eight thousand feet, Augustus could see Kel-Morian's Hellhound swarm rushing towards them like angry wasps. Initially, there were only a few dozen, but that number multiplied over time.

Both sides' fighter jets opened fire simultaneously.

Out of the corner of Augustus's eye, a laser beam grazed the tail of the Little Devil and struck an APOD-33 transport ship behind it, instantly turning the ship into a ball of fire. A large transport ship carrying a company of soldiers collided head-on with another Hellhound, and there was no chance of survival for anyone on board.

During the long period as the spaceship drew ever closer to the ground, Augustus witnessed more than twenty landing ships being destroyed by machine guns, missiles, and even suicide attacks from Kel-Morian fighters. But Little Devil was lucky enough that the enemy had not yet set its sights on it.

When on the battlefield, Augustus had this feeling more than once: his life and death were not in his own control, but depended entirely on whether enemy bullets and shells would suddenly fall on his head.

At this moment, Augustus do nothing; he longed for the feeling of his feet still firmly planted on the ground.

Just as Augustus could see the dark brown mountains of Meinhoff and the town of Kel-Morian with its black spires in the distance, a Kel-Morian Hellhound caught up with them. Its missiles were already exhausted, and it was firing at the Little Devil with the two sets of air-to-air laser cannons in the nose of its aircraft.

To escape pursuit, pilot Jack deviated from the planned route, flying towards the mountains instead of the city of Kel-Morian. On Augustus's HUD display, the constantly changing numbers showed that they were getting further and further away from their intended landing point New Apollowin Mine.

Half a pigeon...