One Hundred Days: Last Chance
Taken from Colonel Aleck Winters War Journal
Day 100 of Invasion
This will likely be my last entry in this journal. As such, I will probably procrastinate, so please be tolerant with me, future reader. It has been over three months since the Breachers have invaded our galaxy, these interdimensional beings that pop into existence, and are damn hard to kill. It is not like fighting the Collective, or anything else I previously had experience with, and these giant bugs rely on instinct only. I'm sure I am just repeating what I have already written, but I feel I need to streamline it for you, just in case you have glazed over the other ninety-nine journal entries. When these xenomorphic monstrosities first appeared, they were resistant to lightsabers and blasters and immune to Force abilities. I was in Eos City when the invasion started.
I saw these creatures rip through Dark Siders and soldiers like they were cotton candy. Lightsabers bounced off their carapace exterior, and it took severe strength to cut one apart, which meant many died before even getting a chance to kill these beasts. It was worse for those only armed with blasters, as there appeared to be no damage at all after a few shots, and only heavy-duty blasters would have any effect. Luckily for me, I had my slugthrower with me, and I always have heavy-duty slugs which saved my bacon that first day. I was able to make it to the local garrison and from there make it to the spaceport. I bet you think I should have remained on the planet. It seems cowardly to run away, and you would be right, but I don't know if you were there at the beginning. The death toll was in the thousands after the first few hours, we needed to regroup, and that is why the survivors retreated. I cannot remember the name of the starship I was on, or what model it was, and I was to busy thinking about the mission ahead. My regiment was waiting for me to take command, along with the brigade we were assigned to, and we made our way back to Eos City.
We were determined to rid the vermin from our city. How wrong we were. It did not take us long to discover how rapidly the Breachers reproduced. Post mortem on a few of the corpses determined what happened. The Breachers would fill a body with hundreds of larva, and in a matter of hours, they would hatch and eat the corpse from the inside, after that they began to grow rapidly. I saw a man eaten alive by a horde of Breachers no bigger than a juvenal womp rat. It had only been five hours since the invasion started and there were ten times the amount of Breachers then first reported.
We lost the city in twenty days, and we did not give it willingly, as we lost more people then Breachers killed. We retreated to the Iron Legion HQ, that building was still standing, we were still in with a chance. The perimeter held for thirty more days, but it was merely a matter of numbers. There was too many of them and not enough slugs to take them out. We had many weapons and ammo drops over those thirty days, but it was not enough. Then the news came which we dreaded. It seemed even the mighty Dark Council members were not strong enough to stem the invasion, and over three-quarters of the council died, including the Grand Master. They did not go quietly into the night. The surviving members made there was to our location and were to be evacuated. I was lucky, I got to leave with them, and I watched from the shuttle as the Iron Legon fell. I should have died with my men. It is something I regret, but life has its plan, I guess. It seemed the egg heads had figured out how the Breachers pop into our dimension but lacked the organic material to replicate the process, and I, of course, volunteered to lead the mission to get it. It took twenty days to get everything we needed, that is twenty days of doing nothing but hearing how our planet was being overrun, twenty days of soldiers dying mercilessly by these kriffing monsters. After that time we were ready, we dropped in Sorasu Desert, the place with least enemy activity, and set up our portable garrisons. My regiment moved out, it took us ten days to arrive, and we surgically struck the Breachers hive. There was no chance of us winning this engagement, but it was enough to kill the largest of the beasts and take the parts outlined to us. The Breachers were riding our arses as we hauled back to base. That was another ten days of good men and woman dying to get the material back into the hands of our superiors. The onsite scientists got to work creating something that would help end this war, and it was our job to hold out until they did, and it was not easy. Twenty days and nights off us holding off the Breachers, and so many soldiers laid down there lives for this mission, and we had to burn their bodies to ensure no larva would survive if implanted — wave after wave of Breachers and we held. With the device ready, I gave the command, and we retreated inside. Ships in orbit firebombed the surrounding area killing off the Breachers in the thousands. We didn't do with earlier as we needed to respite to get everything ready. More forces landed in our area and prepared for the final part of the plan. We are going to take the fight to the Breachers home dimension. Crazy? Mad? Yes to both. But we need to do something to make this all seem worth it. The increase in perimeter allowed my refilled regiment to rest for the first time since this war started, and for ten days, we prepared and readied ourselves, until today.
It had all come down to these. Right now, in the next few minutes, we are going to open a portal into the Breachers home dimension, fight our way to the heart, or as close as we can to it, and set off an explosive device that made Alderaan seem like a firecracker. Well, calling it an explosive device looks rather tame, compared to what the Dark Siders are calling it. A Force weapon, something called a Thought Bomb. It is our job to protect them so they can set it off. It is a one-way mission. I want you to know I died doing my duty. I want you to remember these last words I tell you:
My name is Colonel Aleck Winters, I have no regrets, and I will become one with the Force. Win or lose. I will not go quietly into the night!