Their ranks had numbered forty
on the day before,
But during the night's fighting
all had died except these four.

They had tried to use the radio
to call and ask for aide,
But to all their cries and pleas
no attention had been paid.

There was no hope for rescue
no way they would surrender,
They had heard of how the enemy
enjoyed to torture and dismember.

In a war the soldier
is nothing but a pawn,
And now these soldiers realized
that they would die at dawn.

Nearly out of ammo
their spacesuits low on air,
For the morning's battle
the soldiers did prepare.

They stripped the dead of weapons
and all their combat gear,
And stacked it by their foxholes
so it would be near.

As the sun's first rays fell
upon the desert sand,
The soldiers knew the battle
would shortly be at hand.

With death so close upon them
they felt a deep despair,
then they heard the retro-rockets
pierce the twilight air.

They saw the pod descend
and land to their rear,
And they knew that it meant
that help was surely near.

Their spirits were renewed
and as they turned to fight,
They saw the enemy coming
in the red sunlight.

The first wave charged them
running on six legs,
But the soldiers didn't fire
they waited long instead.

They waited until they saw
their yellow bug-eyes shine,
Then they opened fire
and mowed down the line.

The second wave stood
and returned their fire,
The soldiers' ammo was running low
the situation was quite dire.

The enemy approached them
for a close in fight,
When suddenly they realized
their reinforcements were in sight.

It was not a platoon of men
that arrived upon the scene,
But a single robot
a ruthless killing machine.

The robot looked like a dinosaur
that walked on its hind feet,
And as it moved its sensors searched
for alien body heat.

When it found a creature
its gun fired straight and true,
And as the laser hit the bugs
apart their bodies blew.

The robot moved between the four
and then it held its ground,
It moved only to protect them
like a loyal hound.

The soldiers grabbed their bayonets
and fought to stay alive,
The battle robot fired on and on
through waves three, four, and five.

The laser beams went back and forth
another man was hit,
But soon the bugs stopped charging
and chose to call it quits.

The soldier's stood there viewing
the carnage of the battle,
They turned, and to their surprise,
the robot had laid down its rifle.

It moved to the fourth man
lay dead upon the sand,
The soldiers watched the robot
but did not understand.

The robot fell down on its knees
and dug a shallow grave,
It gently buried the body
of the man it did not save.

The soldiers watched the robot
on that fateful afternoon,
Mourn a fallen comrade
on a far off planet's moon.