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.