Jobe looked over at Rick. He seemed honestly willing to rush an acid spewing gun line just to get him closer. A VERY valuable ally, Jobe was glad he'd managed to restrain himself on the ship. "Whenecer you're ready...oh wait." People seemed to have stopped firing. Jobe glanced over the ridge. There was a distinct lack of enemy movement.
Jobe snarled and punched the dune in frustration. His heart was beating and he could feel the enhanced adrenalin pumping out of his glands. Steady Jobe, steady. He slowed his breathing and the flow of adrenalin abated. No point in going psycho when there're no enemies to kill.
"Thanks for the offer, but I think we're done here." Jobe smiled and reloaded "Another time though, I promise." Jobe grabbed a nearby pebble and threw it at the feather called McMillan, a little more forcefully than he meant to "Hey! Shut up would you? And point that thing down before you accidentaly shoot down our transport ship or something."
"Well, now I just feel like an idiot." Rick grinned sheepishly. "Don't worry, though, I doubt that's the last we've seen of them... where do you think they came from?"
"Hopefully. I'd guess a rival co-orporation trying to colonise this place, and although the intelligence division is wrong more often than a blind amnesiac playing 'card pairs' I'd assume that at some point, someone would have realised another starship was being made. I guess that leaves us with aliens."
As the firefight ended, Chris started the playback of the footage of the hostiles. He zoomed in and slowed down, parts of the video, and soon noticed that these things looked reptilian in stature, but with all the armor they had on it was difficult to tell from this distance. He stopped the video and trotted over to Jason and said, "Hey Jason, I got some footage here that you might want to check out."
Jason hefted his rifle over his shoulder and looked over to the dead enemies. "Okay guys take two of each type of them back to the Pegasus, we should do some studies on them!" Jason ordered as he walked over to chris. "So what do you have on them?" Jason asked as chris showed him the video of the battle. Jason saw their size and the strength of their armor from the video, He saw that they also had no fear of being hit. "Either they have full confidence in their armor or these guys will be very hard to fight." Jason thought to himself. "Nice work Sgt." Jason said as he gave chris a pat on the back.
"Okay guys double time I want those bodies on the Pegasus three minutes ago!" Jason ordered as he picked up one of the aliens weapons. "How the hell do you use this thing?" Jason thought as he looked over the strange weapon. "Screw it I'll look over them later." Jason thought agitated at the fact he couldn't make heads or tails of it. Jason went over and picked up one of the black aliens weapons and started to walk off towards the pegasus with both the weapons in hand.
James went over to one of the small creatures and dragged one onto the pegasus, having found one with it's weapon mostly intact, James piled it onto the other corpse and huffed, jumping up and laying down in the cargo webbing, using battery kit as a pillow to laze with
Trotted over to Pegasus asking Rick, "Hey Rick, how're these guys for God's-failed-chupathingy?" Chris knew that he would have to check those bodies for any kind of electrical equipment.
RICK: "A little less... Eldritch abomination-like than I anticipated. I have my doubts about them making these holes." Rick walked over to one of the dead black creatures and carefully picked up its gun and fired it at the sand. A terrible smell rose from the sand and it quickly melted, staying molten for about five seconds before quickly cooling into glass.
Rick carefully brought the weapon back to Chris. "Here... have this. It fires heat. See what you can make of it." Speaking louder so that everyone nearby could hear him, "Do me a favor, guys! If we face these things again, don't expect me to be your mobile bullet magnet or wall or whatever until we've horribly murdered ALL of the small black ones. I'm not risking intense heat-stroke in two hits or less."
KNOBS: Private Knobs wasn't excessively disappointed that he couldn't go down to the surface, the flamethrower he had been working on with Colon was too interesting and going too well to not be excited about working on it.
The explosives chamber was about done, now he just had to test it. Never had all the metal in his vest been so useful.
He checked a directory for a firing range, and ran to the closest one. It was in the exterior of the ship, so he didn't travel through the main city to get there.
The test went quite well - a grenade with two liters of gasoline traveled a good fifty feet and left a black streak on the floor. He calmly thanked the slack-jawed attendant and left, taking three more grenades and a tank of gasoline with him. It was a wonder they still used gasoline, but it's the only way that a couple systems in the ship ran.
Jobe decided the worst was over, and clambered up over the dune. He walked cautiously down to the bodies of the creatures and began looking over them while some of the others dragged the carcasses to the transport. He knelt down and pulled the helmet off one of the bodies and looked at the face underneath. Interesting. Jobe got back up and began walking back to the group. He called loudly: "So do we get medals for being the first humans to ever kill aliens on another planet? Should I start writing my memoirs?"
"Let's just worry about getting the bodies back on the Pegasus before something else decides to try and kill us." Jason called back. He whipped his brow as he looked around the battle area, it was too hot for his liking and it was causing him to sweat. "Those things were too well trained and their weapons were too advanced for that to be the only group of em. This mission just got much harder" Jason thought to himself as he went back to overseeing the retrieval of the bodies.
Chris grabbed the weapon from Rick and turned it over a few times. He decided not to shoot it and wait to get back on the Berlin where he could do some real testing and find out what makes this gun tick. Chris then made a few copies of the battle footage he had captured and forwarded them to Jason's PDA and the investigative team on the Berlin to see what they make of it.
Jason was inspecting one of the alien weapons when the ground started to shake. "What the hell is going on?" Jason questioned looking around trying to find the source. He looked at the hole and it was still intact and didn't even look like it was collapsing on itself. He then heard a loud roar coming from inside of the hole. "Everyone get away from the hole!" Jason shouted as the squad backed away from the hole. Jason pointed his rifle at the hole waiting for whatever was in there to come out.
Jason then saw a large green hand grab onto the ledge of the hole, Jason took a shot at the hand hoping to knock whatever it was back down the hole. The bullet then ricocheted off the hand like it was made of some type of metal. The creature then roared again but this time it was louder and it made jason cover his ears. "Pax.......... Go get the Pegasus started......... NOW!" Jason ordered after the creature stopped roaring. "Everyone get back to the pegasus." Jason ordered in a soft tone while backing away from the hole.
Jason saw the hand of the creature move as it pulled itself out of the hole. Jason was stunned by what he saw, he saw a very large green monster that looked like it was covered in diamonds. The creature took a long glance at the frozen soldiers and roared at the group. One of the soldiers from the tokyo panicked and started to shoot at the monster. The monster looked over at the soldier and in one quick move ran at the soldier. The monster took its arm and crushed the soldier into the sand instantly killing him. The monster then lifted it's bloody hands from the sand and looked back over at the group and roared again at them.
"POTENTIALLY A CHUPACABRA FROM THE BOWELS OF HELL!" Rick hollered before any battlefield smartasses could ask. He wasn't well protected against crushing, and while it looked like he'd survive an initial attack from the thing, he wasn't all that keen on testing that idea.
Rick turned and broke into a sprint towards the drop zone, then checked himself, stopped and turned around, checking to make sure that everyone was as safe as could be expected.
James groaned from his napping in the Pegasus, and when he saw the creature he froze "Captain, permission to call in orbital assets?" James asked quickly into comms.
McMillan almost squeaked as he ran in a full on sprint, having become very fast from the hard training he'd received, he dived into the drop vehicle and grabbed an SVD, preparing to cover other squadmates as they ran in, he couldn't go get them however, in his dive, he bruised a shin. "...Ss.s.s.s Sgt, orders?" James looked down and nodded "Cover anybody if they need it avoid having it notice us unless absolutely necessary to piss it off. Rick, do you have enough rockets to kill it?"
"I have no clue! That thing looks like it could take at least three rockets to the face alone!"
Rick glanced back at the thing. "Should I be escorting people back to the ship, lobbing rockets at it, or running so fast that I leave a small canyon?"
The Diablo roared at him. Even from a distance of a couple dozen meters its breath blew back the fabric of his fatigues.
?alright, bigjobs.? He muttered, more to himself than to it, ?I?ve taken on a tank 1 on 1 before. I think I can take you on.? He pulled out a lump of putty explosive from his pack and ran at it. It was tough on the outside but he doubted its insides would be as strong.
?
Several moments later, after he had dragged himself up off the sand, he evaluated what had happened. The Diablo had been much faster than he?d expected. It had swatted him aside the moment he?d gotten into range. He was beginning to doubt his initial confidence. His vision was blurred and his head was spinning. He tried to lift himself up but it seemed like all his limbs were suddenly made of lead. Concussion, probably. he thought, mind feeling drunk on its own chemicals, That?s the downside of these enhancements. I know for a fact there?s not a broken bone in my body after that but my brain?s been rattled around like it was on a damn rollercoaster.
He turned his head the few degrees he felt he could and looked at his arm. The power armor?s completely bent up. And I don?t think I had that many shards of metal embedded in my forearm when I ran at it. Probably why everything seems so heavy. Got dead weight keeping me down.
He was half aware of Private Hall sprinting towards the beast from behind. He watched as the private delivered a few rounds into a Shade that had crawled out of the hole after him before dropping his rifle and scooping up the explosives Jarmen had dropped when he took the hit. What was that airheaded idiot trying to do? Hall leaped up onto the Diablo?s back and slung his arm over the side of the beasts head. He then swung up and shoved the charge into the beast?s mouth, his arm disappearing up to the shoulder. The beast finally took notice, grabbing Hall?s other arm between two fingers and smashing him bodily to the ground. The impact was enough to neatly separate the arm the Diablo was holding from the rest of Hall. Hall bounced heavily several times before coming to a rest a few yards from Jarmen. The boy?s head was completely caved in, blood and brain matter leaking out of it onto the ground. Kell knew he wouldn?t be getting back up, even with Damien?s considerably ?talents.? The Diablo turned back to Kell, ignoring the fire coming from the rest of the WINGS squad and began plodding over to him. Kell looked back at Hall?s body. It looks so red? he thought, watching blood spurt lazily from the stump where Hall?s arm had once been. This is how it usually is, isn?t it? You know you?re going to die so you start to really take in all the details. Every pebble, every shadow on the wall, every stitch in the fabric of your uniform. They all seem so important, like you have to memorize every last thing about what you?re seeing before you?leave. He was sure he could hear someone yelling his name over the ringing in his ears. Jason? One of the WINGS members? One of the recruits? Maggie? He watched the Diablo lift its leg up over his head. It?s going to step on me. Like a fucking cockroach. What a stupid, suitable way to die. I hope I start to stink after a couple of days and you have to stop and try to wipe me off, you bastard.
The Diablo stopped mid raise. Its stomach seemed to expand for a split second. It wobbled briefly, imbalanced on its one leg before taking several stumbling steps back and bending over, clutching it?s chest. Oh look, Kell thought dimly, It looks like the charge actually did something.
A renewed hail of gunfire from both the WINGS and recruits caused the beast to stumble back even further. It kept both arms wrapped over its midsection, apparently trying to protect itself from any further damage to the area.
He slowly rolled over onto his back, listening to the gunfire and the shouts of his teammates. The Diablo seemed to have regained its composure and he heard its heavy footfalls growing closer. He became aware of an ever blurring figure sprinting towards him. As it got closer it focused and he realized it was Jason, a look of honest concern on his face. He felt Jason hook his arms under his shoulders and begin to drag him to his feet. The sudden jolt brought with it vertigo a hundred times worse than it had been. A brown haze began to fill his vision. He watched as Camilla and Rick ran up beside Jason, laying heavy fire on the Diablo and backing up alongside him. The loud *Thumps* of Hunter?s heavy carbine echoed in his ears. Well, I?m never going to live this down. I guess I?ve earned a little nap after that. And so has the private.
For just a moment, most of his vision completely blotted out and his mind going blank, he looked back at the corpse of Private Hall, now hundreds of yards away and getting farther still as Kell was dragged into a medivac transport. It looks so red? Was his final thought again before he passed out. As he was unconscious he dreamed of a certain song. One he hadn?t heard in quite some time.
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