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Last Battle: In The Line Of Duty
Posted By: JOTD Fanfiction Team<briane@teleport.com>
Date: 2 December 2003, 4:32 AM
Read/Post Comments
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The Last War: In the line of duty
Chapter 2, part 1
By Wado
1700 Hours, July 7 2552 (Military Calendar)/
4 hours before the events at Outpost 33
A hundred or so clicks from New Victory - A Martian Free Trade Colony
An open topped vehicle dashed across the Martian sands. "I'm too sexy for my hog, I'm too sexy for..." sang the oddly shaped driver through his rebreather mask. He was as wide as he was tall and wrapped all around in black robes.
"Damn Slade, you want to keep it down?" said a thin but muscular dark skinned giant of a man who sat in the passenger seat. "I can't even hear myself think."
"Sorry boss, I can't help it with the communications down and the computers all acting funny due to the biggest solar flares in 500 hundred years, I need something to keep me going," replied Slade, "besides it's not like the terrain changes out here, I swear I've seen that rock five times already."
"Hey, remember Slade, don't call me boss out here, my name is Jon Carter"
"Oh sorry boss... I mean Jon," said Slade. "I still think Jon Carter is a stupid name though. No one on Mars is going to have a name like that. How about you call yourself Jon Spartan like that guy in the old videos?"
"Do I look like a Spartan to you?" asked Jon. "Don't answer that."
"Hey boss, why is the Nav point blinking off and on like that?"
"I told you not to call me bo... oh, you're right about the Nav point. This is very odd," said Jon as he fiddled with the vehicles control panel. "The magnetic disturbance is getting stronger as we get closer."
"I don't get it, J-o-n," slowly said Slade. "If all the problems are because of solar flares, then why is the magnetic field getting stronger here and not everywhere?"
"That's what's odd; this magnetic disturbance is not being caused by the solar flares."
Suddenly the vehicle started to slow down and all the lights on the control panel went dead. "What the..." shouted Slade. "This piece of junk hog, damn I knew we shouldn't have given that trader more than fifty coins for it. What do we do now?"
"Grab what we can carry and hoof it. Don't even try to fix the hog, it's not the engine, it's the magnetic disturbance that killed the power."
Slade lit up a fluorescent glow rod and started to load himself up with equipment. "Okay, but I still think we got ripped off buying this hog."
When they were done loading up, the two headed out on foot. Ahead of them in the distance was a rather large hill with small synthetic-looking huts grouped together at its base. It seemed as if no matter how fast the two walked, the hill never got any closer. After a while, the two stopped.
"Let's take a rest here," said Slade.
"Tired already, maybe if you didn't have to carry all those weapons we would be there already," commented Jon. "What use is a 40 millimeter recoilless shotgun anyway?"
"Oh don't make fun of Betsy," replied Slade. "Oh Betsy don't be upset if the big bad boss man doesn't appreciate you, I appreciate you. Besides, that Long Arm of yours probably weighs just as much."
"You're probably right, it does, but there's a reason it's called the Long Arm of the Law, I'll take out a target five clicks before you can even see them," stated Jon. He then brandished the hilt of a long curved sword along side his LAG-7 'Long Arm' sniper gauss rifle. "These are the only two weapons you will ever need Slade. The Long Arm of the Law and a finely forged katana."
"Hey, how come my watch doesn't work but your Long Arm does?" commented Slade.
"Military weapons like this are hardened against EMP, which reminds me," said Jon as he pulled something out of a med kit. "Slade, we better take a few of these, this magnetic disturbance is likely to get us feeling really sick."
"Oh right boss, like in that skirmish on Miranda," added Slade as he injected the medicine directly into his blood stream via the side of his neck. "How much further do you reckon?"
"We should be pretty much walking right over it," said Jon. Then Jon's face went blank. "Don't move Slade, we've got some movement about 400 meters to your seven. Now slowly move down, I don't know if we were spotted."
Slade and Jon went prone. Jon peered though his scope. The magnetic interference caused the scope image to fluctuate like a dancing river, but Jon could still get enough of a view to see a figure of a woman running from something roughly human looking.
"Slade, there's a woman running from something strange, here take a look," explained Jon and then he gestured for Slade to take a look.
"Yeah, she's definitely in trouble boss, that thing looks like a zombie or something only it moves pretty fast," commented Slade. "Do you think we should help her?" Slade handed the scoped rifle back to Jon.
"I don't see why that's any of our business Slade... oh whack, that woman has something around her neck and it looks like a glowing gem," reluctantly said Jon. "It looks like someone got to the treasure before we did, of all the bad karma, the treasure tomb is thought to be more than 100,000 years old; you wouldn't think it couldn't remain hidden for a few more days."
Jon fired one virtually silenced round from his Long Arm. The small round accelerated to nearly 20,000 meters per second as it turned to super-heated plasma. The zombie creature's head smoked a putrid olive brown from a baseball sized hole burned completely through it, and its body convulsed and jolted up and back ten meters as the plasma discharged over 200,000 volts of electricity through its frying body.
The woman couldn't believe what happened. She turned around so quickly that she tripped and fell. She struggled to get up.
The creature lay still for a moment... a few long moments. Then suddenly it sprang up headless and charged at the women. Again it few back with its body in convulsions. This time with two new baseball sized holes burned through it where the heart of a man would be.
It lay on the ground for not long at all this time before charging up again. An arm blew off of it, and then a leg.
"Bad whacked out karma," muttered Jon. "The thing won't stay down and that lady has her foot stuck in a hole or something. Better get down there."
"Right..." Slade hustled down the way; you wouldn't guess a man as wide as tall could move so quickly and gracefully. He was like a heavy-worlder from some corner store, space opera comic book doing gymnastics on the moon.
The creature was just a few meters from the woman. It only had half a leg and an arm loosely attached to a torso but it kept slithering towards her. Green electric sparks shot from it like it was some kind of flesh embodied machine.
The woman lay still, she had passed out. Slade passed slowly by her and pointed Betsy at the creature, or what was left of the creature. Slowly Slade took aim and his finger slide across the trigger.
The creature stopped moving. Had it finally run out of gas? "Heh," remarked Slade, "had enough sucker, you're lucky you kicked the bucket before old Betsy could send you to the next dimension. I pity the pasted fool that messes with the Misses."
Slade lowered Betsy for just a split second, not long enough to utter even two syllables, but long enough for the creature to spring the few meters and latch its flesh-rotting hand in a grip of death around Slade's throat. Instinctively Slade lowered his chin and trapped the hand. He broke it off at the wrist and pulled the rest of the arm out the socket. He quickly peeled off the bony fingers that still clung to his throat.
Slade felt a tugging sensation between his legs. Something had crawled out of the torso of the creature and it was clawing, biting, and tearing its way though Slade's lightly armored body suit right at his crotch. "Aiiiiieeeeee, get it off!" screamed Slade. He tried to pull it off but it was slimy and hard to grab. He hit it but it was soft like a sponge.
The crunching sounds of synthetic armor being crushed and penetrated sounded like tiny nuclear bombs in Slade's mind. "Aiiiieeeee!" he screamed two octaves higher than a boy's choir.
The thing on him glowed bright reddish yellow and got really hot. It was on fire. Then it fell off and popped in a big flash of flames. Slade lay on the ground whimpering.
The women stood with one foot still in a hole. In her hand was a smoking flare gun. "Are you okay?" she asked Slade.
"Oh thank you, thank you, you saved me," muttered Slade who then began to cry.
"Pull yourself together," said the woman.
"Why, can't a man have emotions, do we always have to be so rigid?" asked Slade.
"You can have all the emotions you want, but you got to pull yourself together because there are more of them," replied the woman.
"More of them?" inquired Slade.
"Yes, lots more," said the lady, "lots and lots more. They're a curse. They took out my whole crew plus the crew of Outpost 34."
"Don't you mean they're the guardians of a place you shouldn't have been in little lady," commented a voice from behind the women. "Leave this job for the professionals before you get more people killed."
"What, where did you come from?" asked the women. "Who are you guys?"
"Oh, that's the boss, I mean Mister Jon Carter, and I'm Slade his colleague," interjected Slade. "We're independent traders."
"Packing heat like that," questioned the women, "no not traders, I'd say you're agency types. What agency and for what government I couldn't begin to guess. Thanks for saving me; that was very brave. My name is Dr. Sabrina Sundergaard. I'm a..."
"Yes, I know who you are, your colleagues call you Sab for short," Jon interrupted. "You are one of the foremost authorities on ancient alien civilizations. You graduated first out of 21,095... yada yada yada... but frankly my dear, we didn't come here to save you, we came here to save that gem that's tied around your neck. Tell me about it."
Slade looked a little concerned. "Here miss, let me help you out of that hole," said Slade as he gently as he could helped Sab free her trapped foot.
"Thank you sir, you are too kind," replied Sab. "I think I twisted my ankle, I can't bear any weight on it."
"Boss, can you take it easy on her, she did save me, that's more than you did," interjected Slade.
"I was going to put you out of your misery Slade," replied Jon, "but I was afraid that I might miss and hit the creature."
"Right boss, hehehehe," laughed Slade. A smile came across Jon's face.
Sab could not help but to smirk and then smile, and then she giggled like a little girl. "You guys are alright, very spooky and weird, and definitely way too strong and fast to not be some kind of genetic augmentation experiment, but nevertheless, you're alright. By the way, Mister Carter, I graduated first out of 21,097, not 21,095. Two people that weren't going to graduate made up the missing credits post deadline but were allowed to retroactively graduate with the class due to outstanding circumstances. And as for this trinket I'm wearing around my neck, I'll tell you both all about it as soon as we get the hell out of here and someplace safe."
"I'll have to agree with you Sab," said Jon. "Bad karma coming."
"What is that boss? The ground looks like it's moving," said Slade.
Sab turned to look saying, "Oh god, here they come."
"What do we do boss?" asked Slade.
"We lighten our load and then we run. When we can't run anymore, we die."
Slade gestured to Sab, "I will be your knight in dull black armor. Your carriage awaits my lady."
"Thank you kind sir, I am honored," replied Sab as she climbed onto Slade.
"Get going!" ordered Jon. He then threw a few grenades at the moving ground.
On the cue of the explosions, they ran hard and fast. The ground that moved followed them like a thousand tendrils blowing in the wind. Run, run, run or die.
An eternity later, they saw that they were closing in on where their vehicle had died. "I've got an idea," said Jon. "Take the Long Arm and use its power-cells to start the hog, it should be enough juice to get you going. I'll hold them back."
The ground surged forward and something bit at Slade's left leg. A swift blade severed the small sponge-like creature in half that had attached to the leg and as it fell off, it popped like corn in a hot kettle. "I've got you covered Slade," confirmed Jon. "Now get to that hog."
Slade put on a burst of speed, everything he had left. He reached the vehicle with Sab still on his back. Sab slid off and into the driver's seat. Slade fiddled with some power connectors.
"Arrrgh, there's only one way these things fit together and I've tried every combination," fiddled Slade.
"Hurry up Slade!" shouted Jon as he rushed to the vehicle, jumping, spinning, and flipping in the air occasionally to cut down a few dozen more of the horde of creatures that followed.
The lights on the vehicle turned on and it started to move; only it was moving in the wrong direction. It was moving towards the creatures. Sab shouted saying, "All the controls are working in reverse." The vehicle then darted passed a surprised looking Jon.
"Damn women drivers," he muttered. Then the vehicle passed him again going the other direction. Jon latched on.
"What did you do?" asked Slade.
"I didn't' do anything, the polarity got fixed and now all the controls are working normal," explained Sab.
Slade turned and knocked a few sponge-like hitchhikers off the vehicle. "Hey boss, there's one on your leg."
"I got it Slade," said John. Then he moved his katana back to get a better angle. The next thing was a weightlessness feeling that overcame his senses. He was flying through the air.
"Bump!" said Sab.
"Pooh lady, that was no bump, you just drove right over a three meter drop off!" shouted Slade. "We have to go back for the boss."
"Alright I'm going back." The vehicle skidded around and headed back.
Jon was already covered with the creatures. He rolled down into a ditch and from that ditch came a fiery explosion followed by the bright glow of the aftereffects of a thermal grenade detonation.
"Boss!" cried Slade. He fired Betsy in a frenzy of hate. All the creatures he blasted were instantly replaced by another from the horde. "They got him, they got the boss."
Sab turned the vehicle around once more and they drove far away from the creatures.
After a long time of silence, Sab sighed. "I'm sorry Slade." She tried to comfort him.
"Boss was the only friend I ever had, he never treated me like a freak like everyone else did," said Slade.
Sab slowed down the vehicle and looked up. "What a strange looking meteor shower."
Slade looked up too. "Those don't move like meteors Sab, I think they're ships."
"Maybe it's the cavalry, our boys from..." Sab stopped and slowly turned towards a gurgling sound. She saw Slade, his eyes bulging out and his limbs twitching. And there it was, a sponge-like creature had its tendrils wrapped around Slade's neck, it was already half buried between his shoulders. It had severed his spine, Slade was paralyzed and could not answer, but his eyes still moved like they had recognition. Like Slade was still in control of them.
The eyes pleaded with Sab. She understood. Picking up Betsy, she fired one 40 millimeter recoilless round. She blew Slade's entire body off from the floating ribs up. She turned away; she could not bear to look. She knocked the rest of Slade out of the vehicle and drove on.
She did not care if there were more of the creatures, she did care at all. She just drove and drove. She didn't care where she was going. She saw some lights flashing and some buildings. It was Outpost 33. She did not care. She drove towards it.
The power cells on the vehicle were empty. She did not care. She coasted into the side of a building and crashed into a room. She did not care. She bumped her head. She did not care. She bled. She did not care.
A strange alien lay unmoving on the hood of the vehicle. Yes, she knew about such things. It looked dead, she did not care. She saw a man on the ground; it looked like Brian from Outpost 33. Was he still alive? She did not know, nor did she care.
A tear dropped down her left cheek. She started to cry. She started to ball. A river of tears poured down. She balled and wailed until she slept. She did not care. She slept.
2400 Hours/November 25, 2552/
Mars Insutrial System/Unknown Territory
Alpha-1 Mission Clock 16:23 Hours
Lieutenant Victor Yarmissian stared blinkily, focused on the terrifying, yet dazzling sight of a marine, head no where in sight, arms on where his head would of been. The blood covered body was already rotting, decaying after some time. He stared at his troops, some forty marines. He himself was part of Special Operations. Only the marines, only trained in survival, rifle-shooting, grief of death. Those were not Special Ops, those were ODSTs, Helljumpers.
He was commanded by Captain Tarchen. He controlled 67th ODSTs. But the Lieutenant, sent by ONI himself, was afraid that these marines would not survive. But he depended on them.
He ordered his team of 8 to follow him while the others were to checked Outpost 33. Outpost 32 was secure and just needed some checking.
Victor struggled through the hot climate and much humidity. He personally hated November on Mars.
He walked a few paces, sweat dripping through him. Then he came across another crippled body. This time with a head, no face. No, this can't be, he thought, they were...no! It can't be!
He turned red, his shaven head like the blood on Brian's head.
"Where's Bravo-1?" he asked Alpha-2.
"Sir, incoming transmission." said A2.
"-This-Brav 2-Re-ting ba-ku-H!" The radioman tried to keep contact with Bravo-1 but failed. The radio just buzzed and static was blocking what could be heard. Then, they heard a devouring sound. Victor knew it.
"Devil! Tiger! Follow me. Rage, you take the rest to Extraction Point Alpha. We'll meet you there. We're getting the hell outta this -blam!-' place!"
The group of three ran outside to a valley, but red. Victor pulled out his L45 Laser Pistol and was ready for an attack. The L45 was just a prototype, given to Special Ops leaders. Still, it packed a punched. He ran with Devil and Tiger through some small woods. A single river was covered in blood, animal blood. Same sight as humans. Head or no head. Blood covered body. Guts everywhere. Always the same.
He ran faster. Faster. And faster. Faster than during his fitness test last month.
He then saw the sight of a badly damaged Pelican, at least 20 dead marines, bloody. And what he knew what it was. The Yaxan had arrived.
Author's Note: Part 1 written by Wado. Part 2 was written by Sergeant B.
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