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Firestarter Squad by Iden
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Firestarter Squad: Chapter 1 (In the Beginning)
Date: 11 November 2000, 7:29 pm
"Jesus! Hit the ground or you'll get us all killed!", Jerry reached over and yanked on the sleeve of the crouched marine. A startled yelp and the rookie fell back down into the trench as gunfire blazed overhead.
"B-but its gunfire! It's not the ene-" started the shaken private, more like a young boy, they let anyone into the marines now, they were getting desperate.
"I don't give a rat's ass if its gunfire or your god-damned mother has come to take you home, keep your head down and you might be able to keep it attached to the rest of you." He barked again, his teeth grinding lightly as more rounds of ammo from an assault rifle tore up the ground in front of them, covering them in a fresh layer of dirt.
"B-but . . . " the boy started again.
"Dammit boy, do I have to explain everything? Just because its gunfire doesn't mean it's a case of friendly fire, these blue bastards have the capability to wipe out colonies. What makes you think they can't pick up our own god-damned rifles and fire at us?", he growled, his free hand, the one that wasn't holding his assault rifle with a death grip, came up to wipe at his own face, his dark skin not contrasting much against the fresh soil.
The shout of "Incoming!" sent them all sprawling as a blue arc of energy came from over the opposing crest and lambasted the trench right behind them. The frightened scream of the young and the death cries of the veterans filled their ears after the ringing left, those who weren't incinerated in the intimal blast found themselves suffering horrible slow deaths, unable to even have the dignity to bleed to death as the heat cauterized the wounds.
"Son of a bitch, son of a bitch, son of a bitch...." the young private repeated as he rocked back and forth quickly, his fingers white as he held even tighter to the flame thrower he held, the pilot light no longer even lit. Turned off after the first few hours of being held low in these trenches, that had been how many hours ago?
"T-t-this was s-supposed to be an i-i-in-n and ou-out, w-wha happened?" stammered the private as he continued to rock back and forth.
"To hell I should know, they were ready for us though, we just have to keep this small party directed towards us as the heavy support flanks them, just keep your ass attached to the ground and we might survive this, damn it, where are those son-of-a-bitchin' tanks?"
And then one after another he knew where they were, a series of explosions began to rock the ground as tank after tank was destroyed, he couldn't be sure if it was their's or not, but in the end....
It was silent.
Very quiet.
"J-Jerry?"
"Yeah?"
"The man... is beeping..."
"What?"
"The...the Communications man, he's beeping..."
"Christ... I don't know anything about that... see if you can answer it or something, man, and no more berserk packs for you, Christ boy, you're strung as it is."
"I'm f-f-f...." he stammered.
"Fine... yeah... answers the friggin' Com."
"Fuck... he's a mess..." muttered the private as he got into the 'spirit of things'.
"Shit man, what the hell do you think people look like after a needle gun tears em up and spits 'em out?" Jerry muttered.
Silence settled back in as the private began to tinker with the relatively undamaged communications pack, needed for long range communications, the helmet mounted ones being for short to medium range.
"God, there are so many damn blinky friggin' lights, ain't you ever seen one of these used man?" grumbled the private.
"It's one of the top right ones I think... just toggle them all on and off, we're grunts, not rocket scientists, but it's not exactly brain surgery to use one of these things man."
The private muttered something darkly and began to toggle the little switches on and off, a music chip sounding for a moment, an old classic, music was basically reused after the 22ndcentury. Another bark from Jerry set the private's mind back on course and after a few more flicks of switches voices sounded from the headset of the Com man. The other's headset was unplugged and Jerry inserted his own to headset.
"Kccccccckkkkkkkhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh- peat- I repeat. All remaining units must storm the enemy trenches. The start will be signaled by a green flare. I repeat. All remain-"
"Shit oh Shit..." Jerry muttered as he yanked his set back out and grabbed the private, puling him close. "Listen up maggot, you flip out on me here and you won't have to worry about those blue bastards guttin' ya, I'll do it. Listen carefully and breathe deeply. We're going to storm the trenches, its goi-"
"Suicide! Frig man, that's suicide! Frig you and the command, man! That's flat out suici- ", yelled the private as he tried to scramble away but Jerry held him close, shaking him with his free hand until the other calmed down.
"Shut up Private, shut the hell up!" he bellowed until the other quaked with more fear of him than the Covenant. "Listen, their artillery has been taken out..", hopeful lies, "and they've taken heavy casualties, you just keep your ass down, your finger on that trigger and follow me, and you might possibly survive you damn maggot."
"Y-y-y-ye-s-s, S-sir." the private managed to stammer as his nervousness began to takeover once again.
"Pathetic..." muttered Jerry. Slowly the fated green flare straggeled up into the sky, from behind enemy lines.
"Good and bad news I'd say... it's either a helluva a trap or they did inflict some heavy damage and get some men behind the lines." the third man remarked. He had been silent the entire time. He looked like he had Martian descent in him, Mars had been more of a melting pot than the old country "America" could have dreamt of being. His face was clean shaven as Jerry's but he had long black hair, sort of made him look like his descent leaned more towards Old Asia on Earth. Jerry on the other hand was bald and brawny, he barely fit into his uniform, and came from one of the moon colonies. Rugged. They were all rugged there.
"S-s-sir?" stammered the private.
"Yeah?" muttered Jerry.
"M...m...my name is Scot.", the man swallowed and closed his eyes.
"Private Scot, hold your damn tounge and if you try to get sentimental on me I'll skin you alive. I'm Sergant Jerry and the other is First Class Private Jing. Now turn that pilot light on and get ready, we'll need you to fry a few of those trenches."
So there they were, Scot sniffeled softly and with that he yanked on Scot's shirt as he scrambled up and over the top, followed closely by Jing, and then...
...BLAM!
((Anyone who is eager to see Chapter Two please post so to the Forum- I'll pick it up. :-) ))
Firestarter Squad: Chapter 2 (The Middle)
Date: 19 November 2000, 5:20 pm
... BLAM!
In horror the three watched as a group that had started a few secondsearlier was caught in the middle of an energy blast from a Covenant tank. The five bodies were flung outward sickeningly like some sort of rag dollsin a child's temper tantrum. Silence, the pure pristine type, only camearound when you didn't want it. It made you hear things you never thoughtyou'd hear. The sickening splat of some of the bodies against a small rockformation interrupted the silence.
"Son of a bitch! That could have been us!", Alex quickly tried to diveback toward the trench but Jerry caught him a second time and yanked himreally close, the other quivered some of that good old-fashioned Jell-O.Jerry's brown pools narrowed as he glared at the other, his fingerstightening upon the other's twig like arm.
"One last time Alex, if you wimp out on us one more time I'll flay you fromhead to toe.", His tone was more like a low growl. Jerry was realintimidating, wether or not he wanted to be. He loomed over Alex by atleast a foot, dwarfing him by a good hundred pounds or so. He shoved Alextoward the opposing crest that waited ominously as black smoke flourishedbehind it.
"T-t-there's tanks over there . . . " Alex stammered.
"Yeah. We know. It's our job to take them out though.", Jing spokerarely, but when he did he had a point. "Maybe they're dying inside of itright now though, but it isn't safe to stand here. Let's move out."
Jerry nodded lightly and they started at a steady double advance, Jingmoving out to the right to be able to flank if needed. Alex and Jerry movedwith nearly two meters between them incase another blast came over thecrest.
Alex's hand gripped the flame thrower tighter, the backpack wore down onhim heavily but the thought of what just happened hung heavily on his mindand buoyed his feet. The sound of his gear and weapons clinking as he movedalong slowly calmed his nerves. His head tilted down for a moment to lookat the ground, watching his feet kick up a little dust, there seemed to bedust on almost everything, the explosions had showered the area with it. Hebegan to count the blades of grass as he moved along, each one standing outcrystal clear in his mind as he kept pace with Jerry. He remembered oneCaptain telling them that you always noticed the little things in life, onthe ground, in the air, when you were certain you were about to die. Thecaptain didn't stop there, he went on to tell them that probability saysmost likely, you are going to die, so why not take out a few of those bluebastards with you? He hadn't understood why everyone had been soenthusiastic and thrown up their hats at that time, but the knot in hisstomach that seemed to have wrapped around his spinal cord was slowlyloosening. Maybe he was understanding.
Jerry shook his head as they ran along, Alex was going to be utterlyuseless, maybe he could be used as a shield, but the boy was even tooscrawny for that. Jerry felt the grenades along his belt bouncing againsthis leg as they ran, one hand reaching down gently to grab a hold of one,almost like it was for reassurance that they were still there and wouldprotect him. Jing however he could count to be at his side and be someonewho would sacrifice his life for the continuance of the human race. Hiseyes squinted once again as he tried to distinguish from the giant haze ofsmoke over the other crest of how many tanks had been destroyed. Theserenity was shattered once again by short quick spurts of gunfire as theycame to the crest, and right behind that was the trench system the enemy haddug out. The gunfire seemed to come from nowhere and be aimed from nowhere,it was just the sound.
A quick hand motion was made to Alex, who wasn't paying attention as usual.
"Alex!" Jerry hissed softly.
Alex's head snapped up and he began to back as he almost slipped into thetrench, another short burst of gunfire that seemed to passed right by Alex'snose, this seemed to catch his attention. Jerry quickly dropped to theground and Alex scrambled over to lay beside him.
"Did you see anyone?" Alex whispered.
"I didn't see shit." Jerry growled, "Fry that trench Alex."
"S-shouldn't we follow 'FOF' standard procedure?" Alex whispered.
"What?"
"Friend or Foe?"
"Hell Alex, fry the god damn trench."
"Identify yourself!" Alex shouted over the top of the crest, "Friend orFoe?"
"God damn it Alex.", and with that Jerry unhooked one of the grenades onhis side and pitched it over to roll it into the trench.
A blur of motion as a blue alien went right over Alex's head, the explosionnot far behind. Shrapnel sliced off one of the arms on the creature as itwas propelled the remaining distance of up and over. The arm lay twitchingoff to the side, holding the creature's weapon.
"Fry it! Fry it!" Jerry yelled as it slowly began to try to get to it'sfeet, it's free arm groping along it's back for its sword.
Alex's mouth hung open in fright of the sheer size and evilness the thingseemed to posses, those beady little eyes staring down at him as the swordwas un-slung from its back. Jerry drew his rifle around to bear on thecreature and the resounding click told them it was jammed.
"Fry it, Alex! Fry the bitch!" He bellowed as the creature began to limptowards them. "Christ! Fry it!"
Alex still stood like a raptor caught in the headlights of a jeep, and justabout to be run over as the Covenant warrior raised the energy blade highabove his head. The creature almost seemed to be glorious in it's sinisterway, the blood had stopped flowing seconds after it's arm had been removedand it seemed entirely untroubled by it. The technology it possessed in asingle weapon would rival what they had on their entire crashed ship, beingsthat had advanced so far in their grand scheme of technology, but never losttheir roots of using the majestic blade. It almost seemed to be a sin totry and stop this noble creature from dispatching the two. Alex shook hishead cleared it. He looked back up as the warrior's momentum began to moveto thrust the blade downward towards his gullet. That wasn't noble, or evenmajestic.
Alex's eyes narrowed and he growled a, "See you in hell."
His finger tightened on the trigger and a steam of burning napalm shot outof the nozzle to catch the creature in the chest, flinging it back as flameserupted all around it. The scream of the damned soul echoed throughout thesmall valley, Alex wasn't sure if it was his or the other's soul that wasdamned for this action, but surely one would end up in the 'promised place.'
Jerry blinked a few times as he opened his eyes, no, no energy bladesticking into his abdomen. A few more blinks and he saw Alex, still holdingdown on the trigger, drowning the Covenant warrior in napalm
"Alex!" he barked, "Enough! Save your ammo! It's dead!"
Alex now seemed to wake from a dream, a few blinks and he let off thetrigger, the napalm stream finally ending. Half the field would be on fireshortly, Jerry thought, time to move.
"Let's move... there's still a few more trenches to search and then we'veto get to the objective." Jerry spoke somewhat normally, a little lessaggression in his voice as if still amazed that Alex had fired and saved hislife. He began to work on his jammed gun as they slid down into the trench,the blasted bodies of several covenant, who hadn't made it out of the trenchin time, littered the area. After removing the top of the assault rifle hedumped out a bunch of dirt and growled, "Damn Covenant." Replacing the tophe pulled back the top to arm the first round and fired a short burst into aCovenant's head, watching the blue splatter across the ground and his weaponhe looked up at Alex who stared back, a bit of purple on his face.
"They ain't so tough when they're not in their spaceships, Alex. Let thatbe a reminder to you though, of what I might do if you hesitate again."Jerry spoke, a sick grin plastering across his face and he began to movedown the trench, firing a round into each Covenant head, as if they werelying in pieces as some sort of ruse.
"Where's Jing?" Alex spoke as he looked left and right, jogging slightly tocatch up to Jerry.
A throat was cleared behind him, Alex and Jerry whirling at the same timeto bear their weapons on Jing who jumped to the side. "Hey! Christ you twoare jumpier than two Covenants on the wrong end of a flame thrower."
"Eh?" Alex's brow furrowed as the three settled into a cautious walk,peering into each underground bunks as they moved along.
"Heh, you don't know? The covenant hate flame throwers, even though theyhave something similar, flames are often associated with hell, and as youmight of learned they seem to be the religious type." Jerry chuckled softly,"You just gave that blue bastard back there the most dishonorable death hecould of ever deserved."
Alex swallowed softly, yeah, it was probably him who'd end up in hell.
Jerry called that the first trench was 'clear' and they scrambled up oneside and quickly slid down into the next. A quick glance to either side andthey moved up the side once again and down into the third trench, more likea shallow burial ditch. Humans and covenant lay strewn up and down it.
"... lets move on..." Jing said uneasily, for once echoing the sentimentsof Alex and Jerry.
Slowly they crawled up the embankment to peer over the edge and then Alexslowly slid back down, rolling to sit and lean up against the back of thetrench.
"We're screwed..." he sighed softly.
The other's followed and silence reigned once again, the gentle humming ofthe Covenant tank patrolling back and forth in front of the Covenant Armory,blasted human and covenant tanks littered the area.
"Eh... it's damaged, doesn't look like it can turn easily, takes abouttwenty seconds for it to do so. Something must be damaged." Jing remarked.
"What do you say Jing? You think you can still pilot one of those?" Jerrynodded towards a human tank that was half in and half out of the trench, itlooked like it had been nudged in to make it appear useless. A body wasstrewn half in and half out of it.
"Eh... you two keep it distracted and I'll see what I can do for it." Jingnodded lightly and began to crawl down the ditch towards the tank.
Jerry and Alex crawled back towards the top and watched the Hover tank limpback and forth, the right side actually scrapped up against the ground init's damaged state. A quick glance to his left and he saw Jing's legsdisappear into the top of the tank.
"Alright boy, you aim that flamethrower at the front of that thing,hopefully they won't be able to see anything, if you hear it begin to hum alittle louder then dive to the right, they won't be able to aim that way.",Jerry ordered and Alex nodded.
Alex closed his eyes and sighed for a moment, "You have any jokes Sarge?"
Jerry blinked and glanced at the other, "Wha''?"
"Seriously Sarge, just a strange last request, do you have any jokes?"
"Well..." Jerry snickered softly, "Yeah. Once upon a time Sol Scientistsdecided to send 3 astronauts to space for 2 years. One was from Sol, onewas Mars and the other was from the Io colony. The Sol Scientists allowedeach of them to take 200 pounds of baggage each. The Sol man decided totake along his wife, the Ioist decided to take along books to learn how tospeak Latin whilst the Martian decided to take along cigarettes. Two yearslater, when the space shuttle landed, there was a big crowd waiting towelcome them home. First came the Sol man and his wife and each of them hada baby in their arms. Next, out came the Ioist man speaking fluent Latin.They both gave their speeches and got a rousing applause. Suddenly out camethe Martian with a cigarette in his mouth. He walked up to the podium andsnarled to the crowd and asked, 'Has anyone got a friggin' match?"
Alex snickered softly with Jerry who had finally found what he wanted, heraised the cigar to his lips and Alex placed the nozzle of the flamethrowerup close to the cigar, causing the tip to catch fire. Jerry puffed on itfor a few moments and closed his eyes before opening them to look back atAlex.
"What kind of strange request was that anyway?" Jerry asked as he waitedfor Jing to radio in that he was ready.
"Eh, I didn't want to die with one horrifying impression on my mind." Alexgrinned.
"The impression that there was this poor old woman out there who raised onehorrifying ugly child who never had a sense of humor."
"Eh?" Jerry blinked.
"Your Mom." Alex grinned.
Silence settled in for a moment and Alex's grin wavered for a moment beforeJerry broke out into laughter and slapped the other on the back. "You mayhave a fighting chance soldier. Damn if you don't need to practice on yourjokes, but you've a fighting chance in you."
A soft sight escaped their lips as a single click sounded over the radiofrequency, all was set. Jerry began to count down from ten and theyprepared to scramble up and over once again. Jerry screamed out the finalnumber and they jumped up and began the short ascent up to the small plainwith the hover tank, the roar of their own tank sounding behind them as Jingbegan his futile efforts to get it up and out of the trench, the three ofthem just now noticing that one of the treads wasn't on the ground.
"Christ! Too late now!" Jerry barked, "Let's go for it!"
However the two of them had a sick sort of twisted grin on their lips, alingering thought in their minds. A moment of weary attempted humor thatwould linger in their heads.
"... Your Mom."
[Once again. Please post your support for more chapters in the forum andI'll drop by to read criticism and the like. :-) ]
Firestarter Squad: Chapter 3 (The End)
Date: 16 January 2001, 2:47 am
"... Your Mom."
The thought lingered, but only for a moment as the humming in the tankincreased as the covenant inside began to turn itself towards the others,having to turn around the long way, nearly two-hundred-seventy degrees. Thehumming of the tank began to grow louder in it's slight pause before firing,but the tank's operator wasn't given much of a chance. Alex's habit offreezing seemed to be fading now as his finger squeezed the trigger, flamebelching out of the front of it. Whatever sensors that were on the front ofthe tank were either melted or interfered with. Jerry wasn't idle however,two more of his grenades were unpinned and with a leap as Alex's napalm wascut off he planted them on the crook that resulted where the Barrel and thetank met.
To say the least the explosion was phenomenal, the barrel even becameunattached and spun forward like some sort of toy hurled in a hurricane. End over end it bounced, right past Alex and into the wreckage of human tankdismantled by the repeated hits of a plasma cannon.
Jerry's arm moved up to gently wipe at his brow, a slight grin sent to Alexwho stood once again, paralyzed, looking at the wreckage they had just tookplace in. His mouth hung open slightly and for once the nozzle of thethrower was let loose, the weapon dangling a few inches from the ground.
"Boy, always hold your weapon. Christ the enemy is never far awa-..."Jerry began. His voice dropped away to almost a whisper as through thesmoke came a second tank. Maybe they had been careless and never saw itcoming. Maybe it had been hiding around the armory.
Maybe.
Maybe they were screwed after all.
"Hit the deck!" Jerry's throat convulsed as the energy that seared the airfrom a near blast paralyzed almost anything in near vicinity. The blue beamhad passed right over his head and destroyed what was left of the alreadypulverized tank the barrel of the other tank had gone through.
Neither had actually hit the deck, too shocked by the sudden apprehensionthat they had a good chance of never seeing home again, let alone the nextten seconds. Jerry's hand lashed out to grab Alex by the shoulder and beganto drag him towards the Armory doors. The other needed no encouragement foronce and the two broke into a sprint, the one best gamble being that itwouldn't destroy the ammo depot over two lousy humans.
They were right, the tank simply seemed to be trying to cut them off andrun them down. There were stories of how those things worked, how theystayed up, but simply said those that went under didn't get up. Alexquickly realized the futility of trying to outrun the tank and he began tomove back towards the graveyard of wreckage. Again. Futile. The tankwould simply outrun them in almost any direction and their indecision costthem. Simply put...
"Down!" Jerry screamed, jumping Alex from his thoughts. Jerry yanked himdown as from the muzzle of the tank Jing had rescued screamed a shot. Itwas over for the hover tank, it simply wasn't protected in the rear. Theshot almost went through before exploding, shrapnel was sent askew, the twosides of the tank falling apart, so typical of those machines. The momentumwas still there however and as the engines were cut off the whole thing,split in half or not, crashed into the ground, and -slid- forward. Alex andJerry scrambled backwards as the whole shell of the tank just ripped downinto the ground, sliding forward another eight to ten feet and coming torest, a foot from where they had been. Alex of course now started breathingagain.
"Christ that was close Jing!" Jerry yelled towards the tank that hadfinally lurched up and out of the trench. The machine gun on the turrentwas madly damaged the part of the hatch had been gouged away. Other thanthat the rest of it wasn't -too- bad.
"You look hurt.", came the other replied.
"Frig man...." Alex gasped as he stood up, "I'll fucking kill you when youget out of there..."
"You boys done?" came the gentle inquiry.
"Eh?" Jerry and Alex chimed in to glance towards the armory, more correctlyone of the alien's heavy ships landed on the ground to serve as such. Intypical Marine dress code there stood a female pilot, pistol drawn andmeager squad covering her sides. Unusual was to say the least, this wasonly a site when..., but Alex was interrupted in his thought.
"Got your ship shot to shit? Didn't ya?" Jerry grinned.
"Phff, if you only knew ape... if the racket you've made hasn't drawnCovenant command here we should best all get inside and trash this thingwhile we can...", there was no beautiful hair displayed, hanging down to hershoulders like in the movies, merely a helmet upon most likely a shavedhead. Horribly beautiful blue eyes though, gorgeous skylight blues.
"How the hell did you start on the door, anyway?" Alex finally chipped hisown two cents in.
"... it's not hard to sneak past the thing when it takes a minute to turnaround." she replied, the corner of her lips tucking upwards slightly in asmirk.
"Yeah.... well frig, one less one of them around..." Jerry shook his headscowled, "No lectures needed here Ma'am. Lets get going before covenantcommand comes on to this tea party."
The pilot nodded and in addition for her five grunts Alex and Jerry joinedin, Jing stayed behind to guard the enterance. The small charged placed onthe door having already blown let them merely walk right in to the 'kitchencupboard and mouse traps' as Jerry mumbled, even though Alex didn't have aclue of what he was saying.
As the pilot made to move into a room, striding purposely almost Jerrycaught her arm and yanked her back, "Are you nuts lady? Don't you ever walkinto a room like that..."
"We already fragged the place with at least three shrapnel grenades,anything in here stopped twitching long ago." she retorted, the petty likesmirked still displayed upon two thin lines posing as lips.
"Heh, your ass lady... not mine." Jerry laughed softly and stepped back asthe others entered, Alex followed with Jerry last, assault rifle drawn andfinger on trigger.
Alex leaned his head back to glance at the other and whisper, "Should I frythem?"
"Fry who?" Jerry replied.
"Them..." Alex gestured lightly with his flamethrower towards the six orseven bodies of covenant laying in a heap that came close to their path.
"Naw, you'll be wasting fuel, the pilot's right, most likely nothingsurvi-" the sentence was cut short as one arm on a Covenant warrior shot upfrom the ground, energy sword in hand to spear one of the five other marinesin the gullet, as it slid out it cauterized the wound on the edges, but theinnards still spilled out. Startled the other marines fall back and beginto pull at their arming mechanisms, but it's too late as the covenantwarrior was already on it's feet with miracle reflexes and another marinecries out in pain, his arm lopped off, the one holding his own weapon. Theothers finally manage to open fire, catching the second marine in the crossfire, finishing him off. The covenant warrior with it's last effortstruggles forward against the gunfire to slam it's sword into the chest ofanother shocked marine, dragging him down with it.
Jerry and the pilot stood shocked, looking at the carnage, the last twomarines emptying their clips into the creature, yelling obscenities thatwould of killed the covenant anyway. A moment of silence was taken, therest bowing their heads, but Alex instead pulling his trigger and theremaining covenant in the pile were eaten up in flames of wrath.
"Frig..." the pilot sighed.
"Yeah?" Jerry glanced up, his brow furrowing, "I don't like the sound ofthat."
"We're past our time limit... Covenant coming soon. You..." she pointed atAlex who glanced up startled, letting go of the trigger. "Help the other twowith this satchel charge and place it in the next room, put it on thesecondary core."
"The wha...?"
"The big green thing..."
"Right-o."
Alex snatches the charge from the charge from the other two marines andthey make off to the other room, Jerry glancing over at the pilot whoglanced back. A finger was placed on her lip and a button undone.
"Hey! Pilot! Can you hear me? The door's jammed! We won't set the timeron the satchel until you guys can open it! Hey! Can you hear me!?" Alexbanged on the door a few more times and sighed softly, glancing back over atthe other two.
"You know... I bet they did this on purpose.... son of a bi-" Alex startedranting again, and as usual, interrupted as the door slid up with adisheveled looking Jerry.
"Come on kid... let's go." he barked and the others jumped to follow suit.
Alex quickly ran back in to set the timer before racing like hell back tojoin the others, his thrower dropped for an extra sidearm, burrowing apistol from one of the other two marines he tucked them into the back of hispants and practiced 'fast draw' on their way to the exit. Jerry merelyrolled his eyes, muttering softly.
Jerry squinted in the daylight that had finally bloomed, the one that hadbeen out all morning but covered with dust and smoke. Another squint and hecould make out Jing's tank coming back over the trench, 'though it lookedfunny. Jerry winced as he knew what was wrong, the 'click' of the barrelsounding as the cannon went off, whizzing past him, the pilot and Alex. Yetthe two marines that were inside looting the weapons didn't have much luck. The explosion probably killed them instantly, if it didn't their satchelcharge would in a few minutes. A second 'click' was heard, following by...nothing.
"Well fuck... if that doesn't beat all..." Jerry almost laughed, "Its outof ammo..."
Yet just as dangerous, the tank began to roll forward, stop and rollforward again. The creature inside apparently wasn't used to the controlsthe humans used.
For Alex it was a sickening sight, Jing's body was laying half in and halfout of the hatch on the top of the tank, rocking back and forth as the tanklurched again and again. With a cry of bitter pain he snatched a secondarycharge from Jerry's backpack.
"I'll kill you, you sons of a bitches! God damn, I'll send you straight tohell!" he screamed, running forward and jumping to cling to the gun turrent.
Alex slowly inched his way down the barrel, satchel charge strap in histeeth he reached up and set the timer for a half minute before flinging itinto the open hatch when he was close enough. A little smirk crept up ontohis lips and he began to edge backwards, swearing at the covenant inside howhe 'got you suckers now!'. He was interrupted again though, for the lasttime, he heard the sound but didn't feel a thing as the machine guns setupon the front of the turrent opened fire, ripping through his right side,causing him to fall down onto the front of the tank. It all got reallyblurry after that, red was beginning to dim his vision and the explosion wasdeafening, yet unheard. Maybe it was more felt. The machine gun finallywent silent, the covenant inside liquified now, if not something worse. Alex smiled slightly, his eyes slowly closing and the last sound he heardwas a shell falling from the gun to hit the tank beside his ear, the soundso crystal clear...
dink...
((Well everyone, this is the last installment in this series, I'll be stillsubmitting though. I hope to see a little support for us fan-fictionwriters on the board though!))
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