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Last Battle by JOTD Fanfiction Team
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Last Battle: Outpost 33
Date: 20 November 2003, 2:42 AM
2100 Hours, July 7 2552 (Military Calendar)/
Mars Archeological Outpost 33
Brian began to get bored, staring absent-mindedly into his microscope, looking at samples of dirt and rock on Mars.
"Hey." A voice from across the room knocked Brian's mind back into reality as he noticed he had been staring at the same sample for the good part of an hour and had barely even noticed it was there, his mind off thinking about something else. The voice continued "I'm going out to try and contact the team we sent out a little while ago. For some reason the radio has alot of static on it and I can't get a good signal, so I'm going to go outside and see if it's any better..." He paused for a second. "If I don't get a good signal outside, I'll go find them myself." Brian knew the voice as Guy. Normally the outpost had 9 people stationed at it, but 6 of them left to dig an hour or two ago. The only three left, (two now, Brian thought) were Guy, Jim, and himself.
"Right..." He replied as he stopped trying to focus on the sample he had been staring at. He needed to stretch his legs and get something to eat. Can't think on an empty stomach, he thought to himself as he got up to walk to the cafeteria
____________________________________________________________
Brian, gorging himself in the cafeteria, was interrupted once more.
"Look, Guy hasn't come back yet, and knowing him he tripped into a hole he dug on the way back, so I'm gonna go look for him, it won't take long... And I suggest that if you want your salary this month you quit pigging out and get back to work." Jim noted as he walked out. Brian, now alone, didn't care either way, as no one was there to boss him around for once.
He leaned back in his chair and touched the fingertips of his hands together and thought...
____________________________________________________________
Jim stepped outside and immediately felt the rush of cold night air. Normally he would be putting an environment suit on, but there was a transparent shield around the outposts, and it split into tunnels that lead to other outposts and digging sites. As long as you were inside the dome, gravity and atmosphere were the same as Earth, sometimes lighter at digging sites.
"Guy?" He called out. The words echoed out and died in the dark night sky. He called out again and there was still no response.
He began to walk around the dome, calling over and over again, with no response. Then, after he called for the umpteenth time while turning the corner of the building he thought he heard movement just around the next corner.
"Guy!?" He half-yelled and picked up his pace. Turning the corner again, right as he did, he saw a shadow go around the next corner.
Typical.
"Look, Guy, this isn't funny, we've slacked off enough today already, if we don't get working the boss is gonna kill us!" He burst into a run around the building, getting the same result each time. Another shadow going around the corner. But after a few laps he began to get tired, and noticed there was no longer any other noise, and no shadows. He realized this and whipped around, expecting to see Guy right behind him.
Expecting this so much, infact, that he yelled
"GOTCHA!" When he turned around and started laughing, then stopped after the eerie realization hit him that whatever was out here with him wasn't Guy.
"Guy?... Guy?..... GUY!!!?!??" He screamed, beginning to get scared. He ran around the building to the front and heard something that sounded like a muffled laugh coming from the storage shed. A great feeling of relief washed over him as he began to walk towards the shed, now knowing why the shadows and noise had disappeared.
Walking into the shed, he looked around. There was hardly any light, it was night time and the only lights were the floodlights in front of the outpost that washed enough light into the shed for him to see about two feet in front of him, but the rest was encased in blackness.
He heard movement, and then saw a foot come out of the shadows for no more than a second. He knew it, this was where Guy was, he just knew it. But the more he thought about it the more he realized that whatever came out of the shadows didn't look like a foot.
No human foot anyways.
"Guy, look, I know you're in here, so just come out, the boss is gonna have our heads if he finds out about this." He coaxed, but there was no response except for another muffled sound.
Of course its him! Don't be silly... He probably just swept a shovel out into the light for a second, who else could be out there? And he's obviously laughing and trying to stop the sound with something... Jim tried to convince himself.
Then there was a thump, and something came rolling out of the shadows.
Jim screamed and jumped back. There, lying right in front of him, was Guy's decapitated head, blood still gushing out of the bottem. He screamed again and tried to run back to the building but tripped.
Looking back, he saw a shadowed leg step out of the shadows. He tried to scramble forward on his hands and knees while trying to get up at the same time. He looked back again and saw a full shadow walking towards him. The only problem was...
That was the ONLY thing coming towards him. There was no body, just a shadow. By now he was in total shock, trying to scream but no words would come out. Infact, he found that he couldn't move at all...
Looking the shadow up and down, he saw plainly that it was not human. It had hoofed feet, was taller than Jim by a full head, and looked as if it's knees were deformed and swollen badly. It came closer, and closer, slowly. Jim's body was still non-responsive, he was completely in shock. It stepped close enough so that he could feel it in front of him.
Then everything went black...
____________________________________________________________
Brian found himself once again staring down through the microscope at, as far as he cared, nothing. For some reason he couldn't concentrate. Jim hadn't come back for 15 minutes, and it should have taken only about 5 to find Guy.
As if to answer his mental question, he heard the door to the outside open and was relieved.
After a minute he noticed that the door never closed, nor did he hear either Jim or Guy, let alone both of them. Getting up to go investigate, he found the door still wide open, all the heat in the room going out and being replaced by cold air.
"Dude, why'd you let all the cold air in?" He said scornfully and shuffled tiredly over to close the door. There was still no response.
"Jim?..... Guy?.... Hello, anyone out here?" There was no response. While he was turning to go back to his part of the lab, he saw a blur out of the corner of his eye. He turned around to see nothing there but another small blur of movement through a doorway that had the words MANAGER written in gold letters on it.
"Come on guys, what are you doing in the manager's office?" He walked into the room that was dark except for a small lamp in the corner that barely illuminated half of the room. There was no trace of recent activity anywhere in the room. Must be seeing things.. He thought to himself as he turned to leave. As he was walking out, he noticed that it seemed his footsteps were slightly echoed. Turning around, he saw a spot on the carpet that was pushed down, as if just stepped on, except the odd footprint wouldn't move. It was as if the carpet was permanently pinned down by some invisible force.
Someone must be messing with the gravity levels, that's probably just my footprint.. Brian thought, trying to come up with a logical explanation to try and take away the goosebumps on his skin. And if somebody was messing with the gravity levels, they must be in the control center. Right as he started walking, he noticed the echo again. Figuring it had to just be creaking floorboards he walked faster down the main hall to the control room.
Then an eerie thought hit him:
This building didn't have floorboards.
He sprinted into the control room and closed the door behind him, and locked it.
"Oh come on... Really, who could be here?" He thought aloud as he walked over to the communications desk.. What he had said didn't help, because while he didn't know who was here, he certainly now knew who wasn't.
He tried to contact the nearest outpost, Outpost 34, then realized that the reason Guy went out was because the radio wasn't working. Looking around for a hand-held radio, he also realized that was what Guy had taken with him outside.
Across the room, he heard the doorknob turn, but not open because he had locked it. Instead of the voice of Jim or Guy asking if anyone was there, the doorknob just turned again, and yet didn't open. Then the door began to shake rapidly.
Brian didn't need any more hints.
He ran to the door to try to hold it closed, and pulled two chairs up against it in a failing effort to keep the mysterious intruder out. Running across the room to a glass case on the wall that said "Break incase of Emergency" on it, and bashed the glass in, pulling out the pistol inside. He tried to load it, but his hands were shaky and he dropped the clip on the floor. As he bent over to get it the door broke open, and part of what used to be a chair flew over and knocked the clip out of sight.
Standing up, Brian saw a shadow lurking in the doorway. Only shadow, there was no body to make it. It looked as if it was hoofed and had badly deformed knees, and was much taller than Brian. It began to walk forward towards Brian, the shadow looking menacing, like a cat about to pounce on it's prey.
Brian screamed to get back, but obviously had no means of defense. He whipped around and saw a window at the end of the room.
He was saved.
Running to the window, he tried to pull it open but found it locked. As he reached down he noticed something in the sky. Closer inspection revealed it wasn't just one thing, but many, many things. A wave of tiny lights swarming closer. It couldn't be a meteor shower, he would know if there was one. As they got closer he realized that they were ships. A whole fleet of ships, and all of them looked completely alien, giving off a beautiful purple hue.
He couldn't believe what he saw, and as the figure drew closer and ignited a strange blue blade, it was the last thing he saw...
Author's Note: The people on the JOTD Fanfiction Team that worked on this chapter are Elfster and candygnome.
Last Battle: In The Line Of Duty
Date: 2 December 2003, 4:32 AM
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.
The Last Battle: The Yaxans
Date: 16 December 2003, 1:53 AM
The Last Battle: The Yaxans
"Wake up.. come on... that's it..." A soft beautiful voice said over the clouded mind of Brian, and archaologist from Mars.
He began to push the clouds out of his mind, and let his mind take in all the data that had built up over time. It all hit him at once.
The pain, the fear, the anger he felt. What had killed all of his friends? What was in the sky that night? Where was he now?
"Sickbay to Captain..."
"Go ahead Sickbay..."
"Sir, the survivor just awoke, his vital signs are coming back."
"On my way..."
He opened his eyes for the first time, feeling the crackling of dried blood on his eyelids. He tried lifting his hands. Tied down.
"Wha....." He began to say.
"Shhh..." said the nurse, "you're still too weak. You need to relax. You're safe..."
"Where-" He began to say, before the swish of doors cut him off. A man in his 40's, with a few extra wrinkles than he would like, walked through the door. "Mr....?"
"Hathaway. Brian Hathaway." He said firmly, regaining his strength.
"It seems you've been through quite a hell." The Captain said, stepping forward to his table, holding what looked like an apple. It was green and shiny.
"Hell means alot of things sir." He said, sitting up, "But may I ask just what it was?"
The Captain took a bite of the apple, and nodded to Brian, walking out the door.
They awake our slumber..
We do what we do...
Infest.....
Yes....
"Sir! I'm getting enemy readings just over the next hill! They're heading this way!"
"My God..." Lieutenant Yarmissian said, walking over dead and mangled bodies. "The ground up ahead... it's moving..."
"Men! Arm! Get Warthog Battalion 155 here ASAP!"
The sound of clips being loaded into weapons of fury, the fuzz of a radio, the squelch of undead enemies. Lieutenant Yarmissian was getting sick of it.
"Fire on my command!" Yarmissian said, sweat dripping down his brow. Up at the top of the hill, he could see the red ground begin to move, as though it were a carpet. The slimy disgusting creature lay under the rock until the perfect time, getting closer, and closer....
"Ready..." Yarmissian said, holding his AR tightly. The creatures growls could now easily be heard. One popped out of the ground 5 feet in front of them, disoriented. FIRE!
Muzzle flashes turned a dark Mars night into day, and groups of half men into bits and pieces of skin. The Scorpion tank move up, and Yarmissian and his crew moved back. The first shell vaporized hundreds of them, but they were coming out of nowhere, and no one could tell how many were left. Yarmissian began to panic, and the rising of multiple enemies all around him, didn't help his nerves much.
"Their... their everywhere!"
"I can't keep a lock!"
"Run! Fall back!"
The screams of Yarmissian's men shook the last of his fearless persona free, and he himself began to scream. The enemy was only feet away, and his tank, occupent-less.
They defy...
Why do they fight?
"Master, the dropships are away, the Human sensors never detected our cloaked fleet." Commander Zaharn'zeck said, his brutish figure in a posture of complete triumph. He was always the childish one.
He never understood how fragile our victory actually was. He used to waddle around singing and grunting the praises of our great empire. That's the best reason I can give why we lost the battle of Mars.
I had lost my left arm in a previous battle, and now I lay prone in my captain's chair, while my minions do all the work for me. But I am not out of this war. Death shall come to the one that lay me in such lame posturation. The primates called him, "Chief."
"Commander Zaharn'zeck, full power to thrusters. Contact the Bomb bay, tell them to be ready to attack Earth."
Brian slowly began to re-awake, finding a beautiful young woman on the table next to himself. Two doctos were attending to her, replacing bandages, and giving her a new IV. The ID tag read only "Sab".
He said something no one could make out, and she turned her head towards him, smiling in a sorrowful way. The smile faded, and a tear fell down her eye.
Suddenly the door swung open, but no one came through. Brian could've sworn he saw something. He heard a scream from the nurse in the medicine hold. A terrible stabbing noise.
Brian pulled the IV from his arm, and picked up his weapons lying on the table.
"Put the gun down monkey..." A deep voice said from behind. He turned quickly to find a floating plasma sword hanging just under Sab's neck. "Or the girl dies."
To Be Continued...
Author's Note: This section was written by Frensa Geran.
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