Blood War 1: Last Stand of the Legion: Rift (34 page)

LYTEN SYSTEM

RIFT

SPACE PORT

CHARLIE COMPANY

WARDOGS

2
ND
PLATOON

FIRETEAM 3

Nani was walking point with Hu just behind her; he was constantly turning around to watch their backs while Nani focused forward. They were moving slowly through another long corridor. It was obvious one of the many small nasty battles had occurred in the corridor before they had entered.
There were no bodies but the sides of the corridor were torn up and wires and cables were hanging from their cradles. They could hear the battle all around them. Debris littered the floor. The lights flickered on and off.

Hu kept glancing up at his battle situational
display. More and more red triangles were appearing and it seemed there were fewer and fewer green arrows. Hu kept telling himself that it was only his imagination; the battle was a fluid hand-to-hand conflict with both sides so mixed with one another that it was hard to tell the difference. There were no specific lines or strong points only small groups hunting one another.

             
"Stop," Nani said.

When they stopped Hu turned around and face
d back down the corridor.

"What have you got?" Hu said
.

"Not sure yet. Standby. Let me see if I can get a better readout."

Hu could see red arrows nearby but he knew they only showed known positions of the aliens that Legionnaries sensors had identified and put out on the battle network for everyone to see. So aliens could be around any corner but until Legionnaires sensors found them, they remained invisible. He hoped the same was true of the aliens.

"Anything?" Hu said.

"Negative. Just a ghost readout. Shit I wish we could get some more readouts I hate being blind," Nani said.

"It looks like there was a fight in here. Wouldn't their sensors have uploaded to the battalions."

"Yeah, maybe but this whole thing has been a total goat fuck since it started. We still ain't got our shit together. Everyone is everywhere with no organization. Those fucking A's are good," Nani said.

"A's?"

"Aliens, tangos, the bad guys. Standby and let me pull up some blueprints so I can see if I can figure a way out of this maze down here. Let's lie dog," Nani said.

Hu knew what to lie dog meant but he had never done it for real. You simply laid down where you were, found some cover and turned off any active scanning your suit might be doing. The idea was
to try and become invisible. Hu laid facing to the rear next to Nani, her boot next to his head.

"You know if we are going to lie dog, you
’re going to have to get taller. I'm supposed to put my head next to your boot. It's down around my armpit," Nani said.

"Fuck you Nani.
You’re just a goddamn oxygen thief way up there in the stratosphere."

Nani laughed.

"Now that’s my boy."

Hu was startled when she called him her boy. She really had come to respect him. The next few minutes were
quiet as Nani went over the Terminals blueprints in her data bank looking for a way out of the maze of support tunnels. Suddenly a call came across the all hands frequency.

"All Wardogs. Repeat all Wardogs. Alamo. Alamo. Alamo. The position is squawked on the
all hands. I repeat Alamo, Alamo, Alamo."

"Shit
, it is worse than I thought," Nani said.

"What's Alamo? It wasn't in the briefing."

"No, it wouldn't be. It is the code word for a last stand. Everybody try and make it to the pos that was squawked for a last stand."

"Shit. I've got it on my readout
," Hu said.

"Me too. Fuck it is five stories up and half a
mile to the north."

Hu looked at the readout for the Alamo position. They were below and south of the position. He looked at schematic then realized he was using the wrong view. He switched it to a view that was similar to the ones he grew up reading as a child. He knew how to get there. He should
have thought of changing his view before. Hu could kick himself it might have helped if he had got his head out of his ass.

"Nani
, I got it."

"What? How?"

"I switched my view of the schematic to one like we used in the mines. It all makes sense now that I've got another view," Hu said.

"Hu
, remind me to kick your ass if we live through this. You dumb shit. Get your head out of your ass. You take the lead."

Hu stood and took the lead.

"Listen, when they call an Alamo then the shit is really deep. We don't have time to snoop and poop. We need to haul ass. So when we go we go as fast as we can, we drop mini mines at every intersection and occasionally I drop some behind us," Nani said.

"Check
," Hu said.

He finished tightening down his tactical vest, loading
its pockets with mini mines and making sure he had a fresh magazine in his rail.

"Ready
," Hu said.

"Lead on there
, Hu."

Hu began running down the corridor as fast as he could without bounding into the ceiling. He kept glancing up at the situational readout and he could
see all of the green arrows moving toward the flashing Alamo point. They made it to the end of the corridor and a three-way intersection. One led up another to the right and one to the left.

"Up
," Hu said as he ran up the ramp.

The ramp went on for some time
almost a straight line upward. Hu kept trying to figure where they were in relationship to the Alamo point. He knew they were on the same level but they had made no progress laterally toward the Alamo. He took the next right that seemed to lead directly to the Alamo. They came to a set of doublewide doors. Something told Hu to stop and not run through the door without checking what was on the other side.

"What's the fucking holdup
, Hu?"

"Wait!"

Hu peeked out the door. The Terminal and Parking Garage were at least half a mile to his right with just open space between. They were on the floor just below the landing strips. It was wide open as far as he could see. Monstrous columns a hundred meters on a side supported the landing strips overhead. Between the columns there was nothing except some equipment left behind when everyone evacuated. This had to be where they put the shuttles and space planes when they were not in service. He could make out what appeared to be the rear of a shuttle up ahead to his right. Red and green tracers and beams were crisscrossing the open area as small teams of aliens and Legionnaires fought furious battles.

"Shit
," Hu said.

Nani pushed past him.

"Nice going homie. Now all we got is a nice little trot across enough open space to give a three year old enough chances to nail us."

"It showed up on the schematic like all the other levels."

"Now you tell me," Nani said.

Then she began to laugh. Hu tried not to but he was quickly laughing just as hard as Nani.

"You always came in last in the runs. Looks like you got yourself a problem," Nani said between laughs.

"I wouldn't worry about me
, they always shoot the big ones first."

Nani was laughing so hard she could only sho
ot him a bird. She hinged her helmet back and took several deep breaths trying to stop laughing. Hu did the same. They both just looked at each other for a long moment.

"Join the Legion
, have adventures and see the Universe," Nani said between laughs.

"This is little more of an adventure than I bargained for
," Hu said.

It only made them laugh harder.

"You need to go home and kick your recruiter’s ass," Nani said.

They had almost stopped laughing when Hu said
,

"What is a Alamo anyway?"

"It is an old battle where a bunch of guys made a stand," Nani said.

"What happened to them?"

"They all died," Nani said.

"Then why in the fuck do we want to get there so bad?"

They both burst out in laughter again.

"What do you want to do life forever?"

"I would sure like to try." Hu said.

Hu answer only set them off
laughing again. Finally Hu said,

"I got us into this. So it's your turn to find a way out."

Nani started to say something but she could only laugh. She regained her composure and said,

"Stop. Damn it I've got to think."

She leaned back and smiled at Hu. It was the first time he had ever seen her smile, much less at him.

"Well my friend. You ready for this
," Nani said.

"Yeah. I think
so," Hu said and smiled.

"Look
, this is how  it will go. We got no time to figure out who's where. No time for aimed shots. Once we take off we can't slow or stop. Our only chance is to cover the distance as quickly as we can. If you see something just pull the trigger and let the suit do the rest. We might keep some heads down. I think we should do that peeking thing they taught us. Completely random or they will figure out a pattern. I will be in the lead and you watch when I pop up. Time it so we are never up or down together if you can. Other than that run like a motherfucker."

Hu's eyes met Nani for a long moment. Her eyes were just
beautiful; they were no longer hard when she looked at him. She gave him the second smile he had ever seen and pulled her helmet down.

"You ready there
, Hu?"

"Ready."

Nani pushed open the doors and took off running. Hu was right behind her. His readout showed the majority of the red arrows to his right but the aliens were all around. They were surrounded. For the first hundred meters no one fired at them. The two Legionnaires had suddenly appeared in no man’s land got lost in the ongoing fighting. Both sides were too busy with known enemy positions to take notice of two figures running like crazy.

"Keep to the left of the columns. It will give
us some cover," Nina said.

With most of the fire coming from their right each time they passed a huge column they would have some cover for a few seconds. Nani bounded left. Hu continued to run and once she
was back running, he bounded. Just as he jumped, a red plasma beam passed under him where he would have been if he had not jumped. At the apex of his jump he spotted a group of three red arrows just to his left. He pointed his rail in the general direction and pulled the trigger until his rail fired full auto spraying the areas with a thousand depleted uranium darts. One of the arrows disappeared and the other two moved.

Hu and Nani made it past two columns
- more than halfway there. They only had two more columns to go when Nani was hit. She had just emerged from behind the column on a bound when a round hit her flush. She went down in a heap; there was no tuck and roll or any attempt to break her fall. She went down hard. Hu was about to bound when he saw her go down. Instead of bounding he tucked and rolled, slowing his momentum. He stood up and grabbed Nani by her harness and pulled her behind the column. Rounds were coming from their right and striking the column and the floor around them.

"Nani! Nani!"

She didn't answer. He checked his readout - she was a yellow and not a black. He knew she was alive. He stood straddling her when his suit began squawking.

"Warning, warning Tangos, multiple Tangos to the left."

Hu turned to see three armored troops coming straight for them. They were firing from the hip; their rounds began to exploding around Hu and Nani. One stuck him in the chest. It exploded with a force that knocked him backwards feeling as if he had been hit with a shovel in the chest. Another struck his leg knocking him down. They were almost on him. This was it for them. They were not getting out of this one. 

"Warning
, warning three Tangos, danger close. Three tangos danger close."

Hu was lying on his back across Nani as the three aliens approached. Thinking they had killed them they dropped their weapons for just a second. In that second Hu fired his rail point blank into the chest of the closest alien. The hundred rounds literally blew a hole in his chest and he dropped. Before Hu could get his rail aimed at the other aliens
, Nani suddenly fired her pistol into the faceplate of the next closest alien exploding his head in a mist of blood and armor. The third alien fired into both Nani and Hu and they were both covered with explosions.

Pain burst through his body. One
of the explosions had found weakness in his left arm armor at the joint.