Extinction (24 page)

A loud moan of pain was heard from the
end of the corridor and the shimmering figure before them went down. The shield
disappeared and a huge, never before seen alien laid before them. The other
members of the attacking force decided not to wait any longer. They knew their
enemy’s strength now and had no reason to wait. In order to get through their
shields, the slugs had to dedicate three weapons per shield. And it took a
while for that to work.

The remaining four figures lunged for
the entranceway. Surprisingly agile for their size, they navigated the corridor
easily. The first ran straight down the corridor, unleashing deadly energy from
his weapon as he went. Luckily, no one was hit as the marines stayed ducked
into the rooms along the corridor.

Fang was up and roaring with his battle
sword in hand. The Samurai sword, an ancient Earth design, was made on his home
planet with Shirka metal and craftsmanship. Although it was human in design, it
was deadly in his skilled hands. He faced the last attacker as he came through
the door and with an arcing motion, brought the blade up towards his
outstretched arm. Fang howled in delight as the metal slipped easily through
the shield and removed the attacker’s right upper arm.         

Fang had hoped that he would be able to
use a low-velocity weapon to get through the shields. Personal shields that the
Coalition used had the same drawback. It was necessary, though, to allow the
user to grip weapons, walk without being pushed away from the ground, or lean
up against cover. If a shield opposed any object that came at it, the user
wouldn’t be able to pick up a gun because it would be pushed away from his
hand. Personal shields protected against energy weapons and high-velocity
objects such as bullets. Apparently, these aliens hadn’t figured out how to get
around that obstacle, either. Once close enough, you could see through the
shield that the attackers had four very large arms, and were bipedal.

The attacker continued forward and
batted at Fang with his remaining right arm. The blow caught him directly in
the jaw, breaking one of the four bones that resided there. Thrown up against
the wall by the oversized forearm, Fang brought his knee up into his attacker’s
midsection while intertwining his right arm with the assailant’s. Fang had his
opponent’s right arm in an elbow lock but the limb was too thick and sturdy to
break at the elbow as he had planned to do.

Thinking fast, he pushed a button on the
hilt of his sword, which made a small dagger point protrude from the bottom of
the handle. Up against the wall, he had no momentum to use his sword to its
fullest. With the attacker’s two left arms beating Fang farther into the solid
rock behind him, he raised his sword and brought the dagger end down into the
attacker’s shoulder.

With the blade deeply imbedded into his
flesh, Fang began rocking the dagger back and forth, opening a large wound in
the arm. A thick, sticky blue substance flowed from the gash and sprayed
everywhere. Fang hoped he had hit an artery, assuming these things had
arteries.

The wound made the attacker back off
only slightly but that was enough for Fang to get adequate leverage. He pushed
off the wall, drew back his sword and then pushed it almost full length into
the attacker’s side. This made the alien drop to his knees. Fang quickly took
the moment to his advantage; he brought the sword down on his attacker and
removed his head in one easy swing. The head rolled halfway down the corridor
before it stopped.

Fang dove out of the corridor for cover
as one of the attackers turned his energy weapon towards him. Once outside the
corridor, he keyed his comlink. “Their shields are protective against high-energy
attacks only. Use hand-to-hand weapons or low-energy rounds only. Sub-sonic
rounds might be slow enough to get by the shielding.” Another energy bolt
seared passed Fang’s head as he tried to peer inside the corridor. “I’ve taken
out their rear support. Three are still inside.”

“Everyone copy that?” Wilks asked. “Give
me a sound off. I want to know who’s still with me.”

Everyone but Snyder sounded off. The
energy blasts had stopped for the moment as the attackers had no targets
directly in sight. “I can’t get back in. Number three is laying down cover fire
every time I try. I’m out of this for now.” Fang’s voice was filled with rage.

“Command channels are being jammed”, Emily
offered. “Bloom and I”—”

Emily’s transmission cut short and
Davies wrestled Daria back to the ground as she tried to leave the room. “She
can take care of herself”, Davies assured her. “Besides, we have one coming our
way. Sit tight and we’ll get to her in just a few.”

Emily and Bloom sat in opposite corners
of the room. Emily was intently watching their stalker. He entered the room
with his weapon at the ready. It had some sort of tracker on it that beeped as
he waved it around the room, trying to find his quarry. It made a different
pitched tone as he pointed in Bloom’s direction. At the change in tone, he
started towards Bloom’s corner.

Emily could see the whole thing from
where she sat but knew that Bloom had no idea that he’d have company in just a
few seconds. The attacker’s back was to Emily and she decided that it was now
or never. She pulled out her throwing knife, which Daria had given her and had
taught her how to use. Taking aim, she threw it at the center of the beast’s
back.

Good luck and bad aim landed the knife
deeply into the alien’s neck. Apparently not deep enough, though, because he
turned to look for his attacker. Daria had taught Emily to always follow up a
throw with either a full-out assault or a dead run in the opposite direction.
She said that unlike the holovids everyone was used to watching, a throwing
knife rarely caused instant death. It could however, provide an opening for the
thrower to get closer to his wounded opponent. And because there was nowhere to
run, Emily had no choice. She immediately leapt at her target the instant she
threw her blade.

He was not only at least three times her
size but seemingly four times as fast. He was already turned in her direction
as she was within striking distance of his body. She attempted to butt stroke
his face with her rifle but was stopped by his two lower arms grabbing her in a
bear hug and lifting her off the ground. He was rearing his two remaining arms
back to squash Emily’s head between his gigantic fists.

A gush of blue blood splayed all over
Emily’s face as the creature’s head split in two with a slightly muffled woomph.
Unfortunately, he didn’t let go of Emily as he fell forward onto the ground.
His humongous body pinned her to the floor and was crushing her ribs to the
point where she almost couldn’t breathe anymore.

“Oh shit”, Bloom said from behind the
huge corpse. “Hold on, Lieutenant, I’ll get you out. God, these things smell.”
His commentary went unnoticed by the trapped warrior.

“Shut the hell up and get him off me”, Emily
gasped.

“Save someone’s life, get bitched at.
Just trying to help, ma’am.” He placed his rifle butt underneath the behemoth
and used it as a lever to roll him up.

“What happened?” Emily said as she
rolled out from under her assailant.

“Once inside his personal shield, I was
able to fire an explosive round into his head.” Keying his comlink, Bloom
continued, “There’s about a five-centimeter space between their personal
shields and their actual bodies. If you can get close enough, you can use your
rifles. I’d be damned careful, though.”

“Ah, thanks for the warning”, Scan came
back. “I’m sure we wouldn’t have figured that ‘being careful’ thing out for
ourselves. Doc, one of them is headed your way.”

“Lay down some cover fire”, Davies began.
“We’re in a shitty location. Draw his attention so we can adjust our attack.”

Wilks peered around the corner and
ducked just in time to save his head as an energy blast hit the wall outside
the door where he was. “I can’t get out to fire. I think the walls are sturdy
enough to handle our grenades”, Wilks said while unhooking one incendiary
grenade and one concussion grenade from his belt. “I’m tossing two in the hall
on my mark. Who knows, maybe they’ll actually hurt one of them.” Not really
believing it himself, he pulled the pins. “Mark!” Two grenades entered the
hall.

The two attackers looked at the round
objects and then at each other and just went back to stalking their prey. The
explosions knocked the one nearest Daria and Davies back a meter but did no
other damage. The flash from the explosion allowed Daria’s movement to the door
to be concealed from the alien’s vision.

As the huge figure entered the room,
Davies called out, “Hey, I’m back here. I surrender.” The giant moved forward.

Daria rolled from her hiding place,
holding her fighting knife in her right hand and a medicspray in her left. She
had loaded every ounce of sedative she had, hoping that it would bring down the
giant. She wanted answers and knew that the base commander would, too.

She sunk her knife into the alien’s knee
and then pulled it out, cutting the tendon holding the leg together. The right
leg buckled as he turned to face Daria and brought his weapon around, hitting
her with the muzzle across the face. The force threw her against a computer
terminal and opened a wound in her cheek.

Davies was immediately on the creature’s
back, trying to choke him into submission. With one of his arms, he threw the
huge marine off his back as though he were a rag doll and Davies went flying
into the corridor.

It did, however, give Daria enough time
to bring her knife’s diamond-edged blade through his other knee and lop off the
left leg, which made him fall face first onto the deck. She pressed the spray
against his shoulder and prayed.

Daria quickly jumped on the creature’s
back and held her knife at the back of his neck. If he tried to get up, she’d
sever his spine and keep him down for good. Fuck information at this point, she
thought.

Scan saw Davies’ limp body in the hall
and dove out to pull it into cover. An energy bolt lanced out and struck Scan’s
hand and made it vanish before his eyes. Surprisingly, there was no pain and
Scan couldn’t tell whether it was because of adrenaline from the heat of battle
or the type of weapon itself. He really couldn’t give a damn at this point; he
just wanted Davies out of the hallway. His enormous swimmer’s strength made the
two hundred and sixty pound body easy to pull into the cover he had just left.

Fang saw his moment of opportunity as
the cover fire turned in the opposite direction. He burst down the corridor
with lightning-fast speed and drove his sword into the attacker’s back. The
enormous back muscles contracted and trapped the blade within the creature’s
body. When the giant turned, he pulled the sword, still stuck in his back, from
Fang’s hands. Facing Fang directly, he could see the tip of his sword
protruding from the alien’s midsection. Blue blood was dripping to the floor.

The alien looked down at the blade and
back at Fang. Weaponless and too far away now to engage in hand-to-hand combat,
Fang spread his feet wide and opened his arms, pushing out his chest and
howling a challenge to his opponent. Any Shirka who had even an ounce of honor
in him would’ve dropped his weapon and faced Fang head-on with only their hands
and warrior skills for weapons.

This alien apparently had no such honor
and began to raise his weapon. Outraged, Fang ran towards what he knew to be
impending doom. As the weapon was almost centered on its target, the sword tip
emerged another foot from the attacker’s chest and the giant was pushed
violently forward. Taking a quick side step out of the way, Fang let the
assailant pass by him and grabbed for the handle of his sword.

Grasping tightly, he twisted the blade
and ripped enough muscle to allow the weapon to be disengaged from the body it
was embedded in. He pulled it out and a stream of blood followed the blade out
of the alien’s back.

The alien continued running towards the
entrance. Fang noticed that the faint humming from the personal shields were no
longer present. “His shield is down. It must have been damaged in the attack.”

Wilks was standing next to Fang in the
corridor. He had seen the sword enter the alien and when he turned to fire on
Fang, Wilks emerged from cover into the corridor. Running, he jumped and placed
a sidekick into the handle of the sword, pushing it to the hilt into the
attacker’s back.

He now knelt and raised his assault
rifle. “Open fire!” All remaining marines took positions in the corridor and
opened fire on the fleeing alien. In less than a second, a couple hundred
explosive rounds entered the already bleeding body and tore it apart.

The pieces fell thirty meters from the
entrance to the corridor. Not much but blue stains remained to give any
indication that something living once stood there.

“Sound off. Are we all clear?” Wilks
ordered. Everyone sounded off except Snyder, who just let out a small gasp.
Wilks walked to the upper half of his buddy’s body. He wasn’t going to make it;
that was obvious. Even if he had the surgical suite that the poor bastard from
yesterday got, there was just no coming back from this one.

Snyder looked into Wilks’ eyes, reached
up with his remaining arm and grabbed Wilks’ shirt. He tried to speak but
couldn’t get any air from his lungs to get the words out.

Wilks looked into his eyes and
whispered, “I know.” The rest of his crew had gathered around and Emily tried
to see what was happening.

Wilks pulled his sidearm out of its
holster and placed his left hand over Snyder’s eyes. Placing the barrel to the
top of Snyder’s head, Wilks pulled the trigger, ending his friend’s suffering
and at the same time starting his own that would last for years to come. Wilks
knew he’d see that in more dreams than he cared to think about. Too many
dreams, he thought.