By: Emily Rudgers
In the war hardened lands of future Earth, humanity has been brought to its knees and tested.
The only possible saviors of the world being skilled soldiers whose abilities are put to the test.
This is the story of the remnants of unit 412.
By: Emily Rudgers
In the war hardened lands of future Earth, humanity has been brought to its knees and tested.
The only possible saviors of the world being skilled soldiers whose abilities are put to the test.
This is the story of the remnants of unit 412.
Authors Note: Right off the start I want to warn people that this story ventures far from my normal venue of writing and contains language, battle scenes, and mild gore descriptions. This is a war story, so if you are repulsed by said topics I suggest not reading past this prologue. I know that I have been neglecting my other stories which people have asked me to continue and I promise that progress has been made on them. This story wanted to be written first it would seem and will move along until my muse jumps to another story. Now without further jabbering by me, time to move on the real reason you are still reading what I'm typing: the prologue.
Times have changed, history has been rewritten. The ever known peace and tranquility of the world is disrupted. The concept of war has become tainted in the disaster.
If only we had known, maybe things would have happened differently, but how could it have been stopped? But I guess the real question is, how will we survive it…?
June 18, 2032 will always be remembered for the change it brought about; when our world became ruins and the people were slaughtered.
We sat on this planet thinking we were alone, the promising NASA mission to the Chartona System revealing no signs of life. The simple exploration of other planets may have been the cause of the cataclysmic event, but the true reason it occurred is unknown by all… that is, all humans. Only the Beags really know the reason, but maybe they are only the sheep being led by their unwavering supreme commander, who has come under the name Votoc.
Whatever the reason was, June 18, 2032 has become marked in history as Dooms Day.
By: Emily Rudgers
In the war hardened lands of future Earth, humanity has been brought to its knees and tested.
The only possible saviors of the world being skilled soldiers whose abilities are put to the test.
This is the story of the remnants of unit 412.
Authors Note: Again I want to reiterate the warning I issued in the Prologue. If language, battle scenes, or mild gore descriptions bother you then please discontinue reading. Otherwise, enjoy the story that follows. As always comments are greatly appreciated. I may not respond to all but I promise that I read them, loving the positive feed back as well as criticisms.
June 18, 2032
(Dooms Day)
What has been found in the records suggests that the day began much like any other day. People went to work and came home unsuspecting of any disaster that was on the verge of spilling into their backyards. Around 6:30 pm, that all changed. NASA suddenly spotted something that was unidentifiable but was heading straight for Earth at an increasing rate. The only problem was, they saw it too late. Approximately ten minutes after the initial sighting, they arrived.
No one was able to be warned, sudden terror was brought upon everyone. No one knows why the government did not launch missiles at the incoming aerial assault. The only conclusion that could be drawn was that there was not enough warning. If you had looked to the sky and seen the number of these little green oval shaped pods with barbs protruding on them it would have resembled a swarm of flying insect that were heading right at you. The military was not mobilized leaving the police as the first line of defense. The police force was annihilated with little difficulty, the weapons they carried were not designed to cause enough harm to the large number of warriors that poured out of their pods. We came to call these intruders the Beags, our greatest enemy.
Then the killing of the innocent civilians began. Many of them got in their cars and tried to flee to a safe location, but the global assault left very few places to hide. It turned out that it was safer in the cities where you could hide in the buildings.
Finally, the military arrived, heavily armed and carrying all sorts of weapons. As the firefight broke out between the warriors and our defensive line, a new type of pod landed in the neutral zone. It was thirty times larger than the warrior pods, but had the same shape. When it landed, a shock wave was felt, it knocking most of the military off their feet. The Beag warriors were obviously used to the shaking and kept on shooting killing many of the falling militants.
Once the dust settled and the army retook their position, a new terror was revealed. Thirty feet in height, the slimy Facpor emerged. This creature was the ideal warrior, needing no weapons and impervious to bullets and rockets alike.
We do not know when the gun was used the first time but a soldier picked up the warriors weapon, and started firing it at the massive line of foes. This new gun was the very instrument that would allow for our salvation. The gun pierced the warrior’s armor easily, killing them faster. As more of the Beags fell, more soldiers began picking up their weapons to fire. When the warriors got close they were attacked with the blades found under and over the base of the gun, which allowed for easy disembowelment.
The only problem was the Facpor; its monstrous body still seemed to be immune to the terrorizing weapon.
Without such a weapon, the human race would have been annihilated very easily. But with the new artillery several small parties of Beag warriors were repelled.
The rest of the day was left to small fire fights, but any Beag force that had a Facpor tasted victory, and any that didn’t had to endure a hard fight. As reported by the last News cast:
'As reported by several soldiers spoken to during combat “These pussy aliens have no fighting skills, seems they depend on their weapons to do the job. To bad for them we now have guns to pierce their armor… That’s right, run you bastards….”'
The units that survived the initial assaults and became accustomed to the fighting of the Beags and obtained their weaponry were nicknamed Determinates. Feared by the Beags and respected by most humans.
The human race had been split into two groups. There were those that helped the soldiers in defending Earth, but then there were those that blamed their respective governments for not protecting them. These people came under the name of Gremlins, who practiced Guerilla Warfare against humans as well as the Beags.
The Beags were to busy worrying about the Determiners to deal with the Gremlins, the Determiners, to busy trying to stay alive and complete their missions to deal with the trouble makers.
June 27, 2032
I woke to the sound of utter silence, a very rare thing that when it occurs is usually associated with a long fight soon to follow. My regiment, Determinate Unit 412, is one of a few known units that still lives of the Determinates. We are not a friendly group to others, especially after the amount of sleep we have lost due to new events. All 6 of us remaining catch winks whenever there’s time, which didn’t happen last night; the Terrorlings assaulted our position making everyone more agitated.
The little feeble things didn’t stand a chance to the amount of firepower we had, they didn’t even make it close enough to release any of their acid spores. But the ones that tried to release them farther away managed to put some large holes in the building.
We would have to move to another position but right now we needed our sleep more, everyone needs their beauty sleep. I’ll leave it to Donc the hard ass to decide when and where to move.
I glanced down at my rifle that was covered in sweat from the humid night. It dripped off onto the floor, which had turned red from the old blood marks that were slowly wearing off. The rifle was essentially new but looked like it had been through many decades of war and tyranny.
It is equipped with the new style of firing based off of the Beag rifle, which has been working so well for most of my companions. Able to shoot 100 yards in perfect accuracy, and is self compensating for wind and humidity.
I wish he had gotten hit last night by one of the spores so I wouldn’t have to hear Donc’s harassing any more. He is one of those guys who thinks everything he says is the right thing and should be done no matter what. Not my idea of a good commander during fighting. He will send you right to your death for “the good of mankind.”
But we are the future of mankind; without us the small pockets of civilians still alive would be killed. We are the last line of defense for the entire planet. Without us, the world itself would fall apart. It’s better not to think of it like that, a little easier on the nerves. It’s better to think of it a piece at a time, one mission at a time. Not the big picture.
I looked up to survey the team. There was Donc leaned up against the back of the door asleep, Kilp sprawled under one of the windows across from the door, Red looking out over the other window keeping watch, Charlie between Kilp and Red, Jonas was laying next to Donc, but he wasn’t sleeping very peacefully. I’m leaning on the wall to the left of the door, alone, able to get up in an instant to backup the window or the door team.
Jonas, the youngest of the Determinates woke up with a sudden start. He had one of those dreams that will scare the living crap out of you, and it is even worse when you have actually lived it. Lately we have been seeing a lot of bodies and not a lot of life. Old Determiner Units that had been made example of, by placing the heads on the ground at the feet of their dead bodies pinned to walls or blasted to pieces beyond recognition. My personal favorite was the one where they had slit the stomach open so that their intestines spilled out onto the head which was left open as to be eating himself.
“Bad dream there kid?”
“Yea, I’ve been getting a lot of those since we saw the bodies.”
“Don’t worry, you will get used to it. I’ve been serving for several years now. Usually the bad feeling goes away after a week.”
“I hope you're right Mast….”
Donc woke up and took a quick glance around the room, no more lounge time for me. He’s not a real morning person, so the second he was finished looking around he started making orders, yelling into the radio waking everyone else up.
“Command, this is Donc of Determiner unit 412. We are currently awaiting orders, or route to another possible safe house. Over.” Command is an aircraft carrier named Atace. It is safe, way off the coast; the Beags had not yet learned how to catch it since they did not have things that fly. Their drop pods could be dodged by the craft.
Then the result from Atace came over our headsets. “We have a new objective for you; we need you to move to the Yactas Research facility. They have developed a new ionization weapon to kill Facpor. We need you to retrieve this weapon and deliver it to the Redas armored company.”
“Roger that command, please relay coordinates.”
“It has been marked on your GPS. There are no safe houses between here and there.”
“Roger that command, we will move with caution, Determiners out.”
I looked down at my little GPS positioned on my sleeve like a watch. I saw the little red light of where we stood and the green light of our objective, some twenty-one miles away. Not a bad walk if we didn’t run into resistance, but we always do; especially since we will be heading through Gremlin territory. A Gremlin is the name we have given to civilians who blame the government for not being able to prevent the invasion. They decided to grab any weapons they can and kill any Beag or militant that comes near their makeshift forts.
“Listen up you pansies, looks like we’re going to get a little dirty today. Charlie you take Red and take point at twenty meters. Jonas you’re with me at middle. Mast and Kilp take flank and cover our 6,” Donc bellowed.
Lucky me, getting to walk behind everyone else, where there is never any fighting. At this point I was so tired it would be better to fight all the way there; at least the adrenaline would keep me going.
Red and Charlie took off at light run down the hall of our building. Then Donc and Jonas took up their positions. Next was mine and Kilp’s turn. She wasn’t very happy to be paired with me; actually she’s never really happy ever. Never has a nice moment, just is a bitch all the time. We went out the door, she went out first. Down the short flight of stairs and out met up with Donc and Jonas. Red and Charlie had already moved out the door. A second passed and on the mics we heard “Clear” in Red’s raspy voice.
Donc and then Jonas moved out and then I saw Charlie move to the next buildings door frame, followed by Red. Our turn, we moved to the first building. We held there for a while, then when we decided it was safe, went into a more casual walk, still in our pairs.
Then the conversations started. Red and Charlie talked something about a bar they had been too. They both wished they had seen Kilp, asked her out and then how far they would have gone. Jonas got into the conversation; Donc just stayed out of it and kept an open eye. I just sat back and listened, waiting to hear Kilp get mad at them. As we walked I saw her oval face turn redder and redder until it got to be the color of Red’s hair. It stood out even more to her blonde hair. She gripped her gun tighter, and I knew she was about to blow. So I decided to join to try to calm it down, by adding sarcasm. It seemed to help a little but she was still going to lay it to them.
The moment before she went off Donc whispered, “Shut up all of you…left side.”
I looked over and there was a small group of Terrorlings. Probably the ones we had fought last night; there weren’t many of them left so it wouldn’t be that bad of a fight, just enough to keep the blood moving.
We split up into our basic fighting teams. I grouped up with Donc and Kilp. Jonas grouped with Red and Charlie. Jonas’ team ran up to the wall 2 houses down from the Terrorlings. My team ran to the other side of the street, with any luck we could get by them without a confrontation.
They saw us and Donc yelled “Take em out!”
We all started firing; it wasn’t long till Jonas ran out of ammo. He yelled “Need some spares.” No one really wanted to give Jonas any ammo. He wasn’t that accurate and we needed every shot to count since the only way we can get ammo is by killing a warrior.
The Terrorlings did the only thing they knew, charged. Fifteen of them came barreling upon my team. Between Donc and Kilp’s accurate shots, half of them fell. With Red, Charlie, and Jonas all firing, the rest were laid to waste. With the charge ended I could see further down the street. Three of the Terrorlings had decided to run down the street in a retreat.
I saw a Terrorling running behind a building to avoid our fire. Before I could say anything about it Kilp screamed, “Ones going for the warriors!”
I pulled my sniper over my shoulder and roared, “Like hell he is.” I didn’t even wait to line it up; I had gotten used to the gun and knew right where it would hit. One shot fired and the next second a large explosion as the spore on the Terrorling’s neck exploded. The acid like liquid flew around covering cars and walls, instantly eating away at them. I had half accomplished what I had wanted. The live Terrorling would never be able to get the warriors, but the explosion it made did.
Around ten warriors came flooding out of the building into a rain of fire. We all stopped firing at the two remaining Terrorlings; they weren’t as much of a threat anymore.
My team moved up to place more accurate shots on the warriors. I ran up and ducked behind the next ally wall. Kilp ran up beside me on the inner side of the wall. Donc ran up and took a knee between what was left of a tree and the wall. I moved out from behind the wall to be on the other side of the tree as Donc. Kilp moved to the corner of the ally to be able to shoot out. Jonas’ team did a similar maneuver, except there side no longer had a tree, but what was left of a trashcan.
We all fired and took out three of them before they stepped off the side walk. Another two were killed while they were looking for something to hide behind. Three of them had taken up a position behind a car. That made my job very easy. I unhooked a grenade from under my arm, pulled the pin and yelled “Fire in the hole!” All of us ducked behind building walls or we rolled back into the allies to avoid the blast.
The warriors knew what was coming, they tried to run out of the way and get behind another car, but only one of them made it there. The other two got caught in the blast, and the fuel of the car exploded, erupting in a fountain of flame. It sent the car about a foot into the air, and pushed the car the remaining were hiding behind enough to run him over.
We waited for a moment to make sure there weren’t any stragglers left hiding anywhere. No sounds or movement of anything so we moved in. I went to one that was run over by the car and found his gun was crushed by the car. I took the ammo out of it and picked up a grenade of theirs.
It was very odd looking; it had no pin, just a little piece that you twist in the middle. I had never seen one of these get used, which surprised me considering how many prime opportunities they had. I wanted to try one out to see what it would do. I latched it on with the other grenades and picked up the ammo. The others did the same.
With the new ammo, we would be able to make it to the research facility. As long as we didn’t run into heavy resistance, we would be fine. We quickly started the long walk down the street again, knowing that soon more Beags would arrive in greater number.
The conversations basically picked up where they had left off. No one was fazed by the combat; it had actually seemed to wake them up, so the conversation was a little more full and constant. I started to add to the conversation. We talked about games we had played when we were younger and how they resembled what we were doing now. In the games the good had always won, but this fight wasn’t like any game that was created. We had a chance of losing, and there was no reset button, but most of us had already accepted we wouldn’t be living for much longer. Jonas is the only one who still has a problem with dying. He will grow into the thought though; most of us did the first time we saw someone else die.
An interesting feature that we point out was our armaments. In the game, the heroes were always pictured as having thick armor freshly made, and a weapon that was deadly accurate that would kill someone in one precise shot from a great distance.
The guns we have would kill a human in one shot, but they would hardly kill a Beag in three shots. The armor that we carried was not as bulky as one would think. Having that kind of armor would make us too slow and would limit our movement. We went with the thinner body plate armor. It has chest, thigh, and shoulder plates. Not the ideal defensive damage preventer, but it would certainly double our chances of living. One of the bonuses we get for being Determiners.
Red thinks the armor needs something medieval to make us look more intimidating, which I am not a fan of. Why carry a sword when you can have a gun.
We walked for the rest of the day without running into much, just a few Beag scouts here and there; nothing a good sniper or a team of Determiners couldn’t handle.
As night fell, we found a building that looked like it was still in good condition, with just a few shot out windows and a small firing hole here and there. It would make a good defensive position if we ran into any problems.
“We’ll hold here for the night. Mast, you take first watch, wake up Jonas for second,” Donc ordered.
Luckily I get the best time to watch, you don’t get woken up and you basically just stay awake a little longer.
The night was very quiet, far off in the distance I could hear very soft sounds of rain. The team seemed to sleep very soundly; it makes it hard to stay awake when everything is so quiet.
I covered my shift then woke up Jonas, who wasn’t very happy. I made sure he wouldn’t go back to sleep, then went and rested on a couch that was left over in the building. Soon after, I was out.
By: Emily Rudgers
In the war hardened lands of future Earth, humanity has been brought to its knees and tested.
The only possible saviors of the world being skilled soldiers whose abilities are put to the test.
This is the story of the remnants of unit 412.
Authors Note: Again I want to reiterate the warning I issued previously. If language, battle scenes, or mild gore descriptions bother you then please discontinue reading. Otherwise, enjoy the story that follows. This chapter is much longer than I anticipated. I don't want to give false hope that all of the chapters will be this long, but it is just how the story broke down. Besides, spoiling your readers can never hurt. As always comments are greatly appreciated. I may not respond to all but I promise that I read them, loving the positive feed back as well as criticisms.
June 28, 2032
I awoke to the sound of gun fire today, the usual sound that you hear in the morning. Yesterdays silence was odd.
The weird thing about the gunfire today was that it sounded close. Really close. I yelled into the headset, “Wake up y’all. We have a party that requires our presence.”
Not a second later I hear on the line, “This is Determinate Unit 122; we need immediate assistance on Herington Street. Bring whatever food you have, we got our selves a barbeque.”
Everyone else woke up and we went running out of the building to help the fellow Determiners. “Jonas you stay here and hold the building, we will be running back here with wounded and injured.”
As we run down the street we find where the firing is taking place. There are two Determiners left alive and the others looked like they have been cut into pieces.
We move up to lay down cover fire and they run over to us trying to jump from cover to cover for any semblance of protect. I move up to a blown out building corner see if I can get close enough to see if we can take the foe. When I peer around the corner, There is a platoon of at least 30 strong Beag warriors fully armed barreling down upon the retreating unit. The good news, they didn’t have a Facpor with them.
They weren’t even bothering to use cover at this point; they were running down the street just firing. They must think their armor is strong enough to take the damage.
I see about 9 of them ahead of the group, I pull a grenade and go to pull the pin, but there isn’t one. I look down to see the alien grenade. Awesome, I can finally see it in action. I spin the dial and throw it. I don’t even have enough time to get my back to the wall before the grenade goes off. The ground shakes like an earthquake.
All goes silent for a brief moment. As the dust starts to settle, I turn to see the status of my comrades. They are all on the ground but alive. I peer around the corner and see a crater about 20 feet deep and the 9 that were advancing completely annihilated. The other 20 or so had stopped and are standing back up. Some grenade that was, I wish I had another. I could make short work of this combat.
Donc's only remark being, “What the hell caused that?”
“Don’t worry just a grenade.”
“Next time, give us more warning, that thing could have killed us all.”
With the new crater between ourselves and the warriors, we retreat to the building we had left with Jonas for a good defensive hold. I had to help carry one of the wounded, who had blood running from his neck with a hole from a grazing bullet. He also had a blown out knee making me carry his entire weight every other step.
We hobbled back towards the building and when we called for Jonas on the radio, there was no response. That helped us pick up the pace; he had probably come under attack during our brawl. When we arrived at the position we found bodies of warriors that had been ripped to pieces by bullets. We yelled to the window for Jonas but the answer was not one we where expecting. We saw his body hanging half out the window, and a Warrior Commander was holding him by the back of his armor. He lets go and Jonas falls to the ground with a crack as it sounds like every bone in his body broke.
With the new rage I have I run into the building and take out my mini shotgun. This guy is going down and there is nothing that will stop me. I don’t care if anyone else will help me. I ran up the stairs and am met by 4 other warriors and the Commander in the back. Only one of the Warriors had his weapon drawn when I appeared. The others went to reach for them. Rule number 1, always be prepared . If you fail to follow Rule 1, you are as good as dead. Time for me to educate them. I blast off two shots and shred the closest two; I rolled and grabbed both of their fallen guns in each hand. When I came out of the roll the other had their guns fully drawn, I throw one of the guns at the next closest hitting him in the head and sinking the small blade on the gun into the skull of the creature. Before he had time to fall to his knees I shot the knees of the other right out from under him. He also fell dropping his gun, and I sliced with the blade of my gun right threw his body. And then it was just me and my goal.
This guy wasn’t going to run like most others would have at this point. Instead he drew out 2 rounded sword-like blades. He wasn’t one of the gunners which meant he wouldn’t fall from a simple gun shot or from a slice through the mid section. I really needed my shot gun to take this guy out but this gun would have to do.
He waited for my movement. Then I did a quick dart into the room next door, and he swung to try and get me in the back. He missed. I stood and he ran at me to try to punch me with the blades. I ducked under so he tried to bring them down on me, his first mistake. I planted my hands and kicked back at him in the face causing him to stumble back a second.
With the new time I ran out of the room and grabbed my shot gun. I turned to see him coming up right behind me. I turned instantly to my knees to get a point blank shot gun shot into his lower stomach. It knocked him back and left a fresh blooding spot on the floor and on myself. But he wasn’t done, in fact it seemed to add rage to him, as though before he was just playing with his food. He then started swinging fiercely, making me bend backwards and sideways to dodge as many of the attacks as I could. Only one of his swings connected, and it ran right into the metal armor on my shoulder. Even with the metal the blade seemed to pierce right through it lightly nicking my shoulder. It was my turn to stop playing around. I took the shot gun and swung upwards connecting with his jaw, fracturing it. With the barrel now straight up I fire off a single shot. It blasted right through his skull, and the brain sprayed out the back; the green color painting the hallway.
Revenge was mine and he was a fool for trying. I ransack his supplies, while my slower companions finally arrive. I take the blades of his; they were very light weight and attached them to my sides. And their ammo I collected into a tin to share with my team. We all reconvened just inside the bottom floor.
I walk down the last step and found my companions tending to the wounded. When I step out of the doorway they all turned to look at me. Some half drew a gun to make sure I wasn’t a Beag. I walk to the guy I was carrying to help him wrap his knee up.
In a heavily sarcastic tone he announces, “Thanks for dropping me!”
“Anytime...”
“At least tell me that you got the bastards good.”
“I got ‘em real good. I also picked up some new toys.”
“We need to move out ASAP, there are more where they came from.”
Donc gave the orders for me to take point with Kilp and everyone else would help carry the wounded. We took Jonas’ body out of the street and put it in the building. We took all the ammo he had, which was a fair bit that he had secretly stocked up, which most of us had done to each other. You never know when you will get stranded alone and you’ll need the shots.
Since we managed to leave in a hurry we didn’t run into any warriors. When it drew close to nightfall we decided to keep going, until we got to the border of the Gremlins.
When we met up with their makeshift walls of cars we knew we were at the right place. The skulls that they had mounted on them also showed they were gremlins since there were both human and Beag.
We stopped two buildings away from the wall, keeping a respectful distance from them and us. I didn’t want to deal with them today. But tomorrow we would have to and getting a good sleep before we had a civil war would be nice.
I got first watch again, luckily, and during it everything seemed different. On the other side of the wall of cars there were campfires and people shooting off random shots. The moon would occasionally poke through the dark clouds of smoke streaming out from the other side of the wall. The faint whiff of burning oil could be smelled. Oil became a very precious resource when the war started. Most stocks o fit were quickly spent meaning that what they were burning had to be stolen from one of our armor units.
A person walks through the car wall and checks the building next to us. He then started to walk to the building we were in; this would be trouble; so much for anyone getting a good sleep.
He made it to the door and stopped a foot or two outside of the door. He looked up and paused contemplating entering. Then he took a step in the door, and saw the others sleeping. He was about to turn and run when I stepped from behind the door and sunk the commander blade into the back of his neck. He collapsed without a sound. We had about 20 minutes until he would be noticed missing and we would have a fire fight on our hands.
I woke everyone up and we started to move out. Before we had a chance to leave, we saw something unexpected. There were several Gremlins that were sitting outside the car line and were talking to several Beag commanders. We had been betrayed by our own kind. They weren’t really our kind anymore but at least they were human.
Whatever they were talking about it made this a prime opportunity to assassinate several of the leaders of each race. “Red, pull out your sniper, let’s get ‘em.”
Donc whispers into his microphone, “hold up, Kilp and I will sneak up behind them in the building and kill the Gremlins, you two take out the commanders. We will move in on your sniper shot.”
The two of them ran across the street and into the next building and worked their way up somehow, and then Donc said they were in position so Red and I lined up our shots on two commanders and squeezed. We fire at the very same second, which made the shot echo. The two commanders fell with their heads destroyed beyond recognition. Then we saw Donc and Kilp run and blast off shots at the Gremlins, they got all of them and the last Commander was starting to make a run for it, and I did a quick line up and fired. The shot ruptured though his upper chest but he managed to keep running. He ducked behind a building the second that Red got a lined up shot and the shot hit the wall.
We carried the wounded up to Doncs position, and took some ammo. We then started to walk through the car line. It would be better to deal with stranded Humans than with a trained Beag battle force.
June 29, 2032
With a new day would bring new adventures. As we walked through the car line, I noticed there wasn’t much different on the other side immediately.
As we walked further into the car fort we saw the fire that had illuminated through the cars. No threat was seen, but we knew they were out there. They rely on guerrilla warfare tactics, meaning they would hide until they would think we would be surprised. Rule 1 said otherwise.
There were several Gremlins that had grabbed arms and were awaiting our arrival. They had ducked behind a junked car. The moment we stepped around the last car in the wall they open fired.
I sat my wounded next to the last car and ran into the bullet storm. I ducked behind a piece of a building. The bullets erupted on my small piece of wall breaking it into a smaller piece with every second. I blind fired at their position, so they ducked behind the cover.
I ran up to the car they were behind and waited for them to pop over the car to shoot at the wall I had been on. They paused for a moment before they started shooting and what was left of the wall was decimated. They all went to reload; I pulled my shot gun and ran around the car. Firing several point blank shots into them and killing one for each. The others turned to run. “Where are you going? I’m not done with you yet!”
I laid down my shot gun and pulled my sniper. A perfect shot. The bullet passed through the two retreating Gremlins. Kilp and Red stopped firing after eliminating another small group of Gremlins.
This group was just a light resistance, probably the guards for the meeting happening on the other side of the wall. If we didn’t move quick, they would get organize and then we wouldn’t stand a chance.
As we walked deeper into the enemy territory, No one talks for fear they might miss a sound signifying an impending attack from Gremlins. We pause every once in a while to ensure that some sound we heard was just the normal sounds of crumbling building or vultures stirring.
There was nothing else that happened for a while. I had expected more from them, but most of their ranks must have been else where fighting other Determinates or Beags.
Then we heard a fire fight that suddenly broke out near us. We heard on the communique another unit. They weren’t asking for help like the others. Rather they were bragging about how well they were fighting. Being the good soldiers that we are, we ran to help out or finish the fight.
When we showed up, there was something that we did not expect to see. It left most of us in shock when we witnessed the spectacle. In front of us there were piles of Beag Warriors, they had been made into a giant wall. Just on the other side there was the fighting and yelling. There was no way we were going to find a way over. “Find a way around this thing.”
I run over to the right hand side of the wall, there is a little cut through over there, but it would be a tight fit. “There’s some room over here sir. Who would have killed all of these Beags, and had the time to pile them all up? The bodies can’t be more than a day old.”
“My best guess is that whoever is on the other side of this wall will be the answer to our question. Whoever they are, I hope they’re friendly.”
We passed under the small section made by a car that had been torn to shreds. It was hard to pass through without tearing any armor or losing an arm on the metal bits. We got through to the other side and looked; there was still a wall ahead of us. But this wall had a cut out for people to walk through. The moment that we made it through the hole a big black man came around the corner. Crap, Gremlins. We all raised our weapons to fire and a sudden blast from behind the man made him fall in a flying motion onto his face.
Once he was on the ground we looked upon a fierce looking black male, clothed in Determiner armor. Behind him there were 2 body guards. “Identify yourselves soldiers.”
“We are Determiner Unit 412 with wounded from unit 122, sir” promptly responded Donc.
“What is your current mission?”
“To make way to the Research facility, to pick-up a new weapon.”
“Glad to see you guys made it here in one piece. We are here to cover you guys, we thought you would be going around the Gremlins so we built the wall to keep them from moving up on you. We got all the bodies from the local menaces running around.”
“How many are left in your unit sir?”
“How many are left?” The Captain seemed puzzled by the question. “Why all of them plus some, we have been finding scattered units all over the place. It seems our fighting here as alerted many units to come, enemy and friend alike. We now have my full unit, the 605, what’s left of the 214, 311, 009, 521and a few singles who aren’t in a numbered unit. With your team joining, we are now at pretty good strength.”
“We need to continue to the research facility ASAP, we lost some time with your wall.”
“You don’t want to travel around here by night, nor even in the afternoon. Beag warriors make rounds here daily in the afternoon, usually with 30 plus bodies. But after what we have done the past few days, I’m guessing that a few more will come this time. Maybe even a small battle force. We are going to need all the help we can get.”
“We will stay for the night and help you out, but in the morning we will need be leaving, and we will need to leave the wounded of the 122 so we can move fast enough to make up time sir.”
“We can deal with them, we won’t be leaving here anyway, and command says this is a good defense position for Units who need to travel on missions.”
NIGHTFALL
As we all took up our positions to defend for nightfall, we could hear the distant rumble of feet. As time progressed the sound got louder and louder as they drew closer and closer. This would be a nice batch to add to their wall. Hopefully I would be able to take a massive chunk out of their forces, and maybe be honored a promotion by the captain. That would help get Donc to listen to me.
As the darkness fully consumed the day, we saw distant figures that could not be made out. They looked a little bigger than human which meant they were either Beags or Determiners. We were not so lucky to get more reinforcements.
As the mass of Beags became more visible everyone got in a ready position. Several people had been ordered to wait in the buildings to our left so that once the Beags got close enough there would be Determiners on all sides of them. Most of my unit, except Charlie set up in the back, we were to defend the wounded and if need be, give them a gun and allow them to start blasting away at the enemy.
This wasn’t going to make it easy for me to do well, I would have to rely on my snipping skills or else I wouldn’t get any kills or even do anything.
Getting kills is one of two ways to earn respect from fellow Determinants. The other way is to back up your team, saving their lives, which just earns you respect from your team. Most of the team respects each other. Donc never respects anyone being the hard-ass he is. Jonas was the kid of the group, but he did well and earned his respect, unfortunately costing his life.
As the long line marched ahead slowly, I pulled out my sniper. I knew that once they saw our shadows against the pile bodies illuminated by the moonlight they would react with a full out charge. I waited patiently, waiting for an order to begin firing. Everyone was silent, no one was speaking, and the only sound was the footsteps drawing closer and a faint whisper of breathing.
The Beag have always been a mass army, sheer numbers overwhelming any resistance. Before using their weaponry style, the mass numbers and inability to stop them by unloading a full clip or several 50cal shots made them seem invincible. Since modifying our weapons, they haven’t seemed to learn not to run in close groups or in a straight line.
The front warriors spotted us. The captain yelled open fire. The only people that had the accuracy to shoot that far and be accurate were snipers. I lined up a shot, and as my training took over I fired without thinking. The instinct had taken over my control. You always take a perfect shot, because they are only given to you once. The bullet flew; it was as if the world stood still long enough for me to put another shot in the chamber. My reload was in record time. I was able to get back into sights before the first shot had fallen. Not only did the first person fall. 4 behind him also fell, all with their heads blown through. There is no room for error in a battle, and that is exactly what they did, ran in a straight line for my one shot.
I looked for my next target, not fully appreciating my work, which would be an error. That would get you or a comrade killed. Then beside me, 5 other people fired sniper shots, and I fired an aimed shot demolishing the neck of another. I caught in my sights the pile that fell beside the one I had killed. At least 9 had fallen from the 5 people shooting beside me. I was in good company, but that meant I had to do better. It was almost like a competition.
I reloaded again and looked up in time to see their leader, he was flagging them to get down, and he pulled out one of their grenades and put it in the barrel of his gun. This was going to be bad. I lined up the shot and fired, I was to fast to shoot though and it went right into his shoulder, but it made him drop the gun. He quickly went to pick it up one handed and fire, but he was not fast enough. I yelled on the microphone, “Take cover,” and all Determiners hit the ground if they were in the open or ducked behind the nearest object. The grenade went off in the barrel of the gun. It was as if the ground ruptured from underneath of them. Bodies of the enemy went flying everywhere, but it wasn’t full bodies, it was the limbs that had not been incinerated on contact.
At least 20 had been taken out by the grenade, yet the blast was smaller than the one I threw only because it was in the barrel of the gun. When the smoke started to clear, there were many more Beags ready for the charge. We were outnumbered at least 5 to 1. This was going to be a hell-of-a-fight.
The other snipers started firing again, taking out one or two here or there, that wasn’t going to be enough for the sheer mass of bodies being thrown at us. They drew close enough that machine guns could be used. Everyone started shooting; The Beags dropped two of the snipers, knowing that they would slow the advance of their brethren. I quickly took cover, fast enough to look up and see several bullets travel straight over where I just was kneeling. I rolled over to the wounded snipers. One of them had caught a shot right between the eyes. The other had caught 2 shots in the same shoulder, making it impossible to hold the rifle or reload. I pulled him back to the other wounded, and gave his rifle to one of the wounded.
Just before I turned around to get back into the fight, I saw from between the windows of the car a unit of Beags approaching from the rear, the same way that we had. I knew now why they had not cared about losing so many people on the frontal assault; they were as heavily depending upon the sneak attack, as we were. That meant that they knew we had the guys hidden in the building. I yelled over to the remaining 3 snipers. “Pull out shotguns and go help the guys in the building.” They quickly ran off, not anxious to lose their safe cover in the back, but knew they were going to be needed. Donc ran over to me.
“What do you think you are doing giving orders, you aren’t the ranking official? Get back here you —.”
“Sir, the Beags know about the building because they are trying to sneak attack us as well. They are coming in the same way we did.”
“I’ll get some men and we will pull shot guns on them, they won’t expect us to know yet.”
He ran off and got 2 or three men that had shot guns. The frontal attack was slowly getting weaker and weaker, but sounded as though the fight in the building had just started. I sprinted to the building to help finish them off. If we needed a defense point the building would have to be it. The moment I arrived to the building there were only the snipers I had sent left and one other. The Beags had managed to catch them off guard. I pulled out my shot gun and headed in. There were only 7 Beags left alive. I ducked up against a wall and fired low and fast. Three of the Beags instantly dropped to what would have been their knees if they still had any, they were completely destroyed from the ground to the mid-thigh.
The other 4 Beags tried to come in the other door beside the one I was on, but the snipers I had sent in caught him off guard and they point blank snipped into one guy, and the three bullets passed through him into the other 2 behind him. That left only one alive that still could do anything. I rolled around the corner to find him with the remaining Determiner, a gun to his head. I didn’t even pause, I held up my hands as to surrender.
The other 3 sniper guys came in the other door and hit him square on the shoulder. On a human it would have broken bones and even killed them, but on a Beag all it did was make him lurch forward. That made him drop the gun and release his hold on him. The solider ran away from him and I ran up and punched the Beag straight in the jaw with my rifle butt. He flew back and landed on his back. The solider picked up the Beags rifle and blasted shots until the clip was completely empty. The three that were on the ground had just started to recover from the fall and getting over that they had lost their legs. I turned around to put another shot into them, finishing them all off.
“Defend this building with your life!”
Before they could even say yes sir I ran out the door. I had to get to the back and help the defense back there. I was starting to get tired and was running out of strength. The front attack was dwindling, but they kept sending warriors hoping the sneak attack would show up soon. I got to the back just as the first Beag came up through the undercut. He was met by machine guns; the Beags on the other side were completely oblivious to his death though, all they heard was shooting. This whole side of the wall was shooting though. Then the next one cam e through and he was mine. A well placed gun butt to the back of his head followed by a point blank shot. As the next one came through, Donc and the others got distracted, they were being called off to help push back the frontal attack.
That split second made me take the next attack. I let the gun slip in my hands when I went to hit the next and the gun flew at him and hit him in the jaw. I couldn’t use my sniper in this fight, and grenades were useless. I grabbed for where my pistol would usually be to keep the fight going.
I found the circle blades I had taken from the commander. This was going to make things a little more fun for me. I had pulled them off my belt when Donc turned around to see I had saved him by sacrificing my gun to kill the person he was to shoot. Donc remarked, “Thanks, but I don’t need you looking after me. But I’ll return the favor, you two get up on the wall and start shooting the guys advancing from the back.”
They quickly obeyed started climbing. Donc even started climbing. I turned back around to have another warrior coming through the passage. I did a spin and the blade cut easily through his mid-section spilling his body on the already crowded floor at my feet. Then on the other side of the wall I hear an explosion, I look up long enough to see Donc and the two soldiers throwing grenades. If they were willing to waist grenades on warriors then there must have been a bunch all over the place on the other side.
I ducked into the wall to meet one coming through; I punched him in the face with the blade which wanted to stick in his skull. Once I got through I was an equally large force in front of me as I had seen attacking from the front. Many had already been taken out by the unsuspected grenade lobs. Then with me and a wall standing in front of them, they charged.
What would they have to lose, I am only one man. But just as they got close, 7 or 8 Determiners pop over the wall and start shooting, the front attack must have been a victory. They seemed to falter when they saw how well we were defending our backs.
I charged in, only my circle blades as my weapon. I ran into the mass, swinging wildly. I was not carefully aiming, but when there are that many, you don’t need to waste time on perfect shots just the ability to defend yourself if needed. I dropped several on the initial impact with the blades. Then I push through the crowd working my way to take out those who were standing further back so they couldn’t shoot at the men standing on top of the wall.
They had not seen me through the mass of Beags comrades that had once stood in front of them. I took them out with no difficulty, slashing every second my momentum allowed, sometimes building upon it to slash faster.
There were only several left when I looked up from my latest kill. No more than 9. They were retreating so I picked up a dead Beag rifle and fired. I caught one before they ran around the corner retreating. I quickly pulled a body up to the wall so that the hole/door was no longer available. When I was through the door, I saw bodies everywhere, a handful of Determiners, but enough that we had taken a hard hit. We would be able to survive the night if we did this every time, but it would cost too much in ammo. As it was I could see people pulling into their secret stashes. The Beags were starting to get smart, rationing their ammo so we couldn’t loot as much from their corpses.
I look over to see that Donc is laying in the mass; he had been hit while on top of the wall. The wound clearly bad enough that his left arm would have to be set into place, effectively destroying any chance at holding a gun.
I glance around the place for the remnants of my unit and find everyone, except Charlie. Looking past the wounded to the dead pile, I see his mangled form. He was always a close quarters fighter, being one of the front fighters he was one of the first to be shot at. He was in what we affectionately call the no man zone, as in no man will be alive if they are in that zone for too long. Being slow against so many close enemies teaches you a lesson, permanently.
The captain moved over next to me. “Sorry to lose so many tonight. But you did a good job to prevent the loss of so many more.”
“I was just doing my job sir.”
“You did more than just your job; you did more than anyone else here. Even more than some added together. I would put you in for a metal but what is the point, they don’t get you anything anymore. I can put you in for a promotion.”
The captain touched his arm band, pressing buttons to get a hold of Atace. “This is Captain Joseph Walsh of the Defensive Determiners Unit.” He paused for a moment listening for a response.
“Yes sir we have survived the night, due to a hero. I would like to put him in for a promotion.”
“I don’t know his name… what’s your name son?”
“Mast, sir.”
“What’s your com number?”
“143245 sir.”
The microphone in my ear suddenly came on, “This is General Purges of the Atace, and I have heard you did some heroic deeds tonight son, congratulations. About how many would you say you took out?”
“I hadn’t been keeping track, around 20 maybe sir.”
“Christ, how did you manage to pull that off? For your deeds I am putting you in for a metal and you are now promoted to Captain. That will get you several more metals. Carry on Captain and kill as many of them as you can.”
“Thank you sir, Captain Mast out.”
Walsh looked up at me, “What did they promote you from?”
“I jumped to a Captain.”
“That’s a nice jump; if you do it again they may have to promote you to General.”
“If I keep doing this well everyday then they may just have to promote me to a Datré.”
There has never been a person promoted to a Datré, it has always been something to aspire to. It’s like a 5 star general but they work only in the field. They aren’t cowards who sit back in their boat and let everyone else do the fighting. The closest anyone has gotten to getting that status was killing around 3,200 Beags and then getting killed by a Facpor. It was a tragic end to a true hero. The Beags don’t recognize ranks like we do. But they do recognize strength and skill. That seems to be why all heroes that start to rack up on kills they send a Facpor after them and they are killed.
It is only rumored how many kills you will need to be promoted to that rank. Some say all you need to do is kill the Facpor that they send after you. But getting that may kills takes a long time and a lot of skill. Maybe by the time I get my metals I’ll have reached that rank. It would be an awkward honors ceremony to have the supreme commander of Atace calling me sir. One day it just may happen. But until that day, I have a lot of killing to do.
Everyone was slowly getting over laughing at my Datré joke. The adrenaline rush from the fight started to dissipate and everyone got quiet and tired. What was originally bragging and yelling became absolute silence. Not a breath could be heard. I wouldn’t have to take guard tonight since I was promoted, but I saw that everyone else needed the sleep more than I did so I let them get some sleep while I took guard.
Nothing happened the rest of the night, only the sounds of snoring broke the silence. The Beags wouldn’t dare try another attack. They had suffered a humiliating defeat that cost them many lives and allowed for us to make an even bigger wall.
Their foolishness had cost them greatly but our triumph cost us even more greatly. Whenever a unit had managed to make a defensive strong hold the Beags would bring in Facpors and try to clean them out. But these weren’t normal Facpors that were strong and could take thousands of shots. These were the Honor Facpor, used only for this reason. They are given armor, and even weapons. Their weapons may not shoot as often as ours, but when they hit its lights out permanently. Their main goal was to shred our armor units faster than shooting bullets blindly into a metal beast. Usually they only send a unit of 3 or so, but they really only need to send one to take out a defensive position.
We really needed this super weapon that they had developed. Otherwise this currently peaceful place would become a burial ground for many more Determiners.
By: Emily Rudgers
In the war hardened lands of future Earth, humanity has been brought to its knees and tested.
The only possible saviors of the world being skilled soldiers whose abilities are put to the test.
This is the story of the remnants of unit 412.
Authors Note: Again I want to reiterate the warning I issued previously. If language, battle scenes, or mild gore descriptions bother you then please discontinue reading. Otherwise, enjoy the story that follows. I realize it has been some time since I have contributed to this great website but I will complete my stories... eventually. Comments are greatly appreciated and are always read. This will be the last chapter of this story for a little while despite the small cliffhanger while I work on completing my other stories.
Morning, July 1, 2032
I woke everyone in my unit up very early, I had not slept at all but they had gotten a decent 5hours or so. Even if I wanted to I couldn’t have slept, my body felt wired anticipating a very important mission that could save our species. I then woke one of the other units to tell them to watch as guards.
We left without saying goodbye, leaving the wounded allowing us to keep up the pace. We really needed to get back here before nightfall tomorrow; otherwise there would be nothing to get back too.
One of the last men in a Determiner unit was to accompany us so that there were 5 of us in case we needed to split into teams for attack and defend. His name was Josh. Not very experienced which is why we got him.
He was a pretty fast runner though. If I ever needed anything, I’d have him do the running for me.
We left going out the front entrance to the fort of bodies. There was a massive number there now, the wall was extended so that they could sit on top of it and shoot over a lip so that they would not get shot. It was almost like a castle just with no rocks and no draw bridge. Instead the door was where the imploded gun had gone off, so the Beags would have to crawl in and then out of a crater to get close enough to shoot.
On the way out, we saw a Determiner unit that was looking for the defensive fort; they had met up with 3 other units, so there were about 20 or so.
“The defensive castle is just up ahead about 600 yards.”
“You should know that there are several scouting parties around here. We already killed 4 of them but we have seen several more of them.”
“We will be on the look out.”
We kept walking not looking back. We made it to the outer edge of the city not running into any problems. We were careful to remain close to the walls and in the shadows if possible. The day drew on and it got hot. It got to the point that our armor felt like it would burn our skin off if we touched it. We must be drawing close to the research if we were already feeling the exhaust effects. We got to the very edge of town and looked out, there was the research facility not 300 yards away. We had made it with no problems. At the rate we were going we would be able to get back to the fort tonight and help them defend against the Facpor.
Josh got a little too excited though, “We made it already, let’s run in and get the thing then get back to everyone else.” Before I could say not to he ran, he ran straight for the door.
“Stop, get back here!” He didn’t listen, he kept running, we was too focused on getting there and getting back. He made it 40 yards before I started to chase after him, Kilp and Red soon to follow. He made it another 50 yards or so before I saw him fall. A second later I heard the sniper shot, instantly I hit the ground. I pulled out my sniper to see where the shot came from. I pointed the scope straight ahead to see what was there. There was not a single person at the research facility. Then I saw something stir up on top of the building. It was a Beag scouting party. There were 5 of them or so. I pulled out my sniper and lined up the first shot. I took my time waiting knowing I had all the time to take this shot. I fired, then I heard several shot wiz over my sprawled body. My shot had taken the guy on the far left head off, the two to his right also lost their heads as Red and Kilp had fired. The two remaining had tried to take another shot at Josh but were distracted by their friends losing their heads and completely missed.
I lined up the one on the left still alive and fired, his head came off too. Then Red fired again and I felt the familiar shot go by me and the last one lost his head. I paused for a moment looking for more scouts and when I didn’t see any I ran and grabbed Josh and kept running to the research facility. I made it to the outer guard booth and stopped, Red and Kilp came up right behind me.
“Nice shot,” Kilp exclaimed.
“Thanks, I should teach you sometime, you shoot like a girl.”
“Maybe next time I should just let them kill you.”
“They can try, how you holding up Josh?”
“Good sir, I think the round went all the way through my shoulder.”
“Next time make sure it hits you in the head or I’ll shoot you for being so reckless.”
“Yes sir. Sorry sir.”
“Let’s wrap it up and get into the building.”
I ripped off a piece of cloth from the bottom of my shirt and wrapped it around his arm. I pulled tight to make sure as little blood would be lost. He would probably lose feeling to his arm with how tight I made the knot, but at least he wouldn’t bleed out.
“Let’s move out and get into the building, Red, Kilp… you two try to find a way in on the East side. Josh and I will be going on the West side. If we both don’t find a way in then we will meet up at the South side of the building.
Red and Kilp quickly ran off, being very careful to make sure there were no enemies around the corner before they moved around and were gone.
I pulled Josh up and said, “I’ll take point, you just have to watch my ass.”
With that we were off, I was 5 steps ahead of him. We stopped when we got to the corner and I took a small peak around the corner, nothing to be seen. I motioned to move in, but he just stood there. I looked him square in the eyes and saw absolute terror, but it was not the usual scared of what was going to happen next. I followed his gaze and saw the mesmerizing monstrosity. Directly above us 4 warriors were sitting. None of them had noticed us yet. But they were not normal warriors. They had a large mass on the back of their head. It looked almost like it was a massive leach. It clung to the warriors head looking like it would suck its brains out.
Not only did these warriors have this unusual companion attached to all of them, they had heavier armor. The standard armor for a warrior is usually very thin; they count on their mass number and their tough skin to endure the force of our bullets. Since we had switched to their bullets their skins were little use.
Usually they have to be hit with a very solid shot or with many spray shots. 25 seems to do them in pretty well when you spray fire. But these warriors… they seemed to have thicker armor than we Determiners have.
It looked like it had been engineered to allow a single warrior to survive direct and usually disemboweling shots. It would cause a serious problem if you couldn’t hit them in the head, but they left that exposed. My best guess is that is where the parasite came in.
There wouldn’t have been a problem except that they were directly above us and we needed to get by quickly and quietly. I pushed Josh against the wall to take him out of his blank stare. He snapped out of it. I pointed in the direction we needed to head. He slowly moved, very careful not to look away from the warriors but cautious not to make a sound. We moved around the corner so we could no longer see them.
“I think we need to take them out before the next squad that comes through as to face them.”
“We should meet up with Kilp and Red before we try to pull that off.”
We moved down the wall until we got to the back side, there were no doors, just a solid wall of stone and steel everywhere.
We moved around the corner of the back, Kilp and Red were already sitting there waiting for us to arrive.
Anxiously awaiting our slowed arrival Red spoke first, “There is a door right here. However it seems to be locked.”
“What held you guys up; you got beaten by a team of girls?” Kilp being her charming self as usual.
Red starts to nod, then looks indignant,“Hey that was a low blow!”
“Come on guys cut it out, let’s try to get into the building before you two get into a pissing contest. We ran into some trouble back there. There is some kind of super Warrior that we are going to need to watch out for. So let’s try to rip this door down before there is any trouble.”
I pull out my shot gun and raised the barrel I banged on the door once. It left a dent in the door, but it sounded pretty solid on the other side. There had to be another way in. I looked up and saw a ledge, it was a little too tall for someone to reach standing on the ground, but if you could throw a person you could make it not problem, even boosting someone would be enough.
“Hey Kilp, come over here.” She walked on over. “You see that ledge up there; I want you to grab that ledge when I throw you.”
“You are going to do what?”
“I’m going to throw you up there, hold onto the ledge and go into the building. I want you to let us in from the other side.”
“Good thing I didn’t decide to wear a skirt today.”
Josh chuckled.
“You wearing a skirt Kilp, that’s funny,” Red exclaimed.
“Are you ready for this?” I picked her up; she was kind of heavy with all the gear. “Help me out and lose the gear, we will throw it up to you once you are up there.” She dropped the gear off and I picked her up again, now it was just her and some armor. She was a lot lighter. I boosted her straight up and she grasped for the ledge.
The first try a near miss. The way she came down was a bit unexpected, my right hand grabbing between her legs and my left arm going straight across her chest. “And what do you think you are doing, trying to cop a feel?”
“I figured it wouldn’t be a bad time to try. Ready to do it again?”
“As long as I make it this time so you don’t get any more ideas.”
“Ok, I’ll be sure to drop you next time.” I didn’t give her a chance to respond. I threw her up using all of the muscle god had given me. But this time she made it far enough to not only grab the ledge but to also get both her legs over it by rolling over the edge in one motion.
“I’ll just be a minute wandering through the facility looking for the door.”
“Take your time, we won’t be going anywhere.”
7 minutes later
Standing around trying to remain relatively quiet for fear of super Beag finding you is harder than it sounds. Without motion or adrenaline you get tired, you get tired you lose awareness, you lose awareness you get dead.
I could feel the sleep trying to claw its way into my mind, worse than I had ever felt it before. I really regret not sleeping last night. As I feel my mind start to fog over, I hear a metal latch on the door turn. Adrenaline kicks in and I raise my gun, not risking it being a Beag on the other side. The door opens without any loud noises, thankfully and we see Kilps smiling face.
“Aww, making me feel all loved, pointing guns at me.”
Red smiles, “well you can never be too careful, Although I think I would have preferred a Beag with how much you smell, wow.” He makes a fanning motion in front of his nose.
Kilp just smiles and flashes him the birdie.
Time to intervene, before the kids start to fight, “Did you see much to help us Kilp?”
“Negative, just a bunch of metal overhanging walkways that lead down to this door inside. There are stairs that take you underground next to the door however.”
“Sounds like we are going underground then, Kilp and I will take point. Red you escort Josh.”
We move quickly and quietly to the top of the stairs. I peer over the edge down a classic flight of stairs and see there is only one level below us.
Making our way down the stairs to the first doorway leading into a hall we group up and glance through the doorway. A warrior walks out with one of the leech like things on its head through the door on the right. From the door on the right, a new Beag warrior without a leech thing walks out and into the door on the left side of the hall. Not only has the facility been taken over, but we have stumbled upon where they are creating the new type of solider. We wait a moment for another Beag to emerge but no one steps through the doorway. I quietly talk to my comrades, “Kilp and Red take the right door using frags, Josh and I will take the left. Move up on my command.”
I pause and hear complete silence from the door ways and signal for the advance. We are standing at the entrance to the facing brick outlined doors. I give the grenade sign and they cook their grenades and throw. I run in the other door with Josh and hear the explosion to our back and a roar from the enhanced warrior. I ignore all sounds after that, Kilp and Red can handle most things, Kilp being the ranged quick fighter and Red being a brutal short-range fighter, they make a good team.
Inside of my door, I see four large tubes filled with a yellow liquid, two have Beags already in them. A Beag with two different leeches on its head is fiddling with a panel of what looks like controls. At the sound of the explosion he looks up just as Josh and I put rounds at his head. One of the leeches explodes similar to that of a Terrorling. The other moves to cover the hole now in the head while the warrior starts running at us. I switch to my shotgun while Jonas keeps firing at his head.
For a kid he has good aim, placing bullets straight through vital organs, but seemingly ineffective against this foe. I fire a round of my shotgun at its upper-body, only to result in a shallow wound. I fire again with only feet apart and a slightly bigger chunk is taken out, but the warrior is unfazed by the damage and barrels right into josh tossing him like a ragdoll into the brick doorframe with a crack of his spine. I pull out my blades as he backhands me, causing me to stumble into the far wall with all of the vials. I hear my sternum crack, and feel a sudden shortness of breath. The adrenaline is clearly masking some of the damage, but the damage too great to allow me to get a full breath.
In desperation I pull out the blades and bring them above my head as a protective barrier. The warrior comes at me again in a charge motion. I collapse to one side to get out of the path, swinging with both arms down around his shoulder area. He catches the right side of my hip with another crack of my bone, but causes me to start spinning quickly all the way to the ground causing several more vital slashes in softer tissue under his arm. The empty yellow vial that was to my back shatters releasing the contents and glass down upon me and the Beag. The Beags cuts seem to start repairing themselves, but the headlong collision has damaged the leech on its head. The leech jumps off, causing the Beags body to drop to the ground motionless.
The leech runs at me and grabs onto my neck for only a moment before I raise a bladed hand and punch the leech with all my remaining strength. Pain shoots through my entire body instantly, but my weak hit with the blade kills the leech causing it to erupt in a purple liquid, unlike the acidic green of the Terrorlings. The liquid runs over my body, entering my numerous cuts and gashes received from weeks of constant fighting causing them to burn.
The world starts to go fuzzy, almost like a thick fog has descended. I hear Red and Kilp move into the room both with deep cuts, battered and bruised but otherwise without major damage. Red is holding a weapon of some kind that has a large clear fluid chamber.
Kilp runs to my side while Red stands in shock starring from Joshes body, to me, to the dead warrior, to the vials. “Hang in there Mast, we gotchya,” Kilp pleas.
I try to speak but all I feel is liquid churning deep in my throat and a strong taste of metal. Red finally comes to me and says the very words I was trying to say. “He’s too messed up, we can’t move him and we need to protect the weapon. We can take the weapon and call for backup. After that we can get a stretcher ta get him outta here.”
Red turns away from me and starts talking into his comm. Kilp tries to distract me from the pain and situation, “You are going to let a single warrior beat you up after all you been through? We took out two on our own and you get trashed by one.”
Hardly a distraction, at this point the pain has deepened past the point of feeling and my body is on the verge of being numb. I move my eyes to the gun in Reds hand and then look back at Kilp.
“Yeah, that’s the weapon. If not then we need to at least try it on a Facpor cuz it chewed up the two warriors in one shot. You should have seen Reds face when he shot it, it kicked like a mother right into his stomach and the visual afterwar.… ey, don’t you pass out on… we’re losing hi….”
The world convulsed in all sorts of colors as I went in and out of consciousness. The sounds of the world turned mute, and actions alternated from slow motion to rapid speed. The numbness turned into full lack of feeling, and within seconds I watched the world disappear in slow motion as my eyes rolled back into my head and stayed.
TBC...
By: Emily Rudgers
In the war hardened lands of future Earth, humanity has been brought to its knees and tested.
The only possible saviors of the world being skilled soldiers whose abilities are put to the test.
This is the story of the remnants of unit 412.
Authors Note: Again I want to reiterate the warning I issued previously. If language, battle scenes, or mild gore descriptions bother you then please discontinue reading. Otherwise, enjoy the story that follows. I want to thank djkauf for editing and John in Wauwatosa for inspiring my muse. I know I take long breaks between chapters so they may not flow perfectly together since there is a different point of view in this one I think it works. All comments are greatly appreciated.
July 1, 2032
I wouldn’t leave Mast in that god forsaken place. With the war we have had to adopt the policy of leaving our dead because there are so many fallen it would be impossible to save them. However, he is a long time friend I would not see die if I have the option to save him. I made Red carry Mast out of the facility while I took point with the new ionization weapon. We moved as fast as possible back out the way we came, the only sounds our old boots making quiet scuffs and of Mast speaking gibberish in his daze.
“I swear this guy weighs a ton, we should leave him. He will just slow us down and we need to get this weapon and ourselves out of here in one piece.”
Most Determiners that I have come across removed the emotion of losing someone in their unit back when the war started. You go on missions with full strength units of eight or nine and come back as a unit of one or two. Our numbers have dwindled to the point that getting a group of 5 doesn’t happen anymore, it would seem. I have moved through unit after unit, managing to survive constant scrapes and hopeless situations. During my mission with my third unit, number 74, I met up with Mast. Ever since then he and I have gone on missions together. In some of our missions he saved my life; in others I saved his, but over the time we have known each other he has always come to my defense both in and out of combat. I suppose my inability to abandon him is the last shred of humanity I have that I’m not willing to give up or maybe I’m trying to regain.
“We aren’t leaving him, the wound on his neck has closed up from whatever was in that tube. I’m not going to leave him here to die when he isn’t already dying. Now shut up and get moving.” Red has always had some attitude towards me, usually disguised in sexual references or just being an asshole. I’d rather leave him here than Mast, if I could.
We walk out the door we came in after checking all sides. Off to the left on top of the building we see two of the modified warriors. Slinking against the wall we head off to the right. Peering around the corner of the building I see another two modified warriors. One of them spots me looking around the wall and fires at the corner. I duck behind as a large piece of the wall explodes away, the corner of the building is now gone leaving a rounded edge. Standing up from the blast I aim the ionization weapon at the first warrior and pull the trigger. The force of the recoil kicks me off my feet and sends me back a couple yards onto the flat of my back. Slowly I regain my bearings and sit up pulling the gun out from between my legs. The two warriors that were standing there are now no more than a scorch mark and a pile of goo.
The other two warriors on the other end of the building must have heard the explosion from the first shot because they come charging down the roof shooting. One of the shots whizzes past my head and leaves a small crater in the ground. Another hits right behind me and destroys my sniper rifle that has fallen from my back during my fall. I quickly crawl to the wall of the building giving me a small amount of cover. The two warriors effortlessly jump to the ground off the easily ten foot wall. I hear the crack of leg bones as they land squarely on their feet but continue walking unfazed. With both of them now on the ground we are easy prey. I put the butt of the new weapon against the wall and pull the trigger. With an unnatural sounding crack the warriors are no more. I pull the gun up to a ready position and see that the wall bricks now have a miniature crater. That’s a heck of a recoil. With my adrenaline starting to fade from the immediate battle I feel the bruising starting to take place on my left shoulder.
Not taking the time to wait for more warriors to show up we take off in a fast hobble.
We reach the safety of the city before we find any more combatants. A couple Beag scouts are scattered and are easily handled using common weaponry. No need to waste the ionization weapon’s firepower and draw attention to ourselves. As it starts to get dark we set up in an old laundromat. We take the opportunity to change clothes out of war torn rags into clothes that are only a little dusty from debris. Red makes a joke about finally getting the chance to see me in a dress in which I just tell him to stuff it. He grins about to take the freebie I gave him for a sexual joke when I silence him with my hands.
Behind Red is Mast lying practically comatose on the floor. What I notice is that he looks different. His once tanned skin is taking a more greenish hue and his face looks distorted. Walking over to him I shine my flash light on his forehead to get a clear view of his skin. I pull back some hair to get it out of the way when I notice it fall off into my hand easily. Surprised I try to pull another chunk only to find that there are a few strands still attached. I look up to Red and he is looking puzzled and uneasy trying to figure out if these changes are bad for Mast or all of us.
Our decision making is cut short as we hear a Facpour make a roaring call in the street. Turning off all lights we quietly pull Mast down the stairs into the basement of the building. As the Facpour walks past I get a bad feeling, it’s walking from the direction of our defensive camp and it’s covered in blood.
July 2, 2032
In the safety of the basement no Beag disturbed us, thankfully. We didn’t sleep because of all the firefights going on close enough we could hear but far enough away we couldn’t help, but the rest felt good.
Just before the sun rises we head out. Red hoists Mast up on his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. “I must be bulking up, he feels lighter and smaller.” Looking over at the two of them I notice that Mast is slightly smaller than before but with all of his gear on it’s hard to tell.
Despite me noticing the difference I give Red a hard time. “Nah, I just decided to carry his sniper since mine got fried.” Red looks at me like he doesn’t believe me but let’s this one go to appease his brain’s inability to explain why his friend would be lighter, turning green, and losing his hair.
Peering out a hole in the wall I look down both sides of the street, the coast is clear. I motion to Red and we start our trek. When we hear noises we scurry into a building, not taking the chance of even fighting a single warrior for fear the Facpour is still lurking nearby. It takes most of the day moving this way since we have to stop often for Beags and even a group of Gremlins searching for gas tanks to siphon. When we finally draw near the defense camp I notice the smell is different. Dead Beags don’t have much of a smell and when decomposing they may look disgusting but they don’t smell offensive. Something to do with their make-up or something, I don’t know. I’m a fighter not a scientist for a reason.
The smell in the air is distinctly foul however. I motion to Red that something is up and act even more cautious than our previously paranoid selves. As we approach the last street corner before the base I carefully take a glance. The sight is an ugly one and it gives me pause. There are no Beag bodies other than the ones that formed the wall. All around there are human bodies, most wearing Determiner’s armor. The cuts and gashes riddling the bodies can have only one source, a powerful Facpour.
After we had left yesterday there must have been another ten or so Determiners that joined the base because the number of bodies was too great. Some split in half could have made it seem like more, but regardless it was a slaughter. Why didn’t they split up after our massive victory, they must have known a Facpour was coming; unless we were supposed to make it back in time with the weapon to defend them. I freeze as I think how my decision to carry Mast may have slowed us down to the point it cost the lives of some 25 Determiners. Red gives me a tap on the arm to snap me out of my trance.
He motions to a building across the street and for a brief moment I see movement. Pulling up my rifle to be ready to open fire I take aim at the window I saw the disturbance. In the window I see the raising of a human rifle in a non threatening manner. Slowly Donc stands up and braces himself on the windows ledge. Looking both ways down the street and seeing no one we cross over to him.
When we arrive we see it is just him and a kid that would have been about Jonas’ age. Donc has the rifle rigged to his good arm with a piece of wire set so all he has to do is make a fist to fire. The kid looks like he is locked up in terror from the battle that took place. Donc gives the kid a pat on the shoulder which does nothing to rouse him before speaking. “I saw this kid run in here when we saw the Facpour show up, I took off after him in a hope we could regroup and hold it off long enough for you all to get back. It’s a good thing he’s a coward, or else I would be one of those bodies out there.”
Mast would have a field day with this one. Donc saved because he’s a hard ass trying to order a kid back to battle and certain death. “We lost Josh when we ran into some enhanced Beags. We found them attaching the spores to the warriors making them a hell of a lot harder to kill. But we managed to find the ionization weapon; it works wonders on a warrior that’s for sure.”
“At least you managed to make it back here. We’re supposed to have a complete evac this morning but it looks like it will just be the five of us.” Not giving me the chance to respond he taps on his wrist comm. and speaks. “Determiner Unit 412 reporting a success in retrieving the ionization weapon. The defense base was hit by a Facpour last night and was wiped out. I have a kid here going by the name Tap from another unit, please advise on exit route.”
The comm. comes to life in my ear. “Atace to 412, we have a safe LZ two blocks from your position. Make it to the roof in 15, be advised enemies have been spotted in your area.”
“Roger that command, Determiners out.” We all look at our own GPS and grumble. The landing zone for our pick up is on the other side of the wall of bodies. “We have 15 minutes. No point wasting time trying to go over the wall, we plugged up the crawl area yesterday to prevent another rear attack. We are going to go east one block to go around. Let’s move out.”
With aching muscles we carefully and quietly move from one building to another. Not taking a chance to be caught out in the open. Tap was roused surprisingly quickly once we started walking out the door leaving him to follow. He kept up and was very alert, paying extra attention to Red’s danger zones since Red couldn’t defend himself while carrying Mast. We go the block and cut the two blocks and are in sight of the building. At the base of the building we see a small Beag warrior party sitting fortified. With Mast out of commission there are only four of us, and going against a well fortified area would be a bad idea. With only 5 minutes before our chopper comes in to carry us out we have to hurry. Donc signals to Red the sign for grenade then hands him four. Red gets the idea and sneaks across the street using cars, trashcans and building debris for cover. Once he is at the alley running beside the fortified building he chucks two of the grenades on the unsuspecting Beags. Two are taken out in the explosion while the remaining three are only stunned. Red runs forward enough to blast a stunned warrior then throws the remaining two grenades through the door of the building and runs down the alley. As one remaining stunned warrior rouses a handful of well armed Beags who pour out of the building joining up with the one and take off with him after Red. As they disappear down the alley I move up with Donc to check out the building while Tap stumbles along with Mast. We move through the first floor without an issue. Arriving at the stairwell for the second floor I motion to Donc that more may be upstairs waiting to blast whatever walks up the stairwell. After all, that’s what I would do in this situation. Donc hands me his shot gun and motions for me to move up. I get to the turning point in the stairs and wait just out of view from above. I hear Donc go over to the elevator and start to try opening the door using his one good arm. I hear the door start to slide when I hear the one upstairs starting to be pried open. I motion to Donc and he smiles.
“Hey you bastards, why don’t you come down here and take your beatings like a man.” His provoking words fall on uncomprehending ears and all grows silent upstairs. Donc quietly sneaks over to where I am and grabs the shot gun from me and gives me the ionization rifle. Throwing a rock into the elevator we hear the sound of the it hitting metal and then falling to the ground. At the sound we walk around the corner and start blasting at any movement. Donc takes the first shot and shreds the warriors arm holding the weapon causing him to drop it. I brace the rifle against the wall and fire; liquefying two Beags. The one remaining we can see from our position fires a round catching Donc in the same position as his first hit causing him to stumble forward falling up the stairs. I fire another round and the Beag is no more.
Donc stirs and crawls up the stairs with his shot gun being loosely held in his hand. He flops around the corner and blasts another shot as a warrior’s bullets travel where a standing person would have been. I quickly ascend the stairs and peer to the side with his back which turns out to just be a window. In the window I see Red running down the street quickly towards our building. I look down at my GPS and see we have 3 minutes to get to the roof. I put Donc’s arm around my shoulder and hoist him to a standing position much to his complaint. We go up the remaining six flights of stairs as quickly as we possibly can while being careful at every turn. We hear the sounds of a chopper as we are going up the last set of stairs. As the chopper lands I see Red still bolting up the stairs. I get Donc to the chopper and get him in and I see Red and Tap both carrying Mast at a jogging pace as they leap into the chopper. I jump in and we start to take off. The first Beag walks through the door as we lift from the ground and the 50 cal unloads on him laying him to waste. Several more burst through the door but are no match for the powerful machine gun. As we veer away from the building I see a Facpour climb over the edge on the far side. By now we are twenty feet from the building and getting further away but it decides to take a running leap swinging its mighty arms to put one blow on our vehicle. It falls short by inches and lands hard on its feet on a building below. Warriors are now pouring out onto the roof tops nearby and firing away trying to hit something vital. Some of the bullets whizzed by as near misses. As we get further from the LZ, I take in the sight of the city. Flashes of gunfire can be seen but there is no escape helicopter for them. You can see hordes of Beag marching down streets looking like ants ready to swarm and Facpour towering as tall as some of the buildings scattered all over. Sometimes the explosion of Terrorlings can be seen before a building collapses from too much damage. And to think we once called this home.
Nightfall
The flight feels long from all of the intense fighting we have been through. We fly to the Redas Armor company thankful we didn’t have to walk the 120 miles. They don’t usually waste helicopters on people, it’s only because we carry this weapon they gave us a ride because we were in a bad spot. Chances are we would have been killed and the weapon would have been lost. It’s bad enough the facility was on the other side of the city as the armor company. We had to go through heavy Beag territory and then had to double back to the base to go through to the other side. I look around at my companions. Donc is pretty beat up but managing to stay on his feet, one point for stubbornness. Red must be tired from all the physical strain but otherwise is no worse for wear. Tap is unscathed, probably from running from every confrontation while others fight to survive. I’m bruised, cut, hungry, tired, and worn out from constant exertion. Mast has seen better days. He is definitely turning green, and all of his hair has fallen out by this point. The bone structure in his face seems a little different and his eye brows look more like hard masses than hair. The rest of him is covered in clothing but if that’s how his face looks then the rest can’t be good.
We unload as the chopper touches down and then takes off. We hop into one of the medical RV’s and head off to the temporary camp. I hand off the ionization weapon to a general and we each go our separate ways to clean off a bit, address wounds, and change clothes. Looking a little more presentable we all convene in the mess hall. The four of us now look worse, bruises and cuts that were covered in dirt or old enough to have healed some now carry white bandages making us all look more damaged than we are.
With food in our stomachs we hop in the back of an RV and get some sleep while the camp breaks and moves on to prevent unwanted company. After seven hour of restless sleep where I relive the horrible parts of past missions I decide to be up for the day. In my sleep we have set up another very temporary camp far from the city. I head off to the medical tent and get my wounds checked while I check on Mast. I notice that there aren’t many people in this camp, no more than a half dozen. With two tanks and a couple RV’s with mounted machine guns they aren’t much to look at. Clearly they aren’t Determiners since they ask questions about fights and marvel at ‘veteran tales.’
With all of Mast’s gear removed and him wearing plain civilian clothes I can see the extent of the changes taking place more clearly. His eyes no longer open in the traditional sense. The first time the doctors opened them to check the pupil dilation I was shocked to see they opened more in a four pointed star manner. The eye itself has taken a reptilian like yellow in the white part and a red iris when there isn’t light but changes to yellow when there is light. His jaw is set differently, placed more forward but with the changes in his facial structure it flows naturally. His ears have repositioned a little higher on his head and look to lie a little more flat against his head each ending in a two points.
His mouth and nose have all but vanished under a plate of hard tissue with three small soft tissue breathing tubes sitting on either side of the plate. The doctors say it is just a defense mechanism and that his mouth and nose are still there, if shaped a little differently. The rest of his body is rather similar to what it was. His bones are denser, there are more sharp rises in his spine, his hands have taken a slightly more clawed shape without the long claws and his skin feels more like hard tissue than soft sometimes.
It wasn’t until I saw the doctors checking his chest and lower region after they thought I had left I noticed something else was indeed different. He had boobs, small ones to be sure, but they were covered in the same hard tissue that covers his mouth. According to the doctors the downstairs region has the same shielding mechanism but underneath is no longer an outie but an innie. Needless to say I didn’t believe them and called bullshit until they showed me the x-ray. His, now her, hips were shaped differently to allow for full flexibility around that joint, even the spine could be bent straight backwards without damage. It was the organs that were the most surprising. They pointed out female reproductive organs instead of male ones, plus some organs for which they had no clue.
I walked out of the tent wondering if I had lost my teammate or if his brain managed to remain intact.
TBC...
By: Emily Rudgers
In the war hardened lands of future Earth, humanity has been brought to its knees and tested.
The only possible saviors of the world being skilled soldiers whose abilities are put to the test.
This is the story of the remnants of unit 412.
July 4, 2032
A jolt from the ground causes me to stir. I open my eyes and can only make out the edges of my surroundings. It looks pitch black outside so it must be the early morning hours. With another jolt I sit up quickly fearing I am in danger. My brain kicks into survival mode and I move to a squatting position.
I’m sitting in the bed of a hummer. Before I can think on how I got here a blinding flash of light flares off to my right. Moving my hand up to shield my eyes from the painful source I realize the source is a fire from enemy artillery. Usually only Honor Facpour carry such weapons due to the size but thankfully there aren’t many available otherwise we would all be leveled. As another blast falls it spews its contents spreading like water covering the ground and then bursting into a raging torrent of flames. I have to close my eyes for this one because it is much closer and the pain leaves me feeling like a flash bang went off in my face.
Blinking to clear the dots in my vision I unlatch the trunk of the vehicle. I jump down and take off into a run towards the nearest tent. Four white blurs of motion begin pouring out of the tent. They are all featureless like I am looking through an infrared scope. Two of them are carrying black cases, throwing them in a close by RV they run through the door and start the engine. The other two white masses run towards me. I go to pull my firearm at my side and find nothing there. I look down and realize I’m in civilian clothes instead of my gear. I get in a battle ready stance when one of the white masses stops to shout, “Come on, we have to get out of here before this whole place goes up in flames.” I recognize the voice as Kilp but can’t understand why she looks so odd.
Trusting her voice she pulls me towards the hummer I just climbed out of. We all hop in and take off with the spinning of tires in dry dirt. Looking to my left out the window I see two towering yellow masses in the distance that resemble the general shape of a Facpour. Their guns glow white from having been fired recently. The hummer jostles from side to side while we dodge a few incoming shells until we are finally out of range. The driver of the vehicle looks over their shoulder, “Look who’s finally awake, bout time you woke up. I’m tired of dragging your lazy ass all over this god forsaken wasteland.” It takes me a moment to realize that the voice is Red’s over the distortion of the car’s noise and distant blasts.
I try to speak but my voice comes through muffled. I reach up with my hand to figure out why and I feel no mouth. I panic in my search for a mouth and find 6 little tubes on either side of a hard plate. I start breathing quickly in panic until I feel a sudden rush of calmness enter my system. I look up at my two teammates sitting in front of me and my brain tells me these are the enemy and they must be killed because I am in danger. Kilp speaks up in concern, “Mast? You alright?”
I see her slowly reaching for her firearm. I react without thinking and smash her in the head with my elbow and then punch Red. Both are knocked out cold from my single blow. I reach up to the steering wheel and make sure we are moving safely while I pull Red’s foot off the accelerator and place it on the brake. We slow to a stop and I open the back of the Hummer as quickly as I can and run around the side. I see my gear sitting on the floor in the passenger side and start to gear up. My armor doesn’t fit right so I end up cutting some of the straps and tying them tighter until I get a loose fit. While I attach the circle blades to my side I see the sun starting to brighten the landscape. My vision switches from the strangle infrared to regular vision only with more clarity than I am accustomed to having. I hold the side of the vehicle to stablize me from the jarring change when the significance of my vision hits. Moving to the side view mirror I take a look. If I had not known better I would never have recognized myself. I looked nothing like how I used to. I looked like some alien creature that would be better suited in a Beag army than a human one. I looked nothing like a Beag but I was most definitely not anywhere near human.
As my mind got further and further from the thoughts of danger and needing safety I noticed the hard plate on my face start to soften and slowly a face began to emerge. My nose was vaguely human without a large nose bridge and the lower ends trailing down in three ridges towards a mouth. My mouth seemed wider and my teeth seemed to have rearranged. My canines were now in the very center and spreading four teeth in width with jagged molars in the back. Turning my head I see no hair but with the strange coloration of my skin and the layers of some hard tissue lying the way they do giving the illusion of a hair like substance. My hands look like something a dinosaur would have without the claws. Sending my hand down the back of my neck I feel strange ridges on my spine. I turn around to take a look but can’t manage to get my spine in the mirror well. I turn my upper body to try and look at my lower spine and am able to turn my top half most of the way around and can just look down. At least I don’t have a tail, I’m not sure I could deal with that.
Lifting up my shirt to check the damage I see a flat stomach with several thin lines running down. Lifting my shirt further I see two lumps where my nipples should be found. Looking at the hardened area the skin begins to relax much like my face did until I see small breast like tissue with alien nipples. Shaking my head in disbelief I have a thought. These look like something you would find on a girl. With that thought I panic and reach in my pants and find nothing. No penis, no vagina, just nothing. Pulling down my pants enough that I can see I notice it’s the same changing tissue and it starts to soften. Instead of the features becoming more apparent like the rest of the areas, I notice nothing really change as the tissue relaxes. Reaching down I probe the area with hesitation. It isn’t until I reach further back that I notice the change. I… have… a… vagina…. How is that even possible? But then how is any of this possible. Only a little while ago I wouldn’t have believed that aliens existed and now I’m living on a planet infested with them while I’ve turned into one.
Kilp begins to stir so I pull up and fasten my pants and belt. In fear of their reaction I start to feel panic rise in me again. I feel my body flex into the armored plating while I contemplate running. It’s survival out here. Where do I fall in the circle of killing? Not taking the chance I run back the way we came. Back towards the city, back to the fighting, and back to what I know.
Before long I hear the roar of the Hummer’s engine and I see a dust cloud drawing closer. I duck behind some rocks as they get close. They stop a little bit away and I hear Kilp through the window, “We lost Mast, he took off after knocking us both out. I’m not sure he’s entirely himself.” She pauses while the person she is talking to responds and then makes a fist and slams it down on her leg in frustration. “Roger that, Kilp out.” She pounds on her leg a couple more times until Red reaches across to settle her. “They want us to just leave him and if we find him to assume he’s hostile. I thought we were fighting to save humanity not erase it.” Red does a small nod but doesn’t say a word. With no other words shared they zip off becoming nothing but a dot on the horizon.
I was right to think they would want to kill me. This war quickly killed any trace of brotherhood originally found in the military. Losing so many close friends in such a short amount of time can do that to you. Eventually you shut off all emotion and just try to survive as best you can hoping whoever gives you the missions knows what’s best.
I start walking towards the city while I contemplate what I am now and what exactly I am fighting for.
In the afternoon I see the shapes of buildings starting to grow larger so I decide to pick up the pace. By early evening I arrive back in the city. It isn’t long before I stumble across a small Beag patrol complete with two warriors and two commanders. Normally it would be suicide for one person to try to take on two commanders, but a hopeless situation is exactly what I am looking for. I don’t want to be the freak alien; I want to go back to the days where killing wasn’t an hourly thing but something you tried to avoid. Squatting behind a concrete bench I prepare myself. Pulling out my rifle I fire and decapitate one of the commanders. One of the warriors takes off to get help and I choose him as my next target. I shoot out his hip causing him to fall forward in a crumpled mess. The remaining commander finally opens fire on my position so I duck down and scurry away from the bench into a building with an open window. I set down my rifle inside and pull out the circle blades. I move to the next room in the building as the warrior and commander blind fire in through the window. After they empty their clips I run out and dive through the window straight into the warrior with the blades extended in front of me slicing through its rib cage.
The commander has managed to reload in this time, clearly being a veteran. From three feet away he fires off six shots. I feel each bullet hit me right in the stomach and lower chest. The pain causes me to double over and crumple to the ground. The commander closes the distance between us and places the barrel to the top of my head. I hear it speak with uncommon clarity for a Beag, “weakling.” Then he fires off another shot.
I awake as a wave of coursing pain surges through my abdomen. My head feels like I have a really bad hang over and my abdomen feels like someone tried to remove my appendix with a butter knife. I push myself up and stumble to my feet. Looking down the road I see the commander kneeling over the body of the fallen warrior I shot. Picking up the blades from the ground I slowly, step by excruciating step, make my way towards the commander.
At the sound of my heavy footfalls the commander looks towards me and freezes in surprise. I pick up the pace and close the distance between us to only a couple yards until he responds and open fires on me. He hits me with another three shots in my chest and stomach but my body doesn’t register the pain. I slice with the blades and cut off his wrists and then knee him right in the stomach. He falls to his knees from the pain and grabs for his stomach with what would have been his hands. I circle around my prey letting it cry out in pain before I take my right blade and sink it straight through his neck.
I feel a rush from using my hands to kill my enemy instead of a gun. Bending over I take the commander’s blades and attach them to my belt with my own. I consider for a moment going back for my rifle until I feel a sense of distaste for using such a thing. I take off a piece of the commander’s leg armor that looks like it would fit better and try it on. Strapping it on proves to be a better fit and feels more natural against my skin. The rest of his gear is too bulky from him having a muscular upper half so I set off walking down the street away from the mess of bodies. While walking I look down at my stomach through the bullet holes in my armor. Where the bullets hit my skin looks more alien than ever but, no damage can be seen anywhere. I feel the back of my head where that bullet entered and feel the same hardening tissue from before.
With unfamiliar confidence I take less care in ducking into corners of buildings for fear a Beag is just around the corner. I smile at the thought of fighting a Facpour, just maybe I am the weapon that can kill them. If my own race doesn’t accept me anymore then I will fight for what is mine and only mine. And this city is mine.
Nightfall
I spot a group of Terrorlings with a couple warriors just before I decide to stop for the evening. I make quick work of the warriors but the Terrorlings prove to be an interesting challenge. The explosion of the first one from me throwing a circle blade killed several others but also managed to splash onto my arm burning me. When the pain stopped from the burning I noticed the same trend that bullet holes seem to give. I look more alien but no real damage is done. I then go close quarters with the remaining Terrorlings, using my speed to slice quickly and then shielding the blades from the acidic spray causing my back to take most of the impacts. With each successive blast I changed more and more. My back now has several rows of ridges and the skin has gotten even darker. The backs of my hands now have blade like claws that can extend while my inner wrist seems to be changing to form a similar claw on the inside but hasn’t gotten that far.
When I stop for the day I realize just how much I’ve changed and I can’t see a mirror to know how much my face has changed. While my strategy of barreling into combat and killing seems to work well, with each bullet that hits me or burn from explosions I find myself less human. I can’t let myself become a monster, or I will be no better than the Beag. Meaning it’s stealth tactics from here on out.
I sit in my blown out building flexing my claws growing bored. I don’t feel tired at all. Normally a long day traveling and fighting would wear you out enough to want to sit but now I feel on edge. Always ready to leap into combat at first chance. It isn’t long before I hear an exchange of gunfire in the distance. Before I can think, my body decides we are going and I find myself sprinting towards the sound.
With amazing speed I find myself flying through the city blocks. I run into a couple of Beags who have the same idea as me and pick up my pace to get ahead of them. I dispatch them with ease when they charge around a corner. Not a single shot fired just the whirling whistle and slicing of my blades.
Ducking through an old café I find a small group of Determiners only two or three strong fending off a large group of Beag. The soldiers are pinned down in a building that looks close to collapse from all the bullets chipping away pieces of foundation. With six Beag to my left and another twenty or so to my right I jump into the fray. I take out the first two Beag by charging out the café’s doorway slicing like mad. I take out another two before any of them realize there is something wrong. The last two on my side go down before a single bullet connects. I charge down the alley having crossed the street running towards the next block. I run around the block and find myself looking down the street with a few less Beag from well placed Determiner shots. I use the rubble from the collapsing building and various vehicles to get closer to my enemy.
Bullets whiz past my head but I am moving too quickly and out of sight for them to know exactly where I am. Using three cars that had rear ended each other as cover I manage to move towards the back of the Beags. Half of them are still firing at the building while the other half are firing several car lengths behind me. I move quickly and silently eradicate those using cover in the back. The others are none the wiser and manage to kill another handful before their brethren realize fewer shots are being fired. One of them turns only to be met with a clean cut through its skull. With only ten left all attention is redirected to me. I send off another two by going through a car and coming out on their side. I crawl back into the car as bullets rain down. I feel a shot hit me in the small of the back and another in my neck. The pain is instantaneous but so is my body’s response to block out the pain.
With Determiners shooting at their backs only five Beags remain but the warriors have charged into the building. Rather taking the fight from a couple humans than whatever I am. Several bullets fly out the doorway connecting with me in the arm and stomach before I make it to the door and butcher the perpetrators. I hear the remaining two running up the stairs when I hear the blast of shot guns and then silence.
Relaxing out of the bonelike face cover I call out to the people upstairs. My voice comes across garbled with an unfamiliar mouth structure and a new tongue. “Ah cuninc uk. Un cooc heh.” (I’m coming up. Don’t shoot me.) On my way up the stairs my vision turns infrared in the darkness of the building. I put my hands out around the corner showing I’m unarmed. I hear a sharp intake of breath from someone I can’t see yet. Slowly I walk around the corner with my hands raised and see two Determiners and the bodies of another four whose heat is dissipating from death. One of the remaining stands up and shakily motions with his gun for me to walk off to his right. The two of them spread apart making it more difficult for me to kill them my brain says before I silence that track of thought.
I can almost smell the fear on these two, though my age or older they fear what it is I’m capable of after my display. “Wh..wh… why did y…y…you…h… help us? Wh…what are you?”
Their fear is intoxicating and I find my mind wandering in its stimulating effect. They are in my city, killing. I say who lives and dies, not them. There is no place for these weaklings. I grab the shotgun out of hands of the guy in front of me and spin behind his body. The other shaking guy fires off a shot to catch me but only manages to kill his teammate. With his body as a human shield I charge forward and use the butt of the shotgun to snap his neck.
A satisfied grin crosses my face as I watch the heat drain from their bodies. As my overriding desire to fight and kill fades I collapse to my knees and rest my forehead on the body of my last victim. What have I done?
In the war hardened lands of future Earth, humanity has been brought to its knees and tested.
The only possible saviors of the world being skilled soldiers whose abilities are put to the test.
This is the story of the remnants of unit 412.
July 5, 2032
It was the middle of the night before I managed to regain some presence of mind. I knew I would have to do something with the Determiner bodies to reclaim some sense of humanity. With tears running down my face I drag the lifeless bodies together into a pile when I freeze, hearing a sound on the first floor of the building. The clanging of stockpiling weapons and going through cabinets can be heard. I quietly pick up the blades I dropped in realization of my kills and make my way to the top of the steps. The voices being cast up the stair well are human and not military.
From the sounds it’s only two people. “I wonder how big a group of Determiners it was that managed to kill all these Beag. Must ‘ave been one with a lot of balls to risk going hand to hand on them. Ya think it’s another group going for that weapon we were told about?”
“Why the hell would they send another group for a god damn weapon?”
“There were two groups that we killed already, so who’s to say there weren’t more? Maybe the Beag killed a couple, too?”
“That’s a lot uh effort for some piece of shit gun. They probably just wanted to send a bunch of people expecting some to get killed on the way. After all they has to go through our territory and Beag territory and there ain’t nobody makin’ it through our place.”
“Except that one group of people a couple nights ago who killed a couple of our leaders after we finally managed to get a meeting with some Beag commanders. God damn Determiners messing everything up, if it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t even have to worry about the Beag.”
“Like we would actually manage to get peace with the Beag. My guess is the meeting would have involved us being sold as slaves or selling out our friends to kill us all. Now shut your trap and let’s get this done before we get caught.”
Softly I sit down on the top step in thought. The Gremlins are trying to make peace with the Beag? Don’t they know we’ve tried that? It ended in the death of all our leaders who attended the meeting; stupid humans. I flinched, I knew my mind was changing some too, but since when did I stop aligning any part of me as human. I have to stop whatever is happening to me, I don’t want to turn into a monster.
I hear the Gremlin’s begin to ascend the stairs. Idiots, how have they managed to stay alive this long without being careful? I should erase these pathetic excuses of life from existence and purge my city of their filth. Shaking my head to banish those types of thoughts I see the glowing body of one round the corner in the stairs. Seeing my silhouette on the stairs from the moon shining through the windows, he freezes. My eyes lock on his. He pulls the trigger on his gun while he yells out to his partner, “Beag!”
Several shots land in my abdomen, two in my arms and one in the hardened faceplate. My breathing doesn’t change, just slow consistent breathes of a hunter unafraid of its prey. As another shot lands in my shoulder I lunge forward down the stairs and use the blade I developed on the outside of my right arm to rip his throat out in a backhand. The cut, while not as effortless as using the circle blades, gave a satisfying gush and I could not help but break out in a smile of pleasure.
The other Gremlin now has me in his sights and opens fire, catching me in the hip and arm until I use my right arms blade in a downward punching motion slicing him from neck to groin. His lifeless body falls backwards down the stairs while the first body slumps to the ground. I know that I should feel bad for killing a human, but these are Gremlins, worthless creatures that have no place in my city. Crying out in frustration at my own mind’s flip flop between being human and alien I break into a run to get away from my mess. Why is this happening to me? I’ve turned into some crazed freak that gets off on ripping people apart. Oh and to sweeten the deal let’s throw in a vagina and boobs.
The buildings become a blur as I stop paying attention to where I am while my mind continues to implode in self loathing. I run out into the middle of a street and see a group of four Facpor and twenty commanders accompanying a type of Beag I have never seen before. Standing roughly ten feet in height and built with sleek muscles, I notice this type is different in style. Where the warriors are based in number, the Facpor in strength, the commanders in endurance, and the terrorlings in range this type looks to be a combination of all those plus, with its larger head, an intelligence beyond the others.
It takes all of us a moment before we realize what is going on. All Beag heads turn to this new type awaiting orders of some kind when I realize I have just stumbled upon the leader. With a narrowing of the leader’s eyes, five commanders break off to take me. Several shots are fired in my direction and I don’t even flinch when they hit my stomach in the same positions as previously healed wounds. As my faceplate closes I feel the corner of my lip perk up into a maniacal smile. I know this is a hopeless situation and that I should run for my life but I want to die trying. Maybe, if by some miracle, I manage to kill this leader I will have redeemed myself from the horrible things I have done. If I can’t, then I will be doing the world a favor by eliminating a monster.
I run straight at the group of five while the rest of the Beag watch. I pull out my circle blades as more bullets rain down feeling like nothing more than cotton balls. I slice through the first three commanders with ease knowing their sweet spots and rookie tactics. The last two pull out their own blades and swing at me. Blocking with my own blades I move to the side of one and punch him in the wrist while his friend tries to move around him to get at me. I spin putting my back to both of them and slice through the spine of my shield with my left hands blade. The commander in the back attacks now that I am around his friend only to be met with my right arm’s block and me dragging my backhand claw down his arm to his neck. I turn to face the Beag leader and with a sharp yank I feel the commander’s spine rip. As his body falls the world goes a little fuzzy and I almost fall over. Looking down to my stomach I see many bullet holes with a trail of blood for each. The sheer number of holes has slowed my healing but as I watch I see more and more holes close leaving more alien flesh beneath.
I look back up to their leader in challenge hoping, he sends another couple to their slaughter. He regards me with greater significance, no longer looking at me like a bug needing to be squashed but a formidable foe. I break into a run towards the leader, taking the lull in combat as my chance to get close before a torrent of bullets falls upon me. With a motion of the leaders hand a single Facpor moves to intercept. With a swing of one of its mighty hands I feel the ground beneath me rumble which would cause a human to stumble but I continue straight on my course. I hit with one of my circle blades into the Facpor’s forearm only for it to sink a quarter inch and hit something hard enough to break the blade. Shocked at such a tough hide he manages to knee me, tossing me back to my original position. I land on my back feeling like someone just punched me in the stomach despite my toughened hide.
The Facpor runs at me while I get to a crawling position. When only a couple yards are left I lunge forward and duck under its right arm. I drag my backhand blades down the ribcage of the beast. Unlike the circle blades I feel these blades sink through the hard barrier into soft flesh. With a roar in pain the Facpor continues forward from its momentum and falls in a heap behind me. I turn and run to my downed enemy. It swings its huge hands to swat me away but I slice through one of its shoulder causing its arm to flop useless from me having hit a vital tendon of some kind. Using its other hand to swing I fly backwards and feel my back hit a mailbox. I taste blood in my mouth and look up with slow eyes seeing my enemy trying to regain use in its arm. Looking over at me I see surprise on its face at my ability to survive, “Just die Surra!”
My surprise at yet again understanding a Beag is cut only by the fact I can tell this Facpor is female. Looking at the other Beag I finally notice that all the warriors I recognize as male while all the Facpor I see are female. My mind makes the connection, they aren’t different races coexisting, but the Facpor is the female of the species and the small warrior the male. Shaking away the thoughts I try to focus my mind on the combat, on showing all here I am the owner of this city. With a strained effort I stand and walk towards my rising foe. When I meet her she swings with her one good arm and then tries to step on me. With one foot forward I take the chance to cut where the Achilles tendon would be and am rewarded with the Facpor falling to its knees. Using one of its heels as a step I leap up on her back and disable the other arm. In an effort to get me off she shifts her weight shaking me lose. I land on the ground gracefully and look towards my audience. With a quiet primal growl I sink my claw in the lower abdomen and rake my way up to the chin leaving intestines falling out as I go. As I reach the end of my cut, the massive body falls to the ground. It wriggles a couple seconds before all life vanishes. Fear me, for this city is mine and I protect what is mine.
The Beag leader emits a growl in anger at my display. I take my opportunity to rush the leader. I get within an arm’s length when I feel a swing from an extra two sets of arms connect in my face and stomach sending me over a building. As I see the roof of a building rushing towards me I am met with darkness.
I awake with a pounding head, every pulse of blood sending a branch of pain in my skull. I open my heavy eyelids and find myself looking up at a ceiling that has a body sized hole. I try to move my body but find it unresponsive. I will some part to move but nothing happens. Paralyzed from the neck down in this kind of place would be really bad. I try to move for several more minutes before I settle myself for a moment. Giving up hope of ever being able to walk again I feel death acceptance creep into my mind. My body’s self preservation kicks in, washing through my mind. I will kill those scums for daring challenge me in my city. With a loud crack and jerking of my neck I start to feel sensations in my body. The rush of broken bones, internal bleeding, pieces of wood sticking through my thigh and burning lungs makes my throbbing headache feel like a pinprick.
With each crack of bone and contortion of muscle I feel a pleasurable pain course across my skin as my body manages to rebuild itself. I hear heavy foot falls outside and manage to drag my body across the floor towards the rear exit. “Find the Surra. I want its skull as proof they still exist.”
I make it to the doorway before my body regains full functionality. I stand up and run across the street away from the small army of Beag. They will pay for their insolence. They may have won this fight but I will be back for them and I will use their bodies as proof of my superiority. I don’t even care if I’m not thinking entirely human; as long as my thoughts are focused on killing Beag instead of humans I’m comfortable. The blood rage carries happiness for the death and destruction of war. As a human I blindly accepted the good and the bad but now I thrive in the bad. The Beag are as bad as they come and will make a delectable fight before I move to the battered and weak humans.
In my escape I run into a small scouting party of warriors. Even in my injured state they prove to be nothing more than bugs, easily purged and put on display. I take a piece of their bracer armor and use it to cover my biceps. I move my arm a couple times to test my range of motion and find it unencumbered. I know the sounds of the fight will draw attention so I quickly run, with my now fully healed body, towards the heart of the city.
July 4, 2032
Kilp:
After losing Mast we met up with the Armored Company again. They had already integrated the ionization weapon into a tank. With a large group of twenty soldiers, including experienced Determiners and people from the more rural parts; we were briefed on escorting the tank to the heart of the city where we would be setting up a base of defense. Now that we had a weapon they knew could successfully kill a Facpor, because they tested it on one, we were going to take the fight to them. As we packed up the Hummers with large stashes of collected ammo and all the food and medical supplies we have left there was silence in the air. Everyone knew this was our last stand. While other cities may still have teams managing to survive this was our last chance to take back the city. Atace informed us that if we failed to defend this weapon the schematics were already onboard the ship so they could start having other teams build their own. Even with that knowledge I couldn’t help but get the sense we had already lost. We lost our friends and family. We lost our humanity. And now we were going to lose our lives.
July 5, 2032
We rode straight into the city. Red was in my Hummer driving while I operated the gun. His male brain was so focused on driving that he didn’t talk. I missed his jokes that kept me from focusing on the constant threat of dying but I diligently stayed alert to every motion. We mauled through groups of warriors and commanders losing few with our extra firepower. A Facpor flipped a vehicle before having an unfortunate encounter with an ionization weapon, frying the life out of it. When we ran into a group of Terrorlings; we lost the use of two cars because their acid ate through the axle but we didn’t lose anyone. Arriving at the construction site that was selected for our base around lunchtime we set up a perimeter.
It wasn’t long before small bands of Beag showed up to try and break up our gathering, but with a tank able to fire without recoil consequences they were melted quickly. It turned out that the weapon didn’t even have to reload so they were able to fire semi-automatically killing two or three at a shot.
We also attracted friends who were surviving groups of Determiners, who offered to help us defend so our company grew past my ability to count. It looked like we actually might have a chance until one of the last groups to arrive told us that the Beag were organizing to take us out. They said groups larger than they had ever seen were organizing and closing in around us leaving us completely surrounded.
A large group of us sat together eating our last meal talking over all the things we missed from before the war. All the places we wished we had gone or the people we wished we had met under different circumstances. My thoughts drifted to Mast; I wish I had met him before this war. He was a good guy I would have loved to have been friends with, but that’s in the past and won’t ever be. I wonder where he is right now, hopefully still alive.
My thoughts are broken when the conversation turns to a competition over who has seen the worst spectacle of death. I told them about the time we found bodies that were disemboweled on top of their own heads. Tap talked about watching twenty Determiners get squashed by a Facpor. It was someone else who was called the winner however; they had seen a Beag kill twenty five of its brethren so it could kill the remaining few Determiners. He said he only managed to survive because he was in the building across the street when this went down in an effort to supply flanking support. My guess is from how often he flinches he was hiding in that building bawling his eyes out.
We have all seen a lot of terrible events but we all grow silent while we consider the thought of a Beag who would kill all its own men in an effort to kill a human. It’s Red who breaks the silence, “Just show him a nude picture of Kilp, bet he drools long enough to get zapped.” Everyone chuckles while I punch him in the arm.
In the war hardened lands of future Earth, humanity has been brought to its knees and tested.
The only possible saviors of the world being skilled soldiers whose abilities are put to the test.
This is the story of the remnants of unit 412.
July 5, 2032
As I walk through the city I hear large groups of Beag off in the distance so I start heading towards them. By midday I stumble upon several full battle forces of Beag. I failed to kill the Beag leader but I can cause a nuisance by removing groups of warriors. With such a large group in this one little area I manage to pick off stragglers who are moving to join the group. Peering from the safety of a window a block away I see them preparing for some form of attack. They cannot possibly know where I am because I have been extra careful with dispatching bodies then moving them out of eye sight so I’m not overwhelmed in gun fire. From the distance I can hear a commander shouting.
“The Recas (humans) have another fort with the last of their people. We are going to show them once and for all that Beag are superior. We attack shortly, be prepared. Terrorlings in the back, warriors in the front.”
Moving through several building I see that there is a large group of Terrorlings. More than I have ever seen set up in a location where they can release their spores downwind providing very long range covering fire. From my position on the roof I see a large group of humans organized in a fortified construction site, using the large concrete slabs and dug out foundation troughs as cover. Looking to the left and right of my position I notice that the Beag have the entire compound surrounded with an endless ring. I hear the battle cry of a commander and I see the Beag start to move in slowly, being smart. They use the cover to hide their position, allowing them to get as close as possible before being spotted. With the main force moving away I jump down from the roof of my building with a crunch of my knees. In mere seconds they are fully healed and I run towards the Terrorlings’ position. With a very large group of Determiners they might be able to hold off the Beag long enough for me to kill their leader. Maybe then the Beag will descend into chaos while they fight desperately over who is strong enough to lead.
I make it to the first floor of one of the buildings and find fifteen warriors standing guard as protection from sneak attacks. I make quick work of them as their guns prove ineffective against my skin. Moving to the roof I find thirty Terrorlings on this one roof top and another fifty on others. As the first barrage of spores is released I see Determiners liquidized by the acid. I barrel into the closest Terrorling and slice my blades through the acid sack. I continue running dragging both hand blades in each one’s body. They were always terrible at close range combat, but with my body’s immunity to their acid by being able to heal quickly, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. As each body erupts in acid I feel myself change more. Eventually the acid does little more than run off my skin like water.
Ten minutes later
The Terrorlings proved to be unworthy of a challenge. All of them fell to my blades with ease. I move towards the line of progressing Beag in hopes they prove to be more worth my time. With the sounds of war going on all around I easily can sneak up behind and rip warriors, commanders and even a few Facpor apart before I have swept through their attacking line. I push to the left where there are more Beag from a failure of the humans to adequately defend their flank. I butcher as I go, using large sections of concrete pipe as tunnels to move from group to group without facing too many bullet holes.
As I leap off a section of steel beams down on a Facpors skull, slicing it in two, I find myself trapped between the human and Beag lines.
Without any suitable cover between me and the Beag I push towards the humans. I am met with several sniper rounds in my upper body and a hail of shots hitting me from behind. Ducking inside a dumpster I give my body a moment to heal. I see several blasts from an electric pulse fly over the dumpsters opening and hear the roar of a Facpor. I climb out of the steel coffin and feel another couple sniper shots find my hip, face, and shoulder. I push through the pain and round a corner of pallets, coming face to face with a small group of Determiners. With the sound of several shot gun blasts, any chance of me sparing them is erased as survival instincts take over. I chop the three of them up while they try to flee from my grasp. The Beag use the hole I’ve punched through the human line to get close. Those that can see me keep their distance but they follow me none the less in an effort to make it to the heart of the human camp and disable the strange weapon frying Facpor.
While breaking through the human line I start slashing at everything moving. The trench they have dug out as an easy defense point proves to be a channel I can move through without being afraid of enemy bullets. Four human bodies lay decapitated behind me as I push further into the heart of their force. I make it to the group of ten snipers and start flaying them one by one. During my ecstasy of blood craze I take note of their faces, seeing their fear and pain. On my last human I look into the face of Kilp.
I swing both blades to bring them down on her skull when I stop myself. She has been my friend; I can’t let myself kill her. It takes everything in me to stop myself from raking down the front of her body. The motion would be so easy and the delicious sounds that follow would bring me pleasure but I hold fast.
She looks into my eyes in recognition, her own shot gun now idly aimed into my stomach while her mind swirls. She knows who I am, and she can see me refraining from unleashing my fury upon her. I slowly lift my blades away from her skull. I look behind me at the countless number of bodies forming a trail of death along my path. Beag and human both lay side by side, for none could escape my wrath. Around me the battle still rages but in this moment the force of my humanity takes hold of the mindless beast I have become. I regret every kill I have done and fear what is yet to come. Grabbing hold of Kilp’s shotgun I pull it up to my head and motion strongly to her. I try for the best pleading look I am capable of with starry eyes. Looking straight into my eyes she gets the hint. “I’m sorry,” she breathes while she pulls the trigger. The blast feels painful but I find myself on my back and not dead. My changed skin is proving to be as tough as a Facpor hide. I stand back up while Kilp looks at me in disbelief. My desire to kill the person who tried to harm me resurfaces and I feel my body start to react. My arm makes it to her stomach when I stop myself, the blade resting on the surface.
Pulling my arm away I cast my vision to the ionization weapon, the barrel is lined up directly at me. With feelings for her I didn’t know I have I find myself pushing her out of the way, fearing harm will come to her. The ion weapon pulses and connects with my body. I feel every part of my skin catch fire as every cell in my body tries to pull apart. I drop to my knees and hunch forward in agony.
Smoke rises off of my body as the shot ends. I sit there on my knees taking slow deep breathes when another shot is fired at me. The pain of this shot more distant as my body starts to shut down pain receptors in overload. As the second blast passes I feel myself taking jagged breaths. Slowly lifting my vision I look at the tank in hatred. This pathetic device does not deserve existence in my city. I run straight toward the metal beast. It fires over my shoulder killing a Facpor in the distance. Several more shots whiz by before I find myself on top of the hull ripping the cap open. Jumping inside I do what I do best, I coated the interior with the blood of my attackers.
Crawling out from inside the beast I see Kilp running over to me with her shotgun still in hand. My mind clicks her weapon as a threat and I find myself jumping off the hull and bringing both blades to close around her neck. As I hit the ground I find my blades scissoring her neck, the only thing stopping me from beheading my friend being our bond. I look into her eyes, like I have many of my prey. I see compassion despite my terrible actions; she understands I can’t entirely control myself. I also see fear, not the fear I have seen in so many before but fear to continue living in the world we do. Sadness washes over her face in despair for all the terrible actions we both have had to do in the name of survival. With the sweet smell of her fear my alien mind washes through me and I relieve her fear of continuing to live. As her head falls to the ground I surrender to the alien portion of my brain entirely. In this alien portion I feel no remorse, no sadness, and no regret.
My blood craze courses through my being. With the battle still raging around me I feel high on the level of fear, of the smell of blood, of the cries in pain. Looking out across the landscape I see my first target. The leader is fighting alongside a large group of Beag and has successfully pushed through the enemy lines now that the tank is out of commission. I charge straight for him. Bullets hit my skin and do little more than fall off my ion toughened hide. Their leader sees my charge and does a motion similar to our first encounter. When we first met I still had a piece that was fighting for humanity so I moved and fought in part like a human, he still seemed to expect me to act in such a way. I move with an alien precision and speed, I manage to get under the swing of his multiple arms and drag my blades up his rib cage to his arm pit. Then take my right arm and thrust both of my now perfectly formed blades through the center of the leaders face before pulling back and slicing straight through the skull.
All Beag fighting in the immediate facility stop in horror. Their great leader has fallen without a single scratch befalling me. The level of fear surges to new heights and I get drunk from the rush. I show all remaining on the battle field they are right to fear me as I slaughter any living creature I see without a moment’s hesitation.
Two Hours Later
As the blood drips from my heavily used blades I retract them into my skin. I climb up onto of the tank and use it as my throne over my domain. Looking out I see the ground littered with bodies. The number of Beag outnumbered the humans easily thirty to one, but in the end they died. A few escaped back into the refuge of the city but now they are the ones afraid of being hunted to extinction. I will track them later to remove the last traces of Beag filth from my home. I am queen of this domain and they are nothing but lambs to be slaughtered.
My thoughts break when I hear a noise I recognize. The distant rumbling causes me to break into a run. I go deep underground in one of the nearby buildings. If this is their solution then they are mistaken.
“Atace to submarine Vengeance, situation classified FUBAR. Commence nuclear strike on the city.”
“Sovereign, the Recas (humans) have destroyed their own city to kill the Surra.”
The sovereign slowly closes her eyes in exasperation, “Foolish pigs. Contact their moving island, we must do the unthinkable and ally with them if we are going to stand a chance against this genetically engineered abomination. I won’t let another planet end up like our home world.”
July 8, 2032
My body sears as every nerve explodes in agony. As the air hits my burnt out eye sockets I cry out in agony. Unable to move any limb I lie under the deep pile of rubble while my body slowly rebuilds itself. They destroyed my city, my home. They will all pay with their blood; I will not stop until every last one of them is erased from existence. I claim this planet as recompense for their actions.
This marks the end of Determiner Unit 412. The unit who tamed an alien race in allegiance, the unit who gave up their lives in protection of humanity. In the official record Mast died in the Yactas Research Facility in an effort to retrieve the ionization weapon. The creation of the alien Surra was written off as a failure in Beag science to create an intermediary between the two races. The Gremlins surrendered shortly after they realized humans and Beag were no longer at odds with each other.
July 23, 2032
I break through the last layer of rubble and look out on a barren wasteland of destruction. Crawling free of my prison I taste the post nuclear air, the first moving air I have had in weeks. Time for a little game of search and destroy.
The End