First Contact

Chapter 981: The Shadows of Twilight

The short fox-creature, its fur dirty and bedraggled but still bright neon blue with day-glo green strikes, lunged forward, mouth open, going for Bit.nek's hip.

Bit.nek's fist whiffed over its head and he changed from pulling his fist back to driving his elbow into the top of the short biomod Terran's head. The bone shattered, crunching loudly, and the Terran collapsed in a heap.

There was yelling around him, but he had no time to look around as he just activated his external speakers.

Car alarms started going off as missed shots thunked into the bodies of the vehicles, filling the underground parking garage full of flashing lights and noise.

Shrieks could be heard from above, from below, and from the access tunnels.

"FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE!" Bit.nek bellowed out, bringing his SMG up and triggering a fast burst into the mob that was pouring into the gap between trucks from either side.

Their eyes were red, jaws gnashing, terrible wounds visible. Some were nude but for their scales and fur, still others had on harnesses, and some had clothing on. Bit.nek ignored the prominent dangling genitalia as he raked a burst across their heads, dropping the taller ones.

He took two steps forward, snapping off bursts, dropping more of the deaders.

More poured in to take their place.

Bit.nek stretched a muscle and his armor's strength assist went to full life. He turned and gave the truck on his right a hard kick, against the bottom of the box cargo section. The sheet endosteel collapsed and his boot hit the frame strut. The augmented strength of the

With a crash the truck slammed into the next truck with enough for that the two vehicles hit the third and forced it against the fourth.

He turned in place, firing with one hand, and kicked the other truck, smashing it back and crushing four other vehicles together. He grabbed a grenade one handed and fumble tossed it over the heads of the deaders in front of him, even as he kept snapping off one handed bursts.

"FRAG OUT!" he yelled, raking the entire mob at waist level, doing a slow two second burst across that left abdomens exploded and folded half of them over the wound or flipping backwards.

He spared a glance at his rearview on the top of his HUD and saw that everyone else was fighting up close and personal, using fists and boots. Only two people had their cutting bars deployed and one was yanking, trying to get it free of a truck body while holding off two deaders with one hand. The LT was firing his pistol as fast as he could change targets and pull the trigger, the laser flashing in the dimness.

The grenade went off, throwing shredded body parts, the flash reflecting off the walls.

"ENGAGING REAR!" the M318 gunner yelled out.

The Madame 318 hissed as the parts worked nearly silently, the subsonic rounds still flashing out, striking sparks off of everything. The gunner walked it slowly from right to left, then back to the right, keeping it at waist level.

"GET SOME! GET SOME!" PFC GwertNak yelled out over his suit speakers as he raked the Madame's barrel across a group of deaders, just hammering their mid-sections with 20mm rounds that shredded meat.

Bit.nek kicked a deader back, stepping forward and kicking it again even as he fired to the left and right of the one he was kicking. It staggered back into a group and Bit.nek kicked it again. The whole group staggered back and Bit.nek stepped forward again, raking to his right then left with the SMG, holding it by the pistol grip and heat shield. He pinned the deaders against the wall with his foot and emptied the rest of the magazine into their faces, swapped amblocs as he turned and checked the direction they were going.

It was clear on his side, all the way to the wall.

"THIS WAY, MARINES!" he bellowed out. "299, strobe the shoulder pads."

--roger-- 299 answered. The little green mantid was watching his monitors in awe.

The glowstrip edges of Bit.nek's shoulder plates started flashing red then blue, attracting attention.

The LT fired twice, dropping what looked like a small bear with bright red fur and electric blue swirls, then turned at the flashing in time to see Bit.nek reach out, snatch a tire and high-torque electric motor free and whip the whole thing back the way the squad had come from.

"LET'S GO!" the LT yelled, turning and firing three times at the deader wrestling with one of the Privates. The first shot hit its shoulder, spraying black fluid, the second hit it in the arm, severing it, the last blew through the side of its head.

He turned back in time to see Bit.nek grab another tire and drive train section out and whip it one handed before going back to firing his SMG. The LT stepped forward and kicked a deader off of one of the privates, grabbing the private's shoulder pauldron and yanking him to his feet.

"FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE!" the LT yelled. "GET UP AND FIGHT!"

He was terrified, he was honest enough to admit to himself then and later on, but there wasn't time to think about it. He swapped in a new ambloc, firing into an oncoming mob as fast as he could pull the trigger. He stepped forward and slapped the sergeant on the top of the helmet.

"BACK UP!" the LT yelled.

The squad stepped backwards, keeping each other's lines of fire clear, training taking over when their brain's shut down or their mind and instincts screamed at them to curl in a ball or run screaming.

PFC GwertNak stepped slowly backwards, running the gun in a 225 degree arc, back and forth. He twisted his wrist, upping his fire rate from 300 rounds a minute to 900 rounds a minute, ignoring how his primary nanoforge started whistling as it bled off heat. His green battle buddy went to crack open the clamshell to work directly on the Madame 318 and he chinned the override.

"They'll snatch you up, 551," he said, his voice high pitched and his words tumbling over each other with stress.

SGT Kremaknik held down the trigger, the bolt shaving away the last of the amblock as he dumped the rest of the block at the onrushing hoard. The square rounds packed a lot of punch and had bone crushing effects on the deaders. The front three ranks tumbled down, structural integrity torn apart, only to be crushed underfoot by the onrushing mob.

"BLOW THE WALL!" Bit.nek yelled, tossing the map and the demo setup to everyone.

"Got it!" PFC Zwerktik shouted, moving up to PFC Krk.Mak and popping the releases on his ruck straps, catching the heavy ruck. "Cover me!" the PFC yelled.

They ran to the far wall, right where the waypoint marker was, looking it over real quick. They dug in the ruck, pulling out the charges, and started slapping them on the wall on the marked points. Ingitors went next, then wires between the charges, that moved to the center charge.

Bit.nek kicked the front of a grav-limo, sending it screeching across the floor, showering sparks as it crushed the oncoming horde against another limousine. He fired the SMG, raking the ones that didn't get caught by the limo.

The LT grabbed the top of a deader's head as the deader pushed one of the privates back, his fingers ripping away the skull to expose the brain. The deader hissed and bent forward, intending on taking a big bite out of the private's face shield.

The LT smashed one power armored fist against the top of the head, crushing it, breaking the spine and pelvis, sending it to the ground in a heap.

"FIGHT! FIGHT! GET UP AND FIGHT!" the LT bellowed out. "FRAG OUT!" He grabbed a grenade off his harness, thumbed the trigger, counted to two, and hucked it into the crowd. It blew, scattering meat and chunks of body.

The deaders kept pushing forward, more screeching than moaning, eyes lit red, jaws clacking, hands reaching out.

Bit.nek crushed the skull of a four breasted bear thing only a foot taller than him with the side of the SMG, kicked the guts out of a tall snake-thing that had breasts and arms, leveled the SMG across his forearm and emptied the mag into the faces of a cluster of day-glo rabbit things. He let the SMG go, the magtac system pulling it to his belt as he pulled free the cutting bar, the engine roaring to life. He ducked under a grasping hand from a weird furry creature that had arms that shot out nearly twelve feet, coming up and swiping off the arms, kicking in the face of a crawler, stomping the snake's head when it looked up, and ripped two bipedal birds into halves.

He glanced at the rearview in his HUD, seeing everyone behind him, backing up. SGT Kremaknik was covering PFC GwertNak as the M318 gunner walked his fire through a vehicle and into the mob on the right of the vehicle.

The LT kicked away a two headed four legged creature, shooting it twice in the face, then backed up, his back hitting a car that was already flashing and wailing.

PFC Zwerktik spooled out the wire, moving away from the section of wall, bumping off the SGT and holding up the clacker.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" they called out, and snapped the lever three times.

The wall exploded inwards.

"LET'S GO! WE ARE LEAVING!" the LT called out. "FORM UP ON THE RIGHT AND LEFT OF THE BREACH!" He remembered the doctrine that said to go to either side of a breach before sending one man in, never pushing everyone through.

A part of him wondered, insanely, if the people who wrote the doctrine had ever been in combat.

PFC GwertNak lifted the 318, turning and running toward the cloud of dust. The LT saw a deader lunge toward the gunner and popped off a double-tap, missing the first shot and hitting the second, sending it falling off to the side. He followed the PFC, stopping next to the breach.

"BIT.NEK, LET'S GO!" the LT yelled.

"FRAG OUT!" Bit.nek threw a grenade, turned, sawed off the leg of a bipedal wolf, taking off its head with the backstroke, pink and yellow fur flying from the chainsword's teeth.

The grenade went off as Bit.nek ran for the breach.

"FIRST THROUGH! GO GO GO!" the LT waved at Bit.nek, who hurtled through the gap. According to the acoustical and seismic mapping, the room was in the subbasement.

He hit a railing, narrowly avoided slamming through it, grabbing it and holding on as it leaned forward, the hyperalloy groaning from the strain.

Men were coming in on his left and right, bouncing off of him, grabbing the railing to keep from going ass over tea kettle on the grated floor.

Below was a sea of red eyes and gnashing jaws, fur and scales and feathers, and strange and twisted bodies. Even using passive nightvision with IR lamps, the fur, scales, and feathers glowed with dayglo and neon colors.

The LT slapped the 318 gunner on the back. "Hold the breach," he yelled.

Part of him wondered why he was yelling, using external speakers, when the suit's commo system was engaged and everyone in the squad would be able to hear him over the radio.

The rest of him was busy.

"On the rail! Right side, left side, swap blocks!" the LT yelled.

Bit.nek straightened up, pulling the railing with him, and put his cutting bar on his hip, pulling free his SMG.

The creatures below were roaring in one voice that echoed, multiplied, and magnified in the enclosed area.

Bit.nek could see machinery just sitting idle in the room. The catwalk they were on had collapsed on the left and right side of the room. Bit.nek ran the distance in his head and knew that it would be difficult to jump the gap without hitting the ceiling.

"Right side, ready! Left side, ready!" the LT yelled.

"SHORT, CONTROLLED BURSTS!" the SGT yelled.

"NEAR TO FAR!" the LT called out.

Everyone tucked their weapons into their shoulders, using the armor linkage to look down the sight, a bubble in the middle of the HUD showing what the sight could see.

"FIRE!" the LT yelled.

Bit.nek started raking the ones closest, back and forth, running through the ambloc as he moved his point of aim deeper into the room. The 318 was thudding behind him as the gunner held the deaders off from the breach.

"RELOADING!" the calls started out.

Half were down, the rest pushing forward. The room was so packed the only reason that any of the deaders were falling down was the weapons were tearing the bodies apart.

Bit.nek's icon winked and he saw that he was tapped to fire off 40mm grenades down onto the floor, toward the back, under the LT's control.

He ignored it as he kept up his fire, slapping in a new amblock when the one loaded in was down to 10%, letting them magseal to each other.

His launcher thumped four times, the grenades arcing out, getting past minimum distance, and exploding in an airburst of Low-Ex, fragmentation.

It took another ambloc and the room was cleared except for twitching meat in the piles.

The LT looked around.

Bit.nek jumped over the railing, landing smoothly on the floor, and hustled to the other side, giving larger piles of bodies a burst from his SMG.

"LET'S GO, GUNS!" the LT called out.

The 318 gunner let up on the firing grip, turned, and cleared the railing in three steps and a jump, landing smoothly, holding up the barrel of the 20mm cannon. The LT followed, landing beside the private. Both hustled after the rest of the squad, who were all following Bit.nek, who had just jumped up the to catwalk on the other side of the room.

Deaders piled in the breach, smashing against the catwalk railing, all reaching out toward the withdrawing power armor troops. More smashed against them, and more against those. Two, then four, then six fell to the floor, pressure cutting them in half.

The door was unlocked and opened smoothly. Bit.nek gave it a second, then moved in.

"Give 'em a burst," the LT said, slapping the 20mm gunner on the shoulder.

PFC GwertNak turned and ran through a quick hundred rounds in a three second burst, blowing apart the deaders on the catwalk and in the breach. He panned it back and forth, the bullets tearing through day-glo flesh and leaving splattered craters in the ferrocrete.

Bit.nek hurried up to the far side of the room, where the wall was collapsed in. A foot wide pipe was hanging from ceiling. Below the mouth of the pipe was a small drone attached to a wire that rose up into the pipe.

PFC GwertNak backed through the door and the LT slammed it shut.

"Clear the debris," Bit.nek said, following his own suggestion and starting to pull the larger sections of ferrocrete away. "TOC pod is six meters deep."

The rest of the squad pitched in, two men keeping watch.

"Anyone know what this is?" the LT asked, toeing the drone.

"Repeater and relay drone," Bit.nek said. "Dropped it here yesterday to talk the CO, but the battery died."

The LT just nodded.

The TOC pod was exposed quickly. Bit.nek hammered on it. Once, once, three times.

Two knocks answered.

"299, can you pop the pod?" Bit.nek asked.

The housing opened up on his shoulders and the green mantid, in his black combat armor, climbed out, holding his rifle tightly. The small mantid climbed up, moving to the access port. The mantid popped it open then pushed a bladearm in.

The TOC pod popped open with a hiss and 299 jumped back before scurrying back over to Bit.nek.

The CO stood up from where he had been sitting on the roof of the pod.

"Hey, sir, miss us?" Bit.nek asked.