Extinction (66 page)

As Beast dropped from the vent, he felt
the heat of the fire coming off his enemy. Although the cylinder didn't
explode, it did create a little extra overpressure that could be felt as Beast
tried to land on the floor. The fire caused Beast to try to roll away from the
flaming enemy and the extra overpressure caused him to trip up a little as he
made his landing. The combination of the two events caused Beast to drop his
weapon and he saw it clatter several meters away from him.

Usually Beast had his weapon slung to
his body but he had to remove the sling to make it easier to get through the
ducts. As Beast processed his current situation, he saw the second warrior near
him take several rounds to his leg. The warrior quickly turned to avoid further
injury and was going to be face to face with Beast before the fallen rifle
could be retrieved. Without skipping a beat, Beast pulled the edged weapons he
had taken from the first warrior they encountered at the airlock.

He roared a challenge to the warrior and
received a curt head nod in response. The fight had started.

Both fighters had more enemies in the
hallway to deal with beyond each other, so this was going to be quick, one way
or the other. No circling, no taunting, no time to size each other up. The
first strike came from Beast as he made a bold overture for the death symphony
he was now a part of. The upward slash was more powerful than the warrior
expected for an opening move and he lost a hand for his lack of preparedness.
Beast was also surprised by its effectiveness but he always prepared for
victory and not defeat, so he was able to use his forward momentum to bring his
body into a spin towards his enemy and he attempted to use his second blade to
further the damage to the warrior's already injured forward leg.

The warrior felt his mistake as he
watched his hand leave his body. He also saw Beast turning in towards him and
lifted his leg away from the attack and planted his foot into Beast's chest.
Beast's body began to move away from the force of the blow but the warrior
grabbed Beast's arm and brought him back into the fight. This move turned
Beast's back towards his enemy and the warrior used his four arms and three
hands to pin Beast to his own body.

Beast was caught and he knew it. The
warrior was far stronger than he was and there was no way he was going to break
the monster's grip. Beast could feel the warrior trying to bend his body and
break his back. Beast was slowly losing ground and felt more than one muscle
group reach its limit and start to tear. Joker was within spitting distance but
dealing with his own fight. Beast now saw a plasma bolt burn through the
ceiling in the area his two teammates had been firing from. Blood was already
dripping to the floor; at least one of them had been shot and most likely dead.
Beast knew the rest of the team was moving forward through the hallway but they
wouldn't reach him in time.

As Joker landed, he saw three of the
alien warriors taking cover from the oncoming blast of the cylinder that had
just been launched at them. In the absence of the expected explosion, one
warrior was just starting to peek out from his cover to see what was going on.
Joker put a three-round burst through the warrior's head and shifted to his
next target.

The gunfire from Joker along with the
shots from the operators still in the ducts was enough to make the second
warrior move from cover and jump into the fight. He put one plasma round
through the ceiling and received immediate gratification when he heard his
unseen enemy cry out in pain. He was shifting his point of aim towards the
closer threat that was Joker but the human was fast and spun inward, coming
closer to the warrior.

Joker's spin brought him too close for
the warrior to fire but much closer than Joker wanted to be. Hand-to-hand
combat was not a good idea given the vast disparity between the two fighters.
Joker released a barrage of rounds just as the warrior grabbed his gun barrel
and shifted his point of aim. Although the moving gun made Joker miss his
target, it did cause multiple rounds to hit and damage the warrior's plasma
rifle, making it unusable.

Joker let go of his rifle, knowing that
he could never wrest it from the grip of his enemy. He used the momentum of his
spin to keep turning and end up behind the giant. As Joker got to the end of
his spin, he was already drawing his pistol from its holster and saw the third
warrior moving towards the confrontation.

One round from his handgun ended the
warrior in front of him but unfortunately the warrior decided to die backwards
instead of forwards. The bulk of the warrior fell back onto Joker and pinned
most of the left side of his body against the wall.

In any other situation, Joker would've
eventually been able to get himself out from under his fallen enemy but right
now he didn't have the luxury of time. His pistol was still in his right hand
and he pulled the trigger. The first round went wide and clipped his oncoming
attacker in the left shoulder. Joker adjusted his aim and—click. The spent
casing had stove-piped in the chamber and never cycled the next round.

Hundreds and thousands of hours spent on
the range and in combat is the most valuable asset in this sort of situation as
calm instead of panic filled Joker and he immediately began to clear his weapon
malfunction. He brought the gun down to his waist and hooked the rear
holographic sight on his utility belt and worked the action away from his body.
Joker actually heard the casing ping off the wall behind him as well as the
slide moving along the frame and back into a firing position. He heard the
satisfying sound of the slide picking up the next round in the magazine and bringing
it into battery so it could be sent downrange in righteous triumph.

Surgeon and Cadet were moving up through
the hallway on opposite sides of each other. They, along with their team, were
putting suppressive fire down the hallway to keep the two remaining warriors in
their positions of cover. Two grenades, one from each side of the hallway, went
over Cadet and Surgeon's heads. The grenades crossed as they passed each other
and went into opposite rooms. The low-yield explosives in the grenades were
made specifically for close quarter combat so the team kept moving forward, in
order to follow the planned explosions with overwhelming gunfire into the
enemies' positions of cover.

The explosions came near simultaneously
and a half second later, Cadet swung into the room closest to him and Surgeon
took the one on his side, each with another operator following them. Both
warriors had a number of injuries but both were pretty much incapacitated and
easily finished off by the entry teams.

Smoke was now in the first position as
he passed by the doorway and heard gunfire from Surgeon. Smoke saw Beast
getting bent backwards as Joker's weapon jammed. Both operators were in a
losing fight but Beast's attacker was too obscured by Beast's body as well as
the corner of the wall. Smoke knew that in a couple of steps he would be able
to fire on Joker's attacker and save at least one of his friends.

Through a haze of pain, Beast saw
Joker's weapon malfunction. Beast twisted to his right, purposely pulling his
shoulder from the socket and breaking almost every bone in his upper left arm
and shoulder. He was trying to swivel so once his destroyed left arm was free,
the leverage the warrior was applying to Beast's body would be lost. Without
the leverage, Beast would be able to remove his right arm from the warrior’s
grip and get to his handgun and fire at Joker's attacker.

Beast's plan might have worked with an
opponent who didn't have four arms. Although he did free his left, and now
completely destroyed arm, the warrior's two lower arms maintained a secure grip
on Beast's torso. The warrior increased his effort to bend Beast backwards and
his back started to break in more than one place.

Beast couldn't move his left arm above
the elbow and had no motion whatsoever in his shoulder. He could still use his
wrist, hand, and fingers, though. Beast moved his left hand to his utility belt
and found the grenade in its pouch. A lumbar vertebrae snapped. Beast flicked
two of his fingers and opened the pouch. Two thoracic vertebrae snapped. He
pulled the pin from the grenade and felt the spoon attempt to separate from the
body of the grenade. The grenade's spoon was inside the pouch, so it couldn't
separate from the body and initiate the firing sequence. Three more vertebrae
snapped and Beast knew parts of his body were fast becoming non-operational.

Having only the limited range of motion
that came with a moving wrist, Beast's plan was unfolding very slowly. He saw
Joker clear the malfunction of his handgun and start to bring it towards his
attacker. Beast could tell that though it would be a close race, Joker was
going to lose. The warrior would have his hands on Joker before he could
produce a lethal shot.

Beast inched the grenade from its pouch
and finally felt the spoon spring from the grenade's body. This was a CQB grenade
so it would have a fast fuse, only three seconds, and with parts of his body
going numb, he hoped he could hold it for that long. If he dropped the grenade,
it could get kicked away or even towards his teammates. It was low-yield
explosive so he needed it near his target and the warrior was still unaware of
what Beast was doing. Two seconds left. Another vertebrae snapped. Beast held
the grenade and tried his best to aim it towards the warrior behind him. Almost
as much as wanting to ensure the safety of his friends, he wanted to live long
enough to feel the heat of the explosion and the satisfaction of knowing that
he died on his own terms and took his enemy with him.

One second left. Another vertebrae snapped
and a vertebral disk was squeezed out of his body, severing the spinal cord on
its way out. Beast's hand went numb and though he couldn’t feel it, he knew he
dropped the grenade. The heat was instantaneous and death was almost as fast,
but the speed of Beast's neurons fired faster and the knowledge that he had won
spread to his conscious mind before he entered oblivion.

Beast then looked up and saw his brother
standing before him. “I've missed you, brother.”

~

Joker heard a small 'whump' from
somewhere to his left and he knew that a CQB grenade had detonated in close
proximity of at least one body. He knew his gun wouldn’t be aimed at a lethal
target before his enemy put a huge bladed weapon through his face but he fired anyway.
To anyone just hearing Joker's gunfire, it might sound like 'panic fire' but it
was nothing of the sort. Joker was still calm and even accepting of the
situation but that didn't mean that he wasn't also hopeful. Hopeful that his
rounds might shift his attacker and give him an opening. Hopeful that maybe the
warrior had different weak points than Joker and the rounds would be effective.
Hopeful that God would send a bolt of lightning down and burn the warrior to a
crisp. To accept the situation kept him calm. To stay calm gave him hope and
kept him strong and in the fight.

The lightning never came but several
rounds from Smoke did. Joker felt one round pass by his head and hit the wall
next to him. Some of the backsplash came back and opened Joker's cheek. The
next round had a bit of correction added to it and so did the next as the
rounds were walked backwards to their intended target, which was the head of
the warrior attacking Joker. As the rounds walked backward, they also struck
and deflected the weapon coming towards Joker's head.

Blue spray erupted from the warrior's
head and his forward momentum carried him onto Joker's right side. “Seriously!
Two of these fuckers on me! You've got to be kidding me! And you,” Joker
pointed at Smoke, “you, sir, need to get to the range more often. You almost
took my head off.”

Smoke was already helping pull the
warriors off Joker. “I didn't know if I could kill him before his blade cut
your head down the middle. I was aiming for the blade so I think I did just
fine.”

Joker just smiled. “Thanks, buddy.” As
he started to stand, he saw Beast lying on the ground, obviously dead along
with his dead enemy. Joker shook his head and then heard someone softly calling
for help.

The rest of the team had made it down
the hallway and all of the opposition had been killed. Joker looked around for
the source of the voice and then looked up. The ceiling had a plasma burn
through it and blood dripping to the floor. Joker turned to the men standing
around him. “Get me in the vent! They're hurt!”

Joker was lifted into the vent and he
turned on his visor light. The plasma bolt had melted one operator's skull and
the arm of the other. Joker crawled to him. “How are you doing, buddy?”

“I've been better. I'm sorry I couldn't
help more. I watched Beast die and I couldn't move to help him.”

The operator pointed, with his remaining
hand, to the right side of his body. Joker saw that not only was his arm melted
off, but most of the right side of his body had fused to the metal of the duct
work.

The operator pulled a CQB grenade from
its pouch. “Don't worry. I'm fine with it. We don't have time to peel me from
the vent, not to mention that I doubt I'd live through the process anyway.”

Reaper had crawled into the vents from
the side Beast had come through. He began his patient assessment and nodded to
Joker what the operator had already stated: he wasn't leaving the vent alive.
Reaper didn't even ask; he injected his friend with some morphine and watched
his eyelids get heavy.

Reaper gently removed the grenade from
the operator's hand and put it into his own equipment. “I gave him a sedative
painkiller cocktail. He doesn't have much time left; he won't feel anything
else.” Reaper and Joker took some more of the gear, along with their friends'
dog tags.

After getting out of the vent, Joker saw
that Surgeon had assembled the remaining squad members, set up a forward
security detail and was in the process of reviewing their assets. Cadet was
taking the initiative and acting more and more like the XO of the operation.
Joker didn't mind at all; the kid was sharp and definitely officer material—good
officer material.