- soulguard
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- Exalted Mythic Member
Eric cursed beneath his breath, “fall back to the exit! Move, move, move!” Eric’s words were heard by everyone in his group and they all began to fall back. “Dogs, lay down cover fire!” Eric then turned to see that Palab and the rangers were still fighting hard. “Sergeant Palab, get your men out of there! Retreat!”
Palab heard Eric’s shout and turned to his team, “Retreat! Leave guns, get out!” The rangers pulled out there energy swords and dashed ahead, cutting through the combat forms. Two of the elites died in the initial charge, but the others made it through and caught up with retreating front line. Palab and his Mirratord grunts sped through the swarm of flood forms, sprinting on all fours. One of the grunts was overrun by a hive of combat forms and his screams were quickly silenced. Palab wanted to go back for him, but there was nothing that could be done. Even with the cure in his body, he was still beaten to death. Palab dodged and followed his other grunts as the specters fired into the mass of creatures behind him. Dead elites began to rise ahead of them, their bodies taken over by the flood infection forms, and Palab dashed ahead of he grunts. His elbow spikes extended and he lunged at the deceased elites before they could fully stand. He stabbed, slashed, and tore the infections out before the bodies could do any harm to his grunts. Two elite combat forms stood to their feet and Palab prepared to attack but powerful explosion of a human shotgun tore through the creature. The Spartan waved for Palab to come on as Eric killed the other combat form. The last three of his Mirratord grunts ran past him and he followed to the cave exterior.
Eric tossed grenades over Palab’s head as his communications channel came to life, “19, I just got a call from Vornaldea. Evacuation is complete! He says to get back to the seed now!”
“Already?” Eric questioned. “That wasn’t even an hour.” Eric looked to the group and did a mental count of the numbers. There were too many to fit on one phantom. Another ship was needed, but there wasn’t enough time. “02, get off the phantom. Gridolee, take the phantom and get your elites to the ship.”
“You are staying here?” Gridolee questioned.
“Until you come back to get me and the grunts. We’re going to take the specters and make a run for the city. Pick us up there.” Eric hated the plan, but it was the only option. He turned and tore a hole in a combat form with his M90 shotgun. “Get going. Dogs, load up the specters. Sergeant Palab, you and grunts take point.” Gridolee cautiously ran toward the phantom, grabbing Sammy 13’s unconscious body, and was the last to board. Eric and his team mounted the specters and sped off behind Palab and his three grunts.
“Stay alive Sergeants, I’ll be back to get your teams with haste. I have the injured one; she will only slow you down.” Gridolee said in the com. Eric couldn’t help but feel some form of reassurance at the elite’s words, but he couldn’t depend on Gridolee coming back. He had to fend form himself. He had yet to put his trust in any of the elites and he wasn’t about to do it now, even though he grabbed Sammy without being told to. Aboard Eric’s specter were Justin and Melanie, while Mathew drove separately to get better speed out of the craft. Kelly was riding with Roy, and Palab was ahead with his three grunts. They sped across the field as the combat forms gave chase, but the specters speed was just enough to put them out of harms way.
“13, set off the Lettuce Patch!” Eric ordered.
Melanie flipped the switch in her pocket and a detonator exploded near the cave exit, and that in turn set off a chain reaction of explosions from the well placed plasma and frag-grenades. The explosion sent a plum of dust and rocks in all directions destroying hundreds of flood combat forms, but still more continued to run out of the cave.
“It was small, but affective I guess.” Melanie sighed as she looked back at the explosion. “They’re still coming, but at least we slowed them down.”
“Let’s hope we slowed them down enough.” Justin 13 added.
“Rogue Fantasy, this is Black Op 19. We are prepping to evac the Seed. Get ready with the package.”
Captain Monroe sat forward in her command chair and rubbed her temples, “Understood, 19. We’ll be ready.”
There were too many options and not enough time. Captain Monroe needed to get the NOVA planet side, and without risking the life of anyone in her crew. “Helm, set a course for the fault line that Siren selected as the delivery point. We’ll take the whole ship down there and drop it ourselves.” The crew turned and looked at her as if she had lost her mind. “Now, gentlemen.”
“Yes ma’am. Entering orbit. Co-ordinates set.” The helmsman turned and looked at Captain Monroe. “Should I prep an escape trajectory?”
“By all means. I don’t plan to be down there any longer then necessary.” The Rogue Fantasy casually accelerated toward the canyon system and hovered directly over the package delivery spot. “Juggernaut, change in plans. Take the NOVA to the nearest door and be ready to push it out. We’ll get as close as we can before we drop it.”
“Yes ma’am.” Juggernaut replied over the com. The Rogue fantasy leveled out as it approached the monstrous series of Canyons beneath its hull. The sky was thick with flood spores and it created an eerie green and yellow glow everywhere.
“Ma’am, we’re over the target with only a .002 percent chance of error.”
“That’ll have to do. Juggernaut, are you ready?” Monroe said into her communicator.
“We’re ready captain. Bay doors are open and the package is ready to fall.”
“Start the timer on my mark.”
- - - - - - - -
Eric looked up with hopes of seeing a phantom descending toward him, but there was no sign of it. He then found himself speeding into the city, heading toward the center but something ahead of him gave him a chill. Palab’s specter ahead stopped and the four grunts were gazing into the heart of the city with shock written across their faces.
“Very bad thing!” One of the grunts shouted as it hopped nervously on the back of the specter.
“Oh -blam!-!” Melanie cursed. In front of them were long winding tentacles that were all beginning to wrap around the buildings and streets.
“It’s already here!” Justin shouted.
“What the hell is that?” Kelly gawked as she peered into the city. “Is that the creature?”
“We’ll have to form up on the edge of town.” Eric ordered to his squad. “I’d rather face the flood then that thing. Palab, turn around and follow us.”
“Roger.” The command crew unanimously replied. Roy and Mathew had already turned around and Eric quickly followed. Palab’s specter was close on his tail.
“Tentacle not move. Creature not follow.” A grunt stated to the group.
“Fall out and hold that rooftop.” Eric pointed to the last building on the edge of town and they quickly jumped out of the specters. With speed, grace and power, all five black ops sprinted up the winding ramps without breaking a stride. Kelly fell in line and the four grunts pulled up the rear. It was five flights to the top and Melanie kicked open the door. She quickly scanned the rooftop as she walked toward the edge of the rooftop and looked toward the field. There was a sea of oncoming combat forms.
“There has to be thousands of them.” Melanie mumbled.
“Check ammo, Tango formation D.” Eric’s orders went without a response and they all checked their weapons. Roy and Justin held Carbines that they gathered from the specters, while Melanie and Mathew held their BR55’s tightly. Kelly stood at Eric’s side, while the grunts took position between the humans. They then fell into an arrow formation with Eric and Kelly at the point and everyone else fanning out from behind him. Eric and Kelly had the heavy weapons, M90 shotguns, which meant taking on the close range attack.
Palab began to sniff the air, “Parasite come!” His words were unnecessary as the stampede of flood combat forms could be heard, but the constant screams and wails also began to fill the air. “Grenades!” Palab shouted to his grunts. They each took grenades in hand and waited for the order to launch them into the door. The building itself began to shake from the charging mass of dead parasites running up the ramp. Eric lowered himself to a knee and pulled his shotgun to eye level. Kelly then took notice of her motion sensor; they were close and the numbers were off the scale. A combat form rounded the corner of the top floor and ran toward the door leading to the roof. Once it crossed the threshold it was cut in half by carbine projectiles. Roy, Justin’s job was to take down anything that came in sight. While the stronger weapons would be for the creatures that got too close.
More combat forms filled the hall, and Palab launched his grenades into the door. His grunts did the same. A concussion of repetitive explosions followed and the shrieks of the combat forms faded for a moment. But then they flowed through the door as if unaffected by the explosions.
Round after round escaped every weapon as the black ops let loose with every amount of determination they had. Green carbine rounds soared over Eric’s head as he cautiously picked his targets. He only had twelve shots before he would need to reload, and he knew that he couldn’t waste his shots; the creatures had to be close. Kelly was also aware of her situation, eyeing the carnage and tumbling bodies as they fell at her feet. She fired one round at a combat form that was only two feet away, tearing the body into a pile of remains.