The horror screeched as it felt massive holes tearing through it, the massive flechette rounds punching holes into it like nothing was there, the lead and titanium blades spinning as they struck, helping grind up the muscle structure as it heaved itself around to face the towering cyborg.
Snarling, it launched itself forward, a wet schlorp heard as its still formless lower body pulled out of what looked to be a breached cryopod, it's deformed arms reaching forward.
Asimov leapt up into the air, latching to the ceiling as the Thrall that was still forming slammed into the wall, spinning itself around, turning one of the heads to face him, snarling. Going by the helmet remains on the head, it was one of the pirates it had consumed. Asimov flicked his MTS's shotguns cylinder open, ejected the spent shells and rapidly reloaded, slamming home fresh shells, Dragons breath, as the horror began splitting itself apart, the previous holes sealing up, part of itself fused to the wall as it tried to spread, while two smaller bodies snarled, bipedal, lopsided, misshapen, glowing, horrific eyes locked on him.
"LEEEESSS DO IT!" Was the only warning anyone got before the door exploded inwards, followed by the same voices insane Scottish laughter. Daresh and Zedara moved up, on either side of the door, aiming in and pulling the triggers on their shotguns rapidly, dragons breath impacting one of the new Thralls, exploding on it, making it scream as it burned, it's biomass heavily flammable. Zedara slammed down her shield as one of the other marines slammed down their barricade, the two forms of protection overlapping, as another human soldier sprinted up and slammed down a metal box.
"Sentry, Goin' up!" A heavily Texan voice said, the yellow construction/shipbreakers helmet, with what looked like self activating welders lenses over the eye section. One of his hands was skeletal, shifting shape into various tools as he rapidly brought a turret online, beeping as it's optics lit up, twin barrels extending, belching flame as it burbled with mad Laughter in binary, forcing the Thralls farther from that side of the room, as Daresh and Zedara took up positions on either side of it.
Asimov smirked in his own way, tilting his head forward, optic shutters moving to form one, before he scowled, launching to the side as calcium spikes impacted where he had been. A new Thrall was spat out, as the biomass wall ripped fresh metal from the bulkheads and began shielding itself and its creations. Bringing his MTS to bear, the cyborg cut loose, punching into the unarmed thralls, splattering them on the floor, forcing them to try and reform, as a muffled sound of a war cry and almost something like a trumpet was heard.
Rocketing into the room, a marine wearing a fire suit, with a helmet like a old gas mask, launched in on a old, archaic jetpack, a thermal hatchet in one hand, hissing as it sliced through one new armored thrall and got to the fleshy biomass inside. The marines other arm snapped up, revealing a flamer slung under his arm, handle in his hand, the end contracting to a small nozzle. Pulling the almost gas pump like trigger, the marine unleashed a tight beam of fire, slicing through the stuck Thrall, igniting its insides as it cut through the armor, causing it to ignite inside the armor, containing the blaze.
Another Thrall launched at the perceived weaker target, the pyromaniac marine, only to slam into Asimov's arm as it swung down, slamming into the Thrall and sending them tumbling back, before the marine spun around, flamer changing to a wider nozzle, and unloaded a stream of superhot plasma at the Thrall, as Asimov launched down to the flood, back to back with the pyromaniac, drawing his pistol, a gun in each of his claws. "Hu hud hudda ha hudda?" Came the muffled voice from inside the helmet, making Asimov seem to smirk. "I can puncture their armor, think you can burn them out?" The cyborg said, as he got a enthusiastic nod from the gas mask like helmet, muffled giggling from inside.
/---------/
Meanwhile, Sentry nest wasn't idle. The demolitions expert had moved up, crouched down next to Daresh, while the engineer was getting a mobile Nanofabricator up. "Dispenser goin' up. Napalm rounds with a side of scrumpty, Demo?" The Texan said, tossing a few fresh shells to the demolitions expert, who caught the strip and opened the breach of his launcher, calmly pushing the rounds off the clip and into the pistol like launcher. "Aye, thanks laddie. Ach, much as I want ta, gonna have to wait till we get back. Damn helmets get in the way."
Daresh snorted, yanking his Shotgun up and began slam firing it, dumping a mix of Dragons breath and deerslugs into the room, punching through armor, now a mix of calcium and metals, followed by Dragons breath…. Or the Sentry spitting fire and landing its flammable liquid into the punctured holes caused by Daresh or Zedara, who had switched purely to 410 slugs, punching fresh holes in the bone like armor.
"Ya TaTaTa, Ta TaTa!" a heavy, Russian voice rumbled as Zedara heard a slight crunch of the barricade as a heavy, huge foot braced against it, the man in question a massive hulking brute, wearing heavy armor, and a almost all metal maska-1 style helmet, as the Human heafted an absolutely MASSIVE mini gun, well used, well worn, with a metal plate on the side, lovingly carved with the name 'Sasha' on it. A whirring sound was heard, clear across the cacophony of the battle, causing both the Pyro and Asimov to duck near instaintly. "YHAAAAAAAH!" Came out the war cry, changing into laughter as the massive beast began unloading incendiary rounds, chattering as it fired rapidly. The force of the gun was actually forcing the brute of a man to fight to control the massive weapon, the recoil actually starting to pull the man off the floor and barricade, his mag lock boots glowing as they fought the recoil.
Zedara looked at the massive gun in a mix of horror and being impressed, watching as it chattered, tearing through the oncoming thralls like they were butter, covering Asimov and the Pyros retreat, allowing the two to vault over the barricade and through the shield. "The cover fire was appreciated." Asimov said weakly as hecrouched behind the encampment. "Hudda!" Was the Pyros muffled voice, followed by two thumbs up.
The Texan tossed The Pyro a fresh fuel tank, before he frowned and grabbed the cyborg, dragging him over to the Dispenser/nanofabricator, grumbling. "Boy, you look like you got on the wrong side of a wolverine" The Texan said, somehow managing to convey a frown with his tilted helmet as his hand rapidly changed to tools to pull apart Asimov's hull. "Not that far off. Was feral enough to be one." Asimov said flatly as he hefted his massive hand cannon, just as a Thrall punched out a vent above them-
BOOM
And promptly turned its head to paste long enough for Pyro to purge said vent with a flammable grenade. "Engineer! Coward is too deep in the wall, Sasha can't get to them!" Came the thick accent from their heavy weapons specialist, who was now conserving ammo as best he could, giving each Thrall a precise squirter of bullets, shredding them enough for the Sentry to gleefully burn them to a crisp. The far wall, on the other hand, was deeply pockmarked with bullet holes, but was still spewing thralls.
"Pyro!" The demolitions expert said, firing multiple slow moving grenades, little, spiky things, sailing through the gravityless-
The Pyro popped up almost instainly, his flamer up, pilot light off, and nozzle open wide, and pressed the trigger, releasing a blast of air and flammable fluid, launching the grenades at a faster rate clear across the room, and into/around the hole the Thrall had sank into. With a flourish, the Demoman slammed his thumb down on the detonation button crudely wired on the side of the launcher, and the grenades all went off at once, ripping the wall apart, igniting the flammable fluid covering rhem…..and revealed a screaming horror, no longer humanoid, but a solid wall of calcium, biomass and metal, several eyes opening up as mouths opened, and spat spikes/teeth at them, crashing against the shield hard.
"Gentlemen, and Madam." A French accent said, from seemingly nowhere, accompanied by the sound of something arcing, as a thin man in what looked like a rather snazzy, slim armored pressure suit. It looked more like a armored Armani suit, the helmet made closer to that of a balaclava. "Looks like the Dunderhead dug in. Engineer, we have that little surprise ready?" "Ya mean the one that nearly blew up the room we were in when we were designing it, because Scout bumped your arm and we nearly had a Mole too much Potassium Chloride? Yeah, I got some. Spy, Catch!" The engineer said, pulling out a few half spheres with a few switches and wires on the side of it and tossed them to the slimmer marine. "Same setup as my usual toy?" "Yup. Go give that motherhubbard a new superfluous behind."
"Excellent!" The spy said and seemed to vanish, as Asimov pulled himself up, still missing some armor. "We will need to provide cover fire. Inactivity will cause it to catch on." "Ep ep, uh ah, back down you go, boy. Don't make me use one of Spys sappers on you to keep you down so I can fix ya." The engineer said, even as they heard the Dispenser humming away, assembling new plates. "Hudda hudda ha." The Pyro muttered, as he pulled off his clunky jetpack, pulling a remote off of it, giggling in his muffled manner, and set a screen down nearby, even as a hatch opened on it, revealing a mini rocket system. "Hudda!" The pyromaniac said, offering it to the controller to Asimov. ".....fine, he can play with the drone....damn it, now I know how Medic feels some days." Engineer said, rubbing a hand over his face with a sigh, only getting another muffled giggle.
Asimov gratefully took the controller, and jacked into it, setting the controller down, as his optics dimmed, and the drones optics booted up, making it float up off the ground, rcs engines humming as they released little gouts of flame experimentally, before the large engines rotated and spun it around and burned forward, launching it at the Thrall nest, two small flamers popping out of the bottom, previously the back of the pack, of the drone, pilot lights glowing, even as the engines spun around, burning retrograde hard, bathing the nest in fire.
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Zedara sighed, shaking her head as she hefted her pistol, loading freshly made incendiary rounds into it and provided cover fire for the drone, accurately popping several new thralls the nest spat out, small, airborne, balloon like, and unarmed, the incendiary rounds popping them with explosive results, sending meaty chunklets everywhere. "Are humans normally this insane? I thought it was just our captain." The Trike grumbled to Daresh, making the massive wargen smirk. "That's Team Fortress for you, though humanity has always had a few screws missing. Worked with Soldier and their Medic before. Good men you want to have at your side or watching your back. Not at all remotely sane, though." The wargen chuckled.
"Ah, so you're the Wolf that Doctor spoke of!" The massive Russian said, even as the burly man twisted the handle on the massive drum that housed his ammunition, pulling it off, as he swapped it out for a fresh drum. "Glad he remembers. Perhaps drinks after this would be good?" The wargen said, getting a shake of the massive humans head. "Doctor and others are dealing with other problem. We were on our way to give help when the Grey Ghost called us to give you backup." Heavy said, ruefully. "Is good we did. Similar problem as what Doctor is Dealing with." The wargen nodded, as he loaded a fresh set of slugs into his Shotgun, while Pyro giggled, drawing a flaregun….. and loaded a thermite shell into it. "....Captains going to want to join in." Zedara said, shaking her head, before speaking. "And im….looking forward to it." She said, a slightly feral grin spreading across her face.
/---------------/
Meanwhile, Asimov flicked the drone around, ducking around bullets and tentacles, unloading rockets into the nest. A tentacle shot at him from the side, forcing him to go into a spin, main engines burning, sending out fire and burning the tentacle, while his flamers spat out fire like a deadly ground bloom firework, spinning in all directions, twisting the engines around in a way that let him become a little angry ball of fire. "......what the hell?" Spy mumbled, watching the angry fireball dealing with the tentacles, releasing mad, binary laughter.
In the distance, spy could hear the bloodthirsty little creation of engineer cheering, now spitting only flammable fluid out, splattering against the nest, ignited moments later by either Asimov's actions, or the thermite flare that impacted the nest from Pyro, the thermite ignited by the thin, burning phosphorus coating it had, acting like a dangerous fuse and adhesive. Turning away so his retinas weren't burned out…again….., spy snuck closer from around behind, and quickly began planting the detonators around the nest, and spotted a hole that was venting heat….
Smirking, he waited for it to open again…and the moment it opened, he chucked it in, banking off the edge and going in. For a moment, there was a choking sound, before eyes all over it opened up, as it released am angry hiss, searching for him……
Right as he heard a beep beep, as his cloak ran out. "Oh no." Spy sighed as he saw all of the eyes focusing on him. It didn't last long, however, as a moment later, it's focus was drawn back to the drone as Missiles blasted it from the other direction, buying Spy some time to put some distance between him and the nest, drawing his pistol, and snapped his hand up, pulling through trigger rapidly, punching into several of the new eyes, even as he listened to the rapidly beeps, More heard per second as the timers ticked down, and he worked to try and put some distance between himself and the nest.
Asimov was well aware of this, and moved in, rockets screaming as he strafed around the nest, hitting the nest with his backwash as he flipped upside down.
Drifting the drone down, he extended the straps, letting the Spy pull the pack on, and hit the afterburner, rocketing them past the nest, Flamers screaming from the back, leaving behind a burning trail in the air, preventing the Thrall nest from chucking minions at them….
Right as it detonated, rocking the remains of the ship.
"Disgusting……." Spy groaned as everyone slowly pulled themselves up, thankful for the suits, or in Asimov's case, repaired and resealed armor…if unpainted.
/------------------------/
Yo, Doc! Incoming!" A wiry young man yelled, tossing a sphere in the air, and struck it with a metalbaseball bat, sending it flying, impacting the massive beast bearing down on the small team. The beast snarled, until it heard two beeps….and then the sphere exploded, sending it flying back as meaty, burned to a crisp, useless biomass chunks rained down from above. "Danke, Scout. Vhere is Sold-" a main in a shock white trenchant over his atmosuit, his helmet like a long backed stahlhelm, faceplate shaped like a medical surgical mask with round lenses over his eyes, a thick German accent echoing from the vocoder.
"YAAAAAAAH!" A screamed war cry came, as what looked like a man in standard marine armor sailed down from above, with boots thicker then usual, a trench shovel clutched in each hand, one slamming flat side on the head of one Thrall, the other swung through the neck of a Demon warrior caste, while the marines boots crushed the skulls of a unlucky Thrall he had landed on to slow his fall. Laughing crazily, The Soldier reached back and pulled out a rocket launcher, sprinting forward, the Demons before him already looking nervous as the Soldier sprinted forward, his helmet hiding the insane grin as the Human fired three rockets off…. And then aimed at his feed, jumping up, as his boots engaged a energy field, as he fired the last rocket at his feet, launching him up high into the air, allowing him to put hup his launcher, and draw his Bayoneted Shotgun.
The Medic sighed, rubbing his face. "Dumm kopf is going to his ankles again." He said, before twisting to the side, letting a energy blast sail past him. Scowling under his helmet, he drew a odd coilgun, slamming a clear container on the top, filled with dart, and unloaded at the Demon that had fired at him, smirking as he heard it's snarl of pain as the needles sank in, or even broke against its armor….releasing hydrochloric acid into its veins and all over its armor, making it bellow in rage. "Whoops! That was not medicine!" The Medic taunted, nimbly rolling put of the way, as the massive beast sailed past, body still hissing as the potent acid ripped it apart from within, smirking as it got back up-
BOOM
The report from the long gun was followed by another, one after another, several demons heads turning to steaming mist, including the one dealing with the medics acid, as a human on the roof, withb a fedora on his helmet, one side pinned up, with emergency bullets stuck on the band on it. "Hah! Take that, ya Wankers!" An Australian voice muttered over the vox, making medic smirk.
"Doc, gotta couple more survivors coming our way!" Scouts bostanian voice Echoed through the Vox. "Danke" Medic said, getting up, heating his medipack, and sprinted through the war zone, his vibrosaw out, glinting silver and red as it flashed out, buzzing sinister as the former medical instrument sliced through the demon and Thrall bones and flesh, the other hand still armed with the syringegun, launching the dangerous darts left and right, turning thralls to mush near instaintly……but was far, far less useful against demons. Of course, the Demons were quickly learning that you did NOT want to be in blade range of the Medic, after several found themselves missing limbs and heads in moments.
Meanwhile, Scout was sprinting around, armed with a leveraction Shotgun, picking off Demons left and right with precisely aimed shots, ducking and jumping, special jump pack allowing for a second boost midair like a double jump, throwing off the Demons aim, just before a shell removed their heads off their shoulders. "Bonk!" Scout said, grinning inside his Helmet as he swung down with his bat, breaking the jaw of a Demon, knee capping them with his Shotgun before flipping himself over their shoulder, baseball bat under their chin and yanked, feet planted on their shoulder blades, giving a sinister snap as Scout snapped their neck.
Behind him, several survivors, a few Galkans, Amoeboids, and a Saline, watched in utter horror as the insane humans held the line. Just a small team, dug in and happily fighting to the bone, literally in the medics case, as he sawed through bones. "Anyvone need a Doctor?" Said the Medic said, seeming to be ignoring the fact he was covered in blood, slowly dripping down it, pulling a medical bag from seemingly nowhere, even as a Thrall bore down on him. "Vould you kindly leave? You are scaring my patients." The Medic said, calmly, even as he spun around, nailing three shots into the Thrall, the acid melting it to much. "Dumm kopf. Vhere vas i? Ah, yes!" He said, spinning around again, scaring the Saline.
"Hmm…. Lacerations, bruising, und likely a concussion. Did you get into contact vith any of ze biomass from ze thralls?" That got a nervous shake of the galkans head, even as they flinched, hearing the report of the Snipers rifle again, popping the head of another demon."hmm… simple enough!" Medic said as the medipac glowed, energy humming from it, along the emitter attached to the medics wrist as the doctor ran it over the galkan. "I vould advise no sudden movements. Concussions are not somezing I vould try und Valk off." The Medic said, before turning to the others.
While Medic was doing his job, and Scout was covering him, Soldier was having the time of his life, grinning madly as he hefted his reloaded rocket launcher, even as a large Demon war caste bore down on him. "Come 'ere, cupcake" Soldier said, chuckling as he ran forward, and rocket jumped, flying into thr air, unloading the three remaining rounds into the beast before landing on its back, three massive holes on its chest gushing blood as it snarled, spinning to try and dislodge him, unable to thanks to the dual trench shovels in each hand, digging into the beasts back, the serrated parts of the shovel blades down, allowing gravity to let them snag inside the beast.
Swinging himself left and right, Soldier rapidly climbed up the beasts back, digging his blades in over and over again, up its back, before he rammed one into its neck. There was a horrific snarl as it swatted at its back, before trying to flop back and crush the human, only for him to flip around in front, Shotgun in the other hand, ramming it into its mouth, and pull the trigger.
Needless to say, red mist splattered the ground behind it.
Yanking his shovel out of the beast's neck, and putting it on his belt loop, he racked his Shotgun, looking at the warrior caste before him, smaller then the war caste. With a cry, he charged forward, Shotgun up, dumping round after round into the Demons before him, using the bayonet affixed to the front to slice at those who got too close.
"Dammit, soldier." Sniper groaned as he watched his bloodthirsty teammate sprinting into the thick of it…and then heard a slithering sound behind him. "Ah piss." He sighed and rolled just as something slammed down next to him "ya ain't got anything on the bloody Spy, ya wanker!" The Aussie snarled, leaping up as he drew his machete rolling underneath another swing from the Thrall and slashed, bisecting the beast as he tossed a glass jar, not filled with his usual, rather…..vile surprise, but hydrochloric acid, like medics darts/syringes, causing the beast to melt with a screech.
"Heh." Sniper grinned, before he heard a familar beep-beep behind him as the mini Sentry unfolded, having booted back up after a short emp had knocked it out. "Oi, bout time you woke up. In a bit of a mess 'ere." Sniper grumbled. It gave a sheepish beep before spinning around, firing a single incendiary round, nailing a Demon between the eyes. Unlike the standard mini Sentry, this one was armed with a longer barrel and better optic, and was reusable. Snipers field back up the Engineer made him. Slamming fresh rounds into his rifles internal magazine, he crouched down again, and continued covering Soldier….
/----------------/
Over at the Demons encampment, warlord Gistle snarled as he watched the small team of humans tear through the ground forces like they were nothing but Frail flesh under one of their war axes. "How long till the cavalry beasts are to their position?" He growled, watching in fury as the hologram showed the tenacious humans standing, thriving even, in the war zone. He had chosen this planet specifically because it didn't look like it had one of those King damned mechanized siege beasts on it, and was close enough to try and perform a retrobutionary attack. Instead, his forces faced getting slaughtered by a force that had been training to fight them since the last incursion.
Not only that, but when help arrived to evacuate the remaining people after most escaped, or died, but it came in the fork of a small special forces team that pulled stunts and didn't care how normal combat roles worked! He resisted crushing the viewing Thrall, however much it was tempting to do so. "A few more minutes, battle lord. Provided that we can keep them distracted….though we are losing a rather large number of units. If we keep losing units like this-" "SILENCE! We have enough problems. We do NOT need to be adding more." Gistle snarled…. And smirked. "Ah, there we are" He hummed as he watched the cavalry beasts, large, vehicle sized, four or more legged horrors, sprinting forwards, rapidly approaching the encampment….. a few were slowed down by the Sniper, bullets piercing their neural matter and forcing them to reform it, and some lost their heads to the Soldier, rockets obliterating their heads and burning the bodies.
But that was nothing. A few more losses was fine, they had them routed-
What was that sound……?
A large box that had been nearby, a shipping container had opened up, revealing a strange, spinning machine that had unfolded, multiple lights on it glowing as it spun up, a energy disc forming above it as it whined louder and louder……… And spat something out. Warlord Gistle saw nothing but pure red at what he saw.
".....I WANT THOSE FRAILS ALIVE SO I MAY RIP THEIR SOULS OUT MYSELF!"