West Philadelphia,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
The United States.
20.11.2127 CE
...
A platoon of armed soldiers in form-fitting exosuits jogged through a cavernous hallway at about thirty-five kilometres an hour.
A logistics four-legged robot transporting a portable, high yield tactical nuclear device cantered alongside the formation. An assault variant armed with a turreted twenty-millimetre rotary cannon trailed behind the group behind a second logistics variant carrying supplies.
The corridor pulsed with life. Asides from the sloppy thud of armoured feet on the goop-covered floor and the soft whirring of actuating servos, the sound of hundreds of litres of body fluids being pumped per second could be heard softly from within the fleshy walls.
“How far ahead, AWACS?” a voice said, speaking into John’s ears via the headphones embedded in his helmet. The soldier reached a gloveless hand for the wall.
“Twelve hundred metres, over," John replied via his microphone, pulling back his hand. His warm breath fogged up his visor as the green and orange lights from his thermal imaging HUD dimly lit his features.
A few seconds later, the soldier felt a tingle up his spine as he suddenly detected multiple non-native psyches entering his field of awareness.
“Contact!” he announced stoically over the communications channel. ”Hostile. Gorilla. BRVA: 12°, 200, 30, Hot.”
“Halt and hull down,” his commander ordered, forcing the formation to collectively bleed speed. Skidding to a prone position, the tripod stand and Meissner glacis of his M2a2 .50 cal anti materiel gun deployed with a subconscious flick of a switch, the forward soldiers following his lead, while the ones in the rear simply falling on a knee, their exosuits locking in place. “Defend while we cap. AWACS and The Football remain as priority assets.”
“WOODPECKER,” ALPHA called, receiving a warbling digital noise in return over the comms, “you will cover priority threats. T -7 seconds to contact, you are all cleared to engage.”
Two seconds later, the soldiers felt the vibration of dozens of thudding feet racing in their direction. With an abrupt crescendo, John’s thermal HUD lit up in a vibrant red as multiple monstrous lifeforms burst out from within the darkness towards them.
The creatures ran on four hind legs with cat-like grace, their humanoid upper torsos leaning forward in a steep incline. A ditch effort to streamline their large muscular forms. Four mantis-like upper limbs were tucked tightly in, their tails ending in bony blades whipped maliciously with the violent motion.
BRRRRRRRT!!!
The sound of the firing rotary cannon signalled the start of the slaughter as the soldiers opened fire on the approaching threats. A literal wall of fortnite-core anti materiel rounds welcomed the charging aliens. Obliterating them.
A tense silence followed.
“AWACS, status report,” ALPHA called over the comms.
Silence.
“AWACS! Status report!” the commander repeated, snapping john from his thoughts.
“Something’s not right, commander,” John said, frowning. His hand tightened around his machine gun’s grip
“What?” the commander asked.
“They just stopped outside that bend. It is like…”
“Like what, sergeant?”
“Like they are stalling for time.”
A pause.
“Are more coming?” the commander asked.
“Maybe… I am not sure. The ore veins here are richer in Alienium. It is interfering with my scans and forcing multiple false returns. It is hard to tell with all the clutter.”
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The commander fell silent for a moment.
“Assemble. Assault Formation. AWACS and The Football centre, WOODPECKER to the front. Set speed at sixty km/h.”
“Commander, I can’t sense what is on the other side. We will be riding blind,” John said with a sigh.
“I know,” the commander replied, “but we cannot wait here either.”
“Alpha check, twelve hundred meters, hot?”
“Affirmative, Commander.”
The commander nodded, thinking for a moment.
“TRIGGER,” He said, turning to another soldier.
“Yes, commander?”
“Set a charge a hundred meters behind us.”
“But, commander, we are standing next to a major artery. The explosion might cause a rupture and flood the corridor.”
“That is the point,” the leader said. “The rest of you should find somewhere to anchor down. It’s high time we took out the trash.”
The group shared a warm chuckle at the poorly made joke as they each found a spot to deploy grappling lines. Slender cables made of composite material anchored them to the fleshy walls via metal pneumatically driven piles.
John watched as his fellow soldier jogged towards the designated point while he consciously scanned the area for threats.
Twenty seconds later the soldier returned and anchored himself just before the explosive charge went off. A shockwave travelled through the tunnel, jolting the soldiers. The explosion ripped a large hole in the wall.
A blast of smog washed over the fighters immediately followed by a flood of oily fluids. The torrents ran for two dozen seconds before suddenly receding as the wound in the wall unnaturally collapsed on itself, sealing the breach and causing pressurized fluids to well up in the wall behind the point of rupture.
The soldiers gasped as they were suddenly exposed to air. With experienced motions, they detached their anchors and adjusted their formation.
“AWACS,” the commander gasped,” status report.”
“It worked, sir,” John gasped back. “I am picking up multiple pings of pain and confusion on the psychic spectrum. The enemy seemed to have fallen into a state of disarray.”
“Proceed to blow through,” the commander ordered immediately seizing the opportunity, the platoon blazing into motion. “Potshots only. Do not actively engage any targets outside your spectrum of operation. Action!”
Guns blazing, the platoon exploded into the midst of the enemy. The alien lifeforms, although still in a state of confusion, responded with similar violence. Pouncing at the soldiers as they ran by, they attempted to pick off individual units. Although the aliens were met with mostly failures, some managed to get lucky.
With a stoic gaze, John subconsciously dismissed two pings of vanishing mental signatures in his field of awareness. At the corner of his eye, he noticed another soldier toppled mid-stride by an errant swing of a passing alien’s forearm. A second later he felt the soldier’s mental signature vanish. The victim’s corpse was violently dismantled underneath a horde of ravenous monsters.
Despite the losses, the platoon continued their charge nonetheless.
Soon, they reached their destination, their pursuers hot on their tails.
“WOODPECKER, hold the corridor!” the commander ordered as the platoon burst out of the tunnel. “DONKEY, engage WOODPECKER in IOR mode.”
The robots replied with digital warbles as they skidded to a stop. WOODPECKER’s rotary cannon swivelling towards the incoming swarm, welcoming them with a spray of fortnite-cored 20mm rounds. DONKEY, the logistics robot, extended a probe towards its assault variant. With a repeating series of complex mechanical motions, it replaced WOODPECKER’s ammo cartridges without disrupting its companion’s task.
The rest of the platoon burst into a large, cavernous hall. The soldiers immediately began eliminating the aliens occupying the room. The rest of the soldiers fanned outwards, taking defensive around the entrance they came in. John, his commander and the third automated machine stood in the centre of the clearing as the rest of the platoon diligently kept the monster horde from overwhelming them.
“So,” the commander said, staring at a mound of pure Alienium sitting in the middle of the cave a few dozen meters away outside their defensive circle, “this is the server you could not stop talking about? It does not look that impressive.”
“It is,” John said, also staring at the rock. It was about five meters tall and mostly chalky-white in colour with grey and bioluminescent green stripes.
“I will establish a direct connection now for ‘administrative access’,” John said, kneeling in front of one of the largest bioluminescent tendrils extending from the ‘server’ into the ground in his direction. The glowing green line extends a few meters behind him before breaking up into many smaller tendrils that spread out before disappearing into the wall.
Following his intuition, he pulled out his combat knife, slitting a large gash into his left palm. His commander’s left brow crooked up as he observed the proceedings. The sound of automated gunfire was accentuated by the bestial screams of the encroaching horde.
John placed his bleeding palm on the glowing tendril, feeling a resonance at the base of his skull and down his spine.
“They are coming,” he said after a few seconds, rising to his feet.
“How many?” the commander asked.
“All of them.”
A pause.
“Good,” the commander finally said with a forced nod before walking to the robot standing idly.
“I have initiated the core meltdown,” he said, inputting a code on a touchscreen on the robot’s payload.
“Is it close enough?” someone asked over the comms.
“It’s a fifteen kiloton fusion bomb! This is as close as close gets!” another replied aggressively causing the platoon to share another chuckle before falling silent. Only the sound of firing guns and growling beasts could be heard.
“How long do we have left, John?” someone asked, breaking the solemn silence.
“Twenty-five seconds,” John replied, his expression still stoic, a timer running in the corner of his vision, “the crawlies reinforcements would get here in thirty tops.”
“So, the bomb is gonna kill us first then. That’s nice to know.” another chuckled mirthfully causing the platoon to share another laugh. Many sounded relieved at the thought.
John’s stony visage finally cracked, the hint of a smile creasing his lips as an errant tear ran down his face.
Memories of his life flashed before his eyes. His parents. Sister. Lover. Friends. Comrades.
Neural implants in his spine sent alerts of the spikes in his emotional spectrum to his suit. The alerts were displayed on his HUD, but he did not seem to notice.
The vibrations travelling through the ground grew louder and the approaching horde could be heard.
Falling to his knees beside the armed nuclear payload, his glazed gaze watched as a few of his comrades were quickly overwhelmed by a flood of bodies pouring into the hall.
And with a bright flash, the bomb detonated, obliterating within a three hundred mile radius.