• 2. Duty Calls

    I wake to jeeps, tanks, and soldiers. Driving and walking though the area I passed out in. I remember killing the two soldiers and I scramble up looking over to where they lay. A shifter was laying next to them his blade still in one. I sigh “what the ******** happened?”
    Nell walks over to me and stops. “holy s**t. Bloodz? I thought you were dead.” he slaps me on the back. “yea so did I.” I say in a slightly dark tone. I look around at all the troops and tanks and jeeps go by. “lucky isn’t it?” he says and I snap my attention back to him. “ this troop was coming to reinforce this outpost and push farther up.” a tank rolls past, Nell stops cause we couldn’t hear a thing. The tank shifts its gun and firers. The blast is deafening. About ten seconds later a wall crumbles and falls crushing several Morder troops.
    The General, Collins and two Troops, Miller and Sonz, walk over. “we’re the last of this outpost boys!” he yells trying to make his voice over all the gun shots and vehicles rolling by. “so this cadre of men have decided to take over this position and we have been reassigned to help another troop a little farther away. They have sent for big black to come pick us up so lets grab some gear and go.” he says walking away waving his hand in a follow me motion.
    We get into the armory of Omega and all of us fan out. I walk over to a belt of grenades and swing it over my back. I pick up two more carbine clips and a newer pistol, its heaver and shoots bigger slugs. I start to get settled putting everything in its place when something catches my eye. it’s a military issue combat machete. I walk over to it and pick it up checking the blade and swinging it back and forth slightly. I grab a sheath for it and put them together and put them at my side. I walk over to the weapons rack and give it a once over and I don’t see any weapons that I want. So I take a helmet and gas mask and put them on. I see the general and the rest start to head out so I follow. when we open up the door I can hear the helicopters blades spinning as it comes down to land. The general turns and says. “ok men we’re being sent on a final mission to help these souls and then we are heading to last hope for some R and R.” all of the troops cheer and I just turn and watch the giant black hawk touch down.
    Four heavily armored troops with full carbines walk out of the ‘copter and form two lines facing each other. We all exchange looks then walk into the bay. We all take a seat and strap ourselves in as the armored soldiers pile in and settle themselves. One bangs on a door we presume to be the cockpit and the helicopter takes off.
    I look out the door and watched the destroyed city slowly become a miniscule part of the landscape. I see small fires all over and I turn my attention back to the inside of the ’copter. I look down at my weapon and check to make sure its all set and ready for combat.
    “5 minutes.” the pilot yells over the speaker. I look out of the other side and see green lances and tracers flying all over in a confined city street. The helicopter jerks and I hear bits of a building crumble. “the areas too small. You guys will have to rope” they yell as two ropes drop from the sides.
    Everyone takes their turn going down the ropes until it was just me and Nell left. I take a look at him and we grab the ropes and slide down. I look down and see we are landing behind a destroyed wall of a building. About 10 feet from the ground I see a very bright lance and the helicopter jerks and starts to sway. 5 feet and I let go. there is smoke billowing from the helicopter as it flies sideways into a cluster of buildings. It smashes in between two buildings its roaters getting smashed and they slowly tear apart the buildings. The helicopter finally smashes into the ground hitting a resting point dust and debris fall. I look over the crowd of men around me their eyes are wide and unbelieving of what is unfolding in their wake. The two buildings that the craft was in-between collapse. We all wince as you hear the concrete crunch the metal of the helicopter.
    One of heavies falls on his knees and puts his face in his hands. Another walks up to him and puts his hand on his shoulder. They all look at each other and pull up there weapons. The one on his knees gets up and looks at them and they nod. He nods back and pulls up his weapon, they all yell rushing over the cover and into Morder infantry. The sudden rush of soldiers to their flanks scare the infantry and cause them to panic. “ What the hell is going on?” I ask watching as the scene unfolds. The heavies are firing wildly into the crowd of Morder. Dozens of them fall before the heavies get to close for ranged weapons.
    I look over to the general and his mouth is wide open. I turn back and the heavies are now in close combat with the troops. Their blades are about 2 feet long and are elaborate in design. Each soldier is moving with grace and jumping too and fro slashing and chopping at the limbs of Morder soldiers.
    I sit and watch the heavies when all of a sudden I start to hear a low hum I look around. “what the…?” I mutter when I hear that damned hissing. “close to battle zone, prepare to drop in 3.” I look around and check my vox to make sure it wasn’t a malfunction. Then I see a shadow fly over us. I look up and see a sleek black spiked ship slow just a tiny bit near a building. “shockers!” Miller yells firing into the dust clouds coming off the building. I take out binoculars to get a better look of the creatures. I had only seen one, one other time and it was for a second before being crushed by a tank.
    I change the distance on the binoculars and look out. I follow the dust trails down to the bottom of the building and I wait till the dust settles to see what was brought upon the heavies. Four tall bulky figures with blades protruding from their joints.. They have a regular hand which has a blaster placed in it on one side. And the other is a serrated blade hand. It Looked to be used for melee combat and slowing a fall from a building.
    The shockers look over at the heavies and then to one another they each nod and one moves forward. Walking slowly towards a heavy in deep melee combat it pulls its hand back in a stabbing position. “s**t!” I say dropping the binoculars. I pull up my carbine and start shooting to try to slow down the shocker. It didn’t work. The shocker walks up to the heavy poised and ready and stabs him through the back. The heavy drops his gun as the shockers pulls him off the ground. He turns his head slightly and finds a blaster pointed at his head. The shocker pulls the trigger and finishes off the dying soldier on the spot.
    It flips its hand to the right flinging off the corpse like it was nothing. The other heavies were alerted now and were running at the thing.
    The closest heavy runs at the shocker with his blade out swinging wildly. The shocker dodges it like nothing. Jumping back too and fro every movement precise. In a split second the shocker goes on the offense and does a quick jab with its elbow stabbing the soldier in the gut with its blade. It then uses the other hand with the serrated blade fingers to stab into his gut. In that same moment the shocker had pulled out its elbow and brought up the blaster aiming straight at the heavies head. I hear the sharp whine trademark sound of gauss weapons. In three quick movements it had killed a heavy in less then ten seconds.
    The shocker slowly pulls its hand out of the soldiers gut and lets him fall. it does a quick twist and jab with its hand stabbing instantly into the next heavy. The heavy looks down and the shocker pulls the hand up to his throat and pulls them out letting the body decide which way it would fall. the shocker watches the body fall on its back and pulls up its blaster to human head height and turns to look. Right there is a heavy poised ready to swing his machete like blade but was caught by surprise when a blaster was put in his face. Three more whines and the soldier drops. I look at the men surround me and they all look shocked and scared of what these things might do. The shocker turns and looks at us “YOU!” I hear in a high pitch hiss. Then a loud bang. The shocker was no longer walking towards us. I watch for a few seconds then its body flops to the ground blood splatters onto the pavement.
    The three other shockers, me, and the soldiers around me all turn and look to the right. there is a soldier in all black with a smoking sniper. He pulls out of the scoop and reloads. The three shocker speed off towards him. Within 10 seconds they were already across a field of 50 feet, but that didn’t stop him he brings up his sniper and pulls the trigger and another shocker is hit in the head. It trips over itself at that speed flops head first onto pavement. On contact its head busts leaving blood and debris on the ground in front of it.
    The other two are not phased by the loss of their comrade. They continue full speed only to meet up with an orange stream blocking their way. The shockers skid to a halt and start backing up and firing into the orange stream. I turn and look at the group with me. “c’mon we have to help them.” I say vaulting over the cover. I look back and see no one following me I sigh and continue running,
    I get to about 10 feet from the shockers and decide to take cover on a blasted over pillar. I hear foot steps and I look back the way I came. “Nell!” I say in a half whisper yell. “I didn’t think you would follow.” “yea I didn’t wanna leave you hanging out here by your self.” he says smiling a little. “so ok what’s the plan?” he asks looking over the cover. “this!” I say getting up and unsheathing my machete.
    I run up and chop down at the closest shocker and the arm with the blaster gets loped off. I continue running and drop and do a 360 spin while holding out my blade chopping the damn thing in half. I look over to the other and he hasn’t noticed. I put my blade pointed towards my forearm and walk slowly up to him. I do a cross slash at the shockers head and then spin turning around to face Nell. I stab backwards past my armpit impaling him in the back. I twist and pull the blade out and let his body drop. I look to make sure no more enemies were present and I sheathed the blade.
    The fire stream stops and I finally see all the soldiers that we were saving. I skinny gunner, a sly and cunning looking sniper, a bad a** and dark pyro-technician, a dark and deadly looking close combat specialist, and a engineer who was carrying a F.A.R-carbine.
    I hear patters of fast feet and I turn quick, upholstering my pistol as I do so, seeing a hellion running at us. It jumps about 5 feet into the air and I shoot knocking it 2 feet higher. The two rounds pierce its chest and lower jaw. It was pushed back a few inches when the rounds hit but it was stopped dead in its tracks. I turn back and look at the team we just helped. “what? it’s a habit.” I say holstering my pistol.
    “ thanks.” the sniper says and he holds his hand. “names ace.” I shake it “Bloodz, Matt Bloods.” “nice to meet ya.” he says. He turns and points. “ the small wiry guy is biggn’s. the guy with the flamer is Pyro.” Pyro nods.” the shot gunner is my brother Gallentine. The darker engineer over there is snake.” I nod to all of them and turn to Nell. “this is Nell the only soldier who came with me.” they all give me a strange look.” the general and the company… well what’s left of it is over there.” I say pointing to the spot we were just at.” why didn’t they move up with you?” ace asks obviously puzzled. “I don’t know I said lets move up and help them and they just stood there. So I moved up without them and found that only Nell had followed.” ace stands at a loss for words. “call them over I wanna give them a piece of my mind.” he says upholstering his pistol, checking the mag and cocking it. “no, no, no, no. that doesn’t need to be done.” I say waving my hands around like a mad man. Ace smiles and I turn “s**t.” I sigh as the general and his two groupies come walking down towards us.
    “humansssss.” a hiss says and I try to look around inconspicuously. “Renz shall we?” there was a deeper hiss that held out the note. “yes.”
    A wall explodes about twenty feet from us and a bulkier shocker comes out with two smaller shockers. They were still bigger then the normal shockers but they were more elaborate Probably veterans.
    The biggest one runs at the general blade hands poised and ready to strike. Rodren screams, turns, and runs. Miller and Sonz try to give him cover but are knocked out of the way. Rodren turns just in time to see a blade hand smash into his face. He drops down as the full force of the shockers weight smashed into him.
    I turn to the men we were with and say “lets go before they see us.” they look at each other as if debating telepathically weather to do it or not. They all turn and walk behind a blown out wall and me and Nell follow. About 10 minutes before we got out of ear shot I hear a scream, a bloody scream from the last poor soldier to go.