The men looked at each other with glum expressions but none of them objected.
“Good it’s settled then, Hudson you wait for our signal. The rest of you split into teams of two, I want you to run to cover while your teammates lay down suppressing fire. We need to keep moving otherwise they will just overwhelm our position.”
The men did as Hall asked. “Good, Hudson when we have grabbed their attention that is your signal to run for it. It’s all on you now son.” Hall placed his hand on Hudson’s shoulder.
There were still pockets of resistance all over the base but the American forces had taken a lot of casualties while the unknown aggressors had taken hardly any.
Hall and the first group of men broke out into the open and roared an aggressive battle cry as they went. Their teammates opened fire to give them cover, while Hall himself fired his machine gun on the move.
It had the desired effect as the army of black armor glad figures advanced on the small moving team of US soldiers. Hall and the first group dived into cover behind the collapsed wall of hanger 14. They immediately set up to give the second team covering fire, the second team moved as quickly as they could, they did not dare look behind them as the sprinted to their new position,
Hudson watched and waited in his small hiding spot, he watched as a group of enemy jogged passed his position and opened up on his colleagues. Purple and pink rounds flashed down on his friends with hellish accuracy. Two of the monster tanks rumbled passed and lined up on the limited cover that hanger 14 was providing.
Glen ‘Straight A’ Owens, so called because he had an impressive degree in engineering let out a smile as he teammates ran into cover next to him. He stood and popped out three smoke grenades to cover their retreat.
“Where did you nick those from?” Alan Perry asked.
Owens just tapped the end of his nose, “That would ruin the magic Perry.”
“Ass!” Perry replied with a tense smile.
Hall had seen the smoke, “Let’s keep moving boys, don’t give those bastard tanks a chance to target us.”
They all sprinted as one in a long spread outline to make them harder to hit.
Hudson saw his opportunity and he took it, the young man ran as hard as he could from cover to cover, he looked over his shoulder as the tanks fired.
The glowing rounds cut through the thick smoke leaving as spiral trail and impacted where Hall and his men had been a few seconds earlier. The gun on top of the tank’s turret fired and a trial of superheated energy that sprayed all over the area.
Hall and his team managed to make it to a maintenance hangar, they paused for breath as they set up their defensive perimeter. Master Sergeant Jim Miller looked around the large hanger.
“I have some bad news Hall.”
“Great what is it now?” Hall replied with a deadpan smile.
“There is no exit at the back of this hanger, we’re trapped but I have some good news, there are a few .50 cal machine guns in here and a couple of racks off Sidewinder missiles for the Phantoms.”
“What good are the missiles, all the electronics are fried.”
We could toss them at them.” Cox added dryly.
Owens snapped his fingers, “If I can get the ignitions to light we could get the missiles to fly but they won’t have any guidance systems, so they would be out of control.”
“Do it.” Hall said without a second thought, “We are running out of options, make this our last stand boys.”
Hudson dived under the wreckage of an F4 Phantom as he narrowly avoided another group of enemy soldiers. ‘Christ, they’re everywhere.’ He thought to himself. Hudson decided to stay under the crippled plane for a second to take in the situation. He could see the
perimeter fence from where he was and he watched as an airman ran from cover and launched himself up the fence.
A flash of strong purple light leaped forward and penetrated the man’s head, it punctured straight through and exploded on the other side, the man’s body landed in a crumpled heap at the foot of the fence.
“Shit, shit shit… of course they would have snipers watching the fence. What do I do now?” Hudson said to himself. He did not have to think for long as a shiny pair of black boots appeared just beside him.
The figure bent down, “What do we have here, a cockroach?” The man said in a strong German accent. Hudson went to raise his pistol but it was too late, the man fired his sidearm and the bright purple round burnt through Hudson’s skull, he felt a brief spike of pain before his young life ended.
A monster returns
Smoke drifted lazily passed, the area was eerily quiet for what felt an eternity. Sweat dripped down Warren Hall’s dirty, furrowed brow. Tom Cox’s arm shook slightly due to the mixture of fear and adrenaline rushing through his body. Jim Miller’s eyes darted from left to right while his finger twitched nervously over the .50 cal Browning machine guns’ trigger.
A dark shadow flashed across in the moonlit night but in a second it disappeared.
“Hold your fire.” Hall whispered.
Bright purple pulses of superheated light swarmed forward like a mass of deadly fireflies into the open hanger, they peppered the cover the men were hiding behind. The two .50 cals opened up with the comforting thump that accompanied their powerful rounds. Red tracer tore through the open space and sliced into the smoke.
The energetic purple fire continued but was momentarily less accurate, this gave Hall and his men the chance to lift their heads up from cover and get some suppressing fire laid down. The armor clad figures did not take long to regain their accuracy and a heavy hail of fire rained in on the US airmen.
The unknown enemy advanced and tried to rush through the entrance, Hall smirked as he threw three smoke grenades into the onrushing troops, they detonated and a thick smoke quickly coated the area.
“Give them everything we’ve got boys!”
The Americans guns chattered and bellowed as they opened up all at once, the smoke-filled area was peppered with bullets. The .50 calibers struck the leading soldier in the chest, the armor splintered and blood bubbled from the open wound; his fellow soldiers dove to the floor with lightning quick reactions and avoided the stream of bullets.
“I’m out!” Perry shouted.
“Heads up.” Hall replied as he chucked a fresh magazine in Perry’s direction.
“Reloading!” Miller shouted and he quickly got to work reloading the .50 caliber.
“Cover Miller, we need the .50 up and quickly.”
The smoke started to thin so Hall threw his last two smoke grenades and then laid down another burst of fire.
The purple projectiles started to slow then stopped abruptly.
“What’s goin on?”
“Maybe they have given up.” Cox said with a nervous chuckle.
“Unlikely.” Hall said, “Keep your wits about you lads!”
“.50’s backup!” Miller shouted.
The smoke began to clear again and to the Americans surprise there was not a single casualty to be seen anywhere.
“How did we miss them all?” Cox cried.
The deadly purple fire started again suddenly, although not as aggressively as before.
Hall dove to the floor as a sniper round crackled just over his head.
“Fuck, that was close.” He mumbled.
“Owens how are those missiles coming along?” Hall asked.
Owens shook his head, “I can’t get the fucking things to ignite!”
“Get them ready as quick as you can, we are running out of options.”
Hall popped up and fired a strong burst which slowed the enemies advance, they jumped into cover. They fired blindly from their secure position.