Hawk nine had seen enough and broke from the formation, the pilot put the helicopter into full throttle; they crew tried to get to 135 mph as soon as they could. The lightning raced out towards the lone chopper in an attempt to smother it before it could escape.
The rest of Hawk flight had reached the deck, the helicopters hovered just above the ground, the National Guard soldiers had to jump; Hawk flight was not hanging around.
A bright projectile of superheated light leaped out and flew true towards the vulnerable helicopters. It impacted on Hawk six and sheared clean through the rotor blades, they split into pieces, the explosive blossom from the round spread outwards and the helicopter shattered; sending hundreds of pieces of shrapnel in a three hundred and sixty-degree arc. The soldiers had nowhere to go and were peppered by the pieces of hot metal.
“Man down, man down!”
“Medic.”
The remaining men jumped out of the choppers as quickly as they could, they flung themselves to the deck to avoid any incoming fire. Hawk’s one and three lifted away and accelerated as quickly as they could.
Hawk eight was still dropping off troops when another flash of purple light raced out from the distance, it flew passed the rear of the Huey; the air sizzled in anger.
“Shit, that was close!” The pilot shouted. He looked over his shoulder and when he saw that the last man was clear he pulled the stick back and powered up into the sky.
Another three rounds sprang out towards the climbing aircraft, the first one clipped the bottom skidpad, the metal melted and buckled under the strain of the heat but the round did not explode, the second round hit the tail portion of the aircraft and tore it right off, smoke trailed from the Huey as it went into a spin. Alarms sounded in the cockpit as the pilots lost control.
The reporter that had accompanied the National Guard had his head in his hands as he lay sobbing on the floor, the cameraman was crouched down and caught the final moments of Hawk eight as it span into the turf, the helicopter hit hard but did not explode; the pilot was killed instantly on impact but his co-pilot only suffered a broken pelvis and bad lacerations to his head.
Hawk ten lifted clear of the carnage and raced away as low to the ground as possible, it desperately followed Hawk’s one and three.
“Has anyone got sight of the enemy?” Sergeant Roderick asked.
“Negative sir.”
“We can’t see shit sir, whatever it is… It seems more interested in the choppers.”
“Get a defensive perimeter set up, we need to take stock of the situation so I want everyone to check ammo, go.” Sergeant Roderick ordered.
Hawk nine had stopped responding to radio calls and was busy trying desperately to avoid the glowing orbs that homed in on it with unnerving accuracy. Thunder rocked all around them, shortly followed by the violet lightning flashes. The pilots ignored all of this and raced further away from their mission.
Finally, the thunder dulled, the lightning seemed to retreat like an eel returning to its cave after striking out at prey, the orbs stopped following the Huey and just appeared to float aggressively on the spot. The pilot let out a sigh of relief as he wiped beads of sweat from his face.
A stream of superheated light spat out in a long line towards Hawk nine, the pilot managed to bank slightly to the left and avoid most of the rounds, a few hit the right-hand side of the fuselage and burnt large black holes out of the metal.
“Where the fuck did that come from?” The pilot shouted.
His co-pilot let out a cry and pointed to their left, “Passing us eleven o’clock high.”
Two fighter jets roared passed in standard formation, they were a dark grey color and appeared not to have any insignia on their short stubby wings, each wing housed one engine that glowed a radiant purple.
“Who the hell are those guys? You see where they went Mitch?”
The co-pilot struggled to look over his shoulder, he caught the fighters just as they rolled inverted then came up behind the Huey.
“They’re right on our six, get us out of here!”
The pilot began weaving the Huey left and right in a totally desperate attempt to shake off the hostile jet fighters.
The led fighter slowed his aircraft down and eased into the perfect firing position, the pilot waited for a harsh beeping sound to ring in his ear and then pulled the trigger. An arrow of bright pink light arced forward and rushed towards the helpless helicopter, the round flew straight and true and impacted on the main body of the Huey; it detonated in a brilliant white light and the American helicopter was blasted out of the sky.
The fighters banked in a sharp right turn and raced after the last three Huey’s.
Living fossil
The cameraman swung his hefty lens around, trying desperately to track the two fast moving jets but they streaked by and were out of sight in the blink of an eye.
Suddenly all hell broke loose, bright streams of purple fire washed over the area, the air sizzled and cracked, the men laid flat, hugging the ground as best they could as the rounds burnt and scorched the area all around them.
“Where is that coming from?” A young soldier shouted.
“From in front of us, we need to lay down some covering fire!” Sergeant Roderick said, “We need to get to that burnt out service station, give us some shelter and somewhere to mount a viable defense.”
“What about the wounded, we can’t risk moving them.” The medic shouted as he applied another dressing to steam the bleeding.
The whole area seemed to be alive with angry purple fireflies; they filled the air and peppered the limited cover that the National Guard had. The men tried to return fire whenever they could but the volume of incoming fire kept them from getting any coordinated resistance going.
“Lay down a couple of smoke grenades, once they provide us with cover we are going to make a dash for that closed restaurant. Don’t argue, we are going to have to move the wounded.”
The medic nodded but he did not seem too pleased with Rodrick’s plan.
“Ok now!” The Sergeant shouted as he got to one knee and fired a couple of bursts down range. The fire focused on him long enough that his team managed to throw three smoke grenades.
Rodrick dived to the floor as the luminous rounds filled the air that he had just vacated milliseconds before, he let out a scream as the uniform on his shoulder started to burn; a single round had scraped him on the very top of his shoulder.
“You lucky bastard,” Jones said to him, he crawled over and checked the wound. It had burnt itself closed and did not bleed. Jones gave his Sergeant the thumbs up.
The smoke billowed out and gave the men some much-needed shelter, they ran for it, the wounded were put on stretchers where possible but many were just thrown over the retreating men’s shoulders.
Large glowing projectiles cut through the smoke and detonated on the area where the men had been just a few seconds earlier, it was completely vaporized and shards of heated rock flew into the air.
More and more rounds flew blindly through the smoke but miraculously none of the men were hit. They got into the ruins of the restaurant and immediately took up positions where they could provide defensive fire; Sergeant Roderick finished the sweep of the building.
“Clear!” he shouted.
“We have to get out of here sir, we can’t compete with the firepower they have!”