Paul never knew what hit him, never knew anything again. The blast from a flashgun took him in the back and he was puffed out of existence not even a fraction of a second later.
“Shit!” Mark did shout this time, but instead of slamming his hands down on the X-22’s controls he started pressing buttons and turning knobs.
“What are you doing, sir?” Turn asked from beside him.
“Blowing those fucking doors, what do you think?”
The tone in the younger Richards’ voice told Turn not to say another word, for it was the same tone his grandmother used to use when she was busy in the kitchen back in the plantation house. Turn had learned real quick what that tone meant.
“What the hell are we—”
“Sit down and shut the hell up!” Mark shouted, his finger shooting out to point back at Billy. Billy’s eyes went wide and he started backing away, like you would from an angry bear, slowly and without taking your eyes from the offending creature. Billy, Turn thought, had never learned what that tone meant.
“Here goes,” Mark said under his breath, quiet enough for the two in the back to not hear, but loud enough for Turn to make out. With the final flip of a button the X-22’s thrusters fired back to life and Mark ‘rolled’ her forward — that was the only way Turn could describe it — and they came to rest a good dozen yards past the command facility.
“Sir, don’t you think we’re getting too close to fire any—”
“Now!” Mark shouted to no one but himself, cutting off Turn’s concerns in the process.
He hit the button on the side of the hand-held steering controls that fired the X-22’s Hellfire missiles. Two shot forward, right toward the blast doors… both just forty yards away and well within the blast radius of the Hellfires. The X-22 was engulfed in flames.
30 — CAT-4
There was a slight whistling sound and the eight men from CAT-1 and CAT-2 turned around quickly.
“Here’s Colonel Donlon and CAT-4,” Charlie said, lowering his M240 machine gun.
“Good,” Tommy laughed, “I was getting’ mighty tired of standing around and countin’ the dead bodies.”
Charlie frowned at the young super soldier, but said nothing, and a few moments later the tube train carrying the four men of CAT-4 pulled into the platform.
“Goddamn!” Major Fred Sayer said, the first one out the tube train’s doors as they swished open.
“You couldn’t leave any for us?” David said, that perpetual frown of his turned on full blast at the moment.
“Oh, you’ll get your share,” Lieutenant Colonel Emil Wiseman said, his tobacco pipe clamped tightly between his teeth as usual.
“There’ll be plenty more coming,” Walter said as he came up to the train next, Major Jake Zates right on his heels. “Once the rest of the Grays in the secret bases around the US find out what’s happening, they’ll start sending in their security teams.”
“And that’s when we’ll cut them down to bits,” Donlon said. “There won’t be a train stopping on this platform that doesn’t see each and every occupant gunned-down in a manner of seconds when those tube train doors open.”
“I hope so,” Charlie said.
Donlon nodded at him, then looked around at the other eleven men. “Alright, Charlie and Walter — get your teams moving out of this train terminal and starting up through the levels. By this time Richards and CAT-3 should have secured the entry port topside.
“Sonic’s off,” Walter said as he looked around at the ceiling above them, “or we’d be dead right now.”
“And if it isn’t we’ll just have to take our chances,” Donlon said.
Charlie nodded and stuck his hand out.
“Good luck, Roger” he said, and Donlon shook it. The rest of the men began to shake hands, and then CAT-1 and CAT-2 started walking down the platform, gingerly stepping over and around the numerous dead Grays littering the floor around them.
“Well, here we are, alone and in the depths of hell and just waitin’ to die,” Fred said when the last of the other teams’ men vanished around the bend in the platform, where the tube train tracks kept shooting off into oblivion but the walkway turned left.
“I’m sure gonna take my fair share of aliens with me,” Robbie laughed.
“Easy for you to say,” David said as he turned on that frown full-blast, “you’re a super soldier — you’ll probably be the last to die.”
“Can that nonsense,” Donlon said, his words biting through the air. “Any minute now and another train’s gonna come down those tracks, one most likely packed to the gills with Grays, or worse, their Reptilian allies.”
“Reptilians?” Fred said. “No one said shit about those.”
“Yeah, what—”
“You’ll find out soon enough… although let’s hope not.” Roger rubbed at his forehead and bit his lip. “Just remember, if they move, you can kill ‘em.”
“Shouldn’t these trains stop ‘em?” David asked.
“They should, but—”
Roger’s words were cutoff as the first train on the left side of the platform let out a blast of compressed air and then started to inch forward.
“What the hell!” Robbie shouted.
“Damn!” Donlon said, and started to rush down the platform.
“What’s going on!” Fred shouted after him. He and the other two men took one look at each other and quickly started running after their commander.
“Damn Grays at one of the other bases figured out what’s going on and is recalling the train.”
“Recalling, what—”
“They’re sending an electronic signal to the train to begin moving to the next station,” Donlon yelled, still running down the platform, “that way they can get their trains right up to the platform, jumping out to kill us when the doors open.”
“Well can’t we just stop those trains from leaving!” David yelled up at him, his frown disappearing as the gravity of the situation made itself clear.
“What do you think I’m doing!” Roger yelled back, his frustration plain. A moment later he reached what he’d been running to, a small control station set up on the edge of the platform, right up against the wall that eventually turned into the bend leading to the stairs the other teams had just gone up. It wasn’t much, just a waist-height counter-like-desk, a few control terminals to adjust incoming and outgoing trains, and more buttons and lights than any of the four men had an idea about.
“What is all this!” Fred yelled when all four men were within the confines of the small area, and just as the tube train that Charlie and CAT-1 had taken in sped pat them and vanished down the dark tunnel, past the last of the platform wall. The whistling sound started up just as soon as it’d gone, and the men looked back to see the train they’d come in on start to power up and begin moving as well.
“We’ve got to stop those trains from pulling out!” Donlon shouted as he started fiddling with the controls. “If we can’t create a bottleneck at the end of the platform then we’ll be overrun in no time.”
“Well then how do we get it stopped!” Robbie yelled.
“I don’t know!” Donlon yelled back. The men were frantically twisting knobs, hitting buttons, and pounding down on the lighted controls. Nothing seemed to work.
“Ah… fuck it!” David said, and brought his AR-15 up, the one with the grenade launcher attached.