Anderholt took in a deep breath. He was afraid of this.
“That many, huh? And how many of them are in the shape to move.”
Once again it was a kind of loaded question, one with a double-meaning, and Ellis immediately took it both ways.
“The ones that aren’t too far gone genetically are mostly just drugged-up… at least by what Captain Leathers is reporting,” Ellis said. “Overall, I’d say eighty to ninety percent of the victims are salvageable.”
“Salvageable,” Anderholt repeated with a laugh, “Ellis, they’re—”
“They were human, at least in the case of most of them,” Ellis shot back quickly, cutting of the general’s words. He didn’t’ like challenging authority, yet it was something he did on an almost weekly basis.
“And what are they now?” Anderholt shot right back.
There was a tense silence on the line as the two men stood their ground. Finally Anderholt broke it with a sigh.
“Listen, Ellis — this wasn’t part of the plan.”
“The plans have changed sir, doesn’t this prove it.”
“So what do you want to do… save them all?”
“I want to give it the ol’ college try, sir?”
Oh, Hell’s bells, Anderholt thought, but said, “it’s your show, Ellis, and your boy is running it on the ground.”
“Not anymore, sir — I’m going in.”
Anderholt was about to protest, but the other end of the line went dead.
32 — The Platform
“Aaahhh!” First Lieutenant Robbie Biscaye yelled, bringing the two Ingram MAC-10s up and out so they were balanced on his hips. Looking on from a few feet away, Major Fred Sayer could have sworn that the four Grays that’d been rushing toward Robbie had their huge, black eyes go just a bit wider. There was really no way to tell. A split-second later Robbie pulled the triggers, and besides the ‘buzzing’ sound, sixty bullets shot out as if they were a saw cutting through air. They tore into the Grays, slicing through the frail bodies like they were twigs in a forest. The bodies were shot apart and arms and torsos and heads and necks all hung suspended in the air for a brief moment before falling haphazardly to the floor, greenish-goo everywhere.
“Ha!” David shouted from nearby. “That was good, but check this out!”
David waited until at least one of his team members’ eyes was on him, then turned his attention back to the small pocket of Grays huddling beside the ruined tube train that he’d already twisted to hell with the earlier grenade launcher blast. He gripped the AR-15 tightly, then pulled the trigger to the China Lake grenade launcher positioned on top. A 40x46mm grenade shot out at 249 feet per second and, making David’s heart skip a beat in delight, two of the Grays just happened to turn to look at the flying projectile right before it reached them.
BOOM!
The grenade hit directly in front of the Grays, and since they were standing right in the midst of the ruined tube train, each of the creatures was ripped apart as the blast sent them flying into the sharp and twisted metal still sticking out at all angles. Another black char-mark was left on the tracks and part of the platform and much of the wall and once again, there were alien body parts lying everywhere.
“Heh,” David laughed, “how you like them apples!”
Robbie frowned, not liking them much at all, but liking being shown-up even less. Of course the situation they were in really took the cake when it came to things he didn’t like. He may have been the only super soldier on this small four-man team down in the bowels of Dulce, but he sure felt like an insignificant crumb. A lot of that had to do with the Reptilians.
The creatures had first arrived just a few seconds before, on one of the many trains that kept rushing to Dulce’s underground platform… from wherever the hell they were coming from. It didn’t matter much, Robbie knew, just stopping the damn things. The only consolation was that while the Grays were capable of mind attacks, the Reptilians weren’t — that’d been drummed into all the super soldiers back when they’d first trained to become the elite special forces alien killers… and protectors. For no matter how many of the vile creatures, or the equally-vile Grays (for Robbie wasn’t one to discriminate, growing up poor in the South had taught him that) came at the men, he knew that his primary responsibility was protecting the men around him… and that something he could do just by being there.
“Here’s another one!” Donlon yelled out, breaking Robbie from his thoughts for a moment. The four men looked over, and sure enough, there was another gaggle of Reptilians coming up the tube train tracks, the sheer number of stopped trains now blocking the platform ensuring that any additional alien security forces sent in to stop the attacking human teams would have to hoof it down the tunnels, oh, probably a good 300 feet by now at the least, most of them figured. Already there were more than a dozen trains on either side of the platform, and who knew how many further back where the darkness became too much for them to see.
Robbie bit his lip and swallowed a curse, for no matter how many invectives he hurled, the damn aliens would keep coming. He gripped the twin Ingram MAC-10 submachine guns tightly before pulling the triggers. Immediately .45 caliber ACP Parabellum bullets spit out of the 146 mm barrels, and at the astonishing rate of 1,146 rounds per minute. He arced the two guns in two steady streams, back and forth, sending wave upon wave of bullets out.
CLICK!
David looked over at Robbie, who frowned.
“Damn things only get thirty to a clip!”
David scoffed and shook his head and looked back to where the Reptilians were still charging down the tunnel, just then reaching the platform and beginning to hoist themselves up. He patted the 40mm pump-action China Lake grenade launcher at his side and smiled. “Time for the big dog to eat.”
He pulled the trigger and the grenade launcher spat out a single grenade right into the midst of the oncoming Reptilians, blowing them to bits and pieces every which way. The creatures were something else entirely. They wore no clothes, just a sort of utility belt that held some of its weapons, and had large claw-like talons on their dinosaur-like feet. Their yellow, slit-serpentine eyes shone out of those hideous scaled-bodies as they jumped forth, a God-awful hissing sound shooting from their mouths.
David laughed and pulled the trigger again, sending another round out and right where the first had landed. As he’d expected, there’d been another five to six Reptilians rushing right through there, expecting the route to now be clear. He pulled the trigger a third time, sending the gun’s final grenade, but this time only two of the creatures were taken out.
“That’s the big dog!” he growled at Robbie before laughing and quickly sticking the shotgun-like grenade launcher in it’s holder at his thigh before pulling out his AR15 assault rifle.
“Now it’s time for dessert!” Robbie shouted back, his twin MAC-10s loaded once again. Another wave of sixty bullets tore into the oncoming line of Reptilians, but on they came.
“Shit,” Fred muttered, seeing yet another pocket of Reptilians coming down the opposite track. He put up his Colt AR15 Commando, the same assault carbine each of the men had in addition to whatever ‘toys’ they’d carried along, and the gun spat out several short bursts of small caliber rounds at a rate of 750 rounds per minute. A few Reptilians fell to the bullets, but the onrush continued.