There was no backing out now; no Plan B. Nikki rammed the barrel of her 50-caliber pistol into its side and fired off two rounds. She wounded it, but the pistol rounds did not create the same magnitude of damage as the shotgun.
The alien turned on her.
The claw cut across her chest, from the side of her neck to her deltoids and nearly cleaved her right breast clean off. Dark blood sprayed the creature and Shogun screamed obscenities in her head. She cried out inside her mind, commanding him to tell her how long she had before expiration with that wound.
His voice came soft and from a distance, drowned out by the sound of an inferno somewhere deep within her. Her vision blurred and heat flooded her body. She heard a scream, but it may have come from her. She felt armored skin in her grasp and she yanked upward, lifting the monster over her head and then brought it down hard, slamming it into the solid concrete. A swift kick sent the beast spiraling into a stack of crates and her vision returned in a red hue.
The creature rose to its feet, but it moved slower. Everything moved slower.
There’s no room to reach the ship now, Beast. You have to kill it or it will not allow any of you to leave.
“Understood.”
Nikki rushed forward, closing the gap between her and the creature in an instant. Her firearms were gone, but her synthetic muscle tissue generated more than ten times the capabilities of a normal human. Her right cross was like a hydraulic piston firing into the side of the creature’s skull. She followed with her left while reaching for her combat knife with the right.
She never saw the tail darting out from under its right arm. It shot through her chest, just to the right of her left shoulder and stopped her attack. The monster lifted her off the ground to take away her leverage. Shogun’s voice tore through her mind.
You have no reserve, Beast! It’s you or it! Right now!
Nikki had nothing left. Wounded and unarmed, she braced herself for the cold embrace of defeat. The alien lifted its left claw for the swipe, its line of glowing, LED green eyes forming a robotic grin.
Sword!
Nikki’s eyes snapped open and she reached over her right shoulder as the monster swiped. Her hand closed around the hilt and she twisted, breaking the blade away from the magnetic clip that held it in place. Her arm responded automatically and the alien waved a bloody stump past her face as its massive paw thudded against the concrete.
The creature glanced at its amputated limb and Nikki swung again. The forged steel blade stabbed through the alien’s neck with a crunch and its head turned slightly to look her in the eyes.
Nikki roared in its insectoid face, a primal scream uttered only by those few who had stolen victory in mortal combat by a razor’s-edge margin. With a jerk of her shoulder, Nikki wrenched the blade aside and the monster’s head flopped to the floor.
She hit the ground as the alien crumpled and the darkness threatened to take her. Shogun was in her head, begging her to get up and get to the ship. She was bleeding out faster than she could heal and by his estimate she was at less than fifteen percent mobility, but she pushed against the cold ground.
She looked up to see a dozen more aliens pour out of a hall at the other end of the bay.
She could hear the sergeant yelling for her back at the ship. Could she reach the ship in time? Those foolish technicians had not even fired the engines, yet. How long would it take for the ship to boot up?
“Move out, Sergeant! I’ve got you covered.” Nikki got to her knee, gripping the hilt of her sword in one hand and looping her index finger through the ‘last resort’ grenade on her harness.
Fifteen percent mobility.
Sergeant Lancell stood on the loading ramp of the EVAC ship. Inside, several of the techs scrambled to get the ship’s AI booted up. Private Fialto prayed aloud, strapped into the corner seat along the wall.
The colonel leaned on his shoulder to peer out with him. “She’s telling us to go, Sergeant.”
“She means to stay here and hold all of them off by herself?” Sergeant Lancell groaned with frustration. “She can’t even stand.”
“She will give us enough of a window to lift off and head for orbit,” the colonel replied. “I believe she can pull it off, but if we do not go now her sacrifice will be meaningless.”
The ship shook as the plasma engines fired up and raged. Inside a few shouts from the crew signaled success. “We’re up and running, Sergeant!”
He stood and looked onward as the aliens got closer to the soldier that had come out of nowhere and saved them from a grisly death. Not an hour before he had left two men behind with two carbines and a grenade to allow them to go out on their own terms instead of in the razor-lined maw of a monster. He had abandoned them because there was no choice; because he was not powerful enough to stand against the attackers like the Beast. He did not have her bravery. He did not have her weaponry.
Sergeant Lancell jerked away from the railing on the ramp as if burned by it. He hopped down from the ship and looked toward the elevator ramp.
“Sergeant?” the colonel yelled over the engines.
“I’m not leaving anyone else behind!” Sergeant Lancell sprinted across the hangar pad, back the way they’d come.
He scooped up the ammo can on the fly and skidded to a halt over the downed 50-cal. With a grunt, he heaved the weapon turret upright and slapped the first, enormous round of the old-school ammunition belt into the cradle. It took him a moment to align it correctly and he slammed the top down and traversed the barrel to where the enemy advanced on Beast.
Remembering how she had tucked the grips to her chest, he mimicked her and sighted in his first target. “Not today, assholes!”
Click.
The sergeant jerked in anticipation of the recoil from the powerful weapon, but there was nothing; only the hollow, soul-shattering click of a misfire. Sergeant Lancell pushed the thumb trigger harder and when that did not work, he frantically pounded on the top of the gun and pressed the trigger over and over. He had no idea how to clear a jam on something so ancient.
He jumped as quick footsteps clopped behind him. The colonel nearly bowled him over in her rush to reach the weapon. She thrust her hips against the butterfly grips and grabbed the charging handle on the right side. With a terrified groan, she hauled back with all the weight her tiny frame could muster and racked the weapon.
She immediately leapt away, dropping to her ass. “Now, Sergeant!”
Sergeant Lancell dropped behind the weapon, jerked the grips to his chest and depressed the button.
Gouts of grey dust kicked up in a straight line to the alien’s side and a second later its midsection exploded as the armor-piercing rounds cut it in half. Sergeant Lancell’s adrenaline turned the powerful kicks into a gentle vibration against his torso as he walked the concrete eruptions forward, into the next alien. Several of them stopped and turned, confused by the new threat. He took advantage of their hesitancy and turned his death-spitting flesh-pulper on them.
“Get her! Someone get her now!” Sergeant Lancell screamed in between bursts.
Private Holiday, jumped from the ship’s ramp, his short Mohawk bouncing as he hauled ass across the hangar, carbine in hand. He slid to Beast’s side on his knees like some kind of action movie hero and unloaded his rifle at the aliens. Dropping the magazine, he threw her arm over his shoulder and stood.
It took more effort than Holiday had assumed, gauging by the slow squat-thrust he used to lift her. Two more men raced to him, helping share the load as they carried her toward the ship.