Nolan then reached over and slapped the hatch release button along the wall which activated the explosive bolts lining it and caused the hatch door to explode outward. Instantly a portal existed where there wasn’t one before and sunlight finally pierced the darkness. Felix’s visor quickly adjusted to the new atmosphere as he watched Nolan pull himself up through the hatch rifle first. He watched as his partner turned in a complete circle to scan the perimeter before a sharp hiss sound rang out through the open hatch followed by the sound of Nolan’s MPC-92 carbine returning fire with multiple shots in rapid succession. Then all of the sudden his body twitched and came tumbling down from the open. It landed on the hard floor in an awkward position, motionless, with a thin waft of smoke rising from the abdominal region.
General Stelle quickly jumped up and turned around towards the loud crashing sound as Nolan’s heavy body impacted the metallic floor. The general ran towards the fallen soldier, while Felix tried his best to move towards his partner. He was half way there when a horrible pain shot through his skull and radiated into his arms. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before, like an electric surge coursing through his body and causing every muscle in his body to spasm. Having lost all concentration Felix’s legs gave out and he crumpled to the ground completely. Every thought in his mind told him to give up and quit the struggle, to accept his fate under enemy rule. His instincts, however, told him to keep fighting and so he reached forward with one hand to pull himself along the deck towards Nolan. It was then that he saw and heard General Stelle yell out in pain while grabbing his head and falling to the floor on top of Nolan’s body.
“What…is…happening…sir…” Felix called out slowly in deep pain as he tried his best to crawl towards Nolan.
Fighting through the intense pain he turned his head sideways to see if the other members of the team were alright. Remarkably neither of them was screaming or seemed to be in pain of any kind. All three appeared to be completely frozen in place in the same positions they had previously been in with their eyes wide open. It was almost as if something had possessed them and ceased all of their functioning. In total confusion as to what was happening Felix continued on his crawl with his head brain throbbing in endless pain, trying his best to combat the endless feelings of despair.
He was almost within arm’s reach of the general when the entire Centaur rocked, throwing his body almost a meter into the air, as the whole rear end exploded. Smoke and dust filled the interior from just behind Nolan and General Stelle. Gazing through the haze Felix saw that the whole rear of the armored vehicle had seemed to just vanish, sheared off completely from the surrounding structures. It was through his opening that a group of alien soldiers rushed through as he watched helplessly. Straining against the assault on his mind he reached to his side and pulled out the distruptor pistol attached there. The movement came slowly and by the time the weapon was out and pointed towards the enemy a group of them was already surrounding the general.
Felix took aim and was about to squeeze the trigger when a large foot came out of nowhere from his side and slammed into his hand. This impact caused his shot to fly wide and hit the armored interior, vaporizing part of an upside down bench seat while almost boring out a deep pocket in the wall behind it. He tried his best to readjusted, but the heavy leg came down on his arm and pinned it to the floor. Felix looked up at the creature standing above him and was immediately taken aback by its massive bulk and bright orange armor. Through its helmet eye slits Felix could see the alien’s large black eyes looking down at him. What surprised him, however, was the fact that he could see no anger or hate in the enemy’s eyes. It was almost as if the creature was empty inside, without any feelings whatsoever.
Looking behind the large soldier again Felix saw one of the other creature’s pull out some sort of oval object and press it to General Stelle’s head. As soon as it came into contact with the man’s skin a pair of bands quickly extracted from both sides and surrounded his head. A green light ignited from them as soon as they fully encompassed his head. Almost instantly the general’s body grew limp and another large warrior proceeded to lift him up in one arm. Tossing Felix’s superior office over his left shoulder the creature turned back towards the opened rear of the IFV and sprinted away. He watched the rest of the group disengage from Nolan’s body and follow him out.
The soldier standing on his arm did not move, though, and Felix looked back at him only to him the barrel of a large cannon pointed down directly at his head. Having failed his mission to protect FRONCOM Felix had nothing else to loose. He had stared death in the face before and knew that this was no different. Every soldier knew that there came a time in his or her life where luck simply runs out. Today, however, was not that day for Felix Logwari as he saw the creature’s body spasm and shake before the sound of a single MPC-92 discharging reached his ears. With a loud cry the breast toppled over and crashed to the hard floor, the back of its neck torn and charred from the intense heat of the plasma rounds going through it. Gazing back towards the sound of the gunfire, a smile finally formed along his lips, as he saw Nolan laying there on his back with his rifle held in an outstretched hand.
A CONCUSSIVE wave slammed into Dexter as the tree beside him exploded into splinters and lifted him into the air. The wave threw him sideways straight into the wall a prefabricated housing unit standing on the other side of him. He felt the combat armor reflexively tighten all around him to prevent serious injury while his body smashed through the build’s wall, sending debris in all directions. Hitting the floor Dexter rolled end over end until he hit some set up sleeping cots and finally slowed to a stop. At that moment the suit relaxed around him and allowed him to quickly stand up. Covered in syncrete dust he went over to the build’s door and kicked it open. To his relief two of his men were on the other side of the door waiting for him as another pair scanned the surrounding area for enemy soldiers.
“Welcome back sir! Everything is packed and ready to go,” said Staff Sergeant Emerson while stepping forward.
“The prisoner is also loaded and secured, it gave us no trouble, LT,” informed the other right after that.
Dexter nodded and brushed some of the gray dust from his armor, “were you able to locate any of the MultiSpec netting as I requested?”
“Yessir, we have all of the Centaur’s rigged.”
It was that moment that the TacNet net connection indicator turned red once more and Lieutenant Iorns saw the data transmissions cease. The suit quickly tried to connect a few more times, but it was of no use. Just as fast as the satellite had been detected previously it had gone dark. Having already experienced it before Dexter was no longer shocked by this occurrence and knew that he would have to adjust once more to the way things had been for the past few days.
“All good things must come to an end or something like that,” Dexter said with a frustrated laugh.
He made a motion with his hand in the air and took off running past the two men standing before him towards the rest of 2nd Platoon. Dexter was within sight of the four armored vehicles when an explosion burst in midair only three hundred meters away off to his side. The surrounding trees swayed violently and many splintered along their treetops as the force hit them. It wasn’t just the trees that suffered, however, some of the netting around the platoon’s station vaporized as well. Dex knew that the exposure would allow the enemy to further zero in on their position, but there were other worries at the moment as he noticed one of his fireteams in the same area.
Almost as soon as the netting above them disappeared the whole team of four men slowed in the middle of their walk to a completely standstill. They stood motionless just like the engineers he had seen at the medical center. He had no idea what was happening to them, but he had to help them in any way that he could. Another explosion went off somewhere in the dense trees to Dexter’s right, causing him to glance over at the bright flash emanating from that area. He turned just in time to see some of the trees bend away
as if something was pulling them towards the center of the blast.
“Knight Two proceed to Delta-One and render assistance,” he ordered through his TacLink as he finally closed on the four Centaurs surrounded by his other men.
He slowed to a jog while watching his executive officer motion to one of his squads. The men within it separated into two fireteams before one of the four man teams ran into Knight Two through its already open side hatch. Without pause the IFV lifted a meter into the air and accelerated towards Delta-One. Dexter saw the Centaur shimmer in the beaming sunlight as its MultiSpec covering shifted and adjusted to the constantly changing surroundings. At its high rate of speed, it took the vehicle almost no time at all to reach the effected Delta team and Dexter stood there in amazement as the four motionlessly soldiers suddenly collapsed on the ground just as the Centaur touched down beside them. The four members of the newly arrived fireteam hopped out of their IFV in rapid succession and raced to help their comrades where they lay. Those men and women seemed to progress unabated by any sort of mental injury, while gave Dexter hope that whatever had been causing that effect had been turned off.
Breathing a sigh of relief, he turned away from the scene as Delta-One’s men were lifted up and carried into the waiting IFV, when someone shouted, “inbound enemy, three o’clock high!”
Turning in that direction Dexter looked up in time to see a large shuttle like craft descend towards the area of the forest where the recent orbital strike had detonated.
“Thumper!” Specialist Donte Mansur shouted, causing Dex to reexamine the shuttle more thoroughly.
Sure enough one of the large armored quadrupeds hung from the underside of the slowing shuttle. The Thumper was a terrifying armored beast of the enemy’s creation and could unleash horrible death and destruction. As he zoomed in further through his helmet visor he could see the shuttle craft decelerate to a hover in order to unload its heavy cargo. Dex knew that it had to be stopped at all cost if they were going to get out of here alive. Some of his men must have read his mind because two missiles, fired from one of the Centaur’s, sped by his vision and exploded against the shuttle’s shields a second later. Its shields flickered crimson, but held as the craft itself rocked slightly in midair from the force of the shaped charge warheads.
“All load up,” Lieutenant Iorns commanded through the TacLink, while watching the enemy ship restabilize.
Its shields lit up once more as particle beams joined the assault against it and the Centaurs unleashed another wave of missiles. This new salvo in three separate groups slammed into the shuttle as the armored vehicle hanging beneath it dropped towards the forest floor. The six missiles in the first two groups seemed to bleed the shields dry because the third one impacted against hull material itself. Explosions erupted along the whole side of the craft and Dexter watched it wobble side to side before dropping uncontrollably towards the ground.
A loud cheer rang out among the men of 2nd Platoon as the shuttle disappeared, but quickly ceased as a single rocket streaked out of the forest towards them. Each soldier in the vicinity scattered to get out of the way. The large rocket barely missed one of the Centaur IFVs, its aim thrown off by the MultiSpec covering on the vehicle, and hit a building located just behind it. After tearing through the syncrete wall the weapon detonated in a flash of blinding light before that same radiance was suddenly sucked back towards the epicenter of the blast. Dexter watched the entire building tremble and break apart as it was sucked into a glowing vortex at the center of the structure until there was nothing remaining except for a circular impression within the earth.
Dexter had been briefed on this type of weapon a day prior, but this was the first time actually seeing it in action. Another pair of projectiles emerged from the tree tops and arched towards 2nd platoon as most of his men were in the process of loading into their respective transports. Waiting outside for all of his men to finish getting into the four IFVs he watched his vehicles respond to the new barrage with more defensive fire. A number of missiles leapt into the air on intercept missions, but only one of the incoming warheads detonated in midair. The second slipped through the screen, however, and proceeded to strike a support vehicle holding position beside one of the Centaurs. The light transport itself cracked almost in half from the impact alone and disintegrated milliseconds later as the missiles exploded. Another vortex appeared in the center of that detonation and a field of extreme gravity expanded from it in all directions. Every object within the radius was lifted into the air and pulled towards the center as if attracted by a massive magnet. Dex watched in horror as one of his men, running towards his own vehicle, was swept off his feet and hurled towards the spinning singularity. The soldier disappeared as soon as his body came into contact with the swirling core.
Before the vortex of death dissipated, however, one of the nearby Infantry Fighting Vehicles dipped in midair from the heavy gravity forces against it. It was forcefully attracted to the singularity, its front hitting the forest ground hard. Evening weakening considerably the weapon still exerted enough force to drag the heavy vehicle half way to itself before vanishing from existence. With the gravity waves no longer affecting it the Centaur was finally able to right itself and proceed towards its soldiers.
No other rockets approached 2nd Platoon from that moment, but Dexter suddenly began to feel the ground beneath him quiver. With each passing second the intensity of the vibrations increased until everyone could see the trees along the western perimeter start to sway as if parting for something massive moving through them. Dexter knew it was the Thumper coming for them and urged his men to move faster. He watched the last of them retreat between a set of prefab buildings with one of the units Bison autonomous vehicles following behind. They were all firing back at another ever advancing enemy force coming from the north. His four Centaurs knew what was approaching them as well and turned their particle cannons towards the threat. Dexter watched their turrets rotate and the shimmering netting attached to them rip away in pieces.
Many things happened almost simultaneously from that moment forward. The first was the Centaurs unleashing a hail of particle beams into the trees ahead, their advanced sensors helping them target the large armored walker approaching them. At almost the same time multiple explosions rang out to the North as the Shredders placed there went off. These small directional mines were smart munitions used to protect perimeters or slow down advancing enemy soldiers. They were powerful enough to damage even armored vehicles, so Dexter hoped they would be enough to give the enemy some pause. It was at this point that the last of his men boarded their transports and Dex was finally able to maneuver towards his own Centaur.
He made it to within only a few meters when the Thumper emerged into view, ripping through the thick trees like toothpicks and sending their remains flying in all directions. Its shields glowed brightly as the IFVs continued their relentless assault, but held without fail. The earth shook all around them as the metallic beast stomped its four massive limbs into it, leaving large imprints within the packed soil. Dexter saw its large diamond shaped body rotate and angle down to look at 2nd Platoon’s armored vehicles. Before he could say anything a series of lights began to glow around the sides of the body and quickly coalesce into a single area at the front. He had seen the same happen before on an enemy gunship and instantly recognized what was happened. Without further warning a solid beam of orange light discharged directly at one of his IFVs, the very same one that was unlucky enough to get caught in the rocket blast seconds before.
Watching with eyes wide and not blinking Dexter saw a sphere of blue appear around the entire armored vehicle as the energy beam slammed into it. For a fraction of a second the shields around the Centaur held, flaring a deep blue at the impact point before the orange ray finally punched through. The narrow beam of light then sliced through the armored hull like a plasma cutter through paper, causing the composite armor to boil and melt away. Without pause the beam went through the entire Centa
ur from top to bottom and curved around towards the rear of the vehicle. Underneath it Dexter saw the ground itself ignite as the light moved through the armor. The repulsor projectors lining the bottom of the Centaur were simultaneously destroyed and the whole transport crashed down into the ground before ripping apart in a huge explosive blast when the beam finally emerged from the rear of it. In a matter of a few seconds all of Charlie squad, eight men and women, vanished from existence.
They all had to get out of this area or face the same consequences, Dexter knew, and started running at full force again. He reached the open hatchway of his Centaur and jumped through it. Instinctively he grabbed the overhead hand holds to slow and steady himself before running through the cabin towards his command seat.
“Lets the get the hell out of here!” he yelled out to his entire platoon while watching the Thumper turn towards another of his Centaur’s through his viewfinder.
Being ready of his orders the three remaining IFVs lifted higher into the air and scattered into different directions. Behind these IFVs were the seven remaining transporters full of precious supplies. As Dexter watched, another energy lance accelerated out from the Thumper and barely missed Knight Two as the vehicle sped away into the forest. The massive walker readjusted once more, this time smashing through a number of buildings with its large legs and focused on another Centaur. Dexter knew it probably wouldn’t miss again, but before the beast could fire something heavy and traveling at immense speeds, slammed into the Thumper’s topside. He saw its shields flash just before another impact hammered home with enough force to cause it to sway sideways. Something blurry finally punched through the red shields and impacted one of the walker’s mechanical legs. One of the knee joints shattered and Dex watched the Thumper stumbled sideways as its other legs tried to compensate for the injury. As his Centaur pulled away from the area he cause a glint of a large Buzzard transport hovering above the treetops.
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