Then Rippa appeared around the corner.
VROOOOOM!
The Grovothe didn’t waste any time unloading with her most powerful weapon. A blue laser beam shot out of her mech’s helmet. The beam cut through the oncoming Trilord horde like a group of kids at fat camp through an all-you-can-eat buffet. Trilords fell left and right as their heads were severed in two, bodies cut down the center, and limbs removed in an instant.
“Come on!” Rippa roared over the comms. “Fire everything you’ve got!”
No screams came from the victims, just the ever-present volley of return fire as the Trilord numbers began to thin. Riot and her Marines unloaded along with her. Vet, still in his over-watch position to the right, popped heads like balloons at a fair. Rizzo let loose with his Vulcan-like mini-gun that spewed red blaster rounds into the horde.
Things were just beginning to turn from nightmarish to just a bad dream, when the Devil’s Hand charged through the open warehouse doors. The beast bellowed a war cry in its deep baritone voice. It sprinted at Rippa’s mech with madness in its eyes.
“Bring it down!” Riot ordered, training her Villain Pulse Rifle at the beast, firing a concentrated burst at its head. “Rippa, watch out!”
To her unit’s credit, they realized the threat the Devil’s Hand held, and immediately opened fire on the charging beast. But Rizzo’s Vulcan, and even Rippa’s blue laser beam, failed to puncture the hide of the beast. If anything, they only infuriated it more.
Although the monster was only half as tall as Rippa’s mech, it was twice as bulky. Its charging body looked like a heavy linebacker about to sack the opposing team’s quarterback.
At the moment of impact, Rippa bent her mech’s knees and threw her hands up. The monster dove at her, gripping her outstretched hands in its claws and, lunging forward with its short neck, it gripped Rippa’s left shoulder in its teeth.
At once, the beast fell on top of Rippa’s unit, and the next minute, its bulk bullied the power of her mech backwards to the ground.
“Ketrick,” Riot yelled into her comms as she sent another round of blaster fire at the incoming Trilords closing the distance. “Now would be a good time!”
Right on cue, Ketrick descended from the heavens atop Vikta. The rider and dragon fell on the back of the massive, bull-like Devil’s Hand. Vikta dug her claws deep into the creature’s ribs. She grabbed the monster by the back of its neck in her jaws.
“I hope you remember that a stupid giant saved your life this day, dwarf,” Ketrick laughed over the comms as he plunged the blade of his axe into the monster’s hide. “I would never have fallen to such a simple brute.”
“Yeah, how many enemies have you killed?” Rippa screamed back as she fought off the alien monster still on top of her. “I counted two dozen Trilord zombies I killed, while you were flying around in the sky like a little fairy.”
“Pshhhh,” Ketrick laughed. “Killing this creature makes for a hundred Trilord deaths.”
“What—a hundred?” Rippa cried out in frustration. She battered closed fists at the head of the Devil’s Hand’s. “Who’s making these rules?”
The conversation between Rippa and Ketrick took a back seat as Riot concentrated on the advancing Trilord throng. Rippa’s laser beam had bought them time, but had not solved their problem. Still well over a hundred zombified Trilords were walking, crawling, and dragging their way forward.
For the first time, Riot caught sight of Alveric and his Karnayer guard at the rear of the fight. They stood in what they thought was the safety of the warehouse doors, looking on, while others fought and died.
If you can kill him now, this war can be over before it really begins, Riot thought. It’s not going to be easy getting to him, but then again, when has life ever been easy for you?
“Vet, Wang, Rizzo, I’m going to need you to cut me a path to the Karnayers standing at the warehouse,” Riot said, taking a deep breath and preparing herself for the run past the Devil’s Hand and through the mass of zombified Trilords. “Try not to shoot me.”
80
Oohrah!” Vet yelled over his comms.
Get Some, Rizzo wrote over her heads-up display.
“When in Rome,” Wang added with the others, like the saying belonged.
“I don’t think that means what you think it means,” Riot said as she licked her dry lips inside of her helmet. “Look that one up when we get back.”
Without waiting for a response, Riot bolted from around the corner and made her run. She once more slung her weapon over her shoulder in favor of her two Boomballs that hung on her belt.
To her left, Ketrick and Vikta had managed to get the beefy Devil’s hand off of Rippa. The creature’s hide was so thick, not even Vikta’s massive claws or razor-like teeth were able to puncture it.
But the Devil’s Hand had more than met its match in the Trilord and the Grovothe. Riot had to trust they would find a way to defeat the monster. She had more pressing things to deal with at the moment.
Riot ran in a crouch, doing her best to make herself a small target. She lobbed the grenade-like Boomballs into the ranks of the oncoming horde, then grabbed her rifle again and began making use of the target-rich environment.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Yellow streaks of enemy energy blasts scorched the ground around her. The air cracked as numerous beams nearly struck her.
BAM! BAM!
Riot’s Boomballs went off in quick succession, clearing her a path in the middle of the Trilord host. Riot’s breath was heavy, her adrenaline adding to the spike in her heart rate.
A Trilord on her right raised a hammer-like weapon in her direction, and Riot took it out with a headshot. Aiming was nearly unnecessary; she was so close to the Trilords now, she was nearly on top of them. She fired again, opening up a hole the size of a grapefruit in her next victim’s throat.
The smoke from her Boomballs washed over the ranks of the Trilords, making it difficult to see.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Riot’s Marines opened up all around her. Riot wasn’t even fast enough to take down her own targets. Before she could line up a shot, their heads were already exploding, thanks to Vet’s high-powered sniper rifle, or their bodies were turned to shredded cheese, courtesy of Rizzo’s Vulcan-like mini-gun.
Riot was in the middle of the throng before she gave herself time to consider how insane her plan actually was. Trilords were firing so close to one another now, every shot that missed her took out one of their own.
Pain danced around Riot’s left side as a blaster round found its mark. At this close range, it tore through her armor, scorching the skin underneath. Riot fought back a scream as the pain almost instantly subsided, the nanites in her body already rushing to the wound and healing tissue and skin.
Riot rolled under a club swing from her right and came back up, running. All around her, bodies were falling and heads were exploding as Vet and Wang opened up a route through the lines. Rizzo did the clean-up work as red blaster fire tore through the Trilord ranks.
Riot had given up firing on the mass, and just ran. A Trilord arm reached out and grabbed her weapon. Instead of coming to a standstill in the middle of swirling arms and weapons, Riot let go of her pulse rifle.
Another wave of pain exploded in her head as an axe landed against the right side of her helmet. Despite the helmet’s protection, Riot saw stars. She stumbled for a moment, nearly falling to all fours.
Keep going, keep going, you got this! Riot screamed to herself. She fell to the ground a moment later as another round of blaster fire caught her in the foot. Riot ignored the pain. Get back up, get back up!
“Rawwww!” Riot forced herself to her feet again and half-ran, half-limped through the last lines of the Trilord army.
In front of her, Alveric stood twenty yards away behind his six bodyguards. The soldiers all leveled their weapons at her, black-painted rifles that looked capable of chewing holes through concrete.
Alveric be
gan to clap. “Bravo. You made it through the lines of the dead. What now, Marine Riot? What did you think you would achieve by reaching me? What did you think you would achieve from fighting this battle at all? The Trilords are an insignificant race of meat shields.”
“Sorry, sorry, you have something right … here.” Riot pointed her right pointer finger to the outside of her helmet where the corner of her right lip would be. “I’m not kidding. I’m trying to pay attention to you, but it’s just so hard. Did you … did you have ketchup or something with your dinner?”
“What are you talking about?” Alveric gave her a deep scowl. “I’m about to kill you, and you make your last words in this life a jest?”
“Just, just here.” Riot wiped at her helmet again. “Just a dab, and we can get on with this. It’s so distracting.”
Alveric ran a tongue along the side of his face where Riot was pointing, then he brought up his right hand to smear away anything that might have been there. As soon as his eyes shifted down to look at his hand to see if Riot was telling the truth, she made her move.
Riot went into a crouch, while at the same time, bringing forward the warhammer on her back. She only had one chance at this; her aim had to be perfect. Riot stilled her beating heart as she aimed for Alveric’s head.
Ignoring the six rifles that bore down on her was one of the hardest things she had to do, but if she wanted a chance of taking out Alveric, then this was it. Blaster fire erupted from both sides at the same time. The last thing Riot saw was the surprise on Alveric’s face before pain erupted across her body. She managed to get off her own shot while she was being stricken by the green beams of energy.
Riot was struck in her left shoulder, abdomen, and right thigh. She rolled across the hard-packed dirt, praying her initial blast had hit her target, and opened up on the six soldiers in front of her.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
The warhammer that was the favored weapon of the Trilords had two firing options, controlled bursts and full auto. The only danger of using full auto was the weapon overheated in the space of a few seconds. But a few seconds were all Riot needed.
Green fire peppered the area around her while Riot hosed the soldiers in front of her with the returning yellow fire. While she focused past the pain and took out soldier after soldier, she got a better view of what had happened to Alveric. The Karnayer leader had been wounded, but not killed.
Riot’s initial shot had been fired while she had been hit herself and the force of the impacts striking her own body had been enough to turn her aim ever so slightly. Instead of her round striking Alveric in the head, it had grazed his right cheek. In a bit of irony, blood now dripped from the wound on his mouth where a minute before Riot had convinced him he’d actually had something.
Riot took down one of the Karnayer soldiers with a burst to his stomach, and the next with a volley of fire to his helmet. Alveric was screaming obscenities Riot didn’t understand, but she was pretty sure it had something to do with her mother.
Two of the four remaining Karnayer soldiers hurried Alveric back through the warehouse. The other two did their best to keep Riot pinned down.
Riot absorbed another blaster round to her torso before mowing down the last two remaining guards. Her overheated weapon felt like fire in her hands. The warhammer clicked dry a second later, refusing to send any other projectiles from its head until it rested.
Forcing her battered body forward, Riot held onto the warhammer and gave chase. Being wounded and instantly repaired by the nanites coursing through her body was a strange thing. She felt all of the pain for a brief moment when the enemy fire had hit her, but then, within seconds, the pain was already subsiding. Her body was healed in under a minute, and she was ready to go again.
Riot vaulted over the four dead Karnayer guards as she entered the warehouse. She screamed the name of her enemy, who fled in fear. “Alveric!”
Three figures sprinting through the warehouse were already halfway across the large building when the last two Karnayer soldiers turned at her words and opened fire.
At this range, Riot’s warhammer was ineffective. Already overheated, it wouldn’t be dispatching any enemies unless she was up close and personal, so Riot dropped the hammer. Her right hand reached for the Cannon FP290 at her hip.
The Karnayers fired wildly as she approached. Something about striking your enemy repeatedly and not seeing her fazed wore on the enemies’ resolve to fight. They understood Riot wasn’t going to die, and they were panicked. Riot almost felt sorry for them. Almost.
“Alveric!” she screamed again, her words echoing off the walls of the open room. She walked forward, her right arm extended with her weapon. Two well-placed shots ended the lives of the Karnayers in front of her. “Alveric! You can run, but I’m coming for you!”
Alveric disappeared though a side door at the rear of the building. Riot turned her walk into a run and crossed the warehouse floor in minutes. She exited the back door in time to see a Karnayer transport ship roughly the size of the Valkyrie powering up. The ship had been hidden behind the warehouse building.
Riot opened fire on the craft, already knowing that her small-arms fire would do no lasting damage, yet refusing to stand there and do nothing. Her cannon was great at shredding body armor, but the hull of a ship was another matter.
The ship fired its thruster and lifted off the ground. A moment later, it was gone.
Riot gritted her teeth. She was so close to finishing this war, here and now. The fight to come would be bloody. Alveric wasn’t exactly the forgive-and-forget type.
“Riot! Riot, are you okay?” Wang’s voice came over the comms. “We’re whipping up the last of the Trilords now. Do you need backup?”
“Negative,” Riot said, turning back toward the warehouse. “I’m coming back to you. What’s the status on the Devil’s Hand?”
“His hide is too thick,” Ketrick grunted over his comms like he was being bucked off a horse. “We can’t get a killshot in.”
Riot forced fatigued legs into a run as she crossed the warehouse again, and got a look at what was going on when she exited the building. The street was covered with the bodies of the Trilord zombies. A few here and there that had not been taken out by headshots still crawled around.
Riot ran back for her warhammer, then returned to wade through the knee-high battlefield of bodies, firing into the craniums of those who still pulsed with undead life. Her main attention was on the struggle still taking place between Ketrick, Rippa, and the Devil’s Hand.
Vikta had the monster’s head pinned down, with her mouth wrapped around its neck. The alien creature was on its side, still struggling to get back on its feet. The dragon’s large frame was enough to keep it from being able to get back up, but only barely. Vikta flapped her wings as she readjusted her stance over her assailant. Ketrick brought the axe end of his spear down over and over again on the creature, to no avail.
Rippa did her part in her mech by controlling the back two legs of the creature’s struggling feet.
“They’ve got it down,” Wang said, as he and Rizzo appeared by Riot’s side. “But there’s no way to get through its skin.”
The Devil’s Hand twisted its head, trying to line its mouth toward Vikta. It opened its maw and sent a white, pulsating light from deep within its throat. The same whale-like echo shattered the air in an eerie song.
“Don’t let Vikta get hit by the Devil Hand’s breath,” Rippa shouted over the comms. “I don’t know what it will do to her.”
Riot looked on, helpless. It was too late.
81
The pulsating and unnerving white luminescent light came from the creature’s mouth and caught Vikta in the face. The dragon reared back, stunned for a moment.
The Devil’s Hand took advantage of the distraction. Getting its front two feet underneath its massive bulk, it flipped its tail, sending Rippa’s mech flying through the air and crashing into a two-story building behind her. The mech disappear
ed behind crashing walls and a crumbling roof.
“Fire everything you’ve got!” Riot went down to one knee, aiming her now cooled-down warhammer at the alien monster’s face. “Aim for its head.”
The Marines answered her order with a hail of red blaster fire slamming against the head and neck of the Devil’s Hand, but they might as well have been throwing toothpicks at the beast. The monster ignored them and focused, instead, on Vikta. It opened up its giant mouth filled with rows of razor teeth and sent another blast of the strange light at the dragon.
“Gather yourself, Vikta!” Ketrick roared, trying to will the dragon on. “This beast is not stronger than you.”
Vikta shook her head free of whatever psychological attack she was under and opened her own mouth. A stream of fire erupted forward, right into the pulsating light coming from the Devil’s Hand. It was the strangest, most beautiful thing Riot had ever seen.
The pulsating light from the alien necromancer and the fire from Vikta met in the center like two equal forces vying for dominance. For a moment, an immovable object met an unstoppable force. The area was lit up with a golden light that would have blinded Riot had it not been for the protection of her helmet.
A wild idea came to Riot as she forced herself to look away from the battle and come up with a solution. Once again, she placed her warhammer into its holding clasps on her back. She ran to where a stunned Wang and Rizzo stood a few yards to her right.
“I need whatever Boomballs you have left,” Riot said, extending her open hands forward. “All of them.”
Both Wang and Rizzo nodded numbly.
Wang gave Riot two Boomballs, both of the explosive variety.
Rizzo handed her one explosive Boomball and another one meant to stun.
Riot held them all in her hand and ran toward where Vikta and the Devil’s Hand struggled against one another. When one would take a quick breath, the other would gain ground; the macabre light coming from the Devil’s Hand would gain a few yards toward its target when Vikta took a moment to inhale, and visa versa.
War Wolves: Boxset 1-3 Page 40