Not much else was said or signalled, we both stood up and made our way around the rock. I was leading, and was the first to reach my target. Both reptilians were standing beside each other, a slight gap between the both of them. I took the one that was loading the fallen gold bars back onto the crate. Spooks took on the one that was watching. Neither of them had seen us coming. And thankfully, neither of them had sensed us either.
These beasts had a knack for sniffing out danger. They could smell a human from a good way away. But luckily, our spacesuits had covered up our smell. Muffled our scent. And before we knew it, we were tussling with the dinosaurs. Albeit, small and upright dinosaurs.
Seconds before they sensed us, I sank a blade into the back of my targets neck. Red blood oozed out of the wound, but unfortunately for me, it didn’t do enough damage. The reptilian swung around, and knocked me onto my back. I glimpsed at Spooks who had jumped onto the back of his target. And now he was being thrashed about like a Spanish bullfighter. But I didn’t have the time or the luxury to be a spectator. For I had my target to deal with, and he was standing over me, reaching for me with his talon-like hands.
The pirate swiped and swatted at me. But I dodged and ducked his advances. I had another blade on me, and I used this one to hack at my opponents left leg. I sawed at the back of its leg, right at the ankle, cutting at the Achilles heel, blood gushing out of the reptiles leg. It let out a small whimper, before collapsing onto the floor. It wasn’t done yet, though. Now it was at my level, and it was trying to bite me.
But I wrapped my hands around its throat and squeezed hard for what seemed like an eternity. It thrashed and bucked as I tried to get on top of it and put all my weight down on its neck. I had one more blade on me, and I decided to use it. I then proceeded to drive the blade directly into the reptiles right eye. I could feel its eye-popping and splitting as I stabbed it repeatedly in the head. When I was done, there was no eyeball left. Just a gaping hole with blood sputtering down its face.
It stopped moving and breathing. I’d taken out the reptile single-handedly, literally with my own bare hands. Okay, I had a little help from a few knives, unlike the reptile I had killed, I didn’t have razor-sharp claws to rip and tear at flesh. So I figured we were an equal match.
I quickly got to my feet and looked to see if Spooks was okay. And sure enough, he was. His reptile looked a little messier than mine. Probably on account of the fact that it was now missing its head. A head that Spooks was now holding. He held it up at me and smiled.
“These things aren’t as tough as they would lead you to think. Head came clean off. Only took a few swipes that it, weak neck I think. You did good, put the poor thing through a bit of pain, next time try to incapacitate it without hacking its eyeball out. I can only imagine that would be a nasty way to go. I try and make my kills a little more humane. These may be alien beasts, but I’m sure they prefer a more dignified death. A calculated slit of the carotid artery will make anybody go bye-bye within a few seconds. So bear that in mind,” Spooks said, winking at me and letting go of the decapitated reptilians head.
“You hear that? Gunfire,” Spooks said suddenly, pointing in the direction that the two now very dead reptiles had come from with their crate. I nodded my head. I certainly did hear that. And it was nearby. So I quickly made my way around the rock, grabbed our guns, and ran toward the sound of gunfire. I chucked Spooks his weapon and cocked mine.
We made our way through the darkness of the mineshaft and quickly found ourselves on a ridge. And to our dismay, metres away, a squadron of Earth Marines were hunkered down behind cover, shards of rock splintering into the air as enemy fire suppressed them. We’d made it. We’d found our people. But in doing so, we also found the opposition. And before I got into cover with the rest of the Marines, I caught a glimpse of what we were up against.
There was a full-scale army opening fire on us. An army of reptiles that were heavily armed with machine guns and crossbows. God knows where they got those weapons, but they were proficient with them. And that was obvious seeing that there were six dead Marines on the floor next to me. There was no saving them now. There was only saving us. And even then, I didn’t know if that was possible.
“Private Jensen and Gunner Spooks joining you, Sir,” Spooks said as he sidled up beside the leader of the squadron.
The guy nodded his head, his face a little washed-out, obviously distraught by the absolute carnage that surrounded him. He didn’t introduce himself and we didn’t make any more small talk. All we did was open fire on the reptiles below us. There was no time for niceties, there was just time for death.
And that is exactly what occurred. Death – death everywhere. At first, I thought I was in some sort of whirlwind dream. Like the winds of time had melded together and were forming a tornado within the depths of my reality. And the wind was sucking me in, roughing me up and throwing me around like a rag doll. But I wasn’t the only one being sucked in by the wind. The rest of my new squadron were being picked up by the gusts of death. I was lucky, and so was Spooks, because we were both in cover, the rocks in front of us acting like a force field, putting a stop to the relentless firepower that was being thrown at us.
Down below, right below, there was an army and that army wanted nothing more than to make sure that neither man that they faced walked out of there alive. And I guess we were all a little naive. We didn’t see it coming. At least, we didn’t see what was plainly in front of us. And that was a mass of resistance. A mass – much like a cancerous one – forming and multiplying right in front of us. And if I had been looking, I would have noticed that more reptilian pirates were forcing their way in and up toward us. We were being advanced on by at least a thousand of them. And no matter how big or how small your enemy was, once they outnumber you ten to one, you are in for a mighty fight. A fight that unfortunately some of the men pinned behind the wall alongside with us didn’t survive.
“Jesus Christ, there’s a million of them,” somebody said before their head was taking clean off by a stray high calibre round.
I didn’t see the man being shot, but I did hear it. And as I turned around to see the damage, all I saw was a body on the floor, the helmet that should have been on that bodies head was nowhere to be seen and neither was the head it was supposed to be protecting. In fact, all I could see was a stain on the ground, a stain that looked to be covered in ash, but I knew out of experience that that wasn’t ash, but it was the remnants of his skull. A skull that had been obliterated by alien technology. An alien technology that we had been warned about, weapons that could eviscerate a man into nothing but dust piles. It was scary stuff all right, but neither of us behind that wall of rock could show our fear. For if any of us panicked and decided to run, we’d get exactly the same treatment, and nothing but dust would remain.
But unfortunately, somebody wasn’t thinking straight. And that somebody stood to attention, attempting to get a few rounds off into the perpetrator that caused his fallen comrade's untimely demise. But the seasoned Marines knew to stay behind cover and wait for the perfect opportunity. And then there were the recruits, like me, who only knew how to be cowards, but in this situation – cowardice would do just fine.
“Son of a bitch, die! Motherfuckers,” the all too eager Marine said as he was able to let out two solitary shots before his head also came rolling off his shoulders.
At least this one had managed to hopefully wound or hit one of the pirates below, but knowing how the universe worked, and how it would usually punish the brave, his shots hadn’t hit and he’d died in vein.
But I wasn’t going to let that man die in vain, nor was I going to let the two men that came to my rescue before also die in vain, because we were a brotherhood and brothers don’t let the fallen remain forgotten. And they certainly don’t allow their deaths to mean nothing. So I decided I was going to be one of two things. Both of those things would result in my death. Or at least, I thought that they would. But sometimes you had to
be something you were not. And sometimes you just had to dig a little deeper. Somebody had to get the ball rolling. And I was determined to make sure that the ball I’d get rolling would turn into an avalanche of destruction aimed at the pirates below.
So I threw caution to the wind, and stood up just like the man before me and the man before him. It would take the loss of many men to bring the oppression we were facing to an end. But, just as humanity had proven in the past, death was never a factor. It wasn’t a factor in getting us into the space race, and it wasn’t a factor in getting us onto other planets. So why would death be a factor now? The men before me didn’t fear the loss of their life, and as long as I was breathing, I would never fear the Reaper, either.
“What the hell are you doing? You are going to get yourself killed! Is that what you want?” Spooks said, kneeling beside me.
I looked down at him and saw him grab at me. I tried to step back, to get away from his grip, but somebody else was beside me, hunkering down behind the rock, cowering away while the rest of us were being shot at, and some of us were being killed. I didn’t want to be that man. But Spooks was determined to make sure I fell in line and follow his orders, grabbing me by the hand and yanking me to the ground.
I tried to shove him off me, I guess tensions were running high and I was irate. All I wanted to do was take it to these pirates. These damn pirates had already caused me so much grief in such a short amount of time. I didn’t know that this was what war would feel like. I didn’t know that I’d feel so guilty for the loss of the men around me. I guess, in hindsight, maybe being behind a weapon wasn’t right for me. Maybe I was best suited for a desk job. I mean, my name says it all doesn’t it? Jensen…I sound like a desk jockey. And I guess I didn’t want to sound like anything but a warrior.
“You expect me to sit here and wait to be killed? Do you think that this is the best that we can do? Do you think those two men that just got shot deserve that kind of send-off? Where are your balls, Spooks? Out there in the quarry you were taking it to these fuckers like it was nothing. But now, now the heat is really turned up, and you hide like a bitch? I don’t know what your game is, but I do know that I don’t want to go out like a punk. So maybe you need to take your damn hands off me and start shooting at these pricks. Because God knows I’m not the one that’s to blame here. I’m not the one that let these guys die,” I said, momentarily pushing Spooks once again.
He didn’t take too kindly to my shove this time. He was about to lay a punch into me, but realising that he’d crack the helmet I was wearing, he ended up restraining himself. And I guess even when seeing red, this particular man knew how to control himself. If I wasn’t so damn pissed off with him, I might have appreciated the gesture. But right then at that moment, all I could see was somebody that couldn’t or wouldn’t take a shot at me. And that angered me even more.
“None of this is anybody’s fault, and you need to wind your neck in, recruit. This isn’t no game. You pop your head up right now and all you are going to get is a damn permanent reminder of why ninety-eight percent of the recruits that go on their first tour don’t make it back. I don’t want you to end up as a statistic. And I don’t know if you noticed the medals on my chest, but I know a thing or two about getting out of hairy situations. So, shut your mouth and compose yourself. This isn’t the first time I’ve been pinned down by enemy fire. And it won’t be the last. So on my command, do as I say,” Spooks said, pushing me back. He stared deep into my eyes and I finally calmed down.
I guess I needed to calm down. Spooks was right, all I’d accomplish would be my death. And the more I thought about it, the more embarrassed I felt. But Spooks didn’t allow the embarrassment to settle in for too long. Before I knew it, he was commanding everybody to grab a grenade from their utility belts. The actual section leader of this squadron was too busy covering his head up in the foetal position, trying to save his skin. We ignored him, and did exactly what Spooks said. The medals on his chest made him our leader, even if technically all he was was a successful Gunner. But leadership comes in the strangest forms sometimes. And for us, a deranged and unhinged Gunner was the best that we could hope for in getting us out of this very sticky situation.
“Sir, they’re gaining on us. I think we’re surrounded. What are our options?” Somebody asked.
I couldn’t see who’d asked the question, I was far too concerned with unpinning the grenade off my utility belt without setting it off. By the time I looked up, Spooks had already thrown his grenade, and so did half of the platoon. So I did the same. Neither of us even bothered checking where our grenades were landing, but sure enough after a few seconds, I heard a massive explosion that rocked the mineshaft.
Shards of sharp rock, dagger-like in form, fell from the ceiling above. Unfortunately, one of the sharp shards landed on a Marine. It nearly sliced him into two. Chances were, he didn’t feel a thing. But we certainly did. We all looked away in horror, not quite believing what we’d just witnessed.
“On three, open fire on these bastards. Don’t think about it, just do it!” Spooks said, checking the magazine on his railgun.
I did the same and so did the others. We didn’t dare look at the bodies on the floor, the ones that had succumbed to the pirates. None of us knew just how many of us hadn’t made it, but it didn’t take a genius to know that the group had been thinned out. It was like I was an unlucky charm. Like wherever I went, people died. That nagging voice in the back of my head was telling me I was poison. Poison to the progress of the Marines on the Tribeca planet. But I didn’t have time to think. And thinking had only caused myself pain. In a situation like this, it was best not to think. So I followed my orders. I counted to three in my head, alongside Spooks. And when the number three left Spooks’ pursed lips, we all stood up in unison and let loose on the pirates below.
Now that we were standing, we could see the total annihilation that the grenades had caused. Hundreds and hundreds of corpses below stared back at us, torn in half and ripped into two. Many of them ripped into three. Some of them ripped into many more pieces, too many to count. But there were still some standing. And luckily, the ones nearest to us were backtracking. It looked like they had lost their bottle. Their nerve had dissipated and they were having second thoughts. It was nice to see that even reptilian pirates suffered from the fear of death. But as I said before, humanity wasn’t scared of dying, they were one of the only species I knew that had come to terms with it.
Many men back on Earth had ways of dealing with the inevitable. Some of them prayed to the Gods above. Whilst others enjoyed their life to the max. And then there was us, the few that fought for the creatures of the universe that couldn’t or wouldn’t fight for themselves. We were freedom fighters and with freedom comes death.
We continued to fire upon the retreating pirates. Plasma railgun shells tore up their backs. They began to fall like dominoes down a steep slope. Some of them rolled, while others slid down the inclined slope. It was a bloody mess. The muzzle flash coming from our collective firepower was blinding. And once the dust had settled, and the last rounds had left their chambers, there was nothing much left in front of us.
We had done it. The reptiles were either dead or had retreated. I saw a bunch of them straggling off in the distance, running toward the safety of the darkness. For all I knew, there could be many more waiting below. But from what I could tell, we had done our job. We had survived. And we had taken many of them with us.
“Well done guys, they are retreating. God knows how far this tunnel stretches, and how many passages there are in this mineshaft, but we have to assume that there are many more below. So we’re going to tread carefully. I’ve been told that the rendezvous is on the surface. Once the jets do their bombing run, we can get picked up. We need to get to the top, and unfortunately that means going through this tunnel. So be prepared for heavy contact, because I doubt we managed to get every single one of them,” Spooks said, staring at us and reloading his railgun
.
By now, I noticed that a lot of us were running low on ammo. And unfortunately, that meant we had to scavenge from the fallen around us.
I knelt down beside Spooks, and grabbed some supplies from the Marine that took a vapourised shot to the head. I patted him down and took eight magazines from him. I felt like a dog. A cheat. This wasn’t how you looked after your own. It was disrespectful. But at least their bodies would be preserved. Because I’m sure the bombing run up above us would completely annihilate the leftovers of our men on the surface, the ones that hadn’t gotten to the shafts. So the fallen above would not get buried back on Earth. They would be cremated by the fearsome blast of cruise missiles. They would become one with the Tribeca planet. They were now a part of history.
I was sure that the Marine Corps would come back for the ones in the tunnels and in the shafts. I was also sure that there were many more dead to retrieve. This after all was just one of the many mineshafts in the quarry. And before we’d entered the shaft, Spooks had told me that different Marine squads had gone in different tunnels. I just hoped that they had been just as successful as we had been here, bar from the casualties of course.
“Okay ladies, let’s get moving!” Spooks said, beginning to lead us down the slope, the same slope that many of the flanking reptilian pirates had retreated down.
Before we left, I took one last glance at the fallen. The squadron leader had been hit. Cowering in the foetal position did the man no good. A large rock had fallen from above and crushed him. Out of everybody that had died, I felt the least sympathy for him. I mean how could a leader be so selfish? How could a leader be as terrified as a recruit? I guess death has a way of making certain people forget their duties. But who was I to judge? I’d have done the same thing if Spooks wasn’t there to stop me.
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