Charger the Soldier

by Lea Tassie

  For six days and nights, she trekked southeast toward the last known American position identified on her map, six days of blackened earth but no corpses. She'd never experienced any fight without seeing the dead littering a battlefield, but these aliens seemed to absorb everything in their brutal assault.

  In the heavy dew of the seventh morning, Hanna found herself closing in on the rear of an advancing alien armada. In front of the gigantic moving hulks lay a city already in ruins and the sounds of artillery and gunfire crackled in the distance. Her pace quickened. Her first thought was to join the battle, to contribute all her combat training and determination to defeating the invaders. But as soon as she started running forward, a jet fighter streaked across the sky and dropped precision guided munitions on one of the large alien objects.

  The impact of the missiles sent a shock wave strong enough to wrench the air from Hanna's lungs, sending her sprawling. Thick alien mist mixed with dust swirling up from the ground blinded her but, when the air cleared and the weapons fell silent, Hanna could see that the three huge objects had been brought to a halt. Scattered all around the base of the massive objects darted alien troops fighting a battle with strangely shaped Hyborg super-soldiers. Shaking the dirt from her clothes and pack, Hanna rushed forward into battle, her weapon blazing in the morning light.

  She ran straight into an immense knurled alien form that suddenly rose up from the dirt and opened a large gaping mouth that revealed several rows of sharp teeth. Hunching forward and howling, the alien lurched straight at Hanna in a monstrous display of threat. Hanna stared into the multifaceted eyes of the alien and, lunging forward herself, let out a primal yell. For a moment, that stopped the alien in its tracks.

  She had guessed these creatures might never have encountered a human woman before and she hoped she looked just as ferocious to them as they did to her. It had worked! Hanna raised her weapon and squeezed the trigger, sending a plague of bullets into the head of the alien, dropping it to the dirt. Hanna smiled. She'd finally gotten a little payback for her fallen comrades. She was determined not to miss any other opportunities.

  As the day wore on, the battle favored the defending humans and the fight turned into a slaughter because the aliens would not back down. Small groups of aliens were dug into the dirt on a high patch of ground as the advancing human army, with the Hyborgs, began encircling them just out of weapons range. With only these few aliens remaining, Hanna conceived a brilliant idea. She would try to take prisoners. She just needed to find someone who spoke German so she could translate her idea into English.

  Rushing toward the human army, she waved her arms until she attracted some attention. She finally found some German soldiers to speak with and her plan was translated and relayed to command. An hour later, she and her comrades were summoned to the command tent to explain. With the aliens pinned down and not going anywhere, the military had time to discuss Hanna's proposal.

  Later that evening, while the aliens holding the high ground were patiently waiting for the humans to advance on their position so they could be cut down like ripe wheat, Hanna and the commanders were discussing the best strategy for capturing some of them alive. They soon discovered that the small blinking light had bonded with Hanna, for when she tried to turn the object over to anyone else, it would stop flashing. She reported on the red mass at the coast, the dying cities and structures, the strange green spaces that were being left for straggling humans to wander into, and most of all, the serious threat of invisible or light-reflecting alien technology.

  Scientists had learned that cold was the biggest threat to the aliens, and this understanding was what drove human survivors to demand transportation to the south and north poles of planet Earth. No one in Hanna's command could guess what attempting to freeze the trapped aliens might reveal, so it was decided that several Hyborg vampires and their Lycans, with Hanna and a few scientists, would attempt the impossible.

  That night they would approach the aliens, and try to capture them, hoping to discover their physiology and weaknesses. Around midnight the small group quietly set out.

  >>>

  Ivan, leader of the Russian undead reds and ever the opportunist, had discovered the aliens had a weakness. He had surmised that if the aliens avoided the north due to the extreme cold, they might also avoid extreme heat, such as the heat of a flamethrower. Ivan tested the idea by replacing his machine gun with a flamethrower in their first battle on American soil. The aliens, in their encounter suits, were able to resist the flames' heat for only for a short while. Eventually, the flames burned through the suits, quickly cooking the invaders inside. Ivan's compatriots followed his lead and exchanged their weapons for flamethrowers. The undead reds became the front line on American soil. Their thirst for revenge was so great that they were unwilling to let Americans take the lead.

  There had been a horrific attack by one of the three gigantic alien siege weapons bearing down on a group of American and German fighters protecting civilians waiting to be transported out of the combat zone. Thad screamed at Ivan and his group to take the right flank as ordered by General Harris. "You're the bait. Go right and draw the alien fire while we swing left and try to get behind them!"

  "Typical American cowboy shit," Ivan yelled back at Thad over the screaming of cannon fire. "We will go be your whipping boys! Just make sure you are at the rendezvous point on time!"

  Ivan and his small group of undead reds closed in fast on the nearest siege tower, with flamethrowers blasting a stream of liquid fire at the enemy. As soon as the Americans had gained some distance from the Russian fighters, General Harris ordered a focus fire on the alien tower that was Ivan's target.

  Thad was stunned to see the band of undead reds caught in the barrage. Huge sections of the alien tower sheared off, crashing down on the Russians, who were trying to take cover in the chaos. Within minutes, the alien tower stopped its advance, and continued crumbling to the ground. The other two towers stepped up their speed toward the small town, trying to close the gap and prevent any more losses.

  Charger, fighting the third tower, farthest from the town, managed to stop it momentarily, leaving only the one tower, the size of an office building, bearing down on the defenders.

  Thad and his group worked their way to where Ivan's group had been caught in the fight, and found Ivan still alive. Thad said, "Damn, you gave me quite a scare there. I had no idea this was going to happen. I called for medical aid. It should be here shortly."

  Ivan lay on his back, blood pouring out of a shoulder wound. "Stupid American cowboy shit! You almost got me killed."

  Only Ivan, Natasha, and Mikhail survived out of that group of Russian fighters and they were flown back to base and patched up. Some of the troops celebrated the stopping of the three towers that day, but all of them now knew that General Harris cared nothing for the soldiers under his command. To him, they were all expendable.

  Ivan refused to be stopped in his thirst for revenge. Taking Russia was going to be the biggest mistake these invaders had ever made. As soon as he and the other survivors were repaired, they immediately sought to rejoin the fight, despite what seemed like the attempt by General Harris to kill them all. Ivan had heard that a small group of aliens were dug in on high ground, and a group was being formed to try to capture them.

  Ivan demanded that he, Natasha, and Mikhail be given the opportunity to join in the assault on the hill to capture alien enemies. The plan was bold, but the world badly needed answers. Capturing these invaders would allow the scientists the chance to search for weaknesses. This was a priority now. With the deaths of billions of people all over the world, extreme action was needed. Thus Ivan's demand was granted. They were to ensure that the aliens on the high ground could find no avenue of retreat.

  "Don't worry, this time I will be joining you guys," Thad said to Ivan.

  "I feel safer already having an American cowboy at my side," was Ivan's sarcastic reply.

  Later, Thad returned. "Hope
you all don't mind, but I brought a friend to the party." A huge lumbering creature came forward, with a hunched over, dirty, growling man-beast next to it.

  "What the hell is that?" gasped Mikhail, as he stepped back a few paces and clutched his weapon.

  "Relax, he's a friend. His name is Charger and this here is his pet, Mac. Did I get that right?" Thad turned to Charger, looking for confirmation.

  Mac growled, and Charger replied, "Not a pet."

  Thad also stepped back a bit, putting a little more space between himself and Mac. "Right. Well, command has agreed that we few will assault the hill and try to cut off any retreat by the aliens."

  "I guess we got the dirty job, so buckle up, monkeys, this fight might be expensive," Ivan said, with his usual youthful bravado.

  Natasha squeezed off a few rounds of flame blasts from her weapon, ensuring the thing was working to peak efficiency. Mac jumped, caught off guard by this action.

  "Ah, the big bad putty cat is scared of fire," Natasha teased.

  Mac immediately attacked Natasha, sending her flailing to the ground. The Lycan was instantly on top of her, snapping and clawing at her armor. Catching hold of a small section, Mac began peeling the metal flesh from Natasha's body. Screams and shouts arose from everyone.

  Everyone except for Charger, that is. He reached down, grabbed Mac by the scruff of his neck and, ripping him free of Natasha, slammed him hard into the dirt. He pinned the thrashing and snapping Mac down with one foot.

  "Shit! You bastard! What the fuck was that!" snarled Mikhail as he approached Mac, clicking his flamethrower to life. Charger turned his great mass and attention toward Mikhail and, without words, simply presented himself as a threat. Mikhail responded by stopping and backing up.

  "That better not ever happen again!" snapped Mikhail, as he attended to Natasha's wounds.

  Ivan turned to Thad. "You damn well better keep those two on a leash, or I will deal with it!"

  Thad laughed. "Ain't ya glad they're on our side?"

  Ivan was not impressed. Charger just brushed off the insults and released Mac, who went back to his place behind Charger. With things in order, the small group set off into the darkness of night, skirting the base of the hill, just out of the weapons range of the aliens. Once they were behind the hill, Thad radioed to the base that they were ready.

  Everyone's attention was focused on the aliens at the top of the hill, waiting for any that tried to retreat. Only Mac realized what was approaching them from behind their position. He whimpered quietly to Charger, who turned to see a ridge of dirt rising up slightly from the ground and slithering toward their position. The others in the group now caught wind of what was happening and they too turned to face the fast-moving bulk. Up the hill, Hanna's group had started the fight. The aliens were fighting back and this bulk was apparently rushing to aid the dug-in aliens. It came straight toward Ivan and Thad.

  Mac was first to launch himself toward the slithering object, digging at the dirt like a dog. It was a spinning spike, a weapon everyone dreaded. They would rise up out of the ground and shoot tentacles in every direction, driving their hooked ends through the toughest of armor. Then the spike would spin, drawing back the tentacles, along with whatever was attached, and plunge deep beneath the ground to crush the prey. Not waiting for the tentacles to launch themselves, the three Russians began blasting the rising spike with flamethrowers, singeing Mac's fur. This caught the attention of some of the dug-in aliens; they began attacking downhill, toward Charger and Thad.

  "Shit, we're in the middle!" yelled Thad, trying to alert everyone to the danger. His weapon ejected shells all around him as bullets flew wildly.

  Like a fast-flowing river, Charger swept uphill through the aliens as they reformed themselves into hard combatants. His great axe, blazing hot with plasma confined in a small magnetic field, sliced easily through the aliens and they fell all around him, squirming and hissing as they died. Mac was ripping apart any tentacle that emanated from the spike, trying to stay clear of Natasha's flames. These spikes were especially feared because, as they began to die, they produced one last weapon. The outer casing of the spike's shell would peel open and launch thousands of small darts tipped with a deadly poison.

  "It's going to pop!" Ivan shouted. He and the others began stepping back. They turned around, presenting their armored backs to create a shield wall. Thad ducked into the group for cover.

  Mac was the only Lycan ever to find the spike's weakness. He relished pain and would throw himself into the exploding spike, absorbing the darts before they could gain any speed in flight. As the smoke cleared, and the troop turned around to see the results, there on the ground sat Mac, almost drooling with pleasure from the poison darts.

  "That's one sick puppy you got there," Natasha said to Charger as he picked a few darts from his armor.

  Mac leapt up and rushed at Natasha, snarling. Charger gave Mac a firm look. Mac stopped and backed off. "Not a puppy!" Charger growled as he glared at Natasha and Mikhail.

  "Okay, sorry, didn't mean to offend," Natasha said. "One fight tonight was more than enough." She was still smarting from the damage Mac had done to her armor earlier.

  >>>

  Earlier that evening, as the final plans were made, Hanna had been introduced to the group that would accompany her and her blinking magic light. The two scientists carried backpacks with canisters of freezing agents. Five very large vampires and six heavily armored Lycans, with some of the undead reds, would attempt to prevent the aliens from retreating.

  Hanna watched as the lead vampire, an enormous man, and his two Lycan companions, relayed to her group the positions to take shortly before they reached the summit of the alien position. Since the female Lycan seemed capable of moving almost silently, she had been given the task of accompanying Hanna and two scientists, with their gear, to the alien nest.

  Since Hanna spoke only German, one of the two scientists chosen was bilingual. This helped in the group's communications, but would be useless to Hanna and her female Lycan escort when they traveled alone toward the alien nest. It was decided to try a new technology, still not tested fully, of connecting Hanna's mind with the Lycan female, even though the Lycan was already connected to Charger.

  The process was brief and relatively painless. A small digital device was connected to the female Lycan's rear brain stem through the soft tissue at the back of her skull, and the same was done for Hanna. Hanna was told that when the device was activated, the link between the Lycan and her vampire would temporarily be blocked, and that she herself would experience a vague understanding of Lycan thinking, more than enough to communicate at a basic level.

  What happened when the device was activated was anything but vague. Hanna was exposed to the female's entire history. She spent five minutes convulsing on a bed, shaking and pitching wildly about, as doctors and scientists tried to calibrate the device for communications. Every event in this poor girl's life was suddenly and violently thrust into Hanna's consciousness and she cried out in sorrow. Tears filled the eyes of this bastion of strength, this woman who had spent her life controlling every emotion she had in order to be the perfect soldier. The torture the girl had experienced was dumped like a deluge of water on a rock, and Hanna's experience of it wore the rock down to the sand it had once been.

  Hanna and Jill began communicating with each other and the two women mentally shared all aspects of their lives. Eventually Jill became stronger and Hanna traded some strength for compassion. All this happened within the first five minutes of the joining. So, as the evening went on, the two women mentally spoke quietly of many things important to the young girl, Jill, who had missed out on life. A bond was formed, one of understanding and compassion, with Hanna filling Jill's need to bond with an older sister.

  As the vampires spread out, occupying strategic positions, Hanna, Jill and the two scientists pressed on up the hill, with the red blinking light to protect them. There was no movement or reaction as they crested
the rise and faced a nest of eight aliens. Within minutes, the scientists had sprayed the two aliens nearest them and dragged these frozen and disabled beings away toward the base.

  Suddenly and without warning, the remaining six aliens reacted. They came to life and formed hideous weapons of white hot plasma, slashing toward the small group. Hanna raised the glowing red light to the face of one of the attacking aliens. It stopped and swayed back and forth as if hypnotized.

  Jill didn't wait. Her new sister was in trouble and, before the vampires with their Lycans could reach the group, Jill killed five of the aliens. The remaining alien was quickly frozen with the scientists' weapons. The operation had been successful, resulting in three aliens being captured and taken back to command.

  In the commotion, Hanna had not realized that Jill was injured and lay bleeding only a few feet from her. When she found Jill, Hanna knelt down and quickly started medical treatment, calling out for assistance in German, which no one understood. The vampires and Lycans just stood there staring. They had been so completely converted to fighters that they no longer knew how to help. Jill was eventually carried back down to the base to be patched up, but not before Hanna had grown a few gray hairs from worry.

  By morning, Hanna had been debriefed, the three aliens were being whisked off to a government lab, and Jill had been mended and would survive. Hanna asked if she and Jill could remain linked, but the scientists told her this would not work. Jill and Charger had a permanent link to each other and to Mac. They were, in effect, a single fighting machine and would remain together for life.

  Being military, Hanna understood, though she regretted losing Jill. Scheduled to have her link removed, she walked toward the medical tent where Jill lay. Outside the tent stood the huge vampire and his pet Lycan, Mac. Hanna walked calmly up to the Lycan and slammed the butt of her rifle as hard as she could into his head. Mac fell to his knees, dazed and confused, a large bloody gash open on the side of his face. Hanna placed her boot on his chest, pushing him all the way to the ground, and rammed the barrel of her weapon in his face.