by Noah Barnett
"Hell is empty, and all the devils are here," Tobias said watching the four ships disperse pods around the city.
Now Charlie was impressed. These aliens didn't dick around when it came to their invasions. With engines flaring, the dropship ponderously turned south into the city center, and the pods slowed to a trickle as the ship slewed sideways. Finally, it lowered itself with a massive billow of dust into the Los Angeles Entertainment Stadium. The other three behemoths also found secure locations after disgorging their own troops. The sixteen escort fighters made one last pass around the city before turning skyward and rocketed out of the atmosphere. Everything had happened with military precision, and for almost a minute silence descended.
Remy swung down from the sign and dusted her skirt off. "What's the plan?" she asked checking the load on both her weapons.
Charlie turned to his small squad. Only he and Remy had primary weapons. Jen had a 9mm pistol, and Tobias was in ragged priest's robes with a two-handed sword sticking out from his back. It wasn't likely either would be useful in a skirmish. Still, he wanted a piece of the action, so Charlie pointed at the two squads.
On the other hilltop, two teams were already descending the slope toward the suburb. "They are heading towards the inner city, and being in the open will get us killed. Our objective is to survive, so let's follow them down. Stick with the others until we know more." He ordered, gesturing to the group on the next ridge.
Down in the city, gunfire sounded out in quick tentative snatches. Every so often a beam of reddish light would lance out making the air pop and crackle. Charlie turned to the two bronze players.
"Stay behind Remy and Me. If you see movement call it out, especially if it's an alien. We're going to have to jog to catch up with the others." He said and checked his M16 was loaded. Then he slung the weapon over his shoulder and navigated the hilltop brush to the mansions below. Remy skipped down the slope about fifteen meters away while Jennifer and Tobias nervously followed.
It took only five minutes of jogging before Charlie stumbled out of the sagebrush into the tennis court and swimming pool of a multi-million dollar estate. Under the manor's back patio a squad crouched, and they quickly motioned for him to get down. He and his squad crouched low, then duck-walked around the pool to their location. Two men in medium armor were looking over the tall gate. Charlie tried to move forward, but a curly haired man put a hand on his chest and pushed him back.
"Don't you dare steal our kills," the man said in a half snarl. Under his helmet was a flash of red hair and a smattering of freckles. Across his chest was an AK-74u, and a M24 bolt action rifle hung on his back.
"You can have them, but I am going to look," Charlie replied shoving the hand away. He unceremoniously pushed his way between the anxious soldiers. The gate was wrought iron but overgrown with tall ivy. Charlie stood glancing over, and found the driveway looked directly down the street.
Coming up the road was a squad of four long limbed aliens. Three were wearing lightly armored suits just like the one back in the White House. Hard glossy plates protected their chests, shoulders, and thighs. Smaller plates overlapped across their arms and legs. Each soldier had white armor, and he briefly wondered if that signified anything, or was it just pretty. Inside the enclosed helmets their green skinned faces were visible through a clear visor. Two round objects stuck out of the back, and occasionally steam or gas would escape in a small puff. Charlie guessed it was an air filtration system, which might explain why the aliens didn't want the earth.
The fourth alien must have been the squad leader. His suit was twice as bulky as the others and covered in overlapping crimson plates. On his back was a protruding pack, which again, steamed slightly in the air. The enclosed helmet didn't have a visor. Instead, a four fingered palm print decorated the face. Next to the helmet on both shoulders was a thick round lens recessed into the armor. A massive futuristic cannon was attached to the suit via a three inch thick knotted cable.
"Where did the first group of players go?" Remy asked pushing the ivy aside and peeked through the iron bars.
"Across the street, we're waiting for the Roth to get closer. Then we'll surprise them from both sides." The second squad leader answered.
He pulled Charlie away from the fence and took up a firing position. The rest of his team lined up ready to stand and fire down the driveway. Remy remained there crouched between a pair of brawny legs.
The squad leader touched his radio. "Aliens will be in the kill box in ten seconds, fire upon my shot." He whispered. The mic picked up his muffled words and broadcast them to the squad across the street. A hundred meters away the alien captain stopped in the middle of the road. It pointed with one hand in their direction, and the trio of grunts ran to cover.
Though unexpected, the squad leader found a target, and squeezed the trigger of his rifle. His squad, immediately settled their weapons atop the gate and fired on the Roth. Instead of taking cover the leader set his feet and aimed the cannon in their direction. Within the chunky barrel, the diamond capacitor began to glow dark red. Remy turned and dove into the swimming pool. Charlie leaped in after, because her instincts were rarely wrong. Several splashes follow the girl's example as a red beam of energy sliced through the ivy covered bars. Above Charlie, the laser flash boiled the surface of the water into steam.
He waited as the water around him grew uncomfortably warm, then with lungs burning, he surfaced. Charlie gasped coming up for air and drank in a mouth full of searing smoke. Coughing in fits, he swam for the edge of the pool and dragged himself onto the hot concrete. Two dead bodies were scorched black. The blood had boiled, flashing into steam much like the pool water.
Gunfire from the other manor finally picked up, and Charlie shook himself and his weapon free of water. Remy, Jen, and Tobias also climbed from the pool along with several members of squad two. Their team leader was dead with one other, but the curly haired ginger pulled himself from the pool.
"You still want to do this on your own?" Charlie asked.
"Bite me," the man yelled running past. He pointed to a heavily armored man carrying an RPK machine gun. "Diego, get in that second-floor window and fire on their heavy. Keep him busy while we close the distance."
"What do we do?" Jen asked.
"Let's move through the houses and backyards. None of us have long range weapons." He said jogging to the hedgerow that was the boundary between the two properties. Remy grunted struggling to get over the tall plants until Charlie boosted the small girl over, followed by Jen.
Across the street, the team was still firing down the avenue. Both manors were already on fire from the laser weapons. Several people tossed flashbangs and grenades, and a machine gun started to chatter from behind him.
They crossed through a toy strewn playground. Then Charlie held up a hand slowing the squad in the next backyard. A high pitched laser was firing from nearby. He glanced around the corner and saw a Roth soldier taking cover behind a dust covered Bentley. The alien's light armor was already scarred with dings and gouges. Bullet holes covered the vehicle, and shattered glass littered the driveway. The alien was kneeling by the trunk and aiming with a bulky futuristic rifle. One that was smaller than the heavy cannon, but it too was attached to the alien's suit via a knotted cable. When it fired the weapon shot out a pulse of three red beams.
Someone tapped his leg, and he looked down. Remy was crouched next to him with her revolver in hand. Charlie drew his 1911 and took aim at the creature's head. The Roth was about twenty-five meters away, but the target's white helmet stood out.
He fired, and the lead slug knocked the creature's head sideways. Sparks flew and a round divot formed on its temple. At the same time, Remy aimed at the creature's torso. Her magnum round slammed into the side of his chest plate punching through in a neat hole. A squirt of yellow ichor shot out as the soldier fell to the ground. Surprisingly the Roth soldier wasn't dead. The creature rolled onto his back, lifted his head, and aimed his pulse rifle i
n their direction. Both of them fired again at the Roth.
The magnum round slammed into his gun arm tearing it half off. Charlie's .45 ACP bullet hit the creature in the faceplate, punched through in a spider web of cracks, and drilled into the Roth's eye. Its head rocked back, bouncing off the pavement. He was impressed again. The armor was as tough as anything humanity had, but it wasn't invincible. The visor was a glaring weak spot in the lighter suits.
Gunfire shifted away from the Bentley to somewhere else down the street. A beeping began from the alien's suit like a sullen SOS signal. Charlie holstered Elva and unslung his short barreled M16. He approached the body with his weapon trained. The head inside the mask was a mess of yellow blood and crushed bone. From the suit, the noise grew in intensity until it sounded like an angry bleating sheep. Charlie quickly got behind the Bentley before the alien weapon shattered in a small explosion. The suit was left intact, but the pulse rifle was little more than a ruin of broken parts. Well that sucked, he had been hoping to steal a few of those weapons to give to Jen and Tobias. There was another, much larger explosion, down the street.
"Clear!" Someone shouted from that direction.
Jen and Tobias came out from the backyard and approached the corpse. From the burning manor, four smoke covered humans fled. They came towards Charlie to get a better look at the enemy humanity faced.
"How are you doing?" He asked Jen.
"It's a little scary, but I'm having a surprisingly good time," Jen said taking a look at the corpse. She briefly glanced inside the face visor before turning away in disgust. Two men appeared from down the street and paused next to the body.
"How many did you lose?" The man asked a girl from the other squad.
"One with an unlucky head shot. You?"
"Two when that fat bastard fired on us. I think the Roth heard the radio broadcast." Ginger said flicking his radio in annoyance.
"You lost one too?" They asked Charlie.
He shook his head and said, "No, we started with a short squad."
"So… We know they can pinpoint radio signals, and their weapons explode after death." The curly haired man said kicking pieces of a pulse rifle away.
"That blows," the girl said, and Charlie agreed. Most of the soldiers took their radio's off and tossed them away into the bushes. They'd do little good if it allowed the Roth to pinpoint their locations.
"The demons cometh seeking vengeance," Tobias warned pointing down the street. Everyone turned to see a second squad of armored aliens moving fast. They were still about two hundred meters away but jogged in a straight line to their position.
"Engage?" The girl asked.
"I'm down for a second tussle," another soldier said.
"Not with my squad," Charlie said looking for an escape route. Both the houses behind them were a raging inferno. "Objective is to survive, and those aliens know we're up here. They'll be ready. Besides they might not be the only ones headed this way." He added motioning for the crew to follow.
"Looks like you don't have a choice." The man said moving into cover. He gestured for his squadmate to set up his RPK again across the street.
The Roth soldiers slowed suddenly and spread out. Laser fire hit a nearby palm tree, and Charlie ran to the nearest manor that wasn't already ablaze. However, he found the front door locked.
"Tobias, would you get this door open?" He asked the giant.
Jen probably had the strength to kick it open, but he wanted to include the new guy. The tall man planted his foot against the lock, and the door burst open. The four ran inside as a new firefight erupted.
As Jen moved past, he caught her shoulder. "Take the lead down the hill."
For a second, worry filled her face, but she swallowed and nodded. She pulled her pistol free and went into the living room ahead of the group. The back patio was already starting to catch fire from the next mansion over. The awning was aflame, and several plastic pool chairs were starting to melt.
Jennifer jumped the fence and immediately tumbled down the steep slope. She kept her gun in hand by sheer will and even managed to gain her feet toward the bottom. Tobias rolled down in a gray heap of robes, and Charlie rather ungracefully followed his example. Remy managed to find an inflatable pool-shark and slid down in a giggling shower of dust. Behind them, it sounded like the firefight was picking up in intensity.
Charlie put himself behind Jen, with Tobias in the middle, and Remy was taking up rear guard. That way there was always someone close with a weapon. Jennifer's stealth abilities from her vampiric game once again proved useful, for she was surprisingly skilled at avoiding the Roth patrols. She led them through a maze of side streets and alleys until they reached Santa Monica Blvd. There, they paused next to a three-story office building and Charlie checked his watch. It was 2:32 pm which meant they'd lasted two hours so far. That was worth a couple of match points, but their luck quickly ran out.
Jen pulled back into the alley of the office building. She held up a hand with three fingers indicating three squads of Roth. Charlie tried the back door to the office building and found it unlocked. What he hadn't counted on was the sound the rusty hinges made. They quickly piled inside, and Jennifer let the door swing closed with an ear splitting squeal. The first soldier appeared at the alley entrance and turned in their direction. It watched the back door creek with suspicion in its marauding eyes.
The squad waited nervously in silence. Jen withdrew her USP 9mm and slid the safety off. Charlie flicked his assault rifle from single-fire to full-auto as the armored footsteps approached. The extraterrestrial closed a four-fingered hand along the edge of the door and pulled it open. The Roth's golden eyes widened in surprise as he saw the humans standing just inside. Jen quickly pressed her pistol to his visor and fired. The 9mm bullet punched through the glass and into its sunken eye socket.
Charlie put his foot against the door to keep it from closing and fired at the second alien soldier. He didn't bother conserving ammo as he squeezed the trigger. Thirty rounds stitched across the armored chest, upper torso, and neck in two and three-quarters seconds. He let the door close, and red spots started melting through the metal. They rushed headlong down the office hallway, passing a water flooded bathroom, and a break room that was slowly turning into an indoor garden. Behind them, the door was hit by a heavy laser and melted off its hinges.
Through the front glass, another squad was visible coming down the street. Charlie's quick escape was cut off as laser beams filled the first floor. Thankfully the glass, and concrete weren't catching fire.
"Up the stairs!" Charlie shouted pointing to a door next to the elevator.
Remy dodged up the stairs first, followed by Tobias and Jen. Charlie let his rifle fall on its sling and drew Elva. He fired down the rear hallway as a heavily armored suit came through the door. The fat slugs barely chipped its paint, and he tisked in annoyance, then raced up the stairwell after his squad. The wall blackened and a wave of scalding hot air followed after Charlie. The door was open on the third floor, and Remy was holding the angle with her magnum revolver.
"We are fucked without bigger guns," Charlie said going past.
"I'm surprised we lasted this long," Remy replied crouching in the doorway.
"I'm not sure if those captains can get up the stairs, but they might send up the soldiers. Can you hold this down while I look for a way out?" He asked. Remy settled onto one knee and used the door jamb to cover most of her body. This office building was likely going to be their impromptu Alamo.
Jen and Tobias were peeking through the blinds of a managers office window.
"Any way out?" Charlie asked at the doorway.
"The demon's hath encircled us. Even now another host approaches." Tobias said letting the blinds go. Jen backed away and clutched the USP pistol in her trembling hands. The towering crusader noticed her shaking and put a meaty hand on her shoulder. "Fear not, brave soul, for we do God's work today."
"This has definitely been interesting," she sa
id, and let out a pent-up breath. Those aliens held all the advantages. They had better armor, advanced weapons, and a constant resupply of fresh troops. It was unfair in the extreme, but Charlie had to agree. He was enjoying himself.
"What do we do?" She asked. Charlie sighed unable to see a way out. The best they could do was run down stairs and take one or two out.
"Gather your flock together, let us pray," Tobias said pushing Charlie from the doorway. "Go tell the annoying girl to join us."
He stumbled at first, then blinked. Pray... Well, he would indulge the man this once. Charlie walked toward the stairs. A magnum fired as he approached.
"Ha, that'll teach ya to try and out peek me," Remy said with enthusiasm.
"We're having a discussion."
"Kind of busy," she muttered firing her revolver again.
"Close the door and lock it," he said turning away. Remy rolled her eyes but followed, and they found Tobias was kneeling in the conference room.