Extinction

by Korza, Jay

  As Beast dropped from the vent, he felt the heat of the fire coming off his enemy. Although the cylinder didn't explode, it did create a little extra overpressure that could be felt as Beast tried to land on the floor. The fire caused Beast to try to roll away from the flaming enemy and the extra overpressure caused him to trip up a little as he made his landing. The combination of the two events caused Beast to drop his weapon and he saw it clatter several meters away from him.

  Usually Beast had his weapon slung to his body but he had to remove the sling to make it easier to get through the ducts. As Beast processed his current situation, he saw the second warrior near him take several rounds to his leg. The warrior quickly turned to avoid further injury and was going to be face to face with Beast before the fallen rifle could be retrieved. Without skipping a beat, Beast pulled the edged weapons he had taken from the first warrior they encountered at the airlock.

  He roared a challenge to the warrior and received a curt head nod in response. The fight had started.

  Both fighters had more enemies in the hallway to deal with beyond each other, so this was going to be quick, one way or the other. No circling, no taunting, no time to size each other up. The first strike came from Beast as he made a bold overture for the death symphony he was now a part of. The upward slash was more powerful than the warrior expected for an opening move and he lost a hand for his lack of preparedness. Beast was also surprised by its effectiveness but he always prepared for victory and not defeat, so he was able to use his forward momentum to bring his body into a spin towards his enemy and he attempted to use his second blade to further the damage to the warrior's already injured forward leg.

  The warrior felt his mistake as he watched his hand leave his body. He also saw Beast turning in towards him and lifted his leg away from the attack and planted his foot into Beast's chest. Beast's body began to move away from the force of the blow but the warrior grabbed Beast's arm and brought him back into the fight. This move turned Beast's back towards his enemy and the warrior used his four arms and three hands to pin Beast to his own body.

  Beast was caught and he knew it. The warrior was far stronger than he was and there was no way he was going to break the monster's grip. Beast could feel the warrior trying to bend his body and break his back. Beast was slowly losing ground and felt more than one muscle group reach its limit and start to tear. Joker was within spitting distance but dealing with his own fight. Beast now saw a plasma bolt burn through the ceiling in the area his two teammates had been firing from. Blood was already dripping to the floor; at least one of them had been shot and most likely dead. Beast knew the rest of the team was moving forward through the hallway but they wouldn't reach him in time.

  As Joker landed, he saw three of the alien warriors taking cover from the oncoming blast of the cylinder that had just been launched at them. In the absence of the expected explosion, one warrior was just starting to peek out from his cover to see what was going on. Joker put a three-round burst through the warrior's head and shifted to his next target.

  The gunfire from Joker along with the shots from the operators still in the ducts was enough to make the second warrior move from cover and jump into the fight. He put one plasma round through the ceiling and received immediate gratification when he heard his unseen enemy cry out in pain. He was shifting his point of aim towards the closer threat that was Joker but the human was fast and spun inward, coming closer to the warrior.

  Joker's spin brought him too close for the warrior to fire but much closer than Joker wanted to be. Hand-to-hand combat was not a good idea given the vast disparity between the two fighters. Joker released a barrage of rounds just as the warrior grabbed his gun barrel and shifted his point of aim. Although the moving gun made Joker miss his target, it did cause multiple rounds to hit and damage the warrior's plasma rifle, making it unusable.

  Joker let go of his rifle, knowing that he could never wrest it from the grip of his enemy. He used the momentum of his spin to keep turning and end up behind the giant. As Joker got to the end of his spin, he was already drawing his pistol from its holster and saw the third warrior moving towards the confrontation.

  One round from his handgun ended the warrior in front of him but unfortunately the warrior decided to die backwards instead of forwards. The bulk of the warrior fell back onto Joker and pinned most of the left side of his body against the wall.

  In any other situation, Joker would've eventually been able to get himself out from under his fallen enemy but right now he didn't have the luxury of time. His pistol was still in his right hand and he pulled the trigger. The first round went wide and clipped his oncoming attacker in the left shoulder. Joker adjusted his aim and—click. The spent casing had stove-piped in the chamber and never cycled the next round.

  Hundreds and thousands of hours spent on the range and in combat is the most valuable asset in this sort of situation as calm instead of panic filled Joker and he immediately began to clear his weapon malfunction. He brought the gun down to his waist and hooked the rear holographic sight on his utility belt and worked the action away from his body. Joker actually heard the casing ping off the wall behind him as well as the slide moving along the frame and back into a firing position. He heard the satisfying sound of the slide picking up the next round in the magazine and bringing it into battery so it could be sent downrange in righteous triumph.

  Surgeon and Cadet were moving up through the hallway on opposite sides of each other. They, along with their team, were putting suppressive fire down the hallway to keep the two remaining warriors in their positions of cover. Two grenades, one from each side of the hallway, went over Cadet and Surgeon's heads. The grenades crossed as they passed each other and went into opposite rooms. The low-yield explosives in the grenades were made specifically for close quarter combat so the team kept moving forward, in order to follow the planned explosions with overwhelming gunfire into the enemies' positions of cover.

  The explosions came near simultaneously and a half second later, Cadet swung into the room closest to him and Surgeon took the one on his side, each with another operator following them. Both warriors had a number of injuries but both were pretty much incapacitated and easily finished off by the entry teams.

  Smoke was now in the first position as he passed by the doorway and heard gunfire from Surgeon. Smoke saw Beast getting bent backwards as Joker's weapon jammed. Both operators were in a losing fight but Beast's attacker was too obscured by Beast's body as well as the corner of the wall. Smoke knew that in a couple of steps he would be able to fire on Joker's attacker and save at least one of his friends.

  Through a haze of pain, Beast saw Joker's weapon malfunction. Beast twisted to his right, purposely pulling his shoulder from the socket and breaking almost every bone in his upper left arm and shoulder. He was trying to swivel so once his destroyed left arm was free, the leverage the warrior was applying to Beast's body would be lost. Without the leverage, Beast would be able to remove his right arm from the warrior’s grip and get to his handgun and fire at Joker's attacker.

  Beast's plan might have worked with an opponent who didn't have four arms. Although he did free his left, and now completely destroyed arm, the warrior's two lower arms maintained a secure grip on Beast's torso. The warrior increased his effort to bend Beast backwards and his back started to break in more than one place.

  Beast couldn't move his left arm above the elbow and had no motion whatsoever in his shoulder. He could still use his wrist, hand, and fingers, though. Beast moved his left hand to his utility belt and found the grenade in its pouch. A lumbar vertebrae snapped. Beast flicked two of his fingers and opened the pouch. Two thoracic vertebrae snapped. He pulled the pin from the grenade and felt the spoon attempt to separate from the body of the grenade. The grenade's spoon was inside the pouch, so it couldn't separate from the body and initiate the firing sequence. Three more vertebrae snapped and Beast knew parts of his body were fast becoming non-operational.

&nb
sp; Having only the limited range of motion that came with a moving wrist, Beast's plan was unfolding very slowly. He saw Joker clear the malfunction of his handgun and start to bring it towards his attacker. Beast could tell that though it would be a close race, Joker was going to lose. The warrior would have his hands on Joker before he could produce a lethal shot.

  Beast inched the grenade from its pouch and finally felt the spoon spring from the grenade's body. This was a CQB grenade so it would have a fast fuse, only three seconds, and with parts of his body going numb, he hoped he could hold it for that long. If he dropped the grenade, it could get kicked away or even towards his teammates. It was low-yield explosive so he needed it near his target and the warrior was still unaware of what Beast was doing. Two seconds left. Another vertebrae snapped. Beast held the grenade and tried his best to aim it towards the warrior behind him. Almost as much as wanting to ensure the safety of his friends, he wanted to live long enough to feel the heat of the explosion and the satisfaction of knowing that he died on his own terms and took his enemy with him.

  One second left. Another vertebrae snapped and a vertebral disk was squeezed out of his body, severing the spinal cord on its way out. Beast's hand went numb and though he couldn’t feel it, he knew he dropped the grenade. The heat was instantaneous and death was almost as fast, but the speed of Beast's neurons fired faster and the knowledge that he had won spread to his conscious mind before he entered oblivion.

  Beast then looked up and saw his brother standing before him. “I've missed you, brother.”

  ~

  Joker heard a small 'whump' from somewhere to his left and he knew that a CQB grenade had detonated in close proximity of at least one body. He knew his gun wouldn’t be aimed at a lethal target before his enemy put a huge bladed weapon through his face but he fired anyway. To anyone just hearing Joker's gunfire, it might sound like 'panic fire' but it was nothing of the sort. Joker was still calm and even accepting of the situation but that didn't mean that he wasn't also hopeful. Hopeful that his rounds might shift his attacker and give him an opening. Hopeful that maybe the warrior had different weak points than Joker and the rounds would be effective. Hopeful that God would send a bolt of lightning down and burn the warrior to a crisp. To accept the situation kept him calm. To stay calm gave him hope and kept him strong and in the fight.

  The lightning never came but several rounds from Smoke did. Joker felt one round pass by his head and hit the wall next to him. Some of the backsplash came back and opened Joker's cheek. The next round had a bit of correction added to it and so did the next as the rounds were walked backwards to their intended target, which was the head of the warrior attacking Joker. As the rounds walked backward, they also struck and deflected the weapon coming towards Joker's head.

  Blue spray erupted from the warrior's head and his forward momentum carried him onto Joker's right side. “Seriously! Two of these fuckers on me! You've got to be kidding me! And you,” Joker pointed at Smoke, “you, sir, need to get to the range more often. You almost took my head off.”

  Smoke was already helping pull the warriors off Joker. “I didn't know if I could kill him before his blade cut your head down the middle. I was aiming for the blade so I think I did just fine.”

  Joker just smiled. “Thanks, buddy.” As he started to stand, he saw Beast lying on the ground, obviously dead along with his dead enemy. Joker shook his head and then heard someone softly calling for help.

  The rest of the team had made it down the hallway and all of the opposition had been killed. Joker looked around for the source of the voice and then looked up. The ceiling had a plasma burn through it and blood dripping to the floor. Joker turned to the men standing around him. “Get me in the vent! They're hurt!”

  Joker was lifted into the vent and he turned on his visor light. The plasma bolt had melted one operator's skull and the arm of the other. Joker crawled to him. “How are you doing, buddy?”

  “I've been better. I'm sorry I couldn't help more. I watched Beast die and I couldn't move to help him.”

  The operator pointed, with his remaining hand, to the right side of his body. Joker saw that not only was his arm melted off, but most of the right side of his body had fused to the metal of the duct work.

  The operator pulled a CQB grenade from its pouch. “Don't worry. I'm fine with it. We don't have time to peel me from the vent, not to mention that I doubt I'd live through the process anyway.”

  Reaper had crawled into the vents from the side Beast had come through. He began his patient assessment and nodded to Joker what the operator had already stated: he wasn't leaving the vent alive. Reaper didn't even ask; he injected his friend with some morphine and watched his eyelids get heavy.

  Reaper gently removed the grenade from the operator's hand and put it into his own equipment. “I gave him a sedative painkiller cocktail. He doesn't have much time left; he won't feel anything else.” Reaper and Joker took some more of the gear, along with their friends' dog tags.

  After getting out of the vent, Joker saw that Surgeon had assembled the remaining squad members, set up a forward security detail and was in the process of reviewing their assets. Cadet was taking the initiative and acting more and more like the XO of the operation. Joker didn't mind at all; the kid was sharp and definitely officer material—good officer material.

  “We're down three more operators, a few injuries but nothing that will hinder the operation.” Cadet continued his report to Surgeon. “We have a fair amount of ammo and explosives left. We can handle probably five more assaults of the same intensity of the last one. After that we're going to have to go with edged weapons or try to lug around the plasma rifles that these guys are carrying. Their operation is fairly simple but we'll definitely be at the disadvantage if we have to resort to them.”

  Surgeon looked around at his men. “Without their personal shields, they are no match for us. We have seen in our limited engagements that their training is superb and nothing to laugh at, but, they obviously have limited field experience and that's where we are proving to be the better fighters.

  “Stay out of their reach. They have a drastic advantage in hand-to-hand combat. From now on, if at all possible, we will engage each one of them in two-man teams, just like room clearing. That way, if one of them does get a hand on you, your buddy can help you out.

  “We still don't know where we are in this complex but we happened upon several of them at once, so hopefully that means we're on the right track. We've lost good men and great friends. Let's make sure it wasn't for nothing.”

  Cadet got a small nod from his mentor and he took over. “All right guys, there's only one direction to go in this hall so that's where we're going. The fact that we haven't heard an alarm or had more defenders come our way means that either these guys didn't trip an alarm or the guy in charge is keeping his troops in one location and waiting for our final push.

  “If they are all together in one place, then we need to do our best and treat the final contact as a near ambush and push through it. Our resources are limited and we have to assume that theirs are not. We can't afford a lengthy firefight. To that end, push hard but smart. Don't waste ammo or more important, your lives.”

  With the updated ops plan in place, the group simply moved out: silent in their resolve, silent in their pain, silent in their mourning.

  Chapter 49

  The Debrief

  Wilks and Bloom sat at the conference table with the base command staff and Captain Netid and his senior officers. Also in the room via video conferencing was the president of the Coalition, the Detrill emperor and the Nortes empress.

  Bloom felt a little out of his comfort zone as he spoke to the extremely high-ranking audience that seemed to hang on his every word. Between the information passed along by the Detrill, the Nortes, and Bloom's virtual memory stroll, the group had a fairly detailed account of what had taken place a thousand years ago.

  The president spoke after Bloom finished. “To su
m it up, and please let me know if I get anything wrong here: Several thousand years ago, the Nortes were conquering the galaxy as they progressed through it. They had a lab-created warrior species that was the muscle behind their operation but it was led by a Nortes military structure. Every species they encountered was subjugated and used for particular skills that suited them or were made to suit them, and if the species was deemed not useful to the empire, they were destroyed.”

  The president paused as he looked around the group to see whether he was on track so far. “Then, a thousand years ago, give or take, the emperor wanted to create a peaceful empire that was devoid of the warriors and conquering. But due to the genetic programming of his warriors, he couldn't do that because it would be seen as the destruction of the empire and the warriors were created to protect the empire at all costs.

  “So the emperor made a final push into what is now our area of the galaxy and he faked a plague that killed a large portion of his population. He quarantined his people from the established empire with the idea that without a royal family and very little Nortes military support, the warriors would live out their relatively short lifespan and then the defectors could return home and build a new empire based on cooperation and not slavery.”

  Empress Hugany shifted in her chair a little. Bloom finished the story. “Yes, Mister President, that is correct. Unfortunately, the royal cousin in charge of being the guardian of the warrior birthing planet suspected an internal coup and launched fifty million warrior birthing pods to a safe planet where they could later be recovered. The warrior caste has been replenishing their numbers from that pool of pods ever since. They've also used a stasis rotation cycle that allows them to keep their senior warriors around longer to lead them all. The stasis rotation only gives each one an extra ten to fifteen years each but every little bit helps.”