by Jim Roberts
Joe waved the POW's forward, "Time for that later boys, we have exactly one minute to evac, so hustle up and get out of there! This entire place will be buzzing with Centurions in no time!"
The men rushed out of the door, save Tennyson who had to support Private Peterson, who was still nursing a horrifically broken arm. As the men left the prison, the young Private Sakorsky spoke to Joe in a hushed voice, "We thought you'd...given up on us Sarge..."
Joe smiled at the Private, "Never." He pointed at the eastern section of the fort, "We've secured the upper fortress and we have a helo coming in for dust off in..." he checked his watch, "exactly fifty seconds. Get over..."
Before Joe could finish, a small black device, thrown towards them from above the prison, landed amidst the group of soldiers. Joe instantly recognized it and pushed Peterson away as hard as he could, shouting, "FLASHBANG!"
The black projectile exploded in a deafening blast of white, iridescent light. Everyone in the proximity was blown off their feet and momentarily blinded. Joe was propelled against Krieger; pulling the Russian down with him. Joe's head felt like it had been smashed with a sledgehammer. His ears were ringing and his eyesight vanished for several agonizing seconds.
When his vision began to clear, Joe pulled himself up on his shaking legs. The world around him spun out of control and he could hardly hear anything. Behind him, Krieger unsteadily got to his own feet.
"Christ, what was that?" yelled the Russian, unable to control his voice.
Before Joe could respond, a shimmer of movement caught his eye from atop the prison building. Something that resembled a moving shadow leaped up and flew towards them with amazing athletic grace, striking Joe and Krieger simultaneously with immense force. To Joe, it felt like he had been kicked by a thousand ton mule. He and his Russian companion flew back nearly ten feet, knocked into the dirt of the courtyard by the invisible assailant. Krieger landed hard against a parked Humvee, slumping down in a temporary daze. Joe was knocked further, landing square on his back. His M4 was jarred from of his hands, landing on the dirt ground seven precious feet from his prone body.
"There is no leaving here Joe Braddock."
Joe's heart stopped as he recognized the voice. His eyes fluttered open, barely seeing straight as he tried to focus on the attacker. The figure had to be using stealth technology, similar to Whisper's suit.
"Who are..." he began to ask.
"Come on Mr. Braddock, don't you think I leave an impression?" The voice chuckled cruelly. The invisible phantom made an adjustment to its form and suddenly the stealth shroud dissipated.
Standing before them was Agrippina.
But...it wasn't the same woman they remembered from the APC fight.
Instead of her flaunted harlequinesque getup, she was now clad in a suit that resembled something out of Joe's nightmares. The suit was a rancid black leather color, with various bladed devices sticking out here and there, like a bizarre sadomasochist body suit. The suit clung to her body tightly, almost too tightly. The skin that showed around the parts of the suit which were not connected was heavily scarred with ravaged burns that did not seem to be fully healed. But the worst thing was her face. Agrippina's beautiful face was covered on one side by horrific scars from the burns she'd received in the Hyperion crash. Her once placid alabaster skin was horribly scarred and mangled on the left side of her face; giving her the resemblance of a twisted circus freak.
Krieger looked at the woman dumbfounded, "Mother of God..."
"God will not save you this night, you scum. For what you and your friend did to me—" she spoke while walking towards Joe, her once lucid, feminine gait now resembling that of a stalking spider, "—I will deal to you a thousand times over."
She reached behind her back and unsheathed her Parang knives. Flourishing them, Agrippina marched straight for Joe.
Krieger shook his head to regain his wits and forced himself onto his feet. He rushed at Agrippina, who barely seemed interested in the massive dark-skinned Russian. Before he could connect, the woman met his attack with an effortless retort. Using the Russian's own body weight against him, she launched Krieger like a shot-put into the ground ten feet beyond. He landed hard; blood spurting from his nose.
"Goddamn bitch is tough!" he said, wiping away the blood.
The POW's had almost finished pulling themselves together after the flashbang had robbed them of their sight. It was then they saw the twisted looking harpy bearing down on their Sergeant.
As he helped pick up Private Johanson, Corporal Tennyson yelled to Joe, "Sarge! Don't give up!"
Joe's eyes flashed with determination. He hauled himself to his feet and charged Agrippina, unsheathing his combat knife; if he moved fast, he could catch her off-guard.
But Agrippina was more than ready for his weak attack. The woman met him with a two swift slashes from her knives. The blades opened two grisly wounds: one across the chest and another on his upper leg. The wounds forced Joe to the ground. He narrowly avoided a return thrust in the back by rolling to the side.
Agrippina screamed: a withering, terrifying sound. Joe tried to get to his feet, but the pain in his leg jolted through him like a lightning bolt.
The harpy slashed Joe across the back, opening another half-foot long gash across his shoulders. Bright blood poured from his wounds, mixing in with the dirt of the courtyard. The demon woman slashed again, wounding him badly with a vertical cut, just centimeters from his spine. Joe's vision was clouding as his life's blood poured from him. He sat back on his knees, awaiting the finishing blow.
That's it. That's all I've got. She's too tough.
KRIEGER WAS still trying to shake off the assault he'd endured when he saw Agrippina grip Joe's hair, lifting her knife in preparation to take his head.
"NO!" screamed the Russian.
"Die now fool!" roared Agrippina. She raised the blade over her head, ready to take her prize.
"STOP!"
A new voice called out amidst Agrippina's triumph; pulling her attention away from Joe for a moment. She looked and saw Whisper standing twenty paces away from her. In one hand he held the Code; in the other, his Mantis Staff.
"You want this don't you?" Whisper held the fragile-looking disc up in his hand to show his enemy he held all the cards, "Leave him and come and get it!"
Agrippina slowly lowered the knife. Her eyes blazed with renewed life as she gazed upon her hated enemy. Whisper marveled at the change in the woman he had only met a week ago. The beautiful but deadly face he had remembered was transformed to a hideous shadow of her former self. In her eyes, Whisper no longer saw the haughty woman who had toyed with him, like a cat with a mouse. In her eyes, he only saw blinding hate.
"You...I remember you. You almost killed me didn't you?" With Joe forgotten, Agrippina let him slump to the ground, his wounds bleeding badly. She withdrew her other Parang knife and flourished them together, "You have no idea what they had to do to bring me back...to make me...whole again."
Whisper pocketed the disc back into the belt compartment of the suit.
Agrippina coughed, barely able to speak coherently, "I will rend you asunder Danny Callbeck. Are you ready for me?"
"Oh yeah..." said Whisper.
Agrippina lowered her stance and began to run towards Whisper, screaming a high pitched wail that split the night.
The two enemies charged each other like raging bulls.
The fight was on.
Chapter 20
We're Gonna Lose Him!
KRIEGER HAD finally managed to haul himself onto one knee. His nose was pouring blood like a sieve. Everything had gone so wrong, so fast. Whisper was engaged in combat with the Agrippina woman in a spectacular ballet of martial arts; each trying to one-up the other in an attempt to gain the upper hand. Off to Krieger's right, his eyes were drawn to something emerging from the Command Complex. The massive form of Dante had exited the building. His face was twisted in a mask of hatred and pain. The Olympus Com
mander wanted blood and in front of him, he saw the surviving POWs, gingerly making their way to the south end of the fortress courtyard. A cruel smile spread across the giant commander's face.
Not going to happen you Olympus bastard, thought Krieger.
Overhead, Isabella's Black Hawk burst into view, hovering over the fortress. Krieger could see Brick hanging out the side, manning the swivel-mounted minigun.
Oh no you don't. This bastard is mine!
The Russian got to his feet, his pain and wounds forgotten at the thought of getting even with the giant sonovabitch.
Dante saw the Russian and his face shifted to one of cruel malice. Krieger smiled back.
It's payback time motherfucker!
The two men charged at each other, pell-mell. They met in a bone-crushing collision that sent them both sprawling. The Russian managed to gain the offense, rolling onto Dante's stomach. He noticed the wound in the Olympus Commander's gut.
"Too bad you are wounded eblan! Would have been nice to kick your ass in prime!" Krieger landed several devastating punches to Dante's face, pulverizing what was left of his nose. The Commander howled in pain. Krieger followed through with a vicious knee to the blade wound, "Oooh, did that hurt?"
Dante threw his full body weight into his defense. He grabbed hold of Krieger with his meaty hands and forced him into a bearhug. With his enemy unable to move, Dante pulled himself to his feet and charged towards the edge of the fortress like an enraged rhino. Krieger managed to look behind him before they smashed into the steel guardrail. The force of the blow squeezed most of the air from Krieger's lungs. The guardrail structure bent dangerously from the force of the two men. Another hit like that and it would break, sending them both over the edge and down four-hundred feet.
"Are you trying to kill us both?" gasped Krieger.
"If that is what it takes!" roared Dante, his eyes flaring with mindless rage.
Still clasped in the bear hug, Krieger pulled with all his might to free his arms. Dante responded by tightening his grip like a vice. Krieger was starting to black out from the pain and lack of oxygen. Dante moved back and Krieger could tell he was going to rush the guardrail again and send them both tumbling over the cliff into the gorge below.
Enough with this!
Krieger leaned back and smashed Dante full in the face with his forehead. He felt the grip loosen for a fraction of a second. Managing to pull one arm free, he grasped one of the grenades from his belt. Yanking off the pin, Krieger shoved the live fragmentation device into Dante's screaming mouth.
"Eat that!" roared Krieger.
Dante released his grasp on the Russian as he frantically tried to pry the jammed grenade from his mouth. Krieger had managed to jam it tight, breaking several teeth at the same time. The Russian lunged to one side, rolling away from Dante's struggling form.
The Olympus Commander let out a muffled roar of defiance, a second before the grenade detonated and blew the upper half of his body to pieces in a fiery shower of gore.
Krieger looked over from his prone position as the leftover lower half of the dead commander teetered gruesomely before falling in a heap. Krieger grinned at his handiwork.
"Overdoing it I suppose. But not bad."
AS ISABELLA maneuvered the helicopter over the fortress, Brick gripped the handles of the minigun. The Hastati troopers Joe mentioned in his communiqué had given the helicopter a brief tussle. But Brick, along with Isabella's outstanding piloting, had taken care of them easily with the side-mounted autocannon.
The sight that had met the two Peacemakers as they reached the fortress had been bewildering. Corporal Callbeck was battling some sort of woman masochist wielding twin swords and Krieger just blew a giant man up by sticking a grenade in his mouth.
Gawdon Bennet, thought Brick, if that's the weirdest thing I see today, I should count myself lucky!
As he covered the courtyard, Brick's eye was drawn to the entrance of the Command Complex, where several Centurions started pouring out from below. They would soon be too much for the survivors down there to handle.
"OK Isabella, love, bring us in sideways. I'm gonna give the lads some cover!"
Isabella called back through the intercom, "Alright, hold on."
She banked the chopper to the side, giving Brick more than enough space to track a firing solution on the outpouring of troopers. He hit the trigger. Instantly, the minigun barrel spun to life, spraying the area of the Complex with over four thousand rounds per minute. The Centurions were chewed apart as they tried desperately to retreat from the endless hail of autocannon fire. Beneath the hovering Black Hawk, the surviving POWs rushed forwards to meet the aircraft when it landed.
With the last of the Centurions dead, Brick readied the C9 detonator, keeping it ready to blow the explosives as soon as everyone was on board.
For the moment, Krieger and Whisper were in the clear to finish their business.
But where the hell was Joe?
JOE PULLED himself along the ground as he watched Whisper and Agrippina battle like two deities locked in celestial combat. Agrippina fought with a strength born of hell itself; as if she were possessed by some demon wishing only the blood of the man who wronged her in a past life. Whisper fought well but began to weaken under her mad onslaught.
After a violent clash, the two separated for a moment, both breathing heavily. Blood seeped through several slashed areas on his suit where the ultra-sharp Parang blades had found their mark, cutting through the Kevlar-Rynohyde with ease. Agrippina had taken a grisly cut to her abdomen from Whisper's wrist blades.
But the two warriors were far from finished.
Whisper used the break to ask a quick question, "Why do you want this Code? What does it contain?"
Agrippina fixed a frigid stare upon her enemy, "The end for you and the rising of Olympus!"
Whisper pulled himself up; clutching his arm where blood seeped between the Ablative Titanium armor. "I don't want to fight you," he croaked, his voice breaking from the pain it caused him to speak.
Agrippina's rage seemed to ebb for a moment; as if remembering a past moment, repressed by pain. But the moment passed and the scarred woman spun her blades and attacked again - slashing at Whisper ruthlessly.
Joe's comlink chimed, as Brick's Cockney-accented voice blared over it, "Joe, Whisper: forget the bird and get on board! We just intercepted a radio communiqué. Four Hyperion transports are on their way an' we need to be out of this country right quick, know what I mean?"
His body wracked with pain, Joe pulled himself along towards where Agrippina and Whisper battled. Whisper was beginning to weaken as his miasma of wounds began to take their toll. It wouldn't be long before Agrippina gained the time necessary to cut her enemy down.
No...not Danny...not my friend...my comrade.
Joe removed his combat knife from its sheath. He pulled himself along, leaving a trail of thick red blood behind him as he went.
Agrippina lunged and sliced Danny brutally on the torso, forcing him to drop to his knees. She followed through with a swift kick that sent the Mantis Staff flying from his hand. A hideous laugh escaped her lips as she howled like a banshee in the moonlight.
"And now...you die!"
She placed both Parang blades around Whisper's neck, preparing to remove his head.
Like Hell!
With every ounce of his last strength, Joe lunged upwards and wrapped himself onto Agrippina's back, jamming the knife downwards towards her neck. The knife landed, but deflected off her armor. The woman flailed mightily, trying to dislodge Joe. He held on with everything he had, forcing himself to fight through the pain, in order to save his friend.
Agrippina shucked Joe off roughly. She turned towards him now, her blades in hand, her eyes exploding with murderous intent.
A WET *thunk* sound reverberated from Agrippina's back as a foot-long blade jammed itself through her chest. The woman looked at the weapon dripping with her blood as it jutted
from her body like a grisly nail. Whisper sheathed the blade back into his wrist gauntlet and Agrippina fell to the ground.
Joe lay in a pool of widening blood, not moving. Whisper rushed to his side.
"Joe! Joe! Get up!"
His friend didn't move. The comlink switched on as Brick's voice came through urgently, "Whisper we need to go now! There are reinforcement's comin' from below and we cannot contain them forever! Krieger an' the POWs are on board! Get your ass here now, man!"
"Not without Joe!"
"Lord above! I'm blowin' the base in twenty seconds. You have to leave him!"
"I'm not leaving without Joe!" Whisper yelled as loud as his haggard voice could manage. I am making my choice. If Joe dies, so do I.
He pulled his unconscious friend up and ran steadily towards the helicopter. Behind him, he could hear more Centurions coming from the base beneath them. The crack of gunfire spurned him forward. At the chopper, Krieger was returning fire with a SAW machine gun Brick had passed him; trying to keep the Centurions off Joe and Danny's back long enough for them to reach the bird.
"Move your ass, metal man! Time to leave!" the Russian shouted over to Whisper.
Pulling his friend along, Whisper had reached the helicopter when he realized with a terrifying dread that the Code disc was missing. He swung his head back and saw Agrippina standing amidst the gunfire, obliviously, holding the disc in her hands. Blood oozed from her mouth as she held a blood-soaked hand against her chest. The wound that would have killed any other person, was hardly enough to keep Agrippina off her feet.
"Looking for this?" she called back through bloody teeth. She must have palmed it when she was grappling with me. Whisper checked the suit belt compartment to make sure, and indeed, it was empty.
"No!" shouted Whisper.
Brick grabbed him from behind before the stealth soldier could run back. "It's too late!" he shouted to Whisper, before turning around to yell to Isabella in the cockpit, "Take us up now!"
The Marine pilot nodded and the Black Hawk began to ascend. After they were up forty feet, Brick hit the C9 detonator.
