Cyberpunk III: 2856A.D. MARS

Alpha

Angel turned to see what sort of place they had found themselves in. Her small visor light was swallowed up in velvety blackness. Turning back to the door she ran her hands over it, the light sparkling over the metal.

There was no handle. It was completely smooth. She felt around the frame...it had sealed with hardly a crack to show where the edge of the door was.

Whatever was here was meant to be kept in, not let out.

 

Flint noticed a small blockade of vehicles put in the road. He hit full throttle and charged through slamming hard down his front wheel rising and over he went leaping the bike over the bolxkade and crashing back down with a thud he skidded off the road and separated from the bike. Two warriors armed with pulse rifles began to shoot at him. He reached for his axe but it was out of cover. He wasn’t.

Rolling onto his back he unstrapped his machine gun took aim using his red dot and fired. Shot one took the closest out in a clean headshot while shot two took the other out hitting the neck. The soldier dropped clenching his throat. Flint stood saw another and fired. The other fired back. Suddenly Flint was on one knee covering his 90 degrees in a spray of full auto. He only saw the first he killed. Two others fell out of the shadows in a heap slamming hard down.

Checking on a 180 degree sweep he advised himself he was alone again. Wasting no time he mounted the bike again and road off.

 

Alpha Squad

*Edited due to deviation from the Master Plan.

 

Alpha Squad

Castillene lessened the pressure he was exerting on the door.

They couldn't see anything, the darkness holding them firm in its embrace. "Alright everyone, helmet lights on." he advised.

Four thin cones of light flickered to life, trying to break the shadows around them. It was unusually quiet, and Nero didn't like the feeling of being unable to see further than his arm. He took a quick check at his ammo for the Hydra rifle, he had almost completely wasted the catridge in the ambush. He had only a few bursts left before he had to reload.

"Alpha, we'll move out in arrowhead formation, scout the perimeter and then we'll come back here and try to contact our fellow squadrons." Nero ordered, wiping the blood off his combat knife.

 

The door shut, engulfing the place in darkness. Jack heard the sound of the fuel igniting and burning itself out. Nero ordered their lights on, but for some reason it seemed to do little in the darkness of the room.

Jack replaced his pistol's clip and began to scout, keeping along the wall. It seemed to go on for a long time.

"Hm." Jack muttered simply. A second later, he heard his comment echoed by what seemed to be a hundred small voices. He brought his gun up, searching around him, but he saw nothing. Jack continued forward. He took two steps when he felt a sting on his left shoulder, like a bug bite. Instinctively, he slapped at it, but nothing was there. Shrugging, he continued forward...and then his light went out.

And...there was nothing. Absolute quiet. It was a silence so empty and desolate that raw, unchallenged fear began to well up in him. He tried to call out to his teammates. He felt his vocal cords vibrate, but still the empty silence remained. And then, from all around him, it seemed he heard Angel's voice.

"Jack?" He tried to call back, but no sound came, yet again. "Jack, are you there?" Her voice came from behind him this time, and he whirled to face it.

"Jack, help me!" Angel's voice again, from his left. He began to panic, groping around frantically in the darkness. Other voices began to mingle with hers.

"Who do you think you are, Cyrus?" It was Nero's voice. "You think she'll actually care for you? Actually love a frail weakling like you? You're a fool, Cyrus. A deluded fool. You have nothing to offer..." It kept tormenting him.

He then heard the hissing and shouting of the soldiers he had fought. The images of their contorted faces burning themselves onto his mind's eye. All was darkness around him, but in his ears and mind, he burned in a hell of tarnished dreams, tortuous accusations, and murderous threats.

He fell to his knees, holding his head.

 

We moved out following Nero, Jack at my right side and Karasu bringing up the rear. Our tiny lights stabbed like needles into the darkness, dying out not far from our faces.

I clutched my pistol, fighting down the urge to touch Nero’s back or take Jack’s hand just to orient myself, for reassurance that I wasn’t alone in the dark.

Nero must have dropped back beside me for some inexplicable reason. I didn’t know why he would abandon the formation in such conditions but I heard his voice and felt his lips tickle my ear as he whispered.

“Angel, you have to shoot Jack.”

“What?” I said but my voice was soundless. I frowned. I had to be imagining…

Nero’s whisper came again, his hand on the small of my back.

“Jack and Karasu are Cult operatives. Deep cover. We have to shoot them both now.”

“We can’t!” it’s like having a hand on my vocal cords, stopping them from any vibration.

“Cyrus didn’t want to kill the next generation Adepts.” Nero’s voice is reasonable and even a little sad, “Karasu seemed to have a family bond with them. Think about it.”

How could this possibly be?

“On my mark you shoot Jack, I take down Karasu.”

“No…”

“Now!”

I swivel to my right where Jack should be, meeting empty air. Instead I find him walking up on me and I sweep a foot under his legs, screaming a soundless warning. He pushes me and we both crash to the floor but as we fall my light shows Karasu’s startled face.

Then I hit the floor and my head bounces hard, my light going out completely.

 

Karasu felt like he was walking in a field of complete darkness. He could see no one in front of him and no one around him.
"Karasu," Angel said.
"What do you need?" Karasu asked.
"Help, Nero he is out of control...he is gone back to his old ways you have to shoot him," Angel said.
Karasu was slightly confused. He then heard Angel scream and he grabbed his gun out.
"I'm going to kill the girl," Nero said, "Just like I killed your girlfriend."
"Karasu help me," Angel said.
Karasu thought he saw a shadow.
Karasu clutched his head.
"This isn't real," he said.
"How do you know?" asked a familiar voice.
Karasu felt himself fall to the ground. Something had tripped him or someone.

 

I frowned as yet again the hell box gave a singsong ding and the doors opened wide. Spread out before me was an city. I was dead nothing moved even the shadows seemed to hold their place in time. A sudden blast of gun fire echoed through the city and I hefted my weapon running to the nearby shelter of a ran down building with naughty pussycats written on its front in faded gold letters. The gun fired had stopped and the roar of a motorcycle indicated that their had been only one clean winner.

I cautiously edged out from the building. A crash smoked nearby. I hurried over to it, the first rule of survivalism if your dead you don’t need it. I surveyed the wreak broken chainsaw broken people, ooh bullets. I picked up a small box of cartridges and dumped them into my backpack. Their were motorcycles nearby unfortunately a little too broken for my likes. I looked about this place was abandoned surely there were other machines I could get my hands on.

I’d been walking for what seemed like hours when I heard the familiar ding of an elevator. At first I couldn’t help but grin after all I wasn’t trapped in the crappy thing. After several more paces I stopped again. When I had been on the upper level where I could reach flint those razor balls had been up there also. My heart jumped to my throat, they seemed to have some kind of intelligence perhaps they had figured out how to use it. I ducked into a nearby building and hurried through it until I came to what appeared to be a garage. Inside a police patroller sat gathering dust the door wide open and the keys dangling from its ignition. A body lay on the floor beneath the car, mostly dust and bones. I hit the panel that accessed the doors to the Garage and switched the patrollers ignition with my eyes closed, god help me if the thing didn’t work anymore. With a strange choked sound the patroller started. I didn’t give it time to warm up. Putting my hand up I flicked several switches and the patroller rose to the right levitation and shot out the door. My jaw dropped as I saw the razor balls spilling through the streets. There was more then twenty now it was something like 200. I hit the autopilot and retrieved my grenade launcher snapping it together I flicked up the sight and lined it up with the silver sea of shiny silver balls below. With a beep and a whooshing sound the grenade was launched and the silver balls were swallowed up by another sea, this one made of flame.

 

Angel's last glimpse was of Karasu’s shocked face as she hit the floor.

Other than that she saw nothing but two pinpoints of light glowing and fading somewhere above her. She began to scramble back to her feet, trying to call to the others, straining her vocal chords against the heavy silence.

Nothing, there was nothing. She groped outward, thought she felt clothing but it slipped away.

“I took them out,” Nero’s voice was heavy and soothing all around her, “Jack and Karasu. You couldn’t do it so I did.”

Where was he? Angel tried to find him in the dark but all she felt was floor and empty air.

“And now you’re coming with me. We’ll go where we’re safe.”

How? I can’t even find you-

Before she finished her thought a rough set of hands grabbed her ankle and dragged her quickly and inexorably further into the black.

 

Charlie Squad

Bull was furious. He had been for some time now. His spitting was more rapid and the tobacco hit the floor harder each time. After seeing the experiments in the lab and McShayne telling them Hot Dog had died, he was upset. He may not understood the guy, but that didn't mean he didn't like him. The death had struck Bull hard, as most do when one of his squad mates dies. What made it particularly stinging was the greenhorn lieutenant's reaction to it. No moment of silence, and words of encouragement, just "let's move out" and "how are we supposed to do something with the gate, without a tech specialist."

No emotion, and no care for Hot Dog's death. At first he just hated the lieutenants inexperience. Now he just plain hated her. Don't worry little buddy, Bull thought to himself. I'll avenge your death if it takes me a last blaze of glory to do it.

 

Hot Dog walked carrying his Colt in a firm grip and suddenly the ground opened up he slipped down unnoticed by the others. Hot Dog found himself sliding down some kind of chute he panicked wondering what was just happening. Suddenly he landed with a bang hard on the floor. Pain smacking him full on from the impact. He colt slipped from his grasp. He found himself on all fours crawling to reach it. When suddenly he felt pain grip him from the back.

Fox stood looming over him her tailing swinging back and forth like a snake. She felt absolute rage. Drugs induced into her system to stem her own pain from the recent operation filled hatred into her. She watched as Hot Dog crawled to reach his gun. With the tap of her Tail she hurled him over onto his back and kicked his gun away from him.

Hot Dog looked up into the vengeful eyes of this female adversary, Her tail moved like a snake about to strike from what he could see of her Bionic hand and leg they’d been amalgamated within the flesh. Her Tail became her spine a metallic spine on the outside of her skin running up into the back of her head. He loomed over him infusing his nerves with a horror that forced his groin wet from urinating in sheer fear. Hot Dog looked for his gun. She hurled him with a tap of the tail he slammed hard into the wall. Pain crippling his back slightly.

He took out a blade and spun it around in her hand while walking towards him again.

“No no please I do beg of you please.” He cried tears filling his eyes and raining down his cheeks. Suddenly real life gripped him and in that instant he felt his bowels release.

Fox brought the blade down piercing his leg in a deep slice she drove the blade down to his knee. Blood thrown across the wall once she retracted the blade.

Hot Dog looked down at the gaping wound pain riding high in him he glimpsed the bone and felt he would pass out, yet remained conscious. Fox picked him up by the throat and threw him again. Blood raining as he flew through the air he landed hard cracking his head on the floor. A new gash appeared with dribbles of blood dropping down his face in a thin river or crimson.

Hot Dog looked and glimpsed his gun in that moment he felt hope and rolled towards it taking a two handed grip he fired. Missed fired again missed again.
Fox moved swiftly and accurately timed avoiding Hot Dogs shots.
She leaped high using her tail as a spring and came down behind Hot Dog who by now staggered up blood dropping from his gash and blood still pouring from his leg. He turned to face Fox and fired again. His shot missed again. Leaving Fox laughing. She moved with a speed he couldn’t keep up with. He felt a sharp pain pierce his stomach. Hot Dog looked down to see the sharp end of the metallic tail had indeed pierced through him. He felt his lungs begin to fill with liquid and blood dribbled from his mouth running down his chin. Again he felt bowel movement and felt a warm liquid again pass down his leg as more of his urine dribbled out from his boot leaving a puddle. Fox sliced her tail up splitting him in two quickly. Hot Dog felt one last thought before his body split down the middle to the shoulder leaving his head still attached to one half as both sides fell in opposite directions. Blood vomiting from the split violently. Hot Dogs last sight was the separation of his body before Fox swung her blade across and severed |Hot Dogs head from the still falling half of his body. As the head separated she kicked it like a ball across the floor.

“I have taken one out.” Fox said speaking into her wrist communicator a sardonic smile graced across her face.

 

"McShayne, try using that communicator to get into contact with Alpha squad and let them know that our techie is dead." Ash sees that Bull seems to be upset. "Listen Bull, I know that you're pissed that one of our own died, but please trust me on this, he death won't have been in vain. We will get the gate and we will kill these bastards." They continue walking down the long hallway of the building. There are likely more experiments going on behind each door. Ash begins to think to herself, what should they do next....

.........Staying inside buildings would make defense easier, however, they might by able to watch our progress easier. Though if we go outside, then they can attack from any angle, including from above us......

"Ok from now on we stick together at all times, unless I tell you otherwise. We will try to travel indoor or underground as much as possible and when we go out, I want you guys to stick to cover, understood? I don't want anyone else dying under my command."

 

Nero's helmet light shone through the darkness. A second ago he was with his squad scouting, and the next they were gone. He was sure he hadn't overdone his pace, and when he called out to the rest of Alpha, he was only received with echo's. All in the same, monotonous tone.

Then only a minute after he can he his fellow members, but there were too many speaking at the same time, and Nero was beginning to wonder what exactly he had stumbled into. Then it got worse.

The wails of tormented and the assassinated filled his head. This time, the voices weren't his own thoughts, he could hear them. Old memories resurfaced, the deaths he caused back to collect hell's penance. They begged the sergeant to let them live, even as he ended their corrupt lives. The irony of it all, for he too was becoming something other than Nero Castillene. Corrupted.

"Look at you, your pathetic." the shrill voices said, he can hear them increase in volume and then vanish into the darkness as he aimed his Hydra gun from side to side, not knowing the positions of his assailants.

"You couldn't protect her because you were too busy sleeping? And you call yourself a soldier!" they screamed.

"Shut up!" Nero barked in retaliation, unsure if this was him going insane.

"Why don't you?" another voice responded, it was his own. And it was right behind him.

The demon slammed into Nero, sending him soaring through the air and crashing into the tunnel wall. He slumped to the ground, his head pulsing with pain. He looked around for allies, still sitting on the ground. "Cyrus! Karasu! Angel!" Castillene called, there were no replies. He felt a numbness in his legs from the flashes of hurt.

"Don't you hate me Nero? You expect me to follow your so called authority? You think you can lead me?" The voice bayed. It was Cyrus's.

"You envy me, because I have Angel. And you don't." It laughed at Nero, and Castillene burned with fury.

Nero got to his feet, waiting for the next taunt to slither his way. He clicked his helmet light, but it wouldn't turn on, the buttons destroyed when he impacted against the wall. Fine, lets fight blind Nero thought, taking his helmet off his head and tossing it into the air.

The Sergeant heard the wind break as multiple figures flew towards the helmet. In microseconds turning it into seven different pieces of scrap metal. Nero tried not to make sudden movements, but he couldn't see anything. He began to sweat.

He extended one hand and held his rifle in the other, attempting to feel his way towards his comrades. He can see a faint glimmer of white light, a teammate. "Are you Alpha? Respond?" the Sergeant asked in the darkness.

"Sergeant!" Karasu called back. Castillene ran towards the noise, relieved. "Is that you?" he inquired, feeling around. His hand touched the greasy, leathery skin of the bat.

"No." It replied. Kicking him down with its hind legs, sending Nero sliding on the ground. Castillene got to his feet quickly and ran towards the thing, wrapping his arms around the bats throat. It shrieked in Karasu's voice and took off, wings flapping harshly.

Nero held on, tightening his grip around the bats thick neck. The bat began flying close to the walls of the tunnel, ripping bloody gashes in Nero's back as he tried to suffocate the demon.

The demon spun in a vicious barrel roll, desperate to get Nero off. Castillene took the few precious seconds of grip he still had and unholstered his pistol, he shot three holes in the beast. Two in the wing and the last in the arm.

The animal lost control, contracting it's wings and falling down in a vertical free fall. They both collided head on to the ground. The beast's skull made a horrid crack as it hit the ground. The former spy taking the lesser amount of the blow, and dust billowed out around them. His head now pounded in anguish. Nero rolled sideways off the back of the winged beast, groaning in pain.

He heard Angel's soft voice call out to him, "Here, let me take care of that for you Nero.". The sergeant moaned.

Then another bat latched onto his boot and lifted him up into the air, his rifle fell out of his limp hands as he ascended into the heights of the cavern.

The blood rushed to his head and he was helpless. The bats swooped in from all directions, slicing gouges all around his body.

Nero screamed as they slashed and ripped through his suit, blood dripping from the wounds onto the ground. He muttered Angel's name as his blood dripped onto his face.

This is how it ends. his thoughts said, fading away.

This is how you end.

 

Karasu got up on all fours. He hadn't comprehended much of what was going on.
"Karasu," said a familiar voice.
"Linda," Karasu said.
It couldn't possibly Linda, he had gotten her death not. But it must have been her. It was her.
"How could you break your promise?" Linda said.
"It was part of duty,"
"Don't duty me...you made a promise and you broke it,"
"I didn't mean to I..."
"Was following orders,"
The whole entire room seemed to echo.
"You broke your promise,"
"The promise,"
"Promise,"
"Promise,"
"They were our children,"
It echoed in his head and the images of what had happened before spread through his head. His head felt cracking or splitting open.
"Why did you kill our children?" said the voice.
There were to many voices all at once.
"Shut up,"
"Don't tell me to shut up,"
"You broke your promise,"
Karasu did the next best thing. Or out of the confusion the only thing he could think of. He hit his head on the ground pretty hard, just to get the voices out of his head. Just to make the voices go away.
Just to stop the demons.

 

Jack's mind was wrenched out of its torment to become aware of an agony of a different sort. One that was easier to bear. Physical pain. Something was tearing at his right shoulder, digging hard through his uniform and into his flesh. He moved his
left hand around and smacked it, and the flow of new pain stopped, leaving only the old. Something bashed against his head. Hard. He fell to one side, fumbling for his gun. The shrieks that he heard became less and less recognizable...whether that was for better or worse, Jack couldn't tell.

The creatures came at him again and again, beating him mercilessly in the darkness. He dared not fire at what he couldn't see. All he could do was keep moving, keep fending them off, prevent them from devouring him.

How long could he keep this up?

 

Angel slid along the floor on her back, terrified, towed by something that had her by the ankle.

She screamed, she knew she screamed, but there was no sound just the pressure that squeezed her ears, eyes, and throat. This could not be Nero. No human could drag her this quickly.

And even if it was, the fact that he would drag her meant all kinds of bad things.

She drew her plasma pistol and fired into the black velvet space ahead of her and in the light that accompanied the gout of hot gas she saw something that wasn’t Nero at all.

It was something that could have come from the pit of hell.

The dragging stopped and the pressure was gone from her ankle. Whatever it had been it didn’t like that much. She fumbled at her pocket, getting the Comm out with shaking hands as she scrambled back away from wherever the thing might be.

Some warm liquid dripped on her hair and leaked into the visor, running down her cheek. It smelled coppery and salty. Blood.

Screaming again she almost dropped the Comm as she skittered away several steps. She clutched it, breathing hard while the screen slowly lit.

The jamming caused interference on the screen, dancing lines that threatened to knock out the Comm altogether but it worked.

It worked.

She scanned heat signatures in the room and came up not with three but with ten. No way to tell which were her teammates and which were the things like she had seen.

Angel shuddered, running through the functions, trying to find something to help them the faint glow of the screen bathing her face with its weak light.

"It's no use." she heard Jack's voice clearly, "We'll never get out of here. Never."

Karasu's voice joined in, "A suicide pact. We're trapped and we can control how we die."

"Yes," agreed Jack's voice, "We'll never get out anyway."

"Shut UP!" Angel screamed silently. And then something occurred to her.

 

Karasu felt a pressure on him, a pressure that didn't belong to any human. He could barely make out a blind inhuman figure on top of him and trying to bring him up. He took out his pistol and shot it.
What the hell was going on?
Karasu's head still hurt from hitting it earlier, but he decided to call for someone.
If that was even going to work.
"Angel, Jack, Nero," he called out.
"Karasu," Jack said, "I'm this way."
Was it a trap?
Karasu didn't follow the voice instead he got up a little woozy as blood trickled down his forehead from the head injury he caused himself, and he began to walk. He decided if he kept going in the direction they had mapped out before, even if it wasn't the actually direction. He heard squelching and ripping something was up ahead.
He heard the moans of Jack. He must be, being attacked by those whatever the hell they were. If he shot, he would surely shoot Jack. Instead he shot up at the ceiling to distract the creatures.
"If you stay still and keep your mouth quiet they won't be able to find," Karasu said to Jack.
He hoped Jack heard him.

 

Alpha Squad

Nero hung limply from the demon's grip. The bloody gashes on his chest and back still wept. His face was streaked with rivulets of red, and his will to live seeping away from his conscience.

His senses became acute and he can hear all the voices clearly, although which voice belonged to whom was shrouded in the sick vocal adaptations of the winged beasts.

"Shut up!" he can hear Angel saying lowly.

Castillene couldn't see anything around him, the world turned upside down by the direction which he hung from. His arms lacked the strength to lift and blood rushed ever slowly to his head, only showing a slight blurring of the consuming darkness. He wished he had told the truth to Angel. There was nothing he could do now.

Just. Die.

Nero let out a shrill scream, his guilts and regrets lashing out in what he believed would be his last breaths. A second beast soared towards him, latching its talons into his stomach. Castillene shut his eyes tightly to hold in the pain. His own voice came back to haunt him in the fiendish creature.

The monster held onto Nero's chest with both hands and hind legs, squeezing into his abdomen. The beast took on his vocals, bringing it's unseen face dangerously close to Nero's. He couldn't see the thing that sliced into him, but he narrowed his eyes in a show of defiance. It's hot breath washed over his face as it spoke in his voice.

"So you lose again don't you Nero?" It said, the faint yellows and white of it's fangs nearing the sergeants face made him wince.

"I thought you were Nero!" the sergeant spat, a rusty laugh escaping his throat.

"I am the stronger one." It replied, the rancid smell of it filling Castillene's nostrils.

Nero swung a feeble punch in it's direction, but it moved it's head backwards effortlessly and brought its face close again to his. The sergeant whispered a silent farewell to his love.

"Angel?" the creature snarled in disgust. "There are no angels here my friend." It declared triumphantly.

"This is hell." the winged fiend said levelly. Nero gave a dark smile, using the last ditch of strength remaining, he clicked on his gravi-stick.

The Hydra rifle shivered on the rocky ground, then flung itself through the air, multiple demons swooped in at the sudden movement to shred it, but it was too quick.

The rifle stuck to the sergeants hand, and he whipped it around violently, shoving it in the dead center of the demon's hideous face.

"Then welcome to mine." Nero growled. The demon's eyes widened in horror.

He pulled the trigger.

 

Angels’ fingers raced over the Comm unit as she added it up. Darkness, jamming, altered sound, pressure…

A deep booming like explosions underwater accompanied flashes of light overhead. Looking up all Angel could see where grotesque shapes struggling in a dark knot and from somewhere in the mess a firearm was going off repeatedly.

Shaking, she changed configurations on the comm unit and sent a signal. Nothing happened.

The interference lines writhing across the small screen got thicker, closer together, and she heard Jack’s voice approaching her.

“I think I know what you’re trying to do,” Jack said quickly, “give it to me, I can help you.”

She backed away from the unseen voice, clutching the comm. against her chest to blot out the blue glow of the screen.

“Come on, Angel,” his voice was persuasive, “we don’t have much time. You know I can figure that out in half the time it takes you.”

The comm. unit almost pulled from her fingers and she clutched it back, snarling and kicking out, her boot meeting something solid.

“That wasn’t very nice,” Jack’s voice was utterly cold, “now give it to me.”

Angel turned and ran. She made it six steps before the claws grabbed her from behind, wings wrapping around her like a smothering cloak. Panting, she managed to finish the second reconfigure of the comm. as she tried to wriggle free.

Something sharp sank into her shoulder, at the base of her neck, accompanied by hot breath and saliva. She moaned in terror and her thumb mashed the Comm’s green button.

The explosion was instantaneous and disgusting. The fangs lost their hold, slipping from her flesh, as blood, tissue, bone, and metal flew everywhere.

 

Adam watches the soldiers wading their way through the struggles he looks back at the dome he’s in and stares at the Millions of soldiers all prepared to enter the gate for the final assault. Stood at his side the Kirska Captain of the guard and Skraal Flesh Tearer.

Adam turned to the two warriors.

“Kirska take Fox with you and wipe out that third team. Skraal Hunt down that force team with a vengeance. I’ll have Vornn head for the dome of New England and take care of that solitary soldier.”

The two men saluted and walked away. A moment later and another stood in the shadows still shrouded by the dark light.

“I trust you landed saftely.” Adam enquired.

“I did that thank you.” The other said in a soft female voice.

Adam caught a glimpse of her blue hair as she stepped from, the shadows.

“Everything is ready Mr Sekki has been waiting for your return after all it has been rather a long time since we last saw you.” Adam explained.

“Oh. I wouldn’t have said that now.” She replied stepping from the light to reveal her still youthful features and short blue hair. Adam notices the Cybernetic shoulder as she emerges from the dark.

 

Alpha

All at once, the voices stopped, and the pain inside his head subsided. He felt something wet, slimy, and warm spatter across the side of his face. He blinked, and shook his head slightly. It was then that he realized he could see what was in front of him. He reached up and felt around his head. His light was still there. It had never gone out. He stood, and looked around, and his heart leapt into his throat as the cone of light shone on the form of a tiny, demon-like creature. It was headless; the floor where a head should have lain was covered in gore and small fragments of metal. It was a big sucker...probably six foot wing span with clawed talons that looked fairly heavy-duty. It appeared, though, that there were several cybernetic components lodged into it as well.

He'd take a closer look later.

"Angel?" He shone the light around, and saw her on the floor nearby, similarly plastered with the results of the beasts' deaths. The comm was next to her, and he needed take only one look at the display before smiling. He helped her to her feet. She was a little disoriented.

"Are you okay?" He asked. He smiled at her as he tried to wipe some of the goo from her face with his glove. "You're a genius, you know."

 

Nero shot four bursts of the Hydra rifle into the demon, who's brain splattered on the far wall.

For some unknown reason, and to his horror, the demon holding onto his leg was beheaded in an explosion of meaty, cybernetic chunks.

The tangled bodies of Nero and the demon free fell twenty two feet, the sergeant struggling to push the bulk under him but the claw remained latched onto his leg.

Fifteen feet.

Nero unsheathed his knife and drove it into the creatures spine, using it as a makeshift steering wheel, and turned the demon under him.

Nine feet.

Castillene couldn't tell through the darkness how far the floor was from him, but he knew it was closer than he though, and they were falling head first.

Three feet.

In the split seconds he had left he planted both feet on the creatures back, his adrenaline fueling him.

One foot.

Both figures slammed into the ground, and the corroded wings sprang to full wing length, the nerve system and damaged mechanics of it still ticking.

Nero emerged from the twitching demon, patting the black dust off his shoulder.

"My hell indeed." he said, his inhuman strength somehow saving his life from the fatal drop.

 

"Angel?"

A small light pierced the darkness, coming closer.

"Are you okay?" It was Jack, not some demonic cyborg copy of Jack but the real Jack, helping her wipe the revolting goo from her face. She had never been so happy to see anyone in her life. "You're a genius, you know."

"Uck," said Angel, still overwhelmed by the fact that she was covered with demon goo. The room seemed to spin a little and she clutched Jack for support.

Then she registered what he said and gave him a weak smile.

"Wish I could have been a genius a little bit faster. It...it bit me." She winced, as she felt the pain of the bite at the base of her neck.

"Are you okay? Where are the others?"

 

Alpha

"Oh yeah, I'm fine." Jack said, just before he remembered the pain in his torn-up, bloodied shoulder. Seeing Angel, and hearing her real voice, had made him forget it. He shone the light about, looking for Nero and Karasu. He found the former about twenty feet away, standing over the broken body of one of those demonic bats. Most of the bat's inner contents had spewed across the floor out the torn opening where its head should have been. No doubt a consequence of Nero falling on it.

Seeing Nero there immediately brought up a collection of nasty thoughts. It had been the bat-things speaking to him, Jack knew that. But he also knew that what they had said wasn't too far off the mark from what Nero thought. He forced his feelings down, trying to empathize. What if Angel wanted to be with Nero, instead of him? How would he feel then? Would he be able to just pass it off and move on? Or would he begrudge Nero? He glanced back at Angel. Yes. He probably would.

"Reporting, sir. Angel killed the bat-things."

 

"Reporting, sir. Angel killed the bat-things." Cyrus said somewhat triumphantly as Nero walked up to him casually.

"Good." he said simply, Jack's light shining in his direction. Uncaring of the teammate he was giving his silent apologies to minutes before. Inside he stuck firmly to his beliefs that a leader shows no emotion, it was a weakness. Holding everything inside, he stayed concrete about expressing himself.

Nero didn't have a light source, his helmet trashed by the now immolated cyborg flyers. Jack and Angel had the only lights. He took a glance around.

"Where's Karasu?" he questioned, pretendingly ignoring the reunion.