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CHAPTER 5
WESTERN RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL, MARCH 3rd 2087
Max didn’t like the way the Union had barged into the bunker. The bunker itself was massive, but the Union kept on pressing, not paying to attention to any kind of counter-attack. The two squads had stopped their vehicles, and continued the way walking when Stacey got an order from UNIONCOM to pull back vehicles, but not infantry. Max didn’t know why, but he wasn’t the one to question UNIONCOM. The squads stopped at an abandoned Rebel barricade, and took up residence there.
The fifty armed soldiers were spaced in a hallway about fifteen meters across, facing both directions. There were six 50 caliber machine guns, clips almost empty. The crowd of marines simply reloaded the guns and got comfortable. They had then spent around nine days sitting around, eating energy bars and snacking on hardened, instant noodles as they talked about everything and anything. Max was, for the first time, able to meet his fellow warriors.
Private Jack Pilla was a short, brown-haired man who had actually been on the same plane that Max was on, and was a pretty funny person. His hair was curled in all directions, making a pretty unique look that foretold his personality. He would always have a comeback line or wisecrack that he would pull on anyone. He was very attentive though, which was why he was one of Stacey’s favorite scouts.
Another soldier was Private Elroy Cannon, a “Chav”, according to himself. He was a lot like Pilla, except that his jokes were a lot more unintentional than Pilla’s. He was Pilla’s height, but lacked any muscle whatsoever. He had an extremely thick accent, so thick that some words were almost incomprehensible. There was one man, however, who could understand him.
That man was Private Jamal Quam, a tall, brown-skinned Indian who could understand Cannon’s dense English accent perfectly, and would reply with an accent of his own. Although his accent was permanent, it was more understandable than Cannon’s. He was a very also very patient, which was excellent in a sniper.
The last soldier in their “click” was Private Shannon Durand, who was a quiet, reserved girl would seem to fade into the background. She was talented with precision weapons, such as sniper rifles, but was slightly more curious in a way than Quam, whom was uncomfortable with being alone for too long. She always carried an E-book copy of H.G. Well’s epic, the “War of the Worlds”. She would sit on the edge of their circle, reading away. Max had a liking to her soft, blue eyes, and light brown hair that was nearly exceeding the limit of hair length. He felt like her eyes could simply cut into his mind, and into his heart.
There were twenty more men in Hedgehog, Linder, Burrow, Dull, Stacey, Cripps, Shilling, Isenberg, and several more. The small group was drinking out of cheap beer cans that didn’t taste anything like beer, when Stacey stood up. “Alright guys, we seem to have a small problem here,” he started, and an audible groan arose. “Marines, this looks bad. Very bad, we think that they have nukes, and have some sort of GPS jamming station here.”
He began to walk among the men, and continued. “There is a thick haze, conveniently, that blocks any visuals. Strangely, the two stations on patrol, the Nagasaki and the Pennsylvania, flicked off all radios, both within seconds of each other. Only nukes can do that shit, and with those missiles onboard, it should be impossible.” He grabbed his M-20, and pulled back the shaft in a satisfying clack. “Time to go head-hunting boys,” He started, and hopped over the sandbags, and immediately, everybody on Hedgehog followed.
Max carefully examined the area with his rifle. With him, he had Pilla, Cannon, Quam, Durand, and Linder. They silently jogged through the huge hallway, leading to the center of the EMP field. “Fireteam Charlie, remember to stay close, the EMP fields will screw with your COM equipment, Stacey out.”
“Confirm that Stacey, we’ll stay close,” said Linder, replying to the Lieutenant’s command. Max snapped at him, holding up a finger to where his mouth would be, now covered by a camouflaged rag. Linder nodded, and put his rifle up.
The group moved down what seemed to be an in-built monastery, with shattered glass and burned tiles on the group, strewn messily. Max slowly brought down his rifle when he approached the scorched bodies of the Renegades that were defending it. Their faces were charred, with huge, black burns on their bodies and heads. This was obviously some sort of laser weapon, all for all Max knew, the Union didn’t have those. He looked around, and saw an opening formed by an explosion. He holstered his rifle, and stepped through carefully.
The hole opened into a massive park that the Rebellion had built, but what was more terrifying was what was inside it. It was a ship.
The ship looked like a huge shark, with swept-back wings, and a large turret on top. It had several other turrets on the side, but Max was convinced that the one on top was the biggest threat. There were hundreds upon thousands of figures emerging from the ship, walking around aimlessly. There was a massive pile of dead Rebel soldiers, possibly the entire population of the bunker, and it was on fire. The rest of the team was with Max by now, surveying the carnage.
Someone reloaded their sniper rifle, which everyone carried, and tapped Max’s shoulder. “Hey, look, there’s that one guy in the red armor.”
“Yeah, I see him.”
“Looks pretty important, wouldn’t it be terrible if he just dropped dead?”
Max chuckled with the thought. He unhooked his sniper rifle, and took aim. Pretty soon, six sniper rifles were pointed at the alien’s head. He squeezed the trigger, and a muffled pop emerged from the rifle, and five more shots followed. The alien’s head exploded, and half of its chest was ripped away. Max pulled back, but the aliens somehow saw them. There was an audible anger in their voice as ten of the aliens ran at them with inhuman speed.
He began to panic for a minute as he fumbled with the thought that he had just engaged some alien commander without any clearance whatsoever. He stood up, and began backpedaling to the entrance of the chapel, when he saw the aliens. They had massive, polarized faceplates that obscured their faces, but there were giant jaws sticking out of each side of their masks. The lead one began shrieking, until bullets tore into its exposed body. There were two other warriors, which dove into the chapel and behind one of the benches when the other alien went down. One of them stood up, raised its rifle, and fired. A red-hot laser emitted from the rifle, and slammed into a pile of bricks next to Quam, which vaporized into a wet puddle of brown material.
Quam lunged behind cover, avoiding the second shot the alien fired at him. The other alien swept its weapon across the room, firing wildly. One laser impacted on Linder’s outstretched rifle, and burned it. The skin on his hands boiled, and popped. He cried out in pain as he dropped the rifle, and looked at his skinned hands, melting with the heat. Durand ran and tackled him behind one of the benches, as more lasers were fired at him.
Pilla and Cannon were at the left, hiding behind a broken wall. The alien weapons simply tore holes into their cover, but didn’t do much against solid objects, such as walls. Unfortunately, people aren’t solid objects. Max swapped to his M-20 rifle, and took aim. Then he saw his opportunity. The alien peered over the bench for a quick look, and Max squeezed the trigger.
The rifle gave out a series of bangs as the beast received the bullets, shuddered, and crumpled onto the ground. With two fingers, he pulled out his current clip, and with the other two he rammed in another. He flinched; he had barely used his previous clip. He shrugged it off and moved forward. He kept his rifle aimed at the door, but no more aliens came through.
Max poked his head out the door, and looked both ways. To the right, he had a wall, but to the left, there was a corridor, leading to the park. There were two more aliens there, lounging around. Max waved his arm forward, and the squad walked across the corridor into the hall they used to get into the chapel. Although Max wasn’t in command, he had a sense that he was in control. He rolled out, and opened fire on the alien on the left. The monster’s head exploded as explosive, armor-piercing rounds entered the back of its head. In half a second, the other spun, and opened fire. Max sidestepped back into the chapel as lasers burned where he once stood. He caught his breath but he heard the alien running for him. He rushed out the door as the alien came in, and swung his rifle to its face. It stepped back, stunned, as Max used the momentum of his rifle to swing to his upper-left, and brought it down onto the side of the alien’s head, spinning it around. He brought his rifle up for a shot at the alien’s back, when it turned around, its right arm flying to Max’s face.
Max stumbled drunkenly as he recovered from the blow, when a fist slammed into his solar plexus, sending him sliding onto the floor. He tried to get up, but he couldn’t. He could only watch in horror as the alien slowly walked up to him, and grabbed his neck. It lifted him off his feet with relative ease, and lifted him over his head. Max found himself smiling, and then he kicked the alien in the section where both jaws entered the mask as hard as he ever had. The alien dropped him, and fell onto its back. Max landed on his feet, and strode to the fallen alien. Max slowly removed a grenade from his belt as he stopped. He was standing next to it, and crouched. The alien swung a fist at him, which he grabbed, and placed a grenade into. He twisted the alien’s arm, and it went limp. He slowly placed the clenched, broken arm of the alien on its chest, and pulled the pin. He rose, and jogged to where the rest of Fireteam Charlie was. He snickered as he heard the loud explosion, and jogged a little faster. He reached Fireteam Charlie, and they waved at him.
“Hey, what happened to you?” Asked Cannon, examining him thoroughly, as he shouldered his shotgun, “got into a fight at school?”
Max looked at his chest. It was stained with both his and the alien’s blood. He looked back up at Cannon. “You think?”
