Before Colonel Michaels’ body was on the floor several more mind blasts came, each blowing the brains out of an unsuspecting soldier. In a matter of moments the floor was littered with a dozen bodies.
For the soldiers’ part, they reacted quickly. Machine guns were hoisted and aimed, but trigger fingers suddenly weighed a thousand pounds and wouldn’t move.
“Their minds!” one soldier managed to shout out, and a second later his head exploded in an unseen blast.
“Ed… Ed!” another soldier shouted, staring across the few feet that separated him from his nearest companion, Ed Childers, member of Delta Force for more than a year, but now staring with wide and frightened eyes as his arm seemingly moved against his will, pointing the machine gun his companions’ way.
“Ed… no!” Ben Dean shouted again, but it was too late. Ed raised the gun up and suddenly his trigger finger wasn’t so heavy and was now moving toward its goal, exactly when he didn’t want it to. His eyes began to water as his mind revolted against what he was about to do, but his body couldn’t object. The machine gun fired to life.
Ben Dean was mowed down as were a dozen soldiers around him. Ed kept firing and crying and trying to say he was sorry but he couldn’t stop. The firing continued and then–
BANG!
It was a single shot, but the bullet went right into Ed’s forehead and stopped that finger from firing. He fell to the floor dead and Gus Tine gritted his teeth and reached down to grasp the bullet wound in his side, the one he’d just taken from Ed. He’d been lucky enough to survive, unlike many of his companions now lying dead beside him.
“Start shooting, our wounds stopped ‘em!” he shouted to the other wounded men around him, just three that looked capable of firing. Of them, two nodded and reached for their weapons, and Gus directed his attention back to the three Grays still standing near the antimatter machine. He took careful aim and–
“Shit!” Chris Evans said as he saw Gus’s brains blow out the back of his head, another one of those mind blasts from the aliens. He glanced over at Doug Best, who was the only other one down on the ground with him. Doug had his machine gun up and got a few rounds off, right at one of the Grays and then–
“Shit,” Chris muttered again as Doug’s brains exploded out of his head. He gritted his teeth, raised his pistol up to his eye, aimed, and fired. The Gray ahead of him — its name was beyond human comprehension — had sensed what Doug was doing, but just a hair too late. The 9mm bullet slammed into the small space between its two black eyes and it jumped back a step involuntarily, then began to fall back slowly. It was dead before it hit the cold steel floor of the tunnel.
A shout went out, but that wasn’t quite right, it was more a mental blast of anguish, and it came from the two remaining Grays. They unleashed their fury at the same time they unleashed their reserves. The door behind them that led into one of the many smaller storage chambers opened up and several Reptilians poured forth, each armed with a flash gun.
On the floor Doug was able to smile at his kill before his head exploded like an overripe melon, the mental blast from two Grays hitting him at once. Blood and brains showered those soldiers still around, of which there were few.
The initial firing and mind blasts had taken out more than forty of the scientists and nearly all of the thirty soldiers. The remaining scientists had managed to run back into the tunnels, most heading toward the ramps leading up to Level 1. Some of the soldiers also cut and run, although some were actually pulling back in face of the alien onslaught of mind blasts, trying to protect the fleeing scientists, as was their main duty. Now that Reptilians were pouring forth, and with flash guns, it was a whole new ballgame.
“Run!” a voice shouted, one of the few soldiers still standing near the antimatter reactor, and immediately he became the target of every Reptilian rushing in. It only took one blast from a flash gun and he was vaporized instantly, not a trace of him but a smote of dust that fell to the floor in a barely discernible pile.
That pile was trampled over a moment later by the scaled toe on one of the Reptilians’ feet, the large claw-like talons dashing it into oblivion. The thing wore no clothes, just a sort of utility belt that held some of its weapons. Many around it began hitting a small, orange button on those belts, allowing them to vanish instantly from sight. This one simply raised its gun and ran forth, its slit-serpentine eyes shining out as its scaled-body descended upon the mayhem. The creature made a hissing sound and raised its flashgun up, taking aim on another soldier, then firing. The man had been rushing toward the elevator that would lead to the surface, and was vaporized instantly. Several scientists were also rushing that way, and they met the same fate.
In the truck Reggie could hear the scratching and scraping of the Reptilians’ feet as they ran through the tunnel, hunting down the fleeing humans. The sounds were getting closer, closer to his truck, and he knew he had to do something. His eyes began to move back and forth in a panic as he thought. What weapon is there? What can I use? How can I—
The door to the cab flew open and Reggie bolted up from where he’d been crouching down on the seat, tears of fear coming to his eyes, ready to spill out over that black teardrop tattoo. A Reptilian was there, its broad snout just inches from his face, its yellow and serpentine eyes showing no sign of emotion. In its hand was a flash gun. Reggie’s eyes went wide. He managed to open his mouth in an attempt to shout ‘no’ when the alien fired… and everything went black.
Part I
1 — War
Turnicot Dupree ran through the rubble-strewn alley and hoped to hell he’d make it to the LZ. What the hell am I doing this far into the capital, anyways?
His thoughts were quickly interrupted as a Laotian fighter suddenly sprang out at him from around the next bend. Turn was out of ammo — even though he was still carrying his 9mm — but the soldier didn’t know that, and Turn brought the gun up as if to shoot. The move bought him a few precious seconds as the Laotian soldier dove back the way he’d come, no doubt scared to death of the tall black man in front of him. Turn did have scowling eyebrows and a pencil-thin mustache that covered a pair of sneering lips, lips that’d grown up not taking any Mississippi sass, and lips that sure the hell weren’t going to take any Asian bullshit.
“Got him!” Turn shouted over his shoulder to his partner Dan, then dashed forward, turned around the corner, and slammed the butt of the 9mm pistol down where he expected the man’s head to be, and where it was. The man crumpled to the ground and Turn reached down to–
BOOM!
Turnicot opened his eyes and dust immediately filled them. He closed them again and brought his hands up, rubbing at them for a moment, then opened them again. There was more dust, but at least this time he could keep his eyes open.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” he said, disappointed in himself, not believing that he could miss the tell-tale sound of an incoming mortar round.
He looked over and saw Dan lying there, clenching his leg, or what was left of it, for it now gone and had blood squirting out everywhere.