The Vectra slowly descended downward until it touched down in a clearing of forest. The wasp watched from the distance as the boarding ramp opened. Kooi ran out with Soren, both wielding laser rifles. They ran toward the wasp, only for Kooi to stop.
"You've gotta be kidding me!" He said, in total disbelief. The wasp was stationary, perched on the roof of a cabin in the woods. The bloodstains were still tainting the concrete slab and foliage after fifteen years.
The wasp proboscis fired a small sack which exploded on impact. Tens of wasp-sized flightless wasps burst out of the bubble, but Hornet charged in and crushed them all with his own limbs.
As the wasp took flight, it's proboscis dangled downward.
"I'm dead anyway..." Kooi mumbled, leaping up and grabbing the tube. Soren followed.
The flying robot vertebrate flew directly to Detroit where it slammed down into Willis tower, dropping onto one of the roofs. As it climbed up a wall, the two passengers screamed as they hung from the wasp. Suddenly, three PaveHawk gunships descended toward the wasp. Hurling its claws at one of the gunships, the wasp snapped it in half. It fired an energy blast at the second, blowing it to hell.
The third gunship opened fire with six .50cal machine guns, tearing through the wasp's armour. It let out a horrific scream before leaping at the helicopter. The rotor blades sliced through the proboscis, dropping Kooi and Soren to the ground. With a final fly kick, the wasp sent the gunship spiralling before obliterating it with the toothlike saw-blades.
"Buzz saws for teeth?! Who the hell came up with the designs for this thing! Oh wait... You did! So how the fuck do we stop it?!" Kooi cried above the noise. Soren climbed to his feet.
"The spinal cord is the power core. Remove that, we kill it!" Soren replied.
Suddenly, the wasp was struck by two missiles and fell from the tower, ripping through a wall on the way down. Kooi and Soren used this as an advantage. The B1 Lancer locked another pair of incendiary rockets and released them. The explosions of shrapnel were just enough to distract the wasp long enough for Soren and Kooi to reach down into its back and grip the spine. As they pulled, the wasp became erect, and shrivelled up, crushing itself between its own technology. With a final screech of pain and anger, it exploded into a burst of sparks and fell to the ground, collapsing to thousands of pieces. Kooi screamed in pain as he saw the second degree burns along his forearm.
Before the Lancer could land and ask questions, Kooi and Soren were already running for the Vectra Hornet had manned. Before the Lancer could catch up, the unearthly craft was already burning through the troposphere. Soren and Hornet flew the craft as Kooi was treated by the automatic nurse in the back. By the time his arm was anaesthetised and binded, Garrett forced his way into the flight deck. That's when he saw their destination: the second cannon.
As the Vectra touched down, Hornet was given his instructions.
"You keep the engines running, you set a timer for five minutes. If we aren't back in that time, you leave, got it?" Soren commanded. Hornet nodded.
Inside the launch platform, Soren activated the beam toward Mars again, and it fired, sending the CO2 directly toward the atmosphere, where it would return to the platform. Before Kooi and Soren could confirm course, they were both knocked out by chops to the jugular. Tana threw them into Hornet's Vectra.
"Get out of here!" Tana yelled, and Hornet complied, nodding and smiling, possibly the first time he ever had, closing the boarding ramp and ascending, setting course for the remains of the other complex.
Tana confirmed the course and the jet of carbon circled around Mars and returned to the cannon. The explosion of monoxide and dioxide tore the base to pieces.
• • •
A is for Ares Kooi thought as he phased back into consciousness, ignoring the pain in his throat and arm.
"FUCK ME RAW!!" He screamed. Everything made sense now. Everything about Hornet, everything about Bridger. A is for Ares. Hornet wasn't Ares... A was. A killed Hornet's family. Hornet is waiting for the moment to kill him. Nobody else matters. It was all about them. Always was. Always will be.
Kooi leapt up from his perch in the Vectra and went outside, ignoring the minute possibility that there may not be oxygen. He marched into the complex, dead set on finding Steven Bridger, A, Trevor, Ares, whoever he was. He saw Hornet through another glass door. As he pushed the door open, the most startling thing of all occurred. Mike's body dropped from the ceiling, dangling in the doorway from a noose, A's blade in his jugular.
Before he could think about anything else, the whole asteroid was shaken by a massive explosion. Kooi looked beside him out the next window, only to see the last launch platform disintegrate. He had been so caught up in his revelation that he'd forgotten what had happened minutes earlier.
"Tana..." He said to himself.
YOU ARE READING
A is for Ares
General Fiction[COMPLETE] A is a nameless man who goes by the first letter in the alphabet after a traumatic experience. He has found a cure to mental health - but he fails to realise his discovery's true nature. He doesn't know that he is a serial killer. Garrett...
