Shattered Worlds

Shattered Worlds - Part 2...

Part 2

The troop immediately split, Jak nodding to Sutter who nodded back before being swallowed by the murk that surrounded them.

"Scouts ahead, follow me carefully and remember this is their natural environment, they're used to this shit," said Jak to his squad.

He moved ahead, his sniper's rifle slung over his shoulder as he hefted his grenade blaster, his 'five' issued with standard plasma blasters.

"Target five hundred metres ahead, let's..."

His command was truncated by rifle fire from his right as one of the platoon opened up with all six guns available to him, a small group of armoured Lizards skittering up out of a concealed hole. Others opened fire on the group and after a brief exchange of fire the Lizards were down.

There was a hiss of static on the radio and one of the troop requested a private channel.

"Report."

"Yes, Sergeant. It's Private Chaled here sir. I'm uninjured but have lost two of my drones. I... er..."

"Spit it out man."

"I... I felt them die Sarge."

"What?"

"As they got hit, they felt the wounds, and when they shut down I got their memories. It wasn't unpleasant; it was just kinda weird Sarge. Captain Price did say they have a limited memory capacity, so I guess they sorta downloaded."

"Downloaded? Shit the bed. Okay. That's just something we'll have to deal with, no time now to think about it now. Come on, let's go."

Jak bent forward into the howling wind that battered them, the full face helm and armour the only things protecting him from the fury of the elements as they slogged forwards through the mud, lightening occasionally streaking the sky or illuminating the clouds in front of them. Then there was a roaring scream that was heard even above the storm, and 'incoming' was shouted over the radio as a battle line of lizards appeared in full infra-red glory on their visors.

"Fire at will!" shouted Jak, and both humans and drones dropped into any cover they could and began picking targets from the charging mass of Lizards that skittered across the watery slop towards them, their webbed feet allowing them to run across the surface at speed.

The increased rate of fire of the drones was immediately apparent, and the ranks of the enemy were winnowed away as the auto loading plasma blasters kept up the speed of fire, bolt after bolt slamming into the Lizards, with occasional grenades launched into denser masses of the enemy.

Jak switched to his sniper rifle, sighted on the crested head of an enemy platoon leader and smiled in grim satisfaction as part of his head disappeared in a bloody spray of greenish blue blood. Abruptly the rain cleared and Jak got a full view of the battlefield, spying Sutter and his troops about two hundred metres away.

Then he saw the Captain in between them. Price was crouched directly behind three of his 'five', the drones soaking up fire from the Lizards as the remaining two battled their way through the battle lines.

He clicked to a private channel. "Sutter."

"Yes, Sarge?"

"What the hell is Pricey doing?"

"No idea Sarge."

"No neither have I, but it doesn't seem right somehow."

"Nah, seems a bit odd don't it. I'll keep an eye him."

Malfunction... vision of No.1 standing with head tilted slightly as if in conversation. System compromised. Download. Terminate...

Jak gasped and shook his head as the sudden brief influx of information hit his cortex.