Across the Stars

Part 4

The Marine hopped onto the roof of the outpost. The shots had alerted two security drones which began to sweep the general vicinity. He hopped off the wall, and hit the ground running. He let the drones hover past him, then took careful aim and tapped twice, knocking both of them out of the air. The noise didn't attract any attention, so he moved on carefully.

With the outer defenses out of the way, he hurried over the grass to the nearest point of entry to the main base. There was a sewer shaft under a grate just large enough for him to fit, so he moved it aside, climbed in, and replaced the grate to cover his tracks.

The sewer was dark and rank with the smell of filth and the rotting corpses of aliens and men alike, thrown into the subterranean labyrinth of tunnels, pipes, and god-knows-what that had no purpose anymore. Even for scum like the Civil Security, he thought, these men deserved a better final resting place than lying and rotting in their compatriots' excrement.

It didn't take long for him to find an access point to exit the sewer, for which he was very glad. Hardened by warfare or not, the horrors in those tunnels still bothered him.

There was no time to dwell on what he had just seen, however, as he almost immediately ran into a Civil Security patrol. A group of four Light Infantry soldiers came around a corner, and almost literally bumped into the Marine.

"Hey! Intruder!" One of the soldiers grabbed the Marine's arm, and tried to relieve him of his weapons, while another opened a comm channel to headquarters.

The Marine would have none of it. In one smooth motion, he dislocated his attacker's shoulder, then snapped his neck. Holding the corpse in front of him as a meat shield, he drew his pistol and blasted the other three soldiers. Two fell, with cleanly scorched holes through their visors, and the third staggered backwards and cursed, before falling to the ground.

The last soldier struggled to get up to a sitting position - the plasma burst had hit the thickest part of his armor, and deflected away from his heart and into his lungs. He wasn't dead yet, but he soon would be. He pointed his pistol and fired right at the Marine's head.

The nine-millimeter bullet bounced off the Tyrian helmet without so much as a scratch. It hit a wall a few feet away, and stopped.

"My turn." The Marine leveled his pistol, and dispatched the dying soldier with a single shot.

He exhaled. He hadn't realized he was holding his breath. It was so thrilling, the fight, the deaths... He felt powerful. To know that he was impervious to bullets was a feeling few experienced, and it was exhilarating. He chuckled to himself as he holstered his pistol, and kept on his way. It was time to find more men to kill.

***

"Is he alive?"

"Yes, Sha'aroth. I would not have brought you here if he were not."

"Then we have captured a Star Marine?"

"Yes, Sha'aroth. And the medics healed him."

"What of his companion? Did he escape?"

"Yes. But we are not concerned with him. He is but one, and we are millions."

"Then tell me, Ben'gaan, why this one is so important."

"Because he has valuable information. We can use his-"

Ben'gaan was cut off by his head being slammed into the edge of the operating table. Sha'aroth barely had time to react before the same hands that had ended Ben'gaan grabbed his head and spun it sharply, snapping his neck. Both Falkoks were on the floor, dead.