Chapter 8: Dog Fight
With a swift through and through shot, the Tan soldier's brains splattered out the back of his head, and through his helmet. The brain matter and blood landed on the hardwood floor bouncing off and running into the collapsing body. Not strapped under his chin, the helmet came off and flew backwards, tumbling over and over from the force's impact, following the path of his skull and brain matter. His mouth stayed open and his eyes kept locked on Gurdeaux as his life ended and his body became paperweight. The quick jolt of the head away from Gurdeaux allowed him to see deeper into the closet, which illuminated with the sunlight from behind. As the soldier's body came crashing down to the wooden floor, his arms flailed and legs kicked from under him, allowing his body to jump off the ground and kick Gurdeaux in his shins. His gun hit the floor, alerting the other Tan soldiers around him.
When the Tan soldier finally hit the ground and the thump sounded through Gurdeaux's ears, he stepped into the closet and the fight began. All around him were stairs and desks, cluttered with foreign objects and papers. Behind these obstacles were scientists and Tan soldiers who wore elite insignia on their shoulders. Blue bands, fitted across their biceps, with black circles in the middle and a red dot to cap off the features could be seen all around the closet. They represented the TEG, the Tan Elite Guards. They were now around the edges of the closet, guarding whatever priceless information or experiments were taking place.
They spotted Gurdeaux but didn't react in time. With a firm pull and hold of his trigger, Gurdeaux sent rounds in each direction, taking out any enemy soldier he could see. BANG! BANG! BANG! Two elites went down, grabbing their chests as the bullets inserted themselves. The men following Gurdeaux rushed in and mimicked him.
The closet was a masterpiece of design, fully equipped for the men inside to conduct their elaborate plans. On the walls were metal stairs, embedded into the closet's plastered sides. Following the stairs were platforms, metal and solid with black paint and millions of holes. They were held up by pillars underneath and refortified by arms that dangled above and overhead, pushed into the walls like the stairs. Lights hung on the walls, illuminating the room.
In the back of the closet were crates, boxes, desks and chairs, covered with binders and papers. Seeming like a warehouse, the closet's frontier was becoming more mystifying.
Dachun and the rest of Aesa Team took the left with Gurdeaux as did the members of Besa behind. Bullets started to ding off the back of the hinge, nearly striking Gurdeaux and the rest in the head. Sparks flew and landed on the necks of the Green soldiers. Only some of the elites started to shoot at them while the rest tried to come to the realization of what was happening. The breach must have taken every one in the closet off guard, surprising them with their impregnating intrusion.
All the elites had guns and when Gurdeaux went in, some were ready for firing. Most were strapped and hung around the backs of the TEGs. This must have been a huge surprise. It wasn't until their comrades began dropping did they realize what was happening. No one ever expects there to be a breach in a secured facility, even when trained for it. But as all things in life, nothing is for sure.
The penetration of the closet didn't sound any alarms or bring about calls for alerts. It seemed as though those inside who weren't Green just watched as their little operation began to fall apart.
Desa and Cesa Team went in the right direction, with a few of their men heading more straight into the belly of the closet. Though not entirely in his view as he focused his mind with
the immediate action, Gurdeaux took full knowledge of the large white tarp in the middle of the closet, dwarfing all other objects around.
All brought their rifles to their faces and emptied their magazines. Each discharged bullet sent a metal jacket flying into the air. As the jackets tumbled in the air to the height of the soldier's helmets, bright lights emerged from their rifles as more bullets discharged and came at the elites.
TEGs were known to fight to the death for any circumstance. Their life wouldn't simply go down by a mere few bullets. It usually took an onslaught of metal pills to penetrate their bodies to bring them down. And it was what the Green soldiers were prepared to do.
One by one they kept firing. Everything seemed to go in slow motion, both their movement and that of the Tan elites. As the elites came running to get into a firing position, their chests would start to spew Tan blood as the bullets riddled through their bodies. Yet still they ran and ducked or crawled with each last breath. Gurdeaux launched seven bullets into one TEG and still he came charging at him. His cheek bleeding from a wound, his legs stumbling from gun shots, he climbed along the hardwood floor, struggling to regain his balance. In his right hand was a TAR56, fully loaded with a 25 round clip and laser-guided scope. It wasn't until Gurdeaux shot an eighth shot into his skull did the attempt finally stop.
Gurdeaux pressed the clip-release button on his gun and out fell cartridge. He checked his right side, looking past the white tarp that stood amidst the fighting men. He could see no downed Green men, but adjacent to the structure underneath the cloth were huddled scientists, fearing for their lives.
The men of Cesa Team focused their attention on the top level where most TEGs remained standing as they kept looking down at their foes assaulting their fortress. The elites
were giving the green foes everything they had. The incursion was going well for Gurdeaux's men, but with the brutal scene of raining bullets would have made a civilian think otherwise.
The scientists did not look around as the attack continued. Sitting close together they warmed each other as chills ran down their bodies with every sounding bullet fired from an assault rifle.
As they sat in the center the tarp became shredded by ricocheting metal flies, zooming in the brightened air. The giant white cloth had bulges: something was underneath, as Gurdeaux had already observed, and it was of very immense value to these geniuses.
Slowly one of the scientists stood up and watched the spectacular sight. He watched in horror as a body dropped in front of his feet from a grenade explosion in the back of the closet. He shrieked and jumped back, grabbing his heart as it pounded through his tan skin. Their little secret was about to be revealed to the last people they wished it upon.
"We need to get out of here!" yelled the standing scientist. He took hold of his colleague and pushed him away from the tarp. One by one the rest scattered, breaking apart their tiny group. Some crouched for cover as they ducked to get away from any bullets. But most just ran away toward the stairs, trying to get a hiding spot or something along those lines. The ordering scientist and his friend rushed to the door that the green men had emerged from. However, a member from the Desa Team stopped them in their tracks, shoving the end of his rifle into their faces.
Gurdeaux kept firing and hitting Tan elites as the attack continued. Bullets holes kept being produces behind him, but still nothing hit him. Even when he paused his movement to reload his gun the TEGs just couldn't hit the mark.
Aesa and Besa Teams shot faces, arms, legs chests, and groins. Anything that came into their crosshairs was fair game. The TEGs fell like moths into the flames. Most bullets they received went into their chest, rendering them harmless and unable to get up or use their guns. As their lungs ballooned into blood-filled sacks, their eyelids drooped over their pupils, fading away the last sight of their memorable loss.
The elites returned little fire at Gurdeaux and his men. Their main focus was drawn to the men closer to the door along the right side of the closet. Desa and Cesa Teams had run into a corner, pinned into the part of the closet with no stairwell. As they ducked under the metal platforms for cover, they received fire from above and were forced to take refuge behind desks and broken chairs. The accuracy of the TEGs was deplorable. Few times did their metal slugs get near their targets, missing the green men's bodies by mere inches.
The commencement of the closet breach had started well and was now passing the middle phase. Some TEGs fell over the platform railings, slamming head first into the floor and officially dying with broken necks and spines.
Now all the teams had to do was finish the fight. At first Gurdeaux pondered whether the gunfire would be heard by the Tan moving outside the door, but his care for secrecy went out the window as he sent another bullet into the head of an elite. If any Tan soldiers had heard the gunfire inside the closet, there'd be an ambush taking place right now, and he'd be flat on the ground with several bullet holes in his body.
"Up the stairs, now!" screamed Gurdeaux. His men nodded and while firing, made their way behind him to the foot of the stairwell. Each step was black brick into an unchartered path.
He stood on his knee at the top of a staircase and shot several times at the men lingering above. The tops of the platforms had walls, colored with crappy beige and light green paint.
They covered all but small openings in the upper level. Windows filled the upper halves of the dividers. Guessing they were offices, valuable information lay up there and losing these bits and pieces was not an option.
A grenade was tossed from above and landed thirty feet from Gurdeaux's position. He didn't flinch, but his team members, and those of Besa Team, did. They dove and placed their hands on their heads, ducking for protection. Gurdeaux kept shooting. The jolt from the grenade made Gurdeaux flinch, missing the neck of an opponent but with a quick recovery, another bullet was fired, hitting the artery. Blood tossed wildly in the air as the TEG grabbed hi neck and wobbled slowly to the cold platform. Paper now flew in the air. Large pieces of confetti were now scattered in the emptiness of the room, cluttering just a small portion of the visibility.
Grenade fragments did hit Gurdeaux but when struck, they did not penetrate his pants or burn the cloth. The shrapnel did plunge into a fallen TEG lying beside the frozen Green soldiers.
The men stood up and saw their superior shooting. Bursting in a flash, they started to mimic him. A TEG came running at the top of the stair case but as he fired, his body was rattled with slugs, delivering punishing blows to his stance. His lifeless body rolled down the stairs, knocking over some dead elites on the way.
Now with the stairs clear, the teams turned to the upper platform. Several TEGs were still hurdling through the level. Some had ducked for cover but as those surviving men tried to get back up, they too were shot down by Green soldiers. Gurdeaux aimed at one as he reached for his gun and shot him in the back. He laid screaming and reaching with both arms to touch the wound and perhaps make the pain go away. Gurdeaux shot again and hit his mouth. Now the screaming sounded muffled and gagged. Teeth blew away from the jaw and nicked the office walls behind him. To finish him off, Gurdeaux unloaded the rest of his magazine. Most of the
bullets hit his chest and face while the rest missed and hit the dark beige and light green walls behind him. Sparks emerged as one bullet bounced off a metal pillar, which held up the second level platforms. Gurdeaux reloaded and then went off again on another rant with his gun.
This time however, he was not alone. Dachun and Tyson followed close behind him, shooting at the sides as he took the center. He cleared a path fore them to reach the office on the right side. TEGs just kept coming. It never registered with Gurdeaux until a whole squad of guards came rushing at him that the upper level was enormous, spanning possibly dozens of yards deep. He had noticed from when he first walked inside the closet that there was a lot of empty space under the platforms but the vast space it held never really clicked.
Tyson held his machine gun to his shoulder and didn't bother to look into the sights as his gun spread bullets amongst the foes. Dachun held an assault rifle with both hands and shot at everything. Whether it was moving or just standing still, he shot at it. Elites were known to take cover behind objects, wait for their enemies to waste their ammo and then emerge from the shadows and take them down. But today, no one was taking a chance and not one Green soldier wanted to second guess himself.
One by one the elites fell; sending screams and shouts of pain and agony to Gurdeaux and his men. While all were trying to fight, two scientists for some odd reason escaped from where they had been pinned before, at the bottom of the second stairwell, and started running up the steps. They kept dodging bullets and running until they passed each step and made it to the second level, where Gurdeaux was starting to see machinery and offices.
He looked around and saw that only a few elites remained standing. He knew the other teams would take care of them, firing from underneath and penetrating through the holes, so he turned to look at his team. The sound of gunfire continued but became quieter as he and some
around him lowered their guns. Only Dachun and Tyson were behind him. Not thinking about where the other three were, he pointed up with his forefinger. "We're going up, follow me!" Gurdeaux yelled. Both nodded and with that done, Gurdeaux turned to face the stairs he had last seen a white coated-man run up.
They weren't far away but for this "complex", the stairs went high above ground. Gurdeaux and the two ran up as quickly as possible, trying to get away from any potential shots from the remaining elites. Gurdeaux saw more and more as the steps past his feet. Huge electric boxes, papers, wires sticking out of each crevice and corner and then blueprints along the walls. This project was serious and mysterious. Whatever lied beneath the white blanket below needed to be known and explained, preferably by the intellectuals.
Metal rails lined the second floor and bullets started to ricochet off them as the three Green soldiers rushed up to capture the level. Gurdeaux turned sharply, firing a few shots, and out of the corner of his eye he saw the two scientists darting in his directions. They were circling the length of the closet, left of the door, desperately sprinting.
Dachun looked down and could see the fighting continue. Bullets shattered wood and lamps and the sounds echoed all over the closet. It began to ring in his ears as the seconds past. Gurdeaux raised his gun to get aim and saw an office with a broken window. Shattered glass lay on the metal floor; a bullet must have hit the pane.
Gurdeaux saw two Tan elite at the open door. One lay on his stomach and blood dripped through the holes in the platform, while the other sat up with a hole in his throat. Tan blood leaked from the wound down his jacket and ran along his boots. The river of plastic blood flowed down to the chaos below. Gurdeaux tried to look inside the office with his sights but could only see tan colored heads, shaking as if nervous for not knowing what was about to happen.
Footsteps on metal begin to grow louder and all three of the Green soldiers raised their guns in the sound's direction. The two scientists stopped and threw their hands up. One immediately lunged away from the soldiers and ran towards his office. The office he was coming towards was in Gurdeaux's view. Every detail of the dark wood desk and red-hand clock could be finely noted.
The scientist made it inside and was reaching for his desk when Gurdeaux fired three shots. He wanted a fourth but a sudden faint click came from his rifle. It was time to reload, but now there was no emergency. Two holes were now visible in the back of the scientist's white lab coat. His back had bullets, burrowed deep into his body and through his lungs. Dawdling and panting for air, the man slid down to the floor, with his right arm reaching for the top of his desk, and died.
Gurdeaux shifted his body back to the other office with the men inside. He inched closer to the office and as he came to the door, he started to see more and more of the men inside. They were hiding behind a desk, grouped together for protection. No weapons were on them as Gurdeaux walked inside but he still didn't want to take a chance. Dachun and Tyson still had their weapons drawn on the remaining scientist and weren't ready to move their barrels away. At last, the sound of gun fire and now the chanting of happiness started in the first level. The fight was over, for now. A burst of "Ra-Ha!" ignited flames of passion inside the men's hearts.
Gurdeaux swung his rifle around and placed his hand on one of the scientists. His shoulders shook and sent vibrations along his white coat. He looked at Gurdeaux and said, "Are you going to kill me?" Gurdeaux stared into his eyes and bluntly said, "No, not unless you want me to." The scientist nodded and tapped on the shoulders of the others. They had kept their eyes
closed and had trouble opening them to look at their capturers. Now their lives were being placed in the hands of their enemies. Perhaps they would be better treated or worse off.
Dachun and Tyson led in front of the group as Gurdeaux and four scientists came behind. They still shook as Gurdeaux trailed in the back. He watched their every movement and made sure they didn't have a gun or grenade. Most scientists were not people likely to be taken alive. Their secrets were their lives and if they went, so did the secrets. An ironic twist on a profession designed to broaden knowledge and understanding.
When the group of seven reached the bottom of the stairs, Gurdeaux jumped over a few steps and went in front of them. "Dachun, watch them for a minute," Gurdeaux ordered. "Yes sir," replied the corporal. Gurdeaux walked away and went to look around the place. Other men started to join him, but most of the Green soldiers, at least those Gurdeaux could see, just stood and began conversations.
Tyson followed Gurdeaux as he searched through the fight zone. Everywhere rubble or debris lay on the floor and bodies of Tan elites lied on top. One scientist was down on his side but moaning. "He's hurting sir but he'll be fine," said a voice to Gurdeaux's left. He turned and saw a private holding his rifle tight to his chest. "He got hit in the back with a body as it fell from above and got the wind knocked out of him. Just give him a minute."
Gurdeaux nodded at the private and carried on. He saw few blown off body parts and torn off heads. But to be fair, this was the spacious side of the ground level. Behind the boxes was another scene, waiting for Gurdeaux's eyes to view.
A small amount of grenades were used and it was a good thing. If scores of the explosive devices had been used, even through the closet door, the sound would carry to the advancing Tan units in the house. One grenade by itself, amidst commotion of thousands of stampeding soldiers
in tanks would bring about very little attention, but with numerous grenades came ears catching on to the ruckus. Anyways by now the incoming Tan soldiers had probably found the downed helicopter and had become stationed at their old posts and positions.
As he rummaged through the remains, trying to figure out where he and his men stood, he stopped abruptly and said out loud, "What are the stats?" "Um, we've got about 55 to 60 dead Tan elites, one hurt scientist, and with your four and our four there's eight captured scientists. The rest are being watched near the door. There's also one captured Tan elite and….." The voice behind Gurdeaux trailed off and lowered his voice. "And what about us?" Gurdeaux asked.
A moment of silence came but was broken with a different voice. "We've got three wounded, all critically and two dead." "Who is the dead?" "Stater from Cesa Team and Kline from Aesa, sir," replied the voice. Gurdeaux took a long blink and sighed. He didn't notice it before but off to the back side was a motionless green arm. It stuck out as if reaching for the clouds or waving to the ceiling way up above.
Gurdeaux turned around and looked near the door where he and his squad had moved in. Beside a group of white coats, by the hinge, was Kline. He had been shot in the head and was staring at the ground. His wound wasn't as gruesome as the one Gurdeaux gave to the tan soldier who opened the door, but it still looked the same.
"Would somebody please close that door?" Gurdeaux ordered. Three privates rushed to the door and in unison but became puzzled. There was no handle or lever attached to the door and no hint as to how closing it was done. But when one of the three spotted a keypad to the right, just to the left of the doorframe, and hit the button with the word CLOSE on it, the door began coming closer to them as the button glowed green. It shut loudly and the sound waves stirred into the ceiling above, echoing in all directions. Shutting the door was important for now
for if the Tan were still moving outside, they could not see what was really going on now and what had recently happened during their brief leave of absence.
Gurdeaux turned around and sighed yet again. "Okay, everyone except Dachun and those guarding a prisoner come here," Gurdeaux said. At once, fifteen Green bodies came and conglomerated in front of him. "Alright, we've got our guys. I'm going to radio into HQ and ask for an evacuation as soon as possible. It may take a while for our escorts to arrive so hold tight for a while. When we leave, everyone goes: alive, captured, wounded and dead. I want Kline and Stater on board with us on the choppers along with these scientists as well. In addition, line up the bodies, of both colors. Let's show these men some respect. Also, if you find any valuable information, bring it along too. Is that understood?" "Sir, yes sir!" they replied. "Okay, as you were," said Gurdeaux. The men dispersed and went into different directions. Some went up to look at the blueprints while others went to the walls to relax and take a breather.
Gurdeaux turned back around and saw that the scientist was sitting up. Walking over to him, he caught a glimpse of the sergeant and began to sweat. As the sergeant kept taking steps, glass and pieces of fragments from the metal rails and plastered walls crumbled under his soles, creating crackling pops that alarmed the scientist. The crackling became louder as Gurdeaux crept closer.
The scientist began panicking and his heart pounded on his chest. Trembling, his hands tried to grab a part of the wood floor. He wasn't able to get a grip and allowed himself to stay on the hard surface as Gurdeaux came closer. In his mind, the scientist didn't know what to say to the approaching man, nor if he should lie, tell the truth, or reach for a gun and commit suicide right then and there. Before he knew it, as he stared into empty space with blank dead eyes,
Gurdeaux stopped next to his head. Looking up, he could see the calm eyes looking down on him.
Gurdeaux kneeled down and looked at his face. Gurdeaux looked at his head, detailing the missing hair on his scalp, the goatee and the thick black-framed glasses. The scientist stared worriedly into his eyes and started to quiver. Gurdeaux took a quick look at the white cloth and then turned back at the Tan scientist. With his eyes on the scientist, he elongated his arm and pointed to the white sheet, covering the unknown monstrosity behind. In a clear and strong voice, Gurdeaux asked him, "What is that?"
