Lt. Bates emptied the last of his second clip into a nearby Phantom. It screamed but kept lumbering towards him. It raised its hand and sent a swarm of tentacles reaching for him. Bates ducked as the tentacles barely missed his head. He slapped a fresh clip in and fired three rounds into the Phantom's head. It screamed and fell to the ground. He looked over to see two workers trying to flee a Phantom. The alien reached its tentacles out and pierced them into one of the workers. The worker yelled as he felt his body being separated from his spirit. Bates saw the Phantom rip a glowing blue humanoid form from the worker's body and it slowly dissolved into the Phantom's body. It looked over at the other worker who was cowering in fear in a corner. Bates ran over and emptied half of the sub-machine rifle into the Phantom. Bates saw the rounds impact on the Phantom's body causing tiny ripples to appear. The Phantom retreated back with a scream as Bates grabbed the worker. He looked over to see another group of guards trying to hold off a coming wave of Phantoms. He looked around the corner to see a small group of workers huddled up in the shielded cargo truck. Small electric ripples exploded across the truck's body. The shield was failing. "Probably damaged in the explosion." he thought to himself. "We can't fight these things with SMRs, we need some heavier weapons." Bates thought. "The captain's dead and there's only so many guards." Bates and the worker's expression turned grim when they saw 4 Phantoms lumbering towards them. Their tentacles flailing at the ground. He checked his clip. Only 10 rounds left. He didn't have enough time to aim and plug each of their brains, their tentacles were too fast. He didn't have time to reload either, both he and the worker would be "stolen", a term developed by survivors meaning their spirits would be stolen from them. Bates was about to raise his rifle when a large burst of beam energy caught one Phantom in the chest. It vaporized. Another burst came catching the other Phantom, followed by a swarm of Heavy Bio-etheric Rifle rounds. Bates looked behind the Phantoms and saw a Bandit equipped with a beam cannon. There were 5 soldiers in it. In the distance were 3 other Bandits racing into the city. The last Phantom was vaporized as the Bandit pulled up next to Bates. The soldiers stepped out; they were wearing field helmets so their face was visible. Their captain handed Bates extra clips for his SMR and said, "Captain Jamal Hunter, Unit 113 Archangel. How can we be of assistance?"
Jamal looked around the corner and saw a mass of Phantoms surrounding 6 soldiers emptying the last rounds of their SMRs into the Phantoms. "I thought this place was clear." Jamal thought to himself. "We've got a few workers holed up in a couple of cargo trucks here and around the corner too. They're shielded but I don't think they'll last much longer." Bates told him. "All right. Lt., as soon as the other Bandits get here, load the survivors into them. Logan, stay here and cover them with the cannon. Ariel provide cover for Logan. Ricky, you and Angel come with me. Ricky grab that bag of SMR clips. LET'S MOVE PEOPLE, LET'S GET THESE PEOPLE OUTTA HERE!" "YES SIR!" Ricky grabbed the bag as Bates ran over to the truck to lower the shield. Jamal peeked around the corner and saw 3 human armored bodies on the ground, unmoving. He saw the other 6 soldiers backed against a wall, with the Phantoms guarding any chance of escape. Jamal, Ricky, and Angel moved quietly behind a dumpster. "All right you two, headshots. Can't spray the area. Pick your targets and drop em', one shot, one kill. Got it?" Ricky and Angel nodded and aimed their rifles. Jamal switched his helmet's targeting eye scanner on and marked 2 Phantoms. "FIRE!"
Ricky sent 2 rounds into one Phantom's brain, slid his rifle over and dropped the next closest one. The Phantoms screamed in pain, fell, and dissolved. "Ricky get over there and get those clips to those men. We'll cover you." Jamal ordered. Ricky nodded, slung the bag and his rifle over his shoulder and dashed over to the soldiers. He heard Jamal and Angel's rifles bark. He glanced over and saw a Phantom had just fallen to the ground and was beginning to dissolve. He stopped at the soldiers and began passing out ammo. Jamal and Angel came up a few seconds later. "Corporal Perez, A-Company," one soldier told Jamal, "Thank god, you guys showed. They just came out of nowhere and began attacking the camp. I thought you guys cleared this place." "So did I." Jamal answered. "Most of the Phantoms came out of that building over there." Perez said and pointed at a nearby warehouse, only a few blocks away from the leveled building where the Phantom nest once stood. "Ok, you 3," Jamal said while pointing at 3 soldiers, "Get over to the other cargo truck and get the survivors over to Lt. Bates. We've got a small group of Bandits en route to this camp and their evacuating survivors. Corporal, are you and 2 of your men still combat ready?" "All we needed was some ammo and a little backup sir. We're ready to go to hell if you want us to." "Even better, you and two of your guys go into that warehouse and begin clearing out the Phantoms. Can you guys handle that?" "Piece of cake sir." Perez said and he along with two soldiers ran off to the warehouse.
Ariel and Logan ran up to Jamal and the rest of Bravo Team. "Sir! Delta Team's Bandit just arrived. They're beginning to clean out any remaining Phantoms." "Remaining my ass, this area's crawling. Most of em are holed up in that warehouse over there." Jamal said. "We've got a couple of soldiers in there beginning to clean em out but I doubt they'll last long with SMRs." Jamal tapped his helmet and connected to Delta Team's leader. "Marshall?!" "Sir!" "Start loading survivors onto the Bandits. I'll need two of your men." "Roger that sir, sending two over right now." Angel looked behind her and saw a small group of surviving workers jumping out of a cargo truck and heading to the Bandits. "Sir, survivors getting evacuated as we speak." "Good." Then the sound of SMRs firing filled everyone's commlinks. Angel then heard the voice of Corp. Perez on her commlink. "Two coming outta that wall. Blast em! Capt. Hunter, we could use some assistance sir." The two Delta boys showed up and said they were ready. With that the rescuers were off to the warehouse.
Logan switched his flashlight on as they entered the warehouse. The sound of the SMRs firing wasn't far away. His scanners were flooded with red hostile signatures. "Jesus skipper, Intel must've been fucked over if they thought the nest was where the Skinnies were populated." Logan said. "Yea, these must be outcasts or survivors of the bombardment." The group then found guards firing their weapons at the Phantoms coming out of a back wall. Only two guards were firing, one was dead. "ALL RIGHT 113, OPEN FIRE!" Jamal yelled as Bravo and Delta opened fire on the Phantoms. Logan emptied the last of one oval pack, popped in a fresh one, and began charging for an overload. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" he barked and sent a blast of energy at the wall. It cleared out a small group of Phantoms but another group took its place. "BLOODY HELL!" Ricky yelled as he fired. "Every time we drop one, 3 more replace it!" "Damn it." Jamal uttered as he popped a fresh pack into his rifle.
"Sir," Ariel yelled, "My scanners aren't cleaning up any. They might've been building another nest. My guess is ¼ of the nest's survivors are all holed up here and beginning to build a new nest." "Shit, we don't have enough firepower to clear them out." Jamal said. "Marshall, are the survivors cleared out yet!?" Jamal yelled into his commlink. "We're starting to load the last ones now sir." Jamal then switched his frequency. "C-Tower this is BT Archangel, over." "We here you loud and clear skipper." "Get some bombers over here and level this building! I'm sending you the coordinates." "We got em sir. We'll have 2 bombers airborne in 3 minutes." "Good. All right guys let's get outta here! Logan, you and Ricky lead the way. Perez, you and your man in the middle. You two Delta boys, in the middle with em. Ariel, you, Angel, and I are in the rear. LET'S MOVE!" As they moved to the exit, the Phantoms seemed to be coming out of the walls at every turn. Jamal popped in his last oval pack as beads of sweat dripped down his temple. His fingers grew tired from pulling the trigger, but he couldn't ease up. Not yet. Finally they reached the exit, just as C-tower came in on Jamal's commlink. "Strikers airborne skipper. You've got 5 minutes to get your asses outta there." "ALL RIGHT GUYS STRIKERS AIRBORNE! WE'VE GOT 5 MINUTES, LET'S GO!" The group then broke out in a run to the last two Bandits. Jamal looked back and saw hundreds of Phantoms exiting the warehouse and swarming the camp.
Angel heard the chatter of the Striker pilots in her helmet. "Stallion one, go for Mavericks on the lead building." Stallion two, master arm on. GBUs on the target building area." "MARHSALL!? ARE THOSE BANDITS STILL HOT!?" Jamal barked. "YES SIR!" Finally the group reached the Bandits. The Delta soldiers and the two guards hopped into the Delta Bandit. Bravo Team loaded into their's and the two vehicles sped off out of the construction site. Angel looked back to see that hundreds of orange shapes had swarmed the site. "Just in time." she thought. She then heard the supersonic engines of two jets. She looked up to see two arrow-shaped aircraft zoom overhead towards the site. Even in the Bandit, Angel could see the racks of Maverick air-to-ground missiles and Guided Bomb Units under the aircrafts' wings. "Stallion one, Mavericks locked." she heard. "Stallion two, Mavericks locked." "EAGLE TWENTY FOX A3!" Fox A3 being the code that signaled the launch of heavy air-to-ground ordnance "EAGLE EIGHTEEN FOX A3!" Angel then saw four missiles leave the wings of the aircraft and scream off to the target building. Then a massive explosion rocked the construction site as the warehouse collapsed into a cloud of dust. The bombers passed the site, turned around and prepared for a second bombardment. "EAGLE TWENTY, GBUS AWAY!" "EAGLE EIGHTEEN, GBUS AWAY!" She then saw 6 small green bombs fall from each bomber, 12 in all, and impact up and down the site. Small orange balls of flame flashed in the site. "C-tower, Unit 113, this is Stallion one, confirm that the packages have been delivered." Angel turned to Jamal who looked at the site with a pair of binoculars. "Roger that Stallions, target area neutralized. Proceed to scan the area." 5 minutes later. "Scanning complete sir, no signs of Phantom signatures anywhere." "How much fuel do you guys have left?" Jamal asked. "Enough for 2 more hours sir." Scan the entire area in a 12 mile radius of the site." "Sir? It's standard procedure for us to scan the target area once. Even if you are a captain, you don't have the authority to give an order like that." This pissed Jamal off. As much as he respected the pilots, he hated their attitude. Being safe in the air, all they wanted to ever do was blow shit up and go home. "Pilot, I'm ordering you to..." Before he could finish, Major Elliot's voice appeared on the commlink. "I'll handle this Hunter." Elliot said. "Pilot, he may not have the authority but I'm giving you the order now. Scan the city like he said or you'll answer to me. and I'll have your sorry ass flying scenic tour flights over Banshee territories, got it?" "Yes sir." With that the two aircraft originally heading back to the BC turned back to the city and began scanning it. "Capt.," Elliot said, "When you get back to the BC, I want Bravo Team in my office immediately." "Yes sir." With that, Elliot signed off the commlink and the two Bandits made their way back to the BC.
To Be Continued…