Ahh, exams are almost OVER! Last exam day tomorrow so I'm finished studying so I'll work on my fourth chappie before bed.
Lonerboi: Thanks for the reviews, bro. I appreciate them. Keep it up dude, and you won't be such a loner no more : -)
Disclaimer: Plot and Chars equals mine. Blizzard stuff equals Blizzard stuff. Capuche?
Chapter 4: A Foe Who Doesn't Play Fair
Dr. Linaw glided over his surgical team silently. Watching their every move, he would tactfully swoop in to fill any gap in the team's coverage that would open along the carcass they were working on. He noticed that the team had neglected to keep the creature's right wing secure and he did his duty to correct them. He stepped back again, making sure not to disturb his fellow surgeons who were deep in concentration.
The creature they were studying was one of the many that had been slain in the hangars of the Tamerlane. It was grotesque and disgusting. Its body was an unattractive orange arch, two green slits for eyes and two stubby wings that protruded ungracefully from its sides. Its body was scarred in holes from where the marines had shot it. The rest of its body was naturally scaly, and it formed a protective carapace around the creature, much like the carapace of a cockroach.
However, from what the team had discovered, the creature was extremely sophisticated. Every one of its body systems was uncanny in their efficiency. If a man had designed its circulatory system, he or she would be regarded as an artist. The creature's respiratory system was outrageously simplistic, yet had the respiratory capability ten times that of humans. The only thing that had puzzled Dr. Linaw was that the creature did not have a central nervous system. It made him curious and he wanted to find out as much as he could about this remarkable subject of evolution.
"Doctor, I've got something here." Said Jenkins "It's hard and tough…it's loose, too." He continued.
"Another bullet?" asked Dr Linaw
"….Probably...No, it's too….weird" he said as he groped with his forceps to feel the object.
"Okay, let's get it outta there." instructed the doctor.
Jenkins hand clamped down on the forceps and slowly dragged out the object. The rest of the team dropped what they were doing and held the corpse still. It came loose slowly. Jenkins hand suddenly jerked for a moment, and then the object smoothly came out.
It was green and slimy. It looked like either a drop of mucous, or a giant worm. Jenkins scowled at it under his mask before securing it inside a jar on the table nearby.
"You think the bastard was pregnant?" joked one of the surgeons and the rest chuckled.
"Come to think of it, it's possible" said another one, as they went back to work.
Behind the back of the surgical team the slimy green object began to shake violently. It shook so much that the jar containing shattered and the doctors swung around at the disturbance. Before anyone of them could say a word the object sprang up into the air. Its slimy texture vanished and it was replaced by a trail of green gas that was left in the object's wake. It hurled right at Jenkins and in the blink of an eye, Jenkins' torso had disappeared. After a moment, blood began running from the hole in his chest and he dropped to the floor. The object flew right through him and continued for a few more feet.
The green gas was apparently acidic.
But, that wasn't the end of it. The object had gone right through Jenkins, and came around 180 degrees straight for a screaming nurse. Blood decorated the walls as it cut through the unfortunate woman much less cleaner than it did with Jenkins. The surgeons and the rest of the nurses scrambled for the door as the object came around one final time.
Dr Linaw saw the object pick a much more effective target than Jenkins or the nurse; it was headed straight for the nitrogen tanks. The spark of the impact mixed with the pressurized gas erupted into an inferno that engulfed the entire floor.
Erika was leaning on the taffrail of the inner elevated hangar ledge. She heard shouts and sirens come from outside and assumed that the team that was studying the creature had finally messed up. She rolled her eyes and went back to daydreaming.
She told the Admiral that the thing was dangerous, but even Erika wanted them to study the creature, out of curiosity, even if it meant the death of a few surgeons. Now there were no more creatures to study; the rest of the corpses were horribly deformed when they were shot. Nonetheless, it had been quite a long time since the Tamerlane had escaped from imminent destruction. Soon the good doctors would have hundreds more specimens for them to study once the creatures would attack the garrison.
The grease monkeys called up to her. They were going to seal the hangar in order to refuel the parked craft inside. Erika neatly slid down the ladder as the grease monkeys prepped their vespene tanks and strapped on their masks. She walked outside and saw the MP's rushing into the burning science facility to get survivors and the numerous SCV's that were toiling to put out the fire.
She looked around and saw a wheelchair being pushed up a shuttle nearby. Someone called towards her from there and she jogged towards it. As she neared, she recognized it was Colonel Walker - a.k.a. Spirit One. She saluted at the gruff officer who was sitting in the wheelchair. He waved it off and extended his hand. Erika slowly lowered her saluting hand and shook hands with him. Even as the Colonel sat, without legs, on the uncomfortable wheelchair, he still managed to hold himself with dignity.
"Congratulations, Captain." He told her, totally ignoring the hustle and bustle going on in the burning science facility
"Thank you, sir" she replied
"Where's your brother?" he asked
"He's on Vega…visiting someone."
"Well, we can't have that. You two need to get your new squadron up and running ASAP."
"Yes, sir. I'll be lining up the rookies for inspection tonight. The Admiral has approved a free flight for half an hour after inspection, and then when the Major gets back we can start whipping them into shape."
"Does the Major know that he's a Major?"
"Probably not, sir."
"All for the better. Can you handle your plans for the greens tonight?"
"I'm sure of it, sir." She said, silently resenting the Colonel's doubt in her abilities.
The Colonel looked up at the stars. He sneered and clenched his fists.
"I wish I could be up there fighting with you guys." He said, more to himself than to Erika. "It's not a good taste for me to retire with only six years and four kills." He continued.
"It's better than dieing with six years and four kills, sir, which is what most of these greens will be doing." She said as-a-matter-of-factly.
"With all this hardware the Directorate is bringing?" he said "It'll be the critters' turn to be gangbanged and vulched." He said. "We have every single battle-ready-cruiser in the UED outin the Plyrinth sector. That'd add up to hundreds of thousands of wraiths." He said, reassuringly. "How many critters were attacking the Tamerlane? A good five hundred, maybe? Add a few more, in case they have friends and your looking at ten thousand of them at most…" he grew confident "It'll be a turkey shoot, Captain. You saw how crappy their aim was."
Erika remained silent.
"Well Captain, the life of a cripple awaits me… I'll see you up there sometime?" he said after a while "Remember, you owe me a one-on-one."
"Looking forward to it, sir." She said.
"Tell the 'great Aries' that I'm still better than him, since he got his tail blown off like a baby seal!" he yelled to her as he was pushed up the ramp.
Erika sighed. She pitied her Colonel. He'd commanded the Spirit's competently in the Tamerlane Engagement. It was a shame that he should lose his legs because of a magnetic receiver thatbuckled when he landed, causing his wraith tumble all over the hangar deck.
Out of the twelve pilots in Spirit squadron only four survived, including Tyler, Erika, and The Colonel. Out of the one hundred and eight wraiths on the Tamerlane only twenty one survived.
Tyler and Erika had been promoted and given command of a newly formed squadron called Atlas squadron, which had not one pilot in the roster that had more than three weeks active duty. The other survivor of Spirit squad, whose name escaped Erika, was now the new CO of the Spirits, which was given a full compliment of recruits.
It was hard for Erika to be assigned to a new squadron; the Atlas squadron's colors were red and blue wings, with a silver nose, silver tailfins, and black ventral wing. Tyler had an easy time since he was just given a new wraith, since his was lost. But Erika had to paint her wraith all over again with the new colors, all alone too.
However, there was one moment when she had painted her wraith that she had enjoyed. After she had coated the wings and body, all that was left was her name below the canopy, and finally the threeyellow lightning blots that symbolized that she had three kills under her name. She had painted those bolts with care and pride.
She had made sure that the grease monkeys had painted Tyler's three lightning bolts on his wraith as well. However, she still thought that it was bullshit that they only got three kills in the Tamerlane Engagement. She had been sure she had nailed at least six. It wasn't her fault that three of those six couldn't be confirmed.
The pilots of Atlas squadron were at attention in front of their wraiths now. They were rigid at parade rest and their flight helmets were secure under their arms. Erika walked with as much dignity her body would allow. The silver bars that were pinned on her shoulder were pretty heavy at this moment, but she knew she would get used to it. She walked in front of the first pilot.
"First Sergeant Jacob 'Marker' Chevskey, ma'am!" he yelled
"Senior Airman Ben 'Plummet' McLaren, ma'am!" came the yell from the second pilot
"Senior Airman Charlie 'Twitchy' Garner, ma'am!" said the third one…
Hey, he's kind of cute thought Erika.
She laughed at herself in her mind. She was a Captain of the UED….A fifteen year old Captain that had a crush on a pilot under her command, to be more specific. She shook it off and memorized the remaining names of the Atlas pilots.
She had a squadron of four flights and sixteen pilots; a major, one captain, a 1st lieutenant, two first sergeants, five master sergeants and the rest were airmen. This was a pretty inexperienced bunch of them. Their hair was still shaved in the form that was regulation in the academy. But now she had to introduce herself.
"My name is Captain Erika 'Eris' Munroe. I am fifteen years old and I am a terran with a British tongue. Now if any of you greens have a problem with that, speak up now." She said. No one moved.
Apparently they had heard of her deeds in the Tamerlane Engagement. Maybe they had heard that she was the blood relative of the record setting Tyler 'Aries' Munroe, who was a legend in the academy. Either way, they respected her enough to keep their actions in check.
"Good. Now, as XO of the squadron, we will be working directly with each other, so in order for our squadron to be the best God damn squad in the UED we will have to get along….. First of all, I want you to know that I'm a huge badass…." she paused a moment. The pilots shifted nervously, fearing immanent dress-down coming from the Captain.
"…so I'm sure we'll get along fine." She said, followed by silent relief from the pilots
"I like horror flicks, hard rock, chestnuts, pizza, anything that's made from fried potatoes, the color black, stupid people, sheep, extremely spicy meat, cold showers, palm trees, long-eared bunnies, Xiao-Xiao, SCV's, Bruce Lee parodies, Kit-Kats and Bing Bangs…find out the rest for yourselves." She said this long narration while the pilots could be seen smirking and even chuckling now that they knew their Captain wasn't a tightly strung bitch.
"I'll find out the things you like when we have time, but for now I'd like to add one thing to the list of things I like." She said, and the pilot's attention grew. "Gentlemen, I hereby announce to you; I like to fly... Now, do you people share the same view with me?" she asked. The pilots yelled their 'Yes Ma'am!' in enthusiastic unison.
"Then prove it." She said and turned to her wraith.
Ah, that was good. Her first dress-down was a success. The pilots now held her in high regard. Her confidence grew, and she allowed a smirk to play along her face at her flaunting display of coolness in the face of sixteen greens.
She climbed up and strapped herself in the canopy. In ten seconds all systems were go. However, the rest of Atlas's were still getting their mainframe online. She sighed and plugged in her flight helmet to her mainframe and her HUD appeared on her visor instantly. It was extremely dreadful to watch the greens start their wraiths. In the event of an order to scramble, Atlas squad would be vulched for sure.
The pilots finally got their thrusters online and Erika radioed for permission to taxi. She led the procession of wraiths slowly down to the launch platform. Thankfully, the pilots knew how to handle their craft in the cramped space of the hangar and were floating smartly in formation. They finally reached the launch pad and Erika took position in front as the rest of them lined up behind her by two's.
"Atlas squadron, requesting permission to take off." She said to Flight Control.
"Roger that, Atlas. Standby for hook-up." replied Flight Control.
The squadron of wraiths suddenly stopped teetering on their pivoting thrusters and stood still as a rock. The magnets of the sides of the launch bay were activated now, holding the wraiths suspended in the air. Everyone set their throttle to full and from outside, their thrusters, which were once facing directly downward, were now pivoting upwards. Flames shot from the thrusters and a heat blur was now visible as the thrusters were now facing directly aft of each wraith. Thousands of pounds of thrust were now urging them forward, but the magnets that lined the hangar bay refused to let them budge.
Erika flashed her wingtip lights to signal Flight Control the 'OK'. The magnets deactivated instantly. Sir Isaac Newton touched them with his law once more as the wraith's built up potential energy made them burn through the launch bay at mind numbing speed. Erika struggled to keep her eyes open as 7G's were laid down upon her chest. She definitely preferred flying in the zero-g environment of open space, instead of this.
The squadron whizzed through the air at mach five; in a matter of minutes they were hundreds of miles away from the airbase. She looked around at the urban landscape of Vraxia; the place where she and Tyler had struggled to survive in those harsh streets. Soon those streets could be burning with battle in a few days time. Now, it was her duty to make sure that the pilots behind her would not burn along with it.
"Atlas squadron, RTB immediately." came a call from Erika's intercom. It took a while for Erika to realize what had been needed of her.
"What? We've only been out her for ten minutes!" she yelled back.
"Captain, the Admiral has ordered immediate RTB of your squadron. It's a direct order and you will comply."
Erika choked her flight stick in disgust. What could they possibly need Atlas squadron at the base for? She ordered the squadron on a return course and reluctantly swung around nose-on to the airbase with them.
As they neared, they could see all kinds of commotion along the base. The thousands of wraiths stationed there were buzzing towards the fleets of battlecruisers that had descended from space and were now receiving them. The dropships were already beginning their procedure to exit the atmosphere and the ones on the ground were seen being loaded up with rows upon rows of infantry.
"What's going on, Atlas Two?" asked Atlas Three. The chatter between the Atlases' grew either silent, or nervous. The pilots were scared now.
They were going to war.
Meanwhile, in an apartment on Vega.
Tyler and Jia were lying on the bed. Both of them had barely any modesty left as they were overwhelmed with their teenage hormones. Jia was tugging desperately at Tyler's lower garment, in order to bring out the forbidden fruit that her parents had banned from her until she had gotten older.
Tyler knew he couldn't stay here with Jia. He needed to get back to Vraxia ASAP, as per his orders. But, he was only a human teenager – a teenager in bed with his girlfriend. And in those kinds of situations, one can easily say 'screw orders' without blinking.
He was rubbing her insides and was causing her to moan. She kept trying desperately to get Tyler's pants off and return the pleasure he was giving to her. His fingers that were slithering inside her pants felt soo good. Jia wasn't going to let him get away with controlling her like this. She would see to it that he got some in return, but she still enjoyed his touch, nonetheless.
At last! His belt came loose and she jammed her hand inside. Tyler broke the kiss to writhe in pleasure. Jia took the opportunity to pop a birth-control pill in her mouth and she hoped it didn't affect the way she tasted. Tyler was forced to succumb to her and let her have control of him. He made his hands toil to remove the rest of his pants in preparation for what was coming, and Jia's one free hand aided in that enthusiastically, while the other still made Tyler whimper under her. It would not be long now until they would do the sin…
A knock came from the door. It came again…. And again.
Tyler unhappily wretched himself from Jia's grasp as the knock came four more times. Tyler fastened his belt back on again while Jia eyed him with disappointment. As she did so more doubts flooded her mind.
Tyler had gone from her so quickly. Yes, there was regret in doing it, but he had still gone. Jia had not wanted him to go; she wanted to make love, and to have him for just one night. Did this mean Tyler didn't like her? No, it couldn't be that. No man would force himself to go that far in bed with a girl he didn't like. Besides, Jia could tell by the way he was holding her and kissing her, that Tyler had been as turned on as she was.
After that, Jia realized that it was simply immaterial to Tyler whether or not he had sex with Jia. Tyler definitely wouldn't mind doing it, but was happy enough simply talking to her, yet Jia had wanted him so badly. What did this mean? Did Jia simply like Tyler because he looked good? Was she hiding behind an illusion of love to cloud the truth?
Jia was a fifteen year old girl; every girl (or boy) that age goes through a phase of longing for the opposite gender. Was Jia having the same experience? Tyler was matured enough through the streets to know what love was. But did Jia? Perhaps she just saw him in the same way as the countless other girls saw their boyfriends; handsome and delicious, with only an illusion of a love that either, went only one way, or not at all.
Tyler looked back at her apologetically for having to cut their activity short for a moment. The look in his eyes made her heart leap and she was reassured of her feelings towards him. She was still disappointed, however. She had never felt this sort of pleasure before and didn't want to force it back inside her again.
Please hurry she thought as he seemed to take forever in opening the door.
Tyler opened the door an inch, just enough for him and his visitor to see each other eye to eye.
"What is it?" he spoke to the bell-hop through the small slit he made through the doorway.
"S-s-sorry for d-d-disturbing you, sir, b-b-but you see…." The bell-hop was stuttering as he spoke.
Tyler grew impatient; he just wanted to be rid of this jerk so he could go back to his previous business. What could this inferior possibly say to catch Tyler's attention at this moment?
Tyler looked back at Jia as the bell-hop continued to stutter nervously. Her impatience was as prominent in her eyes as was a bear in a herd of sheep. He was impatient too; he had things to do…
"Just bloody say it!" hissed Tyler and the bell-hop gulped in fear.
"Vega is under attack." Replied the bell-hop quietly.