Chapter 30: Glittering Prizes

Robles

"Hurry up and pop open that pod." Paccone said urgently. "The zombies aren't here yet, but I don't want to push my luck."

"Working on it, sir!" said Mann as he started entering his clearance code into the pod's safety lock.

"Carter! Anything on your end?"

Carter looked down the road, but all he could see was a empty, fogged up street. "Nothing yet, sir!"

"I don't like this." Paccone grumbled to himself. "It's too quiet. Those bastards are up to something, I know it."

Radio Station

Back at the station, things were quiet as well. Kumi and Siler both kept a wary eye out for any threats, when the lead civilian, Meryn, came up and whispered, "I think we may have a problem."

"What is it?" Kumi asked.

"We checked the rear door of the station, and we found it busted open, and I mean busted. Hinges, locks, everything."

Kumi's eyes widened in alarm. "How many?"

"We're not sure, but we're organizing search teams and locking down the corridors."

"We'll be sure to keep an eye out." Kumi turned over to Sam, "You feeling okay?"

"Right as rain," she managed to gasp, "though some more morphine wouldn't hurt."

"Keep your guard up Sam, we've got hostiles somewhere in here."

Sam nodded and turned over to Colette. "Collette."

"Yes?"

"You know how to use a gun?"

"No..."

"It's simple really," Sam reached into her holster and handed her M6D pistol to Colette and said," Just point and shoot, and shoot, and shoot."

Collette nodded and turned away, and Sam heard an audible click.

"Oh, and Collette? Turn off the safety and keep it off."

Omega

"Something's wrong." Tarin muttered.

Williams jumped in surprise. That was the first thing the first lieutenant had said in the past hour.

"What you talking about, El-Tee?"

"Look." Tarin pointed over to the elevator, "pretty much the entire squad is back, except for the Captain and her Elite friend. Now, you may have absolute trust in that Elite, but I don't." Tarin paused for a second, and then continued, "We're going down."

"Are you serious?" Williams gasped in surprise, "But the Cap said-"

Tarin glared at Williams. "I am the ranking officer here, sergeant, I suggest you don't piss me off."

Williams shivered and nodded. He didn't want to mess with this girl. From the rumors he heard, before she was transferred into the Helljumpers, Tarin used to be part of the Pathfinders, a now-disbanded military unit that basically fulfilled the same job as the Spartans, and a bit more. It was also rumored that they were trained to kill since childbirth, and that a few even had telepathic powers...

"Lets go," Tarin said, snapping Williams back to reality.

"Yes, ma'am!"

Meanwhile, in the bowels of the facility, it was a literal bloodbath. Holy was in his element, diving into the masses of undead, hacking away at their ranks with his plasma sword. The air was filled with the smell of fried flesh as the energy blade boiled away flesh, blood, and bone. Karla saw Holy pull off an intricate figure-eight slash that disemboweled three zombies and beheaded another. Another slash cut two more zombies to pieces. Karla had never seen such brute force presented in such an elegant way before. Though Karla would fire occasionally to keep any zombies off Holy's back, the Elite pretty much had this entire fight in the bag.

Holy finally finished the fight by knocking down the last zombie, and driving his sword into its chest in a brutal finishing move. The Elite roared as he pulled the energy blade from the zombie's chest, gore gushing out of the wound like a geyser.

Dazed and dumbfounded by the Elite's show of force, Karla could only stand and stare at Holy. Holy, meanwhile, just casually turned off his sword, stretched his shoulders, and sighed as if this sort of thing happened every day.

"Nothing like a good battle to rejuvenate one's senses."

"Captain!"

Karla turned to see Tarin and Williams running in from the elevator.

"We came down to see if you were- holy shit!" Williams stared wide-eyed at the fresh carnage Holy had wrought. Tarin, however, just stared at the bodies casually and raised an eyebrow.

"Guess we didn't have to come down after all."

Robles

"Got it!" Mann yelled.

Slowly, the doors to the pod hissed open. Paccone ran over to see what was inside. "Now lets see what those cheapskates at the Navy got for us here..." He glanced inside and whistled.

"What've we got?" Leo asked, unable to see the contents.

"All sorts of little goodiess. More weapons, extra ammo, some heavy ordnance... and something here I haven't see before..." Paccone bent down and picked up a certain weapon, about the size of a Jackhammer rocket launcher, but much bulkier with more electronics attached.

"Any idea what the hell this thing is?" He asked.

"Ummm, lets see here..." Mann fumbled through several boxes and found a datadisc. "I think this might be it."

"Play it."

Mann inserted the disc into his helmet and started reading its contents. "Ummm... its called the X-302 Nuclear Delivery System. Still in the experimental stage, of course. Uh, there a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo in here, but in condensed form, it basically uses nuclear fusion to cram a low-yield tactical nuclear warhead into a man-portable delivery system. It's main purpose is for use in 'compromised urban environments'."

"English, please."

"Its a Jackhammer that can shoot nukes."

Paccone whistled. This'll definitely do nicely. How do you use it?

"Uhhh," Mann continued reading, "You basically load a warhead, point, and shoot just like a normal Jackhammer, and the electronics take care of the rest. Apparently, they thought it was the best way to get Marines to learn how to use this thing."

"Typical Navy." Paccone pouted.

"And there's a footnote here... oh ha ha, it says that once fired, it is suggested that you run and/or take cover."

"Right, well lets load this stuff up and get going."

As Paccone and Mann were in the pod, going over all of the items like kids in a candy store, Leo couldn't help but shake the feeling that something was wrong. He could swear the ground was shaking. He looked down at a nearby puddle, and noticed that it was rippling. A guy didn't have to watch Jurassic Park to know that something was very, very wrong about that. And then he saw it, a two story tall, hulking figure of rotting flesh and oozing organs...

Paccone's radio crackled, and he picked it up. "What is it?"

"Sir? This is Kumi. Just a heads up, but we may have possible hostiles inside the radio station. The civies here think that they can handle it, but I just thought I would tell you."

"Good, if anything-"

"Sir!" Leo yelled, "We need to leave, NOW!"

"I think our position may be compromised sir," Kumi continued, "I suggest moving to a better location."

Paccone went around the pod, to see Leo gaping up at something in horror. Paccone raised his head, and saw what was paralyzing the Marine in fear.

"Stay there, Leeds, compared to our position, yours may be the best of all."