Chapter 35: Holocaust

Omega

"So… have you ever done something like this before?" Tarin asked as she helped Karla set up the nuke.

"Actually, no. Even after all the time I spent in the Marines, I've never had to actually use one of these things. Besides," she shrugged, "these things are so easy to detonate, even a complete idiot can figure it out."

"Charming." Tarin muttered, inserting her arming key, "Anything else you think can go horribly wrong?"

Meanwhile, in the nearby hallway, Williams and Holy kept watch for any threats of the undead kind. For the moment, there seemed to be none, so Williams tried to start up some conversation with the Elite to try and ease his nerves.

"So Holy, you ever do this much?"

"Do what?" the Elite asked.

"Well, you know," Williams shrugged, "standing guard."

"Guard duty was considered punishment for an Elite, as it was a duty only suitable for Grunts."

"Uh huh, so you pretty much think this is totally demeaning for an Elite of your stature."

Holy sniffed. "I suppose you humans have to make do, seeing as you lack any lesser lifeforms to boss around."

"Well, I guess so- hey!" Williams glared at Holy, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Holy just snickered and said nothing. Williams sighed and leaned against the wall. "Man, no respect. No respect at all."

Suddenly, there was a deafening clanking sound in the darkness, as if something were leaping around the pipes. Williams and Holy both raised their rifles, but couldn't pinpoint the source of the noise. Williams glanced around nervously. There were so many pipes, wires, and other obstacles scattered throughout the area, that it was impossible to properly illuminate anything with his flashlight.

"I don't suppose you Elites have superhuman vision as well, do you?"

Holy shook his head and continued to scan the surrounding area. There was no telling what could be hiding out here. He kept looking at the inky blackness when he heard Williams scream in alarm. Holy whipped around and saw a hideous, half-rotted arm clutching Williams' collar, trying to pull him up towards the ceiling. Still shouting incoherently, Williams managed to grab his pistol and fired wildly into the ceiling above him. The flashes of light from the gunfire failed to hit whatever was grabbing him, but managed to illuminate it enough for Holy to see what it was.

It was a horrendous, spider-like creature, but instead of legs, it was a mass of human arms, heads, and claws all reaching out in different angles and directions, with a single, massive mouth on its belly. Holy nearly turned and fled at the sight of such a sickening monster, but managed to keep his nerve. He quickly lunged forward, grabbed the arm assaulting Williams, and pulled with all his might. He heard a wet popping sound and was satisfied to see that he had not only freed Williams, but had yanked the entire arm out of its socket. The creature shrieked in pain and ran, leaving only a twitching arm and a pool of blood that had spurted from its socket as proof of the attack.

"What the hell was that?" Karla yelled.

"Trouble." Holy growled. "And from the looks of it, more of it."

"What?" Williams stared at Holy, bewildered. "What makes you say that?"

Holy pointed down the hall, and Williams was terrified to see three more of the same creature that had attacked him before.

"Oh shit." He said.

Robles

"What happened here?" Leo asked, looking at both Sam and Colette.

"Hell if I know." Sam coughed. "What happened to Kumi and Siler?"

"They're both fine, though Kumi had quite a fall." Leo sighed. "Paccone is trying to call out for an airlift, but it might take a while for them to get here, so we're still effectively stranded and all alone."

"So, it's business as usual, huh?"

Leo grinned. "Yeah, I guess it is."

Suddenly, Leo's radio crackled with Paccone's voice. "Carter, get out here. We've got trouble."

"What kind of trouble?" Leo asked warily.

"Stitches is back." He said grimly. "And he's brought friends."

Omega

The first crawler shot forward, swinging on the nearby pipes like a mutant chimp. Williams opened fire with his battle rifle and managed to shoot off a head and two of its arms. The crawler shrieked and backed off from the sudden fire, bleeding profusely from its new wounds. Holy emptied his entire clip into the second crawler, stunning it long enough for him to drop his rifle and spear the monster with his energy sword. The crawler hissed and gurgled as the blade melted its organs before Holy sliced it in half. Williams quickly reloaded his rifle and picked off the last of the crawler's heads. With no eyes, the creature blindly thrashed around before Williams ended its suffering with a frag grenade.

Meanwhile, the third crawler held back, keeping its distance from the fighting until it found the right moment and pounced, leaping onto Holy with full force. The Elite's shields flared as they tried to repel the sudden threat, but managed to hold its integrity. The crawler slid off the shield, stunned and confused, and was quickly hacked apart by the enraged Elite.

"Is it over?" Williams asked, toeing part of the dead crawler.

Before Holy could answer, however, the wounded crawler that they had first encountered landed right on top of him. Already weakened by the third crawler's previous attack, Holy's shield failed and the Elite found himself trying to keep the thing's mouth from ripping his head off. He could feel the crawler's teeth digging into his helmet as the monster tried to wrench it off so it could reach the soft flesh within. Holy tried to get his energy sword, but he needed both arms to keep the crawler's mouth from closing any furthyer. Suddenly, Holy heard an ear-deafening blast and recognized it as the blast of a human shotgun. Several more blasts, and Holy felt the crawler's grip on his head loosen. With all of his strength, Holy heaved the creature off of him, but it was a wasted gesture, since it was already dead. He turned to see Williams holding a smoking shotgun and grinning.

"I guess we're even now." He said.

At that moment, both Karla and Tarin came out of the reactor room and saw the carnage that lay throughout the hallway.

"Should I ask?"

Williams and Holy both spoke at the same time. "No."

Three hours later, the entire mountain range shook from an earth-shattering nuclear blast. The ground under the Omega facility was instantly vaporized, and the entire complex was swallowed in radioactive fire seconds before the ground collapsed into itself. All that was left of the entire site was a kilometer-wide crater of irradiated dirt and ash, and a pile of melted steel and concrete that used to be Omega.

Meanwhile, an entire platoon of Marines was safely tucked away in a flight of Pelican dropships, headed to the sleepy town of Robles at full speed.

"It appears I'll have to make my move soon." Chaos grumbled.