AN: Hadn't written this one yet, so we've broken the daily schedule, but I merged the last two chapters into one, it felt better that way. Will continue updates, but I think at a lower level. We've got a decent reader base going on, with comments and so on, which is always good. Apart from SV which has like 3 readers. I find it especially unusual when users like 20 posts and but leave no comment. Audience participation is always good, so if you like it let me know, post a suggestion! Even tell me if you didn't think some aspect of the fic worked.
Also to anyone who's expecting UV2, that's still a way off. But watch this space.
A spark erupted from the Minotaur's chest, then another and another. Ilya fired continuously, Igor catching a glimpse of the sniper's face, hard set in a grimace, each time the muzzle flash illuminated them.
"Fire on my mark." Barked Ilya, abandoning his rifle in favour of a Kalashnikov. "Doctor, go quickly and keep the romans from getting excited, here, you can carry this." And he motioned to the battery pack of the sight and its rifle.
Igor nodded, and pulled the pack on, filling his pockets with the ammunition for the rifle, and reloading it as he jogged to the rear where they'd left the romans. "Ilya has killed Vulcan's son." He announced to them as he arrived.
The romans displayed all the signs of great excitement, slapping their thighs and laughing. Igor made no move to prevent this, as the roars of the beasts, alarmed by the fall of their leader, soon made conversational at normal volume possible.
Ninety seconds felt like longer than it should have been, the mortar team were prepared, holding their rounds over their tubes, waiting. Igor adjusted a strap to the heavy pack, and fumbled with the rifle's bolt. He was comfortable shooting the weapon, having some training, just as he had with a pistol for self-defence, but the heavy sight and lamp for the night vision scope required some getting used to. He saw there was a small glow from the lamp, which he hadn't noticed before. Perhaps that was how the Minotaur had seen them, any light, however dim, would be seen from far away against a black sky.
There was still no firing, but two dull whumps sounded the mortars' firing. Captain Ivanovich was likely at that moment reading his team, having crawled as close as possible to the horde. Then, at the apex of their flight, the shells burst, and two small stars fell slowly to earth. The romans once again exclaimed in excitement, but with them the whole company began firing, the throaty roars of the machine guns, firing continuously, and the higher bursts of firing from the Kalashnikov rifles.
The mortar team now fired continuously, and a few seconds after each shot an explosion would erupt on the other side of the hill. Now, thought Igor, SG-2 would have made their way forward, covered on the flanks by the fire of the rifles and shells, and would with any luck be making their way back.
"Come on!" he shouted to the vehicles, who were sitting idle some metres away. "Come on!". He could hardly believe they had not received their orders, but the preparations had been chaotic.
The armoured car finally growled into life, the doors opened and a soldier popped out of the turret, pulling it around to face the battle. The trucks, further away raced forward and executed a long turn to allow a faster retreat.
Whistles were blown and orders shouted, the mortar teams, carrying their equipment, ran for the trucks and lifted the weapons in, climbing up after. In the dimming light of the illumination rounds the soldiers fell back half way down the hill, forming a new line but still firing their weapons at the summit.
A massive shape loomed at them and Igor put the rifle to his shoulder and fired. Fangs and scaled skin came at him, revealed by the muzzle flash of the weapon, but with a battlecry, a flash of red passed him, one of the roman officers, sword drawn, ran in and tackled the beast, bearing it to the ground. The other ran forward as well, sword drawn and stabbed at it, Igor only a few steps behind. The beast was bellowing horribly, and Igor drew his pistol and shot it three times in the head.
"Doctor! Are you alright?" he heard from behind him, and saw Ilya running up.
"Yes we killed it." Igor said, and looked at the beast, who had rolled off the roman and lay dead. "Did Ivanovich succeed?"
Ilya nodded, "Yes but come on, we've got to go, we'll lose them in the darkness!" and he ran off.
Igor threw the rifle over his back by the strap, and grabbed the romans by the arms, following Ilya. They ran to a truck and were hauled in among the other soldiers. One solider, Igor thought he recognised him, fired his weapon into the increasing darkness, and Igor saw in the brief flashes a sea of terrible creatures, running at them and screaming, some brandishing crude weapons. But the truck began to move, the driver perhaps reluctant to accelerate quickly over unknown ground.
"Go! Go!" he heard shouted from the front, and the gunner fired again without bothering to aim.
Igor heard something clank off the tailgate below him and he too joined in the firing, emptying his pistol and reloading as fast as he could.
A cry of alarm rose up from the front of the truck, and it seemed the hand of god struck the side of the vehicle, for a moment driving on the wheels of only one side, and Igor felt himself collide with something hard behind him, his hand squeezed the gun instinctively, but he heard the click of an empty chamber. Ilya would have been pleased if he'd heard it, for Igor's pistol was pointed at the sniper's foot.
"What was that?" shouted someone.
"Get down doctor!" shouted the machine gunner, and Ilya threw himself over Igor, pushing him off the bench and onto the floor among the blood and shell casings.
The gunner fired through the side of the truck where Igor's head had been, ripping holes in the canvas. He dropped his weapon, reaching for his pistol and firing it, before dropping that to.
"Here!" a voice said and someone handed him another gun.
But again an impact shook the truck, and Igor was again thrown to the side. The gunner kept his station and turned to them, "Hold my belt, one of the mounts is alongside us!" and he went to the back and leant out.
"We have you!"
The gunner leant out, dangling from vehicle, still bumping and crashing along through the scrubland. Once again he fired his weapon, and this time a trumpet of pain came from their attacker. The ground seemed to shake, and the gunner fired again. But this time another joined him, with the 30mm cannon of the armoured car opening up on the beast, deafening all those in the truck.
They had just hauled the gunner back in when something swiped past the back, some huge body in the dark. But it missed them, and the men cheered at the pained cries of the animal behind them. Igor pushed something metallic off him, one of the mortar tubes, he thought, and regained his seat. He wiped his face and tasted blood.
"Doctor your hand." said Ilya, and Igor looked down, seeing a large gash just below his knuckles.
"I didn't even notice." He said absently.
"Here," continued Ilya, reaching into a pouch for some bandages, "make a fist and I'll clean it."
Igor did so, and looked back into the darkness as they drove south, back to the camp, the ruin of Vulcan's army behind them.