A/N Remember to Review on your way out! This chapter is not proof-read either, sorry!

Battle of the Somme part 1

The first thing that happened immediately stopped Esq from screaming curses at Johnston. By pure unfortunate chance, Esq's cell door was open. Will was standing in between where the bars used to be. Somme tore apart the opening and closing mechanism of the cell gates and several sharp metal rods came crashing down on William's injured leg. Esq flew backwards as Johnston's red blood blossomed up from his wound, spraying everywhere like one of those fountains she remembered from her visit to High Charity.

Will howled as his leg bone splintered and punctured his flesh before his eyes. In a way, he was lucky because only one bar made it through his leg. Esq made no sound. She was already beyond screaming and her mind was clearer than it had been in days. She was surprised that she was not already horrified at the marble bone jutting out of Will's leg or at the torn muscles that poured across her hooves like Lekgolo worms. Perhaps she was in shock.

Calmly, she took Johnston's battle rifle, spent some time figuring out its alien controls before aiming deliberately at the control panel five feet away. She thought for a moment, and fired. Immediately, the bars lifted. Esq hurriedly rolled him away. She watched with mild horror as some of his muscles pulled away from his flesh. Bits of it had gotten trapped on the iron rod of the cell. She rummaged over Johnston's body for some kind of medical supply.

"Get the canister…" Will's voice was dangerously faint. "First, remove the bits of bone…"

It was just shock that kept Esq from screaming. As soon as she pressed her fingers into William's leg, she began to feel nauseated. She could feel the warm blood of her friend sloshing around. As she began extracting the bone, bits of damaged tissue squirted out a foul smelling substance. She fumbled slightly with the bone fragments. Her hands felt numb. Finally she found the canister.



"Spray it," Will whispered. Had Esq been a Human, she doubted she could hear his words.

Her hand shaking violently, she pointed the tip of the canister to the wound and sprayed. A white foamy substance billowed forth, enveloping Johnston's wounds and knitted his tissues together. Normally, Esq might have relaxed at that point. However, if Will was feeling better, he gave no sign of it. Bio-foam gives extreme discomfort. He groaned as sharp pain radiated throughout his leg before slumping down as the pain-killer took effect.

Soon after Will fell unconscious, Esq remembered she was sick. That could have been good if she was safe and the discomfort reminded her she needed rest. It was definitely not good in a base occupied by a vengeful Associated Intelligence. She picked up Johnston's battle rifle and tried her best to reload the alien technology. However, the pain in her head was too much and eventually, after fruitlessly trying to stay awake and guard the Human's prone figure, she lapsed into an uneasy sleep riddled with nightmares. The last thing she heard was a throaty laugh. "I see you…"

- - - - - - - - - -

"Fall back! Fall back!"

Private Dunbar did not know who exactly gave the order to retreat. However, he was certainly not going to argue. A few hours ago, the base had quite literally gone insane. Damn… the automated gun noise was deafening. Yea, he was not going to argue against the 'retreat' order; however, he certainly wished to know where the hell they were going to retreat to. Everywhere, there was smoke. He picked a direction and bloody well ran for it. His teammates were dying back there but at the moment, he couldn't care less. He just had to get away from the smell of death.

"Worm! Where do you think you are going to? There is nowhere to hide! The same fate awaits you at every corridor…" another one of those laughs echoed after him.



Dunbar lifted up his shotgun and took out one of the bases many 'eyes'. A hidden camera in one of those black plastic bubbles exploded as his shotgun shell punctured the cheap material. Shards of camera and plastic flew everywhere and a sparking cable swung low, nearly blinding Dunbar. He ducked, rolled, and one of those AI controlled trolley carts slammed into his knees. Flipping down, head first; he twisted in mid-air getting his leg caught up in the wire of the cart. It flipped over on top of him. Entangling himself away, he backed away slowly, pumping shell after shell into the mechanism. "Take that! You sick, twisted bitch!" He punctuated each word with a shell. Swearing and shooting was all he could do to keep from shitting himself. He was so freaking scared and to hell with wasted bullets.

After his 'revenge' on the 'fiendish' trolley from hell, he sprinted to the brig. It was a closed in area. That will make things a lot easier to defend himself.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Corporal, you alright?"

Will opened his eyes and spotted Private Dunbar. "How long have I been out?"

"Hard to say sir, when I got here, both you and Ms. Split-lip were out."

Esq groaned and got up. She ignored Will and Dunbar; she walked over to the crates and sat down, listening.

"Private, give me an update. What the hell is going on around here?"

"Sir! Somme has gone rampant. Her motive is to exterminate anybody that remains in the base! But, she hasn't yet, me and the rest all believe she is toying with us! Mostly, she has been shooting not to kill, but to injure. She shot Blogg in the leg and Haynes, she shot him… well… in the the ass."

"Where's the rest of your unit?"



Dunbar swallowed. "They're dead sir."

"Okay, our first priority is to get everybody here… we can't just wait here. We'll be sitting ducks. Esq, can you hold a weapon?"

"I can if you show me how to reload and basic firing mechanisms. Projectiles are so primitive. However, you do not seem to be in any condition to fight." She looked down at his leg pointedly. And, I am quite ill and my head feels like a plasma bomb just detonated in there. She did not say it out loud. None of her Father's troops would complain. She would not complain either. However, she did fall down to the ground as pain lashed up sharply from her hooves to her head. Ah, I still have much to learn.

"Sir, it appears the Elite is in no condition to fight either."

Countless hours of waiting ensued. No marines showed up either. Either they were still fighting for their lives or they were dead. The Private suspected the former. After all, if they were dead, why wasn't Somme advancing onto their position? Technically, she was at their position… She was everywhere. The brig did not offer a tactical advantage to overthrow Somme. No other marine would show up there. He decided that they were all going to die. Somme was like a cat that plays with its food, Somme was probably busy doing twisted things to the marines. He was considering shooting himself so as to avoid being tortured by Somme when Johnston grabbed his sidearm and fired countless shots at the brigs ceiling.

"The vents! We can crawl through them!"

A/N Thank you for finishing reading this chapter. Yea, it is pretty boring I guess… I promise the next one will hold more excitement! Please review!