Seeing a city block as empty as this is devastating, makes me want to blast that alien scum into oblivion. Too bad in the commander's infinite wisdom he stuck me with this pissy ass sniper rifle. I'm gonna be stranded way off in the background if they expect me to use this thing. If only I hadn't been forced to take this bloody 'promotion'.
"Hansen, move out."
"Yes sir." Wanker, I was sure I'd be leading on this mission after my performance last time. I picked up the pieces to save our asses when Scott fell apart, but instead we both get promoted just the same.
"Alright Spinelli, we're going in," At least there's the two new recruits, they seem pretty capable.
"Finally, let's bust some heads!" She takes almost as much pleasure in this as I do, but she hasn't seen them for real yet, only gotten descriptions from what we've told her.
"Out on the street we're exposed, so the plan is to take up positions in the building itself and from in there we fire out on the aliens. But we gotta be sure that there's none waiting in there to ambush us."
"Yeah yeah, I got it," she presses herself up against the building's external wall and peers in, "Looks clear. Hey hey, it's an offy! I'm buying us all a round of beers when we're done here."
"Easy tiger, we're not even started yet," the other new recruit,Watson says as she runs up to leap through the off licence window and crouch behind a table, "And I'm more of a bourbon gal anyway."
"Focus please, I want you trying to spot aliens. Not eyeing the drinks."
"Yes Scott sir, no visual yet."
My turn now, following through the same window, I hop the table to take up a spot behind the counter and then I see them, far away on the other side of the building. Immediately they scurry out before I can aim my clumsy ass sniper rifle at them.
"They were in here sir, but they've climbed back out to the street."
"Good, I'm coming in," Now that the danger has passed, of course, "Watson, make sure we don't lose sight of the enemy."
"Not a problem sir," she says advancing forward, "I see a couple more, they're hopping out the window on your side, Scott and Spinelli."
"I see one, heh. Time to go boom," I can hear Spinelli pull the pin as she tosses her grenade towards the fleeing aliens. I can't really see where it landed from here but I can hear her cheering.
"Spinelli! Back in cover, you don't know if you got both of them,"
"Lighten up Scott, I've got it,"
"There's one bearing down on you NOW," Scott replied, frantic.
"Do you need supp-" I don't get to finish before I hear a boom. Not again god damn it. Not already. But then I hear laughing on the radio.
"Heheh, I do love this new shotgun."
"Holy shit Scott, did you hit in right in the face point blank?"
"Well it ran right by, woulda been pretty hard for me to miss."
The two of them climb into the building while Scott continues congratulating himself. He almost didn't hear Watson spot another two escaping through the far end of the building, "That's six we've seen now, all in here? And how many more do you think there are outside?"
"Eight spotted in here now," I say as I watch another pair scramble out, "I don't like this. Are they intentionally drawing us forward?"
We all see a purple flash from outside the window again, but before anyone react, one of the purple glowing aliens reappears from the side and fires at Watson before anyone can react. From its position, it has her flanked. Her cover's no good when the alien lands its shot. She crumples to the ground, dead instantly. She didn't even get to see her killer.
"Fuck. You," Spinelli rises up from her cover to fire two bursts from her gun, one to punctuate each word. The alien had left itself right out in the open with nothing to protect it from her fire as she tears it apart.
Scott breaks the silence, "Nice work Spinelli."
"Fuck you too," she takes cover again, going quiet.
Once more we see purple light up the window. Scott fires out at it blindly, but it's pointless.
"We need to get a good view on them sir, not just spew bullets randomly."
"There!" Spinelli calls out as she braces against the pillar that makes up her cover. The alien fires through and damages her, but she stays strong and survives.
I take a shot with my rifle but the gun's damned near useless when the creatures are this close. Instead Scott fires again and badly wounds the creature, making the glow from its head disappear. It runs past the window again, disappearing out of sight.
"Where did it go?" Scott calls out frantically.
"Shut u-aghhh," appearing at another window, it shoots at Spinelli again, "You COCK."
Luckily the alien left itself wide open for Scott to hop out the window and unload another shotgun blast. "This damn gun," he says, laughing again as the alien falls to the ground in front of him.
"Spinelli, how you holding up?"
"I'll survive, but it's gonna be you buyin me a round now Hansen, got that?"
"That I can do mate."
"Alright," Scott climbs back through the window, "Everyone reload and take good cover. Can't let them catch us like that again."
As we prepare, I see the purple flash by again. What IS the point of it? It must allow for some kind of tactical advantage, but what?
"Ok, I've got it," Scott speaks up again, "Time for us to flank them. They're all coming at us from the left, right? So Spinelli, you can head out the right side of the building and push forward, to catch them before they sneak up."
"Sir, are you sure that's wise? She's already taken shots twice!"
"I know what I'm doing Hansen, she's safer moving than waiting to see another one of those take shots at her from a window."
"You don't need to baby me Hansen, I'll be fine," Spinelli butts in, already heading for the door. Her walk looks shaky, "You can look after Scott instead."
There's not much point in arguing, it's the only plan we've got.
"Now, the two of us can move up to make sure they focus on us," Scott says barrelling further up the building and crouching by a stack of shelves, "Well shit, the four of them are ready and waiting for us out there."
I follow up, and I can see them all out there too, looking in at us. I could see the purple glowing alien, and a strange line leading from his head back to the head of one of the other aliens. Maybe that could be their commander? This time I decide to pull out my hand gun instead of the cumbersome rifle.
"What are you doing Hansen?"
"Just trust me sir," I answer, raising my gun to shoot at the possible commander alien. Unlike with the rifle, the handgun hits my target and wounds him. But when Scott also shoots, he misses entirely and the alien is still standing. Even though the alien's upright, it doesn't look healthy. The purple glow fades, and then the commander's head starts glowing purple instead, with a line tracing back from his head off to some other alien. What the hell?
While I'm distracted, behind me I hear Scott running. I turn to see him leap out a window and catch another alien trying to sneak around. I'm starting to feel more anxious about this spot, they can easily surround us while we're waiting on Spinelli to get a position.
"Oh shitshitshitballs. Shit fucking balls, FUUAGHHHK."
"Spinelli!? What is it?" I see her burst through the door to our right, she looks even more pained than before, it's a miracle she's still standing. Even more worryingly though, she looks like she's about to lose it. And just behind her, through the doorway, I can make out another alien. It must have caught her trying to flank them, "Scott, she needs support!"
I run across towards her immediately, firing my handgun on the alien. I can hear Scott follow me but the panic makes us both sloppy and the shots just warn the alien to duck out of the way. When the two of us get close we look around frantically for where the alien has gone to, but it's Scott that finds out.
"EARGHHH GOOHHHD. NOOOO!" Scott screams in agony from the ground. I didn't even see it, but he's taken a shot in the chest. He's not dead, but it wont be easy getting him back to the base alive.
Spinelli rushes out at our attacker, seeing the alien still out crouching by the door. She empties out all of her ammo as she fires again and again, but she's so frazzled she doesn't hit the creature standing in front of her once. Instead, it calmly raises it gun to blast her, and Spinelli finally can't take any more.
I'm standing back, in shock. I've seen all this go down, and now it's just me. The alien hasn't turned it's attention to me yet. All I need is one good shot.
One fucking shot, and that thing will go down.
Boom.
"Hansen, aaarghhh,"
I hit nothing.
Boom.
"HANSEEEN."
Nothing.
Boom.
...
Nothing.