Bypassing Protection
New Beijing, Shanxi. March 15, 2157 AD
"WHERE THE HELL ARE MY GODDAMN HEAVIES?" Second Lieutenant Alexander Romanov shouted behind him while he fired his rifle at the alien infantry. He had to quickly duck down to avoid the return fire.
"They got held up at the hospital sir, aliens had armor support," a man gasped out.
Even though General Williams' broadcast had specifically said to get guns and find cover, a lot of civilians had decided there was safety in numbers and had, very clearly and very openly, occupied a school. Normally, Alexander wouldn't have cared, if they were too stupid to follow orders in a war zone then they got what was coming, but this group consisted of mothers and their children. Not even a complete monster could abandon these women and children to die so Alexander had ordered his men to set up around the school until he could figure out what to do with all these people. Unfortunately, the aliens had decided to start pushing through the city before he came up with a plan so Alexander and his platoon were simply trying to keep the aliens occupied while the civilians escaped out the opposing side of the building. Things were not going well, the platoon of thirty-five people had been whittled down to just fifteen. Alexander thought he caught a break when one of his men managed to radio a nearby squad of soldiers with heavy ordnance and inform them of the situation. Luck was not with them though, the squad passed by a medical center on their way and had to stop and fight off alien tanks it seemed. Alexander was pretty sure that the squad could take out the aliens given time, he just didn't know how much time he and his men had.
Alexander glanced behind him in dismay. Of the fifteen people in the room, two of them were so badly wounded they couldn't even stand up. One of them was on radio duty, the other had passed out from the pain, Alexander was glad to see the man was still breathing at least.
Alexander turned back to look at the aliens that were hiding in the doorways to classrooms further up the hall. Despite the large number of ground troops assaulting the school, most of the damage (and kills) had been done by the two tanks sitting in front of the school. Alexander and his men had been forced further and further into the school as the tanks blew holes in the front walls and the walls behind that, and then the walls behind those wall. The front half of the school had pretty much collapsed in on itself from having so many load bearing walls knocked out. That actually turned out to be a good thing though because the tanks stopped fired. That was when the infantry had moved in to try and dislodge Alexander's platoon. Luckily, the infantry decided to try and fight it out rather than retreat and have the tanks pound the building some more. Alexander prayed that the alien tanks hadn't simply circled around the school, if they had they would have come across the fleeing mothers and children. Based on how much wanton destruction the aliens had caused to the city's infrastructure, Alexander seriously doubted they had any qualms about shooting unarmed civilians.
Alexander's thoughts were interrupted when he heard a feminine voice exclaim, "Finally!"
A soldier that had been behind Alexander ran forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with him, she brought her rifle to bear on the aliens and opened fire. An orange colored beam shot down the hall and the aliens all immediately dove for cover. Alexander grinned. The aliens all had personal shields that protected against kinetic guns, much like all Systems Alliance troops, however, unlike Systems Alliance troops, the aliens lacked any sort of shields that protected against phasers.
The soldier, who Alexander recognized as Corporal Eva Lee, sat down behind the barrier they had erected across the doorway into the cafeteria. It was sheer luck that the fridge in the kitchen was just the right size when turned on its side to make for a good barricade because otherwise they would have had to make due with a bunch of plastic tables.
"Well Corporal, now that you got your rifle working again I think we might actually stand a chance," Alexander said.
"Glad to hear it sir." Lee looked up at him and grinned. "If we make it out of here I want written apologies from everyone that made fun of my loadout.
All Systems Alliance infantry were required to be outfitted with a kinetic weapon and a phaser weapon (which typically came in particle beam or plasma variations). For the most part, soldiers were allowed to pick their weapons from the several options the Systems Alliance had available. Most people choose a handheld particle beam for their phaser weapon because the damn things had so many uses and so they therefore ended up with a kinetic rifle by default. Lee had picked a phaser rifle and so had gotten a kinetic pistol. Because the rifle was designed purely as a weapon it couldn't be set to lower tool level functions so Lee had been given a lot of ribbing from fellow soldiers about how she was only good for two things, shooting and-well most men never finished that sentence. Lee would usually deck them by that point. Once the invasion started and everyone found out that the alien shields didn't stop phaser fire, Lee was the most popular person in the platoon. Her gun plowed through aliens, which made her a bigger target. One of the aliens was either really skilled or really lucky because he got a shot straight down the barrel of Lee's rifle when they had first started pushing their way into the school. Lee had been forced to use her use her pistol while they retreated. It was only once they settled down in the cafeteria that she had finally had the time to try and fix the damage. Alexander wasn't sure how she had fixed the damage in a school cafeteria but he wasn't going to tempt fate by calling attention to it.
Alexander was about to promise to write a book praising Lee's weapon choice if that was what she wanted when the aliens started shooting again.
"We're basically in a stalemate for the time being aren't we?" Lee asked.
"Pretty much. They aren't getting close enough for the phaser pistols to be that effective so they are content to try and pick us off at range but with your rifle we should be able to keep them suppressed until the cavalry arrives."
"Guess I'll do just that then," Lee said as she stood up and fired down the hallway. Alexander heard a strange noise which he had learned was the sound of one of the aliens screaming. They had this strange flangy echo in their voices which had weirded Alexander out to no end when he had first heard it. Lee ducked back down. "Got one of them in the leg, they pulled him into cover before I could finish him off though."
"Just keep them from advancing, I'm gonna check on the injured." Alexander turned around to assess who could take his place at the door. "McKenna! Come'er, you're on guard duty."
"Yes sir!" The only other surviving woman in the platoon said.
Alexander crouch-walked over to Warren Fuller while trying to ignore the loud and creative curses flying from McKenna's mouth as she shot at the aliens. Fuller had blacked out after taking some shrapnel to the face during the initial tank barrage. Alexander winced in sympathy just looking at the man, in addition to the number cuts and slashes on his face there was a six inch sliver of wood jammed into Fuller's left eye. Well, there was six inches exposed, Alexander had no idea how deep in it went. Fuller could be bleeding into his brain and no one would know and there wasn't anything they could do because they had used all their Medi-gel during the retreat through the school and the nurses office was on the other side of the aliens.
"Any changes Price?" Alexander asked the man who had been tasked with keeping an eye on Fuller since the two medics had been killed.
"No, but given his condition I wouldn't say that's a bad thing. His breathing is steady and there isn't a whole lot of external bleeding."
Alexander sighed. "I just wish we hadn't used all our Medi-gel, my leg wound wasn't that bad, I could have made it here without needing to patch it up."
"Stop beating yourself up sir. We had a lot of injuries, the medics didn't have time to check everyone and judge their severity while also running for our lives."
"And that was a rookie mistake!" Alexander said angrily. "We were trained to conserve our resources regardless of the situation, not spend them like we're in a damn video game."
"Maybe you should go check on Howard sir," Price said in a placating manner.
"Yea. Yea, I'll go do that."
Alexander shuffled over to Ackerman. The Corporal nodded at Alexander as he approached. "No word yet on the reinforcements sir, I'll let you know as soon as I hear something different."
"Thanks Ackerman but I'm actually just checking up on your wounds." When the platoon had made it into the cafeteria Ackerman had been the one to suggest using the refrigerator as cover. As he and several men had moved it into place the aliens had opened fire and Ackerman had been caught on the wrong side of the barricade. Lee was able to provide enough covering fire for Ackerman to crawl over the fridge to safety but not before his shields failed and his legs were riddled with bullets.
"I've started clotting so I'm not in any danger of bleeding out. Still can't stand up but I can work the radio just fine sir. I'll admit the pain is still pretty bad," Ackerman grimaced and rubbed his legs. "But I ain't in any danger of passing out."
"So long as you don't keel I'll be a happy man," Alexander said as he patted Ackerman on the shoulder reassuringly.
Ackerman grinned helplessly and shrugged. "You don't have to worry about that happening. Worst case scenario is I buy you guys some time when the aliens make a push while you all retreat."
"We aren't going to leave you behind."
Ackerman frowned. "Sir, if you try to take me with you I'll only slow you down and get someone killed. I'd rather spend my last moments saving someone's life, not causing them to lose it. Besides," Ackerman jerked his head in the direction of Price and Fuller, "someone will have to keep an eye on Warren when Giles leaves."
"Fine, if we have to retreat I promise that I won't make anyone carry you out with us." Alexander neglected to mention that someone would undoubtedly volunteer to carry Ackerman out.
"Thank you sir."
Alexander made his way back over to the doorway where McKenna and Lee were currently arguing over weapon choice. Sounded like Lee was advocating using phasers but McKenna preferred her kinetic rifle's higher rate of fire to a phaser pistol despite the fact that kinetic weapons triggered the aliens shields. Alexander decided to interrupt before things got any worse.
"That's enough ladies. At the moment it doesn't matter how many aliens you kill or how you kill them, all the matters is that we keep them away from us. We aren't trying to win, we're trying to survive."
After receiving two 'yes sir's Alexander dismissed McKenna and took her spot by the door.
Yushan Mountain Range, Shanxi. March 15, 2157 AD
Michael was in the middle of cleaning his Uzi when there was suddenly a loud boom and the whole building shook. Michael quickly reached forward onto the coffee table to grab the various pieces of his gun as they rolled around from the shockwave. Last thing he needed was the Uzi becoming useless because some vital part rolled off the table and got stuck under the couch or something.
"What the hell was that?" Kevin asked as he ran out of his bedroom into the lounge.
"That was the C4 I left in my truck," Michael said as he quickly began assembling his gun.
Kevin fumbled with his belt for several second before finally pulling his phaser out. "Do you think any aliens survived? How much C4 did you use anyway?"
"I used four pounds. In retrospective that may have been a bit. . .excessive."
Kevin's expression, which could only be described as 'no duh', was the only response Michael got to as the younger man rushed out of the building.
Michael sighed. Kevin had no combat experience, if there were still any aliens alive running outside like that without any kind of plan was liable to get someone killed. Michael stood up as he slapped the clip into his gun and gave it and the table a quick once over to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. Satisfied that the Uzi wouldn't blow up in his hand, Michael grabbed his shotgun off the chair and slid the carrying strap across his shoulder. When he reached the door he slowly made his way outside, constantly scanning his surroundings. There was the small dormitory that he had just walked out off as well as the main building that made up the Observatory directly behind him and in front he could see a plume of smoke rising up. The road sloped downward so Michael couldn't see much from this angle but more and more came into view as he moved forward. Kevin and Fred were standing in front of a crater, just staring at it. After giving one last check of his surroundings, Michael relaxed and walked up beside the pair.
"Damn Michael, you don't do anything half way do ya?" Fred asked.
Glancing down at the crater, Michael could see Fred's point. What had once been his 20,000 pound truck was a blackened, twisted hunk of metal at the bottom of the pit. Even if the aliens had been wearing the equivalent to humanity's best personnel shields they still wouldn't have survived that explosion.
"Only problem I see with using that much C4 is that you just obliterated whatever it was that tripped the trap," Kevin said as he leaned over to look at the wreckage. "For all we know it could have just been one of the wild goats."
"Damnation," Michael said while he rubbed his eyes in frustration. "I completely forgot about them. Not to mention that this vantage point can be seen for miles. Hell, that explosion might have been visible from all the way in New Beijing. If the aliens weren't coming before, they sure will after seeing that."
"Alright, we need to stay calm and examine the situation," Fred said. "What are our options now?"
"We could continue to stay here," Kevin said worryingly. "If we're gonna run into aliens I'd rather it be here then somewhere in the wilderness."
"I think that is a really stupid idea, however it is still an option," Michael admitted.
"So what did you have in mind? It's like a three hour drive to New Beijing, you want us to try and walk that?" Kevin asked angrily.
"Yes. That is exactly what I want," Michael calmly answered. "We don't have to get into the city, that's probably where the aliens are most heavily concentrated anyway. We just need to make it to my bunker which is hidden in some farmland." Michael sighed. "Granted, it's on the far side of the city. . ."
"Are you kidding?" Kevin practically shouted. "You just said the aliens are probably thickest in the city, yet we're gonna have to go through that to get to your bunker? Hell, if we make it to the city outskirts I'm finding the nearest Systems Alliance outpost and joining up with whatever group of soldiers will take me, even if it's bomb defusal, because at this point that sounds safer than what you're suggesting."
Michael was about to respond when he saw movement further down the road and whatever it was it was much too tall to be a goat. "Get down!" He said as he dove into the crater.
Michael heard Kevin utter, "Wha-gaaAAAH," which suggested Fred had grabbed Kevin and shoved him down following Michael's warning. When Michael's slide came to an end at the bottom of the crater he gave a quick glance behind him to confirm that Fred and Kevin were staying down. They were both crouched down just under the lip of the crater, eyes constantly shifting between Michael and whatever was down the road. Confident that they weren't going to do anything stupid, Michael belly crawled up the far side of the crater until he could poke his head out to look down the road.
Michael turned around to look at Kevin and Fred. "We got aliens coming!" Michael said, making sure to keep his voice low.
As Michael turned back around to watch the aliens he heard the two men quietly swearing as they began making their way down the crater. He tried to ignore the two men as he focused on the approach aliens, there was seven of them. The aliens were doing a very professional job advancing; they were leapfrogging, making sure whoever moved forward was being covered by at least three of their fellows while the other three kept a lookout on their sides and behind them. This was the first time Michael had a chance to observe the aliens, when they had ambushed his truck he had been more focused on shooting them than getting a good look. There was also the fact that his memory was a bit fuzzy on the ambush, probably meant he had gotten a concussion from it. Regardless, this a chance to see what he could learn about his enemies. They were bipedal and were completely covered in armor, the material of which didn't look that different from whatever it was Systems Alliance soldiers were equipped with. The aliens were quite angular looking, their forms lacked the soft curves of humans making Michael guess the aliens were most likely not mammals. Did the planet they were from even have mammals? Maybe they were living crystal or something.
"Do we have any strategy or are we just gonna open fire when they get closer?" Fred asked as he crawled up next to Michael.
Michael placed his Uzi on the ground next to him and then slowly and carefully unslung his shotgun from his back. "We're going to shoot them with everything we got," Michael said as he checked the firing method of the shotgun. While Michael made sure he knew how to operate, clean, and repair every gun he owned, he couldn't help but admit to favoritism when it came to guns that made use of element zero. You didn't have to worry about running out of ammo and you didn't have to worry about what type of ammo you wanted to use. For example, Michael had modified his shotgun with a switch that could be flipped depending on if he wanted to fire buckshot rounds or individual, though harder hitting, slugs. Given that Michael was fairly confident in his ability to aim, he wasn't going to waste time with the buckshot function.
"I dunno, my common sense is tingling. The three of us, who are under equipped I might add, against seven of them? For some reason I feel like that's a bad idea," Kevin said from Michael's other side.
Michael measured the distance and angle from the aliens to the crater. "At this point they will see us if we try to leave this hole. Plus we're at the top of a mountain with only one road up it, where exactly are we going to go from here?"
"I don't know," Kevin said nervously. "I just. . .I'm scared alright? I don't want to die."
"Kevin, in a fight for your life fear is a good thing, it means you're paying attention." Michael said.
"What?"
"Nobody in their right mind wants to die," Michael explained. "If you're in a fight that could end your life and you aren't scared then you clearly don't understand the situation well enough."
"Oh. . .that makes a lot of sense, thanks Mike."
"Yea yea, just stay quiet. Listen, here's what we're gonna do: Kevin, when give the signal you shoot at whichever alien is closest to us and once he's down just start shooting at the next closest guy and when he's down-well you get the idea. Fred, you're our covering fire. Alternate who you're shooting at, keep them off balance. Got it?"
After receiving two nods Michael brought his shotgun up and took careful aim at the approaching aliens. Out of the corner of his eye Michael saw Fred and Kevin do the same with their phasers. The aliens paused in their advance, Michael didn't know if they had seen the them in the crater (probably not given the angle) but based on the way some of them were moving their heads they appeared to be talking to each other over their radios. They seemed a little distracted, this was the best chance the three men were gonna get.
Michael calmly exhaled as he pulled the trigger on his shotgun. The kickback jammed the gun into his shoulder as the round left the barrel. Michael ignored this as he moved the gun to aim at another alien and fired. Unfortunately, it was at this moment that Michael realized his first shot hadn't killed its target. Its shields had activated and stopped the bullet. The second alien was also still alive. Luckily, there wasn't any cover for the aliens to hide behind so all they were able to do was lie prone on the ground (or crouch down for the aliens towards the back).
Michael was about to curse his bad luck for losing most of his weapons when Fred and Kevin started firing. Kevin's shot missed his target, hitting the ground in front of the lead alien. Fred had targeted the alien farthest back and Michael was amazed to see that the alien's shields did nothing to stop the phaser beam. It wasn't that the alien didn't have shields, Michael could clearly see that they had activated but the beam shot straight through them to hit the alien square in the chest. Of course, since the phaser was a piece of crap Borg weapon it only made the alien fall backwards with slightly singed armor. The alien did scream something, Michael didn't know if it was in pain or a command or what but all the other aliens simultaneously opened fire. However, Fred did the job Michael had assigned him and began shooting back widely, just trying to disrupt the aliens' aim.
Michael ducked down behind the rim of the crater. He realized with the barrage of bullets the aliens were sending up there was no way he was going to be able to aim properly, time to switch the buckshot. Just as Michael was about to pop back up to shoot he noticed Kevin was fiddling with his phaser. Had the thing really broken down already? Michael knew the tech the Borg were willing to sell wasn't that good but damn, this was pathetic.
Michael aimed at the nearest alien and managed to get one shot off before the other aliens forced him back down behind cover. Things were not going well, the three men all lacked any kind of shielding so they couldn't stand up to the aliens in a straight shooting match. Michael glanced over at Fred, who was laying down beneath the lip of the crater. He would occasionally raise his arm up to fire at the aliens but he wouldn't raise himself up high enough to see where he was aiming. Michael turned his attention to Kevin, who was still just pressing buttons on his phaser.
"Well," Michael said. "This clearly isn't working, either of you have a good plan B?"
"There aren't any good plan B's! If they were good, they'd be plan A's!" Fred shouted at Michael. "Not to mention the fact that we're trapped in this hole in the ground because you thought we could outshoot aliens so I would say our plan A wasn't that great to begin with!"
Before Michael could respond Kevin cut in, "I think I can take them."
"What?" Michael and Fred asked in unison.
"I'm pretty sure I can beat them," Kevin answered.
"How?" Fred asked.
"With this." Kevin held up his phaser and wiggled it for emphasis.
Before Michael or Fred or could say anything Kevin moved up past the edge of the crater and fired at the aliens. Admittedly, Michael did not know a lot of about phasers and other Borg guns but he did know what they looked like while firing. Plasma phasers fired small, quick bursts. Particle phasers fired long, but quick, streams which was what Kevin had been shooting. However, this time Kevin was firing a continuous stream that was reminiscent of laser guns in old science fiction movies. Michael hadn't thought particle phasers were capable of that.
Michael watched in surprise as Kevin moved the beam to sweep across the first alien. Michael's surprise turned into shock as the alien screamed and then went limp, seemingly dead. Kevin just moved the beam to the next alien who was already scrambling to get out of the beam's path. Luckily, Fred was not as blown away by this turn of events as Michael because just as the aliens in the rear were preparing to give their buddy covering fire Fred shot one of them in the head. This snapped Michael out of his daze and he took aim with his (suddenly much more inadequate) shotgun and started firing indiscriminately, determined to protect Kevin. The aliens seemed torn between their desire to return fire and their desire to avoid the scorching beam of death so they attempted to do both, which did not work out so well. Between Kevin, Michael, and Fred, they had enough shots flying through the air that the remaining aliens all fell to the ground in less than a minute.
"Damn, that was a hell of a thing," Fred said as he surveyed the battlefield.
"How." Michael breathed in heavily. "The hell." Exhale. "Did." Inhale. "You." Exhale. "Do that?"
"I read the manual yesterday." Kevin paused. "Duh."
Fred slapped his hand against his own face. "How could I forget about that function? I read the manual too. Wow, I feel like a moron."
Michael finally caught his breath. "Your rinky dink tools can do that?" He gestured at the dead aliens. "When you first hit them you just pissed them off, yet with just a few button presses you can slice straight through their armor? If you can do that, what can military grade phasers do?"
Fred shrugged. "Probably the same, the Borg don't make a differentiation when it comes to military or civilian grade equipment. Still, this is a problem. Kevin may have saved our lives but we're down a gun now since we don't have any replacement power batteries for the phasers." Fred paused. "I think your next delivery would have included them now that I think about it."
"So now what? Are we gonna stay up here or are we gonna try and make the trek to New Beijing?" Kevin asked.
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm really curious about these aliens," Michael said. "What say we grab two or three of their bodies and take a look at them in the Observatory, you guys have got to have a lab or something we can use. After that we can discuss what we wanna do."
Kevin stared at Michael for a moment before asking, "You want to dissect the aliens?"
"I'll admit I'm not a scientist but we're at war with the aliens, anything we can learn about them would help. At the moment the only thing we've really learned is that they don't like it when we shoot at them."
"That's not true, we also learned that phasers bypass their shields but your shotgun doesn't," Fred pointed out.
"Alright fine, we've learned two things," Michael said crossly. "Regardless, I want to expand my knowledge, you two work for a school so aren't you like, morally required to help me or something?"
Kevin opened his mouth to say something but stopped when Fred glared at him. Michael didn't know what to make of it.
"Fine," Fred said. "We can dissect the aliens even though we have no idea what we're doing. But we're going to leave at least two of their bodies unmolested, I got a freezer to put them in so if Shanxi gets retaken our scientists will have something to study."
Michael raised an eyebrow at Fred. "You're really thinking long term here. If this turns into a long, drawn out war I guess it would help to have professionals study our enemies physiology."
"I've had a lot of time to think about this sort of thing in the past two days."