Adams and the others watched as the large figure of Specimen 2218 stood up. Nobody moved.
2218s face was expressionless as it looked first at Kra'tak, who was crouched in a fully combat ready stance, weapons in both hands. No hint of emotion registered on the human face.
2218 then turned its head to the left, making eye contact first with Adams, then Smith and finally Arthur. It stared at Arthur, as the others looked on.
2218s expression instantly turned to absolute rage simultaneously moving at inhuman speeds towards the three of them standing together.
Adams moved to intercept.
In a blur, Specimen 2218 flung out an arm sending him flying out of the way, rifle still clutched in his hands. Smith watched in horror as Adams flew through the air as if he weighed nothing. Adams back crashed sickeningly hard into a thick edge of a solid metal table on the opposite side of the room.
The sound of Adams crashing and then collapsing in a heap barely registered with Smith as his attention was pulled away by a loud and odd tearing sound right next to him. He turned to look just as Specimen 2218 literally ripped Arthur apart with its bare hands.
Already horrified and in shock, Smith watched as instead of blood and guts, a huge gush of milky white liquid and wiring fell out of the now dismembered Arthur.
All of this happened in a flash, barely enough time for Kra'tak to react. He drew back his spear and flung it hard at Specimen 2218.
Without looking away from Arthur as it let the remains fall to the floor, and in one smooth motion, 2218 sidestepped, caught the spear as it passed, readied it and threw it straight back at Kra'tak.
It travelled faster than even Kra'tak had thrown it.
Before he could move out of the way, the spear tore straight through his thigh, the force of the blow knocking his leg out from under him and sending Kra'tak crashing helmet first to the floor. The razor disc clanged along the ground as he lost grip of it. His own spear was now lodged in his leg.
Kra'tak roared in anger and pain, the sound echoing loudly around the laboratory.
Only a few seconds had passed and now Smith began to bring up his rifle. 2218 was still staring at Arthurs remains, stuck in an expression of rage. Just as Smith brought his rifle up, it was snatched out of his hands. 2218 looked at the rifle in disgust, broke it in half with little effort, and looked down at Smith.
Smith was frozen in terror, unable to move. He hadn't dealt with anything like this before. He wasn't ready for this.
2218 moved slowly this time, almost deliberately, moving a hand towards Smiths head. Smith saw a blur come from behind 2218 and almost immediately an object lodged into 2218s arm. The inhuman man barely reacted as it looked at the object; it was a razor disc that could cut straight through a normal human with ease.
It had made it barely half way through 2218s upper arm. The arm fell limp. 2218 moved to dislodge the disc with its other hand, ignoring Smith.
"SMITH! GET OUT!" Kra'tak shouted.
That snapped Smith out of his trance, and he ran towards the door which he had stayed near when he'd entered.
Kra'tak attempted to use his auto cannon but it wasn't locking on. 2218 now had the razor disc in its hand and was about to throw it at Kra'tak. The expression of rage had turned to one of almost enjoyment.
Before he could throw it, 2218 jerked forward as an object ran through it from behind. 2218 lost balance, dropping the disc, but managed to keep upright. 2218 looked down to see the end of a spear materialise, sticking out of its abdomen.
2218 hadn't seen Tol'din at all.
There was no scream of pain, no panic, no visible reaction to the injury. Instead, 2218 immediately grabbed the end of the spear with its good arm and began pulling it through.
Blood was rushing down both 2218s arm and from the hole the spear had made.
Kra'tak was trying to get up, his speared leg unable to support his weight, at the same time as trying to get his autocannon to operate.
Tol'din attempted to stab 2218 in the neck using his wrist blades. The blades snapped as they made contact with the back of the neck. There was some sort of armor protecting that area.
At this, 2218 stopped pulling on the spear and immediately threw a rapid powerful backwards elbow, hitting Tol'din square in his helmeted face. The power of the blow was enough to stagger Tol'din who stumbled back a few steps. He quickly recovered only to see 2218 drop the spear and turn to face him.
2218 was too fast. Tol'din had no time to react as he was punched in his helmeted face once again. Another punch staggered Tol'din. Then another. A rapid succession of punches were caving in Tol'dins helmet and causing him to fall backward. 2218 was relentless, mad enjoyment etched on its face.
Tol'din fell, only for 2218 to follow him to the ground.
BOOM!
The glass of the cryopods shattered and the room was bathed in bright fiery light as 2218 was sent flying off of Tol'din. An explosion had ripped into its back. The massive body skidded to a stop a few feet away from the now barely moving Tol'din.
BOOM!
Another explosion tore into 2218s body. It was Kra'tak, firing his autocannon. He was leaning against a table, having managed to position himself so that 2218 would take the brunt of the explosion, hopefully sparing his clan mate. He had one hand wrapped around the auto cannon above his shoulder. He was guiding it manually.
He fired his last two explosives. 2218s body lay twitching, huge chunks taken out of the torso, one leg almost torn completely off.
The room fell into complete darkness as the explosions died down, having destroyed the emergency lights overhead. Kra'taks view through his helmet showed him the whole scene in multiple colours.
Adams lay unmoving on the opposite side of the room. Nearby, the mess that was the remains of Arthurs android body were spread over the floor. Tol'din lay where he had fallen. Kra'tak picked up the razor disc that had disabled 2218s arm.
It took him a while to limp his way forward, the spear still stuck firmly in his leg. He moved past the barely moving Tol'din, and went straight to what was left of 2218. He gripped the razor disc and attacked 2218s head. There was a vast rage being let out by Kra'tak as he roared and turned the head into a bloody pulp, ensuring Specimen 2218 would not awake ever again.
Smith was slumped against a wall in the corridor outside. He'd collapsed and could only listen in frozen terror as the battle had raged inside. He was too scared to move or even think.
Heather and her team were making slow progress in the darkness. The night vision could only help so much with the heavily overgrown terrain. There was no sign of the same kind of smooth untouched road that had allowed them easy access to the base.
She looked up at the sky, wishing dawn would come faster. She hoped Adams and the others were ok.
"What the hell are they doing?!" Shen asked no one in particular.
The Aliens had continued to simply stand motionless at the edge of the clearing moving only to avoid sniper fire. Only a few had been successfully hit, though more emerged to take their place. They were standing equal distances apart surrounding the entire base.
All of a sudden a few of the Aliens crept forward slowly as if they were hidden in tall grass.
"What are they doing?!" Shen repeated what they all were thinking.
They watched in silence. No more shots ringing out from the base. Finley had advised waiting for the Aliens to come closer before trying to engage again.
As the creeping Aliens moved forwards an autogun beeped loudly, breaking the eerie silence. Shen, Dena and Keitaro turned to look in unison to see the indicator light turn green; the gun had a lock.
They turned back in anticipation of the gun firing at its target. Instead, they watched as the Alien that the gun had begun to track jumped back as if it had been jolted by an electric current.
Immediately and in unison, every other Alien moved forward as far into the clearing as the one that had just jumped back out of range of the autogun.
"This is not good," Shen stated the obvious.
"They're way too smart," Dena agreed. She held her weapon tighter, feeling the comfort of the smooth metal against the palms of her hands.
"Ready your weapons. Wait for them to come closer and pick your shots." Finleys cold voice ordered over the radio.
An ominous silence once again descended upon the base. Many of the inexperienced soldiers in the turrets watched the unfolding display in apprehension. The Aliens were showing far more intelligence then they had ever been known for.
Hurst, having abandoned efforts with the sniper rifle, now stood next to Finley. The two of them held their assault rifles at the ready.
"It's like an old Mexican standoff," Hurst commented idly.
Finley snorted a quick laugh. "Think they'll play fair?" he asked rhetorically.
Hurst didn't need to reply, the Aliens did by moving all at once. They watched as instead of the Aliens making a run directly for the wall as they usually did, they began running in elaborate patterns.
The autoguns nearby began beeping, status lights changed from red to green followed by the electronic whirring of the turrets tracking the Aliens that had now entered range. The autoguns began firing sporadically.
They watched as almost all of the shots only kicked up dirt where an Alien had just been.
At this range the guns were having a hard time locking on to the fast moving targets.
"They're confusing the guns. Smart bastards," Hurst said grimly.
After watching for thirty seconds, Finley had seen enough. He clicked his radio on, "Raul, I need you to shut down the autoguns."
"On it," Raul replied. "But why?"
"They must be trying to drain the guns before they come to the wall," Finley answered.
"Ok," a nervous Raul replied. After a moment he spoke again, "Uh...we've got a problem."
"What problem?" Finley asked tersely.
"I uh...don't have the access codes for the guns," he explained. "We've never had to switch them off."
"Who does?" Finley demanded, his voice losing some of its cool.
Raul replied after a pause, "Shit...uh...Arthur. He maintained the guns too."
"No one else?" Finley asked.
Another pause, "No. Shit, sorry man."
"Not your fault," Finley forced himself calm again. He continued watching the autoguns having a hard time hitting the Aliens.
Finley activated his radio. "Listen up. We can't stop the autoguns from wasting ammo. They'll run out soon enough. Once they make it half way into the clearing I want everyone to start picking them off."
A chorus of confirmations from the soldiers in each turret followed.
"Remember, pick your shots and use your grenades if they get too close to the wall."
Another round of confirmations.
Finley put his radio away and looked up at the sky. It was starting to get lighter.