Chapter 38

Once more unto the breach

The alarm in the bedroom began its trumpeting, rousing Adrien from a deep sleep. He got up and turned it off before looking outside.

Today was the day.

There were no words between himself, Alexei, and Petrov as they readied themselves for what might be the last time. Alexei didn't even complain about the early hour.

When Adrien exited, he popped open the door to Blue and Katja's room. They looked up from their gear, dressing. He just gave them a nod and left to make breakfast.

It was hard to find the motivation in making a last meal – plus he didn't want them all too stuffed to work – so, he kept it simple and lighter.

Still no conversation at the table, though Petrov was sneaking mournful looks at Katja. None of this was a great sign. Many outings with his men, they had gotten rowdy and excited – even at the prospect of danger – beforehand.

They didn't bother to pick up the meal this time. It could be handled if – if – they got back, after all. Instead, they went back to their rooms to rearm.

Going to a closet, Adrien began grabbing weapons to hand out. Petrov took a PKP Pecheneg, which was a Russian counterpart to the M240B he had wielded earlier. With several two hundred round belts, Adrien hoped to mitigate reloads.

Katja stepped forward and Adrien handed her the AK with flamethrower, though she would be taking the stashed sniper rifle at the camp before long.

"Don't miss. For all our sakes," Adrien stated solemnly as she took the weapon. He could see her swallow, but nod.

Her gaze went to Petrov, and she frowned. "You don't have a helmet. Did you grab an extra one from any of the soldiers' bodies you found here?"

Shrugging, Petrov shook his head. "They were all either structurally compromised or didn't fit."

"Then take mine."

"It's not going to fit, either," he pointed out. "It'll be fine, Katja. The serpents don't have guns."

Adrien noticed her pinch her lower lip in her teeth, and her hands made fists. Though Adrien didn't like the idea of Petrov missing a critical part of his armor either, he didn't want another fight to break out right before the mission.

"He's not getting mine," Alexei announced through Petrov, just as Adrien was about to step in. "I'd like to live, please."

For Alexei, Adrien had to outfit the kid himself, since the idiot didn't know a thing about kitting out. This time, he'd be carrying a full load like the rest of them.

"Blue and I will draw the attention. We'll keep Petrov covered out there," Adrien assured Katja; then, satisfied, he handed Alexei the Weyland G36 he had used the other day, since it was the weapon he was now most familiar with.

Finally, it was just him. Like Petrov, he took a PKP from the closet, as well as Alexander's elephant gun for the queen. And a surprise for their alien ally.

"Don't blow us up," Adrien told Blue, offering a few arrows he had modified himself. They had fragmentation grenades essentially taped to them, and a string tied to the pin. All Blue had to do was anchor the string, and the grenades would prime when they flew from the bow. A makeshift explosive arrow. Like Rambo.

He could see Blue understand immediately and took them. "That's it. Anything you wanna say, Captain?" Adrien asked Katja. He had never been much for motivational speeches; maybe she was.

Katja blinked a few times, then seemed to focus. "The United States 506th Airborne in World War II adopted a Cherokee Indian word as their motto. Currahee. It means 'stand alone', but the soldiers were together, so they 'stood alone together'. I can't think of anything more appropriate for us. We stand alone from our different backgrounds, walks of life, and even as enemies. But now we do it together in a common interest. Today, we stand alone together out there, and we will come home victorious."

Damn, he was impressed; and looking at everyone else, it seemed she had found their courage and unity at the last minute.

They might not win, but at least they wouldn't go quietly into that good night, choosing instead to die choking on their own blood for their species' very survival.

"Alright, listen up. We're not gonna have radios out there, so we're gonna use flashlights to communicate with Morse code if needed. We don't have time to teach Blue, so it's gonna be up to the humans to do this with effectiveness."

Sharp nods from the warriors anyway. Good sign. "Saddle up in Sokolov's truck. We're Oscar Mike," Adrien spoke in military code.

Rather than waste energy, Adrien insisted they drive to the site, even if it was a tight squeeze for them all and downright dangerous to draw the attention. Petrov and himself sat up front, Blue in the back, and Katja and Alexei in the trunk.

Everyone was quiet, the engine the only thing filling the silence. Nervousness again, if he had to guess.

Blue nearly scared the piss out of him when he broke into the silence. "Stop. Too close. Will alert nest."

Braking the truck and putting it in park, Adrien stepped out and stretched, followed closely by everyone else.

They all grabbed their loose gear, but Petrov came close to Adrien and whispered, "Bit of a hike." He glanced over at the sickly Katja, who was, for now, holding up well under all her gear.

"Think I'm going to trust the hunting expert on safety here," Adrien said somewhat sarcastically.

"But–"

"Take point, if you're that concerned," Adrien cut in and tried to end the debate before it could get under way.

"Yes, sir," Petrov answered.

It was gonna be a long day…

If they were lucky, that is.

Katja, tailing the group, tried to keep her grip relaxed on her gun. The sun, having been hidden behind the clouds for so many days during the storm, was now shining bright and throwing a glare off the snow.

Thankfully, she had a solution: a pair of giant, butt-ugly Louis Vuitton sunglasses 'borrowed' from the resort gift shop. Lifting them from a pocket, Katja put them on. She had a random, passing notion that Jade would probably approve of them, and snorted to herself before refocusing.

The serpents would be easy to spot, but the harsh light could alter her perception of any targets and affect her aim. And she couldn't miss. Not today.

Alexei was whimpering, and trying to stifle it. She felt a surge of pity, even if he was probably safer with the group than back at the hotel alone.

"It's gonna be okay, kid," she murmured to him. "I'll take care of you."

"Jekaterina, I hate this. I hate it all so much. I didn't ask for this. Any of this. I want to go home."

"Me too Alexei. And we will, but let's make sure there's a home to go to first." Katja encouraged.

"Hey," Adrien cut into her thoughts. "Take the hill there, follow it to the Weyland camp. Rifle should be stashed in the tent, but you'll need to assemble it."

"Yeah, got it." Katja nodded, but stayed frozen. God, this was it. She could easily lose one or more of them today.

Her fever dream, from nights ago back at the resort, played through her head. Alexei's young face melted away behind a spider's body. Blue, strong and invincible Blue, chest exploded. Maksim, kind, gentle Maksim, torn in half. And Adrien, killing himself…

She needed to get the images out of her head, and fast.

"You good?" Adrien followed up.

She swallowed as discreetly as possible. "I'm ready," Katja replied with all the confidence she could muster, and gave a nod. As a captain, she had never felt so much doubt. Because even when the job was its worst, it still couldn't compare to this.

"All right, let's get at it," Adrien spoke nonchalantly. She'd believe he was totally relaxed about the situation if she wasn't doing the same 'covering up your fear' thing he was. "Keep safe, KitKat."

"You, too."

With Alexei in tow, she banked up the hill as instructed, but kept her other guys in view just in case they encountered resistance. Before long, the tank graveyard and the FOB were visible.

The woods were thick now, but she did see the hideous yellow tent through the foliage. Stepping out, she saw the bodies of a couple Weyland mercs still there, having barely begun to decompose in the icy weather.

"Yuck. Couldn't they have cleaned up before we got here?" Alexei whined. She wasn't sure if he meant Weyland, or their own guys.

Ignoring him all the same, she went into the tent and found a Pelican hardcase lying there. Popping it open, the disassembled rifle greeted her, as promised.

Closing it, she dragged it out of the dark tent into the daylight and opened it for assembly. Unlike her AK, she wasn't familiar enough with the American-made weapon system to assemble it blindfolded. The pieces were cold, even through her gloves.

"Ok, Alexei. All you need to do is cover me while I shoot. Alert me if there's anything to the sides or behind us. Alert me if we are being charged from the front, as I'll have a bit of tunnel vision looking through the scope," Katja explained as she attached the various receiver parts together.

"That's it?" Alexei asked, almost in a whisper. His foot was bouncing anxiously in place.

"Well, feel free to shoot them if they are coming for us too," Katja tossed in with a chuckle to try and lighten the mood.

With the rifle assembled, Katja dropped the bipod and rested the rifle in what she thought might be the best spot for total field of view coverage. There was a thin fog around the area. Would make it harder to see, but not completely blinding.

Looking at the rail-mounted rangefinder, Katja adjusted the windage and elevation dials on the scope, hoping it would at least be close. She'd have to dial it in more as she shot and got a feel for it. Thankfully, the distance wasn't so far that she'd need to take the Coriolis effect into account.

Below, she watched Adrien rigging the noise lure up to the PA system while Blue covered him. She wasn't comfortable with how close to the nest they were.

Petrov was messing around with something on one of the tank husks – probably the DShK heavy machine gun. Why? She didn't know. Admittedly he looked good doing it, but it wasn't like the gun could be used effectively in its current position – and its weight at 34 kilograms made it impossible to wield by hand. At least, effectively.

Adrien and Blue were now retreating back to Petrov's position. Flashing his light, Adrien warned in Morse that they were about to poke the hornet's nest.

Ugh, Hornet. That was poor wording on her part, and she was grateful he wasn't here to turn it into an innuendo.

"Lieutenant, see if you can dismount that machine gun off that tank," Adrien ordered.

"What good will that do? Not like we can use it effectively, gotta be a least–" Petrov began before Adrien cut him off.

"If you throw a metric measurement at me, I swear to God, I'll give you a matching set of black eyes," Adrien threatened.

Petrov lifted the sides of his mouth, finding something amusing about what Adrien had said.

Vai'dqouulth wouldn't mind bestowing the injury this time.

"I'm well aware of its weight and maneuverability. We can't wield it effectively…" Adrien trailed off, clearly expecting the dim-witted lesser male to make the correct conclusion.

Actually, Vai'dqouulth was still trying to figure the answer out. Petrov must've understood more quickly than himself, as the human's eyes grew wide before he winced in pain at the darkened one (much to Vai'dqouulth's delight). Without further questions, Petrov got to work on the weapon.

Meanwhile, he and Adrien crept toward the base entrance once more. They came to a tall pole with several wires coming out of it.

"Still has power…" Adrien trailed off; his confusion evident. "That shouldn't be possible. We scouted the power plant, it was offline," He continued.

"Concerning?" Vai'dqouulth asked through a clip.

"Not sure yet. But it's out of place," Adrien answered, but he was obviously alarmed.

Vai'dqouulth watched the area for any hard meats, but also observed Adrien on occasion. The human was splicing wires into the square communications device they called a 'phone'. Unlike the wrist communicator, it did not have as much range.

"I hope you are prepared to take over out here. Petrov is focused on Katja's survival over completing the mission, Alexei is worthless, and Katja herself is still not fully recovered from the sepsis. She also doesn't seem to be in a good frame of mind right now."

The warrior was prepared to die, and wanted to know that someone competent could immediately jump in. And he was right; Katja, while a very competent leader, didn't currently seem as capable. He had no doubt the condition was temporary, however.

"Sei-i," he answered simply.

"Good. I think we are done; let's get back to Petrov," Adrien advised. "See if he has that gun ready."

They began their trip, treading lightly just in case. As they walked, Adrien flashed his focused illuminating device at Katja, who responded in kind. He'd have to learn this 'code' they used. Could be useful for future hunts.

"Got it?" Adrien asked, once in range of his courting competition.

"Yeah, help me get it down," Petrov said, bracing the large burner against his leg. Chuffing in amusement, Vai'dqouulth chose to watch rather than help. But surprisingly, they brought the human kinetic weapon to him with minimal effort.

"Take it. It's a Russian fifty cal machine gun," Adrien urged. Vai'dqouulth shook his head. He did not want to use human weapons.

"Trust me, between this and your two fancy shoulder cannons, you'll have a lot of firepower on these guys," Adrien tried to entice.

"And, it'll just plain look cool," Petrov added encouragingly.

Taking a second look, Vai'dqouulth noticed the ammunition did seem larger. And with the volume of queen's forces they'd be facing, it would be ideal to keep their engagement at a distance.

"Very well," Vai'dqouulth typed, acquiescing. He accepted the weapon, finding it only possible to use by holding it at the hip. Petrov gave him a quick tutorial of the firing mechanism, which was straightforward enough. They also fashioned a sling so it could rest on his shoulder.

"Ok, I think we are set," Petrov announced, throwing a look over his shoulder in the direction Katja was stationed.

Pulling up his wrist computer, Vai'dqouulth searched for the human phone device. They had discovered that by enabling a feature called 'Bluetooth' – which he had learned was unrelated to his human-given name – he could tunnel into the device and manipulate it from a distance.

He found it, and stood by. He wanted to be sure they were ready, so he looked to Adrien for the prompt.

"Do it," Adrien ordered.

Vai'dqouulth pressed the button and the results were immediate. Horrendous human music began loudly belting over the sound projection system the phone was attached to.

Gonna tell Aunt Mary 'bout Uncle John

He claim he has the misery

but he has a lot of fun

Oh, baby

Yeah, baby

Whoo, baby

Having me some fun tonight, yeah

With the sound lure now playing, Vai'dqouulth eagerly hefted the human weapon back into his clawed hands. His two companions covered the left and right, while he focused directly up the middle.

The nest.

"Remember, control your fire. We don't all need to reload at the same time," Adrien advised.

"Copy," Petrov acknowledged.

Without further delay, the nest began to vomit its spawn in great numbers – though so far, less than they'd first assumed. They swarmed forward, eager to meet the invaders.

Many were already falling.

Katja.

In some cases, she was hitting two or three at a time. Not only was it impressive, it was very helpful.

"Light 'em up!" Adrien ordered, and they all began firing, joining Katja's onslaught.

Vai'dqouulth had been wrong, the human weapon was very satisfying to operate – and useful, if primitive.

They would be victorious, there was no doubt now.

Petrov fired off a burst, killing two and tearing the legs off a third. The assault was going well so far. Between them and Katja's amazing marksman ability, they were able to keep the creatures at a safe distance

But as they had learned in the past, the queen had plenty of tricks up her sleeve. Maybe she'd send out another rhinoceros at them.

Taking a breather, he again glanced up at the hill towards Katja and Alexei's position. The flashlight was blinking at him. He read the message, and he clenched his teeth before he turned around.

Serpents were crawling and clawing their way out of the ground. Somehow, they had tunneled from the base directly under them, and came up behind them.

Or the tunnels had been there the whole time, and they hadn't realized it.

"Pierce!" Petrov shouted over the gunfire. The American turned to him. "Contacts rear!" he finished.

"Blue! Keep your fire forward, we'll cover you!" Adrien said before turning to face the new threat with him.

Katja watched as the creatures flooded out from what remained of the building. They had expected much worse – this was not it.

So, the queen's numbers were depleted; her bluff had been called.

They may just take the day.

Still, something uneasy and doubting tugged at her stomach. It couldn't be this easy. Shouldn't be this easy.

Locking on, she began firing at serpents. Fifty caliber rounds were fast and heavy, so she was often dropping multiple creatures before the bullet was disintegrated by acid.

Between killing the things, she'd switch her view over to her men just to make sure everything was ok.

Adrien and Petrov were on either side of Blue, firing deliberately rather than just holding the trigger down. Perfect.

Blue, for his part, was wielding the DShK machine gun Petrov had been working on earlier, in addition to his twin energy-based shoulder weapons. She wasn't much of a fan of… well, anything other than work; but even to her, the inner sci-fi nerd opened up and she thought he looked pretty awesome.

"Jekaterina!" Alexei suddenly wailed.

"What?" Katja asked, not coming out of the scope as she fired.

"Jekaterina!" he shouted again, this time, shaking her shoulder.

"What?!" Katja asked a little more irritably, finally coming out of the scope to look at him.

He pointed to the field farther behind her guys, and she saw movement. Shifting over, she panned the scope to the spot.

There, coming out of the damn ground, were more serpents. Trying to flank her boys. "Good catch, Alexei! Quickly, use the flashlight and alert them. I'll try to thin them out until they do," Katja said.

"Petrov saw it! They are turning around!" Alexei shouted.

Adrien pulled the top cover on his PKP up and began reloading. It was lucky Petrov caught the signal that they were being flanked, or else they'd be dead by now.

The assault was going well, in his opinion. He knew the moment their forces emerged; it would be clear which side would be victorious.

The queen did not have enough spawn. They might actually survive this.

With a new belt of ammo in place, Adrien slapped the cover down and charged a new round into the chamber.

Glancing up, he watched Blue for a moment. Between the machine gun and the canons, the dude was a walking tank. Yeah, he was geeking out over it for sure. Made a saltwater croc look like it belonged in a petting zoo.

He sorta wanted to just take a picture with his phone to keep. Maybe blow it up into a giant poster. Odds were, though, that Blue would figure it out and smash his phone… and just his phone, if he was lucky.

Getting back to the fight at hand, Adrien joined his fire with Petrov's once more. The queen's counterattack was failing, and the same trick wouldn't work twice. But would she know that?

With the rear serpents mopped up in short order, the two humans shifted fire back to the front, supporting Blue again. Not that he needed it – he was a one-alien army.

Or at least, that's what Adrien thought until a glob of acid landed right next to him, further eating away at a destroyed tank.

"Please tell me you saw that, Katja…" Adrien murmured.

With the counterattack in ruins, their attack seemed to be going effortlessly well, until Alexei pointed out that the men were backing up.

Retreating was not a good sign, but what made matters worse was she couldn't tell why they were trying to get away.

The scope had the magnification. They'd be without sniper support for a little bit, but she needed to see why they were retreating.

The answer became apparent when a glob of puke-green/yellow goo landed just short of Blue.

Acid. The same spitters they'd encountered during their run to the train depot.

Panning around, Katja found the distinct serpents perched on the tall concrete barriers that surrounded the base. Dammit!

She was just about to fire when Alexei screeched. Turning, she saw three serpents on approach from the left.

Her AK was close, but it was easier to pull her Glock and fire, killing one. The other two stayed behind tree trunks, occasionally peeping out at her.

The behavior was odd, to say the least. Right now, the demons were walking into a meat grinder with no fear and a berserker-like personality down below – but these two were playing peek-a-boo. The question was, why?

The answer hit her like a truck. The queen didn't necessarily have to kill her, she just had to keep her attention off helping her men. That's why these two were playing games. They were drawing her off the main objective.

She did not have time for this, and that was the point. But maybe she could turn this around on them.

"Alexei, watch them. I'm going back to sniping." Katja said loudly on purpose. Getting back on her belly, she mounted the rifle once more and took aim at the first spitter.

Once she killed it, it had the desired effect and the two peek-a-boo brothers screeched before jumping out to attack.

"Ahhhhhhh!" Alexei screamed as he fired. His technique was not anything Adrien had taught, simply a 'spray and pray', but it did the job regardless of the ammunition waste. Maybe his video games had done something for him. Two more of the Queen's spawn down.

Going back to the wall, Katja dropped the other three spitters and a handful more regular serpents before checking on the guys.

They were no longer retreating. In fact, they were pushing up.

They had been forced to retreat when the queen's own snipers joined the fray, but after a delay, Katja seemed to have dealt with them.

"Press the attack!" Adrien ordered over the gunfire.

Advancing seemed dangerous to Petrov at this point. Sure, there were no globs of mortar acid coming at them, but that didn't mean that they should get too close just yet. As it stood, they were just barely holding back the wave, in his opinion.

Still, the American had operational command, and he sure as shit wasn't leaving Blue's side or letting the serpents break through to Katja's position; so, he joined them in a slow walking advance.

Petrov noted that he and Adrien were running low on their machine gun ammo. Granted, that still meant two, two-hundred round belts on both of them; and they still had their regular rifles on backup, but they would be less effective without that constant volume of fire.

Maybe that's why the American wanted to push now. The closer they got, the tighter their shot accuracy would get.

"What's wrong?" the American captain yelled, and Petrov looked over. He was addressing Blue. To Petrov's knowledge, the alien was fine.

"Casters overheated," Blue answered as quickly and simply as possible.

Come to think of it, Petrov did notice the blue streaks of energy speeding by had ceased. He watched the red-hot canons fold down behind the alien's shoulder and out of commission.

"How do we fix them?" Adrien asked, but didn't stop firing.

"Air cooled, time," Blue responded shortly.

Apparently, that didn't deter the American, as he kept advancing. Now this was simply reckless; Blue was down his technologically superior weapons, and they were still moving forward.

The serpents, with less firepower to suppress them, were now trying to encircle the three of them – and it was somewhat working. Instead of a mostly forward-firing, he and Pierce were shooting more radically to the sides, trying to stifle the maneuver.

"Pierce, we need to back off and let those cannons come back online, or we will be surrounded!" Petrov finally said.

"Negative, keep pressing," Adrien ordered.

Was he insane? They didn't have an overhead drone this time. They will surely perish if they pushed too much, too quickly.

The insane question was answered when another rhinoceros-thing came ramming out of the base. It did, however, cause the serpents to retreat.

"We need to pull back!" Petrov urged. "Unless you have another bag of grenades I can use!" Even then, he wasn't sure how he'd get on this one's back and behind that crest.

"No! I was counting on this!" Adrien stopped him.

"Counting on this? When were you going to tell me?" Petrov demanded indignantly, while they had a breather.

"Katja will have that thing broadside with armor-piercing rounds. It's not armored there. She knows that from the first one you killed. The queen is making a mistake. Do not interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake," Adrien replied.

Petrov watched the drones form up behind the rhino-thing once more. Just like at the evac site. Pierce was right; this was game, set, match. A last desperate move to stop them.

"Don't worry boys, soon we will be back at the hotel sipping margaritas," Adrien assured them.

With no warning, a batch of serpents broke off and ran toward Katja.

"Shit."

Katja was impressed. She had panicked when the serpents began to encircle her people, and Blue's canons weren't mowing them down.

But instead of retreating, Adrien had pushed them forward. It had taken all her will not to grab her rifle and run down there to assume command. She had to remind herself Adrien was a seasoned military captain, and he knew what he was doing.

Her patience paid off as the serpents retreated, and one of those rhino creatures came bursting through the side of the hospital.

She didn't know if this was part of Pierce's plan or not, but it was perfect. She had the shot and angle at the weak points of the thing – and the drones were gonna use it as a shield again, effectively taking them out of the fight.

Of course, the Queen proved once again, she wasn't that stupid. A detachment of drones were now making their way up the hill toward her.

"Alexei! Eyes front!" Katja warned as she dismounted the Barrett and grabbed her AK-105. She and Alexei began retreating before the serpents crested the hill. As soon as they did, they began firing frantically.

Even if it was a relatively small hoard, it was just the two of them, and Alexei wasn't exactly a proficient weapons user.

In the middle of their fight for survival, Katja's mind wandered to her boys below. They had no sniper support, and a tank was coming right at them…

Adrien jumped off to the side before the rhino charged, refusing to get bashed this time. His plan had been going exactly to… well, plan. What he hadn't counted on was the Queen sending a kill-squad after Katja this late in the game.

He watched as the rhino-thing circled past them, Blue firing the remaining ammo in his turret. The rounds did penetrate, but weren't aimed well enough to kill it.

Discarding the now useless weapon, Blue made to regroup with him and Petrov. They needed a new plan of attack, since Katja was otherwise occupied.

"Any more plans you haven't let me in on?" Petrov asked as they all scrambled onto the corpses of tanks.

Blue fired an arrow that expertly killed a serpent. "My plan was to crowdsource a plan, remember?" Adrien answered condescendingly.

He then turned to Blue. "Cannons?" he asked hopefully.

Blue shook his head. Still down, apparently. "We have to press. We gotta scare the Queen into pulling all her forces back to the hospital. It's the only way we can give Katja breathing space to kill this thing," Adrien ordered as he fired at two more regular serpents.

Without a word of protest, they fell into formation once more – only now, Blue didn't have the ranged firepower they desperately needed. Instead, he was using a friggin' bow and arrow. Better than those melee weapons he had; Adrien supposed.

Every time they made a little progress, the armored one would come swooping in and push them back. The only upside was they were cleaning out the serpents, and they didn't seem to be replenishing.

At one point, Adrien fell backwards over some debris. Struggling to get upright again, he watched as Blue impaled a serpent midair from behind, that had launched itself off a tank – without even looking, no less – and threw it to the earth with little effort.

Petrov came up and offered a hand. "We gotta take that thing out," Adrien said as he was pulled up.

"Katja needs help," Petrov stated.

Adrien mentally rolled his eyes. They couldn't help Katja if they couldn't help themselves. And right now, they were in deep

As always, writing battles is hard :( If you'd like to see the photo accompanying this chapter, check if out on A03, chapter 38