01010101010101---)Extraction, Part 2(---10101010101010

"Hold the line!" A man shouted over the overwhelming sound of gunfire.

'Stay close to the wall, stay hidden in the trench,'

An explosion rocked the floor, and several soldiers fell from their places up on the trench wall.

"MEDIC!"

Blood sprays as fine mist into the air, caking the men in a blanket of red.

'Stay alive,'

Screaming.

'Stay the fuck alive.'

<<<[o]>>>

"All pilots assigned to the rescue operation, report to Shuttle Bay E-1D, immediately! This is not a drill, I repeat this is not a drill!", a gravelly voice commanded over the intercom. The lower decks of the U.T.C Ranger were filled with activity, whether it be crewmen anxiously awaiting the return of the drop teams, or operators sending out status reports back to the bridge via consoles, the atmosphere was tense. In the lower reaches of the ship, towards the tail,

"Fueling Darkstar-1!"

"Darkstar-2 is all gassed up and ready to go!"

"Technician! We've got some problems on this bird here!"

"Prepare for chamber conditioning sequences, fuel up, then standby!"

<<<[o]>>>

"Push them back! Push them back damn it-" A sniper round pierced the Sergeant's skull, cutting back his barking of orders. Artillery rocked the world around them, and the shrieking of missiles filled the air, dancing with the constant drumming of automatic weapons.

"MAN DOWN!"

I can see my feet slap the muddy floor beneath me. My gun is bouncing in my hands, my irregular breathing the loudest thing I can hear.

"I'm reloading! Keep up the pressure!"

A man is beckoning towards me, I do not recognize him. He is a higher rank than me.

"Private, get that AR up on the wall and pin them down!"

Climbing a rickety wooden wall, my gun peeks over the dirt. The ground beneath my gun is torn apart by heavy calibre bullets, I fall.

"Get back up there, soldier!"

I feel my body act on it's own accord. I am not in control. This has happened before. I do not want to see. I cannot close my eyes.

My head goes up, I see enemies.

I do not want to do this.

My arm aims, my finger fires.

Bullets spew from the barrel, hitting the targets.

"Shoot the targets, private," Someone says in my head.

Shooting the targets.

The targets go down. They hide behind barriers.

"Throwing grenades will help to suppress enemies, and eliminate hostile units in the blast radius," I hear it again.

My arm lobs a grenade over the wall, a second goes by, I hear an explosion, cries of pain. I pop up above the wall, and I see a man, lying in the center of the field, his legs have been removed from his body. Blood gushes out of the wounds, and it pours openly on to the floor. He wails in agony, and on instinct, I raise my weapon up toward him.

He looks toward me, his eyes pleading not for it to end like this. I swallow.

Finger.

Trigger.

Fire.

"You got one!" Someone next to me shouts, slapping me on the back.

"What's it going to be? Hm?"

Decide.

"Are you a killer?"

"You're going to become a professional murderer?"

Murderer.

"Are you going to kill people?"

"Monster...?"

Monster.

"Are you gonna go out there and kill for your country?!"

"Killer...?"

Killer.

No...

"Answer me, Private!"

No.

"Jacob, don't enlist..."

Why?

"Private, you're gonna give me an answer!"

What?

"Stay here, with me, with your family!"

I want to!

"Answer me!"

I can't!

"Answer me Jacob!"

I CAN'T!

"ANSWER ME,"

Voices, surrounding me, chanting. I cannot understand.

"JACOB!"

<<<[o]>>>

"Jacob!"

Jacob's eyes shot open, and he leapt up from his former position on the dirt, his hand darting toward the combat knife on his thigh. In the blink of an eye, the knife shooting up to the figure on top of him. He kept the knife at the throat of the figure, and growled like a dog. Jacob's eyes adjusted to the light, and the blurriness faded away, revealing a terrified Connor, the blade pushing into his jugular.

All was silent.

"C-Christ Connor, you scared the life outta me!"

Connor choked for a moment, before yelling, "Outta you?! Yer not th' one with a knife on his throat!"

For a moment, the intense panting and the strained breathing was all that was heard, before the two simultaneously broke down into laughter. Jacob was laughing hysterically, and even if the situation was not a comical one, it felt good to laugh. Jacob couldn't remember the last time he had laughed. They both sat there laughing at the moment, and they savored it, for that may be the last time they ever register a moment like that.

Wiping away tears from their eyes, the both calmed somewhat, and Jacob's eyes scanned the trees around them.

"Connor," he murmured , "Where are we?"

His reply was a blank stare, and after a few moments, a shrug. The walls of a cave surrounded them, and hastily pitched tents were erected on the doorway, along with strewn-about thermal-wraps. They both climbed up from their positions on the floor, and began to dust themselves off. As Jacob did so, he noticed that Connor's movements were sluggish, and ill-coordinated. For a second, Jacob saw a expression of fear on Connor's face as he studied a non-existent entity in the distance.

A small little 'beep' got Jacob's attention, and his hand darted to his waist. Clicking a small little button on a round, black device, Jacob's HUD reactivated, and he could see that they were only a klick away from the rendezvous point. Along with that bit of good news, connection to the U.T.C Ranger  had been reestablished during their little nap. His hand snapped up toward his radio, and he pressed down the button.

"This is Alpha, anyone out there?"

Static.

"I repeat, this is Alpha-4 actual, we're in the dark here, guys. Homeplate? Anyone home?"

More of the same.

Jacob sighed, and brought his hand down roughly against his-

"Alpha! Alpha, do you read?", crackled a staticky voice.

With renewed vigor, Jacob clutched the radio.

"Roger, roger, this is Alpha-4, we are requesting immediate evac. The operation is a strike-out, I repeat, its all's gone to shit."

"Confirmed, birds are already in the air, breaking atmosphere in ten, ETA to Rendezvous Point 2, Homeplate, out."

Jacob smiled, then pulled his hand away from the device. Help was coming. Hope was not lost. He turned toward the darker side of the metallic cave and found his rifle, slinging it around his waist. Quickly collecting all of his own gear, he rolled his head around, then popped on his helmet, and tightly secured it into place. Checking his time on the PDA, he looked up towards Connor and noticed that he had suddenly vanished.

"Connor?"

Moments past, then Wynes flew into the tent and tore it open, his eyes darting around the area. Nothing.

"Connor! This isn't funny!"

He stepped up on a rock, and cupped his hands around his mouth.

"CONNOR!"

An embarrassed cough from behind several trees away got his attention, then he heard, "Can't a guy jus' take a piss in peace?!"

Jacob drove his hand into his face. Hard.

<<<[o]>>>

"Thank you for calling me here, General, Command has been riding my ass on the H.ARM-"

General Alexei raised his hand to silence the scientist.

"Doctor Rossman, do you know why I have called you here?"

The doctor sat back, and stroked a long scar running down the side of his face in contemplation. After a moment, he opened his mouth to speak, but seemingly contradicted himself in his head and shrunk slightly. After another moment, he snapped his fingers together.

"You finally found me an ART arm?" He asked in hope, smiling brightly.

The General smiled back, glanced at the place where the Doctor should have had a right arm, but then said, "Sorry son, we are still getting it ready,"

"Then why am I here General?"

Alexei stood from his black leather chair, and turned back to the holo-screen behind him. After examining it for a moment, he spoke, "You do realize that us arriving here, in one piece, after over twenty-million years, is a statistical improbability, correct?"

"Yes, I am aware,"

"This craft wasn't even predicted to reach Kepler. We were shooting in the dark,"

"I am aware of that as well," Doctor Rossman murmured, "What's your point?"

"My point, Ger, is that that we haven't come this far, to die now,"

They sat in silence for a moment.

"I'm not quite sure I understand,"

Alexei turned back to face him, his face cast in shadow.

"On that moon, some bad things had been happening. We had the project file, before launch, and we thought it was a bad idea. Those men on the surface confirmed this. Radio contact with Charlie and Bravo has been lost, and Alpha has taken severe casualties."

"They went through with the project anyway," Alexei growled.

Doctor Rossman stepped forward, "What project, Alex?"

The General sat back in his chair, creaking under his weight. From underneath the table, he exposed a small brown box, and gently set it down on the table counter. Staring at it for a moment, he lifted off the lid and cast it to the side, then wheeled his chair around to the cabinet on the far side of the room.

Doctor Rossman began to read the file within, and his face paled.

"General, this... why?"

"After the Unification war, a rogue division of Korea's military began to research a neurotoxin known as VBH-22, also known as, 'Virenhem Mortem', or plant death. As part of the assassination attempt on President Connors before the launch, they were to release the toxin into the air at the ceremony at the conference hall, but they were caught before anything could happen.

"Instead of arresting the agents, the three men went missing, and all evidence of their existence was erased. However, three new men joined the colonization roster going for Europa. It wasn't hard to tie two and two together, and I sent a formal letter to the President of the U.T.C for resignation. Things didn't go my way, and I was informed they would use their knowledge of the toxin to increase crop production on the surface. Bullshit. We don't know what happened, but the other crew on the surface thought it was in the crust of the ice when it had melted. At the moment, thats what the rest of our crew believes, and it is going to stay that way," coming back from the cabinet, he took a long drag of a cigarette, then shot out a cloud of smoke into the air.

"Why are you telling me this, General?"

Another drag.

"Because one sick motherfucker on this ship wants to copy it," he growled.

"Who, Alexei?"

Suddenly, the General coughed harshly, but it didn't end there, his body began to convulse. Doctor Rossman stared in horror as the General fell to the floor, and various bodily fluids began to rush out of his eyes and mouth. The light in the room went off, and the sound of footsteps slapping away at the floor outside got his attention. Rossman reached into his labcoat, and revealed a small-barreled pistol, then ran to the door. The person had already gone.

General Alexei was fading away as he heard Rossman yelling in the hallway for a medic.

<<<[o]>>>

"Thank CHRIST WE MADE IT!" Connor yelled to the skies, grinning like a mad man, but then coughing.

Jacob set down his pack, and looked up to the now pale blue sky. Something was not right. Where were they? Jacob looked down to the floor and noticed several etchings into the frosted dirt, but the most prominent one was;

Help.

"Connor... we're at the extraction point, right?"

Connor looked back to him, but the ground rumbling caught them off guard. It was not terrible, but it was going to be, soon. They looked at each other nervously, and readied their rifles, Connor muttering several curses under his breath.

"Can you feel that?" Jacob whispered.

The rumbling intensified.

Trees were uprooted.

Stones were shifted.

Leaves fell.

Ground cracked.

"Ah shit."

Everything exploded.

Jacob was sent flying, and collided with the ground, but switched to a roll, then sprung up. A wave of dizziness rushed him, but there was no time. His gun sprung up like he, and he was staring down the sights, to quite possibly the most horrifying sight he had ever seen.

Through the clouds of smoke, a single red eye glowed, then it slowly inched upward, towering above him. Lasers shone through the thick clouds, and flew to his chest. Gears whirred. Pistons pumped. Wheels turned and steam hissed. The sound of revolving metal reverberated through the emptiness, and Jacob's heart stopped. His gun lowered. His breath caught, and his blood froze. Gunfire shook him from his stupor, and somewhere in that cloud, a terrified Connor let loose with his rifle. The metal monster turned to face him, and before Jacob could act, the sound of an explosion followed.

"ARRGGHHHHHH!"

Bright yellow illuminated the cloud, and Jacob dashed forward, spraying his gun at the Mantis. Heavy caliber rounds exploded behind him, and quickly, Jacob dove for cover. From behind his stump, he could hear the beast pounding away at the wood with the gun. Within seconds, his cover would be compromised.

Jacob knew he would be dead if he didn't do something, but what was there to do? Suddenly, Jacob remembered the Semtex. He reached for a small pouch on his vest, and pulled a small handful of white powder, then cast it into the air around him. While the powder was in the air, the lasers shone through it, and the barrage of gunfire was lifted. Jacob ran.

He ran in an arc, but inched closer to the metal abomination. He grabbed a tightly strapped pocket on his chest, and ripped it off violently, tossing it into the air above the machine. It landed on the roof of the Mantis, and got caught on the railing. He transitioned into a crouch, and took aim. Before he could fire, it was in his sights.

Jacob was once more cast into the air, but it was noticably different. He could feel nothing. Impacting a tree, and no feeling. He rolled lifelessly on the floor, and his head lolled, but somehow, he rolled it into place. He stared at the menace, and he knew that this would be the end. And he was so close.

Jacob thought about Connor, then grimaced. So neither of them would make it.

As the robot inched closer, Jacob thought about what might have set it off. It didn't matter though.

The whirring of the minigun was all he could hear now, and he bared his teeth. Then, he pulled his handgun from his holster, and angrily aimed at the beast, but he noticed a faint red flash on the top of the form.

The semtex.

He put effort into controlling his gun, but it failed, and his hand fell. He tried again, but it would not move. He yelled, and screamed at his hand, but it did not move. He then looked back to the machine, and prepared to die, but something cut him short.

A strangled cough.

The machine spun around, and if it could feel annoyance, it would certainly be displaying it. Stalking ever closer to Connor, it revved the guns for good measure, and was about to go.

One shot.

Go.

Finger,

Trigger,

Fire.

<<<[o]>>>

"Darkstar-2, we've got clouds of black down there, you seeing any survivors?"

"Negative, negative, we got- wait. We see movement."

"Confirmed, survivors found, touching down."

<<<[o]>>>

Twilight paced nervously around her bedroom.

This happened frequently, but tonight, there was ample reason for doing so. Yesterday, the strange 'star' had disappeared from her telescope, and she was quite relieved.

Tonight, it had returned, but not only had it reapppeared, but it was closer. No longer was it a star, but quite possibly, an asteroid, or meteor. And if it was to continue its path, it was going to collide with Equis. Ruffling her feathers lightly, she sat on her bed.

Not good.

Not good at all.

"Spike!"

Silence.

"SPIKE!"

A loud bang resounded from the lower part of the library, followed by a pained moan.

"What?"

"We need to send a letter to Princess Celestia, immediately!"

Next Chapter: 5: Spotted Estimated time remaining: 9 Minutes