“I got the pull,” I announced. My broadcast was confirmed by several double-clicks, the most any of us could manage in the heat of battle.
The Marines used their left fists as platforms for their rifles in a one-handed shooting position as they simultaneously activated their energy shields. Every Marine had a shield in their personal arsenal. They were similar to force fields, but instead of vaporizing things it touched, it simply slowed them down. The death-dealing kind of force fields took a lot more power to energize and were dangerous to use in tight quarters. The more conservative MSM—Martian Storm Marine—shields were effective enough for our purposes here. The kinetic energy these smaller versions used didn’t matter when it hit a shielded Marine, not unless it was an entire shuttle or something with almost enough force.
Lucky for us, the Xeno weren’t packing anything quite so big today, but neither were they deterred by our energy shields. They continued firing, heedless of their own safety. This particular breed of bug belonged to a hive, and the foot soldiers weren’t important to the community beyond protecting their Queen. I wasn’t sure whether the bitch would show up during this battle, and I kind of hoped she wouldn’t because this squad would have a helluva time dealing with her.
The bugs soon realized that their efforts were almost useless against our energy shields, and they charged us. Our rifles blared as they pressed forward, but their chitinous armor deflected most of our bolts.
I switched from my battle rifle to my sword, a vibro-blade designed to gently nudge molecules out of the way and far more effective against tough Xeno exoskeletons.
“Leave some for me!” Reaver announced as she leaped into the fray.
I couldn’t help but grin at the woman’s bloodthirstiness as I delivered a searing chop to the nearest Harbinger. Armor sizzled before my blade as my weapon cut through to the alien’s fleshy core.
“Nice one,” Reaver complimented me as she hooked the same alien with the bayonet at the end of her rifle. The curved blade wedged into an elbow joint in the alien’s carapace. She tugged hard, but the fucker tugged back. The Harbinger dropped its rifle and pounded Reaver’s shield with its barbed fist, desperate to break the force field and shred her insides.
I sprung forward, dropped to one knee, and plowed my sword into the soft undershell of the alien’s exoskeleton. Ichor showered my visor as the Xeno flailed. I rolled out from underneath the predator as Reaver extracted herself from its clutches.
The Harbinger turned its triangular head and massive compound eyes to its new injury while Reaver harassed it with her bayonet. A quick check of my heads-up display revealed that the line was holding and all my troops were engaged, so I decided to show Reaver a few tricks. The alien was attempting to retrieve its rifle, but Reaver was blocking its way.
The enemy’s rifle was still engaged, so within a minute or two, its ammo would pop and ooze out. Latent acid sacs would render the cave an effective minefield, and the Marines would be forced to pay more attention to their steps than the Xenos.
I tucked my foot beneath the rifle and kicked it into my hands. I didn’t know how to use the thing—all Xeno weapons had some kind of biosignature system—but I did know how to destroy all its latent acid sacs.
“Reaver, get back,” I ordered as I removed the magazine filled with bug goo.
She obeyed and watched me with a curious eye. I tossed the magazine and hit it with the flat side of my sword. The sacs hit the bug, exploded in a spray of green goo, and showered the bug in its own acid. The Xeno were completely immune to the substance that would have killed a human, but the syrupy liquid had still coated its limbs and trapped them in a web of goo.
I charged the alien with Reaver at my side, and my silver sword hummed as a quick twist of my wrist sent the blade arcing through a three-fingered claw. The predator snarled and tried to counterattack, but its own sticky goo impeded its every movement. A flashing icon over my HUD indicated the Marines’ defensive line was beginning to bulge in the middle as the bugs pressed against it.
Playtime was over.
The Xeno tore itself free from the green webbing and swung at me with its mangled claw, but I managed to get my shield up in time to block the strike. The energy shield trapped the appendage for a moment, but would go down soon if the thing kept pushing. But I had no intentions of allowing it to live that long.
I delivered a quick stab to each of its exposed front legs and curled them underneath the Xeno’s thorax. Then I opened a hole just below its neck with another swift cut that bathed my blade in blood.
The Harbinger backed away and turned toward the Marines on the line, but with its truncated arm trapped in my shield, it couldn’t run far. The alien pulled hard and dodged away from my blade while trying to stab me with its middle set of legs. The game of whack-a-mole continued until a deep sucking sound and a grisly pop announced it had sacrificed its limb for freedom.
I dropped my shield and smothered the 10-foot tall creature with my own armored body. I stabbed my three-foot-long blade into its abdomen all the way to the hilt. It would guarantee a kill, but Harbingers never went down easy. They had four hearts, and only three of them were in its abdomen. Still, it would likely be partially paralyzed and far less effective in battle. I twisted the blade just to make sure.
“Send it!” I ordered as I dragged the twitching alien back from the line.
It was then that I realized that
