They saw me coming and had almost a second to pour fire into me, but it wasn't enough. I smashed into their cover like an armored meteor, blowing a tree apart and smearing one of the Greys into the ground. His shield had flickered up to stop me but had shattered without slowing me noticeably. The Grey's torso had popped like a grape, but there was no blood, only a clear liquid. Interesting, but I didn't have time to spend on xenobiology.
The three survivors backed away frantically, two of them fumbling for new magazines for their smoking M4s. I was kneeling on the shattered corpse of their buddy. Even though those faces were expressionless—incapable of expression—I was sure I could feel the fear I had inspired.
"Now, let's see if your buddy up there is shy about friendly fire!" I yelled. I surged to my feet and at them.
One of the three had managed to reload and brought his rifle up, spraying wildly. A few rounds pinged off my legs before the charged Voidcutter points of Excalibur's hook end clashed with his protective shield for a moment before extinguishing it. The Grey backpedaled rapidly, still firing. The GN-75 tore him apart with a quick full-auto burst of needles at point-blank range. The alien fell and I stepped forward and pivoted, Excalibur already sweeping toward the next member of the squad.
The Grey's protective yellow shield parted easily underneath Excalibur's charged points. This alien had some training and tried to deflect the blow with its rifle and get inside my guard, but it had neither superior strength nor leverage. I turned off the power to the hook's points, snagged his M4, and pulled. The alien held on just a split second too long, stumbling toward me. I caved in the ugly face, leaving the impression of my armored right fist deep between its wide black eyes.
"Incoming," Brick warned.
I snarled, ready to leap out of the way of an incoming attack when the missing three saucers reappeared in the sky overhead. White light flashed again and reinforcements appeared on the ground. This time it wasn't just Greys, but what looked like human soldiers as well, still four per ship. I had no time to worry about that. It was time to kill.
Again the saucers didn't stick around, disappearing from the sky after dropping their troops. So far my theory was holding out—the saucer didn't seem to want to fry its own guys. In the few seconds I'd been in close quarters with the squad, the others hadn't been firing at me either.
The human soldiers that had been dropped off opened up, not seeming to be so worried about potentially fragging the one survivor of the squad I was near. Their shots were a lot more accurate than the Grey's had been. My armor's damage indicator read yellow to light orange almost everywhere.
I snarled and boosted hard off the ground, my grav plates keeping me horizontal. I clotheslined the surviving squad member with Excalibur as I flew by, his big stupid head rolling away after the impact.
I smashed through small trees toward the next squad and they scattered as they saw me coming. I reversed my grip on Excalibur and skewered the unluckiest one with the chisel tip, smashing into the Grey as I regained my feet. Casually, I flung the corpse at the rest of the squad and hosed them down with the GN-75 on full auto. The first few flights sparked off the shields but the needles kept coming. One flight was all it took to kill these alien bastards.
The last member of the squad fell and the fire hitting me increased. I ducked and dodged, trying to find cover amid the rapidly disintegrating trees. Regar and Kiril chose just then to make their entrance.
Through the scout's extended senses I saw the hangar doors flash open, exposing Redemption for just a moment before doors closed again. Regar and Kiril soared out and into the air.
Regar was in his red armor and I could see the Tempest on his back. He had a plasma pistol in both hands and was already laying down fire on the attacking Greys and their human helpers. One fell under a hail of hissing bolts and his threat marker disappeared. Regar’s brief low-gravity hop ended with his feet on the ground and he continued firing.
Kiril was dressed in light white-and-black armor, nothing like mine or Regar’s. His head was covered by a beautiful helm, something that looked like what an elven prince would wear, all shining metal and sweeping angles. His serious eyes were visible in the eye slits, and I could see the faint gleam of a protective field around it.
In each hand he held a leaf-bladed knife, the edges glowing bright red. Each of the blades was as long as my forearm. His diaphanous wings were nearly invisible as he flitted through the air like a hummingbird. Spotting his victims he arrowed into a squad, moving erratically. His glowing blades flashed as he danced around the squad, severing limbs and cutting through weapons. I almost felt sorry for the poor bastards. I didn't, though.
Whoever was in charge of this little invasion had finally had enough and had decided to end our resistance. The deafening foghorn started up again as the saucer charged up its weapon.
"Shit, Regar take out the saucer!" I ordered.
"Jake, it's a priceless Artifact! A fully functional—" he protested, but I cut him off.
"Now or it'll kill us all!"
I reached out to my beam drones, hoping to use them to distract the saucer. It was no good. One had been destroyed, while the other was out of juice and had docked on my back without me noticing it. It hadn't recharged enough to be useful yet. I cursed and flew toward the next squad. If that saucer was going to fry us, I was going to make sure it had to kill its
