Authors Note: Again I want to reiterate the warning I issued previously. If language, battle scenes, or mild gore descriptions bother you then please discontinue reading. Otherwise, enjoy the story that follows. I realize it has been some time since I have contributed to this great website but I will complete my stories... eventually. Comments are greatly appreciated and are always read. This will be the last chapter of this story for a little while despite the small cliffhanger while I work on completing my other stories.

Morning, July 1, 2032

I woke everyone in my unit up very early, I had not slept at all but they had gotten a decent 5hours or so. Even if I wanted to I couldn’t have slept, my body felt wired anticipating a very important mission that could save our species. I then woke one of the other units to tell them to watch as guards.

We left without saying goodbye, leaving the wounded allowing us to keep up the pace. We really needed to get back here before nightfall tomorrow; otherwise there would be nothing to get back too.

One of the last men in a Determiner unit was to accompany us so that there were 5 of us in case we needed to split into teams for attack and defend. His name was Josh. Not very experienced which is why we got him.

He was a pretty fast runner though. If I ever needed anything, I’d have him do the running for me.

We left going out the front entrance to the fort of bodies. There was a massive number there now, the wall was extended so that they could sit on top of it and shoot over a lip so that they would not get shot. It was almost like a castle just with no rocks and no draw bridge. Instead the door was where the imploded gun had gone off, so the Beags would have to crawl in and then out of a crater to get close enough to shoot.

On the way out, we saw a Determiner unit that was looking for the defensive fort; they had met up with 3 other units, so there were about 20 or so.

“The defensive castle is just up ahead about 600 yards.”

“You should know that there are several scouting parties around here. We already killed 4 of them but we have seen several more of them.”

“We will be on the look out.”

We kept walking not looking back. We made it to the outer edge of the city not running into any problems. We were careful to remain close to the walls and in the shadows if possible. The day drew on and it got hot. It got to the point that our armor felt like it would burn our skin off if we touched it. We must be drawing close to the research if we were already feeling the exhaust effects. We got to the very edge of town and looked out, there was the research facility not 300 yards away. We had made it with no problems. At the rate we were going we would be able to get back to the fort tonight and help them defend against the Facpor.

Josh got a little too excited though, “We made it already, let’s run in and get the thing then get back to everyone else.” Before I could say not to he ran, he ran straight for the door.

“Stop, get back here!” He didn’t listen, he kept running, we was too focused on getting there and getting back. He made it 40 yards before I started to chase after him, Kilp and Red soon to follow. He made it another 50 yards or so before I saw him fall. A second later I heard the sniper shot, instantly I hit the ground. I pulled out my sniper to see where the shot came from. I pointed the scope straight ahead to see what was there. There was not a single person at the research facility. Then I saw something stir up on top of the building. It was a Beag scouting party. There were 5 of them or so. I pulled out my sniper and lined up the first shot. I took my time waiting knowing I had all the time to take this shot. I fired, then I heard several shot wiz over my sprawled body. My shot had taken the guy on the far left head off, the two to his right also lost their heads as Red and Kilp had fired. The two remaining had tried to take another shot at Josh but were distracted by their friends losing their heads and completely missed.

I lined up the one on the left still alive and fired, his head came off too. Then Red fired again and I felt the familiar shot go by me and the last one lost his head. I paused for a moment looking for more scouts and when I didn’t see any I ran and grabbed Josh and kept running to the research facility. I made it to the outer guard booth and stopped, Red and Kilp came up right behind me.

“Nice shot,” Kilp exclaimed.

“Thanks, I should teach you sometime, you shoot like a girl.”

“Maybe next time I should just let them kill you.”

“They can try, how you holding up Josh?”

“Good sir, I think the round went all the way through my shoulder.”

“Next time make sure it hits you in the head or I’ll shoot you for being so reckless.”

“Yes sir. Sorry sir.”

“Let’s wrap it up and get into the building.”

I ripped off a piece of cloth from the bottom of my shirt and wrapped it around his arm. I pulled tight to make sure as little blood would be lost. He would probably lose feeling to his arm with how tight I made the knot, but at least he wouldn’t bleed out.

“Let’s move out and get into the building, Red, Kilp… you two try to find a way in on the East side. Josh and I will be going on the West side. If we both don’t find a way in then we will meet up at the South side of the building.

Red and Kilp quickly ran off, being very careful to make sure there were no enemies around the corner before they moved around and were gone.

I pulled Josh up and said, “I’ll take point, you just have to watch my ass.”

With that we were off, I was 5 steps ahead of him. We stopped when we got to the corner and I took a small peak around the corner, nothing to be seen. I motioned to move in, but he just stood there. I looked him square in the eyes and saw absolute terror, but it was not the usual scared of what was going to happen next. I followed his gaze and saw the mesmerizing monstrosity. Directly above us 4 warriors were sitting. None of them had noticed us yet. But they were not normal warriors. They had a large mass on the back of their head. It looked almost like it was a massive leach. It clung to the warriors head looking like it would suck its brains out.

Not only did these warriors have this unusual companion attached to all of them, they had heavier armor. The standard armor for a warrior is usually very thin; they count on their mass number and their tough skin to endure the force of our bullets. Since we had switched to their bullets their skins were little use.

Usually they have to be hit with a very solid shot or with many spray shots. 25 seems to do them in pretty well when you spray fire. But these warriors… they seemed to have thicker armor than we Determiners have.

It looked like it had been engineered to allow a single warrior to survive direct and usually disemboweling shots. It would cause a serious problem if you couldn’t hit them in the head, but they left that exposed. My best guess is that is where the parasite came in.

There wouldn’t have been a problem except that they were directly above us and we needed to get by quickly and quietly. I pushed Josh against the wall to take him out of his blank stare. He snapped out of it. I pointed in the direction we needed to head. He slowly moved, very careful not to look away from the warriors but cautious not to make a sound. We moved around the corner so we could no longer see them.

“I think we need to take them out before the next squad that comes through as to face them.”

“We should meet up with Kilp and Red before we try to pull that off.”

We moved down the wall until we got to the back side, there were no doors, just a solid wall of stone and steel everywhere.

We moved around the corner of the back, Kilp and Red were already sitting there waiting for us to arrive.

Anxiously awaiting our slowed arrival Red spoke first, “There is a door right here. However it seems to be locked.”

“What held you guys up; you got beaten by a team of girls?” Kilp being her charming self as usual.

Red starts to nod, then looks indignant,“Hey that was a low blow!”

“Come on guys cut it out, let’s try to get into the building before you two get into a pissing contest. We ran into some trouble back there. There is some kind of super Warrior that we are going to need to watch out for. So let’s try to rip this door down before there is any trouble.”

I pull out my shot gun and raised the barrel I banged on the door once. It left a dent in the door, but it sounded pretty solid on the other side. There had to be another way in. I looked up and saw a ledge, it was a little too tall for someone to reach standing on the ground, but if you could throw a person you could make it not problem, even boosting someone would be enough.

“Hey Kilp, come over here.” She walked on over. “You see that ledge up there; I want you to grab that ledge when I throw you.”

“You are going to do what?”

“I’m going to throw you up there, hold onto the ledge and go into the building. I want you to let us in from the other side.”

“Good thing I didn’t decide to wear a skirt today.”

Josh chuckled.

“You wearing a skirt Kilp, that’s funny,” Red exclaimed.

“Are you ready for this?” I picked her up; she was kind of heavy with all the gear. “Help me out and lose the gear, we will throw it up to you once you are up there.” She dropped the gear off and I picked her up again, now it was just her and some armor. She was a lot lighter. I boosted her straight up and she grasped for the ledge.

The first try a near miss. The way she came down was a bit unexpected, my right hand grabbing between her legs and my left arm going straight across her chest. “And what do you think you are doing, trying to cop a feel?”

“I figured it wouldn’t be a bad time to try. Ready to do it again?”

“As long as I make it this time so you don’t get any more ideas.”

“Ok, I’ll be sure to drop you next time.” I didn’t give her a chance to respond. I threw her up using all of the muscle god had given me. But this time she made it far enough to not only grab the ledge but to also get both her legs over it by rolling over the edge in one motion.

“I’ll just be a minute wandering through the facility looking for the door.”

“Take your time, we won’t be going anywhere.”

7 minutes later

Standing around trying to remain relatively quiet for fear of super Beag finding you is harder than it sounds. Without motion or adrenaline you get tired, you get tired you lose awareness, you lose awareness you get dead.

I could feel the sleep trying to claw its way into my mind, worse than I had ever felt it before. I really regret not sleeping last night. As I feel my mind start to fog over, I hear a metal latch on the door turn. Adrenaline kicks in and I raise my gun, not risking it being a Beag on the other side. The door opens without any loud noises, thankfully and we see Kilps smiling face.

“Aww, making me feel all loved, pointing guns at me.”

Red smiles, “well you can never be too careful, Although I think I would have preferred a Beag with how much you smell, wow.” He makes a fanning motion in front of his nose.

Kilp just smiles and flashes him the birdie.

Time to intervene, before the kids start to fight, “Did you see much to help us Kilp?”

“Negative, just a bunch of metal overhanging walkways that lead down to this door inside. There are stairs that take you underground next to the door however.”

“Sounds like we are going underground then, Kilp and I will take point. Red you escort Josh.”

We move quickly and quietly to the top of the stairs. I peer over the edge down a classic flight of stairs and see there is only one level below us.

Making our way down the stairs to the first doorway leading into a hall we group up and glance through the doorway. A warrior walks out with one of the leech like things on its head through the door on the right. From the door on the right, a new Beag warrior without a leech thing walks out and into the door on the left side of the hall. Not only has the facility been taken over, but we have stumbled upon where they are creating the new type of solider. We wait a moment for another Beag to emerge but no one steps through the doorway. I quietly talk to my comrades, “Kilp and Red take the right door using frags, Josh and I will take the left. Move up on my command.”

I pause and hear complete silence from the door ways and signal for the advance. We are standing at the entrance to the facing brick outlined doors. I give the grenade sign and they cook their grenades and throw. I run in the other door with Josh and hear the explosion to our back and a roar from the enhanced warrior. I ignore all sounds after that, Kilp and Red can handle most things, Kilp being the ranged quick fighter and Red being a brutal short-range fighter, they make a good team.

Inside of my door, I see four large tubes filled with a yellow liquid, two have Beags already in them. A Beag with two different leeches on its head is fiddling with a panel of what looks like controls. At the sound of the explosion he looks up just as Josh and I put rounds at his head. One of the leeches explodes similar to that of a Terrorling. The other moves to cover the hole now in the head while the warrior starts running at us. I switch to my shotgun while Jonas keeps firing at his head.

For a kid he has good aim, placing bullets straight through vital organs, but seemingly ineffective against this foe. I fire a round of my shotgun at its upper-body, only to result in a shallow wound. I fire again with only feet apart and a slightly bigger chunk is taken out, but the warrior is unfazed by the damage and barrels right into josh tossing him like a ragdoll into the brick doorframe with a crack of his spine. I pull out my blades as he backhands me, causing me to stumble into the far wall with all of the vials. I hear my sternum crack, and feel a sudden shortness of breath. The adrenaline is clearly masking some of the damage, but the damage too great to allow me to get a full breath.

In desperation I pull out the blades and bring them above my head as a protective barrier. The warrior comes at me again in a charge motion. I collapse to one side to get out of the path, swinging with both arms down around his shoulder area. He catches the right side of my hip with another crack of my bone, but causes me to start spinning quickly all the way to the ground causing several more vital slashes in softer tissue under his arm. The empty yellow vial that was to my back shatters releasing the contents and glass down upon me and the Beag. The Beags cuts seem to start repairing themselves, but the headlong collision has damaged the leech on its head. The leech jumps off, causing the Beags body to drop to the ground motionless.

The leech runs at me and grabs onto my neck for only a moment before I raise a bladed hand and punch the leech with all my remaining strength. Pain shoots through my entire body instantly, but my weak hit with the blade kills the leech causing it to erupt in a purple liquid, unlike the acidic green of the Terrorlings. The liquid runs over my body, entering my numerous cuts and gashes received from weeks of constant fighting causing them to burn.

The world starts to go fuzzy, almost like a thick fog has descended. I hear Red and Kilp move into the room both with deep cuts, battered and bruised but otherwise without major damage. Red is holding a weapon of some kind that has a large clear fluid chamber.

Kilp runs to my side while Red stands in shock starring from Joshes body, to me, to the dead warrior, to the vials. “Hang in there Mast, we gotchya,” Kilp pleas.

I try to speak but all I feel is liquid churning deep in my throat and a strong taste of metal. Red finally comes to me and says the very words I was trying to say. “He’s too messed up, we can’t move him and we need to protect the weapon. We can take the weapon and call for backup. After that we can get a stretcher ta get him outta here.”

Red turns away from me and starts talking into his comm. Kilp tries to distract me from the pain and situation, “You are going to let a single warrior beat you up after all you been through? We took out two on our own and you get trashed by one.”

Hardly a distraction, at this point the pain has deepened past the point of feeling and my body is on the verge of being numb. I move my eyes to the gun in Reds hand and then look back at Kilp.

“Yeah, that’s the weapon. If not then we need to at least try it on a Facpor cuz it chewed up the two warriors in one shot. You should have seen Reds face when he shot it, it kicked like a mother right into his stomach and the visual afterwar.… ey, don’t you pass out on… we’re losing hi….”

The world convulsed in all sorts of colors as I went in and out of consciousness. The sounds of the world turned mute, and actions alternated from slow motion to rapid speed. The numbness turned into full lack of feeling, and within seconds I watched the world disappear in slow motion as my eyes rolled back into my head and stayed.

TBC...