Vulture Squad - A Short Story

Spacer · April 2004

<div class="IPBDescription">First of two parts</div> Vulture Squad – A Natural-Selection Short Story.

Prologue Chapter: Marko

Marko picked up the empty helmet, TSA standard issue in the worst shape possible. The normally silver-blue view port was shattered in several places, while helmet itself had gained a dent almost 2 inches deep; Marko just didn’t want to know how it got there.
Marko fumbled inside the helmet for the slot where the miniature “black box”, the chip that hopefully contained the logs of the missing squad’s actions, hopefully should be. Finding it, he released the safety catch, carefully slid the chip out and stuck it in his belt satchel pocket.

---
<Marko: “Got it, comm.”
Gruce: “Good job Marky.”
Marko: “Damn it comm, you know I hate it when you call me that.”
Gruce: “Listen, do your job. We can talk about your nicknames later. Is there anything else that could be salvaged from your current position?”>
---

Marko surveyed the small pile of shattered breastplates, mangled Armour and the occasional shred of cloth. He was surprised not to find any body parts, the failure of the ship’s life support should’ve stopped decay altogether, but there was not a sign of any human life or its bloody remains to be seen.

---
<Marko: “Nothing down here but a morticians paycheck.”
Gruce: “Good, report back to the airlock and let’s see what you got. I wouldn’t recommend any sight seeing, your oxygen canisters only hold up to 20 minutes.”
Marko: “I know how much my tanks hold, sir.”
Gruce: “So stop jabbering before you get yourself decompressed then.”
..
Marko: “Yes sir.”>
---

And with that, Marko started pushing his unwieldy TSA spacesuit backwards through the ventilation he’d just come, his suit’s light shimmering off of the slick walls of the vent. He hoped they weren’t slick for the reasons that seemed the most logical. TSA spacesuits were hard to clean.

Marko and the rest of his squad were on a recovery mission. A week ago, a couple of squads had attempted to neutralize an infested cargo ship, the HMS Chasten, but Command had lost contact with them within about 2 hours of their arrival. Now, It’s quite normal for Command to loose contact with a team on a mission, but when the outage lasts for almost 2 days, they realize something is up.
So far, Vulture squad have managed to complete 2 out of their 4 objectives;

---
Objective 1: Board the ship – Complete
Objective 2: Reactivate the ship’s life-support system – Failed, Explanation: Main and backup generators beyond repair.
Objective 3: Ascertain the fate of the HMS Chasten’s 400 crew – Complete
Objective 4: Ascertain the fate of 8th Battalion, Groups Tango and Bravo – In progress
---

“So.” - Gruce

Back inside the airlock, Vulture squad, which compromised of Marko – Private, Esuna – Technician, Kylie – Demolitions and Gruce – Commander, stood in various positions in the cramped dropship. Esuna was rapidly tapping away at the console that occupied wall, while Gruce stood behind him. The others watched.

“As far as we can tell, the Chasten’s crew had a pretty miserable last couple of hours.”

Esuna brought up a complicated overview of the ship’s main corridors including the ventilation ducts up on the screen. 3 smaller windows opened in the parts of the screen not filled with schematics, showing video feed that the Vultures had collected earlier. Esuna re-wound the time log to 15:27:25, the time that the cameras had first detected non-human movement. The picture on two of the video-feeds seemed completely normal. On the first, a couple stood in the freeze-frame locked in a semi-passionate embrace, while a small gang of other crewmembers jeered motionlessly at them. The other feed looked upon the ship’s mess, which was quiet apart from a couple of male crewmembers standing near the food-counter, apparently having a rather pleasant conversation. The final feed showed a different story. A single crewmember was running, arms outstretched, face frozen in a horrific expression, moving towards something out of the camera’s viewpoint. A sinister black shadow was floating behind him.
The majority of the screen still showed the overview of the ship, however now most areas seemed to be full of blue dots.

“The blue dots represent the ship’s crewmembers who happen to be carrying their location-tags”, Gruce explained. “The red dot represents… well-“ he paused. “I think you can guess, right?”

The rest of the crew nodded.

“Good. Roll the tape, Es”

Esuna tapped at the keyboard, and the feeds suddenly came into life. The time on the top of the screen counted down in increments of 10. 15:27:35, 45, 55, 15:28:05. A lot had happened in that 30 seconds. The first screen; the female portion of the couple had first detached her face from her partners, stroked his cheek, then proceeded to turn around and punch the leading gang-member square in the jaw, the frame showed him rocking backwards on his heels, K/O’d. The second screen had hardly changed; the men were enjoying their conversation. The final screen was half covered with what appeared to be blood at 15:27:45, and had turned to a black and red “NO SIGNAL” message by 15:28:05. The overview of the screen had hardly changed, except there was one blue dot missing, and two more red dots appeared to join the first near the top-right of the screen. The majority of blue dots were in the middle and bottom-left.
The tape kept rolling and the counter kept counting down. The feeds, one by one, turned to faces silently screaming, claws and teeth slashing, and then finally they were knocked out. The overview somehow managed to appear grimmer than the live carnage the crew had witnessed on the feeds. Within half an hour the overview was almost half full of red dots, and in another 5 minutes there were only 4 blue dots present, huddled in a small room, possibly a cupboard or storage room. There were almost 20 red dots on the other side.

The counter stopped at 16:05:28.

Marko shuddered. He’d seen that cupboard that 4 dire souls had spent their final minutes in. It wasn’t a pretty place for a working man to die.

“You’ve seen that already, but for the sake of formality.. Now then, if private Esuna here has finished downloading the chip’s data, we can watch what happened when two squads of armed marines landed.”

“Almost done” said Esuna
*Ping!*
“There we go, coming to a video screen near you-“

The main screen turned black, and the TSA log code started.


---
<System initialized. System check started.>
:NAN optimal
:REC optimal
:COM optimal
:HUD optimal
:ARM optimal
:ANN optimal

<System check complete. Systems optimal>
<Begin logging…>

Chapter 1: We come to you now live from the crime scene…

Tango squad:

Marine: Jules
Marine: Ket
Demolitions: Joonas
Commander: Kamatari
Chaplain: Ezekiel

Jules turned and nudged his teammate, “Why do we have a Chaplain anyway?”
“Well,” began Ezekiel, “Whenever the squad is in the deepest of despair, that’s when I bring out my New Testament, TSA edition, to lighten your spirits. I also perform christenings, weddings, funera-“
Jules interrupted. “So you’re a Christian?”

“Of course, all Chaplain’s are Christian.”

“And you’ve got a gun, right?”

Ezekiel laid a comforting hand on his lime green Light Machine Gun. “TSA’s finest”

“But I thought Christians were against violence towards living beings.”

“Actually, the bible only condemns violence against all of our almighty God’s creations. However, I believe that the Kharaa are the work of the devil himself. The fallen angel Lucifer. Thusly I find myself doing the will of God to protect the human race against utter annihilation, and that makes me proud to be TSA.”

“Really?” Jules glanced at his teammate. “So if we was fighting a pack of lions back home, you’d not touch them?”

“Not a hair on their heads.” Ezekiel returned his comrade’s glance.


---
<Kamatari:“Ladies, you got movement.”>
---

Back in reception, tucked safely into his Comm Chair, Kamatari was watching over the two as they moved to his waypoint, which was approximately 10 meters away from them. Ket was already at the waypoint, an alien resource node, and was merrily slashing away with his knife. The Kharaa must’ve realized. The squad had only been on the ship for 10 minutes, and already there’d been 5 close encounters. The original crew can’t have stood a chance, although Tango squad had yet to find the ships log and properly ascertain their fate.

Above their position, Jules and Ezekiel could hear the click-click-clicking of an alien’s movement. It sounded too frequent to be anything but a skulk, so the two trained their weapon sights onto the nearest vent, which was about a foot or so in front of them.

The skulk flew downwards with lightning speed from the vent onto the floor, and had time to turn around and leap towards the two marines before the contents of Jules and Ezekiel’s weapons had been unloaded into it’s face. It flew past them and landed in a crumpled heap on the floor behind them.


---
<<friendly fire>
<friendly fire>
..
..
Jules:“The devil’s own work, huh? He must not be too great at making things by the look of that guy.”>
---

Ezekiel laughed.
They continued down the corridor until they got to Ket’s position, who had by this time taken down the alien res tower, and was building the new one the commander had dropped.

“What took you?” Ket asked without turning his head from the building he was constructing.

“We had a little trouble with our… inner demons” smirked Jules, who then nudged Ezekiel.

The new res tower completed itself, let out a pneumatic hissing noise, settled upon its haunches, and then began to pump the vital trickle of nanites from the emergency node. Ammo clattered from the ceiling in a halo of sparks and nano’s to the floor.


---
<Kamatari:“Pick up what you need, and then report back to reception. We’re going hunting.”
Ezekiel:"Roger"
Jules:"Roger">
---

In reception, the team started to take account on what they had. The final count was 5 LMG’s with two clips of ammo each, 85 res points, two res nodes and a commander’s chair. No infantry portals, as there were no extra marines on standby, it was tango team and tango team alone. However, Kamatari was attempting to make radio contact to Bravo team, who were on the other side of the ship, and failing.


---
<Kamatari:“I swear, that guy better not be messing around with me, this is no time for games. I’ll have him reported to command, I swear I will”>
---

“Maybe he’s not in the comm Chair sir?” suggested Ket.
“Oh? And since when does a commander leave his throne, my most idiotic private Kestrel? I can assure you that even in the most dire of situations, a commander does not leave his chair.”
5 more minutes of attempted messaging passed, until Kam finally gave up.

“Right. Something has happened to Bravo team, but we are to stick to our mission objectives as planned. We are going to clear out our side of the ship, and if Bravo hasn’t regained contact by then, then we’re going to clear out their side of the ship as well. And to do this, you’re going to need guns.”

An arms lab and an armoury appeared at the feet of the marines. They built it in silence, no one felt like talking. If contact with Bravo team had been lost, then something must be up. However the team hadn’t seen or heard anything since the failed skulk attack 6 minutes ago.
Things seemed eerily quiet as the armoury went up. Jules could see Ezekiel murmuring a silent prayer to himself. He would’ve asked him for some support, but he wasn’t a Christian and felt that it’d be wrong for him to lay trust in the bible. Why would God support him now if Jules didn’t even believe in him?
Jules turned, and saw Ezekiel next to him with his hand on his shoulder.
“’Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.’ Revelation 3:20, New Testament.”

As 3 newly constructed shotguns fell to the floor with a metallic clang, Jules thought best not to ask. Ezekiel somehow knew, that was his job. To provide moral support.

The squad; Jules, Ezekiel, Joonas and Ket, made their way down the corridor leading to the most likely hive destination in a wedge formation. Ket was at the front, Ezekiel in the center and Joonas and Jules either side of him. All had shotguns, except for Joonas, who was wielding a grenade launcher.
Their destination was the cargo hold, Kamatari guessed that a bacteria sample had accidentally (or perhaps on purpose) had been brought aboard the Chasten, managed to get past screening at customs, and had been allowed to gestate in the warm hold, near the engines. Indeed, the first skulk from the video feed appeared to be coming from the cargo hold, and his first victim was dressed in cargo attendant uniform. It seemed for certain that the first battlefield was set for Chasten’s cargo hold.
The corridor the squad was in was in a state of disrepair, not surprisingly. The halogen lights strobed red, on and off, and every now and then they completely shut off, resuming operation after a couple of seconds. Wires hung from the ceiling, dented metal panels lay strewn about. It made Ezekiel shiver at the thought of what had passed before him. These godless creatures had slaughtered the 400 members of the ship’s crew, and their stench was everywhere. The ventilation shafts were hell to pass, as in every one something had died, and was spewing vile stench into the normally pristine air conditioning system.
A loud clank directly in front of them bought the entire team to a standstill. Jules, Joonas and Ezekiel whirled round to face the corridor, which faded into darkness in front of them. All was silent, except for the hum of the halogen lights still operational. Then out of the murk a tap-tap-tapping could be heard, and then another and another, until 5 sets of tapping emanated from the corridor ahead. Ket squinted his eyes and gritted his teeth, but his nano-vision could not pick out the signs of any skulks ahead. The tapping grew louder and louder, then it happened.
First 2 skulks leaped out of the darkness towards Ket. Ket ducked the first and aimed just in time to catch the second skulk in the throat. The first skulk dug its razor sharp claws into the adjacent wall, and was about to bite into Joonas before it realized he’d whipped out his pistol. Joonas then put 5 slugs into the skulk’s left eye, who collapsed to the ground. 3 more skulks galloped from the darkness in front of them, and the whole team began to fire their shotguns. At that same point the last skulk made a wild leap towards Joonas’s head. Within two seconds the skulks were dead. Jules turned to Joonas. To his amazement, Joonas was on the floor, clutching a gaping wound in his arm.


---
<<gunfire>
<gunfire>
<gunfire>
Jules:“Oh God damnit man, Jesus Christ- COMMANDER WE NEED A MEDPACK!”
<gunfire>
Kamatari:"Roger that.">
---


Joonas was about to wail out in pain, before Ket clamped a hand over his mouth.
“Shut up! For goodness sake shut up!” Ket whispered harshly into his ear. “Do you want to get us killed?” “It, Aaa- it hu-urts-“ stuttered Joonas, trying in vain to keep his urge to cry out at bay. Blood was oozing out between his fingers, onto the dirty tiled floor underneath him.
“Yeah it hurts, but nothing that nanites can’t fix. You’ll be alright.”
Two medpacks fell onto Joonas, cracking open, and the nano’s seeped into Joonass open arm, forming an instant clot. “MORE!” Ezekiel yelled, as a slow thump-thump-thump could be heard progressing up the corridor. Jules and Ket jumped to their feet, and began blasting shells down the corridor. “PROTECT JOONAS!” came the order from Kamatari. “I don’t want to have to loose a man today.” Amazingly, Joonas staggered to his feet. The nano’s had done a good job. He picked up his grenade launcher and fired two rounds down the corridor. There was a three second pause, and then an almighty explosion could be heard, followed by an enraged roar which seemed almost louder than the explosion. A second explosion, then all fell silent. The team continued to aim down the corridor for a painfully long instant, then continued into the inky blackness.

The squad stood outside of the entrance to the cargo hold, which was just beyond a huge cargo door, opened by a switch. “Right guys, check your kit, you’re about to hit the big one” said Kam into the soldier’s ears. “I want a full equipment check”


---
<Joonas:“Private Joonas, one grenade launcher with 3 clips of ammunition. One pistol with two clips of spare ammo. One hand grenade. Two C-4 explosive mini-charges.”
Ket:“Private Ket, one shotgun, 25 rounds of spare ammunition. One pistol, 2 clips of ammo.”
Ezekiel:“Chaplain Ezekiel, one shotgun, 21 rounds of spare ammunition. One pistol, 1 clip of ammo.”
Jules:“Private Jules. One shotgun, 17 rounds of spare ammo. One pistol, 2 clips of ammo. One welder.”
..
Kamatari:"Good. When I say ‘now’, I want you to open the door. Joonas, spam that hive to pieces with everything explosive you’ve got, then attach your c-4 to it. Do NOT blow it until I tell you to. Ezekiel and Jules, you get some cover and blast every alien in sight, I want the Kharaa to get the message that we’re here to kick some ****. Ket, you’re with Joonas, make sure nothing gets within 5 feet of him. Ok? Now, I believe the good reverend has something he would like to say before you advance?”>
---

“Yes, ahem,” said Ezekiel, clearing his throat. “This will be hard, there’s no doubt about it, but just remember who you’re fighting for. You’re fighting to avenge the crew of this ship, who passed away before their time. You’re fighting to put these spirits to rest. Most of all, you’re fighting to survive. I’ll be damned if the sons of Adam fall to some intergalactic scum.” Ezekiel put a hand into his satchel pocket, and pulled out a little red book with the words ‘New Testament and Psalms’ printed on it in gold. “Now if I may, I’d like to recite something for you;"
He paused, then;
"‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
Then I said ‘Here I am- it is written about me in the scroll-
I have come to do your will- O God.’’”

“Now.”

---

I'll do the final part to this story when i've got time, but i hope you enjoy what you have for now <img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' />
The sections in courier font are TSA comm log, like you've read in Six days in Sanjii. Oh yeah, and look for any spelling/gramma mistakes i might've missed, i only ran it through the word spellchecker once, and you know how rubbish it is <img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' />

kalleth · April 2004

I like the story, reads well. Only thing i'm unsure about is the 'courier' log items - they don't seem to gel with the rest of it.

Apart from that, nice job ! liking it, wanting the second part already <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' />

TommyVercetti · April 2004

Good. I'm still waiting for a story where the Frontiersmen act like professionals, but this is a fun read. I'm eagerly anticipating more.

Defiance · April 2004

Nice dude, you've got some writing talant, thats for sure.

Advisor · April 2004

Very nice!!!!
At first, i thought you were trying to combine Starcraft and Natural Selection together because of the Vulture Squad bit. You have played starcraft correct? Very close except ns is missing the Protoss....

<img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/marine.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='marine.gif' />

Thats_Enough · April 2004

keep it up, great storyline and character development thus far.

nothing much else to say other than good job and i cant wait for more <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' />

Spacer · April 2004

If i get the chance i may turn it into a comic, but i really wrote this as an experiment to see if my writing work could stand up on its own without illustrations. Also it's nice to see if you can imagine the scene that i was trying to portray.

But.. here it is:

_______________________________________________________________

Chapter 2: Charge

“Cannon to the right of them,
Cannon to the left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.”

Cargo, which was a space about ¼ of an acre big, was now a jungle. A wet, dripping, alien jungle. Pillars of something living had built themselves around the weak spots in the roof and walls, where the initial struggle of the cargo technicians had caused some damage. The crates storing various supplies and weapons were either popped open or tipped on their sides. Several pipes had been burst on the walls, with water now leaking into a big pool that was collecting in the far corner of the room. Suspended above this scene, in all it’s dire glory, was the alien hive. That which had caused so much grief and horror, and that which had made the last hours of the Chasten’s crew an unimaginable hell, driving the alien legions to kill, kill kill.
This was not the first thing that entered the minds of the Alpha squad, however. The door to Cargo was carried upwards by the door hydraulics, revealing a number of offense chambers. At least 6 were perched upon upturned boxes, whilst 3 to 4 were scattered in immediate range of the cargo door entrance itself. The Kharaa were waiting, and the Kharaa were prepared.

---
<<Ezekiel> Jeeesu-
Jules: BOXES! BEHIND THE BOXES!
*gunfire*
*gunfire*
Ket: JOONAS! GO!>
---

This was far more than the team had expected. Jules and Ezekiel managed to dive behind one of the large cargo crates, gaining a couple of spikes in their armour as they did so. Jules pointed his shotgun at the top of the box and fired, blowing the top off the offense chamber that they had failed to see when they chose their cover, sending a fine green mist with chunks of red flesh and alien ivory into the air.
“Remember the orders! Get the OC’s attention!” shouted Jules, and with that began blasting at whatever he could that was in range, Ezekiel with him. Offense chambers toppled right and left, while the rest tried to franticly dispatch the intruders. Ket and Joonas were sprinting towards the hive when suddenly..
“Everything’s quiet.”
Ezekiel was right. Except for the dripping of the water from burst pipes, nothing was making a sound. The OC’s had been dispatched by swift shotgun work, but there should’ve been some sort of reinforcements, like a gorge to try in vain to keep the OC’s alive, or at least some DC’s.
“Who cares? GO ALREADY JOONAS! TAKE THE HIVE DOWN!” Jules waved franticly at Joonas and Ket, indicating that they take advantage of the lull in combat. Taking the hint, Joonas readied his grenade launcher, took a couple of steps forward and took his aim. As a grenade left the barrel, something brought terrible realization to Alpha squad, as to why the Hive had been so quiet.
A Fade decloaked on top of one of the crates at the far end of the room. In a single, horrifically graceful motion, it stretched its arms outwards and proceeded to fly the 50 feet from the crate, slamming into Ket’s mid-section with a gurgly-crunch. Joonas could only stand agape as Ket’s lifeless body was slammed into an adjacent bank of monitors, scattering broken glass and sparks from the broken hole in the wall.
Then, as if from nowhere, hundreds skulks appeared upon all sides, clinging to the walls and ceilings, leaping towards any target they could find.
Jules and Ezekiel could only fire their shotguns in all directions; the sheer numbers of the Kharaa meant that they could guarantee a hit no matter what.
Kamatari had only one option.

Joonas opened his eyes. There were skulks all around him, biting and slashing at his limbs, but he couldn’t feel the wounds or the pain they should cause, all he could feel was the dull thud and brush of the skulks near him. He stood, and looked towards the fade that was slashing at him. Flecks of spittle flew from its open mouth, its eyes burning an angry red. Joonas looked straight into its eyes. All he could find was malice and one, all consuming hunger. The fade wanted him dead, even if he died in the process. Right then, it struck Joonas. He was being mauled by a fade and over 20 skulks… yet he wasn’t dying.
Above the noise, he said, “I must be dead…” He looked down to see what he imagined would be his body on the floor, but then he realized, why would the Kharaa be attacking a lifeless corpse? Then, he happened to look up. What he saw he could not believe.

---
<<alien fire>
Jules: What in the name of god..
<alien fire>
Ezekiel: Are we dead?
<alien fire>
Joonas: I have no idea. I feel alive, but I guess I wouldn’t know what feeling dead was like, you know?
<alien fire>
Jules: All I know is, I’m not getting hurt.
<alien fire>
Kamatari: WILL YOU STOP YAPPING AND GET FIGHTING>
---

Kamatari, viewing the scene from afar, was dropping medpacks. Hundreds of medpacks. The nanites were acting so fast that wounds upon the soldiers bled, clotted and healed within the space of a few milliseconds. The glow from the medpacks themselves and the nanites involved with them were haloing the three remaining squad members, lighting them up like a candle in the dark. But the resource counter was dropping. Dropping rapidly.

Wasting no time, Joonas grabbed his grenade launcher and began to fire upon the Hive, leaving gaping, bleeding holes within its sides. The Hive felt, and the hive had fear. It shivered and jolted within its own cradle, pulling itself closer to the ceiling in an effort to be rid of its harassers. With every explosion the Kharaa flinched and grew ever angrier, ripping new holes in the team only to find them sealed an instant later. Every explosion failed to change the Kharaa’s resolve. They would survive, they would live on.

They will win.

Back in the command chair, Kamatari was getting desperate. The resource counter was dropping rapidly, in increments of six every half-second. 356, 350, 344. The medspam could only continue for a maximum of about another 1 1/2 minutes before the res store would be drained. The hive had to be down by then, or the squad would be torn to pieces before they would even know what happened.

Jules and Ezekiel were blasting the skulks around them for nothing more than sport, when the deadening phrase hit their ears;

---
<Joonas: Out of ammo, drop some more
<alien fire>
<alien fire>
Kamatari: No can do, if I change what I’m dropping now, it’ll take 1 second to reset and drop medpacks again. So unless you wanna be ripped to pieces then I suggest you just plant your C4
<alien fire>
Kamatari: Jules, Ezekiel, get out. Head for the vent in the corner. When you’ve planted the C4 Joonas, head for the vent too.>
---

Ezekiel didn’t know how to feel. He was wading through a living sea of claws and teeth and anger. He was in the most dangerous place possible, but he was the safest that he had ever been. An all-healing light, as a god among men, lighting him up like the northern star. Ezekiel felt like Jesus, he really did. He knew the reasons why, of course. The healing nanites were saturating his blood stream so thick that they were being held in reserve, as not all needed to be used to heal the wounds which would otherwise be numbering in the hundreds by now. But still..
He, with Jules, carried on lumbering through the skulks towards the vent on the other side of the room. They were about 10 feet from it now, and could see that they had shuttable, auto locking doors. A plan formed in their heads, simply get inside, lock the doors, then crawl back to the CC and get the hell off of this doomed ship.
Joonas was another 50 feet away, sticking the C4 onto one of the slimy tendrils hanging from the hive. The skulks and the fade still tore and slashed and bit, but it had no affect. The noise was still deafening, shrieks and screams and bloody roars filling the air, but the squad had tuned out by now. All that mattered now were their objectives.

Kamatari could only drop medpacks and watch the Resource counter with worry-waiting eyes. 70, 64, 58, 52.
*CLANG*
The Commander’s Chair shook.
*CLANG*
He could hear a roar from outside.
*CLANG*
An Onos.
Kamatari would not make it out alive. He could only hope that his team would.

46, 40, 34.

The banging from outside the chair grew louder and louder, dents forming on the inside. Kam checked the chair’s health. It was already 55%, and dropping steeply.

25, 19, 12.

The chair ejected him just before being destroyed.

---
<<Commander has logged out>
<alien fire>
Joonas Offline.
Jules – Critical.
<alien fire>
Ezekiel – Critical.
..
..
..>
---

“Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.”

Chapter 3: “End the end a Master”

Jules awoke.
“Aaahhh…”, he moaned. He could feel pain in his left arm, and he couldn’t find his shotgun. He was in a small, red-lit ventilation, and if he looked up he could see how he’d got there. An almost 10 foot drop separated him and his entry point. He must’ve fallen down there during the battle. Did the hive get taken down? Was it the explosion that knocked him down here? Wait..
“Oohhhh my head..” Ezekiel was in no better state than Jules. They both had two broken legs each, while Jules had a fractured spine. The 10-foot drop had dealt them a lethal blow.
Thankfully, the doors above them on the vent appeared to be locked, otherwise they would’ve been dead already.

“That was some fight, huh Eze?”

“Yeah.. yeah it was..”

“Did we get the hive down?” Jules tapped his radio, “Yo, Comm.. drop us some med packs please?”

Pause.

“Comm? Medpacks?”

No answer.

Jules was getting worried now; he knew the silence could only mean one thing, yet he refused to believe it.

“Maybe… maybe he’s just not in his chair.”

“Oh, come on, don’t you remember?” Ezekiel tapped his speaker button and replayed a voice audio entry;

---
<Kamatari: Oh? And since when does a commander leave his throne, my most idiotic private Kestrel? I can assure you that even in the most dire of situations, a commander does not leave his chair.>
---

“Urgh.. no need to rub it in.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Ezekiel scratched at his left arm, as blood was oozing from it. The Nanite healing effects had worn off, now the pain relief was beginning to fade, too.

“We have to get back to CC. We can get up an IP and-”

“Meals on wheels. Plus I don’t think I can walk it.”

“Crawl?”

“Slow meals on wheels.”

“What then?”

“We could just sit here..” Ezekiel looked mournfully at his comrade. He knew there wasn’t any chance of survival. He struggled not to cry, but he almost couldn’t help himself.

“What! No way, I ain- aaaargh” Jules grabbed at his back with his free hand, fighting back tears. “Yeah… ok.”

*CLANG*
*CLANG*
“SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAK!!”
*CLANG*

“Looks like they found us, Eze.”

“Looks like it.”
*CLANG*

Ezekiel tried to make himself more comfortable, which was pretty hard since the vent could only really hold a man on all fours at best, and he said “You know.. when we were- *cough* fighting back there, I got this idea that I was, erm…”

“Was what?”

“You know… like.. Jesus.”

“You thought you were Jesus? Isn’t that blasphemy?”

“Nah, I don’t think so.. But you have to admit it was pretty cool being immortal for a bit, wasn’t it”

“Hell yeah, hehe” The laughter sent pangs of pain up Jules’ spine, but he laughed anyway. “Dude.. where am I gonna go after this?”

“How do you mean?”

“Like.. you’re a Christian and you’ve always believed in God, so you’re going to heaven right? But where am I gonna go? I don’t have a God to give me a heaven, no green pastures on which to lay my head forever more.”

“Jules…”

*CLANG*
*CLANG*
*CLANG*

“… I don’t know what to say. I only know that our God is a merciful one. You’ll die defending the human race against the devil. I reckon that’s good enough to get into heaven.”

*CLANG*
*CLANG*
*CLANG*
At the top of the shaft, the door was buckling violently inwards. It would not hold for much more than a minute.

*CLANG*

“You’re still Chaplain, right?”

“Of course.”

“I could do with some moral lifting.” Jules rubbed his legs, although nothing would fix them now. His back had paralyzed him from the waist down.

“Oh yeah, me too.” He picked out his metal-cased New Testament, and started flipping through the pages. “I was going to read something like the funeral speech or something symbolic like that,” He put the book down on the floor, with a faint clink. “But I think the most appropriate quote won’t come from the bible. The bible isn’t really the book of Christianity. It’s just a book of common knowledge, or a little lifter for our spirits. I can find no quote in the bible that’s more appropriate than what I’m about to say.. Ahem..” He cleared his throat, and closed his eyes.

*CLANG*
*CLANG*
*KERRR-ACK*
The doors holding back over 250 skulks broke, spilling them down into the ventilation shaft below.
Then-

“… But you were dead a thousand times. Hopeless encounters successfully won. A man long dead, grafted to machines your builders did not understand. You follow the path, fitting into an infinite pattern.
Yours to manipulate, destroy and rebuild.
Now, in the quantum moment before closure, when all become One. One moment left. One point in space and time.
I know who you are.

You are destiny.”


The End.

_____________________________________________________________

and i'm done.

Thats_Enough · April 2004

AWESOME story. Very fitting ending, I really enjoyed it.

Only gripe I have is about the med-spam... but hell it's a story, so anything can happen <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /> good job

Hawkeye · April 2004

But that can't be all. What about the marines that were watching all this from the chip? What happens to them?

*draws sheets on the bed up to his nose like a child listening to a bedtime story*

Spacer · April 2004

the story is wrote assuming that games of NS that we play were actual battles, and medspam is a (if underhand, teh layem!) tactic, so it could be used.
Vulture squad themselves were really just a more interesting way of introducing the story. I mean there is no actual Kharaa threat on the ship, life support has failed and irrepairable (that being the reason why marko was in a spacesuit while inside the ship), and the ship they flew in on is docked on the outside of the Chasten.
I might write another short story sometime, i dunno <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' />
got a lot of stuff going on

Vulture Squad - A Short Story

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