Chapter Three #2
“Sergeant,” The radio addressed him in a voice he didn’t know. “You are certainly being jammed at the moment. You may call me… Bastion. This is a prerecorded pulsed message, do not try to reply. Your signal won’t get out anyway.”
“What the fu-?” Piotr fell back from the wall, staring down at his radio. “Aren’t these things encrypted?”
“Full military encrypt, Sarge,” Kings confirmed, drawing his attention. “And uh, I didn’t think they could receive a pulsed message either.”
The speaker had gone on while they were talking.
“You’ve stepped into an ambush, if you want to get out you need to listen very carefully to me now.”
“Fucking hell,” Piotr grumbled, “Someone is fucking with our heads.”
“This will sound crazy, and I won’t blame you for thinking I’m one of the bad guys until you’ve confirmed the intel. You're facing aliens, Sergeant.”
“Oh fucking hell, a crazy prick hacked my radio.”
“The blue glow is called Cherenkov radiation, it’s what happens when something goes faster than light in a given medium.
You don’t need the details, but let’s just say you found ETs phone and he’s not happy about it.
This particular cowardly bunch of ETs like to hide in pocket dimensional space, attacking like trap door spiders.
If you locate their trap door, you can put a grenade through it and be done with that one.
Strongly advise you don’t do that unless you’re sure you found the trap door.
Bounce backs are a bitch, or so I’m told.
You can spot the fold by a slight distortion in the air that can be mistaken for a heat shimmer until you realize it has a shape.
Once you kill one, get your ass out of the area.
More will show up. Five Five Six won’t do shit, but sustained fire from Seven Six Two or higher can drop them. Good luck, Bastion Out.”
Almost against his will, Piotr’s eyes were drawn up to the spot on the wall that the corporal had touched and he took a couple involuntary steps back as he spotted the shimmer that did indeed extend in a large, irregular circle.
“Lopez,” He called.
“Sarge?” Andrew Lopez spoke up from where he was crouched, blood trickling from his nose but otherwise seemingly fit.
“Get a grenade ready,” He ordered.
“You sure?”
“I may be out of my mind, but I’m not an idiot. Move toward the door, slowly, everyone.” He said.
“What about Brody?”
“You think the grenade will do much worse to him?” Piotr asked sarcastically.
Lopez nodded, palming one of the lethal eggs from his vest. He kept the pin in while the team slowly started backing toward the door.
“We’ll wreck that radio gear, Sarge,” Kings informed him. “Operations might not be happy.”
“They can bill me. Something unfriendly is in here with us. I don’t believe in ETs, but Russian camo tech? I can believe in that. We put them down.”
“You got it, Sarge.”
Lopez hung back at the door as the others slowly made their way out. He pulled the pin at a nod from Piotr, then looked to the target.
“You see the shimmer?” Piotr asked.
“I see it.”
“Right in the middle, Corporal.”
“Just like pitching in the minors back home, sarge.”
“Good man, Play ball.” Piotr said as he dropped back out the door, but kept a hand on the corporal’s shoulder.
Lopez wound up for it and let the lethal little egg go with a controlled pitch that was right on target. Piotr and he both watched with wide eyes as the grenade went right in the center of the shimmer and just… vanished.
“Shit,” Piotr swore, pulling Lopez out and pushing him left as he himself went right.
They covered up their ears, just in case, as they sheltered on either side of the door and felt the thud of the grenade shake the ground as dust blew out the door. A screeching sound rent the air asunder, sending chills down their back as both men risked a look inside.
Lopez flinched, “What the…”
Piotr couldn’t even manage that much. They were looking at some writhing… thing, that looked like an abominable mashup of flesh, metal, and something else entirely.
“That don’t look like no russkie, Sarge,” Lopez said as Piotr pulled him to his feet.
“Don’t care what it is, hit it again,” Piotr said coldly as he also pulled a M-26 from his own vest.
“With pleasure,” Lopez said.
The pair pulled the pins on their eggs and underhanded them through the door, falling back this time before the grenades went off.
The double crump of high explosives could be felt in the air and ground as they withdrew from the bunker just ahead of a screaming fury that tore the air from within the bunker.
“What about Brody’s body?” Lopez asked as they ran.
“We’ll call for reinforcements with heavy weapons and come back if possible, or figure out a new plan once we’re outside the jamming. The other teams aren’t far.”
A screaming like metal scraping against metal combined with nails on a chalkboard rose up in their wake, leading them to pump a little harder as Piotr risked a look over his shoulder.
His eyes widened as he saw three of the unholy bastard things erupt through the door, tearing up the stone bunker on either side and pausing only briefly before starting to give pursuit.
“Head for the rocks!” He ordered. “Double time it! First there, cover the others! Go Go Go!”
*****