Chapter 12: The nest.
“Keep moving, before we are completely surrounded!” the squad leader shouted as he held two Alloy machetes and used them to slice through the newly hatched snake men chasing after him and the last two soldiers of his team down a passage way, trying to find his way by memory since his helmet’s HUD had been melted by snake acid.
“We’re completely fucked is what we are!” a man with a thick Texas drawl said before he popped the pin of a grenade and lobbed it behind him into the darkness, silencing some hissing as he followed his commander.
“Come on gringo, it could be worse,” the leader said as he stopped for a moment to look around for the first time in what had seemed like hours. All around the two soldiers was thick resin, like something out of a horror movie. They had been trapped in the ancient temple for far too long.
“What is your ammo count, Jackson?” Miguel asked as he wiped the slime from his blades and looked at his subordinate.
“Jack and shit, but Jack ain’t here,” Jackson said as he looked at his commander with open palms to show he had nothing.
“Then it is time to kill these bastards the hard way!” Miguel proudly said and shoved the handle of a machete into Jackson’s hands.
“If I had a gun I would give it to you,” Miguel said before pointing his remaining blade down the way they came.
Santo, the third member of the team looked behind him.
“They are coming.” He said and cracked his large knuckles.
“Then there is no time to wait. We have to run!” said Miguel and the whole group began running to find a way out of the hell temple.
-Above ground.
“Keep a look out, we don’t know where the enemy might be,” Commander Cotton ordered as he moved slowly through a thick canopy of bushes and followed the directions on his HUD to where the other team had been sent. Even though this was a serious mission and every one needed to be on alert, Trixie could not help but complain about the mud on her hooves.
“You’re wearing the most advanced armor ever made on this planet ; you shouldn’t even feel the mud on you,” Sneaky said as he hovered above the group, laser pistol at the ready. “I’m just disgusted by the very idea of it on my pristine new armor,” Trixie grumbled as she followed Ramos who kept pointing his weapon like he saw something.
“Is anything there, human?” Trixie asked Ramos.
“Not sure,” Ramos replied, finger tight on the trigger to his scattergun.
“Probably your imagination, if there were danger my magic would have sensed it,” Trixie said and continued on, placing far too much faith in her own powers.
Rock Fist was at the back of the group to make sure they weren’t ambushed from behind, his kicks and punches could probably break even a Snake man’s neck. The group of X-com troopers moved slowly through the thick jungle brush, Cotton couldn’t help but feel that he now knew how Vietnam veterans felt. He could feel that danger was hidden anywhere and everywhere. The squad of two humans and three ponies made it through to a clearing where out of all things possible, there sat an ancient temple.
“Wow, humans built that?” Rock asked as he looked at the temple that looked like it had thousands of steps on its staircase leading to the top of the ancient stone structure which just barely made it over the top of the jungle canopy.
“Sure looks cool,” Ramos said and wished he had a camera. The group was so mesmerized by the example of man’s ingenuity that they failed to hear the soft shuffle of grass behind them followed by a hiss.
“El SANTO, wait!!” A voice shouted out as from behind the group a large man in Hercules armor charged a Snake man. The armored giant struck the alien so hard it fell back, screeching in pain as the man jumped up and slammed his body down onto the alien in the manner befit to a professional wrestler before he snapped the alien’s neck.
Laser squad held up their weapons to the scene in shock as the man who had saved them stood up and wore a bright blue mask of a Mexican wrestler.
“Do not be afraid fellow X-com, I am ‘El Santo,” the masked man said and Ramos jumped up.
“Holy shit! Do you guys know who that is?” Ramos said while lowering his weapon.
“No. Enlighten me, trooper.” Cotton said as he kept a watchful eye on Santo.
“That’s 'The saint'! He was a wrestler who turned cop and pissed off almost every major drug cartel in South America,” Ramos said before removing his helmet and holding it to his hero. Then as if he had done it a thousand times, Santo pulled a marker and signed his signature onto the overeager soldier’s helmet.
I’m gonna make sure to discipline him later, Cotton thought as he tried to ignore the unprofessional behavior. It was then that Santo seemed to notice the ponies at the same time that two other X-com agents appeared out of the brush.
“I had heard other bases were willing to do whatever it took to win this war but... animal testing? Really?” Miguel said, the translation device catching his disbelief perfectly.
“No, they're androids made to look like ponies. It’s for hostage rescue, in case there are children or when we need a wounded trooper not to panic,” Cotton said without hesitation though by the look in Miguel’s eyes, he hadn’t fallen for it.
“If you say so, señor. But right now we need to leave this area,” Santo said while walking past the group to a secret entrance he had used to escape the building.
“Why? What happened?” Cotton asked, priming his rifle again to make sure he was ready for anything.
“We were out scouting the area for the source of the snake aliens when we found it there, in the ruins,” Santo said as he waved his hand to the ancient ruins of some bygone civilization.
“Wait, are you saying these things are breeding here on Earth?” Cotton asked as he stepped away from Trixie and got closer to Santo.
“While inside of the temple we discovered a vast nest of the snake like monsters. There were eggs everywhere and strange devices in the walls. We did what we could to level the place but were overwhelmed by aliens and cut down one by one,” Santo said while rubbing his mask as Jackson and Miguel walked to join the rest of the group, sweating and covered in dirt, they were down to slightly burned Nano-fiber vests.
“Alright give me a moment,” Cotton said and stepped away from the group to contact Gabriele.
“Cotton to SA command, can you hear me?” Cotton said, taking a kneeling position near the top of the hill that allowed him to look down at the ruins.
“Cotton, this is Gabriele speaking. What is the situation?” Gabriele asked.
“We found your men, but we have a problem. The aliens set up some kind of nest near a set of ruins at the location you sent your troopers to.”
“A nest?” Gabriele whispered in shock at the thought of these aliens living right under his nose.
“We need an airstrike. Preferably heavy. Bunker busters, cluster bombs, napalm, the works. We cannot risk this nest surviving.”
“I understand. But it will take some time to have such heavy ordinance moved in position to strike.”
“Copy that. Permission to take command of your men to hold here and make sure no more snakes make it out of there before we toast them.”
“Permission granted. Just take care not to be within the blast zone when I tell you the strike is coming,” Gabriele said and broke communication to contact local military forces to acquire the air power they lacked at the moment.
Cotton felt over himself and pulled out his laser pistol.
“Ramos, hand these gentlemen your sidearm. We need to try and keep the aliens near the ruins for as long as possible,” he said as he handed the laser pistol to Miguel, who in turn handed it to Jackson.
“I already have a weapon,” the Mexican X-com agent said as he held up his Alloy Machete.
“And I am a weapon,” Santo said, pumping his fists in front of him, punching some invisible target.
“Alright then. Ramos just give your pistol to this gentleman,” Cotton said as he indicated to Jackson and walked over to his ponies.
“Okay, you all just play it cool and try not to blow our cover,” he said and the ponies nodded.
“Alright, Sneaky, fly up and be our scout. You have to let us know whenever an enemy contact is near.”
“Understood, sir,” Sneaky replied and spread his wings, soon disappearing into the air.
Cotton then ordered Ramos to cover their perimeter with Santo and Miguel while Jackson and the ponies used their laser pistols to handle any targets that were within range as he and the group moved closer to the edge of the hill.
“Wait, sir. I see snakes coming out from a small hole in the ground several meters to our left,” Sneaky said as he hovered above the group and pointed the way. Miguel turned pale.
“That’s the exit we used. I thought they couldn’t fit through,” he said.
“How big is it?” Cotton asked as he stepped over and felt an idea pop into his head.
“We could barely fit through it ourselves. We had to ditch our regular armor to fit.”
Cotton then waved Ramos over to him and began picking grenades off of him before taking his own, a total of four grenades.
“Sneaky, get down here and pick these up. I have an idea.”
Sneaky landed down near his commander with a thud and a stone serious look on his face, though inside he was screaming because he hurt his bottom on the landing.
“Sneaky, I want you to go to that position and seal up the hole with these,” Cotton said as he held the grenades in front of the pegasus.
“Do you know how to use them? Just pull the pin, count to three, then toss it at the enemy. ” Cotton said, not waiting to see whether his pony soldier was familiar with the devices or not.
“Understood, sir. But why me, sir?”
“You can fly and get there faster. Just use one on the snakes if you have to but make sure most of them go into the hole they are coming from.”
The pony saluted and collected the explosives in his arms before flying off towards the secret exit.
The trip was short as Sneaky moved with the air and was soon over the small opening in the trees that allowed him to see where two snakes had already slithered out of the hole wielding small plasma pistols, their wet, slime covered bodies aiding them through the tight confines.
“Hey, Hydra wanna-bes!” Sneaky shouted as he pulled out one of the grenades and pulled the pin with his mouth before lobbing the frag at them. The Snakemen looked up to see a small round object fall between them, one of the two snakes picked it up in curiosity, noticing its coloration and size to be similar to their eggs, when it exploded in his face. The snake’s head was completely obliterated, along with his hand, as his compatriot was blown back from the force of the grenade.
“Score one for the Pegasus!” Sneaky said and landed near the hole, already hearing the hiss of more snakes. He pulled the pin of one grenade, then the second and third as he dropped them down into the hole like a candy wrapper into the trash.
Within seconds there were three detonations that shook the ground slightly and sealed off the entrance.
“Sir, this is Sneaky. Mission accomplished,” he said with a smile and fluttered his wings. If he wasn’t in a combat situation he might have broken out in a victory dance.
“Understood. Get back here we have incoming, lots of incoming,” Cotton said as back in their position Rock Fist had knocked down several trees to use for cover as what seemed like an endless wave of snakes was slowly making their way out of the ruins.
“Got it,” Sneaky said and was about to take off when suddenly something grabbed his left wing and pulled him back to the ground, slamming him into the mud.
A loud hiss filled Sneaky’s ears, when he opened his eyes he saw the other snakeman that had in fact not been killed by the grenade, but was just bleeding from several places.
Green slime oozed out onto Sneaky’s fur as he struggled and kicked wildly at the armored monster.
“Get off me!” he shouted as the Snake man grabbed his throat and forced him to look up. It then began gagging and making a hacking sound as if about to vomit.
“No!” Sneaky shouted and felt the laser pistol strapped to his arm fire off a shot, just grazing the side of the Snake’s face. But it had the desired effect. The snake reared back as it let loose a spray of acid venom. The small droplets went out in a mist and a few landed to sizzle on Sneaky’s armored shoulder.
Sneaky wasted no time and struggled harder, punching the snake with his laser hoof and shoving the laser barrel between the snake alien’s metal fangs and repeatedly firing off round after super hot round. Baking the snake's brain, the laser blasts came out through the other side of the aliens head, burning scorch marks into a nearby tree.
He shoved the dead snake off of his body and thought it was over until he cried out in pain.
“Ahh, it burns!” he shouted and looked to his shoulder to see that the armored part where the acid spray had landed on had small craters in it. One had burned through but hadn’t broken the skin.
“Sir! They spit acid and it even melts out new armor!” he reported to Cotton as he quickly recovered and flew off into the air, heading towards his friends, despite a sharp pain in his wing where he had been cut by the snake’s claws.
“Sneaky, where are you?” Cotton shouted as he ducked a plasma blast. The Snakemen had increased their pace to escape the ruins, the large staircase working to their disadvantage for if they fell off they were either killed or seriously injured when they hit the ground, but the bright beams from their lasers had given away the squad’s position.
“I’m up above you,” Sneaky said, doing his best not to pant and blow his cover as a robot.
“I need you to make strafing runs against the aliens shooting back at us!” Cotton said
“Cotton, this is Gabriele. Bomb run ETA 15 minutes.”
“Get them here faster. We can't keep them all here, there are too many.”
“I'll try.”
Cotton shook his head in disbelief. This was going to hell really fast.
“Sir! Permission to move down with Ramos, Santo, Miguel, and Trixie to try and slow them down,” Rock shouted as he popped up from his position behind a tree and fired a few laser rounds that didn’t hit anything.
“Permission denied,” Cotton said and switched his rifle to focus mode and looked down his sight, watching Sneaky hit one of the few snakes that still had a plasma rifle. He held the trigger down and watched one focused beam of energy strike the snakeman and force his body to burn and bleed. It dropped its rifle and fell off the edge, only for a hole to be blown in the side of the Ruin and more snakes to begin forcing their way out.
“Goddamit! Either we'll be overrun or dead by the time the bomb comes!” Ramos shouted, feeling helpless since his weapon didn’t have the range to hit the snakes.
“Cotton!” shouted Trixie as she ran over.
“How long until this ‘bomb’ thing gets here?” Trixie asked and watched Cotton take another laser shot at an alien before ducking back down to answer her.
“About ten minutes.”
“I have an idea. I can keep teleporting the ones that get away back to the ruins and maybe put a shield around it.”
“Trixie, that’s too much strain on you,” Cotton said.
“Being dead is a bigger strain!” she shouted and Cotton relented.
“Nine minutes, just keep them there,” he said and watched Trixie peek out from around the broken tree. Her horn began to glow and there were bright flashes as the snakes were forcibly teleported back to the ruins, a few being thrown violently against the ruins as if by a child throwing a toy they didn't like.
Cotton was left unable to fire as the barrel of his rifle glowed bright red, the barrel slightly melted from the heat of so much continuous fire. Rock held onto Trixie to keep her steady as she continued to teleport snake after snake back to the ruins, it looked like a large ant hive had clustered together.
“I'm hit!” Sneaky shouted and flew towards the group after taking a direct plasma blast to his chest, it had burned the armor but not gone through, though it left the armor slagged and next to useless.
Sneaky landed near Ramos and panted as the time finally came.
“Move! Fall back!” shouted cotton when he saw the slight glint of a plane over head, followed by two others.
“Go, go, run!” someone in the group of fleeing humans ponies said as they ran back into the trees, running like never before. Even Sneaky was running, so frightened that he had forgotten he could fly.
The X-com squad reached a small ditch and as if sharing the same thought they all jumped into it and covered themselves and one another in hopes of shielding each other from the blast.
The swarm of snakemen looked up to the sky as they heard a loud roar from the human’s primitive airships. Seconds after three planes flew by they were riddled with three lines from explosions. Then followed by one long trail of Napalm that set the bodies of the reptilian creatures ablaze only seconds before a ten thousand pound bomb slammed into the ruins, reducing it to rubble and crushing the nest underneath.
The X-com team felt the entire earth shake from the rapid and destructive attack. When all was again still the scent of burnt trees and bodies could be smelled for miles.
There was coughing from several members of the group as they got up and dusted themselves off, exhausted beyond belief.
“You Americans always love flashy shows, yes?” asked Santo as he wiped mud from his mask.
“Well, if it gets the job done,” Cotton replied and pushed on his back, feeling a few pops before he felt right as rain.
“Come in, Cotton, this is Gabriele. How are you and my troopers?” Gabriele asked as he contacted the Crow’s Nest to send their sky ranger to pick up their team.
“We are good, in fact better than good. We won, and saved your guys,” Cotton said as he looked to the three agents who each gave him a thumbs up.
“Very well. Return to base and… oh my god. Return to base immediately,” Gabriele said as he looked onto the holo-globe in horror, a fleet of alien ships had snuck by through the opening in the defenses with the Crow’s Nest having sent their only two Interceptors down to South America . It had been their plan all along.
-Alien mothership.
“Good, everything is going according to plan,” The master Ethereal said as he stared at the large transport ship that had arrived. It was twice the size of his ship and carried with it an army and enough ships to end this resistance from the humans.
“And my plan has worked as well, oh great one,” a second being said, this one was a Sectoid commander who, unlike 742, was a loyal member of the empire and always seeking to please the masters.
“You should take heed from 514, Sectoid 742. He shows true loyalty to the empire,” the master said as he watched many small ships flying out from the transport, along with one assault ship, towards the planet.
Sectoid commander 742 remained bowed before the master but was overwhelmed with fear. If the humans fell to this attack then the Sectoid rebellion would be doomed as well. He had to do something, then he was struck with an idea.
“Master, if this one could be so bold as to ask for another chance to prove himself,” Sectoid 742 said as he bowed lower before the lead Ethereal.
The Ethereal turned to the bowing Sectoid.
“You will be granted the chance. There is a human base near the city of Las Vegas. Area 51. I want you to invade and destroy it.”
“As you wish, master. I will take a platoon of our mechanized warriors and turn the base to cinders.” The Sectoid said as he left with his head bowed, in fact planning to give the humans another technological boost. He just hoped it would help after the heavy assault now heading for their world.
-Canterlot, Royal drawing room.
Princess Celestia scanned through the many books and manuscripts in her private library, searching for the record on the teleportation spell that had been used. The equestrian council had gotten nowhere, with every meeting divulging into a heated argument. Celestia had decided she would work without the council, she was ruler after all. Just as she had finished with a stack of books she froze for a moment, letting out a pained gasp as she felt something terrible in her heart. The princess’s guards instantly were at her side and helping her onto a chair.
“Your majesty, are you ill?” one asked as he opened a window nearby to get fresh air in for the princess.
“Shall I summon the doctors?” the second guard asked while Celestia shook her head.
“No... I am fine, please, find my sister,” Celestia managed to get out as the guards rushed out as fast as they could.
‘No, so much pain, so much fear,’ Celestia thought to herself as somehow she could sense the coming storm on Earth. Her once proud and regal face turned sickly green with the thought that somewhere, there was fear and pain so great that she could feel it in her very bones.