//------------------------------// // Reunion // Story: The First S.P.E.A.R. OF ORION Colony // by Silver Centurion //------------------------------// As Captain David stepped through the door into the back room he saw all the soldiers at attention, rifles raised, with Aquilla heading them. "I take it we're ready to move corporal?" David said quickly. "Sir, yes, Sir." Aquilla responded. "Good, lets move out. Its still pretty light out men, i know, but we cant stay stranded any longer. Be very stealthy and do not be seen. Understood? Good." David said in his authoratative tone. Immediatley all 13 soldiers slowly proceed out the back door. Once outside, they quickly darted from cover to cover to avoid being seen. At this point in the day though, it looked like most creatures had retired to their abodes. Most of the men still didn't know what the creatures were, and remained wary, ready to pull the trigger at a moments notice. The few creatures that were still out and about weren't aware of what lay in the shadows... yet. As Jason stopped, the whole group did as well. Jason quickly motioned to the treeline that lay just a few hundred meters ahead of them, and then to a small cottage that was in their way. The men seemed wary to try to brdge the gap at first, but after David advanced slowly and quietly darting from bush to bush, eventually making it to the treeline without a scratch, the rest of the group hesitantly followed his example. Slowly but surely, every soldier one by one advanced towards the treeline until only sergeant brown was left out in the open. "C'mon Brown stop fucking around!" Aquilla shouted as quietly as he could to the soldier who was dangerously close to the cottage. "HA, ya like anything's gonna ha-" Brown was cut off by the sound of a door opening behind him and a quiet feminine voice whisper something so softly he couldn't make out what she had said. Before Brown could whirl around the door had shut and was locked. "Crap... hold on I'll be right over, can't risk any witnesses right?", Brown said nervously before knocking on the door. No reply. A million thoughts raced through browns head, he wanted to beleive it was a human, he had heard he really did, but he knew deep down that it was most definitley an alien. Annoyed with the lack of response Brown gave up the diplomatic approach, and did things his own way. THUD! The door caved in as Brown gave it a mighty kick, breaking small pieces of wood off of the door. Brown quickly surveyed the room. Nothing.He proceeded to look around briefly. Under the couch, behind chairs, drawers, everything. After nothing turned up he found a small set of stairs which he proceeded to ascend. As he got higher up he could the faint sound of something breathing, not enough to be sure, but it was definitley giving Brown the creeps. Brown shouldered his machine gun and hgesistantly started to scan the small room, until he determined the breathing was coming from under the bed. He approachyed it cautiously, not knowing what to expect. Slowly he began grip the bed's side until he quickly flipped it over and revealed what lay underneath. Brown couldn't beleive what he was seeing. Brown remembered how weird Aquilla had acted when he came back from a sweep. He figured this is what he was worked up about. "Holy mother of god..." Brown muttered to himself. This was a mistake, as the butterscotch colored creature shifted and caused Brown to realign his machinegun at the creature. "H-Hello? Wh-" the creature whispered in fear but was cut off. Brown not knowing what the creature had just done instictevely pulled the trigger on his machinegun, unleashing a hail of bullets on the creature. The creature fell limp before Brown even stopped firing. He looked over what he had done and simply shrugged it off.He was a soldier after all and the gory mess that lay before him now didn't bother him at all. What troubled him is that he could've sworn it said hello in english. No that's not possible, it couldn't possibly talk, Brown thought to himself reassuring himself he was hearing things. He quickly descended the stairs, exited the cottage and overdrived towards the treeline to regroup with his fellow soldiers. As brown exited his overdrive and took out his machinegun Jason asked the obvious " Did ya get em?" "Course I got em. And now i have a question of my own captain, what in the hell are these things, they look like freaking horses, and I coulda sworn it talked." Brown growled at David. "I'm sorry but I can''t answer that sergeant, only Aquilla here knows what's really going on." David said, deciding it was time to let the men know."Aquilla, tell them what you told me." "Yes sir." Aquilla sad before retelling of his encounter with the strange beings. As he was finishing up Jason asked him "So, they're freaking horses?That talk?" "Yup, pretty much. But oh ya, this one said she was a unicorn." There was a collective chuckle from the crowd of soldiers. "Dude, you must be off your rocker!" Mitchell commented through his laughter. "I'm seroious! You all heard the gunshots when Brwon fired on one of these horses! Now correct me if im wrong, but you all have access to Charlie's vitals, check em." All of the soldiers hesitantly brought up a holopad, not quite sure what Brown was getting at. Every holopad read, 'KIA:6 HEALTHY:5 INJURED:1' The soldiers were all shocked at what they had just beheld. "See! Something is out there, and it killed our men!" Aquilla said sounding confident. "Woah, hold on a second, they could've drowned when they dropped into the swap, o-or died on impact." a soldier said shakily not wanting to beleive that there was life on this planet, despite all the evidence around him. "Not likely, not a single SPEAR soldier has ever died on impact, and our suits come with oxygen tanks that can last up to 2 hours. Something definitley attacked em, I don't know what exactly, but something did." Aquilla responded after a short pause. "I think I can answer that question. Charlie was attacked by a hydra, according to Charlie squad." David said slowly as to not frighten the men. "That's it, I'm done. Ponies? That talk, and now some fucked up lizard that has multiple heads, pardon me captain but I think everyone around here is freaking insane." Jason responded with a hint of frustration in his tone. "Well, like it or not Jason, its real, you just saw Charlies vitals, something killed em. For now let's not worry about that though, we have to get going if we're to reach the rendevouz point by dusk. C'mon men, move out." David ordered as he headed in the direction of Alpha. As the troops trudged throught the dense forest several soldiers could've sworn they saw the trees moving. Remembering back to what Jason had said though, they put it out of their minds, attributing it to the wind. The column of troops was nearing a clearing when one of the soldiers bringing up the rear shouted " CONTACTS OPEN FIRE!!!" as he unleashed a hurricane of rail rounds on a large creature that appeared to be made of wood. Most of the soldiers stood and watched in shock, although a few joined in with their weapons blazing. The rounds ripped throught the creature and it got noticeably weaker with every round it took. However before it went down it managed grab a soldier in it's jaws and grind him and his suit up into a bloody mess of electronics and guts. As the gunfire died down some of the soldiers knelt down to pay their respects before continuing on. They didn't get far before a soldier blurted out "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT COMMANDER!?!?!?!?" David was at a loss for words at this point.Even he didn't know what was going on. " I don't know Oscar, just eep moving, hopefully Alpha will have some answers for us." David replied after a long pause. The dense forest had a canopy so thick that it muffled sound very well. This would prove to be both an advantage and a disadvantage to the Spear forces. "Halt. Jason go up ahead and check it out,I think I saw something move." David said to Jason. "FIne." jason replied reluctantly before heading away from the group out of view. Not even seconds had passed until he came running back towards them with his back turned to them firing at something. " Don't just sit there! KILL IT! Jason said as another wood creature that appeared to be wolflike tried to swipe him up with it's claw. The other soldiers all obliged this time and the creature fell quickly with the full force of the squads firepower bearing down on it. "Look whatever the fuck these things are, they're damn tough, next time captain, send more than one, barely got away with my life." Jason said as he motioned a medic over to repair him. "Will do. C'mon, we're less than a klick away from Alpha now, if we hustle we can regroup before sundown." The soldiers continued their march through the forest alhough a slightly increased pace, all of the men were now very alert and were ready at a moments notice, the preceeding events had shaken them, and also taught them to be aware of their surronding. No one wanted to end up like Springfield... As the march continued the soldiers seemed to relax slightly as they didn't see any movement A clearing came into view through all of the trees just minutes later. The soldiers proceeded to calmly exit the brush , but what they saw stunned all of them. There was indeed a squad of armored infantry waiting for them. Problem was, they weren't SPEAR. They were the USIF's 8th Armored Infantry.