The Daviirn War Officer walked closer to the hostages, there was 5 of them in total. I watched on as she paced back in forth in front of them, as if speaking to them but I was too far away to hear them. After a bit, she stopped before an older man and pushed his chin up with a clawed finger. The man spat on the face of her mask.
She stood still for a moment, as if appalled that such a thing had happened to her. She slowly stood up and reach out towards him as if to grab his throat. Yet, the hand stopped about half a foot away before she clenched her hand. As if an invisible hand grabbed his throat, the skin of his neck formed the outline of a hand before he was raised into the air as the woman raised her hand upwards.
The other hostages cursed and growled at the woman as the surrounding Daviirn men shuddered in fear. Eventually, her hand relaxed and the man fell hard onto the ground. The scouter behind him forced the human soldier back onto his knees. Meanwhile, the Daviirn War Officer turned around and walked to the metal crate. Opening up the box, she pulled out a smaller metal box.
Opening it up, she pulled out a strange cylinder syringe that was filled with white liquid. Turning around, she walked back over to the man and stuck the syringe in the side of his neck, pressing a button on the other end. The man shuddered before his eyes opened wide, his mouth snapping open.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" Even from here, I could hear the scream of pure agony.
I watched with wide eyes as the man began to bleed from his eyes, then nose, ears and finally his mouth. The Daviirn War Officer took a few steps back and watched the process. The man lurched forward, vomiting copious amounts of blood a few times before falling forward limply. The man was dead moments after. With a flick of her hand, the War Officer tossed the dead body off to the side.
'They're.... conducting experiments.' I thought grimly with shock and horror.
There was suddenly more movement in the treeline and I saw two large human squads of infantry appear, hidden within the treeline. They stayed still, watching along as the War Officer conducted two more experiments. Both ended with the same gruesome death. On the fourth test, there was a change. The soldier bled through his eyes and nose with a wretched scream but didn't die.
The scouter behind him pulled him up to his feet with a hand on the back of his neck, grasping it firmly. The War Officer did a little dance of some sort, full of happiness that the experiment seemed to work. She walked to the man and held the sides of his face. Tilting her head, she seemed to ask something. Yet, the man spat blood in her face and grinned madly.
With a single squeeze, the scouter snapped his neck as the War Officer turned away. His body thrown to the side, there was only one left. Unable to watch this scene anymore, I turned the dial back and my vision returned to normal. Grasping my rifle, I waited for a moment when the patrols left an opening in the wheat fields and quickly left the treeline in a crouched position.
Entering the wheat field that was well over my head, I began to slowly make my way towards the farm house. I had to stop a few times, watching a small patrol team walking by. They spoke to each other in their gravely native tongue a bit before sharing a weird huffing like laugh. Once they were gone, I kept sneaking through the wheat to my destination.
Booom!
The loud crack of a high powered rifle made me flinch in shock. Afterwards, a cacophony of weapons firing sounded out as the patrol groups rushed over to the area behind the barn. I went prone, watching a few groups run past me just in front. I let out a slow shaky breath as I felt my adrenaline begin to pump wildly in my body. Knowing all hell was breaking loose, I waited for a few moments before pushing myself up.
Running through the wheat, I saw all of the enemy combatants had their attention on the treeline where soldiers fired relentlessly. I caught sight of the War Officer dragging the body of the last hostage who looked untouched but unconscious. She held her hand out, bullets coming to a stop in the air before her. Yet, the left side of her helmet had a chunk torn out of it and she was bleeding.
Using the chaos to remain unnoticed, I ran through the wheat fields and rushed over to the farm house. The sound of battle intensified as loud booms echoed out and I felt the ground shake. Reaching the edge of the farm house away from the battle, I crouched down and pulled my alice pack down as I dropped my gun. I rummaged through it before pulling out a large block.
The block was like a brick but twice the size. It was completely encased with metal and had a black box with buttons on its top. I placed it down in a patch of tall grass and began pressing buttons. More explosions rang out, louder, as I set the timer for 40 seconds. I threw my alice pack back on and grabbed my gun, turning back the way I came as I stood up.
Yet, I watched as several Daviirn personal crafts hovered towards us, just above the trees. At that moment, another boom shook the ground. I stumbled a bit as the ground shook violently, the vibrations racking my body. Surely, one of those War Birds had been blown up just now. After getting my feet back under me and looking up, I saw several of those metal boxes falling down in front of me.
My heart raced for a moment as my eyes landed on one of the boxes, clicking open after going still. The white syringe inside of it was undamaged and in perfect condition. My heart skipped a beat before I rushed forward, grabbing the box as I closed it. I held it to my chest and activated my grav-anchor before turning around. I took off in a sprint, moving far faster than even the best human sprinter ever known.
Red lines zipped past my sides and I began to zig zag to make it hard for them to hit me. Just as I got into the treeline, a red line sizzled as it caught me by the right shoulder. I let out a pained yelp as I felt my skin get vaporized slightly but the wound was instantly cauterized. I fell down behind the trees from the shock of pain running through my body, barely out of their line of fire.
"Fucking bastards!" I growled before I flipped my position and grabbed my rifle.
Crawling up the side of a slight hill, I barely poked my head out while next to a tree. My heart thumped against my chest as I took aim, pulling the trigger as soon as I was lined up. The round left with a soft thump and bit into the foot soldiers neck, forcing him to fall backwards with a squirt of blood. I flicked my aim as I steadied my breathing, firing shot after shot.
Red lines zipped over my head and large caliber rounds peppered the ground before me while punching fist sized holes into the trees over my head. I kept firing, taking out an enemy or severally wounding them with a single shot. Sometimes I managed to send two rounds into an enemy's throat. Soon, I was exchanging a magazine as I held my ground.
The main force was still clashing with the human soldiers and the War Officer seemed to stay out of the fight. There was still nearly 20 enemies advancing on my position. I kept firing and firing, wondering why the DC4 hadn't gone off yet. The enemy drew closer as I got to my last mag with a curse. I cursed again only to realize that I didn't start the timer in my haste.
I counted the bullets of my last mag as I forced the enemy down to 5 scouters. Not all my shots landed as I was thoroughly panicking now, watching more Daviirn reinforcements arrive. When I got to my last three bullets, I focused my aim to the charge I had left behind.
"Come on, marksmen school. Don't fail me now." I whispered shakily as the inital battle to my right began to lose steam.
Thump!
The first shot, miss.
Thump!
The second shot, miss. Those original 5 scouters were getting dangerously close.
"Fuck! Just hit it!" I growled to myself and pulled the trigger.
Thump!
BA-BOOOOOOOOOM~!
The round landed and a massive explosion rang out before a secondary explosion came from the farm house. My vision was filled white as the blast blinded me and the shockwave hit me next. I let out what seemed like a soundless yell as I was thrown backwards into the air. Trees snapped from the blast and I could hear nothing but loud ringing in my ears.
I landed hard on the ground and rolled a few times, my hands desperately keeping a hold of my gun like a life rope. I let out a pained groan as my fight or flight response kicked in. Without any ammunition and no way to fight in a gun fight, I struggled to push myself up. I stumbled a bit through the forest with a limp, knowing my left leg was broke. As the forest dimmed down from the explosions light, I pulled out a plastic medical syringe.
Happy that it wasn't broken, I stabbed it into my left leg and the pressure release needle pushed the regeneration serum into my leg. With a grunt that I couldn't hear, I tossed the syringe into the woods and began running into the forest. I kept running and running until I felt someone ram into my side. I let out a pained yelp as I was tossed to the side and fell down onto my front.
A hand grasped onto my left shoulder and flipped me onto my back. What I saw was a person wearing a full body black combat suit, the seamless helmet like a mirror reflecting the image of my green helmet with a single line of glass over my eyes, a respirator over my mouth and a set of dials with buttons on the right side of my head.
"Is that undamaged and did you cause that explosion?" A male voice came from the Jaeger Ranger as he pointed at the box on my chest, my hearing having returned to normal.
"Yes, to both." I nodded, keeping my words short.
"Get the fuck out of here and get that back to a Fort, now! We'll do our best to hold the- Ack!" The man growled desperately as he commanded me but a red line shot through his right chest.
I looked back, seeing 5 scouters cresting the hill at the start of the treeline. The Jaeger Ranger spun to them and pulled out a pistol, firing it as he kept moving from tree to tree. I had already flipped over and pushed myself up into a sprint. I kept running as fast as I could, trying to shake the enemy off that kept following me. Deep down, I knew. That Jaeger Ranger was dead.
I kept running and running, creating enough distance to rest for a moment and conserve my stamina. After the first two hours, the chase became a dark game of cat and mouse where I couldn't out run them. No matter what I did, they always caught up because of the tracking light in their helmets. Eventually, I came to a final stop and made a grim decision.