Battle Earth: 12 by Nick S. Thomas

back of one of them. It dropped face first to the deck. The other turned on him quickly, and pulses smashed the frame beside him as he ducked back for cover.
    A moment later, they heard the nose gun on the copter spool up, and then a split second later the almost deafening sound of the weapon. It began firing at such a rate you could not differentiate one shot from another. Taylor peered around the corner. The shots of the Gatling gun smashed into the creature’s shield and forced it back. Finally, the shield was torn apart, and it took the full brunt of the weapon. The Gatling gun tore a half metre hole in its chest, almost severing its body in two, and it crumpled dead to the deck.
    Rains took his finger off the trigger and sat back with a sigh of relief before making his way back to the side door. Taylor approached the pilot, but as he got halfway, he felt a hand grab hold of his ankle. He looked down. The first creature he shot had locked him in a vice grip, and only his exo skeleton stopped his bones from breaking. The alien raised its other arm to fire at him, but Taylor smashed it away with his rifle and then stomped on its face five times until the helmet gave way and collapsed. He took aim at the seemingly lifeless body and fired three shots into the head to be certain.
    "Damn they don't die easy."
    Then they heard the intercom activate.
    "This is the Captain speaking. Prepare to jump in five...four...three...two..."
    Taylor half expected the jump to fail but was amazed on hearing the Captain say jump. He felt the bizarre gravity shift they always did as they passed through. Rains let out another sigh of relief.
    "We're not outof the shit yet," said Taylor .

Chapter 5
     

    "We're through!" yelled the flight lieutenant.
    Barclay activated an open channel immediately and put out his emergency message.
    "This is Captain Barclay of The Baron. We have enemy combatants aboard and request immediate support."
    A few moments later the Admiral's voice came over the line.
    "This is Lasure. What the hell is going on over there, Captain?"
    "Sir, we have an unknown number of enemy combatants aboard this vessel. We need additional support from Marine detachments immediately!"
    The line went silent for a moment until finally Lasure responded.
    "Maintain your position. We will despatch assistance to you."
    "They better be quick," muttered Barclay as the transmission ended.
    As he said it, they heard gunfire ring out from just outside the bridge, and the squad of marines quickly returned fire.
    "I need some eyes on what's going on. Get me something!" Barclay ordered.
    "Sir, video feeds are down. All we've got is audio comms, and I'm having trouble reaching a lot of the crew."

    * * *

    "We're taking heavier fire in engineering!" shouted Lang over the comms.
    Taylor was passing a shield out to Silva and grabbing his own when he heard the message.
    He froze for a moment and said thoughtfully, "Why would they still be going for the engines when we're already back at Ony?"
    "They don't want to stop us. They want to destroy us," said Silva.
    "If they reached the Aranui reactor and hit it with enough explosives, what would that do?"
    "Nothing good," replied Silva.
    "It would likely destroy the ship," added Jafar bluntly.
    "We have to get moving, now!"
    As he said it, Jafar opened one of the storage lockers on the side of the copter and pulled out one of the 50CMG ‘pigs’.
    "Can you handle that?" Taylor asked him.
    The pig was as long as Jafar was tall, and they could see he was straining slightly to carry it, but it would have to do. They rushed on towards engineering and could hear the echo of gunfire from various locations as they did so. They found two bodies of their own platoon and several more crewmembers lying dead nearby. There was no time to check if any were still alive.
    A crossroads lay ahead, and as they reached it, one of the creatures stepped out before them. Taylor squeezed the trigger of his rifle almost immediately.