Nicholas Smith - Allegiance

The guards, who had stopped beating him, gave him a few more kicks to shut him up.

X still managed to nod at Rhino, and Rhino nodded back.

“I changed my mind,” Vargas said. “I do want to be the one to kill you.”

He walked over and raised his sword in both hands, his crazed eyes looking as if they might pop out of his skull. And then, to Rhino’s astonishment, one did.

Vargas crumpled to the floor as X turned a small pistol on the other guards.

The crack of gunshots filled the room, and one after another, the remaining Cazadores fell. Mac thrust his sword cane into the groin of the last soldier, and Felipe got up and ran over to Rhino.

Blood pooled around his body as the young warrior tried to stop the flow. X and Mac scrambled over to help.

Rhino looked at Vargas’s ruined face and cracked a smile. His eyes went back to X, who could only see out of one eye.

“King Xavier, tell Sofia she will always be my queen,” Rhino said. He slumped to his side, but X caught him under the arm.

“Breathe, General,” X said. “You’re going to be okay; just stay with me, and don’t stop breathing. You’re a beast, man. These are just little flesh wounds.”

Rhino smiled one last time at the man he respected above all others in this world.

“I wish I was immortal like you, King Xavier, but alas, I’m just a man,” Rhino said, his voice growing faint. “I will always serve you. Even in the next life, I will be watching over you while you fulfill the prophecy.”

The assault rifle jammed again when Les tried to fire at a Siren. Cursing, he worked to free the round as more beasts closed in from the sky, buildings, and road.

The predators were drawn to Discovery ’s nuclear-powered engines and the noise of the battle raging inside the tunnel.

“Timothy, don’t let up!” Les said over the comms.

The twenty-millimeter Miniguns on the bottom of the airship raked the sky with tracer rounds, catching the beasts as they swooped down for the fresh meat.

There was plenty of it to be had. Team Raptor had evacuated over thirty survivors from outside the bunker. From their frightened faces, most of these people had never been aboveground. A few, however, pitched in to help carry Arlo and Edgar. Both divers were conscious and had their armor back on, but neither was in any condition to fight.

Once they made it out of the tunnels, they had decided to make their stand above the sinkhole. For the past half hour, Les and the uninjured divers had held their ground and waited for an opportunity to board the ship hovering five hundred feet above them.

But they were running low on ammo, and the time for getting these people into the air was running out. Timothy couldn’t bring the ship down without first clearing the landing zone. The sheer numbers of hostiles meant that many of the injured would never make it aboard if they made a run for it, even with help from the others. And the people from the bunker weren’t wearing much protection aside from the gray jumpsuits and plastic filtration masks.

“Sir, we’ve got a mass of hostiles heading your way from the south,” Timothy reported.

“Fire the missiles!” Les yelled back. Giving up trying to free the jammed round, he let the rifle hang over his chest and pulled his pistol to fire at a Siren making a run at them. Three rounds took it down, and it skidded into a mass of vines.

A missile streaked away from the airship, and a loud boom rocked the next block. Following the noise came the alien shrieks of dying Sirens, and the cries from more of their comrades flocking toward the area.

Les went back to working the jammed round free as he scanned for Horn and his skinwalkers. The fiends were still out there, probably watching and waiting to make their move.

But they weren’t the only monsters to worry about. The roar of a bone beast cut through the thunder and the chatter of automatic gunfire.

Les finally managed to free the round and aimed at a Siren swooping toward the airship. He fired a burst into its spine, sending the beast spiraling to earth.

“Changing!” Rodger shouted.

“Down to my last magazine!” Sofia yelled.

Michael shot a gliding Siren with a bolt to the chest, and it augered into the earth.

A burst of automatic fire cracked next to Les as Rodger started on his fresh magazine.

The city sounded like a war zone.

The silhouetted figures of more Sirens emerged on buildings fronting the roads. Others swooped in from the sky. The twenty-millimeter rounds from the turrets on the airship cut them to pieces, but ever more of them came on, like sharks to a bleeding carcass.

Les knew they couldn’t wait any longer to get to the ship.

“We have to make a run for it!” he yelled.

Michael waved the group forward and set off on point, firing his laser rifle to clear a path.

“Timothy, bring Discovery down,” Les ordered. “And open the launch bay when you’re about to touch down.”

“Copy that, sir,” replied the AI.

The airship began to lower, the wash from the turbofans blasting down onto the street. Les fired three-round bursts at the beasts climbing over the piles of rubble.

A pack of twenty had already reached the landing zone. They bounded over the carcasses littering the broken asphalt.

“Take them down!” Les yelled.

Bullets and laser bolts brought down more and more of the beasts. But each time one fell, another took its place, black maw open, jagged teeth dripping ropes of saliva. The ravenous creatures seemed crazed for a chance at food.

Muzzle flashes lit up the sky under the lowering airship. Tracer rounds, looking like mini laser bolts, sprayed outward as Timothy worked both Miniguns, blowing apart the mass of the Sirens.

That did the trick. The beasts scattered in all directions, some of them bolting, others limping on the ground, dragging mangled wings.

The launch-bay doors parted, and a platform extended downward. The turbofans clicked off, and the ship’s landing feet crunched against the ground.

“run!” Les yelled.

He turned and waved, his heart racing at the sight of Sirens flanking them from the sky across the sinkhole. Others came pelting down from the ruined buildings, and now that the ship was grounded, the Miniguns couldn’t fire on any of them.

“Mags, Sofia, get these people to safety!” Les yelled. “Michael, Rodger, on me! We have to hold those Sirens back!”

The three men formed a line, laying down covering fire while the rest of the group made a run for the launch bay with the injured. Gunfire cracked in that direction as Sofia and Magnolia took down any beasts foolhardy enough to try picking off a human.

“I’m out,” Rodger said, drawing his handgun.

“Sir, I can’t get a shot with the Miniguns,” said Timothy, “but Alfred has rearmed Cricket with grenades.”

Les looked over his shoulder as the drone flew out of the launch bay, its arms extended with the blaster and grenade-launcher attachments.

“Instruct Cricket to fire at the flanking Sirens,” Les said.

“Aye, aye, sir,” Timothy replied.

As the drone joined Les and team, the fired grenades detonated around the sinkhole, collapsing the edge and burying many of the beasts on the ground.

More grenades hit the crushed building on the right side of the road, ripping apart the Sirens streaming over the pile.

Les and the other divers, meanwhile, concentrated their fire on the creatures coming in by air. Together, with Cricket’s help, they held back the horde while the last civilians loaded into the launch bay.