Ivan Kal - Warpath

Then as they reached a three way branch in the hallway Zhu signaled his squad to stop. His HUD was showing strange reading from their rear.

“Fig, Fury move back a bit and check our rear. The rest take up positions here until they get back.”

They remained there waiting until the comm came back from Fig.

“ There is nothing here SL. ” Fig said.

“ Okay, come back. ” Just as Zhu finished speaking the sensors on his suit went off, and then Fig yelled out over the comm.

“ Oh fuck me! We got hostiles incoming! ”

“SL!” Killgrave yelled out at the same moment, “Hostiles from the front.”

“Get ready!” Zhu said as he watched Sowir mindlessly charging their positions from three hallways. “ The two of you pull back right now. ” Zhu told Fig over the comm.

His squad got into position, and waited for the hostiles to get into range. The weapon kits they were using now were specially made for fighting on ships or stations. They couldn’t use their weapons on their most powerful settings for fear of puncturing the hulls or damaging something they weren’t supposed to. Zhu carried a CF-13 light assault rifle, which was a smaller and less powerful version of the CFG-02 heavy assault rifle that fired bullets using a centrifugal force.

Zhu liked the rifle, although no recoil did take some getting used to. As the enemy forces approached, Zhu was the first to open fire. His rifle sending hundreds of bullets in a span of couple seconds, punching through the enemy nonexistent armor. Most of the Sowir “agents” had no weapons mounted on their back, only melee weapons on their limbs. And they simply ran at them to get into melee range where they could use their seven powerful limbs to their maximum potential. But a few of them had the small laser turrets mounted on the backs, similar to what they used thirty years ago.

But their lasers were too weak to inflict any kind of serious damage before one of Zhu’s squad mates turned his or her weapons on them. Zhu’s squad was killing them quickly, but still there was so many of them that eventually four managed to get into melee range. Laas’tra and Killgrave were at the front of their formation and immediately dropped their weapons. Then blades extended from their forearms and the two started fighting the four hostiles that managed to reach them.

Laas’tra dropped into a roll as one of the aliens jumped towards her body swiping with a blade like attachment on its limb. As she dropped Zhu had a clear shot and he fired at the alien, killing it before it even touched the ground. Laas’tra got up from her roll in front of an enemy and swiped with her two monomolecular blades cutting it in three pieces.

Killgrave wasn’t as lucky, one of them managed to jump and attach itself to his suit and was hacking at his shoulder with one of its free limbs. Zhu tried to get a shot off, but Killgrave was moving constantly. Then Killgrave managed to free one of his hands and slice one of the limbs holding him. After that he stabbed with his blade into its middle section and swiped out spilling blood and gore over the walls. The thing still held on so he repeated the move until it finally let go and dropped to the floor in a mangled mess.

While Killgrave was dealing with his opponent Laas’tra had killed the last of the hostiles. Then she turned to Killgrave with blood splattered all over her suit, standing in the middle of three dead bodies.

“See, I told you that I got your back!” She said.

Zhu turned to Lazy, “Go check up on Fig and Fury.” As Lazy turned and ran back to help their squad mates, Zhu checked in with his imp and got an update from the command.

“Other squads have arrived on station, and they are reporting being attacked from ambushes.” Zhu said.

“There is about thirty of them here, if they attacked the other squads with the same numbers they still have much more troops. A station of this size usually held a large number of Sowir – their agents.” Dson said.

“Probably.” Zhu responded, as the three from the rear returned. Fig and Furry too were covered in gore.

“All ok?” Zhu asked.

“Yes. About ten of them were on their way to attack us from the back.” Fig responded.

Zhu check the map on his HUD and decided to take the fastest and the most direct route to their target. “Alright squad, the station’s command center is about a kilometer that way. We are going fast and alert, keep watch for more ambushes.” Zhu said pointing at the far left hallway.

In a brisk pace they covered ground quickly. The enemy attempted two more ambushes but both times the Empire soldiers prevailed. Finally they arrived at the door to the command center, in front of it eight of the hostiles stood guard. But these were fully dressed in combat armor with double barreled weapons on their backs.

“Alright this is it, we only need to get through those guards.” Zhu said. His squad was standing behind a corner where the guards couldn’t see them.

“Let me try the freeze grenade.” Killgrave said.

“You do know that that is not its name?” Dson asked sarcastically.

“I’m not calling it that other name, freeze grenade is much cooler.” Killgrave responded smartly.

“Alright Anton.” Zhu said before they could get into a name debate, “The rest of you get ready, once the grenade goes off take them out.”

Killgrave stepped to the corner’s edge and retrieved a device from the back of his suit. It was a bit bulkier than an ordinary grenade, silver in color and barrel shaped. Killgrave pressed two buttons simultaneously and a small red light appeared. Then he pressed a few more buttons, stepped out of the cover and threw the grenade at the enemy position, and quickly moved back behind cover.

The Laser Induced Energy Removing Device or LIERD for short, bounced off the floor and rolled at the feet of the eight guards. Before it even stopped its roll the device started releasing high pressure gas filling the area, engulfing the guards in it. As soon as all of the gas was released the device opened up and a high powered wide band laser flashed out of it. In an instant the laser’s photons knocked the electrons out of the gas’s atoms, which made them lose energy and at the same time heat. The area around the guards froze. Their armored suits got encased in a small layer of ice while their weapons electronics became nonoperational at such extreme cold.

A second later bullets and lasers fired on the helpless guards cutting them down.

“That was so cool!” Kilgrave said, then he turned to his squad mates. “Cool? You get it right? Because it is—”

“We got it, we got it.” Dson interrupted.

Zhu walked up to the dead guards and to the big doors, he gestured for Red Fury to get started working on opening them.

“Alright guys our targets are most likely behind these door. So Killgrave, Laas’tra, and Dson, change your ammo to stun rounds. You will be going in first, if there is more of these “agents” inside move aside and let the rest of us deal with them. In the event we find our targets, first demand surrender by playing the recording prepared in Nel. Clear?”

Affirmatives came from the three and Zhu moved back, letting them stand in front of the door ready to jump in as soon as Fury manages to open it.

Anton “Killgrave” checked his rifle one more time. He has been waiting for the door to open for only a minute, but it felt longer to him. He was never very good at being still, especially not when he was amped up on adrenaline and performance drugs. Then just as he was about to ask what was taking so long, he heard Red Fury say that she got it, and the door started to raise upwards quickly. As soon as there was enough room, Anton crouched and entered keeping his weapon ready.