Nick Cole - Soda Pop Soldier

“Covering fire!” yells the Hispanic chick over BattleChat. MarinePFCVasquez. An immense amount of weapons fire resounds across the cavernous room as her weapon switches into overcycle mode. She must be running the Rapid Fire Freak perk.

I pop smoke and shout “We are leaving!” over the chat.

By the time we make the access hatch, I hear the door metal tearing apart. There’s too much smoke to see anything else, and there’s nothing to block the access hatch with.

Eight of us make it into the ducting.

I’m glad to see little AwesomeSauce along with the rest of the survivors, all marines.

“Follow me,” I hear MarinePvtWierzbowski shout frantically over the chat. He must be at the head of our dwindling column inside the large air duct. Behind us we can hear screeching—animal alien screeching.

MarinePFCVasquez’s gun falls silent back in the main room.

I check the CommandPad to see who’s left. Vasquez is KIA.

I have to admit; I’m a little tense right now.

“Keep following the duct. It should lead to an area we can fortify,” shouts Apone over the in-game screeching of distant aliens and our echoing passage along the galvanized metal ducting. I hear automatic gunfire ahead of us. Behind us again. Off in the distance … then, not at all.

If WonderSoft gets taken out by the aliens, does that mean we get a default win? I’m guessing not.

“Wierzbowski!” someone screams over the chat. “They got Wierzbowski!”

“LOL … just like in the movie,” someone else says, laughing.

“Take the left fork,” shouts Apone over the chat and automatic weapons fire. Pistol shots. Behind us, on ambient, I can hear scrabbling claws and a leathery slithering against the outside of the ductwork all around us. WarWorld has gone all in on this map. The muscles in my neck feel like iron bands. I open and close my jaw to shake out the tension, then blink twice and look at the screen again.

We pass a torn-out section of the ductwork. It gapes outward, covered in dark inky blood and rising steam.

“Keep moving, Marines!” says someone not Apone.

I chance a look behind me and see an alien scrabble around a corner in the ducting. An alien. I cut loose with the M4X and hit it multiple times. Acid and tentacles explode in steam and blood. More of them are scrabbling behind the dying thrashing shrieking thing, to get over it, to get at me. To get at us.

“Anyone holding a ’nade?” I shout over the chat.

“Last one,” says MarinePvtFrost. “After that, we’re down to just the magazines we got left and some witty banter.” He laughs over the chat.

“Use it behind us, now!” I tell him.

The corridor’s tight, but he gets it behind us and destroys the ducting and some of the aliens.

“Something ahead … ,” says MarineCorpsmanDietrich. Her voice is frantic. “I think it’s an opening!”

“Check it first,” warns Apone.

“Like we got a lotta choices right now, Sarge,” adds Frost.

After a moment Dietrich calls out “All clear” over the chat and we’re in. Then, “Hey, we’re in Operations!”

I crawl through the last of the ducting and drop down into a small room with two doors. The marines are already opening them, guns aimed outward.

“If this is anything like our mods,” says Apone, “then we only need to seal the two doors that lead into Medical. Those and the duct we just came through.”

“Yo, heads up, there’s a materials station here!” calls out someone named MarinePvtDrake.

“Good, grab it and start sealing these doors, Marines,” orders Apone.

I walk out into Operations and find desks, displays, and transparent walls. The marines are already welding steel plates across the two main doors to the section. I see AwesomeSauce bent over a nearby display. Its light turns her avatar’s face a soft blue.

“We’ve got feeds on most of the facility,” she says as I approach. “They’re everywhere. The aliens, that is. WonderSoft is probably in the living quarters section but I can’t get in there. So … if they made it, they’re there.” She snaps her bubble gum. “What now, Question?” I check my CommandPad.

We’re down to AwesomeSauce, Apone, Drake, Dietrich, Frost, and a guy named Crowe whom I haven’t heard from much.

That makes seven of us.

The goal of the TFD match is to destroy the other team’s defenses before they destroy yours. With the aliens surrounding everything, that means if teams don’t have a fortress, then they don’t have much of a chance at survival. WonderSoft is on the other side of the station. Between us and them, there are … a whole lot of those things. I watch the monitor as one of the aliens drags the body of a Softie avatar down a dimly lit grated corridor.

“Can we hurt them from here?” I ask AwesomeSauce. “Using the computer system?”

She’s silent for a moment.

“Nah, doesn’t look like it.”

I’m thinking.

“Listen,” I say over the chat. “Obviously you guys are fans of the movie. I’ve never seen it.” I pause, waiting for the various shouts of incredulity to pass. Then, “Does anyone have an idea how we can hurt WonderSoft? I mean, anything from the movie.”

No one says anything.

“In the movie, the atmosphere processor blows the whole place up,” offers Apone. “We could blow ourselves up. Not much use in that, I guess.”

“Yeah, kinda defeats the purpose, Sarge,” says Frost.

“I don’t suppose anyone’s got a Bunker Buster streak? We could drop it on the living quarter section and take them out or at least expose them to the aliens.”

“I got a Special Delivery,” says Drake. “But we need to be out in the open for that. We could use the weapons package option it comes with, though. That’d be real nice right about now.”

And I’ve got Hang in There, Lil’ Buddy. My final streak. A dropship escort for two minutes. But we’re inside. What’s it going to do, fire through the windows?

“I haven’t seen this old movie either,” says AwesomeSauce. “Why do they blow up this atmosphere thing?”

“Oh, they don’t mean to,” says Dietrich. “Just happens after a really awesome firefight when they get ambushed by warriors … those things. The aliens. They damage it when they walk into the nest.”

“The nest?” I ask.

“Yeah, that’s where the alien queen makes her nest.”

“What if … ,” I’m thinking out loud. “What if that’s map number three? What if this map TDF match has an inherent destruction feature? The aliens. They destroy your fortress, forcing you to find and move into the third map before that happens. It’s probably a matter of time before …”

There’s a dull thump on one of the doors. Everyone swivels, guns pointing at the door, watching the dent that’s just appeared there. Then another.

“They’re here,” whispers Apone.

“Yeah … matter of time,” says Frost. “We better do something fast ’cause if they get in here, it’s gonna be a real short meet and greet.”

“I think this isn’t the game,” I say. Everybody’s still watching the door. It’s dimpling inward even more. Everyone’s slowly backing away, putting desks and displays between themselves and the rapidly deforming door. “We’ve got to get out to that atmosphere processor. That’s where the next map is. The aliens will destroy both fortresses in a matter of time. We don’t need to wipe out WonderSoft, the aliens will do it for us. Drake, have you unlocked the vehicle upgrade on that Special Delivery?”

“Played for three years … what do you think?”

“Good, call it in and drop it right outside those windows there.” I point out into the dark landscape of wind and rain. I can see shadows moving out there among the rocks and debris. There’s nothing human avatar–shaped about them.