Striker (The Alien Wars Book 2) (16 page)

Molly frowned as
she saw that the creatures were dressed in blue suits. “Why are they dressed
like that?”

Frank didn’t
hesitate. “We’ll have to retreat.” He hurried back to the turnoff and went the
opposite way.

“Who were they?”
Molly questioned. “Why were they wearing blue and not white?”

“They are the
elite.
The best of the best.”
Frank’s cheek twitched
as another group of Seods in blue body
armor
marched
down the hallway to their left. “This is not good. Not
flippin
’
good
at all.” Frank dashed down another hallway.

Molly glanced
back and saw one of the blue Seods. She whispered to Frank, “Someone is
following us.”

Frank quickened
his pace. “Come on, let’s hurry.”

The two hurried
down the hallway. They passed a couple of Seods sporting the olive-green underwear,
and even they looked at them strangely as they passed.

“Something’s not
right,” Molly muttered.

Frank
zagged
right and then left in an attempt to lose the Seod
in the blue suit, but the alien had a predator’s single-minded focus. Without
warning, he swung up his blaster and picked up the pace. Not waiting any
longer, Frank uncovered his own silencer and opened fire.

Green bolts shot
toward the Seod, hitting the blue suit around the chest but not appearing to do
any damage. The Seod knelt down and opened fire.

Green bolts flew
back and forth and one of them hit Frank’s arm. His silencer crashed to the
ground. “Run!” Frank shoved Molly away.

Molly ran down
the hallway, which was now devoid of anyone.

Frank reached
into his pocket and pulled out a small circular device. After pushing down the
small button on one side of it, he tossed it toward the blue Seod.

As soon as the
device hit the ground, white smoke flared out of it, shrouding the hallway. It
quickly enveloped the whole area, making it impossible for Frank to see more
than a foot in front of him.

Kneeling down, he
felt around the ground for the silencer he had dropped. Finding it, he tucked
it between his belt and waist and hurried in the direction Molly had gone.

After reaching
her, he led the way to where the prisoners were being held. As he approached
the door, he spotted a Seod in a white suit.

Frank fired
point-blank at the white-suited Seod and the creature fell to one side. Frank
opened the door. Molly was right behind him as the two of them entered the
medium-sized room.

Molly counted at
least forty humans in the room, and they were all seated around a strange-looking
table. They appeared to be engaged in some kind of argument. They looked up but
didn’t say anything.

Frank and Molly
took off their helmets and the humans smiled.

Lieutenant
Davidson gaped as he recognized them. “This is a rescue mission? How the hell …”
He winked at the general. “I told you they were good.”

Loreto smiled and
hurried forward. “I’ve never been so relieved to see anyone in my life.” He
patted Frank and Molly on their shoulders. “I don’t know how you managed to
rescue us, but when we get—”

Frank smiled grimly.
“It’s not a rescue. At least, not as you would have liked.” He peered back
through the door. The white smoke was slowly dissipating from the hallway. He
turned back to the prisoners. “I only have one weapon, so you’ll have to find
your own way out of here.”

One of the older
guys sporting a filthy and tattered US Army shirt jumped up and roared, “Those
chucklenuts
have plenty of weapons, so let’s use them!
Hooah
!”

As a thundering
chant echoed throughout the room, Frank slipped to the side, and the men rushed
to the door.

“Get revenge
another time,” General Loreto shouted. “If you want to escape, then we need to
take the hangar. Frank, lead the way, but let us do the heavy lifting.”

Frank laughed
without mirth and popped his head out of the detention
center
and into the hallway. The smoke had completely cleared, and he was sure that
even though no one was visible now, it wouldn’t be empty for long.

“Put your helmet
back on,” Frank said, turning to Molly.

As Molly did so,
Loreto looked at Frank. “Where are you going?”

“To the missile
room,” Frank replied, stepping out into the hallway.

Lieutenant
Davidson snagged his arm. “Why bother? Let’s just get out of here and blow up
the hangar in the process. That’ll ground them for a while.”

As the entire
group made their way along the hallway, Frank answered, “I didn’t come all this
way just to put this thing in dry dock for a bit. We’re going to light it up so
hot that the Seods will see the blast from their home planet!”

Frank paused at
the end of the hallway. “The hangar is to the left. Good luck.”

Frank and Molly
headed right and were surprised when the group, after having a quick chat,
followed them.

“I thought you
wanted to escape,” Frank said.

“The mission
comes first,” Loreto stated. “And from what I’ve seen, you’ll need every bit of
help you can get.”

“I can’t offer
you any suits, but …” He trailed off as two Seods in olive green came around
the corner.

The Seods stopped
in shock when they saw the humans. They went to grab their weapons, but by that
time, the human
wave of soldiers were
upon them.

Frank pried his
eyes off the bloodbath and just continued stalking down the hallway, stopping
when he reached a door on the left. Two young soldiers, dripping in blue alien
blood and shouldering new weapons, rushed up. They stacked up against the door
and flicked him a thumbs-up.

“No, wait. We
might get lucky here.” Frank gently popped the hatch and peered through it. A large
group of Seods were lounging around on several sofa-like cushions and gossiping.

Frank turned to
the others. “There’s plenty of firepower in there. If we act fast, we can grab a
few loose weapons.”

The general smirked
like a hyena. “
Betcha
dollars to doughnuts this is
their Quick Reaction Force. Let’s do it.”

Frank took a deep
breath to calm himself before he and Molly entered the room like they owned the
place. No one gave them a second glance, until one of the ex-cons in the hall
peeked
his head too far into the room.

The Seods did a
double take and made some type of squawking alien curse. They whipped up their silencers
while the humans charged. For all the hi-tech weaponry, the battle was medieval.
Green bolts, fists, and teeth flew in every direction.

Red and blue
blood soaked the deck as humans and Seods fell to the ground. By the time the
shooting was all over, only one side had a few men still standing.

The remaining
soldiers pried off dog tags from their dead friends and hefted the wounded onto
their shoulders. The group, now only half the size as before but with ten times
as many weapons as before, was ready to move in less than a minute.

Just as they did,
Seods in white suits appeared from down the hallway and opened fire. The
soldiers returned the
favor
with gusto.

Leaving a few of
the troops behind to provide cover, the others advanced and sanitized the
hallway. They met little resistance along the way as most of the Seods fled at
the sight of the humans. And for those that didn’t, they were cut down in a
hail of green bolts before they could kill any of the humans.

The team reached
the missile room without any casualties. Just as they entered, one of the
soldiers spotted a group of blue-suited Seods scurrying down the hall. He hollered
at the lieutenant, who in turn told the general.

Loreto turned to
Frank. “How long do you need to set the demo charges?”

“Ten minutes,”
Frank replied and then ducked as a stream of laser bolts lit up the hall. “Hmm,
maybe we can do it in five. Can you hold them off that long?”

The general narrowed
his eyes. “Leave that to me. You just concentrate on setting the charges.” He waved
at the soldiers and gave that old, magic infantry motto: “Follow me!” Leading
from the front, the general fired from the hip and charged the Seods.

Frank didn’t
waste time as he took off his helmet and told Molly to do the same. He then
gave her some explosives. “Attach one of these to the side of each warhead. If
we work together, we can get this done quicker.” Frank hurried to the nearest
missile.

The two of them
worked as fast as possible. The boom-boom sticks were stacked in neat rows, so
it didn’t take long.

They had nearly
finished when Lieutenant Davidson burst through the door. Blood dripped from a
wound in his arm. “We just lost the general. Are you nearly done? If we wait
any longer, we’ll lose everyone.”

“Just give me a
moment.” He adjusted the timer and blew out his breath. “All right, five
minutes is all we have to get away from here.”

“But I can’t run
fast in this suit,” Molly complained.

“Then take it
off.” Frank pressed down on the plunger and started the timer. “I’ll also take
mine off.”

As the lieutenant
hurried back to his men, the two quickly took off their suits. A minute later,
with the timer already down to four minutes, the two stepped into the hallway.

The
firefight
between the humans and Seods was still going
fiercely. Both parties had managed to find some barricades, and with neither
side willing to advance, no one was making progress.

Frank flipped his
watch over. “If we’re still here when the timer goes off, we’ll be vaporized.”

“What can we do?”
Molly asked, worried.

Frank hurried
back into the missile room. Glancing around, he spotted an RPG. He scooped it
up. “Can you get two more of those?” He pointed toward a pile of small rockets.

Molly grabbed two
of them and followed Frank outside. Bending down behind a barricade, Frank
loaded the rocket into the launcher and held it up, high on his shoulder.

The lieutenant snatched
the weapon from Frank. “Get out of here now! Stay at least ten meters away from
the back blast. It’s about to get hot in here.” He ripped out the arming fuse
and sighted down the hall, ignoring all the incoming fire ricocheting inches
past him.
“Fire in the hole!”

Frank shoved the
rest away as the lieutenant torched off the rocket-propelled grenade. The warhead
lanced down the hall at two hundred meters a second and smashed into the face
of a Seod fighter running to join the others.

The rest kept
their heads down as shrapnel rained around. The lieutenant prepped and fired
the next launcher with practiced ease, this time aiming for the
center
of the barricade.

The blue-suited Seods,
seeing what was coming, tried to retreat. Some made it clear before the
shaped-charge warhead, designed to kill tanks, blew the barricade to
smithereens.

Frank glanced at
his watch, their one remaining minute flying away. He ran back to the
lieutenant and guided the choking man through the noxious exhaust clouds. “Come
on!” He rushed down the hallway, one arm on the officer and the other holding
his rifle straight out, firing endless three-round bursts.

As the humans
advanced, the Seods fired back. More than half of the humans fell before a
massive explosion shook the entire craft.

Everyone dropped
to the ground as another explosion, this one bigger than the last, blew the
missile door off its hinges and sent a wall of fire along the hallway.

As the aircraft
started to groan, complete chaos erupted. The Seods scurried left and right
like rats attempting to escape the doomed ship. The badly wounded lieutenant,
along with two of his men, hurried after Frank and Molly as they headed for the
hangar.

Because of the
constant explosions that rocked the aircraft, most Seods took no notice of the
humans. They appeared to be mostly concerned with their own safety.

When two
white-suited Seods appeared and opened fire, the two soldiers dropped to the
ground, dead. Wounded, the lieutenant managed to shoot one of the creatures
while Frank took out the other one.

As the lieutenant
lay on the floor, gasping his last breath, Molly knelt down next to him. The
soldier reached out and grabbed the girl’s hand. “Go. Get to safety.”

“But—” Molly
spluttered.

“Go.
Before it’s too late.”
Lieutenant Davidson gave a final
groan before his head slumped to the ground.

“Come on!” Frank yanked
Molly away. The two of them raced toward the hangar.

They ran inside, only
to find just a few Strikers left.

Lucy whistled
from the ramp of one of them. “What are you waiting for? Get your crazy butts
in here!”