Spears of Uu'kata

Chapter 2 - Recall Delayed

A massive hammer smashed into the captain and sparks flew just before his bio-mech initiated a recall and was sucked up into the sky, putting Vasquez in charge.

"Don't stop!" he yelled. "Keep going! Oh, you want some puta? Come get it, pendejo!"

Vasquez opened fire on an Uu'k'asht who came at him with a spear.

"I'm out of ammo!" one man said right on top of another stating the same thing. She couldn't tell who'd spoken, she was too busy blowing holes in the fuckers who broke through the squad's defenses.

A huge mother-fucker slammed into Ben, knocking him on his face, and started slamming its huge, meaty fists into his back and neck, and it was actually denting the armor!

Charlotte turned her guns on the creature and blew its head off but the distraction left her back open and the trolls took advantage. She had one on her the moment she turned around. It hit her like a freight train and she gasped as she went down, twisting in the thing's grasp. It started hammering into her with a massive blade that slid and sparked on her armor. It snagged, straddling her, pinning her in place. It seemed blind with rage and every blow made her feel like she was inside a tin can about to be smashed. The creature was so fast!

Finally getting her wits about her, she swung and punched it in the face, engaged her wrist blade, and stabbed it through its pointed ear. The beast went down atop her, a dead weight. Moving it off her wasn't difficult, just awkward.

Ben, back on his feet and firing at enemies she couldn't see, appeared above her, jerking the creature off her by its neck and flinging it away.

"Get up, Char!" he yelled. "We have incoming!"

She jacked to her feet just in time to see a massive Uu'k'asht barreling up behind Ben as another of Delta squad was recalled. She grabbed his shoulder and shoved him, raising her gunarm and filled the creature with holes so it toppled an inch from Ben's metal feet.

And that's when her ammo ran out.

"Fuck!" she snapped.

"I'm out too!" Ben said.

This was bad. They'd sorely underestimated the enemie's numbers before dropping in and the recall disk above was littered with bio-suites. There had to be over two hundred up there. Which didn't bode well for those still on the ground.

In the distance, one of the transport ships exploded with a shockwave that blew several Uu'k'asht who hadn't seen it right off their feet.

"There's an opening!" Ben yelled, pointing. "Run!"

Together, they ran hard, They passed Uu'k'asht getting to their feet, making grabs at them and Charlotte carved her way through any that got in her way. Beside her, Ben did the same.

They were alone now and she hadn't even seen the rest of Delta go down or be recalled. She wondered if any of them made it out, though she refused to dwell on it. There was nothing she could do about them now. Besides, she was pumped too full of binding drugs to care. She would feel their loss later when she was out of the suit and the drugs wore off. When she and Ben were back on base having tacos with the survivors. But right now, she was a killing machine. Run, jump, stab, dodge, repeat. Always moving forward toward the remaining transport ship.

"Almost there," she heard Ben say through his teeth as he chopped the head clean off a Uu'k'asht who dared get too close to him.

The last transport exploded in a flash of light and shrapnel. The concussion hit her like a wrecking ball and before she knew it she and Ben were flying through the air. They landed nearly fifteen feet from where they'd been and despite the noise reduction from the suit, her ears were ringing.