"Your intel had better be good, or you're just another dead squiggly, punk," Collis sneered as he looked at the small man at his side. The IR must have been acting up again because the guy didn't show up on anything but clean visual mode. It wasn't much of a problem, because men like him don't overcome adversity, they kill it. He had three visual modes left and IR wasn't that useful anyway when you were ready to get it on.
"Don't worry, sergeant," the man smiled, carefully stepping away from the business end of the weapon. "My information is ALWAYS correct."
"So you say," Collis said as he snapped his visor back into place. "Then let's move out!"
The heavy armor creaked and hissed as it stepped over the smoking bodies of the Carrien nest. Fist sized craters covered the walls and ceilings where the rounds had either missed or over penetrated and Collis smiled broadly as he admired his work. Probably thirty total kacks with controlled bursts and a little up close and personal attention. Everyone knows that God loves a hero and he was one.
A tune drifted out of his memory and he hummed it, picking up the rhythm as a cadence. It was so faint that only a few words or syllables came to mind, but the song's intensity was undeniable. He found himself playing out each instrument, especially the heavy guitar. It fit him perfectly and he bobbed his head as he marched.
A red light came on along his HUD and his eyes flicked across it. He was picking up faint movement from ahead and he grinned. Probably more squigglies, but it might be something better. The smaller man, what was his name again? Tupo? What kind of a stupid name is Tupo? Collis looked around for him and found the punk at his elbow.
Tupo was a short little shit, only about five and a half feet tall. Dressed in designer raingear, he looked like he wanted to be one of those pretty boy models or something. No one told him that pretty toys and clothes don't stop bullets very well, and if it hadn't been for Collis, he'd be squigglie chow right now.
"Pretty don't get you anything but dead down here, boy," he had said but the little man seemed unperturbed. He had sought out Collis for a mission that he wouldn't refuse, a mission that needed a hero. Ole Bertha had wanted to get it on, and it meant that he got to break her out and load her up like the old days. God, he loved her more than any man could ever love woman.
She was the Primo Augustus of death, the ultimate killer, and the perfect mate. The cold stats went something like "M11-Cheyenne' 38 variant configuration of the Warmonger Assault cannon, fitted with a Big Boy 950 under slung belt fed grenade launcher. The first time he heard it, it just rolled off his tongue and he couldn't wait to get hot with her. And hot she loved to get! Kinda reminded him of this one woman he knew back when…
"Sergeant, they're coming," Tupo interrupted, stepping back into the shadows.
"Oh yeah, right," Collis said and strode forward. Clicking to IR, he caught the heat strobes of thermals getting closer and grinned as he stepped out of the line of sight. The HUD said he had nearly two full clips locked and loaded and he primed the cooling system. Oh, how he loved running ambush….
The song came back and got louder as the squigglies came closer, the bass pumping in synch to his pulse. Patience, patience he told himself as the point man went past. Then went the support, then the commander, then…
The rhythm was pounding so loudly in his head that he had unconsciously been banging his head inside his helmet. His hands were shaking with excitement and he nearly bit through his mike. The music got louder in his mind, but lyrics were garbled like a bad echo. What was left was pure cream, 99.9 percent pure concentrated adrenaline.
He could barely hold himself back until the rear support man went past, and then calmly primed the heavy trigger. The rotor whirled as the cannon began to spin up and he stepped out behind the patrol. One of the squigglies spun around and Collis saw his face in the man's suit light. It was frozen in fear and he relished it as Bertha screamed along to the music with him.
"Surprise, lunch meat,"
The rear guard vanished as Bertha French kissed him with the first of her 300 rounds per minute of HESH. Someone, the pig man probably, got a shot off and he laughed as it bounced away. A half-meter gout of flame roared from the cannon as the barrels spun and sprayed, chopping the line of targets like confetti as he screamed along to the rhythm. Wet chunks of armor, flesh, and weapons popped apart in front of him, covering him and Bertha in gore. The ankle-deep water boiled under falling debris and incoming fire and the walls popped apart, filling the air with gray dust. It was over in seconds, but he savored their screams as he waded through what was left of them.
Something smacked the side of his helmet and he snapped to the right. One of them, a girl with a white face and no eyes was pointing a toy pistol at him. Her legs and lower body were gone, vanished into a thick red cloud of pulp in the water.
"Kiddo, you shouldn't play war unless you're serious," he said as he stepped over her. She shuddered and the toy gun fell from her fingers to plop into the water at his feet. She was just a child, not even old enough to know what she was doing yet. He lowered Bertha and watched as her breathing became ragged, then ended in a wet chuckle that racked her body. As the rotor whined to a stop, the music ended also and he started at the kid's face. She looked innocent, like a cherub. Why in hell had she-
"Good work sergeant," Tupo said, interrupting his thoughts. The small man happily patted him on the shoulder and he turned towards him in irritation. Collis didn't liked being touched and he knew it.
"That makes number twenty-seven of Slayer's enemies you've terminated. He is quite proud of you."
"Really?" Collis asked. The little fucker wasn't showing up on thermal again, but everything else was. He slung the cannon and pulled off his helmet to look at the sensors, but there weren't any obvious problems. Squinting at the little man, he was shadowy in the dark, but Collis turned on his suit lights and saw the glint of his eyes.
"Does he even give a fuck?" he added.
"Of course he does, Sergeant. He is very appreciative of your loyalty and all that you've suffered."
"He better be," Collis said as he snapped on his helmet and strode forward. Tupo scrambled out of his way as he walked towards the next waypoint. Bertha was warm and fuzzy as he changed out the primary mag and stowed the half empty. He could reload it later once the mission was done.
"Let's move out!" he said as his feet pounded the water and he went the direction the squigglies had come from.
Collis caught the glimpse of something in the back of his mind, the echoes of that song again that flickered like a candle in wind. It bothered him that he couldn't quite make out the words, but maybe if he concentrated it would come to him. He really needed to remember what it was.
Otherwise, it might drive him crazy.
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