20060502
9) Seeing Red Again

We had moved further down the street to the corner where the minions had come from.

"So, you do know where it is?" I ask Somsien, hoping he has some sort of plan for how we could approach this.

"Yeah, me and the demons have been chilling out around it, they had a block party the other day-"

"C'mon man!" I was becoming exasperated.

"Yes, I know where it is," Somsien answers, seeming almost offended I'm not in the mood for jokes. I still smile inside my helmet, "I'll download the layout onto your hard drives, there were a couple monsters all around last time I was there, but they change pretty regularly. We'll have to see about enemies when we get there."

"Well, if you know all of this, why don't you just walk in there and kill everything? I mean, you're the invisible man and all," Dahvid wonders aloud, unaware of the stealth suit's limited capability.

"Well, wouldn't that be great, I could just march in there and take care of all our problems. I could win this whole damn war on my own!"

I explain as to avoid further bantering and time wasting, "The suit charges up capacitors to actively bend light around his person, it can't be on constantly at full capacity, while he is moving at full speed. Even with the magic, it's pretty limited. He is just damn good at sneaking around."

Dahvid seems to accept a correction from me, and Somsien seems placated by my stepping in. I figure it's best to stop talking and just head out, so I signal Somsien to start moving. We all have our weapons at the ready again as we move down the street.

Somsien wields both of his automatic dueling pistols. They fire like submachine guns and are fairly accurate- while he’s aiming. There are those times he flails about and lets the computers do the work, like earlier. Not that it matters if he misses, seeing as how they shoot spectral rounds that don’t exactly originate from a bullet casing. They are specially enchanted to draw their munitions from an ethereal plane of negative energy. -We avoid reloading around here. Stuff like that gets people killed- He came up with the spells for that one.

His rapier is made from the shattered rib bone of a praetorian marauder demon- guards for larger demons. One of the more recent expeditions had come back with some pieces for analysis. It was exceedingly durable and caused other demons serious torment. Works for us…

I have my nodachi out, wishing for once I had longer range weapons. It isn’t often I want to be away from the fight, but I could only imagine what we were going to face at this rift. I made a mental note to keep watch for any discarded weapons that may be lying around or that may be inside of monsters. I had no problem extirpating some new toys, from some old “friends”.

Demons often had any number of things inside of them from having devoured some or all of those that had come before us. Not to mention they were often times wielding our own weapons against us.

Dahvid has his spark rifle out, once again preferring the accuracy, as he usually does. I was always glad he was on our side; otherwise I’d have a few more holes than I do now.

Turning every corner was nerve racking, even with Somsien scouting a bit ahead. The demons could always surprise us. They are just like that.

Somsien radioed from further ahead, “We should be getting some activity soon. Where is every-”

He was cut off as we suddenly heard inexplicable clicks and shrieks. Giant bug-like creatures were climbing down the walls around us. They are like spiders… only they had four legs. And where their eyes should have been are human skulls. Yet, most notable about these giant semi-arachnids is the giant plasma rifle protruding from their backs. Some grim experimentation had made these nightmarish foes even worse.

I switch back to my tempest rifle, and line up a shot at the nearest one. The creature is facing toward Dahvid who is engaging several others. I pull the trigger… peewwww. My rifle made a sound like a generator powering down. Pew, pew, pew… Nothing. No power. I make a mental note to get my rifle fixed. That is just not a normal noise. I switched back to my sword and leap at the beast as it begins to fire its plasma weapon. I slice off a leg but it still nimbly turns and aims the blast at my chest instead. I roll to the side as the blast is emitted, slicing another leg with the momentum. The creature falls over with no way to keep its balance. I slice it in two as it lies helplessly on the ground.

The other two creatures are still engaging my friends, who are dodging while trying to return fire on the beasts. The zuzuzuz of the spark rifle, coupled with the constant sound of the submachine guns is almost drowned out by the heavy yet sharp roar of the fiend’s laser cannons. I dash toward the others, cutting and chopping as I go. The thick exoskeleton is durable, and does not give easily. I must have hit weak points on mine.

One creature kicks out, straight into my chest, and sends me tumbling back toward the one I had killed. I end up sprawled in its gooey remains. I had lost my sword in the fall, and as I push up out of the ichor, my hand rests on something angular, that did not feel like spider-goo. I pull it out of the slime to find it is a high caliber, semi-automatic pistol. I feel around to see if there is anything else, and find another matching weapon. However, this one is adorned with finger bones, which are meanwhile adorned with arm bones.

I say a quick prayer in my head for the fallen as I shake them off, and another that the guns are still functional. I pull the triggers alternatively, firing each one individually. To my delight, they fire… fire. The pistols apparently are enchanted with flame spells, yet as I approach the monsters, I notice holes appearing in their chitinous shells- so they still project solid ordinance.

Dahvid was doing a good job of keeping his distance and peppering the creature, not staying still at all and using cover.
The other creature was on top of Somsien, who was holding its slavering fangs away from his head. His pistol was out of reach on the ground, and his sword was extruding from its back. I kick the demon in its side for some attention, and as it turns to face me, I fire several rounds into its skull-face. The killing blows are landed by Dahvid who got done his and wanted seconds.

“You always pick the pretty ones, don’t you?” he says mockingly as I help Somsien up, “They always like you best.”
“Yeah, what the hell was that?” I ask, just waiting for the explanation.

“The sword thing worked for you… well at least at first. I figured I’d give it a try,” Somsien pulled his sword out as he talked, which was accompanied by a spurt of blue-green blood.

“Yeah, I’m the sword guy. That’s what I do. The sword thing. You don’t see me trying to sneak around, do you?” I chant a small spell that burns the ooze from my new found weapons. He doesn’t answer as he picks up his pistol.

“Those are nice,” comments Dahvid as I walk over to retrieve my sword.

“Yeah… I owe someone. Poor guy,” I put one pistol away as I shoulder my daikatana, “They should come in handy.”

“Yeah,” from Somsien.

“Yeah,” from Dahvid.

We all stand around for a moment in the awkward silence. Somsien starts laughing but we’re only a moment behind.

We all abruptly stop as a hazy figure begins to emerge from the temporal rift we hadn’t noticed was there until just then.

HAHAHAHAHA…