Hybrid War: Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Angel rushed through the base to the hangar with Mia, Bowie, Minami, Rachel, and Kira. The base was under high alert as an immense force was waiting right outside their base with already scattered ground and air forces. He got to the hangar and looked out the door to see that it was an utter mess outside. many numbers were dead on both sides, but Crisis Core had suffered more as they were the smaller force.
"What are we gonna do Angel?" Bowie asked as she looked around.
"First things first, Rachel, Mia, get to control and issue staff and animal evac to Ghost Shell, then get back here and prep the escort team, Minami, go with them. Kira, go find Lexy, you and her will go in the air and help with the air force. Bowie, let's go kick some ass," Angel said as he pulled his AN-94 from his shoulder and chambered the first round before flipping the select fire switch to fully automatic.
They ran into the middle of the battlefield, Bowie going straight into the tanks. He was always carrying some sort of explosive on him, so he would take care of heavy armor until he ran out then move to fighting off the ground troops along with Angel. He was already increasing his kill count in quick succession as each fallen enemy was replaced by another.
"Ghost!"
"What!?"
"Help!"
He looked around and saw the small Ferret hybrid on the ground firing with more then she could handle closing in on her. He himself was holding off a bayonet with the stock of his assault rifle. He kicked the fully armored enemy in the stomach before drawing his knife and thrusting it through the space between his helmet and uniform, pushing it straight through his throat. He ran forward, firing on the enemies surrounding the cheetah hybrid before he grabbed her hand and pulled her up, firing with one arm around them as he started guiding her away. He managed to guide her to the hangar where he tossed her inside.
"You okay?"
"Thank you, sir."
"What's your name?"
"Terra," She said as she looked him over. "I'm one of the recruits. Did you know you're bleeding, sir?"
"Terra... you keep calling me sir and I'm gonna make you drop and give me 20, I don't care if we're in the middle of a battle or not, and yes I know, I just got through fighting off someone who was close enough with a bayonet to get me before I could fire," He said as he looked her over. "You stay here and rest, recruits aren't supposed to be out here fighting, you should've evacuated with the others... no one will survive this battle."
"Look out!" She yelled.
"F-fuck!" He yelled in pain as the bayonet stabbed through him, sending pain through his body as it stuck out through his stomach.
"Commander!" She rushed forward with a knife in her hands as she tackled the enemy and repeatedly stabbed him over and over in the chest.
"I'm okay... he missed all the vital spots," Angel said from the ground on his knees, trying to stop the blood from flowing from his body. "Go, get inside and hide in my room, the emergency code is 7239."
"But Commander..."
"I said go, and you better give me 20 when you get there!" He yelled at her.
"But..."
"Go... when this is over, get to Ghost Shell and tell everyone what happened."
She nodded before retrieving her rifle and running to the emergency hatch and opening it. She stopped and stood straight, saluting him before she started climbing down into the base. He smiled to himself and got to his feet as he heard the others walking in behind him.
"So my hunch was correct... the three of you are working together to take out the humans."
"Shut up, human scum."
"Human scum... I've only been called that once in my life... and it was by someone with more skill then any of you," He said as he looked them over, his hand going to the gun hidden behind him, another gun from his love of old world guns. a G18.
It was a pistol with select fire, except he broke his switch off after putting it on full automatic. He only used it as an ace in the hole... his last resort weapon. It wasn't far from it as it was the only task the gun was good for. He smiled as they all aimed their rifle on him, all of them A-38 assault rifles. That meant someone was leaking supplies to them.
"Let's see if you three have what it takes to take me down with having the drop on me."
He dropped just as they fired, drawing his pistol and unleashing a storm of bullets on them. Watching them drop as he started firing clicks. He started getting to his feet once more as he clutched at his stomach again. It was hard for him to move, he was already losing too much blood and his muscles were starting to suffer from it.
"Ghost!" Bowie ran in seeing his friend and commanding officer injured and almost defenseless.
"I'm alright man... just a flesh wound."
"That's more then a flesh wound you idiot, we gotta get you out of here."
"No... my people are dying out there, I can't let them die alone," He smiled proudly. "I've made it this far and I knew it would one day happen. I was hoping for a more peaceful death, but this death has a bit more honor in it then I really deserve."
"Commander?"
"What?"
The rock solid fist sent him to his knees with a grunt. Leaving behind an immediate soreness on his cheek. He looked at Bowie who held the biggest smile on the planet.
"If you die here, then I'm gonna have to chase you into the flames of hell to stop you from taking over," He said as he reached out his hand.
"Damn you, why'd you have to hit me so hard you asshole?"
"Because I can," He looked out towards the slowly dying battle. "So what do you want to do?"
"We've got to give this one more shot," Angel got to his feet and retrieved his rifle before walking towards the opening.
But the worst had happened as the pulse shell landed right at their feet from the new line of tanks. Angel couldn't remember much of what happened after the flash of purple, blue, and white. Other then his unconscious body slamming against the wall with a hard thud. He didn't know the outcome of the battle any longer... in his unconscious state, he was reliving old memories of his mother before he was even old enough to join the military. And his brother... back when he actually had a brother.
Angel's eyes fluttered open at the small rumble... coughing himself awake as dust filled his lungs. He brought a weak hand up and rubbed the blurred vision from his eyes to see the half collapsed hangar. all the Night Ravens were destroy, either from an explosive, or the rubble from the collapsing building.
"Damn it... she was new too..." He said as he spotted his cherry red Night Raven half buried under rubble.
He got to weak feet and walked over to her, reaching through the shattered shielding and pulling the hard drive, which contained Cherry, from the access port. He looked around once more before walking towards the emergency hatch, opening it and slowly making his way in, closing it behind him. He got about half way down the ladder before his strength gave out on him and he plummeted to the floor nearly 15 feet away, falling unconscious once more on impact.
"Damn it Jacob... why are you doing this... why are you fighting for the other side!?"
"Why aren't you... the U.S. is corrupt Angel," He said, the light breeze causing his fur to appear as though white waves were washing over his body. "I'm gonna fight for what I think should be done, and if this is what needs to be done, then I'll fight my hardest, I won't let my own brother stop me either."
"Damn it Jacob," Angel drew his pistol and aimed it dead center of Jacob's chest as he drew his machete and charged forward. "Don't make me do this! Don't make me kill you!"
The shot rang out across the edge of the valley at the same instant the machete was swung. He was on his knees in the dirt, blood dripping from his nose with the large cut over his eye, the tip of his brothers machete having just missed his eyes by a hair, but almost cutting his eye lid in two. Tears mixed with blood though, knowing that his older brother lay lifeless behind him with a hole in his chest... boring a tunnel straight through his heart.
"Damn it," He said as he woke up once more, getting to now shaky feet as he started walking down the hall towards what he knew was the infirmary room.
The base still seemed to have power, whether it was back up or not was unknown to him as he opened the door and immediately plugged Cherry into the wall jack. There was a small hum before her voice came on through the speakers.
"Welcome back commander, how may I be of service?"
"I need you to access the computers and run the battle chamber."
"Sir there seems to be a problem... The mainframe has suffered significant damage, I can only go in far enough to access the splicing procedures. It would turn you into a hybrid but it would also heal most of your wounds."
"Do I have much choice?"
"Rooms scanning data indicates that you have sustained severe injuries, life expectancy from such a level of blood loss is at 20% and decreasing. The probability of you surviving the next five hours is highly unlikely."
"Fine... what are the options?"
"We have six species ready to be loaded into the splicing nanobots. They are as follows: Wolf, Fox, Cheetah, Horse, Snake, Leopard. It seems Miss Ross was working on a special chain though, a hybrid of Wolf and Fox, but I can't manage to locate the third DNA chain. It is labeled for your use alone. Would you like to proceed?"
"Do it," He said as he laid back in the machine and closed his eyes with remorse.
He was breaking his own promise to himself, to never get spliced... he never guessed that it would become his only option. But it was, so he wouldn't cry, he wouldn't grumble, he wouldn't reject it... this was for the people that still needed him. He couldn't let them down... never in his life would he be able to let them down and leave them unprotected.
"Initiating gene splicing process," Cherry said as he felt the needles drive themselves into his body.
"This is going to suck," He said as he felt the reconstruction of his bones and skin start.
It was an intense hour of outstanding pain for him. Most people would have fell unconscious, but he was different... it wasn't exactly like he was unconscious during the surgery to get his prosthetic parts. He was conscious for most of it... though he managed to show an amazing amount of resistance when nerves were connected and body tried jerking and thrashing.
"Gene splicing complete, administering healing nanobots."
"No point, don't have the time," He said as he got to his feet and walked towards the door, but soon fell to the ground with bits and pieces of metal falling from his pants leg. "I shouldn't have opened my fucking mouth."
He started crawling towards the examination table and hauled himself up onto it. He ripped his shredded pants leg away to reveal his prosthetic having fallen apart, nothing but the connection and socket remained. He looked around and saw the drawer that contained what was left of his training leg. The one he had to wear to get used to wearing a cybernetic leg. He hobbled over on one leg and a desk chair, grabbing it before he made his way back and sat down on the table, cursing himself as he grabbed the connection lever and unlocked it before he yanked on it, severing the nerve connection. He growled, looking over his arm, the fur starting to now grow out of his body. He pulled his training leg on and closed his eyes as he grabbed the new lever and pushed on it with a large yowl of pain before he locked it into place and slumped back against the wall, panting slightly.
"Commander... it seems you're already adjusted to your new body."
"Because I'm not giving it much thought... I'm just gonna let my body do what it wants to."
"Is there anything else I can do for you Commander?"
"That's all Cherry," He said as he got to his feet, growling but no longer feeling the same sort of soreness he did before. "Let's have a look around, I'll be back to get you in a little bit, I need you to keep an eye on things for now."
"Yes Commander."
He walked through the halls, looking back into each and every room just in case there was someone or something. No threats, and it looked as though there was no one inside the base, until he remembered where he had sent Terra. He started moving through the halls at a little bit faster stride. Not only was one of his subordinates alive, they were alone in this big base.
"Emergency access code 7239."
"I'm sorry Commander, Emergency access was disabled from inside."
"Damn it, am I able to open it normally?"
"No Commander."
"This is going to suck then," He said as he pressed his metal fingers to the middle of the door and started wedging them in little by little until he was able to fit his other hand in and started forcing them apart. "Open you son of a bitch."
Suddenly, the doors shot open with the rifle firing, the round just barely missing his head as he fell of balance and to the floor. Terra almost screamed before she dropped to her knees and started helping him back up.
"Commander!?" She said as he stopped at his knees. "is that you?"
"Yes, it's me... the mainframe was damaged, this was the only way to heal myself," He said as he looked her over." You seem well."
"I thought you were dead," She said as she suddenly hugged him. "You were the only person that knew I was here."
"It's okay Inari, it's me." He said as he sniffed at the air, one arm wrapping around Terra to comfort her as Inari came out from under his bed and walked up to him. "I promise it is me."
"Angel," She almost pounced on him before nuzzling into his side. "You smell funny."
"Yes, I know."
He looked around... knowing from when he woke up where Bowie's body lay. He motioned to Terra as he crawled out of the emergency hatch, Inari jumping from his back. Terra tossed up their rifle to him before she crawled out as well. He started walking around, looking for a way out. If nothing else, he could lead Terra and Inari to Ghost Shell on foot.
"Angel... I think I see a way out."
"Show me," He walked over, following her finger. "That might work... I just hope I can fit... not much has changed with the splicing, I'm just naturally a big guy."
"You'll fit, I know you will," She said as she started forward. "I'll take point Angel, that way if you do have trouble because of your size, you'll be covered."
"No, I'll still take point, if I can negotiate an are duct, I can manage to handle that," He said with a smile. "Besides... I have a lot less to live for."
"Fine..."
"Don't have to act so defeated about it," He laughed as he got down on the ground and started crawling through the small opening in the rubble. "Come on."
He crawled out into the abandoned wasteland that surrounded their base. He looked around, seeing the jungle of metal and bodies. An unsettling mist covered most of the battlefield, his enhanced sense of smell giving the air a tinge of blood. He scanned further ahead, seeing that no enemies were around, and that most of the forces outside had died in battle. Terra came out with Inari in tow, getting to one knee and shouldering her rifle as she scanned the area.
"Relax, we're the only sign of life for miles."
"How can you be so sure?"
"I may have just underwent an immense change, but my eyes are still the way they used to be..." He scanned the area one more time before he started walking north. "Come on, let's get to the patrol shelter before nightfall. There should be some guns and supplies to get us to Ghost Shell, even better if the patrol quads are intact."
"Commander... I mean, Angel?" Terra asked, getting a silent head tilt from him as he continued navigating through the large boulders they were now walking through. "Do you think everyone the evacuated made it?"
"Yeah, they were led away by a pretty strong escort team."
"Okay."
"Don't worry... I'm sure whoever you're in a relationship with is fine, okay. Most of the base is still intact... Ghost Shell is impregnable."
She smiled and started keeping pace with him once more as he changed direction once more and started climbing the hill of boulders and rocks. she had to stay behind him or risk the rain of rocks that followed his head long rush up the hill. He wasn't one to take it easy and he wasn't one for going slow either as she had found out during their small adventure from the base. He suddenly disappeared in the rocks though, slipping through the cracks like some strange monster had just grabbed him and pulled him in.
"Angel, are you okay?"
"Of course I am, now get your ass in here," He said as he hit a button on the wall and the small shelter lit up, showing all the ammo and gun crate on one wall, and a wall of food and water with up to ten cots in the middle and a radio on the table at the back. "We can either rest here till morning or we can start as soon as we get what we came here for."
"Okay," She went to drop from the opening but slipped in and fell, finding out just how deep the shelter was as she hit the ground with a hard thump. "Ouch."
"I say we rest here tonight," He said as he hit another button and watched the entrance close itself. "Come one, let's see if there's anything we can make a true meal out of in here."
"Yes, sir, Angel."
They looked through the crates filled with MREs and other instant meals that most soldiers carried. He settled on a small meal of instant noodles and a small pack of freeze dried fruits. Terra finally settled om about the same but she ate shrimp instead of spicy beef like Angel ate. They ate in silence, Angel having poured some food into a bowl for Inari.
"Angel... how long have you been the Commander of the Hunters?"
"Oh... going on about six now... I don't know... never really thought about it, and I wasn't exactly worried about looking at a calendar, or keeping track of one."
"Oh... okay."
"Come on, cheer up, you're warm, you're safe, and you're eating... I'd say we're doing pretty good for a couple of soldiers who just got the shit stomped out of us," He smiled before forking some noodles into his mouth. "Lighten up... I know you're worried and everything, but all that worrying is gonna do is give you an anxiety attack and slow us down."
"You're right... thank you Angel."
"Don't mention it," He set the now empty cup down and laid back in his cot before reaching out and petting Inari as she raised her head from her own empty bowl. "I'm gonna try to sleep... we don't know what tomorrow has in store for us."
Inari jumped up onto the cut and curled up against him before he through the blanket over himself and son fell asleep, a soft snore letting her know that he was fast asleep. She smiled and laid down herself before closing her eyes, darkness soon taking her as she fell deep into her subconscious for the remainder of the night.
"Fuck me," She yelled as she rounded the corner and saw Angel with a Capthian against his chest, a knife buried in the enemies stomach while clawed finger dug deeper and deeper into it's throat, taking it's life away with one drop of blood at a time. "Angel?"
"Motherfucker!" He ripped the Capthians throat out and let the body drop to the ground before releasing the flesh he held in his hand, looking over his shoulder at Terra. "Sorry you had to see that, I didn't think you would come out here after me, I decided to do some scouting to see where we should go, the safest route to Ghost Shell. Turns out they're all over the place out here. That one almost got the drop on me, but I noticed him just in time to protect myself. Let's go back inside and see what we can load up on then get out of here before they start gathering here."
"Okay."
They were soon back in the shelter gathering supplies, each of them filling their holsters and strapping a sub machine gun to their sides before throwing a backpack over their shoulders, and the strap of an assault rifle. Angel wished he could carry a sniper rifle with a hybrid sight, but there was no mention of anything like that in the small armory server. His usual short range sniper rifle was a modern replica of the M14 EBR. That was his main weapon for urban combat back on Earth. It was hard for him to accept everything that had happened in his life though. He was the commanding officer of an elite group of soldiers, the commander of an entire base, and he now lived on a different planet as a soldier. He never thought he'd see himself doing so good in the military, but he was apparently well known through out all branches.
"Angel... do you miss anyone back home, any family, someone you love?"
"There's my mom, I know she's still alive... my dad and brother are dead, most of my families dead. I don't really have any friends outside of the original team... and I've never been in love with anyone, just close friendships and a few spiritual and physical connections. That's about it, nothing more."
"I'm sorry... I didn't mean to pry."
"No, it's okay, after all, what kind of friend would I be if my friends didn't know anything about me... as a soldier, how are my subordinates supposed to trust me if they don't know me either?" He smiled as he looked at her. "What about you?"
"Well... I'm sort of in love with one of the girls from the control room, but back home, I have my Aunt Jody, and my sisters waiting for me to finish my tour and return home to them."
"You have sisters... how many?"
"Five, I have two older sisters, and three younger."
"You're parents were busy," He chuckled, getting a small bit of blush from her. "Relax, I was just teasing you."
"I know... I've heard that you're brother was a soldier... was your dad a soldier as well?"
"Yeah... he was my commanding officer when I was fresh out of sniper school," He said with a sigh. "You wanna hear about it?"
"That's your call... it sounds like you have some personal history you'd like to keep to yourself."
"I don't mind sharing this part of my past, it's the only thing I don't mind sharing because I love bragging about the man."
"Okay."
"I got my height from him, he was a tall man, most men in my family are tall. He had black hair just like mine, it was long when I was growing up, but when he decided to go back in, he cut it back down to a flat top. He was a Navy SEAL, one of the most honorable I was told by most of the guys he came out of service with, "Angel began, a small sense of pride emitting from him and resonating in his voice...