Chapter 25 - No one dies
this
time
Corporal Dixon led his understrength fire team rapidly back down into the Stygian depths, moving past injured soldiers and pieces of destroyed Trangrods in a race to meet up with the men and women who followed Rhys down into the central chamber. Their job was to hold those positions at all costs to keep Rhys, the Admiral, and the others from being overwhelmed by the alien avalanche of Trangrod monsters about to befall them. The last thing Dixon wanted was to go back underground into the tunnels, but he led them on the run, moving as quickly as possible behind one of the few remaining tanks. He paused for a second as they passed the forwardmost Army unit. "Hold here," he said, looking for someone in charge. Spotting a lieutenant, half out of his armor with one arm in a bandage.
"Sir, I'm Corporal Dixon. What can you tell me about the situation ahead? I have orders to link up with Colonel Cedwy Day; he is providing rear support for the assault on the main Om control center."
"That would be the Welsh Guards, Corporal," the Lieutenant replied, and a map and blue dots began to appear on his HUD as the information was transferred to his tac-grid. "We are headed there as well; you need to get a move on. It's about a kilometer from here down the tunnels; check the map I just gave you. "I don't know what happened, but the Trangrods in front of us just turned and scurried away, not even bothering to return fire as we killed them. Get down there as quick as you can; they've got a shit load of these monsters descending on them. We are moving here," he said, indicating another blocking position. Those are the bastards that were attacking the Russians and the African forces and are also pulling back, but we are moving into positions to block them. We are going to catch them between us and crush the mother fuckers."
"Yes, sir," Corporal Dixon replied while passing the information up to his CO. "Let's go, men, on the double," he ordered, slapping the tank with an armored glove to get it moving. He didn't mind moving fast, however, he wanted his men behind the tank in case the lieutenant had been overly optimistic. Nonetheless, they did need to hurry, and the companies behind him had already been given the order to move out. If the tac-grid was correct, the British were about to get hammered.
General Jabin Beit, who now led the African forces, roughly clasped Bugrov's hand. "You're in charge?" he asked. "I am the Senior Commander from Russia here now, " Bugrov replied grimly, standing among the remains of Trangrods and armored bodies. The terrible barrage his men had unleashed at Nelya's final command had scattered the remains of Jessica and Nelya among the dead Trangrods she had killed. The Om creature had been destroyed but at a terrible cost. General Biet acknowledged Russia's loss, but they had also lost. "The enemy is in full retreat to defend the Central chamber against the attack Rhys had led. We must not give them time to recover. Our orders are to press them hard, make them defend, and slow their attack. Rhys left the Welsh Guards in blocking positions here," the General indicated mentally on tac-grid. "The US army forces are moving laterally to hit the Trangrod's left flank as they retreat. We need to apply enough pressure to keep them fighting us. We are starting our assault now; how soon will you be ready to go? We don't want to expose our flank to a counterattack."
"I have already given the assault order, General, but we are out of position. We will recover quickly, though, and have many deaths to avenge. Russians are good at that," Bugrov said grimly. The enemy would pay for what happened to Nelya. The rest of the men knew what had happened, and they would fight to the death to avenge that killing.
Jack kept up a hurried pace, surrounded by the Command Squad as he fired off orders. Kiania had placed him in command just seconds before they entered the central chamber and he lost all comms with her. The Trangrods had quit attacking and had all turned to fall back on Rhys, and he had to keep them occupied and force them to turn and fight. According to reports he received from the drones and commanders, the Trangrods were not even bothering to fight, simply taking their casualties as they retreated. It would be close, but his remaining Army units should get there about the same time, with the Russian and African forces right behind. However, it was going to be a near thing, and he admonished the leading companies to speed it up; the time for caution had passed, and Kiania was depending on him to keep the Om off their backs.
Rhys had felt Jessica and Nelya die, and it hit them all like a hammer blow, though he felt Mika's anguish soar above the others. Rhys clamped down on their emotions just before he sensed the death of Nelya. The 'One' couldn't afford to let the deaths hinder the fighting ability of his warriors, and they were cold and deadly as they burst into the main chamber of the Om nest. Rhys felt the blackness before he saw it, an indistinct blur standing in the middle of the chamber. The girls deployed around him, Binary to the right, Hua to the left, and then Kiania; Thea, and Sandy behind. The main chamber was huge, at least three hundred meters across, and more than that high. The walls appeared smooth, organic, not rock, stretching around him and high above his head. In his ultra-aware state, he saw the horror of Moscow repeated but on a much larger scale. The walls and ceiling contained thousands of small oval compartments open to the front. Inside each was a human being, or what was left as the Om transformed them into the alien monsters they were fighting. Even the high ceiling above was covered in partially consumed humans of all sexes and ages staring down at them. Some seemingly fully transformed into Trangrods of various kinds, others only partially consumed. They had no idea how long the process took, and he could see the horror stitched into the still-living faces surrounding him. Worse, he could feel the terror of those humans encapsulated as they were slowly consumed by the Om and changed into biomechanical monsters. Their silent pleas for help beat down on him; the sheer multitude of unfortunate souls trapped here was momentarily overwhelming.
Rhys didn't' wait, couldn't wait, the enormity of the suffering driving his anger, and for the first time, he fully embraced the compulsive craving that had always been present and let the 'One' consume him. Armor shifted as hands and feet became claws, horns sprouted from his head, and sharp, elongated teeth filled his mouth. A thick barbed tail, covered drans metal spines, and deep red wings grew from his shoulders, wrapping him in a protective cover. A full-fledged 'One' in all its terrible glory was ready to meet this historic foe to continue a battle that had been ongoing for thousands of years from ravaged planet to planet. Rhys felt an exaltation as the dragon was in control at last, yet the anger it felt was ice cold. The 'One' knew this enemy, could feel the alien mind probing him, and sensed its intense hunger and desire for the symbiont. However, there was also something Rhys thought might be fear or perhaps uncertainty. It had probably never faced a human 'One' before, and Rhys could feel its hesitation. However, he didn't hesitate and issued orders to attack, and he spread his wings and flew across the room to kill.
The Om Nest Mother was surprised as the symbiotic-ridden Drans creature changed somehow and attacked without hesitation. Drans warriors they may be, but they were weak in comparison to what the Greater Nest had encountered in battles across the spiral. Yet they had fought with unexpected ferocity and skill, destroying their one small nest ship that had survived the battle with the Drans. Then, somehow, they found and destroyed the other nests planted to take control of the food source. Now, only three true Om remained. Thousands of Trangrods still existed and would kill as many of the ones fighting them as possible. Still, the Trangrod were only mindless creations made from the pitiful life forms of this future Greater Nest. Ultimately, they were useless to the Om once this world had been subjected and prepared for the coming. The remaining two of its kind were on the way, and the Nest Mother was confident they would kill the rest of these inferior Drans creations and rip out and feast on their symbionts. Then, this world would be taken, the pitiful organic creatures could be turned into breeding stock, and a new Om Nest World could be established. But first, to kill this creature and then the others. The Om focused on the approaching enemy and sent the energy accumulated in its body shooting out to strike and kill the Drans warrior.
Rhys launched himself at the being centered in darkness, a place where the light appeared to be sucked into a black hole. In his rush to attack, he left the others behind, hyper-focused on the creature in the middle of the chamber like a spider at the center of its web. Rhy sensed the alien mind pressing on his, filled with malice and ravenous hunger for him. The emotions were alien in every sense of the word, but its loathing and fear of the symbiont Rhys carried were clear in his mind. He knew from its thoughts when it used the energy weapon, and he brought one wing down to deflect it, and then he was on it.
His attack had no finesse; it was pure savagery as he grappled with the Om. None of his weapons could hurt it, but ten-centimeter Drans metal claws protruded from his hand and feet, and he sank them hard within the struggling mass beneath the darkness, driving them deep and sending the nanobytes surging into the Om. Rhys felt tentacles probing him, seeking a way inside his body. At first, he could block them with his wings, protecting his head and torso, but others found and penetrated his arms and legs. He could feel the coldness and ice-cold sensation moving inside his body as the Om nano-virus sought out and raged war within him against Bob. The armor or skin of the Om, it was impossible to tell which, writhed beneath him as his claws ripped and stabbed at the amorphous heaving mass, the nanobytes attacking the nervous system, destroying pathways.
The fight was savage, two predators tearing mindlessly at each other, and had lasted only seconds when Hua's two mono blades stabbed into the alien from behind, her own nanobytes flowing into the wounds. Rhys was thrown violently away as the Om turned on Hua, but then the Binary attacked, two more mono blades stabbing into the wiggling mass still concealed beneath a layer of darkness or perhaps an absence of light. The Binary danced away, but not quickly enough, and it felt something grab one of its bodies. Both screamed in agony when ice-cold tentacles found their way through the joints of the armor, thrusting deep into Leslie's vitals. Rhys made a slashing motion with his right hand that severed the tentacles thrust inside Leslie, and her body tumbled across the ground, limp and as if casually discarded like a broken toy. Amancia screamed as the interlace dissolved, and Leslie's symbiont fought a deadly battle against the synthetic virus that had been injected into her body. "
Stay away from this one
," Rhys ordered the others who were poised to attack. "
There are two more coming; those are your targets
." The girls fell back, their weapons useless against this one.
The Nest Mother felt something that might be described as fear, not personal fear that a human might feel, but a concern that it might fail the Greater Nest by not being able to secure this food world. The 'One' was proving more dangerous than it expected, and it was confused by the creature. A symbiont warrior created by the Drans certainly, but somehow different and resistant to its attacks on the symbiont. Despite inserting millions of nano-virus particles, the Drans creature seemed unaffected, unlike the one it had just destroyed. The momentary concern disappeared as the two remaining members of its species arrived. They were lesser, not as strong as the nest mother, but one of them had already destroyed two of the Drans creatures
; they
