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Shattered

Chapter III

It began with Alexander sitting inside a small briefing room full of heavily armored soldiers. The room was bustling with activity as the men readied themselves for battle. He was in the front row as another armored human, this one was in blue and orange armor with a nameplate that read Marcus, stood in front of him. "Listen up marines, the necros have found our last refuge. I'm gonna be honest with you. We are all dead men." He confirmed matter of factly. "We can not stop them, but I'll be damned if we don't take as many of the bastards as we can with us." That got a resounding oohrah from the assembled jarheads. "Our job will be to get the civvies to the escape craft. Even though we will fall we will assure the survival of our species."

"Squad leaders you will gather your men and place them in strategic locations." He pointed at the holomap behind him. "You will be defending those zones and assisting the mobile units in evacuating as many people as you can. I am not asking you to do anything I won't. I will be leading the defense at the breach. I will not be coming back. So as of now tactical command will be transferred to Jäger who will activate the final contingency. That is all, good luck men, see you on the other side." The commanders helmet sealed and he walked over to Alexander flanked by his bodyguards.

Before he got half way Alexander intercepted him worriedly. "Commander I am not a leader! Why did you pick me?" He asked looking around to see if any one was paying attention. They were all too busy preparing to notice.

"Son I picked you because you are. I saw the after action report for the massacre on Talivon. You took command of the scattered forces and destroyed the marker facility."

"I led those men to their deaths!" Alexander whispered heatedly.

"Yes and you will do it again here! We are not going to win this fight, But we will save as many innocents as we can! I don't need a sentimental man I need one who is strong enough to sacrifice everything to get the job done!" The commander finished loudly grabbing the attention of everyone in the room. Then he firmly grabbed Alexander's shoulder. "I know this is hard, but your not the only suffering. We have an obligation to our people. You will do this!" The commanders eyes looked ragged and desperate. (He had removed his helmet) he was at the end of his rope.

"Yes sir I understand." He replied forlornly.

"Thank you, and Jäger, die well." With that the commander left the room. Alexander stood there staring at the closed door. (they speculated he was thinking on his situation.) Suddenly a young voice spoke from behind him.

"Hey bro congratulations on your promotion!"

He turned to see a white and blue armored figure standing their with a rifle in his hands. "Santiago I'll never understand you." He said with a smile in his voice.

The man laughed. "Yeah well I don't either." They embraced each other.

"It's good to see you brother." Alexander whispered sadly.

"Haha yeah you to, I just wish it was under better circumstances." They let each other go.

"So do I," Alexander agreed. "What squad are you in?"

"You know Daniel," Alexander nodded. "I was assigned to him."

"Daniel is a good guy. Listen to him and you'll live longer, I'm sorry Santi but I got to go I have to manage the defense." They grabbed each other's right forearms tightly. "Brothers till the end." They said in unison before letting go. Santiago left and Alexander turned to the holomap.

The map displayed all the rigs of active soldiers and their locations. Currently they were all in holdout positions. The commander's rig showed that he was in the outermost engineering bay. The left wall glowed a infectious red signifying a hull breach. He was surrounded by other rigs and from the looks of it they were holding the line. Ten minutes later the rig positioning system showed them falling back slowly. "Marcus sir what's your situation?"

He could barely hear the broken reply through all the gunfire and inhuman screeching. "Fal...ack t...many regrouping at sec...ary position."

"Copy sending reinforcements," he contacted another squad. "Maria your squad needs to move to the secondary fall back position outside engineering, how copy?"

"We copy sir, moving now." She answered. He watched as her squad moved to its new location. With the new arrivals they managed to halt the enemy.

"Jäger! We have another hull breach at the atrium!" A panicked voice shouted alarmingly. Quickly he focused on the atrium and sure enough it was glowing a dangerous red.

"Daniel I want you to take your squad get up their and plug that hole."

"Yes sir! We are on the way."

With a sigh Alexander leaned back into his chair. "Commander multiple breaches across the entire residential area, we can't contain them!" A terrified soldier yelled into his com. Gunfire and the screams of civilians plagued the communication. Acting fast he ordered two entire reserve units to head to residential. It was imperative that the civilians were protected. Then he got up, pressed something on his wrist and a rifle materialized in his hands.

"Hold this area at all costs!" He ordered the two men in the command station before he left to help the overwhelmed district. He ran as fast as he could down the light filled corridors.

He made it to the residential district to see absolute chaos. Like a tsunami the civilians fled in a giant mass of flailing limbs and inarticulate screams. He pushed through the crowd to a sergeant he spied out hopelessly trying to direct the mob.

"Sergeant what's the situation?"

"The damn necros got into the vents somehow and found a way into the district while we were evacuating the civvies. I lost my entire squad in the opening engagement. I managed to block the route into the courtyard buying us time but the fuckers will get through sooner rather then later." The beleaguered man answered rapidly.

"Listen closely I have contacted two units and they will get here as soon as possible. Until then it's up to us too defend these people." Alexander turned to the crowd.

"LISTEN UP!" He shouted loudly with enough authority to stop the mass of panicking humanity. "I want you all to move to the far end of the courtyard. The sergeant and I will be holding the necromorps at bay until reinforcements arrive. What I need is for the men of the families to keep everyone away from the fight."

The men in the crowd stepped up to regain order and get their families to safety. Shortly afterward there was a loud explosion and the sound of tumbling debris and gurgling wails. The necros had broken through the makeshift barricade. Alexander and the sergeant moved to the middle of the large courtyard to stand between the incoming necros and the helpless civilians.

Running around the corner came the first necro. It must have been a soldier before it was turned. It was covered in the armor of a S.C.A.F marine. Now a decaying beast it shambled towards them. It had two long bladed appendages bursting out of its putrid shoulders. Additionally it had two smaller arms poking out of its gutted stomach, the puny things grasped at the air ready for their next victim. As it moved to attack the two lone defenders it's entrails sloughed out of its chest cavity and lagged behind it, dragging the rancid organs across the cold steel of the floor. The guts leaving a slimy trail of putrescent rusty brown blood. It roared, the sound corrupted by the decayed hole filled bags that used to be its lungs, and charged towards them.

Two blue lights centered on its legs before the answering roar of lead hurtled to the necro. The bullets tore the legs into bits, and it smashed violently into the floor head first.

(Wait stop the video.)

The video stopped on the frame of the necromorph's broken body.

"What is it sir?" Warren asked. He didn't show it but he was relieved for the break from watching his past.

"Nothing, it's just that I just was informed that you are going to be relocated to an actual briefing room. The evidence shows that you are not lying. And since you are technically the representative of an alien race you should not be in an interrogation cell. Bill explained taking his hand away from his right ear.

"Alright then." Alexander said pressing a button on his wrist and closing the video. Bill stood up and opened the door for him. He walked out of the room and into the cold metal hallway.

As Bill led him to the new suitable location he heard a door open behind him and he saw the blue fox women he had grabbed walk out with a assortment of other animal people. The group consisted of an old looking bloodhound, a twitchy toad, an avian, another fox (this time orange), and a hare.

For some strange reason his eyes were drawn to the fox women. Sure she had a certain animalistic beauty, but it was something that he couldn't quite grasp that really drew him to her. She looked back into his gaze making him swiftly turn back around and continue to walk with the bull dog that had interrogated him. The last thing he needed right now was another thing to worry about. He had enough problems that he could not bear to focus on for fear of sparking new suicidal urges.

In short order his thought were interrupted when the bull dog opened a door and motioned for him to enter. He thanked the dog before walking in (no point in being rude he figured,) and walked to the large table at the center of the room and stood their waiting. Alexander was surprised to see the previous group walk in and take seats at the table.

"Now then," the dog began "since you are no longer a prisoner I think an exchange of names is in order. I am Bill Grey."

He then started to go around the table. "This is Fox Mccloud. (For some reason Alexander wasn't startled to see that Fox...was a Fox.) Falco Lombardi (once again unsurprisingly the bird) Slippy Toad (no comment) Peppy hare (seriously?) Krystal (the blue vixen) and finally General Pepper."

At the sound of general Alexander instinctively saluted the aging bloodhound with a fist to his chestplate. "Sir!"

The bloodhound looked amused. "At ease soldier." Alexander relaxed his posture. "We brought you here to finish your...informative video, discuss it, and plan you future." Pepper informed.

"Okay."

Pepper looked at him carefully. "Are you ready to finish it?"

Alexander almost had a flashback to the most terrible moment he had ever been through. "..I...am sir." It was obvious to everyone that he wasn't being completely truthful, but Pepper let it go.

"Alright then son...resume."

(He reactivated the holo device on his wrist. Taking a deep breath he started it up again.)

The now legless necromorph attempted to crawl at the two men before it was annihilated under a hail of hollow point 7.56mm caseless rounds.

The victory was short lived as the rest of the creature made their presence known. In mass the hoard of festering corpses of humanity ran, limped, crawled, and hopped to the two stalwart defenders. Not taking a step back they tirelessly fired into the hoard doing all they could to prevent them from reaching the innocent people behind him. Soon the bodies began to pile up and the necros climbed over the rotten remains of their brethren to reach their prey.

Alexander's gun suddenly clicked empty. He was out of ammo. Not wasting a moment he dematerialized his rifle and replaced it with a strange blade. It had a single edge with blue light traveling up and down it. He brought it up in one motion to parry the incoming claw from one of the beasts. He rotated his wrist knocking it away and then slashes diagonally bisecting it neatly. He used his motion economically, not a single move was wasted. Each strike led up to a block. Every slash hit a target. In no time he had cleared a large area around himself of enemies. In that entire fight he had not stepped back once.

Bullets began to whiz past him and strike the surviving necromorphs. The reserves had made it. Elated that they had made it, Alexander had turned to congratulate the sergeant. His words died in his mouth. The sergeant was impaled on the blades of three dead necros. He had died while shooting them his left fist held a knife that he had jammed into one of the monsters throats. Alexander sadly walked over to him and removed the offending blades. He then laid the body out on the floor. "Sir?" He heard a voice which he ignored.

Slowly he grabbed a specially designed grenade from the sergeant's chest he placed it back down pulled and walked backwards. Within moments the grenade burst into superheated flames that quickly burned the body. "Yes trooper?" He asked finally.

"What do we do now?"

"Get these civvies out of here and hold this position." He ordered.

"Yes sir! Right away." The soldier walked away to relay his command back to the others. After that Alexander had to make the long trek back to the command station. He returned and the two guards reported that nothing had happened during his absence. He thanked them and walked back to the holo map. It was not going well at all forty percent of the rigs had flatlined and multiple areas had been totally lost. He was worried for his friend. " Santiago come in."

"This is Santiago."

"Santiago I have a new assignment for you."

"What is it brother?"

"I want you to safeguard the civilian evacuation with Daniels squad and get in he ships with them, I promise I will get you all out of here."

"What about you? When are you coming with?"

"I...will not be joining you."

"What! Why?"

"I have to enact the last contingency 'Final Vengeance'."

"No! Can't you just get someone else to do it?"

"How could I ask that of anyone but myself?" Alexander retorted.

"I don't care! Just get someone else to. You should not have to!"

"Of course I do! It's my responsibility!"

Santiago went silent. "I had a feeling it would end like this." He said quietly.

"I think we both did, and brother good luck." Alexander cut the conversation and sat down dejectedly in the chair. The civilians were boarding the ships to salvation and all the soldiers were dying. It was poetic in a way.

The communications net was overflowing with the sounds of his men being slaughtered. His brothers and sisters in arms.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME AAAAGGGHHH!" The sound of blood splattering.

"RUN, FALLBACK, THEIR ARE TO MANY!" The terrified voices of once brave men and women now crying in fear and despair.

"OH GOD WE'RE SURROUNDED!"

"TO THE LAST MAN!" One brave soul shouted barely perceptible over the squealing of the necromorphs and the blaring of automatic weapons fire. Just like the other it went quiet eventually.

The last voice was the voice of commander Marcus. He probably gathered the last of the men and had one last stand.

By this time the two guards in the room with him had sealed all access points and took positions by their commanding officer. Loyal till the end.

"What are you names?" Alexander asked as he walked over to a console and put a code in revealing a keycard.

"Uh John and Derek sir. We're brothers." A young voice replied through a red helmet. Too young, he couldn't have been more then eighteen. These two should have been on the transport not about to be ripped to pieces by these goddamn abominations.

"Well john and Derek I would be honored to die by your side."

"The honor is ours sir."

Alexander picked up the keycard and inserted it into the slot on the side of the console. A pad slide out and he put in another code. "WARNING SELF DESTRUCT CODE ACTIVATED FIFTEEN MINUTES TILL DETONATION!" An automated voice warned.

"Well men let's die well."

That sat in silence for a minute before they could hear the screeching wails of the necromorphs as they closed in on the last living things in the station.

At least he could take comfort in the fact Santiago had made it out with the civilians. "Alexander!" A panicked voice shouted.

"Who is this?"

"This is Santiago! We can't get out of the station we've been fucking trapped!"

"What happened!"

"The damn things ambushed the auxiliary hanger, they were waiting, we can't reach the ships! It's over!"

"No there must be a way humanity has to survive! Our race must not die!" Alexander shouted.

"I'm sorry brother there isn't I'm afraid this is it."

Alexander collapsed to his knees. It was over they had lost humanity would be eradicated and the necromorphs would reign over the galaxy. "No! If we are to die we will die fighting!" He growled pulling himself back to his feet.

"We will fight to the end brother." Santiago said.

"Until the end."

"Until the end." The call burst into static and was no more.

"TEN MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION!"

Alexander turned again to the two men with him. "Today I call you brothers. Until the end!"

"Until the end!" the two young men shouted with a heroic amount of courage.

Three minutes later the front reinforced door dented with a bang. They readied their weapons it was hit again and the hinged raddled. Two more minutes and the door would break.

"FIVE MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION!"

The door exploded and the undead poured through like water from a busted pipe. The three men fired their assault rifles into the swarm. At first the enemy was pushed back. For four minutes they fought with everything that had, Alexander was down to his pistol. It was not enough. Suddenly Derek yelled out in pain. He had been stabbed with a bladed arm and dragged to the floor. His screams would haunt Alexander's dreams for the rest of his life. Enraged John pulled the pins on all of his grenades and tackled the bastard responsible for his brothers death. The ensuing explosion hurtled Alexander into the bomb he had activated and was knocked unconscious. The monsters had gotten blasted into the hallway.

TEN SECONDS TILL DETENTION, NINE, EIGHT, SEVEN SIX, FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE!"

The device the unconscious body of Alexander was laying on began to glow bright and emit a piercing whine. It started to shake violently and then detonated.

The video was completely white for three minutes until it faded to reveal Beltino labs. Alexander got up with a groan and looked around in the smoke. Without warning a figure approached him. He reacted and grabbed it.

A voice yelled "PUT HER DOWN!" And then Fox showed up pointing a gun at him. So then he pulled his dagger out and put it on his victims neck. It started to cry, it sounded female. Alarmed he released her. Then Fox grabbed her and pulled her away. "Monsters don't cry." He said to himself.

"Get on the floor!" Fox yelled at him. He was then joined by Falco who had also trained his gun on Alexander. "I said get on the floor.

He just stared at them. Without warning he fell to his knees and dropped his gun "They're all dead." He whispered "I couldn't save them. I promised them I would, I promised."

They all watched him whisper softly to himself. The blue fox women especially.

Fox and Falco had lowered their blasters and fox walked up to him. "Hey...are you alright?" he asked softly.

He stopped talking to himself, and looked at his gun. Fox halted his walk, and looked about ready to pull his out. Alexander picked up his gun and brought it up and continued to raise his gun until the barrel rested under the chin of his helmet. "Sir put the gun down." Fox said quietly.

He turned his helmet to look Fox directly in the eye. "I failed them." He whispered before pulling the trigger.

"NOOO!" Fox shouted running over.

CLICK

The gun was broken. He let it fall from his numb fingers and hit the floor. "Kill me, please just end it all."

Fox had a sad look on his face like the others. "Im sorry I can't." Fox said. With no way out of his suffering he sighed got up and walked over to fox and stuck his arms out. Fox out his hand behind his back and suddenly a bunch of animal people came and took him away.

(End of video.)