Little bits of melted metal dripped off of now smooth spikes, slipping down the the dusty ground leaving burned bits of scrap to cool in the night's shade. A multitude of such objects formed a ring inside of a grid, the middle of which being pushed out to allow passage of an individual. The final drop from the rapidly cooling hole in the razor-wire topped fence fell upon a footstep long spent.
There was another print proceeding this, and then many more. Tracing along the disturbances, they snuck through the complex where the Pioneer 1 rested, sticking to the shadows and where cluttered shrubs provided some shelter from visibility. Then the marks became deeper, with tiny dunes piled up at the edges because the maker had broken into a run. A scorched, black splatter upon marked the event of a photon bullet missing its mark. Going still deeper into the confines of the defiled protective grid, we find a figure, a mere blob of dark grey against black. Her sensors had flared at the low pitched whistle of the attempt on her 'life', and now she peered over at the guard tower studded in the perimiter. As she sat upon her heels in the silhouette of a small outpost, Siva pulled forth the Guilty Light and set it's sights upon the moving shapes, somewhat blurred by the tower's external lights. A series of three cross-hairs became perfectly aligned, their final green liminous symbol not even wavering when the weapon was fired. Only taking a moments notice to the white orb that brightened the air, the android let their screams confirm that she had indeed hit her target.
Cover was blown, she would have to move quickly..
* * *
Kirsten disregarded the new recruit taking a pop-shot at a moving shadow, they had been edgy for a long time, with all the attacks on the south side of the security circumference. North side had been quiet all night, and this wasn't the first time the tense soldier had fired at something inanimate.
"Calm down will ya James?" She said over her shoulder, taking a fleeting glance to where his shot had landed just the quench the slight unease in her own chest.
"I swear I really saw something this time!" The youth said, barely entering his adulthood. Kirtsen dismissed it witha wave of her hand, and turned to look at the Pioneer 1 in its support structure. The nights cool embrace over Coral slackened as pink rays of dawn began to paint the eastern horizon. The entire field of stars had winked out, but the moon was all but gone. Struggling to shine through pre-dawn light, its mere sliver of an essence was visible. So when a streak of white collided with her side, all she could do is gape in silent horror. Amror, flesh, bone sizzled before giving in to the intense heat, and the force of the explosion sent her flying over the railing of the guard tower. Kirsten's burned corpse hit the ground with a sickening thud, snapping charred bones and tainting the white sand a crimson red. the two other members in James' company had become a paste as well, though he survived, one leg lost and a flaming back where his reward for living. The foul acrid odor of burnt hair and flesh clung to his nostrils as he screamed, while tears coursed down his hot, blistered face as he clawed at his waist for the comm. unit resting there. After gasping out a distress message, the man passed out due to an intense wave of pain coursing through his body. He died with his eyes staring listlessy out, not knowing, thinking, or even dreaming of the nightmare that would befall the future.
* * *
"Celt inactive, Siva active, 500 beats remaining."
"Well, that doesn't sound to pleasant.."
"Apparently, this Siva was looking for Celt, and not recieving a response has activated 'Eclipse'.. whatever that is."
"I know that Jonathon. What I want to know is what is at the end of this countdown."
The man at the computer terminal sighed, as closed his eyes tiredly. Blue light from the monitor etched out the details of his face, showing the effects of many sleepless night. Here he was, with an old friend, confined in this infernal base while his daughter was waking up at home, where he was supposed to be for her birthday. But the attempted infiltration of the base outposted to the south of the Pioneer 1 and its 'stand' has everyone put on high alert. From out of the dark pits of his eyes, Jonathon spottedthe red flashing light, indicating a distress call. Hitting a succession of keys, he was confronted by the helpless whimpering of a man in unbearable pain. A brief request for back up, saying that the offender was heavily armed, and then the message died away to static. The commander donned his jacket and pointed to some of his lackeys,
"Get some of our men down there ASAP. Come with me, Jonathon, I think we've found our goddess."
* * *
Siva turned as another flash greeted the photonic explosion her weapon had caused, in order to create more confusion, she had destroyed another two guard posts. But she used a ballista style of attack, therefore causing cunfusion on her whereabouts. The RAcaseal quickly skirted across the expanse between her and the next outpost, a green photon bullet ripped along her right side, missing her, but still too close to ignore. Stopping immediatley and kneeling down, the android fired off three shots in a triangle, one desecrating the doorway of the structure, the second collapsing the roof, the final landing squarely in the middle of a mans chest, since he had made it out the door before it and the space above was caved through in a decimating display of power. Blown off his feet, shreds of human body scattered, most little more than burnt scraps of paper. Running again, she was assailed by another two guards coming out of the back exit. Siva twirled around, jogging backwards, and let the final blast fly, annihilating one and heavily wounding the other, who was left to bleed to death while choking down his own blood.
Another shot streamed past her, clipping the side of her abdomen, nearly hitting two containers full of plastic explosives. Someone had emerged from the roof, and she let loose andother volley from a high powered sniper. Jumping the side, Siva Raised the Guilty light and fired, watching the projectile arc towards her foe leaving an irridescent trail behind it. The female leaped aside, barely escaping the explosions deadly flare. But the shock did cause her legs to buckle and fold, leaving her vulnerable. The RAcaseal shot again, watching the thin line of light curve like gleaming spider silk in the wind and obliterate the screaming victim with a heated charge.
Siva dropped the dead energy cell from the Guilty Light's 'magazine' slot, and inserted one of her two remaining. Hearing power surge back through the weapon's confined with a noticable hum, she was off again in her zig-zag line to the Pioneer 1. Out posts where placed at unever intervals that covered a good distance. Since the north side had no real base to protect it, such installments were placed in a frequent two-two pattern. _ - - _ These where all not real buildings, but more of make-shift tombs where a total of one hundred guards took shifts between. Shift changes went easily as the following, you and your team went out with a jeep, and did a basic sweep over your sector, and on the way back soldiers where dropped off at their posts, and the relieved climbed aboard and travelled back to the southern base for either bunking or some other ruitine.
The android skitted to a halt and paused, resting her back against the cool cement of another outpost. From inside she could hear scrambling around, the guards inside undoubtedly being forewarned about her arrival. Siva retrieved an incindiary grenade from her hip and hit a switch on its side, this she tossed into the open window overhead, then she heard and felt it detonate inside. If the initial blast hadn't killed them, the thick smoke that filled up the room and curled out the windows like a sinuous serpentine beast certainly would drive them out. Sure enough, three soldiers, problably confused, fightened, and ill infromed came burtsing out into the cool air and staggered forth greeting the pre-dawn. Siva scattered the soldiers with one shot from her photon launcher, one survived almost unscathed and managed to fire off a round or two at his demise. One grazed her thigh while the other landed directly in her left shoulder, causing the Guilty light to fall from her grasp. Not having any sort of real hand to hand combat weapon for such a close range, Siva produced the 'glue gun' and fired off a rapid strand of the wire encompassed by gellatin and whipped it at her enemy. With a flick of her wrist she was able to neatly wrap a length of it around the mans head, he raised his hands in a vain attempt to remove the sticky substances, but the wire soon became superheated and ate away at his flesh and bone. A muffled scream was issued, but the android paid no heed. The guard collasped, his body writhing on the ground in a spasm, Siva released the wire, and put the gun back into its harness. A black line was left upon the ground where the length had fell, the soldier now stopped compulsing, his fingers burnt off from the effort of trying to save himself while a hiss indicated that the still quite hot cable was evaporating the mans blood, which was confirmed by a stream of steam rising from his corpse.
She left the gruesome sight behind, the only thing in her line of vision was the highlighted figure of the Pioneer 1. The sun's golden plate was a line on the horizon, this and her internal clock told her that her short life was already nearing its end.
* * *
Queen to B5, check.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Sarunakai on 2004-07-19 14:34 ]</font>
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