27 Cry Havoc

"Despair, children of the earth, for thy doom is approaching once again. Cry in havoc, thou pitiful sons and daughters of the crumbling Empire, for thy body shalt return to dust, thy blood and marrow spilled on the ground."

The beast roared. Redish holograms whirled in fury around it, soon scattering into the crowd of enemies. Their aims-once steady in guidance of 3-Divines-faltered, comm-links failing their masters, their souls terrorized in extreme fear. Into the confused fray, the beast leaped, and the massacre began.

Landing on the floor, it cleaved one of the enemies in half, who was standing right beneath it without knowing. From there, the beast began slashing through the enemy lines with its vicious claws. For every single swing of its talon, at the least two men and women in arms fell on the bloodied ground, with their bodies torn off pieces to pieces. Poly-mails would prove to be useless against its fury; the claws were extremely sharp, each like a fine tech-sword, and their master was skillful in arts of combat. Without a moment to rest, the rampaging beast went on slaughtering its foe. The ferocity of the monster, along with its terrifying holograms, made the once-proud soldiers of the Empire scatter like a flock of lambs, without their master nor savior. Their lines were completely broken. All that was left to the beast-woe to the souls of its remaining foes!-was to finish up its work of butchery, by means of spilling more guts and marrow.

Such was a carnival of gore and despair, indeed. There now flew a stream of crimson wine made of human blood, while lumps of meat lying everywhere that were freshly cut out of the dead ones' flesh. The monster picked up a bloodied limb on the ground, cut off from its owner, and tasted it, munching on its flesh. At such disgusting sight, a soldier, who had been hiding near the monster's flank, screamed and jerked off his hand-cannon's trigger. A laser shot managed to land on the monster's right hand, and made it drop its delicious snack. Yet, this proved to be a rather foolish act-let alone the fact whether it had practically hurt his beastly opponent, for it had well succeeded in drawing the beast's attention to the actor of such folly himself. Soon, his head and upper torso were flying afar, roughly ripped off from where they had belonged. Blood spurted out like a fountain, and the rest of the victim's body collapsed shortly.

More troops came in. All heavily armed this time, at distance they positioned themselves behind the covers, and readied their firearms. Portable lasercannons and grenade launchers were fired first, followed by a batch of small arms spitting out bullets and lasers. Shot down severely, the beast screamed in agony, wavering its bloated arms while in pain. Despite the damage, however, it was yet to be killed, and soon banished from the sights of troopers. The platoon leader took out her bio-scanner. She then ordered her troops to stay onto their positions, while trying to figure out where the beast had hidden itself. A moment of silence followed up. Each soldiers were on their guards, keenly looking out for their enemy. A short while later, a scream was heard, shrieking through the dreadful atmosphere there.

From their behind, five o' clock, the monstrous foe emerged, holding aloft its fallen enemy's body as a trophy. Once more, lasers and high-explosive grenades were fired upon the target. However, it was truly no fool at all, for it did not make the same mistake again. The beast knew well, this time, where the lasers and grenades would hit, and evaded them accordingly. Though the high-explosive rounds scorched its flesh a little, but this did not matter to the hungry monster at all. It then rushed onto the enemies with terrible speed. As the distance between them was narrowed down, lasercannons and other heavy weaponry were now rendered useless. The troopers then fired their small arms at a close range. Yet, almost none of them was dealing any damage to the giant foe, failing to punch through its hardened skin.

Now it was the beast's turn to wreck havoc upon them. It reached for one of the soldiers shooting down his firearm, and snatched him with its huge hand. The beast then pulled his torso and legs away from each other, ripping the man in two. Desperately, the rest of the soldiers fired their weaponry full-auto, though futile against their horrible foe. One by one, dashing through the troopers, the beast cleaved, maimed and ripped the opponents with terrifying swiftness. Scattered, the survivors fell back in utmost fear, running for their lives.

"Where on the earth are our reinforcements? Have the gods truly abandoned us to the talons of a horrid monster?" While on the run, one of the soldiers cried out in terror.

The church was already half-ruined by the time the reinforcements had arrived. A group of barbarian bikers, fifteen men and women in arms, halted around a hundred meters away from the site. Foremost among the group were Gael and her personal guards, as always. Aelthred was positioned in the center, assessing the whole situation and issuing out commands there. Gunfire was still heard occasionally; a sign of possible survivors out there. They were not too late, at the least, but they had to move quickly.

The Prince ordered them to spread out, while maintaining a loose formation. All wearing their visors, able to pick up any signs of life-forms within a few hundred meters, they were approaching the place steadily yet surely. Weapons, both ranged and melee, were readied for action. Gael led the whole recon team up front. As the team proceeded forward, so did Aelthred's squad behind them, ready to give them a covering fire. There were two tech-warriors positioned at the rear, a pair of seasoned veterans, in case where their siblings-in-arms would need an immediate extraction.

The shoot-out paused. A few seconds later, Aelthred received a transmission from one of his warriors at front.

"Hostile activity confirmed, my liege. 25 meters ahead of us, inside the main chapel. Permission to engage?"

"Surround it first. Fire at will if the target makes a move."

"Ten-four." The pointman responded.

However, there was no need for them to wait any longer. Smashing down the walls ahead of them, the vile beast presented itself to the warriors by the time their communication was over. Waiting no further, the beast jumped onto the small group of scouts. The warriors fired their plasma-bolts in return. Yet, this alone could not successfully fend off their ferocious adversary. Upon reaching them, it swung both of its clawed hands at the enemy. The tech-maiden then barely got herself out of its reach, with an aid of her augmented reflexes. Gael ran to the position of her sister-in-arms. Without hesitation, she struck the monster with her tech-axe. It somehow blocked the attack, though letting the blow land on its left forearm. Gael soon withdrew a little, making some distance from it.

Tar-like blood was spurting out of the wound. The beast grabbed its arm, almost cleaved in half, and cried aloud in pain. It then faltered back into the dark chapel, now out of power. After sending out a comm-link signal to the Prince, requesting for backup, Gael ordered her team to follow it.

"Ready your hearts and gears. We're going after it!"

With their night-visions on, the barbarians entered the chapel through its collapsed wall. Fanned out in an arch, Gael and her team began to search for their foe hidden amidst the darkness. Taking steps with extreme caution, they looked up here and there, trying to locate the cunning enemy. They breathed heavily, under the severe pressure strangling them to their necks. The warriors were not only fighting off the brute here, but they were also endeavoring to overcome their suffocating fear, lest it would consume their hearts and souls alike.

As the tension was building up to extreme, the beast suddenly appeared on their left flank. In reaction to it, the barbarians immediately fired their weaponry upon the target. However, the beast was much faster than their eyes aiming the plasma-bolts; only a few number of shots managed to land on the brute. It briefly disappeared from their lines of sight, and emerged from the dark once again, while grabbing away a tech-maiden in its bloated palm. In utmost anger, the brute smashed its captive right into the solid floor a number of times. The cruel beast then squished her within its strong grasp, and finally, getting bored with it, threw the body away into the brick wall.

At such tragic sight, Gael roared in fury, from the depths of her soul. She rushed onto the monster, shooting her plasma-bolt while running. Aided by her exo-skeleton, She then leapt a great deal-well above the monster's height, and swung her axe straight down to the head so as to split it in half. The beast managed to step backward and evaded the blow, just a moment before the axe would cleave its head off. Nevertheless, this had succeeded in intimidating the monster. Still hostile though, it was now beginning to show some hesitation whenever it wished to assault its opponents. The remaining warriors surrounded it, and then pushed it further to the corner so that it would never be able to escape the scene. So long as the warriors saw it, the tide of battle was turning to their favor. Aelthred and his entire squad were bound to be here in any minute, and after that, it was only a matter of time the monster would meet its tragic end upon this world.