Destiny (45 page)

Ignoring the horrified look on her superior’s face as the shot went ride, Megan gripped his collar laying into him. “There’s no time for this stupid shit. I can’t possibly explain everything that’s happening. Just trust me, we have incoming like you’ve never seen before, and they’re going to be here any second. If you want to bust me back down to a private you can, after this is over!”

Megan’s spiel gave Lar’s squad enough time to get off the walkway and spread out behind her. Jerking her head towards the Minotaurs, Megan continued. “For now, we have a strategic alliance of sorts until something more detailed can be arranged.” As the sounds of combat suddenly rose from the pit, Lar interrupted the discussion as he eyed the Command Sergeant Major and his men warily.

“Sumus de tempore. Est superior concordat cum dispositione?” (Decanus Driscoll, we are out of time. Is your superior in agreement with our arrangement?)

Somewhat calmed down Command Sergeant Thompson met the Minotaur’s steady gaze as Megan relayed his question. “Command Sergeant Major, Decanus Sestius Natalinus asks if you will honor the agreement we made earlier of mutual assistance?”

Before Thompson could reply, a monstrous bellow blasted from the opening of the pit like a roar from a giant T-Rex in one of those Jurassic Park movies. As one, the Marines of second platoon began backing away fearfully at the sound of rending metal filling the air as the entire walkway began tearing away from the edge of the drill shaft. Stretching and twisting the metal groaned under pressure as if something massive were trying to rip the entire structure down into the hole.

Ignoring the commotion behind him and the Minotaurs rushing to hold onto the end of the walkway as their brethren raced to safety, Decanus Sestius Natalinus held the Command Sergeant Major’s blue eyes as he studied the man’s black face intently. Seeing Thompson’s eyes looked her way Megan spoke up urgently.

“My command would have been slaughtered to the last man without-.“ Thompson cut her off with a raised hand as he eyed the Minotaur’s blood splattered face and armor. “Tell him the agreement stands.”

Megan breathed a sigh of relief. “He agrees, Lar. He agrees.” The Command Sergeant Major was old-school and a hard ass, but she’d always known him to be fair. Still, a situation like this could have gone either way.

Warily the Command Sergeant Major eyes studied the Minotaurs struggling to brace the walkway as it whipped back and forth. “Don’t get me wrong, Lance Corporal Porter and Jordan both explained that these new allies of yours saved your bacon down there in the pit, but honestly, I don’t really see how much help they could be in a firefight. Whether or not you feel like there is enough time, I think it’s time you explained what the hell is going on, Sergeant.”

Looking at him wide-eyed Megan’s mouth clamped shut as she tried to think of where to even begin, when the walkway suddenly ripped away from the Minotaurs hands in a shriek of rending metal. All of the remaining legionnaires but one disappeared as the entire stairwell, platform, and walkway disappeared into the black hole before everyone’s stunned eyes. As the surviving Minotaurs were pulled to safety, Lar faced the pit triggering his gauntlets bellowing.

“They come!”

Command Sergeant Major Thompson’s eyes grew wide at the clanking forest of noise that erupted around him as the surviving legionnaires triggered their gauntlets. Within seconds, each Minotaur stood with a massive metal shield and fist spike as Lar began bellowing out orders.

“Circulus circa formationem humans!” (Circle formation around the humans!)

Looking around the volcanic mound with a strategic eye, Lar pointed to the heavy weapon emplacements spread out around the pit and the soldiers approaching from the direction of the camps below. “We do not have enough legionnaires left to stop them from gaining the high ground. We must have the Tuonellians focus their attack on our defensive line, or they will slaughter your people.”

Understanding what he meant, Megan began calling out orders to the Marines around her. “We have incoming! I want everyone to take up positions behind the legionnaires’ formation. We want the enemy to concentrate their focus on our group. Everyone else hold your fire-“

Angrily the Command Sergeant Major yanked Megan back by the collar bellowing. “Belay those orders. Heavy weapons squads, prepare to open fire on my command. Everyone else spread out. We’ll catch these yahoos in a crossfire that will rip them to shreds.”

As the main body of Marines began spreading out into a wide-spaced firing line beyond the legionnaires formation, Lar’s head snapped around in consternation, but as soon as he saw the situation between Megan and her superior, the look on his face said it all. Spinning around, Megan opened her mouth to rip into her boss just as the nightmarish horde began pouring over the rim of the pit in a screeching black wave of fangs and claws. Before she could get out a word, the Command Sergeant Major was backpedaling and swearing out orders.

“Holy mother of mercy!” Slashing his arm forward, Thompson yelled out at the top of his lungs to his Marines. “Open fire! God dammit, everyone fire!”

The Minotaurs’ formation staggered back under the impact of the charging Scourge as the loud thumping sounds of the heavy weapons squads’ M2 fifty caliber machine guns began filling the air, their armor piercing rounds slamming into the horde from a crossfire of four different directions. As the creatures whipped around in confusion and pain, the Marines of second platoon opened fire with their assault rifles in static controlled bursts from either side. Megan heard Thompson’s sharp intake of breath as he swore under his breath.

“Sweat mother of mercy. What in the hell are those things, Sergeant Driscoll?”

Purple blood sprayed in every direction as the wall of superheated tungsten carbide tore into the soft tissue covering the Scourges’ bony carapaces. For a second it looked like the heavy machine guns were working as the rear ranks of the massed horde reeled from the assault, but the confusion only lasted for a few seconds. Instead of cutting the creatures down or driving them back, the rounds just seemed to enrage the monsters further. Shaking off the superficial damage the Scourge in the rear turned their hate on the enemy within reach.

Megan felt her stomach drop as the entire rear of the horde suddenly split away from the main attack. Screeching in rage, the new group charged the Marines. Turning to her superior, Megan swore in disgust.

“Command Sergeant Major, you’ve just killed us all.”

Like a horror movie running in slow motion Megan and her handful of surviving Marines watched helplessly as the slavering creatures crashed over the rest of the platoon in a bloody wave of death. The heavy machine gun squads were the first to be slaughtered. Within seconds the Scourge overran their positions, only to immediately turn their hate-filled gaze onto the individual firing squads still hammering into their ranks at near point blank range. The screams of the dying were drowned out by the screeching cries of the Scourge as they tore the humans apart in front of their eyes. From there the situation only grew worse.

Further down the hill, the rest of Hunter Company that had been ordered up as reinforcements earlier by the Command Sergeant Major opened fire. Within seconds, half the hilltop erupted in explosions as the Marines sent 40mm grenade rounds raining down on the heads’ of the black horde pouring out of the pit as individual assault rifles and light machine guns began hammering at the enemy.

Immediately the small group of Scourge turned towards the source of the newest threat, when three of the four Abrams Main Battle Tanks that had been strategically spaced around the base of the volcanic mound opened fire. Explosions ripped through the packed ranks of Scourge as black bodies and volcanic rock blasted into the air. As the ground reverberated from the impact of the 120 mm rounds, the tanks’ heavy machine guns opened up with everything they had.

The main cannons managed to hammer the Scourge with two more volleys before the creatures were able to pull themselves back together. Bloody and battered the Scourge dropped onto all fours, screeching as one thy raced down the mound like a black torrent in a flash flood. As they ran three smaller groups split off for the heavy armor, while the rest rushed the main body of Marines.

Megan swore helplessly as she watched the nightmare unfold. It was going to be another blood bath all over again. Many of Marines down there were friends and colleagues that she’d come to know over the past two years.

It wasn’t that there was a huge horde of Scourge rushing down the hill in comparison to the massed attack throwing themselves at the Minotaur lines. There might have only been around fifty of the creatures between the four groups, but without any effective weapons for her people to fight back with, the attack was going to be nothing but a bloodbath.

Helplessly Lar met Megan’s anxious gaze as together they watched the Scourge approach her peoples’ spread-out formations when his head jerked up suddenly. “By Akras holy sickle, are those Paladins of Ukko?“

“Paladins of what?” Following Lar’s eyes, Megan immediately saw what the Minotaur meant, even though she hadn’t understood his question. Charging through the center of the Marines’ formation down the hill were six glowing men armed with swords and axes. Their leader was a giant of a man wielding a massive two-handed claymore that burned with a fiery blue flame.

Unbelievably Megan’s jaw dropped open in shock. “What in the hell do they think they’re doing?”

***

Location Earth / Sean MacRory:

It wasn’t that Sean MacRory lacked faith in the All-Father. In many ways, his belief in Ukko was easier to come to terms with than the Protestant upbringing of his youth. Some might simply say it was because it followed the beliefs of his Clan’s Viking heritage, but in his heart, Sean believed there was more to it than just that.

Although he had been brought up on the stories of the Saints and the Bible, he had always loved the legends about the Druids and Norse gods of old. It wasn’t just a Gallowglass Clan thing either. Stories of runic powers and warriors of god had been a part of every human cultures’ history around the world at one time or another. Even in this modern age of technology, this belief in the old ways had never truly died out.

Even though Christianity had dominated Europe for over a millennium and a half, runes from the old gods could still be found in most villages and cities throughout Europe. Critics might argue that the continued use of these symbols were more due to tradition than any actual belief, but Sean would have disagreed with that convenient reasoning. If anything, this continued resurgence of the old ways in modern day pop-culture, movies, and video games were more of a reflection of some primal racial memory that humans carried with them on some fundamentally deeper level than modern science could explain.

Still, watching the nightmarish bone plated beasts tearing apart the Marines in the pit had been a spiritual transcendence of sorts for Sean. It was like seeing the demons of his religion come to life before his very eyes. The Book of Ukko had gone over the servants of Loviatar in great detail, but never in Sean’s wildest dreams had he truly believed they were real. He’d always treated the references like Catholics and Protestants would when they talked about demons. The terrible denizens of the nine levels of hell were treated more as symbols of evil than actual living entities.

Those judging Sean’s actions later might consider him insane for risking his life for soldiers he didn’t even know, but something inside of Sean told him that he had to help. These Minotaurs and Marines were fighting for their life against Ukko’s enemies. In his heart he knew that having Scourge show up here and now was the harbinger of something far more terrible, so he answered Ukko’s call.

Sean was no Paladin like Startüm Ironwolf, the Prophet of Ukko as many Ukkodians called him, nor was he a Guardian like Roy MacGregor who had brought the word of Ukko to Ireland and the Scottish Isles. He was simply a Protector, but none the less he knew what he had to do. These were the thoughts that churned through Sean’s mind as raced up the rocky slope with his men following close behind him.

“Battalia-abu!" Howling his Clan’s battle cry, Sean felt the power of Ukko flowing through his veins as he lifted Morthwyl Gelyn over his head. As if responding to his will, the runes of the ancient claymore burst into flames with a blinding blue fire as he led the charge into the fangs of the enemy.

“Kanskje.” Instantly a red glow surrounded Sean and his men as soon as the word left his lips. Swinging Morthwyl Gelyn at the lead Scourge, he silently prayed to Ukko that the aura of strength would be enough to meet the power he’d read that these creatures possessed.

Sean felt the jolt through his entire body as the burning blade cleaved through the four Scourge leading the charge as two of Kane’s throwing axes flashed over his shoulder. As the axe heads slammed into the following two beasts, Hans and Wolfgang threw themselves at the next two creatures, slamming into them shield first.

With a strangled cry both Germans were blasted off their feet as the Scourge’s dead bodies plowed through where they’d been standing. Sean only had a split second to contemplate what had happened to his men as he planted his front foot and swept Morthwyl Gelyn up in a backhand swing through the Scourge’s massed ranks. As the blade cleaved another burning swath through the enemies in its path, Sean heard Kane’s hurried yell of warning just as he learned firsthand what had happened to his men, when the charging Scourge smashed into him like a runaway freight train.