30STM

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The smell of scorched metal, burning fuel, charred flesh and woman filled O'Neill's nostrils. His entire body ached, especially his head. Just what had be done last night? Something rough with a woman apparently, she was moving on top of him now, waking up too perhaps. Her weight pressing into a bruise accelerating his rise to contentiousness.

His eyes opened slowly. "Morning gorgeou.... RED!?" Wow theres something he'd been hoping to see. "O'Neill." Came Frost's voice from nearby. "Frost, its not... oh..." it hit him, they had been shot down, they were in enemy territory and possible out of communication with HQ. His hand slid between himself and red undoing his safety harness. The gunship had landed at an angle so that Frost was suspended by his and you need to be caught as he fell. While Red had landed on him as she had been thrown out of the crushed pilot seat. There wasn't enough left of the copilot to think about. He sat waited for Red to get off of him before getting up himself and cut Frost's straps helping his friend down. It was into then that they saw the rear section was completely missing, along with the rest of the squad. "Well Red..." he said adjusting his helmet before running out of words and falling int the routine of checking his equipment.
 
Sudden Fall

Something moved at one of the mall's automated door entrances. They opened and a noisy clanging sound, of carts crashing against one another rang out. A few slid through the door, bumping into a few cars and setting off the alarms on whichever ones still worked. The cacophony of sound seemed to obscure the crackling of the small flames and the occasional snapping sounds of gunfire in the distance.

The turret of the vehicle swiveled around, its gunner jumping from cart to cart and keeping an eye on the door. Hearing more clanging from inside, it fired off, sending deadly anti-infantry shells right inside. Whole aisles were ripped apart and stands blown into pieces, sending into the air a mess of vegetable matter. Windows cracked under the raw impact and a few stands and other architecture collapsed inside.

Even after the barrage had stopped, the sound of splattering fruit and the contents of the mall collapsing after the onslaught rung through the air, along with echoes of the weapon's report.

Amidst the chaos and the destruction, Myra made her approach.

As car windows shuddered around her and the area was peppered by debris from the weapons fire, she dashed around the cars like some great fast-moving eel. Like a massive red bolt, it burst forth from behind a van. Legs working in overdrive, the turret quickly turned to aquire a target lock on the massive invertebrate. Yet even the advanced technology could not follow its freakishly fast speed.

Twisting and zig-zagging left and right, the creature was seemingly supernatural in its agility and the anti-infantry rounds flew wildly off target, ripping apart the surrounding automobiles instead. And it grew closer and closer, ignoring the thundering explosions, until it was too close. The turret could no longer lower itself any further; the creature was practically right infront of the re-purposed I.F.V.

With a sudden sharp motion, it had lept from the ground, right at the reptilian holding Allison hostage.

To the lizards, it seemed like some mythical monstrosity from their legends of old.
 
Stupid. She was standing there like a deer caught in the headlights of a big truck. The realization that the scalies would steal enemy tanks and trick people out in the open was a sickening and frightening blow! There was only a faint shaking of her head in refusal to step inside the tank. But she didn't get the gunshots or pouncing that she expected. Rather a huge ruckus from the grocery store had caught the scalies full attention.

Allison screamed when they started firing the cannon and guns of the tank. Covering her ears with hers out of reflex. Her myriapod friend was now darting out and attacking the first scalie with the gun. This was what finally snapped Allison back to her senses. As more of the scalies were piling out of the tank, alarmed and confused by the creature, Allison took off running down the street. Ignoring the foreign growls, gunshots, and what was surely someone chasing after her, she kept running without looking back. Once she reached the cover of towering buildings, Allison skidded around a corner in to an alley. She dropped behind a pair of garbage dumpsters. Holding her breath as she pulled out her gun and waited in terrorized silence.
 
Close Combat

The first of the lizards was caught completely off guard. Smashing into it with her claws raised, she pinned him against the back of the vehicle, its gun pressed against its body, its aiming off to the side, firing a few shots in futility. Its hand went to a combat knife on its waist-belt, but that would be of no avail. All the two soldiers exiting the vehicle to assist their comrade saw was his body spasming before going still, a twisted stump of red where the face once was, and the form of the tyrant letting go of the corpse. As it turned around to face them, they had quickly taken aim with weapons of their own.

There were green flahes of light as the weapons discharged, accompanied by the sound of something frying intensely and the stench of burning air. Myra lept back, but more than a few made their mark. Hitting her upper body, one of her back armour plates, and a few more on her mid left side, she let out a suppressed hiss and moved backwards, slightly unbalanced, with extreme coordination with just a few legs. Body half raised, she saw them following her around the vehicle, whose turret was swivelling around seemingly at random. As the two were moving around a corner, she lunged again, slashing a massive claw across the chest of one, but the other had lept the the side and fired. A burst of rounds went into her back and she staggered forward, before shifting her whole body around, swinging the back-end like a massive tail and knocked the one who shot her off his feet.

The slashed one, lying on the ground, pulled out a pistol as his rifle had been knocked away. As he and his comrade reccovered and began to inspect the area around them, they only saw the form of the creature sprinting off into the distance, bleeding a watery orange fluid from multiple gunshot wounds.

A few minutes later, Myra, following Allison's scent trail, slowed down near the dumpsters. Looking behind her, she quickly walked forward, breathing heavily and heaving noticeably, and looked at Allison. Her upper body was only half raised and she seemed to be on high alert. She thought it best that they get a move on quickly, avoiding major roads.
 
The survivors dragged their dead and wounded back into the IFV, the 20mm rapid fire cannon in the turret sending a torrent of fire after the creature as inside a tide of hisses flowed into the Aliens' communications bands. Survivors with ferocious allies. The good news was, they could bleed. Also on the air was an aerial attack on another area of the city. Patrols of infantry were on their way to investigate a crash site, and find this beast. Its head already having a sizable incentive.
 
The wicked smile on Red's face melted away as she got off of O'Neill's lap. Her baby! She stood, frozen, with the two men moving behind her, getting free. O'Neill was checking his equipment, Frost was also checking his and retrieving the first aid kit. She pulled a steel box out from under her seat and opened it. She strapped on the pack it held around her waist, with the pouches against the small of her back and turned the safety off of the handgun that was left.

When she walked back to O'Neill, she had an undamaged bottle of alcohol. She took a drink, pulled O'Neill forward and his head down by the neckline of his vest and kissed him nice and hard. "Mmm ..." His lips tasted like his drink and he smelled a hundred percent male. She slowly broke the kiss and offered him the bottle. "I'm going with you two. This just got personal."
 
Infantry scrambled closer to the survivors of the crash site they heard voices. Human voices. Their chattering so insulting to the ear. There were other sounds, and smells, their forked tongues sampling them in breathless anticipation. Their eye slits narrowed as they say the three fleshies. So unaware, still recovering from their ordeal. Were these them, the soldiers they had been warned about. As helpless as the rest of them. They would die just like the little girl and her pet that at this moment was walking into an ambush not far away.


"Red, I'm not exactly going to leave you here now am I." Frost cut in a little annoyed that she chose NOW to get serious with O'Neill.

Thats when there was a green flash and frost was knocked off his feet.

"Red, darling, sorry to cut this short." O'Neill wasn't sure if Red had hit her head or was having a laugh. He pulled her behind the wreck out of the scailies' fire before ising ut as cover to fire back. There were angry hisses and inhuman hells as the overconfident aliens were send crawling back only to start firing form cover.


"Fucking armour took it you geen bastards." Frost yelled using his prone position to fire precise bursts.

"Ones I was were brown."O'Neil commented.

"I Don't care they're all yellow to me."
 
Allison was on the verge of a mental break down. Knocking the back of her head softly against the brick wall behind her, and struggling to get her fear under control. Maybe it wasn't a breakdown since she was still very self aware? Her hands tightened on her gun, but it was a relief to see Myra as the one to find her hiding place and not the scalies. Though, she didn't doubt Myra's urgency that they needed to move. It was only a matter of time before they were tracked down.

Nodding, Allison rose to her feet. They couldn't go back the way they came, but thankfully the ally wasn't a dead end. Allison pointed in the direction and started walking. A frown crossed her face as she took notice of the dings and holes on the myriapod's outer skeleton. Some spots were even bleeding out an odd color. How did you do first aid on a creature like this?

"We'll have to find back streets to my father's military base. The scalies are using our own weapons as traps... I don't think we can trust anyone now..." That still hurt. Allison had been so hopeful that everything was okay. Now she couldn't be sure anymore.
 
Alleyways

An affirmative grunt showed that the centipede agreed with the general idea of what she had said. Taking point, she kept her body low and crawled through the trash-ridden and eerily quiet back alleys. She felt distant from the city; its crackling noises of fire and guns, echoing emanations of vehicles, and shouts of reptilian anger now seemed distant, echoing slightly.

Yet she knew that these creatures were smarter than they seemed; she would now be much more careful of any of the transport-constructs she encountered. A rasping noise escaped her throat as she slowed down a little, body raised, not in alert but rather in pain. With a suppressed growl, she twisted her upper torso slightly to the right, as if trying to work out stiffness. A squelching noise broke their trek and blood seemed to flow from a wound on her side, one that had managed to pierce her hardy shell. There was a small *clang* as a bent metallic shape, soiled with orange blood, fell from the wound. The flesh beneath seemed scarred and charred, yet the centipede simply bit back the pain, resuming its stance and continuing its crawl through the urban labyrinth.
 
With the crunching of gravel under armored tired the IFV sped part the alley followed closely by a hopping, scurrying pack of armed scalies. Thankfully they were more interested in keeping pace with the vehicle than tracking, seemed they had been told they were needed somewhere else. Close above something screamed past, something big and moving too fast to see anything other than a blur. With it can the roar of a human engine and following it was a wake of hot air and the smell of hot metal they swept the entire alley thankfully upsetting their trail, though the liquids leaking out of the martian predator were still pungent enough to mean they couldn't hide indefinitely as from both ends of the alley the sounds of gunfire and angry hissing yells could be heard, though it was louder in the direction they had come from.
 
Frost swore under his breath as the scalies took cover and returned fire. He stopped shooting and glanced over at O'Neill and Red. He pressed the intercom link in his ear. It was connected wirelessly to all squad members. Each squad had its own frequency. But seeing as how he and O'Neill were the only members of their particular squad left ...

"Damnit. We can't take anymore of this. Ain't there cover we can use?" He was all for a good shoot out but he preferred picking his targets off one at a time and from a greater distance. It was always more satisfying when they never saw you coming.

Red looked around. "We need to find a way to get in contact with the base," she said. If they didn't, the base would follow protocol and assume they were dead which meant no scouting for them and no way to get back.
 
O'Neill smilled. "Frost I have a plan."

You could almost hear frost groan even though his mic was off.

"This lake all you other plans?"

"Yes but its actually going to work this time."

"Fine COVERING FIRE."

As frost fire wildly forcing the scalies to cower behind what they could O'Neill pulled one of the air to ground missiles from the wing rack and carefully opened the side exposing the arming switch, slipping it off he adjusted the time warhead for a time delay before replacing it on the rack.

"Did you really need to do that, you have your own explosives." Frost asked as O'Neill re-armed the missile and grabbing Red's hand started running for a ruined building Frost close behind. "Waste not..." O'Neill said slamming into the slumped door causing it to bang open. A second later the entire wreck exploded in a large fireball.

Even Allison and her companion felt the ground move.
 
Return of the Predator

The explosion was like an amplified roar, one that grew louder as it bent metal out of shape, ripped apart walls, and shattered windows all around them. The shrieks of surprise and pain were carried upon the gust of wind, alongside the junk littering the ground, which had suddenly rose like a flock of birds fleeing a predator. Looking forth above the heights of the buildings, Myra could see a mushroom shaped mass of fire, angrily rising and growing in intensity, before it began to fade out. Quickening her pace, she broke into a light run, hopefully not too fast: she did not want to leave her human companion behind, but time was short and so was the element of surprise.

While it had disoriented them, the lizards within the alleyways had begun to double their efforts. Their cautious inspections became full on runs, and both of them couldl hear their hisses, almost taunting them from beyond their site.

Allison was likely confused, but she understood that; Myra wasn't really trying to escape the shaded labyrinths. In reality, she'd lead them in a circle, one that was easy to get lost in, yet not for a seasoned hunter like her. She knew that this maze had multiple entrances and that the trail of her blood would be followed, the trackers assuming to simply follow from one point to the other. They weren't too close yet, but she knew now was the time to go from preyed upon to predatory.

Her wounds had sealed up somewhat; the bleeding had decreased to a tricklet at most. Spying an open and un-used building, its insides dusty and full of un-moved furniture, she ushered her companion inside, directing her to the rear, and sniffing intently. It seemed to be a sort of storage area, with plentiful amounts of those blocky, wooden constructs the humans used to store objects amongst all those other constructs they'd fill their homes with; some were for sitting on, others for working on, and some for storage as well. She'd have ample room to hide, while her newfound friend covered for her.

Outside, the scalies would only hear lots of crashing and banging, and the occasionally chittering and raspy hiss. She was darting here and there, across walls, smashing some windows open, running into buildings and upturning furniture as she thrashed around wildly. As their scent and sound grew stronger, so she grew less noisy. Moving to the second floor of some fancier human habitat, she peered out of its smashed window, and watched as one suspicious group moved in, looking at the various blood trails, in confusion, before splitting into two groups. One went down the alleyway that she wathced over, and the other down another leading to the blindside of this building. Neither were moving towards Allison's position.

A few minutes later, as they walked down the street, the scaly group heard a crash, as a nearby window suddenly shattered. They looked into the deserted restaurant, seeing nothing, but a few looked to the building across the street. The object that had broken the window had come from there. The others weren't so sure. They split up again, one group moving to the building, another into the abandonded restaurant.

None of them knew that Myra had already left the building the second she'd thrown the object and heard it hit; travelling quietly and exiting through venitlation shafts leading outside. She was actually on the ground, peering from behind the shadows of a dumpster, watching as both groups dissappeared into their respective areas of interest.

Those in the restaurant would go first. As quickly as she had come, she soon dissappeared into the ground level structure. The scalies were just beginning to move into the kitchen and employee-only sections, which she was entering from a rear window. None of them had any idea she was there.
 
Allison was quickly learning the myriapods way of communicating. Though, she wasn't entirely sure what the creature was saying or up to, she was aware when she needed to move fast and when to stay put. There was a large explosion nearby, and thought Allison wanted to find out whether or not her rescue had arrived - she also didn't want to get caught by another scalie trap.

Hiding now in what must of been a warehouse for furniture, Allison was sitting on a sofa in the back. The area was enclosed and decently hidden, but she couldn't be too sure for how long. It was, however, a nice break for her feet and trying to catch her breath after all of that running. Allison plopped over on a cushion, coughing lightly at the plume of dust that it kicked up.

That's when something beeping in her bag caught her attention. Curiously, she reached in to it and dug around until she found that walkie talk. She tried turning the dials to see if anything would come up, but it remained static. Still, there was a light at the bottom blinking. The beeping had stopped, but there was something activated for sure. Once she realized it was the military tracking device, she was elated! That meant a rescue had to be out there somewhere! Maybe even her own father!

Allison almost jumped up from her hiding spot, ready to go looking. But slowly slipped back down to sitting. It wasn't wise to run around like an idiot. She would wait for Myra to return and then make plans from there.
 
The scallies were used to hunting their prey. Their conquest of stars had gone smoothly up until this particular mammalian species, still they were ill adjusted to being prey. The group entering the restaurant spread out staying withing sight of eachother their forked tongues constantly sending a never ending stream sensory information to their brains their eyes seeing into a spectrum humans could only dream of. But still it was not enough to see the predator waiting for them.

The other group melted into the ruins across the street taking their orders to reconnoiter to the letter. It was not their mission to engage the beast, simply to find and track it for the heavy boys.
 
Frost was swearing under his breath as they took cover. He crouched down and bent over into a ball, still clutching his gun. When the initial shaking was done, he was standing straight and reloading his gun. "Gee, thanks, O'Neill. Now where the hell should we run to?"

Red lifted her head when Frost spoke. Her heart was pounding and she looked around. So far, so good. She pulled her gun out and made sure the safety was off. It was quiet. But the quiet was always the worst part of waiting.
 
"Run?" O'Neill welled over the ringing in his ear as somewhere close by the sound a falling concrete slabs punctuated the relative silence after the explosion. In the crater some of the surviving scalies where still making for their position and muzzle flashes and a rain of hot lead changed he aliens' minds. "Is that the plan? Well theres a building behind us that should have a back door, a booby trap of two should discourage pursuit, at least direct pursuit, though we could use some smoke to get started.

[dash=green]Cold bare feet steeped silently on the ground floor of the building where the child hid. silenced weapons raised as tongues tasted her scent, the one of her protector they ignored as contradictory but their highly trained sensed could distinguish the mammal from the martian grub. Up the stairs their emotions as cold as their blood the death squad closed in, their scents masked. Their orders were not to collect, their orders were to kill, her and her pet, and she was the bait.[/dash]
 
Frost found time to look over at O'Neill in between shooting down scalies and huffed. He wasn't about to mention he only had so much ammo to deal with, unless they happened to stumble onto a weapons cache along the way. On the bright side, he was enjoying taking down his enemy. It would have just been better if they had the element of surprise and the enemy didn't know their location.

"I'm not an expert on these things but would this smoke grenade of yours do the trick?" Red asked, holding up a small little canister with a pin. O'Neill may have recognized it as being something he had packed but he probably hadn't felt her going through his pack while he had been preoccupied.

Frost looked over at her and O'Neill. "Give me the smoke grenade. I can do cover fire and give you two time to get the booby trap started."
 
Contact Lost

The scaly commander barked into his communications headset for the umpteenth time. Nearly half an hour had passed, and the team that had been deployed into the restaurant area was still unresponsive. That left roughly two others, fine, but the operation was starting to hit a variety of obstacles, the sudden loss of various squads, supposedly to some local predator.

He didn't actually believe any of that. Local predators were still dumb, un-sentient animals at most, and tough hides and sharp teeth as far as he concerned, were not evolved to protect against special forces and armour piercing bullets. Perhaps a weaponized predators? Their kind was not above using local wildlife, controlled by neuro-electronics and conditioning as weaponry, but were these bipeds really even at that level yet?

Resistance fighters and the military were to be assumed as the main problems, as usual. This wasn't the first time contact had been lost in the middle of a raging battle and under similar circumstances, although the stories that trailed them tended to be less ridiculous.

He sent a quick message to one of the local ground teams, demanding an immediate status update as to what the other two that had been sent in were up to.
 
Minutes ticked by like hours to Allison. The longer she sat, and the quieter it was, the more it was driving her crazy. She was itching to move. The sensible part of her brain was annoyed, saying it was crazy to wait for some creature that probably didn't have a long term memory. Her hopeful side was sure it was coming back any moment. Panicky Allison was going mad, screaming that the entire world was dead and that she would be too. Only a matter of time. She could take some grenades and go out in a blaze of glory. Or not be so stupid and track down the nearest military base. Her thoughts just flipped back and forth waging war with each other!

Allison found herself dozing off. She hadn't slept... in how long? Since yesterday. With the silence and stillness of the warehouse, before long she slumped over on the sofa, fast asleep. The gun in her hand falling limp in her lap.
 
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