Macross Fan Fiction ❯ Robotech: Beneath a steel sky ❯ Chapter 17 - Determined angel... ( Chapter 17 )

---- Chapter 17---- Determined Angel...

Gunfire could be heard... Foxy-Roxy lifted her head and stood up when she noticed the shooting outside. The tank observator leaned down and said, "Hey Briggs, looks like we're there! And it looks like the evacs are in deep trouble!".

"Yeah, I bet they are..." he replied, then turned around to the others, "Ok people, get the guns ready - we are in for some trouble..."

As the tank crew prepared for combat, the evacution "group", who are on full retreat, was a lot larger than expected... 3000 people... men, women and even children... were running away... behind them soldiers firing towards "Invids" that were following them... It seemed as if the large mass of people have attracted more attention than needed.

The crowd was screaming... running for their lives, as buildings, debris and shards flew above their heads... Only armed groups soldiers and civilians - armed men and women - were shooting back...

It was a strange scenario, seeing soldiers in combat uniforms or suits and people dressed in normal civil clothes - a few with vests, others without -, both groups trying to defend themselves and the others from their suppressors.

Many were screaming for help... for others, it was to late... Many trucks and transporters were heading East... others were trashed by shards...

A group of five "Invid-Shardlings" were moving along the street... shooting at anything that moved... Large numbers of people received injuries and were forced to fall on the ground through the pain... but then... all the sudden multiple gunfire was heard... the five "Shardlings" were slashed violently into pieces...

A large metallic hulk rolling on chains rode past them...

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In a cool manner, the tank gunner #1 shouted, "Sharddies... are history!".

Corp. Briggs was glad to hear that and said "Great! Now target "Sharddies" at 11 O'clock! Fire!" The main turret blasted one shot towards another large group of "Shardlings"...

Many of them splattered, others were crushed by the debris of the building the shot bursted through...

"Smashed like pan-cakes, sir!" the 2nd tank gunner snarled.

Tank driver laughed... "That's the way I like them... smashed and fried! Haha", he added.

Corp. Briggs turned around again, looking to the driver and said "Ok, driver, hold this position, so we can deploy the troops and get those people in here!"

As the soldiers got their gear ready, Foxy-Roxy noticed that Mick strapped his SMG on his back,grabbed a standard issue assault rifle, pushed in an ammo clip and then unsafetied it .

She seemed surprised...

"But... Mick, what are you doing? You aren't going out there, are you?", she asked him relentlessly.

Mick grabbed a few clips more and pushed them in his suit pocket, then answered, "They'll be needing anybody, Foxy... "

He tried to remind her about the last situation in the district hospital...

At first she hesitated - She did not like the fact of him risking his life again, "... Well then... ", she leaned down and grab an assault rifle as well -

Mick immediately grabbed her rifle, pushing it back down.

Sounding seriously, he said, " Hey hey, whoa wait a minute, Foxy! You are not going out there!".

She was not happy to hear that at all- "I'm not gonna let go out there by yourself, Mick. I want to be with you, covering your back!", trying to find reasons to come with him.

"There is no chance I'm going to let you head out there!", he said, "Look at you! You got a bad bruise on your head, can hardly walk straight - and you're telling me you wanna head out there? You've gotta be kidding..."

He pushed her back to her seat...

Mick was right... She could not stand a few minutes without starting to feel like she was falling... She seemed angry...

"Don't worry", he smiled to her, then walked away, " I'll be fine..."

Foxy-Roxy remained seated, as he walked away with his confidence.

He went to the back of the compartment, joining a group of soldiers...

One of them spoke to him, "You sure 'bout this?".

"Let's get moving, there are people out there that need our help!" Mick replied firmly.

"As you wish. OK MEN, LET'S MOVE!"

30 armed soldier jumped out of the back of the tank, all spreading out and taking cover behind some debris... Mick did the same. The commanding soldier started to wave to the people, showing them to make their way to the tank quickly...

The injured people started to run, a few leaving a trail of blood behind them... Field medics immediately supported them as they entered the giant hulk...

As the civilians boarded the tank, a few soldiers spotted another small groups of people coming from around the corner...

They were screaming - as if something dangerous was about to kill them. A few soldiers ran off to help them, Mick ran along as well. The armed men sprinted as fast as they could towards them...

They were quite out of breath. "Y- you must help us... Something big... ", one of them said..., "... really big...!" then coughed, gapsing for air....

He felt like as if he was about to cough his lungs out. The soldier who answered was also a little bit out of breath as well, "Get over there to that tank! No time for talking!"

They started to jog back... but then, something long smashed into the building behind them... A lot of pieces from it flew everywhere. Some of the people were hit... Mick as well...

He was lucky that his flight-suit had a good shoulder protection...

The others were not so lucky... some where unconcious, others were wounded...

He turned around, while lying on his back..." What the hell was THAT?!" he said to himself...

As he looked up, he noticed a large and thick tentacle-like object moving back from destroying the building...

"What the...?"...

A few more soldiers ran to them... Helping them up... Two soldiers picked him up..."D - Did you guys see the size of that thing?!" Mick asked to both of them.

"What ever it was", one of them answered, "It was big... and it's coming around the corner... We better get out of here..."

The wounded were carried by the shoulders, two people each. The pace was slow... They walked as fast as they could when they heard something loud coming from behind... As the sound became louder, the group started to speed up their pace - a few tripping to the ground again.

A few men and women ahead, who helped to fight against "Invids" got up from the knees, looking past Mick and the others, as if something dreadful was behind them... Their looks did not make Mick feel better... He stopped and turned around... then look upwards in astonishment...

What they saw was definitely an "Invid"... It had a large shell, was about as large as a building... but had no legs or anything alike, instead, it had five thick tissue-like connections which were stuck on it's surroundings.

It seemed as if it was holding itself and leviatating as well... The "arms" seemed strong enough to carry the gigantic beast around... additionally, it had two tentacles, for sure the ones which slammed into the building just a minute ago... Mick has seen this creature before...

It was the same type which also surprised him and Foxy-Roxy, back then when they were still in their Valkyrie... He also remember that it was the one which also shoots 'large caliber' shards... a serious threat not to be ignored...

It was impossible for Corp. Briggs' tank to fire, while having the others in danger of receiving friendly fire...

The wounded group continued while another group of armed men and women gathered together and started to shoot covering fire towards the gigantic beast.

Bullets were constantly hitting it's shell, bouncing and ricocheting off... Seeming as if it had no effect. The shell suddenly opened... revealling it true face... It was too hard to explain it's looks... but it was enough to say that it was terrifiying and dangerous...

The creature seemed to have a mouth, wide open... wide enough to swallow three cars... Suddenly, it's "cheeks" started to bubble up... The people continued firing...

Back near the tank... Briggs and everybody else were behind the tank, looking at the fire fight, as wounded people were boarding the tank and the trucks nearby...

Foxy-Roxy seemed very worried, since she could see that Mick was in great danger. As far as she could tell, he seemed to be out of breath and exausted - trying to pull people out of danger, which did not work out, since he was too weak.

Foxy-Roxy turned around to Corp. Brigg and grabbed his vest, pulling him towards her... "Briggs!", she shouted in a threatening voice, then pointed her hand towards the beast, "You must help them! That thing is about to kill them! Why don't you fire?!"

"There is no way we can help them! They are too close to that thing! If we fire, the explosion could hurt them as well! And not only that, our machine guns are out of ammo.... We only have protoculture high-power bolts, high-explosive shells and two laser cannons which are not charged, due to their depleted batteries!... ".

She looked back to beast, which just spat a large dark green-blueish blob towards the group of people... when it splashed on the street, it bursted... a thick liquid splashed on nearly all people... then hardened a little...

Many were suddenly stuck in it and could not move... They were caught... Neither Mick nor others could move... "Damn it! What's this!", Mick shouted.

Foxy-Roxy slammed her fist against the tank... She was getting more and more angry, sitting in safety while he and others were left for their death... She looked around the street... damaged trucks... burning buildings... men... women... even children...corpses... and blood... but then... She saw a rather destroyed military jeep with a machine gun... but not just any machine gun...

She remember back in her training about studying about calibers and weapons of all kind...

Judging by the machine guns looks, it seemed like a 15.7mm full automatic machine gun with an ammunition chain long enough to start a small war... Then all the sudden she heard a loud, "Holy CRAP!" shout... It was Mick's voice...

The creature opened up it's shell more, revealling small creatures, which were the size of one meter and a half... They started to moving, jumping and hopping out of the gigantic creature... when they landed, they revealed to arms... more likely claws... Sharp and hard enough to slash through steal...

These creatures had the same aspects like in Dr. Vandermans report about the "Invid-Scavenger"...

Many of the people were unable to aim their rifles, since they were stuck...

Now they were in deep trouble... A few more "Invid-Scavengers" landed... and started to move slowly closer to the stuck group... Foxy-Roxy knew they were as good as dead if nobody would help out...

She turned around and saw a soldier holding a long 7.62mm machine gun - smaller caliber than the jeep's ammunition...

"Excuse me?", she said to him as she walked closer and pointed past him with her right hand somewhere else... "What's that over there?", she asked.

"Huh?" the soldier said and turned, facing the direction she pointing to, " - I don't see anything".

While the man was distracted, she suddenly lifted her left hand, formed it into to a fist, and swung a punch with all the strength she had towards the man's face. As the soldier looked back, her fist smacked right into his face.

The impact threw him to the ground.

He was distracted by the pain on his cheek for a few seconds. Even though she had her flight suit gloves on, Foxy-Roxy felt like as if she tried to punch an iron jaw down - Instead of taking care of her hand, she quickly grabbed his machine gun, pulling the strap off his neck.

"Sorry..." she said ironically, got up on her feet and started running towards the destroyed jeep.

Corp. Briggs shouted to her, as she ran past him, "Damn it! Keldon! What are you doing?! Get back here!!!" - She ignored him.

As she ran, she could feel that her balance was a little out of the line again, but she ignored it as well. The creatures were only another ten meters away, slowly moving ahead...

Foxy-Roxy reached the jeep... next ot it was rubble and pieces lying next to the jeep. She threw herself on top of the rubble, untatched the anti-recoil bipod, pulled the slide switch to unsafe, loaded the first bullet and then aimed towards the group of "Invid-Scavengers".

One of the creatures was closing in on Mick's side - Unlucky enough, his rifle was lying next to his hand... but he was not able to grab his rifle with his only loose arm. Just a few millimeters were missing...

All the sudden the creature in front of him splattered and flew to the side...

Mick looked up and to the side, seeing a young red-haired woman with a red flight suit behind a machine-gun, aiming... then firing...

"... She surely is a red devil...", he thought... She burst-fired again... Trying not to hit any of the people.

The machine gun fired a constant stream of lead. The bullets smacked and shredded the creatures... She kept firing... empty bullets shells flew in a constant stream of empty bullet shells from the right side of the machine gun. Foxy-Roxy was lucky that the ejecting shells were more to the front, or else she would have been smacked by them, since she was left handed...

It seemed as if she neutralized all "Invid-Scavengers"...

She got up and went swiftly to the jeep's machine gun. Standing inside the destroyed jeep, she laid her left sholder side against the machine gun's rear, unsafetied the gun and aimed towards the gigantic beast's head. At last, she laid her right hand on the top of the machine gun...

Aiming at the large creature, she said shouting with anger, "Mess with somebody your-own-size, slimebag!!!" and started to fire.

Each shot was loud... banging like thunder... Corp.Briggs could not believe what he was seeing...

Shooting at 1.2 shots a second, each shot fired smacked holes into the head... The recoil was slamming painfully into her shoulder, but she ignored it. The anger inside her felt like as if her soul was burning and each bullet fired was a small satisfiying drop of water to put out her flames... She kept firing...

"She's insane...", said Corp. Briggs with a surprised face...

"You bet she is...", added the soldier with a thick right and pink cheek...

"Well, let's not stand here! Let's get those people out of there! Move out!", shouted Briggs to the other soldiers...

The giant creature was bleeding from all sides...

Controlling the machine gun and it's recoil was streneous and painful... The machine gun suddenly stopped firing... The muzzle was smoking... Foxy-Roxy felt weak and leaned on the machine gun, trying to keep herself up - She was totally out of breath and exausted to the maximum...

As for a weapon of such power, it would be more than tough to control such thing if the user were to be weak...

She looked on it's side. There was still some ammunition in the chain... She came to the result that the gun was jammed...

Fortunetely, the beast was wounded enough for it to retreat... It left a large trail of it's blood as is moved back... She felt weaker and weaker... It looked like as if all the shooting around sapped all her energy...

A few people pulled Mick out of the goo-captivity... Foxy-Roxy was happy to see that he was in safety... "Mick...", she said quietly... then fainted... falling lifelessly into the jeep...

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