Chapter Number Goes Here (1/2)
Falmo'o woke up to someone shaking him.
”Psst, man, wake up. Wake up, horse dude,” he heard.
Falmo'o groaned and opened his eyes. His whole body hurt from where that psychotic human had literally torn him to death with her teeth. He couldn't remember why, just that she had taken her time about it.
In front of him was a massive human. One of the big 'Combine' ones, skin drawn back in places to reveal cybernetic implants. He had clotted blood on his face and chest and down one arm.
”Come on, horse dude, if you don't get up, I'm going to leave you,” the Combine Terran said. He slapped Falmo'o's jaw with strength that was probably gentle to him but rattled Falmo'o's brain.
”Wuh, wuh iz goo nin awn?” Falmo'o asked.
”We're going to try to get out of here, horse dude. Me and you, we're all that's left,” the Combine guy said. ”Digital Omnimessian and his twelve biological apostles, we're in serious trouble. Come on, I'll help you up.”
The strength was incredible, even though Falmo'o knew without a doubt that the Combine Terran was enhanced. Still, he got to his feet, feeling a little unsteady.
The Terran pushed a heavy gun in his hands.
”Here. Use both hands. The shells explode, so don't shoot too close to yourself,” the Terran said.
”What are we going?” Falmo'o asked, examining the weapon.
”We're going to make a run for the Dominion, it's got a Helldrive,” The Terran said. He squinted. ”It was your idea, horse dude.”
They started moving down the hallway. It was trashed. Craters from kinetic hits, scorching from lasers, discoloration from plasma, gouged from chainswords. Falmo'o could tell they were moving toward one of the docking arms. The human kept checking his corners, checking the flanks.
Falmo'o had worked with security forces before, but he had to admit, the way the Terrans were designed, bipedal with forward facing eyes and forward reaching limb, made them exceptionally skilled at it.
”Horse dude, I'm telling you. I've faced Mantids, I've fought men, I've taken on Treana'ad, hell, I've even fought Dwellerspawn, but this, this is a whole new level of bad news,” the Terran said at one point. They were leaning against a wall, waiting for a blast door to decide it was going to raise or not. The electronics were spilled out of the control. There was Lanaktallan writing on the panel instructing Falmo'o to pull out a pistol and fire to the right.
”What are we fighting?” Falmo'o asked. He imitated the human motion of rubbing the sides of his head with all four of his hands. ”My memory is all mixed up.”
”Something old and nasty, horse-dude. Really old, really nasty, that fucking belongs here,” Combine Terran said.
The door cycled and the Combine Terran glanced around the corner, still slightly ducked down. ”Whew, clear.”
He moved into the corridor and Falmo'o followed.
”So I never got it straight. Where are you from, horse-dude?” the Combine Terran asked. ”You one of the coreward races or something they designed for this station?”
Falmo'o frowned. ”Designed?”
The Terran stopped at the next blast door, looking at it and shaking his head. ”Yeah. You know, bio-synth, gene-jack, whatever. I'm not judging, horse-dude, I'm just asking.”
Falmo'o watched the Terran rip open the panel and pull the wires out, twisting some of them together. He stripped the insulation from the copper wire with two of those short blunt finger talons, pinching it and pulling it off.
”I don't remember,” Falmo'o asked.
The Terran twisted the wires together and the door began to slowly rise.
”Where are we?” Falmo'o asked.
”I don't know,” the Terran said with a sigh. ”I'm just a grunt.”
”Grunt?” Falmo'o frowned.
”Infantry. Power armor infantry,” the Terran answered. ”Technically, I'm Combine Power Armor Assault Infantry, a Combine Marine, the guys who do face first charges into emplaced enemy positions.”
Deserters. Combine infantry. From Anthill, Falmo'o remembered. It was amazing how much the Terrans would share if one feigned ignorance and confusion.
”By the blessed Omnimessiah, I wish I had my chainsword,” the Terran swore, ducking into the hallway and taking two steps before straightening up. ”There's the docking arm. We're almost there, horse-dude.”
Falmo'o just clopped along behind the Terran, someone bemused by how easily it was to fool humans.
”So what is she?” Falmo'o asked.
The Terran glanced back. ”She's bad news, horse-dude. If we'd known she was here, someone like her was here, we'd have stayed off at a distance and planet-cracked this place.”
”I don't get it,” Falmo'o said honestly.
”Hope you don't. I mean, you should really hope you don't,” the Terran said. He stopped at the air-lock that led into the docking arm. He punched in the code number, a different one than Falmo'o had seen before, and pressed his thumb on the enter code.
The airlock started to cycle.
The airlock opened partway up and Taynee ducked under the partially open door, that knife in her hand. She sliced the Terran across the inside of the thigh, stabbed him deeply in the side, and then in the back, moving completely around him and stabbing the whole say.
”BITCH!” the Combine Terran roared, swinging a backhand at Taynee. Taynee ducked under it and stabbed him twice in the armpit.
Falmo'o watched them fight. Taynee's speed and accuracy against the big male's ferocity, raw strength, and skill. Taynee slapped aside or blocked most of the hits, rolling with them, bouncing right back, stabbing, kicking, even biting. Falmo'o watched kicks hard enough to dent durachrome slam into walls, punches hard enough to shatter armaglass, all being thrown by the two combatants. It was obvious to Falmo'o that it was some kind of fighting style, not random violence, something that allowed them to perform physical acts that should have been impossible for mere flesh and blood.
Finally something changed. Falmo'o wasn't sure what, they moved to fast for his brain to process easily, but Taynee ducked when she should have slid to the side and caught a knee in the face that threw her against the bulkhead. Before she could move the Combine Terran grabbed her by the throat and punched her in the head three time. The first deformed her skull, the second crushed it, the third ruptured it and he pulled back a bloody fist with smeared cerebral tissue on the knuckles.
Taynee began melting, steaming, slowly turning to ooze. The steam reminded him of something but he couldn't think of what.
The Combine Terran straightened up. rubbing the clotted blood from the slices in his skin. ”Thank the Omnimessiah for my coagulation implant,” he sighed. He looked at Falmo'o. ”Know why I'm afraid of her?”
Falmo'o nodded, thinking about the fast and furious fight. ”She was a capable combatant.”
The Combine Terran looked at him. ”She's unmodified. Pure Terran genetic stock. No gene-mods, no cybernetics not even an implant, no nothing, and she can damn near take me.”
Falmo'o nodded. ”Yes, that would be frightening.”
The Combine Terran started walking down the docking arm, shaking his head. ”Horse-dude, I'm a Combine Marine and she's a... a... whatever the hell she is. Hell, that's pretty much it. She's from Hell. That's why she's here,” the Terran turned and looked at Falmo'o. ”She's in Hell. Where she belongs.”
”So she's the face in the neutron star's gravitic field?” Falmo'o asked.
He turned and looked at Falmo'o, his eyes wide. ”You really don't remember? It's trying to get away from...”
The airlock into the Combine ship opened up to reveal Taynee standing there. Naked. With a knife.
And a rivet gun.
”Me.”
She triggered the rivet gun at the Combine Marine as she moved, fluid, fast, ducking underneath the Combine Terran's fist and stabbing Falmo'o down the flank with the knife even as she drove two foot rivets into the body the Marine.
Falmo'o went down on his knees, coughing up blood.
The Combine Terran crashed to the floor and Taynee straddled him, slamming rivets up his spine and two into the back of the head.
Falmo'o looked up as she moved in front of him.
”You've always been my favorite, Falmy,” she smiled, her naked body covered in blood. She wiped away two fingers of blood and then sucked on her fingers.
”See you in a little bit, Falmy,” she smiled.