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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 5128553" data-attributes="member: 143">Session 18 (August 25, 2008)Chapter 66“Get into cover!” Hadrian yelled, firing a long burst from his M4 to cover Cecilia as she rose and staggered toward the relative shelter of the corner. On the opposite side of the hallway, Jane leaned out from the barracks doorway.  She drew a bead with her laser rifle, and fired a pulse that struck one of the armored troopers in the faceplate.  For a moment it looked like she might have had him, but he dodged ponderously aside, slamming into the side of the hallway with enough force to dent the metal plating covering the wall.  His companion returned fire, and the plasma bolt struck the threshold of the doorway scant inches in front of Jane’s face.  She fell, her weapon clattering out of her hands as she hit the floor. “Jane!” Cecilia yelled.  She started to turn around, but Vasily stopped her with a raised hand.  “Hold your position!” he yelled, grabbing onto Jane’s leg and dragging her into the barracks.  The OSNAZ troopers continued to close, moving ponderously in their bulky suits.  Cecilia threw a gas grenade down the passage, which exploded into a cloud of silvery-green mist.  But it obscured the enemy troopers only for a moment; they could hear their heavy tread moments before their armored bodies materialized out of the bank of swirling gas.  Cecilia lasered the one she’d hit before, but again the shot seemed to have little or no effect.  She only barely got back behind the corner before the return fire, one bolt just clipping her arm but doing little more than scorch her armor.  The armored soldiers continued their approach; they were just fifteen meters away, now.  “Try different weapons!  Lasers not doing much!” Vasily shouted.  Hadrian had already come to the same conclusion; he dropped his empty rifle and drew out the alien plasma pistol.  He leaned out of cover just long enough to shoot the nearer of the two troopers, but again the man failed to go down, and Hadrian had to dart back to avoid a shot that clipped the edge of his shelter, the energetic plasma exploding in a spray of white fire.  “Hadrian!” Vasily yelled.  As the Marine looked up, he saw that the Russian was holding his stun rod.  Hadrian nodded in understanding.  “Fall back!” he yelled to Cecilia.   “But Jane and Vasily…”“Fall back!”  He grabbed her shoulder and pushed, but in her armor, he might as well been trying to move a humvee.  She got the idea, though, and joined him in retreating down the hall toward the rooms they’d passed earlier.  They could hear the approach of the OSNAZ armored troopers before they could see them, and as the first appeared around the corner, both Hadrian and Cecilia shot him.  This time they seemed to faze him, and he sagged to the side, favoring the leg that Hadrian had blasted twice now.  But he could still shoot back, and once again he hit Cecilia, the plasma bolt flashing brightly as it exploded against her shoulder.  The only thing keeping her up was her armor, but it was obvious that she couldn’t take much more punishment. The second trooper appeared, but before he could get a bead on the embattled Alphas, Vasily exploded out of the barracks.  The OSNAZ soldier spun around, but too slowly, and Vasily sliced down with his stun rod, spinning the trooper’s rifle of out his grip.  He followed up with a thrust that hit the trooper in the chest, the stun rod hissing as it discharged a powerful jolt of electricity into its target.  The Russian let out a cry of pain, but he remained standing.  He reached down to his hip, and grabbed a hilt that lay flush against the armored plate protecting his leg.  With a click, a familiar-looking edged weapon came into the trooper’s hand; it began to whine as the power unit began vibrating the short but deadly blade at a violent frequency.  Vasily knew from experience that it would cut through armor and flesh with equal facility. He wasn’t going to give the trooper a chance to regain the initiative.  He surged forward, coming at the flank opposite the vibroblade.  But with his feet planted, the trooper pivoted quickly, too quickly, and the vibroblade clashed with the stun rod.  It was Vasily who gave ground, and the trooper followed, slicing his weapon down, straight toward the surprised Russian’s head.</blockquote>

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