Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 5219103" data-attributes="member: 143">Session 23 (September 29, 2008)Chapter 99A grenade exploded at the muton’s feet, enveloping it in a cloying cloud of nasty green gas.  Vasily hurled himself aside just as a bright bolt blasted from within the gas.  The plasma clipped his arm, but most of the discharge trailed past him.  Grimacing against the pain that shot up the wounded limb, he staggered against a pillar and lifted his cannon.  He was just in time, as the dark outline of the muton materialized from within the gas right in front of him.  Both shot at the same time.  Vasily was flung back against the pillar as the plasma bolt slammed into his armored chest.  He felt hot needles of fire and screamed as plasma sizzled through the holes in the armor and seared his skin.  His own shot blasted into the alien’s gun, which exploded in a fiery burst of plasma and metal shards.  The alien was briefly obscured within a violent white haze, but then it emerged with arms outstretched, charging toward Vasily before he could recover enough to fire again. The Russian’s companions had their own problems, and could not immediately come to his aid.  Jane had fallen back into deeper cover, the pillar she’d hidden behind penetrated in several places where the first muton’s plasma cannon had perforated it.  Hadrian threw a second gas grenade at it, but the missile bounced and tumbled between its legs before exploding, catching it only on the edge of the toxic gas cloud.  In any case it had as little effect as the first had, and the alien forced him to take cover with a shot that narrowly missed taking his head off his shoulders.   James had been the last one up the ramp, and he pulled Mary to cover before unlimbering his rifle.  But before he could shoot, he saw Catalina get manhandled by the alien, and he charged across the room to help her.  The alien that had taken her down was distracted with Vasily, but the other one turned toward the motion and fired.  The plasma bolt exploded at his feet along the top of the ramp, hitting him with a blast of warmth as the superheated gas enveloped his legs.  He wasn’t seriously hurt, but the concussive force of the explosion took his feet out from under him, and he fell awkwardly onto the icy surface of the ramp.  Unable to stop gravity from taking hold, he slid down the icy ramp, finally landing face-first in a drift of slushy snow at its base.  Vasily had his plasma gun knocked from his grasp before he could bring it to bear, and then he and the alien were engaged in a violent close-quarters fight.  He didn’t have a chance to go for his stun rod, and narrowly avoided the alien’s grab at his throat, falling back against the awkward angle of the pillar.  He snarled and formed a knife-edge with his armored hand, chopping at the alien’s elbow.  The blow would have crippled a human’s arm, even without the augmented strength granted by his armor, but the alien’s expression didn’t change as it smashed Vasily with a backhanded strike that cracked his faceplate and drove him into the nearby alcove.  It didn’t give him a chance to recover, reaching in after him.  “Vasily’s in trouble!” Jane yelled, firing another shot at the muton with the plasma cannon, then ducking back as the return shot carved another gaping hole in the wall giving her and Hadrian cover.  The muton’s green suit was pocked now with black smears and divots where it had taken several direct hits, but if it was seriously wounded, it didn’t show it. “It’s got to reload some time,” Hadrian returned, sliding a fresh energy cell into his rifle—his last—and triggering the charge mechanism.  “I’ll draw its fire… go for the face!”  As soon as the indicator blinked ready, he darted out from cover, firing a blast that exploded against the alien’s hip.  As before, it seemed rooted to the ground, the solid impact not even forcing it to shift its stance.  The alien fired, and Hadrian dove forward, the plasma bolt flashing over him so close that he could feel the heat of it as it streaked by.  The Marine came up into a crouch, and saw the alien lower its gun, opening the breech the way he’d seen Vasily do with his own copy of the alien heavy weapon.  A white flare erupted from the center of the alien’s face as it slid a fresh Elerium cell into the gun.  That did discomfit the alien some, and it actually took a step back as it waved a hand through the plasma cloud, dissipating it.  Hadrian couldn’t see how it could have actually survived that hit, but it started to close its weapon again.  But even as the alien finished reloading, the Marine glanced left, and saw a more immediate problem. Vasily managed somehow to get his legs set under him, and as the muton reached for him he roared and pushed off, driving into the alien with the force of his own weight, the armor, and the strength of its actuators driving him forward.  The combined impact should have knocked the alien off its feet, but it merely shifted a step back and clamped onto him with its beefy arms, taking hold of him like a wrestler.  Vasily found himself lifted off his feet, all but helpless in the alien’s monstrous grasp.  He tried to dislodge himself with a strike at the alien’s face, but the blow was feeble, and he wasn’t able to manage another as it crushed him against its body, its left arm coming down over his shoulder, its right coming up under his arm on the other side, the two meeting in the center of his back.  He could hear the servos in his armor cracking as the embrace applied pressure to the joint of his right arm, and he could feel a numbness start to spread through his torso as the stress intensified.  He managed to turn his head to look directly into the alien’s face, still expressionless as it was slowly killing him.</blockquote>

Verification