A Stroke Of Originality

Hello everyone! This story is a continuation of a story a started a while back. I would advise you check out Hunters: Gontis Rampage first and Hunters: Testing Equipment after. That should get you up to speed with The Hunters. If you’ve already read those then don’t let me hold you up any longer. Happy reading!

 

Ian watched as Commander Burke pulled his man from the hole and back up to their ship.

“I guess that’s it boy’s, look like the brass actually did some work today.” Ian laughed. “Get us out of here,” he told the pilot. 

The pilot gave him a nod and quickly ascended their ship out the war zone.

“Well, boys, it looks like our first mission as a unit was to do a drive-by the hot zone.” Ian walked back, patting his troops on the shoulders as they joked around.

“H-e-l—-p” A voice came over the radio full of static, interrupting their jokes.

Ian quickly ran towards the radio, “Say again, I can barely hear you.” 

Static came through the receiver once more, followed by silence.

“I repeat, I can barely hear you. Say again, are you okay?” Ian shouted through the mic.

He waited for what seemed like hours in silence, with his crew’s eyes like daggers at his back.

“Help! We are surrounded on all sides, barely holding up.” A voice finally came in.

“This is Sgt Ian Hawk, who am I speaking to, and what’s your location.”

“Oh man, Ian, am I glad to hear your voice, it’s Vic,” he replied.

“I haven’t seen you since the moon incident, what happened?”

“We came down here to retrieve a specimen, and the fucking brass left us here when the Ganas came. It’s terrible, and if we don’t get help soon… we are dead.”

Ian turned and looked at his crew. “I knew it was too good to be true, fucking brass can’t do anything right. Redirect us back towards the hot zone.”

The pilot immediately began sweating as he acknowledged his orders.

“Vic, I’m going to need you to ping us your location, we are on our way.” 

“Pinging now! Get us home, Ian.” Vic pleaded.

“Listen up!” Ian hollered.

His troops stood tall in the aisle of the aircraft and gave him their undivided attention. 

“The brass left some of our boys down in that hell hole, and we are going to bring them back. We are all going to come back. You follow my orders and stay close. Keep your weapons hot at all times, and no one! Absolutely no one! Try to be a hero, besides me. You are all my responsibility, and I plan on bringing every single last one of you home. We leave no one behind, and we trust one another. Understood?” 

“Yes, sir!” The troops yelled in unison.

“Now suit up, and look each other over. You take care of your tech, and it will take care of you.” Ian encouraged.

 He walked over to his armor and started doing his computer checks when the ship’s receiver went off.

“Sir, the brass is pinging our aircraft.” The pilot said.

“Patch them through,” Ian replied.

“What the hell are you doing, Sgt Hawk? You are to evacuate immediately.” A voice came fuming over the radio.

“Oh, you know. Just going to grab some of those troops of ours you left behind.” Ian gibbed.

“You will follow the order given to you or see your command taken when you get back here!” The man growled.

“I’ll see you when I get back, sir, have a good day.” Ian mocked as he disconnected the radio. 

Ian walked over to the pilot and put his hand on the man’s shoulder. “You keep this thing above this hole as long as you can.”

The pilot gave him a nod as Ian walked back towards his suit. Steam flushed from the suit’s cockpit as it opened up. Ian stepped into it and booted the systems up to do a systems check. The computer showed all systems were 100% operational. Pressing a button on the monitor, the suit sealed itself back up and activated its hydraulics system. Here we go, Ian thought as his suit unlatched from the aircraft and fell to the floor.

“Coming up on the hot zone now, sir!” The pilot yelled as he opened up the exit ramp.

“Alright, boys! Remember what I said, let’s go in there and get our people!” Ian yelled as he ran down the ramp and leaped down into the hot zone.

Diving down to the ground, the Ganas swarmed the tunnel, trying to prevent their entrance.

“Lit em up, Ethan!” Ian ordered his troop.

Ethan promptly activated his suits flamethrower, clearing out the horde of Ganas from the entrance point. Shortly after, the crew landed into the pit of the Ganas’s nest. Ian immediately pulled Vic’s location on his computer and started sprinting towards it. The team followed behind closely, covering his flank. To their surprise, they didn’t encounter much resistance from the Ganas, it made Ian cautious as he slowed down his pace.

“Vic’s location should be up ahead, but everyone stay alert,” Ian commanded.

The group walked up to a blocked off corridor and tried to listen for movement. They heard faint sounds, and they knew it had to be Vic’s unit.

“Smith, drill a hole and us through there. Now!” Ian ordered.

Smith promptly activated his suit’s drilling function and started making a new tunnel through the wall. As he dug his way through, the team followed him until he made it to the other side. They weren’t prepared for what they saw, A large Ganas and a swarm of small creatures were overwhelming Vic’s unit.

“Light ’em up!” Ian demanded as he activated all of his suit’s weapon functions.

Ian’s unit unleashed a barrage of bullets upon the beasts. To their dismay, the larger of the Ganas hardened his skin and slowly started walking towards the group, as it blocked their gunfire.

“Spread out, two of you go and help Vic’s unit, and the rest of you circle the beast! Don’t let the beast hone in on us all at once. Try to hit it’s weak spots when it focuses on someone else.” Ian said through his suit’s comm device.

Instantly the squad began fanning out, away from the beast while it focused on Ian.

“Come on, you overgrown mutant! Get some!” Ian yelled as the Ganas slowly approached.

The creature picked up its pace and charged at Ian, knocking him into a nearby wall. Instant flashes of red came from his computer screen, warning him that some of the suit’s capabilities were failing. 

“Damn, it hits hard,” Ian admitted as his team distracted the beast.

As the beast turned its back on Ian to pursue his teammates, he noticed there was an exposed organ in the middle of the creature’s back. Get up! Get up! He thought as he hammered his fist on the computer console, reactivating the machine’s hydraulic systems. As soon as he could stand, Ian extended the blades from his suit’s arms.

“Keep it busy! I’m going to try something.” Ian said as he charged the beast.

With one quick leap, he dug his blades into the beasts exposed organ, sending it reeling in pain.

“Everyone out now! While the creatures are reeling, out the way we came in, Smith, you lead the way, and Vic, you’re in the middle, I’ll cover the rear. Move now!” Ian barked.

With haste, the unit made their way back towards the exit. They started to see daylight when a sudden rumble in the ground slowed them down. The giant creature came from tunneling from the ground, cutting Ian off from the rest of his unit.

“Go! Get the wounded out of here, I’ll catch up,” Ian ordered.

His team was hesitant, but they listened and continued moving.

“You hurt me.” The creature struggled.

“You can talk?” Ian sounded surprised.

“Me, kill… you,” it replied.

“Yeah, go ahead and try,” Ian responded, firing off a few rounds from his weapon.

The beast was unfazed by the shots and punched Ian into the wall relentlessly.

“System failure, system malfunction, system losing power…” The computer came through the suit’s speaker loudly.

“I hear you!” Ian grumbled, punching the screen. “I guess this is it, boys,” he said as the monster continued its assault.

Ian tapped in a few commands on the computer, initiating the self destruct sequence. In a surprise move, Ian grabbed the beast as tight as he could as the timer to self-destruct ticked down.

“It’s you and me, you ugly son of a…” 

“Ian, eject, I’ll catch you!” Vic’s voice came through the speaker, interrupting Ian.

Ian looked up and saw Vic hovering above. 

“Guess that’s my ticket out of here, enjoy your present.” Ian gibbed as he ejected.

The suit launched Ian upward towards Vic, who quickly caught him.

“I thought I told you… no one was to play hero but me.” Ian laughed. “But we should hurry and get out of here before that thing blows,” Ian said, pointing downward.

Vic looked down and saw Ian’s suit latched on to the creature below them.

“You crazy son of A…”

 

I hope you all enjoyed the short story. Let me know what you thought about it in the comments below. I hope you all are staying safe in these trying times around the world.

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