Parallel: United Front

Chapter 11: V.O.K

While Eli riddled the missile chamber with explosives, and Raines bore the brunt of the Vokians' relentless assault, halfway across the cavern, Arthur was in the middle of finishing his own part of the mission.

The room he had entered turned out to be the main Control Station for all activities in the underground cavern. The hall was about a hundred meters by thirty. Large enough to fit several rows of work stations lined up in neat rows. It reminded him of the NASA mission towers in old movies.

Unfortunately, half of those stations had been destroyed in the bloody firefight that occured immediately Arthur entered. The fatigued young man was secretly pleased by the suit's auto-repair function. Though he had suffered intense pain when radiation seeped in through cracks in the armor, a thin membrane had soon covered up those holes. Of course, that membrane could barely block a stone's through, let alone a bullet. But right now, it was all that kept him from death.

Arthur winced as he pushed a vokian's corpse off the major terminal at the front. He wiped dark red blood off the panel which was quite literally a flat, black surface. Arthur placed his palm on the surface, and the surface lit up with holographic lights. He was surprised to find that the vokian was in the middle of manually destroying as many files as possible.

It seemed these guys did not bother with encryption or security on their systems. Arrogance of the strong?

Arthur did not have time to sort what was important and what was not. He immediately used the 'hack' function on his gauntlet to begin sucking in as much information as possible. When he saw how slow the process was, he swore to get it upgraded once they got back to town. For an agent that often deals with information manipulation, this speed was beyond embarrassing. It was like someone still using a USB3.0 flash drive to steal information from a conglomerate.

While Arthur lamented his terrible equipment, Dayle was in a predicament of his own. Namely: Staying Alive.

As a child, Dayle had come across quite a few supernatural characters in comics and movies. He had always admired their impossible strength, while at the same time relishing the fact he would never have to face something like that in his entire lifetime.

Why then, in the name of God was he fighting combinations of Hulk, Hercules and Hellboy all rolled into nice blends of natural disasters! Dayle cursed as he backed away, his revolvers constantly repelling the vokians that dashed at him, as well as preventing them from surrounding him.

Though there were only eleven of them, they felt more like one hundred. Their pain threshold was significantly higher than humans, their temperament more violent than starving beasts. They charged relentlessly, regardless of streams of blood from bullet puncture holes.

Dayle himself was getting frustrated. He had to fight these monsters while keeping aware of his surroundings to prevent himself from getting trapped. And even then, he still had to watch out for falling debris and flames.

Dayle decided to switch tactics. He swapped out the bullets in each revolver as he backed up in between two crates whose surfaces were red from the heat. Two vokians sped into the narrow passageway, while the rest jumped onto the top of the crate as they gave pursuit.

Dayle frowned. Just two? Damn it. His hands were lightning quick as three shots rang out, followed by three explosions. The first bullet exploded upon contact with the ground in front of him. Dust and earth kicked up and blew holes in the sides of the crates. Just as the smoke began to rise, two more bullets tore through them and into the vokians' massive frames.

If there was one good thing about these massive beings, it was that they were walking targets. Their massive frames made targeting too easy, although it was made even easier since they followed Dayle into the narrow passage way.