Operation: Pacifica, Thanatopsis by CyberPyro (deadlock@one.net) The dying explosion of the _Wolfbane_ echoed across Sponge City, jolting Jihaddi with the abruptness and intensity of its noise. "What the..?" Shots rang out. The screams of dying men. Wood snapped and brick crumbled as several large, mechanical copies of the Demonic Trio rolled out from their hiding place. "Take cover!" yelled Centurion Cadmus. His men hid behind what they could and returned fire. Throughout the city, Wyrm bots broke from cover and sponge minions poured from bunkers. "It's a trap." ... A spongin screamed in agony as Centurion Cadmus' Jihaddium blade sliced neatly through its torso to end its life. The unarmored DE troops used swords, pistols, rifles, and a variety of custom weapons to fight off the platoons of spongin closing in on them. Perversely, the wyrm bots were standing silence behind the swelling spongin ranks, blocking all escape routes through the streets. "They're keeping us from escaping." thought Cadmus aloud as he parried a spongin's clumsy attack with a metallic club and brought his sword down on its neck. "We've got to break out of here." A quintet of DE troopers fired the last of their M-16 clips into a thinned collection of spongin. Enough bullets found their marks to wound every creature and leave an alley clear. Spotting their chance to escape, the Jihaddi began moving through the war-torn streets. "Move it Dobermensch!" barked Cadmus as his soldiers seemed uncertain of leaving the battlefield. The cannon of a b'habii b'hopp bot roared to life. A second later, its rockets impacted several Jihaddi's torsos, exploding them in a cloud of red, visceral goo. The chain guns on a Hell Wyrm bot whirled to life and sprayed spongin and Jihaddi indiscriminately with clouds of bullets. They wanted the Dobermensch dead. The concern for the lives of their kin was a distant priority. Cadmus dove into the mouth of the alley, bullets peppering the wall where he had been standing. He picked himself up and ran down the alley. A moment later, rockets struck the alley's entrance and brought a brick wall crumbling down to fill the alley entrance. On the other side of the rubble, a spongin commander howled in rage as the Jihaddi escaped. ... The ragged survivors of Cadmus' platoon crouched in the alley as their commander approached. Most of them had died back there in the street. They were alone, cut off from their fellow Jihaddi in a city filled with enemies. All radios were dead, which made them even more weary: something or someone had them trapped and was just waiting to strike. "All right, I don't need to say the obvious," began Cadmus, "The best way out is back towards the fleet." The Dobermensch slowly stood and followed after their commander. ... More than thirty minutes had passed and the Dobermensch were no closer to finding the beach, and thus the Jihaddi hovercraft, than they had been when they started out. Paths that had been assumed to lead westward quickly turned to the south or east, forcing them deeper into the city. When the small collection of Jihaddi found a road leading directly east, they soon discovered it blocked by Wyrm Bots or other creatures they could not hope to survive against in battle. Nerves became taut and tempers began to flare as the Jihaddi found themselves driven deeper and deeper into the city without any means of reversing their course. ... More than an hour later, with tempers near exploding, Cadmus and his men walked out into a large plaza with a gurgling fountain at its center. Three other streets came into the square from right angles. From the appearance of the bulidings, the square should have been bustling with activity. It was completely silent. The Dobermensch made their way towards the fountain, curious why this was the only artist display they'd seen in the entire city thus far aside from crude sponge minion renderings of the Hell Wyrm. "Nothing extraordinary," observed Cadmus after peering down into the fountain. Harsh, icy cruel laughter erupted on all sides of the Jihaddi and echoed about them. The men drew their swords, stood back-to-back, and tried to spot the sources of laughter. The laughter's owners slid into view, blocking doorways and the four possible exits from the square. They were a uniform nagenta host, twisted and perverse creatures to behold. Faces that once belonged to humans were now elongated and deformed, their eyes bulging obscenely over grotesque holes that replaced a nose. Their jaws, filled with yellowed, sharp teeth, were larger than usual, protruding strongly from the overall profile. Their leathery skin stretched tightly over bodies of which little more remained than sinew and bones. Limbs were now tumor and scale-covered, barely recognized as corruptions of humanity. Varieties of armor protected these creatures as they tightened their circle on the Jihaddi. "Holy Grimace," breathed a trooper next to Cadmus as the creatures closed in on he and his men. He looked into these creatures' eyes and saw insanity, nightmares that he understood on an instinctual level. And it terrified him, rooted him to the place he stood, unable to move for the horror flowing through his veins. "Thanatins," sighed Cadmus, at last realizing these creatures' identity. The Lyran creations bellowed as they charged the Jihaddi, blades set to kill. The trooper who had stood motionless in horror suddenly broke from his stance and attempted to flee. He ran towards the charging circle of thanatins, tripped as he tried to run past them, and fell face-first onto the grey cobbles. Before he could wipe away the blood running from his split forhead into his eyes, the thanatins were upon him. A battleaxe clove through his right forearm and sparked upon the stones. The trooper attempted to cry out, his scream dying in a bloody gurgle as a thanatin sword pierced his lungs. Cadmus drew his Jihaddium sword and prepared for the charging creature coming for him. It lunged, over-extended its reach, and fell to the ground, its left flank tore open from the Centurion's blade. The screams of dying men filled Cadmus' ears. He parried another blow, slid under his foe's defense, and delivered a lethal upper cut with his blade. The creature fell back onto the cobbles, its life blood spurting from its chest, only to have another take its place. The last Dobermensch looked around him. All his men were dead on the stones. The thanatin made a large circle around him and brandished their weapons, jabbing at him but stopping short of coming close enough to cause wounds or be struck with the Centurion's blade. "They're just pl... *arrrgghh*" groaned Cadmus as crossbow bolt pierced his left calf. Another bolt sunk into his thigh and struck bone. He toppled towards the cobbles, three more bolts piercing his stomach, chest, and shoulder. The landing stole his breath. Cadmus reached out for his sword beside him. Seven bolts pierced his arms, legs, chest, and back as thanatins closed in on him. His last sight, before the eternal darkness took him, was of thanatin battleaxes held high above his foes' head, ready to strike. ... J-Rock and three of his zodiac-armored men rushed towards the square. They'd detected isolated Jihaddi and enemy forces in this area. Hopefully they weren't too late. "What in Grimace's name..." uttered a stunned J-Rock. Nagenta, leathery creatures were huddled around something laying in the plaza and were slowly pounding on it. "HEY!" yelled J-Rock as his chainguns whirled up to speed. The thanatin looked up, surprised that someone had found them. Their leader began to issue some orders in a guttural tongue, but his brightly colored chest and back exploded into lavender blood as bullets ripped through his torso. More of their kind screamed in agony, the Jihaddi's weapons ending their life. "I got 'im," spoke Sargent Bayer beside J-Rock. A rocket flew from his shoulder, chased the last fleeing thanatin across the plaza, and exploded its torso in a shockwave of pastel tinged fire. "Oh, Gaia..." sighed J-Rock as approached the remains of his fellow Jihaddi. He knelt down on blood-stained cobbles and said a brief prayer for the dead. Cadmus lay there with his men, his face oddly tranquil for the circumstances of his death. "Rest well, Centurion." J-Rock pulled the metallic glove of his armor off, reached downwards, and closed the Dobermensch's eyes with his fingertips. - CP Copyright, Pyrokinetic Productions, Inc. (1997)