Operation Phoenix: From The Deep (pt.2)


The X'hirjq commander was quite pleased with himself; it seemed that 
he'd been able to take the humans completely by surprise.  No radar 
waves were bouncing off the hulls of his transports and radio traffic 
showed no sign that the humans were alerted to their presence.  He 
opened the hatch and climbed our on top of the hull, accompanied by 
two of his subordinates; he wanted to see the city he was going to 
destroy with his own eyes.  A pleasant feeling of anticipation flowed 
through him as he thought of leveling the numerous tall buildings near 
the waterfront--packed, of course, with the worthless inhabitants of 
this planet.  He would have liked to sink all the ships in the harbor 
as well; he was curious as to how the humans drowned, but 
unfortunately, Master B'harnii had ordered that the ships be spared 
for future use. Perhaps he would be allowed one or two, he thought, 
and he brightened somewhat at this hope.

        The Old Bastard roared low over Boston as nearly the entire remaining 
complement of Mordrid's pre-Jihad organization moved towards the 
waterfront, packaged in a couple of van-size troop transports escorted 
by a unit of four Blue Dragon armored cars.  Following them were 
several transport trucks hauling heavy artillery and some other 
unpleasant surprises for the invaders and, bringing up the rear, the 
sole M1A1 Abrams tank they had in good working order.

The X'hirjq commander looked down at the communicator hanging from his 
belt.  How long had it been beeping? he thought absently.  As he went 
to grab it, he heard a low humming, off to his left and steadily 
increasing in volume.  He turned to see what it was.

        "Commander," said the pilot of the Old Bastard, "I've got a visual on 
the objects.  There's about three...I guess they're people wandering 
around on the lead one, but they look pretty funny.  Maybe they're 
wearing armor--can't tell."
        "They're not people, pilot," responded Mordrid.  "We think they're 
aliens serving in B'harnii's invasion force."
        The pilot seemed visibly disturbed by this information.  "Aliens...!  
Shit!  Uh, I got a lock on the lead one, at any rate.  You want I 
should blast 'em?"
        "Knock yourself out."  The pilot squeezed the handle on the control 
stick and four streams of plasma shot from the turret cannon, 
temporarily darkening the polarized glass in the windscreen as they 
sped past.
        The first one hit the hull about five feet from the nearest X'hirjq, 
creating a two-foot-diameter hole, the metal around the edge glowing 
red from the bolt's heat.  It also killed a X'hirjq who was in the 
process of donning his battle armor.  The second struck less than two 
feet away, creating a similarly sized hole before expending itself 
against a fully-armored X'hirjq, throwing him back against the hull 
causing moderate damage to his armor.  The third blasted through one 
of the unarmored X'hirjq accompanying the commander, nearly slicing 
him in half.
        The commander, having slightly faster reflexes than his subordinates, 
had moved to leap into the water as soon as he saw the Bastard bearing 
down on them, but he was just a little too slow.  The fourth bolt, 
which would have vaporized his head had he remained where he was, 
instead blew off the lower part of his leg as he leaped through the 
air.  In the course of his flight, he met with the Bastard's starboard 
propeller as it flew over the transports at twelve feet of altitude, 
spraying greenish blood and chunks of reptilian flesh all over the 
side of the plane.
        "This is the Bastard, Commander.  I've blown a couple holes in the 
hull and taken out those guys on top.  Should I go 'round for an--"  
The sound of a muffled explosion interrupted the pilot.  "What the--?"  
        "What is it, pilot?"
        "I've taken a couple hits on the rear fuselage.  Looks like they're 
shooting at me.  So far no serious damage, but my armor's lookin 
pretty thin in places, so I'm gonna head outta here for now."
        "Affirmative, pilot."  He switched channels.  "Post eight, what do 
you see now?"
        "Saw the Bastard go over.  There's smoke comin' up out of the one 
that got hit, but they're all shooting at him now from these dome 
things that came up outta their tops."
        "ETA at the shore?"
        "'Bout ten minutes, Commander.  They're movin' along pretty fast now 
that they know we've spotted them.  Wait a minute--they're submerging, 
except for the damaged one--we must've gotten something in there."
        "Hm.  Harbor should have an easy kill then.  Problem is, now we can't 
track them.  They could pop up anywhere along the waterfront at any 
time."  He switched channels yet again.  "Angels, take up positions in 
Government Center.  That's central enough a location for us to respond 
fairly quickly wherever they land.  Bastard, keep an eye out for them 
up there.  Harbor, the same--once you destroy the cripple, that is.  
We're doin' okay, people--one down, four to go.  Mordrid out."