Chapter 9

The Rookie – Tayari Plaza, nine hours after drop.

The Rookie moved into the building, the waypoint on his HUD leading him towards the nearest stairwell. He checked his corners, sweeping his plasma rifle across open doorways and pockets of shadow. This place was still crawling with Covvies, but he didn’t have time to clear every room. He mounted the stairs, trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder, passing the first floor, and then emerging onto the second.

A sudden screech from somewhere above him almost made him jump out of his skin, and he raised his head just in time to see a Jackal drop from the stairwell above him. The alien landed on him, grappling with him as it knocked him to the floor. The thing was far heavier than it looked, two hundred pounds at least, its sharp claws tearing at his BDU and glancing off his armor plating. He found himself on the floor with the alien on top of him, scrabbling at his belly with its taloned toes like a cat trying to disembowel its prey. Fortunately, there was too much armor and gear in the way, and its claws couldn’t penetrate. He tried to aim his plasma rifle at its chest, but it swiped the weapon out of his hand, sending it bouncing along the carpeted floor.

He managed to throw it off him, the creature darting away as he rose to his feet unsteadily. The two of them squared off, the Jackal snapping its jaws, its bulbous eyes fixed on him intently. The sharp quills that protruded from its head were standing erect, its rows of needle-like teeth bared in a snarl. These things looked small and frail at a distance, but their slim frames were packed with sinewy muscle, and they stood a head taller than the average Human when they weren’t crouching on their digitigrade legs.

It had obviously been hoping that its initial ambush would finish him off, and it very well could have if it had managed to penetrate his BDU. The alien lunged at him again, alarmingly fast, swiping with the claws on his three-fingered hand. He raised his arms to protect his face reflexively, exposing the unarmored areas of his forearms. The alien’s claws tore through the padded fabric and the Kevlar weave beneath, biting into his flesh and drawing red blood.

The alien drew a plasma pistol from its belt with the speed of a gunslinger and activated the point-defense gauntlet on its wrist, the Rookie reaching for his handgun in kind. He fired off a shot, but the round simply bounced off the glowing barrier of wavering plasma that the alien had erected, ricocheting into the ceiling and raining debris down on them. The alien poked its weapon through a convenient cut-out in the edge of the shield, the Rookie diving to the ground as a plasma bolt shot a burning hole in the wall where he had just been standing.

Scarcely taking the time to aim, he emptied his mag into the creature’s feet and ankles, firing beneath its round shield. The alien screeched in pain, its legs cut out from under it, joining him on the floor as its shield collapsed back into its projector. His handgun now empty, the Rookie reached for his weapon of last resort, drawing a combat knife from his boot. As the Jackal struggled to right itself, he plunged the blade into its skull from above, feeling it sink up to the hilt. The alien went limp, the Rookie climbing to a kneeling position, breathing hard as he struggled to pull the knife free.

He stumbled to his feet, wiping the purple blood that soaked the blade on his sleeve as he retrieved his plasma rifle, then turned back towards the stairs that led to the third floor. With a bloody knife in one hand and the compact rifle in the other, he pressed onward.