Chapter 20 – Brain and bullets

This door led me into another big room and there was a big battle here as well. I recognized Jake from the crowd of UFR soldiers who were shooting at couple of Crepts. Jake was a heavy weapons expert and so at the moment was using a minigun. It was one of the latest models and had an incredible rate of fire with very penetrating ammo. I wasn’t surprised when I saw those two Crepts go down in seconds.
He suddenly saw me and spoke into his radio:
- “Boss, he’s here.”
He then gave order to couple of UFR soldiers to go for me. They obeyed and aimed their guns at me. I shot at them from V SMG and both of them collapsed onto the floor dead. I then discarded it as I had no more ammo left in it. Here Jake aimed his minigun at me and opened fire. I quickly hid behind some metal boxes. The ammo of the minigun was so strong that it was moving the boxes from their place even, considering they probably weighed tonnes. I knew that boxes won’t hold me here for long as soon the bullets will penetrate and will get me, therefore I aimed at the chains supporting a platform with boxes hanging off the ceiling of the room. Once I shot one of the chains the whole platform tilted and the boxes slid off and fell. Jake saw that and therefore jumped out of the way. Most of the boxes missed him, but one managed to land on his feet.
I quickly came out of cover. Jake dropped his minigun, but he also had a RAM17 rocket launcher with him, so he equipped it to his crufacle quite quickly and began shooting from the ground. He couldn’t get up as the box was still trapping one of his feet.
The missiles were fast, so I couldn’t shoot them down, but instead only could run for my life. Suddenly two Maliffs reached Jake. One of them snatched the rocket launcher off his hands and snapped it in two, while another one began slapping his face really hard. Jake took out a V pistol and shot at that Maliff several times till it died. The other Maliff went for me however, but didn’t get very far as I shot him down within 2 seconds.
There was no-one else alive in the room now except for me and Jake. Jake aimed at me with his V pistol and pressed the trigger but it was out of ammo. I slowly walked up to him and began saying:
- “I cannot believe that you betrayed us. You were our best man! How could you turn your back on us and work for these freaks?!”
- “Because Chuck is a clever man and he knows what he’s doing. I too think that it is us humans who have to adapt to the planet and not the environment that has to adapt to us.” Jake justified himself.
- “Well we’re not supernatural beings you know. There’s only so much that we can do, but we can’t be Gods.” I explained.
- “I don’t care about it anymore.” Jake said, “Are you gonna kill me? You don’t have the guts.”
- “No, I don’t. But they do.” I said when I saw a hoard of Vagros with a few Maliffs approaching the room’s entrance in the corridor, “Farewell fellow comrade.”
At this point I picked up Jake’s minigun and a couple of lime grenades from fallen UFR soldiers and left the room through one of the other doors in it. I was now in a small corridor that split into three. I knew that Chuck has to be near somewhere. The minigun was very heavy and was wearing me out already. I read the signs on the wall. The one on the left said ‘weaponry & labs’, the one on the right said ‘exit’ and the one straight on said ‘Adreno-man machine’.
I had a feeling that I should be heading to the ‘Adreno-man’ room. As I made my decision and began walking in that direction I could hear Jake’s screams from the previous room. I finally reached a big door in front of me. It had a retinal scanner next to it. I knew it won’t grant me access, so began thinking of an alternative way. After few seconds of thinking the door magically opened. Chuck must’ve been expecting me.
I walked into the room. It was massive with a relatively small in comparison machine in the centre of it.
- “What a waste of space.” I commented.
Here I heard Chuck’s voice:
- “What a waste of talent!”
I turned to the sound of the voice instantaneously and saw Chuck sitting behind a huge turret gun or better to say turret guns. It was by the other entrance into the room.
- “Make your next few breaths count, agent, because they’ll be your last.” Chuck said menacingly.
At this moment he began firing from one of the guns. Its rate of fire was even higher than of this minigun that Jake was using. I ran behind the Adreno-man machine as I knew that a) it’s the only cover in the room and b) Chuck won’t shoot at it.
And I was right, he stopped firing. I quickly came out and opened fire from the minigun and managed to destroy a couple of the guns mounted to that turret. However the ammo ran out in no time.
- “Damn, bad timing!” I said to myself.
Chuck then fired from a laser cannon, but I went behind Adreno-man again. I knew that he might’ve had bullets but I had brain. Now it was the time to use the lime grenades, both of them. I activated them both and threw one on the either side of the machine. Chuck could see two clouds of mist, but he didn’t know which one I was going to use. He began blindly shooting at one.
- “Are you dead yet?” He shouted.
- “In your dreams.” I said.
He then shot at the other one.
- “Now you are!” He shouted.
What he didn’t know is that I used them simply for distraction and while he was shooting at them, I climbed on top of Adreno-man where he couldn’t see me.
- “So much for the great hero.” Chuck said, but didn’t leave the turret yet as he wanted the obscure clouds to disappear and to make sure I am dead.
I then aimed at Chuck from the top with my V pistol. I had only two shots left. I shot once and got Chuck in the right arm. He now spotted me and got very angry, so he forgot about his Adreno-man completely and shot at me from a rocket launcher part of the turret with his left hand. The rocket exploded next to where I was standing, so I lost my balance and fell all the way down. It hurt a lot, but I got used to falling by now.
Chuck then left the turret gun and walked up to me while holding a V pistol with an outstretched arm.
- “It’s too bad that you rejected joining us. We could’ve prepared humanity for a bright future.”
- “You call those monsters future?!” I asked him angrily while still on the ground.
- “They are of little concern. Soon to be extinct, don’t worry. We will replace VENUS force and will rule the world. I will be the richest man in the world.”
I got tired of listening to the crap coming from his lips and so decided to risk it and to shoot in his direction with my last bullet. I got him in the left shoulder and so he dropped his V pistol.
- “You idiot!” he cursed.
I then got up onto my feet carefully and walked up to him. I looked him directly in the eyes and said:
- “You know what? I don’t like your future. If you do however then here, go and experience it.”
At this stage I grabbed Chuck into a policeman lock, led him towards the Adreno-man machine and locked him to the seat.
- “What are you doing?” Chuck asked.
- “You’re soon to find out.” I said and activated the machine.
I then set it onto the highest setting and pressed ‘go’. Chuck began getting charged with adrenaline, but as it was on the highest setting it was lethal. After couple of minutes he began shaking in the seat really crazily, his skin began getting very red and his eyes began turning liquid.
The machine itself couldn’t withstand the highest setting for too long and so began giving out sparks and strange noises. It set Chuck on fire after a while. He was pretty much beyond death by now. I knew it was time to leave, but as I started making my way out of the room the machine exploded, engulfing me in the explosion.