Klaw

Prologue1

The woman ran down the wooden corridor of her huge house. Her black hair was matted on her face, kept in place by sticky sweat. Tears ran down her cheeks leaving trails of salt and she let out desperate screams. The cold air around her was giving her goosebumps and her skin was pale. Blood trickled down her arms and legs, staining the wooden floor of the corridor. The woman turned around and saw the beast chasing her. Its ugly eyes peered through a black mask with slit for a nose and a hole for its mouth. The beast’s muscles rippled as it ran and it held its hands out in front. Hanging from the beast’s waist, flush against its completely black skin was a belt equipped with various daggers and whips. But the main attractions of this ferocious beast were its claws. Three shiny claws protruded from the ends of each hand. They were sharp and the woman screamed as he gained on her. When the beast was about three metres from the woman, he lashed out with his claws. They ripped through the air, breaking the sound barrier. There was a resounding boom and a flash of light. Although the claws didn’t physically touch the woman, the shock of them did and they opened up three nasty gashes in her back. She fell to the ground in a heap. The beast jumped on her and dug his claws in. In less then seconds, the woman was a bloody mess and the beast began devouring her.2

Briefing3

S.A.S Mission Briefing: Operation Klaw4

Classified TOP SECRET5

Not to be removed from the briefing room6

Do not copy or take notes7

For the purpose of this operation, the name of the unknown species is ‘Klaw’.8

History:9

Klaw have been coming down to our Earth for unknown reasons for at least two years now. It was not until the 31st of July 2005, when Doctor J. Franklin picked up transmissions between the Klaw’s spacecraft and their home base, that we discovered to existence of these creatures. Doctor Franklin listened in on these transmissions, which appeared to be coming from the Sahara Desert, for a whole three days before they stopped coming through; he didn’t recognize them as any known language.10

We also believe that Klaw landed in Antarctica around about August in 2003 but that is not confirmed.11

The reason that these creatures have to be on Earth is unknown but Doctor J. Franklin believes that it is so they can breed in an oxygen rich environment.12

Every year, when these creatures land on our planet, they take over a place to use as a breeding ground. Luckily, in 2005, they were situated in the Sahara Desert and therefore didn’t kill any human beings, but in 2004, it is believed that Klaw’s entered an American factory and killed everyone in it before using it to breed. Back then, we didn’t know that it was Klaw’s but now we are almost certain.13

We didn’t pick them up in 2006.14

The Mission:15

Your mission isn’t to find out information about these creatures; it is to kill them out.16

Doctor J. Franklin has been on the lookout for the infamous Klaw transmissions and has picked some up. The Klaw are still about three days away and are expected to land and take over the Dingo Flour Mil in Perth.17

There is an estimated 30 Klaw’s so three teams of five plus a mission control and a ten man air unit will be sent in to infiltrate the Klaw: Alpha (Ground Unit), Beta (Ground Unit), Charlie (Ground Unit), Delta (Air Unit), Echo (Home Base).18

The area has been evacuated and to avoid any death or injury from any sentries that the Klaw’s have deployed, all troops (except Delta team, who will be in a helicopter for the operation) will be parachuting from helicopters and landing on the roof of the building.19

Remember, this mission isn’t about finding out about Klaw’s. It is about exterminating them in any way possible. Little is known about Klaw’s so be extremely careful while in their company.20

Hopefully, if the Klaw’s are smart enough, after we kill these ones out, they will stay away from Earth and we will be safe. This mission is classified TOP SECRET. All the evacuated people think that there is a bomb in the Dingo Flour Mill. No one is to know about the existence of these creatures.21

Above Dingo Flour Mill, Australia, Perth, 4th of August 2007, 6.00 p.m22

Joseph Ronall gripped his M-16 tightly with his sweaty hands. He quickly did the same checks that he’d done a million times during the short flight from the airbase to Dingo Flour Mill: he checked that the safety was off; that his parachute cord was at his side and that his gun was loaded correctly.23

His sharp eyes looked out through his helmet visor at the fourteen other men in the rear loading area of the helicopter.24

Ronall was of average height, muscular and had dark brown hair. His slightly pudgy cheeks were pressed firmly against the helmet’s sides. He flicked up his visor and wiped some sweat away from his forehead; it was extremely hot and humid in the back of the helicopter, especially since he was wearing a full body kit including a bulletproof vest. Is temple’s throbbed in his helmet and yet another bead of sweat dripped slowly down the side of his face. Ronall wondered if the sweat was just because he was hot; the mission ahead was nothing ordinary. It wasn’t a simple get in, get the bad guys and get out like most of his S.A.S missions. They were dealing with things that nobody had ever seen, things that no one even knew about.25

Ronall line of thought was broken when a tinny voice came in through his helmet mike. 26

‘We ready to go? Leaders?’27

‘Beta team ready,’ said Jamie Fox, the Beta team leader.28

Fox was a cool guy. He was smooth and had dirty blonde hair. At six foot, he looked down on most of his colleagues.29

‘Charlie, ready,’ came Greg Reman.30

Ronall didn’t like him. He was tall, black haired and had a thin face. The sort that thought they were the best in the business.31

‘Delta ready,’ said Trevor Butler.32

‘Alpha ready,’ said Ronall.33

He was the leader of Alpha team. It was Ronall who would decide whether they died or not.34

‘Okay let’s go, Alpha first.’35

Ronall got up and signaled to his boys to get up. They all lined up next to each other at the opening at the side of the helicopter.36

‘3…2…1…Jump!’37

The five men all jumped out into the night sky and began their quick descent to the Dingo Flour Mill. Wind assaulted Ronall’s body as he glided with his arms and legs spread out in a star shape looking down at the city lights and hearing the sounds. The ground rushed up beneath him and when he was about a hundred metres above the roof he yanked on the rip cord of his parachute. The great black parachute puffed up into the air in a scrunched up ball before opening gloriously and slowing Ronall’s fall by a huge amount. His other team members did just the same and they carefully steered themselves to the top of the building.38

Ronall landed on the top of the Dingo Flour Mill with a huge jolt. He did a forward roll to take some of the impact before whipping off his parachute. He looked up just in time to see the members of Beta team gliding through the air.39

‘Follow me,’ said Ronall into his mike.40

The team of five scurried across the roof to the access hatch right in the centre. It was rather small, meaning only one man could fit down it at once. Ronall kicked it open and the square metal lid dropped down to the ground about thirty metres away. With his gun up, Ronall started walking down the set of steps that descended into the darkness.41

‘Need a flare?’ came the voice of Benjamin Gidder through his helmet mike.42

‘Yeah.’43

Gidder whipped a red flare out of his belt and lit it. Sparks shot out of the top and he tossed it through the manhole. Ronall counted two seconds before it thunked on the ground lighting up the entire room.44

It was amazing. To the far right were eight gigantic cylinders in two rows of four, they were the flour storage units. Pipes ran out of them so the flour could be pumped onto the conveyor belt were it was packaged and boxed. The conveyor belt twisted and cured around the whole room and various machines hung above it. The strangest thing was that the factory looked as if time had been stopped. Packets of flour were all just sitting on the conveyor belt; the machines had stopped halfway through doing a job. Ronall gathered that the Klaw had cut the power when they had entered.45

It was then that Ronall noticed something. He found, that he could see a clear path where the Klaw had been. A line of destruction cut straight through the middle of the room. The conveyor belts had been ripped apart, flour was all over the floor. It was as if there had been a stampede. The rest of the room was completely normal; it was just the one line where everything was so shattered.46

‘It’s safe to come in,’ said Ronall.47

‘Beta have just landed, let’s hustle,’ said Carl Thompson.48

Tall and lanky yet extremely clever, Thompson was one of Ronall’s best friends.49

They filed into the building and rushed down the steps with guns up.50

‘This is Delta leader, our thermal radar has just picked up a cluster of about five creatures moving towards you. They are coming from the north door,’ said Trevor Butler.51

‘Alright boys, be sharp,’ said Jamie Fox.52

The ten men already in the building took up tactical positions, hiding behind conveyor belts and barrels. They were all poised for an attack, waiting silently. Each and every one of them, with their guns aimed at the large metal door.53

Footsteps.54

Loud heavy footsteps echoed down the hall behind the door. The flare suddenly ran out and died down leaving the ten men with only the light from the moon that was coming in through windows in the roof.55

The footsteps got louder, Ronall gulped. He didn’t know what to expect, what would they be like?56

His thinking was cut short when the metal door burst open and five Klaw burst out; angry that someone had dared to intrude on them. Gunfire erupted in the building, with the ten men all shooting at the pack of Klaw. One of them roared out and jumped a whole six metres onto a Beta man. He was killed instantly by the Klaw’s massive claws. The rest of Beta turned their guns on it. They all fired simultaneously but the bullets just pinged off the Klaw’s chest.57

Ronall saw another Klaw pull out a knife of sorts and there was a flash of silver before Benjamin Gidder’s face was split open by a modified five-point shruiken. He fell to the round and dropped his gun. Ronall picked it up and nailed the Klaw in the face. It roared out clasping its face before dropping to the ground.58

‘We need back up!’ yelled Ronall.59

‘Coming,’ said Greg Reman as he dived through the manhole unleashing a withering burst of fire.60

He dropped the Klaw attacking Beta unit and jumped over the handrail of the steps landing on the ground with a thud.61

‘Watch out,’ yelled Thompson.62

A Klaw who had climbed onto the roof dropped down onto Robert Quire from Alpha unit.63

He was crushed by the sheer weight of the Klaw and Ronall, who saw it, winced.64

The Klaw stood up to its full height and roared. It was the first time that Ronall had properly seen one of them.65

It looked human but at full height, it was eight foot but usually bent over a little taking it down to about seven foot. Its skin was entirely black, a dark shiny black and muscles bulged all over its body. Its face was hidden by a mop of black dreadlocks and all that could be seen were huge fangs. Claws protruded from its hands and its feet had huge talons. Ronall had seen nothing more deadly in his life.66

He fired at it and blasted its head open. Black ‘blood’ sprayed everywhere.67

He looked over at Charlie unit, still on the steps, to see it getting mauled by the remaining two Klaw’s.68

‘Help Charlie,’ he yelled.69

Beta were already firing at the Klaw’s and Ronall, Thompson and Dillon Trek, the last Alpha men, started to help as well. One of the Klaw’s had its arm blown off but continued to fight before it was killed by Trek.70

Three of the Charlie men were dead; the only two left were Reman and Harry Lowan.71

Reman called for back-up.72

It came from Delta. Tracer bullets flew through the man hole down the steps. They were coming from the mounted Gatling gun. The bullets ripped into the last Klaw cutting it to ribbons. It tumbled down the steps before coming to a halt at the bottom.73

‘Thanks!’ said Reman.74

‘That’s fine,’ said Butler.75

The room was quiet again. Ronall was shaky, the Klaw’s had been much more powerful than he had expected. There had been six casualties including two men from his team. Now, only two Charlie men, four Beta men and three Alpha men remained. That was only after an attack from five Klaw’s. There was an estimated thirty in the building.76

‘Should we proceed?’ asked Ronall. ‘There have been six casualties and only nine remain.’77

At home base Echo unit were astounded by the result of the first battle but the mission needed to be completed, ‘Proceed, we are sending reinforcements.’78

‘How long will they be?’ asked Fox.79

‘About twenty minutes.’80

‘Alright, we’ll continue on but won’t start any gun fights.’81

The nine men sneaked out the door that the Klaw had come through and were confronted by a small room with two doors leading off it. The left one had been smashed down by the right one remained intact.82

‘Charlie and Alpha Unit join up and go through the right door, Beta take the left one. Change radio frequency and keep this one as the universal. Be sharp,’ said Greg Reman into his mike.83

Ronall walked cautiously over to the right hand door and kicked it down. The room beyond was dark and not much could be seen in it. He whipped out a flare and chucked it in the room. It bounced along before coming to a halt at the back wall of the room- which was quite some way away. The room was long and narrow and filled with white pipes. All sorts of colourfull chemicals were attached to the pipes by the machines that pumped whatever was in the pipes was off.84

‘Which room is this?’ asked Trek.85

‘I think it is where they add all the other ingredients to the flour,’ said Lowan.86

‘Yeah,’ said Thompson.87

Ronall turned his gun on a pipe and let of a single shot. A puff of white shot out the other side of the pipe.88

‘Yep, it’s flour.’89

The pipes ran into the wall at the back of the room; there was a door on the wall as well.90

‘Let’s go into the next room,’ said Ronall.91

‘Room clear then?’ asked Reman.92

‘Yep.’93

The walked over to the do with guns still up, they were all still a little shaken from the gun battle with the Klaw’s so they were all extremely cautious. Reman opened the door to the next room. As expected the pipes continued out of the wall and were connected to huge funnels that were sideways. Behind the funnels were grinders that ground up the wheat and spat it into the pipes to have the other ingredients added. Ungrounded wheat was waiting to be ground on the conveyor belt that came out of a square hole at the back of the room, but it had stopped just like the rest of the machines in the factory. 94

‘I’ll check on Beta Unit,’ said Reman.95

He flicked his radio over to Beta’s channel.96

‘Are you guys’ alright?’ he asked.97

‘I think we have found there main area,’ breathed Jamie Fox into his mike.98

‘How many are there?’ asked Reman.99

Dunno,’ came the reply. ‘Didn’t get a long enough look.’100

‘We’ll be right over there.’101

He flicked the channel back and was about to tell the other guys when a Klaw dropped from the roof and smacked him in the back with its gigantic hand. Reman went flying and hit the back wall. Ronall cast a glance over to him before returning his attention to the biggest threat: the Klaw.102

He fired madly at it but the bullets hit its chest harmlessly. It whipped out a shruiken and flung it at Thompson but he ducked and it embedded itself in the wall a few metres away from Reman’s slumped body. The others had started firing now but the Klaw was much stronger than they thought it was. It completely ignored the fact that it was being fired at by no less than four M-16’s. All the bullets just pinged off its chest like bouncy balls. The Klaw strolled up to Trek and picked him up. It was about to completely rip him apart when an RPG rocketed into the room through the square hole and impacted with the Klaw. It detonated and the explosion ripped the Klaw apart sending the black blood everywhere. The four remaining team members ran over to Reman and picked him up. Ronall checked for his pulse but there wasn’t any. His body had already started to go cold and there was nothing any of them could do.103

‘He’s gone,’ said Ronall into his mike.104

The all nodded silently and walked away from his body.105

‘Let’s get out of here through that hole and help out Beta.’106

They all clambered up the conveyor belt and out the hole to be confronted by a twenty strong team armed to the teeth with weaponry. They had the lot: RPG’s, AK-47’s, M-16’s, Uzi’s and a Mortar!107

‘Where are the Beta guys at?’ asked Lowan.108

‘I’ll ask,’ replied Ronall.109

He changed frequency and spoke to Fox, ‘Where are you guys.’110

‘I just told Reman, didn’t he tell you?’111

‘Reman’s dead,’ said Ronall. ‘We just got attacked by a lone Klaw.’112

‘Oh.’113

‘Found anything?’114

‘Yeah, I think we found the Klaw’s main camp.’115

‘Good. The reinforcements have just arrived, tell your men to switch back to the universal frequency.’116

‘Gotcha.’117

Ronall told his men to make the switch and now everybody was in contact; including the reinforcements.118

‘Alright boys. There are about twenty Klaw in that room. Where are you Ronall?’119

‘I believe that we are on the other side of the room; out by the wheat loading area.’120

‘Good. You guys come from that side and we’ll enter from this side. The room’s a grinding room so there are funnels. I want men behind the funnels but if it gets rough in there, pull out.’121

‘The reinforcements are armed well. I think we can take them,’ said Ronall.122

‘Alright. Let’s rock!’ yelled Fox.123

The Beta men kicked down the door and started firing just as the three Alpha men, one Charlie man, and twenty reinforcements blew down the wall on the other side.124

The Klaw were caught by surprise and three were killed by RPG blasts. But after the initial shock died down, they were up and ready. Two shruikens smacked into two faces from the reinforcement’s boys. Lowan charged forward and jumped onto the conveyor belt. He fired madly with a newly obtained AK-47 and ripped apart one of the Klaw.125

The Klaw were smarter than they thought though. They had started to make a defensive circle and were advancing out; they would eventually cover the whole room. This lowered their casualties and increased the S.A.S casualties. The smashed apart anything in their way and protected each other.126

‘Everyone get out, we are getting overpowered!’ yelled Fox.127

The men started to run to the hole, which the RPG had made, firing randomly behind them. Klaw chased after them and some didn’t make it out being slashed to pieces by the Klaw’s deadly claw’s and talons.128

When all of the soldier’s were out some of the reinforcements got to work setting up a mortar. They pulled out a shell and dropped it into the barrel.129

BOOM!130

The first shot flew through the hole and exploded in the grinding room. But there was no time for the second shot as a Klaw jumped out of the room and smashed it with his fist.131

‘We need help Delta!’ yelled Ronall into his mike.132

The helicopter came into view over the top of the building and started firing. The bullets smashed into Harry Lowan and he fell to the ground dead.133

‘What the hell are you doing?’ yelled Ronall. ‘You just killed a Charlie man.’134

The chopper kept firing and it cut down two of the reinforcements.135

‘Sorry Joseph. They are our orders. We are ASWI.’136

‘Well kill the Klaw first then we can fight it out after.’137

‘Deal.’138

Delta team changed their target to the Klaw pouring out of the hole in the wall. Missiles shot out and detonated on the Klaw sending them flying.139

Ronall switched to a private Alpha channel that could still be heard by Echo Unit, ‘Delta is a rogue unit, I repeat, Delta is a rogue unit. They just killed Harry Lowan.’140

‘What!’ came the reply from Echo.141

‘It was a shock to me too but we are under attack now.’142

He switched back to the universal channel. 143

Thompson, Trek and Ronall were fighting brilliantly. They were lying down under one of the loading trucks picking off Klaw.144

‘Why don’t the bullets penetrate their chests?’ asked Trek.145

‘They have much thicker skin there so the bullets just bounce off,’ replied Ronall. ‘Shoot them in the head.’146

Ronall kept firing hard concentrating on the Klaw.147

‘Trek, let’s get out from under here and get onto the roof of the building via that ladder over there,’ said Ronall.148

‘Argh!’149

Ronall looked next to him where Trek had been just in time to see him being whipped away. A Klaw had sneaked up behind them, grabbed Trek’s legs and pulled him out from underneath the truck. The Klaw held him upside down by one leg. The Klaw had a knife and it was at Trek’s throat. His head was about to be removed from his shoulder’s when Thompson turned around under the truck and blew the Klaw’s head off. Trek dropped to the ground.150

‘You alright?’ asked Thompson.151

‘Yeah,’ replied Trek. ‘Let’s go!’152

The three ran over to the ladder at the side of the building and began to climb. Ronall reached the top first and looked around him he could see the battle raging beneath them. The wind up the top had increased and it almost blew him over but he regained his balance and went over to help Thompson and Trek up. Once they were all on the roof. Trek pulled out a sniper rifle.153

‘Where did you get that from?’ asked Ronall.154

‘From one of the dead reinforcements.’155

‘Okay.’156

They lay down on the roof with their guns hanging over the edge and started firing at the Klaw. Trek took out three with his sniper but Ronall and Thompson weren’t having much luck with their M-16’s.157

Delta were firing like mad with their Gatling gun, killing at least fifty percent of the Klaw.158

Ten Klaw remained on the battle field and Ronall was firing at them when a huge noise behind him made him turn.159

An extremely slick craft shot out of a window in the roof and flew into the sky. Its main body was an oval capsule with fins protruding from the side. It was black windows and was probably only big enough to fit one Klaw.160

An escape vehicle, thought Ronall.161

‘Damn it!’ yelled Trek. ‘One of them is getting away and will tell there race about us killing them!’162

That wasn’t a good thing. A race powerful enough to fly to Earth probably had some serious weaponry.163

Ronall didn’t linger on it as a Klaw had spotted them up the top and was flinging shruikens at them. Trek nailed it with his sniper and it dropped to the ground.164

On the ground the reinforcements had constructed a barrier out of barrels and one of the trucks. They were firing RPG’s out of it and doing some serious damage to the Klaw. Only seven of them remained though and most of their ammunition was gone. A lone sniper, however, on the roof of the truck was picking off the Klaw one by one. He was doing a superb job before he was hit by a shruiken and died. In fact, the shruiken appeared to be the only weapon that the Klaw carried. They obviously relied on their powerful claws and talons to kill enemies. And against modern day human weapons, they seemed to be working.165

On the top of the Dingo Flour Mill Ronall, Trek and Thompson were still firing although Trek had run out of ammo and was forced to return to the inaccurate M-16. With the three of them firing they managed to take out two before realizing that they were being shot at. One of the Klaw had picked up an AK-47 from a dead soldier and had found the trigger. The bullets were aimed directly at the three of them on top f the building. Ronall jumped back from the edge and yelled into his mike, ‘Kill that Klaw with the gun!’166

The soldiers behind the barricade heard his call and fired an RPG at it. It was blown to bits and Ronall, Trek and Thompson took up their position again.167

Only a six Klaw remained now. The soldiers behind the barricade had run out of ammunition and had resorted to grenades. They bounced around the battle field blowing up here and there taking out the occasional Klaw arm or leg. Shruiken continued to slam into the wall of the barricade as the remaining Klaw stood in their positions throwing them. Soon enough, they were going to realize that it wasn’t working and come forward to attack.168

They realized a few moments later. The one to the right started running up to the barricade with its fists up.169

‘Nail that sucker!!!’ yelled Fox into his mike.170

No one dared to look out from behind the barricade in fear of the rain of shruikens hitting them. The Klaw kept on raining oblivious to the fact that grenades were bouncing all around it. It was twenty metres away and if no one did anything it would smash down the barricade leaving the soldiers as an open target. They would be cut to pieces. Delta had conveniently disappeared and neither Ronall, Thompson nor Trek could get a proper aim on it.171

Jamie Fox took a deep breath holding his M-16 to his chest.172

‘What are you doing?’ yelled another soldier at him through his mike.173

‘I’m gonna get that Klaw.’174

‘Got enough ammo?’175

But his question wasn’t heard. Fox dived out of cover, took one look at the Klaw and fired a single shot. 176

It was all he had.177

One shot.178

The bullet slammed into the Klaw’s head and he fell to the ground with a roar of anger.179

Fox was hit by four shruikens. One in the leg, two in the chest and one in the head.180

He died, slumping to the ground and dropping his empty gun.181

‘No!’ yelled Ronall.182

He ran over to the ladder and slid down. He hit the ground running and made for the main section of Klaw’s.183

‘Give me some cover fire,’ he said into his mike.184

‘Go for it!’185

All the soldiers whipped out guns and fired through gaps in the barricade while Ronall sprinted over to the Klaw. He came up behind them and shot two in the head before a third turned around and ran at him. He shot it twice in the leg then pummeled its chest from point blank range. Its thick skin didn’t help it this time; it died instantly.186

Ronal turned his gun on the last Klaw and was about to fire when a grenade blew it apart from behind it.187

Everyone stopped firing and the battle field went quiet.188

Everyone sighed a deep breath glad that it was finally over. Ronall ran over to Fox and checked his pulse. His blood went cold when he couldn’t find one and he yelled out in anger and pain with everyone watching silence.189

Suddenly the Delta helicopter flew out of cover and was hovering above the group of soldiers.190

‘Ready for our little battle?’ said Butler evilly.191

‘Game on!’192

The soldiers got into action and started rebuilding the barricade to stop attacks from above. The Gatling gun was doing heavy damage, criss-crossing across the battle field and slicing through anything that got in its way. The four that had their hands free had grabbed AKS-74U Shorty Assault Rifles; deadly guns that had two barrels. The held them up to their faces and fired down on the ten soldiers still on the ground. Trek and Thompson were unseen on the roof, watching everything. Thompson was firing with his M-16 but ran dry after about thirty seconds.193

Damn it!194

‘Look down there,’ said Trek pointing at a dead man on the ground about ten metres away from the building. 195

It was well away from the main battle ground and the man had a sniper still clasped in his hand.196

‘I’m going to get that guys sniper and ammo,’ he said.197

Thompson nodded and Trek began the dangerous walk over to the ladder. The wind had become even stronger and it blew at him as if it was trying to knock him off the edge. The reached the ladder and put a hand to it. He slid down the ladder as fast as he could and landed on the ground with a thud. After a quick glance to the battle field, he sprinted to the dead man, took the gun and grabbed all his ammo. He stuffed it all in his pockets and slung the sniper over his shoulder before heading back to the ladder. He climbed up the ladder and got back onto the roof. Thompson looked over to him and he passed the sniper to him.198

‘Ready for action!’199

He jammed a fresh clip into his sniper and looked through the sights. He aimed it at the ASWI guy with the Gatling gun and fired. It was a direct hit, smacking right into his face sending him flying backwards and out the open door on the other side of the helicopter. The soldier standing next to him dropped his AKS-74U Shorty Assault Rifle and grabbed the Gatling gun. He was hit by Thompson who was also up and firing. The pair then both had the same thought, go for the fuel tanks. They would have gone for the pilot had the cockpit not been a bullet proof capsule. They set their sights for the bottom of the helicopter and started firing. The bullets made huge holes in the bottom of the helicopter and soon, a soldier realized that they were being shot at and grabbed the Gatling gun. He started to fire at Thompson and Trek and they both rolled sideways to avoid the bullets but Thompson was too slow. He was hit in the shoulder and yelled out in pain. At least it was a clean wound. They bullets had entered his shoulder from one side and had continued out the other side. Blood was pouring out of the wound and Thompson clasped it with his hand to stop it.200

‘Let’s get to cover,’ said Thompson through clenched teeth.201

‘The manhole we got in through is just over there,’ said Trek pointing to the centre of the roof.202

They both clambered over there fighting against the roaring wind. They eventually go to the hole and virtually slid down the steps to the packaging room below. It was quiet down the bottom and Thompson got some time to look at his wound. The light wasn’t ideal but it was enough. The hole was a circular shape of decent size: about seven millimeters in diameter. The blood had already begun to clot and slow down blood flow.203

‘Thompson’s been hit,’ said Trek over the radio. ‘We need some help.’204

Outside, Ronall was sitting in the truck with his gun coming out of the window. He was firing hard but pulled his gun in and got onto the floor to listen to Trek.205

‘It’s pretty rough stuff out here; I don’t think I’ll make it inside until we get this chopper down.’206

‘We’ll try and hold on,’ was the reply from Trek.207

Ronall got up and sat in the passenger’s seat of the truck. He pulled out a grenade and opened the door. He dashed outside the truck, pulled the pin and tossed the grenade into the open side door of the helicopter before diving back into the truck. The grenade exploded inside the cargo area and all of the men were killed. But as it was an attack helicopter, it was made for this kind of thing and the fuel tank was in a reinforced steel casing. The pilot, who was protected by the armored cockpit, realized what had happened and turned the helicopter around. He knew he was outnumbered and his best chance of survival was to fly away now.208

And that is exactly what he did.209

Ronall didn’t know what had happened as he was in the cab of the truck but when he heard the other soldiers cheering he opened the door and got out. Following their eyes, he soon found out that the Delta team had just flown away.210

He joined in with the cheering and a smile crept up onto his face. It had been a long and hard battle and e was glad that it was over. Ronall realized that he was extremely tired but forgot about it when he remembered about Thompson.211

‘Where are you Thompson?’212

‘Trek and I are in the first room that we go into, the big storage room.’213

‘I’m coming now.’214

He ran off towards the building while all the remaining soldiers where telling Echo that the battle was over. Ronall arrived at the hole in the wall that all the Klaw had poured out of, he jumped through it and ran through the grinding room to the ‘ingredients adding’ room. He hadn’t been in here; it was the one on the opposite side as the building copied itself. It had two grinding rooms and two of the rooms in which Ronall stood now.215

He ran over to the door and went through finding himself in the little room before heading out to the main storage and packaging room. He spotted Thompson and Trek immediately; they were sitting at the bottom of the steps and Thompson appeared to be in pain. Ronall rushed over to them and took off his helmet; it felt great to get it off. His head was sweaty and hot and the cool air hit it the moment he took helmet off.216

‘We won!’ he yipped.217

‘Woohoo!’ yelled Trek. ‘Nothing like a great victory.’218

‘Echo will be here soon with medi-kits,’ said Ronall.219

Echo only took about ten minutes to come. The helicopter landed out on the battle field and about twenty people leapt out. They rushed over to the wounded and knelt down beside them, whipping out their medi-kits.220

‘We have a man down in the main room in the storage room,’ said Ronall through his mike.221

An Echo man made his way to the three men inside the building. When he reached them he knelt down beside Thompson and began to treat his wound.222

Epilogue223

Eight men sat around a large table in the debriefing room: Ronall, Trek, Thompson, four reinforcement guys and the leader of the mission, Daniel Banter. 224

‘So the overall success of the mission?’ asked Banter from the head of the table.225

‘Well we killed all the Klaw bar one,’ said Ronall.226

‘So we have some seriously annoyed Klaw to deal with,’ replied Banter.227

‘Well yes,’ said Ronall. ‘We weren’t expecting there to be more Klaw in the building. We thought that they had all come out for the fight.’228

‘Okay. And what about that incident with Delta team,’ said Banter sternly.229

‘Ah yes,’ said Trek. ‘Delta was actually ASWI.’230

‘ASWI? Remind me.’231

The American Scientific Warfare Intelligence. I guess they were after anything that they could get from the Klaw.’232

‘And you guys took them out?’233

Yes, all the soldiers. Ronall chucked a grenade at them but the pilot was in a protective casing and managed to fly the smoking chopper away,’ said Thompson.234

His arm was in a sling but otherwise he was in a good condition.235

‘The pilot got away?’ asked Banter rhetorically. ‘That means that we also have some seriously annoyed ASWI guys as well. Looks like the SAS is going to get a beating in the near future.’236

They talked about the mission for another hour before Banter called the meeting closed. The soldiers all left the room and went back to their ordinary lives, just awaiting their next mission. 237