Breaching the Nest

Breaching the Nest

***

Jace turned down the road that led to their objective and floored the pedal as he drove the van like it was a sports car.

"JEEZ!" Mason said from the seat next to him. "Not so fast!"

"You said you were in a hurry." Jace grinned as he tried to get the van to go a little faster without rolling off the road.

"Not to my funeral!" Mason shot back, "I said hurry up 'cause we're late!"

"Relax man. We'll get there on time," Jace tried to ease his friend's worry. He knew they were running late and it was because he just couldn't help flirting with the busty girl back at the gas station where they had topped off their reserve and the extra tank they carried.

Turning around the next curve they could see the vehicles parked along the side of the road and their friends starting to walk down the path to the old building where they had tracked down their prey.

"See!" Jace said triumphantly, "We're not late. they just stared."

"We are so dead!" Mason moaned.

"Pfft, Peter's not going to kill us." Jace said trying to sound more confident than he really felt, "He looks tough but he's really a softie."

"I'm not worried about Peter or Zack," Mason said. "It's Kenny and his fucking crowbar I'm scared of!"

"Yeah, I can see that one," Jace mused as he barely slowed down to take the next curve. "He seems like a really nice guy, except when we head out to a nest. Then it's like he's someone else."

"You might change too if that 'Thing' did that to your girl!" Mason said, his voice tinged with a bit of sorrow and anger.

"I thought Nikki was his girl?" Jace asked.

"She is, now." Mason said with a little shake of his head, "But from what Sean told me they were too late to save his girl from that Blutengel thing. God, I wish it were something more normal like a vampire."

Jace didn't say anything. For a moment he thought about teasing Mason and asking him if vampires were real but then he realized that that it just might not be that crazy after all. If they could be going after something like this, then why not vampires.

Jace slammed the brakes and they skidded to a stop next to the other vehicles. They both quickly got their gear on and started running after the other hoping to catch up with them before they went in.

'At least I got a date with her tonight' Jace grinned to himself as he ran after the other.

****

"So how are we going to do this?" Patrick asked and he was a bit surprised that Zack started to explain instead of Peter.

"We are going to stack on both sides of the door, You're behind us.." Zack started to explain, " Kenny's going to place some detcord on the door to blow it off. Mason should do that but he's not here. After that, Peter's going to toss a flashbang. After it goes off Sean and I go in, break right, and clear that side. Peter and Kenny then go in left and do the same."

"What do I do?" Patrick asked.

"After Kenny goes in you step inside and lock down the center. Point your gun down the center and shoot anything that is in there, in that area. while those two catch up with us." Zack gestured to where Mason and Jace were running to catch up with them. "Remember your training. Keep calm and watch trigger discipline. Count your bullets. And stay in your sector."

Patrick nodded and took a deep breath to stay calm 'If they can do it so can you' he tried to convince himself and wondered how they could be so calm. He started feeling ashamed of his own nerves till he noticed the slight twitch in Sean's grip and the other minor tweaks the other made to their gear and he realized they were just as nervous as he was.

BOOM!!

The hinges and the lock flew off the door and blew inwards and the flashbang grenade followed right after it with a really loud bang. Zack flowed in and to the right with Sean right behind him. Their rifles cracked with short bursts as they killed the two stunned hatchlings milling around their zone. Peter rushed into the left followed by Kenny and there was a single crack from Peter's AA-12.

Patrick walked in after Kenny, his arms outstretched as he pointed the gun forward. The smoke was clearing and he saw once again the eldritch horror walking towards him from the hallway in front.

Like before, no two creatures were the same. The one right in front of him seemed to have a round fish-like head but with crab-like eye stalk. It walked hunched over on webbed feet but its human arms ended in tentacle-like fingers. Patrick immediately started shooting and before he knew it the creature was down and another one was heading into the room. He tried to shoot but realized his gun was empty. He had emptied his gun onto just one creature.

He hurried to reload when Kenny's crowbar crashed into this creature's bulbous fish-like eyes on the side of its head. Kenny yanked the creature back with such savage **** that he ripped its head off. Peter was there in an instant and shot the next one with a slug. This creature's soft, gelatinous body seemed to explode from the hydrostatic shockwave of the slug and it continued into the next two creatures killing them.

Then it was over.

"New hatchlings?" Mason asked as he entered the room.

"How do you know?" Patrick asked.

"Bodies were too soft," Sean said prodding one of the bodies. "Chitinous scales haven't hardened yet," he explained.

"You're late," Peter said. His flat tone clearly marked his disapproval.

"Hey! It's not my fault!" Mason protested as he gestured to Jace, "He wouldn't stop flirting with a girl,"

"Then why did you introduce her to me," Jace said.

"I didn't introduce her to you, I just said I knew her," Mason said.

"Knock it off you two," Sean interrupted the two, "You two sound like an old married couple."

"We're not!" both of them shot back.

"Might as well be." Sean teased them, "You two bicker more than my folks ever did."

"We do not-" Jace started to say.

"-Enough," Peter said ending the endless banter. "Zack. Sean. Go upstairs and clear the second floor. Take Pat with you, make him take point. We'll clear this floor. Then we'll see about the basement."

They quickly cleared the rest of the house, destroying any unhatched pods they found. The only other hatchling they found was one just clawing out of its pod. Patrick shot that one. The only thing left was the basement where they gathered before the door.

"We got everything. No hatchlings left from these pods," Zack reported and watched Peter nod. "Think we might have caught up with it downstairs?"

"Fucking hope so," Kenney almost snarled in anticipation.

"Ok, let's breach this one. Mason, Kenny you're with me. Jace follows and watches out back. Rest of you wait here." Peter said.

They breached the door and quickly rushed down the stairs. no sounds of gunfire meant no hatchings and they quickly reported the area clear, for now. Kenny and Peter soon came back up. The downcast eyes on Kenny's face made it clear that Blutengel wasn't down there. Peter just shook his head.

"Let's search the place. find some clues and head back." Peter ordered. It took them about an hour but they managed to find a few clues they gathered up. Only two more hatchings tried to pop out of their pods but Jace and Mason shot them before they managed to crawl out.

Once that was done Peter ordered Jace and Mason to burn the place down. Jace happily started by burning the unhatched pods in the basement with his flamethrower before moving up to spread fuel throughout the rest of the house and burning it down. The bodies of the victims were left to burn just in case they were contaminated.

"Anyone take a count?" Zack asked as they watched the building burn down.

"I did," Sean said. "It's still laying in incremental amounts."

"Shit," Jace said with a touch of frustration.

"But we are getting closer to it," Peter said. "Maybe next time."

"Are we?" Mason asked with a touch of disbelief.

"I think so," Peter said "Notice anything?" he asked.

"We are back in Iron Falls," Zack said.

"And?" Mason asked

"It means it's running back to places it has already been to," Zack explained. "It knows we are after it. and it's running out of time."

"It doesn't have time to search for a new nest and find its next victims." Kenny said with some hope he had been missing, "It's going to make a mistake soon."

"Exactly! And then we'll take it down." Peter grinned fiercely. "but for now let's take this back to the girls and see what we can dig up from it."

"Em, Peter? Could Mason and I, you know skip this post-mission stuff?" Jace asked hesitantly, When he saw Peter raise his eyebrow Jace quickly tried to explain. "You see we met these girls and-"

"-You met them, I already knew them," Mason clarified

"-And Mason was going to show me around where we could take them on this date."

"How is this girl?" Zack asked throwing Jace a lifeline.

"She's got these huge beautiful tits," Jace said cupping his hands "I mean they were spilling out the top."

"Really?"

"Yeah, just one look at her cleavage and you just want to dive in between and let them cover your whole head." Jace droned one as they walked back to the vehicles, put away their gear, and headed back to where their girls were waiting for them.