Fight for Humanity: Resistance: Chapter 12

"One should rather die than be betrayed. There is no deceit in death. It delivers precisely what it has promised. Betrayal, though ... betrayal is the willful slaughter of hope."

- Steven Deitz

Ted Ostermein looked upon his five companies, pointing out the weaknesses of the old palace turned library turned military base the Zemka were using as their base.

Everyone sat in silence. This was the final move that would destabilize the Zemka here in Stuttgart. It would lead to the fall of the units in the city. It would lead to the salvation of the setor, and would at last put them in a position to tak Berlin and Germany as a whole, and then save the asses of surrounding Europeans, then possibly even the world, all united against the Zemka. This was a monumental achievement. If they won this, they had a path to allout warfare for not just Germany's, but humanity's survival.

"Commander Tomic has a plan for the infiltration of this fortified base. Commander?"

"Sir. We know the Zemka have the base packed with aliens and the surrounding area covered by Italian Zemka and German Zemka.  Our only chance at breaching that perimeter lies here, where..."

Suddenly a large explosion rocked the base. Debris fell from the offices above their secret lair. Every one of the Five hundred men and women, plus the Americans, pulled various side arms from their braziers and covered various avenues in. Three seconds later, alien Zemka poured from the doorways in. Ostermein moved to cover the back avenue, only to be picked up like a toy doll and flung against a wall. He blacked out.

Stephan Heuss fired the last round of his magazine into the head of a Zemka on all fours, then took cover to reload. It was just then that he suddenly realized Otto wasn'r by him, but rather making a dash for Commander Tomic, who was holding his ground between a passed out Ostermein and a horde of Zemka coming in the back door. Stephan jumped from cover to cover, catching Chris Kelnor, Liz Aldway, and Klaus Glemser along his way. When he reached the stage, he realized that Otto wasn't firing his Baretta at the enemy, but rather at Cody Tomic.

In a flash of lightning, Stephan's life changed. He saw Otto, his oldest friend, steady his aim. he saw him hold his breath. He saw him pull the trigger. He saw the bullet fly through the small stretch of air between Otto and Tomic for what seemed like a lifetime. And finally, he saw Commander Cody Tomic fall to the floor.

But it didn't end there. A rat like alien, which the resistance had a theory was the leading band, walked from the door backstage. He saw the rat order one of his men to pick up Ostermein. He saw the rat exchange words, fucking words, with Otto. Then he saw Otto look backward toward the two Germans and the two Americans. He locked eyes with Otto, who had his traditional "I'm sorry" look in his eyes. Stephan shot back a look that Otto had seen before, but never toward him. It was a special look that in essence meant "I'm going to make you suffer for this, you backstabbing son of a bitch." Otto looked hurt, and walked out with the rat.

All this happened within a minute.

His life was turned upside down in under a minute.

But the battle still raged, and he pulled himself back into the present when Liz's firm hand grabbed his shoulder. He fired on the alien holding Ostermein, though it was only a shot to what on a human, that is, a human that don't have four arms, would not have been fatal.

"What should we do, Stephan?" yelled Glemsar, who was firing his rather hety traditiona; Desert Eagle, toward the storming Zemka from the other end of the compound.

And Stephen knew he was the leader of his squad now. And, unfortunately, there was also a possibility that he was in charge all together now. But shiza like that needed to wait. "W can't allow thm to kill us off completely, nor take this base! We need to key the self destruct sequence!  Glemsar go tell Heinrick, Keller, Weber, and Roth to get survivors to backup rendezvous!  Liz, Chris, cover my ass!"

Stephan ran, full out, out of the meeting bay and into the halls. Zemka resistance in this area was still low, so they sliced their way through easily. He went into central control and keyed the ignition sequance. He smashed in the in case of emergency box and grabbed an old G3 Assault Rifle out of it: it was there mainly because Ostermein had a liking to the old model and in most cases, Ostermein would have been the one to blow the base. Stephan, on the other hand, hated the fucking thing, but it was better than the pistol rounds. Plus, it'd already been rigged with Zemka weave bullets.

When they came out,t he thought of having little resistance was gone. The survivors must have gotten out, because every Zemka in the damned place was waiting for them in the halls. They went from corner to corner, taking out enemies as best they could. But this was a cluster fuck and they only had another minute to get out.

Luckily, Zemka stupidity gave them an exit.

A huge Tyrannosaurus like monster of an alien tore a whole in the roof. using this as a way to get out, they jumped on top of the debris and right out onto the roof. They avoided the monsters jaws and ran off the roof onto the following one, then into the alley way, when the explosion sounded.

When Stephan came to, everything was fire. It looked like everything had been reduced to smoke and fire. He struggled and got to his feet, to find Liz looking for him. "Where's Chris?" he asked.

"i haven't found him yet..." she began to say, but Chris suddenly stumbled into the alley from the debris. "We need to move ASAP!"

"Why?" asked Liz. "Nothin' could have..." but then a shadow cast over the alley way.

The monstrous abomination was still alive.

They ran out into the street. Stephan smashed in the window to a Saturn and hopped in, pulling out his pistol. Chris got in the front and Liz the back. The monster ran right over them from inertia. Chris got the whining car to work, and they were off.

Stephan figured this was the oddest car chase ever. It was something out of a movie. They sped down the streets at ninety mph, with an alien Godzilla in hot pursuit. Chris swerved around a term to find construction workers pulling a large cement block to the top of the building. Their control swaggered when they saw an old Saturn race into their grounds, but they plain abandoned it when a dinosaur from space plowed through. The block fell from the sky and onto the monsters head, knocking it out.

The saturn pulled out the other side of the construction sight in grim laughter.

"That was like somethin' out a fuckin' cartoon!" laughed Chris.

But Stephan didn't laugh. His world had just become an even grimmer place than before.

And his new goal was one of revenge, not world saving.