Free The Lazarus War by Jamie Sawyer

the smoke.
    “Work, Gaia bloody damn you!” I screamed at the gun.
    The pistol discharged again, two shots in fast succession. I hadn’t realised until that point that the creature was wearing an armoured suit: plating so well grafted to its body that it was almost indistinguishable from the xeno itself.
    Both shots glanced the armour and bounced off harmlessly.
    The alien was moving faster now – closing the distance –
    The smell was the worst thing, catching so deep in my lungs that it was almost suffocating.

CHAPTER SEVEN
MILITARY-GRADE
    The Krell stopped in its tracks. Its neck whip-cracked around, bio-armour creaking, and it let out a pitched shriek – a noise that sounded about as alien as the monster looked. Suddenly I knew that I was no longer the focus of its attention.
    Then the Krell exploded.
    A volley of shots hit it in the upper torso and head; scythed through the armour and the grey-green flesh beneath. The alien staggered backwards, blood and gore pouring from the open wounds.
    Events played out at a frightening, phenomenal speed. There were flashes of motion at the edge of my smoke-teared eyes. Two more of the things were in the lounge. They had talons up and bodies precisely balanced to assault something at the other end of the room.
    More incoming fire. There was another threat here now.
    The two new attackers skidded sideways, out of threat range, but one was hit too.
    I found my voice. “Help us in here!” I shouted, eager that whoever was out there knew there were humans inside.
    The idea that our saviour, or saviours, might be Directorate barely occurred to me. Right now, being shot dead by Directorate agents was infinitely preferable to spending another second in the presence of the Krell.
    A figure appeared through the smoke, wearing a huge armoured suit.
Army; had to be Army.
The dull grey armour had seen action: scars stitched the limbs, a black burn across one shoulder. The soldier fired a bulky rifle on the move. I could just about read a name on the helmet, printed beneath the mirrored face-plate.
    SERGEANT ARTEMIS: GODDESS SQUAD.
    It’s her. She’s come back for me.
I couldn’t believe it. I blinked away tears, hugged the ground.
    “Stay down!” my mother barked. Her voice was amplified by a speaker system inside the armour. “Don’t look directly at the gun. It’ll blind you without eyewear.”
    I nodded, mute. Her rifle spat death. Where the bright pulses hit, Krell exploded.
    She had so many targets. There were more in the room now – all shrieking, clawing towards my mother. I couldn’t keep track of where they had all come from; only knew that there were hordes of them. She tracked them all, moving in such choreographed motions that it was almost a dance.
    Soon she was standing over me. Daryl, dragging Lucina with him, gathered at her feet. Lucina was startled, bleeding from a cut on her head, but alive.
    Three Krell xeno-forms leapt from a rent in a wall – tearing through an exposed duct. My mother dispatched one with a single shot between the eyes. As the other two closed on us, she tossed her rifle away, in the same motion grabbing at a pistol holstered on her belt.
Blam, blam, blam
– another Krell reduced to a twitchy, bloody mess. The third got to her, but before I could feel any concern, she had smashed a fist into the monster’s face. She was moving almost as fast as the xenos.
    The Krell – enormous, brutal – shook its head in bewilderment. The bio-organic armour cracked, oozed something puerile and bloody. The stunned creature was hit by more energy rounds from across the lounge.
    I snapped my head around and saw that another soldier had appeared. Dressed the same as my mother, armour perhaps a little more damaged than hers.
    She nodded at the trooper. “Thanks for the save.”
    “Anytime, Artemis,” he said. He moved into the lounge, evaluating the mess.
    My heart was beating so hard and fast that I thought I might pass out. I was trembling. Bathed in