Free Tandem of Terror by Eric S. Brown Page B

deafening. Zack's face twist in pain and
he fell to his knees but the shield held. Before he could get to
his feet, Rhia and Florida were racing past him.
    He took a second to get his bearings then
leapt up, chasing after them. The S-92 was already rising. It
lifted itself from the earth and streaked off into the night. This
was bad and Zack knew it. The place was teeming with hostiles. But
then, it was always bad if his squad got called in. They were the
elite and the last desperate option when a battle simply couldn't
be lost.
    He caught Rhia and Florida as they were
cresting the dune which stood above the base they'd been sent in to
take out. For some reason, the brass wanted to make sure it was
wiped completely off the face of the earth but needed to do so
quietly as it rested on soil belonging to Egyptian government. It
didn't matter that it belonged to terrorists. The UN would start
all kinds of trouble if it knew what the U.S. was up to here. This
needed to be dealt with quickly and quietly but already it had
become a storm of death and bullets. The conventional troops that
been sent in had fracked it up royally and died in the process.
    He kept them all three shielded as rifles
chattered in the darkness and bullets pinged off the energy
encasing them. Florida chanted a series of ancient phrases as her
eyes flooded from the inside with a white, milky fluid. Her eyelids
fluttered as her body shook briefly where she stood then it was
over. She blinked and her eyes were normal once more. "There's
sixteen enemy soldiers down there and... Something else. I couldn't
see it clearly. We got another thirteen closing in on us from all
sides."
    " Okay," Rhia said. "Zack,
take that base. I want it gone and those men down there dead
ASAP."
    Zack gave his best war cry and ran headlong
down the dune towards the base. Rhia and Florida dropped to the
sand making themselves as small of targets as possible. With Zack
gone, so was the shield. Rhia lifted her M-16 and opened fire at a
cluster of men approaching them from the east. Florida followed
suit, her own rifle spitting empty shell cases. 'Bring it!" Rhia's
voice bellowed as she emptied her clip and lightning sprang from
her eyes, frying one of the closing enemy soldiers as he ran
towards her while she was reloading.
    As Zack raced down the side of the dune
towards the base, he said the name "Azaroth" over and over again
channeling the power of the demon lord into his body. When he could
hold no more, he stopped in his tracks as he reached the bottom. He
lifted both his hands outstretched at the base. The base imploded
on itself, vanishing in a patch of darkness blacker than the night
around it. Zack smiled. Their mission was done.
    His smile disappeared from his lips. As the
supernatural darkness vanished, something stood on the sand where
nothing should have been able to continue to exist. Its body was
made of a gleaming metallic alloy and its green eyes stared at
him.
    " Oh crap," Zack muttered. He
took off sprinting back up the dune as fast as he could. "Rhia!" he
screamed. "We got a Witch Killer!"
    Witch Killers were their worst nightmare.
Like in arms race, once the U.S. had began to field elite soldiers
with supernatural abilities, other nations sought a way to even the
playing field. The things were hulking robots that carried more
destructive power than a tank company. What made them so horrible
however was that they were constructed from "holy" metal. Every
bolt, nut, and circuit inside of them had been blessed and
sanctified against evil. No demonic power could harm them or even
effect them.
    The robot opened fire with the four fingers
of its left hand as Zack ran. Streams of armor piercing rounds dug
into the sand behind him as tracer rounds streaked through the
darkness.
    Rhia and Florida were waiting as Zack reached
the top of the dune. Both of them returned fire at the thing.
Sparks danced on its armored skin where their bullets struck
harmlessly. "Options?" Rhia