Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 439: Heavy Armor Column

Chapter 439: Heavy Armor Column
Sergeant K was riding on the top of a tank. She was firing the laser machine gun as the tank pushed through another barrier that the demons had set up. Behind them was a trail of destruction and demon bodies. There were a few injured as well. But the armored transport at the back of the column was picking them up, saving those who they could.
She flinched as a plasma bolt as she started calling them, barely missed her and hit the back of the tank. There was a slight bubbling before it stopped as a pulse of electricity raced over the external part of the tank. It was a trick that Specialist Velwrench had them do to stop the plasma. Apparently all of the demon’s technology was vulnerable to uncontrolled electricity. Which seemed odd even to her.
She looked to the source of the plasma bolt and saw a group of demons hastily setting up a gun emplacement at the top of the ridge. She turned the laser machine gun and began firing on them. The bolts burned through their bodies and there was an explosion of red ooze as the ammunition for the plasma bolts detonated and started melting the sand and the dead demons.
"K! Long range scouting s say we are coming up on the target!" She heard from Specialist Velwrench who was driving the tank. She grinned as the tank started going up a slop but as they got near the top she spun the weapon around and fired at a group of demons that were trying to sneakily approach from the side.
"Shit!" She cursed as one of them slipped under the range of her gun.
She pulled herself partially out of the tank and leaned over the edge of the tank to shoot at the demon. But she suddenly felt an instinctual threat of death and pulled herself completely out of the tank and spun around.
Just in time to see the blue bony masked bastard swipe his bone scythe through the air where her neck was a moment ago. She fired a few times and only hit him once before he disappeared again.
"K! Where did you go?" She heard Velwrench ask over the communication device as she landed hard on sand and rock floor. The tank kept moving forward as she watched the demon from earlier trying to plant a device on the treads of the tank.
She raised her laser pistol and fired. Hitting the back of his head. The demon fell forward and into the tank treads as she grabbed the device he was trying to plan and threw it away before shooting it where it exploded like the plasma bolt ammunition from earlier.
"I am good!" Sergeant K responded as she walked along the side of the tank and spotted their target. The gold masked demon and blue masked demon from earlier. "Had to dodge an attack from a teleporting demon."
She jumped up and back into the roof of the tank just as the tank moved over the ridge and started to turn to the two demons. But as they did she watched as a giant red portal appeared to their side. She could tell Velwrench saw it as well since he stopped the tank immediately.
Then it started moving again as Sergeant K fired a line of laser bolts at the two demons. She watched as the blue demon took a few hits before grabbing the gold mask and dodging out of the path. "We have a portal over here! A massive one!" Sergeant K called out as she looked through the portal as the other side started to appear.
"No shit Sergeant K," She heard Captain Solisa in her ear. For an artificial intelligence she sounded annoyed. Was it possible to annoy an artificial intelligence? "Get me eyes inside that portal. Tell me what you can see."
Sergeant K frowned as she looked at the two masked demons that had taken cover with a group of demons that had decided to use a downed mech as cover. Then she looked through the portal. On the other side was a reddish landscape. A red sky, a red moon, actually there were two moons. There were massive skyscrapers, adjacent buildings in the distance and tall spires. All of them appeared to connect to each other via some type of bridge.
Then there was the organized invasion force. They actually grabbed her attention first but she had to do a double take to really process what she was seeing. There was a massive army with rows and columns of demons in that advanced armor she had seen only a few times before. Toward the back of the army she could see the demons got larger over time.
But right in the front of the army was a demon that was roughly eighteen feet tall. He was dressed in some type of ritual clothing but clearly had the same demon armor hidden underneath his clothes. The demon was red skinned with two massive brown horns coming out of his head with a head that was more reminiscent of a horse than any humanoid he had seen.
"An invading force. Looks like they opened up a portal to their home planet." Sergeant K called out as the tank moved away from the portal and the natural ramp that led up to the top of the canyon walls.
"Standby, we are sending a probe in." Captain Solisa responded immediately and Sergeant K looked up to see the distinctive fire of an engine as something launched out of the ship. It flew downwards and through the portal.
She watched as the round white missile flew through the portal and into the red sky of the other world. The demons looked up at it in confusion before it suddenly exploded in a bright white light. The demons flinched and looked away while K frowned. "Was it supposed to explode?"
"It was not only an explosion that was a high density message transfer followed by the scanning and transmission device self-destructing." Solisa informed them as Sergeant K turned her attention to the demon army. "We needed the location of the demon’s home galaxy and now we have it. We are reorienting the Wolfsbane for heavy artillery through the portal. Maneuver into position around the portal to prevent more invaders." Solisa ordered over the armored line’s communication channel.
Sergeant K immediately began firing through the portal into the army of demons; they began scattering as forcefields and walls of ground began going up. The large horse head demon at the front just raised a hand as the other tanks lined up their barrel and roof guns unloading them through the portal.
She watched as the giant demon moved back until suddenly she heard an explosion and looked to the source to see a flaming tank flying through the air. It was falling into two different parts as it fell from the air. "What the-" She looked at the back of the tank line where the last of the tanks was moving up the hill.
She could see the purple masked demon as she threw the body of a yellow masked demon through the portal. She turned to shoot at her with her laser machine gun when she suddenly spun to the side as the one armed blue masked demon appeared again swinging his scythe.
She managed to partially stop the scythe before it cut into her arm by using the machine gun to try and stop it. "Son of a-!" She screamed as she pulled her sidearm with her not impaled arm and began firing at the demon.
But as she raised her sidearm she felt queasy and suddenly they were appearing in the middle of the demon encampment that was not that far away. The blue masked demon made a surprised noise as K started firing at him.
"Aarrghh!" She was screaming in pain as the demon tore his scythe out of her arm. A few bolts from her pistol scorched his side before her gun was suddenly kicked out of her hand by another demon.
"Sergeant K! Where did you go?" She heard Velwrench ask over the communication channel as she pulled her combat knife out of arm sheath and stabbed it into the leg of the armored demon that kicked her gun out of her hand.
"The demon encampment due north." K quickly informed him over the channel as she rolled to the side pulling a knife out of the demon’s leg. She kicked the legs out from another demon before stabbing her knife into their neck and using their body as several golden bolts of energy slammed into the dead demon’s body.
She glanced around the side of the dead demon she was barely able to hold up and watched as the blue masked demon disappeared again. She saw a plume of blue smoke to her side and as she prepared to attack.
But as the blue masked demon appeared an energy arrow protruded from his neck and he grabbed at it as another two arrows landed. One went through his bony hand and the other stabbed into his chest. He made a choking noise as a fourth one slammed into his eye and the blue masked demon went stiff and then fell to the ground.
Sergeant K and the demons looked in shock towards the source of the arrows and saw as a green camouflaged infantry armor appeared with a strange bow-like device in hand. Then a bunch of others appeared as laser fire filled the encampment. Sergeant K took cover until it was over.