The Force of Temptation - Chapter One, Page Six

Malcolm heard some scratching and clawing into the rock face, as the creatures made their descent. He was fairly ready for them though. As three dark silhouettes entered the cave, he knew it wasn’t going to be too difficult, and even got a little more confident than he had previously been. The creatures grunted and slowly stumbled forward with their weapons drawn and pointed into the darkness.

A small wooden branch broke making a vine whistle as it allowed a large log to drop onto the shoulders of two of the would be attackers. Knocking them prone, Malcolm took the initiative and shot at each of their heads. The third member of the cave raiding party was shocked at this quick and decisive attack that left him as the sole soldier in what seemed to be a losing situation.

Stumbling backwards, the light poured down on him, making it difficult to see and so he began firing wildly into the cave. The walls shook, rocks fell from the ceiling, and small fires lit up. He could see some strange shadow moving, but was unable to tell what it was. He fired again, and it lit up in flames. Smoke began to slowly seep out of the cave and up the cliff wall.

Confident that he had dispatched the human attacker, he stood waiting and listening. Before he had a chance to fire off another shot, the alien found himself falling downwards towards the ground. He had been pushed off the ledge by the human, who was now watching, with a grin as the rocks quickly met up with him.

“That was much easier than I thought,” the captain said dusting himself off and looking back at his destroyed tactical gear. Now only in his nearly skin tight black uniform, he felt a strong sense of accomplishment. It usually took him five or six hours to stealthily fight his way into the camp and take out all of the members of the alien tribe, but this time around, he had removed five opponents in under an hour.

Climbing up the rock face, the Captain had realized that there were no others in the general vicinity. Knowing that they would have sent more than three men to investigate, he deduced that the others had returned to the village to tell of the two dead patrol soldiers.

Having three alien rifles now, with all three currently hanging from his shoulders, Malcolm decided to do something out of character and be more assertive in his attack plan, rather than the stealthy approaches he had taken in other simulations. Taking the first rifle, Malcolm began to jog towards the settlement at a steady pace, weaving around bushes, trees, and other obstacles as quickly and quietly as he could. It wasn’t too long of a journey, but he didn’t want to tip his hat before he had arrived.

Getting within a few yards of the settlement, Malcolm aimed at one of the stock piles of fuel, and fired off a shot. While no one was near it, the chaos it created was more than enough to give the attacking Captain a diversion while he raced in. Firing shot after shot, some of the aliens went down immediately, while others were only stunned, a few were able to return fire, creating a fantastic light show under the grey clouds the burning fuel created.

A few of the creatures drew their blades and ran towards Malcolm, screaming with ferocity as they approached. While it didn’t have the intended effect on the Captain, it did give him time to peg them off with his rifle as they got near. Running out of power, he dropped the first gun and took the next one off his back. He counted five other aliens still attacking him, with four or so stunned, injured or dead.

Malcolm found it hard to understand why he hadn’t been more aggressive in the past. His tactics were mostly about trickery, stealth and taking on enemies one at a time, never before had he let the whole situation spin out of control so wildly before, but he had to admit, it was very effective.