When Clans Collide ... Team Alpha

When Clans Collide!

"Team Alpha"

The flight had been a tough one for Rosanna and her team. Not just trying to get through the swarming Rokkan attack upon the Castle, but the personality conflicts among the group was starting to get to her.

First there was the matter of Mauser ... why she had let him join them was beyond her. Though he had claimed a lot of fighting experience when she first met him, that reputation was starting to wear thin through his misogynistic manners. She just hoped that he would be worth the trouble.

Then there was Eddie, the one from so many years ago. She was a battle-hardened clan leader, this Rosanna could not deny. But they mixed like oil and water ... their leadership styles through their wars had been decidedly different. Rosanna preferred to keep her protectorate alive ... Eddie was at the point of being "win at all costs."

Some of the others who had wound up in her party had unnerved her slightly. Lisa, the Austin hybrid, was one of them, knowing so much about the war even before being told about it. Atlas, looking so much like an amalgam of several of her clanmates. Miriam Baxter, being carried in the arms of her companion, Wilek Nereus ... but she unnerved everyone.

Then there was EmeraldStar, gliding close to her wing ... the familiarity of her was startling.

Nokkar's paging her through her headset finally snapped her out of her thoughts. =We're coming up on the Rokkan mothership.=

"Copy, Nokkar." She turned her head behind her, calling out to her team. "All weapons at the ready! Let's do this right the first time!"

Closing her eyes for a moment, she clutched to the crystal around her neck, the one Rain had given her.

Bring me luck like you've brought me love ...

The suppressing fire from the mothership was surprisingly light. The guns that had been firing at them from a distance were fairly quickly taken out by the attack team, as were their operators.

The size of the Rokkans had taken many of the attackers by surprise. In particular ... Seri and Jakindala, after disabling a gun, had had to work together to pull the massive Rokkan behind the weapon away from it. It took even more effort by both of them to keep him incapacitated.

They looked up at each other, then back at the rest of the team, alighting nearby. Miriam clicked a new clip into her pistol, stepping away from Wilek as they landed. Rosanna and Nokkar took the lead of the team, joined quickly by Sara Jasper and Captain Walker.

"Split up, folks. I'll take one half, Nokkar the other. First group to find the control center calls the other for backup. I don't want anybody rushing in before we can get a clear grasp on the situation, is that clear?"

A rustle went through the team. Rosanna nodded pertly.

"Good. All right troops ... move out!"

Nokkar's party did not get far down the passageway before hitting trouble. A patrol party was waiting for them, weapons at the ready. These didn't look like Rokkans, though ...

"Nokkar," a confused Lex Atello started to ask, but she was cut off by a blast in close quarters. Pulling their weapons, the attackers continued to fire at the oncoming attackers, trying to push them back.

=These are not Rokkans! How can this be?=

A snarl behind Nokkar suddenly drew his attention. There were more behind him, being led by a normal Earth gargoyle ... or so it appeared.

=What is the meaning of this?!=

The gargoyle stood upright, coming as close to face-to-face as he could with the giant alien Sentinel. "The meaning of this is death. Yours, to be precise."

He turned quickly to the rest of his defense group. "Take them."

"Yes, Vincent."

The party behind Vincent surged to life, springing hard upon the attacking party.

In the other passageway, Rosanna's party fared no better. They too were dropped upon by a defense party ... only this was a combination of Rokkans and otherworldly soldiers.

Eddie's face went pale. "Grotesques ... here?!"

"Friends of yours?" was the sarcastic question from Sara Jasper.

Eddie didn't reply. More like she let out a war screech and plunged headfirst into the Grotesques' numbers, firing wildly. Unfortunately, her shots were badly aimed, ringing around the passageways harmlessly. Many of the Grotesques stopped short, looking at each other.

Sif jumped up, grabbing Eddie and pulling her back. "Whoa, take it easy!"

Eddie kept screaming and firing. Now her rage was becoming a safety concern, as her shots were gaining force and threatening to bring the passage down around them. Rosanna pulled the gun away from her finally.

"That's more than enough! What did I say earlier?"

Eddie lashed out at Rosanna. "Stuff it, bitch! What the hell kind of war are you fightin' here, anyway?!"

The two headstrong leaders finally surrendered into a fistfight, as the battle raged on around them. Some of the attackers drew their attention away from the fight briefly enough to look over at the brawl, then turn back to where their attention should have been.

Both gargesses had beaten each other thoroughly by the time Razor and Huo had been able to separate them. But their verbal jabs kept coming.

"There's no way you're gonna win this thing if you keep pussy-footing around the enemy! Strike 'em hard!"

"And there's no way you're going to survive this if you don't start listening to me! This is my enemy, Eddie. It's my universe. That ... means ... it's ... MY ... RULES!!"

Eddie growled under her breath, glaring bullets at the other leader. Pulling her arms out of Razor's grip, she focused her gaze straight into Rosanna's eyes.

"All right. We'll play it ..."

Swinging a fist, Eddie caught a Rokkan trying to ambush Rosanna square between the eyes.

"... your way. For now."

Rosanna handed Eddie's gun back to her. "Thank you."

"Ahh, stow it. Save it until we win."

Rosanna couldn't help but smirk, as she and Eddie jumped back into the midst of the fight.

The fight had not gone nearly as well with Nokkar's group. As quickly as they had encountered the Grotesques and Vincent in the passageway, they had been put on the run, falling back, trying to keep their ground against the relentless defense party.

Some had fallen faster than others ... two of the Macleoid clansmen had already been claimed as casualties by the defenders, disappearing into the mythical ether as they had expired. Nokkar looked back at his forces, dwindling as they were.

=Pull back, keep it together!=

Just as he had given the command, Vincent had leaped upon his throat. Grinning madly, the gargoyle looked Nokkar straight into his eyes.

"Hi there, alien. Nice to meet you. See you in Hell."

A quick motion, and Vincent had closed his hand, tearing his talons into Nokkar's throat. The alien's pained scream turned into a gurgle as his air supply was cut off. Dropping to his knees, he was barely cognizant of being pulled back by Zai and Captain Walker. The elderly Captain started barking orders at the attack party.

"Pull it back, retreat! We need to regroup!"

Mauser rushed back to where Nokkar was being pulled, a bottle in his hand. "Clear 'im out, guys, I've got these guys covered!"

Vincent snarled at the Outklaw leader, eyes glowing. "And what are you going to do to me, huh? Spray me to death?"

Mauser smirked. "Have a drink, jackass." Using his lit cigarette, Mauser lit a piece of cloth he had shoved into the bottle, throwing it at the center of the group of Grotesques. The alcohol in the bottle ignited as soon as the bottle shattered, spraying flame on the Grotesque party.

Vincent ducked just as Mauser ran back up the passageway. He growled.

"This isn't over yet."

The group made their escape back to the bay where they had entered, panting desperately out of fear and fatigue. Laying Nokkar out on the floor of the deck, he quickly had a desperate Miriam Baxter working on his grievous wound. As she tried to bandage his throat, Nokkar motioned toward the group. His summons was answered by Lex Atello and Captain Walker.

=Find ... the command ... center.=

"We will, Nokkar." Captain Walker tried to fight his emotions, but was unsuccessful. "You will be avenged."

Nokkar smiled weakly. =Win ... this ... war ...=

Lex fought her own tears. "For you, Nokkar."

The great alien Sentinel sighed his last, closing his eyes as he expired. Captain Walker looked up at the rest of his party, his anger barely masked.

"Let's finish this."

Rosanna led her party down another passageway, hoping not to encounter another defense party, but to no avail. Every doorway they passed brought forth another throng of defenders, whether it be Rokkans or Grotesques.

Through one door, they had encountered a party led by Hazel and Vanilla, two Amazon Clanmates of Latte. The fight had been short, but took a terrible toll on Latte's self-confidence. Once their party had been defeated, Latte had volunteered to keep her clanmates as captives in the passage. Rosanna had agreed, on the condition that Razor stay with her, a condition that had been agreed to. The two gargoyles took their captives back to the Castle.

The remaining party had continued down the passageway briefly when a massive explosion rocked the entire mother ship. Rosanna smirked, listening to her radio headset.

"Charge went off. Don't worry, folks, it's a good sign." She turned back to the floorplan of the ship that Liberty had made up before they left. "Next door is the command center." She pressed her mike to her lips. "Nokkar, you copy? We're at the command center, follow my signal."

Captain Walker's voice came back. "Rosanna, Nokkar's dead. We hit heavy resistance."

"Understood." She turned back to her party. "Huo, Atlas, take a group ahead and give our guys some backup."

Atlas nodded, motioning behind him. Huo and five Macgonagall clansmen follwed him. Rosanna turned her attention to the locked door of the command center. Pulling out a handheld laser, she cut through the lock quickly, pushing the door in.

She was unhappily greeted by a huge group of Rokkans waiting for them. And at their lead was a very unwelcome sight to Rosanna.

Thorn.

=I knew you'd be here, Rosanna. After all, it's what I would do.=

Huo and Atlas rusehd up to where the other party was facing down another defense party, this one a combination of Rokkans and grotesques. The Earth Resistance group was not faring well ... more and more were falling injured, though thankfully none had died since Nokkar.

"We're here to help! Captain!"

The defenders suddenly turned their attention to Huo and Atlas, giving Captain Walker the opportunity that he was looking for. "Mauser, Zai, NOW!"

Another barrage of gunfire launched into the defenders' backs, taking many of them down. That combined with the suppressing fire by the two members of Rosanna's squad had finally taken them all down. Huo jogged over to where Captain Walker was standing, breathing heavily.

"Are your people all right?"

Between gasps, Captain Walker gave his squad's status. "A lot of us are injured. We're not going to be any good to you."

Atlas looked past the Captain, sourly. Many of the gargoyles were lying on the floor, injured ... some of them severely: Sif looked like she wasn't long for the world. Of the party, only Mauser, Zai and EmeraldStar remained standing.

"You don't look too hot, Captain," Mauser finally said. "Are you sure you're ..."

"I'll be fine. You three go ahead and back up Rosanna's squad."

EmeraldStar put a hand on the Captain's shoulder. "Are you sure, I can ..."

"I said go!"

Huo finally broke in. "We're running out of time, people. Let's go."

The three gargoyles finally joined with the other two, running up the passage to rejoin Rosanna's squad. Captain Walker, still breathing heavily, pulled a communicator out of his jacket, flipping it open.

"Med team, Team Alpha with heavy casualties. Recovery teams ... center on my signal."

He turned on the tracer on his communicator, lying down on his back, letting his body relax. A tear ran down his creased cheek, as his eyes drifted toward the ceiling.

"Oh Tommy ... I'm so sorry ..."

A last exhalation, and Captain Walker was no more.

Rosanna finally let her rage get the better of her, roaring at her doppelganger and lunging. Lisa tried to hold her back, to no avail, as the gargess and the clone started rolling around on the floor of the command center, talons and tails and fangs everywhere.

"No, Rosanna, that's not ..."

"Forget about her, Lisa!" came from Seri. "We've got our own problems!"

Lisa forced herself away from the fight on the floor to face the rest of Thorn's party, a team of Rokkan militiamen accompanied by several otherworldly warriors. Two of them Lisa seemed to recognize.

"Those two ..." she gasped. "They're from Doug's stories!!"

"What?! More of your creative reading?" was the sarcastic reaction from Eddie.

Lisa said nothing more, lunging toward the two gargoyles she recognized as Moss and Fern. The three gargoyles fell into a brawl, nearly combining with the one between Rosanna and Thorn. Huo and Atlas at this point ran into the command center with Mauser, Zai and EmeraldStar in tow. Thorn's attention was diverted for a short moment, enough for her to pull out a pistol from her belt and fire toward the newcomers, hitting EmeraldStar squarely in the head.

The otherworld gargess fell, the green crystal on her forehead shattered, a large burn on her forehead. Before anyone could react, she had expired, but not before her body had folded up into itself.

Rosanna's eyes widened, getting even larger when she saw what EmeraldStar was folding up into.

Elisa Maza. Or at least, another version of her from her own universe.

As the otherworldly Elisa faded into mist, Rosanna's eyes, both natural and cybernetic, narrowed at the hybrid underneath her.

"You just killed my mother, you BITCH!!"

This time, though, someone was able to pull Rosanna off of Thorn before she could launch another fruitless fight with the clone. Much to Rosanna's chagrin, it was Eddie and Mauser.

"Let go of me!!"

"Hey, weren't you the one who just told me off about doing that kind of crap? Get a grip, girl!" Eddie punctuated her words by landing a right cross on Rosanna. Her senses seemingly cleared, Rosanna growled.

"I'm okay. Let go of me, Mauser."

Finally noticing where Mauser's hands were, she growled louder and cocked a foot backward between Mauser's legs. "I SAID LET GO!!"

The Outklaw groaned, along with the other males present, but Mauser let go finally. Rosanna cocked her weapon, only to find it empty. "Damn."

Lisa, freshly from beating her own opponents ran over to where Rosanna was. "Listen, there's only one way to kill that beast, you have to get to her heart."

Zai, still upright, had joined them. "What are you talking about?!"

Lisa sighed. "I don't know how I'm going to get you to believe me, but I've read about Thorn."

Rosanna rolled her eyes, alongside Sara Jasper. "Oh, not again ..."

"Will you listen?! Her heart is the chip that was taken off of Lina's stone! If you take that away from her, all she'll be is three gallons of Rokkan blood and a piece of your face!"

Though the thought was a little sickening to Rosanna, she was receptive. "All right. Now the problem is getting close enough to get to the stone."

Lisa pulled out what appeared to be a high-power water gun. "Leave that to me."

Rosanna smiled. "All right. Let's do it." Scrambling out from behind the cover they had taken in the center, Rosanna screamed her next order.

"BAG THE BITCH!!"

Eddie and Zai ran at the giant hybrid, taking their shots where they could. Though they were easily thrown off, they kept coming at her. Atlas and Huo launched their own assaults at the giantess, only to be thrown off as easily. The recovered and now completely enraged Mauser pulled out another Molotov cocktail, pitching it at Thorn, but having not lit it before throwing it, all it did was bounce off of her.

=That's pathetic.= Thorn picked up the bottle, pitching it back at Mauser, who unfortunately had a lit cigarette in his mouth. The flying bottle dripped on the gargoyle, and combining with the cigarette served to set his head on fire. As he started pounding his head into the wall to put the flames out, Lisa pointed her pistol at him, spraying his head to put him out.

This wasn't welcomed by Mauser, though. "Kee-rist, that's HOT!!"

"Exactly!" She pointed the gun at Thorn. "And now it's going to be put to good use!"

Thorn started laughing. =Is that the best you can do? A water gun?!=

Lisa smirked, pulling the trigger. A stream of scalding hot water shot through the air of the command center, striking the giantess squarely in the eyes.

Thorn's scream rattled the entire room to its very furthest corners. Lisa kept the pressure on the shot.

"NOW, ROSANNA!"

Rosanna let fly with her own roar of discontent, streaking from her hiding place and tackling the giantess. Raising her hand as high as she could get it, she almost was influenced by Thorn, regaining her eyesight, whimpering.

=Don't ... kill ... me ...=

The gargess narrowed her eyes at her doppelganger. "Bite me."

With a quick motion, her left hand was wrist-deep into Thorn's chest. Blood began flying from the wound, coating the floor around the prone giantess, the body of her assailant, Rosanna's face. Thorn's scream became more and more strangled as Rosanna began pulling her hand free of Thorn's chest.

This was almost too much for some of the party. Richmond Wyvern-Maza left, getting nauseated by the scene. Lisa and Atlas couldn't tear their eyes away. Eddie and Mauser had turned away finally.

Rosanna gasped. "Whaddya know ... Lisa was right!"

She finally pulled her hand free, holding up a small chip of stone she had pulled out of the clone. She leaped off of the dead body of Thorn just as it began melting into its respective components ... a huge puddle of blood and a mangled piece of flesh and bone that had once been part of Rosanna's face.

"Charges! Let's blow this taco stand!"

Eddie quickly tossed a grenade to Rosanna, who set the timer. Once she had set it in the center of the room, she quickly motioned everyone out.

Demona scanned her monitors, watching the progress of the various battles. Her expression turned into a scowl as she saw the results of the battle in the command center.

"That little bitch!" She growled at the screen, turning back to where Nox was standing behind her. "I thought you people were good!"

"Check the other battles, Demona. One battle does not decide an entire war. You, of all people, should know this by now."

Demona growled. "We'll see."

The squad had barely made it out of the center before the charge went off. Rosanna dove for cover, winding up next to Mauser, hiding behind an overturned table as shrapnel flew overhead. Once the charge had gone off, she sat there motionless for a moment, sitting next to the Outklaw.

He pulled out a pack of cigarettes, pulling one out. Breathing a bit quickly, he put the cig in his mouth, reaching for his lighter.

"Mind if I bum one?"

Mauser's eyes widened in surprise, as he turned his pack to Rosanna, who pulled one free. After lighting his own, he handed his Zippo lighter to the gargess who for the past week had been the bane of his existence.

She lit up, sucking down one puff. Her face wrinkled in surprise. "What the hell are these things, anyway?!"

Mauser looked at the pack. "Hmf, must've accidentally taken a pack of my old man's Black Russians." He turned back to Rosanna, who had finally adjusted to the strange flavor. "You don't strike me as a smoker, Rosanna."

"You might be surprised. I started shortly after my mom died, but I quit about six years ago. Didn't do much for me." She pulled out her communicator. "Team Alpha, check in."

The radio crackled, but finally Wilek Nereus' voice came over. "Heavy casualties, Rosanna. We're being meedevac'ed out." He paused. "Captain Walker's dead, Rosanna. Had a heart attack."

Rosanna sighed. "What about everyone else?"

"Injured, but we're all still alive. Sara Jasper's coming up to retrieve you."

Just as he had spoken, Sara walked up on Rosanna and Mauser. "Come on with us, we're heading back to the Castle."

Rosanna sucked down one more drag on the cigarette before tossing it aside. "All right. Everyone regroup at the Castle. Pass this along to the other teams, let's get back before the Rokkans can recover."

"Affirmative, Miss Maza." Miriam's voice sounded a bit strained, but still retained all of her anal-retentiveness. Rosanna looked over at Mauser.

"Let's go."

"After you."

Rosanna smirked, getting a running start down the passageway, with Mauser in tow.