A day to make us forget all our gods.
Kaduna is a warzone. It seems strange to say that only now, when we've been fighting a war for more than a month. But at Kaduna the squad is dropped into a hell unlike anything they've seen before.
Survivors are still holding out in a military complex. It is already alight when the Skyranger arrives, alight with flames and the green iridescent slime of alien landing pods. Wrecked jeeps and abandoned tanks litter the parade ground, adorned with withered, skeletal bodies. Visibility is poor, with smoke and dust whipped across their faces by the rising wind.
Eventually, the screams become too much. Sq. Borg dashes forward, spotting a survivor in the haze. She squats beside him, calming him over the noise of the battle, sending him running back to the Skyranger.
Sgt. "Nix" and Cpl. Hill both sink lead into the thing but it keeps coming. By the time Borg can bring her laser rifle to bear for a second time, slagging it at point blank range, it is virtually upon her.
More screams, from a hangar up ahead. Fearlessly, Borg forges forwards, only to be jumped again. Again, Hill and Nix fill it with bullets, but the tough bastard just keeps coming. Returned from leading a pair of survivors back to the Skyranger, Twitch flips out his laser pistol and finishes it off at range, allowing Borg to slip past into the hangar.
Meanwhile, Saxby hears noises in a nearby office, sees a man silhouetted against the window. He creeps forward, eases open the door - and finds something unwelcome. The man, shambling forward, is grotesque - swollen, green-tinged, stagnant. The aliens have turned him into some kind of... zombie. Taking no risks, I order the unknown taken down. With his customary reflexes, Twitch sprays it with shot, but it is Hill, with better aim, who tears it apart with LMG fire, showering Saxby with putrescent entrails.
Inside, Borg reassures another survivor, sends them sprinting to safety. Nix, overwatching his comrades, spots another, cowering not far from the landing zone. Cursing the murk that had hidden her from us, I tell him to start running. Another claw monster spiders out of the smoke, but falls to crossfire from Saxby and Borg.
It skitters rapidly between the tanks, pinning Hill against a line of sandbags. Nix is out of position, but still has a shot. Skidding in the dirt, he spins, fires. The creature shrieks, staggers, and Hill coolly unloads a clip into its face, up close and personal.
The screaming has stopped, and our satellites detect more UFOs on their way - it's time to get out of there. Only five civilians huddle in the Skyranger as it lifts off. Five people saved, when intel suggested there was five times that number in Kaduna still alive when we arrived.
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