The man had his MPAW so close to my face that it might as well have been shoved up my nose. And I could not afford a third nostril, not after I came so far...
His squad members, all 13 or 14 of them were all within three or four yards of me, one grenade could take them all out... but that wasn't an option for me now.
One of the men, a big one, shoved Mia over onto the ground next to me where she lay, breathing heavily.
"Unconscious, one of our shockers must've clipped her, I noticed she was breathing when I checked." He said, it sounded like he had recently sandpapered his throat.
"Good, now as for you," he motioned me "give me your weapons."
Fuck, I thought but I started to do as he told. I took out my MLSA's one at a time and showed him they were empty then moved onto my Mac30's and dropped them all on the floor next to my rifle. The man pulled the slide back to him centered his weapon on my face and started to squeeze the trigger.
"No, wait! I can't fucking take it anymore! Don't fire!" said the shorter soldier on his left. He fumbled with his facemask and helmet and tore them off revealing a small face with dark curls obscuring the top half.
The whole squad of soldiers and I looked at him.
"Castillo, I don't even know why the hell you're in this goddamn army and now you're trying to lead it. What the hell?"
"I joined the army to protect my family and I didn't even end up doing that. If I can save one more life it'll be worth dying." He walked across the floor to where I stood and turned to face the rest of them who stood silent. "Fine then you can die too, but first, I meant all your weapons. The sword too."
My last defense, gone already? Not likely. But I went along with him and slipped it from its sheath, grabbing the tip as it slid over my fingers. I held it out to him, hilt first. He reached out to grab it and...
"Just kidding." I whispered.
I flipped my sword at the same time as I lifted it up to slash at the man behind me then brought it in a sideswipe at their leader, taking him and another in one blow.
"Wh-" he kept moving his lips but only a gurgling noise came out along with about a gallon of blood; that seems to happen to people who piss me off.
In the next swipe I shoved my sword through the eyehole of the big one's mask and twisted, his weapon dropped to the ground and his heap of a body fell on top of it. Castillo took up the rifle of the man behind us and hit a Biofuel canister next to one of the pig-rig's, which exploded into a raging inferno and took out four soldiers and several pig-rig's.
Another raised his MPAW. I shoved the flat side of my blade into the action and the bolt flipped out when the action slid forward with the first shell. I kicked him and he stumbled back reaching for his LSA, and drew it but with another quick strike it dropped to the floor along with his hand. He bled furiously and stopped moving.
The remaining three began to run; one would've made it to a door but the soldier who stood up for me fired a burst from his rifle and brought him down. I saw the second going for a loading bay door and looked up from it to the matrix of chains, wires and pulleys, following the one from the door to a chain hanging above a flaming pig-rig.
I ran up the hood, shoved my blade into the chain and, bringing my full weight to bear, broke one of the links sending the half-open, 3 ton door plummeting directly down onto the second man with a reverberating thud and crunch.
Now the final soldier, where was he? And where was this Castillo guy who had helped me?
I heard a yell and turned to see that one of the soldiers was bleeding hard from the stump of the hand that I cut off. He was hardly a danger to me so I guess I didn't notice that he was alive earlier.
But he was a danger to Mia, who in her meditative state was helpless against him and her face was pale compared to the bright, shiny blood on the LSA pressed against her cheek.

-Ethan Stone