Tex was impressed as he surveyed the damage that Noble Six had done. He had killed a lot of people but this was a whole different level, this was a storm of slaughter.

He was about to tell her when the air behind her shimmered like a mirage. He was already running toward her as his words changed to, “Look out!”

Time seemed to slow down as a shadow fell across Monica. An Elite uncloaked, looking like an avenging angel, it’s energy blade stabbing forward. It entered her back and pushed forward though the whole of her body- blood, bone and organ alike, until the tip exited out her stomach in a spray of blood.

Pain made Monica cry out. Experience made her grit her teeth and try to ignore it. She turned and grabbed onto two of the split quarters of the thing’s face and jerked it sharply to the left until the neck broke with a cracking sound.

They fell to the ground together in a violent embrace of the dead and the dying.

Three voices screamed, “No!”, in unison, as if mere sound could stop the inevitable.