The Brimstone Brigade - Chapter One

The chopper crossed into the Demonline. It shook with power.

"Ye-Haw!" Hardcase shouted.

The chopper's interior turned bright purple.

"I can't believe Lace is sleeping," the Commander said. "Someone wake her up."

Although the chopper was shaking violently, it didn't phase Kamikaze who was meditating.

Hardcase stood, "I'll hold onto Lace."

He knelt beside her. She brought a blade to his belly.

"You touch me, and it's your ass," Lace said.

A jolt of turbulence knocked Hardcase on his ass. A second jolt rocked the chopper. It was difficult any of them to stay in one place. Stored weapons fell from overhead compartments. The Commander made his way to the chopper's communication device.

"Something isn't right," the Commander said. "Our angle is all wrong."

The chopper copped with another impact.

The Commander got back to his feet and opened the cockpit. The pilot had been beheaded. His blood covered the windshield in streaks. The road below raced to greet them.

"Holy shit!"

He tossed the corpse from its chair and grabbed the control stick.

Hardcase poked his head into the cockpit, "What the hell happened to the pilot, his head is missing?"

"Get your ass on the other stick! I need help pulling her out of this dive."

Hardcase pulled back on the control stick sitting in the co-pilot chair.

"Pull hard!"

"I'm pulling as hard as possible," Hardcase replied. "She's not going to give."

"We're going down, like it or not."

Hardcase smiled. "On the evil side of the Demonline. I've been waiting for this chance. We can go after the man who started all this shit."

"We have to aim for the river. It's our only hope."

They struggled hard, and managed to turn the chopper enough. The Commander stood and made his way to the rear, "Strap down. Quick and dirty!"

Kamikaze was already strapped down, "Situation noted. You should strap down yourself."

The chopper smashed into the river. The Commander bounced off the inner structure and instantly lost consciousness. The interior lights failed. The chopper began to sink. The acid concentrate that was the Demon Tear river had begun to compromise the chopper's hull.

Hardcase's cybernetic chest lit the darkness. The light beam struck Kamikaze.

"Over here," Commander Straight said.

His face was covered in blood.

"Jesus, what's your situation?"

"I can only guess. Sound out, brigadiers."

"Hardcase. .. Live and kicking!"

"Kamikaze. .. Live and kicking!"

There was no reply from Lace, the Commander wasn't worried, she was a tough brigadier.

The hull of the chopper groaned.

"Lace. .. Live and kicking!"

"Good, we're sinking in Demon Tear river. I don't have to tell you what it's doing to the hull. Arm yourselves."

The brigadiers gathered weapons, and the chopper rocked knocking them all off their feet.

"We feel airborne again."

"Son of a bitch! Open the door. I want out of this tin can."

"I'm on it now," Kamikaze said.

He pulled two swords, slashed the door, blue sparks showered the area with each slash, and the split halves of door fell to the lake below.

"We are airborne again."

A glowing large eye peered inside.

"It's a demon," Kamikaze gasped and slashed out with his sword.

The demon roared, tossed the chopper, and it slammed down in the center of a crumbled roadway. It slid down the center, throwing sparks, until it stopped with the aid of an abandoned tractor-trailer. They lay sprawled about like broken toys.

Small demons approached the wreckage, the smell of blood enticed them. Forty of the little demons surrounded the chopper, and one was brave enough to approach the open hatch. It crawled into the chopper, saliva dripped from its mouth. It took the Commanders left arm in its clawed hands.

The Commander sprung to life, holding a minigun, and he sprayed the little demons with short ammo saving bursts. Bodies exploded, limbs separated, and the area was alive with their shrieks.

"Piece of shit Scavengers!"

Hardcase stood, pulled a handgun, and chased down a scavenger before he blew its head off. "Yee-Haw, just like shooting rats back on the farm!"

"Enough, Hardcase. We've much bigger things to worry about."

Kamikaze stood nursing his broken arm, and checked on Lace, "You all right, Lace, can you hear me?"

Lace lifted her face from a pool of blood, which leaked fresh from her nose, "Son of a bitch! I've lost two of my teeth."

"We've got to get our asses moving, brigadiers. We'll be swamped by countless creatures soon." The Commander swung the turret of his minigun to his back. "We could take them on, but we don't have enough firepower at the moment. Grab a communications-satellite, Hardcase. Let's find a safe location to launch it. We've got to inform main base of our situation and await further orders."

"Will do," he replied and entered the chopper wreckage. He searched around a cluttered mass of crates and opened one, to a trashed communications-satellite. "Just great," he lifted one of the boxes, carried it from the wreckage, and placed it on the ground in from of the Commander.

"What's this?"

"Our communications-sattelite."

"It's useless. Find another one."

"No can do," he kicked the box. "They all look like that."

The Commander shook his head, "Can't be helped. Let's move out."

"I don't believe this shit. We're in the middle of the hornets nest, and we've been pissing them off for
years," he said and pulled a shotgun with a smile. "Freaking fantastic!"