Task Force Mars - Kevin Dockery [54]
G-Man could see that his first round hadn’t hit anything vital, but it had penetrated deeply into the creature before punching out the far side. All he had to do was find a vital area. But how the hell could he find a vital area in something the size of a space shuttle? Still, he knew his weapon could be effective in more ways than one.
Running to the side, G-Man hoped that whatever the damned thing used for eyes wasn’t able to see him or was concentrating on the running figures in front of it. The lumbering body started to pass only meters away from G-Man as he quickly unscrewed the cylindrical hollow muzzle cap that protected the rails that made up Baby’s barrel. The big rail gun was powered by the capacitor bank that G-Man carried like a backpack. A heavy quick-release cable connected the weapon to the capacitors. Unlocking the firing handle with his thumb, G-Man twisted the grip to push the velocity of the weapon to its maximum, a velocity normally reserved for times when the gun was being used in a mounted position, not handheld. The rail gun used electric power to create the magnetic field that drove the projectiles out of the barrel at such an incredible velocity. Now he was going to use that power for something in addition to pushing out a copper and uranium slug.
All his actions took less than a few seconds to complete once he had made the decision to act. While the front third of the massive body slithered past him, G-Man ran up to the monster and shoved the muzzle of the rail gun hard against the glistening wet flesh. It was smooth and shiny, more like a salamander than a scaly lizard or snake. Knowing that the inertia dampeners surrounding the barrel wouldn’t help with the tremendous recoil of the gun when it was pushed up against a target, G-Man gritted his teeth and pulled the trigger, hoping Baby’s barrel wouldn’t burst from the obstruction he was pushing it against.
The backblast charge went off with a roar, but that sound was almost drowned out by the whistling scream that came from the throat of the great beast as the rail gun fired. The copper and uranium slug left the muzzle of the weapon at more than 2,500 meters a second, punching through the flesh of the beast as easily as if it were passing through the air. The shock wave from the hypervelocity projectile blew into the giant creature, almost liquefying the flesh as it passed through. And the heavy pulse of electric current that drove the projectile to such high velocities, speeds that couldn’t be reached with any other type of gun, cut into the damaged tissue, shocking the internal organs of the beast as it fried and burned the flesh.
As the copper and uranium projectile burst out the other side of the great mountain of muscle and bad attitude, it was followed by a huge gout of flesh, blood, and streaming tissue from internal organs. The power of the shot actually flipped the monster over on its side as it twitched and thrashed. It would take some time with something that big before every part of its body got the message that it was dead.
The SEALS and the others stood and stared for a moment as they saw the rippling movement of what looked like wide vanes or scales along the bottom of the great creature. The rippling slowed and stopped over the next few minutes as the rest of the cells in the huge body found out that they weren’t working anymore.
Nearly ten feet back from where he had pulled the trigger, G-Man lay on his back where the recoil had tossed him. His arms ached from the strain and beating they had taken, but he had had the presence of mind to cradle his weapon and protect it from the impact even as he had flown through the air. Baby looked to be unharmed but was covered in goo where the long weapon lay across the big SEALS’ chest.
Harry Teal, the corpsman of the group, got to G-Man before the big man had recovered enough to sit up.
“Hold still, you idiot,” Teal growled as he quickly started checking the other man over. “You’re