He fired two rounds into center of mass and was unsurprised that the 7.62 mm rounds bounced off. But the thing had big multiple eye systems and he retargeted, hitting it in the eyes and blinding it. The thing continued its rush but missed the two Marines and Berg pounded it with single fire shots as it crashed past. He found a weak point under one of its arms and pumped five rounds into the spot until the thing dropped, thrashing.

“Reloading,” he subvocalized, trying to keep his sector in sight as he pulled out a magazine. He got the reload in place just in time to spot something dropping from the trees. It looked like a sheet of paper but it was headed either for the Marines or the dead beast. Berg fired at it and the sheet ripped apart, falling in tatters.

Jaenisch had been firing at something as well and the two Marines went back to back as more of the bipedal monsters came through the jungle after them. Berg picked his shots more carefully since he only had thirty of the 7.62 mm rounds in a clip. He managed to drop three of the monsters before he ran out of ammo. The fourth and fifth, though, got him and the “jungle” vanished as the harness gave him a zap of electricity.

“Grapp me,” he said, shaking his head.

“Not bad, actually,” Jaenisch said, looking over at him. “I’m going to reset the system so we’ve also got .455s. You qualified on the .455?”

“Yes,” Berg said. The high velocity Colt magnum was rarely used by combat forces, but he’d qualified with one in Force Operators Training. He had wondered at the time why they were training on a civilian “gun nut” pistol that no other force considered worth its time. Now he had to wonder how much FOT was influenced by the Space Marines. A group that, officially, didn’t exist.