The New Makron Book 3: Split Personalities

This book is Part Three of The New Makron series. If you have not read the previous two books, please do so before continuing. Use the link provided.

Part Three
Dave looked around at the faces of students he had once known, once been friends with, and thought, "This is the true horror of what the Strogg have done to me." Almost immediately after thinking this, there was a large explosion and the twin sets of double doors behind them were blown to pieces as the Strogg swarmed in. The students ran, screaming. Dave and the other Marines turned toward the threat and opened fire. The Strogg hesitated for a moment when they saw Dave fighting against them, but only for a moment. Then, they continued their headlong rush at the Marines. The marines weapons riddled the Strogg forces with holes, but there were simply too many of them to hold out against. Dave heard Morris yell "Fall back!" over the com, and the Marines obeyed. This left Dave as the schools gatekeeper, and he set about keeping the gate with a vengeance. The screams of the Strogg warriors resounded through the corridors as he tore through them; a juggernaut of destruction. One of the Strogg Beserkers got past him, and gored Charles Reit, William's brother, with it's drill. Charles screamed, crumpling to the tiled floor; the white linoleum turning red around him. Dave moved towards him, and saw William sprint towards his brother, kneel down, and then Charles said, "You do know that there's a friggin' huge Strogg behind you, right?"

William turned around, then shrank back as Dave leaned down to his level. Dave said, "Run. Down the hallway, out the side door, and get to the Marines there.  Your father's with them.  Go on my mark." William looked confused, but he picked up his brother, and waited for Dave to blast a path down the hallway, and ran on Dave's mark. With that taken care of, Dave turned back to face the approaching Strogg, and said, "Ok, playtime's over. Now I'm getting serious." And with that Dave proceeded to blast away a third of the Strogg forces with a single Dark Matter Cannon shot, and began to clean up the rest.

When the battle was over, Dave waded through what little was left of the Strogg attack force to get to the Marines. Morris had called in reinforcements, who immediately opened fire at Dave. The bullets simply bounced off in a chorus of metallic 'pings. Morris told them to stand down, which they did, although with some hesitation. Dave reached the Marines, disengaged from his suit, and continued to move forwards. William saw him, walked over, and asked him, "How do you know my name?" Dave answered, "Because we were friends. Well, at least, we used to be." "I don't recognize you," William said. "Who are you?" To this, Dave replied simply, "I'm Dave Honen. Or at least what's left of him."

This statement was greeted by dropped jaws all around from his fellow students. Aditya Herta beautifully summed up what everyone was thinking in these words: "Holy crap, Dave!  You look like you got in an argument with a blender!" "You know, that's not a bad summary of what actually happened," Dave replied, "But in my case, the blender was about the size of a house." Then, he collapsed.

There was commotion, during which someone had the sense to call in several dropships, one of which had a medical crew onboard. David was loaded onto the medical dropship, and then the entire fleet took off.

Dave woke with the sensation of not being able to move. He looked around, saw whitewashed walls and gleaming steel. He tried to sit up, but found he couldn't due to an unrelenting pressure on his wrists and ankles. He looked sideways, found himself strapped to a gurney. He had been in this situation before. He tried one last time to get free, and then he screamed. Which brought every person within hearing range running. Dave saw them come, and heard them saying, "He's insane. Just like the last one." Then everything went dark.

Dave awoke to the same pressure, but this time it was soon gone. The door opened. Dave was shocked. "How did a Strogg Tactical manage to get in here?" he thought. He was surprised when the Tactical looked at him and said, "Relax. My name is Corporal Matthew Kane."