Dark Hunter, Dark Saviour
Chapter 10: Fight for freedom, fight for the fallen.
6th May 2900, late night.
Alpha Centuari, Pandora, St. Augustine city.
Within minutes, Lexa went through the plan.
Despite there seeming to be moral conflict with the choice, the fact was that the UIP and KI remnant alone would suffer heavy casualties by fighting the Alliance. The use of the slaves, only the more powerful, militant, or dead ones, would provide a greater chance of success with fewer losses. The more vulnerable slaves would be commanded to flee for safety.
A priority for now was to get the former prisoners to safety, and those 9 of the fourteen remaining other slaves who were too weak to be worth risking in battle. Within minutes, the slave network would be theirs, and the slaves that were organically dead, along with the more militant slaves, would fight, albeit more carefully in the case of those still alive.
For now, the minutes ticked away, Alex found himself in a very strained moral dilemma as he placed Mir'minsk on the ground. He asked Aang and Katara nearby: "Would it be right? If I leave her motionless, someone ends up carrying her, and we lose both her combat ability and that of another. If we use her, she is controlled in a sick way, but it ultimately protects us more, enhancing overall survivability."
Katara spoke to him: "I don't know. What this is though, its like bloodbending, to me it feels to wrong to control another living thing, like a puppet. But, you are right, she's more useful to us being controlled."
Aang looked downcast, and said: "She was a very nice person, but I think she'd see it logically. But it's your choice Alex."
"I wouldn't give him that choice. He's made too many bad choices in his life as it is." Came a deep, female voice from behind. Alex balled his mechanical fists in anger, and muttered aloud: "Always the bitter being, aren't you Quirinth? I'm not surprised that you are awake now, but why you were on Pandora eludes me."
Quirinth ignored Sru'sky's attempts to restrain her, and marched up to Alex, his back still turned. She pulled out her submachine gun, and pointed it at Alex's head. Aang and Katara backed up, with Aang earthbending Quirinth into place with a pair of rock ankle bindings. Katara then quickly fired a water whip, sending the submachine gun flying from her hand. Stolen for words, Quirinth looked on in anticipation, as did Sru'sky and Firi'sry, at the unique talents these two possessed.
Turning to face Quirinth, Alex glared daggers into her eyes, the blood red boring into the gleaming yellow eyes of the predator. He spoke darkly: "So that's it? After all I organized into this mission? After everything that happened to me, to Mir'minsk, what we were about to do to help you all, and you go around and try to shoot me? Maybe I should have left you dead in that warehouse on Mykris months ago. It would have saved me having to deal with your ungrateful and blind attempts to do me more harm, as you did on Iegris over a year before."
"UNGRATEFUL? You robbed me of 8 months of my life! You killed your own father! You murdered hundreds, killed the President, and attacked your friends, not to mention torturing a goddess! What have you possibly done to earn my gratefulness?"
Walking up to her, Alex pulled out his railgun, a weapon that could destroy a corvette easily at full power. He jammed it in her face, declaring: "I let you live! That's more of a chance than you ever gave me after you, Trion and Sru'sky hunted me down!"
He noticed the looks that Sru'sky and Firi'sry shot his way. He then explained further, still keeping Quirinth at gun point: "I wanted to do what was right, to help as many people as I could. I saw that the needs of the many would always override the needs of the few. If the crimes I committed against a hundred people ultimately benefitted a million people, then I can live with myself. Most of those people really deserved the deaths I gave them, or did you not bother to investigate into the blatant evidence I left open at each site of my work?"
For once, Quirinth and Sru'sky were silent. It was true, the outrage they had felt at Alex's crimes had blinded them from the fact he was no a murderer truly, but more of an executioner. He finished: "I wanted to do my part without serving the corrupt officials within the UIP, which is why I took the offer of the KI when I received it. Up to my death, they gave me missions of genuine justice, and I actually felt I was doing something useful. I was getting results the UIP should have delivered long ago into the war, and yet the methods I use are questioned."
"But why did you do all those horrible things when you came back?" Asked Firi'sry softly. Staring her down, Alex elaborated aloud: "By now, the fact of how I returned has been explained, a transfer of the mind to another body. Do you have any idea how traumatizing death is? Not physically painful, but the fact that I had to die so brutally and needlessly has kept me up at night ever since. I was killed before my new body was ready, so I had to inhabit a small data box for 5 months. I only just found out before this mission, but the trauma of death and that 5 month mental imprisonment caused me to undergo a temporary insanity."
"I was consumed by feelings of rage and anger, with a desire for vengeance on anyone who wronged me in any way being my top priority. Because I had no where else to turn to in the galaxy, I did whatever missions Norstith assigned to me. Those pirates were the first to die, the ones who worked for the organization responsible for my parents and sister's demise, and my isolation on this world for 15 years. The fact I had revenge after so long only seemed to increase my lust for vengeance, and my personal 'justice' I installed upon Quirinth, seemed to sate it somewhat."
At the sight of Firi'sry's shocked face, her golden eyes pleading for an explanation, Alex then became downcast: "The next part woke me up from my bloodlust. What I was sent here to Pandora to do months before was linked to this mission the Alliance is undertaking today. They planned to take control of Eywa using special signal beacons at hub sights like the Tree of Souls. My 'torture' of Eywa, though I did not know at the time, as I assumed it was merely an intimidation tactic, was in fact a preliminary test to see if the electro-signals could be transmitted easily enough through the network."
"At first I saw no reason to attack Eywa, but I remembered back to the isolation I felt, the mild prejudice I felt in growing up in the clan as I was not part of Eywa, and would never be. Besides, I saw it as an opportunity to trade Quirinth's unconscious form for my old body, to gain genetic material and a sentimental token of my lost life. I did not count on H'nuptec breaking free and attacking me. He put up a good effort, but as he attacked me, the old feelings came back. All the prejudice I felt from the clan, all the neglect from him, all the feelings of favouritism he felt for Sru'sky, it all became focused in that one moment. I finally had a chance for one last bout of revenge, so I took it. Then, after I saw it, and after I used his body, my body and Quirinth to attack Trion and Sru'sky, I finally seemed to calm down. The shock and remorse I felt seemed to have finally caught up with me. That is why I was relatively quiet in my work afterwards, only administrating the KI, up until the Mars conflict of course. The rest you know."
Not waiting for a response, Alex turned to begin walking over to Lexa and Shockwave, who patiently awaited the slave network to come under their control within seconds: "I don't care what people think of me now. I don't care if they reject me. I will fight for them, I will kill for them, I will do whatever it takes to bring about the end of this war, for both sides. Regardless of what you think of me, I will fight to ensure your survival in the upcoming fight, because it is the right thing to do. I have already lost one person today, I am not letting any more people die today because of my mistakes. You may still hate me by the end of the day, but unlike you to me, I will remain loyal to you, I will step in the line of fire for you, regardless of what you think. But I will do it on my terms."
Walking over, Alex pulled up Mir'minsk's body in his arms. He walked past Quirinth, slowing down to allow her a glimpse of a friend who stuck with him to the end. He then stopped before Firi'sry, and he said softly: "I don't want anyone else to needlessly die. I already lost a good friend today, and I swear it will be my body that joins her before any of you. This is my promise."
Suddenly, the tubing connected to Alex's skull, and that of Mir'misnk's, emitted a glowing red light. Shockwave yelled loudly: "The network is under our direct control! All the dead slaves and militant ones are ours, the weak living are fleeing!"
Sure enough, excluding the 5 more powerful of the living slaves, the living slaves huddles close together, banding together and using their dark matter to form a protective shield bubble around themselves, and then running in the direction of a quiet area of the battle, which in the dark night distance, had started to heat up as the slaves started to fight back against the Alliance.
Alex recoiled slightly as Mir'minsk shook in his arms, and he quickly placed her on her own two feet. Sru'sky and Firi'sry backed away in fear, as did Alex, who muttered: "Raxler works fast."
True to the plan, Mir'minsk was now at attention, her body stiff, but alert, now with it acting as a source of organic armour plating. Alex ordered her, knowing it was really Raxler who was receiving the communication: "We need to get the civilians to a safe area, about 2 miles away, through the streets. As ordered, me, and Lanver and Ty Lee on Cybertron are to be uncontrolled. Prepare to escort the civilians through the streets, once they're through, your fellow slaves shall join the main army and drive back the alliance."
Nodding, Mir'minsk walked off. Alex then said to Sru'sky, Firi'sry and Quirinth: "Gather any weapons or supplies you can carry, and stick together with the other civilians."
Alex then called Shockwave: "What is the enemy's total force size?"
"Over a hundred thousand troopers have landed in the city, and the slaves, UIP defence and KI forces are only slowly pushing them back."
"Right. I'm making the call! We need more reinforcements, so I'm bringing the Liberator through to this world, and calling in all ground and air support."
Aang then called: "Even the Behemoths?" He remembered the two giants from the Ba Sing Se battle all to well. Alex nodded, and said: "This time we'll have 7 on this world."
Alex called out: "RIGHT! Stick together, or you'll get picked off by traps, ambushes or snipers! MOVE OUT!"
Varya system, Varya-6 station.
Aboard the station, slaves attack guards left and right, knocking them unconscious and subduing them, shooting them or literally tearing them apart.
As a Leg'hrul criminal slave tore apart his ally, the other Leg'hrul guard screamed as loud as he could into the mess hall: "THE SLAVES ARE REVOLTING!"
Instantly, one female Kro'nogri guard, off duty and reading a holobook, replied nonchalantly: "Finally, someone shares my opinion."
The sick sound of screams and tearing flesh caused everyone to look up, to see the panicked guard now torn in half at the waist by a rabid dozen slaves of many species. Pulling their weapons out, the guards began to desperately fight off the advancing slaves, with varying degrees of success throughout the station and two planets.
True to plan, the hacking attempt directly at the AI hub had succeeded without encountering any firewalls. The slave army was now theirs.
This was useful for Raxler, Norstith and Ja'hail, as by this time, the station guards had gotten wise, and were moving in on the AI core. Or at least they tried to, but the slave units still aboard the station were defending the AI core at all costs, and making life hell for the Alliance crew of the station.
"Yeah! Now we're in business!" Shouted Ja'hail.
"Well done Raxler. You just made perhaps the greatest contribution to this mission, good job." Praised Norstith. It felt strange, the fact that an AI was responsible for turning the tide of an entire invasion plan.
"Your praise is unnecessary, but welcomed. Organics appreciate praise, so I assume you accept my actions as exemplary." Replied Raxler, as he parallel processed the commands to the slave army. Thankfully, the slave unit programming was a network in itself. Raxler issued commands, and the network AI, now under his control, took appropriate actions to carry out the order with minimum damage to slave units.
"Alert. We have a confirmed casualty in the squad. When the slaves were completely uncontrolled on Pandora, a number of enemy squads opened fire in self defence, killing some slaves. Mir'minsk was among them." Reported Raxler.
Ja'hail morbidly remembered Mir'minsk, the shy yet cheerful little Grey. She was very sharp, as she had to be as a minor assassin and an information broker. She was always up for a friendly chat, and was perhaps the second most sociable person besides Lanver on the team. He would miss the young girl.
Norstith, having shared Alex's memories for a while, knew of what Mir'minsk had been like, shy, mousy, yet witty and intelligent, even for her race. Sociable when she was relaxed, and always up for a challenge. What amazed Norstith had been how understanding she had been, even in the face of Alex's acts. She had been as loyal an ally as there could be, and she would always be remembered as such.
Raxler chimed again: "Request for additional forces. Relaying orders for Liberator to infiltrate Pandora Space Bridge, and deploy all ground and space based forces."
Outside, the Alliance fleet had broken somewhat in the panic of a large portion of their army turning against them, and the cloaked marauder ships in orbit around each planet.
In this chaos, two cloaked ships came in close for another pass. Rapidly reappearing, the Relentless, already damaged from heavy fire, fired a full salvo and barrage of laser and missile fire, before accelerating away, cloaked, in another cat and mouse game with, this time, another Alliance destroyer.
Meanwhile, sneaking in between an alliance frigate and a light destroyer, the Liberator battleship hit the space bridge, its 2000 metre long hull, 900 metres wide at its widest area, easily travelling through the space bridge rings, which were about 4000 metres in diameter. The bridge flashed blue for a brief moment, as the warships invisibly slipped through.
Alpha Centuari, Pandora orbit.
Jumping out of the space bridge, the Liberator found itself immersed in the space battle, with the 2 corvettes, 1 destroyer and 1 cruiser, all under cloaking, having only taken minor damage from a few lucky hits in their hit and hide tactics.
Unfortunately, as the Liberator leapt out of the space bridge, it was discovered that being cloaked did not mean being intangible, as the unlucky, plucky alliance corvette and UIP frigate were about to discover.
Within 3 seconds, even with the Liberator's robotic crew ordering evasive tactics, the massive battleship hit the two ships nose first at a relative speed of 100 miles an hour. The Liberator was designed to be able to ram opponents the size of corvettes, not frigates.
The Alliance corvette's shields were overwhelmed by the kinetic impact, and the ship was outright obliterated, the fusion reactor overloading and detonating harshly, sending shockwaves across the collided battleship's shields. The shockwaves also hit the UIP frigate, pushing it a crucial dozen metres sideways.
Diverting power to the shields, temporarily away from cloaking, the Liberator suddenly came into view, its size dwarfing the frigate's 600 metre long hull easily. Before anyone could comment, the two collided, the frigate's mass overwhelming the shields of the battleship somewhat, and scratching the nose armour of the battleship as the frigate was literally ploughed out of the way.
Aboard the frigate, crew were knocked around badly, the gravitational compensators managing to stop the force of the collision from being too much. Thankfully no one died, though a few crew members suffered a few concussions, bruises or scrapes.
The captain, an irritable human female, swore out loud, asking: "What the hell! Why would an allied ship hit us? If I get my hands on the captain I'm gonna wring his-"
She looked out the viewscreen, and fell silent as the Liberator sailed past, its hull and hanger, with fighters and landers literally swarming from it, all but entirely filling the viewport. Not wanting to get on the bad side of a former KI battleship, especially an ally, she meekly said: "Never mind. It was a simple accident."
Ignorant of the frigate captain's meekness, the Liberator fired a salvo at a distant Alliance battleship, before it diverted power to broadside shields. It would stay decloaked as its ground and space fleet fully deployed. As it fired a hailstorm of missiles, lasers and railgun fire, landing craft, fighters and bombers deployed, heading down towards St. Augustine at breakneck pace, to join the conventional robot forces deployed by the KI cruiser and destroyer already on the world or on the way down.
Then, from the Liberator, the cruiser and the destroyer, the familiar shapes, 30 metres in diameter, fell from the hulls. From the Liberator, 4 shapes descended, 2 from the cruiser, and 1 from the destroyer, 7 in total.
The 7 shapes entered the atmosphere, guarded by fighter squadrons as they fell at a meteoric rate, beginning to flare in a brilliant flame upon re-entry.
Cybertron.
In orbit around Cybertron, the ground forces had all been deployed to the battle, excluding the Behemoths. As the Pandora Behemoths were deployed, the 3 available Behemoths around Cybertron were also deployed, all headed for New Tyber, also flanked by fighter squads.
New Tyber Pax
In panic, Lanver and Ty Lee were led by Zuko, Toph and the commando escort, to the nearest UIP bunker.
The slaves had suddenly turned to fight for the UIP and KI, and even after being ambushed by a few self defending Alliance soldiers, had still massive numbers. The fact that even the technically dead slaves continued to fight made the fight much easier, though losing more lives was less than favourable.
"C'mon! We get to that outpost and we're clear!" Yelled Zuko, as he fired a massive fireball at a pair of alliance troopers, while the Commando had fired off concussive rounds to knock them off their feet. Overhead, an Alliance drop ship came flying overhead, heading towards the rear lines of the Alliance at this area. Toph took careful aim, her now perfect eyesight not failing her, and she kicked a boulder into the air, and with her terrakinetic abilities, roundhouse kicked it skywards.
Her aim true, the boulder smashed the starboard engine of the landing craft, sending it barrel rolling into the ground, tearing itself apart on impact.
Continuing to run, Ty Lee saw a trio of alliance soldiers ganging up on a bravely fighting, still living Kro'nogri slave. She ran up, using her submachine gun's plasma rounds to burn through the armour and flesh of the first Alliance trooper. Stunned at her appearance, the remaining 2 Leg'hrul rounded to face her, but before they could bring their weapons, or talons to bear, she quickly jabbed and smashed her fists and fingers into many specific points on their body, notably the wing joints, neck and chest.
The jabs were not fully effective on the armour covered areas, as the two Leg'hrul merely fell over, groaning in pain. For good measure, she fired off 2 stun rounds from her gun into each Leg'hrul, and swiftly ran to rejoin her squad.
One Leg'hrul was not fully down though, and he quickly executed a move unique to the Leg'hrul. He summoned his last ounce of strength, leapt up, and spun around, extending and flaring out his long tail feathers. The tail swept her feet from under her, and as Ty Lee fell to the floor, the Leg'hrul brought his rifle up to her head level. Before he fired, a dark human hand seized the avian soldier's neck, and throttled him.
Lanver held on tight, the Leg'hrul trying to throw him off. After violently shaking, the Leg'hrul seized Lanver by the neck with one talon, and threw him over his head onto the ground, winding Lanver as he impacted hard on his back. The Leg'hrul snarled under his helmet as he viciously grasped his exposed arm, the talons clawing through the areas where his armour had been removed for the experiments. As the talons drew rather large blood amounts, Lanver yelled in pain.
Before he could finish him, a plasma cannon shot hit him in the chest, blowing the Leg'hrul apart. The body scattered in superheated fragments, completely unrecognizable. As Lanver grasped his mauled arm in pain, he and Ty Lee looked up to see a yellow and black mech, roughly 17 feet tall, running over, plasma cannon withdrawing into his wrist. As the mech stopped before them, Zuko and Toph ran up also, while the Commando robot directed a nearby squad of heavy trooper units to bring in suppressing fire on an advancing Alliance squad group.
In a lightly buzzing, British accent, Bumblebee bent over and examined the damage to Lanver. He then called: "Follow me humans! The bunker is just over here!" With his servo, he gestured to the structure the four of them had originally been heading for. Nodding, Ty Lee leapt to her feet, grabbing Lanver under the good arm and hoisting him up. He cried out in pain as he was hoisted up, causing Ty Lee to utter apologies: "Sorry. Did that hurt bad?"
"Ah don't worry, just a flesh wound, no bones broken or anything." Replied Lanver, whose arm had already lost a fair amount of blood. As Ty Lee pulled Lanver over to the bunker, Bumblebee, the Commando unit and Zuko fired randomly towards the Alliance forces in the distance, warding them off. Overhead, Toph had launched a multitude of boulders into the air, providing improvise artillery support, as the Alliance had to avoid getting crushed, or did get crushed, when the boulders came back to the ground.
Inside the bunker, mechs, femmes and UIP troopers gathered, with medics attending to the wounded, and officers relaying orders. As the four humans, commando unit and Bumblebee entered, they overheard snippits of the conversations:
"Seekers Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp report that Matrix had been retrieved by former KI allies, and there are now escorting former KI squad back to nearest position. Air support requested to cover their passage through the city."
"New friendly targets detected landing behind Alliance lines, near the space bridge. Multiple landing craft and 3 unidentified signals. Unidentified signals are detected to have been dropped from orbit in freefall, and are emitting heavy power readings."
It seemed the battle was turning in their favour. Provided the Alliance could be pushed back, or fully beaten, they were safe. However, while the Matrix was at risk, the entire Cybertronian race faced the threat of enslavement.
Those KI members and their accompanying seekers had their work cut out for them.
As the twin missiles streaked towards him from behind, Thundercracker harshly rolled and pulled into a vertical dive, his jet's belly nearly scraping the edge of the skyscraper he was hugging. The first missile overshot and hit the building, taking a large chunk of it out in an explosion of transparisteel and metal frame. The second missile stayed locked on, following Thundercracker's moves precisely.
Pulling away again, the blue and red mech deployed ecm jamming to try to block the missile's systems. Sure enough, the missile suddenly lost its lock on, and as Thundercracker pulled to level, it shot down in a straight line, to impact far below in the rocky canyon between the building bases. Inside, Mai had been silent, but her eyes had been wide the entire time, watching the aerial fight through the internal 360 degree viewscreen, showing a crystal clear image of the battle through blast shields surrounding the cockpit.
High above, Skywarp transformed as he flew at high speed, locking onto the aircraft that fired the shot. Using his on board space bridge generator, he teleported directly above the craft, and unleashed his null ray cannon on the cockpit, killing the pilot instantly. Triumphantly, he stopped his jets to smash down on top of the now falling aircraft, kicking it from the top, sending it into a careening spin.
Further down, Starscream flew towards the underside of a particularly large Alliance heavy gunship, of 60 metres length, bypassing the shot range cannon fire with precise aerobatics. Reaching the hull, Starscream transformed in mid air, seizing Azula from his cockpit as he did so, and with his jets he flipped over to land on the top of the craft. Engaging his null ray and arm saw, he prepared to fire on the engines.
A blast on his back surprised him, as troopers from inside the ship entered the battle via a top hatch. 8 of them, wielding assault rifles, beam weapons or grenade launchers. Screeching in anger, Starscream turned to fire on them. But to his surprise and amazement, Azula was beginning to engage with a ferocious pyrokinetic display.
Firing a close range blue fireball at one Leg'hrul trooper, incinerating the feathers exposed on his wings, Azula rolled to avoid a burst of plasma fire as the first trooper fell overboard screaming, horribly burnt. She thrust her fist out, and brought the other round in a swinging move, sending a large blue blast at one Kro'nogri trooper, incinerating her, and sending 3 other Kro'nogri flying over the edge by the sheer impact of the fiery wave attack.
Seeing the 3 remaining troopers, 2 Leg'hrul and one Kro'nogri, Azula charged them, sending a swift roundhouse kick towards the Kro'nogri, blasting him off the edge, yelling as the blue flames tore into his exposed face. Azula whipped around to engage the last of the Leg'hrul, and found one was retreating to the hatch, while the other had begun to raise its beam cannon at her. Then, from the rear of the craft, a null ray blast disintegrated his body, boiling every vapour in every cell within seconds. The Leg'hrul exploded in a cloud of grey dust, to fly away in the breeze by the gunship's motion.
Azula, momentarily stunned by the attack's power, noticed the remaining Leg'hrul coming back through the hatch, a larger weapon in hand, a plasma machine gun. Not one to take unnecessary risks, Azula began circling her arms quickly in a pattern familiar to her, as she calmed and emptied her mind. She felt the energy building, peaking as she brought her right hand's middle and index finger to point at the Leg'hrul.
A brief flash of white, and the lightning struck, a tight, narrow beam of power flanked by ribbons of less powerful bolts. Her aim was true, the lightning pierced the Leg'hrul's chest armour, searing through his skin, shocking and incinerating his heart. His cry was silenced before it started, as he fell over, gradually sliding off as the craft's speed caused the wind to push his body over the edge, to fall into the 2 kilometre drop below.
Starscream was deeply impressed at the girl's power and skill. As she turned around, she stated: "This craft obviously is powerful!" If we can seize control we can use it to more protect the Matrix!" Nodding, Starscream comm'd Skywarp and Thundercracker: "Thundercracker! Get Ty Lee to my position now! Skywarp! Find Xale, we are hijacking an Alliance heavy aircraft to add more protection to the Matrix!"
Ahead, Azula had leapt into the craft's hatch. Inside, the quickly burnt and killed the only 2 other alliance troopers, 2 Kro'nogri. Now all that remained was the pilot. In the cockpit, the last Kro'nogro pulled out a handgun, and fired, just barely missing Azula's head as she charged him. Grabbing him, Azula pulled out her own handgun, and fired it into his torso twice.
Pushing the pilot down, Azula yelled to Starscream: "All clear! Now fly this thing!"
Starscream opened a link to the gunship's programming. Like many craft, they could fly on their own, but sometimes the unpredictable nature of organic control was still used in conjunction with automation. The pilot did not necessarily have to be there for craft to fly, but in combat it added an edge. In this case, Starscream quickly hacked the craft's controls within seconds, and shouted: "I have control!"
Banking the craft, Starscream locked onto the Matrix's signal, towards which Skywarp was headed also.
Another burst of laser fire flew over Xale's head as he sharply turned mud flight, his turbofan pack working at full power to keep distance between himself and the 3 craft that chased him. He was carrying the Matrix, and as such, even with the distractions that the 3 seekers, Azula and Mair provided, he was still a heavily pursued target.
"ANYONE, A LITTLE HELP HERE!" He yelled, as he pulled into a dive, flying down towards a ground vehicle highway that ran the distance between the centre of the city and the northern Allspark site. The highway was composed of 2 four lane roads, split down the centre by 2 maglev monorail lines. Antigravity ground vehicles used the lanes to navigate at higher speeds, a way of easing traffic from the air-lanes.
Fortunately, the battle had closed such lanes, and the roads were relatively empty, save for the odd truck or car.
As Xale pulled into level flight, flying 50 metres above the length of the highway, he rolled over to face skywards, and brought his missile launcher to bear. Locking onto the lead gunship, he fired off 2 missiles. Streaking towards their target, the first struck a glancing blow, bypassing the energy shields the gunship had and damaging the port wing slightly. The second struck the cockpit, killing the pilot and destroying the gunship AI. Now out of control, the gunship plunged downwards, driving nose first into the ground beside the highway at mach 1.3, detonating violently as its payload was destroyed.
His victory was short lived, as 2 proximity missiles were fired from the second gunship. Knowing he was at maximum speed, Xale summoned a collection of dark matter, forming a cone shape around himself, pointed end facing forwards to maintain airflow. The other end was denser in dark matter, to shield himself from the blow.
The first missile detonated harmlessly, causing ripples and fractures in the solid dark shield to appear. At the impact of the second, the shield shattered like glass, and the missile's EMP burst, a result of detonation, now unblocked by dark matter, hit Xale hard. A searing wave of heat, it also caused something horrible.
His onboard power generator failed.
Even as null ray bursts and jet judo strikes from Skywarp destroyed the last 2 gunships, Xale screamed as he began to plummet in freefall, the fact being that he was only 50 metres up, and travelling at 400 miles an hour. He had no hope of surviving.
A brief flash, and Xale felt himself seized by metal claws, and as he opened his eyes, he saw Skywarp slow to a standstill, and land on the highway.
Leaping out of the black and purple mech's servos, Xale yelled: "Alright, if we keep this up I'm gonna be either blown up or a stain on the ground! We need a faster way to get the Matrix to safety!"
Skywarp suggested offhandedly: "Well, my teleportation can go up to 80 miles, but I said 5 because that's how fast I can do it instantly. If I charge up for 5 minutes, I can teleport straight to the nearest UIP bunker with the Matrix."
Much happier with that plan, Xale called Starscream: "Everyone, Skywarp has a new plan of action."
"I'm not going to like this, am I?" Muttered Thundercracker, as grumpily as ever.
"You'll like it. Get to our position, and you 4 give me support protecting Skywarp. He's going to charge up for an 80 mile teleport, and needs cover. He'll take the Matrix when he's ready."
"An excellent idea. Enemy reinforcements on route anyway." Comm'd Starscream. He added: "Your ally, Azula, she has assisted me in seizing control of an Alliance heavy gunship. We are now on route. Out."
Closing the comms, Xale readied his weapons, including his twin swords, his plasma wrist rifle, missile launcher, flamethrower and also a dart launcher on his lower left arm, armed with poison, stun and tracker darts. All this in addition to his dark matter. Internally, he was impressed that Azula had helped seize control of an aircraft, a heavy gunship no less. Her firebending, Mai's knives and agility, and Starscream and Thundercracker together, was all adding up to make Xale feel more confident all of a sudden.
Ahead, the first Alliance reinforcements landed, a small shuttle, armed with only a single laser cannon turret. A blast from Skywarp's null ray disabled the turret and antigravity drives just as it touched down, grounding it. From inside the immobile craft, a squad of 10 troopers poured out, as well as 1 mech suit.
Xale summoned his dark matter, engaged his swords to vibro and plasma, and brought his plasma rifle and dart launcher to bear. He would stand and defend this position, fighting to the death if need be. Once Skywarp was gone, probably by the time Xale either dispatched these 10 single handed, or when their help turned up, the battle would become easier with no distraction to safeguard.
Keeping his ground, Xale was ready to form a dark shield to protect Skywarp. He aimed his rifle and dart launcher, and thought to himself as he pulled off the first shots:
This is what I was made for. I love to fight, I love to kill. May as well do some good with it.
Alpha Centuari, Pandora, St. Augustine.
"It is of no consequence that the slaves have rebelled by infiltration. Our regular forces outnumber them greatly. We must however seek out the leader of the former KI forces, who was incarcerated among the slaves, and is now escorting civilians to safe areas. Hunt him and kill him" A transmission arrived at the group commander, an elite Leg'hrul field and fleet commander, personally in charge of a relatively elite battalion of Kro'nogri and Leg'hrul, also known for their use of interesting 'animals' as part of their attacks.
Commander Kirth, a renowned military strategist and expert in all general fields of combat, from fleet command to close quarters brawling. He was a relatively standard Leg'hrul, with the predominant blue undercoat and red edges to his feathers, but he, like a now deceased grey over coloured Leg'hrul commander, Norstith, had a unique other colour. While most Leg'hrul shared the blue undercoat and red edges, with a red or different shade blue overcoat, Kirth had a very light blue undercoat, red edges, and a pale white overcoat. He was nicknamed the 'Phantom', for his ghostly colour.
Nodding, Commander Kirth shut down the comm device, and issued appropriate orders to his troops, and also to those who had mounts or 'pets'. The Alliance was moving out from this outpost anyway, used to safeguard the space bridge. On a personal note, Kirth had a score to settle with the former KI forces leader.
It had been over 4 years since Kirth and Alex had met, though the latter was not aware of the other as Kirth was of Alex. After all, Alex knew of Kirth only by name and picture, as they had been involved in battles during the war against each other, sometimes the UIP winning, or the Alliance winning. All the time though, Kirth had never met Alex face to face, but still, he felt a powerful hatred towards the human, and at the same time powerful respect. In effect, it was a rivalry, though Kirth knew Alex much more so than Alex knew him. After all, it had been Alex that had fired the determining shot at the first battle of Rothrian 4 years and 4 months before, what a few came to know as the opening shot of the war, when the UIP fully fought against the Alliance. By Alex destroying the Destroyer Devastator, and crippling the majority of the Alliance fleet by the blast that day, Kirth had suffered his first major loss of his entire military career.
And now, the opportunity to exact an equal defeat on Alex was here. Among the Alliance, Alex was at first regarded as a war criminal, though the majority of the Alliance populace were not supportive of the war, and showed an interest in such an icon of the opponent. When Alex betrayed, he was revered as a small hero among the Alliance, and even in the wake of his resurrection and acts since then, it seemed that Alex's reputation among the Alliance was, surprisingly, better than in the UIP at the moment.
Kirth was longing to exact payback on Alex for humiliating him at Rothrian those years before, but at the same time eager to meet the human as well, to perhaps get an insight into the character of the man who fired the first truly significant shot by the UIP in the war.
As Kirth set off into the night, flanked by his elite forces, he curled his talons, causing them to shimmer with dark matter. Knowing fully well what abilities Alex was 'gifted' with, Kirth was relieved he had been picked as an elite to utilize dark matter specifically for this operation. Smirking with his razor sharp teeth in his beak, the Leg'hrul commander set off with his support, ready to meet the one who defeated him once before.
Hey guys, its me again. Just want to know opinions of story so far, drop reviews, would help to read previous 2 stories before, particularly to remember Kirth from the last segment of this chapter. Looks like an old enemy is coming back for a rematch.