Chapter 10: Machine-Arm Warjack

We were sent to North Ghent to help some Dungeon Fighters out. Or maybe they were helping us out. What could we do to help them? Well apparently, there was a machine called the AT-5T Walker that was left behind. Melvin told us that there were some barriers that could only be destroyed by the Walker, which I found odd since I was sure the Dungeon Fighters strength would be enough. Nonetheless, we were transported over to North Ghent and given one day to get ready. We met the Dungeon Fighters who would accompany us tomorrow. One was a Slayer who had the power to control ghosts. Another was a female Fighter, whose battle scars were visible on her legs. She was called a Brawler. There was a Priest seemed to be a Crusader, and another Gunner with a huge gun on his back, which I learned was a Launcher. We said our greetings. They were quite nice and I think they were really excited for the mission. I won't lie, we felt pretty excited too just to be able to experience some more Dungeon Fighters fighting with us. What wondrous new skills will we see?

During the night, my squad was asleep but I was still awake. The Slayer, who I learned was a Soul Reaper, made me curious about the afterlife. If he can summon ghosts, then what kind of ghosts are they? Are they just any ghosts or are they special ones, ones that are specially designed to help Soul Reapers? The latter seemed quite likely, but I'm still bothered by the ghosts. Does this mean that millions of unhappy spirits are here? I shook those thoughts away. Why think them? It's probably ghosts that only Soul Reapers can summon anyways. Still, I wonder how their past lives were, those ghosts. Why can they and only they be summoned by the Soul Reaper? What happened during their life that caused them to be? Dungeon Fighters make me question things more and more.

The next day, it was time to fight on the fields once more. We made our way to North Ghent Gate. Through the walkie-talkie I was holding, Melvin's voice could be heard.

"Squad and Dungeon Fighters, are you proceeding to North Ghent Gate? Over." Melvin buzzed.

"We are, over." I replied.

"Okay. The AT-5T Walker should be close to where you guys are. If you take out my specially designed map, it should be able to tell you where the Walker is since the Walker has a built-in chip. Once you reach it, tell me. Over." Melvin explained.

"Copy that. Over." I took out the map and there was a blinking light on it. It was in the northeast direction, so we quickly headed to that spot. On the way, we met some Kartel soldiers, but they were quickly taken care of. I will say, this was a grand time to see the Soul Reaper in action. He had two ghosts with him, one that made him invincible at certain intervals, and another that seemed to protect him. There were four ghosts that he could lay down: Kazan, Bremen, Saya, and Rhasa. Kazan raised everyone's strength while Bremen lowered the enemies defense. Saya was meant to freeze and Rhasa made a person twitch and convulse with poison and internal bleeding. I think Rhasa also blinds.

When we reached the Walker, I quickly took out my walkie-talkie and told Melvin, "Walker has been found, over."

"Excellent. One of you guys will have to get in the Walker to remove the barriers. There's only enough room for one person. Over." Melvin replied.

"By the way, how come the Walker is needed to remove the barriers? Over."

"It saves time. The barriers are made with strengthened steel mixed with some titanium in it. Now, Dungeon Fighters can break it, but they'll be spending valuable time and energy on it. With the Walker, it can easily break it with no sweat. Over."

I turned to the Dungeon Fighters and my squad and asked, "So then, who goes into the Walker?"

The Dungeon Fighters didn't really want to. One could've went but he figured that his own skills would be better. My squad either wanted to see them fight or help them out with their own arsenal of weapons, so it was all up to me. I climbed into it and told Melvin.

He said, "Alright. Now that you're in the Walker, it's time to go over the controls on it. Moving it is quite simple for the most part. There is a control stick that can go in any direction. There's two pedals that you can step on. The one on the right is to just move forward at a faster rate. The Walker is quite slow when just moving around, so you'll need to utilize that pedal. Did you get all of that? Over."

"Yes I did. Over." I replied.

"Good. Now I'm going to go over the attacks. You have some buttons in front of you. The first one is your standard attack, shooting a few long bullets. The next button is a more advanced version of the attack. You might notice that the barrel is slightly larger than your bullets. If you press this button, you'll also send out some missiles along with your regular bullets. Now you might be wondering about that other pedal I said earlier. That's another of your attacks. Whereas the right one is designed to move faster, the left is designed to rush and charge into enemies. The force of it should be enough to at least give the Kartels some broken bones, if not killing them outright. Anyways, the third button is your flamethrower attack. There's another barrel under the gun barrel that's for shooting out flames. I'm sure you already know about flamethrowers. Second to last button is my second favorite. It sends out three big missiles out from the back of the Walker to three fixed points in front of you. The missiles do some heavy damage. Now the last one is a deadly one. It'll send a signal to an aircraft that will drop down a lot of missiles. You'll be immobile while signaling the aircraft, so find a safe spot first. Now, this one needs quite a bit of energy to send the signal. You should be able to find some fuel for this in the field. Remember to get everyone else into a safe position as well for any of the missile attacks. Now did you get all of that? Over."

"I got it all. Over."

"Good. I don't have to explain it again. I'm going to try to and see if I can find some information on this Warjack guy. I'll try to find it fast so you guys don't have to find out about it at the wrong time. Over."

"Roger that. Oh yeah, what if it gets destroyed? Over."

"Ah, that you don't have to worry about. See, when the Walker gets activated, it leaves behind a small device. When the Walker is destroyed, you'll have to bring the pieces back to the device, but then it'll automatically repair itself. However, don't go rushing in and being reckless. It won't do repair itself forever. Not to mention that you'd be making me pretty mad since they're my machines. Over."

After that, some Kartel Agents appeared. I decided this would be a good time to test out the Walker's skills. As sad as it is for me to kill women, I had to. Besides, if it wasn't by me, it would've been by my squad or the Dungeon Fighters. But I must say, this Walker sure is amazing. Over the next few areas, I tried out all of the buttons, and I was getting used to moving it as well.

We came across this person who called himself Hotwire. He was...something else. I think he was some kind of android. Is that what Gizel has been making? The Dungeon Fighters quickly sprang to action though, so I ordered my squad on what to do.

"O'Reilly! Westheld! You guys take care of the Kartel soldiers! Friesly, take out those rocket launchers! Terres, back up the Launcher and also snipe out any Kartels!"

I was right in that Hotwire was something else. He was taking some damage from the Dungeon Fighters, but he was also still very much alive. He threw some flash grenades around and the Dungeon Fighters had to evade it. However, I was unaffected and quickly launched some missiles for him since the Dungeon Fighters were away. The missiles seemed to be very effective, he was destroyed instantly. There were some circuits and components remaining of Hotwire, but they were quickly taken care of. We can't take any chances here. We found some fuel nearby and the Soul Reaper tossed it to me. I let it run into a hole nearby and we went further ahead. We found another special soldier that went by the name of Captain Jurren. I swear, his acrobatic skills rivals that of circus performers. He was jumping all over the launcher's attacks, he was too fast for our guns to hit, honestly it was just sad. Figuring that enough was enough after five minutes, I told everyone to clear out and decided to send in the aircraft missiles. Even Jurren can't dodge all of those missiles. It was a pretty cruel sight. Jurren tried his best, but his body parts splattered everywhere. An arm here, a leg there, his head nowhere to be found though. His torso was against a wall, intestines spilling out. Honestly, I feel sorry for him. Am I a monster for using this? Maybe I am, but what does it matter now? The blood that painted the ground was a common sight. It was overkill, but a necessary kill. It was a good thing that Melvin called before I started to think of it too much.

"Come in, Squad and Dungeon Fighters. Do you read me? Over." Melvin asked.

"Read you loud and clear, over." I replied.

"Great. So I found out that the Kartels call him Machine-Arm Warjack, since he replaced his arms with mechanical ones. Gizel sure is one crazy scientist. Though he does have the look for it. But I digress, watch out for Warjack. Due to his mechanical arms, he's got some attacks that you haven't seen yet on a Kartel. From the records I've seen of him, he can shoot out lasers out of his hands, charge up and shoot a ball of electrical energy, and grab a person so he can send out huge waves of electricity. And due to his arms being mechanical, watch out for his extended range. I'd advise on either being quick on your feet at close range or just stay far away. If his arms are mechanical, chances are that he also has increased armor. It'll probably take you a bit to defeat him, I know that one aircraft missile barrage won't be enough to kill him. Over."

And with that, we had to devise a plan. My squad would have to snipe and throw grenades at Warjack, that was all they could do. The Launcher would also stay back. The Soul Reaper and the Brawler would fight up close. The Crusader would try to keep everyone alive, as always.

We finally met up with Warjack. He was a burly man. You could tell he at least worked out. I figured that if he had his regular arms, they would be full of muscles and veins. Now, his mechanical arms moved with clangs, the wires surrounding it looking like mechanical veins.

"Haha! So you think you can defeat me? I replaced my arms for the Kartels! I'll crush you and zap you like a little insect!" He yelled.

We quickly got into position and started attacking him. Warjack was a pain. Many of our hits seemed to not even faze him. The Dungeon Fighters gave him hell though. That isn't to say that we didn't have trouble. Electricity flew everywhere. It was like an annoying mosquito, one that you just kept bothering you over and over. Luckily, we found some more fuel for the Walker. The Brawler quickly got it and threw it to me.

I yelled out, "Freeze him and get out of the way!"

He was frozen and I pressed the button. Every second that passed by felt like Warjack would thaw out. The aircraft came, though, and I calmed myself down. Surely this would be the final blow. Melvin said that one couldn't bring him down, but the Dungeon Fighter already damaged him enough. It was like a glorious explosion of fireworks. They were all the same, but to me, there were colors. Surely Warjack was gone now. Terres walked up to me and gave a thumbs up. I returned it, and looked at the rising smoke. My heartbeat quickly rose again.

"Terres! Get your sniper rifle ready and hide!" I told him.

He hid, holding his rifle and took aim afterwards. I pressed the button for the three missiles. They landed, but Warjack was still standing.

"That was a good move...I really felt it for that one! But I'm still alive, and you're going down!" He said while smiling, some blood dripping from his face.

"Now Terres!" I yelled, and Warjack was shot in the chest. Piercing through his heart, the bullet went in and then out, covered in blood. Warjack fell down. I got off the Walker and went up to him.

"..Hehe. You're pretty good...it's a shame...that I'm going to die here. Sacrificing my arms...wasn't enough for the Kartels." Those were his final words.

Cheers and compliments were given afterwards. We were victorious! That is a big step for us. Ghent is getting closer to being free from the Kartels! I was surprised that we could actually do something. My squad, I mean. We were regular Ghent soldiers, not Dungeon Fighters, and we...we did something. We killed Warjack, with some help of Dungeon Fighters. But however, we were also able to defend ourselves against the Kartels. The Kartels probably think that the people of Ghent were depending on Dungeon Fighters now. I don't think that's the case for my squad. Today showed me that we aren't as bad as they would think. Maybe next time, we won't even need Dungeon Fighters.