Chapter 11: Deus Vults
June 10th, 2034
Jerusalem, the Levant…
Days have past since the conflict flared up and already the fighting has reached the Holy City itself with the opposing armies were now preparing for the worst, to the Northern end of Jerusalem was cluttered with vehicles running in and out of the city.
The civilian cars were on the highway running as far away from the city as possible while the military vehicles were seen heading into the city ferrying supplies and cargo to stock up provisions for the defenders.
Other trucks heading out of the city in a massive convoy however were suspiciously tinted, these vehicles had tarps strapped tightly onto them, covering their cargoes from all sides. The convoy of 6 trucks even had their own lanes to travel through as the Typhoon MRAP KamaZ trucks sped through the highway running as far away from Jerusalem as possible.
From a hilltop overlooking the city, the reporter Greg Burdette was once again making his round of news broadcast to the world. "War torn Jerusalem, Israel. Once a divine Holy City on the hill, now a meat grinder." He began cynically, sniding whenever he could.
"It's been more than a day since the GDI had began their ruthless campaign of conquest against God's chosen people, the bombardment and fighting has reached Jerusalem and the gates are crumbling as we speak. Standing before the city I witness the senseless and ceaseless slaughter of innocents and the mourning of its defenders as losses mount. Only a miracle can save them from this hopeless struggler. This is Greg Burdette, OBN News." As Greg Burdette concluded his news report however the audience were treated to a shocking revelation.
They saw that he was in fact standing in a movie studio with a green screen behind his back to shoot the supposed "News broadcast" for the world to see. And the cameraman was probably sloppy in cutting the signal, Greg was seen stepping away when a man in dark hood and rabbi like robe stepped in.
This one was seen wearing a strange metal helmet with red visor and heavy combat armor. "Good, now do it again in French and German. I want 200 copies of these made and sent to every single stations in Europe and…" He turned towards camera and suddenly his aggression heightened. "Is that camera still running?" He pulled out his pistol and opened fire on the camera shutting it down permanently along with the cameraman.
On Monster Island, the viewers of the news broadcast were Shiryu and Chikiryu the first Rex Units in existence and now married couple. They were in their crystal mansion by the island's Eastern beach and had seen the bizarre fake news broadcast in full like countless others on the planet.
The couple were in the living room of the mansion all made by the now allied kaiju Krystalak. They were sitting on a couch made up microscopic crystal threads and fibers fabricated by Krystalak. The couch like a real one sunk beneath their weights feeling plush.
The two of them were out of their armors as they watched the news together. Shiryu without his armor was a near exact looking kaiju as Jr. Only his legs were the very sleek angular digitigrade robot legs of a primarily silver color mixed with neon green smaller highlights. The upper portions having thick angled thighs that were rigid having a clear shape to them. Nothing runs on them, and having flat faces.
The legs at the backwards facing portion that connects the thigh to the lower portion of the leg was a double jointed round black connection. At the other side that connected to the lower parts of the leg was more angled with robotic details and edges in it.
The lower part of the leg acted as his shin and calf. It was however also very rigid and angular. The general shape of it was like how a shin and alve would be, hut where the calves would curve was an angular indent that narrowed down to his round robotic ball jointed ankles. On the sides of his thighs was a l elongated six sided polygon that stretched to a more narrow hape at its bottom matching the exact shape of the rest of his thigh. It wa neon green coloration.
His feet were unlike a normal Godzillasaurus though. They were small nearly bird talon shaped feet. They were slos rigid and robotic looking matching the angular shape of the rest of his body. The toes were made up of three knife like claws that stabbed at the ground like talon claws. The ankle guard was a simple geometric dark yellow colored color. His toe knuckles were flat green geometric shapes that held the black back parts of the claws of the silver colored knife like claws.
While Shiryu's legs were silver and green Chikiryu sported red and black colored legs. Red as opposed to Shiryu's greens. Black in place of the silver. Both of them were a to thinner in their fleshy bodies compared to other Godzillians. Shiryu's was a much thinner version of Jr's but Chikiryu's body was much more dark in color. She had rough scales made up of bumps and deep grooved scales.
She had a much more narrow neck than shiryu with her own frill being more curved and having short rough pointed spikes in the forward ends of the end of frill. Face wise she had a more narrow snout that was longer Shiryu's thinner shaped long brows that were less pronounced being rougher. At the end of her snout she had a pair of short sharp fang pointed downward from her upper jaw sticking out of her lips.
They were both sitting on the purple colored couch watching the news with equivalent confused expressions. The Viper's Televised newscast weren't the most convincing. Though it unnerved Shiryu they could control the media and sway public opinion of the GDI.
"That's not good. They are going to attempt shifting more support towards the Vipers. Away from the GDI." Shiryu said looking to Chikiryu.
Chikiryu though was looking something just over the couch to her right. She looked back to Shiryu and shook her head. She even rose a brow to him confused by him. "If you're going to be worried about those pendejos then you need to get set straight man. Hun that was a big fuck up on their part." Chikiryu said in a thick Mexican accent stating her opinion.
She stood up from the couch and walked over to what she was looking at. Shiryu in the meantime continued watching the flat screen of the crystal TV sighing. Chikiryu walked back to the couch though with the approaching sound of tiny squeaks, and cooing noises.
She sat back down on the couch as she wrapped the back of her tail behind Shiryu's body. In their arms was a small infant Godzillasaurs with a lean thinner body.
He had no dorsal plates on his back. Only short nubs. His face showed much resemblance to Shiryu, but also having a narrow snout like Chikiryu. His legs though were also digitigrade, but made of flesh and bone.
Shiryu poked his finger into the infant's chest chuckling. "Hey son. He's going to be bored of the news. I hope he doesn't get fussy with us." Shiryu said.
What the couple didn't know was that they were going to be treated to a surprise on the news as they saw the channel was changed to a news report by a frontline journalist of the ANN or Arma News Network. The journalist was named Nicholas Kykloamos, a Greek journalist wearing a pair of shades to protect his eyes from the scorching sun light of the region.
Like all other war correspondents he wore a black PASGT helmet with the "JOURNALIST" tag on it along with a blue bullet proof vest to protect himself from shrapnels of incoming fire. In his hand he held a microphone to the mouth of one of the GDI officer present at the Chimera base in the area, Camp Thunderball. "So uh Colonel Marsden can you comment on the situation? What do you think the defenders will do and how much casualty would this battle cost?"
The colonel of the GDI dressed in standard ACU camouflage pattern of the organization with a helmet on his head with the Colonel insignia denoting his rank coughed and grumbled before replying to the journalist. "I am concerned that they will fight tooth and nail to hold us back and perhaps to wear us down and force us out of the city completely. I fear that the battle's casualties may go as high as around 5000 KIA and WIA at least. Both civilian and military. We do have...uh unconventional support for this battle and they're much more prepared for this fight than us given their technological advantage."
The colonel would then direct the journalist over to another section of the Camp where the robot wolves of Anubis were seen preparing for the upcoming battle, some were manning howitzers firing bombardments into the city's defenders shaking up the enemies, others were directing vehicles to the front line and hauling supplies. Labor robots were seen digging up foxholes and fighting positions to prepare themselves for the incoming retaliatory barrages.
The journalist was soon able to come to a group of robots by a Stryker ICV to interview them there he saw Belisarius and Arminius checking their weapons and ammo alongside Charlie and six other robots prepping themselves. "Here we have the uh… autonomous combat robot wolves. They're from a certain allies I am not under obligation to name… for my sanity's sake. But uh they are willing to let you interview for about 5 minutes before they head out." The colonel stated to the journalist and allowing him to interview the robots, the Greek man was equally perplexed to see them but he opted to try to interview one anyway.
"Could you deliberate what kind of force you are from? Who's your commanding officer and why do you fight?" The journalist asked Belisarius nervously, directing the microphone to him not sure if the robots can talk or sentience enough to give him a human like answer.
"I can at least give you why we fight. I can not in the name of security disclose to you the identity of our leader. Due to disbelief, and our private information. Our location you wouldn't allow yourself to believe. As for why we fight. We fight for you. Your own safeties. Your securities. And your livelihoods. We are here to protect you from dark organizations and rouge entities bent on causing your demise. We are here to protect you." Belisarius explained.
However, his voice caused Shiryu to drop his calmness he had in the moment with his offspring. His expression turned to a frozen state of shock as he glared at the TV. He was on the brink of shouting. Roaring out in revolt after listening to the voice of Belisarius.
He however was behind Chikriyu next to him as she shouted her reaction in a high pitched blurt of shock. "That guy's voice sounds just like Grey's did Rexy!" She turned over and saw Shiryu stand up slowly on his tallon feet As he approached the tv in shock. "Aw shit you heard didn't you. Hey don't freak out over little Chico while he's here please." Chiki said dryly while she wrapped a reptilian hand over the offspring's chest.
"How did they do it?... Why did they do it?..." Shiryu muttered to himself as he zoomed into Belisarius's face.
The journalist who was present there then asked Arminius a question moving the microphone over to him curiously. "A lot of our audiences are undoubtedly curious right now as to your uh… alliance with the GDI. How long have you been working with them?" To this Arminius would give his earnest and honest answer, one peppered with Roman dialect and sophistication while coming off sounding like a Latinized Joe Marshal of Orion's Sword.
"Not long, only very recently but I have come to conclusions that they are well meaning in their pursuits. No doubt enlightened by the wisdom of Minerva or Athena to the Greeks. Since my activation till now, the GDI have proven themselves to be worthy warriors, determined and battle hardened as any Legionaires of Rome." The reply given to the journalist by Arminius simply further petrified Shiryu, it was surreal, horrifying even to see what could be ghosts of his old enemies in mechanical bodies. By whom or what he does not know. But their voices clearly said it all.
The cameraman didn't help Shiryu as he recorded the footages of the robot wolves that Belisarius led, all of whom were apparently anthros standing at around 6 feet tall sporting chiseled abdomen section and roiled up pectoral and muscles. Clad in shiny chrome armor with pixelated digital ACU camouflage pattern with their ranks on their chest along with serial codes and unit numbers, alias if they had one.
For Chikiryu, what could perhaps make her felt nervous was the fact that all of them wore only a speedo like crotch plate with a utility belt bearing their wolf symbol to haul additional ammo and a satchel to carry grenades. Some had an additional backpack carrying special tools for combat engineering, medical supplies in the form of mechanical repair kits, mobile jammer or other communication tools.
Chikiryu looking at them started to make a dry giggle as she saw how toned, and revealed many of the robots were. They had odd humanoid muscular structure to them. Being Godzillian though it was hard for her to get really attracted to them. Though it was still easy for her to see how other would find them appealing. "Act the way you want to Shiryu, but man they sure do have some ass on them all. Hopefully no one else is thinking that since they kinda look like action figures." Chiki said.
"WHY DO THEY SOUND LIKE GREY AND JOE!?" Shiryu shouted in a nearly high pitched voice.
His outburst didn't come without consequence since the infant in Chiki's arms started to let out a faint eep. This was then followed with a small whimper. Chiki glared at Shiryu as she cradled the child closer to her chest. "There there little Janjiro. Your dad's a little pendejo who can't figure out how to keep calm." Chiki said scolding Shiryu.
Shiryu in turn sighed looking at his son. He walked closer to him and extended an index finger. "Alright fine. Sorry son. I'll… just be in a different room. With the door closed." Shiryu said.
"Good. I'll turn up the TV's volume so we don't hear you." Chikiryu dryly teased.
At that moment in Camp Thunderball, the robots were now moving out to the frontline in Stryker ICVs and humvees. Following them closely were M5A2 MBTs, these tanks were sleek and angular much like an Abrams tank with an almost identical turret design. The tank was smaller and shorter than an Abrams though with the design being clearly made for Airborne forces but still mobile and tough enough with Depleted Uranium Composite armor for more conventional forces to use.
The tanks lined themselves up around the berms of Jerusalem's outskirt with their sights trained on the buildings in front of them, others took up positions with Ranger snipers on hilltops and other high grounds nearby to spot hidden threats such as ATGMs, hidden tanks and other vehicles that can threaten the main force.
Belisarius's squad of 9 robot wolves were transported to the Akedalma Monastery by the foothill of the Old City and the district known as City of David. As the Stryker followed the Abu Tor St of the city down narrow roads of the hilly terrain, the vehicle's CROW M2 HMG swiveled around scanning the area for threats.
So far they have only see civilians hiding in their homes, those who could not flee the battle was forced to stay behind and endure the violence. As the vehicle came up near the Monastery, the Stryker ICV stopped and dropped the rear ramp down letting the robots getting off.
One by one, they filed out and scanned the area for targets before moving forward with Belisarius being accompanied by Charlie and Arminius on the right side of the road. Behind the Robot's Stryker ICV was an Orion's Sword IFV, the JSF IFV, or as called by their users the "Fastback" due to its compact design and slope angular armor similar to a Bradley.
The unique differences were the missile pod now sporting three ATGMs instead of two. The missiles themselves were the GDI developed Gungnir Missiles capable of top attack and direct attack against enemy vehicles from ranges of up to 5 klicks away.
The turret itself was a high speed electrical railgun capable of unleashing a more powerful and persistent rate of fire against their targets with 30mm rounds to punch through cinder blocks. On the top of the turret was a smaller minigun to defend the vehicle from swarms of infantry.
The Orion assault team that was accompanying them could see that the robots were taking up positions around the curves of the road using the stone walls as cover while surveying the hillside city of apartment blocks for targets.
The targets below were still relatively unknown by Orion. However, they each watched the robots move and play out battle scenarios in alarmingly human like ways. They felt unnerved this is what they were going to be fighting with. Worse for them was how hard it was to tell if they were actually living synthetic organisms.
"Keep your heads on a swivel, the Vipers could be waiting for us." Arminius whispered to the Orion troops on the coms as he kept up a slow and methodical pace behind Belisarius. The other robots were seen walking around them with three of them trailing along the wall on the edge of the road to observe the medieval walls of Jerusalem's Old City.
"Hold it, my audio sensors is picking up possible hostiles." One of the robot warned them, CLU-01188 crouched down and gestured his right hand forward at the Monastery in front of them.
"You think they're hiding in there? What could they have for us?" Charlie asked cautiously as he lied down on his stomach on the ground looking at the Monastery's balcony.
"ATGMs, model 9M133 Kornet-EM. Delay the vehicles we need to clear out the Monastery manually." CLU-01188 stated to them as he crouch down on the ground looking at the target. Charlie nodded to CLU-01188 before tapping his right ear and relayed the information to their vehicles as the infantry began to move up closer to the Monastery. As they came close enough to it, the Viper fighters inside began to open up and firing a hail of 7.62 and 5.56 bullets at them. The bullets whispered pass some while clanking and ricochet off of the robot's metal bodies.
Belisarius grunted after the Vipers began to unleash a torrent of bullets onto the robots. The outbreak of weapons opening fire was so sudden and extremely abrupt as the silence was quickly shattered by the clatter of multiple weapons firing off.
Despite their robotic armored frames being durable, they still had weak points, and were still able to be damaged. Dents and armor buckling were evidence of this as Belisarius both saw and felt his armor developed some dents. He pulled back into cover using a nearby sandy wall to keep him covered.
"Under fire! Under fire! They were waiting for us here." Belisarius shouted on radio. He looked over the wall getting a peak. "Move up slowly. Take cover frequently, and over run the monastery." Belisarius ordered.
The robots made dolphin dives to the ground and crawled forward slowly, their LMG gunner set up his weapon and lay down bursts of suppressive fire on the Monastery with tracer rounds can be seen exiting the weapon's muzzles every now and then. Their grenadier robot fired a 40mm grenade into the Monastery's window and blew up the 2nd floor's room.
The other members like Charlie, Arminius and CLU-01188 quickly sprinted around the side of the Monastery and approached the building, Arminius tossed up a smoke grenade to cover their approach before gesturing for Charlie to assault the building with him. The robot arctic wolf nodded and quickly burst through the window surprising his enemies within before gunning them down quickly.
Arminius in the meantime punched through the wall grabbing one of the lesser Viper grunts and pulled him out of his hiding place and crushed his skull in the robot's grip.
"Etiam!" He shouted in Roman Latin, leading the robots in his element up the stairs and cleared out the balconies. "The Monastery is secured! I repeat the Monastery is secured, come join us Belisarius, we need to set up an OP from the 2nd floor of this building." Arminius called to his mate on the radio before signaling via body language to the Orion members to move up. "Pugna mon perfecta est…" He sighed out before looking out at the window at the Medieval wall of Old Jerusalem.
After the order was given for the Orion soldiers to move up they did so. It was indicated though by them running forwards popping out of cover wherever they were. They each ran into the monastery and huddled inside. Each of them murmuring anxiously after seeing the robots brawl.
Belisarius though ran up to the monastery with his paws pounding against the ground below. He stomped on the ground making it shake somewhat before flinging himself upwards to one of the second story windows. On the second floor he began to give orders out again. "That should take care of their anti armor. We can move up again. No more surprises though. Fo Sperate." Belisarius stated.
Arminius then crouch down and placed a cylindrical device on the ground. The top portion of the can like device split from the base and lifted up creating an umbrella like circle before projecting holographic map display on the ground for them to review their progress so far.
On the map of Jerusalem, they saw that to the West of the city the GDI were pushing slowly into town, probing at enemy defenses with infantry and light armor before pushing harder with Mechanized Infantry support and their stock of existing Abrams tanks. To the south, there were Orion forces and the Jackal Guards pushing faster and harder into town but their oppositions in this area were militants and occasional Viper's elites.
A caller ID from Anubis was seen popped up on the map with a sound spectrum. "Phalanx to Hoplite, radio intercepts suggest that enemy fighters are dug in and are waiting for you in the Apartment block nearby. I'm dispatching Hecatonchires to help you clear them out. Fire support from Ptah Troops is on station to flatten those defenses." Said Anubis as the holographic map updated and tagged the hillside apartment blocks and the South Wall of old Jerusalem highlighted as their targets before the Temple of Solomon itself.
The apartment bloks weren't too special looking. Rather old blocky looking living spaces for higher residential areas. What was in them though was the issue. Many Vipers waiting to sink their fangs into the Guards. "We'll skin them with ease. The thin walls of the apartments are nothing compared to our forces. Etiam!" Belisarius said as he moved out of the projected topographic map. Now he was relying on the map in his HUD for his guidance.
"Ptah Troops, fire mission grid Hotel-6 India-6, tight barrage HE. Trāicite!" Arminius called in the Artillery barrage while looking at the apartment blocks on the hillside using binoculars laser tagging module to send coordinates and informations to the Artillery platoon. "Coordinates received, firing barrage on target now, over." The robots of manning the M320 Spartan Howitzers behind the line were seen loading up their guns with shells and preparing their automated reloading system.
The barrage would then be fired upon the apartment block sending shells flying high into the air, often from a distance as far as 30 to 40 km away from the frontline. The shells were seen landing on their targets leveling the apartments to ground reducing them to rubles in the blink of an eye with dust being kicked up and debris falling all over the place.
Watching this devastation unfold before his own eyes instead of a video game or movie left Charlie stunted and frozen in awe and fear. Despite his position would expect him to be prepared for such events and yet here he was frozen in fear by the sight of people's home similar to his own leveled in one go.
His vision can pick up various stunted and shellshocked Vipers wandering the blocks and districts, some were without their own limbs while other were just lying in their own pool of blood. Their Stryker vehicle and Orion's own IFV were in turn mopping them up and kept suppressive fire on the enemies that were hidden from sight further adding to the chaos and destruction as Jerusalem burn around them.
From the air, a pair of VTOLs V-320 Valkyrie were seen landing one by one on the hilltop near their position with the cargo ramps in the rear unloading additional robots and vehicle support, namely M5A2 MBTs. But one of the VTOLs deployed the Hecatonchires.
The hulking four armed and four eyed giants of the robot army, their two upper arms were equipped with gatling guns mounted on their wrists. Their lower arms were equipped with palm mounted laser cannons. The 4 robots lumbered forward and took up position around the road and scanned for targets covering the Orion soldiers near them. "Hecatonchires units Aigaion, Kottos, Gyges and Briareos are standing by for combat directive, unit Belisarius." The Briareos Unit stated on the radio as it crouched down lurching forward and scanned for threats like ATGMs.
"Good. Our armor has just arrived. Lead us Briareos. Be our spearhead for this assault. The armor to guide us." Belisarius ordered as he continued walking forwards going through dust, smoke and ash that riddleing his frame dirty with particles. As he crossed into the apartment complex his armor quickly became more dust ridden, and dirty. Smoke and soot dripping over his armor as well as the uniforms for other soldiers around him.
As the Hecatonchires marched forward and lead the way, they were seen gunning down any enemies they encountered, blowing down stragglers in a barrage of miniguns. Some were even stomped by these giants without remorse. Even Arminius's armor was becoming dust ridden as the visibility of the area was reduced to only mere meters from one another.
"Hey you heard from those Recon guys of the GDI? Heard that they saw a ghost or something." One of the Orion assault troopers spoke up as he scanned for targets. The Orion troopers there saw that whenever the robot wolves encountered enemy forces, they brutally exterminated the threats, gunning them down in cold calculated machine precision. "You guys are gay or something? Cause you look the part." He continued quipping at Belisarius.
Occasionally they came across stunted civilians wandering around looking for the remains of their homes, apathy was ridden on the faces of those civilians as they stepped aside and simply let the robots and Orion troops through.
Belisarius grumbled though seeing lost civilians moving around. Despite their lack of care for the robots he seemed to care more than they did. "Is it at all possible to call an extract for the stragglers, or are they to hold out hopefully avoiding this conflict altogether?" Belisarius asked.
"Regrettably, no. I don't think we can do anything to help them now, depends on what Anubis feel the right thing to do here." Arminius stated as they came closer to the Old Jerusalem wall, they saw that the Vipers were still shuttling armored forces towards the Western edge of the city to fight the GDI.
High above the sky, Viper and Israeli Air Force were embroiled in a fight to the death with Horus and the Abyssal deities, often, Horus would tear out the pilots from their jets or slash their jets into piece with his sword leaving their wrecks to fall into the ground destroying more and more of the city.
On the ground for infantry like them, they can see remains and wrecks of tanks, IFVs and APCs smoldering with Viper militias begging for mercy kill from them. Soon enough they were within reach of the Wall where they can see the dome of the Temple Mount but that was when they realize something was not right.
The top of the dome was opening up revealing itself to be a massive missile silo for a presumably Nuclear tipped ICBM, not only that but the Vipers within their command centers were about to unleash their contingency plan to block the advance.
Deep under the earth beneath the protective layers of the Temple Mount and its adjacent holy sites lied the Vipers command bunker, within its war room, there was a holographic map with serpent decor on its gothic black design.
Two officers were seen standing by the map going over the details of their battle groups and elements under their commands. "They've penetrated our Southern defenses, our troops can't hold them back with forces like this." They turned to their overall commander in the region, the Viper commander named Jasper.
"Initiate Code Jesus H. Christ. Slow them down so we can launch the nuke against Cairo!" He ordered them with a booming voice from his commander's seat while slamming his fist on the arm support.
"Yes sir! All units initiate Code Jesus H. Christ! I repeat initiate Code Jesus H. Christ!" The order was sent out to the other forces on the battlefield as they scrambled to prepare for their nuclear launch. Outside of the Old City, Belisarius and Arminius felt the rumbling on the ground as various bombs exploded around the perimeter of the Old City, from those explosions, chemical toxin clouds were seen seeping out covering the neighborhood around the place.
Yellow toxic clouds leaving many reeling, civilians were seen choking and coughing from the toxin. Most died on the spot while parents held onto their children as families died together. Even the common Viper militants were dying from the toxin while their more elite brethrens were still waiting for the enemies to come.
With all of this happening so suddenly Belisarius became too shocked to give out orders for a while. The demented Vipers by this point were destroying their own conquered areas, and their own troops to prevent the Jackals assaults. It was disgusting the lengths they took to ensure the Guards would not become victorious.
Once he got his grips back to him Belisarius looked to the missile and grit his teeth with anxious fear. "Missile! They are going to attempt launching a nuclear device on us! Command do you read we are in an urgent situation!" Belisarius shouted.
"Oh man this is defcon shit man!" One of the troops shouted.
"Bringing back some memories here! The world's been nuked enough already! Grey Boss Man proved that!" the soldier named Seager shouted.
Belisarius ordered the men however to move through the toxic gas. It was standard by now for the Orion soldiers to be wearing gas mask of type. Filtrated one, or even opens with a hose and gas tank. They crossed into the gas and grunted. Often mentioning a mad doctor out of bad memories named Thrax. Belisarius as he moved didn't recall the name all too well.
"Hoplite, this is Phalanx, I read you. The Chimera are reporting toxins around the area as well, they're dispatching HAZMAT teams to those to contain the threat. But you need to stop the launch right now. If that missile flies we'll have nuclear war to wage." Anubis ordered sternly sounding like he was really outraged or driven to fury seeing the sight of the toxin filled streets of Jerusalem and the depraved monsters Vipers have always been.
The robots and Orion troopers who were entering the toxin filled areas saw that the area was simply too dangerous for them to move about in tight formation. They spread out trying to cover as much ground as possible but the narrow streets and confined houses were keeping them from being able to maneuver quickly.
As a result the second Robot squad was seen following behind guiding their vehicles slowly through until they finally reached the Wall of the Old City. "Alright grappling hooks up, give us some lines. Ibi Iacēte!" Arminius shouted out to the robots who then fired off grappling hooks on to the Southern Wall, establishing traversing paths for them.
"Let's go Belisarius, time to save the world." Said Arminius as he hooked up to the lines with some robots and Charlie and began to scale the wall, other Robots and Orion troops stayed behind and provide cover fire.
Belisarius climbed up his own grapple by using his feet to travel upwards walking up using vertical foot stepped while one gun held his weapon in hand while the other was held up in a fist with the grapple hook's hold take on the wall kept his body up and his arm extended flat. "Moving now. Pugna non perfecta est!" he shouted in latin.
With the assault team pushing forward, Viper forces on the top quickly rushed over to intercept them. They ran along the wall trying to cut the hooks only to be suppressed by the robots and Orion troops below, men dropping down on the ground with bullets riddled corpses.
The more elite Viper Operators aimed their weapons down vertically only to be shot up by the Jackal Robots. Some were lucky enough to score some kills on the robots dropping them with well placed shots while the Hecatonchires traversed the wall, reaching the top of the place.
"Directive: Protect Unit Belisarius, clear out the Vipers. Termination protocol commenced." The Hecatonchires's leg clamps planted the giants to their positions on the walls as they began to spray hails of Minigun leads at the Vipers that were guarding the place, more of the Vipers on the open ground below them ran for cover knowing the high ground has been lost only to be killed in the process.
"Infirmus! Those weaklings are hiding in the Temple Mount! We need to take that dome structure now! Charlie, take the others and guard the entrance for us, Belisarius and I will clear out the area below!" Arminius ordered Charlie who nodded to the two. "Sure thing, just hope these Orion guys don't call me something." Much to his dismay however one of the Orion assault troopers had already caught on with his own quip for Charlie.
"Yeah sure, faggot." Charlie groaned out hearing this. "You look way too sexy, get some pants on will ya?" The Orion trooper continued to mock Charlie while the robot arctic wolf took up fighting position around the gate of the Old City.
"Oh ignore them. They obviously aren't too familiar with how your realm operates." Belisarius shouted as he got over the wall. His taking though was replaced by silent precision as he shot down surviving Vipers on the open areas after vaulting the wall. He muttered as he did so becoming more frantic and urgent. "They are buying the missle time! They'll sacrifice their lives for it! Eliminating us while doing so!" Belisarius yelled out.
Arminius and Belisarius would soon burst through the doors of the Temple Mount, pushing deep into the inner sanctum of the base to try and disable the launch.
This led them deeper into the underground base, along the way more and more Viper elites were slaughtered leaving them with little oppositions that was until they came across a Vault. An odd one at that.
The cavern was huge, perhaps made by humans without advanced machinery and tools that were ancients to say the least. The place was a catacomb and Vault combination with various sections for each individual corpse to rest silently.
Around the place there were various control panels, computer equipment and towers to control the missile and other operations. One of them appears to be an excavation into the inner sanctum of the Vault.
Deep inside, Arminius and Belisarius would see that there was a large sarcophagus at the end of the vault with two Egyptian statues of Set standing guard on either sides of it.
But before they could take in all these, they heard something, a mechanical whirring sound of actuators and locomotives and hydraulics. And from on top of them, a red robot slammed its feet down on the ground, sending the two flying into opposite directions.
The robot was humanoid standing at 6'5 feet tall with crimson red chassis and frame. It armor appeared to be a more beef up version of Belisarius and Arminius while its head appeared to have no facial features and only a smooth round head.
"I've hunted many dogs before in my career. But you two would be my finest trophies yet." The robot stated menacingly, the head piece popped open revealing it to have a human face underneath. Genuine flesh but the skin seems pale and sickly green with the eyes now turned blood red and black lips. "Wild dogs of the Afterlife, you are begging for the Jaeger to end your pathetic existence." Said the cyborg as he flipped the headpiece down and began to join the fray.
Belisarius groaned as he stood up. He looked up at the menacing form standing over them and glared at the massive cyborg. Being more built up like a hulking tank made the smaller wolf robot more cautious facing the new adversary. "What is this? What type of Viper are you? Damn get ready to fight!" Belisarius shouted. He swung his arm upwards, and charged up the plasma cannon on the palm of his hand preparing to fire.
Jaeger, as the Viper's robot was called quickly grabbed a large energy blade from his back and swung it around, narrowly missing Belisarius as he lumbered forward trying to catch up his more agile wolf opponent. Arminius from behind opened fire on the red robot shooting at its back before sliding forward and kicking his heel, causing the cyborg to tumble over.
Belisarius would see that Jaeger wasn't going to let himself be bamboozled for long, Jaeger grabbed Arminius's face with his left hand and slammed Arminius into the wall before dropping him to the floor. The robot wolf rolled out of the way, narrowly dodging Jaeger's feet stomping the ground. "That thing is too tough! We need to take it at the same time!" Arminius grunted as he got up to his feet. Jaeger would then fire off hundreds of electro shock grenades to electrify the floor.
The electro grenades managed to shock and jolt Belisarius while the cracked off in blue and violet colored bolts of electricity around him. He forced himself out of the area affected by the attack by holding his body forwards. He fell to his chest, but quickly used his arms to force himself up to his feet. "That's the only way to do it! My plasma cannon is charged Arminius! Let's say we do something?" Belisarius asked.
Arminius grinned to Belisarius and charged up his own Plasma Cannon and aiming at the red robot with Belisarius. "Right on, love." The two of them fired their plasma cannon at Jaeger, pushing the cyborg back and slamming him into the wall. The cyborg fell to the ground with two holes on his chest but he wasn't out of action just yet. "Nice try doggies, but…" He stood up slowly before glaring at them. "It's not over yet." He boasted while holding his fist up.
"Wasn't enough! Well it's about to end for you!" Belisarius boasted. He rose his left arm upwards extending it flat forwards. The panel behind his wrist traveling up his forearm opened up. After it opened the grapple hook he had in his arm shot out towards the cyborg. It blasted around the machine-thing's arm. After this Belisarius pulled backwards while grunting to use his weight to pull the metal beast down.
Jaeger grunted in surprise being yanked forward by his enemies, as he was being yanked forward, Arminius jumped up and made a flying kick on Jaeger's face sending the cyborg flying back with the arm that Belisarius had his grappling hook wrapped around ripped out of its socket. Arminius then opened up his thigh compartment and drew forth his laser gladius and charge at his opponent with Belisarius.
"Think again mutts!" Jaeger roared out in anger as he stood up, his remaining arm opened its wrist panels activating the energy blades and parry the two robot wolves's Gladius from dealing their deadly blows against him.
Belisarius grunted feeling a wave of opposing force quake through his body vibrating him violently. After the quake he felt gaze lock onto Jaeger's robotic face peering at his otics angrily as he held the sword. He lept backwards, and stabled his own gladius in had.
He carved it at an angle and charged forwards to strike at Jaeger in some way. He rolled himself forwards, following by getting back to his feet after the roll, and then using the forwards momentum to send his own laser gladius towards Jaeger's abs.
This would then be followed by Arminius thrusting his blade up Jaeger's chin, pushing the blade up into his brains, dropping him in an instant. With the cyborg done in, he ran over to the control panel looking at it, seeing the red panel there showing that the missile had only a minute before launching. He then tried to reverse course of the launch tapping and panel and trying his best to cancel the launch as best as he could.
"Launch sequence cannot be canceled. If you are trying then you must be dumber than Pride and Accomplishments." Said the monotonous automated computer voice of the base as Arminius struggled to cancel the launch. "Haha. Haha. Haha. Try again, it's no use loser. You might as well pre-order the Digital Deluxe edition of Cancel the Launch now and be done with it." The computer voice continued its mocking tone to Arminius and Belisarius.
"Deal with this." He snarked back before sprinting over to the missile itself, he slide on the floor and slammed his fist into the missile's body and ripped out the control circuits. This was followed by the missile sounding its power down as the launch was being canceled.
"Alert! Alert! Alert! Malfunctions detected in Jericho-III missiles, aborting launch. Aborting launch. Screw you cheaters, you weren't supposed to do that." The computer continued its snarks at the two while Arminius sighed out in relief while the Orion troops above can hear the computer's snarks on the PA system.
Belisarius then sighed out as the missile was shut down. He didn't yet relax and shook his head. "We have to set up defenses now while we extract this thing. We need something fast. Something that can get this out of here before they attempt to come back." Belisarius spoke.
"Affirmative Hoplite, I hear you loud and clear, reinforcements are being dispatched to your positions now, it looks like Vipers are abandoning Jerusalem and are retreating now. You did excellently." Said Anubis to Belisarius over the radio in a congratulatory tone giving the two a moment of relief as Arminius hugged Belisarius tenderly patting him on his back before kissing his lips embracing his lover.
To the north of the city where the Vipers are seen retreating out of the city in a massive column of military vehicles piled up on the highway creating congestions and jamming traffic. As they were attempting to retreat as fast as they could, they became sitting ducks, on the sky above lurking in the clouds came a USAF B-52H Stratofortress flew overhead.
The USAF bomber dropped their infamous payload of awesome destruction on the enemies, waves upon waves of Mk84 bombs devastate and obliterate the Viper vehicles into pieces destroying them completely. Once the highway was completely cratered with Mk84 bombs and burning wrecks of Vipers unconventional vehicles, the B-52H flew home to its air base in Incirlik, Turkey.
