** Evening all! Or morning, deepening on when you are reading this! I just wanted to thank all of you who have stayed with my stories this far! It's great to know that so many people enjoy my writing. I know that 2020 has been a hell of a year, and I can only hope that my stories have been a small sliver of light for those of you who needed it. Know that we will get through these tough times together and come out stronger in the end! Cheers!**

Chapter 34: Metal Monsters

He thought he was about to die, there was nothing stopping the row of eight or more tanks from throwing a couple hundred pounds of lead in his direction. Time seemed to slow at Amun looked at the dark holes of the one hundred and twenty milometer cannons, waiting for them to spit fire in his direction. However, as a few seconds passed and he noticed that he was still breathing, in pain and laying in the dirt, but still breathing. The tanks were waiting at the tree line for something.

Amun took a gamble and started to stand, however his body had other ideas. The fresh holes that were now in his back and crown causing so much pain that his entire body felt like it was burning. His muscles quivered and shook as the king tried to get to his feet, wanting to cover up his pain for his daughters that he knew looked to him. He managed to get one of his large feet under him body and brought himself up to one knee.

"Father!" Bobby called to him from the building that he had been thrown into just moment before. Amun tilted his large head up to look to him concerned daughter, wanting to show that he would be ok. However, as he did, Amun did not realize that he was shaking violently which did not go unnoticed by his daughter. "Father! You are hurt!"

"I...I am fine, Bobby...Just... don't worry about me, I'll...I'll be fine." The King tried to explain. A weak cover for the true amount of pain he was in. Once Amun had his head lifted enough to look to his daughters within the window, he watched as they all leapt from the third floor and landed upon his large head and back. It caused a wave of pain through his body, but he stayed as still as he could. They went right to work, locating the wounds and filling them with resin. "Bobby..you need t-"

"All you had to do was leave." Amun was cut off by the sound of someone's voice from a PA system, it was coming from the tanks that had just made their appearance. With a bit of struggle, the king managed to turn towards the war machines and waited for the unseen person to continue.

"It would have been so simple, but I guess Emilia could not control her hive like I had thought." The voice, Amun recognized as Richard, was full of disappointment and irritation. Whether or not he was within the tanks or communicating from somewhere else, he could not tell. "But no! They just had to come back and save dear old dad! I'm done with this. Amun, I will give you one last chance. Tell your daughters to go home, leave and never come back, and I'll let them all live. Or they all die, it's up to you."

His voice was logical and cold as it always had been when he had talked to Amun, like talking to an object that you cared little for. He hated it, in such a way that only rage could describe. Amun had not even noticed that his lips had rolled back and that he was letting out a low snarl. As he looked to the row of tanks, he noticed Jolene approaching from behind him, along with both of their hives.

She came to his side, hooked her arm under his and lifted him to his feet, despite his body protesting in pain. Once to his feet, the two locked their gaze on one another and so many thing ran through his mind. Should he give in and grantee that his family would be safe? Did that even include Jolene's hive, or would they once again become lab rats for this monsters experiments? Should he fight, putting his daughters lives at risk for only a sliver of a chance that they would rid themselves of this nightmare? Amun's head fell to the ground as the emotions overtook his mind and confused him.

It did not last long as four hands made their way to the side of his face and lifted it back up, forcing him to look upon the queen that stood before him. Amun took a moment to admire her beauty. He noticed that he crown's design was actually different than Emilia's was, her body was a slightly different shape as well. She was beautiful and somehow reminded him of his Jolene in many ways. With hands upon the sides of his face, she looked to the king and sent him ever loving emotions she had.

"What are...we...going t-to do?" She asked as she looked to the king. Amun took a deep breath and focused on the happy feelings that she was sending him. He sent his own feeling to her, confusion, happiness, fear, anger, he sent them all, wanting her to know that he did not know what to do. Just then, his attention was taken by Bobby.

"Father..." Her voice was quiet and full of sadness. Amun looked down to the ground where she was and noticed that she was now huddled around the body of Abby. That is when he noticed the large piece of concrete covering her lower half.

"Abby!" Amun called out, pulling away from Jolene's grasp to crouch down and pick up his daughter, having to first move the large slab that had be upon her. Fear took over Amun as he looked upon the crushed lower half of his daughter's body. Her legs and stomach were a mess, her tail broken in multiple locations and acid blood now flowed and covered most of her exoskeleton. The king gently scooped her up in his large hands and brought her to his face. "Abby, please talk to me!" He waited for a response, her limp body in his hands. Thankfully she slowly turned her long head to look up at Amun, her movements were painful and weak.

"F-father?" It was only a whisper in his mind, but he hear it. She slowly extended her hands towards him, there was something within her claws that he could not make out. As she held out the object, she opened her hands to reveal the crystal geode that she had found within the river bed of the mountains. "T...t...take it. We...we can play?" Amun's hands began to shake as his daughter held out the gem, he could feel her mental touch quickly growing weaker.

"Yes...yes Abby, we can play all you want. I will hide it for you, you just need to stay awake ok?" He said, desperately wanting to help his daughter.

"I'm...tiered...I...sleep." As more and more of her acid blood flowed from her wounds, panic started to set in.

" Abby, don't...don't sleep, I need you to stay awake! We can't play if you're asleep silly." He struggled to put the words together as he held his dyeing daughter. He wanted nothing more than to hold her tight, but knew that he could not because it would hurt her. His heart raced within his exoskeleton, he didn't know what to do to save his daughter. He watched as her head slowly came to rest upon his hand.

"Tell mother...I...love...her..." Her touch slowly faded away with every word within his mind. Then, she was gone.

"A...abb...by..." The sounds slipped from his thoughts as if to deny what had just happened. His daughter, his beloved daughter, was gone.

Amun's body froze, his daughter's body in his hands, as flashed of all the times they had played together filled his mind. How smart she had been when finding the rocks that he had hid for her, how much she had gotten along with her sisters. How much she had loved Emilia. He had no words for the pain that over took him, he had lost another of his family, something he had promised not to do. He had broke that promise.

The king laid his daughter upon the earth where his first born then took hold of her dead sister, making sure that she came to the ground softly. Bobby looked over her dead sister, placing a hand upon her smooth head, then looking up to Amun. She did not saw a word, but the anger flowing from her spoke louder than anything she could have said. She wanted an order, she needed a direction. Bobby's rage needed a focal point before she did something stupid.

The rage that Amun could feel from his first born was causing images of his other dead daughters to surface in his mind. Then of his Jolene, and how she had died in his hands in a similar way. It was all fuel for the fire. His breathing began to turn heavy and his vision narrowed. He slowly turned his large crowned head towards the tanks that still had their aim upon him and his family.

He could not stop the rage from radiating from him and into those around him. Each one of his daughters, who were now gathered around him, forming an attack line, felt an unnatural amount of rage that they had never experienced. It was all focused toward their new enemy. Even Jolene had given into the rage that was coming from the king, not being able to do much to deny it from her mind. Instead, she focused on it and it flowed from her to her own daughters, causing them to hyper-focus towards the tanks at the tree line.

Every xeno now gathered in a line, not one hundred yards from the ten tanks that had their cannons pointed in their direction. The xenomorphs did not care, they were angry. Their teeth exposed, their claws flexing and looking for flesh to rip into. Their rage waiting to be released as they all let loose screams of war. Amun's own hands flexed as he looked towards the metal machines, wanting to rip them apart piece by piece. He could feel his daughters, they all wanted the same thing, revenge.

"Last chance cockroach." Richards' voice said once again over the tanks' speaker system. It was all Amun needed.

The king sent out a mental order and the army of xenomorph's all cried out at the same time, drowning any other sound in the jungle with their thunderous war cry. Amun took a deep breath and let loose one of the loudest roar's he had every done. He remembered his dead daughters, he remembered his dead love, he remembered his pain as he screamed at the scientist that had caused it all. The king did not wait for a response, he took off at a full sprint, right towards the waiting tanks.

"Behind me!" He yelled as he lowered his crown to for a blast shield for his daughters to hid behind. He would create the opening they needed to close the gaps between them and the tanks. As he ran, he could also feel a few of his daughters climb upon his back, hiding behind his thick crown. Good, they would disembark when he was close enough.

He felt heavy footsteps coming up beside him and could feel the mental tough of Jolene, so to had taken part in his charge!

It did not take long from the crack of the one hundred and twenty millimetre cannons to start, Amun knew this was going to hurt. His head cracked to the side as he took the first shot in his lowered crown, he recovered quickly, keeping up his run. The second round that struck sent his head downward, sending his face into the dirt. Thankfully, his smooth exoskeleton, coupled with his momentum, allowed him to skid along the dirt long enough for him to find his footing once more. A few more steps and Bobby called out to the king.

"FATHER NOW!" Her voice screamed in his mind and Amun knew that he was about to hit the first tank. The muscles in his neck tensed in anticipation of the impact. A split second later and his large head came crashing into the metal machine, sending it back a few feet. The only thing keeping it on the ground was its immense weight. He would put that to the test.

"Left and right, GO!" He ordered his daughters. The line of xeno morphs that had followed the king now took off in either direction, looking to disable and destroy their enemies. Amun turned his focus back to his opponent and lifted his head.

He had hit the tank head on and forced the turret up into the air, thankfully, or he would have been looking right down the barrel. He could hear the men inside the machine yelling at one another, probably trying to figure out what to do. He would not give them a change. Amun reached his powerful arm around the body of the tank and dug into the steel armor on its sides. Every muscle in his body flexed as he began to lift the twenty one tonne vehicle. It was too heavy for even him to lift fully into the air, but he managed to lift the front end a few feet off the ground. It was all the king needed to push and tilt it onto its side.

The tank came to a loud crash upon its side, digging a few inched into the soft earth. Amun wasted no time in moving around to the underside that was now exposed, placing two hands upon it, and pushing the tank the rest of the way over. With it fully flipped, Amun was sure that it was out of the fight. He turned his attention to a new target.

He looked up and surveyed the battle, noticing that xenomorphs from both his and Jolene's hives now swarmed most of the tanks that had emerged from the tree line. A few seemed to now be retreating back into the jungle, thinking it would help them escape. Little did they know that the xenomorphs could hunt better within the vegetation of the dense jungle. He also watched as the large form of Molly took off into the vegetation after them, destroying a tree in the process.

He looked the opposite direction and noticed that the other tanks had decided to do the opposite, moving forward and farther into the clearing that was the work site. Probably to use the open ground to their advantage and taking all cover away from the alien attackers. Amun watched as an RPG ripped through the air and struck one of the tanks! Following the smoke trail back towards the work site, Amun noticed that the freedom fighters were still here!

The king took off towards the open mud pit to help with the tanks that were in the open, knowing that his daughters would do just fine in the jungle on their own. He ran past the first three tanks that were now swarmed with warriors, drones and runners knowing they would not last long as they began tearing apart anything they could. The fourth tank was not so lucky, the now had an alien king thundering towards them. They had no idea.

The tank, with its turret turned away from Amun, let loose a shell towards a group of xenomorphs that were making their way towards a different tank. Amun watched as the aliens were thrown into the air with large pieces of dirt. He leapt at the tank, not wanting it any time to reload and let out another deadly shell at his hive. He was in the air for what seemed like a few second before he brought his feet under his large body, talons aimed right for the top of the turret.

Amun slammed into the top of the tank, his large feet buckling in the metal towards the ground. He then reached down to the turret and began to pull it skyward, bending the metal tube dramatically. He then quickly moved his feet to either side of the tank and used his claws to find the seam between the turret and the main body. He pulled with all his might until the metal gave way and he pulled the top half of the tank away from the lower half.

Amun looked down and the four tiny humans that now looked up in horror at the alien king. They all shrunk in their seats as they waited for the king to kill them. However, he did not move, Amun simply stared at the four humans and waited. A moment later, eight xenomorphs swarmed the tank and descended upon the humans. A few of them attempted to fight back with small arms fire, but it was not near enough to take out a full sized xeno. Amun watched for a moment as his daughters spilt warm blood over the inside of the tank, then looked to find another target. This fight was still not over.

In front of the king were still two more tanks, they were moving with speed deeper into the compound, heading towards the fighters from the city. Amun took off to help his new friends, praying that Alex was safe. As he ran, he could feel that a few of his daughters were with him, Scarlette included.

The tanks had disappeared behind some buildings and Amun quicken his pace, not wanting to lose sight of them for too long. Suddenly, a large explosion from the direction of the tanks could be heard, then another only a second after. Two large plums of fire and smoke came funnelling up from behind the buildings that the machines had just gone behind. As the king rounded the corner, thinking the worst had happened to the people from the city, he had to come to a skidding halt as his gaze came upon something he had not expected.

The king looked down at Alex, who now stood beside Charles and Jenna, both of which were holding rifles and chatting with the freedom fighter. Amun was shocked, he had to be hallucinating. Those two had been on the cargo ship and heading back home, there was no way it could be them. However, when Amun noticed Scarlette running at full speed towards Jenna, and almost tackling her to the ground with her hug, he knew it had to be them. Amun was both mad and happy to see them.

He quickly made his way over to them and went low to the ground, meeting them with his large crowned head. Charles made his way to meet him and stopped short once he noticed the damage that had been done to the king.

"Amun, buddy, are you ok? Damn, you look hurt!" Charles asked him. Amun could see that his old friend wanted to help, but knew that Amun's acid blood was preventing that. Amun wrote in the dirt.

"WHY HERE!" Charles read the message and looked back up to the king with a nervous laugh.

"Yeaaaah, about that...we kind of stole the life boat on the cargo ship and followed you and Emilia. It took us a while to get to shore, but we ran into some people talking about monsters and some fire fight that was about to go down. We knew it had to be you so we are here." Amun looked behind Charles at Jenna who now approached, Scarlette purring beside her.

"You can't get rid of us that easy Amun, you jerk. We are here to help because we want to. We know the risk we are taking, but it's worth it." She said as she stroked the crowned head of Scarlette who was beyond happy to be beside her.

Amun looked from his friends towards the two tanks that were destroyed and still on fire, them back to Charles. Amun let out a huff.

"It's amazing what some C4 can do eh? There was a crate of it in one of the building here and we made a trap for these bastards. Worked pretty good when you hit them from the bottom!" Charles said with a laugh. Amun attempted a smile and watched as Charles and Jenna both recoiled a bit. "That is still super creepy pal." He said as he shook his head.

"Come on, let's finish this fight!" Jenna yelled, holding up her rifle.

" Vamos a patear algunos traseros!" Yelled Alex as the other lot of humans that had gathered around let out a war cry of their own. Not as impressive as the alien's, but still pretty good. Amun took in a breath and let out a loud roar, adding to that of his friends. He stood to his full height and took off back towards the tree line, needed to see what was happening now.

As he turned the corner of the building, Amun was glad to see that no more tanks were moving as they were swarmed with xeno's that had now killed the people inside. Amun noticed Jolene in the distance, she was helping her daughters into the front end of a tank by ripping the metal armor off of it, letting her daughters inside. Amun would be lying if he said he was not enjoying the scene. Amun kept checking for targets and was thrilled as he could see none in the open.

"Bobby, where are you?"

"Father, in the jungle. We just destroyed the last of these metal things. You should come here, I think I have something you might want." Amun sent a feeling of confusion to his first born. "A man from inside, he said you will want to talk to him. He said his name is Charles."

Amun took off towards his first born at full speed.