Italics mean Polybius's native language.
Chapter 41
The Last Battle...
Polybius thought about how he wanted to handle the situation. He pondered whether he should go in quietly or storm the place loud, proud and hard. Both options had their advantages and disadvantages. However, what finally pushed him towards his decision was seeing the command center having a clear overview of the entire battlefield right up to the woodline he was starting at.
Going into the woodline, Polybius took up a position behind some cover but gave him a clear line of sight of the hangar. While he was at a significant disadvantage without his squad, he thought back to the very first lesson he was ever taught.
"You each are an army. And you all are a team of armies working together." The words of the first day of training echoed through his mind.
Reaching over his right shoulder, Polybius grabbed his holstered assault rifle. He checked it over once to make sure it was set and ready to go, which it was.
Polybius then looked up just in time to see the light turn green, indicating the battle was going to start.
"Alone against all these cyborgs?" Polybius questioned himself in his native language, "Ha! They don't stand a chance."
Posting up against a tree, the clone veteran put as much of himself behind the tree as possible and took aim at some advancing infantry. He also saw several moving towards the light troop transports in the hangar. Polybius doubted that the vehicles would move much. However, the cannons mounted on top sure would be.
Seeing this, Polybius decided not to open fire at the advancing infantry. As soon as he did, those cannons would be firing at him. And while Polybius was confident his armor could withstand that, with it having been improperly maintained for a decade, he didn't want to put it to any extreme tests yet. At least until he could properly check it.
Polybius then decided to fall back deeper into the woodline. If he was going to engage the infantry, he would have to do it without getting shot at by those cannons.
Meanwhile, inside the command center, General Magnus, the Team, and Donna watched as the infantry began walking out of the hangar.
"Should we move into the woodline?" The commander of the infantry called over the communication system.
"Go ahead." General Magnus ordered.
"What's he doing?" Kid Flash asked.
"He's trying to find Polybius." Donna answered, "Once he has eyes on him, I think he's gonna use those vehicles to attack him."
Watching the infantry walk towards and disappear in the woodline was a relatively quiet affair. However, this silence didn't last long as the sound of weapons firing and flashes of purple light began erupting from the woodline.
"We can't see him!" The commander called, in complete terror over the communication system, accompanied by sounds of Polybius's weapon firing, "He's- GAH!"
"All cannons open fire on Commander Folviatudie's last known position." General Magnus ordered.
Meanwhile, deep inside the woodline, Polybius was practically running circles around the infantry. Polybius exploited how far away they stood apart from each other to slip between them as they advanced. They walked right past him, and as soon as they did, Polybius turned on them and opened fire.
Due to how thick the woods were, it was hard to see anything. However, the advanced sensors on Polybius's helmet allowed him to more easily distinguish the well camouflage cyborgs from the rest of the forest.
Polybius only took down three cyborgs out of the two dozen that entered the woodline. He did this to conserve his ammunition, and he knew precisely what General Magnus was going to do.
Taking cover in a small ditch, Polybius listened as the cannons from the hangar began to open fire on the infantry, completely obliterating them.
One of the most common tactics used by the cyborgs during the civil war was called "Small Sacrifice" in which they would send out their weakest units ahead of the main force to find and locate the enemy. Once found, the cannons would open fire, as they were incredibly powerful, and annihilate both the cyborgs as well as the enemy, as the resistance, consistently low on ammunition, liked to get close to the enemy.
As the barrage continued, General Magnus watched on while the Team and Donna were scared.
"Did that kill him!?" Superboy asked.
"I don't think so." Robin answered, "I don't think that would kill him."
And that would soon be proven right.
While still in the ditch, Polybius reached for his belt and grabbed his most powerful EMP grenade. He knew that if he could manage to get it close enough to the transport vehicles while the cannons were firing, it would cause them to malfunction and blow up.
Making a mad dash, Polybius ran forward through the cannon fire and made it to the edge of the woodline. Once there, he primed the EMP grenade and then threw it as hard as he could across the field.
The EMP bounced and rolled before stopping in front of the tanks and going off. And up in the command center, General Magnus spotted the EMP getting thrown but knew there was nothing he could do at this point but watch.
"AHHHHHH!" A mechanical cry of pain rang over the communication system before getting shorted out and cut off by a massive explosion that blinded the Team and, more importantly, him as all of the cannons malfunctioned and backfired.
Fortunately for Polybius, again, saved by his helmet's advanced sensors protected his eyes from the blast, and he was unaffected by the sudden change of light, allowing him to run across the open field and into the main hangar.
Once the clone made it inside the hangar, General Magnus's eyes finally adjusted, and the light from the explosion died down.
"Target is in the hangar. 1st infantry cohort, move to engage!" General Magnus ordered.
"Moving General!" The commander of the 1st cohort replied.
The 1st cohort was composed of the veterans who had honorably served for at least 5 years and seen a minimum of 500 hours of combat. They were experienced, composed of a minimum of 1000 soldiers, and were handpicked for the unit by its commander. This 1st cohort, however, only comprised 183 soldiers, as they were unable to gain reinforcements.
However, it soon became apparent to the Team and Donna that they were punching way above their weight class against Polybius.
"He's like a freaking supercomputer!" Artemis pointed out.
Watching Polybius fire, adjust targets, and fire again was indeed like watching the best supercomputer in the world do it. Before the 1st cohort could even fire off a shot, Polybius had already eliminated five of them. What was scary to the Team, though, is that all of the shots were headshots.
"Move for cover!" The commander shouted, "2nd squad, flank his right! 1st and 3rd squads pin him down! 4th- GAH!"
The commander was cut off when Polybius put two shots into his chest.
"Commander is down! Repeat, commander is down!" The leader of 2nd squad shouted over the com system, reporting it up to General Magnus.
The Team and Donna weren't sure what was more terrifying. The absolute terror in the mechanical voices of the soldiers facing Polybius, knowing that their pacifist friend Polybius was the cause of that terror, or watching Polybius tear apart everything General Magnus threw at him.
"Press the attack." General Magnus ordered, "Maintain his orders. 4th squad, pull back to the doors."
Meanwhile, Polybius, seeing the flanking maneuver that was happening, turned his attention towards it.
The cyborgs attempted to concentrate their fire on Polybius's position. However, they failed to do so as Polybius had already inflicted heavy casualties on them, disrupting the cohesion between the squads. They weren't able to coordinate their fire appropriately. That, and a considerable number of them appeared to be malfunctioning and couldn't aim properly.
This allowed Polybius to easily pick apart the 2nd squad and destroy them. However, before he could turn his attention to the remainder of the 1st and 3rd squads, a new enemy marched into the hangar. Heavy Cybernetic Infantry.
Polybius ducked down just in time to avoid getting blasted by the cannons they carried. They weren't the same cannons mounted on vehicles but were just as deadly.
As debris from a blast showered Polybius, he muttered to himself, "Now I'm remembering just how much I hate you guys."
Knowing he couldn't stay put, Polybius crawled away, taking advantage of the relatively slow rate of fire of the heavies.
"Go! Go!" The leader of 3rd squad ordered the remnants of both his and 1st squad.
They advanced with the heavy infantry's cannon fire. They intended to run up to Polybius's position and try to overwhelm him with what little they had left.
However, as soon as they began to move, Polybius popped up from a different spot and started to put shots into the closet heavy infantry. And while the armor of the heavy infantry allowed them to tank Polybius's shots, even on high power settings, it was enough to disorient the closest one. And one very well-placed shot managed to knock out one of their sensors.
"Over there!" The other heavy infantry shouted, turning their cannon towards Polybius.
Up in the command center, the Team and Donna watched as one of the advancing infantry from the 1st squad took a nasty headshot. It caused their head to snap back, carrying the rest of their body with them.
"Ow!" Kid Flash said, in response to seeing that, "That had to hurt."
"Remind me to never mess with Polybius again." Artemis added.
"Donna, did you know he was like that?" Zatanna asked.
"I- I know he was good. I've seen him fight before." Donna answered, "But seeing him in his element is something else."
Now reoriented, both heavy infantry soldiers began to concentrate their fire on Polybius. However, the clone's speed made it practically impossible to land a shot on him. They could do nothing but watch as Polybius ran around, mowing down the last of 1st and 3rd with the expectation of the last four.
Deciding to get close to these last four, Polybius charged them and engaged in melee combat. This caused the heavy infantry to stop firing under orders from General Magnus.
The clone veteran started by using his rifle as a club and smashing the side of their head, and sending them into the ground.
Polybius then ducked down under the line of fire of the next cyborg and shot up under their rifle, grabbing their leg and throwing it upwards, causing them to lose their balance and fall backward.
When Polybius came up, he took aim with his rifle and shot the third cyborg while also grabbing the rifle of the 2nd cyborg and throwing it at the oncoming fourth cyborg. This didn't kill or even hurt the cyborg but was enough to get him to pause long enough for Polybius to adjust his aim and shoot him as well before turning his rifle to the one on the ground and shooting him in the face.
After finishing off the downed cyborg, Polybius turned his attention to the heavy infantry again and began shooting them at them. They promptly returned fire, seeing that the last of 1st and 3rd squad were defeated.
Unfortunately for Polybius, the best trick to deal with heavy infantry, without any anti-armor weaponry, which he had none, was to continually put shots into them until a hole was punched in the armor.
Turning his weapon on its highest power setting, Polybius was able to punch through their armor and take both of them down after five minutes of exchanging fire with them.
In the command center, General Magnus audibly grunted in frustration, seeing the 2nd heavy infantry go down. He knew this wasn't going well at all, and he was running out of options.
However, he still had one ace up his sleeve.
Polybius quickly rolled over the 4th squad as if they were nothing on his way to the command center. They failed to put up any meaningful resistance due to how quickly Polybius stormed and overwhelmed them.
As the clone veteran made his way towards the command center, General Magnus ordered the only elite cyborg commando he had to move to engage.
Cyborg commandos were among the few units in the entire loyalist army that could go toe to toe with most resistance elite units. They had high kill counts. However, they also tended to cause a massive amount of collateral damage. The reigning Impertar disliked them because they would often kill high-ranking component officers who disagreed with them in the name of the cause. Or rather, because the cyborg disagreed with their handling of certain situations. General Magnus was able to control this one as the two cyborgs generally thought the same way.
Right as Polybius got to the door to the top of the stairwell that led to the hallway to the control room, he was stopped by the cyborg commando, who grabbed his rifle and tried to rip it out of his hands.
The clone veteran didn't allow this to happen and tried body slamming the cyborg. This managed to get the cyborg to stumble, but they did not give up the struggle for the weapon. Instead, he tried to use the stumble to throw Polybius by rolling him over its back. This didn't work as the clone veteran was slightly larger than the commando, and it couldn't get in a good position to roll Polybius over its back. In fact, what it did was allow the clone to go for a chokehold.
Letting go of the rifle with one hand, the resistance fighter tried to put the loyalist in a headlock. Polybius managed to get his arm around the cyborg, but it wiggled out of his grasp.
The commando then also let go of the rifle with one hand and punched Polybius across his helmet, which protected him from the blow. In response, Polybius slammed his free arm's elbow into the commando's face before rapidly following up with a hard kick to the cyborg's stomach.
This finally got the commando to let go of the rifle, and Polybius wasted no time following up with his next move.
Using his rifle like a baseball bat, Polybius targeted the cyborg's knee cap and struck it hard, completely blowing the kneecap out. The cyborg screeched in pain and jumped back on its good leg.
Finally, to end the fight, Polybius then got really close to the commando and put the barrel of his rifle right under the commando's chin and pulled the trigger, blowing the front half of its head clean off.
The now faceless cyborg then fell back and crashed into the ground with a loud thud. The clone veteran, however, didn't stop and kept pressing forward.
Making his way into the command center, Polybius landed two quick shots on the two guards in there before shooting the small pistol out of Magnus's hand. The cyborg General watched as his weapon went flying out of his hands, and Polybius adjusted his aim for his head.
"You lose." Polybius teased.
General Magnus paused for a moment. He realized just how badly he had underestimated the clone veteran.
"It seems that you haven't lost your edge." General Magnus said in English, "Looks like you haven't gone totally senile."
"Oh, we're speaking English now?" Polybius asked, "Whatever, you lost. Let them go."
"Uh… guys!" Kid Flash spoke up.
"What?" Polybius asked.
"I think someone doesn't want you here." Kid Flash said, "Look!"
Looking out the window, Polybius and Magnus saw what appeared to be seven attack helicopters carrying soldiers flying towards them.
"Friends of yours?" General Magnus asked.
"No." Polybius said, "I didn't call for any backup."
"And those aren't Justice League either." Aqualad pointed out.
"So now, after I finish mopping up your forces, I get to deal with this." Polybius said, more to himself, but loud enough for everybody to hear, "Hell yeah! Racking up a 2nd victory today!"
"I'd hardly call that a win." Donna spoke up, "I saw a lot of malfunctions out there."
"Correct." General Magnus pointed out, "Which means I win!"
"No!" Donna piped up again, "Neither of you won! You're both fighting a war that ended ten years ago! A war that neither one of you wanted to be a part of! From what Polybius has told me about the cyborgs, is that they were kidnapped from their homes and forced to fight. And Polybius, you were never given a choice! I don't understand why either of you want to fight each other!"
Polybius and General Magnus glanced at each other before Donna continued.
"And when the dust settled at Frozen North, Polybius, you were thrown into a concentration camp, destined to be killed! And Magnus, as soon as the war was over and the cyborgs all outlived your purpose, you were all given a shutdown command and reduced to scrap. Both of you were cast aside like trash!" Donna followed up, "If you ask me, despite the fact that you were on opposite sides of the war, I think you two would be friends seeing what happened."
"Friends?" Polybius questioned.
"Yes!" Donna said, "And Polybius, you've worked very hard to put that past behind you! You've said it yourself how poorly the clones were treated! And the cyborgs were treated the same! You both were hated by the very people you were fighting for! Why fight for people who never cared about you, especially ten years after the war happened!?"
"She's right." Aqualad spoke up, "You both have a choice now. From what I've been told, your war was devastating. And while the path forward may not be easy, it is a road to peace. One, we all will help you down."
Magnus and Polybius then looked at each other again, this time facing each other.
"Put your past behind you." Donna spoke up, "You both have a choice to walk away from the war here and now!"
After a moment of silence, the cyborg general spoke up.
"You are right." General Magnus said, "Neither of us have been given a choice in our lives. However, now, free from the war, we do. I am willing to put our past behind us and walk down the road towards peace."
Polybius let out a long sigh as he took off his helmet.
"Goddammit." Polybius muttered to himself, "Donna, you're right. I- I'm sorry. But the excitement of fighting the loyalist one last time really got to me. Was why I was eager to do this and willing to let you get captured."
"It's alright." Donna said, "I know it's been hard for you putting the war behind you. Even now, but coming to peace with your enemy is a crucial step you've never taken. And now is your chance to do it."
Polybius then looked at Magnus, a cyborg he had fought against for the final three and a half years of the war. He then holstered his assault rifle on his back and extended a hand towards Magnus.
"Let's make our choice." Polybius said.
Magnus then took Polybius's hand.
"Our choice will be ours, and ours alone." General Magnus said.
The two then shook hands as they both finally put the civil war behind them and prepared to move forward together.
"Hey!" Kid Flash spoke up, "Great that you two made up, now, what about these guys!?"
Looking out at the window, Magnus and Polybius saw that the helicopters had gotten much closer and were starting to deploy ground troops.
"Is there anything left of the 1st cohort?" Polybius asked.
"Negative." Magnus said, "You destroyed it. However, I have a few irregulars I will send to analyze the threat. You get your friends free."
As anyone could have predicted, as soon as the attacking forces saw the oncoming cyborgs, they opened fire on them.
"Oh, that's great." Polybius said as he finished freeing everyone, in reference to seeing Magnus's troops get finished off.
"It is not." Magnus said, "My forces are too depleted to make an effective stand against this threat."
"Well, you've got us." Superboy stated for the Team.
"Good." Magnus said, "According to my analysis of each of you, Superboy, Donna, and Miss Martian should target the helicopters and cut off any escape. Meanwhile, the rest of the Team, combined with my depleted forces and Polybius, should be more than enough to drive them into the house of submission."
"Hold on." Polybius said, "There's a strict no-killing rule in place."
"I know." Magnus said, "However, a swift strike to the blades of the helicopters would be more than enough to incapacitate them. And it would be very easy to make quick work of the soldiers."
"They'll have to move fast then." Polybius said, "The weaponry on those helicopters could tear us inside the hangar to shreds."
"Then we have our plan." General Magnus stated, "Now let's execute it!"
"Looks like I will get one last day in the glorious army of the resistance." Polybius muttered to himself.
I've rewritten this chapter about 5 times now, so I really hope you like it. And thank you for taking the time to read this and as always, have a good one! I will see you in the next chapter Enemies United.