Protector of Men Ch 105

There was an explosion; Zandra was deafened by the sound of it and recoiled in terror. But before she got a chance to see who had issued the rocket, she was snatched by one of the sentinels and went soaring into the air.

It was over; she knew it. Zandra looked up at her kidnapper; the sentinel was flying upwards and forwards, and now another arm was grabbing at hers for support. Her eyes began to black out from vertigo: she was twenty stories up, and at the mercy of one of the killing machines that she had been attempting to save. A few people below had stopped fighting for a moment.

The sentinel stopped flying and used its free arms to further support Zandra; she was now cupped in its tentacles like a delicate bird in someone's hand. She looked around, clutching the arms of the machine. People at eye level watched her, bewildered, their guns loosely trained on the sentinel that kept her alive.

"Nono," she mumbled, attempting to find her voice, "Don't fight…"

It seemed like her attempt was finally working; most of Zion's battalions had stopped firing, and they seemed to be gaining her trust. Perhaps it would only be a few moments before the sentinels would put her back on solid Earth and leave…

"They want peace!" she continued, palms outward in an obvious gesture of calm. In the distance she heard one officer telling his troops to put down their weapons. It's alright, Zandra told herself, it'll be over soon.

But something had knocked her off-balance; something had hit her so hard she stumbled backwards on her tower of machinery. The sentinels struggled to accommodate her. She couldn't breathe; she looked down – blood was staining her shirt, falling from her chest in intermittent spurts. She recoiled and stumbled further, and as she fell, everything went dark.

"Zandra," Alias barked, jolting her alert, "Stay awake."

Zandra squinted and tried to make out who was speaking. It was very bright, and the world seemed permanently out of focus.

"Zandra, you have a concussion. You can't sleep."

Zandra closed her eyes again; the combination of harsh light and sound made her want to drift back into sleep. Alias jabbed her in the arm.

"Owww," Zandra moaned, rubbing her arm tenderly, "Why'd ya do that."

"Come on Zandra," Alias condescended, "Stay awake for a while so we can determine the severity of your injury."

"Fine," she retorted, sighing heavily. She tried to open her eyes wider and they crossed; she blinked a few times and it righted itself. "What happened?"

"We blew our EMP before you," Alias said, "You guys took a dive and I think you smashed your head into one of the breakers."

She vaguely remembered the past events, but time would help that. After a few minutes Alias finished her tests, deemed Zandra at least partially healthy, and let her rest for an hour or two.

"How has Zion been faring?" Asked Shade, who sat at the large table with his arm bound in a bloody sling. The whole crew had been assembled for a meeting – except for Kapera and Kesia, who were navigating the ship. Everyone there looked to Columbus.

"They've survived so far, if that's what you mean," she started, then sighed. "The statistics haven't been good. Those sentinels are good at what they're doing…" she paused, and looked at Zandra, "When they're doing their job, at least.

"A few hours before the battle started the Councilors got everyone together and rallied for a war effort. Pretty much everyone that could fight got a gun, and everyone else was evacuated into various safe rooms, though some of the safe rooms didn't hold up very effectively…

"When they rallied us together former Councilor Emory revealed his plan for survival. He said he'd been planning this for years – an EMP that wouldn't fry its own hardware, and could be easily recharged. He made two of these 'batteries', placed them in other safe rooms so that the sentinels couldn't destroy it. We thought that would be our saving grace, and it seemed to work.

"The first time we used it, we thought we'd won. There were a few hundred sentinels in the dock, and within seconds they had all fallen, all dead. It recharged, and a few of the troops decided to turn in, thinking the worst was already over. But they came back, and they had learned their lesson.

"It was always only a few hundred at a time; they'd come in, knock as many troops as they could before the EMP hit. A few of them even retreated back to the pipes right before we fired it – they had it figured out so well. And then the recharging time became a problem: they'd come in with almost a thousand in the ten minutes we needed to recharge and we'd lose so many men… so many…"

"What was the last count before you left?" Shade asked.

"We originally had twenty thousand, most of which were volunteers. By the time we left… six thousand dead, five hundred unaccounted for. They're probably dead, too."

The whole table was silent; Zandra shook her head in thought.

"Somehow," Zandra started, eventually getting the attention of everyone on the ship, "Somehow we need to get them to stop fighting."

"Stop fighting?" Mercury repeated, "You mean give up?"

Zandra sighed, pooling all her memories of conversations. "They're only fighting us in self-defense. I think that if we let on that we're willing for a cease-fire, they'll grant it to us."

Mercury was quiet, but Zandra could tell he didn't believe her.

"Would it be instantaneous?" Columbus asked, "I mean – would they stop the instant we did?"

"I don't know."

Columbus was quiet; it seemed like slowly Zandra was going to lose the support of everyone. Zandra continued: "I just know we have to do it."

Columbus nodded: a reaction that even Zandra was surprised to see.

"We'll have to get in quickly," she said, "They'll be firing the batteries every chance they can, if the battle's still going on."

"Will the radios work?" Asked Shade.

"They should." Silence again.

"So we need to get them to stop those batteries," Zandra said, staring off into space.

"You're gonna have to convince them all," Columbus replied.

"I know."

Things went quietly the next few hours, and Zandra was able to finally get some more rest. Her injuries were still healing, and fatigue seemed to be taking over almost every hour. They didn't wake her when the sentinels showed up, and they didn't bother to mention to her that they were acting more like bodyguards than soldiers of destruction.

Outside their fast-moving hovercraft almost a dozen sentinels flew; both in synch with their speed and huddled in various spots around the hull. Kesia had been mortified when they scanned the ship, but she wasn't afraid anymore. Finally, Zandra's presence had taught her that fear was unnecessary. The sentinels had been scanning for the One – and their mission was not to destroy. This time, they were sent to insure that their ship didn't go down, at all costs.

A/N – quicker, eh? Aw, I think everyone's finally getting tired of this story. Well, good news – only a few chapters left. Like three.