Chapter 12: Death strikes in the dark.

Jedi looked around and saw that the troops were pulling out. Evidently they had recovered the two troopers that had been surrounded. They were all piling back into the transport. Francoise began moving in that direction, just as the other cyborgs were trying to do, but the Dortde were rapidly firing their weapons in an attempt to break the defense.

"All of you get on. I'll hold them off while you climb aboard." Jedi heard himself shout. "BETH, status."

"Main energy cell is at 87%. Backup power cells are full. Main weapons are okay. Laser hand heat is at 45%, be careful on your aim there. Sensors are fine. Wait a minute, speaking of sensors. INCOMING ATOMIC BOMB, YIELD IS ESTIMATED TO BE 10 KILOTONS!!! Jedi! Get them off of that transport. That is the intended ground zero! There is no chance of destroying it, it has some kind of shield around that none of the available weapons on board could penetrate."

"Everyone, off the.." Jedi was interrupted by a sudden urge to take cover. He did so just as the weapons struck. There had been no time for the acceleration mode to kick in, so he couldn't have used it. "God dam..."

BOOM

The explosion buffeted his skin and he could feel it burning off. He felt terrible pain, but he was still alive. Over all of this, BETH tried to give him a status report.

"Main power is gone. Backups are at 10%. Sensors gone, weapons offline. Accelerators offline. Nanobot repair crews have been dispatched. Top priority has been declared as main power. This will take roughly 10 minutes. Sensors will be next..."

"BETH! Please, just handle things! I can't handle it right now. Don't you get what just happened!? The other cyborgs, along with some of the best the US Military have just blown up! If you could just go into the background for fifteen minutes, maybe I will be able to talk then, Okay?"

"Yes, sir. I have been meaning to ask you something, though. I am supposed to be only activated when you are under attack, or are attacking something. But can I stay activated all the time?"

"Let me think about it, but for now, yes, you may stay online." Jedi just wasn't able cope with it. What was he supposed to do? It was obvious to him now that the enemy wouldn't stop at anything to destroy those that opposed them. They were going to take the planet, even if they had to reduce it to an atomic pit in doing so. It was beyond him how anyone would logically use a nuclear weapon. But as time passed, it began to make sense. If Black Ghost was with the Dortde, then he must be helping them with tactics and equipment. The girl might be with them, helping them out. Or , as much as he hated thinking it. She could have been the one that fired that weapon. Destroying any chance of Earth's original inhabitants of staying on their planet. What was he supposed to do? BETH had just told him that he was on backup power, and that was a small amount. he doubted that he could go anywhere, let alone back to the base. If it was still there. But hadn't BETH told him something about repairs? His brain was awash with new hope. Maybe there was something he could do then. That is, if he didn't get found and destroyed by the Dortde first.

"Jedi, it has been 15 minutes, main power has been restored, and sensors are at 50%, you can open your eyes now, and even move around, but I am afraid that it may take a couple of hours to get the weapons online, so for now I think you are stuck to hand-to-hand combat. Unless you have anything in your pack that you could use."

Jedi opened his eyes. He reached below him for his pack feeling every inch of his skin. "What a minute, that was all burned off in the blast! How can I have main power? I remember! Nanobot repair crews. I must still have nanobots inside of me!"

"That's correct. The nanobots are meant to be used only in the situations when extreme damage is occurring. Like in a nuclear blast. Your skin was burned off, but the nanobots repaired it. Your skin is actually part of the main power drives." A small face appeared in the lower left corner of his vision. "But at least you survived. And you don't have any mental affects."

"Yeah, I survived. But what about the other cyborgs? They are gone for sure, I would bet money on that. If I could barely survive that blast what would make you think that they could."

"Actually, I am detecting a cybernetic signature, I'm not sure if it is one of them, but without full sensors, and the interference caused by the radiation, I can't tell anything else. It's at the ground zero point, if you want to go take a look."

Jedi couldn't believe it. Something had survived? How the hell could it? He was the most sophisticated cyborg, no android,- there had been, had he had nearly been torn apart by it. Jedi new that he had to go take a look, weapons or no. Opening his eyes, he began focusing on the ruins nearby. There was a crater to his left, where the transport had been. As he walked over there, BETH began chiming off information.

"Looks like they targeted this spot directly, but I don't know how they got such good coordinates. But from the radioactivity of the area, it looks like the bomb didn't go to critical mass. Why, I don't know. Still, the explosion was massive, there really couldn't have been much that survived. Okay, looks like the signature is coming from your left at about 23 yards."

"BETH,. I can see their heartbeat, let me just take care of this. Oh, by the way, divide the repairs between the accelerators, and the single-shot rifle lasers, okay?"

"Yes, can do. Estimated time of repair of the accelerators is 4 minutes, but there is no way to get even one of the single shooters up for another 30 minutes."

"Okay, just keep things cool, and scan in the background for any kind of a radio transmission. Look for any kind of news, since I don't have anyone with me that knows how to use this stuff in the pack, I am going to have to rely on you." Jedi stopped suddenly. Ahead of him was a girl. She was nude.

"Hello, 0021, or should I say, the soon-to-be dead Android 001!"

------------------- BETH Radio Tuning: Short-wave frequency 5.5 St. Louis, United States

Recording for later listening and alert

"The cities of Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Tokyo, Berlin, Moscow, Paris, and New Delhi are now lying in ruins at the hands of the Dortde. According to wire services, the cities were all bombed at the same time, but there is no considerable way for the cities to have been targeted. There were no ships in orbit, and according to NORAD, there were no missile launches anywhere on the globe.

The US Space Force has also been fighting back, just as we all have. Today, the main battle force led by General Redding moved just behind the moon, and began long-range firing. Unfortunately, the attacks had little effect on the enemy vessels. They seem to have some sort of deflector shielding.

Reports are also coming in now that the President, along with most of the chiefs of staff and the Vice-President were killed during a nighttime attack on Camp David. Along with them was the great deal of the members of both houses of Congress, and the Chief Justices.

Ladies and gentle men, I have to be frank. It is the view of this reporter that the people of Earth are now destined to be destroyed. I know that is a hard pill to swallow, but that doesn't mean that we are going to give up hope. Please, everyone, keep fighting. Make the Dortde pay for our homes with their blood. Please, make them pay...."

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