Here we go. All fingers are crossed for this chapter. Here's to CloudedLeopard, my true blue reviewer, keep up the good work with your fanfics.
DISCLAIMER: This chapter is too serious for a funny disclaimer. The previous disclaimers remain in effect.
Chapter 8: War
"DUCK!"
Cor hit the dirt as a rocket flew overhead. Ace fired a fast burst over Cor's back, nailing the trooper in the shoulder. Professor Manisto's modifications worked like a charm- the hollow-point bullets tore the soldier's left arm from his shoulder, and the man went down screaming.
An electrical burst shorted Ace's circuits for a few seconds. When he reactivated, Cor was bleeding profusely from abdomen. Ace fired a high-velocity shell that took the enemy down hard. Activating his jump jets, he boosted over a low wall. Checking to see that she wasn't busy, he grabbed Adalia around the hips and jumped back over the wall, landing in front of Cor.
Adalia let out a short gasp, and then knelt beside him. Ace used his chemical launcher to create a wall of fire around them, hopefully shielding them from view. Looking back, he watched as blue fire flowed from Adalia into Corrigan, and the wound on Cor's stomach began to heal.
Tom Maarlynd watched in disgust. His new troops were faring quite well against the superheroes—he was only losing three troops to every superhero that went down—but that number was deceptive. As the lesser heroes went down, that ratio went up, the stronger heroes holding the line. What was worse, whenever a hero fell, they were ported to a nearby medical facility. His troops had captured a few said facilities, but nonetheless the going was hard. He was not forging ahead, was not fighting efficiently, and was not happy.
Kethric kicked the rifle back up towards Ace, who caught it out of the air and snapped it forward. Ace took out the enemy snipers as Kethric swung his axe, taking down trooper after trooper. Cor covered their back, alternating between his Katana for close encounters and a submachine gun he had taken from a fallen enemy for long-distancing. Adalia was busy healing Jade Savior not far away, with Virus of Life covering her.
A wave of enemy troopers came down the street, announcing their presence with a volley of scatterbombs. Kethric knocked Cor out of the way, and Ace dove in front of Adalia and Jade, while Virus flew out of the blast radius
The bombs detonated, blasting out huge chunks of the street and surroundings. With an ominous rumble, a building tumbled down, covering all of them in debris.
Tom was smiling as he watched the battle. His troops no longer needed to hold the medical facilities as priorities—his Infiltration core had rerouted the system. The heroes who fell in battle now fell in battle permanently. The one-to-four ratio now made him a lot happier, seeing as how he had a ten-to-one ratio of troops to superheroes.
Jade Savior got up slowly. For some reason, he wasn't in the medical facility, as he expected. Shaking his head to clear it, he looked around. It didn't do him much good—the total darkness made it impossible to see.
Where the heck am I? He thought to himself.
It was his last thought.
The auto guns spun to a stop, and retracted into the wall to wait once more.
Ace blasted his way out of the rubble, and then took to the sky. Scanning the area, he saw Kethric pulling Adalia up, and Cor jogging silently through a nearby alley. He located the enemy troops, and loaded an explosive clip into his rifle.
Pulling down in a tight arc, he saturated the area with HE shells. Three soldiers went down. Pulling back, he felt his rockets cut off, hit by an electrical burst from below. Frantically, he tried to reactivate them as he fell. A few feet from the ground, he triggered his jump jets. The extra force slowed him enough to hit the ground without being hurt.
Slinging his rifle, he ran a quick diagnostic of his flight rockets. Rerouting through tertiary circuits, he brought them back online, but didn't activate them.
Triggering his jets again, he leapt up onto a bridge and began laying a timed explosive over some stress fractures. Sensing movement to his left, he dove into a roll, just avoiding a salvo of flash rounds. Unclipping a web grenade, he launched it toward the window the rounds came from, and was rewarded with a string of curses from the hidden soldier.
Unslinging his rifle, he kicked the activator switch on the bomb.
Walking quickly down the hallway, Tom Maarlynd reviewed the tactical data still streaming in from King's Row. Tango Squad had been located trapped inside a collapsed tunnel. Victor squad had been eliminated by a hero. Foxtrot had rounded up and eliminated a police detachment in the area.
Turning into a side room, he came face to face with his R&D Quadrant Leader.
"Richard," he said to the QL, "Show me what your people can do."
Grabbing a phone pole, Ace did a quick u-turn and slammed into the jetpack trooper with both feet. Blasting upward to avoid a grenade, he collided with another soldier and brought him to the ground with a flip kick and a HE round. Virus flew into him, knocking him away from a rocket that had almost had him.
A ground-shaking explosion announced the bomb going off, dumping a full squadron of enemy soldiers into a deep pit and covering them with rubble. A tank shell went off a few feet from Ace, sending him spinning and Virus tumbling to the ground, holding his ears.
Getting his bearings, Ace dodged another jetpack trooper as Cor sliced open the hatch on the tank and dove inside. Ace turned and grabbed the flying soldier's jetpack, crushing it and sending the trooper on a wild trajectory that ended with an explosion.
Looking down, Ace watched as a hummer rounded the corner and got shot by the tank, no doubt now piloted by Cor. Swooping down, Ace grabbed Virus and dragged him out of the red zone.
Maarlynd snarled in anger as a new report came in—the Statesman had appeared on the battlefield in Independence Port and was mowing down troops at speed. He ordered his squads there into full retreat, an order he did not like giving.
His anger faded as the call came in—the I-Elite had touched down in King's Row. Now he got to see if Richard's funding had been worth the effort.
Flying back over the battlefield, Ace watched as a GAC troop transport began takeoff. Loading his rifle, Ace took aim and fired a cluster grenade, but it was shot out of the air by the turret operator.
Turning back towards the main fight, Ace jerked in surprise as his back—and his rockets—froze solid with ice. A more controlled descent than the last brought him down on a rooftop with circuit-jarring force, but minimal damage.
Ducking down, he peered over the edge of the roof. A small squad of troops—no more than seven—marched down the street. None of them had guns, surprisingly. More surprising, however, was the fact that the shortest of them was seven feet tall. At the shoulder.
Taking careful aim, he fired a high-velocity shell. It was a perfect shot, and would have taken any normal soldier down. This soldier didn't fall.
With a mighty leap, the trooper landed in front of Ace. He made a throwing motion, and Ace realized belatedly that he 'held' a gravity distortion. Ace was thrown back down to the street.
As his circuits activated emergency shutoff and repairs, he felt the medical teleport taking hold.
Now that is how the story was meant to be! Please R&R, let me know if you have any suggestions or criticisms! Next chapter will be coming very soon!