A NEW BEGINNING
Chapter Eighteen
"The Machines"
20:02 – Planet Snivelak, Thug HQ, Bogon Galaxy
"Ahhhh! Ahhh!" came over Captain Rezabar's headset, the voice belonging to Trakgnak. When he heard this, his heart raced and many horrific thoughts filled his mind.
He tried communicating with the corporal, "Corporal? Corporal?" but there wasn't an answer.
The captain slowly flew his ship toward the plaza, hovering there and noticing large movements of thugs spreading throughout the scarcer regions of the base, the many of them armed with heavy weaponry. From the warehouses, shutters electronically opened and out rolled enhanced versions of Megacorp tanks. As a couple of these monstrous machines on wheels clattered down the streets, toward the entrance of the base and the ending of the bridge, teams of brutes and elite henchmen followed closely.
There was a brilliant flash as the last of the invaders' space fighters met its end, reduced to nothing more than wreckage set ablaze, plummeting toward the ocean like a burning rosette. The base's defenses deactivated, its chain guns twirling slowly to a halt and smoking from the ends of their barrels. Plasma turrets ceased coalescing another beam of energy while the anti-aircraft missiles retracted into their slots, being sealed thereafter.
A sudden thought came to the air captain.
He sent a new order to his pilots, "Attack-ships, two in sector one, three in sector two. The rest of you, return to the heliport."--he switched over to another channel--"Lieutenant . . . "
The brute lieutenant turned his head to gaze through the window of his attack-copter from his heliport to find the captain's attack-ship, seeing that several of the captain's men were returning to the heliport. "Sir?" he called back.
"Have you received any additional orders from Captain Natasha?"
"No sir, but I see that she's obviously around if the mobile force has already been deployed."
"I see. Well, I'll be acting on har behalf and taking charge. Return these attack-copters back to the launch pad and defend the beginning of the bridge. With the loss of communication with Trakgnak and his team, the enemy is already on the move. There is only one way of getting into HQ and that's the bridge. We can't afford any mistakes."
"Understood," said Ghan, switching over to a radio channel to address his group. "All attack-copters return to the heli-pad. We've orders to defend the bridge. Move out."
Tranquility filled the scene before the bridge, the smog created by the space pods rising ever so slowly, showing a small part of the area. The tumultuous thunderstorm calmed, producing steady sprinkles of rain. Red nimbostratus clouds distended over the bridge and continued toward the base with small internal flashes of lightning, threatening with sporadic claps of thunder. Velak Thratcher gazed into the tactical scope of his rifle to the first several feet of the bridge, in a place he could see the center beginning toward it, but there was nothing to see within the remnants of the smoke. Suddenly, a diminutive form outlined the front of the clouds, becoming a discernible shape that all new thugs had been taught to loathe.
The wisp of the form emerged a bit more, inching toward the clearing. Velak didn't know what to think or how to react, but he continued watching with a fierce wariness and keeping a twitchy finger on the trigger of his rifle.
"Who or what are in those pods?" he thought aloud and breathed hard, a few tendrils of hot breath billowing from his small nostrils. The elevating sounds of twirling rotors on approach made him look over his shoulder and at a series of attack-copters passing over him, heading in the direction of the heliport outside headquarters.
All but one attack-copter slowed to a hover near him as if the pilot had suddenly noticed him. The helicopter moved in close to him, within yelling distance, and then the cockpit slid backwards, opening and revealing Lieutenant Ghan. There was a hint of a smile on the brute's face as he reached down beside him and revealed a small communicator. He held it in his big hand when he spoke.
"I thought I saw some thing or one hidden up here. What are youz doing up here, Velak? Do you have a communicator?" Ghan inquired, smiling at last.
Thratcher turned away from his rifle and stood up into a crouch, being careful to watch his balance atop the super structure of the bridge. The rain had doused him, his clothes hugging tight to his small frame. His eyes glowed dimly, a sign that he was more drunk than weary.
"Captain Rezabar assigned me's to this s-spot," he said. "And no, I don't has a communicator. I don't even knows what the hell is going on around here. Ships was blowing up all arounds me. I just knows I has to guard this bridge, no matter what." He gestured with a hand.
Ghan gave a nod. "I see. Very well, keep watch of this bridge and be prepared to take down any enemy that you sees down below,"--he tossed the henchman the communicator--"and take my radio, the captain is on the first channel."
Velak nearly missed catching the communicator, but somehow managed to snatch it out of the air with two of his fingers. He stared down at it, his vision repeatedly blurring. He turned back to his rifle and sat down, sliding the communicator into a breast pocket and rubbing his eyes in agitation. To his side, the lieutenant sealed himself inside his helicopter and began to pull away when his ship exploded.
The henchman was taken aback by this and fell on to his side, watching as one of the helicopter's broken blades swept past him, narrowly nicking his face. The helicopter split in halves as it began its slow descent toward the water beneath the bridge. Velak got on his hands and knees and crawled toward the edge of his platform, trying to see the rest of the helicopter and if the lieutenant had survived--no body or signs of a possible ejection. And when the helicopter finally struck the surface of the water with a big splash, its bright flames lit the area where the bridge's supports would be. In the illumination, he saw metallic beings scaling the bridge and some rising from the depths of the ocean in staggering numbers.
He quickly turned around and ripped at his chest for the communicator. Once it was in his hand, he pressed down a button and spat into it, hoping to reach Captain Rezabar.
Desperation filled his voice as he shouted into the communicator, "Captain Rezabar? Captain! We has invaders on the bridge! No!--beneath it. They're coming in large numbers all overs me."
Back at the beginning of the bridge, a form dressed in Infernox clad materialized from the fog; behind him, a dozen robotic menaces, all bearing semblance of varying anthropomorphic androids with razor sharp claws for hands, a scythe for tails, pointed ears like some Bogonian beasts, and mouths full of ridiculously carnivorous fangs. These machines were no taller than a brute, roughly the size of a henchman. Compared to their leader in front of them, they easily dwarfed him.
At HQ, Captain Rezabar's eyes broadened considerably after hearing the voice of Velak. Almost immediately, his face hardened with contempt; his lips curling tight around the edges of his mouth.
"Velak! What are you doing on this channel? Just listen to yarself! Are you sure you're not just imagining things?" Rezabar blared back, looking out from his ship, being more than a mile away from the bridge.
"Sir, please listens to me . . ." Velak stroked his forehead, turning back to see the front of the bridge. "Oh no! No, no! It's him!"
"Him who?"
At the end of the bridge, Captain Natasha listened in on the conversation. She paced back and forth in a slow manner, with one hand behind her back, and with the other she held a small radio. Her fur was still marred--obfuscated--with blood. On her sides, standing ready with their weapons drawn down the length of the bridge, were two of her elite guards eavesdropping as well.
Velak paused for a moment before saying the dreaded name of the entire thug army. "Ratchet, sir. He's back and with a lot of his buddies--machines."
Velak heard the air captain growl low into the radio. "You don't know what yar talking about! You're drunk out of your a--"
Captain Natasha interjected in Velak's defense, her voice sounding firm and full of resolve. "Rezabar! Will you just listen to him."
Rezabar soughed resignedly in the cockpit of his attack-ship.
"Natasha," they said softly in unison.
"I put my faith in Velak, Captain, even if you don't. I believe him. If he says the invader is Ratchet, then it's the lombax. Now send out your attack-ships to impede the enemy's progress,"--she turned to face the front of the bridge--"and as for you, Velak, stay where you are and surprise the enemy. Take out as many as you can. Maybe you can find some sort of weakness in these machines. Get to it."
She lowered the communicator at her side and sighed heavily. "And so, he returns. You won't escape this time, Ratchet," she said to herself, and then turned to her guards. "Boys, head on out and give the enemy a big welcome party." She watched as they turned around and saluted, and then she walked away, traveling down a main street toward the plaza where the rest of her troops were. Behind them stood the Thug Leader with his massive arms folded and a smug look on his face. Armored tanks that were formerly Megacorp's, but now enhanced with thug weaponry, wheeled in single file onto the bridge, being followed by the elite guards and a small group of alike thugs.
The armored lombax approached the bridge with an extreme air of superiority. He wore a mask in likeness with his powerfully nanotech-charged battle suit. His red and black commando armor had been crafted to cover every inch of his body: his big, pointed leaflike ears, his Veldian face, and his fur-patched stripped tail. The inverted, triangular glow of his visor and chest plates shone brightly in the night. On the nether side of his forearms, where his metallic, gloves extended around, sharp fore blades extended in a deadly crescent; and on his shoulder plates, short, stubby spikes guarded him there. At his midsection, metal rings had been welded together in sequence, forming formidable protection of his abdomen. Large and thick boots protected his feet; the ankles looking more like big bolts than anything else. The lombax was a fine example of science and technology blended together.
A few attack-copters, some of Trakgnak's men, flew past the group of invaders, slowly turning around and getting into an attack formation. In response, the lombax pointed a finger at each of the helicopters. And not a moment later, one of the machines beside him aimed a large rocket launcher at one and fired. It rapid succession, it emptied the launcher before the first missile had a chance to reach the first copter. One by one, the rockets swirled in the air at an incredible speed and honed in on their targets, and slammed into each attack-copter without so much of any resistance.
When the flaming attack-copters dropped from the sky like rubble, the lombax and his machines began their march toward the bridge. At first, he began in a steady pace, but broke out into a quick gait; the gait becoming a charge. The lombax reached over a shoulder for something of a weapon on his back and retrieved it, bringing it forth. In his hand, he held what appeared to be a small baton, but after pushing a button to activate the device, it transformed into a seriously dangerous Omniwrench--one of considerable modification, for it was larger than the original tool and weapon, painted all black with red stripes.
High above the bridge, Velak quickly took aim and motioned his reticle onto the eccentric lombax. When he thought he had a lock, he pulled the trigger, his rifle splitting the air with an explosion. To his greatest surprise, the lombax looked upward and brought up his wrench, blocking the high caliber round.
Velak's face turned into a stupefied look. "What the hell? That's not possible!"
The lombax quickly passed beneath him and continued down the length of the bridge, about to reach new resistance at its middle. Three tanks welcomed the invaders, firing an endless stream of charged energy in the form of oblong disks before they even reached them. The machines swerved from their course while their leader remained in the middle, running at speeds not possible for a regular person, becoming something of an afterimage.
Behind the mask, the lombax's visor showed a complex readout of calculations of potential threats, dangers, and processes of maneuverability, charting the most advantageous courses of action to avoid damage to the battle suit system. In immediacy, the image of the tanks were growing close really fast. With a well-timed long jump, the lombax leapt effortlessly over the tanks and landed behind them, continuing his journey toward the Thugs-4-Less HQ.
Unable to turn around and stop the lombax, the drivers inside the tanks concentrated all of their fire on the machines left behind. Unable to get a single shot on the machines, their stray rounds began crippling the super structures of the bridge, causing the long, flowing chain links on each end of the bridge to shake. The machines finally met with the tanks and swarmed the scene, climbing on them and using their claws to tear into them, peeling back large chunks of iron and steel.
Velak quickly positioned his Flux Rifle around and prepared to fire onto the machines tearing the tanks asunder. But when he zoomed in on the scene, it was already too late. The machines pulled the thugs from their tanks and easily severed them with so much as a powerful swipe of their claws. While others were torn apart, killed in a merciless, crazed frenzy, others died from the explosions of a small rocket. Despite the terrible loss of these soldiers, the henchman aimed at a machine and fired at its back.
The machine fired upon felt the ping at its back, but it remained unscathed. Miraculous as it seemed, the machine turned its head and looked up to where the round originated, and spotted the thug. It uttered a screeching growl and dashed off toward the side of the bridge, beginning to climb up the super structure.
"Shit!" Velak cursed, picking up his rifle and trying to aim it straight down at the machine coming up toward him.
"Here comes Ratchet!" warned an elite thug henchman to his compatriots, taking aim with his Thrasher Cannon and firing without any hint of stopping.
The lombax's visor glowed a magnificent orange, striking fear into the hearts of the thugs in front of him. He came into a skid in front of them with his Omniwrench ready and performed a multi-strike, which disarmed one thug, knocked another off his feet, and smashed the head of the other--killing him in an instant. The thug without a weapon scrambled for his, but met his end with the tip of the Omniwrench when it came down from a hyper-strike. The remaining thug, a brute, who had been knocked down began backing away on his tail, firing a couple of shots at the lombax. His shots missed the lombax as the Veldinian turned his head to look at him. He climbed to his feet and turned around, prepared to run when a fast comet-strike attack smashed into the back of his helmet, obliterating it to hundreds of pieces. The thug dropped to his feet--dead.
The Omniwrench returned to its owner, and then the lombax resumed his fast gait toward the end of the bridge.
The resistance at the end of the bridge fired heavily at the lombax. Their weapons scorched the lombax's chest plate black, but it didn't seem their weapons were even powerful enough to cause any tremendous damage. As the lombax grew closer to them, a group of twenty thugs stormed the bridge after him with their weapons drawn. When they fired a barrage of energy blasts at him, it had a slight effect on the lombax; it slowed him down, bringing him to a walk.
In the lombax's visor, it rattled greatly, preventing him from seeing what was going on around him. In an effort to escape, he leapt high into the air toward the group. When he came down, he crushed a thug beneath his boots, and then returned to the air, leaping quickly off the helmets of the nearest thug as if they were jumpslots. In a matter of several seconds, the lombax got past the thugs and reached the end of the bridge. One of the thugs brought up a radio to his mask.
"Captain Rezabar, Captain Natasha. The second line has failed to holds back the invaders. The bridge is overrun with robots. Ratchet is entering the base!"
Captain Rezabar closed his eyes for a moment and pinched between them, feeling an imminent headache. Without sighing, he pressed forward on his flight stick and flew in toward the front of the base, pressing a couple of switches to arm his attack-ship's triple helix plasma cannons and photon missiles.
"And so, it has come down to this . . . ." was all he said. He then heard multiple screams through his headset communicator. They came so many to the point he had to rip off the headset from his head.
The machines had finally climbed onto the roadbed of the bridge from its substructure and joined in the battle against the many thugs at the end of the bridge.
Stationed at the plaza with hundreds of her troops, Captain Natasha saw the raging battle several hundred meters from the center of the base. The cries of the thugs already in battle stroked fear in the hearts of the others, who weren't sure what they'd be up against. For all they knew from the rumors between radio chatter, Ratchet was back, but they didn't know why he'd return to wage war on them.
Natasha turned around and stared at the general from afar. He gave her a nod, another one of his ways of giving silent orders. She brought up a second radio communicator and spoke into it.
"Activate the force field generators," she ordered, waiting and looking slowly around the plaza, at every junction of each road where the force field generators were, built into the sides of buildings. They served as the last line of defense.
Not a moment too late, she heard the generators coming online with a deep sibilation. Blue orbs appeared at the sockets of each generator, charging with spectacular vividity, and cast a navy tinge around the corners of each street. When fully charged, a whir accompanied a large, rectangular projection, creating an impregnable sheet of energy. By the time the generators closest to the entrance from the bridge came on, the barrier stopped the lombax in his tracks, forcing him back several feet after having run into it. His armor sparkled with electricity in conflict with the force field's. Behind him, a final energy field separated him from his machines. There was no way of getting around the force field.
"There he is," said one of the thugs near Captain Natasha. This created a stir among the crowd already filled with tension and nervousness.
"Be silent!" demanded a familiar voice that made many heads sway in his direction. Natasha even turned in surprise.
She studied the Manhunter, "You're back, Stravek." She almost smiled, but remembered they were on antagonistic terms. "And I see you've brought along your Thrasher Cannon."
The Snivelakian smirked. "Always, Captain," he hissed quietly. He made his way toward her and stood beside her, facing the direction of the bridge. Although he did not look at her, he could feel that her eyes were on him.
"I sees Ratchet has returned. This time he won't escape," he said with great conviction. At this, his captain raised an eyebrow.
"What makes you think he wants to?"
He said suddenly, "Where is my brother? Somewhere safe, I hopes?"
"I don't think anywhere is safe now," she added. "Look atop there . . ." she pointed, "he's up there."
"I sees. Well, I don't knows about you, but I'm ready for some action," he began walking forward, causing a large commotion among the troops. "Sorry about your ear, Captain," he said as he stopped for a moment without glancing back.
A sheepish smile appeared on the shabox's face. "And I'm sorry about your ribs."
He chuckled and continued on, stopping a couple of seconds when pain erupted in his chest. His fractured ribs were proving to be a nuisance as he walked.
At the other end of the plaza, the lombax studied the force field generators on the other side of the energy projection. He was thinking of another way to get past it. He looked at where the generators were--on the buildings. Then he put his idea into play. He disengaged his Omniwrench, locked into place on his back, and then walked toward a building that was out of the thugs' sight behind the barriers. At a wall of a building, he looked at his metal, clawed fingers and motioned each of them while looking up at the wall.
In one strike, he sent his fist into the thick brick wall, and then the other, beginning the process again until he saw that he was climbing successfully. His sharp fingers dug into the wall and gripped large pieces inside it for which to hold on to. Immensely strong as he was, he scaled the wall and reached the top of the building, remaining out of sight. From rooftop to rooftop, he leapt quickly across each, drawing closer to the rest of the thug army. Suddenly, a missile struck where he landed on the next building, throwing him off it.
In a flip in midair, he came down in the square some distance away from the rest of the thug army, his armor smoking from the explosion. A second later, bits of rock began pelting his armor. He looked up and saw an attack-ship hovering toward him, preparing to fire its energy cannons.
Stravek Thratcher drew his weapon on the lombax and fired. Secondly, Captain Rezabar held down a button on his flight stick and fired an endless succession of energy fire down on the lombax, tearing up the street. Together, they managed to send the lombax staggering back, nearly knocking him off his feet. His chest plate smoked greatly from the burns of the attack-ship's helix energy cannons.
"We have you now, lombax," said Captain Rezabar as he pulled another trigger and fired a pair of photon missiles.
The large missiles found their mark near the lombax's feet, and the fiery explosion scooped him off his feet. The lombax came down and tumbled across the street, smacking into a side wall of a building, leaving his impression in it. Once they saw that the lombax was down and weakened, they fired endlessly at him, blanketing him in fiery smoke and flames.
When the air captain and the Manhunters ceased firing, Captain Natasha waved her hand forward, sending in her troops to finish the lombax off. "Troops, move out! Kill that lombax for good this time."
The legion of thugs raced down the plaza toward where the lombax fell, shouting battle cries as they closed in on him. Behind them, their captain remained behind and watched closely. In passing, Stravek began running back in the opposite direction, returning to his captain with a broad smile on his face. Before he reached her, she heard a radio transmission from both the air captain and the general.
"Harhar! Do you think he's finally dead?"
"Captains, good work."
The general descended the stairs of the main governing building and sauntered to her. In the air, Captain Rezabar flew off toward the bridge, remembering about Velak. The rest of the army came to a stand still in front of the dust cloud where they'd last seen the lombax and waited patiently. They kept their various weapons ready.