Chapter 31 Hold the Door...And the Wall And the Window.
"Right Side! Right Side!" Reaper bellowed, and both Tank and Picasso turned from their high defensive points and began laying down a wall of fire into the undead Xenos that were scrambling towards them.
They had had little time to prepare after they'd heard the first screeches, the Xenos had come down like a flood, but, ironicly, it wasn't that that had lead the flood to them, it was the four living, breathing Xenos that they'd been chasing who had come over the wall, following the scent markers of a queen and who had zeroed right in on Macha.
They'd had very little time to talk to them or get the full story but, from what Aiden had gathered from the high speed and panicked conversation with the terrified and utterly distraught young xenos, their hive had been invaded by the undead in the form of both Xeno and human, pretty soon there were so many that you couldn't tell living from dead and then they'd seen their queen fall, they'd felt it like a shockwave through their hearts, losing the one who had raised them and loved them, so they'd just run and run and run, the whole time being chased by a flood of undead, for three days straight without resting they'd run, until by some utter miracle they'd picked up the scent of another queen, of Macha, and had run to her.
Right now the four Xenos, two brothers and sisters, were in the medical bay being cared for by Zachee, Macha had given them strict orders that they were to harm no sentient life here, that all were equal here and that if they laid a single unwanted claw on anyone they would deal with her wrath, and every Xeno fears the wrath of a queen, so they'd agreed instantly, but it was obvious that they were both shocked and confused that any life form other than one of their own would want to care for them, so the sight of four very confused and unsure but too exhausted to care Xenos being lead to the medical by Zachee was quite amusing.
But they had managed to warn them about the on coming flood of undead Xeno's following them, it had afforded Aiden enough time to organise a mad scramble to man the defences and shore them up, he had literally kicked every able bodied person out of bed to man the defences, even now as the battle raged people were still fixing extra layers of defences and even making weapons, there was a team of blacksmiths working their arses off turning a huge pile of steel rebar that had been intended to make reinforced concrete in javelins and pikes to both be thrown over the walls and to sure up what they had.
Every weapon they had and every gun was in use already as the Spirits, every one of them, and the police and a whole bunch of civilians toting salvaged weapons from both dead West Side boys and other sources were on the wall, or rather the platform directly behind the top, shooting down into the horde of oncoming Xenos, Reaper had told them to ignore the regular undead because they didn't have the mass to break down the wall thanks to the line of crates that were propping it up all the way around the perimeter, apparantly in the early days of snagging this place one of the guys they'd had had been a grav crane operator and he'd had the genius idea to make the wall reinforced by putting the shipping containers full of useless shit against the inside like a make shift barricade slash buttress to prop it up, worked like a charm.
So now all they had to do was focus on the Xenos in the group because they could climb the walls, the trucks had been backed up to the gates to barricade them from being forced inwards, "Fuck, we're running low on ammo here, boss!" Picasso yelled through the comms as he swapped out yet another clip on the smartgun.
"Same here!" Shey's voice came through as all the police comms had been linked into the Spirits band by Spike now.
Reaper looked around as the sea of black that was coming at them from all sides, ironically, if it wasn't for the crowd of regular undead they would have been breached already but they were slowing the Xenos down as they tried to scramble through them, "Fuck it, got to try, Reaper to Queen Bee, Reaper to Queen Bee, requesting orbital fire mission, danger close, repeat, danger close! Drop ordinance in a three hundred degree strike patterned around our perimeter!" he yelled into the comms.
"Roger That, Reaper, moving into orbital strike position already, I'm also going to send a care package that contains a gift of last resort, I know you swore that you'd never use the thing after what happened the last time, but since Spike swears that he got it fixed I think it would be better to have it and not need it than the other way around, consider it a last ditch," Queen Bee said.
Reaper swallowed hard, knowing exactly what she meant, he seriously wasn't keen to break that thing out again, but then, hands down, it was one of the most powerful tools in the Spirits arsenal, hand built by both Spike and Tank as a kinda heavy assault project, but, boy, did he hate the thing, especially as he was the only one who could use it.
"Roger that, but how are you going to get it down without it getting shot down?" Reaper asked.
"You know any pilot better than my hubby? He'll get it down by remote and I'm going to send a barrage of missiles down to keep those anti air weapons busy while the plasma cannons help out," she repled.
"Roger that, everyone, heads down, fire mission incoming, fire mission incoming!" Reaper yelled, and no sooner had he said it than the sky lit up in brilliant blue trails like falling stars streaking towards them.
The Ghost Shadow had some seriously heavy firepower on board, technically, she was a heavy corvette class, but with her upgraded weapons, armor, and shields, she could go toe to toe with heavy cruisers and frigates and kick their ass out of the sky, this was but one of her many tricks, little streaks of fire in the sky spreading out like a fan, indicating the progress of the missiles that had been launched primarily to confuse the anti-air by creating some seriously hot spot for them to shoot at, which is exactly what happened when anti missiles and plasma fire went screaming up into the night sky from all over the city, it looked like a messed up fireworks display in the night sky as missiles were blown out of the sky and plasma explosions threw clouds of white blue and grey flames in all directions like star bursts.
In amongst them a singular missile like object that dodged fire and jinked around and spun like it was dancing signified the progress of a singular drop pod, though this one wasn't a Devil's door knocker like the one's that had delivered them here, this one was was nicknamed a Bee hive by the team as it was large, round in shape, and when it cracked open it was full of goodies.
"Heads Down!" Inferno yelled as eight huge balls of plasma streaked down towards them in a circular pattern that signalled the Ghost Shadow had made it's position to fire down directly from above them in orbit, the explosions were incredible, hitting with enough force to shake the whole place and send a wash of super heated plasma over the compound that set the air on fire above them.
People were screaming and panicking all around them and Aiden couldn't blame them, but the Queen Bee was one of the best ship gunners in the entire Spirits, her fire was exceptionally precise, she put it at the maximum distance she could not to damage the compound in any way, it was as close as it could be and it ignited a ring of brilliant blue fire that surrounded the place like a moat, it didn't kill everything by a long shot, not even close, but it put a serious dent in their numbers and set a great many more on fire which gave Aiden a wicked idea.
"That's as close as I can put it Reaper, can't shoot any closer and the cannons are going to need to recharge, those were high yield, and with what I fired at the anti-air in an attempt to throw off their sensors the guns will be offline for about an hour, can you hold?" Queen Bee asked.
Before he could answer a huge wash of down thrust and incredible noise spilled over the compound in waves as the oval shaped Bee Hive swept over the compound, spun over and slowly lowered down to land right in the centre of the place, shutting down its engines as it did.
"Yeah, I think we can, thanks, Queen Bee, you're a life saver, Reaper out," he replied, then he turned, "Spike, resupply is here, get that thing open and get the ammo moving to those who need it," Reaper yelled.
"Roger that, boss!" Spike yelled, and instantly started sprinting towards it, leaving T'Kell torn on whether to chase after her male or stay on the wall shooting, she chose the latter as the cannons were needed and her male could take care of himself, despite appearance.
A Spirit was the only one who could open a Bee Hive as it needed a genetic Ident to crack it, but once open anyone could take from it, the second Spike swiped in the thing split open and opened like a flower, revealing shelves of ammo packs all surrounding a large cylindrical core that contained the specialist item that the Queen Bee had sent them, Spike noticed it right away as he and a few of the civilians began throwing ammo packs to the wall, "Holy shit, boss! Is this what I think it is?" he said over the comms.
"Yeah it is, and no, I'm not using it unless I absolutely have to," Reaper said.
"But you could do some serious damage with this thing!" Spike yelled.
"You have no idea what it's like, Spike, and it's not an experience I'm keen to repeat unless I absolutely have to," he said, then he turned to the blacksmith group, "Arthur! You still got those crossbows your guys made!?" he yelled.
A middle aged man with the best beard like litteraly ever popped his head up from his makeshift plasma smelter made out of a few burner nozzles that had been hooked to a plasma cell and jammed into a ceramic insulated bin to make a smelter that stood right next to a huge pit that was full of a synthetic charcoal substance that was used to give bbq's a more authentic feel but burned hotter and far longer than the real deal that had three people dressed in leather aprons around it pulling glowing rods from it before beating them on make shift anvils made from titanium blocks.
He lifted his protective goggles up off his blackened face to reveal two perfect white circles of skin, "Yeah, why? What good are crossbows against Xenos?" Arthur yelled back.
"Get em together and every untipped arrow your fletcher team have been making from that crate of pillows," Reaper yelled, and now Arthur looked really confused and was about to ask why again but Reaper cut him off, "Not a fucking request, Arthur! Fucking do it!" he boomed in his best Sergeant's voice, making the man snap to and run.
The screech of angry Xenos and plasma and ballistic weapons was utterly deafening, the smell of fear and panic was rich in the air, it was a bitter smell, the presence of the Spirits and the cops were doing wonders to keeping things from falling apart but it could only do so much, civilian morale tended to fall apart once they began to believe that a fight was un-winnable, but Spirits never believed that, they would literally fight until either they or their enemy was in the ground, it was how they were built and how they were trained and even now, Aiden could see it working on the civilians around each Spirit, people were turning to them for inspiration, holding them up like champions and feeding on that determination, he saw it in the small team he'd hastily made up of non combatants who were right now modifying the arrows he'd given them as he stood guard over them, he could see them glancing at him constantly as if his mere presence gave them both hope and strength.
"Reaper, we got some done!" Missy called, appearing next to him, holding a bunch of modified arrows, he hadn't wanted to let her get involved but the young Felenis was very stubborn, to the point he was beginning to think that she was actually a furry Yautja so he'd let her join the arrow team so she could feel useful.
"Good girl, get these to Ice, she's getting the crossbows handed out," he said, and he was oddly proud of her and only moments after she'd taken her first steps a large black shadow appeared at her side, guarding her, it was Macha.
"Fuckers are getting closer again!" Tank yelled as he swapped out his ammo pack for a fresh one and looked down at the black mass seething towards them as the blue flames died down, there were brunt corpses and body parts scattered everywhere in a ring of hell that surrounded them on all sides.
"Are the bows out!?" Reaper yelled.
"Yeah, they're out!" Ice yelled back picking up her own xbow.
"Avoid the undead closest to us, put them into the first ring of Xenos, all together, now fire!" Aiden yelled, and all around the wall a perfect circle of arrows were released each carrying it's deadly payload which, after only three seconds, detonated, and each ball of flame bled into the next one over till it created a perfect circle of incendiary induced fire that lit the screeching Xenos up and caused them to spread it to the next ones over, once again creating a perfect ring of flames that sent a cheer up among the defenders.
"Reload! Keep them flying, each one further out by six feet! We need to create a fire storm!" Reaper yelled, and they kept up the incendiary barrage into the slowed Xenos, coating them in fire from the incendiary grenades that were being bound onto arrows as fast as was possible, even in the panic everyone was working like a well oiled machine, the smith team were churning out javelins which were also being fitted with the grenades, the fletch team were making arrows, the binding team were wrapping them and the defenders were shooting, but even so more and more were coming, for every one burned, two more appeared at the back.
Suddenly a revelation hit one of them, like a bolt of clarity, "It's me!" Macha said suddenly, and Reaper turned to look at her from his shooting position back up on the wall.
"What?" he asked.
"They're being drawn here by me! They can smell me the same way those others did, they sense a queen and they're following that, I-I can lead them away," Macha said, and Inferno snapped around now as well as she realized what her beloved beauty queen was saying.
"No! you can't go out there! They'll tear you to shreds!" she yelled, and Macha looked at both of them, both pride and sorrow welling through her so much that they both felt it through their link.
"I have to, no matter what happens, I love you both to the end of life itself and beyond, if I can I will return, if not, know that you both made me happier than words ever could," she said, and before either of them could say a word, Macha took a huge running leap from the wall, kicking off a building close by and vanishing over their heads.
"Macha no!" Inferno screamed in a voice filled with agonising pain and, before she'd even finished, Aiden was moving right towards the pod.
Running up to the cylindrical piece in the centre, he slammed his hand against the reader, "Authorisation, Reaper ID, code 771829, code phrase, death becomes me and I become death," he said, and, with that, the computer whirred.
"ID recognized, are you sure you wish to proceed, Reaper?" the voice asked.
"Yes, open the fuck up!" he roared in anger and pain, and a small door opened on the side of the pod which he instantly stepped through.
"Oh my god, he's going to do it! Holy shit, he's going to do it! Tank, are you seeing this!?" Spike yelled, and Tank turned from the rapidly thinning herd of Xenos which were now peeling off to chase after Macha.
"Oh my God, he really is, isn't he? Oh fuck, laddie, oh fuck," Tank exclaimed.
"What's happening? What is my beloved male doing in there!?" Inferno yelled, storming right over to the pair of them, looking like she would murder them both to get the answers she sought and that was true friends or not.
"He's becoming something he hates to protect you and to save her, lassie, that man right there is showing the colors we all knew he had, he hates that thing in there more than anything because of what it does to him, but he's willing to use it to protect you and to go after her because he knows its the only way that A, he'll catch up with her, and B, be able to protect her from them," Tank said quietly.
Inferno whirled around to the now closed pod, "No, he can't go out there! We have to stop him!" she yelled, but just as she finished the sentence the pod began to split open and inside her mask her mandibles fell open as she caught sight of the new Reaper, "My great Paya, preserve us," she exclaimed.
"All systems connected and overrides complete, standard human brain functions now slaved to cybernetic systems and cerebral processors at maximum, all systems confirmed green, mission parameters inputted and understood, Mission one, retrieve and recover Xenomorph queen being known as Macha at all costs, Mission two, protect female Yautja being known as Inferno at all costs, Mission three, extinguish all threats, living or undead, that pose a threat to their continued existence, Mission four, return once being Macha is recovered and continue protection of civilian populace by any and all means at disposal, all missions understood and confirmed, final system unlock complete, GRIM Reaper project is now online," the huge ten foot tall armored behemoth said in a robotic voice that sort of sounded like Reaper said.
The mecha suit was truly incredible, you couldn't see a single piece of Reaper inside it, it looked like a cross between a huge ninja and some form of Samurai armor, it was matte black and didn't reflect any form of light properly, it carried two plasma mini guns like Tank's on its arms with telescopic barrels that wold override the hands and extend over them to fire from both hands, it had micro missile launchers on both arms, two gimbal mounted rail guns on each shoulder that sat flush against its back and two huge long tubes mounted directly centre in its back.
"R-R-Reaper? I-I-Is that you, my love?" Inferno exclaimed, looking up at him, the mecha turned and looked down at her.
"The being called Reaper is here, but he cannot converse with you now, Yautja being Inferno, you will remain here while I retrieve being Macha, do not compromise our mission parameters or you will be restrained and incarcerated here to accomplish mission two, conversation mode terminated, now proceeding with mission parameter one, retrieve and protect Xenomorph being Macha," the mecha said and, with three huge strides and gripping the two pipes on its back, the mecha literally leapt over the wall like a normal person hurdling a two foot wall.
As it landed on the other side the two pipes in its hands swung out and extended before two huge plasma blades formed into huge flaming blue scythes that, without any hesitation, it used to cut right through everything and anything in its path, it was like a human shaped bull dozer cutting right through them, as Inferno watch in utter confusion and horror, the others actually began to cheer as they watched it destroy the undead like they were made of paper, cutting them in half and setting the remains alight as it began to sprint, following the path Macha had taken.
"Spike to Queen Bee, Project GRIM REAPER is operational and on the battlefield," he said quietly, in both shock and awe of what he was seeing.
"Roger that, Spike, I'm tracking him, and holy fucking shit, can he move! He makes Macha look like she's standing still and she's literally out pacing a wave of them, that-that thing is incredible," Queen Bee said in stunned awe.
Inferno stormed over to both Spike and Tank with murderous intent, so much that it actually made both T'Kell and Moodstone close in to protect their beloved males just in case she tripped off, "What the pauk is that thing and what has it done to my beloved male!?" she screamed at them, her voice filled with fury and confusion, pointing after it.
"That's the GRIM Reaper, it's still Reaper inside it, but he's, ummm, different, Gigantic Reaper Infused Mecha, or GRIM for short, is a special project that Queen Bee commissioned a while back, utterly top secret and known only to four people in the entire Spirit organization, me, Tank, her, and Reaper, he utterly hates the thing but he's the only one who can pilot it and make it work, it needs him to operate but after the initial test proved that it worked perfectly he swore that he'd never use it again because of how it works and what it does to him, but it looks like the power of love he has for both of you changed that view," Spike said.
"If it is so powerful why would he hate it so?" Inferno asked.
"Because of how it works, you see, the major problem with mechas is that they are limited by the person inside them, they are primarily just power armor suits, but this one is different, you see, it hooks into his cerebral processors and they kinda, ummm, hijack his higher brain functions to provide the processing power required to operate it, basically I, ummm, kinda found a way to turn a human cyborg into a full on robot, while he's interfaced he feels utterly nothing, he's as cold and as hard as the machines that power a vending machine, it's cold and calculating, all that matters to it are the missions that he programs before the interface is complete, it will do literally anything to complete them and it will let nothing stand in its way," Spike said.
Inferno played this information over in her head, "Why do you call him it? That is my male in there! My beloved male!" she snarled, and Spike held up his hands defensibly.
"Whoa, easy, big girl, it's not a slight, it's just that when he's inside that thing he's not a man anymore, he's a machine, an emotionless machine, he's not like, for instance, Paul, who's as alive as any of us, full emotions and thought processes the same, full self awareness, the GRIM Reaper is an assault platform like no other, cold hard logic and battle response of a machine and the instincts of a man fused together into one, no emotions, no weakness, just raw determination, when he said he will get your queen back he meant it, he will stop at nothing to do it, and gods help anything or anyone that stand in his way, that armor can take a direct hit from a tactical nuclear weapon and come out the other side without even a scuff, it's made of the same stuff the Ghost Shadow's hull is," Spike said.
"If it is so good and powerful why does he hate it so?" Inferno asked.
"Because of what it does, it might shut down all the non essential areas of his brain but it requires his memory centres and a few other things to operate, so imagine being trapped inside your own head while riding shotgun to something else making you move, he said you feel like a puppet in your own body, that and it makes its decisions based on the programmed parameters which, if you don't specify when you hook in, can screw you later, hence why he gave it clear instructions to protect to the civilians here, because the last time he used it in the field to take down a pirate raiding group nobody knew that there were civilians there, it utterly ignored them and left them there to die, if we hadn't had a clean up squad following him in after it cleared the place out they would have all starved to death, trapped in cages like animals, Reaper never forgave himself for it, he swore never to use the thing ever again, but that didn't stop me or Tank from improving it from time to time, just in case there came a time where it would be needed again, now look, it's being used to protect his two loves, that's the lengths that that man right out there is willing to go to protect you and to love you, he sacrificed his very self for you both," Spike said, and Inferno just sagged as the weight of her emotions came crashing down on her.
"W-W-What am I supposed to do now? My beauty queen is out there leading the horde from our doors all alone, my ooman male is chasing her down to bring her back and I...I am here," she said.
It was T'Kell who stepped forward and placed a hand on her sister's shoulder, "Sister, both of them trust you completely, they trust you to get the job done, they leave you here to protect the rest of your team and the innocents that we all guard with our very lives because they know and respect your skills and your strength, they know that you can accomplish this with or without them, that is the level of respect that they pay to you, do not ignore it, do them proud and make sure that when they return triumphant from their hunts that you are victorious and then you can celebrate your victorious honor together!" she said.
Inferno looked at her and she nodded, "You are right, my sister, I will make them proud!" she said, and T'Kell nodded.
"Exactly right, my sister, now, you step the pauk up to that rampart and you let them hear you! Let them hear your pride no matter how far you are from them that your heart, your pride, your strength and your love is right there with them! Show them who you are!" T'Kell said, and Inferno puffed right up and nodded.
Stepping up to the ramparts, T'Shara summoned every last memory, every last feeling, every last drop of pride and love and, tearing her mask from her face, she let out a roar so powerful and fierce that it rolled over the dark city like a wave of pure Yautja love racing to reach the one she loved and to steel them and remind them who was waiting for them with pride and love in her heart for both of them.
The vast majority of the undead Xenos had taken off after Macha, the remainder of the mop up was easier, the last of the incendiary arrows got used up, creating a ring of fire that set the undead right up against the wall on fire, it burned them into what looked like a giant black ash ring that surrounded them and here and there a few limbs and body parts twitched, and slowly but surely, a sense of victory and survival set in and everyone just simply sagged under the weight of the both emotion and exhaustion.
"Holy shit, holy shit, how many did we lose?" Shey asked, looking around and people started doing head counts only to find that not a single living person had died, which in itself was a sense of defiant victory.
But inferno was determined not to let the place slack, she instantly got the groups working again, she wanted this place utterly secured and locked down even tighter so that when her loves returned if they were bringing the Xenos back with them they'd run smack into a wall of death, she let them rest just enough to get their breath back but then as the Spirits second in command on the ground she did her job.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Macha felt her legs beginning to burn as she ran, she was on all fours using both her arms and legs to propel her along as fast as she could move to stay ahead of the tidal wave of her undead kin chasing her, she had no idea how they could smell her through the suit of armor she wore but they could, maybe it was more than just scent, maybe they felt the presence of her mind amongst theirs, she felt their presence, but it wasn't like it was with the living Xenos, it was more like a sea of raw emotion, of anger and unending hunger that swirled and pulsed around them.
In the back of her mind a fear that she'd made the wrong decision and that she would never see the faces of the ones she loved again clawed at her brain, but she tried to shake it out, she couldn't allow herself to think like that and to risk falling into despair, she felt the fury of the fire of love propelling her forwards, every bounding leap another victory in keeping the ones who made her heart whole safe and alive, this was how she protected them.
From far behind her she heard a tremendous bellowing roar that seemed to wash over her and she didn't know how but she knew it was T'Shara, it was her beautiful huntress calling out to her and sowing her pride in her, letting the whole world hear her love given voice, her furious pride burning a Yautja's strength into her very soul to aid propel her on, but that's when the undead got smart and she got stupid.
She'd spent too much time running in a straight line, somehow some of her kin had managed to get around her and halted her progress as she was forced to engage them, they launched at her from all sides and attacked with a mindless fury and savagery that this heinous virus had done to them, "You will not stop me from protecting my love!" she bellowed as she put her newly reinforced claws and spiked tail to good use as she cut through them, getting constantly bathed in their blood which simply hissed and fizzed on the outer skin of her armor but did nothing to it, neither did their claws as they scratched over the metal without even scoring it, she headbutted one so hard that she punched it through a reinforced concrete wall and turned it's entire upper body to paste as she followed it up with a mighty kick that forced it through the hole, but suddenly a deep growl caught her attention and she turned.
In the middle of the street in a hollow circle of undead Xenos she stood, the queen she'd seen that fateful day, she knew it was her by the large bite wound that was on her thigh, but now her pretty and glorious hide had been marred and corrupted with growths that looked like purple coral that were all over her, it even seemed to have formed into a kind of mockery of a crown atop her head as if trying to proclaim her queen of the undead, but somehow, even in undeath, she had some measure of control over the others because as she stood still sizing up her prey, so did her children.
"Oh, my sister, look what has become of you, if only you'd have listened to me that day, then you too may have found a happiness so few of our kind know, maybe even have found a love of your very own in the arms of an opened minded one willing to look at you as the vision of beauty that you were, but now look at you, a corruption of all that good Xenomorphs are," Macha hissed, and before she could say another word the queen lunged at her, claws flared and tail primed but even as Macha fell into a stance ready to defend against the onslaught it never landed.
A streak of bright blue and white that seemed to set the very air itself on fire cut right through the flying queen before a second one hit her from behind in the shape of a perfect X, her body just fell apart in mid air and her still grasping head bounced off the top of Macha's armored one before skittering to a halt on the floor, upside down before her children.
Macha looked up at the exact same time as the undead Xenos did and, with a boom that seemed to echo off everything, a huge figure simply appeared in the circle with her, it was holding two huge weapons that appeared to have two huge curved flaming blades at the ends of them, "Multiple threats to priority protection target, codename Macha, detected, initiate full lethal protocols," the huge hulking figure said, and suddenly four huge long rifle like protrusions on its shoulders lit up and extended upwards so they were facing both forwards, backwards, and out to both sides.
It placed the two flaming scythe like weapons on to its back, closing the flames off as it did, and from both arms, eight circular barrels extended to enclose its hands and, as if someone flipped a switch, the gates of hell itself opened and the behemoth began firing in every single direction all at once.
Macha screamed and hit the floor as projectiles of pure energy and hyper velocity metal cooked the air all around her, turning the gathered Xeno crowd into paste that literally cut a perfect circle into the tarmac on which they were standing, leaving them standing on an island of untouched ground right into the middle of the gore that sank into the ground, burning right through to the sewers underneath.
This happened in ten seconds flat and the metal behemoth didn't exit the circle once, nor did it move outside an area five feet from her, but in ten seconds flat every single one of her undead kin were gone, the thing even had flame throwers that sent out jets of plasma fire like blue dragons breath in huge cones that actually vaporised everything they touched from jet nozzles at its hips, then it just stopped.
"Maximum lethality achieved, all threats to priority protection target codename Macha destroyed, disengaging assault mode and now entering retrieval mode and entering phase two of mission one," the behemoth said in an oddly familiar robotic voice, it walked right up to her and, before she could even thank it or say a word, it flipped her off her feet and planted her onto its shoulder where it clamped a hand on her rear end to keep her in place.
"Hey! That is for my beloved ones only!" She yelled in protest, the behemoth hesitated for only a second.
"I do not understand the command sequences relayed into my core processor but my pilot wishes to convey that, even with that armor covering it, you are to be told you have a very nice rear and that it tastes as good as it looks, command sequence complete," the behemoth said, and Macha froze solid, there was only one person in existence who knew how her rear tasted.
"Aiden? Is that you in there?" she asked in a worried voice, trying to lift up to see it.
"Command line accepted and predicted, relay message two, yes, my beauty queen, it is me in this metal monster, but I am not myself while in here so I cannot talk to you directly, these are prerecorded messages to questions I knew you would ask, please don't resist, my love, I will take you back now, message ends, resuming mission," the behemoth said, and, with that, it literally jumped over a ten story building with her clamped tightly to its shoulders and then began running so fast that not even she could've kept up with its speed.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
For the millionth time in two hours, T'Shara found herself scanning the horizon, looking for any sign of her two loves, then they just fell out of the sky and the metal behemoth slammed into the centre of the compound, every single person jumped a mile into the air as it did, except for T'Shara, who was already running towards them as the mecha put down a rather wobbly Macha onto her feet a second before T'Shara nearly knocked her right back off them by pouncing into her and clinging to her like she would evaporate into smoke before her eyes, "Oh, he did it! Our beloved selfless male did it! He brought you back safe and sound, our beauty queen!" she cried happily, holding as tight as she could to her and Macha embraced her right back.
"Never been a damsel in distress before, but yeah, he did, and I have never seen anything like it in my life," she said.
"Priority protection, target one, codename Macha, now secured and status of priority protection target two codename Inferno confirmed as safe, now entering guard mode," GRIM Reaper said, and it began patrolling the grounds, walking the entire perimeter, scanning everything.
"Ummm, how do we get him out of there?" Macha asked, looking at their love as he walked around the perimeter.
"You don't, he's the only one who can release the mechanism, unless it gets too badly damaged, in which case it will auto eject him, but until that happens or it completes the preprogrammed missions he set for it upon entering he will remain in there," Spike said, sounding apologetic as he approached them.
T'Shara growled angrily but then sighed and nodded, she guessed she understood, he made a sacrifice to keep them safe, she'd have done the same had she had the choice, like Macha had because she could, to protect the ones she loved, Missy materialized out of thin air and threw herself onto Macha, who hugged her tight and pulled her into the embrace with T'Shara as well.
"Well, what now?" Macha asked.
"I might have an idea about that," Spike said with a sly grin.