Hello to everyone, and I do hope that you are enjoying yourselves on Black Friday and that you have had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Now, hopefully for your reading pleasure, I give you this chapter, one of the largest I have written to date. To that end, I warn you in advance, I've been doing some scrambling with this one, and have been making much use of the cut and paste technique, as I was having trouble deciding what should happen when. Because of this, I fear I might have made something very screwy, despite my attempts to catch anything, and the best efforts of my beta reader to catch my many errors. TO that end, if you spot something that doesn't make sense, reference to something that has happened before it was supposed to, etc, etc, please notify me IMMEDIATELY, so that I can fix it. Thank you very much.
On another note, I think I confused people with the last request that I made, and to clarify, Shadowrun is a pen and paper RPG, much like Dungeons and Dragons, except set in the future. The Matrix is the computer world of this realm, and it is actually where the idea of the movies came from, in which the 'Deckers' plug themselves in, and then proceed to hack into various mainframes. Because of the nature of this world, a computer A.I. such as Vin, is the literal equivalent of a god, thus his fight scene is going to be pretty out there, if I can pull it off. (crosses fingers and mutters a quick prayer)
Now, to those of you who were so kind and reviewed.
Philoworm- ZOE is Zone of the Enders, a sorta mech combat meets dragonball Z type game. You should try both of them, as they are pretty good, and Anubis, the main enemy, lives up to his namesake. As for the cliffe, I hope that this has proven to be worth the wait, so let me know what you think.
Air of Mystery- Yeah, well the strategist of the bad guys will be kinda revealed towards the end of this chapter, and maybe that will explain why the elves got duped so badly. Thanks for the grenade ideas, and as far as Keira is concerned, that's kinda how she's going to get her abilities, but I think she's still going to be heading out to the Wasteland, as that's where she's going to meet Tarath and get her own Precursor forged gear. That said, hope you enjoy the chapter, in all its killing and mayhem.
MariaShadow- Not sure what you mean by redshirt, but if you like Toshiro, you're not going to like me after all is said and done. As for Keira's heritage, expect a part of it to show up again in this chapter. Hope you like it
Lunatic Pandora1- Errrm, I'm not sure on the causality count as of yet, but lets just say it's going to be rather high.
Wizard Surreal- Thanks for the idea, I think there will be something similar to that happen, and I think I also know how to get Keira her gear, thanks. As for reviews, yah, I know the feeling pretty well myself, I've submitted quite a few that only later I read and saw that I had left out one letter to word that changed the whole meaning of the review. Once again, sorry I couldn't get you the pictures (glares at computer) and I hope that this chapter has been worth the wait.
William- Yeah, Keira will be getting some Light Eco powers, but it will be a few chapters before that happens. Hopefully, I'll be able to make it happen in a semi-realistic manner. (crosses fingers)
Evil Manic- Yeah, but do not worry, once the Jak returns, they will get what's coming to them. As for Keira's powers, she'll be getting quite few in addition to the ones from the game. That said, hope you enjoy the massacre in progress that's about to unfold.
Meowen- Yeah, Ashelin doesn't usually get a whole lot of screen time, probably cause so many people hated her after that bit of fanboy crap thrown into the third ending. (glares at ND) and yeah, sonic grenades are nasty little things, expect to see much use of them in chapters to come.
Some Random Fanboy- Yeah, Keira will get her own unique weapon and armor from Tarath, and when Jak meets Veger again in chapter ten, he will scare the piss out of him, literally. But as to your first question, no Keira will not receive a split personality, mostly because I couldn't think of one, and I think I've got enough OCs running around at the moment (as I've got to think up a load of supporting cast Precursors that I will then kill off in a horrid fashion). That said, hope you enjoy.
jaklover123- Yeah, I've always been a little curious about Samos' past, and I will go into a little bit of detail regarding it. As to his knowledge of the future, I think its probably cause he was there as his younger self in the second game, so he already knew what was going to happen. So, I hope you enjoy this ten or so thousand word chapter, and that the wait has been worth it.
Every Heart Bleeds- Thanks for the vote of confidence in both my skill and the whole Vin fighting deal. Wish me luck, and please let me know if you have any ideas you'd like to see in the story.
Crazed Demon- Yeah, I think I might be making Veger even more despised than he was in the game, assuming that's possible. Unfortunately, Veger will survive, though he will likely wind up being 'drafted' into the Precursor army and wind up making a fool of himself yet one more time.
Xazz- Yeah, I can relate about the math classes, those were always my weak points. Still, I think that I managed to survive the ordeals placed before me. Also, I hope the week long wait has been worth it, and please let me know what you think of the new Death Bot units to make their appearance here.
Farr2rich- You give me far too much credit, I never would have made it this far without the ideas that you and others have given for me to use. As to Keira's vision, that wasn't so much foresight as a traumatic flashback, which will return in a way to haunt somebody later. As to you Light Lightning idea, no Keira will not receive that, she will instead get an energy ray type attack. However, she is packing a weapon that causes and effect similar to that that I…um…borrowed from Star Wars. Best of luck to you in your own works, and I hope you like this installment.
animedragongirl- 'Oh I have a bad feeling about this!" (have you noticed that line is in every one of the movies?) Glad to hear your nearly through with your activities, and I switched a couple of scenes up after sending you the chapter, so if I screwed something up, please let me know, kay? (bows) Also, hope to see more of prank wars soon enough, and thank you once again for taking the time to read my works over.
YamiTenshi14- Thanks for the idea, and I think I might throw a bit of grappling in there as Vin and the other A.I. attempt to delete each other. As for my skills, I think it cause I've read so many books by R.A. Salvatore and by Eric Nylund, who is the author of the Halo book series, all this makes me wonder if I shouldn't take classes and try to see fi I could maybe do this for real…
Darth Tank- Thanks for the vote of confidence, and I am glad I was able to please. As far as Seem is concerned, they never really cleared that up, but I recall an interview where a couple of the programmers referred to Seem as 'she' and 'her.' Nonetheless, it is a subject that is very much debatable. Other than that, I hope you enjoy what I continue to yank from the depths of my twisted mind.
SRHumphrey727- Thank you for not hurting me, as I am severally allergic to pain. As for Jak and Keira, give them a little while and they'll be back in each other's arms, and planning on how to retake the city. And yes, Vin is now a computer, and very, very powerful computer who will make his reappearance in this chapter.
Exardas- Yeah, things are about to head up crap creek for our heroes, and the cost will be high, as the Death Bots have some nasty tricks hidden up their metal sleeves.
PrincessDarkFire- Thanks for the advice, as there will be a lot of ranged combat when Vin and the other construct are duking it out in the Death Bot factory main frame. I am grateful for your encouragement and I hope that this new chapter has been worth the wait.
nightwish635- Glad that you liked everything I've managed to come up with so far, and I hope that I continue to prove worth the timeyou take out of you life to read this.
Beloved Rose- Sorry about the cliffe, and I'll try to send you that picture later today, as I have to go take care of some things after I update this tale. As for Daxter, yeah, he will kick butt, as one of the Fallen Precursor commanders will die by his hand, though which one I won't say. To that end, I hope you enjoy the slaughter house that Haven City is about to become.
Anon- I hope you and your siblings enjoyed the film, I heard it was pretty good. As for Keira and the others, no Epic Character ever made it to where he or she was without the help of the supporting cast, so they deserve there time to shine as well. As for Vin, yes, he and Sentinel will meet up near the end of the story. That said, hope you enjoy this.
GoodMorningBeautiful2005- Glad you liked chapter seven, and don't worry, there is Veger threatening in this chapter and there will be bashing in chapter ten, when Jak uses Mar's armor to scare him half to death and lose control of certain bodily functions. Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving too.
To everyone who read, but did not review, I hope that you liked the story so far, and that I haven't mangled anyone's mind beyond repair.
Lawyers: I no own, you no sue!
Now, red tape aside, here is chapter eight.
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A Dark Day Indeed
On a building top about half a kilometer from the fighting, a strange robot watched the battle unfold via a map system similar to what Toshiro had. It was running through its orders for the battle, as well as those of its two or so dozen comrades watching the clock wind down until the commencement of the counter assault.
One would immediately have been able to tell that this was no ordinary clanker, as it was very humanoid in its appearance, and about seven and a half feet in height. Its color scheme was the same as the normal Death Bots, but unlike them, it was bristling with enough weapons to have scared off any sane soldier. In its right hand it gripped a specially designed ASX-258 submachine gun that held a fifteen hundred round power pack and could be fired in five shot bursts or full auto, which when combined with its high end computer targeting system, made for an extremely lethal recipe. Attached to its left forearm was a strange, gray and red piece of machinery, which had a very nasty surprised stored inside of it. There were also the pentagon shaped missile launchers mounted on both shoulders, as well as a one hundred charge pulse cannon on the back of its right shoulder for dealing with more heavily armored targets.
However, its most dangerous weapon was its twelve shot, He-HP-697 grenade launcher on the left side of its back, a weapon so large that it was actually folded into two pieces when not in use and had such a kick that even it, a half a ton pile of metal and circuitry, had to fire it from a kneeling position to compensate for the recoil. It was to be implemented when it encountered vehicular resistance, or it had to absolutely make sure that every living thing in its targeting spectrum was not going to be getting back up.
It was the cutting edge, one of two types of command and control droids designed for one purpose, and one purpose only: penetrate and annihilate.
The clock reached zero just as it finished its third self diagnostics check.
Commence operation 'Divide and Conquer.' it "said" over a comm. line, its mechanized voice joining its comrades.
The elves, confused about the conflicting orders that they were receiving, were caught completely off guard as Death Bots suddenly began to storm out of buildings and rubble piles, opening fire upon them and killing hundreds before they could even figure out what was going on.
The command and control droid waited the ambush unfold for about half a second before activating one of its systems. Two sections just inside of the weapon placement positions, right where its collar bones would have been, had it been an organic life form, popped open. A part of engine like structures rose out of them, and red energy could be seen gathering up around them. At the same time, jet boosters set into its calves, lower back, and feet activated, picking it up into the air. About half a second later, the overdrive jets in its back finished charging, and the thing shot forward at over four hundred kilometers an hour, carrying it straight to the elven front lines.
Sergeant Benton Davis and his platoon were the first ones to encounter it. Still reeling from the ambush and attempting to get his troopers to cover, the Freedom Guard member realized instantly that this was no normal tinny they were facing, and shouted for his the men and women under his command to dive out of the way as it landed a few dozen yards away from them, leveling its primary weapon at the same time. They did so, and he and several others hurled plasmite grenades at the bot.
They landed next to it and detonated a few seconds later, filling the street with a deafening roar and a blinding flash, rattling the soldiers to their bones. However, when the blast cleared a couple of seconds later, it revealed the mechanical monstrosity to still be standing, and its red, visor type 'eye' flashed for a second.
Systems diagnostic…damage to torso and leg armor, circuitry damage minimal…still capable of one hundred percent combat efficiency…initiating self repair systems.
Analyzing enemy threat…
Thirty five targets confirmed…designated light infantry, threat to unit minimal…
Combat superiority index…two hundred fifty five percent…
Odds of victory…ninety five percent…
Initiating hard contact…attack protocol zero one seven two
Those thoughts passed through the Death Bot's CPU in less than a tenth of a second, before it acquired a shooting solution and opened fire upon Benton and his platoon.
The first burst of fire hit a blue armored soldier dead in the chest, and the six shots tore through the protective gear and shredded the man's internal organs, killing him in seconds. As the thirty four remaining troopers leveled their own weapons and fired upon the machine, it jetted into the air, and squeezed the machinegun's trigger again. A feminine scream rang out as a girl dropped, blown in half at the waist as the machina soldier circled around from thirty feet up, raining death down upon them.
Six more dropped, their eyes staring into nothing, as the thing finally came back down, its primary weapon still firing at them, filling the air with blue tinted Eco bolts.
Needless to say, Benton was quick to understand the danger that he and the others were in, and signaled a retreat, while calling for air support at the same time. He and the warriors under his command quickly dashed back down the street, losing another man as they did so, his chest exploding outwards as a burst of energy connected with his back. A second later, the elven soldiers rounded a corner with the fearsome killing machine in hot pursuit.
They left a few more grenades in their wake, hoping that the explosives might slow the thing down long enough for a Hellcat cruiser to show up and save their bacon, but once again the explosives did little more than annoy the thing, if that. As they charged down the street, though, they took hope, as they saw more of their comrades fighting just ahead, and like an avenging angel, a gunship speeding towards them.
However, like a demon straight out of the hells, the blood colored machine rounded the corner a second later, and its computer brain assessed the new situation in a matter of milliseconds. It screeched to a halt, and went down on one knee as the Hellcat closed in on it. It was then that Benton and his men, watched, awestruck, as the massive cannon like gun on the back of the thing's left shoulder unfolded and clicked together.
The Hellcat's blaster cannons were just lining up a shot when it fired, and a yellow-white comet streaked towards the gunship, shrieking at such a rate that a harpy would have been envious of it. The men inside the cruiser had no time to react as it ripped through the canopy, smashed about a foot into the rear part of the cockpit, and then exploded.
Hope died as a fireball consumed the gunship, and it crashed to the ground in a flaming wreck. Paralyzed by a combination of fear and shock, Benton and his soldiers stood, their feet anchored to the ground as the seemingly unstoppable machine jetted through the burning remains, its overdrive boosters propelling it straight at the elves. The men and women in its path tried to get out of the way, having already had their fill of the walking death engine's firepower. However, a slight flick of its left arm, and it showed that death by gunfire was not in store for them, as two purplish 'energy claws' leapt from the gray device, glowing fiercely and promising a painful demise to any hit by them.
"Gause! Watch out!" Benton yelled, as he saw right who the bot was heading for.
The elf dove, but didn't get out of the way fast enough, and the Death Bot caught him in mid leap, cutting him in half at the waist as it shot by and killing him before he even had time to scream. Several more troopers were slain in this fashion, their final screams quickly silenced, before the thing finally shut its jet boosters down to let them cool. Unfortunately, that was little consolation to the sergeant, as his platoon numbers had effectively been reduced to half of its original fighting capability by this mechanical monstrosity in less than three minutes of fighting, and he didn't give good odds on the rest of them surviving much longer.
They began to retreat backwards once again, falling back to where their comrades were already engaged and trying to hold off the forces responsible for the ambush, praying that someone with a heavy enough weapon would be able to take this thing down.
It was then that the strangest thing happened. As the new Death Bot cut down four more of his fellows with its primary blaster, a trio of Spiders rushed out from some rubble. Benton swore and went to line them up before they could blow themselves up and wreak further havoc amongst them. However, before he could do so, they scampered towards the machina warrior that had been ripping them apart and jumped onto it, latching onto its arms and legs.
Anomalism occurring…saboteur units malfunctioning, source of erroneous behavior protocols unknown…
That was about as far as it got with its central processing before the three smaller bots exploded, consuming it in a massive fireball and bringing an end to its rampage.
However, Benton and the handful of remaining soldiers under his command could hardly take comfort in that fact, as they still needed to fight their way out of this mess, and who knew if there were more of those things lurking out there, just waiting to pounce upon them…
Ashelin tried not to let the despair that was sweeping over her show as she barked orders into the comm. set on her head, calling for the troops in all sectors to pull back. Count Veger and his cronies had finally allowed her to step in a try to salvage the mess they had succeeded in landing them in, but not before thousands had been killed.
Even worse, the situation was rapidly reaching a point of no return, as the Harbor Sector soldiers were apparently pinned down by extremely heavy resistance and couldn't abandon their positions to retreat back to the Residential Sector.
The West Side and the Industrial District were much the same, and the Governess of Haven City cursed herself for not seeing what was now so obvious.
The tactic that had been used was called a 'false retreat' and she'd seen it in action before. Basically, the force using it would put up a token resistance, and would soon begin to fall back, baiting their adversaries into following them, getting them to overextend their lines. Once the enemy was stretched thin enough, other units, lying in ambush, would enter the fight, and the confusion that resulted would seal the trap. Even worse were the reports filtering in from the Industrial Sector about these new Death Bot commander type units, and the footages she'd seen on the primary command screen, coming from the 'black box' type cameras that officers carried with them, were sobering indeed.
"Hurry up and get them out of there!" she shouted to one of the technicians operating a command console, and the techie hurried to try and obey the command, issuing orders and the like, but shaking his head all the while.
The daughter of Praxis looked up at the map of the city, and as she watched the number of soldiers dwindle, she knew that today would be a dark day in the history of her homeland.
First Lieutenant Cody Balic, Revenant Seventeen, poked his head around a corner, only to have to immediately draw it back as a barrage of Eco bolts threatened to take that rather vital part of his body off.
"Looks like the front door's locked down tight." He growled, frustration present in his New Zealander accent, looking back over to his squad. "Let's head out the back way, see if we can give that thing the slip."
The 'thing' that he was referring to was another one of the commander type bots, but it was a different type from the one that Benton and his platoon had encountered. While the other one might have been fast and agile, this one was slow and lumbering. However, while it apparently lacked the jet boosters of the smaller variety, its sheer ability to take punishment astounded the gray armored warrior, who had never seen anything like it before.
He shifted the fuel rod cannon on his back as he thought about it. He'd shot the thing with it, had scored a dead on bulls-eye on its chest, and it was still standing. He'd hit it with a weapon designed to stop a tank in its tracks, and still it came after them.
Reports were blaring through his internal comm. set, and that of his squad, nearly deafening him with the crisscrossing chatter. Still from what he was able to pick out and understand, these ambushes were happening all over the city, and as a result General Toshiro was calling for all troopers to pull back to the Residential Sectors. That made their object rather simple: fight their way through two kilometers of Death Bot infested territory to get back to where the extraction point was.
The elf sighed bitterly, wondering just how many had died for an offensive that had done straight down the toilet, and vowed that his brothers and sister with him here and now would not become a part of that statistic.
They reached the door, and Revenant Twenty One, Liz, the group's scout and sniper, stuck her head out, looking around carefully.
'Looks clear.' she flashed back to the rest of the group with a series of intricate hand signals.
'Move out, eyes open and fingers on your triggers!' Cody signed to them all, and they nodded before carrying out the order.
They were in the back streets of the sector now, and most of the fighting was a good distance away. As of right now, they planned to stick with these streets, and circumvent around the battle turned slaughterhouse, a route that while not exactly valorous, had the greatest chance of him getting his squad out in one piece.
However, their stealthy tactics were soon discovered, as a Hawk flew overhead, and noticed the four elven soldiers moving through the district. It radioed in their coordinates, before diving down to attack them.
However, before it could even get a shot off, there was a faint 'crack' and Liz's sniper rifle blew it apart. Unfortunately, they all knew that the jig was up, and it was time to run for their lives. That fact was accentuated a moment later when they heard the rhythmic stomping of the commander type bot closing in from the left.
Cody dove by an opening that led to the main streets, correctly guessing that was where the Death Bot would be coming from. He hucked a grenade in mid leap, knowing that it wouldn't do much more than mess up its color scheme, but hoping that it might disorient the thing just long enough for the others to get by. The tactic apparently worked, as they were able to slip by without that strange gun on its shoulder taking a crack at them. However, what they didn't realize was that it was attempting the old hammer and anvil upon them.
Units gamma thirty two through fifty one, head to point zero, zero, six, ten, zero, and engage hostiles at that point.
At the same time, one of its comrades was reporting that it had stumbled upon a company of elven soldiers, and that it was currently in the process of dealing with them.
Unit Omega Twelve initiating hard contact, commencing attack protocol two, zero, eight, five…enemy group consisting of twenty five standard infantry soldiers…estimated time to completion of objective…fifteen point oh four seconds.
Roger, roger. The unit acknowledged before stomping around the corner and unleashing its firepower upon the hapless Revenants.
The other Death Bot squad, consisting solely of Rollers, came around into position and unfurled themselves, opening fire upon the squad from the front as the massive commander unit closed in from behind.
Then something totally unexpected happened. Just as the commander bot was lining up a shot with the massive plasma cannon attached to its right wrist, another group of Rollers came from around another corner, where they promptly reared up into combat mode and started shooting.
However, what was so strange was that they were firing upon their own comrades, catching them from behind and blowing them to smithereens before their CPUs could even figure out what was going on. Without hesitation, the maverick units then turned upon the commander droid, their arm blasters providing enough of a distraction for a bewildered Cody and his fellows to make a break for it.
"Did anyone else find that a little strange?" Zack, the squad's hacker, inquired as they kept dashing through the backstreets of the Industrial District.
"Yeah," Cody conceded, "But I ain't about to start complaining. Now let's keep moving, if we can avoid confrontations, we might just be able to make it back to the evac point before these things push the rest of the army back and leave us trapped in here."
There was a chorus of 'Yes Sirs!' and they doubled their pace, knowing full well those strange rollers wouldn't be able to hold that commander type for very long.
What they didn't anticipate was a pair of missiles coming down almost mortar style and exploding in front of them. They dove about as the shrapnel went flying, some of it hissing unnervingly close to their heads as it sped past them. All four hit the ground rolling, coming up and finding themselves once more staring at the hulking battle droid, the missile launchers on its shoulders already reorienting themselves. It fired again, and the Revenant squadron scattered once again to avoid the attack, with swears and oaths abounding.
It was then that three proved to be someone's unlucky number, as a third missile volley smashed into one of the factories lining the backstreet, and the force of the blast was so great that part of it collapsed.
When the dust cleared, it revealed that everyone was still alive and breathing, but Cody was now separated from the rest of the squadron by a twenty foot high mound of the debris. Compounding the problem was the fact that his grappling hook had been damaged in the attack, leaving him unable to get back up with his unit. Furthermore, proving that trouble came in threes or multiples thereof, he was trapped in this area with that damnable machine, and it was quick to turn its weapons on him.
"Sir!" he heard Zack shout over the internal comm. system.
"Head for the evac point, guys, I'll be fine!" he growled back as he rolled out of the way of another volley of Eco bolts.
"But…" Liz trailed off.
"Go! That is an order!" he shouted back, emptying his last submachine gun clip into the Death Bot, with little damage being shown for the eighty odd rounds that had just impacted upon it.
His squad reluctantly did so, knowing that time was limited, and that they weren't able to help their squad leader from where they were at any rate.
Cody popped the clip out of his morph gun, before switching it over to an assault rifle mode, and slapping a fresh energy pack into it. He then leveled the gun, and opened fire, aiming for the Death Bot's head. The Eco bolts pinged off of the thing's cranial armor, and it retaliated by leveling the massive plasma cannon on its right arm, firing at the Revenant and taking a chunk out of another building as he ducked beneath it. Even then, the gray armored warrior still felt the massive heat backwash that almost overloaded his suit's temperature regulation system.
"Let's see if you can fight what you can't see!" He hissed, before activating the active camouflage system of his Kartarn battle armor.
His form faded into a series of blurred lines as the light bending stealth gear kicked into action, making him almost invisible to the untrained eye. The massive commander bot halted in its assault, moving its head about is a systematic search of the area as it attempted to locate its elusive prey. Knowing that this might be his only chance, and that thus far, attacking the mechanical monstrosity with Eco based weaponry was proving to be an exercise in futility, Revenant Seventeen dashed forward, flexing his left fist and bringing out his vibro blade. He slipped into striking range, and with a feral yell, jabbed the melee weapon up to its hilt into the Death Bot.
The thing emitted an electronic scream, before flicking its own left wrist and causing a nozzle like device to pop out of it. Cody barely had time to jump out of the way, landing hard and giving himself the beginnings of a rather nasty bruise as he came down on the fuel rod cannon on his back. However, that swiftly proved to be better than the alternative, as a large gout of flame surged out of the nozzle, causing his eyes to widen.
Mother of the Ancients…that thing had a fierfeking flamethrower!
The burst of oily flames licked at the area he had occupied moments before, and even when it ended, part of the dura-crete continued to burn, and he couldn't hold back a quiet 'eep.' Still, he managed to fight down the fear that was trying to overcome him, forcing it into a ball in his gut.
He had one shot left from his fuel rod cannon, and he decided to use it, hoping that this time, after all the other hits it had taken, that it might bring this thing down. He ripped the weapon off his back, and got down on one knee as it began to bring the flamethrower around to encompass the whole area. He lined up, and then he squeezed the trigger, causing the anti-armor weapon to kick and spit out a massive bolt of green energy. The machine heard it apparently, and turned just in time to get the bolt in the chest.
Unfortunately for Cody, all the blast did was rock the thing backwards a little bit.
"You know," he exclaimed as the thing fired another plasma cannon round right over his head, "with all that's gone wrong today, I would appreciate it if I could get cut a little bit of slack!"
Apparently, some deity up above must have heard his complaints, as he suddenly remembered the sonic grenades that he'd been given. Knowing that he had precious little left to lose, the gray armored soldier reached into the bandolier of grenades that he was carrying, and drew one of them out. He primed it as the thing kept searching for him, and hurled it with all of the strength he could muster. The thing hit right between the Death Bot's feet, and it exploded, sending the high powered sound waves roaring outwards.
The result was surprising, as metal crumpled and circuitry exploded, depriving the mechanized trooper of everything it had below the waist. However, being a machine, and therefore operating along a one track mind, it propped itself up on one arm, and lowered a massive, tri barreled energy cannon that it had on its back. Cody saw the weapon's barrels begin to glow, and realized that if he didn't do something, the future was going to be short, and rather bleak.
Hastily he reached for another grenade, and threw it at the walking death engine. This time, luck was on his side, and the thing was reduced to scrap.
As the pieces of the machina construct bounced and clattered around him, the Revenant felt himself overcome with relief, and couldn't help laughing out loud like a complete maniac.
Still, he was quick to realize he had to get to the evac point if he didn't want to be stuck in this place.
"Fall back, fall back!" Toshiro yelled into his boom-mike, firing his rifle and blowing a Hawk out of the sky at the same time.
A tank rumbled past him, and his men continued to rush blindly for the safety of the Residential Sectors, about a quarter mile behind him. Things were rapidly falling apart, and if the screams that continued to echo over his speakers were any indication, his soldier's were dropping like flies.
Whatever these new Death Bots were, it was apparent that the elves had drastically underestimated the droid army's combat potential.
The black armored general growled under his breath, firing off the last couple of rounds from his sniper rifle, before casting it aside and drawing his side arm.
He went to call out more orders to try and get a head count on who was still alive and breathing, which a high pitched whining split the air. He and a few others looked up and saw one of the new command and control robots come out of an overdrive boost and land not fifty feet away from them. In a flash, grenades were primed and a torrent of blaster fire streaked towards the mechanical monstrosity, hitting it. The bolts did little good, bouncing off of the armor, while the exploding grenades seemed to do little more than irritate it, if that.
It leveled the pulse cannon on its shoulder, and fired three times in rapid succession. Screams echoed throughout the sector a moment later as a trio of closely grouped troopers dropped, the energy rounds having torn all the way through their armor.
The machina warrior turned to face the general next, and one of the pentagon shaped missile launchers on the sides of its upper arms opened up, firing two shots at the group he was in.
An orange and yellow explosion lit up the block, its roar drowning out the screams of the elves caught in the blast. Those watching saw Toshiro, his face a mask of defiance as he continued to fire his weapon, outlined for a fraction of a second, before the fireball consumed him.
Cries of fear and rage intermingled with each other in the seconds that followed. Some Freedom League soldiers threw aside any semblance of discipline, and bolted. Others stayed, fighting a doomed battle with the machine, which as if things weren't bad enough, was joined a moment or two later by several of its comrades, who fell upon them like ravenous wolves.
Back in the war room, Ashelin's jaw dropped as she saw the general's black box screen go to wintry static, crackling all the while.
A good soldier had died, but there was no time to mourn for him. The army would have to be regrouped, and fast, or else others would suffer Toshiro's fate.
A Metal Head Grunt leapt at him, its fangs bared and its mouth open in a snarl, only to receive a spear tip through it a second later.
Brutter let out a war cry of his own, letting the Hora-quan that were trying to bring him down know that he wasn't dying without a fight. Indeed, the Lurker captain had already slain more than twenty of the beasts, but as was the usual case, for everyone he struck down, it seemed as though ten more arrived to take its place.
And his situation wasn't looking too hot by anyone's standards. He was cut off from the rest of the troopers, his own command group lying in pools of their own blood closer to the heart of the West Side.
Fire came skipping in as a Crab Head lined him up in its sights, its twin blasters coming perilously close to hitting him. As it was, he back flipped out of the way, and brought his own ranged weapon to bear upon his would be slayer, a specially designed wrist mounted sub machinegun that Keira had designed for him. Quickly slinging his spear into its holder on his back, he cocked his left fist down, before using his right to press the button which served as the firing mechanism.
A burst of Eco bolts sailed out of the barrel, glowing blue and slamming into the commander type. It growled, slightly fazed by the attack, but fine aside from that. However, what the creature had no way of knowing was that its opponents new toy was based off of the same design that Keira had used for the magnum, so when a soccer ball sized shot came from it a second later, its eyes bulged out, right before the blast slammed into its face and removed them, along with most of the rest of that particular region of its body. Its legs quivered and its corpse slumped to the ground, reflexively grabbing at a face that was no longer there.
However, the Lurker had little time to rejoice, for the accursed thing had comrades that came surging around a corner a moment later. It was now time for his large, golden eyes to bulge out, as he saw the vastness of their numbers. There were scores of them, no, hundreds of them. Growling, determined to die a warrior in the tradition of his forefathers, the Lurker leveled his blaster, and awaited the charge.
However, it was not forthcoming.
The Hora-quan merely stood there, watching him, snarling quietly amongst themselves. He shifted about, wondering what could be up, as he had never before seen the beings hesitate to rip apart something that they knew they could.
Most unfortunately for him, the answer came stomping around the corner a moment or two later.
Brutter actually felt the thing before he saw it, the subtle vibration in the ground. When he finally did lay eyes upon it, it was all he could do to resist the urge to gulp. It was a kind of Hora-quan that he had never seen before, and he realized instantly that this thing was in charge of the Metal Head forces simply by the way it carried itself, and by the way that even the Crab Heads made haste to get out of its way.
Standing close to fifteen feet tall, and walking upon four legs, the centaur like beast eyed him with pitiless black eyes, eyes that carried enough power within them to make fear gnaw at the Lurker's guts and his feet feel like they had adhered to the dura-crete.
The creature crossed its purplish arms, pushing them against the breastplate that covered its chest. After a couple of moments of sizing up the competition, it let out a sound that appeared to be a twisted combination of mocking laughter and a scorn filled snort. Without hesitating a moment, the large Metal Head reached down to a belt like bit of material that ran around where its humanoid torso connected with the more bestial one. It was only then that Brutter took note of what must have been its weapon, which was some sort of strange scythe/morning star with the two ends connected to each other by a heavy chain that was about seven or eight feet in length.
With an evil grin that bared its fangs, the thing charged at him, the rod part of the morning star gripped in its right hand while it twirled the scythe part around above its head.
The creature moved fast for a beast of its size, and was upon him before he was ready. The Lurker captain barely managed to dodge out of the way as a vicious upswing nearly cut him in half vertically. However, as he landed, and rolled to where he could see the fiend, he found himself having to once again make haste to vacate the current area he occupied, as the creature, in the half second that his back had been turned to it, had reversed its grip upon its weapon, and covered the distance between them. Now, it was brining the morning star portion of the weapon down at his head at a nightmarish speed.
He leaped to one side again, and heard a sickening crunch from where he had been a moment ago. As he looked back over, he saw the morning star embedded in the ground, and cracks spider webbing outward from the point of impact for about a good six or so feet in every direction.
Quickly yanking back on the chain, the massive Hora-quan pulled the weapon free, and charged Brutter again, the scythe once again hissing as its owner tried to spill his blood upon the ground.
With a building now behind him, Brutter did the most instinctive, and potentially suicidal thing he could do. He leapt straight forward between the legs of the beast, and he heard the sharp grinding sound as the titanium-A and dura-crete that made up the building get split in twain by the attack. Unfortunately, what the Lurker had underestimated was the creature's ability to control its own feet, and the next thing he felt was blinding pain across his chest as it was raked by the talons of the right rear leg. This also tossed him out from under the thing, putting him in the perfect position to be smacked by its tail.
He felt his ribs shatter as he went sailing across the street, where he slammed into a building with enough force that it's a wonder he didn't leave an impression of himself in the side of it. With a groan, Brutter slid to the ground, oblivion taking him.
Ironically enough, that would save his life.
Looking back over its shoulder, the large Metal Head snorted, eyeing the broken body of the purple furred captain. It then called out a command in its native tongue, telling its inferiors to keep up with it as it went to slaughter more enemies.
With that, the group started out again, eager to rip into their enemies.
"What are you waiting for, get out of there now!" Ashelin screamed into her mike.
"We can't, they've got the whole battalion pinned down!" Torn shouted back at her while he fired his shredder into the midst of a Metal Head group.
The situation was crumbling around her, despite her best attempts to hold everything together. The evacuation drop ships had finally gotten into position to try and get the troops out of the SNAFU that they were in had run into a problem. In the Industrial Sector hidden anti aircraft batteries had opened up upon the rescue craft, ripping off the tops of the roofs that they'd been concealed under before they began swatting the ships down like flies.
It had been much the same in the West Side, where the Guardians had finally showed up, raining Dark Eco down upon drop ship and elf alike, slaughtering everything they could.
And both of those areas ringed the Harbor Sector, meaning that Torn, Keira, Jinx, Tess, and everyone else were effectively cut off and on their own.
Reports streamed in, and she looked up at the grid maps on the main command screen, which showed that most of the troops, with the exception of those in the Harbor, were on their way back to the residential sectors, though they were losing soldiers every second.
It happened about five minutes later, just as another wave of drop ships and Hellcats were being moved into position to try to reach the men and women who were trapped within the deeper portions of the enemy infested sectors.
"What the hell?" one of the technicians exclaimed suddenly, his fingers running over the keyboard in a furious manner.
"What's going on?" The Governess of Haven City asked in a broken voice, wondering what else could be going wrong.
"The system's charging the sector barriers," the elf growled, still typing away, "and they'll be in Lockdown in less than a minute!"
"Who gave the command?" Ashelin inquired, her voice frantic, knowing that the remaining troopers would be stranded against hopeless odds if that were to happen.
"I don't know!" the techie snarled in frustration. "Someone's overriding the system!"
"Can you stop it?" she asked, her eyes wide and her breathing heavy.
"No ma'am." the other elf groaned with a shake of his head.
They all watched, utterly helpless, as the barriers shot up less than sixty seconds later, reaching from the sector entrances all the way up to the top of the Shield Wall. Designed to withstand prolonged bombardment of almost any known weapon, they effectively made it impossible for anything to get in and out for the time being.
"Torn…" she whispered quietly, knowing what his fate, and that of everyone else now trapped in those sectors, would likely be.
Still, she had to be strong, and she would not allow her emotion to show itself here. Instead, she continued calling out orders and trying to get a headcount on those who had come back alive. She also took the time to throw a scathing look at Veger and the other Councilors who had thought up this disastrous plan.
However, much as she was tempted to draw her guns and shoot them all dead on the spot, she didn't. There were more important things that needed to be done.
Samos, standing next to her, had a faint shimmer to his eyes as he looked upon the screens. His thoughts were upon his daughter, knowing that she was trapped out there in that mess. The aging Green Eco Sage sent a silent plea to whoever might have been listening that she would alright, as he couldn't bear the thought of losing her now, after all that had already happened, after all that she had already been through.
"Jak," he muttered to where only he could hear, "where are you?"
He looked up and saw that Veger and the other councilors were glaring at him, no doubt having over heard the remark that he had made.
"Watch your words, old man," one of them hissed, "it is not wise to call upon devils to save us."
The response that the councilor received was a glare that could have sent fear through the egoless mind of a Death Bot, and the man took an involuntary step backwards as the diminutive Sage moved closer to the group.
"You had better pray that my daughter doesn't get killed because of your actions here today!" He snarled, his breaths coming in heavy pants. "Because if she has, you had best hope that 'devil' gets to you before I can!"
"And why is that?" Count Veger inquired, looking down his nose at Samos.
"Because Kage might give you the mercy of a quick death, if more than a little messy." He shot back in a voice that might have frozen fire. "I won't be that sympathetic!"
With that he stalked off, and where he was heading was anyone's guess.
Keira dove to the side, her morph gun spitting a stream of Eco bolts at a Grunt that had made the mistake of drawing her attention. Two hit its head, while the rest tore though its head, turning it into a mess its own mother, if it had had one, would have had trouble recognizing. To her right, Tess let out a scream as she opened up as well, cutting down a pair of Drones with burst shots to their craniums. The two of them then hauled tail and leapt into an alley way as Roller Bots came in, unfurling and letting fly with their arm mounted blasters.
Tess panted, and the barrel of her morph gun was smoking as she attempted to slap another round of assault rifle ammo into it. Keira however, simply holstered her gun, and drew the other one that she had strapped across her back. She'd brought that particular weapon along in the event of being swarmed by robotic assailants, and now it looked as if that bit of foresight was going to pay off in a big way. The gun itself was about mid way between the size of an assault rifle and a sub machinegun, solid black, and had a scope that would allow for a one and a half time magnification in the event that she needed a more precise shot. The aqua haired elf gripped it close, one hand upon the barrel grip, the other on the trigger stock, and peeked around the corner.
She was forced to pull her head back almost instantly as a torrent of blaster fire took the edge of it off, but she had found out what she needed to know. There were about five of them out there, which suited her just find. Though this was a battle, her technical side was elated to finally have a chance to field test this new toy.
Keira held down the trigger, and Tess watched, her amazed expression hidden by her visor, as blue energy seemed to gather at the end of the barrel, humming and pulsing. As for the aqua haired elf holding the weapon, she turned her eyes down to a raised portion that was just behind the scope, and watched as a digitized circular gauge began to fill up, turning from yellow to red as charged. The whole process took about two and a half seconds, and then she was ready.
The newly christened Revenant spun out from behind her cover, leveling the strange gun at the nearest Roller, which was attempting to line her up in its own crosshairs. She released her grip on the trigger, and a blast of crisscrossing, blue-white lightning bolts shot out of the barrel, nailing the droid dead center and effectively scrambling its circuits. However, even as the droids central processors overloaded and shut down, while the chassis itself shorted out and blew apart, the electrical surge leapt another pair of Death Bots, sentencing them to the same fate as their comrade.
Even then, the blast continued, nailing the final two a tenth of a second later, and they fell in a heap, their motherboards the dictionary definition of 'well done.'
Tess stuck her head around the corner, whistling slightly at the handiwork that she had just watched her friend unleash, and realizing that if they ever got out of this catastrophe, that they were going to have to make producing more of that gun, whatever it was, priority number one.
Keira smiled to herself, glad that her arc caster, as she had dubbed it, functioned as she had hoped it would. The gun operated by using a power cell charged full to the brim with pure electrical energy, rather than Eco, which was unleashed when the trigger was pulled in a manner that made it look like a glorified stun gun. However, while that was just about all it did to organic targets, aside form leaving them with some rather nasty burns, it was a combat droid's worst nightmare, overloading and scrambling vital circuits. She'd also discovered that when put into overcharge mode that the blast was so great that it could jump from target to target, making it theoretically capable of laying waste to whole squadrons of enemies.
However, such a shot used three times the normal drain, and the power pack only had enough charge for about fifteen shots in the first place, meaning that she had to carry a bandolier full of clips just to keep it running. Not to mention it had a maximum effective range of about seventy five feet. However, in urban combat such as this, range was rarely an issue.
Besides, that bug could eventually be tweaked out of it, for now, the Death Bots were about to learn the full potential of a woman's wrath.
"Torn," she called out over her comm. as she scanned about for any other potential targets, "where are you and Jinx?"
For a few seconds, naught but static met her query. However, much to her relief, the tattooed wonder managed to get a message through a moment later.
"…Pinned down by the Naughty Ottsel." was his growled reply, interrupted by a command a second later. "Concentrate fire on that Crab Head!" he shouted, and a barrage of blaster fire echoed over the comm. link for a time, coming to an end only after what could only be a Hora-quan death wail split the air. "I don't know where Jinx is, but he's probably not to far from Mog and Grim, wherever those two are."
"Roger that." Keira responded, before activating the macro-binoculars set into her helmet.
She was then quickly able to locate the bar that Daxter owned, and motioning for Tess to follow, shouldered her arc caster and began to double time it towards the establishment.
Though the Lockdown had cut them off from any potential reinforcements, the same applied to their enemies, but the Death Bots and the Metal Heads alike already had a rather sizeable force in the area, outnumbering them every bit of five to one. This left the elves chances of survival to depend solely upon their ability to out think and out gun their opponents.
Both girls were quick too prove themselves capable of doing just that.
A combination of Metal Head Grunts and Death Bot Hawks crested a mound of rubble to their left, and both Revenants rolled as blaster fire rained down at them. Coming out of the evasive maneuvers, they snapped into action. Keira let fly another overcharge shot which nailed the lead Hawk right between its photoreceptors, causing a number of critical systems failures within the crimson armored drone that caused it to explode even while the blast was surging around to its comrades and their ground bound allies. The droids were puffs of flame, smoke, and shrapnel a few seconds later, some detonating so close to their organic buddies that their hull fragments skewered them, something which Keira was quick to realize could come in handy later on.
As for the remaining ones, while not slain by the electrical charge, it did stun them for a few moments, which was more than enough time for her blond haired sister in arms to line the freaks up with her crosshairs, and bore trios of holes into their heads with her assault rifle.
The two of them passed the last one as it fell to the ground and rolled down the war made hill, twitching out its life. As they crested it, they took notice of a group of infantry regulars who were being pinned down by a Crab Head and another group of centurions. Keira, ever the observant one, noticed that the Metal Heads were bunched up, making them an easy target for an area of effect weapon. However, rather than using her RPG launcher, as it only had about six shots left, which she wanted to conserve, she holstered her arc caster, and angling her right fist in a certain manner, fired off her grappling hook.
The four hundred foot long cable shot out of the gauntlet, and sank into a warehouse wall that went right over the Metal Heads. She pulled her fist back slightly, triggering the reeling mechanism in the device, and the next thing that she knew she was sailing over the battlefield.
The aqua haired elf drew close to her target, and with a cold efficiency, reached down into her belt, drew one of her sonic grenades, and primed it. She waited another second, until she was just in front of the group of Hora-quan, who were still exchanging shots with the infantry men, oblivious to their impending doom, and released the explosive. Her own momentum caused the weapon to fly forward for a bit, before it hit almost at the exact center of the group. They paused, and looking about, were able to notice the beeping device just in time for an 'oh drek' line of thought to creep through their minds. The sonic grenade exploded a second later, reducing every member of the Hora-quan squadron to something that would likely need to be cleaned up with a mop or a dust buster.
She placed her feet out in front of her as the wall drew closer, and hit with a grunt, letting her legs absorb the impact. With practiced ease, she dislodged the grappling hook, and landed, turning to face the blue armored Freedom Guard members, who were slack jawed at what they had just witnessed.
"Come on!" She cried to them, motioning for them to fall in behind her as Tess caught up with her.
The dozen or so soldiers gave out a chorus of 'Yes Ma'ams!' and quickly fell into line behind the aqua haired elf, who shouldered her arc caster again and took point, Tess by her side with her morph gun constantly searching about, looking for the slightest hint of enemy movement.
They were not long in encountering more resistance as another group of Metal Heads showed up, a quartet of Grunts led by a pair of Centurions. However, outnumbered more than two to one by the elves, the fight was over in seconds, the infantry regulars quickly dropping the Grunts by overlapping their fire, some tapping the heads, others the hearts, while Tess hurled a plasmite grenade at the shield carrying leaders. The fiery explosive hissed at their feet for a second, and their avian eyes widened as they attempted to throw themselves out of the way. However, they reacted too late, and the ensuing blast utterly consumed them, the explosion drowning out their death screeches.
A cheer went up amongst the elves, their hearts gladdening as they pressed forward, knowing that they were striking down their enemies, that even though they were cut off from command and reinforcements, that if they died, they would go down fighting and trying to take as many of their hellish foes down with them as was possible.
It did not take long for Keira and the others to arrive at the Naughty Ottsel, and quite a shock awaited them when they arrived.
A Scorpion was there, its secondary machineguns blazing away at a charging group of clankers, joined a moment later by the main cannon, which sent a crimson blast of energy screaming into the center of an enemy formation, where it detonated and filled their air with charbroiled silicon chips and flying pieces of metal.
Next to it was a downed light assault vehicle, which the mechanic within Keira's mind instantly realized was damaged beyond any hope of repair. However, the LAAG gun upon the back of it still apparently worked, if the fact that Torn was strapped into it, blazing away at the mechanized enemy was any indication.
Keira, not wishing to be left out of a perfectly good fight, slapped a fresh pack into the arc caster and began charging it up, preparing to unleash its fury upon the constructs, all the while charging forward. She threw herself flat on the ground to avoid several energy bolts that flew her direction, and timed her fire with her scraping along the dura-crete. The bolts of electricity leapt from the gun, turning six of the Death Bots into things meant only for the recycling bin.
"Glad you could make it!" she heard Torn growl over their comm. channel, as he stopped firing for a couple of seconds to let the M-41 cool.
Keira was about to make a reply, when she noticed that Metal Heads were starting to join the fray. However, she felt elated when a loud booming sound split the air moments later, followed swiftly by a massive blast of energy that exploded in their midst.
She looked over to see where the shot had come from, zooming in with her macro-binoculars, and had to resist the urge to whoop when she saw Jinx leading a rather large group of soldiers in their direction, with another Scorpion in their midst. A pair of light attack vehicles were flanking the large M808, their gunners ready and waiting for their LAAG's to get into firing range.
It would appear as though Daxter's establishment had become the official rallying point of the beleaguered elven forces.
With the thought of maybe living to fight another day driving her onwards, the aqua haired elf lined her charged arc caster up with another group of Death Bots, and released another blast of electricity at them. Another six fell, now nothing more than piles of miscellaneous metal bits and slagged circuitry.
Shortly thereafter, Jinx and his group arrived, adding hundreds of ground troopers to the mix, a couple of infantry vulcans courtesy of Mog and some other soldiers, the light assault craft, and the Scorpion.
The battle wasn't easy, but regrouped and dug in as they were, Hora-quan and Death Bot alike quickly learned that backed into a corner and fighting for their lives, elves made extremely deadly adversaries, particularly when they had heavy weapons at their disposal.
Every minute of the conflict was hellish, but eventually, the Freedom Guard emerged triumphant from the fray, and the elves, although battered and battle weary, could proudly attest that if nothing else, they had succeeded in their mission.
Now they just had to survive long enough for command to come bail them out.
Benton leaned against the inside of the abandoned warehouse, looking out over the remnants of his platoon…which came to a grand total of three if he included himself.
"Keith, Ariel, you two alright?" he asked as he held his nearly empty weapon close.
"I've had better days." Ariel responded, shaking her head mournfully.
Keith, his blue armor stained red across the front, remained silent, rocking back and forth and whimpering slightly. The other two could hardly blame him, considering all that had happened.
Abruptly, they heard a clattering sound, and the three of them looked about, a sinking feeling that they had been found out entering into their hearts, and all three suddenly swallowed to try and moisten their dry throats. The sergeant motioned for the other two to hold back and let him check it out, and he stepped forward, moving his gun around in a slow, systematic method, trying to discern what had made the racket.
He scanned about, letting his eyes focus on what seemed out of place, knowing that could mean the difference between life and death.
He was about to lower his gun, having seen nothing but old storage crates and the like, when something abruptly caught his eye.
A portion of one of the crates seemed almost distorted.
He leveled his blaster rifle and was about to fire when a very much elven voice broke came from the blur.
"At ease, soldier." the thing said.
A moment later, the active camouflage faded, and the three of them saw Lieutenant Cody Balic phase into view.
"Name and rank?" the Revenant inquired, stepped forward.
"Sergeant Benton Davis, Sir." The blue armored warrior replied in a weary manner.
"I remember you." Cody said, a faraway tone to his accented voice. "You were one of the soldiers in the construction exo-skeletons during the Metal Head assault."
"Yes sir." Benton responded, recalling that battle all too well, but trying to keep his mind on the present. "What are your orders?"
"I know we're not alone out here," the special forces soldier replied, popping the seal on his helmet, baring his tattooed visage and shaking his red/blue hair slightly as he breathed unfiltered air, "so we're going to head out and try to find any other survivors. This warehouse is pretty far out of the clankers' usual area of operations, so we might even be able to use it as something of a home base until we can get support to us." He chuckled in a tired manner. "Who knows, some of these crates might even have food and drinkable water in them."
Maybe it was the presence of one of the elite soldiers, or maybe it was something else altogether, but Benton began to feel that maybe, just maybe, they might get out of this mess in one piece.
The construct sighed to itself. It hated having to initiate a Lockdown, knowing full well that anyone who was still left inside would be left to a fate unknown at best.
However, in its calculating mind, it beat the alternative of having the Metal Heads and the Death Bots swarm into the heart of the Residential Sectors and slaughter everyone.
Still, it thought, as it brought up the visual displays of one of the Hawks that it had been able to sneak in and reprogram while it was being constructed, if it found a chance to help these stranded elves, it would do so. Nonetheless, it would have to be discrete, as it was currently confined to this area, and with its matrix core being in the heart of the power plant, very, very vulnerable. It could not afford to draw too much attention to itself, and thereby have them zero in on its location and destroy it.
Brutter groaned, floating in and out of consciousness. The last thing that he remembered was flying through the air, and a distinct feeling that he had been about to meet his ancestors.
However, if he was dead, then why was he still feeling pain?
A shape moved off to his right, blue against the darkness, and his sensitive ears could occasionally pick up the sound of conversation.
"…miracle he's alive…"
"…manage to get him stable…praise the Precursor's for field med kits…"
"…hold out here…keep fighting…"
So, some elves had found him and were now sheltering him. Well, at least it hadn't been the Metal Heads, so he counted his blessings.
Thankfully, it wasn't long before someone apparently noticed him groaning and moving about, and quickly tried to ease his pain. The Lurker felt a sharp jab, before all faded back to darkness.
Far away, in a hovering production facility, another artificial intelligence construct was reviewing the data that it had received for the battle.
Thus far, the new prototype units that had been tested in the Industrial Sector were proving to be vastly superior to the current models, and it would need to get the production facilities for them up and running as soon as was possible.
Still, they did have shortcomings, such as that one enemy unit that had cloaked itself and thereby rendered itself invisible to their methods of sight. The newer units would have to be equipped with heat sensors as well as normal light vision. It took all of a nanosecond to chalk that modification up, while it turned its thoughts to another thing that was puzzling it.
The Lockdown had been somewhat unexpected, and it somehow knew that the elves had not been responsible for it. There was a third party somewhere, and it was apparently trying to thwart it and those that it served.
This third party would have to be dealt with as well, and it would see the task through. Also, if its hunch about the party being another construct was correct, it vowed that it would delete the thing one code at a time when it found it.
&
Okay, that's a wrap for now.
To answer a few questions, the arc caster Keira is using is a Dark Trooper weapon from Star Wars: Battlefront II, and shall replace the arc wielder, as the caster is a considerably better precision weapon.
Also, I realize that Errol went and proved it is possible to survive being blown up and having nothing more than half of your face left and still survive, but let me tell you all here and now that Toshiro is dead, deceased, fertilizing daisies, however you care to say it. Also, those of you who have seen my e-mail address may be wondering something and the answer to that question is yes, I just self inserted and immediately killed myself. What possessed me to do that, I know not, though perhaps it was giving the copious amounts of OCs that I have killed off a bit of vengeance.
Finally, yes, the Metal Head that Brutter encountered was the same one from Keira's dream. He is a lieutenant type Hora-quan, and like Kor, has a disturbingly long lifespan.
Those questions answered, please let me know what you thought of this chapter, be it in the form of a review, a constructive criticism, or a flame. Also, please let me know of any ideas that you might have or things of that nature.
Thanks again people, and have a nice day.