Author's note: It's been some time since my last update. I won't keep you long, so without further ado I give you Chapter 20…
Chapter 20
When in Orasiuex
The highway soon led them around the foothills of the mountains until it spilled into a humongous valley that was unbelievably flat. And in the midst of the valley, in large heaps of concrete and metal, was a city. Though it was majorly damaged, the city was magnificent. The city was organized by grounds, huge structures resembling platforms that used the towering skyscrapers as their pillars, the buildings were reinforced to the point they didn't serve their original purpose. The grounds altogether, made the city look like a man-made mountain, with each ground being successively smaller and rising higher into the sky.
Gavin pointed out that ground three, the highest layer was devoid of any crime and social problems, and it's very center was Ryloth Industries central building, the tallest structure throughout the city, for it extended from the ground and through each level and then, for another thousand feet, into the air above the third ground.
"Ground two and one are where the common people live. They were the first grounds built and have both been expanded to the point where most of the original city is in complete darkness." Informed Gavin, "Ground two is quite better than ground one, but they are both strictly regulated by federal law and are highly secure."
The city had constant pillars of smoke that billowed from various points along each ground, especially Ground Three where, from Adam's vantage point, they could see jets of different sizes, most ranging from hundreds of yards long, flying from spot to spot while other jets blew up in a streaming shower of sparks and smoke.
"It seems the aliens are still attacking our city." Said Gavin, pointing to the activity accommodating above Orasiuex, "It also seems the army that we are following are heading there to help."
Adam instinctively grabbed the hilt of his sword, looking at the battle before him only made him wish he were back in Xeon. "Then…I guess we should help."
Gavin nodded then they sprinted down the highway in order to catch up with his comrades. The run took half an hour, most of which they spent resting or walking. But they eventually caught up with the others.
All the soldiers were wearing suits different than Gavin's, and when asked he replied with, "I fly the twin pod jets, so not much armor is needed. My suit is made for more flexible reasons."
Adam nodded. The men were eager to fight by the way they shifted impatiently as captains issued orders and others prepared the vehicles for the fight. The heavily armored tanks or so Gavin had called them, resided at the borders of the army, while transport jets landed and loaded up on the vehicles and soldiers.
Gavin seemed confused as he walked around the camp, searching for the commander of the army. He didn't supply Adam his name, so the figure remained a mystery. Gavin stopped several men and asked for the commander's whereabouts, which they answered with directions and recent sightings of where they suspected him to be.
A hollow boom echoed across the field from the front of the army. Several alien jets streaked across the sky. The high altitude vehicles' twin armored pods were connected by a boom that mounts a miniature, open, air-cooled engine. Gunners were armed with a linked pair of blaster cannons that were implanted within the twin-pod. As they passed, green smoke fell from the jets and flowed through the mass of soldiers.
"Apply your gas masks, their spraying poison!" Shouted a young man's voice. As a response the soldiers ducked down and pulled out small masks with which they attached to their faces.
As the Twin-pod flew overhead, a soft green mist billowed over the army. Hundreds of men dropped dead immediately as the gas snaked through their ranks. Gavin applied his mask and handed Adam one. The gas reached him just as his mask activated.
Several teams of soldiers wearing imposing white armor and gas masks approached. Their suits provided a wide range of survival equipment and temperature controls that allow the soldiers to survive in the roughest conditions, each wielded standard-issue blaster riffles. Another man led them, but he wore a suit that stood out against the curtain of white, for his exo-skeleton was black. The suit was combines both advance survival gear and the ability to absorb energy discharges with a personal cloaking device. He seemed to be the leader of the whole operation.
"Gavin!" The man called out, "Your with the first group of fighters, head out."
"I know, I know. But I had to bring him here," Gavin replied, motioning to Adam. "He could really help."
"That's nice I'll have to hear about it later, I'm leading another assault group in the transport jets, we're to be directly dropped off on Ground Three." The man said, pressing the mask to his face.
Gavin reached out as if to stop the man, but him and his soldiers ran off towards the landing area. "Well, I guess we are going to take the Troop Carriers."
Adam didn't argue, instead he followed Gavin through the tangle of soldiers as they ran around carrying out orders and preparing for battle. Their march was hindered by impelling tanks and trucks transferring soldiers to various locations. The travel was tiresome, added with their journey on the highway, which was going to be traveled again as Gavin had said.
Adam received curious and often weird glances from the exo-skeleton clad men. Both his armor and sword was what caused the distraction, or his wild looks. I'm too good looking for them. Adam told himself, smiling slyly. The sight of this new world and its inhabitants caused Adam to believe that his time period was insignificant compared to this one.
"There are the Troop Carriers." Gavin said, pointing up ahead where a clump of vehicles, large, hefty and heavily armored, were parked along the base of another highway, which was obscured by the shadow of the mountain it ran alongside. Adam also noticed that the highway was glowing with a light of its own.
When he asked Gavin replied with, "You never stop asking questions, but the highways are self-illuminating, roads that glow in the dark. When they were first made, they dramatically changed the nighttime aesthetics of major cities and were shown to improve driving safety at night and reduced the need for streetlights."
Adam stored the information in his mind; glowing roads would prove useful back in Xeon, with a little help from magic of course.
Gavin instructed Adam to board the vehicle that was preparing to cast off. So he walked aboard and sat on the benches of the passenger cabin, each section of the pew was utilized by a soldier in dazzling white armor that glinted with the reflections of the vehicles lights, now activated by the shadow of the mountain in juxtaposition with the highway. The adumbration made it resemble the likeness of obscurity. What Adam was used to, though, was the idiosyncratic feel that the shadow offered; masking the valley with night while the sky was bright blue with a blazing ball of fire floating in its midst.
Gavin joined Adam, but stood, holding onto the railing that lined the roof, and inspected his gun. Adam scanned the other soldiers as they too loaded their guns and outfitted their uniforms with weapons of all sorts. One soldier in particular grabbed his attention for it was larger, more bulky and had several mounted guns atop his shoulders that overlapped his back. Small firearms were attached to his wrists and along a mechanical belt were grenades.
Adam was aware that his metallic defense was only an insignificant shield compared to the soldier's. He became embarrassed about being the only one with medieval chain mail and metal plates for protection. He pulled his Saturday-night-special from its sheath like case and looked it over, using the knowledge that Gavin provided, he cocked the gun and then placed it back into its holster. He then looked up at Gavin who was holding a quite large gun with a short barrel.
"What's that?" He asked him, motioning to the weapon with his chin. Gavin held it up in validation then said, "This is an alien weapon we took from one of their transport jets loaded with arbalest. See when we fought the aliens, we found that their technology far exceeded ours. So any highly advanced weaponry we have comes from the foreign beings. Even most of our vehicles are from them."
Adam shrugged with mystifying emotions, "But what is it?"
Gavin laughed with bashfulness, "Oh, my bad. This is an EMP shotgun. But that is what we call it because it shoots an electromagnetic pulse that contains enough energy to destroy anything and everything electronic. Think of it as an extremely powerful lightning bolt. And when I say destroyed, I mean burned out to the point that it is not repairable. The gun is powered by a fusion reaction that produces mostly neutrons, and has a very little radioactive debris burst, the concept of a 'clean' electromagnetic weapon resulted in a weapon that has a less fissionable tamper, and therefore less radioactive fallout.
"The EMP burst that this shotgun emits lasts only a nanosecond!" He said with inspiration, "It radiates at fifty kilometers a minute at the speed of light. At such a speed, it could happen in the blink of an eye and might not be immediately associated with any type of explosion or blast. It is possible to shield electronic equipment from EMP radiation, but it is extremely difficult. The aliens didn't expect us to wield such weaponry so their devices were never shielded from EMPs. Ours, however, were, due to extensive warfare our military has experienced with those around the world. Giving us a sort of advantage.
"So when they came and we began stealing their weapons, their ships and armored vehicles have been easily defeated." Gavin finished his presentation.
Adam noted that next time he wouldn't ask for the whole history behind the weapons, or anything that may cause an explanation. They road in silence up and down the highways, slowly making their way to the grand, mountainous city that lumbered in the distance, a curtain of fog veiling the metropolitan behind its blurry sheen.
But what broke the inarticulate was the piercing, hallow thuds of gunfire. The sounds seemed stretched and had a soft echo to them as if they had traveled for some time. But already soldiers were dismounting the transports and now sped down the highways towards the fight.
Gavin instructed Adam to follow likewise. As he stepped out of the truck and onto the road, several beams flew through the air, forcing Gavin to duck behind the truck.
"Get down!"
Adam, as always, ignored the commands from Gavin and stepped out from his cover and shouted, "Skolir!"
The beams of energy bounced off Adam's invisible wards harmlessly, some flew into the air and some streaked into the road or the sides of the armored vehicle. Gavin could only gape in wonder, and taking the advantage, he stepped behind Adam and opened fire to the aliens down the road. He was now holding a small handheld that shot metal bullets instead of the beams that aliens shot.
Adam took out his gun and also opened fire, the unexpected recoil startled him, his hands flying back and nearly pounding his face if it weren't for his fast reflects. The next shot he was ready and found that the drawback was easily diverted. As he opened fire, he noticed the bulky soldier didn't even bother to get behind cover, and instead stood directly in the range of fire while his shoulder turrets fire away at the aliens hiding behind pillars of the overhanging highway.
Adam's energy never seemed to waver as more and more beams were deflected from his wards. But while he loaded his gun he saw Gavin step out from behind him and kept firing, exposing himself to the enemy's fire. But he then made the idiotic decision of reloading without cover and several beams slashed towards him.
"Letta!" Adam shouted, the beams stopped in midair and stayed there, frozen in place by the magic that he then emitted. The spell drained a significant amount of energy from him because there were at least fifty bolts that had stopped suddenly. Adam soon realized that the beams were giving off energy. He got an idea and expanded his mind to the frozen beams and felt a massive pool of energy within each bolt then, as if he were to take energy from a plant, he soaked the beams into himself.
The beams appeared to be sucked in Adam's direction, and when they made contact with is body they seemed to soak into his skin. He felt power run through his veins and he began to glow, Gavin gave a worried look and stepped aside. Adam was lost in amazement, the energy gave him an air of power that he put into a single spell.
"Jierda!"
A powerful surge of energy burst forth, filling the highway with a wind that rushed past so strong it nearly knocked over the transport vehicles and toppled the soldiers standing in the open. But he directed his word towards the aliens, and a transparent version of himself tore itself from his body with agonizing slowness. But when it was completely off it disgorged forward and smashed into the alien advance with so much force that their bones shattered into powder and their bodies flew about a mile away from Adam. His skin was still glowing with power and he didn't even feel a small amount tired.
"Adam…I" Other than that Gavin was speechless, instead of speaking he stared with awe.
The other soldiers farther down the road looked, in complete shock, at their surroundings as if expecting some new weapon to be revealed. Unexpectedly a revelation hit him.
If I can drain the power from the aliens' weapons, He thought, then I am literally invincible.
"Don't relish your victory, for there are more aliens ahead of us." Said Gavin, looking in the distance where a great number of aliens approached. Their jets slowly hovering above the ground, forming a barrier between Adam and Orasiuex.