A hail of laser fire streaked passed me, causing a nearby wall to light up from the heat. Seeing the damage made me wonder just how much cover the metal pillar I was hiding behind really provided me. Additionally, another question plagued my mind, one that was far more pressing than my cover issue.
WHY DID I AGREE TO COME HERE IN PERSON? HOW DID THE GENETIC HEROES CONVINCE ME TO DO THIS?!
Well, no use crying over spilt milk. For now, it was best if I just focused on surviving. Though, I did wonder what was happening to heroes and the XCOM team I'd entered this ship with. I assumed they were under attack, but they were probably handling things better than me, what with having actual combat experience and training.
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Zrin rammed his burning fist into the beetle, causing it to explode. The grisly charred remnants of the beast fell to the ground as another took its place, trying to claw out the Sun-Fist's eyes. This one, though, was swiftly gutted by a watching Viper, who quickly moved on to attacking other beasts with his poisoned blades. A Raptor-Bug that had tried to take a bit out of him now lied on the ground, dying from ingesting the poison that coated his skin. Nearby, Revenant was using his powers on a Makara, brutally killing the giant alien.
All around the trio, their companions were inflicting great casualties on their foes, piling the dead so high that the newest arrivals to the battle actually had to climb over their own casualties before they could join the carnage. The humans were no slouches here, either: they were picking off the creatures the heroes of the Crogenitor Resistance had missed, picking them apart with mechanical efficiency.
Zrin had to admit, he'd thought humans were a rather soft-looking race, one that mad him question why the new Crogenitor chose their Avatar to be a human. Now, though, he could see that beneath an assuming appearance, humans could be just as strong as the mightiest of predators, and united, they went beyond even that. Granted, that was a trait that could be applied to most sentient beings, but that was besides the point.
Idly, he wondered where Commander was, or if he was even still alive. Hopefully, he was. Zrin didn't really want to go look for another master, plus nobody paid him as good as the Commander did, even if most of the payment amounted to a nice home and lots of good food.
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Yeah, they were probably fine.
Another barrage of lasers blew right past me, returning my focus to the battle at hand. Okay, I needed to find a way past these guys. Maybe I could get them to fall back a bit if I shot at them? Well, I had to try something, anyways.
I turned around the corner and opened fire, managing to take out a few of the turrets before the shock of my retaliation fades and my foes return fire. I was quickly hiding behind the pillar, again, desperate to avoid the laser fire. My pulse was racing, my teeth were chattering, and I was shaking beyond belief. I still couldn't believe that I'd let myself be talked into going into battle in person. All I wanted now was to be back in the safety of my home. My EARTH home, not my tower on my hub world, not my starship, but the home I'd grown up in. I just wanted to go home and cry in joy at finally being back home.
Eventually, though, I managed to regain my composure (granted, only after a few laser shots flew right over my head) and returned to the battle. The only way I stood even the slimmest of chances to get back home was finding some way to force Melissa to send me back, and that would probably take a great many universes to discover. If I wanted to get to just another world, though, I had to win this battle.
Calming myself, I quickly turned around the corner and opened fire, knocking out the remaining gun turrets before I was forced to take shelter once more. The robots, noticing the disabled turrets, advanced on me, meaning that I didn't really have any way to exploit the losses that I'd inflicted.
Or so it appeared. As the robots shot at me, I watched as some kind of tank ruptured from stray fire, spraying fluid over a walkway and several robots. A scanner I'd put inside my Avatar told me (through a hailstorm of glitches) that this fluid was water, and that this water would be conductive. Problem was, I didn't have a taser or electric weapon on me.
I did have electrokinesis, though.
Making sure not to touch any pig the other metal surfaces in the room, I put my left hand over the water, thankful that some of it was close enough to me that I could attempt this without breaking cover. Then, I concentrated on my hand, filling it with electricity. When it was full of charge, I pressed it into the puddle.
With a flash, a third of the robots were overloaded by the charge, causing them to explode. Some of their remains impacted the others, being the total number of bots down to three-fifths their starting number. The others seemed to lessen their firepower for a moment, unsure how to proceed.
A fatal mistake for them.
I used my gravitic attack to flatten five robots, before attacking the rest with my necrogensis ranged attack, which left me with only one machine to face. To my surprise, it charged me, and was swiftly cut down by my sword.
Wow. That was easy. Apparently, adrenaline is very helpful for me.
Then one last robot dropped out of the ceiling. This one was bigger and more heavily armored than the others, and appeared to lack melted weapons. The minute to got up from its hard landing, it turned its gaze to me.
Oh joy.
Idly, I wondered how hectic things were getting outside the Deadzone I was in.
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Within the Avenger, the head of XCOM sighed. Things were getting out of hand. The aggressive wildlife been overwhelming the colonial forces around the impact sight through numbers alone, forcing everyone to call in reinforcements to hold the line. XCOM had contributed quite a few teams to assist them, to the point that it would be impossible (or at least difficult) to hide the organization from the public eye after this battle was over.
Not that this was a bad thing. XCOM had been operating int the shadows for so long that people had forgotten it had even existed, forcing them to operate in ways that were questionable at best. If the public knew about them, and was willing to accept them as a sponsored force, then maybe they could drop their most questionable methods of obtaining income.
The XCOM Commander soon turned his attention to the coast nearby the impact site. Here, XCOM was dealing with a hoarse of flyers and agree sea beasts. Backing them up was a hydra carrier and its aircraft hitch belonged, apparently, to their newest neighbor. He wondered how well the ship would fare in the battle.
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Hydra-One watched the battle above it with emotionless curiosity. The insects above it were no longer attempting to intercept the aircraft it had sent to kill them, and were now focusing on trying to kill it.
A quick volley of flak and SAM fire obliterated them, but more were already moving to take their place. This time, though, they made sure to split apart, so that flak shots would not work on them. Granted, they were soon laid low by rapid fire anti-air machine guns, but their capacity to strategize was impressive.
A strike to its side alerted Hydra-One to a Sea Dragon trying to breach the ship's hull. A swift blast from the ship's deck guns (a special modification added by the commander to all his carriers) reduced the dragon to food for scavengers, but more were coming.
Sensing the need for assistance, Hydra-One connected to its commander's node network and began calling for reinforcements. Linked to its allies and its prior experiences, the ship was able to draft up an idea on how to fend back this assault, and gave the orders. The plan was soon put into action, with a 90% chance of sucess.
Despite this, though, the machine felt what could best be described as anxiety, for it could not be sure that the plan would succeed, and even if it did, more bugs were on the way. The feeling was novel, but chalked up to overtaxing of its systems. Soon, it would be gone.
Preferably after the bugs were dealt with.
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I jumped back, avoid a slash by the giant bot. I tried to make my own attack on it, only to be forced back.
I was mostly fighitnon instinct now, my body reacting to the assault on it without any conscious thought. When I could block, my carapace power activated, shielding the target area from harm. Problem was, i was still getting tired, even if I could block all of the attacks on me, meaning that eventually, the bot would win if I didn't find a way to beat it.
I had a plan for that, though: I was going to lure toward the puddle, shock it, then press on for their based off whatever my instincts told me. Hopefully, it would work.
Sure enough, when the robot reached the puddle, it stepped in and found itself dealing with an overcharge. It recovered faster than the others, though, but not before I sent a blast of Flame into it, which heated the armor to a molten state. After that, my instincts (which I was starting to believe were some echo of the hive mind of the Darkspore) told me to strike with my Thorn whip, follow up with a shoulder charge-
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"Go Dad!"
"COMMANDER FLAME! COMMANDER FLAME!"
Melissa smiled as she watched the children (including her own daughter) chant the Commander's name.
"Looks like you were right: this is more entertaining."
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-punch head, use vampiric claws, jump back, obliterate now weakened armor with gravity attack, then strike chest with teleport attack to end the battle.
I end ed up driving the giant hot through a wall my last attack, ripping out its power supply in the process.
As I got up and finally noticed how tired I was, I noticed a nearby key, along with a hold for it nearby and, lost suprising of all, a little label next to it: To shut down security protocols, insert and twist key.
Was it really that easy?
Well, apparently, it was, because following the directions caused the room I was in to darken, and also got rid of the signal that was causing me interference.
Well, that was anticlimactic.
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From its control center, the vessel finally relaxed. It was fortunate that the security shut-down key had come lose within easy reach of the new arrival. Now, the bloodshed would end.
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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!