Another body thudded to the ground, a smoking hole through its gut. IT was the tenth one in the last five minutes.
All around me, my creations were fighting against the Marauders, with the organic monstrosities I'd created doing battle with my foe's engines of war. Now, though, it was an even fight. Without a Commander to control them, my creations were no more than animals, while my machines merely stayed where they were, not retreating, but not advancing either. My normal body's psionic prowess was not enough for my creations to be able to sense it, which also made it difficult for my creations to find me. Even the mostly barren surface of the plateau the main tower was built into was able to make me disappear from view. The fact that it was night didn't help either.
Occasionally a few of my creations would near me, only to be gunned down by marauder tanks. Any fliers I had in the area were still engaging the marauder aircraft, preventing them from rescuing me. My foes, meanwhile, were slowly converging in on my position. Already, I'd had to face a squad charging out of the tower in a effort to gun me down, only to find themselves in a cloud of poison that rapidly sent them to the grave. Purely on reflex, I'd discovered that Viper poison glands were one of the gene mods that had become common in baseline humans in this universe. Ones that improved regeneration and eyesight were also present, as were ones that let people turn invisible. All of these facts were ones that I had learned as I fought against the marauders, and I hoped I wouldn't have to learn much more before this battle was over. I had been lucky that my psi-amp, fusion blade and laser rifle had fallen to the floor when my avatar had switched places with my main body and I really didn't want to press my luck any further.
Still, one fact was becoming obvious, and it was that I was getting tired. My main body wasn't used to this kind of stress, and the cold of the night only compounded my exhaustion. IF I didn't find a way to get back to my forces soon, then I wouldn't last the night. And given the fact that I still couldn't access my Commander network do to the signal the artifact was giving off, if I died here, I wasn't coming back.
For the fifth time in the last ten minutes, I mentally berated myself for not clearing out more of the signal towers before I had touched the artifact. This would've let me call down more mechanical units and, if I'd taken down all of the ones around the main tower, plenty of places to fall back to. Yet because I my brash attempt to end this battle quickly, I had found myself stuck behind enemy lines, with little chance of escape.
Then, I noticed movement in distance. Focusing on it with my enhanced vision, I felt my heart sink: approaching me was a group of marauders backed up by a hover tank, something I lacked the ordinance to take down. Given how fast they were going, they'd reach me long before I'd get back to the tower.
It looked like I was at the end of the line.
I stared at the advancing force a while longer, than took cover behind the wreck of one of the Marauder's fighters.
Well, if I was going to die, then I should go out swinging.
...Wait, why is there this big glowing light in the sky?
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Rory watched as his father took cover behind the crashed aircraft. All around him, Bianka and her friends were grabbing onto him, trying to stop him from shaking. It wasn't helping.
Rory had been side by side with his father, watching the battle unfold on the planet below. All along the way, he'd watched his father's avatar carve its way through the opposition, making him smile at his father's combat prowess.
Then the artifact had switched his father's real body with that of the avatar. Now his father was trapped on the planet's surface, and it looked like he was about to die.
Rory had spent the past few minutes trying to fight back tears. He had failed. This wasn't how things were supposed to go. His father was too strong, too smart, too nice to die. Yet now it seemed inevitable, and he didn't know what to do.
Then, something else caught his attention. It was an alert from the ship's scanners: apparently, an unknown energy source had appeared on the planet's surface, in the form of a glowing light. A moment later, a strange looking ship appeared from the light, which both his father and the marauders took a moment to stare at. It looked somewhat like a cross between an airship and a squid.
Then it opened fire on the marauders.
XXXXXXXXX
I watched the tank go up in flames as the marauders scattered in an effort to avoid being hit. Unfortunately for them, the ship responded to their actions by disgorging ten humanoid beings, which promptly cut down the humans under a hail of what looked like plasma. A few of the marauders were, to my surprise, skewered on the end of a spear like weapon carried by one of my saviors, who had a white plums of hair atop their armored head, making them look vaguely like a Greek soldier.
Then, that being turned to face me.
Before I could react, the being glowed, disappeared, only to reappear RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. Surprised, I fell over backwards, which only seemed to amuse my savior.
After five seconds of stammering, I finally managed to choke out a response.
"... Thank you."
"You're welcome," was the reply I received.
Instantly, I went stiff. There were two reasons for that: one, the voice that repjbded to me was female.
The other reason I went stuff?
I recognized that voice.
"M-m-Melissa?"
The face plate of my rescuer promptly split into mulltiple pieces that soon retracted, revealing the leering face of my freeloading ROB.
"In the flesh."
"But...but...but...why?"
"I'm the one who put you on you journey as a Commander. Only I get to decide when it's over. As for appearing in person and not using my awesome powers to rescue you...well, I have my reasons. Now come on, get in the-"
Just then, a hail of rockets reduced her dropships to a mass of flesh and metal.
"-dropships. Well, there goes plan A."
"Do you have a plan B?"
"That would be fight our way back to your forces."
"Well, that works for me."
"Good. Now get behind me and keep your head down."
"Okay."
I was putting my life in the hands of a ROB. What had the universe come to?
Also, I felt like music would be appropriate right now.
XXXXXXXX
Rory and his siblings yelped when, somehow, the inert form of the avatar began to stir. After a few moments of shaking it extended its left hand out toward a nearby console, then went limp again. It seemed, though, that it had stil accomplished its goal, as apparently, the console was doing something. When Rory walked up to examine the screen, he found that it was hacking into the broadcasting network of the Cephei's capital city, was also pulling up a list of rock songs.
...why did it settle on a Swedish band?
XXXXXXXX
Oh. Apparently my link to the avatar was still active to some degree. Nice.
As we advanced toward the nearest of my forces, passing by the wrecked remains of a marauders dropships, we found ourselves facing down a group of Marauders. Now, though, the advantage was back on my side.
I was a P.F.C. on a search patrol, huntin' Charlie down
It was the jungle wars of '65
My weapon jammed and I got stuck way out all alone
And I could hear the enemy movin' in close outside.
The first of the Marauders to fall didn't even have time to react before Melissa teleported up to him and rammed her spear into his chest. Before his body had hit the ground, another of Melissa's team had already dealt with his companions. This being, an insect pod creature with four arms, shattered the ground below its foes with a Warhammer, before pulling out a massive shotgun and blowing the helpless soldiers out of the sky.
Just then I heard a twig snap and I grabbed my empty gun
And I dug in scared while I counted down my fate
And then a big marine, with a pair of friendly eyes
Appeared there at my shoulder and said "Wait."
On a nearby hill, I noticed a group of marauders setting up heavy weapons emplacements, no doubt meant to cut us down. Before they could finish, though, plasma bolts began cutting down soldiers left and right, with a few also destroying the emplacements themselves. The source of this counter attack was another of my ROB's forces, this one a being wielding what looked like a sniper rifle and wearing a jet back that resembled a metallic pair of wings. Did my ROB happen to be a fan of XCOM? The figure fired a few more shots, then slammed into the ground and took out the remainder of their foes with what appeared to be a rapier.
Wow, that looked awesome.
"If Charlie wants to tangle now he'll have two to dodge"
I said, "Well, thanks a lot!" I told him my name and asked him his
And he said "The boys just call me Camouflage"
We'd finally passed that group of Marauders, only to find ourselves facing another squad. Well, actually, this one looked more like a platoon.
Well, time to show them what we were made of.
Woah-oh-oh-oh, Camouflage
Things are never quite the way they seem
Woah-oh-oh-oh, Camouflage
I was awfully glad to see this big Marine
The platoon had barely hit the ground when more arrived to take their place. This time, though, it looked like a whole army had shown up to fight us.
Somehow, though, we fought them off. And it was glorious.
Well, we fought all night, side by side, we took our battle stance
And I wondered how the bullets missed this man
'Cause they seemed to go right through him just as if he wasn't there
And in the mornin' we both took a chance and ran
I ducked out of the way as bullets flew past me, before returning fire and downing four soldiers. Melissa's team, meanwhile, was racking up a massive kill count, one that utterly eclipsed my total one for this battle, including all of my avatar's kills.
Then I went deaf in my right ear as an explosion sent me flying, with an immense feeling of pain coming from the right half of my body. When I hit the ground, I turned my head to my right and found myself staring at the barrel of a tank. Before it could fire again, though, Melissa was in front of me and project some kind of pitch black shield that absorbed the attack in its entirety.
And it was near the riverbank when the ambush came
And I thought it was the end, and we were had
Then a bullet with my name on it came buzzin' through a bush
And that big Marine, he just swat it with his hand
She responded by apparently replacing her face mask with another one, then telkinetically lifted up the nearby remains of an APC and slamming it into the tank.
Just like it was a fly...
I suddenly felt really weak compared to my ROB.
Woah-oh-oh-oh, Camouflage
Things are never quite the way they seem
Woah-oh-oh-oh, Camouflage
I was awfully glad to see this big Marine
With difficulty, I managed to stand up. Noticing my discomfort, Melissa promptly put one of her arms around me and hoisted me onto her shoulder. The lack of snippy remakes about this from her perplexed me, but I wan't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Plus I barely seemed to slow her down.
Idly, I noted that while I was healing, I had sustained enough injuries that I needed medical attention soon or I'd keel over. While my enhanced regernation had saved me from having to deal with a punctured lung and damaged to my femoral artery, it still had a ton of shrapnel rammed through the right half of my body.
Oh, and I could see my forces right now. And there was one more army of Marauders between my forces and us. Why can't things be easy for me?
When he led me outta danger I saw my camp and waved goodbye
He just winked at me from the jungle and then he was gone
And when I got back to my H.Q., I told 'em about my night
And the battle I'd spent with a big Marine named Camouflage
Slowly, we smashed our way through the enemy. A few unlucky soldiers found themselves pulled toward one of my ROB's servants who used a whip, leaving them vulnerable to a follow up shot from said servant's pistol. Others were either ventilated with bullets or carved up via knife blade by a fourth follower of my savior, with the rest simply being shot or cut up by the five remaining members of my rescue team, who weren't really unique in any way.
When I said his name, a soldier gulped, and a medic took my arm
And led me to a green tent on the right
He said "You may be tellin' the truth, boy, but this here is Camouflage
And he's been right here since he passed away last night
Despite their best efforts, though, I took a few bullets during the final engagement, which weren't helping my already severe injuries from the tank shell. The offending soldiers, though, soon found themselves roasted, poisoned, crushed, disintegrated, or blown to bits by my E-DNA powers. Still, I was reaching my limits. I needed medical attention now.
But before he went, he said Semper Fi, and said his only wish
Was to save a young Marine caught in a mirage
Apparently, Melissa noticed this, because she said something to her subordinates, who began to fight harder. I couldn't tell what she said, though - my hearing was starting to fade.
Though, I did wonder why she hadn't used her powers to heal me. Did she have some limits I did my know about?
"So here, take his dog tag, son, I know he'd want you to have it now"
The last part of the battle was truly epic, as this time, my forces joined in, resulting in a massive curb stomp decidedly in our favor. Tanks were torn apart by my forces, while infantry were annihilated by ROB's subordinates. Above, enemy aircraft rained from the sky, illuminating the epic epic scene as they fell.
Woah-oh-oh-oh, Camouflage
Things are never quite the way they seem
Woah-oh-oh-oh, Camouflage
I was awfully glad to see this big Marine
Unfortunately, the severity of my injuries was finally getting to me, and I was starting to lose consciousness. Melissa noticed this and promptly set me down and started applying aid to my wounds. As she examined them, though, she seemed to be growing desperate, and began to use her powers to summon forth tools to assist her in treating my wounds. The fact she couldn't heal me directly just reinforced my belief that something or someone was preventing her from directly using her powers on me.
Woah-oh-oh-oh, Camouflage
Things are never quite the way they seem
Woah-oh-oh-oh, Camouflage
This was an awfully big marine
Finally seeming to lose it, Melissa stopped trying to treat my wounds and, instead, used her power to create a glowing light just like the one that I'd seen her ship arrive in. The minute it appeared, she grabbed ahold of me and jumped toward it, her subordinates following a moment later. On the other side, I just managed to notice that we appeared to be inside a building before my vision failed, and not long after that, I was out like a light.
Woah-oh-oh-oh, Camouflage
Things are never quite the way they seem
Woah-oh-oh-oh, Camouflage
This was an awfully big marine
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AN: The Song was Camouflage by Stan Riddway, but I used the 2016 cover of it by Sabaton for this chapter. I felt it fit the content of this particular set of events.
Originally, I had some art to go with this chapter, but I don't like how it turned out, so none for now.
Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!