Within the Brass Web.

by Brian Moon

  Chapter 24: Brass Monday part 1

  General Eisenberg waited until the observation posts checked in and confirmed that the known five heroes where now facing Lord Nemesis and that there was no other movement heading that way.

  “Sergeant, send out the order to muster the troops to the Center Square.”

  “Yes sir.” He replied and sent off the command.

  In secret storage areas under buildings men rushed through a sea of brass and turned activation keys, then pulled the key out to let it drop to the floor. Water boiled and generators turned. Single glass eyes glowed red and metal legs adjusted themselves as the jaeger army ran through self-diagnostics. The hatch was opened and an officer took a whistle to his lips and blew the command. The jaegers turned to face him then stepped out into the city sewer system, to follow their leader. In single file they marched their red eyes illuminating the dark sewers. From four main staging areas they filed out. At key intersections parts would break away from the main to join their commanders. Along the way groups of soldiers would join them to form the ten platoons of Lord Nemesis’ army. Each platoon consisted of the two Warhulk commanders, one hundred and fifty soldiers of various ranks and standings, and two thousand jaegers.

  They spread out under the city to find the maintenance access tubes that led to the surface and out into the overcast morning light. Around the City twenty men stood up, some looking like hobos, some construction workers, some businessmen, and stripped off their clothes. Underneath their disguises they wore suits of rubber. They then climbed into various trams and started throwing levers. The trams hissed open to reveal the Warhulks lying down. Once the sides were down, the beds of the trams elevated the Warhulks into a standing position and the pilots scrambled into them and activated the fluid intakes. The murky green slime filled the cockpit and suspended the pilots. The pilots moved their arms and legs testing them. Then some knelt to pick up long rifles, some flame guns, while others just had a massive hammer. The Warhulks stepped down onto the ground and moved to wait for their platoons to arrive.

  The jaegers and soldiers quickly filed out, flooding the streets with brass and red or blue uniforms. The platoon leader moved his Warhulk forward and everyone fell in behind him. The jaegers formed eight lines across the road, two hundred and fifty rows and the soldiers followed them. The second Warhulk took the last spot in line to complete the line of communication. Then they started off towards the central square and victory. People looked out of their windows down at the various processions wondering just what was going on. The ten platoons moved quickly towards the Center Square, approaching it from all four directions. Two platoons from the west, south, and east while four came from the north.

  Nemesis had learned from General Lee that there was no such thing as a sure thing. There is no perfect plan that you can count on. It was then that he started laying several plans at the same time for the same thing. So when The Statesman launched himself towards him unexpectedly it wasn’t a total surprise. What surprised him more was his ability to grab the blur coming at him, swing him around and send him crashing back into the building behind the other four with an explosion of brick. The Statesman got up and dusted himself off with a smile that told Nemesis he too was looking forward to this.

  As the sound of hammers came closer the Freedom Phalanx could make out the mechanized army moving towards them, from every possible direction. They turned every way trying to figure out the best course of action. Nemesis watched their reaction to his complete army, please with himself. Clearly he had caught them off guard with this move.

  “FIRE!” Came Lord Nemesis’ order.

  The Freedom Phalanx’s attention snapped back to the five hundred soldiers with rifles in front to them, the five acted out of instinct. Elementar reached out his arms to his side and pulled at the air around him, as his arms came back to his body the fog bank reasserted itself and quickly everyone was blanketed in the white, cool mist. Statesman, Maiden Justice and Vambrace charged forward and crashed into the shadowy figures in the fog.

  “Troops fall back to the parameters!” Nemesis’ voice could be heard over the sounds of hand to hand combat. He knew in this fog humans would be no match to these heroes in hand to hand. For a fleeting moment he caught sight of the woman as she threw a soldier into the mist and was gone again. He concentrated for a moment then his head swam as the lenses in his head switched and the world took on shades ranging from the cool blue of the cold pavement to the white hot body flying right at him… He marveled because he actually felt the impact against his chest armor and then again as he impacted the ground behind him. He pushed the unconscious body off of him and stood up. Concentrating on the colors he began to understand the shapes they made. So this was what a jaeger sees. The biggest marker to friend or foe came from the specially designed brass elements on his soldier’s uniform. In this mode of heat vision those pieces where totally black. The black told the jaegers the target was friendly and to avoid harming if possible.

  The Heroes:

  As the human troops retreated, the metal ones moved in, swarming into the square not hindered by the fog. The first line of jaegers opened their clamshell and two short barrels expended and then opened fire. Vambrace shoved Elementar aside and took the slugs with a sound of a rivet hammer.

  “I can’t do anything about these metal ones. I’m going after the big guys.” Shouted Dark Watcher. He pulled his darkness closer to him and disappeared into the fog. Oddly enough none of the jaegers even seemed to notice his passage.

  Statesman and Maiden Justice didn’t react as the approaching jaeger’s clam shell separated and two spiked maces swung outward on chains to slam into their bodies. They staggered from the momentum but there was no damage that could be seen. Maiden Justice grabbed the next mace and chain and pulled the jaeger off its feet and spun him into the one behind her with a metal crunch. Statesman took a more direct approach and just hammered them into a pile of twitching metal.

  Vambrace dove for cover again as another round of bullets flew past him. “How do they know we’re not friendly?” His voice came out in gasps. He had taken some serious hits with those snipers and was still feeling the pain. Elementar watched as one of the mechanical things stepped over a fallen soldier. Not one of the four legs touched him. He had an idea and scrambled around a parked car, now looking like Swiss cheese and grabbed the stray helmet found there. He pulled it onto his head and pulled the strap under his chin then stood up slowly.

  “Are you crazy? Get down!” Vambrace shouted ready to launch himself out to cover his partner but paused when the jaeger turned towards him, gun barrels opened. It paused a moment then closed itself again. It swung back to where Vambrace was hiding and opened fire again. Elementar smiled at this revelation and made sure to pull more fog in to keep their cover. Looking right at the jaeger he pushed with his hands and a gust of wind caught it and several others and they flew into the air to crash onto the jaegers behind them. He grabbed another helmet and ran back to Vambrace and slammed the metal helmet onto his metal head. It was a very tight fit and the soldier’s helmet stretched to fit over Vambrace’s head.

  “They don’t target their own soldiers because of these. Somehow they know not to attack the ones with the helmets. Pretty smart, unless someone figures it out.” Elementar explained to Vambrace.

  “You’ll owe me a new helmet if I can’t get this bucket off of mine.”

  Dark Watcher made his way towards the edge where the fog thinned and pulled his own darkness around him. Sure the soldiers would see the difference, but there would still be no clear target to shoot at. He came to the first Warhulk he could and concentrated. He pulled more of the darkness, the inky black substance that came from what some would call hell itself, and then pushed it towards the driver. The Warhulk staggered back as he was hit with his own fears. Dark Watcher pulled more and then pushed again. The Warhulk staggered again and then started twitching and turning. The man’s own fears got the better of him and
the Warhulk opened fire. His large rifle turned several jaegers into scrap metal. “This is going to be fun” Dark Watcher thought to himself and then started his attack on anyone close by.

  Not having to take cover anymore Elementar strolled into the sea of oncoming metal beasts and reached his hands and thoughts to the sky above. It took a minute but soon the sound of ice bouncing off of metal could be heard. The sound didn’t stay small for long as the hail grew to the size of apples and rained down for half a city block damaging everything in its path. The aftermath of the ice storm was the jaegers didn’t read the ice as a hazard and found themselves slipping on it. Their legs going in every direction, and crashing into each other or toppled to the ground.

  Vambrace walked up to the nearest jaeger and placed his hands on either side to send an electrical charge through it. It twitched and then smoked. He could hear the popping sound as the vacuum tubes inside of it, exploded. Beneath his armor he smiled and started clearing out a path of his own. He would need to recharge soon but he would worry about that when the time came. Inside the flog bank the pile of mangled metal just kept building up. Statesman jumped to a new area as the mound he was standing on was growing to big to maneuver. He shook his head in frustration. No matter how many he took care of they just kept coming. He no sooner found his footing when he was surrounded again. Statesman reached to the sky above, and called upon the energy it could provide. He felt it grow in him and when it reached the point were he felt it escaping his control, he released the electricity into the jaegers surrounding him. They buzzed, sparked and then collapsed as their electronics where fried. Statesman smiled, so many damaged, so little effort.

  “I need to recharge… I have to find a power supply.” Vambrace yelled to his partner.

  “How much can you take? Power wise that is?” Elementar asked while blowing another gust of wind to clear a path.

  “I can filter it to what I need, so the amount doesn’t matter!”

  “Good stand behind me; close your eyes and turn off your ears! This is going to be loud!”

  Vambrace pulled out his recharging plug and held it upward and shut down his input sensors. Even in doing so the lighting strike showed white through his closed eyelids and the percussion of the thunder sent him staggering. When he got himself straightened around, he was fully charged. The sight that greeted him totally confused him, the jaegers were battling anything and everything that moved, which was mostly themselves. “What happened to them?” He asked.

  “I think the lighting strike fried their optical lenses. Just get down and let them do our work themselves.” Elementar was almost laughing. That was until a massive figure arose in front of him to knock him backwards several yards. Loosing consciousness, Elementar’s fog also began to dissipate. Nemesis had finally gotten into the battle.

  Lord Nemesis:

  Lord Nemesis had two problems going on at the same time. First was his unfamiliarity with his new body. He knew he had machine guns, but how did he get them to work? His human body was not so equipped so the response wasn’t instinctual. The second problem was he couldn’t move without harming his own creations. He was standing in a sea of brass and one step would simply crush the jaegers packed around him. Although they all waited for an opportunity to attack the two heroes, they effective hindered his own movement. “Two, only two… where did the other three go?” He thought to himself as he scanned the battlefield. There on the far side of the battlefield was a sea of black. Not the markers used by his soldiers but just a large black void in the view of colors. “Dark Watcher, it has to be!” He realized the first flaw to his creations targeting safety. He scanned for the other two but could not find them. Only jaegers and a few brave Arimger Soldiers. He thought he would reward them for their efforts when he saw one of them raise his arms and a number of jaegers tumbled away from the two of them. The other two heroes… Nemesis realized the second flaw to the system. How could he not have foreseen someone figuring out how the safety system worked?

  Just as Nemesis bent down to leap towards the two of them, a large lightening strike hit the one. It took him a second to readjust his sight, when he did he was furious. There were only five of them, how could they be defeating his army? He leaped into the air and landed just in front of the one called Elementar. He strolled towards him and swung his massive metal arm. He may not have access to his weapons but he could still beat them the old fashioned way. He struck the man, and with great satisfaction he watched him sail across the road into a mailbox. He smiled when the fog bank began to dissipate as well. Soon his soldiers would have something to target. He felt himself being knocked off balance as Vambrace threw a body check into his legs. He staggered backwards but didn’t fall. He did however find himself now engaged with a group of jaegers that no longer could tell the difference between friend and foe.

  Nemesis started kicking his own robots out of his way as he made his way back towards Vambrace, who was now kneeling with the fallen hero. As the fog cleared more he could make out the extent of the damage to his metal army. At least four platoons lay before him. On the other side of the square he could make out Statesman taking down another small group jaegers. Before he could wonder where the woman was, Maiden Justice hammered at his leg joint with large hammer. It took him a second to realize it was a Warhulk hammer she wielded in her hand. His knee gave way and he tumbled to the ground. It sounded like metal thunder and his body crushed jaegers beneath him. Maiden Justice was on top of him now pounding on his chest yelling she was going to rip him out of his machine.

  “Foolish woman, when are you going to understand, I am Lord Nemesis!” His arm swept across sending her through the air, but she was ready for it and landed on her feet. Hammer still gripped in her hand.

  “Then I’ll simply pound you into scrap metal.” She said coldly and then ran for him again. It was only a volley of gunshots from a squad of soldiers to their left that diverted her swing. The fog had lifted enough now for a clear line of fire and the soldiers had taken their shot.

  Statesman was suddenly at her side and then past her as he flew like a rocket into the line of men. It took him seconds to break the firing line apart as men and guns flew or scattered in all directions. He didn’t wait to look as he headed into the next group setting up to fire. Nemesis was almost back to his feet, but with the distraction of Statesman going through his army as if they were no more that tin soldiers, that he missed Maiden Justice’s new advance on him. The blow from the hammer caught him off guard again and he hit the ground a second time. He raised his arm to block her, when the gun slots opened up and there pointing at her chest were twenty .50 caliber barrels. He enjoyed the shocked look on her face… and nothing happened. He growled in frustration, as he could not figure out how to get the guns to fire. Still in her moment of hesitation he took advantage of it and knocked her through the air again. He stood up and looked around him, trying desperately to salvage the day. He had never in his life experienced such a collapse of plans that left him wondering as to what he should do.

  He needed a moment to think, to regroup. That was the only course of action, retreat and regroup. This battle was over, but the day was not. He pulled a tube from his side and held it aloft and squeezed. A green flare sailed through the sky to signal what he thought he would never signal, fall back to regroup. He leaped away from the battle before Maiden Justice could make another charge and headed back to the north side of the city. He could only hope that the heroes needed rest after this first round and would buy him enough time to regroup. He would not be caught off guard a second time.

  Brass Monday part 2

  Lukas paced the command center as everyone did their best to follow the battle as reported by the five wireless observers. The snipers were still in route from their previous positions but even the snipers that had the angle of the battle, didn’t have anything to shoot at. He hated the fact that he was stuck here… he should have been on the front lines with his leader. Colonel Tomain could handle th
is part of the operation. The reports were useless descriptions of a boiling mass of fog that an occasional jaeger would appear as it was thrown into the air… or random hail storms… or flashes of lightening. It didn’t make sense, they were twenty-three minutes into the battle, which was more than it should have taken to win this fight. He had felt sure that using this size of resources was over kill, but now he was beginning to wonder.

  The report of a black mass attacking the soldiers directly came over the wireless. Soldiers were running away from the blackness or attacking things that didn’t seem to be there. Dark tendrils, that seemed to come from the abyss itself, grabbed at the soldier’s legs to slow them down. It had to be Dark Watcher, but just what was he doing to his men? He thought Dark Watcher’s name meant he just hid in the shadows, but now it seemed he commanded the darkness itself. Just what type of person could do that?

  “Sergeant, order the snipers to shoot into that dark mass. I don’t care what they can or can’t see, I want it full of holes. Maybe with some luck they’ll hit something.” He commanded.

  “Sir observer six reports that the police department is moving in cautiously. They are coming up from the University and it looks like it’s the whole force sir.”

  Lukas swore and looked at the map on the table. “Fine time for them to get a back bone of their own.” He thought. With them in motion and the information that militia in Newport had been mobilized and would be arriving sometime in the next hour didn’t bode well. They needed to end this quickly to secure the city itself. There had to be something he missed and it troubled him. How could just five people push back this army. “We have the secure spots, we picked the battle field and yet they have the upper hand. I need to see what’s going on!” He took a deep breath to calm his frustration.

  “Sergeant, contact the snipers on the move and have them get to their positions for operation fall back. If we have to move I want them in place to cover the retreat.” Some of the men turned to look at him, but didn’t question his orders. It was the logical thing to do and that was always a good place to start. “Also have the ninth and tenth platoon start to pull back, to thirty-fifth Street and set up a blockade facing south.” He looked to the board to see what other playing pieces he had to maneuver but they were thinning fast. How could this have gone wrong?

  The report that the fog was clearing was excellent news. There was a bit of pride as they told how Lord Nemesis had taken the weather hero down. There was a small cheer until word came of Lord Nemesis being knocked down by the woman. “Why isn’t he using his weapons?” he asked himself. It didn’t make sense for him to go into combat and not use them. Two possibilities came to mind. First was that the equipment being untested had failed, and the second scared him. What if it wasn’t that the weapons wouldn’t work, but that he didn’t know how to make them work?

  “Sir the third and fourth need help with that dark cloud. The soldiers can’t get near it and the jaegers refuse to attack it.” It was then that Lukas saw the flaw. Black markers are non-targets and that was a massive non-target ripping his lines to shreds.

  “Tell them to pull back, try to get Dark Watcher to separate himself from the others. I want them to set up a picket line and shoot continuously into that dark mass. He can’t avoid every bullet.”

  “Sir all watchers report Lord Nemesis has launched a green flair.”

  “That’s it gentleman make sure everyone falls back and that they take whatever wounded they can. Leave the scrap metal. Tell the ninth and tenth to expect company. Those snipers will never make it in time to set up covering positions, give them the return order. We may need them when the militia gets here.”