“I know what I’m doing, sir,” Victor snapped back as he launched a barrage of blades at the Ribiyar.
They tried to shoot him down, but his triple-reinforced armor held strong against them. Though his suit wasn’t quite as strong as Jack’s, it did the job well enough.
“If you want to work as a well-oiled team,” Victor continued, “you need to trust my instincts once in a blue moon.”
He put his hand on a tree, as he glanced around the surrounding area for more soldiers. He turned back to tell Brown the coast was clear, when a sensor warned him of a threat, and he jumped to the ground and rolled to the right just as an energy blast shot over him. As he rolled, he fired his blasters in the vague direction of the blast, and one of them revealed a Ribiyar clad in inky-black armor, its shadowy shroud shorting out from the damage.
Stupid space-ninja wannabe.
Before the alien could fire its weapon again, it was cut in half by a laser beam, and Jack landed beside its remains.
“I’ve got your back,” Jack said with a terse nod, giving the jungle behind him a quick scan before moving on.
Victor mumbled to himself as he followed behind Jack, ready to continue the fight. Though he didn’t see anyone else, he heard a roaring overhead and looked up just in time to see several Destroyers soar by overhead, firing missiles at the top of the mound.
The projectiles struck the mound, sending arching plumes of dirt and debris in the air as it began to crumble. The store and cave entrance spewed out a cloud of dust as the interior collapsed, and Colonel Brown and the others near the entrance were enveloped in the dust and as the entrance was sealed shut. Before Victor and Jack could make it back to the rest of their team, the six Destroyers landed in a rough circle around them.
“Jack, throw me!” Victor yelled. He didn’t have time to explain, but he guessed the tin head would get what he was thinking. “Now!”
Hesitating for only a moment, Jack grabbed his waist and jumped several feet into the air, throwing Victor in between two of the behemoths. Extending the Phantom Blade into its larger form, he swung around and sliced two of them in half with one move, roughly landing on the ground. Jack, though struggling, jumped on top of another and blasted it. The fur-ball army of E.V.A.N.s tag-teamed another one, leaving two Destroyers to go after the rest of the team.
“You aren’t winning this one!” Rogers yelled out as he threw some grenades, then rapid-fired his laser rifle at both Destroyers, as Brown and River joined in and let loose their firepower.
With them momentarily distracted, Victor scrambled to his feet and sliced the Blade at lightning speed, shooting energy swords through both of them. As the aliens collapsed from their injuries, a roar shook the ground. An ear-splitting shot rang out and they both exploded into shreds.
Victor spun and saw that the E.V.A.N had taken down their Destroyer and the tiger had some sort of huge weapon on its back.
Syvon is definitely paying for one of those when I get back, Victor promised himself.
Jack had greatly damaged his attacker, but it still fought on, and he was thrown away several feet. Victor casually sidestepped Jack as he flew past, then cracked his neck before firing off some more blades.
“We got more hostiles, three o’clock!” River reported.
More stealth Ribiyar emerged from the trees, firing their rifles as they charged forward. Jack grabbed a slab of armor from one of the downed Destroyers and drew their fire, shielding the team. As they fought back the Ribiyar, the last Destroyer charged forward. Its arm cannon had been disabled, but the dozens of spikes along the cannon would be more than enough to impale them all.
Victor readied his weapon and swung his sword, but he was knocked off balance from blast in his side and he missed his target. The impact forced him farther off balance and he fell to the ground as a Destroyer came towards him. He tried to get up, but his side felt like a branding iron had been rammed into it. His armor had absorbed some of the blast but a small part of it had been breached. He cried out in pain as he tried to grab his Phantom Blade, but it had fallen out of reach.
The Destroyer lunged into the air, its arm spikes flying straight for him.
Chapter 14
Date: July 14, 2132
Location: Southern Africa
Victor, despite himself, winced with his eyes closed for the half-second of pain before his life ended. A loud boom echoed through the air followed by a large crash all around him showering him in dirt to make his makeshift tomb. But as he continued to breath in air, he knew something had happened.
He glanced around him and saw two deep, massive impressions in the dirt a couple of feet away on both side of him, and he saw that the Destroyer stood a few feet in front of him, straining against an unseen obstacle. Out of thin air, a massive forty-foot long curved energy blade materialized and stabbed the Destroyer in the chest. The blueish-green blade shot upwards, cutting the alien in half, and its remains collapsed in a heap on the ground.
All around him, a huge machine began to materialize, it’s cloaking device deactivating and melting away, and he saw that the two craters in the ground were where the giant’s legs stood. It was about eighteen feet tall, a little shorter than the Destroyers, and its bronze-colored metal gleamed in the light. The scimitar-shaped energy blade projected from a handle held in the giant right hand, similar to his Phantom Blade, and a large hum vibrated Victor’s chest, emanating from the several tubular thrusters on its back and lower legs.
So that’s what was making all that racket, Victor thought as he winced in pain. You’d think they could add mufflers on those things.
The styling of the head on the machine, a helmet with a gap where the eyes should be, continued downwards in a sharp line, and the militaristic appearance of the armor reminded Victor of soldiers in the ancient Roman empire. As the Ribiyar attacked the newcomer, a different type of weapon began ringing out. Soldiers began appearing out of nowhere, using the same type of cloaking technology as the mech, and attacked the aliens. The soldiers, about a dozen in total, were clad in brown military camouflage uniforms and fired rapid-fire shotguns, using what seemed to be bullet-sized EMPs. They took down the Ribiyar with one hit as they shot out sparks from the weapon's impact. Colonel Brown and the rest of the team held down the other side of the mound as the soldiers attacked, quickly working through the Ribiyar’s numbers.
You really think you can show up and steal my thunder? Victor inwardly asked, indignant at the nerve of the newcomers. He put his knee under him and forced himself up, but his side roared in pain so much that he had to stay down as his vision clouded. What the heck did they shoot me with? A lava cannon?
The sounds of combat fell away as the final Ribiyar were defeated. The chest of the giant machine opened outwards, hydraulic pistons whining as sections of armor lifted up. When moved aside, they revealed a small ovular cockpit with an assortment of straps and restraints inside. A woman wearing the same camo uniform the other soldiers, wearing something similar to a black motorcycle helmet on her head, leapt out of the cockpit and onto the giant machine’s massive left hand. She was brought down a few feet above the ground and jumped, landing gracefully on her feet.
“Agent Law, reporting for service,” the women said, her voice muffled inside the helmet as she gave a two-finger salute to Victor, still reeling from his injury. She pulled off her helmet, revealing her dark blond hair tied up sharply in a bun, the color matching her lightly-tanned skin.
Cracking a grin at his condition, she stuck out her right hand. “Need a hand?”
Sneering back at her, Victor smacked her hand away and got to his feet by himself, his side still flaring in pain as he inwardly fumed over his weakened state. “Thanks, but no thanks. I had the situation well under control.”
“Uh huh,” she replied, her attention already moving on to the rest of his team.
She suddenly tensed as her eyes fell on Blitz and the other E.V
.A.N.s, slowly circling Law and her giant machine. Her hand hovered over a pistol on her left hip, ready to fling it out at a moment’s notice.
Victor couldn’t help but allow himself a small grin.
This is going to be a good, short fight.
“E.V.A.N.s!” Jack called out, rushing over to them. “Stand down!”
The E.V.A.N.s glanced at Jack, almost glaring at him for interfering, but one by one, their eyes lost the crimson glow, and they reverted back to their docile alter-egos.
The rest of Victor’s team approached them, the soldiers joining as well.
“Sorry about that,” Colonel Brown said, winded from the battle. “Are you alright?”
Law stared at the E.V.A.N.s for several moments, as they laid on the ground or engaged in idle grooming.
“You shouldn’t trust them,” she said, finally looking at Brown. “They’re very dangerous.”
“We know. And we’re keeping them on a short leash. But they’ve proving useful in this invasion.” Brown glanced at the other soldiers, who stood at sharp attention and kept their rifles at the ready for more Ribiyar. “Now who are you all, exactly?”
“I’m Agent Heather Law. We work for the Agency. And I know, you’ve never heard of it,” she interjected, cutting of the colonel’s question before it formed. “That’s the point. As for why we’re here, we know about your mission to get the uranium from the Ribiyar base. And we’re going to make sure you succeed.”
Location: Aboard the Atlantis, at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean
“How are the readings looking, Lex?” Chief Harmonds called out from the opposite side of the lower workstations.
Though Lexton was slightly annoyed at his very informal and chatty nature, along with the nickname that he had given her, she couldn’t deny his genius. He had been involved in the later stages of designing the Atlantis, focusing on the construction of the power chamber and Bottleneck.
“They’re stabilizing, Chief Harmonds. We’re ready to merge the three reactors.”
“Alright. Let’s give this thing a test run. Set the program to begin routing the power through at ten percent.”
“Right away, sir.” Lexton tapped in the commands on the wide touchscreen interface and set the power transfer as ordered.
Three separate power level bars slowly rose, stopping near one-tenth, when the screen flashed yellow and an alarm blared throughout the chamber.
“Something’s overloading!” Harmonds shouted. “Shut it down! Now!”
“Working on it!” Lexton sped through the shutdown code Harmonds had given her.
The core was reaching critical temperature and several large cooling pipes rattled as the temperature rapidly increased.
Just as she finished, one of the pipes burst open, sending shards of metal everywhere, including her left side. Lexton cried out and collapsed as the alarms faded while the shutdown program deactivated.
“Lex!” Harmonds yelled as he rushed over to her. “We need to get her to the medical wing!”
Two other engineers ran to the side compartments and a stretcher unfolded from the wall. Harmonds slid his hands under arms and pulled her away from the console gently. They rolled the stretcher in behind her, laying her down with panicked caution.
“How does it look?” Lexton managed to gasp as she processed the rush of pain. Just when I thought today wasn’t going to go sideways for once.
“Definitely not the best, but I don’t have much medical experience,” Harmonds said as they made their way out of the lower workplace and towards a one of the far walls in the chamber.
“She’s bleeding internally!” one of the other engineers cried, fumbling with a handheld scanner from the bay’s medical kit. “She’s not going to make it if she’s not tended to immediately!”
Harmonds threw him a glare and looked back down at her. “I’m so sorry, Lex. I had no idea that would happen, and I’ll make sure nothing like that happens again. I can’t personally heal you but we have the best cutting-edge medical technology. They’ll have you patched up in no time.”
As they approached the wall, a large circular pattern spun apart into six pieces, revealing a small tunnel. The crew lifted the stretcher into the hole, and the handles locked into metal tracks as straps latched onto Lexton’s arms and legs.
“Hang in there, Lex,” Harmonds softly spoke.
The stretcher slowly entered the tunnel on its own. After the opening slid shut, the stretcher began to increase its speed, jolting her around. Lexton’s vision blurred as the periodic lighting whooshed by faster and faster and blurring into each other, the pain weakening her focus and distorting the image even further. Several times the stretcher slowed in an intersection as the tracks adjusted and changed direction like a bullet train changing railways.
Finally, she realized that she had left the tunnel system and was now in another room, but she couldn’t make out much of the surroundings as she cried out from another wave of pain.
“Don’t worry,” she heard a voice speak near her. She managed to turn her head and saw a man standing beside her. “You’re going to be just fine.”
He wore a long, white medical coat, with a stethoscope hanging around his neck, and his well-groomed locks of hair were a light silver, though he barely looked thirty years old.
But what concerned her most was his eyes.
Are his eyes… glowing red?
The doctor stuck a small needle in her neck, and the injection sent her into blissful sleep.
Chapter 15
Date: July 14, 2132
Location: Southern Africa
As the rest of his team worked to plan their next move, Jack slowly walked back to the cave. Lifting his right hand up, scanning beams shot into the cave, making sure the rest of the cave beneath was intact. From what he could see, the deeper parts farther down were relatively stable, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Do you really think you can save them?” The almost never-ending voice taunted him.
He saw Fu’Lyl walk toward the cave entrance. He stood a few feet away from Jack and peer into the now collapsed hole, his face momentarily fazing through the solid rock. A moment later, Fu’Lyl removed it and turned his gaze toward him.
“You’re wasting your time, organic.”
“I don’t need to listen to whatever you have to say to me,” Jack tersely replied, clenching his fists as he felt anger surge through him once more.
A dual-bladed, curved sword materialized from strings of code in the Ribiyar’s right hand, and it flashed forward at Jack, slicing through his right hand before he could react. The sword then sliced through his arm, and it felt as though his arm was being ripped in half from the inside. The scanning beams sputtered and died while Jack tried his best not to cry out in pain.
“Maybe you should start listening. You know you can’t keep this fight up forever. Give up and allow yourself a swift death.”
“Not a chance. I’ll never give in or stop fighting you,” Jack said, as he clutched his right arm.
“As you wish.”
Burning pain shot through his shoulder as the Ribiyar pressed its four-fingered hand on it. Jack clenched his eyes shut and stood there for a minute, letting the pain subside. Though it eventually faded, he noticed that there remained a heaviness in his mind, a cloud shrouding his thoughts. It weighed him down and made thinking clearly even more of a challenge.
This virus isn’t slowing down. If anything… it’s only getting stronger.
“Are you alright?” Brown asked as he stretched out his right hand to him up.
Jack took his hand and managed a light laugh. “Not really. But don’t worry about me.”
“If you say so,” Brown said as he strapped his rifle to his back. “River, were you able to fill up the spare tanks?”
River nodded gruffly. “Yeah. We’re pretty well off now. We’ll make it to the
base no problem.”
“Great to hear,” Brown said. Glancing to the newcomer Law, he asked, “Will you guys be able to keep up?”
She nodded, sending her dark blond hair into soft waves. “We brought some transportation along. We’ll be fine.”
“If you’re done mothering us all,” Victor said as he opened the door to one of the vehicles, “I’m ready to get back to raging over the road.”
Five hours later…
“We’re going to rest up here,” Brown radioed, braking the relative silence of the drive. As they had driven over the last few hours, the forest had thickened around them even more, eventually leading them into a jungle. Judging from the difficult path, they would soon need to leave their vehicles behind, and make at least an hour trek to reach their destination.
The officers all sighed in relief as they exited their rides, Jack included. Though his body wasn’t as worn out, he needed time to refresh his equipment, and gather his strength from fighting off the ever-spreading virus.
“We should be able to make it the rest of the way by midday tomorrow. But we’ll get some rest here for a few hours.”
They stood in a stone out-cropping of a tall hill, shielding them from a light rain that had begun to fall. The task force and soldiers ate their dinner of protein bars and packaged MREs. Jack took a seat under the rock face, allowing his systems to rest. Blitz lazily strolled up to him and took a seat next to his master. His nose twitched as it sniffed at the rain. A drop from the rain landed on the bridge of the cat’s nose, resulting in a quick, quiet sneeze and a shake of his head.
“So, what’s your story?” Rogers asked Agent Law as he grabbed yet another pack of jerky from his pocket. “I imagine you have a uniquely entertaining one to tell.”
Law chuckled as she took a bite out of her protein bar. “Not that much to tell, to be honest. My dad had an extensive career in the military, and once turned seventeen, I joined up. I excelled with the majority of my assignments, so much so that I was recruited by the Agency.”
Galactic Defenders- Perseverance Page 9