by Bryan Nyaude
I shook my head while rechecking my suit’s system one last time, to make sure everything was okay. Although, I had done it before, it didn’t hurt to be sure. My suit’s defense and offense system responded well, showing no signs of glitches or malfunctions. I slowly soared up higher, while trying out new maneuvers, pressing my luck as hard as I could. I tilted my head back and rotated my body laterally, in a diagonal pose. All my muscles responded tightly to my command, surging me further into a dangerous descent. Beyond the scope, my optic scanners picked up signals of an unknown object, closing in towards our ship. I stopped and hovered, motionlessly, with a little anxiety in my heart. Was it an enemy or friend? I wasn’t expecting the aliens to return so soon, which rather put a tiny kink in our plan. My fist clenched as I took out an assault rifle and held it firmly, in my left arm. I was rather curious to see them first-hand, I could barely control myself. Slowly, I calculated the direction of their trajectory and plotted a course to intercept them. I increased the power output towards my flight system and blitzed it—towards the rendezvous point as fast as I could. The scanners went haywire, releasing high frequencies the alien ship was emitting.
“Hey, Ali,” I said, using my com link to communicate. “I am picking up an unknown object possibly a terror beast heading towards the ship; I am on course to intercept it, over and out.”
“Who is Ali?” He asked, responding quickly.
“It’s you, I mean, I can’t keep calling you an alien man forever, and you don’t want to tell me your name.”
“Ali! You know what—I like it,” he laughed silently. “However, don’t do anything reckless, the suit modifications are still prototypes and haven’t fully been tested yet.”
“I will try, but I won’t guarantee anything.”
“Don’t say that! Proceed with caution; your new enemies are no amateurs—they will kill you if you get in their way. Honestly, I don’t know if your long barrel revolvers will work with this prototype. If by some miracle they do, save them for emergency life threatening situations; but anything else, use your assault rifle and javelin bazooka missiles.”
Right! That didn't sound too bad, bearing in mind, how many instructions he had piled on me earlier, when I was putting on the armor modifications. I looked directly beneath me, studying the landscape carefully for any secure vantage points. A streak of blue color flowed directly into every life force on the planet. If someone had told me a planet like this existed, I would have been skeptic—nothing on this planet could be explained using a basic textbook; it logically defied all beliefs.
“Okay, I will,” I replied and turned off my com link connection to the ship, in order to remain undetected.
It would be bad if they intercepted the com link and learned both of our locations. If it was an enemy ship, I was going to follow it to its base and, hopefully, find the rest of my crew. After all, I had a bet to win. A lot of people were going to be disappointed when they saw me alive. I just wanted to see the priceless looks on their faces: definitely worth the risk. My scanners blinked loudly as I was getting closer towards the intercepting point. My heart paced quickly, anticipation brewing greatly inside. One problem, I still hadn’t fully tested out the suit, and I had no idea its handling capabilities in a real battle. Suddenly, the sound on my com link intensified as I got closer to the unknown signature. To be accurately truthful, I had never felt intense frequencies this high and powerful before. The source of this signal did not belong to any technology developed on earth which was expected. There was definitely another intelligent life force residing on this planet; that much I was sure of. I thought for a second about what Ali had said to me about a kingdom 500 miles from here. But who were these aliens?
“Only one way to find out,” I whispered to myself and shut my entire power system off, before landing on the ground.
My body slowly landed on the ground, in a quiet manner. I looked around, before jolting for a safe place to hide. If it was a terror beast, then there would be low frequency heat energy signatures, but the fact is, this object had a massive energy grid similar to that of the power fusion generator.
“Unadvisable to turn off all power to the suit,” my new AI spoke to me, attempting to reset the power grid.
What the! I couldn’t explain why this was happening and now of all times, just when we were in the travel route of an unknown friendly or foe. With my armor being black and shining brightly, in the middle of a blue forest, was not helpful at all. Impossibly, my AI had overwritten its control limiters, enabling it full access to my exoskeleton's mobility.
“Not now,” I commanded my AI system, in a harsh manner. “Stand down now or prepare to be shut down from the main grid.”
“That type of tone is irrelevant,” it responded rudely.
Why was this happening now? This had to be some sort of messed up joke. I had never heard of an AI system that talked back to its operator and could turn on a suit’s power grid. I was panicking and trying to stay calm at the same time, which clearly was not working in my favor. The scanners went off more intensely as I saw an unidentified ship, double the size of our hover ships, pass directly above me. It was mobile and so fast—it flew by me like a flash of lightning. Before I knew it, two small drones deployed from my armor suit and began attacking the ship with ferocious attacks. The ship made a hasty maneuver and began to turn back towards me suddenly.
“Of all the luck!”
My AI had taken over and was controlling the drones, coordinating their attacks on the unknown ship. I watched in shock, as I saw the ship slow down, coming in front of me. Gushing winds from its turbine-like thrusters blew against me greatly. My eyes opened widely out of shock and desperation. I tried to turn off my power grid and panicked, when I watched it slowly turn back on. It was rebooting at a speed far much more gradual than before.
“This is why I warned you not to turn off the power grid,” my AI went on in a harsh tone.
An AI with an attitude problem was the last thing I needed right now, besides my other menacing problems. I looked at the alien ship and slowly backed away, with my assault rifle in front of me, aimed directly at the ship. Oddly enough, this ship was a little different from the ones that had kidnapped my crew members. Definitely smaller and colored light bluish, which was dissimilar to the other two ships. I felt a brush of fear crawl up my spine coldly. If I didn’t do something fast, that ship was going to fry me instantly. I quickly rerouted all my reserve power to my backup power grid, and triangulated the time of impact it was going to take to evade an attack, using the light screen’s calculation unit. The ship stopped and hovered above me motionlessly, like it was observing and studying me. With my current fire power, I had no chance against this new enemy. I quickly turned around and made my way through the hard terrain, looking for solid cover. Jumping up, I skidded past a few rocks in the way, while slipping through dense fogs of blue trees. The alien ship followed me, from above, keeping a slight distance a few meters up. My strategy was to lure the ship to a terrain with hills and lots of hiding places, and then hitting it with everything I had. I looked back and smiled as I saw the alien ship follow behind me.
Not surprising, the small drones’ attacks were not inflicting any damage to the ship, at all. Out of nowhere, a loud whirling noise erupted from the ship, making me glance back quickly. Something was forming from its anterior end. Almost as if particles were being compressed into a single wavelength. I could feel the power screeching and hear the intense noise, as if it was close to my ears. The ship had a guided laser system which was bad for me. One hit from that and I would be a goner.
I blinked once and saw the ship fire the laser at me so fast I had no time to react. My eyes widened as I saw the laser draw closer to me. Before I knew it, my suit moved on its own, making me duck in time. I heard the laser collide with a tree, a few meters from me. There was a loud explosion that emerged, but luckily enough, I had moved a good bit far from it. The ship kept following me, ready to fire at me again.
“You are welcome,” my AI commented sarcastically to me.
Yeah! I wanted to say thank you to it; however, my ego was way too big to admit anything. I quickly dashed through the terrain, moving through rocks and trees, in a zigzag manner. Patiently, I waited for the right moment to make my counter attack—and right now, was not it.
“The backup system is now active.”
“Excellent!”
Everything was going according to plan. Swiftly, I spun my body back and moved behind the ship to begin my assault. I jumped into the air, and began to accelerate up above it with my assault rifle in front. With only three reserve magazines, I had to be careful not to waste the bullets. The ship made a quick turn and rotated back towards me. It was at that moment, I realized the ship had a 4D maneuvering system, allowing it to make what would be otherwise impossible turns. Rather a malicious ability to have, meaning I had to adjust my plans a bit.
I ascended 3000 feet into the sky and began attacking it with my assault rifle. The bullets bounced away from the ship like small, soft balls. I found no weak points on the outer structure of the ship. I tilted my back slowly as I descended far away from its firing range. Ultimately, this ship was like a machine version of a terror beast because of how tough the exterior was.
“Wait! That’s it.”
If this machine was built like a terror beast, then one of its weaknesses had to be inside it. I paused for second, doubting my chances of getting close enough. I still had my javelin bazooka, but I was saving it for a crucial time, when I became truly desperate.
“Find a point of weakness,” I commanded my AI while circling the ship at high speed.
“Did you say please?” it responded me quickly.
“Is this a joke?”
“No its not, you need to say please.”
I felt a surge of anger rise from within me. Thankfully, I suppressed it and thought rationally. Definitely did not have time for this, but I swallowed my pride.
Out of options I urgently responded, “Please, may you find a weakness on that ship?”
I had never ever in my life begged an AI unit for anything, so doing this, for the first time, just felt degrading. Just what kind of modifications had that old man done to my AI unit? It wasn’t that I wasn’t thankful, but it was just so annoying to have to talk to my AI like it wasn’t a program unit designed to follow my commands.
“There are no weakness points on this ship,” it said, showing me the main layout of the ship taken by one of the drones. “The ship’s structure is very rigid and very hard to penetrate; assault on any caliber beneath level 3 is useless.”
Maybe! I briefly placed my assault rifle back in its holster, on my back, and concentrated on the alien ship’s laser system. Although, the ship had a hard exterior, its laser beam system was complex and less guarded. Pausing in the air, barely blinking, I counted the intervals between each time it charged and fired the laser. Last time, it had taken approximately thirty seconds; definitely not enough time to get close and fire an accurate shot. I quickly unsheathed my javelin bazooka and placed it firmly on my shoulder. The scope adjusted aimlessly at the moving target, giving me no clear shot at it.
I slowly followed the ship with my scope, aiming to fire a proton missile at the ship’s weapon, when it is getting ready to fire at me, like I had done with the lizard. My heart raced as I knew one mistake could end it all. Weapons aside, I seemed to have the advantage since I had the high ground. The ship paused steadily, in the air, as a large flash of red light erupted from it. I ducked quickly by twisting my body to the left, taking advantage of the momentum built within my left wing. The laser narrowly missed me by a few inches as it sped up into the air. I tilted my head down and pointed my javelin bazooka one more time, hoping to get an accurate shot.
“Now what?”
The ship suddenly started to shake heavily releasing massive jolts of energy. Without warning, the alien ship split into four smaller mobile units and began to attack me separately.
“Not good at all,” I quickly turned around and began soaring out of the way, trying to get some distance between myself and them.
The small ships followed me instantly, keeping up with me, despite all my attempts to shake them off. To make it worse, they were firing smaller random flashes of red lasers in every direction. I was barely able to evade them all, as one of the lasers blasted my left wing thrusters. I twisted my body towards the right as hard as I could, to stabilize myself and took a deep descent dive towards the ground. Three of the ships followed me down without hesitation while one remained behind motionless. Rather strange and odd, the small alien vehicle just hovered there motionlessly for a while. Just what was it doing?
Slowly but surely, I decreased my speed while carefully observing the three small ships coming towards me. Their movements were well coordinated and so fluid, it was hard to believe any person or alien could move like that. Wait, it started making sense now. I looked at them quickly just to make sure. As it turns out, I was right. The reasons these ships were so coordinated was because they were controlled by drones. However, the fourth ship was a different case, definitely had no idea if it was an alien or drone. I faintly slanted my whole body as I leveled myself, while flying a few meters above ground. The small ships still continued to fire at me, forcing me to take excessive measures in order to evade them.
“Head for the trees and make your stand there,” my AI shouted at me quickly from the explosions.
“That could work.”
Odds seemed more favorable for me below than in the air. My body jolted, a massive amount of pain rattling throughout my body. I had been hit by something terribly powerful like a laser. I staggered towards the ground and landed hastily through the thick, tall grass. For a few seconds, my head hurt and throbbed badly. I heard a loud buzzing noise as the ship passed above me quickly. I opened my eyes slowly, panting in pain. A slight electric buzz sound erupted from both my flight wings. It seemed I had been grounded permanently. The wings had been damaged beyond minor repairs; I couldn’t hover anymore, let alone fly. I took a long, hard glimpse around the terrain, trying to make sense of my new location. There were large mounds of rocks and hills around me—absolutely perfect. I could use the surrounding to hide and attack at will. The ships turned around and rocketed back towards me for another attack. My scanners went wild as one of the ships lowered itself, speeding straight towards me. By the time I could react, the ship was right in front of me. I ducked down by pushing myself forward, watching the ship to slither above me. For a minute, I dared not blink or move at all. The whole situation was starting to get out of hand. Clearly not what I signed up for, when I decided to come to this stupid planet.
If this was my end, I certainly didn’t want it to come lying down. Every fiber in my body told me to get up and fight. But what exactly was I fighting for? Any action I took only caused more turmoil and confusion. I wanted all the fighting to stop for good. My reason for being on this planet was to end the reign of terror caused by the beasts. It was then—I realized what I had to do; I had no choice, but to fight. If I wanted change, I had to fight for it.
Raising my weapon, my feet apart, my breath shallow, I took aim, showing no fear or hesitation. But it was still too soon to fight them. I dashed through the grass quickly and stopped, once I was well hidden out of sight. The alien drone ships flew past me, firing mercilessly through the terrain. I shielded myself with my hands while studying their rhythm and timing. Everything around me was slowly collapsing onto the ground, but I did not falter. I firmly stood my ground and raised my javelin bazooka when the opportunity came. One of the ships had decided to come in close to the ground, in a straight line. Perfect, I quickly aimed and fired directly at its laser mount system. Sixteen missiles shot out and hit the ship simultaneously. An explosion erupted as the ship went down fast and quickly. I found myself instinctively dodging to the left from a flaming steering system.
“One down, three more to go!”
Massive red flames consumed the ship before another explosion started. Something else was fueling this fire and it was not oxygen. This red burning fire seemed rather dangerous, meaning I had to stay away from it. I slowly took some steps back, while looking up in the sky. The small ships had began to attack again with extraordinary precision. Realizing I was in the open, I turned around and ran quickly through the area not covered in fire. I felt one of the ship come straight behind me, slowly closing in. With no way to turn and fire, I continued to run, searching for something to use to my advantage. Luckily, I found a tree not damaged and ran towards it. Not surprised, the ship followed me which played well to my plan. Just as I skidded past it, I turned around and maneuvered my body to the lining of the trees as fast as I could. The second ship flew past me as I aimed and fired at point blank. I felt my body tingle slightly with pain as I watched another explosion happen, near the ship’s gyro system. Not exactly how I planned, but it was better than nothing. Amazingly, I was doing better than I planned. Loud winds blew past me, sending a small ray of red fire my way. The fire was intense and burned hotter than regular oxygen fueled fire.
“You are kidding, right?”
As I was getting ready to attack again, the other drone ship sped past me going somewhere. On no, it was heading in the direction of our main ship. However, the one hovering above me just stayed there without moving. I took a gamble and tried to aim for the fleeing mini ship, but it was then, the fourth one attacked me. I bit my lip in frustration and turned my attention towards the forth ship which was descending down slowly. There was someone piloting it inside. I could see the heat signatures through my scanners. I slowly raised my javelin bazooka at the ship and aimed carefully towards it. Talking with the unknown enemy seemed to be out of the option, as the only way I saw things was to stop force with force. My com link went haywire as I lost full communication. It was like something was jamming the frequencies. Good, I had enough missiles to counter and strike, but the only problem was that I had no idea what the forth ship was going to do. It hovered gradually for a while, without making any threats at me. I slowly moved back, scanning for higher ground I could use to counter the threat. Suddenly, it fired a giant, massive laser at me, catching me off guard. I staggered to the ground while barely getting out of the way. The force of the laser was so strong that it nearly took my head off. I had been careless in letting the enemy get the best of me. Without the spare of the moment, the ship attacked again. I quickly ran out of its path, evading my imminent doom. The whole terrain was destroyed in a matter of seconds.