by Jesse Wilson
Above the battlefield, he looked at all the fire and suddenly exploded. The black slime began to fall like rain in torrents all at once, covering everything in a thick coat of alien flesh, including the machine. It wasn’t a good idea, but it was the only one he could come up with.
The fire was quickly extinguished. Garmonbozia’s body attempted to reignite, but the black flesh quickly solidified around it. Immediately, spikes tore through the metal body of the weapon in all directions. The ocean of black slime slithered back into the machine through the openings, and seconds later, the machine body ripped itself apart as Narbosaurus reformed inside of it to its full size and form with a painful scream.
Metal body parts flew in all directions and landed on the scorched earth, sending black plumes of ash into the air. The beast stood there, surveying his work, clearly out of breath. Its incredible amount of energy was running low. Not wasting anymore time, it let loose its bright green rays from its mouth and hands. He ran the energy beams over all of the pieces that lay lifeless on the ground, shattering them into even smaller pieces of scrap metal.
“Well, it looks like you didn’t need me after all. Now we are just back to one major problem,” Heather said to no one, feeling almost cheated she didn’t get a chance to try and save the world.
“Garmonbozia was meant to battle against the things that created Narbosaurus. It has the technology and effort of seventeen different empires inside of it that tried to plan for any eventual outcome. We tried to make it unbeatable,” Xule said and Heather cut him off.
“All that teamwork, and no one thought to maybe put an off switch on it somewhere. That seems like a design flaw to me,” she said and he looked at her.
“The off switch was the destruction of the Xeloid race. It would never stop fighting until the battle was over. The perfect weapon so to speak, or so we figured,” he said. Despite claiming to know very little, Xule appeared to have more information than he was letting on.
“Well, it looks like the dinosaur found a pretty effective off switch to me because—” Heather was cut off when a powerful, ice-cold wind began to blow that reminded her of how all of this madness got started in the first place.
“What in the hell is that?” Madison shouted over the howling winds.
“It’s the machine reforming, it has to be,” Rose said but was barely heard over the windstorm from nowhere.
Narbosaurus appreciated the temperature drop, but only at first. As the temperature began to drop, the sky began to change. The black clouds exploded from nowhere above him, blotting out the sun and the blue sky entirely in minutes. The pieces of the machine rose into those clouds as if they were bullets, disappearing into the sky.
There was a great flash of bright blue light in the black clouds, and it began to snow at that instant. From the black clouds, Garmonbozia descended once more, but this time, it was as bright blue as the light that flashed in the sky. The wind stopped, but the temperature continued to drop. Garmonbozia landed on the ground with not even a sound of impact. In an instant, in its left hand a sword of ice formed; in the right a shield of thick ice.
Narbosaurus knew right then and there it had lost the battle. Both times it was attacked and beaten, it was with ice weapons. He attacked, his right arm extended across the battlefield at rapid speed, forming into a spike. Garmonbozia spun and sliced the tendril spike in half. The severed piece froze, fell to the earth, and shattered on impact.
He pulled back the arm, opened his mouth, and fired that bright green ray. The machine reacted faster, raising the shield. The green energy ray was deflected and bounced back at him. It hit him and knocked him over. He hit the ground so hard that it felt like an earthquake was taking place, and some of the more fragile things broke in the cold.
The machine leapt forward and brought that blade of ice down on Narbosaurus’s neck, slicing all the way through it. Its head froze instantly, and the rest of the body melted away to escape and reform, but shorter this time.
Garmonbozia readied for the next attack. Its eyes began to glow in anticipation for the coming victory when the alien armada fired, hitting the machine in the back by surprise. It stumbled forward, and Narbosaurus took the chance. He sprung forward and smashed his right fist into the machine’s face, only to watch his hand freeze painfully on contact and shatter.
The monster roared in pain, quickly retreating. He instantly knew that winning was ultimately impossible. A sliver of its black flesh shot off and flew to the humans down below in the form of Terra once again.
“We have a problem. This new ice form is where this fight ends, so if you have a plan, I’d like to hear it,” Terra said, but didn’t even notice Heather had joined the group. Xule stepped forward.
“We have a plan. Walk with me for a bit so I can explain what is going to happen next,” he said. Terra looked impatient as its core body screamed in the distance as the fight appeared to be picking up again.
“Let’s make this quick; neither of us has much time left,” Terra said as the two of them walked off.
“I wonder what that’s all about?” Bruce said and Heather liked this situation less by the second. “I don’t know. All I know is that all I had to do was ask the thing to stop and it would. Seemed pretty simple,” Heather replied.
“Nothing is ever that easy, and nothing ever takes five minutes,” Bruce said and stared at the two as they walked out of hearing range.
“Five minutes?” Heather asked him.
“Old video game reference and a slice of military truth is all. Not important really,” he replied to her and couldn’t help but shiver due to the unforgiving cold being generated by the weapon.
“The plan is…well…it’s simple,” Xule said to Terra as the two of them walked away.
“Spit it out, lizard; we don’t have much time,” Terra replied to him, wincing in pain as the sound of something shattering came from behind them.
“The robot needs a pilot. You need to put the human girl inside the robot, where its heart should be,” Xule whispered. Terra turned and looked at Heather.
“How am I supposed to do that? I can’t even touch this machine. She’s not going to like this when I tell her what I need to do,” Terra replied, not quite sure about this plan.
“If you tell her, she’ll only make this harder. When you get your first chance, you need to take it,” Xule said and looked at him, staring hard into the eyes of something that once, and still did, terrify him. He tried not to show it.
Terra looked towards the ground.
“If you’re sure this is what needs to be done, I’ll do it, but I don’t trust these people. No human being should have that much power. The emotion alone might destroy the world. I’ve been in their minds. They are filled with great potential for just about anything,” Terra replied and crossed her arms.
“Yeah, tell someone who cares. At least you can try and reason with emotion. Just get it done so we can avoid death for a little longer at least,” Xule said. With that, Terra’s body melted into black slime and shot back towards the battle happening in the distance. Xule walked back to the group and sighed.
“We have a plan to end this that doesn’t end in nuclear fire,” Xule said and Bruce looked at him.
“Care to share with the rest of the class or just keep it to yourself?” he asked Xule.
“For now, I need to just keep it to myself, but it will be revealed soon. Consider it a happy surprise,” he replied, swallowed, and could not come to look at Heather. She barely noticed, not wanting to miss a second of the titanic battle unlike any she’d ever seen, or anyone had ever seen in their lives.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Garmonbozia’s ice armored form was all but untouchable. Everything it, or that ice blade, came in contact with was instantly frozen. Jagged chunks of black frozen flesh lie all over the battlefield. Narbosaurus was doing his best to fight, but he was on the defensive and noticeably smaller than he had once been.
Garmonbozia was now much t
aller than the alien. The machine knew it was going to win, as much as a machine could truly know anything. It drew its blade back and threw it with such speed that it pierced the belly of the beast, and flew straight through the semi-solid body.
The damage was done, and Narbosaurus fell to the ground, screaming in pain as the frozen flesh spread out from the inflicted wound. As it hit the ground, Narbosaurus cracked in half at the waist, spilling black slushy flesh in all directions in rivers.
Garmonbozia outstretched its left hand. White mist swirled around it and quickly formed into another blade, identical to the one it had just thrown. In one swift motion, the massive robot seemed to slide over the earth and stood over the fallen alien beast’s head. It raised its blade to begin the final process of turning the monster into a frozen monument to its power for all to see.
While it was distracted, the ships of the alien armada opened fire. It was not quick enough to deflect the energy this time with its shield. All the ships took advantage of it, and the many assortment of beams struck the back of the machine all at the same time. The sparks flew, and the force of the attack knocked it forward.
Narbosaurus, what remained of it, took the chance, liquefied and escaped the incoming frozen machine as it fell to reform behind it. Only fifty meters of the beast remained intact, though it was still gigantic.
Compared to Garmonbozia, it might as well been an oversized toy the ice monster was more than willing to break into pieces. The blast the machine took did no damage. It stood up using its blade as a support and turned around, its face the same as it had ever been, mission unchanged.
Narbosaurus knew that shield deflected energy attacks, so it opened its mouth and fired its bright green ray. Predictably, the machine blocked it. Those green, hot energy rays spread out in all directions, slamming into frozen pieces of flesh on the ground. Melting them from their frozen tombs on impact, the smaller pieces immediately flew into the alien’s body, but it did little to improve the situation on his end.
There was a hint of fear in the deep yellow eyes of the beast; he had no other ideas or options on how to proceed in the battle. He gazed into the lifeless eyes of his enemy and felt despair; the haunting taste of defeat crept into his mind when the blue eyes flashed.
The signal for attacking it had come to know, dread, and even hate, hit him with a flash of inspiration. The beast steeled itself against the despair that ate at its soul and rushed forward. Its quick steps echoed like thunder, Garmonbozia was incapable of showing any kind of reaction besides raising its shield.
Narbosaurus expected this to happen. It thrust its arms forward, and they extended like spears, curving around, up and over the shield. The ends of his arms sharpened into serrated points and stabbed the machine’s eyes, shattering through them.
The outside of the spears froze, but the inside of the machine was hot. The warmth in the last desperation move was instantly felt. Garmonbozia staggered back on impact.
Narbosaurus grit its teeth, and despite its much smaller stature, it pressed forward until the spears broke through the back of its head. Wasting no time, the beast pulled back its arms with all the force it could to rip off the head of the machine, sending fire and black smoke from the damage.
Instead of falling to the ground, the headless machine threw its shield to the ground, took its ice blade in both hands by its hilt, and started walking forward. It took three steps and raised its blade above where its head used to be.
It fell over backwards, sending shards of ice and snow into the air in a giant plume of white mist. Tired and in extreme pain, Narbosaurus immediately began to blast his frozen flesh to reclaim it into his main body.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
It was clear the alien was at the end of his impressive reserves of energy. He was tired. Even his returning strands of flesh looked more like black, thick tar rather than smooth oil. He looked beaten. His black skin lost its shine, his eyes dull and half-closed, and large chunks of flesh from his tail and shoulders were still having trouble reforming.
He grunted his frustration, extended his right arm, and took hold of the hilt of the blade. He tore it from the hands of the machine, and without thinking about it, impaled the machine through its chest, nailing it to the ground in one stroke.
He broke his frozen hand off as he retracted his tendril arm and opened his mouth, unleashing a massive stream of bright green fire over the whole body of the weapon in yet another attempt to wipe it from existence.
The bright green inferno lasted only for a few seconds as the flames then turned pink; neon and blinding pink. Narbosaurus looked down in frustration, and he stepped back. The machine rose, head reformed with bright pink armor and its arms, instead of ending in fists, ended in minigun barrels.
The weapon finally acknowledged the ships that had been a nuisance this entire time and took aim at them. Its eyes burned with pink fire as the barrels began to spin with a high-pitched whine that soon became deafening. The sound could be heard through the thick metal walls of the ships, and Ulrix’s flesh crawled with fear.
“Abandon ship,” he ordered, but really had no need to; the intention of the weapon was obvious to everyone. The massive alliance ships started to try and get out of the way. Garmonbozia opened fire, but there were no bullets. Instead, it was a stream of light, pink laser lights firing so fast, it appeared to not be beams, but two solid streams of energy. The alien ships tried to avoid them, but it was useless. Everyone on the ground watched in horror as the pink energy shredded through the armor as if it were paper.
“It was only a matter of time before they became a target. The weapon, like anything else, will eventually defend itself against attack,” Xule said as they watched, doing his best to hide his emotion at the unfolding scene before them.
“All of your friends are dead. I’m sorry,” Rose said to him and Xule smirked.
“The ships might be wrecked but dead? Look there.” Xule pointed at what appeared to be falling metal shards.
“Escape pods,” Madison said and smiled for people she’d never met, glad they weren’t dead. At least, not all of them.
“Yeah, I only worry about the Tsburions; those ones aren’t exactly what you’d call normal,” Xule said as one of the beams cut into a deep grey, angular ship. It exploded with bright orange, burning liquid. “I worry about them because they only breathe molten rock, and are the only species we know of that does,” Xule said, but despite his worry, his tone of voice felt more sarcastic than actually concerned.
The small group of people watched as the ships were blasted out of the sky, crashing to the ground, sending hundreds of colors of fire from the wreckage as they crashed into the earth. If it hadn’t been so tragic, it might have been almost pretty.
Narbosaurus only watched as the fury of the weapon was unleashed on the ships, and knew that its chance to act was now. And the plan, as terrible as it was, was now or never. A shard of his flesh split off once more and formed into Terra as it landed in the group of people.
“The cold spell is over. If we are going to do this, Heather, now is the time. Come with me,” she said to her and Heather, more than ready to play her part in the role took a deep breath.
“You infect me and I’ll be unhappy about it,” she said to Terra and glared at her.
“I promise, no infection, as you call it. We have a job to do, so let’s get it done,” she replied and walked towards her. Everyone watched Heather walked towards her. Terra put her left arm around Heather, and as if she weighed nothing, swept her off her feet and held Heather in both of her arms.
“Monster carrying the girl is a bit cliché, isn’t it?” Heather asked as this was done.
“Nobody cares if it is or not, but yeah, it’s better than Plan B,” Terra replied, and with that, the two of them took off into the sky.
“So, all I have to do is ask it to stop. That’s the theory? Really?” Heather said again. It felt too simple to just be that.
“Apparently. I guess we
will find out now, won’t we,” Terra said. Heather looked at the massive amount of wreckage below them and could hardly believe it.
It looked so different from up here, despite the speed they were going. Before she knew it, they landed in the palm of Narbosaurus. Terra set Heather down on the shiny black skin. It was far more solid than Heather figured it would be.
“Now, I need to rejoin the body. It’s going to be a rough ride so hang on. I will help, but don’t depend on me completely. Good luck, and may your voice be loud,” Terra said and melted into the hand in an instant. Heather turned to face the machine; the black flesh melted over feet to keep her stable.
She struggled to keep her balance as the dinosaur began to move forward. The machine was just beginning to turn its attention back to the main fight it was involved in.
Garmonbozia turned its guns back on Narbosaurus; they were still spinning. Then, without missing a beat, it opened fire. Heather’s eyes widened as the fist of the beast closed around her.
“I will get you as close as I can; be ready,” a deep voice said to her in the blackness. Heather nodded to herself, and minutes later, everything began to shake, and the heat of the black space began to rise.
There was the smell of smoke and burning flesh that wasn’t reacting well to her stomach. It was vile, and the sound of tearing metal and the screaming of the beast echoed in the darkness. The violence must have been incredible, but through it all, the alien beast had kept its promise so far, and she wasn’t hurt in the slightest.
“Sorry about this,” the voice said to her. Heather was confused, but the light of the sun blinded her as the fist opened. She shielded her eyes only long enough to realize the black flesh was wrapping around her.
Before she could say anything, she was shot forward towards jagged hole in the chest of the pink armored machine and only then realized that talking had nothing to do with this. She screamed as she was thrown into the wound.