It turned away from Taylor and flew around the group, as if checking and logging every one of them.
"Maybe, or at least someone monitoring whatever it sees."
"What do we do?"
"Nothing until we have reason to do so, Parker."
Finally, the bug-like object reached Jafar and stopped dead. Something opened and rose from the centre of its body.
"Not good," said Taylor.
It flashed on top and something suddenly darted towards Jafar. He raised his shield just in time as the little dart of light struck and exploded in a flash. It took a chunk out of the metal.
"Bloody hell!" Abbot hollered.
Three more shots zoomed towards Jafar, and he held his shield up so they impacted on the surface. He rushed forwards and swung his Assegai to strike it, but the nimble little thing darted out of the way and fired two more shots. One struck his shield and the other the chest plate of his armour, burning a few millimetres in. It banked around trying to strike his back when Taylor slammed in a web round magazine and fired at it. The drone was engulfed by the web and dropped down to the ground. Jafar rushed up to it and raised his leg to stamp on it.
"No! Wait!" Taylor yelled.
It was too late. Jafar's foot landed square on and crushed the drone flat to the surface. He stepped back so that Taylor could take a closer look, but Taylor was more concerned with what was coming next.
"Spread out! Take up positions!"
They all looked confused but did as ordered.
"Whatever that was, your face pissed it off!" Taylor shouted at Jafar.
"You think there are more of them?"
Taylor looked at Parker. "I think that was just an observation drone, and whoever owns it ain't gonna be too happy we just crushed their toy!"
The ground around them began groaning as if they were about to experience an earthquake, but to their surprise the ground twenty metres away began to open. But it did not split as if being torn apart. It opened in a clean fashion similar to a door.
"What have you done?" Taylor asked.
From the hole a huge metal robotic looking monster arose on an escalator until it was level with the surface. It stood three metres tall and glistened in the sun. And yet it looked nothing like Krys technology. There were few harsh lines to the armour or crude components. It looked as though crafted by an aerospace engineer. It was humanoid in shape, but with a head recessed and small in scale compared to the body.
"What on earth is that?"
"I don't know, Eli, but I'm guessing it's not friendly," said Taylor.
Lights on its head and at several points in its body lit up, and it panned around as if scanning the area. It stopped when it pinpointed Jafar, just as the little drone had. It raised its right arm and what looked like an underslung weapon built into its arm flashed. Jafar leapt quickly out of the way as the impact landed where he had stood, blowing a metre-wide crater in the ground.
"Open fire!" Taylor ordered.
He took aim and held the trigger down. His shots strafed the body of the robot but barely scratched the surface. He looked back to Jafar who was doing the same.
"Run!"
Jafar leapt into a full sprint as another explosion burst out behind him. Taylor looked to Abbot and shouted, "Get that gun firing!"
But he could see they were already rushing to get it mounted on the tripod.
As Jafar ran, the robot raised the other arm and fired with both weapons. Explosions ignited all around him, one finally striking his shield, and Jafar disappeared into a ball of light and dust. His shield had disintegrated but managed to save him. He was flat on the ground and clearly stunned. Taylor could see he was struggling to get up. He took his shield off his arm and launched it with both his hands. It flew through the air with immense speed and struck the head of the robot so hard, it caused it to stumble back a step and its shot missed Jafar by several metres.
Taylor immediately leapt into a sprint towards the robot, and it now fired on him. The shots missed him by a fraction. He jumped and used his boosters to launch himself up into the air and land atop the huge metal beast. He got a good hold onto the side of its shoulder armour and drew out his Assegai, plunging it down into the head. He stabbed it three times, but it reached up and grabbed him with an iron grip and threw him off.
He flew through the air, and his boosters had no time to break his fall. He landed hard and tumbled over several times before coming to a stop. He got up in time to see the robot take aim at Jafar once again as he was trying to get to his feet.
"Hey!" Taylor shouted.
The creature turned its face enough to look at him without moving its guns.
"Fire!" Taylor ordered.
The two 50CMGs opened fire on full auto, and the heavy rounds smashed into the creature, knocking it back as if it were being punched by something its own size. Holes were ripped into its armour, and then a single shot went right through the head. It went limp, collapsing to the ground.
Nobody said a word for a moment as they tried to take it all in. It was Abbot who finally spoke.
"Got you, you mother fucker! Woohoo!"
But as he said it, the ground rumbled, and two more hatches opened. Robots like the first one rose up from the ground. Taylor staggered over to Jafar and helped him to his feet before standing ready with their Assegais.
"Well, this isn't good."
They waited for the robots to make the first move, but they did nothing. It was a standoff for ten seconds, and Parker whispered, "What are they waiting for?" They felt a smaller rumble in the ground that they could only imagine were more of the same giant robots coming to kill them. Instead, the ground a few metres from Taylor seemed to collapse in an organised manner and formed a stairway down beneath the surface.
"This city isn't dead," Taylor said, "Only question is, what the hell lives here?"
They waited anxiously, but did not take their hands off their weapons.
"We can't survive against many more of those things, Mitch," Parker said quietly.
"I know."
Three figures appeared from the stairway. They were as tall as Jafar but slighter built. They wore body-hugging clothing like the Mechs did beneath their armour. But this clothing seemed to be augmented with ultrafine plating and appeared as if armour that was skin fitting. Their heads were uncovered, their skin black as coal. Despite this, their facial characteristics had more in common with humans than Krys, except for flatter skulls and a much more defined and strong jawline. They seemed both terrifying, and highly intelligent and advanced at the same time.
"Who the fuck are you?" Abbot asked.
"Shhh," said Taylor, as Parker shook her head at him.
The creature at the centre finally spoke.
"This world is ours, and no other may lay claim to it. You may leave unharmed, but not that," the creature said, pointing at Jafar.
"We don't mean you any harm!" Taylor shouted.
"Then leave peacefully."
"I won't leave without my friend."
"Friend?" the creature asked in an inquisitive voice.
It seemed more surprised than anything else. It went silent as it looked at the two of them and thought.
"You stand beside them? Then you are our enemy, and you must suffer the same fate for stepping foot on this world!"
The robots’ weapon systems began to power up, and visors arose out of the aliens’ armours that encapsulated their faces so that they were now fully contained. Lights flashed on their forearms, and semi-translucent shields projected from a device on each of their left arms. Gun systems much like the robots used unfolded from their armour, and they took aim.
Oh, shit, thought Taylor.
He dropped the web round magazine from his rifle and slammed in a fresh regular one. He reached down for his shield and took up a stance ready to fight them, but he knew they were in deep trouble. As they were about to fire, they heard an almost deafening roar overhead as a gateway opened within the atmosphere,
and a Krys vessel appeared before them.
The three aliens looked up in amazement just as they did. The ship was coming down almost right on top of them. As it did, hundreds of Mechs leapt out as its descent slowed and came down to land as Taylor's people did using assisted boosters. They landed around their position and had them completely surrounded. The aliens before them looked to Taylor as if he were the cause of it.
"You see those things? Those are my enemy!"
The creatures looked confused.
“Those are the reason we are here! We have been fighting them for years now, and we just lost our world to them!”
“But you fight alongside one?”
“He’s a one in a million. They’ve come here to make us extinct. They are not our allies!”
He holstered his Assegai and picked up his rifle. The rest of his unit opened fire at the incoming troops.
“Kill them all!” he screamed.
Chapter 13
Kelly’s truck rolled into the hangar as it had a dozen times now. A crowd had gathered to greet them and cheer them on just as before. Their return was always a time for celebration. But as his truck came to a halt, the crowd could see the sombre tone on their faces. The cheering stopped when Kelly got out and climbed onto the hood to address them all.
“Today we lost friends, brothers in arms. We failed because our enemy outsmarted us. Mourn our friends who fell, but celebrate those who made it back. This is a war, and no war can be won without losses. The party goes on tonight all the same. We celebrate their lives, and we celebrate another day we are still alive!”
A few at the back started breaking out the drinks, but many stood stunned at the news. Kelly couldn’t bring himself to say anymore. He knew they led a limited existence that would end bloody, but that didn’t mean he had accepted the fact deep down. He climbed down and felt his back and legs tremble and feel weak. He was getting old, and there was no getting over that fact.
“You can’t win them all,” Becker said, passing Kelly a beer.
“That was my mission. My plan. It failed, and yet you offer me a drink?”
“We’re all dead. We just don’t know it yet. I’m alive right now, and that’s a fact I consider worth celebrating, don’t you think?”
Kelly laughed. It broke his sullen mood, and he was thankful to Becker for that. He was beginning to relax when a voice over the intercom rang out.
“We have incoming at the rear entrance. Armour and infantry.”
Kelly’s face turned to stone. He reached into the back of his truck, grabbed his rifle, and rushed out to the exit of the hangar.
“Everyone to your positions!” he ordered as he ran.
He got to the guardroom and found Engel supervising two of the guards observing the security screens.
“What is it? How many?”
“Sir…they appear to be…”
“What? Appear to be what?” he asked insistently.
“Human.”
Becker arrived at Kelly’s side in time to see an eight-wheeled armoured vehicle roll into view with three soldiers sitting atop it.
“Well, I’ll be damned.”
“They yours?”
“That vehicle right there is 1st Armoured Division out of Hannover. Last I heard they were fighting a hundred klicks north of here. I didn’t think any of them would have made it.”
“Armoured Division? That’s light hardware for an armoured division?”
“Recon elements, it’s probably all that made it out.”
He smiled and rushed out to greet them.
“Captain!” Kelly shouted.
He stopped in surprise.
“Caution, always. We don’t know yet they’re who you think they are, or their intentions.”
Becker’s face turned more serious.
“We let you in without opposition, did we not?”
“And you were lucky we were who we said we were. It was a terrible breach of security, if you think about it.”
“I’ll be sure to remember that.”
He carried on to the main doorway and hit the open switch. The metre-thick blast doors slid open before Kelly could reach him and say another word.
“You know the 1st?”
“One or two, not many.”
“So how do we know who they really are?”
“Relax, Commander. You’ll live longer.”
Kelly knew Becker’s carefree attitude would get them in trouble some day. He had no choice now but to wait and watch, as the vehicle column rolled into their base along the same path he had taken. It was some relief to him that they clearly knew the same route he did, but he still felt uneasy about strangers entering their compound at such a dangerous time.
Eight vehicles rode in. Many had troops atop them. They all looked exhausted and demoralised. Several of the vehicles had substantial damage caused by pulse weapons; and a couple of them were missing one or two of their wheels and yet still moving. They drew to a halt, and the troops clambered off, and others disembarked from inside the armoured transports. Not one of them said a word, but a man who was clearly their leader stepped up to Kelly and Becker. Becker showed no signs of recognising him, and he bore no rank on his uniform at all. Of if he did, it was concealed beneath the thick winter coat he wore. He did not salute nor say a word as he studied Kelly for a moment, and the Commander did likewise.
Finally, he paced up and wrapped his arms around Kelly to embrace him as a friend, despite the fact he had no idea who he was.
“Major Klein, honoured to meet you,” he said, “1st Armoured.”
“Commander Kelly, formerly of the MDF, and presently of the newly founded Dragons.”
Klein looked at him with a strange expression on his face.
“Dragons?”
“That is what we call ourselves. We have come together from so many places that we have decided to throw off old names and start anew. We are united as one now.”
“Then will you have us? We have nothing more than what you see here. Will you let us in, and fight what’s left of this war together?”
Becker couldn’t believe their luck, but Kelly was still suspicious of any strangers coming into the camp. However, he looked around at the faces of Klein’s people. He recognised the grim despair on their faces and knew exactly how it felt.
“Will your people stand beside mine and give it their all? Will they fight to the very end, to make the enemy suffer, until their last dying breath?” Kelly asked.
“You can be assured of that.”
“Then welcome to the Drachenburg!”
There was no excitement at the prospect, only relief as Klein embraced him once again.
* * *
Taylor roared and rushed forward, leaping into the air towards one of the Mechs descending from the ship above. He fired a burst of rifle fire and struck it with his shield, causing it to tumble head first into the ground. He landed on one knee and saw another of the Mechs coming down right on top of him. He slanted his shield across his body and down the ground, held his rifle out beside it, and emptied the clip into the creature. Its lifeless body smashed into his shield and slid down the ground. He shoved it aside and got back to his feet.
“Mitch!” Parker shouted.
He looked over to see she was pointing directly above him. He looked up and saw three Juggernauts descending towards him on a triangular steel rig with thrusters built in. He rolled out of the way as it smashed to the ground, and the beasts were released.
Taylor let go of his rifle and drew out his Assegai, knowing it was the only weapon he had that was worth using now. The three Juggernauts all turned their attention to him, almost as if they had been programmed to seek him out personally. He circled them and watched their every move. He knew he was playing with fire now because he had barely survived against one of them.
Where are you, Jafar? I need you now!
One of the Juggernauts finally rushed at him, and he spun out of the way, but the beast lightly clipped h
is shield. As he spun, he tried to thrust with his Assegai, but the strike went wide. In the open ground they now fought, he was finding out just how fast they were in a straight line.
“Taylor!” he heard a voice yell.
It was Jafar. His deep tone was unmistakeable. He looked over. Jafar was brandishing one of the 50CMGs, and Abbot stood before him with one of the modified shields supporting the barrel. Taylor quickly ducked down, watching and listening as Jafar pulled the trigger. The gun was horrendously loud compared to anything they used as infantry. Shots ripped through the first Juggernaut and cut it down quickly. The other two quickly responded to the danger as their programming forced them to do so. They rushed towards Jafar.
The Atlantis aliens watched the situation unfold without moving. It was as if they did not fear the battle before them at all and only viewed it out of curiosity, trying to understand the history that had led to this point. Most of all, Taylor could see the one who had spoken to him watching Jafar bravely take on the Juggernauts and risk his life for Taylor.
Jafar struck down another with the heavy weapon, but it jammed as it overheated from the sustained fire. He let it drop and drew his Assegai as the last Juggernaut smashed into him and sent him flying. Taylor rushed on over to help. As he approached the Juggernaut, Jafar leapt up and struck the creature with a wild swing that hit it so hard it staggered back. As it did so, Taylor thrust his Assegai into its back.
The ferocious creature straightened and then swung around to try and reach him. He ducked under and turned in the same direction it was turning and stabbed again. It let out a scream in pain and tried once more to reach for him, but this time Jafar got a hold of the creature and stabbed into its head. It quivered and finally dropped dead. Taylor stepped aside in time to save from being crushed by the corpse.
He nodded in appreciation to Jafar who wobbled a little, and it was clear he was still weak. Taylor took a hold of him as he dropped to one knee. He looked over to the Atlantis aliens who still watched him above all else. They seemed utterly oblivious to the battle. Pulses ignited around them, and yet somehow they were not hurt. He was not sure if they were invincible to the weapons in use, or merely mesmerised by what they saw.
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