The man drew back his hand, and slung a rock.
The air rippled from around the soaring crystal and a massive pop sounded as it seemed to make a trail of glitter in the air. A fireball appeared in the distance and a gunship rattled into sight, but more gunships were taking its place. Harold heard a tremendous series of pops as he threw his crystal-like rocks, one after the other, with much more speed and force than was naturally possible.
They covered the distance in less than a second and rock after glimmering rock came to his hands, and gunship after gunship lurched out of control or crashed as he slung them at an incredible rate. Harold saw a few rail spikes hit him, and felt the backlash of their impact shockwaves. Six gunships were now disabled or retreating, and he turned to Harold.
The stranger’s armor had been pierced, but his skin had not been.
He placed his finger in his own ear, and Harold noticed that he was touching something that looked like the thing that Colonel Foxx had always had in his ear that he used to talk to his soldiers. Harold’s hearing was still confused, and it sounded like he was a long distance away, but he heard him.
“I say again, this is Stone. I don’t know how y’all do it, but they’re where I am. Find me and you’ll find them. They’re alive, but they’re both hurt. We’re surrounded and we won’t last long, so hurry up.”
Harold thought he heard a voice coming from the thing in Stone’s ear, but he could not understand what it said.
Stone made the lifting motion again, and Harold felt the ground shake. There was now a glittering rock-barrier behind him as well.
“Can you talk?” Stone asked.
Harold nodded, and said, “I’m better now, but I still can’t think clearly.”
“Well, Fire, you and Wind just hold on for a little longer. The Earth has got your back,” then Stone gave a wide smile, and as he turned to scan the area for enemies, he said, “Help is on the way.”
Harold’s eyesight had improved, and he noticed that despite his physique, Stone’s face betrayed that he was only about Harold’s age. Stone began pacing around, a fierce and nearly-mad grin on his face, the look of a man absolutely sure about his destiny. A sharp, glittering rock leaped into his hand, and he slung it at something out of Harold’s field of vision as a rail spike streaked by them. A loud bang sounded in the direction of Stone’s toss. Another rail spike flew and struck the barrier now in front of Harold. Then, Stone shouted as he raised his foot, and a monstrous boom sounded as he stomped the ground. Harold saw a wave of earth ripple out of his sight, and he heard another loud pop. Stone turned and looked back at the sky as an explosion sounded in the direction he had been facing.
As Stone began pacing again, glancing around for another High-Born to fight, Harold looked at Gabby. He did not want to look at her burns, but he did notice that her leg was still bleeding badly. He tore off one of her sleeves and wrapped it around the wound, and tied it as best as he could. He had quite a bit of difficulty as his arms and hands still felt numb.
Then it was as if another sun suddenly appeared above him, and Harold looked up. The sky actually seemed to rapidly change colors for a few seconds, and the bright light quickly faded into a small point that was hovering so high it could barely be seen. As the sky settled into an orangish color, several smaller lights broke off from the small point and they all began racing toward the ground. Not only were the flashing orbs moving so fast that they could hardly be seen, but they were also flying in erratic patterns around the rail spikes being shot at them. The flashing points quickly made it to just above the building tops and spread their strange light throughout the city as they zoomed around. Stone turned to Harold and smiled, and though he was still having trouble hearing, words were not needed to understand Stone’s gesture.
Harold looked across the city.
Dozens, if not hundreds of gunships were suddenly coming into view, and many hover tanks as well. Whatever the light was that had just hit the battlefield, it was causing the cloaks of the High-Born military to abruptly fail. All of the machinery were now only slightly transparent, and had a strange rainbow-like sheen to them, but they were far from being totally invisible. Now, Harold realized how defeated he had truly been.
There were still easily several hundred High-Born war machines.
His hearing was still lacking, but he felt a thump and knew that a rail cannon had been fired. An ashy shockwave whipped around him and he saw Stone stagger backwards. Harold could not believe he was still there. Stone caught his balance, but his shredded armor hung in jagged pieces from his massive frame, and Harold could see that a huge red welt now covered his chest and it reminded him of when he had been hit hard by one of Cooper’s sticks. As Stone turned, his eyes took on a greenish glow and a fierce scowl covered his face.
He raised his foot and stomped the ground with a powerful shout. A wave of earth rippled toward the tank, and a jagged, sparkling rock formation popped out of the ground and impaled the tank, causing its main gun to point up. Then, it exploded. Stone smiled at Harold and pointed toward the east.
Harold looked skyward, and could see several dark points on the horizon. He looked more closely, and quickly realized that they were not figments of his imagination. It was a group of metallic objects, and they had a strange rainbow-like sheen to them. He was not sure, but they looked like fighter jets. Harold noticed that the entire High-Born force had begun maneuvering to point their weapons to the sky. He turned back to the horizon and squinted. They are fighter jets! he thought. As best as he could tell, there were only about six or seven of them, but they were moving faster than anything he had ever seen.
Their shapes were becoming apparent, and they were not like any of the war planes that he had been allowed to see in the High-Born history books and the Vista. But, something in the orangish sky beyond them caught his attention...
...It was a single glint of light at first...
...and then another...
...and then a third one...
...then... almost all at once, the entire horizon behind the fighter jets filled with sparkling points of white and blue light.
Stone leaped out of his sight, but Harold saw the direction he had went, and he turned just in time to see him land on another hover tank. Harold could feel the noise in his chest as Stone’s fists slammed into it, denting and warping the hull with each strike. Stone yanked on its main cannon and the vehicle spun wildly into a building as he jumped off it, landing in the street. The tank began righting itself, but the ground rumbled as Stone stomped again, and the section of the building above the tank collapsed on it.
Harold looked across the burning city at the High-Born. All of them had finished training their weaponry on the sky, and he looked back toward the incoming fighter jets. The glimmering points of white light overtook the jets and sped by them, and he realized that they were actually dozens of missiles scalding the sky as they stormed toward the High-Born battle group.
High-Born rockets and friction trails streaked at the incoming air strike. Dozens of explosions covered the air space above the High-Born, and it looked as if they had destroyed the large missiles.
But the missiles had not been demolished at all.
They had suddenly become more than a hundred smaller missiles that screeched about like a nest of angry hornets seeking High-Born blood. Detonations and shockwaves roused clouds of dust and ash as the entire city rattled. Harold saw another volley of large missiles, and they too began exploding one after another as friction trails sped toward them. Smaller missiles spread all throughout the battlefield, and he saw dozens of more High-Born take hits as multiple explosions resounded. The fighter jets fired several rail spikes that scored hits, and then banked off erratically, twisting and rolling in between High-Born rail spikes.
Then, it was as if the sky itself fell.
Hundreds of friction trails began streaking in from above, plastering the ground, tearing through buildings, and shredding High-Born tanks and gunships as
the sky filled with man-like things. As the reports of their guns echoed over Harold, he looked at the things that began covering the sky. They resembled the armor that Colonel Foxx had worn in their last battle, and they reminded him of the High-Born mechanoids. They had forearm-mounted rail guns, and they attacked in waves, guns blazing. Their blue thrusters roared across the battlefield and dozens released miniature missiles that hit many of the High-Born as the first waves of them began banking around for another pass.
On the far side of the city, he could see the fighter jets circling on the city skyline coming back towards them, and starting another attack run. Harold’s heart dropped to his stomach when he saw the jets had the head of a white eagle painted on each of their noses.
Stone ducked as a rail spike flew above him. He stomped the ground, and a wave of earth rattled a jagged formation out of the ground that impaled and destroyed another tank. Two more rail spikes flew in from behind him, and one narrowly missed, but the other struck him in the back with a massive pop. Stone staggered again, catching himself with his hands as he turned to face the other two tanks that had maneuvered behind their position.
The rush of rocket engines blared, and two near-simultaneous explosions sent shockwaves around them. He was surprised by how quiet the two fighter jets were when they streaked just above him. But as they sped into the city skyline, Harold heard the air splitting behind him, and then a deafening, rolling thunder washed over him, Gabby, and Stone. He watched the fighters’ whitish-blue thrusters burn as they banked in different directions, spinning and dashing in between incoming rail spikes. The eyes of the white eagles appeared to glow as their own rail guns striped the orange sky and tore apart two High-Born gunships.
As Stone stomped the ground again, Harold turned to Gabby.
Her eyes were still closed, but she had started moving, and the look on her face told him that she was in severe pain. He looked at the burns now. They were worse than he expected, but at least the bleeding from her leg had stopped where he had tied it. He stroked her face, and though she did not open her eyes, she grabbed his hand. Harold could feel himself coming back to awareness, and he noticed that he could hear better now.
Rocket engines blasted from above, and he looked up. Two of the man-like things were just overhead, hovering, rail guns thundering as their bluish thrusters screamed in a circle around him. Their heads darted from side to side and several missiles flew from them, streaking off into the city while their jet engines whipped air around Harold. Explosions sounded out of his field of vision, and Harold felt a thump in the ground around him as they landed.
They were made completely of a dark-colored metal, and were slightly larger than Stone, and they had what looked like large backpacks from which two small wings protruded. They also had two thrusters on the backpack piece, and two more rocket engines seemingly attached to their lower legs, and they had small air fins on the back of their lower legs.
As these two things formed a triangle along with Stone around him and Gabby, Harold looked at their heads. They had two small antennae on either side of their headpiece, and the dark-tinted visors reminded him of the ones that High-Born soldiers wore, and were where their faces should have been. Suddenly, the visor of the thing closest to him began rising...
...to reveal the face of a smiling man...
Then, Harold realized that they were not man-like things at all, nor were they AI robots either. They were normal people piloting some sort of large mechanical suit. Harold recognized a strange emblem on the shoulder of the one nearest him. It was the one that he and Sarah had seen in Scott’s secret base that day. It was a rectangle that had red and white stripes with a square patch of blue in its left corner, and stars inside of the blue.
The man inside said, “Archangel, this is Rat-Trap! We have the two Elementals, sir! They’re injured, but they’re alive, and they’re on my location! Stone, D-Con, and I have set up a defensive perimeter, sir!”
“Roger that, Rat-Trap,” another voice within the suit called. “Hold the line!”
“Yes, sir!” the man said and gave Harold a reassuring smile, and then spoke to him directly. “Sit tight, Blaze! You take care of Aireon because you’re not alone in this fight anymore! We’ve hidden for long enough! I’m Major David Young with the United States ATLAS Corps, and we’re here to extract you!”
While his visor slid back into place, a powerful humming came from his guns and his suit’s gears and motors whirred as he turned to face the High-Born. Harold looked at a symbol below his emblem. There was the picture of a bearded giant stepping out of a sparkling ocean. His hands were stretched above him, and he appeared to be holding the red, white, and blue symbol aloft in a fiery sky, and pieces of the sky seemed to be falling all around him. Around the outline of the man were the words:
U. S. A. C.
We Hold The Sky
On his other shoulder, Harold noticed a painting of a large eagle with an open beak, and its outstretched talons were reaching for a scurrying white rat with red eyes. Above the eagle it read:
All-Terrain Land Air Sea
Armored Corps
And below the rat were the words:
Rat-Trap
Screaming Eagles Squadron
Chapter 49
“All right, you two!” Rat-Trap’s voice came through speakers on the sides of his helmet. “It’s time to dust these lab rats!” he motioned toward the High-Born as he looked at Stone and D-Con. “Hold the line! Stone, give us some cover!”
“With pleasure!” Stone smiled.
Stone turned his attention to the ground and slightly squatted while lowering his hands, and then stood as if lifting something heavy. As he raised his hands, the ground rumbled and jagged formations of the dark-colored, glittering rock rose from the earth in front of him, Rat-Trap, and D-Con. The two armored soldiers clanked as they ran and took up position at either end of the newly-formed barrier.
They were right on the edge of the massive crater that Blaze and Aireon had created and Stone’s first wall was just behind them, and beyond that was an open space full of fighting. And just in front of them was the burning cityscape full of advancing High-Born.
“Sir!” D-Con called. “I’ve got two tanks rounding the corner, and four or five more attempting to flank.”
“I’ve got a column about 150 meters out, and it looks like about a half-dozen attempting to flank!” Rat-Trap answered.
Both of them used the edge to cover themselves, and fired on a separate tank. They scored direct hits, but the tanks actually survived the blasts despite being clearly damaged. They returned fire and Rat-Trap and D-Con snapped their arms back as rail spikes hit their cover.
“Uh, oh,” Rat-Trap said.
“I see them too, sir,” D-Con answered.
Several gunships were flying down the city streets using the natural corridor that the buildings created for cover from the roaring fighter jets. As they went through the shadows cast by the buildings, they would all but disappear, but when they re-entered the light shining from above, they once again came into full view. Ground troops and mechanoids were jumping out of them, firing as they advanced.
Harold could hardly believe that they were sending them in, but then he realized that they knew that he and Gabby were badly hurt and could not stop them. They obviously did not know about Stone because Harold had already recognized that he was many times stronger than both him and Gabby, and was apparently nearly bullet proof. Ground troops, not even High-Born grunts and their mechanoids, would stand a chance against him.
Rat-Trap and D-Con leaned around their cover and opened up with their rail guns. Explosions sounded and the cloaks on several gunships failed, but they returned fire, and several of the tanks did also. It amazed Harold at how stout the rocks Stone could raise actually were. Rail guns could tear through steel and concrete as easily as they could wood, but the spikes just ricocheted or imbedded in the rock. Harold could see pieces of the rocks shearing off, so they wouldn’t la
st forever, but their resiliency was incredible.
Several missiles darted above them, and slammed into the gunships. Debris and fire showered down into the city beyond as one of the fighter jets passed above them, rail cannons ripping into several more gunships as the burning buildings rattled in the wake of its trailing thunder. As it streaked back off into the orange sky, Rat-Trap and D-Con peeked out again and popped off several more shots, then ducked back behind the wall as more rail spikes slammed into it.
The ground began rumbling and Harold looked at Stone. He was yelling at the top of his lungs and stomping the ground furiously in the direction of one of the larger buildings. The remains of the building that had not been blown away or already shot up were still about eight to ten stories tall. Tanks were on the backside of it and had begun shooting through it, and rail spikes were impacting part of Stone’s outer barrier. Harold noticed that the building was starting to crumble as Rat-Trap and D-Con darted in and out of cover, constantly firing. Then, missile blasts impacted the barriers and a momentary fire whipped through their central area as part of the explosion got over Stone’s walls. Harold covered Gabby, and quickly looked back up. Stone apparently had not been affected, and was now raising his hands like he was lifting something. Rat-Trap and D-Con seemed fine as well, and he gave them a thumb’s up.
The building that Stone was trying to fell finally began collapsing. And with a massive, but sudden upsurge of the ground in front of it, Stone sent waves of falling steel and concrete crashing down onto at least a half-dozen tanks on the backside of the building. A wave of smoke, dust, and ash shot out from the building as it became rubble.
“What is their problem?” D-Con shouted above the cacophony. “We’re lighting them up! They should’ve already retreated!”
“They know how important these two are!” Rat-Trap answered as he pointed at Harold and Gabby. “They know they’ll likely not get another chance at them if we can extract them. The Angry Angels report that sat-intel shows lab rat reinforcements are inbound. A whole bunch of them, in fact. It looks like they’ve even dispatched bats, too. The bats’ ETA is about fifteen minutes, and the main battle group is about fifteen minutes behind them. I doubt the bats will engage without the battle group though, even they couldn’t handle the firepower we have here right now. The Angry Angels also report that about 85 percent of the enemy force has been eliminated, but the remainder seems to be rallying to push on our position while these guys keep us pinned.”
Blaze (The High-Born Epic) Page 38