Chaos wasn't the only one with them. Four Chaos Generals were beside him while another one held Matthew up. They all wore the standard Chaos Marine armour but with white highlights throughout their armours.
Sam heard someone speak, and then he heard groans and grunts. Chaos let him fall to the ground. Sam still wasn't completely in the right state of mind so he just lay there. He saw Matthew's face. His mouth was moving but Sam couldn't hear what he was saying. Matthew grabbed Sam's wrist and slammed his hand on Sam's gauntlet. Matthew had activated Sam's beast mode. He forced Sam onto his feet and pointed off into the distance. Sam nodded and the both of them jumped off the veranda onto the soft red sand that the planet was covered in.
Sam became more aware of everything as he ran along the sand with Matthew next to him.
"Okay, okay, we have stop. What the hell just happened?" he asked, stopping.
"Chaos just attacked the base - well, more like blew it up. We had to get you out of there," Matthew explained. He was in a new armour that Sam hadn't seen before, and it looked like a new beast mode.
"We?" Sam asked. Taine flew down to them in his beast form.
"I saved you both back there. While Chaos was focused on you two I activated my beast form and attacked them. One of them dropped Matthew, who helped you get out of there. After that I just flew away to catch up to you two."
"We need to go back. The General and the rest of my team are back there."
"We can't, Sam. Chaos has thousands of marines and a few dozen Chaos Generals. We wouldn't stand a chance. I'm sorry," Matthew said, lowering his head.
"No, you two did what you both thought was best and I'm grateful. Where are we going?"
"Dad said there was a small town not far from the base, and that if the base was ever severely attacked, we all were to go there." Matthew pointed with his head.
"Alright fine. Let's get there then. Then we'll think about how we're gonna do this," Sam said, following Matthew and Taine.
It took a few minutes of full on sprinting to get to the nearest town. It was a small red sandstone town, not too advanced in technology. The people got out of the marines' ways as they bounded through the town. Sam, Matthew and Taine stopped near a fountain in the centre of the town, and deactivated their beast forms and modes.
Sam began to walk around, frantically trying to figure out what to do. A harsh light appeared in front of them and when it died down a figure kneeling on one knee was left. He stood up and his dark blue armour was covered in sand - not the red sand of the planet they were on but a black sand.
"Who are you?" Sam asked, stopping and staring.
"I'm here to help. And what, Sam? You can't even remember your best friend," the Marine said as he took off his helmet.
"Lucas!" Sam said with shock in his voice.
9: Indecision
"My name isn't Lucas, not when I have my armour on. I go by Omega."
"Holy crap, dude. How long has it been?" Sam asked.
"A few years. After Malcolm trained me I was visited by someone who recruited me and a few others. I've been with them since then."
"Uhh, don't we have something more important to do than catch up with old friends?" Taine asked as he landed next to them, his wings stirring the red sand under their feet.
"Oh my God, I can't believe that even for a second I forgot about the base. Lucas … uhh, Omega, can you help us retake the base?" Sam asked.
"That's what I'm here for but first I'm gonna have to teach about how to use your new elements."
"We have no time for that. We have to go back and rescue everyone," Taine yelled, objecting to Omega's statement.
"Everyone at your base will be safe. Chaos won't kill any of them, knowing what you can do, Sam."
"What can I do?"
"I thought you … ahh, never mind. I know Malcolm and I know that he and his team wouldn't let any harm come to your friends."
"I still want to get back there as soon as possible. I don't like having my team under Chaos' reign."
"Fine then, I won't teach you how to use your elements. You just come up with a plan and then get back there, if that's what you want, Sam," Omega said, finally giving in.
"I don't know. I want to learn how to use my Element but I also want to rescue everyone."
"Well, why don't you and one of your team head back to the base and try to fight Chaos while I train the other one? That way you have a person who can use their element confidently and you can save your friends relatively quickly."
"Okay, I'll go. Matthew and Taine, stay here."
"But Sam…"
"No, Matthew, you and Taine stay here - that's an order. I don't care much for my element so I don't have to learn how to use it. Please don't stop me. I'll try to hold Chaos off until you three arrive. See ya."
Sam activated his beast mode and ran back to the base, leaving Taine and Matthew with Omega to learn how to use their elements.
10: Confrontation
It didn't take Sam long to find the base and the thousand Chaos Marines guarding it. He sprinted toward them, switched to humanoid mode and began slashing away at them with laser blades and gunning them down with his gatlers. It wasn't enough though - they began to fight back and they quickly overwhelmed Sam.
The planet began to rumble and a shadow passed overhead. Sam saw Jareth land in the middle of a squad of Chaos Marines. Jareth spun around once and back flipped, causing the ground around the Chaos Marines to crack and splinter, sending shards of rock around that shattered the constructs.
Jareth landed beside Sam and activated his beast armour.
"What the hell, Jareth? I thought I told you to stay in your room."
"To hell with your orders. I'm not just gonna sit by and watch my brother get overwhelmed by Chaos Marines."
"Where's everyone else?" Sam asked as they became surrounded by Chaos Marines.
"Athena and Hades got them out of the base after the initial attack. Every other marine is locked in the detention block under the base. Chaos made sure that none of them got hurt."
"Why'd he do that?"
"So that he could have more Chaos Marines when he took over the Earth."
"Yeah, that sounds like him," Sam said as they began to eat away at the Chaos Marine force.
Minutes passed as Sam and Jareth took out over half of the Chaos Marine army, but when one died three more took its place. They were slowly weakening while the Chaos Marines kept gaining numbers and advancing.
"Sam! Look out!" a shout came from Sam's left. He looked over to see Cheyenne, Lachlan, Hades and Athena running to help them. Lachlan was the one that had called out.
In that moment where Sam took his eyes off the Chaos Marines, a large fist dug into Sam's stomach, flinging him up and away for the main Chaos Marine army. Sam landed hard on his front. He could feel that a few of his ribs had broken when he'd impacted the ground. He felt blood in his mouth and his tongue began to ache. He realised that he'd bitten it as he landed and he had bitten deep. His speech was now impaired and he didn't think he'd ever be able to speak normally again.
He got up, wiped the blood from his mouth and found that Chaos was walking toward him, his hand balled in a fist. Chaos drew closer while Sam stood there waiting for him. Chaos drew his fist back and swung at Sam, who ducked under the fist and tried to tackle Chaos to the ground. Chaos didn't budge as Sam put his entire weight into trying to push the hulk of a man.
Chaos grabbed Sam's shoulders and swung him around a few times before flinging him away again. Sam landed into a roll. He could see the sky turning into the ground and vice versa. When the world stopped spinning, Sam couldn't tell which way was up. He tried to get up but Chaos had closed the distance and dealt a kick right into Sam's side, sending him into another roll.
Sam stood up again and faced Chaos. His armour was now all but useless. It was cracked and broken with whole sections missing. Half of his helmet had disintegrated mid-roll and now he could see Chaos clearly with one eye and his
HUD through the other, not that his HUD was working. His gatlers and laser blades had stopped working. His only weapon left was his nail launchers but they were useless against such a heavy armoured armour.
Sam ran for Chaos and brought his fist back, ready for a punch. Chaos stood his ground and also readied his fist. They punched, their fists meeting at the exact apex of the punch, but Chaos punched harder. As soon as they touched, a shock wave was formed. It was enough to fully disintegrate Sam's armour and send him flying. Without his armour to protect him from the impact, Sam was essentially helpless as he slammed into the ground. He could feel his bones shatter with each hit.
Sam hit a stone that wasn't there before. He looked around and saw that Jareth had stopped his roll by making a wall, which Sam had slammed into. He was grateful for it but the wall had still hurt when he'd smacked into it back first. Sam knew that he wasn't going to recover from this quickly, if he survived.
Sam stood up and looked at his gauntlet. Its screen was cracked but not unreadable, although the wrist it was clasped to was fully shattered. Sam moved his arm and saw his hand flop. It didn't matter as long as he had an armour on. He slammed his palm against the gauntlet and activated his defender armour.
Chaos ran toward him. Sam looked past him and saw how far away they were from the base. Sam quickly snapped out of it and activated his shield, seconds before Chaos would have crushed his skull. Sam could feel the shield falter each time Chaos struck him. Sam held his trident in one hand in front of him, but he could feel his strength and his consciousness fading.
Chaos balled both of his fists together and brought them down, smashing the shield. He grabbed Sam by the head and held him above the ground. Sam didn't try to fight it - he knew that this was the end.
"I'm not gonna end it here. I want all of your friends to see you die," Chaos taunted. He threw Sam back the way they came. Luckily Sam activated another shield before he hit the ground so the impact didn't jolt him as much.
"Sam!" his team shouted as they saw him stand from the throw. He wanted to respond but his tongue was too far gone. He looked down and saw that defender was breaking apart too. He would need a new armour once this was all done, if he survived.
Chaos' strides turned into a run as he tried to close the gap between them. He didn't get far before a bolt of white lightning struck him down. Matthew appeared next to Sam out of nowhere and Taine flew down next to them. Both were in their beast forms. Omega came out of the ground next to Taine.
"They both know the basics of their elements, so my job is done although I'll stick around to see Chaos be defeated. I'll go and handle the Chaos Generals," Omega said, walking past Sam heading back to the base.
"We'll go, too. Good luck Sam," Hades said, following Omega, followed by Athena.
Sam thought to himself about the situation. 'How the hell am I supposed to do this I have no useful armours. After defender I just have my terminator armour. Maybe I should try to hold him off until my team can escape.'
Suddenly something happened that Sam couldn't understand - he could hear Matthew's voice in his head. 'Don't, Sam. We're a team for a reason. Remember the pledge we all took. "I will now and until I die serve under Sam's every word and order, I will fight alongside him until my dying breath". We're here for you. Now and always.'
Sam looked over to him and saw that all three of Matthew's heads were looking at him. His team also added their voices in his head, all agreeing with Matthew's statement.
'Thanks everyone but this is my fight. I'll handle it. Just make sure the Chaos Marines don't get in my way.'
'Hoorah,' they all thought.
"Do you think he'll make it?"
"I hope so. But if he doesn't, we can just try one of the other ones."
"But they both have Darkness in them."
"It's not the Darkness Element we need to worry about. It's the Chaos Element."
"But didn't Gamma say that they were the same?"
"Yes but not everything Gamma says is true. Theta, I've lived for over a thousand years and I'll live a thousand more. I've seen things that you can't possibly imagine, and I think I know the difference between the Darkness Element and the Chaos Element. Trust me on this."
"Yes. Lord Alpha."
11: The New Powers
Sam faced Chaos, and had taken serious damage while Chaos had taken very little. For some reason Sam hadn't felt weakened whenever Chaos had hit him.
Chaos charged at Sam, who stood his ground raising a shield. He knew that Chaos was just going to break through but he was expecting it. Chaos brought his fists down upon it again and it shattered, the shards disappearing before they touched the ground. Sam dashed around Chaos and out of arms reach. He fired three nails into Chaos' back, remembering where Matthew had told him about Chaos' weakness. The nails bounced off harmlessly. Obviously Chaos had learnt from before and had reinforced his armour.
Chaos turned to face Sam and only then did Sam realise that Chaos was panting. He clearly was exhausted but armours were designed to stop exhaustion, to keep the wearer able to fight. Chaos' shoulders moved up and down with the beat of his breathing. Sam could hear him groaning, possibly out of anger or just out of tiredness.
Chaos ran for Sam again. Sam dodged out of the way but it wasn't far enough. Chaos caught him and held him up with one hand. He made Sam face his team mates before plunging his claws through Sam's back and out through the front. Sam felt all of his organs burst as the claws perforated them all. He felt the wind rush out of lungs and his heart begin to slow. His face became covered in dread. Sam felt everything just leave him as Chaos slowly pulled his claws out of Sam's body.
Chaos let go of Sam and let him fall onto his knees. Sam's face was blank, his eyes void of any emotion. But Chaos didn't stop there.
Sam, still aware of everything but helpless to do anything, felt something being torn from his body. He looked to his right, to where is arm was, or used to be. He saw an arm lying beside him - his arm. He tried to scream, expecting pain, but nothing came - not even tears as he realised just how useless everything was. He felt a boot against his left side as Chaos tore the other arm from its socket. Sam looked at the stump which was where his arm used to be. He finally knew that it was all over for him.
"Sam, no!" Matthew yelled, seeing his team leader fall onto his knees. He felt anger surge within him as he saw Chaos tear off each of Sam's arms and throw them away like a boy would do to his sister's dolls.
Matthew forgot about the Chaos Marines that surrounded them and ran to help Sam. Lachlan grabbed him and held him back. Matthew looked over at his team and saw that they too had given up on fighting the Chaos Marines. Jareth just stood there staring at his brother. Cheyenne tried to comfort him but he just kept staring at his brother's lifeless body.
The next few seconds were a blur as Matthew tried to think about everything at once. Jareth had yelled something that Matthew thought was "Shadow Chimera" but Jareth's beast form was Earthen Chimera. No, he had said Shadow. His beast form had changed, and now Chimera was cloaked in darkness, with darkness wafting off his paws with each step he took as he bounded toward Chaos. Jareth jumped on top of Chaos and began to claw away at him, just like he had done with Matthew.
All at once everything came back to reality and the situation worsened. The Chaos Marines resumed their attack on the marines. Cheyenne was the first to recover and began to hack away violently at the Chaos Marines, slicing them apart with ease. Taine began to rain down lightning everywhere, charring the ground and burning Chaos Marines. Lachlan - now Fenrir - leaped into the Chaos Marine army and began tearing them to shreds. That left Matthew, who stood there unsure of what to do. Should he help Jareth try to kill Chaos? Should he help Lachlan and Cheyenne take down the Chaos Marines? Or should he try to help Sam? No, Sam was dead and nothing would bring him back.
Sam thought he was hearing things. He could hear voices in his head … no, it was just one, and it was getting louder.
'Sam please ge
t up, you can do this. You're my son and you must realise the power you possess.'
It was his father's voice but his father had died the previous year trying to hold off the Chaos Marines.
'No, I'm not dead, Sam. I've just been helping some old friends. Now get up and fight.'
'I can't, Dad. Chaos has ripped both of my arms off and severed my spinal column and torn every organ in my body.'
'Sam, you're not just a fire Elemental. You're a light Elemental. As long as there is light around you, you can heal any wound - any injury that you may encounter. You're more powerful then you can ever imagine. Now get up and fight. I'll unlock an armour for you. It's the most powerful of the basic armours - use it to defeat Chaos. I'm proud of you.'
His father's voice was gone and now it was up to Sam. He realised that he was now standing, on his feet. Everyone else realised it too and was staring at him. Even Chaos, who for some reason was standing over Jareth's body, was staring at him.
Sam looked up and saw the yellow sun. He instantly felt his injuries begin to heal. He lowered his head back to Chaos. Sam felt tingling as he looked over at his arms which were still lying there. They began to glow and Sam began to feel the feeling in his arms return. The light began to shape itself around where his arms used to be and slowly formed new arms. Sam twisted them as they began to solidify. He also felt his internal injuries heal over - his lungs filled with air and his body began to pump blood again. He looked down at his hand and saw that a new golden gauntlet sat on his wrist.
He looked over at Chaos. Sam closed his eyes and took a deep breath before reopening his eyes, holding his arm up with his gauntlet facing Chaos, and yelling, "Golden Defender Armour, activate!"
Now he could finish it.
The Chaos Saga Page 14