There were several groups like theirs hidden in places all over the city. Some groups were hidden in trucks, others in basements. Some in the upper floors of buildings. Her group had found a place to hide that was just a few rooms off of the lobby of a building in Capitol District. They were all waiting for the signal.
She could hear the roar of gunships passing by. The engines were loud. Civic Protection also had tanks, which carried powerful canons and rockets. Her group carried assault rifles and grenades. A few of them had some explosives. They were also prepared to take weapons off of fallen enemy soldiers if they needed to.
There was a network vid on the wall in the lobby, and they could hear the voice of a newscaster. He was telling everyone to stay inside, stay out of Civic Protection’s way. Suddenly they could hear a loud pop in the distance, and the sound of the network vid became silence. There was then the sound of static. The transmission had been broken.
“That’s it,” she said to the group, “lets move out.” They all moved in a line, and headed to the doorway of the lobby. They could see the line of Civic Protection soldiers and vehicles patrolling the streets. She held up a hand and stopped the resistance group as they reached the doors. She waited until the soldiers reached a point on the road in front of the building, and then she activated a remote. Several explosions surrounded the soldiers as she activated the bombs her group had planted.
In the confusion she guided the group outside, and they tossed grenades at the remaining soldiers, then began firing onto them. They took cover behind several parked cars. The surviving soldiers began firing back. There were shouts of orders, and screams of men who were injured or dying.
She could hear the bullets whistle by her head, and ping on the walls and concrete around her. Her brother hunched next to her, peeking around the corner as he took shots at the soldiers.
105
Khaleel and the rest of his group were headed to the main Civic Protection stronghold in East District. They had begun moving through the building to avoid the gunships. They had already lost three men to the armored flying vessels. The gunships were the most difficult to defeat; they had to avoid them more than anything.
He tried to listen in on their frequencies, since Civic Protection wasn’t worried about keeping their radio broadcasts quiet anymore.
His group reached the end of the building they were in, and began to climb two levels down to the alley below through the fire escape. They could hear gunfire and explosions erupting from all around them. Khaleel could see that the building across the street from the alley was on fire. Pieces of it were starting to fall. He hurried the rest of the group across the alley, where they entered the next building through a side door.
It was like that for the next twenty minutes as they entered and exited two more buildings as fast as they could. Eventually they reached the end, where there was a large intersection. On the other corner of that intersection was the Civic Protection East District main headquarters. There were soldiers and tanks forming a perimeter around the building. There were also metal barriers and razor wire that had been placed around the entrance.
There was another group of resistance fighters on the opposite side of the street. They also were firing at the soldiers. The soldiers returned fire, as did two of the tanks. Khaleel’s group fired with them, ducking behind the building’s columns and parked cars for cover. A gunship suddenly appeared from behind the headquarters, and hovered over the soldiers guarding the headquarters. It began firing on Khaleel’s group. Two of his men were shot, and he yelled for them to fall back, take cover. The gunship fired several more rounds before turning to the other group.
Khaleel watched the gunship from his hidden position. We’ll never get inside with the gunship in front of the headquarters. He turned to his men and ordered them to split into two groups. One would stay down at the doorway of their building taking cover and firing at the soldiers and gunship. The other group would follow him. He led them to the rooftop, where they began firing on the gunship. The ship began raising its altitude to their level, firing on them. Just as Khaleel predicted, the gunship began to approach them.
Before they started firing, he had the group tie the end of a steel cable they had used for repelling to some of the support beams that were down on the top floor of the building. The other end of the cable had a large metal hook. He waited until the gunship was close enough, and he began to swing the hook. When he was comfortable with the speed, he released the cable. The hook flew forward and downward, into the right propeller of the gunship. The cable tightened as the cord became tangled in the propeller, and the ship’s right motor broke down. The propeller flew off its axle, tearing into the side of the gunship.
The ship began to fall, landing right over the Civic Protection troops and in front of the headquarters. There was an explosion, followed by several more explosions due to the tanks being caught in the wreckage. Khaleel smiled a little as he heard other resistance members cheering from the streets below as they stormed the building. This is it, he thought as he ran down the stairs to join the fight again.
106
Hundreds of soldiers were posted around the capital, standing guard, ready for the attack by the resistance. Although they could hear gunfire and explosions all around the city, this particular group was ordered to stand guard. Most of the soldiers and tanks were focused on the rubble of what had been a tall, standing building a day ago. There had been no stir since it’s collapse with the hunter inside. There were a few small fires that had to be put out, but now the smoking rubble stood silent. They knew the Hunter was buried underneath somewhere.
Suddenly a loud creaking could be heard from deep inside the rubble. Some of the men nearest it glanced over at each other, suddenly nervous at the noise. It was quiet for a few more moments. One soldier exhaled a sigh of relief, attributing the noise to just some of the rubble settling.
Suddenly several large pieces of concrete burst out of the pile, flying into the soldiers’ line. More dust was raised into the air as metal and broken glass flew upward. Several of the men became injured from the flying debris, and it became difficult to get a visual through the dust.
One soldier who’d barely dodged the rubble was able to glimpse through, and he saw an arm raise out of the debris. The arm looked armored, like it was made of a gray metal. This arm was followed by another arm, although this second arm looked inhuman. It had enormous claws, and no visible joints. It was like a metal tentacle with a clawed hand at the end. The arms worked together and pulled the rest of the body from the rubble.
James was the Hunter, his mouth and nose covered while his eyes maintained the silver look. He quickly pulled the rest of his body from the rubble, and stood up tall, stretching his body. His mind had instinctively formed a telekinetic bubble, protecting him from the rubble and heat as the building collapsed over him that night. He’d remained in a balled up form, focusing his mind’s eye on his healing until he was capable again.
Once the soldiers got over the shock of seeing him climb out of the debris, they began firing at him. He formed a giant wing from his coat, shielding himself. As the bullets pinged on his metal wing, he glanced at his right arm. He remembered that it had been shot off by Dante, but he was looking at another arm in its place. Just as the xeno could form the wings, it had grown a new arm for him. This arm, however, was different from his old arm of human flesh.
It was made entirely of the xeno, and he could bend it or flex in any form he wanted. He concentrated a little, focusing on his arm’s form. It changed to look how his old arm appeared, only completely made from the symbiotic metal. He grinned as he tightly clenched his new fist.
The tanks aimed at him, and he moved down the rubble as they began to fire. He crouched for a few moments, crawling like an insect over the debris. He then leaped forward onto the group of soldiers. His arms reached the nearest soldier, and he let his symbiote arm wrap a
round the soldier’s torso. His arm then stretched several feet as he began swinging the man around, using him as a weapon against the other soldiers. He eventually released the man, throwing him into another group of soldiers.
A Civic Protection car was speeding towards him, and he saw all the soldiers moving out of the way as the men in the vehicle prepared to run down James with their car. The metal symbiote on James shot several meter long spikes from his feet into the concrete below him. He was braced into the ground, and he filled his torso and fists with as much power as he could with his mind’s eye. As the car reached him he slammed his fists onto the hood. The hood slammed downward into the ground, the entire car braking off its axles. The driver was still trying to stop him with a rifle, and James grabbed the front of the car with his other hand. He felt strength enter his body through his mind’s eye, and he lifted the car off the ground, and swung it towards the nearest tank.
The car flew on top of the tank, and smoke began to rise from its hood. The soldiers were still firing on him, but all it was doing was deflecting off the metal on his body. He ignored them as he moved over to the flipped car on top of the tank. He stopped when he reached the tank, noticing a chain that was tied onto the back. He pulled the chain loose, letting it fall to the ground. It was nearly twenty feet long, and had probably been attached to the tank for utility purposes. James could see a new purpose for it.
He took the chain with his symbiote arm, and let the creature wrap itself around the chain just as the xeno did with his jacket or his own body. In a few moments, the chain was completely inside his arm. He then tested it, willing it to extend from his hand. The chain grew from the palm of his symbiote hand, only it looked much more wicked, with barbs and sharp blades growing out of it. He let the chain fall to the ground a little more, and turned to the soldiers firing at him. He grinned wolfishly at them, and fear grew in their eyes.
As he walked towards them, he extended his mind’s eye to see as much of the world around him as possible. He suddenly stopped, realizing what was happening. The war has begun, he thought, I have to stop them. The chain was pulled back up into his arm, and he turned and ran. He found the nearest manhole, and opened it. He jumped in without hesitation, and was gone.
107
Christina sat in a chair in the underground facility. Alicia sat next to her, and they were watching the battle take place from afar. The lobby and elsewhere in the base was filled with people working on data screens, communicating with people on the surface in battle. There were others monitoring the activity of Civic Protection as well.
They had already hijacked all the media signal, not only sabotaging all the new networks, but bringing the signal down to the underground base to air their own signal.
“That’s strange,” one woman said out loud, “Civic Protection is sounding the alarm that the capital is under attack, but we don’t have any groups that have reached it yet.” Christina walked over to the woman, and looked onto the data screen.
“It’s him,” Alicia said, “he’s all right.” She grabbed Christina’s hand, and looked up at her with a grin. Christina crouched so she was eye-level with Alicia.
“Are you sure?” The young girl nodded her head.
“James is coming,” Alicia said, “he’s almost here. He told me to tell you something. It’s important.” Other people turned to Alicia. It was no secret that she was James’s sister, and that she had some sort of power as well. Luke, who was standing by, walked over to them. Sean Garrett had just entered the facility along-side William of the fallen. Both of them had noticed, and walked over to hear Alicia also.
“What, what does James need you to tell us?” Sean asked.
“To stop attacking.” Alicia was calm. There was silence around her. She looked upward to something unseen. “We need to leave the city. Everyone needs to head for the wall. Only then will everyone know the truth.” She turned and looked at all of them. “Only then can we all be free.”
“We don’t even know what’s on the outside,” Luke said.
“You don’t even know what’s on the inside of your own city,” James said to them all telekinetically. People were startled by hearing his voice in their minds. The doors that led to the outside of the facility opened, and James stood there. He had a serious look on his face. He walked into the room slowly.
Christina and Alicia both ran over and embraced him. He held them tight, closing his eyes. My family. He wanted to hold them forever, but he knew he had to let go. They have to let go as well.
He released them, although he still held on to Christina’s hand. He held her hand with both of his. She noticed his right arm, how different it looked. It was made up of the symbiotic xeno. He looked into her eyes assuringly.
“It’s all right,” he said to her, “we’re going to be all right.”
“What happened to your arm?” Christina asked.
“I thought I lost it,” James said, “but I got a new one.” He held up the arm as he smiled, letting it pulse and grow, showing her. He let it revert back into the arm form and turned to everyone else.
There were whispers among the group. James stepped before them. He heard someone whisper their surprise that he was alive. Someone else asked in a whisper why he wanted them to leave the city. He addressed the group.
“Most people know me as the Hunter,” James said, “but my name is James Vanguard. I’m here to show everyone the truth.” He paused for a moment. "Before this city was founded, the name Vanguard was more of a rank than anything else. My grandfather was given the name because of his valiant actions in a few wars a long time ago. It became his name, however, and my father’s, and mine.
“Vanguards are the guardian protectors of the public, of society. Of all free people. They were the first in battle, and the last to leave. So I have my duty to fulfill, not as the Hunter, but as a Vanguard.”
108
Khaleel stood in the lobby of the Civic Protection headquarters of East District. His group now owned the lobby, and were about to storm the upper levels. He heard gunshots behind them and his men prepared to face the Civic Protection reinforcements. He and his men had stopped as everyone heard James’s voice coming from their radios, and on a nearby vid screen on the wall.
“As a Vanguard I have been the first to battle and successfully fight Civic Protection and its leaders. The High Council. Father. All of it is a lie. Father is just a man, a man named Michael who made it his mission a long time ago to make all of us suffer for something horrible he witnessed.We have dwelt in darkness our entire lives, but that is over. This has to all end.
“We are going to leave Dirge, and by doing so we can see the sky for what it once was. The darkened sky is an illusion, set forth by the prison created by Michael.” There was a pause.
“I can’t fully explain it, but nothing can convince you of the truth better than witnessing it with your own eyes. That’s why everyone needs to make it to the wall and tear it down. Together we can leave this city and have a new future. A new dawn. See you all on the other side.” With that the transmission ended. Khaleel stood for a moment, and then pulled his rifle up.
“Sir,” one of his men asked, “what are we doing now?” Khaleel turned to him and smirked.
“I don’t know about you,” Khaleel said, “but I’m getting the hell out of here.” The other men grew excited, and they followed shouts outside the building of other resistance. They all began shouting "To the wall!”
109
“I don’t understand,” Sean said. "I thought we were going to try to take down Civic Protection.” James turned to him.
“We are,” James said, and turned to Luke. "How many people heard my message?”
“Well,” Luke said, “pretty much the whole city. You were patched in to every radio signal, and all of Civic Protection’s signals as well. You also broadcast through all the vid screens everywhere.”
“How did you pull that off?” James said.
“I hard-wired the patch into the network’s system. It’s how we stopped them from transmitting news, which began our attack.” James nodded, understanding.
“So we had other people in the Network who were on our side?” James asked.
“Well,” Luke said, “pretty much all of them. No one liked the censorship, especially the people that worked directly for the Network. They usually knew what was really going on, and were forced to lie about it.”
“Not anymore I suppose,” James said. "Although the attack was well-executed, nothing will be accomplished as long as Civic Protection is on Michael's side.”
“You’re right,” William said, “he needs to be stopped or this will never fully be over.” Some looked at him, surprised. He’d been quiet until now, although he did stand out with his eyes and fangs. He looked at James. “I’ve known the truth for too long, and I’ve waited on your mother’s orders to watch out for you. I knew I would be able to help one day. It’s the only way I can redeem myself for what I’ve done in the past.” He looked serious.
“How will us leaving the city stop them?” Christina said. James turned to her and smiled.
“The truth will have its day at long last,” he said, “and then people will have no choice but to act.” James turned to look at all of them once more. "Everyone needs to see it. Soon we will all see the light.” James walked to Sean and asked, “How are we with weapons?”
“Well, we have plenty of assault rifles," Sean said, “a few grenades and some timed explosives also. Just a small amount of those, though.”
“Right,” James said, “get everyone prepared to move to the surface.” Sean nodded, and William came alongside James.
“We’re with you,” William said. "What will you do?”
City of Twilight Part III: The New Dawn (The Vanguard Chronicles Book 3) Page 8