The rest of the crew was trying to scramble for the exits. The armor clad Tribe stood in the doorway, a phalanx of swords, spears and axes, poking at anyone who tried to leave. They awaited their alpha’s decision.
“Let go.” King said. The Tribe members slowly moved out of the way and the warstore crew members scooted through as soon as they could fit. A few of them apologized as they left.
King went up to a specific station, the one Tony taught him to. He fiddled with
the screen and in the original warstore, King’s face flashed on the main screen.
They now had two warstores.
Tony was happy to see King’s face. He stood up smiling, looked over at Bob
and yelled, “Yes!” Then did a little raise the roof-type of dance. L and Janis came in from the office.
“You meant to do that?” Perry asked.
“It was our plan.” Tony replied.
L asked,”The plan worked? They took the warstore?” “Yep” Tony answered.
“Da Art of War mon!” Bob slid his head back and forth, rubbing his necklace book.
Tony said,”We were like water... Adapted to the situation, knew our enemy.
used our strengths.” He explained their thinking,”These fucking warstores are so specialized. They’re basically built to take out the military. We saw it destroy the US military twice with no losses. They never planned on gorillas with spider monkeys. Also like The Art of War, we won a battle without fighting.” “Dat wall tho mon.” Bob added.
“Yea!” Tony added also. “That fake drone wall was amazing. Cuz these
warstores aren’t vulnerable to infantry, they have like six anti-personnel machine guns. But that distraction countered those perfectly. I think that was L’s idea, right?” She nodded.
“It was all the distraction Lemmy and King needed.” Tony continued. Then he paused,”Bob, you have your own warstore now.” Bob smiled and Tony set course for their new warstore.
Two chimps were killed by the guards, those were their only losses. Bob got situated in his new pilot seat. They divided the crew, it was the Humans, Janis, Moon and a few other chimps on the “old” warstore. Bob, King, Slash and the majority of the Tribe jumped on the new one. Lemmy kept a few on his scout Jeep.
The two warstores rode off into the sunset.
36
THE TOWER
They drove for almost an hour. Tony and Bob trading little warstore piloting
tips as they learned on the fly.
L took Bob’s seat as the gunner. Tony explained it quickly, it was very user
friendly; on the bottom of the screen you select different weapons, then point the reticle and press the big red “Fire” button.
“It’s like a videogame.” L said.
“Yea.” Perry said, then continued like he was the voice over in a movie
trailer,”But if you die in the game, you die in real life!” They all laughed.
“But it’s true, so don’t miss.” Tony said.
They drove for a few minutes in silence, no one paying too much attention until L noticed something.
“There it is.” She said in awe.
Everyone looked up and saw the Elohssa headquarters in the distance. It grew
out of the horizon and jaggedly up into the sky. It reached so high that you could not see the top. The rumors that it went all the way to space may have been true. It poked through the dark cloud ceiling in a vortex-like swirling hole, complete with flashes of forked lightning. It looked and felt evil, even from this far away. A cross between the Half Life 2 Citadel and The Dark Tower.
They drove a few miles closer and stopped on top of a hill that gave them a view
of the base of the tower and surrounding area.
Bob’s eyes widened,”Oh shit mon.”
In a movie, very dark ominous music would play as the view was revealed. To
their dismay, at the base of the building they saw a bunch of patrolling warstores, gates, checkpoints, search lights, everything you’d expect at a top notch evil company headquarters. It was an intimidatingly scary sight and at first everyone subconsciously held their breath for a few moments. Inside Tony’s mind he thought about how it looked like the perfect last level of a video game, the big, epic, final boss fight.
“Scary.” L thought out loud.
Perry kind of wanted to make a joke about the rainbow dildos, but awe overtook his comedy and instead he said,”It does remind me of a Death Star.”
Tactics ran through Tony’s mind: Attack from the top of the hills, separate and
flank, charge together, maybe snipe and pull some to them, stealth.
“I move up. Stay here.” Bob said, whispering. Bob’s warstore slid around the
west of the tower, staying behind the cover of the hill. “What’s the gameplan?” Tony whispered back, not sure why he was whispering.
There was no reply. Tony looked over at Perry and L. “Bob?” He asked. Nothing. They watched as Bob’s warstore made its way alongside the hill and then stopped. Tony then looked to the Stacker that Lemmy was on, it was black.
All the Humans were fixated on the main screen, watching the Tribe’s warstore. Lemmy’s Jeep pulled up and a few of the Tribe jumped off and climbed onto the warstore.
Perry’s eyes were wide and still, the screen view reflected off of them, “What are those monkeys up to?”
“Bob?” Tony asked again, this time with urgency and not whispering. “What are you doing?”
Bob’s warstore rotated. It was now facing the tower.
Tony looked at L and Perry and they all shrugged. Tony rubbed his eyes with
his hands, thinking.
Bob’s warstore accelerated, it started climbing the hill towards the tower.
“Bob!” Tony yelled.
The Tribe’s warstore finally responded, Bob and King’s face in view. King looked into the camera, “We go in building. We save brothers.” Their warstore crested the hill and headed down into the valley. They were heading straight towards the building, right towards the patrolling warstores.
“Whaaat?!” Tony yelled. He looked back and forth quickly and rubbed his eyes
thinking again. He was still thinking, but began moving their warstore into a better vantage point. “I don’t know what the fuck they’re doing, but give them cover fire if they need it L.” She wasn’t thinking about that and refocused on her screen. He yelled over to her. “That button on the side zooms in, you may need it from this far away.” She found it and began zooming in on the warstore nearest to Bob’s.
Two Elohssa warstores began changing course towards Bob’s. They saw him. Within seconds they were firing at each other. L shot the main cannon and missed bad, the shell exploding short of its target. Perry ran over and looked over her shoulder. The main cannon was so big, when it reloaded, everyone in the warstore could feel it.
“Try the tank turrets.” Tony advised.
L fired the tank turrets, the enemy warstore moved out of the way and it missed.
“Scoot over!” Perry yelled impatiently.
L held out her arm and blocked him,”Hang on!”
On the main screen Bob hit one of the enemy warstores with a main cannon
blast, direct hit, right in the middle of the chest. The shell exploded and ripped a hole in the armor of the giant beast, but it kept coming, billowing fire from it’s chest. The damaged warstore returned fire, main cannon to the chest of Bob’s warstore.
“Ohh!” Perry and Tony both yelled, L was fixated on her screen. Bob’s
warstore was on fire, some Tribe members fell off it’s shoulders dead. Perry pushed at
L’s arm. “They're dieing L!”
“Hang on!” She yelled again. Then with her eyes squinting at her screen she hit the fire button. The cockpit of the 2nd enemy warstore zoomed in on her screen. The shell flew in a high velocity, low, perfect arc and smashed into the warstore cockpit with an explosion. L quickly mashed the “Fire” button,
trying to cash in on her winning aim. The three other tank turrets fired in rapid succession with low but deep whooping sounds. A second later the three shells ate into the warstore with successively deeper explosions. The entire section of the warstore that used to be its cockpit was a burning black mess. The warstore stopped moving.
L looked back and forth and shook her head, her viking helmet mimicking her head movements a moment later.
“Damn!” They both said surprised.
Bob’s warstore quickly maneuvered behind the warstore L just killed. The enemy warstore was trying to get a shot off, but had to wait as Bob went behind cover. Instead the warstore aimed to where Bob’s warstore should come out on the other side. Bob hit the brakes and went in reverse, his warstore came out on the opposite side of where the enemy was aiming. He had a free shot and made it count, another main cannon shot to the chest. The enemy warstore was covered in smoke and fire from the middle up, it slowed down and stopped moving.
Bob’s warstore turned towards the tower and accelerated.
“BOB!?” Tony yelled. He looked to his fellow Humans. “Should we follow em?”
Bob replied,”Sorry mon. We got ta do dis.”
Tony hit the gas and their warstore accelerated down the hill. At the bottom of
the hill there was a gate and checkpoint, Tony went out of his way to run it over. The Elohssa guards scattered like ants. “Fuck shit up L!” He reminded her.
Bob’s warstore was on a collision course with the tower. Tony adjusted course
to meet them.
Another warstore engaged the Humans. They took a few superficial hits. L fired back and did the same.
“Ok L, I’m going to start and stop moving randomly. When I stop, you shoot.” “Ok!” L replied.
“I’ll tell you before I stop so you’ll be ready.” “Ok!” She replied again.
“Ok.” Tony said slowly, Now.” And the warstore stopped moving. L took a
second to adjust, fired the tank turrets and scored some hits. Tony accelerated, a moment later the spot they were in was hit with the enemy’s main cannon shell. It exploded in the dirt.
“Haha! Yea!” Tony yelled. “Noob AI.” He was at full speed for a few seconds. “Ok, ready?” He asked L.
“Yea.”
He hit the brakes. L waited for the stop, adjusted, and fired both the turrets and the main cannon. In rapid succession like someone hammering in a nail, the shells ripped into the enemy warstore body and twisted it into a explosive metal wreck.
“Ohh nice L!” Perry yelled. Then quickly thought out loud,”Hey how come these nuclear engine things aren’t exploding?”
“I was just thinking that.” Tony replied. Then he turned his attention back to L. “Okay, now they might be waiting for us to stop again, so just fire while we move.”
“K!” She replied and started zooming in.
A massive explosion hit right in front of their warstore.
“Ohh shit!”
L and the remaining enemy warstore exchanged shots, mostly misses.
“Do that stop thing again.” L recommended.
“Okay.” Tony replied, then focused for a few moments,”Okay now.” He hit the brakes.
L aimed and fired. This time hitting the bottom of the enemy warstore, it’s giant
tank treads exploded into a mess of metal and that side of the warstore sank into the dirt. L was making this look easy.
Across the way the Tribe’s warstore was nearing the entrance to the tower. Its
front facing machine guns lit up the entrance, guards scattered into the night. The warstore was running full speed right up to the tower.
“Ohh shit!” Perry yelled,”Are they gonna ram it?”
“No.” L said not believing that was going to happen. Tony just looked and drove towards them.
At the last second their warstore stopped, almost touching the tower. From the Humans view, they saw the Tribe members climbing down the warstore. King and Slash in front, their rest of the Tribe sparkling behind them in their metal armor. Lemmy’s Jeep pulled up and did a power slide next to the warstore, its occupants jumping out. The warstore front facing machine guns scanning the area. A group of about 20 Gorillas and Chimpanzees entered the front door. Tony noticed Bob was not one of them.
“Are we going in too?” L asked.
Perry looked around,”It’s either that or play tank wars out here.”
They all stumbled as their warstore was hit in the back. The store rumbled and made unseen sounds of giant metal bending, it sounded like the Titanic.
Perry didn’t like that sound, “Let’s go with em!” He yelled.
“Ok. Yea let’s go.” The humans, Janis and Moon ran out of the cockpit and began climbing down. Immediately the air of smoke and war overcame their smell, the rough wind pounded on them and yelled in their ears. Leaving the cockpit was like entering a different world. They ran for the entrance. Tony looked up at the cockpit as he ran by, hoping to see Bob or something. He didn’t.
As they ran up to the door there was a dead body in the doorway. It was a
Chimp. Perry was the first one there, and stepped over the body, shotgun out and ready. The lobby was a bloodbath. Mostly dead humans. Blood splatters up the walls, some even on the ceiling. There were hacked body parts mixed around so much that it was hard to tell which part went with which body. L almost slipped in a pool of blood stepping over some bodies. At the other end of the lobby, the automatic door to enter the building was opening and closing on a body. Tony grabbed it and held it open while they walked through.
“The elevators.” Perry said and jogged down the hallway a bit. “Ohh shit
look.” He was looking at the digital readouts above each elevator, they all read vastly different numbers. One read 8242. He yelled in a high pitched voice, “Eight thousand floors!?”
L pointed at an open door. It was broken open, the door to the stairs. L and Tony ran towards the door.
“I am NOT walking up 8,000 floors!” Perry told them before following.
They went up a few floors, following the trail of blood and dead bodies.
“Where the fuck are they going?” Tony asked.
“I think they’re trying to free the lab monkeys they have here.” L said.
Perry was almost out of breath already,”They’re not even real monkeys, right? They’re clones. The only thing they're gonna find here is some Alien 4 Ripley clone room shit.”
Tony looked back at him”Yea, you’re probably right. Then they’re gonna be
pissed.”
L, stepping over a body whose head was sliced off above the jaw replied,”They’re not pissed now?”
The Humans heard the sound of footsteps above them. They all stopped to listen. Then they heard voices, it was Humans. They were heading down the stairs, talking about killing monkeys. Tony opened the door to the floor they were on and silently waved them in.
The clanging on the metal steps got louder as the guards approached their floor. Just as the last guy passed the door, Perry pulled up his shotgun and Tony opened the door. Perry blasted through the opening and blew a giant chunk out of the last guy’s back. Tony and Perry entered the stairwell unloading their weapons, dropping four of the guards before it became a firefight. They had surprised the guards and they had the higher ground.
L was looking in the stairwell doorway, holding her axe, ready to switch to her guns if need be. In between Tony and Perry’s gunshots she heard footsteps behind her. She turned and saw a figure running towards her. It was a bloody guard, he didn’t have a gun, but he had a sword and he was charging her with it raised above his head. She was startled and went for her gun, she tried to pull it out too quickly and the nose caught the edge of the holster and she fumbled, dropping it to the floor. It was too late to try and pick it up, the guard was on her and swung down at her with a massive blow. Her vision was obscured by her oversized helmet, but she attempted to dodge to her right. The sword caught the left horn on her
helmet, which almost knocked it off her head, but she was wearing the chinstrap and it stayed on. The guard’s charging body collided with hers and they tumbled.
As L was falling, her body hit the side of the door frame and that kept her from
falling completely prone. She shook off the collision and looked. the guard was face down on the floor, but attempting to turn over and get up. She checked her holsters, both pistols were now missing. The guard was scrambling to get in the stairwell. L looked, in front of him was one of her glocks. She could never get to it before him now, her other gun was no where to be seen. She thought, “Fuck. This idiot is going to shoot me.” just as she felt the handle of the battle axe on her leg. She grabbed the axe as the guard grabbed the gun. Her face grimaced as she lifted and brought the axe up over her head. In slow motion the guard rolled over pointing the gun, as L brought the axe down with all her might. The gun went off a millisecond before the crunching, squishy, dead thud of a sound a battle axe makes when it chops someone’s skull in two.
L had closed her eyes. She opened them and saw wisps of smoke in front of her. She looked down and saw her battle axe, one shiny, bladed side of the axe sticking up, perpendicular to the ground, and the other side covered in blood and stuck into the ground. On either side of the axe was a cross section of the inside of a human skull. Below the axe blade, the two sections of skull and face came together at his neck. She actually chopped his skull in half. Both cross sections of the man’s jaw twitched as he tried to say his last words. Only bubbles came out.
She noticed blood in the lower part of her vision and looked down. Her chain
mail vest was bloody and had a hole. She was shot. Panic flushed over her and she felt her chest. He shot her in the boob. She grabbed her left breast and felt it, her hand was instantly covered in blood. There was a hole in the front of her breast and another coming out the left side. The bullet went through her left breast. Her first thought was that she was lucky and probably wasn’t going to die from this, her second thought was,”Fuck, there goes my nice tits. That was one of my best parts”
She looked up, ready to yell for help. Tony and Perry were standing at the edge
The Search for Ball Zero Page 23