“You have always been very skinny,” Golbert said. “You needed someone to take a weight.”
“You didn't have to do any of that for me...”
“I didn't do it for you, I did it for us. For Norna, Willys and Dijo and all the Chaos Agents.”
Sorom took the bottle from his hand continued drinking, showing a sad countenance.
“Thank you anyway, without your help I would be another bandit from Iguana Street.”
“Do you really think that?” Asked Golbert. “It's what I think I would be without you.”
“Maybe it would be the two of us without Norna.”
They both shared a laugh and then the silence took hold. Sorom took another sip and realized there was nothing left.
“We drank it fast, huh?” Commented Sorom.
Golbert waved and took the bottle from Sorom's hands.
“So, in less than 20 days, will we have the lives we wanted?” Asked Golbert.
“You never told me what you planned for later.”
“My later is to stay by your side, encouraging you.”
Sorom punched the giant in the arm and rested his head on his shoulder.
“He is fine,” Golbert said. “I know he is.”
“I'm not so sure,” Sorom replied, “I don't know if it's good to think about him, I have to focus.”
Golbert got up to leave and gave a slight snare on account of the wine.
“Don't forget I'm here for you,” said the giant.
Sorom stood alone in his room and even spent several minutes sitting reflecting on the next day.
General Sorom
Evelin was with the leaders of the Chaos Agents inside Rinlojm. The mood was tense with the only sound being the moving of Dijo's fingers on the screens of computers.
“I can only fool their radars for a while,” Dijo said. “Their robots seem to have had an upgrade too; it will take me a while to hack them.”
A few more minutes passed and Norna landed the ship.
“This is as far as I can go,” Norna said. “Good luck to you.”
Evelin descended along Sorom, Willys and Golbert, seeing another series of ships landing on a plain. The sun shone brightly in the sky and you could see in the distance a metal construction.
Jamin and Sliger were on a small ground transport, with a cannon pointed upwards.
“Time for chaos!” Said Willys jumping on the transport and pressing a red button.
An explosive was thrown up and the group began to run towards the building. When the projectile completed its parabola, they saw an explosion at the base.
Evelin had her machine gun prepared and Sorom ran by her side with his hair stuck behind him and the sword handle turned into a pistol.
Willys kept shooting and the group ran with adrenaline screams. They heard alarms and soldiers were in a defensive position, but a group of them were hit by Willys' mortar making room for the agents to invade the base.
The place was huge, with several hangars covered, a spacious training camp and the main building with the cannon at the top.
“Into the hangars!” Cried Sorom in the communicators of all. “Quick!”
Sorom entered the first of them and noticed that it was completely empty which caused strangeness at first, but then turned into despair.
“Get out of here! It's a trap!”
He barely had time to say that and the hangar blew up. Luckily, they hadn't entered yet and the casualties were at minimum, with Sorom being thrown a few feet back.
Two more of the hangars blew up, and now he only was seen two in good condition. He was afraid it was more explosions, but they needed a place to protect themselves.
Meanwhile, tanks and heavily armed soldiers approached, and the Chaos Agents exchanged fire.
“What are we going to do?” Asked Evelin to Sorom.
“Continue to the hangars in good condition! They wouldn't blow up the whole base!” The leader spoke without believing in full his words.
They ran across the edge of the courtyard, trying to escape the gunfire and entered one of the hangars, this time with more care. Guards were waiting for them together from a tank. Sorom and Evelin managed to kill the soldiers with their laser weapons. Golbert used all his strength to hold Willys' transport horizontally, shooting and destroying the tank.
“How are we doing?” Sorom asked on the communicator.
“Our robots took the most damage,” Dijo warned, “and not many of them were left. That said you're surrounded in there and the weapons they have look pretty big.”
“What about the safety of the base?”
“I messed with the cameras, but it looks like they disabled all defense robots and automatic towers. On the one hand, I won't be able to hack them, on the other hand they won't be used against you.”
“Right,” said Sorom turning off the communicator. “Jamin, Sliger, set up defenses here with half our forces. The rest come with me, we're going to break into the main building and cover for Willys to plant the bombs!”
Jamin and Sliger took a series of barrier projectors and placed them to protect the entrance. Meanwhile the tanks and cannons fired from the outside, with the group barely managing to hold the damage.
They used the ships and ground transports in the hangar to increase their defenses, but the situation was not on their side.
“Willys,” said Sorom, “do you have something to get rid of these tanks?”
The man smiled and immediately Evelin remembered the explosion of the Dyna42 that destroyed an entire mountain.
“I have the WOOL-3 prototype here with me. We couldn’t use it on the Heart, and I don't know what effects they would have.”
Sorom thought for a few seconds as cannon fire destroyed the hangar.
“Use it! We don't have time to waste.”
Willys attached his explosive to the mortar and fired through a hole in the hangar. The angle was perfect, and they heard a huge explosion outside, followed by silence. The hangar walls bent over and partially melted due to the explosion.
“His explosions never fail to impress me,” Evelin said.
Sorom agreed and yelled at the troops to follow him. He ran in the lead through the middle of the courtyard in the direction of the main building. No more defenses were seen, and he was trying not to think it could be more traps.
Half the Chaos Agents were in the open field running through the courtyard when Sorom received a communication from Norna.
“Sorom! You've got two very large shells headed your way!”
Sorom looked up and saw what he thought were two huge black missiles and despaired.
“Don't stop running!” Said Evelin “They are not explosives! They're the high-speed transport of the Air Temple!”
“What does that mean?” Asked Sorom running as suggested by his colleague.
“That the guardians are coming!”
The two shells fell to the ground and doors opened. From one of them came only one individual, very small considering the size of the transport. On the other came a green tank five meters high, and a person in armor sitting on top of it.
“Keep going!” Cried Sorom, “Willys and Golbert need to enter!”
He could no longer see the individual who left alone, but a laser shot went through the head of the big agent's with tiger tattoo on his face.
Sorom raised his shield and more shots came but noticed that none of them were being targeted at him. The shots had incredible accuracy and each shot knocked down one more agent, destroying their barriers immediately.
“Sniper!” Warned Sorom. “Watch your heads!”
Sorom was a few steps from the entrance of the building and looked back still seeing a line of agents behind, who fired uselessly at the tank. That's when the tank fired, hitting right in the middle of the line. Sorom saw the explosion separating it from most agents, raising a black dust.
He managed to enter the building alongside Evelin, Golbert, Willys and a dozen other agents. He put h
is hands on his knee and began to breathe flustered.
“Chief,” said the agent with a pink Mohican, “what do we do now?”
Sorom had no answer. They were in the lobby of the main building where there was no imminent danger, but they kept hearing shots coming from outside.
“Sorom!” Said Evelin severe. “Do something!”
He got up and started talking on the communicator, trying to look calmer than he was.
“Those who failed to pass return to the hangar and protect themselves. We're here, and as soon as we disable the cannon, we'll have air support.”
Then he turned to his companions wordless. Evelin noting this decided to act.
“Willys, Golbert, go to the cannon, the rest of us will get their attention and find Janos Sorom.”
“Right,” Golbert said, “I still remember this place when Janos brought me to work.”
The two left and Evelin laid his hand on Sorom in solidarity.
“Are you all right?” Asked the young woman.
“We will lose more than half of our forces,” Sorom said unusually hopelessly. “There are two guardians out there, and if we don't move fast, more reinforcements will arrive. We won't be able to invade the temple!”
“Then we must go fast,” concluded Evelin. “Your father is waiting.”
Sorom took a deep breath and turned to the few agents who managed to get in.
“The situation is not ideal, and we will find several enemies around here. The plan is to do what we do best: chaos!”
The agents screamed and began to move. They stopped at the floors to destroy the opposition, and thanks to Sorom and Evelin's laser weapons, the job got easier. Also, with the help of Dijo disabling the cameras and with defense androids disabled they were not having many problems.
When they were cleaning the third floor, Sorom commented:
“It seems that almost all the soldiers were out there, this will be a piece of cake.”
When he said the last part, the communicator whistled a message from Willys.
“We have been found! Gol stayed behind to protect me, I'm almost on top.”
Sorom hung up and tried to contact Golbert.
“Gol! Gol, are you there?” But received no response. “Damn it! If they did anything to Gol, I'm going to destroy this whole base!”
Evelin thought it was already part of the plan, but she didn't say anything. At this point, they heard another big explosion coming from the outside and Sorom returned to the communicator.
“Jamin, how's the situation there?”
Like before, there was no answer; what worried him. As he was about to give up, the agent's voice re-seemed static.
“Sorom? Is that you? We're not hearing very well. Our barriers won't take many more shots and anyone trying to get out is eliminated by the sniper.”
“And where is this sniper?”
Once again, the answer comes with delay.
“We don't know, but it's high.”
Sorom hung up and another wave of soldiers entered the floor exchanging gunfire with the agents.
At the top of the building Willys opened a door revealing the outside. He looked around carefully and didn't notice any soldiers on the roof. He started walking to the cannon. Looking closely, he could feel the grandeur of the gun and soon began to place the explosives on one of their four supports.
He heard another big explosion, something that usually he liked this time was a cause for fear. He saw the guardian on top of the tank shooting the hangar already falling apart
The tank took a long time to fire, but every shot was devastating. Willys soon ran to the second support placing more bombs.
At this moment he saw a reflection in the air, like something translucent. Laser shots went in his direction and he jumped back from the stand.
“I think the sniper is here!” He said on the communicator. “And invisible!”
He knew he couldn't waste much time, or the guardian would take his life. He threw a grenade back and heard footsteps going away, the grenade exploded in a cloud of gray smoke and he ran to the third support. He was halfway there when a laser went in his direction. Luckily the smoke was covering enough to hide his position.
He responded by throwing more explosives into the direction of the lasers, this burst into flames, hoping to hit the guardian. He coupled another EXPL02ION at the base and was ready to go for the last one when he felt a huge pain in his abdomen.
Now he could see the guardian's feminine silhouette, wearing a costume that diverted the light leaving her almost invisible. Her sniper rifle was on her back and she had a pistol in her hands pointing at him.
He knew he wouldn't get another chance and you put his finger on the detonator.
Just before that, Sorom's group had reached the control room, where several armed people pointed at them. Yet the general, who was sitting in the middle of the room, told him to wait.
The place was similar to the control bridge of the Evelin base, with a large window showing the courtyard, where the tank was shooting the hangar.
The agents were preparing to fire but saw Golbert lying on the ground with his arms and legs tied by metal chains and Janos just behind him. The general looked furiously at Sorom but shows no concern about the forces of chaos.
“After all these years, you return to me, my dear Destiny.” Said the general.
The man's words took a while to make sense in Evelin's head.
“I hoped that age had already taken you,” Sorom answer, “but it seems that it is true what they say: the worst go last.”
“Is your name Destiny Sorom?” Asked Evelin finding a comical irony.
“Can we talk about this later?” Said Sorom seriously. “I think it's clear why I don't like my name.”
“You never liked anything I gave to you,” Janos said. “I took care of you with all love and affection and this is how you give me back?”
“You abandoned me when you saw that I had no destiny! You were a terrible father; luckily you’re an even worse general.”
The expression of fury of the general increased and everyone could feel that a shooting would begin at any moment.
Janos pulled a sword from his back, very similar to Sorom's weapon and removed the handle forming the pistol and approached Golbert.
“I even brought this dog home,” Janos continued. “I took care of him as one of our own, even though I was disgusted by the fate he was carrying. And how did I get rewarded?”
Sorom had his own pistol pointed at his father and saw Golbert struggling to get out.
“I am well Sorom,” said Golbert; “Don't worry about me.”
The father kicked Golbert in the back, who used all his strength to try to escape. He felt the currents bending due to all the extra power his muscles carried and prepared to knock Janos down when his hands were free.
“Let's see if I get more respect.” Janos spoke with the gun pointed at Golbert's head, which managed to break the chains with his enormous strength. Sorom was also preparing to shoot, but Janos was quicker.
The leader of the Chaos Agents saw when the hole formed in Golbert's time and his giant body stood motionless on the ground.
Sorom screamed well when a huge explosion echoed, not from the guardian's tank, but from the top of the building.
The sniper's female body hit the outside of the large windows, hanging by a hook. Her clothes appeared to divert the light, but some mechanical failure kept changing its colors. Smoke came out of the guardian's body
The soldiers turned to the window scared at the noise and Evelin took advantage of the situation to hit them, followed by the agents. When the general looked forward, he was out of allies and Sorom was running towards him with his sword unsheathed.
“Son! No! You don't need...”
Sorom did not let him finish the speech and beheaded his head with a clean cut. He immediately goes on Golbert's body, ignoring his father's death.
The giant's wound was already caut
erized due to the heat of the laser and Sorom knew he was out of salvation. He hugged his body and began to cry.
“Sorom,” Evelin said in denial, “we have a task to do or everything will be lost.”
The leader stood up and went to the communicator.
“Willys, is the cannon uncoupled?” Asked without crying.
The companion's answer did not come, and he turned to Evelin about to go into despair.
“I should be the anchor of everyone,” he said. “How can I do this when these things keep happening?”
Evelin approached and hugged him.
“I will be your anchor then,” Evelin said, “so you can be the anchor of the rest. You need to send the order to Norna. If Willys failed we already failed, but if he got it Norna needs to get the cannon and we need air support.
Sorom agreed and sent the message to Norna, while Evelin ran to Janos' computer.
“I'm going to text you that the base is safe, maybe we'll buy more time.”
Sorom turned to other agents.
“You take Golbert's body. We won't leave him here.”
They carried the huge body with difficulty and were walking to the cover. Sorom turned to Evelin with no light in his eyes.
“Golbert would like the mission to be a success,” Evelin said. “Let's kill God in his name.”
Sorom waved and the two went to the roof. As they reached the top, they saw Rinlojm next to other approaching ships and firing everything they had at the tank's guardian until there was nothing left.
The ships landed in the courtyard and the hangar agents went to them while Norna flew over the cannon. The gun was down and Sorom saw some agents surrounding something.
“Chief,” said the blonde full of piercings, “he is alive.”
He saw Willys lying on the ground without his right arm.
“Take care of his wounds!” Order Sorom. "He's going to the ship with us!”
They got on the ship and flew toward the agents' base. Rinlojm carried the cannon that was almost its size thanks to the use of magnets. After a few minutes they believed they weren't being followed.
They threw Willys in the seats, with his wound already cauterized by the explosion. Dijo saw his and Golbert's situation and couldn't hold back the crying.
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