Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Destiny's Call ❯ Entry the Fourteenth ( Chapter 14 )

Entry the 14th.

 

Let me pause here. I want you to understand something, you who read this. Many of you think this cool, think it sounds like it would be fun, don't you? Parts of it anyways, like the Weapons we wielded, the vehicles I describe, the powers and abilities we discovered. It would be fun to turn invisible and pull pranks right? Or stop a bullet, stop anything? To fly? It was, and is, but what you must not forget was our desperation, our determination. We did not do the things we did, did not make the weapons we wielded, did not have the powers we were given, for fun. It was to survive, it was for the sake of fighting for our lives, for the sake of Hope.

 

Our world was engulfed in Chaos, in death, destruction, despair. In just a few short months, the world teetered on the brink of ruin, and what were we? A tiny force of less than 1000 people, most of us untrained, unprepared. Oh we were training, preparing, in all the ways we could, but was that enough? No, not alone it wasn't, not to prepare us for what we faced. Even those of us who had survived the death, the destruction, of before, at the school, in escaping it, were unsure. we did not know if we could escape.

 

At the school, we had hope, the foolish kind. Faced now with death, with harsh reality, that hope was dwindling even as he prepared to go out and fight for our lives, our homes, and ourselves. We would fight, and some of us would die… and we did not know that we could win, weapons or no. Many of you know the famous quote, “It is not the weapon who makes the man.” Having the weapons meant nothing unless we had the strength and will to use them, and that was the greatest question of all.

 

I had the greatest doubts of all, about myself. I doubted my ability to lead, to be, to fight. I had made a promise, a solemn vow, and I had failed at it. Bring them all out alive. That had been my purpose. And yet it was I who walked us right into that ambush, did not even truly consider the possibility it could happen. That failure haunted me, my mind, my thoughts, it closed itself round me and cut off all hope and help from without me. Even the light spiritedness of Leon, who it seemed could lose no hope, could see no failure, could not reach me. Not even stories of his attempts to sneak into the women's shower lifted my spirits. He always failed, because each and every time he tried, Jewels was waiting for him. She would stand at the door, and the moment he entered, completely silent and invisible, she would say, “Leon, this is the girl's shower, get out, now.” I can only assume she foresaw all his attempts, because he told me himself, trying to cheer me up a little, he being one of the few to note my melancholy, that she was only there when he tried, he'd asked a lot of the girls about it.

 

What did reach me, in a long, round way, was Walker. For he commanded without commanding, a respect, a power, a hope, that went beyond the explainable, for when one saw him, one could believe, for he did not, it seemed to the mind, even acknowledge the existence of failing to survive, and to thrive. He was steadily becoming the life and the soul of all, even as I closed off more and more, receded further and further into myself.

 

It happened 3 days after the Arachna came to life. Leon caught a spy sneaking into the facility, a man who wielded crystals. Why he felt he could sneak past Leon, we didn't know, and we couldn't ask, because, even though he was found, he wasn't actually captured, and escaped. 3 days later, something worse happened.

 

I was petting a small, and highly unusual albino fox that had wandered into the compound, somehow, and attached himself to me. He got on miraculously well Rusty, and with one of the wolves Sam had picked up. Although she to this day fervently denies it, I think she commanded all 3 animals to get along, and probably put two of them to bug me to death just because that was the kind of thing she would do. All 3 Canines picked up on the scent and sound of something about a full minute before the warning systems went off. I sent to hide in my room, except Always, as I'd named the wolf, who went to his “pack.”

 

We were under attack by the largest force of the enemy we'd ever seen, and worst of all was their new troops. Lizardmen wielding weapons came at the front, leading first a suicide charge to break through our front line of defense, the compound wall. That first strike failed. We slaughtered them before they could reach us, so that they had nowhere near sufficient numbers to press the attack even before they reached us, and abandoned the attempt.

 

We deployed the Rooks to the air, Wolves to the walls, and gathered the hounds and Pumas and the Bearcats for a counter attack, along with the other half of the wolves, and the Sharks. Prodigy offered to deploy the Arachna and the 6 Arachnoids as well.

 

The Paladins would perform a flanking maneuver. The superior ability of their Spiders to anything else, a combination of speed, firepower, accuracy, and agility, along with the more unique abilities of the Paladins themselves over a standard force made them well qualified. I mounted up in Walker's Puma, while Tarius continued work on what he called his “super cool superweapon!” the battle plan had two actual variations. 1 would involve a feint battle while the majority of our forces evacuated, and the other involved using Tarius's superweapon. the plan only varied at part 2, whether we evacuated or used the weapon. And part 1 was timed. 10 minutes. We started with an artillery bombardment from the Wolves followed by an aerial strike by the Seagulls. But first, I'm getting ahead of myself.

 

“Leon, Go with jump, make sure nothing's snuck into base. Corben, Reggie, you're in the front with me, we lead the main charge. Wrath(AA), Chris, You're with the tanks. Keep them guarded. Koswald, you have sniper control. Seagull, Franky, air combat is your speciality, and most of the pilots are Knights, you've got air guard and Seagull has command. I want 4 Knights to a tank, and I want 8 Tanks charging their center. Guard of 15 Pumas, and 10 Bearcats. Last, I want Hounds riding through the tank ranks, 30 of them minimum. Let's move people. Sharks are to swing round and hit their left Flank while the Paladins do the same from behind. That's my plan, any objections? Alright, let's go go go!”

 

The plan made sense, and I hadn't been able to come up with it, Walker had. I was excellent to the front for my ability to shield the advance. Reggie couldn't be killed, which added a huge measure of Moral, and Walker just preferred to lead from the front. Jump could get around faster than anyone else, and Leon was our best scout and spy. Wrath, as he was now being called for his rather volatile temper and insane abilities, Was the equivalent power to a puma in many respects, while Chris, or The Rock as some called him was like a Tank himself. Seagull and Franky, as mentioned, could both fly, which put them in the air. Reggie drove, Walker Gunned, and I took secondary gunner.

 

The Charge we used was an excellent spear head, but if the Sharks had not struck precisely, it could have been a deathtrap. As we pulled out we came under fire from some kind of giant lizard that spat fireballs. We've been calling them firelizards since. One fireball hit a Puma. For those who've seen what a Wraith fire can do on Halo, multiply the damage by about 10 and you have one of these things. We're talking bluehot fireballs that vaporized the Puma and the Knights riding it. The armor did nothing. One minute there, next, not. Another fireball almost hit a shark as it shot back out of the battlefield, but I covered that one, and Franky was all other the play deflecting the things.

 

Even with our support, we couldn't get close enough to hit the Fire Lizards, because of the spiners. Thousands of very sharp and hard and fast moving quills that could take out a Seagull like “that.” We were having major trouble holding them off. They gained ground every time they charged, reminded me of the Battle of helm's deep, the book version. Then the Paladins hit them from behind, taking down a Bunch of Spiners really fast, opening up a left flank gap that the Seagulls lead by their namesake and backed by ROCs exploited. Flanking strike by the Sharks coupled with a second Tank charge collapsed their left flank, but they pulled a fast one and it us from behind, and we nearly lost the compound. Koswald's sniper teams were literally all that held that section for a full 2 minutes.

 

We hit 10 minutes and started pulling out, having secured an air route, but then Tarius pulled out his new “super weapon.” It was a cold bomb, designed to detonate and suck all the heat out of a 500m radius. Reptiles are cold blooded, making this the ultimate weapon against them. And it worked too. Which was the worst part.

 

I never want to see that again. A kilometer wide circle of frozen bodies, beings like statues, melting in the sun, steam rising from them and smoke too, as the frozen carbon dioxide that they had become came apart in the sunlight. It was worse for me than a field of dead bleeding rotting corpses, because they were so perfectly preserved in that last moment of existence. It was just, so wrong, so easy. Tarius swore to me he had not anticipated that effect, and also that he'd run out of the materials to make it, which meant it would be a while before we saw another one of those, if ever.

 

There was actually one thing that was even worse, for all of us. The new troops. They weren't exactly like the other false reptiles. We could tell, once we looked… They used to be human. It was painfully obvious these things were once human beings, and had been changed to better suit the purposes of the masterminds of all this horrible pain, suffering, chaos, torture, and death, the Anti-Dragons. It was easily the most painful blow that they could have struck. Were these merely mindless beings in bodies that used to be human? Were they still people, horribly changed but retaining themselves, forced to fight against mankind? The questions tortured us.

 

“We can't let it stop us. If we give up, we lose. If they are still human on the inside, isn't it better to die and be freed than to be forced to serve such monstrosities as those that changed them?” That was Walkers response to the shock, awe, and despair. He refused to give in, and he brought back the hope that has so quickly been shattered. But not for me. For me, a measure of despair had been replaced with acceptance and rage.

 

We abandoned the Compound a few days later, the main force moved out, while production continued in other smaller areas all over the place. These other compounds had been producing in much smaller numbers almost for as long as we had.

 

The First place we went was back to the refugee camp, to address the issue of our new Foes. Walker, Seagull, and Prodigy agreed the truth must be told, I disagreed, fearing what would occur. But I was overruled. Infact, I understood I'd been replaced.

 

“I'm just the spark. Just the messenger. The stand in. I get it now. Walker was the one who should have held you, the one meant to be intrusted with our future, it was never me. But, what does that mean for me, what am I meant to do? Take the power I have, and do what? Perhaps… I'll make them pay. And I'll do everything I can. But I need to do it alone. I'm dragging them down, but no more. I'm gonna have to leave, and do some soul searching, and do as much damage as I can to these things. Yes… so that's that.”

 

I planned to leave for days. I avoided Jewels, I was sure she'd try to stop me, because I still remembered her warning. But even though I tried to hide it, somebody found out. Tarius, he always could read me. He stopped me as I was packing, and handed me a case of equipment, which he'd made to lock into place on the Leviathan. “I modified her with a tracking beacon, the Leviathan that is. You'll always be able to find us, and if you want, we can find you. I've got some good travel clothes in there, the stand issue stuff, a new shadow cloak, a ground sonar kit, and a few other little gifts, like those visors. And then there was this.” He held out a rifle for me, which was a little different designed than the ones I'd seen before. It was about 1m long, plus a barrel that stuck out about 6 inches, and had small fins stretching from its tip back to the body. It was about 3 inches thick at the top, had two grips, and handles. It was 5 inches high.

 

“this one's a little special. High accuracy rifle, fires fast too. There's a collapsible scope, folds into the sides here. But the real special feature is this.” He folded out a second handle and trigger, did a few more things, hit a button, and the rifle popped in half. Another two or 3 seconds, and it looked like 2 beam pistols, which, it was. “I call her Gemini. The only problem is the battery packs, she doesn't have a lot of shots as a rifle. But she'll serve well.”

 

“I'm surprised you aren't trying to stop me.” I looked at him, then took the them into my hands, and took the belt he offered. “Thanks.”

 

Tarius grinned. “I knew you too well to try, besides, I'm not sure you don't need this. One thing though, you are not allowed to die. We'll need a living you once you find what you're looking for.”

 

What I'm looking for? Heh, maybe I am looking for something, something I can't find with the rest. Thanks again Tar, I needed this. And I promise.”

 

“Right, see you when you return.”

 

I had one stop to make before I made my exit. He was in his tent when I got there, cleaning up and taking stock of things. “Hey, mind if I come in?”

 

“go ahead.” He said, and then pulled out a crate. “Have a seat if you like.”

 

“No thanks,” I said, shaking my head. I held out a cloth wrapped object. “I'm just here to give you this, and to wish you luck.” I indicated he should take the object, which was round and about 10 inches in length.

 

“Luck? With what?” he took it.

 

“doing what you're about to. Saving our asses. So good luck, and good night.” I turned and left, whispering as I walked away from the tent, “Goodbye Shutzen. “

 

In the Tent, Walker unwrapped the object to reveal the blade given to me by the High Guardian, and engraved on the handle was the name, “Shutzen.”

 

I was stopped one more time while trying to get away. I arrived at Leviathan, and there was a scrape of scales against rock. It was a hot night. I turned around, but saw no one. “Come out Leon.” He appeared, 2 feet from the bike, a pack slung over his shoulder. “no. you aren't coming. They need you.”

 

“He's not the only one.” Reggie walked out from behind a tree. “you aren't leaving Corben.”

 

“I appreciate it Reggie, Leon, but yes, I am, alone.”

 

“We need you,” Leon countered.

 

“You need a complete me, you need a competent Leader. You have that in you Reggie, and in Walker. I'm incomplete right now, I need to find what I'm missing while I've still got my minimum lvl of sanity.” We stared each other in the eye for a few seconds, then, without breaking eye contact, he nodded.

 

“Alright, Go, and good luck. They'll call you a coward.”

 

“Let them, it won't make a difference. Thanks for understanding, and goodbye.”

 

“I hope you find it, whatever you're looking for.”

 

“Thanks, both of you. And I promise, I'll be back.” I drove off north, wondering what I'd find, not sure of why it was that the North drew me, only for that all my life, there had been something about it.

 

The next morning, as people reacted to the fact I was gone, Jewels strode confidently across the camp, perfectly dodging every obstacle. When she found Franky, she looked her straight in the eye, and said, a tear rolling down her cheek, “We're going after him.”