AM Chapter 5: The Shield Hero

I'm dead.

Were the two words that came to Lieutenant Samantha Colt’s mind.

At 5’11, blonde hair, and fit physique, Sam was a member of the US national guard, a career soldier who transferred from active duty to become a Mobile Engagement Chassis Frame Pilot- or MECHFrame pilot for short.

Leaving the front lines out of EuroRussia, Samantha was now part of the only unit with training slots.

The national guard.

Being a pilot was a coveted job with very few having had the opportunity to see a MECHFrame and fewer still getting a chance to pilot one. A new toy, the mechanical bipids headed by The Japanese Federation, had given the Union an edge against the Sino coalition, bringing the conflict from a stalemate to a maybe winnable war.

And now, after years of training, after months of classes, paperwork, screenings, and learning Japanese, Sam would die, crushed beneath a falling building as she attempted to save some random guy and his little sister.

Or, she at least thought she would be but her concerns were quickly assuaged.

“W-what…” Sam, let out as she stood bewildered by the spectacle she found herself a part of.

Surrounding the soldier, lay a dome of translucent energy that separated her from the rubble and debris that would surely crush her.

“Damn it!” The man beside her let out, the stranger clutching the body of his unconscious sister in one hand while his other held an ominous shield raised upward.

It was circular in shape, blacker than night with a smooth glossy exterior that reflected Sam’s pale face warped in a shocked expression.

From the weapon it emitted a glow, a raised dome that shielded her and the two strangers.

Hardlight? Nanotech? No, hardlight takes too long to manifest and there's no way a civilian would have access to nano tech! Sam reasoned as she tried to make sense of why they weren't buried alive.

“Are you ok?!” The stranger asked, his expression a mixture of shock and fear as he turned to Samantha whose arm was apparently bleeding.

“Shit,” Sam muttered, eyeing the gash on her arm bleeding lightly from presumably being slashed by falling debris. “Yeah, I'm good. What's that shield you got there? How are you doing that?”

The man watched as Sam tore her shirt and bandaged her arm using the cloth.

“I… I don't know, if you're ok can you help me? I'm about to drop her and this dome thing is very heavy,” The man said, gesturing to his sister.

“Yeah! Of course,” Sam said, moving to carefully take the unconscious child. “I'm Sam by the way.”

“Isaac,” Isaac replied, his red cybernetic eyes darting between his sister in Samantha’s arms and the ceiling of rubble threatening to crush them. “Do you have cell reception? My HUD isn't working.”

Sam shook her head,

“My job in the army doesn't allow for HUD implants,” Sam replied, dashing Isaac's hopes.

“What? Why?”

“Classified.”

Suddenly the walls of debris creaked, the dome of magical energy seeming to flicker for a moment with Sam's heart leaping out of her chest a bit.

“Damn it,” Issac said through gritted teeth, his uncertainty making Sam panic internally.

“Ok… Isaac, do you think you can get us out of here?” Samantha asked slowly, hoping upon hope that the man wielding the ominous black shield had a plan that involved more than holding the debris away.

From the looks of things, Issac was actively struggling, straining as if he was holding up the weight of the entire building. And with her luck… the floor would probably give away, sending her and her new friends drowning in the underwell of Neo-New Orleans.

“I don't know, I'm still figuring this out,” Isaac chuckled nervously, his eyes giving the telltale glazed over look of someone interacting with their HUD. “Okay! Get close to me!”

Samantha did as told, her green eyes akin to a hawk’s as she focused on the black shield.

With Sam near with his sister, Isaac narrowed his eyes before screaming, “Repulse!”

Suddenly the walls of rubble were blasted away, the magical dome that surrounded them exploding the debris to free Sam and Isaac from their prison of metal and concrete.

Sam went wide-eyed, the soldier standing in a stupor at the display before her.

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Ignoring the soldier, Isaac stepped out of the rubble, his heart sinking as he scanned his surroundings filled with crushed metal, broken concrete, ruined furniture, and… bits of human remains poking out from the concrete.

“Holy shit…” Isaac muttered, the carnage around him taking him a moment to process.

“The shaking seems to have stopped,” Sam said, climbing out of the crater in the collapsed building just as an EMT aircab drew near. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah… Yeah I'm fine,” Isaac said, visibly exhausted as his shield glimmered away and he waved to the EMT aircab that surprisingly descended towards them.

The medical car landed, it's four engines shifting to standby mode as the a beam emitted from the cockpit and scanned the trio of survivors. After a second, the aircab opened, deploying a ramp and disembarking five armed medics who rushed towards Isaac and Sam with a gurney.

“We'll take her from here,” An EMT ordered, taking Lily from Samantha's arms and placing the girl on a gurney to quickly diagnose her before Isaac could interject.

“Confirm bioscan on Isaac Carter and Lily Carter,” A man covered head to toe in white armored combat gear said as he took out a device and scanned Isaac.

“Is everything ok?” Isaac asked, eyeing the armed EMTs, and the device who's buttons flashed from red to green. “How do you know my name?”

“We're evacuating all Diamond tier VIPs to General Mercy, Sir.”

General Mercy? Sam raised a brow at the name of Neo New Orleans’s number one hospital. A facility reserved for the wealthy and elite constructed downtown.

“Diamond tier? VIP?” Isaac replied, apparently confused as the EMT and another medic grabbed him. “Wait! What?! Hold on! I have to get to Delgado Hospital to get my mother!”

“Alleigh Isaac is already at Mercy Hospital. Please sir, come with us,” The EMT said, ushering the man whose face seemed to visibly lighten as stress left his body.

Isaac turned to Samantha standing befuddled, not realizing she was standing beside such a wealthy man. “My friend is injured, can you take her too?”

The medical officer eyed his comrade, the latter nodding.

“Diamond tiers are allowed one guest sir,” The EMT said. “Is this your guest?”

“Yes,” Isaac stated, beckoning Samantha who, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, quickly boarded the sterilized aircab.

General Mercy just so happened to be one of several staging points for the national guard, a hospital built on higher ground where she could phone in to her unit for orders on what to do and where to go. With a natural disaster like this, it would no doubt warrant her activation.

As the ramp retracted, Sam could make out people rushing out to the EMT cab, some carrying injured, some injured.

The vehicle didn't wait and closed it's doors as wails sounded.

Samantha frowned and cast her eyes to the man holding his limp sister's hand, completely unaware of the people needing help.

Perk of the rich I guess. Sam said silently, not realizing Isaac was just as clueless of everything going on as she was.

*****

1950 Hundred Hours.

Germany, Stuttgart

Afri-COM HQ

Colonel Agatha Thorn:

*****

“Lord have mercy…” General Smith muttered, taking a seat in his leather office chair as he sighed and threw his cap, all decorum of a seasoned military officer casually tossed to the side.

Across from him, Agatha Thorn stood pale, her hands clenched with her eyes glaring at the Holographic globe which displayed an image of the continent of Africa with 60% of it covered in black.

It was lost. Or would be soon, the last holdouts of Union and Sino forces performing valiant last stands as air support attempted to cull the enemies numbers. There were even areas where their forces were actively working with the communists to fight against the invaders.

Perhaps Thorn’s expression wouldn’t be so sour if it was JUST Africa that was swallowed by darkness but it wasn’t.

Across the world, black spots were cropping up everywhere. Darkness swelling and spilling forth monsters that were attacking and overrunning everything within their path. To make matters worse, the shockwave of the explosion in Africa had activated a series of tsunamis and earthquakes, natural disasters that were ripping the world apart and hampering their ability to coordinate efforts. They could see what was going on, radio in and communicate live, but their ability to physically mobilize was giving the enemy time to muster.

And now, after having spent an hour pouring over reports, plucking footage from helmet cams, and losing countless UAVs, both Thorn and General Smith had come to a new realization.

They were at war.

Not with humans but with monsters akin to demons from hell, a new kind of war unprecedented in the history of humanity. They seemed almost mythical in nature, capable of conjuring magic, ripping apart tanks, and shrugging off bullets as though they were being shot at with toy guns.

The next steps they took now could determine victory or defeat.

Fortunately, right now the enemies were mainly isolated to the continents of Africa and Asia. There were sporadic black spots cropping up in Europe and even the Americas, but the level of threat there didn’t compare to the enemies emerging across the eastern hemisphere.

“Well sir…” Thorn began after clearing her throat, “If there's any caveat, the Sinos and Ruskes are eating the bulk of the swarms.”

General Smith smirked.

“In any other scenario the deaths of thousands of Commies would bring my old heart joy,” Smith shook his head, opening his drawer and pulling out a cigar. “Cigar Colonel?”

“No sir. I don't smoke.”

“After this you might,” Smith replied, his eyes focused on the black spot growing out of Italy and Austria, practically on their doorstep. “I just got off the com with Central, General Douglas and the command staff are considering the use of thermobaric bombs to hit these spots.”

AINS added red dots to the holographic globe, causing Thorn to raise a brow.

“On populated city centers?” Thorn asked, a sense of disbelief taking her.

“If we can't stop the swarms,” Smith replied, lighting his cigar. "From what we've seen, every time they kill one of ours, they add to their ranks like a zombie plague. It's only on the table now but the option is being considering in a worst case scenario. One of our, WHAT-IF contingencies."

“So then what's the plan in the interim sir?”

“Hurry up and wait. Data analysis. Studying the portals for now. Eggheads want to gather more data before committing to any real plan of action, but if you ask me we should be attacking,” Smith grumbled, the globe spinning to focus on North American soil. Union soil. “There's one in Neo-New Orleans, a small one near Michoud highway off of 90 already wreaking havoc. You ever been to the Dong Phung bakery, Colonel?”

“No sir,” Thorn said, the pungent sweet smell of the cigar tickling her nostrils.

“Shame, anyway the eggheads want to study it so I'm sending you down there to be my eyes.”

Thorn blinked, “Aren't I needed here Sir?”

“Nothing to do here until we get approval from Central, the wheels of beuacracy and all that,” Smith said, taking a long drag of his cigar. “In the meantime, I hear Mardi gras is fun.”