Chapter 7. Find out Phase

I crossed the distance between our camp and the settlement in seconds, coming to a stop in front of the settlement guards who were being pinned down by Lacertine suppressing fire.

I stood in front of the guards, who were obviously in a tough spot. I dismissed my faceplate and looked back over my shoulder.

“You fellas take the day off. I’ll handle the uninvited guests,” I said as I reactivated my face plate, turned toward the Lacertine force, and prepared to teach a lesson in manners.

“There are at least 25 of them out there, and one of them has a Plasma cannon. You can’t expect to take them all on yourself!” one of the guards shouted as he huddled behind cover.

I looked out to see the Lacertine troops preparing to fire on me as several reinforced an area that was anchored with a large cannon on a reinforced tripod.

“I wonder if I can amplify my voice…” I said to myself.

Voice amplification activated –

A generic robotic voice said in my helmet.

“Wait, you can talk?” I asked.

“Due to the Absence of the Ship AI designated Elvis, it is necessary to provide audible support in combat scenarios,” The voice said, “Please proceed. Taking immediate action is advised.”

“Well, okay. We can talk more later,” I said.

I looked out at the Lacertine troops, who were obviously trying to figure out exactly who I was.

“Hey, you Lizard assholes. I am going to give you one chance to turn around and carry your sorry asses back to wherever you came from. This settlement is off limits,” I said as my voice amplified from my armor out toward the Lacertine troops.

One of the bigger Lacertine troops walked to the front of the group. He was big and honestly pretty intimidating. Before the dungeon and getting my abilities and armor, I definitely would have turned tale and ran at the sight of him.

His tongue flicked from the slit that was his mouth as he cocked his head, staring with his yellow eyes.

“A pathetic human dares stand in open defiance of the mighty Lacertine Empire?” he turned his head to face his troops and laughed.

“Human, I know not where you managed to find a working set of battle armor, but I am not intimidated by your new toy. Face me in open combat. It will not save your settlement after I gut you, but at least you can die with honor!” the Lacertine growled his words as he glared at me, his massive musculature rippling in the morning sun.

“Have it your way, but first, I need you to pick a single volunteer, preferably the weakest among you,” I said as I walked into the open space between the two groups.

“Do you suppose I would let you battle the weakest of us? No, you will fight me, human!” The Large lacertine growled again.

“Oh, no, you don’t understand. I need to know who to let live so he can take a message back to your superiors. The rest of you are gonna die, but you….” I pointed at the large Lacertine that was now making his way toward me, “You are gonna die slow.”

“Hahahaa, Fine Human.” The Lacertine hissed, “Kinto, you are to stand by and await further instruction.”

As he spoke, a smaller Lacertine who was carrying supplies to the cannon dropped the ammo he was carrying and hurried away to the rear of the force.

“Satisfied human?” the large lacertine growled.

“You keep calling me human; that is not my name, you Lacertine trash,” I said as I quietly summoned my daggers.

“You prefer to die with a name? It will not matter, human; you will die all the same. When I have finished you, I will raze this settlement; its ashes will persist as a warning of what happens when you stand against the mighty lacertine Empire. I will crucify the remaining humans and leave them for the rodents and insects to feast on their….”

I stepped closer as the Large lacertine continued to speak, “My name is Andrew Dawes.”

The Lacertines Eyes went wide with the realization of who I was. He turned toward his troops and shouted, “Kill him!!” as he pointed his clawed hand at me, the remaining force began to fire.

I swiped up with the dagger in my right hand, relieving the lacertine of the burden of one large arm. He looked surprised as he looked down to see dark green blood squirting from the nub that remained.

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I spun my dagger, knelt, and punched the Lacertine in the side of the knee, shattering bone and tearing ligaments. As he crumpled to the ground screaming, I stepped over him and looked down.

“You die slow, remember? Just wait here for me; I’ll be done soon.” I said as I flexed my legs and blasted toward the remaining troops.

I rushed into the remaining troops, daggers at the ready. The first three lost their heads before they could fire a shot. The remaining twenty or so troops gathered around the Plasma cannon as I saw it power up.

“Caution, evasive maneuvers advised,” The voice in the suit said.

I crouched, and with all the power I could muster, I jumped into the air, trying to get behind the group. The plasma cannon fired at the spot I had just been in, leaving a small smoking crater as dirt and grass shot up into the air.

“Would you like to activate propulsion boosters?” the suit asked.

“I have boosters? Hell yes! Activate them!” I said as small vents opened on my back, and I began hovering above the group of surprised Lacertine troops.

“I don’t know how to fly this thing! How do I get down?” I asked as the realization that I had no idea my armor had a propulsion system and, therefore, no idea how to operate it hit me.

“Disengaging propulsion system,” the voice said as the vents closed, and I dropped 50 feet into the midst of the Lacertine troops.

“Oooh shit!” I screamed as my arms and legs flailed, and I landed on my back with a thud.

The Lacertine troops pounced immediately. Punching, kicking, hitting me with the butts of their weapons. I think several of the bastards actually bit me before I gathered my wits and managed to roll up into a fighting stance.

The moment I was up, one of the lacertines tried to bite me again. Just as he lunged, my left hand shot out, placing four fingers in his mouth and my thumb under his jaw.

“Stop. fucking. BITING ME!” I shouted as I ripped down, removing the bottom half of his face along with the front of his neck from his head as he fell, dying and choking on his own blood.

For a split second, the other troops stopped their attacks and stood watching their fellow soldier die. I heard the plasma cannon charging up again behind me as I spun and activated Pulsar Blast.

Instead of focusing on one or two targets, I held my arms out to my side and spun as the blasts of energy cut through the remaining troops and pulled the cannon off of its tripod as it fired into the ground harmlessly.

All the troops were dead. Lying on the ground in piles of charred lizard bodies. Only Kinto remained, as well as the first large lizard who met me at first. He was now missing an arm and crippled, lying in the field bleeding out.

“You, stay right there until I’m done with him,” I said, pointing at the smaller Lacertine named Kinto, who was now huddling behind the transport vehicle the troops arrived in.

I walked over to the big Lacertine, who was trying to put pressure on the wound after losing his arm; he looked at me and growled in defiance.

“A promise is a promise big boy, your turn. You come to this place and threaten me, threaten my family?” I said, walking over and picking up the dismembered claw-handed arm that lay beside him. I dismissed my helmet completely.

“Kinto, there is going to bring this message back to the ones of you who are in charge. Poor guy has seen a lot today, ya know, so he is going to have plenty to tell them,” I flipped the arm in the air and caught it by the wrist.

“I just really want to drive home the point though, so I think just a little bit more of an example of what happens when you threaten Captain Andrew Dawes, his family, or hell, anyone else on Earth is needed,” I walked to the injured lacertine and stood over him while I looked back over my shoulder.

“Kinto, you watching?” I shouted back to the small lacertine, “Just one last message I need you to bring back with you, Okay?”

I took the large, muscled arm of the lacertine and began beating him with it. Over and over, the arm crashed down on him until both the arm and his head were nothing but gooey mush. When I was done, I threw the stub down and turned toward Kinto.

“You tell them I’m coming for all of them; you tell them what you saw here today. Any lacertine that stands against me will share the same fate. Now, get out of here and don’t come back.”

Kinto quickly jumped into the troop carrier and sped off away from the settlement. I had a feeling we would see more troops soon, but for now, everyone should be safe.

CJ came walking up beside me in a pair of flip-flops and a bathrobe that had SR-CJ embroidered on the chest. He was drinking a cup of coffee and took a long drag off his vape while he looked around at the carnage.

“So they are officially in the find-out phase, huh?” he took a long sip of the coffee that was steaming in the morning coolness.

“The find-out phase?” I asked, turning my head toward him as I struggled to catch my breath after brutally beating the Lacertine to death with his own arm.

“Yeah,” CJ said, raising the cup back to his mouth, “They have been in the fuck around phase for the last three and half years. Fuck around and find out,” he laughed as he shook his head and walked toward the settlement, “You think Momma Dawes made biscuits this morning?”

I laughed as I dismissed my armor and followed him, “Let's go see; I worked up quite the appetite with that little workout.”

Tiff came walking up behind us, “I assume the use of excessive force was warranted,” she smiled as she walked beside me.

“Oh, no, I just needed to stretch my legs a little. Also, that big one was just an asshole, so I needed to make an example,” I shrugged.

“Oh, by the way, I can fly now, and my armor talks to me. Happen to know anything about that?” I asked.

You gained twenty levels when you killed Anthrogor, and this is the first time you have used the armor in combat since. I am assuming that those are new abilities unlocked by the level-ups. We can do a full diagnostic after breakfast,” She replied.

“CJ was telling me about this delicious-sounding food called… Biscuits and gravy?” she said the words slowly, “ Do you think Mrs. Dawes would be able to make that for us?”

I laughed, “I can ask her; I am assuming after what just happened that we are going to get a good breakfast along with even more questions.”

“I didn’t take you for biscuits and gravy kind of girl, Tiff,” I said, nudging her as we walked.

“There is much you don’t know about me, Andrew.” She said, shrugging.

“Well, I am a slut for some biscuits and gravy, so let’s see if Momma Dawes is up for it!” CJ said, taking another drag of his vape as we walked into my Mom and Dad’s house to hopefully get some breakfast.