Chapter 30. Give Him a Hand
Princess Denae opened her eyes, everything was blurry. She could hear the screams of her men around her as she lay crumpled against the opened cargo bay door of the drop ship. The last thing she remembered was the Enforcer rushing into the room as the strike team finished off the last of the guards.
Denae was scouting ahead to ensure the facility entrance was clear of enemies when the Enforcer rushed her from the other side.
The door slid open, and the Enforcer screamed through, little more than a blur. He kicked Denae in the chest before she even had time to react. She flew completely across the large room slamming into the hull of the Retribution drop ship.
As she blacked out, she saw her men rushing the Enforcer.
As she awoke, Denae shook her head trying to gain back some small amount of clarity. The Enforcer stood in the center of the cargo bay, one of her strike team held in the air above his head by the two jagged red swords, the others lying dead on the floor around him. Denae felt a wave of emotion swell inside. She had led her men to death, she had failed to complete the mission. All of this and more washed over her as she watched the last man die.
“Noooo!” she screamed as she stood, electricity crackling in waves over her body.
As we entered the room and saw the carnage, I turned to the other five prisoners, “Get to that drop ship, now!”
Tiff rushed in, placing herself between me and Anthragor. She turned her head, looking back over her shoulder, “Andrew, you cannot fight him. Get to the ship with them. Denae and I will keep him occupied.”
Anthragor dropped the now-dead soldier, his body slamming lifelessly to the ground, and turned to face Tiff “So, the primate brought help. How entertaining.”
“I haven’t killed a Sapere in quite some time. This day just continues to reward my diligence.”
As he spoke, Denae rushed him from his rear, her body completely consumed with electricity. As she ran, tendrils of electricity jumped out form her body arcing off the floor and objects around her.
As she approached, Anthrogor stood unmoving seemingly unaware of the threat approaching from behind him.
Just as she reached him, Anthragor’s bottom right arm shot out, grabbing Denae by the throat and lifting her completely off the ground.
“A nuisance. Do you mean to kill me, Havokium? Did you assume I would be threatened by you and your quaint party tricks?"
His head never turned in her direction as he spoke, still focused on me with Tiff between us. His hand flexed around Denae’s throat as she grasped at his fingers trying to free herself from his grasp.
“I.. co… get re..”
I heard a voice over my comm, but it was breaking up.
“CJ? Is that you?” I asked, not taking my eyes off Anthragor.
“Hold on, bro! I’m coming!” CJ shouted over the comms.
“Elvis coming too, time to KILL!” Elvis shouted as two of the Havok hound drop suits shot into the cargo bay from outside; one missing a left arm.
The two suits shot into the bay like rockets, slamming into Anthragor, knocking him back across the room, and allowing Denae to free herself.
“Run!” Tiff shouted, as I took off toward the dropship with the five prisoners.
We reached the ramp in the rear of the drop ship, and I threw the two portable field generators inside. I had 45 seconds left on my suit before it timed out.
“Get inside and strap in!” I shouted to the group.
As the group all rushed into the drop ship, I returned to the ramp. Anthragor was up now. Denae and the two Havok Hound suits piloted by CJ and Elvis were advancing on him and he was cornered.
He got up to one knee, using one of his swords to brace himself. He lifted that eyeless head toward me and smiled again.
“I’m coming, Primate!” he screamed as he stood and rushed the group.
Anthragor moved with the grace of a warrior whose skills were honed to perfection over countless decades. CJ swung with his suit's remaining right arm. Anthragor dropped the sword he was holding in his left top hand and caught the punch. He then caught the sword with his bottom left hand and, with a blindingly fast swing, he bisected the suit and kept walking.
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Elvis screamed, “Face me and die with honor!”
He had some sort of long two-handed hammer; I wasn’t sure where it came from, but I assumed it was in the armory somewhere.
Elvis swung the hammer, connecting with the side of Anthragor’s head with a crunch. Elvis then jumped into the air as boosters from the bottom of the suit’s feet exploded and propelled him forward impossibly fast. His knee connected with Anthragor's chest, doubling the Enforcer over with a grunt.
At the same moment, Princess Denae threw herself back into the fray. She rushed up and extended her two arms toward Anthragor, electricity exploding into him with a crackling sizzle.
“Aaargh!” Anthragor screamed. “Enough of this!” he shouted as he stood and kicked Elvis’s suit, knocking it back onto the ground.
I was reeling. I couldn’t watch this. I couldn’t watch Anthragor kill the people who were trying to save me; I had to act. I saw Tiff rushing toward the Enforcer as he swung his swords wildly at Denae who continued to blast electricity into him while dodging his wild swings.
The timer on my interface was down to 30 seconds.
If I can catch him off guard I can help, I thought.
I summoned my daggers and ran toward him; I had to end this.
I ran as fast as my suit would carry me, crossing the room in seconds. As Anthragor struggled against Denae's blast, I jumped, holding my two daggers pointing down ready to strike the final blow.
I can do this, if I can just get to him and get my daggers into his body, I can end this nightmare.
Just as my daggers were about to make contact, he looked up, impossibly fast, and smiled once more. His right bottom arm shot out, catching Denae in the side of the head with a punch and knocking her to the ground.
Then, with unbelievable reflexes, he swung the two blood-red swords up in an X motion, taking off both my arms from the elbow down. My arms fell to the ground, my dagger clanged and disappeared.
I fell to the ground in front of the Enforcer, blood pouring from my two arms as I held them up in front of me. My suit deactivated as I slumped to my knees watching the blood spurt onto the floor. My health bar was rapidly depleting, my body was going cold.
It’s over, I’m dead, I…. I failed, I thought as I knelt there, bleeding to death.
“NOOOO!” Tiff screamed as she ran up to me, catching my body as I slumped over. My vision was pulsing black. I was in shock and about to lose consciousness.
Anthragor stood and laughed, “The primate was outmatched, AI. You should have taught him better than to attack his superiors.”
Denae pulled herself up once more and ran over to Tiff as she held my body. She reached out and took hold of the stubs that were now my arms, placing her palms on them, blood immediately covered her hands. She squeezed my mangled arms and electricity pulsed from her palms, cauterizing the wound and staunching the blood flow.
“Use a health stim, Captain,” she said looking at me. “You will survive this.”
"Elvis, get him to the drop ship,” Denae said as she stood to face Anthragor once more.
“Let's finish this, Enforcer,” Denae said.
“Of course, Havokium, it would be my honor to rid the universe of one more of your shameful race,” he said as he raised his swords and took his battle stance once again.
Denae formed a staff of pure crackling energy, took her stance, and rushed the Enforcer as Elvis ran to the drop ship carrying Captain Dawes over his shoulder.
Tiff watched Andrew being carried to the drop ship, regret exploding inside her. She would not stand idly by and watch this enforcer take another life. She spun as Denae rushed the enforcer, “No more!” she shouted.
Denae swung her staff at Anthrogor but he expertly dodged, countering with a downward strike of his right-hand sword. Denae dodged and spun to her right thrusting the staff into his midsection.
Anthragor grunted as the staff made contact, grabbing at his charred midsection with his bottom arms.
Tiff entered the fray with a kick to the Enforcer's temple, knocking him off balance as he stumbled back before gathering himself and recentering his stance.
“Finally, a challenge,” Anthragor growled.
Just then, the entire facility rumbled as sparks and steam began spouting from various wires and piping. The lights flickered and the station tilted on its axis. The artificial gravity blinked, just enough to notice.
“Elvis? Was that you?” Tiff asked.
“Elvis used the Ron Jeremy on the facility! Elvis will kill the entire facility; you must get off now!” Elvis said over the comms.
Anthragor growled as he readied himself once more. He rushed forward in a flash of unbelievable speed and grabbed both Denae and Tiff, jumping and pinning them to the ground, his two swords pointing down toward their chests.
“I tire of this! Die, you unworthy traitors!” Anthragor shouted.
As he did, a hammer crashed down from behind him hitting him directly in the back of the skull, splitting it open as he groaned. He dropped his swords and fell limply to the ground.
Tiff’s secondary body stood holding the hammer. “We gotta go now!” she said.
Elvis fired another round from the Ron Jeremy, this one causing the facility to begin to break apart, the detention cells floating away from the main structure.
Tiff’s secondary body flashed away as she and Denae got up and ran to the drop ship.
“Get back to the Retribution!” Denae shouted to the pilot as she limped up to the cockpit holding her ribs before sitting and strapping into the co-pilot's chair.
“Everyone strap in. This place is going to blow,” she said.
The drop ship shot out of the cargo bay as the detention facility flashed and exploded. There was no sound, just the shaking and vibration from the explosion as shrapnel pinged against the escaping drop ship.
Tiff ran over to me; I had used a stim and was conscious. My health hovered around fifty percent and I was stable for now, but I was completely defeated and broken.
“My hands, they’re gone…” I said.
Tiff placed her hand on my chest, “It will be okay, Captain. You're alive. Be grateful for that.”
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“Were you able to pull him out before the facility collapsed?” the Lacertine said to the Corporal manning the station.
The Corporal was tapping furiously on the screen as he looked back at the Senator, “Y...Yes sir, just barely. He should be in the med bay now. He did sustain major injuries so he might not be conscious.”
“Well done, Corporal. Anthragor will not be happy when he wakes up, but we have just improved our position greatly in this contest. We have an Enforcer General that owes us a debt.”
The Lacertine vessel warped away.