Five days. Five fucking days on the road, and today we would finally arrive on site. I rose up from the back of the truck's cabin and rolled up my mat. It would be another two hours until sunrise or so I gathered by checking the truck's digital clock. I quickly reviewed in my head all our assets. Our convoy had five trucks with two of them each loaded up with a Charlie and Alpha. One Charlie was an aquatic design, the other was what we referred to as a roadie. My Alpha was the shit, and 90's Alpha was loaded with four GGGs with enough ammunition to fire continuously for ten seconds. On the walls of those two trucks, we had gauss rifles and pistols for arming all three hundred odd men. Olympus had offered up thirty airships for reconnaissance and one of their men would be verifying the authenticity of the find. They said he needed room for some heavy equipment, and I had made room in the cabin of the lead truck where I would be riding with 33.
I jumped down from the truck and the ice bitch greeted me, “Good morning, Sir.” I looked her up and down. She kept her hair in a tight bun and had an undercut. Her icy gaze was unwavering, and her uniform was on point and looked as if it was newly issued.
“Give me the morning report,” I said and walked by her. She was shaping up well to be a commander one day, even if she was in denial. Most important thing in a leader is they put others before themselves, and this ice-cold-bitch brought it in spades.
It had been two-and-a-half years when I began training her for command. During the N. O. Technologies fiasco. This woman jumped into her truck, without orders, with a transporter of GEL barreling towards the trailer. There had been civilians in there loading, and she could only back out to get them out of danger. If she had been off by even a second she would have been crushed while she got the people out of the way. It’s rare to meet someone so willing to sacrifice themselves for others.
“Sir, are you paying attention?” 33 asked me.
“I stopped paying attention once it was clear there was no change from yesterday’s report. How long until Olympus touches down with their man?” I decided there was no need for an answer, based on the fact my men had already cleared a landing zone and had placed lights. It would be a few minutes. I continued without giving the ice bitch an opening, “Logan must be having a fucking laugh, he got the best deal in this operation. Can’t wait to be done with this damn mission. And I can hear the airship now.”
From the darkness a cloud of brass and steam descended and after a few minutes out came four figures, I recognized two, but the others were… “The fuck is that!?”
“I believe they’re automata, sir.”
“Fuck’s an automata?”
“What’s the automata with you?” came a familiar young voice. 33 let out an out-of-character snort drawing my glance. She lowered her hand from her mouth already having regained her composure. I turned towards the two humans who had approached us. Adonis was grinning wide and seemed proud of his little pun, but V's brows furrowed in slight worry.
“V, please tell me those automata are not my ride-along. I asked for someone I was familiar with.”
V still seemed worried, “Uh, no, no. I’m sorry, I just didn’t know your people had intel on our automata.”
Great, now I had done something to put him on guard. Of course, I could just put it on 33, but as her commander she was my responsibility. Deflection and deception were my best option, “We’ve heard rumors, but had no solid evidence. So, who am I taking with me?”
“Hi, Alloy!” Adonis said enthusiastically.
“Hey, kiddo. V, who is my ride-along?”
“It’s Adonis,” the man said beaming. I was struck speechless while this fucking idiot turned to his son, “Now Adonis, this is an official diplomatic mission, you have to be formal and courteous.”
“Oh, yeah! Hi, Mr. Justice!” Fuck. Me.
“33,” I said with a fake smile so she would know I was pissed, “Please attend to our guest’s,” I glanced at the four-legged automata, “… things. Mr. Vitruvius Alexander, a word if you will.”
The ice bitch brushed the boy’s shoulder, and he began chattering while they approached the automata together. V looked clueless as I lead him out of earshot of Adonis before addressing him. “V, are you out of your damned mind?”
He looked taken aback, “What do you mean?”
“Are you shitting me? He. Is. A. Child!”
“He’s sixteen and knows how to handle the chemistry set for checking purity. Plus, he's going to be with you, what could go wrong?”
“Everything. We have a five truck convoy and three hundred men, making a direct line to a destination without first sending out scouts. Atlantis’s scouts have spotted us, guaranteed, and with a convoy this large they are going to try and intercept us. Even if they haven’t figured out we know where El Dorado is, once they know we’ve loaded up I guarantee we are being attacked! And you just put your son in the middle of this hellhole!”
The man got defensive and jabbed me in the chest with a finger, “Well how was I supposed to know that? Plus it was your idea to collect this in one trip. Seems to me like you’re the one who made a mistake underestimating the Atlanteans.”
This short-sighted man was going to be the death of me, and more likely, his son. “If we sent one truck the scouts would still see us. They always check for scraps after us, and then they would have access to the majority of El Dorado. This was one trip or nothing. I swear-”
“Then you better keep my son safe. You’re the Alloy of Justice, aren’t you? Maybe you ought to live up to that moniker. Besides, the twin dogs will be able to handle Atlanteans just fine.”
“Great! Now what the fuck is a dog?”
The sun rose while I sat in the cabin with the silver and gold dogs pinning me on both sides. I had my arms crossed and was getting increasingly pissed off. The ice bitch was on the driver’s side and was talking with Adonis in a relaxed manner I had never seen before with her while Adonis was on the far side opposite looking out the window.
“So why did you guys have the trucks parked in a circle when we landed?” the boy asked.
33 smiled as she responded with an amused smile, “It’s our night time formation while we rest. The truck’s serve as barricades.”
“Why did you have spotlights?”
“Atlanteans have enhanced night vision. The spotlights are turned on the outside of the formation so they can’t try to ambush us in our sleep.”
I turned to my right to look at the silver canine. It had large, sharp teeth. Like knives. Turning to my left the golden dog had a squished face with shorter teeth that ended in flat ends. Each of them stood at about a meter and a half, and looked like they could tear me apart. “I fucking hate dogs,” I mumbled.
“What was that Mr. Justice?”
“I asked how much longer?”
33 stared at the map on the console while keeping a hand on the wheel. “It says here we’re about five minutes away."
“Fuck yeah.” I muttered with bittersweet relief. We pulled at our destination and as soon as 33 was out of the way I squeezed by the dog on my left and landed with a white crunch and took a whiff of salt on the wind. The ground was white, dried salt from an ancient sea long since gone. You could see the lapping shore of Lake Sahara.
Lake Sahara was the largest body of water in recorded history that was land locked. Stretching over three million square kilometers, it was a testament of the might of humanity in her prime. The lake had originally been a silicon mine having been the largest one ever built. Silicon was once a plentiful resource, but as more and more electronics powered the advancement of progress, its need became greater. Over hundreds of thousands of years, we had consumed it with bottomless avarice. After all, certainly something so grand in scale could never run out. But everything is finite, those foolish bastards. Solar radiation, reckless use, tectonic activity, and a near endless supply of factors drained away silicon until all that was left was the massive pit.
The pit was the largest man made structure ever built, and with the last of the silicon drained from its coffers its pumps and drains were finally allowed to fall to disrepair. Over the eons rainwater filled it, until the mighty Sahara mines had become the grandest body of water ever built by man’s hands.
But that was only the beginning. Acids accumulated from the poisoned earth and were subsumed into the water itself. It would be suicide to descend into its depths. Unit Forty-three of the Crossroads had been placed in charge of the area and had failed to find any significant value outside of various mining towns along its coast. It was their commander, 90, who had given the mission brief giving the area history before I came here.
But El Dorado wasn’t hidden in the lake itself. At the very least that’s not where the coordinates lead to. Instead, the shit led to this decrepit shack in the middle of nowhere that was in sight of the lake. “Alright,” I called out to the large group of people coming out of the vehicles, “Everyone check your comms.” There were going to be five channels used during this operation, and I was on the command channel. The idea was that the controlling station for each channel would contact me directly giving me summary reports and important information so that I didn’t need to listen to the details.
I pressed a button on the radio built into my flight suit. “Olympus, Crossroads, comms check.” Call signs were being kept as simple as possible so that any Atlanteans listening in would at the very least have trouble getting a bead on what we were doing here.
“Lima Charlie, how about me?” Lima Charlie was the phonetic sounding for loud and clear.
“Read you the same. Status report.”
The Olympians were performing air reconnaissance and were spaced so that each radio signal could piggyback to us from the ‘primary point of interest’ as we were to refer to it over the radios. There was a two kilometer wide straight about six hundred kilometers from here with the ocean on the other side. This was the closest access the Atlanteans had to Lake Sahara, and by extension our operation. We were going to keep an eye on the fucking thing.
“No movement from the primary point of interest. You’re right about the scouts though. We spotted about a dozen parties tailing you while keeping about a twenty mile perimeter from you.”
“Let me know when you have a status report. We’re investigating the shack now.” I released the button on the radio and waited for the rest to radio in.
“Crossroads, security, manned and ready,” came the last report.
“Copy that,” I acknowledged before releasing the button and then addressed my people directly, “Alright fuckheads, let’s knock this shit out so I can get out of the sun.”
I took a team of twelve into the shack including the kid and 33. The silver and golden freaks came with, which pissed me off, but the kid insisted that they were to stick by him. The walls and ceiling were crumbling leaving the floor a mess and light peering through. Eventually I was called over when a trapdoor with a ladder leading down into darkness was discovered.
“Hand me a flare,” came my order, followed by its activation and subsequent drop down the hole. The thing fell pinging on the ladder and walls as it fell. Eventually it came to a stop as echoes rose up.
“Well, that shit is deep.”
33 came to my side and gave the ladder a solid shake before commenting, “Sir, the ladder is stable.” There was a pointed nature to her words, and I looked over to see her eyebrows slightly furrowed in concern and confusion.
“Lucky for us then. Come on,” I cocked my head and then smiled, “Hey Adonis, those dogs of yours can’t climb ladders, can they.”
“No, Mr. Justice.”
Lucky indeed. I radioed 90, the other Alpha pilot and fellow commander and told him to take charge while my team went down and lost radio contact. I took the lead and climbed down. The walls were made of concrete, and the shaft continued to stretch as I descended. Once I caught up to the flare, I hopped off the last couple rungs and waited for my team to finish arriving. A couple of the guys who were in bad shape complained about sore arms. They’d get over it. We opened up a bag and each took flashlights and turned them on to get our bearings.
As the beams swept around, I was surprised by the sheer volume of the space. The place had to have been a few square kilometers at least. Around us were massive pillars that were hard to gage what their diameter was. Fucking massive, that was for sure. Everything was concrete, and I let out a low, impressed whisper.
“Sir,” one of my men spoke, “We have a door over here.”
I turned and saw where his light was pointed. It was hard to tell how far away it was. The size of the cavern was messing with my sense my scale, but it appeared to be on the opposite wall.
“Let’s go.”
As we approached 33 came to my side and finally shared what was bothering her, “Sir, there isn’t a lot of dust in here.”
I had to agree, had seen plenty of ruins during my tenure. Even if this space had been airtight, tectonic shifts and years of neglect should have caused cracks and damage to this space. It was too clean. Too perfect. “What are you implying, ice bitch.”
“Nothing, sir. Just thinking out loud.” I’m not a dumbass, I knew exactly what she was implying, and I didn’t like it one bit.
We came to the door and entered a control room of some sort. It had a few consoles and a set of breakers on the wall. Adonis exclaimed, “I know what this is! It’s a pump control room. This must have been a facility for removing the water from the mine, so they didn’t have to worry about flooding. Over here are-”
Looks like the kid was useful. He was about sixteen, and I knew most Olympians were engineering inclined. He rambled on while we searched the room, about how the pumps would have been bigger than his airship, how they would work, and so on and so forth. I didn’t particularly care and noticed that even 33 was no longer enjoying his chattering. It honestly surprised me that she had opened up to him the way she did, though I had to admit his enthusiasm could be infectious.
Fuck! The lights in the room flashed on as I heard a loud snap followed by the whine of a generator starting up from underneath us and we all turned towards the source. An older woman in the group had apparently shut a breaker and I shouted, “Fucking warn us first.” She was from Unit 3, and I cursed at the mixing of units required for this mission. My Unit, Twenty-seven, would not have done something so idiotic.
“My bad.”
“My bad? Are you fucking stupid? Or did Logan not teach anyone from Unit Three any professionalism. Only shit I want to hear from you is, ‘Yes, sir. No, sir.’ Who the fuck says, ‘My bad,’ to a commander you worthless piece of shit. Almost gave us all a heart attack and that’s all you have to say-”
“Sir!”
“What, ice bitch!?” I was irritated for the interruption. Thing was she wasn’t the type to stop my ranting for no reason. I turned to see her eyes wide open in shock.
“How are the generators still working?” she asked, before remembering to add, “Sir.”
“Shit,” I muttered in contained surprise. The team began exchanging looks with each other.
I had been waiting in the control room with Adonis and 33 for two hours when our recon team came back and the team leader reported, “Sir. We finished surveying the cavern and the pillars appear to be pipes connecting to different tanks, all empty. We believe this all connects to the pump and generator room underneath us. We also found a set of motors connected to some sort of giant hydraulics system that we have yet to determine the purpose of. We believe it is all functional.”
I nodded, “Good job. You’re with Unit Forty-three, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
At least 90 knew how to train his men with proper respect. Adonis had finished looking over the consoles and believed he could operate it. They had some safety interlocks that prevented operation of the pumps until the hydraulics system was activated. Whatever this place was, you were required to move something before you could pump down. But the most interesting part was the nameplate on the console. El Dorado Time Capsule Control Station.
33 came close and said out of earshot of Adonis, “Sir, this is a bad idea.”
I crossed my arms since I already knew where this was going, but it was good to see 33 beginning to question my directions to my face. Part of me was proud she was starting to take charge, but the other part of me was pissed that today was the day she chose to do it. “And how is that?” I asked.
“This entire facility has been refurbished, and the Atlanteans got their intel from a statue that they just happened to install not even a decade ago. Then Kristoff falls in our lap, with the coordinates and without his suicide chip going off. There are too many coincidences. It doesn’t make sense.”
“So, what do you propose is going on?” I wanted to be sure she was following the right thought process.
“Sir, I believe this is a trap.”
Looks like she was halfway there. Not bad. “Adonis.”
“Yes, Mr. Justice… er… Sir!”
I didn’t break eye contact with 33 as I gave my command, “Start it up.”
33’s eyes nearly popped out of her skull, “Sir!?”
I lowered my voice while Adonis got to work so only 33 could hear me. “There are Three possibilities, and I don’t like the implications of a single damn one. First off, let’s say this is a trap. You’re right, I probably just killed us all. But the second possibility is a million times worse. El Dorado is real, and we just led Atlantis to it. How did you word it? They’d be able to upgrade a single operative to take on an Alpha. I call bullshit, but the result would be the same. All out war with Atlantis and possibly hundreds of thousands dead. So, considering the worst case scenario the choice is obvious.”
As I explained myself 33 seemed to regain her composure until I could barely read her emotions. That’s the 33 I know. Even so, a small change of her eyes gave away her fear. “What’s the third possibility?”
“The trap wasn’t for us.”
Her eyes narrowed in a way that probably only I could read. Confusion. “It was for Atlantis? But then who laid the trap?”
I shrugged. Like I had said, I didn’t like the implications one damn bit.
We found out the result of our work once we came back to the surface. My radio blew up as soon as we were back in the open and reports started pouring in.
The hydraulics had lifted a massive wall up in Lake Sahara which sectioned off a part of the lake. The pumps emptied out the quartered off area, and exposed steep rocky slopes that shimmered an oily purple from the left over minerals made smooth from the acids. You could make out your reflection in the stuff, though it was dull enough so that it wasn’t blinding.
We changed to Teflon uniforms that would hold up against the acid residue and unloaded the Charlie roadie. It was called a roadie because that’s what it’s function was, making a path for the trucks to drive on. With most ruins you needed a roadie to lead the way as you made your way to the larger collapsed architecture that could have resources.
The roadie had a large roller that would attach to the front and two reverse jointed legs with flat feet that lined up with each other as it pushed forward. The roller would crush and flatten any obstacles as it moved forward, and the feet would step in such away to push rebar poking out to the side to avoid piercing tires. Finally was a large heavy caliber gun mounted on top for shooting down Atlanteans or airships, whichever the situation called for. Hopefully we wouldn’t need it. I fucking knew better though.
Progress was slow, which was a good thing as I looked back the way the convoy had come. A thunderstorm had appeared on the horizon, and if our forecasts were correct would reach us in about eight hours. The perfect cover when we extracted.
The roadie didn’t go directly down the slope. We had to make sure the trucks would have enough traction to climb back out. Instead, it performed a tight zig-zag as it descended until it hit the bottom, forming a switchback with steep walls. There were several smooth rocky outcrops that we had to go around, but otherwise it was a pretty straightforward path. Minerals had built up on the wall over the years, and these had fallen off leaving massive boulders at the bottom of the valley.
Even so, there was a single mine shaft that had managed to survive the years. We came to a stop outside the tunnel when I got a radio from Olympus, “Crossroads, Olympus, Activity headed towards primary point of interest. A large group of shadows under the water is headed in, fast.”
I turned my mouth to the speaker and responded, “Keep an eye on it.”
“We have a situation,” a panicked voice came back.
“Report.”
“They… fired… something.”
“I need something more than that.”
“… We just lost contact with the airship in the area… Their last report was they fired some sort of weapon that opened a canal connecting the ocean to the Lake and the shadows were crossing.”
“What do you mean they opened a canal?” I demanded.
“It just fired from the water and took out another airship!”
This was not good, “Pull out all airships, we don’t need to lose any unnecessary men. Explain what you mean by the canal.”
“Sir, they blew a path through the straight with some sort of light or plasma weapon. The ocean is now connected to the Lake and whatever it is has started crossing over now. As soon as our airships are in sight it shoots them down.”
“How fast are they moving?”
“I’m not sure, we’ve lost our eyes on them. Another airship just got shot down!”
“I said pull out all airships!” I released the radio and cursed, “Fuck!” I didn’t have time to complain though. First thing was first.
I switched to the all-comms channel that would allow me to be heard on all radios. As the commander I was the only one authorized to speak on this channel to bypass chain of command if needed. I had no time to wait for comms. “Unit 3, unload the aquatic Charlie and set it up at the top of the slope to provide cover. You will be arming up and setting up perimeter. Unit Forty-three, get that roadie back up there and use it as a barricade, then get every truck down here. Unit Twenty-seven, start unloading the Alphas as soon as they get to the bottom. 90, the Olympian, and I will be taking our recon team into the shaft. Make it fast, we’re on the clock. Olympus airships, fall back to the thunderstorm. I don’t need any more of you going down.”
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I started getting radio affirmations and ignored them while 33 headed off to go drive her truck. She wasn’t part of Forty-three, but to be fair I needed these vehicles moved fast so I wasn’t about to call her out.
90 and Adonis joined me and the recon team into the tunnel and we started making our way in. It wasn’t long until we found our reward, a giant golden door with the words, ‘El Dorado’ in large bold font. Bingo.
“Shit, is that thing made of gold?” I mused incredulously.
Adonis pulled a pack off the side of the silver dog and said, “Let me check.” A couple minutes later I had my confirmation.
“Find out how to pop her open. We need to get loaded up and the hell out of here.” My recon team worked swiftly. Eventually we found a robust hand crank, and after a few minutes we were quickly turning it causing the door to open inward.
Adonis excitedly explained, “Oh, clever! The door swings inward so the mine’s collapse won’t interfere with opening-”
“Not now Adonis,” I interrupted. I could give two fucks about the operation of a damn door. We needed in and we needed to be in there now.
We stepped inside while leaving two members to finish cranking the door open. It was dark, but in the center of what appeared to be a large hallway was a button. I walked up to it and pressed it. Instantly a series of crackles and pops sang down the passageway activating a chemical reaction in the ceiling to provide illumination. I took notice that this was significantly different from how the pump room had been. This place seemed… more untouched.
But not completely. There were a series of sealed heavy-duty sectional doors, but on each one I could make out what appeared to be a hole. I walked up and looked through it. Drilled. And while it was drilled at least a while ago, it was clearly fresher than it should have been for how old the facility was.
“Get these things open.” My orders were carried out quickly and soon the first one was raised up. Inside was a cube with a tarp over it. I walked over and tossed it off for my eyes to be greeted with bricks. Solid bricks, made of gold.
“Adonis, test it.”
A moment later the boy said breathlessly, “Mr. Justice, its real.” He laughed, “Its real gold!”
I looked at the boy who had lit up in joy, forgetting the encroaching danger. To be honest, I found myself smirking, this was the first good news I had heard all day.
We opened each door, and with each chemical test the truth became clear. El Dorado was real, metric ton after metric ton of pure precious elements. With almost no radioactive decay or breakdown. I couldn’t believe it.
Loading took only a couple hours, and the thunderstorm had picked up the pace. Now it would only be an hour before the rain arrived. There was only one problem. 90’s damn Alpha was stuck in the mud as soon as we offloaded it, and he couldn’t get it out.
Alphas are made up of four main systems. First you have the core system, which holds and feeds the GEL to the other parts of the machine. This would be placed on top of a propulsion system. This could be anywhere from treads to wheels to even legs and jet systems. Next was the armament system that would be attached to the sides of the core. Finally, was the cockpit, which provided all the sensors and controls for the pilot.
Alphas were the perfect machine of war, ordered to the specification by each pilot. As you made rank you could even custom order parts, though I preferred the classics.
90’s Alpha used a propeller system that allowed it to fly and strafe its opponents. Problem was the thing was so heavy it had gotten ingrained in the dirt which were now clogging up his fucking thrusters. We had men on every end of it with shovels trying to dig it out.
His armaments system was going to be important. It contained four GGGs, or Gauss Gatling Guns that could swerve around the core on a 360-degree rail. These things could fire six thousand rounds per minute of sixty mm ammunition, and he had enough to fire all four for ten solid seconds. What he could possibly unleash such hellfire on that could survive was beyond imagination, which is why he normally fired one GGG at a time in bursts. His cockpit was a round saucer, giving him excellent visual coverage on all sides of his Alpha. It wasn’t a particularly fast Alpha, but its firepower more than made up for it and was perfect for defending a point.
I turned towards my Alpha, which was a fast rush-down design. I had opted for humanoid legs that contained thermal thrusters behind the legs. The feet had rows of rollers that allowed me to easily skate around as I maneuvered and danced across the battlefield. The armaments were also humanoid, though lacked hands with instead the forearms being large pile drivers. The piles themselves were made of iron that would be heated by magnetic induction and driven through the target. Each was several meters long and only a dozen centimeters thick with a pointed diamond punch at the end of it. The firing mechanism used a spring cranked tight by GEL hydraulics. There wasn’t much I couldn’t punch through. The only problem was I only had six piles in each arm, but I didn’t care since most enemies could be taken out just by running them over. The piles only purpose was to topple over any structures that got in my way. The cockpit itself was triangular, with a series of arrays on the back of it like a jagged mane that provided various radar functions.
Finally, on the right shoulder was my signature emblem. The one piece of true customization I was allowed on my Alpha. It depicted the upper torso of a muscular man with a black beard, with his arms crossed over his bare chest each grasping a different instrument. In one, a scepter. In the other, a cornucopia. It was the personification of the underworld, justice, and riches. My beloved Alloy of Justice.
The radio lit up with static as I got the report I had been dreading, “Crossroads, security, the scouts have started moving in.”
“Hold your position,” I ordered. I wasn’t worried about the scouts. Even if the perimeter was broken at the top of the road, our Alphas could more than level them even if we had to fight uphill. The problem was the force that was making its way towards us in from the opposite direction. It had enough firepower to create a canal. Ideally that should have burned through hundreds of liters of raw GEL and they didn’t have enough for another shot like that. Even if they did, I was slightly counting that they wouldn’t be willing to fire that on the cache we found anyways.
Regardless, the scouts weren’t attacking us from the front because they thought they could win. They were to split our defenses while the main force came from behind. We had taken off our unit patches in preparation for the operation so they couldn’t identify who we were exactly, but they probably had deduced we had Alphas just based off the size of our group. I was relying on unloading the Alphas out of sight to maintain an element of surprise, but this shitty flying Alpha was stuck in the dirt. A mistake on my part, but a fucking critical one.
They’d be able to hold up top for a bit. The two harpoons of the aquatic Charlie and the gun from the roadie were accurate and would give us some time. “I want the trucks in the tunnel, out of sight. 90, you and I are getting in our Alphas. Do not, I repeat, do not start it up.” The trucks started moving and I climbed up the back of my Alpha with practiced speed until I could clamber into the cockpit and shut it.
The cockpit itself was dark. Instead of windows were 360 degree screens that could show me through cameras what was happening around me, though for now they were off. I activated my auxiliary systems so I could see without powering up the Alpha and the screens turned on. There were a series of controls throughout the cockpit for a variety of functions, but my movements were managed primarily by two control sticks with buttons on them. Each button when held would charge my piles for four seconds and upon release would unload them. There were a pair of twin arc rails wrapping around me in about sixty degrees that allowed me to control the thrusts of each leg. If I pulled the right handle back on the rail, the thruster would reverse. If I pulled it all the way forward it would accelerate. Pull one all the way back and the other all the way forward and it would allow me to swivel and make a complete 180 turn. The whiplash sucked though, and I had to pin my head into a headrest that would cushion the movements.
90 was still stuck, but that was fine, since his guns could still shoot. Once the last truck was out of sight, I ordered everyone to hide in the tunnel and wait for my command to roll out. I received the word that the perimeter had begun engagement with the scouts and looked up to the top of the ridge to see laser fire and plasma shots coming through.
Each Alpha had a personal line that other Alphas could hail on for joint operations, and 90 spoke to me on this, “Alloy, I have a charge time of twenty seconds. Let me turn my Alpha on.”
“Shut the fuck up and wait,” I said with an exasperated sigh.
“I’m going to be a sitting duck when they get to the ridge.”
“You’ll be fine. Their plasma rifles won’t be able to scratch you until they’re close. Just shut up and wait for my signal.”
“And what is your signal?”
“When you see blood.” 90 didn’t respond. Twenty seconds was a long time, I had to admit. Technically speaking charge times didn’t prevent you from being a pilot, but I’ll be damned if that wasn’t going to be a pain in the ass. It wasn’t even that hard. Just turn the GEL on. Fucking idiot.
“They’re breaking through!” the report came in over static. I figured at this point the perimeter was as good as dead. If it wasn’t for their main force still coming in, I would’ve gone straight up there and wiped the Atlanteans out, but I needed to protect the convoy. I just hoped that they had taken out a good number of them. More screamed reports came in, and I acknowledged each. The bodies were stacking, and we had clearly lost. The gunshots and laser fire overhead died out, and I crossed my arm to contain my fury. Contain it until it was time to let it out.
90 broke the silence, “Bastards will pay. They’re coming over the ridge. Alloy, can I activate?”
“Negative, wait for my signal,” I growled. They were sliding down the terraced path and I took note of about thirty of them. Three of them had plasma rifles, the only weapons they had on them that could melt our plating. Those were the targets.
I closed off my mind to everything but the task at hand. The quiet whine of the screens became distant. All that mattered was my fury, swiftly reaching boiling. The Atlanteans looked slightly confused. There were two Alphas down here, abandoned. Of course, they were confused. They didn’t know what they had just walked into, the den of primal ferocity that I was about to unleash.
I focused on one of the plasma rifle users as he was clearly going to be the first in range. Maybe they would try and scavenge the Alphas, though more likely he would try to disable it. They didn’t know where we were, but they knew there were more of us. Why let us activate out Alphas? He unshouldered his rifle and began to take aim.
He never stood a chance as I took both handles and drove both fully forward. Charge time? Dumbest shit I ever heard of, just turn it on. My controls, my Alpha, everything flared red instantly as I skated up at a few hundred kilometers per hour and slammed my leg into his face. The tiny man never stood a chance against the god sized limb. The Atlanteans began screaming as they swung around to their sides at the sudden Death in their wake. Shut the fuck up, it was time to pay for your crime of killing my people! I had already redirected myself and was headed towards the second plasma rifle. He got a shot off aimed directly at my cockpit. I pulled my right handle back and the entire Alpha twisted into a slide that left a blood splatter where the Atlantean once was while ducking out of plasma. During this run I had taken out a handful of others who happened to be in my way.
I located the last plasma rifle and fired off in his direction. He shot at me consistently but I hopped up dodging the first couple shots and flipped myself to the side so that I could use my thrusters to skate on the wall. He pulled the trigger a bit more and I kicked off once again and charged one of my arms into him obliterating him. Debris rained down where I had skated on the wall and crushed a dozen more men and I skated to a halt while I located the last couple. A swift swipe later and I was leisurely sliding down the steep wall of the switch back to where 90 was.
“You done activating?”
“… Yes, sir…” 90 said meekly.
“Good, start your thrusters,” I said while swerving into him and gently placing one arm underneath his side. I gave my thrusters a light burst and lifted the thing up while it sputtered for a few seconds while the mud was flung free from the propellers and the Alpha broke free and took off.
“Good, fly up and get me a visual of the Lake, don’t go too high though, I don’t need them sniping you like they did the airships,” I finished the order on the direct line and then switched to address the rest of the convoy, “All hands, Crossroads, begin extraction. We’re going to get the hell out of this hole and begin making our way towards the thunderstorm, fast as we can. I want as much distance from this lake as soon as possible.”
As 90 took off, the trucks began exiting the tunnel and following the road up the slope. I took point in front and began leading the march up when there was a loud sound above us and I looked up to see what was happening.
A large black blob with streaking green lights came soaring over the seawall and landed onto 90’s Alpha. Instantly all four of its GGG’s swung around to intercept and began firing, but the damage was already done as the propulsion system was torn asunder as it began careening towards the wall itself. The black figure jumped off the eviscerated Alpha and landed at the bottom, which the trucks were luckily clear of. 90’s Alpha tumbled down, with a waterfall now pouring from a hole in the wall over the mine shaft.
I got a clear look at what had torn my fellow pilot apart. It stood taller than even my Alpha, and was humanoid like me. Humanoid might be a strong word though, with massive arms built like a gorilla that hung all the way down to what would have been its ankles. The entire thing was built like those sketches of a man without skin to show his muscles. Instead of exposing red muscle though, it was powerful nanofiber cables that were as wide as a man’s torso. The only thing it was missing though was a head. Instead, where the neck should have started there was a round circular plate that looked heavily armored. I figured that was the weak point, or the brain of the monstrosity since why else would it need the extra armor. Each of its artificial fibers had green lights throughout it, and I noticed there were lasers coming out of them that were quickly swiping back and forth across the environment, as if scanning. The lasers settled on me.
Fuck waiting to see what it planned, I was already diving off the road down at the beast. The lasers all focused on me and seemed to focus on single points on me. One followed the cockpit, another my foot, others following different points of interest on me. It was tracking me, and I was more than happy to be its focus. As I got closer one of its massive hands reached out to try and catch me, but with a pull my thrusters jerked me into a spin that I used to deliver a kick to its gut as I ducked under its grip. This thing was likely stronger than me, and I figured it would have no problem cracking me open like an egg.
My blow only made it take a step back and it brought one arm crashing down to where I had been a moment before as I strafed around to behind it while holding each of the buttons on my controls to begin charging up my piles. It tried to straighten up but I tackled it causing purple acidic mud to splatter everywhere. I quickly kicked off and landed on a rocky pillar next to it while the thing flailed and picked itself up.
“Alloy, watch out!” buzzed the radio and I didn’t bother waiting to see what it was I needed to avoid as I boosted off and launched myself with a leap towards the road above. The trucks had managed to get to the third level of the switchback, and I looked down as more giant bastards landed from the seawall, one smashing the boulder I had been perched on. Six. Six fucking behemoths. And the sons of bitches all had those same green lasers swerving and then landing on me so that I was lit up like a firework.
The good news, they weren’t going for the trucks. Not yet. The shitty news was I’m not so sure I can outmaneuver all these monsters. And I loved every second of it. I breathed in and allowed myself to be lost in the moment. I was the hunter, and these creatures were the prey, except they didn’t know it yet. That’s where the real thrill would be.
There was a beep indicating the piles were ready, and I slammed my right pile driver into the ground and released, shattering rock and mud down on my victims. I was already recharging my next pile when I landed by the first of the monsters, whose lasers had lost track of me. Like I thought, as a result it had seemed to lose the ability to see me as it failed to react. I landed a left hook into its shoulder and fired my next pile, impaling it spraying white raw GEL out and causing its arm to go limp as the thing let out a frenzied scream. It could feel pain, and that made me scream with exhilaration as I brought a knee and flipped the thing over onto another monster. The others were already charging me after I knocked the one off its feet and I skated over the gap landing a kick into its crotch and somersaulting until I was pressed against the sea wall and took a sprinter’s starting position. Beep, the right pile was charged.
I charged the closest one which managed to wrap its arms into a bear hug. It wasn’t fast enough though and I fired my pile driver through the chest causing it to release me with a bloodcurdling shriek. Beep, I brought the left hook down on its head and fired a spear right through the plate where it should have had a neck. That shut it the fuck up as it went limp. One down, five to go. And I had eight more piles to do it. Honestly it was getting too easy.
One charged and swung an arm that could have easily torn me in half if it could land the blow.
If!
I leaned back letting it overshoot me and then used my right arm on its back and my left on its forearm to jerk the thing forward, impaling it on the still red-hot pile that I had killed the first with, causing it to go limp.
It was then I realized that some of their green lasers had changed targets so that they were tracking the trucks, with two of them breaking off while the other two continued to stay focused on me. Did they think they could fucking ignore me?
I pushed off the wall and skated forward and ducked the first’s swung fist as I slid past. Beep, I impaled the second beast in his elbow as I leaped over his lunge. The first of the runners had begun climbing the slope, digging its arms into the rocky walls, and making itself a juicy target. Beep! I leapt up and slammed a pile driver into its spine as I fired off the heated rod pinning it to the cliffside as it went limp. The last of the bastards had started climbing and I dropped down and kicked it between its shoulders knocking it down. When I landed, the one with the injured elbow attempted to tackle me. I jumped and placed my thrusters on full blast, using one arm on the back of my assailant to help steady me as I parkoured over it and shoved it into the dirt. With a series of two beeps I charged into the one furthest from me that I had ducked before at the beginning of my charge and fired a single pile into its chest, causing it to slide backwards. I lurched forward and leapt into a dropkick that finished driving the thing back through the waterfall and into the mining tunnel as I landed at the entrance. I slammed my charged pile driver into the ceiling and fired, while simultaneously doing a 180 and reversing out into a spin. Not going to lie, that looked real smooth as the cavern collapsed and crushed the fourth behemoth.
The one with the bad elbow tried to take a swing at me while I had my back to it. A rookie mistake as I dodged back and kicked the elbow so that the pile popped out. I did a vertical spinning kick driving the spike into its head and turned my attention to the last one that was… where the fuck was it? It was one of the two that had broken off from the pack to chase down the trucks…
I looked up and sure enough it was still climbing up the walls of the switchback. I went full throttle and caught up in just seconds, bodily slamming into it and sending us both flying into the air until we cleared the hole. I landed gracefully while it squirmed and landed on its chest before swiftly pulling itself up. It was standing between the roller from the roadie and the aquatic Charlie, and I strafed to the side and tackled them together pinching the monster between the two. With a horrendous metallic scream, the thing popped in half while the bottom half was crushed, and the torso landed bodily nearby. It crawled slowly forward, but it was clear it had lost most of its functionality as I walked calmly over and put a pile through its cranial plate.
I let out a shaky sigh as the adrenaline started to wind down in my blood. I pressed the radio and said, “All units, Crossroads, report status.” The trucks were over halfway up the switchback, the perimeter had been completely wiped out, and 90 was dead. I shook my head in remorse, but there would be time for a proper send off later. For now, the mission wasn’t over as whatever had blown the canal into the lake had yet to make an appearance.
And with that thought it was quickly made clear to me how we were shit out of luck. Beyond the seawall a bladed tower emerged, and then another followed by another. Each shined with bright white lights, indicative of raw GEL at full activation. As it broke the surface by first a dozen meters, and then dozens more I slowly realized what it was I was facing. A quick strafe to the side got me behind the roadie and got me out of the line of sight as white laser fire began flashing down upon me. “They brought a fucking Neon Cathedral-class Bravo!” I screamed into the radio.
Bravos. We hadn’t seen one in almost a hundred years, and it had been assumed Atlantis had stopped producing them. Hell, we only had one, and it was completely immobile. Bravos required at least twenty Alpha-compatible pilots to man them and were so unwieldy and unnecessary that no one had bothered building one in probably a thousand years. The fact that Atlantis had maintained one, or worse yet maybe even built another one was unthinkable. Neon Cathedrals had dozens of GEL powered spires that it could aim and fire lasers through and ate through liters of GEL in just a matter of hours. I could imagine that if one fully charged and fired it would be more than enough to blast that canal out albeit it would be running on fumes afterwards, which would explain how it hadn’t just evaporated my cover as it fired.
I looked for a break in the cover fire, and when I saw my opportunity, I skated out and aimed at the Neon Cathedral. Even so I took some fire and alarms went off indicating overheating on my systems. Slamming each of my handles forward I fully accelerated and went flying over the edge of the hole, soaring over the gap and crashing into the sea wall on the other side as I braced myself for the impact. My Alpha slid down and I twisted around so that I was facing the sky and slammed the accelerator forward again to ride the wall up. As I did so the first of the spires bent forward and leaned over across the seawall as it began to take aim at the trucks. It didn’t get a chance as I flew into it and wrapped an arm around to swing myself to ride the spire down towards the source, a large orb that had broken the water surface and begun to take flight. I didn’t need to listen for the beeps to know that my piles were already charged and ready to go. I had four shots left. I only needed one.
I slammed my right pile driver into the orb and fired receiving the immediate gratification of the thing being impaled clean through. That’s why you don’t use Bravos, they were massive and had enough fire power to level civilization as we knew it, but they were too damn slow.
Clang! What was that?
I looked to my shoulder to see what appeared to be a… person? “The fuck…?” My question was immediately interrupted by a series of purple flashes as the thing began unloading plasma shots into my arm. “Shit, shit shit!” I didn’t need to listen to the alarms to know my arm was turning molten and I did a spin and accelerated back towards the hole as the Neon Cathedral collapsed.
The firing noise didn’t stop and I could seen molten metal trailing behind me as I soared across the air and saw that the thing was still attached to my arm and was now taking aim at me with… was that a fucking arm cannon!? I shot one hand up and pulled the emergency release cord as hard as I could. With a hiss the useless lump that had been my right arm detached and went flying as I landed on the road in front of where the trucks were, with my arm landing between the two of us. There was a rocky pillar behind me that we had needed to maneuver around when we were building the switchback.
Alright, that meant I had two piles left. No big deal… FUCK! The person landed in front of me and raised both arms up, revealing that both were cannons that were already taking shots at me. It was black with a glowing purple visor and was slim and supple in design. I immediately boosted to the side and attempted to strafe around to try and crush it, but it deftly dodged to the side and landed a series of shots into my right leg causing the plates to melt. I received immediate alarms that my thrusters were malfunctioning and the thing leapt up a dozen meters into the air in a back flip, firing at me the whole time. I managed to boost out of the way in retreat towards the rocky pillar, though I stumbled and rolled as my balance was off from the bad thrusters and missing arm. I came to a stop and saw more plasma coming towards me. With a quick jerk on my controls, I managed to get myself behind the pillar.
“Shit!” I pressed my radio, “Incoming! Prepare for combat!” I leaned out to try and reengage but received fire that I barely managed to dodge. I was pinned down, my thrusters on my right side were shit, and I was off balance due to the missing arm. “Motherfucking shit piss!” I screamed in frustration as I tried to calm myself down.
I looked around for anything, and then saw something that I hadn’t really noticed before. The purple sheen of the rocks was reflective… and there was a green laser coming from a single rock that was pointed right at me that was coming from… the demon that was now running at the trucks. It had a lock on me and as soon as I tried to leave cover it would know and turn to take care of me, and all I could do was watch helplessly. “I’m fucking pinned here! Find a way to preoccupy it and I’ll come in and take it out,” I radioed, though part of me knew there was no way they would be able to handle it.
Sure enough from the back of the truck poured out my men who began firing at the thing uselessly. I could see sparks where the bullets bounced off harmlessly off the armor of the thing and it shot each one of them vaporizing them on the spot leaving a burned corpse. They weren’t even proving a distraction, let alone damaging it, and I knew then the mission was fucked as I tried to figure out how to get out of the predicament.
And then the dumbass kid jumped out of the truck. The thing fired at him, and I expected him to go down instantly but he tossed one of those Olympian grenades in front of him and when it landed, out of it burst a sudden output of colorful foam that immediately ate up the plasma and obscured the kid. Barricade grenade; they used the heat of poisoned GEL to speed up the chemical reaction and create a large foam barrier that was quite effective at absorbing heat. I was surprised by the balls of this kid to immediately come out and use it, but it wouldn’t be enough to stop this fast moving super soldier, which leaped into the air to take aim over the barrier… and got violently tackled as the silver dog soared from where the kid should have been and knocked it out of the air. Its glistening fangs tore into a single arm cannon, so I went to leave my cover, but its arm immediately jerked back and immediately fired at me forcing me to backdown. I looked back at the reflection and saw the gold dog, which was way slower barrel through the foam knocking it out of its way.
The Atlantean machine took its other arm cannon and blasted the body of the silver dog, melting down the plating of the dog and tossing it to the side. It then got tackled by the golden beast which bit onto its injured arm and did not let go. It brought its arm cannon and unleashed plasma bolt after plasma bolt into the golden dog. Its armor turned red with the heat, but otherwise didn’t budge and the thing began slamming its cannon into the dog’s face as its locked jaw held tight. The other dog pulled itself up despite the molten metal and shook the plating off, which was distorted from the heat. It then lunged back into the fight and bit into the second arm cannon, shredding it.
“I fucking love dogs,” I breathed out with relief as the things tore the thing in half and ruthlessly crunched into it and destroyed every bit of the Atlantean weapon, white GEL pouring out. The thing appeared to not have a human operator, and I wondered if the entirety of it was AI or if it at least had a human brain. Didn’t matter though as I limped my Alpha out from cover and approached the now unrecognizable pile of metal viscera on the ground. “Adonis,” I switched to loudspeakers so he could here me, “You’re a damn gift, you know that?”
We cleared the ridge and were on the white salt beach finally as my Alpha lead the convoy with its limp. I’d have preferred to use my thrusters, but I wasn’t too sure if the machine could take it and all that mattered was getting out of here. The thunderstorm was upon us, to my relief, and I couldn’t wait to get home in a few days and sleep this off.
“Behind us!”
I wasn’t even surprised at this point as I looked back beyond the seawall at the spires rising out of Lake Sahara. Of course, they had a second Neon Cathedral. Atlantis was pulling out all the stops, and as the flying fortress broke completely free of the water’s surface its spires began glowing as it prepared to take fire on us. It was way brighter than the first, and I suspected that this one had not been used to make the canal so that it could be used as their ace in the hole. The light became blinding as it took its aim.
“Adonis,” my partner said, “When I grow up, I’ll be the number one pilot in all the Crossroads.”
I smirked at my fellow ten-year-old, “Oh yeah, and what will your name be?”
“The Alloy of Justice, cause I’m going to be the hero of the people!” she said with a smile. It would be the last I saw her before her funeral.
“Alloy of Justice? Are you sure that’s what you want for your name?” asked the caretaker.
“I’m sure.” I was determined, it didn’t matter what happened, I would make her dream come true.
Logan shook his head at me in disbelief, “You seriously did it. You managed to make pilot!”
I smiled pridefully, “And you doubted me the whole way.”
“You literally have an accuracy score of zero on the sphere test. You’re lucky they faked your numbers!”
I shrugged since the sphere test didn’t make sense anyways. It was a stupid cube, not a sphere. Now my Alpha, that made sense. Its humanoid design just moved the way I told it to, just like my body.
I looked down at my new recruits’ files while Logan looked over his. “Got anyone good?”
“Hard to tell,” I responded looking at the GEL compatibility of one named 33. “I prefer to see if they got what it takes to lead before I recommend for pilot.”
“Yeah, I got shit too, none of them could even make Charlie,” Logan lamented. I chose not to point out that this woman was already qualified for Charlie, since he would probably pressure me to immediately try and get her trained up. I’ve met too many Charlie pilots who weren’t ready for the responsibility of people’s lives in their hands though.
I snapped back into the moment as blue laser fire pierced through the Neon Cathedral and caused it to explode, causing me to gasp in surprise. The radio buzzed with static as the expectant voice announced itself, “Crossroads, God here, what would you do without me?”
“Logan, did you seriously just call yourself God?”
“I did just smite your enemy.”
I cursed with a laugh as I looked skyward as Logan’s Alpha broke through the clouds, its armaments still glowing blue from its firing. Leviathan was the largest Alpha in the Crossroads, being twice the size of one of our trucks. Its propulsion system was a magnetic thrust levitation system with thirty-two missiles built into the top of it. Near the back of that was the large core that contained almost a thousand liters. The armaments were two globe looking things with craters, where the lasers themselves fired. The cockpit was a dish design, with the entire thing looking like a round goofy warship. Goofy minus the fact it could blow Bravos out of the damned sky, obviously.
As the Leviathan touched down it launched salt dust into the sky, which as it entered the magnetic thrusters caused arcs of electricity to leap out. The cloud dissipated and finally extraction was almost ready to begin. “Drop ‘em,” radioed Logan, rather informally I might add. Not that anyone cared at this point.
Metal rods rained from the sky and formed a circle around us, courtesy of Olympus overhead. Lightning arced down to the rods and a barrier of electricity laced around us so that we were untouchable as the first of the airships began to descend.