The Giant in Grey
"Give any man the power of a god, and you better hope he's got the wisdom and morals of a god to match. There's nothing feeble about my moral line. I value life. That is why I fight to protect it. I mourn every man I lose and every sacrifice I make. One life or a billion, they're all lives."
- Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt, on Menazoid Epsilon
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HOLY TERRA / UNKNOWN / UNKNOWN
The world around me is in a state of intense conflict.
The young girls, dolls as they call themselves, are behind me and using me as cover. The munitions used by this enemy are relatively small and stand no chance of harming me through my armor. Even so, a lucky bullet could find my skull, so I have dawned my broken helmet.
My ammunition is low, and while I could rely on these dolls, I doubt their overall effectiveness given the current count of the enemy forces. So, I continue to find a target, aim, and fire. Every shot is a kill, I do not miss, I cannot miss.
"Sergeant! The building on our right! Tavor is in there!" CR yells out from behind me.
You haven't told me about this friend, Tavor
I stifle the urge to comment on who or what Tavor is. Regardless, I look towards the building in question. weapons fire is visibly leaving the structure. The last of the opponents in question number no more than eight. I dispatch five of them within seconds, and the other three are killed by whoever resides inside the building. With my bolt pistol at the ready, I move slowly to the side, providing my companions with a nearly unstoppable wall of defense. We make our way towards an entrance, and once close enough, Honey Badger lets out a call.
"Friendlies coming in!"
I let the two dolls go in before me, watching our rear for a possible threat. Satisfied with my quick scan, I turn in and duck into the building. Immediately I am met with two shots pinging off my right shoulder. I raise my pistol and point it in the general direction of the shots and stop myself from pulling the trigger once I'm focused on what I thought was an enemy.
"Stop shooting!" CR yells out, almost throwing herself between myself and what appears to be another human, or doll. "He's with us!"
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S09 / 12JUN63 / 1232 LOCAL
"Five rounds left!" Tavor cried out. Somehow in the last several minutes, she had lost sight of CR and Honey Badger. She let out an unintelligible curse, slammed her last magazine home, and brought her weapon back up. She picked a target, and fired at its center mass, it dropped. In the distance, the sounds of some unknown type of weapons report grew closer. Whatever it was, it would probably kill her and her team. It sounded like a cannon, and a sensor embedded within her told her it was around a caliber near 19mm.
"I'm out!" Jericho called out, running over and crouching next to Tavor. "What's the plan boss?!"
Tavor ignored her and lined up another target. She was about to squeeze her trigger when the SF doll exploded into pieces, followed immediately by the same cannon sound she had been hearing. Then another doll died, then another, then yet another. AK74 kept firing at the remaining enemies, dropping two more. Tavor joined in, dropping one last doll as it tried falling back.
Silence befell them all, relative silence that is. A somewhat distant gunfight could still be heard. Atleast someone was still alive out there.
"Friendlies coming in!"
Tavor and her two compatriots turn towards a blown-out wall where the voice originated from. AK74 raised her rifle towards it right as Honey Badger and CR ran in. Tavor let out a sigh of relief as she saw her two friends, then stopped as she noticed a disabled SVD hanging over Honey Badger's shoulders. What came in next scared her though, it wasn't the type of fear forced upon her by her emotional module, but rather something ingrained in her coding.
A huge object came in behind her two friends. Its greyish armor was marked with strange colors and symbols, even more noticeable were the black splashes of impacts. AK74 must have felt the same thing. She fired twice at the giant, both rounds pinging off what looked like a massive shoulder pad. The creature, robot, whatever it was, pointed what looked like a weapon at AK74 almost faster than what Tavor could process, and she could process a lot.
"Stop shooting!" CR21 moved in between the two. "He's with us!" she held her arms out, her gun in one hand.
Tavor shook her head in near disbelief at what she was seeing. She had done a tour at G&K headquarters and worked with RnD, seeing the future and whatever would replace them. Whatever this thing was, it wasn't from G&K, and it didn't have the color scheme reminiscent of an SF unit.
"Wha…who is…what?" Jericho let out slowly, obviously exhausted from the fight.
"Seryy velikan…" AK74 let out in her normal quiet voice.
"Sergeant Ariel!" Honey Badger said, letting SVD's body down to the ground. "He uh, works with the uh…who again?" She turned towards the hulking figure.
HOLY TERRA / UNKNOWN / UNKNOWN
One of the supposed friendlies mumbles something under her breath, and the other, the one who shot at me, calls me a giant in a language reminiscent of Vostroyian.
I let Honey Badger try and describe who I am, but she falters and turns to me. Without a moment's hesitation, I pick up her slack.
"I am Brother Sergeant Ariel, Spatha Squad, Iron Snakes Chap…" I look down at the conglomeration of warriors before me and holster my bolt pistol. After it is secured, I remove my helmet and attach it to my belt.
Could I even call them that? Warriors?
I let out a hefty sigh and give the group a smile. "Brother Ariel, though, just Ariel is fine. Spoken plainly, I am lost, but I am your friend." I look up towards the girl that shot me. "Be faster next time." I wink at her, then turning my attention to CR.
"Are these the rest of your friends?" I gesture at the newcomers with a slight wave of my hand, "Is one of them the Tavor you spoke of?"
Immediately, one of the girls speaks up before CR has a chance to respond.
"I'm Tavor!" the female with long blue hair almost yells out. She approaches me, her weapon lowered but noticeably tightened in her grip. Once again, I hear no real breathing or heart rate coming from her body, she too must be a doll.
"That's Jericho," she points to a doll with black hair and a dirty white coat, a support of some sort strapped to her back. "And the one who shot you," she points to the last doll. A blonde-haired woman with a red beret atop her head. "Is AK74."
Tavor sticks out her hand, "Ariel right? I'm sorry for the miscommunication earlier."
I grab her hand gently and shake it.
"If you can keep helping us, I'll pay you back best as possible." She continues, as the staccato of gunfire outside grows louder. "The rest of my team is in trouble, we have almost no ammo left."
The doll gives a quick explanation of the situation, and while I listen, part of my mind goes elsewhere.
How did she know I was really helping them? What if this was a trap? Am I being tricked? I cannot continue to bleed ammunition either…
"We can really introduce ourselves after this is over…"
She is done speaking it seems, so I give her my full attention, the rest of my brain has already processed and stored the conversation.
"No more talking then Tavor, let us save your sisters." My shield and sea lance are attached to my back, my sword is sheathed and ready for another fight. I pull out my bolt pistol and check its magazine, then double-check check my remaining magazines attached to my belt.
"I have forty rounds left, I'll kill anything that looks larger than you, or faster, all of you take care of the rest and stay behind me at all times, understood?"
The message wasn't for Tavor, but for all of the dolls.
"You'll help us? That easily?" Jericho speaks up, to the contrary of all the others various affirmatives. The other dolls turn to her.
"We are all destined to die my new friend." I say with a smile, reaching for my helmet and pressing it over my head. "If today is my day, may I die well, and in good company." I turn to the threshold I had entered just moments ago, and wave behind me. "Are you all ready then?" The dolls look at each other, then nod back to me. Honey Badger picks up SVD's body again. "Let's move." I tell them and make my way outside.
I hear the dolls form up behind me, I hear ammunition being distributed and mumbling. Then I hear Honey Badger's voice, "He killed Hunter…"
"What?" Comes from all three of the new dolls.
Underneath my helmet, I smile slightly. Apparently, I have vanquished a great foe, maybe I am worthy of the Venerable title.
Do not judge the enemy's capabilities just yet.
My inner voice is right, and my smile disappears. One of the more machine-looking enemies rounds a corner, and I fire into its torso just as it turns its head. The body explodes and I can hear Tavor exclaim in some foreign tongue.
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S09 / 12JUN63 / 1240 LOCAL
Nearly forty minutes had passed since the start of the failed ambush. What should have been a relatively easy grab and bag had turned into a fight for their life. PzB 39 closed her eyes as parts of a wall spalled against her face from the impact of a bullet. She didn't need to protect her eyes, but it was more reaction than it was justifiable action.
She opened her eyes again, and visual sensory information flooded back into what worked as her brain. Ignoring her innate coding telling her to breathe, she picked a target a mere hundred meters away and fired. The 7.82x94mm projectile pierced through Guard's shield and left the unit's body twitching, PzB didn't have to look any further at the kill.
The distinct sound of a Vespid's rifle sounded off below her, it was USAS 12 using the enemy's weapon. She had long since ran out of ammunition and had pulled one off the now many dead Sangvis Ferri combat dolls. The constant sound of the firefight around her died down for just a moment, she assumed the enemy was repositioning for another attack. PzB crawled backwards out of her makeshift firing hole, then stood up when she felt she was out of the way enough. Before she left, she peered out the hole one last time and looked down. On the street below, MG3 lay dead, her body cut in half and core obviously destroyed. Next to her was MP5, who had against better judgment, attempted to save her friend. If MP5 was dead or alive was anyone's guess, she had been shot eight times before falling down, and she hadn't moved since.
"USAS!" PzB called out, in a rather loud attempt at a whisper. The whole area was impacted by some form of wide-area jamming, and line-of-sight communications alongside everything else the dolls had grown used to, wasn't working.
"Yes?!" USAS cried back, in the same quasi-hushed tone as PzB.
"We need to move up! Meet me on the third floor!" PzB picked up her anti-material rifle and slung it behind her back.
"I…I can't!"
PzB, in every other situation, would have huffed and demeaned the small doll. But the reality present wouldn't allow such an annoying action, though she was still very annoyed. "What do you mean you can't?" She called back, grabbing the Ripper's SMG she had taken up earlier. Not waiting for an immediate response, she shouldered the weapon and started clearing out the hallway she had been through earlier. The building the two inhabited was like the rest in the city, abandoned and dilapidated from many prior wars.
"Its my legs!" USAS called back as PzB made her way down a single flight of stairs.
PzB didn't respond. She carefully made her way around the many holes that filled the stairs, and then danced around the rubble on the floor leading to where USAS last was.
"PzB?" USAS said, this time in an even lighter tone as if she was getting weaker.
Again, PzB didn't respond. She based up outside the door where USAS was supposed to be and waited three seconds. It wouldn't be the first time an SF doll used their own voice against them. A small piece of glass lay at the threshold of the door, PzB looked down and moved her head to try and see inside. USAS was laying on the ground, that was all she could make out. "I'm coming in." She finally said, and she swore she heard a sigh of relief from USAS as she pressed in.
USAS had also found a kill hole to shoot through, though hers was larger. The little doll had moved away from it and was posted up against an old broken chair. PzB looked down at the doll and saw both her legs were cut off from the knee down, probably from the three Strikers they had encountered just several minutes ago. The doll had attached a coolant-based tourniquet to each leg, stemming the flow of what worked as her lifeblood.
The two stared at each other for a moment, three years of working together allowed them to speak with simple looks rather than words. With a hefty sigh, PzB approached her friend and looked over her. "How much longer can you be up?" She asked, checking over the two wounded legs.
USAS Shrugged, "Couple more hours at best, my heart…core.." PzB noted the change of words. "Can be in standby for around forty-eight in total now, it got hit hard earlier…"
PzB looked up and finally noticed the scorch mark on the doll's chest, clothes brunt through. Why she hadn't seen it earlier concerned her. She had taken some hits too, one to the head and three to the rest of her body. Maybe they were taking a toll on her, they had been up several days while waiting for their original mission's opportunity.
"Damn..." PzB said as she placed a hand against USAS chest. She left it there for a moment, and USAS reached up and put her hand on top of PzB's.
"Are we gonna be ok PzB?" USAS asked.
Before PzB could give her an answer, shots rang out from outside the building. Energy bolts started slapping against the walls of the building. Though the shots weren't accurate, yet, the volume of fire itself was enough to make any well-armed team get scared.
The two dolls immediately broke apart from each other. USAS rolled back over to her kill hole and grabbed the SF rifle she had been using. The little doll shouldered the weapon and tried her best to return fire at whatever was now attacking the two.
At that same time, PzB had shot up and dashed over to a broken window. She tossed her SMG to the ground nearby and brought her own weapon over her shoulder. USAS was now shooting at the enemy below, PzB opened the leather ammo pouch on her waist and reached inside, she only felt six rounds.
"Got to make them count..." She said to herself as she shouldered her rifle, something any normal human wouldn't attempt to do. Using one arm to hold the entire rifle up, she pulled out a round and placed it inside the chamber, closing the locking block after. Still standing and without a brace, she chose a target, this time a Dragoon that had decided to stay stationary.
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The Dragoon flew off the back of its mech, a moderately sized hole now in its chest. PzB went about the process of loading another round. Now the enemy's fire was accurate, the beams of light from USAS rifle worked both ways. The two dolls were unmoving though, despite the weapons fire around them, and the occasional impacts on them, they continued their relentless defense.
PzB's ammunition went dry quick enough. Four more Dragoons were on the receiving end, and three were dead. One Dragoon had gotten lucky, PzB had finally missed a shot and only the Mech had been hit, though it was now disabled.
"We need to move!" USAS cried out, lacking the whisper she had used before. The doll rolled over to face PzB, her left cheek sported a new burn mark.
PzB dropped her own rifle and reached for her SMG. "I don't think anyone else is coming." She picked up her weapon and made her way over to USAS. "Let's make this count, ok?"
USAS nodded solemnly, understanding that this would more than likely be the end. She reached up towards PzB, and PzB grabbed her arm and hefted her up and over her shoulder. The two started to make their way out of the room but were stopped by the force and sound of an explosion rocking the building. PzB tried to stabilize herself, but consecutive explosions kept her from moving. In the back of her mind, it registered as some sort of rocket impacting the structure.
Before PzB could stabilize herself and carry USAS out of the room, she felt the floor below start to give out beneath her. Then the world collapsed around her, and thousands upon thousands of things ran through her mind. She never thought her last moments would be like this, she knew she was built for war and went about that purpose methodically, but a part of her didn't want to die. She wouldn't really die of course; she would wake up somewhere else with more than likely no memory of these events. But that wouldn't be her, that couldn't be this version of her, she had never had a core death, and it scared her.
As PzB and USAS fell to the ground below, PzB clutched USAS even tighter, and whispered under her breath, "I'm sorry."
Death wasn't as certain as she could have hoped though.
After what left like an eternity, PzB's mind booted back up, and lines of code and words flashed and disappeared, and then with a flicker, her eyes came back to life. An internal self-preservation AI activated last second and had turned her off completely. Now awareness crept back in, alerts flashed about damaged areas, pain came in and disappeared, and then the situation dawned on her.
The four-story building she and USAS had taken up refuge in, had a massive hole in it, right where they had been.
They had been.
Realizing her companion wasn't near her, PzB tried to get up and look around for USAS 12 but was stopped by the heavy foot of a Jaeger stamping down on her chest. The Sniper doll's rifle moved to PzB's face, and the barrel hovered inches away from her forehead. She hadn't noticed it till now, but sound was non-existent to her. She ran a quick reset on her hearing, at the same time trying to grab the foot of the Jaeger. Another SF doll came in from behind and kicked the back of PzB's head hard, right as her hearing came back. This one was a brute, and it lived up to its namesake. The Jaeger eventually took its foot off of PzB's chest and the Brute pulled her up, forcing her hands behind her back.
"It's only mid-day and the final act is already nearly over…" A comically tired voice let out.
PzB knew who it was, and part of her wished she died in the fall just moments ago.
Intruder came into view, two Rippers behind her, one pulling MP5 by the scruff of her shirt, and the other pulling USAS by her hair.
PzB tried to speak, but nothing came out. Instead, she was met with an error code, her speech mechanism was broken and required repair.
"No need to talk dear, your part in this play is already over, your script has nearly ended, you know what comes next, don't you?" Intruder asked as she started to approach PzB. The ringleader twirled the massive autocannon around her in what looked like an attempt at a dance. "I will say, I didn't expect your friends to try and make a move for you…"
As if her words made it so, PzB heard the sound of gunfire coming closer and closer.
"Stifle any faith darling, you won't have another story." Intruder stopped her dance, then using her cannon, smashed the Ripper holding onto MP5 into the street. MP5 dropped to the ground, still unmoving. "I'll make use of these little ones though, fun little toy dolls they will make ahaa." The exasperated laugh struck a nerve in PzB, and she tried to make a move on Intruder.
The Brute holding onto her wasn't having any of it though, the SF Doll slammed PzB into the ground and stomped on her head several times, causing more errors to appear. The Brute then pulled her back up and forced her to her knees.
Intruder was smiling, something genuinely evil radiated from her. "Your speech processor is broken, isn't it?" She dropped her cannon and walked over to PzB, then placed a hand on her face. "Maybe the act isn't over just yet, we can have a grand finale can't we dear?" She rubbed her hand up and down PzB's face gently, then turned around and walked back to her weapon, picking it up with a sense of grace. "Comrades coming to save their sisters, only to see them impaled and dying, then an ambush, ahhh…" Intruder looked off in this distance, then continued, "A final fight for survival, a last stand against overwhelming odds, and in the end, sweet death, yes, that's it my dear, that's what we shall do." The ringleader snapped her fingers, and another Ripper ran over and picked up MP5. "Time to use these new toys."
PzB struggled against the brutes hold as MP5 and USAS were carried off to the center of the street. Suddenly the two stopped and dropped the dolls. The Jaeger that had originally put PzB down had shifted her stance nearby and raised her rifle, and as quickly as the doll shouldered it, she ceased to exist.
PzB was blessed with special eyes and saw the death in slow motion. Some projectile she had never seen before, which looked rocket-propelled, impacted the Jaeger center mass and detonated within it. A sheen of fluid covered PzB, and she turned to where the shot came from. In the distance, a large, armored figure stood alone in the street. Its gunmetal grey armor was scorched in burn marks and small dents. The whole force of SF dolls was about to open fire when Intruder cried out.
"Ahhhh!" She screamed, though it sounded pleasureful. "Of course! It wouldn't end that way no! What good play would?! What grand story would close so quickly!" She pointed at the armored figure, "A hero comes to save the dying soldiers! But to what avail!? Save for death! Death, a necessary end, will come when it will come!" Intruder started to raise her weapon, and as soon as she did, her body exploded. The same sound and impact as the Jaeger before her.
All of the Sangvis Ferri dolls jolted from the sudden loss of their commander, and in that moment PzB turned back towards the armored figure. It had closed the gap of nearly a hundred meters within two seconds. Whatever weapon it used to kill Intruder was gone, it now sported a spear of sorts and nothing else. The Grey mass met the SF dolls before they could react, its spear tearing into a pair of unmounted Dragoons. The figure pulled its spear back out, then swung it down into a Guard within reach, cleaving it in half down its centerline.
The dolls started to regain their senses, and what started out as sporadic and inaccurate fire, became focused and deadly.
But that deadly fire did nothing to the beast that was now deep inside the group. Lasers splashed against its armor, but did nothing save to create a small puff of smoke. The figure's spear thrusted and slashed, culling the growing horde of SF dolls around it. A group of eight brutes ran out at the giant and attempted to jump onto it. Five were cut down mid-air by a single slash. One was swiped away with the handle of the spear and flew into a wall, and two of the dolls latched onto the figure's armor and tried to stab at it.
The first doll died a simple death, the beast grabbed its head and crushed it. The second had a moment to spare, as the Giant reached back, and threw its spear directly at PzB. She didn't close her eyes, she didn't want to. To her surprise, the spear impaled the Brute still holding onto her, and forced it into the rubble behind her. The last brute on the Giant tried to stab at a weak point, a joint maybe. Despite the volley of fire coming from a squad of Strikers, the Giant grabbed the Brute on its shoulder, and tore it in half, using its body as a weapon. As if playing some sort of sport, the Giant threw the first half of the body at one of the strikers, then the second half at another.
The final striker looked back at its now dead sisters, the speed at which the bodies were thrown could have penetrated an IFV. That had been a mistake, the Giant drew a sword from its hip and rushed the doll. Before it could spool up its weapon, the Giant cut its head clean off its body.
"PzB! Get down!" A voice rang out, even with the sound of a battle right in front of her, she wouldn't forget the voice of her leader, Tavor. PzB did as told, she slammed her body onto the ground below and covered her head, still opting to watch the slaughter unfold. The sound of familiar gunfire chimed in, and several Rippers dropped.
Even though a new enemy had appeared, the SF dolls were dead set on fighting the grey Giant in front of them.
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HOLY TERRA / UNKNOWN / UNKNOWN
I move with purpose, and my blade strikes true.
There is no useless movement. There is no ounce of wasted energy, breath, or beat my hearts. Every single action is calculated and cultivated and should be after the hundreds of years I have served in the Emperors name.
The enemy I have found myself intertwined with today, is like many of those I have faced in the past. Though the overwhelming difference is that these poor souls have no idea of how to deal with me.
I thrust my sword into some form of rideable mech, its user's leg is cut off when I do so. With a jerk, I pull my sword back out and slice the rider in half. More lasguns impact me from behind.
These arnt Lasguns
I have to remind myself this. While they operate in the same function, the damage output is greatly reduced. This by all accounts is a slaughter, plain and simple. Even the traitor guardsmen and cultists I have killed in the past, put up a better and more coordinated fight.
I turn to face the new attackers; it is another doll with a cannon of some form. Two more of the dolls that tried to jump onto me earlier are now rushing at me from my right. Part of me wants to applaud the poor creatures for their attempt at a diversion. If I was a normal human, I may have fallen for it.
But I do no such thing.
Instead, I grab the shield of my back and throw it violently at the enemy with a cannon, it cuts her in half and slams into another doll that had rounded a corner at the worst possible time.
The two initial assaulters stop, then one tries to run away while the other continues its attack. I am face-to-face with it now, my sword is at my side. Despite the muffled noise coming to me through my broken helmet, I can hear the distinct sound of a rocket being fried from behind me. My battle trance is in full swing, there is little that can get past me thanks to it.
There it is, the real attack.
With a rather ungraceful side turn to the left, I dodge the missile by less than a meter. It flies past me and impacts the doll running at me, it immediately dies in a rather lackluster ball of flame and debris. I am no expert on munitions in this world, on this version of Terra, if it is truly that, but my guess is that the enemy has resorted to using thermobaric warheads against me.
The enemy anti-tank team, if that is a good name for them, is next on my list. I grab a stone that had been thrown into the air from the initial blast. I could make it to the runner, and then back, but there is no need for that much movement. Using my left arm, I wind up the throw and then release. The stone was larger than the doll's head, and it impacts at the back of the neck, right where a skull and spinal cord would connect. The doll drops, dead or not isn't my issue.
"Ariel! Get Intruders gun!"
It's Tavor, I hear her voice behind me, though the distance is undetermined. She told me who Intruder was before we initiated contact. A doll, much like the one called Hunter I killed before. Tavor had said she would explain their differences later on, and to kill the ringleader, as she called it, at the most opportune time.
"There is an anti-tank team Tavor!" I yell back, turning around to head to the team's location. Tavor's small squad has taken the kill from me though, and I see a doll with a rocket launcher fall from a building.
"Not anymore!" CR21 yell's back to me this time.
The assault is still ongoing, though many of the enemy's number has been culled. I continue to take weapons fire, although it is still ineffective against my armor. Turning to where I had initially killed Intruder, I see a weapon system that is reminiscent of a terminators assault cannon. Initially, the caliber and weight look to be far less, but the weapon itself seems useable to my frame and bulk.
Even as weapons fire tinges the paint of my fratery, I hold firm and examine the weapon, seeking outs its mechanisms and any signs of a working machine spirit. I am no tech marine, but five decades working with the Mechanicus left me with some useful skills.
Then my world is nearly shocked. My head jerks to the right, and my immediate reaction is to slide my finger into the trigger well, point the cannon at the threat, and kill it. I look before I pull the trigger, a second I shouldn't have spared but did anyways.
A doll, with some form of long rifle, is kneeling on one leg sixty meters away. Its rifle is lowered slightly, smoke leaving the barrel. Its mouth is agape as if it was certain that would have killed me.
In any other situation it would have, how dare I leave the battle trance. How dare I give into a moment's fatigue and let the enemy even have an opportunity to kill me.
I make a note to get a fair rest as soon as possible, then pull the trigger on the cannon. It takes a moment to spool up, and in that time the doll that had shot me shoulders its rifle again.
It's too late.
A burst, maybe twenty to thirty rounds, rips from the barrel of the cannon. Not all the rounds impact the target, but most of them do, enough of them do. The sniper is shredded into chunks. I release the trigger and turn toward a group of well-positioned dolls. They had set up fortifications in a building to my immediate rear, and were stationed on the second floor. Again, I hold the trigger, the cannon spools, and a sound akin to the sky tearing apart comes out.
Tracers seemingly follow my aim as I move right to left in a centerline, exactly where the enemy had taken up. Chunks of material and dust spew out from the onslaught of fire as the foe simply ceases to exist. I let go of the trigger, and the cannon whines down as smoke spews from its multiple barrels. It feels alive, it feels as if intense hate has been melted down into it during its inception. While I doubt the chances of a machine spirit residing within it, something is alive within.
A chirp sounds off from somewhere inside the cannon's mechanisms, and a feminine voice sounds off.
"FIVE HUNDRED ROUNDS REMAIN."
"So, you do speak?" I ask it, almost expecting a response, as it would not be the strangest thing to happen today. Instead, I am met with the sound of a silent world around me. The weapons fire has ceased, and the only real noise is that of crackling fires and the yelling of Tavor's team. I scan the surrounding area for any new contacts, the cannon moves with my eyes, ready to gnaw away at another combatant. My body instinctively tries to treat it like an assault cannon, but it is far too light, and I find myself adjusting accordingly.
Tavor and her team pour out into the street CR21 and Honey Badger take up a position as Jerico, Tavor, and AK74 all sling their weapons and pick up firearms belonging to the enemy. I look over my shoulder and down towards the doll I assumed to be PzB based on Tavor's description. She is laying down on her stomach, but she is looking at me. "Are you PzB?" I call out to her. Her mouth moves but nothing comes out, she then shakes her head and points to her throat, then nods up and down.
"Is that so?" I ask again, turning fully around. I make my way up to the doll and kneel down next to her, she is still laying down. On closer inspection, I noticed the damage to her body, most of her clothes are destroyed and blackened marks have tinged what I assume is some form of synth-skin. "Are you hurt?"
"Fuck!" Honey Badger yells from somewhere behind me. "MG3 is dead!"
PzB's turns away from me for a moment to look at her friends, then she looks back up and me and shakes her head. I present my free hand to her and she reaches out to it, and with a little less delicacy than intended, I pull her up off the ground. PzB tries to dust herself off, only to realize it's futile at this time. She points to Tavor and the group, then back to me. I stand back up and call out to her, "Tavor! PzB is alive, though her voice is taken from her!"
Tavor and AK rush over to their friend, and I opt to retrieve my Sea Lance as the three reunite. The doll it is impaled in is still slightly alive, its face is grimacing and what energy it has left is being used to try and pull out my lance. I walk up to the doll and stare it down for a moment, its blue hair is dirtied and the visor across its face is cracked. I pull the visor off and the doll looks up at me, almost as if it's just noticed me. Its eyes widen as it looks at my eyes, though they are hidden behind red lenses. I pull my helmet off and meet the doll's eyes again. There is a distinct lack of awareness and emotion in them, and not the normal sort of a dying man, or woman for this matter. I smile and break the gaze, she has no more weapons on her body and isn't going anywhere.
"I have a prisoner!" I yell out, turning to see where the rest of my new friends are. PzB is carrying another doll, it is no more than the size of a child. Jericho too is carrying another doll, though this one is over her shoulders. Tavor and AK74 approach me with the other two in tail. "It seems it hasn't died yet, would you like to interrogate…" Tavor walks up to me, then right past me. She raises her weapon to the impaled doll's head and fires before it can even react. I raise an eyebrow and look down at Tavor, who looks back up at me.
"It seems it's dead now." She says to me, I can tell she has bit back quite a bit of anger.
I continue to look down at her as I grab my Sea Lance from behind her and yank it out of the wall. The now dead doll slumps to the ground, and I flick the lance so its fluids no longer taint it. "I guess it is." I say with a smile.
AK74 speaks up, her voice is still as soft as our initial meeting. "Brother Ariel, one of our friends is dead, and three are knocked out. "Would you be willing to assist us for awhile longer?" Tavor looks at her before I say anything, then back up to me. "I'd like to keep my original promise Ariel, but I… we… need a bit more help."
I notice movement out of the corner of my eye and see Honey Badger carrying SVD again over her shoulders, with CR21 right next to her. The two are walking towards the group.
"Which one of your friends has passed?" I ask, avoiding the real question for the moment.
"MG3." Honey Badger says as she walks up, she points over her shoulder towards a doll that has been cut in half. "Her core is destroyed, I double-checked." PzB looks at the ground and frowns.
"Do you have anywhere safe to stay? A base of operations? I mean no offense but your combat eff…" I cut myself off to change my words. "You are all tired and out of ammunition."
"FOB Legacy, it's sixty miles north of here, that's where we need to go." CR21 tells me.
I look around one last time and find my shield still stuck in a wall where I threw it earlier. I attach my spear to my back one more time and look at all the dolls now surrounding me. "I'd make a joke about not having many other options, but it's more truth than anything else. I intend to assist you as long as possible until I'm able to go back to my home." I see AK74 and CR21 breathe a sigh of relief, "Though I will need one of you to explain more of the current situation to me as we travel, does that sound like a deal?"
Honey Badger's companion, betty, runs up to the group and whines. Honey Badger makes some noise back at her pet and then looks at me, "I talk the most, ill help talk about stuff."
"So, we have a deal then still?" Tavor ask.
"Deal," I tell her with a smile, but something pulls on my mind and I jerk my head to the open fields to my right. It feels like something has just come into existence within the world. My hearts start beating faster and I can fill sweat forming on my brow. The deepest parts of my mind tell me that an ancient foe has just arrived, but the forefront of my mind tells me to relax and runs the possibility of them even being here.
"Brother?" AK74 asks me.
I turn back around, all the dolls are looking at me and through their tired faces, I can see hints of concern.
"I have very good ears," I say with a smile, "I thought I heard something. Let us be on our way shall we?" CR21 and Honey Badger are the only two to share a glance, the others nod in compliance. The next several minutes are spent gathering ammo for the trek. I look out towards the fields where my mind was initially pulled before we step off.
If that is you, I will kill you.
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This is still a pet project and it's not gonna be touched up as much as Uncertain Futures. Still love this one though, and if you noticed I got some new CH art. Id leave a link but you cant copy shit from this site. Feel free to look up Serjatronic on Facebook or SERJ on Pixiv, as he's the one who hooked me up!