Swinging around, he smashed the cuffs on the back of a drone’s head, snapping them in half while tearing the wiring in the robot’s neck and sending its body part tumbling into a nearby dune, then with his hands-free, he grasped his pistol and unsheathed the weapon.

He grabbed the body of the lifeless drone and put it in front of his, the shield of steel soaking up a large number of stun shots directed at him. It was madness, a fight that was impossible to win, they surrounded him, outnumbered him, had skill and precision in aiming that was unparalleled to even the most experienced marksman. He had no cover, no plan, just a tantalizing desire to take as many with him to Tartarus before he himself stood before the devil. He was fast, his shots taking out fifteen of the robots, all dead center, all in the perfect kill positioning.

Their vacant shells dropped into the sand one by one, but simply another would take its place, they surrounded him and soon a single stun shot struck him square in the back as he swung his gun to whack the eye of a drone commander. The shot left him paralyzed from the waist down and caused him to collapse in a fit of fury, squirming in the stream of rock he flailed on the ground still shooting in the air, hoping to kill any foe that came near, he knew it was hopeless, knew it was a physical embodiment of stupidity but at least he would have the mental satisfaction, at least he would know he didn’t just simply walk away, at least he would make them pay, make them pay for kidnapping him, for removing who he was and damning him to a life of horror.

The robots had fallen back a few meters and now pepper-sprayed him with a barrage and salvo of stun shots, it was overkill and it was painful, John let out a terrorizing frigid screech as they continued to fire, the shots not dealing damage but simply bred with a sole purpose of causing him anguish.

This was the end, the final stand, and he was screaming and the enemy was winning, he was crying out in pain while his opponent enjoyed, yet the end was not near, if this had been some other time or if the collective had invested in the most advanced cybersecurity in the galaxy then perhaps it would have been, but instead two more factors were in play, two more cards on the table, and the dealer wasn’t just smiling, a chortle was dancing from their lungs.

The Collective were just about to close the iron fist on John’s consciousness when a single figure appeared on the horizon, in its background the fiery light of the Epsilon ship roared, in its hand a long rifle of the likes no one had ever seen, the creature wore white armour, and a gold visor, it had a white gold tipped cape aswell, tattered and torn from battle.

It was magnificent, a person which was draped in such garments and weaponry they would intimidate the most hardened of adventurers, if there was a person to stand alone against an army of this size, to spit in the face of death and win, this was that person. Its armour was of such vanity John gasped, it was at least six-foot-four, tall, muscular and stood upright with confidence, every movement elegant, every breath fanciful.

There was of course evidence of damaging visible burn marks and a tear in the unknown element that made up the plating on its side, the armour had been charred black in some areas from fire and blaster damage. It’s eye was exposed, and bleeding. The most interesting thing was the hole in the creature's armour, beneath it was a thick mesh of parted bleeding skin, yet the skin seemed to be morphing, its skin slowly restitching itself cell by cell, and twisting and turning to reform the tissue.

The creature must have been cloaked by some form of a personal shield or was simply a master of stealth as it was only a few meters from the furthermost Drone in John’s regiment. The drones were startled and confused by this sudden factor, all had guns trained on the being, and John was still flailing aimlessly paralyzed in the sand. A T-451 enforcer approached the creature and the thousands of vessels above with crews of approximately four thousand robots formed a tight circle around their location, swarming the newcomer and their prey.

The white armoured confronter walked calmly up to the drone captain and spoke a lengthy sentence, its speech brimming with charisma and etched with a rich thick tone.

“The Human, John Taylor, he is mine, give him to me and I will spare your life”

The drones waited for one moment, their leader and several others turned their heads to glance around their own forces, unsure of what to make of the preposterous claim.

The T-451 a huge menacing hunk of metal moved forward and swung its lengthy arm at the man, a single swipe strong enough to punch through trees and flip cars, normally this is when the bone-crushing arm would tear through its foes flesh and come out the other side, killing them forever, but instead the creature not nearly as tall, or as seemingly strong grabbed the robots arm with its own hand and bent it, twisting the tons of steels into a deformed shape before tearing the hand right off and tossing it aside.

Then it took its own fist and punched, the blow going directly through and making a circular hole as the robot's brain was ejected out the other side is a mess of wires and copper sparks. The rest of the drones took no hesitation opening fire but the creature was too fast, raising its rifle it shot holes in the heads of forty opponents within a few milliseconds. The thing that stood in front was not ordinary, the highest trained soldiers of the collective, Kestle, the Aquir, could hardly come close to it in any form of combat. It was insanity itself, the being was unstoppable dancing footwork of death and parading through the fiery bullets as if it was born in the bowels of war.

It killed and killed and killed, it strewed the bodies of its enemies upon the ground and lacerated out their metallic guts to do it again and again, if robots could flee in terror, they would have done so, but the program dictated they stay.

Until the last second, something truly fascinating happened, the last three robots in John’s escort turned and fled, the actions they had witnessed were so uncanny it had sent them free from their bindings, for the first time in the history of time itself enslaved robots said to have no emotion, built to see the wastes of battle, fashioned to see the darkest of nights and the carnage of merciless killing had felt fear, had felt terror. Fear instilled in their metallic hearts.

At last, every single one of the enemies lay dead. The only other ground forces were the main line of tanks, transports and boxcars which were next to a large frigate meant to capture and return John to their custody.

The creature approached John after it had ripped the last energy core out of a squirming drone scout and stretched out a white gauntleted hand, John grasped it and was instantly pulled up, his allies force being portrayed greatly.

“Can you fight?” It asked, its voice strangely deep and unnervingly comforting.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“I can try,” John returned.

He pulled out his pistol and stood back to back without the newly encountered being.

“Are you friend or foe?” John asked.

“I am here for you, whether I am an enemy or a friend is for you to decide, but nevertheless let us get out of this fight alive before we discuss the future which is unseen or predictable” it screeched.

“Then I will be glad to die by your side” John howled.

“And I in the duty of my master” it retorted.

The ships hovering above were holding back, stun shots took a few moments to load and were unreliable, they wanted to kill the creature but not John, John had to be salvaged alive at all costs.

Instead, the seven tanks and three transports drove hastily towards their position. Roof turrets and sides were seen to be manned with trigger-happy drones and more enhanced T-451 enforcers, they were prepared, and they would not let him slip through their winched fingers.

The creature stepped back and placed a cylinder on the ground. Pressing a button on the side three times, a small semi-circle shield erupted blanketing both it and John with dimensions of about eight feet tall and thirty feet wide.

“This will shield us from their long-range attacks, we must only deal with those who get inside” it shouted over the sound of gunfire trying to penetrate the thick layer of energy.

The projectiles simply vanished when they touched the silky hazy screen, this wasnt a normal shield, no humm or adverse effects, no shield could be made this small, this was something far more advanced and unseen to combat. Something the galaxy had never seen before

Testing the capabilities of their weaponry the ships above then opened fire, this was thousands at the same time, the power should have been enough to disrupt a planet shield nevertheless destroy an entire continent, but nothing happened the ray held strong and unwavering. It was captivating, to see such brutal force reduced to nothing by a cylinder, not a few inches tall.

The fleet above then did the unexpected, over half of it landed, leaving just a few hundred to scour the sky, they were disembarking from their ships, they understood how shield technology worked if they couldn’t fight with ranged weapons they would have to descend into ground warfare. In those moments an army of two thousand converged on their position, the ships landing stirring up enough sand to merit the two blind to everything not a few meters away, but a few meters was all they needed, every second twenty, thirty, fifty, soldiers would jump through the burning shield rays and experience the tormenting pain to have a chance at fighting the two demons which lay inside, and so they fought, fought the thousands one by one and they were winning.

Unable to be killed by ranged attacks they were forced to engage in hand-to-hand or close combat shooting, in which the robots crumbled more and more. Inside the shield were not merely two beings, no two regular mortals pitted against a torrential wave of attackers, they were the best, the brightest, some of the most magnificent warriors the planet had ever seen.

They fought, demons in a howling rage or destruction, every drone they killed caused inertia to flow through their veins. The two were a tornado of death and carnage, all who entered the shields dome quickly perished under their blade. A visage of death so potent it was horrifying to see.

Thousands marched as an endless assault on the location, and what truly scared all who watched from Ionus-Major is the fact that they held their ground, in the burning fiery eyes of a foe so potently larger, an enemy whose numbers outmatched them two thousand to two. The two maniacs were formidable. It was not as if they were pitted against cut-throats or bandit scum, not as if the army that clashed the gates of war was untrained, those robots who jumped through the shield, slightly burned by the devices rays or not, were killers. They were bred for brutality and built to destroy, to conquer to serve. Machines trained to fight in the most elevated of combat, to fire twenty-four shots at twenty-four different targets only a few milliseconds apart and hit every single one dead center.

There were T-451 Enforcers, Assassin drones who draped themselves with long-bladed energy knives, tank flippers that saw the cruellest and harshest of battles. These were craft and mechnica of war who were designed to kill, ones which had horror stories whispered about them in every corner of the galaxy. Yet they were cut down with such ease and conformity, it baffled the minds of the onlookers, they no longer believed the two they saw were mortal beings, but more unstoppable forces, ancient legends to be retold through generations. Perhaps the gods themselves walked among the living.

The peasants that watched from their wall understood what they bore witness. They knew they were seeing history, and that today would be a day they would never forget. It would forever be embedded in their minds. Inside the bubble, John and his unknown ally were drenched in sweat, an endless horde of enemies was continuing to stream in at an increasingly rapid rate. He had abandoned his pistol, the battery pack exploded after being shot past its life-expectancy, he had now picked up dual drone machine guns and was back to back with his comrade, spraying an endless amount of bullets into the unknown, his boots were no longer touching the musty ground but stationed on top of several still smouldering corpses.

If their enemy didn’t retreat the shield would soon become uninhabitable from the number of corpses that were littered inside. His comrade, white armour turned black from the amount of scoring and gunpowder that had flowed from the tip of his rifle was truly a sight of awe.

John may have been installed with the highest form of combat known to the great society, but this, this was something else, its gun didn’t need to reload, it didn’t overheat, simply continued, unleashing a battery of thousands of penetrating shots every second. The creature’s aim was to the brink of insanity, ever hit, in the exact weak point for the enemy, not a single blast out of the thousands upon thousands it released missed. It was omnipotent, unleashing devastating flurries upon its enemy. John was faring well himself, at times resorting to using his rifle as a club to fend off invaders he had stuck down. Twenty in the past four seconds, simply leaping from foe to foe and lacerating them with a hurricane of fury.

As these two so-called immortals faced off against the iron fist of an unstoppable nation, they began to tire, the number of undwindling, yet they were not, for every soldier, every grenade, every sword they plunged in a silicon heart was replaced with another, and another and an another. If one would die twelve more would take its place.

Once every few moments John would turn his sweat dripping head to see the legions which waited outside, they were arranged in columns, every second, more and more jumping in, their faces emotionless, uncomparable and took no notice to the number of bodies which lay within and what happened to those ahead of them in line. At last, the two knew they could not hold anymore, the shield was beginning to weaken, the continued hail of projectiles from the sky had taken its toll, and the rays could be seen to unravel, second by second their very protection, the thin fabric of energy keeping them alive began to break.

“The generator can not compensate for this much energy, it may turn off” the armoured figure howled, while he punched his fist through a drone’s head.

“What do we do then?” John asked, his pistol jutting against an enforcer's chest and repeatedly firing.

“We fight, it is possible to commandeer one of their vessels, I am a good enough pilot to be able to maneuver us out of the system and within three hours we can disappear from the face of this savage empire” it responded.

“Which direction do we run?” John demanded.

“Straight, we run straight for the main fleet, I will take the point, you stick to my back and cover our behind,” it hissed.

Just as the coils began to unravel and the energy dissipate into the air, John standing at the ready with two guns in his hands, blisters forming on his fingers from holding down the trigger, one more miracle arrived.

The plan they had discussed was hardly sanitable but this, this was mind-breaking. At exactly the same moment, every single robot, every mechanical being, every ship, every tank, every soldier about to unleash a volley of bullets upon their enemy turned off. The robots simply collapsed, their bodies limp and motionless. The sound of ten thousand falling onto the dust echoed with potency across the barren landscape.