When they got back to the roof, the ball of light joined them and shone brighter, so it illuminated the entire area.
"What is that thing, by the way?" Baldric asked Luna when a loud metallic roar came from behind the landraider and made the tunnel tremble and quake.
It was a massive wave of GEAs that combined to form a massive metal snake from their bodies. Luna, Baldric, and Ada, now on their last combat automaton body, used every weapon they had, but nothing was working. Grenades, pipe launchers, and other explosives were used to deter it as it got closer and closer.
As it got within range, GEA’s armed with massive swords on their arms leapt off and charged at them, meanwhile the giant wave of machines began to shred the back of the landraider. Luna took them head on while Baldric and Ada covered her from behind.
Without the heavy firepower of their walker, it was a one-sided fight, with Baldric and Ada forced to switch to melee combat. Ithraxi drones started to climb on from behind both of them, and soon the roof of the landraider became a massive free for all. Luna, Baldric, and Ada were locked in a fight that resorted to them hitting anything and everything that was moving. It was a chaotic fight between man against insects against machines, and through it all, no clear winner was coming out.
Ada’s automaton body was destroyed while Baldric was overpowered. They clawed, slashed, and struck him, but Luna and Annie managed to come in just in time before he was buried beneath a pile of murderous insects and machines. When they pulled him out, Baldric had massive cuts on his face, legs, and he broke his left arm. Annie, wearing her handyman armor, dragged him back down while Luna gave them cover.
Seeing Baldric filled with injuries and blood flowing out of him made her panic, as the shaking in her hands caused her to fire wildly. She fumbled and dropped her gun as she switched to her staff to cover them. Luna was still holding on, but her exhausted mind was making her hallucinate. She was not seeing them as GEA’s or Ithraxi but rather skeletons of the dead, and their screeches sounded like cries of pain and anguish.
When she looked at Annie and Baldric, she saw Beatrice dragging Baldric back into the landraider, not Annie.
That was all it took for her to let down her guard, and the GEAs savagely attacked her, one piercing her right arm with a solid hit. Her injuries brought her back to reality as she continued to buy Annie more time to bring Baldric inside.
"I can still fight Annie! Let me go!" But Annie forcefully dragged him back inside.
Ada was now back in her original body in the compartment and took over for Annie while she put on the rest of her handyman armor and joined Luna on the roof. Elizabeth almost ran to Baldric but Ada grabbed her.
"He’ll be fine! I need you to tell me where to go!" Ada screamed at her. A medical bot that was bandaging Willow switched to Baldric and tried to stop his bleeding as quickly as possible.
The GEAs had completely destroyed the back of the Landraider, but Luna had managed to contain them on the roof. When Annie entered the fight, her two mechanical arms with cannons and flamethrowers opened fire, while her other two mechanical arms swung widely, knocking the GEAs and ithraxi off. But Annie had difficulty maintaining her balance in the enclosed tunnel, as they were constantly turning and swerving.
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Ada signaled with the whistle, and Annie saw an Ithraxi swarm was coming at their front. Luna was still occupied with the GEA’s in the rear, and Annie saw the exposed engine, so she rushed to the front. All her arms were still locked in combat as Annie opened the Arbalest and got out the gattling cannon. As the wave of insects reached her, Annie fired with every weapon at her disposal, from her cannons and flamethrowers up to the gattling cannon, cutting the tide of bugs in half.
Fire and steel decimated the insects, but the longer she used her weapons, the more it started to heat up at an incredible speed. The pipes in her arms began to ignite, the oil leaked and soon her whole suit and armor started to glow red and sizzle, but still Annie fired even as it started to burn her overalls.
The swarm of bugs subsided as they burst through the tunnel, but Annie’s armor melted and became unusable, so she had to abandon it. At the back, Luna had managed to successfully fight off the wave of GEA's and they finally managed to get away, but she received so many cuts, gashes, and stab wounds that she had difficulty standing up.
Annie rushed to help her, but she was so focused on running to Luna that she did not see the creatures coming from above. Ithraxi stingers, flying bat-sized insects with sharp bodies like daggers, swooped down and aimed straight for Annie.
"Annie watch out!" Luna roared as she ran to her, but Annie reacted too late.
She turned around and used her arms to shield herself, but the stingers landed a sharp slash on her arms, shoulders, and legs. She curled up in order to protect herself, but the stingers kept landing stab after stab at her before Luna managed to kill them all. Luna carefully picked her up and rushed back into the driver’s compartment.
When she got back inside, Luna’s front was completely covered with Annie’s blood as she fell unconscious. "Ada help her now!"
Even with a broken arm, Baldric helped Luna as they laid Annie on the table.
More creatures were already on top of the Landraider, ripping down the armor and making their way to the driver's compartment.
As Luna watched Ada seal all of her wounds, she could only cry and hold Annie's hand. Her shattered mind was causing her to hallucinate once more, and Luna could see Marko standing right beside his sister, staring at her with pure hatred in his eyes.
You killed me! Now you will kill my sister too!
Luna cried harder as she held on to Annie’s hand.
"Annie hold on. Please. Hold on."
Once they finished sealing all of Annie’s wounds, Luna laid her on the couch. Desperate and out of options, Luna rushed to the storage and opened a compartment on the floor containing a heavy shackle with a mechanism attached to it and a heavy metal box. She put the shackles on her arms and carried the metal box up to the driver’s compartment.
"Baldric I need the venom!" Luna placed the metal box on the floor.
"Are you insane?!" Baldric roared.
"Just do it!" Luna said as she turned on the box. Baldric took a key from his necklace and with it opened a small box built on the floor of the compartment. Inside were syringes of yellow and blue liquids. He got the yellow liquid while Luna removed her hat and exposed her neck.
Baldric was hesitant to inject her, but the creatures were now close to ripping the armor and getting to the compartment. Claws and stingers started to poke through the steel as Baldric cursed repeatedly, and he injected Luna in the neck. She gritted her teeth as Baldric finished one vial. He injected her with another, which made Luna shriek in pain.
Baldric backed away as Luna, who started grunting and hissing in pain, climbed up to the roof. When she was gone, Baldric barricaded them inside and kept the box close to him.
"Keep going no matter what." He said to Ada and Elizabeth. "No matter what you hear, keep going!"