In the sporadic moments CAL spent drifting in and out of consciousness, two things quickly became apparent to him. The first, it was raining, a rare event on Durst, an ill omen to the people of the villages. The second, was the agonizingly sharp pain pulsing through his torso. The combination of the pain and the discomfort of the rain hitting his face finally brought him to groggy consciousness.
Lying face up on the ground, staring at the dark grey sky, CAL found himself unable to move. Weakly lifting his head to look at the rest of his body, the source of the immobility and sharp pain coursing through his body was immediately apparent.
“Oh… that right there’s going to be a problem!” He cautiously said, staring at the large, Jagged piece of paneling currently bisecting him from crotch to sternum.
“Let’s see how tough you are.”
Reaching up to the panel to test it, it was only then that he realized his left arm was missing. Torn off from the elbow down only a handful of bloody wires and circuits remained.
“Today just keeps getting better and better doesn’t it.” He sighed heavily. “Just focus on what you can do CAL. Just focus on that.”
Grabbing the edge of the blood soaked panel, he grabbed it and squeezed. Cracking it slightly before releasing it.
“Dentieum…of course it is freaking Dentieum. Well this might actually work in my favor now that I think about it.”
He was right in this case, Dentieum was a highly durable metal. Harder than titanium, but more malleable than gold when exposed to cold temperatures. Typically used in the construction of Havoc Cores due to their intense heat output. Had he been impaled by one of the hull panels of the ship, he would be in a far worse situation. However, the freezing cold rain of Durst has done more than enough to cause the broken panel to become brittle.
With all the might he could muster, he punched the upper portion of the panel, shattering it instantly. “Cool, that’s one problem solved, now let’s unimpale myself.”
Summoning a grapple hook, he threw it up to the tree branch above him, wrapping around it perfectly. Carefully, twisting the rope of the hook around his arm, he took in a deep breath before starting the grueling process of lifting himself off the ground.
“Alright… Alright. Alright. Alright. On three.” His grip tightened around the rope.
“One.”
“Two…”
“Three!”
Yanking the rope to his chest, he tore himself off of the remains of the panel. Flopping on the ground next to the piece, he slammed the ground repeatedly in pain cratering it, poorly stifling his screams of agony as he rolled back and forth on the floor.
“AAAAAAHHHHH! Oh lord, I think I’m gonna-”
CAL vomited a mixture of blood and bile on the ground before rolling to his back. Panting like a madman and nearly passing out from the pain.
“Where’d that even come from?” his panting slowing as he began to regain his composure. “Pretty sure I don’t even have a stomach anymore.”
CAL spent several minutes lying on the ground, both composing himself and stabilizing himself. His internal self-healing units, microscopic drones designed to repair the most grievous of wounds, slowly stopped his bleeding and eased his pain. Granting him a moment of peace amongst the chaos, a moment to take in his surroundings. Surroundings he quickly realized were in utter ruins.
While he was most certainly on the jungle floor, CAL was surrounded by the flaming wreckage of both his and Negas’ ships. Chunks of the hull, engine parts, Havoc core shards and hundreds of other smaller parts were scattered around the small outcropping he found himself in. Worse than that, in the distance he heard the tell-tell sounds of warfare. Gunshots, screams, and warcries filled the air as CAL struggled to his feet.
Tapping the side of his head, he reconnected his comm link. “Bella? Are you still out there?”
Static filled his comm as he waited for a response.
“Bella…? Please tell me you are okay.”
Nothing but static filled his comm.
Clicking off his comm, he closed his face mask. “S-She’s fine CAL, she is just dandy. Probably just locked herself in her computing core to save energy. Yeah, that’s it, she’s just on standby mode. No need to be worried.”
He began to walk toward one of the shattered wings of a Fighter, a hole blown through to the base of the wing made an excellent pathway out from the outcropping. Upon climbing through the hole, CAL was greeted with the horrifying reality the ruins of the ships shielded him from. Death and genocide welcomed him as he gazed upon the bodies of dozens of Villagers and even more raiders and Pirates strewn about the entire area. Some lay on the ground, spears and blaster holes covering their husks. Others hung limp and lifeless in the trees, fresh feasts for the carrion birds above. Most however, were nothing more than a collection of limbs or splatters of macabre crimson painting the jungle.
CAL stood in abject horror at the sight, his mind racing through every single time he allowed one of Negas’ raiders to live. Every time he spared one of those vile pirates.
“Did I do this…?”
{“Diey cumon dei!”}
CAL is snapped out of his shocked stupor by a familiar battle cry. Turning to his left, he spots Gerin in the distance, slamming his spear through the helm of a raider, turning quickly to face the rest of his victim’s squad.
CAL runs toward him, watching as Gerin struggles against a formidable 8 to 1 matchup. He manages to kill two before taking a bullet to the shoulder and a punch to the face from the largest of the squad knocking him to the ground.
Another raider steps on his neck while he is down, taking off his helmet to reveal his human face. “How’d we end up lettin’ a buncha monkeys with nanospears do this much damage to us? Anyone got an answer for that?”
The largest one pushed the human off Gerin, taking his helm off and roaring at the boy. Revealing his lion-like face as he lifted him up to his face. “Blame the boss! Zimone told him these techless heathens were better fortified than he thought.”
One of the other raiders finished scoping the surroundings and turned back to the others, “Where the hell are Zimone and Calcifus anyway?” She turned to the other Raider scanning the surroundings, “You see where they went Tomo?”
He turned to her, “Heard they were–”
An energized Warhammer landed on the raider. Turning him into a fine purple paste, and splattering his comrades with his blue and purple innards.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“What the fuck was th–” The human raider screamed as CAL landed in between him and the other two helmed raiders. Summoning a Katana, he stood up and began walking toward the Lion.
“The hell are you three doing? Kill him!” The Lion roared, throwing Gerin to the side.
His eyes grew wide as he saw the three of them all fall apart at the waist. Blood jet streamed into the sky as their legs stood motionless.
“That supposed to intimidate me?” He roared. “I ain’t scared of a rogue droid!”
He charged CAL, throwing a punch at him. Only for CAL to Catch it, crush his massive fist, and twist his arm off. Throwing the severed limb to the side and punching a hole straight through the reeling beast’s chest. Kicking the beastman’s gasping corpse off of his arm, CAL turned to the last of the raiders. Her knees quivering and barely able to stand, she jumped and fell to the ground as he looked at her.
“Stay right there.”
She froze, not even breathing as CAL turned around to kneel next to Gerin.
“Are you okay? Do you need a medic or shaman?”
{“I am fine Warrior CAL, I have suffered worse. But look at you…”} He said gesturing to the gapping hole in his stomach and the missing arm. {“You are a true warrior of the gods, most would surrender to death with such wounds.””
“Believe me dude, I am far from good at the moment. But saving your people is more important then my cosmetic health.”
Helping Gerin to his feet, CAL dusted him off, “So how bad’s the village? Who is still up and kicking?”
{“I do not know I was sent off early in the day with the hunters when we heard gunfire coming from the South outpost. We saw the explosion in the sky and came to help, but were attacked by the pirates.”}
“And the rest of your group, are they still alive?”
{“We lost Hunter Sevat and Hunter Kiev when we were first ambushed. Hunter JuJu, Kilka, and Feance all died helping me get here. Hunters Slove, Gerty and Himic went with Warrior Toth and Manik to the village wall. I do not know if they survived.”}
“Cheer up my man,” CAL said, patting him on the shoulder, “We are going to find out right now.”
Walking over to the last raider CAL lifted her up to her feet, wrapping his good arm over her shoulders, and gesturing to Gerin with his severed arm.
“Alright miss raider, you don’t want to die and I really want to keep the kill count from getting any higher than it already is. So if you answer a couple of my questions and walk me to that wonderfully loud boss of yours, you are free to go! Sound good to you?
She was shaking like a frostbite victim in fear, making only the smallest sound for agreement to CAL’s terms.
“Cool! First question, You are a communications and radar specialist, so you can tell me if the other members of his hunting team came across your squad, right?”
“W-We encountered a small team of hunters not far from the village, but we ignored them and let them return to the village.”
“Good, good. Second question, what is the current state of this little shindig? How many people are left and who is where?”
We lost a third of our force in the first hour of the battle, air support was zeroed the moment they reached a mile out from the village. We had about 300 troops left with a few squads fleeing about 20 minutes ago. The only leaders that are still alive are Calcifus, Zimone, Negas and Feebly. Feebly fled when Negas crashed, Negas is in the Village and I don’t know where the others are.”
“Ah, I love to hear birds singing in the late afternoon, one last question my little songbird. Does anyone else know I’m still alive?”
“Negas thinks you are alive, but no one else has confirmation.”
“Perfect! Now let’s get walking, you are going to take me straight to that big mouthed bird you call a leader!”
With that the unlikely trio began walking towards the village, toward the monster that has terrorized the planet for half a decade.
----------------------------------------
Nearly an Hour later…
“Yeah so, um, I’m kinda only out here because my parents sent me off to work at some mining colony to get a back bone, and Negas raided it and killed anyone who didn’t join up with his crew.” The Raider said as she stepped over a log.
“So you’ve been stuck on the death world for five whole years, serving under a power mad dictator, forced to archive and scan all of his rants and treasure, and kill innocent people all because your parents wanted you to not be so submissive?”
“Um, yeah. That sums it up pretty good.”
{“Your life is hell, I pity you.”} Gerin said as he cut through several vines. {“I cannot forgive you for what you did to my people, but I understand the plight you face.”}
“Ditto for the first part, I’m glad you and I never crossed blades before now.” CAL said as he followed the other two.
“Uhh, about that… We actually have ‘met’ before. I was at Telos Station a couple years back and you sliced off my arm, half of my face, and dropped a Vespid on me and my team.”
“Wait seriously?! I am so sorry. But also, now that I think about it, like how are you standing here?”
“Negas came by and pulled me out, and said I only get to die when he allows it. He had all of his Medi-docs build me new body parts and here I am.”
{“Cursed to suffer, a cruel fate. Even for a pirate like you.”}
“Wow, that is really… unfortunate.”
The motley trio continued through the thick brush of the jungle. They were fortunate enough to find most of the fighting outside of the Village was far off in the distance. Allowing them to take the most direct route to their destination.
Passing through one of the war torn outposts, they were halted by Gerin. {“A moment please. This outpost has a hidden weapons cache, it may be useful in the battle to come.”}
“Go for it, the more weapons we have the better. My energy reserves are running low anyway.”
“You have a battery?” The Raider asked curiously.
“Not a battery per say, and definitely not the kind that keeps me alive. But it’s what allows me to create my arsenal and manage my regen.”
“Is that why you have yet to heal that hole and your arm? You’re out of energy?” Gesturing to his body as she sat down on one of the fallen trees littered around the outpost.
“Yes and no. I’m low on energy without a doubt, but for injuries like these. I need an infusion of Drenlin.”
“You’re talking about that luminescent blue gel found all across the planet?”
“Bingo! I have no idea what it is, but it jumpstarts my body like rocket fuel.”
“Interesting, I had always assumed it could be a functional fuel source, Negas would never let me test that theory though.”
“Joke’s on him, it’s like a super fuel for most of the tech I use. You know raider, you are pretty chill for someone who has just been kidnapped at blade point.”
“When you have been a slave under a power mad dictator, you tend to learn to warm up to dangerous situations rather immediately. And I have a name you know!”
“Which is…?”
Standing up and stretching, she looked down to CAL as he sat on the log. “My name is I–”
The raider’s head and arm exploded as two energy blasts ripped through her like wet tissue paper. CAL had reacted the millisecond her brain matter splattered across his body, flipping himself to the left and just barely avoiding another two shots tearing through the rest of the limp raider’s body. Summoning a pair of swords, CAL looked in the direction of the blaster shots.
Standing with a leg up on the log before him, shining white armor polished to perfection, green vapor pouring from the barrels of both of his Y-Zers, and a devious toothy grin spread wide across his blue face. The vile sadist of a man standing in front of him, with his silvered hair “heroically” blowing in the wind, was unmistakably and undeniably pure evil.
“Zimone!”