Relias: Uprising Page 17

  Price nodded and paused, thinking something over in her head. Then, seeming almost scared to do it, Price hugged him. “Be careful, Nate.”

  Hendrick was surprised but returned the hug. “I never am.”

  Price gave him a squeeze, stepped back, gave him one final look and sprinted back to the fleet of Battlecrafts. Sable came up behind him. “Nate…”

  Hendrick shrugged. “She’s got a pretty face and a great body but that voice and…” Hendrick turned and looked Sable from head to toe. “And you need to stop popping up next to other woman that I think is attractive. No matter how good looking they are they suck in comparison to you. Stop it.”

  Sable blushed and Hendrick moved back to the front line.

  The Legionnaires had begun to pull back. White armored piles circled the complex with barely a body that had made it past the rubble that remained of the outer walls. The Darks cheered and fired at the retreating Legionnaires. Some soldiers broke away and ran back to the waiting Battlecrafts while others did nothing to hide their confidence of being able to hold onto the complex and keep it from the hands of the First Legionnaire. The gunfire had stopped and the Darks kept their cover behind the Forge tanks. Some walked out into the open space and taunted the Legionnaires to the amusement and delight of their friends. Hendrick took in the last of the situation before turning back towards the hangar. He raised his wrists and examined his Blazers, checking the temperature and spread settings and reaching satisfaction. Sable and Pontious came up next to him and walked at his side.

  “We need to get out of here.” Sable said. “The Legionnaire never retreats like this.”

  “I know.” Hendrick replied as he pulled his mask up onto his forehead. “But Morlo and Vyvyr aren’t back yet.”

  Pontious grunted to himself as a bolt of pain shot through his side and he spoke up. “Soldiers have started coming from the west gate.” He said with obvious frustration. “Morlo and Vyvyr couldn’t hold it.”

  Hendrick pursed his lips and looked to the ground. “I saw.” He murmured.

  Sable’s breath became short. “Nate, does that mean-“

  “No.” Hendrick was quick to reply. “It just means that they knew they couldn’t hold it and they pulled back before they got pinned down.”

  Pontious gave Hendrick a small nudge. Hendrick clenched his jawed and responded with a bowed head.

  “So has Price left yet?” Pontious asked.

  Hendrick pulled a cigar from his pocket and clenched it between his teeth. He ignited one of his Blazers and lit the cigar in the blaze. He took a long hard draw from it and savored the smoke.

  “I’m sure she has.” Said Hendrick as he looked to the sky to see the battle cruisers piercing through the smoke. The three watched as two more battle cruisers, giant, destructive titans, emerged from the smoke in the distance.

  “How long do you think we have?” Sable asked.

  “Not long.” Hendrick replied through clenched teeth. “Ten, maybe twenty minutes.” He tapped Pontious on the shoulder and motioned back towards the ruined outer walls. “It took five minutes, by the way. I owe you twenty steele.”

  There was a single yell that brought their attention back to the line of Forge tanks. Several Darks stood around a man that had been completely and cleanly sliced in two. It was as though his body decided to separate on its own accord. They could feel something was wrong, like animals before an earthquake. Sable drew her sword and Pontious adjusted his stance defensively. Hendrick took a short, contemplative draw at his cigar and pointed his hand at body.

  “Now there’s something you don’t see every day.”

  “Reapers.” Pontious said.

  Hendrick chuckled. “I know.”

  “What?” Sable asked.

  “They’re Reapers.” Pontious said. “Cloaked soldiers who can teleport short distances. Nasty bastards.”

  “Wait,” Sable said as she had an obvious epiphany. “Is that what they did with our Dimenisors?”

  “After they modified ‘em, ya.” Hendrick replied. “We’d only heard of ‘em though. Didn’t think they were real.”

  There was another yell. Then more yells. Soon the Dark ranks were scattering and the three Ditrinity members got ready to fight.

  “But we know what thought did.” Hendrick said flipping the triggers to his Blazers into his palms. Pontious chuckled deeply and Sable was confused.

  “What?”

  “Thought.” Hendrick said with a grin and a puff of his cigar. “Thought he farted but he crapped his pants.”

  Sable frowned and Hendrick gave a toothy grin, pulling his wolf mask into place and immediately taking off.

  A glowing white streak of swirling steam shot to their left. From its end a red cloaked figure blinked into sight. With an enormous scythe it decapitated a fleeing soldier. It put the tip of the scythe through another man’s back, giving it a twist and blinking out of sight when surrounding Darks opened fire.

  The Ditrinity wasn’t sure where to go. All around them the glowing white streaks of steam darted every which way. The Darks fired their guns haphazardly, not nicking the Reapers and sometimes actually shooting other Darks.

  The Darks were delirious with fear. They scattered like small animals before a predator, getting hacked and hewn in their retreat.

  “Count em!” Hendrick yelled.

  “Five.” Pontious said.

  “Six!” Sable corrected.

  “Six of them, six of the Ditrinity.” Hendrick yelled. “Now find one and beat him down!”

  There was an enormous explosion that shook them to their knees. All eyes turned towards the rear portion of the compound. Hendrick got back to his feet and helped Sable to hers.

  “That can’t be good.” He said. A blackened crater was all that was left of the landing pad where the Battlecrafts had been taking off from. Three enormous shadows crept over the ground.

  “Cruisers.” Pontious said. “We have to go.”

  “Helios.” Hendrick added as he loosed a plume of smoke from his mouth. “Yeah, I think we should.”

  There was a burst of wind from behind Hendrick and a burst of white light. Hendrick gritted his teeth and popped his knuckles without looking behind him. “You got our Dimenisors and you still attack from the back.”

  He ducked immediately, dodging the swinging scythe and spun on his toes. He threw his weight forward and lunged without seeing who he was actually lunging at. His hands clasped red fabric.

  “Got ya you slinky son of a-“

  The Reaper thudded to its back. Hendrick raised his hands to its face and squeezed the trigger.

  The crimson-clad Reaper blinked out of sight and Hendrick fell through the space it occupied. Another Reaper popped up at Sable’s side. It swung its scythe hard and put Sable off balance when she parried. Pontious dove to help but was tackled around the midsection by a Nightwolf. Sable deflected the strikes unsteadily before regaining her footing. She went on the offensive, landed a monster blow on the scythe’s tip, opened up a space to strike, spun to the left and slashed at the Reaper’s chest. It was gone just before she struck.

  “Forget it and go!” Hendrick yelled. Pontious got back to his feet and stood over the Nightwolf, its head completely twisted around, and agreed.

  Blue lasers shot from the sky and fried everything they touched, melting the ground and sizzling the air around them. Dark soldiers caught in the rays melted, flesh, armor, and disappeared into orange-hot glowing craters. The Ditrinity needed no further discussion. They sprinted towards the outside of the compound and, in the gap between the Forge tanks they could see the Legionnaires pouring over the rubble. Finding cover, they put their backs to the tanks and thought.

  “No time, no time.” Sable said, becoming anxious.

  Watching as the army bore down on them, Hendrick chewed the end of his cigar in thought. It didn’t take long for him to realize he was at a loss. Then, to his left, he saw a collapsed set of Raze armor. There was his way out.

&n
bsp; He got up and bounded over to the motionless pile of steel. He pulled the canopy open, pulled out the dead pilot and stepped in. After strapping in, Hendrick initiated the Raze’s operating system, slid his arms into the operating sleeves and took control. The armor came to life, the hydraulics working and making heavy, dense scrapes against the hard cement. Hendrick climbed to his feet, worked the controls to make sure everything was operational and continued on with his plan.

  Legionnaires peppered the ranks with gunfire, mowing down the fleeing Darks. Those who hid next to the tanks were quickly found and destroyed. Those who made it beyond the assaulting Firsts found dire opposition from the sweep lasers. Pontious and Sable were the last two still battling against the attackers. Based up, they returned the enemy fire, their retaliation doing nothing to cause their attackers to falter.

  The Raze’s hydraulic system worked noisily as Hendrick ran over to a smoking tank, its operators bloodied in their attempts to climb out. Placing the Raze’s massive mechanical hands on the front of the machine, he ripped off a storage compartment. He carried it over to Pontious and Sable, dumping out its contents as he did and dropped it in a clatter of steel.

  “Hop in.” He said.

  Sable climbed in first and then Pontious, who closed the hatch on the compartment behind them. It had been a long time since Hendrick had piloted Raze armor and he had forgotten how good it felt to be so big, to have so much power.

  “Add Blazers to this bad boy and you’ve got my wet dream.” Hendrick said excitedly, taking one last draw from his cigar before flicking it to the floor of the cockpit and snuffing it with his boot. He picked up the compartment, held it in front of the canopy as a shield and started running.

  The gunfire of thousands of unseen Legionnaires ricocheted off of the storage compartment and the armor. Hendrick paid it no mind and kept running, keeping his eye on the compartment to make sure it held up against heavy gun fire.

  The bullets made sparks as they bounced off the Raze. Some panels of the canopy began to crack. Red lights blinked across the control board. Hendrick paid them no mind. He kept running, the Raze making long, powerful strides and covering massive amounts of ground with each step.

  With the storage compartment clutched with both hands, Hendrick threw an elbow out to one side, nailing a Berserker in the face, denting his helmet and smashing his visor. Hendrick hooted and kicked one leg out in mid stride, catching a Legionnaire in the chest and punting him across the crowd.

  He couldn’t see, but the motion detector in front of him let him know where he was going; blue blobs on the screen represented stationary objects and red blobs represented moving objects. The screen was almost solid red.

  Through the sides of the canopy Hendrick saw Legionnaires diving out of the way while some Berserkers tried vainly to stop him. Whenever Hendrick heard a crunch beneath the feet of the armor he laughed brutally and looked out the side for a chance to see the carnage.

  “How far do we have!” Said Sable, her voice quiet and hollow inside the compartment.

  “Only a few hundred more yards.” He yelled to be heard through the compartment and the canopy. “Hang on tight! Their guns aren’t big enough to-“

  The right leg of the Raze armor was blown off. The compartment flew forward and tumbled across the ground into the side of a building. Biting the pavement in full sprint, the Raze skipped across the ground and came for rest on its stomach.

  With the wind drawn from his chest Hendrick grunted. “But I’ve been wrong before.” He wheezed.

  He hung from the straps that held him in place and cracked his neck. With his hand rubbing his neck he looked out the side to see Pontious kick open the dented door to the storage unit and pull out Sable. Both unsteady, they came to help Hendrick.

  Guns fired and they dove into the cover of a nearby house.

  The world was sideways to Hendrick. Being on his stomach he looked the other way to see the Legionnaire bearing down on him, looking as though they were running on the wall. Hendrick sniggered, realized that Pontious and Sable were weaponless and regained his focus. He checked the arms of the Raze to see if they were still operational.

  The arms mimicked his arms: They worked. Hendrick looked over at the closest Legionnaire who was now in arm’s reach.

  “Hey, asshole!” He yelled.

  The Legionnaires thought the armor was ruined. They raised their guns.

  Hendrick slammed the Raze armor’s fist onto the top of the man’s head and smashed him flat in a burst of blood. He swept his arm out and caught half a dozen Legionnaire’s in his reach, hurling them violently against the side of the building. After climbing up on one knee Hendrick began swinging punches at every Legionnaire he could reach.

  “Get out of here!” He yelled back to them. He could see Sable shaking her head. He swore. “Go NOW!”

  “We’re not leaving you!” Sable yelled.

  “Yeah you are! Pontious!”

  With frustrated obedience Pontious clutched Sable and pulled her along. Sable fought vainly against it and kept yelling back to him. “Nate, NO!” She screamed. “NOT YOU TOO!”

  Hendrick watched them as they moved away from the battle, swinging and punching at anything that moved. He knew it would be the last time he saw them. He’d been with Pontious from the beginning, and Sable… he didn’t want to think about it. He just had to keep the Legionnaires pinned down, at least for a few more minutes. A bullet shot through the canopy and impacted mere inches from the side of Hendrick’s head. Hendrick whistled in surprise and kept swinging.

  The Legionnaires were closing in behind him. With one-legged Raze armor he wasn’t going anywhere. He had no exit.

  He reached a hand down into his pocket, sorted through the papers and lint and withdrew his last cigar. He gave it a loving look, bit off the tip, held it in his mouth and lit it. These cigars had never tasted better. The smoke was warm in his throat and longs and the taste was strong and sweet. After a moment’s reprieve, Hendrick closed his eyes and relaxed.

  Everything was perfect.

  There were too many now to single them out. They were crowding around him, like hunters on a dying beast, keeping out of its reach until it collapsed. Hendrick wasn’t going down like that though.

  Without warning Hendrick plunged one arm forward, grabbed a Skirmisher around the waist and squeezed him as hard as he could. The Skirmisher was a rag in his hands. Hendrick threw the body into the crowd and kept swinging. A Helldog opened fire on Hendrick’s left side. He sent a punch through the flames. They stopped immediately.

  The canopy cracked more; it was a veritable spider web that stretched across it. Hendrick kept fighting.

  A grenade exploded behind him. It knocked the Raze off balance. Hendrick spun around, pivoting on the broken leg and brought a clenched fist down onto one unfortunate Knight.

  From the rear portion of the Legionnaires, Hendrick saw a flash and a growing column of smoke that reached out towards him. He swore and jerked immediately to the right.

  It was an RPG. It nailed the mech and blew off the Raze’s left arm and propelled it to the side. Brick and mortar exploded from the wall as the Raze slammed into it. An explosion of flashing lights and shrill alarms sounded in the armor’s cockpit. Hendrick’s hands blazed across the control board flipping switches, turning knobs, and doing anything he could to get the armor to a point where he could at least hit something.

  There was a crippling thud on the left portion of the armor that threw him to his side.

  “Damn it to… slow down!” He groaned as he looked in the direction of the blow.

  Just over the edge of the dashboard Hendrick could see a laughing Monolith with a huge battlehammer taking long strides towards him. The cocky prick took off his armor and only wore a tank top. He was covered in ash and painted with blood. Hendrick raised his right arm to control what was left of the Raze.

  Nothing. No movement at all. Hendrick pulled his arms from the control sleeves just as several Night
wolves threw themselves into the canopy, scratching at the cockpit, squeezing their paws through the holes in the window, barking and snarling and rubbing thick layers of saliva across the canopy. Hendrick flipped the handles to his flamethrowers into his palms, thrust the tips into the holes that the Nightwolves fought for and squeezed the triggers.

  The Nightwolves ran off in balls of flames. The Monolith came closer. Hendrick got his feet in front of him and kicked as hard as he could at the canopy in an attempt to dislodge it.

  The Monolith bounced the hammer eagerly in his hands. Hendrick kicked as hard as he could.

  The cockpit wasn’t opening and the windows weren’t breaking.

  Hendrick cursed.

  The Monolith kept clear of the holes in the canopy and gave a loud, evil chortle. He raised his hammer, preparing to swing it down, shatter the canopy and crush Hendrick’s skull against the back of the cockpit; Hendrick knew that. He looked the Monolith in the eyes and gave his typical, confident grin.

  “Hit me! You ‘roid raging sack of shit, HIT ME!”

  The veins in the Monolith’s arms and neck bulged as he swung with all his might. Hendrick watched the hammer fly towards his face. His life didn’t flash before his eyes. All he thought about were his friends, the Ditrinity. He thought of Sable. How he’d fought for a reason, fought for them, and for some odd reason, watching the massive hunk of steel blurring towards his face and putting his life in perspective, everything felt right.

  A Forge tank round hit right in front of him. The canopy to the Raze shattered. The entire Raze was picked up from the impact and tossed back. Hendrick didn’t know which way was up and which was down. As it rolled it was a mess of glass, metal, and rubble while Hendrick was ripped violently with the turbulence. Thrown against the restraints, Hendrick’s body was ripped in all directions, his bones being pushed to their structural limits and seeming to be on the verge of crumbling.

  After countless, jarring, agonizing rolls, the ruined exoskeleton came skidding to a halt. Barely conscious, Hendrick reached a weak, dazed hand to undo the buckles that held him in place. Finding cohesive thought to be an impossibility, Hendrick’s hand flopped to his side and all went quiet.