Machine Story

New Threats

David slowly got to his feet after feeling like he had been hit by a very large vehicle. He scanned his surroundings to find that he was still in the Skavolan Woods but couldn’t see anyone else nearby. “Finally decided to wake up?” David responded by jumping on his feet and shifting to his fighting stance.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, your...” As he was speaking, David interrupted him by trying to strike him with a surprise slash. David’s mechanical eye was glowing ominous red, the same as when he went berserk back in the colony lab.

Without any sense of reason, David attacked the rogue fighter with all his might but could never connect an attack. Every blow got countered back against him, making him more furious every time.

“You are going to have to do a lot better than that to beat me.” Upon hearing those words, both of David’s arms began to transform into plasma cannons. He began to fire them wildly without any second thought.

Despite the countless barrage of plasma fire, the fighter dodged every shot. “Not bad I see some improvement, if you just…” Again David yelled in anger and his plasma cannon began to charge to maximum power. The rogue realized that this attack had the potential to destroy much of the forest.

He quickly dashed towards David to get as close as possible. While the cannons were still charging, David stretched out his arm to try and close line his on coming attack but again, he evaded the attack by ducking under and now David’s back was facing him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want it to come to this, but I have to do this.” David was completely vulnerable and the fighter was about to end it all in one strike.

Suddenly, a voice called out in David’s mind, Siri’s. Once it got through to him, his cannons stopped charging and completely shut off. In fact, all of David’s systems shut down and he collapsed onto the ground, unconscious, but still alive.

Meanwhile, back at the entrance of the Diamond Enclave, the Metadross were storming the Amazonian stronghold. The warriors fought bravely and defended the frontlines with all their might but when the Giant Metadross unit appeared with its cannon all charged up, it unleashed its attack and obliterated their barricades along with a good chunk of their forces.

With the barricades destroyed, the mass of mindless machines infiltrated through the Diamond Enclave. Sonia and her squadron did their best to hold the enemies back as her other comrades attempted to rescue as many injured soldiers from the blast. But the numbers were too overwhelming, the Metadross were stomping through the Amazonian’s futile resistance.

Sonia continued to stay as long as she could to provide cover fire for the rest of her comrades to pull back. As she turned around to run, she tripped and fell to the ground. The horde of mechanical drones were a few feet away from running her over.

Thankfully, a volley of Dross-tipped arrows were fired, piercing through the first wave of drones. The remaining Metadross that survived the rain of arrows were impaled by a glaive held by Priya. She teared through as many mechanical underlings as she could before, helping Sonia up.

As Priya was bringing Sonia to safety, Chelle Chandra came charging in to clear the remaining Metadross that got in the way. After being assured that Sonia was safe, Priya turned her focus back to the battlefield. She assessed what was happening in the midst of battle. With the help of the mighty Chelle Chandra,it looked as if they had a chance to hold back the Metadross invasion.

After clearing what they thought were the remaining enemy units, two large Metadross, known as the elite units, descend from the sky. They were not as big as the gargantuan cannon unit but they stood ten feet tall. One of the units had a pink-visor holding two daggers. The other unit had two glowing red eyes and looked unarmed.

Just staring at the new opponents, Priya could sense the two units were completely different from the mindless units they had easily taken out. As she continued to watch their movement, Chelle Chandra attempted to launch a preemptive attack to catch them off-guard.

Her initial target was the twin-blade Metadross but the unarmed Metadross intercepted her attack and held her by the throat with one arm. It then threw her hard to the ground. She attempted to get back up but the red-eyed Metadross appeared in front of her and delivered a punch directly to her gut before she had the chance. With just two hits, the strongest Amazonian warrior was no longer able to fight.

Priya and Sonia were in disbelief. They had never seen Chelle Chandra lose a fight let alone in only two strikes. Their hopes of victory were beginning to fade after witnessing their champion fall. Sonia wanted to run up and help Chelle Chandra but Priya held her back as the two Metadross were far too powerful.

With the Amazonian’s strongest fighter down, the two Metadross redirected their attention to the rest of the tribe. Even after witnessing what had happened, the remaining warriors stood their ground. True to their nature, they were too proud to surrender. A small group of Amazon warriors attempted to simultaneously strike them at once but they were easily casted aside.

Seeing so many of her comrades risk their lives, Priya ordered them all to retreat. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t listen to her, they stood in front of their leader, willing to protect her to the end. Thankfully, before the Metadross could harm anyone else, two arrows were fired at their faces that were deflected away. Priya and Sonia looked behind to see that Addyson and Niall had come to their aid.

Sonia was extremely glad to see Addyson again and rushed to give her a hug. In contrast, Priya was experiencing mixed feelings about seeing her former ally. “Priya, I know you still consider me a traitor and you can cast me out of the tribe after, but right now my friend and I are here to fight. Please let us help you save everyone!” Addyson pleaded.

Priya looked away for a moment, before accepting their help. She trusted them to assist her with the evacuation plan. Addyson and Niall were to distract the enemy long enough so Sonia and Priya could get Chelle Chandra back safely. As Niall and Addyson nodded in agreement, Priya called for all her warriors to focus on rescuing their injured champion.

Once the Amazonians dispersed, Niall turned around to get a closer look at the enemy. He recognized the Metadross with the glowing pink visor and the engraved “I”. It was the exact same enemy he encountered from their battle back in Colony Five.

Niall charged right at his target with full speed ignoring everything else. Out of nowhere, a chain shot out of the other elite unit that caught Niall completely off guard. Addyson jumped in front of Niall in an attempt to block the attack. She was partially successful as still took a gash on her left arm from the chain.

The chain wielding mech was not done as another chain appeared on its left hand. It whirling them in the air, before lashing them at his enemies. Despite the crazy swinging, Niall knew the attack was aimed at Addyson, so he jumped between them and deflected the attack away. However, the Metadross immediately followed up with another strike from the left side forcing Niall to react by ducking under the chain with his back facing the ground. The chain just missed his body and skimmed the top of his nose.

As Niall got back up to his feet, he took a closer look at the Metadross that had just attacked him. He thought back to the previous attacks this unit had just used against him. He couldn’t shake it off his mind that he had seen this fighting and movement style before.

With Niall’s mind preoccupied, the twin dagger Metadross appeared on his left side. It slashed its weapon at Niall but Addyson pushed him out of the way. Although they avoided the attack, the chain Metadross pressed their advantage by winding up for a brutal swing. Thankfully, a sniper round was fired at the oncoming Metadross, forcing it to back away. The interruption halted the charge of the two elite units and gave Niall time to look up above higher ground where he saw a familiar face.

“Couldn’t even handle a couple of Metadross without me eh?” Shaan jokes. Niall chuckled a bit and told Addyson that the sniper was a friend of his. “If you have time to be making jokes, then you have time to help us.” Niall fired back.

From the high ground, Shaan dropped down a couple of mysterious round devices for Niall. Niall gave a puzzled look as he stared at the unknown objects. “Gifts from the crazy scientist lady, you know how to use them I hope.” Niall gave it some thought and then realized what he had to do. “Don’t think she would appreciate that comment but you aren’t wrong.”

After Shaan began to move to get a better vantage point, Niall explained to Addyson what she had to do. She was in disagreement with the plan, stating that it was too risky. Niall asked her if she had a better plan but she had none. “Then we stick with the plan! Besides, risk is my middle name.” Addyson gave him the stink eye, “You mean insane…”

Invigorated with new energy, Niall charged towards the two hulking Metadross with great fervour. The red-eyed unit began whirling its chains again, throwing the right one towards Niall, who deflected it away. It then followed up with the left but Niall parried that as well. The chain whirler tried to attack again but Addy fired two arrows at the loop of each chain, keeping it stuck to the ground temporarily.

Unable to swing its weapon, the red-eye unit was defenseless leaving an easy target for Niall. However, the pink-visor Metadross blocked Niall’s path, obstructing his blade against its twin daggers. Knowing the opponent was much stronger, Niall jumped back to gain some distance before throwing the mysterious device towards the dagger Metadross.

As the red-eye Metadross saw the device being thrown, it immediately attempted to swat it away with its left hand. “Let them have it now!” Addyson waited as long as she could for Niall to get out of the line of fire. She released the arrow upon Niall’s command and the arrow went just under Niall’s shoulder, between his right arm and right ribs.

Once the arrow made contact with the device, it combusted. The two Metadross were closest to the detonation and felt the full impact of the blast. Addyson was in the clear but Niall wasn’t far enough to escape the explosive radius. Addyson rushed to his side to see if he had been heavily injured. Although he avoided serious burns, the impact caused him to fall on his right arm, which was now broken.

With the smoke starting to clear, the Metadross began to slowly pick themselves back up. From afar, Shaan had his sniper rifle up and was looking through his scope to find the critical spot of the enemy. He shouted to let Niall know that once the smoke cleared, he would have a clear shot to finish off at least one of the elite units.

When the smoke dissipated, the pink-visor Metadross was the one in clear sight of Shaan’s scope. The explosion had caused a huge cavity in the chest of the Metadross’ body and within it was something that none of them expected to find, a human. Niall took a closer look to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating but as he got a clear look, not only was it a person piloting the elite unit, it was someone he knew. “Isabelle?”

“Shaan hold your fire, don’t shoot!” Niall frantically called out to his comrade. Addyson was confused by Niall’s command. She saw the person inside the Metadross as well but she was clearly the enemy. As they were arguing amongst each other, two chains came flying towards Niall and Addyson. Without any time to react, they were both caught in separate chains, all tangled up and unable to move.

The chain whirling Metadross had awoken from the explosion and now had Niall and Addyson captured within his grasp. Shaan immediately pulled up his weapon again and aimed it towards their captor but the Metadross held both his hostage in front of the line of sight. Shaan couldn’t fire a shot without severely hurting one of his comrades. Soon, Shaan was forced to put down his sniper rifle and obey the demands of the Metadross.