Machine Story

Here We Stand

(Two weeks later)

Queen Samiya had changed into her battle attire, wearing heavy plate armor and a two-handed sword sheathed behind her back. She stood on an elevated platform before all the warriors of the slums along with the surviving soldiers of Corrinth. In total, their numbers didn’t even reach three hundred. She walked up to give her empowering speech as Mya, Niall, Anaya, Atana, Paco, Viraaj and Shaan watched from the side.

“Warriors of Corrinth, I thank you all for volunteering your strength to fight alongside us. The upcoming battle will be the toughest the city has ever seen. The enemy has already counted us out and is celebrating the demise of Corrinth. However, today will not be the day! (Drawing her sword out and raising it to the sky) Today we stand united! We will hold back their assault and protect those who cannot fend for themselves. Those we protect will one day tell stories about you all who stood to save their lives. Today we rise, rally with me warriors of Corrinth!”

As she finished her momentous speech, morale of the army increased greatly and they cheered with great enthusiasm. She then walked off the elevated ground and allowed Viraaj to share their battle plan. He took center stage as Shaan and Paco held up a huge scroll of paper with a detailed drawing of their battle formation.

“Thanks to intel from our new allies, we have acquired information on how to combat against our enemies. Our primary objective will be to hold the front gates for as long as possible. Archers, your arrows will be strong enough to take out the sky scanners. Balistas, your primary targets will be striking down the bruiser units, their armors are much tougher and normal weaponry will not be able to take them out. Any bruiser units that are missed will be taken care of by Paco, the Queen and I. Their siege units will be out of range for our artillery so we will be relying on Shaan’s marksmanship to get us through. Then there are the elite Metadross units, which are piloted by humans that have been transfigured and manipulated. These units are extremely dangerous and we will trust that our specialist team of Mya and Niall will be enough to slow them down. Finally, that leaves the leader of the invasion, Sibleon. If you encounter him, disengage immediately.”

After hearing the plan, everyone began to move into their battle positions in anticipation for the inevitable invasion. Queen Samiya, hopped onto her trusty steed and rode to the front gate where she was expecting the horde of Metadross to be coming.

The archers and ballistas were standing ready on higher ground while the infantry units stood behind the gates. Shaan was in an elevated tower where he had a view of the entire battlefield, while Niall and Mya were nowhere to be seen. Queen Samiya stood at the top of the gates with Viraaj and Paco beside her. They could see the entire Metadross army spread throughout the entire battlefield. They were outnumbered at least by a hundred to one, perhaps even more.

All the warriors waited, feeling nervous and anxious as a skyscanner slowly floated towards Queen Samiya. Once it was close enough, it projected the face of the leader of the Metadross, Sibleon. “I have already taken the capital and your palace, you should surrender and I might consider mercy for you.”

Samiya drew her sword and pointed it towards the hologram, “You can’t fool me! One of the soldiers told me you went back on your word and didn’t show any mercy to Councilor Shen!” Sibleon scoffed, “Pft, that spoiled brat deserved what was coming to him and why do you care so much? He’s the reason you are in this situation!”

Samiya continued to stand her ground. “We make our own choice. I harbor no hate against Councilor Shen. We choose to stand and fight against the true enemy, you!” Again Sibleon laughed, “Ha, then you have chosen doom for all your people.”

Sibleon wanted to continue talking but an archer that was drawing his bow got extremely nervous and the arrow slipped from his finger and took out the skyscanner. As the small flyer unit malfunctioned, the army of Metadross reacted violently. The first wave of Metadross began their advance onto the gates of the slum.

The swarm of skyscanner came flying in first but the volley of arrows fired by the archers kept them at bay. The bruiser then came charging into the front gates but they were met with the firepower of the ballistas that halted their advance. They were able to defend the first wave with minimum struggle but wave two, three and four followed the first without delay.

This time the numbers were far too great, some of the skyscanners slipped through the barrage of arrows and managed to reach the archers. On the ground, the bruiser units were able to approach the gate and begin smashing against the wall. The warriors of Corrinith did what they could to reinforce the barricade at the gate.

Tired of waiting, Queen Samiya jumped near the archers and began swinging her sword at the air units. Viraaj and Paco followed Samiya’s and began slicing down the flyers as well.

With all their forces preoccupied, the Metadross siege units aimed their cannon at the gates. Shaan could see his targets from a distance and fired a perfect shot that pierced through the critical spot on one of the siege units. He readied himself to fire at the next target in his sight. With another siege unit in his scope, he pulled the trigger but a pesky flying unit intercepted the attack and protected its ally.

There were too many skyscanners blocking Shaan’s intended target. He had to move out of the tower and towards another location to find a better shot. However, as he was running to a new location, the colossal cannon units were charged up and they directed their attack at the gates of the slum.

Shaan yelled as loud as he could to alert everyone to back away from the gate. Some of the soldiers managed to get out of range but the rest got caught in the explosive blast along with a good chunk of the enemy bruiser units.

When the smoke cleared, the barricade had been demolished. There was an opening for the enemy Metadross to flood their army into the slums. Seeing this, Viraaj revised their plan. “Queen Samiya, you should take as many soldiers as you can and begin evacuating with everyone else. Paco, follow me.” Without questioning, Paco gave an enthusiastic, “Okay!” Together they jumped down to the lower level and rushed towards the remnants of the gate.

As Viraaj and Paco pressed on, another swarm of skyscanners came swooping down to impede their progress. Thankfully, Shaan spotted them and used his ricochet ammunition to take out multiple flyers at once. That allowed Viraaj and Paco to get to the front gate and they stood together ready to take on the army of Metadross.

The army of bruiser units came charging in but Viraaj and Paco did not back away. As they stood their ground, Niall and Mya appeared to assist them. Viraaj told both of them that they should save their energy for the elite units but Niall and Mya couldn’t sit around any longer. “Don’t worry about us, we are used to battling against insurmountable odds. Makes things more exciting!” Niall said with pride.

Together, the five of them stood against Sibleon's army. Viraaj, Paco, Mya, Niall, and Shaan continued to fight on. Their example inspired the rest of the soldiers to join them back in battle. The archers took up their bow and fired again, while the soldiers re-established their formation on the front lines. Queen Samiya also stormed the front, riding her horse, slashing away as many enemies as she could.

With their joint effort, they were able to hold off the second, third and fourth wave. The morale was raised but the war was far from over. There were still countless Metadross waiting to attack and to compound their problem, the elite units were about to appear.

Several giant mobile units began flying out of Sibleon’s warship, slowly making their way towards the slums. Behind them were the lesser units that provided them with support and there were even more than the last three waves combined.

The defenders of Corrinth attempted to maintain their position but one of the siege units had fully charged its cannon and fired it’s beam towards them, forcing them to separate.

Niall found himself with a few soldiers around him. He told them to get back on their feet and be ready to fight. As they got up, an elite unit stood before them, along with a massive force behind it. Niall quickly blocked the elite unit’s attack before it could harm the other soldiers. As he held back the attack, he could recognize the blades and the ‘I’ engraved on the unit’s armor. He was fighting his sister, Isabelle, once again.

Viraaj and Shaan found themselves without the assistance of any soldiers. They were the only ones in their area left to combat against another elite unit backed up by a huge army. Viraaj began to walk forward with his weapon in hand, “You got my back?” directing his question to Shaan. “Let’s light them up!” He nodded while reloading his weapon for battle.

That left Samiya, Mya, Paco and a few soldiers in the other group. They were met by two elite units and a giant army behind them as well. As Mya, Paco and the rest of the soldiers continued to hold off the enemy, Samiya paused and began to think.

The whole plan of attack was strange. Sibleon had more than enough forces to completely overpower them at the gate but he chose to split them up into different waves. Suddenly she remembered what the soldier that Viraaj captured said. He mentioned that Sibleon was given a census of the entire slums population by Councilor Shen.

Suddenly, Samiya got back on her horse and commanded her to turn around and head to the evacuation site. Mya and Paco heard her leaving and attempted to join her but they were completely blocked off by the mass of Metadross. They would have to deal with their enemies first before reconvening with Samiya.