Post by Guardsman Patrick on Oct 12, 2006 23:16:23 GMT -5
Chapter 15: Assault on the Tower
Zanthor’s silvery hair blew in the cool night air as the tank he stood on rolled over the hills, drawing closer to the large brick tower that stood in the clearing. He watched as the defense systems returned fire when the army and the numerous tanks that accompanied them fired at it. This wasn’t part of the plan.
“Who was it that missed mentioning that they had a defense system?” Zanthor asked, not really caring that many of his men were dying. He only had about twenty elite troops among the nearly one hundred troops that were there.
“We don’t have any names sir, but we know who was sent out to determine the power of this new corporation,” a soldier who sat on one of the tanks machine gun turrets said, checking the small computer screen he had on his lap for information.
“I think that would be something you would like to mention to your superiors that need information such as that,” Zanthor was not pleased at all that he had to be the one to figure this out.
The blazing skeleton of a plane crashed about thirty feet in front of the tank, the heat of it nearly searing Zanthor’s skin. He took one hard look at it and gritted his teeth, furious that his aerial fleet could not even match up to the tower itself. It wasn’t even the dragons that posed the threat; it was the building that was supposed to be harmless.
“DRIVE,” Zanthor barked as he slid back into the large tank. This fight had only just begun, defense system or not, and he was not about to let his troops simply be wasted.
Alex and Rachel weaved through the trees toward the tower, paying no mind to the numerous predators that stood right in their way, watching them as they came, and staring confusedly at them as they passed. They could see planes in the air exploding, and tanks on the ground being destroyed. Alex smirked; the defense system was working like a charm.
As they continued on, Alex’s communicator hissed again, “Our shields aren’t going to hold forever you two. The power is running nearly dry, and our reserves aren’t going to last long. They might hold if I can cut the artillery off, but I can’t when you two are off piddling about.”
“We’re on our way, just hold out as long as you can,” Alex said over the connection, hoping Patrick had received it.
“I’m cutting the guns and heading out. You two cover me when you get here. Pat out.” Patrick’s voice hissed out again. He hoped Patrick could hold them off without the guns, but he put that fear aside as he thought of the tremendous fights that he had experienced. He knew that Patrick could hold his own.
They continued running, hoping they would make it in time, making sure not to be taken off their course. Alex continued to wonder if Pairon and Ulptian were in the fight yet. It was not much longer before the gunfire quit and the battlefield went quiet.
Alex stopped just behind the trees at the edge of the clearing, watching to see what it was that had caused this sudden silence. He glanced over at Rachel, who had the same puzzled look he did. The tanks had simply stopped firing, and the soldiers speckled throughout the field had stopped. They were all looking at the top of the tower.
Atop the tower’s glass dome was Patrick and the two dragons, one on each side, staring down at the field. Alex didn’t understand what fascinated them so; all he could see was Patrick, Pairon and Ulptian. Alex listened at the troops; none of them spoke at all. Alex watched them closely for any movement. As he watched, Patrick jumped off the top of the tower, sliding down the side until he touched the ground.
“WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! SHOOT HIM!!” roared a general that sat on a tank, yelling at the troops that weren’t already being cut down by Patrick’s killing rampage.
“Come on, we have to help,” Alex said to Rachel as he jumped out of the bushes running to a nearby tank.
“Right,” Rachel added, joining in, charging into a group of unsuspecting troops.
“It’s an ambush,” the trooper sitting on the turret reported to Zanthor over the steady rhythm of the machine gun. The jingling of shells hitting the tanks hull was faintly audible over the constant firing.
“Why are none of the three dead yet? We have them far outnumbered. How do they get past every bullet fired at them?” Zanthor slammed his fist into the metal hull of the tank, causing it to bleed. He watched as yet another tank was ripped to pieces by the huge armored dragons. The feeble bullets of the soldiers couldn’t penetrate their sheilding.
An elite soldier jumped onto the front of the tank, his face cut on the cheek, blood staining his silver armor. He was just barely hanging on, holding onto the single bar that was on the front.
“Sir, this battle has gone on long enough. This is no longer a fight. It’s a massacre. We need to retreat now while we still have enough troops to call this a squadron.” The trooper seemed to be the only sane person on the field, the only one not blinded by pride.
“I will not retreat Arcane, and I do not follow the orders of an elite soldier!” Zanthor kicked the soldier in the face, making him fall off the front, and roll under the tank.
“Sir, maybe we should listen to him. Our victory at this rate is a hopeless objective.” The turret soldier continued his peppering of the battlefield while he said this, trying to hit Patrick as he ran through a pack of combatants.
“We won’t stop. We are the A.O.T. We know no equal. We will crush them in this battle, or we will take as many as we can with us.” Zanthor’s recklessness was extremely obvious now. He wasn’t doing this to win; he was doing it to prove to Shade that he was not overestimating T3GM’s strength. “Now send them to their maker.”
The red flames of the Light Blade slid through the cockpit of the tank, cutting through the different controls. The two soldiers that were still alive inside fired through the glass at the warrior, who quickly jumped off. The tank exploded and the screams of soldiers around rang out. Alex ran forward, continuing on to the next tank along the line.
“How’re you handling it?” Patrick asked as he ran alongside Alex, blocking the machine gun shots one by one with his sword. He threw his sword into the barrel of the gun, jamming the gun and killing the soldier that sat on the turret seat, “Well, keep up the good work.” With that, Patrick pulled out ahead, jumping onto the tank to retrieve his sword.
Alex smiled and continued toward the tank that rolled in front of him, firing on Rachel who was taking out another squad of half frozen soldiers. He jumped up onto the hull, carving out a section of the hull with his sword, moving as quickly as possible. As he finished up the hole, he jumped off, grabbed a blood stained grenade off the ground, pulled the pin and chucked it in, jumping away as the tank exploded in a shower of sparks and steel.
Rachel finished off the troops that had surrounded her, and ran to a nearby tank, freezing the end of the barrel as she passed, causing it to jam and backfire on the troops inside. She continued her stream of destruction through the moonlit field, noticing the army was disappearing fast. She watched as Pairon and Ulptian worked together to take out many of the troops in their way, tearing through tanks, soldiers, and anything else that could be thrown in their way.
Rachel ran along the forest line, watching for anything that could be taken out that wasn’t already taken care of. As she spotted another group, she ran back into battle.
Zanthor slammed his fist into the side of the tank looking on his radar at how many troops were left on the radar. He could barely count them. There were almost none left, compared to what the radar had shown before.
“How did they take out nearly our whole army? We brought nearly two hundred men, and almost our whole tank fleet!" Zanthor was furious, wiping the blood off his hand and wrapping up his wound. He knew deep down though that he was satisfied, knowing he could prove to Shade that they were not just a push-over.
“Alert the men to retreat on my mark,” Zanthor said to the tank’s driver. The driver pulled a microphone up to his mouth and sent out the message. Zanthor watched the dots on the screen as they slowly began to move away from the tower, going back toward the dot in the center, the one that represented the tank they sat in.
“Make haste! We must be able to get everyone back to base as soon as possible.” Zanthor told the announcer that was relaying everything he said. The dots began to move a little faster, regrouping ten yards away from the tank.
The gears shifted and jerked into motion as the tank turned to head back to Andorg. Zanthor watched as a few more soldiers in the back were cut down before they had fully retreated. He cursed at his lack of troops, but there was no way they would defeat them with what was left. All he could see was two tanks and some ground troops.
“Looks like they gave up,” Rachel said, watching the soldiers go over the hill under the trees towards Andorg.
“No, they’re just going to regroup, and they will be back with more… much more,” Patrick said, sheathing his blood stained blade. He turned and began walking back to the tower, stepping over the crumpled bodies that lay along the now blood red stone walkway to the front of the tower.
“Well, now we have an idea of how they will attack, so maybe we will do just as well,” Alex said, looking over at Rachel who was covered in dust.
“Maybe,” Rachel looked up at the moon, her big starry eyes entranced by the blemished face of the lunar body.
“They would need something stronger than what they had to take us down,” Alex smirked confidently, making sure Rachel wasn’t hurt during the battle. She didn’t seem to have anything wrong at all.
“I think we had better start keeping our guard up more, because they can do better,” Patrick said. Alex hadn’t noticed Patrick had come back at all. “Something bigger is coming. I can feel it.”
“Like what?” Alex asked, wondering why Patrick was the only one who thought this.
“Something powerful, because, if it that corporation could scare my dad into giving up, they have to have something worse than I’ve ever seen.” Patrick was really leaving this time, his silver shoulder guards shown brightly in the moonlight.
Alex thought long and hard about what Patrick had said, and came up with nothing. He knew Patrick was right though. Something stronger was coming.
Zanthor’s silvery hair blew in the cool night air as the tank he stood on rolled over the hills, drawing closer to the large brick tower that stood in the clearing. He watched as the defense systems returned fire when the army and the numerous tanks that accompanied them fired at it. This wasn’t part of the plan.
“Who was it that missed mentioning that they had a defense system?” Zanthor asked, not really caring that many of his men were dying. He only had about twenty elite troops among the nearly one hundred troops that were there.
“We don’t have any names sir, but we know who was sent out to determine the power of this new corporation,” a soldier who sat on one of the tanks machine gun turrets said, checking the small computer screen he had on his lap for information.
“I think that would be something you would like to mention to your superiors that need information such as that,” Zanthor was not pleased at all that he had to be the one to figure this out.
The blazing skeleton of a plane crashed about thirty feet in front of the tank, the heat of it nearly searing Zanthor’s skin. He took one hard look at it and gritted his teeth, furious that his aerial fleet could not even match up to the tower itself. It wasn’t even the dragons that posed the threat; it was the building that was supposed to be harmless.
“DRIVE,” Zanthor barked as he slid back into the large tank. This fight had only just begun, defense system or not, and he was not about to let his troops simply be wasted.
* * *
Alex and Rachel weaved through the trees toward the tower, paying no mind to the numerous predators that stood right in their way, watching them as they came, and staring confusedly at them as they passed. They could see planes in the air exploding, and tanks on the ground being destroyed. Alex smirked; the defense system was working like a charm.
As they continued on, Alex’s communicator hissed again, “Our shields aren’t going to hold forever you two. The power is running nearly dry, and our reserves aren’t going to last long. They might hold if I can cut the artillery off, but I can’t when you two are off piddling about.”
“We’re on our way, just hold out as long as you can,” Alex said over the connection, hoping Patrick had received it.
“I’m cutting the guns and heading out. You two cover me when you get here. Pat out.” Patrick’s voice hissed out again. He hoped Patrick could hold them off without the guns, but he put that fear aside as he thought of the tremendous fights that he had experienced. He knew that Patrick could hold his own.
They continued running, hoping they would make it in time, making sure not to be taken off their course. Alex continued to wonder if Pairon and Ulptian were in the fight yet. It was not much longer before the gunfire quit and the battlefield went quiet.
Alex stopped just behind the trees at the edge of the clearing, watching to see what it was that had caused this sudden silence. He glanced over at Rachel, who had the same puzzled look he did. The tanks had simply stopped firing, and the soldiers speckled throughout the field had stopped. They were all looking at the top of the tower.
Atop the tower’s glass dome was Patrick and the two dragons, one on each side, staring down at the field. Alex didn’t understand what fascinated them so; all he could see was Patrick, Pairon and Ulptian. Alex listened at the troops; none of them spoke at all. Alex watched them closely for any movement. As he watched, Patrick jumped off the top of the tower, sliding down the side until he touched the ground.
“WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! SHOOT HIM!!” roared a general that sat on a tank, yelling at the troops that weren’t already being cut down by Patrick’s killing rampage.
“Come on, we have to help,” Alex said to Rachel as he jumped out of the bushes running to a nearby tank.
“Right,” Rachel added, joining in, charging into a group of unsuspecting troops.
* * *
“It’s an ambush,” the trooper sitting on the turret reported to Zanthor over the steady rhythm of the machine gun. The jingling of shells hitting the tanks hull was faintly audible over the constant firing.
“Why are none of the three dead yet? We have them far outnumbered. How do they get past every bullet fired at them?” Zanthor slammed his fist into the metal hull of the tank, causing it to bleed. He watched as yet another tank was ripped to pieces by the huge armored dragons. The feeble bullets of the soldiers couldn’t penetrate their sheilding.
An elite soldier jumped onto the front of the tank, his face cut on the cheek, blood staining his silver armor. He was just barely hanging on, holding onto the single bar that was on the front.
“Sir, this battle has gone on long enough. This is no longer a fight. It’s a massacre. We need to retreat now while we still have enough troops to call this a squadron.” The trooper seemed to be the only sane person on the field, the only one not blinded by pride.
“I will not retreat Arcane, and I do not follow the orders of an elite soldier!” Zanthor kicked the soldier in the face, making him fall off the front, and roll under the tank.
“Sir, maybe we should listen to him. Our victory at this rate is a hopeless objective.” The turret soldier continued his peppering of the battlefield while he said this, trying to hit Patrick as he ran through a pack of combatants.
“We won’t stop. We are the A.O.T. We know no equal. We will crush them in this battle, or we will take as many as we can with us.” Zanthor’s recklessness was extremely obvious now. He wasn’t doing this to win; he was doing it to prove to Shade that he was not overestimating T3GM’s strength. “Now send them to their maker.”
* * *
The red flames of the Light Blade slid through the cockpit of the tank, cutting through the different controls. The two soldiers that were still alive inside fired through the glass at the warrior, who quickly jumped off. The tank exploded and the screams of soldiers around rang out. Alex ran forward, continuing on to the next tank along the line.
“How’re you handling it?” Patrick asked as he ran alongside Alex, blocking the machine gun shots one by one with his sword. He threw his sword into the barrel of the gun, jamming the gun and killing the soldier that sat on the turret seat, “Well, keep up the good work.” With that, Patrick pulled out ahead, jumping onto the tank to retrieve his sword.
Alex smiled and continued toward the tank that rolled in front of him, firing on Rachel who was taking out another squad of half frozen soldiers. He jumped up onto the hull, carving out a section of the hull with his sword, moving as quickly as possible. As he finished up the hole, he jumped off, grabbed a blood stained grenade off the ground, pulled the pin and chucked it in, jumping away as the tank exploded in a shower of sparks and steel.
* * *
Rachel finished off the troops that had surrounded her, and ran to a nearby tank, freezing the end of the barrel as she passed, causing it to jam and backfire on the troops inside. She continued her stream of destruction through the moonlit field, noticing the army was disappearing fast. She watched as Pairon and Ulptian worked together to take out many of the troops in their way, tearing through tanks, soldiers, and anything else that could be thrown in their way.
Rachel ran along the forest line, watching for anything that could be taken out that wasn’t already taken care of. As she spotted another group, she ran back into battle.
* * *
Zanthor slammed his fist into the side of the tank looking on his radar at how many troops were left on the radar. He could barely count them. There were almost none left, compared to what the radar had shown before.
“How did they take out nearly our whole army? We brought nearly two hundred men, and almost our whole tank fleet!" Zanthor was furious, wiping the blood off his hand and wrapping up his wound. He knew deep down though that he was satisfied, knowing he could prove to Shade that they were not just a push-over.
“Alert the men to retreat on my mark,” Zanthor said to the tank’s driver. The driver pulled a microphone up to his mouth and sent out the message. Zanthor watched the dots on the screen as they slowly began to move away from the tower, going back toward the dot in the center, the one that represented the tank they sat in.
“Make haste! We must be able to get everyone back to base as soon as possible.” Zanthor told the announcer that was relaying everything he said. The dots began to move a little faster, regrouping ten yards away from the tank.
The gears shifted and jerked into motion as the tank turned to head back to Andorg. Zanthor watched as a few more soldiers in the back were cut down before they had fully retreated. He cursed at his lack of troops, but there was no way they would defeat them with what was left. All he could see was two tanks and some ground troops.
* * *
“Looks like they gave up,” Rachel said, watching the soldiers go over the hill under the trees towards Andorg.
“No, they’re just going to regroup, and they will be back with more… much more,” Patrick said, sheathing his blood stained blade. He turned and began walking back to the tower, stepping over the crumpled bodies that lay along the now blood red stone walkway to the front of the tower.
“Well, now we have an idea of how they will attack, so maybe we will do just as well,” Alex said, looking over at Rachel who was covered in dust.
“Maybe,” Rachel looked up at the moon, her big starry eyes entranced by the blemished face of the lunar body.
“They would need something stronger than what they had to take us down,” Alex smirked confidently, making sure Rachel wasn’t hurt during the battle. She didn’t seem to have anything wrong at all.
“I think we had better start keeping our guard up more, because they can do better,” Patrick said. Alex hadn’t noticed Patrick had come back at all. “Something bigger is coming. I can feel it.”
“Like what?” Alex asked, wondering why Patrick was the only one who thought this.
“Something powerful, because, if it that corporation could scare my dad into giving up, they have to have something worse than I’ve ever seen.” Patrick was really leaving this time, his silver shoulder guards shown brightly in the moonlight.
Alex thought long and hard about what Patrick had said, and came up with nothing. He knew Patrick was right though. Something stronger was coming.