You continue with the patchwork journal, feeling drawn into its pages.~~~
A conglomeration of inserted sheets and pasted snippets follow. Her heart burning as with fire, Almory carved a path through the Ballpoint troops, swirling with her blades, severing countless limbs as legions of soldiers charged. Chainswords, buzzsaws, molten axes sliced towards her – she flowed around them and stabbed their owners from behind, her swords vibrating as they pierced their armor. A stolen mechoid stomped towards her, towering ten feet above her head – she ignored the grabbing hands and cutting weapons of those around her and leapt up its leg, plunging her blade through its engine and fuel supply.
Seconds later, the mechoid exploded, sending twisted shards of metal tumbling through the air, killing the nearby soldiers as the fireball consumed them. From within the blaze, a single dwarf emerged, her dark battlesuit glowing with firelight as she rocketed into the sky.
She wanted revenge. Gearbox was gone, Tames was gone, Saemin was gone, Strohe was gone... and most dear to her of all, Hawkins was gone. It had been a forbidden love... but it was a romantic love, all the same. He'd died trying to save her – they'd taken him, and everyone else, away from her. They'd destroyed her family.
As she shot through the air, Ballpoint's bullets buzzed past her like bees, pinging off her armor – a well-aimed cannon shot slammed into her back, and her jetpack exploded, tossing her towards the ground as she spun out of control.
Ballpoint's finest rushed towards her, each eager to be the one to land the killing blow, but they started back in dismay as the engine of fury sliced into the foremost, screeching through her helmet.
"YOU HAD NO RIGHT!!" the lieutenant screamed, pirouetting through their ranks, spinning, stabbing one and bisecting the next, moving smoothly into the next three kills. "YOU HAD
NO RIGHT!!" Tears spilled down her face, and she let them lie, her mind devoid of any thought but revenge.
There was a reason Parasol had granted her the title of admiral, once upon a time... but it had nothing to do with her temper.
Without warning, the ground beneath her erupted, throwing her into the air: the victim of a recently-laid landmine.
Across the sloping field, two mantis-like creatures danced, fighting a war that wasn't theirs. They'd taken cover behind burning tanks, hiding within the thick, black smoke. They knew their enemy relied on vision, and they took advantage of it. No one could approach that they didn't hear – no shell could crush them or take them by surprise. They heard everything, and while they couldn't pick one soldier out of a crowd, they could be sure to hit the crowd itself.
Klade rushed from one smoking crater to the next, and on hearing a rocket launcher, he leapt forwards, slicing the away the offending soldier's forearms with his scythes before applying the same practice to his neck. Moments later, a tank exploded in a fireball, the ammunition within cocking off in a gratifying fusillade of pops.
Apart from him K'bahth stood, his four plasguns firing rapid rounds at everyone he heard, as the circle of destruction spread slowly farther, and farther away.
Suddenly, a missile landed nearby with an explosion. A stunned K'bahth tumbled forwards, leaving the protective smokescreen. A rain of bullets pounded down around him, and he struggled to get away. As he did, the melted rubber of a tire – still attached to the axle of the vehicle of which it had once belonged – caught his back legspike.
"Klade!" the scythod clacked desperately. "Assist me!"
Jonah flew across the field, staying close above the heads of the Ballpoint soldiers, looking for his lieutenant. His teeth were chattering – he hated heights, and while it was bearable so long as he was on solid ground, he found flying unnerving.
After several minutes of fruitless searching, Jonah grew desperate and flew upwards for a better view. He only lasted a few seconds before the threat of passing out forced him to close his eyes, but it was enough: he saw where she was lying, a single suited soldier in an open clearing.
Diving, he jetted towards her, landing clumsily by her side. He looked her over: reddened mud caked her suit, the front of her armor torn apart and bubbling with blood. Her legs lay twisted awkwardly to the side, and there was no doubt in Jonah's mind that they were broken.
"Captain!" he cried out hoarsely, checking her over. "Captain!" Hearing no response, he dug into his pack, removing her helmet and injecting a syringe full of painkillers into an artery in her neck.
"Jonah."
The dwarf almost cried with relief. "Thank the gods," he whispered, "you're still alive."
"What the hell are you doing out here?" she groaned.
Jonah ignored her for a moment, resetting his radio frequency and shouting over the din, "Trebor! Get out here, now! She's in critical condition!"
"Get out of here, yourself," Almory mumbled. "They'll do the same to you."
A dark form towered above the ex-scientist, and he looked up, his eyes resting on a Ballpoint soldier.
"Don't think about running away, doc," the soldier chortled. "We'll need your assistance for our own wounded, after we finish killing your people." With that, the soldier walked away, laughing at his own cruelty.
His blood boiling, Jonah fought the urge to shoot the man. "They think I'm a medic," he hissed through the radio. "Just get here as quickly as possible. She's past the scythods' first trench."
"I'm on my way."
"Tedaz, I'm going to need you to take over," Trebor said, rushing about the room and haphazardly piling equipment into a case by the light of a portable tube.
"What's going on?" the swordsman asked, bewildered. "I need you
here, Trebor! We still don't know where Lurit is, and Strohe needs you!"
Trebor turned to the dwarf angrily as he piled supplies into the medical chest. "Armok's beard, my
sister is out there!! I've already done everything I can do for Strohe! If Lurit was dumb enough to leave the infirmary, there's nothing I can do." He slammed the case shut, starting for the door. "Do whatever it takes to keep people out of here! Vanya's out there trying to get the megaportal open. If she pulls through, we'll need these supplies unharmed!"
Tedaz gaped as he realized the full extent of Almory's plan. "Vanya??"
"If you have any way of getting hold of Reudh, get him and Katie down here! The mag deflector is worthless at this point. If anything else comes through, shoot it!" Saying this, Trebor rushed out of the room in a haste, slamming it loudly behind him.
Despite their immediate peril, Tedaz couldn't help but notice that Trebor hadn't said "Hotlips".
Trebor rushed into the darkness of the trench and stopped short, stepping backwards fearfully as a line of zombies began to shamble towards him with unearthly moans. "Armok's beard," he whispered, "I wish I'd taken that gun Jonah offered." He looked around in a panic for a method of escape, his eyes soon alighting on a pile of crates, loose stones, and twisted metal. Hoisting his medkit, he climbed up the debris, barely avoiding the clutching hands of the undead as he scrambled away. They were Ballpoint's armored corpses, their suits cleaved across the chest, some stumbling forwards without heads, others oozing thick blood from where someone had stabbed a sword.
As he climbed higher, the debris began to shake unsteadily, and collapsed even before he reached the second floor. The terrified doctor clawed his fingers into the earthen wall as he fell. "I want to live!" he screeched out in terror.
"Like hell you do!" someone roared, the sound of a minigun shattering the air. "You're not dying here!"
In surprise, Trebor looked towards the voice and saw a heavyset human standing atop a huge pile of fallen earth. He’d decked himself out in tight-fitting Parasol armor, his stump crammed into a mechanical limb, his face barely visible in the darkness through an open helmet. "Lurit!" he shouted. "You're alive?"
"'A course I am, you twit!" the man laughed loudly, spraying another fusillade of bullets into the shambling dead. "Couldn't stand lying quiet when there was battle about! I headed down to the armory and played around with a few things, but I'm sure you don't mind right now."
Struggling, the doctor made his way up to the second floor. "Lurit, get to the infirmary! You'll be a lot safer there!"
"Forget it, doc!" Lurit roared loudly, taking down the zombies on the ledges above, clearing the path for Trebor even as the severed limbs around him began to move once more. "You did a fine job patching me up! Get out there and save your captain, and I'll hold 'em off! Don't worry your head about me!"
Trebor nodded gratefully, rushing up the final flight of stairs. "You're a good man, Lurit!" Trebor shouted. "I'll steady the walls for you any time!"
A smile tugged at the corner of the old man's mouth. "Likewise," he said quietly over the radio, and then turned towards the hordes, setting his feet apart in a firm stance. "All right, you muck-headed bastards!" he roared, "It's suppertime! Come and get it!"
"That's Lurit," Reudh said, listening to the noise outside. "Do you hear him?"
Katie nodded silently. The two stood side by side, watching the door. Reudh was lucky he'd found her: Ballpoint had nearly killed him when they’d fired down the length of electronics corridor from the surface. Now they sat quietly, waiting for the end, with only one weapon between them. Reudh held a portable light tube, the only source of light in the room, while Katie held his plasgun.
"Is there not anything we can do?" the former overseer asked.
The girl shook her head, stunned. "They destroyed the generators, even the emergency ones. We don't have anything to work with." There was an explosion above – loose dirt fell from the shaking ceiling.
After a moment, a low moan echoed in the hallway outside.
"Zombies," Reudh said immediately. "I would recognize the sound anywhere. We got many of them, during my Spearbreakers days."
Katie seemed to shrink back. "I've never seen any," she admitted quietly, her lower lip trembling.
"It is most likely for the best," Reudh replied with a thoughtful nod. "The sight is not something anyone truly enjoys seeing."
The sound grew louder, becoming clearer, until it was right outside the door.
"I don't want to die," Katie whispered, starting to cry. "I don't want to die!"
"Keep your head clear," the dwarf beside her suggested. "Simply focus, my dear. We'll be all right in the end, I am sure."
With a crash, the door burst open, a huge shape staggering into the room, casting an enormous shadow behind it from the light that Reudh held. Something had peeled back the left half of its face, its skin and clothing soaked with blood, but both of the defenders recognized him immediately: it was Saemin.
Katie choked, her lips twisting tightly into a terrified frown as she shook with tears. "Oh, god..." she moaned, shaking uncontrollably with tears as she turned her head away in horror. Squeezing her eyes shut, she pulled the trigger, sobbing uncontrollably as she filled the body of her lover with plasma.
Reudh watched a stony, dead expression overtake her face as Saemin's body crumpled to the ground. "I am deeply sorry, Katie," he said quietly, but received no response.
After Reudh grabbed the pistol from Saemin's waist, the pair stormed into the hallway, mowing down the deathless hordes with a hail of bullets.
~~~
Vanya's handwriting continues. "
John!! I cried out as he crumpled to the ground, the victim of an electric warhammer. I saw him stir. "
Armok, vendi scild!" I shouted, leaving my work and rushing around him, protecting him with my shield. The Ballpoint soldier swung his warhammer towards me; it bounced off Armok's shield harmlessly as his eyes and face erupted with gore, the victim of John's weapon. I looked at my friend, who was holding his weapon with a single arm as he tried to push his way back to the megaportal with his legs. While he did, he clutched at his chest in pain, his armor stained dark with blood.
"Get back to the portal controls!" he groaned with an agonized grimace. "How close are you to being done?"
I backed closer to him, watching the oncoming troops out of the corner of my eye. "John, you're hurt!"
"And you can't do anything about it!" he pointed out, inserting a new magazine into his weapon. "If you want to help me,
get the fucking portal open!!"
Swallowing, I dropped the shield. I rushed back to the control panel, crouching and continuing where I'd left off, tracing the wires and undoing Ballpoint's damage. Behind me, John fired off a poorly aimed fusillade of bullets at our enemies, laboring for breath.
~~~
A conglomeration of inserted blue sheets and pasted snippets follow. Trebor ran, watching his PEA for Jonah's coordinates. Ballpoint soldiers mocked him as he passed, laughing uproariously at the doctor's desperation.
As he neared the first trench, Trebor broke into a sprint, leaping across the collapsed tunnel, not daring to look below. He tumbled ungracefully onto the other side, blood, dirt and mud dirtying his smock. Stumbling to his feet, he kept up the brisk pace.
"Trebor! Over here!"
Looking about, the doctor caught sight of his friend, standing and waving his arms beside the broken body of his sister. With a final burst of speed, he reached them, panting. "Is... What happened?" the dwarf gasped out.
"Landmine," Jonah answered grimly.
Almory looked up at him listlessly, her skin pale. "Trebor," she whispered, barely audible.
Trebor knelt, opening his medkit and beginning to work on his sister's wounds, squeezing her hand from time to time. Weakly, she returned the squeeze.
"She's lost a lot of blood, Jonah," the doctor said quietly.
"Trebbie..." Almory whispered, "Am I going to make it?"
"I'm not letting you die," her brother assured her firmly.
In the distance, gunfire still boomed, and all three dwarves could hear the shouts of Ballpoint troops. Jonah could see them beginning to approach, wielding their weapons. "Trebor, I can't stay here," he said. "Seeing
one doctor is one thing, but if they see two in the same place, they won't believe it. They'll kill us both."
"Stay here and protect us," Trebor suggested.
Jonah shook his head regretfully, watching the tank-like Octavians swivel their guns in their direction. "I have to go."
Sighing, Trebor nodded, bandaging the lieutenant's wounds. "I understand. Just stay safe out there."
Without a word, Jonah sprinted away, shouting and calling the enemy's attention. He fired his weapon into their ranks and leaping down into the nearby tunnel passage, disappearing from view.
Trebor remained silent for a moment, and then the color drained from his face as he dug through his medical chest. Aghast, he realized, "My coagulants... I left them at the trench... I can't stop the bleeding."
Katie and Reudh stood side by side, walking down the hallway at a steady pace. Their weapons blazed, dilapidated flesh peeling from the undead monsters before them with every shot.
Reudh glanced over at the girl for a moment. Her face seemed as lifeless as if she was one of the very creatures she was fighting. "Katie?" he asked, but she only continued forwards as if she hadn't heard.
Lurit stood atop a pile of broken bodies, his minigun's barrel smoking as he surveyed the carnage. At the far end from where he stood, the undead still shambled across the trench, heedless of the burning napalm jelly they shuffled through.
Shots rang out nearby – on a ledge ahead of him, a zombie's head exploded, the creature tumbling backwards into the trench. Reudh and Katie soon appeared where it had stood moments before.
"Reudh, old boy!" Lurit roared. "Glad you felt like waking up this morning! Get down here!"
But Reudh wasn't listening – he was staring in horror at the terrain above the trench's lip. "Katie, get down, quickly!" he shouted, leaping aside.
Katie stood motionless, dead to everything around her.
"Katie, down!" Reudh shouted again, cautiously leaping down a floor.
Gunshots echoed – Katie's shoulder flew backwards, pulling her with it as she crumpled to the floor. Stray bullets thudded through the earthen wall behind her.
Lurit limped forwards, wielding his weapon. "Reudh, get to the infirmary!" he shouted. "I'll take care of the girl!"
Reudh finally seemed to notice him. "Lurit, you are not supposed to be up yet!"
Roaring with cynical laughter, the man boomed, "Like hell I'm not! There's no way I'm spending another second in that bed when there's fighting to be done!" Reaching Reudh, he helped him to his feet. "Now get to the infirmary already!"
With a nod, Reudh turned and headed back.
On the ledge above them, Katie's form stood shakily, her gun wavering uselessly in her left hand, her right arm dripping with blood. Abruptly, her arm raised, and she fired several shots. A Ballpoint soldier screamed as the plasma burned a hole into his chest, and fell into the trench.
"You!" Lurit shouted at the girl. "Get down and follow Reudh!" He watched as Katie's dazed eyes shifted unsteadily towards him as she fired a few more unaimed shots towards the sky, seconds before the wall exploded behind her. Lurit turned and raised his arm to shield himself from the cascading dirt, and when he looked back, there was nothing left of the young woman. Shaking his head in stunned disbelief, he turned around, only to see masses of Ballpoint soldiers storming down a slope of collapsed rubble on the far side.
With a grim stare, Lurit lowered the visor of his helmet. "All right!" he yelled, straining his lungs as he walked back down the stairs. "Let's go!" With a elongated roar, he revved his minigun, firing an endless stream of plasma into their ranks as they scattered like roaches, running for cover.
Bullets began pinging off his armor, and a railgun slug hit him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him as he flew backwards onto the ground. He sat up with an effort, emptying his weapon in his attacker's direction.
A shell exploded behind him, splashing rivers of burning napalm onto his armor. Lurit roared with pain and staggered to his feet, unsteadily marching forwards with his weapon blazing, determined to keep them from entering the infirmary.
Jonah ran through the open-roofed tunnel, quickly limping his way around the front ends of fallen vehicles, stepping over dead bodies and firing shots behind him to keep the pursuing soldiers at bay.
He was so intent on the squads behind him that he didn't notice the ones up ahead until their rounds had pierced his chest.
"Klade!" K'bahth shouted, struggling to free himself from the cooling rubber. "Assist me!" In desperation, the scythod dropped his weapons and began to hack at the tires with his scythes and claws.
Klade picked his way through the battlefield at a sprint, shooting multiple shots at any target he heard. Listening, he heard a now-familiar, dreaded sound, and stood helpless as a missile’s fireball consumed his friend.
Shouting, the lone scythod cursed the world, the gods, and Ballpoint, moments before he fell victim to their soldiers, their bullets shattering his chitin.
Trebor worked desperately by his sister's side, cursing himself audibly for forgetting to remember the supplies he'd needed. His efforts seemed useless – no matter what he did, the bleeding wouldn't stop, and she'd lost so much already. The best he could do was slow it down.
"Sis, stay with me!" he said, shaking her gently to keep her awake. Her dazed eyes stared blankly, dancing slowly about as she struggled to focus. Her breathing slowed – her pulse had been erratic since he'd arrived. As her eyes began to close, Trebor shook her again, but this time, it produced no response.
In desperation, he dug a pump from his medical chest. Inserting one tube into a vein in his sister's arm, he inserted the other into his own and started the machine. As the device began to work its magic, charting graphs upon its screen, Trebor could feel it drawing the blood from his own veins and transferring it to hers. It wouldn't save her, but he hoped it would keep her alive long enough for Vanya to open the portal.
It was a desperate man that sat on the hillside, watching his sister for any signs of revival.
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Topic: [34.11] Spearbreakers - It shudders and begins to move (Read 2281614 times)