By David C. Daoust
Dakota watched the monitors in disbelief, Consortium troopers were running every which way. She watched as dozens of Starfighters launched into the black abyss in answer to the Reds astral assault. She planted a hand to her forehead, a hand that then dropped down to her gaping mouth, as the Red Faction transport ship, suddenly crashed into the hangar bay, the assault-bots that tore from the vehicle were intense. The freaking snake monsters were back! They’d followed her. She was suddenly incredibly tense; she’d thought she would only ever see these monstrosities again in her nightmares. Yet here they were upon the monitors she, and all those in the lab, could not tear their eyes away from.
The Assault-bots first order of business seemed to be to destroy as many unmanned Consortium Starfighters as they could. The massive mechanical tails smashed through the parked vehicles with abandon. Crushing cockpits, damaging engines, removing wings…
Consortium Assault-troopers suddenly charged into the bay, every third trooper had a massive ion cannon equipped, the harness attached to their torsos, helped to carry the massive device into the fray. One after the other, they would fire massive blasts into the ever dodging, incredibly agile, serpentine bots.
Of the Ion assault only one snake fell limp to the ground, largely due to the target the blast was intended for, dodged out of the way at the last second.
The Assault-bots limbs suddenly transformed, those in melee range wielded massive blades, one on each of their four arms, as those in the distance were equipped with four assault rifles. They tore through troopers with ease, knocking them through the air, bouncing them off walls; one trooper was thrashed to the ceiling with a massive swing of a tail before the bots exited the hangar. Dakota was immediately alarmed. Where were they going? What could they want? Major flipped to different cameras as the invaders made their way through the ship.
Dakota had no idea what they could be doing. She knew about the battles in space, everyone knew about the secret battles in space, Judges be damned, she’d just never expected to find herself in the middle of it all… again! It had been an eventful day!
She glanced back at the small boy that still sat, uncomfortably, on the counter. She’d expected to see him as freaked as she was. They locked gazes just in time for the good doctor to see the change; the perpetual fear the boy had had plastered on his face, suddenly fell away. His eyes, that were so unnaturally black, suddenly lit up, but not like, with a thought, or joy. Lit up like a flicker of actual light just shot through his eye. The line of light followed around his pupil, that was previously hard to distinguish, then shot around the iris, then around the white of his eye, all in quick succession. The light then shot around his bald head, mapping his veins briefly, down to the strange black jump suit it wore, the seam of said suit flashed with light all the same. Suddenly a pair of, what Dakota could only describe as thrusters appeared at his shoulders. The small boy suddenly lifted up off of the counter, the small thrusters stabilized him into a hover.
The boy, who had locked eyes with her as this transpired, smiled excitedly and almost cheered, “They’re back up!”
“Wha?” Dakota said aloud as the relief that filled the boy, could only increase her panic level.
Three small spheres of light, materialized in the room, followed by the massive black space suit powering up, Dakota watched as it then sat up of its own accord. The boy levitated to the suit and lowered himself into its ‘cockpit’.
The wraith leapt from the lab table completely, the boys bald head could still be seen over the giant gaping hole where the helmet was meant to be.
Dakota nudged Major Sims with an elbow. He’d already noticed the movement though, and had the small hand gun leveled at the Wraith. Dakota wasn’t sure what they were going to do, she didn’t want the small boy to be harmed, but that suit, well, it looked dangerous.
All the other lab assistants found their backs to a wall. Vincent, while surprised at first, just seemed curious. The spheres surrounded the wraith protectively in reaction to the handgun.
Dakota wasn’t sure, but she thought they may have found themselves in a standoff.
“They’re back up?” Dakota repeated the Old Martian words to the boy, questioningly.
The boy looked at her with a smile, and nodded, as he gestured to ‘they’, namely the powered up suit and the three spheres of light.
Dakota was a bit crestfallen that she didn’t get a chance to examine the tech. She’d spent so much time trying to figure out why the computers could not detect the boy.
“Ooo,” the boy said, after clicking away at the computer in the suit, “Out of time, out of time…”
“Time for what?” Dakota tried to ask, though wasn’t sure if her Martian was comprehensible to the boys dialect.
Suddenly the laboratory door smashed open and the assault-bots burst through the room.
Dakota thought she may just die then and there with all that was going on. The boy’s eyes were huge, and a massive energy blade erupted from one of his arms, the spheres circled in closer. The snakes though did not go near the Martian, they darted straight for Dakota.
Major was knocked away, disarmed in one foul swoop, as the assault-bots herded Dakota into the center of the room. They circled around her, their tails coiling around, one on top of another; she was trapped within a wall of snakes. Unable to see outside, she was bewildered, she expected to find each with an assault rifle aimed at her, though when she looked up, she found the bots bodies facing outwards, rifles aimed at those outside of the coil.
Dakota’s heart was racing, she was so confused. One of the bots turned inwards and said, “Its okay Doctor,” she recognized the Commissar’s voice, “We’re here to rescue you!”
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