In the grim future of mankind, there was nothing but death. And at the top spot of all the hazardous occupations through the galaxy, with an average lifetime of 14 hours per individual, the Solarium Men-at-Arms held their top position with grace.
From the far corners of the galaxy, many conscripts were drawn, whether from Serf Worlds that barely knew civilization beyond the Bronze Age or from the most advanced Arsenal Worlds. Every conscript thrust into the frontlines of the endless wars was usually given a medal for their valiant death before they even died.
This, however, wasn't the case for the professional and organized legions of the Sacred Solar System. Worlds like Venus, Titan, Mars, and especially Great Urd not only provided the Solarium with elite shock troopers, those particular troopers were also the surgical knife of the Solarium, fighting its most crucial battles and winning its most desperate wars, not simply serf militia with blazers.
But, save for a few select figures across the mighty galactic empire, death was a constant fact still, and a job as lethal as fighting on the front lines would still reap as many souls, whether militia, men-at-arms, or paladins.
Among those who departed, a gentle soul like Biscuits was always one to be mourned, missed, and surely avenged.
"Biscuits! Biscuits!"
Where the car hurled by the Gobzkin Brute landed, there was nothing left of Biscuits, not even crumbs, as she always joked after a hard day's work. Devastated, Hammerhead took cover where she once was and looked for her, calling her name, hoping to hear any word from her comforting voice.
"Hammerhead! Get back in formation!"
Sergeant Elena shouted at him, gritting her teeth in obvious anger as she returned fire at the Gobzkin Brute.
"Y… Yes!"
Hammerhead got properly back in cover, red-eyed, gritting, hands shivering with anger, readying his blazer for a bloody revenge with all the fury he could muster. But just as he was about to chant the Holy Name and charge the enemies, he heard Adam calling for him, giving him an order he couldn't quite hear.
The blazer bolts made a terrible noise with each trigger squeeze, especially as Sergeant Elena gave the order to increase the power of each shot at the expense of ammunition count. These booms made Hammerhead a bit heavy on the ears, trying his best to listen, so he crawled down to switch to a nearer cover.
Yet as he did so, he suddenly saw Biscuits lying right in front of him, feeling the hairs on his back shiver from the sight of her.
Hammerhead had heard how they were summoned from the Solarium and the theory that this world was their Eternal Peace. He also heard that they were first made from plastic before emerging into this world. In fact, none of the Men-at-Arms saw exactly how Adam molded them into being, from parts like the ones they just collected yesterday.
Biscuits, the miniature in front of Hammerhead, was just like that: a small figurine made of plastic, colored beautifully by the hands of a skilled master of the arts. That skill really showed when Hammerhead held up the miniature, which was the size of his pinky finger.
He had seen Adam making crude puppets before, but this… it was a work of art so astonishing it made a die-hard Man-at-Arms such as himself feel like singing praises to Sol.
"Hammerhead! Get it here!"
Adam's voice finally reached him, and as he looked between Adam and the miniature, he realized what had happened to Biscuits. A new resolution was renewed in his heart. What he carried in his hand wasn't a piece of plastic; it was a comrade-in-arms who had saved his life on so many occasions, memories he could recall with every strand and fiber of his being.
"COVER ME!"
Hammerhead shouted, and the entire fireteam started blasting at the enemy. The Brute, ready to throw yet another car chunk, covered its face from the red beams aimed right at it, giving Hammerhead the space to run the 30 feet between him and Adam in a flash, jumping bravely behind cover.
"Commander!" He reported as soon as he got to Adam.
"Switch!" Adam responded, leaving his spot open for Hammerhead to occupy and taking Biscuit's miniature off his hand.
The blasting continued, but soon after, the team took cover as the Gobzkin Shaman started firing gravel and metal shrapnel over a wide area using his sorcerous powers.
This gave the entire team a chance to turn and watch Adam as he positioned Biscuits' miniature on the ground, then hovered his hand over it. He closed his eyes, collected his focus, and felt a slight shiver flow through him the moment he tapped deep within himself, unraveling sensations that are both familiar and arcane.
"ARISE!"
His words resonated with a strange force that emerged from deep within, breaking into a reality-bending phenomenon, shifting reality with a tear that brought forth the light of Sol as the Wartopians interpreted it. An emotion new to them, but Elena witnessed it nine times before, and it still stirred something within her.
As the light intensified, the power stabilized, and from within someone emerged, stepping in front of them with a confident pose and calm smile, Private Medic Biscuits of the Trench Dogs.
Her smile hung as she looked through them and gently waved, "Guys?!"
Biscuits looked at the team, which was filled with a wide range of emotions just at the sight of her. She immediately ducked beside them and asked:
"What happened? Did I faint?"
"You were…" Hammerhead wanted to reply, but words were lost in his throat bitterly. Still, before he could find them back, Sergeant Elena shouted at them all:
"No time for chitchat, you dogs! Spread out, take flexible firing positions."
She immediately assumed command as soon as Biscuits reemerged, spreading her troops, pointing out new points of fire, and executing a new strategy to maximize their options.
"What's the plan?" Adam asked, holding his head, feeling the toll of the summon he just performed.
"We'll draw in those monsters and flank them the moment they go after one of us." She replied and then asked him, "Can you do what you did again?"
"One more time, then I'll go out cold." He replied.
"Then we ought to be extra careful. Stick to me and don't engage unless I tell you to." Elena said and prepared her pistol.
Once the Gobzkin Shaman exhausted its ability to hurl gravel and metal, the team started firing once again.
GRAAAH!
GROOOOAARR!
This time, the one facing the team wasn't the Shaman, but the Brute and the Muncher beast at the same time. The Shaman seemed busy trying to hold the front against Ivan and his team while waiting for the two large creatures to secure the rear in order to continue the assault on the church.
On the other side of the fight and behind the LMG's cover at the main doorway of the church, Officer Reeves retreated with a Gobzkin arrow sticking out from his shoulder, stopped by the shoulder pad he was wearing, but still deep enough to sting his every movement. Behind him, he saw Qasim coming over with a heavy ammunition container to reload the machine gun.
"This is the last we have," Qasim said, trying not to drop the container too hard.
"We've got support, but I don't know who that is." Officer Reeves said, looking nervously in the direction of the Gobzkin Shaman.
"It's Ivan's group. They're coming from the south alley." From the upper floor, Toby's voice reported the new reinforcements.
"They are allies. I'll guide them through." Qasim immediately started running, picking up his rifle along the way.
"Then who is coming from the southeast?" Officer Reeves asked, but both Qasim and Toby were busy running around.
He repeated the question through his portable radio, and a feminine voice replied:
"I don't have visual. But if I'm not tripping, they are shooting red lasers."
"You're not tripping. I saw it too." He replied while extending the ammo belt from the container beside the LMG and setting up his firing position, ready to open fire.
"I've seen something similar before. I thought I was hallucinating then, but it left behind a corpse too large to ignore, believe me." The feminine voice spoke again from the radio.
"How did you kill it?" Officer Reeves asked as he was hitting the top of the LMG with a wrench to seal the feed tray.
"Kill it?" The voice replied with a scoff followed by a short dry chuckle, "You can't kill what death hesitates before taking."
"That's not true, Ms. Megan." Officer Reeves pulled the bolt of his LMG before stationing himself, ready to fire. "This world is a testament that death doesn't hesitate, and neither should we."
And he opened fire at the earth barrier of dirt and gravel made by the Gobzkin Shaman, shattering it chunk by chunk as it crumbled down, revealing the battle that broke beyond it.
"HOLD FIRE! THEY'RE FRIENDLY!"
From the street level, a few individuals came from the south, by the church's side, blasting at any Gob that came from or moved toward their direction. Leading them was a tall, blonde young man, waving for Officer Reeves to cease fire.
"We can't stop firing; they'll overrun us if we stop." Officer Reeves did stop shooting, but he was ready to return to blasting.
"We have shooters on that roof; they'll slow down the horde. Halt fire unless you really must." Ivan argued before approaching the church's gate, his team providing cover. "Is your rear secured?"
"I've fortified this place long ago. Nothing goes in or out other than this door and the one leading to the cemetery, but I rigged it with electricity, so don't go touching it." Officer Reeves replied.
"Anyone that needs transporting?"
"Two upstairs with Toby and Megan."
Ivan looked at his three team members who had followed him here and signaled them to go past Officer Reeves to get the ones upstairs down, while he joined Reeves in his defensive post.
Meanwhile, Yuki was moving back to the alleyway they had come from with three other students. Before they got halfway through, they headed east into a smaller dead-end alley and started climbing the low walls around it. After finding a fire escape at the back of one building, they climbed up two stories and reached the roof quickly to get a top view of the fight below.
On the street, Elena split the team into five moving individuals. Hammerhead and Biscuits engaged the Gobzkin Brute from two different angles, hitting and running as they moved and hid with perfect synergy. Sharp and Buzz had a similar tactic with the Gobzkin Muncher; however, that one was way too agile compared to the Brute, so Buzz was mostly running frantically while Sharp was shooting the Muncher from unpredictable angles.
As for Elena and Adam, they moved along the sidelines, keeping their heads down and looking for the Gobzkin Shaman, who was hiding somewhere between the wrecked cars.
But just then, Yuki's team reached the edge of the roof and opened fire at the Brute and the Muncher, giving a lot of support to the four Men-at-Arms. In retaliation, a barrage of debris started flying from the center of the street, behind a refrigerator truck.
"Over there!"
Elena moved right away, with Adam providing her cover from behind, and just as she was about to get close to the truck, she halted her steps and looked beneath her feet, feeling a sudden quaking sensation coming from below.
Immediately, she jumped as the ground erupted into a spike that was aiming to skewer her, but the quaking never ended, and wherever she stepped, the eruptions continued.
Every time she tried to settle on the ground, she was targeted by a relentless spike that tracked her position with unerring accuracy; she was unable to approach the target or get a clear sight for a well-aimed bullet.
Then she noticed that Adam was moving, more like running like a madman with his shotgun.
"Commander, stop!"
She tried to avert him from recklessness, but he jumped over a car, and rather than traveling on the ground, he kept jumping from one car to another until he got above the toppled truck and slid over it, landing right in front of the Shaman.
SKREEEEEE!
Shocked, the Shaman waved its club at Adam, who dodged it by letting his dropping momentum push him down, and as he fell on his back, he had his barrel aimed right at the Shaman's face.
"Hasta la vista, baby!"
BANG!
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
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