The war at the river Zitar Nuo

by Morgan La Femina

close in and then fall back to the stairs. Hold those stairs. That will give us an overwhelming advantage, forcing them to retreat. They can’t go through the floors or through the ceilings, because as we fail back toward deeper barricades they'll get picked off and they can’t go through the second staircase because we have the barricades, which we are defending.”

  They took their positions behind the metal desks and waited. In a moment several men and a desk were blown from its position in on the barricade, the desk hit a wall and fell crushed and smoking to the floor. One Tarnar saw the helmet and rifle of a Xelon Dru. He yelled out, “There they are!” Then another Dru appeared behind the first.

  Abreon from behind another desk, “Fire!” shooting, as three others were behind that buttress, all yelling fire themselves.

  Nece shooting a needle blast at the hole in the barricade, “Let’s get them!”

  A clot of Dru began building along the hole from the buttress, firing laser, the needles hitting their suits, piercing their metal shielding, Jake, from a rear shelter, “Look at them! Look!”

  A laser blast boring into the metal of the desk that Abreon was behind, “Don’t let them through!”

  Then they ran as another blast blew the barricade into pieces, as they took cover among them. There were fifty Dru now in the room and another hundred in the wings, laser blasts everywhere, burning holes into everything, Jake yelling out, “Abreon!”

  Abreon firing, “Retreat!” as Nece, the others, and he fell back to another desk. Abreon took a peak above the desk firing back at the Dru, “Don’t give up!”

  Chy, “They’re everywhere!”

  A blast hit Abreon’s his shoulder, the site smoldering, Nece to him, through her helmet, “Abreon!”

  Abreon fired at a group of the Dru, “Don’t mind me!” Abreon watching as they gathered, “They’re making a crawl!” the Xelon rushing on their stomachs toward the Tanar, Abreon firing at them. They were now only twenty meters away, “Take them out”

  Pethra, “Get them!”

  The wave of Dru soldiers some twenty, crawling another ten meters, down to ten in the charge a-s another wave of twenty began before them, Abreon shooting, standing spraying out quickly, “Don’t let them near!’’ a blast of laser hitting him in the chest, Abreon falling back on his knees, “Don’t let them pass!”

  Now the Dru were ten meters from them, Abreon and another standing shooting point blank, killing one then another, Abreon signaling, “Retreat.” Abreon quickly then dropping to his knees as another desk wracked with holes began to crumble, others retreating to the remaining two before the next barricade behind them. Abreon crawled backwards as some Tanar where left in the open, as a third wave of twenty Dru fell down on their stomachs and crawled towards them. Another several Tanar being hit from laser blasts, Abreon before a desk, looking toward the stairwell doors, “Ten of you climb behind the next barricade!”

  Pethra from the rear, “Me?”

  Abreon, “You too!”

  Nece as ten of the second twenty fell behind the receding barricade, dropping low to the floor, “What about me?”

  Abreon to her, “You’re coming with me, to the stairwell” as a third wave of twenty fell upon them, firing, attempting to pin them down. Abreon pulled Nece to the stairwell under heavy fire, leaving the bodies of the Dru behind, some sixty-five out of a hundred total in the first company while another hundred poured to the stairwell. The remaining Tanar fell back to the stairs, Abreon up front and in the foreground, desperate to keep the Dru from finding a foothold in the stairway, “Come on!” as they did, the laser blasts blinding around them. Some remaining Tamar failing under extreme fire, some of their needle guns running cut of ammo, Abreon picking up a needle gun, throwing it to a rearward recruit as the Dru worked their way up the 's stairway.

  Nece, “We need a plan!”

  Abreon, “We had one Nece!” As they continued their retreat nearing an upper stairwell entrance, now using what guns were salvaged and given to those who were not suited or armed in the rear as much remaining ammo as possible. Out of the Tanar left only seven men and women remained, Abreon pointing to the entrance, “Put the desks out!”

  Abreon helping to pull the desks out. Abreon and the others backing up and over them, with a heave throwing them down the steps at the Dru. The desks bounding down the stairwell, as the last free Tanar retreated further up the stairwell, fighting until it was only Abreon and Nece left. Once they reached the top floor they met up with ten who were unarmed and two who were. They took an entrance to the stairwell back into the building and met up with the ten who had guarded the barricades, Abreon to Jake who was one of the twelve still armed, “How did you get here so fast?”

  Jake, “We took the second stairwell. We figured you would need the help.”

  Abreon, “We have to filter through this barricade and defend it until were back at the president’s office!”

  Nece looking back, “Lets go.”

  The Xelon Dru opened fire upon the innocents, those remaining who did not have protection suits or even weapons to shoot with. It was disgusting the Dru holding their own, picking targets with laser shots and burning them, killing them, those left to fight with their weapons shooting in vain. Abreon waited with Nece and Jake from his point of vantage, with his needle gun firing, almost out of ammo yelling to Nece and Jake, pointing back into the president’s office: “We have to get to the machine it our only chance!”

  Abreon, Nece and Jake peeling off from the fight, the dead everywhere. There was no one left with at least a few thousand Dru soldiers in that building and in the hallway preventing them from escape. Abreon fired his last rounds at them as the surged forward. Abreon kicking one as he mounted the machine, the tank. He helped Nece up and then Jake. He helped them all to the rear of the tank piggy backing the beast, as he activated it, “Let’s go!” amidst a vault of laser fire, another attempting to climb it as the tank lurched forward. Abreon caught a glimpse of him and using the controls of the beast kicking the Dru off, laser fire holing the machines plating, one blast hitting the helmet of Abreon’s protection suit, Abreon shaking off the cracked and smoldering helmet, “We are leaving this place!”

  Jake, as he looked out at the thousands of shoulders, Abreon firing plasma into them, killing five or six with one blast, seven with the second in succession from one cannon to the next, “Um, where, Abreon!”

  Abreon backing toward the president's office windows firing as he went, “Look back!”

  Nece, gripping the back of the tank, “No!!”

  Abreon backing the machine out the window, the thick glass shattering as the tank and all three of them plunged downward, Jake and Nece screaming. Abreon pressing the controls forward, the clawed boots of the tank digging into the steel of the building, shattering more glass as it plunged down the side of the building, sparks shooting everywhere burning through the night air. The friction slowing the tanks descent, the machine hitting the ground, the struts of the tank compressing with a groan, struggling, then in a moment, the machine stood, relaxed its strain. Abreon turned the tank around and he pushed the tank forward, they left, not stopping until the several days later.

  Nine

  The machine ran, its energy reserves draining, it’s nuclear power plant unable to charge it’s batteries quickly enough, continuing until its hydraulics began to fail, seizing from the heat generated, the tanks oil running hot, the unit steaming as it lurched and sunk out of power. Abreon knew they could not ride anymore. The unit did them good. It had served its purpose putting them out of range from the Xelon Dru. The tank had brought them to a place where they thought they had found peace. They jumped off the tank, on foot climbed through a range of hills and then descended the other side until they reached a crevasse stopping their progress. The crevasse was some two thousand meters across, and two hundred meters in depth. It had been formed from the massive river below. Far down and in the distance they spotted a bridge. The three slowly made their way down the c
revasse following the steppes formed by the river over thousands of years, careful not to misplace a step or slip. As they neared the bridge, they noticed just how immense it really was. The bridge had massive supports, concrete lanes and arched steel spans. It was strong, probably able to support hundreds of metric tons at a time and many thousands of people. A core of engineers could only have built it and they had since vanished, leaving the bridge behind as a testament. It was awe-inspiring.

  Abreon, “Let us cross the bridge to see the other side.”

  Nece; “Good Idea.’’

  Jake, “It should take us awhile.”

  About halfway across the bridge a group of thirty men in carriers met them. Most of them stepped out of their vehicles to get a closer look at them. One of them had binoculars, “I am committee leader Loss, of the town Cantor, what is that thing of yours up on the terrace? One of my men spotted it.”

  Abreon looked back and up, “That is what we call a tank. It is…was a machine with weaponry that serves a military function.”

  Loss: “Then it military in nature?”

  Abreon: “Yes. We had to leave it up there.”

  “Why do you possess it?”

  Abreon: “We have come from an area upon the map that is in a complete state of war. We were permitted to escape only by way of that machine.”

  Loss was of