Galactic Defenders- Endurance

by Michael Mishoe

  ​“Hey Ollie,” Victor yelled as all the Ribiyar in the room turned toward him, drawing their weapons as they did so. “I’d like to see Blitz do this!!!” Victor deployed his tail, which had the Phantom Blade attached to it, and the blade sparked to life, and quickly grew until it was over sixty feet long. Just as the Ribiyar began to fire at Victor, he spun around, swinging his tail-sword around with him. In that one move, over fifty Ribiyar were sliced in half. Enraged at the destruction of his troops, the Ribiyar general redirected the troops that had been leaving the room to engage the Dark Serpent, who was now laying waste to the other Ribiyar in the group that had been outside of the Phantom Blade’s reach, simultaneously fighting with the energy blasters built onto his arms, and his tail-sword, which had shrunk down to its normal twelve-foot size.

  ​Taking advantage of the chaos that Victor had created, Olo and Fairchild shot at the Ribiyar that were coming back into the room, Fairchild inflicting considerably more damage with his Quick-shot machine gun, which Jack had upgraded with a device that created an endless supply of ammunition. But no matter how fast they shot down the Ribiyar, more kept coming, and were gradually advancing closer to their location. Olo only hoped Blitz could finish planting the EMP grenades while there was anyone still alive to use them.

  ​Explosive secure. Moving to next location to install final device.

  ​Blitz quietly and swiftly moved along the catwalk that was attached to the ceiling, high above the firefight between his team and the robotic aliens. Though Blitz’s programming demanded that he leap down and destroy the Ribiyar, his current orders superseded those instincts. Besides, if his mission was successful, he would strike a great blow against his oppressors.

  ​Blitz jumped off the catwalk and landed onto a tall pile of crates and began fixing an EMP grenade onto the security processor, a console in the center of the catwalk. Just as Blitz finished, all of the Enforcer Pods detached from the ceiling and fell to the ground. All of them fell near the middle of the room, except one, which landed on a tall stack of crates that had been moved under it. Ribiyar troops rushed to the Pods, except the one on the crates, which was out of reach for the aliens, and entered them, preparing to launch a counter-attack against the humans.

  ​With his task complete, Blitz leaped back onto the catwalk and rushed back to his master to provide support against the oncoming threat.

  ​Olo felt the crate shake below him as the Enforcer Pods fell from the ceiling, and he feared it was only a matter of time before the Ribiyar reached the Pods and obliterated Olo and the others.

  ​Olo heard a meow behind him, and he glanced over to see Blitz standing beside him, awaiting new orders.

  ​“Good, your back. Now, we need to get out of here, and-”

  ​Before Olo could finish the sentence, he felt his chest erupt in pain as the Ribiyar managed to shoot at him multiple times with their energy rifles. Olo was thrown backwards from the impact, and fell to the floor on his back. Above him, he could hear Blitz firing back at the Ribiyar who had hit him, and he was also dimly aware of Lieutenant Fairchild shouting at him from his position on top of the crates.

  ​“Lieutenant!” Fairchild yelled as he lowered himself to the crate under the one he was on. “Hang on, I’m coming for you!”

  ​Though Olo’s concentration was slipping, he knew what had to be done. Olo did his best to focus, and spoke to Fairchild, his speech slow and slightly slurred as the life drained out of his body. “No… Lieutenant. I need… you and Victor… to get out while…you can.”

  ​“But, what about you? I can’t just-”

  ​“Forget about me. Our job… has been accomplished, and… you need to rendezvous get back to the others and get this mission… completed. The fate of the world… rests on our shoulders. Go... while you still can. I will activate… the EMPs.” Fairchild hesitated, but reluctantly left as he informed Victor of their retreat on the comm.

  ​Olo painfully used his arms to pull himself against the wall behind him, resting his back on it, and put his right hand over the wound on his chest while he used his left to fish the trigger out of his pocket. The trigger was a small, cylindrical object with a light under a cap that contained the detonation switch, and the light was rapidly pulsing green, indicating that the grenades were ready and awaiting activation. Olo was about to activate it when Blitz jumped down from above him, apparently finished enacting revenge on the Ribiyar who had wounded Olo.

  ​“Blitz… listen to me. You… have a new mission. You are to protect… Jack Vade… at all costs, and he is to… be your new master. Do… you understand?” Blitz meowed, indicating that he understood. Blitz turned to leave, but then something Olo couldn’t explain happened. Blitz’s eyes suddenly stopped glowing red, indicating his attack mode had deactivated, and he moved toward Olo. Blitz moved his head under Olo’s right hand and purred softly, giving him the sense that the cat was saying farewell. Touched by this unexplainable occurrence, as E.V.A.N. units had never been programmed to have the capacity for emotion, Olo weakly petted Blitz’s head, leaving a stain of blood on his fur. Blitz moved away from Olo, and his eyes once again glowed crimson red. Moving quickly, Blitz quickly raced away from him as some of the Enforcer Pods began rolling out of the room toward the rest of his team. Olo waited about half a minute to allow him time to escape, but he felt the ground tremble as another Enforcer Pod raced out of the room, and he knew he could wait no longer.

  ​With Olo’s dying breath, he lifted the trigger in his hand, and pressed the button, heralding a blinding flash and the dying mechanical screams of those who brought the end of his life.

  Chapter 25

  Date: July 11, 2132.

  Location: Aboard the Defender, near the Ribiyar Holding Facility in the Atlantic Ocean.

  ​“Direct hit, Captain Rickman!” Commander Hayley reported as a huge mushroom cloud erupted on the holographic display on the bridge. “The warhead has detonated successfully, and the final three cruisers have been destroyed!” The bridge crew gave out a few cheers, but they all knew that the battle was far from over. While the Defender had been engaged with the five cruisers, which had been destroyed after using two nuclear warheads, several more cruisers had engaged the ship, which led to the required use of more warheads. Now, almost a half hour later, seventeen Ribiyar cruisers had been destroyed, at the cost of using the rest of the Atlanta’s nuclear warheads. Though the Defender hadn’t been caught in the blasts of the nuclear explosions, by modifying the warheads remotely to increase or decrease the size of the detonations, the victories had not been without cost. The Defender had taken several critically hits during the engagements, and now three of its eight engines, along with several energy cannons along the wing and over the main hull of the ship, had been destroyed or otherwise rendered nonoperational.

  ​“Captain!” Lieutenant Commander Nickland announced, “the Holding Facility’s weapons are crippling several vessels from the fleet, and at the rate their firing, our forces are not going to last much longer! What are your orders?”

  ​“Deploy all the drones that we have constructed, and program them to disable the weapons on the Holding Facility. With that many drones focusing their attacks on the weapons, they’ll be able to do enough damage to take them out, and hopefully minimize overall damage to the Facility. The prisoners are still in there, and I’d like to keep civilian casualties to a minimum.” Commander Hayley worked her console and instructed Chief Lexton, who was stationed in the Engineering Center and monitoring the conditions of the power core and other essential systems, to release the Recon Drones and program them to attack the Holding Facility’s weapons. Next to the holographic display above the central console that showed what was happening around and in front of the ship, a new display materialized, showing video footage of the Drone’s deployment. All over the Defender, dozens of hatches and docking ports opened, and a swarm of Recon Drones began pouring out of them.

  ​“Chief Lexton, is the control system working
?” Captain Rickman asked as he directed the Defender to intercept a swarm of Ribiyar fighters that were attacking the Ironclad. To ensure that the drones attacked in formation with each other and attacked in a well-coordinated and combined assault, Chief Lexton and Ambassador Zephier had created a computer program that would allow the Defender’s crew to direct the drones’ attack.

  ​“Affirmative, Captain Rickman,” Lexton responded over the comm. “The Defender’s computer has successfully taken control of the drones’ systems, and they are now traveling to the Holding Facility to disable its weapon systems.”

  ​“Good work. Make sure the Drones are programmed to minimize the damage where they can. We’re going to need those weapons to defend ourselves if and when the Ribiyar attempt to reclaim the Holding Facility.” As the Defender blasted away the Ribiyar fighters, Rick hoped that Jack and the others were making progress toward the Control Center so they could end this fight. As good as the fleet was, Rick knew they couldn’t last forever against this many Ribiyar.

  Location: In the Ribiyar Holding Facility, positioned in the Atlantic Ocean.

  ​Back at the lift, Jack and the rest of the team were busy holding off a seemingly endless horde of Ribiyar soldiers, who had broken through the two corridors that had been blocked off, the third one that Olo and the other officers had used still empty. Using his enhanced strength, Jack had pried several chunks of metal plating from the wall and placed them in a perimeter around the lift, providing an area for the officers to get behind to protect them from weapons fire. After several minutes of combat, he finally saw Lieutenant Fairchild and the Dark Serpent in the empty corridor, running as fast as they could. Before he could question why they ran so fast, the answer became apparent as seven Enforcer Pods appeared further down the corridor. The Pods bounced off the walls as they rolled after the two officers, quickly gaining the distance between them, and one of the Pods was so close that it was mere moments away from rolling over Fairchild and Victor.

  ​Right before the Pod rolled over them, Victor shoved Fairchild out of the path of the Enforcer Pod, and slammed his tail into the ground and used it to thrust himself high into the air, activating the Phantom Blade as he did, and the Pod began to rush past under him. With a mighty roar, Victor brought down the Blade and sliced the Pod in half. As Victor landed on the ground, the halves of the Pod, and the Ribiyar that had been in it, crashed into the walls of the corridor, he stood his ground as the six other Enforcer Pods rolled to a stop, and stood as their spear-like legs deployed. As they worked to stand up, they also deployed their six, huge rectangular energy cannons, two positioned near the legs, two more placed near the top of the sphere, and the last two stationed in-between the two other clusters of weapons.

  Rogers let loose a huge stream of fire, forcing the Ribiyar near the team to fall back, while the rest of the group concentrated their firepower on the Enforcer Pods. Lieutenant Commander Stone released volley after volley of EMP arrows, managing to take out several of the Pods’ weapons, and Lieutenant Fairchild managed to inflict even more damage with his machine gun as the Dark Serpent began slicing through the Pods, the team wasn’t inflicting enough damage in the short time they had left, and the Pods quickly began powering up their weapons, preparing to eradicate the enemy.

  ​Jack began to move toward the Pods and firing his weapons, knowing he wouldn’t be able to take them down before they destroyed him and the rest of his team, when he noticed another Enforcer Pod emerge from the end of the corridor, rolling at twice the speed the others had used, and moments later, his sensors detected the EMP grenades activate, shorting out several light fixtures in the wall and sending down a shower of sparks as components and systems within the walls were fried, and the Pod just barely outran the blast of the pulse. As the weapons on the Enforcer Pods began to glow brightly, preparing to unload its firepower, the approaching Pod deployed its legs while it rolled, causing it to ‘jump’ into the air, its top sparking as it impacted against the ceiling. As it flew through the air, a dozen spheres shot out of the Pod, instantly reshaping into a more aerodynamic shape, and filled the corridor with the sound of jet noises as they streaked through the air, and Jack braced himself for the missile to strike him, unable to stop the projectiles before they hit their targets.

  ​But instead of destroying the infiltration team, the missiles slammed into the Enforcer Pods, reducing them to scrap metal, and filling the corridor with smoke and debris. Dimly visible within the cloud of smoke, the remaining Enforcer Pod, the one that had fired the missiles, fell out of the air, bounced off the remains of one the Enforcer Pods, rolled into the intersection of the corridors, deployed its legs and cannons, and used its energy cannons to blast away the Ribiyar soldiers that had been attacking the group. Within moments, all the Ribiyar had been exterminated, and the corridors settled into an eerie silence, and the smoke finally settled.

  ​The Enforcer Pod retracted its weapons, and then, a part of the back structure of the Pod began lowering to the ground, creating a ramp that led to the cockpit of the vehicle. The cockpit of the Pod, like the vehicle, was spherically shaped, with bright lights periodically placed around the floor of the interior. The cockpit was empty, except for an odd-looking chair. The chair was black, and had an armrest like object on the right side. The chair hovered in the air, and several black struts were placed underneath the seat, in front, behind, and on top of the chair. The struts had a hexagonal-surface attached to the end of it, and they produced small magnetic fields that kept the chair in the air, preventing the pilot from being tossed around due to the Pod’s rolling motion. When the ramp lowered enough, the team saw the pilot controlling the Pod, and to everyone’s surprise, it was someone they knew very well.

  ​“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Victor said, understandably shocked, “Along with everything else he can do, that thing can drive a tank!?” The group continued to stare into the cockpit, where Blitz, the one everyone least expected, sat on the chair in the cockpit, the large chair making him seem small in comparison. The end of Blitz’s tail was inserted into a circular, interface port on the armrest, which he was somehow using to connect him to the Pod, allowing him to pilot the vehicle. “How can that cat even manage the controls!?” Victor said, having trouble trying to understand how Blitz could possibly operate the machine.

  ​“We don’t have time to worry about that right now,” Colonel Brown said, leading the group away back to the elevator door. “Guardian, you need to crack open this lift really quickly, and I mean right now. Those metal heads are going to be back soon, and I don’t want to be here when that happens.”

  ​Jack quickly returned to the computer interface by the lift and continued working on taking control of the device.

  ​“Hey, Fairchild, Davidson, have you two seen Oakland?” Colonel Brown said, looking down the corridors for him to see if he was coming. “Shouldn’t he have been right behind you guys?”

  ​Fairchild hesitated a moment, but then said, “Sir, I regret to report that he didn’t survive the fight. He was shot by the Ribiyar, and we had to leave him there, while he activated the EMP’s. He died a hero, sir.”

  ​“What!?” Jack yelled, shocked by the death of his friend. Just as he said that, Jack’s programming was finally able to take control of the elevator controls, and the doors whooshed into the wall, finally allowing the team to enter. The lift was identical to the lifts aboard the Defender, differing only by the fact that its interior was three times the size as the other lifts, most likely so the Ribiyar could transport the Pods around the Facility.

  ​ “I… have taken control of the lift, Colonel Brown,” Jack reported, shaking his head to clear his thoughts and try to focus on the mission, “and I recommend that we board it quickly, and proceed towards our objective.” Though Jack was doing what he could to concentrate, he felt it difficult to maintain focus as a deep wave of emotions erupted within him over the loss of his friend. But he had to keep his feelings to himself to dwell on later
. There was too much at stake to become distracted, no matter how much he hated simply putting aside his remorse for Olo.

  ​“All right then,” Colonel Brown said, “Lets complete this mission, and show the Ribiyar what we humans are made of.” Deciding that it would be wise to bring the Pod with them, they allowed Blitz to maintain control of the vehicle, since he was the only one among them who had experience with it. The team entered the lift, with Blitz entering last, so the Pod would be the first thing to exit the lift, and they raced upwards to reach the level where the Control Center was located.

  ​“Warriors, the organics have taken over the lift, and are now traveling towards our location,” The Ribiyar general announced. Several dozen Ribiyar soldiers, along with three Enforcer Pods, had gathered themselves around the lift doors to confront their adversaries. “No matter the cost, they must be purged, before they reach the Control Center. From there, they could inflict untold destruction upon our forces. We cannot let that happen. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”

  ​“Yes, general,” the Ribiyar troops replied.

  ​“Good. The doors will open in three … two … one!” The officers grabbed their weapons and aimed at the door. After they heard the noise of the lift locking in place, the doors whooshed open.

  ​And they were immediately confronted with the fury of an E.V.A.N. unit in possession of an Enforcer Pod. The Pod rocketed out of the lift, rolling over several soldiers unlucky enough to have been in its path. Having built up the necessary momentum, the Pod deployed it legs and jumped into the air as the Ribiyar, and the Enforcer Pods, attempted to destroy it. Two dozen missiles were launched from the Pod and stormed toward the Ribiyar, as the vehicle simultaneously deployed its six energy cannons and launched a relentless bombardment upon the other Enforcer Pods. The corridor erupted into flames as the missiles detonated, annihilating the Ribiyar troops, who were engulfed in the fiery explosion. Even the three Enforcer Pods were quickly obliterated from Blitz’s unstoppable campaign of terror and destruction.