Add in the War Maidens swooping down from the skies with an onslaught of devastating aerial attacks and soon Valkyrie would realize this war’s starting to look more and more like an uphill battle. So she decided to do something drastic. Knowing the hate the clones had for her, she needed to make herself bait. She passes the order to drop her on the ground. A quick thought runs through her head about the nutriment stims her boys have been giving her over the past few days. She wonders if it’d be enough to hold herself up physically and the only conclusion she can come to is – ‘it better be.’
Joining the foot soldiers on the ground, she scouts around the swarms of Zero’s drones, firing occasionally to help the human forces but mainly looking for the trio of ‘bitches’ her mind prefers to label them as. At last, Valkyrie spots the Iris causing ruckus on the ground.
“Hey! Blondie!” She taunts, shoving her assault rifle forward and firing to catch her foe’s attention. Iris doesn’t notice at first since her attention still focused on clearing the ground she’s defending until Valkyrie pushes more and more to make sure her presence is known and sure enough, it works. Iris finally notices Valkyrie closing in on her with troops at her side. She knows this isn’t a fight she’s ready to handle based on the odds so she takes flight into the sky quickly.
‘Really?’ Valkyrie thinks to herself wondering if Iris’ cowering away. Swarms of drones diverts Xeilya’s attention again. She’ll have to figure out another way to catch their attention when suddenly…
Blap!
A powerful blast hits the ground, violently tossing Valkyrie and her soldiers away. Once Valkyrie slams into the nearby area, suffering only a minor two second knockout, she sees Athena airborne, charging another blast to the ground.
‘On your feet.’ She tells herself.
Valkyrie grabs her pocket rocket launcher, aims for the seemingly open Athena with her hands on the trigger. Just as she’s about to fire, a brutal shot sends her stumbling out of the picture.
Nemesis.
Valkyrie turns her attention to the last Maiden but by then, it’s too late. Athena unleashes another blast on the ground, taking out more of the ground soldiers than any blast she’s done before. Enraged, Xeilya shoots at her anyway but the rocket misses wildly as Athena swoops away from the area to harass another point on the battlefield. Valkyrie readies another shot, this time for Nemesis who’s still firing at her.
By the time she loads the next shot and preps herself to fire on the ground, Iris suddenly swoops in, grabs her and tosses her like a ragdoll in the air. Valkyrie brutally crashes into one of her own Crimson Spear war tanks, the impact steering the vehicle of course and accidently causing it to fire at a friendly zone. But Valkyrie isn’t out yet. She gets out of the rubble and shakes her head.
“These bitches…” She mutters under her breath.
“Lady Valkyrie! Are you alright?” The tank’s driver asks upon realizing who crashed in the vehicle but she downplays it and dusts herself off, marching furiously toward the tank’s turret
“Eyes on the aerial humanoids. Gotta’ take em’ down!”
“Yes ma’am!”
‘If these whores want war, war’s what they’re about to get.’
Valkyrie scouts the sky for them again. She wonders if her plan’s backfiring.
‘Can’t second question now.’ She battles herself internally as she looks for her enemies in the sky. Soon she’d find them, but they won’t be focusing her. They were out there, tearing the battlefield apart. Xeilya crunched her brows in rage and ordered the tank be driven to The Maidens.
Josh spears Red into a wall inside Zero’s base. On top of Red inside another room filled with more or less, circuits and dark technology, Josh attempts to deliver a hammer fist to Red’s face, but Red catches the attack with his own hand, then curls his knee in and extends it to kick and push Josh off. Red gets back to his feet but Josh already speeds back into the fight, exchanging hooks left and right with the occasional knees for the groin, remembering Valkyrie’s training. Red’s style, however, could be considered all about the counters. Josh’s still unable to land a hit but at least he isn’t necessarily being smacked down in return. He’s managing to hold his ground against Red. At least for now.
This inspires Josh to keep pushing, and instead of just using his raw superhuman-like power, he focuses on combining it with the finesse he’s learned and the results’ coming out better than he expected. Red can’t really land a counter attack in return, instead he’s focused on defense. Suddenly Red sees an opening in Josh’s barrages. He throws a fist right for Josh’s chest, knocks him there once, then a quick jab to his chin, and a side kick to his lower stomach. Josh stumbles a little, until he notices Red trying to capitalize on his combo so he returns the favor, parrying Red’s next attack and this time, using his supersonic speed to get behind Red and knock him into the wall.
With some distance between the two, Red uses the time to finally say something – “Upgrades.” He ponders out loudly, “You’ve been a busy Zero Sphere, haven’t you?”
“Only enough to beat you!”
Josh charges at him again. This time he has a plan. He knows Red will slither out of a spear move, so he uses a mirage.
As Josh charges into Red, Red already sets up a counter haymaker for the spear charge but Josh uses his supersonic speed to blink to Red’s exposed side and knock him into another wall.
He doesn’t let him off there either. Soon as Red catches himself, he sees Josh coming at him again, so he swings with a backhand to counter the speedy devil but he misses, because Josh blinks from the side to the front, where he gets a free hit right to Red’s chest, then another to the jaw and a swooping side kick to finish him off but that side won’t connect, because Red regains himself just in time to parry the attack, grab hold of Josh’s leg and slam him into the nearby wall, delivering a series of attacks to his head, neck and chest. After the brutal barrage, Red lifts Josh over his shoulders and slams him on the floor. The floor literally breaks from impact, plummeting Josh into another room below.
This room’s a bit different. Instead of the usual darkness of the base, Josh notices he landed on a platform suspended in the air over a dark, bottomless pit, but the rest of the room; the walls and what not, are covered in more light circuits than usual – as if this area could be considered almost the source of all the power in the base. Thousands of 11-foot upright cylindrical pods lay dormant, connected through what appears to be power cables, to a large pyramid-shaped black object at the middle of the platform. A beam shines from the tip of the pyramid, pulsating with powerful energy.
“What is this…” Josh momentarily diverts his attention away from his fight with Red.
“Home.” Red comments as he slips into the room silently, landing like a cat. He walks to the central pyramid, observing it only for a second or two before looking back at a confused Josh and smirking knowingly, “Don’t you remember?”
Josh looks around paranoid. He tries to keep his focus on Red, but flashbacks begin overtaking his focus. He sees the wires, he sees the water, he remembers himself screaming against the experiments. He tries to shake it off but the memories come flooding anyway.
‘No…’ He thinks to himself, ‘No, no, no!’
Josh charges into Red again, using his supersonic speed to engage in another fight but he hits an invisible barrier that almost sends him flying over the edge of the pit. Red ignores him. He punches the pyramid and suddenly, it opens. Like two sliding doors opening an entry point; it reveals another, larger chamber inside containing a pod, similar to the rest but bigger. Red presses some buttons on the pod and it opens up. Josh can only look. He’s unable to stop whatever Red’s doing. The central pod now opens, unveiling a bald, skinny humanoid figure floating in stasis, covered in wires, tubes and other apparatuses to keep it alive. Josh takes a step forward in disbelief.
“Hello father.” Red greets the unconscious figure – “You’ve done enough for this world. Now, it’s
time I took my inheritance.”
“Seven…” Josh blurts out.
Red holds his hand over the pod. Small, micro-machines pour from the ceiling, from the floor and even from the pit, surrounding him completely. The neon-green highlight of the room shifts to red and the low humming sound goes completely silent. Red’s eyes shift from a natural tone to a glowing red as he becomes infused with this unknown power. He turns around, looking uncaringly at Josh.
“Seven’s the one who kept Zero under check. A prisoner by choice, he was the only one that could contain the AI from overtaking this world through psychic and telepathic influence. And now, his purpose is complete. This power is now mine.”
Red stretches his hand into the air. The ceiling begins moving, shifting, opening a pathway to the upper levels. The pods in the room open up. Josh takes a step back to observe what’s going on.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to end our little tumble. I have a world to save.” Red says neutrally. He floats into the air, the micro machines building a growing platform for him as he ascends. Then, humanoid figures, both male and female, covered in combat armor similar to The War Maidens also begin ascending with him. As Josh can only stare at this event unfolding, he feels a pull on the back of his head. A pull so deep, a pull so familiar that he can no longer focus on Red leaving with his army of clones.
He turns around and he notices one of the combat-armored humans, afloat midair. It shifts its legs slightly, and a large, back-mounted weapon slides to its right hand. The figure points the weapon at Josh. A communicational link is established. A malfunctioning robotic voice enters Josh’s com.
“Destroy…” It says once in a dark, robot voice
“Destroy…” It says again in a medium toned, robotic voice
“Destroy…” It says in low-toned female voice.
Josh knows that voice. He knows that voice too well. Before he can ask or even assume anything, the unit begins firing large, grenade-like blasts at him and purple lasers.
Valkyrie sits ready in the turret’s seat while her driver takes their damaged tank into the heat of the battle outside Zero’s base. She shot down as many drones as she could but they kept coming anyway. Finally she landed her sights on Athena swooping in on some of her men in the near distance. She took this opportunity to close in on the distracted clone. Once she had her target in sight, she smiled as she spoke aloud for the maiden to hear – “Over here bitch.”
Soon as Athena turns around to see the nuisance, it’s too late.
Blam!
The shot knocks the War Maiden out of the sky, sending her tumbling into the ground. Athena quickly tries to regain her composure, clearing a space between herself and the foot soldiers in the area. Valkyrie radios her nearby units to close in on Athena with her.
A distracted Athena uses a combination of flips, slides and melee attacks to get around her attackers but Valkyrie’s using this to her advantage.
The tank slips behind Athena and fires another shot that fortunately connects again, damaging the clone properly.
A group of drones swoop into the area to aid their commander, slamming into Valkyrie’s tank and forcing both her and her driver to abandon the exploding vehicle. The damaged Athena crawls to her knees, gradually getting to her feet. Valkyrie unsheathes a sidearm pistol strapped from her thigh to finish the job. Athena sees her closing in.
She points the gun, ready to take the shot – “That was a nice try but in the end, you’re nothing but just a pale copy.”
And just as she’s about to take it, Athena unleashes a violent shriek, filled with telepathic influence. The scream interrupts Valkyrie’s very thought process and even disturbs the men, not even focused on their duel, to hold their heads and scream in psychic pain.
Valkyrie unlocks her helmet. She tosses it aside, thinking maybe that’ll stop the effect. It doesn’t. She struggles to collect herself. Athena’s back on her feet. The favor’s back in her hands - that is until a loud horn sounds across the battlefield. Athena’s face wrenches in horror. She turns away from Valkyrie to identify the noise. As a matter of fact, everyone’s looking to see where that noise is coming from.
Eyes point to the sky.
It’s the mothership from space.
No longer cloaked as an asteroid.
“It’s time.” Athena whispers under her breath.
In the greater distance, Red and his army of clones ascend into the sky, heading toward the ship. Athena leaps into the air, flying toward that direction. A not-so-collected Valkyrie attempts to fire her pistol at the fleeing maiden inaccurately. Once she comes to regaining a better portion of her senses, she realizes the drones aren’t even attacking anymore. All of Zero’s forces are heading to the mothership.
‘What the heck?’ She wonders.
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
The horn shakes the ground again. The mothership begins sparkling in a strange blue, energetic light.
“Oh no.” Valkyrie assumes the worst.
And the worst is coming. Without warning, without any trash talking, threats or demands, the mothership no longer holds back. The sparkling energy hits a new high. The entire ship becomes engulfed in this exotic energy.
Then suddenly, it unleashes a wave – like a tsunami of electromagnetic energy, pulsing on a large scale that extends across the battlefield – disabling everything. Not just Crimson Spear’s tools, weapons and gadgets but all of EDF, all of MDSU and even Zero’s drones fall out of the sky like dead flies. Red, The Maidens and their clones keep ascending. Their sparking, damaged suits painting the obvious message that they are running on borrowed time.
“Lady Valkyrie! Nothing works! Nothing works!”
“All systems fried. We can’t get the rail cannons started!”
“We’re sitting ducks out here!”
Reports of the damaged equipment floods Valkyrie’s communication systems, but all she can do is look. Look at the unfolding. Witness the rebirth…
“Josh…” Valkyrie sighs worriedly.
And Josh can only defend himself inside Zero’s powerless base against his relentless new foe. Even in darkness, this unit keeps hunting him. Josh can only evade so many attacks. He uses his supersonic speed to dart onto the walls, hopping from pod to pod to close in on his attacker but his enemy moves like a butterfly. It steers away the moment Josh gets close, then it comes back in when he has no choice other than returning to the ground to recharge. The wave of energy blasts, explosions and lasers, lights up the powerless room in a dance of chaotic devastation. The unit has no regard for the clones’ pods, nor does it care what it hits. As long as Josh is destroyed.
‘Have to do something. Have to do something!’
Josh wonders what he can do. The area around him is gradually being ripped to shreds from damage. Soon there won’t even be a platform for him to stand on. Seven’s pyramid in the middle catches Josh’s attention. He notices the disregard his unknown attacker has for everything in the room but the pyramid. So that will have to do. He slides around the pyramid to avoid as much fire as he can, taking a few hits in the process but nevertheless, the evasion works enough for him to get a jump boost from the pyramid and launch an aerial spear tackle against the unknown unit. He latches on tightly and uses the last of his speed to boost both himself and his enemy into the wall. They crash into the pod. Josh grabs a hold of his foe and tosses it into another nearby wall.
Before it can land on the wall, Josh boosts himself into the unit again – this time, the two of them crashing so hard into the wall, it breaks and sends them into another room.
Josh unintentionally tumbles away from his foe but notices his foe’s damage as well. He gets to his feet and so does the unit, with the exception that this unit is never on its feet, but always hovering in the air. The chaotic dance begins again. Josh can only avoid so much of its relentless attacks, taking heavy damage to his suit.
His helmet begins sparking and malfunctioning. He tosses it aside, h
aving no choice but to get rid of the faulty equipment. He takes deep breaths to catch himself for a moment. Memory of Valkyrie’s training comes back to him.
‘That will have to do.’ He thinks up a plan.
The room this fight’s taking place in, is a maze of dark corridors. The unknown unit searches for Josh. Did he run away? It sees a reflection of him down one of the corridors. A hailstorm of fire destroys the area. Did it miss? It sees Josh down another corridor. It shoots wildly. Did it hit this time? All these reflections, why isn’t he dying?
The art of deception.
Josh emerges from the fire, but it’s not one Josh – it’s three. Using a combination of his supersonic speed and a holographic projector, he made mirrored images of himself to confuse the unknown unit. The unit tries firing at all of them. A grenade shot to one, a pulse rifle blow to the other and a plasma-heated laser to the last. All of them are hit but only two vanish and the remaining one tackles the unit the ground, delivering a deadly array of blows to the unit’s helmet. Josh doesn’t stop there. He pummels and pummels, remembering why he’s fighting. Remembering his heart. Remembering Heather. He has to save Heather. He has to save her! He must! He can’t stop here! He has to get this guy out of the way! Until…
“What…” He stops his violence immediately then backs off in horror at the sight of the damaged helmet of the unknown attacker, revealing the one who’s behind the suit all along.
“Heather?” He cries.
Inside the mothership now in the sky over Mars, Colin hugs the walls of the alien vessel, sneaking silently to execute his plan of saving the world. He takes careful steps through the damaged corridors, following LARS’ hologram blueprint that pops up to the right side of his helmet, like a Heads Up Display.
“Commander, are you sure you want to do this?” LARS radios him
“This is the only way. Just keep me on course to the hyperdrive area.”
“Once you activate the hyperdrive, there’s no guarantee it will put you in a safe region of space. You may be warped into the middle of a volcano, a random war in another civilization, crash into a sun or perhaps, even worse.”
Zero Sphere: A Space Opera Thriller Page 18
