Fio
Page 14
Fio in the hands of medics. Fio brushed it off and immediately climbed up out of the lower section and onto the roof. The full 360 degrees was covered in a mess of strewn carriages and rail it was devastating to Fio, his heart sank very deep.
The carriages were slowly being pulled at by... Fio noticed who was behind it; the robots. They would fling themselves over and onto carriages sides making monkey like chains to flip turned carriages it was like some circus act watching them.
Looking out further troopers and robots alike gathered out away from the wreckage in equal measure organising and dispatching squads left and right. Snipers had already been setup and moved about the desert after every two hits or so depending on the monsters proximity they got up and moved on. Their cloaks made them almost invisible however their big rifles did not. Their shots that hit were nothing short of annoying and they served excellent distractions. The defences around what was the train were still being setup but most importantly carriages were being slowly carried away back east to where the track was still good.
And that’s when Fio noticed it a god machine its carriage torn a sunder Fio felt a pinging surge of instinct through his body it was just sitting there albeit a mech and some heavy infantry planted about it. He didn’t think twice and ran for it jumping from atop carriage to carriage skirting wreckage and leaping straight into it like a rabbit into a hole. Its control was resonating as he punched the big red button that said close.
The guards outside had turned around with the intention of blasting him into a million pieces but the machine had already breathed to life slamming Fio. It started checking its systems as well as his. He clenched his fists and winced as it strapped him in what felt like more than skin tight. He stretched his neck in pain at its probing. As it erupted churning into motion it instantly burst out of the container. Standing on the carriage he had jumped into it from he looked at its hands only to turn and fly off out into the desert.
As he stood there silent far from anything in the midst of a perpetual horizon his mind drew a blank and he was calm as he waited. He was immediately aware when it exploded from the surface as it must have when it hit the train he looked slowly to the side to see Aberdeen’s length in its entirety as it straddled the horizon leaping further and further into the air. He watched guarded. The machine twitched and started to rumble like it was going to shatter and Fio for a split second had electricity rupturing around him. The beast had set a decoy and the machine at the point of impact (an ever expanding bulge in the sand at this point) had injected Fio with the maximum dose of adrenalin.
It was one of the moments where time stood still like an echo of a memory. The machine stepped its left leg to the side while extending and arming its right hand cannon pointing it to the ground upon planting its left foot it shifted further to the left and fired into the monsters gaping jaws. Neither Fio nor the beast knew what hit it. Boosters shifted forward to dodge backwards and all fire power was unleashed. Rockets shot out arching out and over smashing Aberdeen ripping through his plated armour. Shock stung Aberdeen to which he responded with more rage. His attack now lunging desperately at Fio with all ferocity. Once again Fio dodged, sort of, by kicking its upper jaw awkwardly jets turned downwards into an upward thrust punching it to lift just above its enclosing jaws. Landing with the machines left knee just above the bottom of its teeth and right leg resting on the beast’s nostrils Fio once again opened fire at full capacity.
The monster now with a trail of blood stretching a mile slowed and stopped in a heap. Aberdeen had an expression of unfurled beleaguered joy through his blood streaming jaws, it made noises, and sputtered blood all over the machine in a coughing fit. Fio now weeping wiped the blood away from his screen, stepped to the side and put a hole in its head. Aberdeen absurdly had been one of the few notable things in his life and seeing him die slowly was more then he could bear.
Fio inside the machine slumped over to catch a breath but was hit with something existential. Black holes drenched his soul and galaxies collided as he grappled in despair turning over and hitting the ground cowering from the surge of pain that was streaming into his mind and tearing his body apart. This experience slowed to small streams of pain but a burden was left branded. He had killed the appointed guardian of the gods and all the animal kingdoms minds were now turbulently moving through his. The machine computed his anguish and shot him the maximum dose of morphine.
A new reality stung his mind like a bad smell as if infused in his blood, he hung in morose anguish, he could see himself from the farthest moon, he felt as though he had been clubbed to death only to awake searingly clear minded.
He raised his head to await what he now knew was the inevitable. The machine at Fios whim kicked in its after burners and skirted out in an ellipse all the while spinning slowly upwards. Lulling himself in the moment as the clouds plumed black and the desert floor began to splatter with a heavy drenching rain of blood. He shot deeper into the clouds dripping with it. In a futile exodus Fio awaited the war that was to come.
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Andy Marr