United We Stand

by Christian Messe

  They ran out of the throne room, onto the exterior balcony, where Claire could see six giant Ion cannons, three on each side of the massive building.

  “Those cannons are our primary defenses, each one can blast a Demon warship to the ground with one shot, but each one that falls makes our city that much more defenseless.” She pointed to the ground, where the start of the ginormous pyramid was, “Under this fortress are Gigantium-class fusion batteries, self-charging cores that power the cannon’s shields, if the Demons get to those, they will be able to fire on our Ion cannons. And if they break through even deeper, to the interior of the Temple, they’ll be able to destroy the backup shield generator that protects our gravity pulsers, on each corner of the city. If those fall, the Lore will be sucked into space. Your job is to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  “What about you?” Claire asked.

  “I’m going to join you, make sure you know what you’re doing with that superweapon of yours, since the Demon warships can’t get too close to the ground, they’re primary laser cannons and turrets won’t be able to cut through our shields, which means they’ll be making a land assault,” The Queen couldn’t help but smirk slightly.

  “What?” Claire asked.

  “You’ll be able to see a real Meta-Core in action.”

  “What do you mean by real, Meta-Core?”

  “Well, the Core, in Meta-Core, means power cell, it basically acts as the metal’s brain, allowing it to turn into anything it’s coded to, but ours don’t have a Core, just metal fused with Dark matter, which is why ours don’t have as many weaknesses. The live ones that the Demons use… alternatively, what you call, Jupitains… they’re real monsters, kill you just about look at you.”

  Claire gulped.

  “Admiral Kars, the E6’s fleet is in firing range,” A soldier said. They were inside of a Lore warship’s bridge. The entire spacecraft was massive, Gigantium-class. The official name was the Grand Warship. High powered, heavy laser cannons lined the outside of the hull by the hundreds. Three Heavy Ion cannons lined the top of the hull and perched on the very top of the Grand Warship’s armor, was a Heavy-class Photon canon.

  Photon cannons were incredibly high tech and complicated machinery, and the only forces in the Galaxy to ever use them were the Nova-Alliance and the Lore. They were the most powerful type of cannon in the entire Galaxy, only the Lore’s… were modified.

  Regular Photon cannons fired extremely unstable, and high powered conducted blasts of pure, seemingly unfathomable amounts of energy. The blasts could reduce an entire small planet to pieces in one shot. However, the Lore’s, they modified the energy with Gold matter implants, making the superweapon two times more powerful. The canons were so hard to make though, that the resources needed to make one could take centuries to acquire.

  There were five massive booster engines in the back of the Grand Warship, each glowing golden yellow. The warship was in formation with two-hundred other Lore warships. They were much smaller, but one could still take out twenty Jupitain warships without being scathed.

  “Fire the Photon cannon directly at the center of the Demon fleet, and calibrate the turrets in preparation for Demon fighters,” Ordered Admiral Kars.

  “Yes, sir,” Replied another Admiral that was standing next to him. The Admiral looked like a robot but was actually the artificial conscience of a species that had uploaded their entire phycological being into virtual, immortal, animatronic bodies. Their homeworld had been taken over nearly a century ago.

  The two-thousand Jupitain warships flew together in formation. Kars could see the red energy start to form inside of the Jupitain laser cannons. He leaned over the control pad, squinting, “Charge the Photon cannon,” Kars ordered.

  The Photon cannon aimed at the center of the Jupitain fleet and started to charge. Although it was such a powerful weapon, it was so advanced that it simply hummed quietly, instead of launching thousands of sparks of energy everywhere like a Tempest cannon.

  Kars’s face clenched, “Fire!” The Photon cannon fired, with a quiet, pheeeeew. The exact millisecond that the cannon fired, a massive, golden yellow explosion of energy blew up in the center of the Jupitain fleet, vaporizing over a thousand Jupitain ships instantly.

  The Photon cannon lowered itself. It had a re-charging period that took twenty seconds. Simultaneously, hundreds of golden yellow laser bolts fired onto the Jupitain fleet, from the rest of the Lore’s forces. For some of the warships, their shields stayed stable, and just blocked the energy, for others, the lasers collided with their bows, or hangars, and exploded. One was blown through the hangar in an entire ship system failure, and the whole shark tooth half bow disbanded from the rest of the ship in a fiery explosion.

  Lore warships released their fighters from their hulls, and Kars watched as they tore through the Jupitain fleet. The Jupitains countered with triple the fighters and even more firepower. Red lasers fired and smashed into Lore fighters, tearing the assault apart. Lasers that hit the hulls of the Lore warships were deflected and evaporated into space.

  “Focus firepower on their main laser cannons, let the turrets drain their energy systems!” Kars ordered.

  Some of the Jupitain laser cannons were blown off; others were completely disintegrated. The Photon cannon was fully charged again, and it fired onto the left side of the Jupitain fleet. Over three-hundred Jupitain warships, gone instantly.

  The battle waged on, the Jupitains with only seconds to do something before their entire fleet was utterly obliterated. Lore fighters tore through waves upon waves of Jupitain fighters and ripped Jupitain Warships in half. When the smoke cleared, and the Jupitain fleet was barely visible, at least five hundred Jupitain warships were left, the wreckage of thousands covering the entire battlefield, colliding with ships and fighters on each side. Then, the fleet split in half, to reveal a warship that was the same size as the rest but armed with some kind of flat, octagonal weapon where the laser cannon should have been. It charged up like an electrical generator, but the substance being charged was Dark matter.

  “Sir… what is that thing?” A pilot asked.

  “Don’t wait to find out, fire… fire!!” Kars yelled.

  The octagon shaped turret, released the Dark Matter as a small sphere, roughly the size of two Lore fighters put together. It sped towards the Lore’s fleet at the speed of sound. When it was close enough to the Lore’s forces, the sphere exploded and enlarged itself to an extensive enough amount, that it spread through the Lore’s entire fleet, deactivating every mechanical system.

  “The shields are down sir… e-everything’s offline!”

  “What’d they hit us with?!” Kars yelled back.

  “Some kind of energy overload sir, it fried all of our systems, I can’t get anything to work!”

  The bridge shook from the Jupitain rain of fire, without any shields, or the Photon cannon, the Jupitains would be able to tear through the Lore’s Grand Fleet like paper.

  Kars grunted, “All of this new technology-augh,” He had to grab onto the control table for support, “They’re outmatching us; I hope the Queen has a secure line of defense because the Demons are going to break through if we don’t get power back!”

  The Jupitain fighters tore through warship after warship, aiming for the hulls and hangars. A large, Jupitain bomber sped towards the bridge of the Grand Warship.

  “The Darkness shall never break through the glorious might of the…” Kars could never finish his sentence. The bomber launched an Infiltrator-ED Torpedo at the bridge, destroying it in a massive red explosion, and vaporizing everyone inside.

  Lore fighters glided defenselessly on the battlefield, making easy prey. A Jupitain fighter shot through one of the Lore fighter’s cockpits, causing the fighter to explode. Then the Jupitain fighter flew through the smoke.

  The Grand Fleet of the Lore that hadn’t lost over a dozen ships in two-hundred years had just been completely destroyed, in minutes.

  The outer wal
l of the Lore, was impenetrable, lined entirely with Gold matter, and shielded metal fused coding, except for the main gate. It was only sealed with three yellow laser grids; enough firepower would be able to break through that in minutes, leaving a way for the Jupitain army to deploy their tanks and other weapons of mass destruction.

  The Jupitains rained down fire on the laser gate, not giving any slack. A giant Meta-Core worm was released into the void of space, metal clattering, the pieces turning and connecting in perfect harmony. The Lore called them Decimators.

  Its face collided with the left side of the laser gate, and it started to drill through the gate’s wiring, blaring the Jupitain horn of death. It couldn’t penetrate enough to get through the thick wall, but the first laser gate seemed to be dimming.

  One of the Heavy Ion cannons next to the Royal throne started to charge, it’s barrel glowing blue, blinding anyone who looked at it directly from its sheer power. Then, a loud three clicks, as the Ion compartments inside the barrel were opened and a loud booom! A streak of blue light launched over the city, and hit the Decimator through the laser gate, dead in the face. The pieces of metal flew everywhere, and Dark-Matter oozed out of its lower body like blood, exposing its bright blue Meta-Core. Its corpse got stuck in the wall.

  It wasn’t enough to stop what was coming though. The fighters came in waves, targeting the loose circuitry that the Decimator had surfaced. The laser gate deactivated and reactivated until finally, the reboot wouldn’t work anymore, and with a final push, the Jupitain fighters had enough firepower to break through the shield. The three energy barriers dissipated with a rippling effect, letting the Jupitain fleet into the city.

  Atmospheric regulators, the size of mountains, on each side of the Lore kept the air and gravity in and were protected by the center shield used to protect the throne room’s heavy Ion cannons. One hundred Jupitain warships flew in, slowly, but were quickly met with a rain of Ion cannon fire. Ships went down simultaneously, some blown through the center, others through the bridge. Jupitain dropships were released amid the chaos, carrying hover tanks, and new kinds of artillery and technology Claire had never seen before.

  The Jupitain artillery was painted pitch black and had hover engines instead of tracks just like the tanks, but its cannon was much larger, and pointed up, almost directly skyward. They were meant to take out the buildings. Another vehicle that the Jupitains deployed was a hovering troop transport vehicle. It was slanted in the front, and heavily armored, with side doors that Jupitains could jump out of and cut down the forces below them.

  There were low-powered laser minigun cannons perched on its roof, one in the back and front, with automatic tracking and targeting. The Jupitains also released dozens of robots. They had mechanical legs that resembled a spider, with a right-side-up cylinder as its body, with two quad, laser miniguns attached. They were the same type of Cyrisian-made robot that was deployed to the battle of Neptune thirty-nine years earlier, only highly upgraded. A 2.0 version.

  Trailing in behind, was a Cyrisian siege monstrosity. A heavily armored Jupitain warship, which was modified at the bottom of its hull, was carrying a large Cyrisian Invasion craft. It was called an Iro. The front of the massive, hover battle craft looked like the front of a Japanese bullet train, but they were over a thousand times wider, big enough to slowly plow through a skyscraper, and keep moving like nothing happened. They were used in the early stages of the Jupitain outbreak across the Galaxy, and Karalus had just recently refurbished one of them. It was going to plow through the city, reach the Royal temple, and mow it down.

  The Jupitain warship released the massive payload, and the Iro fell towards the ground. When it hit, an enormous cloud of dust and dirt covered the sky. It started to crawl towards the Temple slowly. Claire watched in utter terror as the closest skyscraper, over fifty miles away, collapsed, with thousands of aliens still inside it.

  “Defend the city at all costs!” The Queen shouted, “The Demons will know the true, ultimate power of the Lore, today!” The Queen and Claire were standing at the main entrance to the Royal Temple, above the marble stairs, with over ten thousand heavily armored Lore soldiers behind them. The soldiers cheered, their morale extremely high.

  They started for the outer city, ready to intercept the Jupitain’s push for the Temple. There were dozens of Lore military bases scattered across the city, and they were all individually putting up a fight as well.

  The Queen looked at Claire, in utter seriousness, “Claire, your job will be to make sure absolutely no Demon soldiers make it anywhere near the Temple, use any means necessary. My men will help you within the inner city. Keep the sanctity of our great civilization alive. At all costs.”

  All Claire could do was nod. She was petrified. Before the Queen started for the outer city, she noticed Claire’s facial expression and said,

  “Snap out of it. You have the power right there, to be a warlord. Use it.” She gestured at Claire’s Meta-Core hand. A Lore fighter hovered slightly above the Queen and Claire. The Queen grabbed Claire’s forehead, then let go, and clenched her fist in front of Claire’s face, “The tribute of glory. Earn it,” the Queen said. Then she grabbed her Meta-Core staff, took a deep breath, and slammed it into the ground. It created a small hover booster at the butt of the staff, and the Queen held the middle of the staff tightly with one hand. Then, the staff hovered into the air, carrying the Queen with it.

  It hovered high enough until the Queen was slightly above the Lore fighter’s boarding ramp. The hover booster disassembled back into the staff, and the Queen fell onto the boarding ramp. She walked inside of the fighter and left Claire alone at the stairs.

  Claire looked at the horizon. Skyscrapers were falling. Smoke covered almost the entire outer city. She could slightly see the outline of the Iro, slowly pushing towards the Temple. “I should’ve said no…” Claire moaned, cowardly. A Lore fighter hovered above Claire. It had just left the hangar.

  “We can transport you to the front line ma’am; a trench fortification has been formed in the middle of the city!” A soldier shouted from the boarding ramp. Claire didn’t want any part of that, but guilt flooded her mind. She had an incredibly powerful weapon, maybe the most powerful in this entire battle, and she was being selfish. A coward.

  “Auugh, snap out of it!” Claire yelled at herself, trying to get over her fear. She clenched her face, with both hands, distraught on what to do. She moaned, “Auugh, come on! Quit being such a…”

  “Um… ma’am?” The soldier asked from the ramp.

  Claire groaned, “Screw it screw it screw it, fine, I’m coming, no no no, I can’t, I can’t do this… but auugh, I have to… auugh, no no no…” She was tearing herself apart.

  “Ma’am…”

  “Fine! I’ll do it! I’m coming!” She shouted, still scared. The guilt and fear colliding with each other was driving her insane.

  The soldier nodded, and the fighter lowered itself so that Claire could climb aboard. She took a deep breath and walked aboard. The boarding ramp closed behind her. She held onto one of the handlebars and looked around, her heart was beating way too fast. There were seven other soldiers inside of the fighter, not counting the pilot.

  Lore soldiers wore heavy golden armor and were armed with a standard, medium-powered laser rifle, that looked somewhat like an assault rifle, only the barrel was much thicker, and shaped like a rectangle, and the gun was colored golden yellow. Bright, golden yellow lights shined on parts of the barrel, displaying its charge level.

  One of the soldiers saw how distressed Claire looked, and said, “Hey, it’s alright, you’re a Meta-Gene. We’re gonna be a lot safer with you on our…” A high powered laser beam shot from Jupitain artillery blew off the fighter’s left wing, almost half of the ship was torn off in midair and crashed to the ground. Every single Lore soldier inside of the fighter was sucked out, even though they had been holding onto the handlebars. The only reason Claire wasn’t sucked out of the ship too was becaus
e she had been holding on with her Meta-Core hand.

  “Mayday mayday, we’re going down!” The pilot yelled, “Brace for impact!

  Claire was screaming, the shot had come from out of nowhere. The fighter was only a few dozen feet in the air, but the stomach drop was still immensely frightening. Claire had her eyes squeezed shut, and she was hyperventilating. She opened one eye just barely, while the ship was spinning out of control, crashing towards the street.

  She knew she had to do something. She grunted loudly, and formed metal plating all around her body, out of her Meta-Core hand, right before the fighter crashed into the street. The fighter didn’t blow up, but it screeched across the ground loudly, the metal body of it being ripped apart by the force of the impact.

  Claire disassembled the metal shielding she had made that outlined her entire body, and it dismantled back into her Meta-Core. Claire was breathing fast, and hard. Her vision was hazy. She groaned as she lifted her head off the side of the fighter. She looked around, dazed. She could hear the energized whistle of laser beams, before they collided with their targets, and exploded. Claire groaned and slowly started to move towards the cockpit, to check on the pilot.

  His head was face down on the control pad. He lifted it slightly, and asked, “Are you all right?” Before Claire could answer, a laser beam shot through the glass and hit the pilot in the forehead. Claire panicked and screamed slightly, before diving behind the doorway. It had come from a Jupitain sniper.

  Claire couldn’t see it because of the dust cloud that had covered the area. Then she heard the click, click, click… booom sound of one of the Temple’s Ion cannons, and then the whistle of an Ion burst flying towards its target. The blast exploded, right on top of where the shot from the Jupitain sniper had come from.

  Claire breathed out, closed her eyes for a few seconds, then sprinted out of the fighter. The fighter had crashed only a few yards away from the middle city’s trench line, and she was rushing towards it. She breathed heavily, and ran through the dust cloud, into living hell.