12: The New Armour
Sam's new armour glistened in the sunlight - it glistened gold. His new armour looked exactly like Defender but golden. Everything from his trident down to his boots were golden. Although some things had changed, he now had two saw-like things on his back that he wasn't entirely sure about. One thing that he was sure about though, was that he was going show Chaos just what it meant to be a Space Marine.
Sam sprinted toward Chaos, his new armour seeming to be quicker and more agile despite its large size. Chaos brought up a hand around and began to swing a left hook aimed at Sam's head. The fist met with a shield Sam had raised a second before the fist collided with Sam's helmet. Chaos was still stronger though and his fist burst through the shield, impacting Sam square in the helmet. It sent him into the air.
Sam stopped a little off the ground. He was floating and his armour was changing. His trident became loose and fused with his armour just above his butt, forming a tail. The large metal kilt that protected the lower half of Defender folded back and the different sections became wings. The two blade like things popped out of their sockets and floated next to Sam's hands and the wings took their place.
Sam landed softly once the transformation had finished, and grabbed the two saw blades. He realised that they were chakrims - saw blade-like weapons that when thrown would fly toward a target, cut them and then come back. Sam smiled as he threw one at Chaos, who tried to duck out of the way but the chakrim slammed into his face, slicing off a chunk of his helmet.
Sam looked at him and realised who Chaos was beneath the helmet.
"Hayden," Sam whispered to himself. Hayden was once Sam's friend until Hayden had become his school's head boy. They had stopped being friends and kind of separated. And now the boy was Sam's greatest enemy.
In that moment of hesitation Chaos had called all of his Generals and his Marines to retreat. Sam let them go. He couldn't kill his old friend.
Epilogue
As his Chakrim came back to him, Sam caught it and ran over to his team. Jareth was still on the ground, unconscious. Athena and Hades came back and told about how they were about to be killed by the Generals when Chaos had given them the order to retreat. They all headed back into the base. Sam dropped Jareth off at the med bay while the rest of his team freed the other marines from the detention block. After that, Sam and his team all went to the med bay to get checked out. They were glad that Chaos had left. Although they knew that it wasn't over, they now had a way to fight against him and his Chaos Marine army.
.
Part Four - Eternal Darkness
More and more team members join Sam's crusade against the Chaos overlords but with more joining, more have to leave, or die. More dark secrets are revealed - secrets that could force the S1 team to divide; secrets withheld by new and old team mates. Can Sam ever hope to destroy the Chaos Marines if he can't even control the darkness of his own team?
Prologue
Omega looked down at the Chaos General, his body burnt and beaten. Omega panted as he recalled the harsh fight that he and Theta had fought with Riley. They had won and now Riley lay dead in front of him. Theta had left once Riley was severely weakened, leaving it up to Omega to finish it. He knew that it wasn't the last they'd hear from Riley - he had a thing for coming back from the dead.
A scream came from outside the black sand crater. Omega used his elemental powers to shift the sand into stairs, which he ran up with ease. He came to the top of crater and found Bravo kneeling over Gamma, who was unconscious.
"Is she okay?" Omega asked, even though he knew that Bravo couldn't speak. His tongue had been torn out as torture when he was a captive of the Chaos Marines. It was a stupid torture tactic as he couldn't tell them anything after they'd ripped it out but the General that did it was killed as soon as Chaos had found out.
Bravo looked up to him and nodded. Omega let out a sigh of relief. Gamma was his Battle Sister and if anything happened to her or any of his team … he'd … he'd do something bad. He couldn't think straight after the mind games that Riley had played on him. Riley was a skilled Chaos Elemental, brilliant at playing with people's minds.
Omega looked over to Delta who was also unconscious, and then at the small boy that sat next to him. The boy was awake but scared. Omega could see him trembling even in the low dark blue light.
"We need to get out of here. I'll radio in for evac," Omega said, walking back over to the crater and peering in to see if Riley was still dead. Omega wanted some rest, some peace, but Alpha had them going on missions all day everyday and Omega was sick of it. He would have a word with the half-man half-dragon when he got back.
1: Free Fall
"Alright team, we should be nearly in position. Since Jareth and Taine are the only two who can fly, the two of you will help the rest of us get to our targets. The rest of us will go from one vessel to the other, taking it down by any means, but try to not take down one that someone else has already landed on. Everyone ready to jump?"
"Yes Sir, Matthew, Sir."
As the hatch slowly opened with a loud creaking the cabin was slowly filled with light. The light blinded each of the marines so they activated their helmets to drown out the light.
"Jareth, Taine, get ready to jump. Go go go," Matthew said as they flew over their targets.
"Earthen Chimera."
"Thunder Garuda."
Jareth and Taine leapt out of the ship and their beast forms activated.
"Lachlan, Cheyenne, ready?"
"Ready when you are, Matthew."
"Let's do this."
All three of them jumped out of the ship and began to free fall towards thousands of Chaos Marine ships below them. Each ship was flat with small rooms at one end which served as the control room. Each ship carried thousands of Chaos Marines.
Lachlan and Cheyenne found their targets earlier, landed on them and began to take them down. Matthew locked onto one which was directly below him. He activated his Cerberus Armour and moved himself so he was over the control room of the ship.
"Twin Cerberus Cannon!" The two cannons on his hands fired a constant beam that shot right through the engine that kept the ship flying. Matthew brought his arms close to his body and fell right through the hole he had created as the ship exploded.
He realised that now he was falling towards nothing, and must have taken down one of the lowest ships.
"Jareth, come and get me. I may have chosen the wrong ship to attack."
"Alright, I'm coming." Jareth swooped down and Matthew landed on top of him. Jareth began to ascend at a rate that Matthew had to grab Jareth's fur to stop himself from falling off.
"Ouch, dude, what the hell? That hurts. Okay, you can let go now. We're over a ship."
Matthew let go and began to fall as he eyed the ship below him. He could see Taine, Cheyenne and Lachlan taking down ships all through the sky.
Matthew landed with a thud that caused the ship to lurch forward. The Chaos Marines at the front of the ship fell off, probably to their deaths - not that they died. The Chaos Marines began to fire at Matthew, with several of the turrets facing him and beginning to fire. Matthew quickly dispatched with the turrets and took the time to look around. The Chaos Marines fired at him but his armour was too strong and the bullets just bounced off of it.
He looked around him but white clouds and blue sky were the only things to see so high up in the sky. The Chaos Marine ships were scattered around. The sky was filled with them ten or so minutes earlier and his team had taken most of them down in that small time. He could see explosions as his team kept on destroying them.
The wind picked up, threatening to throw Matthew off the side. When he turned around he saw that it was only Jareth landing next to him.
"Is Sam coming to help?" Jareth asked, sitting next to Matthew.
"I don't know, he's been distracted lately. He's back at base trying to learn more about his new armour."
"Grrr … would you stop shooting us? We're tr
ying to talk here. We'll deal with you later," Jareth growled at the remaining Chaos Marines who were shooting at them.
"You know what will happen if you lead us for a few more weeks right?" Jareth asked once the Chaos Marines had calmed down.
"No, what's going to happen?"
"You'll have to officially become leader."
"OOHHHH CRAP!"
"You don't like that idea? But you make such a great leader."
"Well, yeah, I don't know. It's just…" a bullet pinged off his helmet and sent him over the edge. "Jareth, we'll talk about this later. I have some impatient conversation disrupters to kill," Matthew said, switching one of his cannons to a blade.
Jareth laughed and took off to find another ship. The ship lurched as Jareth's weight left the ship, causing everyone on board to stagger or fall over. Matthew took this chance to shoot as many as he could with the cannon on his right hand. When they regained their balance Matthew began to take them down with the blade that extended from the Cerberus head on his left hand.
Matthew made sure that all of the Chaos Marines on the ship were dead before walking to the front of the ship. He turned and fired his cannon at the engine room and hopped off the ship as it exploded. He began to fall, there weren't any ships left so Taine flew underneath him and Matthew landed on his back.
Taine flew up and faced Jareth, who had Cheyenne and Lachlan on his back. The beast forms were so big that each one could carry two or three teenage humans on their back. Matthew wrapped his arms around Taine's throat to hold on and poked his head over Taine's left shoulder.
"We should head back to base," Matthew said, looking over and seeing Jareth nod. Now they just had to wait for the ship to come back, or they could fly down to the surface but they weren't sure which continent they were above.
They waited for their ship to come back.
2: A Change In Leadership
A few months had passed since Chaos had attacked the base and Sam had been on the brink of death. Since then all of S1, including Sam, had learnt to master their elemental powers. Sam had stayed at the base while his team went off to do missions, he had been learning about his new golden armour and trying to find his dad.
"Sam, can I see you for a moment?" the General's voice came over his comms. Sam headed up towards the General's Throne room.
"Sir?" Sam asked as he stood in front of the General.
"I'm sorry to say this Sam but I'm demoting you from team leader," the General said calmly. Sam couldn't tell if this was a joke or not.
"I'm sorry, Sir. What do you mean?"
"You've missed too many missions and since Matthew is your second in command I have no choice but to make him your team's new leader. You now have a choice. You can continue being on S1 and following Matthew's orders or you can go and do your own thing. As far as I'm concerned no matter what you choose the base still has a really good S1 leader. Matthew has proven his worth lately while you have faltered. The choice is yours."
Sam had to think to himself for awhile about the choice. 'Hmmmm, I could stay with the team and help to take down Chaos, or I could use this off time to try and find my dad.'
"I'll do my own thing, on one … two conditions. Number one: I want to be able to use the resources at the base, and two: I want to able to come back to my team at any time," Sam finally said after thinking.
"Those are both reasonable terms. As long as you know that if you decided to come back you'll still be under Matthew's orders."
"Understood, Sir."
"Then you're dismissed. I'll inform your team immediately They should be back soon from their mission."
Sam left the General and headed down to the Command Centre. He found Doc furiously shouting orders and commands at a team that was displayed on the main viewing screen of the room. Since S1 had basically become a freelance team, doing missions without the need for a tactician, Doc had been assigned to direct all nine S ranked Marines including Chris's team.
Sam could see the team in the screen was fighting Chaos Marines. They seemed to be trapped behind cover as Chaos Defilers and other Chaos Mechs were firing at them from a distance. Sam could hear explosions and bullet fire from the scene. It seemed pretty bleak for the marines.
"Hey Doc," Sam said, walking up to the main screen.
"Oh, hey Sam. Didn't hear ya come in. Yeah, just hold tight, backup is on the way. Yes, I know that they're shooting at you but I can't do much from back here. Sorry Sam, hey would you mind lending a hand. The General told me that you're no longer part of S1 and since you've got nothing to do could you maybe go and help these guys?" Doc asked, putting his hand over the mic that was around his head.
"Yeah, sure. Why not. But consider this a personal favour. You'll owe me one."
"I know, but whatever it is I'll gladly help if you get these guys out of there."
"Okay, okay, I'm going," Sam said as he began to concentrate. He wasn't very good at doing that but he was learning. He ran a small distance and went in for a shoulder roll. As he left the ground he became cloaked in a harsh light and reappeared on the middle of a battlefield.
"Sir, over here," a marine yelled from Sam's left. Sam headed over to them and found the team he was looking for. They were holed up in a freshly dug trench.
"How'd you get here so fast, Sir. And where's the rest of your team?" the lead marine asked.
"I blinked, but I'm still not very good at it. And I no longer have a team. It's just me today," Sam replied, hopping down into the trench as a shell flew over his head and exploded behind them.
"Oh, that's okay I guess. We were kind of hoping that Matthew would come and help us."
Sam was surprised by the marine's response. Sam was the best marine around, wasn't he? Sam began to doubt his own ability but Doc's voice came blearing through the comms.
"Sam, there should be three or four Defilers north of you. Once you take them out it should be easy for you and the other marines to advance."
Doc's voice sounded metallic through the comms. The Chaos Marines must've been trying to interfere with their communications.
"Okay, I'll take them out. You lot keep your heads down and try not to get killed."
Sam slapped his palm against his gauntlet and activated his golden defender armour. He still hadn't gotten any new armours since Chaos disintegrated most of Sam's old armours. Now he only had golden defender and his old terminator armour. Well, he had his beast form but he didn't like using it.
Sam switched to attack mode and flew above the battlefield. He was flying over a trash heap - a trash planet in fact. As far as the eye could see were mountains of trash and nothing but trash. An endless maze of trash hills and scrap heaps.
Sam quickly spied the three or four Defilers, but counted ten actually. Doc's estimate was off but it didn't matter, Sam could still take them down. He flew over them and threw his chakrams at two of them, slicing them in half and getting the attention of the other eight. They all pointed their main cannons at him while keeping the laser cannons on each side pointed at the Marines in the trench.
Sam couldn't change into defence mode without his chakrams, which hadn't come back yet. He could see that the Defilers were readying their cannons to blast him out of the sky. Sam flew after his chakrams. He flew right between two Defilers, which fired at him, resulting in both Defilers blowing themselves up. Four down, six left.
Matthew and the S1 teleported back up to base and were greeted by the General waiting for them. As they walked back up to the General's throne room each of the marines tried to think about why the General had been there when they had arrived.
When they got to the throne room the General sat on his throne and sighed.
"I've removed Sam from your team. Matthew, you are now the leader of S1," he said. The marines stood there motionless. None of then had expected that.
"No, no, no! You're joking right? It's still a few weeks until I'm forced to take leadership. Isn't it?" Matthew asked, being probably the most upset about the
news. He didn't want to lead S1.
"Yes, but I thought that since Sam hasn't taken any interest in any of the missions you've been on, it was time for a change in leadership."
"And Sam's okay with this?"
"He is. He says that it'll give him more time to do what he needs to do. Whatever that means."
"Crap."
"Matthew! Language!"
"Sorry, Sir. Would it be okay of we took some time off to fully take all this in?"
"I'll let you and your team have a few weeks' leave. But any sign of the Chaos Marines and I want you all back in action."
"Yes, Sir," the marines said, coming to attention before departing.
"Congrats, Matt. Looks like you got your wish," Lachlan said as they walked the halls.
"I never wanted this. I was supposed to only be leader for a few weeks and then Sam would be back."
"Sounds like he's not coming back. Not any time soon anyway," Jareth added.
Cheyenne and Taine left to go and do training on the Holo Deck, leaving Jareth, Lachlan and Matthew to roam the halls of the base. They made their way to the common room that was for the S ranked marines.
"I don't want this. Do either of you want to take over?" Matthew asked as he frantically paced back and forwards across the common room. Jareth put his hand up but Lachlan quickly made him drop it.
"Look, Matthew, you have to lead the team now. Unless of course you quit. But since you haven't assigned a second in command it would mean that the team would have to disband. It's up to you," Lachlan said as he and Jareth sat on one of the many couches that littered the common room.
"Crap. I don't know what to do."
"Just lead us like you have. You've done a great job already."
"Is there any way for Sam to become the leader again?"
"I don't know. Maybe if he bet you in a fight, but I'm not sure. Why don't you want to lead us?"
The Chaos Saga Page 15
