by Zac Strong
I count four turrets guarding the entrance above the square, each manned by a Suit. Archer Lethe, presumably deep at the center of his fortress with only one way in.
A rock’s thrown, smacking one of the droids in its breastplate stamped with the Lethe eagle. It takes the hit without retaliation. Another rock swiftly follows.
My eye spots others watching the scene unfold from the windows of their skyscrapers, frightened, unable to muster the courage to stand up for themselves, conditioned into the fetal. I wonder if that would’ve been me if Selene wouldn’t have chosen me. What would have become of me if I never plugged into the Delta Project?
The wind picks up. With it, a strange stillness.
My feet anchored, head on a swivel.
“What more beautiful a morning is there to die, Kronos?” shouts Selene over the quieting crowd. “This is our place in history. This is our time to shine! With the light that rains from our gunfire, shine we will! Men and women of Olympia, always remember, we are but pawns for a purpose much greater than ourselves. Rejoice! For our names will never be forgotten! That is my future. That is our future! That is the future of the world! The time is fucking now!!”
I can feel my pulse pounding my temples. A unified passion surges through my veins. Her words shoot an energy through not only me but every ear in the square, unlocking something buried deep within us all.
The droids in front of us become more restless.
There is a hunger in us, a hunger that can only be satisfied by the blood of the Lethe Corporation, and we aren’t stopping until every one of us has had our take, until we are all full.
A blinding flash blinks from the hills just outside Olympia is followed by a deep, petrifying thunder. On the rolling skyline, miles away, massive blue streaks of lightning spiders towards the stars around a mushroom cloud of multicolored fire and thick, black smoke as tall as the city itself.
Not a word is uttered. Every eye facing the direction of the solar farm.
The earth trembles underneath the city. Buildings sway. A cloud of dust moves through us like a ghost storm. Glass shatters, every window, a million pieces showering over us. The streetlights flicker, then go dark.
One by one, every light in the city, all of them. Powerless. Pitch black.
The insidious red eyes of the droid army before us pierce the darkness. Motionless. Waiting.
A squadron of Lethe enforcers races in the direction of the funnel cloud overhead.
“For justice!” is screamed into the dark.
From only the light of the stars and fires burning behind, I watch.
Selene throws her sign to the ground, flings the poncho over her head, and fires her blaster from the hip. A line of droids hit the ground before her poncho does.
The others are seconds behind. All of Kronos, at once, tossing their pickets down and firing their hidden weapons into the front lines of the Lethe army.
Lethe returns fire.
Protestors fall wherever their lead or fragment touches, indifferent to the unarmed or uninvolved.
Bullets scream around me.
I remain frozen, unable to breathe, every muscle locked into place.
People scramble, diving for cover behind trash piles and burnt vehicles, anywhere they can find refuge.
“Well don’t just sit there. Kill something!” yells Vulcan, aiming his gravity launcher at the closest powerless turret.
He fires.
A cyan, electric orb leaves his barrel, flies through the air, and sticks to the outer wall of the tower beside it. The plasma activates on impact, sucking two droids, a Suit, and the energy turret from its mount, crushing the metal as it sinks impossibly into the fist-sized ball, sparking brighter, then fizzling out of existence.
Lethe gunfire rains heavy in his direction, focusing their attack on Vulcan.
He narrowly escapes, sprinting into the shadows of the abandoned building we arrived in through an adjacent door.
I remain hidden, laying behind a concrete barrier.
After a few moments, I finally gather enough courage to remove the poncho and stand, weapon slung over my shoulder.
Their bullets burrow into the concrete around me.
Taking a deep breath, I exhale, bringing the rifle to my shoulder. Aim. Then, pull the trigger.
The bolt slams home, sending my projectile through the face of an enemy droid.
My eye creates an augmented trajectory like before, retinal hololight projecting a path into the kill spots of the enemy within firing range. With every pull of the trigger, another falls until the first of my magazines runs dry.
Lethe reinforcements storm from inside the tower, funneling out of the main entrance behind the turrets.
The droid army regroups, marching over their fallen. They break into different formations, separating, redirecting fire.
Waiting for the right moment, I rush into the building Vulcan disappeared into. The door leads to a hollow stairwell beside a dark elevator. The only light peeks in from the holes shot through the plaster walls.
I find him behind a broken window on the second floor, an eye in the scope of a sniper. He looks up at me, uses his blouse to wipe the inside of his goggles. “You good?”
“I’m good,” I say, clearing the sweat from my eyes.
“Good.”
The subtle hum of the room’s electronics powering on is followed swiftly by the jarring blindness of the interior lights overhead. Either they’ve repaired the power, or they’ve turned on the backup generators, which means the energy turrets are up. Not good.
Jumping to the closest open window, I rip the cover hanging over it and push a side table out of the way. Outside three turrets remain guarding the front entrance, armed, and firing. To make things worse a half dozen Lethe enforcers just arrived and are hovering overhead, shooting into the portable bunkers our men have deployed.
My upgrade spots Selene and Hector below us, tucked between a burning ground-truck and a pile of decommissioned droids fighting unmercifully.
On their blindside I spot another squad of metal men following a Suit, attempting to flank.
I lift my rifle, zoom in.
His suit is dirty, streaked with smoke. His black hair wet with sweat. Gritting his perfect teeth, he sprints across the street, gun raised to his side, leading what he is sure to be a nail in the coffin for Kronos.
I place my bullet between his hazel eyes, and three more in each droid behind him. Not today, bitch.
A Lethe enforcer above spots me and my moment is over. Must’ve seen my muzzle flash.
Hell flies from their cannons into the open window I’m sprinting away from. Its missile explodes taking a massive bite out the wall protecting us.
Through the smoke and rubble, I see another two enforcers closing in. They both float, hammering the remnants of this building with their heavy-caliber machine guns, backing us into the corner closest to the stairwell. Spent brass rains to the ground under them like giant, golden raindrops as bullets tear through the walls.
Vulcan, forced to abandon his sniper position, grabs the gravity launcher leaned on the back wall and aims the barrel through the new opening.
He fires, hitting his mark. The shuttle’s sucked into the cyan orb attached to its tail. The sound of ripping metal, and shattering glass roars momentarily over the gunfire.
The second enforcer attempts to steady itself, avoiding the pull from the gravity orb. It fires a line of lead through the broken outer wall of this place, splintering furniture, throwing debris.
Sliding past the onslaught, I make it behind the half wall he’s shredding into, getting as close as possible to him, keeping low
Steadily, I detach one of the scorpions linked to my belt, a glossy black sphere with three red prongs stemming from the rear. A single button on the front. Doesn’t look very friendly. I’m counting on it to not be.
Pressing the red button, I heave it at the Lethe enforcer.
It clamps to the nose of the shuttle, d
oes nothing for a second, then explodes, tearing the cockpit out of the enforcer.
The shuttle falls from the air ablaze, crashing into one of the turrets below, sliding down the far side stairs to the square. Two more turrets left
“Holy shit! Did you see that?” I ask, jerking back around. “Vulcan…” my voice cracks.
He’s on his back, lifeless in a puddle of his own blood.
Another missile strikes the remains of the wall, this time reducing it to smoke and rubble. It collapses over his gravity launcher as gunfire from the energy turrets outside slam through.
Their focus is me now.
Fragments of rock become shrapnel. Glass cuts through the air as well as any blade. Debris of all sizes rains down and the faux-brick cladding of the stairwell shatters, casting red dust and projectiles into the air around me.
I leave him lying there, sprinting downstairs and out the door I came in. The building rumbles behind, ready to collapse at any second.
Outside, fighters soar through the sky. Kronos gunships struggle against the remaining two energy turrets on the front and a fleet of enforcers plucking them out of the air. The tracers from their guns, like a meteor shower ignite the early morning.
“Watch out!!” someone screams from behind, then I’m tackled, sliding across the pavement.
The flaming wing of a shuttle smashes to the concrete where I was just standing, cartwheeling through the square like a wrecking ball.
The rest of the screeching Lethe enforcer spiral crashes into the building across the battlefield, exploding into a ball of fire and smoke.
“Niko?”
“Stay down!” he orders, pushing my face to the ground.
A burst of particle rays tears through the top of the concrete barrier protecting us, as something explodes over my shoulder.The fire from the wreckage spreads to the adjacent floors of the skyscraper it collided into with haste, engulfing the entire bottom half of the building.
Lethe is pushing our militia back. There are far too many of them. They’ve split us down the middle and we’ve already lost at least half of our people. We have to take out those turrets and fast if we’re going to stand a chance.
Gunfire continues hammering the ground around us.
Another burst from the energy turret rips two of our men in half right in front of me. Somehow the smell is worse than the sight of it.
Selene and Hector have moved up. Pushing behind enemy lines, trying to get a shot at the turrets. Suicide mission.
“Cover me!” orders Niko, disappearing into the smoke starting to take the low ground
I stand, rifle steadied on the barrier, and empty my mag into the horde of advancing droids, clearing a path for him.
Rockets from Lethe enforcers continue to strike the building next to me with every roaring pass. It’s beginning to collapse from within. There’s no way it can handle the damage.
One of their turrets blasts the ground in front of me, splashing rock and energy fragments through in the air.
Taking cover just in time, I dive behind the only thing between me and their bullets, my concrete barrier. Only a matter of time before it too gives to the force of Lethe.
The building beside me whines, tilting slowly.
Sounds of bending metal grumble from inside.
The bottom floors can’t handle the weight.
Without regard for enemy fire, I run.
“It’s going to fall!”
In my peripheral a crack flashes across the cerement base of the tower, splitting it in two. The inside floors collapse on each other, crumbling to rubble and debris.
The top of the building leans away from Lethe Tower, whipping the neighboring skyscraper, the one Poth lives in. It scrapes to the ground and pushes a thick cloud of smoke over the battlefield as it dissolves to ash and dust. Its dying roar mutes all else.
The terror of gunfire slows temporarily, as the remains of another fallen building steadily crash to the ground on itself still ablaze. The fire rages through the smoke, burning violent shades of orange and yellow.
I make it to the concrete rise where Niko was just taking cover. Damage from the anniversary attack is still visible.
A pack of droids leap past me, on all fours, like mechanical beasts, firing into the surrounding buildings still standing around the square. Only their glowing red eyes, and the white streaks from their muzzles are visible through the passing smoke.
I shoulder my weapon and spray until their eyes burn no longer.
Minutes pass, impossible to know how long. The smoke cloud dissipates enough to witness the only outcome of war. Blood, metal.. death.
Thousands of lifeless corpses are embedded into the debris and smoldering concrete. Pausing to catch my breath, my watering eyes capture everything. All of them left mangled on the ground. They gave their lives so others might have a chance, a future they will never see themselves.
The morning’s close behind me, and the fight’s unceasing, both around me and within. I’m tired, dirty, hidden in the trench waiting for an idea to convince me to move.
An explosion blasts the turret furthest me, sending it sparking down the stairs of Lethe Tower.
Crouched, I tactically move towards a better line of sight.
From the smoke where the exploded turret sat steps Niko.
A wave of relief hits me unexpectedly. He’s still alive. Just the sight of him refuels me. It’s not over.
The feeling passes as I witness three Suits storm up the stairs, stopping in front of him, cornering him on the elevated pedestal where a golden statue of an eagle once sat before the turret.
Niko slowly takes a knee.
They fire.
He raises his forearm, holding it towards their gunfire.
A blue light springs from his arm and expands into an oval.
Their bullets slam into it, absorbed in the energy shield.
One of the Suits charges, jumping to kick as the other two reload their blasters.
Suit in the air, Niko reaches in his trench coat and pulls out a sawn-off shotgun with his free hand. He steps forward, swings the shotgun, and fires, sending a hundred pellets through a bloody hole in his attacker’s chest.
With his second shot, he cuts the head clean off another. The rest of the Suit’s body falls to its knees, then tumbles down the stairs.
The last one fires, emptying his mag in vain.
Bullet after bullet slams into Niko’s shield, but he fearlessly persists, continuing to push towards his attacker.
The blaster jams.
The energy shield Niko wields transforms, narrowing into a long, blue sword of pure light.
He thrusts it into the chest of the Suit, tip first until blood seeps from his nose and mouth.
Niko hops down, reaches in his jacket, and pushes a shell into each barrel of his shotgun.
Selene and Hector emerge from the far corner of the tower and work their way through a few droids to Niko, taking shelter amidst the burning remains of a Kronos gunship. The three of them near the bottom of the stairs to Lethe tower.
Rows of red eyes in attack formation march between us. I’m surrounded and low on ammo. The last energy turret sits atop the stairs above me, still raining fire into the last of our retreating troops and any structures they take cover in.
A stray enforcer shoots one of our pilots into the Outlands and descends, hovering over the square, weapons pointed towards Niko and the others.
“Save them, Palin,” whispers Kalli, twirling her dress in the wind beside me before withering away to nothing.
The enforcer fires, blasting Niko.
The blue from his shield’s barely visible from the bombardment he’s struggling to hold off.
Too high out of reach for my last scorpion, the Lethe pilot continues firing, trapping Niko further into the growing crater of its barrage.
I’m not sure how much more his shield can take. I have to do something!
Automatic, like something inside me took control
, I raise my rifle and aim it at the Suit above me gunning down our men from the swivel seat of the last energy turret. He’s unleashing everything he has into the sky at last of our remaining shuttles.
He slides to the left hammering the air.
My eye creates a hololight trajectory.
Trusting it with my life my perfectly placed bullet ricochets off the breastplate of a fallen droid knocking the turret gunner lifeless from his chair. The mob of droids protecting him immediately fire towards me.
Their bullets smack the concrete, tumbling through the square.
I find asylum behind a capsized ground-vehicle.
One of the droids ambushes me.
Before I can pull the trigger, its titanium fingers wrap around the barrel of my weapon, ripping it from my hands to the ground behind it.
Scarlet eyes from the droid peer from above. Its rifle raised to my forehead.
My eyes close.
Taking a deep breath, I brace myself.
It fires, seconds after I knock the barrel away and roll between its legs.
Its faceplate jerks around, but it’s too late.
Snatching my rifle from the ground, I lift it to my shoulder and fire three rounds into the droid’s core, another into its transmitter for good measure.
With hesitation, I spin the rifle towards the droids still firing from around the unmanned turret and hold the trigger until none were left standing.
Racing up the stairs over the sparking corpses of bullet-ridden droids, I jump into the swivel seat of the last energy turret, warm blood still dripping from the headrest.
An augmented display overloads my panicky eyes. Hundreds of buttons and gauges light up before me. Their meaning, like a foreign language.
The Lethe enforcer hovering overhead fires everything he has at the fading blue light of Niko’s shield shining through the smoke and cascade of gunfire. I refuse to let them die.
Spinning the turret around, I wrap both hands around the handgrips in front of me, resting my fingers on the triggers attached behind, and I pull.
