Chapter 71 - Purpose Behind The Chaos
The convertible dashed onwards and did complicated turns. His attacks came precisely on time and either bought more time for the Pangean soldiers to escape by the skin of the teeth or cause "accidents" to the enemy soldiers.
Suddenly, Arthur caught a view of several large metallic objects hurling down from the high skies.
Arthur stared at the falling meteors and realized they were the very Golems that he had been fighting.
"Copycats... Using magnetic technology to launch those golems and drop them off specifically on top of the targets." Arthur observed.
"It would be a shame if someone were to alter the landing course." Arthur gave a wicked smile underneath the mask.
As he rode through the cities wreckage and evaded the coming attacks from the enemies, Arthur blasted the falling Dawn soldiers and hit them right at the boosters.
The metallic meteors were then blasted a second time. Arthur was quick to make sure that all the meteors within the site were hit at least once. A single shot caused the well-positioned Dawn soldiers to spin out of control in mid-air. Their once steady position as they zoomed across the sky now became a whirling, falling sight.
The redirected metals crash-landed on its allies.
One Dawn soldier was stomping towards the building as it continued its assault. Suddenly a large metallic being crashed right on top of its head.
The metal dented and blood started to drip out of the helmets of the two large soldiers.
Two metallic monsters were immediately killed upon landing.
The sight of this alerted the Evening soldier.
"Sir! Reporting a confirmed death of one Dawn soldier!" The Evening broadcasted.
Garland stood frozen at the sight of it. Two soldiers costing billions each were gone just like that.
Despite the miracle that he just pulled off, Arthur was not pleased.
"Just two dead?" Arthur sped around observing the crashed landing. The only ones that were killed from his attacks were the two Dawn soldiers that collided head-to-head. The sound of their impact was so loud that those nearby could even feel the walls vibrate. The collision dented the armor to the extreme that the heads of the two were crushed.
However, the others only seemed hurt from the landing. The others landed on thick concrete, smashed on other Dawn soldiers, and a few fell on the frame of a certain building which collapsed on itself after four Dawn soldiers came crashing in.
The Dawn soldiers slowly stood up but it was clear that they were injured while others blasted out from the rubbles of concrete they fell into.
"What tenacity. The threshold of their resistance from impact and shock is so high." Arthur continued to zoom throughout the highway while continuing its barrage of attacks on the skies and ground. The Dawn soldiers then went to the offense, some going for Arthur, while others attacked the closest Pangean soldiers.
Arthur kept zooming back and forth to the highway. He kept attacking enemies who could attack and damage him and at the same time kept evading the barrages of bullets he could avoid.
Sweat was pouring out of Arthur's forehead because of the mental strain he maintained. Slowly, Arthur's attacks were becoming more and more inefficient as the enemy forces started to regroup and change their tactics.
The Dawn soldiers then divided into two groups, one was rushing for Arthur and another was going for the remnant Pangean soldiers in the area.
The attacks were escalating and Arthur was now on full retreat leaving the soldiers to fend for themselves.
Suddenly, Arthur immediately slammed on the breaks and made the car ski through the road and took a 180º turn before stopping.
"Let's get this show on the road," Arthur ordered without even looking. Out of the dark rubbles of a nearby building two figures dashed out and jumped on the front passenger seat while another jumped at the back seat.
Both were carrying an exaggerated amount of weapons.
Charles carried a large bazooka like object on his shoulder, and a minigun which was usually mounted on helicopters and planes. Alean carried a large, thick tactical shield which she carried with her two hands.
On their waist and strapped on their backs were additional machine-guns, Shockers, and several grenades of different forms and colors.
Without missing a beat Arthur sprang out of his seat as Alean took over while handing the shield over to Arthur.
Alean hit on the pedal and the car accelerated faster.
"Charles, I trust you know how to use those?"
"Are you kidding me? I've had my share of handling these back in the day. And now against super-slow bugs, you could say I'd be unmatched in the human world." Charles then excitedly sent out a barrage of bullets at the flying Exoskeletons. Every single bullet pierced through the helmets of the flying Exoskeletons.
"Evade!" The captain of the Evening soldiers exclaimed as his team of Exoskeleton's started scattering.
Amidst the chaos of their escape, there was order.
Arthur fired several blasts and struck the fleeing enemies at a timely moment that they started ramming into each other and the entire platoon started falling down like bowling pins.
"Wow. I think that's a strike." Alean complimented as she looked at the back mirror. She then continued to zoom straight making quick turns and evasions that even Arthur could not pull off as he was holding a large glass cannon.
Their return became more daring as Arthur would use his shield to block some of the bullets.
The group returned back to the heat of the battle and were now helping the remaining Pangean group.
Alean wore a grim expression and started to drive faster.
"We've got to hurry. We have to give our soldiers a chance to regroup."
"That would be impossible even for us. The Armor's are back." Arthur pointed at the sky.
Up at the heights of the buildings, hovered several man-shaped robots. They looked like a larger version of an Exoskeleton. They stood over twenty feet tall and hovered slowly over the buildings. It was as if a Titan from the times of the Roman gods had descended to judge the mortals of the Earth.
The Armors were like the tanks of modern Australia. It was only piloted by one individual. And this individual would be wearing an Exoskeleton. The technology Australia took was geared into using man-like tanks and weapons for flexibility, movement, and diversity. It was apparent that in the end, it was to help create soldiers like the Dawn but on a more terrifying scale.
The Armor was used to prioritize the civilian escape in the city. Its large size could easily remove stones and slabs, break through obstacles and protect plenty of the evacuating Australian citizens. As soon as the attack on the Fort began, New Birth was on full evacuation alert. The Armor's immediately went out and rescued the civilians as there were several bomb attacks occurring everywhere. The priority to protect the civilians never lessened since several attacks and ambushes occurred every now and then. This was a strategy that Lowengren employed to get the biggest headaches out of the war zone.
"Can we handle them?" Charles gave a worried look.
"Sure. I just need about 20 seconds of concentrated shot to kill one of those. But the problem will be their attacks. If any of their attacks explode within 30 meters, we're dead."
"So… this is it? We leave my men to die?"
"Don't underestimate your soldiers. Did you actually think, that that little session with Meryl had no effects? We don't do anything without a reason, Alean. There is a purpose behind the chaos. So trust that even the deaths of your men are still within our calculations." Arthur readied his cannon.
"For now, focus on keeping these Armor's distracted. They'll probably try to lead us into a more uninhabited location before nuking us with their bombardments."
"So we're trying in populated places?"
"No. Just the opposite. We will go to those areas. I'll deal with those attacks."
Meanwhile, while the many battles throughout the city continued to occur, one particular battle was reaching its climax.
A rocket was fired at the foot of the Dawn soldier. The explosion created a small hole and the Dawn soldier lost its footing and fell forward.
Golderon and three other soldiers threw a pack of grenades over the Dawn solider with a whole bag sent into the hole on the ground right before the Dawn soldier stumbled on top of it.
"Johnson! Now!" Golderon screamed.
The team bombarded their rocket attacks at the pillars of the building. Inside the lobby of this small building were Golderon and the Dawn soldier.
Golderon sprinted out of the building. The destruction of its last pillars and the walls that held it up caused the building to collapse on itself. At that moment, time seemed slower than usual. Golderon could see the very rocks falling down as he dashed outside of the building.
Yet time was still not enough for Golderon as he was caught in the falling rubbles at the outskirts of the collapsed building.
"Sargent!" A soldier called out as she sprinted towards Golderon.
Some of the other soldiers rushed at Golderon and used their guns to send a "shock" through the stone slab and freed Golderon out of it.
"Sir… the others."
"They're dead. Just move!" Golderon ordered immediately. The team ran away from the rubble.
Golderon immediately pushed the button.
The Dawn soldier was struggling to move deep inside the rubbles and was about to use its weapons to destroy the rubble. But then the explosions occurred.
Surrounding him were several grenades. All sorts were there. Eradicating Light grenades, shock grenades, and a bag of whiplash grenades. It all went off together.
The series of explosions caused a strange site as the pile's rubbles were blasted out of its place.
Golderon was the first to run towards the wreckage. As the dust fell, the image of the Dawn soldier was revealed.
It was still struggling to move. Blood could be seen oozing out of its armor.
"Kill by piercing you. That was Colonel's lie. He knew from the start that our current weapons could not dent the armor you have. You heard him, didn't you?" Golderon gazed bravely at the Dawn soldier.
The surrounding soldiers gave a curious look at their Sargent.
"A soldier who wears nothing but steel and has no technological support with him. How can it fight with its limited vision? Colonel theorized, it has extreme hearing capabilities. That's why Evening Exoskeletons which are flight capable accompanied it. It would either react through the sounds that his enemies make or from the shouts of the Exoskeletons guiding him."
The soldiers realized Golderon's words and gave a curious look at their enemy. So this was why it could withstand whiplash bombs which were invented to kill the pilots through pressure and whiplash.
"So the Colonel thought what could kill a metallic beast such as you. The metal is almost impenetrable. It can absorb whatever shock and vibrate it away. This served as a way of protecting the pilot from any traumatic shocks and explosions it faces."
Golderon took out a shock gun and shot a light attack.
The Dawn soldier started shaking and shaking. But unlike the previous times, it was hit with a full blast of the shock gun, it seemed to be in pain.
"But what if, it can't vibrate its way out? What if, it was buried in tons and tons of rubble and bombs were placed all around it? It wouldn't know where to send its vibrate and ultimately, it would crush the pilot. It would rupture the pilot's blood vessels, burst out so much damage that the organs should be crushed."
The Dawn solder stumbled back after the shock attack. It could no longer move. Golderon kicked the helmet's visors out of the way to see the large face of the Dawn soldier.
"Truth be told; any normal human being would be killed from that. But not a Golem like you. Now that you've lost quite a lot of blood… the shock should hurt now right?" Golderon smiled as he returned his Shock-gun back to its holster.
Golderon immediately grabbed the gun of the soldier nearby and shot the head of the Dawn soldier several times.
"Let's move men.. We have a mission to complete."