Chapter 4

Yeshua respawned inside the main facility, collapsing to the floor from his previous life’s burning death.

“Breathe, man. Breathe. It was just one more death,” Yeshua said to himself. He was getting really tired of dying to these superhero invaders.

Yeshua recovered and rose to his feet. He checked the local map. He was in the eastern wing of the facility. Yeshua grabbed for his rifle and held it in his two hands. He checked the magazine, making sure it was full.

It was.

Weapons were always full upon respawn. Yeshua made sure anyways. He could hear the battle rage outside. Explosions and heavy weapon sounds, the latter likely Avatars or enemy heavy mechs. He was at zero for deployment. Meaning, he had to be careful. Lessons from the dragon planet where the enemy pushed them hard when they made mistakes coming back to him.

Yeshua paused and put the map away. He pressed his lips together. He didn’t know where he was, beyond the general location from the map. He had not been in this part of the facility.

Yeshua looked around. He was at a junction. To his right was a corridor. This corridor turned a dozen or so feet down the hall and out of sight.

Yeshua’s left was another corridor. It too also turned out of sight.

In front of him was a long hallway. He could see windows in the distance. Since the facility had two main areas, he surmised that was a bridge that connected the two main portions.

“Computer, pull up the facility map again.”

“Yes, Sir,” a pause, “Here you go.”

“Thanks, Computer.”

“Anytime, Spirit.”

Yeshua noted he was correct. That was a bridge. Outside, underneath it, was a major connective corridor, large enough for several vehicles to go through. Yeshua figured the facility was durable enough to not break if an Avatar or tank fired at it. Maybe some of the concussive damage could get through.

Hopefully.

Hopefully, if a tank fired at it, it was sturdy enough to survive.

He took a deep breath and blinked in his helmet.

Yeshua pulled the charging handle back of his rifle and was ready for action.

Not a moment too soon, a squad of robotic infantry rounded the corner from the right. Yeshua brought the rifle to shoulder-height and laid into them, aiming down sights as he pulled the trigger.

The rifle kicked to the left and right, an oddity in firearm design. The muzzle brake on the end of the weapon alternated left and right vents. This caused the gun to move left and right. It made the gun harder to handle in a way but eliminated the upward recoil found on other weapons. Yeshua found this method for recoil to be better for mowing down robotic infantry and other at-height opponents, though admittedly it was best used against the aforementioned robots because they came in squads. Individuals were a challenge to deal with because of how the gun went left and right rather than stayed on target.

Yeshua put the first two robots down. The rest returned fire and clipped him. He moved to a corner and fired from around it, gun and arm poking out.

Another kill.

Then he was clipped.

“Argh.”

“You’re hurt, Sir.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be offline while in combat?”

“Yes, but I can still see you’re hurt.

“I recommend waiting for health regeneration.”

“No can do, Computer. I must push them back.”

“As you are. I’ll be here.”

Yeshua pulled his gun back and dropped its now empty magazine. He drew a fresh one from the void and slipped it in, locking it in place and pulling the charging handle once more. Then he got back to work shooting robots.

So, far, they were just basic infantry. Semi-automatic weapons, nothing too special, probably flooding the facility using numbers to beat down the Order Military stationed here.

Then, a robot with a shotgun rounded the cornered. It got one shot off before Yeshua put it down, noticing the difference in weapon design and shifting priorities onto it.

“Shotgun, huh? More advanced weapon bots, I guess.”

Another shotgun-armed bot rounded the corner. Before it could raise its weapon, Yeshua struck it down, too. More robots poured into the corridor. Yeshua kept up the fire, trying to push them back. He stuck his head out from behind the corner every so often to acquire new targets and take stock of the numbers.

“Not good, Sir.”

“I can see that, Computer.”

“At this rate, they will overwhelm your position in a minute.”

“Understood, got any solutions?”

“I, uhh...”

“Demon of the Night!” rang out from the originally left-direction hallway. A robed super soldier was slowly walking towards Yeshua.

“Shima Fucking Yisrael,” swore Yeshua.

“Language,” responded the computer.

“Shush, you. We’re in a war.”

“Still shouldn’t take the Lord’s name in vain.”

Yeshua grunted a response.

The super soldier stopped and motioned beyond Yeshua. He turned and noted the robots stopped and stood at an attention-like stature.

“My Clerics and I are destroying your fellow Demon allies. Soon, we shall retake our Phoenix Down,” announced the metal man at the end of the left-hallway.

“What’s a ‘Cleric’?” Yeshua thought, “And what is a ‘Down’?”

“Today, we shalt wipe thou off this planet. Tomorrow, the renewal of the crusade against the Demon Host. Phoenix will be a Down of operations against the Demon Host: Your People.”

“Crusade? Is that what they call the incursion into Order and our allies’ territories?” thought Yeshua. He also made a note that ‘Down’ was synonymous with the word ‘Base’. Like, a military base.

Yeshua stayed audibly silent. His computer did not say anything, either. They were waiting for the super soldier to make the first move.

“Galooss,” whispered the super soldier. It may have been but a whisper but the audio sensors on Yeshua’s gear picked it up. The words ushered by the super soldier were soft, though. A small metal cylinder flew out from the super soldier’s robes and into their hand.

“Atislav,” continued the super soldier. The cylinder ignited with red plasma into a sword weapon.

“Asqagan,” finished the super soldier. Cross guards formed near the end where the plasma emitted and then emitted their own red plasma.

“Oh no,” thought Yeshua.

The super soldier motioned to the robots behind Yeshua and they started to move once more, bringing up their weapons to fire as they advanced on Yeshua’s position.

Yeshua immediately ducked into the central hallway and sprinted towards the other side, making note of various boxes and crates that could be used as cover. He slid past and around one such crate, about a third of the way down the hallway and used it as cover as he laid fire into the robotic platoon.

The robots advanced on Yeshua regardless of the losses they were taking. He shot one in the head and it crumpled. Two, three, four. Yeshua tossed a grenade their direction, claiming five, six, and seven. He reloaded, throwing the spent magazine at another robot, causing it to stagger, before reloading and putting it on the ground. Robot number nine dropped to more bullets. The tenth and eleventh managed to strike Yeshua. He gritted his teeth through the pain and blew their heads off. The final robot was downed by chucking a pulse blade into its face.

Yeshua paused. Then he reloaded.