Chapter 3

The marines that Hannah met made a fighting retreat away from the area where they and Hannah were.

“Enemy chasing!”

“Keep firing!”

“Hit! Scoring hits!”

They backed through a doorway into a control section of the factory. Various consoles and levers appeared to support the functions of the factory. They kept moving deeper into the facility, turning to put rounds into the hostile metal woman.

Initially, the metal woman took flight and stayed at the entrance, hovering above the balcony floor a few feet. She fired energy blasts from her arm cannon at the marines.

“Saquu! Saquu!”

Most missed.

The marines fully entered the control complex and backed away from the door.

“Private, if she enters, pump a missile into her.”

“Yes, Commander!”

“Corporal, watch our backs. There’s a large tunnel behind us running perpendicular to the control center. They can fly.”

“Acknowledged, Commander. Watching flanks.”

“Specialist, get on the horn with Command. Tell them we’ve engaged a superhero of some sort. A metal warrior with plasma weaponry and flight capabilities.”

“Yes, Commander.” The Sergeant fished out the radio and dialed in Command.

“Saquu! Saquu!”

The metal woman was continuing her barrage of the doorway area and just inside. The marines, however, were well away from the doorway. None of them were hit.

“Command acknowledged, Lieutenant. They recommend we exfil.”

“Confirmed recommended change of orders. Time to make our exit, guys.”

The barrage stopped.

The four marines arched their collective eyebrow.

The metal woman landed on the balcony outside the doorway.

“Misguided servants of the Devil! I wish to only speak on friendly terms. We can provide you safety from harm and a path out of here if only you would...”

She did not get to finish her sentence. The Private put an anti-tank missile into her and she was thrown back into the wall on the other side of the hangar. There was an audible thud as she impacted.

The Lieutenant in charge peered through the doorway. While there was a mark on the opposite wall, the metal woman did not seem fazed and slid down to the floor.

“So be it. Mark these words. You chose death over surrender!”

“Galitilde Desilda!”

The Private threw himself to the floor as an energy blast sailed over his head and impacted a column in the center of the room they were in.

“Galitilde Saquu! Saquu! Saquu!”

The Private rolled to the right and out of the way of the next series of projectiles. He got up and retreated to low cover. The Specialist and the Corporal put a magazine of small arms into the metal woman. She recoiled from one of the last bullets in their return fire. The metal woman stood up, took flight, and catapulted herself towards the marines.

“Gado Ree Astahya!”

And she came down, through the doorway, and into the area just beyond, causing an explosion of plasma around her as she landed. The two dove away from her landing and hastily retreated to the back of the area, near the large corridor.

The Lieutenant chucked a flashbang at her feet and it went off, blinding her.

“My eyes! You shall pay for that!”

The metal woman’s response to the flashbang was to rapid fire small bolts in random directions.

“Galitilde Usti! Usti, usti, usti! Usti! Galitilde Saquu! Saquu, Saquu, Saquu! Saquu!”

The Corporal and Private were hit but they grunted through and retreated with the rest of the squad. The Lieutenant herded the four of them down some stairs and to the left.

“I have regained my vision!”

The metal woman flew around the corner a few feet in the air only to take another missile from the Private.

He and his comrades retreated up a flight of stairs to an area overlooking the entrance to the facility. In the distance, they could see an army of robots and tanks start being deployed behind their friends and fellow soldiers. Things may have been a trap to entice them in.

“Hit! Reloading!”

“Providing covering fire!” responded the Corporal and the Sergeant simultamneously. They unloaded their magazines into her. The Lieutenant joined them and dumped his mag as well. As the other two started reloading, the Lieutenant tossed a grenade at her feet.

“‘Nade out!”

The grenade went off in her face.

“Argh, ack! You will pay for that.

“Galitilde Desilda!”

Her shot was inaccurate but it clipped the Lieutenant. He winced in pain.

“Commander! Ten-Double-O man down, man down!” exclaimed the Sergeant.

“Where is our back up and support!?” said the Corporal to no one.

“Galitilde Desilda!”

And just like that, the Lieutenant was gone. Of course, he wasn’t gone permanently, but he would now float the void between life and death. It may be a few minutes before he could rejoin the land of the living and a few more minutes before he made it back to the squad. A lot could happen between now and then.

The rest of them were caught on the backfoot from their commander’s death.

“Galitilde Desilda!”

And just like that, the Specialist was gone too. The last two backed up to a large pillar in the center of the platform.

The metal superhero came out of the rapidly dissipating smoke and debris from the former fragmental grenade with a calm demeanor and strut, like someone grown very smug with the turn of events.

“I seem to be seeing about ‘that’, servants of demons.”

The two remaining soldiers, despite being cornered, stood defiant against their foe.

“I shall relish thou defeat.”

Whoomp, whoomp, whoomp

Three grenades flew in from out of nowhere from behind the two soldiers. They connected with the metal woman and exploded, sending smoke and shrapnel outward in a small blast radius.

Amad double jumped onto the elevated wall of the balcony area and ran across it. He dropped another two shaped grenades into the area where he landed his first three. Amad ran for a few paces and jumped off perpendicular to the wall. He doubled jumped across the gap in the corridor to the other wall and started to slide down it, reloading his drum-based grenade launcher as he went.

“Another one of your demons! How many thou exist!”

Amad said nothing and instead pulled out a Pulse Blade, a special kind of throwing knife that emitted sonar pulses through physical obstructions, allowing the user and their nearby allies to detect enemies in contact with the ground, wall, or ceiling in the vicinity.

Amad chucked it into the metal woman’s face. It hit her dead center and caused her to stagger and collapse forward.

“Argh!”

She fell to her knees but fired rapid-fire energy bolts into Amad’s direction.

“Saquu! Saquu!”

Amad escaped her attack via jumping into the air. Amad took off when he hit the ground.

The two marines sprung into action, lobbing grenades of their own and unloading magazines into the metal woman. She lashed out at them too.

“Galitilde Desilda!”

The marines dived to the side and around the column. She missed.

“Saquu! Saquu!”

The metal woman was caught between a rock and a hard place and the rock named Amad lobbed another grenade at her. The explosions were doing the trick but it wasn’t enough.

She got to her feet. The metal woman held her left fist to her face as if there was a communicator in her hand. She looked to have said something to the fist.

Amad wasted no time and launched another shaped grenade projectile at her.

“No! Stop that, Demon!”

An alarm sounded throughout the facility in their neck of the woods. Hatches extended from the walls above them and far down the corridor. Robotic soldiers and small mechs dropped to the floor from the walls and ceilings. The small mechs partially collapsed to their knees, using their hands for additional cushioning. They stood up and activated weapons, started firing on Amad and the two marines.

Amad paused for a second. The marines returned fire immediately.

“We’ve got the smaller robots! We’ll take the heat off you.”

“Confirmed. Good luck, marines.”

“Hoorah!”

The robots, faced with obvious hostiles, turned to engage the two marines. They fired from above, picking individual robots apart. The robots, however, their numbers were much greater, marched into the fray.

“Rawrgh! My robots will drag you all back to the depths of hell!” screamed the metal woman, somewhere in the mass of robots.

Amad responded to her annunciation by igniting his beacon and dropping it to his feet.

“We’ll see about that.”

She saw the confidence of her adversary, standing down her and her force of small mecha, who at the time were unwilling to make the first move since nothing shot them.

“What ... what’s that?

Solarian dropped into the facility from a hole in the roof.

“Enhanced Auto Avatar Mode engaged.”

“Focus the mecha. I’ll deal with the commander.”

“Confirmed, Spirit. Engaging hostile mecha.”