Chapter 344 (2/2)
The human used one hand to vault over the equipment, landing next to the lead vehicle. He took two rapid steps, even as lasers and h-vee rounds bounced off of his warsteel armor, his whole fist and forearm wreathed in snarling electricity and a purplish nimbus. The battlescreen went down in a shower of sparks and the fist slammed into the side, buckling the whole side. The human hit it with his other fist as he began pummeling it. One of the tracks broke free and the human snatched it out of mid-air.
Palgret just stared, his mouth slightly open, as the Terran slammed the track against the vehicle then grabbed it and yanked it inside the room with one hand, revealing the vehicle behind it that was pushing it out of the way. The human began hammering on the vehicle with the track even as electricity started snarling up and down the broken track.
The vehicle must have weighed nearly a hundred tons, but Palgret watched the human grab it with one hand, lift it up a Maktanan's body height up into the air, and sling it into the next one. He jumped forward, slamming his fist into the prow of the fourth vehicle.
All of the vehicles were firing at the human, manuevering to get at his flanks and sides. The lasers either did nothing to the black armor or bounced off and carved molten lines in the walls, floors, ceilings. The high-velocity rounds bounced off of the human's warsteel skin, exploding against the roof or ceiling.
The human paid it no mind, ripping apart the front armor of his victim, reaching inside and ripping out components.
Roaring the whole time.
The fur on Palgret's spine was standing up. It was like watching some kind of monster from a child's class wreck a vehicle.
--cybernetic heavy assault infantry comma monster series comma man sized comma one each-- floated up in his mind.
Monster series.
The jumped off the destroyed one its fists had shattered and the human grabbed the next vehicle and tore it in half.
Is he... getting larger? Palgret wondered.
The Precursors were firing back. High-velocity rounds were bouncing off the human, explosions were detonating against his black warsteel skin, and lasers were playing over the matte black skin-tight armor.
None of it was having any effect except to make the eyes redder and the human larger.
red eyes fight enemies take fright came up in his head.
A boom echoed through the room and Palgret looked over to his right.
--buzz spanky eyes right-- 030 flashed.
281 and the quiet mantid, Three, both moved around a piece of debris.
Another boom, this time from the right.
--wrecker take one go right-- 030 ordered.
Palgret watched as Nanuft went with the sarcastic mantid, Thre, and hurried to the other end of the wrecked shrieking array.
--get ready-- Palgret saw flash on his visor with the private tag.
”DOOR'S FAILING!” Three yelled out.
--they come-- 030 said. --may Enraged Phillip, Unbowing and Indomitable, be with us--
Palgret swallowed around a dry and thick tongue, just nodding.
A welded door blew in with a crash and Precursor machines poured into the room. Some looked like animated loading frames, others trundled on tracks and clacked their graspers, still others were on wheels and waved around fusion torches.
Palgret opened up with his rifle, the hv-rounds blowing chunks out of the endo-steel armor of the ones on the left. The roar of the miniguns started behind him, but Palgret concentrated on the ones in front of him, firing till they went down then switching target.
For every one he killed three more swarmed into the room.
--FIRE IN THE HOLE-- 030 flashed out.
The rocket slammed into the lead Precursor coming from the left, exploding in the whitish blue of an antimatter detonation.
Palgret concentrated on the ones that kept moving forward.
The human's roared was making Palgret's head pound and it felt like a furnace was further in the room. He reached up and smacked his helmet, sighing when the familiar taste of velliberries filled his mouth and his molars tingled.
A vehicle track flew by and smashed into the heavy duty looking robot that looked like a refrigeration unit had been inappropriate with a heavy cargo loader. The robot collapsed in a shower of sparks and flew a good ten feet, the track embedded deep inside of it.
”I AM ENRAGED FOR NEW BERLIN AND MY BELOVED YVETTE!” the human roared. ”DEATH! DEATH TO THE MAR-GITE! DEATH TO THE WORLD EATERS!”
The human gave a scream that to Palgret sounded like soul deep agony.
”You'll have to hard reset him, Captain,” Three's voice said over the helmet comlink.
--he be fine-- 030 answered. --FIRE IN THE HOLE-- Another rocket shot out, hitting a tracked welder robot that was shooting flame.
Palgret was too busy shooting. When the main body was too heavily armored he switched his fire to the limbs or tracks. The endosteel proved unable to withstand more than a shot or two before it fragments and broke apart.
A part of him, far back in his mind, that he was only dimly aware of, was proud of himself for not dropping his magazine when he reloaded his weapon. The heat was still in the yellow, so he kept firing, his visor dimming the antimatter blasts, his holosight still working.
--FALL BACK-- 030 ordered. --AUX FIRST! LT LEAD THE WAY--
It flashed on his visor as 030 scrambled up Palgret's arm and onto his shoulder. Palgret noticed the orb on the side of the rocket launcher was glowing a faint red.
Palgret kept shooting as the others backed into the passageway, Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u trotting down the corridor, firing a grenade just to check to make sure it was actually empty. Part of him wanted to join his fellow Maktanan, but 030 was on his shoulder and somehow that kept him from being afraid.
--red devils pull back-- the mantid officer ordered. An arrow appeared on Palgret's visor and he turned, following it. He hurried after the others even as the two black mantids and 281 joined them.
--FRANKY! FALL BACK OR STAY!-- 030 ordered.
Palgret glanced up at the top of his visor, at the strip that showed him what was behind him.
The Terran looked massive. Like he was made of warsteel, the warsteel moving and flexing with the Terran's muscle, the black spikes and spurs wreathed with the purplish nimbus and red electricity. He tore another smaller vehicle in half and moved across the room in two bounding jumping steps.
Palgret knew it was his imagination that insisted that the Terran had left footsteps in the battlesteel of the floor, deeper at the toes than the heel.
The human was breathing heavy, and this time Palgret knew it wasn't his imagination.
Thick red fluid, steaming, was running out of the human's mouth and down his chin. His mouth was full of jagged teeth.
--scout out-- 030 ordered.
281 streaked away.
”Is he OK? Why is his mouth bleeding?” Jagler asked.
”It's not blood,” Three said.
”What is it?” Nanuft asked.
”Warsteel,” the mantid said. ”Molten warsteel.”
”Pain. Pain and death,” the human rumbled. Palgret could feel it vibrate his armor. ”Pain and suffering to all who dare stand before me.”
”Wha... what is he?” Culvit asked, shifting slightly when his armored elbow scraped against the wall.
”A Terran. What, you've never seen one before?” Three said, his helmet unfolding.
”Oh,” Culvit sounded doubtful.
”Imagine seeing hundreds, thousands of him coming at you,” Three said, lighting a red banded cigarette as they kept hustling down the hallway. ”We knew the Mar-gite weren't like us when all they did was screech and rush forward to grapple with the Terrans.”
”I'd run away,” Nanuft said.
The black mantid gave a chuckle, exhaling smoke, as he put away his lighter. ”That's because you aren't a Mar-gite.”
”How is the warsteel still molten? I was told it hardens too quickly,” Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u asked. ”Why is it still molten?”
”For Yvette,” the human rumbled, a growl of anger.
Palgret felt the tingle again as his psychic shielding ramped up to 83%.
”If I told you, you wouldn't believe me,” Three said.
A pair of pumpkin seeds shot back toward the group, slowing down and hovering in place.
MAP UPDATING chirped up onto Palgret's visor.
Lieutenant Mu'ucru'u looked at the massive human, who was quite noticably larger than he had been. ”I am ready to believe you.”
”Rage. That's it, just rage,” the mantid said. ”It's running through his veins right now. All consuming rage.”
The human growled.
Monster class went through Palgret's mind.
The only sound in the hallway was the rustling of gear on armor, the booted footsteps of the armored troops, and the sound of Palgret's breathing in his own ears as they moved deeper into the body of the wrecked Precursor vehicle.
They make monsters.