The Reaper's Legion 111 (Patreon)

The Reaper’s Legion

Chapter 111

Grit

-Jeremy Strauss P.O.V.- 

“Stop the goddamned thing!” I shouted angrily, “the bastard’s going through another building!” 

“I have an idea,” Sammy spoke up, darting ahead, “but I’m gonna need it to turn up ahead.”

With exasperation I looked over to the man that had been a good friend of mine since the start of the apocalypse. He’d always been a quieter sort, but lately he’d finally been coming out of his shell, willing to speak up.

Even so, that didn’t mean that I could make the impossible happen.

“We can barely keep up with the thing!” I shouted back, keeping from uttering a pronounced string of curses as I slab of concrete as big as Yomar sailed towards me in the wake of the steadily speeding up Unique.

Sammy met my eyes, a kind of pleading look that I registered as a man with a plan that very well could be considered crazy. There’d been a few of those over the last two years, usually something that would have come from me. In those moments, I knew no one would want to go with the plan if I told them about it, due to it being crazy. You could say that a leader shouldn’t feel like that, but I’ll be the first to tell you that no team worth their salt blindly follows someone.

And yet, there was something to be said about putting your trust in someone that backed you up when the sun was low and the stakes high.

“Dammit…” I murmured before shaking my head, thinking hard on what we could do. “Fine, we’ll make it happen, where does it need to turn?”

Sammy grinned, a spark of ingenuity glowing in his eyes, “three blocks ahead, I need it to turn right.” 

I opened my mouth to speak - get more information really - but already he was shooting off ahead, cutting to the right and moving through buildings, smashing straight through windows. 

“Remind you of anyone?” Allendra laughed next to me.

“Har har.” I responded dryly, “alright, buck up people and pour it on. We need to get him to turn up ahead, third block!” 

Yomar made an annoyed sound, “how are we supposed to do that? Sammy and you are the only ones fast enough.”

Jackson made an offended sound, “speak for yourself.”

I looked around, trying to figure out what we could do, if anything. With a thought, I tapped into the suits settings, navigating a few eye and nerve controls to tweak some preset functions for the power armor I wore.

A loud humm resounded from my armor, one that quickly turned into a low snarl and growl. The small engines that sat against my ribs and along the spine of the suit heated up uncomfortably as my speed picked up nearly instantly. 

On the side, I heard Yomar swear aloud, “alright, alright. Reaper owes me a new suit if this one scraps!”

“I’ll sign off on that, just get your ass up here,” I shouted to him before turning my attention mid-sprint to the others. “Denice, I need you up here to give it encouragement to turn! Adam, Jackson, Allendra, you guys start moving towards Sammy and hammer this bastard when we get it over there.”

“Assuming you succeed, of course.” Adam piped in, “I do wish you the best of luck.”

I rolled my eyes, pushing ahead to the sound of Denice swearing, her new power armor going well beyond its regulated functions. The three of us rushed forward, churning pulverized concrete and dust under our feet, motes of swirling clouds of said chalky dust spiraling in our wake. Heavy metal pounded along the path, and rapidly we gained on Axiom Junior. 

That wouldn’t be the case for much longer. It was increasing speed, slowed only slightly as it plowed head on through buildings. There was no question that this thing was practically bred to smash things into oblivion.

Though, we were reforged in a world to get rid of things just like this.

“Shells out!” I heard Denice’s warning, making sure to move to the left side just behind Axiom. 

The explosives shattered the building in front of Axiom just before it made its way through. Surprisingly, the change in the building took the Unique by surprise, the falling debris and explosions forcing its legs to shift. It lost valuable speed, enough that we were nipping at its heels.

Instead of following straight through the debris, we moved through either building beside. I pounded the massive revolver in my hand, hammer fanning as I punched holes through several walls that yielded little resistance to the slugs. Shoulder first I charged through the weakened structure with Denice hot on my heels.

We emerged onto the street, pivoting quickly to dodge the next set of buildings. Yomar picked up the pace, actually hitting the next set of buildings before Axiom.

“Cluster out!” Denice’s weapon, an eight barreled grenade launcher, unfolded to expose each of the chambers. An autoloader behind those barrels filled them with grenades. Several of them.

And then projected them like hellspawn might vomit holy water and fire.

The chaining explosions entered the building at the same time as Axiom did, the building containing a remarkable amount of the power. From here I could feel the shockwaves like a love tap from a motorcycle hitting me square in the chest. Within the building, though, fragmentation, phosphorous, and high-yield grenades shredded what parts of the three-storied structure that Axiom hadn’t managed to reduce to rubble.

The debris - more the consistency of loosely packed dirt at this point - did little to slow Axiom, but it wasn’t necessary. While the rest of our harassment had left some marks and drew blood, this had truly staggered it. Several of its legs bore grievous wounds, its main body likewise bearing no small amount of punishment. It bellowed, staggering through the building and nearly drilling another ravine in the ground as it touched the pavement on the other side.

I moved through the alleyway beside the shattered building, jumping the majority of the distance even as tinks and dings of material fell against my armored form. Without wasting time, I hit the ground in a roll, coming up on the left side of the cloned Unique with two revolvers. These were much larger even than the one before, ten chambers apiece.

The shells themselves weren’t large compared to what someone like Daniel carried, or Patrick used to carry. But, just like my recently parted friend, their wrath was not to be underestimated.

Electricity crackled through what should have been unwieldy weapons, their holsters on my hips designed to keep the things fully topped off with both energy and ammo. 

Patrick had helped me design this suit, the weapons, literally every part of this abominable power armor was possible because that man had not-so-jokingly forced me to wear something with more capabilities. He’d been right, and I just wished that he’d put as much effort into his own gear as he’d done for others. That was his big problem, he put others first. Need something redesigned? He’d have it done with you anytime, day or night. The man was - had been - fanatical about mechs and how they worked. But he wasn’t truly fanatical about wearing them, I’d realized. It was a pleasure, yes, but his true calling would have been to build them.

We’d lost a great man, even aside from his imagination. The charismatic bastard had opened my eyes to a world of possibility, and completely blasted away any concept I’d had of avoiding other teams. A lone wolf in this day and age would only get so far.

I grit my teeth as I remembered the man, another who was taken. 

Vengeance would come, that I would be sure of.

And it would start with demonstrating how goddamned evil this man could be with mechs.

Axiom needed to turn here, and while I’d wanted to save these for a desperate moment, I doubted there would be a better time to use them. The triggers deployed from within the gun casings at a thought, protected from accidental discharge. The crackle of blue electricity surged across the barrels, each half a meter long and just as thick. It looked more like I was wielding two boxy chunks of metal, rather than guns.

I sighted the weapons on the flank of the creature as it continued to stumble, attempting to right itself and continue plowing forward.

Gently, I squeezed the triggers, the first shots booming outwards and shattering windows nearby. The first shells punched firmly into the carapace of Axiom without stopping, the tipped bullets flaring as they neared their target and widening to maximize area of impact. Twenty of these shells ripped out with gleeful violence in the span of two seconds, my power armor groaning in the effort of keeping them on point. I winced at the feeling of the metal straining under the pressure of the bucking abominations. 

These still weren’t quite the maximum potential of these weapons. Railguns, gauss rifles, those were nasty things.

But, with the tinkling of shattered glass from the building in front of the cone of fire, and the dull and distant roar of the brief retort, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have a true railgun.

Axiom didn’t bellow so much as scream this time, gouts of silver blood pouring from its side from twenty fist sized holes that screwed all the way through the other side the evidence of what had happened. 

“Fucking christ!” Yomar shouted, “I’m on this side, you know that, right?”

“I aimed high! It’s turning, keep it going!” I rolled my eyes, admittedly having forgotten that Yomar might have been on the other side. 

The Unique was definitely pivoting to that side, the sheer destructive force delivered from me seeming to have been the first thing it genuinely feared. Axiom, probably, could clone itself so long as it didn’t instantly die.

I’d just demonstrated the possibility to deliver very instant death. Regrettably, aiming them was not easy, and I’d gone center of mass in the hopes that it would be enough.

Somehow, it was still moving, but the staggering had become a near dead standstill with some loping movements.

Yomar made his move moments later, large glowing red hooked axes, looking more like meat-hooks than anything else, dug deeply into the injuries. 

He bellowed, “turn this way you big motherfucker!”

For a moment, the Unique wavered, the additional pain nothing compared to what it felt. But, then, Yomar’s suit surged with noise, and another pair of hooks snapped into exposed wounds. Heat flared from his power armor and spikes pushed out from his suit, digging into the concrete and providing much needed traction and leverage.

Axiom turned slowly at first, but when Yomar started to yank, swearing loudly at the same time, the biotic decided that a change in direction would be a good idea after all.

“Fuck yeah! Lets go!” Yomar shouted, and then realized he was still connected. Instantly he disengaged the chains connected to the hooks… except for one.

Axiom built up speed as he slackened the line in the direction it was supposed to go, and very suddenly Yomar had been yanked up from the street, still towed behind by the hooks he had in the biotic.

“Let go, Yomar!” Denice shouted, “don’t try to ride the thing!”

“Not-” he began, only to smash into a parked vehicle and bounce upwards high into the air, “-ohhh, not on purpose! It’s stuck!”

I groaned aloud, picking up speed once more to resume pursuit. Sooner or later Axiom would change direction again.

“I’m gonna try something crazy,” Yomar started, getting his feet under him for just a moment before another vehicle was coming up. He dug his feet into the car and, in a sense that would be comical in another circumstance, used it as a sled.

The biotic dragged him as we pushed ahead, and steadily Yomar reeled himself in by hand. And, just as another car was coming up, got ready to do something that I immediately recognized as very crazy.

The sled, predictably, smashed into the immobile vehicle hard, and Yomar vaulted forward with a jump and pulled hard on the chain. 

“Woohoo!” He cheering voice echoed off of the buildings, some now quite a bit taller than what we’d been near before. I couldn’t help but shake my head at the sight of the man, grabbing onto the hook and bracing himself against the biotics side.

“Now get the hell outta there!” I shouted at him.

Yomar agreed, pulling on the chain and dislodging a deluge of rocks and dust, “right on i-”

Two deafening explosions rang out on a pair of buildings nearby.

I’ll be the first one to admit that there are few things in life that are quite so terrifying as watching a pair of four story tall buildings instantly start collapsing amidst fire and shrapnel. More so, however, when those buildings were toppling towards a biotic that a friend of yours was riding.

“Yomar!” I shouted unconsciously as the buildings smashed down on top of the biotic, burying it in tons of steel and concrete.

Denice and I ran forward, stopping at the edge of the still collapsing structure. The deep pained moaning of the biotic was audible briefly before the shattering of glass and crash of buildings on fire drowned it out.

“Was that Yomar?” I heard Sammy’s desperate voice on the radio, “please tell me I saw that wrong.”

“Talk later! Everyone dig!” I ordered, moving forward, the shifting mass moving underfoot. 

Denice moved up, even as Allendra chastised us, “There could be secondary explosions, be careful!”

I was at a loss for what I could realistically do to be careful of those in this situation, but decided to keep that to myself, “we will!”

Instead, though, I found myself frantically clawing through the concrete, vibrations still rolling through it as we dug. It was a dense pile, however, and after a few seconds it became clear that we wouldn’t have an easy time of it.

A minute later, even with all of us digging, we still had made scarcely a dent in it. ‘Not a fucking chance in hell,’ I grit my teeth, forcing down a growing anxiety that Yomar would have been crushed. ‘Not two friends in one day. Not on my watch.’ 

His power armor would protect him from a great deal, perhaps even this. But if it was dented, or damaged, then he needed out of it, fast. There were plenty of stories of how knights in armor weren’t able to breath because of their own armor being dented against a diaphragm. Even aside from that, if there were secondary explosions, he’d be in a much worse way than we would, probably being closer to the source.

The ground under my feet rumbled then, and for a brief instant I feared it was a bomb about to go off.

Instead, though, the rumbling grew steadily. “Here! Dig here!” I shouted to the team, abandoning any pretense of calm and throwing slabs of concrete out of the way.

The others joined, in spite of the concerns about other explosives. Those of us in power armor threw the larger pieces away, while the rest in exo suits maneuver smaller pieces, pushing them away to give us space to work with.

A deep rumbling made us pause and get out of the way. I imagined that Yomar would be desperately thrashing as he felt the weight above him lessen.

Instead, though, the cement in a huge area suddenly flexed, the pile of debris shifting as the pale ivory, dust stuck, silvery blooded chitin of Axiom began to writhe its way upwards, struggling all the way. It heaved, the pile we’d been working around destabilizing and collapsing back inwards, forcing us away. The pieces of debris sucked in close to the biotics body as it wailed painfully in the exposed air.

“Sonovabitch!” Jackson’s panicked voice rang out as he put some distance from it, along with the rest of the team.

We aimed weapons and as one began to fire. The head was heavily armored, though, and we noticed that few of our weapons were so much as drawing any new silver blood.

And yet it thrashed in agony.

“Hold!” I ordered, watching in confusion as its struggles became more feeble rapidly. Allendra frowned, realizing that there was something else going on.

Then, it began to glow, and I found myself deeply frustrated with the idea of this thing splitting yet again.

But, even as it started, it quickly stopped, head smashing down with one last mournful tone.

Silence filled the air as the biotic stilled, the lot of us watching in confusion as it seemed to simply die.

Then we heard the snapping sounds, and hissing, and, most of all, the cursing.

A red piece of metal, only centimeters long, protruded from the head plate before disappearing.

And, with that ever so tiny gap, a new litany of curses that would make a sailor blush was born to open air.

“Yomar!” Denice’s words marked the team Last Call moving to the downed biotic as one, “we’re gonna get you out of there!”

“Please! It’s awful in here!” His voice pleaded with near hysteria, “Matt made it look so easy! God, I never want to see the inside of a biotic again!”

We laughed, the tension melting as he pushed an axe blade up through the gap again, widening it. The team handled the rest, blasting and cutting away sheets of the material before we cracked the skull plate wide open, dragging a now thoroughly gore covered axe wielding power armored man out of what was once a living Unique biotic.

“Never do that to me again!” Sammy clasped the man's hand even as he mock chastised him, “you almost made my first big plan kill a teammate.”

“My bad,” he breathed deeply, sighing and suddenly sagging to the ground with a groan, “in my defense, it really did seem like a good idea at the time.”

I laughed, patting the man on the shoulder. “Alright everyone, good work. But it’s not over yet. Let's get back to the wall.”

“Ugh… alright, alright.” Yomar groaned, and I could virtually hear his bones creak within the suit, “no rest for the wicked. Lets go kick more ass!”

Adam laughed, loudly, “you really do have a one track mind.”

“I’m a simple man with simple tastes,” Yomar nodded to what he perceived as a compliment.

We started on our way back, though we did end up taking a quick break to check over the status of our armaments. 

All I could think of as I robotically checked my gear, though, was how glad I was to not have to dig a second grave today.

‘Days still young,’ I reminded myself, ‘celebrate when everything is done.’

With a deep breath, I recentered myself. I could almost feel our resolve harden once more, Last Call was far from done today.