[HOME] [PICTURES] [STORIES] [LOGS] [FUNNY STUFF] [HELP US]

Plower plays Prologue Corp. Leader Mendel was pacing around the room. His partner, Corp. Senior MA Dustin, was sitting in one of the sofas near the window. Mendel stopped pacing and turned to Dustin, and in an irritated voice said “where is he? He was supposed to be here and hour ago." "Maybe he got delayed?" Dustin replied, Sitting very calmly and patiently on the sofa and examining a vase next to him. "Yah, right" said Mendel, much louder and more emphasized than it should have been, "he's probably coming late on purpose, just to irritate me" With that he stopped and sat on the chair closest to him. He started to stare outside the window and give a big sigh. 5 minutes later the door opened and a small man came in. This must be his assistant Mendel thought. Both of them got up. The person greeted them said that the General Madison would be there momentarily after which he then left. Mendel turned to Dustin and said “finally.” As they were sitting down the door opened and this time another man came in. He was tall and was of American origin; he was dressed in a brown military uniform with several medals above his shirt pocket and a Gun holster at his side. An old .45 Magnum was in the holster. He approached the group and greeted Both Mendel and Dustin in turn. “What can I do to help you gentlemen?” He asked, with a smile on his face. Dustin started to speak but stopped and looked at Mendel cleared his throat. Mendel stepped forward and said “Let’s get straight to the point general” Looking straight into Madison’s eyes he continued “It’s about your little plan General”. “What about it?” Madison interrupted his tone suddenly turning Dark and angry. Mendel continued unphased “We at the Circle Corp. are not really convinced of your plan General. What you suggested there and then just does not seem feasible.” He paused, waiting for the General’s reply, which he already basically knew. “What do you mean???” said the General on the verge of shouting, “I thought we agreed on this at the meeting itself”. Mendel continued “We have reconsidered since then, we just realized how risky this plan really is and we would like proof that you are actually capable of carrying it out”. Madison just stood there looking at him for what seemed like an eternity, his face an expression of extreme anger. Mendel was seriously thinking that Madison was about to shoot them then and there. Finally he calmed down and said “very well then, I will show you proof!” With that he nodded at them to follow him out and they did so. As they walked they passed through several areas, most of which were familiar to them, including the Droid servicing bay, which was currently empty, and a weapons manufacturing bay as well. Finally they reached a large set of blast doors labeled “Do not enter, Hazardous materials present inside. Hazard suit required before entry”. The General stopped and turned to his Assistant, who had reappeared while they were walking through the General’s Office. “The key?” Was all he said. The assistant silently nodded and handed him a small key, which seemed to appear out of nowhere. Madison retrieved the key and turned back to the door. He then started searching along the walls around the door, after a minute he finally found what he needed, namely a tiny crack in the wall to the door’s left. He took the key and Put it in. He then turned it clockwise and a circular section of the wall also started turning along with it. A keyhole! Mendel thought but surely he must have more defenses than that? As he watched a tile opened up on the floor and a rectangular panel came up. At the same time a laser cannon opened up from the ceiling. A mechanical voice then issued out from the panel “Enter voice and palm print along with password, you have 20 second to commence or else laser sterilization will commence” “Excuse me gentlemen” Madison said. He turned around and Put his palm on the panel and simultaneously spoke a few words into the panel. After receiving confirmation he then typed in a password which Mendel couldn’t quite make out at this angle. The doors then opened and Madison proceeded inwards only stopping to say “don’t believe everything that you see”. The group then pushed forward. They passed several scenes and bays, some containing weapons Mendel had never seen before; finally they arrived at a gigantic bay. It was extremely dark and overwhelming and then Madison turned to them and said “You want proof? Here’s your proof!” He then turned to a panel near him on the catwalk and pushed a button, which immediately flooded the entire bay with Light. The 2 guests were momentarily blinded but when they regained there vision, the sight which they saw not only shocked them but amazed them as well, for before them were 10 huge Droids, all identical and all looking like they were armed to the teeth. “Are those………Dominators????” He asked, his eyes wide with amazement, “yes” Madison replied, “The last bunch left intact after the Serian war. There are no others like this left any where else”. “Where did you find them?” Mendel asked, turning to Madison. I thought all of them were destroyed at the Last battle of the war?” “I have my sources” Madison replied, “But it doesn’t matter, now do you have your proof Mister Mendel?”. Mendel just nodded his head silently, looking at the Droids in awe. “You were right General, my apologies” Madison just smiled and said “No matter, Now that you’ve had your proof let us leave” with that he turned, switched off the lights and then the entire party moved towards the exit. As they were exiting the bay, Mendel looked a last time at where the Droids stood and thought, Is this it? Is this the means we will finally meet our objectives? Or will it be the means of our doom? Chapter 1 Allen McAllister rubbed the sweat from his brow and concentrated at the task ahead of him. Carefully he tried to connect the wires, eventually he connected them just the way he wanted to, however the results were not what he expected. “OWWWW!!!” said Allen, jumping out from under the droid’s fuel tank and clutching his hand in pain. “Ok, who forgot to switch off the power??” He shouted. “A few volts higher and I would have been toast!”. “Switching off the power is not my job Allen”. Said a metallic like voice originating from the panel “It was plugged into the wall and you know I can’t physically shut it down”. “Excuses, excuses” Allen sighed. “Sometimes I think you are more mischievous than you actually let on to be 58”. He walked up to the panel and pressed a few buttons. Unit 58 was part of a race of Sentient A.I. Units which were originally programmed for the Droid arena battles, however they soon got so advanced that they actually developed sentience. Unlike most horror movies where ago. the A.I. was pictured as evil and was bent to destroy the human race, Things came out differently. The bots, their own name for themselves realized that the universe which they lived in was very complex and confusing. They and the programmers, who also realized that there was a lot to learn from the bots greeted and made several agreements with them, including how they were to be treated. Allen sighed. The rest was a very long story of agreements and treaties and stuff; however one of the things the bots had really wanted was the continuation of the game Droid arena. It was instantly agreed upon since both races had enjoyed this game so much since its creation over 60 years before. “So, now what?” Asked 58. “We still have to finish repairing that chassis by tomorrow remember? We’ve been putting it off for weeks and the owner is really getting pissed off”. Without missing a beat Allen replied “We will finish it tomorrow, don’t worry. The problems seem to be isolated to the fuel tank and a few wires. Peace of cake”. “That’s what you said yesterday as well”. 58 paused. “But it is getting late and you need your rest, ill finish up things here and meet you at the House terminal”. Said 58. One thing that bothered Allen most about the bots were that they could instantly jump from terminal to terminal via a series of power cables and Optic fiber cables laid underneath the city. He didn’t bother much about it now though. “Ok then 58, ill see you at the house”. Unlike other bots, when Allen retired from Droid arena 58 came with him instead of being with another partner like other bots did, He always explained the reason as being that they formed a ‘good team’ together. Now his Base of operations was at Allen’s terminal at home. The only other place he went to was either the Chassis repair bay that Allen ran as a business or his personalized Shadow v1.0 droid, to roam around with Allen if needed. Allen exited the Old building the repair bay was in and brought down the steel shutter to the entrance, locking it and turning around to walk home. He reached home without incident and just as he reached the door it opened up for him. 58 must have finished clearing up quickly, only he knows im coming home late Allen thought. As he stepped inside the first thing he noticed was the incredibly large gun that was pointing at his direction. With the incredibly large reflexes he had developed while being in the serian war, he stopped and immediately jumped back out of the door. He heard a loud bang and felt something moving really fast grazing past his ribs. He immediately ducked out of the sights of his assailant and ran for cover. Who the heck was that?? He thought better run before he comes after me. He started to run but noticed that the person had started to chase him. He knew that there was no way to run away from him in this state. He looked around and spotted and alley to his immediate right, He ducked into and waited for his attacker. His patience payed off as the person came into the alley, with the full moon light he was able to make out the figure of the person, Who was quite tall and was very agile for his size. As he approached the alley he passed where Allen was hiding and went into the alley. Allen quickly sneaked behind him and quietly ran out. He then commenced running away from the alley until the pain in his stomach became unbearable. He looked down and immediately became quite sick, for all over his side there was blood oozing out of the wound. Fortunately he was near a public comm. unit and was able to call for an ambulance and police. I’m a very lucky man He thought. Then he suddenly realized that 58 did not know about the person in the house. In fact 58 was probably still at the repair shop at this instant! Struggling up on weak knees he immediately called up the repair bay. No one answered. Darn! He must have arrived home just now. Cursing softly he called up the house and waited for someone to answer. Finally after a few seconds 58’s familiar voice came through the comm. Unit. “Allen? What happened? You weren’t present when I came back and the sensors detected blood on the doorstep” said 58, in a somewhat worried tone. “Never mind that now 58, im wounded and on my way to the hospital” Allen replied, gritting his teeth in pain. “Really? Hold on ill be right-” “No!” Allen shouted, “Go through the sensor logs and find out who came there, you can meet me at the hospital later”. “Very well then” 58 replied, “Ill get right on it”. Allen cut the channel as the familiar sounds of an ambulance and police sirens filled his ears, he then groaned and passed out on the ground. * * * * * “WHAT? You didn’t kill him? You imbecile! Isn’t there somebody I can trust to do the job properly?” General Madison exclaimed. “Im warning you Logan, one more screw up like this and you will be in big trouble” He said, glaring at the man seated on the other side of the table. “This was just a minor setback general, I assure I will kill him, whatever it takes”. He said in a rather irritated voice. “Ill hold you to that Logan, remember the consequences if you fail” He said, leaning back into his seat. Logan got up and nodded, he then went out. General Madison summoned his Assistant, Molaiv, to his side and said “I want you to get a new person Molaiv; I don’t want this to happen again”. “Should I eliminate Mr. Logan then sir?” Asked Molaiv in a slight Russian accent. Madison smiled. “No Molaiv, lets give him one more chance to prove himself.” But then his face turned dark. “But if he’s caught then terminate him”. Molaiv nodded. He was about to turn about and leave but then decided not to. He looked at the General and asked “Sir, if you don’t mind me asking, but how can this Allen McAllister stop the plan sir? I’ve read his records, he just an old man working in a repair shop, he couldn’t possibly do us any harm”. Molaiv shifted from foot to foot, clearly worried about the General’s reaction. Madison just looked at him for a long while with a curious gaze and then finally answered “its not what this man does Molaiv, its what he can DO that im really afraid about” Madison got out of his seat and strolled to the window, “He was one of the only survivors of the Battle of Springfield” The battle of Springfield was the defining battle of the Serian war, Where over 600 Droid arena players arose along with there droids to fight the oncoming onslaught of Dominators and other droids hell bent on blowing the Fusion reactor present there. “The battle enraged on for over 12 hours some people say” Madison whispered. “Almost every droid and person on both sides were destroyed except for 1”. Madison continued hoarsely “No one knew exactly how he survived, he claims it was pure luck, but know one really knows………”. “So this person might just know how to defeat the Dominators?” Molaiv asked. “I don’t know Molaiv, I just don’t know. Even if he doesn’t his experience could help fight off this attack as well. But we mustn’t let The Circle know about this.” Madison whirled around, his eyes filled with hate. “Those fools just want to blackmail the other Corps. To give up there positions……They don’t know the half of what they could get from it”.Madison straightened his collar, come, lets go. I don’t want to be late for the first test runs”. He then headed for the door along with Molaiv following behind him. Nothing must stop the plan Madison thought Nothing! Neither one of them noticed the tiny spider scurry away in the far corner of the room, which seem to have several Microphones on it. Chapter 2 Allen awoke. His first thought was where the heck am I? He started to get up but stopped as soon as he felt the pain at his side, he then remembered the events of the previous night. He tried getting up again, this time slowly, and succeeded. However his success did not go unnoticed, the machine next to him started beeping and a nurse immediately came in. “I’m afraid you must go back to sleep Mr. Allen, you experienced a lot of trauma from the gunshot wound”. She said and immediately started to push him back gently into the bed. Allen didn’t resist, instead he asked “ But I thought the bullet just grazed me? At least it felt like that”. The nurse looked and him and said “When the blast comes from a shotgun at such close range, you were lucky you only got this hurt.” Allen then heard a commotion from the door. The nurse went out to see what it was. A few seconds later Allen heard a very heated argument outside the door between the nurse and someone else. He strained to hear who it was. He heard the nurse say “I’m sorry sir, but you can visit your friend later, for now he needs to rest and recover”. He heard the other person retort in a slightly metallic voice “But I must see him now! I need to know how he his”. “Mr. Allen is recovering, you can come back later” She said. “But I must see him! At least can I talk to him for a minute? It’s really important!” Allen heard the nurse sigh. “Very well then, but I’m warning you only a few minutes, then its out!” with that she moved aside and the let the person in. The person was not a person at all, but one of the Modified Shadow droids The Senate gives out for bots to walk around town. All weapons were removed and the power was significantly cut to make sure no one could use it on the streets. As it came in the sensors automatically found its target, namely Allen. Allen studied the droid and asked “58? Is that you?” The droid replied in the all too familiar voice of Unit 58. “Yes Allen, it is me. I came here before immediately after you called me, but they said you were sleeping”. Allen just looked at him and shrugged “Hey, what can I do? I’m a heavy sleeper”. Allen leaned back “So did you find out who it was?”. “I’m afraid not, the person was smart, he didn’t leave any trace behind. I don’t even know how he got past the security system short of knowing prior how advanced and of what type it was”. Allen studied the droid 58 was in, was this the Senate’s droid or his? He knew that 58 had decided to configure his own droid to walk around in. But he never told anyone but Allen, since it was illegal. He couldn’t make out which one it was and gave up. “The nurse here says that ill be out of here by today evening, I need you to go back to the bay and close for the day.” His face an expression of deep thought, he continued “Put up a sign saying we will be back tomorrow though, We cant keep it closed for too long.” 58 replied “ok then, ill make sure security is increased at the home compound as well, ill be here in the evening to escort you out” With that he turned to the nurse, who gratefully escorted him out. For once Allen wished that Terminals were allowed at the hospitals, that way he could be in constant communication with 58. The systems they had here were too small for any bot to reside in. Allen thoughts then wandered to why he was attacked. No matter how much he thought about he couldn’t figure it out. Finally he fell back to sleep. * * * * * Don was bored. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and he wished he had something better to do than monitor this lowly spy station out in the middle of nowhere. He yawned and put his feet up on the desk. A few years ago when he took this job he thought it would be a bit more exciting. Little did he realize back then that being a spy or a spy station operator required not only a lot of skill, but a whole lot of patience as well, especially since he was in what felt as the most inactive station on earth. He yawned again and almost drifted off to sleep when suddenly a beeping emerged from the terminal he was putting his feet on. He removed his feet from the terminal and switched it on. He traced the signal and realized that it was coming from the new spy device placed in General Madison’s headquarters. Usually the new spy devices just sent a confirmation transmission before transmitting any information. This one had done both however. Don decided to have a look at what it was; it must have been a malfunction or it had picked up something really important. He opened the recording and started to play it. As he heard the recording, his eyes widened. At the end of it he was in a blur of motion, placing a priority call to UDW headquarters. Finally someone answered and asked for identification and purpose. Don just looked at the person on the screen for a moment and then gave the necessary information. Just as the person was about to leave he Added “Please hurry the connection through, I believe the Corp heads will seriously want to see this.” The person only nodded and cut the transmission. This next part Don really hated very much. The leaders were going to take time to come together and during that time Don had to prepare and wait for the meeting. He paused to think that, during the entire time he was stationed here he had wanted some action, and now that it had finally arrived, why was he dreading it? * * * * * Corp. Leader Mila’s work was never done. She was always busy doing something; if it wasn’t clearing designs for the new Chassis then it was clearing Application forms to join the corp. It was never easy managing a corp. As large as UDwarriors, even when it was made during the First season of Droid arena. She remembered the trouble the Corp had when Droid arena had finally gone off the Computer screen and into reality. She was just a child then, used to playing on the computer screen only and when it went real she had aspired to play it again and become one of its champions. She eventually did play again and managed to get into the UDwarriors Corp. which was at that time was once again flourishing into the best corps around. She had made it up the ranks and her success earned her not only Position of the Head of UDwarriors Corp. but also one of the best players around. She was only beaten by a handful in her own Corp but also a few others in the Floating Citadel, which had also gained place in the rankings, and The Circle. She started to head to next of her tasks when she heard an announcement over the public Comm. System “All Leaders are requested for an emergency meeting in Conference room 3b. Repeat, All Leaders are urgently requested for an emergency meeting in conference room 3b.” She realized that an emergency meeting was rarely, if not never, called without prior notification. At last some action she thought, abandoning her work, she headed to the conference room at a full run and made it there in record time. When she reached there it was abandoned. I must be the first one here She thought and immediately sat in her seat at the head of the table. Eventually the rest of the leaders that formed the leadership ‘council’ of the Corp. arrived. They all numbered 8 in total and took up the entire room. She looked around and spotted Manos, the Financial head of the corp. and her most trusted friend. “Is everyone present?” She asked and upon receiving confirmation she nodded to the person on the screen which had been switched on a few moments after she arrived. “Commence transmission” She said and immediately another person came up on the screen. This must be Don she thought, he fit the description which her secretary had given her. “what is the purpose of this transmission Mr. Don? My secretary did not give me much information”. She asked in a curt voice. The person on the other end didn’t even flinch, he just replied “I really think you should hear this recording, It will explain everything. He then pushed a button and the recording started to play. Everyone in the room listened in silence as the voice of General Madison played out. Mila saw Manos’s jaw drop at the mention of the dominators, Mila ignored this and listened on to the part about Allen McAllister. Then she started to pay real close attention from then on, she realized this Allen person might just be very important in the near future. When the recording was finished, the expression of Mali’s face had changed from irritation to real seriousness, thank you for your time Mr. Don, you were right, the recording is self explaining. Continue monitoring the spy bugs and keep up the good work. She nodded and dismissed him. The monitor went off. She turned to her Corp. Mates and asked “What do you think? Is this a serious threat?” She heard someone clear his throat, she isolated the person and asked “You have something to say Mr. Peterson?” Peterson was the Corp’s military head, an old man, he had years of experience about such matters. He got up “Yes, as a matter of fact I do” He paused and took a deep breath. “I really think we should take this as a serious threat, not only because of the dominators, but because of the person controlling them. This General Madison sounds like a serious man, even if he is mad. He could be just as bad as Admiral Holler or Unit 13”. Admiral Holler and unit 90 were the 2 intellects who had started the Serian war in the first place, both had a passion for power and both had wanted it enough to go to any ends to achieve it. “Are you serious Peterson?” Dumler, the head Construction manager, asked from the other side of the table. “this person just sounds like a cook who thinks he found the Dominators”. “No, it could just be entirely possible he found them. Remember they were around 14 of them manufactured, no one really knows how many were destroyed at the battle of Springfield but the wreckage of only 4 of them were ever found. Nobody knew what happened to the rest of them”. He looked straight at Mila and said “If he has even 1 or 2 of them it could mean serious trouble, since they were made to be fitted with newer, more deadlier weapons And it was made to be able to stay ahead of anything we made for another 100 years…at the very least” “But we defeated them before remember?” Dumler said “We can do it again”. Peterson glared at Dumler and retorted “The battle was with only 4 dominators, along with no backup what so ever and against 600 other droids of varying types. It took almost all 600 to finally defeat them. And remember that was only 4, they are still 10 of these unaccounted for”. Mila decided that she should stop the argument before it got out of hand. She got up and said “Gentlemen, we cannot accomplish anything by fighting” She waited till both were seated again. “I cannot take such a threat as this lightly, it might be true or it might not, we must prepare nevertheless. She looked at Justin, the communications supervisor, and said “Issue an general Corp. wide alert, Notify everyone to be extra cautious and to look for suspicious activity from rival corps, especially The Circle.” She then turned to Peterson “I want at least 1 military grade weapon in each and every person’s base” Denise! She turned to her Spymaster, “Organize a spy mission! I want to see if what General Madison says is true.” Denise nodded. “If this turns out to be true, I want you to bring Allen McAllister to me” Denise nodded. “You are all dismissed” Mila said and walked out of the room deep in thought. INTERVAL All over the world, when the general alert went out to all UDwarriors, it immediately started an intriguing chain of events, which would bring about what they most feared sooner than expected. Soon after the general alert, the Senate caught wind of it and ,realizing that the UDwarriors Corp. did not give out such alerts lightly, stepped up security everywhere, even though they did not know the reason the UDwarriors Corp. had given it out. Soon there was not only a greater military presence but also a police one. General Madison and The Circle noticed the Senates activities and took that as a sign of a possible security breach. They both took precautions and eventually they found the Bugs in the Generals office. The spy mission ordered by Corp. Head Mila only partially succeeded; they had confirmed the presence and numbers of the Dominators, but lost contact before they could find out the General’s Plans. The General in turn speeded his plans up since he knew that security had been breached and a few days later there had been a report that a storage warehouse in Bangalore city had been robbed and then destroyed. The persons behind it was supposed to belong to The Circle, the motive and the importance of the target was still not clear to anyone. The UDwarriors Corp. realized that they needed Allen McAllister much quicker than before, and launched a special mission to get him before the General could. - - - - - - Chapter 3 It was 2 days after Allen had been released from the hospital and he still was still feeling sore. The doctors had said that his side would continue to be sore for a week at least. He groaned while trying to lift a heavy beam off the floor. He eventually gave up and sat on the nearby bench and leaned back. His mind wandered to the night where he was shot and tried to recollect something, but failed. Who, the heck was that person, and why did he want to kill me? He thought. He still hadn’t figured it out. He let the issue drop for now and said out aloud “ I’m going home 58, hurry up and close the place so we can go”. “Affirmative Allen, although I still don’t see why you want to close so early” He replied in a voice with just a tinge of irritation. 58 was a bot who did not like to be inactive or bored for that matter. Allen watched as 58 shut down the terminals and lights, he stepped out of the bay and waited by the street. When everything was shut down or closed off, 58 came out in his droid. They then proceeded to walk down the road together, making small talk on the way. The silence was then Shattered by a Gunshot. 58, whose sensors were much fasters then any humans, moved to react; but was impeded by the large hole that appeared where the droids propulsion control center was supposed to be located. Fortunately 58 had modified it enough and the bullet hit off center. Unfortunately did this not make the amount of damage taken any less. Allen watched in horror as the droid crumpled to the ground. He immediately ran to 58’s side, but 58 put his hand up and said in a somewhat broken voice “Get away, before the sniper takes aim again, ill call the police”. Allen just nodded, turned and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction. He didn’t run far though, after a minute of running he had to stop, lest he faint from the pain rushing through his side. He stopped and leaned on the wall tog et his breath, his first thought was Not again! Isn’t once enough? His thoughts were interrupted by a slight pain in his back. He looked around and immediately dreaded what he saw, for right there, planted firmly on his back was a small dart, no more than 3 or 4 inches in length with a tuft of feathers at the back Tranquilizer he thought They might want me alive, but for what?. And a little distance behind were 2 men, both carrying tranquilizer guns, out of which one was empty, they both started to move towards him. He pulled out the dart and began to run again but after a few steps he lost all control and fell down on the ground, unconscious. * * * * * 58 lay on the ground in his droid trying to recover or repair the shattered propulsions systems, however it wasn’t of much use, he only managed to get one of his legs working and the other one was totally crippled. Darn Shadow droid! I knew I should have put more amour on it next time! He thought. He then looked around and remembered the sniper. From the trajectory of the bullet it must have come from the roof of the building to his south west. He focused on it and went to infrared vision. He immediately picked up the sniper on the roof; it looked like he was packing up the rifle. 58 turned on his hidden weapons system. Though not much, consisting of a pair of lasers and a tiny machine gun, it was formidable in terms of accuracy and the amount of damage it could do directly to other weapons. He turned the power down so as to only stun the person and aimed directly at the sniper. The sniper, still packing up and thinking his job was done was totally unaware of the shot that lanced out of 58’s arm mounted laser till it hit him square in the chest. He immediately crumpled to the ground, unconscious. 58 then proceeded to limp back to the repair bay. He knew he couldn’t call the police; otherwise he himself would be put under confinement for carrying illegal weapons. Instead he limped all the way to the repair bay, falling a few times due to malfunctions. When he reached it he opened the door and practically crawled inside to the terminal. He then proceeded to switch on the systems of the bay instructing the automatic computer, which was used for basic replacement and repair but could not be trusted for anything more advanced, he limped over to the terminal and plugged in a cable from the terminal to a port just behind his head. This allowed him to operate the computer without actually being in it. He then moved the droid to the bay’s large repair table, where the droids were laid down and repaired. He laid down and then transferred himself into the computer. Oh boy, this is going to take a long time he thought and analyzed the damage. He found to his surprise that although the damage was widespread it was not very much in its severity. All in all it was repairable, but would take some time. Better get started, lest something happen to Allen He started up the repair bays mobile arms. 3 hours later 58 managed to get all the operating systems in the droid working again. He had added a few minor modifications to the systems to help track Allen’s beacon, which they agreed would be implanted in Allen so that 58 could track him in case of emergencies, he had added a few other modifications as well, all of which would have gotten him confinement for a long time if the Senate found out about it. He transferred into the droid. He waited for all the system checks to come up and cleared all of them. He then started up the tracker and checked the Co-ordinates against a map of the city, namely San Francisco, and was immediately surprised! The tracker was sending a beacon direct from UDwarriors HQ. Of all people! He thought What would they want with him? He then plotted a course for it and headed off. Chapter 4 Allen woke up. He yawned and scratched his head, trying to remember where he was and how he got there. He then remembered and tried to get up immediately. He got up and looked around his surroundings. He was in a small featureless room, with a small T.V. set in one far corner, a small sofa and the bed he was sitting on. He walked around the room a bit, searching for either a way out or a weapon he could use. Finding nothing, he sat down on the chair and started to think. His thoughts were then disturbed by the opening of the door. Allen looked up and saw the door open and a woman step in, she was wearing a white jump suit and what appeared to be a small visor over her right eye. Probably used for taking and displaying notes or something Allen thought. You are Allen McAllister? She asked in a rather gruff voice. Allen just nodded. She replied “Follow me” and stepped out. Allen followed suit and when he stepped out the first thing he noticed were the 2 guards standing just outside the door. They escorted him as he followed the woman through a series of corridors and stairs and even more corridors. She eventually stopped in front of a door with a sign just above it saying “Control Room 4c”. The woman stopped in front of the door and gestured him in. Allen entered the room and was immediately struck by the complexity of it. One entire wall was covered with nothing but monitors with control panels in front of them another was also covered with monitors and charts of different sizes. In the center was a large table covered entirely with a display panel. On the panel was a map of the San Francisco city. They were several people in the room however the person who caught his eye was a woman wearing a military style uniform with Corp. Emblems on the shoulder pads. On further inspection of the emblems he recognized them as the UDwarriors emblems. UDwarriors? Allen thought What the heck do the UDwarriors want with me? His question was answered shortly when she turned to him and asked “You are Allen McAllister?” Allen just nodded. “Good” She paused and in a softer tone continued “My name is Mila, Mr. McAllister and I am really sorry to inconvenience you but I’m afraid we need your help”. Allen was really surprised, how could a large Corp like UDwarriors need his help, especially since he had retired from Droid arena, and even when he was playing he wasn’t that good a player either. “I don’t see how I could help you, Ma’am. I’m just an old man who runs a repair bay for droids.” With that Mila smiled and replyied “Its not that simple Mr. McAllister” “Allen, call me Allen please” Allen interrupted her “Very well then Allen. As I was saying, its not that simple. I suggest you look at something before we proceed”. With that she turned to a person near her. She said “Play the recording please” Immediately a voice came from a speaker near the board, it was the recording made the spy device in the General’s office. After the recording finished Allen started to laugh. Mila and her men just watched in surprise as the laughter increased. “What is so funny may I ask?” Mila asked in an irritated voice. Allen stopped laughing and said “What is so funny is the fact that you think I might be able to help with this” “And what’s wrong with thinking that way? You were the only survivor of the battle of Springfield remember?” Mila retorted. “So? I survived mostly due to luck” His expression grew darker “In the battle my Blackwing was the first to be hit, it went down and crashed near a cliff. The A.I. box that stored the bot was completely smashed, in essence killing the bot and I was left inside, I was ignored and had to watch as my friends were killed trying to blow those dominators”. “And they did succeed didn’t they?” Mila said. “Yes they did, but only by sheer numbers did they succeed, the dominators took hit after hit after hit and never actually went down till the defending force got really lucky”. Allen paused and took a deep breath as if trying to remember something “Go on” Mila prodded, by this time every eye in the room was locked onto Allen. “They got really lucky, a blackwing had accidentally crashed into one of the droids, this had 2 effects- it made the droid fall flat on its back, which it took a bit of time to recover from and it created a tiny crack in its armor. One of the pilots got really lucky and his Plasma shot went right into the crack, all the way to the reactor core. It detonated and took out everything nearby with it, namely the other Dominators and what was left of the Defensive force. I was lucky because my droid had been hit during the first rounds of fire at long range” He paused and took a breath. “Although till today I have no idea why I was the only one to survive that battle” He just fell silent. “So the victory at Springfield was just luck?” Mila asked. “Not exactly, we did manage to destroy 2 of them with sheer brute force, I’m not really sure, but those things must have had around 20 or 30 thousand units armor at the least, since it so many shots to finally blow them up. Another thing was that the things kept on missing, I never actually figured out why” Allen just shook his head, and said “I dunno how I can help Ma’am but if what I have heard from Madison now is true then I will try”. Mila nodded and said “Very well then, we don’t really know Madison’s plan yet, so far he has only attacked a storage facility in Bangalore city. “Bangalore city??” Allen exclaimed with a surprise on his face. “What would he want with Bangalore…? No wait I think I know, may I have the number and name of the warehouse please?” Mila nodded and asked a nearby technician to get the information. The technician acknowledged and starting accessing the information on the Console in front of him. “Why do you want to know the name and number of the warehouse?” Mila asked. “I will tell you as soon as I find out, if I’m right then Madison could become more of a threat than you suspected earlier” 2 minutes later the technician turned and said, the warehouse name and numbers are Mallet’s warehouse #55093294321. Allen nodded and started to say something, but was immediately interrupted by red lights and a siren which started out of nowhere. “Security Breach!” Mila shouted, the control room then became a flurry of activity, “Show the status of perimeter guards and gates” she said. Immediately a monitor changed its display to show the entrance and all the guards. The scene was very disturbing, the guards were lying unconscious on the ground and a few meters from them lay a stalker droid on its side, they could easily see that its fuel lines had been destroyed. The gates on the other hand, were all right except for a large hole which had been cut into it. It was obviously the work of a droid using lasers at full power. “Location of the enemy droid?” Mila asked, the technician replied “Unknown, we can’t seem to get a fix on it, I think it could be using a cloaking device of sorts” “Impossible!” Mila exclaimed, no legal droid can have one……Increase security in all sectors, I want it destroyed or captu-” She was cut off in mid sentence as the door exploded inwards with a ear cracking boom. This is going to hurt Allen though as the shockwave hit him and blew him into the wall. He hit the wall and crumpled onto the floor, pain erupted all over his side. He groaned and looked up to see a shadow droid come into the room. Before he could say or do anything, everything went mercifully black. Chapter 5 58 watched as 2 policemen walked by in front of the alley. Fortunately they did not notice him hiding inside at the far end. As soon as they passed he came out stealthily and checked both sides of the streets for police. They were none. He then checked his location relative to Allen’s. He was getting closer to his location. He ran to the cover of another alley in a split second. Just 1 more to go he thought, he checked his scanner again. The UDwarriors HQ was just behind this building. He looked up and saw a ladder leading to a fire escape. It looked like it would be able to support his weight, he tested it just to make sure. He then took a giant leap and grabbed the ladder, he then climbed the fire escape to the roof as fast as he could possibly go without making too much noice. When he reached the roof he crouched down and looked around. No one in sight he thought Good He moved swiftly towards the edge of the roof and looked over at the entrance of the UDwarriors HQ. Not being able to see properly in normal vision, he switched over to infra red. His vision changed immediately and he once again scanned the entrance. He immediately noticed a fully armed stalker droid and 5 guards patrolling the perimeter. On closer inspection he also noticed several automatic sentries on top of the entrance as well. He decided on his next course of action. He opened up the laser packs built into his arms and powered them up, making sure 1 was powered to full and the other to stun, as well as withdrawing the shoulder mounted machine gun. He then activated the stealth modifications he had put in. He was now ready to carry out his plan. 3……2……1……now! He thought and as planned, opened fire on the stalker’s fuel container and pipes, which he had learned the location of while working with Allen in the repair bays, scoring direct hits before the Droid could even react. The other laser he targeted at the guards who were just reacting and trying to trace the source of the Laser blasts. He stunned all of them and without wasting a single second jumped from the top of the building, 5 stories up, landed on the ground firing at the sentries all the way. By the time he had reached the entry door he had taken out the sentries and had powered up both lasers to full. When he reached it though, he realized that breaking through the doors was impossible due to its titanium structure. Instead he aimed both lasers and cut his way through, being careful to avoid the super hot edges around the make shift door. He checked the corridor in front of him. It was very wide and very tall, almost as if very large items were moved through here constantly. 58 didn’t pay any more thought to it and checked the scanner. It indicated that Allen was 2 floors above him and 250 meters to his north-east. This place looks like a maze 58 thought, looking around. I’m going to need cover and a map to find my way through . He spied a console in a corner and went directly to it and connected. He requested for a map and managed to get by the security blocks. All this took him less than 4 seconds. He got the floor plan, plotted the fastest route to the location and began to run at top speed through the corridors and passageways, blasting anything that tried to impede his progress. He finally reached a room 2 minutes later with the Label “Control room 4c” on top of it. He took out the mini rocket launcher bolts and blew open the door with a single shot. Inside was a scene of utter chaos. To one side a woman who was giving out orders turned and looked at him with utter surprise but was blown of her feet when the shockwave hit her a few milliseconds later. To his left was Allen, who had hit the wall due to the shockwave, he was trying to say something, but passed out before doing so. 58 did not need to think about his next few actions, He picked up Allen, threw him over the droid’s shoulder and ran out. He headed to the exit indicated on his map. He kept running for what seemed like an eternity, finally he spotted the exit, unfortunately what he also spotted were 2 Desolator droids. The Desolaters were the descendents of the Mammoth droids. Although much slower than the Mammoth, they were capable of carrying 3 Death rays and a pair rocket launchers and could inflict huge amounts of damage, at the expense of the machine guns, accuracy and shields (They survived on the base defense of 5000 armor units) however, They were not known to be accurate or reliable when in 1 on 1 battles, but were excellent at working as a team especially when paired with faster droids. The droids were blocking the corridor and there was no way out, 58 didn’t stand a chance with V1.0 shadow, so he did the only thing possible which was turn in the opposite direction and run. However this was cut short as well b 3 approaching stalkers. Damm! This must be why the corridors are so darn large! 58 thought The droids use them for transport as well! Then a voice came over a speaker nearby saying “Stand down and surrender, you are surrounded, stand down now and you will not be harmed”. 58 thought this over, the kidnappers whoever they were wanted Allen alive, otherwise they would have killed him by now. 58 thought it was wise he give up for now, he disarmed the lasers, put Allen on the ground, who was now stirring into consciousness and put his arms up. * * * * * 2 hours later 58 was waiting in the isolated terminal they had put him in. There was no way out of this terminal since it was not connected to anything and the only form of sensing the outside world was by the camera and audio mike. When those persons had asked for identification he had given it willingly and said that Allen would explain his presence here. The Mike picked up approaching people. 58 directed the camera towards the door and waited. It finally opened and the same woman he had seen in the control room stepped in. “Your free to go 58, Allen explained your purpose here when he saw your identification” then his shadow droid, stripped of all weapons and modifications he had built in, followed them in under remote control. A technician came and plugged in the cable to the terminal. 58 immediately transferred himself into the droid, he ran a systems check and finally got it moving, all of this took place in a split second. “Thank you” 58 said. “May I see Allen now?” He asked. The woman just nodded and leaded him out to another room, much the same as the one he blew up, but much larger and as he could see, the door was more armored as well. At least I taught them a valuable lesson 58 thought. They went in, this time they were several armed guards inside, the first thing he spotted was Allen being bandaged around the waist by a medic. The blast must have reopened the wound 58 thought with alarm Note to self: Next time do not put too much explosives in mini nuke bolts, he immediately headed to Allen side, starting to apologize for the mistake. Allen fielded the apologies and said it was ok. That was enough for 58. He then heard someone clear his throat behind him. Allen looked past 58 and said “Oh yes, I almost forgot” 58 turned around. “58, this is Mila, head of the UDwarriors Corp”. “Pleasure to meet you” 58 said. “pleasures all mine I assure you” she replied with in a cold voice. She turned to Allen and said “You were about to say something about that warehouse when we were interrupted?” Allen glanced at 58 and said “I think my companion here should be supplied the recording as well, he could give valuable insight” “very well then” Mila replied and turned to a nearby technician and requested him to give 58 access to the recording. He complied and played the recording at full speed, to compensate for 58’s faster senses. In a few seconds 58 had heard the entire recording. Mila asked in a rather impatient tone “Now can you tell what’s so important about that warehouse please?”. Allen looked at her and said “What’s so important about that warehouse is what it stores, namely all the old A.I. units used when Droid arena was still young. Although not very modern, they can be modified for army use if needed, in fact the military did consider using this for the Serian war, since they made effective drones, obeying orders and never questioning them at all, they were programmed to kill all there enemies and were pretty good when it came to combat, even against human pilots.” He paused and took a breath. “General Madison can’t get enough pilots to do anything major or large in size. Even if he has huge number of droids, they are still useless without pilots. If he is doing what I think he is, you better expect a very large force very soon, especially when they are paired up with those dominators they could cause extensive damage.” He paused thinking deeply “Where is the location of Madison’s base and the Dominators?” he continued “Its somewhere in the Australian outback I think, do you require the exact coordinates?” she asked. “No, no. It’s just that if Madison is in the Australian outback, then how does he plan on taking over anything? The dominators would take at least a few days to reach the nearest city at top speed. If he wants to take over anything, especially here in the US, he needs something to transport those droids”. There was a dead silence in the room. For a minute no one spoke. “The mega-transporters?” Mila asked. The mega-transporters were designed to be able to transfer hundreds of droids from continent to continent. Being 3 or 4 times larger than an oil tanker, they had thousands of Antigravs keeping them afloat and driving them forward at a speed of a 100 kilometers and hour. They were capable of crossing the Atlantic and pacific within a couple of days. Only 4 of them existed anywhere in the world. 2 were in the United States while a 3rd resided in a hanger near Singapore and the 4th near Sydney harbor. “Madison attacked Bangalore city 3 days ago, giving him a day to fit the A.I. units into the droids and then sending them immediately to Sydney harbor, they should arrive there anytime now” Mila said. Then she whirled around and said to her staff “Get Admiral Benson on the Comm. Tell him about the impeding attack and if he doesn’t believe us, show him the recording and tell him about the raid at the warehouse, he will figure it out from there.” She shouted to someone else “Get as many of our players in Sydney as possible, arm them to the teeth and tell them about this, alert the Senate as well, they must be having some forces there as well” 58 decided that staying here would be just getting in the way. He went up to Allen, tapped his shoulder and said “lets go, I don’t think they need us here anymore” Allen just nodded, they were about to leave when Mila turned towards them and said “I’m Afraid I cannot allow you to leave, there is still a lot to be done” “But what? You already found out what you needed to know about the Dominators” Allen asked in surprise. “It still doesn’t matter, as long as you know about this you are a security risk. besides, Madison still wants you dead remember? We can protect you here.” Allen thought it over, however 58 spoke up “I suggest we do that Allen, the security here is more than adequate. And I think you should see what happens, maybe you can help find a weakness or something” Allen sighed and turned to Mila “Very well then” He turned to Mila and asked “Do you have any spare quarters here, I need to rest and recover from this wound” He said, patting his side lightly. Mila smiled and responded, my secretary will give you some quarters immediately. With that she called in her secretary, the woman who had met and led Allen to the control room in the beginning, and in low tones gave her some orders. She turned to them and just said “Follow me please” Both 58 and Allen went out of the room, which was now a scene of organized chaos. Pretty soon, the whole world would look the same way. INTERVAL Immediately after the Senate was warned by the UDwarriors Corp. They sent as many forces to the Sidney harbor as could get in such a short time. Meanwhile, the entire Droid arena community which was present there, went to arms in order to defend the city, they were provided with weapons shipped in from the UDwarriors and Floating citadel, which had decided that to help as well being the next largest Corp. around after UDwarriors, Corporations. Along with the forces from the Senate, they numbered 300 in total. Under the leadership of Admiral Benson, A retired Admiral who used to command the pacific fleet, went out to put as much a defense of the city as possible. Meanwhile all over the world, the Senate increased security yet again. Patrols were set outside all the major cities, Turret defense systems, which were taken down after the Serian war, were put up again. Many people hailed this as another war similar, in fact almost identical, to the last one except for a few details and the fact that the enemy might win this time. Satellite and remote cameras were set up to record the battle with the Dominators. The mega-transporters could not be withdrawn either since there was not enough time to fuel and launch it, which would take around 2 days, and the worlds only hope rested on the 300 men and women and bots going out to battle. - - - - - Chapter 6 Admiral Benson looked at his rag-tag armada of 300 droids. When he had volunteered to command it he hadn’t realized what he had gotten himself into. None of the people, although very willing, were trained to obey orders on call nor trained in the art of combat. Fortunately he had 50 of his men in the group as well, trying to maintain order and discipline. He sighed and said into his Mic. And said “are all the droids ready?” He listened to Affirmatives and yeses and so on. He then asked “Does everyone know their positions then?”. He again listened to all Affirmatives At least they are learning He thought. He then asked for all wings to report in. The squad had been divided into 3 wings of a hundred droids. The first one was Hammer wing, consisting of the Stalkers, Dragon and Blackwing droids, they would be the first ones to engage the enemy after which would peel back and let Shadow wing, consisting of All the heavy droids like the Mammoths, desolators, warlocks and sentinels, would take all the brunt of incoming fire and then return fire as much as possible. Behind them was the Sniper wing, consisting of the long ranged Assassin droids, Large, agile droids with Long ranged plasma and highly accurate Magnetic Guns built to inflict maximum damage over range, of the Sniper wing and 5 of the new Mobile Repair Droids, shipped in just yesterday around the same time as the Dominators were detected. The Mobile Repair Droids or the MRDs as they were called were new units developed by the Silicon penguins Corp. which were capable of repairing Droids in the heat of battle. They were capable of doing so due to there incredible speed, which was faster than even a stalker, and armor, almost 7000 units of base defense. However this was shadowed by presence of only 2 machine guns slots. Everything else, including shields was absent. However the machine guns were one of the largest around being of LB-20Ax caliber, capable of rivaling the lower weapons classes in sheer brute force. They were also capable of fully restoring almost destroyed droids to the original status in only a minute and a half flat. Benson realized that they might prove as a valuable asset, repairing damaged desolators and returning to combat quickly, however he did feel that the lack of weapons were a disadvantage. He surveyed the scene and nodded to himself. I hope this is enough He thought, remembering that the radar had picked up all 10 dominators and a 100 other droids more, mostly old V 1s and a few mammoths here and there. However it was the Dominators that worried Benson the most. It had been detected that all of them carried at least 5 Death rays and 3 machine guns along with 2 rocket launchers. The armor of the droids was well known throughout the world. They was no actual way to stop them with only 300 droids, but they hoped to delay them long enough to let the mega-transporter escape. “Everyone, get to your places” He said. “get ready to move out, we cant allow them to reach the city!” With that he entered the Cockpit of his Mammoth. The entire force then proceeded to move out. Soon the Dominators came into sight. They were huge droids, more than 50 feet in height he reckoned, with really thick torsos covered completely with Energy absorbing armor and rocket launcher racks, there heads were very small when compared to the entire body size. The cockpits were probably located there, although they were covered by the same armor as the rest of the body and made a tough target to hit. Benson discounted that for a weakness and tried to find other ones. He looked at the legs of the Droid, and realized that although they were covered with armor, they were much thinner, and probably would be able to break easier than the torso. He signaled to everyone in the group “Aim for the legs, it just might be a weakness” The entire group started to move in formation. Benson watched it on his display and saw everything was going according to plan. Hammer wing split up from the main group and went to intercept the approaching group of smaller droids, the Blackwings bombed them with the rockets and mines and open fire at the other flying enemy units present, while the stalkers ran ahead and made a perimeter of sorts with all their available mines. This managed to slow down the enemy group, dubbed the ‘Grunts’ a bit. Then when they came into the range, the dragons opened fire with all their weapons. However this wasn’t all perfect, as Benson knew, the Grunts immediately retaliated and opened fire on all the air units. Immediately 6 Blackwings dropped out of radar and several others were crippled. The remaining 19 Blackwings retreated a bit and opened fire, vaporizing several Dragonflys and Hoverbots in the crossfire. However this victory was short felt as the rest of the Grunts concentrated their fire and destroyed all the Blackwings, turning their attention on the Stalkers. Who zipped through their ranks dodging bullets and lasers and such and tearing apart whole droids at close range. All 25 of those winked out of Benson’s display shortly, along with 30 Grunts as well. The only thing of hammer wing were the 50 dragons, which opened fire with all their might. Death rays streaked out from them and immediately destroyed 14 grunts. The firefight that happened next was too fast to see. Benson just kept up by reading the number of droids present on both sides. They went down very quickly, too quickly for Benson to believe. Then he remembered the Dominators, they must have come in range to fire on hammer wing, that was the only explanation Benson could think of. A second later, hammer wing was totally destroyed, taking the entire grunt force with them though and that was a small enough victory for Admiral Benson. “Get ready everyone, starters are over, here comes the main course!” and with that Benson saw the entire force fan out in all directions, forming several rows of droids, all spaced apart so as to not present groups which could be targeted by Rockets. The Dominators, coming into range opened fire on the first few ranks of shadow wing. There were no losses yet, although many droids were crippled to a standstill, making easy targets. Shadow wing opened fire, concentrating all the rechargeable fire on 1 droid. It had no affect whatsoever. The droid was still intact and moving around perfectly, although its aim was a bit thrown off when it returned fire at the enemy droids, immediately blasting 6 droids into oblivion. The rest of the Dominators opened fire as well, destroying several other mammoths and desolators. Then Benson commanded again “Open fire! Throw everything we have at that one droid” He watched in horror as his forces starting disappearing not one by one, but in small groups and clusters. He opened fire as well, hoping that he would get a lucky shot on the Dominator they were aiming at. The dominator they were targeting finally fell,intact,onto the ground but at the expense of almost all of Shadow wing and half of Sniper wing. He cursed and said on the Comm. “All forces fall back to the city, we might be able to get them in the city” the remaining forces acknowledged and immediately turned and started to retreat to the city, which had been evacuated earlier. Benson turned the rear camera on. He didn’t think they would be able to make it, only the MRDs were fast enough to do so, the rest of them would be able to reach the city if they were lucky, although luck wasn’t on there side today. He saw all the units reverse direction immediately and try to get out of there. The MRDs disengaged from the units they were repairing and headed out as fast as possible, realizing that they were just targets while they were repairing other units, and just repairing other units made the units targets themselves. The MRDs instead of primarily repairing other units they opened fire on the Dominators and they passed by, neither of them noticed to see if they had any effect on the Dominators. However Admiral Benson, who was monitoring them on the rear monitors noticed it Immediately. He just stared at the screen in shock, so much so that he nearly forgot to steer. He set the autopilot and looked back at the screen. Could it have been that simple? He thought. And just to confirm it he played the recording of the battle. He noticed the same thing he noticed now and laughed. It was so simple! He had been too busy commanding the forces to really bother noticing it, although now he was free to do it he had done so. He immediately picked up the Comm. Unit and said “This is Admiral Benson, we are currently retreating and regrouping” He paused, taking a deep breath and continued “I’ve found the weakness of the Dominators, its been there all along, but was magnified by the new MRDs, he looked at the monitor, the MRDs--” and was immediately stopped by the White Death ray that hit his mammoth and blew it sky high. * * * * * “the MRDs---” Everyone in the control room, including 58 and Allen, watched the screen in horror as Admiral Benson’s Mammoth was engulfed in flames. As they continued to watch all the other units disappeared one by one, trying to get away in vain. Only 3 of the 5 MRDs actually made it out, the other 2 had been blown to bits while repairing other units. Mila, just shook her head sadly and said “Withdraw the MRDs, they can’t possibly do anything now” Then someone pointed to the screen and said “What’s that there, behind the Dominators?” Everyone looked and immediately dreaded what they saw. Behind the Dominators were 3 troop carriers Very likely to capture the mega-transporter Allen thought. “They must have been waiting out of range while the battle went on, they must be here for the mega-transporter”. Mila said, “Notify the transporter crew that they will be having company shortly” She paused “And try to find out what Admiral Benson was talking about, if those Dominators reach here, I want to find its weakness”. Allen stepped forward and asked “May 58 and I join the them in finding the weakness?” When Mila looked at him skeptically he continued “You have us here to help remember? This way we can actually do that.” Mila thought it over and finally nodded, and said “Find Mr. Peterson and tell him I sent you to help him.” With that she turned and gave orders to her men while Allen and 5 sneaked out of the room. * * * * * 3 hours later Allen heard the news that the mega-transporter had been captured. A fire fight had raged on for that long between the transporter crew and the invading forces. However the transporter crew were outmatched and under armed although they did put up a tough fight. He had also heard that shortly after the battle a force of 400 droids had approached the city and loaded onto the transporter. Along with the Dominators they would reach the American coast in 2 days. Allen had till then to find a weakness. He had analyzed over and over again the different videos of the battle he had acquired from the remote cameras. Unfortunately all but 2 of them had been destroyed. And those 2 didn’t have much of the required video of the Dominators themselves, only parts where the Dominators came into the edge of the camera’s range and then slipped out again. Admiral Benson had mentioned the MRDs for some reason and Allen wanted to know why. The cameras hadn’t picked up the MRDs as they ran, but the audio sensors had heard them fire, Benson’s Message had come immediately after that. There has to be a connection, there has to! He thought. Benson had mentioned that the weakness was already there but magnified by the MRDs. Allen had been trying to figure it out all night. He eventually got tired, and 58, who was working beside him on improving the quality of the pictures, called it a night as well. He could work from the terminal in Allen’s room and send his droid to maintenance during that time. Allen limped back to his quarters and fell onto the bed, and immediately went to sleep. INTERVAL As the mega-transporters approached the US, the UDwarriors tried to find the weakness of the Dominators, but to no avail. The Senate assembled a massive defense of over 500 droids near the coast of Springfield, where the mega-transporters were plotted to land. This was just the first line of defense; inland forces of up to a 1000 droids barricaded the cities from attack. However as many forces as possible were diverted to Springfield, which powered not only most of the US by its Nuclear Fusion reactor, of which only 3 existed in the world. 1 was in Springfield, 1 in Moscow and 1 just outside Scotland, powering half the European continent. Many people realized that this was nothing but the Battle of Springfield all over again. Strategists blamed the Senate for not improving defense or creating more power sources to remove the strategic importance of Springfield. The Senate did not have any comment on this issue. As the mega-transporter approached, the senate managed to get another 200 droids into the battle. All in all a force of 700 droids had assembled to defend Springfield. This time however, over 30 cameras were set up at various locations to help record the battle completely. Reconnaissance planes were set up to take pictures from high in the Atmosphere. Most people thought this was a deciding battle, but only a privileged few in the Senate and UDwarriors actually knew that, although the battle would be significant, it would not be the end of it and did not decide the outcome of the New Serian war, as most people had decided to call it. - - - - - Chapter 7 The entire world watched as the force of 700 droids assembled near the shore where the mega-transporter was supposed to land. Earlier, the Senate had tried to blow it out of the sky using missiles, but had failed to do so. The mega-transporter had been built to withstand all sorts of military attacks and had destroyed, evaded or blocked every missile fired at it. Nothing could stop it from approaching the Coast and dropping off the 9 Dominators and 400 droids. News services were broadcasting the events live from the 20 odd cameras planted near the approximate battle site. To help capture more details about whatever Admiral Benson was talking about, the UDwarriors put cameras in many of the droids especially the MRDs to help pick up the battle much better this time. As last time they were 3 wings, however this time a 4th additional wing was added. It was called the Engineering wing, containing up to 20 MRDs and 5 Large ground transport vehicles storing and dispensing Ammunition when needed. The remaining 675 droids consisted of 50 Blackwings, 50 Dragons, 75 Stalkers, 75 Desolaters, 75 Mammoths, A 100 Assassin droids, 150 Sentinels and a 100 Warlocks. The division of units were also different. All the Mammoths, Desolators and Warlocks were assembled in one wing called the Anvil wing, which would stay out of range and wait for Hammer wing, consisting of the Sentinels, Dragons and Blackwings, to take out the incoming force of 400 V1 droids. Sniper wing’s primary objective would be to try and take out the Dominators from long range and to cover Anvil wing in case Hammer wing did not take out all the V1s. Anvil wing, after all the V1s were taken out, would then charge all 9 Dominators, concentrating fire on 1 at a time. That was how the plan was supposed to work, but no one could predict whether it could be fulfilled in the Chaos of the battle that followed ahead. * * * * * The battle started exactly as planned, Hammer wing had deployed itself so that it would be able to engage the V1s without worrying about being hit by the Dominators. In the first exchange of fire itself they were heavy losses on both sides, although as it progressed on the enemy ranks grew tighter and tighter in an attempt to stop the Senate forces from getting by. However, Hammer wing’s Offence was getting poorer as they lost more and more Droids. This battle raged on into a stalemate, with each siding taking losses and returning them as well. Meanwhile sniper wing had taken heavy losses to the Dominator’s Long range weapons, but had actually managed to take down a single Dominator, with a resounding blast it went down. The commander of the Dominators, realized that they could not win any sort of battle by just standing there, and went to aid the struggling V1 droids. Hammer wing was caught utterly by surprise when the Dominators came into range and opened fire on them. Immediately over half of what was left of Hammer wing was destroyed. The retreat was sounded and the remnants of Hammer wing headed to the back of the Senate Armada to repair and reload. The remaining V1 droids, around 60 or 70 in number, regrouped and staying close with the Dominators started to advance to destroy the Remnants of Sniper wing. All the Senate forces regrouped to the waiting Anvil wing and in turn started to advance towards the Dominators, the Firefight that ensued was very fierce and Chaotic. People who were watching it had trouble keeping up with losses and gains. The battle lasted for 3 long hours in which the world watched and waited. During the battle several surprises arose, like the releasing of another 100 droids from the nearby mega-transporter. Although mostly V1s, they also contained a few mammoths and desolaters. This surprise force was also balanced out by a high-altitude bombing of the enemy droids using old planes which the Senate had found and prepared for just such emergencies. Although they didn’t cause much damage against the armor of the Droids, they did finish off those droids which had been severely weakened and/or crippled. Strategist guessed that Madison had been able to pull some extra droids from the warehouses around Sydney harbor before he had left and had planned to use them as a wild card during the battle he knew he would encounter at the US. It turned out to be a significant card when the battle ended and the smoke cleared. Chapter 8 “THEY DID WHAT?????” Presider Mach Mendez, head of the Senate council, asked, shouting at the top of his voice. “Calm down Presider, shouting will not get us anywhere” Mila said. She knew that if the Presider lost his temper he would be impossible to hold down, due to his size and strength. She watched as he slowly clamed down and asked “ok, I know they did it, but how?” He asked. “General Madison is a much better strategist then we gave him credit for” Mila replied, pausing for a second to collect her thoughts and continued “It doesn’t matter now, what matters is the Fusion power plant at Springfield”. “Yes, she is right” Michael Ivan said from his corner of the table “It doesn’t matter how he did, but he did” He paused “I’ve also got news that satellites have spotted salvage units coming out of the mega-transporter, it looks like he is assembling more Droids for combat out of the wreckages of those already there”. Mila looked at him and asked “Why would he want to do that? He can get in and out of Springfield unimpeded”. “It must be to capture other cities, although the automatic turrets will be out of commission there will still be Droids protecting it” Mila replied. She thought and continued “We must execute Plan Able immediately, before he destroys the Fusion plant”. Both Mach and Michael nodded. Michael added “What do you he think he would do if , no when, he found out?”. The Three just stared at each other for a few seconds. It was Mila who broke the silence “I don’t know, I think he will come and destroy the new power sources as soon as possible” “How do you plan on stopping him then?” Presider Mach asked. “I honestly don’t know. We hope to find a weakness in the Dominators by then, my best people are working on it” She paused “They got good recordings this time, most of the cameras survived the battle unlike last time”. Mach just nodded and said “Do we all have our codes then” Mila and Michael nodded. “Very well then” Mach turned to the panel in front of him and said “Computer, please execute Plan Able”. The computer displayed a series of graphics on the panels and asked “Please input verification codes from UDwarriors Corp.”. Mila input the codes on her console. “Codes confirmed, please input verification codes from Floating Citadel Corp.” Michael input his codes next. “Codes confirmed, please input Verification codes from The Senate.” Mach entered his codes. “All codes confirmed. Plan Able executed”. Everyone watched there screens as a checklist confirmed everything was running smoothly. Mila knew that a signal had been sent to not only the fusion plant, ordering it to shut down, but also to a secret facility, labeled over 60 years ago as Area 51. * * * * * Allen awoke to the sound of Sirens going off in the base. He got up and walked over to the door, opened it and looked around. He saw people running all over the place. He walked out, stopped someone asked “What’s going on? What’s all the commotion about?” The person, a research Engineer by the Tag on his arm, said in an irritated voice “We are evacuating the base, everyone is shifting to the alternate base.” With that he went on before Allen could ask him anything else. He then remembered the events of the previous day. He rushed to the terminal in his room and called up the latest headlines. He had gone to sleep the previous day just before the battle had started. When he saw the headlines he gasped and nearly fainted. He still couldn’t understand it, how had the Dominators defeated 700 droids and lose only 1 of there number? He sat down and read the account of the entire battle. When he finished reading 10 minutes had passed. At the end of the article he noticed the passage “And in related news, the UDwarriors Corp In conjunction with the Senate are trying to find weaknesses or vulnerabilities in the Dominators” This reminded Allen that he had promised to help the UDwarriors. He got up and freshened himself up a bit before heading out to the control room. On the way he met 58 and together they went to the control room, making small talk. 58 told him that the Corp’s Military advisers were working 24/7 analyzing the Videos and trying to find any weaknesses. He also found out that the only survivors from yesterdays battle were 3 MRDs that had retreated when all the other Droids had been destroyed. Like last time they were too busy trying to survive in the hail of crossfire that they weren’t able to spot anything. They finally reached the control room. The control room was a scene of chaos. There was shouting everywhere as people tried to organize the Corp. HQ shift. Allen spotted Mila in the Middle of the control room giving out orders and overseeing the activities. Allen told 58 to wait for him and headed towards Mila, catching her eye as he approached. When he reached her he asked “What’s going on? And what is this Shift in the Corp. HQ?” She paused midway in her orders and said “We are shifting the base to a different location. Madison’s forces broke through the defenses and are approaching the Fusion power plant. They will arrive in 4 hours” She paused and continued “The plants will be shutdown in 3 hours and the crew will be evacuated after that. By that time we would have arrived at the new Headquarters” Allen responded, a bit surprised “But what about the power? That Fusion plant at Springfield powers most of the United States and we cant create our own power forever” Mila just smiled and said “You will find out about that when we get their”. Allen returned the smile and then asked “Where is this place anyway?” Mila answered, giving him a padd in her hand “here are the co-ordinates”. Allen read the Co-ordinates and said with a little surprise “Isn’t that Where Area 51 used to be?” Area 51 was a name given to one of the Old US government’s Military installations. There were several reports of UFOs and strange activities from that area. However when the Senate took over as a global government, it took over the control of Area 51, and it was discovered that Area 51 was actually a decoy made during the cold war. It was meant to attract as much attention of the Soviets and the public as possible while whatever experiments in weapons technology that was needed to be conducted were done so in a separate facility elsewhere. After that the Senate disbanded the Military base and sold the land to a Corp which was quickly rising in the Rankings at that time. Allen asked “But what’s at Area 51?” Mila smiled and said “You will find out when we get there”. With that she gave him information about where he was to report to help find the Dominators weakness and also information about which Transport vehicle he will be in when the shift started in an hour. Allen went back to 58 and told him everything. 58 Acknowledged and said “Maybe we should head there immediately, so we don’t miss it” Allen agreed and together they set off through the Maze that was the UDwarriors HQ. After 5 minutes of walking they finally reached the Hangar bay. As they passed the different vessels, Allen noticed a rather odd looking one. It was a giant Droid, over 35 feet in length, 15 feet tall and 20 feet wide, it looked very much like primitive helicopters which were used to carry huge payloads, but with wings similar to the dragon chassis instead of rotor blades. Where the crane was supposed to be there were several legs, each leg had several tools at the end upon closer inspection. The Cockpit was clearly present in the front, very similar to the old Apache cockpits except that it was almost completely made up of titanium and covered completely with sensor arrays. On moving towards the back, one could immediately notice the 2 large engines below the tail, which consisted of a small tail and some small elevators very likely for fine maneuvers in-flight, and 2 more engines near the bottom of the torso 10 feet behind and outwards from the Legs. On the top of the torso was a turret, carrying 2 Very large machine guns, capable of twisting around 45 degrees in all directions. This must be a MRD Allen thought. He had never seen an MRD this close before and was immediately awed by the sight of it. He paused to look at it in more detail. 58 stopped and urged him to come along. Allen nodded and 5 minutes later they were in a huge bay with several transport vehicles of all sizes, all of which were being loaded with various equipment and droids and stuff. He turned to 58 and asked “How the heck are we supposed to find the vehicle 15b-Command in this mess” 58 looked around with his sensors and said “Its right over there Allen, with the Name and Number written on its side” and pointed to a large, black vehicle just next to the Loading bay’s doors. They headed towards it and when they got there Corp. Military advisor Peterson greeted them. “You’re a bit early aren’t you? I hope you brought along your clothes and essentials along, it’s going to be crowded at our destination” He said. Allen replied “I did, Its in cargo vessel 14”.He then nodded towards 58 and continued “We also brought some of our tools along, when we were allowed to go home and collect some luggage, it might just come in handy” Peterson nodded and replied “Very well then, I think you would like to see the Video of the battle” With that he led them to a nearby console. He handed a Cable to 58 with which he could directly connect to the console and gather the Data faster. Allen sighed and started to analyze the videos. * * * * * Mendel was smiling when he arrived at Madison’s new base inside the mega-transporter. He had not expected this much success from Madison at all, not only had he achieved his goal of capturing the power plant as promised but had also weakened the Senates forces considerably. He came into Madison’s office and immediately noticed a large display of the entire United States, with several lighted markers for the cities. He noticed that all of the markers were dark for now. Must be display for power distribution to the cities He though and searched for General Madison and found him by a Comm. Panel with his assistant. As he approached General Madison noticed Mendel and came over to greet him. “Nice to see you again Mendel” He said smiling “I hope everything is going according to your expectations?”. “It is, General, it is. In fact, its going better than ever” Mendel replied, returning the General’s smile. The General nodded and said “The Fusion power plant has been shut down by the Senate to prevent an explosion, We have managed to secure it and can turn it back on at any time.” He paused for a moment “We can invade any city now that there are few defenses are down and we have some more droids recovered from the nearby wreckage”. “Good, good” Mendel responded. “When can you switch on the power and redirect it? We need to power some of our own military installations”. “Anytime Mr. Mendel, anytime, Just give us the Co-ordinates and we will power it”. Madison replied. Mendel started to give the Co-ordinates but was immediately interrupted by a sudden change in the large Display panel. He turned and watched in horror as 3/4th of the cities displayed on the Display lighted up. It indicated that they had somehow been powered up. Madison immediately got angry and called over Molaiv, and said in a loud voice “What the hell is happening?? I didn’t authorize any power to be distributed!!” Molaiv checked his panel and responded “It is not us sir, it seems to be coming from a different power source”. Mendel heard this with alarm and said “We must get rid of the other power source as soon as possible, otherwise all our plans will go into ruins!!” “I know that Mendel” Madison growled in response. He turned to Molaiv and said “Trace where that power is coming from now!” Molaiv nodded and turned to his console. 15 minutes later he turned to Mendel and Madison, both of who were pacing and looking very angry. “I have traced the power source” He said and changed the display to show the map of Nevada “Satellite images show that it seems to be coming from this facility at the old Area 51 installation” He changed the display to show a picture of that area. What they saw startled them all, for their on the screen was a large dome-like structure, surrounded by several Hangers. There were several pipes leading from the dome into the ground, probably to underground facilities. Mendel asked “What the heck is that?” “It looks like a power facility, the satellite detects a huge underground network of power generators” Molaiv said, studying his screen and frowning “It looks like power is being generated by Combustion of Hydrogen in what appears to be combustion engines. Power is also generated from the secondary steam generated as well. It must be a truly complex system” Molaiv said with awe, he continued “It appears that the entire system is controlled by that dome on the screen, it also appears a large force it moving towards the facility at high speeds, they look like a defense force with Mobile HQs and miniature bases”. Madison whirled and said “I don’t care about that, get the entire force loaded onto the mega-transporter, we are going to destroy that facility ASAP!” Molaiv nodded and gave out the necessary orders into the Comm. Panel. “You better get out of here Mendel, we are moving out immediately and we are not waiting for long either” Madison said. Mendel just nodded and went out as fast as he could. * * * * * Coco, the UDwarriors Financial Head, was tired from looking at her computer screen for almost 4 hours now. She rubbed her eyes and stretched her arms In a slight yawn. She could remember the time 4 hours ago when Mila had come to her and asked her to try and find a connection, any connection, between General Madison and The Circle, after which she had to go straight to the Senate and report it. 4 hours later she was still searching through the Circle’s records and hadn’t found anything, she had checked all the finances and all the expenditures and all she had found was a small company in Australia named General Motor parts. The Circle had invested huge amounts of funds in this small company, although why Coco didn’t know. She decided to check on the Company itself. She opened up the records and started to scroll down the screen. When she reached the Co-ordinates she immediately stared at it, thinking. Where have I seen those co-ordinates before? She thought. Then she remembered where, those were the same Co-ordinates from which the Dominators had been detected. She decided to call Presider Mach Mendez and report this to him, he might be able to raid the Company and find out about it. She called the Presider and waited for him to come on-screen when he did, she reported her findings and asked wether a raid could be conducted on the company. Mach agreed immediately and added “We’ve got news, plan able has succeeded and power is back online to 3/4th of the US, but General Madison has gotten wind of it and is headed out to attack the facility, he will arrive there in around a day” Coco’s eyes widened in surprise and asked “Do they have enough droids to defend themselves?” the Presider just shook his head and said “No, I am afraid not, Madison has gotten a lot more droids from recovering the salvage of the battle, I am sending some more droids to help, but I need someone to command them” Coco immediately responded “May I command them then? I have experience and need to get there and report this new information to Corp. head Mila anyway” Mach looked at her for a minute and said “very well then, you have command over whatever droids we are sending there, although you will have to get your own droid I’m afraid, our forces are currently stretched to the limit and we cant afford to give out any”. Coco smiled, remembering the spare MRD which was still in the Hanger, and said “That wont be a problem Presider, not a problem at all”. She then disconnected the link and went to the hanger, stopping on the way to ask her companion bot, unit 90, whether she would like along as well, to which he received a positive reply. When she reached the hanger she looked at the MRD and smiled. She climbed in, confirmed that unit 90 had indeed downloaded herself into the MRD and headed out Chapter 9 Allen rubbed his palms against his forehead in an attempt to lessen the headache he was feeling right now. He had been looking at the videos of the battle for around 5 hours now. He had examined the videos from almost all the cameras except for one which was really close to the dominators, he hadn’t expected to see much from that camera, since the quality of the film would be degraded due to the excess radiation and heat from the weapons fire. He had saved it for last since it was also the shortest. He had just heard the news about Madison coming here and had doubled his efforts in response. He had gone over all the other videos and had found nothing about whatever Admiral Benson had been talking about. He sighed and opened the last video. As it started up he could see the image of the mega-transporter landing and releasing the Droids. He fast forwarded the video till it came to battle. As the battle started, static started to appear from the weapons fire. He called over 58 and asked him whether he could clean up the image a bit. 58 responded “I think I can clear it up, but not by very much”. He proceeded to clear up the image. When he was done Allen notices it was much clearer than before. He watched as the Dominators fired at the forces and in turn absorb enemy fire. While he was watching he noticed several flashes and sparks from the Dominators armor. Now this is interesting Allen though. As he watched, the image became filled up with static and he couldn’t see anything. He rewinded the film and this time looked closer. 58, who was standing next to him, studying another display looked up and asked “Found something?” “Yes I think so, cant be sure though” Allen replied and pointed to the screen and said “Can you magnify this area of the Dominator, those flashes and sparks are very unusual” 58 complied and a few seconds later the area was highlighted and magnified. What Allen saw astonished him, they were actually several streaks and holes where the Assassin droid’s Magnetic bullets had hit or grazed the Dominator. He wondered why he hadn’t picked this up before. He decided to check another video before assuming anything. He replayed the next closest video and zoomed in onto one of the Dominators which had been destroyed. If he remembered correct, this same Droid was the recipient of all the fire of the Senates forces. He watched as more and more holes and streaks developed on the armor of the Dominator. The damage from the energy and rocket weapons were being absorbed, without leaving a trace on the armor, however the bullets, by their sheer velocity alone, were getting through and heavily damaging it. Although it did take hundreds of them, they did get through and finally destroyed the Dominator. He pointed this out to 58 and said “Where is the video of the MRDs shooting it at the end? I think it might just prove useful” 58 nodded and brought up the video of the end of the battle. It was shot from pretty far and displayed the MRDs firing on the Dominators as they were retreating. “Stop the video” Allen said and pointed at one of the Dominators the MRDs were firing at and continued “Zoom in onto that droid” The display magnified the image as much as possible. Although the image was not clear what Allen wanted to see was still visible, for there, in the picture was extensive damage to the Dominator’s armor where the MRDs LB-20Ax bullets had hit it and ripped it to shreds. By this time, Allen’s activities had attracted the attention of almost everyone in the room and their was a huge crowd gathered around the display. Allen smiled and said “Get Corp. Head Mila here as fast as possible, I think she will want to see this” * * * * * 2 hours later Allen was headed to the conference room 3 levels down inside the Power facility. Mila had explained how the facility generated power from Hydrogen Combustion engines earlier and Allen was reeling with the implication of it. To generate power for 3/4th of the nation, The Facility was dug nearly a kilometer in the ground and spread out to around 1/4th of a kilometer. He stopped at a nearby door with the label “Strategic Defense planning” above it. He entered and looked around. At the center of the room was a table with a display of the surrounding are on it and all over the walls were terminals and consoles. He spotted Mila and the most of the Military advisors he had worked with for the previous couple of the days. 58 was immediately behind him and they both approached the group in the Middle of the room. 2 hours ago he had told Mila about the weakness in the Dominators. She had immediately called a conference between her Military advisors to plan a proper defense against the Incoming enemy, which was now estimated to arrive in 12 hours, along with a force of 250 droids, half of which were V1s again. When Allen reached the group he cleared his throat and asked “So, do we have a manageable defense?” Mila just answered without turning “We are trying to collect as many droids as possible, but all we have are around 300 men, women and bots to fly them and this base is only stocked with V1s as well” She paused, turned to face Allen and said “the only droids we brought with us were 20 of the MRDs, which you say must all be used to destroy the Dominators”. Allen responded “And they have to be, although the damage on the Dominator in the video looked extensive, it wasn’t. In armor units the Dominator has around 50-60 thousand when it comes to fighting Energy weapons, but it is cut by 3/4th when brought against the LB-20Ax caliber machine guns, however that 3/4th is still around 12500- 15000 units. The MRDs although fast cannot dodge all the weapons the Dominators possesses and its armor is much more limited as well” Mila sighed and said “Very well then, we will use all the MRDs against the dominators, although that leaves us with only 300 V1 droids to fight against a force of 250 V1s And V2s”. She continued “We have 2 MRDs empty due to lack of pilots, Peterson here will be piloting one. Do you know anyone who could pilot one of these things Mr. Allen?”. Allen just smiled and responded “yes I do” Mila asked him “Who?”. “Why me of course, with a little help from 58 that is” 58 just looked at him in surprise and said “Why not?” They both turned to Mila and waited for her reply. She stood there looking at the both of them and finally after a minute said “You better know what you are doing Allen, this is nothing like one of the arena fights you have been in. I will give you a chance though, report to the bay in an hour for training and then get some rest, you will probably need it” With that the briefing was completed and Mila left the room. Allen and 58 left as well gone to get ready for the grueling amount of training that would be coming up. Chapter 10 THE LAST STAND 11 and a half hour later Allen was in his MRD outside of the facility and waiting from the incoming enemy. He and 58 had passed the training with flying colors and were designated as Peterson’s Wingmen. They had both gotten some rest and were now fresh and ready for combat. Allen was at the flight controls while 58, who had downloaded himself into the droid, operated the weapons systems. They both watched as the other half of the Armada, the 300 V1 chassis, made a ‘V’ formation to their right. The MRDs had to take on the 8 Incoming Dominators while the rest had to cover them from the oncoming force of 250 V1s and V2s. “Everyone please do a systems check, this is the last opportunity we have for one” Peterson said over the radio. “you heard the man 58, run a system check please” Allen said. “Affirmative Allen” 58 said and immediately underwent a system check, reporting the results to Allen as each system confirmed its operational status. Ok, so I have no excuses to drop out of the fight Allen thought and couldn’t help but feel a bit afraid about the oncoming conflict. Then Peterson’s voice came over the radio “ok, looks like everyone is Combat-ready, all units are to sit and wait for the enemy. Engage at long range and whatever happens Do Not attack the enemy, let them come in range and then fire”. Allen complied and powered up the Antigravs that ran the MRD and checked his Control joystick for sensitivity, adjusting it accordingly. 15 minutes later he watched as the Dominators came into camera range. He was itching to rush out and engage them in combat, but he quietly obeyed orders and stayed put. He could see Peterson’s MRD to his front and left and stayed in formation with him. “ok, looks like they are splitting up, the main force of V1s and V2s are headed our way, while the Dominators are circling around” Peterson said. After a few seconds pause he continued “Change of plans people, All the MRDs are to engage the Dominators In combat, everyone else stay put and defend the base, whatever happens do not let it fall.” With that Peterson pushed his MRD forwards and circled around the oncoming armada to attack the Dominators from behind. Allen complied and acceralated to keep up with Peterson. They were on approach to the Dominators and closing in fast. “Get ready with the cannons 58, those Dominators must think we are a minor threat but lets show them otherwise!”. 58 complied and said “Both guns are loaded, just get the target into the field of fire and leave everything up to me”. Peterson had said in the briefing earlier that they would be concentrating on one target at a time. Since the pilots in the Dominators would think that the MRDs were a minor threat they would ignore the MRDs till they actually did some damage. “Ok, lets attack the last Dominator, it’s the closest to us” Peterson’s voice came over the radio. With that, all the MRDs broke up into 5 small squads of 4. Each squad would attack one at a time, the next squadron increasing the damage inflicted by the previous. Allen’s squad was the last and potentially the most vulnerable because by then the Dominators would be more alert of the damage that could be done by the MRDs. Allen watched as the first squadron came in with all guns blazing. Immediately several sections of the armor were ripped to shred, exposing the delicate circuitry underneath. The bullets also had a second effect; the Dominator’s Gyro system couldn’t handle the intense amount of force exerted on it and failed, the product: the Dominator, quite literally, fell flat on its face. Yes! Allen thought. The squads came in one by one, firing on the downed Dominator until it was finally destroyed. However this immediately alerted the other Dominators of the threat and they turned around to engage the MRDs. They fired at the flying MRDs with Death rays and rockets, first slowing one down with Death rays and then finishing it off with the rockets. Immediately 2 MRDs fell out of the sky due to the onslaught. Peterson’s voice came over the radio “Evasive maneuvers everyone! Go onto the next target and fire at will!”. It’s become a free for all Allen thought. The organized attack they could do earlier was lost now that the Dominators were engaging them head-on. However the MRDs could literally fly circles around the Dominators and the turrets could fire at them independent of the direction of flight. Allen pushed the control joystick forward and did a loop, dodging a Rocket and a death ray. He circled around the designated Dominator, all the while doing loops and barrel rolls. 58 opened fire on the Dominator and although the Cockpit was supposed to be sound proof Allen swore he could actually hear the machine guns loud Boom as they fired. At this close range the effect of the bullets were clearly visible, on the Dominator they were several holes in the armor, most of them exposing circuitry and delicate systems. Allen said “58, next time I circle, target those systems and destroy them” 58 confirmed. Allen operated the flight controls and brought the MRD up and above the Dominator, he then did a nose dive and a twist, bringing the Turret within sight of the previous holes he had made. He heard the sound of gunfire again as even more bullets ripped open the holes some more and damaged delicate systems. The second dominator went down as well. This procedure was repeated over and over, and soon the Dominators were almost all down. The pilots in the Dominators tried as hard as they could to defend themselves, but the utter speed and agility of the MRDs made it very hard to target and the Dominators were not well known for their tracking and targeting systems. However they did put up quite a fight and managed to destroy 6 of the MRDs in total. Allen was sweating profusely when it came down to the last Dominator. This one was tougher than the others, managing to hold its own for some time. But eventually it too fell in a large explosion. Allen felt the flush of victory which he knew everyone else in the battle fleet must be feeling as well. He then remembered the rest of the fleet still fighting the V1s and V2s. “58, bring up the radar screen and display status of the rest of the force” Allen said. 58 had been thinking the same thing as well and had beaten Allen to it. He displayed the status of the fleet and said “The other half of the force has suffered heavy casualties, we now have only 90 droids, while they are still 115 droids in the enemy’s fleet, mostly V2s, our forces are mostly damaged and is retreating to the cover of the base and the automatic sentries”. Allen stared at the screen dumbstruck. Then Peterson’s voice came over the radio “We have finished off the Dominators but the rest of the fleet is still advancing to the base, we can’t help our own forces very much right now, so I suggest we go after the mega-transporter and take over it. There must be a control to switch off the A.I. units in those droids”. It sounded like a sound plan and everyone immediately agreed. The MRDs regrouped and headed to the mega-transporter. * * * * * General Madison watched his view screen in horror as he watched the MRDs not only destroy his Dominators, all 8 of them, and then head towards the mega-transporter. He just sat in his chair in shock. After all that planning and hard work his dreams and goals had been shattered by 20 Repair Vehicles! He still could not get past that, 8 of the greatest Droids on earth, destroyed by 20 under armed repair vehicles! He fumed at the thought and looked at the screen. Thos pilots were going to pay for this, he thought to himself. “Start contingency plan Alpha” He said to Molaiv. Madison had prepared contingency plans for such a thing, although he never actually expected it to be used. Molaiv complied and soon Madison heard a siren going through the entire mega-transporter. He smiled and knew that he would enjoy the oncoming battle very, very much. * * * * * Allen approached the mega-transporter at full speed. He watched as it grew slowly on his screen. This is too easy He thought. As he approached the mega-transporter he didn’t notice any defenses or weapons or anything offensive of any kind, yet the entire thing felt wrong. As they approached the mega-transporter Peterson’s voice came over the radio “Ok, I’ve found a way we can disable those droids by the base without going into the mega-transporter.” He paused; the tactical display to Allen’s left changed to view of the mega-transporter from the top. There was a small area circled off towards the back of the gigantic ship. “Here is a small antenna which seems to be transmitting the safety protocols to the droids. If we destroy the antenna, then the droids will be cut off from the mega-transporter. The old programming inside the A.I. units will automatically follow standard safety procedures and will shutdown the droids immediately. Bad news is that I’m detecting very large power signatures from that area, looks like defensive guns or something.” There was a short pause. Allen replied “We don’t have much of a choice I think, lets go for it!” A chorus of Affirmatives and ‘aye-aye’s came from the radio as the remaining 14 MRDs came together into attack formation. 10 minutes later when Allen pulled into sight of the radio antenna he still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. They had pulled over the mega-transporter without incident and there were still no sign of Laser defenses or anything else. “Ok, this is really starting to spook me out, there is not a sign of a defense anywhere.” Peterson said. “Might be a trap……but all there droids are out in battle unless…..” There was a pause then a shout “ALL UNITS DISENGAGE, REPEAT DISENGAGE! It’s a trap!!” Allen realized what Peterson had, Madison wouldn’t put all his units on offense in case he was attacked from behind, and the only way he could do that would be by cloaking them! Allen pulled the stick up immediately, but it was too late. The Air in front of the antenna started to shimmer and what he saw almost scared Allen to death. In front of him were at least 25 Assassin droids, all taking aim at the incoming MRDs, which although doing well against the Dominators stood no chance against these droids with only Machine guns. He watched in horror as the lead Droid fired at him with its machine gun, there was no chance to dodge or move out of the way, all he could do was brace himself. When the bullet hit his MRD broadside, shattering at least 3 of the 8 Antigrav pods on his port side, Allen was thrown about his cockpit. The MRD immediately began to fall. Allen struggled to get control, but could only make a soft landing when the MRD crash-landed on the mega-transporter. “58, try and get the engines working again, we cant stay here for much longer” Allen said, not wasting a heart beat. “I will Allen, although I will have to give up turret controls while doing so” 58 replied. Allen sat and waited, he switched on the monitor in front of him, banging it on the side in an attempt to clear up the display. The first thing he did was count how many ships were still in the air, what he saw gave him a bit of hope. 9 of the 14 MRDs were still in the air, he was relieved to see Peterson was still up as well. They were regrouping and trying to go for the tower again, dodging bullets and plasma bolts as they went. Allen switched to the display of his immediate surroundings. It showed the aft, port and starboard sections which seemed to be clear of droids. He switched it to the forward display. He watched as several Assassin droids held there ground against the MRDs. He noticed one of them wasn’t aiming at the MRDs but in the opposite direction. He squinted and realized that it was aiming right at him! 58’s repair activities must have caught its attention. Allen watched in horror as it took direct aim at his cockpit. Everything slowed down then, as if in slow motion. Allen watched as the Assassin rechecked its lock onto the downed MRD and then he saw the expected white flash of plasma fire. CHAPTER 11 Allen closed his eyes and waited for the searing heat of the Plasma fire to hit him. After nearly a minute Allen opened his eyes in surprise and looked around, the cockpit was still around him, he looked up and found that the droid that as targeting him wasn’t there anymore. He checked his radar screen and utterly shocked, on the screen were at least 60 Blackwings and Sentinels, with a lone MRD leading them, coming round the back of the mega-transporter. An unfamiliar voice came over the radio “Yes! Got that sucker!” the voice paused and then continued “Hey Peterson, you need any backup?” Peterson replied in a slightly amused tone: “Just In the nick of time Coco, you just love coming last minute don’t you?”. “Yup, like to keep you guys on the edge, anyways, do you need a hand? I’ve got 60 pilots from the Senate Royal forces that are itching for combat” Coco replied. “yes we could use a hand, the forces at the Facility are outnumbered and need help, leave a few people here to help us finish off these Assassins” Coco confirmed and the rest of the conversation drifted to droid deployments, current forces, etc. Then 58’s voice came over the intercom “Antigravs have been repaired, we can move, but it will be a bit slow.” “very well then, lets go for that tower, we have to take it out.” 58 complied and started up the thrusters. Allen watched as most of the lights on his console turned from red to green. He started up the Antigravs and the droid lurched up into the air. Allen got hold of his bearings and set a course for the Antenna. As he approached it, he thought he saw something on his radar, he pinpointed it to the mega-transporter’s entrance. “Looks like we got company, it looks like the mega-transporter is going to spit out some more droids.” Allen said into the radio. “Acknowledged, we must get that tower down now, otherwise we done for. Allen, you’re the closest, destroy it now and we will cover you”. Peterson replied. “You better hurry as well; I’m reading almost a hundred Desolaters coming out of that thing, looks like they salvaged a lot from the previous battle” Coco interjected. A hundred desolators was no joke and Allen had to get to the tower. He increased the throttle to full and approached the Antenna. The other MRDs were a bit behind him, dodging incoming bullets and laser defenses, all the while covering his run to the Antenna. “58, get ready to blow that thing apart” He said to 58. “Affirmative Allen, all guns ready” . 58 had to make his shots count, there was no other choice. * * * * * After 58 had finished repairing the MRD, he had transferred back to weapons control. He checked out everything and was ready to take out the tower. He detected it incoming and scanned it with the radar. He asked Allen to get close to it; otherwise the machine guns would have almost no effect. 58 counted down the seconds at milliseconds till he got in range. At T-50 Milliseconds he checked the guns again. At T-10Milliseconds, he sent the signal to fire the guns continuously for 3 seconds. At T-0 Milliseconds, the signal was received by the gun turret. At T+ 10 Milliseconds, the Guns had not yet started to fire. At T+20 Milliseconds, 58 realized something was seriously wrong and by T+ 1 second he had found out what: The Ammo box and the sensors near them had ruptured due to the crash, causing a feed-back loop which made it look like the Ammo rack was still in operation. At T+1.2 seconds, he reported it to Allen and waited. * * * * * When Allen heard what 58 told him, he just sat their dumbstruck. After coming so far, they had lost due to a stupid malfunction! Allen had no weapons left. Might as well let someone else have a try he thought and said into the radio “I’ve got some problems here, my weapons have malfunctioned and I can’t use them! We need someone else to come in and try to get it”. Peterson’s voice came over the radio “We’ll try, the desolators have engaged and we are barely hanging on and it looks like Madison is sending more droids as well.” Allen cut the link and thought. There had to be some way to destroy the antenna quickly. He looked over his options. There was ramming the tower, not much chance of him surviving that though. Wait a second He thought. Allen immediately veered course to intercept the tower. He told 58 his plan and asked “What are our odds of survival?”. “Around 50000 to 1” 58 replied calmly. Allen considered his options and realized that this was the only one where he had a chance of surviving. He put all the throttles to full and charged for the tower. * * * * * Coco watched as an Assassin droid fell flat onto its face in front of her, she looped and did a victory Barrel roll. “Chalk up another Kill 90, this is way too easy” Coco said. She turned on the private Comm. Channel to Peterson and said “How many more to go?”. “A lot more, turn your radar screen to the mega-transporter’s Hangar bay”. Coco did as asked and turned to the viewer onto the Hanger bay. What she saw was the Hangar doors opening and spitting out several Desolaters, which were completely battle ready. They opened fire on the Blackwings and MRDs buzzing around the transporter, catching them by surprise. Coco heard Allen’s voice over the radio: “I’ve got some problems here, my weapons have malfunctioned and I can’t use them! We need someone else to come in and try to get it” “We’ll try, the desolators have engaged and we are barely hanging on and it looks like Madison is sending more droids as well” She heard Peterson reply. 90 fired at one of the desolators with the machine guns, scoring a lucky hit and sending it up in smoke. “Ok, I have a plan, but I need cover to reach the tower!” Coco heard Allen say over the radio. “Affirmative, All units, distract the desolators as much as possible. All MRDs, lay down covering fire” Peterson replied. Coco switched the screen to Allen’s MRD. Now what could he be up to? She thought. She dodged several shots and took out another enemy Droid. She turned her attention back to Allen’s MRD, which was increasing speed dramatically, she checked the course he was taking and found out it was an intercept course to the top of the tower. He’s going to ram it! She thought in alarm. * * * * * Allan watched as the tower approached. His plan needed perfect timing to work, otherwise they would be nothing but little bits and pieces of wreckage and Debris lying around. Allen brought the droid in quickly and watched the range meter move from displaying 1000 meters to target to 500 to 100 and then to double digits. The moment it hit 50 meters Allen pulled the Control stick up, making the MRD tilt up a full 90 degrees. He kicked in the braking thrusters and cut all lateral movement. He was now moving rapidly to the top of the tower at a 90 degree angle. At the last moment he cut all thrust and said “ok 58, Do your bit!” At that signal 58 cut out all forward movement and extended the docking clamps used by the MRD to dock and repair other droids. The docking clamps came out and attached themselves to the Antenna tower, moving the MRD closer. After this had taken place 58 brought out the Cutting lasers used by the MRD to cut out and replace damage armor, it was capable of going through almost anything with a temperature of 3900 degrees Celsius. Allen counted the seconds it took for 58 to cut the top of the tower off, its most weakest part, and to disengage. After a minute 58 finally responded “its done, put throttle to full and the top will come off”. This was the risky part Allen knew since although the Top of the antenna would come off they would have very little time to actually disengage” Allen reached for the throttle controls. What happened next went by too fast for Allen to contemplate. The cockpit was jarred by a lucky shot scored by one of the Assassin droids, which had somehow managed to stay alive and sneak up on Allen. His hands missed the throttle controls and instead hit the button which released the emergency coolant. Allen heard the slight hiss of the emergency coolant, which was mostly liquid nitrogen, being released straight onto the tower. The tower was not designed to handle such low temperatures immediately froze and became brittle. Unable to stand the weight of the MRD it broke into tiny pieces. The MRD was still attached to the Antenna when it broke and immediately started to plummet. Allen tried to hit the Antigrav controls in an attempt to break his fall, but before he knew whether he had succeeded or failed, everything went totally black. EPILOUGE Allen woke up to the beeping sound of medical equipment next to him. His first thought was Where am I? He tried to open his eyes but had to squint due to the glare of bright lights just above him. He moaned and tried to get up, but was stopped immediately by the pain running throughout his entire body. His actions caught the attention of a nearby nurse, who paged a doctor immediately. She came to Allen’s side and said “Mr. Allen, I am afraid you are not allowed to get up now, you need to rest”. Allen tried to resist her but he couldn’t keep it up for long in the condition he was in. He laid back down and waited. Eventually a doctor came through the door on Allen’s left side. He approached Allen and said “Mr. Allen, Glad to see you have recovered. That was one nasty crash you were in, not to mention the condition you were in when your friends brought you here”. Allen then recalled the events of the previous day’s battles. Allen then realized what had happened in the end and said “how did I survive the crash? I don’t recall hitting the Antigravs on”. The doctor just smiled and replied “They say you landed on a heap of debris and the Antigravs switched on at the last minute. If it hadn’t been for that you would not be here speaking to me”. He took a pad from the nurse and examined it. “Looks like you are mostly healed up, except for a few bruises here and there, you should be able to leave by tomorrow evening” H paused, looking towards the door. “But for now, you have some visitors”. He motioned to the nurse to let the visitors in. The doctor then left through the door and immediately after that 4 people and a shadow droid came in. He recognized Mila and Peterson immediately. The other man he took a while to recognize as Presider Mach Mendez, Head of the senate. The last woman he recognized when she spoke, it was pretty much the same voice which belonged to Coco, the lady who had pretty much saved their butts on the mega-transporter, “Greetings Mr. Allen, it looks like you have finally recovered from your ordeal. I believe congratulations are in order.” She said. “I second that” Mila continued. “What happened during the battle? Did we destroy the tower?” Allen asked. Coco just smiled and said “yes you did, the droids immediately shut down after that and we managed to capture the mega-transporter”. Allen looked at the small group in surprise, then however his face formed a frown. “What about General Madison?” He asked. This time 58, who was standing at the far back of the group, replied “We don’t know about that. Just before you destroyed the tower a life pod was detected leaving the Mega-transporter. Yesterday the same pod was found somewhere in the Arizona desert, we don’t know if General Madison is alive or not, he could still be out there, somewhere”. “The Circle has been disbanded as well, a raid was conducted by the Senate sometime back and conclusive evidence was found on their involvement as well” Mach continued from where 58 stopped. Mila in turn said “There is no way we can show our gratitude Mr. Allen, without your help we would have undoubtedly lost the battle with the Dominators” She paused, taking a deep breath “We would like to offer you a job at UDwarriors as a military advisor, Mr. Peterson here is prepared to put you up as head of Military research” She smiled, extending her hand towards Allen “It’s the least we can do”. Allen looked at Mila’s hand and then at 58 and said “what do you think 58? Are you willing to work for a Corp. again?”. “Why not? I’m willing if you are”. Allen looked back at Mila and then at her extended hand. With a smile he took her hand, with a bit of difficulty, and shook it. The End Written by Dreadnought