Ambush

 “So let me get this straight, you three are the ones that crashed the ship into the facility, killed the guards nearby, and escaped before the reinforcements arrived?” The woman asked.

“Stating the obvious much?” Ajax asked as he held up Eversor’s limp arm. The scientist reached for one of the tools she was using on the elbow joint of Eversor's armor, “Is his arm ok?”

“Just fine, the armor doesn’t seem to be damaged. It’s still in great condition given what you’ve said happened…it's odd. I’ve worked on more Thorakai than I can count but I've never worked on armor like his.” Ayla and Ajax looked on, skeptically observing the girl running her hands over the armor plating. Specifically where the blade was contained in the forearm of the Thorakai.

“The design seems old…the blade built into the forearm is considered outdated when you could use say a long range weapon. The helmet’s design is odd as well. It looks pieced together like the first Thorakai models…it doesn’t make sense. All the parts aren’t nearly that old and those suits were either decommissioned, destroyed, or put on display in Rome. I’ve always wanted to see one like it but where's the shield it should be—”

“Ok enough with the rambling,” Ayla said as she helped lay Eversor back down once the woman had finished the inspection.

“I’m a scientist who also specializes in Thorakai so sorry it's just…it’s fascinating to me. Roman armor I mean.” She nearly sputtered out.

“Ok, that's enough, now back to the closet.” Ayla said, “I’m not risking everything because you just happened to be here.” She planned to lock her in the closet or prop something up to keep it shut.

Ayla walked closer to grab the woman’s arm and began walking toward the closet. “Please just let me look over the…wait what are you guys doing here? Is it the facility? What are you guys trying to do? Stop!” The woman pled.

“Wait, let her talk,” Ajax said as he raised his hand to stop Ayla and let the scientist plead her case.

“Yes, please! Listen! You're German so you must be working with them, you’ve betrayed the tribes.” Ayla continued to drag her towards the closet at hearing her words, “I’ll help you both!” She shouted and Ayla stopped before looking down at her with an untrusting gaze.

“Why would you help us?” Ayla asked coldly.

“Like I said! I'm a scientist…but despite that, they haven’t told me anything about what's being constructed here.” Ayla looked back at Ajax, both of them staring confused at each other.

“What?” Ajax asked, stepping forward.

“When I was assigned here they informed me I would be working directly under the head scientists…they would never actually show me the main factory or the operations. They kept giving me calculations, equations, and specs for some devices. I couldn’t piece together what they were constructing or even if it was just one thing.” Her mind flashed with images of the specs laid out across a work table. The calculations scribbled across stacks of blue papers

“That doesn't tell us much,” Ajax muttered looking down into her eyes.

“Whatever their building is either big, or their building a lot of it.” Ayla added in as she let go of the girl, “Your name?”

“Elswyth Economos.” She responded as she looked between the two. Beneath the helmet, Ajax raised an eyebrow hearing that she had a Greek name.

“Your Greek?” Ajax asked.

“I am. Well, my mother was Germanic but my father was Greek!” She exclaimed, “Are you as well?”

“My name is Ajax Maniakes.” Reaching out his large armored hand shook her small one, “If you're Greek then what are you doing here? Were you born in a Greek or Germanic region?” Ajax asked as he and Ayla looked at each other.

“Germanic but my father taught me about my heritage. The facility was Greek before it was abandoned at some point during the atomic collapse we’re not really sure…it could have been one of the great collapses or a simple focus away from this sector but the point is the computer systems and writing are in Greek across the facility. They brought me in to translate and help decipher.”

“You're willing to help us?” Ayla asked as she moved toward the closet lifting Elswyth's Thorakai out of the closet. Ajax watched on before his focus went back to Elswyth, in a sense his guard had fallen in some way, simply hearing another Greek name seemed to ease him.

“Yes.” Elswyth quickly responded.

“Why?” Grabbing the helmet of the armor Ayla put her hand on the back of the neck of it knowing if she could crush the neck she would make the armor unwearable.

“I…well think about it, whatever they’re making can’t be good if it's under wraps. Not to mention the Greek I've been translating is all jumbled and locked behind walls of ciphers. It’s the fact that I want out of this facility and want to know what's going on. I’m not a prisoner of course but with the battle going on I want out."

“Not bad reasoning but that's it?” Ayla's guard hadn't fallen as her hand remained on the neck of the Thorakai. 

“No, it's more than that, whenever I’ve spoken to the other scientists almost all of them seem to know what's going on, only me and a few other assistants have been left out of the loop. Every time I've spoken to them they talk about it with passion. With how the war’s been turning against them they are desperate for something…and some part of me just wants to know. ” 

And his armor…I need to look more into it. She thought to herself as she couldn’t take her eyes off of the design of Eversor’s armor, “Remember I'm just a scientist who was paid for this. I’m here out of curiosity more than anything.” She stated the obvious in a way hoping it would add more to her reasoning.

Running through the silver hallways of the facility Cades stomped his way forward towards the crash site. I have to get back to the wall as soon as possible. Whatever it is that crashed I have to hurry up and deal with it. I need to get back to the north wall, he thought. Skirting to a stop the warrior pointed his left arm towards the ship. As he stepped over the corpses of the fallen he kept the metal barrel on top of his left forearm pointed toward the rubble

Searching the wreck he kneeled to pick up a few of the shell casings. Roman bullets, he thought. Standing up the soldier looked down for dents in the ground. Carefully he stepped forward trying to follow the small dents and scrapes in the floor. Moving onward he followed the scratches that appeared to be from metal dragging against armor.

“Where did they go?”

“What the hell happened here?”

“Did they die in the crash?”

The Germans continued talking back and forth as Cades slowly moved farther and farther away from them to follow the trail. Eventually, he came to a door with a dented handle that had been grabbed and dented under pressure.

Leaning against the door Cades pointed his forearm towards the door and raised his other. I don’t care if this is the wrong door, even if it’s not I can write it off as a misunderstanding. One dead man is worth saving some time, he thought. Clenching his mechanical fists and composing himself he fired the weapon atop his left arm. Out from the barrel shotgun shells flew out, each one on fire sending a blast of sparks out of the barrel. The door within a split second now had a whole blown open in it.

Inside the room, Ayla and Ajax’s bickering came to a stop as the two stumbled back from the spray of pellets that appeared to be on fire. Raising their weapons the two gasped as a ball of flames burst from the door. The two stumbled back as the burning heat scorched their armor. Around their joints, the stinging of flames burned their skin under the armor. Raising their arms and bringing them close to their chests while lowering their heads the two did their best to keep the flames from breaching their armor.

“Elswyth down!” Ajax barked as he fired off his submachine guns into the door peppering it with holes. The burst of flames disappeared before the door was pulled open by just one soldier. 

Ajax could barely glance at the helmet of the man who pushed into the room before another burst of flames concealed his figure. Firing into the flames his attention was pulled to the left of him as he saw a blur moving towards him. Jolting to the side he fired at the blur. A table, Ajax thought as he watched the table fall towards the floor, holes littering it.

Ayla watched the diversion and flames realizing there was only one soldier who could be using the fire in such a way. Cades? What's he doing here? This is bad. If he’s away from the wall it means the Roman attack failed, Ayla thought as she fired Eversor’s rifle into the flames that had burst up behind her. Shut up. You don’t have time to think when you're going up against him, Ayla barely finished her thoughts before she felt herself slammed down onto the floor.

Cades' shotgun clicked as it was about to fire down at Ayla when Ajax tackled the man. Cades' arm was pushed of course and fired into the ceiling. From the ground, Ayla watched as the two tussled slamming each other into the wall and fighting. Three shots of Cade’s shotgun shot into the wall, ceiling, and ground as Ajax did his best to keep the shotgun from being pointed at him.

“Elswyth run!” Ajax yelled as she watched frozen in fear too scared to even get into the armor right beside her. Elswyth watched as the two bashed each other with their armor denting each other again and again. Sparks flew from their armor scraping together. On the ground, Ayla fired Eversor's rifle at Cades' leg denting the armor and adding extra pressure onto Cade's. Her rifle was trained on Cades ready to fire if Ajax went down.

“Move! Get into your armor and help him!” Elswyth said to herself as she looked at her Thorakai and the large gun holstered in its thigh. Her view was abruptly blocked by an armored figure stepping off of the table.

“So you're the Roman who snuck into the facility? Interesting. This is what the Romans have come to since the emperor took power?” Cades asked as he struggled to point either his flamethrower or shotgun at Ajax. The Roman soldier gripped both of Cades' arms, keeping them from killing him. The small barrel that glowed red shot another spurt of flames by the side of Ajax’s head.

The Roman growled as beneath the helmet he could feel the heat of the flames warming his helmet till it was hot to the touch. “What are you important or something? All I see is another crazy Germanic trying to blow my head off!” Ajax yelled. 

Cades responded by butting their helmets together, both scraping the paint off of Ajax’s helmet and leaving scrapes on Cades' helmet. Ajax sweated beneath the helmet scowling painfully as his muscles felt like they would tear from the bone if they kept up their deadlock. The tussle had just begun and yet under the armor he was struggling to keep his strength up.

Behind Cades, Eversor stood. Raising his right arm the man snapped his three fingers together, extending his blade. The Roman swung his arm as if to punch Cades in the back, intending to stab him with the edge of his blade.

Cades glanced back towards Eversor, his eyes going wide beneath the helmet. What? Where did he come from, Cades thought within a fraction of a second. Letting go of Ajax he dodged the swing and raised his right arm. Swinging towards Eversor, Cades' arm swung less than an inch over Eversor’s even scraping them together sending sparks flying. Eversor brought his left arm up to defend himself from the swing, letting Cades' fist collide with his forearm left.

As the sparks from their armor still surrounded them, Eversor's forearm made a loud scraping and cracking sound as if rust was being scraped off the inside of it. I have you right where I want you, Cades thought as he pointed his thumb sideways and extended his pointer and middle finger. With that, the mechanism of the flamethrower was activated.

Ajax fell away from the two men onto the floor watching as a flurry of flames erupted between the two men. “Eversor!” Ajax yelled out pointing his gun towards Cades. On both sides of Cades and Eversor Ayla and Ajax had their guns pointed at Cades. Although he could only stand there petrified as the flames seemed to stop in front of Eversor.

Cades gasped beneath the helmet as he saw a shield spring up, seemingly out of nowhere. A large shield, triangular in shape with round edges and on the front of it, larger than even the eagle was a red symbol. The fire coming from Cade’s arm burned the shield until its metal glowed red. The flames burned all around the shield keeping the flames from lashing Eversor's armor.

As The flames disappeared Cades' expression of shock remained under the helmet. Eversor punched the man in the gut, embedding the tip of his blade into the waist of Cades' Thorakai. Carrying the momentum of his punch, he lifted Cades into the air before slamming his fist downwards into the floor along with Cades. From Cades’ view, it felt as if he had been lifted into the air and slammed down by a monster, not a man.

Eversor watched as Cades rolled to the side before pushing himself back up. Swinging his arm up towards his enemy sending flames to drive him back. Eversor took a few steps back, raising the shield to defend himself from oncoming flames. As Cades continued to spray the fire toward his enemy with his other arm he jerked it back in a curling motion while simultaneously bringing his elbow closer to his body. A clanking sound could be heard coming from his arm as the shotgun reloaded.

If I just get one shot off on his chest while distracting him it’ll tear through his arm, Cades thought to himself. Firing another spurt of flames he obscured Eversor’s vision just in time to line up the shot. Pointing the barrel of his shotgun towards Eversor’s chest he was about to fire when he saw Eversor’s gauntlet reach out from the flames along with his helmet.

Grasping the area between Cades’ neck and shoulder the Roman dug his finger into the armor plating between a small groove. The metal of the groove bent easily and Cades went stiff. Under the armor, Cades could only uselessly move his fingers while his left arm and neck were immobile.

What is this? Wait, how does he know how to do this? I thought this skill was lost with the guard, Cades thought to himself as he raised his right arm trying to use his flamethrower in an attempt to make him let go.

Eversor ripped his arm back, his blade slicing Cades’ arm and shoulder before he swung once more. His gauntlet connected with Cades’ helmet slicing it and whipping the man’s head back. Cades stumbled turning and leaving his back exposed for Eversor to slash the back of Cades’ Thorakai. Scraps of metal flew from the back of the armor as Cades fell to the ground limp. Laying on the carpet a darkness spread out from around his armor, slowly being absorbed into the carpet around him leaving a disgusting stench around him.

Eversor stood before the strength in his legs gave out and he fell to his knees. Ajax ran up behind Eversor, pulling his friend back up to his feet. Ayla turned to help Elswyth up and into her suit. As the girl shook from fear she entered the suit. Kneeling down next to her Ayla spoke, “Get yourself together if you freeze like that again I swear we will ruin your armor and leave you here alone.” Elswyth simply nodded before standing up within her armor.

Elswyth’s armor was sleeker than the rest of theirs, not nearly as bulky or armored. It was minimalist with the bare necessities. A scientist's armor, not a soldier’s armor. Its green and white colors across the Thorakai gave it an even greater separation than the rest.

Eversor raised his arm to look upon the shield, its red paint and dark silver color caught his eye. The symbol appeared to be a P with a sideways X superimposed onto it to create one symbol. Under the helmet, he raised an eyebrow wondering what the symbol meant. He felt as if he had seen it before but couldn’t say where.

“Wait, can I see that?” Elswyth asked as he took his arm to look over the large shield.” Looking over the symbol. Elsywth brought her hand to the shield to scratch at the red paint but it didn’t scrape away, “It’s the Chi-Ro. First two letters of the name Christus.”

“The God of the Christians?” Eversor asked.

“Yes...they’re spread around the empire even if in some regions they’re not welcome. I believe they practice spreading the word of their God around, it’s their mission I suppose. It seems one of them…somebody who had this suit before you painted the symbol on it. It was common practice for their shields and armor to have their symbols adorning it. In a way, they saw it as a symbol of protection.”

“Why should I care?” In his mind at the moment he only saw it as a shield like any other.

“It was a symbol of their faith…so who knows if it worked or not.” The two gazed down at the symbol both wondering about the man who had painted it onto the shield. In these corridors it’ll be useful…but why now of all times? There were so many times I could have used it, but then again it would have probably gotten broken by now with what I deal with, he thought to himself.

Trying to retract his shield the Roman snapped various fingers on his left hand assuming it worked similarly to his blade. After a few variations, it still didn’t work. An idea quickly came to mind. Moving the tips of his fingers to his palm he pulled four of his fingers back scraping them against his palm until they were curled up. With that, the shield retracted folding back in on itself until it was contained back into his forearm just like his sword. The heat of the still hot shield made his arm beneath the gauntlet warm up.

Stepping towards the Cades' limp form he glanced at Ayla “Who’s he?” Eversor asked. 

“Cades Erbach.” Aylas responded, “Or as we’ve called him, Pankraz’s lap dog.”

Ajax scoffed, “Cades? That’s some butchery of my language.”

Ayla looked towards him confused, “What?”

“Cades. It means falling in our language. Erbach is German if I'm correct?”

“You are,” Ayla responded.

“Why does he have a Latin word for a first name and a German last?” Eversor asked before he fell down onto his knees panting from exhaustion. The muscles in his arms and legs burned from exhaustion as he lay on the floor.

“He…if I’m not wrong he’s from the border regions between our people. Given enough time one or two of those planets may have gained a mix of cultures.” Kneeling next to him Aylla put a hand on Eversor’s shoulder, “He’s dead and if he’s not I’m sure he can’t even move with the damage to his armor.” She said as she glanced between him and the door knowing what would happen if they were attacked.

“Shit...my body's killing me after that crash. Moments later the back of his armor popped open and along with it the steam from the armor. Pulling himself out of the armor he panted as the steam rushed by his face. Pulling his arms from the armor he pushed himself out of the back of it. The armor opened from the back of the neck down to the calf.” Stepping away from the armor he sat down on the table.

Ayla moved towards the wall leaning her shoulder against it, “Elswyth, lock the door.” She said before exiting her own armor. The rushing steam made her hair flow behind her for a few seconds before it messily fell back down partially covering her face. 

Eversor moved towards the nearby table to sit about it. Walking towards him Ayla grabbed Eversor’s shirt. “You're bleeding.” She said looking at him almost concerningly as she stared at the cut in his black shirt that was soaked in blood. Glancing down at his side his eyes went wide as he brought his hand to his shirt.

“I must have hit the ground harder than I thought.” He tried to chuckle only causing a sharp pain to shoot up his side.

“We’re all burnt out. Anybody got boosters?” Ajax asked as he sat down on the floor still in his Thorakai.

“Nope.” Ayla quickly responded as she moved back towards the cabinet from which she had pulled Elswyth’s armor. Reaching up towards the top shelf she pulled down a heavy metal kit, swinging it over her shoulder she dropped it down onto the table. Popping the case open she began digging through the era of medical supplies within.

“Boosters?” Elswyth asked as she leaned against the door listening for approaching soldiers.

“It’s what we call the vials they give us to help give us a boost during extended missions. They’re small vials with blue liquid, you can inject or drink it. Helps with healing, and energy for a short time at least.” Ayla said.

“Every side uses them in some form or another. Personally, I prefer the chocolate bars they give us.” Ajax said as he shook his leg trying to get rid of the shaking in his body that wouldn’t stop. The cold shiver that was running down his spine wouldn't go away. I can’t withdraw at a time like this, he thought to himself.

“Sorry that stuff isn’t my expertise or maybe I'd know where to find some,” Elswyth said as she looked down at Ajax. Beneath her helmet, she looked at him with pity seeing his condition.

Ayla dug into the supply box before removing some bandages, stitches, a needle, and a bottle of hydrogen dioxide. Eversor held his side watching the blood dripping between his fingers and drip down onto the metal table, “Hold still.” She said before pouring some of the bottles onto Eversor’s side.

Eversor winced, gritting his teeth but not making a sound as the burning sensation stung the wound, “At least you're not a crybaby about it.” Ayla chuckled softly as a part of her thought it was funny, “Consider this repayment for whacking me on the head.” 

Grabbing the stitches she got to work, puncturing through his skin time after time again to make her way through the entire wound until it was stitched up. Eversor made no other sound besides a light hiss as she tugged on the needle to finish up the wound. Biting the string and completing her task she pulled up his shirt to begin wrapping him with bandages.

Ayla didn’t stop as she glanced at his defined abdominal muscles that flexed involuntarily as the pain caused his muscles to twitch, “You're lucky you only sliced a bit of the muscle, if the fall had been any harder you’d have a tear in your side.” She said as she finished wrapping the bandages around his waist.

“Well, then I got lucky.” Eversor said assuming it was purely up to chance.

“You shielded me…thank you.” She said softly.

“What?” Eversor asked looking at her with skeptical eyes.

“In the crash. Right before we collided with the facility you pulled me against you. When the dust settled you were out cold, face down in the rubble. I grabbed your rifle and took a defensive position since I knew they’d be coming." Her mind flashed with the images of what happened remembering how his arms snaked around her just in time to take the damage she would have sustained. Damage that could have killed her.

Eversor wasn't sure what to think or even say at that moment, "I don't remember any of it...you did save me moments before." 

"But you didn't have to...if I hadn't stepped in you would have died...I had the chance of living." She muttered before shaking her head not understanding why she even brought it up. The two sat in silence for a long moment before Eversor spoke again to change the subject.

“I’m sorry you had to kill your own comrades.” It was grim but he addressed it regardless. A shiver ran down his back as he imagined ever having to do the same.

Ayla nodded thinking for a few moments before speaking, “If it wasn’t for Pankraz I wouldn’t have to. These generals, war chiefs, they’re all fools who are bleeding us dry in this war. At the beginning of it, there was at least a chance for success but somehow your people pulled together thanks to your new emperor.” She reached brushing a few strands of hair away from her face. Eversor’s gaze turned away from her at the mention of the emperor leaving him lost in thought.

Chatter from across the room pulled both of their attentions towards Ajax and Elswyth who were softly speaking as Ayla took her seat next to Eversor. “They seem to be getting along,” Ayla commented as she glanced at Ajax who had taken his position next to Elswyth at the door.

Eversor nodded, “They do. So who’s she?” He asked.

“She’s a scientist here, and wants to help us out, she’s apparently Greek, and wants to know what's going on here.” Ayla tried listing off the main points in an attempt to not repeat everything they had discussed.

“Noted…it seems you Germanics are irresistible to the Roman charm.” Eversor chuckled at how they had rallied two of them to their cause, “Maybe they should make me a general, with my charisma we’d be able to end this war.” Ayla scoffed at his comments.

“Yeah right, have fun being a war pig. If you ever became emperor I’d put you out of your misery.” She chuckled.

“You’d get a kick out of that I'm sure.” Eversor thought back to her tribe and for the first time outside of just trying to understand her, he asked a question out of intruige, “Back in your tribe, what are you? A warrior? A Tradesman? A Leader?” He asked as he looked into her eyes.

“What does it matter?” She asked.

“I prefer to know who I'm fighting with.” He clarified, “Call me curious.”

“Fine…I'm somebody…but not on my own merit. They say grandfather was a great man. A man not of the sword but of his words.” Her gaze that had been on the floor went up to make eye contact with him, “He united several smaller scattered tribes if you can even call them that. He brought in anybody, the sick, the pained, the dying, and the lost. He gave them a home, a people, something greater than themselves. He raised my family, made us great…then he died.”

For the two people speaking, the room might as well have been empty of anybody else with how concentrated they were on each other, “I’m his granddaughter, somebody who was supposed to carry on his legacy, and here I am fighting a suicide mission for people I don’t even know the names of.” She lamented, “I’m nothing but a pawn on the board.”

Eversor thought over her words in a way almost jealous of what she had, “At least you have something, some family remaining.” The soldier said, a bit quick with his words.

“What? Orphan? Lost family?” She asked with a scowl that scrunched up her face.

Ayla’s scowl disappeared after the initial shock of his words. "I’m sorry.” She said softly.

“They’ve been gone for a while.” He said, “They did leave me a legacy just not one to be proud of…but still they were my family.” The Roman said with an exasperated sigh, “Don’t talk about it much.”

“I can tell.” She said putting on a small smile as if she was trying to apologize, “When the large tribes call the smaller ones can’t refuse so I’m here but…why are you here?” Her words sounded more sincere, at least to Eversor who was hearing them. That same question that so many had asked him in the past echoed in his head.

 “Something was taken from me…and if sacrificing my freedom by fighting a war is the only way I can take it back… I’ll keep fighting on” Eversor's determined, stubborn gaze was directed away from her. Ayla looked up at him. A concerned gaze looked up at him. What the hell does that even mean? If that look is anything to go by he’ll get what he wants….whether or not he lives to enjoy it, she thought.

“With what little I know about you…I’m guessing you're stubborn enough to do so..” His answer was barely more than a whisper. A sudden yell came from the nearby suit of armor, a voice so loud the ears of all those in the room hurt. Pushing up onto his fist and then onto his knees. Steam shot from the damaged armor's crevices before the back popped open, some small metal scraps flying out as he did. 

Emerging from the back of the suit Cade’s gasped for air, fully exposed Eversor could see the mix of wounds and blood scatter across his body. His face had a large gash dripping blood down the right side of it. Steam flew by him, evaporating the blood on his body and making his hair flow back before he roared out in anger, “Praetorian!!!”