Cloudless Stars - Part 3

Augustus walked through the bustling streets of Kolumbiya. The capital was unlike anything seen in the battlefields; the smell of iron and rotting corpses did not fill the air but soft scents of boutique flowers. A peaceful paradise of rich and happy individuals that went about their lives completely oblivious to the suffering beyond.

He had arrived for a quick stop to meet with other generals but the chaos of combat is what he yearned for. He had felt that simply sitting here and doing meaningless tasks felt like an eternity in limbo.

“Hmmm, Bored as always, general?”

Rei walked besides him in a casual feminine attire of a wool jumper with exposed shoulders along with a pink dress and knee-high white socks. He playfully held his arms behind his back as he skipped along the footpath.

Augustus' eyes tensed at the sight of the crowds in lavish golden attire.

“Look at these nobles, going about their lives betraying the very idea that this nation was forged under. This gilded city is a mockery!”

“And just like that you would betray your nation for cheap thrills? A foolish ideology built on a mountain of hay.”

Rei gestured his right hand towards his face and blew.

“A single gust of wind and woosh—”

Augustus simply smiled at Rei’s words.

“I would burn this city a thousand times over for ‘cheap thrills’. We are a nation of warriors. War isn’t simply a means to an end, it is everything. It is our culture. It's an act that breeds strength… Is what I would usually say, but the truth is that I am bored. There is no glory in letting the mindless machines do all the work.”

“Hmm… A nut job that gets high on chaos. I’m afraid that you were born several thousand years too late.”

“Give me the tools and it will be done.”

“Your goals are simpler than mine but, as you wish, we shall burn this world in the name of ‘cheap thrills’.”

***

“Hah, Cheap thrills… Here she comes, Rasputin!”

*Wrrr*

Ana’s mech bent down with the engines flaring open to release a torrent of blue flames that hurled the machine forward in an earth-shattering charge. The plasma sword extended out ready to strike.

*Woosh*

Augustus pressed a circular button with both his thumbs and twisted the handle of the controller in a wide motion causing his mech to perform a quick evasive manoeuvre that dodged Ana’s wide plasma sweep.

His mech was now positioned behind Ana but not for long as her attacks were relentless. She immediately spun her mech around ready for another strike with her blade. In response, Augustus’s mech right arm reached back, extending its arm as the metal armour began to fold outwards and form a thin blade on the side of the forearm.

*Click*

Blue sparks crackled as a plasma blade erupted out to meet with Ana’s blade.

*TSKK*

The two plasma blades contacted each other, repelling both mechs backwards from the strike. Augustus readied a second strike but missed as Ana leaped backwards far away from his attacks, repositioning to give herself extra distance.

The two mechs now went on a defensive stance eyeing their opponent and waiting for their next actions. They were in perfect synchronicity moving in a circular motion in order to keep the target in view.

“Oh, come on now, the fun has just begun!”

Augustus smiled like a madman as he pulled his stick upwards as his mech jumped into the air. His shoulder armour plates extended outwards revealing two missile chambers on either side.

Ana moved her right arm changing from the blade and into her gun. She fired several shots into the air which Augustus dodged by moving from side to side. He counter-attacked, firing off a barrage of missiles that raced towards Ana like molten rainfall.

*Wsshhh*

*Vrrrrr*

*Bwooom*

Ana’s mech exploded outwards with a bubble of plasma that instantly blocked all projectiles. Her mech’s armour pulsed blue all over as the metal armour plates buckled sending out a secondary shockwave with a tsunami of dirt that knocked Augustus out of the air.

Silence now filled the dirt smudged landscape with only the low rubbing of Ana’s plasma bubble shield.

“Is it done—”

*Swish*

A flash of orange lit up the clouds of brown in the distance and in a flash of blinding lights Augustus lunged forward like a mad animal. His metal claws clasped onto the energy shield as he slowly pried it open releasing a static of green energy all around the impact zone.

*Tsssk*

Ana raised her left hand slightly damaged from the first attack. Small sparks flew out of the small cracks of the arm that no longer could close properly.

*Wrrrr*

The disjointed metal folded out backwards revealing a coiled cannon deep with the forearm. Electric current cracked around as each ring of the coil lit up one by one.

*VRRRRR*

*Boom*

Augustus was pushed backwards as he held up both hands to block the continuous blue stream of energy. Liquid pumped into his veins as his face tightened, his arm pulled the controller forwards as he mustered all his available strength.

“AAAGGGHHHHHH!”

His mech held its arm in a crossed motion as it kept sliding backwards unable to contain the energy. An aura of green appeared all across the arms and parts of the body as the plasma currents splitted into hundreds of branching parts cutting into the ground behind.

Augustus’s comms turned on with Ana speaking on the other end.

“Why do you still persist? You follow the Imperial Doctrine of Ironing, don’t you? I too was blinded by our tyrants. You must realise that it is all a sham. A culture that breeds chaos will not bring about harmony.”

“Huh, that accent you must be Western born like… me. Ahh. Hard to talk with this. Haha… I know it is all a sham all of it ....”

“Then why?”

“You must understand as well… that it is hard to change who we were programmed to be. My ideals are shallow but I am not fighting for my ideals here! You will understand soon enough—”

*Stsssssss*

The comms was cut.

Augustus sat in silence as he took a deep breath in. An image of Rei once again filled his mind.

'Who cares about changing your pattern just believe in me and the world that I am about to make.'

A simple cynical smile sat on his face.

“You dumb idiot, let us see your ideals be born!”

Augustus activated a button as several metal plates in his hand moved apart with the spinning orb on his back reversing, emitting a blue light instead of green. He had condensed the energy into small orbs wrapped around in a transparent green shield.

Ana using this opportunity transformed into her jet formed as she flew overhead aiming towards the space elevator.

Augustus released the orb into the air.

*Bwooom*

A massive shockwave exploded causing Ana’s mech to slow down and tumble from the shock.

Augustus aimed his left hand towards Ana. The hand split open with a large triangular metal blade that appeared on the end.

*Boom*

The blade was fired from the hand with a long black metal cable that was attached to it.

*Crack*

The blade pierced through Ana’s wings as both mechs were tethered to each other.

*Woosh*

*Wrrr*

Ana flew straight upwards using the broken silver tower as a guide. Her engines roared with intensity letting out the highest amount of power to make up for the added weight below.

***

Shiori frantically looked over from one book to the next, scoring through various digital archives leaving a room in total disarray.

“They must know that Ana must be attempting to seize control of the drone network but to what ends would they want her to do that? Her gaining control no matter how foolish means that if she succeeds her singular force could topple their plans.”

She took a chip and inserted it into the computer terminal.

Several images began to populate the screen with designs and schematic of weapons, mechanized machines and one last one that caught her attention.

“What are you doing here?”

*Click Click*

Shiori clicked closer to the odd file as it revealed a blueprint to an Imperial space station more specifically modifications to one.

“You somehow secretly modified it but with this setup it would do nothing. Attempting to arrest control of the drone network means getting caught and having years of work erased… although if what I'm thinking is right then 1 minute of… control is more than enough.”

On the screen there are several texts outlining: “Bio Fusion Control through living nanomachines.”

“You attempted to reverse engineer our tech but only ended up with an incomplete piece that must be connected with the original source. A plan B if the original could not be seized.”

Shiori stood up from her desk.

“I need to move now! It might be too late!”

***

A void of purgatory of deep blacks that contrasted with layers of orange and blue on either side. The realm between heaven and hell. Ana’s mech had entered the Stratosphere as her craft now sat between earth and the endless space beyond.

The red energy pulsated from the broken tower in front. An ocean of pure red energy contained within giant stones of silver.

*Wrrr*

Augustus reeled his mech in and climbed atop Ana’s wings. His legs pushed her towards the inner part of the elevator.

In response Ana transformed out to shake off Augustus as they fought in a tug of war pushing and pulling each other closer towards the glowing red.

His metal claws clasped firmly onto the chest of Ana’s mech.

“You can have this back!”

The dual orbs on his back spun with increasing intensity changing from green to blue once more.

*VRRRRRR*

Augustus’s hand emitted a chain of lighting that flowed throughout Ana’s mech instantly immobilizing it.

“AAAAAGGGHHHHH!!!!”

Ana screamed within her mech as she was shocked along with her whole mech.

Augustus pushed Ana's mech deeper into the tower and soon she was submerged in the red energy.

“NOW!”

*Woosh*

Ana’s left eye lit up as she lost control of herself succumbing to a swift and deep sleep.

***

A colossal space station was at the end of the fractured elevator connected by a central hole. It had three halos that orbited a singular orb with thousands of eyes that spun all around. Each ring of the space station aligned and created an orbiting ring. Starting from the outer ring, each part of the station began to glow blue and eventually all thousand eyes turned blue.

*Bwooom*

A beam of light pulsated out from the station as it flowed down mixing with the red energy. It impacted all the way towards the surface hitting inside the main reactor.

Ana and Augustus were carried upwards by the flowing current of blue and red as they entered the space station.

***

Kolumbiya, Former USA.

The Holy Empire of Russia’s Capital.

Within the gilded hallways of the Capitals grand monument and behind the red curtain lay a black digital screen connected by thousands of tubes and cables. Rei leaned against the screens rubbing his face intimately along it as he smiled with a face full of glee.

Several lines of code popped up in red text with one that read: “Tsar, Vasilyevich online….”

Rei caressed the screen with his hand.

“I summon ye! O’ God of War!”