New Leaders

Elswyth and Ajax walked through the door leading into level fourteen. Their gazes were pulled towards their friends nearby standing in front of the glass wall. Pankraz's body lay on the floor nearby as Cades, Eversor, and Ayla looked out at the battlefield below, “Ayla!” Elswyth called as she rushed forward and hugged Ayla who stumbled back.

Her arms went around Elswyth to pat her on the back before pulling away, “Hey…you ok?”

“I am. Ajax basically tore apart floor seven to get to me…he really is…something.” Elswyth said as she watched Eversor and Ajax walk up to each other to speak.

Ayla nodded before sighing and looked at Elswyth sorrowfully, “I wish that didn't have to happen, having to kill to save you was necessary but...I’m tired of this killing…Pankraz deserved it but those guards were just following orders. They could have lived if he had just given them the order to evacuate.” Ayla said as she looked at the dead War Chief.

“So what now?” Elswyth asked as she looked away from the dead body, her expression darkening as she felt uncomfortable being so close to the corpse. Ayla watched as Elsywth uncomfortably rubbed her arm.

“We were waiting for you to figure that out…the secret is out. This place, the Hephaisteion, it stores Atomics.” Ayla said as she looked at the crumbling Northern wall of the station and the small mountain of debris around it., “I thought they were all gone after the atomic age." She admitted.

“That's the popular theory…the knowledge to make them was supposed to be lost. We know the rough ingredients and have the raw materials or at least we think we do but the schematics were lost.” Elswyth pointed out.

Ayla looked over the still crumbling wall seeing that a few men in Thorakai were moving around away from it. From her view, she couldn’t tell if they were Romans or Germanics, “It only took the galaxy’s population being cut in half to cease our wars…and even then it was only because they ran out of atomics.”

“That says more about us than the weapons doesn’t it? We had some of the most powerful weapons in human history, weapons that could annihilate cities, destroy worlds, and yet somehow we were able to use them all up on each other.” Elsywth lamented as she slowly rubbed her arm.

“Now there’s atomics here. The thing about these weapons is that they’re never enough. When we run out of atomics we’ll use our guns, when we run out of bullets we’ll use our swords, when our blades dull we’ll use our hands, and when our hands break we’ll use our teeth. These atomics being here or not the fighting won't stop. Even if the Germanic tribes are defeated it’ll just mean Rome has a new enemy. There’s always a new enemy. Always a new reason to kill.”

“That can’t be true. There’s got to be some end to the fighting. Right?” Elswyth asked in a sorrowful but hopeful tone.

Ayla turned away from the battlefield, “No…it’s always just more killing.” She said as she looked towards the three men.

“We have to get out of here as soon as possible. With both sides leaderless i’m sure this will get ugly quick.” Ajax said as he pointed out at the battlefield beyond the glass wall.

“We don’t know who’s left on our side, the legions they sent here might still have some organization. If they do we can cut the deal we planned to.” Eversor said as he unsheathed his blade.

“Escaping comes after destroying the atomics.” Cades cut in as he looked between the two, “Before we find out what's left of either side we have to destroy the atomics. Who knows what your superiors will do with them? You were sent to capture the facility. You think that's a coincidence? They must have known something was here and now they definitely do.”

“Neither side should have this power. If they do who knows what will happen…regardless of how many there are it would allow any empire to control the other empires through fear. I'm not going to let my own people control others with these weapons.” Eversor said as he looked towards the only other door leading out of the room. The door across from the one they entered was shut.

Eversor tilted his head, gesturing for the three of them to head over to Ayla and Elswyth. Ayla looked at the three battered men and then down at her own battered armor, “Got a plan for whats next?”

Eversor looked between his comrades, “We find out a way to destroy the atomics. If there’s any way we can...and after that we’ll try and see if any of the legions still have a chain of command. If Roark is still alive-”

“He’s alive, don’t even think otherwise. Us leaving in the middle of the night won't be the last time we see him.” Ajax cut Eversor off with a serious tone as he spoke to his old friend.

Eversor looked at him silently before nodding and continuing,  “Ok. We shut down or destroy whatever's going on here and then meet up with Roark now let's go see what's through that–” 

“Drop your weapons!” A loud yell came from behind the group who turned and raised their own weapons. Eversor raised his shield and sword while Ayla held her last pistol in her left, undamaged hand. Cades raised his shotgun and Ajax unholsterred his submachine guns. Elswyth hid behind the others as her hand shakily went to grab the gun at her thigh but she could barely pull it out of the holster.

Across the room from the head of security stood, a small crowd of guards at his back, all of them holding up their rifles and weapons, “What have you done?” He asked as he looked over at the dead War Chief.

Ayla pushed past Cades to stand at the front of the group, “We killed him…the War Chief almost killed us all with that atomic of his and he had to be stopped!”

“You killed our leader! The Romans are inside the facility! What do you want us to do now?” The head of security shouted back as he pointed his rifle directly at her.

“What about us? We also want to get out of here but we didn’t mutiny! Commander Jannik has stayed loyal all this time!” A guard shouted.

“What gave you the right to do that?” Another asked before the small crowd of guards began to shout accusations and questions at Ayla who looked out at all of them waiting for her moment to speak.

“I saved you all!” Ayla’s words silenced the entire crowd as they looked on with anger, “That fool would have killed us all. He would have had each and every one of us to die before surrendering to the Romans. None of you would have ever gotten to see your tribes again if it was up to him!”

The crowd was silent as they looked towards the head of security to speak, “Because you did that, we are now leaderless! Who do you expect to get us out of here?” Jannik shouted as he looked towards her for answers.

“I’ll–” Outside of the room a ship flew by the glass wall trying to leave the facility as it was on course to leave. The ship exploded. Bursting into a ball of plasma the crumpled ship fell towards the ground, crashing to the floor. Turning around everybody ran towards the glass wall to look down at the wreck of the ship and the automated canon on the facility wall that had fired upon it. The barrel of the plasma cannon glowed red as it turned back to firing 

“Wasn’t that one of our ships? Why did our own systems fire upon us?” One of the guards asked as the rest began to murmur.

The head of security looked out with fearful eyes beneath his mask, “Pankraz said any retreating ship would be fired upon but those our automated canons. They shouldn’t be targeting us/”

“It’s because they’re not our canons.” Elswyth spoke up, “This facility is old, its systems weren’t programmed to exclude Germanic ships, they were meant to exclude the Greek ships of the time. The only thing we can do is shut down the automated turrets.” She said timidly as she holstered her weapon.

“Then we really are trapped,” Jannik mumbled as he looked at the heap of a crumpled ship.

“No, we're not. Me and my allies are going to find a way out of here. If we can deactivate those canons we are free to leave and if there’s a fleet ship above we can escape to our territory safely! If you follow me I will get you all to the transport ships, let me lead you and my allies will get us out of here!” Ayla shouted as she pointed towards the stormy sky above the facility.

“How do we know you can? Your defense failed to hold the beach, you’ve been working with Romans against our own people, and now you want us to follow you! Why?” Jannik asked as he stood across from Ayla.

“Because I’m tired of this killing, comrades against comrades, us against the Romans. I will get us far and away and see to it that none of you will have to follow a madman like Pankraz ever again. Follow me, take the help from my allies and we will all live to see another day.” Ayla said confidently as she looked around at the guards.

The guards remained silent as did Jannik before he spoke, “Who really are you Colonel Ayla Glasner?” With all eyes on her, Ayla looked towards the battlefield outside, trying to choose her words very carefully.

“I am Ayla Glasner of the Nistresi tribe who stood against Pankraz...our War Chief had grand ambitions like we all do for the tribes but was blinded by glory for the Mattia​​ci and himself! He sought to control the Great Tribes by betraying them, by betraying us, his countrymen!" Ayla moved to the middle of the crowd and gestured towards them all. "He betrayed all of our tribes for his own destructive ends! If it were up to him none of you would ever return to your tribes! All for a meaningless victory, but together we can go home. Now follow me and the tribes will live to fight another day!" Ayla yelled out as she raised her fist high, clenching her damaged hand.

The small crowd of guards went silent as they looked towards their leader who looked out at his troops. Can I really trust her with my troops? Most of them are inexperienced with less than a year of training. But what kind of commander would be if I followed a dead man’s orders that would kill each and every one of them, Jannik thought to himself. He sighed and his gaze returned to Ayla but before he could even speak he heard a shout from behind him.

“I’ll follow you!” One of the guards called out.

“If it means I can go home I will too!” Another one shouted.

“Me as well! I’ll follow the Colonel!” A third guard yelled. The crowd of guards began to shout, trying to speak over each other as they looked to her to lead them out of the Hephaisteion. Ayla’s expression of shock under her helmet was lost on the troops as they rallied behind her and Jannik.

Eversor watched on from afar with a smile as Ayla approached him, “It looks like you got what you wanted. Command, troops to lead, and Pankraz dead...I guess this is where we part ways? You can leave, you don't need to worry about the peace treaty we can work it out ourselves.” He spoke softly as he looked upon her.

Ayla thought for a few moments before shaking her head and saying something she never would have before, “You can come with us.” Eversor’s brow that had been furrowed loosened as his eyes went wide beneath the helmet, “You know what your leaders plan to do if these atomics aren’t destroyed…and if you want your revenge you can’t take it from the inside” She said with pleading eyes.

Eversor’s gaze turned from her towards the guards behind her, the same ones that they had been fighting to reach where they were now, “I can't fight it from the inside but there's nothing on the outside to start with." He looked away from her as he thought over the people he would leaving behind.

Reaching out Ayla took his hand, “I’ll help you start…even if it's just the five of us… it’ll be something to get started with.” She said as she squeezed his larger hand and stepped closer, “Ajax and Cades aren't leaving you, Elswyth is coming with us so that just leaves you...come with…me.” She said as she slowly reached up to touch the side of his helmet softly rubbing her thumb over its surface, "I don't want to leave you here even if this battle is over.

Eversor’s gaze fell upon her hand as he softly rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb, “This place seems to force people into a lot of choices doesn’t it?” His mind flashed with images of Roark, the squad members he had started the mission with, and their short time around the campfire after the battle. “I’ll come with you.” Ayla smiled beneath the helmet as she looked up at Eversor who reached over to rest his hand on her waist in a moment of silence between the two.

In the rubble of the Northern wall of the facility Roark writhed in the heap of destroyed material as he tried to crawl his way to the surface of it, “Nestor? Golden Squad sound off! Hello? Anybody!” He called out as he tried to dig his way towards the surface of the mountain of rubble.

“Roark...what do we do now?” A low mutter came from below him in the rubble.

Roark's eyes went wide and his breathing sped up, “I’ll get you out!” he said without a second thought. Reaching down he crawled through the rubble and slung the man over his back. Crawling up he grunted and strained every fiber of every muscle in his body to reach the surface. Shoving his hand towards the sky he squeezed his hand into a fist before loosening his grip as if grasping the sky itself before crawling out of the rubble.

Gasping for air he took in his surroundings, around him legionaries lay strewn around the rubble. With mangled armor and destroyed equipment, they lay dead around him. Fallen Germanic soldiers lay around the rubble in similar conditions while some were still alive and scattered around the surrounding area.

Around him, others crawled out of the destroyed rubble. Germanic and legionaries with their damaged armor were scattered around the vicinity, their weapons down, their postures slumped as the battle had stopped. Germanics dragged their men out of the rubble while some legionaries helped their comrades stand, trying to move away from the bodies of the dead.

Looking around from the small mountain of rubble he composed himself with deep breaths as he gripped the hand of his injured comrade, “Help! This man needs…help.” His shouting stopped as he looked down at his comrade. He was already dead.

Roark gazed upon the mangled symbol of the Roman eagle on his comrade's arm before letting go of his comrade’s hand. Looking around the rubble he saw Nestor’s helmet in the rubble above him with a splatter of blood across the front of it. Crawling up the rubble he kneeled to grab his friend's helmet.

The helmet had pieces of the neck plating loosely hanging off it with splattered blood across the front and back of the helmet. Standing up Roark held it in his two scraped-up hands. Roark’s shaking hands quivered as beneath the helmet tears flowed from his eyes. A soft sob came from him as he looked at the mangled helmet. Tears burned his cheeks as he held all he had of his fallen comrade.

“Retreat!” One legionary yelled as he stumbled away from the rubble below Roark.

“Fall back!” Another yelled as he walked towards the crumbled wall.

Roark turned to look out at the Romans who began walking away slowly and in shambles. Reaching for the revolver at his hip with his left hand he fired up at the sky. The ringing gunshot echoed through the facility as the Legionaries and Germanics watched on, “Retreat to where? Tell me! Are you legionnaires deserting? I will cut down anybody who dares abandon Rome in its time of need!” He roared out as he looked down upon his comrades.

The legionaries looked out upon Roark with perplexed gazes, "What is he talking about?" One of the legionaries muttered to himself. What this battle had to do with Rome they hadn't put together.

Roark continued, “This facility and these atomics are not just a threat to us or our legions but to Rome itself! Think of what they will do when they are at the gates of Rome with these weapons! They will unleash this force upon us until we are annihilated!” The men watching on began to look towards the nearby Germanics with clenched fists. Some reached for their weapons.

As Roark stepped down the rubble three injured Germanics watched in horror as he approached. “They planned to take no prisoners so neither will we!" Roark stepped off of the rubble as he raised his dead comrade’s helmet and with all of his strength bashed the helmet against one of the injured Germanic’s head, caving in his helmet and killing him.

“Destroy them before they have the chance to march into our lands and unleash that power upon Rome! Follow me and we will save the Empire! Save the future of Rome!” The legionaries watching on began to cheer and yell as he held the dented helmet in the air. Taking up their weapons the firefight resumed as the Romans began to fire upon any Germanics nearby.

On the top floor of the facility, the crowd of guards and Eversor’s alliance heard the firing of guns below, “Even now they’re still trying to kill each other.” Ayla lamented before turning to Eversor, “I’ll lead them to the ships, you three go and shut down those turrets.” She said as she pointed at Eversor, Ajax, and Elswyth.

“What about me?” Cades asked.

“You're coming with me. You're in no condition to fight, your helmet is dented and there’s no way you don’t have several concussions from that head breaking.” She said as she looked over his battered armor that had more dents and tears than the others combined. Cades looked around for protest from his allies but none came.

“Fine.” Cades relented as he walked towards the crowd of guards who looked upon him wearily. The memory of seeing him rampaging through the walls was fresh in their minds.

“Hurry and go before the fighting heats up again,” Eversor said as he turned to walk towards the nearby door.

“I'll show them to the shipyard when we're done!” Elswyth called as she followed after Ajax who was trailing Eversor.

“Don’t think about leaving us or we’ll shoot you down ourselves.” Ajax chuckled as he followed after his comrade.

“A few hours ago I would have taken you seriously,” Ayla commented with a smirk as the two sides parted ways. Leading her men down the hallways of the facility they took the stairwell down several flights of stairs to reach the security room. Moving through the hallways they returned to it.

“We're evacuating now! Follow us or you’ll be left behind!” Jannik yelled out as he kept the door open for the dozen unarmored security team members. Ayla led the front of the group while Jannik was at the back of the formation, keeping the unarmored soldiers in the middle of the formation.

The sound of distant gunshots was audible in the distance as they took the flight of stairs all the way towards level one. Moving through the winding hallways the group passed by the wreck of the ship Ayla and her allies had crashed in on. The distant gunfire echoed through the hallways as Ayla glanced back hearing screams as well.

Heading towards the southern end of the facility they reached an exit door. The tall, automatic sliding doors opened up letting them flood out towards the shipyard. The group ran into the shipyard as several ships attempted to take off only to be shot down by the automated canons. Some Roman starships were shot down as they flew too close to the Hephaisteion 

In the skies above scattered Roman starfighters fired upon the Germanic starfighters lighting up the sky. Up ahead was one of the large transport ships. With a slanted front and a massive wingspan the back ramp was already open, “Take the transport ship!” She shouted as the stray plasma explosions from the Roman and Germanic fighters struck the ground nearby.

Rain began to pour down from the sky before lightning came with it. Striking down several of the fighter ships, the stray bolts of lightning also struck the Hephaisteion itself. Again and again, they struck the Hephaisteion and the surrounding area.

“Go! Go! Go!” Jannik yelled as the men and women filed into the transport ship. Ayla stood near the entrance holding her pistol up as they rushed on, “Get this thing ready to take off!” A spray of bullets suddenly came from the facility. Half a dozen legionaries came out of the same door and ran into the shipyard firing off their weapons at the retreating Germanics and their ships.

Ayla fired at the legionaries as she screamed to Jannik, “Hurry up!” and a few other guards fired at the legionaries while retreating into the ship. The legionaries crumbled to the floor as the mix of bullets and plasma cut them down

“Take positions in case more return! I’m going back for them!” Ayla yelled out as she rushed down the ramp trying to go back to the facility.

“I’ll secure the ship!” Jannik called out.

“If we're not back in ten minutes after the shield goes down then leave without us!”

“No!” Jannik barked back.

“What?” Ayla looked back as she shouted out her question.

“We would be dead without you and your friends, so no we're not leaving without you. Even if you did betray us…are you ever gonna tell us why?” Jannik asked as he looked down from the top of the ramp.

“A few reasons but it doesn’t matter now… Anyways thank you Jannik,” Ayla said as she looked back at him remorsefully.

Jannik quickly spoke back, “Does that Roman have anything to do with it?” He asked. Ayla hesitated for just a moment before she simply glanced away and rushed back towards the facility. Cades ran down the ramp behind her, “Wait you come back here!” Jannik screamed out but Cades was already out of his reach.

On the fourteenth level, Eversor and Ajax pulled open the large sliding doors with Elswyth behind them. Eversor held up his shield and blade as they moved forward while Ajax held up his two submachine guns.

Elswyth reached her left forearm to flick a small switch on the upper part of the gauntlet near the wrist. A bright light turned on illuminating the dim hall in front of her.“So Eversor your armor. What was it doing earlier? It looked like it was glowing.” Elswyth said as they stepped into the dim hallway.

“Healing itself…the armor is old. It’s the armor of House Ranius. Passed down through the generations but hardly worn. With every passing model of Thorakai, this one was considered more important and saw less use. The last user was one of my ancestors Alexamenos.” He said as he raised his shield. It may have been him who painted this symbol.” Eversor said as the Chi-Ro and the paint surrounding wasn’t as worn down as the blade which was covered in scratches and had lost its luster.

The lights of the hallway turned on, illuminating the room.

In front of them was a long hallway with a large rusted door at the very end illuminated by blue lights. The right side of the hallway was a large wall of glass while the left side had several doors down the hallway. Stepping into the hallway the three gasped as they looked out at a sight that struck fear into their very hearts as they looked on in awe.

The glass wall showed a massive room stretching far and wide with atomic warheads stacked upon each other with row upon row stretching far out.. Each stack contained ten warheads and in between each row was open space for their extraction. One of the rows of ten was short, missing two of its warheads.

The three looked at each other with fearful expressions before rushing down the hallway. Reaching the closed sliding doors Eversor stabbed his blade into the crevice between them before forcing them open. Inside the room, half a dozen men and women in Thorakai similar to Elswyth with lightly armored suits looked towards them. Their Thorakai were colored white with various small colorful bars on their chests to indicate their rank.

“Please we are just scientists!” One of them said as they stepped forward to the front of the group, “My name is Hans Baten I’m the head scientist. Please we mean no harm we just want to leave Roman!” An older man with a rough voice pleaded.

“Hans!” Elswyth called out as she stepped in front of Ajax and Eversor.

“Ms. Economos? You're alive! Please tell your friends that we didn’t want to fire the atomic but Pankraz ordered us to do so! We knew it wasn’t ready and we needed your calculations before firing off the shot…and now this facility is in ruins.”

“It’s ok Hans we have a way out of here but we need your help. The automated turrets we need to shut them down.”

“Shut them down? But the Romans will–”

“They’re here to capture the facility not destroy it, we have to shut off the turrets and find a way to get rid of the atomics.” Ajax pointed out as he took guard at the door pointing his guns down the hallway.

“There’s a protocol for the self destruction of the facility but we would need Pankraz’s password, mine, and the head of security,” Hans said as he gestured towards the computer panels nearby. Everybody in the room looked towards Hans as they heard the news, “There is another option, another atomic is in place already and if we set it to hit this facility there’s a chance we can get out of the blast radius.”

“Then do it now! I won’t let this fall into anybody’s hands.” Eversor yelled out as the scientists got to work moving towards a large table in the middle of the room with a touch screen that the team of scientists began to run calculations and set coordinates on.

Ayla ran through the first floor of the facility with Cades behind her, “What are you doing? I told you to stay at the ship!” She shouted as Cades caught up with her.

“I wasn’t going to sit by and let the last heir of house Ranius die out of my sight…well not for long.” Cades shrugged as they ran. Ayla under the helmet blushed red as she tightened her fist.

“What is that supposed to mean?” She shouted with an angered but flushed red face as they turned the corner.

“As of right now, you're the number one candidate for joining house Ranius.” He said in all seriousness with no hint of joking in his tone.

“You better shut up about that! I swear if you bring it up around him I’ll–”

“You're proving my point.” He said before the sound of gunshots rang by. Turning a sharp corner they saw a Roman standing right in front of them. Glaring down at them was Roark basking in the blue lights of the Hephaisteion.

Ayla raised her gun only for it to be macked away by Roark slamming Nestor’s helmet against her weapon before raising his plasma revolver. Cades raised his arm firing his shotgun at Roark’s head. Jerking his head to the side Roark dodged the shot that simply grazed the connective pipe that helped support his neck letting steam seep out of the pipe.

Pulling his arm Roark tightened his grip on the helmet forcing steam to rush into the pipes adding extra force to the punch as Roark slammed the helmet into Cades’ chest. Colliding with the wall Cades lay on the floor trying to get up as his battered armor was covered in dents and gashes.

Turning back to Ayla, Roark put the barrel of the revolver to the temple of her helmet, “You.” he muttered. Cades attempted to stand up behind Roark, raising his fist to fire again, “Do that and this explosive bullet will tear right through this helmet.” Glancing back at Cades he saw the man holding his arm as he shook.

“Stand down,” Ayla ordered calmly as she glanced between Cades and the pistol that had tumbled out of reach. Cades nodded slowly before lowering his arm and falling to one knee. A small puddle of blood formed beneath his boot as the blood from his wounds ran down his body.

“Where’s Eversor?” Roark asked as Ayla stared at the bloodied helmet of Nestor.

“He’s trying to destroy this place, to keep anybody from using it!” She spat back as Roark tightened his grip on his revolver in anger.

“That's not what I asked,” Roark said sharply.

“I’m not telling you. You can wait for him to come back this way.” Ayla said as she looked up at Roark. Several legionaries rushed down the hallway to stand behind Roark and guard their leader..

“All of my men are dead because of you and this facility.” Roark holstered his pistol before gabbing the hand Ayla that had been shot by Roark before squeezing. Ayla let out a pained scream as the metal of her armor crumbled around her already damaged hand, “Be lucky I didn’t rip the armor off and ruin your hand permanently.

Ayla cried tears of pain as she grasped her broken hand, “I’m not going to betray him i’ll die before I do…neither of us…will tell you anything.” She gasped for breath as she held her wrist while her bloodied hand shook.

Turning back to Cades, Roark pulled out his revolver once more and aimed it at Cades head, “I won’t tell you anything!” Cades shouted as he gazed up at Roark, “I will not break our pact.” Roark scoffed as he began to push down on the trigger.

“Wait!” Ayla screamed out as she looked up at Roark, “Please…we’ll take you to him…he’s on the top floor.” She said meekly as she lowered her head in shame.

“Why…Ayla, why did you tell him? Why!” Cades screamed out as he looked at her with a look of horror and anger.

“Eversor didn’t free you to just let you die in this place...and we both have people relying on us right now, if we just die here what was the point of all this struggle?” She sobbed as she held her hand, “He can reason with them.” She whispered softly with a hint of hope.

Roark gazed down at the two with an apathetic expression before looking back towards his men and nodding. Grabbing the two off the floor Roark pointed a gun at the back of Ayla’s head as she led them towards the stairwell.

Eversor and Ajax stood around the console as the scientists scrambled around the room to make the calculations while Elswyth frantically ran them trying to prepare to fire the atomic at the facility.

Suddenly from down the hallway the scientists, Elswyth, Ajax, and Eversor heard the stomping of Thorakai armor. Pointing their weapons down the hall Eversor and Ajax’s eyes went wide as they gazed out at their commander walking down the hallway with a gun pointed at Ayla.

The two men remained silent in shock as they approached the room before stopping at the threshold. Pushing past Ayla, Roark stepped through the threshold and into the room, “Ajax…Eversor….what are you doing?” He asked calmly as he looked them over, “How did you get here?”