Confliction

Conflictions

The jets on the back of the mech cut off as it descended to the ground below, the sleeping Atif cradled in its arms. Mathis, along with two other unnamed new Aurora soldiers approached the mech. Mathis was quite, his hands behind his back as one of the soldiers moved closer toward the mech, a PCD in hand. Holding Atif’s eye open with his free hand the soldier used the lens of his PCD and began to scan her retina. While the other Soldier studied the videos from the mech that returned to base and the ones that had been destroyed. When the scan was complete it was revealed to Mathis and the other soldiers present that Atif was the unknown humanoid and not the restricted one.

“Dammit, I can’t do nothing with this one. What happened to the other one !?” Mathis shouted at his subordinate.”

“Sir, it looks as if the target was eaten alive by a swamp beast, I’ve never seen anything that big before.”

Mathis snatched the PCD out of the hold of the soldier and watched the footage for himself. Mathis grinded his teeth and his grip on the PCD tightened to the point slight cracking noises could be heard. There was a long pause before Mathis issued his next set of orders to his subordinates.

“Take her along with the rest of the exotic beasts we gathered and fall back to the capital ship. Leave me this Mech and assign me a drone I will go back for the other humanoid. I should have some time before it gets digested by the beast if I can retrieve the brain the science division should be able to extract the memories.”

Mathis raising his arm began to punch in a code sequence into the PCD on his wrist. Within seconds, in a display of light particles battle armor started to manifest itself around Mathis’ body. It was light weight and made of a durable alloy, highly advanced with no detriment to mobility. Equipped with all the bells and whistles, it had everything Mathis needed to deal with the swamp beast. He double checked his weaponry, taking stock of his ammo and supplies.

“Leave behind a small vessel and plenty of reserve fuel and rations for the trip back. I might be a while, Corporal Jackson is in charge until I return to the capital ship.”

“YES SIR!”

His men stood at attention, boots clicking as they saluted their commanding officer. Mathis turned his back on his men, his mech and surveillance drone hovering over his right shoulder.

“Lead the way Alpha”

Mathis grabbed hold of its metal frame, his battle armor interfacing with Alpha. communicating with one another, Alpha began to reconfigure its structure. Moving its propulsion jets to the side of its torso to allow Mathis to jump on Alpha’s back. Launching off the ground and soaring into the sky Mathis with his drone and mech were off to capture Autumn.

***

Autumn’s eyes were focused, and her breathing was calm. Before her stood a medium-sized wild cat with glowing yellow eyes. Its fur missing several patches, bore many battle scars. She was aware of what she was up against and proceeded with caution. A battle-hardened beast, but where were the rest of the Ambush? Was there a Ambush or was it running solo? She thought to herself not breaking eye contact with the wild cat, slowly stepping to the side keeping the beast in front of her like some kind of primitive dance. Thinking too much about it was going to get her nowhere, and she didn’t have time to waste.

“Lend me your strength.”

The hairs on the wild cat rose, baring its fangs, it snarled at Autumn. Digging its paws into the ground it prepared to strike. But the wild cat did not lunge, it slowly eased up and submitted to Autumn’s taming. She smiled, watching the once ferocious animal start swaying its tail and purring. Now with the wildcat she nicknamed Taima under her command. If the others did show face, she could manipulate the situation through Taima. She knew Taima was strong and fast, but it wasn’t enough. Taima was an ambush predator and using it for tracking was pointless. Not wanting to waste any more time, she caught a ride on the back of Taima and continued onward in search of not only a suitable tracker but also her sister.

Some distance away, Mathis and Alpha soared through the skies over the jungle. Flying in between the broken-down buildings consumed by overgrowth toward the swamp he believed was Autumn’s final resting place.

“Drone A, Scan the area for any hostile herds and nests ahead of us.”

After a collection of beeps the drone processed its new orders. Activating its thrust module and propelling itself ahead of Mathis and started scanning. Anything that the drone picked up on its scanners was directly fed into Mathis’ HUD for him to analyze and see what the drone was seeing as well.

***

Autumn found her next beast, not the type she was looking for but one that could assist no less. A giant bird that could help her see what was ahead of her. The things that took Atif were man-made and had to come from somewhere. Fearing the worst that it was the New Aurora armed forces. Which could have repercussions against the village if they were to find out where they were from. But for now, the village was safe and Atif was the one in danger. New Aurora or whoever, it didn’t matter she was going to save Atif regardless. Taking command of the newfound beast, Autumn stood on top of Taima maintaining perfect balance and drew the bird closer. Jumping off Taima’s back, she grabbed hold of the bird’s talons and commanded it to fly through the trees into the open sky. Once cleared of the Jungle’s Thick canopy, Autumn had a good look of the other side of Artemis’ Island and also the outline of Alpha in the blinding light of the afternoon sun.

“It can’t be, how is that possible?”

“Restricted Humanoid detected”

Drone A relayed to alpha and Mathis, continuing its search of the area ahead of them.

“How did she escape the swamp beast?”

He pushed the thought aside, readying his rifle by placing it upon Alpha’s metal frame. Securing its stock firmly into his shoulder. His other hand still holding a tight grasp on Alpha’s metal frame.

“Alpha decrease altitude and prepare to catch the target before it hits the ground.”

Mathis ordered his mechanical companion, as Alpha started dropping closer toward the treetops.

“What is that?”

Autumn raised her hand to her eyes to block out the sun, getting a better look at the strange object in front of her. Her eyes widen, recognizing Atif’s mechanical captor. A gunshot could be heard and the bird that Autumn had tamed, fell like a rock out of the sky. Leaving Autumn suspended in the air for a moment before she too started to plummet toward the lush green treetops below. Within seconds Alpha was underneath Autumn waiting to catch her, Mathis nowhere in sight. With quick reflexes, Autumn started flowing essence into her right hand, Delivering a solid blow to alpha’s chest plate. Despite the reinforcement of essence Autumn’s hand shattered Against Alpha’s durable frame. But still delivering enough force to push the mech further downward despite its propulsion system. Giving her enough space to evade Alpha’s attempt to grab hold of her. The impact was short, as Alpha’s jets pushed it upward against Autumn’s descending body. The collision of their bodies bounced Autumn off Alpha, sending her falling toward the trees below. The mech in response turned around and halted its upward movement, watching menacingly as its target disappeared into the cover of the trees.

Autumn crashing through the foliage was fortunate enough to grab hold of a branch strong enough to absorb the force of her falling body. Grimacing in pain, Autumn felt the intense burning sensation shooting up her right arm. clutching her teeth, she pulled herself up using her now swollen right arm. Despite the pain, she managed to regain her footing on the branch. Taking a moment to rest, she leaned her back against the trunk of the tree. Through deep breaths and thunderous heartbeats, she looked at the back of her now black and purple hand. Assessing the damage, her concentration was disrupted by the sudden sound of beeping and buzzing. Dropping her hand away from her line-of-sight, Autumn noticed Drone A hovering right in front of her.

“She is just a child...”

He thought to himself going over the transmissions being relayed to him from Drone A and Alpha respectively. Mathis was making his way toward Drone A traversing the jungle floor. With his rifle in hand, he looked upward and witnessed with his own eyes as Taima jumped from a nearby tree and pounced on Drone A gashing giant claw marks into its metal frame. Mathis stopped in his tracks unsure of what he was witnessing. Not once but twice now has this mere child had the assistance of these otherwise savage beasts.

A slight shake in his hand, a bead of sweat running down the back of his neck. Sensations that he had not experienced in a long time. Was it excitement, fear or something else...Pushing it all to the back of his head Mathis quickly took cover Avoiding the detection of Autumn and the wildcat. Glancing through His HUD he saw a screen full of static, The connection to Drone A had been terminated. leaving Alpha’s the lone connection active in Mathis’ HUD. Alpha, who remained suspended in air entered scan mode locking onto Autumn and Taima’s heat signature and awaited new commands from Mathis.

Down below, Autumn signed, taking a deep breath, she thanked Taima for His assistance. Getting back on her feet she knew she had to think fast, and her best option was to regroup with Taima. To make up for her now being handicapped due to the condition of her hand. But it seemed worse, the dark tones of purple and black bruising were moving up her forearm. For now, there was nothing she could do she had to ignore it and fight on. Hopping from branch-to-branch, Autumn descended the giant tree toward the jungle floor. Taima was a few steps ahead of her greeting the tamer at her landing.
She looked off into the distance for a moment before looking above her and Taima to see if the mech was making its way through the treetops. Taima’s focus was fixed ahead of them in the general direction of Mathis.

“Yes, I can feel him too we need to get out of the open and make our way around him.”

Autumn formulated a plan, aware that Taima had no idea what she was saying. But with their connection Taima knew what to do. Sprinting off in one direction despite her handicaps and Taima taking off in another, the duo split up encircling Mathis. Closing in on Mathis in two directions. Autumn now clutching Atif’s throwing knife in hand traversed her way over and around the many overgrown vegetation toward Mathis’ position. On the other side, Taima moved through the vegetation with greater speed and agility than Autumn could muster.

He was aware of the tactics being deployed against him, and all thanks to the feed he was receiving from Alpha, who raced through the treetops to join the fray. Autumn, closing in on the tree Mathis was hiding behind whipped the throwing knife she had in her possession at the base of the tree to take Mathis’ attention away from Taima who was preparing to pounce on him. Mathis, who by this time, shouldered his rifle Leaned out of his cover. With a grenade in hand, smile on his face. He pulled the pin and whipped the canister in Autumn’s direction. Alpha arrived just in time, intercepting Taima’s deadly pounce. Even pressing the wildcat back. Forcing the wildcat to take a defensive stance as it faced Alpha.

The grenade exploded some distance in front of Autumn. As a thick cloud of smoke engulfed the young tamer. Blinding her and clogging her sense of smell. Autumn didn’t waste any time and rushed to escape the smoke cloud’s radius, but before she could, she felt Mathis’ Aura closing in on her. Turning around to face the direction of the sensation, Autumn was met by and nearly hit by a clenched fist. Grabbing hold of Mathis’s arm and flowing essence into her bad arm, Autumn used Mathis’ forward momentum to dig her shoulder into his armpit and hip toss the man toward the jungle floor. she jolted back in pain and let out a slight screech, holding her abdomen. With her last move she had reaggravated her injury from before and dropped to one knee. Overcome by her injuries, she was rendered immobile for a moment. Lucky for her Mathis’ back had landed on a protruding rock, knocking the wind out of the middle-aged man. Autumn still couldn’t make anything out with all the smoke and all she could hear under the sounds of Taima and Alpha fighting was the slight moans and gasps of air coming from Mathis direction. Forcing herself back to her feet, Autumn didn’t waste time waiting for Mathis to recover and cleared the smoke. Wanting to try another approach once she regrouped with Taima.

***

Taima snarled, bearing its fangs, it rushed toward Alpha without hesitation. The mech blasted off several rounds from its arm mounted firearm. Taima switched up his attack pattern dodging the mech’s attack with ease. Taima swiped at Alpha cutting into its hard alloy plating on its leg. Alpha engaged its jets, repositioning them, Alpha propelled itself backwards creating space between the two adversaries. Raising his arm, the mech lined up the barrel of its arm cannon in the direction of Taima. It was about to fire when Autumn arrived just in time to assist Taima. With a firm side kick, Autumn disrupted Alpha’s Aim causing the mech to miss its shot on Taima. With Alpha distracted by Autumn, Taima was able to close the distance between it and the mech thrusting his shoulder into Alpha.

***

Mathis, who lay on the ground still recovering his breath, looked on at Alpha’s feed. Witnessing the battle between the mech and the wild beast. "None of this makes sense, what am I doing? Do I even have a heart anymore?”

Mathis wondered to himself lying motionless on the jungle floor. By this time, he had regained his breath, and the pins and needle sensation had vanished. But still he remained there lost in what could only be described as a daydream of sorts. Staring off into the distance at the feed in his HUD the smoke from the grenade he deployed faded out and warm the southern Aurora sun pierced through the dense tree canopies blinding Mathis in a sea of light.