Year 2943

The ground was cracked, pockmarked with massive craters miles wide, the burnt-out remnants of ancient cities scattered about. Up above, the skies were choked in dense clouds, lightning arcing from one to the other, each droplet of falling rain eating away at the rusted metal.

As the rain fell the old, rusted cars and buildings sizzled, the droplets slowly boring little holes in the decaying infrastructure. A rumbling could be heard echoing across the scarred battlefield, the noise only growing in intensity, and is it grew the earth began to shake. There was a deafening crash as the nearest tower came crashing to the ground, the shockwave spreading ash and soot in all directions, expanding the cloud of radioactive particles. From that cloud emerged a titanic metal leg, then another three.

What emerged was an Ender, a massive mechanical weapons platform and mobile factory. Each nation possessed one of these monstrosities, machines of war that would consume enemy infrastructure and convert it into the materials needed to continue the fight. Capable of producing thousands of war machines each day.

This one survived the war, only for time to take its toll. The frame was cracking, one leg being dragged along, the flicker of the blue energy shield non-existent as the acid rain ate away at its surface. It was rusting and its army of automatons appeared to suffer a similar fate, broken, and failing. The underbelly which housed the grinding mechanism was non-functional, unable to convert the scattered materials from the fallen buildings into resources the manufactory might use.

It was a survivor of the war, but a wounded one. Even if its weapons subsystems functioned, they were unlikely to do so accurately. While the condition of the autonomous war machines varied leading to small groups of badly damaged units falling far behind the home base. Prime targets for scavengers.

Once the gap opened to where the Ender’s sensor range could not detect its flagging troops, the scavengers made their move. There was a loud crack, the echo reverberating through the messy battlefield. One of the automatons head snapped back as the kinetic force from the large caliber round penetrated the unarmored sections around the neck. Synthetic fluid splashed, while the wiring which kept the armored skull in place fell apart, dropping the now inactive unit.

Another three rounds were fired within that short time frame, with two more units falling to the sniper. The third round missing the unarmored joints and slamming into the armored skull instead, the head snapped back, but only resulted in a large dent. With the depressed round falling to the ground, and the war machine quickly alerting the rest of the unit to the assailant’s location.

One by one the humanoid automatons stumbled towards the last known location of the ambushers, a group of twenty war machines against one unknown enemy. With each step they gained further distance from the other groups of automatons, and more importantly from the Ender’s passive sensor range. As the group crossed the halfway point there was an audible click, followed second later by an explosion of light. Five machines which led the group were vaporized in a shower of superheated plasma, then a stream of automatic weapons fire brought down two more.

The war machines were unable to detect the assailant, both their sensors and visual optics incapable of discerning a humanoid within the vicinity. Yet the continuous muzzle flashes in thin air hinted at an invisible enemy. Possessing only simple ballistic calculation algorithms the automatons carried out a wide scale suppression of the area.

Laser fire scoured the spots housing the unseen assailant, and by chance the attack worked, with the attacker having spent too much time standing in place, firing too many rounds. A scream could be heard as a human woman fell to the ground, a quarter sized hole in her flank. The flesh from front to back had been burned black, the meat still sizzling from the hit, the thin power suit encompassing her petite frame providing little to no protection against the attack.

“Jasemine, move!” Scrambling to get out of the way, the woman managed to disappear from visual sight once again. Little puffs of dust and the tracks left in the soot covered earth indicating her path of flight.

Before the automatons had a chance to readjust their calculations and hunt the cloaked assailant, everything in the vicinity erupted. A loud buzzing could be heard in the distance as thousands of rounds punched through stone, impacted metal, and kicked up clouds of dirt from the numerous impacts. The remaining pinned war machines were quickly disabled under the sheer weight of the kinetic rounds. Standing atop a nearby hill overlooking the ambush point was a hulking human male, clad in thick plates of power armor and hauling a Gatling cannon almost as big as himself. The front of which was glowing red and orange, heat buildup from the rapid and continuous weapon fire.

“Looks like we got them all. Heading down to see what I can scavenge, maybe they dropped a laz cannon somewhere. An energy shield would be nice, might prevent Jasemine from losing a rib next time. Haha.” The hulking suit of armor shouldered the obstacles in his path aside, all the while ignoring the curses of the infiltrator woman.

“Will you two put a sock in it! Phenix, stop teasing Jasemine. Remember we don’t have all day, if the Ender decides to use its active sensor and the pulse catches us, we’re finished. Let’s secure the haul and get out of here.” Hopping over the remains of what at one point might have been a house was the final member of this odd trio. It was another human male, this one was smaller and slimmer than the first, possessing a much more defined, lean form. His armor was a mix of tight-fitting body suit with thin plates scattered around the vitals, and numerous ocular modifications to the helmet.

“I didn’t like the plan from the beginning Aurus, Phenix should have been first to engage the enemy after my trap popped. His armor can take a volley or two of laser fire, my suit can’t. If you had just let me mop them up in close combat, my vibro-knife would have made short work of those skullheads.” Jasemine rested against a burnt-out wall, pressing the medgel packet against her wound. The device deployed, releasing a stream of a green gel like substance into the wound, clinging to the cauterized flesh. Relief washed over the woman’s face as the device did its work, rapidly regrowing the lost tissue.

“We have no energy shields or high-tech weaponry on this run, just kinetics, basic power armor and suits, and whatever shit we can scavenge off these skullheads. They might look weak, but we all know how much of a punch they pack in those skinny looking arms of theirs. Only Phenix can take them on with his Gift, but he wouldn’t be able to get within range before taking three volleys to the face… No heroics! Keep your eyes peeled, we play it safe and slow… Remember the Alpha is watching.” Jasemine huffed in discontent, but it was clear that she agreed with Augus’s words.

“Wait… Do you guys hear that?” Phenix and Jasemine observed their team leader with looks of confusion upon their face as he unslung his rifle, panning the weapon randomly in the air. A few seconds passed and Augus was still searching for something the other two couldn’t see.

Phenix opened his mouth, ready to spit out some witty remark when the loud crack of the rifle had him massaging his ears. The other two looked up towards the ominous clouds above, noticing as the arc of lightning lit up the skies, a tiny black dot. A flying eye, an observer unit, this one equipped with twin rotary blades allowing it to fly high in the sky. Now one of those blades were mangled beyond repair, the rest of its frame falling towards the earth in a downward spiral.

“Well, I’ll be damned! That was a fine shot. How’d you even notice the little bugger?” Phenix was patiently waiting for a response from Augus. However, even as Phenix spoke, the neutral look on the other two’s faces had rapidly changed to one of horror and despair.

Phenix himself mirrored that look soon enough, just as soon as he heard screeching metal, that of two metallic plates grinding against one another. The three turned in unison, observing the Ender in the distance, its upper weapons platform slowly turning in their direction. Augus let out a long-drawn-out sigh, fleeing was useless, the Disintegrator cannon would atomize everything within a mile radius from the point of impact.

“Shit… Game Over.” Augus barely got the words out of his mouth before the world instantly turned white.