Scene 6: Convergence

Eventually, the Reapers made their way to the town known as Shallowstone by its inhabitants, as it was built on the rocky flats of the Burning Badlands, a place so desolate, even Nexactus themselves wouldn’t come out here to hunt down the town’s criminals and outlaws, the overwhelming majority of the town. Instead, Nexactus just dumped their waste in the Badlands, as a casual way of disposing of trash, and perhaps contaminating the town’s water supply as well, killing well more than two birds with one stone, or in this case, with biohazardous waste.

Luckily, though, the town’s water source was protected from such an attempt, as the town collected rainwater in huge cauldrons and funnels at the tops of the shallow hills, hoping to keep everyone alive another day. Speaking of water, the townsfolk were particularly superstitious about the resource, believing that merely talking about rain was bad luck, and that for each time it was said it would delay rain by a half-day, something that could go from either being an inconvenience to being a death wish. The town itself was very crude in construction, using rusty grates for roofs, and used tires from broken-down vans as a source of rubber to forge instead into gloves or boots, useful for working with machinery and walking across sharp rocks every day. Citizens here were often grizzled, and almost every one of them, even children, possessed a firearm.

Stavikk and Gabriello in particular got some strange looks from the townsfolk there, but most were glad that the Reapers weren’t some group of bloodthirsty cyborgs. While Gabriello technically was a cyborg, his appearance, movement, and expression didn’t carry the same dispassion and coldness that most were used to when dealing with Cyborgs. Also, the man was missing an arm, so it wasn’t like he was going to level the whole town in a timespan of hours. Dolph was quite normal looking, but his antisocial personality caused him to not be the best diplomat when it came to social interaction. That job came to Evan, who was the most slick, charismatic member of the group who was able to get along with almost anyone instantly because of his charm and his wisdom when it came to dealing with people. He was even able to compensate for Stavikk’s unrestrained tongue, and Dolph’s sheer awkwardness.

The group, however, had another goal in mind, not just cooperating with the townsfolk. They wanted to get back everything that they lost from Nexactus back, and to stop the fascist rule for good. They were still a great distance away from being able to rival them in sheer power, though, and they needed a way to get more allies. They found that the best way to do this would be to gather the townsfolk and see who is willing to help the cause. Many individuals who came to Shallowstone lost their families and loved ones, and who had absolutely nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Some of the townspeople had absolutely no interest in fighting for a frankly losing cause, while others were waiting for the opportunity.

The Reapers did get a significant fighting force to help them in their campaign, and it would prove to be valuable, but it wasn’t enough. Nexactus still had enough firepower to level an island, and four-dozen foot soldiers just wasn’t going to do it. The group discussed their plan for days on end before coming to their decision. While everyone hesitated at first, they soon realized it was the best plan they had. They were going to go back to the place that they first ran from out of desperation in order to gather a fighting force that was simply large enough. They were going to go back to the Sepam Gulag. This time, though, was going to be different. This time it wasn’t just going to be a small, rogue band of escapees. This time, they weren’t going to fight in cruel arenas for the guards’ entertainment. This time, the arena was going to be the entire prison camp, and there was going to be a bloodbath for what happened there and to free the prisoners.

Scene 7: Emancipation

The group of the Reapers and their militia, now known as the Grave Guerilla came to the Gulag by two separate ways. Most of the troops came by helicopter, possessing three of them, and carrying about twelve people each. Some of the Guerilla came by land, carefully sneaking around to the Sepam Gulag right where the coast was. Some of the ground forces exited the armored car carrying them, and carefully placed mortars in certain points around the camp. They then shot mortar projectiles near where the steel walls were. The walls were tough as far as prison camps went, but they soon began to weaken under the force of mortar explosions. The walls were then weak enough for Stavikk and a few fighters to rush in. Their new armored car, now with a crude metal ram attached to the front, crashed through the Steel wall and quickly turning to the right, opening a side door to let out the remaining ground troops to invade the camp. With an opening for troops into the camp created, the mortar troops then focused their attention on Anti-air turrets on top of the steel wall. Any guards there did not pilot the turrets themselves; instead they were the equivalent of stationary drones. In any case, the mortar shots tore through most of the turrets, giving way to the helicopters into the gulag. The helicopters shot rockets at the guard quarters, outlined by Evan Scorch wood earlier, as he knew the Gulag inside and out.

The Guard quarters were burning, smoke spewing from below, and most of the guards didn’t manage to escape. The helicopters deployed the majority of their soldiers into the prison camp below to free prisoners. More than just guards defended the Gulag, though. There were also Robots designed for military use, possessing the recognizable Nexactus colors, gold and purple, and outfitted with small Gatling guns, and the other used to stabilize it and throw grenades. The Robots tended to be more powerful than the militia fighters, though, and needed multiple soldiers to take them down. The Gulag was now a frenzy of killing. Prisoners ran for their lives out of the gulag when they could, or the ones that were lucky not being shot by Nexactus military personnel. Those who could not escape, however, didn’t last long. Stavikk, accompanied by Gabrielllo, and a platoon at this point, charged in with a katana in hand, battling his way through the complex. Evan assisted on helicopter, sniping from a distance. Dolph didn’t play much of a role in the fight, just making sure to keep the fighting force in check.

As buildings burned and the soil began to stain with crimson, the Guerilla and their fighting force encountered reinforcements dropped from space. A large wave of red light hit the ground, and emerging from the explosion a massive robot colored gold and black, possessing missile pods on both sides of its body, and plasma cannons on its set of actual arms. It possessed thick, shock absorbing armor that looked as if it could withstand a tank shell. This lumbering killing machine opened its top hatch to release an array of flying drones to scout the area. It found the helicopters, as most obvious, but it also found that most of the commotion was happening near the front side of the gulag.

The titanium juggernaut, named Plumus, approached the death camp, its stride made deafening by its overwhelming height. This death machine stood about 15 feet tall, and was just a little bit shorter than the walls of the camp. To enter the camp, it launched a volley of missiles at the wall, causing a massive explosion and killing several escapees in the process. It then opened a back hatch to release a small squadron of Nexactus robots to aid it in its conquest. Dolph had a plan to stop Plumus, and sent a radio message to Evan Scorchfield, telling him what to do next. Within a minute, Dolph was inside Evan’s helicopter, a little bit safer from the murderous death machines below. Evan ordered some of the newly recruited escapees to hide behind cover, and harass the robot with gunfire. This, however, was merely a distraction for what was about to come next.

Another helicopter that was part of the plan launched torpedoes attached to it at Plumus. They didn’t shoot it in the chest, which would be futile, but instead shot them at its plasma cannons, destroying them and making the arms all but useless. Plumus continued to shoot missiles from its pods, killing more and more escapees unless Dolph could stop Plumus. Dolph equipped his Null Blade from his bag, and jumped onto the back of Plumus as soon as the helicopter got close enough, stabbing it into the back of the robot.

Plumus wasn’t quite so vulnerable, though, and it deployed Auto-guns on its back in response, which immediately started firing at Dolph. Dolph was very fortunate, for two reasons. First of all, he was covered by ally gunfire from all angles, and he had a defender suit to soak up some of the bullets. One of the Auto-guns on Plumus’s back was immediately shot and destroyed by Evan, but the last one took a bit longer. It shot a burst of 5 shots at Dolph, most of which were absorbed by Dolph’s Defender Suit. However, he really felt the last one, in his gut. Dolph knew he didn’t have much time, and quickly climbed up higher only to slash the Auto-gun with his Null-blade, stunning it temporarily. He slashed it as much as he could, until another tough-looking escapee with a double-barreled shotgun shot it. Dolph, with every last reserve of energy, slashed at the juggernaut’s armor with his Null Blade, barely making a dent.

Evan, Recognizing this, tossed Dolph a grenade, which he shoved into the crack of the armor. Not wanting to be killed by the explosion himself, Dolph jumped back onto the helicopter to remote-detonate the grenade. The grenade busted through Plumus’s armor effectively, but it also focused on the helicopter carrying Evan and Dolph. Dolph was able to jump on Plumus’s back quickly enough, but the missiles were headed towards Evan’s helicopter, and fast. Evan instinctually jumped to the roof of the nearest building, which was approximately twenty feet lower than he was. Blood. Screaming. Gunfire. That’s all that Evan could think of as he lied, prone, on the roof of one of the cellblocks. Evan’s legs and feet partially broke his fall, landing on his back and side quickly afterwards, breaking 3 of his ribs. He had trouble breathing at first, but knew that he wasn’t going to die, and that’s all that mattered.

It wasn’t quite the same story for other fighters that attempted to survive the same way that Evan had. Some of them jumped down before and after Evan had jumped, causing some of the fighters to be not as fortunate. As the Helicopter exploded on top of where Evan was lying, he could only hope that Dolph didn’t go down with the ship. Dolph hadn’t, luckily, and was cutting through the insides of Plumus. He eventually reached the A.I core of the mechanical monster and uploaded one of his custom viruses in his Computer keys. The virus was meant to switch any machine into destruction or suicide mode. Dolph, however, wasn’t prepared for the details that would entail for his own survival.

Plumus switched to suicide mode, yes, but it was suicide by a warhead filled with nuclear runoff, which while not as powerful as an atom bomb, would be enough explosives to blow up four city blocks. Dolph, Realizing this almost immediately, chopped through more of the machinery to reach the warhead, which had a thirty-second timer, not much for Dolph, who pulled it out with surprising ease and waved for another helicopter. By the time Dolph was on the helicopter, only 19 seconds were left on the timer. Dolph, without having time to ask, chained the warhead to a torpedo, which was rather difficult, but feasible. Dolph told the pilot to fire the torpedo into the bay. By the time the warhead-carrying torpedo was launched, there were 11 seconds left on the timer, but was enough to keep most people in the Gulag alive.

The torpedo flew through the air at incredible speed, but was weighed down somewhat by the warhead. 5 seconds were left when it dove into the water, and 3 seconds left when it eventually ran out of fuel. The bay burst with a fiery explosion, sending steam, nuclear waste, and fire everywhere, and creating a miniature mushroom cloud in the middle of the bay. The remaining robots were finished off with somewhat ease, considering the overwhelming numbers of escapees compared to them. The Guerillas and escapees looted as much as they could from the Gulag, before one of the helicopters shot its torpedoes into the back of Plumus, destroying it from the inside. It, too, had a violent explosion, sending shrapnel and fires everywhere, as its limbs and missile pods fell off of its crippled and falling body.

The remaining escapees and Guerillas then needed to escape the Gulag. Most of them went by helicopter, though some of them went by armored car with Stavikk and Gabriello. Since the Sepam Gulag was perturbingly close to Crescendurn, Nexactus forces already started arriving on the scene. Barricades were placed in the middle of the highway, with auto-guns and soldiers present. These efforts proved futile, however, and while Stavikk’s armored car took heavy fire at first, torpedos launched by the remaining two helicopters destroyed most of the barricades quite easily, and what did the explosion not destroy was smashed through by the front ram of the car. The armored car and the helicopters made a huge break down the highway, chasing Pharavanna’s sun, Celestia, as they rode back to Shallowstone.