Mosa

  Chapter 46

  The Ambush

  The machine hummed and vibrated with excitement, the suit stepped outside from the fungi-ridden, moist atmosphere inside the underground garage. Born from the rustic factory floor, it was their first time they’ve seen the sunlight. They stepped into the green forest. Thirty huge cargo trucks were waiting to carry them. Stein was struggling to learn the features the machine suit can do. He was excited to play around with his new toy. The machines were making a wringing sound. The gun barrel popped out from its arm.

  “Having fun, Captain?” said Michel, grinning. He is jumping around among the woods like gorilla. Stein pushed the gun barrel inside and punched at the trees, with a low thumping sound, the skin of the tree trunk fell off. He burst into the laughter.

  “I’m glad you are having a good time,” said Michel. He tried to do a round house kick but end up falling down on the bush. He struggled to get up and Stein helped him.

  “Huh, this lacks so many features… is version two coming up soon?” grunted Michel, grabbing the bulky machine gun on his shoulder.

  “Sergeant, bring the weapons out and order all units on the ground,” muttered Stein.

  “Roger,” said Michel, clicking the radio transmission inside the suit. “The area is clear, come on out boys.”

  The ground shook with hammering thumps, the rocks on the ground shook. The machines roared and screeched. They went out from the dark hole of the bunker. Hundreds of machines stepped out, standing before Captain Stein and Sergeant Michel.

  “We are going to crush the biggest army base Veron has. Stay alert, gentlemen,” said Stein, grabbing a huge machine gun with his robot arm, stepping into the truck. They traveled through thick woods, and the marshy road. Their arm clutched guns. Their eyes were beaming.

  After Nina executed and kidnapped the officers in the enemy headquarters. Veron’s army searched every houses and location in the country, took out the chemical bomb, bacteria containers, and thousands of artilleries and tanks and started bombing in the city. Veron announced that Nina is a fiend and threatened to kill her and her associates in the most horrifying way. But they couldn’t find her, she was out of reach.

  Captain James divided the choppers in the deep mountain region and sent the rest to the five Navy battleships and two submarines in the southern sea. Captain Nottingham, who was in the charge of the Navy stood nervously on the deck, waiting for orders.

  Veron’s Navy had more than 600 battleships, 300 submarines, 1000 scout boats and countless other miscellaneous vessels. Veron’s military were madly searching for Nina’s ships.

  When Nottingham received the report, he got frustrated at this ridiculously outnumbered situation. Because of this, he moved into the most dangerous sea area, the lurking ground of mysterious creatures. The marines were squirreling around in the ship, checking their weapons.

  Stein and his machine army arrived at the spot for an ambush; the bridge was cut, Veron will be moving the tanks straight to Nina’s base and have to go through this region. Stein positioned themselves among the woods, where tanks had a hard time getting through the marshes and rough terrain.

  One of those enemy tanks, there are three people inside. Two of them sniggered at each other.

  “Seriously, Guan, this old rusty thing should retire, it’s older than us! That bitch over there wasn’t even born!” said the man, pointing at the new recruited boy on the corner. The boy stiffened, his face was green due to nauseating ride of the tank.

  “Ahh, shut it Tug, we have a lot of artillery and royal soldiers, those inferior pagans will not stand a chance,” said the Guan, smoking cigarette.

  “Yeah, we should outrun them and crush them!” shouted Tug.

  “And did you hear that Veron raid the city?” Guan sniggered.

  “Yeah, those stupid people, we got him from them” said Tug, grinning, and turned into the new recruit, a sixteen years old boy.

  “Hey you,” said Tug, his eyes beaming dangerously.

  “Yes… yes sir!” said the boy.

  “Have you seen the baseball yesterday?” said Tug, showing his yellow teeth.

  “I didn’t sir,” said the boy, trembling.

  “Oh of course, you can’t!” Tug and Guan sniggered. But as the boy didn’t laugh along with them, Tug wiped the smirk off his face and stared at the boy.

  “Come on boy, laugh, and don’t make that bitchy face… You want to piss me off?” said Tug.

  “Of course not sir,” the boy laughed awkwardly.

  “You’ve got a problem?” said Tug, getting mad.

  “No sir,” said the boy, almost crying. He leered at the boy with his haughty eyes. The boy quivered helplessly. Tug smiled.

  “I’m just kidding, boy. You haven’t had anything to eat yesterday didn’t you? Come on and eat this,” he licked bread with his tongue then gave it to the boy. The boy jerked backward.

  “Come on, eat,” threatened Tug.

  “… Thank you sir,” the boy bit his lips, his eyes full of tears. But he was forced to smile and eat bread. Guan watched him, enjoying this situation. Tug cackled and started slapping the boy. But at that moment, the tank stopped abruptly. Tug fell flat on the floor.

  “Huh? What the fuck is…” muttered Guan.

  They heard a loud bang, and the tank vibrated intensely, almost jumped from the ground and turned upside down. They all screamed, trying to grab something. There was a sound of bombing and shooting. Tug was unconscious on the wall, bleeding from his head. Guan was grabbing the gun, not knowing what to do, the boy was screaming in the corner. The tank again got hit by the shell from outside, it ripped its metal skin. The tank shook turbulently like toy battered on the ground.

  Soon, the sound dimmed, and became quieter outside. The boy breathed fast, coughing, try to calm himself down, Guan seemed to be trembling badly, murmuring. “I don’t want to die; I don’t want to die…”

  Suddenly, the hatch opened, and the boy saw a big metal arm. The boy stared at it curiously and was amazed; he never saw anything like it. The guy in the machine suit checked inside and saw the boy, unconscious man and the driver who was staring at that hideous, fur ball-looking machine man with horror. The machine man offered the hand to the boy.

  The boy blinked, not sure whether to take it, but slowly he touched the cold metal hand and got outside the tank.