Chapter 10.0:
The Final Battle
Although Speed knew that he, Amy, and Marcus were not officially part of the battle, Speed felt that there must be some way to contribute to the battle besides feeding Riva information about the GoodBots.
Since Speed did not know exactly what they would do, Amy’s ship flew in circles at a safe distance away from the battle. The combined Amazon and Vampire fleet was huge. Speed hoped it would be big enough to execute the last-ditch effort of colliding ships and asteroids with Machines.
“Listen,” Amy said, “We outnumber the machines two to one, and it looks like they’re in a defensive posture. You’re the one who insisted we come along, so why don’t you find some way to help in the battle.”
“I still don’t think there’s any reason for us to be here,” Marcus said.
Riva had reluctantly allowed Marcus out of his forced stay on Amazon. Amy convinced Riva, after her disturbing visions, that it would be a good idea to have some collateral in case the Vampires betrayed them. The creatures she saw weren’t Vampires, but she wanted to keep an eye on Fiero nonetheless.
“I don’t know about you two, but ...” Fiero’s whine was cut off.
Riva’s voice of command penetrated throughout the fleet.
“Approaching the Central Nebula. Prepare to engage the Machines.”
Speed thought her commands short and to-the-point, a quality he had come to admire over the past year.
At that instant, what seemed to be a defensive Machine posture reversed itself into a wedge-shaped group of ships which drove directly into the Vampire side of the fleet. Although the two fleets were working well together, the Vampire asteroids were less maneuverable than the sleek Amazon ships. It had been decided that the Amazons should engage the Machines in close combat while the Vampires built up to ramming speed.
The result of the driving wedge was that the asteroids moved quickly, but spiraled out along the path of the machines, effectively separating themselves from the Amazon forces. The machines had divided the two forces, allowing the Vampires to be flanked by the remainder of the machines.
The Vampire asteroids were beginning to be picked off, one by one, by small groups of Machines, and the Amazons were too far away to help.
The organization demonstrated by the machines was devastating, and unlike anything that had been seen in the swarm tactics of past battles. Something had indeed changed about the machines. They were thinking.
Worse, they still hadn’t seen the huge GoodBot battle moons predicted by the Amazon spy ships.
Amy’s ship picked up a transmission from the Amazon fleet. It was Riva. Amy couldn’t believe how quickly the battle was moving. Good or bad, she could see that it would be over in a matter of minutes. Amazons, Vampires and Machines were being destroyed all around her. Amy piloted her small vessel as though her life depended on it. It did.
“We have to strike now, while the Machine nebula is undefended,” Amy announced to her two companions.
Speed could see that the nebula was not exactly undefended, but was as close as it was likely to get. The hypnotic pulsing of the nebula was maddening.
“This is our chance to help,” Amy said to Speed and Fiero.
The Amazons had formed an attack wedge of their own, and were ready to drive deep into the nebula. If the attack failed, it would mean the end of the battle, Riva would certainly be captured, and the Vampires would be forced into retreat. The failure of the attack would eventually mean the destruction of both Amazon and Vampire civilization.
“We’ve got to get those asteroids into the fight. The Amazons can’t do it on their own,” Fiero chipped in.
Amy flew her ship directly into a pack of dragons.
“Attention Vampire forces, the Amazons are driving deep into the nebula, but they need defensive forces on their flank! Follow me!”
The vampires, having been driven into chaos by the Machines, assumed that Amy was an Amazon commander. They regrouped behind her vessel and followed her toward the nebula.
Fiero nodded to Amy, who flicked a command with her wrist. The hatch above Fiero opened, helmets protecting Speed and Amy from the vacuum of space. To Speed’s astonishment, Amy allowed Fiero to transmute into his dragon form, to join the Vampire forces around them.
The sleek vessel led a spiraling wing of Vampires to assist the Amazon attack force.
Then, suddenly, they all found themselves within the nebula, headed straight for the pulsing center. To their surprise, the defending machines did not seem to be attacking. The whole thing felt like a trap to Amy, but she knew that this last ditch effort was their only hope for victory.
At the center of the nebula, there was an enormous black planet. Speed thought it might be made entirely of nickel, iron, or some other common space metal. Still, for an entire planet to be made of metal was unique in his experience. Orbiting the planet was the triangular prism which speed knew in his gut was home to the leader of the Machines, the Vagus.
The metallic voice of the mysterious Vagus whispered out through space.
“The forces of the void may now attack. Your bodies belong to the Void.”
Then, all the defending machines jumped into the space around them, causing everything around the dragons and the small Amazon fighter to ripple. The jump was disorienting to say the least.
Amy screamed. “I can hear them! The dragons are being killed.”
“We have to hit the Vagus!” Speed screamed.
Amy gathered a few remaining dragons while the Amazons aimed for the planet below, which was continually spitting out new Machine vessels.
Speed felt there was something very familiar about the Vagus’ voice, but he still couldn't place it...then he had a flash of insight. The tactics were very similar to a MoonBall match Speed had played. In fact, it was the most challenging game he had ever played. To win, they had to lure his opponents into believing that Speed was tired, when in fact he was getting ready for the final drive.
With terror, Speed realized that their attack force had indeed been lured into a trap by the Machines, but they had no other choice but to see it through. If they turned around and ran, they would be hit by the machine forces in the larger battle surrounding the planet, which was clearly going badly.
Then, like a ton of bricks, Speed remembered where he had heard that voice before. It was like watching a movie and suddenly realizing where he had seen an actor before. Everything came together: the human behind the GoodBots, the new tactics of the Machines. Speed wasn’t the last human at all...
It was Coach!
At that moment he heard a deep resonating laughter emanating from the dark, shiny prism.
“Oh ha ha! You forgot the most important rule, Speed: be aggressive!”
Then a feeling of utter fear and dread came over Speed. He didn’t know how it had happened, but he was fighting his own mentor and hero. He was fighting Coach.
“It doesn’t matter how hard you try, Speed, if you’re not willing to attack!”
Deep down, speed knew that the fleet had to attack, to throw everything they had at the floating obelisk, but he also heard his mother’s words.
“See the big picture, Speed.”
But what did the big picture have to offer them now? They were all about to be destroyed! Checkmate was approaching, if not already upon their combined fleet.
“Fly us directly into that structure. We’ve got to take out the Vagus. He’s human. He can be killed!”
Dragons regrouped around Amy’s craft, and they all began to spiral directly toward a gate-like opening in the obelisk.
The obelisk itself was big and imposing, but there didn’t seem to be much to it, except for a chamber accessed by several different openings to space.
Battle Moons and machines were rocketing towards them at breakneck speed, when they realized that the Vagus itself was under attack.
“You’ll never make it, Speed, but it’s a good effort,” his former coa
ch intoned, laughing madly.
“How does The Vagus know your name? Never mind. He’s right. We’re not going to make it. Those moons and machines are going to hit us way before we get to The Vagus.” It was Amy, beside him. Speed was losing hope, even as the Vampire asteroids began to collide with the evil Machines, destroying them, the advanced GoodBot battle moons were tearing holes in the Amazon line of ships. They had lost over half of their forces, and Speed was losing hope.
Speed saw his mother’s face, and realized that he too would soon be killed.
Then Speed heard another familiar voice. The voice was deep, booming, and loose bits of his suit vibrated with the sound. At first, Speed thought he imagined it, but no, it was really … Ship!
“Last Human, you are in danger. GoodBots are here to help. I am transmitting your bio data to the GoodBot fleet.”
Then, in unison, Speed was deafened by similar voices among the GoodBot moons.
“DATA RECEIVED! GOODBOTS ARE HERE TO HELP!”
Speeds ears were ringing, and Amy threw her fingers up to her head to relieve the pain.
At that moment, every enormous GoodBot battle moon began firing oversized lasers and rockets at the Machines, releasing a hail of ammo into the space immediately around them.
There was no contest. The Machines could not fight off all of the other races at once. The battle was turning against Coach, and for once, Speed felt in control.
The Vagus, enraged, transmitted attack orders to the GoodBots on all channels, but now it was too late.
Amy engaged the flame wall around her craft, and, as the dragons took off for safety, the little ship shot directly into one of the entrances of the obelisk.
In the viewscreen, Speed saw what he could only describe as a devilish figure, somehow split into two images. One was his coach, and the other resembled a horrifying version of the creature they had unwittingly carried to Amazon, so long ago. This creature seemed to be something that wasn’t there, and yet took up space around his coach.
They were approaching the Vagus fast, weapons blazing.
As the vision of Coach passed around him, a terrific explosion rocked the inside of the obelisk, and it cracked in two with a bang. Spirals of green and red flames arced out through space in concentric circles.
Miraculously, Amy’s craft held together, as though it had flown through the eye of a great, Amazon dust storm.