The Dangers of Saving a Life

Chapter 23: Max, Kwin, Milo, Jemma, and Chocka

Hock note:  Captain Max is back, and she has plans for Professor Aidan and his students. Massive plans. Retributive plans. Destructive plans. And she has the backing of all the firepower of Axion. 

Since we've got everybody together in one place, I'll be continuing the story from multiple points of view: This chapter features Captain Max, Kwin Vacker, Milo Skart, Jemma Colera, and Dr. Chocka. 

Captain Max Cazar of Axion's Guard gripped the joystick control of the six-legged all-terrain tank. She pushed it forward, pounding its feet into the soft ground cover of the Atraville campus, lurching across the putrid green at the center of this degenerate college, the offending building directly in her sights. Although the vehicle housed three blasters in front, five on each side, and two in the rear, she would be sure to incinerate Aidan Scelestus and his felons with only a single blast.

Professor Criminal got the best of her, to be sure, but Axion believed in her. That's what mattered. It developed a plan and organized the attack. Aidan would get his due and that would be immensely satisfying.

Displays across her viewport showed every function of the armored vehicle—the ballistic channels, the mobility system, the shields, and the power cells. A separate screen displayed the surroundings. Axion commanded additional tanks, but they were concealed at the moment. In addition to the heavy artillery, Axion also mobilized a swarm of mygs, some on the ground and some up in the air. There would be exponential battalions of mygs each holding multiple gamma rifles in their many arms. They also remained hidden until the proper time.

Above Max, a floating battleship descended just out of view, a triangular-shaped platform of guns and instruments and thrusters, its sensors and weapons protruding from its body at all different angles—gamma cannons, lasers, and clusters of blasters. A battleship with its scramjet engines could power through the sky at many times the speed of sound, virtually popping into the air above its target. Just one ship might take out a small city, much less a single building at a tiny college like Atraville. Axion had many more of these at its disposal. As with the mygs and the tanks, all were hidden until the proper time.

Max eased up on the joystick, pausing the tank a short distance from the building. She carefully aimed one cannon up at the top floor. That's all she would need.

Aidan encouraged his little rebels to thumb their snotty noses at Axion. They humiliated Max and they defied their government. They thought they were clever, those puny delinquents, shutting down the mygs with dark energy. Yeah, they were probably partying up there on that top floor. They probably thought they outsmarted Max. They probably thought they could even overthrow Axion.

Well, they had no idea. They didn't understand the horror of dark energy, they couldn't comprehend the power of Axion, and they underestimated Max. They were about to get a good college lesson. Axion would put everything right, and Max would be the one to fire the shot.

* * *

"Get ready."

The students lined up at the window to gawk at the machine lumbering towards them on its six massive legs, its bright headlamps, and its guns aimed right at them.

"Axion's attacking again."

"Spinning."

Kwin jumped from one person to the next on her yellow supernatant shoes. "Axion is nearly here," she said to one, "You've got to be ready," she told another, and "Be prepared for anything," she told yet another.

She reached into the Drommel. The tank was not like the robots. There was not a single flame of energy. Instead, diffuse blue energy spread out over a wide area punctuated by points of brighter glows, like yellowish-red starbursts, and red veins running amongst those bursts. How could they shut down something so large?