THE IRON SHIELD

Chapter XVII

XVII

The Knights could not believe their eyes. Crost was dead. He was killed in the nuclear blast that decimated the city of Independence. How could he have survived? They were soon to find out. Crost was the stranger who had visited the past places that the Knights had been too except the first visit. Crost was alive. No one could survive a nuclear blast; not even a cyborg. At the moment he was more robot than cyborg.

Crost had taken care of the Russian soldiers. He came over the Knights who were staring in awe at him. Crost towered over them by three feet since he was nine feet tall. Two and a half feet if you take into consideration of Patton's height. He gazed down at them and began to speak. His voice sounded the same except for the fact it had a robotic tint to it. "You're probably wondering how I'm here aren't you?" All of the Knights nodded their heads while still staring up at him.

"That day in Independence when the nuke went off; I was trying to disarm the weapon. After ten minutes it was futile. I eventually ripped all the wires out after trying to cut the right one. Nothing worked. It was amazed that ripping out the wires did not set it off. It came to my attention that it could not be disarmed. With only little time remaining I decided to chase down Franklin. Since he put it there, there had to be a way out. I searched the room and found a secret passage on one of the walls. It was a tunnel that seemed endless. If ran down it as fast as I could. At the end I found a hole in the wall with a miniature dock. There had been a boat or something else tied to it. It had to be a submarine because he obviously could not get away in a boat. Since you guys did not find it, it must have had a sonar jammer. At that point I had no where else to go. Time was about up and I just stood where I was at. The blast hit me as it traveled through the tunnel. The heat melted my artificial skin and left me standing there as a cyborg. I myself was not harmed due to my indestructible design. The blast also launched me into the ocean. Cyborgs are not good swimmer, but I made due and did my best to swim to the nearest piece of land. The blast also jarred my memory chip rendering most of my memories forgotten. I had brief amnesia. So I disguised myself, covering myself from head to toe in clothing so no one would see a cyborg walking the streets. I visited my home in hopes of triggering memories. Day by day they came back to me. I went to Zaman's palace and Makarov's castle. It was then that I remembered everything. I saw Frazier's broadcast. I knew everything about the war that is going on. I started my own missions. I fought against Nightfall wherever I found them. I found out that you guys were coming here, so I came. It took time for me to find you guys. You travel a lot. Before coming here I upgraded myself. I am able to repair and upgrade myself. I fitted my arms with a minigun and a fifty caliber machine gun on each arm. I have rocket launchers installed in my back and shoulders. All of which can be concealed at any moment. I also have a sword fixed in each of my arms as well. The last thing that I have is an energy weapon that fires blue burst of energy. I have two of those. One on each arm as well. As you've noticed already, I am much taller than when you last saw me. In the upgrading process I ended up making myself much bigger than I was before. But we haven't a moment to lose. We only have an hour to stop Makarov. Most of the missiles are in the silos, but on one of the coasts of this continent there was a train track built from the coat to the fortress. The train is nearing this location. It is only a few miles away. If we get over there and derail the train, they will have fewer missiles to launch. Once we do that we can proceed to attacking the fortress which is just a mile to the south of us. It's on the other side of the mountain. We have no time to lose, let's go. We can chat when this is all over," stated Crost after a long speech. The Knights listened to what he said and together they all made their way to the train.