THE IRON SHIELD

Chapter XXVIII

XXVIII

Allen landed the plane on the ship's deck. The Knights moved slowly out of the plane as the hatch lowered. Eckhart led the way covered in Hawke's blood while carrying his dead body. The plane was moved below deck while the ship submerged. Eckhart carried Hawke's body to the infirmary. The other Knights and the four heads made their way down there as well.

Eckhart laid Hawke's body on the surgical table. His lifeless body was cold to the touch. His eyes were open when he died, but Grant wiped his hand over them closing them. The Knights stood around the room while the surgeons did their work on Hawke's body. The four heads stood with the Knights as well. It was a very somber moment in the room. The surgeons covered the body with a sheet. They then wheeled the table into the next room for the embalming process. His body would be preserved for his honorable burial in Arlington.

Sadly, Hawke's body had to remain in on ice until he could be buried honorably. They were in the middle of a war now. Hawke deserved an honorable military funeral. Arlington would be waiting for him.

The Knights prepared for their next mission only solemnly. This was the first time one of their own had been killed. It was hard to cope with. They had all lost friends before in the line of duty, but this was different. Before Eckhart gave the briefing, he made his way into the laboratory to repair and upgrade his suit.

The arm was easily fixed. All he did was replace the entire arm. He did the same with his robotic arm. He dislocated what was left of the other and replaced it with a spare he had stored away. It too was covered in artificial skin. The suit needed upgraded if he was to go up against this figure with the skull and crossbones on painted on the suit. Eckhart replaced the swords with laser edged ones. He simply remade the swords with a laser edge. They glowed red as the Skull's did. He gave the figure the name: the Skull. Once he had remade the swords which now work flawlessly, he began to work on the energy weapons. He was unaware of these upgrades until he came up against them just recently.

He did not know that another suit just like his existed. As far as he knew, his was the only one. It was kept in the vault that he broke into to get it back. He tried to figure out how the Skull acquired a suit just like his. He could not figure out how.

Once he had upgraded the suit, he would be just as powerful. It would, however, come down to skill after that. It appeared that the Skull was very good. He would not know for sure until he fought him again. There were two people Eckhart wanted to kill. Jones and the Skull. It was then that the voices of those who have told him about vengeance. It would not bring them back nor make the pain go away. At some point, they both had to be killed.

Eckhart began putting together the energy weapons that the Skull had. The technology existed, but it was just putting it together in a condensed form for weaponizing that was difficult. The process did not take long with the machines doing most of the work. The design was similar to that of the railgun in his X9, but it was a railgun and this was more of an energy blaster. Eckhart also worked on another energy weapon that he was unsure if the Skull had or not. It was similar to the energy blaster, but this was larger and more powerful. It was not like the railgun, but also similar in design. The blast would be three times that of the energy blaster, but half of that of the railgun in the X9. Since he was remembering the X9, he remembered that he left it at his house. He figured Jones took it along with his helmet and family. It was such a nice car and he wanted it back. He had no clue where it was, but at one of those locations, he would find it.