Chaos (Warriorpunk Trilogy 2)

Chapter 02: Expansion

The feral enemies waiting beyond the shield came screaming toward the warriors as they exited the airlock. Electric swords flashed, cutting down the warriors' opponents with ease. Clubs and improvised swords of jagged metal battered and scratched at the armor of the warriors but failed to do any significant damage. The warriors continued pushing ahead until they reached the center of the enemy force.

"Brace!" Cyrus called out. He hit a concealed button on the pommel of his sword, amplifying the electric charge to the point of overload. As arcs of electricity began branching off from the sword, Cyrus flipped the blade around and stabbed it into the ground before pressing a second button on the grip.

The artificial lightning was released from Cyrus' sword in a single instant, exploding outward in a sphere of energy. Because of electrical dampeners inside their armor, the warriors held their ground and were only mildly buffeted by the spherical shock wave. The savages around the warriors weren't as fortunate and were strongly jolted and hurled away.

In the still moments after the lightning explosion, the warriors hurried to exterminate their enemies before they could rise and threaten them again. The savages were stunned and unable to resist, and the warriors brought them all to a swift end.

Looking around, Cyrus detected movement on his red tinted visual display as other enemies still watched, lingering within the ruins of the city. He pointed his sword toward them, and they scurried for cover like cockroaches fleeing the light. Cyrus knew they wouldn't challenge the warriors openly after what they'd just seen; they would wait for the warriors to drop their guard and then attack from their blind side.

"Area secured," Deborah's voice said in Cyrus' earpiece.

"Good," he replied. "Tell the tech crews to proceed."

Clad in identical armor as the warriors' strike force, the tech crew was well protected. Despite being trained for combat, they didn't carry any weapons. Their hands were required for the setting up of the new shield generator and airlock, so they were unable to defend themselves effectively if the enemy attacked.

The strike force under Cyrus' command formed a defensive ring around the techs as they worked, keeping their eyes trained on their optical displays for any sign of the enemy. The techs worked efficiently under the watchful protection of their fellow warriors. They set down dusty gray metal cases they'd carried out from the dome, opening them up on the barren soil. Housed in the padded interior of black foam were the components needed to assemble a shield generator. The pieces were modular with snap connections for quick assembly.

As his people removed items from the cases and put them together similarly to a three dimensional puzzle, Cyrus thought about the enemies lurking in the ruins of the old city and possible tong term options for dealing with them. Over time, the warriors would continue to build expansions and gradually push further and further out. It was reasonable to conclude the warriors could retake the world, but it would take generations.

Cyrus wasn't bothered by the long timetable toward progress. The thought giving him the most concern was what he should do with the enemies. The numbers of feral tribes fighting amongst themselves significantly outnumbered the entire population of the dome. Although the warriors outclassed the fiends in technology and weaponry, the idea of killing them all seemed like a monumental task, to say nothing of being unpleasant.

So far, Cyrus and his people had only killed in the name of self-defense, striking down those trying to murder the warriors every time they left the protection of the shield. However, purging the world of the evil infesting it would require an outright campaign of destruction and death. Trying to civilize the murderers and other vermin opposing the warriors would be nearly impossible. Cyrus would have no way of knowing if they were truly becoming better or simply faking long enough to stab a knife between his ribs when he wasn't looking.