The Story of Argad (Complete)

Chapter 5 - A Great Upset

The troops were getting ready for the assault of Draco's Base Alpha II. Two transport aircraft and the Chinook helicopter were ready to deploy a substantial force. Base Alpha II is the second strongest Draco base and will truly test the abilities of the Junkers and Argad.

"Both transport aircraft and the helicopter are ready for take off on your command, Argad." reported Leon.

"Yes, take off now," said Argad. "I will be riding on my secret weapon with some more Junkers for backup."

Leon set off and ran inside the transport aircraft, The Redeemer. These ships had extremely large and long fuselages, wide wings which had propellers that can allow the ship to hover. They can also carry up to 30 tons of cargo.

Argad hurried to the hangar area. There was a row of 4 large hangars which can hold plenty of mechanical menaces. These were accessible by anyone. Past the fourth hangar was a fifth secret hangar, not accessible by anyone but Argad. He walked up to the console to unlock the hangar with a retinal and fingerprint scan. The door unlocked with a click and Argad emerged into the dark room. He turned on the lights to observe his majestic creation.

"Ah, yes. Time to finally stomp the Draco!"

In front of him was an enormous mech about 20 meter high. Tall, thick legs covered with grey, and yellow armor plating. The torso extends as wide as both legs. It had a reactor core in the center with more thick armor plating around it. The arms looked muscular, if robots could look buff and three fingers were attached each arm. The head protruded horizontally from the top of the chest with a long neck. It had a trapezoidal shape with armor plating covering the mouth and staring red eyes. 

Argad climbed up the stairs to arrive at the head. He opened the cockpit too get inside. Once inside, he strapped himself on the seat then inserted a key to start up the mech. Instantly, the interior of the cockpit lit up with monitors and controls. 

The main doors of the hangar opened up to allow the huge mech to walk through. As the mech trudged, the ground shook. Junkers stood at awe at the terrifying sight of Argad's Super Mech, The Liberator. 

Argad spoke into the loudspeaker, "Attention Junkers! Squads J, K, and L, follow me to Base Alpha II on the armored cars. We will cover the land, while the Leon and his crew will cover the sky. The rest of the Junkers, stay back to defend the base from attackers. Let's go!"

Argad and his squads paraded briskly through the jungle. The crew traveled far until reaching a cave opening on a cliff side. The area around the cave opening looked like an old outpost with four unmanned turrets around him. While in his mech, Argad received a transmission from Dr. Cranum.

"I've got a little bit of a situation here, Argad." said Cranum. "The Hunters, a subgroup of the Draco have been hunting down all my strongest mutants. So far, they've tracked my down in this cave and I'm heavily injured. I need you to ambush and kill the Hunters once they exit the cave. Do not worry about me, I still have my backup plan for immortality which I mentioned earlier.

"Roger that. I'll be waiting outside and I'm gonna stomp these fools who call themselves the Hunters!"

Looks like Leon and his assault team will have to wait.

In a couple of minutes, Argad saw a small company of who he presumed to be the Hunters emerge from the cave. There were only nine of them. One man led the group from the front while a woman followed close by him who held two machine guns.

That gal must be the girl version of Rambo, Argad thought.

As the Hunters approached, Argad spoke, "Hello there, friends. You all must be the Hunters. Dr. Cranum has told me to kill you, and I will gladly do so. There's no escape now!"

Argad readied his mech for battle and his crew of 10 Junkers stood by him.

"You underestimate us," the leader spoke. "I am Randy, leader of the Hunters, and I won't just let you kill us all. Let's show them what we've got team."

The Hunters cheered.

"ATTACK!" Argad howled.

The Junkers rushed forwards, but almost all of them were cut down by the girl with the two machine guns. 

"God darned Rambo girl!" Argad exclaimed.

Argad moved forwards to engage the puny Hunters. He began to pound the ground with the mech's enormous fists. Tremors shook the world around him and fissures formed where he struck. Argad successfully pancaked on of the Hunters with a pound. When he lifted the mech's fist, the only thing to be seen was a pile of flattened flesh and crushed bones.

"Who's next?" Argad taunted.

BOOM!!

Argad shook inside of his cockpit and the mech stumbled backwards. He turned to his left to see Randy on a turret firing missiles at him. Argad retrieved his bearings and bore down on Randy. When close enough, he pounded the turret but Randy dodged away just in time.

"Come back here!" Argad said furiously. "None of you are leaving here alive!"

"I beg to differ," retorted Randy.

As Argad chased down Randy, he continued to smash the rest of the Hunters standing in his way. Four of the hunters were squashed into tiny bits. By now, all of Argad's Junkers crew were shot down. The made him even more raged.

Randy got on another turret and proceeded to pelt the mech's armor with more missiles. Sirens sounded in the mech's cockpit as the shield is beginning to deteriorate. Soon enough, the mech will be destroyed by the missiles.

Argad back-handed the turret sending it flying, but once again, Randy was ran off to another turret and was already aiming it. Argad's mech is simply not fast enough. Randy launched a salvo of missiles at Argad's mech.

Sparks flew all over the cockpit on Argad as the mech's shield shut off. The fight was hopeless now. The mech won't be able to absorb any more than two missiles again.

Randy launched a final missile aimed directly at the reactor core of the mech. Argad pounded the ground one last time but fell short. Fortunately, rocks and tremors destroyed the turret and injured Randy. 

Randy's missile flew through the air and the world seemed to turn to slow motion. The missile hit its mark right into the reactor core. The entire torso of the mech exploded with a giant ball of fiery doom. Shards of armor and mech guts flew everywhere. 

The mech crashed to the ground, with Argad still in the cockpit, dazed. Through the cracked monitor, he could faintly see Randy limping away with the surviving Hunters. Hatred and anger swept through Argad.

Then his world faded into darkness.