War Robots: Springfield

4/4: Ultimate Sacrifice

Eli's stomach rose into his throat as he flew high into the air, enemy fire lacing the air below him. He had enemies on both sides now, and only minutes to act before his ‘allies’ realized where his loyalties now lay. However, he would only have to worry about his enemies if the river didn’t kill him first.

The river rose up to greet Eli as his Griffin landed with a splash. His jump hadn’t been far enough. He was still about halfway from the other side! Alarms immediately sounded within the Griffin’s conical cockpit, telling Eli that the water was damaging his robot’s motors. The Griffin teetered sideways as the river grasped at it, trying to drag the hefty robot further downstream into deeper, deadlier waters. Eli himself was barely above the water in his current position- he could hear the river roaring against the base of his Griffin’s torso.

“Eli, what the hell are you doing?” Bright shouted. “Get out of there!”

Eli pushed forward on his movement controls, but the Griffin refused to surge forward, simply teetering in place.

“I’m trying!” Eli responded. His HUD flashed, informing him that water damage beyond this point was irreversible. War Robots could travel anywhere in the world- except in water.

Both the Russian and American soldiers had stopped firing, instead staring at Eli as his stricken robot swayed in the current. Eli growled and hauled forward on the controls, pushing the Griffin's right leg to maximum thrust. One muck-covered leg broke loose from the river’s bottom and traveled across the surface of the water, dragging itself through the riverbed. Eli grinned. He would make it!

Then his left foot slid out from under him as the river won out, and suddenly he was falling, slowly toppling sideways into the waters of Springfield. No, no, no!

Eli’s fist pounded on the Griffin’s jump drive activator, and the robot’s massive rocket engines sputtered. His second strike gave the same result. The Griffin’s alarm was silent now, likely dead from water damage. Eli knew he had seconds before his robot shorted out completely, leaving him quite literally dead in the water. Eli closed his eyes and pressed the jump button one last time.

BOOM!

The Griffin tore out of the water, leaving steam in its wake. Eli cheered as he rose high into the air.

Then his engines gave out.

“Sonofa-”

THUMP.

The Griffin’s impact shook Eli to his core, waterlogged shock absorbers doing their best to lessen the blow. As it straightened, the robot creaked like a rusted gate. That didn’t sound good.

Eli could see the American forces assembling on a small hill by the dam. He counted at least seven new robots, plus his original squad. He didn’t want to call them American anymore.

They fought for the TMC alone.

“Good work, Eli!” Bright boomed. “Regroup with us so we can finish this once and for all!”

Eli stared down his squad, dimly aware that his Griffin had taken serious damage from its dip in the river. That river was the dividing factor in this battle, bottlenecking any and all movement. The Russian forces were trapped in the city, unable to cross to defend themselves. Eli doubted that anything short of himself and the Spectre could make it across it's treacherous waters.

But what if the river were no longer an issue?

Eli's heart thumped in his chest. What he was about to do was insane, likely suicide. But it was the right thing to do, and lately righteousness had been in short supply.