Sean Barker, leaning back in his chair
and digesting his latest meal, smiled. Atkins had requested a
trial by combat for the five Alpha Battlesuits that had been
completed. This time Sean had ended up losing his entire right
hand. He was glad however, not about the hand itself, but about
the fact that the designs had been realized so well. If the
Alphas could keep up with a Guyver like him, then they would
have a much better chance against the Zoanoids that they were
intended to fight.
"So, how’s my knight in shining armor
doing?" Cori asked, rubbing his shoulders as she came up behind
him.
"Well, I have all my limbs in place
again," Sean said, turning his head and grinning at her. "And I
have food in my stomach again. And I have you," here he paused
to kiss Cori. "And nothing more than a combat drill has happened
today. So, all in all, I think I feel pretty damn good."
That, of course, was when the proximity
alarms all went off at once.
"What’s going on out there?" Cori
wondered aloud.
"It’s probably just another combat drill
for the Alpha group," Sean said, leaning back in his chair as
Cori ran her fingers through his hair.
When the word Zoanoid came over the
loudspeakers, though, Sean was instantly on his feet. The
announcement was repeated for the benefit or the few people who
hadn’t caught it the first time, but by the time it was half
done Sean was already moving. The corridors of the ACTF’s main
compound were filled with soldiers, all moving with grim
purpose. Each of them knew their job and was prepared to carry
it out.
As well, each of them knew what a
Zoanoid attack entailed. The ones who had not been in direct
combat with a Zoanoid before had been thoroughly briefed by
Atkins and Sean. Now, as he ran with them to their inevitable
destination, Sean mentally geared himself up for what he was
going to be facing. Zoanoids were strong, and they were
uniformly ugly, but none of them were very smart.
Five of the soldiers who had been
running with the group broke off, heading for the hangar bay
where the five combat-ready Alpha types were stored. As the
remaining soldiers passed the racks of specially designed
weapons, every one with the obvious exception of Sean picked one
up and slung it over their shoulder. These were the troops that
would be fighting on the front lines, as opposed to the others
who would be lending support from the background. Sean had been
in this compound long enough to know just how efficient and
well-prepared the ACTF was for the battle they were fighting.
He knew that by now the infirmary was a
bustling hive of activity; the medical staff preparing for the
probable injuries that they would have to deal with when the
battle ended. Fighting Zoanoids as an ordinary human, as opposed
to as a Guyver, was something that Sean was grateful to never
have to do again. But, unlike him, these people had actually
been trained for just this kind of thing.
They knew what they were getting into,
unlike him when he had first learned about Chronos. But that was
in the past, what was important now was getting rid of this
group of Zoanoids before they could report the existence of this
base to their superiors at Chronos. The last of the ACTF’s
frontline corps had filed into the back of an ordinary-looking
transport van, and now all that was left was for the five Alpha
units and him to fill the next.
Taking a deep breath, Sean prepared
himself. "Guyver!"
The Guyver unit’s energy-field crackled
around him as the Unit was summoned from its resting place in
the other dimension. Their had been a few times, back when
nobody had really known all that much about the Guyver, that
Sean had transformed in a crowded area. That was how he and the
ACTF had first found out about the purely destructive power of
the Guyver’s pressure field.
As excess air was expelled from the
Guyver’s breather units, Sean jogged the rest of the way to the
large transport that held the five Alpha Battlesuits. The rumble
of the transport’s overpowered engine was more clearly audible
to Sean, thanks to the Guyver’s enhanced senses. But every one
of the soldiers knew that they were about to move out. There was
no way in hell that they were going to let a bunch of mutant
freaks overrun their base.
XxXxX
Drake Shepherd, one of the ACTF’s newly
trained ‘ground gunners’, rechecked the ammo gauge on his
Zoanoid Buster Cannon. Based off of that Zoanoid Buster Custom
that Colonel Atkins had had made for that Murakami guy, this
weapon was specifically meant to be used by ordinary people. As
opposed to having such a strong recoil that a normal person
would break their arm trying to fire it.
The Cannon was fully loaded, like it had
been the last five times that Drake had checked. Still, this was
his first trial-by-fire against real Zoanoids. This time, he
couldn’t count on Barker to bail him out if he got in over his
head, and this time there wouldn’t be any reprieves. At least,
not until all of the Zoanoids who had come to try and destroy
this base were dead.