Marvel Iron Age: S.H.I.E.L.D-
Wide Awake Part. 8
New Latverian ground transport:
Claypool, Fearface and Scramble rode with an armored convoy to the space elevator. Accompanying them were what remained of the forces stationed in Doomstadt and the Iron Army’s first regiment. They would ride in while; General Helfitta took the battle to the skies. The vehicle they rode in was cramped, but perfect for traveling on the ruined terrain of the city. But even with the on board weaponry and armor plating, it still felt like a coffin to the occupants.
“How can we trust that old man? He’s sitting in his helicarrier while he sends us into the fire.” Fearface growled.
“Cut the chatter. We bring Scramble the elevator he hacks the systems and the resulting feedback blows the orbital installation Wide Awake has to hell.” Claypool snapped.
“We just have to get there. That’s what the Iron men are going to make sure of.” Scramble added.
Fearface looked away from them both. Saying under his breath, “I still don’t like this.”
The sky above Doomstadt:
In the sky the battle had already begun. Lodestone and Perun fought in the sky with the Iron Army. The enemy ships looked cannibalized from a random assortment of components. Their hulls having wide swooping angles and their weaponry ranged from directed energy weapons to ancient missiles from the 21 century. Their capital ship was a large anthill shaped hulk of metal that dwarfed the Iron Army’s helicarrier several times over. One shot from its main gun had already taken a hundred Iron soldiers to a bright red fiery oblivion.
“Lodestone!” Perun called, smashing his hammer into a fighter ship. Sending it barreling to the ground.
“Still here!” She answered, using her power over magnetism to crumple a dozen ships into a neat ball and sending it rocketing toward the much larger fleet. “How long can we keep this up?”
Perun’s eyes flashed white and electricity sparked from his hammer. “As long as we still have breath.” With his hammer shooting him forward, Perun darted into the body of the fleet. Determined to make sure New Latveria does not fall this day.
Inside the Helicarrier the situation was much the same. When the battle began, General Falcon Helfitta’s Iron soldiers made a strong push into the enemy’s center, dropping ships left and right. But the enemy capital ship started unleashing fighter craft and his men were quickly swarmed. He ordered them to pull back and regroup at the carrier. A shot from the capital ships’ main gun tore his right flank in half and his troops broke ranks. The helicarrier is now being swarmed by fighters.
“Tell Cobalt Company to reinforce the rear!” The general ordered. “Where is the carrier’s defense array? Why isn’t the hole in my flank filled?”
“General Helfitta, we’ve got fires in hangers three and six, multiple hull breaches! The defense array has been over clocked and auxiliary power is going into main thrusters to relieve the main reactor.” Said the operator nearest the general.
“The carrier crashes otherwise.” Said another.
The general rubbed his temples and closed his eyes. The situation was falling apart, his troops were all over the place and the carrier has lost its edge and now become a liability. “Stark, I hope the ground team gets to that elevator soon.”
Doomstadt,
Rooftops:
Ngumi Takada, Jessica Mongoose and Makkari watched the action from a nearby roof top. The entire sky was on fire, from the battle that raged above and below them an armored convoy was being attacked from each side. Across from them on another roof top they were being fired at by Wide Awake soldiers. They took cover behind an air conditioning unit. “It would seem the invincible Iron army is being dog walked.” Ngumi said popping out of cover long enough to shoot at two mutated troopers. Each shot hit its mark, melting the top of their heads off.
“Yep.” Jessica said typing on the holographic monitor she wore on her wrist. “They just need to hold a little longer.”
“The more of them dead the better.” Makkari grunted, jumping out of cover to attack the enemy head on. In a blur of intense speed that sent a powerful gust of wind whirling around the building.
“Starking battery.” Jessica huffed.
“Jess I want to know what you meant about that spy Carol had information from. Did she know this was going to happen?”
Jessica moved a strand of hair from Ngumi’s face. “What are you really asking?”
Ngumi bit her lip and looked away from, Jessica and for a moment forgot about the fire fight around her. “Did she let this happen?”
“Better question,” Jessica said, stepping into Ngumi’s line of sight. “Why did she let this happen?”
The shooting had stopped, and Ngumi snapped back into reality. “Jess, don’t!” she snapped.
Mongoose rolled her eyes and walked to the edge of the roof. “You always could catch me, taichou.”
“Pheromone control is easy spot; it is just subtle enough to catch.” Ngumi joined her at the edge of the roof. The convoy was no longer taking fire and continuing its course.
“I was only helping.” Jessica Mongoose said under her breath. “You were already thinking it.”
A light breeze drifted past and Makkari stood next to, Ngumi with his arms crossed. “Hostiles cleared the convoy has nothing to worry—“A deafening crack of thunder shook the air, a ship came hurdling down toward the convoy. One of the vehicles swerved out of the way and flipped off course causing the vehicles around it to spin out of control.
“Looks like we do speedster.” Mongoose said.
“Damn it!” Ngumi walked away from the ledge, Makkari followed. “We need to get down there right now.”
“Ngumi,” Jessica Mongoose said. Her hands were on her hips and she kicked at the ledge.
The Shield agent stopped and looked at her. “What?”
Jessica started to speak in fluent Japanese. Her tone was serious and, Ngumi listened intently, absorbing all the information being passed to her. Everything was clear. “Does that answer your question?” Mongoose asked, turning to follow them.
Ngumi answered, “Yes it did.”
The Helicarrier:
“What the stark do you mean the ground units aren’t moving?” Helfitta yelled, grabbing his operator by the collar of his shirt.
“The troops we had with them are reporting they entered in a fire fight with the enemy. An explosion sent the convoy in a tail spin.”
The general released him and faced the window. Explosions rocked the carrier; they were getting calls from all over the battle field. This battle if dragged out any longer would go badly. Anyone else would have called a retreat. “Sir, we have to pull back. We have hull breaches in levels three and six. We have fires on our starboard thrusters, they take any more damage this carrier—“
“Operator who’s army are you in?” Helfitta asked, crossing his arms across his chest.
“The Supreme Commanders, sir.”
“Then you know I will not be the General who presides of the largest military defeat, since the push in the east.” Helfitta stepped over to the communicators and pressed a button, to address his men. “This is, General Falcon Helfitta. The enemy has given us a bloody nose but we will not stop here. We push forward. We give everything we’ve got! If we’re slow, if we’re weak we all pay for it. We will show these things why for two hundred years the Iron Army has guarded this planet!”
“Sir we’ve got an incoming unknown object on an intercept course with the carrier!” An operator shouted.
The general looked up, a person sized pod sped toward them. “Get down!” Helfitta leaped to the cold metal floor and covered his head. A loud crash ripped into the room and shattered glass flew everywhere. The general slowly got back to his feet. He looked around the room, his operators were dead and the carrier’s instruments were destroyed. On the fire side of the room a small fire had started around where the pod had crashed.
“That was fun.” He heard a voice from the pod, it belonged to a woman. A hatch on top of the pod swung open and a woman jumped out on top of it. She had olive skin and long black hair and wore body armor seeming to be over a hundred years old.
“What the stark?” Helfitta whispered.
She pointed a finger at the old man and smiled. “The name is, Kimura. And I’m going to carve my name into your frontal lobe old man.”
Authors Note: Wide Awake concludes next chapter, can anyone say Giant Sized? Please comment.
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