Chapter 26

A few weeks have past now since my arrival here on this planet. And strangely enough things have gone smoothly since. My relationship with Mike, Sleepy, and Box has been great. Wessex has even dropped by every now and again to check on me.

That's not even mentioning the natural level of hospitality that everyone in this city has shown me. To where in a matter of days it has felt like I've lived here my whole life.

"It looks like you've been able to fix things a lot faster than I thought you would." Wessex said from behind me.

"Well when everyone here is a hard worker it gets done fast." I responded looking for my laser drill.

"Yeah, but I know my people are hard workers. I'm more so impressed that you've kept up with them this whole time."

"You asked me to help with the repairs."

"I did. But you're the one who has been putting in the effort. You easily could have just done the bare minimum to get onto the supply run."

"And what would that do for me?" I asked now giving him my full attention. "That would just slow down the others. I asked you to do something for me and you asked me to do something for you. So I intend to do good on my part out of respect and the hope you'll do the same. Besides, there are good people here that depend on this getting done." I said turning away from him getting.

"Good people huh?"

"What's that supposed mean?" I asked him.

"Nothing, nothing, just wasn't expecting that from you is all. Anyway the reason I actually came over here was to let you know that we got a few reports on the Omnites."

"Are they moving in?"

"Well it didn't look like any old patrol unit I can tell you that for a fact. Though there's supposed to be a heavy storm rolling in too. So I doubt that they'll get here anytime soon since I've never seen a Gargoyle able to move through those storms." Wessex explained scratching his head.

"Those aren't odds I like to play under."

"There's no need to worry. Our sand during a storm lets some electricity move through it. Jamming your computers leaving you practically blind, both physically and electronically."

"Ok, but that storm is going to be terrible for the others." I said looking up at the hole.

"I've already started to evacuate most people from their homes and to the outer rim of the city. But you should let the crew know about the storm."

"Will do." I said as Wessex left to help with evacuation.

There's not a lot of room for error today. Trying to refit the ceiling and doing repairs is risky enough. But adding on top of that the Omnites and this storm. It has me pretty worried.

I went around letting everyone know about the storm rolling in. Then double checking to make sure that everyone left the area.

"How much damage will you do if we try to take off from here?" I asked practically to myself.

"Do you want to do all the repairs from the beginning? Plus you'd tear most of my armor off." The Gargoyle howled back at me.

"It's a risk I'm willing to take." I said entering the Gargoyle.

The two of us sat there and waited. Nothing happened for so long that we could see the sandstorm roll over above us. With lots of sand pouring in to the city through the hole.

"Where are you!? Pilot you were supposed to come with us!" Wessex called for me.

I can't believe he came over here to make sure I evacuated with everyone else. Though I can't call out to him from in here without giving up my position.

VRRRRRRRMMMMMM

I looked back above me and saw three Gargoyles above us pointing blasters down at us. All of them charging up a shot that could destroy everything here.

"Called it." I said grabbing the controls.

We shot up and out of the hole pushing all three of them to the side. Now able to get a good look at these Gargoyles I started to feel a little confident. Since the overall design was the same as Wessex's but with different colors.

Though I decided to take a deep breath and push down that confidence anyway. Reminding myself that I don't know anything about these units.

Now these three only solidified my worries since they only stood there and waited. Either waiting for me to make the first move or for something else to happen. Meaning these are intelligent pilots that know how to control a battle far better than I do.

So I decided to do the same and just wait it out until they made the first move. Since we all know that whoever makes the first move here is at a disadvantage.

"I'm not liking this, if we wait here any longer than we really will be stuck in this storm." I said as the sandstorm really started to pick up.

At this point I was starting to get some interference on my consoles. Making me absolutely dependant on my eyesight for keeping track of all of them.

The three of them slowly started to back away from me and into the storm. Making all of them invisible to me from how dark it was and with the sand being blown everywhere. Leaving me stood here with my head on a swivel not knowing where the first attack was going to come from.

It didn't take long for the shots to start flying at me. Each shot looked like lasers being shot at me. Which at first surprised me but then I quickly realised that this was better for me.

Each time they shot at me the shot illuminated the path. Letting me know where they were coming from. The only issue with this was that they knew that would be the case. So all of them were constantly moving around me leaving me with no other option other than to just try and dodge.

"I don't like how familiar this feels." I said gritting my teeth as I tried desperately to not get hit.

"Calm down. Think of something to get us out of this." The Gargoyle howled at me.

I wish it could have howled at me something a little more useful than just calm down. What makes it even worse is that it wasn't wrong. I got carried away by the situation letting them control me along with the situation.

I need to think. Michael was here he would probably try to predict their movements. Attacking where they will be not where they are.

"I don't know if I'll be able to pull it off but I have an idea." I called out.

"Just do something other than dodge." It howled back.

"Aren't you one aggressive machine."

I looked around me and picked one shot to follow. Once I had my target I followed the direction I thought it would move in and counted. When another shot was fired I restarted my counting and continued to follow. Trying to figure out the time in between each shot.

Once I felt like I knew the timing I jumped out a second before when he would shoot. And because I'm much faster than this type of Gargoyle I was able to close the distance in no time.

I reached out and grabbed the arm that was holding the blaster by the wrist. Pointing it up into the sky so the shot would go flying. While I drove my hand through the core destroying the Gargoyle. Once it was finished I quickly backed off using the storm to my advantage this time.

I could tell that panic was starting to set in as the time in between shots started to shorten. All while their movement patterns began to transform into something more chaotic.

"Two left."