Fireworks of Victory and Lives

Note: If you find any spelling or grammar mistakes, please let me know in the comments.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"We can stop moving the battlefield now." Klesen's voice reached the captains of all the warships hovering in the air.

The awed captains immediately snapped out from the shock of the scene they had just witnessed. They felt that it was a blessing that they were on the human side in this battle. For the first time, they thought that humans stood a chance to take back the regions that had been lost in this war.

"Yes sir!" All of them replied in unison, excitement dripping from their words.

Klesen put his hands behind his back and flew back inside the command ship.

"Reporting sir, the warships are ready to engage." A middle-aged man dressed in military uniform said while looking at Klesen respectfully.

"Alright. Wrap up this battle as soon as possible."

The man saluted and spoke something on his earpiece. All the warships began forming a net around the locked space of the battlefield.

'Attention all units! Attention all units! .....' A mechanical voice spread throughout the battlefield.

'Activate the insignia of protection! Activate the insignia of protection! …' The voice which could only be heard to human ears spread through the battlefield.

The soldiers who were in midst of battle had no time to follow the instructions, but the AI's installed in their battle suits responded in their stead and activated a small light installed inside each of the battle suits."

The monitoring screens of all the battleships were suddenly replaced by thousands of green and red coloured dots. The orders had already been relayed, the captains of each of the battleship pushed the buttons on the holographic screens and turned to the monitor. The red dots in the monitor began disappearing at rapid rates before most of them had vanished.

On the battlefield, all the human soldiers who heard the announcement of activating insignia of protection felt relieved as well as shocked. They did not stop in midst of the combat, the AI installed in their battle suits activated the said insignia for them, but there was a visible increase in the energy that they projected.

The Asceptus were well aware of the fact that there was a frequency that they could not register, while the humans exploited this for military use, so most of the battle suits were capable of detecting this sound as well, but their suits registered only a disturbance in the surroundings, they could not decode the exact message that had been conveyed. Only those inside their battleships knew what was happening, but they were in too deep a shock to convey this to others.

'How could the two Rulers be taken down by the human side? Wasn't it only few minutes ago that the battle started? Why would the Rulers allow the human side to take these actions? Wasn't there only one human on this planet that could put up a decent fight against a Ruler, but their side had two Rulers .. '

Only a few of them could snap out of the shock and tried to call back their companions into the battleships, except that it was too late.

All the warships that had surrounded the battlefield in all three dimensions had already formed an unbreakable encirclement in the space. The outer layers of all these battleships slid open, revealing arrays made of thousands of dots.

The entire battlefield came to a halt as everyone stared at the magnificent sight, some with awe while others with paled faces.

'Humm! Hummm! Humm!...'

The thousands of humms created by the guns overlapped and created a melody. An even grander spectacle followed this melody of humms. Millions of light beams had covered the entire world around the battlefield.

The spectacle was as beautiful to human eyes as it was threatening to Asceptus lives. The beams seemed to have intelligence as two beams collided and deflected in different directions whenever they were near a human, but the Asceptus were left unguarded. Hundreds of beams were slowly drilling holes in the armor and flesh of every single one of the Asceptus.

Thousands of eyes lost their shine in a matter of seconds, but not a single one of these was a pair of a human. The entire battlefield was covered in a reddish mist when the 'firework' ended.

Everyone looked at the scene without blinking.

"Aim at the battleships this time." Klesen ordered.

'Attention all units! Attention all units!...'

'Report back to the warships! Return to the warships! Return to the warships!...'

Despite knowing what the new orders relayed at the human side were, no one in the Asceptus battleships knew what they were supposed to do.

'Fireworks' once again filled the space as the eyes of humans reflected the scene.

The battle had ended.

----------------------------

"One down, there should be five more." Alex's voice registered in Regis' ears and he regained his focus. Alex had taken care of the hidden weapon that could cause interferences in their battle against the Asceptus bot. Now, it was up to Regis to deal with the other 'now not hidden' weapons and the mechanical plant itself.

The four weapons resembling different parts of a plant started surrounding the mechanical plant as well as Regis, who now had to deal not only with the chains, but also the attacks from these four pieces.

Regis knew that it was important that he finish his task in order for the group to effectively deal with the Asceptus bot. Regis freed the aim of one of his gloves from the plant and aimed it towards one of the four parts that was spinning around him. The shot was instant, but the part hovering in the air suddenly changed its trajectory and dodged the shot.

Regis noted that the part was also predicting his aimed based on the direction that the glove was pointing towards, but he couldn't come up with a response to this. His gloves could lock in on the target, but that did not mean that he could just aim anywhere and still hit the target.

Regis slid towards his right as a projectile launched by one of the hovering pieces landed near the spot he was previously on. Regis did not dare stop his movement because another one of the pieces which resembled a flower shot another projectile towards Regis.

Regis dodged once again and fired at the main body of the plant with his glove.

The third plant-part immediately moved to block the beam and prevent it from hitting the tree. Regis dashed towards this third part, leaving a series of stone shaped projectiles drilled into the ground on his trail and tried to grab it, but withdrew his hand just when he was about to touch it.

The fourth part that looked like a dried branch of a tree lunged itself at Regis' outstretched hand. Regis pulled his hand back, twisted his body and shot a beam towards the chains that were approaching Alex and the others.

'Rustle!Rustle!' The chains collided with each other and created rustling sounds while they moved towards Regis from all sides. Regis pulled back. He grabbed one of the chains with his hand and pulled it towards himself.

The attempt to pull the main body connected to the chains towards himself was a failure. All the other chains which had changed their target to Regis whipped towards him once again. Regis looked back, one of the guns (parts that fired projectiles) was covering his rear, ready to launch the projectile at any time.

Regis maintained his grip on the chain and moved it together with his hand in order to block the other chains aimed at him. He kept his eyes on the gun and immediately slid aside when the projectile was fired. The projectile hit one of the chains, but dealing no significant damage. Just when the projectile hit the chain, Regis also released an EMP wave from his hand to the chain he was gripping at. Regis immediately moved aside. The projectile from the second gun passed unobstructed from the frozen chains and hit the main body of the plant.

The shield was fed the information about damage being dealt to the main body of the plant and moved towards the spot that the projectile had hit.

Regis let go of the chain which started showing signs of recovering from the frozen state. He slid sidewards and extended his hand.

Regis grabbed the shield in his right hand and released another EMP wave from his glove. The shield struggled to get out of his grip, but froze when the EMP wave passed through its circuits. Regis immediately switched the shield to his other hand and delivered another EMP wave at it.

One circuit of the shield was burnt due to the heat generated by the rapid and unusually changing current induced into it. After the third shock, a few more circuits burnt away. Regis felt the pull created by the shield disappearing and slipped aside once more.

The chains hit the air at the spot where Regis had been standing a moment earlier. Regis saw a gun intercepting his path as it was on the verge of firing the projectile at him, but he did not stop.

The shield with burnt circuits was useless to the plant, but Regis was a different case. He brought the shield between himself and the gun and accelerated himself. The projectile was deflected after hitting the shield and Regis bashed the shield into the gun from above. The gun was thrown towards the ground and Regis immediately pointed his glove towards the ground. A bluish EMP beam was fired at the gun.

Regis landed on the ground and kicked the gun away. Since his hoverboots were also affected due to the effect of the EMP beam passing from near him, Regis used his feet to propel himself forward while shooting another EMP beam at the plant.

A chain intercepted the beam, but the result was as expected. The entire plant froze once again. Regis dashed towards the plant on his feet. The distance was reduced and Regis was about to reach the main body of the plant when his hoverboots got rid of the temporary freeze.

Regis knew that the plant would do the same in a few seconds, so he stretched his hand to grab a nearby chain. The second gun fired the projectile at the same instant. Regis wanted to block it, but the branch was swinging towards his ribs from one side.

Regis did not pull his hand back. He instead grabbed the chain with his hand and twisted his body. The shield was able to block the projectile while the branch hit the chain. Regis was able to put the chain between his hand and the branch, but he still felt an intense pain from his arm. He let go of the branch and gripped the branch with his injured hand.

Ignoring the pain, Regis swung the branch towards the main body of the plant while channelling the EMP wave from his glove into the branch. The pulse travelled from the metallic branch into the metallic body of the plant. The only moving part, the gun shot a projectile at Regis, but was blocked by the shield. Regis continued channelling EMP pulses into the plant.

After a few, Regis could feel that the plant was reaching its limits.

"Regis dodge!" Regis heard a voice from his back. Sensing the urgency in the voice, he immediately jumped aside.

The Asceptus bot had sensed that the EMP pulses were about to destroy the internal circuits of the mechanical plant and immediately moved to tackle Regis. It did not want to give away its advantage, no matter how insignificant it was.

Regis did slide away, but his work was done.

The reflection of Regis' back magnified in the visor of the Asceptus bot before shrinking when Regis moved away, but the reflection clearly showed a chain that stayed in Regis' grip while his glove channeled another EMP wave into the chain.

Regis knew that his battle against the mechanical plant was finished, but the battle against the Asceptus bot was about to begin.