Lost the Battle

Pete fired a few shots at the giant hand as he backed away from it.

"PETE! It's not an enemy. It helped me fight them."

He looked at Anna and then back at the robot. His jaw seemed to stutter but he said nothing.

"My Moon. Good news. Observe." The digital voice said over a speaker. The mech pointed at the sky.

"They're leaving!" Pete cried out.

While Pete was staring amazed at the sky, Anna was taking in the look of the mech for the first time since the transformation.

The outer armor was in shreds. A lot of inner workings were exposed. The mech was looking right at her. The way that the head armor was shredded open and exposed almost gave the mech the look of a wolf, aside from multiple eye sensors that gave it a slightly alien feel. One large shard was pointed down as if it were the snout with smaller jagged shards that could be teeth. Two other shards were bent and pointed up, representing the ears. The normally bulbous armor on the forearms and shins were sheered open from the inside, looking like wild hair tufts. The hands had pointed claws as the armor was completely missing.

Anna felt as if she were looking at a giant metal upright wolf. A werewolf. As she observed more details, the mech tilted its head at her.

"The enemy is retreating. Is this, your doing?"

Anna turned to see the general. She saluted and he nodded.

"Yes, Sir! Well, it was mostly the A.I. in this mech that did it. I just happened to commandeer an enemy robot that had a unique transformation."

"I see. I've gotten some communications from other parts of the world as well that say the enemy is also fleeing. Is this also your doing or…"

"That was my doing," Answered the Mech. "I sent a message that might fool them-em for a while. More than likely, they will return within a few months' time. During that time, I can help you improve your technology and reinforce your defenses and weaponry against the invaders."

A large group of soldiers and civilians were emerging from a massive freight elevator that came up from below. Anna eyed every passenger exiting the elevator, hoping that there was some slim chance that someone she knew survived.

The mech scanned the crowd and then looked back at where Anna's father's house was.

"None of the individuals you are searching for survived, My Moon." The mech placed an open palm to its chest as if to be cordial in some fashion.

"Moon. Why does it call you that?" The general asked.

"I don't know. And I don't want to be here right now." Anna was having difficulty holding it together when the stupid machine could just callously shoot down her hopes. It was as if it knew what she was hoping for and wanted to put her down.

"No, My Moon. I did-didn't mean to off-offend, I-"

The general snapped his fingers and an aide in a military uniform approached from behind.

"Assign her a room below."

"Sir." She responded. But before she could take Anna away, the general grabbed her collar and pulled her close to whisper.

"As soon as she is settled below, take this hunk of metal below on the freight elevator and see what makes it tick."

"Sir? It's too big. The elevator would collapse."

"Take it apart up here and send it down in pieces. I don't care how you do it." He snarled.

"Sir." The woman sighed.

Anna was escorted below through a smaller elevator off to the side of the main freight elevator. As workers began to attempt to take the machine apart it almost seemed to whimper before its shape began to change. The howl of wolves could be heard from miles around as it reverted back to its original broken and beaten shape. From that point on. It refused to communicate or move.

The General's aide had her palm on Anna's back until she entered her new living quarters. Once she stepped in, the aide politely excused herself. The door automatically shut behind her. Anna walked toward the twin-sized bed. She pulled her father's medal out of her pocket and looked at it. A tear landed on it, clearing away some of the ash on the surface.

"Dad..."

The sorrow that she held back finally erupted. She fell to her knees and landed face-first onto the bed. Her hands pounded the mattress a few times before her legs were pulled up onto the bed with the rest of her as she cried herself to sleep.

While the mech was seemingly asleep with workers futilely pounding and cutting away at the surface, the A.I. was gathering more information on the front lines. It managed to find a way to connect to the battleship that remained just outside the Earth's atmosphere. A few connections and a live feed later, the Adjutant in charge of the ship came into view. He was scolding a few subordinates in an alien language. The aliens were all wearing dark grey suits.

"Why did you recall the entire offensive force over a single message from an unknown source?"

"It wasn't unknown, sir. It-"

"WASN'T UNKNOWN? The frequency of the message was from another adjutant IN A DIFFERENT GALAXY! How would he have any intel on our current resource capture?"

"I don't know, s-" *BLAM*

The subordinate was shot at point-blank range.

"You," The adjutant pointed at the third alien that was a part of the confidential conversation. "Bring the ENTIRE fleet and all of the forces that left BACK here... Understand?" That final word was deep and menacing. The alien shook his head "no" and started to back away.

"...Wh- .... why did you shake your head? Do you understand or not?"

"Yes, sir! I understand." Still shaking his head no.

"Wha... You nod your head up and down for "yes." Shaking your head side to side means "no." OKAY?!"

The alien continued to shake his head from side to side. The adjutant just sat there and stared at the lackey as he continued to quietly back away out of the room.

"Idiots." He yelled as he threw something at the closed door. "Why am I always stuck with the idiots from that planet? We could have conquered my homeworld but, NOOO... Why is this light on?" He started playing with a console near where the camera feed was recording from. "Turn... TURN OFF!"

The camera went blank. For the A.I., that was only a small sample of the information collected.