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Chapter 3: Inside the City
The golia eyed the soldiers from the far edge of the clearing. Its massive frame was white in colour, with long, thin features. It screamed an unworldly scream, and tried to force the people into submission.
“It must have been drawn here by the stench…” whispered Esker.
The creature sniffed the air, before taking a couple of cautious steps forward towards the nearest fallen stryder. It sniffed at the body, before picking the animal up in its jaws, and swallowing it whole. It then turned to the next stryder, swallowed it whole, then the next, and the next…
“It isn’t going to eat them all, is it?”
The creature snapped its head up, and stared at the source of the sound. In that moment, all the people froze, not daring to move an inch. The golia eyed them all, one by one. Some still in their skimmers, some standing by the wreck of 4-6, some just standing in space.
It snarled at them, and took one step forward…
“Can’t we do anything?” said Tyrell, staring out of the window from their vantage point.
“There aren’t any soldiers left in the city, all our forces are out there on the sandy plain we see before us.” replied Rooget.
“What about Fredericks’ army?”
“They still protect Lord Fredericks in the village of Elpis,” said Cruitin.
Get out of there Esker, thought Brava.
Back on the plain, the golia had resumed eating. The soldiers now slowly retreated to their skimmers, and climbed in for protection. Wilson took the injured man from the crumpled skimmer, and laid him in his own. He climbed in. There was just about enough room for the two of them. “Now what do we do?” He asked through the radio.
“I suppose all we can do is wait,” said Nestlis.
There was a roar of engines, and a flock of birds rose from the trees nearest the skimmers.
“I’ll be your decoy,” It was Tyrell from Golia 3-1. “I’ll distract him while you guys sneak past, and back into the city.” Without waiting for anyone to disagree, he accelerated towards the golia, instantly getting its attention. The creature roared, and gave chase. They headed towards the canopy of trees far west, and were gone within a few minutes. The other skimmers started up, and as quietly as they could, followed the wall northwards. No one wanted to mention Tyrell’s act of bravery, for fear of tempting the fate that might behold him.
Everyone’s thoughts were disrupted by another terrible scream, as the golia burst back through the underbrush and stampeded directly at the skimmers traversing the far end of the plain. Panic swept across the squadrons, and it was suddenly every man for himself. The group dispersed from one another. Some attacked the golia, some tried to escape by heading for the trees, and some still headed for the gate around the corner.
“Everyone try and keep calm! Panic will only lead to disaster!” exclaimed Wilson through the radio. Wilson was attacking the large beast, along with Nestlis, Esker, and various others. The golia was swiping at every skimmer in sight. 3-2 and 5-10 went flying, and landed in crumpled heaps.
Razor was speeding towards the canopy cover. He was closing rapidly on the green safe haven… ninety feet… eighty feet… seventy… sixty… he was almost there! The golia turned towards his skimmer, and unleashed a devastating plasma attack on the fleeing vehicle. Razor lost control, his skimmer skidding left and right before flipping over and over and over, before smashing into the bottom of one of the huge trees and exploding in a furious fireball.
All the others could do was watch in amazement. The golia charged down a few skimmers that were close, before turning and chasing after one that was speeding along the western wall of the city. It turned the corner connecting the western wall with the north-facing wall, and entered the city gates that were open ready for any escaping soldiers. The golia followed it.
“It’s inside the city!” yelled Niro.
Everyone was in a stunned silence.
The humungous creature was now enraged. It was attacking the helpless citizens, burning houses with its plasma attack, crushing anything it stepped on. The people could only run for their lives…
Outside the walls, there was a scene of absolute destruction. The once peaceful sandy clearing was now streaked with red stains of blood. There were thousands of charred stryder bodies on the ground, along with the crushed vehicles destroyed by the rampaging golia. The imprints of feet and caterpillar treads were everywhere. Fires still burned. The smell was rancid.
“It’s entered the city,” said Esker over the radio.
“How do we fight something so big in such cramped conditions?” questioned Wilson. They had to focus on saving the city now. There was nothing they could do for the soldiers in the burning skimmers. “We could try and trap it I suppose…”
“Trap it where though? There’s nowhere in the city you could trap a thing like that.”
“Maybe we could lure it outside…”
“And then what?” Said Vilmer, of 5-2.
“Golia’s can’t swim, if we could get it in the river we would be alright. But what could we do to tempt it into the water?” said Wilson.
“What about the bridge that joins the two sides of the city together? It’s big enough for the Golia. We could lure him on there, then blow the bridge up.” Suggested Esker.
“I’m not sure the city officials would like that… but yes that would do it… we still need something to lure him there with though…”
Esker thought. The bridge was massive, so size wasn’t a problem. Even thought the golia was huge, the bridge would definitely support it. There was a silence on the radio. Everyone must be thinking about what we can do to lure the creature on to the bridge. His mind flashed back to when the golia had burst into the clearing. He remembered feeling frightened and shocked, but also exhausted from the battle with the stryders before. Stupid stryders, he thought. If only the didn’t smell so bad, we wouldn’t have this problem in the first place…
“I’ve got it!” He yelled. “The stryders! They’re what attracted the golia to our location in the first place. If we take some of the bodies and dump them on the bridge, the creature will follow the scent!”
Out of one side of the Observation Tower, there was the battlefield. If the people in the Tower had been watching out this side of the wooden structure, they would have seen the soldiers furiously lifting the already decaying stryder bodies onto the back of their transports. But everyone was facing out the opposite side, watching the golia’s rampage with horror.
The Observation Tower was the single tall building in the middle of the holy district of Natalis. It rose one hundred feet into the air, and provided a lofty vantage point to look over the city. It was furnished with wooden tables and chairs, and an immaculate chandelier hung from the ceiling. Each wall had large glass windows, and these were the windows everyone was looking through now. General Rooget had departed to see to his returning troops. Only the two Lords and Cruitin were in the Tower now.
The group watched with intent, then: “What the heck?” Cruitin watched as a line of skimmers entered their vision. Each had a couple of stryders on their engines, and they were heading for the centre of the city, where the bridge reached over the river, connecting the two shores. The external walls extended inside the city, bordering the sides of the river to prevent flooding.
The group could see the golia turn its head towards the direction of the smell. It was far away though, so the soldiers had plenty of time to execute their plan. Slowly, it started to traverse the streets towards the centre of the city.
Upon arriving at the bridge, the onlookers watched as the pilot of each skimmer exited their vehicle and removed the dead animals from its engines. When all the cargo had been dismounted, there was a rather large pile on the bridge. The skimmer squadron’s negotiated past the pile and onto the other side. They didn’t want to be in the way when the creature arrived.
“It seems they are setting a trap Lord Tyrell! How ingenious!” Remarked Niro.
“They lure the creature to the centre of the city, then what? I hope they have thought the plan out a lot more than what is apparent at the moment.”
“Let them finish let them finish Tyrell, they might have something they have yet to do.”
“Well I hope they do,” said Cruitin “because that creature is getting closer…”
Esker ran around the back of his skimmer, wiped stryder blood off the storage compartment hatch, and flipped it open. Inside there was a flashlight, a first aid kit, rope, a raincloth, a portable stove, a rifle….
And two packs of explosives.
“Right everyone, how many explosives do we have?” After a quick count, there were thirty-seven packs. “Half of you go to the other end of the bridge and attach your explosives to the bridge. MOVE.”
The group split in two, one half running towards the far end of the bridge. Esker ran as hard as he could, holding his breath as he passed the stryder pile. He stopped at the other end. He walked over to the edge of the bridge, and peered over. The running water was a relaxing sound, but now was not the time to relax. Esker took the rope off of his shoulder and tied one end around the explosives. He then lowered it over the edge where the monster wouldn’t disturb it. He tied the other end to the bridge support and sprinted back, the golia’s footsteps sounding in his ears.
The creature came into view a few seconds later, while Esker and a few others were only halfway across the massive bridge. It emitted an ear-piercing scream and stampeded the humans.
“Holy shit…” Esker managed to whisper under his breath, before turning and bolting for the opposite end of the bridge.
At the other end Wilson was trying to keep the others calm: “Don’t use your detonators yet, wait till everyone is safely back across…”
Esker reached the other side, and ran to where the others were standing. They were clear of the blast zone now. The last man joined them, and Wilson gave the order to detonate the explosives. The soldiers with radio transmitters used them, and both ends of the bridges exploded, rocking the beast that screamed at the sparks around it. In terror, it turned around and tried to escape the way it had come, but the bridge creaked, and fell away from under it’s feet as it tried to do so. There was one last roar, and the city was silent once again.