"It's my fault for you having such bad schemes and equipment. The personnel and understanding of tactics exist among your men." Astral looked directly out to the sky in front of him. "On top of the poor materials you have, can you even afford new things?" Astral jabbed back as he looked around. The rest waited for him with baited breath.
"Weapons, armor, and a high class pilot are coming to help us soon enough. What I am more focused on you doing is getting that city out of their hands." The voice beckoned with him. "We can't lose it again after what happened the first time. Too many lives were lost trying to hold it. I'd prefer to not make that mistake again." His voice dropped low. "You plan to use the communications tower to shut off every robot in the city."
Astral paused as he turned and faced the robot he had holding the metal table from earlier. "I've been working on creating a frequency that shuts off every robot of its class and type. The difference is, the robots that are modified we still need to take out the old fashioned way. That's where step two comes in."
"Luring the robots into the most remote sector of the city. Positioning the members of various fireteams to have them shoot fish in a barrel. And after, take their metal alloy and study it for various uses and applications." Astral's smile was hidden as the voice rattled off the rest of the plan to him. "I didn't have the access to the city like you do, nor the ability to walk through the robots like you have."
"That's a practiced skill. Now if I don't get moving soon, their circuits are going to send off a radar ping for a non robotic squad to check in on them. Once that happens, this charade becomes a ruse and we are in a worse position than we were." Astral turned to the doorway as he summoned cables all around him. Plugging into the robots joints and frame, connecting the wires to the metallic table it still held. "You there, unscrew that lightbulb up there." Astral pointed to the man with the beard as he climbed onto the robot and disconnected the lightbulb.
Dropping it onto the ground it shattered as Astral lifted wires up to him. "They will automatically fill into the socket, just hold it there for a moment." Astral pulled up a side monitor on his gauntlet as he looked at it. 'Power system online. Wavelength ready to operate.' He dropped his wrist as the man hopped off the robot.
"This is the thing that will shut off the robot?" He asked as Astral read his dog tags. 'Captain Phillips' The man stood straight up as backed away from the robot.
"If I did everything correctly I should be able to remotely activate a radio wave that will shut off all these types of robots. It being their standard model helps us due to their number made and how many they deploy. The different models will still be unaffected. But, if we take a more concentrated form of this wavelength. We have ourselves an EMP that will work against all of them." Astral motioned them to the door. "Captain, take your squad to sector nine C. It overlooks the robots and you will be able to watch the show." Astral chuckled as he walked out the door.
The rest followed him as he began to jog to their ambush location. He raised his left wrist and began to give commands to have select fireteams at angles that would reduce collateral damage to the environment and buildings around them. 'Ordinance strikes would be an amazing thing to have at this moment.' Astral oversaw the crater where the destruction would take place. A horde of robots stood still, swiveling from left to right as they awaited a new direct order. Astral crouched down as he zoomed in on their different specifications. So much variety in such sleek designs. Most of them were rectangular in their chest chassis. Their arms were slim and sleek with emblems and decorations for their specific needs and roles. All of them held different weaponry, an assortment of rifles, pistols, and sub machine guns.
'Are you sure you want to take them out yourself, show your strength to us?' Sienna popped up in his face as he kept his eyes on the robots. Astral lifted his left wrist as he typed a few things on it. Two drones popped off from his shoulders as they hovered over him. 'It's not a message, it's a show. Impressive Astral, what's your motive?'
Astral stood straight up as he slowly slid down to the basin to face off against the robots. "To induce fear into their leader." He walked forward as the robots turned to him in the masses. Astral paused as he raised his arms and clenched his fists. "Uryadine Dynamics, you have tried to stranglehold too many galaxies, too many people, too many monopolies. You remember better than I two thousand years ago of the legend that happened and the war that lasted a month of constant battle." Astral lowered his left arm as he kept his right up and pointed at the robot mass in front of him. "You should be as dead as I. Yet here we are to face each other once again." 'Execute takedown.' Astral lowered his right arm with an open hand.
The radio frequency started up as select robots collapsed while the others looked around as Astral's smile hid beneath his helmet. "As for the man behind it all. You are no hero. Neither am I, we are subjugated to our own views. Neither of us will endure the other. You will learn the full wrath of mine, too many lives were lost in the past." Astral summoned Muramasa into his right hand as the camera's recorded it all. 'Send the video directly to their headquarters. For now we have our own show to perform.' He rushed forward at the first robot as they all aimed at where he was. His first slash went clean through the robot as he grabbed its arm to examine while standing on top of a second.
"All squads in the area are authorized to fire with prejudice. You will not harm Astral, he is far too fast and defended for our rounds and rifles to penetrate." Sienna announced as all the fireteams looked at the crater. Astral jumped up fifteen feet as he pulled his scythe out and landed on the ground, ripping a circle of robots to shreds as each squad opened fire into the crater.
Astral's cameras hovered above the battlefield as it was being broadcast all across the solar system. He smiled as he saw the amount of views they were having. These people need hope of a storm to approach. He went back to his sword as he unleashed a flurry of slashes at all the robots next to him. They collapsed as their metallic shells crumpled into chunks. Astral looked around as very few were left. He pointed his left arm out as his magnum appeared, he opened fire as his bullets shredded through their cores. They collapsed as each of them exploded.
In a high rise office a fist became clenched. Slamming down on their desk he yelled. "This is unfair. Call back all our forces across the galaxies we need to counter harder than he can answer. He doesn't have his army behind him." He clapped. Robots ran around the room as they exited. "Grand Admiral Isaac, you can play equal to all of them. Make this fight ours, not theirs." He put his hands together as his hair was all silver with two streaks of black. His silver coat shined as he leaned back in his red velvet chair. "We will see who wins."
Astral waived everyone down from their spots as the camera's reattached themselves to his armor. "Well done. I have tally counts for who destroyed the most robots. Those mighty few get to join my side are." Astral looked at the list of candidates, some people didn't fire a single round. His head dipped as he saw very lackluster performances from all but three. "Captain Phillips, Private Jenkins and Sergeant Geff. You three will join me on our next stop." The three stood in silence as Astral motioned them to step forward.
"I have done what you asked me for, their sizes and specialties for armor and weapons are on your display Astral." Sienna giggled as the AI sat on his shoulder. Astral raised a fist to it as it bumped it with its own.
'Using my suits hardlight to make yourself a real thing and not just a hologram, you are heavily integrated in my systems like they are yours.' Astral scoffed. He looked up and saw a shuttle. "Sienna, what is our next destination?"
"A mining facility near the center of the planet's largest and most unoccupied continent. Delta wants to take it back due to the revenue stream it will open back up for us. Mainly our financial benefactor wants it back to make more money for funding." Sienna smiled as she stood up. "The shuttle will bring you to the staging area where you will meet the only mercenary willing to aid our cause." Astral looked over to her in confusion. "As for the rest of you. Head to the dedicated gates of the city and keep your eyes open to any invasion force. Their numbers will be less than last time. The theory is to preoccupy them with Astral." She bobbed up and down as the shuttle landed and the forces outside of the three dissipated.
"We get to follow a legend in battle? This feels rare." Private Jenkins squeaked out as the other two boarded the shuttle. Astral waved him in with his hand as he jogged onto the shuttle. It lifted off and glided through the sky for a few minutes before softly landing at their meetup spot.
Astral opened a small white portal and pulled out three small boxes with his magic. He looked at the names and hovered them in front of the three of them. "These are the highest grade of armor and weapons I have to offer, the top of the industry, could be out of standard production at this point. It has built in shielding to slow down ballistics and warding off energy attacks. They will overload from time to time, take cover if that happens. These are best for all around combat. As for the weapons, the standard fully automatic slasher pistol. These are highly modifiable and modular. Their ammo is also very flexible, eventually I will have to introduce you to the different elemental rounds and attachments."
The three were in awe as they unpacked them all. Looking at each and every piece of equipment and armor piece. "Each of you also have a different main weapon. Phillips, you have a rifle based off my personal design, a semi automatic with options for burst fire. With it being just as customizable and having a flexibility for scope zooms and accuracy. Jenkins, you have our standard rifle. Very vanilla, but with the sixty round mags and your slower reload time. It allows you to be both accurate and dangerous while modifying it to your wants and practices."
"Lastly I have my favorite shotgun model for you Geff, three modes are togglable. Explosive for breaching, slug for long distance accuracy, and dragon fire, if you really want to end the guy, his cover, and the other three dudes behind him." The three all looked at them as the door to the shuttle was ripped off as a tall chocolate woman stood there.
"Are you going to keep me waiting here all day?" She yelled as Astral turned and looked at her.