Out of Space

Chapter 158: How to kill a Hero

The radio squawked with yells of "Cobra down! Gold Five is down!" Flight Sergeant Stamford cursed as he stretched his head up, trying to see the action in the skies but the small opening in the canopy barely allowed him to see anything from the back of Blue Thunder.

"Damnit! They are getting hit hard up there!" Dek said as he looked up from the radio set. "What do we do now?"

"Pray..." Stamford whispered, "We can only pray for them to survive..."

-----

Uncharted Forest, Scorched Ground

"Light him up!" Lt Joesph yelled as he crouched next to a blackened piece of wood log. He had ordered Section One and Two to continue to head towards Rendevous Point Blue while Three and Four engaged the Hero hovering in the air, glowing with divine light.

The long RAATATATATATATAA burst of fire roared out from the sides and the Orc gunners braced their MG-1 against the fallen trees and fired in long controlled bursts. Bright tracers floated out towards the Hero, who raised his arm up, and a glowing shield appeared. The bullet impacts leaving behind sparks and red glowing molten lead on the shield's surface.

A WOOOOSSSSH screamed out from somewhere and the thermobaric rocket slammed into the back of the Hero. The thin wafers of fire runes at the nose of the rocket propelled grenade collapsed and sending a flaming spark into the explosive filler and ignited, throwing out a small cloud of hydrogen, fine aluminum and mana powder mixing into the air. In a split second, the second stage fuse ignited, the fuel air mix detonated, rising the immediate temperature to over 1.400 Degree Celcius, flash cooking the air. The sudden detonation caused a small vacuum in the atmosphere, and air rushed in to fill the void, causing a thunder crack and blast wave which radiated out in a small sphere.

The Hero screamed as the blast wave hammered him, his arched his back up, blood gushed out from his nose and ears, the bright red a startling contrast against his golden glow over his body. "I KILL YOU! I KILL YOOOOOUUU!"

His thunderous roar slammed into his surroundings, even over tens of meters away, the men on the ground screamed and yelled as the shock wave from his roar hammered into them, making their internal organs wobbled.

-----

Tyrier barely managed to defend against most of the shock wave made by the Hero due to his magic defenses, but he saw a couple of Marines rolling and moaning on the ash coated floor as they suffered some inner injuries.

"How do we farking kill that thing!" Tyrier yelled as he quickly cast a healing spell on the wounded Marines, "Minor Heal!"

"Grab that RPG-1!" Tyrier yelled at Hitsu who sat on the floor with a silly look on his face. "Wake the fark up!"

Hitsu coughed some specks of blood out into his hand and climbed to his feet unsteadily, groping around the fallen body of a Marine where an RPG-1 was strapped to his back. He unslung the rocket tube, giving the body of the Marine a pat on his part and flipped the sights open, and inserted the fire rune into place at the rear of the tube.

It was the first time Hitsu ever fired the RPG-1, in fact, the whole Claymore One team was not even trained on the weapon. It was introduced while they were still out on a mission at Falledge and during the trek home, the Marines helpfully taught them enough to operate and fire the rocket launcher.

He aimed the bazooka unsteadily at the rampaging Hero who was throwing sunbeams left and right, and squeezed the trigger, igniting the simple rocket motors, flinging the rocket out on its way to meet the Hero. Hitsu grinned weakly as he watched a small black explosive cloud blanketed the Hero and dropped the spent rocket tube down, before slipping into darkness.

-----

Flight Sergeant Legos twisted his fighter into a low swooping loop, and lowered the throttle, reducing speed as he lined up his gun sights for a fly pass. "GUNS! GUNS! GUNS!" He roared, his whole plane jerking as the dual 20 mm autocannon gun pods mounted under each wing blasted away, the spent cartridges almost twice the length of his forefinger got recycled into an ammunition hopper.

The bright tracers chased the Hero who raised his shield to block, and the view changed as Legos, yanked his stick up and to the side, pushing his throttle up, as he came out of the attack run, pulling away from the Hero. He looked up at the rear view mirror. keeping his eye on the enraged Hero and saw him starting to pulse brightly. "OH FARK!"

Legos yanked his stick to the left, forcing the agile plane into a barrel roll, as the Hero spat a beam of superheated light energy at him. He clenched his teeth and leg muscles hard, as the G force pressed down on him, barely dodging the Hero's attack.

"That was close!" Legos puffed out as his fighter lengthened the distance away from the Hero. "How tough is that asshole?"

"Gold Two to Gold Lead! Fuel is at 34% and dropping!" The radio crackled. Legos quickly glanced at his own fuel gauge and cursed. His fuel has hit 36% and they have to return if not, they will not have enough fuel to land.

"Gold Group! All birds to make one last attack run and regroup at sector four, niner, three, three, copy?" Legos read out the coordinates from the map on his left thigh.

"Roger, Gold Lead!"

"Lining up for attack run!"

Lego turned his plane back, seeing the sun reflecting off his other two wing mate fighters as they dived down one last time with guns blazing.

-----

Lt Joesph cursed as he heard the voice comms from the radioman. "Shit, the flyboys are out of fuel and will do a last attack before returning to base!"

He looked at the medics working on the gathered wounded laying low behind a cover of sloping terrain. "Sarge? How many still combat capable?"

His platoon Sergeant rubbed a smudge of blood off his nose and spat out a gobble of blood spit to the side and said, "Three, not including you and me and the two medics. But all have some form of injuries."

"Shit!" His first Marine command and he got half the platoon in the shits. "Stay and fight or run?"

"Sorry Sir, most of the wounded can't move," His platoon sergeant shook his head, "And I doubt we can outrun that bastard." Jerking his head towards the Hero fighting with the remnants of his men and Claymore One.

"Radioman!" Lt Joesph called out and reached out for the 'C' shaped receiver. "Eagle One to Thunderchief, come in over?"

With the destruction of the forest, several opening in the canopy had opened up, thus allowing some radio signals to get out and not long, HQ replied. "-derchief, send."

"Eagle One, taking heavy casualties! Requesting support, over!"

"-underch- stan- -y."

"Shit!" Lt Joesph tossed the receiver back to the radioman and looked out from cover the maddened Hero. "What does it takes to kill that son of a bitch?!"

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

Captain Blake faced turned darker and darker as he watched and listened to the reports coming in from the battle with the Hero. He looked up at the live streaming UAV video over the battlefield, seeing the eye-catching divine Eye of the Hero, brightly glaring at everyone beneath it.

"Captain! Eagle One requesting immediate support, they are reporting heavy casualties!" The communication officer reported from his station. "Orders?"

"Tell them to fall back if they can," Blake ordered. "What's the status of the Valkyries?"

"They are roughly 30 minutes out with 2nd Battalion, Eagle Company, platoon 2," Commander Ford replied from the tactical plot table. "Gold Group is disengaging from the Hero and is RTB (Return to Base).

"Hmmm... that's still too long," Blake replied. "Status of the main guns?"

Ford turned and looked at Blake with a surprised expression on his face. "Sir, I don't think that is a good idea. We can launch a missile strike instead."

"You saw what 20 mm and RPGs can do to that... thing!" Blake countered. "Now status?"

"As of last maintenance reports, Engineering and Armament cleared it for active duties," Ford replied as he pulled up the records. "It can be fired, but not advisable."

"Bring it up online," Blake said instead, "warn the city."

"Aye, aye Captain!" Ford replied reluctantly. "Weapons officer! Power up the main guns!"

"Aye! Powering main guns!" The weapons officer of the day yelled back excitedly. "Sounding main guns alert!"

-----

A sudden harsh blare rang out three times, signaling and warning the ship for the firing of the main guns. Gunners supposed to be on duty manning the main guns jerked up in shock as they heard the blare and the intercom rang out, "Prep the main guns! This is not a drill! Repeat this is not a drill!"

The gun captain yelled, "ON TO IT! MOVE MOVE!" He hustled the gun crew into action, and they dashed up from the ready room and into the main gun control room. "Check all systems!"

"Aye! Power systems are green!

"Reactor holding good!"

"Loader is green!"

"Targeting online!

The gun captain nodded as the reports came in, "Weapons! Gun One systems all green!"

-----

Out in the city, it was already late afternoon, and most of the inhabitants were preparing to wind down for the day. Children that had finished their afternoon classes were playing around the fountains and green parks when suddenly a siren rolled out. "Attention citizens, attention citizens! The main gun will be firing! All citizens are to take shelter and keep calm! Repeat the main gun will be firing! All citizens are to take shelter and keep calm!"

Police and security officers dashed around the streets warning the citizens to stay indoors and cover their ears as the public broadcast system continued to broadcast warning messages in both English and Common Tongue.

The citizens were confused and frightened but they followed the advice and warnings as best as they could, hunkering down under tables or beds and covering their ears as they wondered what is going on.

-----

"Captain, systems all green!" The weapons officer replied.

"Target! That... thing!" Blake ordered.

"Aye! Target locked on!"

Using the unique radiation given off by the Hero's powers, the UAV hovered above the battlefield helped triangulated targetting data back to UNS Singapore's fire control computers, measuring distance, wind, atmospheric density, pressure and projectile drop.

The servo motors of whined as the massive 108,000 kg main gun turret rotated, to face the direction of the target. A single rectangular railgun barrel hummed and tilted upwards as it aimed itself.

"Sir! Distance 527.8 kilometers away! Minimum impact from the planet's earth curvature and gravity!" The weapon officer reported.

"Do we have a clear line of fire to the target?" Ford asked.

"Negative! The mountains are blocking!" The weapons officer replied.

"Give me a double shot," Blake ordered, "Blow the mountain away for the second fire."

Ford looked at Blake in shock, "Are you sure?"

"Do it XO*!" Blake spoke sharply. (XO* - Executive Officer, 2nd in command)

"Aye Captain!" Ford sighed inwardly. "Prep Gun One for firing solution!"

"Prepping Gun One for firing solution!" The weapons officer intoned. "Gun One loaded and standing by!"

-----

The energy crystals harvested from the dead mutant silver dragon were refined into a stable form of a liquid which was stored into a battery like canister. The gunners in Gun One, rammed the canister into a converted generator which hungrily sucked the refined crystals into pure electrical energy, charging up the capacitors.

As the firing solution was calculated and keyed in, both gun turrets tilt up to the same elevation and hummed, waiting to be fired.

-----

"Captain... You sure about this?" Ford asked, "Blowing up a mountain... you might cause some irreversible ecological consequences..."

"Hell with that," Blake replied, shaking his head. "We need to stop that thing right now!"

"Fire the main guns!"