Hammers

Slowly, he trudged along, his once sturdy legs now replaced by mechanical limbs.  Each step producing that familiar screech of grinding gears and clank of steel stepping on dirt and cement. He was flanked by two comrades just like him and their group was just one of three squads in formation, watching his group’s sides as they move from house to house to clear the remaining Allied Rangers garrisoned in this village.

From the distance, he could hear the sound of Heavy Shotgun fire and the shouts of the Steel Fist Officer assigned to their unit barking out orders in their radio to flush out the Rangers. Give or take a few more hours, the village would be theirs.

From his left he heard a closer shout from his comrade, as soon as he heard this, the roar of a heavy machine gun followed. He turned to see his comrade pointing the business end of his weapon at a small cottage, bullet holes immediately dotted its wall. He pointed his own shotgun at the cottage and began to pump hot lead as he started to move towards the house.  Upon reaching the cottage door, he gave the order to cease fire. 

With his mechanical arm, he forced the door open to find the slumped body of a single man, wearing green fatigues and the familiar dark wet stain on his chest.  All this effort for just one man? 

Suddenly, he heard a very loud thud from behind, he turned as fast as his Steel Guard frame could allow to see a heavily armored man rising about ten yards from their position. From his back are the familiar wings of the Allied Heavy Rangers. This man carried no guns, just a pair of red mechanical hands.  This man also does not wear a helmet, and one of his eyes was covered by a black patch.  The functional eye looked grim and filled with hate. 

A second later, three more men landed near the first.  They wore similar armor and also carried the same mechanical hands as the first.  Tails of smoke followed them as they landed to show that they also came from the sky.  Only then did he realize that all these happened so quickly that his other comrades were just turning to see who made all the noise. 

Before he could shout, the four men leapt at the Steel Guards nearest to them.  Their mechanical hands punching through the thick metal shell to neutralize the Steel Guard.  After the initial shock, the Steel guards began to retaliate, shooting at the intruders using everything they had.  However, the intruders were too fast, leaping from here to there and to the next Steel Guard and onto the next, always leaving a battered heap in their wake.  

He gave an order to rally to him, and his comrades began to move in formation towards his position.  Just as he thought they would turn things around, he felt a strong crash from his right. He was on the ground laying on his left and he could feel something heavy preventing him from getting up.  He tried to move his mechanical arms but he heard the crunching sound of his arms being ripped from his shell’s torso.  He saw large metal fingers peek out from his frame’s eye hole and suddenly he saw the bright daylight.  The intruder ripped the top from his frame!

With squinted eyes, he saw that the man on top of him was the one with the eyepatch, he could swear that this man’s single eye was almost colored red.  In one fluid motion, the intruder aimed a mechanical right fist towards him, he felt a numbing thud at his cheekbones and he knew nothing more.