The next day. Captain Cecil and his enforcer convoy were making their way towards the West Camp. Julio was still unconscious. He was kept in one of the trailers pulled by a large vehicle.
Razor and the flying teams had recharged the weapons on their wingsuits and had returned to the surface in search of Cecil’s convoy of vehicles. It did not take them long to find their tracks. A few hours later, they could see the convoy of vehicles in the distant.
‘This is it,’ said Razor through his headset to the flying teams. ‘Attack at will. Finish the lot off.’
All of them opened fire on the convoy.
‘Our rear is under attack!’ screamed a senior enforcer into the radio.
‘Put on your helmets and fight back then!’ shouted Cecil, who was in a vehicle close to the front of the convoy. ‘These are terrorists. Show no mercy!’
The infrared goggles in the helmets worked well. The flying teams were clearly visible.
To Razor’s shock, the convoy opened fire with accuracy, hitting several of the flying team.
‘They can see us! They can see us!’ shouted Razor. ‘You must be evasive.’
The flying teams reduced their rate of fire and focused on evading shots fired from the convoy of vehicles.
‘Focus, aim, and hit them,’ instructed Cecil as he watched the flying teams above him through his goggles. ‘We have far more firepower than them.’
The flying teams did a great job of dodging the shots from the convoy while maintaining their attack. Several of the vehicles in the convoy were destroyed.
‘Keep on them,’ called out Razor. ‘We can destroy all of them.’
Some of the larger vehicles fired rockets into the air that exploded into fragments. The fragments were almost impossible for the flying teams to dodge. This caused many of them to lose control and crash to the ground.
Cecil watched in delight as the flyers began to drop from the sky.
Razor nosedived towards one of the larger vehicles that was firing rockets. He fired rapidly at it. At the last second, he changed direction and soared back into the sky. Then he nosedived towards it again. This time he sufficiently damaged it to disable its firepower.
‘This is how we beat them,’ shouted Razor. ‘If we stop the big ones, we win.’
Razor continued to attack the larger vehicles. At the same time, more and more of his flyers were being shot down.
‘This lot are mad,’ chuckled Cecil into his radio. ‘They actually want to die.’
Razor swooped down again, destroying another of the larger vehicles. When he soared back up into the air, he realised only a couple of his flyers remained. He looked down on the ground where most of the flyers lay injured or dead. He was about to nosedive again when one of his wings was blown off his suit. This caused him to lose control. He tried to steady himself, but he was hit again. He came crashing down to the ground hard.
A few seconds later, the final members of his team crashed to the ground.
‘Cease firing!’ called out Cecil.
Everything became quiet. The enforcers scanned the air above them, but there were no flyers to be seen.
‘Check the bodies of the fallen terrorists,’ said Cecil. ‘Kill anyone who isn’t dead.’
Some of the smaller vehicles pulled out from the convoy and headed towards the fallen flyers. Cecil climbed out of a vehicle, and several enforcers followed him.
One by one, they checked the flyers. Through his goggles, Cecil saw one of them crawling away from him. He stepped over him and shot him in the back.
Razor rolled onto his back. He saw an enforcer approaching him. He opened fire and shot him with his laser. Other enforcers opened fire and shot Razor several times, leaving him for dead.
Cecil’s enforcers continued checking all of them and did not stop until they felt confident they were all dead.
Cecil returned to the vehicle to radio Miro. Miro picked up immediately. ‘We’ve been attacked by a group of flying terrorists, Grand Vizier,’ said Cecil. ‘I can gladly say with the help of your helmets, they have been eliminated.’
‘A definite case of overconfidence,’ replied Miro. ‘Well done in your victory.’
‘They fought with the mad bloodlust that you would expect from filthy terrorists,’ chuckled Cecil. ‘We’ve just made the world a better place.’
‘I want you to take their technology,’ said Miro. ‘I’m sure our skilled technicians can replicate it.’
‘No problem,’ replied Cecil.
‘After that, continue your journey to the West Camp,’ said Miro. ‘We have no time to waste.’
After taking several of the most intact winged outfits, the convoy of vehicles left. Razor remained lying on his back. Several minutes after the convoy of vehicles had left, Razor began to stir slightly, and then his eyes opened.
Meanwhile, in the West Tribes’ main underground city, Flint and his convoy of vehicles had just returned. Flint had been detained and had not been allowed to communicate with anyone outside of the convoy. On arrival, he was released.
Flint stormed into Shamia’s office. Shamia was sitting behind her desk working on her computer.
‘You had no right to betray our allies,’ said Flint angrily as he marched over to Shamia’s desk.
‘Relax, everything turned out fine,’ said Shamia as she looked up from her computer screen.
‘What do you mean?’ demanded Flint. ‘We left them to die.’
‘Don’t be silly, they won,’ chuckled Shamia.
‘Really,’ replied Flint, sounding surprised.
‘A glorious victory,’ said Shamia. ‘Orcilla and Demadrian are heroic leaders.’
‘So, they just called you up and told you this,’ said Flint. ‘And they’re cool that we bailed on them.’
‘Frank amazingly came to our rescue,’ said Shamia. ‘He saved the day again.’
‘So, now what?’ asked Flint in a more relaxed tone.
‘I’ve sent out a group of technicians to fix our power supply,’ said Shamia. ‘Soon everything will be back to normal. Well, not quite. They burnt down Frank’s theatre.’
‘When you say “they”, you mean the Empire,’ said Flint, sounding more concerned again.
‘Just a small dispute,’ said Shamia, nodding her head. ‘Everything is fine with them too.’
‘You’re playing a dangerous game,’ said Flint as he turned to leave. ‘We need to pick a side and stay with them. Your next flip flop could be our last.’
‘A little gratitude would be appreciated,’ said Shamia, shaking her head. ‘I may have saved your life and your relationship with your brother.’
Flint ignored her. Once he left the office, he walked to the edge of the balcony. He looked down at the technicians who were rehearsing for the evening’s performance. He was looking for Frank.
Meanwhile, in the West Camp. Orcilla and Volo were in the communications room. They were trying to contact Angelo and Razor again, but they were still not having any success.
‘This is deeply concerning,’ said Orcilla.
Volo frowned and nodded.
‘I think we need to take to the air again,’ said Orcilla. ‘Cecil’s convoy is out there, and it could be heading this way.’
Volo nodded again and patted Orcilla on the shoulder.
Orcilla and Volo left the communications room. They approached the Hat Lady, who was sitting at a table inside the lunch tent with Freddy, Aganon Jr, RJ, and Octavius.
‘This is the amazing Aganon Jr.,’ said the Hat Lady. ‘He’s going to play us one of his favourite tunes.’
‘No, sorry, we don’t have time,’ replied Orcilla. ‘We’re heading out on a reconnaissance mission to try and locate Cecil’s convoy of vehicles. Right now I fear the worst.’
‘Still no contact with them?’ asked the Hat Lady.
‘I’m afraid not,’ said Orcilla. ‘We need answers.’
‘Aganon Jr. and I will head to the communications room to maintain contact with you,’ said the Hat Lady.
‘Appreciated,’ replied Orcilla as she and Volo left the tent.
A short distance outside the camp, Demadrian was spending time with the Sentray. He wanted to take over leadership from Octavius.
Demadrian had shapeshifted into a Sentray. He was smaller than a full-grown Sentray but just as powerful and even more agile.
The Sentray were initially unresponsive to Demadrian. To get their attention, Demadrian leapt onto the back of a larger Sentray. The Sentray was annoyed and tried to shake him off. Demadrian bit into the back of his neck. The Sentray screeched in pain and frantically jumped around trying to shake him off. Demadrian refused to loosen his grip. The other Sentray watched.
The Sentray roared furiously as blood rolled down his neck. Demadrian grabbed the front of the Sentray’s neck with his claws. He drove them in as hard as he could, causing blood to flow down the front of the Sentray’s neck and onto the Sentray’s front legs.
Demadrian released his bite while continuing to dig his claws into the Sentray’s neck. Demadrian roared ferociously. The Sentray dropped down onto his stomach groaning in pain.
Demadrian jumped off the Sentray. He roared ferociously at the other Sentray. Most of them backed away from him. Another large Sentray did not move. Demadrian charged at this Sentray. The Sentray reached down to bite Demadrian, but he slid between the Sentray’s legs, slicing his underside. The Sentray roared in pain. Demadrian broke three of his claws in doing so.
Demadrian partially shapeshifted back into his Linap form. He held up his hands, and the Sentray watched his claws repair themselves before their eyes. Then Demadrian fully shapeshifted into his Sentray form.
The two injured Sentray bowed before Demadrian. The other Sentray followed their lead. Demadrian looked at Ducky. She turned away from him and walked back towards the West Camp. Demadrian sprinted into an open area. The Sentray ran after him. It appeared he had managed to win them over.
Within an hour, Orcilla and Volo spotted Cecil’s convoy ahead of them.
‘There are a lot of them,’ said Orcilla to Volo. ‘They also appear to have taken some damage.’
Using the infrared goggles, the senior enforcer in the lead vehicle spotted Orcilla and Volo.
‘We’ve spotted two more flyers; shall we shoot them down?’ the senior enforcer asked Cecil.
‘Only engage if they attack first,’ replied Cecil.
Orcilla radioed back to the West Camp. ‘Cecil’s convoy is on its way,’ she told the Hat Lady. ‘They should reach you in about two hours.’
‘We’ll be prepared,’ said the Hat Lady.
Orcilla and Volo turned around and headed back to the West Camp.
Sapien Loop: Worlds Collide is the final book in the Sapien Loop trilogy. It continues directly after the events of the second book. The world above and the world below merge into one world. The conflicts in the underground world are brought to the surface. The new ruling elite attempt to crush any resistance from above and below in an attempt to create a new global empire.
Currently, three books from the series have been published on Amazon; see the links below:
All individual chapters can be found on my account.