Chapter 4

Master...our enemy is here…

The voice woke Santiago, he silently cursed his body for its limited strength and functionality always requiring naps every few hours.

He used the suit’s eyes instead of his limited sense abilities to find the enemy, there were dozens. Most were small but the ones that lead them were larger and stronger and could deliver a more catastrophic impact with its seed cannon which they used to shell the city. Not far from himself he saw as one of the majestic towering skyscrapers suddenly collapsed in on itself.

Santiago remolded the figure of his tree into that of a cannon using its rooted limbs as a support, the cannon itself took the form of a two long rails. Between the two rails gravitational forces were distorted using telekinetic manipulation to propel fist sized balls of rolled up Black Tail chains. Taking quick aim the first round was sent flying breaking the sound barrier at the start whistling to its target at a speed far too quick for the target to dodge. Before it struck the ball uncurled and surrounded the area of its target catching it in a sort of web, what followed, however, was not an attack of capture. The chain, once entangled with its target, turned its sharp ends towards its victim and moved with great violence shredding through the soft bark and the strange sinew underneath.

The shredded victim was reduced to finger size debris and whatever spire seeds it had begun to nurture were engulfed by the chain in a protective ball. Once the target was reduced the chain would fall to the ground and begin making its way back to Santiago.

It would be more effective and accurate to shut hit them with a kinetic round but powering the railgun took too much energy. The shredding round would secure more spire seeds to power the cannon and since the tails could be separated into segments meaning that he could shoot more than just three balls. As each tail returned it added its captured seeds to his canopy and placed itself in a ready position to be fired again.

Far off in the distance a massive tree carrier approached, Santiago turned his cannon towards it trying to take out the reformed seed cannons the carrier was using as thrusters by burning out the seeds in place. The chains dug deep but couldn’t take out the thrusters before it managed to loom over the city. When he finally hit one of the thrusters it threw the carrier off balance, it didn’t recover quickly enough and slammed into one of the larger skyscrapers.

There were more carriers on their way and as Santiago continued to attempt to bring them down submerged trees ruptured out of the water all along the coast. They unleashed dozens of saplings each and there were hundreds.

The raid was so sudden that a small force of saplings had managed to grab a foothold on the harbor and some of them were already at the naval base taking out its defenses. The garrisoned division and the two Notorio companies were busy helping the civilians evacuate leaving the naval base underpowered even with all its gun turrets and cannons.

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The gathered elders had stepped out in time to see the massive black tree of the mysterious Fortino clansman remold its top half into that of a cannon. As soon as the two poles formed that composed the gravitational railgun it fired round after sound shattering round.

Elder Trent and Rumor headed for the gardens that contained their own rooted suits, their own suits were no bigger than twenty feet. Each elder thereafter headed towards their own posts to fight the enemy.

“We are too separated from our company,” elder Trent said looking at the tactical display before him inside his tree.

“Lets let them fight as they will,” elder Rumor suggested. “We wont make it across the city to them, for now lets stick with the big black one and see what we can do.”

The elders headed towards the armory to grab 50mm cannons loaded with incendiary rounds which while it took several rounds to kill a tree the rounds were quite effective regardless. Sometimes the trees would die from the fire effects of the rounds long before the bullets hit anything critical.

When the finally reached the outer gardens that lead to the gate, the gardens in which the black tree had taken root, the could already see many of the towers up in smoke and many of the man defenses gored. Saplings were already making their way over the walls killing whatever soldiers stood in their way. While not widely armed nor incredibly armored a tree will only go down when its consciousness core is destroyed and they can heal just about any would as long as they have access to some good dirt to consume.

The black tree had stopped firing and started to remorph taking the basic biped form as it pulled its roots out of the soil and recalled all the chains it had fired. When the transformation was complete both of the elders were shocked with awe, the tree was grand, even more so now that it was standing.

Three tendrils flowed around the giant, two of which took the form of sword and shield. It joined the fray moving quite nimbly for one so big easily catching each of his prey by surprise.

The saplings rallied under the command of a tree much like the elders’, twenty feet in height and greying. This tree regathered his scattered kin and began to mount an effective counterattack against the giant black tree. While they were only managing to keep him unbalanced this could be the end of his if the saplings managed to cripple a single leg. Both elders decided to join that fight and opened fire on the saplings going for the legs giving the large tree time to regain his footing before turning their guns towards the one who had rallied the trees.

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“Keep them occupied,” Santiago commanded of his suit as he took several steps back from the main fighting and started to gather two basic elements from the air around him, oxygen and hydrogen.

The suit changed the tails back to their tail form and hacked and slashed at any enemy that approached as his master prepared his attack. He had one arm lifted, it was where the sphere of condensed air was being forged. When it reached an appropriate condensed size it moved towards the canopy and floated there as another sphere began to form. The process repeated itself many times until the canopy was at maximum capacity.

The gathering had taken less than five minutes, but in those five minutes the saplings had overwhelmed most of the remaining defenders of the base. The two elders had been forced back and were now fighting from a bunker that forced the saplings to enter through a choke point.

While they could not capture their main target, kept at bay by the powerful Black Tails, the trees were feeling elated that the conquest of the city was going well. There might not even be a need for the main force to arrive, or so they thought. Then the fires began. One right after the other explosions started going off right inside the canopy of the trees around Santiago as he unleashed the hellfire balls of hydrogen and oxygen. The blasts would destroy their canopies and set them aflame with the intense heat, panicked and blinded by the pain and loss of their senses, the canopy is a large cluster of nerves and it is through them that they “see”, the burning trees would run around wildly setting other things on fire including their own brethren. Since they were unable to connect to the great network of theirs with the loss of their canopy their brethren would turn on them as they would attempt to pacify their burning brother which usually resulted in getting themselves set on fire in turn. Their nerves contain a viscous liquid that, if exposed to fire, can be set aflame and turning off that fire would not be easy since the same liquid would feed the fire as it also contained oxygen.

The fire would spread far too quickly for the tree to survive and even if it did it would not be able to heal with the loss of its canopy it too lost the ability to change its shape and thus deprived of the ability to take root. For those trees that survived the fire, their consciousness cores unmarred by the flame, they would later die of malnutrition. The weakness their nerves present is also the main reason most weapons are designed to cause fire damage, while the fires would be easier to survive if caused by a bullet wound having their canopy split open practically made them mobile torches.

The commanding tree watched in horror as his saplings were lost to fire, his last thoughts were of revenge before several explosions rocked his canopy, the excruciation pain dropped him to his knees. Another series of explosions ripped through his much denser and sturdier canopy setting him aflame.

The fighting died down in the harbors three hours after it had started, the black tree had paved a way of fire as it made its way from the naval base back due east across the harbor to destroy the enemy foothold. Elders Rumor and Trent could only follow behind him with what remained of the forces in the naval base mopping up the enemy.

Before entering the fight at the foothold the black tree had taken root and shelled the enemy defensive position with its powerful gravitational cannon. Holes were torn open all throughout the defensive structures erected by the enemy and shrapnel rained down on them from the kinetic impacts. To keep them off balance Santiago fired anything and everything at them in quick machinegun succession. Even with his tails returning with captured spire seeds he was quickly burning through his reserves. When he was down to five percent in reserves he morphed back and charged in.

The shellshocked trees crumbled under the onslaught as Santiago was now aided by the two elders and nearly three hundred soldiers. They quickly carved out the enemy position eliminating the last of their presence at the harbor. The spire seeds were all donated to Santiago giving him back another ten percent which was less than a fifth of what he had started the fight with. The rest of the space on his canopy he filled with hydrogen oxygen spheres.

“Brother Fortino,” elder Rumor had called out to Santiago once the enemy position had been conquered. “We must help the city. Will you lend us your strength again?”

“We cannot win,” Santiago stated. “Not with our current strength. We may take the city, but I can feel that this is just an advanced party.”

“Indeed,” elder Rumor nodded his head solemnly, the motion translated through his own tree. “The main forces number at least twenty thousand more.”

“For now we must free what remains of the forces inside the city and retreat,” Santiago said turning his tree so that his vision pointed to where he believed the city’s defenders were fighting for their own survival.

The elder appeared to want to protest the decision but held his tongue, even he knew that Santiago spoke the truth, there was not saving the city. Elder Trent who had been silently listening bowed his head.

“Do not fret,” Santiago said. “Gran Domingo has a long history of warfare, it has suffered worse, it has been left in ruins and rubble, but here it has remained and survived. It will be reconquered and it will be rebuilt. Now lets help our brothers.”

While the elders still did not know the identity of this powerful clansman they had grown to trust him completely in the past three hours of hard fighting. He fought at the front, he used no one as a shield and never asked for cover, he was a true war hero to them. His judgement was sound and his battlesense was extraordinary. He had moved like death and fought with a heart of cold steel towards his enemy.

With Santiago at the lead they marched towards the enemy.

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Master...your body...it cannot handle anymore stress...please rest. Allow me to take over…

The voice had been but a whisper as Santiago had joined the fray again aiding elder Trent’s pinned down company. They had taken the enemy by surprise breaking the enemy encirclement and scattering them. The fight broke down into a brawl as the company charged out of its position to help destroy the enemy.

Santiago had begun to lag in battle, his mind constantly threatened to be consumed by darkness. All those around him had seen it happen, the great black tree was starting to lose strength, it became unbalanced. It started to lose its ferocity and was slowly being overwhelmed.

Master...sleep...for the sake of your body…

His senses were so dulled that the voice this time did not even register. His strength was slipping now and as if his body and mind had had enough he collapsed. The falling of the giant black tree drew the silence of both enemy and ally alike.

Allow me...to preserve us....

The servant tree unwrapped his nerves from around his master and generated a stasis field, it was weak but it would protect him from harm and allow his body the needed rest to restore himself.

Sapling trees encircled the fallen giant, the servant tree could feel them, they prepared to break apart the great tree.

Forgive me father...we must live…