The Guard

Friday Night, stayed at home, room was warm.

Setting

Medieval style society.  All the buildings are circular and topped with domes.  The city is centralized around a giant circular courtyard that is at the edge of a cliff where water pours off the edge. The cliff is actually a giant floating rock.  Circular courtyard has many levels, like an amphitheater but each level is big enough for 5-6 people to walk on side by side.  There are small tents and shops and in the center is a big fountain.  At the top level are doors that lead into the city, the city is inside for the most part. The city is mainly composed of stone(limestone, or marble.) It's pale and glows in the sun. The rooftops are oxidized copper, and there are gold designs etched into the stone itself. All the hallways are circular in nature, like scales coming from a central source.  Inside it's dark but quietly lit with torches that are not made of fire.  They glow on their own.  A lot of the doors are made of glass, or a combinations of wood and glass.  Outside the City there are streets, more people live out here, it's a quiet village type feel. Grass all around, and a light breeze.  Roads lead out to smaller villages and towns.  

One village had a central hub that functions as a religious/medical area.  Also seems like an Inn?  People can come be treated for their ailments by "nuns".  They are all very nice and pleasant.

Story

I am a guard in the city.  A King's guard I think, or just a royal guard. I'm high enough up the ladder to garner respect, but it's respect that is easily given. My armor is sleek but still has a "knight in shining armor" feel to it.  It's very ornate but has a lot of  power behind it.  I think it's gold, or a silver gold. My main weapon is a sword, but I have others on my person.  One day there is a small "seed" like thing found in the castle, it's about the size of a lemon, smooth, and shaped like a pebble, it's light green and seems to almost beat like a heart, like it's alive.  Our scientists take it to run experiments, they find out that it seems to be some type of living creature, it grows and consumes meat.  They destroy it for the greater good as they dont know what it is.  Soon there are more found throughout the city, people bring them in, there have been reported injuries from handling them or trying to catch them as they seem to grow into small creatures that are carnivorous.

Soon we find larger "pods" shaped like dark rotting pomegranates.  They have a gas that slowly spews out of them from a slit at the top. We crack them open to find them full of the smaller "seed" type creatures and when probed they quickly try to escape.  We make an effort to capture as many of them as possible.  We crack them open and destroy the insides.  We find the best technique to be either fire or ice.  We have devices that attach to our arms, when we move our hands the right way flames spew from the end of it.  We have a similar device that spews Ice.  When sprayed the seeds scream and change but ultimately die.

Later we our sensors detect incoming objects from space.  We bring it up on our display and it shows this massive army of alien creatures.  The "seeds" were just the scouts, and the army is now here.   They have giant 50-100 foot long "wyrms" that are plant based.  They have spikes and chains on them, and we cant tell if they are a creature or a machine.  There are also giant mechanized almost humanoid shaped machines.  They are a bight golden-orange color, they are the size of 3 men and could easily take out our own mechs.  There are hundreds of them where as we only have 4 or 5.  And finally there are the motherships that are the size of our city.  They hail us asking if we are ready for a fight, they ask us about our numbers, and we are not sure what to say.  We boast saying we have many more in reserve, but the mothership does not care.  In response to our bluff they send down many more mechs than we can handle.  We quickly sound the alarm to evacuate the city.  The ships and mechs, and wyrms land in the circular courtyard and begin attacking.  Civilians are directs to leave the city and move to the nearest villages and towns that are not affected.  We demand that any civilian with room in their vehicle must take as many passengers as safely possible to a safe place.  It's almost a kind of "Taxi" system.

I am in the courtyard and I scream at my comrades on the mounted guns to first take out the Wyrm.  It's huge and can easily destroy our mechs and men which we need if we are to have a chance.  I tell them to only shoot it and ignore anything else.  But we are already being overwealmed.  I run to help my friends who are busy fighting an enemy mech.  We are getting slaughtered, the mechs are too powerful and seem to feel no pain despite seeming organic.  I then hear a high pitched scream, a child has wandered into the courtyard after getting lost. The mech I am fighting turns around and sees her, it goes after her, she runs back into the door she came from.  I run after the mech.  Inside I throw some type of small sticky grenade at the mech and it stops and turns it's attention to me.  The girl tries many doors but they are all either locked or head into dead end storage rooms.  

I fight the mech by myself.  It's 3 times my size but it's slightly damaged from the fight outside.  I fight it but I'm losing, it can easily pick me up and throw me across the room.  I slash at it with my sword, and make dents in it's armor, I just need to get past the outer shell. As I'm fighting I can feel my ribs breaking and my bones fracturing.  But I am slowing it down. The girl runs down a hallway screaming, I know it's the wrong hallway and that it leads to the childrens nursery area. The mech runs after her again and I throw a device at it.  The device starts out as a ball but when thrown it turns into a rope.  The rope wraps around the mechs legs and it falls to the ground.  I tie off the rope and run after the girl, I dont have much time, I know the rope will break soon.  I grab the girl and I tell her she's running the wrong way, that it's scary but I need her to run down the other hallway, I point to the direction.  She needs to run past the mech to get there but the mech cant reach her right now.  She cries and says she cant do it, that it's too scary.  Just then I hear the rope snapping.  I toss the girl to the side, into the direction I need her to run all the while screaming at her to run.

My armor is all but scraps on me now, my sword is chipped and my helmet is gone.  I'm bloody, my knees(now exposed) are gored and dripping with blood, my hip is shattered.  My breath is ragged and I can feel my broken ribs moving inside me.  As the mech breaks free I am lucky in that it's legs are still tied.  I lure it back towards me.  I slowly back up in the hallway towards where the childrens nursery is.  I dont know if anyone is inside it still but the lights are on and books are open and toys are strewn around.  The Mech limps after me and I limp away from it.  The girl is still too scared to leave, I am screaming at her all the time telling her to go but she stays still watching me, crying.  The mech makes a lunge at me but the girl throws a book at it.  Just as it gets distracted I take my chance, a last ditch effort.  I have two daggers at my sides, I pull them out and stab at the creatures back, I pin it into the ground with the daggers and begin tearing at a chink in it's armor.  I break off a chunk of it's shell, and in a berserk rage I keep tearing and pulling with my bear hands.  I pull out it's insides, it's wires, it's what seems to be organic flesh.  I keep digging and digging until the machine gives it's last death wail and dies.

The girl runs over to me and helps me up.  I tell her we need to get her somewhere safe, that i need to go to a hospital because I'm no good as I am and I think my ribs are broken.  She helps me hobble out the correct way.  I can hear the battle and death wails of my friends echoing in the empty halls.  We finally reach the outer rim of the city and exit.  We sit on the bench where the designated "civilian taxi" pick up is and wait for a ride.  I decide that we need to get her to a safe town, even though the hospital in the city would be more qualified to treat me, her safety comes first.  

Soon a taxi pulls up and we get in, no one knows who I am because I lack my armor, I'm covered in sweat and blood and barely recognizable. We are taken to the quiet town outside the city with the small hospital/religious center.  I have been there before and hope that the "nuns" will remember me.  We walk in and are greeted by a "Nun" she recognizes me and I tell her I need to have medical attention.  She brings me and the girl into one of their exam rooms and she's strangely terse with me.  She seems to have no compassion anymore.  She looks at me and tells me I'm fine, I tell her to please look me over because I know my ribs are broken and that I must have fractures.  She is rude and tells me that if I had a broken rib I would surely know about it.  Another "nun" comes in and takes the little girl away, offering her a bed and bath and a warm meal. I let her leave thinking she is safe.  Still the "nun" helping me is rude.  She tells me that if I really think I need it I should wait with the others that think they are hurt until it's my turn.  

She brings me to a door in the back when the door opens this dark miasma flows out of it.  The room seems to be filled with a greyish blue smoke.  She ushers me in and I see hundreds of people sitting at rows and rows of tables.  They look lifeless.  The "nun" shuts the door and tells me to have a great stay, and just as she leaves I see past the illusion, I see her possessed by some kind of plant creature, and I turn and see others that are sitting are having their life drained by the smoke. 

 And just as the closes the door I wake up.