Krishna was silent for a long moment, his hidden face looking at the image of the strange, underground tremor. He saw the pattern. The world had changed. They couldn't be a secret forever. He knew what path the story had to take.
"We accept," Krishna said, his voice firm. The others looked at him in surprise. He turned to face Agent Rao. "We will accept your partnership and take this mission. But on our own terms."
Agent Rao raised an eyebrow. "Which are?"
"We maintain our own command structure," Krishna stated, his authority absolute. "I lead my team. We are your partners, not your soldiers. We will take missions that we believe are for the greater good, but we will not be your personal army. Do we have a deal on those terms?"
Agent Rao looked at the young man in the dark blue command suit. She saw not arrogance, but an unshakeable sense of duty and leadership. She smiled, a small, professional smile. "Deal," she said. "Welcome to the program, Panch Shakti."
"We're detecting rhythmic, deep-earth tremors and a massive energy signature from a remote valley in the Western Ghats," she had explained. "But our satellite imaging is being scrambled. There's some kind of active cloaking technology at play, hiding the source from our data. We need eyes on the ground. Your mission is to go in, identify the source, and report back."
Next days, they were there. They had left their jeep miles behind and hiked into the deep, uncharted jungle. The forest was unnaturally silent. The only sound was a rhythmic, pulsing THUMP-THUMP... THUMP-THUMP... that grew louder with every step. It sounded mechanical, like a giant engine struggling to start, deep beneath the earth.
They finally arrived at the valley. Resting in the middle of a massive crater of its own making was the machine. It was colossal, a humanoid weapon made of a sleek, matte black alloy, its surface shimmering with a faint cloaking field. This was no ancient relic; it was a ghost of secret, cutting-edge technology.
As they got closer, their presence triggered the machine's final activation sequence. The cloaking field deactivated. The machine rose to its full, towering height. Its single, large optic sensor, previously dark, powered on, glowing with a malevolent red light. It had identified them as a threat. Without warning, a high-energy particle beam shot from its eye, vaporizing the ground where they had been standing just a second before.
"SCATTER!" Krishna's voice commanded.
The battle had begun. This was their first time fighting as a full team against a massive, high-tech threat.
"Judith, keep its attention! Draw its fire, but stay mobile!" Krishna ordered.
Rosy let out a warrior's yell. "On it! Hey, tin can! Over here!" She began to run circles around the giant machine, her saffron-red armor a blur. The machine's red eye tracked her, firing powerful energy beams that exploded against the ground behind her.
"Pritha, the alloy! See if you can slow it down!" Krishna commanded.
Gunjan ran towards the machine's massive leg. She touched the strange, matte black metal, and her entire indigo suit took on its properties, becoming a sleek, dark black. She began to climb, trying to disrupt the joints.
"Anura, I need answers! What is this thing?" Krishna asked.
"I'm trying!" Simran replied, her mind racing. "The firewalls are military-grade! I can't find a schematic! But I've found a weakness! There's a primary power conduit running up its back, near the left shoulder. The shielding is damaged there!"
"Pritha, get to that shoulder!" Krishna commanded. "Judith, when I give the signal, I need you to take out its leg!"
The team moved as one. Gunjan began to climb towards the shoulder. Rosy braced herself, her muscles tense. Krishna took aim with his sidearm. Before the mission, Anura had given him a second magazine. "The rubber bullets are for people, Krishna," she had said. "This is for machines. Armor-piercing rounds. Just in case."
The machine, ignoring the tiny figure on its leg, focused on Judith, raising a giant hand for a crushing blow.
"Rukhsar, now!" Krishna yelled.
Mahira, who had been moving silently through the chaos, used her agility to run up a fallen tree and leap onto the machine's shoulder, prying at the plating near its head and drawing its attention upwards. It worked. The machine paused its attack on Judith, trying to swipe Mahira off its shoulder.
"NOW, JUDITH!" Krishna roared.
Rosy unleashed her full power. She slammed her entire body into the machine's knee joint with the force of a freight train. There was a deafening shriek of tortured metal, and the colossal machine buckled, its leg bending at an unnatural angle. It stumbled, crashing to one knee.
"Pritha, now!"
Gunjan, who had reached the warped panel, used her own metal-infused strength to tear it open, revealing the glowing red power conduit beneath. "It's exposed!" she yelled. "But the inner shielding is too strong!"
"Everyone, focus fire on that conduit!" Krishna ordered.
The four girls aimed their hands. Four beams of pure, colored energy shot out and converged on the single, vulnerable point. The shielding flared, but it held. Their energy blasts weren't enough.
Krishna saw it. Their attacks were failing. He made a hard choice. He ejected the clip of rubber bullets from his pistol and, with a sharp click, slammed in the magazine of real bullets.
He took a steady, two-handed grip. "Keep firing!" he commanded.
As the four beams of energy held the shield at its breaking point, Krishna took aim. He didn't fire at the conduit itself. He fired at the emitters that were projecting the shield. One shot. A second shot. A third. The armor-piercing rounds slammed into the delicate machinery.
There was a shower of sparks, and the shield flickered and died.
"NOW!" he yelled.
Without the shield, their combined energy beams struck the conduit directly. It exploded in a blinding flash of light. The giant machine shuddered violently. Its red eye flickered and went dark. With a final, deafening groan of dying metal, the Earth-Breaker collapsed, crashing to the ground, silent and inert.
Panch Shakti had defeated the machine.
They stood in the silence of the valley, breathing heavily, their suits battered but intact. They had done it. They had won.
Moments later, the sound of quiet, advanced helicopters filled the air. Agent Rao and a team of scientists emerged, their faces a mask of awe as they looked at the colossal, fallen machine.
While Anura went to help the scientists, pointing out the advanced technology and the strange power source, Agent Rao approached Krishna. She stood before the five of them, her expression one of deep respect.
"You didn't just investigate. You neutralized a threat that could have leveled a city. You have exceeded all expectations." She gave a small, genuine smile. "As of now, your headquarters... its location is classified at the highest level. No one will ever find it. You have earned our trust, Leader."
The partnership was solidified.
[To be continued…]
Support me: vanshbosssrahate@oksbi (UPI ID)
Author: Vansh Rahate
Editor: Vansh Rahate
Story by: Vansh Rahate
Under: Alaukika Studios