Xenogears Episode 5: Lost Tale
A bead of red streaked sweat dripped off the tip of a combat knife; held reversed grip by a woman in Kislev B.D.U. She was breathing silently, resisting her lungs and body's demands for her to gasp for oxygen. Three sharls down the hall lay three Kislev bodies, and the five Aveh soldiers that fell with them. A distant whir of engine and approaching footsteps were all that could be heard from the dark nook that the Kislev private hid in. This mission just went from bad to worse, and achieving the objective would be a show of true skill.
-Earlier-
"Yume is here to replace Ericks, who will be out of battle for a few weeks. The gear's cockpit held up reasonably well and the burns should heal." A man with captain insignia's paced the briefing room's North wall. "Yume, I'm sorry to tell you, but you're going right into an assault. Vanderkraum, the bumbling fool, has left a ship behind to pursue an assault on one of our forces. The force has begun retreating..." He motioned to a map set up with current troop positions and began to move that force's piece.
"Nice to meet you Yume" a man known as Red nodded to her. The four people who made up her platoon were crammed into one gear's cockpit. It was the 'Skull' as the squad called it. It earned the name from the skeletal faceplate that makes it look like a skull resides inside the helmet. The rest of it looks like a stocky, thickly armored samurai, complete with a sword, the only glitch being the sub-machine gun. Three other platoons in similar fashion were in a splash formation approaching the speck of a sand cruiser.
lt;"The four platoons will fight their way to the cruiser and damage the exterior as best they can, first making a hole in the hull that the four troops of the 'toon can use to escape into. Once the gear is heavily damaged retreat into the ship and either take it over, or destroy it."
"Got something on short-range... visual contact" anxiety was slathered in the voice of the pilot. All around them stretched the desert, and over a dune came two Aveh gears; they looked like dusty iron stoves with legs and a cheap knight's helm. "Hold tight."
Two allied gears cut in front of Yume's, rifles blazing.
lt;"The loss of this cruiser is imperitive and will be a great victory for us. This could be our only chance to catch one alone, lets not pass it up neh"
Three more Aveh gears of the same kind had launched through another dune, while the first two were easily dispatched; the three the arrived put up a reasonable fight.
Bullets streaked past the cameras, and the left shoulder on B 'toon, Yume's 'toon, got thrashed. Better than C though, they went down in a ball of flame when the coolant system got holed.
The gears entered firing range and launched their single missile- pods. All three making the entrances, they then opened fire on the ship itself. All turrets turned to the small force and loosed their volley.
lt;The reason we're only sending gears is that this is Vanderkraum. His greatest fault is his ceaseless relying on heavy naval weaponry. The likes of which can be dodged with some skill, the pilots of the four gears are all well trained...
A flaming round caught D's gear in its left leg, taking the whole thing off. The giant soldier slid down onto his left side, and entered its first roll when a second round from the cannons landed on its back.
Yume didn't have time to look out for others though, the left screen cracked, and a section blew apart. A well-aimed bullet round nearly killed them all; the machinegun was just emptied out on its third turret. Two gears had also been disabled; Red was good. In light of the new barrage he jumped the gear into the air, dropped the gun, and drew the high-density blade at his left hip. The safety clips snapped off, and the sword rose above Yume's gear.
The sharp material suddenly got rather blunt, after burying itself half way into a trooper. The cockpit was at least ruined, another disabled to add to tally. Yume caught sight of D 'toon's broken gear, the left leg missing from the knee down. The back was blasted and frayed like it had been made of paper, and the entire chest cavity was empty.
'A' leapt from the other side of the cruiser, tracer bullets streaking down to claim another turret; 2 remained, not including the big gun.
Two tracers collided with A on its decent; a dozen new shell holes scarred its armor. Red maneuvered the gear around to the firing trooper's blind spot; the warning system probably beeped twice by the time the blade severed the head and right arm. It fell, also disabled.
Everyone jerked left against the inertial stabilizer, as the gear itself rocketed right much faster. A shell blasted where had used to be, the skull slid past 4 broken turrets. Another shell, this time from the 'big gun' landed just short of B skull's feet, launching the gear into the air. One thing the stabilizers weren't good with was unexpected changes in velocity; i.e. getting launched at double its max ground speed into the air. Bron slammed head first into the right screen, shattering it, but no shards fell. That left the damaged left, and decent fore, rear, and upper screens.
Bron rubbed his throbbing head while Red made a quick move to avoid a fatal turret blast. He managed to direct the falling skull onto the surface of the cruiser. To her left Yume saw through broken glass, A 'toon's gear get blasted apart at their entrance to the cruiser. Who knows if they made it...
"Its too dangerous now" Red yelled, three bullets punctuating it on their back. The gear slid over two-dozen sharls of cruiser before reaching the hole made by 'D'. The cockpit opened, and all four soldiers jumped into the gaping armor. They rounded a corner, then darted through a door, bullets chirping on the door behind them while it closed. A bloody line formed on Bron's arm, a shot had scraped him.
Their gear went critical on the other side, an explosion ripped through the room behind them. Yume's eyes shut tight as the ship rocked.
"Okay" Red began"that should ensure no one gets behind us... the generator is seventy five sharls ahead." The other two walked off with him, out of the tiny hall and into what looked like a lounge. Yume shook her head clear and jogged after them.
Just as she crossed the threshold into it Bron yelled out, bloody streaks jetting from his back. Three Aveh soldiers were in the adjacent hall, and got the jump on their B platoon. Yume couldn't move, Bron's blood spattered everywhere; it was too much. His dead body propelled against a wall by the bullets kinetic force, Yume's eyes had gone wide. Red and Giel dove to the hall, knocking Yume back into it. They retrieved their side arms from their holsters, and pressed against the wall. Shaking her head Yume followed suite and crouched down at the corner itself. She blocked out thought, reacting by instinct and training. If her mind were to think about what she was doing...
"Slowly..." one of the soldiers muttered just audibly"we're on even terms now."
Her pupils shrank, and her eyes darted in their direction. Even this Yume thought, twisting around the corner and loosing three rounds; one quick-draw on a soldier, a second better-aimed one, and then a last shot at a second soldier.
Her semi-auto had four shots left, and two clips in her side satchel. A body hit the floor, another person fell partially, probably on one knee or all fours.
"Damn" a second voice shouted, darting toward 'B' 'toon's position. The first speaker moaned and coughed sharply. The last of the three turned the corner and got two bullets out before Yume and Red downed him, three shots, one of them from Yume.
Three. Giel slumped over Yume, blood flowing down her right forearm. A shot had gone clear through his skull, the other had either missed, or been lodged in his chest.
Red jumped the corner and snap-shot the man Yume had wounded. She stepped out cautiously and saw he had been lung shot earlier, and the last one caught his throat. The other man was in a bloody pool.
Two more soldiers in Corporal attire rounded the corner and hefted their machine guns. Red shot once and his pistol clicked empty; Yume fired her three and spun around the nearest corner; directly across from the hall they came from. She kept her eyes on Red though; his leg was soaked crimson... The second shot hadn't hit Giel; it hit Red!
A body thumped on the ground at the same moment bloody mist shot out of Red's back, accompanied by two tracers. Red fell back, and the Corporal advanced; Yume blocked everything out. Her eyes closed tight, she held her breath despite how much she needed it, and ignored the engine noise.
Then she heard it, one footfall, then another; a new clip snapped into her pistol. The red streaked barrel pointed out from the corner at the third footstep. -Just one sharl off- The gun flared and a bullet fired.
"Urp" A body fell, his eyes wide but vacant... Yume ran to Red's side. He was heart shot, lung shot, kidney, liver, everything! But his eyes moved and focused on Yume, and a slight smile crossed his face. His brown hair turned red, and badly shaved face spattered in blood. He started mouthing something to her...
"Mission." She knew what he meant and nodded. Distant steps could be heard as his eyes began to glaze"Go." His eyes went wide and his face pale. Yume stole a look towards the steps while opening his satchel. Two clips and an explosive charge, she snatched his brass and tags, then made off down the hall she had just hidden in.
The blue steel reached on ten sharls, a door at the end, two turns on the way. She took the first one, on the right; its door was already opened and dark.
Immediately she crashed into a row of shelves, and turned around, the steps were getting too close to go back out. Yume crouched and holstered her sidearm, silent is always better. Two sets of footfalls came from the lounge, another one from the hall she was in. The Kislev private silently slid a combat knife from her left thigh, Giel's blood and her own sweat intermingling on it.
A foot half-stepped in front of the doorway. The guard took another step, midway across the doorway. He was in private colors, and slouched over forward; alert. Yume stood and took a single step forward, her knife coming down into his throat, and out the back of his spine. The guard soundlessly fell back, his nerves cut off, and throat cut he couldn't do much of anything.
Another footstep sounded at the corner of the lounge, so Yume pulled the body into the closet with her. She set it down and waited.
"Rick" The guard called into the vacant hall. All he could hear was a slight 'shick' of the knife sheathing before a pistol and head appeared around the corner of the storage closet. Two shots later he fell, first in his skull, the other a lung shot.
"Son of" The last one started, he turned the corner as well to meet two bullets, lung and weak heart wounds "a... ... bitch..." He too fell, Yume turned to get to the door at the end of the hall.
Chapter 2. Survival
Yume was crouched in the doorway outside the engine room. Two rounds remained in her semi-auto, and the knife was chipped in one place. She had sneaked this far, having to dispatch two guards on the way that were in the wrong place at the right time. The door opened as she moved close, Yume darted in and surveyed the area.
A catwalk went three sharls from the door, to a circular catwalk around a large computer system attached to a section of engine system. The engine was a five-sharl drop from the catwalk, and took up the entire floor of the circular room, and was probably 12 sharls in diameter. The computer system reached up from directly in the middle of it, the system also had a second walkway with more machinery and screens. Guards were making their round, three of them, two on the bottom and one below; their rounds appeared simple though, the upper tier's man circled the catwalk, the others stood by the main terminal. One mechanic was going around making sure it was in working order.
Crap, crap, crap! I only have two shots in the gun; the last guard will hear it for sure...
Yume dodged back into the hall before the two guards facing her turned back.I need something to get the jump on them... but what could I use Something gleamed down the hall, near a bloody mark on the wall. Curiously she made her way over, it was the casing for the round she had to use to drop a guard. A distraction. She twisted back with a smirk crossing her lips.
Feather light footsteps crossed the hall, Yume running half crouched.
Okay, just distract them with this... sneak up, stab them, then get rid of the other two. Stab them... just that... simple... Yume fell to her knees. What have they done though... yes they're from Aveh, but should that really condemn them so easily? They might torture puppies for fun, but I don't know that, they could be good people.
Wait... what about everyone at home, if I don't defend them; if we lose this war they'll all be killed. I can't let it happen.