Authors Note: Well, this is it! I've finally finished my first Fanfiction! I hope you enjoy and please share advice/criticism in the reviews. I may write more of this piece in the future if it gets enough interest, but for now I'll be focusing on my other fanfiction in the making. Let me know what you think and whether I should continue. Arigato, and until next time, Glückauf Kameraden!
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Finally, A Death Prevented
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Week 37
Novan Royal Castle, Throne Room
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"Elodie, No!" Joslyn yelled.
"I wouldn't have made a very good Queen anyway. At least like this I can defend my domain." Elodie replied with remorse. "So don't be sad for me. I'll be with Mom again soon." She added with tears welling up in her eyes.
"Come with me. I will teach you what you need to know." Selene said gently.
The two of them walked gracefully but sadly through the hallways. As Elodie strode through the hallowed rooms full of royal decoration and history, she took a moment to recollect her own experiences. Since her mom's death and her sudden appropriation of power, she had made some very questionable decisions. Marrying Talarist, the Duke of Sedna, at such a young age had raised the eyebrows of many. Executing the woman who admitted to attempted murder of a nobel, while technically legal, definitely increased her reputation for shedding blood. Then there was the fateful choice of using Elodie's magic to sink the Shanjian fleet, which resulted in the awakening of the Kraken. The very Kraken she was about to sacrifice herself to.
Still, there were some bright spots for sure. Her recognition of Lucille's Lumen powers and her subsequent appointment as a Lumen minister was a high mark, as well as the clever compromise that put the young Adair into the care of his stepsister Adele without antagonizing Arisse, the Duchess of Lillah. Not to mention her rather skillful handling of the Ixion crisis, despite the incredibly disrespectful stance she took to achieve that result.
And then there was the blood that was shed. The incineration of Kevan, Earl of Lo, was certainly not something Elodie enjoyed taking part in. The incident involving the crazy Lumen wasn't a pleasant affair either. Even though she had taken every measure possible to avoid such unpleasant business, quite a bit more blood was spilled in the past year than Elodie would have liked.
It was almost a relief to know that now, everything will end, and she wouldn't have to make decisions ever again.
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Out To Sea, 4 Days later
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Out to sea, amidst the tumbling waves, a storm enveloped the sky. Dark clouds, howling winds, and shrieking lightning streaked across the sky in beautiful but terrifying patterns. This was not a normal storm of nature, however. There was no preparation nor any determined movement. The clouds simply swirled around an epicenter in an increasingly powerful fashion. A whining sound, almost like a sonic boom, emanated from the epicenter. Then the storm vanished. Within seconds, there was nothing in the great blue sky except for a lone black object streaking across the horizon. You could say that for the natives of the region, it was an unidentified flying object.
As the craft streaked across the horizon, leaving a smoke trail in its wake, a small argument was taking place at the helm. Lieutenant John "Big Sky" Carrock, the pilot of the plane, was engaged in a minor argument with Captain Ramiro Lozano. The Dominican Captain was a high ranking medical officer, who also held the distinction of being XCOM's most experienced infantry officer. John, or Big Sky as everyone calls him, has been operating the skyranger ever since the XCOM project was activated. He pilots this hypersonic transport across the globe several times a week dropping the soldiers of XCOM into hazardous combat zones and other sites. While the desk jockeys back at base joke about him being an over glorified bus driver, no one else would dare to suggest someone else who could handle the stress (at least well enough for them to trust him).
"Mighty fine mess you got us into, Big Sky, piloting straight through a fucken hurricane. This is the third time you've driven us through a storm this month!" Ramiro started out. Despite being a medical officer by training, Ramiro's voice could easily command the respect and attention of those around him. The 6 foot three inch islander with dark brown hair was well liked among XCOM. Brutally honest, diligent, yet relaxed off-duty, there were few people who could deny he was the best medical officer in the unit.
"If I were you, I would shut my mouth and sit down. I've been doing this every week for three years and I haven't had an accident yet. I'm not about to let some big shot infantry captain cause my first." Big Sky responded as he gave the skyranger a gentle turn to the left. Very few people at XCOM knew what Big Sky actually looked like, since he was in his piloting suit so often, but his short, lean frame left much to the imagination.
"Well, at least I'm..." Ramiro went to say before something caught his eye. "Big Sky, do you see that on your 3?"
"No, but I can swing her over to take a look. It's not like we're going to run out of gas anytime soon." He responded as he put the airplane into a sharp right turn.
"Man, I hate it when you do that." Ramiro grumbled before peering out of the left side viewport. He tried squinted before grabbing a pair of binoculars to take a closer look.
"What do we have, Captain?"
"You aren't going to believe me, but it looks like some sort of tentacle monster coming out of the ocean. Wait... hold on." He said as he strained his eyes even more. "HOLY CRAP! IT'S HOLDING A LITTLE TEENAGE GIRL!"
"Haha, good one. Now you're just trying to fuck with me." Big Sky said rather cynically before getting a punch to the head.
"I ain't shittin you. Get this bucket of bolts on target for that thing now. I need to get the boys and girls in the back suited up for some hostage rescue work." He said before turning to the rear of the craft.
"Wait, you weren't joking!?" Big Sky exclaimed before getting a door shut in his face. Working quickly, he lowered the altitude of the craft and put it right on target for the creature. The closer he got to the destination, the more he believed that whatever Ramiro said was true.
Meanwhile, in the rear of the craft, Ramiro stepped into a game of cards. Stepping right in-between the contestants, he pulled the attention of everyone in the back to him. "Alright ladies, playtime's over. We got an unexpected hostage situation involving some weird E.T. and a teenage girl. I want everyone suited in Archangel and prepared for a textbook hostage rescue." He said with his trademark authoritarian voice. He glanced over to the Japanese Engineer first. "Nori, I want battle-scanners and alien grenades. This could get messy." He said as she slapped some of the green baseball-sized devices to her belt. "Dominika, better grab your shotgun. I have a feeling you'll need it." he said before her brown head disappeared into the craft's onboard armory.
Turning to their Iranian gunner, who was already decked out with his Novagun and archangel flight system, he smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Thatta boy Payam." Glancing behind him, he frowned when he saw their French MEC grabbing a railgun from the rack. "No heavy armaments for you Jules, but make sure to pick up a flamethrower and a Kinetic Strike Module. And speaking of which..." he started before gesturing to their Polish sniper. "Roksana, I want you to get into Aurora Armor. You and your sniper rifle will hitch a ride on Jules." he stated. "Hmph" she replied before reaching for the suit on the craft. As for Ramiro himself, he did without his Stormgun and instead grabbed an Adrenalin needle, the respiratory mask, and healing mist from his medkit.
As Big Sky brought the Skyranger over the Kraken and lowered the ramp, four figures jumped out and activated their jetpacks. As puffs of neon blue smoke curled and raced towards the tentacle monstrosity, a much larger object dropped from the Skyranger. It accelerated toward the ground before activating its own set of propulsion systems. Soon it was skidding very close to the water with the other jetpacked soldiers.
Dominika was the first to dive in. She pointed herself straight at the creature and kicked the thrusters on her jetpack. The Kraken noticed her attack fun and brought one of its tentacles up to swat her away. Just as the tentacle halted upright, a slug made of steel and alien alloys flied towards the target, shredding the tentacle and tearing it in half. Dominika utilized the recoil of the weapon and pulled up with it to both change her direction and maintain her momentum. In an expert act of aerial professionalism, she came around for another run in less than four seconds.
As Dominika dodges swipes and takes out more tentacles, Jules slowly evens himself out and stops the MEC's forward motion. Jules effectively becomes a floating platform for Roksana, who sits her rifle on his shoulder. She focuses on the tentacle holding Elodie in the air, and when she's sure that Elodie is as high above the water as possible, she fires a single shot at the tentacle. The bolt of superheated plasma incinerates the tentacle at it's halfway point, causing the top half to give way and fall to the ocean.
As it slowly loses life, the falling tentacle relaxes its grip and releases Elodie as she gracefully tumbles towards the water. Before she can hit the water, Ramiro swings in and scoops her out of the air. Elodie is light enough for Ramiro to hold her "princess" style while gunning it for the Skyranger. Ramiro looked into Elodie's cute face and smiled to himself before patching himself into the squad's radio. "Alright, boys and girls, I've secured the hostage. I'm heading back to Big Sky to give her some first aid. Master Sergeant Roksana will be in charge of killing that oversized piece of sashimi."
"Will do, Captain." Roksana replied as she extended psionic feelers to the creature. It doesn't seem to have an resistance to my actions, and it's simplistic crustacean brain feels very vulnerable to hallucinations. This may have been my lucky day. She thought to herself before logging back into their radio channel. "Payam, you good to go?" she asked with a bit of bravado.
"I'm roaring to roast some fishies, Roksana. What do you have in mind?" He responded every bit as confidently.
"I don't think this thing has any psionic defenses, and it appears to have some pretty weak will as well. If combine some plasma surgery on its soft organs with a bit of psionic therapy, we may be able to force it to the surface."
"Roger. One unhealthy does of plasma, coming up" Payam responded before pushing himself backwards to counteract the momentum of his flight. Once the momentum was almost gone, Payam braced his huge nova gun against his shoulder. Taking a deep breath, he pulled the trigger watched the green jets of plasma stream toward the alien. Instead of stopping, however, he continued to blast the area with plasma as the cooling units on his novagun struggled to keep up. The constant stream of superheated plasma boiled its way through the water all the way down to the Kraken's soft "belly". As Payam's high tech machinegun continued to rain incineration down to the where the tentacles were coming from, the water continued to get more and more violent.
While Payam was going Rambo, Roksana focused her mind upon forming images of danger and fear especially designed for crustacean creatures. Then, once she's confident that the images have enough life-like qualities to panic the beast, she sent them telepathically to the Kraken. The Kraken suddenly started to get visions of a pod of whales attacking it from underneath, as well as increasing agitation on its skin due to a perceived change in the water's acidity. Lacking the sentience to recognize what's going on and the resistance necessary to block such images in the first place, the Kraken acted up on instinct. It pushed itself towards the surface and into the incoming plasma fire. This applied pain and fueled the panic happening in the creatures mind. It pushed faster and faster, which increased its own sense of pain in order to escape the images of whales below it. The last bolts of plasma were fired as Payam's safety mechanism engaged to prevent the weapon from melting itself, but the effect had been achieved. With a huge rumble and a gigantic splash, the body of the Kraken appeared on the ocean surface.
First, the tentacles started to grow larger and larger, than the beginnings of a body started to appear as well. The rest of the body followed as mouth, then eyes, then shell. Finally, when the thing stopped pushing itself towards the surface, it's head was just resting above the surface. It's massive shell still remained largely underwater.
The beast filled the air all around with the smell of rotting vegetation and fish. It looked like a gigantic squid with the end pointed towards the ocean floor. It's one big eye flickered back and forth as it tried to make out whatever was attacking it. As the hallucinations started to wear out and the creature stopped feeling the threat from below it turned its attention to the enemies above. Several tentacles immediately surged for Dominika, who put a slug through one of them before pulling up again. The tentacles lunged forward to try and grab her, but she performed an expert roll and evaded the tentacles.
Still reeling from the pain and fear from Roksana's potent hallucinations, the creature pointed it's mouth out of the water and roared into the sky. "NOW! SHOVE ONE DOWN HER THROAT NORI!" Roksana yelled into her radio. "Roger that" Nori replied calmly as she grabbed one of her alien grenades, activated it, and expertly threw it straight into the mouth of the beast. It swallowed it whole as it descended once more into the ocean. Shortly after going below the surface, however, there as a green flash and a muffled roar. Bits of cooked flesh appeared that started to grow larger and larger before the spot the Kraken had occupied now resembled a bloody mess of cooked flesh scattered all throughout the water.
Humans 1, Tentacle Porn 0 Nori thought as she and the rest of the squad flew back to Big Sky. There were shouts of congratulations and complements for Nori and her excellent throws. Nori simply blushed beneath her helmet and once again thanked her father for all the baseball training she had done while younger.
Meanwhile, aboard the skyranger, Captain Ramiro was working to get Elodie situated. His archangel armor already hanging on an equipment rack, he worked quickly and diligently so he didn't have to deal with the other's nagging. Ramiro was a EMT by trade, but his attachment to the ideals of International Aid set him on a quite different path. This medical procedure was quite natural to him after years working in Japan, China, Nigeria, Nepal, Haiti, Brazil, and Russia in various disaster areas. Keeping his mind free of anything other than professional medical thoughts, he quickly stripped off her clothes and checked for bruises and cuts. Pulling up a needle, he gave her a quick shot of Adrenalin before securing her in the back section of the craft reserved for medical operations. Once he was sure she was tucked in her gown and securely in her stretcher, he gently folded her clothes and left them in the room with her.
Stepping onto the other side of the curtain, he was greeted with the rest of the squad. They had just returned and were in the process of putting away their equipment. Nori and Dominika looked up and gave each other a glance before confronting him on his way to the cockpit.
"So, do any of us get to meet our little princess back there?" Nori asked slyly.
"You guys know the procedure. Only medical and officers are allowed to see hostages during off-duty hours. And unfortunately for you badnicks, I'm both."
"What, afraid we're going to sneak a peak, Ramiro?" Dominiko asked with a grin on her face.
"He just wants to have her all to himself." Nori added with a teasing smirk.
"Unlike you two pieces of trash, I actually have a sense of morality. Now get out of my way so I can make my report back to base. Or do I have to make that an order, Corporal."
Dominika stepped aside and let Ramiro pass. As he entered the cockpit, he could hear the word pervert uttered, followed by several giggles before he slammed the door shut.
"Our little delinquents back there giving you trouble again?" Big Sky asked.
"I swear Big Sky, one day I will drag them along on whatever shitty third world country I get sent to and dump them into the streets right out of the airport. Their shit gets more annoying everyday. " Ramiro said with a growl before activating the long-range communication interface.
No response came from his hail to XCOM HQ. Weird. I'm no engineer or scientist, but I'm pretty sure that hyperwave relay gives us near instantaneous communication throughout the solar system. How is it possible we aren't even getting a response at all? He thought with concern. Well, for the moment I'll assume it's some kind of technical malfunction and I'll proceed as protocol dictates. I guess that means I'll be giving our guest some more of my free time. He thought as he stepped back into the rear of the Skyranger.
"Ha ha, suckers! Full House!" Jules said, now out of his Mec suit and back into his robotic limbs. He reached out to the pot before getting his hand slapped away by Payam. "What the hell Payam! I won fair and square you âne!" He yelled with his french accent.
Payam simply smiled before revealing his hand. "Four of a kind." He said triumphantly as he pulled the pile of coins in the center towards his side.
Jules got red to the face and sulkily looked down at his remaining money.
"Ha ha! You got schooled son!" Dominika yelled excitedly as she put down her next bet.
"You're next Shōjo!" Nori exclaimed as she threw in a 50 yen coin.
Ramiro ignored them as he walked straight for the infirmary at the back. On the way there he spotted Roksana sitting quietly in a corner meditating. The soldiers with Psionic powers all suffered form a great deal of mental fatigue from using their abilities, and Roksana almost always used the trip back to base to put her mind at ease once more.
The sheer fact that she had to do this after every single mission ever since her first trip down to Psi testing made Ramiro feel pity for her. Plus, as the medical and commanding officer, it was his responsibility to make sure all members of his squad were up to peak physical condition.
"Hey, how you holding up?" He asked his quiet second in command.
"Just fine. Simple hallucinations like the one i used on the Kraken back there aren't too strenuous. I should ready to go for another mission in a couple days." She replied calmly without even flinching.
"That's good." Ramiro said with reserved affection. "I wouldn't want my squad to ever face a batch of X-rays without my favorite sniper backing us up." He said with a smile.
Roksana opened her eyes and nodded with a faint smile on her face before closing her eyes again. "Oh, and there is something you should know about our little guest."
"Fire away"
"I'm been getting a some psionic ripples from her ever since I returned to the Skyranger. It's possible she may be "gifted."
"Really? So there's a chance she could fuck my brain up?"
She shook her head. "What I'm feeling is completely different from any human or alien psionic presence I've encountered thus far. I have no idea what she may be capable of."
Ramiro's shoulders sank: "So, basically you wanted to let me know you sensed something potentially dangerous that you know nothing of, and to be careful not to get vaporized or something."
Roksana smiled: "Pretty much! After all, I wouldn't want my favorite squad leader facing an unknown enemy without his trusty sniper at least offering moral support."
Ramiro sighed. "You all are going to drive me crazy." he muttered before stepping inside.
When Ramiro stepped into the infirmary, Elodie was still unconscious. Looks like she hasn't awaken yet. Better do a thorough checkup this time. He thought as he popped open his bulky doctor's kit. He put a thermometer into her mouth while applying his stethoscope to her chest. After detecting a weak heartbeat, he checked her wrist for signs of a pulse. The pulse was weak but it was there. Glad to see the patient was still alive, Ramiro quickly pulled the thermometer out of her mouth. No abnormal temperatures. Looks like she's going to be just fine.
Just as he had finished checking her blood pressure, two beautiful eyes slowly opened as Elodie started to awaken. Staring at the metal ceiling, her first thoughts were about the strange sustance before her. Weird, the palace walls don't look like this. Then the memories came flooding back to her. The goodbye in the throne room. Her last blessing with the priestess Selene. The voyage out to the forbidden sea. The faithful moment in which Elodie plunged into the abyss. Being surrounded by tentacles before passing out.
The Kraken! She thought as she got up with a fit of panic. Elodie didn't know what to expect from the afterlife, but it definitely wasn't the man standing in front of her now. Somehow, all the scripture and religious preparation she had gone through since her birth didn't quite match up to the the dark-skinned man with the olive green uniform in front of her. Looking to over his arm to his right shoulder, she saw a name tag that read Ramiro Lozano, Captain.Then she noticed his arm firmly grasping her left bicep.
Normally, Elodie would have slapped the man. If she had more composure, maybe she would have scolded the person for laying a hand on the Queen of Nova. But now, with her mind both racing to understand the current situation and panicking from the presence of a complete stranger, her mind reacted on instinct. With a cry, she projected all her lumen magic into a wave before pushing everything around her away. Ramiro was sent flying through the doorway and into the crew compartment.
While Dominika, Niro, and Payam, and Jules all looked up from their card game with rather bewildered faces, Roksana calmly continued meditating. Ramiro got up and clutched his neck in pain. "I save her, and she decides to throw me through a door!? How the hell can she even do that!?" He yelled with a red face.
"Looks like you didn't take my warning seriously enough." Roksana said with a smile. Her eyes were still closed as she reached out to the soul on the other side of the wall.
Ramiro looked at her, still furious, and was on the verge of strangling her. "How the hell am I supposed to prepare for something I can't detect, see, or block!?" He asked, his face ready to explode.
Roksana suddenly opened her eyes, got up, and grabbed a pistol from a nearby weapons rack. "Take this as a back-up." She said as she tossed it to Ramiro. Then she went for the spot where the infirmary door once stood.
"Stay behind me." she said. Ramiro nodded and carefully followed Roksana into the room. Broken equipment, sheets, and shattered glass lined the walls of the infirmary. On the bed sat Elodie, her legs curled into a ball. She was crying; faintly, and softly.
Roksana took another step forward. "LEAVE ME ALONE!" Elodie screamed, as she jumped up. With eyes that resembled that of a cornered animal, she hurled a last, makeshift attack. The force pushing against Ramiro and Roksana was every bit as strong as the one that sent Ramiro flying through the door a few minutes ago. This time, however, Roksana projected a telekinetic field with her mind that shielded them from the effects of the wave. Elodie continued to push at them with her Lumen powers until she realized they were not having any effect.
All of a sudden, she stopped pushing. Her eyes were wide with shock and disbelief. Roksana dropped her shield and released gentle pulses to calm down everyone in the room. Then, she merged her mind with Elodie.
Elodie felt extremely bizarre, as if her mind was being pulled by an outside force. All of a sudden, the pain was gone. She could feel a new presence in her mind however.
Can you hear me? A voice asked.
Who are you? Elodie responded.
I am the woman standing in front of you. I have temporarily merged my mind with yours. Please do not be alarmed. This won't cause any damage and will allow either of us to share memories and visions with each other. The voice was calm and serene, and though Elodie wanted to resist her entry, she was both suppressed and intrigued by the voices power.
Are you some kind of lumen? I've never heard of that ability before. Elodie asked, still confused.
I am what we refer to as the "gifted". We are people who have the ability to impact the physical world with our mind's psychic energy. However, that would take too long to describe in any detail. The important thing to note is that you are not the only one who can deal damage with simply her mind.
Who is he then? Elodie inquired, looking at Ramiro.
He is my commanding officer, as well as our medical officer. He's also the one who rescued you from that monster back there.
HE KILLED THE KRAKEN ALL ON HIS OWN!? She exclaimed, almost falling over in shock.
Well ... not really. My squad and I killed it while he saw you to safety. Nobody here does anything risky alone.
No offense, but I have a hard time believing that five humans could kill an ancient creature that has plagued my country for centuries.Elodie stated with conviction.
Your partially right. If we were normal people, we would not have been able to pull that off. However, there is nobody nor anything in our organization that can be considered normal. In fact, we excel in killing things that would be impervious to normal soldiers. Such as a giant squid from the depths of the ocean. The voice stated with a hint of smugness. Still don't believe me? I can show you.
All of sudden visions of blue smoke, flying metal objects, green bolts of light, and a giant bloody spot in the middle of the ocean came to her mind. Though she couldn't comprehend most of the sights in front of her, she could correctly identify that these people had technology far ahead of what was used in the Novan Kingdom. The last image she saw was all five of them heading towards a big black bird in the sky.
Who ... are you people? She asked, somewhat fearful now.
We are the mankind's guardians. Whether we are elite soldiers, brilliant scientists, or an exceptional civilian, we are mankind's shield. We are always ready, ever vigilant, to repel those who would seek out destruction. We are the finest fighting force the world will ever know, and when all around us are ready to give up, we will fight till the last drop of blood. We are XCOM. The voice boomed with pride and confidence. Then, Elodie felt the presence disappear.
"Our duty is to those we love and serve. Our targets are those who would take that from us. Our weapon is our willpower. This is what it means to fight in XCOM." Roksana said as she and Ramiro practically glowed in holy light before Elodie.
Indeed, never before had Elodie ever meet people so committed to what they believe in. She was struck with awe at the honest conviction in her words. For a split second she even considered joining them. While Elodie quickly realized that her royal background did not lend itself well to military rigors, she was impressed enough that she decided to stay with them when they offered to drop her off somewhere.
Thus the Skyranger disappeared back into the storm, never to be seen again in this strange realm. Onboard was a princess who was saying goodbye to a land that thought she was dead. As strange as it sounds, she was actually a little relieved to leave her dangerous life behind. Sure, it had all its glory and power, but was all of that worth the near constant encounters with death? Elodie wasn't sure she was cut out to be royalty like she had assumed before. Maybe being with those who could actually prevent her death would prove better for her in the end. And with that thought, she dropped her crown and fairy outfit into the ocean as the skyranger took her to her new life.