Chapter 2
"Let me out!" Theo yelled as he banged furiously on the canopy. "I said let me out, dammit!" The YF-33 continued its accent, entirely unaffected by his words. Theo pulled his arms back to strike at the glass once again, but found himself pausing at the sound of a voice.
"Strike that glass one more time and I'll eject you myself…" a female voice with a slightly synthesized tone interjected. The small hologram pad on the right side of the cockpit lit up, projecting the image of a woman that wasn't more than 3 inches tall. She wore a skin-tight bodysuit and was surround by a faint pink hue which meshed with her waist-length strawberry blonde hair.
"If it gets me out of this thing, then sounds like a plan…" Theo swung his fists at the canopy and braced for impact, but nothing happened. The hologram visually sighed.
"Teenage boys are such a pain in the ass… It's against my orders to eject you, but at very least my jest got the desired effect of getting you to stop your tantrum."
"And here I was thinking I was getting out of here…"
"Sorry, no. You're going to be stuck with me for quite a while. I am the Advanced Remote Interface Assistant. You can just call me Aria for short. And you, Theodore Barton, have an important mission to fulfill. A mission from your father…"
"… My father?" Theo asked with an exasperated look. What did this program know of his father? Theo barely knew anything himself due to his father always being preoccupied with work.
"Theodore, do you know why Garuda was built?"
"No…"
"Eh, bad question. Of course not. Garuda's existence has been secret, partake a very select few people. A better question would be, do you know how Lt. Hayate Immelmann was able to shoot down the White Knight of Darwent on Ragna on October 28, 2067?"
"Again, no…"
"Well, that is the question which lead to Garuda's development, because even we don't know exactly how. It's widely considered to be a fluke. That is why Lady M granted your father and his team the blueprints of the VF-31J Siegfried to use as a baseline and the require funding to make Garuda happen.
If two pilots with fighters of similar performance were to engage in a duel, the better pilot would win, right? But super aces like Maximillian Jenius or Myria Fallyna or the White Knight don't grow on trees and they're not always on our side. Garuda was designed with this thought in mind. In Garuda, a seemingly average pilot would be able to be able to fight on par, and likely even defeat someone like the White Knight."
"So, what is it that makes Garuda so special?"
"Classified."
"Wow, that's helpful," Theo sighed. "Is there anything you can tell me? Like what the hell the mission from my father was and how it relates to Garuda?"
"During the development of Garuda three years ago, it was discovered one of the members on your father's team was a spy for a NUNS black ops group called Havalmal. After some of the shady things NUNS tried to pull I the Brisingr Globular Cluster, including setting off multiple banned dimensional weapons, Lady M assumed that NUNS would confiscate Garuda and abuse its abilities for their dubious tasks. She ordered that the Garuda project be terminated immediately. Your father…" Aria paused, staring out the window. "You father hid the single Garuda prototype in that storage unit and detonated the development facility with himself and the Havalmal spy inside in the attempt to cover the tracks.
Before that final moment, your father programmed Garuda to only respond to your biometric signature. He knew that you would find Garuda eventually… as would Havalmal. Your mission, because you're the only human who can control it, is to pilot Garuda and keep it out of Havalmal's hands, at any costs necessary."
"And I get no say in the matter… Yep, sounds just like him…" Theo mused as he crossed his arms across his chest in mild disgust. "And you're… what? My mentor? My sensei?"
"No. I am merely your assistant. I control Garuda's… classified… subsystems. I can also relinquish control of the classified systems to take control of Garuda itself, but the Judas System severely limits my capabilities. Speaking of which, you may want to buckle up. I hold no responsibility for damage caused to items let unsecured in the cockpit."
Before Theo could respond, the YF-33 threw out its legs, slamming on the brakes. The momentum threw Theo forward, slamming his face into the control panel, breaking his nose and covering his face in a spurt of blood. The YF-33 rolled sharply to the left, narrowly avoiding a burst of gunpod fire. The variable fighter transformed in Battroid mode and turned to face its attackers, a pair of dark blue VF-171 Nightmare Plus making a sweeping turn to perform another attack run.
"What… The… Hell…" Theo stammered as he attempted to pick himself up off the floorboard. Aria didn't respond as the YF-33 drew it's two assault knives and lunged at the enemy.
"Are we sure that's it?" the first man asked.
"So far, the data sent by those recon squad before they were destroyed matches the data sent by Gregor three years ago," the second man replied as he watched the combat footage intently.
"To think the rumored Garuda actually exists… Our luck is extraordinary… "
"Yes, it is as if God himself is smiling upon us. Send a priority message to all Havalmal units. Commence Operation Birdcage."
