A2 slowly walked around the now smoking and extinguished village, trying to find survivors. She stopped for a moment to stare at the slide she helped build for the village children and frowned. The dwindling smoke began to disturb her lungs so she decided to set out for the factory the second she was sure no one was left behind. Her heels pounded hard on the cracked asphalt. A black clothed figure began to grow from the distance and soon 9S and A2 met in the middle of the city. They both stared at each other with intensity.
"Is the village OK?" 9S asked simply. A2 looked down.
"No survivors…"
9S stayed silent for a minute and glared at her.
"You're useless. You couldn't save a single one of them." He said in a half growl.
"If you're threatening me, I don't want to fight you. It's pointless."
"Oh, trust me. If I was going to attack you I would have already. Pascal is my friend and he asked me to come get you, so that's what I'm here to do." 9S turned away and started running back towards the factory at a medium pace. A2 followed a little ways back and watched as 9S ran. His stance seemed bitter and angry. From what she had witnessed in 2B's memories, this wasn't at all who he was. He was being cold and rude. He was a little grumpy and whined a lot before, but he was never mean. Even the way he moved was different, there was a distinct stiffness to his running. He used to kick his legs back high and his arms swung up in front of him, it was a childish and energetic run. Now he ran with long and heavy steps, arms swinging at his sides with his fists tightly clenched.
9S and A2 stopped for a moment and stared as they saw machines clawing at the doors to the factory. Two goliath tanks were being flown in from above and were ready to drop.
"Shit!" A2 ran forward and took up arms, slamming into some machines that stood in her way. 9S moved off to the side and began the hacking process on one of the tanks. As he finished breaking through the barriers, 9S looked on his visor HUD and gasped at the little amount of damage he dealt on the tank. He felt at least lucky to still have his visor thanks to the two resistance members who thought it'd be useful to pick it up when rescuing him. He gritted his teeth and charged for the door, practically ripping through the smaller machines trying to break in. Once they were all clear and he was sure A2 was handling the others, he pounded on the door.
"Pascal! It's me, 9S! Me and A2 are here to help!"
No response came. 9S had to quickly swing around to defend himself from a few pursuing machines before turning back around and banging on the door again.
"Pascal please! Open the door! I'm going to help you get out of there!"
No response. His heart sank. 9S stabbed his blade into the crack in the door, prying it open with every ounce of strength he had.
"A2! Come on!"
A2 looked towards his call and clenched her teeth, throwing a machine that had been attacking her to the side and rushing for the door. 9S slammed it shut after she was inside and began trying to barricade it. A2 ran to his side to help.
"Where the hell is Pascal?" she barked.
"I don't know. Hopefully they escaped deeper into the factory."
9S made sure the barricade was sturdy and beckoned for A2 to follow as he rushed further into the factory. The two ran only for a short amount of time before they found Pascal and the children hiding out in a store room in the depths of the factory.
"9S! A2! I'm so glad you're safe… What on Earth is going on outside?"
"Machines. Lots of them. We need to get you and the children out of here." A2 said with disgust him her voice.
"Pascal we need to-" Before 9S could get the words out of his mouth, the entire factory shook as the walls on the other side of the section they were in collapsed under the weight of the massive arms of goliath. 9S looked like he was going to shout something but didn't have the chance to before A2 shouted at them all to run. They all started running, the children sticking close beside Pascal. 9S skidded to a halt and looked back to see the injured child on the ground as tall machines with axes came charging from the rubble after him with goliath tanks behind them attempting to fit through the gash in the wall. 9S dashed forward and cradled the little thing and turned to follow the group.
"What now?" 9S shouted to A2.
"We run!" She replied. Another crash came from behind them as the goliath smashed more of the factory. The ground shook and sound rattled all around them. Pod 153 and Pod 042 fired rapidly behind 9S and A2, attempting to protect their assigned units. They ran through corridors and descended into darker regions of the factory, taking whatever path was quickest, just hoping that they could find a way out. The machine children were terrified as they plunged into unlit rooms filled with dead cultists. After some time they reached a large and empty room with one wall completely destroyed, leading to the outside. Machines were still attempting to follow, and the goliath was tearing at the factory walls by the bridge in a blundering attempt to get into the factory and destroy it. A2 yelled for 9S's attention and pointed towards a crumbled wall with a beat up flight unit behind it. They all stopped in front of the wall and huddled.
"9S, you're the only one of us who can pilot a newer YoRHa flight unit model. Do you think it still works?" A2 said. 9S put a hand on his chin in wonder.
"Can't be sure unless I get close. But the hole in the wall is so high up. I can't climb the wall, it's far too smooth." He replied. They all stood for a moment, wasting precious time. Finally, a small flying machine gently floated to 9S and bumped his back. 9S turned and smiled a little.
"You sure you can carry me, little one?" he asked.
The machine nodded. "I wanna help!" it said. 9S grabbed hold of the round metal outside of the propeller that allowed the child to fly.
"Thank you…" He said softly as the child lifted him up towards the hole. Once he reached the top he looked down at A2 and the others.
"Take good care of my friends, A2. If anything happens to them, I'll have your head on a pike." He shouted. The boy climbed over the rubble and checked the flight unit. It was white and gleamed in the sunlight that poured in through the opening in the wall opposite to where he was. Pod 153 inspected the unit and informed him it was functional but aim correction was slightly damaged. He nodded and boarded the suit, starting it up and flying headfirst towards the goliath rampaging through the factory. A2 and the machines looked on in awe as 9S fired and slashed at the goliath's face, his anger noticeable in his movement. The group took their eyes off the flight unit and saw that they were slowly being surrounded by machines. The children huddled around Pascal in horror and A2 held the little machine close to her. They all started slowly backing away as the glint from the axe's metal reflected onto them. All the little machines began to cry. It seemed it was going to be the end of them all. Like a crack of thunder, a bang was heard from above as a bullet speeded through the heads of three machines all standing in a row. The group looked to the the hole in the wall to see a troop of resistance members, all armed with weapons. At the front stood Pinch and Badger, both with large guns in hand.
"These the village machines?" a resistance member behind them shouted. A2 nodded and handed the crippled machine to Pascal. She unsheathed her great sword.
"Stay here." She said simply to the group of machines. A2 rushed forward as a few resistance members who had equipped themselves with blades soared down from their perch and began charging at the machine army. From above, the ones with guns sniped flying machines and any who got past the close combat team.
"Attention unidentified YoRHa flight unit pilot, requesting assistance in a plan to take out the goliath class enemy attacking the abandoned factory. Do you copy?" A voice said over the radio in 9S's flight unit. The coms system still worked? 9S released the control on one arm of the unit to quickly hit the connect prompt.
"Th-this is YoRHa unit No. 9 type S. I copy." He stuttered as he tried to focus on attacking the machine.
"An actual YoRHa unit? So there were survivors after all… Nevermind that for right now. Unit 9S, I received a message that a goliath class enemy was attacking the abandoned factory that resistance scouts confirmed contained allied forces. I am currently stationed at the flooded city's coast. I'm gonna need your help for this to work, ok?"
"Gotcha, walk me through the plan and I'll assist in any way possible." He replied. He felt a little bit like his old self again taking orders and following through with a plan.
"Attempt to lure the goliath away from the factory and into the range of the smaller armed missiles stationed at the flooded city's shore."
"Right." 9S circled around and began firing at the goliath's head, attempting to annoy it. The machine swung one of its great arms at his flight unit, but he was able to dodge to the side. 9S flew around to the side of the goliath and waited for it to turn sideways. He then circled back around it to its back side and began backing away toward the bridge while firing. The machine slowly but surely was coming after him, making its way back through the factory. It took a good amount of time to lure it all the way back to the bridge. There were several moments 9S thought would have been his last as the goliath would almost hit him. Once 9S finally got the machine near the bridge he flew up close and slashed it right in the face to further anger it. 9S calculated the probability of the goliath doing what he hoped it would do and smirked as he finished, finding that his prediction was extremely likely. 9S fired a few bullets at the machine and blasted away towards the water. He stopped at a far distance and looked back to see the goliath bending its knees and preparing to leap. The goliath's landing caused a massive wave to wash over the bridge and swept some smaller machines back into the sea.
"Attention YoRHa flight unit pilot, goliath in range. Move away from the target. Repeat. Move away from the target."
"N-no wait! It's not far away enough from the factory! The blast will- GAH!"
Without warning, the goliath slammed it's arm into 9S and sent him flying back through several layers of factory wall, ending up back in the chamber the villagers and resistance members were.