Notes

Hi again!^^

I forgot to wright it in the previous chapters, but I want to pay you my best thanks for all your reviews and your suggestions, despite my terrible written english^^

However, fortunately, I've probably found a beta reader, so from now on I'll start to correct with more attention my chapters.

Many Thanks Again!^^

See you soon!^_^

Carlos Olivera

...

3

That night too, Sylvia couldn't sleep, constantly turning in bed, unable to forget what had happened in that endless day.

She thought about Dolkin, about Bodani, wondering if she had really taken the right decision.

Sometimes she almost regretted to have taken such a weight on her shoulders.

She knew that she had in her hands the safety of thousands people, and although over the years she had faced many difficult moments that day's decision had been the most difficult yet.

In a way she trusted Viktor's opinion, but regardless to that she didn't want to risk all those lives in an escape into the unknown that could even turn into a death sentence.

The glare of a lighthouse clumsily handled by the operator entered through the half-open window, dazzling her and stripping her for good of any intention to sleep.

Woken up, she tried to take a walk to relax and make up her mind, so she went out in the yard.

It almost seemed a war zone.

The lights were scanning the dark sky in search for the faintest sign of danger, and both the balconies on the walls and the streets were full of soldiers.

By now everyone in the camp knew what had happened to the two neighboring villages, so such a deployment of forces didn't appear unjustified; on the contrary, some had found it even insufficient.

Even the two old tanks discovered a few weeks before among the ruins of the city, unable to move without mana but still able to shoot, had been laboriously brought in the central square to provide additional security.

Sylvia walked for a while, greeted with respect by the soldiers crossing her path, and then, passing next to dorm number six, she noticed a figure sitting on the parapet, the back against the net and the legs suspended in the void.

Intrigued and a bit worried she entered, climbing the stairs in silence to avoid waking the other people, and when she reached the roof she found herself face to face with Hilda, who like the first time greeted her with complete indifference.

"Hilda," she said, reaching her. "Don't stand there. It's dangerous."

The girl turned to look at her: obviously one night couldn't be enough to forget the horrors she had been forced to see. According to her story, a woman of the village had locked her in that basement immediately after they had felt the first explosions, so she hadn't seen anything, but she had clearly heard the people screaming in pain while they were "eaten", as some of them had shouted with their last breath.

Not being able to convince her to get down, Sylvia ended up sitting down next to her, and as she had done the previous night aboard the Bulldog she offered her one of those sugary candy apple she always carried with her.

Hilda accepted it, holding it for a long time in the mouth as to seek in its sweet taste a relief from all the bad things happened to her in the last days.

"You really like these candies, don't you?" Sylvia smiled

"My mom always prepared apple pie, everyday" she said looking towards the sea. "It was the best in all town."

"You'll find her soon, have faith. And when it'll happen, I'll be able taste her delicious cake. "

A surprised Hilda looked at her.

"Are ... you sure?"

"Of course. But tell me, apart from your mother, don't you have other relatives? A father or a brother? "

Again, she looked down.

"I have a sister. An older sister. "

"Really? Me too. "

"She's a Norma."

Sylvia winced, unwittingly evoking unhappy memories.

"I ... and mom ... have chased her away."

Tears, once again, came down from her eyes: but this time, were tears of shame.

"They told me that the Normas were inhuman monsters. And I believed it. But then, I've become a Norma myself. As anyone else.

We're all Normas now."

"The Normas don't exist, Hilda. They've never existed. "

"W ... what !?"

"There are many Normas in this camp. Honestly, tell me. Have you recognized them?"

Her gaze was more eloquent than any reply.

"The truth is that we are all human beings. But we wanted someone to hate, and so the one that ruled us chose the Normas to satisfy our need. The Normas never had anything different from us. We called them monsters, but the truth is that we were the real monsters. Because we believed what we were told without asking questions.

It is our fault if our world has been destroyed. If we've become such monsters.

But if we'll be able to leave behind our prejudices, to become better, then we'll manage to build a new world, where there will be no more Normas and not Normas, but only human beings, all free and equals."

Hilda started, finding the strength to smile after all that time.

"Do you think that one day I'll be able to see my sister again, to apologize?"

"Maybe. But you'll have to fight. Because no one gives you anything for free in this world."

"I will." She said with conviction.

Suddenly a strange whistle resounded in the air, accompanied by some distant noises, attracting both girls' attention.

Even the guards noticed it, focusing the spotlight in a single direction; the lights cones were barely able to illuminate a cloud of distant dark objects, which seemed to fly in that direction, and then a shower of small devices struck the field, causing repeatedly explosions.

One of the missiles struck right at the bottom of the dormitory, shaking mightily the building; Hilda lost his balance, but fortunately Sylvia grabbed her in time. Though, after the danger, the two girls' eyes remained astonished, petrified at the sight of Sophia inexorably beginning to burn, while in the sky, like a swarm of locusts, appeared tens of para-mails.

Most of them were all identical to each other, as manufactured in series, with only the color to differentiate them, but three of them were quite different: one was black, menacing, armed with a sickle and a precision rifle, another was vermilion red, wielding the standard armament with a sword and an assault rifle; the third one, a gray para-mail wielding battle gloves, equipped with five sharp claws, similar to a bear's nails, instead of a normal firearm it carried some six launchers behind its back.

The gray para-mail started the massacre, launching a second barrage of missiles; most of these pulled down some defensive positions, included one of the tanks, while the others destroyed some buildings, blowing them up.

In a few moments, panic exploded in Sophia.

Trying to escape, fleeing from burning buildings, all inhabitants poured into the courtyard, turning themselves into moving targets that the enemies immediately began to kill with their automatic weapons.

They were shooting wildly, regardless of who they killed; everything they wanted, at first sight, was to kill everyone.

Yet there was some sort of sinister precision in their actions; while the three commanders were occupied in taking down Sophia's defenses, their comrades pounced almost exclusively on civilians, firing against soldiers defending the camp only if threatened.

Taking Hilda in her arms, Sylvia rushed down the stairs, but when she reached the ground floor she was forced to cover the little girl's eyes in order for her not to see what had happened.

It looked like some sort of slaughterhouse.

The explosion that had started the attack had killed almost everyone, and even the few survivors were nonetheless letting out their last breaths, horribly mutilated and gutted.

But there was no time to stand still and look at that kind of hell.

Hilda at least, she thought, had to be saved.

Fortunately they were not too far from the garage, damaged but still intact miraculously, and entering from a back door she was relieved to see Ruka intent on starting up the Bulldog.

She hoped to drop Hilda to safety and to immediately put the vehicle in motion, but a nasty surprise was waiting for her.

"They are slaughtering us! What are you waiting for? "

"If you want you can try and push!" Ruka yelled back, appearing from under the vehicle with a wrench in hand and the face covered in black. "The explosion damaged the oil line, I have to fix it!"

Sylvia then could not help but bring Hilda inside the vehicle.

"Don't worry, I will return soon." she assured her, and, taking up an assault rifle from a dead soldier, she went back outside.

...

Meanwhile, things were rapidly getting worse.

When most of the defenses of Sophia had been destroyed by para-mails, two large transport aircraft that the Normas had managed evidently to convert to fuel, with a banner depicting a silver dragon inside a black shield stacked on the fuselage, flew over the field; the back doors opened, and about twenty soldiers, all Normas, equipped in battle suits with helmets and many various weapons, dropped down with parachutes, immediately starting to massacre all remaining civilians, shooting and burning everything.

Back to back, protecting each other, Ashley and Mayu were fighting a valiant but hopeless resistanc, together with the few soldiers still alive in the square in front of the gate, respectively armed with an assault rifle grenade launcher and a magnificent couple of old swords.

"Do not shoot randomly!" yelled Ashley, who among all was certainly the most experienced about those infernal machines. "Aim to the cockpit or the reactors in their back! Those are their weak points!"

"But who the hell are they?" asked Mayu after having managed to open her way through two opponents' guts, eviscerating the first and cutting the throat to the second

"I don't know, but one thing is for sure, they don't come from Arzenal! I've never seen these para-mails, and neither that coat!"

In that moment a para-mail, perhaps suffering from overconfidence, attempted to wipe them out by flying very low, but even if it managed to kill almost all the soldiers she exposed herself to Ashley's counter fire; unfortunately her grenade didn't destroy the vehicle, but exploding close to the thrusters it inevitably compromised its balance, and the para-mail, after having unsuccessfully tried to take off, fatally plummeted to the ground, suffering damage but remaining operative.

Without hesitation Ashley ran to it, climbing to the cockpit and opening it with the emergency command.

"Out of my way!" she yelled throwing away the dying pilot and taking his place.

It had been almost four years since she had piloted a para-mail, but like all Normas come from Arzenal she had such a symbiotic relationship with those machines that a single moment was enough for her to regain all her ability.

Mayu, who had stopped to look at her, was almost caught by surprise by a second para-mail, but Ashley fired first and managed to blow up the aggressor.

"Mayu, bring everyone out! I'll take care of these!" Ashley ordered, joining the fray.

The girl managed to shoot down a good number of the enemy para-mails, taking advantage on their surprise to see a seeming ally shooting them, but then the vermillion enemy rushed at her, revealing to be a far superior opponent both for her para-mail's qualities and for her own driving skills.

...

Not far away, a bunch of survivors, mostly orphaned children miraculously escaped with Mrs. Carmody from their dormitory's destruction, had barricaded themselves behind a collapsed wall, but their lack of preparation in using weapons was so great that the defenders, one after another, fell like mosquitoes under the enemies' precise shots.

"Damned cursed Normas!" kept on screaming Akiho, crazy in fear, while she was firing in all directions. "You must all die!"

A bullet, perhaps a lucky shot, hit her neck, but she was still alive when the silver para-mail descended above her, crushing her like an ant under its massive steel feet.

Mrs. Carmody watched in horror, trying to hide such a macabre spectacle to her children, but when the cockpit opened and the robot pilot appeared from inside she thought that she had the devil itself in front of her.

It was not even clear if it was a man or a female, with a very slender body, an almost flat chest despite the tight suit, short, tousled and silver hair, but especially that evil expression, marked by light and lifeless eyes, a small nose and a wicked smile.

"Well well, what do we have here? A stinking litter of little cockroaches. "

"Please, have mercy," said Mrs. Carmody, while the children huddled terrified around her. "These children have done nothing. They are innocent victims. "

"Old woman, where you think you are? There are no innocents in this war. "

"Many of them are Normas. Your fellows. And the others too, they bear no guilt for this senseless war."

So, bravely, the woman stood up, taking a few steps ahead and spreading her arms.

"Kill me if you want, but have pity on these children. Without them, there will be nobody to rebuild our world."

The Norma smiled even more mockingly way, and unholstering her gun fired without hesitation at Mrs. Carmody, hitting her in the forehead and killing her instantly.

"You should have asked for it since the beginning," she said blowing away the smoke. "Well, I would have done it in any case."

So, the woman brought her attention on the children, that could only stand still in terror to observe their dead teacher, clutching one another in an hopeless search for safety.

"Human cockroaches and Normas that have no right to call themselves in such way. It seems there's some cleaning up to do here."

To create an even more sadistic situation, she removed seven of eight bullets from her revolver, creating a perverse Russian roulette in which she randomly fired in the heap, waiting for the real shot.

She was about to take the sixth attempt, that she already knew to be the decisive one, when in a rocket hit her and her para-mail instead, slightly damaging the vehicle and almost throwing her out from the cockpit.

"Stay away from those children!" cried Sylvia throwing away her now useless rocket launcher.

Seeing her nice machine damaged and singed, the woman's face became a mask of madness.

"You filthy whore! How dare you hit my Lamashtu*!"

She immediately returned inside, before Sylvia could try to hit her again, and forgetting all about the children she began to chase after after her across the field, allowing Ruka to come in to help the children with the Bulldog.

"Quick, get inside!" ordered Mayu literally pushing the children inside the vehicle, while the Bulldog's weapons fired in every direction in order to pin down the attackers.

Eventually even the few soldiers still alive and rallied around the vehicle were killed; among them there was Viktor, who, seeing the attackers' massive number, gathered up the resolve for an extrme actions.

"Mayu, Ruka, take them out of here!" he shouted running towards the enemies.

"Viktor, stop!" said a desperate Mayu.

The man was hit one, two, five times, but his temper kept him alive, and only when he found himself among his assailants they noted the belt of grenades tied around the old officer's chest.

"Long live Misurugi! Long live Sylvia I!" he shouted before exploding.

At that point Sophia was hopelessly lost, and unfortunately there was no time to search for other survivors.

"Come on, Sylvia!" shouted Mayu.

The girl tried to lose her pursuer, but that one didn't want to let her go; on the contrary, she was clearly enjoying playing cat and mouse with.

"Run! Run!" the Norma kept screaming. "Nothing excites me more like hunting a little rat like you!"

Eventually, after a while, the pursuer decided it was time to end that, and charging her powerful steel claw she prepared to score the fatal blow; Sylvia was inches away from death, but with desperate strength the girl was able to crouch behind some rubble, which absorbed the greatest part of the blow. Nevertheless, the impact was still powerful enough to pulverize the thin shield and literally send the girl against another wall, leaving her motionless and unconscious.

"End of the line, baby."

Even Ashley was having her difficulties, because with all the other defenders of Sophia's death every single enemy was now concentrated on her, especially the vermillion one, surely the deadliest of them.

"I must admit it, I didn't remember it was so tiring," she said out of breath.

Fortunately the providential collapse of the main building came to her aid, because by collapsing into a shapeless amount of flaming debris it covered the entire field with an impenetrable cloud of smoke and dust.

At the same time Ruka, noticing what was about to happen to her commander, fired a missile against the silver para-mail, forcing her to dodge it and allowing Ashley to retrieve a still unconscious Sylvya and fly away while the Bulldog departed at full speed in the opposite direction.

"I don't know how, but we did it." Ashley said to herself noting that no one was chasing them.

Then she looked at Sylvia, which, enclosed in her para-mail's metal hand, seemed almost asleep.

"I must say, you have nine lives like a cat."

A shot, seemingly innocuous, but with incredible piercing power, hit her back, destroying both her arms when they were almost ten miles far from the camp.

"Sylvia!" shouted an astonished Ashley seeing her friend fall in the forest below them, surrounded by debris.

Another shot, equally accurate, destroyed one of the engines, and turning behind her using the telescopic sight the girl barely had time to see the black para-mail pointing her with its sniper rifle. Then a third bullet, the last one, hit the tank.

Moments later, the survivors aboard the bulldog saw a violent explosion light up the sky not far from them.

"This... This cannot be ..." cried Mayu. "Ashley ... Sylvia ..."