02:00 am, Quito-Ecuador
Flying over Quito's night sky, Akira thought of all the moments in his life that had brought him to this very instant. If someone had told him four months ago that he was going to conduct a rescue operation to save his sister in South America, he would have told that person that it was an insane idea. But that was his reality now and he had to do the best he could to save his family.
"Close to that region, over", said Akira throught the intercom from his armslave.
"Roger that, over", said Sousuke as he moved the controls of his own armslave towards that possition.
"Through the satellite, incoming information, 30 to 40 tangos on sight, over", said Tessa through the radio. She was looking at her monitors on the control pannel in the submarine, monitoring the whole operation.
"We believe she is located near Machachi, at the outskirts of the city", said Kurtz from another armslave.
"Confirmed. That's the exact location I saw on my vision", said Akira as he pushed the vessel forward. He wanted to get there as fast as he could.
Once they arrived near the town, they moved carefully not to attract much attention. Soon they exist the vessels and moved with caution. They were wearing night vision googles to avoid tripping as they walked through the tall grass. They arrived to an old house. It looked like a village for farming, but Akira knew for the shape of the windows that it was the house he had seen in his vision.
They entered the building with caution and took down a couple of guards without making any sound. Akira knew his sister was close as he could remember every aspect of the building from his memories.
"Akira, move to the second floor. Kurtz and I will take care of the other soldiers", said Sousuke as he gave him more ammunition.
"Can you believe we are back here like this?", said Akira to his father as he put the ammo in his pack.
"What are you talking about?", said Sousuke with a confused look.
"Back in Quito… like we did years ago", said Akira also confused about his father's expression.
"We have never been in Quito. What do you mean by that?", asked Sousuke in surprise.
Akira immediately realized something was wrong. He ran up the stairs to were his sister was and found the room, the window, the mountain and the hose, but it was all covered in dust. It seemed that no one had been there at least for a couple of years.
Suddenly, Akira realized a ticking sound. It seemed like a clock or a…..
"BOMB!", screamed Akira as ran out of the room and down the stairs. The whole second floor blew and he was barely capable of scapping the flames.
It was a trap. How could he be so stupid? Why did he see those images?
"Akira!", screamed Sousuke as he moved through the debris. Even though his leg was injured, his son was all he had in his mind.
"I'm fine. Kurtz?", asked Akira as he stepped from the ruins of the village.
"I'm alive", said Kurtz as he cleaned his clothes from the dust. He moved closer to Sousuke and made a tourniquet on his leg. He had a deep cut.
Suddenly they could hear cars approaching. Kurtz and Akira hold Sousuke's arms and ran towards the forest. It was his only way to be safe. They needed to get back to the armslaves if they wanted to survive.
"Sousuke we are under attack", said Tessa through the radio.
"What?", asked Akira as he picked the walkie-talkie form his father's hand.
"It was a trap! Leonard is here and his forces are entering the submarine! We are escaping to a safe house, location 23512, in an helicopter, but most soldiers are trapped at the submarine", said Tessa as she hold a man's wound with one hand and the walkie with the other.
"What now?!", said Kurtz to his comrades.
"We need to get to the armslave and rescue those soldier in the Dannan", said Sousuke.
"But your are hurt!", said Akira.
"No problem", said Sousuke with a smile. There was something at the way his father used to say that phrase that made him feel brave, always; ever since he was little. That phrase was all he needed to hear to know that everything will be alright.
Akira put his father in his back and gave the weapons to Kurtz. The three men kept running to avoid been captured by Leonard's men, who where getting close.
As soon as they reached the highway, one of the soldiers spotted them and started firing. The three men jumped on a ditch and started firing back to their enemies.
Akira shot a man in the head and felt a strong sense of guilt. It was the first time he had killed someone and it seamed unreal. Like it was foreign to the world. Killing was different form shooting someone. It had awaken in his heart a strong sense of survival but also a true sense of darkness. He felt afraid of himself.
"Fire!", screamed Sousuke and Akira started shooting again, killing and injuring a couple of men.
"There is pipe down there!", said Kurtz, "I'll cover you! Meet at the rendezvous point"
"Sousuke pushed Akira towards the pipe and both men moved across the tube. The tall grass on the other side avoided them from been seen, but it also made it more difficult to walk. Akira's legs were hurting because of his father's weight but he knew he had to keep on going in order to survive.
"There!", he said to his father. They were getting close to the armslaves. Akira took his father towards his vessel. Sousuke pulled the rope ladder and started climbing. He couldn't go up as he normally did because of the injury in his leg.
As soon as Akira reached the cockpit he wanted to fire, but the controls were locked.
"What the hell!", said Akira as he tried to bypass the security features. It had been a trap all along. Leonard must have blocked the authorization codes.
"Dad! We are fucked!", screamed Akira through his radio.
"Calm down! Remember that there is a manual access on the cockpits floor!", screamed his father as his armslave turned on.
"Of course!", said Akira. After all, knowledge couldn't surpass experience .
They started firing and took the rest of Leonard's men down. As soon as they did that, they started flying towards the submarine. It was a 45 minutes flight from there at full speed. It also meant that if they did it, they were going to be low on fuel when they arrieved.
"Let's move!", said Sousuke as he fly towards the sea. As they were getting close, they saw something terrible. The whole submarine was on flames. It had been heavily bombed.
"Those men", said Akira with sadness when he felt a shot. His armslave had lost an arm.
"I didn't think that it would work so wonderfully", said Leonard through his radio. He was piloting a strange new belial. Something not even Sousuke had seen before.
"Destroying Mithryl and Sousuke in one day. It has to be a divine premonition", he said as he fired again, but this time Sousuke moved in front of Akira and got shot.
"Get out of here!", said Sousuke to his son.
"I won't leave you!", said Akira as he fired his own weapon. But the bullets just bounced off his enemy.
"Get out now!", screamed Sousuke, when he received a direct hit. He pushed the ejection button and the vessel started falling to the water.
"You are not escaping this time", said Leonard as he stepped out of the cockpit. He took a sniper rifle and shot Sousuke; he shoot again and the parachute plunged into the water.
Akira could only see in terror as his father fell to the bottom of the sea.
Akira took a grenade from his pach and throw it directly at his enemy. Leonard's mistake was his arrogance. Akira knew that his protection will not keep him safe from a direct blast as the Belial shield would only protected him from other armslaves.
The grenade exploded next to him and it blew his arm off. The man screamed in agony and returned fast to his vessel.
"Damn you!", said Leonard. With his gun he shot Akira's armslave, removing a leg, and scaped.
Akira landed his armslave with difficulty in the water and jumped. He swim to his father in order to help him get released from his sit. He was drowning. With a knife he cut the straps and swim back to the surface.
"Dad!", he screamed as he tried to shake him, but he wasn't responding. The boy could barely keep at float. Akira took Sousuke from under his arm and pulled him towards his armslave.
Once there, he tried to reanimate his father but realized a terrible fact.
The bullet had hit his chest, right where his heart was located.
"Dad!", he screamed as he hold his father lifeless body in his arms.
It was all over now